“And also staff who work directly 

with students in res (sic) life… especially 

directors of halls close to the incident, 

they didn’t receive those calls. But the 

(IT employee) I know on staff doesn’t 

work directly with students at all and 

they received that phone call. That was 

upsetting for me.”

On North Campus, LSA freshman 

Alexandra Dortzbach was in Bursley 

Residence Hall when text messages 

started streaming in. Dortzbach said 

she heard about the potential active 

shooter situation through multiple 

group chats about 30 minutes before 

receiving a push notification alert 

through the University of Michigan 

app.

Dortzbach expressed activity on 

North Campus seemed minimally 

affected by the active shooter threat.

“I’d say it was business as normal,” 

Dortzbach said. “We felt pretty 

removed. There was just a lot of talk 

and speculation about what was going 

on … all panic I saw was on behalf of 

people on Central Campus and their 

friends. None of it was about something 

actually occurring on North Campus.”

Sonya 
Lewis, 
Medical 
School 

instructor 
and 
member 
of 
the 

executive committee of Physicians for 

the Prevention of Gun Violence, was 

in the Diag just before the incident, 

attending the Women’s March. She 

said people got alerts before she did 

and she did not know what was going 

on until her daughter’s friend told her, 

and the misinformation being spread 

contributed to her confusion and fear.

“Because these mass shootings are 

so common in our society, it didn’t seem 

outlandish, it didn’t seem like we were 

overreacting, it seemed — with the 

information we were getting — very, 

very real, and our fear was very real,” 

Lewis said.

Lewis also said throughout the 

incident, she was receiving conflicting 

reports. She noted people attributing 

it to balloon popping, a report from 

The Daily Twitter account of multiple 

students wounded — which was later 

deleted and apologized for — and stories 

of different shooters in different places.

“We started seeing things about 

balloons and that it wasn’t really a gun 

situation,” Lewis said. “These things 

were happening in parallel with tweets 

about people being wounded and stuff 

like that. It was very hard to know what 

was actually happening.”

Ashur expressed the University’s 

alert system especially affects the Arab 

and Muslim community and wants the 

University to specifically apologize to 

these communities.

“I want the University of Michigan 

just to acknowledge ‘We were not clear 

during this situation,’” Ashur said. “There 

was a general statement of ‘Everyone 

has suffered, here’s some counseling.’ 

But people who were struggling to hold 

onto their identity of Arab, Muslim, and 

American … University of Michigan is 

not acknowledging we are suffering 

the most. … There was a failure on (the 

University’s) part, why not just say, 

‘You guys not only suffered after what 

happened in New Zealand, you suffered 

once again in this (active shooter scare) 

and we are so sincerely apologetic.’”

III. Run, hide, fight

LSA sophomore Soraya Zrikem ran 

from the Diag to the Law Quad when 

police interrupted the vigil, ultimately 

separating her from her mother and 

godmother, who had attended the vigil 

with her. Once in the Law Quad, she said 

employees did a good job of making sure 

there were barricades, but were unable 

to answer important questions.

Zrikem holds an on-campus job 

overseeing a study space and said she 

received no training for emergency 

events like what took place Saturday. 

However, she said she was aware of 

some faculty who did.

“While most of the time when you’re 

monitoring those spaces, not a lot is 

expected of you, if there is an emergency, 

you are the person that needs to be 

able to lead that group automatically, 

otherwise panic will ensue,” Zrikem 

said. “I don’t think it should be expected 

of me — as a random student — to know 

where a safe space is in all of my school 

buildings. That’s just not reasonable, 

and it would just be a lot to expect out 

of students, so at least employees should 

have that.”

An FBI study found the majority of 

shootings last less than five minutes. 

The study also exerted said civilians 

should be well-trained because many 

end before police arrive.

The slogan “Run, Hide, Fight” 

was created as a protocol for people 

in active shooter situations. It is on 

DPSS web pages related to active 

shooter preparedness and was included 

in a message from the alert system 

on Saturday. This slogan is widely 

considered a universal practice for 

active shooter situations, according to 

Cosgrove.

According to a Department of 

Homeland Security document, run, the 

first step, means flee the scene if you 

can. Hide, the next step, means find a 

place that’s out of the attacker’s sight 

while remaining quiet and to create 

a barricade if possible. The final step, 

fight, means to find an object to use as 

a weapon — such as a fire extinguisher, 

backpack, book or chair — and attempt 

to incapacitate the attacker as the last 

resort.

However, not everyone in the 

community was aware of this protocol 

before the incident. Williams said 

she thought the “Run, Hide, Fight” 

portion of this alert lacked clarification, 

especially since some students may not 

have understood the instructions given 

without context.

“The (Run, Hide, Fight) notification 

just added to what was turning into 

mass 
hysteria 
in 
that 
moment,” 

Williams said. “People are already 

anxious because they don’t know what’s 

going on, now they receive a formal 

notification that there is some sort of 

incident, whether unconfirmed or not, 

and what they’re instructed to do has 

no clarification. … Three of the people 

in the room (with me) were in a group 

chat with a lot of students in it, and a 

lot of the responses in the chat were 

like ‘What does ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ even 

mean?’”

Currently, DPSS requires students to 

watch an active shooter safety training 

video during orientation. Beyond that, 

University community members can 

request training workshops by going to 

the Presentations and Training section 

under 
Prevention 
and 
Education 

on DPSS’ website. Overton said the 

decision to make other training sessions 

mandatory would have to come from a 

higher University authority.

Fakhoury said the advisory board 

has been discussing further mandatory 

training, but brought up the point 

that students may be less interested 

in required courses. She highlighted 

DPSS’ capable guardian course — a 

training meant for people who want 

to be able to step up in an emergency 

situation.

“Looking into what the capable 

guardian is, it really fits those people 

who have that vested interest, so 

possibly marketing it more to those 

freshmen and other people who have an 

interest is something that we can look 

at,” Fakhoury said.

This issue of getting all students to 

engage with safety training is a large 

obstacle for DPSS, Tabbah said.

“How do we get all of the students 

this general training, and something 

that they don’t forget after freshman 

orientation,” Tabbah said. “I think 

that’s in general DPSS’ biggest struggle 

with students — how do you get them to 

care about safety when it’s not usually 

our number one priority?”

Overton acknowledged the video 

may not resonate with incoming 

freshmen who are already getting 

bombarded 
with 
information 
at 

orientation. However, she encouraged 

students and other University affiliates 

to sign up for training, as many officers 

are readily available to conduct them.

Zrikem 
said 
it 
is 
important 

employees are ready to take action 

in emergencies and, depending on 

location, know how to get information 

from superiors. She also noted how 

DPSS was called in for the vigil because 

organizers knew this could be a space 

that could attract hate, so she hopes this 

is a learning experience for them.

“If I was an employee in Mason, 

I should not be waiting to hear what 

higher-ups are telling me — I should 

know exactly how to respond in these 

types of emergencies,” Zrikem said. 

“In places that were farther away from 

the immediate panic zone, higher-ups 

should’ve been more in conversation 

with them, but I think that in the places 

close by, it was important people knew 

Demonstrators had no plan 
to leave until Schlissel agreed 
to a one-hour public meeting in 
which questions regarding the 
University’s plan to address climate 
change and carbon neutrality were 
not screened beforehand. Medintz 
noted they changed their demand 
from the public meeting to a full 
commitment to a transition to 
carbon neutrality by 2030.
After seven and a half hours in 
and around the Administration 
Building, 
Washtenaw 
County 
Climate Strike demonstrators left 
the area at approximately 9:30 
p.m. 
Friday. 
Melissa 
Overton, 
deputy chief of police and public 
information officer for the Division 
of Public Safety and Security, wrote 
in a message to The Daily stating 
10 demonstrators — including two 
minors — chose to remain in the 
building after multiple warnings. 
The 10 were arrested and given 
citations for trespassing, and the 
minors were held inside until their 
guardians arrived, Overton wrote.
Along with issues regarding 
citations, students have also voiced 
concern over the composition of the 
President’s Commission on Carbon 
Neutrality. 
However, 
Schlissel 
addressed this matter. 
In a monthly interview with 
The Daily last week, Schlissel said 
this person is one of two members 
from major energy corporations, 
making them a minority on the 
16-person commission. Schlissel 
also said the two corporations, DTE 
and Consumers Energy, have a 
personal incentive to improve their 
sustainability practices.
“I quite purposefully asked 
those two major energy companies 
to suggest someone they thought 
would 
be 
helpful, 
and 
the 
reason why is they provide the 
overwhelming amount of energy 
throughout our state and region 
and to say we don’t want to hear 
their thoughts and learn their 
plans because of their emissions 
of greenhouse gas,” Schlissel said. 
“They’re not going away, they are 
the major suppliers of electricity 
for the University, the city of Ann 
Arbor, et cetera., so ignoring them 
because of past behavior, I don’t 
think that serves any purpose.”
The Climate Strike was part 
of a youth-led global movement 
calling for action on climate change. 
Organizers estimated 2,500 to 3,000 
attended the Washtenaw County 
rally in the Diag at noon, which led 
to a march to the Administration 
Building and the sit-in.
In a statement about last Friday’s 
events, University spokesman Rick 
Fitzgerald wrote that Schlissel 
shares students’ concerns and 
encouraged anyone interested to 
attend the Commission on Carbon 
Neutrality’s town hall meetings.
“We appreciate the urgency 
our 
students 
feel 
regarding 
climate 
change,” 
Fitzgerald 
wrote. “President Mark Schlissel 
shares that sense of urgency. 
President Schlissel has committed 
the campus to carbon neutrality 
and has appointed a special 
commission to explore a pathway 
to achieving that goal including 
solutions to climate change that 
go well beyond the borders of the 
campus. That critical work is now 
under way.”
As a University with a lot of 
resources, Taubman sophomore 
Josh Kuh said it is important 
to 
keep 
pressure 
on 
the 
administration because climate 
change and carbon neutrality are 
major issues. He also said he came 
to the study-in to show support of 
the demonstrators’ requests.
Kuh said it’s time for the 
University to “walk the walk” and 
events like the study-in are ways 
to create change.
“Events 
like 
marches 
and 
strikes are really good — they’re 
powerful in the moment — but 
they don’t always have a lasting 
impact,” Kuh said. “It’s not always 
the flashiest thing and the most 
exciting thing in the moment that 
ends up having the most change 
or the biggest effect, so I think 
something like this … and that 
continued pressure might be more 
important in the long run.”
In a statement Thursday evening 
to The Daily, Fitzgerald wrote that 
Schlissel met with several Climate 
Action Movement members and 
discussed their concerns during his 
open student office hours on Feb. 28. 
Fitzgerald also noted the president’s 
commission co-chairs met with 
Climate 
Action 
Committee 
members on Feb. 27.

Journalism is not a dirty word, 
period.”
English 
Department 
Chair 
David Porter made it clear the 
potential new minor would not 
be a journalism program, even 
though the descriptions of the 
potential minor provided to The 
Daily include such terminology. 
According to Porter, efforts have 
not been made to rejuvenate the 
journalism program that closed 
nearly 90 years ago.
“Michigan used to have a 
journalism program that closed 
decades ago and there really 
hasn’t been any effort to replace 
that,” Porter said. “What we’re 
talking about is not intended to, by 
any means, replicate or duplicate 
or replace something like a 
traditional journalism program 
… in fact, we’ve largely avoided 
the use of the term ‘journalism’ 
and sought to think about the 
program more capaciously.”
Instead of being explicitly 
about journalism, Porter wrote 
that the Narrative Arts minor, 
if conceived, is intended to be 
interdepartmental, echoing the 
structural goals of the Social Class 
and Inequality Studies minor as 
well as the Digital Studies minor. 
“(The minor is) designed to 
provide students interested in 
careers 
involving 
journalism 
(and story-making more broadly) 
structured opportunities to study 

the history, theory and craft of a 
variety of nonfiction narrative 
forms, 
including 
long-form/
literary journalism, travel writing, 
memoir and ethnography,” Porter 
wrote in an email interview with 
The Daily.
The University’s relationship 
with journalism education and 
a curriculum surrounding the 
profession is long and complex. 
The 
Communication 
Studies 
Department began as “English 
Language and Literature” in 
1869, and after multiple name 
changes, 
became 
“Rhetoric 
and Journalism” in 1921. Eight 
years 
later, 
the 
department 
was 
referred 
to 
as 
simply 
“Journalism,” but dropped the 
word “journalism” from its name 
in 1932 and has not re-adopted 
it since. The Communication 
Studies Department, as it is 
currently named, formed in 1995.
There have been recent efforts 
in the English Department to 
enhance the journalism courses 
and 
opportunities 
available 
to 
students. 
The 
English 
Department added a new page to 
their website announcing their 
new summer internship program 
in journalism. According to the 
website, the department will offer 
funding for at least five applicants 
to complete a summer internship 
at a media outlet in the Detroit 
or Ann Arbor area. While this 
announcement implies support 
for journalism education from the 
English Department, Porter said 
including the word “journalism” 

in the new minor would isolate 
stakeholders in the department, 
resulting in a rejection of the 
initial proposal.
“A department like ours has 
many different constituencies 
and many different stakeholders, 
and trying to do something 
new requires (using rhetorical 
strategies) that everyone can get 
on board with and that try to 
avoid significantly antagonizing 
one group or another,” Porter 
said. “Had this proposal been 
pitched as primarily a journalistic 
undertaking, 
it 
would 
have 
deeply antagonized a significant 
subset of the department and 
the powerful subset of the 
department.”
Discussion about the minor 
began 
when 
students 
asked 
their professors if more classes 
were available in the realms 
of 
journalism 
and 
creative 
nonfiction writing. According 
to Porter, the potential minor 
is 
geared 
towards 
students 
aspiring to careers in storytelling, 
documentary-making, 
podcasting and other forms 
of journalism. However, the 
interdisciplinary aspect of the 
proposed minor aims to attract 
students from other academic 
realms 
who 
are 
seeking 
a 
complementary minor to their 
major studies.
English 
professor 
Anne 
Curzan, 
associate 
dean 
for 
humanities in LSA, mentioned the 
importance of interdisciplinary 
studies within LSA, as well as the 

idea for a student-driven program 
pioneered by those interested 
in journalism and nonfiction 
writing.
“We know that a good number 
of students are interested in 
journalistic writing and creative 
nonfiction,” Curzan wrote in an 
email interview with The Daily. 
“In LSA, we can effectively 
ground this kind of writing in 
questions that are foundational to 
the liberal arts. Interdisciplinarity 
is one of the great strengths of 
LSA, and we always think about 
how best to coordinate proposed 
new minors across departments, 
when relevant.”
Courses 
such 
as 
English 
425, and English 345 highlight 
conventions of nonfiction writing 
and their intersection with media. 
These classes were designed to 
meet the student need for creative 
and journalistic course work, and 
are some of the efforts made in 
recent years to include diverse 
journalistic classes in the English 
department. English Lecturer 
Jeremiah Chamberlin recognized 
students’ desire to learn more 
about nonfiction writing, while 
also echoing Curzan’s emphasis 
on interdisciplinarity. 
“Many of us began to hear from 
more and more of our students 
who wanted to continue working 
in the genre, but who felt like they 
didn’t have many options … the 
course offerings for nonfiction 
were 
limited,” 
Chamberlin 
wrote in an email interview 
with The Daily. “As more and 

more of our nonfiction students 
go on to work in such fields as 
journalism, media or publishing, 
for example, the more they report 
back that they wish they’d had a 
more interdisciplinary approach 
to their education; the work 
they’re doing draws more across 
disciplines than they might have 
imagined.”
University alum Yoshiko Iwai, 
currently in graduate school at 
Columbia University, was a dual-
major in neuroscience and dance. 
Iwai, who worked for The Daily 
while at the University, utilized 
some courses in the English 
department, especially through 
Chamberlin, to further explore 
her interest in narrative medicine 
and creative nonfiction, which she 
currently studies as a graduate 
student.
Iwai echoed Chamberlin’s point 
regarding the limited amount of 
journalism and narrative-related 
courses available at the University. 
She explained that attaining some 
pitching and reporting skills to 
add to her repertoire while an 
undergraduate would have better 
prepared her for a post-graduate 
career in the field. A curriculum 
centered on the skills and lessons 
needed to succeed in journalism 
would allow students to explore 
their passion without being bound 
to a more general degree, Iwai 
said. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, March 22, 2019 — 3

ALERT
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CLIMATE
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SPRING INTO MARCH MADNESS

The Michigan Daily men’s basketball beat walks back to the car after practice and availability before the first round of the NCAA tournament in Des Moines, Iowa Wednesday.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

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MINOR
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