With the renovation of the
Michigan Union underway, stu-
dents and faculty will decide on
which three vendors will move
into the space when it reopens
in the winter of 2020. Members
of the University of Michigan
community
expressed
con-
cern regarding the potential of
Wendy’s moving back into the
building due to employee labor
conditions.
Washtenaw Solidarity with
Farmworkers,
a
community
and student-based group, has
been lobbying the administra-
tion and the Central Student
Government to ban Wendy’s
from coming back to campus
until the fast-food establish-
ment has signed the Fair Food
Program.
The Fair Food Program is
a partnership between farm-
workers and food distribution
companies to ensure agricul-
tural workers have access to
adequate working conditions
and fair wages. Fourteen com-
panies have signed on, includ-
ing large grocery distributors
such as Walmart and Whole
Foods Market and fast food
chains such as Burger King,
McDonald’s and Subway.
Rackham student Kimberly
Daley has led the on-campus
effort to ensure Wendy’s will
not be put in the basement of
the Union. Daley believes it’s
likely Wendy’s submitted a bid
for the Union based on their
widespread representation on
college campuses. She empha-
sized Wendy’s lack of transpar-
ency regarding the Fair Food
Program.
“Wendy’s hasn’t signed on
(to the agreement) and they
have been avoiding the sign
on process,” Daley said. “They
moved all of their purchases of
tomatoes to Mexico to avoid it,
and then they moved it all back
to greenhouses in the U.S. and
none of those have actually
good working conditions.”
Two Wendy’s restaurants
previously resided in the Union
and in the Michigan League
before their contracts expired.
She began the process by meet-
ing with Susan Pile, the Union
administrator at the time, and
the Office of Procurement, but
quickly became frustrated with
their lack of response.
“Since 2015-2016, I’ve been
in contact with administration
and University to either cut
the contract with Wendy’s or
make sure that they couldn’t
come back to campus after the
contract expired,” Daley said.
“Both of them told me there
was nothing they could do and
they couldn’t cut the contract
with Wendy’s because they
needed the money. And for
procurement, said they can’t
legally make rules, suppos-
edly, about who can or cannot
submit bid to be vendors at
the University.”
As the University of Michigan
continues to increase enrollment,
multiple new student housing
developments in Ann Arbor have
been proposed for the coming
year. Triad Real Estate Partners
reported that off-campus housing
occupancy for students last fall
sat at 98.3 percent, compared to a
national average of 95.2 percent.
This demand for student housing
continues to grow, according to
the report from Triad Real Estate
Partners.
According to Triad, rent for
off-campus housing has also
grown, having risen by 4.64
percent since last year. Recent
luxury-based student housing
developments
contribute
to this rise in cost. Limited
affordable housing has sparked
a conversation around campus,
especially within Central Student
Government.
Ann Arbor approved plans
in November for a new 28-bed
student apartment building on
Hill Street, estimated to cost $1
million to build.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 64
©2019 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
ADMINISTRATION
CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
Students come together to ban Wendy’s
from renting spot in renovated Union
The restaurant fails to comply with labor partnership Fair Foods Program
2019 to see
additions to
off-campus
apartments
ANN ARBOR
Variety of developments
planned for the coming
months throughout the city
ANGELINA BREDE
Daily Staff Reporter
See SSMP, Page 3A
Follow The Daily
on Instagram:
@michigandaily
Adaptable
resolution
introduced
to SSMP
Solution offers options
for sexual misconduct
cases at the University
The University of Michigan’s
new interim student sexual mis-
conduct policy expands the use
of additional options and support
for students who may not want to
pursue a hearing and investiga-
tion. The pathway, called adapt-
able resolution, was outlined in
the December 2018 revisions,
which took effect Jan. 9.
The new Interim Policy and
Procedures on Student Sexual
and Gender-Based Misconduct
and Other Forms of Interper-
sonal Violence was also updated
to include an in-person hearing.
During the investigation process
both the accused and the accuser
will be able to cross-examine
each other and the witnesses.
This revision was implement-
ed in accordance with the Sep-
tember U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit ruling that
public universities must give the
accused student or their adviser
the opportunity to cross-exam-
ine the accuser and witnesses.
The University petitioned for a
rehearing in late September. The
circuit court denied the petition
in October of 2018.
DESIGN BY ALEXIS RANKIN
REMY FARKAS
Daily News Editor
With
record-breaking
low temperatures sweeping
the state of Michigan and
wind chill temperatures
of approximately negative
40
degrees
Fahrenheit,
Michigander
have
been
warned
of
frostbite
on
exposed
skin
within
10 minutes of standing
outside.
In
Washtenaw
County, there are about
300 homeless persons at
any given time each year.
Students
organizations,
shelters and congregations
are working to aid the
homeless
population
of
Ann Arbor.
Lit
Kurtz,
a
vendor
at
Groundcover
News,
a
nonprofit
that
sells
newspapers to help low
income
people,
praised
the shelters for opening
warming centers to help
people get out of the cold,
but said more still needed
to be done.
“I don’t think we go far
enough and these sort of
conversations
shouldn’t
have to take place because
it should be a given that
everyone has a warm place
to be by now,” Kurtz said.
“It’s far from an ideal
situation. I believe that it
shouldn’t be an emergency
to make the shelter and the
warming centers extend
their hours. It should just
be normal practice.”
Kurtz, who previously
dealt
with
housing
instability herself, noted
the challenges those in
vulnerable situations face
year-round.
“It’s not just times like
this
that
people
have
to
deal
with
the
cold
weather,” Kurtz said. “This
of course is extreme and it
brings attention and a little
more focus to what people
without adequate housing
have to encounter, but it’s
a challenge throughout the
year to stay warm... I think
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, January 31, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Low temps
put homeless
population
at risk
Experts, business owners speculate
on small business closures in 2018
DESIGN BY NOLAN FELICIDARIO
ANN ARBOR
People facing housing instability
turn to shelters, warming centers
CATHERINE NOUHAN
Daily Staff Reporter
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily News Editor
Local institutions including restaurants and bakeries close their doors
ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
In
November
2018,
Ann
Arbor’s beloved MD Bagel Fra-
gel was forced to close shop. A
family-owned business of 25
years that attracted customers
through its local vibe and “fra-
gel,” a shop staple consisting of
deep fried raisin dough covered
in cinnamon sugar, its owners
were given two days to move
out of their location on Broad-
way Square after the building
was purchased by a company
from Toledo.
Community outrage ensued,
with
supporters
starting
a
GoFundMe that accrued more
than $11,000 and Underground
Printing
creating
T-shirts
printed
with
the
phrase
“#SaveBagelFragel”. The new
owners of the building gave the
business an extension, allow-
ing them to move out by the end
of the year before turning the
space into a marijuana dispen-
sary.
MD Bagel Fragel is one of
18 Ann Arbor businesses that
closed in 2018. For many Ann
Arbor residents, the closure of
small businesses comes with a
community cost. Of the 18 busi-
nesses that closed in 2018, nine
of them were open for more
than 25 years, with only two
businesses being open for two
years or less.
In an email interview with
The Daily, MD Bagel Fragel
shop owner Patricia Rockette
offered some advice to City
Council.
“Stop letting the big corpora-
tions like Starbucks go in which
forces the small businesses out
of business,” Rockette wrote.
“They cannot compete. Land-
lords raise the rent so much,
that only big, unfeeling compa-
nies can survive.”
City
Councilmember
Jeff
Hayner, D-Ward 1, used to hold
coffee hours at Electric Eye
Café, a business that also closed
in 2018. According to Hayner,
the loss of businesses such
as Electric Eye Café and MD
Bagel Fragel are often unquan-
tifiable.
“Businesses come and go,
and especially these small busi-
nesses, but there were some
that has really been sad with the
community, especially my con-
stituents,” Hayner said. “A lot
of these small businesses like
that, they actually play a role in
the community in a small way,
where they offer their room up
for meetings, or they host dif-
ferent events or creative things.
When these small businesses go
away, sometimes you lose those
things that aren’t quantifiable.”
While records tracking the
number of businesses that have
closed in Ann Arbor over the
past few years do not exist,
some estimate this is a relative-
ly large amount to close in one
year, particularly since 2018
proved strong for the overall
economy.
Six of the businesses that
closed in 2018 belonged to the
dining industry, such as MD
Bagel Fragel and Pieology Piz-
zeria. However, the majority
of closures — 10 — were retail
businesses.
See AT RISK, Page 3A
See WENDY’S, Page 3A
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