2A — Monday, November 18, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

TUESDAY:
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This Week in History

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Program for freshmen undergoes changes, updates for 2019-2020 school year

DESIGN BY TAYLOR SCHOTT

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The departments agreed to
review her case again two years
later. Her next review is expected at
the end of this semester.
She said her treatment at the
University is noticeably different
from that of her white, male
colleagues. Lawsin explained how
when she suggested a resolution
to the Department of Women’s
Studies in 2015, she was dismissed
and she felt like her criticism of
the University was followed up by
disciplinary action against her.
“The way I was treated for that
time period was in stark contrast
with the treatment of a white, male
lecturer in my department who was
found of having sexual misconduct
toward a student several years
prior,” Lawsin said. “He was given
a disciplinary warning but this was
never shared with other faculty
or his review committee, whereas
my resolution to support survivors
somehow found its place in my
review file to show that I was a
troublemaker.”

Lawsin continued, saying they
chose to file a lawsuit to not only
stand up for themselves, but to stand
up for other A/PIA students, faculty
and all other community members
who might be discriminated against
by the University.
“That’s part of the reason why
we decided to file a lawsuit in
December of 2016,” Lawsin said.
“They threatened not to allow me
to come back to teach. Teaching
has been my love and we felt that if
they could do that to me and force
my partner (Kurashige) out, what
would they do to others who are
even more vulnerable?”
Kurashige
discussed
the
challenges of filing a lawsuit
against a major institution like the
University.
“It’s not easy to be a whistleblower
in this society, right?” Kurashige
said. “When you challenge people
in power, they can come down on
you with the force of institutional
power, they can try to shame you
to the public … there are all types of
things set up to keep people silent.”
Kurashige said the University
attempted to discriminate against
he and Lawsin when their newborn

child required heart surgery. He
said their request for modified
duty, where workers are entitled to
alternate assignments while they
or a family member is recovering
from medical illness or injury, was
intentionally delayed six weeks.
“Our child is five years old now,
she was born in the spring of 2014,”
Kurashige said. “She had a hole in
her heart and required open heart
surgery … while this was happening,
we were both putting in for what’s
called modified duty, which is the
closest thing the University has
to maternity or paternity leave,
and what we found through the
emails we got in this lawsuit is that
the Dean’s office was deliberately
delaying processing that while we
were in this vulnerable state and
concerned about our child.”
In a message to The Daily,
University
spokeswoman
Kim
Broekhuizen said the University
encourages anyone who feels they
have been discriminated against
to report it and go through with an
investigation.
“The University of Michigan
has a robust and well-established
complaint
and
investigation
process
for
handling
claims
of discrimination and we are
confident that process is effective,”
Broekhuizen wrote. “All persons
who believe they have been
subject to discrimination and
harassment are encouraged to
use the university processes for
investigating
their
complaints.
It is against university policy
and unlawful to retaliate against
someone for filing a complaint or
participating in the investigation
process.”
Kurashige then said though the
Office of Institutional Equity is
supposed to conduct investigations
independently, OIE’s former senior
director admitted under cross
examination for their lawsuit that
they often send information to
lawyers at the Office of the Vice
President and General Counsel.
“Anything that gets told to
OIE, whether you’re a civil rights
complainant, sexual misconduct
complainant
or
a
survivor,
anything
you
tell
them
can
immediately get transmitted to
University lawyers because they
are the ones hired to prepare a

defense for the University in case
there is a civil lawsuit, which is
absolutely astonishing that there
is absolutely no independence or
confidentiality,” Kurashige said.
Panelist Anna Dang, LSA junior
and a representative for the A/
PIA Studies Program on the panel,
said a previous director of A/PIA
Studies hired by the University
was
unqualified
to
lead
the
program and serves an example
of discriminatory hiring practices.
Dang later clarified to The Daily
the former director that she was
referring to was John Kuwada,
whom the University hired to be
the new director for the 2018-19
school year.
“An example is hiring someone to
be the director of the A/PIA Studies
Program just because they’re Asian
and a biology professor,” Dang
said. “This disrespects the A/PIA
identity by implying that being
part of this identity means that
you are politicized and can head
a department. And it definitely
disrespects the A/PIA Studies
Program because it is implying that
we only have these skills because we
identify as A/PIA. It’s a discerning
model that the administration is
hiring like this.”
LSA junior Josiah Walker, a
panelist, echoed what Dang said
and cited Pamela Heatlie, the
former Title IX coordinator, as an
example of poor hiring practices.
OIE’s investigations faced intense
criticism under Heatlie’s leadership.
“There definitely is a disconnect
between
what
administrators
say happens and what actually
happens,” Walker said.
Dang concluded by emphasizing
the importance of student activism
against
discrimination
at
the
University. She said students hold
the most power in representing A/
PIA.
“As students you have the power
to enroll in A/PIA courses, you can
decline the ethnic studies minors,
you can ask why there aren’t majors
in a lot of these programs, you can
talk to our professors and connect
with them,” Dang said. “And,
you know, admin can’t really fire
students. We hold an extremely
distinctive
place
in
making
demands at this University if we
can stand together.”

A/PIA
From Page 1A