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March 10, 2021 - Image 3

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 3

Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson announced
as Spring 2021 commencement speaker

Author of ‘Just Mercy’ will address graduates during virtual ceremony

ALEC COHEN/Daily

The University of Michigan announces civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson as this year’s commencement speaker
(NOTE: This photo was taken at the 2018 Spring Commencement, before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Bryan Stevenson, notable civil

rights lawyer and social justice
activist, will give the commencement
address
during
the
University

of
Michigan’s
virtual
Spring

Commencement Ceremony on May
1, the University Record announced
Thursday morning.

Stevenson
has
worked
to

exonerate prisoners on death row
for more than 30 years and is a
bestselling author. His memoir, “Just
Mercy,” was adapted as a motion
picture in 2019, where actor Michael
B. Jordan portrayed Stevenson.

Stevenson is also the founder

and executive director of the Equal
Justice Initiative, which provides
legal representation to prisoners who
have been wrongfully convicted,
improperly sentenced or abused
while imprisoned.

Through his work with the Equal

Justice Initiative, Stevenson has
won major legal battles to overturn
wrongful sentencing. During his
time with the nonprofit, he has saved
more than 135 wrongfully convicted
prisoners from the death penalty.

In 2012, Stevenson successfully

brought a case before the U.S.
Supreme
Court
in
which
he

argued mandatory life sentences
for juveniles convicted of murder
without the opportunity for parole
was in violation of the Eighth
Amendment.

This announcement comes one

month after the University said a
virtual ceremony would be held
for the Class of 2021 rather than
an in-person event. The virtual
ceremony is slated to include student
performances
and
speakers
in

addition to the conferring of degrees.

The University also released

information Thursday for graduates
regarding various socially-distanced
photo sessions at Michigan Stadium.
The photo sessions are set to begin

April 6, and graduates will be able to
have free professional photographs
taken with other graduating friends
and classmates.

University
President
Mark

Schlisssel told the Record the
decision to hold photo opportunities
in Michigan Stadium is a result of
feedback received from graduating
students. Since the confirmation
of virtual commencement, some
students and families have pushed
the University to try for a safe
in-person commencement event.

“We’ve heard from them that

they want inspiring commencement
speakers and the opportunity to have
a celebration in Michigan Stadium,”
Schlissel said in the press release.
“We created our photo event in the
Big House and invited influential
leaders to share their message and
make this spring special for our
graduates.”

Daily Staff Reporter Alec Cohen

can be reached at cohenale@umich.

ALEC COHEN

Daily Staff Reporter

CAMPUS LIFE

So, I think when this is all over

and behind us, I think we should
really take stock and see how we did.
It’s almost like the grading system
that’s in effect now for students,
right? You get to wait till you have
your grades to know whether you
should take a grade or a pass/fail, so
maybe I’ll wait until we have a little
bit more perspective, but it’s really
a group project; and I appreciate
everybody who’s been helping.

TMD: In a recent tweet, Regent

Jordan Acker (D) said, “I hope Dr.
Fauci is right that every American
can get a vaccine by July … That
would go a long way toward getting
back to the Michigan experience
we all love.” You’ve said that the
University is looking at scenarios
based on what fraction of the
campus community is vaccinated.
Can you walk us through some
of those scenarios? What’s the
difference between if, say, 60% and
90% are vaccinated?

MS: I think what’s most likely is

that by the time the summer rolls
around, all of the faculty and staff
that want to be vaccinated will
have that access to the vaccine.
But, when the new school year rolls
around, probably not more than
half of students will be vaccinated.
So we’ve got to figure out how to
have as much in-person education
and student life as possible. So it
could be the semester will begin
more constrained and become less
constrained as time goes by, but
those are the plans we’re working
on now.

And what we’re doing in the last

couple of weeks and then the next
week or two is talking to faculty, staff
and students and learning about
what they’d like the fall semester to
look like. The Regents are weighing
in; parents are weighing in. The
best of all possible worlds would be
everybody, including all students,
who want to be vaccinated to have
been vaccinated by the fall semester.

And I think when we get to

that stage, campus might be quite
normal. For sure we’ll get to the
stage eventually where there aren’t
masks; you can have football games
and big classes. I don’t think we’ll be
quite there in the fall, but I think it’ll
be a good part of the way there.

TMD: If much of the class

instruction remains online, how
does U-M plan to combat virtual
fatigue from students, as the end of
the fall semester would mark nearly
two years of almost entirely online
instruction?

MS: I think no matter what

state we’re in, there’ll be more
activities on campus for students to
participate in, and not just virtual
activities. If we have to continue
to be conservative, we would still
wear masks, but we do things
together; we start to get people out
of their rooms. I can’t predict yet
what percentage of classes will be
in person, but it’s very likely to be
much more in person than it is now.

TMD: Rich Holcomb from U-M

Human Resources shared poll
results on Feb. 12 that said 87% of
Ann Arbor staff would be interested
in continuing to work remotely
after the pandemic. Three days
later, Public Affairs tweeted that
U-M remains optimistic that the
fall semester “will be more normal.”
Given this juxtaposition, do you
expect there to be conflict between
staff/faculty and administrators
if you choose to introduce a more
in-person fall semester plan? If so,
how will you handle it?

MS: The survey that vice

president Holton was talking about
was for a significant number of
back-office staff at the University
that
aren’t
face-to-face
with

students. Our staff that deals with
students, such as student affairs
people, the Student Life folks and
the faculty of course — we’re a
residential, in-person higher-ed
institution — and they’re going to
do their jobs.

That said, I do think there are

going to be reentry challenges for
people as they come back to work.
Just like you’ve been studying
remotely a lot and you’ve got Zoom
fatigue, a lot of our faculty and staff
have been working remotely for a
long time. We have to do everything
we can to convince people that
they’re safe on campus.

TMD: Given that classes are

entirely asynchronous for many
students and that we live in
an unprecedented time where
the 9-to-5 work week has been
completely disturbed, do you feel
that “well-being breaks” make a real
improvement to students’ mental
health? If you were a student, would

you feel like this is enough to make
a difference?

MS: I think for many people it

was a welcomed day not to have
to take class and not to have to
Zoom. By itself, no, it doesn’t solve
the problem. But it recognizes that
there are little things we can do to
make things marginally better, at
least for a little while.

One thing that I learned relatively

early in the pandemic which
surprised me is students said that
many of their classes are actually
harder than they are when you’re
doing regular classes in person.
The workload seems greater, there
seems to be more tests and more
quizzes. I talked to faculty about
this, and they said they needed to be
sure students were keeping up and
paying attention when they couldn’t
see you. So we’ve tried to give
feedback to the faculty to get them
to better adjust the workload to
reduce stress. The well-being days
(are) just a day to give time. We’re
not under the illusion that the well-
being days solve all our problems at
all.

TMD: When can we expect a

more detailed plan for the fall?

MS: In the coming couple of

weeks. We’re working on the
details right now, but in the grand
scheme, we’re expecting to have
a significantly more in-person
fall semester with much more
residential life and more of our
classes in person. Hopefully we’ll be
able to get it to you by the middle of
the month.

TMD: In late January, the Office

for Institutional Equity released
two annual reports on sexual
and
gender-based
misconduct,

one looking at students and one
looking at University employees.
The
student
report
included

breakdowns of reported allegations
and investigative and appellate
outcomes (if any), whereas the
employee report did not include
an
appendix
or
distinguish

between assault and harassment
in its data. Both employee and
student misconduct affect the
University community, and cases
like Philbert’s and Anderson’s
have brought attention to alleged
sexual misconduct from employees
in particular. Do you have any
thoughts on the University’s attitude
toward these two sources of sexual
and gender-based misconduct on

campus and/or an explanation of
the difference in detail between the
two public reports?

MS: I think you’re pointing out

something that’s important that
many of us have noticed: The nature
of the reporting is quite different
when it comes to student events
as compared to faculty and staff
events. One of the recommendations
we got in an earlier review of our
policies is that we should have a
single umbrella policy that uses the
same definitions and provides the
same information for everybody.
That’s what we’re in the process of
doing; we’ll be ready to push that
out hopefully by the summertime.

TMD:
Especially
following

the WilmerHale investigation of
Philbert, which detailed several
instances
where
allegations

were brought forward to OIE
and University officials but not
thoroughly investigated, can you
comment on this single-digit rate
of investigation for reports against
students and the approximate 12%
rate of investigation for employee
reports reflected in the two reports
from this year?

MS:
When
I
first
started

reading these things, shortly after
I got here, recognizing that sexual
misconduct and sexual harassment
are incredibly serious problems,
I was surprised how few full
investigations were done compared
to the total number of reports.
What I’ve learned is OIE reports
every single report of misconduct or
harassment. We report everything.

The other thing that I learned is

that investigation is only one way
forward. There’s another pathway
forward that involves more of a
discussion or mediation between
individuals where a person has
made a complaint against another
person. There are many people
that just want to be heard and
undergo some kind of process of
accountability, and that sort of more
restorative justice approach is being
used and offered as an option.

Sometimes we’ll get complaints

that actually aren’t illegal or
disallowed by our rules. In order for
something to be sexual harassment,
it has to be severe and pervasive.
So sometimes we get a complaint
of moderate severity, and we
don’t ignore it. We feed back the
information to a local leadership,
and we try to address it. It doesn’t
become an investigation because it
doesn’t fall under something that’s
disallowed by Title IX.

When it comes to Philbert, one

of the things that we’re trying to
learn from the report and from the
help that Guidepost is giving us,
is how we can do a better job fully
investigating reports of misconduct
to
prevent
multi-year
serial

misbehavior. We have to look at and
revise our procedures and make
sure we’re not missing things. We
have to get better at this.

TMD:
On
the
website

of
Guidepost
Solutions,
the

investigative firm hired to help
implement
the
WilmerHale

recommendations,
they
claim

their goal is to “help you seize
opportunities
on
the
horizon,

minimize disruption, or move on
from difficulty.” What message do
you think that sends to survivors
of alleged sexual assault at U-M,
and does U-M see the entire
process as just another disruption?

Are you committed to structural
change when it comes to sexual
misconduct?

MS: Well, the description you

give is certainly not the reason
we hired them. What they’re
contracted to do is to help us
implement the recommendations
of
the
WilmerHale
report.

We’re absolutely committed to
diminishing
the
frequency
of

misconduct and harassment to
zero. It should never be tolerated.
What we need their help with is
establishing an environment where
the people who are subjected
to misconduct feel that their
complaints are going to be taken
seriously — that there won’t be
retaliation against them. The fact
that only a fraction of instances
of misconduct ever gets reported
is a huge problem. We really need
to
increase
our
community’s

confidence that they’re going to be
treated well and fairly.

The other thing they’re going

to help us with is look(ing) at our
procedures inside of OIE and how
we do our investigations. They’re
not here to reinvestigate the
Philbert matter. They’re here to
help us make the place better and
stronger.

TMD: The Lecturers’ Employee

Organization is in the midst of
bargaining for a new contract with
the Regents. Last year, Regent
Ron Weiser (R) sent an email to
the entire board that disparaged
Graduate Employees’ Organization
picketers as probably “hired union
hacks” and one member as “an
idiot.” With this type of discourse
going on behind the scenes, how
can organized labor on campus
believe that the University and the
Board are negotiating with them in
good faith?

MS: All of our employees are

important and essential for our
mission. The institution respects
and values the people that work
with us. There’s no way we could
be outstanding in research and
teaching and service and patient
care without the tens of thousands
of people that work with us.

For example, in recent months,

I’ve been down on South Campus at
our transportation facility visiting
with bus drivers and talked to
them about their experience and
thanked them for being frontline
workers. In the Dow Building a
couple months ago, I sat and visited
with maintenance and custodial
staff for the University and thanked
them for working under difficult
circumstances;
you
can’t
do

custodial work from home.

When it comes to our organized

workers and our unionized workers,
we always endeavor to bargain in
good faith. It’s incredibly important
for both sides to believe that the
other side is bargaining in good
faith, otherwise the whole system
breaks down and the University
suffers.

TMD: In that same email,

Weiser wrote about a GEO member:
“While he was cleanly dressed it
was impossible to imagine him in
a classroom. Janitor maybe from
the mental content.” What kind
of message does that send to the
University’s custodial staff and
other frontline workers, most of
whom have risked their health
to work in person and keep the
University functioning throughout

the pandemic?

MS: I can say the board, myself

and the leadership of the University
incredibly appreciate the work of
those folks in particular. Think
about when you come to campus
the morning after snowfall. Those
darn paths are all clear, and there’s
rarely patches of ice. These folks do
a spectacular job. They’re outside
shoveling my driveway at five in
the morning. I can’t even get any
exercise; they’re out there before I
would get out there. So, they have
a huge amount of gratitude and
respect from me.

TMD: February was marked

by several virtual events around
campus in honor of Black History
Month.
At
the
kickoff
event

Feb.
1,
one
student
panelist,

LSA Student Government Vice
President Josiah Walker, said he
wants the University to continue
to highlight Black history beyond
the month of February. What is or
will the University do to elevate its
commitment to Black students in
the months and years to come?

MS: I think Josiah is 100%

correct. You pick out a month
just to draw people’s attention.
But we should focus on issues
around racism, equity, Blackness
in America, Black Lives Matter —
almost every day of the academic
year.
Also
from
a
research

perspective, the Institute for Social
Research runs a very famous
program called the Program for
Research on Black Americans.
We’ve got a Center for Research on
Ethnicity and Culture and Public
Health, the Center for the Study
of Black Youth in LSA and the
National Center for Institutional
Diversity.

We’ve worked hard, and we’ve

only been modestly successful
increasing representation, not just
of African Americans, but of many
other
underrepresented
groups

on campus. In terms of studying
Black History, I don’t think we
understand
American
history

without
understanding
Black

History. The Black experience
is the American experience in
many, many ways, and we have to
understand it to live together and to
be scholars.

TMD: We know that the men’s

and women’s basketball teams are
both having great seasons. When
was the last time you got out on your
driveway — on that hoop you have
— and shot some baskets?

MS: It was last fall before the

weather turned. It’s often on the
weekends, sometime in the late
afternoon when I just have to shake
the cobwebs out. The embarrassing
thing is I’m 63 now, and I can
actually just shoot baskets by myself
and pull muscles. So, I don’t get to
do it as much as I’d like. One of my
bucket list things is I’d like to invite
some of our coaches or basketball
players to come and play some
pickup on the driveway. So, maybe
after the season’s over or maybe
when they bring home a national
championship we can play some
hoops here at the president’s house.
That’d be great.

Daily News Editor Calder Lewis

can be reached at calderll@umich.
edu. Daily Staff Reporters Jared
Dougall and Christian Juliano can be
reached at jdougall@umich.edu and
julianoc@umich.edu.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

The Michigan Daily talked with President Mark Schlissel about well-being days and plans for the Fall semester in an interview March 2.

SCHLISSEL
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