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

TUESDAY:
By Design
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story
WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History

MONDAY:
Looking at the Numbers

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

1 of 1
11/24/08 1:00 PM

SUDOKU

EASY

8
1

3

4

2

1
5

6

9
4

2
1

7

4
7
9

2
6
3

2

3
1

5
4

8

9
1

3

5

6

4
9

© sudokusolver.com. For personal use only.

Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!

TRUST ME
puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

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

DESIGN BY TAYLOR SCHOTT

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during 
the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is 
available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the 
Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long 
subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription 
rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

FINNTAN STORER
Managing Editor 
 frstorer@michigandaily.com

GRACE KAY and ELIZABETH LAWRENCE 
Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Sayali Amin, Rachel Cunningham, Remy Farkas, Leah 
Graham, Amara Shaikh 
Assistant News Editors: Barbara Collins, Julia Fanzeres, Claire Hao, Alex 
Harring, Angelina Little, Madeline McLaughlin, Ben Rosenfeld, Emma Stein, 
Zayna Syed, Liat Weinstein

JOEL DANILEWITZ and MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Senior Opinion Editors: Emily Considine, Krystal Hur, Ethan Kessler, Miles 
Stephenson, Erin White

ARYA NAIDU and VERITY STURM
Managing Arts Editors 
 arts@michigandaily.com

ALEXIS RANKIN and ALEC COHEN
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERRAMA
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com 

Deputy Editors: Matthew Harmon, Shannon Ors

SILAS LEE and EMILY STILLMAN
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Dominick Sokotoff, Olivia Sedlacek, Reece Meyhoefer 

CASEY TIN and HASSAAN ALI WATTOO
Managing Online Editors 
 webteam@michigandaily.com

Senior Web Developers: Jonathon Liu, Abha Panda, Ryan Siu, David Talbot, 
Samantha Cohen

ELI SIDER
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Samuel So, Ana Maria 
Sanchez-Castillo, Efe Osagie, Danyel Tharakan
Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Harnoor Singh, Nada Eldawy, Maya 
Mokh 

ZELJKO KOSPIC
Special Projects Manager

ANITA MICHAUD
Brand Manager

Senior Sports Editors: Anna Marcus, Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Mark Calcagno, 
Theo Mackie, Tien Le
Assistant Sports Editors: Bailey Johnson, Bennett Bramson, Connor Brennan, 
Jacob Kopnick, Jorge Cazares, Rian Ratnavale 

Senior Video Editors: Ryan O’Connor, Joseph Sim

Senior Social Media Editor: Allie Phillips 

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
www.michigandaily.com

ARTS SECTION
arts@michigandaily.com

SPORTS SECTION
sports@michigandaily.com

ADVERTISING
dailydisplay@gmail.com

NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com

TOMMY DYE
Business Manager
734-418-4115 ext. 1241
tomedye@michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN
Editor in Chief
734-418-4115 ext. 1251
mayagold@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM
734-418-4115 opt. 3 

CORRECTIONS
corrections@michigandaily.com

MAX MARCOVITCH and ETHAN SEARS 
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Clara Scott, Emma Chang, Cassandra Mansuetti, Sam 
Della Fera, Trina Pal
Arts Beat Editors: John Decker, Sayan Ghosh, Mike Watkins, Ally Owens, 
Stephen Satarino, Izzy Hasslund, Margaret Sheridan 

ROSEANNE CHAO and JACK SILBERMAN
Managing Design Editors 
design@michigandaily.com
Senior Design Editor: Sherry Chen 

NA’KIA CHANNEY and CARLY RYAN
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

MADALASA CHAUDHARI and HANNAH MESKIN 
Managing Social Media Editors

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

RYAN KELLY
Sales Manager

ROBERT WAGMAN
Marketing Consulting Manager

Senior Photo Editors: Alexandria Pompei, Natalie Stephens, Alice Liu, Allison 
Engkvist, Danyel Tharakan
Assistant Photo Editors: Miles Macklin, Keemya Esmael, Madeline Hinkley, 
Ryan McLoughlin

MOLLY WU
Creative Director

CATHERINE NOUHAN
Managing Podcast Editor

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

