ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, January 26 , 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Rocky road
The Michigan men’s basketball team is beginning the toughest stretch of its season with a matchup against Indiana at Crisler Center on Thursday night.
» Page 8 ADMINISTRATION
Regent’s bid for MI GOP chair draws controversy PAUL AHN/Daily
The CSG hosted town hall adressed mental health issues on campus in the League Ballroom on Wednesday.
CSG hosts first ever town hall to discuss mental health on campus
Survey finds more than 90 percent of University students struggle with mental illness ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
The Central Student Government Mental Health Climate and Resources Task Force hosted a town hall Wednesday night to share with the University of Michigan
community the findings from three surveys that were administered this past fall. The task force — created by an executive order signed by CSG President David Schafer, an LSA senior, last fall — presented to 50 attendees prospective improvements to mental health resources and
current campus climate. The survey results found 91.3 percent of students have dealt with a mental health concern on campus. At the event, LSA junior Jen Semaan expressed her surprise at the figure, and stressed how important the town hall was to the destigmatization of mental
health resources. “I think that mental health is really important,” she said. “People, especially at a prestigious university, should know about it, and it needs to be destigmatized. I feel almost relieved walking out of here and knowing that people are See TOWN HALL, Page 3
Faculty, students react to Weiser’s potential new role in Republican party MATT HARMON Daily Staff Reporter
After his only opposition dropped out on Sunday, University of Michigan Regent Ron Weiser (R) is expected to be approved as the Michigan Republican Party chairman in February. With Weiser soon to balance positions in both the University and the state GOP, accusations of conf lict of interest and defenses have risen from members of both parties. Weiser unseated former Regent Laurence Deitch (D) last November to bring the current partisan count in the
regency to a 5-3 Democrat majority. He had already run for a seat in 2014 but lost the election. Weiser said his largest priority for the regency is to serve the students. “I care deeply about the University, I care deeply about what its mission is, and I care deeply about its customers,” Weiser said. “Its customers are the students. We have to make sure that we’re serving well, providing … the highest quality education and opportunities for students at the lowest possible costs.” Weiser announced his campaign for Michigan GOP See WEISER, Page 3
Visiting professor cites Rosa Parks Students CSG body contribute as example for modern-day activists considers
CAMPUS LIFE
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
to U-M 200 celebration
Jeanne Theoharis presents book connecting Parks and Black Lives Matter movement
Bicentennial organizers look to relate discussions to broader campus community
Jeanne Theoharis, a Brooklyn College political science professor and American culture Ph.D. alum from the University of Michigan, spoke to a crowd of approximately 30 people Wednesday evening in Tisch Hall on the role of Rosa Parks in the modern-day iterations of the civil rights movements like Black Lives Matter. Theoharis was invited to speak at the University as part of the bicentennial celebration’s themed semester initiative, which strives to explore the origins of the University of Michigan and its role in the state, country and world. This semester’s theme — Making Michigan — in part focuses on the history of the University’s political activism. The talk was based on the findings and research published in Theoharis’s most recent book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” which was awarded the 2014 NAACP Image Award and the 2013 Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians. Rosa Parks’ story and her rise as a leader in the civil rights movement often begins on a December evening in 1955 when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white
KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
As the University of Michigan begins its bicentennial celebration, organizers aim to convey the powerful impact its past and present students have had on society through a year of events, planned by the Bicentennial Office. This past fall, the Bicentennial Student Advisory Committee — comprised of 36 students from all three University campuses — formed to ensure student involvement in the planning of bicentennial festivities. The committee serves as a sounding board for the Bicentennial Office’s events and activities and assists with student outreach activities. Bailey Oland, Bicentennial Student Initiatives coordinator, emphasized the importance of getting students connected with the bicentennial planning, as she claimed most students on campus do not understand the relevance of the bicentennial to their own lives. See BICENTENNIAL, Page 2
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ERIN DOHERTY Daily Staff Reporter
man, propelling the civil rights movement into action. This simple narrative is the one that is often taught. However, according to Theoharis, it is missing key elements of Parks’s life. Theoharis’ historical account is one she believes is crucial to understanding and recognizing that Parks dedicated her life to civil rights activism. “Rosa Parks is everywhere, yet most of what we know about her is wrong,” she said to the crowd. “I wrote this book as a response to this fable. We need to grapple
with her actual life and legacy.” Part of Theoharis’s confrontation with Parks’s role in the civil rights movement was filling in the historic gaps that often forget the roles of political organizing. Theoharis began her talk with a broad history of Parks, beginning with an explanation that Parks’s activism began long before her stance on the bus. In elementary school, a white boy pushed Parks. She pushed the boy back, drawing a reaction from the boy’s
mother. The boy’s mother threatened Parks, but instead of resigning to the mother’s threat, Parks responded. “I didn’t want to be pushed,” Parks said to the boy’s mother. Theoharis referenced this quote throughout the talk, emphasizing Parks’s commitment to rebellion from an early age and her feisty side. By emphasizing that Parks’s commitment to change began long before the bus standoff, Theoharis made the point that enacting social See AUTHOR, Page 3
THE PLANETS
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
The University Symphony Orchestra presents The Planets at Hill Auditorium on Wednesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 16 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
$5 fee for scholarship
Resolution sparks debate about effects the fee would have on tuition RHEA CHEETI
Daily Staff Reporter
A resolution proposing the adoption of a $5 student fee to support the Leadership Engagement Scholarship was introduced during Tuesday’s Central Student Government’s meeting. The Leadership Engagement Scholarship was created last October in partnership with the Office of Student Life to boost student extracurricular involvement and reduce cost barriers for student leaders on campus. It was announced at last October’s Board of Regents meeting, with CSG President David Schafer, an LSA senior, introducing the fund as a way to compensate student leaders for their unpaid time commitments and offer them financial support. “A 5-year, $5/semester student fee in support of the Leadership Engagement Scholarship will bring in more than $2 million for student leadership involvement and support over the course of the 5-year life of the fee,” the See CSG, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7