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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