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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 67
©2022 The Michigan Daily
NEWS............................ 2
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1
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NEWS
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
First Regents meeting of year discusses
presidential search, felony disclosure policy
Public commenters advocate for student representation on the Board, more focus on carbon neutrality efforts
The University of Michigan Board
of Regents met at the Postma Family
Clubhouse Thursday for their first
meeting of the year. They discussed
plans for a presidential search
committee, new dorm proposals on
North Campus and heard from the
Central Student Government about
the current felony disclosure policy.
Coleman began the meeting by
emphasizing her commitment to the
University community as well as her
focus on academic excellence.
“Our collective commitment to
learning and discovery holds true
for yesterday, and it will guide us for
tomorrow,” Coleman said. “It is what
compels us as a university to take
great risks, so that we may always
pursue new knowledge for the good
of society.”
Coleman’s current contract with
the University has her serving for
six months or until a new president
is appointed.
Regents Denise Ilitch (D) and
Sarah Hubbard (R) gave statements
on
the
Presidential
Search
Committee, which is comprised
of students, faculty and staff from
all three campuses and Michigan
Medicine. The duo announced the
committee in an email to the campus
community
“Our board is very excited about
our presidential search and we
have worked very hard to build a
Presidential
Search
Committee
that is widely representative of our
very diverse community,” Ilitch
said. “We’ve already had our initial
meeting, and we look forward to
insights from this incredible group as
we proceed with our search. We are
eager to hear directly from students,
faculty and staff across campuses
about
their
perspectives
and
expectations as we work to identify
the next leader of our university.”
Hubbard said the University is
hosting a virtual listening session on
Feb. 18 for Ann Arbor campus faculty
and staff. Other sessions gauged
towards Michigan Medicine, Ann
Arbor students and the Dearborn
campus community are scheduled
for Feb. 21-23.
The regents also discussed plans
for
constructing
a
geothermal
plant to power the new Leinweber
Computer Science and Information
Building. This project would be the
first large campus building to rely on
a source other than natural gas for
climate control.
Rebecca
Cunningham,
vice
president of research, then briefed
the regents on the state of research
at the University. Cunningham said
the University has remained the
leader among public universities for
the eleventh year in a row in terms
of research volume, especially in
the social sciences. She also said
University research projects resulted
in 23 startups, 502 inventions and
287 license and option agreements
in the past years.
Nithya Arun, Central Student
Government President, gave the
Student Government Report to
discuss
the
University’s
felony
disclosure policy as well as student
representation
on
the
Board
of Regents. The current felony
disclosure
policy
(SPG
601.38)
requires employees of the University
disclose all felony charges and
convictions
that
occur
while
affiliated with the University; CSG
passed a resolution on Tuesday
asking the Regents to rescind this policy.
“It is known that Black and
Indigenous
communities
are
disproportionately
criminalized
and surveilled,” Arun said. “Because
of structural factors in the justice
system,
BIPOC
communities
are
disproportionately affected by SPG
601.38.”
ANNA FIFELSKI &
MARTHA LEWAND
Daily Staff Reporters
JOSÉ BRENES/Daily
President Joe Biden visited
Lorain, Ohio — a small industrial
steel town 140 miles southeast
of Ann Arbor — on Thursday
to
discuss
the
$1
trillion
infrastructure bill he signed into
law last November and announce
$1 billion in funding for the
protection of the Great Lakes.
Joined
by
a
cohort
of
lawmakers and cabinet members,
Biden spoke to a crowd of about
60 guests in The Shipyards, a
warehouse-turned-restaurant
standing along the shores of the
Black River and Lake Erie.
The president’s trip to the
Cleveland suburb is one of
several recent speeches from
Democratic
politicians
in
support of the infrastructure
package. Both U.S. Rep. Debbie
Dingell, D-MI, and Biden’s visits
served to discuss infrastructure
and Great Lakes conservation
efforts.
The crowd cheered after
Biden announced the $1 billion
in funding for the Great Lakes
Restoration Initiative, a program
dedicated
to
protecting
the
wildlife and ecosystems of the
Great Lakes basin.
“It’s going to allow the most
significant restoration of the
Great Lakes in the history of the
Great Lakes,” Biden said. “We’re
going to accelerate cleanup of
sites across six states in the Great
Lakes Basin… And we know these
sites were dangerously polluted
for decades. We’re committed to
(cleaning) them up.”
Biden
emphasized
the
need to invest in American
infrastructure,
citing
the
collapse of a Pittsburgh bridge
last month and widespread
lead contamination of water
in the United States.
IRENA LI
Daily Staff Reporter
Joe Biden talks infrastructure,
Great Lakes during visit to Ohio
New $1 billion fund announced for protecting wildlife,
ecosystems in midwest waterways
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
TESS CROWLEY/Daily
President Biden speaks about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and how it effects the Great Lakes near Lake Erie at The
Shipyards in Lorain, Ohio Thursday afternoon.
Content warning: This article
contains descriptions of sexual
assault.
The University of Michigan
Board of Regents met Thursday,
their first time meeting after
firing
former
University
President Mark Schlissel for
engaging in an inappropriate
relationship with a subordinate.
Schlissel’s firing came after
the former president touted
revisions to the supervisor
relationship policy in response
to sexual misconduct at the
University.
University alum Isabelle
Brourman,
a
survivor
of
sexual assault, criticized the
University’s
re-appointment
of Interim President Mary
Sue Coleman.
“Firing Schlissel is not
enough,”
Brourman
said
during public comments. “You
fired one president for sexual
misconduct and then hired
another who was historically
indifferent to it. Despite her
comments today, Mary Sue
Coleman has demonstrated
that
she
is
part
of
the
problem.”
Brourman
said
Coleman
and the University were aware
of
former
Provost
Martin
Philbert’s
previous
sexual
misconduct allegations when
he was made dean of the
School of Public Health.
In an interview with The
Michigan
Daily,
Brourman
said
she
filed
a
lawsuit
against the University after
her FOIA request — seeking
information about investigations
into
accusations
of
sexual
misconduct against Conforth
done in 2008 and 2016 — was
never acknowledged.
“(Brourman
and
other
survivors) were curious about
what (the University) knew
about each (case of abuse)
through
the
investigation
because we never heard from
them, and we still haven’t heard
from the University,” Brourman
said. “That’s the part that shocks
me the most is that they could
know that there was somebody
out there that he abused when
they looked into his University
email and his computer who
they decided not to reach out to.”
In addition to the lawsuit,
Brourman said she is actively
working to get representation
from survivors of sexual assault
on
the
Presidential
Search
Committee.
“We are hopeful that the
University will take seriously
what I asked for, which is
to assign U-M survivors —
unfortunately, there’s a ton that
they could choose from — to help
steer the Presidential Selection
Committee,” Brourman said.
Brourman
added
that
if
the University extended the
invitation to join the committee,
she would accept.
“A huge part of why we’re
doing what we’re doing is
because we don’t trust the
administration
to
protect
(students),” Brourman said. “And
God forbid, unfortunately, it’s
becoming increasingly clear that
if, God forbid, something were to
happen to a student and they got
raped, instead of being protected
they’ll be perceived as a threat,
to the school and its reputation,
and that has to change.”
‘We don’t trust the
administration’: U-M
alumni denounce
‘U’ handling of
sexual assault
Survivors criticize University for inadequate
response to misconduct allegations
ANNA FIFELSKI &
MARTHA LEWAND
Daily Staff Reporters
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Over 200 Washtenaw
County
community
members
met
over
Zoom
Wednesday
night
to
discuss
the
implementation
of
an
unarmed
safety
response team for the
county. Led by members
of
the
Coalition
for
Re-Envisioning
Our
Safety
(CROS)
— as well as
several other sponsored
organizations
—
the
forum
discussed
the
need
for
non-police
responses to community
crises as well as a path to
implementation
within
the county.
Donnell
Wyche,
pastor of the Vineyard
Church of Ann Arbor,
spoke first about CROS
and
its
dedication
to
community-led work. In
late January 2022, CROS
released
a
statement
on their idea of what
an
unarmed
response
team in Ann Arbor could
look like. Wyche said
the
organization
will
prioritize transformative
justice
and
building
care-based safety within
the
community
when
considering methods of
implementation.
“CROS
is
a
group
of folks who’ve come
together to ensure that
this process and program
that
is
being
created
is
community-led,
it’s
evidence based and that
it is progressive,” Wyche
said.
Wyche continued to
explain how the proposed
unarmed safety response
team
will
encourage
people to move away from
the typical model of a 911
call to police.
“When you think of
the majority of the calls
that come into a dispatch
center, over 83% of those
calls
do
not
require
someone
who’s
been
authorized with a weapon
to
respond,”
Wyche
said. “Only 17% of the
calls might fit someone’s
definition of crime. It
might be petty larceny or
maybe property crime,
but only 4% of those are
what
someone
might
ISABELLA KASSA
Daily Staff Reporter
Washtenaw County
community members
host forum on non-
police response team
Coalition for Re-Envisioning Our
Safety leads public conversation
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
The
University
of
Michigan’s Office of Campus
Sustainability
(OCS)
announced the expansion
of on-campus composting
programs in support of their
waste reduction initiative.
OCS introduced composting
through their Zero Waste
Initiative in 2017, focusing on
education, accessibility and
implementation throughout
the campus community.
Composting is the process
of recycling organic matter
by allowing it to decompose
into fertilizer for the soil. Any
food waste and materials
that
are
Biodegradable
Products Institute certified
compostable are considered
safe to compost, and BPI
certification is designed to
prevent greenwashing.
Benefits of composting
include: reducing emissions
from landfills, improving
soil health and reducing
food waste. The University
aims to reduce food waste
40% by 2025;currently, food
waste has been reduced by
32% since Fall 2021. All of
the University’s compostable
waste gets sent to the City
of Ann Arbor’s compost site
operated by WeCare.
There are currently over
1,000 compost bins in over
150 buildings on campus, but
most of the bins are located
in
staff-focused
areas,
according to Anya Dale,
manager of Waste Reduction
and Engagement at OCS.
“(Compost bins in staff-
focused
areas)
enables
us to capture a lot of the
compostable wastes with
very
minimal
concern
of
contamination,”
Dale
said. “It’s really important
that
we
minimize
that
contamination because the
facility we take our compost
to does not have a sorting
mechanism for getting rid of
contamination.”
Contaminants are materials
that are not compostable and
can damage the plants and soil
during the compost process.
Plastic is one of the most
prevalent
contaminants;
once mixed with the rest of
the compost, animals might
mistake
plastic
particles
for food. Additionally, with
heavy rainfall irrigation, the
microplastic pieces could
flow into water sources and
contaminate the water.
Dale
said
a
major
CAROLINE WANG
Daily Staff Reporter
UMich to expand
campus composting
programs
More bins will appear on school
grounds to promote waste
reduction initiative
Read more at MichiganDaily.com