With Ann Arbor rent prices 
skyrocketing 
and 
student 
voter turnout flatlining, the 
University of Michigan Central 
Student 
Government 
met 
Tuesday night in the Michigan 
Union to pass resolutions to 
renew a taskforce researching 
a student tenants union and 
to discuss CSG and national 
election reform. 
Because 
Ann 
Arbor 
rent 
has 
increased 
at 
a 
yearly 
rate of nearly 16 percent, the 
Assembly passed a resolution 
reauthorizing 
the 
Student 
Tenants Union taskforce to 
research the structure and 
demand for a student tenant’s 
union. 
LSA 
sophomore 
Sam 
Burnstein said the end goal 
for the taskforce is to create a 
tenant’s union with full-time 
staff to advocate on behalf of 
students, assist students with 

searching 
for 
housing 
and 
answer questions on topics 
from renting to roommates. 
“This idea for a Student 
Tenants Union was really born 
out of two issues most students 
on campus face in some way,” 
Burstein said. “The first being 
affordability, and the second, 
really, is a deficit of information 
regarding renting.” 
Burnstein 
stressed 
the 
importance 
of 
advocacy, 
especially since four of the five 
seats up for election in the Ann 
Arbor City Council went to 
“anti-housing candidates” last 
year, each of which were won 
with less than 1 percent of the 
vote. 
“At the core of this issue are 
terrible laws and regulations 
in the city of Ann Arbor, 
particularly 
zoning 
codes, 
height 
limits 
on 
buildings, 
where buildings can be built 
(and) how the city council 
approves which buildings can 
be built,” Burstein said. 

The 
Assembly 
passed 
a 
resolution 22-5 to include an 
author’s summary and FAQ 
section 
within 
resolutions 
to 
increase 
accessibility 
to students, the press and 
Assembly members themselves. 
Burstein said these additions 
would 
help 
readers 
better 
understand CSG’s work. 
“This definitely would help 
students read, understand and 
interpret 
our 
resolutions,” 
Burstein said. 
Engineering 
sophomore 
Carla Voigt raised concerns the 
summaries would discourage 
Assembly 
members 
from 
reading resolutions in their 
entireties. 
LSA 
sophomore 
Sam Braden approved of an 
FAQ section but worried about 
members maliciously excluding 
certain details from a summary. 
“An author’s summary is 
actually 
dangerous, 
while 
an FAQ is not,” Braden said. 
“It is a lot more difficult to 
abuse an FAQ than an author’s 

summary.” 
Engineering senior Mario 
Galindez disagreed, noting the 
resolution gives the committee 
the ability to edit the summary 
at every stage. 
“No mechanism can’t be 
abused,” Galindez said. “I think 
in everything there’s room for 
abuse, and I think there’s a 
good check here, which is the 
committee structure.” 
The 
Assembly 
debated 
a 
resolution 
allowing 
faculty 
to 
grant 
students 
excused 
absences on national election 
days if they have significant 
barriers 
to 
voting 
due 
to 
transportation limitations or 
class schedule. It was ultimately 
sent back to its creators to be 
revised. 
Additionally, the Assembly 
passed resolutions supporting 
carbon-neutral 
facilities 
on 
campus and ensuring party 
names are not listed alongside 
candidate names on the CSG 
ballot.

FE ATU RE

2A — Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily 
Steven Bodei, Associate Director of Student Life Leadership Education, discusses MLEAD at the First Generation Program Community Dinner at Palmer 
Commons Tuesday evening.

TUESDAY:
By Design 
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story

MONDAY:
Looking at the Numbers

WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History 

JULIA RUBIN
Daily Staff Reporter

New model aims to streamline meetings, impact method for discussing potential resolutions 

Central Student Government discusses 
tenants’ union, new voting process

Jan. 29, 1978: Human rights law looks to eliminate discrimination 
within housing, employment, investing in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor’s going to be a mighty 
tough place for businesses who 
practice discrimination in housing, 
employment and investment if a 
hard nosed new city human rights 
ordinance wins final approval from 
City Council.
The new ordinance, which would 
extend the protection of the law 
to pregnant women, families with 
small children and recipients of 
public assistance, was accepted at 
first reading during council’s Jan. 9 
meeting. If passed, it would be one 
of the most comprehensive laws of its 
kind in the country.

ANN ARBOR- ALREADY has a 
human rights ordinance-- a much-
amended patchwork affair dating 
back to the Democratic-Human 
Rights Party Council of 1970. But city 
officials have been complaining for a 
long time that the present ordinance 
is confusing and unenforceable.
The purpose of the new ordinance 
is to cut down on the excessive 
verbiage of the present law,” said 
Byron Marshall, who as special 
assistant 
to 
City 
Administrator 
Sylvester Murray was one of the main 
architects of the proposed ordinance. 
But the new law would do much more 

than simply clean up a few language 
problems; as it now stands, it would:
Widen the categories of people 
protected 
against 
disrcimination 
to 
include 
prohibitions 
against 
discrimination 
for 
race, 
color, 
religion, national origin, sex, age, 
marital status, sexual prefernce, 
family responsibilities, educational 
association, 
physical 
limitations, 
source 
of 
income, 
personal 
associations and pregnancy;
Define more clearly the number 
and kind of discriminatory practices 
prohibited by law;
Place added emphasis on specific 

penalties 
for 
companies 
and 
individuals found guilty of violating 
the ordinance (up to a $500 fine and/
or 90 days in jail);
Forbid unions to discriminate in 
apprenticeship and other training 
programs; and,
Prohibit any form of retaliation 
against 
individuals 
who 
bring 
complaints to the city under the 
ordinance.
CERTAIN TYPES of “justified” 
discrimination--sororities 
and 
fraternities for instance--would be 
exempted from compliance. But the 
overall effect of the new ordinance 

would be to pack some muscle into 
the city’s antidiscrimination efforts.
“I think we’re going to come 
through 
with 
a 
pretty 
good 
ordinance,” 
said 
Mayor 
Albert 
Wheeler, who has identified himself 
very closely with the proposed law, 
and has vowed to veto the ordinance 
if council passes a diluted version.
The ordinance could also go a long 
way toward reviving the city’s long-
dormant Human Rights Commision 
and Human Rights Department.
The Human Rights Commission-
-a Council-appointed body whose 
purpose was originally to make 

policy 
recommendations 
to 
the 
Mayor and Council--was allowed to 
fall into disuse over the last few years. 
The Human Rights Department-
-a 
city 
administrative 
agency 
which was intended to investigate 
discrimination and enforce the 1970 
ordinance-was widely criticized for 
its ineffectiveness, and was divested 
of its department status in July 1976.
UNDER 
THE 
CITY 
reorganization 
plan 
adopted 
by 
Council earlier this month, the 
Human Rights Department has been 
reestablished under Murray’s direct 
supervision.

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the privacy involved. It 
was in the meeting materials 
for the Dec. 15 or so Regents 
meeting, so it’s in the public 
domain. But because it was 
about 
a 
personal 
health 
matter, I didn’t think it rose 
to the level of informing the 
community. An acting provost 
was in place, and I was in 
place and the business of the 
University continued. 
TMD: The email you sent to 
students said the University 
received “several allegations 
of 
sexual 
misconduct 
by 
Dr. Philbert” on Jan. 16-17 
of 2020. I’m curious about 
what 
exactly 
this 
means. 
Was Jan. 16 the first time 
the 
University 
was 
made 
aware of Philbert’s alleged 
sexual misconduct, or is it a 
technical way of describing 
a step in a reporting process 

that actually began earlier 
than Jan. 16? 
MS: We take allegations 
of sexual misconduct with 
the utmost seriousness, the 
16th and the 17th was the 
first I became aware of any 
allegation 
whatsoever. 
We, 
because of the high rank of the 
person and the fact that we all 
know each other very well and 
work together very closely, 
the general counsel decided 
it was wisest to immediately 
bring in an outside law firm to 
help us investigate. And over 
the course of the first several 
days of that investigation, 
we learned enough that the 
allegations 
were 
credible, 
and as a result, to allow the 
investigation 
to 
proceed 
completely, and to assure the 
ongoing safety in the comfort 
of the community the Provost 
was put on leave. And then we 
announced what we had done. 
That’s basically what I said 

in the statement, and that’s 
basically all I can say because 
there’s always a presumption 
of 
innocence. 
Everyone 
deserves due process and a 
full investigation. I want to 
give tremendous thanks and 
credit to the people who have 
stepped up and told us about 
their experiences. That takes 
a lot of bravery to do that. It’s 
an act of giving, because it 
helps others in the community 
either feel comfortable to 
step up themselves or feel 
like 
they’re 
being 
safer. 
We provided access to all 
the different modalities of 
support for the folks that 
made 
these 
reports. 
And 
we’re trying to deal with it as 
sensitively as possible while 
keeping the business of the 
University moving forward.
TMD: How is it that the 
University received several 
allegations on the same day 
without any prior knowledge 

of the situation?
MS: It’s interesting. I don’t 
know the answer. And so, 
perhaps during the course of 
the investigation, we’ll figure 
that out. But I don’t know why 
we received several over the 
space of a couple of days.
TMD: I was wondering if 
you could tell me a little bit 
more about what exactly he 
did, given he oversaw the 
Office of Institutional Equity?
MS: The Provost oversees 
a huge swath of the entire 
institution. He is the Chief 
Budget 
Officer 
and 
the 
Chief Academic Officer for 
the whole University. OIE, 
because of its importance, 
we changed its reporting line 
a year ago, to report directly 
to the Provost’s Office. We 
did that to make sure that it 
receives the resources that it 
needs and the attention that it 

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See SCHLISSEL, Page 3A

