ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
Trial starts for suit brought by members of ‘U’ faculty Discrimination lawsuit over violation of state civil rights law heads to court EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
OLIVIA CELL/Daily University President Mark Schlissel speaks on the Climate Coalition in an interview with The Daily in Fleming Administration Building Monday.
President Schlissel talks carbon neutrality, Detroit Innovation Center Head of University discusses importance of youth voter participation AMARA SHAIKH, LIAT WEINSTEIN & EMMA STEIN
Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporters
Each month, The Michigan Daily’s Administration Beat sits down with University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel to discuss important questions about University policy, commitments and challenges. Topics discussed at this month’s interview included the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, The Detroit Center for Innovation, the
discrimination lawsuit filed against the University and more. At the beginning of the meeting, The Daily also spoke with Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute and co-chair of the President’s Commission on Climate Neutrality, about the Commission’s first interim report that was released Monday morning. Haverkamp said the report includes input from over 90 individuals and highlights the first phase of the Commission’s work, which is focused on devising strategies to reach carbon neutrality and planning for potential
obstacles in the future. Some of the goals include creating a Carbon Accounting Subgroup to estimate the amount of methane leakage in the University’s natural gas supply chain, hiring an external consulting firm to suggest ways to reach carbon neutrality and adding the Flint and Dearborn campuses to the objectives. The Michigan Daily: How will the carbon neutrality goals translate over to the Detroit Innovation Center? Mark Schlissel: That’s a really interesting question. So since the Detroit Center is quite a new concept, and actually
it hasn’t been fully designed, and there’s not a shovel in the ground, I don’t know. But yeah, there are opportunities to make that a model building. And the folks that are doing the development are thinking along those lines. Once we know what we’re going to do, we’ll announce it ... the buildings being built by outside developers that will be donated to the university. So although we have input into the building, we won’t have control of it until it’s complete and given to us as a gift. See SCHLISSEL , Page 3
Current faculty member Emily Lawsin and former faculty member Scott Kurashige filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2016 against the University of Michigan under the ElliottLarsen Civil Rights Act. Their trial began yesterday at 9 a.m. at the Washtenaw County Court and it is scheduled to continue until December 23. Kurashige and Lawsin are seeking more than $25,000 in damages to compensate for emotional distress, loss of reputation and lost salaries. They cite a “hostile work environment for faculty of color and women” at the University, “(p)atterns of racial discrimination in faculty hiring” within the Department of American Culture and racial discrimination in leadership selection and promotion, among other things, in their lawsuit. They also claim the Office of Institutional Equity failed to investigate the Kurashige’s complaints of
discrimination in a just and efficient manner. Lawsin is a lecturer IV in the Women’s Studies and American Culture departments and Kurashige was a tenured professor and the director of the Asian/ Pacific Islander American Studies Program before he left in 2014. Both began working at the University in 2000. Kurashige was removed from his position as director of the A/PIA Studies program and said he felt pressured to quit his tenured position. He now works as a professor at the University of Washington. Kurashige additionally seeks reinstatement to both his former positions at the University. They are being represented by attorneys Alice Jennings and Carl Edwards of Edwards and Jennings PC, a law firm based in Detroit. The United Asian American Organizations released a statement on Sunday in support of Lawsin and Kurashige in their lawsuit and urged students to attend the trial to show support. See TRIAL, Page 3
ADMINISTRATION
Report reveals details of carbon neutrality effort Commission releases plans for creating emission reduction recommendations ARJUN THAKKAR Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality released its first interim progress report in an email to students Monday morning. The report details the commission’s progress on its goal to develop recommendations for reducing carbon emissions on campus by 2025. In an interview with The Daily Monday, Jennifer Haverkamp, co-chair of the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, discussed the contents of the report. According to Haverkamp, the document contains input from more than 90 individuals, including the commission’s members as well as faculty and students from advisory and analysis groups working with the commission. “(The report) is reflecting the first phase of our work, which was focused on defining the challenges in reaching carbon neutrality and planning on how we address those challenges,” Haverkamp said. Since Schlissel announced the creation of the Commission in February of this year, the commissioners have met 12 times. The Commission has held three public forums at the Ann Arbor campus to receive input from the community, and it has also created an online form for U-M community
members to leave comments directed at the commission. One key development in the Commission’s work was the formation of eight internal analysis teams to investigate different opportunities for decarbonization. The teams, composed of faculty and student research assistants from all three University of Michigan campuses, include: bio sequestration, which focuses on finding University land for carbon sequestration projects; building standards; campus culture and communication; commuting; energy consumption; external collaboration; food; and university travel for faculty, staff and students. Beyond the internal analysis teams, the Commission has also hired Integral Group, an external firm that analyzes building energy infrastructure to enhance sustainability, to present a plan to eliminate carbon emissions from heat and power systems across all three campuses. Though the current sustainability goals for greenhouse gas reduction only addresses scope one and scope two emissions — those generated on campus or through purchased electricity — the report states the Commission intends to also make recommendations for reducing scope three emissions that indirectly relate to the University’s operations.
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
See REPORT, Page 3
Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan Gayly provides outlet for LGBTQ+ community
New publication features students’ personal experiences, stories PARNIA MAZHAR Daily Staff Reporter
Last month, students at the University of Michigan published the first issue of The Michigan Gayly: LGBTQ+ Issues, a newspaper dedicated to publishing articles related to the LGBTQ+ community. Established this October, the organization is currently made up of about 20 undergraduate and graduate students and publishes an issue every month. Students can pick up copies of the newspaper at the Spectrum Center and the campus dorms. LSA freshman Shoshana Weinstein, editor-in-chief of The Michigan Gayly, said she came up with the idea for the
newspaper because she felt like there was not enough attention on the policy and the legislation that surrounds LGBTQ+ rights in the media and on campus. She was pleasantly surprised to see the excitement among others in the community to contribute to the newspaper. “I hadn’t realized there was such a hunger within the LGBT community to be able to tell our stories,” Weinstein said. “I thought maybe people would want to do an issue or two; I wasn’t really sure if there was going to be enough support or momentum to keep it going. But people immediately responded really passionately with all these things that they cared about.” LSA freshman Adrian Beyer
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
said he became a staff writer because he was intrigued by the student-run nature of the publication, created by people who felt strongly about the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. “This is a group of people who just cared really passionately about having a newspaper and publishing queer voices,” Beyer said. “And I think it’s really important too, because a lot of other publications might shy away from some of those stories, but here, it’s kind of a chance to really be uncensored and say what you want to say.” According to the University of Michigan Maize Pages, The Michigan Gayly is the only newspaper on campus that publishes stories solely dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. The
Vol. CXXIX, No. 38 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
newspaper has articles about politics, business, sports, health and more, all relating to the community. LSA freshman Edha Shirodkar, the news editor of the publication, said The Michigan Gayly is important in terms of giving students in the LGBTQ+ community the representation they deserve on campus. It made her feel more comfortable with her own identity because she was able to find comfort in a group of people who understood some of the experiences she had gone through. The newspaper also features articles about writers’ coming out stories and other personal experiences.
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................6
See GAYLY, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................7