University
of
Michigan
President Mark Schlissel is facing
backlash from U-M faculty and
campus
organizations
after
portraying
expanded
tuition
assistance
for
UM-Flint
and
UM-Dearborn
students
as
a
financial and academic burden on
the UM-Ann Arbor campus.
In a survey sent to over
4,000 faculty, Schlissel asked
faculty to rate their agreement
with the statement: “UM-Ann
Arbor should provide funding
for students at UM-Flint and
UM-Dearborn to benefit from
the Go Blue Guarantee even if
it means sacrificing academic
excellence or lower salary growth
on the Ann Arbor campus.”
Screenshots of the survey, which
is part of Schlissel’s annual
formal evaluation, were posted
by faculty to Twitter Wednesday.
Schlissel also asked faculty in the
survey about their comfort level
with in-person teaching and their
satisfaction with progress on U-M
diversity and inclusion efforts.
The
Go
Blue
Guarantee
campaign,
launched
for
the
UM-Ann Arbor campus in 2018,
offers free tuition for in-state
families with collective incomes
under $65,000. In the years since,
representatives from U-M Flint
and U-M Dearborn have worked
to bring the program to their
respective campuses to increase
its outreach to students. UM-Ann
Arbor
campus
community
members have also called for the
program to be extended to the
satellite campuses.
The phrasing of the Go Blue
Guarantee question on the survey
received backlash from faculty
because of its implication that
the University would have to
sacrifice the quality of education
and faculty in exchange for
affordability
for
students,
multiple faculty members told
The Michigan Daily.
The U-M Office of Public
Affairs did not respond directly
to a question of whether Schlissel
believes extending the Go Blue
Guarantee
to
UM-Flint
and
UM-Dearborn would “sacrifice
academic excellence” and “lower
salary growth” at UM-Ann Arbor.
In an interview with The
Daily last month, Schlissel said
the leadership of UM-Flint and
UM-Dearborn were considering
instituting the Go Blue Guarantee
on their own.
“If they decided to do a Go
Blue Guarantee, they would take
money away from somewhere
else,” Schlissel said. “So they’re
making the balancing act or
values judgement about what
is best needed on each of their
campuses.”
Schlissel said the Ann Arbor
campus instituted the guarantee
because it had very few students
from the bottom 50% of the
socioeconomic strata in the state
of Michigan.
“We wanted to invest in
making sure that Michigan in
Ann Arbor was accessible to
people throughout the economic
spectrum,” Schlissel said.
42% of UM-Dearborn and 39%
of UM-Flint students qualify for
the Pell Grant, a federal grant
awarded
to
high-achieving
students with financial need,
who are not eligible to receive
Go Blue Guarantee benefits as
they are not enrolled on the Ann
Arbor campus. 15% of UM-Ann
Arbor students qualify for the
Pell Grant.
One University, a faculty- and
student-led group that advocates
for equitable funding across the
University’s
three
campuses,
released a statement condemning
the wording of Schlissel’s survey
and calling for an apology.
The One University campaign
said the survey “traffics in the
most base classist and racist
assumptions about our students;”
“pits
working-class
students
at Flint and Dearborn against
faculty
salaries
at
UM-Ann
Arbor;”
“threatens
(faculty)
with
lower
salaries
if
they
support
those
(lower-income)
students;” “implies that it is
exclusively the priorities of the
Ann Arbor campus that matter
when
formulating
university
policy;” and is “clearly designed
to elicit a particular result, which
happens to align with the policy
preferences of the President.”
3
Thursday, June 3, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
On the one-year anniversary of
the murder of George Floyd, the
Ann Arbor Independent Police
Oversight Commission (ICPOC)
both reflected on the past of police
violence in the nation and in the
community and looked forward
to the future of policing in Ann
Arbor.
A year ago, Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin knelt on
George Floyd’s neck for nine
minutes and 29 seconds while
other
officers
watched
Floyd
die. In response to the murder
and national outrage, protests in
cities across the world took place
in search of systemic change.
Following the response, Chauvin
was fired and more recently found
guilty of second-degree murder,
third-degree murder and second-
degree manslaughter.
The
meeting
opened
with
a prayer from Pastor Mashod
Evans from Ann Arbor’s Bethel
AME Church, a historically Black
community institution in the
city. Evans called on the meeting
attendees to remember the long
historical legacy of the murder
of Black people in the U.S. and to
acknowledge how the fight to end
this violence continues every day.
“While we have lost a brother,
a friend, in George Floyd and
so many, that has spurred a
movement for something greater,
something
newer,
something
better,” Evans said.
Dr. Lisa Jackson, chair of the
commission, then opened the
public forum with a statement
of reflection on Floyd’s murder
and also the numerous other
incidents of violence committed
against Black people over the
years. Jackson emphasized that
for Ann Arbor to make substantive
progress, the community must
establish meaningful oversight.
“Meaningful oversight means
that the results of oversight
actually change the way that
policing is done in our city in a way
that is just for all of its inhabitants,
workers and visitors,” Jackson
said. “Meaningful oversight means
that when a policing mistake
is made it is not obfuscated.
Meaningful oversight means that
when something happens to you,
you feel safe going to the police
because you know the police are
actually accountable to you.”
Jackson then went on to discuss
two projects the committee is
involved in in the city: establishing
a system of responders responsible
for mental health crises, instead
of police, and the creation of
unarmed traffic enforcement.
“It is only by taking officers
out of situations that they’re not
equipped to handle and holding
those officers who abuse their
authority
accountable
(that)
we can create the conditions
for real relationships between
the community and the police,”
Jackson said.
Unarmed traffic enforcement
has been made a priority in cities
such
as
Berkeley,
California,
and the committee expressed a
desire to follow their example. In
cities such as Denver, successful
changes have been made to send
health care workers instead of
police in response to mental health
crises.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann
Arbor, spoke about a bipartisan
package proposed in the State
Senate that includes bills targeting
accountability and transparency
in policing. If passed, the bills
would
ban
chokeholds
and
no-knock warrants. Irwin’s bill
focuses
on
de-escalation
and
de-stigmatization
of
mental
illness.
“I proposed this bill to include
training to help officers recognize
their implicit bias and require
training to help identify people
who are having a mental health
crisis and how to deescalate that,”
Irwin said.
Throughout the meeting, there
was also much discussion of
optimism and the role it plays or
doesn’t play in activism.
Commissioner
and
LSA
sophomore Makiah Shipp said
many negative police interactions
have been harmfully normalized,
but
that
people
should
be
optimistic about the work that
young activists are doing, on the
University of Michigan campus
especially.
“When
you
think
about
maintaining optimism or grabbing
a little bit if you’ve lost it all, I
hope that you can do so for our
generation,” Shipp said.
Shipp also said serious work
needs to be done in examining
the role that the U-M Division of
Public Safety and Security (DPSS)
plays on campus.
“(DPSS is) equally as important,
because those are the people that
are also interacting with students
and regular people on campus,”
Shipp said. “People will have
PTSD from police interaction and
nobody believes it.”
Former
Ann
Arbor
City
Councilmember
Stephen
Kunselman
talked
about
the
importance
of
police
in
the
communities and how, even with
their flaws, the police’s role should
not go unappreciated.
Ann Arbor Independent Community Police
Oversight Commission talk George Floyd,
accountability and optimism at monthly meeting
Schlissel’s “Go Blue Guarantee”
survey question draws criticism from
faculty, campus organizations
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
The Ann Arbor Independent Community Police Oversight Commission held an
outdoor forum in Liberty Square on the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder
Wednesday afternoon.
PAIGE HODDER AND TEAGAN
STEBBINS
Summer News Editor and Daily Staff Reporter
JARED DOUGALL AND KATE
WEILAND
Summer News Editor and Daily Staff Reporter