we discussed some potential 
projects for making campus 
more affordable. They men-
tioned that Ohio State put out 
a landlord report card every 
year and I thought it was a 
great idea. Then, when Dan-
iel’s party was campaigning 
for CSG, their policy director 
reached out to me for sugges-
tions and I relayed the infor-
mation to him.”
CSG 
President 
Daniel 
Greene believes the report 
card empowers student voic-
es in the off-campus housing 
process and provides a way 
to collect data, allowing stu-
dents to be better informed 
in the decision making pro-
cess.
“We haven’t had the data 
to substantiate the things 
that go on [yet],” Greene said. 
“Now there is an open incen-
tive for housing companies 
to better treat students and 
reward those companies and 
individuals who treated our 
Michigan students as if they 
were adults.”
CSG worked with the Uni-
versity administration to set a 
standard so no housing man-
agement company is reported 
on the guide without having 
at least five responses. Using 
the Ohio State University’s 
guide as a model, CSG dou-
bled the amount of questions, 
including queries pertaining 
to demographic data and spe-
cific housing costs.
Engineering senior Sanjee 
Choudhuri, one of the main 

creators of the survey, want-
ed to find a way to make it 
more interactive and appeal-
ing to students. The team 
decided to add three interac-
tive graphs linked to the CSG 
website.
“I was really interested in 
taking the PDF and putting 

it into a medium where stu-
dents will want to read it and 
enjoy it,” Choudhuri said. 
“So I thought interactive 
infographics—done 
almost 
entirely 
through 
tableau 
graphs. In the end we want-
ed a medium where students 
could track the data, where 
they could tailor it to them-
selves and then share it. It’s 
simple, it’s fun and there is 
no fluff. You can use it imme-
diately and anyone you send 
the link to could figure out 
how to use it.”
The first interactive graph 
showcases a rent map of Ann 
Arbor properties listing the 
company that owns it, the 
rent price and the complete 
rating of the property out of 
10.
The 
second 
infographic 

lists data on a multitude of 
different property manag-
ers, ranking them on a scale 
of one to 10 overall. Those 
ranking the highest were 
Horvath Properties, Spaly 
Group, Zaragon Properties 
and Wessinger Properties. 
Those placing on the lower 
scale of the survey were Tree 
City Properties and Cribspot.
The final link is a bar 
chart composed of each of 
the sentiments poised on the 
original survey. By select-
ing which company listed, 
you can see the results on 
each of the questions. Ques-
tions include how quickly the 
landlords response to main-
tenance requests, the overall 
condition of the living space, 
the professionalism of the 
landlord and much more.
“In an ideal world this 
will be continued by future 
administration,” 
Greene 
said. “We are hoping that we 
will reopen the survey now 
that 
students 
understand 
it. We know when there is 
a new resource on campus 
that it is often too abstract 
for students at first. Now 
that we have the results on 
the website we are getting 
a lot of interest and clicks 
and we hope that this guide 
would help perpetuate the 
conversation and put more 
momentum toward address-
ing housing affordability in 
Ann Arbor and also just hold 
housing companies account-
able, as they often exploit 
students.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, January 17, 2019 — 3

CSG
From Page 1A

“We very consciously decided 
to decenter faculty voices and to 
decenter campus voices in order 
to really hear from the folks 
who are most directly impacted 
by incarceration,” Krinitsky 
said.
LSA 
junior 
Sydney 
McKinstry, who has attended 
both previous panels, said she 
keeps coming back because 
the speakers give her ideas on 
how to take her passion for the 
criminal justice system and 
turn it into tangible goals.
“I think overall, every time 
I come, I have this sense of 
knowing there are things I can 
do to make it better,” McKinstry 
said. “I think it’s easy here in 
Ann Arbor, as a white student, 
to feel like I have ideas of 
wanting to make the system 
better but I don’t know how to 
put those into actual work. So 
it’s really incredible to see these 
people have careers all over the 
world, and to see that there are 
career paths you can take to 
make actual change.”
Heather 
Ann 
Thompson, 
professor of Afroamerican and 
African studies and history, 
is chair of the Carceral State 
Project and was another host of 
the event. She began the event 
by asking the panelists whether 
they think the imprisoned have 
a fair experience in the U.S. 
justice system. 
Cozine 
Welch, 
managing 
editor of the Michigan Review 
of Prisoner Creative Writing, 
has served 20 years in prison 
and said the justice system 
is not equitable. He said it 
criminalizes people of color, 
those with mental illnesses and 
other minorities.

“So, we all assume that every 
human being is born the same,” 
Welch said. “Assume you don’t 
have any mental disability 
that allows you not to compute 
like an average human being. 
Assume that everyone is equal. 
Yet we look at our criminal 
justice system and we see a 
large overwhelming majority of 
a particular type of person that 
is being incarcerated. That right 
there shows you it’s not a fair 
shake at all.”
Asia Johnson, a formerly 
incarcerated person and bail 
disruptor at the Bail Project 
and Detroit Justice Center, 
agreed with Welch and said 
the mentally ill are often 
criminalized. She added many 
imprisoned people are less 
privileged than others, which 
puts them at a disadvantage to 
begin with.
“When you go into prison, 
you come in broken,” Johnson 
said. “Not just because of your 
crime, but because of your life. 
Because of what society has 
given you.”
Gift Chowchuvech, former 
therapist at Women’s Huron 
Valley Correctional Facility, 
said most people she met were 
traumatized as children by the 
people they grew up with. She 
discussed how many prisoners 
never learned how to make good 
choices and how it affects their 
odds of ending up in prison.
“Every 
man 
that 
I 
interviewed had a history of 
trauma,” Chowchuvech said. 
“Trauma that happened early in 
their lives ... what you have is a 
lot of intergenerational trauma 
because people don’t have those 
family groups to teach them 
how to make good decisions.”
The discussion then moved 
on to mental health and its role 
in the criminal justice system.
Welch, who has attempted 

suicide three times, claimed the 
justice system does not want to 
pay to help convicts with their 
mental health and that results 
in many people never receiving 
the aid they need.
“Because that requires extra 
work on the side of all of those 
involved, right,” Welch said. 
“And so we (the criminal justice 
system) have to now classify 
you differently and put more 
resources into you or find some 
way just to scoot you along and 
hope you’ll be alright.”
Welch said he still feels scared 
to walk around Ann Arbor alone 
for fear of being arrested again. 
He also discussed how fear is 
used as a weapon in both prison 
and outside. He said prisoners 
are afraid of their correction 
officers, so they act tough. 
To give some insight on the 
perspective of law enforcement, 
he also claimed the correction 
officers, who are often very 
outnumbered, are also scared 
and often feel the need to prove 
they are in control.
Welch went on to say prison 
is not fulfilling its main goal: 
rehabilitation. 
She 
argued 
oftentimes correction officers 
will punish the prisoners too 
harshly, and prison itself is 
punishment enough for one’s 
crimes. She said, as someone 
who worked in a correctional 
facility, prisoners become sub-
human.
“Prison 
is 
supposed 
to 
be about is rehabilitation,” 
Chowchuvech said. “What we 
often fail to understand is being 
incarcerated. There should not 
be other punishments for you 
while you’re there. What you’re 
ingrained with when you come 
to work in a prison is that ‘a 
prisoner is a prisoner,’ that’s it. 
They’re dehumanized.”

PANEL 
From Page 1A

“ DE PORTE D: AN AME RICAN DIVISION ” E XHIBIT

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Photojournalism Art Exhibit “Deported: An American Division” by photographer Rachel Woolf 
prsented in Weill Hall.

A recent study administered 
by a team of professors and 
students within the School of 
Public Health and the Nicaragua 
Ministry of Health found that 
it may be easier to detect one’s 
susceptibility to influenza by 
simply looking at the bacteria 
present within the throat and 
nose.
Betsy 
Foxman, 
professor 
of epidemiology and a lead 
researcher on the project, said 
the team was interested in how 
contracting influenza makes it 
more likely for someone to get 
other diseases.
Foxman’s particular interest 
was 
how 
the 
microbiome, 
bacteria and other microbes that 
live in and on the human body 
might influence transmission. 
Aubree 
Gordon, 
assistant 
professor 
of 
epidemiology, 
researched factors that affect the 
susceptibility and transmission 
of 
influenza. 
By 
combining 
both of these areas of interest, 
Gordon designed a household 
transmission study to help gather 
samples and data to see how our 
ever-changing microbes affect 
our response to influenza.
Foxman 
said 
the 
project 
started 
with 
how 
influenza 
contraction affects transmission 
of other diseases.
“It started with the question, 
how 
come 
when 
you 
get 
influenza you might be more 
likely to get pneumonia off of 
strep pneumo and where does 
it come from?” Foxman said. 
“We thought that it would be 

great to look at what happens in 
a household transmission study. 
So when Dr. Gordon joined the 
faculty and I heard about her 
study and immediately went 
to her and asked if she would 
like to collaborate. So, it was 
opportunity plus interest.”
The longitudinal Nicaragua 
household transmission study 
took place between 2012 and 
2014. In the study, members 
within a household of those 
affected 
by 
influenza 
were 
observed carefully for thirteen 
days to see if they would develop 
influenza.
About 710 bacterial samples 
were then collected at the initial 
date of the study and then 695 
samples were gathered at the 
final date of the investigation.
After the study was complete, 
Foxman and her team carefully 
examined the samples of nose 
and throat bacteria collected 
from the initial enrollment and 
applied DNA sequencing to 
help identify the varying types 
of bacteria, which lead to the 
discovery of five diverse types of 
cluster communities.
Foxman said being able to 
study the microbiome was made 
easier thanks to the “miracle” of 
DNA sequencing.
“We can (now) take a sample 
and identify all of the bacteria 
that are living there without 
growing 
them 
individually,” 
Foxman said. “We sequence 
parts of their genomes and 
look relative to databases to see 
(which bacteria) is there and 
their relative abundance. Being 
able to do that allows us to look 

at these communities.”
After the sequencing, the 
team 
applied 
a 
clustering 
technique to group the data into 
clusters, or “community types,” 
which allowed them to see what 
groupings of bacteria appeared 
by looking at the similarities 
evident in the sequence.
By analyzing these clusters, 
Foxman and Gordon could see 
if these clusters predicted risk of 
influenza.’
“We 
discovered 
that 
individuals 
with 
a 
certain 
community 
type 
or 
certain 
microbiome are more susceptible 
to influenza,” Gordon said. “Right 
now, it is pretty preliminary, 
we’re learning so much about 
the microbiome. It looks like it 
affects your response to vaccines 
and your chances of getting 
certain diseases — particularly in 
the case of respiratory diseases. 
The first step is to see how it 
works and the interactions in the 
workplace.”
Foxman hopes to replicate the 
research in different geographic 
areas to better understand the 
mechanisms of the particular 
communities 
found 
in 
the 
Nicaraguan study.
“What we’re looking at now 
is using the data from the study 
to look at how the microbiome 
might affect shedding a virus 
and symptoms, and seeing if the 
microbiome that you have affects 
how sick you are and for how 
long,” Gordon said.

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

Researchers find bacterial link to flu

Scientists notice human bacteria clusters are associated with increased sickness

SAM SMALL 
Daily Staff Reporter 

Now there is an 
open incentive 
to for housing 
companies to 
treat students 
better.

ICPSR
From Page 1A

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

Tessier met with Adriana Oval-
le, OIE Investigator, on July 2, 
2015 to discuss the inappropri-
ate behavior of Dieter Burrell 
and her firing.
According to an Office of Insti-
tutional Equity report provided 
to The Daily by Tessier, OIE be-
gan investigating the matter on 
July 14, 2015. Tessier began in-
teracting with lawyers on June 
19, 2015. Attorney Charlotte 
Croson initially took on Tes-
sier’s case but dropped it soon 
after due to a conflict of inter-
est. Tessier said Croson did not 
explain what the conflict of in-
terest was.
Croson declined to comment 
because she does not currently 
represent Tessier.
Tessier claims the harassment 
was enabled by former ICPSR 
director and Michigan State 
University Professor William 
Jacoby, who has been under 
investigation recently by both 
MSU and the University for sex-
ual harassment against former 
students. University Spokes-
person Rick Fitzgerald could 
not confirm or deny whether 
the investigation was still oc-
curring, but stated that Jacoby 
was not involved with the 2018 
summer program and will not 
be involved in 2019 either.
“Jacoby did not participate in 
the 2018 program and he will 
not participate in the sched-
uled 2019 program,” Fitzgerald 
wrote in a statement. “The uni-
versity does not provide confir-
mation of an investigation nor 
does it comment on investiga-
tions. It’s important to note that 
the university takes every al-
legation of sexual harassment 
or misconduct very seriously. 
Every report we receive is care-
fully reviewed so that appropri-
ate action can be taken.”
Jacoby also resigned from his 
role as Editor-In-Chief at the 
American Journal of Political 
Science after proclaiming his 
innocence on the journal’s web-
site without proper authoriza-
tion. According to the Detroit 
News, Jacoby is currently look-
ing to appeal an MSU report de-
tailing an investigation into the 
allegations against him.
Michigan State University Me-
dia said Jacoby retired from the 
University on Jan. 1.
Jacoby also did not respond to 
multiple requests for comment.

***
Tessier’s OIE report details nu-
merous comments Burrell made 
about women to other ICPSR 
employees, including “I would 
like to get a sex kitten like that” 
in February 2011 and “sex with 
a younger woman is better than 
exercise” in September 2012.
In the report, Tessier com-
plained of Burrell’s behavior 
towards her and accused ICPSR 
of employment discrimination. 
An example of this included 
favoritism towards younger fe-
male workers, who Burrell al-
lowed to work on other projects 
not related to ICPSR. Tessier 
said she was not allowed to do 
this.
Burrell explained in the report 
that he was called into an in-
formal meeting with human re-
sources and another unnamed 
official in 2011 regarding com-
plaints of harassment and in-
appropriate language while at 
ICPSR. At this meeting, he re-
counts he was told to “be care-
ful” about coming into physical 
contact with other people, and 
cautioned against even brush-
ing against them as he passed.
Tessier said one of the first in-
stances of harassment she ex-
perienced was at a reception for 
the ICPSR program attendees 
in the summer of 2009, where 
Burrell allegedly began touch-
ing her without her consent.
“For some reason he just started 
pinching my arm up and down, 
so I just left,” Tessier said. “He’s 
tipping a beer in one hand and 
grabbing me with the other. I 
left immediately and felt silly, I 
really did.”
Tessier stated she did not know 
if Burrell was intoxicated.
Tessier also said she noticed 
Burrell would concentrate on 
her breasts and genital regions 
when speaking with her. Tes-
sier said she did not notice this 
behavior until a co-worker ad-
dressed these concerns to her. 
A legal timeline sent to The 
Daily by Tessier confirms both 
of these statements.
Tessier explained that she ap-
proached Jacoby, who was di-
rector of ICPSR at the time, in 
March 2010 about the incidents 
that had occured with Burrell 
up to that point.
“I said to Bill (Jacoby) ‘These 
things happened. Can you help 
me with this?’ because I was 
getting all this hostile attention 
and stuff from Dieter (Burrell) 
and I didn’t want it,” Tessier 
said. “It was bizarre … His only 

response was ‘Well, I told Diet-
er not to do those things.’ In re-
sponse to the repetitive integra-
tion, Bill said ‘Well, that was his 
doing.’ In other words, Bill had 
instructed Dieter to keep ques-
tioning me over and over again.”
Another incident with Burrell 
occured in the summer of 2011, 
when Burrell allegedly yelled 
at Tessier for using a copier in 
the office, and then beginning to 
poke her body.
“It’s a trivial thing but I’m be-
ing reprimanded for something 
that’s completely trivial and it’s 
part of your whole job process,” 
Tessier said. “At the end of this 
tirade, which I was actually cry-
ing at the end of … he pokes at 
me on my collarbone and my 
chest and then around the belly 
and hip area.”
She said Burrell told her he was 
picking lint off of her clothing.
“I said ‘What are you doing?’” 
Tessier said. “It happened so 
fast and he said ‘I’m just picking 
lint off of you’.”
According to Tessier, she also 
complained to Rita Bantom and 
Diane Winter, both in the ICP-
SR Human Resources depart-
ment at the time. Tessier said 
Bantom and Winter told her to 
tell Burrell off when he touched 
her and to keep record of these 
encounters.
Bantom and Winter have not 
responded to requests for com-
ment.
Tessier addressed this with 
Burrell and Bantom via email, 
and Bantom said she would look 
into it. Email threads sent to 
The Daily confirm this. Tessier 
does not believe anything came 
of her request.
 Tessier said she was given neg-
ative performance evaluations 
by her superiors following her 
complaints, criticizing her for 
taking time off even though that 
time was for two separate peri-
ods of medical leave. One was 
for a shoulder surgery in May 
2014. Tessier said she needed 
the surgery after overusing her 
shoulder from work related ac-
tivities. Another leave was for a 
nervous breakdown she expe-
rienced on August 9, 2013. Tes-
sier notified ICPSR her doctor 
requested medical leave on Au-
gust 12, 2013.

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

