Content Warning: The follow-
ing article depicts sexual miscon-
duct 

At the Dec. 9 Board of Regents 
Meeting at the Postma Club-
house, Chuck Christian, a for-
mer University of Michigan 
football player and a survivor of 
former University doctor Robert 
Anderson, made an unsched-
uled 
appearance. 
Christian 
spoke with the regents about his 
experience with Anderson and 
his resulting fear of doctors – to 
which he attributes his stage IV 
cancer diagnosis. 
Christian – who has been 
camping 
outside 
University 
President Mark Schlissel’s house 
since Oct. 8 along with fellow 
Anderson 
survivor 
Jonathan 
Vaughn – said he knows many 
other survivors who have been 
diagnosed with preventable dis-
eases because of their fear of 
doctors. 
“We’re still dealing with the 
trauma 30, 40 and 50 years later; 

some of us can’t hold a job because 
Michigan didn’t stop Anderson,” 
Christian said. “One player said 
to me, ‘I have battled with drugs 
and alcohol for half of my life, all 
because I was raped repeatedly 
by the team doctor.’ Four of my 
friends have died in the last year 
because of their fear of doctors.” 
Christian then revealed Jona-
than Vaughn has recently been 
diagnosed with cancer. 
“I just found out today that my 
dear friend Jon Vaughn was diag-
nosed with cancer,” Christian 
said at the Dec. 9 meeting. “My 
prayer is that it’s not the terminal 
kind like I have, and Jon will con-
tinue to protest in the camper in 
front of the President’s house…in 
public you say how sorry you are 
about what Anderson did, but in 
private victims are traumatized 
and abused. We are treated like 
animals.” 
Vaughn – who announced on 
Nov. 14 he is running for Board 
of Regent in 2022 and has vowed 
to camp outside of Schlissel’s 
house for 100 days or until Presi-
dent Schlissel and the Board of 
Regents agree to meet with him 
– sat down with The Michigan 

Daily to talk about his diagnosis 
and what it means for both his 
regent campaign and the ongoing 
protest. 
Vaughn said he first began to 
experience symptoms on Oct. 
5 – three days before he began 
camping outside Schlissel’s house 
– when he noticed a lump on his 
neck. Vaughn said he later went 
to the doctor’s, where he was ulti-
mately diagnosed with thyroid 
cancer. 
Vaughn said it was terrifying 
to be back in a hospital after his 
experience with Anderson, but 
Christian helped him put those 

fears aside and take care of his 
health. 
“That first weekend when I 
found out I’m having conversa-
tions with Chuck and he was like, 
‘you know, Jon, just don’t put this 
off like I did,’” Vaughn said. “That 
was when it kind of hit me … that I 
had compartmentalized so much 
– it was terrifying, obviously, to 
walk into a hospital for first time 
in many, many, many years, but 
once I got there, I realized that at 
some point in time, (I was) gonna 
have to break the cycle.” 
Vaughn said he will undergo 
surgery in January to remove 

the cancer and Christian and 
Tad Deluca – former University 
wrestler and whistleblower for 
the Anderson case – will take over 
protesting while he is in surgery 
and recovering. 
“I will go in (to surgery) in the 
morning, they have to observe 
me overnight and then I (will be) 
released the next day,” Vaughn 
said. “I’ve already started talking 
to Chuck and Tad and some of the 
other survivors that, at that point, 
we’ll do a relay which I will hand 
off for one of my fellow survivors 
to sleep in the tent or the camper 
overnight, and then I’ll be right 

back (after my recovery).” 
Vaughn said his diagnosis will 
not impact his regent campaign 
and he is working on creating a 
more concrete campaign blue-
print to share with voters in the 
coming months. 
Over 950 Anderson survivors 
have been in ongoing mediation 
with the University since Oct. 
2020. Vaughn and Christian plan 
to continue camping outside of 
Schlissel’s house until Jan. 16. 

Daily 
News 
Editor 
George 
Weykamp can be reached at 
gweykamp@umich.edu 

News
Wednesday, January 12, 2022 — 3

ADMINISTRATION

Jon Vaughn reveals 
cancer diagnosis, says it 
will not impact protest 
or regent campaign

GEORGE WEYKAMP
Daily News Editor

 Anderson survivor Chuck Christian shares 
fellow protestor’s medical condition

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Now that the gradu-
ating class of Michigan 
Daily journalists, editors 
and developers have said 
their heartfelt goodbyes, 
it’s time for a chorus of 
enthusiastic 
“hellos.” 
After a staff-wide elec-
tion on Nov. 12 and sev-
eral 
section-specific 
elections throughout the 
past couple of months, 
The Michigan Daily is 
delighted to announce its 
131st editor in chief and 
managing editor team.
The editor in chief and 
the editorial page edi-
tors were elected by all 
sections of The Daily on 
Nov. 12. The managing 
editor and digital manag-
ing editor were appointed 
by the editor in chief and 
approved by The Daily’s 
management desk on Nov. 
28. The management desk 
also chose a new editor 
of The Statement, the 

paper’s weekly magazine. 
Editor in Chief: Jas-
min Lee
LSA junior Jasmin Lee 
will serve as The Daily’s 
editor in chief for the 2022 
calendar year. Lee previ-
ously served as a senior 
news 
editor 
overseeing 
campus life and student 
government coverage, as 
well as a member of Cul-
ture, Training and Inclu-
sion. Lee said she has 
wanted to run for EIC 
since she began writing as 
a freshman and one of her 
main goals is to make The 
Daily more accessible to 
students on campus. 
“In the past, The Daily, 
(has seemed) like this big 
intimidating (place),” Lee 
said. “Although the work 
we do is important, and 
does take a lot of time, I 
just want to make sure 
either the ability to pro-
duce work on The Daily, or 
the ability to have access 
to the quality journalism 
that we produce, is open to 
everyone.” 

Managing 
Editor: 
Paige Hodder 
LSA junior Paige Hod-
der will serve as the paper-
wide managing editor for 
2022 and will work with 
Lee to create a commu-
nity among Daily staffers. 
Hodder previously served 
as a summer news editor, 
a Daily staff reporter and 
contributor for The Daily 
Weekly Podcast. 
“One 
of 
my 
biggest 
goals is to recapture and 
redefine the kind of com-
munity that we create at 
The Daily,” Hodder said. 
“A lot of that has been lost 
to COVID it can feel really 
disconnected these days 
and I want to bring us back 
together as a newsroom, 
but then also cultivate a 
culture in the newsroom 
of listening and acknowl-
edgement 
of 
shared 
knowledge.” 
Digital Managing Edi-
tor: Aya Salim
As The Daily’s second 
ever digital managing edi-
tor, LSA junior Aya Salim 
will be responsible for 

overseeing 
The 
Daily’s 
online presence and the 
six digital sections: photo, 
video, web, design, audi-
ence engagement and pod-
cast. 
Before being appointed 
to her new position by 
Lee, Salim served as the 
managing design editor 
and worked on the video 
section as a videographer 
as well. After working in 
two different digital sec-
tions throughout her three 
semesters on staff, Salim 
said she plans to facilitate 
cross-section projects and 
support The Daily’s ongo-
ing “online-first” initia-
tive.
“I’m really excited to 
see not only how print and 
digital sections can collab-
orate … but also just how 
the digital sections them-
selves can collaborate and 
do cool different projects,” 
Salim said. “And also how 
the digital aspects of The 
Daily can also contribute 
to accessibility.” 

Business 
Manager: 
Aaron Santilli
LSA sophomore Aaron 
Santilli, 
former 
senior 
account 
executive, 
will 
lead The Daily’s business 
operation section for 2022. 
Santilli said one of his 
main goals as business 
manager is to make sure 
staffers were compensat-
ed equitably for the work 
they produced. 
“(My goal is) ensur-
ing that all employees of 
The Daily are paid (and) 
treated fairly for the work 
that 
they’re 
producing. 
So you know, I’m going to 
continue that in cohesion 
with Jasmin, the editor in 
chief, as well as Paige the 
(managing) editor,” San-
tilli said. 
Arts: Sabriya Imami 
and Lillian Pearce
The arts section will 
be led by LSA juniors 
Sabriya Imami and Lillian 
Pearce, the 2022 manag-
ing arts editors. Both of 
them have previous expe-
rience as arts writer and 
Imami served as the film 

beat editor while Pearce 
served as the book beat 
editor. A major part of 
their platform is to consis-
tently put their writers at 
the forefront. To help arts 
writers make the most of 
their time on staff, Pearce 
said she and Imami plan to 
host workshops on lever-
aging Daily experiences in 
the job market.
“As managing editors, 
Sabriya and I are planning 
out different workshops 
we could do to help (arts 
staffers) 
improve 
their 
internship 
opportunities 
or their interview skills,” 
Pearce said. “So we are 
really 
excited 
thinking 
about how we can support 
writers and Daily arts peo-
ple in different (aspects) of 
their lives.”
Imami said she and 
Pearce also want to pro-
duce more content fea-
turing the local art scene 
to encourage the greater 
Washtenaw County com-
munity to read and con-
tribute to arts articles.
“There’s a huge music 
scene in Ann Arbor that 
we wanted to highlight 
and even all the local 
bookstores and booksell-
ers, just to uplift the Ann 
Arbor community too,” 
Imami said.
Audience 
Engage-
ment: Evan DeLorenzo 
and Zoe Storer 
LSA junior Evan DeLo-
renzo and LSA sophomore 
Zoe Storer will serve as 
the 2022 audience engage-
ment managing editors. 
DeLorenzo has served as 
a senior editor for audi-
ence engagement and an 
academics reporter for 
the news section. Storer 
worked as an audience 
engagement assistant edi-
tor as well as the audience 
engagement co-managing 
editor for summer 2021. 
DeLorenzo 
said 
the 
audience 
engagement 
section is responsible for 
keeping 
the 
University 
of Michigan community 
informed on The Daily’s 
content. 
“I just really love the 
thrill of breaking news 
and feeling a part of some 
online 
community. 
It 
brings a sense of impor-
tance and purpose to my 

life,” DeLorenzo said. “It’s 
more than just like tweet-
ing captions and whatnot, 
we’re bringing good con-
tent to the people.” 
Storer said one of her 
main goals as co-man-
aging editor is to build 
cohesion within the audi-
ence engagement section 
because editors and staff-
ers often have different 
experiences and responsi-
bilities. 
“People who work on 
(our) newsletter have a 
very different experience 
than people who work on 
our Instagram or Face-
book and Twitter,” Storer 
said. “So kind of (just) 
bringing all those groups 
together and then…con-
tinuing to create a plat-
form where people in the 
campus community can 
find the most important 
news and book reviews 
and all that good stuff.” 
Copy: Caroline Atkin-
son and Ethan Patrick
LSA juniors Caroline 
Atkinson and Ethan Pat-
rick will be taking over 
as the 2022 copy chiefs. 
Both Atkinson and Patrick 
have previously served as 
senior copy editors and 
summer 2021 copy chiefs. 
Atkinson has also written 
for the arts section while 
Patrick has written Daily 
sports 
pieces. 
Patrick 
said their main goal is to 
restructure the copy sec-
tion to give the senior copy 
editors greater responsi-
bility and flexibility.
“We 
are 
restructur-
ing copy a little bit to try 
to make it less suscep-
tible to burnout,” Patrick 
said. “One of our goals 
is to increase the power 
and responsibility of the 
senior copy editors … so 
we hope it’s more exciting 
for them because it’s a lit-
tle more responsibility on 
their part, but it’s also just 
going to be easier for their 
schedule.”
Atkinson 
said 
the 
planned restructure will 
also allow her and Patrick 
to spend more time look-
ing holistically at each 
article to ensure all pub-

NEWS
The Michigan Daily welcomes new class of editors in 2022

RONI KAYNE & 
GEORGE WEYKAMP 
Daily News Editors

 Next leaders share goals for upcoming year

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

