ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
CAMPUS LIFE
Right-wing activists lob free speech Diag debates Off-campus conservatives prompt student discussion on hate speech with beach ball MOLLY NORRIS Daily Staff Reporter
MAX KUANG/Daily
Mayor Christopher Taylor-D discusses the ordinance to amend the city code at the City Council meeting at City Hall Monday.
City Council approves ordinance to include member removal policy
After two years of drafting, councilmembers pass measure for “proper course of action” ALEX COTT
Daily Staff Reporter
At the City Council meeting on Monday evening, council members passed an ordinance to amend city code to include a chapter outlining procedures for removal of councilmembers. The Council also honored Carolyn Grawi for her disability awareness efforts and work toward implementing independent living for people with disabilities.
According to the Council Internal Regulation Ordinance, cause for removal of a councilmember includes conviction of a felony, violation of an oath of office, repeated violation of council ethics or administrative rules, conviction of state criminal misconduct or conviction of city or state election laws. Upon requests for removal of a councilmember, the ordinance specifies the Council Administrative Committee as the investigative staff who must recommend the appropriate
action for the request, such as dismissing without merit, scheduling a Council meeting or referring to a government or law enforcement agency. At least eight councilmembers must approve the removal of a councilmember based on valid evidence. After two years of developing the chapter, the Council passed the ordinance unanimously. Councilmember Sumi Kailasapathy, D-Ward 1, emphasized how the ordinance is an essential and relevant
element to the code of the city and enacts a system of checks and balances among councilmembers. “I feel having (the ordinance) is very essential that council members don’t have a double standard,” Kailasapathy said. “That we too have to have code of conduct, ethics and our standards.” With council member terms increasing from two to four years starting next year, Kailasapathy also highlighted See COUNCIL, Page 3
Issues of free speech on the University of Michigan’s campus this year haven’t exactly been fun and games, but an outside conservative group sought to change that Monday afternoon. Students played with and scribbled on a huge beach ball labeled “Free Speech” on the Diag, open to anyone and everyone who wanted to share their thoughts and write something on the ball. Nathan Williamson, one of the facilitators of the event and a Field Representative at the Leadership Institute, an institute intending to provide training for conservative activists, has done this activity at universities all around Michigan in an effort to promote free speech on college campuses. “It’s a beach ball we roll around campus to promote free speech, and we let anybody write whatever they want to on it as a practice of the First
Amendment,” Williamson said. In recent months, the line between free speech and hate speech has been heavily debated by University students and administration. In response to a speech by Charles Murray, a controversial social scientist who promotes a since-debunked relationship between race and IQ, last October, protests were organized, claiming his ideas were discriminatory and did not qualify as free speech. With the impending decision by the University as to whether or not white supremacist Richard Spencer will be given a date and place to speak on campus assuming the safety of students can be assured, the University has organizedevents during the winter semester to examine what free speech means on campus. Williamson said he brought the beach ball to the University because of FIRE, — Foundation for Individual Rights and Education — a free speech watchdog organization that See SPEECH, Page 3
City to install more permanent fencing UC meets Terrorism for 1st time in four parking garages to deter suicide experts talk
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CAMPUS LIFE
in 2018 on DEI & aid
Budget for fences currently set at 400K, comes after seven deaths, injuries in 2 years
Student reps ask Sellers if Guarantee can help students above $65,000
To deter suicides by jumping or falling off of Ann Arbor parking structures, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority is further committing to constructing more permanent fences on city parking structure rooftops. Installment of the fences began last fall when city officials noticed a pattern of attempted or successfully completed suicides by individuals jumping or falling off of the garages in the last three years. Between November 2015 and December 2016, three people died, and two were injured after falling or jumping from city parking structures. Other incidents occurred in September and October 2017, when two men fell from the South Fourth Avenue and East William Street parking structures. These deaths were ruled as suicides. The project will be funded through fees charged to those who park their vehicles in the city’s structures. The DDA board determined in a meeting last week bids will be due by Jan. 16, and work is projected to be underway by the end of the month. City Councilmember Kirk Westphal, D-Ward 2, described the importance of having the fencing installed in the first place to help deter individuals
DANIELLE PASEKOFF Daily Staff Reporter
The University Council convened on Monday night for its first biweekly meeting of the semester, discussing topics including the Office of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion and changes to the academic calendar. The meeting opened with a guest speaker, the Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Robert Sellers. Sellers touched on the DEI plan’s progress and various initiatives that have been implemented for the past year. Sellers presented council members with the goals of DEI, which includes making their strategic plan as inclusive as possible, noting the diversity of experience students possess across various schools and programs on campus. There are currently 49 strategic unit plans, and each respective school, college, and campus unit has their own plan suited to their specific needs. There is also a campuswide strategic plan being implemented by DEI, aiming to promote collaboration across programs See DEI, Page 3
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RACHEL CUNNINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter
from ending their lives. “As councilmembers, our first priority is public safety,” Westphal said. “As an urgent public safety need, the opinion we got from mental health experts is that, while not full proof, this temporary fencing was a prudent strategy to help interrupt the determination of some individuals to take their life.” According to Susan Pollay,
executive director of the DDA, temporary fencing was installed on garages when the bid for the project cost $1 million more than estimated. Contractor availability was also low during this time, leading to the more expensive estimates. As a result, the DDA board approved an installment of chain-link fencing on the structures rather than more permanent materials.
Pollay said city administrators hopes to add fencing to other levels within the parking structures, not just the rooftops. She also said it is important to install the fences in order to better serve the needs of Ann Arbor residents. “It is perhaps most important to focus on the needs of people in our community that are not being met,” Pollay said. See FENCES, Page 3
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority will construct more fences on parking structure rooftops to aid in deterring suicides.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 52 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
security in Trump era
Former Counterterrorism Center director fears more decentralized landscape KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
As the second decade after 9/11 approaches, the question of counterterrorism efforts remains pertinent to national and global discourse, from the rise and fall of ISIS to President Donald Trump’s promises to tighten security policies. Terrorism experts questioned this evolution of governmental policy Monday afternoon at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy event, “Terrorism at Home and Abroad: Where are we 16 years after 9/11?” Nicholas Rasmussen, a former State Department official and director of the National Counterterrorism Center, discussed his role in the U.S government in its efforts to eliminate terrorism. He was accompanied by John Ciorciari, the director of the international policy at the Public Policy School and facilitator of the event. Rasmussen first discussed the early stages of his work, especially pertaining to 9/11. See TRUMP, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7