TMD: What are you most 
looking forward to in this new 
position?
AC: There isn’t one answer 
to that question. I think one of 
the things I’m really looking 
forward to is trying to make 
sure that people understand the 
value of a liberal arts education 
and the life possibilities that 
that brings up as well as the 
impact of the research that we 
do in LSA. That research has an 
impact on some of the world’s 
biggest problems, from climate 
change and sustainability, to 
mass incarceration, to the digital 
world in which we now live, 
to race relations. The work we 
do matters for those questions 
and the education we provide 
is preparing students for that 
world and allowing students 
to be a part of that research 
mission, and that to me is one of 
the really exciting things.
I’m excited to connect with 
students. LSA — we have over 
17,000 
undergraduates, 
we 
have over 2,500 grad students. 
I have been a teacher for over 
20 years. I love spending time 
with students. I feel deeply 
lucky that I have committed 
my life to spending time with 
young people and with students 
… What we need to do is to be 
talking with students because 
my sense, and this is from years 
and years of conversations with 
students, is that our priorities 
are aligned and to think about 
how we partner given that we 
have aligned priorities on many, 
many things.
I’m excited to think about 
think 
about 
some 
possibly 
changes 
in 
undergraduate 
education. 
I 
co-chaired 
a 
task 
force 
for 
the 
provost 
that was called the Future of 
Undergraduate 
Education 
at 
the University of Michigan in 
the Third Century … It was a 
remarkable 
committee, 
and 
we spent over a year and a half 
working on this project and came 
up with some very exciting ideas 
for ways forward in thinking 
about undergraduate education. 
One of the last things I’d say 
is I’m excited to stay focused on 

innovation, on making sure we 
get the chance to explore new 
questions both big and small, that 
students are going to be involved 
in asking those questions, and 
that we never lose sight of the 
fact that as we do rigorous, 
challenging research, there is joy 
in that. We should talk about the 
joy of discovery and the play of 
it. Sometimes the best questions 
come out of play with ideas, and 
those are words that I like to use 
when we talk about the mission 
of this place.
TMD: You recently hosted 
a pop-up event to introduce 
yourself 
to 
students. 
Deans 
often have less contact with 
students than professors or other 
University staff members. How 
do you envision your relationship 
with students in this role?
AC: I will continue to spend 
a lot of time with students. 
Students are the heartbeat of 
this place, and they have been 
an inspiration to me throughout 
my career. They have made 
me a better teacher, they have 
shaped my research and I learn 
from students. I’m a linguist 
and I track how the language 
changes. As linguists will often 
say, young people are the movers 
and shakers of language change, 
so I actually feel very lucky to get 
to hang out with the movers and 
shakers of language change.
I will get back into the 
classroom to some extent in 
the next few years because 
the energy of that space is 
irreplaceable, so I will find ways 
— they’ll be more limited — but 
ways to be in the classroom, and 
I’ve been meeting with student 
leaders already to talk about 
what student groups are doing 
and to figure out where can we 
partner, where are our missions 
aligned 
and 
starting 
those 
conversations early. I would 
welcome any and all student 
leaders who want to meet with 
me to contact me, because I love 
meeting with students and I 
want to start those conversations 
early.
TMD: Before taking this role, 
you previously served as the 
Associate Dean of Humanities. 
How do you plan to bring this 
background into LSA’s wide-
reaching scope?
AC: I spent four years as the 
Associate Dean of Humanities, 

and one of the real joys as 
someone 
who’s 
curious, 
of 
being in the dean’s office, was 
getting to understand the scope 
of the college beyond my own 
department and beyond the 
humanities. So I’m the associate 
dean for humanities, but I’m 
sitting in the room discussing 
the entire scope of the college: 
the 
humanities, 
the 
social 
sciences, the natural sciences, 
all of undergraduate education. 
That started to give me a sense 
of the scope of this place. I loved 
thinking about the different 
methods people are using, the 
different 
kinds 
of 
research 
people are doing, different ways 
to think about impact. As you 
move across the college the 
impact of our scholarship looks 
different.
One of my jobs was to make sure 
that people could understand the 
importance of the humanities, 
why 
the 
humanities 
matter 
both for people’s education and 
why our research matters, and 
now I feel like I have this really 
exciting opportunity to broaden 
the scope of that and say now my 
job is to explain why the liberal 
arts matter and how that kind of 
education and how the research 
across the breadth of what we do 
matters.
TMD: Last semester, The 
Daily reported on the trend 
of a declining number of 
history majors. Nationally, it 
is considered a time when the 
liberal arts in general is at a 
crossroads. What do you envision 
for the future of LSA? How do 
you plan to engage students in 
the many areas of study housed 
within LSA?
AC: I want students to see 
LSA as a place where they can 
explore fields and questions that 
they had no idea that they could 
explore. I say that in part out of 
my own experience. I started 
college as a math major. I really 
like math, I had been good at 
math. I took the intensive first-
year math course. I also liked 
learning languages, so my first 
year in college I took a linguistics 
course … My sophomore year, 
I took a course on the history 
of the English language and I 
just fell in love. I didn’t even 
know that I wanted to know the 
answers to those questions, and I 
want to know the answers to all 

of those questions. 
I want LSA students to feel 
like they get to explore and 
find the questions that they get 
excited about because that’s 
how we get the best education, 
is suddenly, we’re just curious, 
and this is work that matters to 
us, where we think, ‘I can make a 
difference here. I have things to 
say here. I want to get involved 
with research in this area,’ so 
that is certainly my goal for 
students.
TMD: What do you believe 
LSA’s strengths and weaknesses 
are?
AC: When I look at LSA, the 
things I am deeply impressed 
with are the breadth and depth 
of 
(its) 
excellence. 
That 
is 
unusual. It is unusual even in our 
peer institutions. We continue 
to invest across the natural 
sciences, the social sciences 
and the humanities because we 
believe that they’re all important 
to a rich liberal arts education … 
Another thing I am impressed 
with is we are a top-ranked 
research institution that cares 
deeply 
about 
undergraduate 
teaching, and that matters to 
me. All our faculty are teaching 
undergraduates 
and 
(are) 
committed to that part of being 
at Michigan. 
I’m also really proud of our 
commitment to Diversity, Equity 
and Inclusion. This is something 
where we’ve done a lot of 
really important work. There’s 
more work to do and we’re 
committed to continuing to do 
that in a thoughtful, sustained, 
committed way … We’ll continue 
to do work around helping 
students connect their liberal 
arts education to where they 
want to go next. That, to me, is 
one of the really exciting things 
we’re working on …
Another place where we’ll 
continue to do work is thinking 
about well-being, and that’s for 
all members of our community 
so that this can be a place where 
people feel like they can do 
their best work. Here, I’ll think 
particularly about students. We 
hear from students the pressure 
and stress and anxiety they are 
experiencing is getting in the 
way of learning. 

For certain students receiving 
financial 
aid, 
the 
University 
provides allowances for mandatory 
additional course materials. Art 
& Design students in need of this 
monetary aid receive $939, and 
Taubman students receive $708, 
while all other undergraduate 
students receive $524 per semester.
Though the University provides 
monetary compensation for those 
students who qualify for the aid, 
students who do not meet the 
requirements for the necessary 
amount must pay for the supplies 
themselves. 
CSG Vice President Isabelle 
Blanchard, LSA senior, said CSG is 
making affordability on campus a 
priority this year. She also discussed 
open-source programs, which are 
publically accessible programs for 
students. 
“If we could get the whole 
University 
to 
switch 
to 
free, 
open-source programs, then they 
won’t have to pay for these out of 
financial aid, and maybe then they 
can use that financial aid money to 
support more students in general,” 
Blanchard said. “They won’t have 
to pay as much for these supply 
allowances.”
Other 
courses 
on 
campus 
— especially in STEM fields — 
have extra registration fees for 
digital learning systems on which 
students are expected to complete 
homework and quizzes. According 
to Blanchard, the homework access 
code for one of her physics courses 
cost $70.
“I feel like the University should 
work harder to provide these 
resources or at least look into options 
that are more affordable … just so 
that it’s not all coming from the 
students directly,” Blanchard said. 
“I do think while some students can 
afford them, it’s definitely a barrier 
to entry. It can kind of scare people 
away from doing certain programs, 
or you can just easily fall behind too 
if you can’t buy it right away at the 
beginning of the semester.”
Some of her other courses on 
campus that use programs that 
require students to pay to access 
homework 
make 
homework 
optional, Blanchard said. However, 
they give extra points for students 

who choose to complete it. 
“In one of my courses, they had 
a program that you could choose to 
pay for if you wanted to get those 
extra points in your grade, but then 
if you don’t want to pay for that 
or you can’t afford it, then that’s 
not fair,” Blanchard said. “You’re 
not getting those points that other 
students could get.” 
In an attempt to help reduce 
these additional costs for students 
who do not qualify for an allowance 
provided by the University, CSG 
has been pursuing several different 
initiatives, 
according 
to 
CSG 
President Ben Gerstein.
Gerstein suggested some steps 
that need to be taken include direct 
communication with departments 
to better understand why there 
is an added fee, and whether the 
programs in question offer a value 
that is interchangeable a different 
program that is less expensive. 
Additionally, 
he 
recommended 
trying to figure out what solutions 
can be worked on with professors 
and programs to limit costs. 
Specifically, CSG is working to 
expand its Academic Affairs Task 
Force, a project dedicated toward 
reducing 
barriers, 
especially 
financial ones, to students’ academic 
success.
“I welcome students to get 
involved in the Academic Affairs 
Task Force,” Gerstein said. “It’s 
open to any student who wants to 
get involved, and so, if students are 
interested in how to improve this 
— because it’s a very real problem 
— we want to hear their stories and 
their voices and make sure that 
their perspectives are heard in the 
policies that we pursue and in the 
changes that we aim to make.”
The 
additional 
costs 
for 
materials and online programs are 
different for each course and each 
department. 
CSG is suggesting the University 
hire specialists who would be 
able to consult the departments 
and provide a more cost-effective 
alternative to the current programs 
and methods these courses use. 
According to Blanchard, certain 
professors were concerned about 
the monetary feasibility of hiring 
these specialists. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 24, 2019 — 3

LSA
From Page 1

AFFORDABILITY
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

As Judge S. Thomas Anderson 
of the Sixth Circuit put it, 
Tennessee’s 
damages 
were 
“speculative,” and only contingent 
upon the state not adhering to 
federal statute. 
“They just basically said, ‘Well, 
the general assembly does not 
have a right to bring the lawsuit 
in the first place,’” Richard 
Thompson, TMLC’s president and 
chief counsel, said in an interview 
with The Daily. 
In early September, TMLC filed 
a petition for a rehearing by the 
Sixth Circuit, calling their verdict 
“painfully at odds” with the 
Supreme Court precedent. 
Thompson said his organization 
saw the federal government’s 
requirement 
of 
the 
state 
to 
afford refugees Medicaid as an 
infringement on Tennessee’s right 
to spend revenue in a way it sees 
fit.
John 
Bursch, 
the 
former 
Michigan solicitor general and 
founder of Bursch Law PLLC., 
delivered the argument on behalf 
of the plaintiffs in July. In addition 
to crafting TMLC’s case, Bursch 
is currently preparing for a 
separate argument in front of the 
U.S. Supreme Court, defending 
a Michigan funeral home in 
a case regarding transgender 
employment discrimination. 
Bursch said TMLC’s petition 
is based on the 10th Amendment 
precedent that grants the states 
any powers not expressly given to 
the federal government. 
“The petition for rehearing 
en banc asks whether a state 
legislature has the ability to bring 
a lawsuit to challenge an action 
by the federal government that 
interferes with the legislature’s 
authority,” Bursch said in an 
email interview Friday. “Here, the 
federal government has compelled 
the State of Tennessee to pay for a 
program from which Tennessee 
has withdrawn.”
TMLC’s case has generated 
controversy 
from 
immigrants’ 
rights advocates in the area. 
Law student Kerry Martin, an 
immigration representative at the 
Michigan Immigration and Labor 
Law Association, says Tennessee’s 

use of the 10th Amendment as a 
basis to nullify an order from the 
federal government is invalid.
“There’s a lot of ways the federal 
government can use its power 
to affect what the states do,” 
Martin said. “They’re definitely 
not independent entities. But 
there are some areas where if the 
federal government coerces or 
commandeers state power, quote 
unquote, then that comes into 
violation.”
LSA senior Ayah Kutmah, 
co-president of the Michigan 
Refugee Assistance Program, said 
helping refugees resettle benefits 
the states they moved to in the 
long run.
“It’s actually in their best 
interest that they do,” Kutmah 
said. “Now, these refugees are able 
to actually integrate into society 
and become able bodied working 
individuals who contribute back 
to society. Obviously, you’re not 
able to do that without any state 
sponsorship, especially medically 
when it comes to health care.”
While the Tennessee case 
has brought TMLC increased 
public attention, the group has 
litigated dozens of cases, notably 
representing several New Jersey 
residents 
who 
opposed 
the 
construction of a mosque and 
Muslim community center in 
Bernards, N.J. The organization 
is a nonprofit and received $1.6 
million in private donations last 
year.
Also central in the creation 
of the organization was Tom 
Monaghan, 
Domino’s 
Pizza 
founder and former Detroit Tigers 
owner, who has been involved in 
various 
other 
Christian-based 
ventures, including the foundation 
of Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, 
Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, 
Florida, and even a Florida town 
based in Catholic values, currently 
under development. 
“Most of our cases deal outside 
the state of Michigan, they’re 
mostly in federal courts, although 
we’re located in Ann Arbor 
township at the Domino’s Farms 
complex,” Thompson said. “We do 
get involved in a lot of, I would say, 
controversial cultural issues.”
TMLC is not Ann Arbor’s only 
self-identified 
Judeo-Christian-
interest law firm — the local 
American Freedom Law Center 

made headlines earlier this year 
for being placed on the Southern 
Poverty Law Center’s annual “hate 
map” of American organizations 
classified as hate groups.
Thompson is familiar with the 
organization, and said the group’s 
co-founder, 
Michigan 
lawyer 
Robert Muise, was formerly a 
senior trial counsel at TMLC for 12 
years, before founding the AFLC 
with lawyer David Yerushalmi.
Kutmah said she was not 
entirely surprised to hear of 
conservative Christian law firms 
based in Ann Arbor.
“A lot of people might think and 
say, ‘Oh, Ann Arbor is liberal bubble 
in the Midwest,’ or something 
like that but these bubbles are not 
uniform,” Kutmah said. “There’s 
always going to be actors or 
organizations or things that might 
display an interest in or lobby for 
things that are against what the 
general people (support)... I don’t 
think it’s necessarily just because 
we associate a state or a city as 
having one type of ideology that 
everyone in there is uniform.”
In 
its 
role 
representing 
Tennessee, 
TMLC’s 
legal 
argument takes issue with more 
than overuse of federal power. The 
Tennessee lawsuit refers to the 
Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980, 
a law that was crafted to create 
a uniform system for admitting 
refugees into the United States. 
At the time, many immigrants 
from South Asia and the Soviet 
Union 
were 
seeking 
asylum, 
and the new policy would allow 
one refugee to resettle in an 
area for every 4,000 Americans. 
TMLC labels the bill as an 
unconstitutional abuse of power, 
allowing the federal government 
to 
commandeer 
funds 
for 
resettlement from the states.
Michigan 
Immigration 
and Labor Law Association’s 
Martin noted that other lawsuits 
have argued about the federal 
government’s right to withhold 
funding, including the 1987 case 
of South Dakota v. Dole, where 
the court upheld the federal 
government’s ability to block funds 
for a state’s highway construction 
and maintenance if the state 
would not raise the drinking age to 
21. Martin says a similar precedent 
for federal spending power was set 
several years ago, and involved the 

passage of the Affordable Care Act, 
often referred to as Obamacare. 
According 
to 
Martin, 
this 
precedent makes it difficult for 
Tennessee to build a viable case on 
the basis of the 10th Amendment.
“Absolutely the government 
can use its Medicaid spending 
to require that states receiving 
federal Medicaid funds pass those 
funds on to resettled refugees,” 
Martin said.
But for all of Tennessee’s 
opposition 
to 
Medicaid 
expenditures, the state stands to 
lose far more by not complying, 
Martin said. Should the state not 
provide Medicaid to resettled 
refugees, a March 2018 ruling 
from the federal court in Jackson, 
Tennessee estimated it could lose 
up to $7 billion annually in federal 
health care funds.
“They listed in their lawsuit, 
this is their big complaint, the 
state of Tennessee: that we 
have to pay $20 million towards 
refugee Medicaid expenses in 
addition to some other expenses 
like, God forbid, interpreters in 
the public schools,” Martin said. 
“$20 million. This is a state with a 
massive budget.”
Additionally, Martin argues in 
the wake of the Resettlement Act, 
Tennessee had few or no objections 
to taking in asylum seekers, often 
from Eastern Europe or the Soviet 
Union. He says this fact alone 
hints that Tennessee and TMLC’s 
fervent opposition to the inflow 
of refugees is based on more than 
just paying for their Medicaid 
expenses. 
“You’ve lived with this law 
until, what, the year 2017?” Martin 
said. “37 years. And now you’re 
saying this is a commandeering of 
your funds?”
Kutmah said prejudice often 
plays a role in some of the rhetoric 
used to describe refugees.
“For 
humanitarian 
reasons, 
I think it’s morally atrocious 
that you’re closing a door on a 
threatened group of people,” 
Kutmah said. “... (Refugees) are 
what make these communities 
vibrant, provide the jobs that 
are needed. Again, like you have 
the added cultural heritage and 
diversity, which always increase 
the 
economic 
and 
cultural 
strength of any city or state.”

TMLC
From Page 1

A limit of 28 of each facility 
would 
be 
allowed 
in 
Ann 
Arbor, adding up to a total of 84 
recreational marijuana retailers 
that would each cost $5,000.
A 
10 
percent 
renewable 
energy requirement would also 
be required in each facility. 
Lenart said this requirement 
would help alleviate the energy 
demand recreational marijuana 
businesses often require.
“A lot of communities that are 
further ahead in the revolution 
of marijuana law and business 
facilities have had significant 
challenges 
with 
energy 
consumption 
and 
demand,” 
Lenart said. “We believe that 
this is a reasonable step towards 
trying to mitigate some of those 
factors.”
Following 
Lenart, 
Kristen 
Larcom, senior assistant aity 
attorney, explained amendments 
to permit ordinances to council 
members. Larcom said the city 
plans to enact very minimal 
changes.
“What we have tried to do is 
make as few changes as we need 
to and just incorporate adult use 
marijuana into the framework 
we already have for medical 
marijuana,” Larcom said.
Deputy City Attorney Kevin 
McDonald 
then 
covered 
the 
permit 
application 
process. 
He said the city would choose 
applications 
for 
recreational 
marijuana businesses that would 
be in best compliance with the 
state’s laws. 
“If the state received more 
applications than the city is 
allowing, it really turns to the 
city to make the decision as to 
which applications it is supposed 
to actually issue,” McDonald said. 
“It’s supposed to be a somewhat 
objective procedure so that we 
can very quickly come up with 
the applications that should rise 
to the top of the pack.”
Applications will be scored 
on four 25-point categories: past 
performance and experience in 
the community, business plan and 
state compliance, location and 
community interest. Those that 
score best on this grading scale 
will be granted permits until the 

threshold is met.
Jane 
Lumm, 
I-Ward 
2, 
expressed 
concern 
regarding 
the new ordinances. She said 
she felt the process to approve 
permits is being rushed to come 
into effect at the same time the 
state begins to accept applications 
for 
commercial 
recreational 
marijuana facilities Nov. 1.
“This is a really big deal,” 
Lumm 
said. 
“Recreational 
marijuana is obviously coming, 
and we’re setting regulations that 
determine how many facilities 
there can be, where they can be 
located, how they can operate.”
Lumm 
advised 
studying 
what Boulder, Colo., and other 
similar communities have done 
to monitor marijuana, such as 
creating a marijuana advisory 
board. She said she will be asking 
for a temporary opt-out when the 
ordinance comes around for a 
second reading.
“We work for the residents, 
and I’m concerned about the 
real impacts on them and our 
community,” Lumm said. “I’m 
more concerned about that then 
perceived messages.”
Ali Ramlawi, D-Ward 5, said he 
takes a different position on the 
ordinances than Lumm. He said 
he believes the council is listening 
to 
community 
members 
and 
approving the ordinances will be 
an economic benefit to Ann Arbor.
“This 
is 
something 
that 
has been talked about in our 
community, in our state and in 
our country for a very long time,” 
Ramlawi said. “I think we are 
doing our diligence.”
The 
council 
members 
also 
discussed 
concerns 
with regulations on smoking 
marijuana outside. Julie Grand, 
D-Ward 3, questioned the current 
laws in place regarding smoking 
marijuana 
outside, 
and 
Jeff 
Hayner, D-Ward 1, asked about 
how this regulation would be 
implemented.
Hayner also supported the idea 
of a marijuana advisory board. As 
a member of the liquor advisory 
committee, he said a similar 
board for recreational marijuana 
businesses would be a great 
aspect to add to the ordinances. 

MARIJUANA
From Page 1

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Read more at 
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