ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
CAMPUS LIFE
Prospective freshmen’s racist texts spur uproar Individuals not affiliated with University harass GroupMe for incoming freshmen ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter AARON BAKER/Daily
Shaun King, New York Daily News Columnist, speaks about the election and police brutality at Rackham on Monday.
Activist Shaun King highlights mixed post-election reactions
Author speaks to sold out Rackham Auditorium as part of MLK day symposium event COLIN BERESFORD Daily Staff Reporter
Activist and author Shaun King sold out Rackham Auditorium Monday night for his speech exploring the mixed reactions on campus following the 2016 presidential election. The event was hosted by the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives as part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium. Austin McCoy, a Mellon
Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, opened by talking about activist groups on campus and his goal to empower marginalized people. McCoy ended by saying “Black Lives Matter,” “Black Queer Lives Matter” and other variations of the slogan, receiving cheers from the audience in response. King then began his speech by describing his hopes to instill new perspectives in the socially active audience. “I am not necessarily here to
inspire, because I believe in a lot of ways that you are already inspired,” King said. “Tonight I am here to really teach you a lesson that will give you a new lens through which to see the world.” King described what he felt after viewing the video of Eric Garner, a Black man strangled by the police in New York in July 2014. The video, which showed a police officer strangling Garner despite Garner telling the officer he couldn’t breathe, went viral, sparking protests
around the country. “What I saw was Officer Daniel Pantaleo, NYPD, choking Eric Garner to death,” King said, “It shook me.” King came to understand the killings of Garner and other young Black men by the police through the work of German historian Leopold von Ranke, who believed humanity was not steadily progressing as most people believe, but rather progress within humanity was much more varied and went See ACTIVIST, Page 3
A GroupMe chat group for prospective University of Michigan freshmen students became a hotbed of controversy on Jan. 20 after white individuals messaged a racist slur and bigoted comments at Black and minority group members. According to screenshots tweeted by a Black prospective student Kennedy DuBose, a white individual named Alex Whitley commented “N---RS ARE THE WORST YOU KNOW” on the #Victors2021 group chat. In an email interview with the Daily, DuBose said she could not speculate as to why Whitley, who claimed to be an admitted student, used the slur. “Im (sic) not sure how the feud started … I just came back to the chat to ‘n---ers are the worst,’ ” she wrote. “And nobody addressed him. It was out of the blue.”
When other members, including Kennedy, started calling him out on his messages, Whitley and a few sympathizers began personally attacking DuBose. The chat’s administrators eventually removed DuBose and other Black individuals from the chat, including some who were not involved in the debate, she said. However, University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen said there is no evidence that either of the individuals in the chat are affiliated with the University whatsoever. Whitley did not respond to an interview request by the Daily. “There are no students — or recently admitted — in our records by the name Ashley Wellington or Alex Whitley,” Broekhuizen said. “We have no evidence that these individuals have any affiliation with the University of Michigan.” Rackham student Vikrant See GROUPME, Page 3
Senate Assembly passes resolution Link found Building in female defining faculty demotion procedure renaming
RESEARCH
ADMINISTRATION
obesity and depression
Departing Provost Martha Pollack says goodbye to academic advisory committee
‘U’ researcher discovers high vulnerability among white women over 50
Members of the University of Michigan’s Senate Assembly passed a resolution on Monday brought forth by the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee regarding salary cuts as a way to demote faculty. The meeting was also a chance for the assembly to hear last remarks from outgoing Provost Martha Pollack and initial remarks from incoming Interim Provost Paul Courant, a public policy professor. The faculty began the meeting by taking a closer look at the AAAC resolution written in December, which condemns the University for effectively demoting faculty members by cutting their salaries without due process and calls for this to change. The AAAC, after being notified of several cases of these incidents at the University, decided any reduction of a tenured faculty member’s salary qualifies as a demotion, and entitles the member to the due processes the Board of Regents bylaw outlines. None of the cases were specified, but it was noted that this problem was most common in the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy. The Regents’ Bylaw 5.09
RASHEED ABDULLAH Daily Staff Reporter
Of Black and white Americans, sustained depression that comes as a result of being obese is most common in white women, according to a new University of Michigan study. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity in the United States has become a major public health concern among all races and genders, with more than one-third of all adults affected. Yet while previous research indicated depression as result of obesity was common among all races, new University research shows between the two races, obesity only positively correlates with depression for white women, particularly those over the age of 50. The study, which was conducted by Shervin Assari, a research investigator from the University Department of Psychiatry and the School of Public Health, was aimed See RESEARCH, Page 2
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MAYA GOLDMAN Daily Staff Reporter
outlines the due process procedure for dismissal or demotion, but the assembly argued the document does not specify what is considered a demotion. John Lehman, a Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs member
and professor of biology, presented the resolution to the Senate Assembly and urged them to vote in favor of it. He mentioned that SACUA members had debated the resolution during their last meeting, and decided to keep the resolution’s definition of
demotion to only a pay cut to limit technicalities and confusion. “We know well that there are other methods invoked by unit administrators that some of you might regard as constructive demotions,” Lehman said. “Assigning See ASSEMBLY, Page 3
procedure approved
Schlissel outlines process to rename popular campus buildings amid backlash CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
SACUA chair William Schultz watches as Provost Martha Pollack opens a gift from the Faculty Senate Assembly in commemoration of Pollack’s service to the University at Palmer Commons on Monday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 14 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
The University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel’s Advisory Committee on University History has outlined a process to consider a building name change request due to students questioning buildings named after those who have not openly supported civil rights or equality, as well as the lack of buildings named after women and minorities. The new policy comes in light of the University’s bicentennial, which celebrates and examines the University’s history. On campus, there are few buildings named after females and only one named after an African American: the Trotter Multicultural Center. The policy also comes after the University’s Board of Regents approved changing the name of the Trotter Center to the Bernstein-Bendit Hall last Spring after Regent Mark Bernstein (D) and his wife Rachel Bendit offered a $3 million gift for the center. Many students protested the See BUILDING, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7