offices that handle these cases 
and support all students to speak 
directly about the policies and 
procedures of our University.”

Elizabeth 
Seney, 
assistant 

director 
of 
the 
Office 
of 

Institutional 
Equity 
then 

described the role of OIE as a 
neutral party addressing concerns 
of 
discrimination 
violating 

University policies. She walked 
the 
audience 
through 
OIE’s 

general process of reaching out 
to the complainant to hear what 
next steps the complainant wants, 
whether that be an investigation or 
a disciplining of the respondent.

Seney said the reports OIE 

receives are often from a third 
party sharing information about 
an incident with a complainant and 
respondent. If the parties involved 
in the incident are anonymous, she 
said, OIE is restricted in what they 
can accomplish.

“We are limited in our ability to 

follow up based on the anonymity 
of that,” Seney said. “So I want to 
be totally transparent and I don’t 
want to sugarcoat this and say 
it’s fine to report anonymously 
because we can address it in the 
same way. We are limited. We don’t 
know who to reach out to get more 
information, we don’t know what 
the person wants to see happening 
with the information.”

Margie Pillsbury, a detective 

in the Division of Public Safety 
and Security, talked about the 
department’s reporting process, 
noting DPSS’s close ties to OIE in 
cases of sexual misconduct within 
the University.

“If a survivor decides to make 

a report to us, we work closely 
with OIE trying to reduce the 
implication of contacts and make 
it easier for survivors,” Pillsbury 
said.

Kaaren Williamsen, director 

of Sexual Assault Prevention and 
Awareness Center, and Emily 
Hyssong, the Counseling and 

Psychological 
Services 
worker 

for the School of Music, Theatre 
& Dance, spoke about how their 
organizations are confidential for 
survivors. SAPAC and CAPS focus 
mainly on support and giving 
people immediate help, they said.

Associate Dean of Students 

Sarah Daniels said the Dean of 
Students Office becomes involved 
in these matters because their 
goal is to ease the impact of 
anything that interrupts the lives 
of students, including matters 
of sexual misconduct. Daniels 
spoke of the supportive and 
protective measures the office 
offers to students involved in OIE 
investigations.

The majority of the event was 

devoted to audience questions. 
One audience member asked the 
panelists what they are doing to 
help students focus on educational 
opportunities 
or 
simply 
get 

through their days in spite of a 
sexual misconduct investigation. 
Seney responded, emphasizing 
her wish to make conditions for 
students better, but noting the 
limitations of the University.

“I don’t know that we can ever 

— just in full being realistic and 
transparency — I don’t know that 
any part of the University or the 
University as a whole can fully 
eliminate any negative impact for 
any sexual misconduct,” Seney 
said. “What we are trying our 
absolute hardest to do is to number 
one prevent it, and number two 
do the best we can on that second 
part.”

Seney also said this kind of work 

becomes more difficult in small 
environments such as the Music, 
Theatre & Dance School. Upon 
some pushback from the audience, 
Daniels explained the difficulty 
in accommodating students in a 
school where class options are 
limited.

“Measures 
can 
get 
more 

complicated when we have a 
smaller environment and a smaller 
community and fewer options,” 
Daniels said. “What I mean by that 
is when we’re looking at a school 

like LSA that has 15,000 students 
and a whole lot of majors and a 
whole lot of options, we’ve got 
choices.”

Multiple 
audience 
members 

asked about what the panelists’ 
offices could do to discipline 
faculty 
members 
making 

comments on cases or siding 
publicly with a respondent over 
a claimant. Williamsen said in 
these 
cases, 
students 
feeling 

uncomfortable about a faculty 
member’s comments could come to 
SAPAC to discuss their concerns.

“We do work with people 

confidentially with things like that 
all the time to figure that out and to 
figure out what do I do with this,” 
Williamsen said. “This doesn’t 
feel right, I don’t want to go to that 
class anymore, I don’t want to go 
to that space anymore, and I don’t 
have a word with this, but this is 
getting in the way of participating 
in my life.”

Toward the end of the question-

and-answer 
session, 
Seney 

highlighted her willingness to 
hear out concerns, questions and 
suggestions from students and 
faculty regarding the effectiveness 
of OIE’s system.

“I know that I can’t fix 

everything and for me, I recognize 
that, but I really encourage people 
to share their feedback and any 
concerns and ask any questions,” 
Seney said. “And I can assure you 
that I will always do my best to 
address those concerns.”

Mark Clague, associate dean 

for Academic and Student Affairs 
at the School of Music, Theatre 
& Dance, echoed this sentiment, 
describing the school’s next steps 
in addressing student concerns. 
Clague announced the formation 
of a faculty and staff ally group, 
plans for a symposium centered 
on sexual misconduct in the 
performing arts and workshops 
with SAPAC relating to these 
issues.

“We want to talk to you about 

these issues,” Clague said. “We 
are 
mandatory 
reporters 
so 

when things are brought to us 

they go directly to OIE through 
the reporting forms. But we can 
help finesse this to the best of our 
abilities. We’re not perfect either 
… but we’re really trying hard to 
make a difference”

LSA freshman Andrew Gerace 

said he attended the event because 
of the prevalence of these issues 
within the University, something 
he became more aware of after 
reading The Daily’s articles on 
sexual misconduct issues within 
the School of Music, Theatre & 
Dance. He said he felt the panel 
was a step in the right direction, 
but there are still questions to be 
answered.

“I have more questions walking 

out than I did walking in,” Gerace 
said. “Me personally, I felt like 
many of the questions had to be 
re-asked because some of the 
answers seemed to be sliding off … 
Often people trying to slack away 
or avoid questions … Effectively, 
the question was more obvious 
than the answer we were given and 
so I feel concerned that there’s still 
more hidden in the shadows that 
I really need to learn more about 
whether it’s in this panel format or 
other situations, we really need to 
keep this dialogue going.”

Gerace said he looks forward to 

going to more events on this topic. 
He aims to hold the panelists and 
their offices to their words in order 
to better establish trust, he said.

“In 
the 
hope 
that 
more 

happen, I really am planning on 
working to hold the people that 
spoke here today accountable to 
their words because I think that 
they’re now, from a position of 
trust, telling us what their roles 
and responsibilities are, and I 
think that in the situations that 
occur where what they’ve told us 
is not the way it’s happening, it’s 
breaking our trust even further,” 
Gerace said. “I hope we all can 
work together to reform what’s 
been broken and move forward.” 

making 
the 
board‘s 

composition 7 Democrats to 1 
Republican.

“I think there’s something 

new that may be happening 
here,” Political Science prof. 
Vince Hutchings said to the 
audience Tuesday. Overall, the 
panel found that 2018, though 
not a presidential election, still 
revealed telling information on 
voter sentiment and behavior.

Hutchings 
was 
joined 
by 

Walter Mebane, a professor in the 
Department of Political Science, 
and Kenneth Goldstein, professor 
of Politics at the University of 
San Francisco. Each of them 
presented on their own niche 
of election analysis, to provide 
a commentary on effects of 
the elections on the future of 
American politics, specifically for 
the Democratic Party in 2020.

Goldstein 
presented 
an 

analysis of voter demographics 
based on categories such as 
gender, 
race 
or 
education, 

responding to the refrain of the 
“blue wave” Democrats predicted 
would win out in races. 

“The big question on everyone’s 

mind is, ‘Was this a wave?’” 
Goldstein said. “It feels wave-ish 
to me.”

Among independent voters, 

Goldstein noted, Democrats did 
better than Republicans for the 
first time since 2008. This kind of 
energy, he believes, is something 
that Democrats will attempt to 
duplicate in 2020 by campaigning 
heavily in states like Wisconsin, 
which 
Democratic 
candidate 

Hillary Clinton largely ignored 
in 2016.

Mebane presented next on 

“election forensics,” or the use of 
“statistical methods to determine 
whether the results of an election 
accurately reflect the intentions 
of the electors.” He analyzes 
Twitter users’ posts regarding 
the election.

“I 
liked 
hearing 
about 

Twitter,” LSA junior Sydney 
Moore said of the event. “There 
were a lot of young people there 
and that’s the medium a lot of us 
use so I thought that was very 
interesting.”

LSA junior Alexis Miettinen 

appreciated the fact that despite a 
generational difference, scholars 
can acknowledge the salient 
influence social media has on U.S. 
voters.

“I think it’s interesting to see 

academic people who aren’t really 
into that realize how important it 
is in elections and in daily life,” 
Miettinen said.

Due to social media users’ 

inclination 
to 
surround 

themselves with others who 
are like-minded, Mebane said, 
“people aren’t even seeing the 
same world.” He calls this tunnel 
vision a “communication silo.”

“I don’t expect that that source 

of this polarization is going to 
go away any time soon,” Mebane 
said.

As 
the 
final 
presenter, 

Hutchings brought attention to 
the fact that though Democratic 
support undoubtedly increased 
in this year’s election, the extra 
push came from younger and 
more educated voters, rather 
than women or racial minorities 
as many would have thought or 
predicted. In Ann Arbor, campus 
precincts cast 4,977 votes last 
week, up from 1,541 votes in the 
2014 midterms.

It is surprises like these, the 

panelists agreed, that show just 
how important it is to have a 
conversation following elections 
about what happened and how 
it should be addressed moving 
forward.

“Elections 
are 
about 

narratives,” 
Goldstein 
said. 

“And the narratives and trends 
influence 
how 
our 
elected 

officials govern in the future.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — 3A

MIDTERMS
From Page 1A

“Our goal at Ross and in 

the world when talking about 
diversity is to really normalize 
the 
conversation,” 
Petryk 

said. 
“All 
those 
identities 

who make up who we are 
and really being able to apply 
them 
into 
the 
conversation 

because sometimes, especially 
at Ross, it can be scary to 
even acknowledge or identify 
ourselves.”

Panelists discussed equity 

and inclusion in the workplace 
and 
the 
current 
business 

sustainability 
landscape 

for 
communities 
of 
color, 

LGBTQ employees and other 
marginalized 
groups. 
The 

panelists 
all 
noted 
their 

personal identities and the role 
they play in their work.

For 
Brown-West, 
she 

discussed how her surroundings 
as a child were homogeneous. 

She said it wasn’t until later in 
her career that she found her 
voice in her professional life. 
She also said while the employee 
pool 
remains 
predominantly 

white, 
she 
has 
noticed 
a 

progression toward inclusivity 
and less gender inequality as 
well as an added emphasis on 
sustainability in the business 
world.

Brown-West also said there 

were certain people — whom 
she called her “angels” — who 
helped her feel included while 
she was starting out in her 
career. Now, in her current 
position, she tries to help others 
feel the same way.

“Growing up feeling like the 

odd one out in many places that 
I was navigating, it’s helped 
me make sure that people feel 
as if they have this space to 

actually speak,” Brown-West 
said. “If we’re going to be able 
to actually solve some of these 
environmental 
challenges 
… 

we’re going to need a whole 
range of different experiences, 
of different backgrounds, of 
different points of view to come 
up with solutions because the 
solutions that we’ve had to date 
are not going to help us resolve 
these problems.”

Patten shared a formative 

experience 
from 
a 
former 

job during which a higher-
level 
employee 
told 
her 

that 
her 
natural 
hair 
was 

“inappropriate” for the work 
environment. She said it was in 
this situation she first realized 
the impact of her identity in her 
work life.

She 
said 
this 
experience 

has stuck with her and was 
part of her inspiration for 
forming DāO . An acronym for 
“Defy All Odds,” Patten said 
two of DāO ’s core values are 
creating products for everyone 
and reflecting the diversity 
seen in Detroit, where DāO is 
headquartered.

One thing Patten said was 

she felt like she could never 
feel like herself in corporate 
environments. She said people 
who 
looked 
like 
her 
were 

normally 
considered 
the 

people receiving philanthropic 
help 
rather 
than 
making 

the decisions on the other 
end. In the same vein, she 
touched on current notions 
to include “fake” diversity in 
marketing to attract customers 
rather than including diverse 
employees in the company and 
actually speaking to minority 
consumers.

“One 
of 
our 
hashtags 

or our phrases we use in 
DāO is ‘Own your identity,’ 
really encouraging not only 
us 
as 
founders, 
but 
even 

our 
customers 
to 
question 

everything,” 
Patten 
said. 

“It’s really important to have 
different voices and we really 
wanted it to reflect Detroit.”

Rackham student Katherine 

Cunningham said she attended 
because 
these 
overarching 

issues 
of 
environmentalism 

predominantly affect minorities 
and there is a need for greater 
understanding of identities and 
diversity to be able to create 
positive change.

“When it comes to big issues 

like climate change, the impacts 
are 
disproportionately 
on 

minorities and marginalized 

communities and it’s really 
important for people who are 
aspiring to work in this field to 
be aware of the different lenses 
that they need to approach this 
topic and other sustainability 
topics,” Cunningham said. “The 
idea of needing to know who 
you are and come back to your 
own roots so that you can do 
your work better, that resonated 
with me a lot.”

Patten said consumers like 

when brands are eco-friendly 
because it adds a feeling of 
empowerment. Hwang agreed, 
saying her experience at the 
footwear company TOMS, and 
now Thousand, taught her there 
does not have to be a trade-
off 
between 
environmental 

sustainability 
and 
revenue 

and product success. Hwang, 
Patten 
and 
Brown-West 
all 

agreed there are economic and 
other benefits such as social 
equality and added awareness 
in incorporating sustainability 
into business and production.

Hwang started her company 

to save lives after a friend died 
from a biking accident. She said 
at one point she was approached 
about sharing her background 
and rise to business leadership, 
but she said she didn’t feel 
relatable because her identity 
differed from the norm. Since 
then, she said she has come to 
understand her diversity is a 
benefit rather than a hindrance.

“I don’t look like everyone 

else who I have viewed as a 
founder,” Hwang said. “Being 
a good-looking white guy — 
not that. Diversity matters in 
the sense that you can come to 
better business decisions.”

At the conclusion of the 

discussion, all three panelists 
encouraged 
attendees 
to 

own 
their 
identities 
and 

be 
comfortable 
in 
their 
 

skin. They also said while 
minorities may feel like they are 
a low-power position right off 
the bat, they should realize the 
value in differences and what 
they bring to the table.

“My biggest advice is — 

especially when you are in 
this 
room 
that 
feels 
very 

intimidating — remember why 
you deserve to be there,” Brown-
West said. “Remember what 
value you bring. Remember 
that 
your 
experiences 
can 

add to that conversation and 
your way of thinking can add 
 

to that conversation, and that 
will help build this cocoon of 
confidence around you.”

SUSTAINABILITY
From Page 1A

in order to justify displacing 
indigenous people and excluding 
non-white aliens.” Another goal 
of the teach-in was to change the 
way people view immigration as a 
whole, shifting the framing from 
a legal issue to a moral issue and 
stressing a historical approach to 
how we view immigration.

This 
event 
was 
proposed 

in light of a lecture scheduled 
for Nov. 15 hosted by the 
University’s chapter of College 
Republicans 
with 
Mark 

Krikorian, the director of the 
Center for Immigration Studies, 
titled “The Real Immigration 
Debate: Whom to Let In and 
Why.” Some at the University, 
like postdoctoral fellow William 
Lopez, 
have 
taken 
issue 
 

with 
the 
event. 
Krikorian’s 

organization, 
which 
was 

founded in 1985 by University 
alum John Tanton, has been 
designated a hate group by 
the 
Southern 
Poverty 
Law 

Center, and the Latino/a Studies 
Department wanted to approach 
the conversation surrounding 
immigration from a different lens.

A 
panel 
composed 
of 

undergraduate 
and 
graduate 

University students discussed 
recent changes in immigration 
policies and public reception 
to these policies, the most 
pressing issues in immigration, 
and 
some 
immediate 
and 

long-term solutions to these 
problems. The panelists’ areas of 
expertise ranged from refugee 
policy to border control to the 
politicization of undocumented 
immigrants.

Panelist 
Nicolas 
Espinosa, 

a Ph.D. candidate, said while 
anti-immigration 
narratives 

supported by CIS are becoming 
“more 
aggressive 
and 
more 

blatant since pre-2016,” they 
aren’t necessarily new.

“We’ve seen this historically,” 

Espinosa said. “There’s always 
been a pretty significant anti-
immigrant 
movement, 
this 

effort from folks like CIS to 
paint immigrants as folks who 
are dangerous, or taking jobs, 
or exploiting the system. The 
narratives are just kind of being 
re-canned … That’s not to say that 
they didn’t exist before, they’re 
just becoming more intense and 
more out in the open.”

Panelist junior Ayah Kutmah, 

an LSA junior, said the current 
political narrative is that we are 
letting in too many refugees, 
when “in reality, (the United 

States is) not letting in people who 
should be considered refugees, 
pointing to the years-long process 
most refugees must go through to 
come to the United States.

“The 
backlog 
in 
refugee 

cases, the fact that it takes two 
 

years for a refugee case to 
be decided to be admitted to 
the United States … is against 
refugees,” Kutmah, who worked 
at Human Rights Watch over the 
summer, said. “The fact that from 
the moment they set foot in the 
United States, they incur the debt 
of the plane tickets, that’s huge.”

Peña said one of the biggest 

problems related to immigration 
in the U.S. was Border Patrol’s 
inhumane 
treatment 
of 

immigrants who cross the border 
at Mexico. 

“(Immigrants) 
are 
fleeing 

violence, 
gangs 
threatening 

their lives and domestic violence 
issues over there and so a lot of 
the women are fleeing from that 
… and so they’re suffering from 
a lot of trauma and PTSD (post-
traumatic stress disorder), like 
they break down in tears and 
forget what they’re talking about 
and stuff like that,” Peña said. 
“But because of border patrol, like 
the way they treat them, they add 
to the PTSD that they are already 
suffering from.”

NATIVISM
From Page 1A

SMTD
From Page 1A

identify where we’re having 
shortcomings in terms of the 
communities 
and 
parts 
of 

campus we represent,” Greene 
said.

Later 
in 
the 
meeting, 

representatives in attendance 
were 
invited 
to 
discuss 

resolutions 
proposed 
by 

members of student government.

One CSG member, Rackham 

student 
Nicholas 
Fadanelli, 

proposed 
amending 
the 

Statement of Students’ Rights 
of the Office of Student Conflict 
Resolution in order to clarify 
students’ rights in dealing with 
OSCR.

“The Statement of Students’ 

Rights is what OSCR uses when 
it comes to dealing with students 
who break University policies,” 
Fadanelli said. “To amend the 
statement 
of 
student 
rights 

would allow OSCR to better deal 
with these issues.”

Following 
Fadanelli’s 

comments, 
his 
resolution 

was voted on by members in 
attendance and advanced to the 
CSG rules committee for final 
approval.

While 
several 
resolutions 

were advanced to the committee 
for approval, only one proposal, 
A.R. 8-320, titled “A Resolution 
to 
Require 
SOFC 
Fund 

Recipients to Use Compostable 
Dining Materials,” was fully 
enacted.

CSG representative Michael 

Nwansi, 
an 
Engineering 

senior, was the author of the 
adopted resolution, which will 
take effect at the start of the 
winter 
semester. 
According 

to Nwansi, the success of the 
plan is contingent upon the 
cooperation of two University 
organizations: 
the 
Student 

Sustainability Initiative and the 
Student Organization Funding 
Committee.

“SOFC gives away a lot of 

funds to student orgs to help 
them fund their events,” Nwansi 
said. “SSI is a service on campus 
that gives free compostable 
materials 
to 
students. 
My 

resolution mandates that orgs 

applying for money from SOFC 
have to use those compostable 
materials at their events.”

According to Nwansi, the 

proposal hopefully will have 
a measurable impact on the 
environmental 
consciousness 

and 
sustainability 
of 
the 

University as a whole without 
being a burden on student 
groups.

“I sat down with the SOFC 

chairs to think through how 
this 
would 
work,” 
Nwansi 

said. “We decided that in their 
record keeping there will be a 
tab where they would record 
if organizations applied for 
compostable materials or not.”

Because 
the 
resolution 

will not be implemented until 
January, 
Nwansi 
explained 

there is still time for SOFC to 
determine how it will carry out 
the policy.

“This requirement won’t take 

effect until the beginning of next 
semester,” Nwansi said. “They’ll 
have some more leeway and time 
to change things if they find a 
smarter or more efficient way to 
deal with the logistics.”

CSG
From Page 2A

Remember that 
your experiences 

can add to the 

conversation and 
that your way of 
thinking can add

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com