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Thursday, March 28, 2019 — 3A

CSG
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DEI
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HOUSE ON A HILL

Design by Christine Jegarl
Illustration drawn on a track pad juxtaposing the complexities of the rural experience with the fast-paced atmosphere of 
urban living

LEADERSHIP
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PRESS
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SCARE
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Silva noted Black people have 
a long history in Brazil due to 
the Black diaspora, the global 
displacement of people of African 
descent due to slavery between 
the 1500s and 1900s. According 
to Silva, having a space for Black 
culture is necessary in order 
for Black people to contribute 
to 
conversations 
about 
this 
diaspora.
“What is the meaning of 
diaspora as a Black Brazilian, 
or a Black American, or Black 
African?” Silva said. “Art is a 
way to approach the struggle 
of Black people in Brazil, and 
how our experiences connect 
with other narratives of the 
Black diaspora … In an unequal 
society, culture is a basic need. 
Art is a demonstration of the 
possibility of society.”
Silva 
then 
presented 
on 
the work of O Menelick 2o 
Ato. According to Silva, the 
independent magazine is the 
only printed media in Brazil 
specifically focused on Black 
culture and creators. Started 
in 2010, O Menelick 2o Ato 
publishes articles, essays, artist 
and activist profiles, poems, 
photographs and illustratrations 
of and by Black artists.
According to Silva, more than 
40,000 copies of O Menelick 
2oAto have been distributed in 
São Paulo, its base of operations, 
and throughout Brazil, as well 
as internationally in the U.S., 
Europe, Asia and Africa.
Silva explained O Menelick 2o 
Ato is a non-profit organization 
that distributes copies of the 
magazine for free in order to 
reach a wider audience.
“We 
distribute 
for 
free, 
because the community that we 
focus on, they don’t have money 
to pay for a magazine,” Silva said. 
“We work mostly through public 
grants … we apply for private 
grants … We have a community 
of writers and thinkers (who) 
believe it is necessary to do this 
work. Sometimes we have to put 
in money ourselves.”
Though print editions are 
more expensive than online 
media, 
Silva 
expressed 
O 
Menelick 2o Ato is committed to 
publishing in print.

“The capacity to read and 
understand and really learn with 
the page is very much different 
from online,” Silva said. 
Silva explained the name of 
O Menelick 2o Ato translates to 
“O Menelick Act 2” in English 
and is a tribute to O Menelick, 
the 
first 
Black 
journal 
in 
Brazil established in the 1915 
which closed in the mid-1900s 
when it was unable to sustain 
production. According to Silva, 
this is an acknowledgement of 
the history of Black press in 
Brazil.
In 2018, O Menelick 2o 
Ato was selected as a Prince 
Claus laureate, a Dutch award 
established in honor of Prince 
Claus and supported by the 
Dutch 
Ministry 
of 
Foreign 
Affairs. According to a report 
from the Prince Claus Funds 
Committee, O Menelick 2oAto 
was honored for its work in 
increasing Black representation 
in Brazil, among other reasons.
To 
end 
her 
talk, 
Silva 
expressed her belief in the 
power of art to shape culture.
“Even though Black (people) 
are more than 50 percent of the 
population, Blacks are othered 
in Brazil,” Silva said. “But we 
still fight as our elders, mostly 
because we believe in the power 
of the creative imagination … 
As an artist and anthropologist, 
it makes me comfortable to 
communicate 
that 
culture 
and art is a way to experiment 
and feel and develop critical 
perceptions about society.”
Frieda Ekotto, professor of 
comparative 
literature 
and 
Afroamerican 
and 
African 
studies, attended the event. 
Ekotto said in an interview with 
The Daily after the event that 
the work of O Menelick 2o Ato 
is important as it serves as an 
archive of Black thought and 
expression.
“This 
is 
a 
place 
where 
we can collect and excavate 
knowledge,” Ekotto said. “And 
that knowledge is not there. 
There’s a need to document this 
history, Black culture, Black arts 
… It’s extremely important that 
other generations will go back to 
the archive to see that this work 
is being done.”

Haugh-Ewald couldn’t attend 
the CSG executive ticket debate 
on March 18 due to a scheduling 
conflict with an exam. 
“I signed up and I attended the 
meeting and then I couldn’t make 
the presidential debate because I 
had an exam at the same time, but 
that wasn’t an issue from what I 
understand, it wasn’t a critical part 
of the campaign,” Haugh-Ewald 
said. 
According to Haugh-Ewald, 
when the University Election 
Commission sent out the sample 
ballot on March 21, he was 
listed as a candidate for College 
of 
Engineering 
representative, 
rather than the CSG presidency he 
thought he’d signed up for. 
Haugh-Ewald 
immediately 
emailed the election committee 
once he noticed the error, but said 
they never responded.
The Daily reached out to Law 
student Victoria Allen, CSG’s 
Election Director, for this article, 
but she said she was unable to 
comment on the incident until the 
conclusion of the election. 
The sample ballot included an 
area for candidates to write their 
campaign platform. Because at 
that point he assumed his position 
on the ballot would not be changed 
from Engineering representative 
candidate 
to 
presidential 
candidate, Haugh-Ewald wrote 
“I won’t let you down” in lieu of a 
longer platform. 
He said he was not notified 
his position had been changed 
to 
presidential 
candidate 
by 
the election committee until he 
noticed his name on the ballot on 
March 27. 
“My initial impression attending 
the first meeting was that they (the 
election committee) were a little 
disorganized and they weren’t 
entirely able to answer some of 
the questions about hard rules and 
campaigning,” Haugh-Ewald said. 
“By the time they had changed 
the election I was in the system, 
I couldn’t go in and upload any 
platform, and they didn’t notify 
me that they had changed which 
election I am in until I noticed 
today (Wednesday) that I was 
indeed a presidential candidate.”

Haugh-Ewald said he again 
emailed the election committee 
March 27 to ask if he could add a 
platform late but was told he was 
not able to. Haugh-Ewald said this 
was the first time the committee 
responded to him since he emailed 
them six days before.
Although his platform is not 
included on the ballot, if elected, 
Haugh-Ewald said his biggest 
initiative would be open-sourcing 
more course material to unenrolled 
students 
to 
make 
education 
more accessible. He discussed 
using certificates from learning 
platforms such as Coursera to help 
students earn their degrees.
“The vast majority of courses 
on the platform are respectively 
developed, but lack any tangible 
coordination 
with 
existing 
university coursework,” Haugh-
Ewald said. “Potential actions to 
this end include the conversion 
of already digitized U-M classes 
into an open-source compatible 
syllabus, 
and 
eventually 
the 
offering of limited exams to 
un-enrolled students. It is critical 
that we as a university recognize 
the equivalency of certain open-
source materials so as to open 
doors for students that would 
normally be unable to sacrifice 
the time and money to obtain a 
traditional degree.”
Haugh-Ewald is joined on the 
executive ticket ballot by LSA 
sophomore Ben Gerstein and LSA 
junior Isabelle Blanchard of the 
Engage Michigan party, running 
for president and vice president 
respectively, and Engineering 
freshman 
Shub 
Argha 
who 
is running independently for 
president. When reached by The 
Daily, the candidates said they 
are not allowed to comment on 
Haugh-Ewald’s situation until 
the polls close tonight at 11:59 
p.m. 
LSA junior Jacob Inosencio said 
he noticed Haugh-Ewald’s name 
on the election ballot but did not 
recognize his name. He said he has 
heard other students who believe 
his campaign is a joke because of 
the singular sentence included as 
his platform on the ballot.
“I think people should definitely 
have the opportunity to have their 
platforms put on there,” Inosencio 
said. “You want to be informed 
about who you’re going to vote for.”

LSA interim dean Elizabeth 
Cole wrote in an email to The 
Daily this event, as well as the 
previous DEI events in the 
series, are opportunities for 
faculty to gauge student input 
and a chance for students to 
give feedback about the Uni-
versity and LSA-specific DEI 
plans.
“I encourage you to attend 
one of these sessions,” Cole 
wrote. “The university is at the 
midway point of the campus-
wide five-year DEI Strategic 
Plan, and this is an opportu-
nity to check in on progress. 
These 
Student 
Community 
Conversations are a chance 
for you to give feedback to the 
U-M administration that will 
help shape the future of the 
U-M and LSA DEI plans, and 
of our work together.”
Rob Sellers, chief diversity 
officer and vice provost for 
equity and inclusion, empha-
sized at the event the impor-
tance of student voices and 
explained the reasoning for 
the strategic plan’s creation 
and continuing dialogues dur-
ing his speaking portion of the 
meeting.
Sellers said DEI plays a 
vital role in the success of the 
University, adding that it is 
important the University feels 
accessible and comfortable for 
all students. According to Sell-

ers, the DEI plans are “living 
documents” that can change 
over time. 
He also noted the University 
has 51 different plans for dif-
ferent administrative units, in 
addition to a University-wide 
plan.
“Instead of having a single 
plan, the University of Michi-
gan has done it very differ-
ently,” Sellers said. “Those 
plans — and the fact that each 
unit has a plan — was a way for 
us to reinforce the idea that 
diversity, equity and inclusion 
isn’t something that simply 
resides in the President’s office 
or reside in the Chief Diversity 
Officer’s office, but it is a core 
aspect of who we are as a uni-
versity.”
Sellers also tied diversity to 
institutional success. He said 
DEI helps all students feel like 
they can reach their potential 
and belong at the University.
Sellers said the University 
has made progress from when 
DEI was first created and is 
more proactive than it has 
been in the past in relation to 
diversity issues, but there is 
still work to be done.
“It took us 200-plus years as 
an institution to get here and 
it’s not going to change com-
pletely in five years,” Sellers 
said. “I will tell you we’ve made 
a great deal of progress and … 
we are not the same institution 
that we were three years ago. 
I will also equally state we are 
not where we need to be.”

A student inquired about a 
report from the University of 
Southern California released 
in September that gave the 
University an F grade on over-
all racial equity among public 
universities. The student asked 
if the University has acknowl-
edged the report and if it has 
prompted any changes.
Specifically, the report gave 
the University an F in repre-
sentation of Black students on 
campus, who make up 4.4 per-
cent of undergraduates student 
population. 
The 
University 
received a C grade for its Black 
graduation rate, which is 12.1 
percent lower than the overall 
completion rate.
Sellers pointed out the part 
of the report focused on the 
graduation rate is complicated 
because the University’s grad-
uation rate is higher than the 
national average. He said the 
study was important, but found 
its analysis simplistic because 
it looked at graduation rates 
between populations rather 
than compared to national 
averages.
“We do have a problem of 
graduation rates as a func-
tion of ethnicity here at the 
University of Michigan and 
we are continuing to work to 
change that,” Sellers said. “If 
we would have had really, real-
ly poor graduation rates across 
the board, we would have got-
ten an A. It didn’t take into 
consideration that our gradu-
ation rates are so high across 

the board.”
Students shared ideas with 
present faculty members dur-
ing different portions of the 
event. One included crowd-
sourcing ideas through ice-
breaker and writing activities 
and through small-group facil-
itation. The final event is on 
April 2 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. 
in Rackham Assembly Hall.
Information senior Chalse 
Okorom helped facilitate stu-
dent discussions as a Diversity 
Peer Educator. She said it is 
important to have the events 
so student voices can be heard.
 “We’re the most populous 
people on campus,” Okorom 
said. “If faculty is making 
changes, then I think that this 
is the best way for them to 
get that input or those ideas 
instead of just coming up with 
it on their own.”
Katrina Wade-Golden, dep-
uty chief diversity officer, said 
at the conclusion of the event 
that the feedback from stu-
dents will be considered going 
forward as the University pre-
pares for the fourth year of 
the initiative and beyond. She 
thanked the students in atten-
dance for their time and input.
“Many of the items that got 
positioned in our original plan 
came through from events 
like this,” Wade-Golden said. 
“We are really happy that you 
shared the gift of your ideas 
and we will be taking those 
ideas under advisement as we 
prepare.”

liaison to Student Life in the pre-
vention and community engage-
ment 
department, 
reassured 
students those improvements will 
continue to come from within his 
department.
“You’ll see a lot more proac-
tive communication through the 
remainder of the semester from 
prevention and community out-
reach within DPSS,” Baker said.
Baker has facilitated numer-
ous events on behalf of DPSS since 
the scare occurred. Last week, he 
spoke at a CSG meeting, a Resi-
dence Hall Association meeting 
and a town hall with Rackham 
students. Baker has also contrib-
uted to an ongoing DPSS initiative 
to register students for the emer-
gency alert system.
DPSS is exploring new avenues 
to improve their emergency com-
munications after receiving exten-
sive student complaints regarding 
the timeliness of alerts. 

LSA senior Niccolo Beltramo 
raised the issue of the timing of 
alerts at the town hall.
“Specifically with regard to 
sort of the speed of communica-
tion from DPSS … obviously some 
delay is to be expected because 
you all had to check our the situ-
ation and validate, but 30 minutes 
seems like quite a long time in a 
potential active shooter situation,” 
Beltramo said.
Washington 
explained 
that 
during an emergency, when stu-
dents take to their phones to con-
tact friends and loved ones it clogs 
the servers and prevents text or 
email alerts from being received 
by the student body in a timely 
fashion. Washington said DPSS 
advises students to download 
their app because the push noti-
fications are more expedient than 
traditional alert forms. 
Another concern voiced at the 
town hall is the inability of some 
students with disabilities to com-
ply with the run, hide and fight 

protocol the campus community 
was advised to adopt. 
LSA senior Bradley Ebenhoeh 
wrote questions on this issue that 
were asked by his caregiver, Kine-
siology sophomore Natalie Bull-
ock.
“For people with disabilities 
such as myself, many of us cannot 
run, hide or fight,” Bullock said on 
Ebenhoeh’s behalf. “That was eas-
ily the most terrifying part about 
it. It felt like my own school did 
not care about my safety.”
Washington said DPSS has 
been in the process of remedy-
ing this issue by training “capable 
guardians” who would be able to 
provide assistance to all vulner-
able communities in the event 
of emergency. This includes stu-
dents with disabilities, as well as 
children and those hospitalized in 
Michigan medical facilities.
The capable guardians are cur-
rently undergoing training with 
Baker to learn a nuanced proce-
dure to follow during an active 

shooter alert. Instead of running, 
hiding and fighting, they are 
taught to instruct, evacuate, shel-
ter and defend. All doctors, nurses 
and University staff are expected 
to be trained under this new pro-
gram.
Greene said this town hall is a 
way to wrap up loose ends before 
solidifying a final, improved pro-
tocol.
“We have done multiple events 
on multiple fronts over the past 
few weeks, and this is our final 
event,” Greene said. “Tonight 
was the last chance out of a whole 
series of events that provided stu-
dents with the same opportunity 
and the same information to bet-
ter understand what happened 
but also to be able to provide criti-
cisms and provide feedback about 
how we can even better react in 
the future.”
DPSS expressed they are taking 
student feedback into account.
“We have some work to do 
ahead of us,” Baker said.

“Don’t be afraid to ask people … 
to ask about learning more about 
what they do,” McQuade said. 
“They will say yes far more than 
you think they will.” 
When asked about obstacles they 
faced in their careers, Dominguez 
and McQuade discussed battles 
with 
self-confidence 
in 
their 
abilities as women. 
“In many ways, it was my 
own kind of … nervousness about 
not 
really 
having 
particular 
characteristics that were needed 
for particular jobs that held me 
back more than even other people,” 
Dominguez said. 
They discussed the need for 
extra 
self-confidence, 
as 
the 
men around them seemed more 
confident 
in 
their 
leadership 

abilities. Especially when applying 
for jobs and internships, McQuade 
said women tend to underestimate 
their ability to get a position, and 
encouraged 
audience 
members 
to 
have 
more 
confidence 
in 
themselves. 
“Before women will apply for 
a promotion or position, they will 
feel like they have to meet 100 
percent of all the qualifications 
on the list, whereas men apply 
for the job if they meet 25 percent 
of the qualifications on the list,” 
McQuade said. “Don’t let the fact 
that you don’t check all of the boxes 
cause you to eliminate yourself. You 
might bring something to the table 
that other applicants don’t, so don’t 
eliminate yourself.”
LSA junior Emma Hess said in 
an interview with The Daily after 
the event that McQuade’s point 
resonated with her. 

“That’s always how I look at 
internship 
applications,” 
Hess 
said. “I think, ‘Oh, I meet like one 
of these out of the seven that they 
have there, I’m never going to get 
this, I shouldn’t even apply.’ So that 
was like really good advice to know 
that I should just take the chance 
and express my interest in a cover 
letter and hope that they are willing 
to listen.” 
McQuade also spoke about 
workplace 
harassment 
as 
an 
obstacle that most women will have 
to experience. McQuade said while 
these situations may not always 
constitute the “legal definition of 
sexual harassment, they could be 
described as biased incidents.” 
As a woman in a male-dominated 
and, at times, competitive field, she 
discussed needing to decide ahead 
of time how to respond to these 
situations. 

“What are you going to do 
when the moment comes, when 
this happens, because it’s going 
to happen,” McQuade said. “And 
there’s certainly some things that 
are absolutely intolerable and you 
need to stand up and call it out the 
way it is.” 
The speakers discussed the 
women 
who 
inspired 
them, 
speaking to the importance of 
speaking 
their 
minds, 
having 
integrity and remaining “calm in 
the face of a storm.” 
The discussion concluded with 
audience 
members 
asking 
for 
advice on career paths and law 
school. McQuade offered guidance 
on recovering from failure. 

Read more at 
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