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”

