Members 
of 
the 
Ann 
Arbor 
community 
also 
attended the event. Ann 
Arbor resident and U-M 
Dearborn alum Elizabeth 
Cobb took this event as an 
opportunity to learn more 
about affordable housing 
for a social psychologist 
she is working with and to 
become more involved in 
her Ann Arbor community.
“I 
went 
to 
University 
Michigan-Dearborn, 
and 
when I was an undergrad, 
I worked with a social 
psychology 
professor 

there,” Cobb said. “And she 
does research about income 
inequality in the social class 
and that includes housing 
affordability. I’m also going 
into that field. And so I’m 
here to take notes and learn 
more about what’s going 
on. Also, I just moved to 
Ann Arbor, so I’m mostly 
interested for that reason.”
Over the next four days 
and four workshops, Ann 
Arbor and SmithGroup are 
working to inform residents 
about the new affordable 
housing plan. They also 
want to gather information 
on 
the 
community’s 
preferences on where this 
housing will be located.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, December 6, 2019 — 3

HOUSING
From Page 2

“The Trump Administration 
is sadly moving to formally 
withdraw 
from 
the 
Paris 
Climate Agreement and refuses 
to acknowledge the science or 
urgency to act,” Dingell said. 
“Participants at COP25 will lay 
out crucial steps and implement 
guidelines to reduce greenhouse 
gases — it’s critical our nation 
be represented at the coalition. 
American leadership is at the 
center of rising to the moment 
to protect our planet for future 
generations.” 
In a joint press conference 
with Spanish Prime Minister 
Pedro Sánchez, Pelosi stated that 
extreme actions are necessary to 
combat climate change and there 
is significant bicameral support in 
Congress.
“Our delegation is here to 
send a message that Congress’s 
commitment to taking action on 
the climate crisis is ironclad,” 
Pelosi said. “We must act, because 
the climate crisis for us is a matter 
of public health, clean air, clean 
water for children’s survival; our 
economy, advancing green, global 
– green technologies, which will 
lift everyone up as we address 
income disparity in the world,” 
Pelosi said. 
The convention comes at a 
time when the climate crisis has 
been heavily discussed in Ann 
Arbor politics. On Nov. 4, the 
Ann Arbor City Council passed 
a resolution to achieve carbon 
neutrality by the year 2030. 
Additionally, earlier this year, 
demonstrators staged a sit-in 
in the Fleming Administration 
Building demanding a meeting 
with the University of Michigan 
administration to address how 
the University plans on achieving 
carbon neutrality. This has placed 
additional pressures on University 
President Mark Schlissel as he 
balances the University’s carbon 
neutrality plan with continuing to 
fund the University as a research 
institution.
Public 
Policy 
senior 
and 
Ann Arbor native Bernadette 
Fitzsimons 
was 
enthusiastic 
about Dingell’s inclusion in the 
delegation. 
“I believe climate change is 
a priority for Congresswoman 
Dingell,” 
Fitzsimons 
said. 
“I 
think she is one of the hardest 
working members of Congress. 
She is deeply committed to her 
constituents, and I believe she 
understands 
that 
creating 
a 
sustainable future is key to the 
well-being of her constituents.” 
Yet the response to the climate 

crisis hasn’t been moving fast 
enough for some constituents. 
Over the past few months, several 
protesters have occupied Dingell’s 
office to urge her to support the 
Green New Deal.
Zaynab Elkolaly, a student at 
student at Washtenaw Technical 
Middle College and a member of 
the Sunrise Movement, expressed 
disappointment in Dingell’s lack 
of substantial actions regarding 
climate change. 
“It is important, first and 
foremost, on paper that we 
represent the Green New Deal as 
a nation, but it is also important 
to represent it in actions too,” 
Elkolaly said. “Politicians are 
quick to be glad about wanting 
to end climate change and how 
much of an emergency it is,” she 
said. “And then, they’ll proceed to 
take thousands and thousands of 
dollars … from big corporations.”
In an interview with The Daily, 
Dingell’s 
primary 
challenger, 
Solomon 
Rajput, 
argued 
members of Congress tasked 
with representing the United 
States at the United Nations 
Climate 
Convention 
should 
be at the forefront of climate 
change policies. Rajput noted 
this holds particularly true since 
the convention is being held in 
Spain, which is one of the most 
progressive countries in fighting 
climate change.
“Spain is one of the forefront 
countries when it comes to 
tackling climate change. They 
themselves have embraced the 
idea of a Green New Deal, which 
is pretty cool,” Rajput said. 
“Almost all of the progressives 
have signed onto the Green New 
Deal. Congresswoman Dingell 
is one of the last progressives 
to not sign onto it. … We need a 
representative who (is) going to be 
championing a Green New Deal 
if they are going to be out there 
representing us when it comes to 
Climate Change.” 
Fitzsimons said she admires 
Dingell’s care in representing all 
constituents in her district, and 
not those just in Ann Arbor. 
“It 
is 
also 
worth 
noting 
that groups which represent 
autoworkers in her district, like 
the United Auto Workers, have not 
come out in support of the Green 
New Deal. I think encouraging 
labor organizations like the UAW 
to support policies to combat the 
climate crisis is key to creating a 
sustainable future for Michigan,” 
Fitzsimons said. “Of course, the 
climate crisis poses an existential 
threat to all of her constituents. 
But I believe Congresswoman 
Dingell understands this, and 
aims to act in a way that will best 
serve all her constituents in both 
the long and short run.”

DINGELL
From Page 2

“The 
University 
of 
Michigan is the top public 
institution in the country, and 
the fact that it is neglecting 
communities of color, low-
income 
communities, 
not 
only in the state, but frontline 
communities around the world 
in its complicity with climate 
change is really not becoming 
of 
a 
number 
one 
public 
institution,” Girgis said. 
Before 
the 
last 
public 
commenter 
addressed 
the 
Board of Regents, the 1U and 
CAM 
members 
present 
in 
the meeting exited the room 
chanting, “The people united 
will never be defeated.” 
Wearing 
1U 
pins 
and 
holding signs criticizing the 
University 
for 
continuing 
to invest in fossil fuels, the 
protesters gathered in front 
of all entrances to the golf 
course, creating a blockade so 
cars could not drive through. 
In an interview with The 
Daily at the protest following 
the meeting, Regent Michael 
Behm (D) said he remains 
supportive of the protesters 
even though most regents 
choose not to respond to 
their statements during the 
public comment section of the 
meeting. 
“(The 
meeting 
is) 
not 
conducive 
to 
having 
a 
conversation,” 
Behm 
said. 
“Many of the topics that 
came up are things we’re 
presently working on. And I 
think it’s good that we do have 
comments like this, because 
the comments make the board 
mindful of how the community 
feels.”
In response to the protesters’ 
demand the University reach 
carbon neutrality by 2030, 
Behm said the University’s 
administration 
is 
working 
toward making small changes 
that 
ultimately 
bring 
the 
University closer to this goal. 
“Instead of making a hollow 
promise and not being able 
to live up to it just with an 
arbitrary date, the University 
wants to make sure that we 
can 
truly 
achieve 
carbon 
neutrality,” 
Behm 
said. 
“I 
think (the changes) can be 
incremental.” 
Regent Paul Brown (D) also 
came 
to 
the 
post-meeting 
protest. He addressed the 
current 
culture 
at 
board 
meetings to stay silent after 
the public commenters in an 
interview with The Daily. 
He said he wished he could 
respond, 
and 
that 
there 
needs to be a better line of 
communication 
and 
more 
transparency. 
Brown 
also 
noted the regents do care 
about issues such as climate 
change 
and 
inequitable 
funding 
on 
the 
different 
campuses and spend time 
brainstorming solutions. 
“As a new regent, I’m trying 
to understand the protocol 
and why the current protocol 
exists,” Brown said. “But I, 
and 
probably 
every 
other 
regent, is crawling out of our 
skin wanting to respond to 
each speaker. Right now, the 
culture is to not. I suspect 
there are a lot of good reasons 
for it, but we have to figure out 
a way to answer each of these 
questions, because that’s what 

the questioners deserve. … 
we have to figure out a way 
to communicate what we’re 
doing and why we’re doing it, 
because the questions that the 
speakers brought up, we spent 
most of the day today working 
on. We are focused really on 
the issues they brought up 
today.”
While most of the protesters 
were gathered at the main 
entrance on East Stadium 
Boulevard, some were at a 
back entrance and a walkway 
to 
prevent 
administration 
from exiting. Police officers 
and security began bringing 
out barricades to stop the 
activists from leaving the 
front area, even if they were 
just trying to get to their cars.
The officers said “there was 
no reason to go down there,” 
and 
threatened 
to 
arrest 
anyone who tried to cross the 
barricade for trespassing. 
Eventually, 
the 
police 
and security forcibly moved 
and held back the protesters 
blockading 
the 
back 
exit 
and waved the cars of the 
administrators and regents 
through. 
After the protesters were 
pushed aside by police officers 
and forced to vacate the 
entrances, Girgis and Medintz 
spoke to the remaining crowd 
and 
praised 
their 
efforts, 
saying they were “brave” to 
risk possible arrest for their 
cause. Girgis said even though 
they made progress in forcing 
the board to listen to their 
statements, students will still 
need to put pressure on the 
University to agree to their 
demands. 
“The fact of the matter is 
that, yet again, discussion 
has been avoided about the 
issues that matter most to us,” 
Girgis said, causing a chorus 
of “boos” from the crowd. 
“About the issues that matter 
to the state and the people 
of Michigan, and about the 
issues that matter most to 
the nation and the world as a 
whole. And, to be clear, this 
is not an isolated incident. 
We’ve been doing the work for 
a year and being ignored. And 
that’s why we’re here, and 
that’s why we’re angry.” 
The University of Michigan 
Board of Regents convened 
for their final meeting of 
the year on Thursday at the 
Richard L. Postma Family 
Clubhouse 
to 
discuss 
the 
interim 
replacement 
of 
E. 
Royster 
Harper, 
Vice 
President for Student Life; 
the University’s investments 
in fossil fuels; and rights for 
student athletes. Community 
members and students from 
the One University Campaign 
and Climate Action Movement 
protested before, during and 
after the meeting. 
The board approved Simone 
Taylor, the senior associate 
vice president for Student Life, 
as the interim Vice President 
for Student Life to begin 
serving in that role on Jan. 
18, 2020. Soon after, President 
Mark Schlissel sent an email 
to the University community 
announcing 
Taylor’s 
appointment as interim vice 
president. 
In an address to the Board, 
Regent Katherine White (D) 
officially named Harper a 
Vice President Emerita of 
Student Life and presented a 

plaque to her in honor of her 
commitment to the University. 
Harper thanked her colleagues 
in her last speech to the board. 
“You’ve been such great 
teachers 
and 
healers 
to 
so many faculty, staff and 
students, 
including 
me,” 
Harper said tearfully. “I’ve 
appreciated our opportunity 
to share thoughts, counsel 
and 
loving 
energy. 
We’ve 
been colleagues and friends, 
students and teachers.”
Schlissel also announced 
the new E. Royster Harper 
Scholarship to provide greater 
financial aid to University 
students. 
“On a personal level, I can’t 
imagine a better partner and 
colleague to work alongside 
the rest of the executive team 
and myself in providing an 
outstanding experience for our 
students, great mentorship, 
sage 
advice, 
wonderful 
friendship and collectively we 
all wish her a long, healthy, 
happy and joyous retirement,” 
Schlissel said. 
The Regents proceeded to 
vote down a proposed $50 
million dollar investment to 
Vendera Resources, a company 
known for its extensive assets 
in oil and gas production. 
Before the vote, Regent 
Jordan Acker (D) spoke up 
and motioned to deny the 
investment. Acker had tweeted 
the Regents should not make 
the investment and that doing 
so would not align with the 
University’s values. 
“Vendera is a company that 
almost 
exclusively 
invests 
in Oil and Gas drilling and 
exploration, 
some 
of 
the 
greatest drivers of climate 
change,” Acker wrote. “At the 
very moment that @UMich 
needs to be pushing away from 
dirty energy, this is absolutely 
the wrong path.”
When the board ultimately 
voted to not invest in Vendera 
Resources, the room erupted 
into applause. 
Acker 
then 
brought 
up 
name, 
image 
and 
likeness 
rights in the NCAA, which 
allow 
college 
athletes 
to 
earn money off of things like 
advertisements 
or 
clinics. 
NCAA athletes are currently 
not allowed to do this and face 
potential ineligibility. 
He 
emphasized 
students 
at 
the 
University 
who 
pursue other professions are 
encouraged to be showcased 
and do whatever it takes to 
succeed. 
He 
said 
athletes 
should be awarded the same 
rights. 
“Allowing 
name, 
image 
and 
likeness 
rights 
helps 
our 
athletes,” 
Acker 
said. 
“Throughout this University, 
we are able to push our students 
to succeed in their chosen 
fields. We hold showcases for 
our musical theatre students, 
we encourage the recruitment 
of our students for companies 
throughout the world, and 
even work with our students 
and faculty to allow them 
to use their ideas to start 
world-changing 
businesses. 
Restriction of these rights 
to athletes in this context is 
simply unconscionable.”
After 
Acker’s 
statement, 
public 
commenters 
from 
the 
community 
addressed 
the Regents about divesting 
from fossil fuels, reaching 
carbon neutrality and the 

1U Campaign. Out of 15 total 
public commenters, 13 spoke 
to the Regents about the 
University’s investments in 
fossil fuels and what they say 
is an unequal distribution of 
resources across the three 
University campuses. 
The 
majority 
of 
public 
commenters, 
especially 
those associated with 1U and 
CAM, posed a question to the 
board about the University’s 
perceived 
inaction 
toward 
reaching 
carbon 
neutrality 
or unwillingness to allocate 
more resources to the Flint 
and Dearborn campuses. After 
asking these questions, the 
commenters waited for the 
Regents to respond. 
In 
between 
speakers, 
members of CAM and 1U 
chanted slogans like “empty 
words 
but 
no 
equitable 
funding” and “we deserve to 
be heard.” 
Engineering senior Logan 
Vear, a member of CAM, told 
the Regents there is a strong 
link between issues of climate 
change 
and 
1U’s 
mission 
and asked why the Regents 
have not responded directly 
to 
either 
organizations’ 
demands after a year of 
protesting. 
“While some of you have 
expressed 
sympathy, 
and 
even at times support, you 
have done next to nothing 
to tangibly act to support 
our causes. During public 
comment, you have actively 
ignored us, looked down at 
your phones and have left the 
moment we finish or during 
our 
comments 
as 
well,” 
Vear said. “So, we ask, why 
should we continue to come 
to Regents meetings if they 
have been so fruitless over 
the last year?”
In 
response 
to 
Vear’s 
question, 
Regent 
Shauna 
Ryder Diggs (D) said most of 
the Regents do take the public 
commenters’ arguments into 
account 
and 
sympathize 
with 
their 
views. 
She 
noted how even though the 
organizations’ arguments have 
been 
impactful, 
significant 
institutional change still takes 
a while to enact. 
“Asking us to give you an 
answer right this second, I just 
can’t do that,” Diggs said. “I 
actually think that you’ve been 
very effective, because when 
you first started coming to the 
Regents meetings and talking 
individually with each one of 
us, there was no (President’s 
Commission 
on 
Carbon 
Neutrality). Even doing all of 
that work, I think is the reason 
why President Schlissel put 
together this commission.”
Diggs was the only Regent at 
the meeting to directly respond 
to CAM and 1U’s questions. 
LSA 
senior 
Dim 
Mang 
reacted to Diggs’s comment by 
saying student activists should 
not have to work tirelessly to 
receive basic resources and 
support from the University’s 
administration. 
“You listen to us, but at 
the same time we shouldn’t 
have to fight for our own 
livelihoods day in and day out 
when U-M is lucky to have 
these students here,” Mang 
said. “Our activism isn’t here 
to window dress your inaction 
and, frankly, your fear of 
student power.”

REGENTS
From Page 2

Irwin also discussed how 
Michigan has learned from 
laws 
passed 
in 
Colorado, 
California and Washington, 
D.C. 
Allyson Job, a public health 
graduate student at EMU, 
said 
she 
appreciated 
the 
perspective provided by the 
panelists, but pointed out that 
all of them were white men. 
She said that an additional 
panelist would have helped 
broaden the range of opinions 
shared at the event.
“I wish it would have been 
more representative of the 
community rather than three 
Caucasian men. I would like 
to see a little more diversity,” 
Job said. “But I did like it, 
and they answered a lot of 
questions, and overall, I liked 
how it was done, and for the 
first time it was pretty cool.”

During 
the 
panel 
discussion, 
Irwin 
noted 
that communities of color 
and 
lower 
socioeconomic 
standing are being left out 
of the new industry being 
created 
by 
this 
recent 
legalization. 
“And, you know, given that 
fact, I think it’s important 
that communities are careful 
about equity,” Irwin said. 
“We’re going to do these 
things to make sure that we 
have more equity.”
Irwin 
also 
stressed 
the 
importance 
of 
local 
communities determining for 
themselves whether or not to 
allow sales of marijuana in 
their cities.
“Make sure that it serves 
your community’s needs and 
make sure that you develop 
it in a way that assuages 
the concerns of people in 
your community that are 
concerned and make sure you 
pay attention,” Irwin said.

PANEL
From Page 2

“You always want to know 
where something is coming 
from that you’re putting in 
your body, and you want to be 
able to go to a place that’s safe 
to get it,” Ransom said. “More 
than anything, we look at it as 
an opportunity to provide safe, 
tested product where they can 
come, get what they need, know 
that it’s from a really good place 
and how they choose to use 
it and where is kind of at the 
discretion of the consumer.”
Green 
Peak 
Innovations 
prides themselves on what they 
call the “from seed to store” 
process, which tightly controls 
the production of marijuana 
from growth to sale to ensure it 
remains high quality. 
Ransom said the legalization 
of recreational marijuana is 
important 
because 
it 
gives 
people what they have wanted 
for a long time, and people 

should have the choice to put 
what they want into their body.
“I see no difference between 
recreational 
marijuana 
and 
getting altered in some other 
way — whether you choose 
to drink or something. If you 
want to work out, I could go 
swimming, I could go running 
— I have choices,” Ransom said. 
“If you want to get a little bit 
altered, choices are nice if you 
want to drink alcohol or smoke 
a little bit. The people have said 
that they want it for some time, 
I think that’s the biggest thing 
so now we’re finally giving them 
what they want.”
Though 
the 
store 
has 
opened up sale of recreational 
marijuana, Ransom said their 
first priority is maintaining the 
supply of product for medical 
customers.
“I would have to imagine 
that some of the patients are 
considered about rec coming 
on and supply,” Ransom said. 
“Although we are excited for 
recreational use coming on, 

we’ll never walk away from 
providing for patients. We want 
to make sure that the medicine 
is available first and foremost.”
The store sells 18 strains 
of cannabis flower, and offers 
a “buy one-get one” deal on 
all 
Skymint 
vapes, 
edibles 
and concentrates. It features 
a variety of CBD products, 
flowers, 
prerolls, 
edibles, 
concentrates, vapes, pipes and 
other accessories. Ransom said 
the store is unique compared to 
other dispensaries in that it is 
set up in a typical retail fashion, 
as well as with the option to 
use their “express lane” when 
purchasing online.
“It’s 
unlike 
a 
lot 
of 
dispensaries. I mean, before I 
think it was so much of a quick 
consult, you come in, you grab 
it, you go, and now I think it’s 
more like typical retail. … For 
us to provide two different 
shopping experiences based on 
what people want, I think that’s 
important,” Ransom said. 
Kinesiology senior Laurence 

Horowitz, president of Green 
Wolverine — an organization for 
students interested in business 
and dedicated to educating 
people about cannabis and the 
marijuana industry — discussed 
the short-term effects this new 
market will have on the Ann 
Arbor area.
“In (the) short-term, people 
will definitely go to this new 
dispensary to try their product. 
However, only time will tell 
if the new establishment will 
develop a foothold in the Ann 
Arbor market,” Horowitz said. 
“Use will most likely go up as 
it will be a novelty. However, 
things will die down, and the 
recreational 
customers 
that 
are using today will now be 
receiving their product after it 
has been extensively regulated 
so 
that 
it 
doesn’t 
include 
chemicals 
and 
pesticides 
instead of from a street dealer.”

MARIJUANA
From Page 1

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