2023-09-27

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UMich becomes first major university to develop its own generative AI U-M GPT specializes in providing academic and U-M-specific information

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The University of Michigan is the first major institution of higher education to implement its own AI model, U-M GPT. The custom generative artificial intelligence tool is accessible for students, faculty and staff at the Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses, as well as Michigan Medicine.

University President Santa Ono announced the release of U-M GPT in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Just in time for the start of the fall semester, (Information and Technology Services) is releasing a suite of custom GenAI tools unlike anything currently offered in higher education, providing our users with AI tools that firmly emphasize the importance of equity, accessibility, and privacy,” the post read.

The University, in partnership with Information and Technology Services and Microsoft, now offers three AI services: U-M GPT, U-M Maizey, and U-M GPT Toolkit. U-M GPT specializes in providing academic and U-M-specific information such as course enrollment data, campus information and faculty details. Much like ChatGPT, a popular generative AI tool released last year, U-M GPT is also capable of answering questions, summarizing information, producing written work and can even provide personalized movies and music recommendations.

Access to U-M GPT is free to the campus community, though there is a limit of 25 prompts per hour per person.

U-M Maizey is an AI tool that can be connected to a user’s Google, Dropbox and Canvas accounts to analyze users’ data to provide advice, create organization-specific projects and answer questions. U-M Maizey is free to use to campus community members through Sept. 30, though students will have to pay for it after that point.

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The U-M GPT Toolkit is available to U-M community members upon request, and is intended for AI designers at the University who want full control over their AI environments and models. After a request is submitted, ITS will set up a consultation with potential users and grant access to the toolkit at a cost.

ITS worked on developing these custom AI tools for nearly eight months following the release of ChatGPT, according to Ravi Pendse, vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

In an interview with The Daily, Pendse said generative AI technology represents an exciting new tool in higher education, though it should be used with caution.

“I compare generative AI similar to the impact the world wide web had on the internet,” Pendse said.“When the world wide web was introduced, anyone could use it. Similarly, with the introduction of generative AI, anyone can use it. We still have to be very thoughtful about how we use it. If you are leveraging this tool, you have to make sure the answers are accurate and double and triple-check your sources.”

Are faculty for AI? Without a campus-wide AI policy governing the use of U-M GPT and other generative AI tools, individual departments and professors have been left to decide how to incorporate it into their classrooms — or how not to. While several professors have embraced the new technology and are encouraging students to experiment with it, some faculty have warned students against using AI to complete course assignments.

Most syllabi handed out during the Fall 2023 semester include a section on the use of AI in the classroom, with policies varying from class to class. In Anthropology 101, for instance, students are discouraged from using AI to fabricate data and are disallowed from submitting AI-generated responses as their own. Arabic 201 has a highly restrictive AI policy, with students not allowed to use AI on any assignment.

Other courses explicitly encourage, or even require, students to use AI. David Jurgens, associate professor in the School of Information and the College of Engineering, works on the technology that makes generative intelligence work and helped advise the U-M GPT project. Jurgens said he hopes to teach students to take advantage of AI in their educational and professional careers.

“I teach this course on Fridays: How To Use AI Effectively,” Jurgens said. “We (are) working on how to improve cover letter writing and resume writing to spruce them up, tailor them to jobs and provide feedback. It’s an always on, always there assistant to help students do the task they want.”

Pendse highlighted the University’s role in being at the forefront of AI in educational systems, though he said the University now has to consider the impact the technology will have on campus and on society at large.

“We have to approach this very thoughtfully with our eyes wide open and feet on the ground,” Pendse said.

“My opinion is that this kind of generative AI is there to augment human beings, not to replace us. It is going to make us more productive, it is not going to take our place.”

Laura Aull, associate professor of English and the director of the English Department Writing Program, told The Daily she believes AI can be used effectively in writing classes to complement the department’s educational goals.

“Well, a couple of things that I think can be productive about AI tools: one, they emphasize the goal that we in this program have long-emphasized, which is that assignment design is really important,” Aull said. “We want assignments to be equitable (and) valid, meaning that they can be consistently applied in ways that give every student the opportunity to succeed.”

Aull emphasized, however, the uniquely human component to literature that generative AI cannot replace. Since the

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release of ChatGPT, writers, artists and others employed in creative fields have expressed concerns that AI might make their careers obsolete. Aull said she doesn’t think that AI content will replace human-produced writing, though part of her tasks as a linguist and humanist will now include comparing original writing with AI content.

“I think our job in writing courses and in the humanities and many other parts of the University is to engage with the human processing element (of writing) that sets it apart from AI writing,” Aull said.

“We analyze linguistic patterns in human writing and in AI writing. But it is different.

Human processing is different from AI parsing.”

Michael Wellman, U-M division chair of computer science and engineering, also described how his department has been engaging with AI in classrooms this semester.

Though the EECS department hasn’t set a department-wide policy about the use of AI, Wellman said he believes a major benefit of introducing AI to educational spaces is the ability to create individualized learning plans for students.

“I think ultimately, there’s tremendous potential for how the technology can really accelerate education in various

ways,” Wellman said. “(AI) can customize and give people that customized learning experience, it’s actually really exciting. …

Basically we’re just trying to encourage experimentation in terms of research. Researchers will be able to use these tools in their own projects and also develop their own techniques and in teaching.”

Students remain divided on University-endorsed AI Just like University faculty, several students are excited to see how AI will affect their day-to-day experience in the classroom. LSA junior Asad Khan, member of the Michigan Student Artificial Intelligence Lab, said he sees AI as an educational tool that could supplement, or even replace some forms of instruction.

Khan said he believes AI could be effectively used to simulate some of the traditional teaching methods used on campus — especially if the AI tools expand to include generative voice production.

“Instead of scheduling an interview, you could have a chatbot such as ChatGPT,” Khan said. “When you go to office hours, you have to wait for the instructors … with an interface like a chatbot, you could essentially simulate this type of environment. Arguably, it’s maybe not as efficient now

because you have to write tags, but in the future, it may be through voice.”

Some members of the U-M community are less enthusiastic about the growing prevalence of AI at the University and in their respective fields of study.

Art & Design sophomore Yuri Cho expressed concern for both her future career as an artist and the way AI can automate creative processes.

“AI can be a tool theoretically, and I personally think that you should use AI if it helps you, but I don’t think it should touch anything creative,” Cho said.

Cho said she does not believe AI should be integrated into the School of Art & Design’s curriculum because it completely changes how art is made. Cho argued that art shouldn’t always be something instantaneous, but should remain a testament to the physical, emotional and creative work of the artist behind it.

“So much of art is about creating, not about the end product,” Cho said. “And, to me, AI kind of takes out that creative part and only gives you what you want, and I think it’s a representation of how people don’t really care about that part of the art but instead only want the finished product.”

Biden visits UAW picket line in Detroit

Biden is the first sitting U.S. president in history to join a picket line at a labor strike SNEHA DHANDAPANI Daily Staff Reporter

President Joe Biden visited Detroit Tuesday afternoon to show solidarity with members of the United Auto Workers Union on the picket line. The UAW went on strike Friday after failing to come to a contract agreement with the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.

About 13,000 workers have been on strike since Friday. The strikers are fighting for a 36% pay increase over four years and benefits for UAW workers such as the elimination of wage tiers, defined pension plans, four-day workweeks and increased time off. The union is also demanding the right to strike over plant closings as the companies have closed 65 plants over the last 20 years, which has left many workers unemployed.

Biden is the first sitting U.S. president in history to join a picket line at a labor strike.

In a statement released this morning, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said Biden’s visit

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shows his commitment to supporting workers. AFL-CIO is a democratic federation representing 60 national and international organizations and 12.5 million workers.

“President Biden is demonstrating once again that he is the most pro-union president in history,” the statement read.

“Working people know he has our backs every day and that he understands that UAW members’ fight for a fair contract is deeply connected to the struggle over the soul of our country.”

In a video of Biden’s remarks during the event released by PBS, Biden told the crowd the nation depends on autoworkers and encouraged them to fight for their demands.

“It’s a historic day at a historic moment in time,” Biden said. “… It’s about the autoworkers, who are part of the fabric of the working class of this country. We’re the people that make the world run. It’s not the billionaire class, not the elite few. It’s the working class of the billions

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of people who have been left behind. That’s what this battle is about — changing that.”

Biden’s visit comes ahead of former president Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan. The former president is expected to arrive in Detroit on Wednesday to speak with striking UAW workers. Trump plans to speak at Drake Enterprises, an automotive parts manufacturer and supplier, in Clinton Township. On Monday, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich, released a statement that said Trump had previously expressed opposition to autoworkers.

“On Wednesday, former President Trump, who turned his back on our autoworkers, will visit Michigan,” the statement read. “He’s lined the pockets of the wealthy and shipped American manufacturing jobs overseas.

When times were tough, he said that auto plants should move to lower-cost, nonunion states. He even said the auto companies should just go bankrupt.”

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INDEX

Vol. CXXXII, No. 110 ©2023 The Michigan Daily

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2 — Wednesday, September 27, 2023

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What construction is happening at UMich this fall?

The Michigan Daily compiled a list of ongoing construction projects for students to know about this semester

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From The Big House, to State Street and all the way to North Campus, the buzz of bulldozing and the sight of orange cones are familiar to students across the entire University of Michigan campus. The Michigan Daily took a look at the major ongoing construction projects that you need to know about this semester.

1. The Leinweber Computer Science and Information Building The U-M School of Information is currently located on Central Campus near North Quadrangle, but will relocate to a new 163,000 square-foot facility in 2025. The new site, which is currently under construction, is adjacent to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science building.

In an interview with The Daily, Dan Atkins, professor emeritus of the Information School and EECS, as well as the former dean of Engineering and the founding dean of the Information School, said the new building will make it easier for students and faculty from the Information School and the EECS Department to collaborate with one another.

“My hope is that there will be synergy in the physical proximity of EECS and the Information School,” Atkins said. “Both, for example, have strength in (artificial intelligence) and data science that together can further increase U-M’s standing in this area. EECS has strength in robotics and UMSI has researchers studying robot-human interaction. The Information School has huge strength in computerhuman interaction and design of user interfaces.”

With a $145 million budget, this project began in spring 2022 and is expected to be completed in summer 2025.

2. Central Campus Recreation Building Last year, the University demolished the CCRB and set up the Temporary Palmer Recreation Field, an athletic complex under a giant tent in the middle of Palmer Field.

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University of Michigan’s Central Campus Recreational Building in the midst of construction Tuesday, September 12th hoping to be completed by 2025.

Plans for the new CCRB were initially approved in 2018, with an initial budget of $150 million.

After being postponed, and having a new budget of $165 million approved, construction began in December 2022 and the University expects the new CCRB will be completed in spring 2025. The building will occupy approximately 200,000 square feet and will feature an assortment of modern gymnasiums for recreational sports and exercise, a track, spaces for weight and cardiovascular training, group exercise rooms, pool spaces, climbing areas, squash and racquetball courts, locker rooms and administrative spaces.

Lillian Schneider, Build a Better Michigan president, told The Daily the new CCRB was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schneider said Build a Better Michigan helped decide what renovations and amenities the University chose to include in the new CCRB. “I feel like it probably was pushed back (because of COVID19),” Schneider said. “(The Board of Regents) approved it for 2020 and then (COVID-19) happened. And then by (the) time they got back into doing it again, or moving on to the

next steps, supplies and equipment started to cost more because of inflation. We had to go back to the Board of Regents and ask for more money, which they approved.”

3. College of Pharmacy Building Since last winter, the intersection of Glen Avenue and East Huron Street has been home to one of the largest construction sites on campus.

By fall 2025, the area will house the new College of Pharmacy building.

The original College of Pharmacy was constructed in 1960 on Church St., where it still stands today. A major addition was completed in 1992, however, because the space was still not large enough to meet the College of Pharmacy’s growing needs for teaching, research and office spaces, they have since been distributed throughout seven different campus buildings.

According to a University Record article, the new 142,000 squarefoot facility for the College of Pharmacy will house laboratories, administrative and faculty spaces and other student-focused areas.

4. The President’s house The oldest building on campus will soon be updated with a variety of accessibility and aesthetic upgrades.

Built in 1840, the President’s house

experienced four major renovations between 1864 and 1933 and is currently being renovated again.

According to a University Record article, accessibility upgrades to the ground floor include an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathroom and a reconstructed outdoor patio with wheelchair access. The house is also getting a new west entrance, new exterior doors and a renovated connection between the sunroom and the patio.

In the private residential area, University President Santa Ono will have access to a new open kitchen and dining space.

This project is budgeted at $15 million and is expected to be completed during the fall 2023 semester.

5. Edward and Rosalie Ginsberg Building The Edward and Rosalie Ginsberg Building, known as the Madelon Pound House, currently houses the Ginsberg Center, a community and civic engagement center. The site, which is located at 1024 Hill St., will be reconstructed by spring 2025 to allow the Center to expand their outreach and collaboration efforts.

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Michigan Republican met on Mackinac Island for annual leadership conference featuring national candidates Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference Friday evening. The conference was held at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and featured talks from various keynote speakers including Kristina Karamo, chair of Michigan’s Republican Party, U.S. Senate candidates Michael Hoover and J.D. Wilson, along with other party leaders in the state.

Currently, 12 Republicans have declared their candidacy for the 2024 presidential race.

Ramaswamy, who is nationally polling in third place behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, was the only candidate to attend the conference.

Trump is scheduled to make an appearance in Clinton Township next week, meaning that he will not be participating in the second Republican primary debate in Simi Valley, Calif.

Ramaswamy began his remarks by referencing current issues including affirmative action, climate change and immigration, which members of both major political parties have shared different opinions on over the past couple of years. A recent study done by the Pew Research

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Michigan Republicans gather for annual conference

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Center found that Democrats and Republicans in Congress are currently farther apart ideologically than any time in the past 50 years.

Ramaswamy said he believes political polarization is overexaggerated in the media and by other politicians, adding that all Americans should be able to agree on certain basic elements of policy regardless of party affiliation.

“You will be taught to believe that this is a 50-50 tug of war in this country, we’re on our way to a breaking point — that’s false,” Ramaswamy said. “I can tell you as somebody who has now been to a majority of states over the last couple of years and for this campaign, that division is artificial. It is made up. It is a projection designed to divide and conquer the people.”

Ramaswamy highlighted his commitment to reducing the federal workforce by 75% if elected, as first outlined in a policy speech Sept. 13. Ramaswamy’s proposed plan would eliminate more than 1.6 million federal jobs, according to the New York Times.

As part of his plan, Ramaswamy said he plans to completely dissolve certain federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Education.

“As your next U.S. president, if you all put me there, we will

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shut down the unconstitutional ‘fourth branch’ ,” Ramaswamy said. “We’re not just gonna get in there and tinker around the edges, put a good Michigander on there — Betsy DeVos or whoever else — and say, ‘Fix it.’ No, we are going to get in there and shut them down.”

Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy has portrayed himself as a younger version of Trump, supporting similar policies including reducing the federal workforce, ending military aid to Ukraine and restricting immigration. He has also centered his campaign around policies that would disenfranchise large groups of voters, including raising the voting age to 25 and requiring a civics test to vote.

Ramaswamy, who has previously said he believes

climate change is a hoax, reaffirmed at the event Friday that he feels policies to support renewable energy development are detrimental to the United States’ global economic position.

“We will drill, we will frack, we will burn coal, we will embrace nuclear (energy),” Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy praised Trump and his achievements as president, but said he believes he is better suited to advance conservative goals.

“I’m an America First conservative,” Ramaswamy said.

“But I am not just a Trump-first conservative. The America First agenda does not belong to one man, it does not belong to Donald Trump, it does not belong to me. It belongs to you, the people of this country.”

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2023 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 3

CAMPUS LIFE

New Japanese cartography exhibit opens in Clark Library Stephen S. Clark Library opened a new Japanese cartography exhibit featuring the illustrated “manga map”

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Daily Staff Reporter The Stephen S. Clark Library celebrated the opening of its new “Manga no Ryokou” exhibit, housed on the second f loor of the Hatcher Graduate Library, Thursday evening. The exhibit highlights Japanese art and storytelling through maps, and centers around the Manga ryoko Nihon zenzu, or “manga map,” a large travel map of Japan from 1934 with detailed illustrations of local folklore, cuisine, visitor attractions and poetry. The exhibit was curated by Joel Liesenberg, who is pursuing a dual master’s degree in Japanese studies and digital curation.

The manga map will also soon be released on the digital crowdsourcing platform Zooniverse, which will allow students to research, translate and transcribe each part of the map. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Liesenberg said

the exhibit grew from efforts to digitize the map and make it more accessible.

“We only had (the map) in a deteriorating kind of physical state, and there was no way for people to access it … nobody knew it was here,” Liesenberg said. “We wanted it to be a group collaborative community project.

So we digitized it first … (then) we realized we can make a whole exhibit out of this and show off the manga map to everybody.”

Caroline Kayko, map and geospatial librarian at the Clark Library, spoke with The Daily about the process of scanning and putting the map on Zooniverse.

Kayko said the process was very time-consuming due to the large scale of the map, as each piece of text and drawing needed to be sectioned into high-resolution images. However, Kayko said the library’s mission to make their collection widely accessible made the hard work worthwhile.

“We’re one of the largest map collections in the country,” Kayko

CALEB ROSENBLUM/Daily said. “You kind of just want to make stuff available and findable.

This is out of copyright, why shouldn’t it be online? Sure, we paid some thousands of dollars for it, but how else would anyone see it, right?”

Keiko Yokota-Carter, Japanese studies librarian at the Asia Library, told The Daily the pictorial quality of the map allowed her to recognize a drawing of an apple in Yoichi,

Japan, which she visited last April on a business trip.

“I went to a very small museum in Yoichi,” Yokota-Carter said. “It had a picture of the apple and I was reading and it says it’s from Michigan. So somebody brought Michigan apple seeds to Yoichi, introduced Michigan apples to Yoichi, and it became a big farm.”

Yokota-Carter, who first introduced Liesenberg to the manga map, said she appreciated

the collage of Japanese art that made up the map’s background.

“He worked very hard to prepare for this presentation,” Yokota-Carter said. “I’m very excited about his digitized project. Joel did a great job making a collage, using so many different types of paintings and drawings from many eras.”

The exhibit features maps across different time periods that use a variety of storytelling and art methods. Liesenberg said the intersection of art, folklore and cartography is important to him.

“I have a deep love of folklore,” Liesenberg said. “I love pictorial maps like this, that incorporate folklore into a more scientific field of cartography. I think that folklore not only connects to our past and connects to our traditions, but also can form how we view the world.”

LSA sophomore Isabel Mon, who visited the exhibit to review it for her museums studies course, told The Daily she likes going to smaller exhibits that might be

lesser-known on campus.

“I wanted to check out another exhibit that may not be as popular compared to the UMMA (or) the Natural History Museum,” Mon said. “Also, I’m taking an art history class right now and one of our recent subjects was about maps … I think people should go to more exhibits that aren’t just in museums, such as in the different department buildings and the libraries.”

Lisenberg said he hoped people would take advantage of resources so that they can be preserved, like what he hopes he has done with the manga map.

“I really want people to take advantage of the resources and talk to their librarians,” Liesenberg said. “Find these hidden gems that nobody knows about and really work on preserving and taking advantage of that, because I think a lot of these things get forgotten. I hope I’m giving the manga map a new life and I hope other things can have the same opportunity.”

UMich experts talk UAW strike, potential impact on Washtenaw County

University experts examine the United Auto Workers Union contract negotiations and strike impact REBECCA LEWIS & MADISON HAMMOND Daily Staff Reporters

The United Auto Workers Union went on strike Friday after they were unable to come to a contract agreement with the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. About 13,000 union members have been on strike since walking out of three plants — one at each company — Friday morning following the expiration of their previous contracts. The UAW is seeking a 36% pay increase over four years and improved benefits for its workers at all three companies, including shorter work weeks and the elimination of tiered pay.

Rather than striking against just one automaker, the UAW is using a form of protest called a “Stand Up Strike,” where members from various plants across multiple companies will be called to strike as needed. The union says it’s using this strategy to ensure that union leaders can increase their bargaining power as negotiations continue.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video message Tuesday morning that more plants will strike if no progress in contract negotiations is made by Friday.

Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the University of Michigan Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, told The Michigan Daily the Stand Up Strike gives the union and the

automakers more time to try and come to an agreement before the strike results in serious economic impacts.

“I think it’s going to take longer to see the impacts (on the economy) because it’s not a company-wide strike,” Ehrlich said. “It does give a little bit more runway to try to find agreement and make a deal before the strike begins ramping up … relative to if they had done a company-wide strike right out of the gate.”

Ehrlich predicted that at its current scope, the strike will have a similar impact as the 2019 General Motors strike, which lasted for 40 days. According to Ehrlich, the strike will likely be disruptive in the short-run, but will not have a huge long-term economic impact given that it does not last much longer than six weeks.

“It will be disruptive, but after the strike is over we should be able to get back on that pre-strike trend,” Ehrlich said. “It’s a temporary disruption, but if we have a bigger strike or a substantially longer strike, that’s where I started to get worried that it would have a larger impact on the future trajectory of the state economy even after the strike itself is over.”

Donald Grimes, Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics senior research specialist, told The Daily Washtenaw County at large — rather than just Ann Arbor — might feel a significant impact if more plants are called to strike.

“Outside of Ann Arbor, but in Washtenaw County, there’s still a very substantial motor vehicle manufacturing activity,” Grimes said. “ Over time, those plants that employ those people would probably need to lay people off so it depends (on) how long the strike lasts, and how widespread it is … We think it’ll probably take about eight weeks to get a full effect.”

As of January 2023, the University of Michigan employed 34,800 to 34,899 Washtenaw County residents in January 2023.

General Motors Proving Grounds employed 5,500 to 5,999 residents.

Michigan is home to 19% of all U.S. automotive production, with Detroit being considered the “automobile capital” of the world. The automotive industry accounts for approximately 20% of employment and contributes an annual $304 billion to the state economy.

In a statement released by the Detroit Regional Chamber, president and CEO Sandy K. Baruah said the strike will likely have a major impact on the state economy due to Michigan’s reliance on automotive jobs.

“The strike by the UAW not only impacts Michigan’s signature industry, it disproportionately impacts Michigan residents, especially those in the middle class,” Baruah said. “As Michigan has the highest concentration of auto-related jobs, our state will take the lion’s share of the negative

Design by Abby Schreck

economic impact.”

In response to a request for comment from The Daily about the strike’s impact on plants in Michigan, Stellantis said the strike will have “no impact.”

Though the strike is nationwide, Ehrlich said Michigan’s economy at large — not just the automotive sector — may be hit the hardest by the strike out of all impacted states.

“Some people already are losing their normal paychecks and are getting strike pay, but that doesn’t cover a typical paycheck,” Ehrlich said. “Some people in the automotive supply chain could end up being laid off … If the strike really goes on for a prolonged period of time, you can

also see economic spillovers in the sense that people who are on strike pay and aren’t getting their normal paychecks might be canceling dinners that they would normally go to (and) stop spending money in their local communities.”

One of the three striking plants is a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Mich., where 600 non-striking workers were laid off temporarily, as they were unable to complete work without the employees on strike.

According to Law professor Dana Thompson, restaurants, stores and other businesses near striking plants will likely experience negative impacts due to a decrease

in customers.

“When you’re thinking about businesses that are near the strike locations, if you have fewer people working and they’re making less money, then businesses in those areas are likely to not be patronized as much because of that,” Thompson said.

Rackham student Amir Fleischmann, former secretary of the U-M Graduate Employees’ Organization, told The Daily he feels inspired by the UAW strike, especially after participating in GEO’s strike for better pay and benefits.

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2023 WALLENBERG MEDAL & LECTURE

The Fight for Fair Food and the Future of Worker-driven Social Responsibility

Lucas Benitez TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2023 Co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

7:30PM • RACKHAM AUD. INFO: WALLENBERG.UMICH.EDU

Arts

4 — Wednesday, September 27, 2023

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

How to get out of a running slump: Get ready for the Ann Arbor Marathon with me AVA SEAMAN

Books Beat Editor

This fall, three relay teams of four Daily Arts staffers will train for and run the Probility Ann Arbor Marathon. But as writers, we can’t just run the race — we have to write about our past experiences with running, how we are preparing for the marathon, what we look forward to and what we are afraid of.

At the beginning of this summer, I got up at 6 a.m. to run before going to work. I did this for about a month, and then I stopped.

For the rest of the summer, I was in a running slump — disheartening, I know. When August arrived, I knew that I would have to run my segment of the marathon relay relatively soon, so I finally started to run again. But sometimes, the prospect of a long-distance race isn’t enough motivation to run. I’m by no means a professional runner, but here are a few steps I take to inspire myself to run as a college student preparing for the Probility Ann Arbor Marathon.

Plan some fun meals and snacks It’s important to properly fuel and replenish your body before and after any type of workout. Yes, you should be eating protein (in whatever form you choose) and carbs to make up for everything you burn while you run. For me, that means eating massive amounts of pasta and chicken.

Depending on the time of day, I usually eat a banana, apple slices with peanut butter or a granola bar before a run, and I love making smoothies with a variety of fruits and vegetables afterward. While those foods are great, there are other things you can eat and drink (that you actually enjoy) to ensure you have enough energy to run. Maybe you like sweets or pastries, or maybe you tend to

chug a half gallon of chocolate milk — whatever motivates you to run. The cross-country workouts I looked forward to the most in high school were 7-Eleven runs: We would run to 7-Eleven to get Slurpees on especially hot days.

It’s okay to treat yourself, in moderation, while you stay active.

Your body and mind will thank you later.

Gear up There’s nothing cute about running. When I run, I’m a sweaty mess, my hair falls out of my ponytail and I probably have a pained look on my face. But that doesn’t mean I can’t feel cute in my outfit. Being comfortable, however, should be your number one priority. Although I wear brightly colored sports bras and biker shorts when I’m at the gym, I’m most comfortable when I wear a ratty t-shirt or tank and a pair of Nike shorts — not the cutest, but I feel like I perform well in them. Buying athletic wear can get expensive, so it’s good to have a few staples that you look and feel good wearing.

If you’re going to invest in something, it should be a good, sturdy pair of shoes that can weather anything. If you’re more of a gym person, a pair of tennis shoes will suffice. For any longdistance, outdoor running, I recommend shoes with an outsole that has a good grip. Your running shoes don’t have to be cute (they usually aren’t); they just have to go the distance.

Entertain (or distract) yourself Running doesn’t have to be boring. Depending on what’s in your headphones, your run can be motivating and exciting. Your favorite pump-up music might distract you from the pain and the miles, or it might help you keep a good pace. You’re not limited to music, though — you can listen

Design by Emily Schwartz

to an audiobook, a podcast or a YouTube video. When I run on the treadmill, I listen to my “treadmill strut” playlist, which consists mostly of Lady Gaga and Nelly Furtado, or a funny TV show recap podcast episode like “Back to the Barre,” or I watch a sitcom on Netflix. Listening to pop anthems helps to increase my pace while watching something funny makes the running experience a little less miserable. When I run outside, I listen to a variety of music: pop, country or rock.

Nothing slow or sad, unless I want to run a 10-minute mile to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”

Be aware of your surroundings,

‘Bottoms’ comes out on top MINA TOBYA

Daily Arts Writer

This article includes brief mentions of stalking and sexual abuse.

The high school buddy comedy is an art thought to be lost to time.

Modern classics like “Booksmart” and “Superbad” may have set high standards for the genre, but “Bottoms” both pays homage to and supersedes these staples of satire.

The film can only be described as the gayest, raunchiest, most nonsensically brilliant high school comedy ever made. Its campy extravagance won many hearts within the first five minutes and should continue to do so for years to come. This infinitely rewatchable, star-studded feature beats “Superbad” to a bloody pulp in the fight for high-school satire supremacy — with an expert take on tried and true archetypes.

The film centers Josie (Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”) and PJ (Rachel Sennott, “Shiva Baby”), two self-proclaimed “loser lesbians” desperate to overcome their status as “gay, untalented and ugly” by losing their virginities to the hottest girls in school. After leaning into a false rumor that they spent the summer in juvie, they seize the opportunity and use their newfound street cred to start a fight club in order to get close to their crushes. Girls at their school are scared of increasing violence in town, so PJ spearheads the campaign to get the girls’ adrenaline flowing by teaching them to defend themselves and hoping they’ll be grateful enough to fall in love with herself and Josie. This illconceived plan only works thanks to the help of PJ and Josie’s marginally less-cool McLovin’coded friend Hazel (Ruby Cruz, “Willow”), who actually knows how to fight and genuinely cares about female solidarity.

On an ethical scale, PJ is chaotic evil, Hazel is lawful good and Josie is sprinting laps from one end to the other. This dynamic plays out on screen excellently, where PJ acts as the ring leader and Josie as the reluctant accomplice.

Watching the three girls

interact as best friends who are truly comfortable with one another is not only hilarious but heartwarming. Every line they speak to each other is both relatable and nonsensical.

Their tone is so campy that it leaps through the screen. In one scene, Edebiri improvises a long tangent about how her entire life is over and she might as well marry their gay male classmate and live a life of misery, all because she struck out with her crush, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu, “Mayday”). This brilliant catastrophizing feels ripped out of a weekly conversation I have with my friends. Seeing it on screen felt unbelievably validating.

These protagonists are not afraid to say what they’re thinking, even when they shouldn’t. PJ’s lack of selfawareness makes her blurt out anything that comes to her mind.

Upon seeing the lineup of girls at the first fight club meeting, she loudly announces that “these girls are ugly.” Her lack of a filter follows her throughout the film and makes for endless laughs as she says what should be quiet words out loud. Luckily, the club takes off, so PJ and Josie’s crushes, Isabel and Brittany (Kaia Gerber, “Babylon”) join and get closer to their admirers.

The film’s absurdity operates on a cellular level, acting as the foundation that brings it to life. It is ridiculous fun in every frame.

The most prominent example is the treatment of star quarterback (and Isabel’s toxic boyfriend) Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine, “Red, White & Royal Blue”). The entire school falls at his feet, including the eternally uniformed (and especially Jeff-obsessed) football team, to the point that murals of him as Adam in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” adorn the cafeteria. He’s basically the school’s Jesus, which the film leans into with a “Last Supper”esque lunch table arrangement where he is at the center.

The script barrels directly into crazes, satirizing high school social hierarchy with flamboyant grace. When the bell rings two minutes after all the students file in, PJ shouts, “That’s it? That’s class?” It’s such a simple joke, yet so elegant; the film never fails to stick the landing.

The movie’s extravagance doesn’t stop at the script. The costume design is impeccably accurate for many subcultures.

PJ’s oversized, striped sweaters and overalls fit the stereotypical Queer wardrobe.

The cheerleaders’ matching hyperfeminine pastel dresses poke fun at stereotypical depictions and the football team’s inability to take off their uniforms mocks their need to assert dominance.

The cinematography accentuates these personalities and tropes.

The camera’s slow-motion zooms on lovesick characters set the tone for a cinematic love story to come. The anxious, handheld shots in tense moments drive up the scenes’ drama.

The bubblegum pop soundtrack is the cherry on top, maintaining an overall tone of unapologetic amusement. It works especially well in fight montages, contrasting angry violence with lighthearted sounds.

While most of the runtime is spent cracking clever jokes, the film’s core is the solidarity that the fight club girls find in one another. In one scene, the girls share their personal experiences with assault and every single girl has a violation to share, from stalking to sexual abuse.

This is the real reason most of them wanted to learn to fight.

Despite PJ and Josie’s selfish intentions, their club became a place for young women to come together and support each other.

The tenderness of this moment, however, quickly falls as Josie tells a traumatic, made-up story about the “Hunger Games”-style fights she definitely had in juvie.

Somehow, the shift is executed naturally and moves Josie and Isabel’s relationship forward when Isabel believes her stories of valor. Though this easily could have given the audience tonal whiplash, it manages to be heartwarming.

Josie and Isabel’s relationship evolves as they fight together, vandalize Jeff’s house together and even begin to hang out one-on-one. Isabel’s genuine admiration for Josie’s fake heroism is endearing, especially because Josie admires Isabel for just existing.

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but allow yourself to enjoy a run with a little entertainment.

Get a running buddy Running by yourself can be therapeutic, but there’s nothing like sharing in the misery with another person. Running can be individualistic as well as a shared experience — hence the concept of the marathon. I’m convinced that’s why I suffered through years of high school cross country and track and field: I loved running with my friends. If you’re not much of a talker, you can pop your headphones in. If you are, you can rant about the weather and the terrain. Regardless, there’s a comfort in knowing that someone is running beside you and rooting

for you while you root for them.

My best friend from home is usually my go-to running buddy, but since the Arts section has been training for the marathon, our weekly group runs keep me on track.

Find new routes If you’re tired of (literally) running into people from class, pick a new route! There are so many different places in Ann Arbor besides the streets that are accessible to student runners.

If you’re in need of a change of scenery, Nichols Arboretum is every nature freak’s fantasy.

The Arb provides enough trails (some with an incline) and has its fair share of woodland creatures

and greenery to make you feel transported to another realm as you run. Want to run along the Huron River? Gallup Park is a short distance from campus and a peaceful getaway. Or, if you just want to increase your pace and mileage, there’s an outdoor track behind the Intramural Sports Building. Once I realized I wasn’t limited to running around the block, my running experiences got much better.

Just run Your legs might be sore the next day, but otherwise, you probably won’t regret going on that run.

Running improves your health and your mood — what more could you ask for?

The worst books we had to read for school THE MICHIGAN DAILY BOOK REVIEW To all of our former English teachers, Maybe you adhered to a curriculum that had been set by the school district or the government, or maybe you chose books you thought we would enjoy. Regardless, we were disappointed in your choices.

There are books written in the 21st century that you could have taught us — more diverse books.

Yet, year after year, students like us suffered through the same stuffy, boring and outdated books for the sake of a letter grade.

The books we read for school, for better or for worse, shape us.

We know there may be merit to reading the books you assigned to us, but we’re not aiming for retrospection or understanding.

Here are four books that we hated reading throughout our academic careers.

— Books Beat Editor Ava Seaman “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra This may sound nerdy, but I genuinely enjoyed most, if not all, of the books I was assigned to read in my high school English classes. I unfortunately cannot say the same for those that I was assigned to read in my Spanish classes. While I did like a few of the assigned Spanish novels, most of them were extremely boring to read and the experience was not made any easier by the antiquated language the novels’ authors employed. And even if hating the assigned readings in my Spanish classes was second nature to me, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s “Don Quixote” stands out as the worst and (personally) most hated of them all.

“Don Quixote” follows the story of a man named Don Quixote and his self-imposed journey of becoming a knighterrant as a result of reading chivalric romance novel after chivalric romance novel. With the help of Sancho Panza, his trusty sidekick, Don Quixote

roams the world as he attempts to accomplish what he believes is his life’s destiny. His story has consumed the minds of readers and high school Spanish teachers for over four hundred years, and it’s considered by many to be the first modern novel.

I am not here to deny “Don Quixote”’s iconic status. I firmly believe that Cervantes was a genius of a writer and storyteller, but I do think that the story he crafted, and his writing for that matter, is severely outdated. I perfectly remember picking up my copy of “Don Quixote” during my sophomore year of high school, only to put it down five minutes later, not having understood nor retained any of the words on the single page I was able to get through. Spanish teachers nowadays merely assign a select number of chapters from “Don Quixote”’s two volumes, so I think it’s safe to say they should just stop assigning the novel altogether.

“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller One thing that consistently amazes me about old books is their unmatched ability to take a suspenseful, riveting historical context and suck the life out of it until the concept lies dead on the ground, still and lifeless. The Salem witch trials are undoubtedly among the most bizarre, horrific events to happen in human history.

Imagine getting publicly executed by your community for … doing what, exactly? Existing?

I can’t tell you how glad I am to not live in Salem in 1692.

Despite this terrifying, captivating source material, Miller overcame the odds by aggressively stomping on every flickering spark of life within this tragic tale, and convinced my 15-year-old self (with the help of Shakespeare, of course) that every stage play is a deeply strategic tool, meticulously crafted by anti-education gods to ensure that students never again pick up a book for the rest of their lives. That, or these playwrights really were writing

for the stage — in which case, I’m an enthusiastic advocate for English teachers acting it out for us, or else not assigning them at all.

“Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift During my senior year of high school, I took an amazing class that covered Western Humanities from ancient Mesopotamia to the post-World War I United States. We read dozens of books and I honestly loved most of them; but, hidden in our exciting explorations of Plato, Shakespeare, Voltaire and Thoreau was Jonathan Swift and his wretched “Gulliver’s Travels.” This 18th-century satire is one of the most painful and generally worst books I have ever had to read in or outside of a class.

“Gulliver’s Travels” is often hailed as a classic and one of the most influential books of all time, claimed to be a “satirical masterpiece” and prolific work of English literature. It follows the bumbling Lemuel Gulliver on his never-ending misadventures through hellish fantasy lands. The buffoonish Gulliver manages to offend every group he encounters and narrowly escapes death time and time again as the reader increasingly starts to hold a secret hope that maybe his next mishap will lead to a painfully deserved death — putting both Gulliver and reader out of their shared misery.

I am sure that at its time of publication, the crude humor and cartoonish characters of “Gulliver’s Travels” were biting caricatures and satires.

However, reading it almost 200 years later, most of its political and social commentary is lost on the reader. Discussions of bygone British political parties and Anglo-Irish conflicts are irrelevant to the average American high schooler.

Combined with the antiquated language and outdated cultural attitudes, “Gulliver’s Travels” makes for an unengaging and unrewarding required read.

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Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 5

New York Fashion Week: The best of Spring/Summer ’24 CECILIA DORE Daily Arts Writer

Another New York Fashion Week has come and gone, leaving us with striking Spring/Summer collections and celebrity styles saturating social media.

While much of my attention fell on Ice Spice’s performance for Marc Jacobs at Dover Street Market and Central Cee and Doja Cat’s meetup, the runway collections full of stunning pieces for 2024 also caught my eye this NYFW. Ralph Lauren’s comeback to NYFW, Sandy Liang’s show and Grace Ling’s NYFW debut showcased innovative collections that signaled what trends to expect for next spring and summer.

Ralph Lauren showcased his Spring/Summer 2024 collection last week, the first time he has appeared at NYFW since 2019.

The show presented models in a variety of eclectic, bold outfits that retained the sophisticated air that Lauren has evoked since its beginnings when it drew inspiration from British aristocracy. Cool, dark florals enriched several of the pieces, including a blazer and a strapless midi dress.

Though I usually dislike floral designs — their colorfulness and intricacy leave little room for accessories and other details — Lauren incorporated them in an undeniably elegant way, perfectly intertwined with textured fabrics and tailored silhouettes.

Designers beautifully incorporated lustrous gold tones through the collection.

The draped gold gowns and subtle gold accessories

were reminiscent of another iridescent color trending in fashion: chrome. The color has been recently seen in nails, makeup and jewelry. Lauren’s use of gold predicts that these shiny warm tones will trend next, naturally progressing from the recent spike of silver.

Sandy Liang brought yet another gorgeous collection to NYFW, leaning further into inspirations of girlhood and nostalgia with oversized rosettes and bows featured in many looks.

Liang perfectly executed soft, simple designs with unique features such as fold-over waistbands and asymmetrical sleeves. The pastel pinks, yellows and blues brought a warm, youthful feel to the collection while still feeling classic and refined. Liang also used sheer fabrics which have been popular this year, manipulating them in new, refreshing ways. Bows and straps with the appearance of braided hair introduced an unusual and fun twist to one of Liang’s sheer dresses. Sheer makeup enhanced the models’ looks as well; they appeared nearly barefaced with the exception of tiny rhinestones which embellished their faces and nails, adding to the show’s understated elegance.

Grace Ling held her debut runway show at NYFW last week, starring her surreal and sleek “NEVERLAND” collection. Ling, who previously worked for other designers such as Thom Browne, opened her own label in 2020, where she designs pieces using 3D printing and CGI technology.

Chrome pieces, like her Glitched Corset, maintained

Design by Haylee Bohm

structure through metal material while appearing sheer through delicate design, and were reminiscent of Mugler’s retro-futurism-inspired pieces.

The collection was grounded in geometric and structured leather blazers and bags. Still, holding true to the futuristic feel, chrome details and sheer

fabrics in other looks made the collection otherworldly, especially with the models’ minimalistic no-eyebrow makeup.

This fall’s NYFW brought a variety of stunning collections from both veterans and newcomers. The featured pieces suggest that sheer clothes and

chrome will continue to trend into next spring and summer, with gold and asymmetrical designs following suit. Plain makeup with lightened eyebrows and little use of jewelry will remain popular as well, continuing trends of simplicity that have been prevalent in the past year.

This transition away from maximalist styles does not signal a transition from character and artful experimentation. The cutting-edge design methods, unconventional materials and silhouettes from these designers demonstrate that the minimalistic styles of tomorrow don’t have to be lackluster.

‘Only Murders in the Building’ season three is a step down

SUDOKU

JENNA JAEHNIG Daily Arts Writer

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

WHISPER WHISPER “Remember...”

“kites fly highest against the wind.”

The promise of Selena Gomez was enough to convince me to watch “Only Murders in the Building” upon its release.

Season one was an absolute hit, season two wasn’t as good and, unfortunately, season three has continued that downward trajectory.

One key reason why “Only Murders in the Building” worked so well originally was the chemistry and dynamics between the main three characters: Oliver Putnam (Martin Short, “SNL”), a struggling theater director with boundless youthful energy; Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin, “The Pink Panther”), an endearingly awkward and loving semi-retired actor and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez, “Wizards of Waverly Place”), a cool, mysterious, introverted young artist.

In season one, the three become unlikely friends due to a shared passion for truecrime podcasts. A murder in their apartment building, the Arconia, serves as the catalyst for the podcast they start together, which shares its name with the show’s title, “Only Murders in the Building.”

The age gap between the three main characters and their stark personality differences create a unique bond. Their dynamic is reminiscent of one of those random table groups you were assigned to in high school that worked well together even though none of you had ever or would ever cross paths outside the classroom. Something about how their seemingly clashing personalities balance each other out — instead of causing mass implosion — is comforting to watch, and the unlikeliness of the bond makes it all the more powerful.

These characters embody the idea that we can form connections with anyone, even those whom we could not be further apart from on paper. This character

dynamic is rarely depicted at all, let alone well, on screen.

It is also where season three falls short. Instead of building the relationship between Oliver, Charles and Mabel, seasons two and three focus on introducing new big-name stars and highlighting their characters, detracting from what holds the show together in the first place.

Season two introduced Amy Schumer (“Trainwreck”), Cara Delevingne (“Paper Towns”) and Tina Fey (“Mean Girls”), and, while they are talented actors, their characters’ were so temporary that it felt like a waste of time to build their relationships with the core three. Season three leans even more heavily on star power by introducing Meryl Streep (“Mamma Mia”) and Paul Rudd (“Clueless”). Rudd’s character is an arrogant, famous actor and the subject of the main three’s murder investigation this season, while Streep plays one of the prime suspects, a desperate actor still holding out hope to make it big. While, obviously, the constraints of the show’s plot require a murder victim and a major suspect, it seems as though showrunners were compelled to dive deep into these new characters, likely due to the big names playing them, which took away essential time from the continued development of the bond between Oliver, Charles and Mabel.

Because season three is so devoted to these new, temporary characters, viewers lack the fun moments spent recording podcasts, the sibling-like bickering and the emotionallycharged bonding that were the highlights of previous seasons.

Recurring side characters that viewers had come to love were seen less and less, depriving them of the extended warm, cozy, dysfunctional family that they wanted to see. The lack of teamwork and good oldfashioned mystery-solving this season marks a serious step down from the show’s past seasons.

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STATEMENT

6 — Wednesday, September 27, 2023

michigandaily.com — The Michigan Daily

Navigating a world of black and white: On the experiences of neurodiverse students JOSHUA NICHOLSON Statement Contributor

Everyday, when I wake up, I unconsciously prepare myself for a day of award-winning acting.

Though I’m not an actor, I partake in the art with deft calculation at every turn of my daily routine.

First, I eat my breakfast alone and anonymously, comfortably filling my time with Vertex, my favorite New York Times game. After I finish my eggs, my sole respite from the day’s socializing, I make my way to my class. In the lecture hall, I keep my head down and dutifully take notes while ignoring the chatter of students a few seats away from me. The professor goes on about … I don’t know; two students in front of me start a conversation over the homework, and I’ve lost what she said, the noise of the students fighting with the professor for limited sensory input. The professor’s mouth moves — I know what words are being formed, but I’m hearing too much at once.

After a day of classes, I retreat to my dorm. Before escaping to my single room (a much-welcome change from freshman year), I make my way to the dining hall for dinner. Other students tell me that East Quad is one of the best dining halls on campus, but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. I’m hoping to eat a good dinner after a breakfast of flavorless eggs and a lunch of something equally forgettable. I grab food from one station, then another plate from the next. I ask for double of a different bowl and grab some dessert. After only a few minutes, I sit down with a cup of grape juice and a verifiable feast

in front of me. I take a bite from the chicken; it’s dry and flavorless.

The pink center tells me eating it is probably not worth the trouble.

I move to the next dish, a bowl of rice and stir-fry, which leaves me with only the peculiar taste of something feeling off. I abandon that too and move to my last hope, a dining hall cheeseburger. I can feel my emotions rising, a cocktail of anger, disappointment, anxiety and discomfort. My breakfast was fine. My lunch failed me. Twothirds of my dinner has failed me.

I take a bite of the cheeseburger: flavorless. With only a bite taken from each piece of food on each plate, I throw everything away and leave the dining hall. I can’t speak. I can’t interact with anyone right now. I avoid the eye contact of a friend in the hallway. In my room, I lay silently on my bed in subdued anger.

When I try to describe my autism, officially diagnosed as Asperger’s Syndrome, I’m met with genuine, but at times invalidating, questions. I describe my intense sense of introversion only to be told I’m just an introvert. Why pathologize not preferring intense social interactions? A neurotypical person doesn’t become unable to function in social environments where they feel uncomfortable.

Other times, I’ll try to explain my experience by describing how I need to plan and organize my week, such as planning to have a specific milkshake while watching one specific movie, only to be met with the comment, “Everyone does that.” A neurotypical person doesn’t find themselves unable to deviate even slightly from the daily plan they organized. I’ve told a friend, with whom I share my closest bond at the University

Design by Abby Schreck

of Michigan, that I can’t handle eating dining hall food because of the lack of control and sensory problems. She responded that she feels the same. Despite having witnessed a meltdown over dining hall food which devolved into an hours-long spiral, she still can’t understand what I feel. I tell her I cannot have anyone in the kitchen when I’m cooking my own food, stemming from needing control over my environment. Still, she can’t relate so the conversation ends, not with a breakthrough, but with a wider chasm between our two modes of thinking.

On one hand, a neurotypical way of thinking can accept nuance or

change and understands the subtle tone-indicators of someone’s voice or body language. When someone tells a joke, or when something comes up to necessitate changing plans, my friends will catch on and make the necessary adjustments.

A neurodiverse way of thinking lacks nuance. It accepts a joke as it is, views choices as a 50/50 split between something good and something bad and ignores those near-hidden changes to someone’s tone. This way of thinking, thinking in black and white, is how I see the world, and the sheer difference in this perception of the day-to-day from that of others often hinders me from accurately

sharing my experience with them.

I don’t claim to, or try to, speak for all autistic people.

There are millions of us, and each of our experiences lie on a diverse spectrum. While I can occasionally get along fine with sensory overload, others find auditory and visual stimulation to be their biggest battle. While I find myself severely struggling in many social situations, other people with autism are proud extroverts.

The issue most autistic students face when interacting with the world usually stems from a neurotypical society’s ignorance about autism itself. According to the Center for Disease Control,

“Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention.” Even within this definition, I find inaccuracies.

For one, the classification as a “developmental disability” tends to paint autistic individuals as children and toddlers, not fully developed and independent adults.

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Why we need to stop praising ‘girl dads’ (but, hush, I love mine) MARY-KATE MAHANEY Statement Columnist

It’s January of 2020 and, in typical Saturday-morning fashion, I am lying on the living room couch next to my father.

He’s peering over my shoulder as I hop from social media app to social media app. We giggle along to funny videos and debrief the political ones. It’s a tradition so old that we’ve been doing it since the days of Vine. Our morning is complemented by two toasted bagels that my father picked up for us before I even woke up. While aimlessly scrolling, I stumble upon videos of Kobe Bryant talking

about how he is proud to be a “girl dad.” I make eye contact with my dad and smile. The words “girl dad” rang true for me when I first heard them, as my dad is about as enthusiastic a father as one could be. He was the only father in a room full of moms at PTA meetings, he always made time on weekends for late-night pillow fort construction followed by a 10th viewing of “High School Musical” and there was never a practice, rehearsal, game or performance he did not eagerly attend.

However, over time, as the term “girl dad” slowly crept into society’s everyday vocabulary, I grew weary of trend. Fathers everywhere began anointing

themselves a “girl dad,” whether that be through social media posts, T-shirts or other paraphernalia.

I tried to piece together the logic behind the movement, but I kept becoming frustrated: Not every dad can be a girl dad! I questioned what all these men were doing to earn and keep such a title. Do they actively support feminist causes in order to foster a better world for their daughters? Or do they just own a pink t-shirt and know how to sculpt their daughter’s hair into a basic ponytail? Most popular social media posts under “#GirlDad” would, unfortunately, suggest the latter. A trending TikTok post under the “girl dad” hashtag with 20.6 million

Design by Abby Schreck

views displays a father giving his daughter flowers for Valentine’s Day. Another video, also of a father giving his daughter flowers and a kiss, is filled with hundreds of comments like “I am sobbing,” or “this literally made my day.” I am astonished by how these minimal acts receive such major applause.

I am not heartless, of course — these videos are cute! But these men are receiving “girl dad” praise from millions, yet we have no clue if they actually show up for their daughters aside from flowers on a random holiday. Furthermore, even if they were huge feminists doing the work to pioneer a more equitable society — dare I ask — is that praiseworthy? Shouldn’t that be the bare minimum?

Praising fathers for the bare minimum is not just a phenomenon contained to “girl dads”; it is a plague that infiltrates nearly every household as it quietly nourishes the patriarchy. A mother can spend all day caring for a baby without a word of admiration from others, yet when a father changes a single diaper, he is met with acclaim. In an article on SheKnows, writer and author Rachel Garlinghouse shared her experiences with the societal habit, detailing how people would give her husband verbal accolades for his “sacrifice” of getting up and feeding their children at night. Garlinghouse responded, “Why wouldn’t he get up and feed them when they are hungry? Isn’t feeding your children a basic responsibility?”

The casual imbalance of parental expectations is something every person has witnessed or lived. Whether that be through exclusively moms chaperoning a class trip (and being shocked when a father does), the lovesick reactions a man gets when simply holding a baby or when a highly sought-after male celebrity spends time with their kids garnering a glorifying headline like “Devoted dad David Beckham takes daughter Harper for sunny stroll in London.”

Let me be clear though, I am not entertaining a frivolous feminist rant that aims to belittle men.

The discussion at hand goes way beyond my annoyance at the “girl dad” trend. Our collective desire to award fathers translates into a critical economic issue. The way we view fathers alters people’s livelihoods: Julie Kmec, professor of sociology at Washington State University, leads research that empirically explores the concept of our society’s “fatherhood bonus,” a phenomenon in which men become more valuable employees and receive promotions when they become fathers. Conversely, but unsurprisingly, women suffer from the “motherhood penalty” and are either devalued or fired once they become a mom. Women are subject to punishment despite their exhibition of the same “prowork behaviors” as fathers and non-parents in the workforce.

Despite the fact that many women’s job activity levels remain the same when a child enters their lives, the expectation that women will focus more on parenting causes companies to no longer view new mothers as ideal workers. Kmec explains how men are oppositely rewarded for fatherhood because the same companies subscribe to the traditional idea of a father: someone who dedicates long hours to their job and does not waver in their work output due to responsibilities in their personal life. Our capitalist society thereby jumps for joy when ideas like “girl dad” come along. The trend praises men just enough to distract people from the fact that men are, oftentimes, not showing up for their children in the ways that truly matter. Viral internet celebrations then enable fathers’ lackadaisical behavior as society normalizes the act of getting a bouquet of flowers for your daughter as peak-father behavior.

And yet, despite all of this, I must admit that I still itch to label my dad a “girl dad.” I’m eager to celebrate him and how he raised me. I love how he can recall, in detail, the first time I heard a One Direction song, and I adore how, despite working all day, he was always free to drive my friends home after we hung out (a two-

hour endeavor that wove through every NYC borough). Additionally, I love that my dad is a “girl dad” who did not pigeonhole me into gender stereotypes. I was free to like whatever I enjoyed. In my childhood, that meant musicals.

Then, in an unexpected turn of events during early adulthood, it meant football. No matter if it was watching MTV’s recording of “Legally Blonde: The Musical” or the last New England Patriots game of an unsuccessful season, it is my dad’s consistent care and presence that I cherish beyond anything else.

Others have asked me how my father’s presence in my life has shaped me. Most ask with an emphasis on the fact that a man raised a daughter. It must have made me different, right?

Nope.

I credit this to the fact that my father didn’t alter his behavior to compensate for our gender differences. He operated with the mindset that I was a human (albeit a little smaller than him) with emotions, and he was a human with emotions too. That’s all we needed to connect and understand one another.

The idea of “girl dad” rejects my father’s ethos and forces us to comply with the gender binary.

The term “girl dad” is detrimental to women, as the popular images, videos and actions associated with the term define what girls — and only girls — are supposed to do. In the first video that comes up under the search “girl dad” on TikTok, a father sits with his daughter in the bathtub as they both wear face masks, play with dolls and sing along to “Frozen.” The presumed charm of this video rests in the fact that the father is cheekily dipping his toes into perceived feminine activities. If he is to be praised, it should be for the time he is taking to bond with his child and experience the things she likes, regardless of whether they are deemed masculine or feminine and regardless of the child’s gender itself.

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STATEMENT

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 7

To pee or not to pee: My quest for the best bathroom on campus

Jeremy Weine/DAILY

LIAM RAPPLEYE

Statement Correspondent I am currently writing to you from a toilet, while I stare at a framed image of an 18th-century gilded bronze clock. It features Cupid holding a sacrificial dove to a burning fire while a priestess’s arm stretches out above. It is an artistic rendition of the altar of Venus — opulent, rich and aristocratic. The frame is lit with fluorescent lights, and it hangs on a sterile, white-tiled wall.

The only problem here — if you’ll forgive me — is that it smells like poop in this room.

I am in the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s second-floor bathroom, one of my favorite bathrooms on campus, which apparently is a popular bathroom. While I’ve been in here, two people have tried to open the door. (I’m sorry, I’m leaving.)

It is a crude, but universal, truth that we all have to poop and pee. Below this truth lies a funny sentiment — yes, “haha pee pee poo poo” — but few things in this world are as concrete as bodily waste. And while bodily functions may be predictable, the places and circumstances in which we perform those functions are often less reliable.

Currently, it’s my fourth week as a student at the University of Michigan. I’ve found it to be a pleasant change of pace from my previous institution, Albion College. The people have been welcoming, the food and coffee are good and the campus is pretty — that’s just about all I can ask for. However, there has been one glaring, uncomfortable void in my Michigan experience: a nice, special bathroom.

Bathrooms are an inherently intimate space for inherently intimate behavior. Stall doors see people in their most vulnerable positions, and I’m not just talking about nakedness. Need a reprieve?

A deep breath? A moment to

cry? Want to learn more about 18th-century French clock fixtures? The public bathroom, ironically, is your space for those private moments.

At Albion, a school that is more than 20 times smaller than the University, my designated favorite bathroom was tucked away in the corner of the fourth floor of a random building. Nobody was ever there. It was my own satellite office of solitude, and as silly as it sounds, it was a really important place to me. That bathroom saw me pace nervously before tough exams and rest my head in my palms during late nights of news production.

Since I arrived at the University, I’ve been without that important place. So, I set myself the task of seeing as many bathrooms as possible in a search to find my favorite public bathroom on campus. In the last four weeks, I have used a wide variety of bathrooms, and I’ve visited even more for the purpose of this article. I wandered around campus, often getting lost. I pulled on all the doors I could find, taking notes along the way.

Some bathrooms are very obviously the same as they were in the ’70s, with monochromatic tile patterns and ugly lighting.

Others, like the brand new bathroom on the third floor of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, are pristine — noticeably shiny and clean. But I am not necessarily wooed by this. I don’t need a hypermodern bathroom with fluorescent lighting and chrome fixtures that look like the Krusty Krab from the future.

I think the older bathrooms have more character, and as long as they are private, well-lit, clean and reasonably close to campus, I will be partial to them.

For the sake of this piece, I visited more than 75 bathrooms, which is far from exhaustive.

It’s important to note that I primarily used the men’s room and occasionally used a genderinclusive restroom. I evaluated them based on my cis-gendered,

able-bodied identity. A critical gaze from those who identify differently is also necessary for exhaustively ranking the public bathrooms here. Do what you will with my perspective — I’ve seen a lot, but I haven’t seen it all.

The Worst Mason Hall bathrooms violate just about every bathroom standard I have. They stink.

They’re too busy. They are ugly, blue, fecal-scented labyrinths.

If you must use the bathroom in Mason Hall, avoid the third floor. Please. The stall doors on the third floor are so low that when I stand up, my entire head and chest rise above them. From the outside, anyone taller than 5 1/2 feet tall can easily look in and sneak a peek at me on the toilet.

There are holes in the wall’s tile that are stuffed with chewing gum (which, frankly, is a little endearing — it’s just so college — but it’s objectively gross), and the paper towel dispensers are awkwardly placed and difficult to use.

Worse than Mason, however, would be the Hatcher Graduate Library. There are eight floors and a basement, with restrooms on every floor. Here are the notes I took regarding the bathroom in Hatcher’s basement: Stinky.

The first floor: Stinky. Cramped. Toilet bowl stained.

The second?

Stinky. Cramped. Toilet bowl also stained.

The third?

Stinky. Cramped. Toilet bowl also stained.

I stopped taking notes after the third floor, as the bathrooms were identical. They’re dank, poorly lit, tightly-quartered and almost every single toilet sports a brown stain at the bottom of the bowl. I think — rather, hope — that these stains are simply there because the toilets are old and not for reasons related to pooping. But who’s to say?

Before my quest, I was told that

Lorch Hall’s first floor features an uninviting bathroom, and that tip was confirmed when I visited. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find it very pleasant to sweat while using the bathroom.

Lorch’s bathroom was so fiercely hot that if I had stuck around, I would have begun perspiring through my shirt.

Thankfully, I will likely be able to avoid Lorch Hall for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I have found the Modern Languages Building bathrooms to be absolutely unavoidable. The problem with the MLB’s dingy little bathrooms is that they are right outside massive lecture halls and auditoriums. If you are in the MLB at an inopportune time, you will be waiting in line breathing urine-scented air, praying that people get a move on.

My other qualm with the MLB is that they only offer two urinals in the men’s room, which is a clear violation of the unwritten urinal laws. These urinal laws state that if you need to use a urinal, opt for one that is far from the other user. With two urinals, it is mathematically impossible to even attempt to adhere to the unwritten rules, and if you find yourself in the bathroom following the dismissal of a 250-student lecture room, good luck.

The politics of the urinals are finicky, and if there is one bathroom that navigates urinal law perfectly, it would be, of course, the Law Library. With Brutalist flair, the Law Library basement men’s room offers a seemingly endless amount of options for private pottying. The urinals are contained by concrete dividers. They are as aesthetically pleasing as they are practical.

The stalls are many and private.

It is not the best, but it earns two thumbs up.

The Best One of the most important factors for me, while deciding which bathrooms to laud publicly, was natural lighting. I’m a sucker

for opaque windows and sunlight in the bathroom. I would argue that pooping in natural light is better for the soul. It stands to reason that such natural processes — pooping, peeing, crying, writing — should be lit naturally. Plus, as is true with many things in life: If something makes me feel better, what good is science anyway?

West Hall bathrooms certainly make me feel better. They put on a masterclass of natural lighting in just about every public bathroom they provide. Each floor has a men’s and women’s room, as well as a private, gender-inclusive space, and I found almost every bathroom I visited to be tidy and well-lit, thanks to the generous windows guiding in sunlight.

Many of the bathrooms feature a soft, pink tile job that contributes to a vintage motif, while others take on a more modern approach, providing something for all different types of bathroomgoers.

Another pro of West Hall is that it is relatively low in traffic, which is important for establishing a personal, sacred place for bowel movements. West Hall is simple.

Spectacular, but still not the best.

It offers an abundance of private options without too many frills.

To me, there is a spectrum to bathroom quality, and if West Hall resides on the understated side of the spectrum, then Rackham Hall’s first-floor bathrooms chart on the opposite end of bathroom extremes.

Like Cupid holding a dove to flame, Rackham bathrooms are massive, grandiose offerings to the bathroom Gods. In materials alone, these bathrooms are probably worth my tuition. They are spacious, framed in marble and creatively lit. The aesthetic of the entire building makes me feel like I’m not quite supposed to be there, but I am reminded that these are public bathrooms, and I will treat them as such.

The main floor bathrooms have lobbies of their own, and they provide more than enough

amenities necessary for a productive bathroom visit. Not only can you have a moment of ritzy privacy, but you can then go to the bathroom lobby and use a landline telephone! I couldn’t believe it. There was a phone in the bathroom!

I was so excited about this feature that I tried to use the phone to call my mother. The call didn’t go through because the phone was restricted from making calls outside of the University, but I didn’t really care. It was then — leaning against the wall in a luxurious bathroom lobby waiting for my mom to pick up the phone — that I realized this bathroom was special. As a novelty bathroom, I love Rackham, but it is a little too gaudy to be my everyday happy place.

Rest assured, though, I eventually found my perfect bathroom. It lies behind an unmarked door, in an out-of-theway hall. I found it by pure chance while looking for a different restroom. I saw a curious-looking door and just walked in. Fate, if you will.

I was immediately struck by everything I could have asked for.

The air is as fresh as bathroom air can get. It’s secluded. Safe. There’s a plant, for God’s sake, and it is lit by the loving light of the sun.

I stood there for a moment to take it all in. Immediately, I knew I had found my place. I shut the door and had a seat (there’s a chair in there, too!) having a mindful moment of reprieve. I was certain that I had laid my last brick — I had finally set the foundation for my career here at the University. I left that bathroom a little lighter, and I didn’t even use it. And you know what? I’m not going to tell you where my bathroom is.

I am not the ultimate bathroom authority, and this is not the definitive guide to where you should go pee. My new bathroom is my own place of solitude — my space for my fleeting moments of vulnerability and deep breaths. I encourage you to have a big meal and go find yours.

MiC

8 — Wednesday, September 27, 2023

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A fragile fortress

Nazim Ali/DAILY

NAZIM ALI

MiC Columnist

Dear God, My parents tell me that you are always near, always listening. So please hear me out. “Why didn’t you make me white?”

They whisper fables of your glory and miracles at bedtime.

So please perform another one.

“Please make me more likable.”

I would repeat this prayer night after night in my pubescent years. After the failed first hundred nights, I went to Google — “What are the best duas to guarantee that God hears you?

Are certain prayer times better than others?”

I made adjustments to my prayers, yet nothing had changed.

Something was innately wrong with me, something that made me unlikable.

Growing up, I tried my hardest to fit in. I convinced myself that I had to be involved in everything,

in hopes of boosting my chances of making friends; and, in fact, I did. But despite my efforts, there was always a level of alienation. I was invited to the study hangouts but never to the parties, sat next to on the bus, but never saved a spot at lunch. I was liked, but I was no one’s close friend. It’s humiliating to pretend like you belong when every sign points to the opposite. No matter how hard I tried to fit into the white American culture — even saving up to buy popular clothes right as the trends had died out — there was something I wore day in and day out that could never be returned no matter how hard I tried. A thin fabric that separated me from everyone else, a cloth that made me hate myself.

After a year of being ghosted

by God, I figured he was busy replying to more important people, so I decided to take some action of my own. I knew I couldn’t perform miracles but I thought I could alter my skin.

As a Muslim, the shower was a

place of purification; I thought maybe I could use it to purify myself of this plague. I’d add extra soap to my elbows and neck, the parts of my body that seemed to accept no light, and scrub them incessantly until they brightened. Some nights, those spots seemed to glow — not because I had removed the dark brown from my skin but rather from the burning scarlet rashes I had produced in the process.

I’d like to say that over the years, I matured and learned to love my outer shell. I’d like to say I faced the raging bull of insecurities like a matador who didn’t hide behind his cape. The truth is that I ran. I dashed to the one place I thought would be impenetrable: a castle filled with loved ones who looked like me.

Even if I wasn’t accepted by the outside world, I thought I would always have my family. Instead, I soon realized my safe place was more harmful than the dangers I was running from.

As much as I’ve been showered

in affection, there have always been hints that family members wished I looked different. As I matured into high school, I took more notice of the quiet comments that aunties made.

“His skin looks burnt,” they said. “It’ll be hard for the boy to get married like that.”

Their whispers invaded my inner thoughts and eroded the remaining pillars of my selfworth.

At the time, I thought I was the only victim of these insults.

It wasn’t until I started college and began engaging in more conversations with South Asians did I realize that colorism was the norm: a widespread generational issue that scarred the majority of our community’s lives.

Colorism traces its origins to the caste system and how the South Asian subcontinent looked down upon outdoor laborers, like the lower caste Sudras and the outcasted Dalits, who became darker day after day under the scorching heat. As a

result, being dark-skinned was associated with the physical work marginalized groups were forced to complete. Brahmins, the priests and scholars comprising the highest caste were sheltered from the sun and commanded respect. Over time, the fairer-skinned people were seen as pure and more deserving of opportunities as opposed to the inferior kalo-skinned ones. Colorism was further institutionalized during British colonial times when darkerskinned Indians were ostracized to the point of not being allowed in restaurants and educational institutions. Over centuries, these patterns were woven into the fabric of our community, leading to an unreachable standard for the majority.

Many of these prejudices remain and colorism continues to have a hold on the psychological well-being of South Asians around the world. Many parents within our community force their children to wash themselves with

skin-whitening soaps and reject marriage proposals for their children because the bride or groom’s complexion isn’t white enough. Colorism even creates significant professional barriers.

One study from 2015 found that many South Asians prevented themselves from pursuing clientfacing careers due to insecurities related to skin color. Millions of people who look like me have fallen victim to color-based discrimination, leaving me wondering — if God only created us out of his beauty, why had our exteriors been deemed so ugly?

I thought I could breathe safely within the fortitude of this community’s walls. But the reality was that this was a fragile fortress that suffocated the air out of those who didn’t fit in, a castle that was crumbling from within.

Was there anywhere where we could just be? Where could we be happy?

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Pride: The death of you ANKITHA DONEPUDI MiC Columnist

Freshly sharpened eyebrow pencils, delicate like tatters of lace, lay amid open makeup palettes with every hue of red you could possibly imagine. Discarded wads of tissue, stained with red smeared on them like blood, bore witness to our gradual demise. We listen to a mix of Lana Del Ray, Lorde and Illenium until we brace ourselves to finally leave the bathroom and jump on the bed, facing the Chicago skyline.

There’s something special in the air, a feeling of the unknown; yet, with you, there was a sense of comfort, knowing that we will face the everlasting abyss together.

I didn’t know then that those moments were fleeting. If I had known, would I have run? But of course, this was an impossible question, a non-question, an axiom with no solution.

If someone asked me to describe our friendship, I would tell them about how we used to deliver Uber Eats orders all week to save up for those unforgettable weekends at raves. Then, I’d describe how we would start our night eating dirt-cheap McDonald’s in bed, watching sensory videos of eggs and fruit dancing around on YouTube and ending it sitting on the bathroom floor listening to heart-shattering music. All the while, finding a way to giggle.

In those moments, for so long, it felt as though the world around us was coming crashing down, but the common denominator that made it feel like we’d be OK was the fact that we had each other. I had you.

So, I’m struggling to find the words to write a piece that encapsulates nine years of friendship — something that I believed to be forever — into pages.

always been a top priority because what is life without the basis of human connection? It is horrific enough to lose a friendship that has been there for as long as I can remember, but it is even scarier to lose someone to whom I have attached my sense of self and become an integral part of what I deemed my identity to be.

So I guess right now, I’m working on letting go of my identity and this older version of who I thought I was, and I’m beginning to focus on creating a newer, more high vibrational energy for myself. I am a lot more conscious and aware and with this profound sense of awareness comes the idea of only accepting real people, those who encourage and grow alongside me, in my life. Detachment has taught me that the universe is always looking out for me, I just have to work alongside it and take the steps to look out for myself too.

Right now, what that looks like for me is not allowing people who don’t serve me to be in my life.

I am allowing myself to be uncomfortable as the idea of permanence I associated for so long with another human being dissipates. I am sitting with it, despite how scared I am.

It still feels unreal to write this to process the end of a friendship. I’ve sat down multiple times this week hoping to achieve any progress, but how do I condense nine years of “I love you”s, laughter and sharing precious moments that have defined who I am on a couple of mere pages? How do I tell the story of two girls who have been together from the ripe age of 12, since we’ve lived in India and navigated the most beautiful and tragic life experiences together?

Well, I can’t. So instead of bombarding anyone who reads this with memories I will hold close to my heart forever, I hope to share lessons and my perspective on learning to let go of what no longer serves you, even when that means letting go of the people we love the most.

Lesson#1:TheArtofDetachment The Law of Detachment states that in order to manifest our desires, we must release attachment to the outcome itself as well as the path we might take to get there. In other words, when we are no longer attached to the idea of how something should be, we free ourselves up to abundant possibilities.

I have been striving to implement this practice into my life over the past couple of months, and I am incredibly grateful for my decision to do so. This decision has given me the strength to let go of expectations and has opened my mind up to a new method of thinking. This mindset shift has allowed me to let go of what I believe my life should look like, but rather enjoy the experience itself.

I still get the occasional anxiety about where I’ll be in two years, what I want my career to look like (especially given the competitive nature of the society we live in) or who will be in my life, but I know that if I hyperfixate on those

Ankitha Donepudi/DAILY

things, I will close myself off to a multitude of opportunities. I don’t want to have a vision of what life should play out like, but rather experience it as it comes and be fully present. Although I have been practicing detachment in my personal journey, it has been extremely difficult to put into practice with my relationships.

The fear of letting go of someone — a best friend, a significant other or a family member — is synonymous with the fear of letting go of a version of ourselves we’ve clung onto, a

version of who we once were. I’ve always associated my people with a sense of who I am. They evoke a sense of comfort that nothing else can. They know all that I’ve been through; they personally know the people I’ve lost to death, and they’ve witnessed every phase of my existence that has led up to who I am today. They know who I’ve been and sincerely trust in who I will become. The kind of friendship that you seek unforgiving solitude in when you need to withdraw from the world. My relationships have

Lesson #2: Being OK with Being Villanized People will turn you into whatever it is they need you to be so that their internal narrative can make sense to them. This means that we need to be OK with being the villain in someone else’s story and stop trying to control the narrative being built. Some people will make you feel like the “bad” or “wrong” party so that they can feel better about how they treated you.

This does not mean we should refuse to take responsibility for our mistakes or be unwilling to hear the other perspective without biases and ego; it just means that

people will always have different perspectives on what the situation is to them and that is totally justified. At the end of the day, our truth is our truth, and as long as it is pure-hearted, we have to be OK with holding onto it and finding peace in it, no matter what the other person’s story is.

Lesson #3: Soul Misalignment Two souls can never be on the same journey, especially at all times. That is quite literally impossible. And it has been very difficult for me to accept that.

There is a lot of pain associated with the idea of knowing someone I love is moving in a different direction than I am. But, simultaneously, I think there’s something so beautiful about knowing that I am finally outgrowing situations and a “the world is against me” mindset.

I am finally at a place in my life where I aim to view situations, experiences, people and the world around me out of love. So of course, with that shift in mindset, comes growing out of relationships. And that’s OK. I saw this quote a couple of days ago as I lingered on Pinterest for a little too long: “If you hold on too tightly to people who have already let you go, you won’t have the chance to grab hold of all the beautiful things that are actually meant for you.” I don’t know why but reading that hit me really hard.

Maybe it was because it was 4 a.m., and I was feeling out of the ordinary delusional. Or maybe it was because I knew that even though it hurts, it is true.

I’ve always given so much — dropping everything in an instant — in the relationships I hold close to my heart. I’ve made it a priority to be there when a close friend needs me because I would expect the same in return.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 9

Politicizing Mitch McConnell’s health isn’t doing what you think it is

JULIA VERKLAN AND ZOE STORER

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In search of ‘finity’ in the face of the endless online landscape LILA DOMINUS Opinion Columnist

I

used to think of “infinity” as a grand, distant concept.

The word evokes ideas that are often too large to fathom: the number of stars in the sky or grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches.

“Infinity” is a particular vastness that exists theoretically, but has little place in our daily lives. We are not regularly or tangibly interacting with the infinite. As my understanding of infinity has been expanded and refined, I’ve come to view it not as something unquantifiably large, but rather as something that simply never ends.

With that view of infinity, the prevalence and realness of infinity are clarified. We all walk around with infinity in our pockets.

The immediacy of infinite resources was introduced with the rollout of the web in 1990, which allowed for universal access to consumption and creation of online content. Five years later, two Stanford University students began to build a search engine called “BackRub” to help people more easily parse through the web.

Later, they switched the name of their tool to “Google,” a play on the number googol: the number one followed by 100 zeros. Not quite infinite, but pretty darn big.

With the web and Google, infinity existed in the sense that one could never make it through all the content offered. For as long as it took to click on each link, more would be added; one person couldn’t reach the end. But infinity as it existed in this context was still self-selecting. One would have to consciously make the choice to click on link after link — something people weren’t likely inclined to do — as people usually turned to Google to answer a particular question or to find a specific resource. Engaging with the web’s infinite components was not intuitive or the point, and it certainly wasn’t the intended user experience.

As the internet has evolved, however, the use of the infinite

has not only become intentional, but also weaponized. Rather than infinity existing online because of the endlessness of distinct spaces on the internet — endless apps, websites and individual online profiles — infinity began to exist within platforms. The “infinite scroll,” with code that pre-populates the user’s feed, mitigating any need for action on behalf of the user, was invented in 2006 by coder Aza Raskin while working for Humanized, a technology interface consulting group. The endless scroll meant a massive and dangerous flip for the user experience. Whereas before it a user would have to actively choose to consume more content, now they would have to actively choose to stop it.

This feature has been integrated into almost all of today’s most popular platforms. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X and Pinterest have all incorporated the endless scroll into their operations, and while now it may feel intuitive or like it’s always been this way, integration of this feature has been slowly unfurling and tactical.

Take Instagram, whose relationship with the endless scroll and the infinite has evolved over its years as a platform. In its initial stages, launched in 2010, Instagram was far simpler. Users could create a profile, post pictures and see the posts of those they followed on their feeds. It would automatically load new posts from one’s followed list, but once one had seen all the content of the people they followed, there was nothing really left to do on the app.

It had a finite amount to offer. In 2012, Instagram made a Popular page that highlighted the most successful content on the platform, which in 2015 evolved into the Explore page, showcasing not only trending posts but trending tags and locations that users could then engage with. In 2020, they began showing suggested posts on the timeline itself. Instagram’s suggested posts are wellintegrated, and I can personally attest to having lost track of time

on the app due to this particular feature.

Accepting our lack of agency, or the easiness with which we fall for choices made by corporations to keep our attention, requires a certain humility. Resisting social media’s tactics to keep us engaged should be easy. After all, aren’t we the ones in control of how we spend our time? Unfortunately, this false sense of control or resistance to social media’s impacts is not only naive but makes it easier for these platforms to trap our attention, the value of which we can never forget.

Being able to grip our attention is imperative for online platforms.

Their endlessness, the infinite scroll, makes this all the more easily accomplished. The passivity of consumption inevitably increases consumption. Infinite scroll has been likened to the bottomless bowl experiment, in which two groups of people were asked to drink a bowl of soup. One group is given a regular bowl, while the other is given one connected to a larger vat that continues to refill the bowl as they drink from it.

People who drank from the infinite bowl predicted that they’d only consumed 20% more soup than those from a regular bowl, and in actuality the differential was 73% on average. If social media content is soup, we’re all slurping down far more of it than we should be.

The dangers of this have been voiced by the creator of the tactic itself. Raskin, the infinite scroll’s inventor, has grown to abhor the function and is now an advocate for social media restrictions that limit the infinite scroll’s impact. He is also a co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, which “(works) to expose the drivers behind all extractive technologies steering our thoughts, behaviors, and actions.” He’s calculated — he says conservatively — that infinite scroll wastes 200,000 human lifetimes worth of time every single day, and tweeted that “optimizing something for ease-ofuse does not mean best for the user or humanity.”

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MOSES NELAPUDI Opinion Columnist

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fter binge-watching all nine seasons of the legal drama “Suits” my sophomore year of high school, I underwent a brief phase of wanting to be a corporate lawyer. To get my “foot in the door,” I registered in a local law organization’s debate competitions and went unranked in all but two events.

The personal quality of mine that made me lose so often was none other than glossophobia, a fear of public speaking that can cause those afflicted to freeze up while speaking.

Unlike me, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell followed through with his affinity for the legal field by joining the University of Kentucky School of Law Class of 1967. Upon graduation, McConnell quickly climbed the rungs of political leadership through his talent in conveying the Republican message. Beginning as a legislative assistant and later as deputy assistant attorney general, McConnell’s journey gained true momentum when he was elected as Kentucky’s senator in 1984. Once situated within the Senate, McConnell has toggled between minority, majority and whip senatorial leader. In his roles, McConnell has not hesitated to openly call for filibusters, slimy legislation and the movement of any and all Republican pawns forward on the Senate floor.

This contrasts recent changes to McConnell’s disposition at the podium, where he was observed to freeze mid-sentence at two national press conferences. After failing to snap out of his trance, McConnell was swiftly ushered away from the spotlight by ancillary staff. In the days following his blunders, McConnell’s team has worked tirelessly to vouch on behalf of his abilities as a political leader in the media in the face of Democratic hearsay of health issues. Brian Monahan, Capitol Hill attending physician, issued

a public letter citing that there is no medical evidence to suggest neurodegenerative diseases are at play. At age 81, however, calls for resignation continue to follow McConnell as he remains two years away from the conclusion of his congressional appointment.

Regardless, politicians in favor of congressional term limits are using McConnell’s blunders at the pulpit to illustrate an association between age, health status and competence that simply doesn’t exist. Frankly, the general public (which includes political and media pundits critical of McConnell) does not have the medical background to pathologize what are, in fact, displays of normal geriatric milestones.

The American Psychological Association reports that hearing loss, lessened verbal pace and increased anxiety are all typical and expected outcomes of aging. Yet, when older politicians display what will eventually come naturally to all of us, their cognitive abilities are immediately slapped with labels of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.

By equating McConnell’s slowing metronome to diseases with clear clinical symptoms he doesn’t display (such as decreased motor function, hallucinations or loss of initiative), we inadvertently contribute to the stigma that surrounds dementia and those living with it. In the name of congressional term limit legislation, an idea that has its own data-driven merits, politicians push the narrative that any kind of ineptitude is a surfaced demonstration of dementia. It is crucial to recognize that each individual’s neurological trajectory is unique; attributing McConnell’s cognitive lapses to diseases that still require significant research to elucidate is an ad hominem attack that is lazy and ageist.

Neurodegenerative diseases occur from protein degradation, fibrillation and neuron loss in various processing centers of the

brain — microscopic biomarkers that cannot advance the cause of congressional term limits like McConnell critics think they can.

Focusing on anecdotes of older politicians actually detracts from objective improvements that congressional term limits can make, such as increased diversity in governing bodies and lessened partisanship. That is to say, the main benefit of term limits isn’t that they prevent older politicians from staying in office, but that they create more opportunities for diversity in Congress. Those opportunities should be open to older people, who might find a desire to serve later in life.

Proponents of congressional term limits that are using McConnell to correlate age with ability to serve in Congress threaten the influx of new ideas from older generations vying for a spot at the table.

Eradicating the sentiment that age automatically comes with cerebral erosion provides older citizens a platform to represent the equally relevant and freshened concerns of America’s geriatric population. When new, yet older, citizens have a chance at holding office without the malice of ageism, they actually perform better on tests of mental acuity, notes Dr. Sarah Barber of Georgia State University. Her conclusions support the idea that perceived intelligence is highly influenced by individual experiences and environmental factors rather than molecular mechanisms of the brain.

It is also clear that the brain has a remarkable capacity for neuroplasticity, which allows it to adapt and compensate for age-related changes. Not only do meta-studies suggest that older adults can use different perceptual strategies to maintain cognitive function, but that compensation in mitigating cognitive decline is stimulated by fast-paced and highly meticulous jobs — one that McConnell certainly has as Senate minority leader.

motivation is proven to be much more effective than extrinsic motivation, which workers typically lean on to do their jobs.

While corporations benefit from this view of wellness and the productive working class it creates, they aren’t always the institutions pushing this way of thinking. Educational institutions continually reinforce the importance of professional success above all else. Students are rewarded consistently for indicating to their teachers that they will be greatly productive members of the workforce.

Scholarships, grants and exclusive business connections are all awarded to students who are the most productive and academically successful. Even small actions like including occupational wellness on the University’s Well-being Canvas page can covertly push the value of workplace success on students.

And, it makes sense why: Universities benefit from wealthy alumni with successful work lives.

Princeton University currently holds the top spot for most alumni donations. These donations help keep Princeton at its No. 1 national university

ranking, which continues a cyclic relationship between successful alumni, cash flow and prestige.

However, the emphasis on success in the workplace should not lead to the misconception that well-being itself is unimportant.

Occupational wellness has taken precedence over the traditional concept.

Pursuing wellness outside of the office is vital for a long and fulfilled life. Our approach, however, needs to be different. Wellness is a highly personal state of being; it can’t be quantified or compartmentalized the way the Canvas diagram and others like it would have you believe. To be content in your body and mind is to be healthy.

The internal aspects of wellness, like contentment, are far more important than the external aspects of occupational wellness, like a promotion. Contentment is high-level functioning. Through contentment, individuals can successfully nurture their physical, mental and spiritual well-being, resulting in a 14% longer lifespan and a significantly enhanced quality of life compared to those who prioritize work.

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Your job is to be well RACHELLE EVANS Opinion Columnist

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s the academic year gets into swing (after the campus-wide internet and database outages, of course), University of Michigan students have increasingly turned their attention to their class Canvas pages. Next time you log in, redirect your focus from your class tabs to the Canvas Wellbeing diagram. At the bottom of the Canvas toolbar lives a multicolored flower-shaped diagram with petals labeled “physical, emotional & mental, environmental, financial, social, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational.” This diagram serves as a perfect illustration of America’s flawed perception of wellness.

Wellness, as a concept, has emerged quite recently. The Oxford English Dictionary identifies the word’s origin in the 1650s, but its modern context did not emerge until the Wellness Movement of the 1950s. Physician Halbert L. Dunn gained recognition as the father of the movement after he

published “High-Level Wellness for Man and Society.” He drew a significant distinction between health and wellness: health refers only to the absence of illness, while wellness is the pursuit of higher-level functioning.

Recently, people have been taking their wellness more seriously. In the U.S. alone, 50% of people rank wellness as a top priority in their lives, marking a considerable increase from the 42% that said the same in 2020. Its rising popularity, though, has not only led to an increase in engagement but also provides more opportunities for misinterpretation and possible exploitation.

The corporate world has co-opted wellness. Instead of a liberatory concept, it now serves as just another tool in the toolbox to extract more value from individuals. Both academics and the general public are increasingly embracing aspects of wellness that appear to align with the material interests of the wealthy. One facet of well-being that stands out as a potentially deceptive means of promoting this economic agenda is occupational wellness.

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The idea of occupational health was born to link succeeding in professional life with achieving well-being more broadly. On the surface, this connection appears reasonable. Recent data shows that wealthier people, on average, live up to a decade longer than their poorer counterparts. This wealth is often generated and maintained through employment, so it makes sense that medical professionals, practitioners and academics should push the idea that humans should strive to be well in their professional lives. However, professional life may not be as pure as it seems.

Companies might be encouraging occupational wellness for selfish reasons, but, nonetheless, people striving for healthy and successful professional lives is a good thing.

Corporations enjoy greater profits if they have highly dedicated and motivated workers. By correlating wellness with professional success, they give their employees a more personal reason to serve the company diligently. This pushes an individual to work harder because they are trying to connect with their higher and “more well” selves. This intrinsic

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Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 10

UMich’s club application process is ruining campus culture MAX FELDMAN Opinion Columnist

The University of Michigan loves to boast about its 1,600+ student organizations on campus.

We flaunt that statistic during campus tours and information sessions, displaying it as proof that the University has something for everyone. However, overly competitive application processes have turned many clubs on campus from something that should be about inclusion into something fueled by exclusion.

When new students arrive in Ann Arbor, they are full of passion, enthusiasm and curiosity; their hobbies and interests could range from writing to soccer to deep sea diving. They are eager to find their place on campus, but must first navigate a cutthroat and downright absurd environment.

In brief, entrance to many student organizations requires lengthy applications, formal interviews, multiple info sessions and mass meetings, networking events, informal coffee chats and a smorgasbord of contrived club events. When you have to do all that, student organizations don’t seem as open as they do in a college brochure.

In many instances, students do everything I described and still get rejected from the clubs they want to join. I don’t know a single person who got into every club they applied to, but I know plenty who were rejected from multiple clubs and organizations.

Certain clubs on campus — the pre-professional organizations in particular — receive hundreds of

Design by Hannah Willingham

applications a semester and only take a dozen or so students. With rejection running so rampant, it seems like getting into some clubs is harder than actually getting into the University itself.

This begs the question: What makes U-M clubs so competitive?

The simplest answer comes from the size of our student body. If there are many applicants, then naturally clubs are going to have to reject more people. But the size of the University doesn’t explain why we have clubs that only get a few dozen applicants and reject most of them, or why clubs that could accept more people choose not to. It appears then that student behavior is the cause of this competitive process, not

student population size.

Members of student organizations — the ones actually deciding who gets in and who doesn’t — have fostered a system that rewards preferential treatment and excessive barriers to entry. In essence, we have a spoils system on campus. New members are more likely to be chosen if they have friends already in the club or if they fit in socially. Additionally, there are many clubs on campus that claim you do not need prior experience to join but end up picking people who have more specialized resumes and who came from high schools with more opportunities.

This means that in this system, who you know and where you

come from matters more than what you’re passionate about and what you want to learn.

Still, there are many on campus who feel that our club culture is not overly competitive but rather reflective of what life is like in the real world. They see the strenuous application process as good practice for actually applying to jobs and internships. To those students, I ask: Is college meant to be exactly like the professional world? Did you only come to the University to pad your resume and prepare for a future job? If college is primarily meant to be a time of academic exploration and personal growth, the University’s club culture holds that belief back.

With our current club application

process, many students are not given the opportunity to learn if they do not have past experience.

A system that limits opportunity to the student body definitely does not help prepare us for the future.

Why, then, do U-M students allow this application process to function as it does now?

The primary reason is the way “U-M students” think about competition. A little competition is a good thing, and it helps people stay motivated and work harder in certain situations.

However, the excessive competition surrounding student organizations exists only to bolster people’s senses of prestige, power and identity.

Certain organizations, like business fraternities or consulting groups, are viewed as more prestigious if they are more selective. Their competitiveness makes them desirable. To that same end, with a college degree becoming more commonplace and vital for obtaining a job, the importance of what you do in college has increased. It’s not enough to be at a competitive college, you have to stay competitive while attending, too.

The club culture also stays competitive because of the power that comes from rejecting applicants. Club members were once on the receiving end of the application process, so now they might think that new students should go through it, too. Taking over the role of gatekeeper might be seen as a way to benefit from a flawed system.

The University is not even close to the only college in America that deals with this highly competitive entry process.

Similar cultures can be found throughout America’s other top universities. Students in many selective universities are doing this to themselves.

This phenomenon raises a lot of questions when you think about how highly selective colleges impact student behavior, but it does tell us one thing: We are not alone in our chaotic and unnecessary club application process. We are not the only ones in need of improving our system, and the only way to do that is if students from around the country work together to make the college experience better for everyone.

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Sports

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 — 11

FOOTBALL

SportsMonday: Michigan doesn’t need Donovan Edwards to be Blake Corum PAUL NASR

Managing Sports Editor

It’s easy to look at junior running back Donovan Edwards’ rushing stats this season and get concerned. Looking at his weekby-week totals this season — 12 rushes for 37 yards, six for nine, nine for 50 and then six rushes for 13 yards in the Wolverines’ win over Rutgers — there appears to be cause for concern.

If you feel that way, you aren’t alone. Edwards himself felt concerned looking at his stats at halftime of the Michigan football team’s season-opening win against East Carolina.

“I checked ESPN at halftime — how many yards I had,” Edwards said Sept. 5. “That joint said six for five, I said dang!”

It’s a valid feeling for Edwards and it’s a valid feeling for anyone worried about Michigan, because his rushing statistics have been anything but impressive so far.

So go ahead, be concerned about him as a rusher if you want.

But if that’s making you concerned about the Wolverines’ offense as a whole, think again.

Because Edwards is not the lead back, so stop expecting that he needs to play like one for them to be successful.

Michigan has Blake Corum. It has its lead back, its bellcow and its goal line back — all in one. The Wolverines have a guy in Corum who can comfortably average over five yards per carry, easily punch it in when Michigan lines up near the goal line and handle a large workload efficiently out of the backfield.

It doesn’t need another guy doing the exact same thing.

Instead, the Wolverines need a complement to Corum who can run the rock to give him breathers. They also need someone who can serve as a dynamic passcatcher out of the backfield and a second back the defense needs to respect when Michigan sends both out at the same time.

And the Wolverines are beginning to get that from Edwards.

They’re getting a running back in Edwards who can offer a different look than Corum has and diversify Michigan’s options out of the backfield. He’s effectively been the Wolverines’ fourth wide receiver in terms of catches and

receiving yards, and he posted a season-high 41 receiving yards against the Scarlet Knights.

The less Michigan uses Edwards in the same way it uses Corum — and the more it uses him as a dynamic receiving back who runs on occasion — the better for Edwards and the better for Michigan. It’s especially timely

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FOOTBALL

‘That’s big boy football’: Michigan front seven stuffs Rutgers on the ground JOHN TONDORA

Daily Sports Editor

As Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai scampered for an explosive 25-yard gain early in the first quarter, the No. 2 Michigan football team saw a flag in the backfield and heaved a sigh of relief.

Instead of a fresh set of downs and an opportunity to build on their early run game success, the Scarlet Knights’ second drive took a hit, sending it back into a thirdand-nine. On the ensuing play, Monangai’s three yard loss resulted in a 28 yard swing and breathed new life into the Wolverines’ run defense.

And as Michigan’s defense caught a gasp of fresh air, Rutgers’ running game couldn’t catch its breath for the rest of the contest.

“You can’t run the ball on us,” junior linebacker junior Colson. “(It) doesn’t matter … they’re smash mouth, trying to run the ball. So that was our mentality, you can’t run the ball. You got to throw it over our heads.”

It’s a defensive mentality that produced a noticeable final statline, as Michigan’s front seven iced out a scarlet-hot running game.

“77 yards on the ground on 23 carries, that’s a run wall — that’s big boy football,” Wolverines coach

Jim Harbaugh said.

Those “big boys” had to show up early and often, because limiting the Scarlet Knights’ potent rushing attack is no mean feat. Led by Monangai and the wheels of quarterback Gavin Wimsatt, the group sprinted into Ann Arbor, with Monangai and Wimsatt rushing for 357 and 144 yards respectively on the season.

To complicate matters further, one of Michigan’s “gifts from the football gods” and sophomore defensive lineman, Mason Graham, was sidelined to injury.

Often branded as a staunch runstopper, replacing Graham came at a premium. Nevertheless, the onus of stopping the run game fell on the front seven unit as a whole — and they delivered for the full 60 minutes.

Time and again, the Wolverines left Rutgers with little breathing room. When the dust settled, the Scarlet Knights finished with just six runs that eclipsed four yards.

“Tremendous run wall — have we talked about that?” Harbaugh asked.

He had, was reminded of it, and proceeded to talk about it again anyway in his press conference. “(Junior) Rayshaun Benny really stepped up today, and (senior) Kris Jenkins, he’s always the difference maker in there. And the edge guys,

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FOOTBALL

as the team is still trying to figure out its offense and what it’s capable of.

“The offense is a work in progress, you know what I’m saying,” Corum said. “We’re always going to critique, because we hold ourselves to a high standard. We’re going to critique ourselves really, really hard.”

every single one of them played well and made a big contribution in the game. And the linebackers are playing extremely well.”

Harbaugh probably could’ve kept on talking about it. A concoction of depth, the front seven of the “no-star defense” combined for 25 tackles and two tackles for loss. As Colson emphasized stopping the run to force the pass, the Scarlet Knights actually saw their biggest running plays come from out of the pocket.

Of Rutgers’ three rushing plays totaling more than 10 yards, its longest came from a scrambling Wimsatt, who opted to use his legs on a passing play to avoid oncoming pressure. Scrambling for 15 yards, Wimsatt’s play ended with a cacophony of crashing Wolverines as the defensive line pushed him into the sharp jaws of the second level.

Wimsatt finished with 28 rushing yards on the day. Yards which often came from necessity, not design, for a quarterback who came into Saturday’s contest averaging 50 ground yards per game. With their running backs stuffed at the line of scrimmage by a staunch defensive line, and their quarterback forced to scramble into oncoming linebackers, the Scarlet Knights had their hands tied tight.

“There can’t be two smash mouths,” Colson said. “We were the first one, so we had to go out there and dominate them up front, dominate them in the back end and you just got to show him who’s boss.”

With the return of Big Ten competition, so too has the Wolverines’ run-based identity — on offense and defense. In terms of “smash-mouth” football, Michigan has become an all-star.

Colson and co. did just that, slowing Rutgers’ thundering into Ann Arbor from a sprint, to a skid and then finally a full blown stop.

So don’t critique Edwards in the context of just a rusher, because the Wolverines have their lead rusher. Instead, think of how Edwards can work in the context of the offense.

In the context of the offense, Michigan certainly benefits from having someone else on the ground that keeps the defense honest and takes some attention off Corum. Take a quick look at the same stat sheet that may have you concerned about Edwards, and it’s clear the Wolverines already have another rushing threat — J.J. McCarthy. Having a quarterback who can scramble like McCarthy means Edwards doesn’t need to be the only running threat backing up Corum’s game. Michigan can do it by committee — and it’s already utilizing it.

“I think our run game is fine,” Corum said. “We have to critique a couple things … (and) just watch the film, see where I can get better, see where the offensive line could get better, just get on the same page a little more. But best believe, we’re fine man, the offense is fine. I think we (had) over 400 yards today.

That’s a productive day.”

Sure, you can want more from Edwards. Maybe you can even expect more from Edwards. But expecting more rushing from him, like serving as a second bellcow back that rushes for over 100 yards per game, is not the answer.

Because Edwards’ glaring weakness right now is lack of efficient runs, not lack of efficient plays. He catches passes and runs in open space after. He blocks. He’s physical and he can relieve Corum and provide different looks. If the Wolverines want to improve rushing, they just need Corum playing closer to his ceiling, not a second back to play like a Heisman candidate.

Only one person can rush the ball at a time anyways, so don’t look at Edwards’ rushing numbers with much concern. Don’t expect him to put up Corum’s numbers. And don’t be disappointed when he doesn’t do it.

Because Michigan doesn’t need another Blake Corum — it already has him.

So leave the lead back expectations to him, and let Edwards play his game.

FOOTBALL

Colston Loveland lets ‘cat out of the bag’ against Rutgers CHARLIE PAPPALARDO

Daily Sports Editor

Eight minutes into the No. 2 Michigan Football team’s game against Rutgers, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh got a little bit tricky.

On a play that the Wolverines had been planning all week, junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy handed the ball off before it was pitched backwards twice and returned to McCarthy. And while McCarthy and the running backs had executed their fake, Harbaugh needed sophomore tight end Colston Loveland to get a little bit tricky, too.

Loveland pretended to block for three seconds, and then slipped through a gap and sprinted into a wide open backfield where McCarthy found him for a 35-yard gain that set-up a twoyard touchdown.

At that moment, Harbaugh had needed Loveland to be deceptive.

But the entire afternoon against Rutgers, it really didn’t matter what it was the Wolverines asked of Loveland. Because wherever they needed him, and whatever they needed him doing, Loveland consistently executed.

“He doesn’t know how good he is,” Harbaugh said. … I’m gonna say it the way Jack Harbaugh would say it. ‘He’s a ‘foot-ballplayer.’ ” Throughout the contest, Harbaugh and the Wolverines played a run-first style of football — rarely taking deep shots. And for Loveland, that meant that he was heavily involved in nearly every play.

On run plays, Loveland blocked — and it mattered. Through the first three games, Michigan’s running backs had struggled to break through due to inconsistent blocking from tight ends and offensive lineman. But Saturday,

Loveland led the charge in blocking on the 40 rushing attempts.

And the running backs benefitted, posting their first 200-yard day of the season.

“I thought (the tight ends) played a pretty good game in the run game,” Loveland said of his position group. “Finishing blocks, really straining. Whoever strains more is going to win.”

And on passing plays — Loveland was the primary target.

With five receptions for 75 yards, he led the receiving core in both categories and marched Michigan down the field with consistent, effective routes. He made himself consistently available as an outlet for McCarthy. When he was pressured, or needed a short yardage gain, Loveland was exactly where he needed him to be.

But when McCarthy needed big plays, he also turned to Loveland. Following his 35-yard leak, Loveland struck again in the fourth quarter on a quick go route. He ran 28 yards and leapt into the air to grab a high pass over two defensive backs while

falling backward.

“He’s really great, (a) freak athlete,” Harbaugh said. “I think the cat’s out of the bag.

And he doesn’t know it. He doesn’t know how good he can be. … I kind of always thought that maybe the longer it takes him to figure that out, the better off he’ll be. But, the cat’s out of the bag.”

Harbaugh’s comments betray the nature of Loveland’s role as a tight end. He’s not supposed to be the center of attention. His position is supposed to be the gritty second option — in both receiving and blocking — that helps others stand out. And he did that.

But he also stood out in his own right. Contributing the longest, and third-longest plays of the day for Michigan, Loveland wasn’t just the second option. His presence wasn’t the sole reason why the offense flowed, but it greased the gears.

And it might not be long before Loveland is seen as more than just a part of the offense, but one of its drivers, too.

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Jim Harbaugh ‘brings the juice’ returning to sidelines in win over Rutgers PAUL NASR

Managing Sports Editor

When Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh arrived at Michigan Stadium Saturday morning, he became slightly confused when he started running into people on the premises.

“Everyone kept saying, ‘Welcome back, welcome back,’ ” Harbaugh said. “I never really left, but I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.”

Harbaugh isn’t used to any sort of ‘welcome backs’ around his program. He’s used to always being there — at least ever since returning to his alma mater to be its head coach in 2015. He also wasn’t fully gone during his suspension, only separated from the team on game days over the first three weeks.

Harbaugh felt there, but not there — giving his homecoming an odd ring.

After watching others from afar as they guided his team on game days, it’s safe to say Harbaugh was

more than excited to be back in action as the Wolverines opened their Big Ten schedule with a 31-7 win over Rutgers. So were his players.

“He just brings the juice,” senior running back Blake Corum said. “I wish you could’ve seen him in the locker room, it was great. And just hearing his speech before we hit the field today, it was great as well. We love Coach Harbaugh, and it was great just having him back on the sideline with us.”

Emerging from the tunnel after that speech, Harbaugh stood with his team captains and ran out with them onto the field for his big debut.

He spoke with the officiating crew and paced his sideline, hyping up his players as minutes before kickoff ticked down to seconds. Harbaugh possessed his typical energy, and a newfound appreciation for being with his team.

His appreciation showed as Harbaugh reflected on being back at the Big House following the game.

And as Michigan athletics director

Warde Manuel stood in the press conference room listening along as Harbaugh shared his thoughts, the scene served as a reminder that Harbaugh’s delayed debut wasn’t by accident. His own athletics department believed he made mistakes, and decided to take action to address them.

But make no mistake, if Harbaugh’s on the sideline, he’s bringing it; whether it’s week one, week four — or for him — the feeling of week one and four altogether.

“He brings a lot of energy, he brings a lot of juice to the team,”

junior linebacker Junior Colson said. “Having him out there (gives us) that little extra drive. He’s always out there, whether good play or bad play, he’s dapping you up, he’s making sure you’re all good.”

Even with his engagement on the sideline, Harbaugh didn’t let the excitement get in the way of his role. He’s the head coach — he can’t micromanage or get his toes too deep anywhere. He entrusted four separate people to lead the team in his absence, and he let his fellow coaches continue in their active roles upon his return.

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When Michigan had a critical third down late in the first half, Harbaugh wasn’t the first coach strolling on the field when the Wolverines called timeout. Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore was as he executed his typical duties of orchestrating the offense. The players all huddled around him near the sideline as he coached them up, with Harbaugh casually dropping in after the address had begun to listen in and offer any insight needed.

Harbaugh was back, but that didn’t mean other coaches were off the hook. He brings the juice, the leadership and the final decision making, but it was up to the whole coaching staff to put the Wolverines in a position to beat the Scarlet Knights.

Everything worked out for the coaching staff, so it worked out for Harbaugh too. That left him feeling giddy after the game.

“Cool Jim, that’s what most people refer to me as. Cool Jim,” Harbaugh said. “And then as we

get closer to the game … I turn into Dead Serious Jim. But there’s just no better place to be than in the locker room after you win a game.”

As the Wolverines lined up at the 5-yard line in the fourth quarter for a play that ended up giving them their 31-7 lead, a scene at Michigan Stadium was becoming familiar again. Jim Harbaugh in his crouched stance on the sideline; hand on his knees, bending down while looking up.

As he believed Corum was breaking the plane, he jumped up into a touchdown signal before looking for confirmation. He eventually saw it from a referee in the back of the endzone, pointing at the ref before an elated fist pump and high-five frenzy with his players.

After the extra point, he and graduate offensive lineman Trevor Keegan stood side-by-side before sharing a fist bump. Who knows what Keegan told Harbaugh there, if anything.

Maybe he just said ‘welcome back.’

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

The Michigan Daily — 12

Starring in their first gritty, hard-fought Big Ten football game!

The Wolverines

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY

“

A Hard

Michigan 31

Rutgers 7

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Day's KnightS

Michigan overcomes ambush start to beat Rutgers in 31-7 victory CONNOR EAREGOOD Managing Sports Editor

T

he Michigan football team got punched in the mouth.

Just three plays from scrimmage and a mere minute into its game against Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights took control with a 69-yard passing touchdown that hushed Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines trailed for the first time all season, and the upstart Scarlet Knights tried to play spoiler.

But as the game wore on, No. 2 Michigan (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) used momentum-capturing plays to gain control of the game during coach Jim Harbaugh’s return from a three-game suspension. From interceptions to trick plays and multiple fourth-down statements, the Wolverines hit Rutgers (3-1, 1-1) with blow after blow to ensure that a bad start didn’t turn into an upset loss.

“That’s one of those plays right at the start of the game that could

make the ordinary person or team flinch,” Harbaugh said, referencing how defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale told the team not to flinch when tested. “And that’s the first thing I thought of, and when I got back into the locker room after the game, it was like ‘They didn’t flinch, Coach Clink.’ They did not.”

That’s true — the Wolverines might not have flinched. But they also didn’t deliver their own blows early on. For much of the first half, the game felt like a boxing match in which both sides felt each other out. Neither convincingly pulled ahead, leaving each side with nothing but a headache.

Eventually, Rutgers let its guard down just enough late in the first quarter. Junior running back Donovan Edwards went in motion and snagged a field-flipping reception. Then, Edwards took a crafty reverse pitch and lateralled it to J.J. McCarthy. The junior quarterback passed it to sophomore tight end Colston Loveland in stride for Michigan’s own surprise

punch that electrified the offense.

When junior running back Blake Corum ran in a two-yard rushing touchdown on the very next play, Michigan had tied the game at seven with a statement 94-yard drive.

“We planned that (play) all week,” Corum said of the Loveland reception. “We practiced that, we repped it and then we were able to punch it in. So that second drive was a huge part of the game and a very good part of the game.”

Remember, though — this was still a boxing match. And neither team had delivered a knockout blow. But as Michigan gained a little bit of energy off its cheeky trick play, it kept stacking big moments on top of it.

Look no further than Mike Sainristil’s pick-six.

After the Wolverines scored a field goal on their opening drive of the second half, they faced a Rutgers drive in which it passed for 10 straight plays. The Scarlet Knights didn’t even think about

running the ball, even against a short fourth-and-two from Michigan’s 27-yard line.

Michigan didn’t just earn a big stop though — it made a statement, spoken into existence by the graduate cornerback.

You see, Sainristil is known around Michigan as a steady presence on the field, but he was fallible against Rutgers.

His coverage mistake led to the opening touchdown, so he promised to make up for it.

“Good players make mistakes,” Sainristil said. “… I kind of brushed it off right away. I said, ‘I’m gonna get you one back.’ And I told Coach Clinkscale going into the third quarter — I told him I’mma get one.”

So as Rutgers dropped into a screen on that fourth-and-two, Sainristil jumped in front of the receiver and picked off the pass.

Flipping junior linebacker Junior Colson over as he returned the ball, Sainristil sprinted up the middle of the field for a 71-yard pick-six.

Sainristil’s interception was one of three fourth down tries by Rutgers, all of which were parried by the Wolverines. On their own tries, they converted two fourth downs off a Corum run and a McCarthy scramble.

Not only did the Sainristil interception give Michigan a commanding 24-7 lead, but it injected energy into the Wolverines and reinstated the narrative that they were expected to win this game handily. With that confidence, they never flinched.

After another stout defensive stop, Corum punched in another short rushing touchdown and sealed the 31-7 win.

“Look, they’re a very good football team,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “You have to make sure you are on point with everything. Because if you’re not, it’s not just a gain — it’s a touchdown. If you’re not, it’s not just a PBU — it’s a pick-six.”

From the outside, no one misunderstood the power dynamic

to this game. The Scarlet Knights were ham-and-eggers, set up to be knocked down by the dynamic Wolverines. But that first, silencing touchdown distorted the narrative.

Michigan surely wishes it handled its business even more effectively, but all its playmakers aligned to topple Rutgers after an ambush start. With its mettle tested to open the Big Ten schedule, it took control of the game.

“We gave them one free one,” Colson said. “… At the end of the day, we trust our players in any type of man (coverage), so we went right back to it. We believe in our teammate, believe in our player.

So take it out of your head. Go out there and play ball.”

After a suckerpunch to start the game, the Wolverines indeed played ball. In doing so, they showed just how much they can fight back.

KATE HUA, ANNA FUDER/Daily Design by Lys Goldman