 “On the front end, DePaul 
was like, you can’t register 
for classes, you don’t have the 
funding.”
Russell 
technically 
owed 
an additional 89 days to his 
official service time in order 
to receive the benefits. Since 
he was a reservist, serving one 
weekend per month, this meant 
only 
needing 
6 
additional 
days of weekend service. The 
Board for Correction of Naval 
Records officials could change 
his retirement date in their 
records to make him eligible 
again or waive his retirement 
to allow him to complete the 
six days of service. However, 
they reviewed and rejected his 
request, which Rusell said was 
an arbitrary decision. 
So, Paige transferred to 
the University of Michigan, 
where 
she 
had 
received 
scholarships and could benefit 
from a lower cost of living. 
She said she is still harassed 
by private agencies, to whom 
the government sold portions 
of the debt, and carries the 
emotional weight of her past. 
“My family really struggled, 
and my dad, he got deployed 
again, and again, and again,” 
she said. “And then it was like 
now, the opportunity to go to 
college after the emotional and 
financial sacrifices, and then 
that’s taken away, and now 
I owe money back when I’m 
just trying to do my best. I’m 
just trying to get an education; 
I’m just trying to be a first-
generation college student at 
the University of Michigan. 
All I did was show up to class.”
With a lack of success in 
contacting 
various 
Navy 
bureaus, Paige and her father 
have both contacted several 
representatives 
to 
find 

support, 
which, 
according 
to the two, have been most 
effective after the Chicago 
Sun-Times 
article. 
Paige 
said a highlight was when 
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-MI, 
retweeted her story, a traction 
which has motivated her to 
reach out further to local 
representatives. 
“Ultimately, 
moving 
forward, I’m going to be 
leveraging my coverage to 
try to gain congressional and 
senatorial support to try to 
drive change,” she said. “And 
hopefully along the way, I have 
a GoFundMe page set up to try 
to have resources for myself 
and other families, as much 
as I can contribute to them, 
so that in the event that this 
doesn’t change, it’s just not 
done.” 
Paige has also started a 
GoFundMe page for other 
children of veterans who have 
had their GI bill rescinded and 
for herself finding debt-relief 
grants.
“I 
feel 
very 
privileged 
that I was on the face of this 
issue, it feels like there’s 
a 
lot 
of 
responsibility 
to 
move it forward, and that’s 
absolutely what I plan to do,” 
Paige Dotson said. “Knowing 
that there are other families 
experiencing 
it, 
now 
it’s 
almost like a fight for me. This 
is something that I absolutely 
have to more forward with.” 
Engineering 
senior 
John 
Iacovetta is the vice president 
of 
Student 
Veterans 
of 
America’s University chapter, 
and has been following the 
story closely. Iacovetta was 
himself in the Navy for 10 
years and is waiting to use his 
GI bill for graduate school. 
“My opinion is that this is 
an admin issue, and that it’s 
a 
career 
counseling 
issue. 
Every navy unit is supposed 
to have a career counsellor 

and they’re supposed to help 
guide you through your navy 
career, and help you with 
advancement, retention and 
then general opportunities to 
really enhance your career,” 
Iacovetta said. 
Iacovetta said he believes 
this is an issue of the Navy’s 
administration 
and 
career 
counseling office whose job is 
to aid with advancement in the 
industry.
“Additionally, 
they’re 
supposed to help you with your 
transition out of the military, 
and the other thing that they 
help you with is transitioning 
over your benefits to your 
dependents. My experience 
with 
career 
counsellors 
has been that they are not 
knowledgeable about this last 
subset, being transitioning out 
of the military or transferring 
your benefits.”
Iacovetta worked as a career 
counselor himself for a year 
as a reservist, and said the job 
was difficult, largely because 
of the overly bureaucratic 
system. 
“It was hell because people 
ask you all these questions 
about, 
literally 
these 
are 
questions that are affecting 
the rest of their lives, and more 
often than not I did not know 
what the answers were,” he 
said. “But one thing about me 
is that I have no problem just 
telling people I don’t know the 
answer, right, and we’re going 
to go off to find the answer 
from somebody who does, but 
I think there are plenty of 
people who do not prescribe to 
that mindset, and are willing 
to just rattle off whatever 
answer gets them through the 
day.” 
Russell, 
however, 
emphasized there are many 
entities involved, and reflected 
on how he could have verified 
the dates early on to avoid the 

mistake. 
“I’m not going to sit here 
and put every bit of blame for 
this on the military. One of 
the military standard answers 
is what the military does like 
to say is your career, your 
responsibility,” he said. “I 
would tell somebody to trust 
but verify if somebody is telling 
them that they’ve completed 
an obligation, or that they’ve 
met all the requirements. I 
would recommend that they 
go talk to somebody else as 
well, just for a second opinion 
before they’ve made any life 
changes based on that.”
Despite partial admission 
of this mistake on his end, 
Russell still has his GI bill, but 
has no plans to use the money 
himself. His family is still 
holding out to hopefully fix 
the mistake. Until then, they 
continue to reach out for help. 
“One of the things I’ve been 
pointing out is my GI bill is 
not gone, it’s still sitting right 
where it always was,” Russell 
said. “I could go use this GI bill 
for myself today if I wanted to. 
I’m not asking for money. The 
money is already sitting there. 
I’m simply asking to be able 
to transfer the money to my 
children.” 
Meanwhile, 
Paige 
has 
utilized 
the 
resources 
at 
the University to finish her 
degree, thankful especially for 
the support from faculty. 
“Equally 
among 
both 
schools, the faculty have been 
probably 
the 
most 
crucial 
piece of my success,” she said. 
“I do think the resources 
provided on campus, either 
through CAPS, or UHS, are so 
important, using those tools 
have helped me learn how to 
kind of deal with it on more a 
survival-based level. How do 
you just get through the now, 
and then we’ll worry about 
that stuff in a minute.”

back and forth, but not 
making fun of it in a way 
that includes a national 
tragedy and that heavily 
impacted survivors.”
Lovely said she was not 
expecting the tweet to get 
the reaction that it did, 
but said she hopes it will 
start a conversation about 
how survivors should be 
treated.
“I think it would be 
great if there was some 
education on the history 
of the case and what the 
survivors went through,” 
Lovely 
said. 
“I 
know 
there were victim impact 
statements that were bad 
at the trial, that would 
be a really great place to 
start.”
Lovely 
was 
not 
the 
only person responding 
negatively to the banner 
online. Replies to Lovely’s 
original tweet called the 
banner “disgusting” and 
“classless.”
Olympic 
gymnast 
Simone Biles retweeted 
the tweet, writing she 
hopes 
the 
University 
takes proper measures in 
investigating the banner.
In an email to The Daily, 
University 
spokesperson 
Kim 
Broekhuizen 
said 
Fraternity and Sorority 
Life 
staff 
contacted 
the 
chapter 
president 
and 
advisors 
of 
the 
University’s Psi Upsilon 
chapter. 
Complaints 
against the chapter have 
been submitted by campus 
community 
members 
to the Greek Activities 
Review Panel, according 
to Broekhuizen. She said 
the matter was addressed 

swiftly and appropriately 
by the fraternity involved 
and its national office.
“FSL 
has 
learned 
that the chapter will be 
pursuing corrective action 
for 
those 
responsible 
for hanging the banners 
and those who failed to 
intervene before anyone 
could 
be 
negatively 
impacted,” 
Broekhuizen 
wrote.
Additionally, 

Broekhuizen 
wrote 

that 
FSL 
supports 
students 
in 
their 
four 
councils 
to 
live 
more 
fully into the principles 
of 
their 
international 
organizations, 
campus 
core values and the FSL 
Statement 
for 
Human 
Dignity. 
LSA 
junior 
Mary 
McKillop, 
LSA 
Student 

Government 
vice 

president, 
first 
became 
aware of the banner after 
seeing 
Lovely’s 
tweet. 
She said she thought the 
banner was unnecessary 
and hurtful to see.
“I 
think 
it’s 
really 
disappointing 
and 
sad 
that the survivors of that 
situation 
were 
turned 
into 
a 
joke 
for 
some 
stupid football rivalry,” 
McKillop 
said. 
“School 
rivalries are supposed to 
be fun, and that just really 
went somewhere it didn’t 
need to go.”
McKillop said she thinks 
Psi Upsilon should release 
a public apology and be 
punished for hanging up 
the banner. 
“A lot of people I know 
are personally upset by 
(the banner),” McKillop 
said. “I can only imagine 
what being involved in 
that situation and seeing 
that would feel like.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 — 3

VETERAN
From Page 1

BANNER
From Page 1

She 
said 
they 
plan 
on 
implementing the application 
process 
in 
several 
phases. 
The first phase, which they 
are currently in, is inviting 
Michigan 
residents 
to 
randomly serve on the 13 
member 
commission. 
The 
second phase begins in June, 
when 
applications 
close. 
200 
semi-finalists 
will 
be 
randomly 
selected 
using 
geographic and demographic 
data, 
ensuring 
four 
Republicans, four Democrats 
and five unaffiliated voters 
are selected. Phase three will 
begin in fall 2020 when the 
committee is seated and will 
end in the fall of 2021 when the 
redistricting is complete. 
“The 
commission, 
once 
seated, will have one year from 

next fall to draw the maps that 
will be the next congressional, 
state 
legislative 
and 
state 
senate districts for the entire 
state,” Benson said.
Wang then began the panel 
discussion with a question 
for panelist Chris Lamar, the 
legal counsel for redistricting 
with 
the 
Campaign 
Legal 
Center in Washington, D.C.. 
Lamar mentioned the relative 
commonality of the COI and 
the importance of its use in 
this context. 
“The idea of COIs, while it 
sounds nebulous, is actually 
not a rare thing,” Lamar said. 
“Twenty four states consider 
COIs in various aspects. COIs 
generally include racial, social, 
economic 
considerations… 
COIs 
do 
not 
include 
relationships 
to 
political 
parties or to incumbents. And 
that’s very important to me.”
Wang’s next question was for 
panelist Connie Malloy, chair 

of the 2010 California Citizens 
Redistricting 
Commission. 
Wang 
asked 
Malloy 
about 
her experience as a part of 
California’s 
commission. 
Malloy 
emphasized 
the 
crucial 
role 
commission 
members play in offering more 
humanized information about 
a community. 
“There’s 
so 
much 
the 
census 
does 
not 
tell 
you 
about a community,” Malloy 
said. “It doesn’t give you 
any information about the 
economy, the geography, or 
the history of a place. And 
that is something where the 
testimony 
from 
the 
public 
and your lived experience is 
really critical to be able to 
inform how the commission 
takes these dry numbers and 
statistics from the census and 
makes it come alive into a set of 
fair maps that make sense for 
the community.”
Panelist 
Christopher 

Thomas, 
former 
director 
of elections for the State of 
Michigan, then weighed in 
by comparing the old Apol 
Standards of redistricting to 
the new standards set in 2018. 
“So (the Apol standards) 
looked at jurisdictional lines,” 
Thomas said. “So after you 
did the federal population 
and Voting Rights Act, and 
contiguity, 
you 
then 
drew 
a plan that split the fewest 
number of county lines, and 
that within those counties, 
split the fewest number of city 
and township lines. It sounded 
really neutral. There’s some 
consideration that it really 
didn’t turn out that neutral.”
Wang then asked Malloy 
to explain in more detail the 
concept of drawing boundaries 
that align with community 
lines. 
Malloy 
explained 
that the California Citizens 
Redistricting 
Commission 
gave equal priority to city, 

county and COI lines, but that 
this often came with trade-offs 
between them. 
“Given 
how 
rarely 
jurisdictional 
boundaries 
change,” Malloy said. “There’s 
times 
where 
they 
don’t 
actually reflect the fabric of 
the community that has grown 
out organically around them.”
Malloy further explained 
the process through which the 
California Commission took 
public opinion into account. 
“We had a set of (public) 
hearings,” she said. “(And we 
had) live visualizations that 
were 
always 
live-streamed 
or people could weigh in as 
we were actually in the map-
making process.”
Wang 
asked 
Benson 
to 
elaborate on the Michigan 
Commission’s 
actual 
process of redistricting. She 
emphasized 
the 
autonomy 
of 
the 
commission 
within 
Constitutional 
bounds 
and 

the 
importance 
of 
citizen 
participation. 
“The commission will be 
autonomous. Our office will 
be focused on the citizen 
engagement component of this 
effort,” Benson said. “I think, 
at every point, it will be the 
voices of citizens who lead the 
way.”
Information 
graduate 
student Bonnie White believes 
this is a positive initiative. 
“Prior to being a student 
I 
wasn’t 
aware 
(of) 
the 
extent 
that 
Michigan 
was 
gerrymandered,” White said. 
“I think it’s a testament to the 
citizens of Michigan, that it’s 
voters and politicians, that 
the program has been so well-
received, 
and 
implemented. 
It’s 
just 
really 
impressive. 
The impact that they’ve had 
state-wide. And I think it’s 
wonderful that citizens are 
being able to participate in 
democracy in this way.”

REDISTRICTING
From Page 1

This is the idea that 
reproductive justice 
as a movement 
was born out of 
the strife of Black 
women. and 
bringing people 
into the center of 
this conversation 
who currently exist 
on the margins.

Senate Assembly talks new 
sexual misconduct policy

Faculty meet to vote on issue, but do not have quorum

The University of Michigan 
Faculty 
Senate 
Assembly 
met Monday to discuss and 
vote to implement the new 
umbrella sexual misconduct 
policy. 
However, 
because 
they didn’t have a quorum, 
they were unable to vote on 
any of the issues. Instead, 
the 
Senate 
Assembly 
and 
Faculty attending the meeting 
discussed questions regarding 
the policy.
In response to a third-
party review of past sexual 
misconduct 
procedures, 
the new policy would apply 
to the Dearborn, Flint and 
Ann Arbor campuses of the 
University. 
Sascha 
Matish, 
associate vice provost and 
senior director of Academic 
Human Resources, mentioned 
the new document is very 
similar to existing policies 
regarding sexual misconduct 
at the University. 
“They largely codify what 
we already have in place,” 
Matish 
said. 
“It’s 
putting 
basically our policies and 
procedures that existed in 

a large number of places 
into one policy into the two 
procedures, 
the 
employee 
procedures, as well as the 
student procedures.”
The new policy redefines 
prohibited 
conduct, 
which 
now includes sexual assault, 
sexual exploitation, sexual 
harassment, 
gender-based 
harassment, 
sexual 
and/
or 
gender-based 
stalking, 
intimate 
partner 
violence, 
sex 
and 
gender-based 
discrimination, 
retaliation 
and violation of protective 
measures. 
Several faculty members 
asked questions regarding the 
differences, 
inconsistencies 
and overlap between faculty 
and employees within the 
policy. A few staff comments 
targeted 
how 
this 
new 
umbrella is a consolidation 
of 
existing 
policies. 
LSA 
professor Marjorie Levinson 
focused on how the new 
umbrella policy could be an 
opportunity to innovate and 
create more fair practices. 
“Why did you undertake so 
modest of a task as to simply 
codify the existing practice 
 

when we’re all aware of the 
need 
for 
implementing 
a 
much more sensitive and fair-
minded practices is widely 
felt?” Levinson asked.
In an attempt to comply 
with a ruling from the Sixth 
Circuit Court of Appeals that 
requires students on both 
sides of a sexual misconduct 
policy to cross-examine each 
other while still protecting 
students 
from 
emotional 
hardship, 
Prof. 
Barry 
Belmont, the chairperson of 
the Committee on Civil Rights 
and 
Liberties, 
proposed 
a resolution to have third 
parties speak for students 
during cross-examination. 
“(We’d like) to have cross-
examination but not to have 
it by a respondent directly 
questioning a complainant,” 
Belmont said. “But by having 
an advisor acting on either 
behalf or some representative 
hearing officer to serve in 
that cross-examination.”
The Senate Assembly voted 
in favor of the resolution, but 
because they didn’t have a 
quorum the vote was invalid. 

ISABELLA PREISSLE
For The Daily 

“One of the things about 
being pregnant or trying 
to 
become 
pregnant 
is 
infertility services are hard 
cover,” O’Connor said. “You 
can lose your job because 
you’re pregnant. Not legally, 
but if you are late two or 
three times in the morning 
because you are throwing 
up, then you can lose your 
job, which means you lose 
your health insurance if you 
have it through your job. 
If we move to a system of 
universal health insurance, 
some of those fears go 
away.” 
Peterson 
identified 
issues 
with 
some 
high 
schools’ 
sex 
education 
programs that don’t offer 
a sexual education course 
that 
incorporates 
sex 
and not just abstinence. 
Peterson 
finds 
this 
most 
detrimental 
for 
communities with a lack of 
access to other educational 
resources due to economic 
framework 
or 
systemic 
racial oppression.
“One of the things that 
I think is really pressing 
is 
quite 
frankly, 
sex 
education 
and 
consent,” 
Peterson said. “Based on 
sex, I think that you need to 
start at the very beginning 

of training people how 
to have healthy or sexual 
conversations 
before 
we 
even start the reproducing 
part. So things as simple 
as a push for abstinence-
only education will have a 
snowball effect.”

Jones-McBryde 
mentioned some ways she 
is trying to help foster 

reproductive 
justice 
at 
Planned 
Parenthood 
for 
Black women.
“I was able to have our 
first training for our health 
center 
staff 
about 
the 
African Diaspora, what it 
actually is and talk about 
how there is implicit bias 
in the way that we treat 
our 
patients 
sometimes, 
and how to dismantle that,” 
Jones-McBryde said. 
Emily 
Statham, 
first-
year 
Law 
student, 
said 
the University can help 
foster reproductive justice 
and 
inclusiveness 
by 
emphasizing the margin-
to-center movement. 
“I really liked one of 
the ideas mentioned about 
focusing on the margin-to-
center movement,” Statham 
said. “So, this is the idea 
that reproductive justice as 
a movement was born out of 
the strife of Black women, 
and bringing people into the 
center of this conversation 
who currently exist on the 
margins. Whether, that be 
people who are LGBTQIA+ 
identifying, people who are 
racial and ethnic minorities, 
making 
sure 
that 
their 
own 
struggles 
when 
it 
comes 
to 
reproductive 
justice are informing the 
conversation, not reacting 
to the conversation, is I 
think the most important 
thing moving forward.”

REPRODUCTIVE
From Page 1

