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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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ADMINISTRATION

President Santa Ono talks new housing, DEI plans and Pizza House The Daily sat down one-on-one with President Ono for the first time this year more places throughout the state and perhaps outside the state of Michigan as well. So it wasn’t so much, you know, scaling what we’re doing here to the state. We have to engage with additional schools and high schools and different cities for us to achieve the diversity that we want to see here on our campuses. TMD: In November, you visited the Trotter Multicultural Center. How often do you plan on visiting the Multicultural Center or other spaces like this? How will you increase and support the diversity of the University community? SO: I loved my time when I visited the Multicultural Center, and part of it has to do with how often they want to see me there. I was invited to that meeting and I was happy to go. Students are very busy and all of the different centers and organizations on campus are very busy, so I don’t want to impose myself. If I hear that they want me to come again, I would be happy to. TMD: Will there be any collaboration between the Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses about DEI 2.0 and future DEI initiatives? SO: The strategic visioning process, that I hope students received an email about (on Tuesday), is meant to apply to the entire University, not just the Ann Arbor campus. I’ve had a chance to be at the Flint campus and the Dearborn campus, and they’re an important part of the University. All three campuses have a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. And so, there are initiatives that are happening on all three campuses … So yes, the DEI 1.0 and 2.0 projects encompass all three campuses. TMD: What are your hopes and expectations for the Flint Transformation Plan? How often do you currently visit the Flint/ Dearborn campuses? SO: I’ve been here for three and a half months, and I’ve visited both campuses twice, so I don’t know whether I can maintain that frequency. Faculty and staff (involved with) leadership on both campuses have said that’s quite a high frequency of visitation compared to some of my peers. I love going to both campuses, so I will try my very best to continue visiting. I’m planning to go to the

SHANNON STOCKING, KATE WEILAND & RILEY HODDER

Co-Editors in Chief & Daily News

The Michigan Daily sat down with University President Santa Ono Tuesday to discuss working with students and the expansion of both on-campus housing and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He also spoke about his favorite parts of MosherJordan’s dining hall and his order at Pizza House. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. The Daily: The University of Michigan is currently in the midst of negotiations with the Graduate Employees’ Organization. How do you feel about the progress you’ve made with GEO, such as the agreements you made on meeting logistics and deciding that a mediator was no longer needed? What are your hopes for the rest of the negotiations? Santa Ono: I’m not directly involved in the negotiations; that’s led by University Provost Laurie McCauley and Academic Human Resources. I have tremendous confidence in that team. And with any negotiation, there’s a back and forth that occurs. But I understand that things are moving in the right direction. I really want there to be a resolution and I want there to be strong support for our graduate students. They are an incredibly vital and important part of the University. TMD: DEI 1.0 recently concluded and DEI 2.0 has begun. At the event covering the DEI 1.0 Evaluation Report, you spoke of hopes that DEI 2.0 can expand to the state level. How do you hope the University can achieve this? What are your expectations for DEI 2.0? SO: So I want to clarify — that was in the quote from an interview with The Michigan Daily, but it was kind of taken a little bit out of context. It wasn’t that I would want to see the University’s DEI efforts go statewide. It was more that I felt that to achieve some of the objectives of the University, and also some of the objectives from the Black Student Union, that we would have to expand some of our existing Effective Pathways, like Wolverine Pathways, to

MARIA DECKMANN/Daily University of Michigan President Santa Ono answers questions in an exclusive interview with Michigan Daily news reporters Tuesday evening in the Ruthven Building.

Dearborn campus again pretty soon. I would say that frequent visits are important for me. I think the faculty, staff and students appreciate my presence, so I will do my very best. TMD: In November, not long after you took office, the Black Student Union released their “More Than Four” platform, calling on the University to, one, increase Black student enrollment from its current level of 4% of the student population, two, combat anti-Blackness, three, improve DEI policies and, four, invest in K-12 education to increase equity. How do you as University president plan to address each of these points? SO: I’m one person, and I’m very committed to and I’ve been very public that I support all sorts of those initiatives. I’ve met with the BSU and there is going to be a pretty robust and intense process for leadership within an institution. There are about 30 individuals at the University that will be engaging with the (BSU’s platform), and there will be committees that are focused on all four of those requests

CAMPUS LIFE

First generation U-M students gather over winter dinner

Over 200 students celebrated their college journeys together in the League

and our commitments. These committees will come back to me by the end of the semester with their recommendations on actions that we can take as a University to actually make progress toward each of those four recommendations. The collaborative approaches to each of those recommendations involve leadership and students, which is a different paradigm. It used to be that students would make requests and administration would go away, and time would pass and (administration) would come back (with recommendations). In this case, it’s a collaborative effort where students and administrators are coming together and really working together to achieve each of those objectives. TMD: Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) has greatly altered college athletics, and Michigan’s NIL opportunities have lagged behind other universities like Texas A&M, Alabama and Ohio State, to name a few. What changes to Michigan’s NIL system would you like to see, and what role do you plan to take in making those changes?

A local clothing store on State Street will be closing its doors after nine years of business

Daily Staff Reporter

Conversation and laughter filled the Michigan League Ballroom Wednesday as more than 200 students settled in for the first-generation winter dinner. The First-Generation Student Program organized the dinner for undergraduate and graduate first-generation students at the University of Michigan. With approximately 4,000 first-generation students at the University, the program works to increase resource accessibility for first-generation students as well as build community among them. Terra Molengraff, assistant director of First-Generation Student Program, told The Michigan Daily this was the first event the program put together for all first-generation students this academic year. She said the purpose of the event was to focus on community building among first-generation college students. “First-generation students (are) very relationship based and, like all students, they really benefit from community,” Molengraff said. “This is a space that is dedicated to having students just get to know each other and share a

Verbena, a local clothing store on State Street, will close its doors at the end of February after more than eight years of business. The small boutique offers unique, feminine street wear and formal wear options to their customers — many of whom are University of Michigan students. Fatherdaughter duo Bob Duerksen and Kate Ryan opened Verbena together in 2014 and announced its closing following a decrease in sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The store announced its closing in a Jan. 11 Instagram post, thanking customers for their support for the business. “We are sad to announce that we will be closing Verbena by the end of February 2023,” the post reads. “We are so grateful to have been a part of so many special occasions and getting to see some of you almost every day.” Mary Duerksen, Verbena manager and Bob Duerksen’s wife, told The Michigan Daily she is disappointed the store is closing. Duerksen said she

little bit about their experiences.” At the event, attendees enjoyed provided food, participated in group discussion questions, and played a human bingo game to facilitate student connections. The dinner also showcased a presentation from FirstGeneration College Students @ Michigan, a student organization that aims to support the goals of first-generation U-M students. The presentation spread awareness for the First Generation Student Gateway, a study and meeting space located in the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives in the Student Activities

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Building for all first-generation students and a place to access resources. LSA freshman Haylie Toth told The Daily she attended the dinner to surround herself with people who have similar experiences, especially regarding acclimating to college life. “For me, at least, I had to figure out a lot on my own,” Toth said. “It just feels like a really welcoming space and just looking around and seeing everyone together and just talking and chatting … that’s really nice.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Verbena to close doors on State Street at end of month

MADDYN SHAPIRO

GRACE LAHTI/Daily

leading those collectives are already speaking with each other. How will I personally be involved? I will be there to listen to and then to provide advice that might be helpful to (the athletic director) as they stand up those initiatives. It’s very important to the University that we do things right and we remain in compliance with the NCAA and the law. I’ll play that advisory role as they stand things up, but this is really in the domain of the athletic director, and Warde Manuel is doing a great job interfacing with the leadership of those collectives. He has my full support. TMD: The University recently announced the construction of a new residential and dining complex on Elbel Field. What hopes do you have for this new residence hall and the improvement of student housing availability on or near Central Campus? What kind of change do you think this new residence hall will bring to campus culture?

BUSINESS

NATALIE ANDERSON

First generation Michigan students get food at the First Gen Winter Community Dinner at the Michigan League Ballroom Wednesday.

SO: I’m not sure it’s actually true that we lag behind those schools. There is a perception among some that that’s the case, but if you actually look at the Jersey Licensing Program, the University of Michigan was at the forefront of that program, which is a big part of NIL. We’re very fortunate that there have been three or four collectives that have been involved, and we’re very grateful for the passionate support of individuals who are donating to those collectives to support our student-athletes. I’m not sure that we’re lagging — the support and donations of people who care about our student-athletes and the Wolverine teams has been very generous. You may have heard that the athletic director, Warde Manuel, sent out a communication to supporters of Wolverine Athletics, encouraging them to support student-athletes through those collectives, and that had an immediate impact. There has already been an uptick in support of our programs through those collectors and those individuals

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feels sad to leave the Ann Arbor business community, noting that the pandemic heavily impacted Verbena’s sales. “I wasn’t surprised to hear about the store closing,” Duerksen said. “Our sales have not been very good ever since (the pandemic).” Small businesses across the country have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent rising inf lation rates and supply chain management issues. In June 2020, inf lation hit 9.1% in the United States while rates rose in many other countries around the world. According to Duerksen, Verbena was affected by all of these issues in some capacity. Verbena is currently offering discounts on all remaining items — including office fixtures — which will run until the store officially closes, or everything is cleared off the storeroom f loor. Nursing senior Hannah Park said she was surprised to walk down State Street in January and see the closing sign in Verbena’s front window. Park said the location, right next to the University’s Central Campus, was convenient and many frequent shoppers are

sad to see the store leave Ann Arbor. “I come to shop sometimes after class,” Park said. “I had no idea about the store closing. I love how trendy their clothes are.” LSA freshman Natalyn Kapner echoed similar sentiments, telling The Daily she had no idea Verbena was closing. “I didn’t know it was closing until I saw the signs on the door,” Kapner said. “I was surprised because there are two stores that are so similar right next to each other; one minute I saw it open and the next it was closing.” Kapner said she will miss the store and its offerings. “I liked that they had a lot of casual options and it also wasn’t that expensive,” Kapner said. Duerksen said the family is not sure what they will do next or what will replace Verbena on State Street in the future. She said while she is sad to see the store close, she remains grateful for the community of customers and employees Verbena brought together over the years. “My favorite part of Verbena is all the people who shop here and work here,” Duerksen said.

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