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. 

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

INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 131
©2019 The Michigan Daily

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O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

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For more stories and coverage, visit

OBITUARY

Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@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