“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.