UPDATE – 8 p.m. Oct. 3
No individual is in custody
following
a
shooting
threat
against women at the University
of Michigan, Mara Schneider,
special agent for the Federal
Bureau of Investigation with the
Detroit field office, confirmed in
a Oct. 3 7:40 p.m. email to The
Michigan Daily.
“We are still collecting &
reviewing evidence to determine
whether the threat was made
in violation of either state or
federal law,” Schneider wrote.
“There won’t be a referral to a
prosecutor’s office until that
review is complete.”
ORIGINAL STORY – 7:09
p.m. Oct. 3
Classes and activities at the
University of Michigan will take
place “as scheduled” on Oct.
4, University President Mark
Schlissel announced the evening
of Oct. 4 in an email addressed
to members of the campus
community. Many on campus
have been shaken by the shooter
threat against women that was
anonymously
posted
on
the
Russian confession platform Sinn
List, which circulated on social
media on Oct. 2.
According to Schlissel’s email,
the individual who posted the
“bigoted and misogynistic” threat
is located on the East Coast.
The Division of Public Safety
and
Security
had
previously
announced that “there is nothing
to indicate imminent harm to our
community.”
“What we know today from
the FBI is that the threat has been
mitigated, and there is no current
or pending threat based on the
post,” Schlissel wrote.
Mara
Schneider,
special
agent for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation with the Detroit
field office, wrote in a statement
to The Michigan Daily that the
FBI interviewed the individual
determined to be responsible
for the post and found that there
was no threat to the University
community.
“Special
agents
from
the
FBI’s
Baltimore
Division,
which covers the entire states
of
Maryland
and
Delaware,
contacted the individual, who
has
been
cooperative
with
law
enforcement,”
Schneider
wrote. “During the interview,
agents assessed the individual
had neither the means nor the
opportunity to carry out the
threat.”
An update from DPSS posted
at 6:50pm on Oct. 3 reiterated the
FBI’s statement that there is no
current threat to the community.
“DPSS is confident that any
threat from the post has been
addressed
and
mitigated,”
DPSS Executive Director Eddie
Washington said in the statement.
University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel will step down from
his presidency beginning in June
2023, a year earlier than initially
planned.
In a tweet Oct. 5, Schlissel said
his decision to announce that he was
stepping down now would allow for
“a smooth & thoughtful leadership
transition.”
“The work we do matters,”
Schlissel wrote. “It’s work that the
president of this university has the
immense privilege of leading and
being a part of. Every day we heal,
discover, teach and serve – advancing
a public mission and strengthening
the immutable Michigan bond of
knowledge and values.”
Schlissel also said he decided this
timing is appropriate after discussion
with the Board of Regents.
“The new horizon gives the Board
time to consult with our community,
think about the future and thoroughly
plan and conduct a search for my
successor, while allowing us to
continue momentum on important
and time-critical efforts that are
underway,” Schlissel said.
The Detroit Free Press reported
that tensions between the regents and
Schlissel had “reached a boiling point”
in September 2021 after Schlissel
failed to communicate with the board
about the status of the failed Detroit
Center for Innovation project. A week
after the Free Press report, the board
gave Schlissel a 3% pay raise for the
upcoming year.
Schlissel first took office in July
2014 and was previously provost of
Brown University.
Schlissel’s accomplishments as
president include creating the Go Blue
Guarantee to make a U-M education
free for in-state students from families
below Michigan’s median income
and then expanding to it the Flint
and Dearborn campuses — with a
controversial GPA requirement for
those two campuses — after years of
student activism. He also promised
complete carbon neutrality for the
University by 2040 after extensive
activism by the campus community,
which included arrests of some
student activists.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 50
©2021 The Michigan Daily
NEWS............................2
ARTS.............................4
M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
OPINION ...................... 8
SPORTS ........................9
STATEMENT......... INSERT
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UMich President Mark Schlissel to
step down from role in June 2023
MICHIGAN DAILY
NEWS EDITORS
PUBLIC SAFETY
FBI, DPSS identify
individual behind
U-M shooter threat
Person who threatened violence against women
is not in custody, cooperating with authorities
EMMA MATI/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel announced Oct. 5 he will be stepping down in June 2023, a year earlier than originally scheduled.
ACADEMICS
It is still unclear when a successor will be announced or who will take over the presidency
BARBARA COLLINS &
LIAT WEINSTEIN
Managing News Editors
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Tensions
ran
high
at
the
Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 4
on as University of Michigan
administration
and
faculty
members discussed five motions
related to the University’s sexual
misconduct response, the absence
of options for remote instruction
this
semester
and
COVID-19
protocols on campus.
Discussion
of
the
motions
first started in September when
faculty sent them to University
President
Mark
Schlissel
and
Provost Susan Collins. Schlissel
responded to the motions in an
email to Faculty Senate on Sept. 30,
backing the University’s decision
to return to large in-person classes
and mentioning the new sexual
misconduct policy introduced Sept.
23.
The first motion calls on the
University to reinstate COVID-19
protections like social distancing
and asks for greater flexibility for
faculty to teach remotely. Currently,
masks are required in all indoor
University spaces. Though students
must wear masks during classes,
social distancing is not enforced.
Faculty
are
asking
for
greater teaching flexibility to be
implemented through changing
Work Connections, the University’s
disability management program,
to allow faculty with disabilities or
health conditions to teach remotely.
LSA
professor
Silke-Maria
Weineck spoke in favor of Motion
1, saying that Work Connections
currently has too much power to
decide whether faculty have to
teach in-person or not. Weineck
said the University should not make
faculty go against their physician’s
medical advice or force them to
teach in-person if they have a pre-
existing condition that makes them
more vulnerable to COVID-19.
“A case management at Work
Connections has the power to
overrule your doctor and inform
your dean that you must suck it
up — there’s no appeal,” Weineck
said.
“Deans
can,
in
theory,
ignore the determinations, but in
practice, they defer to them, so the
most vulnerable amongst us have
faced the choice to work and live
in constant fear or to lose their
livelihood. This includes LEO
faculty — we don’t have a vote today
and staff who don’t have a vote
anywhere.”
In his email to the Faculty
Senate,
Schlissel
said
Work
Connections
has
reviewed
28
“formal requests” to teach remotely
“out of a total of 8,500 instructional
faculty members across all three
U-M campuses.”
According
to
Schlissel,
of
those 28, 20 were rejected, 4
were accepted as “needing some
enhanced accommodations,” 2 are
awaiting more information from
the applicants, 1 was withdrawn
and 1 was unrelated to COVID-19.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Schlissel, faculty
spar about COVID,
misconduct policies
Instructors, administration discussed five
motions at Oct. 4’s Faculty Senate meeting
HANNAH MACKAY,
LIAT WEINSTEIN &
PAIGE HODDER
Daily News Editors &
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
In 1972, Michigan resident
Amy Nowland flew to New York,
where
the
most
permissive
women’s
reproductive
health
laws in the country existed at
the time, to undergo an abortion.
Nowland received the procedure
a year prior to the U.S. Supreme
Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, a
1973 landmark decision declaring
that the Consitution granted all
women the liberty to have an
abortion.
Nowland, who spoke in front
of a crowd at a Women’s March
protest on Oct. 2, recalled her
mother’s disapproval, saying she
would not fly to New York with
Nowland and instead sent a friend
with her. When she returned to
Michigan after the procedure,
Nowland
said
her
mother
refused to talk to her about the
experience.
“I did not grieve having the
abortion,”
Nowland
said.
“I
grieved the little 17-year-old that
had to do it on her own.”
Nowland
was
one
of
the
hundreds gathered at the protest
in front of the Federal Building
in Ann Arbor, rallying for the
protection of reproductive rights
for women.
The protest in Ann Arbor
was one of over 600 Women’s
Marches
across
the
country
on Oct. 2. These protests are
in response to the passage of
Texas Senate Bill 8, also known
as the Texas Heartbeat Act, in
September, which banned nearly
all abortions in the state. The act
prohibits all abortions in which
cardiac activity is present, which
usually occurs after six weeks of
fetal development.
Last
month,
the
Justice
Department sued Texas over
the law, arguing that its intent
was to violate the constitution. A
federal judge heard from lawyers
representing the State of Texas
and the Justice Department on
Oct. 1 debating whether or not to
pause the ban while the courts
determine its legality.
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme
Court decided not to block the
law last month, shortly after it
went into effect.
Ahead of new Supreme Court term,
protest supports reproductive rights
ELIZABETH HWANG
Daily Staff Reporter
ANNA FUDER/Daily
Hundreds gathered for the Women’s March in Ann Arbor on Oct. 2.
Ann Arbor Women’s March was one of more than 600 rallies across the nation
Read more at MichiganDaily.com