The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, November 14, 2019 — 3

Center of the city task force 
focuses on community feedback

Ann Arbor opens online survey to hear residents’ concerns on transition process

AYSE ELDES 
For The Daily 

After a week of soliciting 
community feedback through 
a pop-up DecaDome in Ann 
Arbor’s Library Lot, the Center 
of the City Task Force met at 
Larcom City Hall on Wednesday 
to discuss residents’ ideas. The 
task force, formed after voters 
approved to amend the City 
Charter, has been working to 
decide how to make use of the 
Fifth Avenue site. 
According 
to 
Meghan 
Mussolf, committee chair of 
the Center of the City task 
force, the committee has been 
meeting for about four months 
and is halfway through its 
allotted time to formulate a 
decision on the space. Mussolf 
took time during the meeting to 
thank the group for their effort 
to gather community feedback 
thus far. 
“I 
think 
we’ve 
done 
a 
tremendous amount of work 
and 
good 
work 
to 
come 
together and really move the 
conversation forward,” Mussolf 
said. “We now have the luxury 
of having a lot of feedback.”
Heather Seyfarth, project 

manager of the task force and 
an Ann Arbor city manager, 
reported 
an 
online 
survey 
posted on Nov. 12 received 247 
responses within 24 hours. The 
survey will be open until Dec. 6. 
The group is now transitioning 
toward compiling this data to 
formulate an understanding on 
how Ann Arbor residents want 
the space to be utilized. 
The main obstacle facing 
the task force is efficiently 
reviewing the feedback. Task 
force member Norman Tyler 
suggested delegating blocks of 
survey responses to be reviewed 
by each member. Tyler deemed 
it unnecessary for each person 
to read every response and 
explained a common consensus 
among members that time was 
becoming a looming constraint. 
Vocal critics of this comment 
included task force member 
Alan Haber and Ann Arbor 
resident 
Odile 
Hugonot-
Haber. Though most members 
expressed awareness minority 
voices were missing in the 
group, Haber said Ann Arbor 
residents were generally not 
aware of the city’s activity 
around the “Center of City” 
and the task force should focus 

on informing residents about 
their activity. He and member 
John Haines were assigned to 
a subcommittee tasked with 
producing 
an 
informative 
pamphlet to be sent as target 
mail to the community. 
“Of the people we talked to 
at the DecaDome, very few of 
them knew what was going 
on,” Haber said. “I did not get 
a sense that Ann Arbor people 
know what’s happening. This 
returns to my sense that we 
should be sending out some 
sort of invitation or report to 
the whole community. And 
basically, we’re dealing not 
with a base that has thought 
about this at all.”
During the Center of the City 
Task Force’s next two meetings, 
selected residents in Ann Arbor 
will be invited to share their 
input on the project. Invited 
speakers will include business 
owners, a representative from 
the 
police 
department 
and 
other voices the group felt had 
not yet been represented.
Feeling community backing 
for a new park was not being 
acknowledged 
enough, 
Hugonot-Haber 
spoke 
to 
the 
task 
force 
about 
the 

advantages this addition to 
Ann Arbor would bring. Citing 
benefits 
such 
as 
common 
space interaction and cultural 
enrichment, 
“In the city itself, the people 
are a tremendous resource,” 
Hugonot-Haber 
said. 
“They 
have many ideas and solutions 
to problems, and we should 
capitalize more on the resource 
we have within our city.”
Hugonot-Haber, 
who 
disagreed 
with 
task 
force 
member 
and 
LSA 
senior 
Hannah 
Boettcher’s 
dissent 
of a formal partnership with 
the Ann Arbor Library Green 
Conservancy, urged the task 
force to favor partnership with 
the group in its future activity 
with decision-making. 
“I can understand you guys 
don’t want to do things together, 
but at least it should be, when 
you talk about them it should 
be a little more respectful,” 
Hugonot-Haber said. “If not, I 
think you’re doing a good job, 
and I hope you get very excited 
because it’s a very cutting 
edge work that you are doing, 
and I think it will make a big 
difference.”

CONNIE MALLOY 
JOCEYLN BENSON 

CHRIS LAMAR
CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

P O L I C Y T A L K S @ T H E F O R D S C H O O L

CLOSUP LECTURE SERIES 

“Communities of Interest”
and Michigan’s New 
Approach to Redistricting

Free and open to the public. 
Reception to follow. 

Information: 734-647-4091 or 
closup@umich.edu

@fordschool #policytalks

Monday, November 18, 2019 
4:00 - 5:20 pm

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium, 1120 Weill Hall
735 S. State Street 

MODERATOR: 
NANCY WANG 

“My 
professional 
ethical 
obligation 
to 
maintain 
confidentiality and the trust 
placed in me as a mental health 
subject 
matter 
expert 
are 
obligations that I had kept for 
my 30 years of forensic work,” 
McPherson said. “That is, until 
2018 — in July 2018, after fully 
considering this trust and my 
ethical obligations as a physician 
I became a whistleblower.” 
McPherson’s work focuses 
on 
studying 
children 
and 
adolescents, 
known 
as 
unaccompanied 
minors 
in 
immigration proceedings. In 
the United States, different 
agencies 
have 
different 
control 
over 
different 
facilities, providing a range 
of 
complicated 
bureaucratic 
difficulties 
for 
evaluating 
conditions and policies. Legally 
unaccompanied minors can be 
held up to 72 hours in Customs 
and Patrol Border facilities, 
before they are transferred to 
the Department of Health and 
Human Services.
“The average length of stay 
for an unaccompanied minor in 
a DHH facility in 2018 was 60 
days,” McPherson said. 
The 
number 
of 
unaccompanied 
migrant 
children has been continuously 
increasing since 2015, as well 
as the number of immigrants 
in detention centers as a whole, 
according to McPherson.
“In 2018, ICE held an average 
of 42,000 per day, including 
an average of 2,113 in family 
detention, at a cost of over 
8 million dollars per day,” 
McPherson said. 
With many of these centers 
becoming 
significantly 
overcrowded, McPherson and 
her colleagues observed the 
harmful effects on everyone, 
especially children as they were 
separated from their families. 
“I could barely contain my 
outrage,” 
McPherson 
said. 
“I’m a child and adolescent 
psychiatrist. 
I’m 
a 
medical 
doctor 
who 
specializes 
in 
helping 
children 
with 
overwhelming 
emotions. 
I 
help children and families be 

stronger, but I was watching 
them be torn apart.”
She 
explained 
that 
with 
children, the trauma of being 
detained causes them to regress, 
and hinders their ability to 
recognize 
safe 
relationships 
upon release. Even when their 
mother or father is simply 
dropping them off at school for 
the day, they may feel like they 
are being abandoned all over 
again, and become inconsolable. 
These impacts increase the 
longer they are detained, and 
are especially exacerbated when 
the length of their detention is 
unknown. 
“I knew children were being 
harmed, and that I should act, 
but I didn’t know what to do,” 
McPherson said.
Robert Sain, a community 
child psychiatrist in southeast 
Michigan, attended the lecture 
and told The Daily he related 
to 
McPherson’s 
experiences 
through his experience working 
in 
Detroit 
with 
Mexican 
immigrants. 
“It takes a lot out of me because 
all of these families have been 
traumatized — the kids have 
been traumatized, their parents 
have been traumatized, it goes 
on for generations,” Sain said. 
“I get very frustrated with the 
lack of resources, or concern, for 
helping these families.” 
McPherson’s colleague Scott 
Allen, also an expert for CRCL, 
reached out after working in 
the Department of Homeland 
Security together in 2014 and 
they discussed their course 
of action. Both were worried 
about the legal repercussions of 
speaking out — on themselves, 
and on their families, coworkers, 
employers 
and 
patients. 
McPherson 
recalled 
several 
people 
discouraging 
them, 
claiming that the letter would 
not affect any real change and 
that it was better to stay quiet, 
considering the risks. 
McPherson also discussed 
the dilemma over working for 
an organization that causes 
the 
harms 
she 
witnessed. 
Margo 
Schlanger, 
professor 
at the University of Michigan 
Law School and the former 
presidentially-appointed officer 
for CRCL, elaborated on the 
ethics of this in an interview 

with The Daily.
“The question is, is reform the 
right approach, or does reform 
entrench 
the 
problematic 
institution?” Schlanger posed. 
“I’m a believer in trying to 
address ongoing harm while you 
also try to get rid of the thing 
that causes the harm.”
The 
pair 
sought 
legal 
counsel from the Government 
Accountability 
Project, 
and 
decided to write a letter to 
Congress, rather than an Op-ed 
as originally planned. 
“The fundamental flaw of 
family detention is not just the 
risk posed by the conditions 
of 
confinement 
— 
it’s 
the 
incarceration 
of 
innocent 
children itself,” the letter reads. 
“Detention of innocent children 
should never occur in a civilized 
society, especially if there are 
less restrictive options, because 
the risk of harm to children 
simply cannot be justified.” 
The New York Times caught 
hold of their letter, garnering 
the 
attention 
and 
support 
of 
14 
professional 
medical 
organizations. The president 
of the American Psychological 
Association reached out to them 
personally, thanking them for 
their moral courage. Allen and 
McPherson also received letters 
from children their letter had 
affected, thanking them. 
“I was reminded that our 
children are always watching 
and listening, [and] when we 
use our voice, we give them 
hope and teach them that 
change is possible, if we take 
action,”McPherson said.
Deborah Pinals, director of 
the Program in Psychiatry, Law, 
and Ethics at the University, 
helped introduce McPherson 
and later reflected on the 
importance of the lecture in an 
interview with The Daily. 
“In today’s climate when 
there’s so much in the press 
about immigration, detention, 
and detention of families and 
children,” Pinals said. “I think 
what 
was 
really 
important 
was to hear about the ethical 
dilemma 
of 
the 
physician 
working trying to improve 
conditions of confinement and 
then finding out that the very 
conditions were harmful in and 
of themselves.” 

ETHICS
From Page 1

Patwardhan said 20 working 
groups within GEO have built 
the platform over the last seven 
months. He noted the importance 
of showing up to membership 
meetings and bargaining-related 
events over the months ahead.
State 
Rep. 
Yousef 
Rabhi, 
D-Ann Arbor, shared his support 
for GEO at the rally. He said 
GEO is an example of what 
graduate students elsewhere can 
accomplish if they unionize. 
“You’re fighting for an issue 
that is about the future of our 
state and that is about making 
sure that everyone has access to 
a good-quality education,” Rabhi 
said. “On behalf of the people of 
the 53rd District, I want to thank 
you for your work in furthering 
the issue of social justice and 
furthering the issues of economic 
justice in our state. What you’re 
doing here in Ann Arbor is setting 
the stage for what can happen in 
other parts of the state, too, when 
graduate employees organize, 
stick together and fight for their 
rights.”
After the rally, the group 
marched to the Michigan League, 
reciting 
chants 
encouraging 
the University to listen to their 
demands. Before the bargaining 
team 
went 
inside 
to 
begin 
negotiations, Devlin Mallory, a 
Rackham student and member of 
the team, addressed the crowd.
Mallory said the likelihood of 
their demands being met is tied to 

GEO’s organizing. He encouraged 
members 
and 
supporters 
to 
continue showing up for events 
and thanked the hundreds of 
union members who contributed 
to the building of their platform.
“Our strength at the bargaining 
table doesn’t come from rhetorical 
skills or the logical soundness 
of our arguments, it comes from 
the power of our membership,” 
Mallory said. “As the bargaining 
team, we’re excited to continue 
the 
progress 
you’ve 
started 
and win an equitable and just 
contract.”
University spokesperson Rick 
Fitzgerald wrote in an email to 
The Daily negotiations between 
the University and GEO will 
happen twice every week going 
forward. 
He 
characterized 
Wednesday’s initial session as 
“productive.”
In a written statement to The 
Daily, Sascha Matish, associate 
vice 
provost 
for 
academic 
affairs and senior director of 
academic human resources, said 
the University is committed to 
working with the GEO to develop 
a contract both parties can agree 
upon.
“We recognize the importance 
of Graduate Student Instructors 
and 
graduate 
student 
staff 
assistants 
to 
the 
academic 
mission of the university and 
to the academic success of our 
students,” Matish wrote. “We are 
committed to bargaining in good 
faith with GEO to reach a fair 
agreement that serves the interest 
of all parties.”

GEO
From Page 1

In the conference the doctors 
explained the boy’s lungs were 
damaged in a way they had not 
previously seen, specifically citing 
shocking inflammation, scarring 
and dead tissue. 
“This is an evil that I haven’t 
faced before,” Nemeh said. 
 
Dr. 
Lisa 
Allenspach, 
a 
pulmonologist at Henry Ford, 
said the statement the vaping 
has created a real issue for the 
younger generations.
“Our adolescents are really 
faced with a crisis,” Allenspach 
said. “There was a study released 
last week that surveyed over 
10,000 middle school and high 
school students. And 28 percent 
of high school students reported 
ongoing use of e-cigarettes and 11 

percent of middle school students 
reported using e-cigarettes.”
Dr. 
Nicholas 
Yeldo, 
a 
cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, 
said in a statement he hopes the 
incident brings awareness to 
the greater issue in society with 
vaping.
“We are here today to beg the 
public to pay special attention to 
the special steps that were taken 
in this case. ... I beg of you, this 
was not just the unlucky one,” 
Yeldo said. “This is happening 
way too much to turn our heads 
to this.”
The family of the boy described 
him as a typical 17-year-old, who 
enjoys sailing, hanging out with 
friends and playing video games. 
In a statement, they said they 
hope to bring awareness to the 
dangers associated with vaping. 
“Within a short period of 
time, our lives have been forever 

changed. He has gone from the 
typical life of a perfectly healthy 
16-year-old athlete...” the family 
said, “to waking up intubated and 
with two new lungs, facing a long 
and painful recovery process as 
he struggles to regain his strength 
and mobility, which has been 
severely impacted.” 
The teen is on the road to 
recovery, but it could take months. 
In a statement to the Detroit Free 
Press, Nemeh explained the use 
of 
extracorporeal 
membrane 
oxygenation 
to 
replace 
the 
function of the lungs. 
“He is very close to being 
transferred to rehab,” Nemeh 
said. “However, because he was 
on the ECMO machine for almost 
a month with total sedation, he is 
incredibly weak.”

VAPING
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

“In 
creating 
an 
equitable 
environmental 
future, 
you’re 
talking about the environment, 
which is critically important,” 
Strong said. “As you do your work, 
you have to be very intentional 
about who is a part of the 
conversation, who’s impacted by 
the work.”
 Strong said to work toward 
achieving carbon neutrality, the 
community should value inclusion 

by incorporating and valuing 
differences on a shared platform. 
She also said the community 
should take into consideration 
how the past shapes the present 
and 
social 
advantages 
and 
disadvantages to address equity.
“For justice to really be just, 
it has to come from everybody,” 
Strong said. “You learn so much 
more from having these diverse 
perspectives in the room.”
Missy 
Stults, 
Ann 
Arbor 
sustainability 
and 
innovations 
manager, also spoke at the town 
hall. Like Strong, Stults said the 

city must work together to be 
successful in achieving carbon 
neutrality 
and 
discussed 
the 
initiative 
to 
achieve 
carbon 
neutrality by 2030.
 Stults also revealed the logo 
for the new carbon neutrality 
initiative, called A2Zero.
“Carbon neutrality probably 
means something to all of you … 
but for many people, it doesn’t,” 
Stults said. “We want people to 
know they’re part of this, part of 
what it is we’re talking about. This 
isn’t a four month journey, this is a 
10-plus year journey.”

 The town hall then moved to let 
attendees express their ideas and 
concerns about climate neutrality 
through 
writing 
on 
various 
posters hung up throughout the 
event space. Topics of discussion 
included 
energy, 
adaptation, 
mobility and resource reduction. 
LSA senior Kristen Hayden, 
a staff member of Ann Arbor’s 
Department 
of 
Sustainability, 
told The Daily the decision to 
achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 
is a reaffirmation of Ann Arbor’s 
commitment to being a sustainable 
city.

“Carbon neutrality ties into 
all facets of community living,” 
Hayden said. “This is not just about 
emissions and pollution but about 
people and their relationship to 
the community.”
Ideally, Hayden said a carbon 
neutrality plan should put frontline 
communities first and support 
their energy and lifestyle needs 
while getting the community to 
zero carbon emissions.
Ann 
Arbor 
resident 
Mary 
Garton volunteers with Citizen’s 
Climate 
Lobby 
and 
Climate 
Reality Project. She told The 

Daily working towards carbon 
neutrality is an important step 
in reducing the effects of climate 
change.
“Efforts need to be taken at the 
city, state, county and national 
levels to reduce carbon emissions, 
not only because of climate 
change but because of air quality 
and water quality,” Garton said. 
“National legislation is needed as 
is state legislation, but in reality, 
cities need to pick up the ball 
because we’re living here and this 
is where the changes will happen.”

CARBON
From Page 1

