Engineering
sophomore
Carla Voigt, the University’s liaison
to the ABTS, said the passage of
the proposal aligns with CSG’s past
actions.
“We really just wanted to
get the other Big Ten schools to
be a part of the same thing that
we were investigating, pulling
out of investments in fossil fuel
industries,” Voigt said. “It’s not
unlike claims that we have made
in the past or actions that we have
done, like when we divested from
the tobacco industry in 2000.”
Voigt said the legislation works
hand in hand with other proposals
passed at the conference, such as
the University of Indiana’s proposal
to create a sustainability committee.
The Climate Action Movement
has been a big proponent of
pressuring
the
University
of
Michigan to divest in the past year.
They released a statement Tuesday
in support of CSG’s resolution.
Engineering senior Logan Vear,
member of the Climate Action
Movement and member of the
President’s Commission on Carbon
Neutrality, signed the statement.
“Today, students of the Big
Ten have sent a clear message to
the nation: the time has come for
universities to act on the urgency
of the climate crisis,” Vear wrote.
“Divestment from the harmful
fossil fuel industry can and must
be normalized across the nation’s
public-facing institutions.”
Vear compared calls to divest
from fossil fuels to past massive
student
protests
when
the
University divested from apartheid
South Africa and the tobacco
industry.
“The University of Michigan
has precedent in this regard —
past
Administrations
divested
from apartheid South Africa and
the tobacco industry after robust
student-led activism,” Vear wrote.
“Divesting the $1 billion U-M has
invested in the fossil fuel industry
requires the same moral urgency.”
Abdul El-Sayed, politician and
runner up in the 2018 Michigan
gubernatorial election, tweeted his
praise for the resolution.
“This is a big deal,” El-Sayed
wrote. “Our young leaders know
what’s at stake. And they know
what our major institutions need to
be doing to defend us.”
Voigt said she was surprised but
glad to see the support the proposal
has gained among students as the
issue of climate change is pressing.
She said she is hopeful other work
CSG and the ABTS does also
receives similar attention.
“It’s definitely surprising, but at
the same time, it’s also kind of not
surprising because it is something
that is really important,” Voigt
said. “It’s really good to see it
gain traction. I hope that some of
the other things that we do gain
traction in the future.”
can and decoding the genomic
structure of the virus.”
Gallagher also commented on
the quarantine of Wuhan city
and several others in province,
noting potential shortcomings of
this strategy.
“The
problem
with
the
quarantine is that the quarantine
comes after this period of local
coverup and a huge exodus of
people
from
Wuhan,
partly
probably because of the fear
of the virus, but also because
Chinese New Year was about to
happen and people were going
home to celebrate the holiday,”
Gallagher said. “So, it’s not really
clear to me that the quarantine
is going to stop the virus from
spreading.”
Adam Lauring, an infectious
disease specialist at Michigan
Medicine, described the likely
origin of the virus in humans
as well as likely first treatment
steps.
“Based
on
the
sequences
that are out now and have been
analyzed, there was probably one
animal to human spillover event
that happened probably in late
November or early December,
and since then the virus has
been spreading from person to
person,” Lauring said. “The first
thing they’re probably doing is
a lot of what we call ‘supportive
care.’ The biggest issue is that
it
apparently
causes
a
bad
pneumonia or lung infection,
and the thing that most people
would be needing would be help
with their breathing.”
On
Monday,
University
students
received
an
email
from
the
University
Health
Service concerning the novel
coronavirus.
In the email, Preeti Malani,
University of Michigan Chief
Health
Officer,
wrote
the
University is closely monitoring
the situation and the risk is
minimal at this time.
“While
there
are
some
confirmed cases in the U.S.,
no cases have been confirmed
in Michigan,” Malani wrote.
“Of the four potential cases in
southeast Michigan that were
recently submitted for testing,
three have come back negative
for the virus. University officials
are monitoring the remaining
case
closely
in
partnership
with local and state public
health experts. At this time,
the immediate health risk from
2019-nCoV to the general public
in the U.S. is considered low.”
In his email to the University,
Malani wrote there are no
confirmed cases of the virus
in Michigan and out of three
potential cases sent for testing,
three came back negative.
Lauring
elaborated,
saying
hospitals and clinics in the
University area are employing
careful screening procedures to
ensure that any potential cases
are recognized and the threat of
infection is minimized.
“People at the medical center
and clinics, everyone’s being
screened (who has) traveled in
the past few weeks to try and
identify people who might be at
risk or might have an illness that
could be due to the coronavirus,”
Lauring said. “That is probably
the biggest thing that’s going
on here is just making sure that
potential cases are evaluated
and making sure that we’re
not missing anyone that could
potentially bring the virus here
or spread it here.”
The University of Michigan
has
contacted
all
travelers
registered to be in China or
traveling there in the upcoming
months
and
designated
a
University travel warning for
China, in addition to convening a
team of experts to monitor new
developments. The same post
clarified that currently there
are
no
University-registered
travelers going to the Hubei
province at this time.
In an email to The Daily,
University spokesperson Kim
Broekhuizen noted there are no
University students currently in
the province.
Michigan University Health
Services
has
created
an
information page for the 2019
novel coronavirus containing
general
information
about
transmission as well as avoidance
and risk. According to UHS, the
Center for Disease Control has
been monitoring the virus and
do not see it as an active threat
to the U.S.
The lack of knowledge about
the coronavirus outbreak is the
main reason there is currently
no vaccine. As a result, the
future risks associated with
this particular strain remain
ambiguous.
Lauring
said
a
vaccine could potentially be
developed, but the analysis and
testing required will require
several months of research.
“We’re probably months away
at least from a vaccine,” Lauring
said. “There’s a number of what
would be called platforms for
coronavirus
vaccines
where
people have tried to develop
vaccines for other coronaviruses,
so what they would do would
be modifying those approaches
specifically for this new virus.”
Michigan Medicine volunteer
Natalie White, LSA sophomore,
said
she
trusts
clinics
and
hospitals around the country to
contain the virus’s spread.
“In general, I haven’t seen
enough cases to personally feel
concerned about it,” White said.
“I have a pretty strong faith in
Michigan Medicine and a lot
of the medical establishments
across
the
country
that
it
shouldn’t be a huge deal. I feel
like some people definitely are
getting a little bit of hysteria
surrounding it.”
Throughout the Magazine
issue, the various essays argue
the founding principles of the
country — including liberty,
equality and democracy —
did not come to fruition when
written into the Constitution.
The
practice
of
slavery
contradicted these principles
because
Black
Americans
continuously fought for their
democracy,
Hannah-Jones
said. She argues slavery is
not only the foundation of
American
history,
but
is
deeply embedded in society
today through the country’s
education,
housing,
health
care systems and more.
Hannah-Jones said she was
inspired to write the series of
essays because of the 400th
anniversary
of
1619,
and
because she has been thinking
about 1619 since high school
when she took a Back studies
course. She called attention
to how frequently American
youth
learn
about
The
Mayflower in 1620, but not
about the arrival of The White
Lion in 1619.
Hannah-Jones said the lack
of education about The White
Lion erases key moments in
history, and the glorification of
The Mayflower is an example
of
Americans
choosing
to
remember
only
a
positive
perspective of their history.
“(There’s)
this
idea
of
national memory,” Hannah-
Jones said. “How we create a
sense of our history, who we
are and what decisions are
made about what we learn and
what we don’t.”
Hannah-Jones
said
she
chose to focus on themes such
as capitalism, healthcare,
music and mass incarceration
to shock readers about the
modern
implications
of
slavery.
While Hannah-Jones has
received accolades for her
work, a group of historians
publicly
criticized
the
project, arguing it failed to
properly address the origins
of
the
Revolutionary
War
and
Abraham
Lincoln’s
role
in
abolishing
slavery.
Additionally,
Hannah-Jones
said she received criticism
for
her
statement
that
Black Americans fought for
democracy alone.
The New York Times issued
a response to the historians,
defending the factual backing
of the project. Hannah-Jones
said a minority of white people
helped Black Americans in
the fight for democracy, but
most of the time, Black people
fought
independently
for
their
rights.
Hannah-Jones
said
she
would
ultimately
not apologize for the way she
framed her argument and the
organizing principle of the
U.S. is slavery, not democracy
— people already know about
the history of Lincoln, she
said.
“The pushback is about the
idea that even in the telling
of our own story, we have to
center the white people, and
that we don’t give enough
credit,” Hannah-Jones said.
Hannah-Jones also spoke
about the project’s personal
effect on her. She became
emotional when speaking of
her grandmother, who was
born in Mississippi and gave
birth to Hannah-Jones’s father
in a sharecropping shack on
a plantation because Black
people were not permitted
to give birth in hospitals.
Hannah-Jones
said
her
grandmother died of diabetes,
her father died before he
was old enough to get social
security benefits and her uncle
died at 50 of cancer because he
didn’t have insurance and in
turn, couldn’t receive an MRI.
“All I kept thinking was
everyone was lost,” Hannah-
Jones said. “All lives still are
lost because we can’t purge
this
anti-Blackness
from
our country. And then, I can
somehow, everything that my
grandmother
suffered,
she
could not imagine that she
had a grandchild who could
do something like this in The
New York Times.”
The 1619 Project has been
adapted into an education
curriculum. The project was
sold and created into a series of
books that go from elementary
school, middle school, high
school and adults. Hannah-
Jones is also currently working
on marking slave auctioning
sites in U.S. cities and creating
a photojournalism series.
Public Health student Janae
Best
appreciated
Hannah-
Jones’s honesty and felt her
thesis emphasized the pride
Black Americans should feel
about their place in the U.S.
“How truthful she was,
how raw she was and how
unapologetic she was about
telling the truth that has been
hidden for so long, and just
reminding us of the fact that
Black people have a right to
this country,” Best said. “Even
more so than white people do
because of the fact that the
country was founded based
off of slavery. That was very
empowering.”
Rackham student Gabriel
Gadsden applauded Hannah-
Jones for her frankness.
“Just how frank she was
and just how unapologetic she
was,” Gadsden said. “It was a
conversation, and I think that
she truly embodied that. And I
think that’s the conversation
that we need to have about
race in America … You know,
at a certain point you just can’t
sugarcoat it. You just have to
say what it is. And if it’s going
to make people uncomfortable,
so be it, but that’s the best
trajectory that we need to go
in.”
Gadsden said he grew up
with slavery as an important
conversation
at
home.
He
said it is crucial to discuss
unknown actors in history
beyond the activists commonly
discussed in textbooks.
“It’s always the right time
to talk about slavery and to
talk about it, not just through
the lens of Martin Luther
King and Malcolm X, and
these big names, but as she was
addressing, was that the unsung
heroes,” Gadsden said. “About
those people who names are
forgotten, whose plantations
have been whitewashed, to
bring that to the forefront of
the conversation as well.”
The purpose of the 1619
Project, Hannah-Jones said,
was indeed to celebrate unsung
Black American heroes.
“This was about telling the
story that people do not get,
and this was about telling the
story that Black Americans
were not just sitting around
waiting for equality,” Hannah-
Jones said. “That we fought
every day.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020 — 3A
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SCHLISSEL
From Page 1A
1619
From Page 1A
CORONAVIRUS
From Page 1A
colorectal cancer.
“You have a normal colon
that
can
develop
(one
of
these) polyps — you can either
have a germline mutation or
develop somatic inactivation,”
Carethers
said.
“Either
possibility can affect DNA
mismatch repair.”
Anna
Suk-Fong
Lok,
the Dame Sheila Sherlock
Distinguished
University
Professor of Hepatology and
Internal
Medicine,
began
her career as a professor at
the University of Hong Kong
before deciding to move to the
United States. She presented
her work on viral hepatitis,
of which the B and C strains
are a leading cause of liver
cancer.
Lok
described
her
experience as a professor in
medicine in the early 1990s.
“In 1992, the chair of
medicine told me to slow
down because there was no
more room to move up,” Lok
said.
Lok went on to further
explain
her
research
on
Hepatitis B and C.
“These viruses can lead
to
chronic
infection
and
cirrhosis,
which
means
scarring of the liver, and in
turn liver cancer,” Lok said.
“Hepatitis B is more common
globally, whereas Hepatitis
C is more common in this
country. Together, these two
viruses result in roughly 1.2
million deaths per year. This
is the reason why, in 2015, the
World Health Organization
declared that we need to
eliminate these viruses by
2030.”
Scott E. Page, the John
Seely Brown Distinguished
University
Professor
of
Complexity, Social Science
and
Management,
then
spoke about his research in
cognitive
diversity,
which
incorporates
a
fusion
of
different
approaches
to
problem solving, including
models.
“One of the things we do
with models is we just explore
the world,” Page said.
Page
then
spoke
about
diversity, noting how it is
closely related to accuracy.
“So,
then
here’s
the
question: Is more diversity
better?” Page said. “As I ramp
up diversity, you can just see
accuracy go up.”
Business graduate student
Gautam
Kandlikar
is
one
of Page’s students and said
he found the lecture series
inspiring.
“They’re
gathering
data,
they’re
analyzing
systems,
they’re creating new knowledge
that helps us advance society,
and
I
think
that’s
really
fascinating,” Kandlikar said.
“That’s really inspiring.”
RESEARCH
From Page 1A
BIG 10
From Page 1A
needs.
The
provost’s
role
though, is as a supervisor of
the employees in the office.
The provost does not sign off
on cases, he doesn’t play a role
in investigations, doesn’t play
a role in assigning punishment
in cases. He, in this case, was
simply the supervisor of this
function for the University.
So, none of the cases that
have come up during the
months that the Provost was
supervising, did he weigh in
on the details of the case, but
rather he was the supervisor
for the office and responsible
for its management and its
budget.
TMD:
Given
Provost
Philbert oversaw OIE and
was such an important figure
at the University and now
has
accusations
of
sexual
misconduct against him, how
will the University ensure that
this does not happen again?
What steps will you take in
hiring an interim provost –
and all future administrators
– to make sure they have no
history of sexual misconduct?
MS: This sort of thing
should never happen. So, if
the allegations are proven
true, and regardless, we have
to think of how we select,
and then vet our candidates
for all different jobs at the
University. … We have to look
as carefully as we can of the
people we hire to make sure
that the likelihood of hiring
people that have committed
misconduct in the past or
may commit it in the future
is as low as possible. You
can tell from all the reports
around
different
parts
of
society, of episodes of sexual
misconduct,
that
it’s
not
infrequent. And you know,
our
own
survey
data
on
campus have told us that it’s
not infrequent. So, we’ve got
to figure out how to do this
better to figure out, how to set
up a culture where this type of
misbehavior, this category of
misbehavior is not tolerated,
that people feel comfortable
to report it and to ask for help.
That peers or other people in
the environment that have
suspicions that misconduct is
occurring, feel comfortable
and know how to report it. In
terms of moving forward, the
University, you know, really
has to have a provost in place.
So right now, I’m in the process
of looking at people who have
administrative
experience
and familiarity, because they
sort of have to take over all at
once, although I’ll be working
with them very closely … And
we’ll
get
talented
people,
it’s an important job. We’re
fortunate at the University to
have a large number of folks
with a history of high-level
service
and
demonstrated
good
judgment,
and
we’ll
select and get a good person
to serve.
The
endowment
and
divesting from fossil fuels
TMD: At their last meeting
in
December,
the
regents
voted down a $50 million
investment
into
Vendera
Resources,
a
company
with assets in oil and gas
production. Does this indicate
a shift in the University’s
investment pursuits?
MS: I just don’t have more
to say about that now. I don’t
have anything to add to the
observation that you made.
I’d love to talk about carbon
neutrality
efforts
more
generally,
because
they’re
extremely important.
TMD:
Do
you
believe
the
endowment
should
be
governed
by
political
ideology?
MS: In general, the purpose
of the endowment is to provide
support for an area that we’ve
agreed with a donor is an area
that the University thinks
is important and the donor
wants to support. We make
a commitment to the donor
to be a good steward of their
money. So that means trying to
generate the right mix of risk
and return, you know, that
sort of yield to the investment
so that in perpetuity, we
can support the thing that
we agreed upon — students’
scholarships,
for
example
— and have the endowment
grow so that its value is not
eroded with inflation through
the years. … So, I think that’s
our
primary
responsibility
… So, I’m giving a general
answer. I’m not giving it in the
instance of this issue or that
issue or even your question of
politics. I’m saying in general,
our obligation to donors when
we accept their money is to do
this form of stewardship and
support what we agreed to
support.
TMD: The Daily released a
Statement piece in December
about
how
mass
student
protests led up to divestment
from apartheid South Africa.
Just these last few days,
Central Student Government
passed a resolution with other
Big Ten schools that demands
the administrations of all the
schools freeze all their fossil
fuel investments. Do you see
a connection between these
situations?
MS:
Well,
the
same
words are used — the word
divestment is used — so that’s
an obvious connection. The
details of the two causes
that we’re talking about, I
can’t make a statement, you
know.
It’s
an
interesting
question. The fact that both
CSG and then collectively
the
equivalent
bodies
all
across the Big Ten made a
statement about this, I think
is important. I think we have
to hear the student voice
and respect it and try to
understand it.
The President’s Commission
on Carbon Neutrality
TMD:
We
reported
earlier this month on the
President’s Commission on
Carbon Neutrality and how,
in the process of preparing
recommendations
for
achieving carbon neutrality,
members
of
the
Student
Advisory Panel felt that the
perspective of stakeholders
such
as
themselves
were
overlooked.
The
co-chairs
of the Commission, Jennifer
Haverkamp
and
Stephen
Forrest, also stated that they
haven’t yet met with the other
three advisory panels. What
role do student perspectives
have in the carbon neutrality
process?
MS: I think we won’t be
successful unless we have
student
perspectives,
and
more than just perspectives.
You know, I think often we