The Michigan Daily spoke with 

Regent Sarah Hubbard (R), the 
University of Michigan’s newest 
member of the Board of Regents, 
Tuesday to discuss her time in 
office since first joining the Board 
in January. Hubbard is one of two 
Republicans on the Board, the other 
being Ron Weiser, who is currently 
in the midst of controversy after 
calls from some in the U-M 
community for his resignation.

Hubbard 
was 
elected 
in 

November after narrowly defeating 
incumbent Democrat Shauna Ryder 
Diggs by 4,000 votes in a statewide 
election. Hubbard, who grew up on 
a farm in rural Michigan and was 
a Pell Grant-eligible student at the 
University, pitched herself to voters 
on the campaign trail as a moderate, 
bi-partisan candidate who leaned 
right and emphasized lowering 
tuition, protecting freedom of 
expression on campus and bringing 
a “new perspective” to the board. 

There are eight members of 

the Board of Regents who are 
elected to eight-year terms per 
the Constitution of the State of 
Michigan. Elections are staggered, 
and every two years two members 
of the Board of Regents must seek 
re-election. Wayne State University, 
Michigan State University and 
the University of Michigan all 
have elections for their Boards of 
Regents.

The Board of Regents is the most 

powerful body at the University 
and has two main responsibilities: 
hiring 
the 
president 
of 
the 

University 
and 
managing 
the 

budget, which includes tuition.

Before her election to the Board, 

Hubbard held no political office or 
position at the University. Hubbard 
said her “great passion for helping 
the 
University” 
propelled 
her 

expeditious jump to this powerful 
position. 

“I’ve 
been 
very 
active 
in 

working with the alumni groups 
since 
graduating,” 
Hubbard 

said. “And I’ve also had a lot of 
relationships with public officials, 
with the public, with the business 
community across the state and just 
saw an opportunity to serve and a 
way to give back to my University. 
I happened to win with a squeaker 
there last year, and I’m really 
enjoying the opportunity to be 
more engaged.”

Hubbard is the owner of Acuitas 

LLC, a government relations and 
lobbying firm in the state’s capital 
of Lansing. She holds two degrees 
from the University, a bachelor’s 
degree in political science and 
psychology from LSA and an 

MBA from the Ross School of 
Business. She also has a history 
of working with the Republican 
Party, though in the past she has 
donated to Democratic candidates 
in Michigan, including U.S. Rep. 
Debbie Dingell and Sen. Gary 
Peters, D-Mich.

Hubbard’s first official Board 

of Regents meeting is not until 
Feb. 18, but she said she is already 
preparing and getting to know U-M 
administration and student leaders. 

“I’ve been spending a lot of time 

getting to know the leaders of the 
University much better,” Hubbard 

said. “Talking with administration 
leaders, deans, student leaders, 
taking emails from a lot of different 
groups and preparing to meet 
with other groups on campus and 
hearing from a lot of people. … 
While I’ve known the University 
for a long time, I’m getting to know 
it in a much different, better way.” 

Though the Board of Regents 

typically 
handles 
general 

management 
and 
high-level 

oversight 
of 
the 
University, 

Hubbard said she believes the 
Regents are very accessible to 
students and members of the U-M 
community.

“We do receive a lot of emails and 

outreach from students and student 
groups, and we certainly encourage 
students to continue to stay in 
touch with Regents,” Hubbard said. 
“And there are all sorts of things 
that might be on students’ minds, 
especially with COVID. I very much 
appreciate hearing from people and 
what their concerns are, and I want 
to hear from people. I want to hear 
from students and families and 
parents and faculty — all of you.”

Hubbard said being a Regent 

has gone how she expected it to so 
far and spoke about the “learning 
curve” of becoming a Regent.

“I thought it would be very tense 

and that it would be relatively time-
consuming, and it is … but as far as 
actual surprises, I don’t know that 
I have anything in particular that 
I would point to,” Hubbard said. 
“It’s just such a steep learning curve 
right now, and a lot of items and 
issues are new to me at this point.”

Hubbard has been assigned to 

the Health Affairs Committee on 
the board, an important position 
in the middle of a global pandemic. 
According to the bylaws of the Board 
of Regents, the committee provides 
oversight of the University’s clinical 
enterprise, including the health 
system.

After experiencing what she 

described as a hostile environment 
due 
to 
her 
all-white 
female 

roommates 
in 
her 
sophomore 

year dorm, Lorraine Furtado, a 
University of Michigan class of 2020 
alum, found sanctuary in the Inter-
Cooperative Council, a housing 
cooperative operating numerous 
houses across Ann Arbor. Though 
the situation was an improvement, 
Furtado said microaggressions and 
hostility persisted. 

“I wanted to demand more for 

myself, and I knew I deserved to 
demand more for myself,” Furtado 
said. 

So in 2019, Furtado began 

planning to transform her former 
home — the Lester Cooperative 
House — into a safe space for Queer 
and Transgender People of Color 
like herself. The ICC co-ops are 
maintained and operated by the 
student members who live there, 
rather than a landlord.

Members of Lester participated 

in 
house 
meetings 
about 

re-theming the house. After an 
almost unanimous vote in favor of 
re-theming among house members, 
they brought it to the ICC, where 

it was later approved in November 
2019, according to Furtado.

Members voted to rename the 

house after Sylvia Rivera, one of the 
leading activists in the Gay Libration 
Movement.

“I cried from joy,” Furtado said. 

“It was such a beautiful moment to 
know that my housemates cared 
about the vision I had. They cared 
about the community I wanted to 
create, and they agreed with me 
about it. And it was so meaningful 
to know that my housemates cared 
about a safe space for QTPOC as 
much as I did.”

The change in making Lester 

the Rivera House will be effective 

in Fall 2021. The house, which was 
previously all-vegetarian, will no 
longer have any dietary restrictions. 

Rivera will operate year-round. 

They accept applications from any 
University students as well as other 
people in the Ann Arbor area who 
meet the ICC’s eligibility criteria. 

Approving Rivera House
According to Furtado the process 

of getting Rivera approved was a 
difficult one. She said while working 
to obtain approval for Rivera, 
ICC leadership “did not create an 
inclusive environment” for her and 
was hostile.

“I would cry after every single 

board meeting, my housemates 

would have to caravan to come pick 
me up because I would be so upset 
after board meetings, because I 
frankly felt bullied,” Furtado said. “I 
didn’t feel like I was a voice that they 
wanted to be there, and that was 
really tough mentally to know that.”

Furtado said she was treated 

poorly by the ICC board in a meeting 
to discuss a large financial decision 
regarding Rivera. 

“The main reason people had 

pushback was because it would 
require so much red tape, so many 
legal resources, it would require so 
much forethought and planning,” 
Furtado said.

LSA junior Amaya Farrell, a 

vice president in the ICC, said that 
according to meeting minutes, 
the major concerns were legal 
wording for fair housing laws. 
Farrell, who was not on the board 
at the time of the meeting, said she 
spoke with members attending 
that meeting who told her some of 
the representatives were fixated 
on the legal wording, which was 
not the focus of the proposal being 
discussed.

“The (two ICC Vice Presidents) 

could 
tell 
there 
was 
tension 

(because) one board rep continually 
worried about the legality in a 
nonproductive and non-appropriate 
manner for the time, and after the 
proposal passed the communication 
norms were talked about to remind 
(people) what they had agreed on 
for communication and behavior,” 
Farrell wrote in a text message to 
The Daily.

When asked about the criticisms 

and negative member experiences, 
current ICC President Julian Tabron, 
a Rackham student, acknowledged 
members feeling unwelcome or 
marginalized in the past. 

“We do membership surveys and 

compare it (the data) with U of M, 
and we had a diversity issue a couple 
of years ago to a point where the ICC 
was less diverse than U of M, which 
was disappointing to me,” Tabron 
said. “I’m African-American and 
Native American, and I am trying 
to work towards making this a more 
welcoming environment, and I think 
that’s part of what Rivera is trying to 
do for marginalized individuals.”

To prevent situations like Furtado’s 

from taking place again, Tabron said 
there are bystander intervention 
training and microaggression training 
sessions open to all members of the 
ICC, as well as the dispute action 

and resolution team which handles 
internal conflicts within the co-op 
houses. The training sessions have 
worked in the past, Tabron said, and 
have helped the ICC break ties with 
racist and prejudicial members.

Tabron said he sympathizes 

with those who have experienced 
discrimination and uncomfortable 
situations within the co-ops. 

“I’m sorry some members felt 

alienated or discriminated against 
in the past. As a member, I’ve 
experienced 
that 
too,” 
Tabron 

said. “I think the ICC is heading in 
a more positive, better direction 
where 
we 
can 
foster 
better 

healthy relationships in our own 
communities. We’re still working on 
it — it’s a work in progress.”

University alum Ramin Samei, 

who also worked to re-theme the 
house, experienced more support 
from the ICC. Samei said COVID-19 
has been a challenge in transitioning 
Lester into Rivera.

“There has been a lot of support 

for this idea from within the ICC, 
like a ton of support from our board 
and from the staff, in making this 
dream a reality,” Samei said. “I think 
some of the challenges have been 
that we have so many people coming 
together on this, and all of us are 
going through the pandemic … this 
is a hard time to start anything. But I 
think overall, I’ve had a pretty good 
time (with) it just because there’s 
been such good support.”

The future ahead for Rivera 

House

Furtado said Rivera is at the 

forefront of real change for QTPOC 
students, in comparison to what 
she sees as failed attempts at 
transformation by the University 
and some of its organizations and 
initiatives. 

“On 
UMich’s 
campus, 
there 

are so many empty shows of racial 
solidarity from white folks that are 
just really performative, and they’re 
shells of what they could be, and we 
didn’t want to do that,” Furtado said. 
“We wanted to be explicitly clear that 
this is something that will actually 
cause change and create a safe space 
and isn’t just putting a band-aid on 
all of the racial issues on campus, 
which so many initiatives have just 
done, if I’m being completely honest. 
We wanted something that would 
actually be transformative.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 3

New Regent Sarah Hubbard 
talks time in office so far

Beating Ryder-Diggs in November, Hubbard is one of two Republicans on board

Lester Cooperative House to be rethemed 

ADMINISTRATION

After months of deliberation, co-op to be renamed in honor of Sylvia Rivera

CAMPUS LIFE

MARTHA LEWAND

Daily Staff Reporter

ACADEMICS

JARED DOUGALL
Daily Staff Reporter

“I think what (the Board of 

Regents) all have in common 

is what’s best for U-M — 

what’s best for students, 

what’s best for academic 

excellence,” Hubbard said. 

“I don’t think partisanship 

is going to rule the day, but 

it’s certainly an element that 

can’t be completely ignored.”

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Design by Jessica Chiu

Student parents talk struggles 
of academia, work-life balance 

during the pandemic

As the U.S. nears one year since 

the initial spread of the COVID-19 
pandemic, many schools and day 
care centers have yet to regularly 
remain 
open. 
For 
University 

of Michigan Graduate Student 
Instructors 
and 
undergraduate 

students who are parents, this 
means trying to balance school, 
work and child care at home every 
day. 

Work-life balance difficulties
Even 
before 
the 
pandemic, 

student parents at the University 
have 
discussed 
the 
lack 
of 

institutional 
support. 
Rackham 

student 
Valerie 
Micol 
works 

as a GSI and researcher for the 
University and has a 10-year-old 
child. She said working from home 
during the pandemic has wrecked 
her work-life balance. 

“I’m supposed to be writing 

a dissertation,” Micol said. “It’s 
supposed to be the most cognitively 
demanding work that I need to do … 
And then I’m just at home with my 
10-year-old, being a fifth grade one-
on-one teacher’s aide for her. I don’t 
want to be super dramatic, but it 
feels like (working from home) has 
just ruined a lot.” 

The shift to working at home 

has also heightened the gender 
imbalance in the workplace, as 
student parents who are women 
are more likely to be more affected 
by the burden of juggling both 
professional work and parenting. 

The hardest thing about working 

from home with a child, Micol said, 
has been the fact that her attention 
is always divided. 

“It’s like having a loud, rowdy 

lab mate or co-worker who’s 
interrupting all the time,” Micol 
said. “Even when she’s relatively 

subdued or we have good days, it’s 
just still cognitively demanding, to 
be on all the time in two settings.” 

Ph.D. candidate Ruby Mochida 

is currently a GSI teaching modern 
Chinese culture and is also the 
mother of two children, ages two 
and five. She said she moved in with 
her mother in New Hampshire over 
the summer for help with child 
care. 

Being both a mom and a 

GSI, Mochida also said she has 
struggled with feeling isolated and 
misunderstood.

“I think it’s just a fact that unless 

you’re a mom, you don’t understand 
the situation,” Mochida said. “So 
I have to prove the reality to my 
department, and it feels like they 
don’t believe that it’s really that bad 
or something is really hard.”

Ph.D. candidate Hanah Stiverson 

has two school-aged children. 
Stiverson said she is constantly 
interrupted throughout the day and 
finds it difficult to stay focused.

Stiverson said she has found 

herself getting more exhausted 
during the day than she used to, 
causing her to feel behind.

“I know personally, I’ve got a 

lot of timeline goals and personal 
expectations that I set for myself,” 
Stiverson said. “And working in a 
way that has combined my home 
life, with my work life, with my 
parenting life, with trying to reach 
these goals for fellowships and 
going on the job market in a year 
— all that’s combined into this ball 
of stress that’s really hard to work 
through.” 
Fighting for greater protections

During their strike last fall, The 

Graduate Employees’ Organization 
included allowing student parents 
to use their University-allotted 
child care money for non-licensed 
care in their list of demands sent 
to 
University 
administration. 

Allowing this change was one of the 
concessions the University made to 
GEO to end the strike. 

In addition to extending the 

policy to include an option for 
funding unlicensed childcare, the 
University increased the age limit 
to qualify for this aid to include 
children up to the age of 15 without 
disabilities. 
The 
previous 
and 

existing policies cover children 
with special needs up to the age 
of 19. The temporary program 
instituted by the University also 
allocated an additional $500,000 to 
unlicensed childcare, as requested 
by GEO. 

This demand followed a group 

of Rackham students with children 
publishing an opinion piece in The 
Michigan Daily in August 2020. The 
group discussed their experiences 
and struggles and asked the 
University to issue a statement of 
support and guide departments in 
mitigating the impact of COVID-19 
on student parents.

Micol said though the child care 

funding concessions were helpful, 
she thinks the University needs to 
do more. 

“Part of the child care subsidy is 

that your child has to be enrolled on 
75% of the weeks of the semester, 
which is something like maybe 12 
weeks or 13 weeks,” Micol said. 
“But they give you like $2,000, and 
that’s going to cover only six weeks 
or (so) … I honestly think that the 
unlicensed care piece was just 
such a low hanging fruit that the 
University could have done without 
strike.” 

Though Mochida moved in with 

her mother for child care, she said 
she was unable to use any of the 
subsidy to pay her mother for taking 
care of her child.

PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

As many schools remain closed, GSIs and undergrads 
with children discuss difficulties in managing coursework

