is an attempt to connect
students
with
the
DEI

program.
Diversity
peer

educators, such as Lyons,
work towards diversity and
inclusion that is tailored to
students’
experiences
on

campus. The NET plan was
developed
in
response
to

multiple student organization
requests, wanting to enhance
their diversity and inclusion.

Implementation
of
the

NET
plan
would
mean

conducting demographic and
climate surveys for student
organization and establishing
an inclusivity plan tailored to
that organization.

Other resolutions included

the Survivor Empowerment
Fund, which calls for the
allocation of $5,000 to support
the Sexual Assault Prevention
and
Awareness
Center

and
other
sexual
assault

empowerment organizations
on campus. This fund would
sponsor
events
and
guest

speakers.

LSA junior Izzy Baer, CSG

vice president, explained how
the Survivor Empowerment
Fund is a way to increase
survivors’ opportunities, as
SAPAC would be able to put
on more events and host more
speakers.

“They don’t have funding

for projects that they would
otherwise have wanted to do,”
Baer said.

Public Policy senior Daniel

Greene,
CSG
president,

closed
the
meeting
with

an announcement about an
upcoming mental health event
to help students cope with
stress during finals.

“On Wednesday, Dec. 12 at

6:00 p.m., we will be holding
a workshop led by the director
of
CAPS
(Counseling
and

Psychology Services), which
will be titled, ‘10 things you
can do right now to reduce
your
finals
anxiety
and

stress,’” Greene said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, December 5, 2018 — 3A

Justices Stephen Breyer and Neil
Gorsuch and Reid Hoffman, the
founder of LinkedIn.

For
McNeal,
winning

the
Marshall
Scholarship

represented a unique opportunity
to pursue his interest in public
policy and its intersections with
science and technology. McNeal,
who is planning on attending the
University of Sussex, said he has
been fascinated with physics and
mathematics since high school
but hopes the scholarship will
allow him to indulge in other
interests as well.

“When
I
started

undergraduate,
I
had
this

linear progression in my mind
about where I was going to go,”
McNeal said. “I was going to
go to high school, go through
undergraduate, do physics, and
then go straight to grad school,
then have a postdoc, then keep
going along that path. But then,
along the way, I have other
interests that motivate me and
that linear progression kind of
excludes those. It didn’t allow for
much deviation and so I wanted
to look at alternative paths.”

During
his
years
at
the

University,
McNeal
served

as the undergraduate liaison
between students and faculty
for the Physics Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion Committee. He
also leads the Society of Physics
Students and Japanese Language
Circle as president of both groups.
McNeal said his experiences
working both in physics labs
and in student organizations led
him to realize that he wanted

to incite meaningful change
through policy work — he will
pursue a degree in Science and
Technology Policy starting in
September.

“Just barreling forward just

didn’t seem like the right thing to
do,” McNeal said. “These other
interests and these other sides of
life that I’m interested in, they’re
calling me as well to not just
become a researcher — because
there’s more to life than just
physics research. And I wanted
to be more impactful outside of
that, and part of where I could
see myself making a difference
would be in some aspect of
policy.”

After
Burcroff
spent
the

summer after her freshman
year
studying
advanced

mathematics and combinatorics
at the Budapest Semesters in
Mathematics
program,
she

became increasingly passionate
about
understanding
the

different ways math is taught.
As an aspiring mathematics
professor, Burcroff tutored high
school students in the Michigan
Math
Circle
and
Wolverine

Pathways program throughout
her undergraduate career and
found it meaningful to teach
younger students about creative
approaches to mathematics.

“All
of
these
experiences

allow me to mentor younger
students, and I’ve watched a few
of them as they’ve grown and
some of them have gone on to
the same Budapest Semesters in
Mathematics program,” Burcroff
said. “Walking them through
the process and the benefits of
what it can mean to study abroad
or what it can mean to learn
mathematics from a different

culture really reaffirmed for me
why I wanted to continue doing
it.”

The Schwarzman Scholarship

recruits
students
interested

in
international
politics
to

pursue a master’s degree in
Global Affairs in Beijing. Unlike
the
Marshall
Scholarship,

Schwarzman Scholars can hail
from any country around the
world — according to a press
release published Monday. The
2020 class includes students from
38 countries and 119 universities.
After a competitive application
process resulting in 400 semi-
finalists, 147 applicants were
chosen to receive the award.

As
the
University’s
first

Schwarzman
Scholar,
Batista

said he hopes to both further
his interest in global affairs
and
represent
Brazil,
his

home country. Batista was a
community assistant in Mosher-
Jordan
Residence
Hall
his

freshman year and currently
serves as a residential adviser in
South Quad Residence Hall. He
is also an intern in the Boston
Consulting
Group’s
Detroit

office. For his senior thesis in
the Ross School of Business, he
is researching the role of trust
and corruption in democratic
societies.
Batista
said
his

experience as an international
student at the University gave
him a new perspective on Brazil’s
politics and culture.

“As soon as I came to the

U.S., I had a view that was as an
outsider of the United States and
almost as an outsider of my own
country, as well,” Batista said. “I
think that allowed me to think
more deeply about systems of
governance as opposed to just

being immersed in that system
and not exactly understanding
what is going on.”

Batista
said
his
reaction

to winning the Schwarzman
Scholarship was utter shock,
especially because he is only the
fifth Brazilian to ever receive the
award.

“My jaw just dropped, and

I think it dropped for a solid
week,” Batista said.

Though
Dyson
attributed

the
award
winners’
success

to their incredible academic
achievements, he also mentioned
how the scholarships also reflect
the
students’
personalities,

interests and character.

“I don’t want to set up a

stereotype of what a Rhodes
Scholar or Marshall Scholar
or Schwarzman Scholar looks
like,” Dyson said. “I really think
it’s about your story — so who
are you, where you’re going in
the future, how this scholarship
moves you forward.”

Each
August,
students

complete the first step of the
Marshall Scholarship application
by
seeking
institutional

endorsement from the University.
According
to
Henry
Dyson,

director of the Office of National
Scholarships and Fellowships,
applicants are required to submit
an online application and four
letters
of
recommendation

in a competitive nomination
process. Once nominated, Dyson
oversees their applications as
they move to the national level
and begin interviewing with the
scholarship program itself.

“It’s quite prestigious and

competitive even to be nominated
for these scholarships,” Dyson
said.

diversity statements and how
higher education institutions
use them to evaluate candidates.
The authors were able to find
better ways to elicit thorough
statements
from
candidates,

which Chavous said would make
the practice more effective.

“We think that this is a really

promising practice and tool,”
Chavous said. “One part of
our University DEI initiative
is enhancing diversity, equity
and inclusion in our campus
environment and part of that
is through the faculty that
we hire. So having tools that
allow us to both understand
and assess the different types
of
work
and
contributions

that faculty have made allows
us to be more thoughtful and
purposeful
about
selecting

faculty who contribute to our
academic mission and who
contribute to an inclusive and
equitable environment.”

The diversity statements are

not a required part of hiring
through the entire University,
but several colleges within
the University have recently
begun using them, including
the Ford School of Public Policy,
which mandated in May that
the statements be used in all
future hiring. Paula Lantz,
the school’s associate dean
for academic affairs, said the
diversity
statements
simply

serve as additional information
for consideration in the hiring
process — information that is
especially important given the
subject matter taught in the
Public Policy School.

“Issues related to diversity,

equity and inclusion are really
central to everything that we do
here,” Lantz said. “There are not
very many issues in public policy
that don’t grapple with issues
related to social inequality,
to political difference, to how
policies affect different groups
of people across society. So
when we are looking to expand
our faculty, we really do want
people who we think can
contribute to how we teach in
2018 and going forward and also
how we engage in research and
policy.”

Lantz said the practice of

using the diversity statements
will
enrich
the
student

experience by bringing in a
more capable and holistically
valuable faculty.

“Students gain from a process

in which we are making sure
that when we bring new faculty
into the school, they’re going
to really be contributing to all
parts of our mission,” Lantz
said. “Our entire community
benefits when we bring in new
faculty who we are sure are
going to be contributing to all
of the work that we want our
community to be contributing
to the world.”

Music, Theatre & Dance

junior Saawan Tiwari echoed

this
sentiment,
saying

faculty with more diversity
of experience offer students
more ways of thinking that can
aid them in a wide range of
disciplines.

“Having more diversity on

staff and diversity in teaching
obviously
helps
because

it’s
being
told
something

differently,” Tiwari said. “The
more staff you have teaching in
different ways, the more that the
student can figure out what staff
they like, figure out why that is
and then figure out how to apply
how that staff is teaching them
things to other courses.”

Chavous noted there has

been criticism of the practice
of using diversity statements
among the higher education
academic
community.
Some

educators
have
said
the

statements amount to required
professions of political beliefs,
which would have ambiguous
implications for the academic
freedom of the applicants.

However, Chavous said this

is a misperception and added it
is necessary for institutions to
be specific about the purpose
of the statements — they are
intended to be used to gather
information about candidates’
skills and strengths, not their
political beliefs.

One of Chavous’s general

findings from the study was
that
diversity
statements

tended to be more useful when
the instructions were more
explicit. She emphasized there
are numerous ways for faculty
candidates to consider diversity
in their work and contribute to
the University environment.

“We have to be thoughtful

about the way that we ask for
the
information,”
Chavous

said. “Thoughtful and inclusive
about the ways that we consider
different ways of expressing
diversity
commitments
—

through scholarship, through
teaching, through mentoring,
through service.”

Chavous
also
said
some

academic units that request
diversity
statements
have

reported
they
are
yielding

more
diverse
applicant

pools. Chavous believes this
is
happening
because
the

practice of using the statements
signals these institutions value
diversity, which may attract
more diverse applicants.

Chavous
is
now
sharing

the findings from the study
at national conferences and
using them to improve the
practices of universities across
the country. She believes the
practice will directly affect the
education students receive at
the University and elsewhere.

Overall, Chavous expressed

optimism about the tangible
effects that the practice will
have in the future.

“We think this is a start,”

Chavous said. “But we really
think this is a promising start of
a practice and a set of practices
that will have a high impact for
our campus.

SCHOLARSHIPS
From Page 1A

DIVERSITY
From Page 1A

income
backgrounds
were

struggling with the hazardous
environmental
exposures.

Ferris
said
these
findings

inspired her to dedicate her
work to equity and inclusion.

In her role at the National

Audubon
Society,
Ferris’s

work is focused on equity and
inclusion of racially diverse
groups
that
are
currently

underrepresented
in
the

environmental
conservation

field. Ferris’s initiatives are
directed toward diversifying
the workers at Audubon as
well as shifting the work of the
organization itself.

In order to advance DEI

initiatives, Ferris said Audubon
is currently curating their first
comprehensive report which
gives a historical record of
investments
and
initiatives

that are advancing equity and
diversity at Audubon.

Ferris drew attention to the

Audubon’s Statement on Equity,

Diversity and Inclusion, which
reads,
“Just
as
biodiversity

strengthens natural systems,
the
diversity
of
human

experience
strengthens
our

conservation efforts for the
benefit of nature and all human
beings.”

“I think it’s important to draw

parallels to what is going on
in the conservation world and
our aspirations,” Ferris said.
“Just as we recognize, herald
and acknowledge biodiversity
of species we also need to be
heralding and supporting social
diversity in the work that we
do.”

The organization is 114 years

old, and diversity, Ferris said,
was necessary for its survival.

“Our aim is to be more

representative of groups that
are currently underrepresented
so that we can be around for
another
114
years,”
Ferris

said. “The United States has
been racially and culturally
diverse for a really long time ...
What we have now is a game of
employer catch up.”

Sonia Joshi, the SEAS DEI

program manager, explained
how the DEI speaker series
coincides with a new DEI
seminar course that is offered
in SEAS. In the past, the DEI
speaker series usually consisted
of one to two speakers per
semester. This year, there have
been one to two speakers per
month.

“The premise (of the speakers)

was to bring in environmental
professionals of color that are
doing impactful environment
and conservation work, to really
put the lens to people that might
not realize that there are people
of color that are working in the
environmental space and are
in leadership positions,” Joshi
said.

Joshi also said the DEI course

is supposed to highlight that
diversity, equity and inclusion
is a growing field, and many
environmental
organizations

are now creating positions and
departments solely dedicated to
this type of work.

Environment
and

Sustainability graduate student
Zoe Fullem is enrolled in the

DEI seminar class and said this
speaker was more informative
than previous ones.

“We’ve had a lot of speakers

but this was cool because she
actually touched on what she’s
done at a huge organization,”
Fullem
said.
“We
haven’t

had someone from such a big
environmental organization.”

Environment
and

Sustainability graduate student
Joy Yakie said the seminars that
coincide with the DEI course
are helpful in comprehending
the material.

“Taking the class with the

seminar, that’s when you feel
the impact more,” Yakie said.
“If I had taken the class without
this
seminar,
it
would
be

purely just theoretical reading
journals.”

Fullem believes the one-

credit class is not enough to
fully delve into the topic of
diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We wish we could get deeper

into things,” Fullem said. “I feel
like it’s not enough. But it’s a
great pairing to come to these
speaker series.”

A University of Michigan

study published last Friday
found anywhere from 60 to
80 percent of patients are not
completely truthful with their
doctors.

The study, led by Brian

Zikmund-Fisher,
associate

professor of Health Behavior
and Health Education at the
University,
examined
the

frequency of patients failing to
disclose relevant information
to their clinicians.

The study used an online

survey to assess participants’
interactions
with
health

professionals, asking them to
answer about what aspects of
their lives they failed to tell the
truth about, such as how often
they exercise and whether or
not they take their prescriptions
correctly. Researchers found
the
main
reason
patients

withheld information was a
fear of being judged.

Zikmund-Fisher
said

clinicians did not wish to make
patients feel embarrassed or
judged.

“There’s certainly part of

it that’s internal,” Zikmund-
Fisher said. “They didn’t want
to take up more of their health

care providers time, they didn’t
want their healthcare providers
to think they’re stupid, they
didn’t want this information
to be in their record (and) they
didn’t want to hear how bad the
behavior is.”

The
study
found
young

people were roughly 20 percent
more likely to lie to their health
care
providers
than
older

generations.
In
particular,

younger
female
participants

with worse self-rated health
reported
withholding

information from health care
professionals more often.

Researcher Aaron Scherer, an

associate professor of Internal
Medicine at the University of
Iowa, said he wants to know if
more honest relationships could
occur if a doctor shares similar
identities to their patient.

“One
interesting
way
to

build off these findings would
be to test whether the extent
to which a patient shares
similarities with their doctor
(e.g., they share the same race
or gender) influences their
tendency to tell their doctor
potentially important health
information or not,” Scherer
wrote in an email interview.

In order to lower the rate of

patient dishonesty, Zikmund-
Fisher
said
greater
verbal

compassion from the health
care provider is necessary.

“This is speculation, we do

not have evidence for this in
our study, but my speculation is
that now that we know that this
is in fact quite common it may
be important for healthcare
providers to acknowledge that,”
Zikmund-Fisher
said.
“Just

say to patients, ‘I know that it
is difficult sometimes to share
with me if you don’t understand
me, if you aren’t following
the instructions, if you are
engaging in behaviors that you
know you probably shouldn’t
be.’ Acknowledge that sharing
that type of information is
hard … and to try and reassure
patients that.”

Scherer
said
empathy
is

important from the patients as
well.

“I think one solution to this

problem is the development of
increased empathy from both
doctors and patients,” Scherer
wrote. “On the patient-side,
I don’t think most patients
realize the enormous number
of demands that are being
placed on doctors right now,
so it might be necessary for a
broader information campaign
about these demands to change
how the general public view
their doctors.”

When presented with the

research, Nursing sophomore
Jacob
Doxen
said
he
was

surprised
to
find
out
the

percentage
of
dishonest

patients was so high.

“It’s shocking because people

in
the
medical
profession,

nurses and doctors, are just
trying to help their patients,”
Doxen
said.
“There’s
no

judgment involved in being a
nurse or a doctor. We can really
only provide the help that the
patient needs.”

However,
Doxen
said
he

is hopeful for the future and
believes trust is necessary to
create the best relationship
between a patient and a health
care professional.

“In nursing school, one of

the biggest things that they
emphasize is building trust
with your patients and proving
to them that they can be open
with you and honest with
you,” Doxen said. “Make sure
that trust is established and
continue to build upon it with
every visit or every time you
interact. It’s a lot easier to lose
trust than it is to build trust.”

AUDUBON
From Page 1A

CSG
From Page 1A

Most patients lie to doctors about
health issues, University study finds

ALYSSA MCMURTRY

For the Daily

“They don’t

have funding for
projoects that they
would otherwise
have wanted to do”