April 12, 2022
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Welcome back to The University Insider.
This week, Jonathan Vaughn returned to protest outside the president’s house, the United States Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as first Black woman nominated to Supreme Court, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer challenged Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion and more.
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Vaughn returns, sets up protest site at U-M president’s house
Jonathan Vaughn, former University of Michigan football player and survivor of sexual abuse by late University doctor Robert Anderson, returned to the protest campsite at the University president’s house April 9.
Vaughn and his Hail to the Victims campsite were located outside the house until March 7, when the University removed Vaughn’s campsite, leaving no protesters or trailer to be found.
In a recent interview with The Daily, Interim University President Mary Sue Coleman said it was Vaughn’s “time to go,” and the removal of the campsite was not a condition of the $490 million settlement between the University and over 1,000 Anderson survivors.
Vaughn expressed his anger with Coleman’s comments and the decision to remove the campsite.
“It just astounded me how tone-deaf (Coleman) is right in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month,” Vaughn said. “It just gave me extra motivation after March 7 because it was a premeditated calculated decision to have your police go outside the jurisdiction of the University of Michigan and steal from us. You stole my property.”
Vaughn said he is unsure how long he will stay outside the president’s house. “I outlasted one president, I might outlast another,” Vaughn said.
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Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson as first Black woman nominated to Supreme Court, 53-47
On April 7, the United States Senate voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson will be the first Black woman to sit on the Court in its 233-year history.
Jackson was confirmed to the Court in a 53-47 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, breaking party lines and joining all 48 Democrats and the two Independents who voted to confirm Jackson.
Jackson will replace retiring justice Stephen Breyer, who will step down at the end of the Court’s term this summer.
Madeline Hinkley/Daily. Buy this photo.
Gov. Whitmer files lawsuit, uses executive authority to protect abortion rights
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion. Whitmer filed in the Oakland County Circuit Court and is using her executive authority to seek immediate intervention by the Michigan Supreme Court.
“If Roe is overturned, abortion could become illegal in Michigan in nearly any circumstance — including in cases of rape and incest — and deprive Michigan women of the ability to make critical health care decisions for themselves,” Whitmer said in a press release. “This is no longer theoretical: it is reality. That’s why I am filing a lawsuit and using my executive authority to urge the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigan’s state constitution protects the right to abortion.”
Maya Sheth/MiC.
Michigan in Color launched their Queer in Color collaborative project, which include essays, art and editorials from columnists who have intersectional identities both as individuals of Color and as people who identify as Queer.
From the editor: “MiC remains, as ever, committed to love in its true radical nature — and few people understand the sacrificial meaning of radical love as keenly as Queer minorities do.”
Campus Blueprint now reflects the percentage of students, faculty and staff who have received a booster shot. 91% of students have reported receiving a booster shot, less than 1% of students are waiting to be verified and 4% have not reported a COVID-19 booster shot despite being eligible for over 30 days. The dashboard also reports 95% of faculty and 87% of staff are verified as having received their COVID-19 booster shot.
Last week, U-M students accounted for 26% of COVID-19 cases in Washtenaw County as a result of cases also increasing at the county level. Quarantine and isolation (Q&I) housing occupancy rose to 26.9% from last week’s 13.7%. On April 8, the University reduced Q&I Housing capacity from 432 units to 160.
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