In November 2018, Michigan 
voters amended the Michigan 
Constitution 
by 
passing 
Proposal 
2, 
which 
places 
legislative and congressional 
redistricting 
in 
the 
hands 
of a 13 member Independent 
Citizens 
Redistricting 
Commission. Monday night, 
the Ford School of Public Policy 
hosted a panel discussion with 
Jocelyn 
Benson, 
Michigan 
Secretary of State, and other 
experts to discuss this new 
approach to redistricting and 
particularly focused on the role 
of “Communities of Interest” 
within this framework. 
COIs are a new concept for 
Michigan 
redistricting 
and 

are 
described 
in 
Proposal 
2 
as 
communities 
that 
“share cultural or historical 
characteristics 
or 
economic 
interests, and do not include 
relationships 
with 
political 
parties, 
incumbents, 
or 
political candidates.” They are 
high on the list of priorities in 
drawing new districts, after 
equal population, compliance 
with the Voting Rights Act and 
contiguity. 
The panel was moderated 
by Nancy Wang, executive 
director 
of 
Voters 
Not 
Politicians, a ballot initiative 
to 
end 
gerrymandering 
in 
Michigan. 
She 
began 
by 
touching on the motivations 
of Constitutional Amendment 
Proposal 2. 
“2018 was a historic election 

for lots of reasons,” Wang said. 
“One big one was two and a 
half million citizens across 
the state of Michigan from all 
political parties, all across the 
state, voted in favor of Proposal 
2, to take politicians out of our 
redistricting process. To make 
Michigan’s days as one of the 
most gerrymandered in the 
entire country, no more. And to 
put in its place a new, citizen-
led process.”
Benson then delivered her 
opening remarks. She thanked 
the other panelists for their 
expertise and emphasized that 
she viewed her office from the 
point of view of an academic 
rather than a politician.
“I know as an academic 
the best way to approach 
something is to collect data 

and make informed decisions 
based on that,” Benson said. 
Benson further explained 
how important it is that the 
commission be independent, 
citizen-led and non-partisan in 
actuality.
“This is not the time to 
take a victory lap,” Benson 
said. “This is the time to dig 
in and continue and really get 
to work in ensuring that this 
commission, that millions of 
citizens envisioned and made 
a reality, is a success. And we 
define success in our office 
as ensuring the process itself 
is truly citizen-led, is truly 
independent and non-partisan 
and is transparent every step 
of the way.”

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, November 19, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

The Students for Choice 
organization 
at 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan 
hosted 
a 
panel 
on 
reproductive justice for a 
group of about 35 students 
on Monday night at the Ford 
School of Public Policy. 
Emily Peterson, lawyer 
and professor of sociology 
and 
women’s 
studies, 
began the discussion by 
explaining the origins of 
the 
term 
“reproductive 
justice.”
“We all, regardless of 

what 
our 
geopolitical 
boundaries are, have innate 
human rights,” Peterson 
said. “So they took that idea 
from the Human Rights 
Declaration from the UN 
and kind of encapsulated 
some of those concepts into 
a 
(reproductive 
justice) 
framework. 
But 
it 
was 
really founded by women of 
color, screaming you really 
need to be inclusive.”
Community 
member 
Cassy 
Jones-McBryde, 
the first Black organizing 
program coordinator for 
Planned 
Parenthood, 
elaborated on the impact 

of 
Black 
people 
on 
reproductive justice.
“Faye 
Wattleton 
was 
the first Black President 
of Planned Parenthood,” 
Jones-McBryde 
said. 
“She, back in the early 
‘90s… helped center the 
discussion around Black 
people having access to 
reproductive support.”
After 
discussing 
its 
history, Peterson went on to 
define reproductive justice 
as having to do with more 
than 
just 
reproductive 
health.
“You 
need 
to 
acknowledge that as many 

people that tried not to 
reproduce, 
some 
were 
supposed to reproduce,” 
Peterson 
said. 
“Some 
have not had any control 
at all ever… it’s a very 
inclusive phrase for all 
types of recognition of 
bodily autonomy around 
reproduction.”
Kate O’Connor, fourth-
year graduate student of 
American 
Culture, 
said 
introducing 
universal 
health care to all will help 
alleviate fears of expenses 
that sway women away 
from reproducing.

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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 31
©2019 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Fraternity banner involving convicted 
felon draws backlash on social media

LSA junior Paige Dotson, a 
child of a U.S. Navy veteran, 
was only able to afford college 
because she was eligible for 
benefits under the Post-9/11 
GI Bill as the dependent of a 
veteran. But two years ago, her 
benefits 
were 
unexpectedly 
revoked, leaving her $20,000 
in debt, the Chicago Sun-Times 
originally reported on Nov. 8th.
Paige’s 
father, 
Russell 
Dotson, served in the U.S. Navy 
for 22 years, both reserve and 
active duty, and was deployed 
to war zones six times. When 
he initially enlisted, he gave 
the 
military 
a 
deduction 
from his salary towards the 
Montgomery GI bill, which 
covered a college bachelor’s 
degree. The transition to a 
Post-9/11 GI bill was signed into 
law in 2008 with an extended 
applicability to pay for graduate 
degrees or trade school and be 
transferable to dependants. 
According to Russell, this 
was a critical change for many 
officers. 
However, 
for 
him 
and others who had served in 
the long-term, Dotson had to 
re-enlist for another four years 
to qualify. He did so with the 
intent to transfer these benefits 
equally between his son and 
Paige. 
“It seems a little wrongheaded 

to go to somebody who has 
already served 16, 18 years, and 
say ‘hey, we’re changing this 
GI bill you already paid for, the 
one that you gave us $1,200 for, 
to this new GI bill,” he said. 
“However, I know that you’ve 
served 16, 15, 10 years, we’re 
going to make you serve four 
more, and then you’ll be able to 
transfer it to your kids.”
Paige enrolled at DePaul 
University in 2017 after her 
father 
finished 
the 
four-
year commitment, excited to 
explore life past her hometown 
of Birch Run, Michigan. She 
immediately used the GI Bill 
to enroll in the school and 
subsidize the high living cost 
in Chicago. When she didn’t 
receive 
her 
living 
stipend 
in the second quarter of her 
freshman year, she called the 
Veteran Affairs National Office 
and was told she was no longer 
eligible to receive benefits and 
would have to repay $20,000 
to the government, including 
interest. She received student 
support services to enroll in the 
next quarter of her freshman 
year but took out extra loans to 
continue her sophomore year. 
“On the military end, they 
said we gave you all this 
money, you’re no longer eligible 
retroactively so you owe all that 
money back,” Paige said.

LSA student loses 
transferred GI 
bill, faces debt 

GOVERNMENT 

Child of U.S. Navy veteran owes 20k 
after benefits were suddenly revoked 

Students for Choice discussion 
emphasizes reproductive justice

Panelists answers questions on origins of movement, sex education

Psi Upsilon 
 
criticized for 
 
Nassar sign 
on game day

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

OLIVIA CELL/Daily
Guest speakers with different experiences in reproductive health related fields discuss reproductive justice in Weill Hall Monday evening.

Michigan’s Secretary of State discusses 
new approach to redistricting issues

Jocelyn Benson, experts discuss strategies which focus on ‘Communities of Interest’

See BANNER, Page 3

SUNSKRITI PARANJAPE
For The Daily

BARBARA COLLINS 
& BENJAMIN ROSENFELD
OLIVIA CELL/Daily
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson disucsses thre state’s new strategy to redistricting in Weill Hall Monday afternoon.

See REDISTRICTING, Page 3

See VETERAN, Page 3

SAINI KETHIREDDY 
For The Daily

KATHERINA SOURINE
Daily Staff Reporter 

See REPRODUCTIVE , Page 3

On 
football 
game 
days at the University 
of Michigan, bed sheets 
hanging on the fronts of 
fraternity houses, spray 
painted with jokes about 
the 
visiting 
football 
team, are common. But 
last 
Saturday 
during 
the 
Michigan-Michigan 
State matchup, the Psi 
Upsilon fraternity at the 
University 
displayed 
one that many students 
deemed insensitive.
The sign read, “You can’t 
touch us @LarryNassar,” 
referencing 
the 
former 
MSU physician and USA 
national 
gymnastics 
team 
doctor 
convicted 
of 
sexually 
assaulting 
over 250 young women 
between 1992 and 2016.
Neither Psi Upsilson’s 
national headquarters nor 
the chapter’s leadership 
responded to The Daily’s 
request for comment by 
the time of publication. 
Saturday 
afternoon, 
Central 
Michigan 

University senior Kirsten 
Lovely posted a tweet 
which included a picture 
of the banner. At the time 
of publication, the tweet 
had 
875 
retweets 
and 
more than 5,200 likes.
Though 
Lovely 
does 
not attend either school, 
she wrote the “fans can 
poke fun at each other, 
but not at the expense of 
hundreds of survivors.” 
In an interview with 
The Daily, Lovely said 
she was not in Ann Arbor 
on the day of the game 
but saw a picture of the 
banner on an Instagram 
story. Lovely is involved in 
a group at CMU that runs 
a survivor crisis hotline 
and has had training on 
sexual 
aggression 
and 
survivor issues. She said 
she was familiar with the 
Nassar case and decided 
to post about the banner 
on 
Twitter 
because 
it 
bothered her.
“I feel like there’s a 
lot of heat that goes into 
the (Michigan-Michigan 
State) game,” Lovely said. 
“We can make fun of each 
other and have banter 

