University before he dove into
a pool and broke his neck —
paralyzing him from the chest
down. He said being exposed
to adaptive sports gave him
the opportunity to continue to
participate in sports that were
a major part of his previous life.
Oklanlami
concluded
his
proposal by saying an adaptive
sports program would help
the
University
attract
a
diverse
student
body
that
values inclusivity and would
demonstrate
that
adaptive
sports are for everyone.
“There are so many other
sports
that
we
can
allow
everyone
to
have
access,”
Okanlami
said.
“Eventually
it would not be a team full of
people with disabilities, it could
be having a specific event in the
Big Ten championships that is
a Paralympic event that allows
the points to be for everyone.”
Rackham
student
Austin
Glass, CSG speaker of the
assembly, said he believes an
adaptive sports program would
be a beneficial addition to the
University.
“I am hoping to work on this
addition,” Glass said. “It might
not be soon, but it’s certainly
going to set a pipeline.”
Following
Okanlami’s
presentation, attorney Douglas
Lewis, director of Student Legal
Services, and Gayle Rosen, an
attorney with Student Legal
Services, answered questions
regarding the possible creation
of a new tenants’ union in Ann
Arbor.
The
previous
Ann
Arbor
Tenants’ Union existed for 35
years before shutting down in
2004 due to funding loss. Rents
have risen steadily in Ann Arbor
in last decade — the median rate
for rent in Ann Arbor increased
14 percent from 2010 to 2015
reaching $1,075 per month.
“The tenants’ union helped
a lot of things happen in
government
in
this
town
that wouldn’t have happened
without it,” Lewis said. “I think
their last shot was trying to get
rent control in Ann Arbor.”
Both Lewis and Rosen said
they would want to support the
creation of a new tenants’ union.
“I think if it’s something most
people want to consider,” Rosen
said. “It probably makes sense to
get a group of people together of
someone who used to be on the
tenants’ union and talk about
what the structure should be.”
CSG has previously received
backlash regarding affordability
guidelines and the search for
housing, and believes that the
creation of a tenants’ union
could be a step in the right
direction.
At a panel on affordability last
week, State Rep. Yousef Rabhi
said the onus would largerly
rested on students to organize.
“The Tenants Union was
valuable partially because of
its independence,” Rabhi said.
“I don’t think politicians or
University officials can recreate
something like the Tenants
Union. People in this room need
to take it upon themselves to
help start something up like that
again.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, October 31, 2018 — 3A
CSG
From Page 1A
of
college.
According
to
the
2016 Campus ClimateSurvey on
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,
first-generation students comprise
approximately 8 percent of the
student body and are, on the whole,
less satisfied with the campus
climate than their continuing-
generation counterparts.
Panelist
Jiten
Parbhoo,
an
LSA senior, said coming to the
University as a first-generation
student
was
a
bewildering
experience at first because he did
not know the basics of how college
functioned.
“I didn’t know what credits
were,” Parbhoo said. “I didn’t know
how many credits you need to take,
or what’s a four-credit class, or
what’s a lab and why it’s different
from a class ... They don’t know
anything, really. That was the
biggest part. Also, you don’t really
know what you don’t know. That’s
the hardest part.”
A lot of the discussion focused
on the role mentorship can play in
forming support networks for first-
generation students and helping
them understand these basic facts.
Resources such as First-Generation
College Students @ Michigan, an
organization created in 2007 by
undergraduates, provides events
and
workshops
for
students
navigating the University for the
first time. Panelist Taryn Hayes,
an LSA junior, said her experience
with mentorship in the Women
in
Science
and
Engineering
residential community gave her the
confidence to pursue a field that she
previously shied away from.
“WISE was amazing,” Hayes
said. “It really supports women in
STEM, because women are often
underrepresented in STEM fields.
I truly believe that if I wasn’t in
WISE, I wouldn’t be pre-med still
today. It’s a really intimidating field
and I received nothing but support
from my peers and my advisers.”
Siddiqi, who moderated the
discussion, was a first-generation
at the University as well and
noted how 32 different mentoring
programs on campus give students
a sense of direction that their
parents are often not in the position
to offer.
“I
was
in
the
Transfer
Connections mentoring program,
and it shaped me as a person and
shaped what I do because my
mentor in the program told me
about higher education as a field
of work,” Siddiqi said. “I didn’t
know that that could be a thing,
my parents still don’t know what
I do in my life, but I have a decent,
stable job. It’s just opening up those
avenues and opportunities that you
didn’t think were initially possible
because your parents might not
have had the same experience.”
Panelist Nourel-Hoda Eidy, a
Public Health junior, said having
to explain her interests and field
of study to disapproving parents
is a unique challenge many first-
generation students face. Eidy, who
said that she has “very immigrant
parents,” explained how her family
is supportive of her studies but still
remain distant from her life at the
University.
“My parents still don’t ask
about school,” Eidy said. “I think
that for a lot of us it builds a lot of
autonomy in knowing that I can’t
complain to my dad about school or
complain to my mom about school.
My dad works insane amount of
hours and is insanely exhausted
when he comes home. My parents,
their purpose was, ‘We’re going to
immigrate, we’re going to provide
you with the resources, but you’re
going to figure it out.’”
Hayes
said
while
first-
generation students may struggle
to keep up with their continuing-
generation peers, they are often
high-achieving students with a
strong work ethic and desire to
succeed.
“I would say don’t doubt us,”
Hayes said. “I mean, even though
we might need a little more
guidance and a little bit more
patience, we can still accomplish
really good things. I’m sitting next
to an amazing group of students
who have accomplished amazing,
great things, and I know that we’re
all really excited for our futures
and when it comes to that, we are
equal to students who are not first
generation.”
this project not to argue with
anyone. So if someone was
saying that they believe the
earth was flat, we just said, ‘Uh
huh,’ and moved on, which with
some of those things, it was hard
at times, but that was what we
decided to go.”
The film is built on a series of
reports Bridge published in
January 2017 that examined
divides
that
exist
between
Michigan residents on political,
economic and social issues.
Bridge started the project the
day after the 2016 election,
following 11 families for a
year, and reporting on their
experiences, opinions and hopes
for the state and the country.
Six of those people were then
featured in the documentary.
French said as far as he knew,
none of the film’s participants
had changed their point of
view, adding that a person’s
source of information was a
major contributor to the gaps
that exist between those with
different
political
beliefs.
French described an instance in
which a liberal couple from Ann
Arbor who read The New York
Times and listened to Michigan
Radio switched news feeds with
a conservative man from Troy
who got most of his news from
Republican talk radio shows and
the president’s Twitter feed.
“Frankly I think that’s the
biggest source of the divide
that we have,” French said. “...
They swapped for one week.
Actually, the conservative, six
hours into the one-week project,
he emailed me and said, ‘I’m
out. I can’t read The New York
Times anymore. This is too
crazy stuff.’ I really do think
that’s something that’s new for
this generation and I don’t know
what the solution is gonna be.”
The participants’ reactions to
the election were also a major
source of difference. French
said Dave and Sherri Frohriep,
a
couple
from
the
Upper
Peninsula, stocked up on ammo
day before the election because
they
were
worried
former
Secretary
of
State
Hillary
Clinton would win, while a
liberal woman from East Lansing
named Lisa King stocked up on
contraceptives in case Trump
won.
The
majority
of
the
documentary
participants,
regardless of political affiliation,
listed family as one of their
top concerns. Public Policy
graduate students Emma Dolce
and Aloka Narayanan attended
the event, and said they were
not particularly surprised that
people featured in the film had
similar values.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily
an
issue
of
shared
values
because people value similar
things in their lives,” she said.
“It’s an issue of what policy
decisions do we want to employ
enact to those values.”
Narayanan, who is originally
from California, was interested
in hearing about the differences
between Michigan residents.
She said her initial perception
was that Michigan was less
divided than California, but she
began to think otherwise after
seeing the film.
“I think that there’s always
common ground, and that’s
something that I actually found
after coming to Michigan,”
Narayanan said. “I’m liberal,
and I didn’t have any Republican
friends
in
California
since
high school, but coming here
I realized that I have some
friends who are moderate and
have different political opinions
than I do and I think that there’s
totally a way to be friends with
somebody or share values like
family and have fun together
and things like that — that’s a
way to find an in to bridge a gap.”
Dolce, who is from Ann
Arbor, said living in a liberal city
can sometimes feel like a bubble.
“I’m pretty heavily invested
in Michigan politics and local
politics, and I’ve kind of seen
divides like this develop for
a while and I kind of came to
remind myself of those because
I think it’s easy to live in the
bubble of campus and the bubble
of Ann Arbor,” Dolce said. “It’s
important to recognize that
other people have different
views and different thoughts
than me and I was curious about
what those thoughts and ideas
were.”
Dolce noted the film failed
to include a participant from
Detroit, which she said was an
important perspective to take
into consideration. Narayanan
said she wished the film would
have included more discussion
of racial divides and equity
problems, saying that they were
key factors in the political issues
that tend to divide people most.
“I wish that there was a little
bit more of a discussion about
the racial lines and equity lines
that divide us because I think
that that might be able to get
at the core of ways to have
conversations that will take us
to a more positive place to bridge
the gap,” she said. “We’re talking
about where we’re different and
where we have shared values but
not necessarily the differences
in our values that come from
the fact that we have racial
backgrounds.”
FILM
From Page 1A
reductions in food stamps, any
of us who care about any of
those issues: We will not have
the voting support of other
people who care about those
issues because oftentimes they
don’t vote, they can’t vote or
their vote is undermined from
prison gerrymandering.”
Vincent
L.
Hutchings,
a
professor in the Department
of Political Science, spoke next
and presented his research
on
race
and
partisanship
in the South. He began by
describing the subtleties of
voter suppression by primarily
targeting Black people, who
disproportionately vote in the
Democratic party.
“We have a very heavily
racialized
partisan
system
throughout the country, but
especially
in
the
South,”
Hutchings
said.
“You
can
visually
look
at
somebody
and make a high probability
estimate as to what party they
belong to. That is relevant
because
if,
hypothetically
speaking,
Republicans
were
motivated to prevent Democrats
from voting, the best way to do
so is prevent people of color
from
voting
because
they
are
very
disproportionately
Democrats.”
The
third
speaker,
Law
School
lecturer
Michael
J.
Steinberg, presented his view
of voter disenfranchisement
and infringement from the
viewpoint of his position as
legal director at the American
Civil
Liberties
Union
of
Michigan.
Steinberg
referenced
the
restriction
of
early
voting,
restrictions
with
absentee
voting and lack of an option
to vote a straight-party ticket
in
Michigan
as
methods
that
decrease
student
and
minority voter representation.
He advocated for initiatives
like Proposal 3 on the November
ballot,
which
will
reverse
many of these procedures and
make voting more accessible.
Steinberg added while there is
criticism of the straight-party
ticket method of voting, he said
it will increase voter turnout
and allow the working class
more opportunities to vote.
“In a perfect world, people
would have all the time in the
world to go through a ballot and
not worry about the length of
the line,” Steinberg said. “This
proposal doesn’t mean that
people don’t have the option to
go back, but the precise reason
that straight party ticket voting
was eliminated was to suppress
the vote in Black communities,
so I think people should have
the option.”
He also added the importance
of Proposal 3 in Michigan in
terms of numbers, claiming
Michigan would have 400,000
more voters if Proposal 3 were
to pass.
Steinberg
also
advocated for Proposal 1, which
would
legalize
marijuana,
which
could
prevent
mass
incarceration, and Proposal 2,
which creates a nonpartisan
commission
to
combat
gerrymandering.
Nursing
freshman
Taylor
Haake
said
she
went
to
the
event
to
learn
more
about
contemporary
voting
issues, especially in regards
to
communities
that
she
personally doesn’t belong to.
“This event stuck out to
me because I feel like it’s so
prevalent, especially with the
election coming up soon, and
I wanted to be more informed
about issues I should vote for
and why they’re important,”
Haake said. “I’ve always known
that my vote is important to
me and that I should be able
to use it, but I guess I didn’t
necessarily make connections
to things in politics that I didn’t
really understand. I wanted
to get a better understanding
of what’s happening in our
country. A lot of the times
students can get very involved
in their own little bubbles, so I
wanted to break that.”
VOTER
From Page 1A
FIRST GEN
From Page 1A
I wish that there
was a little bit more
of a discussion about
the racial lines and
equity lines that
divide us because
I think that that
might be able to get
at the core of ways to
have conversations
that will take us to a
more positive place
and humbled by the level of
interest
in
the
University
of
Michigan,
here
in
the
state, across the country and
internationally,” Sanders said
in the release. “As has been the
case for many, many years, we
received applications from far
greater numbers of qualified
students than our campus is
able to accommodate … We rely
on our holistic review process
to select students who not
only have the academic record
to succeed at U-M, but also a
strong interest in our university
and
connection
without
institutional mission and goals.”
With
University
financial
aid, about 26 percent of in-state
undergraduates are paying no
tuition this semester, which
includes around 1,700 students
who are included in the Go
Blue Guarantee. This guarantee
allows in-state students whose
families earn less than $65,000
in annual income and who hold
assets under $50,000 to attend
the University free of tuition.
In the first year since the
implementation
of
the
Go
Blue
Guarantee,
admissions
applications
from
some
of
Michigan’s
lowest-income
household students increased
by 24 percent. From this, there
was a 6 percent increase in the
fall freshman class of students
whose household incomes are
$65,000 or less.
“Through
the
Go
Blue
Guarantee and commitment to
financial aid, we are sending
a message to the people of our
state and beyond that we seek
to welcome students from all
communities and backgrounds
who have the talent and desire
to be a Michigan Wolverine,”
University
President
Mark
Schlissel said in the release.
In addition to the Go Blue
Guarantee,
the
number
of
undergraduates receiving Pell
grants has increased to 17.9
percent from 16.5 percent in
2014.
According to the Office of
Enrollment
Management,
in
the fall 2018 freshman class
45 percent of in-state students
and 68 percent of out-of-state
students have family incomes
of over $180,000. 19 percent of
in-state students and 15 percent
of out-of-state students have
family incomes that are less
than $65,000. These numbers
are based on students who
applied for financial aid, and
students who did not apply
for financial aid are included
in the percentages of those
whose family income is above
$180,000.
In terms of underrepresented
minorities and first-generation
students, improvements were
also seen in fall 2018 admissions
data. Of new freshmen, 14.8
percent are underrepresented
minorities, which equals 949
of 6,403 freshmen who are U.S.
citizens or permanent residents.
This percentage is an increase
from 13.9 percent in 2017 and 10
percent in 2014.
In 2017, the number of total
underrepresented
minorities
in
the
fall
2017
freshman
class increased marginally from
the
previous
year.
Black
enrollment
decreased
marginally,
Native
students
doubled, Hispanic enrollment
increased by nearly 1 percent
and Asian students decreased
by 2.5 percent.
The report came out during
the University’s First Gen Week.
According to a 2016 campus
climate survey, first-generation
students make up 8 percent of
the
student
University
community.
Students who are the first in
their family to attend a four-
year
college
or
university,
comprise 14 percent of this fall’s
freshman class, which is also an
increase from the 11.3 percent
total in 2014.
In addition, enrollment of
transfer students increased this
year by 14.6 percent. This fall
159 more students transferred to
the Ann Arbor campus than in
2017, and this year there are 16.6
percent more transfer students
who
are
underrepresented
minorities than five years ago.
According to Kedra Ishop,
vice provost for enrollment
management, improving campus
and
enrollment
diversity
is
something the University takes
into account each admissions
cycle and strives to continue to
improve.
The Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion Plan, the University’s
program to increase diversity
in all realms of University
activity, is now in its third year
and, according to Ishop, the
University still has a way to go.
“We’re making progress in
some areas and face challenges
in others,” Ishop said in the
release. “We have to continue
to find legal solutions to provide
the opportunity of a Michigan
education to a diverse set of
students. We’re not there yet.”
ENROLLMENT
From Page 1A
What’s scarier than a spooky skeleton on
Halloween? The decline of local journalism!
https://tinyurl.com/spookyTMD