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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 76
©2020 The Michigan Daily
NE WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A
OPINION.....................4A
ARTS & NEWS .............6A
S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 B
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A
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Hundreds of supporters filled
the conference room of the
Detroit Marriott in Troy, Mich.
on Tuesday wearing bright red
“Make America Great Again”
hats and chanting “four more
years.” The crowd was there to
hear from Vice President Mike
Pence and rally in support of
President Donald Trump’s 2020
re-election campaign.
Pence’s stop in Troy was the
final leg of his day-long bus tour
of Michigan. Pence spoke in
Lansing at the Michigan Farm
Bureau’s
legislative
seminar
earlier in the day.
Though
Trump
won
Michigan in 2016 by 10,704
votes
over
Democratic
Presidential Candidate Hillary
Clinton, Trump lost in Troy by
314 votes. However, Trump did
win Macomb County, which
borders Troy and is considered
a key battleground county in
the state.
The
event
opened
with
remarks
from
Laura
Cox,
Michigan
Republican
Party
chairwoman, who spoke about
her support for Trump and
Pence.
“President
Trump
and
Vice President Pence made a
promise to fight for Michigan,”
Cox said to the crowd. “And
I know no matter what, and
everyone here in this room will
vote to re-elect the President.
Promises made and promises
kept.”
Cox then turned the mic over
to Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture, to introduce
and promote Pence.
“President Trump, as great
as we know, he’s had a great
wingman beside him all the
way,” Perdue said. “I can
tell you, I’ve never heard an
administration
that
loves
America and puts America
first more than the Trump-
Pence administration.”
More than 50 community
members,
including
pro-
Palestinian activists, gathered
in the Wolverine Room of the
Union Tuesday night to discuss
the impact of anti-Palestinian
comments that Ben Gerstein,
Central
Student
Government
President and Public Policy junior,
made as a senior in high school.
Four members from Students
for Allied Freedom and Equality
addressed the Assembly about
their experiences as Palestinian
students on campus, and their
subsequent
conversation
with
Gerstein about his comments. LSA
sophomore Jinan Abufarha said
she felt hopeless and afraid when
she heard Gerstein’s comments
and called for the Assembly
to
recognize
anti-Palestinian
discrimination as racism.
“I don’t think a lot of people
understand how disheartening it
is as a Palestinian on this campus
to see an elected representative to
say that all I know how to do is to
fund terrorism and reject peace
deals,” Abufarha said. “Real
damage has been done by this
video and (the Assembly needs)
to correct that.”
LSA senior Reem Al-Khatib
thanked Gerstein for apologizing.
She called on the Assembly to
pass a resolution introduced by
SAFE
condemning
Gerstein’s
comments and affirming the
presence
of
the
University
of
Michigan’s
Palestinian
community.
“This is not my first time
bearing my trauma in front of
a face of strangers that I don’t
know,” Al-Khatib said. “We want
initiatives, we want change, and I
know that Benjamin is willing to
do that. He’s opened the line of
communication, we have a trust
forming, and we want the rest of
the Assembly to be on board. We
want the change we should have
had two years ago.”
LSA junior Kathleen Young is
applying to medical schools this
summer and said advisers are
important to help address a “secret
checklist” of requirements to be
accepted into medical school. This
checklist includes volunteering,
research and shadowing doctors.
Young sees a pre-health adviser
once a month to answer her
questions regarding the process.
However, she said when she sees
the adviser, it is rarely a one-on-
one appointment. Young said for
one-on-one
appointments,
she
has had to call months ahead to
schedule them.
“For a scheduled appointment,
I need to schedule it often three
months
in
advance,”
Young
said. “When I see the advisers, I
usually go into office hours. I very
rarely have an actual one-on-one
appointment with them.”
The
Newnan
Academic
Advising Center holds pre-health
advising office hours three times
a week that are run on a drop-
in, group-based format, where
students may ask a pre-health
adviser their questions in front
of the entire group. Young said
she feels the office hours can be
uncomfortable
and
stressful,
especially when asking personal
questions.
A
Brighter
Way,
an
organization
helping
previously
incarcerated
individuals transition back
into society, held a discussion
Tuesday
in
the
Learning
Resource
Center
at
the
Washtenaw County Sheriff’s
Office.
The event featured a panel
of
government
legislators
and previously incarcerated
people, who discussed how
citizens returning to society
once
they
are
released
from prison. The event was
attended by more than 100
community members, many
of whom were previously
incarcerated themselves.
Cozine Welch, executive
director of ABW, shared what
prompted him to create the
organization and event.
Welch said he served a
19-year-and-nine-month
sentence in Michigan prisons
after being convicted at 17. He
said having strong mentors
when he was released from
prison helped him realize
he could make a change in
other formerly incarcerated
people’s lives.
Each month, The Michigan
Daily
sits
down
with
the
University
of
Michigan
President Mark Schlissel to
discuss
important
questions
about
University
policy,
commitments and challenges.
Topics
discussed
in
this
month’s interview included the
endowment,
Provost
Martin
Philbert,
sexual
misconduct
policy, GEO bargaining and
health services at U-M Flint and
Dearborn.
This
interview
has
been
edited and condensed for clarity.
The Endowment
The Michigan Daily: At the
Regents meeting on Thursday,
after many student protests,
the
board
announced
they
were freezing all fossil fuel
investments while they study
the current investment policy.
Would you like to comment on
this?
Mark Schlissel: Well, they
didn’t
announce
they
were
freezing, they said they weren’t
bringing forward new, direct
investments in fossil fuels. And
they just want some time and
space to study the question of
whether our investment policies
are correct or not. So, I think
there is a shoutout due to student
advocacy. I think the board hears
the advocacy and wants the time
to discuss what the smart way
is to move forward. … But, you
know, the board is responsible
for this almost $12 billion
endowment, and it’s a very
serious fiduciary responsibility,
and we have to live up to our
commitment to the donors that
gave us the funds that became
the endowment to consider the
potential yield, and then how
much risk we’re willing to accept
as the main factors in deciding
about investments. So, the board
has to really look carefully at its
responsibilities.
Students
in health
criticize
advising
ACADEMICS
Vice President also touches on Mexican-American border, economic growth
Speakers
examine
returning
to society
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
JULIA FORREST
Daily Staff Reporter
See RETURNING, Page 6A
SAINI KETHIREDDY
Daily Staff Reporter
Many express frustration
with months-long wait
times, lack of advisers
Panel talks experiences
of once incarecerated
people in the world
JENNA SITEMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
University investigates allegations
against Provost, late Dr. Anderson
Schlissel:
endowment
should not
be political
Activists discuss CSG President
Ben Gerstein’s 2017 comments
Public speakers respond to previous statements on Palestine at meeting
EMMA STEIN, CALDER
LEWIS & ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporters
See GERSTEIN, Page 3A
See PENCE, Page 2A
JULIA RUBIN
Daily Staff Reporter
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Arwa Gayar, Ford School of Public Policy senior, speaks on matters regarding remarks from Ben Gerstein, Central Student Government President, and university actions at the
CSG meeting at the Union Tuesday evening.
statement
See SCHLISSEL, Page 3A
Pence talks manufacturing jobs,
re-election campaign at Troy rally
EMMA MATI/Daily
Vice President Mike Pence rallies supporters at the Keep America Great event in Troy, Michigan Tuesday evening.
See ADVISING, Page 3A