2014-05-01

Thursday, May 1 ­— Sunday, May 4, 2014

the

commencement issue 2010-2014

We

came to this city alone, our lives neatly packed in rolling blue move-in bins and over-stuffed duffle bags. Our motivations were as diverse as the friends we met in our first lecture, but we immediately joined an unparalleled community of scholars, artists and entrepreneurs. The city became our home. It accepted us, nurtured us and challenged us to push limits. We learned to embrace the unknown, care for our community and foster relationships that carried us through good times and bad. We cheered in the Big House, lounged on the Diag and slept in the UGLi. We followed in the footsteps of more than 20 Pulitzer Prize winners, eight Nobel Laureates and one U.S. President. Inspired by tradition and each other, we became leaders and best on campus, in our classrooms and at home. Now we walk into the world, bound by the memories of our experiences here and our common desire to promote humanity, justice and creativity wherever we travel. No matter where we go, or what we accomplish, we bring with us the spirit of this city, this campus and the people we have come to know. These pages, while simply snapshots of our time here, tell the story of our life at Michigan. Photo Illustration by Ruby Wallau

Heading home Messages of support, love and celebration from our families » INSIDE

2 — Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014

FROM THE DAILY STAFF TO THE CLASS OF 2014

CONGRATS!

Congratulations to All of our CMB Residents!

We are Very Proud of You

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News

Mark Schlissel selected as ‘U’ president Regents approve Brown Provost for five-year term

as the next president, including enhancing diversity on campus, increasing affordability and developing relationships with potential donors to the University. Schlissel said his biggest challenge will be engaging with students, faculty and staff on campus, adding that he has a lot to learn since he has never worked at the University. “In my experience, universities really don’t get led top-down,” he said. “The best ideas come from the people who do the teaching and the learning, so that’s why I

listing of faculty, students and regents. He also noted the University’s stature as a public institution — despite the challenges of declining state funding — as a key draw to the University. “Another thing that made me say Michigan is a place I really have to look at is my feeling about the role education can play in solving society’s problems,” Schlissel said. “And it’s not that we don’t do this at great private university — we do — but there’s something about the openness

from strength to strength; from one great leader, Mary Sue Coleman, to another, Mark Schlissel,” said University Regent Mark Bernstein (D–Ann Arbor). Bernstein recalled SchlisBy JENNIFER CALFAS and sel’s answer to one of the central SAM GRINGLAS questions that faced the search Managing News Editor committee: What makes a great and Daily News Editor university president? “You have to love and be January 24, 2014 — Mark amazed by students. You have to Schlissel, Brown University’s love and be amazed by faculty. provost, will succeed University You have to love and be amazed President Mary Sue Coleman as by research and discovery.” the University of Michigan’s 14th In an interview after the press president. His term will conference, University begin July 1. Provost Martha Pollack, The decision was who will perhaps work unanimously approved most closely with the by the University’s Board new president, praised of Regents at a special Schlissel’s academic meeting Friday morning record, as well as his in the Michigan Union’s interest in faculty and Kuenzel Room. The research and commitannouncement arrives ment to diversity and after a presidential affordability. search committee spent “You heard the much of the summer and regents talk about him fall gathering input from having great ethics, faculty and students and great values and a great the assistance of Russell heart — that’s just the Reynolds Associates, an combination you want,” executive search adviPollack said. sory firm. She added that she Schlissel will receive will have a one-ona base salary of $750,000 one meeting with the RUBY WALLAU/Daily per year with an annual president-elect Friday University President-elect Mark Schlissel speaks after being approved by the University’s Board of increase determined by Regents at a special meeting in January. afternoon as she begins the regents. His contract to share knowledge and and the accessibility of a public understand how to best work runs for five years. Coleman cur- need to do some listening first.” While Schlissel will face many universities that’s really special with him. rently receives $603,000 per year in her role, but has denied an issues in his transition, one of the and it drew at my heartstrings.” Though this was her first intromost prominent matters he will Coleman lauded Schlissel’s duction to the University’s 14th increase several years in a row. Schlissel began his term as address is the demand for larger experience and qualifications as president, E. Royster Harper, provost at Brown in 2011 after minority enrollment and inclu- the next president of the Univer- vice president for student life, sity. serving as the University of Cali- sion at the University. said she saw Schlissel as some“You can’t achieve excellence “I’ve often said the job of being one who could build on Coleman’s fornia-Berkeley’s dean of biological sciences from 2008 to 2011. as an academic institution with- president at the University of strengths. As provost, Schlissel serves as out being diverse because we live Michigan is the best job in the “Regent Bernstein said it just Brown’s chief academic officer in a world where people can look country,” she said. “I couldn’t be right — we’re going from strength and deputy to the president. In his at the same set of facts and inter- more pleased to know that you, to strength,” Harper said. “I love current role, Schlissel manages pret them differently from each as the 14th president, will experi- the fact that he is so student-cenence this firsthand.” the day-to-day operations of the other,” he said. tered, because our students are In addition to diversity, SchlisBefore approving Schlissel’s used to that and deserve that.” institution and oversees Brown’s sel appealed to a wide scope of the appointment as president, each strategic planning. Schlissel will also direct the In a press conference after the constituencies, citing the Univer- regent lauded his qualifications remainder of the University’s Vicregents approved the appoint- sity’s alumni and staff members for the position. tors for Michigan development “This is a great day for the Uni- campaign, which aims to raise $4 ment, Schlissel addressed the as well as the Ann Arbor commuchallenges he expects to face nity, in addition to the expected versity of Michigan. We go today billion in funds.

News

‘U’ THE IN REVIEW

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014 — 3

A look at University news from the past four years

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 43 YEARS, THE UNIVERSITY OPENED A NEW RESIDENCE HALL AS IT COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION ON NORTH QUAD. STUDENTS AND ADMINISTRATORS GATHERED IN THE NEW BUILDING FOR A “HOUSEWARMING” EVENT, WHICH FEATURED SPEECHES FROM E. ROYSTER HARPER, VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS, AND THEN-UNIVERSITY PROVOST PHILIP HANLON. BOTH ADMINISTRATORS ACKNOWLEDGED THE BUILDING’S UNIQUE NATURE AND IMPRESSIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY.

THEN-LSA FRESHMAN DANIEL MORALES SPOKE ON BEHALF OF THE COALITION FOR TUITION EQUALITY TO THE UNIVERSITY’S BOARD OF REGENTS IN AN EFFORT TO GAIN IN-STATE TUITION FOR UNDOCUMENTED RESIDENTS. CTE MOUNTED A SERIES OF PROTESTS OVER THE YEAR, EVENTUALLY RESULTING IN THE REGENTS APPROVAL OF A POLICY CHANGE THAT WOULD ALLOW UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS WHO ATTENDED HIGH SCHOOL IN THE STATE TO BE GRANTED IN-STATE TUITION IF THEY APPLIED WITHIN 28 MONTHS OF GRADUATION. “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I CAME CLOSE TO GIVING UP,” MORALES SAID. “BUT STUDENTS LIKE MYSELF, THE THOUSANDS OF US WHO GRADUATE FROM MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOLS EVERY YEAR WITH THE HOPES OF BETTERING OUR COMMUNITIES AND LIVES, DO NOT SIMPLY GIVE UP. I WAS AN AMERICAN AT HEART AND MORE DEFINITELY, I WAS A WOLVERINE.”

APRIL 6, 2012

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

2010

ALDEN REISS/Daily

APRIL 18, 2013 NOVEMBER 19, 2013

2012

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/DAILY

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/DAILY

THE STUDENT GROUP MUSIC MATTERS, WITH ABOUT $100,000 IN FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM DEPARTMENTS AND INDIVIDUALS ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY, HOSTED THE FIRST ANNUAL SPRINGFEST. THE DAY OF EVENTS, WHICH BENEFITTED C.S. MOTT CHILDREN’S AND VON VOIGTLANDER WOMEN’S HOSPITAL, FEATURED A PERFORMANCE BY J. COLE, WHO HAD RECEIVED A GRAMMY NOMINATION FOR BEST NEW ARTIST THAT YEAR. TWO YEARS LATER, THE EVENT IS STILL GOING STRONG.

FOLLOWING CHARLES MUNGER’S $110 MILLION DONATION — THE LARGEST SINGLE DONATION IN THE UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY AT THE TIME — UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT MARY SUE COLEMAN ANNOUNCED PLANS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW GRADUATE STUDENT RESIDENCE HALL. CONSTRUCTION OF THE COMPLEX INVOLVED THE DEMOLITION OF SEVERAL EXISTING BUILDINGS ALONG SOUTH DIVISION AVENUE, INCLUDING THE ICONIC BLIMPY BURGER RESTAURANT, WHICH HAD STOOD IN ITS LOCATION FOR ABOUT 60 YEARS. THE PROJECT PROVED CONTROVERSIAL, WITH SOME GRADUATE STUDENTS EXPRESSING DISMAY AT THE PROPOSED FLOOR PLANS AND POTENTIAL $1,000 PER MONTH RENT.

WHILE ORIGINALLY INTENDED AS A MEANS TO SPREAD AWARENESS OF RACE AND DIVERSITY ISSUES ON CAMPUS, THE #BBUM MOVEMENT, INITIATED BY THE UNIVERSITY’S BLACK STUDENT UNION, QUICKLY WENT VIRAL AND GAINED NATIONAL ATTENTION. BSU CITED DECLINING ENROLLMENT OF BLACK STUDENTS ON CAMPUS AS ONE OF THE PRIMARY ISSUES THE ADMINISTRATION NEEDED TO ADDRESS TO UPHOLD ITS VERBAL COMMITMENT TO PROMOTING DIVERSITY. LSA SENIOR TYRELL COLLIER, BSU’S PRESIDENT, SAID THE HASHTAG WAS INTENDED AS A MEANS FOR BLACK STUDENTS TO SHARE BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY.

MARCH 26, 2014

2014

“I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE LIVES OF BLACK STUDENTS VALUED MORE,” COLLIER SAID.

ADAM GLANZMAN/DAILY

“I AM UPSET. I AM DISAPPOINTED. BUT MORE SO, I AM VERY PROUD OF WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED,” SAID LSA SENIOR SUHA NAJJAR, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL AUTHORS OF THE RESOLUTION.

Obama speaks about financial aid reform at the Al Glick Field House January 27, 2012.

Obama speaks at ‘U’ Students and faculty praise loyalty to the University By JENNIFER CALFAS Managing News Editor

April 2, 2014 — As President Barack Obama approached the podium at the Intramural Sports Building, more than 1,400 students and University affiliates rose from their seats, eliciting a thunderous applause. Obama traveled to the University Wednesday to speak about his proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. In his speech, Obama pointed to the state’s efforts to support the bill and brought a partisan tone to his speech, calling out Republicans in Congress who oppose the proposal. “You’ve got a choice,” Obama said. “You can give America the shaft, or you can give it a raise.” Obama noted the extreme living conditions in America today, adding that some full-time workers are living in poverty despite holding steady employment. In Michigan, the minimum wage is $7.40 per hour. While the average American who earns minimum wage is 35 years old, Obama noted the importance of establishing a higher minimum wage for college students — some of whom will be entering the workforce in a month. “We should make it easier for your generation to get a foothold on the ladder of opportunity,” Obama said, with applause shortly following. “And we believe the economy grows best not from the top down, but from the mid out.” Obama has made more visits to the University than any sitting president in history. In 2010, he served as the University’s Spring Commencement speaker. The president visited the University again in 2012 to discuss the rising

Obama calls for tuition, financial aid reform in address at Field House By BETHANY BIRON and JOSPEH LICHTERMAN Managing News Editor and Editor in Chief ALLISON FARRAND/DAILY

IN THE WAKE OF A WEEK-LONG SIT-IN, THE CENTRAL STUDENT GOVERNMENT VOTED TO LIFT ITS INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT ON A CONTROVERSIAL DIVESTMENT RESOLUTION. THE RESOLUTION, ORIGINALLY ADVOCATED FOR BY THE STUDENTS ALLIED FOR FREEDOM AND EQUALITY, WOULD HAVE CALLED FOR THE UNIVERSITY TO WITHDRAW INVESTMENTS FROM COMPANIES DEEMED TO BE INVOLVED IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST PALESTINIANS. IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING, AFTER SEVERAL HOURS OF DEBATE, THE CSG STUDENT ASSEMBLY VOTED 25-9 NOT TO PASS THE RESOLUTION.

DESIGN BY EMILY SCHUMER COMPILED BY IAN DILLIINGHAM

January 27th, 2012 — Speaking before a bleary-eyed capacity crowd of 4,000 who waited in the wee hours of the morning Friday to secure a prime spot, President Barack Obama stressed the importance of higher education by announcing a handful of new proposals to combat student debt. During his address at Al Glick Field House, the Michigan football team’s indoor practice facility, Obama unveiled a plan that would allocate $10 billion in federal aid each year to colleges and universities that limit tuition increases. Ann Arbor was Obama’s last stop on a three-day, five-state, trip to follow up on his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “We are putting colleges on notice — you can’t keep — you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said. “If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down.” Obama also proposed a $1 billion Race to the Top program that

cost of higher education — a point he touched on Wednesday. “My point is we got to make sure that everybody can afford to do things that may not pay huge sums of money but are really valuable to society,” Obama said. While many students filled the audience, University administrators and government officials also made a strong showing. Included among the attendees were University executive officers, members of the University’s Board of Regents, Rep. Gary Peters (D–Mich.), State Reps Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) and Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor) and Congressional candidate Debbie Dingell. LSA senior Mira Friedlander, a restaurant server who finances her college education with her minimum wage job, introduced the president before he gave his remarks. In an interview after the speech, Friedlander said she was honored to introduce the president, especially before a speech that would hit close to home. “It was completely surreal,” she said. Obama’s address comes only a day after the White House announced that 7.1 million Americans signed up for the Affordable Care Act. The president cited the success of the legislation as another mechanism he has used to ensure that every American has an opportunity to succeed. Raising the minimum wage, he said, is another shot at granting Americans the success the country promised in its founding. In an interview after the speech, Regent Mark Bernstein (D–Ann Arbor) said Obama’s multiple visits to campus signify the University’s role in national issues of concern. “It speaks to the stature of this great public university,” Bernstein said. “Each time his message has been targeted at a student body that I think appreciates his message. It’s a great honor to participate in that kind of experience.”

Bernstein added that he and several other University officials met with Obama before his speech. During the address, more than 100 students lined the bleachers behind him with an American flag draped above them on the IM Building’s brick wall. Some of these students included Business senior Michael Proppe, CSG president; LSA senior Phil Schermer, MUSIC Matters president; and LSA senior Tyrell Collier, Black Student Union president, among other campus leaders. In an interview after the event, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, said the office of Student Life chose which students to invite to sit in the selected seats. While many of them were leaders of prominent campus organizations, Harper said some represented sectors of campus that are less well known — including first-generation college students, international students, students who work in campus dining halls and some who grew up in foster care. “We tried to be really thoughtful,” Harper said. “Some were students in leadership roles, but others were students who lead in a very different way.” Students showed up in droves Monday afternoon to wait for their chance to secure their spot at the event. The University distributed tickets on a first-come, first-served basis Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., motivating students to wait in line overnight for the opportunity to see the president. Harper said this commitment to engaging in campus life showed how willing the students are to interact with the world around them. “Our students are always engaged and thinking about what’s going on in the world and they’re just smart in that way,” Harper said. “They’re politically smart. I think students on boths sides of the issues kind of want to be in the conversation.”

would award funding to states that make an effort to continue to fund higher education and limit tuition hikes. “We’re telling the states, if you can find new ways to bring down the cost of college and make it easier for more students to graduate, we’ll help you do it,” Obama said. “We will give you additional federal support if you are doing a good job of making sure that all of you aren’t loaded up with debt when you graduate from college.” In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the administration is working to make more resources available to students. The president’s student aid reforms would mostly increase the amount of need-based Perkins Loans available to low-income students. “We can’t do it by ourselves,” Duncan said. “So we’re going to try to put out a $1 billion tax incentive to states and to colleges to do the right thing. We’re challenging states to continue to invest even in tough times and we’re challenging universities to do two things — keep tuition rates down and increase graduation rates.” Obama put pressure on Congress to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit — which provides college students with up to $10,000 over four years — permanent, and to double the number of federal work study jobs available to students. The Obama administration

will also boost its efforts to make financial aid information more accessible for families by creating several online tools that provide comprehensive information about what types of aid institutions offer. “From now on, parents and students deserve to know how a college is doing — how affordable is it, how well are its students doing,” Obama said. “We want you to know how well a car stacks up before you buy it. You should know how well a college stacks up.” Speaking under an array of Big Ten championship banners and atop a platform placed upon a block ‘M’ on the indoor field, Obama also congratulated the football team on its Sugar Bowl win, calling the team “a force to be reckoned with” under junior quarterback Denard Robinson, who was sitting among congressmen and state officials during the speech. In an interview with The Michigan Daily before the speech, Robinson said he was impressed with the amount of student support. “It’s great to see President Obama, I couldn’t miss it,” Robinson said. “A lot of people came out and came to support him.” After the speech, University President Mary Sue Coleman lauded Obama’s attention to the need for the federal government to collaborate with universities around the nation in an effort to develop efficient policies that minimize student debt and increase accessibility.

Opinion

4 — Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Note to self (and others like me)

U 3/13/13

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

FROM THE DAILY

Reevaluating R&E requirement

O

11/21/13

n Tuesday, the Black Student Union organized a “Being Black at the University of Michigan” campaign both on social media and University spaces, where Black students were encouraged to tweet and share their experiences of being Black at the University. The #BBUM campaign is just one of many student movements to point to declining minority enrollment and a lack of support from University administration as instrumental in creating a hostile racial climate. Since Michigan is devoted to promoting and nurturing a diverse institution, the administration should demonstrate this commitment by requiring all freshmen to take a course concerning contemporary identity issues. We Are Michigan organized a “Freeze Out” protest, where minority students and allies banded together to form a circle surrounding the Diag, carrying signs that read “We want real diversity,” and “I am that one Black girl in your class” along with other signs outlining the low minority representation on campus. Following an offensive “Hood Ratchet Thursday” party planned by the University’s chapter of Theta Xi, student leaders have responded by organizing forums to raise awareness and urging campus leadership to hold students accountable for irresponsible behavior and, more importantly, to stop treating these aggressions as isolated instances. As part of their general LSA requirements, every student must take at least three credits from a list of approved courses that fulfill a race and ethnicity requirement. To be approved, classes must discuss the meaning of race, ethnicity and racism, inequality resulting from racial and ethnic intolerance, and comparisons of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, social class or gender. The goal of this requirement is to prepare students for working in multiethnic, multiracial environments in school and beyond. However, many of these classes are history courses that are highly theoretical in material. This is misleading because they imply history alone is more relevant than discussing the very tangible lasting effects and contemporary legacy of that history. Students should be required to take specific courses that openly discuss issues related to racism, classism and sexism as they exist and inform their interactions — in society generally and particularly on this campus. Instead, a required course about identity will help us nurture a more socially aware and

I

responsible student body, and will serve as an unprecedented demonstration to students that University administration is committed to promoting and institutionalizing diversity education. This required course should replace the current race and ethnicity requirement and should become a part of every incoming freshman’s schedule. The course should discuss social identity in its multiple forms — spanning issues of racism, sexism, LGBTQ discrimination, classism and discussing the ways in which power and privilege play an unignorable role in sustaining these issues. Learning and reading material, assignments and discussions should challenge students to consider their own identities and the role they play in society. To nurture meaningful discussions and a safe space, the course should be dialogue-based, with facilitators who are trained by the University’s Program on Intergroup Relations and Office of Student Conflict Resolution. We recognize that students in this course will interact and respond to the material very differently, and some may feel uncomfortable. However, if the University is serious about creating a climate that is safe for all identities, it must urge students to confront the serious and often uncomfortable questions that our campus community cannot afford to overlook. Since the University has already instituted the race and ethnicity requirement, it only makes sense that it be refined and modernized to fulfill the goal for which it was created and adjust to the needs of our shifting campus climate. Only upon having these serious conversations, both with themselves and with others, will students be prepared to enter a diverse world without threatening the safety of others in that space.

Endings are harder

4/15/14 ’ve been a fan of Stephen Colbert since the eighth grade. While I probably didn’t understand the meaning of half of his jokes at the time, it was something about his comedic style and satirical abilities that I admired. Honestly, it’s surprising I even knew what satire was back then — shout-out to my teachers. His character of a right-winged idiot is pure DEREK genius. And he’s managed WOLFE to perfect the act over the course of the decade. He made a mockery of former President George W. Bush in 2006 as the host of the White House Correspondents Dinner. He co-led the Rally to Restore Fear and/or Sanity with Jon Stewart in 2010 and decided to “form an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for (a) possible candidacy” for the President of the United States of America of South Carolina in 2012. And if that wasn’t enough, he even created his own Super PAC, which raised more than $1 million. So you can imagine the disappointment Colbert fans had upon hearing his decision to take over the Late Show on CBS for David Letterman. We’re going to lose all of this. 30 minutes of eye-opening, accurate analysis of the world cleanly wrapped in satire four nights a week. Gone. The last months of 2014 are all we have left to enjoy the last episodes of the “Report” — pronounced “re-pore.” But have no fear, my “Most Likely to Be” in my eighth grade yearbook was “Stephen Colbert’s successor,” so Comedy Central, I’ll be sending in my résumé. I may also have been the one who created that future occupation for myself. But don’t worry about that. Jokes aside, Colbert’s decision to leave his nest at Comedy Central to be Letterman’s successor brings up interesting questions, and quite frankly, a rather polarizing debate: Why ruin a good thing? Colbert already has a very dedicated audience, so what is he gaining by changing shows? And most importantly, if he’s not in character, is he even that funny? The

times we’ve seen the real Stephen are few and far between — however, I personally attest he will be just as laugh-inducing. As far as I’m concerned, there are two things to consider. First, while of course I cannot speak for Colbert, I posit that he is in search of a new challenge. Since it only took a week from Letterman’s retirement announcement to Colbert’s hiring, I think it’s safe to assume that very little negotiations, if any, took place between Colbert and Comedy Central. He wanted a change. And sure, we can be upset about it, but we have to admit we’re being selfish. We like the status quo. However, we should also embrace someone essentially risking his or her career to exercise a different skill set. And if that’s not an American ideal, even if it may be partly money-motivated, I don’t know what is. Because we all know that if Colbert falters even slightly, fans and critics will not hesitate to turn on him. What’s also important to realize is that it’s never a good thing when something continues for longer than it should, in all cases. I don’t necessarily believe the novelty of Colbert’s character has worn off. In fact, it’s finally gotten to the point where I can totally appreciate it. However, it is far better to end a great thing a little early than witness the pain-staking process of jumping the shark and surviving off past success. That could be far worse for Colbert than flopping on “The Late Show.” And there are plenty examples of this. The ending of “The Wire” was perfect. It was 60 episodes of incredible television and one more could have jeopardized its success. On the other hand, the not funny “Saturday Night Live” is still on TV — well past its glory days. Ultimately, Colbert’s ordeal is a matter of risk-taking and knowing when to say goodbye. Neither is easy. Both are necessary. And someone is probably going to be upset about it. But that doesn’t mean don’t go through with it. My dad has reminded me many times of the old proverb, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” And while that’s probably a bit emotional for a TV show I often fall asleep in the middle of, I think you get the point. —DerekWolfe canbe reachedatdewolfe@umich.edu.

nless you accept a full-time position as the doublejointed woman at the circus, you’ll probably never have fewer true responsibilities than you have right now. Sure, you need to finish that paper on Plato’s EMILY theory of love, but when you’re PITTINOS faced with the choice between rewriting your outline and watching Jupiter rise in the Arboretum, put on a second pair of tights and grab your coat. The field will be thick with fog. The frogs will sing their ghastly songs. The solar system, romance and youth won’t wait. Always choose Jupiter. If you consume a psychedelic substance in Tennessee, avoid the crawfish and beeline it for Memphis where a white horse and bedazzled carriage are itching to tour you around the city. Your intuition is both a bloodhound and a bullshit detector. Don’t ignore its wisdom out of fear or self-doubt. If you suspect your boyfriend and close friend are stealing caresses in a cedar swamp by the old school, dump them. If the guy from astronomy seems like he wants to see you naked, feel free to put your mouth on his. When you’re in high school and your best friend comes to your house with a cooler full of vodka and Minute Maid popsicles and

stares up at you with eyes like bowls full of water that will never empty and tells you she had a vivid dream about touching you everywhere, forget that you both have boyfriends away for the summer and that your parents are asleep downstairs. Lay her down on your lilac bedspread. It’s likely that you’re in love; you’ll never get this chance again. It’s all right to flee your loneliness. Even in the midst of an Ann Arbor August, after a tequila-drenched evening on someone’s covered porch, your empty bed can feel like the dimmest, most bone-cold corner of the earth. It’s all right to want a warm body quietly snoring on the other side of the mattress. It’s all right to daydream about waking a sleeping lover with pancakes you cooked while smiling over the skillet, groggily remembering the night before — fallen bedside lamps, gripped pillow cases. Craving closeness makes you vulnerable, but it doesn’t make you weak. If you cannot squash your loneliness, harness it. Plenty of poems, scripts, essays, stories and art have been born in a lonely place. Spend some quality time with the person living in your brain. Knit a beer koozie. Invent a new kind of sandwich. Learn to juggle ladles. A dose of lonesomeness is healthy, but wasting hours Facebook-prowling for perspective sex partners is bad

for the soul. Over your weekly brunch, a good friend will tell you there’s no point in pining over someone who won’t love you back. Buy him a mimosa. Tattoo his words on your forehead backwards so you can reread them while brushing your teeth each morning. Write an apologia to your body. You’ve probably wrung it out like a wet rag more times than you can count. Your body is more than a set of hips you can swing on the streets of Philadelphia to make men wet their lips and whistle, tossing their hardhats in the air. Thank her for being the impossibly intricate culmination of your ancestry — Italian women blowing glass in the basements of Murano, Vikings whittling pipes in the bellies of thrashing ships, Greek bards reciting verses by rote in the town square. Your tits may be nothing special, but your body is a miracle of science and ordinary magic. When you have trouble falling asleep because you are hollow or regretful or anxious about your future, read Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” aloud over and over. Remember that even when you are lost inside yourself, you are here. You are here. You are here.

Remember that even when you are lost inside yourself, you are here. You are here. You are here.

—EmilyPittinoscanbereached atpittinos@umich.edu.

Congratulations Class of 2014 We’re all shmucked

I

9/12/12 guess it was around the end of high school that I stopped sleeping. I don’t mean entirely, of course, but for a month or two I existed in a state of deliberate insomnia. Everyone MELANIE has lost faith in humanity. They KRUVELIS are horrified, they are embarrassed and nobody can stop watching. “The cinematography is just so terrible.” “I don’t understand why they didn’t use more fisheye.” “Is this even a song?” Why yes, it is a song. It’s called “Work Hard, Play Hard” by Wiz Khalifa and maybe if we hadn’t discovered this “Shmacked” nonsense, we could’ve listened to it ironically while cashing bowls on our homework and damn, wouldn’t that have been cool. But it’s too late — we’ve seen it. And when did we stop using our houseplant as the ashtray? Alright, so here’s the deal. We’re in Kerrytown — oh, a note to freshmen: Kerrytown is north, it’s hip and for the love of god please stop wearing those key card lanyards. Anyway, we’re in Kerrytown and everyone looks absolutely miserable. Well, more miserable than usual. Someone found this video, “I’m Shmacked The Movie: University of Michigan — Welcome Week,” and the expressions in the room range from nauseated condescension to apathetic-American-Apparelmodel-meets-kicked-puppy. The tragically hip haven’t been this upset

since that anthropology professor used Comic Sans. It’s that serious. If you haven’t seen the video, don’t worry — the concept is simple. A couple of college kids go around campuses and capture students at their finest hour — 9 a.m. on a Football Saturday. They’ve recorded St. Patrick’s Day at West Virginia University, filmed 4/20 at the University of Vermont and now they’ve shot Welcome Week here at Michigan. Which is fantastic, really —we’ve finally got a chance to stand up and reveal what beats inside every last Wolverine heart: “If you don’t go to Michigan, you’re a peasant.” Hear hear, young white male. But back to shotgunning Nattys, smoking pot, downing shots in South Quad, doing a weird drunken leprechaun jig on the sidewalk, and all the other toodrunk-to-care shenanigans you can cram into four minutes of video. From here we get the true meaning of “shmacked,” which is not the Yiddish expression for “bagel toppings.” It’s actually Yiddish for getting drunk and throwing away the futures we don’t have, and — most importantly — not caring, because in the end we all look really, really awesome. Hell, we are really, really awesome. “This school is the best school in the entire world,” says a girl in a tube top (Side note: technically it’s the 14th best school in the entire world, but no reason to let something as trivial as rankings

get in the way of assertions, right?). “Fucking Go Blue, and we fucking go hard! Fuck you, ‘Bama!” yells another partygoer, referring to the Alabama Crimson Tide, not the President. (Okay, so they actually killed us, but he almost got it right). But perhaps the most touching affirmation of our scholarly excellence: “It’s the perfect mix of like, party and like, work, you know?” Of course, moms, dads and everyone else who sucks may be alarmed by the video, finding this homage to Stifler’s wet dream to be a self-indulgent, stomach-churning display of everything that’s wrong with everything. At least half of Kerrytown threatened to drop out after watching the video. “I wish I’d never seen this monstrosity,” one disenfranchised Kerrytowner said. To which every other student replied, “What’s a Kerrytown?” It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen the video or not. Yeah, maybe it’s not the most flattering image of our school. But while some cringe at the sight of our fellow students beer-bonging their livers into oblivion, they’re forgetting one crucial fact: this isn’t groundbreaking. Step outside on any game day and you’ll see the exact same thing. So if you’re going to take anything away from this, let it be this — this isn’t new. This is how it’s always been and how it always will be. God, are we shmucked.

In the end, we are all really, really awesome.

—MelanieKruvelis canbe reachedmelkruv@umich.edu.

After gay marriage was legalized... MEGGIE RAMM

4/3/14

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

News

Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014 — 5

Former kicker permanently separated from the University Decision followed sexual assault allegation and investigation By ADAM RUBENFIRE and MATT SLOVIN Daily Staff Reporter and Daily Sports Writer

January 28, 2014— Brendan Gibbons, the Michigan football team’s starting kicker for the past three seasons, was permanently separated from the University of Michigan last month for violating the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, according to documents reviewed by The Michigan Daily. “You will be permanently separated from the University of Michigan effective December 20, 2013,” reads a Dec. 19, 2013 letter addressed to Gibbons at his Florida residence from the University’s Office of Student Conflict Resolution, which facilitates disciplinary proceedings against students. The Michigan Daily did not obtain these documents from the University. The permanent separation of Gibbons, who was a graduate student in the School of Social Work after graduating with a general studies degree, stems from an incident that was reported to have occurred on Nov. 22, 2009, according to documents. This corresponds with previous media reports that a sexual assault involving a Michigan football player occurred in the early morning hours of that day. Gibbons was a freshman and a member of the football team at the time that the conduct was alleged to have occurred.

In the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities as well as the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, the University uses the phrase “permanent separation” to refer to the expulsion of a student. The letter to Gibbons, signed by Stacy Vander Velde, associate director of OSCR, stated that he would be prohibited from taking any further courses at the University and that his student privileges would be revoked. An additional OSCR document signed by Vander Velde and dated Nov. 20, 2013, stated that it was determined by the University that a preponderance of evidence supports “a finding that the Respondent engaged in unwanted or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, committed without valid consent, and that conduct was so severe as to create a hostile, offensive, or abusive environment.” The Daily has been told that the respondent referred to in this letter is Gibbons. Complainants in this case are not identified in the documents reviewed by the Daily. Dave Ablauf, an associate athletic director and spokesman for the Athletic Department, declined to comment, noting that it was the first time it had been suggested to him that Gibbons was permanently separated. “We can’t comment on anything that involves private student matters in terms of student academic standings or University standing,” Ablauf said. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said he could not comment on Gibbons’ academic record because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Gibbons could not be immediately reached for comment.

Permanent separation is a very rare sanction in OSCR proceedings. In the latest OSCR data from the 2011-2012 academic year, there were zero permanent separations. The Statement of Students Rights and Responsibilities states that “some behavior is so harmful to the University community or so deleterious to the educational process” that it may result in expulsion, among other possible sanctions. The Daily is not aware of any criminal charges pending against Gibbons. OSCR operates independently of the criminal justice system. Investigators in the University’s Office of Institutional Equity, which reviews internal complaints of sexual assault, work with a lower standard of evidence than that of criminal prosecutors, who must prove that a defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. OIE may presume that a respondent engaged in alleged conduct if there is a “preponderance of evidence” against the individual. This standard states that a respondent is responsible if there is enough evidence to suggest a complaint is more likely true than not. If OIE investigators find a respondent to be responsible for alleged conduct, OSCR officials determine what sanctions, if any, will be leveled against the respondent. According to Vander Velde’s letter to him, Gibbons met with OSCR officials on Dec. 4, 2013, to discuss OIE’s findings. It’s unclear why sanctions were not decided in this matter until recently. Revised University policies regarding sexual misconduct may have forced officials to internally review or re-review the allegations.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

The Law Quad was covered in ice and snow on January 7, 2014.

Severe cold snap forces ‘U’ to cancel classes for the day Other campus operations to continue as scheduled By STEPHANIE SHENOUDA and MAX RADWIN Daily News Editor and Daily Staff Reporter

January 27, 2014 — For the first time since 1978, the University has canceled classes Tuesday due to extreme weather, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald confirmed Monday evening. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures will be at a high of 2 degrees, with a wind chill reaching -30 degrees and winds reaching up to 20 miles per hour. Campus buildings — including dining halls and libraries — will remain open. University transportation services will

continue operating as normal, though delays should be expected. This announcement marks the first time that the University has cancelled classes due to weather-related circumstances since Ann Arbor was hit with 19 inches of snow in 1978. University Police spokeswoman Diane Brown said University Police will be taking extra efforts to keep response times low to limit the amount of time that people spend outside in the cold. After Fitzgerald confirmed the decision, University Provost Martha Pollack, Chief Health Officer Robert Winfield and Laurita Thomas, associate vice president for human resources, sent a memo to faculty and staff encouraging flexibility and telecommuting if possible for Tuesday. “Campus operations will continue,” the memo said. “However, while staff should plan to report

as usual, we ask that supervisors be flexible and make reasonable accommodations for these extreme circumstances. Travel may be hazardous, especially on foot or by bus, and we ask that all of our colleagues remain sensitive to safety concerns. Parking and Transportation Services is increasing bus frequency to help minimize wait times.” The memo added that staff who are “unable or choose not to” travel to campus Tuesday should contact their supervisors to use vacation time or unpaid time off. Medical School Prof. Charles Koopmann, a member of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, said he feels it’s “unfortunate” that staff on main campus have to come in or be forced to take a day of vacation. However, he said he believes that the medical campus should remain open, which, according to the memo, will operate normally.

Supreme Court upholds Ann Arbor landmark Borders ban on affirmative action announces plans to liquidate Economic impact of move on city, ‘U’ still unclear By BRIENNE PRUSAK Managing News Editor

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily

Protestors march to the Supreme Court with the organization By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) in support of affirmative action on Oct. 15, 2013.

Campus and state have mixed reactions to the decision By SHOHAM GEVA and IAN DILLINGHAM Summer Managing News Editor and Summer Editor in Chief

April 22, 2014- The focus on minority enrollment and admissions practice at the University — and at colleges across the nation — intensified Tuesday in response to the Supreme Court decision to uphold the state of Michigan’s ban on affirmative action. The ban on affirmative action, Proposal 2, which was passed by the state’s electorate in 2006, was largely written in response to the University Law School’s race-conscious admissions policies after they were upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003. The proposal banned public universities in the state from considering race in their admissions and hiring practices. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald stated that since the ban has been in place since 2006, University admissions policy won’t face changes as a result of the decision. “The Supreme Court ruling today has no immediate effect on the University’s policies, which are already consistent with Pro-

posal 2,” he said. “The University overall remains absolutely committed to the goal of bringing a diverse and academically excellent group of students to this campus, and will continue to seek to achieve that goal in ways that are compliant with law.” In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who argued the case in favor of Proposal 2, said universities maintained many legal options open to them for maintaining a diverse student population. In response to questions about such options after his speech, Schuette said universities should focus the same attention and resources currently given to athletic recruiting on academic recruiting. Shanta Driver, national chair of BAMN — the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary — the plaintiffs in the case, said the University is at the center of the national debate on affirmative action. “What the University of Michigan does, and the kind of example that it sets, is absolutely determinative in terms of what other universities do,” Driver said. “For the University to find ways to not discriminate against Latino, Latina, and Black and Native American and other minority students in its admissions policies, I think that could

be a standard and an example that other universities across the nation could and should follow.” BAMN held a press conference on the steps of the Michigan Union Tuesday afternoon to discuss their frustration with the “The decision of the Court today makes clear that this Court intends to do nothing to defend the right to equality in politics, opportunity, rights, hopes and aspirations of its Latina/o, black, Native American and other minority citizens,” the organization stated in the event release. Drawing inspiration from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement following the court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling, BAMN pledged to launch a “new civil rights movement.”

July 19, 2011- The Ann Arbor based company Borders Group Inc. announced its plans to liquidate on July 18, about five months after the chain declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Starting July 22 and continuing through September, Borders is expected to close 399 stores and lay off more than 10,700 employees nationwide, according to Borders media contact Mary Davis. However, she said she couldn’t confirm exactly when the East Liberty Street location will close. Davis added the decision was “very difficult” for the company, especially since they already closed more than 200 stores after filing for bankruptcy on Feb 16. Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that he had anticipated the liquidation, particularly amid a difficult economic climate in the state, and said while the liquidation will eliminate jobs, it will also bring new opportunities to the city. “Of course I really feel bad for the people who are losing their jobs, but it won’t have major effects on the city,” he said. “In some ways, at least as far as the

downtown store is concerned, it was inevitable, and we can move forward. It’s an opportunity to bring in new businesses that will be there for awhile.” Hieftje said the closures are especially disappointing because of the historical aspect of the company in Ann Arbor, which was founded in the city 40 years ago. “This was the original location, and it’s sad to see (the headquarters and store) go,” he said. In a July 18 press release, Borders President Mike Edwards said he was saddened that his business can no longer serve as a resource for people around the nation to enjoy literature, entertainment and other forms of media. “For decades, Borders stores have been destinations within our communities, places where people have sought knowledge, entertainment, and enlightenment and connected with others who share their passion,” Edwards said. “Everyone at Borders has helped millions

of people discover new books, music, and movies, and we all take pride in the role Borders has played in our customers’ lives. I extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our dedicated employees and our loyal customers.” According to a statement from Najafi Companies, the closure comes a couple weeks after they failed to acquire Borders. “We are saddened by the news announcing the imminent liquidation of Borders, as we had hoped for a different outcome,” the statement says. “However, last week the debtor selected the liquidators’ bid over our proposed plan to keep Borders operating as a going concern, a decision that is a detriment to Borders’ employees, suppliers and customers.” University Professor Donald Grimes, an expert on Michigan’s economy, said the liquidation will have a significant effect on Ann Arbor, especially because the headquarters — and its approximately 400 employees — is located here.

Arts

6A — Thursday, May 1 ­— Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

TV REVIEW

CONCERT REVIEW

RUBY WALLAU/DAILY

2 Chainz performs at Hill Auitorium in April 2014

2 Chainz plays A Rapper gives energetic performance to fans at Hill By ADAM THEISEN Daily Arts Writer

April 11, 2014 — “Put your hands up if you believe in God,” 2 Chainz screamed into the microphone in the opening minutes of Thursday night’s show at Hill Auditorium. At least 90 percent of fans put their hands up as 2 Chainz launched into “I Do It,” one of the hardest-hitting songs on last year’s killer LP B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time. Throughout the night, the packed three-decker crowd of students at Hill pogoed and danced to every song, shouting 2 Chainz’s lyrics back at him and finishing his sentences with roof-raising energy whenever called on to do so. Dressed in mostly simple, nonflamboyant clothes, except for his titular gold chains, the 6’5” rapper dominated the crowd, shaking the place all the way up to the top deck with his incomparably charismatic brand of hip-hop. As he moved from hit song to hit song, fans got wilder and wilder. The audience was glued to 2 Chainz’s energetic stage movements all night, never staying still for more than a moment and making waves on the rollicking main floor. While 2 Chainz is now one of the most beloved and successful rappers in the game today, this superstar is no up-and-coming

young gun. 2 Chainz didn’t even have a solo record deal until he was 34 years old. Proving those who think rap is a young man’s industry wrong, 2 Chainz has lit up the scene with his success. Thursday’s show at Hill, the culmination of SpringFest, only proved 2 Chainz’s commercial clout. Throughout the night, 2 Chainz threw smash after smash at his adoring fans, playing to the first few rows and projecting himself all the way up to the nosebleeds. Practically every song has had a long run on radio within the past two years: “Bandz a Make Her Dance,” “Birthday Song,” “Feds Watching” and “No Lie” just to name a small few. Beats from superproducers like Mike Will Made It, Pharrell and DJ Mustard blasted out of the Hill’s speakers at an eardrum-shattering volume that could’ve possibly made this the loudest show in the history of Hill Auditorium. “I’m Different” and “Mercy” probably got the loudest, most shout-along crowd reaction, but with as many hits as 2 Chainz has, every song played is going to be somebody in the audience’s favorite. But what is it about 2 Chainz that makes him connect so well with fans? According to him, the answer is his transparency. “What you see is what you get,” he said backstage after the show. “The energy from the crowd is organic. People like it, and I appreciate it.” You forget about the artist-fan divide when he performs because his style is so conversational and his mindset seems so similar to

2

yours. 2 Chainz is the easiest rapper to imagine yourself wingmanning at a house party. Adding to this organic and honest image is 2 Chainz’s engaging onstage persona, he teased the audiences about the University’s basketball team, saying that he had the Wolverines going all the way and that “you fucked up my bracket.” He’s the last rapper you’d ever accuse of being pretentious. His songs cut right to the point, and he has no qualms about trying to make music that’s accepted by a wide audience. “Being consistent and working hard” is what 2 Chainz says is the key to a hit song. In just the span of a few short years, he has built up an impressive following through music that’s built on earnest, confident fun. The audience knows that with every 2 Chainz verse they’re going to get the perfect combination of quotable phrases, charismatic swagger and technical confidence. He’s created a brand based around the exact kids who went to see him at Hill — young kids who want to have a good time to hard-hitting rap music. It’s almost unheard of to see a rapper as old as 2 Chainz connect with youth culture as much as he has, but he does it at his shows night after night. In every 2 Chainz song, and at the Hill Auditorium show, you can hear a man who has traveled a long, long road to stardom. 2 Chainz knows that he got where he is now because of his fans, and now he’s committed to give back to them by recording the music they want, and performing with all he’s got

FILM REVIEW

‘12 Years’ triumphs By JAMIE BIRCOLL

prides himself on his reputation as a “slave breaker,” doling out lashings on a daily basis, raping the November 4, 2013 — Simply put, young women to fill his lust. Fass“12 Years a Slave” is bender’s portrayal of Epps will be the best of the year, compared to Ralph Fiennes’s pora triumph — a proj- A+ trayal of Nazi war criminal Amon ect of courage and in “Schindler’s List,” an 12 Years Goeth heart that is unsetevil man of no redeeming quality tling, provoking a Slave and unrelenting cruelty — much and truly stirring. It like Fiennes, Fassbender should portrays slavery in Fox Searchlight receive an Oscar nod for his work. all of its horror and The audience is subjected to mulforces the audience to examine a tiple scenes of suffering, brutality past typically shoved to the deep- and violence, and without the brief est recesses of the mind. levity of, say, a Tarantino script Based on the memoir of its pro- heavy on sarcasm, it will likely tagonist, the film stars Chiwetel become burdensome for some Ejiofor (“Salt”) in an award-caliber viewers. And yet I myself could performance as Solomon Northup, not look away from the screen. a free man, husband and father of My eyes never turned from the two, who lives out his days in hap- writhing bodies being hanged, the piness in New York — until 1841, lacerated backs and bloody shirts. when he is kidnapped and sold into It’s a testament to the greatness slavery. During his captivity, he is of the performances; to miss even moved to different owners of vary- the slightest nuance, the subtlest ing degrees of cruelty. expression is to miss something Paul Giamatti (“Turbo”), in that profound. slimy fashion he does so well, plays But it’s even more than that. Solomon’s first owner, a slave trad- As much justice as the actors er who quickly sells him to Ford owed to finding the truth in their (Benedict Cumberbatch, “Star characters, we, too, owe Solomon Trek Into Darkness”), a devout Northup and the countless others Christian that shows a sort of pity like him our undivided attention, for his slaves. He reads scripture to to finally accept that our past is his workers every Sunday and goes a dark one, to acknowledge that so far as to treat Solomon almost as Edwin Epps was as real as the man family, later protecting him from or woman in the seat next to us in his twisted overseer (Paul Dano, the theater. “Prisoners”). All in all, Ford seems Many film critics are lamentto be a good man, but does his very ing that it took an English director involvement in the practice of slav- (Steve McQueen, “Shame”) to craft ery make him evil? the film that “properly” portrays Ford eventually sells Solomon American slavery. But there is no to Edwin Epps (Michael Fass- better director than McQueen to bender, “Prometheus”), another tackle the central human condideeply religious man that uses the tion of this project: pain. All of Bible to justify his role as master, McQueen’s films have focused on contrasted to Ford’s use of scrip- the pain imposed on their proture as a means of salvation. Epps tagonists by their societies, and Daily Arts Writer

McQueen then uses that pain and suffering to explore each character’s strength of will. Despite the blood, sweat and tears throughout “12 Years a Slave,” there is something beautiful to be found. I expect this film will be taught to future film students for every aspect of what makes a great film, from Hans Zimmer’s haunting score, to the powerful performances and strong writing, all the way down to the importance of each lingering angle of the camera. It’s a fantastic film, and no amount of praise will satisfy. Make no mistake that “12 Years a Slave” will be a classic for one reason: For 133 minutes, the story of Solomon Northrup comes to life. As an audience member, you will not see a movie but a life, a real life filled with sorrow and tragedy, but also with hope and strength — a story about perseverance and healing as equally as torment. Each gazing stare from Ejiofor reveals a man breaking inside, struggling every day to fathom just why this fate has befallen him. And yet, even as he burns what is likely his last hope for rescue (a letter home), as those embers slowly smolder and fade into the black night, Northup’s will to endure, to survive, to live never falters. And at last, when the credits roll, when you have dried your eyes and left the darkness of the theater, you will recognize that what you have seen is poetry as much as it is biography. You will turn to your friends or family and you will discuss what you have just witnessed, and you will be haunted by every crack of the whip as much as you will be moved by the mounting crescendo of each spiritual, and you will realize that you feel alive, so very alive.

AMC

After five seasons, all bad things come to an end

‘Breaking Bad’ ends AMC series comes to an exhilarating conclusion By KAYLA UPADHYAYA Managing Arts Editor

October 3, 2013­— It should go without saying that the following discussion of the “Breaking A Bad” finale will contain infor- Breaking Bad mation as to Season Finale what happened in the “Break- AMC ing Bad” finale, but people tend to be particularly sensitive about spoiling with this show, so this is your very fair, explicit spoiler warning. “All bad things must come to an end,” declared the AMC promos for “Breaking Bad” ’s “Felina.” And for the first time in a while, we got a series finale that really did feel like the end. After two weeks of episodes packed with tension and horror, “Felina” plays out much more quietly, replacing the breakneck speed and instability that defines the whole series with an almost dreamlike fluidity. In the opening scene, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) — stuck in a stolen car covered in snow as red-and-blues swirl around him in blind pursuit — calls, earnestly and for the first time, upon a higher power to take him home. Keys magically fall into his lap, and everything that follows in the extended episode has a fantastical, unreal haze covering it that so starkly contrasts the slashing realness of all that precedes it. Walt haunts scenes perfectly framed by Vince Gilligan’s directorial hand. Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia (Laura Fraser) don’t notice him sitting just feet away in their usual meeting place. After Marie (Betsy Brandt) calls Skyler (Anna Gunn) to warn her Walt’s back in town and probably coming for her, the camera shifts to reveal he’s already there, hovering. In a perfect example of how “Bad” uses sound mixing and other techniques to set tone, evoke emotion and even provide narrative to an extent no other show has accomplished, Walt lurks in the shadows of Elliot and Gretchen’s (Adam Godley and Jessica Hecht) home, the silence and shadows more threatening than Elliot’s tiny knife could ever confront. It’s a marked change of pace from the rest of the whiplashinducing final season, and the mostly unsettling series reaches a surprisingly settled conclusion. “Felina” ’s standout moment comes not from its most violent outbursts, but from a quiet confession from Walt to Skyler. “I did it for me,” he cuts her off as she tells him to stop giving her bullshit about doing it for the family. “I was good at it. And I was really … I was alive.” Most of us knew Walt’s motivations were never about others (except

for the contingency of the fewbut-loud Team Walt soldiers insisting he was a Family Man who lost his way, a victim of uncontrollable circumstances — they’re, hopefully, eating their words and then some). But to hear Heisenberg himself spell it out and show his true baby-blue colors — in what’s possibly the only moment of pure honesty from the character since season one — satisfies more than anything else in “Felina.” Gunn (who gives off some serious Carmela Soprano vibes with her physicality — worn but resolved — in the scene) proves just how worthy she is of the little golden statue she won a week earlier, capturing Skyler’s surprise in a single look. “Breaking Bad” has always been immensely punitive, and while not a religious show, it often possesses an Old Testament view of consequences and justice. “Felina” doles out justice with machine gun robots and Stevia packets. Walt built the legend of Heisenberg on material wealth, but as he learns in “Ozymandias,” “Granite State” and “Felina,” money can be stolen and empires can crumble. With almost everything stripped away from him, Walt sets out on a direct path toward justice, driven by the one thing he has left, the one thing that reignites Heisenberg mode: his pride. Walt’s determined path in “Felina” is not wholly redemptive, but there is definitely a sense that what’s supposed to happen, well, happens. Lydia dies at the hands of the the Chekhovian ricin. The neo-Nazis get what they deserve in a Tarantino-esque shootout that allows for one last Heisenberg-helmed tech trick. The most tit-for-tat deliberation comes when Jesse (Aaron Paul) kills Todd in a grotesque scene that mirrors Walt’s strangling of Krazy 8 back in season one. This season in particular has been so devastating, so painful for the characters we care about: Hank and Marie meet truly tragic endings, and both halves of the season overflow with blood and tears (two of the periodic symbols that make up the anagram “Fe-li-na”: Iron. Lithium. Sodium. Blood. Meth. Tears. Gilligan is a genius/bastard.). The amount of time I’ve spent worrying about Jesse Pinkman over the past five years baffles even me. I know he’s not a real person and that even if he were a real person our lives would almost certainly never intersect, and yet Jesse’s fate has always been a top concern of mine. He’s “Bad” ’s foremost tragic character for most of the series, but he finds freedom at last in “Felina.” Jesse’s defining character moment — when he shoots Gale at the end of season three — sneaks back in an eerily similar scene, but this time his gun points at Walt. The wounded Heisenberg tells him to pull the trigger, but Jesse’s done taking kill orders from the man, done being his puppet.

Perhaps because of how accustomed I became to Gilligan — and every last actor on this damn show — tearing relentlessly at my heartstrings, I feel oddly uneasy about how neatly “Bad” wraps up. It’s not a happy ending by any means. It’s not even a just one. In a perfect, just world, Hank would live and bring down the bad guys (or, Marie would exact revenge herself … and then find peace, but mostly I just wanted Marie to poison everyone). Brock would have a mother. Walter Jr. would get unlimited breakfast food for life. In a just world, Walt wouldn’t have had the final say or the power to write his own fate. His belief that the world owes him something just because of who he is, the belief that he’s truly peerless in terms of his intelligence and power, informs all of his actions. The writers don’t necessarily sympathize with Walt in the final chapter, but they do grant him that same control he used to hurt others time and time again. “Felina” isn’t Walt’s apology or his quest for grace; it’s just acceptance. He’s a ghost from the start. Despite his cancer, Walt always fancied himself a god, able to outsmart his enemies at every turn. Or, more accurately, thinking he can outsmart them: The show’s best moments are when he underestimates those in his way and overvalues his own abilities — the most extreme case being when he thinks he can spare Hank’s life in “Ozymandias.” In “Felina,” Walt still has his noxious pride, but that blinding sense of immortality evaporates. Now that we have all of “Breaking Bad” ’s pieces in front of us, it’s easier to point to the series’s highlights. “Phoenix” haunts me to this day. “Fly” unfolds like a poem, and proved the series could shine even when the intensity wasn’t turned up to explosive levels. “Ozymandias” will go down as one of the best hours of television in our lifetime. “Breaking Bad” has several cornerstone episodes, but “Felina” isn’t one of them. It’s satisfying, that’s for sure. And it’s one of the better series finales I’ve seen. But the same reason it works so well is the reason I walked away from the end of “Breaking Bad” a little disenchanted. For a series about the moral complexity of humans, the conclusion is strikingly well defined. Walt receives a death sentence in the pilot, and so in the end, he dies. It’s a strangely beautiful (and poetic) end for a man who embodied so many ugly things. But that’s what “Breaking Bad” has always been: a beautiful show about the wicked. It’s full of darkness and evil, all set against a colorful backdrop of sunny-bright Albuquerque. It made me care about junkies, drug dealers, shoplifters and assholes. I already miss it, but I also know we’ll be talking about it for years to come. In that way, I guess Heisenberg got what he wanted after all: an indelible legacy.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014 — 7

A dizzying, brilliant, mesmerizing death By ZACH HELFAND Daily Sports Editor

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ovember 30, 2013 — If it was a death, it was a mesmerizing death. It was an end fitting for a game that somehow made everyone believe again. Brady Hoke went for it. He didn’t have to, and he even had a chance to change his mind. Michigan lined up for a twopoint conversion to win the game. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called a timeout. Hoke polled his seniors in the huddle. They all said to go for it. It was a mesmerizing, brilliant death, but that doesn’t ease the pain, not for Devin Gardner, who was so despondent after the 42-41 loss to Ohio State, with his helmet pulled low over his face, that he needed Kevin Koger to escort him as he meandered in a daze off the field, and then sobbed so loudly it echoed down Michigan’s tunnel. His pain was raw and endearing and real. It didn’t ease the pain for Hoke, whose eyes were as red as the thousands of Buckeye fans in the Big House. They had come expecting a rout, snatching tickets from Michigan fans who had long ago abandoned hope. It didn’t ease the pain for Tay-

lor Lewan, the fifth-year senior offensive tackle, who nearly choked up during his press conference. “I love every single one of these guys,” said Lewan, whose last play at Michigan Stadium was the most wrenching. His voiced wavered. He turned to Jake Ryan and tapped Ryan’s arm with his fist. “He’s my best friend.” Hoke went for it, because “we wanted to go win the football game,” he said, and good for him. The walls have been closing in during this nightmare of a month. The team has underperformed — regressed even — and some have called for Hoke’s job, or the job of his offensive coordinator or that of his offensive line coach. Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon had to issue a statement of support for Hoke on Wednesday. The star recruit chose the other team and another said he might reconsider Michigan. Why? He’s worried about Hoke’s job. But Hoke went for it. It was a rub route, the same one they practiced this week. Gardner in the shotgun, with Devin Funchess, Jeremy Gallon and Drew Dileo stacked to his right. Funchess ran a post, Gallon an out. It was supposed to create space for Dileo, the little,

ICE HOCKEY

‘The Streak’ ends By MICHAEL LAURILA Daily Sports Editor

March 24, 2013 — DETROIT — When the Michigan hockey team squared off against No. 9 Notre Dame in the CCHA Championship on Sunday, 22 years of history were on the line. The Wolverines would either win and make a 23rd-consecutive NCAA Tournament, or lose and go home. And the CCHA’s final Championship game at Joe Louis Arena didn’t disappoint. It was either tied or a one-goal game until the final minute. But Michigan (11-15-3 CCHA, 18-18-3 overall) couldn’t overcome the Fighting Irish’s constant pressure and its own inability to get shots on net, falling 3-1. For the first time since 1990, the Wolverines will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines started Sunday’s game like they ended a day earlier, when they bombarded No. 3 Miami (Ohio), 6-2, by dominating the play and controlling the puck in Notre Dame territory. But after the first shift was over, the Wolverines rarely controlled the puck again. The Fighting Irish (17-8-3, 24-12-3) used a strong forecheck to keep the play deep in Michigan’s zone, and dominated the first period with 18 shots compared to the Wolverines’ 6 — a trend that would plague them all game. Freshman goaltender Steve Racine bailed out the Michigan defensemen on more than one occasion, and just when it seemed like Notre Dame might finally get on the board during a late power play, the game decided to take a different path. The Wolverines got a steal at their own blue line, going on a 3-on-2 rush. After freshman defenseman Jacob Trouba, senior forward Kevin Lynch and sophomore forward Derek DeBlois bounced the puck around the crease, DeBlois knocked it home. This was the second-straight game that Michigan opened up the game’s scoring with a shorthanded goal. Despite being outplayed and outhustled for almost the entirety of the first 20 minutes, the Wolverines managed to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. “We knew we could play better than we played in the first and we escaped the first period

and we just had to play better in the second,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “I thought penalties really kept us on our heels in the second period, but we were fine.” The momentum wasn’t enough, though. The combination of Notre Dame’s constant offensive pressure and Michigan’s inability to stay out of the penalty box — it spent six of the period’s 20 minutes in the box — allowed the Fighting Irish to even up the score at one on an Anders Lee goal, who has had a lot of success against the Wolverines this year. After two periods, the Fighting Irish had tallied an impressive 28 shots, compared to Michigan’s 10. Notre Dame led the CCHA in scoring with 3.21 goals per game this season, and the constant peppering of Racine showed why. The Fighting Irish finished the game with 33 shots on net, which is the highest total the Wolverines have given up throughout their tournament run. “They had a good cycle going against us (on offense),” said senior defenseman Lee Moffie. “They’re a physical team and they’re a big team, and they really pushed us in our zone and that was the big issue. We were having a hard time d’ing up on them and stopping their cycle.” But 21 seconds into the third period, the Wolverines’ luck ran out. Racine let a rebound get away from him, and Notre Dame’s T.J. Tynan buried it, giving the Fighting Irish a one-goal advantage. With 1:07 left, Racine headed toward the bench for a six-onfive, and Notre Dame turned a turnover into an easy empty-net goal to secure the victory. “I thought our team would bounce back in the third and they tried,” Berenson said. “Goals were precious tonight and you knew there wouldn’t be many of them, and giving up that early (third-period) goal was a tough one and we just couldn’t get that back.” The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is Sunday night, and though Michigan finished the season with an impressive ninegame unbeaten streak, the loss to Notre Dame all but eliminated it from one of the few at-large bids. Now, on Sunday, the Wolverines Cinderella run through an impressive CCHA has ended.

The Wolverines’ Cinderella run through an impressive CCHA has ended.

ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily

Devin Funchess and the Michigan football team suffered a one-point loss to Ohio State on a missed two-point conversion in the final minute.

sure-handed receiver who always seems to be forgotten until the biggest moments. Dileo would surely make the catch, because

he always does. But Tyvis Powell jumped the route. Dileo never had a chance. “I threw an interception to

lose the game,” said Gardner, who put his chin on his fist in his press conference. He hardly spoke above a mumble. “There’s not really much else I can say.” After the pass, Gardner crumpled to the ground, spent. He stayed there, his arms and legs extended out. That’s what you’ll remember, because that’s the image that will last. This one hurts just like the loss last year, maybe even more. A win wouldn’t have cured the offensive line or erased any losses. But it would’ve helped a lot. It would’ve erased some of the sting from a disappointing season. It would’ve put to rest any coaching rumors. So, yes, you’ll remember Gardner on the ground, because that’s what matters, but don’t forget the rest. Don’t forget how it made you believe, and Hoke too. It was a painful end, but Michigan lived it well. Maybe you allowed yourself to think this will be a game after all, after the screen to Gallon on the first drive. The fight, Hoke running out to separate his players, the punches and the double middle fingers made it personal. Hoke went for it because he wanted it as bad as his players. He wanted it as bad as Gardner, who threw a touchdown pass to Dileo down 14 in the fourth quar-

ter. Afterward, Gardner tried to run off the field, limping so badly he nearly fell over on the sideline. Taylor Lewan came off limping after that play too, and bloody again. Most of these players are playing through injury because they don’t care how many losses they have. They just want to beat Ohio State. By the time Carlos Hyde fumbled, and the clock showed plenty of time, and Gardner was fighting with everything he had left and the breaks started turning Michigan’s way, a ripple went through the stadium. Then Jake Butt scored and then Funchess, and then the timeout and it seemed like destiny. It was a hell of a death, but it was a hell of a game too, right up until the end. For the best three hours of the year, 7-4 Michigan was on top of the world. So Hoke went for it. It was ballsy, and it was risky, and it didn’t work out. But that’s what you do when what you want is right there to take. You go for it. You go for it every damn time. Helfand can be reached at zhelfand@umich.edu and on Twitter @zhelfand.

History won’t care Michigan wasn’t supposed to win this game By TIM ROHAN Daily Sports Editor

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eptember 10, 2011 — Onehundred fourteen thousand, eight hundred and four pairs of eyes slowly turned toward Jeremy Gallon. They widened when they realized no Notre Dame jerseys were in the picture they’ll remember forever. “Oh my god. Where did he come from?” said one man standing in the South end zone. From his vantage point, Denard Robinson just threw a pass to no one in particular down the right sideline. Gallon blended in with his teammates on the sideline, until a blue blur came streaking out of nowhere. Just like Michigan had. The crowd was roaring, woken up from its slumber by a team that needed waking itself. Every maize pom-pom beat the air in unison. The event — the first night game ever, the largest crowd ever, the anticipation building because it seemed everyone who had ever called Ann Arbor home was back in town this weekend — felt larger than life. Under the lights. And the game was outshining the event. Now Gallon was wide open, running free. But Robinson and Gallon had been working on this play all summer. Down by three points. Thirty seconds left. Ball on the 20-yard line. Gallon runs the slow wheel route, leaking out to the sideline and up the field. If the play is run perfectly, he could surprise everyone. This time, the only defender that could’ve disrupted everything ran to cover Roy Roundtree, who was streaking across the field. Eight seconds were left on the clock when Gallon ended his sprint at the 16-yard line. Michigan was in field-goal range. Brady Hoke wanted to go for the win. Why the hell not? This game, by all possible logical explanations, should have ended horribly wrong for the Michigan Wolverines. Here was a chance to get Hoke a signature win, add a chapter to a rivalry. One hundred thousand-plus people would never forget this if Hoke did it right. And Notre Dame was handing him the game. Your mind tells you that 400plus yards of offense should result in more than a 24-7 lead by the fourth quarter, and that Notre Dame was by far the better team

at that point — any time quarterback Tommy Rees even looked at Michael Floyd is was a first down and running backs Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray seemed to have a bet as to who could shake more would-be tacklers by the end of the night — but all that talent was wasted by four turnovers. In your heart, there is no explanation for why Denard Robinson had the ball on the 16-yard line with eight seconds left with a chance to win. It was the kind of game you don’t want to explain, but just consume, like a fine meal. With a defensive lineman hugging his ankles, Robinson isn’t supposed to throw a frozen rope to Junior Hemingway, leading him perfectly for a 77-yard gain in the third quarter. Three plays later, the ball isn’t supposed to pop out of Stephen Hopkins’ hands — as he’s about to be stopped short of a touchdown — and direct itself neatly into Robinson’s care for an easy score. 24-14. Gallon, perhaps the shortest player on the field at 5-foot-8, isn’t supposed to beat anyone on a fade route in the endzone. 24-21. This night’s new logic says otherwise. The ball isn’t supposed to slip out of Rees’s hand as he follows through on the potential nailin-the-coffin touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Michigan recovered. The Wolverines had no business stopping Wood on three third down-and-short situations in the second half. But they did. Inexplicably, Michigan had a chance — after all of Michael Floyd’s 112 first-half yards, after not getting any pressure on Rees, after Robinson played so erratically in the first half. By the end, Robinson had 446 total yards, 98.7 percent of Michigan’s offense. But he had help. History keeps the key characters in games like these — Brandin Hawthorne and Jordan Kovacs’s third-down heroics, J.T. Floyd’s goal line interception, Hemingway’s two jump-ball catches. Then there was Gallon, who had six career catches before this night. And don’t forget the would-be hero, Vincent Smith, who weaved in and out of several Irishmen, scoring a 21-yard screen pass for the go-ahead touchdown with a little more than two minutes left. 28-24. “I mean, everybody thought the game was — nobody knew what was going on,” said Robinson, just stopping short of saying he thought the game was over

MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily

Denard Robinson threw the game-winning touchdown under the lights.

when Smith scored. “Was there still time on the clock? Like I said before, until (it’s) ‘zero, zero’ on the clock, that’s the only time the game is over.” But 80 yards in 30 seconds? Come on. Twelve hours earlier ESPN analyst Lee Corso put on the Michigan helmet, striking Desmond Howard’s Heisman pose, picking the Wolverines to win. The city was buzzing, the stadium transformed into the late-night party Dave Brandon planned. Howard was honored before the game. Images flickered across the screen of all of the memories he made. History was blending with the current team’s exciting future. This first night game was manufactured by Brandon to mean something, and Hoke’s team didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in the first half. So with eight seconds left, Hoke decided to go for it. He had two timeouts and eight seconds to work with. “We were at least going to give it a shot to the endzone,” Hoke said. “Why not go for the win? I mean, you play to win.” When Robinson lofted the ball high toward Roundtree, who was in single coverage, it didn’t matter how Michigan had got there. No one would remember Robinson’s shaky start — only his high spirals to Gallon and Roundtree, floating against the Big House lights. Notre Dame’s miscues would be a footnote. A detail. Not the story. Kovacs. Floyd. Hawthorne. Hemingway. Smith. Gallon. Robinson. And soon to be Roundtree.

He caught the ball, in the corner of the endzone, where every Michigan receiver should dream of catching a game-winning pass. An unadulterated joy released into the night. Three straight last-minute wins over Notre Dame? On last-second passes? How improbable. Yet, how fitting on this night. Think about the poor souls that left with Michigan down 17 points. Or with four minutes left, when Robinson threw an interception in the endzone. Or poor Gary Gray, the Notre Dame cornerback who had the best view in the Big House for Roundtree’s and Gallon’s touchdowns. The record crowd will have the indelible images of a bunch of college kids celebrating with 100,000 of their closest friends and Robinson skipping up and down the sidelines before running to that corner of the Big House where he likes to celebrate. As “The Victors” boomed into the night sky, one man who can now say he witnessed it all turned to a group of students he had never met and offered a bit of wisdom: “I’m an old (expletive) man, and I’ve been to a lot of (expletive) games in my time, and that was the second-best game I’ve ever seen. “Savor this moment.” The details become fuzzy, but the heroes and the result? If you were there, under the lights, you’ll never forget. —Rohan can’t believe Michigan pulled off the same deal on Notre Dame three years in a row. He can be reached at trohan@umich.edu. Or follow him on Twitter @TimRohan.

Sports

8 — Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The redemption song of Jordan Morgan By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Editor

April 7, 2013 — ATLANTA — Let’s crunch this remarkable, ridiculous and insane season down into one moment. Let’s condense it, split away the narratives and plays, and find the core and the heart of why this Michigan men’s basketball team is playing for a national championship on Monday night. It comes in one of the auxiliary locker rooms in the underbelly of the Georgia Dome, away from the court and hidden from the cameras. Just like they do after every win, the Wolverines elect a player to lead them in “The Victors.” It’s selected by the players, not the coaches or anyone else. On Saturday, after Michigan’s 61-56 win over Syracuse, the man leading the song played five minutes, didn’t corral a single rebound and scored just three points. Seven other Wolverines scored more than he did, and he was the only player who saw action that didn’t record a rebound. What Jordan Morgan did have was a pair of charges and a dunk that sent the Wolverines to their first National Championship game since 1993. For a player who started 27 games this year, but played a combined total of one minute in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, it was a night of redemption. With 19 seconds left and Michigan clinging to a two point lead, Morgan jumped from one side of the key to the other, throwing his body in the path of Syracuse guard Brandon Triche, who was barreling down the lane, trying to tie the game. The play sealed the win. After the game, the players said the charge would go down as the biggest offensive foul in

VOLLEYBALL

the history of Michigan basketball. The Wolverines have the National Player of the Year and more future NBA talent than almost any other team in the country, but take away the highlights and the hype, and a charge — the act of being voluntarily run over — was celebrated more than any other play. “That’s the definition of our team, from a guy who was starting and was first team All-Defense, to not playing one minute — (Morgan) just stayed with it,” said senior captain Josh Bartelstein. “He knew he was going to get his moment, and when you get your chance, you make the most of it.” Added redshirt sophomore Jon Horford: “I don’t know if the fans understand that was ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily the biggest play of the game.” Eighteen seconds later, junior Jordan Morgan took a charge to get Michigan to the National Championship. forward Tim Hardaway Jr. pissed off, frustrated and angry? season than he did combined almost fell out of bounds trying Then Sunday, Morgan stayed in the first four games of the to collect a rebound. The ball in his role as the defensive speNCAA Tournament. got to Morgan, who was around cialist that doesn’t fill the stat “Three weeks ago, we told midcourt. He needed only one sheet. He didn’t try to force his Jordan that if we win this whole dribble before taking off, jamgame, didn’t try to impress the thing, you are going to have a ming Michigan’s national title coaches or fans or his teammoment that’s going to be the berth in with two hands. mates with anything other than reason we win,” Bartelstein This is someone who didn’t his own game. said. “Sure enough, his moment play a single minute in MichiHe did what Jordan Morgan came tonight. He did something gan’s win over Virginia Comdoes: he slid over, planted his that will make him remembered monwealth in the second feet and got run over. for the rest of his life by Michiround of the tournament. He “That’s how you get to Mongan fans. Everyone was happier was visibly frustrated after the day night,” said Michigan assisfor him than for anyone else. game, visibly frustrated about tant coach Bacari Alexander. That’s our team.” having to take a backseat to the “For Jordan Morgan to have the That’s what makes this Michemergence of freshman forward adversity that he experienced igan team different. It’s partially Mitch McGary. He was on the and then to turn around and the talent and it’s partially the Big Ten All-Defense Team and have the type of huge defensive coaching staff, but it’s also a still wasn’t seeing the court. stops in a game on a stage that’s togetherness and mindset that But the next day, and the day so big — it’s redemption for that allows for a forgotten big man to after that, and two weeks after young man.” make the most important play in that, Morgan preached that he When Morgan was taken out the most important game of the was doing whatever he could of the starting lineup for good, Wolverines season. to help the team, whether that back before the first game of That might not happen with meant getting playing time or the Tournament, nobody acted another program, but it hapnot. like his season was done, even pened with Michigan, who now It was hard to completely buy though he played more minutes sits 40 minutes away from a it. How could he not have been in the first game of the Big Ten national championship.

Volleyball reaches first Final Four By GREG GARNO Daily Sports Writer

December 9, 2012 — This wasn’t supposed to be the year. This wasn’t supposed to be the season the Michigan volleyball team advanced to its first Final Four in program history. With seven freshmen on their roster, the Wolverines weren’t supposed to be this successful against ranked teams. But after winning a five-set thriller against Tennessee, knocking off No. 9 Louisville and beating in-state rival Michigan State, Michigan capitalized on its momentum to topple No. 2 Stanford in four sets, 20-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-20, in Berkeley, Calif. on Saturday night to advance to Louisville, Ky. for its first-ever NCAA Tournament Final Four appearance. Michigan moves on to play Texas on Thursday. The Cardinal, a dominant Pac12 team that has seen action in the postseason every year in its history, has had the misfortune of facing the Wolverines in three of the last four years and was favored to win each time. But Michigan has upset Stanford all three times. “I’m just very proud of our team,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “The word ‘team’ is really the key. I think this group has really come together in the past month and a half and become one of the best teams I’ve ever been a part of.” An offense normally led by two hitters was not expected to have four step up, but Michigan finished with four hitters in doubledigit kills. From the beginning of the first set, it appeared as if Stanford was finally ready for Michigan, winning, 25-20. But the Wolverines came back. Despite the Cardinal’s two errors in the second set, Michigan

continued to score, winding up for kill after kill. The Wolverines coasted through the remainder of the second set, even as Stanford fought them off. “We’re a very balanced team and that’s something we pride ourselves on,” Cross said. “It was really about attacking the quick tempo and then spreading out and giving our outsides an open space to hit.” Following back-and-forth play from both teams in the third set, Michigan opened up a lead on a 6-1 run. The Wolverines cruised through the remainder of the set, riding a wave of momentum into the fourth. Leading 15-13 in the fourth set, Michigan needed one final run to crush any thought of a comeback. The Wolverines did so with a 4-0 run, which ultimately allowed them to cruise to a match point, which Erwin finished off with an emphatic kill. The Wolverines, the team that wasn’t predicted to be celebrating, celebrated. They smiled as they had all season, as even the coaches knew they had accomplished something special. It’s likely Michigan, a team without a real star, will once again be underdogs when it travels to Louisville to face the Longhorns. But that underdog mindset doesn’t exist anymore. “It doesn’t matter because we’re such a great team,” Erwin said. “We don’t need our names out there because no matter what teams throw at us, 14 people are coming at them.” They’ve done it to No. 9 Louisville and No. 2 Stanford, so why not again? “We might not be the biggest names or the highest profile, but I think this a team that is playing as well as anybody in the country right now,” Rosen said. “And I’m excited about that.”

Men’s gymnastics repeats Men’s swim wins national title Mikulak wins MEN’S SWIMMING

By RAJAT KHARE Daily Sports Writer

March 31, 2013 — With the NCAA title finally in hand, it was time for Michigan head coach Mike Bottom to have some fun of his own. Adorned in a plaid maize-and-blue shirt, a blue tie emblazoned with Wolverines and dark brown pants, Bottom leaped off the starting blocks and into the diving pool, joining the celebration of the newly crowned Michigan men’s swimming team. “It’s definitely time to celebrate,” Bottom said. “This team has worked hard all year at every meet and has swam fast since they got off on the block. They swam fast all throughout the season, and they got here and kept swimming fast.” The meet spanned from Thursday to Saturday at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis – the exact location the Wolverines won their last title in 1995. “We have a lot of great alumni that have sent me pictures of them swimming around in that pool,” Bottom said, with a chuckle, in his press conference. “And we put some of those pictures up and had some of them come in and talk to us about that feeling.” With preparation, poise and perhaps a little luck, the Wolverines were ready to make their run at a title. The quartet of sophomore Bruno Ortiz, graduate student Zachary Turke, and seniors Sean Fletcher and Miguel Ortiz got Michigan its first points of the meet, placing third in the 200yard freestyle relay. The Wolverines would finish the night with another third-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay event, as the quartet of Miguel Ortiz, sophomore Richard Funk, Fletcher, and Bruno Ortiz clocked in at 3:04.73, setting a school record. Michigan’s only win of the day came by way of junior Connor Jaeger in the 500-yard freestyle, who became the fifth Wolverine ever to win the event. Jaeger had won the event outright for Michigan throughout the season, usu-

ally leading the race right from the start. His record looked to be in danger though, as Texas’ Michael McBroom wouldn’t allow Jaeger any separation. At the 150-yard mark, Jaeger finally made his move, holding off McBroom for the event win, helping Michigan take the day one lead with 153 points. The second day followed a similar script, with the Wolverines’ relay teams making headlines. In the first event final of the night, the quartet of Miguel Ortiz, Bruno Ortiz, Fletcher and Turke took first-place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:22.27, setting new NCAA, U.S. Open, NCAA Championship and school records. The win also marked the first time a Michigan relay team has ever won a national title in the NCAA Championship’s 76-year history. “We started out with one recruiting class that we were scrambling with because we came in late,” Bottom said at his press conference. “And these are the guys, you know, we had four of them on that relay that broke the national record and it’s awesome to see.” The Wolverines also received significant contributions from Fletcher and Funk, both placing third in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke, respectively. With a secondplace finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the team of junior Michael Wynalda, Jaeger, freshman Anders Nielsen and redshirt junior Hassaan Khalik helped Michigan end the night in first place with 336 points. “We didn’t have a real confidence that we would win this,” Bottom said to ESPN on March 30. “By the second day, I looked at our team and I said, ‘Alright, we’ve gotten in the top three, now what do you want to do?’ They looked at me like I was crazy. They looked at me and

said, ‘We came here to win.’ ” And with Jaeger’s first-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Michigan inched ever closer to a national championship. With the event win, Jaeger became the first swimmer for Michigan to win two individual events since Tyler Clary – a gold medalist in this summer’s Olympics – accomplished the feat in 2009. And surely enough, the Wolverines rounded out the event with a second-place finish in yet another relay. With a time of 2:50.18, Miguel Ortiz, Turke, Fletcher and Bruno Ortiz ensured Michigan 34 points and a National Championship. “We never took our eyes off the big show, but we went into every meet and we wanted to win, and we swam fast all year: swam fast in dual meets, swam fast in conference and we kept getting better,” Jaeger said. “We kept believing, we kept following the program we have set, and this is a team fueled by passion. ... Passion for Michigan.” The title marks the 12th in the history of Michigan swimming and diving, but perhaps more importantly, its recent triumph breaks a tie between the Wolverines and Buckeyes for the most all-time championships. And to top it all off, coach Bottom was named Coach of the Year at the culmination of the meet. At the end, with his players still celebrating in the pool, Bottom sat alone on the side of the pool, finally taking it all in. The Wolverines finished the season with an 8-0 overall and 6-0 Big Ten record, but Bottom said the team needed to push on for Big Ten Championships. When Michigan won its third straight Big Ten Championship, Bottom said the team needed to keep swimming fast for NCAAs. But now, with a NCAA title under his belt, Bottom is finally ready to celebrate.

“They looked at me and said, ‘We came here to win.’ ”

all-around championship By ALEX TAYLOR Daily Sports Writer

April 11, 2014 — The word ‘perfect’ is almost never mentioned in gymnastics, a sport that adheres countless deductions to the smallest of errors, but the Michigan men’s gymnastics team’s performance Friday night came pretty darn close. After finishing the regular season undefeated and then winning the Big Ten championship, the second-ranked Wolverines wrapped up their perfect season by winning the National Championship with a score of 445.050. Competing at home in the Crisler Center, Michigan edged out second place Oklahoma and third place Stanford to reach the pinnacle of collegiate gymnastics for a second straight year. The Wolverines earned the first repeat national championship in school history since the Trampoline program did so in 1969-1970. Friday also marked the third championship in five years for Michigan, and its sixth all time. “It just doesn’t get any better than winning it at home,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “And this is my fourth one, and they are all great, but winning it in front of a Michigan crowd in Crisler Center. And then it being a repeat, it just makes it all the sweeter. I couldn’t ask for anything more.” In addition to winning backto-back team championships, senior Sam Mikulak also took home back-to-back all-around titles, with a total score of 91.10. Mikulak had the highest score in three out of the six events on the night, highlighted by his performances on parallel bars and floor exercise. His individual title, the sixth

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Sam Mikulak helped Michigan win its second straight national championship.

individual championship of his career, leaves him only two short of holding the most individual championships in NCAA history ahead of Saturday’s competition. Though starting the competition on one of the hardest events — pommel horse — the Wolverines took the early lead and never looked back. Mikulak paced Michigan with a score of 15.600 in the event — good enough to tie for first. Michigan also got a pair of 14.950s from junior Nick Hunter and senior Matt Freeman on its way to a total score of 75.100. “Pommel horse is the most difficult event to perform on,” Golder said. “But I have a lot of confidence in this team. That’s actually our most consistent event, and that’s very rare. So if you go out and start on pommel horse and hit like we did, it takes the pressure off.” Added Mikulak: “We have a very confident pommel horse team, and we wanted to get that one out of the way, and we did it with a bang. And that’s just the way you want to start the National Championship.” On its third rotation of the night, vault, Michigan made uncharacteristic errors that seemingly opened the door for competitors to get back into contention. But the Wolverines slammed that door shut on the next rotation, parallel bars.

“It just doesn’t get any better than winning it at home.”

Mikulak once again led Michigan with a score of 16.050 – only .050 less than the NCAA record, set by Mikulak himself two weeks ago at the Big Ten Championships. Graduate student Syque Caesar and Hunter, with scores of 15.200 and 15.050, respectively, also contributed to the overall score of 75.95 – the highest of any team competing. “You know you’re going to have adversity, and we talked about this quite a bit, and you just have to handle everything,” Golder said. “We had that fall on vault and the rest of the guys stepped up and we moved to the next event (parallel bars), and we hit a grand slam and a home-run.” The Wolverines sealed the championship with perhaps their best performance of the night in the sixth and final rotation on floor exercise. Junior Hub Humphrey, participating in his first event of the night, set the tone for Michigan with a score of 15.15. Junior Stacey Ervin, competing despite a torn bicep, topped Humphrey’s routine with a score of 15.30. But Ervin, too, was upstaged, as Mikulak’s score of 16.05 was the highest on the night on floor exercise by .50 points. “We are very consistent on floor and once we got three hits out of the way, our two big guys, Stacey and Sam, finishing off the meet, we knew it,” Caesar said. “Once Stacey hit, we knew we had it. It just made it all that much better when Sam stuck the dismount, and we all went ballistic.”

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Sports

Thursday, May 1 — Sunday, May 4, 2014 — 9

‘M’ drops title game to Louisville By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor

April 8, 2013 — ATLANTA — For the third time in their lives, the members of the Fab Five had to look on in despair as another team sealed a National Championship from the free-throw line. After the Michigan men’s basketball team dominated most of the first half, Louisville stormed back in the final minutes of the opening stanza to capture the game’s momentum. The Cardinals never relinquished it, winning the 2012-13 National Championship, 82-76. “Sometimes you’d rather lose by 10 or 15 than four or five because you’re so close,” said junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. “This is definitely the best game that I played in. You’re in the National Championship and you can’t really beat it. I’d trade every game before this just to get this game back. “It hurts, it really hurts.” Louisville (14-4 Big East, 35-5 overall) spent much of the second half attempting to pull away, only for Michigan to continually fight back. But the Wolverines could never quite get over the hump after leading for more than 19 of the game’s opening 20 minutes. After completing a monstrous alley-oop to freshman forward Glenn Robinson III to cut the deficit to three — sending Michigan fans into a frenzy — sophomore point guard Trey Burke appeared to cleanly block a Peyton Siva layup attempt. Burke was whistled for a foul, changing the tide of the game, as Siva hit two ensuing free throws. “I guess the ref thought it was a foul,” Burke said. “I thought I had all ball and timed it up pretty good. Unfortunately, you know, it didn’t go that way. “I think that was a turning point. … It could have been momentum. If it was a no-call, we could’ve gotten possession. We can’t go back on that now. It was a foul.”

With under a minute left, Michigan forced a miss but after corralling the rebound, freshman guard Caris LeVert stepped out of bounds with 52 seconds remaining. Louisville was eventually sent to the free-throw line, where it iced the game. “We fought for 40 minutes,” Burke said. “There was never a point in time that we gave up. … They were the better team today.” Burke sat for much of the first half and finished the game with 24 points, but no other Michigan player — aside from Albrecht’s magnificent first half — could string together any offensive output. Louisville’s stars, meanwhile, shined when it mattered most. Siva scored 18 points, and forward Gorgui Dieng registered eight points and eight boards, while neutralizing freshman forward Mitch McGary.

Burke got off to a hot start, scoring Michigan’s first seven points, to give the Wolverines a 7-3 lead, but two early fouls demoted him to the bench for the half’s final 15 minutes. With the Fab Five looking on from the stands, Beilein played all five of his freshmen on the court together for the first time since a Dec. 1 road game at Bradley. Albrecht came through in the unlikeliest of ways, knocking down six of his seven field goals, including four 3-pointers, for a game-high 17 first-half points. An Albrecht layup at the 3:56 mark gave Michigan an 11-point lead — its largest of the half. Led by Albrecht, the freshmen scored 26 consecutive straight first-half points for the Wolverines. “The whole world saw what Spike Albrecht is all about,” Hardaway said. Added Burke: “If there was a

point guard I want coming off the bench, it’s Spike Albrecht. He’s going to make plays for you. He may not win the look test, but he’s going to make plays for this team. … I wasn’t surprised by his performance today.” But a ferocious 14-1 Louisville run that included four consecutive 3-pointers from walk-on forward Luke Hancock gave the Cardinals their first lead, 36-35, with 22 seconds remaining. Despite recapturing the lead, though, it was apparent Louisville had seized the game’s momentum. With 13:50 left, the Cardinals regained the lead and never looked back. “They gained that momentum and I think that’s a bad idea when you’re playing against a team with that capability,” Hardaway said. “That’s what got them to win — that momentum going into that second half.”

TODD NEEDLE/Daily

Trey Burke shot Michigan past Kansas into the Elite Eight and eventually into the National Championship against Louisville in 2013.

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com