The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, November 9, 2018— 3A

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Red blood drop cutouts stand are placed around campus advertising the “Blood Battle” between Michigan and Ohio State University on the 
Diag Thursday. 

BLOOD DRIVE

Earlier 
this 
semester, 

multiple 
fraternities 

disaffiliated from University 
IFC. 
The 
five 
current 

unaffiliated fraternities are still 
recognized by the University 
but they have not completed 

necessary paperwork and social 
standards in order to join and 
be recognized as a member of 
the IFC. However, Alpha Sigma 
Phi joins the group of seven 
“rogue” fraternities who are 
not recognized by the IFC or 
the University, and are deemed 
closed. Alpha Sigma Phi will be 
the fourth fraternity to close 
this calendar year.

HAZING
From Page 1A

next to the library in perpetuity 
and develop a public park, passed 
with 53 percent of the vote on Nov. 
6, despite opposition from Mayor 
Christopher Taylor. The mayor 
said in an email to constituents 
prior to Tuesday’s elections that 
the ballot measure was “unfunded 
and unwise.”

Haber 
said 
he 
envisioned 

turning what is now a parking 
lot into a public commons for the 
people of Ann Arbor.

“The notion of the commons is 

that it is for everyone,” Haber said. 
“A majority did say they wanted 
it, also a significant minority 
said they didn’t want, or wanted 
something else, and the task of 
the creation of the commons, is 
that while we invite ourselves 
to this, we invite everyone. And 
this is now the opportunity of the 
community that we are doing this 
commons to put your best vision, 
ideas (on) how to make a beautiful 
place in the center of the city 
that will be a destination for all 
around.”

Proposal A derails a Chicago 

developer’s plans to build a 17-story 
high-rise on the lot. The proposal 
is in direct conflict with City 
Council’s decision in April 2017 to 
sell the Library Lot to Core Spaces 
and its later approval of a $10 
million purchase agreement in 
June 2018 to allow the company to 
build a complex that would include 
a hotel, apartments, office and 
retail space. Half of the proceeds 
from the sale — which amounts 
to $5 million — was allocated to 
providing affordable housing in 
the city.

City Councilmember Chuck 

Warpehoski, D-Ward 5, said the 
implementation of Proposal A 
would be a challenge for the next 
City Council, warning that the 
ballot measure’s passage will be 
a challenge for the new council 
members to wrestle with — and 
one that could result in legal 
complications.

“I was grateful and intrigued 

to hear Mr. Haber talk about his 
vision of the commons as a place 
that nobody is excluded from,” 
Warpehoski 
said. 
“Certainly 

the challenge that Mr. Haber 
left us with at the end of how 
do we include people who are 
experiencing homelessness in not 
just this space but our broader 
community is a big challenge 
(because) the loss of the $5 
million from the sale of the price 
will impair our ability to be an 
inclusive community.”

Following Haber’s comments, 

Assistant City Administrator John 
Fournier discussed a resolution 
to approve an interim agreement 
with electric scooter operator Bird 
regulating the use of the scooters 
in the city. The agreement would 
last for 90 days, but could be 
extended for up to one year. 
Fournier said to his knowledge 
there had only been one scooter-
related accident reported to law 
enforcement since they were 
introduced earlier in the year.

“What we have is a record 

of the scooters operating in 
the city rather safely, but still, 
even with that knowledge, the 
agreement gives the city quite a 
bit of leeway with the operator,” 
Fournier said. “The operator has 
to provide educational material 
to users that the city can approve. 
The agreement requires that 
the 
operator 
take 
financial 

responsibility when scooters are 
used inappropriately or parked 
inappropriately.”

Fournier said the city had been 

active in seizing scooters when 
they were parked inappropriately, 
charging 
$150 
per 
scooter 

impounded. In the first 10 days of 
the scooters’ introduction, 30 were 
seized, but Fournier said since 
then only 10 have been seized. 
He noted that compliance with 
city ordinances had “increased 
substantially.”

City 
Councilmember 
Jane 

Lumm, I-Ward 2, criticized Bird 
for launching their scooters in 
Ann Arbor without warning city 
officials.

“It’s hard for me to get past the 

fact that I think it’s irresponsible 
for Bird rides just to show up in 
Ann Arbor unannounced and 
drop off their scooters, forcing the 
city and the University to jump 
through hoops,” Lumm said. “I 
mean, that to me demonstrated 
zero concern for safety.”

Additionally, 
City 
Council 

unanimously approved amended 
bylaws to a citizen-led police 
oversight commission, clarifying 
that city council liaisons will 
appoint members to the oversight 
commission 
among 
other 

procedural details. Taylor noted 
the contentious path surrounding 
the drafting of the commission, 
including 
a 
competing 

proposal from a citizen task force 
convened by the city’s Human 
Rights Commission.

“This brings the prelude of the 

commission to a close,” Taylor 
said. “It’s been a long process. It’s 
been a difficult process, but I think 
the substance of what we have, 
the substance of the ordinance, 
the substance of the commission 
is going to be, I believe, good for 
everyone.”

While he said he did not plan to 

address the ordinance’s preamble 
during 
the 
meeting, 
Taylor 

mentioned he had heard from law 
enforcement officers that they 
found some of the implications 
about racism in policing to be 
hurtful, especially to officers of 
color.

“I’m going to look to us to how 

we can address this problem going 
forward,” Taylor said.

The council also unanimously 

passed a resolution requesting 
immigration 
authorities 
stay 

the deportation of a man from 
Guinea who has taken refuge in 
a Quaker house of worship. 
Mohamed Soumah, who works 
as a custodian at the University, 
is residing in the Ann Arbor 
Friends 
Meeting 
House 
to 

avoid deportation. Soumah has 
a genetic kidney disease that 
requires frequent dialysis, and 
says he will die if deported 
because he will no longer have 
access 
to 
adequate 
medical 

equipment.

Soumah came to the United 

States in 2002 and has regularly 
applied for and received U.S. work 
visas. However, Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement declared 
him a fugitive alien for overstaying 
his allotted term.

Warpehoski said ICE had a 

policy 
against 
apprehending 

people in sensitive places, such 
as houses of worship or medical 
facilities.

“This resolution is a show of 

support for him by the council 
… Because his doctors and other 
medical professionals who have 
reviewed his case do believe that 
for him to be deported would be a 
death sentence,” Warpehoski said.

CITY
From Page 1A

Trump’s 
potential 
ties 
to 

Russia. Sessions’s recusal had 
left Deputy Attorney General 
Rod J. Rosenstein in charge of 
the investigation. Rosenstein 
was responsible for appointing 
Special Counsel Robert Mueller 
to the case.

The march was organized 

and led by Stop Trump Ann 
Arbor, an organization created 
in the wake of the 2016 election 
to 
protest 
against 
Trump’s 

policies. Thousands of other 
protests were staged across the 
country in a display of solidarity 
with Mueller’s investigation. 
The Ann Arbor march started 
at the Federal Building on East 
Liberty Street, before crossing 
the Diag, around in front of the 
University Museum of Modern 
Art and back to the Federal 
Building.

The protest began with a 

number of speakers outside of 
the Federal Building in front 
of a crowd packed with anti-
Trump and pro-Mueller signs. 
Most of the speakers touched 
on issues relating to Trump’s 
perceived misuses of power or 
his hostility toward women, 
minorities 
and 
immigrants. 

After the speeches concluded, 
protest organizers lead the 
group to the Diag and back, 
flanked by police cars. Once 
the march made it back to 
the 
Federal 
Building, 
the 

organizers held an open mic, 
allowing any of the protesters 
to come and speak before the 
event concluded.

Adam 
Nash, 
one 
of 
the 

leaders of Stop Trump Ann 
Arbor and a march organizer, 
said he thought the march 
was a good start to opposing 
Trump’s 
actions 
through 

organizing. However, he also 
said there was still more to 
do, and going forward, this 
wasn’t simply about voting in 
the 2018 midterm elections or 
participating in one march.

“I 
feel 
like 
people 
are 

realizing that we can’t just vote 
in the right people and trust 
them to do the right thing,” 
Nash said. “That was reflected 
in the open mic, when people 
came up, and the spontaneous 
chants people started, like ‘Let 
Mueller do his job, or we’ll give 
Trump his angry mob,’ that’s 
pretty good. I don’t know if it’s 
radical, but I feel like people 
are waking up.”

Nash continued on to say he 

knows a single protest wouldn’t 
reshape anything, but numerous 
marches and innovative new 
tactics 
could 
be 
extremely 

effective in creating change. 
He also stressed how it is more 
difficult for the government to 
ignore large demonstrations, 
as opposed to a single march. 
He 
additionally 
commended 

the role University of Michigan 
students 
and 
faculty 
have 

taken in past protests and said 
he called on them to continue 
protesting innovatively.

“The 
entrenched 
power 

structures have learned how 
to weather one day of protests, 
they’re good at that,” Nash said. 
“The 
unprecedented-ness 
of 

this will wake a lot of people 
up and the unity of the people 
who came out will motivate 
them to continue resisting … 
Historically U-M students and 
teachers have lead the way 
in 
resistance. 
The 
teach-in 

was invented here at the U-M 
campus and I want to see more 
of that … If there’s something 
new, 
entrenched 
power 

structures won’t know how 
to respond to that. We need 
diversity of tactics.”

March 
leader 
Jessica 

Prozinski said she felt the 
march was a success and a win 
for democracy.

“I think that we did exactly 

what we needed to do when 
we needed to do it,” Prozinski 
said. “I’m looking forward to 
going home and seeing what 
the protests looked like all 

across the country. I think that 
this was a good protest because 
it was very democratic, we had 
the open mic at the end. I feel 
like people in Ann Arbor got 
a chance to have their voices 
heard.”

She 
also 
likened 
the 

methodology of the movement 
to that of the civil rights 
movement 
in 
the 
1960s, 

saying she felt voting was not 
enough and protesting was 
also essential to fighting for 
progress.

“We 
need 
to 
keep 
this 

movement 
going,” 
Prozinski 

said. “And people keep asking, 
‘What’s 
next,’ 
or 
‘What’s 

tomorrow?’ To be honest, to a 
certain extent we don’t know. 
But we know that we need to 
stay active and we need to keep 
coming out into the streets. 
Voting is not enough … We are 
trying to build a mass direct 
action movement, to change 
things beyond the ballot box, 
not within the confines of the 
approved, strictly voting-based 
system.”

LSA sophomore Zac Kolbusz 

said he came to the protest 
because he felt it was important 
to stand up to injustices, and 
the best way to do that was 
through protesting. He also 
called upon other students to 
join the movement as well.

“We live in a nation where 

our laws and our constitution 
have been compromised by a 
complicit (Republican Party),” 
Kolbusz said. “As students, we 
have a responsibility to stand 
up for our future, and to stand 
up for people marginalized 
by this campus, and the only 
way we can do that is through 
mass mobilization. I’d like to 
call on students to mobilize, to 
participate in something bigger 
than they are, and to protect 
what they can while they still 
can do it.”

In addition to organizers and 

students, Ann Arbor residents 
joined the demonstration to 
convey their thoughts about 
the 
president’s 
decision 
to 

effectively fire Sessions. Ann 
Arbor resident Dave Schlenker 
said he felt Trump was a fascist, 
and people needed to prevent 
Trump from weakening the 
investigation against himself.

“I’m with the anti-fascists 

and 
Trump 
is 
a 
fascist,” 

Schlenker said. “He’s blatantly 
and 
flagrantly 
abusing 
his 

power 
to 
try 
and 
appoint 

crony people who will do 
his bidding, essentially. He’s 
trying 
to 
defend 
himself 

from investigation but we’re 
not going to let that happen. 
Hopeful,ly Whittaker recuses 
himself or resigns, obviously. 
Best case scenario, the laws 
in place as they are written, 
Rod Rosenstein gets put in the 
attorney general position and 
continues the investigation.”

After 
the 
first 
protest 

Thursday, 
the 
organization 

announced they have a second 
protest planned for 12 p.m. on 
Friday at the Diag.

PROTEST
From Page 1A

Fanning spoke about the 

struggles he faced as a gay 
man in the armed forces.

“I 
didn’t 
think 
(being 

openly gay) was going to be 
as big of an issue as it was 
— it wasn’t in my training 
years, when I was in military 
intelligence it wasn’t an issue, 
but then I got stationed in 
an infantry unit … I got hate 
mail, especially, put under 
my door for a few months and 
then people got used to the 
idea, actually,” Fanning said.

Kelley, 
however, 
spoke 

quite 
differently 
of 
her 

experiences.

“I mean, for me, my 

experience 
was 
really 

positive,” she said. “And 
I know that there is some 
gender 
expectation 
from 

our society, I can definitely 
understand how a gay man 
would have a harder time 
in the military than a gay 
female. If anything, for me, I 
was just able to bro out with 
the other guys.”

Fanning spoke about the 

LGBTQ support group he 
joined at his base.

“There was no rank, no 

limitations, so we ended 
up having a lot of juniors 
enlisted and senior officers 
who were in this safe space 
and could talk about their 
experiences,” he said.

The 
U.S. 
military 

maintained an official ban 
on all LGBTQ persons in 
the military from the time 
of World War II until the 
passage of the “Don’t Ask, 

Don’t Tell” policy in 1993. The 
policy, signed by President 
Bill 
Clinton 
Clinton, 

prohibited LGBTQ members 
of the armed forces from 
disclosing 
their 
sexuality 

while also prohibiting official 
questioning 
regarding 

sexuality.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was 

repealed in 2011, allowing 
gay, bisexual and lesbian 
members of the military to 
serve openly. This has also 
allowed 
the 
experiences 

and struggles of LGBTQ 
servicemembers have come 
into focus.

Nursing freshman Adam 

Dobry, 
ROTC 
member, 

attended the event to try to 
improve his own awareness 
of 
issues 
LGBTQ 
people 

might face in the military.

“I felt like (this panel) 

would 
be 
a 
bit 
more 

interesting than a lot of 
the other ones, it seemed 
like it would be a bit more 
informative, 
especially 

for becoming an officer, to 
know how to treat certain 
individuals and be aware of 
certain things,” Dobry said.

VMSP 
Director 
Phil 

Larson elaborated on the 
purpose of the event.

“In the media and pop 

culture, there’s a lot of 
stereotyping, the military is 
a monolith, but it’s made of 
individuals,” Larson said.

After the event, Fanning 

told The Daily about why he 
joined the army and how he 
reflects on his time in the 
service.

gained recognition for its 
work in exposing the abuse.

“It’s really exciting, our 

goal with the podcast too, is 
the same goal as this project 
— to have as many people 
understand as wide of the 
story as possible and what the 
background and depth (is),” 
Wells said.

Each 
of 
the 
panelists 

shared 
their 
backgrounds 

and how they came together 
to form this network of 
survivors.

Trinea Gonczar, another 

survivor, 
now 
works 
for 

Wayne County SAFE, which 
forensically 
examines 

sexual assault and provides 
resources 
to 
survivors. 

Gonczar said education on 
the Nassar case and other 
instances of sexual assault 
is important to help prevent 
future abuses.

“Our strongest mission is 

to educate the community,” 
Gonczar said. “The more 
conversations we’re having, 
whether it’s 30 people in a 
room or 300, they’re just as 
important.”

For 
survivor 
Christina 

Barba, she did not realize 
she belonged to this cohort 
of women until the first news 
came out about the trial.

“I was around 14, but my 

story is different in that I 
did not realize until this year 
January,” Barba said. “I’m 

listening to all these women 
with tears rolling down my 
face and the realization that 
this is my story.”

Survivors Larissa Boyce 

and Jessica Smith also spoke 
on the panel.

Detroit 
News 
reporter 

Kim Kozlowski later shared 
her experience covering the 
stories of these women and 
said the survivors deserve 
the recognition for bringing 
Nassar to trial.

“Even 
though 
it 
was 

the media that made it an 
international 
story, 
we 

had nothing to do with it,” 
Kozlowski said. “What really 
happened was these women 
came forward and they were 
brave.”

Eastern 
Michigan 

University freshman Georgia 
Nagel attended the event. 
With an interest in studying 
women and gender, Nagel 
said she’s hoping to work in 
nonprofits relating to that 
and wanted to directly hear 
the experiences of survivors.

“I wanted to hear exactly 

what they had to say,” Nagel 
said. “I’m so used to hearing 
it secondhand.”

Many of the survivors 

reflected 
on 
how 
being 

a 
parent 
affected 
their 

perspective on what they’ve 
been through. Gonczar said 
she won’t have the same 
level of trust in coaches and 
doctors that her parents did.

NASSAR
From Page 1A

The entrenched 
power structures 
have learned how 

to weather one 
day of protests, 

they’re good 
at that. The 

unprecendented-
ness of this will 

wake a lot of 
people us...

Read more online at 

michigandaily.

Read more online at 

michigandaily.

VETS
From Page 1A