Starting 
March 

14, the University of 
Michigan will no longer 
require masks in most 
indoor spaces on campus 
including 
offices, 

residence halls and at 
athletic events, Robert 
Ernst, 
associate 
vice 

president of student life, 
and Preeti Malani, U-M 
Chief Health Officer, 
announced in an email 
to the U-M community 
on March 9. Masks 
are still required in all 
classrooms, patient care 
areas, campus buses and 
COVID-19 testing sites 
for at least the remainder 
of the Winter 2022 
semester.

“Mask use still is 

suggested as an effective 
strategy for enhanced 
personal 
protection, 

especially 
for 
those 

with 
compromised 

immune status, those 
who are not vaccinated 
or up to date on their 
COVID-19 vaccinations, 
and 
anyone 
with 
a 

perceived increased risk 
of complications from 
infection,” 
the 
email 

reads. 

In the email, Ernst 

and Malani wrote the 

decision was made due 
to 
high 
vaccination 

rates on campus and 
declining 
COVID-19 

cases in the region. In 
the week ending Feb. 26 
the University reported 
53 preliminary positive 
cases – down from a high 
of 1,927 during the height 
of the omicron surge in 
January. 

“As a result of the 

high vaccination rates 
among students, faculty 
and staff as well as 
improving conditions in 
the region, the COVID-
19 
Campus 
Health 

Response 
Committee 

is issuing new guidance 
regarding 
COVID-

19 response on the 
University of Michigan 
campuses,” the email 
reads. 

All U-M faculty, staff 

and students as well 
as Michigan Medicine 
staff are required to 
be 
fully 
vaccinated 

against 
COVID-19 

and to have received 
a COVID-19 booster 
shot six months after 
their final dose. As 
of 
Wednesday, 
84% 

of 
eligible 
students, 

88% of eligible faculty 
and 83% of eligible 
staff 
have 
reported 

receiving 
a 
booster 

shot.

KAITLYN 
LUCKOFF & 

GEORGE

WEYKAMP

Daily News Editors

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXXI, No. 68
©2022 The Michigan Daily

NEWS............................ 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

S T A T E M E N T . . . . . . . . 8

M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

SPORTS........................11
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michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 16, 2022

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Hail to the Victims demonstration held 

outside President’s House following 

UMich removing campsite

Anderson survivor Jon Vaughn stood chained to a tree for 17.5 hours in defiance against U

“Once again, The University 

of Michigan has historically 
silenced the voices of survivors,” 
reads a sign facing the President’s 
House. To the sign’s right stands 
former 
U-M 
football 
player 

Jonathan Vaughn, bound by 
chains and tied to a tree in an act 
of protest and defiance against 
the University.

“I don’t wish for me or anyone 

else to be tied, bound, gagged, 
neglected or robbed of their 

confidence and health by another 
university again,” the sign reads.

Vaughn told The Daily on March 

12 that starting at 11:26 AM, he 
would stand chained to the tree for 
the next 17.5 hours: one minute for 
every known Anderson survivor. A 
countdown timer sat atop the sign 
to Vaughn’s left.

“There are 1,050 victims that are 

in the first wave of the settlement,” 
Vaughn said. “(The University) is 
trying to keep us chained to our 
trauma. So I’m doing one minute in 
solidarity with the 1,050, so that’s 
how it came out to 17 and a half 
hours.”

Dozens of students, alumni and 

University community members 
gathered in front of the President’s 
House on March 12 in response 
to the University’s removal of the 
“Hail to the Victims” campsite 
after 150 days of protest. Vaughn 
previously told The Michigan Daily 
he was unaware of the University’s 
decision to dismantle the campsite.

Vaughn, one of over a thousand 

sexual abuse survivors of former 
University athletic doctor Robert 
Anderson, said he was wrapped 
in chains to symbolize how the 
University has continued to fail 
survivors such as himself, leaving 

them “tied” and “bound” to their 
trauma. 

Protestors wrote on notecards 

with phrases such as “Hail to the 
Victims” and “No more cover ups” 
and attached them to the chains 
holding Vaughn. He was joined by a 
handful of other survivors who also 
came out in protest of the University.

LSA senior Zackariah Farah, 

vice president of LSA Student 
Government, said the University’s 
behavior toward the Anderson 
survivors has continued to be 
“unacceptable” despite a change in 
leadership in January. The Hail to 
the Victims movement first began 

last October.

“I’m glad that they reached a 

settlement with the survivors, but 
to remove his camp … that is just 
another slap in the face,” Farah said. 
“Although we have new leadership 
at the University, we have President 
Mary Sue Coleman, it feels like we’re 
back to the same old schtick. It’s the 
same response regardless of which 
president we have.”

Farah then said he observed 

similar levels of indifference from 
other University officials at the Feb. 
17 Board of Regents meeting.

IRENA LI 

Daily Staff Reporter

BECCA MAHON/Daily

As the blue and yellow 

of Ukraine fluttered in 
the wind on the night of 
March 9, many gathered 
at the vigil for war victims 
hosted by members of the 
Ukrainian 
community 

and the Diversity Affairs 
Committee (DAC) of the 
LSA Student Government 
following Russia’s invasion 
of Ukraine. 

Accompanied 
by 

traditional and contemporary 
Ukrainian 
music 
which 

highlighted the Ukrainians’ 
strength, speakers mourned 
for the lives lost in Ukraine 
and urged people to take 
action for the state in crisis. 

Speakers 
included 

students, 
faculty 
and 

community members from 
Ukraine as well as others 
in solidarity with Ukraine. 
Most speakers spoke about 
their friends’ and families’ 
experience with the war and 

how it has affected them 
personally. They advocated 
for 
corporate 
divestment 

from the Russian state. The 
group also asked audience 
members to write letters 
to local officials to create a 
“no-fly zone” over Ukraine 
skies.

Speakers 
included 

Ukrainian 
language 

professors and professors 
who have worked with 
Ukrainians. They said the 
Ukrainians 
they 
worked 

with made a choice to 

stay in Ukraine and were 
determined 
to 
continue 

fighting for both Ukraine 
and Eastern Europe as a 
whole.

Ann 
Arbor 
resident 

Vlada Zviagina, said she has 
family and friends who live 
in Kharkiv, a city in Ukraine 
devastated by and is worried 
about the danger which 
could befall her loved ones 
at any time.

JOEY LIN 

Daily Staff Reporter

‘I no longer have a home’: Campus 

community members host vigil at Burton 

Tower in solidarity for Ukraine

Speakers mourn for lives lost, urge people to take action in support of the country

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

MARIA DECKMANNDaily

LSA professor Svitlana Rogovyk speaks to U of M community members outside Burton Memorial Tower for a “Vigil for Ukrainian War Victims” 
Wednesday night.

 University lifts 
mask mandate 
in some indoor 

spaces, still 
required in 
classrooms

 Indoor offices, residence 
halls and athletic events 
no longer require face 

coverings starting March 14

Read more at Michigan-

Daily.com

U announces 

transition 
period after 
five-year DEI 
plan, initially 

misstates 
intentions

Chief Diversity Officer 
Robert Sellers launches 

new website, apologizes for 

email wording

The University of 

Michigan is reaching the 
end of its initial five-year 
Diversity, Equity and 
Inclusion strategic plan 
(DEI 1.0) and is entering 
into a transitional period 
before the next five-year 
plan, according to a 
March 10 email to the 
campus 
community 

from Robert Sellers, vice 
provost for Equity and 
Inclusion. 

“In 
the 
2022-23 

academic 
year, 
our 

DEI planning efforts 
will rely on the input 
and engagement of our 
community 
to 
build 

out a more strategic, 
focused and impactful 
DEI plan,” Sellers wrote. 
“In fall 2023, U-M will 
officially 
launch 
the 

next DEI strategic plan. 
Throughout our nearly 

two-year 
transition 

process, 
we 
will 

remain vigilant in our 
commitment to DEI as a 
community.”

Launched 
in 

October 
2016, 
the 

DEI 1.0 plan included 
49 
smaller 
plans 

individualized 
for 

each 
college 
and 

program. The plan also 
introduced Wolverine 
Pathways 
and 
the 

HAIL Program, which 
aimed 
to 
increase 

enrollment of minority 
students and support 
socioeconomic 
diversity. Other parts 
of the plan included 
providing 
financial 

support to University 
programs conducting 
research on diversity, 
as well as providing 
intercultural training 
for students, faculty 
and staff.

 U-M admin 
takes down 
protest 
location after 
150 days 

 Protestors say they were unaware 

of removal

On 
March 
7, 

the 
University 
of 

Michigan removed the 
campsite 
outside 
of 

the President’s House 
on 
South 
University 

Avenue, where for the 
last 150 days, former 
U-M 
football 
player 

Jonathan Vaughn lived 
in protest against the 
University’s 
sexual 

misconduct policies. 

Vaughn, 
who 
is 

one of the over one 
thousand sexual abuse 
survivors of the late 
athletic doctor Robert 
Anderson, 
told 
The 

Michigan 
Daily 
on 

Tuesday that he was 
not made aware that 
the 
University 
had 

planned to remove the 
campsite. Vaughn said 
the campsite is on Ann 
Arbor city property, and 
his attorney together 
with 
the 
Assistant 

City Attorney of Ann 
Arbor had come to an 
agreement that they 

were 
planning 
on 

moving 
the 
camp 

by the end of day on 
March 13. According 
to Vaughn, University 
attorneys were also 
aware of the plan. 

“My 
birthday 
is 

on the 12th and I was 
planning on having 
an awesome goodbye 
celebration 
with 

students and faculty 
just to tell them how 
much we appreciate 
it and (then) we were 
gonna start moving 
to the next phase of 
helping 
make 
this 

campus safe,” Vaughn 
said. 
“So 
for 
(the 

University) to do that, 
after they knew what 
our plan was, it just 
goes to show who 
they are right now as 
an organization and 
leadership.” 

University 

spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald declined to 
comment on whether 
or not the University 
was aware of Vaughn’s 
plan to leave. 

The 
move 
comes 

Read more at MichiganDaily.

com

SHANNON 
STOCKING

Daily News Editor

Read more at Michigan-

Daily.com

GEORGE 

WEYKAMP 

& ANNA FIFELSKI

Daily News Editor 
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at Michigan-

Daily.com

