The Michigan Daily spoke with
University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel Oct. 8 to discuss his
plans to step down as president in
June 2023 as well as his exit package.
Read part two of the interview to hear
Schlissel’s thoughts on COVID-19 on
campus one month into the semester,
in addition to new sexual misconduct
policies.
This conversation has been edited
for clarity.
The Michigan Daily: On Oct.
5 you announced that you will be
stepping down as president of the
University in June of 2023, a year
earlier than previously planned.
Why did you decide to step down,
and why did you announce it now?
Mark Schlissel: I’m looking at
the University gradually coming
out of this pandemic that upended
how we function and trying to
define what the new normal is
going to be. We’ve got people
working remotely still, some people
working on campus. We’ve learned
how to deliver online education in
ways that may alter the on-campus
curriculum. It’s just a time of great
change. We want to be sure that
we’re planning forward-looking
strategies to make sure that the
excellence and the impact of our
University
is
maintained
and
enhanced, even under the new
world we’re going to be functioning
in, and it seems like that’s operating
with a time course of many, many
years longer than my original time
horizon.
I told myself I’d do 10 years, and
I’ve reconsidered. I plan on stopping
after my ninth year. The reason
to announce it as soon as I did is
to give the Board of Regents and
the community as much time as
possible to talk to one another and
to get a sense of what the highest
needs are, what our ambitions are as
a community, and just to get enough
input and be deliberative on what
you know is an important decision.
I’ll have been leading the
University for approaching a decade
— that’s a long period of time — and
the regents really need the time
and space to make a really careful,
thoughtful approach to a search,
look very widely for my successor,
settle on a great person, and then
we need time for a transition. I
benefited greatly from having my
appointment announced six months
before I actually started. I was still
provost at Brown, but I was able
to come here to Ann Arbor at least
once a month or once every three
weeks or so and meet with people
and climb the learning curve to help
understand this big, complicated
place. So, just to provide plenty of
time for a thoughtful transition is
the main thing.
TMD: The Detroit Free Press
has characterized your stepping
down early as a deal between
yourself and members of the Board
of Regents who were divided over
your performance. Is this reporting
accurate in your view, and what role
did the board play in your decision
to step down early?
The University of Michigan’s
Division of Public Safety and
Security
released
its
2021
Security and Fire Safety Report
Oct. 4. The annual report, which
is required by the Jeanne Clery
Act, lists statistics for several
types of crime on campus.
The
most
recent
report
covered the 2020 calendar year.
Crimes are entered into DPSS’s
Clery logs based on the date the
crime was reported, regardless
of when it occurred. Reports of
crimes perpetrated by former
University
doctor
Robert
Anderson — which spanned
the decades he spent at the
University — were not reported
until 2020, making the number
of reports from this past year
much higher than in years prior.
Of the 1,212 rapes reported
in 2020, 1,194 were part of the
Anderson investigation. There
were 947 cases of fondling,
of which 916 came from the
investigations.
“It is important to note that
the University also received
reports about Anderson that
included conduct that did not
meet the definition of a Clery
Act crime,” the report reads.
“Because
those
allegations
did not reflect crimes meeting
Clery Act definitions, they are
not included in the University’s
statistics.”
As
part
of
the
report’s
addendum, DPSS clarified how
it classified Anderson cases,
especially
cases
where
the
details are unclear due to the
nature of the reports. In general,
when there was a question
of whether or not a case took
place within the University’s
Clery area — which refers to
the University property and
its
immediate
surroundings
— DPSS said they erred on the
side of including that case in the
report.
Survivors
of
Anderson
protested at the most recent
Board
of
Regents
meeting,
calling on the University to
better protect victims of sexual
misconduct.
Hundreds
of
survivors had previously filed
a class action lawsuit against
the
University,
saying
the
University knew of misconduct
but failed to take action on these
claims.
DPSS also said they leaned
toward including all cases when
an individual gave a vague
number of instances. When
individuals reported a range
of occurrences, officials took
the higher end of the estimate.
DPSS also said they did their
best to correlate descriptions of
cases to a specific number. For
example, a “couple” of incidents
was counted as two and a “few”
were counted as three.
Beyond the Anderson-related
claims, the University saw a
decrease in liquor and drug law
violations during 2020, while
other crimes remained largely
stable. Four fires occurred in
2020 — all were unintentional.
Daily Staff Reporter Dominic
Coletti
can
be
reached
at
dcoletti@umich.edu.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
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ARTS.............................4
M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
OPINION ...................... 8
SPORTS ........................9
STATEMENT......... INSERT
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Schlissel: Exit package is ‘a fair way forward’
CALDER LEWIS,
GEORGE WEYKAMP &
ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporters
PUBLIC SAFETY
DPSS report logs
over 2,000 crimes
by Anderson
Survivors of late athletic doctor have
protested for better protections
GABBY CERITANO/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel sat down with The Michigan Daily to discuss his resignation announcement and exit package.
RESEARCH
U-M President talks resignation announcement, multimillion dollar contract in Daily interview
DOMINIC COLETTI
Daily Staff Reporter
Last December, the Michigan
Nurses Association voted to ratify a
one-year extension to their previous
collective bargaining agreement with
Michigan Medicine. The agreement,
which included a stipulation that
nurses are not required to be
vaccinated against COVID-19, covers
all 6,200 nurses in the University of
Michigan Professional Nurse Council
Independent Union and will expire in
June 2022.
According to the new agreement,
“subject
to
Federal
and
State
requirements and guidelines for
distribution priority, the Employer will
provide the COVID-19 vaccination
at no cost to the employees and on a
voluntary basis.”
The
University’s
COVID-19
vaccine mandate announced in July
by University President Mark Schlissel
does not apply to nurses at Michigan
Medicine due to the terms in their
collective bargaining agreement. The
provisions of the agreement allow
nurses to negotiate a vaccine mandate
and though it encourages vaccination,
it doesn’t require it.
Michigan Medicine spokeswoman
Mary Masson told The Michigan Daily
that reporting individual vaccination
status is not required as well.
“Our staff members are required
to be vaccinated, unless they have
received an exemption or are covered
by collective bargaining and have not
reached an agreement on the vaccine
mandate,” Masson wrote in an email.
“We are currently asking our nurses
to voluntarily report their vaccination
status, but have not collected all of that
data.”
Anne Jackson, a registered nurse
at Michigan Medicine and interim
president of the MNA, said she
believes a vast majority of nurses at
Michigan Medicine are vaccinated
and encourages everyone who can to
get vaccinated. Jackson added that
there are other aspects of safety that
Michigan Medicine staff should be
focusing on and that vaccines are
only one part of the fight against the
pandemic.
“We need to make sure that every
nurse has access to proper PPE,”
Jackson wrote. “We need to make
sure that nurses are promptly notified
by Michigan Medicine if we have
been exposed to COVID-19. We need
to make sure that nurses are able to
easily and quickly get tested if we are
exposed irrespective of vaccination
status. We need to make sure that all
nurses are able to take the time off
they need if we get exposed or contract
COVID-19.”
Many Michigan undergraduate
nursing students said they feel as
though getting the vaccine is an
obligation that nurses should have
to follow. Nursing junior Molly
Reynolds explained that health care
providers set the standard for others,
so if patients see their caretakers
not getting vaccinated, that might
persuade them to decline the vaccine
as well.
Michigan Medicine
nurses exempt from
vaccine mandate
Bargaining agreement approved last year
includes stipulation against a requirement
ASHNA MEHRA &
NADIR AL-SAIDI
Daily Staff Reporters
A professor has taken over the
undergraduate class previously taught
by Bright Sheng, Leonard Bernstein
Distinguished University Professor
of Composition, David Gier, dean of
the School of Music, Theatre & Dance
announced Oct. 1. The announcement
comes almost a month after Sheng
showed a video to an undergraduate
composition seminar featuring an
actor in blackface.
Regarding the recent instructor
change, Gier wrote that this switch
would “allow for a positive learning
environment” so students could focus
on their “growth as composers.”
Sheng, a highly accomplished
composer, conductor and pianist, has
had his music featured by prestigious
groups including the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chinese
National Symphony Orchestra and the
New York City Ballet Orchestra.Sheng
also received a commission in honor of
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visiting
the White House in 1999, as well as
numerous awards and fellowships.
The Michigan Daily looked deeper
into what happened.
On Sept. 10, Music, Theatre & Dance
freshman Olivia Cook attended her
first composition seminar with Sheng.
This semester, the course focused on
analyzing Shakespeare’s works, and
the class began with a screening of
the 1965 version of “Othello.” Cook
told The Daily she quickly realized
something
seemed
strange,
and
upon further inspection, noticed the
onscreen actor Laurence Olivier was in
blackface.
“I was stunned,” Cook said. “In
such a school that preaches diversity
and making sure that they understand
the history of POC (people of color) in
America, I was shocked that (Sheng)
would show something like this in
something that’s supposed to be a safe
space.”
The 1965 version of the film has
been a topic of controversy since its
initial release when The New York
Times wrote a 1966 article criticizing
Olivier’s use of blackface as well as his
stereotypical performance.
According
to
Cook,
the
students were given no warning or
contextualization prior to the viewing.
Sheng sent out an apology on Sept.
10 shortly after the class ended, noting
that the casting and portrayal “was
racially insensitive and outdated.” A
copy of this email has been obtained by
The Daily. A planned “Othello” project
was then canceled by Sheng.
In an email to The Daily, Evan
Chambers, professor of composition,
wrote about the importance of
properly
preparing
students
for
possible instances of racism in film.
SMTD professor steps back from
course after blackface incident
FRANCESCA DUONG
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY MELLISA LEE
SMTD Professor Bright Sheng stepped away from his course after showing a version of Othello that featured an actor in blackface.
Bright Sheng previously taught an undergraduate composition seminar
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
See SCHLISSEL, Page 2
See SMTD , Page 2