MLK DAY SYMPOSIUM EVENTS CALENDAR
WEB SITE
(http://www.mlksymposium.umich.edu/forum/calendar.php)

MLK DAY EVENTS
   A.  DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a Nation
   B.  Lerone Bennett
   C.  MLK Children and Youth Program
   D.  Juan Cole
   E.  Coach Herman Boone
   F.  Ronald K. Brown/Evidence
    

UM's Snow Emergency Policy

Affirmative action ban on way to ballot

Africana.com making long anticipated move to merge with AOL's BlackVoices

“Because so many students are residential, the University is to remain open except in the most severe emergencies,” Provost Paul N. Courant says. “The University has an obligation to provide services to the students, patients at the Health System and the general public. At the same time, we understand that some of our students and staff members live a distance from campus and may find it difficult to get in during severe weather.”

The University is conducting business during severe weather, and the employee is expected to report or take vacation time or Paid Time Off (the Health System plan for combined sick and vacation days) for work missed. The staff member also may elect time off without pay.

“We need staff members to make every reasonable effort to get to campus so that essential services can be maintained, but we do not wish to jeopardize the safety of those who live a distance away,” says Timothy Slottow, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “We trust them to make good judgments about the risks of travel to campus.”

Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Dr. Robert Kelch reminds staff that even during an emergency closing only the areas that are considered non-critical shut down.

“The hospitals, public safety, transportation, food services, Plant Operations, housing and some research labs are considered critical services, and staff members are expected to make every effort to report to work,” Kelch says.

U-M Health System (UMHS) employees are reminded to call their supervisors, not Admissions, if they are unable to get to work or are delayed, the UMHS severe weather policy says. The health system can provides some people in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area with a ride to work but only if there is no other option, the policy says. Supervisors or department heads are to determine which employees need transportation assistance by calling staff members in advance of their shift. Employees who arrange for transportation are asked to wait for the ride once they are placed on the list.

If the University declares an emergency closing, the University’s Standard Practice Guide (SPG) on Emergency Closings, SPG 201.27, says: “Time lost from the regular work schedule during an Emergency Closing of the staff member’s area will be without loss of regular compensation for regular and probationary staff.” Pay issues are determined after the impact of the storm is assessed.

In the event that severe weather begins after staff members are at work, it is up to the department to determine whether employees may leave early. It is expected that vacation hours will be used or the employees will take paid time off.

To review SPG 201.27, visit http://spg.umich.edu/pdf/201.27.pdf. UMHS employees are encouraged to review the severe weather policy at http://www.med.umich.edu/i/safety/Plans/severeweatherplan.htm. Non-UMHS employees will not be able to access the page.

The long-running debate over the use of race and gender in Michigan government hiring and university admissions got a 22-month extension Thursday with the submission of petition signatures aimed at putting the issue before voters in November 2006.

Backers of a ban on race and gender preferences submitted what they said were 508,202 signatures to force a vote on an amendment to the state constitution. They need 317,700 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The petition drive was the second mounted by the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative -- the first was abandoned last summer -- since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the University of Michigan could consider race in admissions decisions. The second drive was successful after an infusion of cash allowed proponents to hire signature gatherers, which were lacking in the first drive.

The first effort also was stalled by legal challenges over the language of the proposed amendment. Last week, the Michigan Supreme Court dismissed the last of the challenges, at least for now.

The formal campaigns on the issue are not expected to begin until next year. In the meantime, both sides will attempt to organize their coalitions and raise money.

The ballot drives were a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions on lawsuits filed by white U-M applicants who claimed to have been discriminated against. The plaintiffs included Jennifer Gratz, now executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

At a news conference Thursday, Gratz said the proposal would "guarantee that all people, regardless of skin color, receive equal treatment."

"We will never get to a place where we treat people equally ... if the government divides us by race," she said.

Although the court found the admissions procedures at the time Gratz applied were illegal, it approved a less specific consideration of race like that used by the U-M Law School.

The undergraduate procedures have been revised. But U-M officials said Thursday that the new procedures would have to be scrapped if the ballot proposal is approved.

U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said the proposal would close the door to higher education for many people.

"All our students benefit when we are able to build a diverse learning environment," she said. "The ballot initiative seeks to eliminate a moderate but effective tool the court allowed for recruiting a diverse group of students."

In addition to admissions, university lawyers have identified at least six statewide education outreach and scholarship programs -- and 17 run by various schools at U-M -- which they said would have to be ended or significantly changed if the amendment passes.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm also assailed the proposal.
"I am so disheartened by this out-of-state group coming in to foment division," she said. "I hope and I believe that Michigan citizens will not tolerate this effort to divide people."

Gratz and Ward Connerly, the California businessman and national leader in the campaign to end the use of race and gender by government, said such criticism is pointless -- people already are divided over the issue.

Connerly rose to prominence as the leader of proposals in California and Washington state nearly identical to the Michigan proposal.

Carl Cohen, a professor at U-M and one of the leading critics of its policies, said treating people differently based on race or gender is "deeply, morally wrong."

Most voters appear to share that view in public opinion polls. But opponents of the proposal, which include most of the state's mainstream business, labor and religious groups, plan to mount a vigorous campaign to convince voters the amendment would do more harm than good.

The proposal has the support of a scattering of Republican legislators, but most party leaders have kept their distance and actively opposed its placement on the 2004 ballot when they thought it might harm President George W. Bush's re-election.

David Waymire, spokesman for a coalition of institutional opponents to the ban, said Thursday that the amendment would "set the clock back to the 1950s." If enacted, minority enrollment at U-M would plummet, he said, as would minority and female participation in government agencies around the state.