{"id":394,"date":"2025-03-21T06:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T06:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/umich-faculty-hosts-second-teach-in\/"},"modified":"2025-03-21T06:05:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T06:05:21","slug":"umich-faculty-hosts-second-teach-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/umich-faculty-hosts-second-teach-in\/","title":{"rendered":"UMich faculty hosts second teach-in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>About 120 students and faculty gathered in the Chemistry Building Wednesday night to attend a second teach-in hosted by faculty across the University of Michigan covering<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/other\/how-many-executive-orders-has-donald-trump-signed-compared-to-joe-biden\/ar-AA1AS1TY\"> recent executive actions<\/a> under President Donald Trump. The event was the second in a series at the University, with the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/umich-faculty-hold-teach-in-to-discuss-impacts-of-trump-administration\/\"> first teach-in<\/a> on Feb. 12 attracting more than 300 attendees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Focused on questions about upholding American democracy, the event featured leading experts across the fields of public policy, law, international relations, communications and other social sciences at the University. It included multiple panels with opportunities for the audience to ask questions.<\/p>\n<p>Panelist Barbara Koremenos, professor of political science, told the audience during the event the purpose of the teach-in was to share knowledge to interested students on recent events without discussing policy and picking sides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe represent folks who have knowledge to share with you on events that are happening, folks in science, folks in law school,\u201d Koremenos said. \u201cAnd we want to make sure we can share our knowledge and answer your questions. So that\u2019s the main goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>At the beginning of the teach-in, Koremenos said the panelists aimed to explore current events beyond the specific actions of the current administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no particular things to say about the policy goals of the administration,\u201d Koremenos said. \u201cThat is not what we\u2019re talking about today, but we have a lot to say about the process. The other reason is that the implications of what this administration is doing actually extends really far beyond you guys. I\u2019m French and my country is affected. So we want to make sure you\u2019re aware of all the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Teach-in coordinator Pauline Jones, professor of political science, told The Daily in an interview the event was intended to update students on new executive actions that have been signed since last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s putting what\u2019s happening in the United States in more of a comparative and global context, so trying to help undergrads understand the reversal or the erosion of democracy,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe United States is part of a global trend, and some of the tactics that are being used in the United States, like these executive actions \u2014 many of which are illegal and unconstitutional \u2014 are very similar to what\u2019s happening in (other) parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones also said many students are not aware of the gravity of these executive actions and their<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-democracy-autocrats-authoritarian-constitution-threat-542ac437a58880e81c052f8f2df1643f\"> impact<\/a> on American democracy, citing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/federal-judges-thwarting-donald-trump-2047432\">judges<\/a> who have declared the orders unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI think that many people, not just students but especially students, don\u2019t understand how serious the situation is,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a deliberate erosion of democratic institutions. There\u2019s been many judges (that have) cited many of the executive orders and actions as either illegal or unconstitutional.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones said she hopes students will continue to have the opportunity to learn about how present conditions will affect the future of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudents should be encouraged to reach out to faculty to learn more about what\u2019s going on,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThis is their future. What\u2019s happening in their country affects their future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Daily, LSA sophomore Adriana Rochier said she has been struggling to balance keeping up with current events and studying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot going on the past few months just in the world, and it\u2019s kind of hard to keep up with my studies and trying to keep up with what\u2019s going on in the world,\u201d Rochier said. \u201cSo I thought this was a good way especially to hear from professors who are so experienced in their field. So I just felt really lucky to have the opportunity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>LSA freshman Sawyer Knapp told The Daily in an interview his interest in the event stemmed from not feeling educated enough about the current government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s a disservice that I am still uneducated about what is happening with the government right now,\u201d Knapp said. \u201cSo I\u2019m going to be very interested to see what a lot of people in academia are thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christian Fong, professor of political science and speaker on the first panel, said the people of the United States have focused their attention on the president more than Congress. He said this disinterest will make it harder for Congress to impose checks and balances onto the executive branch when it oversteps its authority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think as long as we remain fixated on the president and uninterested in what\u2019s going on in Congress, Congress is going to stay in a really difficult stop where it\u2019s hard to impose (limitations on) even egregious overreaches of presidential authority,\u201d Fong said.<\/p>\n<p>Event coordinator Josh Pasek, professor of political science and communication and media, told The Daily that although elected officials claim they have a mandate from voters, they often do not follow their voter\u2019s interests.Pasek said that this is normal for elected officials but calls into question the success of democracy in the government and the actions people should take to preserve it.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSometimes they\u2019ll do exactly what the voters want, sometimes what they\u2019re doing is sort of unrelated to what the voters voted for,\u201d Pasek said. \u201cThe question of how well a democracy works is whether there is enough information from elsewhere that people in power are responsive to (so) that the desires and preferences of the public end up ruling the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Staff Reporter Vincent Siquig can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/government\/umich-faculty-hosts-second-teach-in-on-recent-trump-executive-orders\/mailto:siquig@umich.edu\"><em>siquig@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 120 students and faculty gathered in the Chemistry Building Wednesday night to attend a second teach-in hosted by faculty across the University of Michigan covering recent executive actions under President Donald Trump. The event was the second in a series at the University, with the first teach-in on Feb. 12 attracting more than 300 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[351,325,352,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-faculty","9":"tag-hosts","10":"tag-teachin","11":"tag-umich"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}