a 
finance-dominated 
field,” 

Kaplan said. “We really want 
the students to be able to 
engage with the panelists and 
create those relationships so 
that they feel more comfortable 
and empowered when they 
choose to enter the field.”

Panelists 
discussed 
the 

importance 
of 
diversity 
in 

finding 
innovative 
solutions 

to problems and the struggles 
many 
women 
face 
when 

balancing work and childcare. 
Though 
all 
panelists 
said 

bridging the gender gap in 
finance is beneficial for their 
companies, they also noted how 
filling a gender “quota” doesn’t 
fully solve the issue. Panelist 
Irena Alagic, a fixed income 
strategist at J.P. Morgan Chase, 
said diversity should go beyond 
gender to include different 
backgrounds and worldviews.

“We’re not playing a numbers 

game here,” Alagic said. “If you 
have a whole bunch of people 
in the room who all grew up 

the same way, who think the 
same way, who have the same 
set of beliefs that guide their 
principles, you’re most likely 
not going to come up with the 
most efficient decision.”

Disparities 
extend 
back 

to 
academic 
communities 

here 
on 
campus 
as 
well. 

A 
study 
published 
last 

year 
found 
women 
are 

underrepresented 
in 
senior 

positions in the University’s 
economics 
department, 
and 

make up a smaller share of 
graduate and PhD students in 
the program.

Many 
of 
the 
panelists 

also noted how the #MeToo 
movement, which has affected 
women in many different fields, 
has 
changed 
the 
discourse 

surrounding 
the 
gender 

disparity in finance. Panelist 
Charlene Reardon, the senior 
financial life adviser at Telemus 
Capital, LLC, said the issues 
exposed by the movement are 
not new but instead stem from 
a history of inequality.

“The #MeToo movement, I 

don’t think that in and of itself, 
has changed anything really 

significantly in the world of 
finance that I work in,” Reardon 
said. “It’s been an evolution, 
not a revolution.”

Business 
junior 
Sonakshi 

Agarwal said she liked how 
the panelists represented large 
companies, such as J.P. Morgan, 
and smaller ones, such as 
Telemus. Agarwal also said her 
experiences as an international 
student made her aware of how 
events in the United States 
impact other nations around 
the world.

“I come from India, and 

there is a big gender disparity 
there,” Agarwal said. “I would 
say I’ve been lucky enough not 
to experience it myself, but I 
have witnessed it and I have 
seen it in so many instances 
— workplace and even social 
life. I understand why it’s good 
that modern society is talking 
about it and if more developed 
nations like the United States 
are talking about it, the effects 
are going to trickle down to the 
rest of the world.”

meet 10 times a year, but the 
really interesting stuff comes 
in the middle when you’re 
learning and experiencing 
what the University is doing. 
You’re out on your own and 
meeting with people and 
talking to people … When 
I started on the board, the 
student 
population 
was 

about a third of where it is 
today in terms of the entering 
freshmen class … There’s just 
so much more that we can 
do that we’re sort of on the 
cusp of doing now and that’s 
what made me really do it 
again. At one point, I thought 
it’s been fantastic but there’s 
still more to do. I want to see 
us consistently ranked the 
number one public university 
in the country.

TMD: Over your career 

as regent, what goals do you 
have of the board that still 
haven’t quite been met?

AN: 
Affordability 
and 

accessibility are the two big 
ones. And you could argue 
that well, “Why haven’t you 
been working on this?” Well, 
the fact of the matter is we 
have but we’re finally now in 
a position where we’ve been 
able to raise the money. Back 
in 2004-2006, as the tuition 
started to go up because the 
state funding went down, 
I recognized that this was 
becoming 
unaffordable 

for really the middle class. 
The poor get loans and the 
wealthy can afford it, but 
it’s the middle class getting 
squeezed out of an education. 
I felt strongly that we needed 
to raise money to endow 
tuition if you will. We started 
in 2006 with the President’s 
Challenge and in the first 
year raised $90 million for 
financial 
aid. 
We’ve 
just 

raised $1.1 billion for student 
scholarships. 
It’s 
a 
great 

number but it’s not enough 
and the reason it’s not enough 
is that’s only going to throw 
off about $40 million a year. 
We need to do more to make 
education 
affordable 
and 

accessible, and that’s why I’m 
running again. My focus is on 
scholarships, raising money, 
cutting costs and making it 
affordable so that everybody 
can afford to be here who’s 
admitted because right now 
they can’t.

TMD: You’ve consistently 

opposed tuition increases, but 
how do you plan to counteract 
the efforts of the board to 
increase this amount?

AN: It’s interesting — the 

board has been effective at 
keeping the tuition increases 
lower than I think some 
might like them to be. I know 
this budget really well, and I 
know we don’t have to raise 
tuition every year. I know 
there are more creative things 
we could be doing. One thing 
I’ve learned on the campaign 
is that this is the number one 
issue and conveyed that to 
my colleagues, I said, ‘Guys, 
we live in this ivory tower 
here but I think everybody 
understands that affordability 
and accessibility are the most 
important issues ahead of us 
because we can’t price people 
out of an education.’ I think 
you’ll see change, but it is all 
about the budget. My concern 
is that we’re not pushing hard 
enough to keep the budget 
down and I will keep pushing 
… It’s hard to vote against 
these increases, but it has to 
be done.

TMD: I know an issue 

that’s been brought up by 
students and faculty in the 
regents meetings this year 
has been the issue of carbon 
neutrality and the lack of a 
set goal on the part of the 
University. Do you have any 
thoughts on this issue?

AN: The board is 100 

percent behind this initiative 
and has been. I’ve been 
talking to Prof. Kelbaugh. 
I 
know 
how 
important 

this is … The regents really 
react to students as does 
the administration. I try to 
explain this to students if 
there’s an issue, come and tell 
us about it, don’t go and sit 
and complain. 

the immigration system in the 
United States. According to 
Reed, the modern immigration 
system is rooted in an attempt 
to preserve white dominance in 
the country.

“Preservation 
of 
white 

supremacy, of white dominance, 
has always been and continues 
to be both an explicit and 
implicit 
goal 
of 
the 
U.S. 

immigration system,” Reed said. 
“Racism does not decline as 
time passes — it fluidly adjusts 
and 
aligns 
with 
prevailing 

political interests and that’s 
really something you can see 
as you trace the history of our 
immigration policy.”

During 
her 
presentation, 

Reed addressed the evolution of 
struggle that the immigration 
system has caused from the 
Civil War to the present day. 
Reed also said the problem has 
become more imminent since 
President Donald Trump took 
office.

“The 
system 
has 
always 

been bad,” Reed said. “Even 
the 
(Obama) 
administration 

made some errors in judgment. 
But this new administration 
has 
really 
weaponized 
the 

immigration 
system 
around 

larger goals of sending the 
message that white dominance 
will be preserved.”

Mentioning 
the 
common 

question 
surrounding 
the 

solution to the immigration 
problem, Reed said the thought 
process 
behind 
immigration 

must 
be 
fundamentally 

reconsidered to understand the 

extent of the subject in the U.S.

“Somebody is always going 

to ask me, ‘What is the solution 
to the problem?’” Reed said. “I 
always like to offer the idea that 
people simply move. Migration 
is not a problem to be solved — 
migration is a part of human 
existence. Saying ‘How are we 
going to solve the problem of 
immigration? We can solve it 
with walls or militarization of 
the border,’ it’s sort of like saying 
we have a hunger problem in 
America (so) how can we get 
people to stop needing to eat.”

During 
a 
question-and-

answer 
portion, 
Reed 

emphasized 
the 
difficulty 

of working in the field of 
immigration law, where she 
is responsible for overseeing 
the reunification of children 
separated from their families. 
According to Reed, it can 

be damaging for children to 
reunite with their parents after 
being split up.

“The 
children 
are 
going 

back different,” Reed said. “I 
would also say another really 
bad consequence is that the 
government took children that 
were accompanied and stuck 
them into its existing system 
for unaccompanied immigrant 
children.”

LSA senior Lisa Garcia said 

before the discussion she hoped 
it would offer information and 
resources to help aid and inform 
the immigration issue in the 
country.

“I’m actually really interested 

in 
immigration 
rights 
and 

immigrant 
communities 
in 

Ann Arbor,” Garcia said. “If 
anything, I hope to get resources 
on how we can get involved to 
promote immigrants rights in 

Michigan.”

Kinesiology 
junior 
Grant 

Floto echoed the importance of 
giving students information on 
how to get involved in the cause. 
He said the student voices are 
essential 
to 
addressing 
the 

concern of immigration in the 
country.

“I think it’s important for us 

as students especially and young 
people our age to understand 
the impact this can have on the 
future and families and younger 
kids and how we have a voice,” 
Floto said. “It’s important for 
us to work together to make 
meaningful 
impacts 
and 

especially 
with 
voting 
and 

everything 
coming 
up, 
it’s 

obviously really important for 
us to be knowledgeable about 
these things in this climate.”

Proposal 
A. 
She 
clarified 

votes on Proposal A would not 
directly alter the development 
proposal.

“The decision is not ‘Is this 

a park or is it a building?’ or 
‘Is it a great park or a great 
building?’” Letaw said. “It is, 
‘Do we hold this land in public 
for perpetuity as an urban park 
and civic center commons?’ 
That’s the question on the 
ballot.”

Letaw said any development 

on the land would have to 
include 12,000 square feet of 

space treated as a public plaza, 
in accordance with a resolution 
passed by City Council in 2014.

“We are here because for 

the last decade and a half, Ann 
Arbor residents and city staff 
and city elected officials have 
consistently said, ‘We know 
Ann Arbor is growing, we 
care very deeply about open 
space,’” Letaw said. “Part of 
the analysis of the Library Lot 
is that any sale of that land is 
required to donate 50 percent 
of the proceeds the Affordable 
Housing Fund, so we’re using 
the public process to express 
our values as a community.”

During 
a 
question-and-

answer session, Ann Arbor 
resident Vince Caruso spoke 

in favor of Proposal A and 
emphasized the need for more 
open space in the city.

“I think Ann Arbor needs a 

green space in our downtown,” 
Caruso 
said. 
“We 
need 
a 

green space where people can 
sit, meet their friends, not 
have to spend money … We 
have all these people moving 
downtown. They need a place 
to take their grandkids, to take 
their kids. It’s not so much fun 
to play in the streets in the 
downtown, I’ll tell you that.”

In a statement, the Ann 

Arbor District Library Board of 
Trustees recently announced 
its opposition to Proposal A 
“due to its potential negative 
lasting effect on the future of 
the downtown library.”

Linh Song, vice president of 

the AADL Board of Trustees, 
spoke against Proposal A. Song 
said both sides agreed on the 
need for more public space, 
but argued the library itself 
functioned as a type of public 
square.

“This is something that we 

agree on,” she said. “There 
is a need for that space. 
What I don’t agree on is that 
there should be a duplicate 
of it. If you’re talking about 
the 
Library 
Lot 
becoming 

another building, another civic 
commons, the challenge to 
the community is that if we’re 
voting for that, it means we’re 
funding it.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, October 26, 2018 — 3

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Alice Rawsthorn, award-winning design critic and author, speaks on the world of design at The Michigan Theater Thursday.

THE WORLD OF DESIGN 
NEWMAN
From Page 1

FINANCE
From Page 1

LIBRARY
From Page 1
I think Ann 
Arbor needs a 
green space in 
our downtown. 
We need a green 

space where 
people can sit, 

meet their friends, 
not have to spend 

money...

BIASED
From Page 1

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

one on the hand of the United 
States,” Salgado said. “This 
same hand makes up the 
percentage of brown people 
on this campus, but I would 
need twelve more of these to 
show the percentage of white 
students. Truth is each one 
of us is a brown splash. If one 
of us acts as a fool, we will all 
be critiqued, our place on the 
canvas is questioned.”

During 
Aragonés’s 

performance, he sang a few 
original songs along with a 
Pablo Neruda poem that he 
gave a twist to.

“That was a song I wrote 

a while ago, almost ten years 
ago after I lost my father,” 
Aragonés said. “He was a big 
inspiration to me.”

LSA 
senior 
Yezenia 

Sandoval, a board member of 
La Casa, attended the event 
and encouraged others to also 
attend. 

“Instead of having a La Casa 

meeting, we’re having this 

event,” Sandoval said. “We 
really wanted to encourage 
people to come because it’s 
a great celebration of our 
culture.”

In the two years since 

La Casa’s inception, there 
has been significant growth 
in 
Latinx 
organizing 
on 

campus. 
The 
umbrella 

organization now navigates 
institutional parterships and 
represents the fastest growing 
underrepresented 
minority 

group on campus. 

Toward the end of the 

event, 
Perez, 
Aragonés 

and Pedraza sat on a panel, 
shared experiences and asked 
questions of the audience. 
Perez thanked the audience 
for attending and fostering a 
welcoming Latinx community 
on campus.

“It’s been so long since I’ve 

been on campus, it means so 
much to have everybody here 
in one room,” Perez said. “To 
have the sense of community 
that everyone has created 
tonight is a really beautiful 
thing to witness. Thank you 
for allowing us to share our 
music and our poetry.”

LATINX
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