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MSC: That was never an official

part of the Anderson settlement, as
far as I’m told. I wasn’t part of the
Anderson settlement, that was a
confidential mediation, but I don’t
think that was a real condition.
However, I thought doing the
settlement was the right thing to do.
I’m glad that the University did it.
It’s going to take a while to get it all
through the process because when
you’re talking about a large number of
people who were involved and a large
amount of money, it will take time.
We’ll work through all that, but we are
where we are.

TMD: What are your thoughts

on Jon Vaughn announcing he is
continuing his protest past his original
plan of 100 days? Do you plan on
speaking with Jon Vaughn during your
term as interim president?

MSC: Everybody has to decide

what they want to do, and I think the
settlement was the right thing to do. I
think we now have a responsibility to
help with healing, and so I wish Jon
Vaughn the best.

TMD: The WilmerHale report

regarding
sexual
misconduct

allegations against former Provost
Martin Philbert says you were made
aware of allegations against Philbert
but didn’t remember receiving them.
The report states if you had received
them, you and others “likely would
not have given (them) the same weight
in 2010 as they would today.” Can you
clarify what you meant by this and how
would you have handled this situation
today?

MSC: I’ve learned a lot since that

happened, and part of my learning
was being president of the Association
of American Universities where we
conducted the largest survey on sexual
misconduct on university campuses
that has ever been done. The first one
was 150,000 respondents, the second
one was 200,000 respondents, and
they were undergraduate students
surveys, but there was some indication
within those surveys about faculty
misconduct and staff misconduct. So
our understanding really expanded.

There are two things that have

happened that I think have been very

positive. First of all, victims are more
willing to come forward. I think the
#metoo movement has been very
positive in that regard. And I frankly
learned a lot more about the prevalence
of misconduct. At that time, the reports
that we got about Martin Philbert
were anonymous, and we tried to
investigate, but nobody would speak.
Nobody would come forward because
I think people were afraid. So now, I
think they would come forward, and I
think that’s a good thing. So that’s what
I meant by that comment. I learned a
lot and I think society learned a lot.

TMD: What are your thoughts

on the new and revamped Office
of Equity, Civil Rights and Title
IX (ECRT), formerly the Office of
Institutional Equity?

MSC: I had the pleasure of seeing

Tami Strickman and her team. They
made a nice presentation at the Board
of Regents meeting about the plans for
the office and what they’re going to
do, so I was very impressed with the
team and Tami in particular. I think
the plans they have for the office are
extremely good. They want to do a lot
of education. They want to provide
services to the departments. They
want to streamline investigations.
They want to do all the things that we
heard from the community that would
be helpful in restoring trust, changing
the culture and really getting us to
the point where these incidents don’t
happen. Or if they do happen, they are
few and far between. I think this is a
very positive step for the University.
Though, eyes wide open, we have a
cultural journey. We’ve got to change
the culture, and that’s going to take
time. We started with the survey that
was done last week about “What are
people thinking now?” I think that
office will be very, very helpful to the
community and I’m looking forward
to it.

TMD: Current ECRT Director

Tamiko Strickman is currently facing
two lawsuits for mishandling cases
of sexual misconduct and racial
discrimination
at
the
University

of Nebraska-Lincoln. Do you have
confidence in her ability to run this
office based on these allegations?

MSC: I do. I absolutely have

tremendous confidence in her. She is a
very impressive woman.

TMD: With the Omicron variant

subsiding both on campus and across
the country, Washtenaw County
removed its mask mandate for
K-12 education and other Big Ten
universities, such as the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, have also
announced plans to phase out indoor
mask mandates. Does the University
have any plans to lift its mask mandate
in the foreseeable future?

MSC: I think what we’re focused

on now is what we’re going to do in the
fall, and a lot will depend on (scientific)
evidence. We have a very, very
excellent committee working on this
headed up by our head of University
Health Service, and they’re meeting
weekly. They meet several times a
week to look at case counts, illness and
what’s happening in our community.

What’s important to realize is

that every community is different.
What phase Washtenaw County’s
community is in is different from our
own University community. And so
what we want to do is to make sure
that we listen carefully to the evidence
that (the committee) comes forward
with. We don’t have any plans at this
moment to lift the mask policy.

TMD: After Sunday’s situation

with Juwan Howard, what were your
conversations like with Wisconsin’s
chancellor and Warde Manuel? What
is your opinion on Juwan Howard’s
actions?

MSC: Let me set the scene for

you: My husband and I were at the
women’s basketball game, and it was
a tough game against Maryland and
oh boy, we were sitting down close.
One of the things when you’re sitting
down close in a basketball game, you
really see how physical the game is
and, oh my gosh, it was an amazing,
amazing game. But during the game,
I got this video that was handed to
me, and I saw the incident from the
Wisconsin game. Immediately, I got
up and went up and spoke with Warde.
He immediately got on the situation.
I called Chancellor Blank at the
University of Wisconsin to apologize
on behalf of the institution because
I thought it was very important. It’s
never acceptable, I don’t care what
happens, it’s never acceptable to throw
a punch. On the other hand, I was so
impressed with Coach Howard and
how he came forward with a very — I
thought — sincere apology. He’s been

suspended for the rest of the season,
and it was appropriate. What was
done by the Big Ten and by our
own athletic department was the
appropriate remedy here. I was
proud of everybody in this situation,
as well as Coach Howard, because I
thought he did the right thing by
apologizing. It’s what is expected of
Michigan. You can make mistakes,
nobody’s perfect, but then you can
do the right thing after you make
that mistake and I think he did.

TMD: With Provost Susan

Collins stepping down in May 2022,
who are you considering as interim
provost? Do you have any idea on
who the permanent provost will be?

MSC: Yes, Provost Collins will

be leaving May 15 and going to a
very exciting job. I was so proud of
her. I’ve been in conversation with
an interim provost. I can’t reveal the
name right now because we’re still in
discussion. But that announcement
will be made at the March board
meeting.

That position will take a year to

be filled because what we need to
do is to give the new president time
to come in and sort of get the lay of
the land. The permanent provost
will be picked by the next president
because the relationship between
the president and the provost is
really important, and that person is
critical to the efficient and effective
running of the University.


I’m thrilled with the interim

that we’re going to be announcing
and just really so grateful to Susan
Collins because she stepped in at a
time of need for the University and
has served admirably as provost for
the last couple of years.

TMD: Will the interim provost

be an internal or external hire?

MSC: You can’t do an external

search in the few weeks that I’ve had,
so you can assume that it’s internal.
If it were external, we would have
had to do an announcement, and
we’d have to have a big search
committee. I did shut down the
search for the permanent provost,
and we disbanded the committee. I
talked to the committee so that they
understood why I didn’t want them
to go through all that work because I
thought we needed a good solution
for the next year. We really want

to give maximum flexibility to the
new president, and this does that, so
I’m very happy with the outcome, but
we’re still in the negotiation process.

TMD: I know you mentioned

this briefly in your introduction,
but what are your thoughts on
the
recommendations
from
the

Presidential
Commission
on

Carbon
Neutrality?
Are
these

recommendations a priority when
looking for a future president?

MSC: Absolutely. The commitment

of carbon neutrality is a University
commitment. It’s not my commitment,
it’s not a personal commitment
from the President, it is a University
commitment.

Let me give a little bit about my

background. My husband and I put
solar panels on our house here, even
though there’s not that much sun, just
because we believe in it. We have an
electric car because we believe that we
have to personally reduce our carbon
footprint. So I was so happy when I
came and saw those recommendations
from the committee and the fact
that the University has has already
begun to act on them. We’re going to
build the Geothermal Facility up on
North Campus, which I think will be
groundbreaking. It’s really wonderful.
The fact that we’re going out and getting
the electric buses right away, and we’re
trying to think about electrifying the
fleet — all that’s going to take time.
We’ve put about $5 million into trying
to have LED bulbs across campus to
reduce that energy use. There are all
these things that we can do, and I hope
that students will see what they can do
to reduce their carbon footprint. We’re
all part of this, and we all have to make
an effort. I can’t imagine a president
coming in not committing to carbon
neutrality because this is such a high-
profile program for the institution.
I’m assuming the search committee
will probe that question. This has
been happening at universities all
over the country, so yes, I know that
commitment to carbon neutrality will
probably be there. That will be one of
the factors that the Presidential Search
Committee will question candidates
about.

TMD: Could you speak more on

other current initiatives from the
recommendations that are in action
right now?

MSC: We have a whole list. We just

issued some bonds and $300 million of
those bonds are going to be for green
investments. We’re putting our money
where our mouth is, and we really want
to promote those efforts. I know the
University is in discussion right now
about a big solar farm and expanding
that to renewable power agreements
through DTE. We want to make sure
what we’re sourcing through the energy
companies is as green as it can possibly
be. There are multiple initiatives going
on across the institution, and in the next
year or so, students will see more of that
rolling out.

TMD: We always like to end these

interviews with a fun, light-hearted
question, so what’s the one thing on
campus that you’ve missed the most?

MSC: Oh, the students. During my

tenure as university president before
2014, we had these Fireside Chats;
E. Royster Harper, who was the vice
president for student life at the time, and
I would do these together. Her office
would invite students to come, so the
students who came had an invitation,
and we would normally invite students
who were upset about something and
had something to complain about
because we thought, ‘come on in and
talk,’ and so we had these over in the
Union. They were usually four o’clock
in the afternoon, and we’d have cookies
and punch. At the end of the day, I
would always think, ‘Oh, I’m so tired.
I’m going to go to this session,’ but it was
so much fun and so interesting that at
five o’clock, when that session was over,
I was completely re-energized again
because it was just fun. Those sessions,
even though people maybe had a
complaint or something was wrong, we
always had really good and interesting
discussions. They weren’t complaint
sessions at all, and they didn’t end up
that way at all. I learned a lot about
student life and what students were
experiencing and how they felt about
Michigan.

One of the things that always just

astonished me about the University
is how students get connected to the
place and how they love the place. It
was very inspiring. So I missed that the
most.

Editor-in-Chief Jasmin Lee and

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

‘WE HAVE TO’
From Page 1

CAMPUS LIFE

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

The descendants of late

artist Lo Chia-Lun donated
a Chinese calligraphy collec-
tion valued at over $12 million
to the University of Michigan
Museum of Art in January
2022, making it the largest art
donation in the museum’s his-
tory.

The collection is composed

of works created by colleagues
of Lo Chia-Lun, a leader of
China’s May Fourth Move-
ment — an anti-imperialist

movement that started after
student protests in Beijing
in May 1919 — including Cai
Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu and Shen
Yinmo. Works by other artists
and cultural figures such as Xu
Beihong and Zhang Daqian are
also included in the collection.
The collection includes a total
of 72 pieces, with art from the
Yuan, Ming and Qing dynas-
ties, spanning from the years
1271 to 1911.

Assistant professor of Chi-

nese arts and cultures Lihong
Liu explained in an email to
The Michigan Daily the sig-
nificance of calligraphy in

Chinese culture throughout
history. The art form can be
traced back to the Eastern Han
period — 25-220 C.E. — when
people began to create treatis-
es on calligraphy.

“It was this time the so-

called ‘cursive script’ (caoshu)
became popular, marking a
highly personal expression in
calligraphy, with an unimped-
ed flow of energy across the
linear
movement
instigated

not only by the body, but also
by an inner urge,” Liu wrote.

News
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 — 3

ADMINISTRATION

UMMA receives $12 million collection
donation, largest in museum’s history

MADISON KRAFT

Daily Staff Reporter

Over 70 pieces of Chinese calligraphy pieces added to University

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Design by Serena Shen

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

Content warning: mentions of

sexual assault

Over 1,300 University of Michi-

gan community members attend-
ed the annual TEDxUofM event
Friday at the Power Center for
Performing Arts with the theme
SHATTERPROOF. Eight speak-
ers from across the University of
Michigan community presented
10-15 minute talks on topics relat-
ed to resilience and withstanding
adversity. In addition to the talks,

the event included musical perfor-
mances from Gmen and Groove,
two music student groups on
campus.

Returning to an in-person

event this year, TEDxUofM is a
student-run initiative inspired
by TED, but independently
organized by U-M students.
Throughout the event, Univer-
sity-affiliated
presentations,

performances and speakers
discuss ideas across different
disciplines, while all connect-
ing to a specific theme. The
conference first launched in
Ann Arbor in 2010, and has
occurred annually since.

LSA senior Amala Nayak,

one of the co-directors of the
event, told The Michigan Daily
that organizing this event was
gratifying because the process
was very collaborative.

“It’s so rewarding to know

that you are creating an event
that people really care about
and are excited to go to,” Nayak
said. “I just love how dedicated
our team is … I think we’ve
done a really good job of creat-
ing a collaborative community
this year.”

TEDx event discusses meaning of

‘shatterproof’ in 13th annual conference

CARLY BRECHNER

& SEJAL PETIL

Daily Staff Reporter’s

Eight speakers focus on topics ranging from

renewable energy to storytelling to mindfulness in media

UMich students, healthcare professionals reflect on STI testing on campus

Community members speak on reproductive health culture

ISABELLA KASSA
Daily Staff Reporter

With hookup culture and dis-

cussions on sex as common themes
on college campuses across the
nation, it’s important to know: how
is reproductive health valued at the
University of Michigan?

In 2019, the University Health

Services (UHS) discontinued free
testing for sexual transmitted
Infections (STIs) until students
advocated for the need of these free
and confidential services, leading
to the program being reinstated
months later. Since then, STI testing
has increased at the University but
what has changed? The Daily spoke

with students and experts on the
current state of STI testing and how
reproductive health can continue to
improve on campus.

Dr. Susan Ernst, chief of Gyne-

cology Services at UHS, wrote in
an email to The Michigan Daily
that since September 2021, UHS
has tested just under 2,700 students
with appointments, and an addi-

tional 8,700 through asymptom-
atic testing, which screens for the
most common STIs. Ernst also
wrote that UHS has seen a 23%
increase in the number of serious
cases this year.

“We’re finding increased rates

of STI this year compared to last
year,” Dr. Ernst wrote. “Specifi-
cally we’ve noted an increase in

the rate of chlamydia, gonorrhea
and mycoplasma infections and
in the more serious (infections)
for people with a uterus – Pelvic
Inflammatory Disease, or PID.”

STI testing at the University has

also increased by over 40% since
last year, according to Michigan
Medicine health professionals. One
of the students who tested positive

for chlamydia in 2021 shared their
experience with The Daily. The
student has requested anonymity
to preserve the confidentiality of
their medical record and will be
referred to as Sam for the rest of
the story.

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

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