ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
CAMPUS LIFE
Social justice groups call on Schlissel for action Campus organizations highlight gap in responses to numerous incidents KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter DESIGN BY AVA WEINER/Daily
Falsely reported hate crimes raise marginalized students’ concerns
Critics demand consequences for victims while Muslim women fear backlash ALEXIS RANKIN Daily Staff Reporter
Two of three hate crimes reported in the week following the 2016 presidential election at the University of Michigan were recently determined to be falsely reported to the Ann Arbor Police Department, and updates have raised concerns about backlash for marginalized students. The first incident occurred on Nov. 11, when a student reported being approached by an unknown
man who threatened to set her on fire if she didn’t remove her hijab. The incident became national news, with outlets like The Washington Post covering the report. The other reported crime occurred on Nov. 15, when a man allegedly scratched a woman’s face with a safety pin. AAPd deemed both incidents to have never occured. A student also reported being verbally assaulted and pushed down a hill on Nov. 12. While this report was verifiable, AAPD stated there was no evidence
to determine a suspect, and the investigation has since been halted. All three of these reports motivated significant activism on campus. Music, Theatre & Dance senior James Ross Kilmeade organized a protest that attracted more than 200 people in response to the first hate crime, and nearly 150 people gathered on the Diag at an additional protest on Nov. 18. While the student involved in the Nov. 11 crime is not being charged for the false report,
detectives have submitted a warrant request for criminal charges against the Ann Arbor resident involved in the safety pin incident. Some community members have been dissatisfied with the reaction to the falsity of these reports, and have called for repercussions, as well as a level of action similar to events organized after the initial reports were made. LSA junior Enrique Zalamea, president of the University’s See HATE CRIMES, Page 3
When posters promoting white supremacy were found covering the walls of University of Michigan buildings on multiple occasions last fall, students, including Art & Design senior Keysha Wall, tore them down. When Islamophobic messages were chalked on the Diag last spring, a group of Muslim students were some of the first to grab rags and buckets of water to wash the messages off themselves. As bias incidents continue to occur across campus despite University-wide emails denouncing the actions of the perpetrators, students have started to question the effectiveness of the way the administration responds to the attacks. Many have also called out University President Mark Schlissel for not adequately affirming his support for what they believe is minority students on campus. Wall, a member of the
University’s chapter of By Any Means Necessary, expressed her disappointment in the University’s response to the posters targeting minority groups on campus that occurred earlier this year. She believes the perpetuation of biasrelated incidents is contingent on the lack of administrative pushback against hate speech. “We can say that these attacks began with the racist and fascist fliers that started going up last semester,” she said. “Every time they went up, it was students, myself included, who tore them down. During this, the University’s official statement was that they would take no action against ‘free speech,’ although I think we can all agree that what those fliers were expressing was hate speech, not free speech. And so the fliers continued to be put up.” Despite students’ expressions of anger regarding the chalkings and posters, the University legally could not remove either, as they were posted in areas meant for the dissemination See ACTION, Page 3
Medical school prof. focuses research RC forum Resolution discusses on healthcare inequity for the disabled to increase
CAMPUS LIFE
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
‘U’ campus climate
School of Kinesiology hosts discussion on health management technology
Students, faculty talk inclusion in residential learning communities
Medical School Prof. Michelle Meade addressed common health and healthcare disparities and how to promote positive changes to the current health-care system for disabled people Wednesday night in Mason Hall. The event, sponsored by the Interprofessional Health Student Organization, drew a crowd of about 20 students. Meade directs programs for the University of Michigan’s Rehabilitation Engineering Program, developing healthmanagement technologies for disabled individuals. Meade began her presentation by pointing out problems with defining the term “disability,” which differs depending on which area of academia or society people are processing the definition from. “The actual definition of disability or having a disability depends on where you look,” she said. “In surveys and research, it generally is defined by limitations; in some policy, it’s defined by a lack of ability to work and then in clinical practice, it’s diagnosis.” As opposed to health disparities, which revolve around medical treatment and the burden of the illness, healthcare disparities deal with how the disease is managed and what is done to assist those
AMARA SHAIKH For the Daily
In the wake of controversial emails, the desecration of prayer space and other racially charged incidents, the Residential College held an open forum in the Keene Theater Wednesday night to debrief the campus climate. During this session, RC students, faculty and staff were all encouraged to express their thoughts on these recent events, and offer support to fellow Wolverines. The community forum was run by members of the Residential College, an interdisciplinary liberal arts living community within LSA. Though few students were there, multiple faculty and staff members were present at the event. Administrators such as Jon Wells, the director of the RC, and Charlie Murphy, the director of academic services for the RC, sponsored the event. The event was broken up into three sections that included reflections and small and large group discussions. People were invited to come and go as they See FORUM, Page 3
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MATT HARMON Daily Staff Reporter
living with disability. Meade said those who are disabled have an equal amount of need for health care as non-disabled individuals, yet they do not get the treatment or health care they need. “Despite having no differences in regards to aspects of health insurance or mutual care … you have increased need and decreased access (for the disabled),” she said.
In her paper “The intersection of disability and health care disparities: a conceptual framework,” Meade, along with University researchers Elham Mahmoudi and Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, created a narrative flowchart to describe the factors contributing to the poor health care experienced by the disabled. Meade said certain elements contribute to health-
care disparities; more so for the disabled. “It’s not ‘one-size-fits-all,’ ” she said. “I think the easiest way to understand it, or for me to explain it, is that you can have the most wonderful doctor providing fantastic information … but if he’s speaking in English and the individual only speaks Spanish, there’s a mismatch in terms of needs, and that’s See RESEARCH, Page 3
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Medical professor Michelle Meade discusses ways to improve healthcare for individuals with disabilities in Mason Hall on Wednesday evening.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 36 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
the funding for SAPAC
LSA body also encourages committee to further support transfer students JORDYN BAKER Daily Staff Reporter
LSA Student Government hosted a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss resolutions relating to the Sexual Assault and Awareness Center and increasing resources for transfer students. The body passed a resolution co-sponsoring SAPAC’s Healthy Relationship Dialogues, aiming to create conversation and advocacy around sexual assault that occurs on campus. With the passing of this resolution, LSA SG will join the current list of co-sponsors for SAPAC, specifically by co-sponsoring and helping to advertise a series of dialogues toward the end of March to help raise awareness toward sexual assault. LSA junior Nicholas Fadanelli, LSA SG general counsel, explained that many sexual assaults on campus may not be made public, and highlighted the importance of LSA SG’s role in creating conversations about these issues. See LSA SG, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7