The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 — 3A

“We 
have 
a 
collective 
bargaining agreement,” Carter 
said. “We have specific language 
where the employer is supposed to 
provide parking for residents that 
are designated for being on-call. 
There is obviously no designated 
parking.”
As a result of these changes, 
the Michigan Nurses Association 
and 
University 
of 
Michigan 
Professional Nurse Council filed 
unfair labor practice charges with 
the state of Michigan in August, 
according to Carter.
Carter said the changes force 
hospital staff to pay significantly 
more money for their parking 
spots. 
“People who have been parking 
for, for example, $100 a year for 
maybe decades are now being 
charged maybe $700 or $800 a year 
for the same parking spot,” Carter 
said. “We agree that there needs 
to be parking for patients. We’re 
not arguing that, but we believe 
administrators who do not have 
any involvement with patient care 
do not need to be parking close to 
the building. It’s been an ongoing 
problem for a very long time, and 
now we’re in a crisis situation.”

According to UMPNC chair 
Katie Oppenheim, parking at 
the hospital has been an ongoing 
challenge.
“Parking has been an issue at the 
hospital for decades,” Oppenheim 
said. “While the health system 
has grown — multiplied many 
times over in the previous years 
— the parking has not increased. 
For example, when they built the 
children’s hospital, they did not put 
parking underneath the building.”
Oppenheim 
said 
parking 
difficulties 
add 
an 
increased 
amount of stress to hospital 
staff, particularly nurses, before 
the start of their shifts, and can 
ultimately decrease quality of care.
“You want people who aren’t 
stressed and are relaxed when they 
come into work for their shift,” 
Oppenheim said. “Our first goal, 
and everyone’s first goal, should 
be the patients, and providing 
what we believe is something 
mandatory, mainly, access to the 
workplace. ”
Jayne 
Hubscher, 
Nursing 
senior 
and 
president 
of 
the 
Student Nurses’ Association, said 
she and other nursing students 
often walk or find other modes of 
transportation to the hospital as a 
result of the parking challenges.
Hubscher said a lack of reliable 
parking is a major concern when 

clinical trials occur early in the 
morning or late at night.
“Our clinicals, a lot of times, will 
start at 6 or 6:30 a.m. so if you live 
far from the hospital you have to 
wake up even earlier, like 4:30 or 5 
(a.m.) to have time to get ready and 
walk to the hospital,” Hubscher 
said. “Sometimes we have late 
clinicals, too, that end around 11 
p.m. I had one last semester and 
then walking home was always an 
issue as well.”
Mostafavi said many other 
forms 
of 
transportation 
are 
available and will continue to be 
implemented with the creation of 
a new parking deck next year and 
960 new employee parking spots. 
Carter said she hopes to have 
clear dialogue in the future with 
Michigan Medicine to help remedy 
the issues.
“I would say that the Michigan 
Medicine leadership needs to 
understand that since I’ve been 
here, we’ve gone from having 900 
residents and fellows to nearly 
1,300, and we have not built any 
adjacent parking structures to 
the hospital,” Carter said. “That 
being said, how do you realign the 
parking structures we have for 
those clinicians that need to be 
at the bedside? We would love to 
have a dialogue and do some real 
problem solving.”

PARKING
From Page 1A

Additionally, the petition said 
University administrators have 
attributed the fee to sustaining and 
enhancing services to support the 
success of international students 
and compliance and reporting 
requirements, 
though 
they 
question the University’s ability to 
do this without a detailed plan for 
the use of the money.
The $500 per semester fee was 
approved by the Board of Regents 
on June 20 and took effect in the 
fall semester. The fee applies to 
students on F-1 and J-1 visas, which 
are for international students 
studying in the United States, 
and was created to fund support 
services for students attending the 
University on these specific visas.
A 2018 report from the University’s 
International Center listed 6,628 
students on the F-1 visa and 115 
students or the J-1 visa. International 
students accounted for 14.9 percent 
of the student body in 2018.
The fee, which is similar to 
others that support programs like 
the University Health Service and 
Student Legal Services, aligns the 
University with other institutions 
like Michigan State University that 
have a fee or tuition differential for 
international students, University 
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote 
in an email to The Daily. 
According 
to 
Fitzgerald, 
because the fee will support 
services related to creating a 
welcoming campus environment 
and supporting academic success, 
it does not contradict the goals of 
DEI initiatives on campus.
“(T)he University places a high 
priority on providing supportive 
services and infrastructure that 
promote a sense of welcome 
and integration into the campus 
community and that promote 
academic 
success,” 
Fitzgerald 
wrote. “This fee will help the 
University 
to 
maintain 
and 
enhance 
its 
commitment 
to 
international 
student 
services, 
programming 
and 
compliance, 
and we see no conflict with the 
University’s commitment to DEI.”
Additionally, 
the 
University 
has hosted, and will continue 
to host, immigration advising, 
cultural exchange activities and 
workshops 
and 
panels 
about 
topics such as navigating the U.S. 
job market, Fitzgerald wrote. He 
noted these experiences often 
come out of conversations between 
University staff members and the 
international students themselves.
He explained deciding on specific 
details of the implementation of the 
revenue created by the fee, though 
the University has and continues 
to 
welcome 
community 
input. 
Fitzgerald encouraged those with 
questions or input to consult the 
Frequently Asked Questions page or 
contact the University by emailing 
internationalstudentfees@umich.edu.
“It will take some time to 
determine the ways in which the 
funding generated by the fee will 
be utilized,” Fitzgerald wrote. 
“Many in our community have 
communicated directly with the 
Provost’s 
Office 
and 
through 
the 
International 
Center 
the 
need for additional services and 
programming, and we want to 
be thoughtful and listen to these 
groups as we make allocation 
decisions.”
According to the Department 

of Homeland Security, students on 
F-1 visas come to the United States 
to enroll in a full-time program of 
study a certified school. Students on 
this visa have a designated official 
at their school who is responsible 
for helping them through the 
“international student lifecycle,” a 
pathway for international students 
to study in the U.S. and maintain 
their visa.
While F-1 visa holders can be 
a student at any point in their 
academic career, J-1 visa holders 
must enroll in a full-time post-
secondary program at an academic 
institution. The J-1 College and 
University Student Program allows 
participants to have career-related 
training as an intern in their home 
country. 
Additionally, 
students 
on the J-1 visa have a cultural 
component of their program to 
engage them with the U.S. culture 
and share their home culture with 
their host families.
With 
Chinese 
students 
accounting for approximately half 
of the University’s international 
student population, Jiaheng He, 
LSA junior and co-president of the 
Chinese Students and Scholars 
Association, said his organization 
felt a need to speak out against 
the fee. The Chinese Students 
and 
Scholars 
Association 
has 
joined GEO in requesting more 
information about the fee and what 
the money will go toward.
“What we really hope for the 
school to do is to give us more 
information and tell us what 
they’re going to use the money for,” 
He said. 
He said he hopes the money will 
be put directly into improving the 
lives of international students on 
campus, such as through offering 
more scholarships or additional 
opportunities. He is concerned this 
will create a dangerous precedent, 
as the fee could increase or another 
group could be singled out similarly 
in the future.
Martell said GEO is requesting 
a town hall with University 
Provost Martin Philbert to gain 
more insight in relation to the fee, 
though the organization’s previous 
communications with the Provost’s 
office have gone unheard. GEO 
members attended a meeting with 
LSA leadership, though they left 
that meeting with more questions 
than answers, he said.
“We really have no information 
that makes a compelling case for 
the necessity of the fee,” Martell 
said. “We see no reason for it. We 
just think that it will be better to 
get rid of it all together, but we also 
acknowledge that we may not have 
all the facts.”
Approximately 
280 
faculty 
parking spaces were converted 
to patient-only parking near the 
University of Michigan hospital 
in mid-August. The changes force 
many hospital staff members to 
park in off-site locations or find 
other methods of transportation.
The 
parking 
designation 
transfer 
is 
necessary 
for 
an 
improved 
patient 
experience, 
according to a statement from 
Beata 
Mostafavi, 
Michigan 
Medicine senior communications 
representative. 
“As 
Michigan 
Medicine 
continues to grow, parking around 
the main medical campus has 
become an increasing challenge 
for both patients and employees,” 
Mostafavi 
said. 
“The 
recent 
parking changes provided 280 
more spaces for our patients to 

make it easier to obtain care at the 
hospital.”
But according to Robin Carter, 
executive director of the House 
Officers Association at Michigan 
Medicine, the actions go against 
the HOA’s agreement with the 
University of Michigan Health 
System, 
which 
requires 
the 
hospital to provide designated 
parking spots to on-call employees.
“We 
have 
a 
collective 
bargaining 
agreement,” 
Carter 
said. “We have specific language 
where the employer is supposed to 
provide parking for residents that 
are designated for being on-call. 
There is obviously no designated 
parking.”
As a result of these changes, 
the Michigan Nurses Association 
and 
University 
of 
Michigan 
Professional Nurse Council filed 
unfair labor practice charges with 
the state of Michigan in August, 
according to Carter.
Carter said the changes force 
hospital staff to pay significantly 
more money for their parking 
spots. 
“People who have been parking 
for, for example, $100 a year for 
maybe decades are now being 
charged maybe $700 or $800 a year 
for the same parking spot,” Carter 
said. “We agree that there needs 
to be parking for patients. We’re 
not arguing that, but we believe 
administrators who do not have 
any involvement with patient care 
do not need to be parking close to 
the building. It’s been an ongoing 
problem for a very long time, and 
now we’re in a crisis situation.”
According to UMPNC chair 
Katie Oppenheim, parking at 
the hospital has been an ongoing 
challenge.
“Parking has been an issue at the 
hospital for decades,” Oppenheim 
said. “While the health system 
has grown — multiplied many 
times over in the previous years 
— the parking has not increased. 
For example, when they built the 
children’s hospital, they did not put 
parking underneath the building.”
Oppenheim 
said 
parking 
difficulties 
add 
an 
increased 
amount of stress to hospital staff, 
particularly nurses, before the start 
of their shifts, and can ultimately 
decrease quality of care.
“You want people who aren’t 
stressed and are relaxed when they 
come into work for their shift,” 
Oppenheim said. “Our first goal, 
and everyone’s first goal, should be 
the patients, and providing what 
we believe is something mandatory, 
mainly, access to the workplace. ”
Jayne 
Hubscher, 
Nursing 
senior 
and 
president 
of 
the 
Student Nurses’ Association, said 
she and other nursing students 
often walk or find other modes of 
transportation to the hospital as a 
result of the parking challenges.
Hubscher said a lack of reliable 
parking is a major concern when 
clinical trials occur early in the 
morning or late at night.
“Our clinicals, a lot of times, will 
start at 6 or 6:30 a.m. so if you live 
far from the hospital you have to 
wake up even earlier, like 4:30 or 5 
(a.m.) to have time to get ready and 
walk to the hospital,” Hubscher 
said. “Sometimes we have late 
clinicals, too, that end around 11 
p.m. I had one last semester and 
then walking home was always an 
issue as well.”

GEO
From Page 1A

Ann Arbor City Council decided 
by a one-vote margin against 
re-nominating 
Councilmember 
Zachary Ackerman, D-Ward 3, 
to the Planning Commission and 
voted unanimously to release 
a redacted report on the city’s 
investigation 
into 
a 
former 
employee’s controversial texts at 
their meeting Tuesday night.
When confirming nominations 
for the Planning Commission, 
Mayor 
Christopher 
Taylor 
re-nominated 
Ackerman, 
who 
has served on the Planning 
Commission since December 2016. 
Councilmembers 
Julie 
Grand, D-Ward 3, gave a speech 
detailing the time and effort that 
Ackerman offered in his time on 
the commission. Grand said she 
appreciated the intellect Ackerman 
brought to his responsibilities and 
noted that the authority to appoint 
members belonged to the mayor, 
not other members of council such 
as Councilmember Jack Eaton, 
D-Ward 4, who voted to block 
Ackerman’s nomination. Eaton 
previously challenged Taylor for 
the mayor’s office, but lost in the 
primary in 2018.
“I won’t be soft and squishy 
about it — I’ll call it like I see 
it,” Grand said. “In the past we 
have all supported one another’s 

nominations to serve on boards 
and commissions. That has been 
our past practice, try to spread it 
around in a way that’s equitable, 
but ultimately the appointments 
to boards and commissions in 
almost every case, and certainly 
in this one, rests with the mayor. 
If Councilmember Eaton wanted 
to appoint himself to the Planning 
Commission, he should have won 
the mayoral race. But he did not, 
and now it’s Mayor Taylor’s job to 
appoint someone to the Planning 
Commission.” 
Councilmember 
Elizabeth 
Nelson, D-Ward 4, pushed back, 
saying that it was not about politics 
and civility, but about the need to 
have someone more experienced 
on the commission.
“I think it is time we had 
someone on planning who has a 
stronger legal background,” Nelson 
said. “We can move forward with a 
decision, and it’s not about anybody 
being mean to anyone. It’s not about 
a lack of respect. It’s about making 
a different choice, and those are the 
reasons why I support someone 
else 
on 
planning, 
specifically 
Councilmember Eaton.”
Ackerman said his position on the 
Planning Commission was not easy.
“The body meets frequently 
and deals with subjects that are 
the most controversial by their 
very nature,” Ackerman said. “I’ve 
had a philosophy as a planning 

commissioner: My obligation to 
council is to get the best proposal 
through planning proposal to this 
body. It may not be one worthy 
of voting ‘yes’ when it comes to 
council, but that job is to deliver 
to you the best possible version 
leaving planning commission so 
that you can make a decision.”
The council voted 6-5 against 
re-nominating Ackerman to the 
planning commission. 
City Council also addressed 
an investigation conducted by 
outside attorney Sheldon Stark 
into controversial texts sent by 
the city’s human resources and 
labor relations director, Robyn 
Wilkerson. Wilkerson resigned in 
May after public records requests 
filed by the Ann Arbor News/
MLive revealed a cache of text 
messages she sent to another 
city employee criticizing elected 
officials and “crazy liberals.”
The messages also mentioned 
wanting to blow up City Hall, 
wanting to bring a gun to work and 
racist comments targeted at other 
coworkers and the community.
The 
city 
attorney’s 
office 
hired Stark to investigate the 
city’s handling of the original 
investigation. Sheldon concluded 
his inquiry in late August but the 
findings were not released publicly.

City Council votes down 
Ackerman’s nomination

Councilmember loses spot on Planning Commission

“I think, at this point, the 
administration is aware of this, but 
I think they need to hear from more 
students that this really is an issue 
for us.”
Blanchard said CSG will be 
sending out a survey in order to 
gauge student feedback on the 
UHS policy change. She said she 
hopes the survey will ensure 
the 
administration 
more 
fully 
understands students’ reactions to 
the change. Within this survey, the 
policy changes will be described 
and broken down so the complex 
insurance 
issue 
can 
be 
more 
transparent and easily understood. 
The 
survey 
will 
also 
provide 
information about local alternatives 
for STI testing.
“In our survey, we do a really 
great job explaining what the 
changes are,” Blanchard said. “I 
think it can get really confusing, 
and health care, in general, can 
be a really complicated issue; we 
explain it, and we are also providing 
alternative STI resources in the 
area.”
During the meeting Gerstein 
reviewed the work the executive 
branch had completed over the 
summer, including plans to subsidize 
Group X passes, which would 
allow students to go through the 
University financial aid department 
to receive passes to participate in 

group fitness classes provided by 
University Recreational Sports. 
Additionally, CSG will begin 
preparing for the effects of the 
2020 
presidential 
elections 
on 
campus life by collaborating with 
Intergroup Relations, Multi-Ethnic 
Student Affairs and the Trotter 
Multicultural Center to ensure 
campus climate remains safe and 
inclusive.
“We are looking to figure out 
how we make sure student leaders 
are most respective when it comes 
to conversations (regarding the 
election) within their organizations 
and throughout campus throughout 
the next year,” Gerstein said.
Gerstein also hopes to create a 
new executive position to oversee 
government relations. This position 
will focus on ensuring the voices of 
University students are heard on 
a state and federal governmental 
level.
“The reason we are having that 
(position) is to try and create and 
find new ways to make sure our 
student body is heard at the state 
level and at the federal level,” 
Gerstein said. “It’s important we 
make sure our voices are heard, 
especially regarding federal issues 
that impact the students.”
Other 
summer 
projects 
included creating a tri-fold CSG 
flyer to help students better 
understand the functions of CSG 
and thus know how to utilize the 
Assembly more effectively. Their 
goal is to reach out to students and 

build a stronger connection with 
the constituency.
CSG also created reusable grocery 
bags for Beyond the Diag, increased 
student tutoring resources and 
expanded North Campus resources. 
With construction beginning on 
North Campus, Blanchard said CSG 
hopes to make decisions on ways to 
improve North Campus health and 
wellness services.
Taylor Lansey, CSG treasurer and 
LSA junior, discussed this year’s 
plan for the Student Organization 
Funding Committee on behalf of 
the chair, Business senior Crede 
Strauser. Lansey said funding will 
be distributed via nine application 
waves 
throughout 
the 
school 
year, the first of which will open 
Wednesday, Sept. 4 night at 5 p.m. 
and close at the same time next 
Wednesday, Sept. 11. 
SOFC projections for this fall 
include an aggregated request for 
$600,000, a 22.6 percent increase 
from last fall, as well as a projected 
request of $1.1 million for winter 
2020. 
This year SOFC will be rolling out 
“SOFC 101,” a workshop in which 
organizations can learn about the 
complex 14-page application required 
to request funding for specific events 
or funds such as hosting cultural 
and volunteer events, guest speakers 
and transportation and supplies for 
events. 

CSG
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

JULIA FANZERES
Daily Staff Writer

The show focuses on a 
fictional, 
for-profit 
charter 
school and some of Strassel’s 
former students are part of the 
ensemble. Strassel cast Diane 
Hill, 
his 
former 
Ypsilanti 
High School drama teacher, as 
DeVos. Strassal plays DeVos’ 
husband Dick, the millionaire 
son 
of 
Amway 
co-founder 
Richard DeVos, as well as 
her brother Erik Prince, the 
founder 
of 
Blackwater, 
a 
private 
military 
contractor 
known in part for its role in 
a 2007 shooting of unarmed 
civilians in Iraq. Some of the 
songs include “Jesus Wants 
Me to be Rich” and “The Best 
Kind of Teacher is a Teacher 
with a Gun.” 
Strassel concedes the play 
is a bit extreme, writing on his 
GoFundMe page the show is 
“completely ridiculous.” 
“She says things that sound 
a little ridiculous … so I played 
off of that for sure,” Strassel 
said. “But on the other hand, 
there are some sympathetic 
moments. You know, in a way, 
some of my friends didn’t 
like the fact that I mentioned 
anything positive about her, 
but I think the story is better 
when you find the nuance in 
the character. So yeah, it’s 

very silly, and it’s a parody, 
but I’m going to try to work in 
some complexity.”
Strassel said he tried to see 
things from DeVos’s point of 
view when he was writing the 
musical. 
“I think that there are 
examples of Betsy trying to 
help individual students, and I 
tell that in the story,” Strassel 
said. “There’s one student 
in the story who she pays for 
tuition to a private school, 
and that’s something that she 
has done in public schools — 
she pulled them out and sent 
them to private school. But 
I also point out the flaw in 
that. Though she may have 
good intentions for that kid, 
she is pulling money out of 
the public school system and 
showing her lack of faith and 
in public schools.”
DeVos has been criticized 
by public school advocates for 
considering arming teachers 
and for requesting to cut 
billions of dollars from the 
Department 
of 
Education’s 
budget. 
DeVos 
said 
she 
planned instead to bolster 
scholarships to private school 
scholarships.
In a statement issued in 
March, DeVos defended the 
Trump 
administration’s 
budget request for the 2020 
fiscal year, which would have 
cut approximately $7 billion in 

funding compared with 2019.
“This budget at its core is 
about 
education 
freedom,” 
DeVos 
said. 
“Freedom 
for 
America’s students to pursue 
their 
life-long 
learning 
journeys in the ways and 
places that work best for 
them, freedom for teachers 
to develop their talents and 
pursue their passions, and 
freedom from the top-down 
‘Washington 
knows 
best’ 
approach 
that 
has 
proven 
ineffective and even harmful 
to students.”
Like DeVos, Strassel has his 
own budget priorities. He said 
he hopes to take “Betsy DeVos! 
The Musical!” even further 
than the staged reading, and 
aims to raise $12,500 to bring 
the play to different cities 
next summer before the 2020 
election.
“In the short run, I’d like to 
get some of the songs onto the 
internet, and sort of shared 
digitally,” Strassel said. “But 
my big, long-term goal is a 
fully 
realized 
professional 
production next summer. How 
that happens, I think it could 
be a local thing, but I’m also 
open to the idea that could be a 
small tour, or maybe even that 
the show could be adopted 
by 
a 
professional 
theatre 
elsewhere, and I’m really open 
to that. I’m kind of interested 
to see where it takes me.”

DEVOS
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

