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Wednesday, December 11, 2024

ADMINISTRATION

Students and faculty march in support of DEI

The chants of about 100 U-M community members rang outside the University’s Board of Regents meeting Thursday SNEHA DHANDAPANI & NADIA TAECKENS Daily News Editors

About 100 University of Michigan students and faculty members marched from University President Santa Ono’s residence to the Alexander G. Ruthven Building Thursday afternoon to urge Ono and the University’s Board of Regents to protect diversity, equity and inclusion. The event took place prior to the Dec. 5 board meeting, where the Regents were expected to discuss cutting DEI initiatives. The Regents did not vote on DEI initiatives or funding at this meeting. LSA senior Princess-J’Maria Mboup, the speaker for the Black Student Union, emphasized to the crowd that funding for DEI should be increased, rather than cut. “I refuse to lay down and let a program die that has improved conditions for Black students,” Mboup said. “It hasn’t done enough, and we know that, but the answer is not dismantling. The answer is not to give up. The answer is to invest more money, more time. We are worth that.” SACUA Chair Rebekah Modrak released a letter on Nov. 20 alleging that the Regents held a closed door meeting about possibly defunding DEI initiatives in fiscal year 2025. According to the letter, the Regents were expected to vote as early as Dec. 5. “There do not seem to be safeguards at the presidential and provostial level where leadership is asking the Regents to articulate their concerns about DEI or asserting our institutional commitment to these values,” the letter read. The University’s DEI 2.0 Initiative includes providing support for the Wolverine Pathways program, increasing physical and digital accessibility across campus, providing training resources, studying staff salary equity and funding initiatives such as the Comprehensive Studies Program. The University spent $236.2 million on DEI between the 2016 and 2023 fiscal years.

Ananya Kedia/DAILY

President-elect Donald Trump has been a frequent critic of DEI initiatives, vowing to remove “DEI bureaucrats” and to implement “real standards” on colleges and Universities. Republican lawmakers in 20 states have proposed bills to limit DEI initiatives, and Project 2025, a conservative plan for a second Trump administration that Trump has denied affiliation with, includes plans to eliminate DEI offices in the federal government. Rackham student Eleanor Aro, graduate advisor for the Black Student Union, expressed frustration with potential changes to the DEI program in an interview with The Michigan Daily prior to the event. “I think the University may be reacting to the presidential

ADMINISTRATION

UMich expands Go Blue Guarantee

election, but I think they’re reacting preemptively, and I also think they’re not listening to what students actually want,” Aro said. “Students want DEI. We want DEI, and it helps so many students of Color. It helps so many marginal students with marginalized identities, it’s really important that we show those people how much we care about them, how much we want them as part of our campus community.” On Thursday morning, University Provost Laurie McCauley announced the elimination of diversity statements in faculty hiring, promotion and tenure. This policy announcement follows the University’s adoption of the institutional neutrality bylaw, which states the University

will not take a stance on social or political issues that are outside administration functions. The neutrality policy was created in the wake of ongoing conversations about student activism surrounding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The University also increased campus safety measures and amended the Student Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to allow the University to act as a complainant against students. Mboup told The Daily she sees these events as an increase in student repression. “We’re seeing an era of repression come into full swing by the day, and the Regents, the University, whoever, thinks that we’re not aware of this, but we are,” Mboup said. “We’re seeing more

ACADEMICS

repression. We’re seeing more policies that are made without student input, and even when they have student input, they do things that directly contradict their own values of DEI.” Rackham student G Harrison participated in the protest. She told The Daily that she feels that the potential defunding of DEI is an extension of previous changes made by the Regents. “This is just the latest and one of the more egregious in a series of censorship acts towards any expression that goes against the University,” Harrison said. “Encouraging to divest last year caused a whole big stir because we were pro-Palestinian, and that was an issue, and now being proDEI is an issue … so it’s a slippery slope. We’re living in a University

culture of fear now, because of many things, but especially the University neutrality policy.” At about 4 p.m., after the Regents meeting began inside the Ruthven Building, protesters marched to the back of the building, which was blocked by metal fencing. Protesters moved to the Central Campus Transit Center, where they continued to protest. Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) told Fox News in an interview Sunday that she supports increasing scholarships over furthering DEI initiatives. In the meeting, Ono announced that the University administration will expand the Go Blue Guarantee to more than 10,000 students by fall 2025. Aro told The Daily that DEI initiatives would better support students if the University gathered community input. “I think many of the critiques that students and faculty have of DEI could be remedied if the University listened more to what students want,” Aro said. American Culture professor Clare Croft told The Daily she has seen the changes in DEI policy take effect over her 15 years teaching, and she emphasized its importance. “In the 15 years I’ve been on faculty — so I was here before the kind of big ramp up of DEI — I’ve seen the kind of positive changes it’s made on campus, the ways in which our faculty comes from a wider range of backgrounds than it did prior to DEI, the ways in which campus conversations have changed,” Crofta said. As DEI continues to receive national attention, Mboup said she recognizes its flaws but also knows that the University cannot fulfill its missions and values of supporting marginalized students without furthering DEI. “I think it’s important that we recognize that multiple things can be true at once,” Mboup said. “DEI has many flaws, and DEI is one of the most important initiatives that the University has ever spearheaded. And if we want to be the leaders and best, if we want to keep that title, then we need to have DEI at the University.”

ADMINISTRATION

UMich leader UMich Regent in international Jordan Acker’s The program continues to offer education, report says home, car vandalized free and reduced tuition for eligible students

SNEHA DHANDAPANI & MARISSA CORSI Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan is expanding eligibility for the Go Blue Guarantee, allowing about 2,200 additional current in-state undergraduate students to qualify for the program. The eligibility criteria for the Go Blue Guarantee increased from $75,000 on the U-M Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses and $65,000 on the U-M Flint campus, according to an announcement made by University President Santa Ono at the Dec. 5 Regents meeting. The program will now offer free and reduced tuition for up to four years of undergraduate education to incoming and returning students with families of annual incomes and assets under $125,000. The Dearborn and Flint campuses will continue to require students to have a 3.5 GPA or higher to qualify. Since the program was established, it has provided free tuition to more than 8,000 students. During the December

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Board of Regents meeting, University President Santa Ono said that by next fall, a full tuition guarantee will have been awarded to more than 10,000 students. “We are so pleased by this number,” Ono said. “We’re so looking forward to the opportunities it will provide students and families from all across the state. Outstanding individuals will find a University of Michigan education is within their grasp, and then they will go on to achieve their dreams.” During the meeting, University Regent Michael Behm (D) said the University administration had been discussing an expansion to the Go Blue Guarantee for some time. “These changes, we don’t make these in a rash fashion,” Behm said. “This is something that we’ve thought about over the last several months, and how to proceed forward in this area to give this opportunity of a great education, tuition-free, to as many students as the University can afford. So it’s important and something we’re very proud of.” This change will take effect this fall.

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U-M Ann Arbor campus has largest international student population in the state

JI HOON CHOI & PATRICIA LEONCIO Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

University of Michigan students hail from more than 120 countries and all 50 U.S. states. This year, the University’s Ann Arbor campus brought home the title for the largest international student population in the state of Michigan from 2023 to 2024, according to a report published by Open Doors, an annual census of international students in the United States from the Institute of International Education. The report stated that there are 11,766 total international students on the Ann Arbor campus. It also found that the leading destination for students looking to study abroad is Spain and that 3,440 U-M students went abroad from 2022 to 2023. U-M students can access study abroad opportunities through the U-M Center for Global and Intercultural Study and through

programs such as the Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship and the Humphrey Fellowship. Marianne Craven, acting United States Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that she hopes students will utilize these opportunities. “When we think about the vast array of study abroad that’s out there, there are so many wonderful programs,” Craven said. “Fulbright obviously has a storied history, and it is a wonderful program, but there are definitely others, and we want everyone to grab the opportunity that’s in front of them.” In an interview with The Daily, Judith Pennywell, director of the U-M International Center, spoke about the ways the University supports international education. She said the International Center serves members of the international community at the University who are sponsored to either study, work or participate in research. Read more at MichiganDaily.com

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INDEX

It is the third act of pro-Palestine vandalism aimed at Acker SNEHA DHANDAPANI Daily News Editor

Early Monday morning, University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker (D) awoke to the sound of two heavy objects being thrown through a front window of his home, according to his Instagram post. Acker also found his wife’s car graffitied with an inverted red triangle, a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israel, and the words “DIVEST” and “FREE PALESTINE” in red ink. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Acker recounted the moment he woke up Monday morning. “We were woken this morning at about 2 a.m. by the sound of crashing glass,” Acker said. “We were really confused. And then the police rang the doorbell, maybe a minute to a minute and a half later, and we saw that our car had been spray painted (with) some messages of threats… They had thrown two mason jars through our front window.” This incident marks the third time pro-Palestine protesters have

targeted Acker. The first incident occurred May 15, when a masked protester came to Acker’s home to deliver a list of demands that included University divestment from companies profiting off the Israeli military campaign in Gaza and the defunding of the Division of Public Safety & Security. Protesters also staged a demonstration at the residence of University Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) that same day. The second incident occurred June 3, when Acker’s Southfield law office was vandalized with demands for the U-M administration to divest. Acker said he supports full prosecution for those responsible for the vandalism incident. “We can disagree, we can fight, we can have long disagreements about policy, but committing crimes is not appropriate,” Acker said. “It’s never acceptable under any circumstances for members of our community. And I am supporting law enforcement in their search for whomever did this, and whomever did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including federally.”

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