and that they can be very 
triggering and disruptive to 
survivors’ 
healing,” 
Saks-

Fithian said. “Trauma tends 
to hover close to the surface, 
and it can be very triggering 
when survivors are bombarded 
by stimuli related to their 
experiences. 
As 
a 
survivor 

myself, I know that I become 
more emotionally vulnerable 
when 
I‘m 
continually 

exposed to stories of sexual 
violence, especially in such 
highly publicized cases like 
Kavanaugh’s because there’s 
really no way to avoid it.”

Saks-Fithian 
also 

highlighted 
how 
issues 
in 

society are reflected in the 
University campus community, 
and public figures should be 
held to higher moral standards 
of 
behavior. 
Saks-Fithian 

made the distinction between 
limiting Kavanaugh’s career 
opportunities and ruining his 
life.

“The 
Kavanaugh 
case 
is 

extremely 
relevant 
for 
our 

campus community and for 
the world because it involves 
someone trying to join the 
highest echelons of legal power 
that exist in our country,” she 
explained. “I find it interesting 
that people are focusing on 
the impact these allegations 
may 
have 
on 
Kavanaugh’s 

career 
without 
taking 
into 

account the impact the assault 

has had on the survivor. The 
impact of sexual violence is 
not limited to memories of the 
experience(s). 
The 
violation 

of bodily autonomy, agency 
and 
independence 
have 

consequences that are often 
widespread and long-lasting 
and can and often do completely 
alter the survivor’s life.”

This situation has made some 

question the legitimacy of the 
Supreme Court nominations 
process, a conflict stemming in 
part from Republicans’ blocking 
of former President Barack 
Obama’s 
nominee 
Merrick 

Garland 
as 
a 
replacement 

for former Justice Antonin 
Scalia. 
Senate 
Republicans 

refused to hold any hearings 
on 
Garland’s 
nomination 

and 
successfully 
appointed 

and confirmed Justice Neil 
Gorsuch in 2017 under the 
Trump 
administration. 

In 
addition, 
Kavanaugh’s 

confirmation would make him 
the second sitting Supreme 
Court justice, including Justice 
Clarence Thomas, accused of 
sexual misconduct. 

Michigan 
Law 
Professor 

Richard Primus weighed in 
on the issue, describing the 
implications of this case and 
how it relates to the hearings 
regarding 
the 
accusations 

against Thomas by attorney 
Anita Hill.

“The 
Kavanaugh 

confirmation 
hearings 
are 

turning out to be potentially the 
most explosive and damaging 
confirmation hearings in the 

history of the Supreme Court. 
Many 
people 
are 
drawing 

parallels 
to 
the 
Clarence 

Thomas 
hearings 
in 
1991,” 

Primus wrote in an email to The 
Daily. “But in 1991, there was a 
much higher degree of trust and 
cooperation between the rival 
political parties in Congress, 
and in 1991 the President who 
nominated the candidate was 
not himself famous for bragging 
about 
committing 
sexual 

assaults.”

Primus 
explained 
the 

importance of accountability 
within the Supreme Court in 
order to preserve its status as 
an institution that exercises fair 
judicial proceedings.

“It’s a mistake to think 

that the Supreme Court is 
permanently and automatically 
a respected institution whose 
rulings the other branches are 
willing to respect,” he wrote. 
“It took the Court a hundred 
years after the Constitution 
was ratified to accumulate the 
capital necessary to exercise 
judicial 
review 
of 
federal 

legislation on a regular basis. 
In large part because of the 
stonewall of Merrick Garland, 
the Court’s stature was already 
wobbling before the current 
sexual assault allegations came 
out. If things go badly now, 
the Court might face a rough 
future.”

Primus 
emphasized 
the 

importance 
of 
sensitivity 

regarding the issue because of 
its wide-reaching impacts on all 
women who have experienced 

sexual assault.

“No matter what happens to 

the Court, the process is taking 
a serious toll on many women 
who have been victims of sexual 
violence and who are finding the 
intense public discussion of the 
current allegations particularly 
difficult,” he wrote. “Very few 
of us have direct contact with 
the confirmation process, but 
probably all of us have contact 
with someone who is having a 
hard time because of the way 
current events intersect with 
her personal experience. We 
should be thoughtful about 
being sensitive to that reality as 
events unfold.” 

The Coalition to Defend 

Affirmative Action, Integration 
& Immigrant Rights and Fight 
for Equality By Any Means 
Necessary, 
also 
known 
as 

BAMN, held a protest on the 
Diag Monday afternoon calling 
for the removal of Trump from 
office and the subsequent defeat 
of Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Kate 
Stenvig, 
a 
national 

organizer with BAMN and 
chair of BAMN’s U-M chapter, 
explained the mission of the 
protest.

“We believe Christine Ford, 

and now Deborah Ramirez,” 
Stenvig said. “The nomination 
of Brett Kavanaugh now to the 
Supreme Court is a real threat 
to democracy, and to the rights 
of women, and because Trump 
has chosen Kavanaugh because 
of his longstanding position 
that a sitting president should 
be above the law. I think it’s 

been clear from the beginning 
that Trump’s whole platform 
and his whole support base 
is 
fundamentally 
based 
on 

misogyny, immigrant bashing 
and racism.”

Stenvig 
described 
Trump 

and Kavanaugh as unfit for 
their 
government 
positions, 

citing the separation of migrant 
children from their families, 
which became a topic of national 
discussion this summer.

“Trump has proven to be the 

abuser-in-chief: his promotion 
of sexual assault and predation 
of women, the fact that he has 
committed 
massive 
crimes 

against humanity by already 
using national security as the 
premise for separating children 
from their families and putting 
children in cages, while denying 
immigrants the basic right 
of applying for asylum which 
is their legal right,” she said. 
“Nobody, neither Trump nor 
Kavanaugh, who are abusers, 
should be in the position to be 
able to make decisions over our 
lives.”

Rackham 
student 
Kate 

Napier 
protested 
alongside 

BAMN 
and 
explained 
she 

felt the accusations against 
Kavanaugh 
automatically 

disqualified 
him 
from 
the 

Supreme Court.

“Brett Kavanaugh is not fit to 

serve on the highest court in the 
land,” Napier said. “Someone 
who has committed an act 
of violence against a woman 
cannot be given power to make 
decisions about women’s lives.”

Israel.

The 
Big 
Ten 
Voting 

Challenge began as part of 
a 
University 
initiative 
to 

increase student turnout, and is 
now a competition between the 
14 Big Ten schools to achieve 
the highest turnout rate in 
the 2018 midterm elections. 
After a protracted discussion, 
the committee approved the 
endorsement resolution. Some 
SACUA 
members, 
however, 

expressed 
concerns 
that 

endorsing the challenge, which 
has been endorsed by all 19 
schools and colleges within 
the University, would send 
an unduly partisan message. 
While 
SACUA 
member 

Bill Schultz, a professor of 
engineering, 
agreed 
with 

SACUA chair Neil Marsh that 
the endorsement “seems pretty 
uncontroversial,” Schultz said 
it wouldn’t be taken that way 
by everyone.

“One of our major parties 

would 
like 
to 
encourage 

students to vote and one would 
like to discourage students 
from voting in their own way,” 
Schultz said. “I just don’t know 
that this couldn’t be another 
slight thing that is going to raise 
eyebrows if we support this. 
I think we should, but I think 

it isn’t as non-partisan as we 
would like it to be. I think this 
is relatively uncontroversial, 
but it will be viewed as a 
political act, I think, by many 
political views.”

The 
University 

frequenty 
draws 
ire 
from 

conservative bodies for its 
historically 
left-leaning 

politics: after President Donald 
Trump’s victory in the 2016 
general 
election, 
University 

president Mark Schlissel faced 
criticism 
for 
comments 

that seemed to disparage the 
election outcome. 

SACUA 
Vice 
Chair 
Joy 

Beatty, an associate professor 
of 
management 
studies 
at 

U-M 
Dearborn, 
expressed 

her disappointment that U-M 
Dearborn could not be included 
in the voting challenge since 
it was not technically a part 
of the Big Ten conference. 
Beatty 
also 
said 
despite 

members’ views on whether 
or not the endorsement was 
controversial, the issue could 
be avoided by voting not to 
endorse.

“The 
thing 
about 
not 

endorsing it is no one’s going to 
know we’re not endorsing it –– 
except for people who read The 
(Michigan) Daily,” Beatty said.

The assembly then shifted 

to 
discussion 
of 
sexual 

misconduct 
policies 
in 

relation to faculty and staff. 

In February, the University 
announced 
it 
would 
hire 

an unnamed outside firm to 
conduct a review of its sexual 
misconduct policies and the 
Office for Institutional Equity, 
which processes all complaints 
related to sexual misconduct 
within the University. The 
review is to be divided into 
two phases: one as a review of 
just the University’s written 
policies on sexual misconduct, 
and 
a 
second 
to 
evaluate 

examples of how those policies 
are carried out. Schlissel said 
at the meeting the reviewer did 
not “have any final comments 
to 
share,” 
but 
shared 
he 

expects the review would be 
complete by the end of the fall 
semester.

SACUA 
member 
Sami 

Malek, a professor of internal 
medicine, 
emphasized 
the 

degree to which faculty were 
unhappy with the current state 
of operations within the OIE.

“This is very important that 

we have somebody looking at 
it,” Malek said. “There’s a lot 
of disappointed people in the 
process.”

Last 
winter, 
The 
Daily 

reported on “The Whisper 
Network,” 
a 
crowdsourced 

database of sexual harassment 
and assault in higher education 
— incidents reported by and 
involving University faculty 
appeared more than a dozen 

times. 

“One thing to consider when 

looking at these cases is in any 
academic relationship there is 
a power dynamic,” Rackham 
student 
Nicole 
Bedera 

commented 
on 
the 
cases. 

“That’s exactly why the people 
who have sexually harassed 
the same people for years have 
been able to get away with it. 

The decision to conduct 

an external review of the 
University’s 
policies 
and 

procedures came shortly after 
revelations in the case of Larry 
Nassar, a doctor at Michigan 
State 
University. 
Nassar 

assaulted students and patients 
under the guise of medical 
treatments over the span of 
three decades and was aided 
by other MSU employees who 
failed to follow through on 
student reports of misconduct 
by Nassar and, in some cases, 
actively 
suppressed 
the 

reports.

While 
Schlissel 

acknowledged that since he had 
come into his role as president, 
there had been “a small number 
of individual cases” involving 
faculty misconduct, he said 
there was no valid comparison 
to the Nassar case.

“I 
don’t 
know 
how 
to 

categorize 
this 
as 
a 
‘big’ 

problem, and to use the Nassar 
example, I thoroughly reject,” 
Schlissel said. “That person was 

committing sexual misconduct 
for 30 years. So, although we 
aspire to have every case done 
as perfectly as we can, to me 
there’s no analogy between 
a consistent handful of cases 
that come through OIE that 
faculty regrettably feel are 
unfairly run, and 30 years of 
sexual assault.”

Finally SACUA addressed 

the case of Prof. John Cheney-
Lippold, 
who 
rescinded 
a 

letter 
of 
recommendation 

for a student’s study abroad 
application after learning the 
program took place in Israel; 
Cheney-Lippold 
is 
engaged 

in an academic boycott of 
the 
country. 
Shortly 
after 

news of the professor’s action 
became public, the University 
released 
a 
statement 

expressing disappointment in 
the professor’s decision, and 
Schlissel spoke against the 
boycott at last week’s Board of 
Regents meeting. 

“It is disappointing that a 

faculty member would allow 
their personal political beliefs 
to limit the support they are 
willing to otherwise provide 
for our students,” the statement 
read. “We will engage our 
faculty 
colleagues 
in 
deep 

discussions 
to 
clarify 
how 

the expression of our shared 
values plays out in support of 
all students.”

Expressing his desire to 

hear the “candid thoughts” 
of SACUA members, Schlissel 
moved the meeting into closed 
session. Following the meeting, 
Marsh released a statement 
from SACUA on the practice 
of writing students letters of 
reference, saying they wished 
“to 
draw 
the 
University 

community’s 
attention” 
to 

the 
American 
Association 

of 
University 
Professors’ 

Statement 
of 
Professional 

Ethics.

“As 
teachers, 
professors 

encourage the free pursuit of 
learning in their students,” the 
AAUP’s statement reads. “They 
hold before them the best 
scholarly and ethical standards 
of their discipline. Professors 
demonstrate 
respect 
for 

students as individuals and 
adhere to their proper roles 
as 
intellectual 
guides 
and 

counselors. Professors make 
every reasonable effort to foster 
honest academic conduct and to 
ensure that their evaluations of 
students reflect each student’s 
true merit. They respect the 
confidential 
nature 
of 
the 

relationship between professor 
and student. They avoid any 
exploitation, harassment, or 
discriminatory treatment of 
students. They acknowledge 
significant 
academic 
or 

scholarly 
assistance 
from 

them. 
They 
protect 
their 

academic freedom.”

The Michigan Daily — www.michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 25, 2018 — 3

students.

Detroit and the University
Last 
week 
the 
University 

announced a partnership with 
Harvard University and the city 
of Detroit to create programs 
to combat the opioid crisis, 
improve 
economic 
mobility 

and 
provide 
educational 

opportunities 
at 
Marygrove 

College in Detroit for students 
and teachers. The University also 
recently acquired the remainder 
of the Horace H. Rackham 
Education Memorial Building in 
Midtown.

With 
these 
recent 

announcements, Schlissel said 
the University plans for a higher 
profile involvement in Detroit.

“I’m trying to find ways for 

all the different research and 
teaching programs that touch 
Detroit to synergize with one 
another, to know about each 
other, and to take advantage 
of one another’s expertise and 
contacts,” Schlissel said.

In 
navigating 
the 

communities within Detroit, 
Schlissel said it’s important to 
have partners in the community 
and 
to 
communicate 
with 

them.

“The worst thing in the 

whole world is to come in, 
do a research program, and 
leave,” Schlissel said. “There 
you’re really taking advantage 
of 
people. 
What 
the 
best 

research and teaching does is it 
identifies great partners in the 
community, works together to 
define what the important 
problems are that need to be 
studied or addressed and then 
collaborates on their solution.”

Schlissel added the thought 

process behind collaborating 
with Harvard for the new 
program in Detroit was to 
utilize their data science and 
economists and pair them with 
Michigan’s expertise of the 
city itself. 

Future Plans
In announcements and focuses 

for this semester, Schlissel said he 
would save large announcements 
for his leadership conference 
coming up in a few weeks. 
However, he did mention the 
University will be looking at 
sustainability and involving the 
arts in other areas of campus.

The focus on environmental 

sustainability 
comes 

after members of the University 
of 
Michigan 
Climate 
Action 

Movement spoke during public 
comment at last week’s board 
meeting. Members stressed the 
University’s place as a leading 
figure 
in 
reducing 
carbon 

emissions. The group pushed the 
University to go carbon neutral 
by 2035 and carbon negative by 
2040.

SCHLISSEL
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KAVANAUGH
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SACUA
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Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

are working to legalize civil 
unions.

“Since 2003, there were 

eight attempts to introduce 
civil unions,” Smiszek. “So far, 
we are one of the last European 
Union 
countries 
without 

any legislation of this kind. 
Poland is also another country 
without any protection against 
homophobic, 
transphobic 

hate speech and hate crime, 
which has been condemned 
many times by the council of 
Europe.” 

Smiszek noted similarities 

between 
Poland 
and 
the 

U.S.’s struggle for LGBTQ 
rights. He brought up a Polish 
Supreme Court case known 
as the “printer case” that 
bears 
resemblance 
to 
the 

well-known 
Masterpiece 

Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil 
Rights Commision in which 
a 
same-sex 
couple 
sued 

a Colorado baker for refusing 
to make a wedding cake. The 
main difference between the 
cases, however, was that the 
Polish Supreme Court said 
that sexual orientation, race 
or gender could not be the 

basis for refusal of services, 
whereas 
American 
courts 

place a much larger emphasis 
on freedom of religionl.

Smiszek said coming to the 

University helps to promote 
the exchange of ideas within 
international legal systems, 
and helps him identify areas 
of improvement in Poland’s 
activism.

“I’m 
a 
human 
rights 

lecturer and academic, but at 
the same time, I’m an LGBT 
activist and lawyer litigating 
different 
pieces 
on 
LGBT 

discrimination,” he said in 
an interview with The Daily. 
“I think it’s important to 
present this perspective to 
American colleagues. I get 
to learn whether the U.S. is 
behind the equality agenda or 
not. Exchanging experiences 
and thoughts about where is 
the place of LGBT rights in 
the American or Polish legal 
system is important. I am here 
to learn from the American 
perspective, 
and 
I 
am 

astonished at what the LGBT 
community has achieved in 
this country in the last 40-50 
years.”

Sociology 
Professor 

Kiyoteru 
Tsutsui, 
director 

of the Donia Human Rights 
Center, 
said 
their 
center 

brings in speakers based on 
the desires of the students.

“I teach a course on human 

rights, and in that class and 
outside of the classroom I 
sense and I hear our students 
having questions about what 
is going on in the world,” 
Tsutsui said. “They want to 
learn about human rights’ 
standards in the world, the 
various laws- international 
and domestic. So we are here 
to provide that information 
because we have a lot of people 
on campus and outside campus 
who have great expertise on 
human rights issues, politics, 
and law.”

While many of the people in 

attendance were professors, 
LSA 
freshman 
Jagienka 

Timek, a Polish student, was 
one of many students who 
came to the lecture. Timek 
said she tries to keep up with 
news from her home country, 
but didn’t feel like she knew a 
lot about LGBTQ issues.

“My 
parents 
are 
from 

Poland, and I am strongly 
Polish,” Simek said. “I like 
to stay up to date with the 
current political climate in 
Poland, and LGBT rights, it 
hasn’t been in the mainstream 
in news outlets necessarily. 
Going 
to 
Poland 
every 

summer, 
and 
seeing 
the 

referendums, seeing people 
on the streets, demonstrating, 
it makes a personal impact on 
me. There are no protections 
against discrimination or hate 
crimes, and that was crazy to 
me.”

The 
event 
also 
drew 

people 
from 
outside 
the 

University community. Kasia 
Kietlinska, an English and 
Rhetoric professor at Oakland 
University, 
said 
she 
was 

excited when she saw the event 
because of her immersion in 
Polish culture.

“I’m Polish and live in 

Ann 
Arbor 
–– 
I 
follow 

everything,”Kietlinska 
said. “I’m addicted to reading 
Polish publications. It just 
seemed incredibly perceptive. 
He really knows his stuff. And 
just noticing how LGBT rights 
have progressed, from being 
not being not very popular for 
the center to right parties, to 
then becoming accepted by 
these relatively conservative 
groups of people, even in the 
mainstream.”

At the end of the lecture, 

Śmiszek emphasized there are 
great strides being made in 
the LGBTQ community, and 
there has been a vast increase 
in 
participation 
in 
public 

demonstrations and events.

“In 
1998, 
the 
Pride 

Festival 
brought 
together 

only three people with their 
faces covered –– three brave 
activists,” Smiszek said.“And 
twenty 
years 
later, 
there 

were almost 80,000 people 
marching on Warsaw streets.”

Śmiszek 
also 
mentioned 

the 
election 
of 
Anna 

Grodzka was the first openly 
transgender 
member 
of 

parliament in Poland, and 
these 
achievements 
give 

hope to the future of the 
movement. In contrast, the 
United States has never had an 
openly transgender member 
of Congress. Smiszek said he 
hopes students will continue 
to fight for the progression of 
LGBTQ rights here in America 
as well.

“You 
have 
to 
talk 
to 

others,” Smiszek said. “It is 
a challenge to speak to those 
who are hostile. But, you have 
to believe in your fight and 
not give up. It took 20 years 
in Poland, and it started with 
extremely brave people who 
started this discussion around 
LGBT rights. And now, I would 
say you have a blossoming 
of LGBT infrastructure and 
activism.”

POLAND
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