University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel opened the University’s Board of Regents December meeting on Thursday by expressing his dissatisfaction with the two tax bills recently passed by the U.S. House and Senate and their impacts on graduate students at the University. Schlissel said the bills end tax benefits that help students pay for college.
“If enacted, (the tax bills) would make it harder for students to earn a college degree or to pursue a Ph.D. here at the University of Michigan and across the nation,” Schlissel said. “Higher education is a key driver of social mobility and economic growth in American society. College degrees prepare students to compete in a rapidly evolving job market and to live more enriching lives. Several provisions in these bills would undermine our students.”
The meeting then continued and covered several other topics such as Richard Spencer and LEO bargaining.
Richard Spencer
Several students and other speakers during public comment vocally opposed white supremacist Richard Spencer’s request to speak on campus, which the University announced it would proceed with at an emergency Board of Regents’ meeting on Nov. 21.
Rackham student Naomi Wilson, president of Rackham Student Government, said it would be “careless” to allow Spencer on campus. After initially denying Spencer’s request to speak on their campus, the University of Florida allowed a speech in October after Spencer’s team threatened a lawsuit. Following the event, three White supremacists were charged with attempted murder after shooting at protesters.
“I urge you all to focus and hone in on the need of students to be physically and emotionally safe. Safety is critical to students, and I’m thinking about the ones who came here for the first time, thinking they would be in a university where they could thrive academically and socially, only now to be faced with a speaker who not only denies their humanity, but also would bring others like him to campus,” Wilson said. “This is simply unsafe, and careless to have someone here who could, in reality, start a riot.”
LSA senior Anushka Sarkar, president of Central Student Government, presented a petition opposing a potential speech from Spencer, saying it received more than 5,000 signatures from students. She said a similar petition circulated among alumni had received more than 6,200 signatures.
“I echo thousands of students and community members when I say we will not be safe if he and his followers come to our campus,” Sarkar said. “Richard Spencer should not be accommodated.”
Social Work student Lawrielle West said the issue was bigger than just Richard Spencer’s presence on campus, but extended to white supremacy at the University in general.
“Some might say, ‘Hmm, what do you mean white supremacy is on campus?’” West said. “Well, this is what white supremacy looks like at the University of Michigan: White supremacy looks like a Regent Board that is torn between the First Amendment right — which is not and never has been equity-distributed to all — and student safety, which should not be limited to physical, but psychological and mental safety as well.”
University alum Jessica Prozinski, a leader of Stop Trump Ann Arbor, spoke directly to University Regent Mark Bernstein (D) during public comment, referencing his statement from the Nov. 21 emergency Regents’ meeting announcing the University would proceed in negotiations with Spencer.
“We could deny Richard Spencer, everyone would celebrate, this board would be cheered, President Schlissel would be applauded, but we would be dancing on our own graves,” Bernstein said at the November meeting. “On our tombstones would read: Here lies the University of Michigan, afraid to do the right and difficult thing.”
“Here’s the problem: Reality is the problem. You need to come out of the world of books and ideas and take a look around, because we’re looking not at metaphorical tombstones but at real tombstones,” Prozinski said. “That’s why lawyers are insufficient leaders in times like this — your vision is too narrow, and your trust in the law to protect us is too great.”
In response to Prozinski, Bernstein said the problem was not reality, but the Constitution.
“I’ve heard people urge us to say no, and you have every right, and an obligation, in fact, as a private citizen to say no to Richard Spencer’s vile and repugnant views,” he said. “But if you give government — which is what this institution is — the right to say no to speech that it doesn’t like or that it doesn’t want to hear or that may be provocative, government simply will. And what that means is the next time a marginalized community speaks out, government will just say no.”
Overall, Wilson said, it was imperative the actions of the administration in dealing with Spencer be as transparent as possible.
“As someone who has been at universities longer than I care to say right now, I understand the need to withhold information until necessary, but you all also must understand the lived experiences and position of students who feel that they are being left in the dark on a lot of issues circling around campus,” she said.
According to a Thursday press release from attorney Kyle Bristow, a representative for Georgia State University student Cameron Padgett who is making these requests on behalf of Spencer, the University had already offered four dates — Nov. 29 and 30 and Dec. 27 and 28 — as possibilities for Spencer’s event, but Spencer is now seeking to hold an event between Feb. 24 and March 4 — over the University’s Spring Break.
LEO Bargaining
During public comment, representatives and supporters of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization spoke in favor of lecturers and the positive work they do in the classroom and elsewhere on campus.
In recent months, LEO has been at the bargaining table with University administration and has staged demonstrations in hopes of improving benefits, wages and job security for lecturers at the University.
LSA senior Neala Berkowski said lecturers have been behind some of the most meaningful work she has accomplished at the University and they deserve to be compensated fairly. She said she believes the Board of Regents has the ability to support the work lecturers do by providing them with fairer wages and other resources.
“I’m here to call you out for your amoral treatment of lecturers while you still have the opportunity to do something about it,” Birkowski said. “These are people with advanced degrees and often a lot of debt. … Lecturers bend over backwards for their students and you literally give them the scraps.”
Rackham student Rachel Miller, current president of the Graduate Employees Organization, supported LEO and their bargaining, saying many departments at the University are heavily dependent on the work of lecturers. She gave her support for LEO’s bargaining efforts having come from GEO’s bargaining sessions last year that resulted in increased University support for DEI positions and mental health co-pay caps.
Andrew DeOrio, lecturer of Computer Science and Engineering, said while lecturers allow students to take more classes in their interests, he is having a difficult time attracting lecturers to the University because the pay is not as high as it is in private companies.
“It’s lecturers that have made it possible for every student who wants some computing in their education to do so,” DeOrio said. “As the chair of the search committee for lecturers (in Computer Science), I’ve lost a lot of recruits and potential hires. It’s really hard to get people to do this job.”
Investments
A $100 million investment in Y Combinator, a startup accelerator company, and a $39.5 million parking structure on Wall Street were both approved by the Board of Regents.
The Y Combinator investment will provide seed funding to support the development of startups across the country. Started in 2005, Y Combinator funded Airbnb and Reddit during its tenure.
The parking structure project, which will be paid for by the University’s Logistics, Transportation & Parking resources and will be seven levels with 1,050 spaces, is said to improve patient, faculty and staff satisfaction on the Medical and Central campuses. According to the action request, currently employees are forced to park farther away from the hospital and walk or use other transportation methods. The project approval also authorizes Walker Parking Consultants to propose a design.