way that’s going to protect me,”
Held said. “The truth is going
to protect me and I have to
have faith in that.”
An
LSA
freshman
who
requested
to
remain
anonymous said the tendency
for universities to ignore or
diminish sexual assault claims
is especially painful for those
who have experienced abuse in
the past.
“I was a victim of sexual
abuse, I was groomed for
two years, and it has very
deeply impacted my mental
health,” she said. “I’m finally
able to seek therapy and help
for it, which is very nice to
finally be able to do that,
but it’s horrifying to me that
something so traumatic and
something that impacts people
on such a deep and personal
level and which can destroy you
is being neglected just because
somebody wants to make the
university look better.”
Stenvig
ended
the
conversation by noting how
difficult and brave it is for
survivors
to
make
their
experiences public to find some
semblance of justice. She also
said sexual assault has become
so commonplace that speaking
out is necessary, but often bears
no reward for the survivor due
to victim-blaming.
“We shouldn’t have to be
subjected to abuse to be at
the University of Michigan,”
Stenvig said.
hard work, there is also hope
that we can reach a clean,
sustainable U of M, and by
extension, world,” Hayden said.
“Let’s turn the defining issue of
my generation into the defining
success. We are the future.”
Alum
Missy
Stults,
sustainability and innovation
manager for the city of Ann
Arbor,
added
young
people
should be included in the process
of achieving carbon neutrality.
“As you move forward with
creating your carbon neutrality
taskforce, I strongly encourage
you
to
engage
students,
especially
undergraduate
students,
in
this
endeavor,”
Stults said. “I also encourage you
to think about engaging youth,
these are the next generation of
leaders.”
Moving on to conversations
around
the
University’s
relationship
with
the
state
of
Israel,
Rackham
student
Yahya Hafez voiced opposition
surrounding
the
University’s
punishment
of
American
Culture professor John Cheney-
Lippold. Earlier this semester,
Cheney-Lippold rescinded his
decision to write a letter of
recommendation for a student
wishing to study abroad in
Israel. The University’s decision
to
admonish
Cheney-Lippold
stirred discussion on campus
regarding the role of faculty’s
academic freedoms in regards
to their students. Following
Cheney-Lippold’s
punishment,
Provost
Martin
Philbert
appointed a faculty panel to
investigate these issues, though
the group has been criticized
as not being representative of
faculty views and levels across
the University.
Hafez
stated
other
professional organizations have
warned againstthe University’s
actions handling the situation.
In regard to Philbert’s panel,
Hafez commented on the lack
of Cheney-Lippold’s colleagues
in humanities departments in
the body, claiming this was a
mistake and undemocratic.
“That
the
provost
then
unilaterally created a panel
to
retroactively
justify
and
recommend policies allowing
these actions is even more
egregious,”
Hafez
said.
“Particularly given the complete
exclusion of any panel members
from the humanities, no amount
of community input can make up
for the undemocratic structure.”
The public comment then
shifted to a condemnation of
the University for not acting
on
divestment
resolutions
in the past. Students Allied
for Freedom and Equality, a
group of students promoting
social justice and human rights
of Palestinians, brought the
original resolution, which sought
to divest funds from companies
committing
human
rights
violations against Palestinians
in Israel, to the forefront of
University conversation over the
past decade and a half. Last year,
Central
Student
Government
passed the divestment resolution
for the first time ever, joining
student governments on the Flint
and Dearborn campuses in their
support. However, a majority of
the regents refused to consider
SAFE’s call for a committee
to investigate the University’s
investments, releasing an online
statement on the matter weeks
after the resolution.
U-M
Dearborn
student
Susan Yaseen spoke of a lack of
support
Palestinian
students
felt from the University on its
Dearborn campus. Yaseen also
expressed
disappointment
in
the University’s handling of the
resolution for divestment.
“We
feel
that
we
lack
meaningful support from our
administration
at
Dearborn
when it comes to speaking in our
own voices,” Yaseen said. “The
issues that we care deeply about
seem to have traction only when
non-Arabs are involved.”
Graduate student instructor
Elizabeth Walz spoke against
all
study-abroad
programs
located in Israel, claiming they
contribute to the violation of
Palestinian
freedoms.
GSIs
also joined Cheney-Lippold in
academic boycotts of Israel:
Early
in
october,
Rackham
student Lucy Peterson, a Political
Science GSI, also declined to
write a reccomendation letter
for a student studying in Israel.
Walz said the University’s
commitment to student freedoms
was also not maintained when
the
University
refused
to
consider the resolution passed
by CSG.
“What
has
University
of
Michigan, and what specifically
have you, the regents, done
to
protect
this
supposed
freedom when the CSG passed
the resolution to explore the
divestment?”
Walz
asked.
“Especially after sitting through
the meeting today, does this
University care about anything
other than money?”
The Regents did not respond
to any of the public comment
speakers.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, December 7, 2018 — 3
REGENTS
From Page 1
DISNEY ANIM ATION
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Cesar Valazquez, head of effects at Walt Disney Animation Studios, shares his expertise on the animation industry at the School of Art & Design
Thursday.
obligations to our students
with regard to letter-writing
and
all
other
modes
of
academic support.”
Faculty
members
have
criticized
the
lack
of
diversity on the panel, noting
it consists entirely of full
professors,
and
does
not
include
any
professors
in
the humanities. The panel
is chaired by Science and
Engineering professor James
Duderstadt, who served as the
University’s president from
1988 to 1996. Duderstadt could
not be reached for direct
comment.
“Our goal is to solicit a
broad range of perspectives
on
this
question:
What
ought to be intersection of
faculty
members’
political
thought/ideology and their
responsibilities to students?”
Duderstadt said in the press
release. “Our charge is not to
formulate specific policy or
processes, but to recommend
appropriate
considerations
and principles.”
In a recent interview with
The Daily, Schlissel affirmed
the purpose of the panel was
to analyze the opinions of the
community, clarifying final
decisions on policy would rest
with him, Philbert and the
University’s deans.
On Dec. 3, the Office of
the Provost sent an email
to
students
and
faculty
announcing
the
faculty
panel’s
open
meetings
and containing a link to
the
four-question
survey.
University spokeswoman Kim
Broekhuizen said the initial
response to the message “has
been good.”
The
first
question
asks
whether respondents agree
with the panel’s identification
of primary “responsibilities to
students”: teaching, advising,
assessing, giving feedback and
recommending. The second
question asks if respondents
can
envision
“conflicts
between
faculty
members’
political thought … and faculty
members’
responsibilities
to students,” and how they
should be managed.
Professor Emeritus Alan
Wald spoke at a recent teach-
in held in response to the
University’s punishment of
Cheney-Lippold
that
was
dubbed
the
“Unappointed
Advisory
Committee
on
Academic
Freedom.”
Wald
said
the
survey
questions
failed to get at the heart of
the issue, and seemed like
“a diversion from the truly
pressing concerns.”
“They (the questions) evade
the central problem that has
now become crucial to both
faculty and students, and is
the cause for campus-wide
concern: Is it permissible for
faculty members to rely on
their own ethical reasoning
when
making
decisions
that affect students, such
as whether or not to write a
letter of recommendation for a
position with an organization
or institution that engages
in discrimination or other
practices to which the faculty
member is morally opposed?”
Wald wrote in an email to
The Daily. “At present, this
reads like a smoke screen to
provide the veneer of open
and inclusive decision-making
when, in reality, the fix is
already in.”
The third survey question
asks, “Do notions of academic
freedom bear on question #2?”
History
professor
Howard
Brick, who spoke at the same
teach-in, called the survey
questions
“exceptionally
vague.” Questions of defining
academic freedom, he said,
“must ultimately reside with
the faculty.” Brick agreed the
University should seek the
input of students and staff,
but expressed doubts about
whether the panel’s outreach
would
provide
a
genuine
opportunity, given the actions
the University had already
taken.
“To
convene
such
a
discussion
after
punitive
measures have been taken
against the faculty member
shows a deep problem with
the
whole
university’s
response
to
this
issue,”
Brick said. “If it doesn’t cast
doubt on the fairness of that
inquiry in terms of how (the)]
committee and its powers
are constituted, it at least
exposes the punishment of the
professor as unfair, because
it confesses that there has
been no consensual terms
regarding the legitimacy of
such actions heretofore.”
According to Broekhuizen,
however, “academic freedom
is
not
in
question.”
In
an
earlier
interview
with
The Daily, Schlissel agreed
the problem was not one of
freedom of expression, which
he said could be practiced
through venues that didn’t
overlap with responsibilities
to students.
“We also want the faculty
to
share
this
consensus
that it’s about the student,”
Schlissel said. “It’s not about
(the professors). It’s not a
platform for their speech and
their politics. It’s about our
obligation to support students.
And it can’t be imposed as a
rule; it has to be imposed by
values.”
they have felt vulnerable and
unable to disagree. Complaints
range
from
racist,
sexist
and
transphobic
comments
to sexual harassment while
customers
were
getting
piercings.
Many
others
expressed their concerns with
the safety and professionalism
of the process, mentioning
scarring and pain.
At a BAMN event Thursday
night, Ann Arbor resident
Alice Held denounced Potts’
behavior as misogynistic.
“About a year and a half
ago, I went and I got my
nipples pierced from JC and
I had no idea that he actually
already had a reputation for
bringing up racist topics and
being misogynistic and just a
real ass during his piercings,”
she said. “So I went and I did
that, and he commented on my
body when he was taking the
measurements for the jewelry
and said that my breasts and
my
curves
were
‘blessed.’
And that made me really
uncomfortable, but I’m really
used to people in power making
comments like that when it’s
really not appropriate, and
I’m used to minimizing it and
brushing it off so that’s exactly
what I did. Eventually I had
this breakthrough where I
realized that I hold the truth
in this situation and in some
way that’s going to protect me.
The truth is going to protect
me and I have to have faith in
that.”
experience with journalism and
the free press, Thursday in an
event sponsored by the English
Language
and
Literature
Department.
Gutiérrez was first detained
December
2017,
though
he
sought asylum months earlier.
He was received an emergency
stay before deportation, but
was
detained
and
released
a second time this summer.
Since then, Gutiérrez and his
son have been living in Ann
Arbor following the beginning
of his fellowship in September,
traveling back to El Paso, Texas,
several times for immigration
hearings.
Gutiérrez,
through
a
professional Spanish translator,
described
the
traumatic
experience of leaving Mexico.
He emphasized how military
intimidation and concern for
his own life and the life of
his adolescent son was what
ultimately pushed him to leave.
“It seemed incredible to me
that we were leaving behind
forever our modest legacy, our
home. To preserve our lives
was more important. In the
darkness of that night, our lives
changed. The following day,
we had determined already to
ask for political asylum in the
United States, that was our
opportunity for life,” Gutiérrez
said. “We had security, but not
freedom. The first night that
we were under protection, they
put us in a room that was so cold
that we could see our breath
and our fingers were numb. We
had to ask one of the guards that
he let us look for some towels
so we could protect ourselves
from the wind coming from
the air-conditioning. I covered
my son with two towels and
hugged him to keep him warm.”
He described the frustration
with the ongoing case, from
the lack of consideration of
witnesses
to
missing
case
documents.
“Our case has been very
tiring, we have been in this
process for 10 years already,”
Gutiérrez said. “The judge has
taken our case, instead of doing
it as a matter of legal process,
he’s taken it as a personal
matter.”
According to the Committee
to
Protect
Journalists,
47
journalists have been killed in
Mexico since 1992. Gutiérrez
assured this number is much
higher when responding to a
student inquiry regarding the
costs versus benefits of risking
his life for the sake of freedom
of expression.
“The risk that you take is for
the love of the work and love
of the freedom, and because
you like to participate in a
democratic society,” Gutiérrez
said.
“My
recommendation
is that before you report, to
investigate, and if it’s not
prudent for your life, perhaps
don’t work. I say that because
in Mexico there are statistics
of 128 journalists assassinated
in 11 years, 30 that have
disappeared. And Mexico, even
though it is not a place with war,
there are 320,000 dead in 11
years. So you have an idea of the
risk that you take in the name of
freedom of expression.”
Gutiérrez
also
considered
the
political
environment,
from
Donald
Trump’s
administration’s
hardline
immigration policy and Central
American
migrant
caravans
that have pushed to enter
the U.S in the past year. He
correlated current immigration
tension in the U.S. to historical
U.S. policy in Central America.
“The people that are at the
border now from Honduras,
Guatemala,
El
Salvador,
Nicaragua,”
Gutiérrez
said.
“Their countries are in crisis
from corruption and poverty
and violence that comes from
political involvement from the
U.S. Nobody wants to leave
their home to come for an
adventure. I left my good job
behind, I had two houses as a
legacy for my child. And besides
my hob, I had the opportunity
to run a ranch. I felt happy with
my work.”
Prof.
Andrea
Zemgulys,
director
of
undergraduate
studies,
highlighted
the
pertinence of the discussion
for students to explore future
careers and understand the
importance
of
professional
writing.
“We’re definitely trying to
think about our majors, and
any student who’s on campus
and thinking about a career
in writing, and just kind of
helping think about the future,
this is a step in that direction,”
Zemgulys said. “We, in general,
are
trying
to
think
more
about life after college for our
students, and so professional
writing and journalism is one
of those things.”
LSA sophomore Ellie Katz
attended the event because
of its national relevance and
to hear a firsthand account of
immigration, especially as it
relates to freedom of expression
in other nations.
“I came to learn more about
his
experience,”
Katz
said.
“We’ve been talking so much
about the immigrant experience
in our (Spanish) class and what
it means politically to be a
migrant, but also, in more of
a humanitarian sense, to be a
person without a home. I think
that today I learned about his
experience in particular but
also his reiteration of how it
feels to be a person without a
state or a home, just kind of
existing in the in between. That
was most impactful for me.”
PANEL
From Page 1
JOURNALIST
From Page 1
PANGEA
From Page 1
BAMN
From Page 1
We shouldn’t have
to be subjected to
abuse to be at the
University
He commented
on my body when
he was taking the
measurements