I like the fact that it actually went
beyond simply thinking about how
to reduce the campus’ release of
greenhouse gases. It talked about
creating a culture of sustainability,
promoting research and teaching
around
carbon
neutrality
and
sustainability, and it had a very
powerful focus on environmental
justice. What I’ve been doing in the
week since the report went final, and
for the next several weeks, is working
with various subgroups of executives
and the folks actually responsible for
the nuts-and-bolts of running our
facilities and organizing the campus
and trying to figure out what we
can do. My aim is to talk about the
game plan at the regents meeting in
May. And by then the team will have
digested and analyzed, and I’ll be
able to talk about my initial response.
I can easily see accepting a
majority of the recommendations.
There are some that we may need
to do some more work or study, but
overall I’m really pleased with the
results and I’m very optimistic that
we’ll be able to do a lot of this really
starting now. In terms of various
groups being happy or unhappy with
the report, I think environmental
sustainability, global climate change,
greenhouse gases are amongst the
most important targets of advocacy,
all around the world, and certainly
among student groups, and certainly
here on campus. I predict the
advocacy will continue, and there’s
nothing wrong with that, it’s just part
of how change happens.
TMD: The Board of Regents also
recently voted in favor of disinvesting
from fossil fuel companies and
committing to a net-zero investment
portfolio by 2050. In previous
interviews, you’ve said changing
investment policy is solely a financial
decision. Regents Mark Bernstein
(D) and Jordan Acker (D) thanked
students and community members
for their input when the new policy
was approved. Was this disinvestment
decision solely for financial reasons,
or did activism and community input
also influence the decision?
MS: For sure the activism focused
our attention on this … and I give
really a lot of credit to the folks who
are the powerful advocates on this
issue, it’s an important issue. You
know my own positions evolved as I
understand things better.
The basis of the board moving
forward is actually fiduciary. So
what I mean by that is we came to
understand that it’s inevitable that
our society moves away from fossil
fuels. We have to, and we think we
have to do it quickly. It’s not going
quickly enough, but the fact that we
know that we’re going to end up not
using oil and gas like we use it now
means that investments in those
assets are bad long-term investments
— they’re going to go down in value.
And we’re responsible not just
for this year and next year for the
endowment, but we’re responsible
for your grandchildren if they
get into Michigan, there’s still an
endowment here to help subsidize
their education. So companies that
don’t come up with good plans to
become carbon neutral, they’re going
to become bad investments over
time. Either the government’s going
to start taxing carbon, or there’ll be
other changes in society that make
them bad investments.
TMD: At the special Regents
meeting April 2, several regents made
statements
condemning
Regent
Weiser’s
recent
remarks
about
women and allusions to assassination
at the North Oakland Republic Club,
with Regent Acker going so far as
to call Regent Weiser’s comments
“a betrayal” of the board’s work
and “everything the University of
Michigan stands for.” Regardless
of the future of Regent Weiser’s
relationship with the University, how
do you and the board plan to rebuild
the trust of the campus community
as a collective decision-making body
for the University and as an institution
that purports to strive for DEI?
MS: I hope that the board is able
to rebuild some of the lost trust by
focusing on our highest priorities and
showing the public that this is what
they work on. We work on access and
affordability of a Michigan education,
we work on academic excellence, we
just spoke about work we’re doing in
carbon neutrality and climate change,
we work supporting our health system
and life-saving research on many other
topics. So I think the way to maintain
trust and to grow trust is to focus on
the things that are important to our
community and do a really good job.
TMD: At this time, do you agree
with the Board of Regents that
Regent Weiser should resign? If he
doesn’t — and he’s repeatedly said he
won’t — how do you think the board
will be able to work with him over
the next four years? Regent Mike
Behm (D) has said Weiser has been a
“Regent in name only” since January.
MS: So as I mentioned a moment
ago, the board works by majority vote.
On the vast majority of issues that the
board addresses, there’s unanimity of
opinion. We all share the same set of
goals. I presume that the board will
have to work its way past our entire
community’s unhappiness with the
events from a few weeks ago and
figure out how to work together for
the sake of the University. As I said,
one regent has one vote and there
are eight regents on the board. This
process has served us well for 200
years. Although I don’t know of
another instance where there was
a vote of the type that took place a
couple weeks ago at a special meeting,
there have been arguments amongst
regents, disagreements of opinion. So
it’ll be challenging, but I’m confident
that the same mechanisms that have
served the University for a couple
hundred years will continue.
TMD: To ask you directly, do you
agree with the Board of Regents’ vote
that Regent Weiser should resign?
MS: I’m not a voting member of
the board. I convene their meetings
and I organize the discussions, but I
don’t vote.
TMD:
The
Washington
Post reported that you wrote to
Wisconsin’s chancellor last summer:
“If you simply delete emails after
sending, does that relieve you of
FOIA
obligations?”
When
she
responded that permanently deleting
them violates state law, you said,
“that’s really interesting and difficult.
Thanks for explaining.” Do you ever
permanently delete your emails? And
if so, in what circumstances?
MS: Yeah, I say on a typical day, I
get between 100 and several hundred
emails. Every day. Maybe on Sundays
a few less. So I’m always curating my
emails, and I’m always discarding
emails, and I think most people do.
It’s to keep yourself organized, and
not everything needs to be kept.
The reason I was having that
conversation
with
Chancellor
(Rebecca) Blank is that Michigan
Freedom of Information Act laws
say nothing about an obligation to
retain emails. So, in Wisconsin, their
law requires they be retained. In
Michigan, our law doesn’t speak to
retaining emails. So I delete all kinds
of emails every single day. I save
some, I delete some — it just depends
on what I’m working on.
I should point out … since this has
received a lot of attention, we were
conducting a discussion amongst a
group of presidents, batting around
ideas about how we were planning on
approaching the fall semester. I love
getting advice from other people that
are separate from us but in analogous
conversations. There was nothing
mysterious in the emails and they
eventually responded to a FOIA in
Wisconsin, (and now) they’re all out
there. There was nothing nefarious
in these emails — it’s just a matter of
people wanting to know what people
are talking about.
TMD: In a broader sense, do
concerns
about
public
record
requests ever discourage you from
communicating candidly on official
channels?
MS: The most important thing to
me is that I do my job 100% as best I
can. And I communicate all different
kinds of ways: sometimes by email,
sometimes by telephone and now
more and more this way, by Zoom. I
do whatever suits the moment, and
the idea is I’ve got to get the job done.
I’ve got to talk to people, I’ve got to
learn things, I have to compare notes.
So we do what we’ve got to do.
TMD: The Lecturers’ Employee
Organization gathered and marched
outside of your house last Saturday in
protest against the administration’s
recent counterproposal in a closed
bargaining session Friday, April 9.
LEO has a history of voting to strike,
and we’ve seen an even more recent
strike from the Graduate Employees’
Organization at the beginning of the
fall semester. With LEO’s contract
set to expire in less than a week, what
is the University prepared to do to
prevent another strike from occurring?
MS: We are strong believers in
collective bargaining. We do our
bargaining at the table. We don’t do it
in the newspaper or something.
But we’ve got multiple additional
sessions scheduled with LEO. Our
lecturers are very important to
delivering our academic mission.
They’re our colleagues. Many of
them are neighbors or friends. And
we’re committed to trying to find a
mutually agreeable way to complete
a contract negotiation.
This happens every three years
with every union — every two to three
years, depending upon the union.
TMD: Part of LEO’s platform
emphasizes pay parity across the
University’s campuses, but Public
Affairs recently countered that
the University does not have an
obligation to bargain with LEO on
where funds unrelated to lecturers’
contracts go. Where do you stand
on this question of LEO’s demands
regarding the Flint and Dearborn
campuses? Do you think the bigger
question of equitable funding truly
lies outside the purview of a labor
union’s collective action efforts?
MS: As I mentioned earlier, I don’t
negotiate in public or talk publicly
about an active negotiation.
I am comfortable saying that the
three campuses of the University
of Michigan are quite autonomous
from one another. We share a
Board of Regents and I supervise
the chancellors on those campuses,
but each campus gets a separate
budget from the state — directly
from the state, directly to that
campus. Each campus makes its
own decisions on admission (and)
has its own standards. Each campus
is accredited, independently of one
another by a different accrediting
agency. Each campus charges a
different tuition. Flint and Dearborn
are less (in tuition cost) than Ann
Arbor. And the chancellors on each
campus, or the president here in
Ann Arbor, is responsible for making
decisions and allocating resources
on each campus. So, and that’s been
the case since the 1960s, when Flint
and Dearborn joined under the
University of Michigan umbrella.
TMD: Have you considered
extending the Go Blue Guarantee to
Flint and Dearborn? Do you have any
concrete plans in that area?
MS: Yeah, I know that Flint and
Dearborn themselves are considering
whether they’d like to begin a guarantee
because it’s the responsibility of the
chancellor and the leadership on each
of those campuses to decide how best
to spend their resources. At Flint and
Dearborn, almost 80% of the students
or more get financial aid, more than in
Ann Arbor.
If they decided to do a Go Blue
Guarantee, they would take money
away from somewhere else. So they’re
making the balancing act or values
judgment about what is best needed
on each of the campuses. Here in Ann
Arbor, the reason why we began a
guarantee approach to this financial
aid is we have a campus where very
few people came from the bottom
50% of the socioeconomic strata
around our state. So we wanted to
invest in making sure that Michigan
in Ann Arbor was accessible to people
throughout the economic spectrum.
TMD: What’s your favorite song
from the rerecorded Taylor Swift
album “Fearless” released Friday?
MS: Usually I try my very best to
answer all your questions. I had no
idea that Taylor Swift just rereleased
an album, and although I’m sure I’d
recognize Taylor Swift if I heard her
on the radio, I’m not sure I can name
any of her songs. I’m embarrassed. You
know, my musical experiences stopped
in the 1970s. If you want to talk a little
Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney or
something, I’m with you.
Daily News Editor Calder Lewis
can be reached at calderll@umich.edu.
Daily Staff Reporters Jared Dougall
& Julianna Morano can be reached at
jdougall@umich.edu & jucomora@
umich.edu. Managing Podcast Editor
Gerald Sill contributed reporting.
Since April 1, several streets in
Ann Arbor have been closed to
make room for additional outdoor
dining for local restaurants. The
closure, which is similar in style to
last summer’s street closures, will
include the following streets:
Street closures lasting from 4
p.m. on Thursday to 6 a.m. on
Monday will be enacted on:
• Main Street from William
Street to Washington Street
• East Liberty Street from Ashley
Street to Fourth Avenue
• Liberty Street from Maynard
Street to State Street,
• State Street from William
Street to Washington Street
Street closures lasting seven
days a week will occur on:
• Washington Street from Ashley
Street to Main Street
• East side of Maynard Street
from Liberty Street to William
Street
Maura
Thompson,
interim
director
of
the
Ann
Arbor
Downtown Development Agency,
said the change was made as part
of the city’s COVID-19 response
to improve social distancing in
restaurants. Thompson also said
the decision came after businesses
reported widespread success in
expanding outdoor dining and
social distancing out onto the street
this past summer.
“For many businesses, the three
(street) closures were really helpful
in generating enough revenue to
survive,” Thompson said. “(The
closures) were just really imperative
to business operations throughout
the summer.”
Councilmember Ali Ramlawi,
D-Ward 5, who also runs the
downtown restaurant Jerusalem
Garden, said the City Council’s
decision
to
close
the
streets
again this spring came from
overwhelming community support
and
increasing
evidence
that
outdoor dining was safer than
indoor dining.
“I believe the survey that the
Main
Street
Association
put
out (showed) over 95% of the
respondents had favorable opinions
about it and wanted to see it come
back,” Ramlawi said. “And this
allows for greater social distancing.
It’s
scientifically
proven
that
eating outdoors is safer than eating
indoors.”
Jeff More, the owner of Ashley’s
on State Street, said even before the
pandemic he had been advocating
for the City to allow Ashley’s to
install a seven-day-a-week parking
lane to use for outdoor dining and
more tables. Moore said being able
to implement this change as well
as the City allowing him to set up
a 20-by-50-foot outdoor dining
area has been incredibly beneficial
in Ashley’s getting through the
pandemic.
“I don’t know many (restaurants)
that really made money last year
… so, there is a need to try to get
back on solid footing,” More said.
“I think the outdoor seating in that
expanded space will help get back
to that vibrancy of downtown Ann
Arbor.”
Engineering sophomore Sydney
Anderson said though she had
noticed an uptick in traffic since
the streets closed on April 1, she
thought the closures would force
people to get out and walk more
which would help local businesses
and the environment.
“I think it’s healthier for the
person … It’s way better for the
community and the businesses
because if you’re walking, you’re
more likely to step into a store, rather
than if you’re driving by,” Anderson
said. “Pedestrians already run Ann
Arbor, let’s be honest.”
Ann Arbor native Ann O’Brien
moved back to Ann Arbor from
New York this summer and said she
thought the street closures were
one of the best decisions the city had
made in a long time. O’Brien said
the closures created an increased
sense of festival and community
downtown.
“Summertime is a good time to
get out, walk around town, be on
your bike, be a pedestrian,” O’Brien
said. “It may cause extra traffic
backups, a few days a week, but
I don’t think it’s going … to have
much of an impact because it’s
more happening on the weekends.”
Ann Arbor City Council has
previously
discussed
making
the
weekend
street
closures
something Ann Arbor does every
summer. Ramlawi said these
conversations began even prior to
COVID-19, but the pandemic has
accelerated them.
“There’s
been
talks
before
COVID about having pedestrian
streets in areas of the town close
to vehicular traffic,” Ramlawi said.
“In a post-pandemic (world), we
have a very beautiful downtown
that people are envious of … and I
think we should celebrate that.”
Ramlawi said there were many
factors, such as the opinions of Ann
Arbor residents and the closure’s
effect on retail commerce, that City
Council would need to consider
before
making
a
permanent
change.
O’Brien said she hopes the
closures become permanent as she
believes the lack of cars in the area
makes downtown a more desirable
place for Ann Arbor residents to
spend their time.
“It just promotes more of a
healthy atmosphere; people are
more inclined to walk, sit outside,
perhaps not bring their cars into
that area,” O’Brien said.
Justin
Zhao,
co-owner
of
Sharetea on State Street, said he
had some reservations about the
street closures continuing in a
post-COVID-19 world. Zhao said
Sharetea is planning on using
the space for increased outdoor
dining for their store, but he said he
worries once students come back
full-time, there will be increased
traffic and congestion in other
parts of the city.
“I feel like other areas would
be very congested around (State
Street),” Zhao said. “When the
students are here … those streets
are pretty important (and) they
need to be opened up for cars.”
Street closures are currently
slated to last until late August.
Daily Staff Reporter George
Weykamp
can
be
reached
at
gweykamp@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
4 — Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Downtown streets
close for outdoor dining
GEORGE WEYKAMP
Daily Staff Reporter
ADMINISTRATION
Dr. Robert Sellers to
step down in December
U-M Chief Diversity Officer was at helm of five-year DEI strategic plan
Dr.
Robert
Sellers,
the
University of Michigan’s chief
diversity officer, announced he
will be stepping down from his
position Dec. 31, according to The
University Record. Sellers was at
the helm of the University’s five-
year strategic plan for diversity,
equity and inclusion, referred to
as DEI 1.0, which will come to a
close this year.
“As DEI 1.0 draws to a close
after an initial five years and
we move seamlessly toward
DEI 2.0, Dr. Sellers believes this
is the right time to allow new
leadership to bring new ideas
and new energy to the work
that is absolutely essential to
our success as an institution of
higher
education,”
University
President Mark Schlissel wrote
in a message to the University
community.
“Yet,
we
would
not be in a position to move
forward on our goals without
his leadership and the work he
has done in this role over the last
seven years.”
As the University begins its
search for his successor among
current faculty members, Sellers
will remain in his position until
the end of the calendar year. In
his
announcement,
Schlissel
affirmed the University “will not
let up” on DEI 1.0 in this period of
transition.
Sellers has served as chief
diversity officer at the University
since 2014. In an email to
his
colleagues
prior
to
the
announcement, Sellers expressed
gratitude
to
the
campus
community members he has
worked with and their “amazing
commitment
to
making
the
university a better place for all.”
“While there is still work to do,
I am very proud of all that we have
accomplished,” Sellers wrote.
Schlissel
provided
well
wishes to Sellers in his email to
community members and outlined
how important Sellers has been in
the University’s commitment to
DEI during his tenure.
“While it truly takes each
one of us to raise up the work of
diversity, equity and inclusion at
a place as big and dispersed as the
University of Michigan, Dr. Robert
Sellers has been outstanding in
leading this critical work across
our campus on a day-to-day basis
for the past seven years, alongside
his tremendous team,” Schlissel
wrote.
Sellers plans to return to
his post in the Department of
Psychology as a tenured faculty
member. In addition to being
chief diversity officer, he has
worked within the University
for 28 years. Once the University
finds his successor, Sellers said in
his message he will work closely
with administration to help with
the transition process.
As Sellers steps down, Schlissel
reaffirmed his own commitment
to DEI in his email to community
members.
“We
cannot
be
excellent
without being diverse in the
broadest sense of the word,”
Schlissel wrote. “And we must
also ensure that our community
allows all individuals an equal
opportunity to thrive.”
As chief diversity officer and a
member of the provost’s cabinet,
Sellers
coordinated
efforts
such as faculty recruitment and
retention, tenure and faculty
development. The position also
involved advising Schlissel on
DEI-related issues and serving as
University spokesperson for DEI
matters.
CHRISTIAN JULIANO &
JULIANNA MORANO
Daily Staff Reporters
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
ANN ARBOR
Initiative rebooted after help restaurants, seeing success last summer
SCHLISSEL
From Page 1