This shift has primarily 
been 
driven 
by 
younger 
generations, Waxman added. 
She said they are more 
conscious of human rights 
and make more mindful 
purchasing decisions. 
“While 
the 
fight 
to 
improve working conditions 
is far from a new one, it 
is 
clear 
today’s 
up-and-
coming generations are far 
more aware and mindful 
of social issues, including 
the treatment of workers,” 
Waxman said.
Waxman then explained 
one way the Fair Labor 
Association 
has 
been 
effective 
in 
promoting 
the 
humane 
treatment 
of 
workers 
through 
full 
transparency 
of 
their 
investigations. 
She 
said 
it 
holds 
the 
companies 
accountable in a way many 
other organizations do not. 
“Our 
commitment 
to 
transparency has really been 
a foundational principle,” 
Waxman said. “We don’t 
think of transparency as an 
end, but rather the means 

to an end. We believe in 
shining a light on working 
conditions 
and 
global 
supply chains because it 
promotes accountability and 
engenders trust.”
Waxman said there are a 
variety of challenges facing 
workers, but one of the most 
pressing was the fight for a 
fair wage. She claimed low 
wages harm both the worker 
and the company, adding 
workers have the right to 
compensation for a regular 
workweek to fit their basic 
needs and should have some 
discretionary income.
“One 
of 
the 
most 
pernicious 
challenges 
is 
fairly compensating workers 
— in other words, providing a 
livable wage,” Waxman said. 
“It’s not an exaggeration 
to say that chronically low 
wages are really an affront 
to the humanity and dignity 
of workers. They undermine 
the success of families and 
communities, 
and 
from 
the 
business 
perspective, 
can 
drain 
productivity, 
motivation 
and 
business 
success.”
Waxman 
concluded 
by discussing how many 
companies feel the need to 

produce as much as they 
can as fast as they can, 
which can negatively impact 
factory workers.
“There’s 
enormous 
pressure for brands and 
factories to produce things 
super quickly, and it really 
takes a toll on the people 
who work in them,” Waxman 
said.
LSA senior Ryan Rich 
said he attended the event 
in order to see how to enact 
change in these sectors. 
He said he came in without 
knowing much about the 
Fair Labor Association and 
was surprised to learn how 
effective it is in holding 
companies 
accountable 
through transparency.
“I didn’t know too much 
about 
this 
organization, 
but it really sounds like 
the 
people 
affiliated 
with them, with the Fair 
Labor 
Association, 
have 
committed and are being 
held accountable in a way 
I had never seen before,” 
Rich said. “There was a 
group, a very large group of 
companies and universities, 
that are willing to be held 
accountable. It’s rare.”

student Julia Oh Coxen 
explained why she joined 
the military. 
“Why I joined was very 
different from the reason 
why I wanted to stay,” 
said Coxen. “As a child 
of immigrant parents, I 
felt a very strong calling 
to do something for the 
nation that had done so 
much for us.” 
The 
panelists 
then 
discussed 
their 
decisions 
to 
retire 
from the military. Like 
Engineering 
senior 
Stefany Escobedo, who 
left 
the 
military 
to 
complete her education, 
Rackham 
student 
Ian 
Fishback felt he could 
contribute 
more 
to 
society 
as 
a 
scholar, 
reinforcing his decision 
to leave. On the other 
hand, Graznow said he 
left because he simply 
felt it was time to do so. 
“I joined the military 
when I was 18, and I felt 
when I was 24 — when 
I got out — that I had 
fulfilled 
my 
personal 
reasons for joining,” said 
Granzow. “It was time 
to do something else, to 
spread out, and I’ve been 
in school ever since.”
Following 
this 
discussion, 
Larson 
asked the panel whether 
they’d 
experienced 
moments 
when 
they’d 

been 
especially 
aware 
of their own and others’ 
identities during their 
years of service. 
Fishback 
said 
in 
his experience in the 
military, identities of race 
and gender were muted 
while other aspects of 
people’s 
personalities 
were 
highlighted. 
He 
explained there was a 
stark contrast between 
diversity in the military 
and outside it.
“There is less of an 
emphasis on skin color 
and 
categories, 
and 
more of an emphasis on 
seeing individuals and 
their 
backgrounds,” 
said 
Fishback. 
“Differences 
like 
race 
and 
socioeconomic 
backgrounds 
were 
muted to a degree that 
people over here (at the 
University) just cannot 
understand.”
Granzow 
commented 
the focus on the job at 
hand 
overshadows 
the 
idea 
of 
caring 
about 
differences 
among 
comrades. 
“No one cares where 
you are from,” Granzow 
said. “No one cares how 
rich you are, no one cares 
about 
your 
religious 
beliefs 
or 
political 
beliefs. You have a job to 
do and you have to get it 
done.”
Granzow 
said 
the 
military helped expose 
him to the diversity of 
the 
United 
States. 
It 
was a stark contrast to 

his 
small 
hometown 
in 
Kansas 
— 
where 
everyone was white with 
a Christian background 
and 
similar 
political 
beliefs, he said.
“(In the military) we 
had people from both 
coasts, 
from 
Filipino 
backgrounds, 
Hispanic 
backgrounds, 
black 
backgrounds, 
Asian 
backgrounds — you name 
it, someone was from 
that background,” said 
Granzow. 
“I 
realized 
that at a fundamental 
level, this whole human 
tapestry is not just one 
thread. 
There 
(are) 
people from all over the 
place.”
The panel came to an 
end when Larson asked a 
question about what the 
panelist felt the military 
does well that society 
needs to catch up on.
Coxen said although 
the military has taken 
steps 
that 
strengthen 
aspects of integration of 
diversity, it is important 
to recognize it is a work 
in progress.
“There is still a lot 
of work to do. We are 
certainly not where we 
could be,” said Coxen. 
“Where I would say that 
the military does frankly 
very well is the gender 
pay gap. I would get paid 
exactly the same amount 
as a male counterpart 
with the same level of 
skill and training.”
Granzow agreed with 
Coxen’s 
statement. 
“They are getting rid 
of the gender divide in 
the fitness tests, and 
I think that’s a good 
step,” 
said 
Granzow. 
“I like how everyone 
is held to a certain 
objective standard.”
In 
an 
interview 
with 
The 
Daily 
after 
the 
panel’s 
discussion, 
President 
of the University of 
Michigan 
Student 
Veterans 
of 
America 
Stefany Escobedo, an 
Engineering 
senior, 
explained 
students 
from 
all 
racial 
and 
socioeconomic 
backgrounds 
should 
feel encouraged to join 
the military due to the 
military’s emphasis on 
individual 
character 
rather than the social 
constructs of race or 
gender. 
“In my experience, 
what has counted more 
has been work ethic and 
integrity 
(compared 
to 
race 
or 
gender),” 
said 
Escobedo. 
“At 
the end of the day the 
great thing about the 
military, in my opinion, 
is that we’re focused on 
the mission and that’s 
what takes priority.”

The competition officially 
began 
on 
Oct. 
30. 
OSU 
was leading at the time 
of publication with 1,003 
donated pints of blood in 
comparison to University’s 
972. However, neither school 
has yet to garner half the 
number of donations they 
obtained 
last 
year, 
and 
Michigan 
has 
20 
drives 
scheduled in the coming 
weeks to continue collecting 
donations 
up 
until 
the 
deadline.
This past weekend was one 
of the Battle’s biggest events: 
Be a Hero. At this event, 
which took place on the Big 
House field, 456 pints of 
blood were donated.
Megan 
Podschlne 
is 
the program manager for 
Wolverines 
for 
Life, 
the 
parent organization to Blood 
Drives 
United. 
Podschlne 
described 
Wolverines 
for Life as a center for 
organizing 
“blood, 
organ, 
tissue, and bone marrow 
donations,” 
under 
which 
the domain of Blood Drives 
United squarely falls. 
Podschlne 
said 
in 
her 
experience 
at 
Michigan 
Medicine’s 
Transplant 
Center, donated blood is 
typically used for ER and 
surgical 
patients. 
Zeto 
reiterated the Red Cross’s 
assertion one pint of blood 
has the potential to save up 
to three lives.
LSA sophomore Spencer 
Wood first heard about the 
Blood Battle when a faculty 
member at his high school 
advised future Wolverines 
to 
participate. 
Already 
having been involved in Red 
Cross volunteer work, Wood 
said he was excited at the 
opportunity. He now helps 
with advertisement for the 
event.
In 
third 
grade, 
Wood 
was diagnosed with a blood 

disorder 
that 
required 
frequent transfusions and 
blood work.
“I wouldn’t be here today 
without that work,” Wood 
said. “Through that, I just 
wanted to help out in any 
way I could. And as long as 
I have been able, I’ve been 
donating three to five times a 
year ever since then.”
Business 
senior 
Vijita 
Kamath shared a similar 
story, though in her case, 
it was her mother who had 
benefited from donations in 
the past.
“My 
mother 
battled 
cancer for 10+ years, so a lot 
of my childhood was spent 
in 
and 
around 
hospitals 
learning about the need for 
transfusions and the acute 
shortage of blood,” Kamath 
wrote in a message to The 
Daily. “I learned I was a 
universal donor (O+) back 
then 
and 
encouraged 
to 
donate when I got older.” 
As 
an 
international 
student from India, Kamath 
had not been able to donate 
prior to this year’s Battle.
“The 
Red 
Cross 
has 
restrictions 
on 
eligibility 
if you have visited or had 
prolonged 
stay 
in 
any 
malaria or other disease-
affected regions,” Kamath 
said. “I first learned about 
this when I tried to donate 
as a sophomore and was 
answering 
the 
required 
questions during a walk-in. 
But I was ineligible since 
(I) had been home to India 
over the summer … This was 
the first time I had not been 
home for over 6 months, so I 
was eligible to donate.”
The annual Blood Battle 
is not the only opportunity 
University 
students 
and 
faculty have to donate blood. 
Blood Drives United hosts an 
additional drive in the winter 
which frequently puts the 
University into competition 
with other local or Big 10 
schools. Additionally, people 
are 
able 
to 
make 
blood 

donations as frequently as 
every eight weeks, according 
to the Red Cross.
Still, Wood and others 
said they believe the culture 
on a college campus, and 
specifically 
Michigan’s 
campus, 
makes 
it 
easier 
to solicit mass numbers of 
donations.
“I 
think 
there 
is 
a 
difference in doing it on your 
own, searching for random 
blood drives … and being a 
student, because one thing 
I tell people is, you’re not 
just donating for yourself,” 
Wood said. “You’re donating 
for other people, but on the 
other hand you’re donating 
on behalf of the University 
of Michigan. You’re able to 
exercise that name and do 
good will through that as 
well.”
Zeto said they’ve been 
trying year after year to 
make the drives increasingly 
convenient for students and 
staff. Especially considering 
the Union’s closing, Zeto 
said Blood Drives United 
has been pushing for the 
University 
community 
to 
take 
advantage 
of 
dorm 
drives. They have also set up 
more opportunities to donate 
near athletic facilities, on 
North campus and at the 
hospital.
“It’s so easy,” Zeto said. 
“You go somewhere to study 
or you’re just hanging out 
and you have an hour of 
time to kill. Why not donate 
blood?”
Zeto 
noted 
this 
year’s 
Blood Battle comes on the 
heels 
of 
a 
recent 
blood 
shortage 
in 
Southeastern 
Michigan, directly affecting 
the way Michigan Medicine 
and other local healthcare 
entities are able to help their 
patients.
For 
more 
information, 
interested 
students 
are 
advised to visit this site 
to 
view 
donor 
eligibility 
guidelines and a calendar of 
scheduled drives.

Dittmar said the University’s 
$12.4 
billion 
endowment, 
which is the ninth largest 
in the country, alleviates an 
addition $6,000 in costs per 
student on campus.
“So, if you were looking 
at what we use and gifts and 
proceeds 
from 
endowment, 
there’s 
about 
$6,400 
that 
each student on average is 
not paying, because a donor is 
paying those costs and either 
providing the aid or they may 
just be paying costs; they may 
be paying part of your faculty 
salaries; they may be paying 
for some kind of, you know, 
operations or programs in the 
building,” Dittmar said. “Those 
are costs that don’t have to be 
paid someplace else.”
CSG President Ben Gerstein 
presented on Giving Blueday 
2019, which CSG will use as a 
fundraising effort to continue 
the Leadership Engagement 
Scholarship that originated 
in 2016. If fully funded, the 

scholarship would give $1,000 
in need-based aid to student 
leaders on campus.
Gerstein said there are many 
barriers that can keep student 
leaders from succeeding on 
campus.
“The 
mission 
of 
the 
scholarship, 
(that) 
was 
created three years ago, was 
recognizing that there are 
financial barriers to student 
leadership on campus, whether 
that is balancing work with 
potential involvement or other 
needs, or the cost of dues to 
join an organization,” Gerstein 
said. “There are a bunch 
of barriers that low socio-
economic 
status 
students 
face to being a student leader 
on campus, and it ranges 
from all different types of 
organizations.”
In 
addition, 
Gerstein 
presented on the importance 
of an assembly-wide climate 
demographic survey to assess 
diversity within the student 
government before yielding 
his presentation time to allow 
for members to fill out the 
survey.

Gerstein said the survey, 
and checking in on diversity in 
student leadership, is critical 
to understanding the needs of 
the student body.

“The 
Leadership 

Engagement Scholarship was 
actually born out of one of the 
first 
demographic 
surveys, 
realizing the lack of socio-
economic diversity in student 
leadership,” 
Gerstein 
said. 
“The survey is really important 
to go out, because it allows 
for us as an organization — 
collectively not just separated 
by an executive branch of the 
legislative branch — to have a 
solid assessment about where 
we need to make our own 
internal improvements to the 
inclusivity and diversity of our 
organization.”
Following executive reports, 
the assembly discussed and 
confirmed 
five 
members 
to 
various 
CSG 
positions, 
including 
three 
students 
as associate justices of the 
Central Student Judiciary.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 — 3A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

CSG
From Page 1A

LABOR
From Page 1A

BLOOD
From Page 1A

DIVERSITY
From Page 1A

As 
Schlissel 
said, 
the 
debate 
will 
bring 
additional police presence 
to 
campus 
to 
protect 
students 
physically. 
However, 
Asidao 
said 
having more security could 
have 
an 
adverse 
effect 
on some members of the 
community. 
“I think for some of our 
students, 
knowing 
that 
the University is really 
thinking 
about 
campus 
security 
can 
be 
really 
helpful,” 
Asidao 
said. 
“For some of our students, 
the relationship in terms 
of 
having, 
maybe, 
an 
increased police presence 
may 
actually 
be 
more 
anxiety provoking in some 
ways because of what has 
happened for some of our 
students feeling targeted 
and feeling like there’s 
more scrutiny, in terms of 
their own multiple social 
identities, and maybe being 

targets of what’s perceived 
as 
unfair 
targeting 
by 
security. I think it’s going 
to be a mixed bag.”
Fysudeen said she would 
appreciate the additional 
police 
presence, 
but 
doesn’t think it is an all-
encompassing 
solution. 
Physical safety will not 
prevent 
students 
from 
feeling unsafe on campus, 
she said.
“I think as long as our 
safety is being thought of 
proactively 
rather 
than 
reactively, as long as those 
safe spaces are made, I 
think 
this 
tension 
can 
be, you know, addressed 
successfully,” 
Fysudeen 
said. “I think that there’s 
something to be said there 
positively. And so, I think 
that’s a great sentiment, but 
I also think it’s just going 
to be a lot of psychological 
and emotional strain on 
students. And I don’t think 
that there’s a way that 
physical safety often can 
mitigate that.”
Asidao said the potential 

psychological 
impact 
of 
this debate on students 
could manifest itself in a 
variety of ways, but she 
predicts there will be an 
underlying sense of anxiety 
in many of the feelings that 
may come up. 
“(The 
psychological 
impact) can come in a 
variety of different ways, 
but one of the things we 
have 
seen 
is 
just 
this 
increased sense of anxiety, 
just 
worry,” 
Asidao 
said. “Worry in terms of 
personal safety, worry in 
terms of the future, worry 
in terms of what might be 
coming, worry for their 
own sense of people within 
their 
community, 
being 
worried about their peers 
… For some of our students, 
it may also increase some 
depressive 
symptoms, 
feelings of sadness, feelings 
of hopelessness. For some 
of our students, it can 
also bring up any previous 
traumatic experiences in 
their lives.”

DEBATE
From Page 2A