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DA N C E O FF
HEALTH
UHS touts alternative methods of birth control RITA MORRIS/Daily
EnCore competes for the title of Michigan’s Best Dance Crew on Wednesday evening in the Michigan Union.
Students asked to consider intrauterine devices, implants By EMMA KERR
GOVERNMENT
Michigan House committee hears civil rights testimony Proposals would add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
A Michigan House committee debated amendments to Michigan’s Civil Rights Act on Wednes-
day, considering two bills seeking to include anti-discriminatory protections of sexual orientation, as well as gender identity and expression for the first time in the state’s history. Business owners, advocacy groups, representatives of faith groups and lawmakers provided testimony to the House Commerce Committee regarding two competing versions of an amendment to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
One version, proposed by state Rep. Sam Singh (D–East Lansing), would modify the act to include protections for both sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The other, proposed by state Rep. Frank Foster (R– Petoskey), includes protections only for sexual orientation. Neither bill moved out of committee Wednesday due to a lack of requisite support. Proponents of the bills who spoke Wednesday cited economic
reasons — amending the act has garnered strong support from a wide coalition of businesses across the state — and personal reasons for the amendments. In addition to Foster and Singh, supporters included Allan Gilmour, a former vice chairman of Ford Motor Company; Kary Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan; and Holland business owner Jeff Padnos. See TESTIMONY, Page 3A
Daily Staff Reporter
The University offers a variety of options for obtaining contraception, but a lack of awareness and common misconceptions about birth control may inhibit students from taking advantage of University resources and selecting methods that are most effective. At the Wolverine Wellness Center in University Health Services, students can find an array of condoms, both male and female, in different flavors, colors and sizes. Relationship Remix, a sex and relationships education program held in residence halls, offers the same condoms, as well as information about different types of contraception including injections, intrauterine devices and pills.
CAMPUS LIFE
ACADEMICS
Innovate Blue launches new entrepreneurial minor in LSA Curriculum unveiled for winter 2015 builds on former certificate program By MICHAEL SUGERMAN Daily Staff Reporter
As extracurricular opportunities to grow business and encourage student entrepreneurship continue to expand, so do in-class offerings. Starting with the Winter 2015 semester, the University will offer an entrepreneurship minor through LSA. “Our students are known for their interest in applying their talents and creativity in response to a need or problem,” said University President Mark Schlissel in a statement. “This program will provide students with knowledge they can use to further ignite their
imaginations and pursue creative solutions to real world challenges.” The minor falls under the umbrella of Innovate Blue, a University program launched in March that works with University, local and commercial partners to spur entrepreneurial spirit in the classroom and outside it. The 15-credit minor is broken down into four focus areas: core, practicum, electives and selfdirected extracurricular experience. Innovate Blue will serve as a center for declaring the minor and advising. Two hundred students are expected to declare when the minor launches next year. The core will consist of two courses that were piloted this fall, titled Entrepreneurial Business Basics and Entrepreneurial Creativity. The former is run through the Ross School of Business and a lecturer in the Department of Psychology teaches the latter. See INNOVATION, Page 3A
While there are a variety of contraceptive resources available to students, many still struggle to find methods best suited to their financial and medical needs. Monique Steel, a nurse practitioner at the UHS Women’s Health Clinic, said students are often unaware of other forms of contraceptives aside from male condoms and oral contraceptives. She said UHS works to counsel each student who comes in to request birth control. “We recommend that they use whatever method they think would work best for them, but we also recommend those methods that are most effective as the ideal first choice,” Steel said. “We talk about their effectiveness, the side effects they may have — and we talk about how long IUDs are effective, that a pill needs to be taken every day, a patch every week, and those types of things.” Steel said the insertion of an intrauterine device involves a 15-minute procedure that can be performed by a UHS medical professional. An IUD is a small, t-shaped plastic device that genSee CONTRACEPTION, Page 3A
Students see rise in stress levels, studies indicate ‘U’ programs look to break down stigma surrounding mental health issues By JACKIE MILLER
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
Pinball Pete’s accommodates economic, technology shifts Despite Feb. flood, local arcade still going strong By JAMES WHITE For the Daily
A flood at Pinball Pete’s last February wreaked havoc on the Ann Arbor institution. Despite this setback, Pinball Pete’s remains a campus staple, combing classic arcade games with the continual addition of modern
attractions that have withstood 30 years of economic instability and shifting gamer trends. Pinball Pete’s has endured multiple recessions and the advent of home console gaming without undergoing many changes. After the flood, manager Aron Petterson, who goes simply by “Pete,” had no problem reviving a Reagan-era Nintendo relic, “Punch Out,” which had to be carried to the back of the store during the flood for safety. “I turned it up, put it on
blocks, cleaned up and three weeks later I threw the switch and boom, both monitors come right on,” Petterson said. “They don’t make shit like that anymore.” University alum Lisa Vogel, an Ann Arbor resident, said Pinball Pete’s was a popular hangout location and cheap place to unwind while she was a student. “When I used to come here it was mostly pinball machines, and now there’s stuff I have no idea how to do, but the original See ARCADE, Page 3A
For the Daily
Now that the Thanksgiving festivities have ended, students are feeling final exam stress becoming more acute every day. The impending deadlines for papers and looming tests have many feeling the pressures associated with this hectic time of year. “I think that it’s just a lot of time crunches all at once, like a lot of time management problems,” said LSA junior Sarah Zaccardo. “It’s kind of like the last of it all, so anything that happens you can’t really change afterwards. It’s like the determining factors.” In addition to all of the expected stress from finals, LSA junior Patrick Schoepssaid there are still the usual, non-seasonal stresses to worry about, such as exercising. See STRESS, Page 2A
the pop b-side A look at the creative resurgence of popular music
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Vol. CXXIV, No. 35 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A SUDOKU.....................2A OPINION.....................4A
CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A SPORTS.......................6A B-SIDE ....................1B
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
THURSDAY: Student Voices
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
99 PROBLEMS BUT A PITCH AIN’T ONE
Freshman says a cappella is perfect ... pitch perfect LSA freshman Kyle Lefkowitz, a New York native, is a member of the all-girls a cappella group The Sirens. Did you know that you were going to do a cappella when you came to Michigan? I really love to sing and I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue a major in it but I knew that I wanted to continue it and I thought that (a cappella) would be a great way to do that. I knew I wanted to do it but I didn’t know exactly how to pursue it. I just saw a flyer and I went for it. It was really stressful. It was similar to sorority rush in terms of how
ON THE WEB... THE FILTER
Jack White BY MICHAEL FLYNN
This profile focuses on Jack White, the prolific Detroitborn rocker. White is known for his minimalist style, large output and involvement in many groups such as The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. Throughout his long career, he has maintained a distinct style.
many callbacks and different things you had to go to but it was fun because all of the groups are very easygoing and made it comfortable. What’s your favorite thing about being in The Sirens? I love having that group of friends because we do a thing called #SirenSighting, where if you see any of the girls in the group, you take a picture with them and you post it in our group chat. I love having that core group of friends that you can always see and talk to. Is it hard to balance a cappella with schoolwork?
It would be hard if you didn’t like it, but I love it so much. For example, on a typical week we have two rehearsals that last four hours. But for a concert week, we have maybe four rehearsals and one lasts like six hours. It’s a lot, but you have so much fun and you’re singing what you like. It’s all directed by people in the group so you don’t feel like it’s a hassle. It’s really enjoyable. Have you gotten any lead singing roles? It was “Ain’t No Sun-
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Nourish yourSELF
Sustainable holidays
Imperial Jews lecture
WHAT: This seminar will allow women to get together and express themselves through art. Guests should bring something that is important to them. WHO: CAPS and MultiEthnic Student Affairs WHEN: Today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, CSG Chambers
WHAT: This open house will discuss how to have a sustainable holiday by avoiding toxins in common gifts, learning sustainable and healthy recipes and making sustainable gifts. WHO: Planet Blue WHEN: Today from noon to 1 p.m. WHERE: Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery
WHAT: Judaic Studies Prof. Devi Mays will lead a colloquium that seeks to examine modern Jewish history through the lens of the Jewish experience in the Ottoman Empire. WHO: Judaic Studies WHEN: Today at 12:15 p.m. WHERE: 202 S. Thayer, Room 2022
BY MATTHEW BARNAUSKAS
Historical lecture
Ben & Jerry’s break
This review focuses on the structural elements of this season’s penultimate episode of “The Walking Dead,” which followed the show’s four main groups of characters. While the episode successfully set up an explosive finale, the amount of material made it feel a bit rushed and busy.
WHAT: This lecture will focus on the advent of the typewriter and the challenge of extending it to the Chinese language. WHO: Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Tisch Hall, Room 1014
WHAT: In this webinar sponsored by Unilever, the Ben & Jerry’s team will discuss their brand, share fun facts about the company and network with students for a productive yet laidback study break. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: Today at 4 p.m. WHERE: Online
THE FILTER
Walking Dead
shine” by Bill Withers. It was so nerve-wracking because I didn’t even know the song going into the solo. We do auditions for songs during our rehearsals. I hadn’t heard that song and I thought it was a cool and soulful song so I tried it. I fuddled through it and I guess they saw something that they liked, so I got the part. It was really exciting. The thing is, one person is never the lead singer for the entire group. Typically, for a concert set we do 12 songs. I think everyone but two people had a solo.
STRESS From Page 1A Such stress factors have a variety of effects on college students. Nationally, 17.3 percent of undergraduate and graduate students reported having depression, 7 percent reported anxiety and 6.3 percent reported serious thoughts about attempting suicide in a 2013 study by Daniel Eisenberg, an associate professor of health management and policy in the School of Public Health and the director of the Healthy Minds Network. Furthermore, stress and anxiety are the top two reported impediments to academic performance for college students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, according to recently released results from the National College Health Assessment survey, administered by University Health Services last February. Between 2010 and 2014, the proportion of students reporting stress as an academic impediment rose from 25 to 31 percent and anxiety rose from 17 to 22 percent. The number of undergraduate students listing depression
as an academic impediment also increased from 10 percent in 2010 to 15 percent in 2014. Eisenberg said depressive symptoms have been rising steadily not only for college populations, but also more generally for all younger demographics. He attributed this trend in part to a shift in the social pressures felt by many college students. “(There is) the idea that young people increasingly are motivated by extrinsic factors like social approval, status, money, and that’s probably exacerbated by social media and the interconnectedness that we all have now as opposed to more intrinsic factors like people’s values, their morals, their selfesteem, and doing things that make us feel good based on our own values,” Eisenberg said. “That’s the sociological explanation, which seems to make sense from people’s observations, but is difficult to prove.” Eisenberg conducts an annual survey across more than 100 colleges and universities that seeks to assess mental health-related issues such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse, as well as how well students utilize campus resources. “The majority of students who
Detroit photography WHAT: These photographs were taken by artist Camilo Jose Vergara. WHO: College of Architecture and Urban Planning WHEN: Today at 7 p.m. WHERE: 305 W. Liberty St. CORRECTIONS: Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
are experiencing mental health problems are not receiving treatment,” he said. “Around 40 percent of students with apparent mental disorders like depression have not received any mental health services within the past year.” Robert Winfield, the University’s chief health officer and director of UHS, said the competitive nature of the University means students can suffer from stress even when everyday lives are going well. He noted that students face stress from their roles on campus as well as from the pressures of the world they must inhabit once they leave Ann Arbor. “It’s a competitive campus and it’s also a competitive world,” Winfield said. “The pressures are not just immediate, but enormous as we look out.” He said some of the University’s responses to stress on campus — while intended to ease student stress — send mixed signals. For instance, after receiving feedback from students, the University authorized 24-hour operations at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library in October 2012. Winfield said this message escalated the competiveness among students by suggesting that their peers are swtudying throughout the night. “There are all of these subtle messages that come out,” he said. LSA junior Emma Shapiro and Zaccardo said they know students who have stayed at the UGLi until 5 a.m. Zaccardo said she knows premed students, in particular, who stay well into the early hours of the morning. LSA junior Natalie Imirzian said she has occasionally taken advantage of the UGLi’s late operating hours, both by herself and with friends. “I’ve utilized it somewhat, more so now, near the end of the semester, as I panic and try to get everything done,” she said. “I’ve been (at the UGLi) until three or four before.” Addressing stress and stigma Despite the rise in stress, anxiety and depression among college students, there are a host of reasons that students may not seek treatment. Gregory Dalack, associate professor of psychiatry and chair for education and academic affairs in the Department of Psychiatry, said stigma can play a role in discouraging students from seeking help, despite the fact that many condi-
What’s the most rewarding part of being in The Sirens? You’re putting your own time into the performances and songs. We don’t have any adult supervising us; it’s just all of us. We can all work together and produce awesome songs because what people might not realize about a cappella is that the people in our group arrange the songs we sing. They’re already songs that are out there, but we have to put together the chords and all of the different parts. It’s really awesome to see the final
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
Microsoft announced it is retiring its decades-old Clip Art function, which will be replaced by Bing Image Search. Clip Art was first introduced in 1993 but is being phased out as image searching allows for a greater variety of images, CNN reported. This week, the Arts Section explores the changing pop landscape of 2014 and profiles FeelGood, a student organization selling grilled cheeses and offering free delivery to help end world hunger.
DNA evidence from English King Richard III’s recently discovered skeleton reveals he was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, according to a CNN report, clashing with historical descriptions of the king, who
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Space exploration faces future funding hurdles Student group hosts discussion on planetary research, settlement By NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT Daily Staff Reporter
Gabriel Rothblatt, a Florida politician, gave a presentation Wednesday night in the Bob and Betty Beyster building that discussed widening space exploration opportunities for average Americans. The talk, given to a handful of students, was hosted by Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. Rothblatt’s main talking points included the privatization of the space industry, commonly known as NewSpace, and galvanizing public interest in the space industry from a more human perspective. In last month’s midterm elections, he ran as a Democrat in Florida’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, and lost to Bill Posey (R). His primary campaign platform was space exploration. Rothblatt argued that the problem with the space industry is not one of funding, but of incentive. One of his primary points was the idea of settlement as the main goal of space exploration. “As long as we focus on cheap, it’ll never be cheap enough,” he said. “If we put everything on the Mayflower and took it back
tions are treatable. “Stigma is a major issue and it exacerbates all the other reluctance to acknowledge that we’re less than perfect,” he said. “This is where cancer was 50 or 60 years ago,” he added. “You didn’t talk about it, you didn’t mention that your relative had it, and you sort of
and forth, it would never have been profitable to colonize the Americas. It was only profitable to buy a ticket and come here once we established cities. Let’s make settlement the goal, and then cheap access becomes a necessity.” Most of the mass and expense of a satellite comes from what it takes to send it into orbit itself, Rothblatt said, proposing the use of space as a location of manufacturing and production. “The true solution to cheap access to space is to put in space what you need to make the things up there,” he said. “If most of the things we wanted to achieve were built in space, it would be greatly cheaper.” Engineering senior Derek Napierala, president of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, said his group invited Rothblatt because of his interest in expanding the idea of space exploration. “I thought that his passion for space as well as his desire to make change not in just the engineering field but also the political field to the populace is commendable,” Napierala said. Rothblatt’s presentation also touched on space exploration as a common endeavor instead of a science-specific project. “Too often people think if you’re interested in space you have to be an aeronautics person,” he said. “NASA needs engineers, Boeing needs engineers, but Mars needs farmers.” Engineering sophomore Logan Sisca said the issue constraining development in space
is more about bringing the general public into the fold. “It’s more about really democratizing space and how we can get more involved with this pursuit rather than just billion-dollar government contracts,” Sisca said. Rothblatt commented on his own identity — he is Black, Jewish, comes from an LGBTQ family, and his father is Martine Rothblatt, founder of GeoStar and Sirius Radio — as a catalyst for his interest in space. “I’m always on the outside, having to adapt to the group that I’m with,” he said. “And I found that really interesting about humans: we try to adapt it to us, rather than us adapting to the environment.” Sisca said college students need to become more aware of their potential in regard to space development. “I think right now students don’t know that they have that opportunity; it’s a very select number of people who are passionate about it,” he said. “By improving our outreach and making more students aware of this, then they’ll get on board and it’ll keep reading.” Rothblatt said the future of space exploration should not resemble the Space Race, but instead a common, human endeavor. “I believe space is a message of unification. I believe space is something that creates human nationalization,” he said. “Space is the thing that makes us forget about our differences and focus on a common goal.
hushed it up.” Eisenberg said such stigma surrounding treatment can be broken down into two categories: perceived public stigma and personal stigma. In his research, he has observed much higher levels of perceived public stigma. “We see that the personal level of
stigma is quite low; they have positive attitudes (toward treatment),” he said. “There is a discrepancy between what people think everyone else is thinking versus what people are actually thinking based on their own reports.” Todd Sevig, director of CounSee STRESS, Page 3A
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CONTRACEPTION From Page 1A erally comes in three different forms. One form, ParaGard, is hormone-free and made of copper. The second, Mirena, releases a small amount of a progestin hormone. The final method, Skyla, which was introduced in 2013 and is marketed primarily to young women who have not had a child, releases small amounts of the same hormone. Eighty-seven percent of undergraduates used some form of contraception during their most recent instance of vaginal intercourse, according to the National College Health Assessment administered by UHS. Among those students, a majority said they used male condoms or oral contraceptives. The survey found condoms and pills most popular among students, both of which are generally effective in preventing pregnancy. Nine percent of women taking the pill will have an unintended pregnancy, compared to 18 percent of couples using male condoms, according to UHS. Laura McAndrews, UHS sexual health educator, said research and experience have demonstrated that students get a significant portion of their information about birth control and sex from their friends, causing the perpetuation of stereotypes of what are perceived as popular or safer birth control methods. “It has a lot to do with the kind of education they have had access to, as well as the information they have gotten from their friends,” McAndrews said. “If your friends are using condoms and pills, those are going to be the methods you already feel most familiar with. I think that as we start to see more people using IUDs and implants, more people that will be talking about them and becoming more familiar with them.” While statistics show a high majority of women who properly use contraceptive methods such as condoms and pills will not become pregnant, IUDs and implants practically ensure that an unintended pregnancy will not occur. Failure rates of IUDs and implants are less than 1 percent, but they are being used by 6 percent of undergraduates and 0.5 percent of graduates. “We are finding that many students feel they do not know enough about IUDs and implants to feel comfortable using them,” McAn-
STRESS From Page 1A seling and Psychological Services, believes one of the greatest barriers to treatment for students is the belief that stress is always a normal part of the college experience. “There’s some truth to that,” he said. “I think that the biggest myth is that I have to experience that stress and anxiety almost every day, or all 15 weeks of the semester, and that is simply not true.” Sevig said stress and anxiety are the most frequently documented reasons that students come in to CAPS, a trend that started about five or six years ago. Beyond the perceived stigma, Eisenberg added that a lack of urgency might also be contributing to the small number of students who seek help. “It’s got us thinking about the parallels between seeking help for mental health and things like diet and exercise, or other health behaviors where people seem to have fairly good knowledge and fairly positive attitudes about the behavior, and yet a large percentage of cases don’t actually adopt the healthy behavior … I think that there are some really subtle interventions that can really change behaviors in terms of mental health.” Dalack, the professor of psychiatry, said mental illness should be looked at like any other physical ailment, such as the flu or a high fever. “There’s a part in the middle of the flu where you can’t remember what it felt like to feel good,” he said. “And you feel like, ‘I’m never going to feel well again.’ When you think about that and depression, that can be pretty terrifying, especially if it’s affecting your psychological state.” Looking for help Dalack recognizes that “the support network is key, whether that’s friends, family, professors, teachers, or counselors, because we all tend to not recognize issues when it’s us versus in somebody else. Our own insight can be undermined by our own wish to not identify with being sick. Partly it’s education, and
News
drews said. “Another issue has been that students do not want a foreign object in their bodies or are concerned about the cost and issues related to insurance coverage.” In September, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a change in its recommendations, stating it now advises that doctors recommend intrauterine devices over other methods of contraception for teenagers who are or plan to become sexually active. “For the first time, the organization recommends that pediatricians discuss long-acting reversible contraceptives before other birth control methods for teens, citing the ‘efficacy, safety and ease of use’ of long-acting reversible contraception, such as IUDs and progestin implants,” the report says. Though the cost is substantial, generally about $600 for a student without insurance, the device is effective at preventing pregnancy for as long as 10 years and requires only one application. McAndrews said she has found price to be a concern for some students, but not necessarily just for those students who do not have insurance. “Most insurance plans will cover IUD or implant costs, but if a student is on their parents’ health plan, they may be nervous about using their insurance for contraceptives,” she said. “We encourage students to speak with a medical professional about how to have that conversation with their parents, because most parents would much rather their child have the best methods of birth control, even if it means having an uncomfortable conversation.” In a survey conducted by The Michigan Daily, 13 percent of students received information about birth control from friends, compared to 3 percent who received it from campus resources and 54 percent from a medical professional. LSA senior Sophia Kotov, former president of Students for Choice, said she has heard concerns from many students who are hesitant to obtain birth control from UHS. “The (UHS) doctor was super useful and helped me figure out what type of birth control worked best for me,” Kotov said. “I think UHS has a reputation for being unhelpful and ineffective, and I think that deters a lot of students from getting their birth control questions answered there. UHS needs to change their image as well as the quality of their care. Honestly, the pamphlets in UHS look like they are from the ’90s, I don’t know
how relevant they are to women’s lives now.” Kotov said many of her friends, who are also involved in the Department of Women’s Studies or Students for Choice, are fairly well informed, but she believes the majority of students still don’t fully understand how birth control works, where to get it and what methods are best suited to their needs. “I think trying to remember information from sex education or going through the process of scheduling an appointment with UHS and remembering what your doctor says combined with the availability of so much information on the Internet makes it difficult, and people definitely go to their friends with issues or questions a lot of the time,” Kotov said. She said her friends were surprised to hear she used an IUD because of the stigma they associated with the device — namely that it is only used by older women who have already had children. “I have had so many friends who react strongly to finding out I have an IUD, so I definitely see that stigma playing out in my life,” Kotov said. The Daily survey found that when students are choosing a method of birth control, effectiveness is by far the most important factor, followed only by safety and the possibility of harmful side effects. For the 5 percent of students who said cost is the most important factor when choosing birth control, condoms seem to be the most obvious choice, as they are free for students. For students who prefer another brand over LifeStyles, the most common brand available at UHS, UHS has started to offer Magnum Trojan condoms beginning this year. Trojan condoms purchased through downtown merchants such as drug stores generally cost about $7 for a pack of three. Oral contraceptives, however, can become costly over time. For a student with insurance, this cost may be minimal or nonexistent depending on providers and plans, but for students who do not have insurance, and, for example, pick up their birth control at CVS downtown, the cost per month could be around $20, according to UHS. There are options — though seemingly more inconvenient ones — for minimizing these costs by picking up prescriptions at locations farther from downtown, where the cost for an uninsured student could be as little as $8 per month.
partly it’s overcoming the stigma … I view it both as an individual thing as well as importance of the friend network.” He said efforts have been made to educate RAs in dorms as well as faculty and GSIs, who may be able to intervene if they see someone who is at risk. Eisenberg and the Healthy Minds Network have started a student-leader coalition that meets every two weeks and joins leaders of a variety of student organizations. Some of these groups — such as PULSE, Active Minds and Own It — have a specific focus on health and well-being, while others such as Central Student Government have established branches focusing on such issues. There is hope that the coalition will play a large role in disseminating information about mental health to large portions of the University. In addition, Eisenberg said he and his team hope to create new courses in which students will help with the production of the brief videos that the Healthy Minds Network produces. Such courses would focus on a variety of disciplines, from film production to psychology to social marketing and dissemination. If the program receives funding, these courses could be offered at the University as early as Winter 2016. Wolverine Wellness, a division of UHS with the goal of promoting overall wellness on campus, piloted wellness coaching last January. Students can see a wellness coach who is able to provide tools and strategies to those concerned about high stress levels. Similar programs are also in place at Ohio State University and West Virginia University. Within UHS, there is a proactive focus that allows students to set individualized goals for themselves. Coaching begins with a 90-minute session, and participants can set up regular appointments in order to follow up with goals and track progress. Wolverine Wellness Director Mary Jo Desprez explained the importance of the wellness model and all of its different dimensions in relation to wellness coaching. The wellness model encompasses many different aspects of life, including
intellectual, physical, financial, emotional, mental, environmental, occupational, social and spiritual health. “We help the student take a long, deep breath and look at how they are doing in each of the different dimensions, and understand how they sort of are interdependent on each other,” she said. “Really what they can do, in wellness coaching, is self-assess and focus in on one or multiple areas and they can make goals for them.” “The University … is to really start to understand that students are whole people, they’re not just the brain in the classroom,” Desprez said. “When you ask students what their definition of success is, they say ‘my GPA’ and ‘if I get a job.’ Our collective job is to say it’s much more holistic than that.” To expand the University’s role in promoting mental health, Eisenberg said he hopes to integrate the mental health checkup process with academic advising. Such an effort would demonstrate the link between health and academic success, he said. “We want to normalize it and make it part of a routine,” he said. CAPS provides traditional oneon-one counseling, but also engages students in a variety of other ways. For example, in 2011, CAPS opened the Wellness Zone, which allows students to simply walk in and use the available facilities, which include massage chairs, meditation cushions, yoga mats, a couch for napping, a lamp for seasonal depression and even a gaming system. Additionally, CAPS offers different workshops, among other types of support, in order to reach out to more students. Regarding CAPS services, Imirzian said, “I know people that have (used CAPS). I’ve heard mixed things. I’ve heard it’s hard to get access or get appointments … it’s like you have an issue right now, so you want something immediately, but I’ve also heard great things about it.” While Shapiro said she does not know much about CAPS, she said she would definitely be interested in learning more about it if it could help her with her stress levels.
INNOVATION From Page 1A The new curricular offering comes as a result of recommendations from a campus-wide entrepreneurship taskforce established in May 2012 to survey campus offerings in the field for undergraduates. Thomas Zurbuchen, senior counselor for entrepreneurship innovation and Innovate Blue’s head, said in a release that the new minor is meant to address the challenges of the modern world. “We believe all students have the capacity to be innovators,” he said. “This campus-wide minor provides them with the knowledge, skills and motivation to build the skills attributed to entrepreneurial behavior and innovative thinking necessary to succeed.” Jeni Olney, student services program coordinator for entrepreneurial programs, said Entrepreneurial Business Basics outlines the fundamentals of business for aspiring entrepreneurs, whereas Entrepreneurial Creativity is “more of an intrinsic look at what makes entrepreneurs and creative thinkers different.” “The two courses combined
ARCADE From Page 1A things like Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac-Man, things I grew up with, are still here,” Vogel said. “So it can take the older people back to the younger days when we were first introduced to those types of games.” The 10,000 square-foot establishment began when eight-yearold East Lansing native Ted Arnold and his two brothers set up a pinball machine in a garage in 1973, The Michigan Daily reported in 2012. However, running the business in a residential area was illegal, so once city inspectors discovered the operation, the brothers closed the garage shop and opened in Monroe, and then in East Lansing. Opening in a former doughnut bakery, the arcade had a life-sized fiberglass elephant on the roof — which the brothers painted pink to attract attention. The business has used the pinkelephant as its mascot since. The Arnolds soon expanded to Ann Arbor during the 1980s, eventually opening seven arcades in total, including the Pinball Pete’s just off the Diag. However, during the mid1980s, people began buying the first home console gaming systems instead of going to arcades, and arcades began to disappear from U.S. suburbs and cities. Ann Arbor’s arcade history is an example of this decline: the six other arcades in the Ann Arbor and East Lansing area have since closed, leaving Pinball Pete’s alone, according to Petterson. “It just got to be too much,” he said. “There’s only so many hours in a day, and there’s not a whole lot of people that can fix these machines and most of them aren’t around anymore.”
TESTIMONY From Page 1A Singh told the committee this was a turning point for the state, which would join 19 others in having similar policies to the amendment he proposed. “(This is) a historic day to ... tell the rest of the country who we are, what we stand for and what our values are,” he said. He also told the committee that excluding transgender people would be the same as condoning discrimination, a message echoed by several of the other speakers. Gilmour, who was one of a few openly gay executives during his time at Ford, said businesses are concerned that the current lack of protections for LGBTQ individuals disincentivizes people from coming to work in Michigan. “Concepts don’t develop themselves, cars don’t sell themselves … and no organization can afford to leave out a segment of the population,” Gilmour said. “Now is the time to stop leaving out the LGBT community. We need the talent,” he added. All of the speakers in favor of modifying the ELCRA except for Foster supported Singh’s more inclusive amendment.
Thursday, December 4, 2014 — 3A make up the foundation, the core for the new minor,” Olney said. “I refer to it as the hard and soft skills of being an entrepreneur.” The minor’s “practicum” is also made up of two courses, titled Entrepreneurship Practicum and Advanced Entrepreneurship Practicum. Olney said these will be taken in tandem to provide a hands-on, yearlong immersion into entrepreneurship, moving from conceptualizing and pitching a business venture to implementing and launching it. Additionally, a minimum of three elective credits is required to finish the minor. A complete list of qualifying courses is available on the Innovate Blue website. The website also states that entrepreneurial extracurricular activities are required for a minimum of two semesters. This “activity” may include, for example, working on an outside business venture or participating in an entrepreneurship-focused student organization. Olney added some of these course options were already available through the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Program in Entrepreneurship, which provides a certificate in entrepreneurship as opposed to a full
minor. The certificate program requires nine credits rather than 15, comprising the two “core” classes and one elective. The Innovate Blue website notes, however, that the PIE will be phased out and “is only available to those students who declared the PIE prior to Fall term 2015.” Kristen Kerecman, marketing and communications manager for Innovate Blue, said the goal of implementing the minor was to make entrepreneurship education more accessible to non-Engineering students. Many electives previously offered through the PIE were focused on engineering. “What came from this campus program in entrepreneurship … there was really a need for something, and a demand from students to really have something that was truly campus-wide and accessible to people from all backgrounds,” Kerecman said. “LSA is the natural home for something like that.” Olney said the end goal is to create multidisciplinary teams in each of the University’s colleges, so each college can “have ownership over the curriculum that goes into the minor.”
However, as the only arcade in the area, Pinball Pete’s has attracted regulars from Detroit and even a few from pinball clubs in Ohio, according to Petterson. “The older people will always come to the arcade. It’s the younger people we’re worried about. But that’s why we have the mix of stuff.” Vogel’s daughter, LSA freshman Kate Vogel, said she continues to be a Pinball Pete’s regular, following in her mother’s footsteps. “When I was in middle school it was a good place for people to come and hang out,” Kate Vogel said. “We would go to Bubble (Island) in the summer and then come here and just play for hours. We would play air hockey for a long time and then a rowing game. It was really fun and weird and just kind of a thing to do.” Though the recession and general decline of the industry have been hard for the arcade, Petterson remains optimistic. Evan Williams, a computer science student at Eastern Michigan University and a previous employee of Pinball Pete’s, agreed. “I think it will make a comeback,” he said. “Pinball Pete’s just got the new Walking Dead (pinball) machine and a Mustang machine last summer. The new tables are honestly my favorite.” However, if popularity increases again it will come with a variety of new problems, especially for the old machines like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Petterson said production of the parts used in these old machines stopped long ago. This problem is especially apparent with the classic cathode ray tube monitors of older machines, which are being replaced with LCD monitors by producers. “LCDs in the classic stuff
doesn’t look right,” Petterson said. “Donkey Kong on a flat screen has blurrier lines because it upscales for the resolution, and it doesn’t look right. I spend a lot of time dialing in monitors to try and keep them looking nice. It’s a huge investment to fix up old games.” Petterson also pointed to high real estate costs in Ann Arbor and the electricity bills associated with running an arcade as challenges in maintaining the more than 30-year-old business. As difficult as survival has been for the arcade, Lisa Vogel is happy Pinball Pete’s has survived for future generations to enjoy. “I think it’s a great place for people to gather. It’s not a place for people to come and party and get drunk; it’s just something that’s nice and wholesome and clean fun,” she said. “Pinball Pete’s was a popular hangout for people to come and play pool and pinball. Back then it was 25 cents for a game of pinball, and now it’s more like a dollar.” “It’s been here for so long, my parents used to come here. It’s been a huge part of everyone’s life, so I’d say it’s been a huge part of Ann Arbor. I think it’s definitely a part of the downtown culture. It’s a safe place for people to get together and just have fun.” Kate Vogel agreed. Pinball Pete’s is home to both classic pinball and arcade games, as well as pool and air hockey for the newer regulars, creating a safe atmosphere where University students can escape their studies for an hour or two with friends. When asked if the establishment would last, Petterson had this to say: “We’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere.”
In speaking for his bill, Foster acknowledged the controversy surrounding it. He has faced criticism from both sides of the aisle, and his support for the proposed amendment was a major point of contention during the Republican primary election for his seat in August, which he lost. “Some people think the bill goes too far,” he said. “Others think it doesn’t go far enough. I say it’s the next positive step.” Opponents of the bill — speaking for several several conservative religious groups, including the National Christian Leadership Council, representatives of the Michigan Christian Coalition and the Michigan Family Forum — questioned the bill’s necessity and impact. They also expressed concerns about potential consequences for religious freedom in the state. Keith Den Hollander, a representative of the Michigan Christian Coalition, told the committee his opposition stemmed from concerns with the efficacy of the bills rather than morality. “I don’t accept the premise that by changing the law, we will change people’s hearts,” he said. Lansing attorney David
Kallman, who represented the Michigan branch of Citizens for Traditional Values and the Michigan Family Forum at the meeting, said similar laws in other states have had negative impacts on religious freedom, especially for small businesses. “Bakeries, photographers, on and on — there is case after case where this law is being used as a sword; it’s not being used as a shield,” he said. “These laws are being used to bully and silence individuals acting on their religious conscience.” No additional Commerce Committee meeting regarding the amendments is currently scheduled, but the House Judiciary Committee is expected to debate a third bill closely tied to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, the proposed Michigan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, on Thursday. The Michigan RFRA, proposed by House Speaker Jase Bolger (R–Marshall) parallels existing federal legislation and would grant broad exemptions to state laws if they conflict with an individual’s religious beliefs. Bolger has said he would require its passage before allowing an ELCRA amendment to come to the House floor, a position Democrats have decried.
Opinion
Page 4A — Thursday, December 4, 2014
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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.
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The stuffing story
appy belated Thanksgiving. Question: did you ever wonder what stuffing actually is? Well, not only what it is, but also how it got there? And what happens as you consume it? And what it does after you eat it? Let me tell you a smidge of the story of the most neglected ingredient of your Thanksgiving feast. Oh, and I’ll apologize in advance for making you feel even more guilty than you probably ELI already do for so enthusias- CAHAN tically commemorating the most fabulously gluttonous holiday on the calendar. Prologue Let’s start from the beginning. The primary ingredient in stuffing is generally bleached white bread. Bleached white bread flour comes from a combination of wheat, yeast, supplemental gluten, enzymes and chemical additives (typically preservatives). Some of the white wheat that constitutes the flour is produced by the $12.5-billion U.S. wheat industry. The massive mono-cultured (only wheat) fields required to fill international demand are quickly depleting soil nutrients. Wheat, thus, like other common non-legume field crops, requires fertilizer to nurture growth in nutrient-poor soils. Excessive use of fertilizers has been a notable ecological issue, particularly due to what is called runoff. Runoff relates to the flow of fertilizers into irrigative bodies of water, which subsequently leads to unregulated algal growth. These algae, which under normal conditions are constrained by a lack of nutrients, proliferate when fed by fertilizers. While living, some algae produce toxins; upon dying, these algae remove oxygen from the water, leading to hypoxic conditions ominously deemed “dead zones.” Fish and other oxygen-dependent aquatic species cannot survive under these conditions, and die off rapidly. Since the Mississippi River runs through some of the largest wheat-producing states in the country down to the Gulf of Mexico, it is literally the case that to some degree, the Wonder Bread produced in Kansas is killing fish in Mexico. It’s possible there was Wonder Bread in your stuffing. Anyways, for the sake of brevity let’s ignore all the other inputs (converting, mixing, packaging, transporting, storing and so on) that got the mushy brown glob onto our plates. Inner Pages Now to think about how the stuffing story develops when we come in touch with it. So, down the hatch goes the stuffing. Undoubtedly, since we’ve already eaten a full meal’s worth of cheese and crackers, our bodies release the “full” signal: insulin. Insulin tells our cells that
glucose (the main building block of dietary carbohydrates) levels in the blood are through the roof. Insulin then inserts glucose channels into the cells, which act like microscopic vacuum cleaners and suck up glucose from the blood. Glucose, when inside the cell, is either stored or used to produce energy. Since we’ve been sitting on our butts for the past three hours watching the Lions win their Turkey Day game, our cells store the glucose by converting it to glycogen. This glycogen, in excess, is further transformed into triglyceride (a form of fat), which is stored in adipose tissue. Adipose tissue, in turn, is what belly fat and love handles are made of. As an aside here: gluten, the archnemesis of yogis, juicers, soccer moms and hypochondriac dads everywhere, is actually a protein, and doesn’t contribute significantly to your adipose tissue load (read: polar bear syndrome). Michael Specter of The New Yorker wrote a brilliant piece on this. The punch line? Gluten (to most) is as dangerous as monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG, or in other words, not at all. The real enemies are the copiously added sugars, salts and preservatives in massproduced bread. Epilogue So now that we’ve sufficiently harmed the environment and plumped ourselves, what’s next? Well, from a population health standpoint, obesity is the obvious chronic concern associated with excess consumption. Some 35 percent of U.S. adults are obese and 17 percent of U.S. children are obese. A seminal 2009 paper showed that medical costs per obese person are about $1,500 per year higher than those of a healthy individual, with total excess costs in the United States derived from obesity close to $150 billion. These costs are due to a vast variety of co-morbidities — or symptoms associated with obesity — ranging in severity from high blood pressure to heart disease. As for our stuffing story, correlations between refined, mass-produced white bread and the development of obesity pervade the medical literature. The End. At least I apologized in advance, right? But on a serious note: these are important issues to be aware of, and they reach far beyond stuffing. At the same time, the sky is NOT falling, yet. The moral of the story is not to swear off mediocre-tasting slop. Rather, I just hope to show that it is the obligation of each of us to be educated on even the seemingly most mundane things that we come in contact with every day. Oh, and also that science can be interesting. In any case, the holiday season is a time for food, stories and resolutions for a new year. Now you know one more story. How will you change next year? — Eli Cahan can be reached at emcahan@umich.edu.
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EMILY PAIK | MICHIGAN IN COLOR
White people love me My friend Maya and I lock our bikes simultaneously on State Street, stationed at a pole in front of Espresso Royale. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a man standing and facing us a few feet away. After pushing my lock closed, I look up and make eye contact with him. It seems he was waiting for the prompt to profess: “White people love you.” I perceive this middle-aged white man say it to me like it’s scripture. Half of me is sure of the sentiment, the other half suspended in disbelief; maybe I’ve heard him wrong. “White people love me?” I ask, and as soon as the words are out of my mouth, my uncertainty dissipates. “White people love you,” he repeats, looking me in the eyes urgently. I feel my insides deflate as I take in his words. He walks away before I can shape a response, and Maya and I go into Espresso. She whispers, “That was so strange.” If Maya hadn’t been present, I probably would have shared this event with a spare few. I would have brushed it off while being aware I was brushing it off. I still took it lightly; it was a declaration about something of which I was already aware. White people, particularly white men, do love Asian women, for the simple fact that we are Asian women. No great revelations made. However, this interaction solidified knowledge: Not only do fetishization, sexualization, tokenization of Asian women exist, but this man confirmed they’re also as prevalent as I suspected. That he formulated this thought and felt it strongly enough to share it with me reveals how this is an established sentiment.
His declaration makes me feel like a walking, talking opportunity for men, particularly white men (because unfortunately, the man on State Street spoke accurately), to ogle at, to freely superimpose images of sexualized East Asian women. It made me realize that this is why I avoid sexuality. This is why I try not to attract men by the way I dress, the way I behave. This is why I question every romantic relationship I’ve had, wondering if they’re seeing past the surface of my race. As a generation, we are realizing there are subconscious choices we make, tugging us in certain directions, guided by media and historical discriminations. However, I feel very little power to combat them. The majority of the people I have dated are straight white men. They are who is available, but also whom I deem attractive. I despise knowing that some, if not all, of this attraction is derived from constant images of white men as the leading protagonists in a majority of romantic narratives. I seethe, knowing how much I have tailored my behaviors to this consciousness. How much I attempt to dissuade sexualized, racialized attention. How much this defines my interactions. This symptom stays with me, measuring the sincerity of every act in an exhausting stream of analysis. Michigan in Color is the Daily’s opinion section designated as a space for and by students of color at the University of Michigan. To contribute your voice or find out more about MiC, e-mail michiganincolor@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Accessibility in snow
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s a dusting of crystalline flakes morphs into another potential polar vortex, students will likely experience a myriad of emotions. My initial wonderment, for example, often dissipates into a slight annoyance and eventually transforms into a panicky concern to mainMELISSA tain my balance while dashing SCHOLKE across campus. The University’s student body will soon be reintroduced to ever-too-familiar winter perils as they walk to class. Layers of ice will glaze sidewalks as we trudge through snow piles, and bitter winds will strike faces awaiting the arrival of delayed buses. Rather than endure the seasonal hazards, some students will choose encampment in the warm safety of dorms. For others, indoor confinement might seem like the only viable option. While winter poses safety risks to the student community, seasonal hazards illustrate an issue on campus. Wintertime proves a hindrance for able-bodied students, but for students with mobility impairments, the external conditions greatly diminish accessibility and aggravate existing issues. Able-bodied students and faculty — as they go through their routines — unintentionally overlook challenges students with physical disabilities encounter daily. We often move effortlessly through our personal spheres and never consider the tremendous capability of our limbs to do so. Rather, we automatically accept this particular physical status as “normal.” After a few minutes, a bus — which able-bodied individuals enter with ease — will come whisk them out of the cold. Students can strategically plan a walking route to minimize exposure to frigid
temperatures by seeking out the nearest entrances, utilizing stairwells and elevators and traversing across corridors. If students still feel frozen, they can warm up with food from a dining hall. In certain areas of campus, these options aren’t necessarily available to students with mobility impairments. Hindrances to mobility may be a seasonal affliction for able-bodied students, but for students with physical disabilities, they’re lifelong concerns. Numerous buildings currently pose challenges to students. According to Public Policy senior Ryan Bartholomew, chair of the Campus Accessibility and Disability Affairs Commission, “a lot of the buildings, even if they are accessible, sometimes are hard for people to access.” The commission works to address complaints and concerns about mobility on campus. Even recently updated dormitories, such as East Quad Residence Hall, pose problems to a segment of the student body. The handicappedaccessible door at East Quad is located far away from the building’s main entrance, and the door is locked throughout the day, which prevents students from entering the building for class or for a meal unless they live there. Although I previously lived on North Campus, I was surprised to learn of the multiple difficulties mobility-impaired students encounter there. Parents and hungry students are supposed to be reassured by the promise of convenient, healthy meals at the University’s various dining halls. Yet, Bursley Residence Hall lacks an elevator or any means that would allow its dining hall to be accessible to students with physical disabilities. Likewise, the Duderstadt Center doesn’t possess a “continuous elevator” to the facility’s third floor, which hinders students who need to access resources at the Dude or to simply meet with a study group. However, the most striking example of inefficiency is located at
the Bob & Betty Beyster Building. Although the BBB possesses a fully functional elevator, it currently doesn’t operate after 8 p.m. — forcing mobility-impaired students finishing a late evening of studying to walk outside to a parking lot at the top of the hill to await Paratransit’s arrival. During a video shoot to raise awareness about inaccessibility, I accompanied a student as he ascended the steep slope. The sidewalk nearly encircles the building — as well as a surrounding cluster of trees — and the route is significantly longer than the distance one would take up the stairwell within the BBB. This extended exposure to the elements has drastic effects. As Bartholomew noted, “People with mobility impairments are not moving their body as much as someone who is able-bodied … so when they get cold, they typically stay cold for a long period of time.” Working in cooperation with University Housing and other University departments, the Campus Affairs and Disability Commission implemented measures such as snow removal procedures and protocols for removing bikes from ramps. The University has responded to requests and complaints in the past, but many issues persist. The University’s resources for students with mobility impairments areeither non-existent, difficult to find, inefficient or unnecessarily distant. Mobility status is a social identity that far too often escapes consideration in our minds. Forming a diverse community requires acknowledging the need for a wide variety of resources for all students in order to aid them in achieving an education and personal growth. While the University must ensure resources for all students are consistently accessible and accommodating, we, as students, should work to raise personal awareness and reform our perceptions of a truly diverse student body. — Melissa Scholke can be reached at melikaye@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 VAMIKA BAJA | VIEWPOINT
Economics of happiness
Have you ever thought about how your education might be shaping the way you see your life? I had never acknowledged that my studying of economics might be influencing, and perhaps even limiting the way I think … until Nov. 14. It was a cloudy Saturday morning. I was tired, it was freezing cold, and I was biking to the UGLi. I only had five minutes to make it to my Econ meeting. That’s when I realized, in just a few weeks it would be too cold to bike and I would have to walk everywhere. What a bloody waste of time … But that thought required me to pause and think. What exactly makes something a waste of time? To me, walking or sitting in a car is a waste of time, but writing my paper is not. Watching the snow fall is a waste of time, but making it to lecture half-awake is not. Just like in economics where a country’s GDP is defined in terms of its output of goods and services, I have begun to define my life in terms of value added. A successful
“
day is a productive day. Where there is no tangible output, I’ve wasted my time. But I ask the economists, what about the cumulative happiness of the people? Is that not a measure of a country’s success? And I ask myself, what about those great conversations I’ve had in those long car rides or people I’ve met waiting in line. Are those moments not worthwhile? Where economists go wrong is that they attempt to quantitatively model that which cannot even be measured. The entire subject lies on the outrageous assumption that human beings are rational. But what kind of assumption is that? We do the right things at the wrong time, we say the wrong things to the right people. We make war, we fall in love. We are crazy, impulsive and irrational creatures, yet that’s what makes us human. And where we go wrong (or at least I do) is when we attempt to quantitatively define ourselves. As students, a huge amount of our daily
lives revolves around academics. And once you’re an upperclassman, that pressure is only exacerbated by the stress associated with recruitment. Suddenly our grades, our GPA or the job we’ve lined up begin to define who we are. We can’t deny that as students, our lives are disproportionally influenced by academic pressure. There are days when we are happy and excited. There are days when we are simply overwhelmed and distressed. Regardless of our mental, physical or emotional state, what is expected of us does not change. Sometimes we need to step out of that stress bubble and remind ourselves of what it is we truly value. Don’t get me wrong; I’m still just as passionate of an economics student. But sometimes, we all need to turn off autopilot and see where we’re actually flying. So next time I ask you about yourself, don’t tell me what you study, tell me who you are. Vamika Baja is an LSA junior.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem.” — President Barack Obama’s statement in response to a New York grand jury’s decision to not indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island, New York resident who died after he was put in a chokehold by Pantaleo during an arrest in July.
Weekend Roundup
5A — Thursday, December 4, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The Daily presents: FINALS BINGO Find someone sleeping in the stacks
Overhear someone saying they will fail
Order take-out food to the UGLi
E-mail your GSI with questions after midnight
Make a new study playlist
CAMPUS
EVENTS Thursday, 12/4
“Ruddigore”
6 p.m. Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
Friday, 12/5 Cry
Bawl
Weep
Sob
Shed tears
(G)imble A Capella concert
5:30 p.m. MLB Aud. 3
Amazin’ Blue concert 5:30 p.m. Rackham Auditorium
Purchase a Blue Book last-minute
See a student sprinting to an exam
FREE
Fall asleep in the library, or any public space
Start a new television series on Netflix
Saturday, 12/6 Handel’s “Messiah”
8 p.m. Hill Auditorium
“Midnight Snack”
11 p.m. Walgreen Drama Center
Stay up all night to study
Make a pneumonic study device
Go to CAPS and get a free massage
Study with someone who “just can’t”
Cite a Wikipedia article in a research paper
Game Night Competition
5 p.m. Modern Languages Building
Sunday, 12/7 Get kicked out of the Hatcher Ref Room
Recruit a friend to fetch you a cup of coffee
The official finals week style guide By JACLYN NAGEL
Weekend Roundup Contributor
It’s the University’s biannual fashion week. Check out our very own runway to find the best fashion week trends. Oh, I’m sorry. Did I say fashion week? I meant finals week. FYI, the runway is located on the second floor of the UGLI. ROOTS SWEATPANTS If you’re from Michigan (or Canada), you probably own at least three pairs of these beauties. They’re comfortable, stylish, and moderately overpriced. Make sure to pick yours up in light gray, medium gray, or dark gray. Don’t forget to pair it with your favorite gray Roots sweatshirt to create the perfect groutfit. FUZZY VEST As the weather drops below freezing, a fuzzy vest is a go-to. The library’s temperature can certainly vary and this vest will keep you cozy without making you pass out (or might make a decent pillow when you hit the ground). UGG SLIPPERS While the traditional Ugg boot has gone out of style, Ugg slippers are still on my holiday gift list. These will not only keep you warm on your walk to the library, but will also keep you comfy
throughout your all-nighter. WOOL SOCKS The votes are in. You finally have a use for the 12 pairs of SmartWool socks you bought during your seventh grade ski obsession. You can even pair them with your Ugg slippers! Talk about a fashion “do.” UGLY SWEATERS Get into the holiday spirit by showing off your favorite ugly sweater! Whether it’s covered in sequins, reindeer or snowflakes, you will definitely stand out against the sea of Canada Goose jackets. With this look you can go straight from a study session to a party without even stopping at home! INFINITY SCARF Also referred to as the “circle scarf,” this is a winter finals staple. It’s soft, stylish, and protects your face from the cold that is Michigan weather. It can also serve as a great pillow for when you need a study break. THE PONYTAIL While the bun is usually the star during spring finals, the ponytail takes over for winter finals week. Ponies work great with both hats and earmuffs (I suggest Ugg’s) and keep the hair out of your face when studying, while buns leave your ears to fight for themselves against the cold.
S TA F F S T U D Y P I C K S C H A I L AT T E
BEST ST U DY D RI N K L AW L I B R A RY
BEST ST UDY S POT TRAIL MIX
Notice the entire class on CTools at 4 a.m.
Audibly fall into a fit of stressinduced laughter
Find someone wearing sweats, head to toe
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Thursday, December 4, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
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53 Aware of 54 Court figures: Abbr. 55 Horne on stage 56 Garr on screen 57 Wedding choice 58 “What __ could it be?” 60 Prov. where the CN Tower is located 61 Bus. card number
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Sports
6A — Thursday, December 4, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Finally, Chatman Why Brady Hoke was fired gets comfortable B MEN’S BASKETBALL
By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Writer
Even before last week’s tournament, the Michigan men’s basketball team knew it couldn’t rely solely on its star players to win games when competition was getting bigger and better. The Wolverines needed their young big men to not only step up defensively against more veteranladen teams, but also score. The man to step up last week was freshman forward Ricky Doyle, who continued his strong play against Syracuse by contributing 12 points and six rebounds. Perhaps lost in the shuffle of five double-digit scorers against Syracuse was another freshman forward, Kameron Chatman. Posting a near double-double with 10 points and a teamleading nine rebounds, Chatman kept Michigan within striking distance in the first half. “That would have been an eight-point, 10-point game at half if it weren’t for Kam,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “He got rebounds, he saw out of the post, made a couple 15-footers. … He’s getting more comfortable now with who he is and how he fits in what we’re doing.” After seeing his minutes decrease against Villanova and Oregon — playing 19 and 15, respectively — the lone freshman starter could have grown discouraged as Doyle’s minutes increased and Beilein relied on a two-point guard system. Instead, Chatman took advantage against Nicholls State, taking a then-career-high eight shots and adding a careerhigh 11 points and eight boards. Though the Colonels weren’t the level of competition of the Wildcats and Ducks, Chatman’s play was important leading into
one of Michigan’s marquee nonconference games, especially in the first half. After shooting 36 percent from the field and making just three 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes of action, Michigan sought to get Chatman more looks from the elbow and used him to help facilitate kick-outs to 3-point shooters. “We wanted to drive more, and that opened up the game,” Doyle said. “Kam getting those shots from the free-throw line, just getting in the middle of the zone, really opened it up to get those 3-point shots we wanted and dump-offs.” As critical as it was for Chatman to find open looks from the middle of the paint, his ability to play beyond the arc and connect from deep was just as crucial for the Wolverines. With the Orange chipping away a 10-point Michigan lead late in the game, Chatman made a triple from the left side of the court to break up a 6-0 spurt from Syracuse. After missing his previous two attempts from beyond the arc, the corner three showed off the confidence he has been conjuring in practice. “It’s huge,” Doyle said. “Kam has been working hard. He’s always in the gym, shooting his jump shots. We all believe in him. We always know what he can do, and today he showed it.” While Chatman’s performance against the Orange was encouraging, Beilein said his growth is still a work in progress. “He’s still learning where, you know, he’s going to learn for four years,” Beilein said. “He’s still learning all the time where he fits in what we’re trying to do. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s, ‘well, OK, let’s watch the video and get better.’ ”
rady Hoke’s last words to the public as Michigan’s football coach were an answer to whether he wished he had done anything differently during his four-year tenure. “I don’t think so,” he said immediately, then paused ALEJANDRO briefly. “I ZÚÑIGA don’t think so.” It was the afternoon of Nov. 29, minutes after the Wolverines had dropped a season-ending contest to Ohio State. Hoke hadn’t been fired yet — that decision wouldn’t come until Tuesday afternoon — but he had to have known the decision was coming. You can’t go 20-18 over your last three years and expect to keep your job — not at Michigan. But since it had to end, at least it did in the right way. Hoke learned of the decision in a meeting with interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett, not through a press release or a media leak. And before addressing his players, he allowed them to vote for the 2014 team captains. Hoke put the team first, just as he always did. He was virtually everything the Michigan football program thought it needed from its 19th head coach. He was a Michigan Man, one who had helped guide the Wolverines to the 1997 national championship as an assistant coach. He played football the Wolverine way, ignoring the flashy spread offense for a system based on power running and stingy defense. He hated Ohio State so much he refused to call it by its name.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Brady Hoke is famous for his line, “This is Michigan for God’s sakes,” but he didn’t live up to his own expectations.
But most of all, Hoke loved Michigan, enough that, in his introductory press conference on Jan. 12, 2011, he discussed how there was “no doubt” he wanted to stay in Ann Arbor forever. “This is, to me — and has been for a long time — the ultimate place where I wanted to be as a football coach,” he said then. He certainly didn’t envision the season of nightmares he endured, knowing that every loss brought him closer to saying goodbye. But as he understood from the beginning, at Michigan, 5-7 in year four was unacceptable. You probably remember Hoke’s oft-repeated line from his introductory press conference, when he pounded the lectern and delivered the message that became the mantra of the 2011 season. “This is an elite job and will continue to be an elite job. This is Michigan, for God’s sakes,” he said, proving from day one he
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
understood the importance of coaching the Wolverines. Hoke followed by saying “shame on them” to people who believed Michigan was in a downward spiral. It was what Michigan fans needed to hear. But then Hoke led the Wolverines to a string of results he knew would be unacceptable from the get-go, when he gave himself lofty annual expectations. “Our goal is to win the Big Ten Championship,” he said that January afternoon. “Multipally, consecutively. I made that word up, the first one.” And he stood by that expectation, even calling the 2011 season a disappointment because the Wolverines failed to reach the Big Ten title game. When the expectation was set at “consecutive” titles, Hoke knew a 12-12 Big Ten record over a three-year span wouldn’t be tolerated. Hoke knew a 2-6 record against Ohio State and Michigan State wasn’t acceptable,
either. He understood that such poor performances would turn his “forever” job into a temporary one. Hoke loves Michigan. He did from that first day, when he spoke of how he “would’ve walked here from San Diego” to accept the job. Maybe that was part of the problem — he set expectations too high and delivered too little. Michigan thought it needed Hoke, and the marriage seemed perfect from the start. Certainly, the response to his firing from players demonstrates how Hoke’s love for the program and everyone associated with it was genuine. But when it comes to athletics, passion for a school is always trumped by the necessity to win. Hoke knew that from the start. Zúñiga can be reached at azs@umich.edu and on Twitter @ByAZuniga.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
In wake of Hoke’s firing, recruits bail ‘M’ drops Wake Forest with ease By BEN FIDELMAN Daily Sports Writer
One aspect of a football program that changes drastically with a coaching change is the recruiting scene. And this trend isn’t new to Michigan, which announced the firing of Brady Hoke on Tuesday afternoon. The lack of on-field success this season has led to coaching instability that had recruits fleeing for months. Recent de-commits include Chris Clark, the top-ranked tight end in the nation, and five-star instate running back Mike Weber. Clark announced he had reopened his recruitment shortly after Jim Hackett’s press conference Tuesday. The senior from Avon, Connecticut, hasn’t been shy to share his opinions on the state of Michigan football.
“Due to the unfortunate change in coaching at Michigan and the unknown of who will take over the program, I am no longer committed to Michigan,” Clark announced via Twitter. “I still am very interested in the program.” He took an official visit to Southern California, and has planned visits to Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina by the end of January. Weber’s decommitment added to the avalanche of attrition, and came at a comically fitting time. He announced via Twitter just as Maryland took a fourth-quarter lead against the Wolverines on Nov. 22. Weber also said he will announce his new commitment at the Army All-American Bowl on Jan. 4. Clark’s decision marked the eighth recruit to drop out
of Michigan’s 2015 recruiting class. Other notable names in that group include five-star running back Damien Harris, five-star wide receiver George Campbell, four-star linebacker Darren Kirkland Jr. and four-star defensive end Darian Roseboro. The class now has just six members, by far the least of any Power 5 school. Florida is the next lowest with nine — the Gators are also in the midst of a coaching change. For comparison, Michigan’s 2014 recruiting class had 16 players enroll. Another oddity is many commits breached Hoke’s proverbial “no official visit after committing” rule. Multiple pledges took visits to major Division I schools, including to rivals Ohio State and Michigan State. One of the biggest decommitment risks is four-star corner-
back Brian Cole. He holds offers from nine schools, including Michigan, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State. Other players remaining in the class are four-star safety Tyree Kinnel, four-star offensive tackle Grant Newsome, fourstar quarterback Alex Malzone, three-star offensive tackle Joe Runyan Jr. and two-star kicker Andrew David. Any of the coaches rumored to succeed Hoke at Michigan, from LSU’s Les Miles to the San Francisco 49ers’ Jim Harbaugh, will presumably draw recruits with them. The Wolverines have until Feb. 4, 2015, National Signing Day, to reload the class for the 2015 season. Hackett refused to divulge his timetable for signing a new coach, meaning the Wolverines could be in limbo until that time.
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
By JACOB GASE Daily Sports Writer
Facing an opposing lineup with three starters over six feet, the Michigan women’s basketball team was playing at its biggest size disadvantage of the season to date. But instead of relying on longrange shooting WAKE FOREST 69 83 MICHIGAN to overcome the disparity as it has in the past, Michigan used a fast-paced offense to attack the rim from the get-go. Behind a relentless attack in the paint led by senior guard Shannon Smith’s 26-points, the Wolverines managed to cut Wake Forest down to size, 83-69. Smith gave the Wolverines their first lead with a driving layup between several defenders to make the score 10-9, setting the tone for an offense that never trailed the rest of the game. “The strength of our team is we have the ability to shoot from the outside as well as go inside,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “Shannon was able to get out in transition and get a mid-range game going. We just took advantage of their defense overplaying us and it opened up some lanes to the basket.” Senior forward Cyesha Goree, Michigan’s biggest threat down low, was the primary beneficiary of the onslaught in the first half. With several plays seemingly drawn up to get her the ball in the paint, Goree scored 13 first-half points and wasn’t fazed at all by the presence of 6-foot-3 Demon Decon forward Dearica Hambry. The 5-foot-7 Smith showed courage beyond her height, fearlessly driving into the lane without ever taking a 3-point shot. She also made her presence
felt on the defensive end, grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds to cap off the double-double. “My coaches have been on me this offseason about my overall presence on the court,” Smith said. “My percentages have definitely gone up, my rebounding, just my overall game.” The Wolverines’ offense may have blown the game open, but it was the injury bug that first derailed Wake Forest’s momentum. After jumping out to a 7-2 lead, the Demon Deacons lost sophomore guard Jill Brunori to an apparent leg injury. Following the injury timeout just three minutes into the game, Michigan used a 2-3 zone defense that stymied Wake Forest’s offense. With the paint completely locked down, the Demon Deacons were forced to take several low-percentage outside shots — including 20 from beyond the arc, just seven of which fell. The zone defense was a game-specific decision — Barnes Arico had employed exclusively man defense in the San Juan Shootout last week. But facing a player coming off a 40-point performance in Hambry, the coaching staff made a change to catch Wake Forest off-guard. “I told my staff, ‘I think I want to play zone,’ ” Barnes Arico said. “ ‘Go back and look and see what they do against zone.’ And nobody had played them zone this year. It played out in our favor.” The Wolverines’ long-range prowess still appeared in flashes — freshman guard Katelynn Flaherty came off the bench with eight points and two treys in her first two minutes — but the game was won in the paint, where Michigan scored 34 points and outrebounded Wake Forest, 35-34.
“We just took advantage of their defense.”
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, December 4, 2014
THE B-SIDE
University professors explain changing tastes in pop music By GREGORY HICKS Daily Arts Writer
Picture this: you’re shopping through a supermarket, pushing a cart down the right side of the aisle, taking note of all the most popular brands, and when you see something that tickles your fancy, you toss it in your cart. Oftentimes, however, there’s one more step thrown in for those who take pride in their self-awareness: flipping the item around and scanning through the ingredients and nutrition facts. 140 calories, 8 grams of protein, some red dye No. 40 thrown in there.
Check. Toss it in the cart. Now imagine if we treated our music this way. A clap on the second and fourth beat, a few doo-wop backing vocals, some brass in A major, female empowerment lyrics thrown in. Check. Toss “All About That Bass” into your iTunes library. Professors at the University are here to act as your musical nutritionists. With the year coming to a close, it’s time to consider what exactly you’ve digested with radio and popular music characteristics in 2014. If asked, could you pinpoint the year’s biggest trend? You might be surprised how much your listening habits have changed in the past few years. Pop goes the weasel American Culture Prof. Bruce Con-
forth sits at the desk of his Haven Hall office. There’s a guitar case resting on the floor next to him, just below a large portrait of Robert Johnson — all cast in the orange glow of a lamp-lit room. Not coincidentally, Conforth is on the executive board of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation and is a performing blues musician himself. But most importantly, Conforth is an expert when it comes to popular music. As the first curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the highly regarded American culture expert has worked with everyone from Ringo Starr to Aretha Franklin, and here he is now, delivering his expertise on Taylor Swift —The magazine’s 2014’s most buzzed-about artist — without even being prompted. “Time Magazine just had Taylor Swift on the cover of their recent issue, and the caption on the cover was ‘The
Power of Taylor Swift,’ so I had to read the article. At the very beginning of the article they called her ‘America’s most important musician.’ That’s a direct quote from Time magazine. Taylor Swift is America’s most important musician.” Conforth isn’t a fan of Swift, however, nor does he believe that the countrygone-pop singer is representative of any sort of long-lasting artistic legacy. What he does believe is that Taylor Swift is the pinnacle of 2014’s biggest commercial trend: hyper-produced, hyper-honest anthem pop. “You’ve got these two tensions going on in pop music,” Conforth said. “You’ve got this tendency towards the homogenization and blandness of auto-tuned perfection and every song sounding exactly the same, and then you’ve got this other contingent of people who are saying, ‘Well, we want
something that sounds a little more honest, and maybe we need to go in a completely different direction.’ ” And up until this year, Conforth said the two crowds were going in completely different directions. “The groups like Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, Hurray for the Riff Raff, the Avett Brothers — what I call these acoustic pop groups — who the rap on them is that people were turning to them because they wanted something more honest,” Conforth said. “They were sick of the overproduced pop single, and they wanted something that sounded more honest, more real, more authentic.” That desire for honesty bled into today’s dance pop, even if not as poetically as the acoustic pop groups of 2012. See POP MUSIC, Page 3B
Design by Francesca Kielb, Shreya Razak, and Emily Schumer
the b-side
2B — Thursday, December 4, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LITERARY COLUMN
Your upcoming million-dollar novel
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
By GRACE PROSNIEWSKI Daily Literary Columnist
COURTESY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Your tears only make me stronger.
Having a favorite song is overrated By MELINA GLUSAC Daily Arts Writer
You know it’s coming. Your heart starts to beat a little faster. Your chest reacts to its change of pace with up-and-down, up-and-down motions. Your eyes widen in anxious anticipation for the four most complicated words in the English language that’ll soon be thrust in your direction: “What’s your favorite song?” Every song you’ve ever heard starts to go through your head and you get dizzy and time keeps passing. But you still haven’t said anything. Your heart begins to race even faster than before. All memories of melodies soon vanish, except for the “Friends” theme song because it was the last thing you watched on TV before you went to bed last night. You suddenly want to utter an expletive (or break out into “I’ll be there for youuu”), but you look up at the person who asked the question — that cruel interrogator — and realize that an immediate reply is necessary because you’re dancing on the brink of social ineptitude and a nervous disorder. So you blurt out your go-to song: some old Beatles tune you heard when you were five or some sappy acoustic number that touched you at one point in your life. The typical answer. But is that really, out of all the brilliant music weaving through the world, the song that powers through for you? What is it that sets a song apart, and how do you know when you’ve truly found the one? It’s so hard to narrow it down. We’re fortunate enough to have more genres these days than fin-
gers on our hands, but that makes it even harder. You could go the rock route, the EDM route, the nerdcore hip-hop route — all will produce beautiful and valid contenders.
All melodies soon vanish, except for the “Friends” theme Then there’s the pesky issue of time: can your all-time favorite song only be from the past since it has stood the test of time already, making it automatically great? I often cite one of my favorite tunes as “Heroes” by David Bowie (1977), an incredibly atmospheric, 7-minute plea that’s too hard for me to describe (partly why I love it so much). It’s been kind of immortal, resurrected quite famously in a “Moulin Rouge” medley and, most recently, in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” The first time I heard this song I had chills all over my body. But the first time I heard “Blood” by The Middle East, I cried, and that song is from 2008. So is it any less worthy of the title of “favorite” because it hasn’t paid its dues yet? I can also muster “Aneurysm” by Nirvana, “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” when I hear the word “favorite.” But
I can’t pick just one from that crazy, aforementioned bunch. That’s five different eras, artists, genres, moods and melodies that are impossible to compare. They radiate on their own. And when I try to pick one, I find I’m blocking the light of another; it’s just not fair. The four-word tortuous question is also ambiguous. It could be interpreted as “What’s your current favorite song?”and that opens a new dimension of ditties to choose from. I could spit out a couple amazing songs that’ve come out in the past year (Beyoncé’s “Partition,” duh). And I could also expel a few jams I’ve been listening to as of late, which don’t necessarily have to be from the 21st century — Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” and The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today” presently dominate my Spotify account. We all struggle with this musical grey matter and these contradictions. I would argue, though, that these are the furthest things from contradictions. Music is art, and art is meant to be enjoyed anywhere, anytime in its various forms and guises. Songs are our cousins, our siblings, our family — it’s too politically incorrect and nearly impossible to pick a “favorite” member. We vibe to what we vibe to, and there’s no sense in trying to add a hierarchy to one of the few spheres of the world where we are free of any kind of order. The beauty lies in the freedom to declare “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj as good as “Yesterday” by The Beatles, if you want to. It’s taste, and a lot of music tastes good. So what’s my favorite song? All of them.
EPISODE REVIEW “Hibbing 911” offers a mirror to the usual “Supernatural” formula, putting the boys Aon the back burn- ‘Supernatural’ er and “Hibbing 911” spotlighting a pair The CW of capable and kickass female characters: Sheriffs Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes, “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”) and Donna Hanscum (Briana Buckmaster,”Baby Sellers”). This episode finds us in Hibbing, Minnesota, where a man is spray-painting smiley faces in an alley when he is brutally attacked. Back in the bunker, Sam (Jared Padalecki, “Gilmore Girls”) and Dean (Jensen Ackles, “Smallville”) are still unsuccessfully looking for a way to cure the Mark of Cain. Jody and Donna partner up and learn about a chewed-up body that wild animals don’t seem to explain completely, so Jody calls the Winchesters. The ladies bond, and the monster soon claims another victim. The boys are so bored of research that they pack up and go to check out the case them-
THE CW
selves. While they go to investigate, the girls continue to bond over their past relationships; Jody calls out Donna’s ex-husband for fat shaming and general douchery. Donna goes out for some air and discovers that one of the sheriffs in town is actually a vampire. Unfortunately, though, this scene is marred by some shoddy camera work — we’ve grown accustomed to the dramatic zoom that “Supernatural” is so fond of using, but the shaky camera style used here was particularly jarring. Naturally, Donna is startled by her crash course into the supernatural world, but once all four characters are on the same page, they check out a lead together. When they find
the sheriff they’re pursuing, they’re ambushed by a gang of vampires who are planning on convincing the Sheriff to come back to their gang of free love and bloodletting. When he refuses, the other vampires kill him before Dean and Donna break free and take them down. While Jody helps Donna come to terms with her participation in a beheading, Dean admits that for the first time since he came back he didn’t feel like the Mark of Cain was pushing him during a kill. But this might simply be the calm before the storm, with imminent drama of the mid-season finale looming ahead next week.
— KIM BATCHELOR
The end of the fall semester always brings a wide array of emotions. There’s relief that classes are over. There’s excitement for the upcoming year. But for those of us who are graduating in May, there’s a very different emotion to contend with: fear. For seniors, this time of year is rife with indecision and anxiety about our plans for after graduation, specifically on whether our degrees will be enough to find a job to help pay back loans from getting our degrees. Ah, the American higher education system. If someone else is paying your tuition (and you aren’t concerned about student loans), you have my permission to stop reading this article and go back to riding your pony around your ancestral estate in the Hamptons, which I can only assume is what you do. But back to the desperate undergrad. After racking your brain trying to figure out a surefire plan for gaining financial stability, you’ve undoubtedly come to the only logical conclusion: pay off your student loans by penning a series of highly successful historical romance novels. “But wait,” you protest, “I don’t know anything about historical romance novels.” Well, you’re in luck, because in this particular genre there’s a wellestablished formula for success. You’re going to want to set your story in Regency-era England. Why, you ask? Because it’s a thinly veiled attempt to borrow some literary credibility by trying to vaguely associate your work with Jane Austen. But if anyone asks, it’s because you like the dresses. Your heroine will be independent and witty, but also refined and demure. As such, she is either a wallflower or a spinster. Her family is in dire financial straits and she’s the only one competent enough to deal with it. While she’s made peace with her quiet life on the fringes of ballrooms, she yearns for adventure and, dare we say, romance.
You should make sure to repeatedly mention her plain looks, but then offer descriptions that make it clear she doesn’t actually deviate from traditional standards of beauty at all. Your hero is a rogue, a rake, a scoundrel, etc. Some incident from his childhood, perhaps mentioned in the prologue, has left the hero jaded and aloof. He’s far taller than what would have been statistically normal for the time, but it’s symbolic of how he holds himself above people. Deep, right? It almost goes without saying that he is god-like in his handsomeness. In addition, he’s most likely the richest man in England. And he’s a Duke. In other words, he’s kind of a big deal. However, someone may be plotting against him in order to steal his title and fortune. You don’t have to pay too much attention to that part though, as it will only be mentioned sporadically. Love takes precedence over intrigue in these works. Your hero and heroine will meet in a decidedly awkward manner. It will probably have something to do with the heroine needing financial help. Once the hero learns that he cannot easily intimidate or charm the heroine, he will be fascinated, and of course, completely smitten. The heroine will find him vexing, but will acknowledge that he is indeed gorgeous and makes her feel odd things. The hero, always up for a challenge, will engineer several “accidental” run-ins with the heroine, slowly building up the tension. Then comes the moment that all the little moments have been building up to: your hero and heroine hook up with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. This will most likely be an unplanned tryst in a library during a large elegant party. (Who knew that when you sneak off to the Stacks with your significant other, you’re actually participating in a rich literary tradition. Just please wait until I’ve returned my book.) But the hero and heroine are not so conscientious, and are caught by either the heroine’s
guardian or the biggest gossip in town. Because your hero is first and foremost a gentleman, he will offer to marry your heroine so she will not be socially ruined. While both of them will express misgivings, secretly both of them will actually be totally stoked at the turn of events. And so they’ll get married, by a special license, of course. As time goes on, both hero and heroine will realize that they actually deeply care about each other, but neither will admit anything to the other because humans are intolerably dumb. The denouement is when that pesky plot, which hasn’t been mentioned in some ten chapters, is finally resolved. Usually it runs down something like this: villain kidnaps heroine, hero saves heroine, they admit their feelings for each other and your eyes roll so far back into your head you can see your brain. I understand the narrative need for a dramatic realization that they both love each other, but can we not mix it up a little? Would it be so heinous for the heroine to save the hero? And not through some wussy cop-out “she saves him through love” junk. Anyway, your couple is now free to live happily ever after, secure in their social rank and status. Though in all honesty, there’s probably a pretty good chance your hero is syphilitic. But don’t mention that, since it’s kind of a mood-killer. And finally, you’ll need a title. Luckily, this too can be distilled down to a simple formula: “How to (insert a synonym for seduce) a (insert a title of English nobility).” And with that, you’re done. Now you’re fully prepared to start your Regency romance empire. When you’ve raked in your millions, spare a thought, or some of your millions, to this humble columnist. Prosniewski is working on her first bodice-ripper. To get an advance copy, e-mail gpros@umich.edu.
SINGLE REVIEW Petite Noir’s song “Chess” floats in like an eclectic, slow electronic fog. This electronic backdrop remains the founda- A+ tion for the song from ‘Chess’ start to fin- Petite Noir ish and isn’t Domino tarnished by heavy beats or obnoxious bass drops. The mist is cut by Yannick Ilunga’s haunting, gentle, James Blake-esque falsetto. Singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, this exceedingly talented South African artist lets his voice and lyrics carry his listeners through the fading mist of the song. As if he means to represent the dueling personalities of the struggling couple the song describes, Ilunga allows his voice to vacillate from a high falsetto to a low alto. Breathy yet strong, his vocals are undoubtedly the strongest instrument the song possesses. By the three-minute mark, multiple marriages of sound emerge. An additional electric
PETITE NOIR
guitar and drum set meet amid electronic mist to add intensity and sonic depth. Ilunga’s alto carries the lyrics while his falsetto beautifully whispers more on the song’s intent. A love that was supposed to be as easy as checkers is made into a complicated, sonically inspiring six-and-a-half minute chess game. Speeding up and adding on until its very end, the electronic landscape underlying the tragic love story builds and then buries itself into the song’s close. Starting simple and expanding into a deeper, matured excel-
lence, “Chess” sounds like a completely different song six and a half minutes later. This is the kind of song you buy expensive headphones for, that you send to that really hip friend because you’ve finally found something even they will not deny. And yes, unfortunately Pitchfork likes it, but don’t let that fog your burgeoning obsession. Bobbing your head with your Walgreens headphones in won’t do “Chess” justice: blast this one from your speakers.
— MIMI ZAK
HALF OF US DON’T KNOW WHO BRADY HOKE IS. WE’RE O.K. WITH THAT.
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the b-side
3B — Thursday, December 4, 2014
POP MUSIC From Page 1B Reflect for a moment. A few years ago you were satisfied with jamming out to “On the Floor” by Jennifer Lopez. The major hit contained lyrics ranging from “La la la la la, la la la la la la la la la, tonight we gon’ be it on the floor” to the occasionally personified “It’s getting ill it’s getting sick on the floor.” A few years ago you were also satisfied with jamming out to “Till the World Ends” by Britney Spears. This major hit’s lyrics ranged from “Oh oh whoa oh oh oh oh, Oh oh whoa oh oh oh oh” to the occasional shout-out “DJ what you, what you waiting for?” These hits are extremely dated in their form. Why is that? Because in 2014, empty words and phrases accompanying dance music doesn’t work. Now, it’s all about the anthem — something that’s danceable but also has some personal fire behind its lyricism. You’re gonna hear me “roar,” so just “shake it off.” We’ve got one fewer “problem” without ya, so just “break free.” Why you gotta be so “rude?” Is it because I still get “jealous?” When you’re losing your voice singing along to today’s hits, you’re actually taking the meaning of the song into more consideration than you’ve derived from songs from a few years ago. The funny thing is, it’s not just the songs that we’re seeking more real-talk from. We’re seeking more “realness” from artists altogether. What drove Taylor Swift to the top in this particular year? The fact that her music is not only this so-called anthem music, but is also authentic. There’s never a doubt in our minds that the only thing better than music that sounds brutally honest is music that actually is brutally honest. And it’s not just present in these modern pop hits. It’s present in the nature of today’s other thriving genres. Country and Hip Hop — Brothers from another mother “And when we land I’ll call her up and tell her ‘Kiss my ass,’ ’cause hey — I’m drunk on a plane.” No, this is not one of our consulted University professors. This is Dierks Bentley with his second number-one country hit of the year, “Drunk on a Plane.” In the track, Bentley narrates the story of being stood up at the altar and making the most of his non-refundable honeymoon plane ticket to Cancun. Country has never been a stranger to the real-talk appeal. The “kiss my ass” empowerment anthem has gone on since the dawn of the genre itself and this year there’s a resurgence of people who are more willing than ever to consume both pop and country, since both genres share a multitude of similarities in 2014. And despite three (or in this case four) chords and the “truth” now becoming a widespread phenomenon, country still maintains the highest degree of authenticity over pop.
“Our social stereotypes about working-class people — who are the class of people associated with country music — are that we think they’re not sophisticated enough to have any guises,” said Nadine Hubbs, professor of music and women’s studies. “Authenticity has always been part of the country artist’s shtick. Part of it is our beliefs about country, and we really exaggerate the extent to which it’s completely literal — the ‘what you see is what you get.’ ” Hubbs isn’t your run-ofthe-mill country music expert. Located kitty-corner from North Quad in her Lane Hall Department of Women’s Studies office, Hubbs’s walls are decorated from head to toe with LGBTQ- and feministoriented posters — territories where most country music goers would never dare set foot. Hubbs takes on a genre from its most challenging perspectives, and in her most recent book “Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music,” she proves to be the ideal consultant for deconstructing country’s demographic. “There’s a country music scholar called Jimmie N. Rogers, who named these phenomena the ‘Sincerity Contract,’ and he acknowledges that it’s a special thing in country music that fans expect,” Hubbs said. “They expect the songs that a country artist sings to connect up with their actual biographies. They expect a core response between the artist’s biography, the themes, the topics, the lyrics and the image of the musician.” Lest we forget that Taylor Swift earned her initial keep as a country teen who had an uncanny ability to connect with the masses through music that had a uniquely general yet specific narration. Then — out of the blue — Hubbs threw another genre into the mix. “Let’s look at hip hop, another type of music where an incredibly high degree of authenticity is demanded,” she said. “Why do we expect of our hip-hop artists that they have to have realness? If your life deviates from this incredible brutality, violence, misery and hyper-masculinity that audiences pay for and expect the rapper to bring, you can be in real hot water. We’ve seen that. Kanye had to do some fast explaining when he was new on the block. He was preppy, he was college-educated, his mom had a Ph.D. and he had to explain all that. And other people who have seen to be ‘frontin’ ’ have had P.R. disasters on their hands.” This year in hip hop, we witnessed these PR disasters. Iggy Azalea took one punch after another from the rap community (including artists such as Snoop Dogg and Eminem) for her apparently phony stage persona. A high-profile white, blonde, female, Australian rapper is a recipe for hip-hop revolt. And while there are examples of white rappers, female rappers and nonAmerican rappers, to qualify for every position is an extreme deviation from the characteristics that the community deems to be
authentically hip hop. “(Country and hip hop) music are linked to underprivileged social groups in America,” Hubbs said. “We expect them to bring us a kind of realness for our consumption that shows us the shadier side of life in a way that we can handle and in a way that is interesting to us.” Perhaps the “fancy” side of life wasn’t what the hip-hop community was looking for this year.
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TV NOTEBOOK
Unpolished music as polished authenticity “There’s a backwash of people who are thirsty for how the music would sound if the artists weren’t recording in the studio. You get a CD that’s been re-mastered and they have four bonus tracks … where they didn’t have this chord worked out or this vocal worked out and people are fascinated by that and they’ll buy that. People want to hear artists working on perfection rather than the perfection itself,” said Carlos Rodriguez, associate professor of music education. One of the University’s leading authorities on popular music and music education, Rodriguez narrates an unorthodox trend he has seen in today’s tweakedto-perfection pop music. In fact, whether he realizes it or not, he has just described a significant feature of Taylor Swift’s new record. It always seems to come back to that. Swift released three bonus tracks of voice memos dictating certain thoughts and processes she was going through while writing tracks with Jack Antonoff, Max Martin and Ryan Tedder. Swift isn’t the first to do so, but the voice memos are certainly a representation of authenticity and the dispelled illusion of immaculate perfection. Just look at your Facebook newsfeed and Tumblr blogs. They’re all spitting out the same message. No longer are they an exaggerated outlet of your perfect life and how hard you partied the night before; they’re a bunch of back-and-forth posts on sources and explanations of how not everybody is perfect, how you should feel comfortable with the way you look, of the way you feel and tell everyone who doesn’t reciprocate your feelings to piss off. Your 2014 music is essentially your Facebook newsfeed and Tumblr blog. “I heard an interview with Jack White,” Rodriguez recalled. “He doesn’t think of his songs as ‘his songs.’ He says he just looks at the world and looks what’s around him and does what he does and then lets it go. He says he’s just here when it happens, but he didn’t create this. It’s just everything that goes on around him.’ ” Get drunk on a plane. Shake off the haters. Marry her anyway. If they’re not about that bass, move along. That’s the biggest trend of 2014. It’s this brutally honest music in your mind saying it’s gonna be alright.
FOX
What did you just call me?!
‘New Girl’ ’s Schmidt
delightfully douchey Max Greenfield’s character is the type we love to hate By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK Daily Arts Writer
Of all the jerks on TV, there are few that I love to hate more than Schmidt on FOX’s “New Girl.” Though he’s the loft’s biggest contributor to the Douchebag Jar — a refaced tip jar that’s filled whenever someone says an offensive comment — Schmidt has become an icon with his pitchperfect one liners and ridiculous tenacity for life. As he says, “I always like to give 110 percent.” Played by Max Greenfield (“Veronica Mars”), Schmidt is a formerly overweight, sociallyawkward Jewish kid who has blossomed into a smoothtalking ladies’ man with a taste for the good life, whether that be a nice jar of mango chutney (“or really any chutney”) or an immaculate manscaping groom. Schmidt isn’t shy about pointing out any flaws his roommates Jess (Zooey Deschanel, “Elf”), Nick (Jake Johnson, “21 Jump Street”), Winston (Lamorne Morris, “Sex Ed”) and Coach (Damon Wayans, “Happy Endings”) might have. In season one, he describes Nick as “delicate. Like a flower. Like a chubby, damaged flower who hates himself.” Don’t be fooled by his suave demeanor, though, because Schmidt gets the blues like the rest of us simpletons: “You’re
not the only one that’s hurting here, Jessica Day. The economy stinks, bees are dying, movies are pretty much all sequels now and I have a broken penis. Don’t pretend to know my pain.” And if Schmidt’s manhood is damaged, the world must really be going to hell in a handbasket. But in all seriousness, Schmidt is exactly the kind of guy I actively try to avoid in real life. He’s the type that would primp with exfoliates before our date and judge my grilled cheese order while sipping on raw carrot juice. After the date was over, he wouldn’t ask to see me again, but rather would part with some deep nugget of wisdom about how true love is a myth and affection is sweet and fleeting, like chocolate or springtime. Then he would give a long, brooding stare and strut away, on the prowl again. As Schmidt says, “I’m like a Hebrew cheetah.”
Schmidt is exactly the kind of guy I try to avoid in real life Schmidt’s serial-dating ways, which usually circle back to his unshakeable crush, Cece (Hannah Simone, “Oldboy”), have been side plots in past seasons of “New Girl,” but are now what place him at the core
of season four. This year, every member of the cast is single and ready to mingle — Nick and Jess are finally just friends, Cece has shut down Schmidt’s approaches and Winston is down on his love luck as usual — and they’re turning to the hit-and-run Cupid himself. The season opened with “Last Wedding,” where Schmidt devises a plan to get his roommates through the end of wedding season by finding everyone a hookup. In “Dice,” Schmidt introduces Jess to Dice, a “Tinder”-like mobile app he’s been using to meet girls, and graciously gives her tips for dating: “The point of dating is just to keep on dating and then never stop — like burning fossil fuels or seeing a therapist.” Then, in “Thanksgiving IV,” his gang-hookup ploy is back again; Schmidt renames the holiday “Bangsgiving,” where everybody in the loft has to set up each other with a date to bring to dinner, with the intention that dinner will lead to dessert (wink, wink). He’s slick, arrogant and uses more hair products and kitchenware than I knew existed, but I can’t help but like Schmidt — if only because he’s so damn funny. There’s a difference between a serious man-whore and one who blows his persona up to the size of a socially-awkward overweight kid. Maybe beneath his smooth talking and aggressive frittata making, Schmidt has a heart as big as everyone else’s on “New Girl,” but like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, it would kill him to let it show.
the b-side
4B — Thursday, December 4, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
TRAILER REVIEW It’s amazing how something that lasts only a minute and a half can provide you with a feeling of enthu- A+ siasm and ecstasy that ‘Star Wars: is likely to The Force last for days. It’s amaz- Awakens’ ing how a Walt Disney few clips can Studios catapult you back in time, back when you wished that lightsabers were real and you thought you could magically move that lamp on your table by focusing your hands and summoning the power of the Force. It’s amazing how a blast of music accompanied by that title card can cause your hair to stand on end, your body to come alive with goosebumps and leave you gasping for breath. The trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is, simply put, amazing. It’s almost the perfect trail-
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
er — you don’t really know what’s going on, but you love it and you really want to see the rest of it. Is that R2D2 rolling on the sands of Tatooine? Is that Han Solo’s daughter on that pod? Is that how all the lightsabers are going to look? I don’t know, but I’d sure as hell like to find out. The trailer is made up of a few teasing clips, which last mere seconds. They inevita-
bly build up to the climax, and what a climax it is. I don’t want to give it away for those who haven’t seen it, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. Holy shit — that was awesome. If this trailer doesn’t leave your spine tingling with uncontrollable joy and excitement, you have no soul. Just ask Stephen Colbert.
— MAYANK MATHUR
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW She & Him’s music video for their cover of Dusty Springfield’s popular hit “Stay Awhile” — from the duo’s Dec. A2 release, Classics — deserves ‘Stay awe and recogAwhile’ nition. Bringing their mysteri- She & Him ous melancholia Columbia alive through dance, the duo has figured out how to bring indie flair to the well-forgotten era of American Bandstand. The video’s elegance lies in its simplicity. Vocalist Zooey Deschanel (also known for her depiction of Jess Day on “New Girl”) dances with a ghost in a transience that makes you beg for her to find whomever she’s longing for. The choreography is exemplary of the emotions that accompany loneliness and disappointment, and what starts off looking like Deschanel in simple child’s play turns into a rock-ribbed routine of twists and turns. Behind it all is producer M. Ward doing what he does best — playing an invisible guitar that ebbs to Deschanel’s heartbreak story.
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
Shannon Zandee, president of the University’s chapter of FeelGood.
Ending world hunger, one sandwich at a time Club sells grilled cheese for a good cause By KAREN HUA Daily Arts Writer
The vocals are weathered and the choreography is on-point. The visuals are crisp, and with every movement, you’re hooked into wondering where Deschanel’s trance will take her. The video makes no grand
COLUMBIA
gesture. The visual doesn’t try to make a conclusion about love. Its emotions are simple, and by the end, you’ve truly see how powerful dance can be in painting a picture of wistful yearning.
— MIMI ZAK
It was a blustery, prematurely harsh winter evening, but the room we entered was cozy, immediately brightened by Shannon and Joe’s warm personalities. We made small talk — the finals schedule, the atrocious weather — and eventually the cessation of world hunger. It was clear this was certainly not the first time they had this conversation, as they patiently but animatedly relayed their mission to me. LSA senior Shannon Zandee, president of the University’s chapter of FeelGood, greeted me with a smile. She stood petite, with LSA junior Joe Murray, FeelGood’s deli manager standing about two heads taller than her. Though they seemed like a contrasting pair, they maintain a solid partnership which upholds a successful club. Zandee and Murray are two core members of FeelGood’s chapter at the University, a volunteer organization committed to ending global hunger in our lifetime — a hefty goal for ordinary college students. In exchange for a freshly made grilled cheese sandwich, sold every two weeks and delivered at the height of nighttime study sessions, they earn a profit, 100 percent of which goes to hunger-ending organizations. Students operate every aspect of the operation, including advertising, cooking and delivery runs. Priced at a minimum suggested donation of $4, their menu features twists on the classic comfort food, such as the “Kerrytown,” a sweet combination of apples and honey, and the “Big House,” Joe’s personal favorite which he calls “the pizza sandwich.” Zandee planted the club’s seed at the University after she transferred from the University of Vermont during her sophomore year. “I saw how successful UVM’s chapter was,” Zandee said. “How much they were able to get the word out about world hunger and be effective change-makers in a fun and positive way ... So seeing this huge campus that is really passionate about a lot of things, I saw that as an opportunity to spread that word.” After devoting a semester to tedious paperwork, planning and fighting discouraging red tape, she finally established
the club, which started selling sandwiches last year. Though they initially struggled to make FeelGood’s typical kiosk vendor strategy work, they catered their tactics to better fit Michigan’s fast-paced student lifestyle. Unique to most other chapters, they operate solely on delivery delis, personally bringing the sandwiches directly to students who order them. However, FeelGood is much more than this exchange. They maintain that it’s more about partnership than it is charity. At it’s core, that is exactly what Zandee and Murray embody. They speak almost perfectly in tandem, finishing each other’s thoughts and elaborating on the other’s ideas. Just as they work together in coordinated harmony, they do the same with the numerous partnerships they’ve created since the club’s inception. They now collaborate with the Sigma Chi fraternity for access to a kitchen, with Zingerman’s Deli for bread donations and with Central Student Government for a bulk of their funding for other supplies. Most importantly though, their primary partnership is with the students who purchase the grilled cheeses and who aim to be educated about the cause. Beyond simply raising money for a charitable cause, FeelGood has a much larger mission to educate locally. Each Tuesday at weekly meetings, they gather with about 20 other committed members to inform themselves and others on sustainability and the global hunger crisis.
“When people are hungry, they can’t reach their full ... potential” “As far as the communities that we’re helping, that’s all abroad, but the local impact comes from the conversations we have while raising awareness on campus,” Murray said. “So, we’re not directly helping to end hunger in Ann Arbor ... but we get people talking and thinking about these things locally to help internationally.” Zander said the partnership expands to many levels. “So it’s a really cool moment when we deliver a sandwich and someone gets the mission and really embraces it and they end up donating $5 instead of the usual three,” Zander said. Consequently, they have also
formed a beautiful partnership with each other — the essence of why the club has become so successful from its foundation. “It’s a really nice opportunity to meet people who are passionate about global issues ... They’re some of the coolest people I know,” Zandee said. “We spend a lot of time together,” Murray said. “It takes a lot of coordination, a lot of meetings, a lot of planning and the small people trying to start a club at this big University has been the best bonding opportunity.” As they invest so much time into the ambitious undertaking, they only become more passionate about sustainability issues and the eradication of world hunger themselves. As they educate others, they consequently delve in further to the cause themselves. “One of the big aspects that FeelGood emphasizes is that it’s helping people end their own hunger,” Murray said. “So it’s not about giving people food handouts, or giving them money. It’s about raising (awareness), doing different education things and sustainability practices — just trying to empower the communities.” Because FeelGood generally focuses on the logistics of the sandwich making and the delivery, they stress the extra effort to remind themselves of the bigger picture beyond the day-to-day. “People should care about the work we do because it’s bigger than (feeding hungry people),” Zandee said. “When people are hungry, they can’t really reach their full human creative potential … If everyone had enough to eat to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle — they would have such beautiful voices to offer to the world.” “There are so many people in the world with so much to offer, but they can’t focus on doing anything but feeding themselves on a day-to-day basis,” Murray said. “If we can help take that strain away, we can see what some of these people can do who may not have been able to show this potential otherwise.” In essence, they want everyone to be involved in this grander partnership. We eventually parted ways for the night — them off to their meeting, and me off to start my Chaucer essay. As I finish up my paper, I’ll have another site open next to my procrastination tabs for FeelGood’s last delivery of the semester. I’ll surely get my own “Vegetable Victor” — hopefully to satisfy my latenight study munchies and my small contribution to ending world hunger.
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