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
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
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@michigandaily

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

