The University of Michigan’s 
Central Student Government held 
their 
annual 
executive 
debate 
Sunday evening to give the campus 
community an opportunity to hear 
from the presidential and vice 
presidential candidates for the 2023-
24 school year. Candidates were 
able to describe their campaign 
goals and the main issues they 
plan to address if elected. Student 
representatives from The Michigan 
Daily and The Michigan Review 
switched off asking the candidates 
questions about three main topics: 
administration, university affairs 
and student organizations.
The 
presidential 
candidates 
answered 
questions 
first. 
This 
year’s candidates are Engineering 
senior Zaynab Elkolaly, LSA junior 
Gabriel Ervin, Engineering junior 
Maria Fields, Public Policy junior 
Meera Herle and LSA freshman 
Tony Liu.
Elolaly is running independently 
and 
she 
is 
an 
Engineering 
representative 
on 
the 
CSG 
assembly. Ervin is a member of 
the 
Independence 
Union 
and 
an 
LSA 
Student 
Government 
representative. Fields is a member 
of the Respect Party and an 
Engineering representative on the 
CSG assembly. Herle is a member of 
the Forward Together Party and she 

is serving as the CSG Chief of Staff. 
Liu is running independently.
Several of the candidates spoke 
about improving mental health 
initiatives on campus and their 
plans for distribution of CSG 
funds, which they receive from the 
University, to student organizations 
and other campus programs. 
Ervin discussed mental health in 
relation to high Ann Arbor rental 
costs. 
“(Rent costs) have been out of 
control completely and have been an 
unbearable cost for many students 
on campus,” Ervin said. “I believe 
that the student government needs 
to work with the administration to 
address this problem. If the rent 
goes down, people are less stressed. 
People aren’t worried about where 
they’re going to get their next meal 
from or how they’re going to pay 
for their textbooks. That takes a lot 
of burdens off of people, and so we 
need to work on that together right 
now.”
Herle said she wants to increase 
access to mental health care across 
the University for students by 
expanding 
access 
to 
in-person 
counseling. If elected, Herle said she 
wants to work with administration 
to add mental health options for 
students 
that 
are 
intentionally 
inclusive of different communities 
including students of various racial, 
gender and sexual identities. 

The University of Michigan 
Graduate 
Employees’ 
Organization announced in a 
tweet March 27 that they will 
begin striking. The strike will 
officially 
start 
Wednesday, 
March 29 at 10:24 AM, which 
will be initiated by a walk out at 
that time. This announcement 
comes 
after 
GEO 
members 
authorized leadership to call 
for a strike in their meeting 
a week earlier, with 95% of 
members voting in favor of a 
work stoppage. The last GEO 
strike took place three years 
ago in fall 2020.
The 
strike 
comes 
after 
five months of negotiations 
with the University without a 
compromise reached on a new 
three-year contract agreement. 
In a press release, GEO claimed 
that striking is the natural next 
step in their ongoing activism, 
including 
protesting 
Ono’s 
inauguration and filing unfair 
labor practice charges against 
the University in March. In the 
press release, GEO said they 
hope it will help encourage 
the University to meet their 
demands.
Throughout 
their 
negotiations, GEO has asked 
that graduate employee salaries 
increase to $38,537 per year, 
claiming that what they are 
currently being paid is not a 
liveable wage in Ann Arbor. 
They 
have 
also 
asked 
for 

improvements in their current 
health care plan and for the 
University to make alterations 
to campus security.
In 
response 
to 
GEO 
members authorizing a strike, 
University 
President 
Santa 
Ono and University Provost 
Laurie McCauley sent out a 
joint email statement to the 
campus 
community 
March 
24. In the statement, Ono and 
McCauley alleged that a strike 
would not only be a breach of 
GEO’s current contract with 
the 
University, 
but 
would 
violate Michigan state law. Ono 
and McCauley expressed the 
University’s intent to take legal 
action against GEO if necessary.
“The University will take 
appropriate lawful actions to 
enable the continued delivery 
of our educational mission in 
the event of a work disruption,” 
the email said. “Those actions 
will include asking a court 
to find a breach of contract 
and order strikers back to 
work, stopping the deduction 
of union dues, filing unfair 
labor practice charges, and not 
paying striking GSIs and GSSAs 
for time they do not work.”
In a separate email sent out 
to the campus community on 
March 25, McCauley stated 
that the University will take 
measures 
to 
keep 
campus 
operations as normal as possible 
and ensure that undergraduate 
students will receive academic 
support for the duration of the 
strike. To do this, McCauley 
said the University intends to 

continue good faith bargaining 
with GEO and working to 
ensure that students receive 
accurate final grades for their 
Winter 2023 classes.
“Our 
school, 
college, 
and 
department 
leaders 
are 
planning 
for 
substitute 
instructors, 
alternative 

assignments, and other means 
for delivering instruction in 
the absence of graduate student 
instructors,” McCauley wrote. 
“Providing 
a 
high-quality 
educational 
experience 
for 
every student remains our top 
priority.”
Rackham graduate student 

Sovoya Davis, a member of 
GEO, said the length of the 
strike will be dependent on the 
University’s response.
“The University of Michigan, 
they are responsible for this 
strike,” Davis said. “If they 
are willing to take bargaining 
seriously, and offer counter-

proposals that actually show 
some movement, then I’m sure 
that the Union will do all that 
they can to be amenable to 
that. You know, nobody wants 
to strike, we care about our 
students a lot, so it really just 
depends on the University of 
Michigan.”

The University of Michigan 
Museum of Art unveiled three new 
exhibits as part of their ongoing 
“Curriculum / Collection” series: 
“Predicting the Future,” “Strategic 
Brand Management” and “U.S. 
Citizenship: Race / Class / Gender.” 
Each exhibit was developed in 
collaboration with multiple U-M 
faculty members for use in one of 
their classes this semester.
David 
Choberka, 
Mellon 
Foundation 
curator 
for 
U-M 
learning and programs, put together 

all three exhibits in collaboration 
with U-M faculty. Choberka has 
been creating private galleries 
for U-M class student visits since 
UMMA established their U-M 
learning program in 2012 to increase 
student engagement. UMMA first 
started publicly displaying the 
class-specific exhibits in 2020 with 
the creation of the “Curriculum / 
Collection” series. 
In an interview with The 
Michigan Daily, Choberka said he 
previously displayed works from 
a collection in one of the UMMA’s 
private study rooms for a class to 
discuss before the “Curriculum / 
Collection” series allowed works to 

be displayed in the public gallery.
“One of the goals of ‘Curriculum 
/ Collection’ was to turn those ways 
we use the collection for University 
learning into gallery experiences as 
well,” Choberka said. “A lot of people 
are very aware that it’s a University 
museum, so it’s really cool for them 
to come through and not experience 
just any old museum anywhere, but 
a museum that’s doing unique and 
interesting things because of our 
connection to learning on campus.”
“Predicting the Future”
The exhibit “Predicting the 
Future” draws themes from the 
course ALA 350, taught by LSA 
lecturer 
Cameron 
Gibelyou. 

The course has been taught in 
collaboration with the UMMA and 
Choberka for at least eight years. In 
the exhibit, many of the artworks 
are composed around a diagonal 
line that extends from the lower left 
to upper right of the image. 
After giving ALA 350 students 
a tour of the exhibit, Choberka 
said the first activity he usually 
asks students to do is to draw their 
personal representation of progress 
on a notecard. Notecards from 
previous classes are displayed in the 
gallery.
“Everybody 
draws 
some 
variation on that same diagonal,” 
Choberka said. “Every time the 
students do it, it’s kind of mind-
blowing for them. … Whenever I ask 
students, ‘Why do you think we all 
draw the same line?’ they all talk 
about stock market graphs. … It’s the 
predominance of x-y graphing as a 
fundamental way we imagine the 
shape of progress.” 
“U.S. Citizenship: Race / Class 
/ Gender”
“U.S. Citizenship: Race / Class 
/ Gender” interacts with several 
courses, including ENGLISH 332, 
AMCULT 103, AMCULT 300 and 
ALA 270. Various works from the 
UMMA’s collection are displayed 
in the exhibit, all depicting symbols 
like the American flag or the Statue 
of Liberty. The exhibit also includes 
a new acquisition, Sonya Clark’s 
“Whitewashed,” which consists of 
an American flag in shades of white 
and cream painted directly on the 
wall.

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INDEX
Vol. CXXXII, No. 108
©2023 The Michigan Daily

N E WS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

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

S T A T E M E N T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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

O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 29, 2023

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GEO strikes against the University
The strike comes after weeks of unresolved contract negotiations

 NEWS

ASTRID CODE
Daily Staff Reporter

JAMIE KIM
Daily Staff Reporter

UMMA adds three new exhibits

CAMPUS LIFE

CSG 2023 executive 
candidates hold debate
CSG President and VP tickets discussed 
campus issues in advance of elections

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

RILEY HODDER
Daily News Editor

Members of GEO protest on the Diag during the procession to Santa Ono’s inauguration ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
ANNA FUDER/Daily

UMich faculty members curated unique displays at the museum for their classes

Celebrating Professor Michael Haithcock
University of Michigan Symphony Band
Friday, March 31
Hill Auditorium // 8:00 PM

Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
MARIA DECKMANN/Daily

