“I think it’s a really important 

point to note that, oftentimes, 
Palestinians are so silenced in this 
narrative that it’s up to allies to 
support this struggle for justice and 
freedom of speech,” Jawad said. 
“But that isn’t to say they don’t have 
agency. Palestinian people definitely 
speak for themselves, they’ve been 
advocating for themselves, for self-
sufficiency for decades. I’m not 
saying they don’t have the agency 
or clout to do so, what I’m saying 
though is that in U.S. institutions 
specifically, 
Palestinian 
voices 

are often wiped out and not given 
equal weight in conversation, or 
they’re oftentimes just ignored 
purposefully, 
intentionally, 
for 

political reasons.” 

Al-Khatib said the function of the 

blacklist is especially detrimental 
since many of those targeted have 
parents who immigrated to the U.S. 
in order for their children to receive 
a better education and increased 
opportunity. 

“Education is really important 

to us because, in my case, the 
reason my parents came is so that 
I could get a better education and I 
could thrive with the resources in 
America, following the American 
Dream,” Al-Khatib said. “Canary 
Mission threatens that for us. I 
think that’s a very real fear that 
first-generation Americans have. 
It’s the most important thing for us 
to achieve our education. So a lot of 
people are immediately turned off. 
They’re like, ‘It’s better to stay quiet, 
not make a sound, make it through 

my education,’ because we don’t 
have the privilege of being able to 
express our political opinions 
without having any consequences 
that affect not only us, but our 
families.”

The blacklist does not exempt 

Jewish activists from its ranks. 
Jewish Voice for Peace, a group 
that “seeks an end to the Israeli 
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza 
Strip and East Jerusalem,” appears 
on Canary Mission. Mondoweiss, 
a foreign policy blog founded 
by a former New York Observer 
columnist who is Jewish, also 
appears on the blacklist, along with 
a number of individual Jewish 
activists. 

LSA senior Ali Rosenblatt was a 

representative on CSG during the 
divestment campaign. Although 
Rosenblatt, who is Jewish, did 
not support the resolution nor the 
secret ballot, she condemns Canary 
Mission and said it stifles dialogue. 

Rosenblatt said her peers who 

were opposed to divestment were 
also against the blacklist. She 
stressed the two opinions should 
not be conflated with each other. 

“It’s a cyber-bullying website,” 

Rosenblatt said. “It chills dialogue 
on campus. Because of the website, 
I’ve had more trouble having 
conversations with people on the 
other side of this issue. People 
are scared to talk to me because 
I’m Jewish, and what I’ve heard 
is because I’m Jewish, some 
wrongfully presume I must support 
it and I must be contributing to the 
website, which is so not the case. 
It’s unfortunate that this happens. I 
don’t blame people for being afraid, 
but that’s why I oppose it. It instills 

fear, and I don’t agree with that.”

While the list of representatives 

who voted for the secret ballot 
is shown in a video online, many 
activists 
said 
Canary 
Mission 

draws on material not readily 
available online, or material that 
may be private. Jawad said it was 
unknown how Canary Mission 
finds this information. 

“Nobody knows — that’s up 

for speculation,” Jawad said. “If 
you look on Canary Mission’s 
website, it takes submissions, so 
the submissions must come from 
students or people that are watching 
the live streams. I wouldn’t venture 
to say that it is other U of M students 
— I don’t think that it is. I think it 
could be anybody. You never know 
who’s on the internet looking at 
you, and everything is public and 
live-streamed so it could literally be 
anybody.” 

Rosenblatt agreed and said she 

would be surprised if students 
contributed tips to the blacklist. 

“I 
think 
what’s 
a 

misunderstanding on this campus 
is that some people think that it’s 
a Michigan issue, so they think 
it must be Michigan students 
contributing to it,” Rosenblatt 
said. “This is a national issue, it’s 
a national website. I wouldn’t be 
surprised if nobody on campus 
contributes to it. As far as the 
(secret ballot) votes go, because The 
Daily live streams it, pretty much 
anybody on campus or off campus 
could find out who voted, and the 
CSG records are public.”

Al-Khatib does believe certain 

individuals at the University may 
contribute to Canary Mission. 
However, she noted Hillel, an 

opponent of #UMDivest movement, 
has spoken out against the blacklist. 

“There’s definitely an inside 

source,” Al-Khatib said. “They 
know things that are super, super 
specific to our campus that no 
one stalking you on Facebook 
could know. They definitely get 
tipped off. Like for example, when 
divestment came out, in 2017 last 
year, we turned it in for readings 
just for CSG to approve, and a lot 
of that information got leaked 
and was put on Canary before it 
became public about co-authors 
and stuff like that. And that was 
private information. Only CSG and 
us could look at it, so it makes you 
wonder how is this information 
getting leaked and who’s letting 
it. And I know the opposition for 
divestment was Hillel, Hillel was 
leading the campaign, but they’ve 
spoken out about it and reached out 
to us about it, so I’m not saying it’s 
them. I think it’s individuals on this 
campus that are trying to degrade 
our cause. And they know how to 
target us.”

Current Hillel chair Leor Rosen, 

LSA junior, wrote in an email she 
disapproved of Canary Mission and 
its methods.

“Many 
students 
at 
Hillel, 

including myself, strongly oppose 
the intimidation tactics of Canary 
Mission and have spoken out 
against it in the past,” Rosen wrote. 
“The website prevents constructive 
dialogue and is counterproductive 
to efforts to oppose BDS. I want 
our campus to be a space where 
students can engage in productive 
discourse without fear of being 
targeted.” 

Zoha Khalili is a staff attorney 

for Palestine Legal, an advocacy 
group that provides legal service 
and 
advice 
for 
pro-Palestine 

activists. The group has also been 
targeted 
by 
Canary 
Mission. 

Khalili said Palestine Legal has 
not filed any lawsuits against 
Canary Mission and she knows of 
no other law firms who have taken 
legal action against the blacklist’s 
website 
either. 
Khalili 
said 

defamation lawsuits are difficult to 
win because of the courts’ strong 
defense of freedom of speech.

“Generally we are reviewing 

their profiles for inaccuracies,” 
Khalili said. “Canary Mission often 
will put out vague statements that 
make it harder for people to take 
action against them when you’re 
defaming them. Defamation is 
when you’re putting out false 
information about someone and 
that causes them harm, which is 
something that Canary Mission 
engages in routinely. But because 
our system of government is 
focused more on creating the 
broadest area possible for free 
speech, it is a bit hard to litigate 
defamation cases.”

However, Khalili said Palestine 

Legal did offer students advice on 
when it is appropriate to report 
Canary Mission’s social media 
account. 
In 
October, 
Canary 

Mission’s Twitter account was, in 
fact, deactivated for two weeks for 
violating the website’s terms of use. 
It was later reinstated following 
appeals from supporters of the 
blacklist.

“Right now they’re the 

kind of people who came up 
with, and are now defending, 
the policies that come in the 
way of equity,” Robinson 
said. “The current view in 
Ann Arbor is that each of our 
three campuses should have 
watertight 
compartments 

across the three campuses so 
that resources can’t really be 
transferred back and forth.”

During 
the 
coalition 

meeting Thursday, attendees 
began to set out a coalition 
platform, 
delineating 

the objectives of the 1U 

campaign. In crafting this 
platform, 
attendees 
voted 

on whether or not to include 
measures such as equalizing 
faculty 
funding 
across 

campuses, expanding the Go 
Blue Guarantee to Dearborn 
and Flint, and allocating 
funds to scholarships and 
study abroad programs.

Tyrice Denson, director 

of 
foreign 
outreach 
for 

Student Government at U-M 
Flint, began the meeting by 
describing recent actions 1U 
had taken to gather support 
among the staff and student 
body for the coalition’s goals.

“We went and presented to 

Central Student Government 
to outline the platform to 
them,” Denson said. “The 

feedback I got from that was 
overwhelmingly positive. I 
think that a lot of people in 
CSG are supportive of the 
idea of breaking down those 
barriers and having more 
equitable resources.”

The 
central 
discussion 

point 
Thursday 
was 
the 

creation of a general 1U 
steering committee, which 
would 
be 
tasked 
with 

overseeing the day-to-day 
work of the organization.

According to the proposal 

announced 
during 
the 

meeting, these tasks would 
include 
establishing 
all 

campaign-related 
agendas, 

finding speakers for public 
action; engaging the media 
and elected officials and 

creating communications. 

Attendees at the meeting 

decided 
members 
would 

self-nominate for positions 
on the steering committee, 
and 
ideally 
represent 
a 

wide range of University 
perspectives, 
including 

undergraduates, 
graduates 

and lecturers as well as 
tenured 
and 
untenured 

professors.

LSA 
junior 
Sharif-

Ahmed Krabti was one of 
the 1U members who self-
nominated for a position on 
the newly established board. 
Ultimately, 
four 
members 

volunteered 
for 
positions 

from 
Flint, 
one 
from 

Dearborn and three from 
Ann Arbor.

As a member of the new 1U 

leadership structure, Krabti 
explained he was optimistic 
about the foundation the 
steering committee would 
provide for the future of the 
organization.

“I’m 
feeling 
really 

confident about the decisions 
we made,” Krabti said. “I’m 
glad that we are putting forth 
a steering committee and a 
platform, pending approval. 
Those are all really tangible 
first steps. I feel really 
good about the coalition’s 
structure, it has a big focus 
on equity and inclusivity 
within 
the 
conversation 

and 
the 
decision-making 

process.”

“When I asked her why she 

thought the woman was cooking 
drugs, she responded ‘I saw her here 
before and she looked suspicious and 
this time she looks more suspicious.’ 
That was her only justification for 
her call to the police.”

Gillooly shared the call with 

dispatch, and was scolded by 
her supervisor for putting in a 
“ridiculous call.” She shared there 
are protocols in place for dealing with 
biased phone calls, emphasizing how 
further conversation can determine 
the legitimacy of the calls.

Washtenaw 
County 
Sheriff 

Jerry Clayton, another panelist, 
discussed how dispatch deals with 
the calls from operators. He said 
police officers will sometimes go 
to the scene without engaging 
with the suspicious person. When 
they do interact, Clayton said he 
understands why people are irritated 
when they must deal with the police. 
He is working with fellow officers to 
set up an action plan to respond to 
suspicious-person calls.

“Metro dispatch will manage the 

suspected bias-influenced calls in a 
manner that minimizes the impact 
on the subject of the call,” Clayton 
said. “In extreme cases, they will 
not dispatch police personnel … for 
service that are clearly the result of 
a caller bias.” 

Clayton said there would possibly 

be two outcomes for the call. One 
outcome would involve either not 
showing up to the scene at all or 
responding to the call and having 
a conversation with the person in 
question. The other outcome would 
be figuring out what skills police 
officers need to possess to behave 
the way the sheriff’s office wants.

Panelist Barry Friedman, law 

professor at New York University, is 
working on the Policing Project at the 
New York University School of Law, 
an organization that partners with 
communities and police to create 
preventative measures for police 
accountability. He took his time to 
“widen the lens” from discussing 
how 911 operators deal with racially 
biased calls, as well as how the 
Sheriff’s Office deals with these 
calls. He said incarceration, police 
stops, pre-trial release decisions and 
other dealings with authorities are 
impacted by racial bias as well.

“You can’t talk about mass 

incarceration 
without 
policing,” 

Friedman said. “Most of the folks 
who end up in the criminal justice 
system end up there through the 
door that is opened up by the police. 
We have to look at this whole iceberg, 
I think to kind of get a handle on it.”

He questioned if police are the 

best responders since what most 
of the situations need is mediation 
rather than force. He then asked his 
audience to ask a three-fold question 
of “What are the police doing here?”

“Just because police are the 

first responders, which they are, 
doesn’t mean that they are the right 
responders,” Friedman said. “And 
the question I want people to ask is 
going to sound like one question but 
actually is three. The first question 
is, ‘What are the police doing here, 
which is to say, are the police the 
right people to be responding to 
deal with this particular situation?’ 
The second question is, ‘What are 
the police doing here — when they 
respond, what is it that they actually 
do and what are they trained to 
do?’ And finally and probably most 
importantly, ‘What are the police 
doing here — is there something 
about this place that is problematic 
from a social perspective that we 
need to deal with in some way other 
than the police?”

Thacher opened up the room to 

anonymous questions. One person 
asked how to motivate officers and 
dispatchers when they are so short-
staffed. Friedman answered the 
short-staffing of police officers is 
not so much an issue as the short-
staffing of professionals who deal 
with public health and social issues.

“Many of the things that fall 

into the lap of the police that we 
think of as policing problems of this 
country really are public health 
problems,” Friedman said. “You 
need a mentality in the public to 
treat them as that and fund them as 
that and for some reason it’s easy to 
get funding for cops relative to a lot 
of other things.”

Rackham students Jarell Skinner-

Roy and Laura Lee Smith came to 
the talk to learn more about what 
authorities are doing concerning 
biased calls. Roy believed this was 
a good step for sharing information 
with the public.

Among 
the 
principal 

objectives of the wellness zone 
is to help students conquer 
Seasonal Affective Disorder, a 
type of depression caused by 
the decrease of sunlight in the 
wintertime. To conquer SAD, 
CAPS is installing two light 
therapy machines so students 
can get their daily dose of 
vitamin D.

“Seasonal Affective Disorder 

is a big thing, we live in the 
Midwest and don’t get to see a 
lot of sun so it does affect our 
mood, and so we will have two 

light therapy machines available 
as well,” Asidao said. “That can 
be a really great boost when you 
do 30 minutes a day for at least 
a week; they will start to feel 
better.”

LSA freshman Natalie McKee, 

a resident on North Campus, 
described how the lack of sun 
during Michigan winters can be 
difficult to adjust to for students 
from out of state. 

“It’s not really sunny up here 

because of the high latitude,” 
McKee said. “I’m from Colorado, 
and it’s a lot sunnier there. It was 
definitely an adjustment for the 
weeks of cloudy days. It would 
be nice to have the (vitamin D) 
lamps when it’s not sunny for 

such a long period of time.”

Other 
additions 
to 
the 

wellness 
zone 
will 
include 

meditation studios and yoga 
mats.

CAPS Director Todd Sevig 

explained the inspiration for the 
new Wellness Zone derives from 
the success of the opening of the 
first wellness zone on Central 
Campus in 2011.

“In 2011 we opened our first 

Wellness 
Zone,” 
Sevig 
said. 

“Long story short, it resonated 
really 
well 
with 
students. 

Starting the second year, our 
estimate is about 5,000 students 
used the wellness zone every 
year. 
They 
(students) 
wrote 

comments to us (CAPS) on a 

whiteboard and it was just really 
supportive.”

A 
large 
reason 
for 
the 

success of the Central Campus 
wellness zone is the amount 
of student engagement in the 
decision-making process during 
its inception. CAPS hopes to 
replicate this method to ensure 
the Pierpont Commons wellness 
zone fits the needs of students.

“Nothing happens on this 

campus of substantive value 
or 
lasting 
change 
without 

the involvement of everyone 
working together,” Sevig said. 
“Students in terms of the ideas, 
both past and current, and also 
the administrators, the Pierpont 
staff, to make the physical space 

happen.”

Engineering freshman Naomi 

Kantor expressed excitement 
for the wellness zone coming to 
North Campus as a way to wind 
down during the semester.

“I know for a lot of people 

you don’t live on North Campus, 
and as an Engineering student 
you spend a lot of time on 
North Campus,” Kantor said. 
“If you have breaks between 
classes it would be good to 
have somewhere to decompress 
because you don’t have the 
luxury to go back to your house.”

According 
to 
CAPS, 
the 

grand opening of the Pierpont 
Commons wellness zone is set 
for March 18.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, March 1, 2019 — 3

CANARY
From Page 2

PREJUDICE 
From Page 1
PUBLIC TALK ON CONTEMPOR ARY ART

Director and CEO of Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Phil Tinari, speaks on the history of contemporary art in China over the past three 
decades at the University of Michigan Museum of Art Thursday evening.

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

1U
From Page 1

WELLNESS
From Page 1