only when a crisis comes up … 
Which is not the best time to 
make policies,” Marsh said.

Other assembly members, 

including Social Work professor 
Shanna Kattari, agreed the 
Senate Assembly would benefit 
from electronic participation 
because the current meetings 
are not accessible to many 
faculty members.

“It’s a (Diversity, Equity, and 

Inclusion) issue with access 
… Someone who is disabled … 
Who has children … in any other 
situation could use Bluejeans,” 
Kattari said.

U-M 
Dearborn 

professor 
Caitlin 
Finlayson 

echoed 
Kattari, 
saying 

during 
the 
workday 
with 

“other 
communities 
and 

responsibilities” it is difficult 
for her to travel the hour to 
Ann Arbor to participate in 
meetings.

Those opposed to electronic 

participation 
expressed 

concerns 
that 
faculty 

could 
experience 
technical 

difficulties preventing them 
from 
participating. 
They 

also 
worried 
video 
chat 

participation would make it 
more difficult to discern what is 
happening at what time during 
the 
meeting 
with 
possible 

delays in connection.

Assembly 
member 
John 

Traynor, a professor in the 
Medical School, brought up 
another concern. He worried 
the assembly may actually have 
less participation if people are 
able to participate online.

“Will people even bother to 

participate?” Traynor said. “Or 
will they switch on computer 
and just do other things?”

Courtney 
Snyder, 
a 

professor in the School of 
Music, Theatre & Dance, said 
assembly 
members 
needed 

to “think carefully about the 
implications” 
of 
assembly 

meetings 
being 
broadcast 

online, fearing it created an 
opportunity 
for 
retaliation 

from 
administration 
and 

colleagues against statements 
made in meetings.

The 
conversation 
then 

switched to the rules and 
nuances of how electronic 
participation would be carried 
out. 
Assembly 
members 

expressed 
concerns 
that 

participation 
will 
vary 

depending on what platform 

is 
used 
for 
participation. 

There was also concern that 
as the group gets larger, it may 
become more difficult to pass 
motions.

After the discussion, 

via 
straw 
polls, 
the 

assembly 
voted 
in 

favor of four proposals: 
remote participation for 
the 
Senate 
Assembly, 

electronic 
voting 
for 

Senate Assembly, remote 
participation 
for 
the 

Faculty 
Senate 
and 

remote voting for the 
Faculty Senate. Though 
these polls do not hold 
any governmental power, 
they gauge the Assembly’s 
thoughts on future steps.

“How 
do 
we 
move 

forward now that we 
know there is interest in 
moving forward?” asked 
Ruth 
Carlos, 
Senate 

Assembly member and 
professor of radiology.

During 
the 
second 

half of the meeting, the 
assembly broke into small 
groups to discuss the 
implications of a recent 
controversy 
concerning 

the duty of University 
faculty to write letters 
of 
recommendation. 

This 
dialogue 
follows 

the 
University’s 
choice 

to discipline Prof. John Cheney-
Lippold for rescinding his offer 
to write a student a letter of 
recommendation upon learning 
that the letter would be used 
for a study abroad program 
in Israel. The small groups 
then reported to the larger 
group, which would send out 
its concerns to the Duderstadt 
Blue Ribbon Recommendation 
Letters Panel.

The 
assembly 
members 

discussed any rules in their 
departments 
regarding 

letters 
of 
recommendation, 

key 
concerns 
regarding 

recommendation letters and 
recommendations any faculty 
members have to improve the 
process of writing letters of 
recommendation.

As 
a 
whole, 
assembly 

members were unaware of 
rules 
regarding 
letters 
of 

recommendation 
in 
their 

departments. 
The 
assembly 

members had not heard many 
concerns until recently and 
viewed this situation as an 
outlier.

Assembly 
members 
were 

more concerned about how this 
controversy may set a precedent 
for writing recommendations 
in 
the 
future. 
Specifically, 

members expressed concern 
they would be forced to write a 
recommendation for everyone 
who asked them. Traynor said 
letters 
of 
recommendation 

“would be useless if we went 
to that stage where everyone is 
forced to write a letter”.

Further, assembly members 

expressed concern University 
administrators 
could 
make 

policies 
which 
constitute 

an abuse of power. Traynor 
mentioned rules surrounding 
writing 
recommendations 

could 
easily 
violate 
First 

Amendment 
rights 
to 
free 

speech.

“(Faculty) should be able to 

not support certain institutions 
along 
with 
free 
speech,” 

Traynor said, providing the 
example of the right physicians 
have to refuse to perform 
certain procedures based on 
beliefs.

2 — Tuesday, November 20, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

FRIDAY:

Behind the Story

THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

MONDAY:

Looking at the Numbers

WEDNESDAY:

This Week in History 

#BBUM

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

Engineering senior Cryserica Jeter writes on a banner responding to the prompt “Being Black at UM”, marking the five year anniversary of 
the use of the hashtag #BBUM in Mason Hall Thursday. 

CHRISTINE MONTALBANO/Daily

ASSEMBLY
From Page 1

420 Maynard St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327

www.michigandaily.com

ARTS SECTION

arts@michigandaily.com

SPORTS SECTION

sports@michigandaily.com

ADVERTISING

dailydisplay@gmail.com

NEWS TIPS

news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

NATHAN GUPTA

Business Manager

734-418-4115 ext. 1241

nathankg@michigandaily.com

ALEXA ST. JOHN

Editor in Chief

734-418-4115 ext. 1251

alexastj@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

734-418-4115 opt. 3 

CORRECTIONS

corrections@michigandaily.com

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the 
fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available 
free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for 
$2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. 
University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions 

for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

DAYTON HARE
Managing Editor 
haredayt@michigandaily.com

RIYAH 
BASHA and SOPHIE SHERRY 

Managing News Editor news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Andrew Hiyama, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut, Matt Harmon, 
Maya Goldman
Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Remy Farkas, Julia Ford, Elizabeth 
Lawrence, Rachel Cunningham, Molly Norris, Maeve O’Brien, Sayali Amin, 
Danielle Pasekoff, Katherina Sourine

ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY and ASHLEY ZHANG 
Editorial Page Editors 
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Senior Opinion Editors: Tara Jayaram, Joel Danilewitz, Jeremy Kaplan, Ben 
Charlson, Magdalena Mihaylova

MIKE PERSAK and LANEY BYLER
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

DANIELLE YACOBSON and MADELEINE GAUDIN
Managing Arts Editors 
 arts@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Becky Portman, Sam Rosenberg, Arya Naidu, Dominic 
Polsinelli
Arts Beat Editors: Jack Brandon, Fallon Gates, Shima Sadaghiyani, Tess Garcia, 
Sofia Lynch

ALEXIS RANKIN and KATELYN MULCAHY
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

ROSEANNE CHAO and CASEY TIN 
Managing Design Editors 
design@michigandaily.com

Senior Design Editor: Jack Silberman

BRIAN KUANG
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com 

Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford, Jennifer Meer

FINN STORER and ELISE LAARMAN
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Emily Stillman, Allie Bopp, Miriam Francisco

ROBERT LESSER and JORDAN WOLFF
Managing Online Editors 
 lesserrc@michigandaily.com

Senior Web Developers: Patricia Huang, Abna Panda, Hassaan Ali Wattoo, 
Rebecca Tung

NOAH TAPPEN
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com
Senior Video Editors: Abe Lofy, Robby Weinbaum, Jillian Drzinski, Danielle Kim

JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG 
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Zainab Bhindarwala, 
Christian Paneda, Nisa Khan, Na’kia Channey
Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Angelo McKoy, Kareem Shunnar, Maya 
Mokh, Efe Osagie, Samuel So

KAYLA WATERMAN and CARRINGTON TUBMAN
Managing Social Media Editors

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

CAMERON COANE

Sales Manager

JEFFREY ZHANG
Local Accounts Manager

ALEC SPELLER 

Marketing Consulting Manager

DEANA ZHU

Special Projects Manager

MARIO DRESAJ

Brand Manager

ROHIT IYER

Business Development Manager

Senior Photo Editors: Amelia Cacchione, Emma Richter, Evan Aaron, Claire Meingast
Assistant Photo Editors: Alice Liu, Darby Stipe, Max Kuang, Ryan McLoughlin, 
Alec Cohen

Senior Sports Editors: Mark Calcagno, Robert Hefter, Max Marcovitch, Anna 
Marcus, Paige Voeffray
Assistant Sports Editors: Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Matthew Kennedy, Tien Le, 
Ethan Sears, Jacob Shames, Avi Sholkoff

ADRIANNA KUSMIERCZYK

Creative Director

AVERY FRIEDMAN
Managing Podcast Editor

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

1 of 1
8/27/08 3:10 PM

8
6

2

9

5
1

4
3

3

5

3
6

1

4

9
1

8

8

7
9

5

3

2
7

4
5

6

4

2
8

THXGIVING WEEK. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

TUESDAY:
By Design 

(Faculty) should 

be able to not 
support certain 

institutions

