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‘American Sniper’ will play after complaints DELANEY RYAN/Daily
LSA junior Rabia Kadwani joins a candlelight vigil on the Diag Wednesday night to honor the 148 killed in the terrorist attack on Garrisa College in Kenya.
Vigil honors 148 student lives lost in Kenya attack Nearly 100 students, faculty members gather to reflect on tragedy By SAMIHA MATIN Daily Staff Reporter
Nearly 100 University students and faculty members gathered Wednesday night on the Diag to
honor the 148 lives lost in the alShabaab militant group attack on Garissa College in Kenya. At the candlelight vigil, which was hosted by the African Students Association, attendees held candles for 148 seconds of silence — representing each life lost — before they stood on the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library to recite poems and speeches. Though the students believed the number to be 148, conflicting news reports listed the number of deaths as either 147 and
148. The victims of the attack in Kenya were mostly students. This was not the first time al-Shabaab attacked Kenya. In 2013, the militant group killed 69 people in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. The attacks increased after Kenyan military troops were sent to Somalia, al-Shabaab’s base, four years ago to fight against the group. At the vigil, many students voiced their concerns about the lack of media coverage of the
attack. In a speech, LSA senior Olubisi Ajetunmobi, president of the African Students Association, attempted to personify the students whose lives were lost, reflecting on the trending Twitter hashtag #148isnotjustanumber. “The students were brothers, sisters, friends and loved ones whose lives were cut short by this murderous act,” Ajetunmobi said. “While the world stands by and ignores what is happening, we need to See VIGIL, Page 3A
University reverses decision to not play controversial film at UMix By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter
After a letter circulated by concerned students caused the University to cancel a showing of the film “American Sniper,” the Center for Campus Involvement will still show the film at its regularly scheduled UMix event Friday night, according to a statement by E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life. Earlier today, CCI announced the organization would show the film at a separate time, and the film “Paddington” would replace the film’s slot at UMix. However, according to Harper, the movie will be shown at the originally scheduled location at UMix, along with the alterna-
tive “Paddington” movie. “Paddington” will be screened at another location on campus. “It was a mistake to cancel the showing of the movie “American Sniper” on campus as part of a social event for students,” she said. “The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters.” “We recognize, however, that some students are uncomfortable with the content of the movie, and appreciate that concern,” she added. The decision follows the creation of a student-generated petition Wednesday that called for the University to reverse its previous move to cancel the showing. Before Harper’s statement, CCI announced plans to reschedule the showing of “American Sniper” at the UniSee SNIPER, Page 2A
ACADEMICS
ADMINISTRATION
Extension built for Rate My Professors
RC class hosts ‘U’ president, associate dean Administrators talk changes to LSA R&E requirement, diversity issues By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter
A Residential College minicourse focused on the “Black Lives Matter” protests concluded Wednesday with a panel featuring University President Mark Schlissel and Angela Dillard, LSA associate dean of Undergraduate Education. Black Lives Matter is a nationwide movement started in response to multiple deaths of unarmed Black men in encounters with police officers over the past several months, notably involving the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. The minicourse was intended to foster discussion both about the incidents and the protests, as well as talk about broader issues of inequity
in the United States. It was open to faculty and community members as well as students. The course has hosted several other guest speakers, including Shaka Senghor, an author and motivational speaker, and Detroit activist Ron Scott. Wednesday’s seminar provided an occasion for attendees to ask questions and express their opinions about issues regarding diversity on campus, particularly LSA’s Race and Ethnicity requirement. Several students drafted several proposals to change the requirement last year, and the LSA Curriculum Committee is currently looking into plans to review it. Dillard’s presentation focused mainly on the history of the requirement, as well as how a series of events last year, such as the #BBUM movement, provoked initial discussion about reconsidering it. The #BBUM Twitter campaign launched in November 2013 by members of the Black Student Union and was intended to express the experiences of Black students at the University. See RC, Page 3A
Student creates application to show ratings on LSA course guide
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel discusses sexual assualt on campus, among other issues, at his final fireside chat of the year at the Union Wednesday.
Schlissel: ‘U’ to improve sexual assault procedures At final fireside chat, University executives talk future initiatives By GENEVIEVE HUMMER Daily Staff Reporter
Sexual assault on campus dominated the conversation Wednesday at University President Mark Schlissel’s final fireside chat of the year. During the chat, which allows randomly selected students the opportunity to ask any ques-
tions of their choosing, Schlissel said the University will likely unveil modifications to the University’s sexual misconduct policy in the fall. He said these changes could potentially focus on ensuring students are wellrepresented throughout the disciplinary process and that they stay on top of their school work during the process. “One thing, in particular, we’re concerned about is there are issues of representation during the process, and after the process, as well, helping students to get caught up … to provide the interface for the academic side of
the house to the greatest extent possible allows you to continue the setting of a very difficult period of time,” he said. E. Royster Harper, vice president of student life, also attended the chat. Harper outlined several steps the University was taking to improve the University’s existing policies. She listed increased outreach to student groups, adding staff to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and analyzing results from the student survey on sexual misconduct that was distributed this semester. See SCHLISSEL, Page 3A
By COLLEEN HARRISON Daily Staff Reporter
Rather than flipping back and forth between RateMyProfessors.com and the LSA Course Guide, LSA senior Mitchell Gildenberg created a Google Chrome plug-in that displays the site’s teacher ratings on the course guide. The application is called “University of Michigan Courseguide+,” and students can download it from the Chrome Web Store. Once students download the plug-in, they will see the professors’ ratings listed under their names upon opening the LSA Course Guide. Rating categories include overall rating, average grade, helpfulness, clarity and easiness. Gildenberg said when scheduling last year, he noticed See EXTENSION, Page 3A
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The Daily Arts section speaks with the leaders of the University’s leading stuent literary magazine.
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INDEX
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NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A SPORTS......................5A
SUDOKU.....................2A CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A B-SIDE ....................1B
News
2A — Thursday, April 9, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Campus Voices
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
GOOD VIBR ATIONS
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THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week Each week, “Twitter Talk” is a forum to print tweets that are fun, informative, breaking or newsworthy, with an angle on the University, Ann Arbor and the state. All tweets have been edited for accurate spelling and grammar.
A new app from the School of Public Health gives users the opportunity to learn more about their specific genes. “New app from @UM_SPH gives users the chance to look at their past and get in touch with their DNA.
FOLLOW US!
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Zingerman’s CEO Ari Weinzweig used to be enrolled in the Stamps Art & Design
“#DYK Ari Weinzweig majored in #art while at the University of Michigan? #UMichTalks” — @umich
IRENE KIM/Daily
LSA freshmen Marah Brinjikji and Lane Tobin try to find the frequency of a rotating string at Randall Laboratory on Wednesday afternoon.
“
@michigandaily Rep. Debbie Dingell spoke highly of women’s role in public policy during her time at the Ford School last Thursday.
“The Ethics of Caring - that’s what women bring to public policy. Great to join future leaders at @fordschool today!” — @RepDebDingell
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
FDR Lecture WHAT: A lecture will be held that explores America before the entry to WWII and how President FDR faced a country that was against the involvement of war. WHO: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute WHEN: Today from 10 a.m to 11:30 a.m. WHERE: Rave Cinema
American public opinion WHAT: Guest speaker prof. Jack Citrin will give a lecture on the varying identities in American public opinion. WHO: Center for Political Studies-Institute for Social Research WHEN: Today from 4 p.m to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Institute for Social Research, 1430
Japan’s 3/11 Medical Triple Disaster school aid WHAT: A lecture will explore the Great East Japan Earthquake and the impact it had on media. WHO: Center for Japanese Studies WHEN: Today from 12 p.m to 1 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work
Louis Benech WHAT: Renowned landscape designer Louis Benech will give a presentation on his work. He has carried out over 300 projects around the world. WHO: Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design WHEN: Today from 5:10 p.m to 6 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Theater
WHAT: Back by popular demand, a workshop will be held to help students prepare to apply to medical schools. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: Today from 1 p.m to 2 p.m. WHERE: The Career Center
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
M-Fly WHAT: A team of engineering students will discuss their work of creating a radio-controlled airplane. WHO: University of Michigan Retirees Association WHEN: Today from 3:15 p.m to 4:15 p.m. WHERE: Wyndham Gardens Hotel
Film screening
CLARIFICATION In the April 8 issue of The Michigan Daily, the byline of the author of the piece “Investigational Equity: WHAT: 2014 documentary Student challenges University film “Cambodian Son” sexual assault policies” did not shows the journey of Kosal appear in print. Senior News Khiev from prisoner in Editor Emma Kerr wrote the America to world-class piece. poet in Cambodia. Please report any WHO: International error in the Daily Center WHEN: Today from 6 p.m to corrections@ michigandaily.com. to 10 p.m. WHERE: Palmer Commons, Forum Hall
1
The National Football League has hired the first full-time female referee, ESPN reported. Sarah Thomas was named one of nine new offcials on Wednesday. She has previously worked on exhibition games.
2
In this week’s B-Side, The Michigan Daily profiles Xylem, the University’s undergraduate student-run literary magazine, including its composition and submission processes and other aspects of its operation. FOR MORE, SEE B-SIDE
3
Three U.S. soliders were shot by an Afghan colleague on Wednesday, CBS reported. One U.S. solider was killed during the shooting while the other two were wounded. It took place during an embassy meeting.
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American agave plant dies Schlissel lectures biology after first bloom in 80 years class on the human genome Matthaei Botanical Gardens staff cuts down plant By KATIE PENROD Daily Staff Reporter
After 80 years at the Matthaei Botanical Garden, the University’s American agave plant was cut down before a group of spectators Wednesday morning. According to Mike Palmer, the garden’s manager of horticulture, the American agave is monocarpic, meaning that after flowering, the plant naturally dies. Most plants grow for 25 to 30 years before flowering. This specific agave grew for 80 years before it flowered over the summer, making it a rarity, Palmer said. Palmer said after years of slow growth, the plant reached
six feet in height and eight feet in width, and it began to show a flower stalk last year. “We don’t know why it took 80 years, but it started sending up a flower stalk a year ago in April and it was very exciting,” Palmer said. “But also we know what happens when an agave flowers; it eventually dies, so that was kind of sad.” According to a University press release, University alum Alfred Whiting brought the plant to Ann Arbor from New Mexico in 1934. The plant is native to Mexico and the southwestern United States. It was kept in a pot for 30 years before being moved to the garden in the 1960s. Palmer said after the stalk became visible last April, the plant began to grow at a rapid rate. At this time, it also became a popular attraction for the garden; last year, visitor traffic increased by 50 percent
after the agave bloomed. “It grows so slow for 80 years, then when it switches over to flowering, the hormones and everything in the plant changes and it begins to send up this unique flower stalk,” Palmer said. “It was shooting up at six inches every 24 hours. It went right up to the glass and then we took the glass off so it could grow above the glass. It’s 28 feet tall.” Palmer said the American agave is “officially dead,” and is being cut down due to the danger it would pose if it were to fall over. Though the plant is now dead, Palmer said it will live on in two ways. For one, the Botanical Gardens will reuse its seeds to plant a new agave. Second, the plant’s stalk has been given to a music professor who is planning on making flutes from the material. Palmer noted the unique nature of the plant and that it differs from the plants people typically interact with in their daily lives. “This speaks to me about the fragility of the ecosystem and the life that these plants have. I think this plant has given people more to think about,” he said.
SNIPER From Page 1A versity in on its Facebook page Wednesday. “The Center for Campus Involvement understands that there are many perspectives regarding the film American Sniper,” the statement read. “... We are planning to screen American Sniper separately from the upcoming UMix event, in a forum that provides an appropriate space for dialogue and reflection.” Tuesday morning, after discovering UMix — a Universitysponsored social event held most
President draws on experience to discuss genetics
When about 150 Biology 172 students opened their notebooks on Wednesday, the lecturer at the head of the class was not their usual professor; it was University President Mark Schlissel. Schlissel discussed personalized medicine and the human genome as a guest lecturer Wednesday morning in Rackham Auditorium. Biology Lecturer Laury Wood invited Schlissel to teach her Biology 172 class for a day. Schlissel’s lecture took the place of Wood’s regular Wednesday lecture. Before the lecture, Wood said her students were looking forward to hearing from Schlissel since they had spent time in class studying the human genome. Schlissel’s lecture drew on his lengthy career in the sciences. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in biochemical sciences and earned both an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he also served
as a faculty member later in his career. He also served as dean of biological sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2008 to 2011 and has years of research experience in biology. Before he assumed the president, Schlissel was a noted researcher in the field of immunology. A focus of his work centered on how immune cells form in bone marrow. In 2013, he published five papers while provost at Brown University, and during this time continued to work with his last Ph.D. students at Berkeley. As he walked into Rackham, Schlissel said he was excited to have the opportunity to teach, especially about a subject he is passionate about and in which he has a lot of experience. “I love to teach, and I was invited by a faculty colleague earlier in the year who thought it would be both fun for me and fun for the students, and I jumped at the chance,” Schlissel said. At the start of his lecture, Schlissel noted that it was his first time teaching a class at the University. “I intend to do some more of this as the years go by, but thanks for being my guinea pigs,” Schlissel said. Several of Schlissel’s comments centered on recently devel-
oped biological research tools used to understand the basic functioning of cells and organisms. Schlissel said these tools are now used to combat disease and improve human health. “It really represents one of the future trends in clinical care,” Schlissel said. To gain a sense of the audience’s future career plans, Schlissel asked how many students plan on applying to medical school. A majority of the student audience raised their hands. LSA freshman Eli Simons, a Biology 172 student, said he was fascinated by Schlissel’s professional background in biology. “I think its really exciting that we have someone who is so experienced in this growing field that is likely the future of many cures of different diseases,” Simons said. “The fact that he is president of our school adds a lot of gravitas to what he has to say.” Another student in the class, LSA freshman Michael Stando, said he was particularly impressed by how Schlissel took the time to interact academically with students. “I think it’s nice he spends his time with the student body,” Stando said. “People actually see him as a person rather just a figure.”
Friday nights — was planning to show the film “American Sniper,” LSA sophomore Lamees Mekkaoui wrote to the Center for Campus Involvement regarding her concerns about the film’s showing. Directed by Clint Eastwood, “American Sniper” is based on the autobiography of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, who gained recognition for having the most confirmed kills by a sniper in U.S. military history during his service in Iraq. While some see it as a film as a testament to American nationalism, others, like Mekkaoui, felt the film inspired anti-Muslim sentiment and did not think it
was appropriate to show at UMix, which is generally a positive and safe alternative to other Friday night activities. “The reason why the film was disturbing to be played at UMix is because UMix is supposed to be fun and inclusive, and the movie ‘American Sniper’ raised a lot of controversy from all sides of the spectrum,” Mekkaoui said. “It’s clearly not something that could be fun and inclusive. It just doesn’t go with Build-A-Bear and inflatable laser tag, those things just don’t go with ‘American Sniper.’ ” Wednesday evening, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said it is unclear whether the
“American Sniper” screening will still include a panel discussion, as promised initially by the CCI. Mekkaoui said the panel discussion is central to her support of the University’s decision to show both films. “I’m really thankful to CCI for taking quick action in order to make sure that the voices of students were heard on campus and that CCI really acknowledged and made them feel like they mattered,” Mekkaoui said. In response to the controversy, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh wrote in a tweet that he plans to watch the film with his team.
By DYLAN BENNETT For the Daily
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international attention, whereas the murders in Kenya attracted sufficiently less media coverage. “We go on with our lives, be happy and get our degrees, but what for?” Simekha said. “Two-hundred girls from Nigeria are still missing. Forty-three children from Mexico are still gone. What do we do? Nothing. This isn’t a one-time incident. It’s been happening for years.” At the event, LSA freshman Davina Buruchara spoke about three of the students who were murdered as they ran back to save their friends inside the college building. She also recited a poem about the experience, which was written by her friend from Kenya. “How many of you dream of passing exams with honors and getting an internship?” Buruchara
said. “Many of us also have dreams about getting married soon. They also had dreams just like us. But now they are all gone.” Trey Boynton, director of the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, said it is important for the University community to come together during such tragedies and help one another. “Events like these allow people to come together in a safe space to express their grief and emotions and not feel isolated,” Boynton said. Ajetunmobi also emphasized the importance of students having safe spaces to talk about these events. “The University needs to create spaces for all students,” Ajetunmobi said. “The University should take time to learn about the students and create resources for them.”
how much time he wasted trying to figure out which teachers were the best. He said he ended up completing the app in one and a half days at the 2015 MHacks competition. “I spent like two hours going back and forth through like eight tabs trying to find the best teacher, so I thought, ‘What if I just made it automated?’ ” Gildenberg said. “I didn’t really do anything with the idea for a while, but then I went to one of the Michigan hackathons and I thought, ‘I need an idea to work on, why not do that?’ ” In the weeks since publishing the extension, Courseguide+ has gained about 1,000 users, mostly in the last week. Gildenberg said he was surprised by the number
of downloads. “I wasn’t even sure how it would turn out in the beginning, and it was really anyone’s guess as to how people would receive it, but it was something that I really wanted, so I figured other students would want it as well,” Gildenberg said. “The friends I showed went, ‘Mitchell this is amazing.’ They wanted it very much, so I figured I would release it.” Gildenberg said he believes the extension will help speed up the process of backpacking for classes. “I think it’s going to help them speed up their decisions — having all the information they need on a teacher and helping them choose the best professor they could get,” Gildenberg said. Though he thinks the extension and the site will help students, Gildenberg recognizes the flaws associated with students
trusting ratings based on little feedback, as some of the professors only have one or two ratings. Though this extension is geared toward students, some professors say they have mixed feelings about RateMyProfessors. com, in general. Physics Lecturer David Winn said he would neither discourage nor encourage students to use the website. Winn is listed as one of the more popular professors on the site, but he said this does not change his opinions. He pointed out that students should not solely use the site when deciding whether or not to take a class. “These criteria make it useful as a tie-breaker, but students should really pick their classes based on what subjects are interesting and useful to them,” Winn said.
The hashtag generated thousands of tweets from across the country. Dillard said the #BBUM campaign and other diversity-related expressions of student concerns generated an internal discussion within LSA about how to educate faculty on issues of diversity and inclusion. “We believed that the way of addressing some of these concerns was to give faculty more information and then start to give them resources for how to think about microaggressions and the other kind of things the students were talking about, inside their own classrooms,” she said. Speaking to broader University struggles with low minority enrollment, Dillard said one particularly troubling rate at which enrolled Black students leave the University for another institution. She said the University must take decisive steps to make significant progress on the issue. “When I think about race in America, I am increasingly coming to find that what we need to do is to not just think in incremental ways,” she said. “I think we’ve been really inhibited by that — we can only do things around the edges, that we have to be careful. So it means that nobody wants to do anything bold anymore.” Dillard said there are currently about 99 courses that fulfill the University’s Race and Ethnicity requirement. She said 43 percent
of these courses focus on issues within the United States. Overall, Anthropology 101 is the most popular. She opened up conversation of specific reforms to the crowd, asking how attendees think the requirement could be reformed. Dillard said the committee planning the review of the requirement remains in the information gathering stages, and is still exploring what changes could be made. Students’ concerns were mostly centered around whether the courses should focus more on past or current issues related to race, as well as whether current courses clearly address matters of race. Attendees also discussed how future courses could do a better job of educating students who haven’t previously engaged with these topics. LSA freshman Darian Razdar, a frequent seminar attendee, said in an interview after Wednesday’s session that while he was confident Dillard is passionate about reforming the requirement, he was disappointed by omissions in the information she presented. He pointed, in particular, to courses listed in part of the requirement that he said don’t focus heavily on race — an issue also raised during the group discussion. “I feel that she should want to have substantive discussions of race happening, and I didn’t hear anything on that from her,” he said.
Schlissel also addressed the requirement. He said he didn’t think it was possible to design an ideal Race and Ethnicity requirement course, and that he liked the idea of many courses fulfilling the requirement. “I think that one purpose of the race and ethnicity requirement is to promote the discussion,” he said. “Any kind of discussion that taps into this set of issues and that licenses you to speak with one another and to speak with the faculty about this set of issues of what it’s like to be part of a group or many groups in modern society in any context.” Schlissel added that he felt the University did have an obligation to make everyone on campus feel safe, but said achieving that would require some unsettling conversations. “If we want to make progress on this set of issues together, which I think most of us would recognize are the most challenging issues we’re dealing with in terms of the campus climate, we’re going to have to go through some uncomfortable times and some really difficult, challenging, threatening kind of conversations in order to educate each other and to see how one another are looking at these difficult issues,” he said. Along with discussing the requirement, attendees also asked questions about a variety of issues, including campus police and fac-
SNIPER From Page 2A
there were Middle Eastern or Muslim students signed on, so that’s fantastic,” Mekkaoui said. “It shows that this is clearly an issue that everyone thinks, from a variety of backgrounds, that it is something really salient and that it’s something that needed to be changed.” Mekkaoui said during her time as a student at the University, she has learned to take a stance against injustice. “U of M teaches us that when we see something that is wrong on campus to raise questions, and we proceeded to, so I’m really happy about that,” she said. However, other students who disagree with Mekkaoui’s views have united behind third-year Law student Rachel Jankowski’s petition, which called on the CCI to reverse their decision and show “American Sniper” on Friday as planned. It’s unclear whether the petition will be taken down now that CCI announced its plans to reschedule the showing for a different forum. “If the University prevents a movie like this from being shown, it promotes intolerance and stif les dialogue and debate
on the subject and goes directly against the atmosphere UMix purports to provide,” the CSG petition states. “As adults at a public university, we should have the option to view this movie if we so choose and have the opportunity to engage on the topics it presents to come to our own conclusions on the subjects.” The petition calls for the CCI to show the movie as planned but allow students to present their own opinions on the film after its showing. The petition currently has 486 signatures as of Wednesday night. Jankowski could not be reached for comment. University alum Hari Vutukuru, an officer in the U.S. Army, tweeted Wednesday morning that he was disappointed in the University’s initial decision to cancel the screening. “...Did you ever consider how the hundreds of ROTC cadets, midshipmen, & student-veterans would react to this? Shame on you,” he tweeted.
VIGIL From Page 1A remember that 148 is not a number.” Ajetunmobi said the relatively small turnout at the vigil reflects the need for students to know more about international events than what they can find on Twitter. “We don’t want people to forget the issues and simply move from one hashtag to the next,” Ajetunmobi said. “Hashtags don’t save lives unless we do something about them.” Social Work student Cynthia Simekha also spoke of the lack of media coverage of the murders. She said events such as the January 2015 massacre of 12 people at the offices of the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo garnered immediate
EXTENSION From Page 1A
“Michigan Football will watch ‘American Sniper’! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!” Harbaugh tweeted. The controversy surrounding the screening — which has since gained national media attention — began Tuesday, when Mekkaoui wrote a personal letter of concern to the CCI. After posting a screenshot of her letter on Facebook and garnering support from peers, Mekkaoui created a collective letter urging the CCI, who organizes UMix, to choose a different film. The letter attracted more than 300 signatures from people who signed as members of Middle Eastern, North African or Muslim communities. Those who did not identify themselves as falling in this category signed “in solidarity.” Mekkaoui said a majority of the signatures were signed by students in solidarity. “There were actually more non-Middle Eastern students and non-Muslim students than
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Thursday, April 9, 2015 — 3A
SCHLISSEL From Page 1A “All of those efforts that, in different ways, shine a spotlight on this issue are really, really important,” Harper said. “So the more creative and diverse we can be with our programs means we will pick up different students in different areas to help understand and begin to change the climate. And that’s why I think culture shift is so important.” Though students raised questions related to sexual assault during the chat, Schlissel set the conversation by opening the forum with a video to tie with Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The clip featured University administrators discussing their commitment to ending sexual misconduct. Schlissel said University administrators dedicate a significant proportion of their time together working to create a safer campus. “...Sexual assault, in particular, is a topic of discussion almost every time we meet,” he said. “It’s not backburner, it’s a front burner. I think it’s going to take a consistent effort that’s a collaboration between the University leadership, the faculty, the staff, and then, all the members of our community need to figure out together how to make this place the safest place to go to school that there is.” An LSA junior, who asked to remain anonymous for this article, identified herself as a survivor of sexual assault. During the chat, she described her experience
ulty and staff knowledge of diversity issues. In response to a question about his plans to increase diversity overall, Schlissel highlighted several initiatives from the past year. He pointed to his launch of a planning process for the whole campus to increase the diversity of the student body. “There are series of creative ideas that are being considered, and we are going to pick some and get started and see how it works, with the goal of increasing diversity of the campus in many ways,” he said. “Not just racial and ethnic but socioeconomic, geographic. I think there is dearth of diversity of political thought on our campus — I think that’s an important thing to diversify. So, in many ways.” Razdar said hearing from administrators exposed him to the realities of working within institutions. “I didn’t really hear completely everything that I wanted to out of the president, in particular, when it comes to concrete solutions,” he said. “Obviously it’s hard for him to talk about that because he is getting to know the University after a year. I don’t know. I was slightly disappointed. I felt like he could be more pointed on his remarks.” LSA sophomore Reon Dawson, who has attended several seminars, said while the guests addressed many issues, group discussions like Wednesday’s also
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with the University’s reporting process. She told Schlissel she first reported the assault to the University last July and received her first decision that September. Because she did not agree with the initial decision, she was given 10 days to file an appeal. The results of her appeal were not released until just before the fall semester’s final examinations. “I do not feel at all that the University supported me throughout the process because it was a very trying, very horrible time in my life and I feel like, first off, that the University could improve its process is by shortening the time between the report and the decision,” she said. “And also when we turn in the appeal, we have 10 days to write that appeal and then we don’t get a decision for a month and a half, it’s extremely unfair.” After hearing the account, Harper apologized for the policy’s faults and said the University is working to make the reporting process more efficient. “One of the things we are changing is the timeline, holding ourselves to that standard much, much tighter because it’s too hard,” Harper said. “And also switching it so that you don’t go all the way through the process and then appeal, but you can appeal right away. You are absolutely right about the timeline and we are going to fix that.” Several members of SAPAC attended the chat, including members of their Men’s Activism Program. Schlissel also discussed engaging student-athletes in
showed that sometimes the challenge is not identifying problems, but implementing solutions to make the University a safer place. “The way we talked about (diversity) in class, there was no set solution,” he said. “There were solutions, but nobody was ready to put it in place.” In an interview with the Daily after the event, Schlissel said he
sexual assault awareness, and said he talked about the issue during a recent meeting with LSA junior Cooper Charlton, the former president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Central Student Government president-elect. Charlton said there are two problems with the existing sexual assault education programs for athletes — the programs are lengthy and student-athletes feel stigmatized. “I think you need to reach a student leader on each of those teams,” Schlissel said. “Then they become your champions and then it becomes cultural.” LSA senior Ashley Barnes, a member of SAPAC, said sexual assault education needs to become more of a priority to the University. She said many administrators don’t seem to have educated themselves on the topic. “My issue is it’s not that it’s only at the student level at this point, it’s also at the administrative level,” Barnes told Schlissel at the chat. Schlissel acknowledged that there is still room for educating University administrators. “Five years ago I didn’t understand this issue at all,” Schlissel said. “I didn’t understand why it wasn’t the police and courts’ problem until I started talking to people that had experiences, so I think there’s a huge amount of learning that has to go on at all different levels, and I do think I should be responsible for helping train the senior staff to understand these issues.”
thought these kind of discussions help make progress on these sets of issues. “The things I learned today give me a sense of what’s important to students, what’s important to some of the faculty and (to) this gentleman from town,” he said. “All these thing get incorporated in how we think about the plans we need to make.”
Opinion
4A — Thursday, April 9, 2015
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com JENNIFER CALFAS EDITOR IN CHIEF
AARICA MARSH and DEREK WOLFE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
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.
FROM THE DAILY
A great first step
Other student groups should get involved with BSU initiative he Michigan Institute for the Improvement of African American Representation, a committee within the University’s Black Student Union, has organized a program to host 46 high school students from Kalamazoo Public Schools for three days at the University. Led by Will Royster, an LSA and Engineering junior and the BSU academic concerns committee chair, the purpose of the program is to encourage underrepresented minorities to apply to and enroll in the University. This initiative is beneficial for both the high school students and for the University as a whole. To keep expanding the program, as the BSU is currently in the works of doing, other student organizations should become involved in the initiative.
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During their three-day stay, the high school students are given the opportunity to tour campus, participate in an SAT workshop and hear from admissions counselors. To participate in the program, students are expected to have a GPA of at least 3.0 and submit a 300-word essay. This requirement provides students with possibly their first experience writing college admissions essays. The program allows students to envision themselves as future Wolverines by providing social activities for them, including opportunities to interact with different student organizations on campus and hear from an alum. The program also strives to connect the high school students with current students from the same area. When talking about the program in an interview with the Daily, Royster stressed the importance of the program for minority students. “We want to allow them to acclimate to the culture and make them passionate about the University,” Royster said. “We want them to envision themselves at the University.” Furthermore, this initiative provides an opportunity for the University to work toward increasing minority enrollment without violating Proposal 2, which prohibits
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affirmative action at Michigan universities. The program’s goal to increase enrollment of students within underrepresented groups has many merits. With a more diverse population, students will benefit from an environment in which ideas are fostered from people of varying backgrounds. If students are never exposed to individuals who come from different backgrounds than their own, they are limited by a lack of new perspectives. The purpose of higher minority enrollment is to promote inclusiveness, prevent discrimination and decrease the marginalization of minority voices on campus. Additionally, an increase in minority students will allow the University to better serve the state of Michigan and hold the University more accountable to the public it is serving. Similar programs may be implemented in the future alongside the expansion of BSU’s program. While this is the first semester the BSU initiative will take place and the number of enrollees seems minimal, the program serves as a great first step to increase minority enrollment. Both the Central Student Government and the University should support this program in all possible ways and work with BSU toward its upcoming expansion.
My real education
ollege education is a mixture of choice, effort, perception and circumstance. Academically speaking, you can only choose from the classes offered: this is our circumstance. We choose our courses, decide the level of time and effort we will invest in class and rate the course based on our subjective perceptions of what education should look like. A student can choose to MARIS pursue paths of knowledge HARMON acquisition or skill honing — academic “excellence” or a focus on experience-based learning. But often, for me, the question is, “How much will you remember when you leave?” Will you remember the historical events you learned, or the social justice concepts you dialogued about? Will the academic habit you hang on to the longest be your new coffee addiction? I wasn’t sure what I came to the University for, to be honest. I thought maybe it was to hone my writing skills or to learn about how and why the earth was being destroyed (along with how to prevent destruction). Alongside the “liberal arts education” came the idea that I was going to college to learn how to learn, to grow as a well-rounded human and to become more eligible for the working world. I did learn many things here. I took a wide array of classes that helped me understand different ways of looking at the world and understanding humanity. I took classes about writing and the earth. I also took classes that taught me more about gender, health, race, socioeconomic status and Afro-Cuban drumming. They taught me more about being perceptive and critical of the changing world around me. However, the classes that made my experience here uniquely impactful were the classes that existed off the beaten trail. These classes understood the earth and the human mind as concepts that did not fit into textbooks, but rather as entities that flourished from creative environments of freedom and dialogue. They encouraged self-exploration and deep curiosity. From these classes, I gained an understanding of a different life perspective — one that embraced the earth as a grounding life force. I gained an understanding of meditation and compassion as a type of spirituality. This spirituality deeply resonated with me. Coming into school, I had strong values and convictions, but coming out, I better understand how to nurture this sense of self. I highly recommend these classes at the University. In Jazz 450 with Martha Travers in School of the Music, Theatre & Dance, students
learn mindful meditation, how to connect more deeply with nature and different ways of coping with our daily tedium. In Psychology of Spirituality with Richard Mann, students become friends as they sit in a circle and learn about the nuances of navigating life as humans. Environment, Sustainability and Social Change, taught to first-years by James Crowfoot, a professor and dean emeritus in the School of Natural Resources, helps freshmen commune with nature in an incredibly accessible way. Writing and the Environment with Aric Knuth encourages students to write about their nature-based recollections and share their experience with classmates. Through these classes, I found meaning, calm and purpose with a new understanding of how I can interact with the earth and of the anchor the earth can provide me. I learned methods of walking and sitting meditation. I learned how to greet the elements and how to take in others’ life stories. These classes spanned beyond the usual limits of the college classroom. These classes based themselves in dialogue and experience. In circles, we talked about our personal journeys. I learned how to think deeply about the metaphors around me. As a high school student, I perceived societal success as my ultimate goal. These are the goals set for you by the people around you rather than by what you determine makes you happy. I set about achieving the highest grades, playing varsity sports, taking many standardized tests, joining clubs and not sleeping. I was very stressed and very miserable. My most frequent emotion during that time was anger. I went into university knowing that I did not want to treat my body and spirit like that again. Striving to meet society’s pre-set goals was not my personal path to happiness. This much I knew. What I needed to find out then was what would make me happy. My professors in these classes didn’t have the same rules as others. Their highest concern was not whether you ended the semester with an A; rather, whether or not you grew as a person. Learning about my spirituality was my real education. I find life lessons in the path these professors set me on. If you are still continuing your journey at the University, I highly suggest finding classes that speak to you along with the mandatory requirements. It’s possible that it won’t be the classes for your major that are embedded deep in your memory, but the classes you took for you. —Maris Harmon can be reached at marhar@umich.edu.
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On impossibilities
e were 40 minutes into an 11 a.m. lecture for Bible as Literature when our professor, Ralph Williams, offered another one of his “Williamsisms.” It was in the thick of a complicated, careful analysis on the theological necessity of the ELI annihilation of CAHAN the first generation of Israelites in the wilderness (in Numbers, precluding the entry into the promised land at Canaan). It was the sort of aphorism that, thrust off-hand, I almost missed amidst my grasping to keep up with the narrative, the details, the characters and the chronology. But this one was a diamond in the rough, a needle in the haystack, a pearl in the sand, whatever idiom suits your fancy. A biggy. I’ll get back to it. Impossibility is an obscure, transient notion. Long have philosophers sought to explain that which defies the laws, the mental framework within which we live our lives. Take Isaac Newton, for example, who posited much of the foundational physics principles upon which modern theory rests. During his time, the concept of the presence and interaction of “invisible forces” as a medium guiding much of the observable phenomena was truly implausible and impossible. In the words of Williams: “Oh” (i.e. “they really swung and missed on that one?”) Indeed, it seems, something is only impossible until it can be explained. Impossibility withers in the face of reason, removed from the precipice of the miraculous and placed within the realm of the conceptual. In this way, impossibility is but a temporary
asterisk marking that which we do not yet understand. So, why does any of this longwinded musing on the nature of impossibility matter? Well, it’s necessary in order to gain an appreciation that the impossible is overcome every day. History is flush with this storyline. Light could not be explained until Louis de Broglie and David Bohm articulated the wave-particle duality. No sprinter could run a mile in less than four minutes until Roger Bannister did. Pictures could not move until Georges Meliés and others made the first movies. No pitcher could throw faster than 102 miles per hour until Aroldis Chapman did. Hell, hepatitis C could not be cured until Sovaldi until its approval in 2013. The plot of history’s “impossibles” is canonical and repetitive: “it could not happen, until, well, it did.” Albert Einstein put this conception of impossibility (while at the center of a heated debate between science and religion) a particularly eloquent way: “To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness … In this sense I too am religious, with the reservation that ‘cannot grasp’ does not have to mean ‘forever ungraspable.’ ” In other words, Einstein believed that religion and science reflect a rather similar fascination with understanding the impossible. That is, until we, inevitably, grasp it. I know, I know. I’m a little bit off the deep end right now. So let me come back to that Williamsism, if you’ll let me. In that 40th minute, Ralph stated, simply and as only he can, that “possibility is only bounded by the imagination.” Put another way: you think, there-
fore you may be. Conversely, deeming something impossible is a form of creative apathy. It’s a label used to qualify an anomalous phenomenon. It’s a manifestation of intellectual arrogance, a claim that the current framework of comprehension is the right, and the only, one. Of course, if there’s one immutable historical truth, it’s that things happen, facts emerge, and minds change. Indeed, the impossible is as malleable and temporary as the lens through which we view it. Wow! (As an aside, if you haven’t registered yet, I’d go take one of his classes.) In other news, this is my last official column for The Michigan Daily. In my time writing, I’ve addressed many different topics, including once providing a reflection on some of the career decisions I’ve made, coupled with some advice. I would be remiss if I didn’t add one last nugget, one that Adidas popularized a few years back: “Impossible is nothing.” Here’s what I make of the tagline: “impossible,” as a label, is nothing. It’s meaningless, an excuse for a void of knowledge or of skill. And inversely, impossible is no thing. No thing is impossible. It’s just as Coach Holtz (and Mom) said it: “Nothing is impossible … if you put your mind to it.” I always loved “Hardy Boys” and “Scooby Doo” as a kid. And this idea — that the most distant challenges are but mysteries waiting to be solved — is tremendously inspiring. I hope you find it as empowering as I do as you move forward with your life. Actually, one more thing, before I sign off, that I would regret if I didn’t do. I want to thank my readers for the attention, for the support and for giving me the opportunity to grow up through this newspaper these four years. Thank you. It means the world. — Eli Cahan can be reached at emcahan@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Rabab Jafri, Ben Keller, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe
A letter to myself on move-in day
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ear young, impressionable, just-turned-18-three-daysago me, College is a new beginning for you, and you need the change it provides. You’re nervous now but also excited to be in Ann Arbor, a place with thousands of new faces and many KATIE new freedoms. KOZIARA College is going to be different. You say this in your head now, but soon you’ll understand how much truth this mantra holds. You’re going to grow apart from people you don’t currently want to lose. You’re going to grow close to people with whom you didn’t think you had anything in common initially. People and problems that seem so central to your life today will be a minor blip on your radar by senior year. The biggest problem you’ll tackle is figuring out what to study. During Campus Day you heard about the Ford School, and you’ll end up choosing this path. It’ll be a good experience and you’ll meet some amazing people, but you’re not going to have a thing like everyone else. You won’t suddenly become passionate about saving the environment or changing the tax code or fixing labor laws. You’ll choose health policy as your focus area, mainly because you took an amazing public health class that made you change the way you view political problems. Ultimately, though, you’ll realize health policy isn’t what will get you out of bed in the morning. So you’ll look at possible minors to supplement your Ford School experience. You like a lot of different things, so it’s going to be hard to choose just one. One day, while you’re sitting in Rackham, you’ll stumble across the Sweetland Minor in Writing. You like writing, so you’ll decide to apply. By senior year, you will be confident that it was the best decision you made at Michigan. You’re a writer even now, sitting on your twin XL bed in your unfamiliar room, but you don’t have the courage to admit it yet. The first time you say it out loud, though, it’ll seem like you’ve gained the mental clarity for which you’ve been search-
ing since you arrived on campus. Your writing classes will be treasured spaces where you can be vulnerable, where you can share. You’ll want to thank each one of your peers who took the time to read your writing and give you critiques and encourage you, but it’ll be difficult to convey how much that means to you. “Hey, smart people!” your professor will write when she sends out announcements to the class. We are a group of smart people, you’ll think. I am smart. Each year you are enrolled at Michigan is going to be different from the last. Really different, actually. Most of this is because each year you’ll spend most of your time with a different group of people. Right now you share campus with your brother, but that will end by middle of junior year when you head to Washington D.C. for a semester. You’ll miss being able to drive to Zingerman’s on a Sunday and talk about whatever is on your mind with him, but luckily, you’re going to end up about an hour and a half away from each other after graduation. South Quad is a great spot for now, but next year you’ll live in the sorority house and spend a lot of time with Pledge Class 2011. You’ll spend most of junior year in D.C., living with Fordies and PoliSci majors. Senior year, you’ll live all over Ann Arbor (I’d tell you that story, too, but I signed a nondisclosure agreement which prohibits me from doing so). You’re going to join a sorority in a few weeks, and you’ll wonder whether or not you fit into the house you got a bid from. The girls in the house are “chill.” You are most definitely not chill. Then you’ll realize chil in this context means you’re going to have fun with these people whether you’re out on a Football Saturday or lying in the Green Room on a Wednesday watching “Good Will Hunting.” Your best friend in the house will be the same kind of hyper/chill hybrid as you. You don’t know yet, but next year, the girl you met during orientation will walk around Pike in her pajamas with you at midnight on a Friday because she knows you just had your heart ripped out of your chest by someone you thought would be in your life forever. A year later, you’ll laugh about how ridiculous you two
probably looked, you sobbing down Oxford and her wearing a brightorange shirt with “sober monitor” written on the back. Also, an important tip for sophomore year: don’t sign up for Honors Calculus. You’re a freshman who thinks she wants to live in New York City one day, but in two years you’re going to intern in D.C. and randomly be assigned a roommate. She’ll be the most ridiculous, spirited and entertaining friend you’ll have during your time at the University, and you will share many inside jokes that make you laugh until you can’t breathe. You’ll live together in D.C. again a few months later, and get into more trouble. You’ll also make a friend who will join in your complaints about Shake Shack changing their fries, watch kids movies on Saturday mornings while you recover from drinking one too many on Friday nights and take an entire album worth of selfies with you during your semester in Washington. You’re struggling to make friends now, but in a few weeks, a tall girl from Midland will run into the room where you happen to be hanging with your new friends. She’ll explain how she’s currently sexiled and introduce herself, and by senior year it’ll be difficult to avoid crying with her anytime someone talks about graduation. Next year, a girl will introduce herself, saying she knows you through a friend of a friend, and senior year you’ll be there for each other when you each need a friend the most. But you don’t know any of this currently, as you lie in bed at night and let a few tears fall down your face. You are just a homesick freshman — nervous, but also excited to see what the next four years will bring. You’re the unedited version of the person you’ll become in the next four years, the first cut of many revisions you’ll make to yourself without even realizing it. You’re going to grow and you’re going to thrive, so get ready for the next four years of your life. They’ll be over in the blink of an eye. Go Blue, Katie — Katie Koziara can be reached at kkoziara@umich.edu.
Sports
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BASEBALL
Wolverines surpass last season’s numbers, wins By ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS Daily Sports Writer
At this point, it’s safe to say that the Michigan baseball team is playing its best baseball of the season. It can even be argued that the Wolverines are playing better baseball now than at any point during the last few years. As Michigan coach Erik Bakich has always preached, the team is looking to improve every single day — in practice, in the classroom and on the field. One way to measure that improvement is by comparing this year’s squad to last year’s. For starters, the Wolverines (4-5 Big Ten, 19-13 overall) have won 19 of their first 32 games, whereas the team of old won just 14. But the stark contrast between the 2014 and 2015 squads doesn’t end there, as the Daily compares both teams from an offensive and pitching standpoint. Offense: Even a cursory glance at this year’s statistics shows that the offensive production severely outpaces that of last season. Tuesday’s 18-run outburst against Eastern Michigan served as an exclamation point for what has, up to this point, been a season of dominance for the Wolverines’ offense. Michigan leads the Big Ten in batting average (.294), whereas last year’s team finished eighth in the conference (.256). Just over two weeks into the
Big Ten schedule, the Wolverines have already hit 18 home runs, a stark improvement over last year’s season total of 14. Furthermore, Michigan scored more than 10 runs four times last season, but Tuesday’s rout of the Eagles was already its sixth 10-plus run game this season. But Bakich won’t look to the past to measure this year’s successes. “I don’t think about last year’s team at all,” Bakich said. “All I know is we’ve got a really good offense, (and) we’re really tough one through nine. Our offense is a byproduct of having good players who keep their focus having quality at-bats. “We’ve got a year or two years more of experience. Anytime you’ve got some talent plus experience, you’ve got a chance.”
throughout the year — most notably to junior left-hander Evan Hill, who made his first start of the season on Tuesday, and sophomore right-hander Keith Lehmann, who has pitched in just five games all year. Both Hill and Lehmann had lamented their place in last season’s weekend rotation. To make up for his injured veterans, Bakich has called upon two underclassmen — freshman right-hander Ryan Nutof (43.1 innings pitched) and sophomore left-hander Brett Adcock (36.2) — each of whom has lived up to the task. As for junior right-hander Jacob Cronenworth, the third weekend starter, he made his first career start earlier this season. Regardless, the patchwork pitching staff has held things together nicely, combining for a 3.67 ERA. “Early on, we had to get the ‘freshman’ out of them, some of their inexperience,” Hill said. “It took some games to do that, to think about what your intent is behind every pitch in every count, but they’re hitting their turning point now.” Added Bakich: “We’ve got a lot of good starters. It finally feels like we’re getting back to firing on all cylinders; the results have been very positive.”
“I don’t think about last year’s team at all.”
Pitching: Coming into the season, the Wolverines’ biggest question mark was their pitching staff. They were going to have to rely on underclassmen, many of whom had never experienced pitching at the collegiate level. And unfortunately for Michigan, things have not gone as planned. The pitching staff has suffered numerous injuries
Thursday, April 9, 2015 — 5A
BOXING
‘M’ looks to repeat By ZACH SHAW Daily Sports Writer
Last season, the Michigan club boxing team traveled to Miami with a shorthanded and injury-riddled team, and still Collegiate returned home Boxing with its firstever national Nationals title. When: Though the Thursdaygoal remains Saturday the same, the Where: Wolverines Intramural won’t have to Sports Building journey nearly as far this year. With the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association National Tournament coming to the Intramural Sports Building — from April 9 to April 11 — Michigan is looking to become repeat champions in front of a home crowd. “We’re standing pretty well,” said senior and twotime national champion Kevin Bosma. “We’ve had a long year of committed boxers who’ve put a lot of work in so far. “Given the level of work the team has put in this year, I have no reason to believe we couldn’t repeat the success we had last year.” In the 2014 campaign, the Wolverines won the title behind five individual national champions. But with Bosma and sophomore Yazan El-Baba as the only returning winners this season, the Wolverines yield a team composed largely
of newcomers with limited experience to contend for national glory. El-Baba, who was a meager 0-1 in his career before streaking to a national title last year, hopes to remind his teammates that a lack of experience can be trumped with dedication and commitment. “Last year, things were falling apart before (the tournament),” El-Baba said. “I remember seeing a lot of the older guys or people I looked up to getting injured right before, and knowing that they weren’t going to be there, I had no expectations for the tournament — didn’t think we would come away with a team title. “There are a lot of things going on inside the club and outside. We’re just trying to limit the effect of that, still go in with strong numbers, and keep the new guys’ heads held up high and to let them know that, ‘Hey, I boxed for my first time last year not knowing how good I could do, and it worked out pretty well.’ ” Expecting 150 boxers to compete in Ann Arbor, the tournament will run for three days beginning Thursday, progressing through the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship rounds with each day. Though Michigan will once again bring one of the largest teams to the tournament, Maryland, Georgetown, Eastern Michigan and University of San Francisco are all expected to bring bigger teams than last year
Michigan earns first Classifieds Big Ten win at MSU
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 9, 2015
By BETELHEM ASHAME For the Daily
Though the Michigan State men’s tennis team has also been chasing a .500 win-loss record, the Spartans have had better luck than Michigan as of late. With home-court advantage on Wednesday 4 MICHIGAN night, they 3 MSU would have relished the opportunity to inflict even more pain on a Wolverine squad that had been trying to end a nine-game losing streak amidst a disaster of a season. But Michigan refused to go down without a fight in East Lansing, earning a 4-3 victory. The Wolverines (1-6 Big Ten, 4-14 overall) started strong in doubles play, as the No. 3 pair of sophomore Tyler Gardiner and redshirt freshman Davis Crocker took care of business quickly with an 8-2 win over Michigan State’s Doug Zade and Jasper Koenen. “They played the best match of the year, and that’s great for our team going forward,” said Michigan coach Adam Steinberg. “We really needed that. They’ve been getting close, they’ve been right there and, finally, they broke through and did a great job today.” Michigan had a harder battle to fight at the top two positions. Both the No. 1 senior duo of Alex Petrone and Michael Zhu and the No. 2 team of redshirt freshman Alex Knight and true freshman Leo Hua faced stiff competition against the Spartans (2-4, 11-12), in which every time one side managed to secure a point, the other countered. Michigan State came out on top, though, winning 8-5 and 8-6 at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, to claim the doubles point. In order to come out victorious, the Wolverines needed to win four out of the six matches in singles play. But with a shot at breaking the losing streak, a pair of freshmen came up big. Hua and freshman Carter
Lin started Michigan off on the right foot, with Hua beating his opponent in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, and Lin defeating his in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, to give the Wolverines the 2-1 dualmatch lead. After Michigan State answered back with two victories of its own, the Wolverines were down 3-2 with just two singles players remaining, Knight and Petrone. “It was crazy. It was definitely a crazy atmosphere,” Steinberg said. “That’s what makes college tennis so special, because you get in those situation where you’re down 3-2 with two tiebreakers going on at the same time and you have to win both. It’s a really cool thing, especially in an individual sport like ours, that you can win your match, win for Michigan and win as a team and do it that way.” With all the pressure sitting squarely on their shoulders, Knight and Petrone dug deep and found the strength to overcome the challenge that lay before them. Within moments of each other, Knight and Petrone won the match for Michigan with scores of 7-6, 7-6 and 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, respectively.
For the first time all season, the Wolverines won a match against a Big Ten opponent, on the road no less, against one of their biggest rivals with the odds stacked against them. “I’m so proud of the guys. I’m really happy for them,” Steinberg said. “I’m so proud of how they fought today. It’s been a long time coming. They’ve been so close and they finally broke through today. I’m excited for them. I wanted it for them, especially for the freshmen for their first Big Ten win. It’s pretty special.” Despite being well below the .500 mark, Michigan hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet. And for their perseverance, the Wolverines were rewarded with a win that will linger as one of the lasting memories from a largely forgettable season. “That’s what I’m most proud of,” Steinberg said. “We’ve gone through such a long losing streak and a lot of athletes would quit. But they haven’t quit on Michigan. They showed resiliency. I’m really proud of them, that they got this one against a very good team on the road in a very tough environment. I’m very happy for them.”
in hopes of stealing the title from the Wolverines’ grasp. Despite the increased competition, Bosma has seen the team rise from an unofficial club to national champions in his time on campus, and has faith in the commitment and training the team has endured. “A lot of our team is largely novice fighters and new beginners,” Bosma said. “We’re really going to rely on our coaching and the dedication to our sport to come through, and I think that it will.” Fans at the event will see the team go for a second title, but may also see another set of Wolverines go for their first. After winning a national title herself last season, senior Kate Johnson looks to match the men’s team’s success this year. Running the majority of training and coaching herself, Johnson has built the women’s team into one of the nation’s biggest as it looks to take down perennial powerhouse Army. Johnson also works at a nearby boxing club, where she has developed a reputation in the area for an intensity that not even boxers of both genders or the local S.W.A.T team can keep up with. Now, she thinks her team can turn struggles in practice to a team win. “A lot of girls are going to have their first fights there,” she said. “But they’ve been training pretty hard and look pretty good at this point. “I like to think if they can get through my workouts, they’re pretty well prepared.”
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
FOR RENT
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 “That’s terrible!” 5 Like some stockings 9 Guck 14 Windfall 15 “The Salt-N-__ Show” 16 Trojan War figure 17 Roman god of the sky 18 Genre that often includes a ballet 20 Utopias 22 Excited, with “up” 23 TV teaser before the first commercial 26 Côte d’Azur sight 29 Lean-__ 30 Nasser’s confed. 31 Harsh 33 Swamp 36 Bone-dry 37 James Bond and others 42 Open org. 43 Second book in Clavell’s “Asian Saga” 44 Fanatic 47 One-up 48 Time zone word: Abbr. 51 Buddhist branch 52 “Great” 1975 Redford role 56 Free-for-all 57 Savanna heavyweight 58 Skinny, so to speak, or what’s hidden in 18-, 23-, 37- and 52Across 63 Lined up, with “in” 64 Movers’ challenge 65 Degree holder 66 Without 67 Choose to join 68 Ages and ages 69 Choice word DOWN 1 Protest 2 Jinx 3 King output 4 Upright 5 EPA sticker stat
53 Pigeon’s place 39 Eddie __, 6 Adverb in odes 54 Golden, in detective 7 Produce Guadalajara involved in the 8 Capital NE of 55 Full moon, e.g. actual “French Vientiane 56 Thigh-high attire Connection” 9 Quick learner 58 2010 GM 40 Each 10 “Dragnet” force, financial event 41 Slender candle briefly 59 Little bite 45 Was in debt 11 Rage 60 Did nothing regarding 12 Orbiter for 15 61 One might keep 46 Yarn years you from seeing 48 Fusilli shape 13 Spanish “that” the show 49 Mortise partners 19 Pressures for 62 Magazine VIPs 50 Nod payment 21 Ting or ping 24 When doubled, a ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: South Pacific capital 25 Blow 26 First name in game shows 27 Iroquoian people 28 Cabs and syrahs 32 “You’re So ___”: 1973 #1 hit 33 Carrier that doesn’t fly on the Sabbath 34 Where to hear maas and baas 35 Popular chip 37 __ bass 38 Words of understanding 04/09/15 xwordeditor@aol.com
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Alex Petrone won his singles match to help catapult Michigan to victory.
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Sports
6A — Thursday, April 9, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘Silent Assassin’ does the little things Sierra Lawrence gets the job done in ways that aren’t always obvious By KEVIN SANTO Daily Sports Writer
It all started Sierra Lawrence’s freshman year. She would get to second base, and Michigan coach Carol Hutchins would get ready to tell her to steal third. But by the time she looked up, Lawrence was in full stride, if not already at the bag. That was the beginning of the now-junior centerfielder’s unique alter ego, “The Silent Assassin.” The sports world sees its fair share of nicknames — some serious, others absurd. Reggie Jackson became “Mr. October” after he hit three home runs on three consecutive pitches in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. More recently, former Michigan guard Nik Stauskas picked up the alias of “Sauce Castillo” by way of a closed-captioning error. Clearly, the Michigan softball team is no exception to the nickname phenomenon. The name fits Lawrence’s game well. She’s undoubtedly one of the Wolverines’ top players, ranking third in runs scored, home runs and runs batted in. But Lawrence’s most significant contributions have flown under the radar. Hutchins revealed that her baserunning ability makes her a significant threat deserving of the nickname, not the home runs and RBI. “Her first year, every time I’d look up, she’d be on third base,” Hutchins said. “She would just show up (at third). Before I had a chance to send her, she was already standing there. So I nicknamed her that because she
ROBERT DUNNE/Daily
Junior centerfielder Sierra Lawrence has stolen 18 bases in 19 attempts this season. She ranks first and fourth in the category for Michigan and the Big Ten, respectively.
is as good a base runner as I’ve ever had. She has great instincts (and) she has a tremendous first step.” Added freshman catcher Aidan Falk: “She’s so fast, and nobody realizes that. And she’s unbelievably strong. Those two combinations (make her) a lethal player.” Lawrence has been placed at the leadoff spot in the batting order for the majority of the season, largely due to her agility on the base paths. Hutchins
explained that she has an incredible ability to set the game’s tone early and to get on base by beating out infield singles. So far this season, Lawrence has posted 18 stolen bases on 19 attempts, ranking first and fourth in the category for the Wolverines and the Big Ten, respectively. “When I get on base, I just want to score,” Lawrence said. “So any opportunity I have to take a base, I take it. It’s always come naturally (to me) to be
aggressive on the bases.” Yet Lawrence’s intangibles often don’t receive recognition. Usually, that is reserved for the home-.run hitter or the pitching ace. But that doesn’t bother her. She leaves that for her teammates, embracing a leadership role for Michigan instead. In an inexperienced outfield, Lawrence is the only starting player to return to the lineup from the 2014 season after the Wolverines graduated Lyndsay Doyle and Nicole Sappingfield. It’s clear that junior right fielder Kelsey Susalla and sophomore left fielder Kelly Christner have benefited tremendously from the experience of “The Silent
Assassin” in the outfield. “(She has taught me to have) confidence,” said freshman infielder Amanda Vargas. “She plays with a sense of swagger. All players can tell that she’s really confident. She knows what she’s doing, and even if she’s having a rough game, you know the next game she’s going to be fine.” Lawrence’s long tenure in the outfield has paid dividends for the Wolverines on the defensive end. She knows where the ball is going before batters can even make contact, and she reads fly balls with ease, a skill that has led her to boast a flawless fielding percentage. Lawrence’s innate ability
“Before I had a chance to send her, she was already standing there.”
to judge the ball off the bat, in combination with very impressive arm strength, often turns opposing teams’ would-be doubles into singles. She continues to produce the numbers that the fans may not care about, but as she has aged, the stats that fans look for have improved as well. Lawrence has already matched her 2014 home run total, sending nine balls out of the park thus far. And she is 21 RBI away from matching her 2014 total in the respective category. But she has not wavered in showing that she will consistently trade the highlightreel play for a tally in the win column. So while the opposing pitchers and fielders focus on stopping Michigan’s headliners, look for Lawrence to do what she does best: slip through their gazes yet again, and strike like a silent assassin.
the b-side B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, April 9, 2015
INSIDE THE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT LIT JOURNAL by Caroline Filips Daily Arts Writer
Design by Mariah Gardziola, Photo by Virginia Lozano
the b-side
2B — Thursday, April 9, 2015
XYLEM From Page 1B If you find yourself enrolled at an esteemed university such as the University of Michigan, you’ve either been or are a writer to some degree. Whether it be typing up lab reports, journaling in your English 125 class or finalizing your poetry portfolio, you’ve translated thoughts and ideas into some form of a written work. Wherever you stand on the spectrum, somewhere between occasional essay writer and loud and proud English major, you’ve likely been strained by the craft at some juncture of your academic career. Writing — that’ll getcha.
At the root of Xylem stems an undeniable authenticity. When I sat down at Espresso Royale on a rainy afternoon with two writers, I was reminded of a truth I so often overlook: writers are an undeniably odd breed. That’s not to say LSA senior Supreet Grewal and Business and LSA junior Nisreen Salka were weirdos — quite the opposite, actually. They’re incredibly intelligent, witty and well-spoken students of the University; the type that restore your dwindling faith in the student body after overhearing some utterly imbecilic conversation at the UGLi. Grewal and Salka are the editor in chief and the finance and publications chair, respectively, of the University’s undergraduate student-run literary magazine, Xylem. Over our afternoon brew, we discussed their publication, the logistics behind it and its lengthy processes of submission and composition. But, we spent a majority of our time discussing the strenuous yet rewarding process that is writing (i.e. how we were all alike in that we’re weirdos by way of the craft).
We touched on the collective effervescence shared among writers, or the notion that there are unspoken rules one naturally subscribes to by being a writer. We determined there’s a bevy of components, some beneficial, some agonizing, but all relatable. Between our cathartic chat ranging from our lovehate relationship with clichés to the dichotomy of egocentrism and self-doubt, just listening to each other was like an apology of sorts — an apology on behalf of our creative venture for its affliction. That’s not to say writing’s all bad. Immersing yourself in writing is an excellent route to self-discovery, or the thoughts we can’t seem to articulate in any other medium, as Grewal can attest. “I think for me it is mostly my experiences, or things I can’t put into any other context,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll write a poem only because a poem is the best form for what I’m trying to say,” to which she jokingly added has hindered her from writing a lot of poems. On the contrary, Salka approaches her work from a different angle. “I hate drawing purely from my own experiences, but I like taking emotions from those experiences and putting it into a different personalities,” she said. “I think it’s boring to reciprocate just what I’ve been through. Inspiration can come anywhere.” Whether derived from personal experiences and emotions or purely fictitious, Xylem’s content includes prose, poetry, short stories and occasional artwork. Due to its contingency on student submissions, at the root of Xylem stems an admirable authenticity, each piece distinctively delivered in the author’s emotive voice. “I think the unique voice is that it doesn’t really have one,” Grewal said. “It doesn’t attempt to be anything super unified other than a platform for students to get their work out there.” As a platform for writers ranging from burgeoning poets to Hopwood winners, Xylem fosters a pedagogical environ-
ment for all skill sets. Prefacing each issue is Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “xylem”: “n. Collective term for the cells, vessels, and fibres forming the harder portion of the fibrovascular tissue; the wood, as a tissue of the plantbody.” Which raises the question: what’s in the name? That’s a question even Salka and Grewal ask themselves. From a metaphorical standpoint, it’s clever — just a group of typists, sowing the seeds of their efforts, reaping the benefits of their work with each tangible copy of the journal. Yet, to the publication’s two figureheads, any definition offered is seen as contrived. Salka’s been trying to solve the mystery since she joined the staff her freshman year. “No one knows, that is the biggest mystery,” Salka said. “That’s the first thing I asked the editor in chief when I started and she was like ‘no idea.’ ” Though their roots may not be clear, Xylem exists as an abstract outlet for students like Grewal and Salka, who explore the creative pursuits that are often limited in the classroom setting. Salka has seen the publication grow over the years, but its leaders maintain it has remained a place for students to express themselves. “We accept more work and we accept more high-quality work,” Salka said. “We had two or three times as many submissions this year than last year. We have the luxury of being more picky when we get more options.” Grewal happened into Xylem by a turn of events, after stumbling upon their submissions advertisement featuring an open editor position. She came to the University with intentions of a pre-med-related major, but a service trip to Nicaragua completely changed her mind, resulting in her pursuit of a dual degree in English and economics. “I realized I was way too emotional to be a doctor,” she said. Not only did the trip deflect her academic path, but her photos taken on the trip resulted in her photo essay submission for Xylem, for which she was accepted into the magazine.
TV REVIEW
‘Mad Men’ premiere is sluggish at work By CATHERINE SULPIZIO Senior Arts Editrix
Severance, as it turns out, in the eponymous mid-season premiere of “Mad Men” ’s final season, is less easily achieved than one expects. Indeed, the episode shows how B the characters remain as Mad Men bound to their corporate The Final Epiidentities as sodes: Episode 1 ever, with little promise AMC for respite in Sundays at 10 p.m. the last seven episodes. And on a meta-level, severance eludes the audience, who feel stuck back in the thematic mud of early “Mad Men” — less like an homage and more like a déjà vu that refuses to leave. Where once Don Draper (Jon Hamm, “Bridesmaids”) plumbed the less-thanglamorous depths of alcoholism, the thick veneer of advertising coats everything in “Severance.” Way back in season five, Draper’s fall from corporate grace was poised to offer a phoenix-style rise from the ashes. But in typical “Mad Men” style, Draper’s whorehouse past has simply been repurposed into another tool of the trade — in this case, to seduce a young model. The episode’s strength is in showing how entrenched Draper’s life is in advertising. In its opener, we see him in the midst of a psychological mind fuck (the type that typically prefaces his brand of sex). Then the camera pulls back to reveal it’s just a hyper-sexualized casting call.
AMC
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“We were all so impressed by that, by the way,” Salka added. As for Salka, Xylem simply seemed an enjoyable addition to her Business and Screen Arts and Cultures majors. The current finance and publications chair has been a part of the publication since her freshman year. After the entire board of last year graduated, Salka was the only remaining editorial board member when Grewal assumed the position of editor in chief. Prospects were bleak in her eyes, as she doubted the journal could replace the graduated talent.
“The best part (of Xylem) is the people you’re with.” During the fall, the pair often met at Elixir Vitae, where Grewal was constantly reassured by Salka’s optimistic outlook. “I have blind faith; I’m sorry,” Salka joked. “I kept telling her, ‘I’m sure we’ll find people.’ ” Sure enough, Salka was right. At the mass meeting, it was just the two of them, pitching the publication to an eager crowd of students. Seeing as she underestimated the turnout, Grewal’s only regret was that she didn’t bring enough cookies. “I found myself staring into this sea of people that I wasn’t expecting to show up at Mason Hall,” she recalled. In terms of the yearly logistical timeline, Xylem begins advertising for submissions in two waves, one shortly before Thanksgiving and one just before Winter Break, allotting aspiring contributors ample time to create. The magazine generally closes submissions during the first week of January, and layout is finalized in late winter. Throughout the early spring, all components are sent to the publishers. “First semester is all about generating interest and letting people know we’re accepting,” Grewal said.
She initially found the task daunting and assumed it a difficult venture to find eager contributors, but alas her doubts absolved. “People are eager to get their work published,” she said. In terms of what they get out of their Xylem experience, Grewal and Salka concluded the submissions team meetings as invaluable in their progression as writers. The group meets in early January for what Grewal describes as “megadiscussions” of the potential content for each upcoming issue. The lengthy submissions meetings last five to six hours, during which the team assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each piece from a literary standpoint. Group members are expected to read each piece beforehand, all of which are put in a Google Doc without names, in order to avoid bias When one’s own work is the topic of discussion, the writer is not allowed to speak on it, but rather listen intently to the commentary. “As a board member, your analytical abilities and your method of finding something valuable in someone’s creative work really comes into play,” Grewal said. The team was smaller than years past, as Grewal wanted to emphasize consistency and avoid past mistakes that came with a larger, unreliable team. “In the past, there’s been issues with people having this huge amount of interest upfront, or they say they’re super excited and they don’t follow through and I didn’t want to treat student creative work with that level of respect,” Grewal said. The workshop-style meetings create an environment for individual writers to improve their style, as submissions are dissected for their literary elements, which are then campaigned for by dedicated supporters or rejected by vociferous critics. “It’s really easy to read a book that’s won four prizes and be like, ‘Wow this is great writing, how do I do this?” Grewal said. “There’s no entry point to figure out how to write like that. You get better as a writer,
as an artist, by reading work that’s still a little rough around the edges and putting your own opinion in.” “Critically analyzing someone else’s work helps you find the faults in your own writing,” Salka added. “If we were split on a certain piece or someone felt really strongly about it, we would let them make their case.” With thoughtful consideration and helpful criticism, the 60-some selected works represent a combination of excellent writing and the essence of Xylem. Though entirely student-run, the publication exudes a unique professionalism that’s ref lected in its presentation, described by Grewal as “something you would buy in a store.” This year’s cohesive cover design includes etchings of phantom-esque figures, with a back cover showing them walking away. Though a date has yet to be decided (they’re looking at the weekend of the April 17), Xylem plans to host their annual launch party at Literati Bookstore, the kitschy bookseller on East Washington Street. While serving to distribute the magazine, the event also presents an opportunity for writers to bring their works to life as they read them aloud, with intended tone and emotion that may not have translated over text. As with most creative endeavors, there’s a lot of clichés attached to writing. So in the theme of our discussion, reviving our love-hate feelings towards clichés, I closed the interview with a cliché question. “What’s the best part about Xylem?” I asked. Salka replied succinctly, stating, “The best part is the people you’re with.” As for Grewel, she gave me an admittedly clichéd answer. “Maybe the book is the best part, but this is going to sound so cliché, I hope you’re ready … just everything along the way,” she said. By the end of the interview, out of all the trials and tribulations of writing we had previously agreed on, there was one more — they’re clichés for a reason.
SINGLE REVIEW “Whip It” first made an appearance as the fun-butforgettable opening track on ILoveMakonnen’s B Drink More Water 4 Whip It mixtape (Remix) in 2014. It featured iLoveMakonnen the rapft. Migos and per’s now Rich the Kid trademark wavery and Self-released wobbly flow as he playfully free-styled over a poorly mixed beat and said “whip it” a shit ton of times. But 2015 is a new year, Drink More Water 5 is a new mixtape and “Whip It (Remix)” is a new banger. This remix features a reworked Makonnen verse and a newly remastered beat. Most notable, though, is the employment of rappers Migos and Rich
ILOVEMAKONNEN
the Kid. With verses more catchy than Makonnen’s, the fellow Atlanta rappers add a new energy to the track, giving it that this could actually play at a party feel that some ILoveMakonnen songs just don’t have. But, the hook – “teach me how to whip it, teach me how to whip it” – doesn’t have the strength to
carry the song. And Makonnen’s characteristically choppy delivery sounds a little too jagged, leaving us with little to latch on to, little to hum in our heads a couple minutes after the first listen. Still, no one can resist a good Migos feature - RACHEL KERR
“I want to burn this place down.”
And reunited as the ultimate wingmen, Sterling (John Slattery, “The Adjustment Bureau”) and Draper are living in the financial excesses of their McCann buyout. While a brooding discontent with civilization characterized late-series “Mad Men” (think of season five’s string of visual death metaphors like the empty elevator shaft), “Severance” evokes its old brand of cynicism — one in which the rewards are reaped and the pathos is swept under the shag rug. But just as Peggy (Elisabeth Moss, “Girl, Interrupted”) cryptically suggests to a client, “I’d never recommend imitation as a strategy,” perhaps this circularity is intentional. After all, “Severance” is laced with callbacks: Draper’s latest is a fur client, and ingenue Rachel Katz née Menken (Maggie Siff, “Sons of Anarchy”) reappears in a dream to model it for him. She dies the next day, and all of Draper’s attempts to extract meaning from that well grooved symbolic network of brunette-
cum-mother-cum-whorehouse figures run dry. Where narration is telling Don old metaphors run out of significance, other characters like Ken (Aaron Staton, “L.A. Noire”) are running head-on against the narrative fates. After his father-in-law retires, his wife urges him to quit the job that he can afford to quit and write the book he should have been writing. The next day, internal politics lead to Ken’s firing, providing the deus ex machina that eludes Don this episode. Rather than yielding to the direction fate is channeling him into, he yields to pettiness and takes his father-in-law’s old job — purely to torture his ex-colleagues. Other characters are chained to their stakes: Peggy flirts with escaping to Paris with a promising date, but can’t find her passport. Of course, it turns up in her office desk. You can leave work in “Mad Men,” in the literal sense, but figuratively, it’s a whole different story.
TRAILER REVIEW Trailer #1 for “Ex Machina” is the perfect example of a trailer that gives just enough information about the film. We glean scraps of the initial A premise – there are two Ex computer Machina scientists, and they’re Universal working on Pictures a dangerously human- April 10, 2015 seeming female A.I. We know Oscar Isaac and Domnhall Gleeson are in it — that’s enough to get us to see pretty much anything. And, thanks to the trailer’s nervous pace, we know that it’s going to be very,
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
very intense. We don’t learn much else, and that’s a good thing. In the age of trailers spoiling the most important parts of the film, the “Ex
Machina” trailer stands as an excellent example of how to truly bait the audience with mystery. - JACOB RICH
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, April 9, 2015 — 3B
Cover designer Tidal and the future talks new edition of free music MUSIC COLUMN
Stephane Mallarme gets a revamped cover for new translation
I
By COSMO PAPPAS Daily Arts Writer
Like the oceans of waste we pump out every day, there are faraway graveyards of thrownaway books, untouched or unseen for millennia. The carcasses of discarded volumes form the very ground on which we walk and stuff the furniture on which we sit. Geologists have determined that the combustion in the bowels of the Earth is powered not by the decay of uranium-238 and potassium-40, but by an inferno of trammeled copies of GQ and Teen Vogue. Rummage sales are the mass execution yards where John Grisham dies a million deaths in effigy. It is easy to forget that text and books have not always been so disposable, given the ubiquity of mass-market paperbacks and an amount of digitally published text much larger than any person could ever possibly read. In contrast with the decadent, gimmicky “deluxe editions” you see coming out of publishers like Penguin, there are many traditions of textual production that do much more in terms of substantively thinking through the relationship between text, image and the book as physical object.
His task is to animate Mallarme’s ambitions. This sets the stage for Stephane Mallarme and the retranslation of his major late work “Un coup de Des jamais n’abolira le hasard” (“A Roll of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance”) from Seattle-based Wave Books. A 19th-century French poet (1842-1898) in the league of Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, Mallarme held massive influence through his poetry, his prose and criticism, his editorial work on various publications, including a shortlived fashion magazine, and his salons. The regulars of his philosophical, literary meetings included Paul Verlaine, W.B. Yeats and Rainer Maria Rilke. Many critics of the 20th and 21st centuries hold him up as an antecedent of some of the most important theoretical developments in critical theory and literary criticism. His poem, “A Roll of the Dice,” is a “typographical extravaganza,” to use Brian Kim Stefans’s phrase from his review of French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux’s 2012 “The Number and the Siren: a Decipherment of Mallarme’s Coup de Des.” Mallarme’s instructions for the 1897 edition to his publisher, Vollard, were meticulous and exacting, although never executed either in his lifetime or after except for one undertaking in 2004 and, now, the efforts of translator Robert Bononno and Ypsilanti-based translator and designer Jeff Clark (Quemadura Studio). They bring Mallarme’s radical vision to life in their powerful and beautiful edition. The words are set in different sizes, italicized or not, in descending and scattered movements across the page. “The ‘white spaces’ (les blancs), in effect, assume importance, are the first that strike our eyes; versification has always required them, usually as an encompassing silence, such that a poem ... occupies, centered, about a third of the page: I don’t disregard this method, merely
ÉDOUARD MANET
A portrait of Mallarme.
disperse it,” Mallarme says in the preface to his poem. In some literary historical accounts, this emphasis on movement and speed anticipates the Futurist and Dadaist avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. Taking his cue from the Mallarme’s instructions for the Vollard edition, Clark substitutes the “vaguely nautical” lithographs by Odilon Redon with his own illustrations. These illustrations, he explains, are “randomly-lit, burst-mode photographs of black-andwhite laserprints” that lend an impersonal and austere air to Bonanno and Clark’s impressive translation. The result, coupled with the “extended weight of Helvetica” that Clark opts for in the English text, is a gorgeous work that prompts questions of aesthetic unity involving the book itself as an aesthetic object. All the while, these questions are given body and made exciting in their eminently recognizable contemporary English. Mallarme consciously positioned his literary project, embodied both in “A Roll of the Dice” and his thirtyyear-in-the-making “utopian enterprise” titled simply “Le Livre” (The Book), as a sort of atheist inheritance of what David Roberts calls the “Catholic tradition of mystery” in his book “The Total Work of Art in European Modernism.” It was through a “numerologically structured ceremony of public reading” that Mallarme sought “to found a new poetic religion that would be secular modernity’s answer to Christianity,” says Adam Kotsko in The New Inquiry. Roberts also describes how Mallarme’s aim stands in contrast with another aesthetic paradigm of 19th century – Richard Wagner’s concept of the total work of art, or the Gesamtkunstwerk. Wagner sought to unify all modes of aesthetic representation in the theater through his ambitious operatic works. Mallarme, by contrast, aspired to the creation of a book that incorporated everything through an act of poetic “dematerialization, abstraction, and generalization,” Roberts says. But if their ideas are antithetical (and again, this is an incredibly complicated debate that I can’t delve into here), they at least share a drive toward unity and totality. Everything was made in order to end up in a book, Mallarme remarked in conversation with Jules Huret, which our same Orhan Pamuk cited in a 2008 interview with Carol Becker in the Brooklyn Rail. Although Mallarme worked “(to invent) a style of critical prose as well as poetry” that emphasizes “ellipses, discontinuities, and obscurities,” Barbara Johnson explains in her review of a biography of Mallarme in the London Review of Books, “(this) is not to say that Mallarme’s late, most stylistically radical books have nothing to do with the desire for coherence.” “(Along) with his fragmentation of all the
usual modes of meaning, he also imagined that ‘The Book’ would put everything back together in a higher synthesis. This impersonal, prismatic, grand oeuvre would also be a key to all mythologies, the ‘Orphic explanation of the earth.’” This is what’s at stake when Clark approaches this book as a designer. His task is to animate Mallarme’s ambitions through the interplay between translation, typography, illustration and how these are all packaged in the book’s overall design. And it is crucial to note that Mallarme’s hopes play out in real-life, material books. “The reason ‘A Roll of the Dice’ and its presentation are different from highly collectible, lavishly produced book-of-the-month club limited edition type stuff is that Mallarme was fussing over trim size and paper stock and typography because he placed a lot of hope in this particular poem. And so not only every word of this poem was hyper sought-out by him and agonized over, but he carried that sort of intensive work into the actual material embodiment of the book,” Clark said. The final product of Clark and Bonnono’s labors is a vindication of books whose physicality and materiality have something to say, books that are more than chic “fetish objects” (Clark’s words). But this is not done in the service of a large profit margin, as partly illustrated by how Mallarme’s “fussing” over the paper and typeface of his book no doubt exasperated his publisher. Mallarme’s poem, and Clark and Bonnono’s amazing rendering of it, confronts questions of the possibility of totality in art and how this process plays out on an object made out of ink-spattered paper glued to cardboard that circulates in a market. “Hopefully she (the reader) will come away with a sense that every part of the book is yet another extrapolation of the ideas that are at stake in the poem itself,” Clark said.
was in Indianapolis this past weekend, and while I thought the city was fantastic, I was frustrated by one thing: I didn’t see a single drinking fountain over the course of my entire visit. I hated having to ADAM do it, but multiple THEISEN times I was forced to pay $3 for a bottle of water from one of the many food vendors set up throughout the city. I wished I could get the plain old hydration I needed from a free source, but instead, I had to shell out for purified Aquafina. What does this have to do with music? I’ll let Jay Z explain. Last week, when he and the rest of the music Illuminati rolled out Tidal, a new streaming service that promises high-quality audio and will only be available with a paid subscription, he showed a desire to make the music industry more like the bottled water industry. “If a person can pay $6 for a bottle of water, something that used to be free, if someone can do that? I can definitely show you why you should pay for Lauryn Hill’s album. There are 14 reasons, it’s incredible. Someone’s changed our mindset to believe that that bottle of water is worth $6,” he said. Hov is right. While Big Bottled Water has changed the game so now we don’t even blink when we pay a few bucks for their product, the music industry has completely lost control of the idea that music should cost money. CD sales have been falling for years with no end in sight, but now even digital downloads are dropping. And as iTunes loses its business to Spotify, a mostly free service that typically pays artists pennies — even for thousands of plays. According to Jay Z in his Tidal press conference, Aloe Blacc was only paid $4,000 for a song (“The Man”) that was streamed 168 million times. As the market for music gets bleaker, it makes perfect sense that musicians would rebel. Taylor Swift — potentially
the biggest star music has right now — pulled her entire catalogue off Spotify last year, citing a lack of significant payment, and in the wake of Tidal, Jay Z has pulled Reasonable Doubt, his first and arguably finest album, from Spotify. These moves ostensibly make the artists’ work inaccessible to those who don’t want to pay for it. The problem, though, is that in the Internet age it’s impossible for any artist to close all channels of access. Here, Reasonable Doubt is available for listening in its entirety on YouTube. A commenter was even nice enough to provide links to the beginning of each song within the whole video. And though Taylor Swift and her lawyers are much more proactive about keeping her music away from cheap fans (nothing on YouTube except official music videos and interviews), Swift is so popular that the efforts are futile. Search 1989 on the world’s most famous torrent site and you’ll find dozens of copies of her most recent album, just waiting to be downloaded for free. The only way it seems that artists can force their fans to pay for music is if the artist is too obscure for anyone to
Music will always find a way to get to listeners. bother posting free copies. Take Lifter Puller, a late’90s cult punk outfit from Minneapolis that eventually became The Hold Steady. When I first got into the band, I scanned the Internet for download links to Lifter Puller’s discography and found nothing. A few hours later, I was downloading Half Dead and Dynamite and Fiestas and Fiascos from the Amazon Store. I certainly don’t regret my purchase, but I understand how, for those to whom music is almost as essential as water, the cost can really start to add up. I don’t blame musicians in the least for wanting their work
to be sold, not stolen, but given the choice between a bottled water vendor and a drinking fountain around the corner, where are you going to drink? Music will always find a way to get to those who want to listen to it. Back in the Soviet Union, way before the Internet, Beatles’ records were illicitly distributed on old x-ray films and played on modified record players. Kevin Bacon brought dancing to a rural town that outlawed rock music. And practically anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can download whatever music they want and circumvent any advertisements or paywalls they don’t wish to be stuck behind. Nobody wants to steal from their favorite musicians, but when you’re on a budget and it’s just so damn easy, it’s tough to resist the temptation. We’re past the point where artists can sell millions of records in their first week of release, but we still have no idea where music is going to go from here. Maybe for her next project, Taylor Swift will bypass her record company and release an album straight to Bandcamp. Or maybe Jay Z and Beyoncé’s collaborative record will be a Tidal exclusive and everyone with an aversion to torrenting will have to pony up for a subscription. Perhaps the follow-up to Yeezus will be a cassette tape delivered by Amazon’s drones. This is a very exciting time for experimentation, not just in music itself, but in the medium through which it’s delivered. Tidal could be a huge flop, but if it’s good enough, maybe it could be embraced as a legitimate alternative to Spotify. If artists keep trying to rethink how music is delivered and disseminated, it’s possible that fans will embrace one of these methods that force them to pay a few extra dollars out of a love of music and musicians. In short, maybe Tidal will get over the pretentiousness of its initial rollout and Jay Z will become the next Kevin Bacon, ushering in a new era of music consumption. And if that doesn’t happen, maybe our next businessman/artist with a vision will. Theisen is teaching a small rural town how to dance. To boogie with him, email ajtheis@umich.edu.
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the b-side
4B — Thursday, April 9, 2015
ARTIST Hardworking blues rock guitarist a force in the local scene By MATT BARNAUSKAS Daily Arts Writer
Laith Al-Saadi is always playing music. From Mondays at The Arena Sportsbar from 10:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. to playing solo acoustic Tuesdays at the Black Pearl from 8:00 to 11:00, then being at Weber’s Inn every Thursday from 8:45 p.m. until 12:45 a.m., the Ann Arbor native lives a life full of blues, jazz and rock music. He takes at least two road trips a month, spreading his music to other Michigan locales like Tra-
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IN
PROFILE
verse City and to states such as California and New Orleans. Sitting down with the local guitarist and singer, I asked him when he decided to take this path. “I don’t think I decided that. I think it was necessary because I was so committed to making my living as a performer and doing nothing else,” Al-Saadi said. For him, it started at Community High School in Ann Arbor, where his band leader, Mike Grace, would let the best players, as jazz combos, go out and play gigs in the area. The young Al-Saadi found himself playing three to four night a week at University receptions and banquets at venues like Weber’s Inn that would become familiar stomping grounds for the 37-year-old musician. “We didn’t make a lot of
money, but we did make money off of those things, and we got the ethic that the work was out there if we hustled and got it. That really resonated strongly because I’ve never had a real job since I turned 16 and was able to drive. When I got my license, I quit my job at Briarwood and I had a car that could get the PA system around; I started booking my band on weekends and playing during the week and that’s it.” Since then Al-Saadi has continued to play and develop the musical style that was originally sparked listening to his older sisters’ Beatles records when he was a kid. “I gravitated towards music of the late ’60s, early ’70s primarily when I was a kid and I liked the Beatles. Then I got into Cream and I got into Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. When I started playing guitar and learning that stuff, I found that the guitar players I most liked were really into blues and were mostly blues players. Even when I was a kid I was gravitating towards the music of Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong, stuff that had a strong Blues component and spiritual and gospel components as well, as far as harmonies and that stuff go. From there I went to BB King and Buddy Guy, then I got into the guys I think I’m more into today, once I dug a little deeper: the Albert Kings, Elmore James and Danny Gatton (who is one of my favorite guitarists),” Al-Saadi said. It’s fascinating to listen to Al-Saadi talk about music and his influences. Lists of bands and musicians tie together with thoughts about locations that possess their own styles, which he then weaves into a completely new list of artists. From these threads, Al-Saadi’s words weave a rich tapestry, capturing years of blues and jazz history that span several regions of unique music. One such region is New Orleans, where Al-Saadi wrote
VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily
Laith al-Saadi recorded his latest album, Real, with some of the best session players in the country.
three of the songs (“Gone,” “The Last Time You’ll See Me Cry” and “What It Means”) that appear on his latest album Real, released in 2013. The album was produced by Grammy winning producer Jeffrey Weber, who Al-Saadi met when he was playing down in Los Angeles. Recorded straight to two track with no overdubs or editing, the album is representative of AlSaadi’s constant live performing. “I think that most of the records that I love the most were that way, and trying to make recordings in the past, you’re trying to capture this energy of what happens in a live performance and make that translate,” Al-Saadi said. “Especially when you’re playing music of the moment, music that is improvisation based, where people are listening and responding to stuff that is happening at the time, that’s the only way to capture it.” Real is bolstered by the presence of prominent session musicians such as Larry Goldings, Leland Sklar and Jim Keltner in the rhythm section and Conan O’Brien’s band leader, Jimmy Vivino, who flew out from New York to play in the nine-hour recording session at the Ocean
Way Recording Studio in Hollywood. “I didn’t ask for Paul McCartney and didn’t ask for people of that level, but the guys I did ask for were my favorite session players and heroes,” Al-Saadi said. “I didn’t really have an expectation that they would say yes, and we got every single person who was my first choice. I think by the time the players lined up, the other players getting involved in the session were more excited about doing it.” Besides the New Orleans, Delta and spiritual roots on Real, there is the presence of Chicago Blues in songs like, “How It’s Gonna Be,” which Al-Saadi describes as influenced by Howling Wolf and Koko Taylor. Along with that is a cover of The Band’s “Ophelia,” a tribute to the late Levon Helm, to whom Al-Saadi dedicated the album. Looking to his future, Al-Saadi is looking forward to continuing to perform live, notably April 17 at the Magic Bag with Jimmy Vivino, who has co-headlined shows with Al-Saadi. He also plans to get back in the studio as soon as he can. “I would say in the next year
or two you will likely see a solo acoustic project from me and also another live to two track bluesrock album. I’m always writing,” Al-Saadi said about his plans for new albums. However, the veteran performer cautions about the future of the art of live performance, particularly within Ann Arbor. “I have witnessed the change of live band to DJ take place, I’ve witnessed the demise of live venues in town. I remember when Rick’s American Cafe had great music and that was one of the best spots in town to play, that brought in great blues acts and stuff. Then it switched to dollar pitchers and DJs and stopped offering anything of any quality and I feel like that’s where we’re at right now,” he said. “There’s so few venues in town with stages ... I think in order for things to change and to be able to support talent-wise what’s out there we need more venues in town and we need people to actually realize that they have to go out in order to support that stuff and make it happen.” In the meantime, Laith AlSaadi will keep playing his guitar late into the night and on into the next day.
EVENT PREVIEW
M-Agination festival presents student films By GRACE HAMILTON Daily Arts Writer
In this year’s M-agination Student Film Festival, an experimental music video called “Legs” is just three minutes of dancing M-Agination lower limbs, Student Film legs communicating with Festival each other. April 18th Another one of the films is 7:00 p.m. a sitcom pilot, Michigan Theater following a pair Free of feisty twins as they wreak havoc through their boarding school by orchestrating a cheating business. Several of the films this year are musicals. The M-agination producers are a board of 16 senior and associate members, all students. While most of them are studying film, other majors are represented, such as the sciences. They are responsible for putting out the call for scripts each year, deciding among the 30 to 40 usual submissions and putting together teams to make each film. “It’s all about story and how do you tell a good story in an interesting way?” said President Anna Baumgarten, an LSA senior. “We like to avoid cliché; there are ways to put a spin on things that we’ve seen before. It’s really about human connection, so good writing, even with tropes we’ve seen before like romance, can really make a difference. The writing comes through and you feel it.” There are other things that help Baumgarten and the other producers filter through stories. In narrative films, the producers evaluate pacing, writing, the feel
of the dialogue and how engaging the story is. “Another thing we look for is producability. Are there creative ways to get it done? If it’s shot on the moon, can we shoot that and how do we do it? Resources are important,” she said. After scripts are chosen, the writers typically become the directors. Then, the producers put out a crew call that anyone within the University is welcome to attend. There, writers/ directors have the opportunity to pitch their script. During this meeting, other students may sign up for crew roles on the films. And M-agination is open to all students and all ideas. “It’s the only film organization on campus where you can submit any idea, and we will consider it,” Baumgarten said. “I like how open the format is; every producer is assigned one of those scripts and productions, and they run their own little microorganism. Every production is different. There’s no set limit.” The unofficial mentorship program within the organization also helps encourage less experienced students interested in film to get involved. Experienced people are put in department positions and partnered with newer crew members. This gives something to people that film classes can’t. “When you’re in a production class, you’re with kids your same age and experience. Learning from (older students’) points of views of art has been so rewarding,” Baumgarten says. This kind of mentorship fosters a strong sense of collaboration among M-agination members. It’s a theme that both Baumgarten and Vice President Anthony Kalil, an LSA Senior mention more than once.
“There are a lot of very talented and creative people associated with our group and the best works we see each year come from groups who fostered a safe space for people to express their creativity collaboratively,” said Kalil. The collaboration that helps the filmmakers and producers improve their individual skills is also the driving force of a film’s beauty. “Film is the ultimate collaborative art form. You have writers, designers, composers, acting; I can’t think of a single creative art form that it doesn’t include. Even if it’s non-narrative, you’re still conveying feeling and emotion. It’s so cool,” she said, laughing. The obsessive excitement often seen in people with particular passions, like comics, Harry Potter books or, in this case, film, shines through Anna’s enthusiasm and ambition. Likewise, Kalil expresses the same sentiment towards the power of film. “The cinematography, sound design, costume design, acting and everything else all try to convey the story in their own way. There are a lot of projects this year in the M-agination Films Festival that have achieved the sort of artistic synchrony and I’m excited for everyone to see them. It’s beautiful,” Kalil said. M-agination leaves its door open to all ideas and all faces. As part of the University Activity Center, everyone is technically a part of the organization, Baumgarten noted. If your form of getting involved isn’t grabbing a camera or writing a script, simply sit back in the theater and let yourself be blown away. Remind yourself what students are capable of.