Award-winning journalist, entrepreneur and documentarian Soledad O’Brien said the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice are “twin plagues,” with the pandemic magnifying longstanding inequalities that need to be confronted.
“You have to opt in to making change,” she said. “If you sit and wait for things to happen, it just won’t happen.”
O’Brien was the keynote speaker at the Oct. 11 community assembly that kicked off the University of Michigan’s monthlong Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit.
The summit features events highlighting the university’s commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. The theme this year is, “Parallel Pandemics: Addressing Structural Racism in the Age of COVID-19.”
Along with O’Brien, the community assembly included remarks from university leaders, a panel discussion, and spoken-word and musical performances by students. It was live-streamed on U-M’s website and on YouTube.
O’Brien, CEO of Soledad O’Brien Productions, anchors and produces the weekly syndicated television program “Matter of Fact.” She has anchored news shows on CNN, MSNBC and NBC, hosted projects for Fox and A&E, and contributed to a variety of other networks and programs.
O’Brien said while it’s challenging to navigate the parallel pandemics of racism and COVID-19, it’s important to not let COVID-19 lessen people’s commitment to diversity.
She also said it’s impossible to overestimate the impact COVID-19 has had on communities of color. Centuries of deep-rooted racism have negatively affected housing, education, wealth, employment and other areas for those communities, she said, leading to enduring health inequities that the pandemic exacerbated.
She noted that while African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 33 percent of patients admitted to hospitals for COVID-19. Black men are six times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white men, she said, and Black women are four times more likely to die than white women.
“Certainly, injustice preceded the pandemic, but COVID-19 has unveiled this injustice,” she said.
O’Brien said the May 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of police brought widespread attention to a problem that many African Americans have known about for a long time. She said Floyd’s death, which came on the heels of other high-profile police killings of Black people, seemed to open more people’s eyes to racial injustice. She said it served as a catalyst for change and forced people to rethink what they consider normal.
“We understand that if action isn’t taken, if we don’t confront injustice and structural racism and disparities that have made the pandemic so deadly to so many, we’re not going to survive as a whole,” she said. “The intersection of COVID-19 and the devastating cost of structural racism has caused that.
“We have an opportunity, I think, to make change and bring change, and commit to making change.”
Watch a video of the full DEI Summit keynote event. Soledad O’Brien’s talks begins at the 36:30 mark and the panel discussion begins at 56:30.
O’Brien also recounted the challenges her Afro-Cuban mother and white Australian father faced when they married in 1958, when interracial marriage was illegal in their home state of Maryland. People would spit on their family when they walked down the street, O’Brien said.
O’Brien launched her journalism career in the late 1980s. However, she said it wasn’t until she reported on Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that she began to understand “systems at work.” That story wasn’t just about a storm, she said.
“For me to witness as a reporter the complete and utter failure of people to help people who need it the most, I guess it gave me a sense of urgency and understanding about how we have to think about stories, especially when they come to involve race and something that’s unfolding in the current day,” she said.
During his remarks, Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, said U-M has accomplished a lot over the past five years of its DEI strategic plan, but still has a lot of work to do.
“This journey is a journey that will be multi-generational,” he said.
President Mark Schlissel said a goal of U-M’s strategic planning around diversity, equity and inclusion was “to ensure that our highest values would permeate all aspects of our university.”
“DEI at U-M extends through all parts of our campus, uniting thousands in our community in service of the idea that we cannot be excellent without being diverse, and that we must ensure our community allows all individuals an equal opportunity to thrive,” he said.
Schlissel said the community is too often attacked by expressions of white supremacy, xenophobia, antisemitism, bigotry, Islamophobia and other forms of hate. The strategic DEI planning has helped U-M confront those challenges, he said.
He also said the university is examining policies and procedures that may unintentionally have disparate impacts on groups of people.
Riana Anderson, assistant professor public health, moderated a panel discussion that featured O’Brien and four others:
Kaur said in the wake of Floyd’s killing, Black leaders she works with experienced despair, but not shock. She also said the incident sparked an awakening in people outside of the Black community who realized they “could no longer turn away.”
“That awakening is an opportunity for us to follow the lead of people of color who have been in the struggle for a very, very long time,” she said.
Kaur also reflected on a question she said keeps her going every day.
“The future feels dark. But what if this darkness is not the darkness of a tomb, but the darkness of a womb? What if our America is not dead, but a nation still waiting to be born?”
She said progress in birthing labor is cyclical, not linear, with a series of expansions and contractions.
“Every turn through the cycle feels like a previous trauma, but every time more and more people are awake and committed to show up to the labor, it creates more space for solidarity and equality and dignity than there was before,” she said.
“And that’s what gives me hope, that if people are showing up with this ethic of love, this revolutionary love, to see others as sisters and brothers in the struggle alongside us, then I don’t know how many more turns of the cycle it’s going to take before we birth an America where we are all safe and free.”
This article originally appeared in the October 12, 2021 Edition of The University Record
Despite the challenges of a global pandemic and nationwide racial unrest, the University of Michigan’s Year Five Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Progress Report charted milestones of institutional success.
The web-based report — which features videos, infographics and updates on efforts at the university and unit level across campus — also highlights new university initiatives focused on anti-racism and the ways that DEI was prioritized in the university‘s response to COVID-19.
Those successes pertained to such areas as DEI skill building, new policies and processes, new and expanded DEI community support, accessibility and affordability.
“Throughout year five, we have learned much about the value of resiliency, hope and determination,” said Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. “Despite many challenges, we continued to provide leadership and support to advance DEI progress throughout U-M — in schools and colleges, in research centers and Michigan Medicine, in campus operations, administrative units and outreach programs.”
This year marks the conclusion of the university’s initial DEI Five-Year Strategic Plan, known as DEI 1.0. It also marks the beginning of a yearlong evaluation process in which central and unit-level content and actions from DEI 1.0 will be thoroughly assessed to serve as a base of planning for DEI 2.0.
Some of the topics and achievements highlighted in the report include:
As of June 21, U-M confirmed a $15-per-hour minimum wage for permanent workers across all three campuses.
Since its rollout in winter 2018, the Go Blue Guarantee has made education on U-M’s Ann Arbor campus more affordable for families with incomes of $65,000 or less and assets below $50,000, providing financial aid packages totaling, at minimum, the cost of tuition and mandatory fees. Highlights include:
Despite pandemic-related constraints, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching continued to pursue its mission through a growing roster of campuswide and unit-level programs, including:
The university continued implementing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Board recommendations. They include creating an accessibility map of general fund buildings, introducing all campus design managers to new training protocols such as the ADA Checklist, and delivering presentations on digital accessibility to instructors.
Other accessibility-related accomplishments include:
Findings from the DEI 1.0 evaluation period — to be shared in October 2022 — will help guide a yearlong planning phase for the university’s next DEI strategic plan, DEI 2.0. The second five-year initiative will launch in October 2023.
During the two-year transition period between strategic plans, the university will continue its DEI-related efforts, providing regular progress updates to the campus community.
“The end of the five-year strategic planning implementation does not mark the end of our DEI work,” said Katrina Wade-Golden, deputy chief diversity officer and director of implementation. “Rather, it represents an intensive reinvestment in our DEI efforts, which will move us forward as we seek to advance institutional change that produces a continuous and lasting impact on the university community.”
The University of Michigan is seeking community feedback on the role of chief diversity officer as the national search moves into full swing. Robert Sellers, who currently holds the position, has agreed to extend his tenure through the search process.
Earlier this year, Sellers announced he would step down at the end of the year to allow for “new leadership, new ideas, new energy and new perspectives” in the next phase of diversity, equity and inclusion planning. He has agreed to remain in his role as vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer through August 2022 to allow for an expanded search.
With the help of the national search firm Spelman Johnson, the committee is soliciting nominations for the VPEI-CDO position and asking the campus community to share thoughts on filling this critical role.
“We are seeking feedback on challenges and opportunities related to diversity, equity and inclusion and on important qualifications and attributes we should seek in a new VPEI-CDO,” said Professor Ketra Armstrong, who chairs the advisory committee appointed by the provost to guide the search process.
Armstrong is a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of sport management and director of diversity equity and inclusion in the School of Kinesiology; and professor of women’s and gender studies in LSA.
“We value our community’s perspectives, welcome the feedback, and encourage everyone to share their input no later than Oct. 29,” she said.
Faculty, staff, students and alumni can share perspectives by completing an assessment that will be posted on the search’s website.
Community members also can nominate individuals they would like the committee to consider for the position by providing their names in the respective areas of the assessment tool or by contacting Armstrong directly at [email protected] no later than Dec. 10.
“Nominations will continue to be considered as much as possible until the position is filled,” she said.
The search for the next VPEI-CDO comes at a pivotal time as this fall the university will begin engaging in the evaluation process at both the unit and university level of DEI 1.0 — the university’s initial diversity, equity and inclusion five-year strategic plan. The process will be followed by a yearlong cross-campus engagement period for the university’s next DEI strategic plan, DEI 2.0.
The VPEI-CDO is a senior leadership role that serves at the helm of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which includes the Office of Academic Multicultural Affairs, Center for Educational Outreach, Wolverine Pathways, ODEI business support team, DEI development team, and the evaluation and assessment team.
This article originally appeared in the October 8, 2021 edition of The University Record
The U.S. COVID-19 death toll has exposed racial disparities in the country’s health care system and other aspects of American life.
At the University of Michigan, this year’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit, themed “Parallel Pandemics: Addressing Structural Racism in the Age of COVID-19,” will explore the interwoven nature of COVID-19 and structural racism and how their interconnectedness underscores the necessity that to solve either of the issues, both must be addressed.
According to provisional death counts collected by the National Center for Health Statistics in June 2021, Native Americans, Latinos and Blacks are two to three times more likely than whites to die of COVID-19 in the United States.
“The parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and structural racism have synergized to create a moment in our nation’s history where we must decide if our corresponding actions will be transformative or repetitive of the past,” said Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. “Now more than ever, we must simultaneously challenge our current reality and decide what our future will be.”
DEI Summit events will take place throughout October. A virtual community assembly will take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 11 featuring keynote speaker Soledad O’Brien, award-winning journalist, entrepreneur and host of the weekly syndicated television show “Matter of Fact.”
O’Brien is well known for her work in television journalism. She anchored news shows on CNN, MSNBC and NBC, hosted projects for Fox and A&E, and has contributed to a variety of outlets including the three major broadcast networks, National Geographic and PBS. O’Brien’s reporting has earned three Emmy awards, two George Foster Peabody awards and an Alfred I. DuPont Award.
Following O’Brien’s address, Riana Anderson, assistant professor public health, will moderate a panel discussion featuring:
The community assembly also will include brief remarks from campus leadership, including Sellers, President Mark Schlissel and Provost Susan M. Collins.
“As a venerable public university, we have a special responsibility to serve all of humanity,” Schlissel said. “Diversity is essential to our scholarly endeavors, strengthening our impact and our intellectual power. U-M has always embraced taking on the biggest problems facing our society and creating lasting change. The challenges before us are complex and urgent.”
The university’s Year-Five Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Progress Report will be made available to the public Oct. 11 on an interactive website that will feature the report and its highlights.
The year-five report is the final annual report from the university’s initial Diversity Equity and Inclusion 5-Year Strategic Plan, DEI 1.0.
“The past five years have yielded experience and data that allows us to sharpen our approach and act with increased precision and skill,” said Katrina Wade-Golden, deputy chief diversity officer and director of implementation for the campuswide DEI Strategic Plan.
Wade-Golden said this time will mark the beginning of a yearlong evaluation process in which central and unit-level content and actions from DEI 1.0 will be thoroughly assessed to determine what action and initiatives worked well, which ones did not and what new DEI issues warrant greater attention in the future.
Findings from the evaluation period will be shared in October 2022 and will help guide a yearlong planning period for the university’s next DEI strategic plan, DEI 2.0. Information gleaned from the evaluation period will guide content and implementation strategies for DEI 2.0, which will launch in October 2023.
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will facilitate the gathering of the campus community to recognize the many accomplishments made over the years of U-M’s five-year DEI Strategic Plan implementation efforts.
The open-house event will take place from 3:30–7 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Trotter Multicultural Center and will include student performances, speakers, refreshments and activities to engage students, staff and faculty.
Other DEI Summit events, include a virtual colloquial series, “Toward an Anti-Ableist Academy,” on Oct. 4, and an interdisciplinary conversation Oct. 13 hosted by the National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative.
This article originally appeared in the September 27, 2021 edition of The University Record
Emphasizing Latino/a “cultural capital”—the collection of individual experiences and learnings shared by the Latino community—keynote speaker Michelle Ferrez recently launched the University of Michigan’s Latinx Heritage Month.
“We bring capital, we bring assets, and that comes from our family, our knowledge, our skills, our abilities, and that comes from our ancestors,” said Ferrez, director of U-M’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. “Part of our culture is storytelling. We cannot lose sight of our shared struggles across our community, nor our unique struggles.”
Ferrez’s Sept. 15 talk at the Michigan Union’s Rogel Ballroom kicked off Latinx Heritage Month in the first large celebration for students since the pandemic started. Each dish served and each speaker had a story to impart, a story representative of their roots, of where they come from, and where they will go.
Miriam Nicolda Palacio, an Afro-Latina chef from Panama, prepared stewed pork, rice with coconut and pigeon peas, and plantains.
“Lo usamos más los domingos. Lo llamamos dominguera,” she said, talking about how the plate is served mostly on Sundays and easily switching from speaking English to Spanish. “The food on the coast has many Caribbean influences. I invite you to Panama to see what Panama is.”
Colombian chef Luz Ruiz made empanadas with sweet cheese and with chicken, and also prepared arepas, which she said are very popular in her country. In order to share that unique flavor with more people, she replaced the corn flour, normally used to make the empanadas, with yuca, making the dish gluten free.
Organizers said incorporating different Latin American foods on the menu and including the chefs and their stories and cultures in the program helps remind students of their roots, as well as the diversity of traditions and cultures that make up the U-M Latinx community.
”We wanted this to be a celebration of our accomplishments, however we also wanted to acknowledge that this past year was difficult. We wanted to honor these challenges that molded us so much into who we are today,” said Anamaria Lopez, an organizer of the Latinx Heritage Month activities on campus and a graduate student in the School of Education. “This is where the idea of roots came into play, because whether we like it or not, these roots are now a part of us, and from these roots we flourish.”
During her address, Ferrez spoke about her experiences as an activist, leading her to become an institutional agent and broker, advocating and negotiating for BIPOC students.
It was during her time as an undergraduate student at UCLA that she realized how faculty and staff are able to authentically and genuinely give support to students. Though it is traditionally considered that families establish roots in their children, Ferrez posed the idea that family comes in different forms.
“Family doesn’t necessarily have to be blood family. Family could be friendships. Family could be a person who just took care of you,” she said.
The support of the family she had established among peers, faculty, staff and mentors led her to protest injustices she saw in her community and on campus. When Ferrez and 260 other students were arrested for protesting, they were not alone, she said. They were embraced by their family, propelling Ferrez to continue fighting for her community.
“We need all of you with your capital to fight for social justice, not only in our communities in the United States but in our home countries, throughout Latin America, throughout Central America and throughout the islands in the Caribbean,” she said.
Martino Harmon, vice president for student life, called on students to continue the leadership role Latino/a students have had at the university.
“Your contributions and legacy cannot be fully honored in just one month out of the year, but this month is a great time to pause and reflect,” he said. “The University of Michigan would not be what it is today without the contributions of the Latinx community.”
In an effort to bring robotic assistance to workers, the elderly and more, a University of Michigan team is developing a new type of powered exoskeleton for lower limbs — funded by $1.7 million from the National Institutes of Health.
One in eight Americans faces a mobility disability, with serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, but a robotic solution could be far less bulky than sci-fi’s full-body suits. The U-M team plans to develop a modular, powered exoskeleton system that could be used on one or multiple joints of the legs. The three-year project will first study workers who lift and lower objects and the elderly who have lost mobility with age. In future work, the team would like to include people with other disabilities.
“Imagine adding a small motor to a bicycle — the rider still pedals, but there’s that extra power to get up hills without breaking too much of a sweat,” said project lead Robert Gregg, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
“Similarly, we can take the conventional ankle, hip or knee braces used today, add a self-contained specialized motor and gear system, and provide power at a specific joint to increase mobility.”
Conventional braces, or orthotics, cannot actively assist human joints during challenging activities. State-of-the-art exoskeletons, on the other hand, are built in a way that makes it difficult for users to move against the motor, also known as backdriving the motor. This is in part because these exoskeletons are usually designed to replace the complete function of an entire limb. Partially assisting specific joints is a different challenge.
However, one of the greatest hurdles for exoskeletons is that they must accurately recognize the user’s intent, and match that intent with a correct action. Otherwise, the exoskeleton adds to the effort required from the user.
“There is a continuum of human movement possibilities, from jumping jacks to walking up a slightly different incline. If the exoskeleton recognizes the wrong activity, then it’s getting in the way of the human,” Gregg said.
There are two keys to the system Gregg and his team envision will make up for these shortcomings: a newer style of motor and transmission and a different kind of control algorithm.
The challenge with the motor is delivering enough torque — the exoskeleton equivalent of muscle strength — while being small and lightweight enough to wear. Usually, this is achieved by using a small motor that spins quickly and converting that speed into torque with a highly-geared transmission. That transmission makes it hard for a user to move against the motor.
Gregg’s team will solve this problem by using flat, “pancake” style motors that were originally utilized in drones and have more recently been used in the Open Source Leg — a project from team member Elliott Rouse, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. These motors don’t need as many gears to deliver enough torque to help power a human, which makes them easy to backdrive.
To control the motor and transmission, the team will develop a “task-invariant” control algorithm, which will not rely on knowing the task the user is trying to complete in order to effectively provide assistance.
“You have to make sure that when you tell the motor what to do, it’s not fighting the human, but that’s a big challenge because you don’t always know the human’s intent,” Gregg said.
Instead of predicting where a human will move, the team will simplify the problem and work on altering how the human moves.
“With this method, we may compensate for gravity: No matter where you move, the motor can assist with that. Another example is inertia: No matter where you move, the motor can compensate for limb inertia to make movement easier,” Gregg said.
Working with Chandramouli Krishnan, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and Alicia Foster, a certified prosthetist orthotist at U-M’s Orthotics and Prosthetics Center, the team will determine the best configurations of the modular system for different populations. The team will also study whether the additional weight of the motor is helpful overall.
Gregg hopes the project will result in a low-cost system that any clinician would be able to replicate by simply adding it to current off-the-shelf ankle, hip and knee orthoses. And beyond the workers and elderly populations of this project, Gregg hopes the system could be helpful to the broad populations that require just a bit, but not complete, assistance with getting around.
This article originally appeared in the October 4, 2021 edition of The University Record