ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ADMINISTRATION
Disclosure policy may discourage applicants Rule mandating staff reveal any felony charges draws criticism, concern
KARTIKEYA SUNDARAM/Daily Julie J. Park, associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, presents a lecture at the Research & Scholarship Seminar Series: Affirmative Action, Asian Americans, and the Harvard Case at Rackham Auditorium Wednesday afternoon.
Professor examines implications of Harvard discrimination lawsuit
Lawyer advised school during trial to determine if admissions process violated civil rights NIKKI KIM
Daily Staff Reporter
On Wednesday afternoon, around 100 students gathered in Rackham auditorium to listen to Julie Park, associate professor at the University of Maryland and author of “Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data,” discuss the implications behind Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the lawsuit against Harvard University to determine if the college violated the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Asian Americans through their college admissions process. Park was the consulting expert for the trial, serving as defense for Harvard. Her talk comes amidst recent
controversy surrounding the college admissions bribery scandals in schools like University of Southern California, Georgetown University, Yale University and Stanford University. The talk was part of a larger seminar series by the National Center for Institutional Diversity, aiming to invite scholars who promote academic understanding of both historical and contemporary issues about race, oppression, power and how they occur on campus. Park’s choice to come to the University of Michigan was in part driven by her personal connection to it. She explained that she was inspired by the early 2000s University of Michigan lawsuits and decided to pursue
what is now her current academic path. Her research on the relationship between affirmative action and Asian Americans works to question and debunk the myths surrounding Asian Americans through statistical data. “We need to think about how we fit into this broader landscape, what our stories are and how they might be used or exploited by other if we don’t take ownership of our own stories,” Park said. She referenced one of the earlier college admissions lawsuits: the second Abigail Fisher case. In 2016, Abigail Fisher was one of the plaintiffs challenging University of Texas in a case investigating admissions discrimination based on skin color.
After the first Fisher case, Edward Blum, president of SFFA and the man leading the initiative to eliminate all race-conscious admissions, developed a website called harvardnotfair.org. After four failed cases where the plaintiffs were all white with B-average grades, the anti-affirmative action movement changed their strategic course to focus on Asian Americans with exceptional grades. According to Park, Asian Americans make more sympathetic plaintiffs than white students with mediocre grades. “There were a lot of Black and Latinx applicants with better grades who didn’t get in,” Park said. See LAWSUIT, Page 3
EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Jay Bochert earned both his master’s deg ree and PhD in sociolog y from the Universit y of Michigan and worked as a g raduate student instructor. He also spent seven years in prison before attending the Universit y. Bochert is a researcher and quantitative analyst at the Drug Policy Alliance, a co-founder of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Net work and an assistant professor of sociolog y at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice. Bochert continued by discussing the powerf ul symbolic nature of the policy which will require Universit y employees to disclose felony allegations. Bochert examined how, while the felony disclosure policy itself does not impact admissions, the message the policy sends could prevent qualif ied people from applying. He also noted that the Universit y is an inf luential school and it could lead other universities
to implement similar policies. “Aside from the people who decide not to even apply or decide that they are never going to make it into a school,” Bochert said. “And there are lots of people who just g ive up like that, there are going to be loads of people who are going to be affected by the symbolic nature of this change.” Bochert g raduated in 2016 and received many national and school-specif ic awards, including the Emerg ing Diversit y Scholar award from the National Center for Institutional Diversit y, the Mellon American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship Doctoral Candidate Research Grant, the Rackham Merit Fellow and, most recently, a certif icate of recog nition for research mentoring. Bochert said despite all he accomplished on campus, the new felony disclosure policy sends a message the Universit y does not value those with a criminal backg round. See FELONY, Page 3
‘U’ Muslim community reacts after Dialogue Journalist, shooter scare interrupts vigil son discuss addresses active Police response to reported threats disrupted commemoration of mass shooting CAMPUS LIFE
racism in healthcare
Discussion focuses on racial discrimination faced by new mothers ANGELINA LITTLE For The Daily
The 29th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Health Sciences Lecture and Community Dialogue commenced this Wednesday at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. Entitled “Disparities Dialogue on Maternal Health and Care: Being a Black Woman Giving Birth in the U.S.: A Maternal Health Crisis,” the event focused on inequity in maternal healthcare. Approximately 100 people attended the event, including students, who made up a majority of the attendees, as well as faculty, staff, alums and community members. The discussion was part of a series of held by the Martin Luther King Jr. Health Sciences Program with the purpose of improving equity in healthcare. Dr. Lenette Jones, assistant professor at the School of Nursing and one of the organizers of the event, said she hoped the conversation would provide a space for students to think critically with experts. “I think for all the MLK events we had this year, we really had in mind the students,” Jones said.
GOVERNMENT
MELANIE TAYLOR Daily Staff Reporter
Students awoke Friday morning to news of mass shootings in two mosques in New Zealand, killing 50. The next day, during a vigil to commemorate the lives lost in New Zealand, police officers ran into the crowd urging people to flee the Diag, where the vigil was being held. Shortly after, the University issued an emergency alert telling students to “run, hide, fight”, alleging that an active shooter was on campus. Though the situation was eventually resolved and confirmed to be a false alarm, many students spent over two hours in hiding from what they believed to be a lethal threat.
When Public Policy senior Zoha Qureshi, vice president of external affairs for the Muslim Students’ Association, first heard about the attacks in New Zealand, she felt “numb.” She did not want to read the stories or see the video circling the Internet. She suppressed the news and went to sleep, hoping it was not true. It was not until the next morning that Qureshi was forced to confront the reality of the tragedy. “That’s when I started to feel like, ‘Oh my god. No. I can’t believe this is happening,’’” Qureshi said. News of New Zealand shootings affected Qureshi more than any other story in what she sees as a constant influx of tragic news and gun violence plaguing her newsfeed.
According to Qureshi, this attack was more personal than the others. “I just remember every time a mass shooting happens, I always worry like, ‘Oh my God. What will I do if it hits a community close to home?’” Qureshi said. “Every mass shooting is a terrible situation, right, but I was always just hoping it would of course never happen again but then never enter a mosque or never affect a community that’s close to me, but then it did.” LSA junior Silan Fadlallah, student coordinator for the Islamophobia Working Group, echoed Qureshi’s sentiments. Fadlallah could not wrap her mind around how someone could be so hateful in the face of her community’s
DESIGN BY SHERRY CHEN
See HEALTH , Page 3
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peace and hospitality. “It really did get to me, and I did get emotional at one point because even though I’m not a super, super practicing Muslim, I do definitely consider myself spiritually Muslim,” Fadlallah said. “It was just difficult for me to really challenge myself to process the fact that Islamophobia is so, so real.” After some initial grieving, both Qureshi and Fadlallah sprung into action to console the University Muslim community, also awash in fear and shock. Muslim Student Association organized a DPSS security presence for their upcoming Jumu’ah service, the same Friday prayer that had been disrupted by the attacks in New Zealand. See SCARE , Page 3
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 91 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
struggle to get asylum
Knight-Wallace fellow shares his experience of mistreatment, threats JULIA JOHNSTON For The Daily
Wednesday evening the International House Ann Arbor hosted “Asylum Journey: 10 Years in the Immigration System,” featuring Knight-Wallace Fellow Emilio Gutiérrez Soto and his son, Oscar Gutiérrez Soto, who spoke on their experiences immigrating to the United States from Mexico. The event was organized by the University of Michigan Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR). Gutiérrez Soto, speaking through a translator, recounted his experience facing persecution by the government as a journalist in Mexico. After facing surveillance and the destruction of his home by the military in Mexico, he entered the United States with his son in 2008. Since immigrating, the Gutiérrez Sotos have been detained in ICE facilities twice, most recently for eight months in 2017. His application for asylum was recently denied, and his attorney filed an appeal to the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals. See ASYLUM , Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 SPORTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............5 ARTS...................7