June 17, 2020
The remaining candidate for Michigan civil rights director (click here) has been rejected after concerns were raised about his connection to the Flint water crisis.
Harvey Hollins was turned down in a 4-4 vote Monday by the Civil Rights Commission, MLive.com reported.
Hollins was urban affairs adviser under Gov. Rick Snyder. He was among senior members of Snyder's team who knew in 2015 about a spike in Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area. Experts linked it to bacteria in the water.
Snyder didn't speak publicly about Legionnaires' until early 2016."
Our 2017 report on the Flint water crisis specifically found that racism was a key factor in the crisis," Commissioner Zenna Faraj Elhasan said. "And I think hiring a candidate who was involved in that crisis goes directly against everything that department must prevent and that the commission is meant to protect against."
Commissioner Portia Roberson said concerns about Hollins emerged in a survey of employees.
Commissioner Jeffrey Sakwa, who was in favor of hiring Hollins, said he's "being penalized for something he's not responsible for."
Flint used the Flint River for 18 months without treating the water to reduce corrosion. The corrosive water allowed lead to leach from old pipes....
U of M students on the Dearborn and Flint campuses are feeling the pain of the loss of their education.
Shifting to online classes (click here) can be difficult for students who never took them before.
June 16, 2020
By Steve Carmody
The COVID-19 pandemic (click here) is raising concerns among some University of Michigan students in Dearborn and Flint about whether they are getting the same financial help that students on the Ann Arbor campus receive.
Alysia Trevino is with the group One University.
Trevino says the pandemic is adding to the burden of students with fewer financial resources.
“The Dearborn and Flint campuses were in a state of crisis pre-covid. But now students in the state of Michigan are going to be in even greater financial need,” says Trevino.
In particular, the group wants the university to expand its Go Blue Guarantee, which provides tuition assistance, but only to students pursuing undergraduate studies in Ann Arbor....
Flint - The Board of Regents at University(click here) of Michigan Flint has voted on a new budget that includes a five percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students.
The change makes the yearly cost of attendance about $12,000 per student.
Some faculty believe this could result in a drop in enrollment.
School leaders say the school is working to make sure the cost of those losses are not passed onto students.
