CELEBRATING OUR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Tuesday, November 11, 2014
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Dingell set to receive high award for service CHARLES KOWALEC/Daily
University President Mark Schlissel, students and faculty prepare to cut the ribbon for the grand reopening of Mitchell Field on Monday.
Obama bestows retiring rep. with Presidential Medal of Freedom By RACHEL PREMACK Daily News Editor
CRIME
Blue Bus-related incidents prompt safety concerns Driver training protocols doubled over past year By MAX RADWIN Daily Staff Reporter
Since June, two members of the University community — a student and a staff member — have died from University bus accidentrelated injuries, raising concerns about the safety policies in place for University drivers. With a total of six bus-related accidents, deaths or instances of negligence having occurred in the last year and a half, a spokesper-
son at the University’s Parking and Transportation Services said they are always working to improve their methods of instructing drivers — including the implementation of a three-phase training system last April — to ensure that drivers are well equipped to operate transit vehicles. In October, a University bus hit 24-year-old engineering graduate student Derek Tat while he was on his bike. In June, University Housing employee Nancy Sanders was hit by a University bus and died from the resulting injuries. Last year, there were four busrelated incidents of driver error. In September 2013, a University bus crashed into and destroyed an
unoccupied bus shelter on the corner of Fuller Street and Bonisteel Boulevard, and during that same month, three students fell out of the back of a University bus on its way to Michigan Stadium. In October 2013, a University bus got stuck in a turnaround next to the Michigan Union. Then, in November 2013, a University bus driver was arrested for driving his vehicle off-route and abandoning it while he went into his house for several hours. Jeff Bidwell, who became director of PTS in April 2013, said training protocols have doubled since then so that incidents like those that have occurred in the past year and a half can be avoided.
“My first priority was to look at how we were doing training and see if there was anything we could improve or revise,” he said. Driver training is now a threephase process: First, a potential driver learns to maneuver the vehicle without passengers. Then he or she has to complete inservice training, which involves operating routes and picking up passengers alongside a licensed driver. A third party administers a commercial driver’s license exam, and if the potential driver passes, then he or she returns for any final additional training, if needed. LSA senior Meagan Tucker, who has been driving a UniverSee BLUE BUS, Page 3
President Barack Obama announced Monday that he will award U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D–Mich.) the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award an American citizen can win. After 58 years of representing Southeast Michigan in Washington, D.C., Dingell officially became the longest-serving member of congress in history last year. His district comprises Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, much of Downriver Detroit and other townships in Southeast Michigan. Dingell will retire next year, and his wife Debbie Dingell, currently a Wayne State University trustee and former General Motors lobbyist, was elected last week to succeed him. She will be the third consecutive member of the Dingell family to be elected to Congress, as John Dingell’s father served from 1932 until his death in 1955. In a statement on his Facebook page Monday evening, Dingell said he was humbled by the recognition. “There are few words that could
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UMMA gets $1 million for academic integration
Students flock to A2 for nat’l co-op seminar Annual NASCO conference celebrates history of cooperative living arrangements By LINDSEY SCALLEY For the Daily
It was a cooperative presentation, so the audience participated. “What brought you folks to co-ops? Just shout some stuff out,” said Nikki Marín Baena, a keynote speaker and co-founder of Cooperation Texas, a nonprofit dedicated to creating sustainable employment for those affected by social and economic inequality. The audience members were quick to respond. “Community.” “Necessity.” “Affordable housing.” “Economic justice.” “Control.” “Food.” “Kindness.” Last weekend, from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, 405 cooperative members from across the United
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States and Canada, about 30 of whom came from Ann Arbor co-ops, descended on the Michigan Union for the North American Students of Cooperation Institute, a conference held yearly in Ann Arbor since 1977. They came to network with other co-ops, share ideas and skills, and further the cooperative movement, a historical movement working to return ownership to the people. Co-ops are houses, frequently located near college campuses, where residents are required to share the responsibility for cooking, cleaning and other household activities. “This principle about co-ops, that we can decide what kind of a world we want to have and shape it for ourselves, is a really big thing,” Baena said. Before and after the keynote address, however, co-opers lined the hallways of the Union, occupied Au Bon Pain and Starbucks and wandered through the makeshift bookshop in the Art Lounge, which was filled with coffee, art, buttons and 300 pounds of chocolate donated by See CO-OPS, Page 5
accurately describe my thoughts and feelings in receiving this wonderful honor,” he said. “It is especially meaningful to me to receive this recognition alongside such a distinguished and diverse group of individuals that truly represents the ideals and values that have made this nation great.” Dingell’s stance in Congress has been characterized as moderate and liberal. He is staunch defender of the environment, having helped pen historic legislation such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act. He also advocated for the Affordable Care Act. More recently, in a January interview with The Michigan Daily, Dingell discussed the need to ease college students’ struggles with student loans and raise the minimum wage. “That’s one of the biggest problems when I talk to the people I see and serve,” Dingell said on the topic of student loan debt. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1963 to honor those who have contributed to “the security or national interests of the United States, or world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” As of Nov. 20, 2013, the last update of the Medal’s website, Obama had awarded 61 medals. Previous recipients of this award under Obama include former President Bill Clinton, scientist Steven Hawking, former South
Grant from Mellon Foundation to fund several museum education initiatives By EMILIE PLESSET
TERESA MATHEW/Daily
Sophomore forward Zak Irvin scored 13 points during the Michigan men’s basketball team’s 86-43 win over Wayne State at Crisler Center on Tuesday.
HOSPITAL
UMHS, nurses association set Ebola prep. standards Agreement could be the first of its kind in U.S. By TOM MCBRIEN Daily Staff Reporter
Amid statewide and national clashes between nurses’ unions, hospital systems and state governments on the issue, the Michigan Nurses Association
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and the University of Michigan Health System have negotiated a contract to offer specific Ebola protections to nurses should the need arise. The contract, signed Monday between the MNA, the largest nurses association in the state, and UMHS, the largest hospital system in the state, outlines specific regulations for personal protective equipment, referred to as PPE, and safety training for Ebola preparation for all UMHS
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nurses. It also outlines the measures of job and salary security that nurses who may have to undergo quarantine or treatment for Ebola can expect. MNA Executive Director John Karebian said the agreement is a unique step forward in the protection it affords nurses. “I believe this is the only agreement of its kind anywhere in the country, at least from research that we’ve done,” KareSee EBOLA, Page 5
Vol. CXXIII, No. 56 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Museum of Art’s bank account just got a big boost. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a private institution dedicated to promoting higher education and art history, among other pursuits, endowed UMMA with a $1 million grant to sustain programs that promote integration with the University’s academic community and student experience. Among UMMA’s recent initiatives are the appointment of an academic coordinator and collections assistant and the creation of a History of Art Fellowship. Last year alone, efforts by UMMA to increase student academic outreach resulted in a 95-percent increase in collection use and 13,000 students participating in the museum’s educational programs. See UMMA, Page 5
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MONDAY: This Week in History
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers Before You Were Here
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles Profiles
THURSDAY: Alumni CampusProfiles Clubs
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TA K E A B O W
Prof. looks at culture and change Dario Gaggio is an associate history professor. Gaggio graduated from the University of Florence in Italy in 1992 and received his PhD in History from Northwestern University in 1999.
courses to undergraduates. I wish I could, but in teaching European history and Italian history in particular, I have to make sure my students have a broad introduction to the themes and the issues.
How has the research for your publications affected the way you teach your classes?
What do you believe your students should take away from your classes?
In many fields of history there is a big gap between the kind of history that most of us here at the University do research in and the kind of history we teach. I’m no exception to that rule, there is a pretty big gap between the two in thematic terms. I don’t get to teach very specific, very detailed,
That nothing is set in stone. Social change is the rule, not the exception. We are so accustomed to thinking of the social order as something that is set in stone or that it can only change at the margins, that can only be negotiated from a position of passivity. What history teaches you is that
THE FILTER
“Get away with murder” By KAREN HUA The seventh episode of “How to Get Away with Murder” builds anticipation for the upcoming finale of its first season. The episode delves further into each character’s personal life.
THE FILTER
Kendrick Lamar By KEN SELANDER Kendrick Lamar released his music video for “i.” The video features scenes of sorrow as he travels through a neighborhood. The video projects a positive message about hope.
How does American higher education compare with that in Europe? I came to the United States to get my Ph.D., so I don’t have teaching experience in both contexts. I’m thoroughly American in professional terms. But I do remember what it meant to be a student in Italy in the ’80s and early ’90s, and it was very different. It was much more hierarchical.
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Engineering sophomore Mehul Kulkami tunes his instrument before the Campus Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance Monday at Hill Auditorium.
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Backyard Beekeepers
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WHAT: Singersongwritter Aoife O’Donovan and acclaimed banjo player Noam Pikelny will perform. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ark
WHAT: Bee enthusiasts can learn about honeybee management and care. WHO: Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Nichols Arboretum WHEN: Today from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Matthaei Botanical Gardens
WHAT: A discussion about the significance of the World Wars on global politics. WHO: International Youth and Students for Social Equality WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League
WHAT: The Michigan Law Veterans Society presents University alum Admiral James Houck as part of its Veterans Day Program. Admiral Houck will discuss current military and national security issues. WHO: University Law School WHEN: Today from 11:50 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. WHERE: South Hall
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the social (order) is, first of all, not as orderly as you think, and it will never be.
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WHAT: An interactive performance that uses music to explore cultural diversity. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, Rackham Graduate School, School of Public Health, Alumni Association, Office of the Vice Provost WHEN: Today from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
WHAT: YC the Cynic, a Bronx rapper and community activist, will perform. WHO: Hip Hop Congress, Fighting Obstacles Knowing Ultimate Success WHEN: Today from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. WHERE: University of Michigan Museum of Art CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
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New York will implement a new policy that stops cops from arresting people for low-level marijuana possession, the New York Post reported Monday. The policy is expected to reduce the number of arrests for marijuana posession.
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The Michigan men’s basketball team defeated Wayne State in an exhibition, 86-43, but it was freshman guard Austin Hatch’s single point that stole the show. >> FOR MORE, SEE SPORTS, PAGE 8
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Hydrogen sulfide gas is spreading through Moscow, the BBC reported Monday. Moscow residents are advised to stay indoors. The source of the gas has yet to be found. Russia’s emergency ministry is blaming a Moscow oil refinery.
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BUSINESS STAFF Madeline Lacey University Accounts Manager Ailie Steir Classified Manager Simonne Kapadia Local Accounts Manager Lotus An National Accounts Manager Olivia Jones Production Managers Nolan Loh Special Projects Coordinator Jason Anterasian Finance Manager The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
Settlement fund set up Campus orgs create website to support student parents for Katrina plaintiffs $14 million set aside for victims of 2005 hurricane
courts held that the federal agency was protected from liability by a 1928 law that gave the agency immunity from suits seeking damages over failed f lood-control projects. This money comes from a separate settlement that plaintiffs’ lawyers reached in 2009 with three levee boards in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish. The levee boards were responsible in part for the upkeep of the structures that broke during Katrina. Under this settlement, residents, businesses and people visiting the city when Katrina struck can apply now for compensation. The money comes from insurance policies the levee boards had at the time of Katrina. Claims must be filed by April 30, 2015. A federal judge recently gave his
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — More than nine years after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina and f looded New Orleans, residents and businesses finally can ask for some compensation — albeit small — from a $14 million settlement fund set up to pay for the catastrophic f lood. The payouts, though, will be meager and far from what residents may have hoped for after their city was devastated in 2005. Hopes for hefty damage payments were dashed in the years after the hurricane when lawsuits suing the Army Corps of Engineers were defeated in federal court. The
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approval to how the money can be divided. Gerald Meunier, a New Orleans lawyer who helped handle the class-action lawsuits over the f lood, said the settlement is as much money as can be gotten from the boards’ insurance policies. He added that under the law, the levee boards’ assets could not be seized. “We can’t get a dime more from the levee districts,” Meunier said. “It’s obviously not enough. It can never make up for everything people went through.” He said the plaintiffs’ lawyers did everything they could to win more for the city’s residents, but that the federal courts affirmed the Corps’ immunity. Residents and businesses f looded in New Orleans, St. Bernard and Jefferson are eligible for money. The size of the payouts will depend on how many claims are filed. For instance, if 200,000 claims are paid, a homeowner whose property was f looded by 4 feet of water could expect to receive $463. But if 800,000 claims are paid, then the same homeowner could expect $116. People also can claim compensation for the death of a family member. Claims for deaths will receive between $255 and $1,020. After lawyer and administrative costs are factored in, there will be about $14 million left for residents and businesses. Lawyers who handled the case are expected to divide up $3.5 million among themselves to pay for costs they incurred. The lawyers who handled the case waived their fees. In all, the lawyers say they spent more than $13 million on litigating the cases. “We took a beating,” said Joseph Bruno, a plaintiffs’ lawyer.
Collaboration raises awareness of available resources By STEPHANIE DILWORTH Daily Staff Reporter
The University’s chapters of Students for Life and Students for Choice have found an issue worth coming together to support. In partnership with the Dean of Students Office, the two groups are creating a website set to be released by the end of the semester that will showcase resources for undergraduate student parents. The idea came about after a campus visit by Sally Winn, vice president of Feminists for Life. The central theme in Winn’s speech was her frustration with the lack of campus resources for student parents. After the speech, LSA senior Taylor Crookston, Students for Life interim vice president, said he was approached by Students for Choice about working together to improve resources on campus for student parents. Crookston said the collaboration was intended to better organize the current resources available to students with kids. “Right now, this collaboration between Students for Life and Students for Choice is trying to just get what resources are available very clear,” Crookston said. “There are more resources than people know about, but there is nowhere for people to really find out about them.” LSA senior Sophia Kotov, president of Students for Choice, said student parents and pregnant students lack a community at the University. “It’s really, really hard to have a child on campus especially because you don’t see other people on campus who have children,” Kotov said. “If you don’t know anybody else
who is in the situation, you would feel so alone.” Though a discussion group for parenting students previously existed on campus, apart from a Facebook group, it has since disbanded. Rachel Naasko directs the Blavin Scholars Program, a division of Student Life that works to promote the success of University students who were formerly in foster care. She is a Critical Incident Coordinator, which supports students in difficult situations, and serves as the Dean of Students Office administrator helping establish the new website. Naasko emphasized that the website supports both pregnant students and students already caring for children. “The website will be tailored toward undergraduate student parents, not exclusively students who are pregnant,” she said. “We want to support all students in whatever way they come to campus, whether that be students who come to campus with children to students who have children while they are on campus. We want those resources to be in an accessible way, which is really the issue they brought forward.” The website is expected to feature a directory of resources. It will likely provide links to housing options for student parents, University lactation rooms, University Health Service options for prenatal care and other community-based resources such as childbirth or Lamaze classes. Crookston said the groups came together to give students more options at the University. “I don’t think that students at the University of Michigan have any choice between abortion or carrying the baby to term — and then either giving it up for adoption or raising it themselves because of this institutionalized barrier that you don’t see any pregnant girls on campus
or rarely,” Crookston said. “We don’t think there is that genuine choice. It’s either drop out or have an abortion.” Naasko said the groups were too focused on their common goals to let conflict get in the way. “They, together, came forward and identified an issue that they had questions about and were looking for more information,” Naasko said. “I think because they had already identified that together, there wasn’t a place for conflict. They had already decided that this was an issue they wanted to create support for together.” Kotov said this experience reminded her of the groups’ commonalities and how prolife and pro-choice are not a dichotomy. “Pro-life and pro-choice aren’t opposites. Not at all,” Kotov said. “We have so many common goals that we just kind of forget about because we are busy with this polemic rhetoric.” Naasko added that this partnership reflects University students’ desire to support fellow students. “It is a great example of how Michigan students, who appear to have very different ideas and feelings, can come together to support other Wolverines. I’m glad to hear that their experience has also been fairly smooth. I think the circumstance could have been very different,” Naasko said. Crookston said the website will be unbiased and will not showcase any pro-life or prochoice arguments. “Our goal is to make our University a more inclusive place for pregnant and parenting students, for women who do want to have the choice to carry their pregnancy to term,” Crookston said. “We have really avoided, honestly, abortion as a topic in regards to the website.” See WEBSITE, Page 5
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Ballroom dance team Sole U.S. Ebola patient sees major growth scheduled to be released Group welcomes almost 150 new students this year By TANYA MADHANI Daily Staff Reporter
Inside the Central Campus Recreation Building late on a Monday night, the familiar lyrics to British ‘80s pop duo Eurythmics’ hit song “Sweet Dreams” permeate the halls. The source of the sound is the University’s Ballroom Dance Team, a permanent Monday, Thursday and Saturday night fixture in the facility’s Mirror Room. LSA junior Brianna Mayer, the team’s public relations chair, leads a group of 60 new team members through a lesson on the perfect promenade form alongside her partner, LSA senior Terrence Tigney. Mayer and Tigney demonstrate a foxtrot step to the onlooking students encircling them — boys on one side and girls on the other. “One, two, three, four,” Mayer calls out, moving in time with her partner. After two more demonstrations, the two halves of the room combine to form 30 couples. Mayer walks to the edge of the room, where her phone is plugged into a speaker, and restarts the familiar foxtrot remix. Couples clad in everything from jeans to activewear, Latin dance shoes to socks, imitate Mayer and her partner as best they can. A mix of inexperience and space constraints result in some couples bumping and running into each other. Rackham student Jon Hershaff, team president, said the club has had their biggest group of incoming members ever this year, with close to 150 new students entering the collegiate ballroom dance world. The team, which consists of 250 members, anticipates outgrowing the University’s available practice space as soon as next year. “We’re almost too big for a student group,” Hershaff said. “It can be very difficult to be able to coordinate classes and practices when you just have a team of our size.” Hershaff said he attributes the growth in interest to active recruitment during Welcome Week, during which the team hosted free lessons in various ballroom styles. They followed
up those events with dinners and social activities to allow potential members to learn about the club’s offerings. Unlike many dance groups at the University, the Ballroom Dance Team does not have an audition process to become a member, nor does it require members to attend every practice session. “You get out of it what you put into it,” Hershaff said. “If there’s some people who just want to get their feet wet, they could put in a couple of hours per week. For people who want to go deeper, the cap is usually 15 hours a week.” The team allows interested students to enter the group at the newcomer level for the first semester. Members can then audition for higher-level teams within the group in every subsequent semester. There are five competition groups within the club. Tryouts for these sub-teams last a few hours in a mock competition environment, where couples are required to come dressed in full competition attire as the team’s coaches — Steve and Susan McFerran — judge and sort couples into respective groups. A partner is not needed when first joining the team, but one is required to audition for a higherlevel. The team currently has more women than men, causing five women to enter their first competition on Oct. 25 at Purdue University partner-less. Three blocks down from where the newcomers are perfecting their foxtrot, experienced team members practice in the Dance Theatre Studio above Moe Sport Shops on North University Avenue. DTS offers the Ballroom Team discounted prices for practice and lesson space four days week in exchange for services, such as cleaning their studio. DTS is much less crowded than the CCRB, with only a handful of couples turning up for practice. LSA junior Whitney Raska, a member of the C-team, said she enjoys the quieter practices after competitions, because most people are still recovering from an exhausting weekend of travel and dance. Raska and her partner, Engineering junior Jake Snyder, started dancing together in the winter of 2013 and Raska said due to the disproportionate ratio of male and female members, she felt rushed about finding some-
one to dance with for competitions. “There’s always a shortage of guys to girls,” Raska said. “And it really stinks if you don’t (have a partner) because you have to dance by yourself, so I started looking out for people who I enjoyed dancing with and then I just asked (Snyder) one night to be my partner.” Because other boys on the team initially advised him not to rush into selecting a partner, Snyder said, he didn’t accept Raska’s offer right away. “(This was) just to be sure that we had the conversation with our partner about whether we had the same goals, the same commitment level,” he said. “Whether we had the same kind of dreams from ballroom before we said yes to a partner. So she will tell you that I denied her at first, but I’m going to call it deferring.” Hershaff said he sees picking partners as being similar to dating. “There’s some people who just want to jump right into a partnership, but what we try and recommend is to ask someone to practice first,” he said. “That’s like going out to coffee together. If you enjoy practicing together, you ask them to go to a competition. That’d be like going out to a dinner date. “And if you enjoy that and you want to stay together, you can ask them to be your partner.” Partners on teams higher than the newcomer level are locked in for a semester, but members are free to switch with a new semester if some couples do not compete or get along well. “Ideally you want to dance with the same partner for multiple semesters, because then you get to dance better together,” Snyder said. “But if partnerships don’t work out, you’re not locked in for life. It’s not like you’re marrying somebody.” But newcomer-level partners LSA junior John Cooper and LSA freshman Ariel Odlum said they have enjoyed their first competition together in Purdue this weekend and hope to remain partners for both semesters of the year. “(Ballroom) is a good way to have an entry-level way to get training, to get good at something that I can be proud of,” Cooper said. “That’s probably the biggest (goal), to get good at dancing together and to compete and win if we can.”
Hackers breach U.S. Postal Service computer system Sept. attack could have compromised sensitive employee information WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service said Monday it had been hacked, potentially compromising sensitive information about its employees such as names and addresses, Social Security numbers, emergency contacts and other information. The FBI said it was leading a multi-agency investigation into the breach, which took effect in mid-September. The intrusion was similar to those reported by other federal agencies as well as in the private sector. The agency isn’t recommending that its customers take any action. “The intrusion is limited in scope, and all operations of the Postal Service are functioning normally,” said Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer. He said that customers at local post offices or those using its website, usps.com, were not affected, but that people who used its call center may have had telephone numbers, email addresses and other information compromised. Partenheimer said the attacks affected Postal Service workers across the board, from the postmaster general to letter carriers
to those who work in the inspector general’s office. The Postal Service provided no immediate information on how many people may have been affected. It said it employs over 800,000 workers. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, called the hacking “troubling.” “We’re starting to get feedback immediately. People are concerned,” Dimondstein said in an interview. He said that, so far, the hacking “doesn’t seem to have affected the public at all and doesn’t seem to have affected credit cards, bank accounts and things like that.” “What we don’t know is whether the Postal Service did everything they could to protect the employees,” he said. He said the union did not get a heads-up about the two breaches from the Postal Service officials even though they happened weeks ago. However, the agency did notify congressional staffers about the hacking in classified briefings on October 22 and November 7, said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “The increased frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks upon both public and private
entities highlights the need for greater collaboration to improve data security,” Cummings wrote Monday in a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. In a statement, Donahoe depicted cyber-attacks as “an unfortunate fact of life these days” for every organization connected to the Internet. “The United States Postal Service is no different.” “Fortunately, we have seen no evidence of malicious use of the compromised data, and we are taking steps to help our employees protect against any potential misuse of their data,” the postmaster general said. The issue is sure to come up at a previously scheduled Postal Service public meeting on Friday morning at agency headquarters here. FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell confirmed his agency is leading a multi-agency investigation of the hacking but declined to discuss details. “Impacted individuals should take steps to monitor and safeguard their personally identifiable information and report any suspected instances of identity theft to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3. gov,” he said. The Postal Service said disclosing the breach when it first occurred could have jeopardized the agency’s efforts to fix the problem.
N.Y. Department of Health declares ER doctor Craig Spencer healthy NEW YORK (AP) — An emergency room doctor who was the first Ebola patient in the nation’s biggest city has recovered and is scheduled to be released from the hospital on Tuesday, health officials said. Dr. Craig Spencer, who was the only Ebola patient being treated in the United States, has been declared free of the virus, the city Department of Health said Monday in a statement. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Spencer has suffered a lot the last few weeks but has “come back really strong.” He called Spencer “a real hero.” “I’m sure he’s a little weakened from the experience,” de Blasio said, but he’s “very, very healthy.” Spencer tested positive for the virus on Oct. 23, just days after returning from treating patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders. He has been treated in a specially designed isolation unit at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola treatment center. His condition was upgraded from serious to stable last week, and he was feeling well enough to request an exercise bike and a banjo. His fiancee and two friends
initially were quarantined but were released and are being monitored along with hundreds of others. Spencer, who’s 33, is expected to issue a statement but not take questions when he’s released from the hospital. Health officials have stressed that Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms. Still, news of Spencer’s infection set many New Yorkers on edge, particularly after details emerged that he rode the subway, dined in a meatball restaurant and visited a bowling alley in the days before he developed a fever and tested positive. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded by announcing a mandatory 21-day quarantine for travelers who have come in close contact with Ebola patients. De Blasio and Cuomo had urged residents not to be alarmed by Spencer’s Ebola diagnosis, even as they described him riding the subway and taking a cab. De Blasio has said all city officials followed “clear and strong” protocols in their handling and treatment of him and Spencer did right by calling authorities as soon as he got a fever. Spencer may have been aware of New Yorkers’ fears about his case but didn’t dwell on it, and he remained upbeat
about recovering even in the worst of his illness, said de Blasio, who spoke to him during his hospitalization. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed thousands of people, but only a handful of people has been diagnosed or treated in the United States. Those treated in the U.S. also include American health and aid workers and a journalist who were in West Africa, a Liberian man diagnosed with the virus during a visit to Texas and two nurses who contracted it from him. The man, Thomas Eric Duncan, died; the rest have recovered. Colleagues in Guinea have said Spencer conscientiously followed safety procedures in place at the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Gueckedou. Spencer, an attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, has traveled around the world to care for the needy. In the past three years, he’d been to Rwanda to work on an emergency care teaching curriculum, volunteered at a health clinic in Burundi, helped investigate an infectious parasitic disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo and traveled to 32 villages in Indonesia to do a public health survey. Colleagues have said Spencer has the ability to put patients at ease even when he doesn’t know their language, winning them over through hugs and smiles.
Obama pushes FCC to adopt net neutrality rule Policy would ban charging content providers different rates for service WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday embraced a radical change in how the government treats Internet service, coming down on the side of consumer activists who fear slower download speeds and higher costs but angering Republicans and the nation’s cable giants who say the plan would kill jobs. Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to more heavily regulate Internet providers and treat broadband much as it would any other public utility. He said the FCC should explicitly prohibit Internet providers like Verizon and AT&T from charging data hogs like Netflix extra to move their content more quickly. The announcement sent cable stocks tumbling. The FCC, an independent regulatory body led by political appointees, is nearing a decision on whether broadband providers should be allowed to cut deals with the content providers but is stumbling over the legal complexities. “We are stunned the president would abandon the longstanding, bipartisan policy of lightly regulating the Internet and calling for extreme” regulation, said Michael Powell, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the primary lobbying arm of the cable industry, which supplies much of the nation’s Internet access. This “tectonic shift in national policy, should it be adopted, would create devastating results,” added Powell, who chaired the FCC during the Bush administration until 2005. Consumer groups and content providers hailed Obama’s move, with Netflix posting to its Facebook page that “consumers should pick winners and losers on the Internet, not broadband gatekeepers.” “Net neutrality” is the idea that Internet service providers shouldn’t block, slow or
manipulate data moving across its networks. As long as content isn’t against the law, such as child pornography or pirated music, a file or video posted on one site will load generally at the same speed as a similarly sized file or video on another site. In 2010, the FCC embraced the concept in a rule. But last January, a federal appeals court struck down the regulation because the court said the FCC didn’t technically have the legal authority to tell broadband providers how to manage their networks. The uncertainty has prompted the public to file some 3.7 million comments with the FCC — more than double the number filed after Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl. On Monday, Obama waded into the fray and gave a major boost to Internet activists by saying the FCC should explicitly ban any “paid prioritization” on the Internet. Obama also suggested that the FCC reclassify consumer broadband as a public utility under the 1934
Communications Act so there’s no legal ambiguity. That would mean the Internet would be regulated more heavily in the way phone service is. “It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information — whether a phone call, or a packet of data,” Obama said. This approach is exactly what industry lobbyists have spent months fighting against. While Internet providers say they support the concept of an open Internet, they want flexibility to think up new ways to package and sell Internet services. And, given the billions of dollars spent to improve network infrastructure, some officials say it’s only fair to make data hogs like Netflix bear some of the costs of handling heavy traffic. AT&T on Monday threatened legal action if the FCC adopted Obama’s plan, while Comcast Corp. said reclassifying broadband regulation would be “a radical reversal that would harm investment and innovation, as today’s immediate stock market reaction demonstrates.”
Opinion
Page 4 — Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com PETER SHAHIN EDITOR IN CHIEF
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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.
I
To teach or not to teach
overheard a conversation on the bus the other day that didn’t sit well with me. A guy was talking to his friend about his exam score — a 30 percent. He told the kid that he didn’t know one thing that was going on in his class and spent most of his time making intelligent guesses on test material that should have been checking his retained knowledge and skills he learned throughout DEVIN the semester. The guy was EGGERT thankful he got a 30 percent though. In the world of education, a 30 percent translates into a B. Now, people have their own opinions on curved exams. However, as a senior, I’ve taken a diverse set of classes at the University. So I think that my observations of some of the teaching methods here have bearing. I am a double major in English and Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. I have a Certificate in Entrepreneurship. I am also a student notetaker for Students with Disabilities. I have been assigned to classes varying from computer science to music theory to calculus. Each class and subject has its own thinking skills associated with it. But overall they share some common themes, styles and flaws. When I stepped into my first class at the University of Michigan (Chemistry 130), I was extremely grateful. I came from a small town where I had neighbors who used cardboard to separate their walls. I did my homework by a space heater with my sisters. I had never heard of ACT prep. And thank God I was an obedient student who listened to my teachers. Otherwise I would have completely screwed myself and not taken the ACT seriously — like half of my friends back home. I was lucky. Hardworking, sure. But lucky. Unfortunately, the barrier of getting into the University of Michigan was not the tallest in terms of my education. Day one, my chemistry professor told us that about 30 percent of our class would drop and that we should as soon as possible, so that way we weren’t wasting our time. Chemistry 130 is a weeder class. We’ve all heard this term before. A “weeder” class refers to an extremely challenging class put in place to weed out the dumb students, the ones who give up. But what exactly are these freshmen (mostly from a lower-SES and/or underrepresented racial/ethnic group) giving up on? Are they giving up banging their head against a brick wall or from climbing a set of stairs provided by the University’s education system? The order of skills taught through each major and class needs to be seriously reconsidered. I shouldn’t be learning how to read and write a basic research paper in a 300-level psychology class. That should have been extensively taught in a lower-level class — that way, we could all understand the many readings we are handed. I shouldn’t walk away from a Stats 250 class feeling like I got nothing out of it except feeling like I worked hard. Each subject teaches a skillset that the University is not capitalizing on in terms
of the job market. These skills should be made clear at the beginning of the term. I will never be a famous calculus genius. But, if I can take a class in calculus and feel like I’ve gained analytical skills instead of pounding my head against a wall — then I have been taught something. That is a more important lesson as a freshman, facing the adversity that I did and getting the door slammed in my face when I already felt like I didn’t belong. There is a general theme in some classes that it is simply survival of the fittest. My question is what are the students actually getting out of the class — are they getting fit? If a curve is being set by someone who gets a 100 percent on every exam, do you really think that the professor/that class is necessary for them to learn the material? The professor might as well give everyone a book and say sayonara for the next four months and see who survives. If that is the principle we are operating on, that is not a $50,000 education. There is a huge barrier that entering freshmen coming from more disadvantaged backgrounds face. Most of their classmates have learned the material that is being taught in 100-level classes through high school AP courses. This increases the speed that most weeder courses are taught at and warps the perception of the lessons’ effectiveness. These disadvantaged freshmen usually lack the study skills that are primed by family influence and a well-funded school. Generally, they are also (like I was), dealing with trying to keep their confidence up and paying for their own school bill. I can’t tell you the number of hardworking students I have worked with as an RA who are fighting a language barrier. I don’t think that it is just the professor’s responsibility to fix everything. I think our services need to step up. The amount of time students put into getting help for a resource or direction to the right office is ridiculous. There are people, like my friends and me, who are working two or more jobs on campus. Efficiency and effectiveness should always be a goal for this community. That being said, I don’t think programs such as the Comprehensive Studies Program — which oversees the Bridge Program — are the solutions to this gap. I consider those programs Band-Aids to what is really going on here, protecting enough kids for the University to use on advertisements. We are playing a losing game. Just like the diversity of classes and thought at this University, people designing the classes and educational system should keep in mind that there are students from different backgrounds as well. If the University of Michigan wants to advance, we shouldn’t be mindlessly disadvantaging our lower portion of the bell curve. By setting aside a little time for academic strategy when the students are young, the University can help disadvantaged freshmen and give advanced students more learning opportunities. We need to be preventative and proactive instead of reactive. If the goal is to get us to the top, stairs are more helpful than walls. Let’s get a B back to retaining 80 percent of a lesson, please. — Devin Eggert can be reached at deeggert@umich.edu.
SARAH BLUME ET AL. | VIEWPOINT
For an Open Hillel
Hillel is known as the “Center for Jewish Life” on hundreds of campuses all over the world, including at the University of Michigan. In 1948, upon the establishment of the State of Israel, Hillel directors across the country sought guidance from the national office on if the then-antiZionist American Council for Judaism should be allowed to form chapters within the Hillel umbrella. The answer from Hillel International was clear: “Hillel represents the total Jewish community on each campus which it serves, it excludes no student activity which legitimately represents the interests of a group of students, so long as they accept the principle of community responsibility. Just as there are Orthodox, Conservative and Reform outlooks represented in the Hillel program, so there can be both Zionist and anti-Zionist outlooks.” As it was in 1948, so should it be in 2014. At the beginning of this year Hillel staff invited a number of anti-occupation Jewish students to be a part of the Shabbat Across Campus initiative. The dinner form asked us to name our Shabbat around which theme brought our community together and so we chose the theme “Palestinian Solidarity Shabbat.” We chose the name for our event at an informal Shabbat dinner attended by Jews of all stripes: white Jews, Latino Jews and Arab Jews; supporters and detractors of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement; one-staters, two-staters and no-staters; Zionist, post-Zionist, anti-Zionist, non-Zionist and justfed-up-Zionist; undergraduates, graduate students, staff and community members. For us, as much as we disagree with one another, a central part of our community and identity is our conviction that standing in solidarity with Palestinians against occupation is a beautiful and vital
expression of Jewish identity. Days after we signed up to join ShabUM we were summoned to the Hillel offices for a meeting, under the pretense of Hillel staff members wanting to learn about the “visions and goals” of our dinner in order for them to know how they could best support us. We were asked what we planned for this Shabbat dinner, to which we honestly explained the Shabbat dinner would be nothing more than lighting candles and breaking bread amongst friends, old and new, who wish to stand in solidarity with Palestinians. For the next 90 minutes we had our identities disparaged and were told that the words “Palestinian Solidarity” were aggressive, scary and not welcome on the Hillel website. The staff couldn’t specify what it was about these words that was “aggressive.” On the contrary, we contend that there are few things more Jewish than standing in solidarity with the oppressed. What is “aggressive” is the way in which Hillel fosters a culture of fear for Jewish students who want to speak out against the occupation and stand with the nonviolent grassroots movements for Palestinian rights. To be clear, this censorship was never about the interests of students. In fact, during the meeting we had to ask the director to stop bullying us so that we could hear what the student representative from Hillel had to say. The student representative made it clear during the meeting that the major donors of Hillel and the “Standards of Partnership” put forth by Hillel International are the main roadblocks to the Palestinian Solidarity Shabbat being included among the others. Hillel cannot censor the Jewish students on this campus any longer. Indeed it’s dangerous to stifle conversation about the occupation of Palestine. How is our generation supposed to
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find a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if we cannot speak openly about it in Jewish institutions? It is in Hillel — “The Center For Jewish Life” — where it makes the most sense for these conversations to happen amongst Jews. The shirking of Jewish institutions from hard conversations only entrenches the occupation. Passive support for the status quo enables the violation of Palestinians’ human and civil rights to continue and worsen. And so, today we declare a campaign for an Open Hillel. We are not alone. Open Hillel is a nationwide student-led movement to change Hillel’s policies to better reflect the Jewish community’s values of pluralism and inclusivity. The movement seeks to end the “Standards of Partnership” which arbitrarily draw red lines around students whose political beliefs about the occupation are unsavory to Hillel’s donor base. Across the country, Jewish students are saying “no more” and “not
in my name” to occupation in the West Bank and to the massacres in Gaza. These growing numbers of students should not be ostracized from the community, but valued as Jews who are inspired by our history of fighting for justice. We demand that we be able to speak openly without fear or vilification. Open Hillels are being declared on campuses across the country and the University can be at the vanguard. To the Hillel staff that say this challenges them, we ask you to sit with that discomfort. The discomfort of diaspora Jews should not trump Palestinian human rights. Vigorous debate and discussion is the driving force of Judaism’s holy texts for a reason. Open conversation is the basis of democracy, any healthy community and a more just world. A commitment to tolerance of various political identities should be a principle of our community. The one percent of wealthy donors should not be allowed to stifle the urgent conversations that the 99 percent of young
Jews need to have. Even without Hillel’s support, the Palestinian Solidarity Shabbat will go on. It’s this Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in East Quad’s Benzinger Library (Room 1423). We welcome anyone who wants to join in this informal setting, where no views will be censored, restricted or stigmatized. Come share in a meal with Jews and people of all faiths who are against the occupation and are inspired by Jewish tradition to fight together for equality and human rights. As we light Shabbat candles together we will kindle our ancestors’ tradition of radicalism and justice. In the words of Hillel the Sage for whom the Hillel Houses are named: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Sarah Blume is an LSA junior. Sam Molnar is an SNRE graduate student. Talya Nakash and Alyssa Tender are LSA seniors.
An open letter to poorly dressed men on campus
D
earest Bro-thren, It has come to my attention that this campus has been plagued with an ailment. I’ve stood by watching helplessly as this pandemic has spread from the frat houses to the freshman dorms to the HAYA classrooms, the ALFHARAN very classrooms in which I must study and learn. Though I’ve not been personally infected with it, I’ve been afflicted by nausea at the sight of those stricken. I’ve seen it ravage the majority of the campus’s male population and turn them into a gruesome sight — a sight so despicable it plagues my mind and conversations every day. Today, I take a stand so that we can finally recognize this epidemic and take action before this contagion claims every last man on campus. The ailment I’m addressing, of course, is the rapid increase of sloppiness in dress among the male population, also known as Gross Aesthetic Syndrome. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Perhaps this is a good thing. Perhaps this is a movement toward a society that places less value on appearance, a society geared toward focusing on what is within.” No, gentlemen, I’m afraid I must disagree. This epidemic is threatening to the very fabric of this University. Nay, this great nation. I’m here to tell you that I see you. In fact, everybody sees you.
It is with the utmost concern that I write this letter. I only hope that the issues I address will lead to quick and effective action to rectify this and you cleanse your wardrobes of this affliction. Stop dressing like every week is finals week. It takes approximately 45 seconds to take off your pajama pants and put on a pair of jeans. I understand that you’re probably running on three hours of sleep, but there are other ways to make that known. Wearing your pajamas in public won’t compensate for the missed hours of sleep. This is not a build-it-and-they-will-come situation. Sleep doesn’t work that way. I know what you’re thinking: “But they have Michigan on them!” No. Pajama pants are pajama pants, regardless of how many block ‘M’s are printed on them. Fellas, size matters. Which is to say, if you’re going to go for the business casual look, buy blazers that actually fit you. Maybe you’re not ready for adulthood. Maybe you’re crippled by the very notion and dread your future beyond graduation. That’s quite alright, but dressing like you’re a teenager borrowing a blazer from your father to look spiffy for a Model U.N. conference should not be the look you’re going for. There’s nothing business or casual about it. Of course, we can’t forget our frat brethren. Gentlemen, salmon is not a flattering shade on anyone. I must admit I don’t know how a shade can be so white and colorful at the same time. I don’t know how a color can scream “bougie.” I do not know the ways of the salmon pants, but I’m
warning you against it. Enough with the salmon-colored pants. Enough with the salmon-colored shorts. This is the official call for you to denounce your salmon shackles. Can you paint with all the colors of the wind? Yes, you can. Except for salmon. Basketball shorts with kneelength socks. I’m just going to leave that one there for you to reflect upon. And yes, this letter extends to male professors. While I respect your degrees, dear sirs, I strongly urge you to abandon the sad dad pants, the academic sweater vest, and most definitely the ever-troubling fedora. It’s OK to be hip. Try it. Maybe your Rate My Professors rating will even go up. A general note to every guy who I’ve sat next to in a lecture on Monday morning: I can detect your NYPD pizza stain from last night. I can also detect the pungent B.O. When faced with a decision between grabbing a coffee before class or taking a shower, take the shower. Your body and living creatures that occupy space within your general vicinity will thank you. I must admit, this letter may not address the many factors that have led us to this point. It does not offer any solutions besides asking you to dress more sharply and take more showers. Gross Aesthetic Syndrome is real, and it’s sweeping our campus. I strongly urge you to take precautions — I’d hate to lose more of our men to it. Sincerely, A concerned campus dweller — Haya Alfharan can be reached at hfs@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Edvinas Berzanskis, Devin Eggert, David Harris, Rachel John, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
A
Democratic disillusionment
s the 2012 election season was heating up, sophomoric me urged students in Ann Arbor to vote. This idealistic, inexperienced and not unintelligent person expounded on the great privilege we as Americans have to choose who our representatives are in ERIC government — FERGUSON blowing it more than slightly out of proportion in the process. Predictably, this column didn’t achieve its goal of capturing the zeitgeist of what felt like the most significant election in history. But I stand by its message: young people traditionally lack political power in our democratic society, and the outcomes of general elections are one of the primary fronts of that power. Lawmakers and elected officials have a broad and exclusive mandate to make decisions that affect people’s lives. More generally, the best-qualified (and sometimes the least-bad) candidate is not guaranteed to win unless people actually turn out — no matter what Nate Silver predicts on FiveThirtyEight. Therefore, students can gain considerable power through the vote and should capitalize on that opportunity. This notion was as true last week as it was two years ago. At the same time, the final vote count doesn’t come close to telling the full story of a democratic election. Names on ballots end up there through a combination of political party power and institutional phenomena that present a hefty and arguably overwhelming counterweight to the
democratic will. From its utility as a means for consolidation of personal networks into a candidate support structure, to its status in the public arena to its effectiveness as an infrastructure for raising disgustingly large sums of money, the support of the Democratic or Republican Parties offers candidates a nearly peerless electoral edge. Moreover, the depth of prior connections to these parties itself has a massive role in determining who will benefit from the party apparatus. The race for Michigan’s own 12th District starkly illustrates this fact through the absolute steamrolling that the Democratic candidate and representative-elect, Debbie Dingell, inflicted upon not just her Republican counterpart in the general election, but her challengers in the Democratic primary. The party’s support for Dingell’s candidacy over every other Democrat in the district was not inevitable. However, it would be ludicrous to suggest her longtime integration into state Democratic circles through prior experience in elected office and personal connection with a successful and well-reputed House Democrat had nothing to do with that outcome. Very few people have partisan connections of that quality, and this situation likely deterred similarly well-qualified Democrats who might have contested her nomination. These factors added up to a formidable electoral edge for Dingell before a single ballot had been cast in her favor. Factoring in institutional and positional power alongside party power, the power of the vote shrinks even further. Besides his partisan affiliation as a Democrat, outgoing U.S. Senator Carl Levin
possessed the electoral advantage of chairing the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2007. That position inevitably lends a megaphone to the one who possesses it — and even more importantly for Michigan voters in 2008 and 2002, Levin was the only person who could offer such deep influence over this country’s armed forces as their representative. This was the result of years of work within the idiosyncratic structure of the Senate, honing Levin’s edge as a candidate with effects similar to those benefiting Dingell. These two general phenomena aren’t insurmountable. However, they set the groundwork for who can run for political office in a nondemocratic fashion. They do this to such an extent that the vote this year felt like merely a mechanism for expressing general preference, devoid of the personal and symbolic importance I so proudly attributed to it two years ago. Even as the candidates I voted for head off to Washington, D.C. to represent me, incumbents on the whole continue to overwhelmingly keep their seats, and gridlock in Congress seems destined to graduate to a new level of divisiveness. Topping it all off, the Democratic nomination for 2016 has for two years looked like a lock for Hillary Clinton — a candidate whose presence on the scene is likely to drive away the overwhelming majority of others who might have otherwise considered seeking that nomination. This is, apparently, what American democracy looks like. It’s no longer an inspiring view. — Eric Ferguson can be reached at ericff@umich.edu.
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CO-OPS From Page 1
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Niki Sunstrum, director of social media for the University, speaks at the “Coming of Age Online” event at the Michigan Union on Monday.
EBOLA From Page 1 bian said. “We don’t believe that there’s any other place where the union and management have come together and said that they need to prepare to take care of potential patients with Ebola and work together to do that. So I think in that respect, this is very unique, but we plan to try to negotiate this with other institutions as well.” Aside from an assurance that nurses will receive proper PPE and training, the contract contains three major provisions. The first and second provisions state that nurses will not lose any salary or be forced to use their “Paid Time Off” or “Extended Sick Leave” provisions if they are quarantined due to Ebola or if they actually contract the disease. The third provision states that the hospital will pay for all medical treatment and follow-ups, including psychological testing, if a nurse contracts Ebola. Throughout the negotiation process, UMHS has implemented measures as they’ve been agreed upon so as to not hinder Ebola preparedness, Karebian said. He also said the contract will remain fluid to allow for further improvements if necessary. “It’s going to change as we learn more and nurses become more trained,” he said. “We will learn from those things and we might
BLUE BUS From Page 1 sity bus since May 2013, said she felt very comfortable driving a bus by the time she reached in-service training, during which she would operate a bus with a licensed driver or observe strategies for driving, such as scanning patterns and knowing when to stop. According to Bidwell, 70 percent of students and temporary hires who enter the training process succeed. But 30 percent don’t reach proficiency, and if at any point it becomes clear that they aren’t progressing at a satisfactory pace, trainers then meet and discuss an improvement plan. If after that meeting prospective drivers still don’t demonstrate sufficient improvement, they are released. Bidwell said PTS is always observing its operations to identify potential improvements. After an accident, PTS officials review the incident to see how it could have
UMMA From Page 1 “We feel that UMMA has a really special role to play in the education of students here at Michigan,” said Carrie Throm, UMMA deputy director for development and external relations. “By exposing them to the art of the world that awaits them when they graduate, they will have a deeper understanding of all the possibilities in their professional world.” The $1 million dollar grant is split between several initiatives. The academic coordinator position will receive a $750,000 grant to continue efforts in collections-based education. The position will be endowed in perpetuity if UMMA can find a donor through the Victors for Michigan campaign to match the Mellon Foundation’s grant. An academic coordinator
have to make some adjustments. We have a nursing taskforce for Ebola preparedness put together that will meet twice per week to continue to look at what we will need to do to change and do better.” To prepare for the unlikely scenario that Ebola arrives in Ann Arbor, UMHS has already established a general response plan to address the virus. The contract comes in the midst of conversation about statewide preparedness for the disease. Though Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has said Michigan hospitals are prepared for Ebola, a recent MNA poll showed that more than 80 percent of Michigan nurses don’t believe their hospital has provided them with proper training on how to treat this virus. “My message to the governor and to the state is that we want to see more consistent practices in hospitals,” Karebian said. “And we believe that the Department of Community Health and the governor should step up and say, ‘Yes, we need to ensure that hospitals are prepared.’ And it’s not enough just to say it; they have to be prepared.” The MNA’s complaints reflect nationwide dissatisfaction expressed by nurses through National Nurses United and state nurses unions, which has organized a “Day of Action” Wednesday in protest of a perceived lack of preparedness for Ebola. In California, 18,000 nurses plan to strike for two days starting Tuesday.
The MNA is organizing its own event. It is planning to send a delegation to Snyder Wednesday morning to ask him to meet with the union. “We decided that since we couldn’t get him to our building, we would go to him,” said Ann Sincox, public relations and communications liaison for the MNA. “So we are going to meet on Wednesday at 11:30 in front of the Romney Building. We have quite a few nurses coming and a mobile billboard and we are going to invite him to come down and join us.” Sincox said the overall goal for the MNA is to achieve a state standard for Ebola preparation. “We feel the governor needs to work with the Michigan Department of Community Health, and of course we’re more than happy to join in on that, to make a state standard so that everyone is prepared adequately, regardless of what happens,” she said. Sincox added that though nurses in other states are taking more drastic measures such as protests and strikes, the MNA believes that a state standard for Ebola preparation can be negotiated with state officials. “Some states are having protests; there are a couple of states actually having nurses walk off,” she said. “That’s not really where we’re at on this. We think going for the state standard makes more sense. We think that’s a more collaborative thing, an area we think we can do some growth in.”
been avoided. Bidwell said PTS is also looking at route planning and scheduling in order to add cushion routes with extra travel time. These routes allow drivers to focus on safety first and discourages them from rushing to their next stop. Tucker said schedule and route planning changes have helped immensely. “We know safety comes first and schedule comes last,” she said. “Even if I feel that I’m falling behind I don’t worry about it because there are different ways to catch up.” However, Tucker said she feels that drivers have developed a bad reputation, partly as a result of buses not always running on time and partly as a reaction to some of the incidents that have occurred over the last few years. “I don’t think people understand what it takes to be a bus driver and the amount of attention it requires and the tests we have to pass,” she said. “People just get frustrated
because we’re late.” Despite these incidents, Bidwell said students make excellent drivers and PTS should continue to employ them. “Students at the University of Michigan are some of the best and brightest young people that we have in the country,” he said. “We’re a great University, and students go on to do great things, and I think they do great things while they’re here being students. Included in that is driving transit coaches. They’re fully capable and they do a great job.” Bidwell declined to comment on the details of the two most recent accidents, their legal repercussions or the disciplinary actions taken against the drivers involved in them. “Our thoughts and prayers really go out to anybody affected by this. We’re really saddened by these events,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the people that have been affected by these things.”
allows UMMA to collaborate with other campus organizations to better integrate the art center with academic projects. Throm said current Academic Coordinator David Choberka has worked with many professors to broaden the curricular experience for their students. The museum’s collections assistant and History of Art Fellowship will receive $250,000 to continue their work for three more years. UMMA’s collections assistant works alongside the academic coordinator to encourage students to use the museum’s collections and initiate research projects. The assistant also builds relationships with other colleges and academic communities. Throm said UMMA currently services 37 percent of University schools and programs and 34 percent of LSA departments. The grant will also fund the History of Art Curatorial
Research Fellowship, which allows a history of art doctoral student to work with museum collections in his or her academic specializations. Throm said the fellowship provides doctoral students with a broader understanding of professions in the art history field. “We have put the student experience at the top of our strategic planning process,” she said. “We really think about how the student experience is impacted by our work at the museum. While we serve a very important role in the community to people who aren’t students, we are affiliated with the University of Michigan and we have a lot to contribute to the academic mission of the University.” An UMMA press release said the museum will also expand its focus in new fields of study, update records and increase its number of collections access requests.
Equal Exchange, a worker cooperative focused on Fair Trade. Hannah Rosenberg, a junior at Oberlin College in Ohio living in Harkness Co-op, sat at a Starbucks table in lively conversation with two other co-opers, both of whom she had just met. “If we have any hope of the cooperative movement being a national or international thing rather than a very localized thing, it’s important to know one another,” Rosenberg said. “And that’s chill.” In addition to presentations by co-op members, attendees ate meals together, watched films, played games and taught and attended classes — one of which was titled “The Forgotten History of Group Equity Housing Cooperatives.” Jim Jones, the two-time former executive director of NASCO, former executive director of Ann Arbor’s Inter-Cooperative Council and a 2009 Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee, taught the course. Jones is a cooperative history buff. The author of “Many Hands: A History of the Austin Cooperative Community,” he is also in his 25th year of work on a book about the history of student cooperatives. Jones said the country’s first student-owned cooperatives were opened in 1932 — one of which was in Ann Arbor — during the Great Depression. Sharing housing, decisions, food and labor was the Student Socialist Club’s way of coping with the effects of the Great Depression. They rented a house and inaugurated the Michigan Socialist House cooperative, charging each member $2 per week for room and board, Jones said. Ann Arbor’s student cooperative movement remained embodied in the lone Michigan Socialist House, until the Campus Cooperative Council, now known as the Inter-Cooperative Council, was born in 1937. By 1941, the student cooperative movement was expanding. Eleven rented houses in Ann Arbor housed student coops, eight for men and three for women, according to the ICC’s website. “It wasn’t until the war that things became difficult,” Jones said. The male population, he said, was “devastated.” Many co-ops lost their leases and were closed and many men coming to the University to train for World War II filled the former co-op houses instead. Still, the ICC survived. In 1944, the ICC purchased its first house, A.K. Stevens House. Before this, the ICC had only rented. Two years later, bolstered by the return of soldiers from World War II, the co-op movement rebounded. Three hundred co-ops emerged on 144 student campuses, according to the video “Working Together: The Story of the ICC,” found on the ICC’s website. By 1967, the ICC owned 10 houses. With the war behind them, co-ops were able to refinance, repay loans and develop equity, Jones said. Finally, in 1968, the ICC sponsored a conference that formed NASCO, uniting the cooperative movement across the United States and Canada. Ingrained in the cooperative movement is a struggle for social justice, a struggle made more institutional by NASCO and the ICC. “The (ICC) is not inherently political, but it does inherently promote social justice by using collective buying and democratic self-government to give more equitable access to resources within the organization,” said LSA senior John-Thomas Zakala-Downs, president of ICC co-op Black Elk. The ICC has, however, been political in the past. In 1943, for example, Lester House was recognized in The Saturday Evening Post for its success and persistence in
WEBSITE From Page 2 Kotov said it is important for the two groups to remember to learn from each other.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 — 5 supporting integrated housing. Jones said co-opers once picketed the barbershop in the basement of the Union, which refused to cut the hair of Black patrons. The front door of the Union was another point of contention for co-opers. Women were only permitted to enter through back doors. “This was the men’s Union,” Jones said with feigned severity, “so they (women) used to rush the door! They used to rush past this guy that was there. These things go way back.” The co-ops’ push toward social justice again manifested itself in 1948 when the ICC bought Nakamura, a house named for Johnny Nakamura, a Japanese-American student at the University who fought and died in World War II. The name exhibited the ICC’s defense of its Japanese co-op members during World War II, as the U.S. government interned almost 120,000 Japanese Americans. “(The ICC) has been at the forefront of a lot of important social movements, so I’m proud to say that co-ops have always been on the right side of history in that way,” said ICC President Maya Menlo, a Public Policy senior. Inside Nakamura’s living room laid Tyler Whittico, ICC Board Representative for Nakamura and Washtenaw Community College culinary student, who was stretched out in a colorful hammock hanging just above one of the couches. Evan Bancroft, an Eastern Michigan University junior, laid in another hammock, one end of which connected to the wall just below the strand of lights that spelled out “Nakamura” in cursive. It was 6:30 p.m. and the cousins, along with a few other Nakamura co-opers, were relaxing before dinner at 7 p.m. Jazz music came wandering in from down the stairs in the kitchen, where Wednesday’s cooks were preparing dinner. The co-op has dinner together every night from Sunday to Thursday, and sometimes, residents play Super Smash Bros. after dinner. According to Whittico, it’s hard to generalize and define a house like theirs, a co-op with diverse members. They house members from all different schools in the area, an annual summer member in his 70s and people of many different backgrounds. “It’s really unique,” Bancroft said. “A lot of people don’t consider co-ops as a housing option, and it’s a relatively cheap one too, because you get everything at a flat rate. We all decide what we’re going to budget our food out to be.” According to the ICC’s website, every member living in an ICC house this fall and winter pays $459 in ICC charges each month, which collectively covers all of the ICC houses’ mortgages, taxes, maintenance, administration, furniture, utilities and internet fees. In addition to ICC charges, each house charges its members a monthly amount voted on at the beginning of each semester, a charge that goes toward food, cleaning supplies and laundry. Nakamura’s charge this year is $122, making for a total charge of $581 for monthly living and boarding. While it isn’t quite the $2 from back in 1932, cooperative living helps students save money and makes living more affordable. “At the same time, you eliminate that sense of privacy,” Bancroft said. “In the co-ops you have to build up seniority to get your own single. It’s a little bit harder. Some people appreciate that and some people don’t. It’s just a matter of taste.” Nakamura President Alexandria Carey, an LSA senior, countered by showing the other edge of the privacy argument. “I don’t know, I think it’s awesome. Probably the best place I’ve lived on campus,” Carey said. “You get to live with
30 people who become like your best friends.” Bancroft characterized Nakamura as a “progressive musician’s house.” Every summer it hosts Rockamura, an allday music festival at the house. “We’re one of the younger, more lively houses,” Carey said. The walls just outside the living room doors, with their green mural of abstract faces, echoed her sentiment. Gregory House’s walls are much cleaner. In this substance-free co-op, white and blue seem to be the theme. The house was named after Karl D. Gregory, a Gregory House alum and professor of economics at Oakland University, who donated $20,000 to the ICC. Gregory House also has dinners together, though its residents voted for six dinners per week instead of Nakamura’s five. “We all talk and we get into long fights about ethics and politics after dinner,” said LSA junior Emma Nagler. “We’ve been having an ongoing debate about whether or not people’s decisions are determined, or if people have free will.” On the doorway to Gregory House’s living room is a checklist, a monitor of house chores. According to Nagler, each member is required to do four hours of work per week, whether it is in the form of cleaning, cooking or working as a leader in the house. Members of Black Elk, which is just across the street from Gregory House and has a large sculpture of a hand planted in its yard, are also required to work four hours each week to be a cooperative member of the house. Historically, Black Elk has been characterized as a vegetarian co-op, according to Zakala-Downs. Residents buy their food from socially just companies and sustainable farms. They eat together four times per week and offer a vegan option at every meal. “The people that have lived there have chosen, if not to be vegetarian as their lifestyle, to be vegetarian as a community for the sustainability of that,” Zakala-Downs said. The entire corridor of Black Elk’s entryway is plastered with writing from past and current members. “At Black Elk we get a lot of communication through writing from our past, from our history, letters, posters from parties, artwork, signatures and notes painted on the walls,” Zakala-Downs said. According to Jones, this connection to the past is part of what makes a housing co-op different from a normal group of people living together. “The co-op is institutionalized so that people move in and out, and that entity of the co-op stays there,” Jones said. “Over time, the longer that entity lasts, the stronger it becomes. It’s almost like a mythology, and the culture grew up around it, and then it becomes everybody’s responsibility to make sure it lasts for the next group.” ICC cooperative members of the past preserved their co-ops and present-day co-opers are reaping the benefits, especially in the context of today’s rising tuition costs and housing prices. “It’s unmanageable for a lot of people, even if they’re using loans or doing scholarships,” Menlo said. “It’s just very tough for some people to go to school and pay room and board. I think now co-ops are serving an even more important role than ever before because of the financial situations of a lot of students.” The co-op movement is about returning power to its members as an act of social justice. NASCO, the ICC, and each co-op are making drastic strides toward that end, each member owning the co-op house they live in, the worker co-ops they work for or the consumer coops they buy from. “Collectively, we own everything,” Menlo said.
“You can be opposed to someone’s point of view or political beliefs without demonizing a person as a whole,” Kotov said. “For me, that has been very, very important and I would like to keep that going. I don’t
want to think of them as sides because they aren’t opposites, but we have a lot to learn from each other. Pro-life and prochoice also have a lot to learn from people who try to stay out of that ‘dichotomy.’ ”
Arts
6 — Tuesday, November 11, 2014
ALBUM REVIEW
DEF JAM
Perpetually ascending to the throne: A King Remembered in Time.
Elite ‘Cadillactica’ Big K.R.I.T asserts his varied talents on new LP By NICK BOYD Daily Arts Writer
Justin Scott shouldered a heavy burden when he chose his stage name, Big K.R.I.T. (King Remembered A in Time), but three Cadillactica mixtapes and two Big K.R.I.T. albums Def Jam later, it’s hard to argue with his rap credentials. K.R.I.T.’s new album, Cadillactica, lands amid high expectations, but the Mississippi native delivers the pungent Southern, bassladen, subwoofer-tearing style his listeners have grown accustomed to while simultaneously pushing his artistic boundaries. The album draws from genres ranging from gospel to blues, and features artists from Wiz Khalifa to A$AP Ferg, providing the ideal lyrical platform and supporting cast for the future King. In a rap climate increasingly dominated by the sounds of TDE and OVO,
K.R.I.T. provides a unique third dimension and seems to be a man on a mission to keep Southern rap alive and well. On Cadillactica, he exceeds his mandate and solidifies his status as a contemporary rap titan and production mastermind. “Let’s create” — The album opens with a woman’s voice imploring K.R.I.T. to start making some music (or sex, pending your interpretation). K.R.I.T. protests initially, but it doesn’t take much prodding for him to concede to the voice. The rapper then slides into the smooth intro track, aptly dubbed “Kreation,” and discusses the pursuit of perfection. “Kreation” transports the listener to K.R.I.T.’s retro Cadillac and signals the beginning of a strange auditory journey through the annals of Southern rap. It’s clear from the beginning that K.R.I.T. won’t conform to any mainstream standards. Throughout the album, he stays true to himself and produces an artistically honest narrative. Whereas “Kreation” puts you in K.R.I.T.’s Cadillac, the album’s third track, “My Sub Pt. 3,” threatens to blow a hole in the trunk. You can’t listen to this song without a fat-
ass subwoofer because other speakers won’t register any sounds aside from the lyrics. This track feels good in your ear holes, but may shatter your rib cage. And yes — this really is the third song he has titled “My Sub.” Big K.R.I.T. has been paying homage to the subwoofer since his second mix tape, Return of 4eva, which featured the track “My Sub.” “My Sub Pt. 2” can be located on his previous album, Live From the Underground. At this rate, we will probably end up with “My Sub Pt. 15.” Many tracks off Cadillactica were released prior to the album, including “Soul Food,” “Pay Attention” and “Lac Lac.” Although listeners have already had the opportunity to enjoy these songs, they remain standouts on the album. “Soul Food,” featuring Raphael Saadiq, employs a bluesy gospel hook and a soulful guitar loop that exemplifies K.R.I.T.’s individuality within the rap world and willingness to bridge gaps across genres. “Pay Attention,” featuring Rico Love, begins slowly and introspectively but builds to an intense chorus that sets this song apart. “Lac Lac,” featuring A$AP Ferg, closes out the album and is one of K.R.I.T.’s all-time smoothest tracks.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, November 11, 2014
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“Mind Control,” the eighth track off the album, features Wiz Khalifa and E-40. A slap bass line fit for Outkast establishes the tone of the song and creates a retro vibe that epitomizes the album. Don’t worry, Wiz doesn’t miss his chance to drop a signature verse, covering subject matter from “Lobster bisque” to “Money, clothes, hoes, weed smoke.” I guess it’s the simple things in life. Other prominent features include Lupe Fiasco on “Lost Generation.” K.R.I.T. and Lupe seem an unlikely pairing, but they combine to make this the second best track from the album. Lupe and K.R.I.T. seamlessly exchange verses and both rappers are at their respective bests on the track. The standout track from Cadillactica is undoubtedly “Do You Love Me for Real.” The track features relatively unknown singer Mara Hruby, from Oakland, California, but she nearly steals the show in her role singing the hook. However, K.R.I.T. deserves credit for a compositional masterpiece. The production of this track synthesizes a downtempo beat and Hruby’s soulful vocals, providing Big K.R.I.T. the most transcendent platform on the entire album. The song combines R&B and hip hop in the perfect ratio, making it one of the best rap songs of the past year. Remember the name Mara Hruby — she may be a queen remembered in time. Two summers ago, Kendrick Lamar called out Big K.R.I.T. on his verse in Big Sean’s “Control.” On Cadillactica, K.R.I.T. shows the world why Lamar had his eyes on the Southern rapper and proves he deserves to be numbered among today’s rap elite. Beyond that, K.R.I.T. shows that even among such esteemed company, he is unique — his ability to produce visionary beats and pay tribute to multiple genres while maintaining a cohesive sound transports him close to the pinnacle of today’s rap landscape. He may not have the same name recognition or pop sound of some of his peers, but he has exceptional talent and may prove to truly be a King Remembered in Time.
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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Tibetan holy men 6 Voice above tenor 10 Boy or girl lead-in 14 Traditional saying 15 Sound of pain 16 Scientology creator Hubbard 17 Big Bang, to a physicist 20 Snarky state 21 What comes before beauty? 22 __-weensy 23 Show stopper 27 Greeter and seater 30 Frozen drink brand 31 Started the pot 32 Commercial suffix with Motor 33 Pop’s favorite root beer? 37 Old man’s place, in Hemingway 38 One of two gridiron borders, and what the last words of 17-, 23-, 52- and 62Across can have 42 Sock part 43 Hair line 45 Aegean island 46 Beachcomber’s beat 48 Selma or Patty, to Bart 50 One of the 3Down 52 Like some August sales 56 Cop __: bargain in court 57 Actor McKellen 58 Partners of cons 62 Alabama Slammer liqueur 66 Gen. Robert __ 67 Truck maker with a bulldog logo 68 Mentor’s charge 69 Fizzy drink 70 “Terrible” age 71 Single-master DOWN 1 Some are chocolate 2 Arabian Peninsula port 3 Gift-bearing trio
4 Stir up 5 Hill VIP: Abbr. 6 Pamplona pals 7 One who eschews company 8 Bag marker 9 Lennon collaborator 10 Let out, say 11 Singer Lopez 12 Siberian industrial center 13 In the blink of __ 18 2014 N.L. East champs 19 Fancy party 24 Formally relinquish 25 Rural skyline feature 26 Diagnostic test 27 Door fastener 28 Most fit to be drafted 29 Guide for the 3Down 32 Parts of lbs. 34 Physics particle 35 Explorer on Nick Jr. 36 Detected 39 Barcelona boy 40 Web address parts
41 Name on some Canadian pumps 44 Break for a meal and a beverage, in Britain 47 Lending a hand 49 Four Corners state 50 Strikes sharply 51 Prefix with sphere 52 Fenway corners 53 Speed skater __ Anton Ohno
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MUSIC COLUMN
I
Dancing the blues away
n the opening-credits scene of 2014’s most popular blockbuster film, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the lonely fig ure of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is seen traversing a rocky, desolate planet. Typical-actionADAM movie-score strings THEISEN swell in the background as Quill arrives at some abandoned ruins. Entering the dilapidated monument, the camera focuses on Quill’s face, but the clichéd music dies out. Quill fills the silence by putting on a pair of cheap-looking headphones and hitting play on his Walkman. Suddenly, unexpectedly, Redbone’s long-forgotten 1974 hit “Come and Get Your Love” is playing, and Quill is dancing among the wreckage. Like an intergalactic Michael Jackson, he struts along his path, spinning around as he sings the song ’s gleef ul refrain into a microphone that also happens to be a small alien life form. While lesser movies would’ve likely picked your t ypical heroic instrumental to accompany Quill’s trek to his mystical orb, director James Gunn chose an upbeat ’70s jam and created an unforgettable scene. Too of ten when I’m listening to music, I’ll tr y to pick songs from my iPod or Spotif y favorites that perfectly f it my current mood. When I’m ang r y, I’ll listen to Minor Threat; when I’m f un, Motown; when I need to concentrate on homework, Miles Davis. For the most part, there’s nothing wrong with this strateg y, but sometimes it means I’ll end up in a bad mood and won’t listen to any thing but the sorrowf ul voices of Nick Drake or Elliott Smith. I love those g uys, but I’m not always looking for them to prolong my mood — instead, I want something that’ll jumpstart me out of it. The other day I was listening to melancholy music while walking to a class I was dreading on a gloomy, overcast day. Sprinkles start hitting my glasses and f inally I decide that I’m just done with this crap. So, inspired by “Guardians,” I switch off my slow, sad ballad and turn on “Come and Get Your Love.” It was perfect. The methodical bounciness of the opening bass line, joined quickly by the g uitar, was mimicked by the bounce in my step. I was smiling and tr ying my best to keep my body from noticeably copying Chris Pratt’s moves as I swaggered my way down the rainy streets of Ann Arbor. In the 40 seconds it took to get to the “Come and get your looooo-hove!” chorus, my mood had completely changed. Sometimes, I realized, I don’t need to be stuck in an unpleasant mood, and I can use music to get me out of it. Naturally, I’ve been tr ying to f ind other songs that recreate this feeling — songs that won’t necessarily cure all of my worries, but ones that will at least help reorient my mood on gloomy days. The f irst obvious choice was Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World.” The song ’s lyrics are easy to laugh off but impossible to forget. Singer Hoy t A xton screams the f irst line (“Jeremiah was a bull-
frog!”) with such elation and import that he sounds like a scientist who’s discovered the missing piece of his life’s work. The g uitars sound much like they do on “Come and Get Your Love,” and the chorus is just as easy to sing along to. Even if you’ve never heard the song before, you’ll be bobbing your head and mouthing “joy to the f ishes in the deep blue sea/joy to you and me” by the t wo-minute mark. It’s not just your dad’s classic rock hits that have this effect, though. Kendrick Lamar’s “i” is a recent example of life-aff irming, impossible-to-deny music that obliterates all sadness. (The assist from The Isley Brothers is certainly the key here — hip-hop producers can almost never go wrong when they sample old-school soul.) UGK and Outkast’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” is another one. André 3000’s verse always hits me like a dive into a pool on a 100-deg ree day.
We want The Supremes and Prince. We want ‘500 Miles.’ Rock songs with an edge can have that “it” factor, too. “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” by The Ramones also soundtracks the beg inning of “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” one of my favorite openingcredits scenes of all-time. R iff Randell plays the song on her school’s PA and the entire school gets up and dances. The song ’s effect on young people is only slightly overstated in the f ilm. So I’ve been tr ying to f igure out what the common denominator is. What, specifically, do these songs have that make them such great pick-me-ups? It certainly isn’t the case that every popular, catchy song is a perfect antidote to the blues. Britney Spears, for example, is great, but she doesn’t get me moving and smiling the way that “Shake It Off ” or MKTO’s “Classic” do. There’s something too stilted about Spears’s early work, and something too grimy about the later work — like she’s more under the control of her producers than the song. “Shake It Off ” and “Classic” have ingenious melodies, but they also sound so effortless, like they just came to their creators suddenly one moment in the studio. While I suppose it’s possible that some people hate Taylor Swift and get out of their chairs for Britney, my experiences with large, diverse group events ( like weddings or sporting events) tells me that there’s a specific subset of fun-filled songs that connect generations and improve everyone’s mood. And I think it comes down to relaxation. When we’re stressed out and need to loosen up, or even when we’re not and just want to dance and sing, we want songs that ref lect that. We want people who make it look easy. We want The Supremes and Prince. We want “500 Miles” and “Sweet Caroline.” If we’re going to shed our worries and boogie like we’re on an abandoned planet, we need artists who are trying to do the same. Theisen is using a small alien life form as a microphone. To join him, e-mail ajtheis@umich.edu.
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Arts
ALBUM REVIEW
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 — 7
TV REVIEW
PROSPECT PARK
Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.
FOX
Thurman Merman drops the bloody pickle and tries his hand at cooking.
Oft-delayed Azealia ‘MasterChef Junior’ Banks LP delights is reality TV’s best Cohesive ‘Broke With Expensive Taste’ impresses By DANIELLE RAYKHINSHTEYN Daily Arts Writer
Broke With Expensive Taste is an album that begs to be listened to in its entirety, even with its unusual length — 16 songs A measuring in at 60 minutes and 19 seconds. Most of the songs sound quite similar, but not in a trite, boring Azealia way; each track Banks transitions Prospect Park smoothly into the next, giving the illusion that the album might just be one incredibly long and satisfying harmony. The album opens with “Idle Delilah,” a haunting track whose main riff pops up again in later songs, such as “Soda” and “Miss Amor,” continuing the illusion of a single, hour-long composition. “Idle Delilah” itself begins with a beat from a drum and synthesizer, slowly building to adding in a kick drum. While the rhythm is pretty steady and simple, it has an anticipatory feel to it. When Banks’s voice comes in a couple beats later, with its airy timbre, it’s as if the top has been taken off of the boiling pot of water. Banks’s debut showcases her knack for innovation, and in this way, “Idle Delilah” sets the tone for the rest of the album. The song has no clear structure, and in what could possibly be considered
Broke With Expensive Taste
the bridge, the mating calls of a primate are dubbed over the new, bell-like beat. And, somehow, it works. The second track, “Gimme A Chance,” switches into Spanish in the second half of the song; “Desperado” features a radio DJ introducing the tune in a meta sort of way; “Heavy Metal and Reflective” opens with a sound that could either be construed as sweeping or the bustle of a FedEx mailroom; “Ice Princess” fittingly showcases the sound of a (presumably) cold wind blowing; and multiple tracks contain trumpets blasting. She creates music out of everyday life. Banks pushes the boundaries of traditional music conventions, and, for the most part, she succeeds, creating such wonderful beats and melodies that the unconventional aspects of the songs work in their favor. She pairs synthesized beats with drums, with xylophones, with trumpets, with the sultry timbre of her voice in a expertly mastered paradox. Where she falls flat is on track 14, “Nude Beach A Go-Go.” While the song fits with the rest of the album by continuing some overtly sexual themes, the music, melody and lyrics about drinking Coca-Cola cause it to feel more like a country song than the electro-hip-hop of the rest of the album. It’s unclear whether this song was meant to be even more innovative than the rest of the album and just fell horribly flat, or whether it’s meant as a joke or even a slight at the rest of the music industry. Whatever Banks intended, the song interrupts the flow of an otherwise seamless track order. (I actually mistook it for a corny jingle on a Spotify
commercial when it came on.) In some ways, it’s also one of the most traditional songs on the album, sporting a traditional verse-chorus form and only clocking in at 2 minutes and 20 seconds, whereas most other tracks are 4-5 minutes. It doesn’t fit, and, frankly, it’s obnoxious to listen to, while the rest of the tunes are so soothing that they almost put the listener in a trance. What should be juxtaposed with this trance-like state of listening are the lyrics to “212,” in which Banks intones, “she wanna lick my plum in the evening,” followed by, “and fit that tongue deep in. I guess that cunt getting eaten.” Yet, there is something in the way Banks performs, an assuredness, that makes what is probably considered one of the worst words in the English language perfectly normal to utter. Considering a good portion of the lyrics in the other tracks on the album isn’t easy to comprehend (a quality that, normally frowned upon, adds to the trance-like quality of her songs), it seems Banks is once again pushing the boundaries here, making a statement. And, once again, she succeeds. On Broke With Expensive Taste, Banks creates such an environment that the album could be listened to as a lullaby or bumped at a club. She soothes, but she provokes. She follows tradition, but she toes the line. She goes hard on tracks like “Yung Rapunxel,” but she lightens up on tracks like “Wallace.” She almost creates a new genre: not quite hiphop, not quite dance, not quite electronic, not quite rap, but completely Azealia Banks.
Waiting for the next musical bomb to drop Daily Arts Writer
What keeps me on my toes? Well, a pop quiz in Earth 103, my girlfriend and as of late, the music industry. Gone are the days of waking up and checking my e-mails and texts. Now, iTunes, Soundcloud and musicians’ Facebook pages are the first thing on my mind. Is someone going to drop a single? Is someone going to drop a video? Is someone going to drop an album? The trend’s best example is the musical bomb that dropped Dec. 13, 2013 in the wee hours of the morning: Beyoncé’s self-titled masterpiece. And as much of a blessing that album was, it has forever changed the game and raised my blood pressure. Listeners no longer have full musical knowledge by waiting until 12 a.m. Tuesdays. Or even 12 a.m. any day of the week. What if an artist decides 3 a.m. is a good time? Or maybe 2 p.m.? IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS IN ANARCHY. Listeners have no clue when the next bomb is coming or who is going to drop it.
By ALEX INTNER Daily Arts Writer
Gordon Ramsay is known for being loud with his celebrity character based on his brash personality and angry Ainteractions. But, this hard image has changed slightly with Season Two the premiere Premiere of a spinoff Tuesdays at 8 p.m. of one of FOX his hits, “MasterChef Junior.” By surrounding Ramsay with a group of incredibly talented child cooks, he was able to show a side of himself that doesn’t usually appear in his other programs. In the process, he made this new series much better than his others. With a strong second season return, “MasterChef Junior” can proudly claim its place as not only the crown jewel of the Gordon Ramsay reality empire but also the best reality show on network television. In “MasterChef Junior,” children from ages eight to 13 compete with one another in a cooking competition. The
MasterChef Junior
This type of innovation has helped make music the most complex entertainment medium. If a movie randomly showed up in theaters none of us would know what it’s about, so why go see it? Advertisers would shit themselves at the idea of a TV show airing with no promotions. Artists have a brand that fans grow to trust, so they can let their work create hype instead of creating hype for it. Movies and television need the immediate satisfaction and safety net of advertising to make the world explode before they drop their product — but music gets dropped and the explosion follows.
Who’s next? Rihanna? Kanye? When will it be? Thus, the need for anti-anxiety medication for extremist, musiclovers like myself. So, it raises the question: is this the fun anticipation of a package in the mail, or the dreadful anticipation of wait-
ing for rain in a drought? At the moment, it feels a tad bit like a drought, but every night it’s possible that tomorrow morning I’ll wake up and I could have that same overwhelming feeling of joy that filled me when BEYONCÉ was released. It is clear that only music’s biggest players are capable of such innovation (so, it is only fitting Queen B blazed this trail). Even more prominent artists right now, such as Iggy Azalea or Ariana Grande, could not pull off a surprise album. A surprise single? Possibly. To pull off a surprise album, an artist needs a loyal band of followers. Bey has the Beyhive; Rihanna, the Navy; Taylor Swift, the Swifties; Justin Bieber (God bless America) has his Beliebers; and a handful of other artists have a strong enough resumé. So, slowly the wick of the next musical bomb is winding down. Will Rihanna’s album be the final spark? Maybe Kanye. Ooooh or maybe the Beyoncé-Jay Z collaborative album. BOOM. Something is going to happen. What is it? Who is it? When will it be? No one knows: the most beautiful curse of the music industry.
contestants are tiny; some are even too small to lift the equipment. Despite that, they’re preparing pork tenderloin and an assortment of chicken dishes that look like they could be served in a high-class restaurant. At this point, it’s a little too early in the season for any of the participants to really pop the way that Sarah and eventual winner Alexander did last year because there are just too many. This is a problem that every iteration of “MasterChef” has, but one that resolves itself as the season moves along. What really separates “MasterChef Junior” from the other shows in the Ramsay network is that it’s built from a genuinely sweet place. There’s none of the vindictiveness and backstabbing that make competitions like “Hell’s Kitchen” difficult to watch. When someone doesn’t do well, the contenders express support instead of just giving the camera coy smiles. The best moment in the episode came when the other competitors comforted one player who broke down after presenting the judges a dish with raw chicken. It’s rare that something with that amount of authentic kindness actually makes it to the final cut, and it’s something that should be savored. From a judging perspective, Ramsay and professional chefs
and restaurateurs, Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich, are never overly harsh. Because they’re assessing kids, they find a way to give pointed criticism without coming across like they’re attacking the children themselves, as they often do on “MasterChef” senior. Bastianich especially tones down his abrasiveness from what he brings to the adult version, to the point where he’s a better judge for it. The show also has slick editing. It doesn’t have the same drawn-out nature of “MasterChef,” and it allows the episode to feel freer. In addition, they incorporate some fantastic reaction shots and testimonials from the children. A big part of watching the program is those clips; some of the kids’ comments make for great television. “MasterChef Junior” has elements of what every competition series should have — great editing, skilled contestants and intelligent, but not overly cruel, judging. What sets it above the others is a lack of theatric maliciousness, which keeps the focus where it should be — on the talented kid chefs — rather than on the sabotage or hatred. Even with a busy schedule, the show is well worth the time. It’s easy on the brain and, because of that, it’s one of the most enjoyable hours on network television.
NEW MEDIA NOTEBOOK
‘Gone Girl’ suffers from lack of gaming expertise By JACOB RICH
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY
FOX show’s second season is Gordon Ramsay’s finest
Daily Arts Writer
I saw “Gone Girl” with my girlfriend and a colleague from The Michigan Daily, both big fans of the book. Post-showing, the two of them agreed that it was incredibly absorbing and engaging, which I enthusiastically echoed. To me, “Gone Girl” was remarkably wellcrafted … with the exception of one scene. There is one terrible, awful, scene-ruining, tension-breaking, cringe-inducing moment in “Gone Girl,” one that (quite understandably, mind you) neither of my Rave theater comrades noticed. They fuck up the video game scene. In one scene, Ben Affleck’s character is shown playing a PlayStation 3 when his wife (Rosamund Pike) walks in the room to speak to him. The camera at one point swings to show the television screen, on which footage of what appears to be Battlefield 3’s (2010) single-player campaign mode is shown. At this point, every hardcore gamer in the audience likely rolled their eyes. What was the problem? To put it simply, it’s too obvious Affleck’s character is not actually playing a video game. The image on the television screen is clearly not gameplay; it’s pre-rendered footage added in post-production. That’s not inherently problematic. The problem is that with minimal
attention and care, I’m entirely positive David Fincher’s team could have made the gameplay footage look realistic. Unfortunately, it will be abundantly clear to experienced gamers that the footage is fake. The biggest indicator is the lack of a HUD (the static onscreen graphics indicating health, ammunition, the map, etc). How could Fincher’s team, who are known for their mindbogglingly organized and thoroughly intentional filmmaking, screw this up? It sure seems like they went, “hey, we need game footage for this scene — go see if any game developers will give us money to place their game here.” Call me paranoid, but it seems likely that this highly doctored, HUD-less, cleaned up footage was made to put the game in as best a light as possible, not to make the footage make sense within the scene.
Filmmakers need to do their video game homework. You may say that this is nitpicking to an unfair degree. And you know what? It probably is. The hardcore gaming audience (in other words, the people who will notice this mistake) probably comprises less than one percent of the people who went to see “Gone Girl” in theaters.
Everybody else likely understood immediately that Nick was playing a video game and didn’t think much else about it. But to those of us who noticed, this was a huge immersion-breaking moment. “Gone Girl” is a story that hinges on its believability, and to be suddenly yanked out of the film’s wonderfully constructed world and reminded that you are merely watching a film is a major problem. This phenomenon of poorlythought-out video game scenes isn’t limited to “Gone Girl.” It’s a widespread problem in film, and there really hasn’t been much of a conversation about it. Almost universally, video game scenes involve far too much button clacking for the kind of game that’s being played. They also typically portray the characters swinging around their controllers like lunatics, in an egregious caricature of the way people get frustrated with games in real life. Usually, these scenes are played for humor, or a throwaway vertical slice of average life, nothing more. Even “Her,” one of the savviest movies about futuristic technology ever, prominently featured projections of video games that any hardcore gamer would dismiss as a highly unlikely and unrealistic view of gaming’s future. So, filmmakers — as one of the obnoxious one percent of people who will be put off by the lazy portrayal of video games in film, I implore you: Do your homework.
Sports
8 — Tuesday, November 11, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ICE HOCKEY
After poor start, Wolverines talk individual, team growth Following a 2-5 start to season, coaches, players discuss future By ERIN LENNON Daily Sports Writer
TERESA MATHEW/Daily
Freshman forward Austin Hatch may not get to play this season, but still received his moment in the spotlight at the end of Monday’s exhibition win.
Hatch highlights ‘M’ exhibition By JAKE LOURIM Daily Sports Editor
The shooting wasn’t quite there early in the Michigan men’s basketball team’s exhibition against Wayne State, and neither was the smooth offense the Wolverines used to win the Big Ten last season. And those issues reached a climax with 14:31 left in the game, when junior point guard Derrick Walton Jr. went down holding his left leg. Even junior guard Caris LeVert said he was nervous to see the Wolverines’ starting floor general wincing. Freshman forward Kam Chatman fed Walton off a rebound, and Walton started the fast break before finishing with a layup at the other end. That built Michigan’s lead to 26, and a crowd of 10,510 erupted — until it noticed Walton grimacing on the baseline under the basket. But things actually went up from there. Walton hobbled off and then went to the locker room, only to return to the court three minutes later and went back in the game shortly thereafter. By that time, the lead was a comfortable 28, and all was well again. The Wolverines wouldn’t need Walton much after his return, extending their lead to more than 40 before the buzzer sounded, the final score reading 86-43. As the clock wound down, the score seemed trivial but the moment of the night came in the final minute. With the game long since decided, Michigan coach John Beilein inserted freshman guard Austin Hatch and told the team to get him the ball. They did so a couple times, and the bench implored him to shoot. In the final seconds, his patience was rewarded as he went to the line and scored his first career point. “I wouldn’t say a sense of relief,” Hatch said. “But it was cool, though. I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to say, ‘No big deal. It was just a free throw.’ At the end of the day, after all of which has happened, I kind of have a unique situation.” Hatch, who drew a standing ovation with both his entrance and his free throw, was the highlight of a night in which Michigan struggled to pull away until the second half, finishing just 7-for-22 from 3-point range.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well from three, so there’s always room for improvement there,” LeVert said. “I’m not sure what we shot, but it wasn’t one of our better nights. To see us still score over 80 was encouraging for us.” In a clear mismatch, though, Michigan was never threatened. Momentum swings, like sophomore guard Zak Irvin’s fast-break dunk 2:03 into the game and junior guard Spike Albrecht’s steal and layup, dispelled any concern. But in an exhibition, Beilein found plenty of errors to clean up. After just 89 seconds, he took out Walton after he committed an early foul for Albrecht. And Albrecht promptly grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a finger roll. Walton later came in and finished the first half with eight points on fivefor-five free-throw shooting. After just 2:44, Beilein took out Irvin, who turned the ball over and fouled the shooter at the other end. He replaced him with freshman guard Aubrey Dawkins, and Irvin later came back in and slammed home an alley-oop from LeVert. While Michigan’s offense didn’t get going until the second half, its defense kept Wayne State out of contention the whole game. The Wolverines’ big secondhalf run started not with 3-point shooting or good ball movement but by forcing turnovers. Michigan forced six turnovers in the first seven minutes of the second half, including one that culminated with Albrecht’s behind-theback pass to LeVert for a dunk. “I really wouldn’t know what moment to point out, but I know Coach has just been harping on our defense,” Irvin said. “Our defense can turn into our offense, because we’re pretty good in transition, so that’s just something we’ve been working on.” That would be just about the end of the drama, especially when Walton returned a few moments later. It hadn’t been a perfect night, but the damage was minimal. “It’s hard to believe we went to Europe and we’re not further along, but I’m not moving as quickly as maybe I would have in past years,” Beilein said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet.”
“At the end of the day ... I kind of have a unique situation.”
@THEBLOCKM
With two weeks to reflect on a dismal seven-game stretch, a passage Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson called one of the worst he can remember NOTEBOOK in his 30 years, the Wolverines (2-5) sat down individually with their coaching staff. In each meeting, the point was to discuss two things: personal performance and individual development. “We kind of divided the first half of the year up into segments — this is a sevengame segment and the next segment will be eight games,” Berenson said. “So where we are as individuals, how we performed and the things we have to do better.” Each sit-down was filled with personalized, “honest feedback” based solely on games played. Even if for some, such as freshmen Alex Talcott and Cutler Martin, that sample size includes just two starts. Experienced players like sophomore forward JT Compher, who is transitioning back into his natural center position after skating five games as a right-winger, were also told there are adjustments
to be made. “There’s just a sense that everyone can do more,” Compher said. “That was definitely the case in my meeting. I think that there’s a lot of room for improvement from what I’m doing right now and what I can be doing better to improve my play for the rest of the year.” And whatever the experience level or skill in question, each player has had to develop a plan for improvement. “It’s just been a real poor performance overall,” Berenson said. “And sometimes, you’ve just got to face it and say ‘OK, now what do we do?’ We’re doing that as a team, but we’re looking at every individual as well.” Despite individualized attention, the team’s emphasis remains on defense. Michigan will get a defensive boost with the return of senior Andrew Sinelli, who missed four games due to injury. Sinelli has seen time as both a defenseman and forward this season, and is expected to start as a forward on one of the top lines Friday. “Whether he’s forward or ‘D,’ he brings good speed and a physicality that we’ve been lacking up front,” Compher said.
NO SHAVE MO-VEMBER: Two weeks into Novemeber, the Michigan hockey team, coaches included, boasts a little extra facial hair on the ice. The second annual Michigan Moustaches for Men’s Health initiative, in partnership with the University of Michigan Health System and the Movember Foundation, aims to raise awareness for prostate cancer, among other men’s health issues. And though several players have had to shave their moustaches early for job interviews, others have gotten especially creative. Junior forward Justin Selman has his shaved to a thin pencil moustache, taking a nod from former alternate captain Derek DeBlois. “Some guys look terrible, some guys look pretty good,” Sinelli said. “So we poke some fun.” Berenson said he dislikes this year’s upperlip hair as much as he did last year, but is in support of the cause and his players enthusiasm nonetheless. The Wolverines are happy with their head coach’s commitment, but have a bone to pick with other members of the coaching staff. “Make sure you get in there that (assistant coach Brian)
“There’s just a sense that everyone can do more.”
Wiseman shaved his, and the boys aren’t happy about it,” Sinelli said. MOURNING A MICHIGAN LEGEND: Wally Grant, a three-time All-American who tallied 146 points in four years at Michigan, passed away last Wednesday at the age of 86. A native of Eveleth, Minnesota, Grant came to Ann Arbor in 1945 without a scholarship in hopes of earning a spot on the Michigan hockey team. His game-winning goal against Dartmouth in 1948 earned the Wolverines their first national championship. Grant is credited with starting the “Eveleth Express,” a pipeline of skaters from the small town who helped Michigan win six NCAA titles in 10 years under coach Vic Heyliger. In 1994, Grant was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a Legend of Michigan Hockey, a member of the University of Michigan Hall of Honor and the Dekers Club Hall of Fame. “Although his career was outstanding, his relationship with the program was even more outstanding,” Berenson said in a statement. “He and his wife Mickey have been solid supporters in every regard. They’ve done whatever it takes to support this hockey team and all of the players and the program in general.”
Growing a moustache? Tweet us your pictures @TheBlockM and we’ll smile.
What we learned: Northwestern By GREG GARNO Managing Sports Editor
Thankfully, we’re not being tested on what we learned from the Michigan football team’s 10-9 victory over Northwestern. If we were, we probably wouldn’t do so well. That’s because if this weekend proved anything, the Wolverines are a difficult team to understand. And even when we ask for answers, we’d only hear about how players failed to execute. But we managed to find a few takeaways from this weekend, so here are the five things we learned. 1. There’s a reason the running back spot is open for competition Following redshirt sophomore Drake Johnson’s performance against Indiana last week, in which he rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns, the backfield was poised for a new leader. But after sophomore De’Veon Smith’s 121-yard-performance with a touchdown on Saturday, the conversation continues. Smith, who was fed the ball as the game wound down, saw 18 carries to Johnson’s 10. Johnson didn’t help his case after fumbling the ball, despite having it recovered by redshirt junior Joe Kerridge. Both bring something different to the running game — Smith, a bigger bruising back and Johnson, a quicker, slashing runner — but one hasn’t stood out more than the other. With two games remaining, expect to see the duo splitting carries as the offense looks to find its rhythm. 2. The offensive line is playing some of its best football This is new to us too, but the offensive line, the same one that has struggled to open holes up for running backs, wasn’t a a negative on Saturday. That’s not to say it’s playing spectacular, but it’s not playing poorly enough to be noticeable. The offensive line had only one false start penalty, it gave fifth-
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Sophomore running back De’Veon Smith saw 18 carries against Northwestern, compared to Drake Johnson’s 10 carries.
year senior quarterback Devin Gardner time to throw and opened holes for running backs to run through. Gardner wasn’t sacked even once and Michigan’s 147 yards are one of its highest marks on the season. There are still issues to be worked out, but if there were ever a time when it needed to play its best, this would be it. 3. The Wolverines have a new go-to target, and it isn’t Devin Funchess The Michigan receiving corps is a one-man show right now, but it’s not who you have come to expect. Redshirt sophomore Amara Darboh has become Gardner’s best option. After dropped two balls against the Wildcats, junior wide receiver Devin Funchess has now gone three straight games with multiple drops. Since he got three touchdowns against Appalachian State in the first half on Aug. 30, Funchess has caught only one other touchdown pass. Darboh, meanwhile, has been Michigan’s most reliable presence of late, catching four passes for 41 yards in Evanston and nine passes for 107 yards
against Indiana. But Darboh can’t do it all on his own. For the Wolverines to help Gardner, someone will have to step up in the next two games. Otherwise, offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier’s scheme is easy to defend. 4. The secondary can make or break how well Michigan’s defense performs Michigan’s front seven have been the backbone to its defense all season, but they can only do so much. Despite limiting Northwestern to minus-nine rushing yards and six sacks, the front seven couldn’t slow down quarterback Trevor Siemian on the final drive, as he picked apart the Wolverines’ secondary to reach the end zone. Defensive backs senior Raymon Taylor and redshirt junior Blake Countess played too far off receivers, giving room for passes to develop and relying on the front seven to create pressure quickly. Last weekend Michigan’s two interceptions came from the front seven, not the secondary. Sophomore cornerback Jourdan Lewis is the only member of the
secondary to have recorded an interception with two of the five. Only against Indiana has Michigan been able to slow any passing attack — but that game appears to be both more of an anomaly and a reflection on the Hoosiers’ offense. And if Michigan hopes to make a bowl game, it’s going to need help at the back of the defense to provide relief. BOLD PREDICTION: Michigan will not draw more than 100,000 fans against Maryland Saturday’s win was ugly, confusing and confusingly ugly. It was comical, but not entertaining. And it’s why fans will struggle to show up in two weeks when Maryland comes to town. It’s likely the reason the large alumni base in Chicago failed to turn up in Evanston. Maryland is 6-3 overall, but it hasn’t played exciting football by any means. With cold weather expected combined with a Michigan team that needed three quarters to score, Saturday is shaping up to make the wrong kind of history.