After
the
Graduate
Employees’ Organization voted
to accept the University of
Michigan’s proposal and end
its strike, Rackham student Bec
Roldan posted their feelings
about the offer on TikTok.
“To be frank, it’s a pretty
s— offer,” Roldan said on the
popular social media app, where
they have been posting updates
about the strike since it began
Sept. 8.
Roldan said in the TikTok
that they were frustrated they
had to accept the University’s
second proposal — which was
approved exactly one week after
the first was rejected — because
they felt the administration did
not move enough on issues such
as COVID-19 testing and anti-
policing.
But the looming threat of
the
University’s
injunction,
which
University
President
Mark Schlissel filed with the
Washtenaw
County
Circuit
Court Tuesday in hopes of
mandating the graduate student
instructors and graduate student
staff assistants GEO represents
to return to work, ultimately
pushed
members
to
accept
the proposal, despite feeling it
did not meet enough of their
expectations.
“Because it was very obviously
a bad offer, there was not a single
argument that was like, ‘This
is a good deal, we should take
it,’” Rackham student Dawn
Kaczmar said. “All of it was
weighing the risks of harm that
would come to us if we didn’t.”
GEO asked for the universal
right to work remotely, added
support
for
international
students and diverted police
funds when it began its strike
last week. The strike, which had
virtual and in-person picketing,
and the union’s demands were
both shaped and prompted
by
the
ongoing
COVID-19
pandemic.
Members of the union say
they accepted the University’s
proposal
begrudgingly
and
because they felt like they
were running out of options. In
interviews with The Michigan
Daily, multiple graduate students
echoed the same sentiment:
They would not have accepted
the University’s proposal were
it not for rising concerns of
retaliation and an impending
injunction ruling.
The University of Michigan’s
Faculty
Senate
leadership
confirmed
Friday
that
the
faculty’s vote of no confidence
in University President Mark
Schlissel
passed,
reversing
course after an earlier ruling
determined it had failed.
The passage of the vote
—
which
is
symbolic
and
will
not
impact
Schlissel’s
employment status — means
that the Faculty Senate does
not have faith in the president
to execute his role as the head
of
the
University.
Faculty
Senate members voted on the
motion of no confidence during
a virtual meeting Wednesday
afternoon.
In
an
email
to
faculty
members,
Colleen
Conway,
chair of the Senate Advisory
Committee
on
University
Affairs and professor in the
School of Music, Theatre &
Dance, announced the vote of
no confidence in Schlissel had
actually passed, despite the
previous announcement that it
had failed to receive a majority
of votes.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
James S. Jackson, former
psychology
professor
and
director of the University of
Michigan’s Institute for Social
Research, passed away Sept.
1 in Ann Arbor after a long
battle with pancreatic cancer.
His colleagues, students and
mentees
overwhelmingly
remember
him
as
warm,
generous and brilliant.
Jackson was born in 1944
in
Inkster,
Michigan.
He
received his bachelor’s degree
in psychology from Michigan
State University, a master’s
degree in psychology at the
University of Toledo and a
doctorate in social psychology
from Wayne State University.
He retired from the University
this past year, where he had
worked since 1971.
Jackson was the Daniel
Katz
Distinguished
University Professor Emeritus
of Psychology and research
professor
emeritus
at
the
Research Center for Group
Dynamics. He also served as
the director of the Center for
Afroamerican
and
African
Studies and the director of the
Institute for Social Research
from 2005 to 2015, where
he founded and directed the
Program
for
Research
on
Black Americans.
David Lam, current director
of the Institute for Social
Research, said on top of being
a
trailblazing
researcher,
Jackson was charismatic and
personable.
“He was a giant in ISR,”
Lam said. “The PRBA was
visionary. It was really a very
pioneering research program
to study Black Americans. It
produced many generations
of Black scholars of Black
America, health disparities
and racial discrimination. It
was very pioneering for its
time and it’s lasted for over 40
years.”
Jackson was a major name
in the field of survey research.
He
created
the
National
Survey of Black Americans in
1977, the first national cross-
sectional
survey
of
Black
Americans,
to
understand
the diversity within the Black
community.
Robert Taylor, School of
Social Work professor, was
a student and colleague of
Jackson’s. He said Jackson’s
work on the NSBA will be one
of his enduring legacies.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 131
©2019 The Michigan Daily
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M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
A RT S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0
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@michigandaily
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
BECCA MAHON/Daily
Around 50 U-M students gathered at Balke Transit Center to mourn several causes, including their loss of faith in the University leadership, Sunday evening.
JULIA RUBIN
Daily Staff Reporter
LEAH GRAHAM
& ALEX HARRING
Managing News Editor
& Daily News Editor
See VOTE, Page 3
Official ruling: vote of no confidence
in President Mark Schlissel passes
Faculty Senate leadership announces motion succeeded, reversing course from
previous determination; motion means body does not trust Schlissel to lead ‘U’
Candlelight vigil commemorates
loss of faith in U-M administration
Students mourn COVID-19 deaths, criticize ‘U’ leaders’ for handling of GEO strike
Colleagues remember
Prof. James S. Jackson,
scholar ‘renowned’ for
his optimism, energy
Former Institute for Social Research director
passed away at start of September; Researcher
pioneered efforts to survey Black Americans
GEO members
say they accepted
offer out of fear
of legal threats
Facing a court challenge as the University
files an injunction against them, graduate
students agree to end their ongoing strike
ALEX HARRING
Daily News Editor
See STRIKE, Page 3
See JACKSON, Page 3
RYAN LITTLE/Daily
After some confusion, the University of Michigan’s Faculty Senate leadership confirmed the vote of no confidence against U-M President Mark Schlissel passed.
Students came together to
mourn a variety of causes on
Sunday evening: the 200,000
lost
to
COVID-19,
the
end
of
the
Graduate
Employees’
Organization’s
strike
and
their loss of faith in University
leadership.
A crowd of approximately 50
undergraduate
and
graduate
students gathered at the Blake
Transit Center and marched to
University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel’s front lawn for a
candlelit vigil.
Students
associated
with
GEO
and
Students
Demand
Representation
organized
the
demonstration, which impeded
traffic from Main Street to State
Street as the group expressed
their discontent with Schlissel,
U-M administrators and local
police. The group arrived at the
front lawn of Schlissel’s house,
where
several
students
and
organizers spoke and played
music.
Rackham
student
Lucy
Peterson, a GEO member who
helped to organize the vigil, said
the goal was to commemorate the
losses of both the organization and
individuals during the pandemic
in addition to raising concerns
about
the
administration’s
reopening.
“What we wanted to do in GEO
was mark a moment — the end of
our strike — and come together
and be able to reflect with one
another,” Peterson said. “200,000
people have died of COVID in
the United States … We have
things to mourn: A lot of us have
known people who have died, and
the strike in some ways took our
attention off of that.”
GEO’s
strike
ended
on
Wednesday when they accepted
the University’s proposal meeting
some but not all demands, one
day after the University filed
an injunction. Members said
they would not have accepted
the University’s proposal had it
not been for concerns over the
potential financial impacts of the
injunction and fears of retaliation.
Students
Demand
Representation is a coalition of
students across the University’s
three campuses working to get
student demands heard by upper-
level administrators. The group
partnered with GEO for a rally
last weekend.
Peterson also said the vigil
provided an opportunity for
those who are discontent with
the
University’s
response
to
COVID-19, the GEO strike or any
other matter to come together in
solidarity. She said U-M leaders,
such as Provost Susan Collins and
LSA Dean Anne Curzan, have
made decisions that have hurt
students.
See VIGIL, Page 3