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Wednesday, March 30, 2022 — 3

ADMINISTRATION

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Design by Kate Shen

Graduate students at the Univer-

sity of Michigan School of Social 
Work walked out of their classes 
Monday morning and gathered on 
the Diag to rally for Payments for 
Placements (P4P). This is a student 
campaign demanding that the Uni-
versity begin compensating Master 
of Social Work (MSW) students for 
their internship work; around 80 
members of the campus commu-
nity attended the walkout.

In 2017, MSW students, Social 

Work alumni and social workers 
started a petition calling for fair 
compensation for their field work. 
Most recently in January, MSW 
students submitted a petition with 
over 300 student signatures to 
Social Work Dean Joseph Himle 
and other Social Work administra-
tors calling on the University to 
fund their degree-required intern-
ships. 

Currently, the majority of MSW 

field work positions are unpaid 
even though the Council on Social 
Work Education requires that 
MSW students across the U.S. 
complete 900 hours of field work 
during their master’s program. 
SSW spokeswoman Lisa Raycraft 
confirmed that at the University, 
non-advanced standing MSW stu-
dents must complete 912 hours of 
field work to get their degree. How-
ever, MSW students with advanced 
standing — those who come into the 
University with a BSW — only have 
to complete 684 hours during their 
three semester program.

At the protest, several MSW stu-

dents expressed their frustrations 
with the lack of compensation for 
their field work, which they claim 
has impacted their mental health 
and ability to afford housing.

Anjelica Abraham, a MSW stu-

dent and one of the speakers at the 
walkout, told the crowd that balanc-
ing a paid job with her unpaid field 
work causes a lot of stress. Abra-

ham said she is currently work-
ing to complete her field work at 
Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy 
Center in Detroit, which involves an 
85-mile commute.

“I’m tired of having to juggle two 

part-time jobs on top of class work, 
on top of field (work) and with an 
85 mile round trip multiple times a 
week,” Abraham said. “I’m tired of 
working 12 hours a day, six days a 
week.”

Other students within the Social 

Work School shared Abraham’s 
frustration. A survey conducted by 
the P4P leaders found that 83% of 
respondents worked additional jobs 
on top of the required field work.

In an email to The Michigan 

Daily, Dan Fischer, assistant dean 
of field education in the SSW, 
wrote that unpaid field work does 
not violate the U.S. Fair Labor and 
Standards Act which helps protect 
workers’ rights. Fischer empha-
sized that the field work is primarily 
intended to academically support 
the MSW program by providing 

students with hands-on experience 
before receiving their degree.

“Students are unlicensed pro-

fessionals and would not be able to 
engage in MSW-level work,” Fisch-
er wrote. “Field placements also 
provide opportunities for students 
to discover new ideas or to think 
about themselves and their own 
values, prejudices, and attitudes 
towards others while learning to 
manage emotions and feelings 
within real-world settings.”

Other programs at the Univer-

sity provide stipends for students 

to compensate for their work. The 
Ford School of Public Policy offers 
funding for Master of Public Policy 
students with low-paying or unpaid 
internships — 60% of MPP stu-
dents receive funding from Ford 
School partnerships or other U-M 
resources. Similarly, the University 
of Michigan Law School guarantees 
up to a $6,500 stipend for second-
year law students who take summer 
internships with government agen-
cies or public interest organizations.

MSW students are not the only 

master’s students who are not paid 

for field work. Fischer wrote that 
other master’s programs in the 
health sciences at the University 
also do not provide monetary com-
pensation for clinical work.

“No other health sciences profes-

sional program at U-M, including 
medicine, nursing, dentistry and 
pharmacy, pays students for clini-
cal training recognizing the critical 
impact of experiential learning,” 
Fischer wrote.

School of Social Work students 

walk out of classes, demand 

payment for field work

Over 80 protestors cite frustrations with lack of compensation 

for degree-required internships

ALEC HUGHES

Daily News Contributor

BOARD OF REGENTS
From Page 1

CAMPUS LIFE

Geoffrey Chatas, executive vice 

president and chief financial officer, 
updated the regents on the University’s 
carbon neutrality progress, including 
the creation of the new Planet Blue 
dashboard, 
which 
tracks 
U-M 

greenhouse gas emissions levels and 
reduction trajectory. According to 
Chatas, the University is on track to 
meet its sustainability goals and reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions.

“I’m 
extremely 
pleased 
to 

announce that U of M is on pace to 
reduce greenhouse gasses scope one 
and two by 50% by 2025, which is 
both five years ahead of and exceeds 
the United Nations intergovernmental 
panel on climate change … guidance 
to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030,” 
Chatas said. “We’re also working to 
instill a University-wide culture of 
sustainability with justice as a core 
principle.”

Chatas also revealed plans to 

purchase four all-electric buses for the 
Ann Arbor campus — one 60-foot bus 
and three standard 40-foot buses — 
as well as a $10 million plan to replace 
lights in 70 buildings on all three 
campuses with LED lights. Chatas 
also said the University is working on 
existing investments that emit large 
levels of greenhouse gasses.

The board then discussed plans 

to renovate the Central Campus 
Recreational Building . New features 
of the plan include a three-court 
gymnasium and a natatorium with a 
lap pool, a recreational pool and a post-
workout recovery pool. Mike Widen, 
director 
of 
Recreational 
Sports, 

emphasized the value of renovating 
the CCRB given its contributions to 
student well-being. 

“This is a truly comprehensive 

facility built for student experience,” 
Widen said. “This is a prime example 
for many decades to come of our 
campus’s commitment to health 
and well-being for our students and 
our entire University of Michigan 
community.” 

Regent Denise Illitch (D), co-chair 

of the Presidential Search Committee, 
gave an update on the board’s search 
for a new University president and 
expressed gratitude for the level of 
campus involvement in the process.

“I want to say how grateful we 

are for the outpouring of community 
engagement and feedback we’ve 
received since the beginning of 
this presidential search process,” 
Illitch said. “Over 1,000 University 
of Michigan community members 
completed our feedback survey.”

Illitch also shared some of the major 

themes from the February Presidential 
Search Committee listening sessions. 

“Number one, it is important that 

the next president rebuild trust and 
accountability within the University 
community, leading with integrity and 
readdressing past abuses and sexual 
misconduct,” Illitch said. “I was struck 
by all (the) sessions, the observations 
of being heard, and of listening and of 
being appreciated.”

The regents then allowed public 

commenters to communicate what 
they would like to see in the next 
University president. Law student 
Hafsa Tout said she wanted a president 
who would commit to listening to 
students and addressing campus 
concerns.

As an undergraduate at the 

University, Tout was a Central Student 
Government 
(CSG) 
representative 

and was part of passing a resolution in 
2017 asking the board to divest from 
companies based in Israel in response to 
the occupation of Palestine. The board 
voted to reject this resolution less than 
a month later. Tout said she felt that the 
University’s recent announcement to 
pull its investments in Russian-based 
companies demonstrated hypocrisy 
in light of its previous attitude toward 
divesting in Israel-based companies. 

“The statement that the board 

issued in response to that resolution 
read, ‘We remain committed to the 
University’s long-standing policy to 
shield the endowment from political 
pressures,’” Tout said. “But here we are 
in 2022 when the board and Interim 
President are openly, unhesitatingly 
and quickly making decisions and 
changes to the endowment in response 
to undeniably political situations 
across the world, which fully deserve 
that response, but which directly 
contradict that supposed commitment 
to shielding the endowment from 
political pressure.”

Illitch also addressed concerns from 

meeting attendees who commented on 
the difficulties that individuals with 
physical disabilities face opening doors 
on campus. 

“We commit to prioritize and 

provide an automatic door opener into 
all of our public buildings right now,” 
Illitch said. “We have 50 buildings in 
need of that; we already have several 
hundred automatic door openers on 
entry doors, but if there is a specific 
door that’s difficult to open, please 
email (me) … or the associate vice 
president of Facilities and Operations.”

Illitch said a new map of all 

accessible pathways in buildings will 
be completed over the summer and 
made available to the public in Fall 
2022. 

Public Health senior Nithya Arun, 

CSG President, asked the Regents to 
consider changing the name of Angell 
Hall — a building named after the 
University’s longest-serving president, 
James B. Angell. 

In 1880, Angell negotiated The 

Angell Treaty, which allowed the 
United States to restrict the migration 
of certain categories of Chinese 
workers and is widely considered to be 
a precursor to the Chinese Exclusion 
Act of 1882, a piece of legislation that 
prohibited all immigration of Chinese 
laborers into the United States. 

Arun also asked the regents to 

consider increasing the CSG student 
fee, which currently requires all 
students to pay $9.19. Arun did not 
clarify the amount she is interested in 
receiving. 

“We 
implement 
recurring 

programs that are heavily utilized by 
students, such as a free subscription to 
The New York Times and Wall Street 
Journal, a GRE, MCAT and LSAT test 
prep program provided at reduced 
cost, subsidized transportation to and 
from the airport for major breaks and 
significant student org funding,” Arun 
said. “Unfortunately, given that our 
current student fee is set at $9.19, these 
programs are becoming unsustainable 
for CSG’s budget. So when the time 
comes to vote on the new budget, I urge 
you to vote in favor of a fee increase.”

The regents then voted to approve 

a $41 million update to the Big House, 
including an $8 million upgrade to 
the production room — the space that 

controls the audiovisual experience 
for several U-M sports venues across 
campus — which serves field hockey, 
ice hockey, basketball, football, soccer, 
indoor track, baseball and softball.

Additional 
updates 
include 

replacements for the north and south 
video boards in Michigan Stadium 
for $12 million, and an audio system 
replacement for $5 million. Other 
updates to the Big House include 
safety additions for $4 million and 
infrastructure, site work and design 
fees for $12 million. According to Rob 
Rademacher, chief operating officer of 
U-M Athletics, the source of funding 
will be Athletic Department Gifts 
Restricted for Capital Improvements. 

“I also just want to reiterate a little 

bit of my experience in sports and 
with stadiums, and I can’t begin to tell 
you the enhancement of a scoreboard 
and the infrastructure and the new 
technology around it, how much it 
enhances the fan experience,” Illitch 
said. “It will be like night and day.” 

During the public comment portion 

of the meeting, several commenters 
expressed 
desires 
for 
increased 

resources for student physical and 
financial well-being. 

Elaine 
Lande, 
 
comprehensive 

studies program lecturer, said the 
University needs to increase the 
availability of menstrual products on 
campus. In late January, the University 
announced 670 main-floor restrooms 
will be given free menstrual products 
in all academic and student-facing 
buildings.

“ 
I am a Gen X-er,” Lande said. “I 

learned a lot from my students. They 
are not shy or embarrassed to talk 
about their periods as my generation 
and those before; I am following their 

lead. While the need for feminine 
products in the bathrooms may be 
difficult for someone to understand, I 
liken this to someone defecating and 
then realizing there’s no toilet paper, or 
in this case, having no expectation of 
toilet paper available.”

Social 
Work 
students 

Matthew Dargay and Arie Davey, 
representatives for Payments for 
Placements, said students in the School 
of Social Work should be paid for the 
field placements in which they are 
required to participate for graduation. 
The organization wrote a petition 
in January outlining their concerns 
and emphasizing that the University 
affords stipends to students in other 
graduate programs, a practice they 
argue should be extended to include 
social work students. 

“Nine hundred and fourteen hours 

I work in my internship are required 
for me to receive my master’s degree,” 
Davey said. “I do the same work as 
the paid staff at my agency, but I don’t 
get paid. Social work students are in a 
financial crisis.”

Dargay echoed similar sentiments 

and pointed to how Public Policy and 
Law students at the University are 
compensated for their internships, 
while Social Work students are still not.

“We applaud the University of 

Michigan for affording stipends to 
public policy students and law students 
who have decided to take their 
internships with public interest firms,” 
Dargay said. “And we believe that 
social work students should be treated 
similarly.”

Daily Staff Reporters Anna Fifelski 

and Samantha Rich can be reached at 
afifelsk@umich.edu and sammrich@
umich.edu.

Erica Nelson: I wanted a real seat 

at a table that is not often invited to 
me. I wanted to give myself a place 
in (the) university, specifically in 
student government, where I can help 
students who look like me — or don’t 
look like me — have a voice in the 
system, have a say in the things that 
impact them. I am running, because I 
wanted to be there for the students. I 
want to be a voice, be a light, and show 
future Wolverines that being at a place 
like this and having a voice in the 
decisions that affect you is important. 
That’s really why I wanted to run. I 
want to inspire. I want to lead but I also 
know how to be led. I want to show 
underrepresented communities that 
this is okay and that (the University) is 
a place that you belong.

Ron Burgaj: A lot of wanting to run 

is being the change that we want to 
see happen. Part of being the “Leaders 
and Best” isn’t just talking the talk, but 
it’s walking the walk. It’s speaking to 
the underrepresented groups here at 
the University, it’s meeting with them, 
meeting with admin, seeing how we 
can best incorporate what’s best for 
the students, what’s best for us. We 
are the University and our voices need 
to be heard.

TMD: Is there anything you 

would like to highlight regarding 
your campaign?

NZ: The biggest thing is that our 

candidacy is more of a partnership. 

There’s 
this 
stigmatization 
of 

president and vice president. We’re 
seeing these positions as a separation 
of focus areas rather than a hierarchy. 
Jackie and I want to make sure that 
we’re playing to our strengths. Jackie 
has her strengths. She’s very good at 
communications, programming and 
government relations, so those are the 
focus areas that she’ll have. I’ve had 
a lot of experience in CSG policy and 
law experience with working with 
the assembly and the other student 
governments in Flint and Dearborn, 
the Association of Big Ten Students. 
I’ve also had some experience working 
with 
the 
Student 
Organization 

Committee. We want to be able to 
make sure that we’re doing everything 
as efficiently as possible.

JH: Processes that are going to 

better represent voices on campus. 
We think different populations, like 
the Greek Life Community, doesn’t 
have a spot within CSG to advocate 
for their needs. With different 
cultural groups, we want to make 
sure that those voices are being heard. 
There are a lot of different structural 
changes that we want to make in order 
to allow for that to be the case within 
(student) government and ensure 
that our policies are actually going to 
impact the people they’re intended 
for. While it’s great to have 15 LSA 
representatives, that can’t represent 
1000s of (LSA) students, so we want to 
create a space where everyone’s input 
can be shared.

EN: We’re the Diverse&Dedicated 

students. We’re diverse in our beliefs, 

diverse in our experiences, we’re 
dedicated to making real change, 
we’re dedicated to underrepresented 
communities. We have gone out and 
asked them how we can best (serve 
them). While campaigning, we’ve 
gone to La Casa, we’ve gone to the 
Michigan Africans, we’ve gone to BSU 
(Black Student Union), we’ve gone 
to the Arab Student Association and 
we’ve had conversations with them. 
We have already taken that leap by 
saying, ‘How can we best serve you?’ 
That’s who we are. We want to serve 
the students, we want to serve the 
people. People like us, people different 
from us. That’s just who we are.

RB: We’ve talked with a lot of 

different cultural organizations on 
campus. There have been groups 
that we went to, and they’ve told us, 
‘You were the first ones to ever reach 
out, you’re the first ones that come to 
our meetings for this, you’re the first 
ones to actually hear what we have to 
say.’ We plan to continue that work, 
because we want to be the change 
that we want to see. There’s a big 
growing nontraditional population 
of students here, and every year that 
continues to grow: students that are 
first generation, students that are 
immigrants in this country, students 
that are transferring here. We want 
to give them a seat at the table. So 
together with their love and support, 
we can make the University better for 
all its students so we can be the change 
we want to see, so we can be diverse 
and dedicated.

TMD: Why did you two decide to 

run together as president and vice 
president?

NZ: We had met a couple times 

earlier, but we didn’t really know each 
other before this year. While working 
on FlipBLUE, we got to talking more 
and more. We had a shared vision 
for what campus could look like. We 
saw that there is a lack of sufficient 
programming and policies being 
implemented this year. We don’t think 
that’s the fault of anyone. It’s just been 
transition years with COVID. But 
we thought we could bring a sense of 
pragmatism and practicality to CSG, 
especially with our experience in 
government. So that’s how we decided 
to run.

EN: Ron and I, we’ve been best 

friends for a few months now. We met 
in the LSA student government, and it 
just felt natural for us to run together 
because we’re both passionate about 
making a difference. After talking to 
each other, learning more about each 
other and seeing how passionate the 
other person is, we were like, ‘Yeah, 
we should do this.’ Especially since 
we’ve shared some experiences within 
Student Government that weren’t 
the most positive, it really solidified 
our bond. We said we’re gonna be a 
powerhouse. Let’s get this done. Let’s 
put that work in.

TMD: For the executive runner, 

what are some prevalent campus 
issues you plan on addressing 
through your campaign?

NZ: Jackie highlighted a lot of 

our main points that we’re trying to 

make with the campaign. During my 
first year, I saw a lot of programs and 
policies that were directed towards 
students’ everyday lives, something as 
simple as the calculator and iClicker 
loan programs. Jackie and I really 

want to provide the small things for 
students that don’t end up being small 
after all.

CSG

From Page 1

Lynn Meskell is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor at the University 
of Pennsylvania, the Richard D. Green Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Historic 
Preservation in the Weitzman School of Design, a curator at the Penn Museum, and an 
A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

For more info, including Zoom links, 
visit events.umich.edu/event/92110 
or call 734.615.6667.

A FUTURE IN

Monday, March 28

Wednesday, March 30

Friday, April 1

Monday, April 4

Ethics of Archaeology and Heritage

Engineering Internationalism: Colonialism, 
the Cold War and UNESCO’s Victory in Nubia

Imperialism, Internationalism and Archaeology 
in the Un/Making of the Middle East

Saving the World? Reflections on UNESCO’s 
Mid Century Mission in Conflict

Developing Petra: UNESCO, the World Bank, 
and America in the Desert

Palmer Commons, Forum Hall 
4:00 pm

2022 Thomas Spencer Jerome Lecture Series

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

