vessel and we in the classroom
teach
you
information,
knowledge, reasoning skills
and so forth,” Hoffman said.
“That works in the classroom.
But the general public, they
didn’t buy into that contract.
And so you have to win
trust and you don’t do that
by lecturing. You do that by
engaging.”
It’s also a concept taught
in
more
broadly-focused
communications classes. She
said she’s learned about fake
news as an issue that, if left
undetected, could alter the
efficacy of news altogether.
“From what I’ve learned
about in my digital studies, it’s
really problematic because it
can be spread really easily and
is easily believable,” Freeman, a
communication studies major,
said. “This is really problematic
because people see the news as
being able to express the truth
and that feature is being taken
away.”
This is where the Iffy
Quotient comes in.
Paul
Resnick,
associate
dean for Research and Faculty
Affairs
at
the
School
of
Information and director of
the Center for Social Media
Responsibility, was one of the
authors of a report on the Iffy
Quotient published in October.
He said the purpose of the Iffy
Quotient is to chart how well
online platforms are spreading
news
overall,
as
opposed
to
questioning
whether
a
particular site is legitimate or
not.
“We want to chart the
prevalence
rather
than
particular instances,” Resnick
told The Daily.
The Iffy Quotient works by
compiling a set of the 5,000
most popular URLs interacted
with on a social media platform
on any given day, which is
provided by NewsWhip. Each
of the 5,000 articles is then
screened by Media Bias/Fact
Check, which is a service that
determines whether a source
contains
misinformation
or
bias. The Iffy Quotient is
then calculated by dividing
the number of iffy articles by
5,000.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, November 1, 2018 — 3
HAUNTE D HOUSE
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Michigan Engineering Theme Park Group Partners with MUSKET to produce their first haunted house based on “Stranger Things” in Palmer
Commons Wednesday night.
during which he wrote “hundreds”
of recommendation letters. He
noted he denied requests for
letters regularly, stating there
are
a
number
of
legitimate
reasons for denying a letter such
as not knowing the student well
enough, but said personal political
disagreement is not one of them.
Schlissel emphasized faculty
responsibility
and
said
the
administration
hopes
faculty
members
share
values
that
prioritize
students
and
their
various academic endeavors.
“We also want the faculty to
share this consensus that it’s about
the student,” Schlissel said. “It’s
not about (the professors). It’s not a
platform for their speech and their
politics. It’s about our obligation
to support students. And it can’t
be imposed as a rule; it has to be
imposed by values.”
The University also announced
the creation of a panel to review
current University policy and
provide
recommendations
for
amending it. The panel is composed
of senior faculty members and
chaired by former University
President
James
Duderstadt,
and will make decisions on how
to amend University policy on
political expression and instructor
obligations.
Other
professors
criticized the panel, however, for
a lack of diversity in faculty levels.
Sixth Circuit Court Decision
The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit denied the
University’s request to rehear
their case regarding the ruling
that mandates an in-person cross-
examination from the accused in
sexual misconduct hearings. The
implications of this result could
complicate the process followed
for sexual misconduct claims.
Schlissel
said
the
sexual
misconduct process needs to be
redesigned to align better with this
new ruling. According to Schlissel,
a large part of this process will
involve supporting students.
“We have to be consistent with
the law,” Schlissel said. “The
council’s office and student affairs
and then some faculty advisers
with expertise are looking at our
existing policy, (with) the goal of
making sure that we do everything
possible to support people who are
coming through the process and
want to bring forward a claim of
misconduct.”
Schlissel
acknowledged
a
hearing like the proposed is
sensitive to both parties involved
and crafting the hearing to be
supportive is the goal.
“We’re trying to design a way
to do that so the questions are
fair and reasonable to minimize
the deterrent of coming forward,”
Schlissel said. “Confronting your
accuser and vice versa is very
emotionally challenging and we
want to minimize the extent to
which that becomes a barrier to
reporting. One way we’ll do that
is structuring the hearing in a way
that is as supportive as possible to
both parties.”
The University’s Sexual Assault
Prevention and Awareness Center
and Office of Student Affairs will
continue to be sources of support
for the students going through
this process. The Special Victims
Unit, which is part of the Division
of Public Safety and Security,
will also continue to assist with
criminal cases. Schlissel said
the redesign will hopefully be
available in the next few weeks.
This new process will have to
be explained to those coming
forward.
“We’ll have to make sure that
when people come forward they
understand what the process will
be,” Schlissel said. “It’s always up
to the individual whether to bring
forward a case. The idea is to work
within the confines of the law but
provide a sufficiently sensitive and
support environment that people
feel comfortable bringing forward
requests for help.”
Carbon Neutrality
Students have recently shown
a markedly greater concern about
climate change on campus than in
recent years, and the U-M Climate
Action Movement has urged the
University to set goalsfor carbon
neutrality in a similar manner
to other Big 10 universities. The
University has yet to set a concrete
goal.
Schlissel
stated
the
administration intends to set a
goal in the near future and noted
the University has already pledged
to
decrease
greenhouse
gas
emissions by 25 percent by 2025, a
goal that Schlissel is confident will
be completed early.
Schlissel said he felt it would
be useless to set a date for carbon
neutrality when the University
doesn’t have a plan to achieve it.
The administration is currently
in
the
process
of
gathering
information and devising a clear
plan for carbon neutrality with a
realistic timetable.
“I don’t know how we’re going
to get there yet. So what good
does it do for me to put out a
statement that says I’m going to
do something on a certain day if
I don’t know how I’m going to do
it?” Schlissel said. “We want to do
it in a way that other organizations
can follow what we do and become
carbon neutral themselves.”
Above all, Schlissel expressed
his desire for the University to be
a model for other institutions to
achieve carbon neutrality. He said
he wants the plan to be thorough
and effective so that its methods
can be learned and applied to
other situations.
“We’re in a very good position to
be one of the leaders in addressing
this enormous societal challenge,”
Schlissel said.
“F” Report Card on Racial
Equity
According to a report released
by the University of Southern
California, the University received
an “F” on racial equity, specifically
in the representation of Black
students on campus.
According to new enrollment
data, the number of freshmen
who identify as underrepresented
minorities on campus increased
from 13.9 percent in 2017 to 14.8
in 2018. The number of Black
students decreased marginally
in 2017 but increased to about 4.5
percent in 2018.
Schlissel said while he hasn’t
read the report, he agrees the
University could be doing better
to
attract
a
diverse
student
population.
“I think we need to do a ton
better on the campus environment
as well as the campus demographic
around many underrepresented
and
marginalized
groups,”
Schlissel said. “Right now we’re
at about 4.5 percent (of Black
students) and we’re working hard
to increase that, but we’re not
meeting with enough success.”
About
a
decade
ago,
the
University had nearly double the
percentage of Black students.
In that time, Proposal 2 has
affected the admissions process
to the University. Proposal 2,
which was eventually upheld
by the Supreme Court in 2014,
deemed the consideration of race
in college admissions processes
unconstitutional. Schlissel said
this
decision
contributed
to
the decrease in racial diversity
representation on campus.
“What happened between then
and now is Proposal 2, which
makes law around how we’re
allowed to do admissions work
and took away one of the tools
we had to try to work on diversity
on campus,” Schlissel said. “We
follow the law so now we have to
go back and be more creative, try
new things to work on attracting
more students from different
communities to the University of
Michigan.”
Schlissel added he is optimistic
about what programs like the Go
Blue Guarantee and Wolverine
Pathways have the potential to
do in terms of the diversity at the
University.
“It’s
(Wolverine
Pathways)
focused
geographically
on
communities
that
don’t
send
proportionate
numbers
of
students to Michigan,” Schlissel
said. “The first graduates of that
program are now here on campus.
First cohort had 89 students; I
believe 80 of them have gone on
to a college or university. That’s a
huge success. That’s great. It’s still
small numbers, but we want to
build that up.”
Another aspect of this issue is
the campus climate for students
from various backgrounds, which
is where the Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion initiatives were brought
into play, Schlissel said.
“That’s what we’re working
on … with DEI programs to try
and
help
people
understand
differences better and tolerate
differences better and appreciate
what the experience is like when
you’re the only person in a class
who looks like you,” Schlissel said.
“We’re working on better training
for our faculty and our GSIs so
they can manage classrooms more
sensitively.”
Victors for Michigan Student
Impact
At his Leadership Breakfast
earlier
this
month,
Schlissel
announced
the
Victors
for
Michigan fundraising campaign
had reached $5 billion — a
nationwide
record
for
public
universities.
The
Victors
for
Michigan campaign launched in
2013 and since then, more than
382,000 donors have contributed
to the University
Though some of the donations
are mandated to be used for
specific projects and initiatives,
Schlissel explained most of the
funds are placed in the $11.8 billion
endowment and continue to incur
interest. The endowment has seen
its fair share of controversy in
recent months, with a Detroit Free
Press investigation claiming the
University has invested more than
$4 billion of the endowment into
the enterprises of the University’s
largest donors including Stephen
Ross,
Sam
Zell
and
Sandy
Robertson.
From
the
recent
Victors
for
Michigan
announcement,
Schlissel said $1.1 billion has been
funneled to student support.
“With this $1.1 billion, a fraction
of which is endowment, literally
thousands of students will have
their cost of attendance heavily
subsidized because of the success
of the fundraising campaign,”
Schlissel said. “And not just for
a year or two or three, forever.
That’s the thing about endowment.
It’s forever and that’s why we’re
so zealous about guarding the
endowment.”
In
addition
to
student
scholarships, Schlissel emphasized
the benefit Michigan Medicine,
buildings renovations, education
initiatives and more will see from
the fundraising campaign.
“The $5 billion is lots of other
things too — biomedical research,
new modes of education, a lot of the
new buildings that have happened
and the renovated buildings on
campus, the Opportunity Hub
that’s going in at LSA. Almost
all of these things wouldn’t
happen without the generosity
of the donors,” Schlissel said. “A
billion and a half of the donors
are supporting the health system.
We have this fantastic academic
medical
center
that
provides
literally
cutting
edge
intense
medical care, no matter what your
illness is. A lot of that is supported
by research and supported by
philanthropy.”
SCHLISSEL
From Page 1
CREDIBILITY
From Page 1
as white babies, while Hispanic
children are also close to three
times more likely than white
children to grow up in poverty.
Hawkins focuses on chronic
illness
self-management
in
African-American and Latino
men, particularly in the context
of diabetes, while Jones is
interested in eliminating the
health
disparities
affecting
African-American women with
hypertension. Both of them
credited experiences with their
family members for influencing
their career choices.
Burns
works
at
the
intersection of teen sexual
health and technology, stressing
that the health care gap in this
area is with young men. She
found her calling while working
in the emergency room and
noticing the same young men
kept coming back for sexually
transmitted infections.
Robinson-Lane focuses on
reducing
health
disparities
for older minority adults with
cognitive
impairments
and
their informal caregivers.
All four researchers have
many students working with
them currently and expressed
the necessity of having fresh
and diverse perspectives in the
field of health care. They further
emphasized the importance of
collaboration and supporting
one another, and Jones shared
stories of when they connected
with
and
supported
each
other at various conferences
and events. Jones stated the
goal of sharing these stories
was to encourage students to
work collaboratively with one
another.
“It’s important for students
to continue to support each
other over the course of your
trajectory,” she said.
Kevin Calhoun, program lead
for Scholar and Community
Engagement in the National
Center
for
Institutional
Diversity, said he was very
interested in the numerous
ways each researcher found
their topic of expertise.
“It was very interesting to
learn about how they came
about their pathways in doing
research
in
nursing,
the
different ways you can come to
nursing to do research, it’s not
just one way,” he said.
HEALTH
From Page 1
make recommendations for the
University’s
policy
to
clarify
expectations
of
faculty
with
regard
to
writing
letters
of
recommendation
for
students.
Although there is currently no
written
policy
on
professors’
obligations — or lack thereof
— to requests for letters of
reccomendation, a press release
published Wednesday explains
faculty members are expected to
withhold personal and politcal
beliefs from their responses.
“Students
have
academic
freedom as well to pursue programs
of study and research that they
are most interested in,” Philbert
said in the release. “Writing
letters of reference for students is
a responsibility that arises from
the educational relationship. The
university can set expectations for
instructors charged with teaching
our students.”
The panel will now review
institutional
guidelines
on
professors’ political expressions
and responsibilities to students.
The Wednesday release also made
the body’s membership public.
James
Duderstadt,
president
emeritus and professor of science
and engineering, will lead the
panel, and will be joined by
longtime professors Deborah Ball
from the School of Education,
Susan Collins from the School of
Public Policy, Deborah Goldberg
from the Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology, Don
Herzog from the Law School, and
Bill Lovejoy from the Ross School
of Business.
Kirsten Herold, a lecturer in the
School of Public Health and the
vice president of the Lecturers’
Employee Organization, noted the
seniority of all the faculty on the
panel.
“It’s kind of funny, actually,
when you look at them, that they’re
all full professors,” she said. “They
have probably all known each
other for 20 years at least, which
is not usually the way we try to get
diverse voices.”
Herold
said
the
panel’s
composition left out a variety of
perspectives, including lecturers,
who
are
often
intimately
involved in the process of writing
letters of recommendation for
undergraduates.
“Lecturers teach most of the
first- and second-year classes; we
often teach small classes, so we
tend to know the students quite
well, like the lecturers who teach
writing and language classes,
math classes. And they know the
students well, so the students
often come to us to ask for letters,”
she said. “If you really want to
have a thoughtful, deep dive into
this complicated issue of –– you
know, their decision is they want
to be able to compel people to
write letters even when they’re not
necessarily comfortable writing
them … there’s a lot of different
ways of looking at this issue.”
History
Associate
Professor
John Carson agreed, noting the
panel did not include any faculty
members who worked in the
humanities.
“The set of individuals, as far
as I can tell, and I only know a
few of them, are not necessarily
those who are particularly close
to the issue right now,” Carson
said. “The number of them that
are likely to be even writing many
undergraduate recommendations
is probably on the low side. It
just seems important given the
many implications of what the
committee could come up with
that the set of individuals helping
to talk about this be pretty broad
and diverse.”
In a letter obtained by The
Daily,
Philbert
responded
to
concernsraised by the American
Association
of
University
Professors that the University
did not follow due process in
determining the discipline given to
Cheney-Lippold, which included
a year-long pay freeze and two
years of ineligibility for sabbatical
credits. In a letter addressed to
Schlissel, Philbert and interim
LSA Dean Elizabeth Cole, AAUP
Associate Secretary Hans-Joerg
Tiede advised AAUP standards for
the severity of the discipline called
for an informal inquiry by a faculty
committee and then a hearing
before an elected faculty body.
In the letter addressed to Tiede,
Philbert
responded
Cole
had
consulted with the LSA Executive
Committee, which comprises six
elected faculty members.
“The university understands
and wholeheartedly shares your
respect for the principles of
appropriate process and fairness,”
Philbert wrote. “While we do
not discuss individual personnel
actions,
please
understand
that the College of Literature,
Science, and the Arts (LSA) and
the university as a whole have
procedural safeguards in place
of the same nature as the AAUP’s
Recommended
Institutional
Regulations on Academic Freedom
and Tenure.”
PANEL
From Page 1
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