“She is well-versed in the
functions of our organization
and
possesses
a
deep
understanding
of
campus
partnerships,”
Gerstein
said.
“Stepping into the role as CSG
vice president in the closing
months of any administration’s
term is no easy task. But given
Evie’s experience, my personal
friendship
with
her,
my
understanding and knowledge
that she has the passion, drive
and will to do this work, I am
fully confident she is going to be
able to execute this position to
the best of her ability.”
Rackham
student
Hayden
Jackson, chair of the Executives
Nomination Committee, read
excerpts from the Executives
Nomination Committee’s report
on Winter’s eligibility for the
position
as
vice
president.
Jackson said the committee
felt she would be a good fit
for the role. However, they
had concerns about Winter’s
comments in the report about
the administration’s lack of
accomplishments
during
the
first semester and her lack of
attendance at the University
Council, a core function of the
vice presidency.
“It remains a concern for
us that there was more room
for events and initiatives for
completion in the first semester,
but that Ms. Winter was largely
unable to articulate a long list
of accomplishments,” Jackson
said. “That said, overall, we
believe Ms. Winter would do a
good job serving in the role for
the remainder of the year, as
she would carry out former Vice
President Blanchard’s projects
to completion, and she already
understands
the
Gerstein
administration
and
how
it
works.”
According
to
the
report,
Winter had previously attended
one Assembly meeting in the
Fall 2019 semester and no UC
meetings.
Responding
to
concerns
about attendance at University
Council and Assembly, Winter
acknowledged she has never
been to a UC meeting, but also
argued the UC has had issues
determining what “that space
and time should be used for.” She
said she will be attending the
first meeting to understand the
body’s priorities and work from
there to support UC in passing
legislation or planning events.
“To clarify, this part of the
report is mostly referring to
my specific accomplishments. I
spent most of the first semester
working
and
developing
a
coffee chat program,” Winter
responded. “I didn’t do a lot of
the large-scale events, but that’s
not to say that our administration
hasn’t
been
productive
and
that we haven’t been working
on things and planning events
throughout the year.”
Gerstein also announced plans
to launch a Campus Climate
Advisory Council ahead of the
2020 presidential debate that
will be hosted on campus. The
council aims to build a united
campus community and foster a
welcoming space for all students
in a divisive environment. To
ensure
this
work
continues
beyond the presidential election
year, it is slated to be a standing
body composed of students, staff
and faculty from a variety of
student organizations.
Additionally,
Gerstein
reported
that
the
Student
Fee
Advisory
Committee,
a
body
which
contributes
to
the Office of Student Life’s
budget request to the provost,
advocated primarily to increase
the allocation of funds for
resources to support student
mental health. The Student Fee
Advisory Committee proposal
integrated insights from CSG’s
mental
health
survey
and
requested that additional funds
go to limit wait times at CAPS.
LSA
sophomore
and
representative
Sam
Braden
addressed the progress of the
plans for an LSAT prep course
and highlighted its popularity
amongst students.
“We have over 130 students
who want to take it and 140
who want to teach it,” Braden
said. “I will be interviewing
all the students next week and
choosing six of them to teach the
students.”
LSA junior Hershy Jalluri,
chair of the Diversity, Equity,
and
Inclusion
Commission,
spoke about the force’s plans
to create a platform to increase
accessibility
to
DEI-focused
resources. Jalluri also shared
plans to create DEI focus groups
at student organization mass
meetings.
LSA senior Eva Kluting, chair
of Transfer Student Resource
Commission, spoke on future
plans to strengthen ties among
transfer students and increase
their access to resources.
“The transfer community is
a little bit smaller, but we are
trying to get people in, and our
biggest project right now is the
transfer students’ symposium,”
Kluting said. “We are going to
be a space for students to speak
with administrators, talk about
transfer issues like housing
transportation and orientation.
It’ll be a better place to facilitate
discussion
between
students
and the administration.”
Engineering
senior
Zeke
Majeske
was
approved
as
the
Bystander
Intervention
Training
Liaison.
Majeske,
who nominated himself, shared
plans to increase transparency
and efficiency in the role by
eliminating it.
Members also participated in
a hand-ballot election to settle
the tiebreaker between the two
Rackham
Graduate
Student
Representative
candidates,
Gerson Ramirez, Public Policy
graduate student, and Rackham
student Siddharth Singh. Singh
was elected.
The Assembly also elected
the
vice-chair
of
Executive
Nominations, choosing between
two
nominees,
Rackham
student Matthew Lesko and
LSA senior Annabel Weinbach.
Lesko was selected through a
secret ballot.
Sevig acknowledges the system
can backlog with long wait times
in the fall as it processes a huge
influx of students who are new to
campus and struggling to adjust
to college. CAPS saw 875 new
clients in September 2018, more
than double the number of an
average month. While the wait
time is back down to four days
as of publication, Sevig said the
recent surges have overwhelmed
CAPS.
“The first five weeks last fall,
we had about 300 students per
week asking for help,” Sevig
said. “So those 300 students who
come in the first week need to
be seen the second week, and
you have another 300 who are
new that second week, and then
it just goes on every week. So,
we’re doing a lot of work this
year to think about how we can
navigate next fall.”
Sevig did not specify his
plans for reducing wait times
but said he is looking at adding
more counselors and is open to
student input on how they’d like
the process to change.
CAPS currently houses 39
licensed
permanent
clinical
staff and 16 professionals-in-
training. Sevig acknowledged
there are trade-offs in the
current staffing model, which
consists of initial, crisis and
ongoing consultation.
“We could have the wait time
for a scheduled appointment be
two days,” Sevig said. “But if we
were to do that, we would be
sacrificing either the crisis work
or the ongoing work. In any
clinical agency, you’re balancing
initial, ongoing and crisis work,
so I want to increase initial and
ongoing and maybe all three.”
In the 2019-20 fiscal year,
Counseling Services was allotted
almost $3 million. When asked
what an increase in funding
would mean for CAPS, Sevig
said he would defer to students.
“We ask our Student Advisory
Board, ‘If we were to grow,
how could we best use new
staff? Do we want to do online
interventions? How long should
that initial appointment be?’”
Sevig said. “If we get new
staffing and new funding, what
we will do with it will be driven
by students.”
A need for diversity
Students
of
color
voiced
concern about being able to find
a counselor who can relate to
their experiences on campus.
LSA freshman Alia Cummings
said it’s difficult to connect with
counselors who do not innately
understand the perspectives of
students of color.
“One thing that I’ve noticed
is that there aren’t that many
people of color who are therapists
on campus,” Cummings said.
“Hearing from my peers, one
of the things that we notice is
when we go into these areas
and we have different struggles
and things like that … although
it’s good to talk to a therapist,
if the person does not look like
us, then it’s very difficult for the
person to be able to relate to us
about what we’re talking about
or to be able to even express
those feelings because we know
that the ability to relate will be
very limited.”
Sevig said that CAPS is
dedicated to diversity in their
office and they put the photos of
all their staff on the website to
show their efforts.
“We
acknowledge
the
diversity, and we work with it,”
Sevig said. “Our staffing reflects
the diversity. About half of us are
people of color.”
Connecting
to
North
Campus
One of the biggest challenges
campus mental health resources
face is connecting with students
on North Campus, which is up to
a thirty-minute commute from
the main CAPS and UHS offices.
In the CSG Mental Health
Taskforce report, 50 percent
of students who take classes or
live on North Campus said the
physical distance from Central
Campus CAPS has deterred
them from using CAPS.
In response, CAPS is reaching
out
to
students
on
North
Campus through the embedded
model, which places a dedicated
staff counselor in 13 schools and
colleges across both North and
Central Campuses. Sevig said he
envisions a further expansion
of
embedded
counselors
to
include
currently
uncovered
colleges, including the Schools
of Education, Environment and
Sustainability,
Information,
Kinesiology and Public Policy.
Since the CAPS office is
located on Central Campus, it
can be difficult for students in
other colleges to seek out their
services. Embedded counselors
learn about the culture of the
college they are assigned and
meet with students from those
schools. They also give referrals
for students when they need
additional assistance.
Rath reached out to Emily
Hyssong,
the
embedded
counselor at the School of Music,
Theatre & Dance, when she was
going through a hard time, and
through Hyssong, was able to
make
an
appointment
with
CAPS.
“I only found out about it
through a counselor in the
music school, she told me about
it,” Rath said. “She didn’t have
enough room to see me herself.
She had enough patients, so she
recommended me to CAPS.”
Even
though
embedded
counselors
in
the
Schools
of Music, Theatre & Dance,
Engineering,
Art
and
Architecture
and
Urban
Planning are accessible to the
majority
of
North
Campus
students, students at schools
on Central Campus who end
up living on North still face the
barrier of a commute to seek
professional help.
“It is very far. I had one
appointment that I waited a
long time for, but due to the
bus system, I was late and had
to wait another four weeks for
the next appointment,” said
a student quoted in the CSG
Mental Health Taskforce report.
“I was discouraged and did not
return to CAPS until I moved to
Central Campus the next year.
That was when I received the
help I needed.”
When asked about outreach
efforts to North Campus, Sevig
said CAPS experimented briefly
with counselors in Pierpont
Commons in the early 2000s, but
he said he sees that abandoned
project as a failure.
“Students would come in
and interrupt the counselors,
they would open the door, they
weren’t available. It just didn’t
work.” Sevig said. “But there
are a lot of students on North
Campus who aren’t in embedded
schools, so it’s on my list to think
about accessibility for them.”
Defining a ‘Crisis’
CAPS offers crisis services
but several students interviewed
for this story said they were
unaware of what is considered
a crisis in order for them to see
CAPS.
LSA
sophomore
Noelle
Seward suffered a concussion
in October of 2019 and had to
ask for accommodations in her
classes. When she was struggling
with keeping up with her classes
and getting accommodations,
she sought out CAPS to help her
with the anxiety, but she did not
think her situation was a crisis.
“There was such a long
waiting period, and I don’t feel
like this is something I can wait
for,” Seward said. “They say, ‘If
you’re in an absolute emergency,
then you can come in.’ I don’t
want to take that spot away from
someone who is having suicidal
thoughts or something, because
they may need it more than I do,
but that doesn’t mean I can wait
two months to have my issue
addressed.”
According to the 2018-2019
CAPS Annual Report, only about
4 percent of appointments were
classified as urgent or crises. Due
to the ambiguity, many students
feel hesitant to prioritize their
own situation and underutilize
the crisis services.
At CAPS, Sevig told The Daily
that “crisis” is based on what
students think and does not have
one solid meaning.
“Some centers define (crisis)
by the professional staff. We
intentionally do not do that,”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — 3A
CAPS
From Page 2A
CSG
From Page 1A
It is available to students who
applied early action and received
a postponed decision or who
applied regular decision, Sanders
said.
“For some, the Early Action
application deadline approaches
much sooner than anticipated
and an opportunity to submit
additional information now that
the rush of the fall season has
quieted would be welcomed,”
Sanders
wrote.
“This
short
answer
response
offers
the
opportunity
to
provide
an
update to the initial application
submission.”
According to the webpage, the
decision to not consider other
information
from
applicants
is due to the high volume of
applications.
Nationally,
the
University ranked 10th for the
number of freshman applicants,
with 64,917 applications for
this
year’s
freshman
class.
Approximately 23 percent of
applicants were admitted.
A second deferred student,
also speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the practice of
sending a letter of continued
interest, which was largely an
unspoken method for showing
commitment, was a way to
distinguish
themselves
from
the rest of the applicant pool.
Because it is now a form available
to all applicants, the student feels
they may have lost an edge they
previously would have had with
sending the letter.
“I know some people are
annoyed because this is another
essay and it’s extra work when
they’ve already put so much into
the application, but to me, for
someone who sees this as their
top school, it’s more of another
opportunity for me to show them
I’m committed,” the applicant
said. “It’s an opportunity that
I’m grateful for, but I do think
it’s interesting that it’s not this
under-the-radar thing that it was
in the past.”
The student said the change
from a letter to an essay removed
some of the individuality. She also
noted the possibility for overlap
with the 500-word application
essay, which asks students to
“describe the unique qualities
that attract you to the specific
undergraduate College or School
(including preferred admission
and dual degree programs) to
which you are applying at the
University of Michigan” and
how the curriculum supports the
applicant’s interests.
The
student
was
also
frustrated with the language
of
the
form,
which
says
additional communication will
not be considered. However,
after
talking
with
teachers,
the student said she is still
considering sending in additional
information, such as an extra
letter of recommendation.
Sanders wrote that the change
levels the playing field for
applicants because it provides
guidance for what the University
would like to see. Previously,
there would be a large variation
in what the admissions staff
received from applicants, so
this
change
provides
more
information about what they will
and will not consider.
“Historically, our Early Action
applicants who are not admitted
in Early Action, as well as some
Regular
Decision
applicants,
have
attempted
to
provide
further
information
about
themselves after their application
is submitted, and we did not
provide
standard
guidance
regarding how to do so,” Sanders
wrote. “The quantity and quality
of the information submitted
varied greatly and follow-up
with students was inefficient and
cumbersome.
This
additional
short answer response allows
for an equitable experience for
all applicants who desire to send
additional
information
after
their application is completed,
and provides guidance for the
submission of that information.”
Christopher Kasper, a school
counselor at Ann Arbor Pioneer
High School, is grateful for
this clarity. He said students
in previous years were unsure
of what to do after receiving
a
postponed
decision
from
the University. He said this
form
gives
applicants
more
information on the next steps
they can take.
“What it does is it helps guide
and direct students to know what
their next step is and to know
that they have this opportunity,”
Kasper said. “I think students
appreciate the opportunity and
the clarity and are more than
willing and enthusiastic about
the additional short essay.”
ESSAY
From Page 1A
The talk proceeded to cover
recent events in Iran, such as the
assassination of Iranian Major
General Qasem Soleimani by the
United States. The presenters
mentioned that the “liberal media”
was not commenting on Iran’s
initial attack against the U.S.
“A lot of liberal media, they
don’t tell you that they attacked us
first before we attacked them and
assassinated their top general,”
Zhu said “But basically what
happened is that they attacked a
military base, killing a lot of U.S.
citizens and Iraqis, and then we
retaliated and assassinated a top
general, and then so, that was when
tensions began.”
Zhu also assessed the reaction of
Republicans to the assassination.
“Republicans largely agree with
what’s happening, because they
attacked us first and we need to
retaliate,” Zhu said.
Student activists on campus
have advocated against military
involvement in Iran. At a rally on
Monday, hundreds gathered to
voice their opposition to starting
another war in the Middle East.
Public
Policy
senior
Arwa
Gayar, president of the Arab
Student Association, spoke at
the demonstration. She said she
was concerned for the safety of
members of her community.
“I already see members of my
community questioning if they
can return back to their home and
see their families in the coming
months,” Gayar said. “Many of us …
are already forced to leave our own
home countries, due to the U.S.
history of imperialism, American
wars in the Middle East and
legacies of colonialism. We now
find the security of our families
unknown once more.”
Resnick ended the talk with a
comment on U.S. intervention in
Iran.
“I’ll talk about why people
think Iraq failed. Here’s why:
democratization,” Resnick said.
“Democratization is not the best
way to go about regime change…
Unlike Iraq, Iran still had lineage,
descendants of Mohammed Shah
where we can actually put in place
of the Ayatollah.”
LSA freshman Vince Tedrick
attended the meeting. He said
he thinks that these College
Republicans meetings help him
stay
informed
about
current
events.
“We want to look at both sides
of the issue, we try to look at
where everybody’s coming from,”
Tedrick said. “And I think it helps
us be more knowledgeable about
the world around us and what’s
happening.”
IRAN
From Page 1A
SECURITY
From Page 2A
In an interview with The
Daily
last
week,
Gordon-
Hagerty said her time at the
University is the source of her
expertise, more so than any of
her professional roles.
“Obviously, the foundation
of my career in math and
science
and
in
national
security and in the technical
expertise that I hold is a
function directly of my time
at the University of Michigan
and my college education,”
Gordon-Hagerty said. “There’s
no doubt in my mind the
expertise ... that I’ve obtained
over the last 30 years or so in
my career is a direct result of
my schooling and education at
Michigan.”
Gordon-Hagerty
spoke
during the event about the
recruiting push for the NNSA,
as 40 percent of the NNSA’s
workforce is on a path for
retirement.
She
said
the
administration is looking to
develop a diverse and robust
future workforce.
“I want to do whatever I can
do to continue to engage with,
and call from, the wonderful,
brilliant brainpower that is
obtained by attending the
University of Michigan and
these
other
colleges
and
universities across the United
States,” Gordon-Hagerty said.
After
Gordon-Hagerty
spoke,
a
six-person
panel
shared their roles in various
laboratories and companies
under the NNSA, including Los
Alamos National Laboratory,
Sandia National Laboratories
and
Lawrence
Livermore
National Laboratory.
Erik Timpson, an engineer
at
Kansas
City
National
Security Campus, emphasized
working for the public sector
means serving the country
while having the resources
to turn “some of the things in
your imagination into reality.”
“It sounds super fancy to
be working with doctors on
cutting-edge national research
that’s changing the way that
we look at security and how
secure we are,” Timpson said.
“You guys are like, ‘Man, I’m
just fresh out of calculus and
physics. I don’t know if I’m
ready for that yet.’ The simple
answer is: You are. You’re
totally ready. You can do this.”
Gordon-Hagerty
advised
current
undergraduates
to
recognize
the
importance
of national security, to be
flexible with career plans as
opportunities arise and to not
rule out any possibilities early
on.
“The advice I would give to
current and future applicants
to
our
nuclear
security
enterprises is keeping an open
mind and to know their career
will grow in the future,”
Gordon-Hagerty said.
Rackham
student
Jeff
Woolstrum, who is currently
pursuing a Ph.D. in nuclear
engineering,
said
he
was
fascinated by the University’s
relevance in national security.
“It was great that (U-M)
has the kind of pull to bring
in these high-level people,”
Woolstrum
said.
“There
were a lot of good questions
and a lot of good answers
that were asked and a lot of
good resources that are just
so conveniently available to
everybody here at Michigan.”
Claire
Hao
contributed
reporting to this article.