The 
Office 
of 
Diversity, 
Equity 
and 
Inclusion 
and 
University Housing hosted a 
grand reopening of the Cesar 
Chavez, Vicky Barner and 
Cousins Active Multi Ethnic 
Organization 
(CAMEO) 
multicultural 
lounges 
on 
Tuesday. Each lounge featured 
three speakers, and the Chavez 
event in Mosher-Jordan Hall 
drew in a crowd of around 50 
students.
Diversity 
and 
Inclusion 
Director 
Amanda 
McLittle 
said the remodeling is part of 
a DEI initiative to renovate 
all multicultural lounges by 
2021 in honor of the Trotter 
Center’s 
anniversary. 
She 
explained housing manages 
18 multicultural spaces; 16 
of which are multicultural 

lounges. In 2015, the University 
made 
a 
commitment 
to 
renovate all 16 of the lounges by 
2021. The even celebrated the 
lounges which were renovated 
over the summer. 
McLittle 
emphasized 
the 
importance of multicultural 
lounges, saying they provide 
a welcoming environment for 
minorities on campus.
“A 
multicultural 
lounge 
really 
celebrates 
different 
identities on campus and is 
meant to be a safe space for 
students 
of 
marginalized 
identities,” McLittle said. “So, 
the programming that happens 
in these lounges will focus 
on multicultural issues and 
topics.”
The first speaker, Senior 
Associate 
Director 
of 
University 
Housing 
Amir 
Baghdadchi, 
explained 
the 
lounge is dedicated to Chavez 

because he empowered people 
to become activists. 
“This celebrates the bold life 
of Cesar Chavez, right there, 
all around us, who fought for 
the rights of farm laborers,” 
Baghdadchi said. “But he did 
so much more than that. In 
being a champion of the rights 
of farmworkers, he became 
an icon of social change. 
He created a model, and his 
message fundamentally won 
empowerment. 
What 
that 
means is he showed us what 
happens when ordinary people 
who don’t feel powerful, who 
don’t identify as powerful, who 
aren’t powerful; if they get 
together and organize, if they 
focus their effort on one thing, 
then incredible change can 
happen.”
Baghdadchi also highlighted 
how all the words on the 
walls around the lounge are 
in 
Spanish 
with 
an 
English translation on 
the bottom, instead of 
the other way around. 
Baghdadchi said it helps 
emphasize 
the 
Latino 
community is the priority 
within the lounge. 
“Spanish comes first,” 
Baghdadchi said. “When 
you see that, you think, 
‘Brilliant idea,’ but it’s 
not an obvious one, and 
that is an idea that came 
from La Casa. They said, 
‘No, this should be a 
space on campus where 
Latino heritage comes 
first,’ and we made that 
happen.”
Public Health junior 
Ronnie 
Alvarez, 
lead 
director 
of 
La 
Casa, 
reflected on his journey 
in an interview with 
The 
Daily. 
He 
said 
he 
participated 
in 
workshops as a freshman 
where he felt welcome as 
a new student on campus 
and 
was 
inspired 
to 
become an activist. 
“I know, personally 

reflecting on my experience 
with this lounge, my freshman 
year I was part of the ALMA 
program, which is a welcome 
program for incoming Latino 
students, 
and 
our 
final 
reflection was actually in that 
lounge,” Alvarez said. “And it 
was very empowering because 
it was the end of the program, 
and that’s where we transition 
into becoming students at the 
University. And from there, 
there was a very empowering 
speech where they inspired 
the Latino community to be 
activists on campus.” 
Alvarez said it means a lot to 
him to see the new renovations 
and to have a place where the 
Latino community can come 
and feel safe. He also noted 
the University incorporated 
students’ ideas when designing 
the renovations. 
“I think they’re really nice,” 
Alvarez 
said. 
“Especially 
seeing how the lounge looked 
beforehand: the color scheme, 
the pictures, the figures. It 
all looks great. My favorite 
part about it is a lot of the 
community members in La 
Casa actually helped, the whole 
thing was very inclusive in 
terms of the planning process 
for designing this.”
He also emphasized the 
importance of having a physical 
space 
for 
marginalized 
communities on campus where 
they feel welcome. 
“I 
think 
multicultural 
lounges are one of the most 
tangible ways to show that 
certain 
communities 
are 
welcome on campus,” Alvarez 
said. “So, this is a physical 
space for you to feel welcome 
and represented. Also, DEI 
does a great job of that with 
these spaces. Even though I 
think there’s a lot of progress 
to be made, this is definitely a 
step in the right direction.”

R A SA FESTIVAL DANCES

2A — Wednesday, September 18, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Indo-American graduate students perform Bharatanatyam dances as part of the Rasa festival, an India-themed multi-arts festival at the Ann Arbor 
District Library Tuesday evening. 

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EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter

Space celebrates activist Cesar Chavez, caters to Latinx community at U-M

DEI renovates three lounges in honor 
of marginalized students on campus

Read more at 
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VIRGO SEASON
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Court allows intervention in suits

September 18, 2000
Two 
minority 
advocate 
groups will be allowed to serve as 
co-defendants in the admissions 
lawsuits 
facing 
two 
University 
schools as a result of a decision 
handed down by the Sixth Circuit
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati 
last month. The decision will delay 
the two lawsuits that are challenging 
the admissions processes of the 
University’s Law School and College 
of Literature,
Science and the Arts until next 
summer.
Miranda Massie, lead counsel for 
the defendants intervening in the 
suit facing the Law School, said the 
introduction of co-defendants is a 
significant victory.
“The attack on affirmative action 
can only prevail if the truth is not let 

into the courtroom,” Massie said. 
“We are elated. It is a historic turning 
point.”
The LSA suit is scheduled to begin 
some time next July or August, with 
the Law School case set to start Aug. 
28, 2000. The cases originally were 
scheduled to go to trial this fall. 
The 
Washington, 
D.C.-based 
Center for Individual Rights filed the 
lawsuits in 1997 on behalf of three 
white applicants, contending that 
using race as a factor in admissions 
is unfair.
LSA applicants Jennifer Gratz and 
Patrick Hamacher and Law School 
applicant Barbara Grutter claim they 
were unfairly denied admission, con- 
tending that less-qualified minority
applicants were admitted.
The court’s decision allowing the 
inclusion of intervening defendants 

marks the first time minority 
advocates will be permitted to have 
their interests directly addressed in 
an affirmative action case.
University 
Deputy 
General 
Counsel Liz Barry said trials were 
pushed back to allow the intervening 
defendants time to become fully 
acquainted with the cases.
“We welcome the intervenors 
because 
their 
point-of-view 
is 
relevant and important to the 
debate,” Barry said. “Clearly, they 
need time to adequately prepare.”
Barry said in order for the 
intervenors to be included, they had 
to prove that they had a legal interest 
in the cases and that they would 
not be adequately represented by 
the two parties already involved. 
The decision, which came more 
than a year after separate district 

judges denied previous requests for 
intervention, allows about 60 high 
school and undergraduate students 
to defend their interests in both 
the LSA and the Law School cases, 
respectively.
Godfrey Dillard, lead counsel 
for the intervening coalition in 
the LSA case, which is backed 
by several national and local 
organizations, 
including 
the 
National 
Association 
for 
the 
Advancement of Colored People 
and the American Civil Liberties 
Union, said the decision allows the 
real work to begin.
“Certainly we are happy with the 
decision, but it is a small step,” he 
said. “It opens the door for us to play 
a full and equal role in the case.”
Dillard 
said 
the 
attorneys 
representing 
the 
intervening 

defendants will now be allowed to 
interact with the judge in chambers 
and file motions. As defendants, the 
coalitions have the same rights as the 
University and the plaintiffs.
“We have not been intimately 
involved” before the decision, Dillard 
said, adding that the coalition has 
had to view the case as an observer 
and now needs to review information 
and cross examine witnesses.
Terry Pell. senior legal counsel 
for CIR, said the introduction of 
intervening defendants into the 
cases will not substantially affect the 
fundamental issue being challenged 
in the lawsuits - the
constitutionality of race in college 
admissions.
“Adding those issues will not 
subtract from the issue that is at the 
table,” Pell said.

In the interest of preventing 
further delay, Pell said CIR will not 
appeal the court’s ruling.
“We want to move forward,” he 
said.
Former 
U.S. 
President 
and 
University 
alum 
Gerald 
Ford 
supports the fight to preserve 
affirmative action. He wrote an 
opinion piece for the Aug. 8 edition 
of The New York Times backing the 
University’s defense of its admissions 
policies.
Ford wrote that an affirmative 
action “ban would scuttle Michigan’s 
current system one that takes into 
account nearly a dozen elements - 
race, economic standing, geographic 
origin, 
athletic 
and 
artistic 
achievement among them - to create 
the finest educational environment 
for all students.”

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