Issuu

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Friday, September 30, 2016

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

ANN ARBOR

120

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Estimated staff members Estimated undergraduates at community forum at community forum

We want Schlissel to address us… about 2017, not 2025.

+400

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Protest attendees this week

Estimated faculty at community forum

We should not have to wait until an inciting incident for us to have these dialogues.

JFS doubles numbers to meet rising demand

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Estimated graduate students at community forum

DESIGN BY: MICHELLE PHILLIPS/Daily

Left quote: LSA junior Lakyrra Magee. Right quote: LSA freshman Na’kia Channey. Source: Estimates from Daily reporters at each event.

Finding outlets: Students lean on selforganized events, not ‘U’, to talk diversity

Administrators grapple with addressing issues of race on campus following week of protests JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily News Editor

Though the question has been a persistent one throughout its history, over the past year the University of Michigan has focused in on how to become more diverse, more inclusive and more welcoming under a University initiative to create a campus-wide strategic plan for diversity. On Oct. 6, that answer is supposed to become clearer, when the University formally launches

its campus-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan, a year-long effort started by University President Mark Schlissel. However, after the discovery of racially charged fliers in University buildings and a controversial debate over the merits of Black Lives Matter earlier this week prompted massive student protests, new questions about issues of race on campus and tensions between the University and students have surfaced. Though both the debate and the posters have been a focus, many students have also pointed

to systemic issues of climate they said those incidents highlighted — criticizing what they described as years of University inaction and citing the strategic plan as an example. LSA freshman Na’kia Channey, who spoke at the protest Tuesday night, said there was a lack of trust between Black students and the University, echoing the sentiments of multiple other students interviewed throughout the week. “As far as I know, the only reason we’re having

discussions now is because it was stimulated by those examples of discrimination,” Channey said. “I’m not sure if the University of Michigan is really open about having discussions, but I feel like we should not have to wait until an inciting incident for us to have these dialogues. We shouldn’t feel like we have to curate our space for our voices to be heard.” This consistent discussion of larger campus issues throughout the week illuminates a different kind of question, one situated between student concerns and

Nonprofit resettles over 100 refugees

University efforts — why were two days of protests able to draw almost triple as many people total as University events themed around campus climate and the diversity plan have drawn in past weeks? Until the protests began this week, public participation in discussion about the University’s approach to diversity on campus had been limited. Last week, multiple University-sanctioned forums were held on campus around campus climate, as LSA See PROTEST, Page 3A

BRIAN KUANG

Daily Staff Reporter

Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County expects to have resettled about 163 refugees in the county by the conclusion of its fiscal year this fall, nearly doubling its previous year’s caseload, and plans to do so again in the coming year. In a March interview with the Daily, JFS administrators said their resettlement target was still in the 80-person range. However, an uptick in the number of refugees the Obama administration chose admit this year — from an initial goal of 10,000 to 12,000 — led to a surge in demand for JFS’s services around May and June. These new arrivals will primarily be from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Iran. In an interview this week, Shrina Eadeh, JFS’s director of resettlement, said her organization plans to hire two new resettlement caseworkers in addition to its three current resettlement staff to accommodate the new demand. JFS has also received additional federal funding to meet the influx of new clients, as the organization See REFUGEE, Page 3A

Event explores impact of Pulse shooting Lawmakers Tesla sues challenge on LGBTQ and Latinx communities Michigan

GOVERNMENT

BUSINESS

10-cent tax for bags

Forum discusses misrepresentations in mainstream media and societal effects

State House panel to vote on bill that would block county “eco-tax”

The University of Michigan hosted an event Thursday to discuss the lasting impact of a June 12 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Florida where nearly 50 people were killed, on the Latino community. The event began with a moment of silence for victims, before moving to a series of speakers. Ramón Rivera-Servera, associate professor and chair of the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University, spoke at the forum, highlighting his personal experience as a queer Puerto Rican. Rivera-Servera said hatred toward LGBTQ, Latino individuals can be seen not only through incidents such as the shooting, but also through what he called the “whitewashing” of media narratives, or the insertion of a white perspective in news reports. He noted that his research on queer Latino

WILL FEUER

Daily Staff Reporter

A new policy to tax disposable bags in Washtenaw County may be stymied by the state legislature before it goes into effect, depending on the outcome of a vote in the state House this week. On June 1, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted 6-2 in favor of a law to institute a 10-cent tax for every disposable bag a consumer uses at retail grocery stores, effective April 22, 2017. The legislation was approved by a House panel on Tuesday, allowing it to move to the House for a vote. Aiming to block the “ecotax” from being passed and See BAGS, Page 3A

ALEXA ST. JOHN Daily Staff Reporter

nightlife has suggested this is an issue in that space in particular. “Latinos have always, in a way, been present in this nightlife history of the LBGTQ community, but their presence

is often being marginalized in our rendition of national history,” Rivera-Servera said. “This attack is a really extreme manifestation of the kind of violence and hate and phobias

that characterize the broader experience of risk.”