CAMPUS LIFE
RESEARCH
ADMINISTRATION
The University of Michigan was
ranked the top-funded institution
in social science research in the
U.S., according to the Fiscal Year
2020 Higher Education Research
and Development (HERD) Survey
recently released by the National
Science Foundation (NSF). The
survey
measures
the
annual
research and development (R&D)
spending by academic institutions
across all academic disciplines.
Higher
education
R&D
expenditures increased 3.3% from
the previous fiscal year to $86.4
billion in total, according to the NSF
report. Out of the 915 universities
and colleges included in the survey,
the University’s Ann Arbor campus
ranked second in FY 2020 R&D
expenditures in all fields.
Across all social science areas,
the University topped the list with
a $187 million R&D expenditure. It
was also placed in the top 10 in five
of the six social science subfields.
The University is home to
Institute
for
Social
Research
(ISR), the world’s largest academic
social science survey and research
organization. Dr. Kathleen Cagney,
director of ISR, said the way funding
works in ISR is entrepreneurial-like.
ISR researchers receive grants from
different agencies and foundations,
rather than having funds be
allocated by a committee.
“Researchers come together and
they develop their own research
programs,” Cagney said. “They will
write lots of different types of grants
… that go to places like the National
Institute of Health (NIH), the
National Science Foundation (NSF)
and other agencies.”
Cagney also emphasized ISR’s
role in creating the environment
that
values
multidisciplinary
research.
“One thing that makes (the
University) distinctive (is) to have so
many social science disciplines that
are engaging in novel and cutting-
edge research,” Cagney said. “The
intersection of disciplines (is) where
novel research emerges.”
To get an idea of what kind of
social science research is being done
at the University, The Michigan
Daily sat down with three social
researchers to discuss their work
and contributions to the field.
Getting older in America
Funded by the National Institute
of Aging and the Social Security
Administration, the Health and
Retirement Study (HRS) is a
longitudinal study that collects
survey data from a sample of
approximately 20,000 people over
the age of 50 in America every two
years to understand the challenges
and effects of aging. The survey
asks participants about a wide
range of topics from income, health,
employment and lifestyle factors —
all data that can be used for aging
research. With high scientific
productivity, HRS is now a model
for longitudinal studies around the
world.
David Weir, director of HRS, said
the study began in 1992 in an effort
to combine economic and health
information of elderly population to
help inform older generations.
“Our job is not to write the paper
about the elderly,” Weir said. “Our
job is to collect data and get it out for
other people to use.”
Weir said HRS has maintained
funding for 30 years, which is
impressive for any longitudinal
study.
“The longitudinal studies often
go for five to 10 years and that’s it,”
Weir said. “So to go 30 years is pret-
ty unique and to do that, we have to
have very innovative applications
every time.”
Minority representation in the
study is one area Weir said the HRS
is focused on, especially since many
of these groups are underrepresent-
ed in social science research.
“One of the things that we’ve
become really valuable for is the
representation of Blacks and His-
panics,” Weir said. “A lot of NIH
studies don’t have much represen-
tation of those groups and they’re
definitely understudied in terms of
biomedical research. So that’s one
of our strengths … (and) so we have
innovations around adding differ-
ent cohorts of minority traditional
minority disciplines.”
HRS also uses innovative strate-
gies to collect genetic informa-
tion for quantitative analysis.
Weir said the DNA collection
can be used to assess general
risks for diabetes, alcoholism
and mental illness, among other
factors.
“What we are finding is that
when you look across the whole
genome, millions of pieces of
information, you can find clusters
of things that do predict higher
risk,” Weir said. “So in terms of
the connection of genetics to social
science, we’re not (saying) ‘Here’s
the gene for diabetes’, but we can
give you a score based on that
person’s whole genome of their
relative risk of developing (the
disease).”
Weir added that collaboration
among epidemiologists, psycholo-
gists and other researchers to ana-
lyze data across different disciplines
is vital to the project. Weir said that
being at the University of Michi-
The Board of Regents fired
former University of Michigan
President
Mark
Schlissel
effective immediately on Jan.
15
following
a
third-party
investigation
revealing
an
inappropriate
relationship
between
Schlissel
and
a
subordinate. The investigation
—
which
uncovered
over
two years of emails and text
messages
between
Schlissel
and the unnamed subordinate
— marked the end of a
tumultuous presidency since
he first took office in 2014. The
Michigan Daily took a look
back at events that happened
during the Schlissel presidency,
year by year.
This article represents a
summary of Schlissel’s presi-
dency over the past eight years
and is not representative of all
events which took place during
that time.
2014: Students, faculty
express excitement over the
prospect of a new president
On Jan. 24, 2014 the Board
of Regents and now-Interim
President Mary Sue Coleman
held a special meeting to
announce that then-Brown
University
Provost
Mark
Schlissel
would
succeed
Coleman as the University’s
14th President.
At the meeting, Schlissel
said he hoped not to lead from
the “top down,” but to listen
to students and faculty first
and foremost.
“The best ideas come from
the people who do the teach-
ing and the learning, so that’s
why I need to do some listen-
ing first,” Schlissel said.
Schlissel had served as
Brown
University
Provost
for three years and Dean
of the Biological Sciences
Department at the University
of California-Berkeley from
2008-2011. With an MD-PhD
degree
in
physiological
chemistry, Schlissel was a
prominent
researcher
and
continued to publish papers
throughout
his
tenure
at
Berkeley and Brown.
“(Research)
was
his
life,” Kwan Chow, one of
Schlissel’s former students
at
UC-Berkeley,
told
The
Michigan Daily in 2014. “He
ran a lab. Two years doing
administrative
work
isn’t
going to erase that.”
On Oct. 26, graduate stu-
dents at Brown University
penned an open letter warn-
ing graduate students at The
University of Schlissel’s com-
mitment to anti-labor and
austerity while he was their
provost.
“We ask graduate students
at the University of Michigan
to join us in reminding Mark
Schlissel
about
a
central
lesson of liberal thought:
Academic freedom isn’t clean
and quiet, and civil discourse
isn’t polite and restrained,”
the letter reads. “Not all great
ideas with public value are
profitable. When it comes
to
racism,
sexism,
labor
exploitation, appropriation of
public resources and overall
devaluation of the people who
work, teach and research for
the classroom, there can’t and
won’t be consensus.”
Schlissel’s
appointment
came after an over $315,000
presidential
search
that
spanned over eight months
and was met with initial hope-
fulness from students and fac-
ulty. Dentistry professor Rex
Holland, then-vice chair of
the Senate Advisory Commit-
tee on University Affairs, said
he was impressed with Schlis-
sel’s credentials and excited to
see him lead the University.
“I’m very impressed with
President-elect
Schlissel’s
credentials,” Holland said at
the SACUA meeting in 2014.
“I have great confidence that
President-elect Schlissel will
be a splendid leader for a
splendid institution.”
Members of the Central
Student Government in 2014
were also pleased with the
student-centric
approach
Schlissel displayed in his
announcement address.
“(Schlissel)
mentioned
working with students at
every opportunity that he
had,” then-CSG Vice Presi-
dent Bobby Dishell said at a
2014 CSG meeting. “That’s
something that we’re very
much looking forward to, and
every student should be very
excited about.”
Schlissel began his initial
five-year appointment on July
1, 2014, with an initial base
salary of $750,000.
In September 2014 — just
four months into his tenure
as President — a graduate
student launched a petition
calling for the removal of
then-athletic director David
Brandon.
Brandon
was
criticized
by
students
for
raising the price of student
tickets and for the slump in
student attendance to football
games, as well as ignoring
player safety concerns. The
petition — which garnered
over 10,000 signatories in just
over 24 hours — came amid
concern that Schlissel’s Ivy
League
background
made
him incapable of managing a
Big 10 football team. Schlissel
ultimately accepted Brandon’s
resignation on Oct. 31, 2014.
“Dave feels that it would
be in the best interests of our
student-athletes, the athletic
department and the University
community if he moved on to
other challenges and allowed
the important work of the
department and the University
to continue without daily dis-
tractions,” Schlissel said at a
press conference announcing
the resignation.
2015 brings struggles with
Fraternity
and
Sorority
Life party culture, sexual
misconduct in first year of
presidency
Schlissel began his tenure
as
U-M
President
with
several initiatives including
streamlining
sustainability
and
addressing
sexual
misconduct on campus.
In September, Schlissel met
with members of all University
FSL chapters to discuss alco-
hol abuse and sexual miscon-
duct – two issues he said ran
rampant within Fraternity and
Sorority Life. Schlissel said the
excessive party culture deval-
ued the University’s reputation
for academic excellence.
“The
value
of
(alumni)
degrees are gonna go down
because the reputation of the
University of Michigan won’t
be the excitement in the Big
House or our teams doing well
under our fantastic new coach
(Jim
Harbaugh),”
Schlissel
said. “It’s not gonna be the
kids who receive the Rhodes
Scholarships and the Ful-
bright Scholarships, and the
famous professors who do the
work that you’re going to get
reflected on for or the National
Medal for the Arts that our
faculty won this past week.
It’s going to be the ‘Shmacked’
videos. So it’s really up to you
what the value of your educa-
tion is going to be, what the
reputation of this institution’s
going to be.”
Schlissel’s meeting marked
the first time members of all
FSL chapters gathered together
in their over 170-year history.
The University also intro-
duced Wolverine Pathways — a
rigorous mentorship program
for middle and high school stu-
dents that would eventually
accumulate with full tuition — in
October. Pathways was an initia-
tive to increase racial and socio-
economic diversity amongst the
student body.
“Inseparable from our efforts
to enhance our academic excel-
lence as a public good is our work
to improve diversity, equity and
inclusion at the University of
Michigan,” Schlissel said. “We
cannot be excellent without
being diverse, in the broadest
sense of that word.”
2016 brings debate sur-
rounding free speech on cam-
pus
The 2016 election introduced
a point of contention on cam-
pus. Following former President
Donald Trump’s surprise victory
on Nov. 8, Schlissel penned an
email to the University com-
munity providing resources
for students seeking support
in the aftermath of the elec-
tion.
News
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 — 3
ADMINISTRATION
A look back at eight years of UMich under
former U-M President Mark Schlissel
The Michigan Daily recalls major administrative events from 2014 to 2022, year by year.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Design by Reid Graham
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Political activists, scholars
speak on learning from
Native American thought,
environmental impact
Symposium explores contributions of
Indigenous knowledge, legal framework
The
Eisenberg
Institute
for
Historical Studies conducted an
online event Friday afternoon to
discuss the possibility of “radical
futures” through an analysis of
Indigenous political thought.
Featuring four panelists, the
symposium explored the contri-
butions of Indigenous knowledge,
science and political thought. The
event also focused on recognizing
the importance of Indigenous peo-
ple for the future instead of simply
framing them in the past.
The event opened with remarks
from Mrinalini Sinha, event mod-
erator and director of the EIHS.
Sinha said the EIHS has worked
extensively to foster a setting where
individuals can participate together
in vigorous intellectual exchange,
as displayed by this symposium and
other discussions.
“The inspiration for this event
was a part of our year-long theme
of recovery,” Sinha said. “We were
wanting to think about the future,
but not in a kind of linear way but
rather by overcoming events from
the past. On the issue of climate
justice, for example, more privi-
leged people probably think of the
environmental disaster as a future
event. But Indigenous people have
watched the extinction of species
and seen environmental disasters
committed for centuries and have
figured out ways to adapt to it,
which we can learn from.”
Ana María León, assistant Art
History professor, began with a
discussion of the legal framework
of Indigenous thought and said the
Constitution gives people the ability
to litigate the ecosystem on behalf
of their personal gain, which con-
sequently leads to environmental
degradation.
“Environmental entities should
realistically give people the abil-
ity to advocate for their environ-
ment and outdoor space,” León said.
“However their actions, both on the
left and right, are solely political. …
The vast resources of capital that
could be used to protect the envi-
ronment have no bearing if the state
decides to go another way.”
Sinha
then
redirected
the
conversation to Rebecca D. Hardin,
associate professor at U-M’s School
of Environment and Sustainability.
Hardin, who has conducted research
in South Africa, said her work was eye
opening, particularly her analysis of
the Royal Bafokeng Nation.
“When I saw the inner workings
of the Bafokeng Nation, I was in awe,”
Hardin said. “The champagne flutes
and Christian Dior suits were a deft
and creative combination of not only
their sartorial forms but also their
governance form … these strategic
acts are in danger of colonial roman-
ticization.”
Kyle Whyte, a professor in the
School of Environment and Sustain-
ability, then spoke on his work in the
climate change sector of Indigenous
people.
“All that the term climate change
indicates, is that people who have been
sheltered against colonialism now think
that they may have something to lose,”
Whyte said. “But, (Indigenous people)
have faced years and years of climate
and environmental chaos that we
have adapted to and if these methods
are employed, people may not lose as
much as they think.”
When asked about land defense
strategies and government change,
Whyte said it is relevant to compare
the past and the present. He shared
information about a tribe in Okla-
homa in the early 20th century, the
same tribe’s situation today and his
perspective on what should be done in
response to the changes.
“The tribes were dealing with envi-
ronmental change that they didn’t
cause, and their lands were in the
process of being liquidated,” Whyte
said. “Land was going unstewarded
and the U.S. government was forcing
them to adopt democratic processes.
We’re engaging in land defense, seek-
ing to take back our government and
make our own decisions about tech-
nology infrastructure.”
David Myer Temin, assistant
professor in political science, said
his side of the discussion aligned
with an overview of the Land
Back Movement — a movement
aiming to return ownership of
Indigenous lands to Indigenous
communities.
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