the 
conduct 
of 
Ann 
Arbor 

police officers and investigate 
complaints from city residents, 
but concerns arose about the 
legality of certain provisions in 
relation to the city charter and 
the police department’s collective 
bargaining agreement. 

Kailasapathy, 
who 

co-sponsored the task force’s 
ordinance, 
said 
the 
process 

surrounding the formation of 
citizen task force’s proposal 
was the most democratic she 
had seen in her six years on City 
Council.

“I’m really proud to bring 

this up because this is yours,” 
Kailasapathy said to supporters 
in attendance Monday evening. 
“It’s what the residents have 
told us,” adding the ordinance 
was “not anti-police,” but rather 
“pro-safety.”

While the mayor’s proposal 

and the task force’s ordinance 
both preserved anonymity for 
complainants and clarified that 
no city councilmember or active 
duty police officer will sit on 
the oversight board, Taylor’s 
differed 
in 
its 
appointment 

of 
independent 
counsel 
and 

provisions regarding concurrent 
investigations 
by 
the 
board 

and 
the 
Ann 
Arbor 
Police 

Department. 

The mayor’s proposal diverged 

from the vision of the citizen task 
force in giving the mayor more 
power 
over 
the 
appointment 

process as well. In Taylor’s version, 
the mayor would be responsible 
for appointing members to the 

oversight board, while the citizen 
task force proposed the oversight 
board itself and the Human 
Rights 
Commission 
should 

create a list of possible members 
that would be appointed by City 
Council. 

While the citizen task force 

sought to award the oversight 
board subpoena power, a memo 
from City Attorney Stephen 
K. Postema noted “significant 
legal issues with subpoenaing 
residents 
of 
the 
City, 
City 

employees, or police officers” 
because the city charter does 
not grant City Council subpoena 
power. 
Postema 
maintained 

Council’s 
lack 
of 
subpoena 

power implies its power to the 
commission is questionable. 

Additionally, 
Postema’s 

memo cast doubt on the the 
commission’s ability to retain 
independent counsel, an issue 
that led to worries of conflicts 
of interest during the September 
work session. The memo stated 
a commission created by City 
Council “has no authority to 
contract 
with 
outside 
legal 

counsel on its own.”

The Police Officers Association 

of Michigan sent a letter to 
Taylor opposing the citizen task 
force’s ordinance, calling the 
“blatant lack of trust” for the 
AAPD “unconscionable.” POAM 
did so in an effort to “protect 
Ann Arbor police officers from 
the venom which this proposed 
ordinance spews,” saying, “The 
proposed ordinance lacks moral 
justification 
and 
lacks 
legal 

authority.” 

The 
ordinance 
introduced 

by Taylor will move forward 
to a second reading at the City 
Council meeting on Oct. 15. 

five municipalities and sorts 
through the trash generated by 
the University.

According 
to 
Tracy 

Artley, waste reduction and 
recycling program manager 
for the Office of Campus 
Sustainability, 
recycling 
on 

the 
institutional 
level 
has 

had increased standards and 
thus requires education and 
consistency.

“Manufacturers 
have 
a 

lower and lower tolerance 
for contamination — for non-
recyclables ending up in there,” 
Artley said. “That’s a cost to 
them, they have to sort those 
out, and if they missed it, it 
could ruin the whole batch 
of 
what 
they’re 
recycling. 

Unfortunately, some people 
do what we call wish-cycling, 
where they put things in the 
recycling 
bin 
hoping 
that 

because they put it there, it’ll 
get recycled.”

Because of the University’s 

close 
relationship 
with 
WWRA, 

consistent 
communication 

allows the Office of Campus 
Sustainability to be notified if 
a batch is contaminated, and 
they can subsequently trace the 
bin back to a certain building 
or department. This way, the 
office is able to directly address 
consistent recycling errors at 
certain buildings.

Artley 
also 
explained 

how economic factors weigh 
heavily on the lack of recycling 
for paper products, especially 
coffee cups.

“Recycling is this great 

environmental effort, but at 
heart, it’s an economic effort,” 
she said. “When we recycle 
things, they get sorted out and 
set out for recycling. They are 
being recycled for purchasing 
by a manufacturer who wants 
to make something new out of 
that. With coffee cups, there’s 
no company, at least around 
the state, that wants these 
paper coffee cups.”

said 
earlier 
in 
September. 

“We’re continuing to study 
our current procedures … The 
idea is to continuously improve 
in this really important area, 
so there will be more to come 
in the months ahead on what 
we can do to diminish the 
frequency of misconduct on 
our campus.”

The training was born out of 

the Working Group on Faculty 
and Staff Sexual Misconduct, a 
committee which investigated 
current 
University 
policy 

and published findings. The 
committee 
was 
co-chaired 

by 
Laurita 
Thomas, 

associate 
vice 
president 

for 
Human 
Resources, 

and former U-M Dearborn 
Chancellor 
Daniel 
Little. 

The 
committee’s 
published 

recommendations 
included 

mandatory 
faculty 

programming, as the University 
previously required only newly 
hired staff to undergo such 

training. Proposed modules 
in the training include topics 
of institutional commitment, 
principles 
and 
values 
and 

behavior expectations. 

The 
University’s 
annual 

sexual 
misconduct 

report released in September 
reported 
data 
from 
only 

student 
misconduct 
filings. 

An 
independent 
crowd-

sourced database of sexual 
misconduct 
in 
academia, 

however, called the “whisper 
network” attracted attention 
last winter with a log of more 
than a dozen incidents of 
sexual assault, harassment and 
rape perpetrated by University 
faculty members. 

American Culture Professor 

Lisa 
Nakamura 
welcomed 

the 
trainings, 
predicting 

they would certainly raise 
awareness 
of 
protocols 

among faculty, but expressed 
reservations about the long-
term efficacy of the online 
course.

The Michigan Daily — www.michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, October 2, 2018 — 3

TRAINING
From Page 1

SHAT TERING THE SILENCE

SARAH KUNKEL/Daily

Saline High School student Zaynab Elkolaly shows her support for political activism against gun violence at the Shattering the Silence Rally on the Diag Monday. 

finding funding for humanities 
research is generally difficult, 
especially 
from 
sources 
not 

associated with the University. 
Noting 
a 
funding 
disparity 

between humanities and natural 
science 
research, 
Crisostomo 

said he’s found the most success 
receiving grants for humanities 
projects 
with 
computational 

aspects, like his contributions to 
an online database of translated 
texts.

“The digital humanities almost 

is a way of making the humanities 
seem more scientific,” Crisostomo 
said. “Funding bodies are looking 
more at these projects rather than 
what have been the traditional 
humanities 
projects, 
such 
as 

translations of texts or analyses of 
texts or people groups, things like 
that.”

According to the University’s 

2017 Annual Report on Research, 
the 
majority 
of 
research 

expenditures 
go 
toward 

projects in the natural sciences 
and 
technology. 
The 
School 

of Medicine topped research 
expenditures last year, taking 
up 41 percent of all research 
costs, followed by the College of 
Engineering at 17 percent. Only 13 
percent of research expenditures 
were attributed to LSA, the 
largest college by population at the 
University.

Several key sources of income 

fund research at the University. Of 
the $1.48 billion spent on research 
in 2017, 56 percent was funded by 
the federal government, mostly 
in the form of grants provided by 
agencies such as National Institute 

of Health and NASA. Funds from 
non-federal 
sources, 
such 
as 

industry sponsors, comprised 11 
percent of research expenditures. 
Internal funds, generated by 
tuition, gifts and state support, 
made up 33 percent.

Sara Blair, vice provost for 

Academic and Faculty Affairs, 
said though University faculty 
have been successful in earning 
humanities 
research 
awards 

relative to other universities, 
external 
funding 
for 
the 

humanities is generally limited.

“One really important fact 

about funding for research in 
the humanities and humanistic 
social sciences, more broadly, 
is that the amount of funding 
available externally is regrettably 
minimal,” Blair said. “Especially 
compared with other disciplinary 
areas, there just are not robust 
opportunities for faculty to apply, 
particularly 
for 
longer-term, 

larger-scale research projects.”

Heather Offhaus, director of 

Grant Review and Analysis for the 
Medical School Office of Research, 
noted there is some practical basis 
for the funding disparity. She 
said one reason medical research 
dominates total expenditures at 
the University is the school’s large 
faculty size, leading to a higher 
volume of research.

“The schools and colleges 

are 
arranged 
by 
where 

faculty are employed and tenured, 
and we have a very large engine,” 
Offhaus said. “The three largest 
schools on campus are the Medical 
School, Engineering and LSA.”

Offhaus 
added 
scientific 

research is often more costly than 
research in the humanities or arts, 
thus requiring larger grants.

“Compared to LSA, medical 

research is far more expensive, 
and so we’re applying to sponsors 
that are prepared to cover the cost 
of the research or part of the cost 
of the research and so those tend 
to be larger awards than, say, in 
LSA,” Offhaus said. “Engineering 
is a little more like we are in terms 
of size and scope of awards.”

Though 
Crisostomo 

acknowledged 
science 
and 

technology 
research 
can 
be 

costlier in terms of personnel and 
equipment, he also attributed 
the funding gap to a lack of 
appreciation for the humanities. 
According to Crisostomo, the 
humanities are often seen as 
purely academic, luxury fields 
of study, whereas the natural 
sciences are considered to have 
more realistic applicability.

“There is a tendency for 

the 
natural 
sciences 
to 
be 

more easily understandable as 
somewhat 
practical 
research,” 

Crisostomo said. “You think about 
the projects at U of M such as 
automated driving that led to a lot 
of attention, and you see how that’s 
practical outside of academia.”

Crisostomo said he strongly 

believes in the value of humanities 
research, 
because 
it 
builds 

empathy and promotes the careful 
consumption of media. He added 
humanities scholars, especially 
those who study the past, are able 
to piece together fragmentary 
information to better understand 
historical events, a skill that 
translates to modern politics 
and global issues. In applying for 
grants from funding agencies, 
Crisostomo 
said, 
humanities 

researchers must make a strong 
case for the validity and value of 
their work.

“We have to make the case, 

whereas 
for 
some 
natural 

sciences it’s more assumed, it’s a 
default thing that they’re really 
applicable,” 
Crisostomo 
said. 

“It’s not as obvious a case for the 
humanities.”

In 
spite 
of 
his 
difficulty 

finding 
external 
funding, 

Crisostomo said he has noticed 
the University’s efforts to direct 
more internal funds toward the 
humanities.

“One of the good things that 

I’ve seen here at the U of M 
is recently there has been more of a 
push for getting some humanities 
funding,” Crisostomo said. “For 
example, I know that the college 
of LSA has increased the amount 
for the startup package, that is 
the amount of money given to 
incoming professors to get their 
projects going, and that includes 
the humanities, that includes 
social sciences.”

Amy Dittmar, vice provost 

for Academic and Budgetary 
Affairs, said the University tries to 
compensate for the lack of external 
funding by supporting humanities 
research with internal funds, such 
as initiatives like the Institute for 
the Humanities and Humanities 
Collaboratory. 
In 
2017, 
the 

humanities, 
arts 
and 
social 

sciences received a combined 
56 percent of grants and awards 
distributed by the Office of 
Research.

“We really are mindful in 

making sure that there are 
available resources for all of our 
faculty to do research, and some 
of those areas naturally have 
external funding and some of 

with the response of the 
community.

Barabino 
and 
Cortina 

discussed 
how 
women 

and 
members 
of 
other 

underrepresented 
groups 

have to brush off instances 
of gender harassment.

“You may brush it off, 

say that was just today,” 
Barabino said. “Well, it was 
today, it was yesterday, it’s 
coming tomorrow, and it 
doesn’t get seen.”

University administrators 

are currently working to 
reduce 
harassment 
and 

misconduct among faculty. 
As of last month, faculty 
members will be required to 
undergo sexual misconduct 
training 
following 

reccomendations from a staff 
and faculty working group. 
While 
the 
University’s 

student sexual misconuduct 
policy is subject to regular 

reviews 
and 
revisions, 

similar guidelines do not 
exist 
for 
the 
Standard 

Practice Guide that governs 
faculty and staff misconduct. 

In 
response 
to 
a 

question asking how it is 
possible to survey sexual 
harassment, 
Cortina 
said 

because of this issue, they 
do 
not 
ask 
respondents 

point blank whether they 
have 
experienced 
sexual 

harassment or not.

“When we survey people, 

we try to avoid all these 
terms entirely,” Cortina said. 
“We ask about specifically 
defined behaviors because 
people have such different 
understandings 
for 
what 

sexual harassment means, 
what it means to be sexually 
harassed. And oftentimes 
what you actually find is that 
people will say yes to a whole 
list of behaviors, and all these 
behaviors are examples of 
sexual harassment conduct. 

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

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