Steingraber said she was jarred
by how the police treated her
colleague Hudson, a Black man.
“We
were
just
reporters
who were going inside to cover
something that we had every right
to go into, and it wasn’t me who
was grabbed and smashed into the
ground,” Steingraber said. “It was
the Black man standing next to
me.”
Steingraber
remembers
standing in front of the car as
other students surrounded it,
but from that point, she said her
memory fades. Laura Shue, who
was an LSA junior, told The Daily
at the time the AAPD officer threw
Steingraber on the ground “with a
vengeance” for blocking the car.
“There was no need to use that
much force,” Shue said. “I’d never
seen anything like it. They don’t
need guns if they’re that brutal.”
Hudson did not respond to
request for comment prior to
publication.
In the aftermath of the incident,
University
student
activists
mobilized against the Duderstadt
administration as it increased the
presence of law enforcement on
campus, first instituted as part of
a policy that students said limited
protests
against
controversial
guest speakers.
After
police
officers
killed
George Floyd — and ensuing
protests
have
heightened
awareness and scrutiny of police
misconduct — members of the
Graduate Employees’ Organization
went on strike and included
demands to divert funding from
policing in their platform.
A review of the controversial
history of law enforcement on
campus shows this is not the first
time student activists have gone
toe to toe with the University’s
administration
over
policing.
Students are now bringing forward
similar
anti-policing
measures
more than 30 years after the
University deputized officers.
“It’s considered normal now for
there to be basically a police force
on campus,” Steingraber said. “It
didn’t used to be that way.”
Creating the police force
In 1986, public safety officers
carried flashlights, clipboards and
radios, patrolling campus in shifts
as small as three for a University
with more than 30,000 students.
Their only power was to make
a “citizen’s arrest” if they saw
someone committing a felony. In
dangerous situations, the officers
were to call the Ann Arbor Police
Department. Public Safety Officer
Vickie Juopperi told The Daily in
August 1986 that people would
generally
comply
more
with
deputized public safety officers
who had the power to make real
arrests.
“I think that if they knew we
have authority, that would tend to
put a lid on things easier,” Juopperi
said.
Jack
Weidenbach,
former
University director of business
operations whose office oversaw
campus
security,
opposed
deputization in 1986, as did Regent
Deane Baker, a Republican who
was first elected to the body in
1972 and served for 24 years.
“I don’t think the University
should be in the business of
operating a police force,” Baker
said in an article published in The
Daily in 1986.
During this period, University
administrators
became
increasingly agitated by student
activists interrupting appearances
from high-profile speakers such
as Vice President George H.W.
Bush, United Nations Ambassador
Jeane Kirkpatrick and Attorney
General Edwin Meese in protest
of the Reagan administration.
The Michigan Student Assembly
— a precursor to Central Student
Government
—
and
Rackham
Student
Government
passed
resolutions against the University
inviting Bush to campus.
In response, then University
President Harold Shapiro pushed
back against a restriction on
the types of ideas considered on
campus “because of prejudice
or
political
and
intellectual
authoritarianism.”
At
the
May
1988
Regents
meeting, Baker recommended the
University’s Civil Liberties Board
study the issue of free speech and
offer a recommendation.
“The time has come to regain
control of this campus so that
the University might once again
function as a place of autonomy,
civility and scholarly pursuit,”
Baker said.
After a recommendation from
the CLB, the Board of Regents
passed a five-part policy on the
“disruption of student activities”
in July 1988 to “advance freedom
of speech and artistic expression.”
The policy’s fourth part authorized
Heatley and Pifer, the University’s
top public safety officers, to make
arrests but did not mean the public
safety officers would be armed.
“Guns in the hands of University
personnel have no place in campus
disputes, as experience shows,” the
policy reads. “We do not want our
people using guns.”
Heatley and Pifer saw their
first action as deputized officers at
Duderstadt’s inauguration, where
four students were arrested, along
with Daily staffers Steingraber,
Rollins, Southworth and Michael
Fischer. The day of the ceremony,
Ann Arbor Police Sergeant Norm
Melby told The Daily only the most
active protesters were arrested
that day.
“One officer can only make
one arrest in some instances,”
Melby said. “And sometimes that
means the person who was most
frequently warned to discontinue
their activities.”
Meanwhile,
the
Michigan
House of Representatives debated
a bill allowing state universities
to appoint their own deputized
campus security officers who
report to their Regents and the
state. At the time, Heatley and
Pifer were only authorized by the
Washtenaw County Sheriff. David
Cahill, an aide to Ann Arbor Rep.
Perry Bullard, told The Daily
in September 1988 that Bullard
opposed the bill.
“He
doesn’t
want
Harold
Shapiro or (interim University
President
Robben)
Fleming
or whoever to have their own
political police force to use against
protesters,” Cahill said.
Supporters of the bill, including
Democratic
Regent
Thomas
Roach, said the Ann Arbor Police
Department was too understaffed
to adequately help the University
manage crime on campus.
“There’s nothing like a police
presence
to
deter
criminal
activity,” Roach said in the Daily
article.
No cops, no guns, no code
In June 1990, the Board of
Regents proposed a full campus
police force of 24 deputized
officers. Some of the discussion
focused on whether the force
would improve campus safety, but
the most contentious issue was
the University’s relationship with
the city of Ann Arbor. University
officials concluded that the nearly
half a million dollars spent on
seven AAPD patrol officers and
two detectives was unreasonably
high given slow response times.
City officials disputed that the
response time was slow and said
the University “receives more from
the AAPD than it pays for.”
The
vote
to
expand
the
University police force passed 6-1,
leading to a new wave of activism
when students returned to campus
in the fall. A September 1990
column in The Daily called the
June vote “another traditional
summer move,” undertaken while
most students were at home and
unable to attend Regents meetings.
In another September 1990
Daily op-ed, Jennifer Van Valey,
president of Michigan Student
Assembly, urged students to protest
the deputization. She wrote that
the University was uninterested
in stopping protests about issues
unrelated to the institution, like
foreign policy and reproductive
rights, but that it needed control
when protests focused on the
“deficiencies” of the University.
“Through an analysis of the
University’s history of pushing for
a campus police force, it becomes
clear that the very real problem
of safety on campus is being
used opportunistically to dupe
students into supporting their own
repression,” Van Valey said. “It is
also clear that, ironically, the only
way to stop the administration
is through student mobilization
and protest — the very thing the
administration instituted the force
to prevent.”
Dozens of students soon took
up Van Valey’s call to action,
marching to Duderstadt’s office
to negotiate deputization on Nov.
14, 1990. Duderstadt was not there
that day, so the group, Students
for a Safer Campus, occupied the
office overnight.
Walt
Harrison,
executive
director of university relations,
told students the administration
had no plans to negotiate on
deputization and called the sit-in
“political theater.”
On Regents’ Plaza outside the
administration building, students
held a candlelight vigil at 10
p.m. to support those inside the
president’s office.
“To the beat of a drum and the
flash of office lights which were
flicked on and off by students
inside, approximately 100 students
held candles and chanted, ‘No
guns, no cops, no code,’” The Daily
account reads.
After more than 24 hours
in
Duderstadt’s
office,
Henry
Johnson,
vice
president
for
community relations, met with
the students. They demanded the
University halt the deputization
and arming the police force and
take students’ voices into account.
“The
University
must
immediately institute a policy-
making body that ensures students
will play a representative and
powerful role in the decisions that
affect their lives,” one demand
read.
Johnson offered a small number
of students from the group a chance
to
meet
with
administrators
after Thanksgiving. The group
denied the offer and Johnson
went to a back office to meet with
Heatley, the chief of the Ann
Arbor Police Department and
other
administrators.
Heatley
announced everyone remaining
in the building after five minutes
would be arrested. Jeff Hinte was
among the 16 students who stayed
and awaited arrest.
“We have the rights of sea slugs
with social security numbers,”
Hinte said at the time.
Police released the students
once outside the building and
issued
warrants
for
criminal
trespassing. During a break at the
Regent’s meeting in November
1990, Duderstadt said the sit-
in was “political opportunism”
with Michigan Student Assembly
elections on the same day.
“The students protesting are not
representative of the community,”
Duderstadt said. “You can’t let
their political agenda dictate.”
In January 1992, the Department
of Public Safety purchased 29
new 9-millimeter pistols, along
with 20 cases of ammunition and
20 magazines. Harrison said the
increase in the officers’ budget
meant the University was no longer
dependent on the AAPD.
Despite student protests, by
September 1993, the University
had guns, cops and a code — the
Student Statement of Rights and
Responsibilities governing student
behavior.
In a column printed in The Daily
that month, Amitava Mazumdar
wrote he wasn’t proud of his one-
time opposition to deputization,
saying
he’d
bought
into
the
“faddish
fascists-in-Fleming
mentality.”
“But any sort of intellectual
honesty requires that facts be
examined objectively, not twisted
or
reconstructed
to
match
(generally
leftist)
ideological
preconceptions,”
Mazumdar
wrote. “... The predictions of
ineffectiveness,
costliness
and
repressiveness have so far proven
false.”
“Activism has to go on for a
long time”
Last
month,
striking
GEO
graduate students listed several
anti-policing demands, including
disarmament,
a
50
percent
reduction in the DPSS budget
and cutting ties with AAPD
and Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement. Rackham student
Alejo Stark, who has been involved
in GEO since 2013, said security
and safety often get conflated.
“We cannot have a safe campus
with police on campus,” Stark said.
“It’s also important to be clear on
how campus police emerged. We
have really just naturalized the fact
that the University of Michigan
spends $12 million on police every
year.”
The University’s budget for
the Department of Public Safety
and Security for fiscal year 2020-
21 totaled nearly $12.4 million
dollars, a decrease of $124,728
from the year prior.
The University now has 450
officers
in
DPSS
across
the
three campuses, according to
DPSS Executive Director Eddie
Washington. The vast majority
of DPSS branches do not carry
weapons, Washington said, adding
that only about 18 percent of DPSS
officers are armed police officers.
The other DPSS staff include
security
officers,
dispatchers,
parking enforcement officers and
support staff, all of whom are
unarmed.
He told The Daily that DPSS
wants to be sure the response
to high-level incidents such as
interpersonal
and
domestic
violence is “commensurate with
the risk.”
“If a weapon has been reported
and someone has been assaulted,
we tend to send officers there
that have the ability to use the
least amount of force necessary,
but also be in a position to defend
themselves and whoever’s been
harmed,” Washington said.
According to records obtained
by The Daily, DPSS fired a weapon
just once from Aug. 2018 to Aug.
2020, which was aimed at a deer
that was wounded after crashing
into a car.
Washington
and
Robert
Neumann, chief of the University
of Michigan Police Department,
said the University was the last
in the state and the Big Ten to
deploy in-house police officers.
Washington said he has resisted
arming officers who are not sworn
in.
“The
police
component
is
essential to bring certain comfort
for certain communities, but it
also brings a chilling effect to
others and we just feel like we can
accomplish much of what we need
to (by) having a blended model,”
Washington said.
University
President
Mark
Schlissel did not directly answer
whether
the
University
is
looking
into
disarming
DPSS
and reallocating its funding in
an interview with The Daily on
Thursday. He recently announced
a task force to look into the issue of
campus policing.
Heather
Young,
communications
director
for
DPSS, told The Daily in an email
that DPSS has worked with Ann
Arbor police to close roads for
demonstrators to march safety at
more than 30 protests in the last
two months.
“DPSS is committed to ensuring
that all members of our community
can safely exercise their first
amendment rights to free speech
and assembly,” Young wrote.
Schlissel said he knows for many
people, seeing a police officer they
think has a weapon is “terrifying.”
“And not because of anything
that police officer did, but because
of that person’s life experiences,
and the experiences that people
they know and identify with
that have engaged with police,”
Schlissel said. “I’ve not had those
experiences personally, but I’m
privileged in many ways.”
Police
officers
monitoring
students is still a contentious
point
among
students.
After
the
University
announced
its
plan to have law enforcement
officers
work
with
student
ambassadors to enforce adherence
to social distancing guidelines
around
campus,
organizations
representing
students
of
color
criticized
the
Michigan
Ambassadors
program,
saying
it neglected potential harm to
vulnerable communities.
In an op-ed, members of the
Black Student Union, the United
Asian
American
Organizations
Executive Board, La Casa and the
Arab Student Association E-Board
called for an end to the policy.
“Michigan
Ambassadors
program canvassing teams rely
on
AAPD
and
DPSS,
which
build
upon
a
historical
and
current legacy of police harming
communities of color, despite
President Schlissel’s claims that
the
Michigan
Ambassadors
program
utilizes
peer-to-peer
accountability ‘to reduce the need
for law enforcement,’” they wrote
in the op-ed.
The
University
later
discontinued
the
Michigan
Ambassadors program entirely.
Steingraber said students need
to carry on the tradition of activism
long after they graduate.
“Student activism is almost
always really smart and really
provides a framework for how
to think about local issues, but
the leaders of campus activist
movements then graduate and
move
on,”
Steingraber
said.
“Activism has to go on for a long
time.”
Correction: A previous version
of this article incorrectly named
the Department of Public Safety
as the Division of Public Safety.
This article has also been updated
to clarify the position of Robert
Neumann, who is chief of the
University of Michigan Police
Department.
Daily
Staff
Reporter
Calder
Lewis can be reached at calderll@
umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, October 14, 2020 — 3
POLICING
From Page 1
than
three
weeks
after
her lease began, she and her
roommates received an email
from Varsity inquiring about
their plans to renew their lease
for the following year. Varsity
gave them a Nov. 6 deadline for
renewal.
Waelchli
said
while
she
understands
why
landlords
would want to get an early start
to leasing, the uncertainties
regarding the pandemic and
whether future semesters at the
University of Michigan will have
in-person
components
make
it more difficult to decide on a
tight timeframe.
Waelchli said when she first
signed the lease in November
2019, she was excited about the
apartment’s location because it
meant she would be close to her
classes.
“Then, suddenly, there were
no (in-person) classes, and it’s
not something that I would have
ever thought would happen,”
Waelchli said. “So now I’m just
wary to sign something early
again.”
Waelchli
isn’t
alone.
Various property management
companies are asking tenants
to commit to long-term plans
in uncertain times as landlords
move ahead with November
deadlines for renewal.
Eric Jensen, who owns several
rental properties in Ann Arbor, is
among those who are continuing
with
a
November
deadline.
Jensen emphasized that student
demand
helps
maintain
the
unusually early leasing period
in Ann Arbor from year to year,
even amid the pandemic.
“It’s kind of this never-ending
cycle that students want to get
the best places possible,” Jensen
said. “And so to find the best
place as possible they start as
early as they can to start looking.
And if landlords want to get in on
that cycle of when students are
really looking, landlords have to
be able to make their units — at
least information about the units
— available sooner rather than
later.”
In 2018-2019, the occupancy
rate
for
off-campus
student
housing
was
98
percent,
according to a report from Triad
Real Estate Partners.
Jon
Keller,
alum
of
the
University and owner of his
namesake
company,
which
manages over 100 off-campus
rentals in Ann Arbor, wrote in an
email to The Michigan Daily that
the November deadlines aren’t as
early as they once were, thanks
to a city ordinance requiring
landlords to wait 70 days after
the current lease period has
passed before showing or leasing
a property for the following year.
“When I was at U-M (2002-
2006) we would pick up our keys
on September 1st and be forced
to sign for the following year,
or lose the house,” Keller wrote.
“It was incredibly stressful for
students — oftentimes with
the best houses rented years
in advance. The 70-day leasing
ordinance allows tenants to get
acclimated to the new house, the
location, even their group, and
then determine if they want to
stay for another year.”
Before the 70-day ordinance
was
passed,
landlords
were
technically required to wait 90
days. Some city government
officials have made unsuccessful
attempts to push the leasing
period back even further to the
winter semester.
In addition to maintaining
the fall leasing period deadlines,
several
landlords
are
also
moving forward with raising
rent for next year. Others are
staying the course.
“In terms of what I’m doing
with rents for next year, I’ll just
say that I’m being consistent
with what I’ve done in the past,”
Jensen said.
Oxford Companies, another
major
property
management
company in Ann Arbor, will be
raising rent next year. Katie
Vohwinkle,
the
company’s
associate director of residential
property, said that in order to
be mindful of the unexpected
economic strain imposed by the
pandemic, the rent increases are
lower than in years prior.
“We understand that this year
is a bit unique for basically all
of us, including the students at
the University,” Vohwinkle said.
“Our annual rent increases are
significantly lower this year than
they have been in years prior,
despite higher increases that
the buildings and the owners
are still receiving for taxes,
maintenance costs, utilities, that
kind of thing.”
Affordable housing advocates
say a rent increase, no matter
how small, is still a disadvantage
to
people
from
low-income
backgrounds.
Julia
Goode,
a member of the Ann Arbor
Tenants Union, said the early
leasing
period
also
poses
challenges for students who
cannot depend on their parents’
income when deciding where to
live.
“It’s really impossible for
working people to be able to
sign a lease eight months in
advance,” Goode said. “The only
reason why students can really
do it is if they have parental
help, which many students don’t
have. So it does really create a
great economic unfairness that
doesn’t have to be there.”
Keller also noted that certain
costs
prohibit
freezing
or
lowering rent, adding that he
believes tenants have room to
negotiate with their landlords
next year.
“While we would love to
keep rents flat on renewals or
even lower them at times, the
carrying costs like property
taxes, utilities, lawn and snow
care, maintenance and insurance
rates go up every year,” Keller
wrote. “It would be difficult to
lock in a rate for too long a period
and continue to make money
… All that being said, there is
probably more room than in
previous years to negotiate a
more attractive renewal rate.”
Advocates
for
affordable
housing have voiced opposition
to the early leasing practice in
the name of tenant rights as
well as issues of access for low-
income students.
LSA senior Lindsay Calka
said the early leasing period
puts students in a compromising
situation, many of whom are
unaware of their rights as
tenants.
“I think a lot of landlords take
advantage of that (early leasing
period) and put their tenants
in a position where they have
to make decisions,” Calka said.
“They’re able to hike up rent or
change things about … the lease
that maybe tenants wouldn’t be
wanting to do or (would) want
time to bargain on, or at least
have discussion on.”
Jennifer
Hall,
executive
director of the Ann Arbor
Housing Commission, echoed
these concerns. She said certain
decisions in the University’s
power affect the housing market
and can limit accessibility for
low-income students.
“The U-M has a significant
impact on the local housing
market through the number of
students they admit and enroll,
the number of housing units
they provide, the number of staff
that they hire and the properties
they purchase and develop,”
Hall wrote in an email to The
Daily. “As a U-M alumna and
local resident, I think the U-M
needs to be more proactive about
providing housing at a reduced
cost to low-income students.”
Both Goode and Calka said
they
see
opportunities
for
students to organize and assert
their rights in the present
moment.
Goode pointed to the Graduate
Employees’
Organization’s
advocacy around housing as
providing a model for other
students to follow. GEO also
recently
went
on
strike
to
demand the University provide
increased
protections
for
graduate students with partial
success.
Goode also said she hopes
students registered to vote in
Ann Arbor will vote in favor of
the affordable housing millage
on the ballot in November
because the funds will help
address the demand for more
housing.
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
LEASE
From Page 1