michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, February 20, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
University
of
Michigan
students are opting to take
math classes at other schools
because of the reputation of the
department’s classes being more
difficult, students told The Daily.
Students
interviewed
by
The Daily said the University’s
math classes pose a significant
challenge and threaten their
ability to maintain a high grade
point average. These classes
generally involve calculus, which
fulfills many prerequisites for
majors across all disciplines.
Courses taken at community
colleges
can
be
transferred
for credit to fulfill graduation
requirements
or
major
prerequisites. Students need to
receive a C or higher in the course
for the credits to transfer. The
catch: the grade does not affect
students’ GPA.
Engineering
sophomore
Lauren McNamee, a prospective
mechanical engineering major,
opted to take the equivalent of
Math 215: Multivariable and
Vector Calculus the summer
after her freshman year at
Pennsylvania State University’s
Abington campus in Abington,
Pennsylvania.
Like McNamee, many students
choose to take classes in the
spring or summer semesters to
lessen the course load throughout
the normal school year.
“I actually took the summer
class as a way to sort of prove to
myself that I could do well in a
calc class if it wasn’t Michigan
math,” McNamee said. “And I
actually was able to get an A in
a summer class when I probably
would’ve gotten a C+ in Calc III.
I don’t know for sure, but from
what I’ve heard, Michigan math
is just the worst.”
The College of Engineering
Peer Mentor Program offers
incoming students resources to
encourage student involvement
and development of academic,
social and personal interests.
As an Engineering peer mentor,
McNamee
helps
incoming
College of Engineering students
transition to college life.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 74
©2020 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
C L A S S I F I E D S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
GEO talks
housing,
climate at
town hall
CAMPUS LIFE
STEM majors choose to take math
classes at community colleges, online
Undergraduates take calculus at other schools due to academic concerns
GOVERNMENT
Follow The Daily
on Instagram,
@michigandaily
JOHN GRIEVE
For the Daily
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily Staff Reporter
Panel features former
U.S Representative
Sander Levin, policy
expert Bama Athreya
See STEM, Page 3
See EXXON, Page 3
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
University of Michigan Law students protest against the law firm that represents ExxonMobil at a recruitment event at Pizza House Wednesday evening.
Protesters show up at Paul, Weiss interest meeting, ask firm to drop gas company
CSG President expresses regret,
rejects previous political stance
Ford talk
discusses
U.S. labor
and trade
Graduate Employees
Organization explored
affordable living in A2
at community forum
Gerstein apologizes
for 2017 comments
involving Israeli-
Palestinian conflict
Multicultural organizations at
the University of Michigan have
called for Ben Gerstein, president
of Central Student Government
and Public Policy junior, to
apologize for remarks he made
in a video and article about
Palestine while in high school.
The
video,
published
on
YouTube by the North Town
News Magazine on May 23, 2017,
features
Gerstein
discussing
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
with host and pro-Israel activist
Avy Meyers. Gerstein spoke as
a member of his high school’s
pro-Israel student group, which
he said prepares students for the
anti-Israel activity they will see
on college campuses.
“There should be a test for
what type of people deserve a
state and what type of people
don’t,” Gerstein said in the clip.
“I don’t think the Palestinian
people, with rejecting constant
peace deals, with their financing
of their terror, with their raising
kids to hate people clearly
because of their religion. I don’t
think that people deserve a state
at this point in time. Until we
see a significant change in the
Palestinian mentality, until we
see a significant change in the
Palestinian leadership, I don’t
think they deserve a state at this
point.”
The Arab Student Association
and Students For Allied Freedom
and Equality (SAFE) circulated
a statement on social media late
Tuesday night demanding public
apologies from both Gerstein
and CSG, as well as anti-bias and
anti-Islamophobia training for
CSG members. The statement
said
the
community
needs
public
acknowledgment
and
administrative action in order to
heal.
“Ben Gerstein sat across the
executive board of the Arab
Student Association and claimed
that he seeks to build a sense of
safety on this campus, but how does
he expect us to feel safe when he
does not even recognize our people
as worthy of basic human rights
and humanity?” the statement read.
See CSG, Page 3
ALEX HARRING &
EMMA RUBERG
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
The
Towsley
Foundation
hosted a discussion at the
Ford School of Public Policy
on “Integrating and Enforcing
Labor Rights in Trade” with
Bama
Athreya,
a
visiting
policy expert at the Weiser
Diplomacy Center, and Sander
Levin,
former
congressman
and
professor
of
practice
at the Public Policy School.
John Ciorciari, director of the
International
Policy
Center,
moderated the event.
The
event,
held
on
Wednesday afternoon, focused
on examining the connection
between labor rights and trade.
About
25
people
attended,
including
students,
faculty
and staff. Athreya started the
discussion by addressing the
importance of labor movements
in trade justice.
“This
concentrated
power
that corporations have with
respect to governance and rules
really cannot be broken without
the counterweight of organized
labor
movements,”
Athreya
said.
The
Graduate
Employees’
Organization held a town hall on
affordable housing and climate
change in Rackham Graduate School
to an auditorium full of students and
GEO members Wednesday evening.
Rackham student Emily Sheetz
started the town hall with a quick
history of GEO. She also highlighted
the hardworking qualities of GEO’s
bargaining team.
“We are currently bargaining
twice a week,” Sheetz said. “The
bargaining team is in the room for
four hours at a time, so that’s eight
hours a week, in the room with HR,
on top of all of the extra work outside
of that.”
Sumeet Patwardhan, bargaining
committee co-chair of GEO, told
the Daily that many of their larger
efforts have been dismissed despite
their right to bargain.
“They labeled many of the
proposals, but not all of them
as
permissive
issues,”
Patwardhan
said.
“Which
means that they deemed these
issues outside of the contract
and so because of that, they
think they don’t have to
bargain over them.”
CALLIE TEITELBAUM
Daily Staff Reporter
ALYSSA MCMURTRY
Daily Staff Reporter
6:30 p.m. Wednesday night,
University
of
Michigan
Law
students filed into Pizza House, a
restaurant chain, for an exclusive
recruiting event for Paul, Weiss,
Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
LLP.
6:51 p.m. A larger group of
about 15 students walked in
together, put on name tags and
were pointed towards a coat
check.
6:54 p.m. Another group of ten
students walked in. Handshakes
commenced
and
mingling
continued.
6:59 p.m. A student within the
group yelled, “Mic Check.” About
45 students formed into a circle
surrounding the sponsored pizza
and salad in which protesters
revealed a large sign reading
“#DropExxon.”
The protest is part of a
national campaign to boycott the
law firm’s recruitment efforts.
The protest followed in the
footsteps of Harvard University,
Yale University and New York
University law students who hope
their efforts will pressure Paul,
Weiss, a renowned international
law firm, to drop the multinational
oil
and
gas
corporation,
ExxonMobil, as one of their
clients. Paul, Weiss is defending
ExxonMobil in multiple lawsuits
around the country that demand
ExxonMobil be held accountable
for their detrimental impacts
on climate change and alleged
security fraud.
Approximately
45
of
the
total 60 students present at the
recruiting event participated in
the protest.
The disruption occurred for
seven minutes and all protesters
immediately left following the
protest, leaving approximately 10
students with the recruiters.
Protesters at Pizza House
chanted in unison, “We the
students of Michigan Law School
will not work for you, as long
as you work for ExxonMobil.
Law students demonstrate against
ExxonMobil at recruitment event
DESIGN BY LAUREN KUZEE
See STEM, Page 3
See GEO, Page 3
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com