CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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SEXUAL MISCONDUCT POLICY
Admins talk changes to misconduct procedures AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Political Science Prof. John Chamberlin speaks about the process of electing local public owfficials at “Ann Arbor Elections: Exploring Options” panel discussion hosted by The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area at the Ann Arbor downtown public library on Tuesday.
Panel discusses election 2 cycles, term lengths in A Several members of City Council attend discussion on local electoral system By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter
With a heavily Democratic electorate, Ann Arbor City Council elections are typically determined
during primary season. But since a large portion of Ann Arbor voters absent in August, some residents have called for changes to election dates. According to an interactive panel discussion hosted Tuesday by the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area, the dates aren’t likely to change in the near future. About 25 attendees, including councilmembers Jack Eaton (D– Ward 4), Julie Grand (D–Ward 3) and Kirk Westphal (D–Ward 2),
joined a panel of experts inside the Ann Arbor District Library to discuss election dates, voter turnout and partisanship in Ann Arbor elections. Panelists first responded to questions prepared by the LWV — a nonpartisan organization that promotes political awareness and activism — and then took questions from attendees. The panel consisted of John Chamberlin, a professor of public policy, Lawrence Kestenbaum, the Washtenaw County clerk and
Joseph Ohren, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan University. The panel stressed that election dates in Ann Arbor cannot change without changes to Michigan Election Law. “When we talk about changing the schedules of elections in Ann Arbor, the elections pretty much have to be in November and the primaries in August,” Kestenbaum said. According to a 2005 See ELECTIONS, Page 3A
University considers changes to appeals process, witness testimony By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
University administrators sat down with students Monday and Tuesday night to discuss potential changes to the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy. Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and Patricia Petrowski, associate vice president and deputy general counsel, told students that revisions to the policy will be based on a variety of factors — including comparisons to peer institutions’ policies and suggestions voiced by students, faculty and SAPAC. “As we’ve been gathering that information, we’ve been thinking about what are some ways we can strengthen the policy and respond to some of the concerns,” Rider-
GOVERNMENT
HEALTH
Snyder vows to veto religious freedom bill After RFRA passes in Indiana, similar proposal generates discussion in Mich. By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter
A bill that would allow individuals to claim exemptions from certain laws on religious grounds has garnered new attention in Michigan following controversy over the passage of a similar Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana. A RFRA bill was originally introduced to the Michigan state Senate in January. Currently, 20 states have passed versions of the RFRA following a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled a national version of the law was not applicable to state laws. Though they vary between states, RFRA bills generally allow businesses and citizens to claim exemptions from state laws if they can prove the laws violate
strongly-held religious beliefs. A similar version of the bill introduced last year failed to pass in the year’s lame-duck session. Opponents of the bill have said the RFRA will hinder discrimination protections for multiple groups, namely the LGBTQ community. These concerns were highlighted after several incidents in Indiana have occurred — including a pizzeria that gained national attention saying it would refuse to cater to same-sex weddings. Michael Woodford, an assistant professor of social work at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada who studies the LGBTQ community, said RFRAs are a concern for a variety of reasons, including their potential to imply that some groups have less legal protection than others. “We think about the stigma and marginalization — especially when we’re talking about legislation,” Woodford said. “It’s basically saying the people we elect to make laws think that See RFRA, Page 3A
The year in review
Milkovich said. The pending changes come two years after the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy was last revised in August 2013. Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski had already proposed a number of changes to the current policy, which they discussed with students in a round table format. Under the current policy, either the complainant or the respondent can appeal a case’s outcome after the Office for Institutional Equity reviews the report and the Office of Student Conflict Resolution decides sanctions. According to Rider-Milkovich, this can render potential respondents and complainants unable to agree upon sanctions because they are not finished disputing evidence — which could lengthen the procedure. Subsequently, she said, the first and most complex policy change would involve separating the appeals process to allow for objections at both the OIE and OSCR levels, as opposed to appealing them collectively. See POLICY, Page 3A
CDC reports fewer Ebola cases than anticipated
WILLIAM LYNCH/Daily
LSA sophomore Ben Meisel, a CSG representative, asks fellow representatives to consider him as the speaker of the assembly during the CSG meeting in the CSG chambers on Tuesday.
CSG swears in leadership during inaugural meeting Director also suggests changes to University Election Code By LEA GIOTTO Daily Staff Reporter
The newly elected 2015-2016 Central Student Government assembly met for the first time Tuesday night.
The first order of business was swearing in LSA junior Cooper Charlton and LSA sophomore Steven Halperin as the new CSG president and vice president, respectively, and the fifth assembly as a whole. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will to the best of my ability preserve and champion the all campus constitution of the Ann Arbor student body,” the assembly announced together. After being sworn in, Charlton promised three things
to the assembly: confidence, respect and execution. “If we do not do the first two — confidence and respect — we will not be able to execute,” he said. “I hope we will all be able to work together to make sure next year is a hell of a year for not only our students but for the University of Michigan as a whole.” The assembly also held elections for assembly leadership positions, including See CSG, Page 3A
‘U’ researchers explain why officials overestimated the disease’s spread By IRENE PARK Daily Staff Reporter
According to figures updated generated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal government likely overestimated the extent of Ebola’s spread. In Septmember, the CDC predicted Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia would experience 1.4 million cases of Ebola cases by Jan. 20, 2015 without the implementation of additional interventions. As of Tuesday, the total number of suspected or confirmed cases totaled 25,611 in the three countries — far lower than originally predicted by the CDC. In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, See EBOLA, Page 3A
» INSIDE
Students and photos of the year
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NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A ARTS..........................5A
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News
2A — Wednesday, April 15, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Campus Voices
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
T H R O W M E A CO N E
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
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FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
HEALTH
UCLA research tracks nutrition
WILLIAM LYNCH/Daily
An Ann Arbor resident poses with the free scoop of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s Free Scoop Day on State St. on Tuesday.
A wireless health lab at UCLA recently developed WearSens — a necklace that can track the amount of food and drink a person consumes. The device connects to an application that recommends meal patterns and is able to track nutrition intake by monitoring the movement of neck muscles. While the necklace does not count calories, it does track food patterns, such as how often a person is snacking and whether or not a person is regularly eating breakfast. Majid Sarrafzadeh, the computer science professor who runs the lab, said he thinks that by giving people a way to monitor their eating habits, the device could
NEWS
Michigan Sniper By GENEVIEVE HUMMER
After a website called Trending T-Shirts began selling a “Michigan Sniper” T-shirt with Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh’s signature on it without authorization from either the Athletic Department or Harbaugh, the University sent the company a cease-and-decist letter.
THE FILTER
Music memories By MICHAEL FLYNN
Flynn writes about the April 5 anniversary of “two great musicians and icons of the Seattle scene — Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, and Layne Staley of Alice and Chains.” Cobain died in 1994; Staley died in 2002. Both had heroin addictions.
Pennsylvania State University sexual assault education petition gains momentum Nearly 25,000 people have signed a Care2 petition, written by Penn State University alumni, which asks Penn State’s administrators to provide sexual assault education for all students. According to the petition, the educational programs would cover bystander intervention, consent, survivor support and Title IX and Clery Act rights. Last month, the Penn State chapter of Kappa Delta Rho was accused of operating a secret
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cut medical costs for preventable diseases.
Diversity discussion
Country-jazz concert
WHAT: E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, and Regent Shauna Ryder Diggs will lead a dicussion about diversity on campus. WHO: Trotter Multicultural Center WHEN: Today at 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Trotter
WHAT:Hot Club of Cowtown, a country-jazz band, will perform their latest album. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ark, 316 S. Main
City council debate
Book discussion
WHAT: The Ann Arbor City Council candidates will debate. Former Mayor John Hieftje will moderate. WHO: Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy WHEN: Today at 1:10 p.m. WHERE: Weill Hall, Annenberg Auditorium 1120
WHAT: A presentation of the award-winning memoir, “Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Rsistance.” WHO: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute WHEN: Today at 10:30 a.m. WHERE: Turner Senior Resource Center, 2401 Plymouth Rd.
Film screening WHAT: A screening of the 2010 documentary, “Going Blind.” The film discusses vision loss in the United States. WHO: University Library WHEN: Today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, Room 100
Improv workshop WHAT: An introduction to improvisational comedy. Aughts, an improv student organization, will lead the workshop. WHO: Miscellania WHEN: Today from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Wolverine Room Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
Facebook page that included nonconsensual photos of nude women. After the allegations surfaced, an anonymous member of the fraternity said the page was “satire.” “The responses of the public and KDR’s anonymous member illustrate the Penn State community is not properly educated in matters of consent and sexual assault,” said Julie Mastrine, petition co-author and Penn State alum, in a press release. “It’s troubling that many in the PSU community do not understand why sharing nonconsensual photos of naked women is morally wrong.” — GEN HUMMER
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
Atlanta educators who were convicted of inflating student test scores were sentenced on Tuesday, The New York Times reported. All but one of the 10 sentenced received jail time.
2
The Statement Magazine has announced its Students of The Year in its annual issue. The magazine also heavily features a variety of the best photos taken by the Daily’s photo staff. >> FOR MORE, SEE STATEMENT
3
The Pentagon announced that Iraq has re-captured more than a quarter of the territory it lost to the Islamic State since the U.S. air campaign began in August, BBC News reported.
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Researchers find stem cell associated with leukemia Testing on mice reveals gene could lead to advances in diagnosis, treatment By SANJAY REDDY Daily Staff Reporter
A new study conducted by University researchers has identified a gene that plays a role in regulating blood-forming stem cells. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, provides new insight into the role of the absent, small or homeotic 1-like (Ash1L) gene in the human blood system. The research sheds new light on the scientific processes involved in both maintaining healthy blood cells and renewing old and diseased ones. Ivan Maillard, assistant Hematology/Oncology professor
and a senior author of the study, said a central feature of the study was the association researchers uncovered between Ash1L and another gene, Mixed Lineage Leukemia 1 — or MLL1 — which belongs to the same family. “We saw that this gene (Ash1L) was playing an important function in the blood-forming stem cells, but also that it was doing so in conjunction with another member of the same family that has previously been implicated in leukemia,” he said. Maillard said it is this association between Ash1L and MLL1 that has researchers excited. Finding a link between Ash1L and leukemia creates the possibility of making advances in both diagnosing and treating leukemia. Rackham student Jennifer Chase, an author of the study, said researchers are looking into how Ash1L and MLL1 cooperate. “Once we understand the biochemistry behind their interaction, we will be able to
make therapeutic approaches toward the diseases that they are involved in,” Chase said. Researchers used mice to investigate the Ash1L gene. They selectively inhibited Ash1L in one contingent of mice, MLL1 in a second contingent and both in a third contingent. Results showed a mild reduction in blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow for mice missing either Ash1L or Mll1, but a catastrophic effect for mice missing both. “When we looked at the bone marrow of the mice and saw no stem cells, that was very unusual,” Chase said. “These experiments showed that the Ash1L gene is critically important in regulating stem cells in mice.” Maillard said perhaps one of the biggest implications of this study is the potential it creates for future research. One avenue researchers can take is inhibiting the gene, and the proteins it encodes, to further understand its chemical function. Even more exciting, Maillard said, is that further research may indicate Ash1L plays a role in a host of different diseases. “Because this gene is so wellconserved in evolution, we think that it is possible for it to have a role in many different human cancers in different organs,” Maillard said.
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SUNDAY ALAMBA/AP
Young girls known as Chibok Ambassadors, carry placards bearing the names of the girls kidnapped from the government secondary school in Chibok, a year ago, during a demonstration, in Abuja, Nigeria, Tuesday.
One year later, kidnapped Nigerian girls still missing Abducted Nigerian girls remembered on anniversary of “Bring Back Our Girls” LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — They have been gone a year now, the hundreds of girls abducted by Islamic militants from their school in northeastern Nigeria. And while the cry to “Bring Back Our Girls” remains a worldwide cause, the new president Tuesday would not repeat his predecessor’s failed promise to find them — only that they won’t be forgotten. A solemn march was held to remember the 219 girls seized from their boarding school in Chibok by gunmen from the Boko Haram extremist group. In Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, 219 girls paraded in the streets, with each carrying a placard bearing the name of a kidnap victim. “We believe the girls are still alive,” said Dr. Allan Manasseh, the brother of missing 18-year-old Maryamu Wavi, in an interview
with The Associated Press. But it was clear that hope has dwindled a year after the April 1415 mass abduction. President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said he must be honest about the prospects of getting the missing girls back to their families. “We do not know if the Chibok girls can be rescued. Their whereabouts remain unknown,” Buhari said in a statement. “As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them.” The statement by Buhari, a former military ruler of Nigeria who was elected last month and takes over May 29, is a marked departure from President Goodluck Jonathan. After Jonathan’s administration initially denied there had even been a kidnapping, he made repeated hollow promises that the girls would be rescued. Campaigners have replaced the slogan of “Bring Back Our Girls — Now and Alive!” with a new one: “Never to be forgotten.” Still, some of the marchers Tuesday held the new leadership accountable. “We are here to appeal to the government to do better. We want
our girls now and alive,” said Solamipe Onifade, 16. The gunmen initially seized 276 girls, but several dozen managed to escape as the militants transported them to the Sambisa Forest, with some clinging to the branches of trees from a moving open-back truck. Those still missing may have been split up. Witnesses said some girls were taken across the border into Cameroon. Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, claimed they had converted to Islam and been married off to his fighters. A negotiator said that at least three died in the early days, from a snake bite, malaria and dysentery. Then, Jonathan refused to negotiate with Boko Haram, who were offering to exchange the girls for detained insurgents. The girls became the focus of a global campaign soon after their abduction. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama had said she was “outraged and heartbroken” about the kidnapping and also posted a picture of herself holding a sign reading “#BringBackOurGirls” on her official Twitter account in May 2014.
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RFRA From Page 1A some groups should not have the same protection and there’s an inherent message in that that is really stigmatizing of a group. So if you think about young people growing up in an environment where they hear that, what kind of consequences does that have on their well-being?” In response to backlash in Indiana, other states’ versions of the bills have died or stalled. Last week, Gov. Rick Snyder said in an interview with The Detroit Free Press he would veto the bill if it was given to him as a standalone bill. During last year’s lame-duck session, the bill was introduced alongside expansions to the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for sexual orientation. Protections for gender identity were also proposed, but were not supported by the Republican caucus. “Given all the events that are happening in Indiana, I thought it would be good to clarify my position,” Snyder said. “I
would veto RFRA legislation in Michigan if it is a stand-alone piece of legislation.” Snyder told the Free Press he would not support the bill unless it was accompanied by an expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. He also said he does not want the LGBTQ protections to be included in the RFRA bill, and that he wants the two pieces of legislation to stay separate. Woodford said he worried that an adjoining bill for LBGTQ rights would not be passed while the RFRA would. “My concern would be, if in fact the legislation protecting — so enumerating gay/lesbian people and transgender people and such — if that would actually go through,” Woodford said. Other experts on the issue said with or without the extension of the Elliott-Larsen Act, the RFRA won’t have a malicious impact on any group. Dr. Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia with University of Michigan ties, said even though he supports same-sex marriage, he doesn’t think the law will have a discriminatory effect.
News “Most of the applications of Religious Freedom and Restoration Acts have nothing to do with discrimination,” Laycock said. “They’re about churches feeding the homeless, they’re about Muslim beards and head scarves, they’re about Sabbath observance. They’re about all the different ways in which minority religious practices come into conflict with sometimes unusual regulations.” Laycock said some lawmakers may intend to discriminate through RFRA laws, but said viewing the laws through the lens of nondiscrimination showed that they have many more benefits and do not segregate others. “Your right to believe in a religion doesn’t mean very much if you don’t have the right to practice it,” he said. Wyatt Fore, spokesman for Outlaws, the University’s LGBTQ law student organization, said the organization is against the RFRA bill because it allows a group to legally discriminate against another. Like Woodford, Fore was also unsure whether extending the civil rights act would be enough to protect others.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 — 3A
“We very much are glad that Governor Snyder has threatened to veto RFRA, and that Governor Snyder has called for an expansion of the civil rights act, but we would need more details before we could think authoritatively on what that deal would be,” Fore said. Fore drew a parallel between the federal government’s approach to desegregation in the 1960s with the path state governments are currently pursuing with RFRAs. He said when deliberating on the scope of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, lawmakers had two choices: ban segregation or discrimination in any businesses, or allow freedom of choice. “These contemporary RFRA bills very much adopt the same sort of theory,” Fore said. “That is why these bills are so dangerous, not only for LGBT people, but also for all people who are protected under civil rights acts, because, if a baker can say: we will not bake for gay people, then they can also say: we will not bake for Jewish people, we will not bake for Black people. That is very much a theory of discrimination that the current law very enthusiastically rejects.”
POLICY From Page 1A In other words, this switch would allow either the complainant or respondent to appeal the findings of the OIE investigation first, and then appeal the sanctions after findings were resolved. The change would also create two new outlets to field appeals. OIE appeals would go to a panel of three representatives, made up of two faculty members — one from the Law School — appointed by the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs and a student representative appointed by the Central Student Government. This is a change from the current policy, where the existing general appeals panel includes one faculty member appointed by the Faculty Senate, one administrator appointed by the University president and one student appointed by CSG. Additionally, OSCR appeals would be reviewed by a representative from the Office of the Provost. This measure, RiderMilkovich said, would allow for an objective voice external from the process to review documents and determine sanctions’ fairness. “We believe it is important to have an outside perspective because OSCR is crafting the agreement itself,” she said. Rider-Milkovich added that she hopes the appeals process change will shorten the time frame from reporting misconduct to carrying out the investigation and delivering sanctions. However, she said she recognizes that allowing two opportunities to appeal could have the reverse effect. “This is our best thinking on a way to create a more authentic experience, but it’s possible that it lengthens the process, which is something that we know is a significant issue,” she said. Petrowski mentioned that many universities do not separate their appeals system to differentiate case findings from sanctions. Student attendees responded positively to the change in the process, but voiced concerns about the pending appeals process structure. A main concern was with the CSG’s role in choosing
CSG From Page 1A speaker of the assembly. Reps. Noah Betman and Ben Meisel, both LSA sophomores, received nominations. Betman was ultimately elected to the post. As speaker, Betman said he hopes to improve the logistical and transparency issues in the assembly through initiatives such as making the assembly’s agenda known to the general public before meetings and asking representatives to submit reports from their respective meetings. Reps. Allie Lisner and Catherine Bergin, both LSA sophomores, received nominations for vice speaker of the assembly. Bergin, who was elected to the position, emphasized the past experiences she felt made her a qualified nominee, such as acting as the host and writer for her high school broadcasting show. “Despite it being my first year
EBOLA From Page 1A Aaron King, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and mathematics at the University, and his colleagues, sought to answer what lead to this overestimation. In the study, King and the other co-authors argue that faulty modeling was the cause for the errors in the initial predictions. In an e-mail to the Michigan Daily, King said no model is perfect, as they work through oversimplification. “Like maps, (models) oversimplify reality,” he wrote. “Also like maps, that’s what makes them useful. The challenge in using models is to capture the key elements while ignoring the irrelevant details.” King said one of the problems was that the model ignored the randomness in how Ebola is spread from person to person. An infected person can transmit the virus to either a few or many people, he said, so disease transmission is not entirely predictable. “Models that ignore the random element in disease spread are simpler and easier to employ, but overstate the predictability of an outbreak,” he wrote. Marisa Eisenberg, assistant professor of epidemiology and mathematics, wrote in an e-mail to the Daily that making predictions in the early phase of an epidemic is also challenging because researchers have to analyze with limited information. “The lack of data and unreliability of what data there is can be very tricky to deal with,” Eisenberg wrote. “It’s a bit like weather prediction in some ways
— making short-term predictions is more doable, but long-term predictions are more difficult and require more data.” King also pointed out that the general modeling theory commonly used to predict outbreaks of diseases, including Ebola, H1N1, cholera and seasonal flu, assumes an exponential growth of the cases. Therefore, more Ebola cases lead to a greater number of predicted cases. Exponential growth is seen at the early phases of a disease outbreak. Eden Wells, clinical associate professor of epidemiology, said changing conditions in the three West African countries included in the CDC predictions, such as additional foreign aid workers providing education about safe burial practices and providing medical help, could also have been why the disease spread much less than expected. “Many of the assumptions that the modelers used were that the exponential growth would continue,” Wells said. “Because there were so many things rapidly evolving on the ground, the (exponential growth) didn’t happen. Models can overestimate because the assumptions change quickly.” Wells added that although the model led to incorrect predictions of the outbreak, the overestimation was probably helpful in getting people to quickly respond to the disease. “To me though, (overestimation) is not necessarily a horrible thing,” she said. “When we have to assume the worst possible scenario, it is a great way to get our government leaders and our healthcare providers around the world to move quickly.”
BRIAN BECKWITH/Daily
Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the Sexual Assault Preventation and Awareness Center, during the Sexual Assault Policy Roundtable at the Michigan League on Tuesday.
the student representative for the OIE panel. “I really don’t like that CSG picks the student,” LSA junior Laura Meyer said, adding that she has little trust in CSG or knowledge about what it does. LSA senior Kathryn Abercrombie, a former CSG representative and a leader in SAPAC, echoed Meyer’s fear that the CSG assembly does not always represent every voice on campus to the fullest extent. She mentioned there could be other areas on campus, such as the Trotter Multicultural Center or Intergroup Relations, from which the OIE panel could draw a student representative. “I would argue that CSG is not representative of the student body, and that is I think the source of concern with having CSG appoint someone,” Abercrombie said. A number of students participating in the roundtable talks suggested that the OIE panel adopt an open-call application for the student representative on the panel. Another change RiderMilkovich and Petrowski proposed was to make the identity of any witnesses in the case known in reports and to the parties involved. The current policy protects witness’ identities to make students feel more comfortable coming forward and sharing their stories without fear of retaliation in their various social groups. Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski proposed naming the identities of witnesses to afford both the respondent and the complainant
the best opportunity to defend themselves or prosecute their claims, because they could give more information regarding the accuracy of witness statements and motives. Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski said this is the current trend for universities that are also undergoing policy revisions. They added that the OIE investigator overseeing a case would have the discretion to determine whether or not to hide the witness identity in cases where he or she believed the witness would be in physical danger otherwise. Raina LaGrand, a graduate student in the Schools of Social Work and Public Health, said giving an OIE officer the discretion to grant witness anonymity could have the potential to be dangerous — especially given that the stigma surrounding sexual misconduct can vary among racial or cultural social groups. “I think that the way different communities experience sexual assault on this campus, and protecting complainants or respondents, is drastically different,” LaGrand said. Another potential change to the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy involves setting strict time limits during the investigative procedure. Currently, the policy says the procedure aims to be complete 60 days after the report is filed. RiderMilkovich admitted, however, this time frame is often extended. “Less often we are able to meet 60 days than we go over 60 days,” she said. However, Petrowski said she
has concerns about the strict timeline, adding that extensions are typically granted for a good reason, such as allowing for the most careful reviewing of documents possible. “I can tell you as a former litigator it is much, much, much harder to draft a 10 or 15 page brief than it is a 50 page brief if there are a ton of facts,” she said. “You need to be very considerate about the main points you want to get across.” Rider-Milkovich and Petrowski also proposed separating the appeals procedure from the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy to make each item more understandable. Petrowski added that doing so would also make it easier to adjust the appeals process independently from the policy’s review cycle. The policy currently posted to the University’s website is 20 pages long and includes a policy statement, section for definitions and appeals the process. The proposed changes do not currently include revisions to the policy’s definition of consent. Last week, a report published in The Michigan Daily noted a discrepancy between the definition of consent applied during University disciplinary proceedings and the more stringent definition promoted by SAPAC. Other proposed changes include adding a definition of “retaliation” to the sexual misconduct policy and approaching cases of dating violence, domestic violence and stalking in a non-sexual manner in the same way as allegations of sexual misconduct.
here (on CSG), I feel I would definitely be an asset as vice speaker,” she said. Third-year Law student Paige Becker, who served as this year’s CSG election director, was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s meeting. The Undergraduate Election Code requires Becker to debrief the assembly after each election. Becker said there was a voter turnout of 24 percent in this year’s presidential and vice presidential election, which rose from 22 percent in last year’s election. Further, more than 100 candidates ran for a seat on the assembly, and 40 out of the 58 seats on the assembly were contested. Becker also suggested potential changes to the election code. These included limiting the number of complaints each party is allowed to file, improving campaign volunteer education and the possible institution of a run-off election in certain cases. The only new piece of business
presented in Tuesday’s meeting was a resolution requesting the University’s Investment Office conduct an audit every three years of all companies the University invests in that may be committing unethical practices anywhere in the world. “I thought that I saw that students weren’t very happy with how the University’s endowment was being spent,” said Engineering senior Andy Modell, author of the resolution. The resolution further requested if these audits find any companies responsible for immoral actions, they present a plan that will reposition the University’s funds to a “materially superior ethical state.” The assembly requested the first audit be presented by the end of March 2016. The resolution moved to the resolutions committee. The complete list of CSG representatives elected to leadership positions: Finance Committee Chair:
Business sophomore Jacob Metzger Finance Committee Vice Chair: Business sophomore Eva Scarano Resolutions Committee Chair: LSA sophomore Swathi Shanmugasundaram Resolutions Committee Vice Chair: LSA junior Lucky Mulpuri Rules Committee Chair: Rackham student Jared Ferguson Rules Committee Vice Chair: Rackham student Ramon Martinez Communications Committee Chair: LSA junior Taylor Helber Communications Committee Vice Chair: Engineering junior Katy Culver Executive Nominations Committee Chair: LSA sophomore David Schafer Executive Nominations Committee Vice Chair: LSA sophomore Andrew Simor Ethics Committee Chair: LSA sophomore Thomas Hislop Ethics Committee Vice Chair: LSA sophomore Joe Ambrose
ELECTIONS From Page 1A amendment in section 168.641 of the Michigan Election Law, elections in cities across the state can take place in either February, May, August or November. Kestenbaum said there has been discussion at the state level about eliminating the February option. Grand said she is interested at looking into changing term lengths as well as the years elections occur. Currently, city council terms are two years, and elections take place annually — with half of the seats contested in odd years and half in even years. Holding elections every year creates problems for City Council, Grand said, as councilmembers are less willing to make compromises and cooperate when they are focused on reelection. “Having gone through it recently in the last couple of years, I am concerned about the amount of time and effort that it takes to run an election versus governing so I am interested in other ways that we could structure elections,” she said. Discussing term length, Grand said a change to four-year terms would help city councilmembers engage in increased coalition building and more substantive work. She also said elections should only occur on even years, so there would only be elections for new councilmembers every two years rather than every year. “I would love to see us go to four year terms and (only) even years,” she said. “I think that would help with voter turnout. I think it would also help constituents so they could more closely identify their councilmembers. So if you have someone for a longer term you can
develop a relationship with that person, you know that’s my person to go to.” The panel also discussed partisanship in elections. Ann Arbor is currently one of only three municipalities in Michigan that have partisan elections. A partisan election means candidates are permitted to have party labels attached to their names on the ballot. “I am inclined to think partisanship is not problem, at least in Ann Arbor, with the exception of the fact that Republicans don’t seem to want to run for office in Ann Arbor because the label is not something they wish to have tagged to their name these days,” Chamberlin said. In places like Ann Arbor, where most candidates represent one party, party labels matter less, and sub-parties or factions can form, he added. After the panel, Westphal, the city councilmember, said increasing voter turnout is critical. To this end, he is open to hearing new ideas, such as converting to a nonpartisan system. “My goal is to get meaningful ballots in front of more people,” Westphal said. “However that’s done, I think the voters choose to do that. I just want to have more participation.” Like Westphal, all three panelists articulated concerns with voter turnout. Ohren said the city does not need to increase the number of voters, but the engagement of those who vote. “I think the question really is how do we engage the community in the decision making process. I think that’s what’s important to us,” Ohren said. Not how many people vote but rather how many people participate in the
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, April 15, 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.
Where is hoMe?
O
Rabab Jafri/Daily
n April 7, the University’s Center for Campus Involvement announced it would cancel the screening of “American Sniper,” following a letter started by LSA sophomore Lamees Mekkaoui, raising concerns about the movie being shown at UMix. The CCI planned to reschedule the movie to a different location, followed by a panel and discussion. The letter of concern RABAB regarding the movie has JAFRI been framed as an initiative from Middle Eastern and North African and Muslim students when more non-MENAS and non-Muslim students signed on than the former. Mekkaoui said, “This is the first time that I have personally seen a letter where it had students from Central Student Government, students from Students for Choice, Sikh Student Association, Muslim Student Association and Hillel all signed up to the same letter.” Law student Rachel Jankowski created a petition calling for the movie to be played at UMix again, which stated, “If the University prevents a movie like this from being shown, it promotes intolerance and stifles dialogue and debate on the subject and goes directly against the atmosphere UMix purports to provide.” UMix is a program that hosts events from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday nights for students who want somewhere to have alcohol-free fun. Considering that the movie was rescheduled to a different venue with a panel and a discussion provided, it opened the way for more intellectual dialogue on the movie than in the UMix environment. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald commented on the situation after the movie was rescheduled to be shown last Friday night at UMix. “I think ‘American Sniper’ didn’t quite fit this venue and this event,” Fitzgerald said. “But, having said that, we made the commitment, we made that decision, and in the final analysis we needed to honor that decision that was made to show, and so tonight we have two movies.” I question whether the University’s decision to honor this decision should take precedence over concern for the safety of its own students. When the University made the initial decision to remove the movie showing from UMix, Mekkaoui was interviewed by multiple media outlets on what happened. However after the University changed its decision to show the movie at UMix, they did not personally inform Mekkaoui of the change. “If we had just written the letter and they said no that would be one thing,” Mekkaoui said, “but they made the decision and then pulled out the rug from under us.” Despite the countless bias incident reports — reports to the University from community members about hate crimes — from Muslim and MENA students, the University has done little to address the effects of its decisions on the Muslim and MENA community. The only response to these bias incident reports was the e-mail sent out for students to give and expect respect, which was originally only going to include a general statement that students should give and expect respect. It was only after MENA and Muslim students asked
that they be mentioned was it stated explicitly. The University acted as if threats to students was not grounds for issuing a statement. They acted as if it was not enough that DPSS made a student wait over an hour and a half for a response to verbal harassment. They acted as if it was not enough that there is clear evidence that Muslim and MENA students are facing hate speech and threats to their physical safety. Despite these incidents, the University has not addressed the fact that students have been accused of being anti-free speech, when the movie showing was moved to a different venue with a panel and a discussion after being cancelled from UMix. This forced these students to defend themselves. Mekkaoui said, “They left it to one individual student to deal with the media bombarding her and harassing her, and allowed her to get her name slandered in the media because they just didn’t issue a clarifying statement.” This University has fostered a climate that is unsafe for Muslim and MENA students. On Friday night, the room screening “Paddington” was mostly empty, and there was no protest from students at the “American Sniper” showing. Amidst the verbal harassment and threats of violence, Muslim and MENA students collectively decided that going to this movie showing would not be in the best interests of their safety. Allowing the students the opportunity to watch “Paddington” in a room where they could easily be found and targeted was clearly not in the best interests of these students. We have had to create methods to protect ourselves like creating safe spaces and a texting group for people that do not feel safe walking alone. Unlike for other students, the University is not protecting Muslim and MENA students. As a Muslim student and columnist for The Michigan Daily, I have emphasized time and time again that I am writing from a perspective of an American Muslim in order to validate my claims. Today, I am writing both from the perspective of an American Muslim and as a Wolverine to validate that these communities are a part of my identity. I am just as much of an American as anyone who is a fan of the movie “American Sniper;” and I am just as much of a Wolverine as anyone else who is a part of this University. I have no other country to go to and no other University to call my own. I am tired of having to validate my feelings and my identity, like after the three AmericanMuslims — Deah, Yusor and Razan were killed. I related to their stories because they looked so much like me, and since this movie controversy, these feelings hit even closer to home. I have to live with the repercussions of the University’s decision, as I do not have the luxury of parting myself from this identity that holds so many stereotypes. They get to brush off the decision that they made as a “mistake” and move on while I have to live with an unsafe campus climate. I have to live with the media backlash. All because I am a Muslim. I am asking the University to do the right thing and protect its students instead of shying away from its responsibilities. I am asking students at this University to recognize that your fellow Wolverines are hurting. I am a Wolverine, and this is my hoMe.
I have no other country to go to, and no other University to call my own.
— Rabab Jafri can be reached at rfjafri@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Ben Keller, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Linh Vu, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe
A
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Continually teaching consent
fter reading the Daily’s special report and editorial on University procedures for responding to reports of sexual assault last week, I was enraged and disheartened. My countenance hardened into a piercing glare as I walked around campus last MELISSA Wednesday morn- SCHOLKE ing. Immense aggravation and embarrassment consumed me as I realized the University would, yet again, add to the prevalent narrative of sexual assault permeating college campuses. I was dismayed at hearing the University associated with sexual assault and inaction. I was tired of feeling as if the threat of sexual assault continuously looms on college campuses nationwide — especially when definitions of consent remain immersed in misinterpretations. I tossed around a multitude of heated musings: Why can’t we settle on an explicit definition to protect every individual? Why — as a population of highly educated young adults — is establishing consent shrouded in uncertainty? Why is this knowledge gap so apparent as students enter college? Shouldn’t these issues have been discussed earlier in our lives? The last question prompted me to consider my own experiences. I asked friends to describe what definition of consent they were exposed to and when that exposure occurred. However, when they redirected the question to me, I was at a loss. I couldn’t even remember how old I was when I learned anything remotely resembling the recently disputed definitions of consent. I knew I had learned about practicing safe sex. I remembered numerous lectures about waiting until marriage. I vividly remembered learning biological processes responsible for pregnancy. I recalled discussions about “saying no,” but knowing a clear definition of what actually constitutes consent wasn’t apparent until I came to college — which is extremely problematic. The issue of consent needs to be addressed far before students cross the threshold into their first dorm room on move-in day. Universities must be held responsible for ensuring the continual education and safety of their students. In fact, Holly Rider-Milkovich, the director of the Sexual Assault and Prevention and Awareness Center, recently demonstrated an excellent example of this by responding to an appeal from the Daily’s Editorial Board. Arguing that the phrase “ ‘mutually understandable words or actions’ is too ambiguous” and that “the current policy sets a dangerously low
threshold for consent that can be misconstrued and misunderstood,” the editorial called for the elimination of inconsistency between SAPAC’s definition and the definition offered by the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, and for more specificity in each definition. RiderMilkovich, responding to the request in a recent op-ed piece, notified both the Daily and campus at large of SAPAC’s actions to revise its definition to diminish the discrepancies. However, despite the admirable receptiveness of institutions such as SAPAC, the knowledge offered by universities should act as a supplement, rather than the foundation of a student’s knowledge. The editorial also acknowledged the inadequacies of the University’s sex education programs. While current initiatives may be beneficial and enlightening in some respects, assuming one or two programs during the first year or so of a student’s academic career is sufficient is a highly flawed preparation method. It’s like saying one doctor’s appointment is sufficient to ensure one’s health for a period of four years. Yet, college programs and initiatives aren’t meant to act as substitutes for information students should have received when we were younger. They should be effective, continual enhancements to a knowledge base fostered early in our lives. Just as discrepancies exist between the University’s definitions of consent, inconsistencies within sexual education programs across the nation may further knowledge gaps and risk leaving students in precarious situations. A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute stated that “four in 10 millennials report that the sex education they received was not helpful.” To further illustrate the ineffectiveness of these programs, 37 percent of those surveyed claimed that “their education was ‘not helpful’ in navigating decisions about sex and relationships.” In an effort to explain why millennials feel underprepared, Debra Hauser, president of Advocates for Youth, highlights the variation of content taught in programs across the country. She stated: “Many were in school during a time when schools taught only abstinence. Others may have received clinical information about disease or pregnancy prevention, but few were provided the information young people truly need to traverse puberty, understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, develop a positive body image, make informed
decisions, communicate effectively or navigate the health care system.” Another critique was offered by Adam Tenner, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS, an AIDS-oriented community health organization, as he urged the idea school sex education programs are far too delayed to be truly effective. In fact, a study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics found 71 percent of Americans have sex before the age of 19 — suggesting that a majority of students may need to know about obtaining clear consent before even coming to college. Rather, to ensure future generations — along with our own — fully understand the tenets of consent for sex as “sober, verbal and enthusiastic,” comprehensive sex education must not remain confined to college or even high school classrooms. Age-appropriate education regarding consent should be taught throughout our lifetimes, beginning at childhood. Our relationships — sexual or not — evolve over time and so too must our understanding of demonstrating respect for our friends, peers, classmates and our potential sexual partners (especially considering these individuals may come from one of the previously mentioned groups). While I certainly don’t advocate exposing children to inappropriate material, steps can be taken to shape children’s mindsets about consent in nonexplicit manners, such as avoiding touching or hugging a friend without their permission, developing empathy toward one another, stressing the importance of listening and respecting someone’s decision to say no, straying away from talking about individuals in an objectifying manner or simply waiting to hear someone verbally and enthusiastically say “yes” before partaking in any potentially uncomfortable activity. We need to treat sexual encounters like any other interaction with those around us — with mutual respect, understanding, empathy and agreement. Consent must not remain an issue we solely view in hindsight. We need to correct the current state of consent education and extend it to younger generations who can assist in breaking the cycle of sexual assaults. These problematic attitudes and behaviors must be corrected before they become an issue that can cause future emotional and psychological harm.
The issue of consent needs to be addressed far before students enter college.
— Melissa Scholke can be reached at melikaye@umich.edu.
Love giving your perspective to others? Apply to be a summer opinion columnist! For more information, e-mail Melissa Scholke at melikaye@umich.edu.
W
Between the sheets
hen I was in high school, we all were required to take a health class that informed us of our changing bodies and what dangers lurked between the sheets when sleeping with others. They threw some numbers at us, and all I can remember was SARA thinking, “Wow, SHAMASKIN those odds of getting ____ are so small!” That likelihood was never something I needed to worry about. At that point, I was a naïve, young girl who didn’t know much about sex — let alone anyone who was “doing it.” The dangers seemed like some far-off mythical creature that could never be in my life, but it was at college that I realized just how often sex-related infections and lifechanging experiences could occur. That was all people would talk about: sex and hookups. The whole “hook-up culture” consumed the lives of a bunch of horny freshmen who were glad that alcohol could make a lot of bad decisions happen very quickly. We knew about the basic dangers: sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and the emotional damage that came with getting busy with a lot of different people. But did that resonate with all people? No. And that’s why there are so many instances of STIs, especially on college campuses. I have had the opportunity to meet people who have experienced STIs
— those that are curable, and those that are not. For some people, it was something that had been a part of their lives for many years; for others, it was friends that had just recently found out. And from what I have seen and heard from those people, the stigma is the worst part. There’s such a bad reputation that accompanies STIs — that you are some slut who played the numbers game, and of course you got a disease. It’s the look of disappointment in others’ eyes that solidifies the shame. Sex is something that every damn living organism does in some form, and somehow, we are constrained by the societal standards of when we should open our legs and for whom, and humiliated when we go outside of those lines. If we manage to get a disease? Well, of course it’s our fault. Have you ever considered that there are other ways to contract STIs outside of having sex? Did you know you could have herpes your entire life due to it just being in your body? You could have contracted it in a sandbox when you were a child when some other kid with a cold sore touched the same Tonka truck that you did, and still never know to this day. What about a partner who lied? Say, a onenight stand that would rather get it in than admit some dark truth. For some diseases, it’s a crime to know-
ingly have sex with someone if you have a contagious STI and do not inform them. What about if you get it from your partner, but you knew about it going into the relationship? Can you be OK with that decision down the road if you get the disease, or if you give it? To the naïve girl back in high school who thought that her chances were pretty low, think again. It’s all around you. Because we are so scared to tell the world that we have a disease, it’s likely you’ll never actually know who has what. The person sitting next to you could have just conquered chlamydia, or the guy behind you in line at a coffee shop could have just found out he has herpes. You never know. But we need to get rid of this notion of the blame game that comes with STIs. It isn’t necessarily the person’s fault, and we must be more sensitive to the issues. The disappointment in self; the fear of telling family, friends and partners; and the worry about the future are things to which only those going through it can relate. By putting extra societal blame on those who are either just finding out or are living with a sexually transmitted infection, it only makes the process of living that much more difficult.
It isn’t necessarily the person’s fault, and we need to be more sensitive to the issues.
— Sara Shamaskin can be reached at scsham@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 — 5A
DAILY BOOK REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
An ode to Circus ‘Dark Ages’ a strong debut from Levad and Millenium By KARL WILLIAMS
A classic night in two rooms full of townies
Daily Arts Writer
By FRANCESCA KIELB Daily Arts Writer
“This should totally be a thing!” The girls around me giggled while carelessly shimmying to a live cover of Backstreet Boys. It was moms’ weekend. A group of 15 girls hauled their mothers to Millennium Club/Circus Bar. The futuristic dance club on the main floor and campy circus-themed karaoke bar above is an ideal place to get drunk with your mom. A block past Main Street, this twostory affair gives you the chance to run up and down between a space station with live music and a traveling circus where you make your own music. It was difficult to determine which club was creepier, but it was nice to have options. Townies were everywhere, and the average age was about 10 years older than my fake claims I am. Speaking of fakes, my friends and I had a brief scare when we saw a man in full FBI uniform lingering in the shadows. It wasn’t until he took the stage that we noticed he was seventyfive, double-fisting Bud Lights and wearing a plastic badge. But God, his rendition of “Walk the Line” was spot on. Seven Kamikaze shots later, my dad was on stage in a fedora singing “Twist and Shout,” (remember this was mothers’ weekend) and he was just a little too good at it. Six other girls looking for respite from their middle-aged counterparts descended the stairs with me to check out Millennium. The club was full, and no one could stand still. The female vocalist exuded a contagious energy. It infected me. For a few minutes, I could have cropped pink hair too. I could sing Pitbull’s “Fireball” and actually make it sound good. I could rap and most importantly I can dance. There were no eyes of disapproval when we thrashed about the front row. I would have rushed the stage if I weren’t in awe of the lead singer. Her presence produced an aura of blasé raw positivity. If only I could stand close enough, maybe
PINK FLAMINGOS
“All eyes on me in the center of the ring, just like a circus (get it?).”
it’ll rub off. The band announced a break, and I sprinted back upstairs to perform my duet to “Love in This Club.” Grabbing the mic, I pretended like I didn’t need to read the words on the screen and tried to channel my inner girl-with-thepink-pixie-cut. I may not be paid anytime soon, but the rap could have been worse. A few celebratory shots later, my friend grabbed my arm frantically. “Look! It’s her.” I turned around. It was Pink Pixie, in all her glory, at the end of the bar chatting with the bartenders. “Can we say something? What do we say? How do we say it?” We stood whispering and staring for a while, debating the next move. A few months ago, I went to an Alex G concert in Detroit and was thrown into a similar situation. My friend and I had been standing in the crowd when Alex G walked out from backstage and stood with the audience. There were a few minutes when he was left undisturbed. A similar discussion of action had taken place then. In the end, I pussied out, and before I knew it, a petite blonde had swooped in. Not now. Not again. I would not miss my chance to stand in the aura. I manned up and touched her arm. she turned. “I just wanted to say you were amazing tonight,” I said sheepishly. My friend nodded enthusiastically. “Do you play here often?” I continued, fingers crossed. “Yeah, thank you. I’m Michelle, we actually do play
most Saturdays.” “How long has your group been playing?” “Awhile — we’re called the Killer Flamingos if you want to look up our schedule.” “Wow, what a cool name,” my friend added, equally in awe. “Let’s face it, it’s a shitty name,” she laughed. Of course, we agreed immediately. A few more passing compliments, and the casual exchange was over. But when my friend and I walked away we knew where we were going to be next Saturday. Our group closed the place. When we stumbled back into our beds, our refrain repeated, “We NEED to do this again. Let’s make this a thing, please?” But maybe it was special because it wasn’t a thing. Because for one night we weren’t focused on impressing peers: on social status, standing or “politics”. Because our moms were getting hit on more than we were. Because when I danced I wasn’t trying to envision how I looked to the men around me, because the men around me were more interested in the other men around me than in me. Because other people didn’t define the success of the night, because happiness was not defined by connections made or opportunities lost. The next morning, my friend texted me. “Let’s memorize the words to ‘Dilemma’ now so we can sing it next time.” Please, for my sake, don’t go this Saturday. Please don’t make this a thing. Because I’m having way too much fun to see anyone I know.
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Captivated by Milky Chance’s raw ‘Dance’ By CLAIRE WOOD Daily Arts Writer
I was lying in bed one Saturday evening, sipping a steaming Herbal Essentials — Minty Sprig out of a South Quad paper dining hall cup and pondering all the homework I hadn’t gotten to, when it came on Spotify Radio. It had a distinct allure — light tapping, guitar chords with a gentle rhythmic emphasis that bred a peculiar intrigue. “I want you by my side, so that I never feel alone again.” It’s a sad song — I could hear it in the first line, the resigned heartbreak in each word. “We need to fetch back the time they have stolen from us.” His voice was rusty, like an old car that has been in the family for years. It had a comforting, crusty familiarity, and I knew his words were genuine. This authenticity made the content intensely poignant, and with each line I secretly hoped the lost love he sang of would return. The song grew more wondrous the more I pondered it. I assumed he sang of heartbreak, but the storyline itself was left hazy and ambiguous. Maybe he sang of a woman who had left him. Maybe he sang of a love with whom he could no longer be. I wondered who she was, why she had left and who had taken her. It was an elegant, beautiful sort of enigma that
LICHTDICHT RECORDS
“This is our sweet, sweet son.”
sucked me in headfirst. Curiosity got the better of me: I googled it. “Milky Chance Stolen Dance lyrics meaning” blinked on the screen as I searched for the story in the artist’s words. I clicked on a link to genius.com, and to my dismay, I was greeted with a morbid explanation: “The song concerns the narrator’s drug habit, his separation from taking them, and his desire to take them once more.” I was disillusioned the more I read. The intense romance wielded in the simplicity of “I want you” degraded into a blunt personification of substance. The singer’s “pain, caused by the absence of you” that had burned with fiery heartache turned into sickly withdrawal. I was taken in by this cynical analysis, watch-
ing as dreams of tragic lost love melted into the sinkhole of addiction. “Stolen Dance” is a beautiful song. The light drums, rhythmic strums and genuine vocals still captivate me in ways most other pieces never have. But at the same time, some of the allure has faded. The drug interpretation isn’t the only one; many online sources actually disagree with this viewpoint on the song’s meaning, and sport their own thoughts. Regardless, these deep analyses and explications destroy a sense of mystery that had hitherto intrigued me. I want to wonder — to ponder the identity of “you” and the story the words trace out. There is something magical about the unknown and it’s enchanting.
Sometimes poetry is funny. It doesn’t always hold the gravitas and severity of “The Wasteland” or “The Divine Comedy.” Shake- Why We speare wrote Live in the “King Lear,” but he made Dark Ages sex jokes, too. Megan Levad In fact, poetry is a remarkably Tavern Books flexible form, $17 and the first collection of Megan Levad’s, assistant director of the Helen Zell Writer’s Program at the University, evinces the form’s flexibility. “Why We Live in the Dark Ages” is a skilled exposition of wit. In the collection, Levad reflects on topics from Marcel Proust to transubstantiation to Tycho Brahe to evolution. At times, the poems can’t even decide on a topic. Where we start and where we end up never seem to add up, so that a poem that starts off addressing the French Revolution ends up talking about Bill Clinton and St. Augustine. Taking the form of didactic prose poems, her verse constantly undermines the authoritative tone that most didactic
poetry has. Take “Gravity,” for example: “Oh I don’t know anything about gravity.” That’s the whole poem. According to Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit,” and Levad has learned this lesson well. While concerned with science, her poetry isn’t concerned with discovering scientific knowledge. Her poems never arrive at an understanding of science, but the epistemological limits of science. The poems in “Why We Live in the Dark Ages” are hyperactive, as if they were written by a professor on an Adderall binge. In some poems, Levad overloads the lines with information, too much for the reader to fully assimilate it all. Ostensibly, her poems reflect the problems of the digital age, where the excess of information and the speed of its delivery prevent its full understanding. We have information, but we are still bereft of knowledge. For this reason, Levad purports, we live in the Dark Ages. The advancements in every scientific discipline are immense, but no one other than a specialized class of scientists understand how these work. Does anyone really understand all of the capabilities of an iPhone? We look upon our technology with a reverence usually afforded to magic and have an
absolute faith in its ability to do what we want. One of the most impressive accomplishments in Levad’s debut collection is her ability to imitate the human voice. She transposes sound waves into ink, creating a poetic voice that is successfully comic and believable. Reflecting on colonialism in her poem “Polio,” she writes: “Wow Belgium never gets shit for how badly they fucked up their colonies.” This idiom is refreshingly modern: you might hear it while walking down the street or sitting in Starbucks. Levad’s voice remains coherent throughout, as well, so that it reads as a series of essays as well as a collection of poems. The reader gets to see the keen machinations of Levad’s mind work from topic to topic upon all the various concerns of contemporary life. In her first collection, Levad has shown a sharp intelligence and a remarkable ability to imitate modern vocalities and invent forms that mirror the hyperactivity of contemporary life. Her poetic voice reveals a talent that is both classically satirical and invigoratingly original. Megan Levad will be reading her poetry at Literati Bookstore on April 20 at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
DAILY BOOK REVIEW
‘Ongoingness’ is 88 pages of adult life By SOPHIA KAUFMAN
the passing of time that doesn’t stop it from happening.” Words that fall from lips are already “Ongoingness: The End obsolete; sentences scribbled of a Diary” reads like Sarah on paper ossify before the ink Manguso sat down and wrote is dry. it in one go. The problem of ongoingness, It flows like Ongoingness: Manguso observes, is that even 88 pages of as we contemplate time, we an unedited The End of watch it run away from us. We stream of a Diary grasp at and fixate on special consciousness, moments — the glory days, Sarah Manguso the turning points, the gamebut it doesn’t feel like 88 Greywolk Press changers, whatever you want pages. It’s to call them — to try to keep not a linear $20 ourselves grounded. story; there’s Manguso tells us she was no beginning fixated on every moment, and there’s no end. It’s not terrified to lose a single one. circular; her final words And then, almost exactly don’t neatly wrap up with a halfway through the book, callback introduced in the first Manguso writes about becoming five pages. Manguso crafts a pregnant and then a mother. narrative with sparse prose that During the first 18 months of reads like poetry which drops having a son, she begins to you in the middle and leaves “inhabit time differently.” Her you there — lost in the same relationship with her diary “ongoingness” she brilliant permanently changes: though articulates between the covers. she keeps writing in it, she no “Ongoingness” is the story longer worries about losing of Manguso’s obsession with memories. Her diary entries creating an authentic record become terse, including facts of her life, an obsession that without introspection; “Things culminated in an 800,000-word were just themselves.” long diary spanning every day Becoming a mother releases of the past 25 years. She writes about her preoccupation with documenting not the important events she experiences, but those precious moments in between them that fill up the vast majority of our lives. Manguso, while writing about writing, captures the frustration of the inability to describe what you’re feeling, to be limited by language. Letters and syllables and words themselves create a Manguso from her compulsive barrier between emotion and recording and teaches her how communication. And even if to be aware of time’s passing you spend 25 years choosing without being hopelessly your words, they’ll never be paralyzed by it. perfect, and that barrier will Are any of us more than the still stand. She has a gift for sum of our memories — both frankly relating truths about our own and those that others the limitations of language. possess of us? What happens These truths seem like they when we are the only ones should be too complicated and left to carry the memory of bittersweet to be captured in someone else? Can 800,000 staccato sentences, but they’re words over 25 years capture the not. experiences and the emotions Though Manguso’s sentences that happened in them? Which are short, they call to mind the contain the most truth about a vivid image of a pen running person — the things that change across a page, frantically trying about them, or the things that to keep up with the thoughts stay the same? that drive it. Her panic is Manguso doesn’t offer palpable — “Even cognizant of answers to these questions, Daily Arts Writer
Are any of us more than the sum of our memories?
only honest observations about the Herculean effort it takes to recognize the reality about human significance: “For just a moment, with great effort, I could imagine my will as a force that would not disappear but redistribute when I died, and that all life contained the same force, and that I needn’t worry about my impending death because the great responsibility of my life was to contain the force for a while and then relinquish it. Then the moment would pass, and I’d return to brooding about my lost memories,” she writes. Hackneyed poetic themes are refreshed in Manguso’s words; she describes running out of time as a privilege and forgotten moments as the price we pay for living a full life. She breaks with the writing gods — you know, the ones you learn to worship in undergraduate English programs — as she oscillates between showing and telling, which would feel like a gimmick if it weren’t for the lack of pretentious self-indulgence. Her writing is poetic, but never preachy. She’s not boasting about possessing any intimacy with life’s secrets. “Ongoingness: The End of a Diary” isn’t spiritual or moralistic, though it does leave you in a bit of an existential crisis, wandering the halls in search of a friend to tell you that life is in fact worth living despite everything. But even if that friend isn’t very reassuring (Rebecca) you’re able to work through it, because you know now that life is ongoing, and we are all just inhabiting time for the brief amount we’ve been allotted. So make the best of it — or don’t. Manguso doesn’t really care either way. The book isn’t about you. It isn’t even really about her or her son or those 800,000 words and the 25 years they freeze in time. “Look at me,” she says towards the end, “dancing my little dance for a few moments against the background of eternity.” “Ongoingness” is about that dance and how to make it count. And while everyone has to figure that out for him or herself, reading this book could guide the first few steps.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, April 15, 2015
DETROIT ARTS COLUMN
O
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Put down this paper and listen to Alex G
Saying goodbye to Detroit
n the first day of English Prof. Jeremiah Chamberlin’s Rust Belt Narratives class, we brainstormed ideas that we felt were representative of Rust Belt cities like Detroit. “Blight,” someone said. “Industry.” “Factories.” “Economic PAIGE downfall.” PFLEGER “Choice.” “Hope.” Then someone raised a hand and said, “The Rust Belt narrative is a discourse of those who stay versus those who go.” Those who stay versus those who go. As a senior about to graduate in May, I have thought about that notion over and over again, tumbling the idea in my head like it a stone I’m determined to polish. Do I move to Detroit and remain in Michigan, or do I leave to pursue opportunity elsewhere? If I leave, am I a total hack for spending half my college career preaching about the great rising of the city down the road?
“If you’re so good, then why are you still here?” I ask myself these questions every day, especially on days when I’m reporting. I sit down and chat with passionate business owners, exuberant artists, witty writers, and their love for the city drips off of their words. In Detroit, Tyree Guyton works away at his inextinguishable Heidelberg project, while a University of Michigan student sits in a small desk at Woodbridge Community center, teaching an elementary schooler ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ on the cello. A group of writers gives houses to other writers, and in one 90-yearold’s backyard, he’s built a towering structure of found objects that he lovingly refers to as “Disneyland.” A docent at the Motown Museum gives her best rendition of Diana Ross, and a photographer snaps photos of a city he’s captured for more than 80 years. At the end of the day, I drive my car down Woodward Avenue and watch the skyline shrink in the rearview mirror. My grandmother was born in Detroit on February 5, 1928, and she grew up on Longfellow Avenue in Boston Edison. My grandfather grew up a few blocks away in Highland Park. They were from two utterly different worlds: she was the daughter of a wealthy business owner, and he the son of an autoworker. I imagine them sneaking out of their houses at night and rendezvousing in Voigt park, laying in the grass and talking about their future together — a future that would eventually lead to me. I drive by her house and think about what she must have looked like in her 20s, skipping up the walk in a striped ’50s dress that she’s wearing in the photos I have tacked to my wall, the Cadillac she’s leaning against parked in the drive.
Those who stay versus those who go. My grandmother died on Sept. 7, 2011 while walking the Detroit River Walk with my grandpa. It was a beautiful day, and she was happy until the moment she got a headache,
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
By RACHEL KERR Daily Arts Writer
FLICKR
Tfw you’re naked in public and it’s kind of hot.
sat down and had a stroke. She was brain dead within a minute, closing her eyes after one last look at the river and the city she loved. A silver bench near the carousel has her name on it now. The day I found out I’d be moving to Washington D.C., I visited her. I sat on the bench next to the plaque inscribed with the name we share and I told her I’d be going, and I didn’t know when I’d be coming back. I will come back, I said aloud. To her, to the skyline, to the Renaissance Center that was casting me in shadow as the sun set. I will come back. “If you’re so good, then why are you still here?” That’s the Rust Belt question. Businesses close with signs that read “No Opportunity Here” and we graduate with the idea that leaving the state signifies “making it.” A story published in The New York Times shows the percent change in young people over more than a decade, by city. At the very bottom is Detroit with ten percent less young people over time. People are leaving, the great migration in rapid reverse. I am contributing to that percentage.
The Rust Belt narrative: its the story of the comeback. Yet, when I go to Detroit, that’s not the reality I see. I see people opening businesses instead of closing them, people turning ruin into creation, rebuilding, rising. I see the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1805, a city of people who fought to put the fire out and use the last ember to spark ideas for the future. We hope for better things. It shall arise from the ashes. But I won’t be around to see it rise. I won’t be around to see it contribute to the upward mobility of a city that a Google search brings up terms like “slums” and “abandoned.” Most of us won’t be. We’ll come back to a bustling metropolis in 10 or 20 years and be able to muse to one another about the “Detroit we once knew” or the “way things used to be.” Old abandoned factories will be expensive flats and the city will be layered with remnants of its boom in the ’20s, buried under the rubble of the early 2000s, polished and presented in the future as a kind of urban renewal. This palimpsest will become such a salient part of Detroit that it will be a selling point – an entire city that serves as an interactive museum of layered artifacts around every corner. There is value in leaving, in seeing the rest of the world outside of the Rust Belt and exploring opportunities that may not be attainable here. There is value in gathering this experience and then making the active choice to return to the
city instead of passively staying. The Rust Belt has taught us the value of determination and tenacity that easier places may not have cultivated in its people. This tenacity will carry us to pursue great opportunity elsewhere, but this tenacity will lead us back to where we began. The Rust Belt narrative may be a discourse of those who stay versus those who go, but there are also those who return. We can leave and come back better than before. If anything, that’s the Rust Belt narrative: it’s the story of the comeback. Pfleger is moving on to her next adventure. To wish her well, send an email to pspfleg@umich.edu
I’ve said it before, I’m saying it now, and I’ll probably say it a few more times: everyone needs to listen to Alex G. I wrote an article about his show in Detroit a couple months ago and included him in my 2014 “best of” list. Now, here I am again, writing about him again. I’ve already apologized to my editors for my obsessive tendencies but remain steadfast in my efforts to inform everyone about G. So, I’ll give you a little recap of the dude (in case you forgot to read my other articles.) Alex Giannascoli is a 22-year-old D.I.Y. indie rocker from Philly who studied at Temple University and recorded his songs from the comfort of his dorm room, which he uploaded to his Bandcamp profile. I called him the “Internet’s best-kept secret,” and I meant it. He accumulated a small following within the crevices of the web but flew relatively under the radar until last year. With the debut of his first studio-album, DSU, he earned approval from music authorities like Pitchfork, who crowned him the lo-fi king and best new bedroom singer/songwriter (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the point). The album deals with youth and growing up and all the shitty stuff that comes with it. The lyrics are subtly poetic, the vocals dark and dreamy, the guitar riffs volatile. If Elliott Smith and Built to Spill went on a few dates and then fucked,
ORCHID TAPES
Tfw you wet yourself and it’s kind of hot.
their lovechild would be Alex G. It’s damn good. You know what else is damn good? His stuff on Bandcamp. So good that, to my dismay, his label took two full LPs down to remaster and re-release after he started getting attention. Like seriously, one day they just disappeared off the Internet. And on that day, many tears were shed because Trick and Rules feature some of G’s best material. They read much like DSU in length and theme, following the same sort of adolescent narrative in approximately 13-16 songs. Though short, the tracks offer bursts of emotion – sometimes raw and melancholic, other times soft and tender. They’re rough around the edges, a bit bitter upon first
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
bite, but let them play for a few minutes and you’ll start to like the taste. And now they’re back up on Bandcamp, as well as iTunes and Spotify. To be honest, I can’t really tell that they’ve been remastered, but maybe that’s just because I didn’t mind how they sounded before. Trick, in particular, rivals all of G’s other efforts, including DSU, despite being recorded a few years before. From the opening track, “Memory,” to the closing, “Clouds,” the album feels like an intimate look into your own life. G’s words feel like abstract entries in your own diary. So if you don’t put on a fucking Alex G song after you’re done skimming this article, so help me God. But seriously, go listen.
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts & Sports
‘M’ looks for another win in lopsided rivalry
EVENT PREVIEW
By CHRIS CROWDER Daily Sports Writer
UMS
“How are your theton levels Herbie?”
Jazz legends to perform at Hill Hancock and Corea prepare an acoustic piano set By COSMO PAPPAS Daily Arts Writer
The last time jazz titans Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock performed at Hill Auditorium would have been Jan. 26, 1978 , but winter conditions kept the duo from flying out of New An Evening York and, With Herbie memorably, closed the Hancock and University for the last Chick Corea time until Thursday, April 2014. The 16, 7p.m. rescheduled concert, set a Hill Auditorium month after $35-$125 the first date, featured Miles Davis’s two former sidemen — and by this time widely renowned jazz musicians in their own right — in an intimate setting, pared down to two acoustic pianos. They elected such a performance just as they were fully immersed in the electronic experimentation of jazz fusion that defined the late ’60s and ’70s. It will be one of the most significant events UMS puts on this year as Ann Arbor welcomes the pair back for a performance that will feature the two pianists with just acoustic instruments between them on the famous Hill stage. For two careers that have
been defined by groundbreaking experiments in electronic media and forms in jazz, it’s a special opportunity to see Corea and Hancock going back to basics. “(The piano) is the instrument that they have gone through their career with and that has gotten them to this point,” said University alum Brendan Asante, who graduated from the University School of Music, Theatre and Dance program in Jazz and served as a former ticket associate for the University Musical Society. “From a foundational perspective, it signifies a lot of home-growing and ‘this is where we started.’ ” Audiences can expect a concert both historic and historical. It’s a big deal any time famous musicians perform in their hometown. But this concert will, further, be historical because Hancock and Corea themselves embody the history of avant-garde jazz since the early 1960s. Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea are “two of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-Coltrane era” along with McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, as Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times describes. “I think that these two phenoms of the piano ... are joining forces to try to present a history – their playing styles and everything. They’re trying to present that in a duo format,” Asante said. As Harvard Prof. Homi K. Bhabba says in his introduction to Hancock’s lecture, “The Ethics of Jazz” through the Norton Lectures series at Harvard University, “In the musical field alone, (Hancock) has ventured from post-bop to
hip-hop, funk to film soundtracks, Miles Davis to Joni Mitchell, Lang Lang to P!nk.” Hancock has also championed jazz in his humanitarian career as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Professor Bhabba develops Hancock’s view on the politics or ethics of jazz that play out in “the disjunctive terrains of a world that is in some aspects synchronized and simultaneous, while in other respects, dramatically out of sync with itself and others.” He emphasizes the “mutual cooperation” that, in Hancock’s ethics of jazz, allows musicians to “respect (their) neighbors” by “(working) and (playing) with them.” Chick Corea’s career in music is no less illustrious as we track his involvement with Miles Davis for the latter’s foundational fusion albums Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way, his tenure with the fusion group Return to Forever and his work in classical music and Latin American music. Chick Corea is the fourth-most Grammy nominated artist of all time, counting 63 separate nominations, as well as an unprecedented trove of three “Best Instrumental Album” Latin Grammy awards. Hancock and Corea’s performance this Thursday will animate a history of more than half a century of jazz, an expansive archive of the “idiom of jazz” (Asante’s phrase) unfolding in real time for Ann Arbor audiences through Corea and Hancock’s unquestionable historical import.
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
ISLAND RECORDS
“We’ll let you down as soon as you make us look cool.”
Riding in cars with moms ... and Bono By REGAN DETWILER Daily Arts Writer
After meeting people I’ve never met before, trying things I’ve never tried before, studying things I’ve never studied before, and having had pretty much every preconception I carried with me to the University challenged, freshman year has given me a lot to reflect on. This is what I thought of as my mom and I drove for the umpteenth time down Route 23 back to Columbus (yes, I’m from Columbus) listening to The Unforgettable Fire. Although it was my first time driving home from Ann Arbor for
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 — 7A
Easter weekend, my grandparents have always lived in Perrysburg, just south of Toledo. As a result, we have made the trek southeast to Columbus countless times throughout my life. The wide, open, flat fields of corn and soybeans have seen me through babyhood, toddlerhood and childhood. They’d seen me as a lost middle schooler, a high schooler way too preoccupied with extracurricular activities and GPAs, and now an Ann Arbor-fied college student. We’d been through a lot together. This time when we drove down 23, the clouds were that lovely, swimming blue-gray as an April storm settled over the strikingly unassuming landscape of the bud-
ding fields, punctuated by darkly beautiful dilapidated farmhouses and barns. My mom’s new Volvo sedan was not yet set up with an aux cord, so we were left to the basket of CDs she brought for the three-hour drive. We listened to late ’80s to early ’90s Tanita Tikaram on the way out of Ann Arbor, and it was time to pick something new as we got on the highway. The Best of the Girl Groups, Vol. 1, Tanita Tikaram, Van Morrison and several of my mom’s favorite U2 albums … Who did we feel like listening to? I know people have strong opinions about U2 and what they have done with recent releases, but it has been my mom’s favorite band
all the more fun. Other than that, it’s just another game.” Added sophomore pitcher Megan Betsa: “If you asked me, I don’t think they’re our biggest rival. It’s always fun to play an in-state rival, but we just play the same regardless. We don’t play who’s across the chest.” Betsa said that a team like Minnesota may be more of a rival than Michigan State. And there’s something to that. While Michigan and Minnesota occupy the top two slots in the Big Ten standings, Wednesday’s matchup will be a battle of worst versus first in the Big Ten. Michigan State has the worst batting average in the conference (.274) and has a team earned-run average of 5.13. The Wolverines maintain the best ERA in the Big Ten with a 1.65 mark and have a whopping 60 more home runs than their in-state foe. With Michigan being the Spartans’ first ranked opponent of the season, they’ll face an uphill battle trying to pull off an upset. Leading the charge will be starting pitcher Kristina
Zalewski, who is sixth in the conference with a 3.15 ERA. Zalewski has 117 strikeouts and 12 wins, and she will likely be the Wolverines’ biggest challenge on Wednesday. No matter the statistics, the rivalry still has meaning. Both teams want to boast bragging rights for softball supremacy in the state. “I’ve always grown up knowing about the Michigan State/Michigan rivalry,” said junior right fielder Kelsey Susalla. “It’s always a fun game for us because it is a rivalry game, but it’s just a matter of how we play and focusing on our game.” If the Wolverines stay focused, they should have no problem beating the Spartans. As for the always-focused Hutchins, her players know where her allegiance lies in the rivalry. “Her heart bleeds blue,” Susalla said. Added sophomore shortstop Abby Ramirez: “She’s definitely a Michigan woman now.” And that can’t be debated.
Michiganders agree on many things. There’s widespread acclaim over Euchre and drinking Vernors when you’re sick. Michigan But there is one question at Michigan that divides State the state more than anything Matchup: MSU 16-24; else: Michigan Michigan 37-6 or Michigan When: State? Wednesday Michigan 4:30 P.M. softball coach Carol Hutchins Where: Secchia was born in Stadium Lansing and played for Michigan State. But she will give you a straight and short answer to the question. “I’m not really caught up in the rivalry,” Hutchins said. “I know Michigan fans don’t like to hear that. To me, I only care about Michigan. I work for Michigan, my team is Michigan, and I want Michigan to win. And I don’t care who we’re playing.” Wednesday, the fourth-ranked Wolverines (10-2 Big Ten, 37-6 overall) will head to East Lansing to play the Spartans (1-11, 16-24). The Spartans haven’t given the Wolverines much of a challenge historically, as Michigan leads the all-time series, 82-27. Michigan State’s last win came in 2009. Despite Michigan’s consistent success against Michigan State, junior second baseman Sierra Romero said the rivalry hasn’t become any less competitive. “(The rivalry) is kind of like the Ohio State one,” Romero said. “We go out there with that kind ALLISON FARRAND/Daily of chip on our shoulder that it’s a rivalry game, and that makes it Megan Betsa has helped lead Michigan’s pitching staff to a 1.65 ERA.
DID YOU KNOW IT’S IYAZ’S BIRTHDAY TODAY?
IF NOT, FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @MICHIGANDAILY for almost 30 years. That’s a long time. My mom would play U2 around the house while she made dinner, while she cleaned and fixed up the house, while we sat out on the front porch in the summers and all the time in the car, whether it’s a five-minute drive to the grocery store or sprinkled over eight hours on the way to D.C. to see the band in concert. I’ve listened to the band’s music mindlessly for pretty much my entire life, and eventually came to know their entire collection without realizing it. Over the years my mom would rewind the songs and make me listen to her favorite lines and we would play over and over again those parts of their songs where Bono’s ever-clear voice slips into that gristly, splintery growl. “I want to listen to U2,” I said. My mom said that was good with her, and then I asked which album we should put in. Shuffling through them, I landed on one that she had raved about and I knew was legendary. I asked, “Are you okay with The Unforgettable Fire?” “Oh, Regan, I’m always okay with The Unforgettable Fire,” she replied. I had heard the album before piece by piece. My mom would play certain songs she loved, playing a song’s regular version and a live version one right after the other, or two songs on the album together that blend into one another seamlessly. But I had never listened to The Unforgettable Fire all the way through, uninterrupted. My mom calling it “required listening,” so I knew listening to this album was something that had to be done. The Edge’s distinctive guitar welcomed us to the long highway drive as “A Sort of Homecoming”
trickled through the speakers – an all-too-appropriate opening song. And then it was the two of us, the open road and our dog, Lucy, in the backseat. Classic, right? It was perfect. We passed by our favorite billboard for Beef Jerky Unlimited, stopped to pee at a McDonald’s in North Baltimore, “the armpit of Ohio,” as my mom calls it, and commented on the exquisitely uncomplicated landscape of the Midwest. We admired the way the overcast lighting brought out the contrast between all of the colors – the bright green budding fields, the golden brown of the ones that hadn’t yet recovered from winter and the bright red-shelled semi trucks we shared the road with. After the firm and quick beats of the album’s title track echoed through our ears, hearts and minds, the album settled into the contemplative, “Promenade,” which flowed beautifully, like water into “4th of July” – the heady, wordless predecessor of The Unforgettable Fire’s masterpiece, “Bad.” It’s a song that we’ve listened to countless times, giving it both bouts of silence and our best Bono impressions belted out when the song deserved it. We both looked forward at the patch of gray highway immediately in front of our car as it continuously raced underneath us. The same not-yetstormy, but already heavy and foreboding blue-gray swarms of vapor hanging above us as if they had some kind of awareness of what they were witnessing. This time, almost impishly, The Edge drew us into the song, reminding me of my presence here with my mom, listening to her favorite band and giving her favorite album of all time the respect it beckoned for. The thing about “Bad” is that
it starts out mellow and smooth. Only “The Edge” is playing. But then comes a distant tambourine, then Bono singing gently, then the bass and drums, and soon the song gains a sort of pulse. The song builds, the cymbals pick up and the lyrics move into “this desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, revelation, in temptation, isolation desolation … Let it go … and so to find away…” Then Bono’s voice cracks into that gristly, painfully organic growl as he iterates, “I’m wide awake … I’m wide awake …” with this certain vitality that reminds you of all it is to be human. Almost suddenly, just as the song has built to this, the cymbals fade out, the song slows, and soon we’re left again with just Bono, “The Edge,” my mom and I. “I’m not sleeping…” and the music leaves our ears to tire on concrete. What does it mean to listen to your parents’ favorite music – to really listen to it, to really give it your attention? I see it as a form of empathy. Listening to my mother’s music was to put myself in her shoes and to experience humanity as she experiences it. It’s to recognize something that speaks to her, and by extension to recognize something that has contributed to who I am. And we were doing it together, here, on the road we’d travelled so many times – just me my mom (and yes, Lucy). The band that does this for you may not be U2, and if you’re not a U2 fan, then I’m sorry you’ve had to endure my ranting all the way up to 1000 words. But if your parents have an affinity for music, you should take a look at their collection if you haven’t already. Ask what their favorite album is, and don’t go to iTunes – get the CD. Go out to the car and go for a drive. And listen.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, April 15, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
From afar: Bastien’s success a family affair By MATTHEW KIPNIS Daily Sports Writer
Not once did Gary Bastien ask his son to follow in his footsteps. Gary didn’t hang up decathlon trophies or jerseys from his days at the U.S. Olympic trials around the house. At no point did he brag about stories from the glory days. And he certainly never pushed his son, Steven, to be an athlete, run track or compete in the same event he did. It just happened that way. Steven, a junior at Michigan, didn’t start running to chase his father’s records, and he was always reminded that it wasn’t something he had to do. He did it because it was something he loved to do. “He loves the sport in a different way than I do,” Gary said. “He is able to really have a perspective where this is fun for him, where I used to wrap my whole identity into my performance.” Despite two career paths that feature almost identical skillsets, personal records and techniques, it has been the younger Bastien’s ability to love what he does and stay positive that has separated him from his father and the rest of the pack. *** It was an ordinary day in Saline, Michigan when Gary Bastien realized that his son could be a star athlete. He was washing dishes as the neighborhood kids were playing on the backyard trampoline trying to dunk a Nerf ball into a hoop. As he looked out the window, he could see the kids competing, trying to nail the perfect dunk. Soon, Gary looked up to see a five-year-old Steven fly into the air, do a front flip and dunk the ball with ease. As the other kids were jumping four feet away from the hoop, according to the elder Bastien, Steven was
jumping from 14 feet. “I remember thinking, ‘I don’t think I could have done that in my prime,’ and he was five,” Gary said. “It gets your attention as someone who was an athlete like I was.” But Steven was just messing around with his friends. As always, he was just having fun. *** When it came to track, Gary was hesitant to push Steven in the beginning. After the elder Bastien graduated from Eastern Michigan, he moved to Auburn, Alabama and saw fathers who came to every practice and stood behind their sons’ shoulders, telling them what to do. He didn’t want to become a helicopter father who forced his son to do what he did. “I always told him, ‘You don’t have to do this,’ ” Gary said. “ ‘Just because I did it doesn’t mean you have to match me or try to chase that. Do what you want to do.’ He just had a lot of natural inclination to want to do this stuff.” Steven had a variety of sports to choose from — he played pickup basketball in the neighbors’ driveways and baseball with his uncle, a Michigan State graduate who played with former World Series hero Kirk Gibson. But he chose the same path and sport as his father. He even competed in the same event — the heptathlon. “I definitely followed in his footsteps, but it wasn’t that I needed to do what Dad did,” Bastien said. “It just happened.” As Steven approached middle school, he joined the Ann Arbor track club. Like his days playing in the backyard, it was mostly recreational. Most days, the team played capture the flag on the inside of the track, which would be its running workout for the day. Even in high school, it was still just about the fun. As a
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Steven Bastien became Michigan’s first All-American in the heptathlon in this year’s NCAA Championships.
freshman, Steven was small for his age — standing around 5-foot-1, weighing 95 pounds — and his father had to warn him that there was a chance he might not grow any more. That didn’t deter Steven, as he maintained the belief that he could catch up to the competition. “My dad always told me, ‘You will get faster one day. That’s what happened to me and both your uncles,’ ” Steven said. “I just believed it. I always told my friends that were faster than me, ‘I am going to be just as fast as you,’ and they didn’t believe me. But it ended up happening.” Eventually Steven, like his uncles and father, blossomed into an elite athlete and came into his own. As soon as he started to hit his stride, he had to adjust to a new high school coach — his father accepted a job at Saline High School after working as a part-time coach at Eastern Michigan. “Had I been coaching at Eastern, I wouldn’t have experienced that with him,” Gary Bastien said. “That was just a great time to be able to coach your son.” Added his son: “Sometimes
it was frustrating, because he would tell me I wasn’t doing something right. I would butt heads with my dad sometimes, but overall it was a cool experience.” With his father’s help, Steven was able to win Mr. Track and Field for the state of Michigan and set personal records in nearly every event. *** With college looming, Steven decided he wanted to get away from his hometown for the first time. For the first two years of his collegiate career, he attended Samford University in Alabama. Under coach Rod Tiffin, he improved his long jump, but his body quickly wore out. “In that conference, I was doing so much,” Steven said. “My last outdoor season there, I went into the meet banged up from the rest of the season, but I did 14 events in two days. It was probably too much for my body to do all that.” Unlike when he was younger, Steven wasn’t able to handle the sheer quantity of events. The fun he previously experienced
couldn’t surpass the exhaustion. He decided he wanted to specialize more and focus on what he did best. And in the back of his mind, Michigan had always been calling. Having grown up just outside Ann Arbor, that was where he wanted to be. When former Wolverines runner Garrick Roemer called Steven to convince him to transfer, he was brought back to the days of playing in the backyard in Saline, where he and Roemer were childhood friends. Once Steven mentioned it to his father and they looked into it, a transfer made sense because of Michigan coach Jerry Clayton’s pedigree. Steven envisioned the days of backyard basketball and Saline track and the fun days that lay ahead, but when Steven finally arrived on campus, his friend was no longer here. As Steven was taking his finals at the end of last year, Roemer passed away. Still, Clayton convinced him to stay. “He is one of the best coaches in the world,” Gary said. “I know that because I threw against him when I coached at Eastern, but
what Steven and I didn’t know is that he is not just a throwing coach. Steven will call me constantly and say, ‘You know what Coach Clayton told me about the high jump?’ and I will hang up the phone and I start walking through what he said, going, ‘You know, that makes sense, I didn’t know that.’ ” And as helpful as Clayton’s wisdom has been on Steven’s running, he has been able to use it to cope with Roemer’s death as well. “In order to be a decathlete, it’s just a different personality in order to be successful, and he seems to have that,” Clayton said. “You have to have that ability that when you do one event, and if things don’t go well you have to forget it and go to the next event, and he has that capacity.” *** Since coming to Michigan, even despite the tremendous grief of dealing with a friend’s death, Bastien has competed like he did when he was a kid — carefree. Clayton has allowed him to focus on being a decathlete through more individual treatment and day-to-day instruction. After a disappointing run at the Big Ten Indoor Championships this winter, Bastien came into the NCAA Championships with a different mindset. Before the race, he was nervous, but this time he decided to go in with the mentality to have fun, put it all on the line and take a few risks. It paid off, as Bastien set the program record for most points in a heptathlon twice and became Michigan’s first All-American in the event. With Bastien comfortably under Clayton’s wing, the father who never wanted to push his son can finally take a step back. Gary Bastien watched his son become an All-American the same way he saw him dunk that basketball all those years ago — from afar.
Wolverines fall to MSU in Detroit Comerica a field BASEBALL
By ISAIAH ZEAVIN-MOSS Daily Sports Writer
DETROIT — The Michigan baseball team was unable to continue its streak of success on Tuesday night, falling to Michigan State, 4-2, in a close contest at Comerica Park. The Wol2 MICHIGAN verines (6-6 3 MSU Big Ten, 21-15 overall) had won nine of their previous 11 games entering Tuesday, which presented Michigan with an opportunity to continue its rise in the Big Ten standings and to keep the season’s momentum alive. On the mound for the Wolverines was junior left-hander Evan Hill, who had pitched just 5.1 innings all season. He was looking to use Tuesday night’s game as another step on the road back to reclaiming his role in the weekend rotation, where he was
regularly featured last season. But Hill was rusty. Through his five innings of work, Hill allowed seven hits and three earned runs while striking out two. “You can’t make mistakes to good hitters,” Hill said. “When you do, they make you pay. But, in general, I think my stuff is close to being where it was last year.” Michigan coach Erik Bakich, though, did not think Hill’s performance was the reason for his team’s defeat. Instead, he praised the junior pitcher for his off-thefield contributions. “I thought he pitched well enough for us to win,” Bakich said. “And it’s great to have him back, not only because he’s a great pitcher, but because of his leadership, experience and physical talent. It’s a big lift for our team.” In the fourth inning, Michigan State (4-5, 19-15) broke open the scoring, as shortstop Ryan Richardson hit a two-out RBI single.
of dreams for ‘M’ By DANNY VARGOVICK Daily Sports Writer
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Evan Hill allowed seven hits and three earned runs in five innings pitched.
But in just the next frame, the Wolverines responded. After senior catcher Kendall Patrick was hit by a pitch and junior second baseman Jacob Cronenworth singled to right, the Wolverines were set up to do damage. Senior centerfielder Jackson Glines bunted both runners over, which brought up junior third baseman Travis Maezes. Maezes, who is still not fully healthy — a strained oblique kept him out until April 1 — did not disappoint. He knocked a two-run single to right field, and Michigan led, 2-1. The rally came to an abrupt end, though, when Maezes was thrown out at home trying to tag up on a flyout by junior left fielder Cody Bruder for the second out of the inning. The Wolverines did not score for the rest of the game. That ended up being a crucial turning point in a game where scoring opportunities were hard to come by. Michigan State did not let Michigan forget it. “I was taking a chance, I wanted to be aggressive,” Maezes said. “I tagged up; it didn’t work out. They made a good catch, a good throw, a good tag. I was looking to take advantage of an opportunity. If he catches it, a two-out hit is a lot to ask.” Added Bakich: “We had a guy with speed at third — you try to press the situation a little bit. The catcher made a nice pick on the
short hop, and he made a nice tag. If that situation comes up again, we’re going to do the same thing, because that’s an opportunity to score.” In the bottom of the fifth, the Spartans recaptured the lead. After getting a strike out with runners on second and third, Hill was one out away from escaping the jam. But first baseman Ryan Krill lined a double to right field that cleared the bases, and Michigan State was up, 3-2. In the seventh inning, Maezes came up to the plate with runners on first and third and only one out, and the Wolverines looked poised to strike back. But Maezes grounded into an inning-ending double play. “We stranded too many runners on base tonight,” Bakich said. “But sometimes it’s just luck. You can hit the hardest ball of your life and somebody catches it, or you can get jammed and it falls in for a hit.” Freshman right-hander Bryan Pall came in to pitch in the eighth inning. He surrendered a leadoff ground-rule double to third baseman Mark Weist, who advanced to third on a sacrifice fly. Weist scored on a wild pitch, giving Michigan State a 4-2 lead. In the ninth inning, the Wolverines went down in order. After stranding nine runners on base, it was a game of missed opportunities for Michigan.
DETROIT — For a day, it was a field of dreams. The MLB Opening Day logo on the grass was slightly faded, and the ivy on the fountain beyond the centerfield fence was still brown from the winter, but Comerica Park was a fantastic setting for a weekday game between in-state rivals Michigan and Michigan State. Both teams have a number of players who hail from Detroit suburbs and grew up rooting for the Tigers. It was an opportunity for these players to play on the same field Miguel Cabrera and David Price took for Opening Day eight days earlier. It was a night to remember for these college players who, statistically, are unlikely to ever take the field for an MLB Opening Day themselves. The game was scheduled at a neutral site because, for the second straight year, the two teams weren’t scheduled to play each other in conference play. Both head coaches said that it was a priority to play their in-state rivals in the non-conference season, but they struggled to agree on a location. Comerica Park made sense as a compromise for the singlegame showdown. For the underclassman Wolverines, it was their first college game at a major league park and first college game against the Spartans. Some of the older players on the team have had a little more experience in major league parks. Two years ago,
the team played Northwestern at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs; Seton Hall at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets; and multiple teams in the Big Ten Tournament at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. Comerica is one of the bigger venues in the major leagues, and it is substantially larger than the Wilpon Complex in Ann Arbor, providing different dimensions for hitters to deal with. The fence at Wilpon is 312 feet down the left field line, 320 feet down the right field line and 395 feet to center. Comerica is 345 feet to left, 330 feet to right and 420 feet to center. Centerfield at Comerica is notorious for swallowing all but the longest Miguel Cabrera bombs to center and rightcenter. “That’s the goal — to hit line drives,” said junior third baseman Travis Maezes. “We as a team today hit too many fly balls. Growing up here, you see that it’s not an offensive park, so those are routine fly balls that everyone can catch.” Junior left-hander Evan Hill also said that he tried to pitch to contact with the spacious outfield behind him. The seats weren’t filled like they were for Opening Day last week, but the game still drew a substantial number of fans from both sides. It offered fans from the Detroit area an easier opportunity to reach the game than if it had been in East Lansing or Ann Arbor. “It’s a dream for all of these guys to play at this level on a daily basis, and you get a taste of it,” said Michigan State coach Jake Boss.
“It’s a dream for all these guys to play at this level on a daily basis.”