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

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Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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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

