Recently the news broke that University of Michigan's president, Mark Schlissel, was fired after it was discovered he was having an inappropriate relationship with one of his subordinates.

Now, in the wake of the news, the university has a lot to work out and sift through, including emails that were what lead to the discovery of the relationship...but there's something else that sticks out to us.

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Let's Start With Mark Schlissel's Firing From University of Michigan

Schlissel had already made headlines back in October when it was announced, per the Philadelphia Inquirer, that he would be stepping down in June of 2023.

He continued his duties as president and, as MLive reports, he announced back at the July Board of Regent meeting, that he would be making policy changes in regards to sexual misconduct. Ironically enough, it was mainly focused on "the prohibition of relationships between subordinates and supervisors."

Fast-forward to just a few days ago, on January 15th, 2022, MLive shares regents of the university removed Schlissel as president after investigation of an alleged inappropriate relationship with an employee turned out to be true.

CLICK HERE for MLive's full reporting on the story.

Apart from a strongly-worded letter, regents also removed Schlissel and released 118 pages of emails between him and the employee.

Mark Schlissel and Redacted Subordinate's Email Communications

Within those emails there is evidence of an inappropriate relationship between Schlissel and the unidentified university employee, ranging from flirting, to articles about the "Sexual Fantasies of Everyday New Yorkers", travel plans and more.

CLICK HERE to access all 118 pages to make your own conclusions on the context in which these conversations happened.

One email that is worth mentioning for the context of what we are about to talk about can be found on page 31 and features information from Delta Airlines regarding SkyMiles. Schlissel forwarded this information to the subordinate on April 5th of 2020, adding "Delta club and Diamond status, here we come! We'll have to plan some trips for summer 2021."

"Diamond Status" High-Roller Can't Tip More Than 10%

Now look, from all of this we can conclude that Schlissel is a lot of things. An unfit president for a university, a hypocrite, a bad husband, etc. Is he also bad at tipping?

Everyone has their different ideas on what counts as a "good" tip or a "bad" tip. Traditionally, between 15 and 20 percent is what people, on average, deem acceptable.

What you tip is entirely up to you, and we understand that. However, when you consider the fact that, per the Philadelphia Inquirer, Schlissel has a base salary of $927,000 a year. One would think someone who makes THAT much and has the money to travel enough to become "Delta club and diamond status" would be great at tipping restaurant workers...wrong.

In the emails between Schlissel and the subordinate, there were two food order confirmations that stood out to us.

One was on October 7th, 2020 for Cardamom Restaurant. Schlissel's subtotal was $38.00 before tip and processing fees. He tipped $3.80.

On another occasion, December 3rd, 2020, Schlissel's subtotal at Pizza House Ann Arbor was $37.49 and the tip was $4.00. While it's better than 10%, it's still less than the social norm of 15 to 20.

Why Does This Even Matter?

When we first noticed this, we wanted to bring it up in a sort of tongue-in-cheek kind of way but upon further research and reflection, the fact Mark Schlissel is also bad at tipping actually says a lot more.

The whole situation with the policy changes he wanted to enact to the inappropriate emails to the relationship itself, it all stems from entitlement and power dynamics.

If nothing else, being a bad tipper on top of everything else showed just how entitled and powerful enough to do whatever he wants in the world, Schlissel really thought he was.

To him, money, positions and even people are disposable. It's always about power and it is always about how much you can flex it or at least LOOK like you have it to people "below" you.

As we find out more and more about this investigation and situation, we wish the next president of UofM luck in navigating the storm and erasing the stain this man has left on an otherwise wonderful institution.

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