Tagged: University of Michigan

The University of Michigan has announced the speaker for its Ann Arbor commencement ceremony next month.

According to a press release from the university, graduates will hear an address from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent at CNN, a practicing surgeon, and a UM alumnus who was raised in Novi.

The U of M press release describes Gupta as:

A group of students at the University of Michigan want to make higher education more accessible for undocumented Michigan residents.

Freshman Daniel Morales recently petitioned the U of M Board of Regents for policy changes that would allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from Michigan high schools to pay in-state tuition.

Morales was an undocumented resident when he was first accepted to U of M.

He was told he would have to pay international tuition despite growing up in Michigan. He was also not allowed to apply for financial aid. Morales says that U of M's tuition policies are unjust.

"This is a civil rights fight in which we are restraining a certain population fo our community because of something that is not within their control. What they can control is how they do in school, and these are students who are getting into one of the most competitive universities."

Federal law guarantees undocumented students access to public education from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Universities set their own tuition policies.

Western Michigan University already charges in-state tuition for undocumented Michigan students.

When Ann Arbor's own George Jewett, an African-American, made Michigan’s football team in 1890, he would not have predicted it would take more than four decades for another black player to follow him.

The biggest reason was Michigan’s head coach from 1901 to 1926, Fielding H. Yost, who had unequaled ambition and ego, and six national titles to back it all up.

But he also had a blind spot: he was a racist.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.  His dad fought for the Confederates, after all.  But Yost was surprised decades later when his discriminatory decisions created a national controversy.

It started when he named Harry Kipke Michigan’s next head coach.

Yesterday, Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reported on state legislation that would block graduate student research assistants at public universities from forming a union.

Today, the full Senate passed that measure.

From the Associated Press:

The measure was passed Wednesday by a 26-12 vote along party lines. The legislation advances to the Republican-led House.

The legislation specifies that graduate student research assistants would not be considered public employees as related to collective bargaining rights.

The bill (S.B. 971), sponsored by State Senate leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), was officially opposed by the University of Michigan Board of Regents in an "emergency meeting" called yesterday.

The vote to oppose the bill fell along party lines - six Democrats for, two Republicans against.

Michigan Radio's Jennifer Guerra reported U of M Regent Laurence Deitch (D) said because the Michigan Employment Relations Commission is in the middle of deciding about the union vote, "adoption of this law would be tantamount to changing the rules of the game in the middle of that game." Deitch also said the bill infringes on the University’s internal decision making processes.

Some graduate research assistants have been trying to form a union at the University of Michigan for decades.

The University of Michigan administration has long contended that the graduates assistants are students and not employees, and therefore do not have a right to form a union.

However, last May, the University of Michigan Board of Regents voted to recognize the graduate assistants as employees - moving the possibility of a vote to form a union one step closer.

Such a vote would have to be approved by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC).

But if the Senate-passed bill is signed into law, a decision by the MERC would be moot.