ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Friday, January 10, 2020
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
Task force emphasizes grad mental health issues Committee hosts forum for Rackham community to explore personal wellness AYSE ELDES
Daily Staff Reporter
Lyss Shumaker, Alexandra Ellard and Kerrigan Fitzpatrick are three student parents at the University of Michigan.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
‘A hidden population’: Student parents advocate for better resources at ‘U’
Undergraduates face challenges balancing schoolwork and parenting ALICE TRACEY
Daily Staff Reporter
Last winter, LSA student Alexandra Ellard had to miss 10 days of class. Due to extreme weather, many Metro Detroit area public schools and facilities were closed. This meant Ellard couldn’t take her almost 2-year-old son, Oliver, to day care, and the road conditions were too dangerous to bring him along on the 40-minute drive to campus. She had no choice but to stay home. Ellard, who will be graduating this May with a General Studies degree, reached out to her professors. A few of them allowed her to attend their classes
remotely, through platforms such as BlueJeans, Skype or Google Chat. But others, she said, threatened to fail her. “There are no protective policies for undergraduate students that protect them from attendance discrepancies when it comes to not having dependent child care,” Ellard said. One of the professors who refused to accommodate Ellard taught a class on gender and organization, which Ellard needed to graduate on time. After appealing her case to the Organizational Studies department chair and talking to an ombudsman, she said she was finally allowed to pass the class.
“I had to fight to pass the class, and she still gave me a D plus,” Ellard said. “You find yourself very often having to choose whether to be a good parent, or be a good student, and that I find to be a very huge problem.” According to Ellard, whether a student parent is offered accommodations depends almost entirely on the professor. Some of her professors have been helpful, even allowing her to bring her son to class when child care was unavailable, whereas others have not been as receptive. “I’ve had professors hold Oliver during class so that I could stay,” Ellard said. “I’ve had other professors tell me that Michigan is
for the leaders and best and when I became a parent I forfeited that opportunity.” Sociology professor Barbara Anderson, who is collaborating with the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women on issues surrounding student parents, said professors may not understand the situation student parents are in. “Some faculty see it as their choice to be parents, and I don’t think that’s the right way to think about it, and I don’t think it’s helpful,” Anderson said. The University does not See PARENTS, Page 2
Rackham student Julio Ferreira is finishing his second year in the College of Engineering: a critical year for a PhD student. In a few months, he will need to complete his dissertation proposal. Lately, Ferreira has been feeling overwhelmed with the workload he needs to undertake. “I really like doing what I do, but I feel like I need some outlet or something,” Ferreira said. Ferreira, through his personal life, is familiar with mental health issues. On Thursday, he attended the Rackham Mental Health Task Force’s town hall for graduate students to learn what resources were available to him. The town hall was part of Rackham’s wider efforts to address mental health issues among graduate students on campus. Registration for the town hall was at full capacity with nearly 100 attendees. The Rackham mental health task
force first informed attendees about resources available and feedback it has received on its activities. Meghan Duffy, task force chair and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said many students are unaware of the support mechanisms in place. “One of the most common things we’ve heard is that a lot of people don’t know what resources are available,” Duffy said. Duffy also noted students and staff do not know when to utilize which resources. In addition to informing students about the available options, however, the task force is looking to make improvements regarding mental health in three areas: Rackham as a whole, departments within Rackham and individual graduate students. This year, the task force will aim to identify specific changes to make at these levels and develop a plan to support identified changes, See HEALTH, Page 3
Lecture examines relationship Program Activists talk power between religion, politics in Japan supports CAMPUS LIFE
structure, security
ACADEMICS
Visiting professor addresses complex nature of country’s history
faculty in research Center for Academic innovation launches new project, aims to promote engagement
MSA, others, highlight oppressive nature of surveillance state in the United States MELANIE TAYLOR
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily Staff Reporter
Approximately 40 students gathered Thursday evening in the Samuel T. Dana Building to participate in a conversation surrounding the modern state of surveillance in Muslim, Arab, Southeast Asian and North African communities in the United States. LSA junior Fareah Fysudeen, MSA vice president external said the event and two accompanying events later this month are meant to cultivate responsible and effective action from the Muslim and Arab communities on campus. “The most important thing is that we’re mobilizing Muslim youth in a way that’s informative and educational and deeply looking at the social fabric of the world around us,” Fysudeen said. According to Palestinian Youth Group presenter Jenna, who requested The Daily not use her last name to protect her identity as an activist, colonialism and the subsequent Islamophobia it spurred has allowed a culture in which surveillance is accepted and normalized. See ACTIVISM, Page 3
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
Daily Staff Reporter
ALEC COHEN/Daily Levi McLaughlin, Associate Professor in the Department of Philsophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University, discusses the role of religioun and politics in Japan in Weiser Hall Thursday afternoon.
VARSHA VEDAPUDI Daily Staff Reporter
Approximately 50 people came to Weiser Hall Thursday afternoon for a presentation from Levi McLaughlin, Toyota Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies. The Center for Japanese Studies and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures hosted the lecture as part of the CJS Noon Lecture Series. In his lecture, McLaughlin discussed the relationship between religion and politics in Japan. He is a professor at North Carolina State University and the author of “Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan.”
Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
Addressing the complex nature of religion in Japan, McLaughlin shared a personal experience he had visiting Japan a few years ago while staying with his friends’ parents. “They had kept one room entirely for this huge, Buddhist altar,” McLaughlin said. “We were talking about why I was there and the topic of religion, and as he was replacing the water in the altar, he goes, ‘We’re not religious,’ and I wish I was filming this because it’s the perfect example of what it’s like to talk about religion in Japan.” He noted how religion in Japan ties into the public’s relationship with the royal family. “Many regard some access
to the royal couple as access to the divine and treat it as a life cycle,” McLaughlin said. “The events surrounding the emperor and the royal family is in a way, constituent of their own identities.” Additionally, McLaughlin said there are other religious groups such as Buddhists, Christians and New Religions branched under the Liberal Democratic Party who impact politics in the country. He said these groups influence legislation, mobilize votes, create power for politicians and impact public discourse. McLaughlin also discussed specific religious groups such as Jinja Honcho and the Soka Gakkai. He said these groups
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
have the power to possibly disrupt the government in its current state. Rackham student Sophie Hasuo, who does research in the Center for Japanese Studies, said the lecture challenged her understanding of Japanese national belonging. “It complicated the whole religion and politics division that you can connect to other regions as well,” Hasuo said. “It brought a human centered perspective to a really complicated topic that only scholars grapple with.” Allison Alexy, Women’s Studies and Asian Language and Cultures assistant professor, said the lecture taught her more about the interaction of politics and religion in Japanese culture.
Vol. CXXIX, No. 47 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
In an effort to broaden public engagement, the University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation is launching a new project support program titled the Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship. The new project will provide an opportunity for faculty — regardless of discipline or prior public engagement experience — to work on projects aimed at engaging the public with the guidance and support of the CAI and other units across campus. The fellowship comes as part of President Mark Schlissel’s Faculty Public Engagement initiative, which he announced in 2017. Rackham student Kimberly Ransom, who has done work with public engagement, noted the importance of work that involves people outside of academia. Ransom currently researches Black childhood in and around the formerly segregated Rosenwald Schools in rural Alabama. “I think public engagement is so important, particularly around scholarship, because it allows you to put research into action, and it allows you to use scholarship to bridge knowledge within academe with community knowledge,” Ransom said.
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................5
See ENGAGEMENT, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................7