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ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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‘U’ activist groups react to December Trump order

Executive mandate targeting campus anti-Semitism sparks controversy ATTICUS RAASCH & EMMA RUBERG Daily Staff Reporters

DESIGN BY LAUREN KUZEE

In the wake of an executive order targeting what President Donald Trump has described as anti-Semitism at colleges across the country, student activist groups on campus are concerned about possible implications for University students and free speech surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conf lict. The Dec. 11 executive order effectively adds a provision to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which allows the government to withhold federal financial assistance from public institutions that do not protect against various forms of discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin. As a result of the executive order, Title VI will now protect against, as the

Nursing students frustrated with shifts, attempt to buy better ones

Change allows people to choose shifts, individuals sell shifts for as much as $400 KRISTINA ZHENG Daily Staff Reporter

After a recent change in the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing curriculum, Nursing students were offering to buy other students’ clinical shifts for as much $400 in order to switch their assigned times and locations throughout the Fall 2019 semester. According to University spokeswoman Kim

Broekhuizen, the change began in Fall 2019 and allows students to select their own clinical shifts based on their registration date instead of being assigned them. Nursing students have the opportunity to work in a variety of clinical areas, including positions at the University Hospital, Veterans Affairs and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. These opportunities allow students to develop

basic nursing skills related to delivering nursing care. Nursing sophomore Alissa Elanjian is currently completing her clinical shifts at the VA on Thursday nights. She explained to The Daily how particular times and locations were more favorable compared to others. “We have a nursing GroupMe, and for clinical times, people really, really like Michigan Medicine, and they really wanted Thursday

morning,” Elanjian said. “A lot of the people are in sororities or frats, and their formals or semiformals are on Thursday nights or Friday nights, and so I think that’s a huge reason why.” Nursing sophomore Moriah Lewis said some students wanted to switch times because they had jobs to help pay for their tuition and needed to accommodate for those times. See SHIFTS, Page 3A

Campaign Renovations to LSA Building create promotes new academic spaces, study spots LGBTQ+ Additional rooms for Opportunity Hub, Transfer Student Center protections GOVERNMENT

Private, public sectors mount petition effort to prohibit discrimination CHRIS SULLIVAN Daily Staff Reporter

Members of Michigan’s private and public sectors are uniting to propose a new civil rights protection petition for LGBTQ+ citizens. The Fair and Equal Michigan initiative aims to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s legislation. An interpretation of the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in 2018 previously defined such discrimination as “sex” bias. The act protects people from discrimination based on 10 factors, including religion; however, there are currently no protections for LGBTQ+ individuals in employment and public accommodations. Kalamazoo County Commissioner Tracy Hall said the protections must be granted now. “We are one of too many states where people can be fired for who they love and how they identify,” Hall said. “And it’s time to change that.”

JASMIN LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

The Literature, Science and the Arts Building opened its new attachment and renovated the first floor earlier this month. The new area includes multiple study spaces, conference rooms and offices for University of Michigan programs. The new addition will house the LSA Opportunity Hub, Transfer Student Center, LSA Student Government and Technology Services. All these groups were involved in the planning of the

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LSA Building renovation. Lisa Reiher, the manager of Capital Projects, the architecture firm hired for the renovation, told The Daily that each section of the new addition was a reflection of student needs. “We actually met with each one of the groups: Student Government, the student recruitment for the Transfer Student Center, the Hub,” Reiher said. “We discussed with them their needs and we had an interior designer, and she came up with options to best suit their needs.” Architecture and Study Spaces

The LSA Building additions include study spaces with plenty of outlets and spaces for collaboration and individual work. A second level was added that includes Brody study desks and conference rooms. The Scholarship Office will also be housed in the LSA Building and is expected to be completed in Fall 2020. The back wall of the building is comprised of windows, allowing natural sunlight to enter the building. As it gets sunnier throughout the day, the lights are designed to dim in order to reduce electricity use. The construction team took

initiatives to make the LSA Building environmentally friendly during the process. The trees that were cut down in the process of creating additional space were then reused as tables in the building, according to Reiher. Many parts of the building are also made of lead silver, an energy efficient building material. Opportunity Hub The Opportunity Hub is located on the first floor of the LSA Building. It has five interview rooms with seven more in the process of being built on the second level. See LSA, Page 3A

The LSA building showcases new first floor renovations, including more study spaces and offices..

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official White House briefing stated, “prohibited forms of discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism as vigorously as against all other forms of discrimination prohibited by Title VI.” The final order did not specify whether Judaism would be interpreted as a race or nationality. Instead, it instructed the Department of Education to use a particular definition in combating antiSemitism. Jeffrey Veidlinger, Director of the University’s Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, explained what the definition and the order mean. “All it did was say the Department of Education should use the working definition of anti-Semitism in evaluation Title VI programs,” Veidlinger said. See ORDER, Page 3A

ACADEMICS

SSW looks to address diversity concerns

Authors of op-ed call on admin to bridge gap between ideals, practices FRANCESCA DUONG Daily Staff Reporter

After a group of students in the School of Social Work penned an op-ed criticizing the curriculum taught in a mandatory course, the school is working to address the authors’ concerns. Social Work students Justin Woods, Samuel Rentschler and the students of Social Work 504, Section 4 submitted the op-ed to The Daily on Dec. 4, 2019. The op-ed highlights three main gaps: the structure of topics of Social Work 504, the ways Social Work 504 chooses to discuss and present racism and an assigned reading on the effectiveness of diversity courses. “Instead of unequivocally and substantively interrogating the systemic white supremacy that allows for incoming graduate students to be unaware of the social privilege of whiteness, we engage in a cursory and trepidatious overview of the uncomfortable topic,” the op-ed stated. “It would appear as the course is developed with the white student majority in mind.” The authors suggested four courses of action to placate the situation, and they started a petition for the cause. They called for the addition of a mandatory class on race and ethnicity in social work using a critical race theory lens, as well as a course on “antioppressive practices in social work.”

MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/Daily

See CONCERNS, Page 3A

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