“In addition to all the administrative 
bloat and administrative growth 
that’s been driving up the cost of 
tuition, this is now a whole new part 
of subset of the bigger picture of more 
and more administrators making 
higher and higher salaries, and then 
burdening students and their parents 
with higher and higher levels of 
student loan debt to be able to afford 
this rising tuition that’s blowing up 
not because instructional costs are 
necessarily increasing or their hiring 
full-time professors, they’re hiring 
more and more bureaucrats.”
Perry published a list of diversity 
officers at the University on his 
Twitter account. He said over 70 
positions have been added and the 
money spent would be equivalent 
to 
giving 
in-state 
full 
tuition 
scholarships to over 700 students.
In response to a Detroit News 
editorial critical of DEI spending, 
University President Mark Schlissel 
wrote in a letter to the editor over 80 
percent of the positions were created 
before 2016 and have had diversity 
duties added since their creation.
“In many cases, staff with the term 
‘diversity’ in their job descriptions 
have added these specific duties 
to jobs they already had,” Schlissel 
wrote. “Everyone benefits from 
their work.”
University spokeswoman Kim 
Broekhuizen reiterated the message 
of Schlissel’s letter in an email 
interview with The Daily. She added 
there is also a DEI Implementation 
Leads Group, which is a group 
helping 
with 
department-level 
DEI work, but these are University 
employees doing this in addition to 
their other work.
“They help carry out unit 
and department level DEI goals 
and meet on a monthly basis to 
share best practices, engage in 
professional development activities 
and receive updates, information, 
tools, templates and other resources 
from 
central 
administration,” 
Broekhuizen wrote. “Many of these 
employees are not solely dedicated 
to DEI efforts but do so in addition 
to their roles and responsibilities 
within their department.”
National 
discourse 
on 
diversity and Title IX compliance
Perry filed a complaint in May 
with the U.S. Department of 
Education’s Office for Civil Rights 
challenging 11 University programs, 
initiatives, 
organizations 
and 
scholarships. An OCR letter to Perry 
dated Jan. 24 said the department is 
opening an investigation into the 
claims.
Perry said his claims stemmed 
from males being overlooked and 
the University not taking action. 
He said the roles of employees who 
have diversity-related duties should 
be to ensure programs and policies 
work against discrimination against 
all groups equally. He specifically 
noted the case of men.
“From a legal standpoint it’s 
very clear and yet it seems like it’s 
never tolerated to discriminate 
against women or minorities, but 
discriminating 
against 
men 
is 
either overlooked or encouraged or 
even advocated,” Perry said. “That’s 
where this double-standard, I think, 
in the diversity industry, the Title 
IX enforcement and compliance 
is, so that’s where I think if they’re 
really doing their job, then they 
have to look at discrimination 
against men as a violation of Title 
IX — which it is — and they have to 
take that as seriously as they take 
discrimination against women.”
Perry is known for challenging 
a women-only lounge at Michigan 
State University in 2016. His 
complaint prompted a petition in 
favor of the lounge garnering over 
6,500 signatures and the school 
converting the lounge into a study 
space for all students. Additionally, 
he has filed complaints with OCR 
against Wayne State University, 
the University of Virginia and the 
University of Minnesota, Twin 
Cities.
However, Perry is not the only 
person vocalizing his opinions 
on diversity programs and Title 
IX policy compliance on college 
campuses. 
Margaret 
Valois, 
a 
Virginia-based 
lawyer, 
filed 
a 
complaint 
with 
OCR 
against 
Tulane University for “financial 
discrimination” against men in 
awards and internship grants. 
Ultimately, Tulane reached an 
agreement requiring administrative 
training to prevent discrimination 
in 
funding 
and 
on-campus 
opportunities in the future.
Perry 
held 
up 
the 
Tulane 
University 
agreement 
as 
an 
example of the outcome of OCR 
investigations 
into 
diversity 
programs. 
He 
said 
there 
are 
parallels between his complaints 

and those made against Tulane.
“Tulane University was just 
challenged on a bunch of similar 
programs,” Perry said. “They were 
found to be in violation of Title IX, 
so they’re now under sanctions 
from the Office for Civil Rights in 
Dallas for programs that are very 
similar to the ones that I challenged 
at the University of Michigan, and 
so they’re now under orders from 
the Office of Civil Rights to open up 
all these programs that previously 
discriminated based on gender… 
The outcome at Tulane, I think, 
should be a precedent for what 
happens at Michigan.”
Similarly, Harvard University 
has recently faced a flurry of 
lawsuits 
related 
to 
Title 
IX, 
diversity and discrimination. One 
pair of lawsuits, known unofficially 
as #StandUpToHavard, was filed by 
Greek groups and three anonymous 
students. The lawsuits claim a 
school policy barring students 
involved in single-sex finals clubs 
— a select group of fraternity-like 
student organizations recognized 
by the school — and Greek 
organizations from holding campus 
leadership positions, varsity team 
athletic captaincies and school 
endorsement 
for 
fellowships 
violates the U.S. Title IX policy 
and the Constitution, as well as the 
Massachusetts state constitution 
and Civil Rights Act.
In another case, a transgender 
woman is suing Harvard and 
one of its Office for Dispute 
Resolution investigators for alleged 
discrimination 
and 
retaliation 
against the plaintiff after she 
reported an admissions officer 
for sexual harassment. All three 
lawsuits are ongoing.
Broekhuizen 
said 
because 
Title IX decisions are made on an 
institution-by-institution 
basis, 
rulings made on programs at other 
campuses like the decision at 
Tulane University, do not influence 
University decisions.
“A ruling at Tulane University — 
which is specific to the programs/
policies at Tulane University — 
does not impact our policies and 
programming here at the University 
of Michigan,” Broekhuizen wrote. 
“The University of Michigan, as 
an equal opportunity/affirmative 
action employer, complies with all 
applicable federal and state laws 
regarding nondiscrimination and 
affirmative action. The University 
of Michigan is committed to a policy 
of equal opportunity for all persons 
and does not discriminate on the 
basis of race, color, national origin, 
age, marital status, sex, sexual 
orientation, gender identity, gender 
expression, 
disability, 
religion, 
height, weight, or veteran status in 
employment, educational programs 
and activities, and admissions.”
Student opinions, involvement
Kinesiology 
junior 
Jackson 
Schleuning, 
secretary 
of 
the 
University’s chapter of College 
Republicans, said he doesn’t take 
issue with the intentions of DEI, but 
feels University resources should be 
placed directly into the classroom.
“I believe the intentions are good 
behind the efforts,” Schleuning 
said. “The resources could better be 
used if those are funneled directly 
back into the classroom. What 
strengthens us as a University 
and community is being one of the 
most high-level institutions in the 
nation and I believe that comes with 
having highly funded classrooms.”
Broekhuizen 
recognizes 
any 
program 
will 
garner 
differing 
opinions 
from 
students. 
She 
referenced the first and second-
year progress reports for the five-
year plan to show the impact of the 
program on campus. As of today, 
she said 92 percent of the 2,177 
individual action items are already 
implemented or in progress.
In regards to student input, 
Broekhuizen said there are many 
avenues for students to share their 
thoughts. For instance, one 2018 
DEI Summit Week event, hosted 
by the Office of Student Life, was 
a student-designed event that gave 
students the opportunity to discuss 
possible approaches to campus 
climate-related issues, as well as 
give input on the proposed Trotter 
Multicultural 
Center 
interior 
finishes and programming.
Additionally, 
Broekhuizen 
also said many individual schools 
and departments have diversity 
committees comprised of students 
and faculty. She said all students 
are welcome to contact the Office 
of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to 
share their thoughts. Broekhuizen 
also noted a new student advisory 
planning group in the Office of 
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, 
which students can join if interested.

Wheeler said. “And obviously 
the 
things 
the 
Ronald 
McDonald House does are 
just amazing.”
The 
Ronald 
McDonald 
House 
has 
undergone 
extensive 
renovations 
over the past decade. They 
launched a new program 
where volunteers push a 
hospitality cart around the 
hospital, complete with hair 
ties, phone chargers and 
whatever else families may 
need. The house has been 
expanded and re-outfitted 
from the house originally 
built in 1985, with new 
housing 
in 
the 
hospital 
just steps away from the 
Newborn 
and 
Pediatric 
Intensive 
Care 
Units 
at 
Mott.

The 
Alpha 
Delta 
Pi 
sorority pairs with Ronald 
McDonald House for their 
primary philanthropy, and 
the 
University’s 
chapter 
works 
closely 
with 
the 
Ronald McDonald House of 
Ann Arbor year after year. 
LSA junior Sarah Daly is the 
formerly philanthropy chair 
of Alpha Delta Pi. She said 
it’s important for students 
to be aware of and support 
the 
Ronald 
McDonald 
House.
“Everyone 
can 
feel 
connected because it’s so 
close to campus and its 
children are staying at the 
Mott’s Hospital which is 
right on campus right next 
to 
Markley,” 
Daly 
said. 
“Students have the ability 
to go in and cook dinner 
for the families and see 
the impact they can make 
and the impact the Ronald 

McDonald house is making 
on the families.”
Daly spent time in a 
Ronald McDonald House 
when 
she 
was 
younger 
while her cousin received 
medical care. She said the 
organization’s 
cause 
still 
has a place in the hearts of 
herself and her family.
“They 
don’t 
ask 
the 
families to pay,” Daly said. 
“That’s another thing that’s 
so special is that these 
families are able to stay 
there, feel warm, feel like 
they’re at home for free or 
for a small donation, but 
those rooms do cost a lot 
of money. That’s why they 
need people like us to help 
take care of them, volunteer 
but also donate money.”
It 
costs 
approximately 
$100 per night to house one 
family. With 44 rooms and 
those at capacity nearly all 

of the time, LeDuc said it 
becomes expensive to keep 
the house up and running. 
The 
Michigan 
Masonic 
Charitable 
Foundation’s 
grant will cover a year’s 
worth of occupancy for one 
of the rooms. 
“We receive a few very 
large 
donations 
a 
year,” 
LeDuc 
said. 
“This 
is 
certainly one of our largest 
donations, 
and 
we’re 
incredibly grateful to the 
Masons for providing this 
wonderful 
community 
grant.”
LeDuc said that donations 
like the Masons’ grant or 
Alpha 
Delta 
Pi’s 
efforts 
are 
what 
sustain 
the 
organization.
“We 
rely 
on 
the 
community and appreciate 
the community support that 
we receive,” LeDuc said.
 

The 
University 
will 
use 
the gift to create the FinTech 
Collaboratory, 
which 
will 
engage 
students 
and 
faculty 
in 
educational 
and 
research 
opportunities. The Collaboratory 
will be an interdisciplinary effort 
between the Center for Smart 
Infrastructure Finance (UM-SIF) 
at the College of Engineering, 
the Center on Finance, Law and 
Policy at the School of Public 
Policy and the FinTech initiative 
at the Ross School of Business.
UM-SIF 
Director 
Peter 
Adriaens, a professor of civil 
and environmental engineering, 
highlighted 
education, 
case 
research 
and 
applying 
blockchain knowledge to real-
world opportunities as the main 
components of the Collaboratory.
“There’s 
that 
student 
education side to help develop 
a pipeline that companies like 
Ripple can hire,” Adriaens said. 
“To new use cases, that’s really 
all about market expansion for 
opportunities for FinTech and 
blockchain. And then the third 
one is how do we translate all of 
this more into the public markets 
and public finance and public 
infrastructure systems.”
The 
financial 
technology 
space also has a social impact. 
Adriaens 
stressed 
the 
need 
to look past the algorithmic 
side 
of 
cryptocurrency 
to 
see the business needs and 
legal implications of financial 
technologies.
“It’s not because you can do 
it that you should do it, from a 
business perspective,” he said. 
“On the social side it’s again, it’s 
not because you can do it that 
you should do it. Or if you do it, 
you’re going to have to put some 
protections in place, privacy 
protections in place for people... 
It might potentially result in 
destabilization of the markets 
and that’s why we need financial 
policy. So, not just public policy 
but financial policy to be in place. 
That’s why we’re starting to look 
at students in all different sides, 
there are legal students involved 
both from the Center on Finance, 
Law and Policy but also in the 
Business School that look at the 
legalities.”

Blockchain 
and 
cryptocurrency fall under the 
broader umbrella of financial 
technology, aiming to improve 
financial 
service 
activities, 
usually through the use of 
algorithms. Originally created 
for 
Bitcoin, 
a 
blockchain 
is 
a 
growing 
linkage 
of 
“blocks” storing transactional 
information, 
which 
can 
be 
accessed by anyone and is 
stored on multiple computers 
as opposed to in one central 
location. 
Because 
of 
this, 
blockchain is seen as a more 
robust, protected way of making 
transactions. 
Cryptocurrency 
is a medium of assets using 
cryptography to secure financial 
data and transactions.
Student interest in FinTech 
has been growing rapidly and 
surged in popularity in 2017 
when cryptocurrencies rapidly 
rose in price. On Jan. 1, 2018, 
Bitcoin hit its highest price 
of 
$13,412.44. 
Engineering 
senior Andy Walner, president 
of Wolverine Blockchain, sees 
interest from students in both 
blockchain and cryptocurrency.
“We were founded at the 
beginning of last school year, 
and that was a time when 
blockchain and cryptocurrency, 
which people often think of as 
synonymous, was getting a lot 
of media coverage,” Walner said. 
“We held our first event and had 
a turnout of 500 people at Ross 
in the Robertson Auditorium, 
and we’re seeing a lot of interest 
in December.”
Business junior Rishi Prasad, 
co-founder 
of 
Wolverine 
Blockchain and president and 
founder of Michigan FinTech, 
a 
student 
organization 
that 
promotes 
education 
and 
opportunities in the field of 
financial 
technology, 
echoed 
Walner’s 
sentiments. 
He 
recalled a Michigan FinTech 
event in 2017, where Andrew 
Wu, 
assistant 
professor 
of 
technology and operations and 
finance, spoke and where the 
club saw how many students 
were interested in a FinTech 
course. The club would go on to 
develop the course, today taught 
by Wu and finance professor 
Robert Dittmar.
“That was one of our first 
events, we had 300 people come 
out to it,” Prasad said. “And 

(Wu) said, ‘If you’re interested 
in taking a FinTech course, raise 
your hand.’ And nearly every 
hand in the room went up, and 
he literally took a picture of that 
and sent it to the dean. That was 
proof right there that there’s 
insane interest in the space.”
According to Wu, meeting 
high student demand is difficult 
because 
already 
present 
resources 
like 
courses 
and 
faculty are being utilized to 
their full capacity. Resources 
from the Collaboratory and from 
Ripple would provide additional 
learning 
opportunities 
for 
students.
“We’re capacity-constrained 
by faculty, but the demand is 
there,” Wu said. “We’re going 
to launch a new MBA section 
this year. All of our action-
based learning things, as you 
can imagine these things are 
very popular. But again, the 
Collaboratory would give us a 
lot more resources to develop 
more of that, maybe getting 
more faculty involved so that 
we can better serve student 
demand. Right now essentially 
the demand is so high that we’re 
capped by what we can do.”
Weber said one goal of the 
UBRI is to grow a network of 
students and faculty who can 
lead the way in cryptocurrency 
and 
blockchain 
development 
and application.
“Part of the program is 
to 
create 
more 
connecting 
tissue 
and 
more 
synergy 
between students and faculty 
who 
are 
working 
at 
these 
different universities,” Werner 
said. “There’s a lot of cross-
pollination, it can happen in 
collaboration, 
already 
we’re 
seeing 
subjoined 
research 
happening. There are workshops 
and conferences planned for 
later this semester and later this 
year where, you know, Ripple 
partners will either be hosting, 
co-hosting or attending.”
As one of the 29 universities 
partnered 
with 
Ripple, 
the 
University serves as a “node” 
on a RippleNet blockchain. Wu 
said this will be particularly 
helpful as a hands-on approach 
for student learning.
“We’re going to have a Ripple 
validator here on campus,” Wu 
said. “That means we’re going to 
be part of the Ripple blockchain 

network, 
actually 
processing 
the Ripple transactions. As part 
of that, we’re also going to build 
what’s called stock servers for 
the students, our students, to 
get involved. So they can see the 
transactions, that’ll give them 
a better understanding of how 
this blockchain actually works. 
They can see that in real time, 
live.”
Since 
FinTech, 
cryptocurrency and blockchain 
are new topics, Wu said there 
are no textbooks and no cases 
for students to study. Instead, 
he said, students will engage 
through action-based learning.
“We already launched a bunch 
of projects which we are going 
to do more with the FinTech 
Collaboratory,” Wu said. “We’re 
going to build essentially action-
based 
learning 
projects 
for 
students to actually work in 
these FinTech companies. Be 
it Ripple, be it startups, across 
different markets. In the U.S., 
we have one here this spring in 
the U.K., we’re going to build 
new markets in China and Israel 
… just to give these guys first-
hand experience in actually 
working with the companies. 
And in doing so they can learn 
what FinTech is and how it 
works.”
Prasad 
believes 
the 
Collaboratory can help solve 
challenges on campus, including 
a lack of recruiting events for 
those interested in a FinTech 
career, as well as increasing 
student 
engagement 
and 
education across the University.
“I think it’s tremendous that 
the University is doing this, I 
think it’s definitely a step in the 
right direction,” Prasad said. 
“I’d say the blockchain space 
can definitely be crowded and 
the legitimacy of companies in 
that space can definitely, to put it 
bluntly, be called into question. 
But I’d say Ripple is definitely 
one of the industry leaders, 
one of the most legitimate 
companies in the space, with 
their leadership team, the type 
of investments they’ve attracted 
and 
the 
partnerships 
that 
they’ve garnered with some of 
the biggest financial industries 
and companies in the world. 
I think it’s great and in terms 
of research and connections it 
should help a lot.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, February 15, 2019 — 3

GRANT
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DIVERSITY
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PE NNY STAMPS SPE AKE R SE RIES

Umayyah Cable, associate english professor at Hartwick College, speaks on independent filmmaking at the Critical Conversations: Media Studies at 
the Intersection of Theory and Practice discussion in Hatcher Graduate Library Thursday afternoon.

ZACHARY GOLDSMITH/Daily

Read more online at 

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