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The University of Michigan Senate Assembly met in the Alexander G. Ruthven building Monday afternoon to discuss creating a committee to build a physical land acknowledgement monument and present amendments to a proposal regarding Faculty Senate restructuring.
The assembly heard from Senate Assembly chair Allen Liu on a resolution to establish a committee in charge of creating a monument on Central Campus acknowledging the land was donated to the University by the Anishinaabe, Ojibwa, Odawa and Bodewadmi tribes in 1817. The statue would recognize the Treaty of Fort Meigs, in which Native Americans ceded their land to the “University of Michigania” in hopes of securing an education for their children.
The committee will also work to ensure that members of these Native American groups receive adequate representation across campus. Members of the special committee will be appointed by the Senate Advisory Committee with input from the Committee on Anti-Racism, the Native American studies program and members of the Native American community.
After the proposal was introduced, CAR chair Dinesh Pal spoke to the assembly about the importance of creating a visible monument to honor the Native American groups that gave up their land to build the University.
“I’ve been on this campus for 16 years, and I had no clue about the land acknowledgement or the land grant,” Pal said. “(An issue) of this proportion deserves a bigger monument.”
Pal said the current land acknowledgement plaque, located near the flagpole in the Diag, is small and easy to miss. The current plaque displays the names of the tribes that donated the land used to build the University.
The Senate Assembly voted 42-2 in favor of approving the resolution toward the end of the meeting, concluding the section on land acknowledgement.
The assembly also discussed four prospective amendments to a proposal restructuring the governing body that they voted to implement last month. This proposal added clinical professionals, archivists and curators into the Senate structure, implemented a quota of 17 representatives per school, college or campus, and inhibited who can vote on specific issues.
Nursing professor Christopher Friese opened the discussion by presenting Amendment One, which would require a two-thirds vote to pass any rules that would change the structure or membership of the assembly.
“In the current state of the underlying proposal without amendments, newly included faculty would not be able to vote on future structural changes,” Friese said. “I personally feel that this provision would be unnecessarily exclusionary.”
Sociology professor Silvia Pedraza then presented Amendment Two to the assembly. If approved, the amendment would allow clinical professors, archivists and curators to have full voting rights with the exception of tenure-related matters.
“If we vote yes to admitting (clinical faculty, archivists and curators), they should enjoy the full and equal exercise of their voice and vote,” Pedraza said.
Michigan Medicine professor Andre Monteiro Da Rocha presented Amendment Three, which would allow non-tenure track faculty to vote on tenure-related issues. Art & Design professor Audrey Bennett concluded this portion of the meeting by talking about Amendment Four, which would require examples of tenure-related issues to be provided.
Following discussion of the amendments, Geoffrey Chatas, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Chief Investment Officer Erik Lundberg joined the Senate to discuss using an endowments code of conduct. Chatas said while the University has a large endowment of about $18 billion, the per-student value is much lower compared to that of other universities.
Chatas and Ludenberg talked about their roles in ensuring that managers are making ethical investments with the money from the University’s endowment. They also said they met with professors and community members with concerns about ethical investments.
“We want to invest with managers that are ethical, that build good businesses,” Ludenberg said. “Last month, we had our final meeting with a professor who was concerned about palm oil investments and its impact on the environment. The manager was excited about that investment from our portfolio.”
The Assembly heard comments from outgoing members to conclude the meeting. Liu was the first member to provide closing remarks.
“I got to do a lot of fun events but also have great discussions and debates with my colleagues around certain issues and all of them have enriched my life as a faculty (member) at the University,” Liu said. “It’s been a pleasure and honor to serve you all.”
Senate Assembly members will have the opportunity to vote virtually on the four amendments until Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. There are currently no results available.
Daily News Reporter Joanna Chait can be reached at jchait@umich.edu.