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

