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U.S. House Representative Debbie Dingell hosts a roundtable on college affordability at the Michigan Union on Thursday.
Dingell hosts community round table on higher ed. Students identify affordable housing, textbook costs as key concerns By ISOBEL FUTTER Daily Staff Reporter
U.S. House Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.) joined students and college administrators from across the state in Ann Arbor on Thursday to discuss college
affordability. Dingell, who hosted the event, began the round table by outlining challenges faced by many students, especially when it comes to large amounts of loan debt. “We’re all concerned at the staggering amount of student debt that we now see in this country,” she said. “Nearly 40 million Americans owe $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. And 1.5 million people here in Michigan owe $39 billion.” Dingell highlighted a particular bill she’s co-sponsoring, the
Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which would allow borrowers with federal student loans to refinance their loans. Refinancing loans can lead to lower interest rates. “You can refinance a mortgage, you can refinance a car, but you can’t refinance your student loans,” Dingell said. “We want to be able to help you and those that have gone before you that have got some of this staggering debt refinanced to a lower level.” Dingell said at the undergraduate level, refinancing could save
Trigger warning before AAU sexual assault survey called insufficient By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
students $4,000 on a $30,000 loan. She also touched on the various restrictions on federal grants like Pell Grants, such as the requirement that recipients complete their education in six years. “I believe that each student is a different student,” she said. “The UM-Dearborn campus and the UM-Flint campus has students with families ... that are working to support a household and children and trying to get an education.” See DINGELL, Page 3
After the University distributed a survey to students earlier this month to gauge campus climate around sexual misconduct, some students have expressed concerns with the terminology used in the survey. The survey is administered by the Association of American Universities. Twenty-eight public and private research universities employed the survey, making it one of the largest surveys on this issue. “Our primary purpose in conducting this survey is to help our institutions gain a better understanding of this complex problem on their own campuses as well as nationally,” AAU President Hunter Rawlings said in a press release. “Our first priority, and
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Code of conduct will be open for review next year Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities could see changes By GENEVIEVE HUMMER Daily Staff Reporter
The University plans to review its Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities during the 20152016 academic year, according to an e-mail from E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, sent to students, faculty and staff on Thursday. The statement outlines student conduct expectations consistent with the University’s values, and suggests sanctions and disciplinary procedures if those expectations are not met. “This community-owned document sets forth the University‘s values and expectations for resolving conflicts and is intended to maintain a campus climate that supports learning for all students,” Harper wrote. “Similar to policies articulating standards for academic behavior within the University’s colleges and schools, the Statement sets forth the expectations for non-academic behavior for all students.” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the timeline for amendment years is set by the Student Relations Advisory Committee, a committee of the faculty’s central governing body, the Student Advisory Committee on Uni-
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versity Affairs. “The SRAC committee sets the timeline — my recollection is that it has roughly been every three years,” Fitzgerald said. “I think it could be more frequently if there’s a reason.” According to the Office of Student Conflict Resolution’s website, the last statement amendment cycle happened during the 20122013 academic year. At this time, five changes were made. During the last review cycle, the statement was amended to reflect the current titles for Central Student Government and Information Technology Services and SRAC’s affiliation with the Senate Assembly — a governing body comprised of 74 elected faculty members from the University’s Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses. In addition, bullying was included as a statement violation, the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy was reconciled with the statement and the Respect for Medical Amnesty was added as a related procedure. Respect for Medical Amnesty is a state law that seeks to remove barriers for minors voluntarily seeking medical help for themselves or another after drinking. Fitzgerald said he’s not yet aware of what specific amendments might be proposed for the coming year. “I’m not aware of any deep plans for amendments that people have in the works at this point,” he said. “As you can see it’s quite a thorough and long process so there’s plenty of time for people to conSee CODE, Page 3
theirs, is to ensure that students not only are safe but feel safe. Universities will be using their data to inform their own policies and practices regarding sexual assault.” However, some University students said they stopped taking or were advised by friends against taking the AAU survey due to triggering imagery and wording. LSA junior Fabiana Diaz, who said she is survivor of sexual assault, received a warning not to take the survey from a friend due to graphic scenarios that could be triggering for her. “I was upset because I think more importantly than other students, it needs the voice of the survivors in order for something to actually be done on our campus,” Diaz said. The survey asks students a variety of questions regarding to their experiences with campus sexual assault, knowledge of prevention and available resources. The survey is separated into lettered sections, each asking about a particular aspect of a See SURVEY, Page 3
Call, film aim to raise awareness of sexual assault University officials, students discuss screening of “The Hunting Ground” By ALLANA AKHTAR
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Business sophomore Sarvani Yellayi performs a traditional Indian dance during “Denied Voices: The Launch,” a variety show and fundraising campaign dedicated to celebrating diversity on campus, at UMMA on Thursday.
Denied Voices seeks to highlight campus diversity Event explores identity, raises scholarship funds By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily Staff Reporter
Despite a delay due to severe weather, several University students took the stage in the University’s Museum of Art auditorium Thursday night to perform songs, dance and spoken word. Hosted by PILOT — an organization dedicated to increasing awareness of identity and providing opportunities for minority students on campus — “Denied Voices: The Launch” featured 10 performances related to identity and acceptance. The event was originally located in the Museum of Art lobby, but due to a tornado warning just as the show was
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about to begin, attendees and performers relocated to the museum’s basement auditorium. Among the student performers were LSA junior Dana Mosa-Basha, who performed “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley, and LSA freshman JuJuan Griffin, who performed an original rap piece titled “Statistic.” LSA freshman Emily Kaufman also performed several poems discussing her experiences as a transgender woman. “Becoming the woman I was meant to be is the only way that I could live my life as me,” Kaufman said in one of her poems. “All I want is to be my truest self, and I’m not doing this for anybody else. This is for me and me alone.” Along with the performances, the event was also the start of fundraising toward the Denied Voices Scholarship, which will be awarded every year to mem-
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bers of marginalized communities on campus. During the show, PILOT announced Josue Hervert as this year’s scholarship recipient. Hervert is currently a student at Wayne County Community College and hopes to transfer to the University in the future. LSA senior Swati Sudarsan, a member of PILOT, was one of the organizers of the event. In an interview with after the program, Sudarsan said talking about identity and acceptance is important in raising awareness about the diverse identities on campus. “We live in a world where only the most privileged identities are heard, so there’s always a dominant narrative,” she said. “Creating a platform and space where these voices can be heard creates an atmosphere where we can start learning about them and raising awareness about See VOICES, Page 3
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In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, several local and national officials involved in sexual misconduct prevention on college campuses, including University officials, discussed the issue in a conference call Thursday morning. Later in the day, along with a screening of the documentary film “The Hunting Ground” on campus, a second panel of University officials joined individuals involved in the film to consider the topic. The call featured Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, “The Hunting Ground” film’s producer and director, respectively. From the University, Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and Public Policy senior Laurel Ruza, “It’s On Us” student organizer, participated in the call. Lisa Winchell-Caldwell, senior program manager of the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, and Laura Palumbo, National Sexual Violence Resource Center prevention campaign specialist, also joined the call to discuss state and national efforts. Palumbo said the goal of the call was to connect partners in locally See AWARENESS, Page 3
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Sam Gringlas LSA senior Michael Moreno practices slacklining on the Diag on Monday. (David Song/Daily)
LSA senior Haylie Stewart performs in the self-directed play “I am Illness” as part of The Illness Narratives at the Keene Theater in East Quad on Friday. (Robert Dunne/Daily)
University researchers find link between neurons and weight With Buenos Aires team, ‘U’ shows DNA in brain controls obesity By KATIE PENROD Daily Staff Reporter
New research conducted by a University team in tandem with the University of Buenos Aires has revealed the influence certain segments of DNA in the brain have on the regulation of appetite and weight, in addition to influencing obesity. According to a University press release, this study is the first to document exactly how a brain cell gene is involved in weight regulation functions. The team was led by Malcolm Low, professor of molecular and integrative physiology, and Marcelo Rubinstein, professor of physiology and biology at the University of Buenos Aires. The research focused on genetic triggers inside a specific type of neuron in the brain called a proopiomelanocortin, or POMC, located in the hypothalamus. Previous studies of the role of POMC neurons in regulating sensations like fullness or hunger have shown that neurons without POMC can cause obesity in both animals and humans. However, according to the new research, obesity can also result
when certain genetic triggers are missing from the POMC neurons — even if the neurons themselves are present. Low and Rubinstein’s study focused on these triggers and their impacts on regulating weight. The study identified the genetic triggers as enhancers named nPE1 and nPE2, which are attached to a transcription factor called Islet 1 that is then attached to the POMC neuron. Low said enhancers help distinguish different cells in the body from each other. “Every cell in the body has the same DNA, but they’re all very different. And the way that comes about is the little DNA sequences called enhancers,” Low said. “They’re responsible for determining the expressions of genes in certain cells. The ones we’ve discovered are very specific for turning on this POMC gene.” The study was conducted on mice in two parts and published in two separate papers. Low said in the first paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they removed the enhancers nPE1 and nPE2 in the mice. In the second paper, published in PLoS Genetics, they removed only the transcription factor, Islet 1. Both times, mice became obese. Low said the findings showed that nPE1 and nPE2, as well as Islet 1, are necessary for a fully functioning POMC gene and the healthy regulation of weight and appetite.
“The transcription factor is a protein and it recognizes the letters of the DNA sequence and binds to it very specifically,” he said. “The one factor can bind to both of the enhancers. So they probably act as a unit when all of them are bound.” Though the study was not conducted on humans, Low said he was confident there is a significant link to human obesity. He noted that scientists already know that when children have mutated POMC genes they can become dangerously obese, which suggests that the likelihood of specifically enhancer mutations causing similar issues is high. “We have every reason to believe that would be true because we’ve compared the sequence of these enhancers and they’re almost identical in every mammal,” Low said. In an e-mail interview, Rubinstein wrote that he also believes the translation to humans is quite probable due to the similar location and roles POMC neurons play in mice and humans. “Mice born without the enhancers nPE1 and nPE2 are genetically programmed to have an impaired satiety circuit and will be hyperphagic and obese,” Rubinstein wrote. “Since these systems are extremely conserved at the genetic, anatomical and physiological level it is highly likely that humans without these enhancers will have the same phenotype as mice do.” First-year Medical student Stephan Diljak, president of the University’s chapter of the American Medical Student Association, said he believes study was important because it has the potential to lead to a drug that could help people deal with obesity. Additionally, both Low and Diljak spoke to the importance of this study in proving that though fitness and healthy eating are key factors in maintaining a healthy weight, genes do also play a crucial role in the obesity problem facing many people. Diljak said the study has the power to disprove common misunderstandings people have about obesity and its causes, as well as the methods used to combat it. “When a lot of people think about obesity, they think about eating associated with this — stuff like McDonald’s — basically not exercising and not doing anything See LINK, Page 3
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An interdisciplinary course at the University is offering students the chance to rethink higher education. Titled “Education by Design,” the class centers on the idea of the “Campus of the Future” and aims to allow students the chance to reinvent the university experience through real-world solutions. Materials Science Prof. Joanna Mirecki Millunchick, who co-directs the course alongside Political Science Prof. Mika LaVaqueManty, said now is an exciting time for learning at a university. She noted both emerging technologies, along with increased accessibility. “Historically, universities were the keepers of knowledge, but now information is readily available,” Millunchick said. “College used
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Political Science Prof. Mike LaVague-Manty works with students in the three semester course on higher education that he co-teaches with Materials Science Prof. Joanna Mirecki Millunchick. The course aims to allow students to reinvent the university experiences.
to only be available to the elite, and now about 65 percent of all high school graduates enroll in college. Lectures consisted of sage professors soliloquizing to a group of rapt and silent students. But now we know that the best kind of learning is interactive and
loud.” LaVaque-Manty said the Multidisciplinary Design Program, housed in the College of Engineering, allows students of all disciplines to engage with the topic. He said this effort allows anyone interested in questioning the purpose of college or wanting to shape the future of the institution, regardless of a student’s academic pursuits. “It gives the students an opportunity to understand better their own experience at Michigan,” LaVaque-Manty said. “They learn what’s unique about Michigan, what is not unique about Michigan, what the challenges facing higher education are and what kinds of strategies there might be to deal with them.” The course began with a focus on the history of the University, as well as some common ideas about where it might be heading. The class later moved into a discussion about aspects of the college experience students were interested in examining or modifying. Students chose to work on projects ranging from increasing engaged learning on campus to alumni engagement. LSA sophomore Lauren Shepard said the class has allowed her to develop concrete suggestions to improve the
undergraduate experience at the University. “I have gotten to critically examine the credit system, the physical spaces in which students learn, and the way that the courses are actually taught,” Shepard said. “I think that the class teaches you to think about higher education in a completely different light.” LaVaque-Manty said the purpose of the class is to allow students to think critically about both current education system and their own academic experiences. “Part of our goal in the course is to think about the academic infrastructure of the University — the credit hour economy, grades, majors, disciplines, degrees,” LaVaque-Manty said. “Do they make sense? Do they still make sense?” LSA junior Eni Kruja, who is currently enrolled in the class, said she believes the course is especially important because of its student-centered approach. “We, the students, are not just given a syllabus, the required tasks for passing, and period instructions — we work with the professors to decide the direction of the class based on what we recognize as our needs for success and what the professors see as important resources for us to use,” Kruja said.
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AWARENESS From Page 1 and nationally to discuss the issue of sexual assault on campuses in conjunction with a screening of “The Hunting Ground” on campus. The documentary follows two survivors of sexual assault at the University of North Carolina through their process of reporting their assaults. “ ‘The Hunting Ground’ is a very powerful film, it has an incredible message, but we want people to also know that they can connect with organizations, like the national Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and the It’s On Us campaign, to be involved in a part of a larger movement to create change,” Palumbo said. During the call, Ziering said the issue of sexual misconduct on campus can sometimes become convoluted due to misperceptions of how many reports are false. She said only 4 to 8 percent of reports are not true. “It’s not as complicated or gray or hard to figure out what exactly went on as the culture or public perception would have you believe,” she said. The University is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over its handling of sexual misconduct. Dick said campus leaders have the ability to make the issue of sexual misconduct on campus a top priority. “I would like to see, since it is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, college presidents present at the number of activities going on, and speaking very forcefully about how important this is, to them personally, but also how important it is for all the students,” Dick said. Palumbo echoed his sentiment, stressing the role university administrations play in setting the tone for a community-wide effort to prevent campus misconduct. “College campus administrators have the responsibility and ability to really set the tone for prevention
SURVEY From Page 1 student’s experience with sexual misconduct. In some sections, the survey asks for detailed accounts of one’s experience if they had been assaulted, and suggests scenarios that could have happened. If the respondent answers affirmativly, the survey then asks questions regarding how many times the assault occurred and of what relation the perpetrator was to the respondent. The survey also asks about drug and alcohol use during the time of possible instances of sexual misconduct. A FAQ regarding the survey written by the University’s Office of Public Affairs says the survey asked about sensitive topics to foster a safe environment. “It is only by directly collecting this information from students will we be able to prevent negative experiences and effectively respond when they do happen,” the FAQ says. The survey begins with a disclaimer that reads, “Some of the language used in this survey is explicit and some people may find it uncomfortable, but it is important that we ask the questions in this way so that you are clear what we mean. Information on how to get help, if you need it, appears on the bottom of each page and at the end of the survey.” However, Diaz believes the trigger warning included in the survey was not enough, and said the survey data is skewed and ineffective when it cannot include the voice and experiences of survivors who may not feel comfortable taking the survey. “I think it is bringing a huge divide among administration and survivors, because it is blatantly disrespectful and very triggering to us,” she said. In a statement, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said national experts on the topic of campus sexual assault, as well as experts in survey design and methodology, helped craft AAU survey questions “Some of the language used in the AAU survey is explicit and some may find it uncomfortable, but it is important that the questions are posed in this way so that students are clear about the meaning, and to collect the best possible data,” he wrote in a statement. Fitzgerald stated the University had no input in the exact language the survey used, yet chose to administer the survey to gather
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on campus,” she said. “When they show institutional commitment, it reflects good leadership, it sets the tone for all of the accountability measures on campus, and sends a message of the significance of the campus’ sexual assault prevention and response effort.” Rider-Milkovich said the University’s priority is promoting verbal, sober and enthusiastic consent before having sex. She added that though the conversations regarding enthusiastic consent may be awkward at first, the University is committed to shifting the culture around consent through programs such as AlcoholEdu and Relationship Remix. “I think it’s really valuable that these programs are providing the evidence that students can understand why it’s so critical, and have good role models on how to have those conversations, how proactive sober consent doesn’t have to be awkward or uncomfortable. It can be a natural part of that relationship’s progression,” Winchell-Caldwell said. A Michigan Daily report published Wednesday pointed to discrepancies between the definition of consent taught to students by SAPAC and the definition applied in University disciplinary processes. While SAPAC says silence and body language do not satisfy consent, the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy defines consent as “Clear and unambiguous agreement, expressed in mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in a particular activity.” “I am very excited that ‘The Hunting Ground’ is coming to the University of Michigan, that we are a campus and community that is not fearful of having difficult conversations,” Rider-Milkovich said. “I think it is important to have difficult conversations in order for us to really get to the heart of this issue.” Ruza said as a student she appreciated the efforts of those working in administration and on a national level who devote their time
to making a culture shift around the topic of college sexual misconduct. “For me as a student, it was really great to hear the perspectives of the folks who created ‘The Hunting Ground,’ as well as the other experts on the panel who do this work every day.” The screening of “The Hunting Ground” at Rackham Amphitheatre Thursday night also featured a panel discussion with Milkovich, Annie Clark and Andrea Pino, the main subjects of the film, Paul Blavin, a ‘96 University alum and executive producer of the film, Margie Pillsbury, a Department of Public Safety and Security officer and head of the new Special Victims Unit, and Anna Forringer-Beal, networking, publicity and activism program co-coordinator of SAPAC. The event attracted many students, faculty members and parents, with the amphitheatre completely full and people sitting in the aisles. Clark told the crowd that at the end of the day, decisive steps have to be taken in response to the issue of sexual assault on college campuses. “Even though some schools have really great policies, they still have zero expulsions, and I think until we start changing that number — until we have higher numbers of reporters, higher numbers of students actually being found responsible — it’s going to be very hard for us to change this problem” she said. Pillsbury said she was hopeful that reporting would increase now that the SVU — a unit with officers trained to investigate crimes such as sexual assault and domestic abuse — is in place. “Many times we don’t end up getting the justice (the survivors) want, but I really applaud their courage, and we do everything we can to show them that we believe them, and what their options are moving forward in the justice system,” she said. “I’m excited about the new SVU and hoping that the University will begin to make more reports to the police department.” Daily Staff Reporter Lara Moehlman contributed to this report.
data to promote a “healthy, safe and non discriminatory” environment. He also stated each page contains support resources and information to get help. LSA senior Hannah Crisler, director of the I Will campaign, said she also felt uncomfortable with the questions. Crisler said the graphic content and explicit descriptions were unwarranted without appropriate warning. She particularly felt by titling the survey one on “campus climate,” as she said it made the survey ambiguous and did not provide an adequate representation to the survey takers. “I think that if someone is going to take that survey, it’s definitely triggering,” she said. “If something did happen to you and you are truthfully answering the survey, then you are reopening a wound that was not explicitly chosen before hand.” Crisler said she began to take the survey, but stopped due to anxiety. LSA junior Connie Gao, president for the University’s Students for Choice chapter, said she disliked the experience of taking the survey as well. Gao said she felt specifically asking about each separate instance of an individual’s experience with sexual assault is not necessarily addressing campus climate.
“There could have been ways to administer the survey that did more adequately address campus climate,” she said. LSA junior Anna Forringer-Beal, SAPAC student co-coordinator, said she understands how students would feel triggered by the explicit questions, but said she believes the survey is an important step in gathering data on the issue. She said the explicit language was necessary to get the most precise information. “It’s difficult for me, speaking individually, because I always want to put the survivor first, but I know as somebody who does social science research, a lot of people won’t listen to you unless you have the numbers to back it up,” Forringer-Beal said. However, she said she would have liked to see the trigger warning made more clear and explicit before the survey. Diaz echoed Forringer-Beal’s sentiment, saying she believed the University was right to seek out ways to gather more information on campus sexual assault, though she did not like how the survey was potentially inaccessible to survivors. “I think it raises awareness of some sort, and then it also says that the University is taking it seriously, but I think it’s all very surface level,” she said.
Friday, April 10, 2015 — 3
CODE From Page 1 sider amendments.” In Harper’s e-mail, she wrote that opportunities for community input will be available from April 2015 until Nov. 2, 2015. The SRAC must receive all of the finalized amendment proposals by the end of this period. The committee will then conduct a formal review from November 2015 through January 2016. The Office of Student Conflict Resolution held the first community dialogue on the statement on Thursday in collaboration with Central Student Government and Trotter Multicultural Center. Though the event was open to all students, only current Business graduate student Michael Proppe,
DINGELL From Page 1 College officials in attendance highlighted several programs at their institutions focused on affordability. Curt Gielow, chief campus executive of Concordia University in Ann Arbor, talked about a new program called the Concordia Promise. The Promise allows high school juniors and seniors at certain Lutheran and Christian high schools to take 30 college credits from Concordia at $50 per credit hour. A typical credit usually costs $650, he said. “If you do that, you’ve essentially paid us $1,500, but you’ve earned 30 credits,” he said. “Now, if you then come to Concordia in Ann Arbor or the Concordia in Wisconsin that we’ve partnered with, we’ll give you back the $1,500 and move you in as a sophomore. You in essence have gotten the first year of college for free.” Davon Shakleford, a Washtenaw Community College student, said he plans to transfer to the University but is concerned with the affordability of student housing. “If there is a way to make affordable student housing more accessible to students, that would be very helpful,” Shakleford said. “The housing around Ann Arbor is very expensive.” Public Policy senior Bobby Dishell, Central Student Government president, agreed with Shakleford. He said many students have to search for housing outside Ann Arbor, which makes them reliant on public transport and means they miss out on campus life. “Students aren’t talking about the classes, they’re talking about
VOICES From Page 1 these different identities.” Overall, Sudarsan said she
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about it,” Diljak said. “Diet and exercise are really, really important, but they aren’t cures for everyone.” Low said he believes scientific advances such as this one have
former CSG president, attended the event. Clyde Barnett III, CSG’s program manager and adviser, also attended the dialogue, along with OSCR personnel. Shana Schoem, the program specialist at OSCR, and Stacy Vander Velde, the associate director at OSCR, led the discussion. OSCR plans to hold more community dialogues in September. “There are definitely things that we’ve heard already, but we haven’t had the chance to hear too much from students,” Schoem said. “Hopefully, that’s what (the dialogues) are for and we’ll see more people in the fall.” Before the SRAC forwards their amendment recommendations to the Office of the President in March 2016, the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel and the Civil Liberties Board
will also review the proposals. Final decisions will be announced in April 2016 and will go into effect on July 1, 2016. Harper noted in her e-mail that CSG, SACUA and the University’s administration are the three bodies that can propose amendments. Fitzgerald said granting these three groups the chance to amend the statement ensures that faculty, students and staff are all represented throughout the process. “Typically CSG would have someone focused or some group focused at looking at the statement,” he said. “But then I think it’s important to note that there are vehicles for faculty, staff and students to initiate possible amendments.” Daily Staff Reporter Tanaz Ahmed contributed reporting.
the social aspect, being able to go to the games, and being part of that community,” he said. “It leaves out the students who aren’t able to afford the social costs at Michigan.” Another issue brought up was the cost of books, which Eric Penrose, Eastern Michigan University student, called extravagant. “At some points, I’ve had to go to the corner of a book store and take a picture of the page I needed just to cover what I needed to know because I had no money,” Penrose said. “That is a huge issue, especially since most students spend about $400 a semester on books, some even more based on their fields.” LSA senior Antoinette Hemby, who is an out-of-state student, said the high cost of books often caused her to make difficult choices. “I have the struggle of: am I going to buy books, or am I going to fly home for Thanksgiving?” Hemby said. Gielow said one potential solution is for professors to create their own textbooks by taking pieces from different versions and binding them for a cheaper price, as some Concordia professors do. Linda Blakey, vice president of student and academic services at Washtenaw Community College, said they are also trying to reduce costs through collaboration. “Our library services are developing online educational resources that are free,” Blakey said. “They bring their materials together and look at what they can have students use.” Attendees also touched on the federal application for student aid, FAFSA. Margaret Rodriguez, senior
associate director of Financial Aid, agreed with several other comments calling the FAFSA unnecessarily complicated and said there are other options available to assess students than the current, lengthy FAFSA. “How many times do students have to tell you that they’re poor?” Rodriguez said. “One should be plenty.” The discussion touched on providing financial literacy opportunities to all students, addressing the large amount of pre-existing debt and alternate options for students who can’t pay their loans. In an interview after the event with The Michigan Daily, Dingell said she hosts the round table meetings to become more engaged with the topic. “I know higher education affordability is a real issue for young people every day,” Dingell said. “It’s an issue that’s mattered to me before I got elected, and I’m continuing with that. I’m meeting a lot of people who, for example, can’t go on to graduate school, so I want to understand the issues. And then, I’m a more effective advocate when I’m armed with facts.” She added that Thursday’s round table in particular identified several new potential issues for her to look into. “It raises awareness for everybody,” she said. “I really want to go through the grants, the Pell Grants and see what kind of issues they have. I’m going to go back and find out why some people are saying in-person loan counseling is a barricade. Why are they saying that? What are the pros and what are the cons? That’s what I do.”
hopes the performers impacted students with their performances and stories. “Using art is one of those most salient ways for people to express themselves and be true
to themselves,” she said. “We wanted people to take away the motion and the pain that the performers have with these different identities and the joys too.”
helped transform the field of weight regulation in past years, removing common misconceptions about weight such as the idea that obesity is caused by a lack of selfcontrol. “We think now that the propensity to become overweight is partly in our genes and is certainly exacerbated by the
availability of cheap calories and reduced exercise,” he said. “So it’s a combination of many things, but we know the genetic part is there and we also know that these POMC neurons are just one part of a very complicated system in the brain.”
Opinion
4 — Friday, April 10, 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
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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.
U
More than the movie
ntil this week, I had heard UMix discussed on campus probably twice. The first was from a member of Res Staff advertising the University’s program for substance-free Friday night fun to me and my freshmen peers. The second was from some friends who went in search of free food, only to find it had all been eaten up before they arrived. This week, UMix was catapulted out of arguable irrel- VICTORIA evance and into the national NOBLE media spotlight after becoming central to a controversy that attracted national attention. I’m fairly confident that an alcohol-free college party has never generated so much buzz. It all started with a group of about 200 students, who signed a letter saying that “American Sniper,” scheduled to be shown at the event, promotes damaging stereotypes about Middle Eastern and North African students. The Center for Campus Involvement — which hosts UMix — responded by cancelling the screening, and justified their decision in a Facebook statement that said, “Student reactions have clearly articulated that this is neither the venue nor the time to show this movie.” They also planned to hold a separate event to view and discuss the film. The decision generated uproar from campus conservatives — and one particularly pissed-off Fox News pundit — who felt the decision limited students’ ability to freely discuss the topics portrayed in the film. They filed an ultimatelysuccessful counter-petition to reschedule the UMix showing. I’m going to preface the rest of my column by saying that I firmly believe that Chris Kyle, the decorated Navy SEAL central to the film, is a hero. His work — both as a soldier fighting for the United States and as a philanthropist committed to helping veterans readjust to life after the war — was selfless, praiseworthy and brave. But I have never seen “American Sniper,” and this column is not about the film’s portrayal of Kyle or any cultural group. It’s about the endemic debate about free speech on campus. The debate intensified when the school failed to sanction a department head for writing a column stating that she hated Republicans. Some of the same students who called for the professor’s removal for this discriminatory speech later took to Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere and of course, Fox News, to claim that the University’s Inclusive Language Campaign — which simply encouraged students to avoid tossing about words like “fag” and “retard” — was a freedom of speech violation. Now, those same students have drawn even more negative attention to the University for rescheduling a controversial film, labeling it a transgression against their freedom of thought and expression, and an exercise of control by the University “thought police.” “Warning: Liberal Thought Police” also appeared on a sign advertising an event hosted by the Young Americans for Freedom earlier this semester. Though the “American Sniper” dispute is resolved, it represents a great opportunity to explore what “thought police” really means, how it applies at our school and freedom of speech more generally. The idea of university “thought police” probably comes from UWM Post v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, a 1991 Federal Court case. UWM Post struck down the
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s ban on “racist or discriminatory” speech that was directed at an individual and created an “intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment,” according to the case. The majority opinion noted, “the suppression of speech, even where the speech’s content appears to have little value and great costs, amounts to governmental thought control.” I’d have to agree. Most of the recent free speech controversies have surrounded efforts (or lack of efforts) by the University to discourage speech that lessens the discomfort that minority students may feel on campus. In my view, that’s a worthy goal. But limiting the content of speech to achieve it? I think that’s a pretty bad idea — plus it’s illegal anyway under the UWM Post decision, among others. But that’s not what the school has been doing, and claims that it has are unfounded. The Inclusive Language Campaign comes the closest to the “governmental thought control” described in the UWM Post case. The Campaign encouraged, not mandated, students to use more respectful words, effectually attempting to influence the content of speech, but not control it. But rescheduling “American Sniper?” That doesn’t even come close. The University didn’t ban the film. They simply rescheduled its showing for a time and place decidedly more appropriate than UMix. UMix is the University’s big Friday night event to help students “interact responsibly,” according to the CCI website. The other activities featured alongside “American Sniper” include making a Build-A-Bear, playing bingo and decorating picture frames. The students who petitioned the University to reschedule the film argued that removing it from UMix programming would stifle dialogue on the subject. I’ve never been to UMix, but I seriously question how much serious, thoughtful debate could be reasonably expected to occur at a Friday night arts-and-crafts party. The University can limit when and where students speak — lecture would be a nightmare if they didn’t. But students limit each other’s speech far more often. Have you ever tried to talk politics at a party? At least one person probably told you to stop — or at least that has been my experience. But few people would argue that constitutes a speech violation. In social situations, it’s just accepted that there’s a time and a place for heavy, controversial discussion … and that time or place isn’t a Friday night hangout. The University has rescheduled “American Sniper,” and it will be shown at tonight’s UMix as originally scheduled. But that doesn’t mean we should stop discussing the issue. Fostering a safe, happy educational environment for all students and respecting the value of free speech are often two conflicting aims. Determining which balance between those two goals will be reflected on campus is likely to provoke ongoing, contentious debate. The University has made up its mind on the movie, but this issue was never really about the movie. Rather, it’s about determining the type of school we want to live and learn at. Hopefully, when this issue resurfaces, students will take time to define the roles they want inclusivity and free speech to play in our campus community. It’s a decision that will take meaningful, thoughtful discussion, and it’s one that we should make for ourselves. — Victoria Noble can be reached at vjnoble@umich.edu.
STEPHANIE TRIERWEILER | VIEWPOINT
Revamp Meatless Mondays
I gave up eating animals five years ago. Chicken, beef, fish, gelatin, lard — you name it — were instantly cut from my life. Admittedly, my decision to make the dietary switch had been mostly influenced by basic considerations of ethics at the time. I had been watching videos of common behaviors in the meat industry until I could no longer bear the image of mistreated animals in my stomach. I hadn’t fully evaluated the broader implications or nuances of vegetarianism when I made this intuitive choice. With an impassioned meat-free month under my belt, I had anticipated reevaluating myself as a more energetic, empowered and maybe even progressive person. After all, I was eating an increasingly faddish plant-based diet, and feeling better seemed to follow as a given. Weeks passed, and as I stared down at my large nightly bowl of macaroni and cheese, I realized that I still felt heavy, and that science classes continued to flag my high carbon footprint, due to my near-constant consumption of dairy and eggs. Eliminating meat from my diet had only been the first step. I needed to branch out of my comfort zone, find new and healthier options and ease away from my reliance on non-slaughter animal products as major food sources. I began experi-
menting with new seeds and herbs, pumpkins and squashes and the seemingly endless variations of soy, until I had formed a well balanced diet that worked for my nutritional needs. Over the past few years, I have focused on vegetarianism as a powerful tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and needless water usage, and ultimately as a method of achieving environmental justice. The University offers educational programs, conducts research and engages in regular sustainability efforts under the umbrella movement Planet Blue. East Quad Residence Hall recently opted to participate in a specific operation, by implementing three dates of Meatless Mondays throughout this semester. The concept of Meatless Monday dates back to conservation efforts during World War I and has since transformed into an international health and environmental campaign. As a current resident of East Quad, I thoroughly enjoyed the accomplishment and promotion of the two Meatless Mondays that have already taken place. Our dining hall had noticeably less traffic on these days, due to the availability of meat options at nearby dining halls, but staff enthusiastically served delicious alternatives for vegetarians and venturing meat-eaters alike.
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Breakfast on Feb. 23 featured frittata and French toast, and lunch and dinner had fried vegetable po’boy, risotto and portobello sliders. March 9 provided grilled cheese, pierogies, stir fry and black bean burgers, among other main courses. I commend East Quad for its dedication to a highly varied and appetizing menu. Dishes hailing from diverse geographical regions were prominently featured, and food quality exceeded Michigan dining’s standards on both Meatless Mondays. Residents committed to vegetarianism or otherwise sustainable eating found an easier time navigating choices that catered to their lifestyles. At the same time, I do not believe that the food reflected our potential to design healthy and entirely plant-based meals. Meatless Monday served many fried options, and most main courses involved dairy or eggs. Although vegetarian diets may include the consumption of certain animal products, East Quad should consider
reducing its reliance on them as well as fried foods to represent the usual meals of vegetarians. Plenty of healthy and tasty alternatives exist that don’t exclude vegan diets or mindful eaters. For example, the dining hall could reintroduce its oatmeal bar, offer whole-grain pasta instead of white and include a broader selection of nuts, seeds and fruits. It also could grill or bake items as opposed to frying them and offer hearty courses like root vegetable soup, avocado salads, couscous dishes and curried lentils. Walking toward the dining hall on the first vegetarian day, students passed several large posters that prompted, “I LOVE Meatless Monday because … ” and “I HATE Meatless Monday because … ” with available markers for their personal input. The typical dining hall feedback cards had been removed from tables for a more public display of student opinions. While I admire the availability of a platform for conversation, East Quad
could take this a step further by removing the adversarial format and setting up spaces for dialogues about vegetarianism and other sustainability topics. Most student comments on the posters pointed to rational concerns on either end of the debate and could be expanded to engage in a truly comprehensive discussion in the future. East Quad has already done an excellent job of branching out of traditional meals, raising awareness and participating in a respectable campaign. But I encourage my residence hall to foster real conversations during our third and final Meatless Monday of the semester, which takes place on April 13. New projects involve growing pains. Just as many individuals learn and adapt to their new lifestyles, we also have the capacity to present the most healthful versions of a vegetarian diet at Michigan, and extend our collective comfort zone in the process. Stephanie Trierweiler is an Editorial Board member and LSA freshman.
Refrigerator resistance
S
omething strange happened in my class the other day. It was the standard Monday start to my first-year seminar, with our professor asking us about our weekend and then proceeding to tell us a little bit about her own. There was a faint buzz of talking around our round ELIANA table until the pro- HERMAN fessor announced that she was planning on getting rid of her fridge. For the first time all semester, our class was completely silent. We were in shock. Our professor, a seemingly sane woman, was getting rid of her fridge? Her explanation of being more sustainable, conserving energy and being forced to eat fresh local foods — because frozen foods are entirely pointless without their partner in crime — fell on deaf ears. Even I was horrified, and I have been writing this column all semester hoping for people to make changes like that. We were not whipped into a state of complete frenzy because of some deep emotional connection to the fridges in our lives. It also wasn’t because we are against sustainable actions — my first-year seminar is about psychology and the environment! We have spent
the entire semester talking about steps toward being more sustainable. And yet, when our professor suggested making a tangible, sustainable change, we acted like she told us she was planning on selling her oldest daughter into slavery. So, why did we act this way? Why do people act this way all the time when anything seems new or different? I think it’s because somewhere deep inside of us, we are afraid of change. We cling to the status quo like it will save us from all the world’s problems, even when we know it won’t. And even when we know there are changes that we can make to live a more sustainable, eco-friendly life, we don’t always take them. I know I am a huge culprit of this — and I always wonder why. Why do I leave my computer on all night even though I know it is sucking up ridiculous amounts of energy? Why don’t I tell the person at the checkout counter that I actually don’t need that 1,000,000,000th plastic bag? Why did it take me two weeks to change my water bottle after I learned about the horrors of plastic (don’t get me started)? Somehow, the Monday Fridge Debacle gave me an answer. People just don’t like change, even if that change will be positive and help us and the world. It is very difficult to step out of the deeply grooved path
we cut for ourselves day in and day out. We tried to convince her to keep her fridge. “What about milk?!” we cried. “What about leftovers! What about ice cream!” And even though our professor had explanations and answers for each and every one of our concerns — she assured us that adults don’t need milk, she would make smaller portions and she would walk to the ice cream shop — we still just couldn’t deal with the idea of not having a fridge. There are certain staples in our lives, like fridges, that we have intense connections to because of the sense of normalcy they add to our lives. But maybe it is time for a new normal. If we push past our natural resistance to change and take a step into the unknown, what was once deeply alien and horrifying will eventually become the thing we resist to change. I mean, I’m sure the first person that came up with the idea for a fridge came up against a mountain of opposition. All change is opposed at first, and yet all change eventually does happen. So if you hear a new idea, after allowing an acceptable amount of resistance and freak out time — for my seminar it was about 10 minutes — try to see how that change could fit into your life or even make your life better. — Eliana Herman can be reached at eherman@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 writer’s advice for the new generation
R
enowned short story writer, novelist and essayist Cynthia Ozick recently authored an article titled, “Writers Old and Young: Staring Across the Moat” for The New York Times. Ozick’s piece itself embodies the argument she makes, dripping LAUREN with literary ref- MCCARTHY erences that both color and convolute her essay. Sifting through her allusions, I found myself eventually agreeing with her somewhat pompous, yet founded sentiments. In a response for The New Republic, Phoebe Maltz Bovy wrote from the young writer perspective, “In what might be the most highbrow get-offmy-lawn ever written … fiction writer and essayist Cynthia Ozick complains in The New York Times that today’s young writers aren’t content to wait their turn.” I disagree with the contention that Ozick is complaining, and I instead read her piece as more of a poetic warning. While Maltz Bovy accurately identifies that changes in infrastructure — namely technological and economic developments — have influenced the shift that Ozick discusses, in doing so she attests that Ozick’s cultural contentions are moot. Ozick does fail to mention the role of technology and economic pressures, but her cultural perceptions are nevertheless both poignant and on point. Ozick writes, “Aspiration is not the same as ambition. Ambition forgets mortality; old writers never do. Ambition wants a career; aspiration wants a room of one’s own. Ambition feeds on public attention; aspiration is impervious to crowds.” Ambition is the desire to be successful, powerful or famous;
aspiration is a strong desire to achieve something high or great. I clung to the idea of these characterizations. Though the difference between the two may seem minute, Ozick’s implications are grand. Ambition is a desire for a type of success that is legitimized by the approval of others; aspiration is a desire to fulfill a personal conviction that is unconcerned with circulation numbers or page views. Young writers are consumed with careerism and self-advertisement, not ideas. Ozick continues, “Old writers in their youth understood themselves to be apprentices to masters superior in seasoned experience, and were ready to wait their turn in the hierarchy of recognition. In their lone and hardened way of sticking-to-it, they were unwaveringly industrious; networking, the term and the scheme, was unknown to them.” As to say, there are no shortcuts — or there shouldn’t be. Do not rub elbows with old writers in an attempt to receive a handout or leg up, but rather do so in order to learn from their breadth of experience. There is honor and importance in being an apprentice, and it is not a step that we should offhandedly aspire to forego. The world of online journalism has become as convoluted as Ozick’s literary references, saturated with endless content and information. There is a constant flurry to churn out “news,” relevance (and sometimes accuracy) aside. Although Ozick refrained from pointing fingers, the example of Rolling Stone’s “A Rape on Campus” supports her allegations. Seduced by the dramatic narrative and potential impact of the story, Rolling Stone failed to surface and debate problems with Sabrina Erdeley’s reporting and the subsequent fact checking, and the mistakes that were made were entirely avoidable. The Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism Report on Rolling Stone and the UVA story reads, “The magazine set aside or rationalized as unnecessary essential practices of reporting that, if pursued, would likely have led the magazine’s editors to reconsider publishing Jackie’s narrative so prominently, if at all. The published story glossed over the gaps in the magazine’s reporting by using pseudonyms and by failing to state where important information had come from.” The report also outright suggests, “The story’s blowup comes as another shock to journalism’s credibility amid head-swiveling change in the media industry. The particulars of Rolling Stone’s failure make clear the need for a revitalized consensus in newsrooms old and new about what best journalistic practices entail, at an operatingmanual-level of detail.” While Rolling Stone’s UVA article is only one example, it points to an increasingly larger trend of producing sensationalized journalism despite the potential costs. I believe Ozick might argue that Rolling Stone subscribed to the new writer ideology; they aspired to make waves and in doing so, sacrificed integrity and disserviced to the survivors of sexual assault, the publication itself and the industry at large. Ozick wrote, “In the bottomless force of their seeming immortality, young writers are mercifully lent these blindfolds and ear muffs, and why? To shield them from what old writers have come to know: how things turn out.” Ozick is not telling young writers to “get off her lawn,” she’s warning them of the consequences of this new media environment. New writers can get swept away in the idea of fasttracking their careers and personal brand, risking or even forgetting the fundamentals of the craft that inspired us to become writers in the first place. —Lauren McCarthy can be reached at laurmc@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, April 10, 2015 — 5
GENDER AND MEDIA COLUMN
I
TV REVIEW
The toxic manly men of ‘Bloodline’
have never had much patience for masculinity. Or at least, not the restrictive and gendered version of masculinity, all machismo, beer and hot wings, and the eschewal of any emotion or sincerity. I have been quoted saying that Captain Von Trapp from “The NATALIE Sound of GADBOIS Music” is the only “manly man” I have ever loved. And even he had his moments of vulnerability — if “Edelweiss” didn’t make you go weak at the knees then you’re a lying robot. Masculinity in pop culture takes on many forms. Sometimes it’s the central code of what we watch — wrestling, Bud Light commercials and “Two and a Half Men” all thrive on the idea of masculinity, that biological/ sociological creed that makes dudes dudes. But pop culture can also criticize masculinity. Sometimes it’s by showing counterpoints, like J.D. and Turk’s nine-season long “bromance” on “Scrubs,” which was sincerely intimate and nuanced. Sometimes masculinity — meaning, the negative stereotype of macho dude-ness — can be criticized by showing it at its worst, most manfully harmful. This is the case with Netflix’s “Bloodline.” A Netflix original from Todd and Glenn Kessler, the masterminds behind the oft-overlooked but excellent “Damages,” “Bloodline” is a dark, studied tale of family and revenge, loyalty and lies. The Rayburns are a storied Southern
family, owners of an inn on an island at the tip of the Florida Keys. Led by ukulele-playing patriarch Robert (Sam Shepard, “August”), it’s clear from episode one, scene one that the Rayburns are not the upstanding Floridians they make themselves out to be. Responsible, dependable, good guy second brother John is the narrator and supposed protagonist, and he is played with strong-jawed consistency by Kyle Chandler. Through him we learn of his fuck-up older brother Danny’s return to the island — a return that is anything but prodigal. Season one examines the impact mysterious Danny’s return has on the lives of the entire family, slowly twisting its way through the tangled lies and kneedeep resentment lying below the Rayburns’ chilled-out surface. Unlike “Damages,” which was fueled by its two strong female characters, both brilliant and calculating and unapologetic, “Bloodline” is all about the men. Distant and formidable Robert, family man and island hero John, their volatile and boorish youngest brother Kevin, and Danny — sly, wounded and threatening. Masculinity is the lynchpin of “Bloodline.” The brothers idolize and fear their father, whose violent tendencies are reflected in all three of them. Danny is rejected by the rest of the family because he failed in the most masculine of tests — protecting their sister when it mattered most. Conflicts, both real and imagined, are addressed with fists and baseball bats and “fuck you”s. And when they aren’t fighting they are swearing, fishing, drinking or fucking. These are men, and the overt masculinity would be offensive — an affront to the lack of similar complexity
afforded the female characters — if they all weren’t so obviously messed up. By the end of the intense season it’s clear that none of these characters are redeemable, their constant violence and bullishness inextricably tied to their relationship with their father, to their own sense of self, to their manhood. We aren’t supposed to respect them and their blustering strength — this masculinity is the hamartia of them all. In fact, the only likable male character, Meg Rayburn’s cop fiancé Marco, is doomed because of his very sensitivity — he is willing to be vulnerable in ways the Rayburns just can’t handle. “Bloodline” is as bloody and clannish as its name suggests. There is a point in episode 13, when things have begun to unravel, that John needs to counsel his younger brother. He tells Kevin to “be a man.” The irony is that it’s their “manliness” that has gotten them into trouble — their hotheadedness, inability to compromise, fierce loyalty to a troubled father and dangerous competition as brothers. This is a show about men, about a lineage of men supposedly bigger and better than the world around them. But the Rayburn men are not placed on thrones, and their violent actions are not gratuitous — the Kesslers progressively show that their downfall is rooted in this anarchic, archaic role of masculinity. The truth is, if they all were a little more like Marco, the “Bloodline” Keys would be a much more tranquil place. Gadbois is drinking beer and lifting waits. Give her your football tickets at gadbonat@umich.edu.
TV LAND
“Is that a money phone?”
Foster fights to save lackluster ‘Younger’ By ALEX INTNER Daily Arts Writer
Let me get this out of the way first: I am not the target audience for “Younger.” I am a 20-year-old male college student, not the type of person B TV Land goes Younger after with a show about a Series woman in her Premiere 40s pretend- Tuesdays ing to be, well, at 10 p.m. younger. However, there’s TV Land one element that peaked my interest in the series: its star, Sutton Foster. She has won two Tony Awards for her Broadway work (and has been nominated for several more), and she starred in the short-lived “Bunheads.” After four episodes, it’s clear that the show revels in Foster, but it doesn’t quite have the supporting material to create an interesting series around her. “Younger” follows the recently-
divorced Liza Miller (Sutton), a 40-year-old woman trying to break back into the publishing industry after taking time off to raise her daughter (newcomer Tessa Albertson). After being berated for her age in an interview, she meets Josh (Nico Tortorella, “Make it or Break It”) at a bar. Josh thinks she’s in her 20s, so she decides to pretend to be 26. When she does, she lands a job as an assistant to Diana Trout (Miriam Shor, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) the head of marketing of a major publisher, and she meets Kelsey (Hilary Duff, “Lizzie McGuire”), Diana’s publisher. If “Younger” has one saving grace, it’s the leading lady. On “Bunheads” and her other Broadway performances, Foster proved her wry sense of humor, which she uses effectively on this show. She plays off of her fellow actors well, as it is clear she and Duff have genuine comedic chemistry. However, what makes her performance strong is how, over the course of multiple episodes, she elucidates Liza’s vulnerability and uncertainty surrounding her work
and relationship. She doesn’t get to show the range that she showed in “Bunheads” but she does more work than what’s on the page, making the series better as a result. Unfotunately, the show around Foster isn’t nearly as strong. It tries to be funny, and some jokes work thanks to Foster (about Liza’s inability to use social media). However, the rest of the show’s humor comes off as lazy. If viewers took a shot each time they heard a line about lazy, entitled, bratty millennials, they’d probably die. It’s one thing if the show quips about the concept a few times in an episode, but that one-note idea is the center of all the humor in the office. Comedies become boring after they berate the audience with punchlines written using a thesaurus. If it wasn’t for Sutton Foster, “Younger” would be terrible, especially for someone completely out of the target audience. However Foster’s genuinely funny and moving performance elevates the show from forgettable to bearable.
Arts
6 — Friday, April 10, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
New Sinatra doc captures mystery HBO film reminds us why the singer is timeless By SOPHIA KAUFMAN Daily Arts Writer
“Ladies and gentlemen … Frank Sinatra.” Few figures in American music history can claim to have Athe same hypnotic hold over Sinatra: All the American or Nothing music scene that Frank at All Sinatra had and HBO still has. His crooning voice floats from our radios during the holiday season, or serves as the subtle, yet recognizable background music for period films; his music seems to possess a mysterious timelessness unattainable for anyone else. But Sinatra the man is just as intriguing as his music is mesmerizing, and Alex Gibney’s four-hour long documentary, “Sinatra: All or Nothing at All,” captures this mystique. How do you capture the essence of a man larger than life? You never take your eyes off of him, according to Gibney’s documentary. The entire fourhour piece consists of old footage of Sinatra’s performances, clips from his films, photographs and news clippings with voice overs by recognizable figures like Bruce Springsteen or Terry Teachout. There’s not one piece of footage from the interviews conducted for the film, only audio recordings. From the first few seconds of a lazily seductive static record player scratch, to the last few notes of his dazzling “New York, New York” performance, you are completely immersed in Sinatra’s character, his voice, his charisma — there’s no one else to distract you. Gibney structures the documentary by following the song
setlist of Sinatra’s so-called retirement concert in Los Angeles in 1971, using each song to mark a new chapter in Sinatra’s story. It begins with a young teenager from Hoboken who loved his mother Dolly and was kicked out of his house by his father for quitting high school to sing. The documentary follows Sinatra through each pit stop on the way to a skyrocketing solo career from music to acting, paying close attention to how his life intersected with those of other icons like Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King, the Kennedys and various other presidents. There’s nothing new about Sinatra that people haven’t heard before; what is different about this version of the tale is how well-rounded it is. Sinatra’s life is vivified by ample cultural background. There’s footage of people during The Great Depression and of glamorous movie stars in Hollywood; there are extended shots of other household names of Sinatra’s time, including Walter Cronkite, Elvis Presley and Mia Farrow. The lack of interruption from current faces (such as the experts on Sinatra) contributes to the documentary’s effect by embodying the feel of the American psyche during these times. There’s no direct criticism or open discussion of Sinatra’s flaws, but it doesn’t keep up the untarnished romantic image of him either. He may have been an icon, but he was still very much a product of his time period. While he’s credited with changing perceptions of immigrants and pushing for African American rights, there are hints that his personal relationships didn’t always reflect this gold-hearted activism. Of course his complicated relationships with women are anything but secret. “He reeked of sex,” according to Ava Gardner, the sultry film star with whom he conducted his first affair while married to his first wife Nancy. Few men of the time exuded sex appeal in the sophisticated yet
irresistible way Sinatra did. All four of his tumultuous marriages were characterized by passionate affairs and a habit of springing divorce papers on his wives, not to mention flirtations with big names in Hollywood. Despite his various relationship highs and lows — Sinatra never quite went out of style, even when the bobby soxers began screaming Presley’s name instead of his own. Few people in America have had such complicated relationships with newspaper headlines. Some stories could have been cut down for the sake of time, such as the story of his son’s kidnapping, which felt surprisingly off-topic for the amount of time it took. Some of the auditory contributions felt too measured and practiced, so it’s almost too easy to tune them out. But Gibney made a smart decision when he chose to focus on the music. Each song he uses is recognizable in its effect and emotion — the stripped down sound of “Try a Little Tenderness,” the evocative appeal of his rendition of “Ol’ Man River” or even the wry humor on “That’s Life.” “Sinatra: All or Nothing at All” doesn’t feel like it is piecing together or pulling apart an image of the legendary figure radically different from the one most of us have of him. The documentary’s length allows it to organically retell the story of a complicated man, but for all that, it doesn’t feel like viewers get inside Sinatra’s head. This makes for a startling contrast with Gibney’s latest work “Going Clear,” an exposé on the church of scientology in which he delves into the minds of former scientologists at length. But by the end of this documentary, it feels like we aren’t supposed to be able to delve into Sinatra’s psyche — it doesn’t appear that anyone else during his lifetime was able to either. So we’ll just have to be content with the biographies, articles and of course, as the documentary reminds us, the timeless music. Happy belated 100th birthday, Sinatra.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Friday, April 10, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle DOWN 1 They may be noble 2 __ Reader 3 Holiday rate, perhaps 4 Loser-to-be? 5 Stray 6 Arab potentate 7 Muscle mag display 8 Green Day drummer __ Cool 9 Lorenzo of “Renegade” 10 Man with rising aspirations? 11 Iron-rich cabbage 12 Signs 15 Layered clouds 18 Neighboring 23 Bluegrass characteristic 24 Transvaal settlers 26 Shakes off 27 2002 Cage/Streep film 28 Honky-tonk 29 Fix, in a way 30 Goya’s “The Duchess of __” 31 Stretched
32 Overused 33 Unsportsmanlike look 35 Regional animal life 38 Seizes unlawfully 39 Medicine dispenser, and, in another way, a hint to the answers to starred clues
42 Bump at the office, maybe 43 Bar heads 44 Blue gem, briefly 45 Hindu sage 46 Withdrawal process 47 Open a touch 48 Not 49 Kindergarten staple 50 Spanish lady 53 Hardware item
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In planning out a music video, there are a number of mostly intangible things you don’t consider. For one, the importance of complying with the director is often overlooked. While you might have your own ideas for the video, it’s their job to think how such a shot would play out in editing and timing with the song. They usually know what’s best, as much as you might want a shot of you doing BMX bike tricks outside at night in bad weather and poor lighting. It’s also easy to be impatient, even though quality clearly takes time. Most notably, however, is how awkward it can be to film in places where any passerby can see you recording. Jumping around outside in an attention-grabbing outfit specifically selected for the music video while lip-syncing to the track you recorded yourself on a loud speaker can feel a bit silly and uncomfortable – especially when passerbys are staring at a commotion of high quality camera equipment recording some goof ball dancing around to a parody song.
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What I learned from making a music video
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ACROSS 1 Roam 4 Got ready for company, perhaps 9 Norse shapeshifter 13 Word often following “further” 14 One adopting a puppy, say 15 The Tempter 16 Trivial amount 17 *Bargain dairy product? 19 Go out 20 Dedicated lines 21 Eliminates completely 22 Bar supply 24 Farm cries 25 Vessel with a spout 26 Database command 27 Spots 30 __ of roses 32 *Nickname for a roller coaster highlight? 34 Reclined 35 Easily provoked 36 Soap containing ground pumice 37 *Security workers asleep on the job? 39 Only Dwarf without a beard 40 Had 41 Goes after 42 Oath for toondom’s Dick Dastardly 43 Provide money for 44 It’s named for a trapeze artist 47 Turkish tabby 50 Deaden, as a piano string 51 Reason for an extra period 52 *Really hot cold drink? 54 Violin ending 55 Cuckoopints, e.g. 56 Merge 57 “Well now!” 58 Bar offerings 59 It’s a stunner 60 Reject
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For my music video project, the recording process took place over two days, probably amounting to seven hours of time spent, and about a couple hours of footage. I’m lucky enough to have two friends, Lingene and Chris, with extremely high quality camcorders, stabilization equipment, experience behind the camera and an attention to detail that allowed for a video quality comparable to those produced by plenty of cinematographers hired by real rappers. They then labored through the editing process, which took about two weeks, with school slowing things down. The video editing process can be tedious and frustrating — a reality I learned from various skateboard and snowboard edits of friends and me that I made in high school for fun. After all this hard work, the final product was ready and released to the masses via YouTube. The friends who have been kind enough to watch the parody music video we made (often only after my encouragement) all get a good laugh out of it, and we’re very proud of the final product. Soon after, I talked with my friend Chris about the music video, and told him I’d be sure to give him due credit for it whenever it was brought up. He responded kindly, and in conversation casually mentioned that “It’s OK. No one cares about the editor.” This really struck me, knowing how much work he and Lingene had put in behind the scenes, but then I thought on how this statement seems to hold a lot of truth across the rap industry, too. Before the Internet, most music videos surely saw almost all of their play come on media outlets like MTV – a funny thought considering the channel’s programming nowadays. With the explosion of the Internet, it would’ve been a safe bet to venture that rap music video directors would begin to receive more recognition, much as producers have. Sadly, it’s simply not so. With the natural course of development of the Internet, mixtapes can now be widely promoted, distributed and downloaded. Along with a wider audience for mixtapes, producers also started branding their productions in the form of shout outs and adlibs on tracks. Producers like Zaytoven, Mike Will Made It, Young Chop and many more have come into mainstream rap consciousness through what is essentially a creative promotional marketing technique (in addition to their beats, of course). Such promotion is now a common practice and can usually only be escaped by listeners on actual rap albums which shed the repetitive DJ/producer shout-outs as a form of quality control. Heck, just yesterday I was listening to a Young Thug mixtape produced by DJ Esco, and I can still hear “DJ Esco the coolest deejay in the world!” in my head. Despite all the recognition the Internet has helped bring to producers — and even photographers, in cases like Cam Kirk and Dan Folger — it doesn’t seem that
cinematographers/directors have followed suit into the mainstream rap conscious. There are basic reasons why video directors have not followed others in rising to fame since the Internet has allowed a potential venue for newfound stardom. Obviously, being behind the camera means you are not in the video. The credit they do get is typically only allowed during the intro and/ or conclusion of the video, but can easily be overlooked. If music videos were to be tagged with a cinematographer/editor watermark on screen the entire time, it would take away from the rapper around whom the video is focused. Even worse in my mind, it would be in bad taste. Photographers, on the other hand, can excuse the use of watermarks as a means of preventing copyright to validate their use, simultaneously helping establish recognition for themselves. More generally, the nature of music videos makes it harder to be recognized as a director. The videos contain a lot of stimuli – scenes are constantly switching up and there’s often tons of action. In contrast, a picture is still, and its analysis is simpler. Also, the variance in output probably plays a big role. Producers can put out plenty of mix-tapes featuring only their beats with various artists and at the same time have other beats on individual tracks, artists, albums and mix-tapes. They can sit on beats, and wait to use them for a moment when the chemistry with a rapper is right. The recording and editing process for music videos is long and tedious, so production is slower for that reason. Also, directors cannot sit on music videos like producers can sit on beats, because it’s crucial for them to be released at the right time for maximum popularity and relevance. Surely, people closer to the rap music industry are more conscious of music video directors — like “The Devil,” who I was first introduced to in Noisey Atlanta. As far as I’m concerned, the average consumer of rap music and its related media isn’t aware of directors and probably doesn’t pay the topic much mind. There isn’t a “mixtape” for music videos whereby directors can achieve better name recognition among consumers, but I think something of the sort would be the best way for it to happen. Creating lower quality videos for lesser known artists probably wouldn’t do the trick, unless directors could actively and accurately search out talented up-and-comers. Perhaps if directors were to start making lower budget music videos for lesser known songs by already famous artists they’d have a better chance at wider recognition. With quicker and increased production, and perhaps the opportunity to slap more director branding onto rap music videos — because the artistic/musical value of nonhits is less important than hit songs — directors could start having their names better recognized amongst mainstream consumers of rap music.
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UnCommonly righteous.
Common’s openers Open dialogue on break musical molds WARNER BROS
“I’ve got the talking bear in my sights.”
‘Sniper’ needed UMix is right idea, wrong place for controversial film By JAMIE BIRCOLL Senior Arts Editor
I honestly never thought there would be cause to write about “American Sniper” again. I never thought discussions of rape on campus and serious allegations against the University for failure to adequately help victims of rape and sexual assault would be not only supplanted, but completely drowned out by movies. Movies, in the grand scheme of things, are not important — useful, helpful, but not important. Human health and well-being are important. But the people have spoken. This Friday at UMix, you have the option of seeing one of two films: “American Sniper” and “Paddington.” One of these films is entirely appropriate for UMix Late Night, one is not. UMix is about inclusivity, fun, social gathering where you don’t worry about the political and social implications of, well, anything — these are all things that “American Sniper” does not promote. It doesn’t belong at some alternative to Friday night shenanigans; it’s a serious film with serious repercussions and truly disturbing content. It shouldn’t have been shown in the first place. But it will be, so it’s only fair we discuss it. The decision to pull the showing of the film was a wise one. As stated above, it doesn’t belong at UMix. However,
having seen the film and having commented on it extensively already (and having discussed it with multiple people with multiple viewpoints), I understand the argument for showing the film. I admit “American Sniper” is a one-sided portrayal of one white American male who’s tasked with the job of killing Muslim people, who are presented in an incredibly one-sided fashion, but that is not the point of the film, and it isn’t a verbatim recreation of the words Chris Kyle wrote in his book. This is a complex character with multiple motives and values. It’s a character study, not an overt attempt to promote American pride or violence. So stop associating “proud to be an American” with “American Sniper,” stop putting this character on a pedestal. Chris Kyle as portrayed in “American Sniper” is a disturbed, conflicted individual. The viewer needs to separate the book and the film: these are two different media, from two different writers, with two different goals and two different results. But even if appeals to the artistic intent of the work fall on deaf ears, perhaps a call for reason reaches you. Disagreement does not permit censorship. If you are uncomfortable with the film, then do not see it. Your dislike of some media should not permit others from partaking, and your opinion about that media does not supersede those of others; you are not infallible, yours is not the only opinion on this campus. If you are truly unsettled
by “American Sniper,” then you need to open a dialogue. In fact, the University should open a dialogue by hosting a speaker, following the film, to discuss at length both sides of the argument (somewhere other than UMix). That is how we exchange ideas; that is how we achieve understanding. Sweeping the film under the rug and pretending it never happened accomplishes nothing and, in a way, proves a little cowardly. How do you expect to actually foster discussion and understanding if you only wish to shut down the conversation before it even begins? Whatever your thoughts on “American Sniper,” it’s important to recognize that film and art are meant to foster debate and ideas, not to succumb to your individual, preconceived notions of right and wrong. Director Michael Haneke said, “The ideal film scene should force the spectator to look away … if you want to talk about a problematic topic, the film itself should do it justice.” That we continue to have this debate proves that Clint Eastwood did at least something right in crafting his film. We can spout all this rhetoric about sensitivity or free speech or tolerance, but neither side can rightfully claim to represent those tenets without shutting up and listening to what the other has to say. And in fact, the majority, even more than the minority, has an obligation to do so. This is one of the best and brightest campuses in America — it’s about time we, the students, the administration, the teachers, all of us, start acting like it.
By AMELIA ZAK Daily Music Editor
A generalization, by definition, is a sweeping statement or concept obtained by inference from specific cases. It is a word that refers to the process of using several personal anecdotes, or the collected experiences of others, to create an overarching statement or idea. The music industry holds a number of these abstractions. There’s the notion that rock music is dead, or that Spotify and Pandora are killing the industry, or that traditional record stores have virtually disappeared; the list is fundamentally endless. Enshrouded within these generalizations, however, is a kernel of truth. Next Friday, April 17 at Hill Auditorium, when Antwaun Stanley and Brendan Asante and his musical collective Video 7 take the stage to open for R&B and hip-hop legend Common, a few more generalizations will be left tarnished — perhaps even destroyed. In fact, Stanley and Asante, in tandem with Common’s inevitably moving performance, will trump multiple routine assumptions of our apparently ill-fated music industry. At a fair price and with the most genuine of intentions, their opening set won’t orbit around preconceived notions regarding stardom, money or overinflated levels of hype. These more material elements are pertinent for heavy hip-hop performances. But not this concert nor it’s opening set; this performance is set to transcend the classic form. Bouncing off the acoustically unequaled walls of Hill Auditorium, the music of these University of Michigan graduates will create a musical mural of hip hop, trap jazz and Motown, all with the intention of actualizing an environment of emotion, energy and inspiration with their audience. Stanley’s early introduction and successes in the music industry are almost prodigal. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, it was at the age of three that Stanley’s mother noticed his impeccable capacity to carry and create a tune. “The story goes that I was in the kitchen with my mom, sitting at a little kids table with its perfectly yellow chairs, and while she was cooking she was humming ‘Amazing Grace.’ She slowly stopped and noticed me sitting there and that all the while she was singing, I had started to hum along and create my own version of the song.” From then on it was only a mere matter of time before the word of this incident and Stanley’s irrefutable skill was disseminated through the local neighborhoods and community. The infatuation for the young Stanley and his incredible skill moved from local to larger followings. Sony and Dreamworks signed Stanley before he eventually transferred to a Michigan record label. “I had a wonderful management team and eventually, so many years later, I was led to an independent label titled Bajada Records in Detroit,” Stanley humbly explained. With Bajada Records, Stanley released his first independent gospel project, I Can Do Any-
thing, for which he was nominated as “Best New Artist” and “Best Music Video” in the 2008 Stellar Awards, gospel music’s highest honor. Simultaneous to those successes, Stanley was a student here at the University pursuing a degree in Sociology and Music. His scholarly undertakings remained imperative, but Stanley’s artistry never strayed from his collegiate mural. Groove Spoon was a college funk band that Stanley and other musicallyinclined students formed during their time. The group experienced great levels of appreciation and success across campus, from house parties to the coveted slot as openers to President Barack Obama’s 2012 commencement speech. After college, Stanley’s talent threaded itself into numerous other musical endeavors, expanding to contemporary funk and soul bands like Ann Street Soul and Vulfpeck. “I’m interested in anything that feeds your soul. And that could be jazz, that could be hip hop or that could be gospel music,” Stanley elaborated. “I find myself stepping back and saying, ‘What kind of creativity do I have today?’ and that could mean anything. Maybe that’ll mean I’ll try a little jazz or a little pop or country. However it comes out. It’s good to broaden your mind because, when you do, you are able to collaborate with folks who have a completely different background musically. And that could at times have you producing something that would have maybe never come to life.” Once the inspiration is found, Stanley flourishes. By entering every musical experience and performance as an excavator of inspiration, the structure of genres and the music industry as a whole is belittled, and maybe even diminished. This ability to instantly broaden his talents in the name of creativity has manufactured a musical chameleon with a particular zest for live performances. “Any time I go to a live show I leave with something — a piece of you is taken. You leave uplifted or empowered or ready to make a change. With live performances, and this one in particular, we’re creating a theme of trying to see things in a better light – I think that is this concert and it’s mindset, all still under the umbrella of hip hop,” he said. The music and voices of the opening performance will surely do just that. Entering with their own genres and creations, next Friday’s stage is set to be ensconced with various musicians, instruments, and even one beloved Robert Hurst when Stanley and Brendan Asante’s Detroit based musical collective, Video 7 envelope the auditorium. Brendan Asante, an Auburn Hills native of Ghanian descent, is a more recent graduate of the University who aided in the creation of the Video 7 collective here on campus over the past two years. Operating under the axiom ‘we don’t see genre, we just hear sound,’ Video 7 and Asante don’t want their artistry to just be seen or heard, they want it to be felt. Under numerous artistic mediums like film,
music and even app design, the collective has begun to expand into a collaborative force of musicians focusing on the feelings associated with the experience of receiving music. It’s easy to argue that this goal, the desire to make their music noticed and effective, is a high stakes mission. They’re asking for more than just placid consumption, they are looking to make an individual feel something, whatever that may be. That is a difficult task, surely, but when a group incorporates a harp surrounded by synthesizers in their live performances, instilling and inciting emotion doesn’t appear as burdensome. “Whether it be music, film, app design, whatever, we’re trying to be innovative and turning all of it into an overall experience,” explained Asante. “Instead of being just automatically processed because ‘society’ can already make you like that. Video 7 is doing things that, well we are just trying to rewire the brain patterns a bit and soak up just as much as we can because it all feels new.” Stanley and Video 7’s performance can’t be categorized or predicted. Drawing on influences from the music anthologies of J Dilla, Detroit’s Motown music and modern hip hop, the set will be defined by the audience. They’ll bounce from the presentation of classics and modern pieces, then into a more experiential set where, upon the audience’s request, any song, sample or beat that the onstage band presents can be instantly transformed with Video 7’s beats, their pre-recorded tracks, or by the very musicians onstage. “J Dilla was an expert at inserting a groove into whatever he did. Whether it was his beats or his music, the groove was always infectious and got your head knocking. In this same form we’re going to be using the foundation of all the original beats but then taking those classics and pulling the rug out from under them,” Asante said. Generalizations derail and distract. They are powerful, so potent, in fact, that they can misinform any ductile audience. But buried within each, embedded in some nook or cranny of the idea, lies some semblance of truth. There’s the issue of the ever-powerful genre, for example, and our society’s desire to categorize and define all music. Or the notion that most, if not all, live music performances need a certain level of hype or stardom in order to be truly effective. Surely both are true in some concert landscapes. But next weekend a jack-of-alltrades talent who bypasses the structure of the genre to find the inspiration, Stanley, is set to collaborate with an amalgamation of artistry focused on innovation within the musical experience, Brendan Asante and his Video 7 music collective. Before hip-hop legend Common engulfs Hill Auditorium on April 17, one of gospel music’s chameleon talents and Asante’s assemblage of millennial talents will crawl through and melodiously destroy the generalizations.
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Friday, April 10, 2015 — 9
BASEBALL
‘M’ hosts Ohio State Michigan heads back on By BRANDON CARNEY Daily Sports Writer
Within the confines of the Michigan men’s lacrosse team’s locker room, a clock has been ticking, counting Ohio State down to the moment that at Michigan the Wolverines Matchup: hope will be Ohio State 9-3; remembered Michigan 5-5 in the record When: Sunday books. 2 P.M. Sunday, Where: when the Michigan time expires, Stadium Michigan (1-1 Big Ten, 5-5 TV/Radio: ESPNU overall) will host No. 12 Ohio State (2-0, 9-3) at Michigan Stadium in hopes of earning its first win against its archrival in the season’s most highly anticipated matchup. In the previous three battles, the Buckeyes have dominated the Wolverines, going undefeated and winning each game decisively. But this team has taken tremendous strides maturing since the two teams last met, and Michigan should feel more confident heading into Sunday’s game than in previous meetings. After earning the program’s first Big Ten win against Rutgers, Michigan is hoping it can carry over the momentum, especially on the offensive end. After struggling for much of the season, the Wolverines solved some of the scoring issues they have had in a 10-goal performance against the Scarlet Knights. “We were very good in transition against Rutgers, and that was a big part of our success,” said Michigan coach John Paul. “We’ve figured out that if our offense is struggling a
little bit, the transition’s been an important piece for us.” That tactic may not prove to be as effective, though, against a physical Ohio State defense. The Buckeyes rank ninth in the country in goals allowed, surrendering 7.83 per game, and have given up 10 or more goals just three times this season. Michigan has had no problem creating scoring opportunities in recent weeks, but it hasn’t been efficient in capitalizing on them. The return of sophomore attacker Ian King was a big boost for a struggling Wolverine offense against Rutgers, but Michigan’s attack will need to finish whatever chances it gets to overcome the stingy Buckeye defense. “There were opportunities on the table that we either didn’t see or didn’t execute, and we’ve got to be better at executing,” Paul said. “Having (King) back helps, but we’re not going to win games because he’s back. We need everybody to continue to learn and improve from when we couldn’t capitalize the last few games.” On the opposite sideline, another King will also be lurking, looking to poach goals. Ohio State senior attacker Jesse King (no relation) currently leads the conference with 39 points and is coming off a five-goal performance against Johns Hopkins. “(Ohio State) works very hard to get the ball to their best players, Jesse King certainly, in advantageous positions,” Paul said. “They do a lot of things you have to prepare for, and that’s what we’ve been doing this week — preparing to slow down the areas of the game they’re so good at.” The Buckeyes score a majority of their goals early during offensive possessions, which
has proved to be a risky strategy that yields inconsistent results. Though Ohio State scored 15 goals against Johns Hopkins last Sunday, the Buckeyes were shut out against Notre Dame, a feat accomplished just six times in Division I since 2007. Scoring struggles have been especially prevalent on the road for Ohio State, where it has endured all three of its losses. With the Buckeyes matching up with a much-improved Wolverine defense, goals could be at a premium if Ohio State can’t find King in the right spots. Facing a ranked opponent will be a challenge for Michigan. The Wolverines are 0-19 all-time against top-20 teams, a streak that has ominously hung over the program since its inception. Michigan’s seniors view Sunday’s matchup as an opportunity to break recent trends and leave a permanent mark on the young, up-andcoming program. The veteran group has stayed committed to the program through all the losses and believes the time has come to validate the hard work they have put into building from the ground up. While the seniors have been leading and sharing anecdotes with the rest of team all week, Paul knows when game time comes, it won’t take much to get his team motivated for an already emotional rivalry game. “It’s funny, because as much as you have guys stepping up and talking about how much this game means, the reality is when you’re at Michigan vs. Ohio State, you don’t need that,” Paul said. “You know this is a big game, and all of the other pomp and circumstance and fluff you don’t need. It’s part of who we are here a Michigan. When we play Ohio State, we gotta be ready to go.”
road against Penn State By NATHANIEL CLARK Daily Sports Writer
With the Michigan baseball team’s seven wins in its last eight games — including series victories over No. 18 Maryland and Indiana — it may be tempt- Michigan at ing to start looking ahead Penn State to events like Matchup: the Big Ten Michigan 19-13; Penn Tournament State 9-18 and a possible NCAA Tourna- When: Friday 5 P.M., ment berth. But as Mich- Saturday 2 P.M., Sunday igan coach Erik 1 P.M. Bakich routinely points out, Where: Medlar Field those events are still a long TV/Radio: way off. Right Friday on BTN now, the Wolverines (4-5 Big Ten, 19-13 overall) are squarely focused on their upcoming weekend series at Penn State. “We haven’t accomplished anything yet,” Bakich said. “We still have our backs firmly pressed against the wall.” The Nittany Lions’ record (1-4, 9-18) suggests that they are not a major threat to Michigan. But Penn State still does have a few weapons in its arsenal. Outfielder Aaron Novak boasts a .371 batting average with four home runs, and pitcher Nick Distasio possesses a 3.58 ERA. For Michigan, little-known sophomore outfielder Johnny Slater who emerged as Tuesday’s hero. After batting just .172 last season, he launched two home runs — the first of his collegiate career — and drove in six Tuesday, which matched his 2014 RBI total.
And it’s not just power hitting where the Wolverines excel. Junior infielder Jacob Cronenworth holds the runner-up position in the Big Ten in walks with 22 and in runs scored with 34. “We’re one of those offenses where it’s tough to get through all nine hitters,” Bakich said. “We have nine guys that are productive.” Michigan’s injuries are healing, too. Junior infielder Travis Maezes and junior left-handed pitcher Evan Hill are back and are contributing to the Wolverines’
cause. Maezes has 10 hits in 21 at-bats with six runs scored since his return to the lineup on April 1. Hill, meanwhile, started Tuesday’s game and surrendered one run on two hits in two innings. “The first month (of rehab) was an absolute grind,” Hill said. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.” However, sophomore righthander Keith Lehmann remains sidelined with an injury, along with fellow sophomore righthander Jackson Lamb. Neither of them have seen action in a game in about a month.
10 — Friday, April 10, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SOFTBALL
Michigan set for series at Rutgers By CHRIS CROWDER Daily Sports Writer
When the Michigan softball team heads to Piscataway on Friday to play Rutgers for the first time, it will be licking its chops, Michigan ready to play at Rutgers one of the Big Matchup: Ten’s newest Michigan 34-6; opponents. Rutgers 20-9 “We’re still When: Friday 3 pretty excited P.M., Saturday with Rutgers 1 P.M., Sunday being a new 12 P.M. team in the Where: Rutgers Big Ten,” said Softball sophomore Complex left fielder TV/Radio: Kelly Saturday, Christner. Sunday on BTN “It’ll be Plus awesome playing them for the first time. We’re excited and ready to go.” The fourth-ranked Wolverines (7-2 Big Ten, 34-6 overall) are hoping to keep some momentum after an 11-1 win against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday. That performance was one of their best of the year, as they allowed only one hit while racking up nine of their own. Michigan coach Carol Hutchins was pleased with the effort, but emphasized that what happened on Tuesday is in the past and will not dictate the outcome of the upcoming series. “I’d like to see us take bases and pound the ball in the ground,” Hutchins said. “And you know, we didn’t hit the ball over the wall at all and got 11 runs (against Eastern Michigan). I’d like to see us score runs — we scored runs in every inning, but
that was (Tuesday).” The midweek contest served as a warm-up for the Wolverines before their matchup with the Scarlet Knights, an opportunity to fine-tune their mechanics and fundamentals. “(The midweek games) keep us loose, really,” said senior pitcher Haylie Wagner. “I really just think we have these midweek games to stay loose and attack the team and just get better each time.” Rutgers (7-2, 20-9) would rather not see Michigan get any better than it is already playing. The two teams are tied for second in the Big Ten standings, but the Wolverines are a more battle-tested and polished team. The Scarlet Knights haven’t played a ranked team all season, while Michigan has played nearly a third of its games against teams in the top 25. Rutgers has played teams near the bottom of the Big Ten like Michigan State and Indiana. The Wolverines played Minnesota, the only other ranked team in the conference last weekend, and won two out of three in the series. Rutgers is also not nearly the powerhouse at the plate or in the circle that Michigan is. While the Wolverines are the best or near it in almost every batting and pitching category, the Scarlet Knights are in the middle of the pack. But Rutgers does have one of the best offensive players in
the Big Ten in outfielder Jackie Bates. She boasts a .404 batting average and is second in the conference with a .883 slugging percentage — just behind Michigan’s junior second baseman Sierra Romero. Bates also had a career-high eight RBI in a 22-17 win against Michigan State. Despite scoring a Big Ten season-high amount of runs in the game, the Scarlet Knights’ pitching crumbled. In the fourth inning alone, the Spartans scored 16 runs to take the lead, 16-14. Rutgers answered in the next inning, scoring eight runs to eventually win the unfathomable game. But judging by that performance, the Wolverines are once again playing a team with a less-than-satisfactory pitching staff. If they hit as well as they did Tuesday, there shouldn’t be much trouble in winning the series. “I’d like to see them come out ready to play, be aggressive and dialed in, because that’s the only thing they can control,” Hutchins said. Rutgers joined the Big Ten last year, but it hasn’t been fully introduced to the conference just yet. When it plays Michigan this weekend, it will be playing the 17-time Big Ten champion. As Michigan is vying for another this year, it will be prepared to give the Scarlet Knights a taste of what the best of the conference has to offer.
“I’d like to see us take bases and pound the ball in the ground.”