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HEALTH
‘U’ program may assist in fight against Ebola spread Art & Design hosts three day working period to create new medical equipment
State funding trends impact affordability efforts
Decrease in higher education appropriations tied to tuition increases
cation funding in Michigan, and what those changes mean for fouryear universities. In his opening remarks at last Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting, University President Mark Schlissel thanked Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for recommending a 2-percent increase in state appropriations for higher education in fiscal year 2016. “We appreciate the governor’s support for higher ed, especially at a time when the state must make difficult choices regarding spending,” he said.
By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
Following statewide elections in which higher education was a point of debate, this article is the third in a series examining the changing landscape of higher edu-
However, even with the increase — which totaled a 1.9-percent funding increase specifically for the University — state appropriations are nowhere near where they used to be at their peak. This year, state appropriations made up 9 percent of the University’s operating budget, excluding the University of Michigan Health System. In contrast, during the 1960s, state appropriations covered 78 percent of University expenses. Over the course of half a decade, the state of Michigan has severely limited its higher educa-
tion funding. In an effort to fill the gap, the University has resorted to other sources for revenue — namely, raising student tuition. Given a growing nationwide conversation on the rising cost of college, these increases have prompted discussion at the University on how to keep college affordable and accessible to all students, even while the institution is steadily losing state monetary support. History of tuition hikes During June’s Board of Regents meeting, the board See TUITION, Page 2A
By CARLY NOAH Daily Staff Reporter
Students, professionals and faculty University-wide joined forces to generate solutions to some of the challenges faced by Ebola patients. Finding innovative solutions specific to the Ebola outbreak was the focus of a recent three-day design and planning period hosted by the School of Art and Design. Caused by a strain of the Ebola virus, the disease is rare and deadly. The recent Ebola epidemic has been the largest in history. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 23,694 suspected, probable and confirmed cases of Ebola in West Africa as of Feb. 21, and there have been four laboratory-confirmed cases in the United States. In addition to the Art and
CAMPUS LIFE
RESEARCH
Springfest to extend to three days in April Annual event features student groups, musical performances By TANYA MADHANI Daily Staff Reporter
SpringFest will stick around a bit longer this year. The annual SpringFest outdoor festival will expand into three different areas and, for the first time since its start in 2011, will cover multiple days. For the past three years, MUSIC Matters, has held the annual event to provide an opportunity for local musicians, artists, restaurants and University student organizations to engage with the broader campus community. The festival features a headlining musical act in Hill Auditorium. Previous performers have included J. Cole, Ben Folds, 2 Chainz and Chance the
Rapper. This year’s act has yet to be announced. Business senior Nicholas Moeller, SpringFest chair, said the event will highlight University student organizations that fit the following five categories: sustainability, innovation, arts, community service and social identity. To engage students’ entrepreneurial spirit, Moeller said SpringFest will also feature “Startup Village,” a hub that will include student-run or student-founded startups from the Ann Arbor area. “It’s an opportunity to engage the broader campus community as well as showcase the best of what Michigan has to offer,” he said. “So, it’s an event that tries to bring together students from all corners of campus.” A film festival, a new SpringFest feature, will start in the evening on April 16 and continue during the main festival day on April 17. MUSIC Matters has colSee SPRINGFEST, Page 3A
Design School event, the University has created a response plan in the unlikely situation that Ebola reaches the University, as well as worked with the Michigan Nurses Association to take precautions for nurses who would treat the virus. The event focused on creating equipment around three themes: protecting those caring for Ebola patients, improving communication in the face of cultural and linguistic barriers and creating a safer way to transport infected patients. Five teams, comprising five to eight participants from different disciplines, conceptualized, designed and created a product to help patients affected by Ebola. The first product met the challenge of the first theme: improving personal protective equipment. The protective suits previously employed fit only a small number of body types. They often tear and break and can expose caregivers to contaminating fluids. Several solutions were created to solve this issue. The first, a disposable doffing strap, makes the process of removing the bodysuit easier because wearers do not have to touch the outside of the See EBOLA, Page 3A
Video games could impact learning in classrooms Report identifies attributes likely to improve assessment, teaching methods
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
By SARAH KHAN
Dr. Stephen Strobbe, clinical associate professor of Nursing, is the winner of the 25th annual Golden Apple Award.
Nursing professor receives 2015 Golden Apple award Stephen Strobbe to deliver honorary lecture March 31 By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter
About 30 minutes into his lecture Wednesday morning, Nursing Prof. Stephen Strobbe was caught off-guard by a group of
students who offered congratulations and presented him with a bouquet of flowers, balloons and an apple. The Golden Apple award honors one teacher on campus each year chosen based on student nominations. The award is sponsored by the University of Michigan Hillel and more than two dozen other campus organizations and units. To announce the selection, the Golden Apple committee
surprises the recipient, typically in the middle of their class. Strobbe said he was very surprised when the students handed him the gifts. “Does someone want to tell me what is going on?” he asked. After being told that he had won the Golden Apple, Strobbe was speechless for a few moments. “Thank you all so much,” he said. “I am moved beyond words. See GOLDEN APPLE, Page 2A
Daily Staff Reporter
Imagine playing the video of game League of Legends to learn in a classroom. While multiplayer, online, battle-type games will not be used in most classes in the near future, a new study by University researchers shows how digital game use in the classroom can help teachers track student learning. A report from the A-GAMES Project, released last Thursday by professors from the School of Information and New York University, focuses on common features in games that are effective in assessment and learning. The A-GAMES Project represents Analyzing Games for Assessment See GAMES, Page 3A
the b-side The Daily Arts staff looks at the popular music venue for high school students. » INSIDE
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2A — Thursday, February 26, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
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WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
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THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
The School of Nursing congratulates one of its own after he received the Golden Apple Award. “Dr. Stephen Strobbe got a surprise visit during class today; he’s the winner of @umich’s Golden Apple Award! Congrats! @goldenappleUofM”
“One less burger a week=320 less miles driven #UMMeatlessMonday tomorrow at #EastQuad” — @MichiganDining
ANDREW COHEN/Daily
Art & Design freshman Grace Schock examines a collection of original books from the Bauhaus School of Art in Germany in the Duderstadt Library on Wednesday.
WHAT: As part of an ongoing series of small discussions patterned off the idea of TEDx events, students and residents are invited to come and talk about the impact of storytelling. WHO: TEDx Foundation WHEN: Today from 6:00 p.m to 7:30 p.m. WHERE: North Quadrangle, Room 2435.
Superhero lecture
Translation challenges
King Herod the Great
WHAT: School of Information Associate Prof. Nicole Ellison will discuss the psychology behind social media. WHO: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute WHEN: Today from 10:00 a.m to 11:30 a.m. WHERE: Rave Cinema
WHAT: Speaker Takako Aikawa will discuss translating English into Japanese. WHO: Center for Japanese Studies WHEN: Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work, Room 1636
WHAT: Archaeology Prof. Guy Stiebel will present a fresh look at King Herod the Great. WHO: Department of Near Eastern Studies WHEN: Today from 4 p.m to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
Poetry reading The Power of WHAT: At a Zell Visiting Storytelling Writers Series presentation,
SPRINGFEST From Page 1A laborated with film-oriented student organizations such as M-Agination Films and the Film and Video Student Association to select a line-up of films to display. Moeller said they hope to screen those films at the beginning of the festival and end the evening with a keynote speaker provided through the University’s Department of Screen Arts and Culture. “Our idea was really to reach more areas of campus to promote some student films, promote some student work in areas
we haven’t highlighted in past years,” he said. “Organizations like that already have a pretty large depository of student films and they’ll be sending us some of the ones they’d like to screen at the event.” MUSIC Matters President Darren Appel, a Business senior, said he is excited about the event’s the multi-day schedule. “Since the beginning, the goal has always been to create this end-of-the-year capstone festival event where it’s multiple days long and we’re reaching all areas of campus, and engaging as many people as possible,” Appel said. “So, I think this is
the first installment of making that long-term goal a reality, and I’m really excited to expand in that sense.” LSA senior Marli Siegel, Spring Fest communications director, said she is looking forward to seeing interaction between student organizations and the student body at large. “We’re making such progress with making this an event so that student groups showcase what they’re doing at the University and really highlighting all of their accomplishments,” Siegel said. “I think seeing that come into fruition is really the most exciting and the most rewarding
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On Wednesday, the FBI arrested three Brooklyn men who allegedly planned to launch terrorist attacks in the United States, NBC News reported. The men planned to join the effort of ISIS and if they failed, would return to New York.
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Andrew Dakich is a “coach on the floor” for the Michigan men’s basketball team, and since his early childhood, he has been interested in following his father’s footsteps and entering the coaching profession.
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3 Austrian amputees received the first purely bionic hands ever created Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The hands are defined as bionic because they respond to mental impulses from their users.
thing for sure. All of the additions and all of the expansions that we’re doing I think are only going to elevate and propel that even further from what we’ve achieved in the past.” Though the University hosts several student organization showcases, such as Festifall and Winterfest, Appel said SpringFest is unique. “These are engaging and interactive displays where the students can actually come and not only talk to the students in the different student orgs and startups, but actually touch and feel and gauge at whatever the product is or event is that they’re displaying,” Appel said.
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EBOLA From Page 1A
suit to remove it. The next item created was a visor-based protective garment — a garment that can be modified to fit the user, with a detachable visor that covers the head. The third is a glove removal tool. A disposable sticker, attached to the inside of the glove, allows for easier removal of the glove. Josh Botkin, entrepreneur in residence at the Ross School of Business, was a member of this group. He said he was very impressed with the high quality of the concepts designed in the project. “There was such strong spirit material and change the way of collaboration and shared purGAMES you’re teaching for people who pose that were really apparent From Page 1A need different kinds of supthroughout the entire event,” port. Its like temperature taking Botkin said. in Math, English Language Arts/ along the way.” The second product met the Social Studies and Science. According to the data, teachers challenge of improving commuThe video games used in the who are frequent users of games did nication across cultural and linstudy are different than typical more formative assessments than guistic barriers. video games. According to Jan teachers who are not. When patients are tested posiPlass, education communicaIn the most recent A-GAMES tive for Ebola, they often have to http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ tion and technology professor report, released Thursday, say goodbye to their families to at NYU, video games in learning researchers observed and interbe treated. Since patients are not are designed with purposes and viewed 30 teachers in New York. supposed to touch anyone else, goals fundamentally different Researchers asked teachsaying goodbye to loved ones can from games for entertainment. ers what features of the game be more painful in that the pro“In a game for learning we proved most useful in making cess lacks physical contact. The have to ask what primary educa- sense out of learning. These feasolution to the problem comes in EASY tional function the game should tures included feedback systems the form of the Embrace, a large have, and what learning goals that used points or stars, screen fabric panel that allows a hug they will serve,” Plass said. “In capture and dashboards to track between an infected person and our study the games were more player progress. a non-infected person. on the level of acquiring new Though the study provided The third product aims to skills and automating these insight into the benefits of these improve personal protective skills. Based on these goals the games, Fishman said there were equipment by creating a sheet, way the game has to be designed also a lot of weaknesses. Game the Transformative Tyvek, is fundamentally different.” features such as points or stars which assists in the hygienic The first part of the study, were often hard for teachers to handling of fluids and bodreleased in December, was con- interpret. ies. The sheet can be worn to ducted as a series of nationwide According to Plass, the obsercover the body of someone who surveys to teachers. vation of how teachers use video is handling an Ebola patient. It The study found that of the 27 games for formative assessincludes directions to use the percent of teachers who use digi- ment in the classroom, and the sheet as a bed sheet, vomit contal games for teaching monthly, 34 feedback received from teachtainer, apron, mask and body percent use it as a form of formative ers, allowed them to make recbag. assessment, or as a way to track stu- ommendations for video game Art and Design senior Kelly dent progress with the material. designers to help them underSadlon was a member of the “Formative assessment is a stand which features of games group that created the Transvery common and very impor- are most useful in assessment formative Tykev sheet. She said tant practice in K-12 education,” and learning. though each group was working said Education Prof. Barry Fish“We hope that our study on separate projects, they were man, who is also a professor of unblocks the gridlock between collaborating with each other © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com Informatics. “In general, you what happens in the classroom because each group knew what want some checkpoints to see and what should be put in the the others were doing. how well students understand games as features,” she said. “It was a great chance to build Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
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WHAT: Participants will learn how to create pop art with an Ann Arbor Art poet Natalie Diaz will read WHAT: Participants in Center instructor. her work this salon-style event are WHO: Center for Campus WHO: University of encouraged to share their Michigan Museum of Art experiences with stories and Involvement WHEN: Today from 6:30 WHEN: Today from 5:10 p.m. illustrate their power. p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. WHO: TEDx Foundation WHERE: Museum of Art WHEN: Today from 6 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union to 7:30 p.m. Please report any WHERE: North Quad, error in the Daily Room 2435 to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
WHAT: University of Wisconsin Prof. Ramzi Fawaz will explore how the popular superhero group the Fantastic Four defied gender and sexual norms of the Cold War era. WHO: Institute for Research on Women and Gender WHEN: Today from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. WHERE: Lane Hall, Room 2239
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my leadership qualities and a good experience working in an interdisciplinary environment,” Sadlon said. “I’ve had a few experiences working with interdisciplinary fields but not with public health or engineering so it was very interesting to gain that perspective. When you’re working in an interdisciplinary team, you’re admitting that you don’t have all of the knowledge and you learn to cooperate with people.” The fourth product was designed to improve health communication across cultural and linguistic barriers. The Ebola Survival Radio works to improve communication between workers and villagers. It will also serve as a way for survivors and family members of those affected to share their stories. In an e-mail interview, Corinne Lee, who is in the School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program and was a member of the Ebola Survival Radio group, wrote that the most rewarding part of the project was that it did not stop after the competition ended. “We are now told that the prototypes have been taken over to be considered for utilization in West Africa,” Lee wrote. “And that was a rewarding moment that I have been involved in something that could impact more than just my little world.” Participants also created a guide for family members caring for an Ebola patient in a lowincome area. The guide shows situations where everyday items can be used to limit the risk of contamination while caring for and cleaning up after the contaminated person. Botkin said the event showcased the University’s ability to provide students with powerful experiential learning that can also benefit society. “I look forward to seeing some of the teams’ designs move out into the world, where they can help improve the health, safety and well-being of Ebola patients, their family members and healthcare workers in Africa and beyond,” Botkin said.
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TUITION From Page 1A unanimously agreed to increase this year’s tuition by 1.6 percent for in-state undergraduate students and 3.4 percent for out-ofstate undergraduate students. Before casting her vote, Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R) asked if there was a point when the University could stop increasing its price tag. “It concerns me that many people have asked for a higher appropriation from the state every year, and the state is starting to respond, and I appreciate that,” Newman said. “But, I think we need to be responsible stewards of that increase. So I wonder why we have to have an increase in tuition when the state is stepping up to the plate.” University Provost Martha Pollack responded at the meeting, saying that though the University is invested in keeping costs low for students, it must raise revenue to continue hiring top faculty and updating campus infrastructure. “We do work extremely hard … but we also really need to protect the excellence of the University,” Pollack said. This year’s tuition increase follows the regents’ 2013 decision to bump tuition by 1.1 percent, the lowest hike in 29 years. According to financial reports from Tim Slottow, the former University chief financial officer, the University’s tuition hikes have been among the lowest in the state and in the Big Ten over the past several years. “Tuition and state appropriations are the primary sources of funding for the University’s academic programs. There is a direct relationship between the growth or reduction in state support and the University’s ability to restrain tuition fee increases,” Slottow stated in the 2006 financial report, while still in the role of chief financial officer. In response to the University’s effort to keep tuition percent changes low, Snyder awarded the campus an additional $1.1 million in state funding, the third-largest state grant in 2012. Regardless of efforts in recent years, however, the University has increased its tuition by at least 1 percent, and sometimes more, each year since 2002. A decade ago, the Board of Regents approved a 12.3-percent hike in tuition for in-state students and a 6.9-percent raise for out-of-state students — the largest percentage increase since the turn of the century at the University. “This is unprecedented in the history of the University,” thenProvost Paul Courant told the Daily. Though each subsequent increase in tuition was 5 percentage points or less, overall the University’s base tuition for those enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts has increased 60 percent for in-state students and 55 percent for out-ofstate students from 2005 to 2014. In an interview with the Daily, Cynthia Wilbanks, University vice president of government relations, said tuition rates have a direct relationship with state funding. Rising tuition, she said, can be explained by dwindling state funding. Over the past decade, state appropriations to the University have declined by 40 percent on a per-student basis, when adjusted for inflation. “I think the state had a much greater role in funding higher education prior to this last decade,” Wilbanks said. According to information provided by the office of the University’s vice president for global communications and stra-
GOLDEN APPLE From Page 1A What an incredible honor.” As the recipient of this year’s award, Strobbe will deliver the Golden Apple lecture on March 31 at Rackham Auditorium. Each year, the winner is instructed to choose a lecture topic as if it is the last lecture he or she will ever give. Business junior Jacob Berman, co-chair of the Golden Apple award committee, said there were 750 nominees since Jan. 16, when this year’s nominations began, with well over 100 professors nominated. “First of all, he got a ton of nominations,” Berman said, referring to Strobbe. “Clearly, he
tegic initiatives, tuition rates vary somewhat between different colleges within the University, credit-hour loads and class standing. Tuition money goes to the general fund and helps pay for instruction, financial aid, advising and libraries. It does not pay for athletics, the health system, construction or housing. In an interview last week, University Regent Denise Ilitch (D), who has voted against most tuition increases over her tenure on the board, said she believes it is extremely important to keep higher education affordable for all Michigan residents. “I think that it’s extremely important that we make higher education accessible to our Michigan residents and to make sure that it’s affordable to all, and not just people of means,” Ilitch said. Though pleased at the slowing rate of tuition increases, Ilitch said there are many facets in keeping tuition down, including controlling costs and being more efficient when spending. “I would love to see that, just one year, not to increase tuition,” she added. Keeping the University affordable As tuition costs go up, however, the University has explored affordability efforts in other areas. This year, the board also agreed to a $19.5 million increase in financial aid — part of a general trend of increasing financial aid faster than the rate of tuition. “What (the increase) will allow us to do is ensure that students with need, as we have done in the last few years, will not see an increase in the cost of attendance,” Pollack said in a 2013 interview with the Daily. This tuition increases occur as state-funded opportunities for financial aid have grown scarcer. Along with decreasing funding for higher education, the state of Michigan has cut initiatives to help low- to middle-income students pay for college such as the Michigan Promise Scholarship program in 2009, a merit-based scholarship for students with exceptional Michigan Educational Assessment Program, or MEAP, standardized test scores. State Rep. Amanda Price (R–Holland), chair of the state’s Education Committee, said cutting scholarships like the MEAP scholarship was, in some senses, unavoidable. “I think that’s impacted some folks, I’m sure it has, even lowto middle-income students have been impacted by that cut,” Price said. “But that was driven by the budget realities that the state had been facing and continues to face.” According to figures from the U.S. Department of Education, listed in the most recent Office of Budget Planning almanac, the average state grant has decreased by $2,608 per student. However, the University has increased the average need-based grant it provides to undergraduate students by $4,774 through its own fund since 2002. Though the University’s average state grant per need-based student is the second lowest among all public institutions in the Association of American Universities after MSU, it provides the second-highest amount of aid to students from its own resources at an average of $12,233 per student. The number of need-based grants generally varies based on several factors, chiefly the income distribution among students at an institution. Wilbanks said when it comes to deciding where to protect University funding while setting the budget and enacting cuts, academics and the student experience are a key focus. “Here a very, very important decision was made that the academic quality of the institution
is someone who is beloved and just the way that so many students said he has helped them personally, he is so inspiring in class and he’s helped them out of class, with what he’s done on campus. All that just made him such an obvious choice.” Strobbe is the first director of the University’s Addiction Treatment Services, a clinic that provides treatment for those recovering from alcohol and drug addictions. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Administration Management Award by the International Nursing Society on Addictions for his work. On his Nursing School webpage, Strobbe notes that his main areas of academic interest are addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, mental health and sub-
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had to be the number one priority, and in making it a number one priority you make decisions along the way to support your being able to invest in those high priorities — student experience, faculty excellence and the overall academic excellence of the University,” Wilbanks said. In November 2013, partially in continuation of that push, the University launched the Victors for Michigan campaign — the largest fundraising drive for a public University in history. The campaign, chaired by Stephen Ross, set its goal to $4 billion, with $1 billion earmarked for financial support for students. “We believe that by judiciously controlling our costs and tuition increases, while also committing University funds for financial aid, we can join with donors to make it possible for the best students, from any socioeconomic background, to afford to get a Michigan education,” Newman, the University regent, said in a 2013 statement. Changing student body However, despite maintaining support for low-income students, the University student body has grown wealthier in recent years. Since 2003, the number of University out-of-state undergraduates who did not apply for financial aid or are from families making $150,000 or more annually has increased by 12 percent, according to the almanac. In 2013, for both graduates and undergraduates, in-state students made up about 50.2 percent of the student body — 49.8 percent were either out-of-state or international students. This number of outof-state students has increased by 7.2 percent since 2005. In comparison, out-of-state students comprise around 10 percent of Michigan State University’s student body, a school generally considered the University’s closest peer among public universities in the state. Though the typical student with a family income at $80,000 or below pays less today to attend the University as they did in 2003, also according to the almanac, the number of those students is decreasing. In contrast, the increase in non-resident students and their subsequent rise in tuition money amounted to an added $88 million to the University’s general fund by 2013. In an interview with The Michigan Daily last week, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, said though low income students are provided for from the school’s financial aid, students in the “middle,” socioeconomically, who don’t qualify for Pell Grants yet find the tuition too high, are
stance-use disorders, prevention, treatment and recovery, as well as spirituality. After receiving the award, Strobbe informed his students that their scheduled midterm was still going to take place that day, though he admitted that this was the “best diversionary tactic” he had ever seen. Nursing junior Kristina Ballough, one of Strobbe’s students, said she nominated Strobbe. “He is honestly the best teacher I’ve ever had,” she said. “He is just so passionate and enthusiastic about everything, and just makes it fun to learn and keeps your attention for a three-hour class, which is ridiculous. He does a great job.”
still struggling financially. “It really are the kids in the middle that get squeezed,” she said. “That’s where tuition becomes really critical.” The University’s affordability efforts in comparison Though the University has taken strides toward keeping college affordable for its students, it still falls behind in several key metrics, and in some cases, struggles to build a climate attractive to students of low socioeconomic status. According to Mark Burnham, vice president for governmental affairs at MSU, 54 percent of their students graduate without debt, compared to 46 percent of in-state University students. MSU is closest to the University in size, rank and athletics among public schools in the state. The average amount of debt faced by students at MSU is $24,000. At the University of Michigan, that number is $25,575 — a $1,575 difference — though it is worth noting that tuition at MSU is about $4,500 lower for instate freshman, and about $11,100 lower for out-of-state freshmen. Burnham said similar to the Uni-
Thursday, February 26, 2015 — 3A
versity, MSU has stayed affordable by increasing financial aid opportunities for all students. He said MSU has increased financial aid by 45 percent in the last five years. “We certainly work very hard to make sure we have maximized financial aid as best we have,” he said. Rachel Osmer, college adviser to Ypsilanti Community High School through the Michigan College Advising Corps, works primarily with students in Ypsilanti who come from workingand middle-class backgrounds. She said even though the University has a larger tuition sticker price, because of its endowment and large financial aid resources, many of Osmer’s students have the option of attending the school. “Schools like U of M and MSU because they’re such large schools and such a large alumni network than newer schools, they have more money to offer from the school themselves than from the federal government,” she said. However, Osmer said many of her students from low socioeconomic backgrounds tend to apply to Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University,
Western Michigan University or community colleges. “For a lot of our students here in Ypsilanti, U of M, even though it’s right down the road, it’s still out of reach for them,” she said. “There is this stigma attached to the idea that U of M is an elitist, expensive school.” Schools like CMU or EMU, she said, are more in her students’ comfort zones because other students from similar backgrounds populate them. “The people they see in that school are usually upper-middleclass white men and women,” she said. “They’re not people that look like our students, so it’s not representative of a school they would want to go to.” Overall, Harper said state support is important, but doesn’t entirely address some of the socioeconomic issues students face. “(Nothing) makes the current price tag possible if you’re middle-class and out of state, so I think any support we get from the state is really important because it allows us to ask for less, but it won’t change sort of who comes to campus,” Harper said.
Opinion
4A — Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
VERONICA DAY | VIEWPOINT Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com AARICA MARSH and DEREK WOLFE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
JENNIFER CALFAS EDITOR IN CHIEF
LEV FACHER MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY | VIEWPOINT
Ending victim blaming
At the beginning of fall semester, all freshmen were asked to attend Relationship Remix, a workshop designed for first-year students where the main goals were to discuss how to lead healthy and happy relationships in college, focusing particularly on sexual assault. While there were things about it I would have changed, it’s a very important topic, and I commend the University for making this a priority. Only a few days ago, I got a message in my inbox. The subject read: “Help improve Relationship Remix by taking this short survey!” Before I go further, I want to say it’s not my intention to criticize the survey as a whole. It’s commendable that there was a follow-up to the workshop to allow for feedback. However, I do want to point out something within the survey that points to a larger society issue. I began filling it out, ready to give feedback as to what could make it better. The first few questions I answered in a heartbeat, confident in my answers. Then I got to questions 10 through 20 that asked me to “indicate my level of agreement with this statement.” The first few I answered quickly. Yes, I am confident I “express my own needs and desires in relationships”; yes I strongly agree I know “what a healthy relationship looks like for me.” But nine statements in, I paused, admittedly horrified. The ninth statement read, “I intentionally make choices that reduce the risk I will experience sexual violence.” This statement struck a deep chord. Although it was part of a survey intended to only take a short time and to be forgotten soon after, the survey left a horrible taste in my mouth and it echoes a problem faced across the country. It perpetuates the idea that it’s the survivors’ fault that they experience sexual
V
violence because of the choices that they make. It isn’t clear enough, and it isn’t emphasized enough in society that no decision that anyone makes can implicate them in their own sexual assault. Sexual assault is never the fault of the victim, and by portraying it as such through statements like these, we simply make the problem of victim blaming worse. While it’s true we may privately make choices, knowing that they could put us in situations where we increase the risk of sexual assault (which is disheartening in and of itself ), it should never be in the public discourse that it is up to potential victims to make choices to lower their risks of experiencing sexual assault. One of the largest problems we face when it comes to sexual assault is how we handle it. Recently, lawmakers proposed to arm students on college campuses to combat sexual assault. We need to reassess the discourse around sexual assault. We need to focus our efforts on preventing sexual violence. And for victims of sexual assault, nations need to develop and fund campaigns and organizations that emphasize that survivors cannot and should not be blamed. We must change our systems in ways that don’t allow for victim blaming, and instead focus on prosecuting the perpetrators. We cannot blame the victim any longer. It will only isolate and create an environment where victims are scared to speak out and get support. Ending victim blaming starts with removing statements like these from our University surveys. This isn’t just a national issue perpetrated by lawmakers and law enforcers; this is an issue that must be addressed at local levels such as the University.
“lost” it. But what the heck even is virginity? Is it simply when a penis enters a vagina? An orgasm certainly isn’t in the definition, is it? When do men who only have sex with men “lose their virginity?” Do we re-define virginity as when a penis is stuck inside a hole? Is it all about the penis entering an orifice? So then when do women who only have sex with women lose their virginity? When is “virginity” lost when no penis is involved? Does a woman have to have something stuck inside of her to “lose her virginity?” Based on these basic concepts, it seems like “virginity” is all about the penis. Virginity is about shame, the male orgasm and heterosexual sex. This is a call for vocabulary change. Perhaps we should say I had sex for the first time rather than “I lost my virginity.” Where did you lose it? Should we go find it? Women, we should celebrate having orgasms for the first time, rather than the first time we have a foreign object stuck in our bodies. We should celebrate sex rather than ridding ourselves of virginity. We should celebrate the act of making one another feel good rather than the concept of who took what from whom. Having sex for the first time can be treated as a less weighted experience, while one’s first orgasm is the real celebration. Let’s lose “virginity” as a concept. No one should be labeled by his or her experience levels, but rather by his or her desire to love.
Virginity is about shame, the male orgasm and heterosexual sex.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
— Maris Harmon can be reached at marhar@umich.edu.
Send letters to: tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Energy policies protect health TO THE DAILY: A week and a half ago, the Michigan Public Service Commission released a report concerning the state’s progress of Public Act 295, issued in 2008. This Act requires that by the end of 2015, the state’s electric providers get 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources. According to the report, Michigan’s renewable energy output is at 8.1 percent, and MPSC seems very optimistic that the goal of 10 percent will be met by the end of this year. But, we shouldn’t stop there. The act terminates at the end of this year, and rather than abandoning the efforts already
Children are like angels. Not clean, not innocent, but genderless. I’ve learned more information about angels in my 12 years in Catholic school than I care to account for. For instance, did you know that the fifth rank of angels controls the weather? Me either, and I have my doubts. But I digress. Children, from my experience, are born with little sense of gender identity. I grew up with two little brothers as my only playmates. However, there never seemed to be a gender gap. No one was better or worse because I liked fluffy purple sweaters and they didn’t. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to play when you are a child; at least there wasn’t for me. I played with my fair share of Rescue Heroes and train tracks and Hot Wheels. As we grow older, we’re told that boys and girls are different. Going to a Catholic school, I was conditioned to look different and have different tasks than my male counterparts. Through my intersecting identities as a woman and a Catholic, I can reflect on specific gender norms I learned growing up and was expected to follow. When I was five years old, I got my first makeup set. The glorious glitter lip gloss and bright blue eye shadow entertained me for hours. My brother Thomas, at the angelic age of three, would willingly be my model. After he was glamorized with only the finest dollar-store clip-on earrings money could buy, I would throw a purple feather boa around him and we would march downstairs. My mother would laugh and take pictures as he modeled and twirled around. This wasn’t girly. It wasn’t discouraged, just like racing Barbie’s purple Corvette alongside Thomas’ monster truck wasn’t “boyish.” We were playing dress up, experiencing
in place, we should build off of the growing momentum. By increasing Michigan’s use of renewable energy, an incredible amount of health benefits could follow in its wake. As of now, Michigan ranks fifth in the nation in premature deaths, hospital admissions and heart attacks attributed to coal-fired power plant pollution. We can, and must, do better than this. By demanding cleaner energy and tapping into Michigan’s solar and wind power potential, we will reduce these pollutantinduced diseases. Energy policy, after all, can protect our health. Meghan Laarman LSA sophomore
a ritual that is deemed “normal” for children. So why, once my brothers graduated to the first grade, was my dad scolding them for asking me to paint their nails? Why was this suddenly not OK? My dad would call them “girly” like it was an insult. Suddenly, I lost my favorite playmates. First grade began the uniforms. Oh, the horror! For the next 12 years I would never stop hearing “pull your skirt down,” “don’t sit with your legs open” or “button up that blouse.” Any obvious sign that I had curves in my body was deemed sinful. If you were a woman, you better damn well be feminine, but don’t show your ankles … we wouldn’t want boys to actually realize that you’re a teenage girl or anything. Girls, of course, were permitted to wear pants, but they were unflattering, uncomfortable and socially unacceptable. The status quo was wearing a skirt, rather a plaid kilt. The pressure to fit into the “correct” gender category was immense. The curriculum included eight semesters of theology, one of which was morality. Every day there was a new argument about Catholic teachings. My teacher “proved” that Jesus taught that women shouldn’t be priests by picking only male apostles. Unless you were the Virgin Mary or striving to be her, you were comparable to Eve and her freaking apple. Each day brought a new and equally crazy lesson. The girls in the class would protest, and often debate would ensue. But alas, you can’t change what Moses wrote in stone. Alas, girls can’t be priests because, you know, Jesus said so. I think this is when I realized that there’s a serious mistreatment of women in my religion. As much as I identify as Catholic and have no intention to change that, I recog-
nized that my peers have internalized this inexplicable view that women are subservient to men. The worst was vocation day. I remember dreading it weeks in advance. The boys would go off with the priests and tour whatever seminary we were at. There was a pool table, a bar, a TV and video games. Here was your stereotypical man cave for these pious young men. Who the hell wouldn’t want to be a priest? The girls would wait for the nuns and sisters to come talk to us. Now don’t get me wrong, they were always the sweetest and most selfless women I had met. They dedicated their lives to the poor and needy, and didn’t just pray, but were actively working in the community. However, they presented the veiled life as boring and restrictive. They were forced to wear modest clothing, covering anything that even hinted at the notion that they had breasts or hips. The sisters weren’t allowed to drink, watch TV or, for goodness sake, give sermons! They couldn’t stand at the pulpit and proclaim the Word — that would be putting them in a position too powerful for their fragile female minds to handle. Nuns had to stay in their place, and, honestly, their lives seemed unimportant compared to the men. We play dress up as kids and never truly grow out of it. So many adults today put on their masks, hiding their true identities, afraid of the consequences the truth could bring. We need to learn to restore the cherubic innocence we had when we were young, when gender didn’t matter. If we could live in a society where we could be our truest selves, with the masks off, well wouldn’t that just be Paradise? Veronica Day is an LSA freshman.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Anna Polumbo-Levy is an LSA freshman.
Rejecting virginity
irginity is often something we’re ashamed of and want to get rid of, or something we want to hold onto until marriage so that we maintain “purity.” In the eyes of many people, the first time one has sex with another person is a significant occasion. Everyone has different notions as to why it’s a big deal, but there’s one thing I have found held in common–after it happens, MARIS the big deal is pretty much HARMON over. The build-up is such a big deal that the actual act is almost inconsequential. Originally this notion of “virginity” came from the idea that once an unmarried woman has intercourse with a man, she is tainted with sin and no longer pure for her beloved husband. She is ruined for marriage if she has engaged in intercourse before she is wed. These days, there’s often a pressure to have sex for the first time at a young age. If you haven’t, you are considered inexperienced, and there’s an assumption that you must be undesirable. Since ideas of “purity” no longer have such a strong hold in many communities, there should be no reason that one hasn’t had sex by their late teens. Even while writing this article I feel compelled to make clear that I’m not writing this article because I am a “virgin,” because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t want you to think I’m undesirable or inexperienced. Virginity is based around shame — either shame that you still have it, or shame that you
Returning to Pardise
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Payton Luokkala Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Linh Vu, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe
A response to “Relative wealth”
B
efore I begin, I just want to say that one of the things I value as a columnist for The Michigan Daily is that I can explore a wide variety of topics and speak frankly and honestly through my own experiences. I’ve written columns about language JENNY barriers, racism, WANG femininity, religious minorities, among others, and I appreciate that The Michigan Daily allows me to do so. For this reason, I, too, really cherish the idea of having other people write from their own unique perspectives. I read a recent column titled “Relative Wealth,” and there were parts of it that I found illuminating and fascinating — the cultural differences between the Bay Area and Ann Arbor, for example. Likewise, I sympathized with Klein’s sense that her views on money differ from other Michigan students. However, I also want to bring in my own perspectives — the part that differs from Klein’s. I am among the minority whose family does not earn $100,000 or more a year. I am also an Ann Arbor native. Before she got laid off, my mother was earning about $30,000 a year. She is currently making an inconsistent $900 a month, without benefits. I’m not saying this to incite pity, but to give a sense of where exactly I’m coming from. I consider myself extremely lucky, not only because I am attending this school, but also because I have been able to receive financial aid and scholarships to be here. Without this kind of money, I would not have the option of living close to campus (as opposed to commuting from home via bus). I would not have the option
of taking the kind of classes I want to take. And I would not have the option of considering a computer science double major (not surprisingly, the tuition for an LSA computer science major is that of the Engineering school, about $1,500 more per semester than any other LSA major). And that, I think, is my main point: how money gives people options. It sounds like such a cliché, but the thing to remember is that clichés originate from an experience that is true, regardless of how many times they are uttered. Even if there are cultural differences between spending habits in California and Michigan, what remains true is that the wealthy in each state still have the option of buying whatever it is they want. Yes, it’s fascinating that people in California would much rather travel or collect experiences than buy clothes, but it seems to me that these Californians still have the option of buying expensive clothes if they wanted. And for townies, it might be true that we care more about fashion, but what remains valid is that the wealthy among us can still book a plane ticket to Europe whenever they want. Both options are still readily there. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there’s a difference between having a family who needs to save some money here and there to afford an out-of-state school, and having a family who knows that the out-of-state institutions are not even up for consideration. I think it’s important to consider the differences between paying for a pric-
ey drink and not having the money to even buy drinks in the first place because most of that spending money is going towards necessities. These, in my opinion, are the kinds of comparisons we should be looking at more closely, the kinds of comparisons that we should work to eliminate in our society. Until I wrote this piece, I have very purposefully steered clear of discussing my low socioeconomic status. I have, since coming to Michigan, come to embrace my status as a woman, as a person of color, etc. But I have never felt that I could fit in with my peers because of my SES. It’s a part of me that makes me feel, in a strange way, ashamed. I will not forget the day my mother opened the mail and found an anonymous check of $200 to help us pay for the bills; she broke down in front of me in shame, and I felt completely worthless because there was nothing else we could do — we had no other option of paying for our utilities than to accept this generous donation. So given that students like me don’t feel we have a proper place in this school, the most important thing we can do is help each other find a way we belong. We want to find each other; we want to reach out to each other; we want to know that our presence here is not a burden. While I still appreciate the new perspective “Relative Wealth” provided, I think some of what it did to students like me is remind us of just how little we relatively have, of just how few of us there might be.
That, I think, is my main point: how money gives people options.
— Jenny Wang can be reached at wjenny@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, February 26, 2015 — 5A
Andrew Dakich: The ‘coach on the floor’ By LEV FACHER Managing Editor
Dan Dakich had a play drawn up. Down two points in the final seconds of regulation, he was trying to squeeze the last ounces of productivity out of an exhausted crew of 17-year-olds, and he knew he had to go for the win. So out came the clipboard, and the former head coach at Bowling Green and Indiana let his team, an AAU squad known as the Indiana Elite, know what was going to happen. They’d isolate Mark Donnal, now a redshirt freshman forward for the Michigan men’s basketball team, in the corner and give him the chance to win the game with a 3-pointer. Everybody was on board except for Dakich’s son, Andrew. He told his father the obvious — they needed just two points to tie, not three. The elder Dakich, now a college basketball analyst at ESPN, recalled the ensuing interaction like it was yesterday: “Every single guy in the huddle turned and said, ‘Andrew, shut the hell up!’ ” Donnal, Dakich’s teammate at Michigan, drained the 3-pointer. Andrew, now a sophomore guard for the Wolverines, laughed as he and his teammates celebrated the buzzer-beater win. “He was always talking,” Dan Dakich said. “I used to have to tell him, ‘sit the hell down and let me coach the team,’ even though he always had an opinion that I privately thought was great.” Regardless of whether he’s playing in an AAU or a college game, the younger Dakich has never been shy about expressing his opinions on the court or from the sidelines. His father has a picture of a young Andrew, no more than nine or 10 years old, on his mantle at home — he’s holding a clipboard and dry-erase marker, smiling as he draws up a play for his teammates. Dakich also hasn’t been shy about his long-term interest in a coaching career. It’s one of the main reasons he chose to walk on for the Wolverines instead of accepting a scholarship at a Division II school. “Coach Beilein is a guy that I’ve always admired, and I think I want to get into coaching afterward,” he said. “There’s no better way than to be in a system like his and learn from him.” Coming to Ann Arbor wasn’t without its downsides, though. Dakich knew full well that joining a team fresh off a Final Four appearance as a walk-on would make getting minutes far more difficult than it would have been at a Division II school or a less competitive Division I program. All the same, one would expect Dakich’s transition from a starting role and scoring average of 14.1 points at Zionsville (Indiana) to his role as a reserve with extremely limited minutes at Michigan to have been difficult. That’s not the case, according to the men who have spent more time than anyone else coaching him: his father and Zionsville coach Shaun Busick. “Andrew Dakich is a very selfless young man,” Busick said. “He had no illusions about what he was getting into. The fact that he turned down Division II scholarship offers to come to Michigan shows that he really, really, really wants to play, and he loves the game.” Still, Dakich found himself at the end of the bench during his freshman season with an unusual amount of time on his hands during games. Accustomed to being on the court constantly at Zionsville, he needed to find a way to contribute. The solution was the Bench Mob, a Dakich-led crew of reserves who expressed their satisfaction with Michigan’s play on the court in an unusual and unimaginably enthusiastic manner. Dakich even inspired a YouTube montage of his sideline dance moves, entitled “UM Hoops: Bench Mob Revolution,” that has over 18,000 views. He has
a knack for predicting the future, too — many of the clips show him leaping from his seat on the bench to celebrate a made basket, never mind the ball not even having left the shooter’s hands. “That all started at Michigan,” Dan Dakich said. “He was always in the game (at Zionsville). He’s just an enthusiastic kid. If kids called him up in the neighborhood and they were going to play baseball down the street, he ran. He was the first one there.” Andrew Dakich has plenty of examples to draw from for his creativity. Apart from having spent his youth watching his father coach basketball — even apart from Beilein — Dakich has a number of coaching role models at Michigan. Assistant coaches Bacari Alexander, Jeff Meyer and LaVall Jordan regularly advise him not just as an aspiring basketball player, but as an aspiring coach. Alexander, Dakich said, is the coach with whom he speaks the most about his aspirations in the field. There’s plenty to say and even more to show — beyond his coaching prowess, Alexander is known for off-court antics that leave his players with no other option than to absorb his message. In 2013, Alexander famously took a stack of Pringles and placed a single potato chip on each of his players’ shoulders, instructing them to — wait for it — “play with a chip on their shoulder” in their upcoming game against Ohio State. “When you’re a coach, regardless of the sport, it’s important to use different types of analogies and metaphors to engage student-athletes,” Alexander said. “As humorous or creative as a pregame speech might be, it also serves as a mechanism to get guys to encapsulate a message that goes way beyond antics.” To Alexander, it’s obvious that Dakich encapsulates whatever message his coaches and teammates leave him with. Dakich’s communication skills, poise and basketball knowledge also made an early impression on Busick when the family moved to Zionsville prior to his freshman year. “He moved here the summer before his freshman year, I believe, and I could tell then that he had a great knowledge of the game,” Busick said. “And I give my point guards a lot of freedom to talk to me about things, to give me suggestions. Andrew would always have something good.” Dakich said he has always viewed his position as a sort of floor general, a traffic director who distributes and stays away from a scoring-first mentality. “My role is to get people open, get open shots for other people and be a coach on the floor,” Dakich said. “That’s kind of always been my role, growing up, so I think that I just add another vocal piece to the game.” Clearly, though, that role extends beyond his actual on-court minutes, which were far and few between until recently. Dakich’s plan entering his sophomore year was to sit out the season as a redshirt. It made sense — he hadn’t played much his freshman year, and taking advantage of an opportunity to play a fifth year in a less competitive conference was a no-brainer. But the circumstances have changed in a big way since the preseason — to say the least, Michigan’s 2014-15 season hasn’t gone the way its players and coaches had initially hoped. Coming off an Elite Eight appearance, the Wolverines began the year ranked No. 24 and had high expectations despite having lost three players — Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary — to the NBA. Those hopes took a tumble when Michigan sustained earlyseason losses to the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Eastern Michigan, and they went into a full-on nosedive when the Wolverines lost junior guard
“He’ll be a more patient coach than I ever was.”
Caris LeVert and later sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr., to a foot injuries. Michigan’s suddenly short rotation gave Dakich an obvious opportunity to burn the redshirt, something he had wanted to do for weeks, even before the injuries to two of the Wolverines’ most important players. “My plan, ever since I got here, was to play for the University of Michigan,” Dakich said. “I talked to Coach Beilein and Coach (Alexander) right after the Northwestern game, after we heard the news about Caris, and they were asking me if I was sure I wanted to do this. I said I was 100 percent in, whatever way to help the team. “To be honest, I just thought the fifth year would help me either possibly play here, or possibly somewhere else. My goal is not to leave the University of Michigan. My goal is to play here. If I can play here for the fifth year, fine, if I can’t, then I’ll maybe figure something out, go somewhere else for another year.”If playing a fifth year is still
Dakich’s goal, using his junior year to redshirt would be the logical option. As of now, though, there’s no plan either way. “That’s going to be up in the air,” Dakich said. “I don’t know the answer to that right now.” Dakich’s on-court presence did beg an important question, now that he’s playing meaningful minutes: who would run the Bench Mob with its leader preoccupied with playing basketball? “That’s a good question,” Dakich said. “I think we all kind of get hype for each other. We all play off one another.” It took him six game appearances to score his first points of the season, a 3-pointer from the corner in Michigan’s 64-57 upset of Ohio State on Feb. 22. “I was just relieved,” Dakich said. “I haven’t been playing the way I think I can, sometimes, and to finally hit that first shot — I couldn’t stop smiling, because I’ve waited for this moment my whole life, and to do it against a really good Ohio State team is
pretty cool.” Beilein, Busick and Dan Dakich were all thrilled to see the shot find net, but as basketball coaches, they shared a common complaint. “I’m gonna give him the business,” Beilein said after the game, “because he made a 3 and then … we gave up a 3 at the other end. There was two or three steps of celebration, and maybe relief, that maybe (could be) attributed to that. If it didn’t, I’ll make it attributed to that.” Though Dakich now has an opportunity to build off his increased playing opportunities, there’s still a bottom line for Michigan that hasn’t been met. The Wolverines have lost five of their last six games and are struggling in their question for a postseason bid. The silver lining, according to Alexander and Dan Dakich, is that this year demonstrates many coaching adages more clearly than any spoken piece of advice ever could. “It’s just one of those things,” Dan Dakich said. “When you have
success, enjoy the hell out of it.” Alexander said that Dakich has had the opportunity to observe a “solution-oriented” coaching staff. It’s a good experience, Alexander said, for Dakich to witness his coaches using a “growth mindset” in dealing with a problem that all coaches face at one point or another: an underclassman-laden team that at the end of the day is simply lacking savvy and experience in big-time college basketball. With Michigan’s players having suffered more heartbreak losses this season than they care to remember, there are opportunities aplenty for Dakich to offer his teammates pearls of wisdom. From the sound of it, he won’t have any trouble getting hired. “He’ll be a more patient coach than I ever was,” Dan Dakich said. Patience or not, Dakich won’t have to wait long to land a coaching gig. But with Beilein, Busick and his father as role models, he knows he’ll be held to the highest of standards.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Sophomore Andrew Dakich is perhaps the most enthusiastic member of the Michigan men’s basketball team, a trait he hopes to one day take into coaching.
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ACROSS 1 Wrap giant 6 Reliever Orosco with the MLB record for career pitching appearances 11 Center of excellence? 14 Quaking causes 15 Plant pest 16 Rest one’s dogs, so to speak 17 It’s fraudulent 19 “Double Fantasy” artist 20 Extras in an env. 21 Squeezed (out) 22 Web-footed critter 24 Mustard, for one: Abbr. 25 Encouraging shouts 26 Shout 27 It’s fabricated 30 “Saint Joan” star Jean 31 __ Locks: St. Marys River rapids bypass 32 Hid the gray in 33 Brewers’ outfielder Braun 35 Creator of Della 37 Morales of film 40 Part of a foot 42 Pompous authority 46 It’s fake 49 Beer with “Since 1775” on its label 50 Big dos 51 Grazing area 52 More of that 53 Detective Peter of old TV 54 Estate attorney’s concern 55 __ Lingus 56 Race errors, and what 17-, 27- and 46-Across have 59 Mrs., in much of the Americas 60 Classic sixcouplet poem 61 Has __: can save face 62 Triumphant cry 63 Dost espy 64 Has a sudden inspiration?
DOWN 1 Gets to 2 Heroine of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” 3 AAA, for one 4 AAA et al. 5 Enzyme suffix 6 Hiked, with “up” 7 “The Comedy of Errors” setting 8 Word with wood or water 9 Quote qualifier 10 Ex-mayor with a cameo in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” 11 Abstruse stuff 12 Pedigree 13 Came (in) dramatically 18 Convention attendees 23 Exploit 25 “Live at the __”: Patsy Cline album 26 Venomous arachnids 28 Sources of fine wool
29 “... rapping at my chamber door” poet 34 Fish-fowl link 36 Filming sites 37 Heaven on earth 38 “Told ya!” 39 Natural light shows 41 Pours out 43 Short, tailored jackets 44 Really dug something
45 San Simeon family 47 Guards may prevent them 48 Antarctic explorer Shackleton 53 Pure delight 54 1985 U.S. Open champ Mandlikova 57 Modern art? 58 Recess game
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Sports
6A — Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
BASEBALL
JC transfer Cody Bruder now thriving at Michigan Junior off to hot start for ‘M’ after two years in junior college By NATHANIEL CLARK Daily Sports Writer
Being a newcomer is often intimidating, as many college students know. Junior left fielder Cody Bruder is no exception. This is his first season with the Michigan baseball team — he spent his first two years at Orange Coast College. “Being the new kid on the block you always have some hesitation,” Bruder said, “and you kind of have to prove yourself right away.” Bruder’s impact on the Wolverines is already showing. On Feb. 20 against Tennessee Tech, he went 3-for-4 with a game-tying RBI triple in the eighth inning and a go-ahead bunt single in the ninth inning of Michigan’s 5-4 victory. “These guys get hyped for things like that,” Bruder said of his teammates’ reaction to his lateinning heroics. “They made me feel right at home like any great family would.”
hardest-working women I’ve ever met,” Bruder said. “A single mother starting out with no job just raising Kelsey and me, and we didn’t know we were struggling at all, because she was out grinding.” He took the lessons he learned from his mother and sister to Santiago High School in Corona, California, where he graduated in 2012. He was named Offensive Player of the Year his senior season. Yet in spite of the praise Bruder received in high school and the fact that he was named one of ESPN’s top prospects in 2011, he remains modest about his time at Santiago. “To be completely honest,” Bruder said, “I wasn’t that great in high school at all.” *** Bruder’s next step was attending Orange Coast College. While attending a junior college is not a path often taken by someone who compiled a 4.1 GPA his senior year of high school, he credits the coaching staff there with revamping his swing and improving his fielding. “Going to a junior college might have been the best thing that ever happened to me,” Bruder said. “Those coaches were wizards and made me the player I am today. Between there and (Michigan), I have had amazing coaches and I owe my success to all of them.” The lessons paid off. In 2013, Bruder’s freshman year, he netted a .336 batting average with six doubles, three triples and 28 RBI. The next year was even more fruitful for Bruder, as he batted .359 with 10 doubles, eight triples, four home runs and 31 RBI while leading Orange Coast to a No. 1 ranking among California junior colleges. “(The 2014 team) was the greatest team I’ve been on before this year,” Bruder said. “To get a collection of athletes like that at a junior college in California was pretty special.”
“To be completely honest, I wasn’t that great in high school at all.”
* * * Bruder is no novice to the game of baseball. He started playing at the age of four, as he looked up to his sister Kelsey and his mother Raleen. His mother played softball for Weber State from 1980 to 1982, and Kelsey played softball for Florida from 2008 to 2011 before turning professional. “(Kelsey) is the hardest worker I know, so I try to model myself after her,” Bruder said. “We got along way too well for siblings, always rooting for each other.” Bruder had similar praise for his mother. “Definitely one of the
While the Wolverines aren’t known for recruiting junior college players, Michigan coach Erik Bakich knew right away that he found a winner in Bruder. “He’s had a lot of repetitions being a California junior college player,” Bakich said. “We knew we wanted someone who would have the opportunity to step in and contribute right away. The best is yet to come.” * * * On the academic side, Bruder majored in zoology at Orange Coast and is currently studying evolutionary anthropology at Michigan. He plans to go to graduate school and devote his life to saving endangered species. “AP Environmental Science my junior year of high school really opened my eyes to environmental issues and species endangerment around the world,” Bruder said. But it would be misleading to say Bruder is all business. He is a big fan of Nickelodeon’s TV show “Spongebob Squarepants,” an avid Yu-GiOh! card player and a Pokemon enthusiast. “I play (Yu-Gi-Oh!) with my friends and go to local tournaments,” Bruder said. “It’s people’s livelihoods. There are cards out there selling for $80 each.” Yet his favorite way to relieve tension is to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. “Sometimes you just have to take out aggression,” Bruder said. “What better way to do that than Call of Duty?” Bruder’s fun-loving attitude seems to be shared among his teammates, and Bakich is a significant contributor to the weirdness of the team. “This is the weirdest bunch I’ve been a part of,” Bruder said. “You just got a collection of different people in one unison creating a cool, weird vibe. We feed off of coach Bakich’s intensity. He’s a colorful human being.” Cody Bruder may be a newcomer to the Wolverines, but with the impact he has had on the team, it’s as if he was always there.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Sophomore third baseman Lindsay Montemarano has heated up after a slow start to the season.
Montemarano ignites lineup By KEVIN SANTO Daily Sports Writer
Sophomore infielder Lindsay Montemarano was holding herself to a high standard coming into this season. “Everyone worked really hard in the summer to come back strong,” Montemarano said. “I felt like this summer I had a mindset where I wanted to come back (as a sophomore), and I wanted to step up and show everybody what I was capable of.” Yet nine games into the Michigan softball team’s season, Montemarano had not recorded a single hit, starting 0-for-14. She explained that she struggled early in the season because she had such a strong desire to play well. Montemarano knew what she was capable of but was struggling to execute on the field. This led to a decline in her confidence in the batter’s box and lent itself to a mental issue in her game. But Montemarano didn’t just feel sorry for herself. Rather, she did something about it. According to Michigan coach Carol Hutchins, Montemarano was putting in extra work before the Easton Bama Bash this past
weekend. Hutchins explained that senior catcher Lauren Sweet misses the majority of practice on Tuesdays, so the two of them typically run through hitting drills afterward. But that week, they had a welcome addition: Montemarano. If that wasn’t enough, the sophomore infielder was back at it Wednesday morning, perusing film with coaches and searching for technical flaws in her swing. And eventually, they found something. “My front foot,” Montemarano said. “When I was putting it back to start my swing, my front toe was coming up and I was getting onto my heels. So I had no power, and I was completely spinning off the ball. It was a pretty easy fix, it wasn’t my whole swing.” And that “easy fix” did wonders. Montemarano went 6-for-14 on the weekend. Fittingly, in the final game of the weekend against James Madison, Montemarano stepped up to the plate in the second inning and sent the ball flying over the leftfield fence. “She was due,” Hutchins said. “Mentally, her game improved and therefore the rest of her game improved.”
In their season-opening series, the Wolverines scored 18 runs and did not record a single runrule victory. But heading into the Easton Bama Bash, Montemarano was the only blemish in a Michigan lineup that was excelling at the plate. At that point, Michigan had scored 36 more runs and recorded three run-rule victories. After Montemarano’s breakout performance against Lipscomb this past weekend, Michigan rolled onward to five victories, posting 42 runs in the process. At this point, the Wolverines’ lineup has eight players who have hit at least one home run. In a lineup with only one slap hitter, there is plenty of power. “Hitting is contagious sometimes,” said junior shortstop Sierra Romero. “So as soon as someone starts going, all of a sudden everyone starts going. Our bats are on fire right now, so we’re just hoping that that continues into spring break.” So when Montemarano finally found her swing, Michigan’s lineup became all the more dangerous. In that nine-game cold streak, she struggled with consistency. But now, she’s just another one of the nine Wolverines to be reckoned with.
the b-side
2
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, February 26, 2015
DESIGN BY YENNY HOANG
See VENUE, Page 2B
the b-side
2B — Thursday, February 26, 2015
VENUE From Page 1B By CAROLYN DARR Daily Arts Writer
What’s a teen to do on a Friday night? In Ann Arbor, countless music venues open their doors and host fantastic shows of all different genres, but almost every location has an age limit. Fortunately, for those under 18 who want to get involved in the Ann Arbor music scene, there is the B-Side, the only music venue run by and for teens. The B-Side is the music arm of the Neutral Zone — Ann Arbor’s nonprofit teen center entering its 15th year. The Neutral Zone started hosting concerts for youths of all ages in 1999 when teens proposed hosting fundraising concerts on Friday nights. The Neutral Zone made a makeshift stage to host the acts in their location on Main Street, but when it decided to move in 2006, the new facility on East Washington was established with a separate in-house concert hall specifically for B-Side acts.
“It’s giving them first-hand experience...” The Neutral Zone itself is Ann Arbor’s space for teens to grow through community leadership and artistic expression. Programs are offered in music, literary arts, visual arts and leadership, allowing teens a wide variety of options to choose from. The Zone also provides educational opportunities for teens such as assistance with college admissions and tutoring by volunteering University students. The Neutral Zone is open from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday to make space for B-Side shows. These hours allow teens to come and go to and
within the space as they please, choosing which programs they would like to participate in. There is a program fee for teens who choose to participate in the artsbased programs, but scholarships are available and no teen is ever turned away. As long as students are of high school age, they are free to partake in the welcoming community of the Neutral Zone. The physical space of the B-Side feels like an underground club with paintings on every wall. When facing the stage, the eye is immediately drawn to the left-side wall, which depicts a mural honoring Disco D, a producer and composer from Ann Arbor who passed away in 2007. Neutral Zone students and alumni do all the artwork, which varies greatly in style and scheme. Jamall Bufford, the Neutral Zone music coordinator, has been with the B-Side since its inception, both as a performer and now as staff. Bufford, a rapper in his own right, had been pursuing his music career touring in Europe and Australia, but returned to his native Ann Arbor four years ago searching for his next move. A friend pointed him toward his old performance space at the Neutral Zone, suggesting he help out with the emcee workshop. Then, two years ago, he became the music coordinator of all the teen music programs, which include beatmaking, DJing, live sound engineering, recording studio, record-label operation, emceeing and, of course, the B-Side. “My job is to just essentially coordinate the teen’s visions and help them see it through,” Bufford said. “This is a youth-driven space so whatever their vision is we try to help them make it happen. They dictate how the program is run. For the B-Side they book the shows, they actually work the shows, they take the door money, they work the concession stands and they stagemanage. They also help handle the money at the end of the show and they pay the Neutral Zone for staffing and pay the bands. It’s giving them first-hand experience on how to manage a concert venue.”
B-Side meetings, where the real work gets done, are casual and freeform. More like a group of good friends hanging out and talking about music than a planning committee, teens are free to come and go as they please. No one person is in charge and everyone is free to input their opinion on the project at hand. Bufford is only there to maintain order and guide the conversation, while the teens produce
VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
the bulk of the planning ideas. Halfway through a meeting I sat in, a Zone volunteer giving a prospective member a tour of the space came in. The B-Side teens were welcoming and enthusiastic, praising their coordinator and explaining their respective workgroups. Upon hearing the prospective teen play drums, three of the B-Siders immediately offered him a spot in their band. Each of the B-Side concerts, which are usually held every Friday, cost around $5 and are booked and promoted by the teens that participate in the B-Side workshop. The seven-to-ten teens find bands to host, promote the show with flyers and online, and staff the concert. “(The teens) choose what they want to do here at the Neutral
Meester all grown up By GIBSON JOHNS Daily Arts Writer
HOTLY WANTING
-XOXO Gossip Floor
coffee from a travel mug and often had her eyes closed when she was singing, seemingly forgetting for a moment that there was an audience of almost 300 watching her. She was in the zone. The all-male five-piece band that backed her meshed well, and their presence proved comforting to Meester. (She may or may not have proclaimed that her “bassist is bae.”) Most notably, her album’s producer, Jeff Trott, who was also behind some of Sheryl Crow’s earliest hits, was there and impressively jumped between instruments. What may have held Meester back the most from truly connecting, though, was simply the fact that the material from her debut left a bit to be desired. Other than a few standout tracks — “Heartstrings,” “L.A.,” “Good for One Thing,” — they proved to be a bit one-note in a live setting, which made for especially forgettable moments when compared to the handful of strong, engaging covers she sprinkled throughout her set (Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” as the show’s rousing encore). Considering the popularity and mainstream appeal of “Gossip Girl” and the oft-forgotten “Country Strong,” Leighton Meester’s other career choices have been a bit all over the place and generally unsatisfying. She was in the campy thriller “The Roommate,” the odd
Zone, nothing is mandatory, it’s not like school. It’s just their own intrinsic want to be here, to be a part of something cool, something fun,” Bufford said. “They kind of gravitate toward what they like. We try to plan shows almost every week if we can, which is pretty involved especially if you’re a high school teen. So the fact that they come here every week and try to put together a nice show is amaz-
Jamall Bufford is music coordinator for the Neutral Zone.
CONCERT REVIEW
“Is Chace Crawford a good kisser?!” Leighton Meester, of “Gossip Girl” fame, was at The Magic Bag in Ferndale, Mich. to perform songs from her debut album, Heartstrings. She wasn’t there to be incessantly hounded with questions about her days playing Blair Waldorf on a television show that ended three years ago. The question, which interrupted her demurely telling the audience about her tour, prompted Meester to stop mid-sentence, pause and then signal for her band to begin the next song. And so the tone for the night was set by a handful of drunk postgrads in the pit. To be fair, the “Gossip Girl” references are to be expected at a Leighton Meester concert. Moments like this, unsurprisingly, happened multiple times on Monday night. Blair Waldorf is “Gossip Girl” ’s most recognizable and beloved character — which is a statement that held true during the show’s heyday and still holds true today, as the Queen B of the Upper East Side’s legacy is upheld by her pervasiveness in meme culture and on Tumblr. But the audience’s incessant yelling about that era of her career quickly turned disrespectful, and it made the dynamic between Meester and the audience quite uncomfortable. Regardless, throughout her 12 song set, Meester’s vocals were clean, breezy and sometimes twangy. They proved that her foray into music represents more than just another bored actress with easy access to the industry mindlessly trying her hand at music. She has real talent, real perspective and real intentions. Her influences — Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — weren’t surprising, as it was clear that they’re the types of women she was striving to emulate both in tone and aesthetic. Her and her band’s performance style was at once casual and serious, almost recalling a jam band performing for themselves in one of their parents’ garages. With a flannel shirt tied around her waist, Meester frequently took sips of
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
dramedy “The Oranges,” Adam Sandler’s “That’s My Boy,” Selena Gomezcs childish but fun “Monte Carlo” and a few other barely-seen films. Musically, her biggest hit has been her collaboration with Cobra Starship, “Good Girls Go Bad.” She has released a few folksy covers here and there, and she had an underrated song with Robin Thicke. Point being, for all of the obvious talent that she has, Leighton Meester has shown little to no direction throughout her career. And I’m not sure where the Heartstrings album and tour truly fit in. Perhaps it has been about not getting the material right — a tour on which the covers she performs outshine the songs from the album it’s promoting, films that appear promising in trailers but end up disappointing. But, judging by her reaction to the crowd’s reaction, it’s also about her feeling stuck in the giant shadow that Blair Waldorf cast down on her from the steps of the Met. She’s almost gotten it right again — and this tour is certainly a step in the right direction — but Leighton Meester still hasn’t come close to matching the peak of her “Gossip Girl” days. Maybe she doesn’t want to; maybe she just wants to create music that she enjoys and doesn’t care about the public’s — and “Gossip Girl” fans’ — approval. If that’s the case, then let’s just hope that she’s having fun doing so. And judging by her show on Monday, she’s at least doing that.
ing to me because they don’t have to do it.” Ben Schaaf, a current sophomore at Rudolf Steiner High School in Ann Arbor, became a Zone member after playing a show at the B-Side. “I had played a fundraiser for a child who went to Steiner who needed a bone marrow transplant,” Schaaf said. “My band played the fundraiser there in eighth grade and I got inspired to come join the B-Side through some friends I met there who had been in it for some time.” The bands that play the B-Side can be chosen through a variety of ways. They can submit their music for review, come pitch a show at a B-Side meeting, or are selected by the teen fans themselves. The B-Side hosts special shows
every first Friday of the month, showcasing new talent including not just music, but also poetry and art. The first 25 people in the door on those nights get in free. The most recent First Friday featured Ann Arbor bands the Euphorics, Caves and Creal. Caves pianist Summer Krinsky, a University alum, said the band was booked through their friend and fellow locals the Euphorics, many of whom had members involved in the B-Side throughout their high school years. “Since the B-Side is communityfunded, it has an amazing setup and happens to be one of the best spaces we have ever played in Ann Arbor,” Krinsky said. “The B-Side definitely has one of the best sounding rigs and rooms and a great crew working there. It is absolutely an underappreciated venue and I hope that college bands play there more frequently with high school bands to bridge the two music scenes that are both very much thriving in Ann Arbor.” Krinsky did mention, however, that it is often hard to encourage college student attendance of B-Side shows because, as a teen venue, there is no alcohol allowed on the premises and shows must end by 11 p.m. However, this did not seem to impact the crowd on the night of Feb. 9, as the large room dedicated to B-Side shows was packed with teens of all ages chatting and dancing to the music. One large-scale event that some of the B-Side teens assist in planning every year is a festival called Live on Washington, held outside in the summer. Washington Street in front of the Neutral Zone is blocked off and a large stage is erected. There is also a smaller stage for acoustic acts that runs in the Comerica parking lot next door. During the day are teen acts of all different genres leading up to a larger headliner. The last two years featured Shigeto and Mayer Hawthorne in addition to a variety of fantastic teen acts. Ali Shahin, a senior at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, participates in both the B-Side and Live
on Washington. “I started here at the B-Side around Fall 2013,” Shahin said. “My friends were in a really popular music group here, Creal, and they were performing a free show here. The first time I came I thought it was super awesome that teens were doing all this so I stuck around.” Two years later, Shahin is now a teen facilitator and is currently organizing SOAR, Speak Out Against Rape, which will be held in the B-Side venue in March. “What I love about the B-Side is the youth-driven approach to both finding talent, putting talent on stage, making sure everything goes smoothly, making sure we’re professional; and its all driven by young people who are passionate about music,” Shahin said.
A club run by and for teens. The B-Side provides a space in Ann Arbor for teens to be themselves and spend time on their own terms. Coordinator Bufford believes the musical aspect of the program provides an easy gateway to the rest of the activities offered by the Neutral Zone. “Music has a way of touching a lot of people, and so if we can use music to get people in the door here, maybe they might discover they like something else,” Bufford said. “This is a place they can express themselves and then find other people who have similar interests so that they don’t feel alone. Whether they feel like what they do is weird, or their parents might not support them rapping or them being in a punk metal band, or they may not support the type of art they draw, but then they come here and they say, ‘Hey you do the same thing, well that’s cool.’ So they feel like they have that kind of support system and they feel comfortable here and it’s a safe space.”
EPISODE REVIEW This season, there hasn’t been another show that has broken out like “Empire.” The series is a monster in B the ratings, growing each Empire week since its premiere at Wednesdays the beginning of January. at 9 p.m. Despite its suc- Fox cess, the show is not perfect, and this episode exemplified both the drama’s high-points and flaws. Most of “Empire” ’s successes stem from one performer: Taraji P. Henson (“Person of Interest”), who single-handedly carries this episode. She shows a wide range in her performance, from a more nuanced moment with her speech to company investors, to an angry moment when Elle (Courtney Love, “Sons of Anarchy”) appears high at the event. She brings all the different sides of Cookie to life in a way that makes the show worth
FOX
watching just for her character — in a way similar to watching Viola Davis on “How to Get Away with Murder.” However, the episode doesn’t shy away from some of the more frustrating aspects of “Empire.” Lucius Lyon’s (Terrence Howard, “Iron Man”) health has been a consistent issue, as he decides to remain on a drug despite its potentially killing him. Even in the heightened reality of “Empire,” character
choices like that don’t register as choices someone in real life would make. If the show didn’t have some of these character issues, Henson and its wonderful music (last week’s hour featured a great performance by Jamal and Hakeem) would be enough to carry it. Unfortunately, some elements were frustrating enough that they hurt the episode. -ALEX INTNER
SINGLE REVIEW Who are you, Jack Garratt? The brother of the famed James Blake? Or cousin of Jamie Woon? Perhaps one of the two, as Ait seems you have similarly Chemical descended from the R&B Jack Garratt electronic Island Records genre, one of the finest sonic creations of millennial musicians to date. The mystical and domineering auditory forces that emerge from Garratt’s most recent single, “Chemical,” are overwhelmingly enjoyable. It’s the combination of dilating beats, a chorus of rising alto voices and the emotionally entrenched, sweeping range of Garratt’s vocals that drag the listener into the track. The steady clap, clap, clap and low bass voices lure the listener in before crescendoing into a spastic chorus of electronics that — while possessing the tenor to frighten a nearby dog — are delicious little Pop Rocks for the headphones. The calculated
ISLAND RECORDS
depth of Garratt’s “Chemical” ensures that even an obsessive listening session won’t prevent the discovery of some fascinating new rift, dip or sultry lyric. Garratt, a 23-year-old Brit, has just begun to watch his career take flight. His 2014 EP, Remnants, sparked a seemingly never-ending European tour and only positive accolades from the critics. He’s inserting himself into a niche of the music industry that Baths created years ago, the melding of emotion to electronics. Har-
nessing the combined powers of the sound booth, its sound boards, sampling abilities and the human heart, the combination has found success over the past half decade. Garratt holds the talent to keep deepening this musical divot, and he’s already attached three successful singles to his name: “Worry,” “Love You’re Given” and now “Chemical.” All this leaves the beckoning question: what’s going to happen when Jack drops an actual album? -AMELIA ZAK
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 26, 2015 — 3B
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
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We’ve come a long way from “Slob on My Knob.”
on new ‘I Don’t Mind’ Juicy J-Usher track has a sex-positive message By DANIELLE RAYKHINSTHEYN Daily Arts Writer
When I first heard Usher’s “I Don’t Mind,” I was slightly appalled by the lyrical content: “Shawty, I don’t mind if you dance on a pole. That don’t make you a hoe.” Yet, the radio kept playing it (albeit without the word “hoe”), and I kept listening to it because it’s so damn catchy. After hearing it about a gazillion times, I quickly realized that my original misgivings came about because apparently my brain is still living in 1998. I don’t think anyone would deny that rap and hip-hop culture has long revolved around the demeaning of women — of “bitches,” “hoes” and “sluts” — and that was what originally upset me about this song. In Juicy J’s portion of the song, he says to the stripper, “If you fuck me like you love me, shawty, you might get rich.” Juicy, strippers and prostitutes are not the same thing. It was the understanding that any stripper could be convinced at a high enough price to go from a completely legal professional to a completely illegal one. It was the idea presented to us by the media that strippers
have no self-confidence and are just objects, so Juicy J can “take somebody’s bitch, turn her to a slut.” But, upon listening to the song several more times, I started to see this song as a feminist anthem. While Juicy J’s part of “I Don’t Mind” is belittling, the rest of the song, which Usher sings, is actually quite empowering. In the first verse, Usher intones, “I make enough for the both of us, but you dance anyway,” and “you want your own and need your own (money), baby. Who am I to judge?” While I doubt any little girl grows up wishing to be an exotic dancer, this is where the woman in the song has ended up, and Usher is OK with that. She is a woman who has made her own choices, and even though she now has a man to take care of her, she continues to work in her chosen profession. This actually seems to be the epitome of a healthy relationship: Usher trusts his partner to go to the strip club to “work until three” as long as she goes back home to him. It’s just her job to take off her clothes, and he respects that. It “doesn’t make (her) a hoe.” Usher also seems to know the difference between a stripper and a prostitute, singing, “They be looking but they can’t touch you, shawty. I’m the only one to get it, so just go ahead and keep doing what you do” in the second verse. In fact, these lines serve
as the counter to Juicy J’s verse; Juicy is the guy trying to touch Usher’s girl, but that’s not her job, and Usher is the one saying so. She has the right to choose, and she chooses to go home to Usher. She says no to Juicy making her rich, because she already has her own money. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying being a stripper is a great thing to aspire to be, that it isn’t also submitting yourself to be objectified by whoever may be watching, be they men or women, or that the hip-hop industry doesn’t still have a ways to go in regard to its treatment of women. What I am saying is that the woman in this song is independent, makes choices for herself and is in a healthy relationship with a man who respects her right to have both independence and agency for herself. More and more women are choosing to pole dance for fitness, and while it’s very different to “dance on a pole” in an exercise classroom, fully clothed, and to do the same in front of an audience while taking your clothes off, the fact remains that the choice is empowering. The choice of whether to pole dance or not; the choice of whether to pole dance naked or clothed; the choice to pole dance alone or for your partner or for an audience for money. And although we don’t need a man to tell us that that’s OK, it’s kind of nice that Usher is on our side.
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW When summer starts to slip into fall, at the close of August or right at the beginning of September, the worn-out B+ neighborhood pools begin to Falling close. As one Apart of the uniEmile Haynie versal signs that summer feat. Andrew is closing, the Wyatt and closing pools Brian Wilson are made Interscope even more depressing by their changing appearance. Leaves and dirt begin to collect in them as they start to become unused, and then unclean. One of these grimy, gross pools is the landscape for Buffalo native and wellknown music producer Emile Haynie’s first music video from his solo effort, We Fall. The video explains the plot of his first single off the record, “Falling Apart,” which features the vocals of Miike Snow (aka Andrew Wyatt) and the living legend of Brian Wilson. Cool right? So is the video. Starring a skinny highlighter blonde with dark eyebrows and eyes, the premise of the video should be somewhat boring. Floating and rolling
INTERSCOPE
around in a dirty pool filled with dead leaves and what appears to be sludge shouldn’t be this appealing. But the warm pinks and purples start to fill the pool and the story is transformed. “Tattoos on your face covered up your skin” sings Wyatt as the dark dragon eyes and muddy face of the deranged blonde gaze up from the pool. This song is so sonically multifaceted that it had the room and right to descend into the weird. Nothing about this video is visually displeasing. It’s a gritty video that follows the patterns of an imploding girl as she starts to fall apart off the coast of California. The image of the damsel in distress
following a series of bad decisions in the name of love is a bit overused in our popular art today. But as the chorus correlates with the images, singing “How’d you get so cold, how’d you get so cold?” it isn’t so annoying. Maybe it’s the piercing set of eyes this poor little lady holds. Or maybe it’s the feeling that you’re sitting in on someone’s recent acid-induced experience. But the trippy nature of the video doesn’t feel excessive; instead, it accentuates the emotion inspiring the lyrics and music. And so you leave pitying the poor little rich blonde girl. G’damnit, just stick around to hear Brian Wilson sing. -AMELIA ZAK
By MATTHEW BARNAUSKAS Daily Arts Writer
On the “About Us” section of Welzoo.com an image of Bill Gates appears with the corresponding quote: “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” Underneath lies the response of University alum and Welzoo co-founder Jonathan Kaufman: “I am an incredibly lazy person.” Finding the easiest, simplest way to do something is at the center of Welzoo.com, a fundraising website founded by childhood friends Kaufman, University alum Artur Fruman and Michigan State University alum Zach Firestone. The Michigan Daily was able to speak with Fruman, now in New York, over Skype, where he described the website’s concept. “How it works is once any organization is listed on the site, any one of its members could choose that organization and sign up and make Welzoo. com their browser homepage,” Fruman said. “Then every single day they go online from then on we generate a 3-cent donation to the organization that they chose, everyday just for going on the Internet.”
Jonathan Kaufman: “I am an incredibly lazy person.” According to Fruman, the trio of founders were all drawn to charity work, especially through Friendship Circle, a charity based in West Bloomfield that helps children with special needs by incorporating a prototype indoor city. “They had a fake bank, a pharmacy, a theater and pretty much you’d go there with whoever you’re partnered up with and they get to get this kind of practice round at life,” Fruman recalled. However, as the friends grew up, they found it more difficult to donate time and money to charity. The three looked for ways to support the organizations they could no longer take an active role in by the finding simplest means possible. “We wanted something that cost zero money and took zero time and throughout that brainstorming process we were trying to come up with things that we do every day that we could turn into something good,” Fruman said. “You know, we breathe everyday, we brush our teeth everyday and we also go on the Internet every single day.” This idea became the concept of “PassiveAction”: “The idea of effortlessly putting our everyday actions to use,” according to their website. And in today’s technology-driven world, what’s more everyday than the Internet? Picking up this concept, the trio began to pursue the idea of Welzoo in 2012 and
started the company in Ann Arbor. “Ann Arbor was awesome; Ann Arbor was the best,” Fruman said. “We had an office in Ann Arbor. Right on top of Village Apothecary we had a little office there; it was amazing.” Originally aiming for larger nonprofits, Fruman said a breakthrough came for the company when they became involved with student organizations. He said the University’s South Asian Awareness Club, a student org., asked to list themselves on Welzoo to raise funds. “We only wanted people to be able to support a nonprofit and student organizations were something we never even thought of targeting,” Fruman said. “It was only a few months down the line where I realized that we were about to pay out some charities and I realized that this student org had raised a good amount of money,” Fruman said. “It was at that moment that I realized, what are we doing targeting charities and stuff when the whole basis for this whole company was because we as kids in college weren’t able to support our favorite organization? It was our age group that was missing out, that needed this type of platform.” Welzoo pursued the involvement of more student organizations and continued to grow. Truman said that there are around 25 organizations that use Welzoo at the University alone. These range from fraternities and sororities to organizations like More Than Me, a charity that helps young girls in Liberia go to school, and Students for Diabetes Awareness. When talking about Welzoo’s role in helping these organizations, Fruman said the site exists to complement the efforts of these students. “I think it all boils down to their passion to make a difference and that’s what all these student orgs seem to be doing,” Fruman said. “We’re happy to be a platform to help them out.”
Social media to raise charity Realizing the potential for Welzoo, Fruman, Kaufman and Firestone raised funds and moved the company to New York. However, the co-founders have aimed to keep their own light-hearted personalities in the project. Whether it’s poking fun at the apparent simplicity or self-described “laziness” of the concept to pulling April Fool’s Day pranks on each other involving fake cease and desist letters, the team at Welzoo aims to enjoy their time. Fruman described the dynamic between the three founders with Kaufman being the crazy, creative end; Firestone being more calm and proper; and Fruman himself lying somewhere in the middle, able to work with both of them.
When asked to think about a time when the three have combined their talents to accomplish goals for the company, Fruman pointed to Welzoo’s most recent YouTube video, “Student Org Meeting — Welzoo Discussion.” In the video, the three take a comic approach to a club leader discussing Welzoo for the first time with his members.
“...something that cost zero money and took zero time.” “I was the one who kind of came up (with the idea) and made it happen,” Fruman said. “Zach was the one who came up with potentially what the lines would be. Jonathan comes in with the camera and his creative ideas saying, ‘That’s not cool enough, let’s go just true and raw and make it happen, we’ll make it creative.’ It all worked out.” Welzoo’s interest in videos and social media has helped the company spread its message. Their first video, “The Millennial Rebuttal,” countered accusations about how today’s generation is out of touch and shows how young people have connected and advanced society using the Internet. The video has nearly 150,000 views. Welzoo wishes to use social media in much the same way: to use social media as a means to raise charity. This includes their first fundraiser “#CutOutBreastCancer,” which used Instagram to raise money, and raised $700 dollars for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Fruman remains humble when describing what he and his friends have achieved, but their ambitions remain high. “We’re a pretty young company so I don’t want to say we’ve accomplished enough yet, but I’m definitely really happy with the route that it’s going right now,” Fruman said. “We’ve raised almost $50,000 for various student organizations and nonprofits throughout America. It’s not a crazy number at all, we want that to be tenfold that number within a year from now.” But it’s still not the money Fruman says he, Kaufman and Firestone are proud of; it’s the e-mails they receive from thankful students and recipients. Fruman smiles as he reads one of the e-mails from a girl whose Instagram post Welzoo liked. At the end of the e-mail reads, “You’ve made my whole day.” “That type of e-mail where she sees what our mission is, to allow people our age to give back in a very small way. You know, give back in a way that they’re not doing anything; they’re literally just changing their homepage. And she said at the end, ‘You’ve made my whole day,’ which obviously, that made my month, that was amazing. Those are the little things.”
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4B — Thursday, February 26, 2015
ARTIST
LITERARY COLUMN
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VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
Scott Beal is a lecturer of English at the University.
By GRACE HAMILTON Daily Arts Writer
On the Pacific coast of North America, starfish are falling to pieces. A disease called sea star wasting syndrome has swept the region, causing a massive die-off. Limbs fall off, tissue deteriorates and the organisms die rapidly. Though starfish usually regenerate, these ones can’t. No one knows why. What does one do with this new piece of bizarre, troubling information about the state of our oceans? Some will embark on extra research, others will likely find it uninteresting and discard it immediately. Scott Beal writes a poem. Scott Beal, who attended the University (and was an Arts writer for the Daily), currently teaches at the University in the English Department, the Sweetland Center and the Lloyd Hall Scholar’s Program. He is also the Dzanc Writer-inResidence at Ann Arbor Open School, a father and a poet. “I’ll learn things about the world that are puzzling and surprising and want to figure out what to think of it, what to learn from it. I’m really trying to learn something about how I interact with people and how that is mirrored or contradicted by the ways that other beings on the planet interact with each other,” Beal said of his poem, “Sea Star Wasting Syndrome.” Some of his other poems have similar missions, including one about the interactions between
hermaphroditic snails. Other pieces of Beal’s are autobiographical, coming from particular experiences, like the time he found a note under his windshield wiper accusing of him of stealing someone’s money, or explaining to one of his daughters that lightning can strike people. “I think every poem comes from a different place,” he said. “You start off with something puzzling and try to riddle it out.” Still, a common theme lies at the heart of any good poem. “(A good poem) will move us in a new way, and show us the path to better compassion, a better sense of justice and fairness,” he said. “It is aware of its implications and complicities.” Most of Beal’s poems are not direct responses to individual issues, though he told me he considers privilege and justice when he writers. I challenged him on this idea, and asked him to explain the way that themes of justice and compassion are at work in “Warning and Watch,” the poem about lightning that is 13 lines long. His response moved me. There are a couple of ways in which this path to compassion and justice lays beneath the imagery of clouds. “First of all, there is the notion of how to help his children navigate a dangerous world,” he explained, referring to his daughter’s fear at the thought of being struck by lightning. That
particular thought opens up a general sense of wonder about the world. “In that moment you can spin into a consciousness of being alive, and increasing your awareness of being a living organism on the planet also helps build empathy and value in human life,” he said. Of course, not all good poems need to do this. There are other reasons to love and appreciate poetry. “I’m drawn to the idea of making language do new things, energizing it and making it dazzling and sizzling,” he said. In the poetry class he is currently teaching at the University, he has implemented a system called “Gamified Grading,” where getting an A requires earning a certain number of points, say, 3,500. Every poem is worth a certain number of points, regardless of his liking for it, although it can be improved with revision. “We’re trained to think of it as, there’s a meaning, you can paraphrase it, but only if you can decode it. And then you think, this isn’t for me, this is an art form that is deliberately trying to leave me out,” he said. Boiled down, I received three important messages from Beal about the power of poetry: It utilizes and appreciates the best of what language can be, it is a means of making sense of the world around us and it is a means of understanding our place within that world.
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The University’s literary legacy
few days ago, I was at home watching classic Saturday Night Live episodes with my parents. Between their explaining 40-somethingyear-old pop culture references and debating whether Simon or GRACE Garfunkel PROSNIEWSKI was the bigger diva, we discussed how original SNL cast member Gilda Radner attended the University of Michigan. This conversation got me thinking about other famous fellow Wolverines. Of course, there are some alumni we hear about all the time. You probably already know about 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, as well as Tom Brady, four-time Super Bowl Champion Quarterback. You may know that Madonna was enrolled in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance before she moved to New York City or that we can also claim actor and iconic voice of Darth Vader James Earl Jones, as well as “Kill Bill” actress Lucy Liu. But did you know the university also has a rich literary legacy? Take for example James Avery Hopwood, class of 1905, who was the preeminent playwright of the 1920s. When he died, he left one-fifth of his vast estate to his alma mater for the creation of the Hopwood
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Awards, which reward students for excellence in creative writing. Since 1931, the Hopwoods have recognized the potential of some of the greatest literary talents of contemporary times. One such talent was Betty Smith, ’31, who took classes at the University while raising her two children. In 1943, she published her seminal novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” a comingof-age story centered on a poor immigrant family in the early twentieth century. The novel was later adapted into a film and a Broadway musical. Obviously, no examination of the University’s literary landscape would be complete without mentioning multiple Hopwood Award winner and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, a.k.a. the dude who was married to Marilyn Monroe for five years. Author of such classic works as “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible,” Miller is often considered to be one of the greatest American dramatists of all time. He graduated from the University in 1938. (Did I mention he also wrote for The Michigan Daily?) Another Hopwood winner, poet Frank O’Hara, achieved his M.A. in English literature from the University in 1951. O’Hara, known for his intellectual yet intensely personal style of writing, was a highly influential figure in the New York School artistic movement of the 1950s and ’60s. His collected poems posthumously won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1972. Fans of AMC’s hit television series “Mad Men” may recognize O’Hara’s
“Meditations in an Emergency” as a reoccurring symbol in Season 2. The University has also left quite a mark on children’s literature. Chris Van Allsburg, author of classics “Jumanji” and “The Polar Express” and a two-time winner of the Caldecott Medal, one of the most prestigious awards for children’s books, graduated from the College of Architecture and Design in 1972. I pity your childhood if it didn’t include several viewings of the 1995 Robin Williams film adaptation of “Jumanji.” And the film adaption of “The Polar Express” gave us one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, Josh Groban’s “Believe.” Chris Van Allsburg pretty much creates joy and happiness. Jumping back to Adult Fiction, Elizabeth Kostova, MFA ’04, is another Hopwood winner who has gone on to find tremendous success. Her 2005 novel “The Historian” became the first debut novel to become number one on The New York Times bestseller list in its first week on sale. I admit, I am a bit biased regarding Kostova, as I absolutely loved the dark, Victorian-esque “Historian.” Clearly, there’s a wide array of noteworthy literary alums to emulate. So read some of your fellow Victors and get inspired to write a masterpiece of your own. You never know, maybe one day the University will hand out an award named after you. Didn’t see “Jumanji”? Email Prosniewski at gpros@ umich.edu to get some pity.
TRAILER REVIEW Will Smith seems to own a new seriousness in his middle age — a more refined sense of limits and a less naïve sense of opportunities. B Whether his personality will Focus be able to domi- Warner Bros. nate and guide “Focus” will determine the success of the movie. The more this movie gives to Will Smith, the more it’ll take away at the box office. Margot Robbie’s character doesn’t feel trustworthy in any sense. She can’t be trusted with the flow of the action. She can’t be trusted with any clever quips or plot twists. She can’t be trusted by or with Smith. But it’s clear Smith is going to trust her when she reenters his life in the second half of the movie for the crescendo. If this movie
WARNER BROS.
is going to play out big, it needs Will Smith at the wheel through and through. How much control is Smith going to concede to this blonde bombshell? How are things going to go wrong? No one’s expecting a blockbuster, but
Smith’s magic might be able to spin this into something along the lines of a modern “Casablanca.” We have to wait and see who screws who. It’ll be a worthy flick to see, no matter what. -NOAH COHEN
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