Jonathan Vaughn, a former
University of Michigan running
back, has been camping in a tent
outside of University President
Mark Schlissel’s residence on South
University Avenue for more than six
days, as of Oct. 14.
Vaughn, a survivor of late athletic
doctor
Robert
Anderson,
said
he’ll stay there rain or shine until
Schlissel and the regents commit to
meet with him and other Anderson
survivors.
He is also spreading awareness of
the now 2,000 known accusations
of abuse by Anderson and calling
on the University to support other
survivors. A crowd of more than
100 joined Vaughn on Oct. 14 in
front of the President’s house to
protest the University’s handling
of the allegations against Anderson
and demand greater transparency
and support for sexual misconduct
victims.
The vigil was organized in
response to a Sept. 23 Board
of Regents meeting, in which
no University official verbally
acknowledged
the
attendance
of hundreds of former student-
athletes who were survivors of
Anderson.
Survivors of both Anderson
and former Michigan State doctor
Larry Nassar have been expressing
their support for Vaughn around
South University Avenue since
Oct. 8. When they gathered, many
chanted phrases such as “We are
not ashamed anymore,” “We are all
victorious” and “Wake up Mark.”
In an interview with The
Michigan
Daily,
Vaughn
said
despite sleeping outside Schlissel’s
house since the night of Oct. 8 and
seeing him come and go from work
every day, he hasn’t heard from
the University’s administration.
Vaughn said he hoped the protest
helps bring awareness to sexual
misconduct and fosters a safer
on-campus community.
“The goal of tonight is freeing, is
empowering, is showing solidarity
for the Dr. Robert Anderson victims
as well as all the students who
feel like this University doesn’t
properly treat … sexual assault and
sexual abuse cases,” Vaughn said.
“Although (the University) might
be the number one public university
in the world, it also has students,
young ladies and young men who
say it’s not a safe place for them to go
to college.”
In an email to The Daily,
University
spokesperson
Rick
Fitzgerald wrote that, while the
University was appreciative of the
survivors’ bravery for stepping out,
they are unable to comment on
ongoing litigation. Fitzgerald also
wrote that the University remains
committed
to
providing
fair
compensation for the survivors.
“We hear all of the survivors of
the late Dr. Robert Anderson’s abuse
and we thank them for their bravery
in coming forward,” Fitzgerald
wrote. “We also are working toward
fair compensation for the Anderson
survivors through the confidential,
court-supervised mediation process
that is continuing.”
The Michigan Daily put together
a local election guide to help voters
understand what will be on the ballot
for the Nov. 2 Ann Arbor special
election. Voters will consider four
ballot proposals, outlined below as
Proposals A through D.
Absentee Voting & Ballot Drop
Box Locations
Residents who wish to vote by
mail or with any designated voter
registration agency must register to
do so by Oct. 18. Voters may request
an absentee ballot here. After Oct.
18,voters may still register in person
at the City Clerk’s Office with proof
of residency until 8 p.m. Nov. 2.
Voters must return ballots no later
than 8 p.m. on Election Day, though
the City Clerk’s Office recommends
voters return ballots in advance.
Any Ann Arbor resident voting by
absentee ballot can return their
ballot at the following drop box
locations:
- Inside Larcom City Hall, 301 E.
Huron St., at the north entrance
- Outside Larcom City Hall on
Ann Street, located by the customer
service drop box on the north side of
Ann Street and east of Fifth Avenue.
-
Parking
lot
at
Veterans
Memorial Park Ice Arena and Pool,
2150 Jackson Ave.
- Outside Ann Arbor Fire Station
5, 1946 Beal Ave.
- Outside Cobblestone Farm/
Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation
Customer Service Center, 2781
Packard Rd.
- Outside Ann Arbor Fire Station
6 at Eisenhower entrance, northwest
side of building, 1881 Briarwood Circle.
Proposal
A:
Best
Value
Purchasing
In July, the Ann Arbor City
Council approved a city charter
amendment in hopes of allowing
city staff to better assess the quality
of bidders for public improvement
projects.
If passed, this proposal would
require the city of Ann Arbor
to award contracts for supplies,
materials or public improvements
based on “best value” instead of
going with the lowest responsible
bidder, meaning someone who is
able to satisfactorily perform the
work but at the lowest price.
The amendment enables the
city to prioritize other factors when
considering
contracts,
such
as
references from previous jobs and
the size, complexity and success of
past projects.
The city will also take into account
whether the bidder aligns with
labor protections, such as quality of
employee benefits, and whether the
bidder engages in an apprenticeship
program for its employees. Under
this proposal, the city will also assess
any past violations of state, local or
federal employee protection laws.
Proposal B: Ranked Choice
Voting for the Election of City
Officers
If approved, this proposal would
allow Ann Arbor voters to elect
candidates for mayor and Ann Arbor
City Council through ranked-choice
voting in the primary and general
election, if the state of Michigan
authorizes this voting system.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
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Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 55
©2021 The Michigan Daily
NEWS............................ 2
A D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
ARTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Anderson survivors rally outside Schlissel’s house
GEORGE WEYKAMP &
NIRALI PATEL
Daily Staff Reporters
ANN ARBOR
What’s on your
Ann Arbor
November ballot?
A voter’s guide by The Michigan Daily
for the 2021 Special Election
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Survivors of the late University doctor Robert Anderson protested with supporters Oct. 14 to demand greater transparency and support for sexual misconduct victims.
CAMPUS LIFE
Crowd of more than 100 demand accountability from University administration
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily News Editor
With the majority of libraries
at the University of Michigan now
operating on limited hours, some
students say the adjusted schedule
has created constraints on their
study habits.
The University of Michigan
closed all libraries in March 2020
as campus shut down due to the
COVID-19
pandemic.
Though
libraries
have
since
resumed
in-person services, they have yet
to return to pre-pandemic hours.
No library on campus is available
between 12 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Business
sophomore
Kayla
Rothstein said though she typically
studies at her sorority house, she
decided to switch to the U-M
libraries as midterms began.
Rothstein said the libraries’
limited hours restrict her ability
to study and make finding an open
study spot difficult during later
hours when only a few libraries
remain open.
“Hatcher
(Graduate
Library),
which is where I prefer to study, is
only open from 9:00-7:00, which I
personally find pretty restrictive,”
Rothstein said. “Yesterday, I was
studying at Hatcher and it closed
at seven, so then I went to Shapiro
(Undergraduate
Library)
and
I couldn’t find a table because
everyone from Hatcher had moved
to Shapiro.”
Alan
Piñon,
U-M
Library
director of communication and
marketing,wrote in an email to The
Michigan Daily that the library is
aware of frustrations surrounding
library hours and is working to
expand them going forward, but
they still face staffing shortages.
“Our biggest challenge with
returning hours to pre-pandemic
levels is staffing,” Piñon wrote. “We
had some full-time staff attrition
over the pandemic, but our largest
shortfall is student workers. To
stabilize things going forward, we
plan to add more full-time staff so
we’re less reliant on students.”
According to Piñon the Hatcher
and Shapiro Libraries will both
start opening an hour earlier at 8
a.m. on Oct. 20. Starting Oct. 22,
the Hatcher Library will also start
opening on Saturdays from 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. The Shapiro Library will
also open 24/7 from Dec. 11-17 to
accommodate University study days
and final exams.
Labor shortages have become a
common motif across campus and in
local Ann Arbor businesses as more
students return to campus without
the labor supply to support it. At the
beginning of the semester, students
faced long lines for buses due to
difficulties in hiring bus drivers.
Other
students
have
said
the
library
hours
aren’t
too
inconvenient. LSA freshman Ava
Rapp said though she uses the
Shapiro Library frequently, she does
not feel restricted by the libraries’
hours because she wouldn’t use the
library late at night anyway.
“I work at Bert’s, so I’m here (at
Shapiro Library) almost every day,”
Rapp said. “I haven’t really been
interrupted because I wouldn’t be
walking around that much when it’s
super late anyway.”
Daily
Staff
Reporter
Sarah
Williams can be reached at smwi@
umich.edu.
Libraries operate at
limited hours due to
staffing shortages
Students struggle to find late night study spaces
SARAH WILLIAMS
Daily Staff Reporter
Partners of the A2GO Initiative
gathered at the Kerrytown Farmers
Market the morning of Oct. 12
to announce the launch of a new
autonomous vehicle shuttle service.
May Mobility, a start-up at the
University and the company that
created new shuttle service, is the
first autonomous vehicle company
to shuttle passengers in Ann Arbor,
running from Kerrytown to the south
of downtown Ann Arbor. The shuttle
fleet consists of four hybrid Lexus
SUVs and one wheelchair-accessible
vehicle. The service will operate
from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday
through Friday along prescribed
routes in downtown Ann Arbor,
circling between their 21 designated
stops.
Each car is supervised by an
Autonomous Vehicle Operator sitting
in the driver’s seat. The operators
are there for safety, manually
driving the vehicles around unusual
situations, like a double-parked car
or making an unprotected left turn
across traffic. They also speak with
Mobility employees at the Ann Arbor
headquarters to report hiccups in the
driving experience, like problems on
the road or using the app.
Edwin Olson, May Mobility CEO
and U-M Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science professor
currently on leave, said at the event
that Ann Arbor was a great place for
a company like his to grow. Olson
said May Mobility’s headquarters in
Ann Arbor created more than 20 new
jobs with this shuttle service launch
since its public announcement in
September.
“Ann Arbor is a great place to look
for really experienced technicians, as
well as people who are just getting
started,” Olson said. “The University
of Michigan continues to be a real
source of talent and partnership for
us.”
Olson
said
May
Mobility’s
partnership with the City of Ann
Arbor began long before this week’s
launch. The collaboration helped May
Mobility determine the service area
of their vehicles based on a number of
factors, including speed limit, street
density and traffic congestion.
“We like to do things with cities,
not to them,” Olson said. “So, it’s really
important to figure out who are the
stakeholders (and) how do you make
sure that the people who you’re trying
to serve are part of the conversation
from the very beginning.”
Greg McGuire, associate director
at MCity — a research center at the
University focused on autonomous
driving — echoed the need to reflect
on the broader implications of
autonomous vehicles in Ann Arbor.
“We’re
interested
in
the
engineering challenges, yes, but
I think just as important is their
potential societal impact,” McGuire
said. “We want to build a better
world, (and) learning by doing is a
requirement. A2GO helps MCity
go from our academic labs at the
University to a living lab in the city of
Ann Arbor.”
Olson spoke of May Mobility’s
prioritization of safety first, which
aligns with the need for supervised
autonomous driving at this time.
“Safety is number one, and our
second priority is experience for
both the people in the car and people
around us,” Olson said. “We want
to make sure that we’re not holding
up traffic or that we’re not being a
nuisance to other people going about
their lives. Then autonomy is third.”
Engineering senior Ryan Krawec
rode in one of May Mobility’s vehicles
on Oct. 12 and said he was not put off
by the supervised driving.
“
”The car drove very human-like,
and I couldn’t tell if the driver was
driving or if the car was driving,”
Krawec said. “When we stopped at a
left turn, I asked the driver if he was
driving and the driver said he was.
But I wasn’t that surprised because
I know autonomous vehicles are not
fully self-driving yet.”
Krawec
said
he
believes
autonomous vehicles can reduce the
number of fatal car accidents.
“I think autonomous vehicles are
going to be a great thing for society,”
Krawec said. “Right now most car
accidents are caused by humans. In
the future, if we can eliminate those
accidents caused by humans, then we
can save lives.”
Olson said May Mobility is
also concerned with the safety of
pedestrians outside of their vehicle.
One of their partners, !important
Safety Technologies, is an auto
collision safety software company
whose technology is incorporated
into May Mobility’s vehicles. Hannah
Osborn, director of New Business
Development at !important Safety
Technologies, said their software
alerts nearby May Mobility vehicles if
there is a pedestrian nearby.
“People associate phones with
distracted driving and distracted
walking,” Osborn said. “Let’s turn
that around and use it to protect
them. With our software, you’re able
to turn your phone essentially into a
beacon to let others know that you’re
there.”
However, to alert the vehicle by
taking over the brakes, for example,
the pedestrian needs to be a user of the
!important Safety Technologies app,
which Osborn said she recognizes is
a barrier.
“We’re also realistic, so we are
partnering with companies that
are also in the safety space — for
example, insurance companies —
and we are incorporating our alerts
through their apps where their users
have already given permission to be
tracked,” Osborn said.
Olson said to the crowd at the
farmers market that his broader
vision of May Mobility is to be
environmentally
conscious
and
socially accessible.
“If you end up with segmentation
in your transportation system, you
end up with crappy systems that don’t
work well,” Olson said. “I think the
key thing is, how do you get everyone
to use public transit? … It’s really
important to us to figure out how (to)
serve all kinds of people.”
In preparation for its launch, May
Mobility held a contest in September
for a “creative, clever and memorable
name” for one of their vehicles, with
the only rule being that it must start
with the letter “M.”
Michigan
Medicine
assistant
professor Alecia Daunter won the
contest with the name “Mayble,”
combining May Mobility with “able”
to highlight the desire of her patients
with sensory, cognitive and physical
disabilities
to
achieve
mobility
independence.
“The goal is really that people are
participating in their communities
with their friends and family and
they’re able to experience all the
same things around the city that
anyone else would, using the same
technology that everyone else is
using,” Daunter said.
UMich start-up May Mobility launches
free autonomous vehicle shuttle service
ELISSA WELLE
Daily Staff Reporter
Each car is supervised by an Autonomous Vehicle Operator sitting in the driver’s seat
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
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RESEARCH
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