Current
faculty
member
Emily
Lawsin
and
former
faculty
member
Scott
Kurashige
filed
a
discrimination
lawsuit
in
2016 against the University of
Michigan under the Elliott-
Larsen Civil Rights Act. Their
trial began yesterday at 9 a.m.
at the Washtenaw County
Court and it is scheduled to
continue until December 23.
Kurashige and Lawsin are
seeking more than $25,000
in damages to compensate
for emotional distress, loss of
reputation and lost salaries.
They cite a “hostile work
environment for faculty of
color and women” at the
University,
“(p)atterns
of
racial
discrimination
in
faculty hiring” within the
Department
of
American
Culture
and
racial
discrimination in leadership
selection
and
promotion,
among other things, in their
lawsuit.
They
also
claim
the Office of Institutional
Equity failed to investigate
the Kurashige’s complaints of

discrimination in a just and
efficient manner.
Lawsin is a lecturer IV
in
the
Women’s
Studies
and
American
Culture
departments and Kurashige
was a tenured professor and
the director of the Asian/
Pacific
Islander
American
Studies Program before he left
in 2014. Both began working
at the University in 2000.
Kurashige
was
removed
from his position as director
of the A/PIA Studies program
and said he felt pressured to
quit his tenured position. He
now works as a professor at
the University of Washington.
Kurashige
additionally
seeks reinstatement to both
his former positions at the
University.
They are being represented
by attorneys Alice Jennings
and Carl Edwards of Edwards
and Jennings PC, a law firm
based in Detroit.
The United Asian American
Organizations
released
a
statement
on
Sunday
in
support
of
Lawsin
and
Kurashige in their lawsuit
and urged students to attend
the trial to show support.

Last
month,
students
at
the
University
of
Michigan
published the first issue of
The Michigan Gayly: LGBTQ+
Issues, a newspaper dedicated to
publishing articles related to the
LGBTQ+ community.
Established this October, the
organization is currently made
up of about 20 undergraduate
and
graduate
students
and
publishes an issue every month.
Students can pick up copies of
the newspaper at the Spectrum
Center and the campus dorms.
LSA
freshman
Shoshana
Weinstein,
editor-in-chief
of
The Michigan Gayly, said she
came up with the idea for the

newspaper because she felt like
there was not enough attention
on the policy and the legislation
that surrounds LGBTQ+ rights
in the media and on campus. She
was pleasantly surprised to see
the excitement among others in
the community to contribute to
the newspaper.
“I hadn’t realized there was
such a hunger within the LGBT
community to be able to tell
our stories,” Weinstein said. “I
thought maybe people would
want to do an issue or two; I
wasn’t really sure if there was
going to be enough support or
momentum to keep it going. But
people immediately responded
really passionately with all
these things that they cared
about.”
LSA freshman Adrian Beyer

said he became a staff writer
because he was intrigued by
the student-run nature of the
publication, created by people
who felt strongly about the rights
of the LGBTQ+ community.
“This is a group of people who
just cared really passionately
about having a newspaper and
publishing queer voices,” Beyer
said. “And I think it’s really
important too, because a lot of
other publications might shy
away from some of those stories,
but here, it’s kind of a chance
to really be uncensored and say
what you want to say.”
According to the University
of Michigan Maize Pages, The
Michigan Gayly is the only
newspaper
on
campus
that
publishes stories solely dedicated
to the LGBTQ+ community. The

newspaper has articles about
politics, business, sports, health
and more, all relating to the
community.
LSA
freshman
Edha
Shirodkar, the news editor of the
publication, said The Michigan
Gayly is important in terms of
giving students in the LGBTQ+
community the representation
they deserve on campus. It made
her feel more comfortable with
her own identity because she
was able to find comfort in a
group of people who understood
some of the experiences she had
gone through.
The newspaper also features
articles about writers’ coming
out stories and other personal
experiences.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, December 3, 2019

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Each month, The Michigan
Daily’s
Administration
Beat
sits
down
with
University
of Michigan President Mark
Schlissel to discuss important
questions
about
University
policy,
commitments
and
challenges. Topics discussed at
this month’s interview included
the President’s Commission on
Carbon Neutrality, The Detroit
Center
for
Innovation,
the

discrimination
lawsuit
filed
against the University and more.
At the beginning of the meeting,
The Daily also spoke with
Jennifer Haverkamp, director
of the Graham Sustainability
Institute and co-chair of the
President’s
Commission
on
Climate Neutrality, about the
Commission’s
first
interim
report
that
was
released
Monday morning. Haverkamp
said the report includes input
from over 90 individuals and
highlights the first phase of the
Commission’s work, which is
focused on devising strategies
to
reach
carbon
neutrality
and
planning
for
potential

obstacles in the future. Some
of the goals include creating a
Carbon Accounting Subgroup to
estimate the amount of methane
leakage
in
the
University’s
natural gas supply chain, hiring
an external consulting firm to
suggest ways to reach carbon
neutrality and adding the Flint
and Dearborn campuses to the
objectives.
The Michigan Daily: How
will the carbon neutrality goals
translate over to the Detroit
Innovation Center?
Mark Schlissel: That’s a
really interesting question. So
since the Detroit Center is quite
a new concept, and actually

it hasn’t been fully designed,
and there’s not a shovel in
the ground, I don’t know. But
yeah, there are opportunities
to make that a model building.
And the folks that are doing
the development are thinking
along those lines. Once we
know what we’re going to
do, we’ll announce it ... the
buildings being built by outside
developers that will be donated
to the university. So although
we have input into the building,
we won’t have control of it until
it’s complete and given to us as
a gift.

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 38
©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

Discrimination lawsuit over violation
of state civil rights law heads to court

The University of Michigan
President’s Commission on Carbon
Neutrality released its first interim
progress report in an email to
students Monday morning. The
report details the commission’s
progress on its goal to develop
recommendations
for
reducing
carbon emissions on campus by
2025.
In an interview with The Daily
Monday,
Jennifer
Haverkamp,
co-chair
of
the
President’s
Commission on Carbon Neutrality,
discussed the contents of the report.
According
to
Haverkamp,
the
document contains input from more
than 90 individuals, including the
commission’s members as well as
faculty and students from advisory
and analysis groups working with
the commission.
“(The report) is reflecting the
first phase of our work, which was
focused on defining the challenges
in reaching carbon neutrality and
planning on how we address those
challenges,” Haverkamp said.
Since
Schlissel
announced
the creation of the Commission
in February of this year, the
commissioners have met 12 times.
The Commission has held three
public forums at the Ann Arbor
campus to receive input from the
community, and it has also created
an online form for U-M community

members
to
leave
comments
directed at the commission.
One key development in the
Commission’s
work
was
the
formation of eight internal analysis
teams
to
investigate
different
opportunities for decarbonization.
The teams, composed of faculty
and student research assistants
from
all
three
University
of
Michigan campuses, include: bio
sequestration, which focuses on
finding University land for carbon
sequestration
projects;
building
standards; campus culture and
communication;
commuting;
energy
consumption;
external
collaboration; food; and university
travel for faculty, staff and students.
Beyond the internal analysis
teams, the Commission has also
hired Integral Group, an external
firm
that
analyzes
building
energy infrastructure to enhance
sustainability, to present a plan to
eliminate carbon emissions from
heat and power systems across all
three campuses.
Though the current sustainability
goals for greenhouse gas reduction
only addresses scope one and
scope two emissions — those
generated on campus or through
purchased electricity — the report
states the Commission intends to
also make recommendations for
reducing scope three emissions that
indirectly relate to the University’s
operations.

Report reveals
details of carbon
neutrality effort


ADMINISTRATION

Commission releases plans for creating
emission reduction recommendations

President Schlissel talks carbon
neutrality, Detroit Innovation Center

Head of University discusses importance of youth voter participation

Trial starts for
suit brought
by members
of ‘U’ faculty

Follow The Daily
on Instagram,
@michigandaily

OLIVIA CELL/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel speaks on the Climate Coalition in an interview with The Daily in Fleming Administration Building Monday.

See TRIAL, Page 3

PARNIA MAZHAR
Daily Staff Reporter

EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter

ALEC COHEN/Daily

See GAYLY, Page 3
See REPORT, Page 3

AMARA SHAIKH,
LIAT WEINSTEIN
& EMMA STEIN
Daily News Editor
& Daily Staff Reporters

ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter

See SCHLISSEL , Page 3

The Michigan Gayly provides
outlet for LGBTQ+ community

New publication features students’ personal experiences, stories