At the June Board of Regents 

meeting, it was announced that 

Regent Paul Brown (D) would 

succeed Regent Jordan Acker (D) as 

Chair of the University of Michigan’s 

Board of Regents for the 2022-2023 

academic year. The Michigan Daily 

sat down with Brown, who officially 

assumed his new role on July 1, to 

discuss his goals for his tenure as 

chair, the presidential transition and 

more. This interview has been edited 

and condensed for clarity.

The Michigan Daily: As we 

head into the fall semester, what 

are your personal goals for your 

term as Chair of the Board of 

Regents?

Paul Brown: Going into fall 

semester, my number one goal is a 

safe and smooth entry for all the 

students, especially those who 

have had to experience some of 

the inconveniences of the COVID 

period. We may only have another 

year with them on campus, and 

we really want to make sure that 

experience is the full Michigan 

experience that we have to offer. I 

recognize those were really, really 

hard times for everyone and I hope 

that they don’t have to experience 

it again.

Some of the goals I have just as a 

regent are, number one, to provide 

a world-class education to all of our 

students at an affordable rate. Now, 

affordability is different for every 

student. As you’ll notice, with our 

last budget that we approved, we 

had a tuition increase. But that 

tuition increase is really designed 

to make Michigan more affordable 

to everyone, whether it be to those 

who are fortunate to have a home 

with a high family income or those 

that are not. State government 

has 
obviously 
decreased 
its 

contribution percentage to higher 

education. It’s been left to the 

universities to redistribute that 

wealth. So it’s really important to 

me that we are disciplined in our 

cost structure and also progressive 

in our fee structure. I think we’re 

doing a very good job at achieving 

at least the latter. 

Again, 
COVID-19, 
and 
the 

shutdown that occurred because of 

it, gave us a vision of different ways 

to provide education, different 

ways to provide student experience 

and different ways to provide 

mental health services to students. 

I hope and want to make sure that 

we use those lessons to increase 

efficiency as well as improve the 

services that we provide to the 

students.

TMD: As Robert Sellers retires 

from his position as chief diversity 

officer, how do you expect the 

role will change during Tabbye 

M. Chavous’ time in that position? 

How do you think Chavous will 

uphold Sellers’ legacy, especially as 

we shift to DEI 2.0?

PB: A lot of it is to be determined. 

Robert did an amazing job of really 

building the program from the 

ground up. And that was a huge 

Herculean effort that he had to do to 

achieve that. I really think we have 

a good foundation and structures 

throughout the institution. I would 

say that because so much work has 

been done to build the structures, 

there wasn’t enough progress in 

creating diversity, whether it be 

the actual objective numbers that 

equal diversity in some metrics, 

or the actual climate on campus, 

and that’s understandable because 

it was just building it from the 

ground up.

Now, what I’ve encouraged 

When LSA sophomore Josie Conti 

first stepped foot onto the University 

of Michigan’s campus last fall, she 

immediately started looking for ways 

to connect with other Native American 

students, a group that makes up just 1% 

of the undergraduate population at the 

University as of fall 2021. Conti, who 

identifies as Cherokee, has since found 

a place in the Native American Student 

Association (NASA). This past summer, 

Conti and 14 other U-M students 

had the opportunity to connect with 

various Indigenous tribes in northern 

Michigan on the University’s first ever 

Native American Student Trip.

The trip, which took place in 

August, was sponsored by the Office of 

Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) 

and NASA, who hoped this would be 

the first of many trips to Indigenous 

communities. The trip took place Aug. 

11 to 14 and allowed the participants to 

travel to various locations in northern 

Michigan where they visited native 

cultural sites, met with tribal elders 

and attended the 29th annual Odawa 

Homecoming Pow Wow — an annual 

celebration organized by the Little 

Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians 

that takes place in Harbor Springs.

Conti, the secretary of NASA, took 

part in planning the trip over the 

summer. She said her Native American 

roots stem from Oklahoma and that 

in Ohio, where she lives now, there is 

little Native American presence. Conti 

said the trip helped expose her to the 

culture of native tribes outside of the 

Cherokee.

“It was really cool because I’m not 

associated with a Michigan tribe, so it’s 

really cool to learn some cultural facts 

about native tribes that are outside of 

your own,” Conti said. “It’s different 

because where I spent the last few 

years, there is not a very heavy Native 

American community presence. The 

Pow Wow we went to was huge, it was 

a huge community gathering. There 

was a very large Native presence.”

The students who went on the 

trip to northern Michigan were all 

members of NASA, and they were 

able to participate in community 

discussions with the tribes they visited. 

Along the way, the students also had 

the opportunity to meet with the Little 

Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians 

and the Burt Lake Band.

“NASA is really awesome because 

I am learning a lot about Native 

Americans in general,” Conti said. “I 

don’t (usually) have the ability or the 

opportunity to sit in and have lunch 

with 20 or 30 other people who share 

some of my heritage. It’s amazing.”

Co-chair of NASA Zoi Crampton, 

Environment & Sustainability and 

Art & Design senior, said one of the 

main goals of the trip was to foster 

connections between U-M students 

and Indigenous communities. She 

said NASA membership has been 

steadily growing over the past couple 

of years, which hopefully represents 

an increased interest in Indigenous 

culture at the University.

“I thought it was important to foster 

community building,” Crampton said. 

“We’ve been getting a little bit bigger 

each year in the past couple of years 

with NASA. So it’s kind of important to 

get comfortable with one another and 

kind of establish those relationships 

and hope to carry that out through the 

school year.”

MESA 
Program 
Manager 

Andrea Wilkerson also helped plan 

and attended the trip. Wilkerson, 

who identifies as Native American, 

graduated from the University in 2012 

and was a part of NASA when she 

was an undergraduate. Though she 

started having conversations about 

the possibility of a Native American 

Student Trip in the fall of 2020, the 

planning process was put on hold 

during the pandemic. At the beginning 

of this past summer, NASA and MESA 

picked up right where they had left off 

and started coordinating the in-person 

trip once again. 

“(MESA) builds lots of relationships 

with student organizations like NASA,” 

Wilkerson said. “Being the (NASA) 

adviser and being in the (Indigenous) 

community (means) knowing some 

different experiences that students 

would be interested in and working 

closely with the NASA leadership over 

the last three years … (until) things 

became extraordinarily more safe to be 

able to make that trip out of town.”

Wilkerson said one of her favorite 

activities on the trip was a visit to the 

University’s Biological Station and the 

nearby Burt Lake Band property in 

Brutus, MI. There, students were able 

to engage with the Burt Lake Band 

tribe and visit a garden the tribe refers 

to as Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan, 

or the “Place Where Medicines Grow 

Well.” The garden, which includes 

a variety of symbolic plants used for 

medical and ceremonial purposes, was 

designed in part by past U-M students 

in collaboration with the tribe.

Ask almost any student who 

attended the University of Michigan 

in the past decade to tell you about 

“Billy Magic,” and they will regale 

you with tales of their freshman 

orientation — of sitting in a stuffy 

assembly hall and watching “The 

Michigan Transportation Musical.” 

The student-directed musical has 

been shown since 2012 to inform 

students about the “magic” of the 

bus system at the University.

But for the past two years, the 

video 
has 
been 
conspicuously 

missing from freshman orientation, 

leaving older students with one 

question: where did Billy Magic go?

The musical was written by 

Music, Theatre & Dance alumna 

Emily Lyon in 2012 through a 

student-run production company 

called Filmic. It is a PSA-style 

musical sharing tips and tricks 

for getting around campus with 

freshmen. The musical includes 

the U-M Blue Buses, the Ann 

Arbor public bus system known as 

“TheRide” (AATATA) and other safe 

transportation options for students.

The video features a charismatic 

character 
named 
Billy 
Magic 

who embodies an unparalleled 

enthusiasm for mass transit and 

teaches his co-star “the Kid” about 

it. Billy has ascended to “meme-

status” 
among 
students 
who 

watched the video at orientation, 

appearing in various memes, posts 

and accounts on social media, even 

dominating the splash screen of 

campus Facebook group UMich 

Memes for Wolverteens for a time.

The last time new students were 

introduced to Billy, however, was 

in the summer of 2020, though 

orientation 
was 
virtual. 
The 

video was not played at freshman 

orientation in 2021, and did not 

make a return this summer either.

The musical’s absence will be felt 

by the community, upperclassmen 

say, though it is unclear how many 

students still remember Billy on 

campus today. LSA senior Noor 

Khan watched Billy Magic when 

she first came to campus as a 

freshman three years ago. She said it 

is hard to think the past two years’ 

incoming freshmen have missed out 

on what was, for so many years, an 

instrumental part of orientation. 

“The fact that the freshmen 

for the past two years haven’t had 

that experience is a little crazy 

to imagine because I feel like, as 

small and short as that clip was, it 

was definitely a part of Michigan 

culture,” Khan said. 

Engineering 
junior 
Ethan 

Kopicko 
does 
not 
remember 

Billy Magic, though he would 

have 
included 
the 
Michigan 

Transportation Musical as part of 

his online orientation materials. 

He said he learned to navigate the 

University’s bus system through the 

third-party app, Reddit, instead of 

with Billy’s help. He said he watched 

a video about the transportation 

system, which he thinks might have 

been the Billy Magic video, but is not 

certain

“I didn’t go out of my way to look 

at what the University was saying 

about 
(campus 
transportation) 

because my solution for a lot of stuff 

has been literally looking on Reddit,” 

Kopicko said. “That’s where I got my 

information from.”

University 
spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The 

Michigan Daily that Billy Magic was 

removed from this year’s orientation 

since the video includes outdated 

information from 2012 that may 

confuse incoming students. Still, 

Fitzgerald acknowledged the impact 

of the video and the historic role it 

has played in orientation.

“It’s amazing that The Michigan 

Transportation Video, originally 

released in 2012, still has such a 

huge fan base among students,” 

Fitzgerald said. “We truly appreciate 

the love that everyone has for Billy 

Magic and all of those involved in 

the video.”

Kopicko is not the only one to 

have sought external resources 

when 
attempting 
to 
navigate 

U-M busing. In 2021, Engineering 

sophomore Efe Akinci created an 

unofficial app, M-Bus, which tracks 

Michigan Blue Buses and lists 

expected arrival times. The app had 

650 downloads after just one day on 

the Apple App Store.

According to LSA freshman 

Alyssa Peek, instead of watching 

Billy Magic’s performance this year, 

the University provided her with 

QR codes for information about 

utilizing the Blue Bus system at 

orientation. She had never heard of 

Billy.

“They just told us about the 

different apps and that was it,” Peek 

said. “They said ‘Download these 

two apps and you will find your way 

to the buses. It was short and sweet.”

Fitzgerald 
added 
that 
the 

orientation team collaborated with 

Logistics, Transportation & Parking 

on the orientation presentation this 

year to create a section that focuses 

on buses and other transportation 

options. The presentation includes 

information about the U-M Blue 

Bus system, TheRide and other 

on-demand transportation services 

such as SafeRide, according to 

Fitzgerald. It’s all of the same 

information, 
just 
without 
the 

“Magic.” 

Khan said she will not forget 

about Billy anytime soon. Almost 

ten years’ worth of U-M students 

will have graduated with the shared 

memory of Billy, ensuring that 

for them at least, he will remain a 

cornerstone of campus culture.

“Billy Magic was kind of a 

symbol, a bit of an icon, that you 

experience during your freshman 

year,” Khan said. “I haven’t seen that 

video in three years, but I vividly 

remember it.”

Daily 
Staff 
Reporter 
Sarah 

Williams can be reached at smwi@

umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 — 3

Beloved transportation musical removed 
from first-year orientation programming

SARAH WILLIAMS
Daily Staff Reporter

NEWS

Q&A with Regent Paul Brown on presidential transition, UMich athletics

RILEY HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter

NEWS

U-M community visits 
Indigenous groups in 
northern Michigan, connects 
with culture and tradition

RACHEL MINTZ
Daily Staff Reporter

ROSS, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“I don’t understand why there’s 
zero COVID exceptions, because 
we’re definitely expected to not go 
to class if we’re sick,” Sam said.
The syllabus specifically lists 
religious 
obligations, 
funeral 
attendance and athletic travel as 
reasons students are likely to be 
excused from more than three 
classes; COVID-related absences 
are not listed.
That’s a change from last year, 
when RIS course syllabi specified 
that the three absence policy 
referred to absences for career 
recruiting, events and “non-COVID 
related illnesses.” According to 
the 2021 RIS syllabi, students with 
COVID-19 were asked to email RIS 
faculty to get their illness-related 
absences excused separately, which 
is no longer an option to students 
this year.
The change is leaving students 
like Sam who contracted COVID-
19 during the first week of classes 
concerned that their illness will 

count against their attendance 
record. With two strikes already, 
and the possibility of subsequent 
absences, Sam fears for their 
participation grades in the future.
“I understand you’ll be fine if 
you only get COVID once, but then 
it’s so likely that someone might 
get COVID (again) or the flu or 
something crazy and miss two 
more classes,” Sam said.
Business 
junior 
Pari 
Patel 
said she does not see why the 
RIS policy was changed from 
last year’s while the University’s 
mandatory COVID-19 isolation 
policy remains in effect. She also 
emphasized that her professors 
are not recording classes this 
semester, potentially making it 
more difficult for students who 
are isolating to stay on top of their 
coursework.
“I do think there will be COVID 
outbreaks, so there should be 
separate absences in case you get 
sick,” Patel said. “Last year they 

recorded classes, too … but this 
year they don’t even do that.”
In the Fall 2020 semester, RIS 
students were allowed to attend 
class virtually without using up 
an absence if they were unable 
to come in person. That is not an 
option this year, as there is no 
way for students to join remotely. 
Though the RIS syllabus does not 
prohibit faculty from recording 
lectures, in emails obtained by The 
Daily from Business School faculty 
to COVID-positive students, 2022 
RIS standards do not support 
sharing video lectures.
When asked to clarify whether 
or not RIS faculty can record 
lectures for sick students this fall, 
University 
spokeswoman 
Kim 
Broekhuizen did not answer.
When asked about the policy 
in general, Broekhuizen said it 
aligns with University isolation 
guidelines. She said the University 
is encouraging faculty to be 
flexible with students who test 

positive for COVID-19 especially 
at the beginning of the year.
“On a decentralized campus, 
there is of course variability 
between schools and colleges 
on how absences are discussed 
and handled,” Broekhuizen said. 
“Faculty are encouraged to be 
flexible in their expectations as 
community 
health 
conditions 
continue to evolve, particularly 
over the first few weeks of the 
semester.”
Still, Sam said they are not 
confident they would be able 
to miss a RIS class again this 
semester without penalty. It’s 
a Catch-22 situation, though, 
Sam said, because their course 
syllabi also suggest they could be 
punished for coming to class in 
person if they are sick. In each 
of the individual syllabi for RIS 
courses, 
except 
for 
Business 
Communications, there is a shared 
“Health 
and 
Safety” 
section, 
which asks students to adhere 

to campus health and safety 
measures. If students violate those 
measures and come to RIS classes 
sick, they may also face academic 
repercussions, according to their 
syllabi.
“Your ability to participate in 
your courses in-person as well as 
your grade may be impacted by 
failure to comply with campus 
safety 
measures,” 
the 
syllabi 
reads.
Sam said they are concerned 
the combination of these policies 
will lead Business students to not 
take COVID-19 tests if they have 
mild symptoms or have knowingly 
been exposed to the virus.
“I definitely think people are 
going to go to class with COVID,” 
Sam said. “When I told my friend 
I had COVID, she was like, ‘I’m 
just never going to take another 
COVID test.’”
With Washtenaw County at a 
medium transmission community 
level and University COVID-

19 isolation housing at 40% 
occupancy after the first week of 
classes, the virus continues to be 
present in the campus community. 
While testing is not required for 
most students this fall, University 
officials have been continuing to 
encourage tests to mitigate the 
spread of COVID-19.
When 
asked 
whether 
the 
Business School is at all concerned 
that the policy might encourage 
students to attend class in spite 
of illness or refrain from testing, 
Broekhuizen did not answer.
None of those recommendations 
will 
be 
effective, 
though, 
if 
students believe they have to make 
a choice between their grades and 
their health, Sam said.
“Ross is definitely more strict 
than some other schools,” Sam 
said. “I don’t really see how it’s 
contributing to our education.”
Daily News Editor Roni Kane 
can be reached at ronikane@umich.
edu.

Students reflect on campus icon Billy Magic, bus system education

First-ever trip organized by Native American Student 
Association, Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs 

The newly elected Chair discusses goals for upcoming year

NEWS

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