The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 — 3

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

RESEARCH
LSA professor leads Virulent Hate Project
Dr. Melissa May Borja aims to track anti-Asian hate incidents, community resistance efforts

Dr. 
Melissa 
May 
Borja, 

University of Michigan assistant 
professor of American Culture, 
founded Virulent Hate, a project 
which aims to raise awareness 
around the surge in anti-Asian 
racism 
during 
the 
COVID-19 

pandemic as well as document 
resistance 
to 
hate 
incidents. 

Founded in April 2020, the project 
tracks anti-Asian hate crimes 
reported in news media across the 
country and focuses on identifying 
trends. 

The project is a collaboration 

between 
student 
researchers 

across the country as well as 
the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting 
Center and is funded by U-M 
Poverty Solutions, which provides 
aid to research initiatives that 
aim to inform policymakers and 
community organizations. So far, 
the team has parsed through 4,600 
articles and found around 700 
overall instances of hate against 
Asian Americans. 

According to Borja, a general 

trend in anti-Asian hate incidents 
is that they disproportionately 
target women. In Virulent Hate’s 
own research from 2020, around 
61% of anti-Asian hate incidents 
were experienced by women. The 
shootings at Asian-owned spas 
in the Atlanta area last month 
sparked wider discussion about the 
impact of hate crimes against Asian 
Americans and the fetishization 
of Asian women, since six of the 
eight victims were women of Asian 
descent.

Borja said she was particularly 

surprised by the number of hate 
incidents occurring during the 
pandemic, even when lockdowns 
or other restrictions were in place.

“We saw a peak in incidents 

occurring in March and April of 
2020 and it was very shocking 
to us that these incidents were 
happening when most of us were 
trying to stay home and reduce 
how much we go outside,” Borja 
said.

Borja said a distinct part of the 

team’s research is looking at the 
different forms of hate experienced 
by Asians and Asian Americans, 
including various forms of non-
physical 
harassment 
and 
the 

impact of stigmatizing rhetoric 
used by politicians. 

“We are paying attention to 

forms of non-verbal harassment 
and 
verbal 
harassment, 
not 

just 
physical 
harassment 
and 

violence,” Borja said. “Research 
suggests, pretty compellingly, that 
it (stigmatizing rhetoric used by 
politicians) contributes to harm 
and racist backlash against Asian 
Americans.”

LSA freshman Krystal Huang, a 

student researcher on the project, 
said Virulent Hate’s goal is to 
publish information about Asian 
hate crimes around the country. 
This information is essential, 
Huang said, to informing people 
about the ongoing racism targeting 
Asian Americans.

Huang 
said 
when 
political 

leaders 
like 
former 
President 

Donald Trump use phrases like 
“China virus” and “kung flu”, this 
only fuels unfounded hate toward 
Asians.

“A lot of people don’t recognize 

the discrimination Asians face 
every day,” Huang said. “It is 
normalized through the model 
minority myth. We (at Virulent 
Hate) really are putting a spotlight 
on the rise in anti-Asian hate 
incidents.” 

U-M alum Jacob Gibson, a 

researcher on the project, said 
Virulent Hate initially aimed to 
document the rise in anti-Asian 
hate incidents due to the pandemic, 
but he said he now expects to see a 
continued rise in hate crimes even 
as people perceive the pandemic to 
be coming to an end.

Gibson said the project also 

tracks various forms of resistance 
to anti-Asian crimes across the 
nation, 
specifically 
the 
way 

activists and organizers respond 
to these incidents in their local 
communities. Gibson said this 
data is critical to informing local 
activism and raising awareness.

“We have the distinct goal 

of 
empowering 
community 

organizers,” Gibson said. “We 
want to use the information we 
have and share it as widely as we 
can so that organizers and activists 
can look at national trends and 
compare them with their local 
conditions.”

Gibson also said the project 

places a focus on the stories 
of victims and the impact of 
anti-Asian 
hate 
incidents 
on 

local communities rather than 
focusing on the perpetrators. By 
using resources available to the 
public, the project helps to tell 
these stories while respecting the 
privacy of victims.

“By using publicly available 

resources, we are not unearthing 
trauma that someone might wish 
to protect, but (the project) also 
offers a chance to center those 
stories,” Gibson said. “So often it’s 
the perpetrators that get the news 
headlines. By collecting the stories 
of individuals, there’s a chance to 
flip that narrative.”

Borja said she hopes Virulent 

Hate’s research findings are used 
to shape public policy, inform 
the 
activism 
of 
community 

organizations 
and 
improve 

people’s understandings of anti-
Asian hate incidents.

“Our hope is that we can take 

this information and share it with 
a scholarly audience through 
journal articles and reports, but we 
also think it is really important for 
the broader public to understand 
this research, too,” Borja said. 
“My hope is that by providing this 
information we can help educators, 
local activists and public officials 
understand the way anti-Asian 
racism is being expressed in their 
particular locale.”

Virulent 
Hate 
will 
be 

publishing a general report about 
the information gathered and an 
interactive map depicting anti-
Asian hate incidents across the 
country on May 1. 

Daily Staff Reporter Navya 

Gupta can be reached at itznavya@
umich.edu.

NAVYA GUPTA
Daily Staff Reporter

Design by Erin Shi

CAMPUS LIFE
You can have the best plans, 
but sometimes you have to 
change”: VP of Student Life 

reflects on past year

Martino Harmon talks fall semester plans, vaccinations

Before the Winter 2021 semester 

comes to an end, The Michigan 
Daily 
interviewed 
Martino 

Harmon, vice president of Student 
Life, about fall semester plans, 
housing, Fraternity & Sorority Life 
and vaccinations. This interview 
has been edited and condensed for 
clarity. 

TMD: Last semester, students 

were essentially kicked out of the 
dorms, and some scrambled to 
find off-campus housing. How 
will you ensure that students 
living in residence halls in 
the fall will have an improved 
experience? How will you ensure 
that 50% of the students living in 
the dorms will be vaccinated in 
the fall semester?

MH: We’re really optimistic 

about the future. Our plans for 
the fall — which are definitely 
rooted 
in 
encouraging 
a 

large number of students to be 
vaccinated — will give Housing 
the opportunity to have more 
safe 
face-to-face 
in-person 

interactions 
in 
addition 
to 

maximizing some of the virtual 
interactions that we’ve learned. 
For example, the lounges and 
the study spaces will be more 
accessible. They may be by 
reservation, but depending on the 
state of vaccinations, we may be 
able to have more flexibility. 

Also, providing vaccinations 

and testing for those that may 
not be vaccinated will help the 
Res Staff members feel safe and 
engage 
more 
with 
students. 

There will always be exceptions, 
but we’re strongly encouraging 
students to be vaccinated, and 
we’ll be talking about more 
and better ways to do that. 
The Campus Health Response 
Committee 
is 
working 
on 

systems that will allow students 
to report their vaccinations over 
the summer. The key is really 
encouraging 
students 
to 
get 

vaccinated as supplies continue 
to ramp up.

TMD: 
Will 
students 
on 

campus who are fully vaccinated 
have 
different 
guidelines 
to 

follow than students who are not 
fully vaccinated? 

MH: Some of those details 

are still unfolding based on 

(Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention) guidelines. So for 
example, we expect to have some 
safety measures in place, like 
masking and social distancing. 
We also don’t know if a booster 
vaccination will be needed at 
some point during the academic 
year, and that will impact some of 
the safety measures. There may be 
some safety measures that can be 
relaxed that will be determined 
by CDC and Washtenaw County 
public health guidelines.

TMD: The Daily has written 

multiple 
stories 
regarding 

students’ mental health during 
the pandemic, especially how 
virtual classes and COVID-19 
are affecting the campus climate. 
How do you plan to address this 
and 
improve 
the 
well-being 

of students now and moving 
forward? 

MH: 
Counseling 
and 

Psychological 
Services, 

Wolverine 
Wellness, 
Services 

for Students with Disabilities 
and (University Health Service) 
are working collaboratively to 
deliver a more holistic approach. 
I’ve worked with Provost (Susan) 
Collins, and we have appointed a 
review committee of people from 
academic affairs and Student 
Life to look at what we currently 
do and how we can improve or 
expand access. They have gone 
around 
various 
town 
halls, 

they’ve engaged with students, 
with staff and faculty and got 
a lot of feedback on a variety of 
different possibilities. They will 
present 
recommendations 
to 

the provost and I in May, and I 
think we’ll be able to implement 
some in the fall. The stress from 
virtual work is something we 
need to address as a root cause. 
To address the issue, we need 
to focus on more counseling 
and engaging with faculty and 
academic planners to see: “How 
can we be more aware and 
sensitive and plan to minimize 
some of those stresses?” If we 
only address the symptoms, we’re 
really not going to solve the issue.

TMD: Although student life 

was difficult due to the virtual 
format of this semester, how do 
you think that this year went, in 
terms of the student experience? 

MH: We surveyed students 

twice in the fall semester and 
had over 9,000 responses. It was 
clearly difficult for students to 
connect and find things to do, 
so I appointed a task force at 
Student Life to look at how to 

enhance 
student 
engagement. 

The task force really came up 
with a number of innovations 
like grouping weekly events and 
opportunities together in the Top 
Picks email sent every Sunday. 

We also expanded our cohort 

program to reach up to 2,000 
first and second-year students, 
providing a forum for students 
to make connections. We also 
launched 
a 
program 
called 

Resource Navigators where about 
140 volunteers from Student Life 
check in with over 2,000 first 
and second-year students who 
may not be connected to another 
established group. It was a tough 
year — a tough semester — and 
students really are exhausted 
from the whole experience. But 
our goal was to find ways to help 
students engage and connect and 
do all that we could do in a safe 
way to make the experience as 
good as it possibly could be given 
the context.

TMD: How much of student 

organizations and campus events 
do you anticipate will be virtual 
versus in-person come the fall?

MH: For Student Life, this 

will be the year of transition, 
meaning things won’t be 100% 
back to normal, but we’ll be 
moving towards that. We are 
planning and optimistic about 
more in-person events, and that 
includes student organizations. 
We want to give them guidance 
on how to have more in-person 
events. But, a lot of this revolves 
around 
students’ 
willingness 

and ability to be vaccinated. As 
vaccines are ramping up, we’ll 
have more options in terms of 
opening things up.

TMD: Fraternity and sorority 

life has a sizable presence on 
campus and in student life. What 
would you like to see change 
or continue about FSL here at 
Michigan?

MH: I’m really pleased that 

the councils’ leaders, which 
are 
the 
four 
major 
groups 

within Fraternity and Sorority 
Life, have stepped up during a 
difficult and challenging year 
and set some guidelines for their 
organizations. Self-policing and 
safety have been a real challenge 
for them during a time when 
everyone is exhausted and people 
naturally want to socialize, but 
those council leaders have done 
that. 

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

JASMIN LEE,

MARTHA LEWAND & 
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF

Daily News Editor &
 Daily Staff Reporters

The state of Michigan sent a 

concurrence letter April 12 to the 
Environmental Protection Agency, 
officially setting in motion the 
federal cleanup process for the 
decades-old 
1,4-dioxane 
plume 

contaminating 
Ann 
Arbor’s 

groundwater system.

“As 
requested 
by 
the 

communities, 
please 
reinitiate 

assessment of the site for the 
(National Priorities List) listing 
process,” 
the 
letter 
reads. 

“The Michigan Department of 
Environment, Great Lakes, and 
Energy (EGLE) will work closely 
with the USEPA and will also 
ensure that the current remedy 
continues to protect human health 
and remains in compliance with 
Michigan law during the NPL 
process.”

The plume, known as the 

Gelman plume, takes its moniker 
from the late Charles Gelman, a 
manufacturer 
of 
micro-porous 

filters in Ann Arbor in the 1950s. 
The chemical 1,4-dioxane — a 
likely carcinogen found to cause 
kidney and liver cancer as well as 

respiratory complications — was 
used in the manufacturing process 
and seeped into the ground beneath 
the company’s Scio Township 
plant. The contamination has since 
spread through the Ann Arbor area 
toward West Park and branches off 
of the Allen Creek drain system 
that discharges into the Huron 
River.

In December 2020, Ann Arbor, 

Washtenaw County, Scio Township 
and Ann Arbor Township all sent 
letters to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, 
urging 
her 
to 
support 
EPA 

Superfund cleanup efforts. After 
four months, Whitmer approved 
EPA cleanup aid, prompting April 
12’s concurrence letter sent by the 
Department of Environment, Great 
Lakes, and Energy.

The concurrence letter comes 

one 
day 
before 
community 

members and local officials were 
planning to travel to Lansing to 
demand action from Whitmer on 
the steps of the Capitol. The rally 
has since been canceled.

The EPA has previously specified 

that its involvement in the Gelman 
site cleanup will only move forward 
if the state approves. Whitmer’s 
support will begin the process of 
placing the Gelman site on the 
National Priorities List, which will 
then allow the EPA to step in and 

begin the cleanup. To be eligible 
for the NPL, the EPA will continue 
local and state efforts to collect 
data and samples from the Gelman 
site before determining cleanup 
methods. The eligibility process 
would normally take two to three 
years, but local efforts to collect 
data and samples over years may 
shorten that time period, officials 
tell The Michigan Daily.

“Thank you Governor Whitmer 

for sending the letter to the EPA,” 
Ann Arbor City Councilmember 
Kathy Griswold, D-Ward 2, wrote 
in a tweet April 12. Griswold has 
been active in organizing efforts 
around a more comprehensive 
cleanup of the site. 

“I see that the EPA path is more 

strategic,” Griswold told The Daily. 
“It is going to take a few years 
before there’s actual cleanup under 
the EPA. But during that time, we’ll 
continue to clean up under consent 
judgment three, and then we may 
have a ruling from Judge Connors, 
that will require greater cleanup 
and that’s what I’m hoping for.”

U.S. 
Rep. 
Debbie 
Dingell, 

D-Mich., also released a statement 
April 12 in praise of the progress 
toward the Gelman plume being 
added to the National Priorities 
List. 

“For 
decades, 
the 
growing 

dioxane plume has been spreading 
through Ann Arbor’s groundwater, 
posing a concerning threat to our 
families 
and 
the 
surrounding 

environment,” Dingell’s statement 
reads. “Our communities have 
worked together to get us to 
this point, and I will continue 
to work with all federal, state, 
and local officials, as well as all 
stakeholders involved, to ensure 
this contamination is properly 
remediated and our public health is 
protected long-term.”

In 2016, the city of Ann Arbor 

filed a new lawsuit against Gelman 
and his company. A settlement 
was reached in September 2020, 
which detailed a thorough cleanup 
protocol, 
but 
residents 
were 

skeptical about the ability of local 
authorities to oversee and enforce 
this cleanup.

Dan Bicknell, an environmental 

remediation 
professional 
who 

discovered the Gelman plume 
while 
completing 
research 
at 

the University of Michigan in 
1984, called the idea that local 
government 
could 
compel 
a 

“resistant polluter” to conduct 
these cleanup efforts “not logical” 
in a September interview with The 
Daily.

While local officials continue to 

play out litigation in court — and 

are expected to present ideas for a 
new cleanup proposal in early May 
— the state is now also one step 
closer to receiving EPA Superfund 
cleanup.

Ann Arbor resident Beth Collins, 

secretary of Coalition for Action on 
Remediation of Dioxane, told The 
Daily in an interview that April 
12’s letter will be instrumental in 
bringing in the federal aid needed 
to strengthen cleanup efforts.

“I’m excited and all of us that 

have been wanting this (letter) 
for many years are hoping that 
this (letter) is the start of a 
new partnership between the 
state, federal and local units of 
government are all stakeholders,” 
Collins said.

Previous attempts to introduce 

EPA intervention began in 2017, 
when the EPA conducted a 
preliminary analysis of the Gelman 
site after increasing activism from 
local community members. The 
preliminary 
assessment 
found 

that the Gelman site qualified 
“for further investigation and 
evaluation in the NPL listing 
process 
— 
however, 
former 

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder did not 
support Superfund intervention.

“I have said before that the 

definition of insanity is doing the 
same thing over and over again, 

expecting 
a 
different 
result,” 

Collins said. “Every time (officials) 
want to go back to court — I mean 
nothing different has happened, 
and the plume keeps moving so 
you just want something different. 
I feel like a lot of people (may be) 
apprehensive of the EPA because it 
is different, but in my mind, that’s 
good. Difference is going to be good 
on this site.”

Jason 
Morgan, 
District 
8 

commissioner on the Washtenaw 
County Board of Commissioners, 
told The Daily the state’s letter is 
“monumental” given that it starts 
a bigger process with the federal 
government. Morgan also said 
the federal government will be 
able to finally hold the polluter 
accountable by requiring Gelman 
Sciences to pay for the adequate 
cleanup measures set by the EPA.

“That’s something we weighed 

quite a bit as we were thinking 
about our essentially two routes 
that we could go to pursue cleanup,” 
Morgan said. “The benefit to the 
federal approach is that they have 
more tools at their disposal. With 
the state process, we have a limited 
regulatory framework of state law 
to work with.”

ANN ARBOR
State sends letter to EPA regarding Gelman plume

Federal cleanup process to begin for for decades-old 1,4-dioxane pollution after years of community demands

KRISTINA ZHENG & 
JULIANNA MORANO

Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 

