A group of about 30 faculty
members, including the nine
members of the tenure bylaw
working group, gathered in
the Pendleton Room of the
Michigan Union Thursday to
discuss proposed changes to
the University of Michigan’s
tenure policy.
Due
to
recent
sexual
misconduct allegations against
Provost Martin A. Philbert,
many
professors
expressed
a feeling of urgency about
amending these bylaws.
The working group, which is
comprised of faculty members
from
various
departments
across the three University
campuses,
was
created
in
October
2019.
The
group
was formed after the School
of Music, Theatre & Dance
professor David Daniels was
accused of sexual assault in
August 2018 and placed on paid
leave. The University is still in
the process of firing Daniels.
Sharon Glotzer, Chemical
Engineering department chair,
chairs
the
working
group.
Glotzer led the discussion,
which focused on suggesting
a new tenure removal policy in
regards to items 5.09 and 5.10
in the regents’ bylaws, which
deal with standard procedure
in cases of faculty dismissal as
well as severance pay.
David
Potter,
Arthur
F.
Thurnau professor of Greek
and
Latin,
delivered
the
opening
remarks.
Potter
said the University created
these tenure policies during
the McCarthy era to protect
professors’
academic
and
personal freedom.
In addition to calling for
the changes to these outdated
bylaws,
professors
and
attendees said they hoped the
recommendations
would
be

made quickly.
Ella A. Kazerooni, professor
of
radiology
and
internal
medicine
at
Michigan
Medicine, said she wants to
know more about the final
outcome
of
the
working
group’s
recommendations.
Kazerooni
said
she
thinks
by determining the group’s
goals the bylaws can be more
efficiently restructured.
“So I think, for me, it’s
trying to understand what the

goal is,” Kazerooni said. “If
the goal is to streamline the
process and make the process
clearer for everybody, faculty
departments, administration,
I think that’s a laudable goal
and we’d really like to see that
happen.”
The
working
group
suggested that, in the case of
tenured faculty removal, two
separate trials could run in
conjunction with one another.
They proposed having two
separate groups of professors
who have no contact with one
another in order to guarantee a
more fair trial for the professor
being tried.
Astronomy professor Sally
Oey said she felt two trials
would not only diminish the
quality of the examination but
would lead to confusion for all
parties.
“I think one of the most

problematic things is the fact
that they want to try to run
two consecutive hearings that
are right in parallel with each
other for the faculty member
who’s been charged,” Oey said.
The
group
proposed
allowing the University to
terminate the pay of tenured
faculty
members
charged
with
“manifestly
egregious
misconduct” who are placed on
administrative leave. They also
discussed how a committee

would be able to justify taking
a professor off tenure and
withholding pay.
“The
pay
suspension
is
created
by
acts
that
are
‘manifestly
egregious
misconduct’
beyond
the
standard process,” Potter said.
Glotzer said pay removal
would be a very rare situation
reserved for only the highest
levels of misconduct. Bruce
Maxim, Engineering professor
at U-M Dearborn and member
of the faculty working group,
said the two-trial process is
supposed to place power in the
hands of faculty.
“From
my
perspective,
we do not want this to be an
administrative driven process
(where) the administrators call
the shots,” Maxim said. “If four
of the five faculty members
on there do not agree with
(the claim), guess what? It’s

not egregious and the report
will
say,
‘Sorry,
President
Schlissel, we don’t think this
is
‘manifestly
egregious.’
Schlissel may decide that he
doesn’t care and may decide to
continue to withdraw pay, but
at least the faculty had a chance
to object and say, ‘No, we don’t
want to see this happen.’”
Psychology
professor
Twila Tardif, a member of the
faculty tenure working group,
addressed
issues
with
the
language in bylaws 5.09 and
5.10. Twila said though the
language is ambiguous, other
universities have tried to use
language that reflects how
the misconduct impacts the
community.
“I completely agree that
‘manifestly egregious conduct’
is very difficult to define,”
Twila said. “... However, it
can be misinterpreted. The 30
or so other institutions we’ve
looked at, one of the things
we’re doing is trying to look
at and see: How have people
identified this?”
Glotzer
said
though
the
faculty is being given the
opportunity to provide their
own suggestions, the Board
of Regents can change this
bylaw without their input. She
said more discussions will be
held regarding the possible
pay
suspension
policy
and
hopes people will be devoted
to determining the outcome of
this issue.
“These are the Regents’
bylaws and they can change
those
bylaws
whether
we
want them to or not,” Glotzer
said. “So we’re being given an
opportunity, and in this room
too, to provide feedback on
what that process ought to look
like.”
Reporter Jenna Siteman can
be reached at jsiteman@umich.
edu

2 — Friday, January 24, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

TUESDAY:
By Design
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

FRIDAY:
Behind the Story

WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History

MONDAY:

Looking at the Numbers

B E HIND THE STORY

Every Friday, one Daily staffer will give a behind the scenes look at
one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA senior Molly Shea on her
story “‘I think she was with me tonight’: Granowicz nets two goals
on late mother’s birthday”:

“I thought his story of his journey thus far with Michigan Hockey has
been really interesting. When I asked him about his summer and about
what that night meant to him, he just said that he knows that his mom
is with him and that he’s really glad that things have been working out
with him with hockey.”

“I think something I really liked about this story is that it had a really
human aspect to it. I think sometimes that’s rare in sports. Sometimes
you just look at the game and you think, ‘Oh the team won or lost’ and
you forget that the athletes are people too and have things going on in
their lives that are often a lot greater than losing a game.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

QUOTE OF THE WE E K

“
“This is the year 2020. What significant centennial
anniversary are we observing this year? … White women got
the vote in 1920. That is what we should acknowledge, and
that is very important, and I applaud that. But all women did
not get the vote in 1920. Black women did not legally acquire
the right to vote until 1965, with the passage of the Voting
Rights Act.”

Renowned activist Angela Davis at the Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium Keynote Memorial Lecture

It’s trying to understand what the
goal is. If the goal is to streamline the
process for everybody and make the
process clearer for everybody, I think
that’s a laudable goal and we’d really
like to see that happen.

Faculty working group discusses
changes to tenure faculty bylaws

Professors consider denying payment to those on leave for ‘manifestly egregious conduct’

JENNA SITEMAN
Daily Staff Reporter

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during
the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is
available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the
Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long
subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription
rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.

ERIN WHITE
Managing Editor
ekwhite@michigandaily.com

SAYALI AMIN and LEAH GRAHAM
Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Barbara Collins, Claire Hao, Alex Harring, Ben Rosenfeld,
Emma Stein, Liat Weinstein
Assistant News Editors: Francesca Duong, Julia Forrest, Brayden Hirsh, Jasmin
Lee, Hannah Mackay, Parnia Mazhar, Alyssa McMurtry, Emma Ruberg, Julia
Rubin, Michal Ruprecht, Arjun Thakkar

EMILY CONSIDINE and MILES STEPHENSON
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Senior Opinion Editors: Alanna Berger, Brittany Bowman, Zack Blumberg,
Timothy Spurlin, Joel Weiner

JOHN DECKER and JULIANNA MORANO
Managing Arts Editors
arts@michigandaily.com

ALLISON ENGKVIST and ANNIE KLUSENDORF
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com

Deputy Editors: Emily Stillman, Marisa Wright

MADISON GAGNE and SADIA JIBAN
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Olivia Bradish, Sophie Kephart, Silas Lee, Olivia Sedlacek,
Ellie Scott

TIM CHO and SIMRAN PUJJI
Managing Online Editors
webteam@michigandaily.com

Senior Web Developers: Parth Dhyani, Abha Panda, Rohan Prashant, Jonathan
Liu

ALEC COHEN and ELI SIDER
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Zoha Bharwani, Lora Faraj, Ayomide
Okunade, Gabrijela Skoko
Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Cheryn Hong, Anamkia Kannan, Vaishali
Nambiar, Sean Tran, Angela Zhang

Senior Sports Editors: Aria Gerson, Bailey Johnson, Ben Katz, Jacob Kopnick,

Anna Marcus, Rian Ratnavale
Assistant Sports Editors: Connor Brennan, Lily Friedman, Lane Kizziah,
Brendan Roose, Kent Schwartz, Molly Shea

Senior Video Editors: Ryan O’Connor, Joseph Sim

Senior Social Media Editors: Jessie Norris, Mya Steir, Kristina Zheng

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
www.michigandaily.com

ARTS SECTION
arts@michigandaily.com

SPORTS SECTION
sports@michigandaily.com

ADVERTISING
dailydisplay@gmail.com

NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com

ANITA MICHAUD
Business Manager
734-418-4115 ext. 1241
ammichau@michigandaily.

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Editor in Chief
734-418-4115 ext. 1251
esla@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM
734-418-4115 opt. 3

CORRECTIONS
corrections@michigandaily.com

THEO MACKIE and ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Jo Chang, Elise Godfryd, Zoe Phillips, Jonah Mendelson,
Ally Owens
Arts Beat Editors: Samantha Cantie, Dana Pierangeli, Andrew Pluta, Cassandra
Mansuetti, Anish Tamhaney, Sophia Yoon

SHERRY CHEN and CHRISTINE JEGARL
Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
Senior Design Editor: Lizzy Rueppel

MAYA MOKH and ANA MARIA SANCHEZ CASTILLO
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

JACK GRIEVE and BEN KORN
Managing Social Media Editors

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

Senior Photo Editors: Keemya Esmael, Asha Lewis, Miles Macklin
Assistant Photo Editors: Olivia Cell, Ryan Little, Emma Mati, Alexandria
Pompei, Alexis Rankin

MOLLY WU
Creative Director

SAMANTHA SMALL and SONYA VOGEL
Managing Podcast Editors

RYAN KELLY
Sales Manager

LILLY HANSON

Senior Account Executive
ANALISE DOORHY
Senior Account Executive
TARA MOORE
Senior Account Exeucutive