michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, February 26, 2020

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

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
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

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

