The Michigan Daily sat down 
with University President Santa Ono 
Tuesday to discuss working with 
students and the expansion of both 
on-campus housing and Diversity, 
Equity and Inclusion. He also spoke 
about his favorite parts of Mosher-
Jordan’s dining hall and his order at 
Pizza House.
This interview has been edited 
and condensed for clarity.
The Daily: The University of 
Michigan is currently in the midst 
of negotiations with the Graduate 
Employees’ 
Organization. 
How 
do you feel about the progress 
you’ve made with GEO, such as 
the agreements you made on 
meeting logistics and deciding that 
a mediator was no longer needed? 
What are your hopes for the rest of 
the negotiations?
Santa Ono: I’m not directly 
involved in the negotiations; that’s 
led by University Provost Laurie 
McCauley and Academic Human 
Resources. I have tremendous 
confidence in that team. And with 
any negotiation, there’s a back and 
forth that occurs. But I understand 
that things are moving in the right 
direction. I really want there to be 
a resolution and I want there to be 
strong support for our graduate 
students. They are an incredibly 
vital and important part of the 
University.
TMD: 
DEI 
1.0 
recently 
concluded and DEI 2.0 has begun. 
At the event covering the DEI 1.0 
Evaluation Report, you spoke of 
hopes that DEI 2.0 can expand to 
the state level. How do you hope the 
University can achieve this? What 
are your expectations for DEI 2.0?
SO: So I want to clarify — that 
was in the quote from an interview 
with The Michigan Daily, but it 
was kind of taken a little bit out 
of context. It wasn’t that I would 
want to see the University’s DEI 
efforts go statewide. It was more 
that I felt that to achieve some of 
the objectives of the University, 
and also some of the objectives 
from the Black Student Union, that 
we would have to expand some of 
our existing Effective Pathways, 
like 
Wolverine 
Pathways, 
to 

more places throughout the state 
and perhaps outside the state of 
Michigan as well. So it wasn’t so 
much, you know, scaling what we’re 
doing here to the state. We have to 
engage with additional schools and 
high schools and different cities for 
us to achieve the diversity that we 
want to see here on our campuses.
TMD: In November, you visited 
the Trotter Multicultural Center. 
How often do you plan on visiting 
the Multicultural Center or other 
spaces like this? How will you 
increase and support the diversity 
of the University community?
SO: I loved my time when I 
visited the Multicultural Center, 
and part of it has to do with how 
often they want to see me there. I 
was invited to that meeting and I 
was happy to go. Students are very 
busy and all of the different centers 
and organizations on campus are 
very busy, so I don’t want to impose 
myself. If I hear that they want me 
to come again, I would be happy to.
TMD: 
Will 
there 
be 
any 
collaboration between the Ann 
Arbor, 
Flint 
and 
Dearborn 
campuses about DEI 2.0 and future 
DEI initiatives?
SO: The strategic visioning 
process, that I hope students 
received 
an 
email 
about 
(on 
Tuesday), is meant to apply to the 
entire University, not just the Ann 
Arbor campus. I’ve had a chance 
to be at the Flint campus and the 
Dearborn campus, and they’re an 
important part of the University. 
All 
three 
campuses 
have 
a 
commitment to Diversity, Equity 
and Inclusion. And so, there are 
initiatives that are happening on all 
three campuses … So yes, the DEI 
1.0 and 2.0 projects encompass all 
three campuses.
TMD: What are your hopes 
and expectations for the Flint 
Transformation Plan? How often 
do you currently visit the Flint/
Dearborn campuses?
SO: I’ve been here for three 
and a half months, and I’ve visited 
both campuses twice, so I don’t 
know whether I can maintain 
that frequency. Faculty and staff 
(involved with) leadership on both 
campuses have said that’s quite 
a high frequency of visitation 
compared to some of my peers. I 
love going to both campuses, so I 
will try my very best to continue 
visiting. I’m planning to go to the 

Dearborn campus again pretty 
soon. I would say that frequent 
visits are important for me. I think 
the faculty, staff and students 
appreciate my presence, so I will do 
my very best.
TMD: In November, not long 
after you took office, the Black 
Student 
Union 
released 
their 
“More 
Than 
Four” 
platform, 
calling on the University to, one, 
increase Black student enrollment 
from its current level of 4% of the 
student population, two, combat 
anti-Blackness, three, improve DEI 
policies and, four, invest in K-12 
education to increase equity. How 
do you as University president plan 
to address each of these points?
SO: I’m one person, and I’m 
very committed to and I’ve been 
very public that I support all sorts 
of those initiatives. I’ve met with 
the BSU and there is going to be a 
pretty robust and intense process 
for leadership within an institution. 
There are about 30 individuals at 
the University that will be engaging 
with the (BSU’s platform), and 
there will be committees that are 
focused on all four of those requests 

and 
our 
commitments. 
These 
committees will come back to me 
by the end of the semester with 
their recommendations on actions 
that we can take as a University to 
actually make progress toward each 
of those four recommendations. 
The collaborative approaches to 
each of those recommendations 
involve leadership and students, 
which is a different paradigm. It 
used to be that students would 
make requests and administration 
would go away, and time would pass 
and (administration) would come 
back (with recommendations). In 
this case, it’s a collaborative effort 
where students and administrators 
are coming together and really 
working together to achieve each of 
those objectives.
TMD: Name, Image, Likeness 
(NIL) has greatly altered college 
athletics, and Michigan’s NIL 
opportunities have lagged behind 
other universities like Texas A&M, 
Alabama and Ohio State, to name a 
few. What changes to Michigan’s 
NIL system would you like to see, 
and what role do you plan to take in 
making those changes?

SO: I’m not sure it’s actually 
true that we lag behind those 
schools. There is a perception 
among some that that’s the case, 
but if you actually look at the 
Jersey Licensing Program, the 
University of Michigan was at the 
forefront of that program, which 
is a big part of NIL. We’re very 
fortunate that there have been 
three or four collectives that have 
been involved, and we’re very 
grateful for the passionate support 
of individuals who are donating 
to those collectives to support 
our student-athletes. I’m not sure 
that we’re lagging — the support 
and donations of people who care 
about our student-athletes and the 
Wolverine teams has been very 
generous. You may have heard 
that the athletic director, Warde 
Manuel, sent out a communication 
to 
supporters 
of 
Wolverine 
Athletics, encouraging them to 
support student-athletes through 
those collectives, and that had 
an immediate impact. There has 
already been an uptick in support 
of our programs through those 
collectors and those individuals 

leading 
those 
collectives 
are 
already speaking with each other. 
How 
will 
I 
personally 
be 
involved? I will be there to listen 
to and then to provide advice that 
might be helpful to (the athletic 
director) as they stand up those 
initiatives. It’s very important to 
the University that we do things 
right and we remain in compliance 
with the NCAA and the law. I’ll 
play that advisory role as they 
stand things up, but this is really in 
the domain of the athletic director, 
and Warde Manuel is doing a great 
job interfacing with the leadership 
of those collectives. He has my full 
support.
TMD: The University recently 
announced the construction of a 
new residential and dining complex 
on Elbel Field. What hopes do you 
have for this new residence hall 
and the improvement of student 
housing availability on or near 
Central Campus? What kind of 
change do you think this new 
residence hall will bring to campus 
culture?

Verbena, a local clothing 
store on State Street, will close 
its doors at the end of February 
after more than eight years of 
business. The small boutique 
offers unique, feminine street 
wear and formal wear options 
to their customers — many 
of whom are University of 
Michigan 
students. 
Father-
daughter duo Bob Duerksen 
and Kate Ryan opened Verbena 
together in 2014 and announced 
its closing following a decrease 
in sales as a result of the 
COVID-19 pandemic.
The 
store 
announced 
its 
closing in a Jan. 11 Instagram 
post, thanking customers for 
their support for the business. 
“We are sad to announce that 
we will be closing Verbena by 
the end of February 2023,” the 
post reads. “We are so grateful 
to have been a part of so many 
special occasions and getting 
to see some of you almost every 
day.” 
Mary 
Duerksen, 
Verbena 
manager and Bob Duerksen’s 
wife, told The Michigan Daily 
she is disappointed the store 
is closing. Duerksen said she 

feels sad to leave the Ann Arbor 
business 
community, 
noting 
that 
the 
pandemic 
heavily 
impacted Verbena’s sales.
“I 
wasn’t 
surprised 
to 
hear about the store closing,” 
Duerksen said. “Our sales have 
not been very good ever since 
(the pandemic).” 
Small businesses across the 
country have been impacted by 
the COVID-19 pandemic and 
subsequent rising inflation rates 
and supply chain management 
issues. In June 2020, inflation 
hit 9.1% in the United States 
while 
rates 
rose 
in 
many 
other countries around the 
world. According to Duerksen, 
Verbena was affected by all of 
these issues in some capacity. 
Verbena is currently offering 
discounts 
on 
all 
remaining 
items 
— 
including 
office 
fixtures — which will run until 
the store officially closes, or 
everything is cleared off the 
storeroom floor. 
Nursing senior Hannah Park 
said she was surprised to walk 
down State Street in January 
and see the closing sign in 
Verbena’s front window. Park 
said the location, right next 
to 
the 
University’s 
Central 
Campus, was convenient and 
many frequent shoppers are 

sad to see the store leave Ann 
Arbor. 
“I come to shop sometimes 
after class,” Park said. “I had 
no idea about the store closing. 
I love how trendy their clothes 
are.”
LSA 
freshman 
Natalyn 
Kapner 
echoed 
similar 
sentiments, telling The Daily 
she had no idea Verbena was 
closing. 
“I didn’t know it was closing 
until I saw the signs on the 
door,” Kapner said. “I was 
surprised because there are two 
stores that are so similar right 
next to each other; one minute I 
saw it open and the next it was 
closing.”
Kapner said she will miss the 
store and its offerings.
“I liked that they had a lot of 
casual options and it also wasn’t 
that expensive,” Kapner said.
Duerksen said the family is 
not sure what they will do next 
or what will replace Verbena on 
State Street in the future. She 
said while she is sad to see the 
store close, she remains grateful 
for the community of customers 
and employees Verbena brought 
together over the years. 
“My favorite part of Verbena 
is all the people who shop here 
and work here,” Duerksen said. 

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INDEX
Vol. CXXXII, No. 104
©2023 The Michigan Daily

NEWS............................1

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0
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michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, February 8, 2023

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

President Santa Ono talks new housing, DEI plans and Pizza House
The Daily sat down one-on-one with President Ono for the first time this year

ADMINISTRATION

MADDYN SHAPIRO
Daily Staff Reporter

Verbena to close doors on State 
Street at end of month
A local clothing store on State Street will be closing 
its doors after nine years of business

BUSINESS

Conversation 
and 
laughter 
filled 
the 
Michigan 
League 
Ballroom Wednesday as more 
than 200 students settled in for 
the first-generation winter dinner. 
The 
First-Generation 
Student 
Program organized the dinner 
for undergraduate and graduate 
first-generation students at the 
University of Michigan. 
With 
approximately 
4,000 
first-generation students at the 
University, the program works to 
increase resource accessibility for 
first-generation students as well as 
build community among them.
Terra 
Molengraff, 
assistant 
director 
of 
First-Generation 
Student 
Program, 
told 
The 
Michigan Daily this was the first 
event the program put together 
for all first-generation students 
this academic year. She said the 
purpose of the event was to focus 
on community building among 
first-generation college students.
“First-generation students (are) 
very relationship based and, like 
all students, they really benefit 
from 
community,” 
Molengraff 
said. “This is a space that is 
dedicated to having students just 
get to know each other and share a 

little bit about their experiences.”
At the event, attendees enjoyed 
provided food, participated in 
group discussion questions, and 
played a human bingo game to 
facilitate 
student 
connections. 
The 
dinner 
also 
showcased 
a 
presentation 
from 
First-
Generation College Students @ 
Michigan, a student organization 
that aims to support the goals of 
first-generation 
U-M 
students. 
The 
presentation 
spread 
awareness for the First Generation 
Student Gateway, a study and 
meeting space located in the 
Office of Academic Multicultural 
Initiatives in the Student Activities 

Building for all first-generation 
students and a place to access 
resources. 
LSA freshman Haylie Toth told 
The Daily she attended the dinner 
to surround herself with people 
who have similar experiences, 
especially regarding acclimating 
to college life.
“For me, at least, I had to figure 
out a lot on my own,” Toth said. “It 
just feels like a really welcoming 
space and just looking around and 
seeing everyone together and just 
talking and chatting … that’s really 
nice.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

First generation U-M students 
gather over winter dinner
 Over 200 students celebrated their college journeys 
together in the League

CAMPUS LIFE

GRACE LAHTI/Daily

First generation Michigan students get food at the First Gen Winter Community Dinner 
at the Michigan League Ballroom Wednesday.

NATALIE ANDERSON
Daily Staff Reporter

SHANNON STOCKING, 
KATE WEILAND & 
RILEY HODDER
Co-Editors in Chief & Daily News 

MARIA DECKMANN/Daily

University of Michigan President Santa Ono answers questions in an exclusive interview with Michigan Daily news reporters Tuesday evening in the Ruthven Building.

