The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, September 8, 2021
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Many of the participating
organizations
also
tried
to
reduce the amount of close
contact between attendees by
asking them to scan QR codes
to access information and sign-
up forms rather than handing
out large paper flyers. Guenther
wrote the amount of paper
waste left behind at the end of
this year’s event was “notably
less” than it was at previous
in-person Festifalls.
LSA senior Sara Trumza
said
her
organization,
the
Multicultural
Association
of
Pre-Health
Students,
posted
QR codes linking to their social
media accounts to limit paper
waste and touchpoints.
“We thought with COVID it
would be a lot easier for people
to just use their phone to scan
the QR code and then they would
have access to our Instagram
page,” Trumza said. “It is just
a one-stop for everything that
we have, just in case students
don’t feel comfortable touching
anything.”
Apart
from
student
organizations,
several
local
businesses set up tables in a
closed-off section of North
University Avenue to pass out
free gifts and showcase their
merchandise.
Josh
Lee,
the
program
manager
for
student
development at the Center for
Campus Involvement, helped
organize Festifall and wrote
in an email to The Daily that
vendors first participated in
Festifall in 2019 but were not
present in 2020 due to the
virtual format.
“The big change this year
was
placing
Vendors
on
North University,” Lee wrote.
“Community
vendors
are
another great pathway to get
students
connected
to
the
greater A2 community, and
we felt that the partnership
was important and warranted
continuing this year.”
In her email to The Daily,
Guenther wrote that funds
collected
from
vendor
participation helped to offset
the operating costs associated
with Festifall, reducing the
cost to $30 this year for student
organizations to secure a table.
U-M alum Rishi Narayan,
founder
of
local
business
Underground
Printing,
said
this is his company’s first time
participating in Festifall.
“We just want to meet our
customers, maybe meet some
new customers and hand out
some free stuff,” Narayan said.
Another
local
business,
Sweetwaters
Coffee
and
Tea, attended Festifall with
a
different
goal
in
mind.
Though they were handing
out free cold brew samples to
students, Megan Paddock, the
manager of the Sweetwaters at
the Michigan Union, said her
main objective was to hire new
student baristas.
“We’re hoping that this is going
to be a good hiring event and
giving students the opportunity
to find a job that is flexible with
their schedules, and that’s also
fun,” Paddock said.
Daily Staff Reporters Roni
Kane and Kaitlyn Luckoff can be
reached at ronikane@umich.edu
and kluckoff@umich.edu.
FESTIFALL
From Page 1
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Students gather for Festifall on the Diag Sept. 2.
ADMINISTRATION
Schlissel, Strickman discuss new Equity,
Civil Rights, and Title IX Office
ECRT replaces the oft-criticized Office of Institutional Equity
University
of
Michigan
President
Mark
Schlissel
and
Tamiko Strickman, director of
the new Equity, Civil Rights and
Title IX Office, sat down with
The Michigan Daily on Sept. 2 to
discuss updates to the University’s
mechanisms
for
investigating
allegations of sexual misconduct
and other crimes. The interview
began with Schlissel and Strickman
giving opening remarks regarding
the status of the new ECRT office,
followed by an interview with
The Daily. This article has been
condensed and edited for clarity.
You can read part one of the
interview, which discusses past
controversies
with
OIE
and
lawsuits against Strickman from
her time at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, on our website
at michigandaily.com.
Mark Schlissel: For us to
really change and improve, we’ve
got to look at three categories
of things: the structures we use
around our issues of misconduct,
the
actual
policies
and
our
culture. We’ve been announcing
policy changes, like the policy
about
relationships
between
supervisors
and
supervisees.
Along with those policies, the
ECRT is a structure that allows
us to do many things. We really
want to be a place where every
member of our community feels
respected, safe and supported.
We’re working hard on a new anti-
retaliation policy, and that’ll come
out in the coming months. We also
are committed to education and
prevention so that we can prevent
(misconduct) to begin with. We
hope all these things, when you
put them together, really put us
on a path to be amongst the best
universities when it comes to
sexual misconduct.
The Equity, Civil Rights and
Title IX Office is central to
these efforts. We took the Office
of Institutional Equity apart
and rebuilt a new organization,
covering the functions of the
old OIE but in a different way —
one that’s designed to provide
better support, more outreach,
better education and integrate
prevention efforts along with our
other investigatory efforts.
Tamiko Strickman: It’s a
really exciting time right now.
Shortly after the announcement
in July, we were able to post
the positions for the equity
specialists, who are a critical
change for the ECRT. You’re
familiar with the critique of
OIE-type offices, that oftentimes
the initial contact feels cold and
intimidating when it’s from an
investigator.
Survivors
aren’t
prepared sometimes for that
outreach,
and
these
equity
specialists will serve as what
I like to call a soft outreach, or
a buffer between the survivor
and the initial meeting with the
investigator.
Once that survivor makes a
decision on the most appropriate
and
comfortable
path
for
themselves, the equity specialists
will
work
alongside
the
investigator to continue providing
that support for both parties who
are involved in an investigation.
So when somebody says, “This
has just been an emotional time
for me, I have an exam coming up
and I really need a modification,”
it would be the equity specialists
that would help to facilitate that.
We will start our final interviews
in the coming weeks and engage
some of our campus partners to
help make those decisions.
We are very close to finalizing
the position for an outcomes
officer. That will be a critical
position as well to ensure that
these cases are completed, and if
there are recommended steps or
sanctions, that they are followed
through upon.
The third position that we are
hoping to post next week will
be the Director of Prevention
Education
Assistance
and
Resources. And we’ll start to
build out all of the prevention
and education efforts, working
very
closely
with
SAPAC
(Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center), collaborating
with
our
faculty
research
expert partners, partnering and
continuing working with the
Center for Research on Learning
& Teaching.
MS: Tami and I now work
directly together, so this will
come to me to make sure that
it has the full attention of the
campus and the resources it
needs to be successful.
The Michigan Daily: In July,
it was announced that ECRT
will oversee a new department of
Prevention, Education Assistance
and
Resources
(PEAR)
that
aims to develop and distribute
materials
on
sexual
assault
prevention and support. Under
the new department, PEAR would
also institute a liaison program
that would “designate a member
of each department to be a point
of contact for any information
or resources regarding sexual
misconduct and discrimination.”
How
will
said
department
members be selected, and what
will they be trained to do with the
information they receive?
TS: One of the ways that we’re
starting to get some information
on these liaisons are people who
are interested in the cause. For
example, when ECRT goes in
and does a training program
in a particular unit, I will have
particular people reach out to
say, “Look, I’m really interested
in this subject matter and any
opportunities for partnership.”
I’m a big believer that people
are most receptive to messaging
through their peers and their
colleagues.
The training will be through
ECRT in the beginning to talk
about things like if somebody
comes to you and asks a question
about reporting, here’s a bullet
point list of talking points. So it
would be an ongoing training. We
would build it out more robustly
as the program develops more
and more.
TMD: In the past, OIE has
investigated less than 10% of
reported
allegations
due
in
part to some allegations falling
“outside the scope of University
policy,” according to a 2017-2018
OIE report. Under the ECRT, do
you plan to expand the scope of
University policy to investigate a
greater percentage of allegations?
What constitutes an allegation
to be “outside the scope of
University policy”?
TS: A lot of factors come
into play, because oftentimes
somebody may say “I don’t want
an investigation, I’d like to be
able to drop out of this course
right now because somebody is
in that course who makes me feel
uncomfortable, but I don’t need
an investigation, I’m just looking
to withdraw with no penalty or
adverse impact to my academic
record.” A lot of times people
will say, “I’m looking for some
alternative form of resolution,”
perhaps student-to-student, so
we go over to the OSCR (Office
of Student Conflict Resolution)
office, sit down with the experts
there and come to some type
of agreement. So we continue
to address every civil rights
allegation or report that comes
into our office; there are just a
menu of ways to handle it and we
try to take into account what that
person is requesting.
MS: There are some reports
that we don’t have jurisdiction
over, like somebody who’s a
member of our community but
is complaining about someone
who has nothing to do with the
University at all. Other instances
where
there’s
a
complaint
about
troublesome
behavior,
but it doesn’t qualify as being
harassment or violation of civil
rights, it’s just a complaint. So
there are lots of reasons, but
the goal is to investigate and
have a good resolution of every
complaint that comes forward,
and sometimes it’s through an
investigation. Other times it’s
through these other mechanisms
that Tami mentioned.
CALDER LEWIS &
GEORGE WEYKAMP
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Associate Editor: Julia Maloney