University of Michigan
students gathered to hear
former Planned Parenthood
President Cecile Richards
speak Wednesday evening
about her experience as an
activist and organizer as
well as her advice on how to
mobilize Democratic voters.
The
University
of
Michigan’s
chapter
of
College Democrats, along
with Students for Whitmer,
hosted
Richards,
who
was in town to help with
Gubernatorial
candidate
Gretchen
Whitmer’s
campaign.
Public
Policy
senior Kellie Lounds, the
chair of College Democrats,
noted
how
inspiring
Richards
is
for
people
wanting to make change.
“Our
women’s
issues
committee, which is a part
of College Dems, is one of
our strongest groups, so I
know there are people who
were really excited about
it,” Lounds said. “She is
such
an
incredible
and
inspiring figure for young
women across the country
who want to get involved
in organizing and want to
make a difference in the
political process without
being an elected official is a
really important speaker to
have.”
Richards
opened
the
talk by speaking about her
familiarity with Michigan,
recalling
her
time
with
Planned
Parenthood
providing
health
care
services and family planning
in the state. She knew
Michigan and Ann Arbor,
well enough to consider a
trip to Zingerman’s a must,
she joked.
She then turned to a more
serious note, talking about
how liberals may feel upset
On Tuesday, the University
of Michigan Office of the
President released a letter
addressing concerns of anti-
Semitism following reports
of
two
U-M
instructors
refusing
to
write
letters
of
recommendation
for
students wishing to study
abroad
in
Israel
and
a
controversial lecture given
last week in the Penny
Stamps Speaker Series.
The
University’s
letter,
signed
by
University
President Mark Schlissel and
Provost Martin A. Philbert,
affirms
the
University’s
opposition to the boycott of
Israeli academic institutions
and assures the instructors’
actions are being addressed
through current U-M policy.
“Withholding letters of
recommendation based on
personal views does not meet
our university’s expectations
for supporting the academic
aspirations of our students,”
the letter read. “Conduct that
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, October 11, 2018
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
‘U’ College
Dems push
reproductive
rights, voting
Sanlo highlights LBGTQ activism
on eve of National Coming Out Day
GOVERNMENT
Richards in town to aid gubernatorial
candidate Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Daily Staff Reporter
Former head of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual Programs calls for programming on history
LGBTQ
rights
speaker
Ronni Sanlo spoke about the
importance of acknowledging
the historical roots of LGBTQ
activism to a group of more
than 50 students, faculty and
alumni Wednesday night in
honor of National Coming Out*
Week. Sanlo also spoke about
her personal coming out story
in addition to her struggles as
a lesbian in the 1980s when she
faced rampant discrimination
in the workplace and lost
custody of her children.
Sanlo, who served as the
director
of
the
University
of Michigan’s Lesbian and
Gay Programs Office — and
added the words “bisexual”
and
“transgender”
to
the
office name — from 1994 to
1997,
highlighted
current
attitudes toward the LGBTQ
community as products of a
long fight against prejudice
and discrimination. Sanlo said
the lack of attention paid to
LGBTQ history contributes
to the community’s continued
invisibility.
“You probably didn’t learn
about us in school,” Sanlo said.
“I sure didn’t. I didn’t learn
about Alan Turing, a gay man
who is considered the great
parent of computer science and
who broke the German code in
1945 to help the allies win World
War II. Or authors Gertrude
Stein and her partner, Alice B.
Toklas. People need to know
that we LGBTQ folk didn’t
just pop out of the Out Bar last
Thursday night, or at the pride
festival this year. Coming out is
This is the first installment
in a series of articles from The
Michigan Daily that explore
course evaluation and grade
data at the University. Check
out the article online to see The
Daily’s interactive.
When
one
LSA
junior
signed
up
for
Psychology
225: Psychology of Human
Sexuality for semester, she did
not realize she was about to
take the course with the worst
grade distribution in the entire
college of LSA.
The class has consistently
produced a mean grade of C+ in
the past two semesters in which
the course was taught: the
lowest average grade out of any
class within LSA. The course
has been taught over the last 9
years by Associate Psychology
professor
Terri
Conley.
It
offers a broad introduction
of
the
various
aspects
of
human sexuality as well as its
intersections with gender.
“I was definitely surprised,”
the junior, who wishes to remain
anonymous due to worries of
repercussions in class, said.
“First of all, when I’m signing
up for classes I don’t really look
at the grade distributions — I
know that’s a thing I can look
at, but I never do. This was
kind of something I signed up
for last minute. I definitely
wasn’t expecting it to be an
easy course, but I also was not
expecting it to be graded super
harshly, especially since I’m
a computer science major and
this is a psych class, so I was
definitely surprised.”
The course has been graded
on a curve and often results in
a normal distribution. Though
the average was low, prior
course
evaluations
showed
students
felt
coursework
was
not
overbearing
and
demonstrated strong interest in
learning the subject matter.
Conley was very surprised
to find out about the class’s
standing; she did not know
it had the lowest mean grade
in LSA until The Michigan
Daily informed her of the
fact. Though she was aware
her students did not always
appreciate having a curve, she
never imagined it would lead
to the lowest average in LSA.
She explained how students in
her class from the Ross School
of Business typically seemed
to understand grading on the
curve, but others struggled
with it.
“The business school people
who would take my class were
always like, ‘Yeah, we know
what is going on,’” Conley
said. “So it was just shocking
to me to have it as the lowest
class because I assumed most
people were doing this, but I
guess this explains why people
can’t understand the curve.
See PANEL, Page 3A
‘U’ panel
will look at
faculty and
ideology
ACADEMICS
New body created after
boycott of rec letters for
study abroad in Israel
MAEVE O’BRIEN
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN
With a C+ average, Psych 225 has
lowest mean grade of any LSA class
Prof. says the normal distribution used to assign grades is supposed to help students
AMARA SHAIKH
Daily Staff Reporter
See LGBTQ, Page 3A
The University of Michigan
is making it mandatory for all
faculty, staff and sponsored
affiliates to turn on two-
factor authentication through
Duo by Jan. 23. An email
from University Information
and
Technology
Services
was sent out to all faculty
on Oct. 1, encouraging them
to begin turning on two-
factor
authentication
in
acknowledgment of National
Cybersecurity
Awareness
Month.
Two-factor
authentication
is a method meant to make
personal accounts more secure.
With the system enabled, users
must log in to their account by
verifying
their
information
with a second factor. Duo
Security is one of Ann Arbor’s
fastest
growing
startup
companies—Cisco
purchased
the company for $2.3 milion
this summer.
Ravi
Pendse,
ITS
vice
president and chief information
officer
at
the
University,
Two-factor
ID to turn
on starting
in January
BUSINESS
Duo effort new part of
Cyber Security Month
campaign from the ‘U’
MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
Check out the
Daily’s News
podcast, The
Daily Weekly
INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 9
©2018 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
CARTER FOX/DAILY
Dr. Ronni Sanlo discusses the history of the LGBT community and her personal experience at the National Coming Out Day Lecture in the School of Social
Work Wednesday evening.
LIAT WEINSTEIN
For the Daily
DESIGN BY WILLA HUA
See RICHARDS, Page 3A
See PSYCH, Page 3A
See DUO, Page 3A