It’s been an eventful 

summer at the University 
of Michigan. While the 
pandemic remains front of 
mind, the University has 
also dealt with the fallout 
from 
a 
massive 
sexual 

assault tragedy, grappled 
with 
buildings 
named 

after 
prominent 
figures 

with problematic actions, 
committed 
to 
carbon 

neutrality and more. 

If you’ve been away from 

the news for the summer, 
here’s what you need to 
know.

April 
27: 
President’s 

advisory 
committee 

recommends 
renaming 

Yost Ice Arena

After numerous requests 

from community members, 
The President’s Advisory 
Committee on University 
History released a report 
that 
recommended 
the 

University remove Fielding 
H. Yost’s name from Yost 
Ice Arena. Yost was the 
University’s head football 
coach 
from 
1901-1923; 

the University’s athletic 
director from 1925-1926; 
and 
led 
the 
Michigan 

football team to ten Big 10 
conference titles and six 
national 
championships 

from 1921-41. 

During 
Yost’s 
tenure 

as athletic director, he 
infamously benched Willis 
Ward, the second Black 
U-M football player and 
the 1933 Big Ten Athlete 
of the Year, for a game 
against Georgia Tech after 
Georgia refused to play if 
a Black player was allowed 
on the field. The Advisory 
Committee 
specifically 

cites this incident in their 
case for removing Yost’s 
name 
from 
the 
arena. 

The committee received 
hundreds 
of 
community 

comments on the report. 
University President Mark 
Schlissel said he will renew 
the 
conversation 
during 

the fall semester. 

May 11: Report finds 

37 years of abuse by 
U-M doctor, alleges top 
U-M officials including 
football 
coach 
Bo 

Schembechler knew

A class action complaint 

was filed on May 20 in 
the U.S. District Court 
for the Eastern District 
of Michigan against the 
University of Michigan for 
its handling of allegations 
of sexual assault against 
deceased University doctor 
Robert E. Anderson. 

The 
law 
firm 

WilmerHale, which was 
hired by the University to 
conduct the investigation 
into 
these 
allegations, 

concluded in its May 11 
report that there was “no 
doubt” that the hundreds 
of 
complaints 
against 

Anderson were credible. 
WilmerHale’s report also 
recommended 
steps 
to 

improve the University’s 
practices around sexual and 
gender-based misconduct. 

The 
class 
action 

complaint seeks a court 
order that will require the 
University to carry out 
major reforms surrounding 
the school’s best-practice 
policies 
and 
procedures 

related 
to 
sexual 
and 

gender-based 
abuse 
on 

campus. The University has 
made a motion to dismiss 
the case. 

On 
June 
11, 
Matt 

Schembechler, the son of 
former Michigan football 
coach Bo Schembechler, 
in 
addition 
to 
former 

players Gilvanni Johnson 
and Daniel Kwiatkowski, 
alleged in a press conference 
that 
Bo 
Schembechler 

was aware that Anderson 
sexually assaulted student-
athletes. 
The 
claims 

sparked widespread debate 
on campus about renaming 
Schembechler 
Hall 
and 

removing 
Schembechler’s 

statue on campus. 

May 
20: 
Schlissel, 

Regents 
commit 
to 

decades-long 
carbon 

neutrality plan

At 
the 
Board 
of 

Regents meeting in May, 
Schlissel 
announced 
a 

commitment to becoming 
carbon neutrality by 2040 
across 
the 
three 
U-M 

campuses after years of 
community activism. The 
announcement came two 
years after the President’s 
Commission 
on 
Carbon 

Neutrality was formed to 
draft 
recommendations 

and 
seek 
community 

feedback on achieving this 
goal.

The plan aims to eliminate 

Scope 1 emissions, which 
derive directly from the 
University’s 
operations, 

by 2040. The University 
committed 
to 
achieving 

carbon 
neutrality 
for 

Scope 2 emissions, which 
come from the purchase of 
power off-campus, by 2025. 
Defined goals for achieving 
carbon neutrality for Scope 
3 emissions, which are 
any emissions indirectly 
related to the University, 
will also be laid out by 
2025. 

June 3: Weiser Hall 

retains its name

After 
a 
petition 
to 

rename Weiser Hall gained 
hundreds 
of 
signatures 

from 
members 
of 
the 

physics 
and 
astronomy 

departments, 
Schlissel 

decided to not recommend 
renaming 
the 
building. 

Weiser Hall is named for 
Ronald Weiser, U-M regent 
and chair of the Michigan 
Republican Party, as well 
as his wife Eileen Weiser. 

In 
April, 
Michigan 

community 
members 

known as the Network for 
Ongoing 
Reconsideration 

of 
Our 
Nomenclature 

(NORON) 
voiced 
their 

displeasure with the hall’s 
namesake by hosting a 
mock “renaming,” calling 
the building the “Weiser 
Center for Voter Supression, 
Political Assassination and 
Witch Burning.” 

The name derived from 

a remark Weiser made at a 
March 25 North Oakland 
Republican Club meeting, 

when he labeled Michigan’s 
top officeholders — three 
Democratic women — as 
“witches” and joked about 
political 
assassination. 

Soon after, Weiser was 
censured by the Board and 
removed from committees, 
though he remains on the 
Board. 

June 
17: 
University 

briefly 
lifts 
mask 

requirement 
for 
fully 

vaccinated individuals

For nearly two months 

this 
summer, 
fully 

vaccinated 
individuals 

were not required to wear 
masks 
in 
most 
indoor 

campus 
spaces. 
The 

University had reported 
single-digit 
COVID-19 

cases in each of the previous 
six weeks. The move came 
the same day Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer 
announced 
an 

end to all statewide mask 
and capacity restrictions 
as Michigan saw its lowest 
case numbers since the 
pandemic began. 

June 
17: 
Board 
of 

Regents expands the Go 
Blue Guarantee to the 
University of Michigan’s 
Flint 
and 
Dearborn 

campuses

After years of activism 

from cross-campus groups 
such as One University, 
the University expanded 
its signature financial aid 
program to the Flint and 
Dearborn campuses. The 
Go Blue Guarantee is a 
free-tuition 
scholarship 

for in-state students whose 
family income is less than 
$65,000 annually, which is 
the state’s median income.

The 
expansion 
was 

not without controversy, 
as 
some 
protested 
the 

requirement that incoming 
students 
at 
Flint 
and 

Dearborn 
earn 
an 
3.5 

incoming GPA to receive 
the 
scholarship 
— 
a 

requirement not in place 
on the Ann Arbor campus. 
University 
officials 

responded that nearly all 
Ann Arbor campus students 

enter with higher than a 3.5 
GPA due to the Ann Arbor 
admissions process, so a 
GPA requirement is not 
necessary.

July 
15: 
Office 
of 

Institutional 
Equity 

rebranded as Equity, Civil 
Rights and Title IX office 
in attempt to overhaul 
culture 
around 
sexual 

misconduct 

Faced with scrutiny for 

high-profile 
mishandling 

of 
sexual 
misconduct 

cases 
in 
recent 
years, 

Schlissel announced that 
the 
University 
would 

create a new unit known 
as the Equity, Civil Rights 
and Title IX Office to 
replace 
the 
Office 
of 

Institutional Equity. ECRT 
will handle the same cases 
as OIE, but will focus on 
providing more “support 
and prevention” measures, 
Schlissel said.

Though the office was 

rebranded, it will continue 
to 
be 
led 
by 
Tamiko 

Strickman, the associate 
vice president and director 
of OIE who faced scrutiny 
over alleged mishandling 
cases of student sexual 
assault and racism during 
her time at the University 
of Nebraksa-Lincoln. 

The 
University 
also 

attempted to reform the 
culture around responding 
to misconduct, including 
protecting 
those 
who 

report 
misconduct 
from 

retaliation; 
prohibiting 

supervisors 
from 

attempting to initiate a 
relationship 
with 
those 

they 
supervise; 
and 

outlining plans to improve 
how potential outside hires 
and candidates for board-
approved appointments are 
vetted. 

The 
University 
also 

established a large Title IX 
advisory group composed 
of students, faculty and 
staff 
that 
will 
provide 

input on matters related to 
sexual and gender-based 
misconduct 
policy 
and 

prevention.

July 
18: 
Librarians, 

archivists and curators 
join LEO with bargaining 
status

Librarians, 
archivists 

and curators were formally 
recognized as a bargaining 
unit within the Lecturers 
Employee 
Organization, 

the University’s main union 
of non-tenure-track faculty 
on all three campuses. 
The new unit is called 
LEO-GLAM, which stands 
for 
galleries, 
libraries, 

archives and museums, to 
reflect the environments in 
which most LACs work.

July 
30: 
Schlissel 

announces 
vaccine 

requirement 
for 
all 

students, 
faculty 
and 

staff

As 
the 
Delta 
variant 

spread across the country 
after 
an 
early 
summer 

COVID-19 
lull, 
the 

University announced it 
would require all students, 
faculty and staff to be 
fully vaccinated for the 
fall semester. The policy 
grants 
limited 
medical 

and religious exemptions, 
in addition to deferrals for 
students to get vaccinated 
right away once they arrive 
on campus. 

The 
requirement 

was 
well-received, 
as 

community members said 
it 
alleviated 
confusion 

over 
different 
policies 

for 
vaccinated 
and 

unvaccinated 
students. 

The campus community 
has a higher vaccination 
rate than the surrounding 
area — 92% of students 
and 75% of employees are 
fully vaccinated, compared 
to 67% of eligible residents 
in Washtenaw County — 
but rates are much lower 
among 
University 
staff 

than students and faculty. 

Aug. 9: Indoor mask 

mandate reinstated with 
exception for residence 
halls

After Washtenaw County 

COVID-19 
transmission 

rose to levels at which 

the Centers for Disease 
Control 
and 
Prevention 

recommends 
indoor 

masking, 
the 
University 

reinstated 
its 
mask 

mandate 
regardless 
of 

vaccination status. Though 
student vaccination rates 
had surpassed the 75% 
benchmark 
originally 

set to allow unmasking 
in classrooms, the policy 
change 
means 
students 

will need to wear a mask 
indoors for the foreseeable 
future. 

A large exception is for 

students living in residence 
halls, who will be able to go 
unmasked on their floors. 
Masks 
are 
encouraged, 

but not required, at large 
outdoor gatherings such as 
football games.

Aug. 
9: 
Lecturers’ 

Employee 
Organization 

quits 
their 
contract, 

threatening a strike

After 
negotiations 

stalled, University lecturers 
announced that LEO would 
quit their contract with 
the University due to pay 
inequities 
for 
lecturers 

on the Flint and Dearborn 
campuses. Though LEO’s 
previous 
contract 
with 

the 
University 
already 

lapsed on April 20, the 
union has spent the last 
several months attempting 
to negotiate the terms of 
a new contract before the 
start of the fall semester. 

This decision means a 

large portion of faculty 
instructors could possibly 
go on strike on Sept. 8, 
just 
before 
the 
second 

week of school. It would 
mark the second straight 
year of strikes to begin the 
fall term, as the Graduate 
Employees’ 
Organization 

striked for nine days in 
September 2020 to protest 
the University’s pandemic 
response.

Daily News Editor Calder 
Lewis 
and 
Daily 
Staff 

Reporter 
Jared 
Dougall 

can be reached at calderll@
umich.edu and jdougall@
umich.edu.

2 — Wednesday, September 1, 2021
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NEWS

Here’s the biggest news out of the 

University of Michigan this summer

On top of changing COVID-19 situation, administration grappled with Anderson abuse, building names, carbon neutrality

CALDER LEWIS &
JARED DOUGALL
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporter

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily 

While the pandemic remains front of mind, the University has also dealt with the fallout from a massive sexual assault tragedy, 
grappled with buildings named after prominent figures with problematic actions, committed to carbon neutrality and more. 

