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ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Friday, March 1, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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1U meeting establishes structure for new coalition Representatives discuss leadership, objectives at second campaign meeting BEN ROSENFELD Daily Staff Reporter
Design by Michelle Fan
Canary Mission blacklists faculty, students for pro-Palestine views Website collects information on activists, accuses them of anti-Semitism ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
Student activists joke it’s the new Tinder. With the heavily detailed profiles, including pictures taken from Facebook, information on their family and details about their education, Canary Mission provides paragraphslong biographies about fellow activists — data that simply cannot be found on Tinder. But instead of a dating app, it’s a site some students and professors feel could derail careers and aspirations. Canary Mission is an anonymous blacklist created in April 2015 that
publishes political dossiers on student activists, professors and organizations. The website reads, “IF YOU’RE RACIST, THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW,” claiming to document “people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” There are more than 2,000 people listed on Canary Mission’s website. When asked for comment on how the website chooses who to place on the blacklist, Canary Mission referred The Michigan Daily to its ethics policy without additional comment. However, the site has been
criticized for using “McCarthyesque” tactics to silence freedom of speech, with opponents saying it’s designed to deter its subjects from advocating for Palestine. Associate Professor Samer Ali, director of the Center for Middle East and North African Studies and the Islamophobia Working Group, researches scapegoating and stigma. He called Canary Mission an example of both of these. “It’s a complete surveillance operation,” Ali said. “You’re going to feel like you’re being watched, targeted. The explicit purpose of Canary Mission is to make it difficult
for people to graduate and find jobs, internships or apply for funding because any employer who googles them, some of what they’ll find are these blacklists.” While Canary Mission states its focus lies calling out student activists, it also profiles notorious anti-Semites, such as Richard Spencer. Activists express frustration that Canary Mission groups them with neo-Nazis like Spencer. Public Policy junior Arwa Gayar is profiled on Canary Mission and said the website’s decision to group her with staunch anti-Semites underscores its problems. See CANARY, Page 2
On Thursday afternoon, representatives from the recently formed One University Campaign met for their second coalition meeting at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus, discussing a number of resolutions regarding the future leadership and objectives of the campaign. A satellite conference was held on the University’s Dearborn campus, and in Ann Arbor at the Lecturers’ Employee Organization and Graduate Employees Organization offices. The One University Campaign, which was founded last semester, aims to promote equity, specifically in funding and opportunities provided to students, between the University’s campuses. Both the lecturers’ and graduate students’ unions have taken an active role in promoting the University’s policies of
diversity, equity and inclusion across the three campuses. LEO President Ian Robinson, a member of the 1U campaign, explained promoting the campaign’s goals would serve to increase equity of funding and student opportunities between Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. “You can make a really big difference in Flint and Dearborn, in terms of amount of money there is available per student, with transfers from Ann Arbor or from Lansing that look pretty small by comparison to the overall budget we have here in Ann Arbor,” Robinson said. Robinson also emphasized negotiations with the Board of Regents and administration have been difficult — despite the Ann Arbor campus’s endowment and revenue from tuition, many University leaders are reluctant to reallocate funds to Dearborn or Flint. See 1U, Page 3
2018 Noble Prize Laureate discusses Wellness Policy talk Zone in the laser physics, high-intensity optics examines CAMPUS LIFE
GOVERNMENT
works for Pierpont
Founder of University’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Science shares research
CAPS to build mental health center on North Campus to improve access
On Thursday afternoon at Rackham Graduate School, Gérard Mourou, 2018 Nobel Prize laureate in physics and founder of the University of Michigan Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, discussed his research on laser physics. Mourou and fellow Nobel Prize laureate Donna Strickland, who was unable to attend the event, each won a quarter of the
NOAH FISHER For The Daily
Counseling and Psychological Services is opening a Wellness Zone on North Campus in Pierpont Commons, giving students a space to decompress from the stress of school work. In the wellness zone, students will be able to enjoy a multitude of activities with the goal of self-care. This will be the only Wellness Zone open to undergraduates this year, as the original Wellness Zone in the Michigan Union has been closed for the building’s renovation. A Wellness Zone specifically for graduate students opened in Munger residence hall in November. Christine Asidao, associate director of community engagement and outreach at CAPS, emphasized the importance of the wellness zone being extremely accessible to students. “I think one of the messages we want to make sure students really hear is that self-care and well-being is really accessible,” Asidao said. “This is a space that they can go over there, swipe their card, get into the space and be able to just choose things that will help them do better.” See WELLNESS, Page 3
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ALICE TRACEY
Daily Staff Reporter
prize for their work on chirped pulse amplification. Arthur Ashkin, developer of optical tweezers, will claim the remaining half of the prize. Engineering Dean Alec Gallimore kicked off the event, titled “Passion for Extreme Light,” by acknowledging Mourou’s accomplishments and work at the University. Mourou holds the title of professor emeritus in electrical engineering and computer science, having taught at the University for
16 years before retiring in 2004. Gallimore also noted some of the innovations that have emerged from CUOS, which he said will soon be renamed the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. CUOS is the birthplace of IntraLASIK eye surgery and houses the world’s most intense laser, HERCULES. “During his time at Michigan, he founded the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, where he served as director for more
than 14 years,” Gallimore said. “Since its beginning, more than 250 graduate students have produced roughly 170 patents, five startup companies and over 5,000 scientific publications, the safer, bladeless version of LASIK eye surgery was developed, and HERCULES, the world’s most intense laser, was born.”
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INDEX
Panelists at “911, What is your prejudice?” event look at call-driven policing ALYSSA MCMURTRY
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Nobel Laureate and engineering professor Gérard Mourou speaks at a lecture and celebration in Rackham Auditorium Thursday afternoon.
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racial bias in policing
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 85 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
Daily Staff Reporter
Thursday afternoon, the Ford School of Public Policy hosted a policy talk about racial bias and calldriven policing titled “911, What is your prejudice?” The event featured panelists who shared their thoughts on the topic and answered questions from the audience. David Thacher, associate professor of public policy, hosted the panel and asked the panelists to spend 10 minutes answering what authorities should do when dealing with racially-biased calls. Panelist Jessica Gillooly, Public Policy doctoral candidate, began by sharing her experiences working with the 911 operators’ office in Washtenaw County. She told the audience the struggle of having to discern the legitimacy of a suspicious-person call, sharing a story of a woman who called the police on another woman at the park. “About a year into working as a 911 call taker, I took a call on a late fall afternoon from a woman in a park,” Gillooly said. “She was calling on a Black woman who was standing near a grill, quote ‘maybe cooking drugs.’ See PREJUDICE, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................6
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS....................7