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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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

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

RESEARCH

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

