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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

michigandaily.com
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

