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

