CELEBRATING OUR ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, December 10, 2014
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‘U’: Regents complied with state meeting law
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Students participate in the Black Lives Matter Silent Vigil held at the Winter Garden in the Ross School of Business on Tuesday.
Silent vigil honors victims of police violence, profiling Business school organization mobilizes students
universities gathered in the Winter Garden at the Ross School of Business for a silent vigil for Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two men who recently lost their lives in police-related violence. The event was organized by students in the Black Business Student Association to show solidarity for victims of racialized violence. Business graduate student Kareem Edwards, BBSA president, said the event was intended
By JACK TURMAN and STEPHANIE SHENOUDA Daily Staff Reporter and Daily News Editor
Hundreds of University students, faculty and staff members, as well as students from other
to raise awareness about police brutality and racial profiling and how it affects people across the country. “The purpose of the event was really just to have a moment to honor those lost lives of citizens across America due to police brutality,” he said. “People realize it’s not a Black issue; it’s an American issue that we all need to help and support in some capacity. Whether it’s small as a like on a picture or working with
local authorities (on) policy, you all have a part.” Edwards added that he was pleased with the turnout, noting the attendance showed the importance of the conversation on college campuses. Business graduate student Lonzyo Holcomb, who also attended the vigil, said it surpassed his expectations and he was grateful for the community’s support. See VIGIL, Page 2A
Officials prevented public from attending November session By CLAIRE BRYAN Daily Staff Reporter
November’s University Board of Regents meeting did not go according to schedule. Ten minutes into the meeting, members of the organization By Any Means Necessary rose from their seats in the audience and began disrupting the proceedings with shouting until the regents and executive officers vacated the room. The regents later reconvened in the Regents Room of the Fleming Administration Building to approve the month’s agenda items, including a $49 million renovation to the Dennison Building and the construction of a $261 million Biological Sciences Building. The meeting was closed
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If passed, bill would redefine religious rights Businesses could deny services based on faithbased objections By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
Passed by the Michigan House last week, the Religious Freedom Resoration Act has potential impact on two proposed amendments that seek to include LGBTQ protections to the state’s Elliott-Larsen civil rights act. Modeled after 1993 federal legislation, the Michigan RFRA would grant exemptions to individuals and businesses if they feel laws substantially burden their religious beliefs. It provides for exemptions both from state laws and laws in the state’s “political subdivisions” — a term usually interpreted to mean municipalities and cities. Eighteen other states have also passed their own versions of RFRA, the original version of which is only applicable feder-
ally. However, dozens of cities and municipalities already have ordinances protecting statuses such as sexual orientation, marital, HIV, political beliefs and arrest record. These local laws are more extensive than the state’s civil rights protections, and are in effect in polities including Ann Arbor, Royal Oak and Delhi Township. They could feel much of the law’s impact — potentially even a majority of it — especially given that the ELCRA is unlikely to be amended this legislative session. In an interview with The Michigan Daily Tuesday, State Rep. Jim Townsend (D–Royal Oak) said RFRA could place more extensive local nondiscrimination ordinances and state law on a “collision course.” “Basically, the bullseye is going to end up on Royal Oak and other cities that have done this, to protect everybody in their community, and it’s just gratuitous,” he said. “It’s just way beyond what is necessary to protect people’s First See FREEDOM, Page 2A
to members of the general public. Though members of the press were alerted to the venue change, University officials did not publicly announce that the proceedings would be relocated. “It was a complicated decision,” said University President Mark Schlissel in an interview with The Michigan Daily. “We certainly didn’t want to move it out of the public eye.” The state of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act requires public governing bodies such as the regents to host meetings “in a place available to the general public.” The law says votes must occur in the presence of the public and members of the public must have the opportunity to comment on the proceedings. That evening, signs on the Fleming Administration Building read “The building is LOCKED.” Security guards explicitly blocked members of the public from entering the building. After he reopened the meeting inside Fleming, Schlissel said See OPEN, Page 3A
Daily staff elects new leadership for 2015 Across sections, online initiatives seen as paramount for publication’s future ZACH MOORE/Daily
By MICHAEL SUGERMAN Daily Staff Reporter
CSG President Bobby Dishell, Public Policy senior, speaks at the CSG meeting at the Michigan Union Tuesday.
CSG passes resolution to support onsite admissions Legislation includes clause condemning threatening action
swore in new representatives and elected new vice chairs for the Finance Committee and for the Resolutions Committee. CSG passes resolution to support onsite admissions at Detroit schools
By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily Staff Reporter
At the Central Student Government meeting Tuesday night, the assembly passed a resolution supporting an onsite admissions process in Detroit schools,
Following a 35-2 vote, the assembly passed a resolution to support onsite admissions at Detroit schools. The resolution, introduced last week by members of By Any Means Necessary and authored
by members of CSG, highlights how minority enrollment has remained stagnant at the University in recent years. The assembly said one method to combat low minority enrollment would be to implement onsite admissions at schools in the Detroit area. BAMN members were present Tuesday night to encourage the assembly to pass the resolution. BAMN organizer Jose Alvarenga said passing the resolution would be the first step See CSG, Page 3A
After nearly a month of publication-wide elections, The Michigan Daily staff has chosen its editor in chief, managing editor and section leaders for the 2015 calendar year. While each section of the newspaper elects its respective managing editors internally, the editor-in-chief and co-editorial page editors were chosen in a staff-wide vote Nov. 14. LSA junior Jennifer Calfas, who served as managing news editor this year, will serve as the 2015 editor-in-chief. Calfas said one of her main goals is to lead the paper in a collaborative, transparent manner. Her barometer for success will be maintaining staff enthusiasm and the quality of the paper’s content. See EDITORS, Page 3A
let’s talk about sex The Statement talks about how Tinder and social media affect our sex lives and relationships
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BACK ROW: Senior Sports Editor Jeremy Summitt, Daily Sports Writer Shannon Lynch, Managing Photo Editor Paul Sherman, Senior Arts Editor Alec Stern, 2013 Copy Chief Tom McBrien Senior Copy Editor Alisha Qiu, Copy Chief Mark Ossolinski, Managing Sports Editor Alejandro Zuniga MIDDLE ROW: Senior Sports Editor Rajat Khare, Assistant Sports Editor Daniel Feldman, Daily Sports Writer Marina Nazario, Copy Chief Meaghan Thompson, Copy Editor Hannah Maine, Daily Staff Reporter Stephanie Dilworth, Senior Arts Editor Erica Harwood, Daily Staff Reporter Hillary Crawford, Assistant Photo Editor McKenzie Berezin, Daily Sports Writer Jesse Klein, Copy Editor Kristen Anderson, Editorial Page Editor Daniel Wang, Online Editor Austen Hufford, FRONT ROW: Magazine Design Editor Amy Mackens, Statement Magaizine Editor Carlina Duan, Managing Photo Editor Teresa Mathew, Editor-in-Chief Peter Shahin, Managing Editor Katie Burke, Managing Arts Editor Akshay Seth, Video Editor James Reslier-Wells
ON THE WEB... THE WIRE
MLK Day symposium By JACK TURMAN In a day full of activities, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill will deliver the keynote memorial lecture. Other activities include a youth program and learning about different roles in social justice.
THE WIRE
Edwards Bros. property By JACK TURMAN Last February, the University bought property on South State Street from Edwards Brothers Malloy. The company is moving out and in a few weeks, paving the way for University construction.
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Korean studies talk WHAT: Prof. Ji-Yeon Yuh will discuss Korean experiences in military service. WHO: Nam Center for Korean Studies WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work, Rm. 1636
Stress relief
Holiday dance
WHAT: Dogs will be in the library for several hours to provide stress relief for students in the lead up to finals week. WHEN: Today from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHO: University Library WHERE: Shapiro Library
WHAT: Live swing dancing music from Alex Belhaj and a free swing dancing lesson will be provided. Entry is free for students and $5 for community members WHO: Swing Ann Arbor WHEN: Today from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. WHERE: Vandenburg Room, Michigan Union
Coffee hour
Film screening Musical event
WHAT: This event will provide an opportunity to meet new students and families over coffee. Registration is not required; anyone can attend for free. WHO: International Center WHEN: Today at 1 p.m. WHERE: The Lurie Engineering Center
WHAT: As part of the CSJ film series, the movie ‘The Wind Rises’ will be shown. The film takes place in 1927 and features airplanes. WHO: Center for Japenese Studies WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: State Theatre
WHAT: Student organization Christian Challenge carols at St. Joseph’s Hospital for the holidays. All are invited to join the group in their festivities WHO: Christian Challenge WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: St. Joseph’s Hospital CORRECTIONS l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
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SENIOR DESIGN EDITORS: Shane Achenbach and Emily Schumer
The CIA disputed a report from the Senate intelligence committee which found that intelligence the agency gained from torturing prisoners did not lead to counterterrorism successes, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
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The Statement Magazine finishes off the semester with its annual sex issue — this year looking at the way technology and social media affect our relationships. >> SEE THE STATEMENT, PG. 2B
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SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Max Cohen, Alexa Dettelbach, Lev Facher, Rajat Khare, Jake Lourim and Jeremy Summitt ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: Max Bultman, Minh Doan, Daniel Feldman, Simon Kaufman, Erin Lennon, Jake Lourim and Jason Rubinstein
Scientists predicted that two large twin stars rotating around each other would combine into one larger ‘supermassive’ star, National Geographic reported Tuesday. The event is unprecedented in astronomy history.
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BUSINESS STAFF Madeline Lacey University Accounts Manager Ailie Steir Classified Manager Simonne Kapadia Local Accounts Manager Lotus An National Accounts Manager Olivia Jones Production Managers Nolan Loh Special Projects Coordinator Jason Anterasian Finance Manager The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
IT’S CLOSING TIME. THANKS TO THE ENTIRE MICHIGAN DAILY STAFF FOR A FANTASTIC YEAR.
Homeless services expanded MPowered to Ann Arbor City Council approves county reccomendations By JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporter
Though local warming shelters are expanding their accessibility this year, the city’s homeless community has come to rely on the Ann Arbor District Library for warmth during the winter months, leading officials to implement a program to provide extra support for library staff. Following the unusually extreme weather conditions last winter, the Ann Arbor City Coun-
cil approved an expansion of services to the homeless population at the request of the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development. Director of WCOCED Mary Jo Callan proposed several recommendations to the council, including the expansion of overnight warming centers, increased funding for hotel stays when necessary and expansion of the services provided by the library, including the addition of mental health services. Rates of mental illness are twice as high for homeless populations in the United States, according to the American Psychological Association. Because the library attracts members of the homeless community in Ann
Arbor and surrounding areas, Callan said expanded services like a street outreach team, which provides mental health services to homeless people, are necessary. The street outreach team, a Community Support and Treatment Services program contracted by the Washtenaw Community Health Organization, are now available at the library, following Callan’s recommendation. “We got really clear feedback from the library that they are proud to play that role in the community, proud to be a space where all kinds of residents want to come to,” she said. “But, they really needed more resources and more understanding of area of resources to be able to help folks who are coming here with particular challenges, especially for folks facing homelessness.” Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library, said everyone is welcome in the library. However, she noted that if a person is a distraction to others due to impaired and involuntary behavior, help is required to ensure the library can maintain its status as a safe place for its customers. “When we have the numbers of persons in the library who are homeless that we had last year, the incidents of impairment and persons who are uncooperative with our staff about their behavior goes up,” Parker said. “It’s felt by everyone who’s in the library at that point time. We’re trying to mitigate that. In order to do that, we’ve reached out.” As a response to the feedback, Callan said CSTS was willing to contribute their services to the library. “They were very eager to step up to figure out how they could be more helpful to the library to make sure they have folks more of a presence there,” Callan said.
Parker said staff members from CSTS will be in the library more to work with their clients and relieve some of the library’s burden. “That will hopefully help people get more attention for their physical needs sooner, than they might if Community Support and Treatment Support staff weren’t here,” she said. “It also takes some of the responsibility of trying to connect people in stress with public services from the library because we’re not qualified to understand what a person might be needing at any point or time.” Along with CSTS services in the library, Parker said the library has partnered with the Ann Arbor Police Department’s community engagement officer group. Parker said an officer from the group is usually at the library every day to assist a person with impaired behavior. In contrast to AAPD’s schedule, Parkers said CSTS comes on an irregular basis because it depends on the staff members’ schedules. “It’s not a setup office hour type thing at all,” Parker said. “That’s not what this is about. This is just about being another set of eyes, a presence in the library and two groups that the library can fall back on now that we think is much more positive than just calling 911.” Even though the two services run on different schedules, Parker said each program fills roles that compliment each other in an efficient manner. “CSTS is the treatment and the support side,” she said. “The police department is the authority. They’re the persons who could come and help us make sure a person leaves the library. CSTS gets that person into a place that’s going to better for them than jail.” Even with the implementation of these services at the library, Parker said the library will not become a permanent shelter
put on startup career event January fair will include more than 91 companies By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULUS Daily Staff Reporter
Though finals are almost here next semester;s activities are just around the corner. And one these is the annual MPowered Startup Career Fair. The fair, hosted by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, economic developer Ann Arbor SPARK and startup accelerator Bizdom, will take place Jan. 15 on North Campus. LSA sophomore Sydney Bigelow, co-director of the fair, said 91 startups from across the country, including Michigan, California, New York, Chicago and Colorado, have registered for the event, with the Dec. 15 registration deadline approaching. Students can register and submit their resumes up until the day of the fair. She noted that the startups attending the fair vary in type and size, including companies that employ anywhere from 10 to 500 people. Similarly, students from different fields and majors
where people can stay after its hours of operation. “The library is not prepared to be a homeless shelter and we’re not trying to be,” she said. “That’s why we ask for help because that’s
are expected to attend. Bigelow added that 1,500 to 2,000 students attended last year’s event. The startups will showcase their company and products catered to students, with an emphasis on networking and building career opportunities. Bigelow said though startups might be looking to fill specific positions, responsibilities within a startup often rotate. “They are looking for people that are dedicated about the startup,” she said. “That are passionate about what they are doing and just really willing to learn, willing to work for what they want.” Entering its seventh year, Bigelow said MPowered reaches out to startups to attend the fair, though many companies have started asking to attend on their own. “It’s really casual and it’s a great way to interact with recruiters on a one to one basis because there’s no pressure, it’s not uptight,” Bigelow said. “It’s great for casual conversation, beginning a conversation and getting to know people. And it’s just really fun—a fun environment—and that’s what we were going for because that’s what startups are.”
not what we are.” Callan said these recommendations are planned for the upcoming winter, but it hasn’t been determined whether the approach will continue annually.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 — 3A
VIGIL From Page 1A “I think this is an important issue and to see so many people standing behind us,” he said. “I think it sends a very strong message about what’s important here at Michigan at large, and why we’re leaders and best.” Holcomb agreed that while there has been focus on race in the coverage of these incidents, violence is a broader issue. “These type of issues affect everyone.” With regards to police brutality and the disconnect between community and police force he said that rebuilding trust will take commitment and time. “I think we can do a better job of building those relationships and that’s what we hope to come out of this event,” he said. BBSA hopes to host an event in January with the University and Ann Arbor Police Department to start dialogue about how go about improving the present situation.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
TOP LEFT: Rackham Student Lonzyo Holcomb speaks about the Eric Garner Case at the Black Lives Matter Silent Vigil held at Winter Gardens in Ross Business School Tuesday. TOP RIGHT: Students hold hands in remembrance of Eric Garner. BOTTOM LEFT: Students walk into the Winter Gardens. BOTTOM RIGHT: Michigan Alum Harun Echols and LSA Freshman Sydney Jackson participate in the Black Lives Matter Silent Vigil.
Entrepreneurship program to launch in Winter 2015 Curriculum to focus on innovation and reaching goals By HILLARY CRAWFORD Daily Staff Reporter
The University’s Center for Entrepreneurship is spearheading a new graduate program to prioritize alternate forms of learning. Mikhail Zolikoff, the recently-appointed director of Graduate Programs, will lead the new program with David Wentzloff, co-director of Graduate Education in CFE. Zolikoff tied the curriculum’s focus on innovating through the implementation and commercialization research to the department’s mission. “The next big thing doesn’t necessarily have to be an app,” Zolikoff said. “There’s a lot of good groundbreaking, lifechanging work that’s happening right here at the University of Michigan and it’s enabling our students to recognize those opportunities and do something with them.” The program will aim to recruit students from a variety of demographic backgrounds to change the way entrepreneurs are typically envisioned. “The majority of tech entrepreneurship is very white and very male and there are a lot of benefits to being more inclusive in the area of entrepreneurship,” Zolikoff said. “I very much want that to be a thread throughout this program.” Sarah Bachleda, communica-
tion and marketing maven for the CFE, said professors in the new program will offer an experience-based education. “We will be having teachers, and staff members and mentors who actually have gone through a lot of technology, sciencebased entrepreneurship themselves,” she said. “When they teach it, they can speak directly from the experiences they have and they can encourage students to learn by doing rather than just reading a textbook about it.” The CFE recently phased out its former Masters of Entrepreneurship graduate program to make room for this new one. The College of Engineering and the Ross School of Business operated the previous program for three years. “This is the first time CFE has its own dedicated program director who’s focusing on the new direction that our graduate programs are going to take,” Bachleda said. Zolikoff said the high demand among STEM students for entrepreneurial training was a prominent reason for creating the new program. His decision to accept the appointment and satisfy the demand for marketing science technology derives from his belief that the school needs more innovators. He said students must question the status quo. “It’s giving them those tools so that they’re not just thinking about their technology for technology’s sake but thinking to themselves, ‘Well how can I take this and change the world?’ ” he said. To encourage innovation,
Zolikoff said he hopes to find ways to confidence in their own ideas. “There is high fear and low confidence in terms of people’s belief in themselves, that they can take an idea that they have and commercialize it or apply it to an existing organization,” he said. “We very much want to rebirth those numbers lower the fear and increase the confidence and tell them, ‘You have great ideas, now let’s do something with it.’ ” Though the graduate curriculum aims to inspire entrepreneurship across all fields of graduate study, the program prioritizes engineering. Wentzloff, who wants to represent the faculty voice, named engineering as the starting point, at least during the program’s nascent stages. Wentzloff said that he and Zolikoff have been in contact with other University colleges. “We’ve initially started by talking with the deans of other school in graduate education about their plans for their curriculum and what their needs are and how they are approaching entrepreneurship programs in their own schools, if they are,” he said. Both Zolikoff and Wentzloff have backgrounds in entrepreneurship at the University, including involvement in student startups. The two plan to work together to address the needs of both students and faculty within the department. “He’s on top of everything and is extremely efficient at teasing out the information we need,” Wentzloff said. “Bottom line is, he’s been great to work with.”
TO OUR READERS: It’s been an honor to bring you the news every day over this past year. And even when we were here until 4:00 a.m. and two and a half hours past deadline, we enjoyed every minute of it. From all the seniors @TMD, thanks for reading.
FREEDOM From Page 1A Amendment freedoms.” Dan Jarvis, director of research and public policy for the Michigan Family Forum, a conservative nonprofit that advocates for the bill, said on a statewide and local level, the legislation is important because it establishes a stronger presence for religious freedom. “What this does is it reinstates is a higher burden on the government … before they can interfere with an individual’s religious liberty,” Jarvis said. He pointed the 2011 case of Holland landlords who refused to rent to an unwed couple and paid $60,000 in a settlement and the 2012 case of Julea Ward, an Eastern Michigan University graduate student who was expelled from the school’s counseling program because she refused to counsel gay students. “A person’s religious activity is not strictly within the confines of a church or synagogue,” Jarvis said. “People who are trying to live out their faith take them with them throughout the day. All this legislation does is say
that if government is going to interfere with a person’s right to practice their religion, they have to have a compelling governmental interest.” In testimony to the House’s Judiciary committee last week, Rep. Jase Bolger (R–Marshall), the bill’s sponsor, attacked the idea that the bill was discriminatory; rather, he framed it as an expansion of religious liberties. “I support individual liberty and I support religious freedom,” Bolger told the committee, according to media reports. “I have been horrified as some have claimed that a person’s faith should only be practiced while hiding in their home or in their church.” However, opponents of the bill have levied criticism on multiple aspects of the bill, calling it too broad. Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the Michigan ACLU’s LGBT project, said the first amendment already provides the requisite level of protection for religious freedom, rendering RFRA unnecessary. “There’s nothing the government can ever do that can take away my ability to believe (a sincerely held religious belief),”
Kaplan said. “But we’re talking about the context of non-religious activity. We’re not talking about a church, or a mosque, or a synagogue, in terms of them doing things that are ministerial functions. We’re talking about nonreligious, secular activity, and we’re telling people you don’t have to follow these laws.” In an interview The Michigan Daily Monday, State Rep. Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) echoed Kaplan’s concerns about the bill being unnecessary. For local ordinances, he said he was concerned about the burden it might place on cities. “One of the fears I have, is that communities will just soft-pedal enforcement of their civil ordinances because the water is so muddy,” Irwin said. “I don’t think that’s going to be as big of a problem in Ann Arbor because I think our leaders are very committed to trying to fight for the civil rights of all citizens, but I can certainly see a potential problem with a city not wanting to spend that money because money’s so tight.” The RFRA is currently waiting to be taken up by the state Senate, which has until Dec. 18 to vote on the legislation before this year’s lame duck session ends.
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Rolling Stone’s disservice
ate last week, when The Washington Post began questioning the attentiongrabbing and now infamous Rolling Stone piece, “A Rape on Campus,” the little progress society had made by way of justice for victims of sexual assault took one step forward, and about eight steps back. Published online by the magazine Nov. 19 and appearing in the December issue, the Rolling Stone LAUREN piece was written by Sabrina MCCARTHY Rubin Erdely, investigative long-form narrative journalist and contributing editor. Her piece detailed a brutal gang rape of a woman referred to as Jackie during a party at the University of Virginia chapter of Phi Kappa Psi’s fraternity house in 2012. Erdely’s piece also emphasized, in large part, the university’s failure to respond to this alleged assault, as well as highlighting the school’s troubling history of indifference to many other instances of alleged sexual crimes. A few weeks later, however, The Washington Post reported that officials from Phi Kappa Psi had been working closely with the police and concluded that the allegations were untrue. Among other details, the fraternity said there was no event at the house the night of the alleged attack. A group of Jackie’s close friends had also begun to doubt the account, noting that the details of the attack had changed significantly over time. Rolling Stone’s editors apologized to readers for discrepancies in the story, issuing a statement and posting it on their website. Monday, The New York Times editorial board published a piece claiming, “It is not yet clear whether the discrepancies between Jackie’s account and reporting by The Washington Post, among other news outlets, mean that the story was only superficially inaccurate or substantially false.” Putting the breadth of the discrepancies aside, the byline at the top of the article should have perhaps been the first indication of a potentially unsound report. Erdely focuses her writings extensively about persons who have alleged rape and bullying, and her personal website attests that several of her articles are in development as Hollywood films. In 2011, Erdely authored a story for Rolling Stone about child abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. As an adult, the victim — referred to as Billy Doe — recounted his abuse and accused his attackers of a high-level conspiracy that drove him to become a reclusive drug addict. These claims resulted in criminal charges leading to the imprisonment of two church employees and a major civil suit against the church, though reportedly, the conviction of one of the jailed church employees has since been overturned and new trials ordered for the other two individuals. Concern has been raised that either Erdely’s journalistic veracity may not be entirely intact, or as a veteran, award-winning journalist her
discretion when choosing sources is flawed. More important, however, are the devastating consequences of her incomplete reporting. One would hope that in publishing the article, Rolling Stone intended to provoke a much-needed, national conversation about the prevalence and dire consequences of rape on university campuses. Instead, the issue has been entirely sidestepped and replaced with discussions of journalistic integrity and responsible reporting. Instead of spurring the necessary discourse for legitimized change, Erdely and Rolling Stone have done victims of sexual assault an enormous disservice. Now, survivors of assault and rape may fear that when or if they tell their stories, they will also fall victim to the example set by Rolling Stone’s increasingly fictitious article. Survivors may struggle to see journalists as advocates, assuming that his or her first preference might be to exploit their hurt in hopes of having another piece repurposed into a “Hollywood film.” The piece conditioned an inherently skeptical society to further doubt victims’ reports and question their intentions in sharing their story. For the future, “A Rape on Campus” is now the all-too-convenient scapegoat for those who refuse to accept the increasingly prevalent statistics and overwhelming personal accounts that are not fabricated. For me, however, the most chilling detail of “A Rape on Campus” that now remains is that this piece was written by a woman. In a disservice to the members of her own gender — the statistically higher victims of rape and sexual assault — Erdely has preserved an environment in which women are fearful of speaking out against their attacker, for fear that they too will be accused of simply “crying rape.” She has reinforced a culture that is already prone to be disbelieving of women. It is insulting that another woman, with the privilege of speaking to a national audience would forego achieving proper representation of her peers, presumably for the sake of her own personal or professional gain. Erdely seems to have cared so little about accurately and precisely communicating Jackie’s story that she failed to interview the accused — in essence, she failed to even attempt at objectively uncovering both sides of the story. Erdely held the profound opportunity to stimulate a meaningful discourse concerning sexual violence and assault on college campuses, but in her perhaps misguided execution, she has succeeded only in crippling the conversation. It is rare today that a survivor of sexual assault is brave enough to come forward in such an unforgiving social climate, and it is a shame that the opportunity was squandered. Erdely abused her privilege, and has failed both as a journalist and as an advocate of women’s rights. Nonetheless, it is my hope as both a woman and a member of the media that this issue will be approached by journalists in the future with not only integrity, but also conviction and the utmost care. — Lauren McCarthy can be reached at laurmc@umich.edu.
MATAN KAMINER AND JOEL REINSTEIN | VIEWPOINT
Hillel, Israel and American Judaism Last spring, the University campus was rocked by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality’s #UMDivest campaign. SAFE demanded that the University divest from companies involved in Israel’s military occupation and human rights violations against Palestinians. Supported by 36 organizations representing hundreds of students, its divestment resolution before student government was the talk of campus for the better part of a month. Throughout the process, Palestinian students described their experiences of oppression and the University’s complicity in it. Principal in opposing this campaign, as it opposes similar campaigns across the country, was the Jewish campus organization University of Michigan Hillel. Purporting to represent all Jewish students, Michigan Hillel contributed to tension on campus by pressuring Central Student Government first to table the resolution and then to vote against it after a student sit-in forced a vote. Hillel chose to speak on behalf of all Jewish students despite a Jewish letter of support for the resolution as well as outspoken support for the resolution from a Jewish student government representative. Ultimately, the resolution failed after hours of debate. American Jewish institutions have not always opposed Palestinian rights. The United States is home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel and is Israel’s closest ally in monetary and diplomatic terms. However, neither of these facts is the cause of
the other. Zionism, or the belief that Jewish rights are best represented by a Jewish state in historic Palestine, only came to dominate American Jewish politics in the 1960s, long after the establishment of Israel. It was around this time that Israel, previously a French and British ally, aligned itself more directly with the United States, inaugurating the “special relationship.” This is also when American Jewish groups like Hillel, previously neutral on the issue, became declaredly Zionist. Many claim that the “Israel lobby,” of which these organizations are a part, is the reason for the United States’ support of Israel’s occupation. The tail doesn’t wag the dog: Zionism would probably never have become a consensus among American Jews if succeeding U.S. administrations had not decided to make the alliance with Israel a cornerstone of their Middle East policy. Many American Jews, whose ancestors fled crushing poverty and discrimination in Eastern Europe and who lost family in the Nazi Holocaust, have been strong supporters of social justice in the United States. Jewish Americans played an important part in the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s — civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam war, feminism, etc. — and at the same time supported Zionism. At the time, Israel presented itself to the world as an embattled egalitarian state founded by refugees and entitled to solidarity. As the occupation of the Palestinian territories that started in 1967 deepened, and
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especially after Israel’s right-wing Likud party took power in 1977, many American Jewish progressives identified with Israel’s liberal Zionists, who supported negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the establishment of a Palestinian state. But since the failure of the Oslo peace process in 2000, liberal Zionism has been decimated. Having reached a peak of 44-percent representation in Israel’s Knesset in 1992, the parties of liberal Zionism now have only 16 percent (Parties representing the non-Zionist left and Palestinian citizens have 9 percent, leaving the rest to the center, right and extreme right). Today, Israel’s ethnocratic nature is becoming clear. It explicitly bars its non-Jewish citizens from marrying whomever they like, speaking their minds and buying land and frequently threatens them with loss of their citizenship. It has subjected Palestinians in the occupied territories to 47 years of military occupation, abusing human rights with impunity to make way for Israeli settlers. The recent decision to segregate buses in the West Bank has made it impossible for even Israel’s greatest apologists to deny the charge that it has instituted apartheid. Israel’s leaders no longer talk about resolution of the “Palestinian issue” but only of its “management” through divide-and-conquer tactics and frequent “lawn-mowing” assaults on Gaza that have killed
thousands of civilians. Israel can no longer plausibly represent itself as a “light unto the nations.” As opposition to these policies in Israel itself dwindles, the idea that one can support Israeli policies and peace at the same time — long held by many American Jews — is being recognized as untenable. While American Jewish institutions such as the American-Israel Political Action Committee enthusiastically support the hard line of the Israeli government, more and more progressive young Jews are deeply aggrieved by what Israel has become and no longer feel they have a place in these institutions. The emergence of the Open Hillel movement demanding that voices critical of Israel be allowed into Hillel, the most powerful Jewish space on American campuses, signals a major crack in the Zionist consensus. The circle may be closing: Zionism, or at least automatic support for Israeli policy, is no longer a consensus position among American Jews. This doesn’t automatically mean the end of U.S. support for Israel; contrary to what some “Jewish lobby” theorists believe, the United States does not support Israel only due to pressure from the Jewish community. American administrations interested in dominating the most energy-rich region in the world are loath to discipline an ally that is, after all, beholden to U.S. military aid and willing to act
as the United States’ local gendarmerie in time of need. In electoral terms, the Evangelical Christian right — which supports Israel for messianic reasons tinged with antiSemitism — is a much larger and more disciplined constituency than American Jews. Nevertheless, young American Jews — especially students — are a key constituency for Palestinian solidarity. Like their parents, they are likely to be progressive, but unlike their parents, who remember the “socialist” Israel of yesteryear, they are less likely to accept the contradictions of being PEP, “Progressive Except Palestine.” The new generation is beginning to challenge mainstream Jewish institutions, weakening a key component of the anti-Palestinian coalition in this country. American Jews must take this challenge forward, and the University’s new chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace aims to do just that. To honor the Jewish tradition of justice, there can be no exceptions to fighting oppression. There can be no tolerating the misappropriation of Jewish identity to defend apartheid. The new face of American Judaism is coming. Matan Kaminer is a graduate student in Anthropology, an Israeli, and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Joel Reinstein is an Ann Arbor resident and is also a member of JVP.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Edvinas Berzanskis, Devin Eggert, David Harris, Rachel John, Jordyn Kay, Jesse Klein Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
A
Sleep in August
t the end of summer a couple of summers ago, the management at Valley Country Club took my job title of “server” in the broad sense and had me running odd jobs during the big annual golf tournament. I puttered around in a little gasoline golf cart, the muffler exploding AVERY sometimes like DIUBALDO a gun and making men in pastel hats jump and miss their tees. I spent one afternoon breaking blocks of ice, swinging them over my head in bags and smashing them on the asphalt of the employee parking lot. Marine birds kill their fish the same way. On another day, I cut limes for vodka gimlets. The hours were long — before sunrise until almost midnight — and even though the pay was double for the overtime, and I liked coming home exhausted and sunburnt with stains all over my khaki shorts, it was a pretty raw deal. But at least I earned my sleep. The little that I had. I never sleep much in August — which is not to say that I don’t sleep well, only that the sleep in August is quick and somehow more restful than it is in other months. It were as if the miraculous power wielded by dreams to restore the body, to regenerate the mind, is at its height in those last weeks of summer, and only three hours in bed is enough to bridge the gap between the 21 hours spent in wakefulness before them and the 21 spent in wakefulness after. Why, I can’t say — perhaps it’s something about that month’s transitory nature, its fleetingness, which makes sleep seem an unaffordable luxury. The mouth of the year, which has been closed in sleep all summer, begins to open again for the start of the schoolterm and is caught half at a gape in August, that yawn of a month. So, that August, the first after my freshman year in college, I took advantage of my surplus waking hours by working, filling my pockets with cash. I wasn’t saving up for anything in particular, and the money, for as long as I was earning it, went largely unspent. Nearly everyone my age seemed to be off taking unpaid internships in New York or rescuing orphans in Cambodia — it was always Cambodia. I never quite figured out what it was which drew droves of undergraduates, in their philanthropic fervor, to Cambodia — and my range of expenses had narrowed itself to early-morning coffees, lonely movie tickets and little else. I withdrew 100, one-dollar coins from the bank and stacked them on my dresser
to make a little golden city. My parents wished I had a girlfriend. There was someone, a friend of a friend, whose blue dress and taste in Russian novels I had courted, on and off, for nearly two months. But she was maddeningly difficult to get a hold of, reluctant or else terrified of answering her phone. We had met for a handful of dates, and, on the last of them, over Thai food in an industrial neighborhood, I had promised to take her to the reservoir where she had never been. That was my favorite place in town, and, as a child, I had spent summer weekends playing in the sand with my cousins and climbing the trees around its bank. It sounded like a lovely place, she had said, and it was perfectly romantic, especially at night when one could watch the traffic moving across the dam, the headlights of commuting bakers, night guards and gravediggers shuttling over the high ridge and into the city. She’d be happy to see it with me. But that afternoon in the Thai restaurant had been two weeks ago, and my phone calls and text messages had gone unanswered since then. Maybe, I thought, she, too, had gone to Cambodia. Some mornings, I would wake before work with a mysterious, lingering optimism, as if I had won a lottery in the night and then forgotten about it, and it wasn’t until I was halfway out of the shower that I would remember the dream of the previous night, the dream in which she had appeared among all the other half-formed and siren things which populate dreams, all the dark forests and crumbling teeth, and had offered her hand for mine to hold. Recalling this, once again seeing the day before me as it was, stale and flat, I would towel off, dress and drive to the country club. And secretly some part of me eagerly looked forward to the next night, to the next dream, to sleep. The tournament was four days long. On the last day, it rained, intermittently in the morning and then straight on through the night. The golfers huddled under shelters between lightning strikes while I caught up on my deliveries: gin and tonics to the cart girls, sandwiches to the caddies. My golf cart didn’t have a roof. I was thin that summer from being on my feet all day, but I looked even thinner in the oversized red polo plastered against my chest with rainwater, the circles under my eyes purpled like bruises. After the winner was announced, the management put me to work collecting the coolers of booze left scattered around the course like malaria chests in the colonial jungle. A pair of waitresses was dispatched in their own cart to help me in the job, but
they split off right away, and I did the work alone. It was dark then, and I could hear music and silverware from the yellow clubhouse on the hill. Hiding behind a tree on the seventh hole, I swigged from a bottle of tonic and topped it off with Grey Goose from one of the chests. The other servers perpetually drank on the job. It made them luckier with tips, quicker to smile and to give refunds, but I had never joined them before, as I was too afraid of the camera that hung just above the club bar, its eye trained on the glowing liquor. The rain didn’t let up, and I hoped the golf cart would catch a wheel in the mud so I’d have to walk back to the clubhouse and leave the job to the waitresses who were almost certainly drinking beer in the women’s restroom by the pond. I was in a foul mood, breathing hard through my teeth and talking to myself, and to them, who, in their absence, could neither hear nor defend themselves from my bitter complaints and accusations. The handles to the coolers were smooth plastic, and I had trouble hefting them onto the cart. More than once, I lost my grip and the coolers tumbled open, forcing me to chase down the cans and bottles on my hands and knees. Mine was a ghoul’s silhouette, looping over hills and around sand traps, and I think that Grendel, left to splash miserably in his mere and hear the Danes at their mead, had had some idea of how I felt. When I drove back to the clubhouse and unloaded my cargo, I saw that the rest of the staff had gone home. Mark, the red-nosed general manager, helped me empty the coolers and store their contents, at least a hundred thousand dollars in crystal and labels, in the liquor room. He spoke to me about running a business, good management and how to deal with hard customers. I listened, dripping, thinking of sleep. At one in the morning, the waitresses showed up, drunk. Their cart had run out of battery, they said, and they had been stranded in the rain waiting for the charge to come back. I clocked out with three whole coolers of liquor left to empty and sort, leaving the rest of the job to them, two hours’ work at least, and that was the first time I’d seen anyone look at me with real hate, two pretty girls who hated me, hated my guts, but it didn’t matter because I knew there was another pretty girl who didn’t hate me, and I drove straight to her, and we parked in a copse of trees on the bank of the reservoir and watched the lights of cars track across the dam until morning — Avery DiUbaldo can be reached at diubaldo@umich.edu.
Arts
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TV REVIEW
Dystopian ‘Child’ critiques corruption
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 — 5A
CONCERT REVIEW
Ambitious SundanceTV show skillfully crafted By CATHERINE SULPIZIO Daily Arts Writer
Sundance TV’s original miniseries “One Child” clocks in at almost four hours long. At times the show circulates A within itself; it’s impossible not to in SundanceTV this tense, claustrophobic and excellent drama. It features Mei Ashley (Katie Leung, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) as an adopted Chinese woman living in London. One day, she receives a call from a journalist back in China, claiming to be an intermediary for her biological mother. Mei’s brother (Sebastian So) has been framed for a murder and will be sentenced to death in three weeks under China’s oppressive communist regime. She needs Mei’s British citizenship to help (this is a not fully satisfying reason), so Mei travels to China, setting her on a race through the labyrinthine halls of government corruption. “One Child” ’s ambition in covering vast ground in terms of political critique and psychological analysis makes up for some moments of weak dialogue and plot implausibility. The show’s rich characters deserve more. Mei’s actions, for instance, are baffling at times for a burgeoning scientist. She takes off for China without telling her parents the real reason and without any plan, blithely trusting the journalist. Her parents — a superb Elizabeth Perkins, “Weeds,” and Donald Sumpter, “Game of Thrones” —
One Child
SUNDANCETV
“Harry Potter was naked on Broadway. Now I’m in a Sundance miniseries.”
act as a surrogate for the audience, powerlessly conveying their fluctuating emotions of shock, fear and frustration via phone and Skype calls that Mei either hangs up on or refuses to answer. But of course, blood runs thick, even for a brother she’s never met or even knew about, and the show is expertly grapples with the question of what defines family. In this way, it explains Mei’s moments of irrationality — those three weeks are tamped with unimaginable pressure that the show successfully evokes. It does this by imbuing its story with very little sentimentalism. Mei’s reunion with her biological mother is stripped of any Hallmark glow, and there is something vaguely unnerving about the way her mother comes back into her life only to save her son. More than this, as Mei pursues various advocacy and activist channels, “One Child” unrelentingly shuttles her down countless avenues only for her to crash headlong into their dead ends. “One Child” is a true dystopian to American viewers, recalling Welles’ “The Trial” more than the YA brand saturating the theaters. “One Child” is terrifying to watch because the enemy is an Orwellian government, sublime
in its presence, spiderwebbed with potential respites that dissolve as quickly as they materialize. Even the activists and journalists are pervaded with corruption and operate under pivoting ulterior motives. This is suspense in the top-notch sense, relying on realistic jags of plot to drive its pace rather than any superimposed gimmicks. Nothing against sex and violence, but “One Child” should be noted for the unremitting tension it suspends for four episodes by the skin of its gritty, unglamorous teeth. Because of this, it makes for neither pleasant nor cathartic viewing. “One Child” typifies the highcaliber content migrating to television. It’s skillfully paced and harrowing, composed with judicious doses of both psychodrama and political commentary. To say this show is important is an understatement. The viewer tendency with shows like “One Child,” perhaps, is to situate the critique solely in the foreign countries they are set in, but viewers would be loath to ignore the universal indictment of government corruption in “One Child” ’s narrative. When art and politics converge, it is worth examining, but when it is done as exceptionally as “One Child,” it must be examined.
TV REVIEW
A truly mediocre ‘Guide’ Bravo premieres its first ‘real’ scripted program By KAREN HUA Daily Arts Writer
In the weeks leading up to its premiere, “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” stood at the center of television hype. B As Bravo’s first scripted television program (that is, if you don’t count its Series Premiere reality shows), Tuesdays at 10 p.m. “Girlfriends’ Guide” was Bravo set for a promising season. Based on the popular advice books by Vicki Iovine, the series is created by the ubiquitous Marti Noxon, with writing and producing credits on successes such as “Mad Men,” “Glee” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The show focuses on middleaged Los Angeles women in various stages of divorce. At the center is Abby McCarthy (Lisa Edelstein, “House”), the author of a wildly successful self-help book for young women; ironically, her entire career has been built upon her superficially perfect family and marriage — the pilot captures her in marital strife with her adulterous husband Jake (Paul Adelstein, “Private Practice”). Meanwhile, she is negatively influenced by her two divorcée friends: Phoebe (Beau Garrett, “TRON: Legacy”), a former model who’s fully aware she’s a “bangable blond,” and Lyla (Janeane Garofalo, “Wet Hot American Summer”), who has an affinity for vengeance against her ex-husband. Both empower Abby to celebrate her impending single status by binge-drinking, having nonchalant one-night-stands and lying to her family.
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce
BRAVO
“I wanna feel the heat with somebody.”
The series refreshingly follows women who are the breadwinners — and not housewives — for a change. However, this empowering factor is almost negated in Bravo’s stereotypically inaccurate portrayal of “normal” women. All the females stand in a quasi-gorgeous state, their beautifully slim figures buttressed by plastic surgeries and Botox procedures. There are no women struggling, of racial diversity or with variation in weight — as the show homogeneously demonstrates only a narrow margin of today’s modern woman. Abby and her friends seem vapid beneath their immaculate complexions. Even the protagonist, whom by name and regardless of faults or flaws is supposed to be admirable in some way, is difficult to root for. In the end, Abby’s friends push her from independence to self-destruction — when she purposely botches her speech at a book signing for young women who look up to her. An audience cannot be quite as sympathetic toward Abby as they can toward a Hannah Horvath figure — both with affinities for bad decision-making, but Abby without a cushion of ignorant youth. In general, the show often blurs the lines between comedy and drama. Interspersed between humorous moments, the writing stands out primarily in the serious scenes. “Girlfriends’ Guide” may be a scripted show of fiction, but
it is one that feels “realer” than any of Bravo’s “reality” shows. Though it bears a flippant title, the show aims to be emotionally complex, peppered with a bit of social commentary. In a way, it does live up to those expectations, but to quite a mediocre standard nonetheless. Most prominently, the show comments on the stigma divorce still carries. Just as an argument between Abby and her gay brother Max (Patrick Heusinger, “Black Swan”) reveals, some people do not accept divorce as an appropriate option unless one spouse is abusive or alcoholic. On the other hand, though Abby’s husband is initially portrayed as a despicable individual, he can be commended for his final willingness to mend their relationship. He often fluctuates between vulgar rudeness toward his wife and sporadic efforts to make things work — but it is Abby, the “empowered” woman, who finalizes their separation. The fickle reality of their marriage captures the essence of divorce. The end of the pilot concludes with an indifferent wave goodbye from Abby as she saunters out of her book signing — an attitude that mirrors that of the viewer. Although the pilot is not awful, there is little to be desired for upcoming episodes. But despite “Girlfriends’ Guide” ’s mediocrity, Bravo should be commended for taking a step beyond its usual programming.
CAKED UP
#Trill bros.
Turning up in the club with Caked Up EDM duo brings energetic set to Necto By ARIANA ASSAF Daily Staff Reporter
The first time I saw Caked Up was at Forever Festival in Sterling Heights earlier this fall, where I found myself rocking out to these guys I’d never heard of. I’ll be honest — at the time, I was just waiting to see Adventure Club. But Vegas Banger and Oscar Wylde were going absolutely insane on stage, creating a buzzing, almost mosh-pit scene at the front of the Sterling Heights Amphitheater. I quickly got the sense that this set was the high point of everyone’s day, and by the end of it, I too had put Adventure Club out of my mind and found myself wishing for just one more song. Last week, Caked Up played at Necto on the most turnedup Wednesday night I’ve ever experienced. To those of you who stayed in because it was the middle of the week and finals are coming up, you were wrong (sorry). Caked Up may have been going up against the worst week of the semester — and Dillon Francis performing 45 minutes away in Royal Oak — but it didn’t matter. A dedicated group of fans screamed their hearts out as the duo jumped into their set like they couldn’t wait to get going. Loud, proud and eager to be Caked Up, the crowd sang along to a hyped-up version of “Fancy,” clapped to a remix of Deorro and MAKJ’s “Ready” and waved along to a version of Armin van Buuren’s “Ping Pong” that somehow transitioned in to a sick adaptation of “Satisfaction.” Caked Up may appear to be an overnight success, but the look is deceiving. It’s only been a year since they’ve built such a large and loyal following, but their popularity has been a long time coming. Their everclimbing social media numbers are not only a testament to tons of recent releases, but also to over a decade of work by the artists on their own. The two didn’t start playing together until about six years ago, when they connected via the Las
Vegas music scene. But if their 41.1K followers on Twitter and over 600,000 followers on Soundcloud are any indicator, the duo’s career looks poised to keep soaring. Wednesday night’s party didn’t stop until over half an hour after it was supposed to. Oscar Wylde (Brandon Marstellar), evidently not wanting to leave anyone feeling underserved, indulged both the audience and himself in several “last songs” that saw girls twerking on boys, boys twerking on boys and the management team getting slightly pissed off. We all thought he was winding down with “DJ, Ease My Mind,” but then he brought the energ y right back up with “No Flex Zone,” “Wiggle” and more. Oscar Wylde and Vegas Banger’s (Jeff Saville) 10-plus years of individual DJ experience was immediately evident on stage, and it almost looks like they have their own inside jokes running as they perform. They’re charismatic and quick, carefully building beats and stringing synths together just right, while at the same time not giving a f lying fuck about pretty much anything. The performance was almost intimate enough to feel like a night in spent jumping around to good music with close friends, but rowdy enough to very much be a night out. Way out. Between a trip or two into the audience for pictures, calls for everyone to get up on Necto’s stage and Grey Goose being poured directly into the mouths of girls directly below the DJ booth, there was no questioning everyone had come to party. The duo used tried-and-true crowd favorites remixed and redesigned to ref lect their own unique style in combination with new material, walking the line between trap and more “traditional” EDM (is that a thing?). As I said before, they’re quick. In a live show, Caked Up will have moved on from one song you think you recognize before you’ve really wrapped your head around their own version of it. I didn’t step back to think about this until a while after the performance, because while you’re in it, you’re in it and having the best time —
that’s the point of their music. But when you’re a fan and you keep tabs on your favorite artists, you notice when they’re accused of taking what isn’t theirs. When Caked Up put a remix entitled “No Type” on their SoundCloud, people commented on its similarities to DJ duos Loudpvck and Gladiator’s track “Tony”. This escalated to accusations of stealing by various EDM blogs. Another story broke in midNovember about how Caked Up used part of a song by Jackal (“Chinchilla”) without giving credit. Interestingly, none of these parties really spoke up about it until now, and for good reason: “If you give attention to something that’s negative, it’s never gonna die,” Oscar calmly explained. For all his crazy antics, he’s also got a good amount of wisdom on his side. It seems to have worked. Few follow-ups have been written since, and I don’t feel the need to beat the issue to the ground. Suffice it to say that Caked Up is actually close friends with all these artists, and they tell me whole thing has become a bit of a joke to them. “Loudpvck and Jackal have both contacted me and said ‘this is hilarious that this is happening ’,” Oscar said. “Everybody thinks we came up in the past year but we’ve worked very hard … for people to just take that away is pretty fucking hurtful.” “It happens in the DJ world all the time,” Jeff continued. “Everybody makes mashups of different songs.” They broke down the Loudpvck/Gladiator situation for my technically untrained ears: though the keys may be the same, the synths only sound similar and the melodies are different. The duo compared it to Nicki Minaj’s sample of Sir MixA-Lot’s song in “Anaconda,” though it’s worth noting that she asked Sir Mix-a-Lot’s permission for the sample and paid for it. Still, her song has been on Billboard’s Hot 100 list for the past 17 weeks. Caked Up explained that they didn’t even sample a Loudpvck song, let alone steal it. “Can you even steal music?” Jeff wondered aloud.
PRINT JOURNALISM: SURE TO BE ALIVE AND KICKIN’ IT IN 2015.
STAY TUNED.
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6A — Wednesday, December 10, 2014
News & Opinion
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
The equality movement It seems over the few remaining months of this year our world has encountered much more than a climate change. We are in the midst of a global equality movement. Daily, there are new stories from around the globe being discovered — exposing law enforcement that has served less in favor of justice for the people, and is more connected to maintaining power and control. Foreign affairs and policies regarding women’s rights, the dismantling of governmental structures, policies regarding sexual assault, the inclusion of United States laws and sexual orientation, and the currently magnified police brutality against minorities all serve as equally important happenings in this awakening. As these situations occur, our readied fingers take to social media to voice various emotions: hurt, pain, anger, confusion — all of which are natural without filters and at times may be misconstrued through our own actions and not benefit the urgent needs of these situations. Within those tangled emotions, my observance of the superior emotion — love, is what intertwines these expansive and contrasting responses and makes hope tangible. Love is the source to pull from hate and create peace. Love has the ability to look beyond rage and grasp influence. Love has the ability
OPEN From Page 1A public safety concerns necessitated the meeting’s relocation. Though the Open Meetings Act states that “no one may be excluded from a meeting otherwise open to the public except for a breach of the peace actually committed at the meeting,” there are not specific provisions for excluding members of the general public at large. Douglas Smith, a former University medical professor and one of the public speakers on the original agenda for the meeting, told the Daily in an interview Dec. 4 that he was denied entrance to Fleming. “After a while (University spokesman) Rick Fitzgerald began to whisper something to the reporters at the media desk so I went up and asked him if they were moving the meeting,” he said. “He said they were and that I could follow him.” Smith said a public safety official at the Fleming doors told him only those with approved media credentials would be granted access to the building. “Then the chairman of the regents, Regent (Kathy) White, came to the door and told me they were not going to have public speakers today and that I was not allowed to come in,” he said. In an e-mail Friday, Fitzgerald said the University maintains it fully complies with the Michigan Constitution’s requirement that formal sessions of the Board of Regents be open to the public. “Regarding the November 2014 meeting, we believe the state constitution also gives the University latitude to take prudent measures to assure those attending board meetings are safe,” he wrote. In a Dec. 5 e-mail, Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the Division of Public Safety and Security, said public safety officials and law enforcement are charged with assessing any potential threats to the community. “If there is a condition in which the people or property in a particular location are threatened or where parties present have a heightened sense of fear for their personal safety based on an escalating situation, there may be a determination of a public safety threat,” she wrote. The Open Meetings Act does not include specifications for relocating a meeting due to a public safety threat. However, in 1980, the University faced a similar situation
to not only empathize but strategize and positively control and structure the myriad of negative feelings that are all human. The piece created stems from this space of unconditional love and hope for the better amongst the seemingly disastrous battleground we face on this earth. I seek to challenge the mind, will and emotions of my global community at large to find the answers for the “Why me? Why us?” question that we all internally battle everyday. I wish to impart a complex but simple answer that I believe would do us all well. I challenge all people to accept with earnest power, and heroic boldness the very source that rapper Kendrick Lamar has found in his most recent song, and embrace the equality movement in deciding I love myself.
Be Black Bold We Black People Make Black Legal Elevate Black Soul Use Black Control Tell Black Souls Be Black Bold We Black Power Take Black Rage Create Black Change Choose Black Reign
when students and members of the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid protested the University’s investments in South African corporations at meetings of the regents. The protests forced the regents to recess their meeting multiple times over two days. The board ultimately obtained a restraining order against WCCAA which allowed the regents “to recess, move its location and exclude from attendance those persons who breach the peace.” The coalition sued, arguing the regents violated the Open Meetings Act by preventing them from entering the new meeting location. In Regents of the University of Michigan vs. Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled the regents’ actions acceptable, noting the presence of the restraining order and that both the press and members of the general public were notified of the room change. “We do, however, share the concern obviously felt by defendants and the trial court that a meeting which is recessed remain open to the public,” the ruling read. “In order to remain faithful to the spirit and purpose of the Open Meetings Act the Regents were required to provide notice of the new time and place of the reconvened meeting. Plaintiff complied with the court order to this effect by posting officials at the Regents Room to advise the press and members of the general public of the room change.” The University, however, did not notify members of the general public of the room change in November. According to Frank LoMonte, Student Press Law Center executive director, based on the precedent from the 1980s case, the difference in whether the public was advised might be key in determining whether November’s meeting violated the Act. “It seemed really important to the judges in the 1980s case that the public had a chance to go to the recessed location,” he said. “If the public wasn’t give the opportunity to go to the recessed location than that really might put a legal cloud over the move of location.” Fitzgerald said because members of media were present, the University upheld the provisions of the Open Meetings Act. “The meeting was reconvened at a different location, but not until all members of the news media were present,” Fitzgerald
Yell Black Pain Be Black Bold We Black Love Make Black Peace Navigate Black Streets Refuse Black Seats Repel Black Hate Be Black Bold We Black Souls Remember Black Goals Write Black Roles Unite Black Strolls Release Black Holds Be Black Bold We Black Gold Have Black Pride Create Black Compassion Capture Black Passion Take Black Action Be Black Bold
We Black Music Take Black Influence Create Black Congruence Help Black Endurance Tell Black Assurance Be Black Bold We Black Souls We Black Gold We Black Grow We Black People We Black Power We Black Love BE BLACK BOLD Be Black Bold
said. “We believe these steps provided for a balance between keeping those in attendance safe while still providing public access.” Schlissel said members of the general public not involved in the protest were not permitted to enter the relocated meeting because the University did not have proper means to determine what members of the public were or were not part of BAMN. “I don’t think we had a way to sort the general public into members of BAMN and non-members of BAMN,” he said. “So I think in real time as the decision was made, not knowing how to do the sorting without being prejudiced against certain people, we didn’t think it was appropriate to try.” “We ended up striking a compromise that the general counsel thought was legally consistent with the Open Meetings Act,” he added. Herschel Fink, editorial legal counsel for The Detroit Free Press, said members of the press are often considered surrogates of the public by the courts. “In this case, given exigent circumstances, the situation with the disruption, I think it was a justifiable action to move the meeting and to allow representatives of the public in,” Fink said, referring to the media. “I think it then constituted a substantial compliance with the law.” The Free Press is currently involved in a lawsuit against the University over a separate violation of the Open Meetings Act, filed in July. The suit alleges that most decisions made by the University’s Board of Regents are made in private. “We are still several months away from depository motion stage, where we will be filing a motion with the court asking them to declare whether or not the University is violating the Open Meetings Act,” he said. At the end of November’s meeting, several BAMN organizers said they had plans to return to the December regents meeting. “We were very disappointed that the meeting was disrupted and we are trying to develop ways to allow groups their free speech rights, to have a civil protest, which is very important to us, but not to disrupt a meeting or the rights of others,” Schlissel said. Schlissel declined to discuss the University’s plans to address similar BAMN protests in the future. “Rest assured, there are specific plans,” he said.
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CSG From Page 1A in making the University more inclusive. “Including onsite admissions at Detroit schools can help lessen the inequality between racial representations by opening doors of opportunity for everyone,“ Alvarenga said. Prior to the voting process, assembly members introduced an amendment to the resolution, resulting in the addition of a stanza stating CSG does not support violent or intimidating actions that would be taken to promote the resolution. The assembly referred specifically to the actions that took place at the recent Regents meeting. Last month, BAMN members relocated a University Board of Regents meeting. They lodged criticisms of the University, most notably that no action has been taken to increase minority enrollment. Protestors eventually prompted the board to end the meeting and move to another location. Some members of the assembly were concerned the amendment would deter from the goal of the resolution. The assembly agreed by vote to change the language of the amendment to say CSG will not support any action that threatens public safety.
Education senior Michael Chrzan is one of the authors of the resolution. He said now that CSG supports onsite admissions in Detroit high schools, the assembly will create a task force to work with the University’s Office of Admissions. “The Task Force will have until March to report back with either strategies created with Admissions to implement onsite admissions or reasons why the University is unable to do so,” Chrzan said. CSG will create the task force during the first meeting of winter semester Jan. 13. CSG swears in newly elected representatives LSA junior Rachel Webb and Public Health senior Rebecca Shannon were among the group of new representatives inducted into the assembly. They discussed new ideas and strategies they hope to bring to the table. Webb said she wants to help create transparency between CSG and the student body, especially regarding the allocation of funds to student organizations. She also said she hopes to diversify racial diversity within CSG. “There weren’t a lot of students of color on CSG, and having diverse representations within the CSG is important if CSG hopes to represent a diverse population,” she said. “So when I
ran, I ran with the goal of being a voice to an entirely new view for CSG to consider.” Shannon said she also wants to bring concerns regarding Public Health to CSG’s consideration. “We’re really trying to bring Public Health into the entire scope of not only CSG but on Central campus,” she said. Body elects vice chairs of Finance Committee and Resolutions Committee CSG also elected new vice chairs for both the Finance Committee and the Resolution Committee. Engineering senior Robert Greenfield was elected vice chair for the Finance Committee after a blind ballot vote. Greenfield said he hopes his experience as treasurer of the Black Student Union will help him to improve the CSG funding process. “I’ve raised the budget at the BSU by $25,000, and improved the budgeting process so that it is sensitive both to BSU and other organizations that receive allocated funding from us,” Greenfield said. LSA senior Andrew Loeb was elected vice chair of the Resolutions Committee. “I want to continue to work to make resolutions that will produce important positive changes on campus for students,” he said.
AN ODE TO 420 MAYNARD: THANK YOU FOR THE TIME WE SPENT WITHIN YOUR WALLS WE’VE LEARNED HOW TO WALK HERE WHEN WE CAME WE COULD ONLY CRAWL WE MEAN THAT METAPHORICALLY, OF COURSE BUT DAILY, YOU’VE MADE US GROW AND WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED WITHIN YOU HAVE MADE US READY (THOUGH UNWILLING) TO GO THE PEOPLE WE HAVE LOVED MEAN MORE THAN A BUILDING COULD EVER KNOW YOU ARE MICHIGAN TO US AND YOU ARE HOME.
THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING EDITORS From Page 1A “I think as long as we continue to be one of the prominent news sources and most accurate news sources for the Ann Arbor community and even for the nation … I think as long as we seek the truth and report on the truth, that’s what’s going to measure our success,” Calfas said. “We’ve already been doing a great job of doing that and we’ll continue to keep that tradition alive in the next year.” The increased focus on the Daily’s online presence is also a priority of LSA junior Lev Facher, who will serve as the publication’s managing editor. Collaboration between the different sections, such as news, arts and sports, are other highlights. “Our voice is critical to both the University and the region — as Washtenaw County’s only daily print publication, we bear a huge responsibility,” Facher said. “I’m sure the 2015 class of editors is up for the challenge of providing fair and thorough coverage of all things Michigan and all things Ann Arbor.” Calfas said she is also excited about the addition of a new position under her supervision — that of special projects manager, a job which LSA sophomore Carolyn Gearig will fill. The position will require Gearig to spearhead and facilitate initiatives beyond dayto-day coverage. “We tend to focus too much on our short term coverage and on things that we do to make a paper every day, which is great, but we’ve never had someone whose exclusive job is to think longterm,” Gearig said. “I think this newspaper really needs that.” Calfas stressed that one of the most immediate innovations will be rolling out the Daily’s new website over the course of the Winter 2015 semester. Engineering junior Amrutha Sivakumar, the newly appointed online editor, will help facilitate this transition. “At The Michigan Daily, we believe that the future of journalism is digital journalism,” Siva-
kumar said. “If all goes according to plan, the new website will have more photo slideshows, more video capabilities, things like audio journalism … just very interesting ways for us to tell the news that connect more deeply with the University readership community.” For Public Policy junior Sam Gringlas, the new managing news editor, fair and thorough coverage will also mean expanding the breadth and depth of news content to include series on hard-hitting issues relevant to the University community. He said this will require crosssection collaboration to enhance modes of storytelling. Continuing coverage of diversity and sexual misconduct are other priorities for Gringlas. “We’ve started some initiatives to begin looking into that over this first semester,” Gringlas said. “I think now that we’ve laid a lot of ground work for that, we’ll have the time and the talent to really follow through.” LSA senior Aarica Marsh and LSA junior Derek Wolfe will serve as editorial page editors. The duo said they will widen their coverage both online and in print. “We’re pretty excited about incorporating news ethics and reporting skills into our editorial process,” Marsh said. “We’re also relaunching our blog content.” LSA junior Max Cohen and LSA sophomore Jake Lourim, co-managing sports editors, said their priorities will lie in continuing to produce top-notch coverage of all the University’s athletic teams. “I think we have some great sports coverage in store — huge transitions in Michigan football right now, as everyone knows, and I look forward to keeping up to date with those and creating some good stories as a section,” Cohen said. LSA junior Chloe Gilke and LSA junior Adam DePollo will serve as co-managing arts editors. Gilke said they have begun to plan workshops to familiarize their writers with a variety of reporting experiences. The duo also aims to up their coverage of local music.
In 2015, the Daily will also work to expand its content across media beyond written articles. LSA junior Kaylla Cantilina, the Daily’s new managing video editor, said she plans to continue to develop the Daily’s video section, partially by more smoothly integrating with other sections for collaboration. LSA junior Allison Farrand and LSA junior Ruby Wallau, the co-managing photo editors, voiced a similar sentiment. “We’re really excited to bring more developed photo content online within the framework of better online photo features, better quality (and) better galleries,” Farrand said. “We’re also still excited to have more photo stories in print as well as online.” LSA junior Ian Dillingham, Statement magazine editor, said he will work to facilitate longform writing that captures the student experience. “We’re always looking to increase the quality of our content and give all students on campus the voice that they deserve and really highlight the most pressing issues that face students,” Dillingham said. Art & Design sophomore Shane Achenbach and LSA sophomore Emily Schumer will serve as co-managing design editors. Schumer said she is looking forward to further innovating the Daily’s page design by working more regularly with individual sections. “We are also looking to remodel some aspects of the paper and create a more regular variety in the way of illustrations and layout,” Schumer said. LSA junior Hannah Bates and LSA sophomore Laura Schinagle, co-copy chiefs, said they are working to streamline the application process of their section. This year, they said, 80 people competed for six spots on the copy desk, and the six weren’t chosen until after Fall Break because of the application volume. The Michigan Daily involves around 200 student editorial staff members each semester and is financially and editorially independent of the University’s administration.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 — 7A
Despite age, Werenski leads the way Youthful defense led by 17-year-old Werenski By JASON RUBINSTEIN Daily Sports Writer
Some members of the Michigan hockey team will admit it: They were skeptical when they first heard a 17-yearold was joining their team. “I thought it was a little sketchy at first,” said senior defenseman Brennan Serville. Nearly halfway through the season, any doubts Serville and his teammates once had in freshman Zach Werenksi have been squashed. Now, it’s hard to believe Werenski is just 17. He not only leads the Wolverines with a plus11 rating, but has also tallied 12 points — three goals and nine assists. More importantly, he has helped alleviate the question marks that came with the defensive corps at the start of the season. “We’ve had the experience with a couple (of 17-year-olds) with (Mike) Cammalleri and Jason Botterill; they were forwards and both those kids had good freshman years,” said associate head coach Billy Powers. “But for a defenseman to do it is a statement. It’s a tougher road for a defenseman; you have to be stronger, tougher, handle the down-low play and still be able to do what you do well, which is what Zach does with the puck.” The freshman can often be mistaken for a veteran and has earned as much ice time as any defenseman. However, Werenski maintains that there are still certain areas that he’s getting acclimated to.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Freshman defenseman Zach Werenski is just 17 years old, but he’s playing with the maturity of a senior, leading Michigan with a plus-11 rating this season.
“Guys just being stronger and faster,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t look like someone is going that fast, but they’re flying. Sometimes you go in the corner (for a puck battle) and then the guy there is a man. It’s just getting used to that.” With time, he should find his way and be able to challenge that “man” skating his way. But Werenski still finds ways to be effective defensively without hitting. “I guess I’m more reliant on my stick,” Werenski said. “There are times where I need to hit and I’m working on that. I grew up playing that way and using my stick is one of my strengths.” Added Powers: “As much as
he’s gifted offensively, he’s got a great stick defensively. He intercepts or takes away plays a lot with his stick and body position and that’s a by-product of his high hockey IQ.” Werenski’s stick skills and body positioning are not only keeping pucks away from the net, but also keeping him away from the penalty box. Werenski has committed only
one penalty through 14 games — a hooking penalty against Boston University back on Oct. 25 — the lowest total of any Michigan blue liner. The Grosse Point, Michigan native reiterated that he’s never been prone to penalties and, put bluntly, values being on the ice more than taking a seat in the sin bin — music to the ears of the Michigan coaching staff.
“As much as he’s gifted offensively, he’s got a great stick defensively.”
“It’s obviously huge,” Powers said of Werenski’s ability to play big minutes. “If you really look back, part of what we were trying to do with our defense was trying to recover from Jacob Trouba and Connor Carrick. Obviously, Connor never got here, he didn’t come, and, of course, Jacob was oneand-done. You plan your classes based on maybe Trouba being a sophomore and Carrick playing until he’s a junior, but then they’re out and you are playing catch up. “Zach has given us an opportunity to catch up really fast. So there’s no question his game and the level he has been able to play at this early has been
a huge benefit to our d-core and well needed.” But the team might soon be without Werenski for the Great Lakes Invitational. Werenski’s performance has given him the opportunity to try out for Team USA for the upcoming World Junior Championships. USA Hockey narrowed down the Team USA roster to 30 players — including Werenski, sophomore forward Tyler Motte, sophomore center JT Compher, sophomore defenseman Michael Downing and freshman center Dylan Larkin — and Powers fully expects Werenski to make the team comprised of players mostly two years older. “I’m going into it openminded,” Werenski said. “Hopefully I can make it, but if I don’t I can go help Michigan try and win the GLI. So it’s kind of a win-win for me. But my goal is to go try and make that team.” And if he does make Team USA, Michigan will be at a large disadvantage playing without its talented 17-year-old.
BY THE NUMBERS Zach Werenski
2
Penalty minutes Werenski has totaled all season — least among defensemen.
12
Number of points tallied this season. He leads all defensemen.
36
Shots taken this year —also the most among Michigan defensemen.
+11
Rating on ice, which is best on the team.
struggles behind the arc Wolverines fall ‘M’ Wolverines can’t in transition, short on defense score can’t find groove WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
By MINH DOAN Daily Sports Writer
Michigan women’s basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico couldn’t seem to get her point across. Just as she stood up to yell defensive instructions, Princeton found an open player for a shot, and the Tigers tacked on another two points. The next time down the court, Barnes Arico, once again, got up from her seat to get her players into position. And like the previous possession, Princeton found an unguarded player for another open shot and another two points in the second half. When the Wolverines’ offense wasn’t clicking, it wasn’t able to get the stops it needed in Michigan’s 85-55 loss to Princeton on Tuesday night. “When we get defensive stops, it kind of helps us more with the flow of the offense,” said senior forward Cyesha Goree. “The fact that they were making shots, that put us in our half-court offense, and it was tough to score on their defense.” This season, Michigan has played its best basketball when it’s been able to get a block or a steal on the defensive end and race out for an easy transition bucket, just like most of senior guard Shannon Smith’s 26 points against Wake Forest last week. But against Princeton, those weren’t the kinds of shots the Wolverines got.
Instead, Michigan had to slow down the play and run its halfcourt offense, which usually thrives off its quick passing to get players open. But Tuesday, the Wolverines couldn’t knock down their quality chances. “I think we feed off our offense,” Barnes Arico said. “We need to get better at feeding off of our defense.” The trio of 3-point shooters — sophomore guard Siera Thompson, freshman guard Katelynn Flaherty and junior Madison Ristovski — each had open 3-pointers that didn’t rattle home, which only led to increased frustration on the defensive front as the margin of deficit grew. “We need to be able to get stops when we’re not scoring,” Barnes Arico said. And they couldn’t, allowing Princeton — a team that has shot 45 percent from the field this season — to shoot 61 percent. “Against a team like that, you need to know your personnel,” Barnes Arico said. “You need to know who to get out on and who you can get help on, and when we went to zone, we didn’t really do a great job of that.” Luckily for the Wolverines, there is time for improvement and a chance to regroup, especially before Saturday’s showdown at No. 2 Notre Dame. But the Wolverines know that, and it’ll be needed against the Fighting Irish, who play a similar game to Princeton’s.
“Against a team like that, you need to know your personnel.”
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Just give up. You’ll thank us all later once you realize Rick’s is what matters.
By BRAD WHIPPLE Daily Sports Writer
It’s beyond the arc where the Michigan women’s PRINCETON 85 MICHIGAN 55 basketball team has found its comfort zone. It’s where freshman guard Katelynn Flaherty can jump, flick her hand and make Crisler Center fans roar with excitement. But Tuesday night against Princeton, almost no one stood when Flaherty hit her second and last drainer in the closing minutes of the game. No one cheered when junior guard Madison Ristovski shot an air ball. And no one left happy when the buzzer sounded. If one thing was clear Tuesday night, the Tigers just flat-out competed better than the Wolverines. With a rushed offense unable to finish its chances and a defense unable to find a system that worked, Michigan (6-2) was handed its first home loss of the season, 85-55. “That was a really good team we played tonight,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “In the first four minutes of the game, we kind of held our own, and then they got a couple of stops defensively and we were never able to recover. “They played our game against us tonight.” Unable to finish their 3-point chances, the Wolverines tried to develop an inside game like the one that led them to victory over Wake Forest. But Princeton countered with a tiring and physical defense, catching Michigan — who had outrebounded all but one of its opponents prior to Tuesday — like a deer in headlights. “I think they were physical, and there were no fouls called in the game,” Barnes Arico said.
CHARLES KOWALEC/Daily
Freshman guard Katelynn Flaherty, normally one of Michigan’s best shooters, couldn’t solve woes from 3-point range.
“That kind of got us off guard, and it took a minute to adjust to their physicality.” The mid-range layups and floaters weren’t falling, and the Tigers utilized those missed chances to create a fast transition game that scored 17 points off turnovers. In the end, Princeton won the war in the paint with 35 boards compared to the Wolverines’ 23. Senior forward Cyesha Goree failed to make much of an inside presence and struggled to finish her attempts, most of which went circling around the basket before falling into the hands of a Tiger. Goree had difficulty scoring with forward Taylor Williams, a tough defender, down low, causing her to have an uncharacteristic showing. Goree finished with 14 points and five rebounds. “Cyesha has a tough time when people are physical,”
Barnes Arico said. “They kept her out of the lane and out of her rebounding area, and she got a little frustrated.” Added Goree: “(Williams) played pretty good defense. (Princeton) packed in the paint really well, which forced us to take outside shots, which caused us to rush in and we weren’t knocking them down.” Coming off a career-high 26-point game, senior guard Shannon Smith went 1-for-6 from the field and was having trouble scoring in transition, normally a strong suit of hers. After the game, Barnes Arico told Smith that her growth this season is a result of her consistency. Tuesday was a different story: Smith’s game was everything but that. “We don’t want to take two steps backward,” Barnes Arico said she told Smith. “We want
“I think they were physical, and there were no fouls called.”
to make sure we’re moving forward, so let’s learn from this and make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Michigan faced a doubledigit deficit midway through the first half. The Wolverines tried to adjust the defense from zone to man coverage, but the Tigers took advantage of the disorganization to create a near 20-point cushion at halftime. Princeton (9-0) had its fair share of runs in the first half, including a string of 14 points in three minutes. “We can’t let one game ruin our season,” Goree said. “There are gonna be games like this, and this is when we need to stick together to get through adversity and fatigue.” With Michigan about to face its first ranked opponent of the season in No. 4 Notre Dame, the Wolverines will have to stitch together their 3-point talent and win the rebounding battle for any chance of competing.
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8A — Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Wolverines slowed on offense, fall to Eagles After losing to NJIT, Wolverines suffer second upset By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Writer JAMES COLLER/Daily
Sophomore forward Zak Irvin couldn’t connect from long range in the final seconds to send the game to overtime.
‘M’ doomed by shooting By LEV FACHER Daily Sports Editor
In theory, at least, it’s Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse Orange who know how to run a 2-3 zone. In practice, it’s Rob Murphy’s Eastern Michigan squad, which held Michigan to just 21 first-half points in a historic 45-42 loss Tuesday night at Crisler Center. The Wolverines fought through the Syracuse zone en route to a 68-65 win Dec. 2, but were surprisingly unable to crack Eastern Michigan’s defensive alignment, led by Murphy, a Syracuse assistant under Boeheim from 200411. When they did crack the zone, it made little difference — Michigan struggled on the few open looks it found and went a combined 14-for-43 from the field. “You’re always going to have nights when shots aren’t falling,” said junior guard Spike Albrecht. “That’s when you find out how good you really are.” If Albrecht took the Wolverines’ shooting performance as an answer, it wasn’t a happy one. In the first frame, Michigan went 1-for-10 from 3-point range and stumbled through a field-goal drought of 14 minutes, 53 seconds. Michigan coach John Beilein credited the offensive struggles
almost entirely to Eastern Michigan’s defense. “That was as good a zone defense as I’ve ever seen at any time, anywhere,” Beilein said. “That was as quick a zone defense as I’ve ever seen at any time, anywhere.” The Eagles’ defensive quickness deprived the Wolverine offense of several of its staples. Michigan’s resident sharpshooter — sophomore forward Zak Irvin — had a 3-pointer blocked minutes into the game and airballed a second soon after. Junior guard Caris LeVert, who dropped 32 points against New Jersey Institute of Technology on Saturday, missed the rim entirely on a 3-point attempt minutes later, and Albrecht found only the back rim on a deep trey attempt of his own soon after. Collectively, the Wolverines made just four of 21 attempts from beyond the arc. “We didn’t get open shots,” Beilein said. “If you’re missing a lot of open shots, you might have a confidence issue. We didn’t get many open shots.” Having watched Michigan successfully navigate the Syracuse zone just seven days prior to his team’s historic win, Murphy and his staff had a chance to review game tape that revealed how the
Wolverines might attack the 2-3. “We play our zones very similar, if not the same,” Murphy said. “We knew the actions they would run, but in saying that, you still have to guard it.” The defeat marked Michigan’s second straight home loss to an unranked opponent from a nonpower conference. But Beilein’s reasons for each loss differed. “One of the ways (NJIT) beat us was that we didn’t have that same hustle, that same type of intensity that we need,” Beilein said. “This was an intense game. Our guys really worked hard.” Rebounding, too, distinguished the Wolverines’ markedly different attempts at beating the 2-3 from one another. “Who would think that we would get 17 offensive rebounds against Syracuse,” Beilein asked, “and two against Eastern Michigan?” In the end, the Eagles proved it was their athleticism — not the name on their jersey and longtime status as a second-class school within Washtenaw County — that mattered to the Wolverines “Because it’s a local team, they’re really down,” Beilein said of his squad’s postgame mood. “We can’t stay down. We’ve just got to move forward.”
presents its first ever
Wine Tasting, Student Exhibition & Auction Fundraiser Michigan Union 530 S. State Room 2nd Floor Rogel Ballroom
Friday December 12th 2014 7:00-11p.m. $40 per person, $20 per student Contact Sarah Paspal at spaspal@umich.edu or (734) 418-4115 ext. 1244 for tickets or online at http://store.michigandaily.com/studentpubs/tickets
If you were looking for the Michigan men’s basketball team to bounce back against Eastern Michigan with a dominant showing, E. MICHIGAN 45 you MICHIGAN 42 would’ve been sorely disappointed. But unlike against New Jersey Institute of Technolog y on Saturday, it wasn’t hot shooting from the Wolverines’ opponent that would keep Michigan from pulling away. It was simply that Michigan couldn’t make a shot when it mattered, and Eastern Michigan did, even though its shooting wasn’t much better. Both teams shot 32.6 percent in the game, and Eastern Michigan (8-1) pulled out the 45-42 victory over Michigan, defeating the Wolverines for the first time since Dec. 17, 1997. “The intensity was there from our side,” said sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr. “It’s a little different from the last loss (against NJIT) when the team just hit tough shots. When we don’t shoot the ball as we’re accustomed to, you try to get it going in other areas. It’s tough. It was just a tough night. It was hard to get it going today.” Despite shooting just 6-for-
25 in the first half, Michigan (6-3) entered the second half up by two, simply because the Eagles shot even more poorly — 5-for-19. The theme would hold true to the end, as Michigan would be down three with 42 seconds left following an Eastern Michigan turnover in the backcourt. With a fresh shot clock, Michigan had its option of shots, and it went to junior guard Caris LeVert behind the 3-point line. But just as Michigan had so many times, it missed. Michigan would have another chance in the waning seconds of the game, after the Eagles missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the ball got loose near midcourt, ultimately rolling into the backcourt where senior forward Max Bielfeldt picked it up and called timeout. With 2.4 seconds left, sophomore guard Zak Irvin would force up a heave from near midcourt, but again, the ball found no twine. Going against another 2-3 zone defense, though quicker than Syracuse’s from last week, Michigan struggled on the offensive end. After recording 17 offensive rebounds against the Orange, Michigan had just two on Tuesday, and was outrebounded, 36-27.
“When we did get open shots, which was rarely, we didn’t make enough of those,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “And we had some costly turnovers that are uncharacteristic, but it had a lot to do with their quickness and their style of defense.” With a first-half field-goal drought that lasted 13:43, nothing seemed to go right for Michigan on Tuesday night. Besides Walton’s nine firsthalf points, there truly wasn’t another significant positive statistic for the Wolverines. With the rest of the team contributing just 12 points in the stanza, the Wolverines would need late-game stops and clutch baskets to have a chance. But with Irvin and LeVert tallying just 10 points a piece, the Wolverines came out short once again, snapping their Big Ten leading 59-game streak without losing back-to-back games. Despite the loss, though, Beilein still believes the season is young, even with No. 3 Arizona next on deck. “This is the way it is all year long,” Beilein said. “So there’s no panic button. “It is December 8 — December 9 — and it is a long way.”
“When we did get open shots ... we didn’t make enough of those.”
A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL SENIORS FOR ALL THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS THIS YEAR ALEXA “PHINS UP” DETTELBACH DANIEL “SNAPCHAT FIEND” FELDMAN GREG “CAT LOVER” GARNO RAJAT “HAS MARKETABLE SKILLS” KHARE JESSE “WRITES FOR SPORTS AND OPINION?” KLEIN SHANNON “SOCIAL MEDIA PRO” LYNCH MARINA “STAR ATHLETE” NAZARIO JEREMY “BEST HAIR” SUMMITT ALEJANDRO “SUP GUYS?” ZÚÑIGA
DON’T FORGET TO ORDER THE SENIOR EDITOR SWIMSUIT CALENDER BEFORE 2015!
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
T H E L I S T B U Z Z F E E D, B U T B E T T E R FIVE SE X MY THS It’s time that rumors spreading around your bed come to a stop — for good. Here are the most common sex myths, and we’re here to help you bust them.
1 . YO U T H I S W H E R E S E X T H R I V E S
As much as we can make ourselves believe that we need to cherish sex, the fact is we’ve got just about our entire lives ahead of us. Don’t rush it just because you think you need to.
2 . CO N D O M S K I L L T H E F U N
You just haven’t found the condom that’s right for you. Next time you go to the store, do some selective shopping, and maybe you’ll be surprised.
3 . WO M E N A R E L E S S I N T E R E S T E D I N S E X THAN MEN
As a magazine dominated by female editors, we beg to differ. Put sexism aside in bed. With the right amount of communication and respect, your girl will like sex just as much as you do.
4 . S E X B U R N S C A LO R I E S
Technically, it does. But it doesn’t burn as many as you think it does — and certainly not enough to burn the damage done during a lofty dinner or bar night. Next time, hit the gym as well.
5. SE X IS ALL ABOUT THE ORGASM
We all define sex differently. Before making assumptions, ask
your partner what they’re looking for. You might be surprised!
LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME?
FOLLOW US. @michigandaily THE
statement
Magazine Editor: Carlina Duan Deputy Editors: Max Radwin Amrutha Sivakumar Design Editor:
Photo Editor: Ruby Wallau Illustrator: Megan Mulholland Editor in Chief:
Managing Editor: Katie Burke Copy Editors: Mark Ossolinski Meaghan Thompson
Peter Shahin
Amy Mackens
COVER BY RUBY WALLAU AND AMY MACKENS
defining ‘sex’ with numbers B Y A M R U T H A S I VA K U M A R
T
ry asking me for a word that’s more of loaded gun than “sex.” Chances are, I won’t be able to give you one. In my rational, engineeringtrained way of conceptualizing information, it doesn’t make sense. “Sex” is just a word, after all. I should be able to define it — as should anyone else. When someone asks me what I feel about sex, or whether sex would be appropriate in a particular situation, (I should be able to give a clear-cut, no-nonsense “yes” or “no.”) But the fact is, “sex” is more than just a word; it’s a series of emotions. How I treat sex plays a lot into who I am and how my past experiences have shaped me. The linguistics of it is fascinating, all right. But can it be generalized? A 1980 study on cybersex published in the International Journal of Public Heath found that in heterogeneous sex, men had a tendency to associate the word “intercourse” with body-centered imagery — such as breast and kiss — while women drew more parallels between the word “intercourse” and relationship-centered linguistics. Similarly, a 1974 publicationfound that in general, men could link more slang vocabulary to sexual expressions than women. Putting criticism aside, if the sex research done over the last half-decade accurately reflects trends on college campuses (note: feel free to contradict that one), that means as a woman, I have the tendency to attribute a greater number of physically intimate activities — besides vaginal intercourse — with the word “sex,” as compared to a man. More than that, this means that my sexual behaviors — my actions surrounding how Ipersonally define “sex” and “intimacy” — can be predicted. Gulp. Let’s fast forward to 2014: I walk around with the belief that on Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, women actively try to break gender norms. I feel constantly surrounded by strong-willed, informed women who don’t characterize their beliefs about sex according to a rigid standard — rather exploring their relationship with sex through their own experiences. Interestingly, data shows
there are significant differences between how men and women define “sex” themselves and how the opposite gender believes the other define it. A more recent study found that both male and female college students considered vaginal intercourse to be “sex” — though more women believed that men would be less likely to consider intimacy as “sex” when neither participant experienced an orgasm. During oral sex, approximately 54 percent of men and 43 percent of women considered it “sex” when a man experienced an orgasm. Forty-one percent of students believed men considered female orgasm during oral sex to be “sex,” while over 15 percent more believed women would see the same activity as “sex.” Surprisingly, nearly half the male survey respondent viewed a female orgasm as sex, though women believed that less men would. Trust me when I say that I’m the biggest skeptic you’ll find of social studies research. In a way, it’s odd to think that I make decisions that affect my life in a way that conforms to the way that everyone else around me makes decisions about their own. Personal decisions take an identity, a personality — and sex is as personal as it gets. There’s also the issue with quantifying identity: there’s no numerical value that can fully explain where I, or any other college student, fall on the spectrum of possible gender identities and sexual orientations. There’s no study that completely manages to capture the beautiful spirit of selfidentification. Yet, there’s a certain comfort that comes out of knowing I’m not alone in my uncertainty about men. It’s scary, and no study can adequately prepare me for what to expect when with being with someone for the first time. I’ve seen the data, and now so have you. But for now, I think I’m going to take a step back from it all. There’s been this rumor floating around that sex needs to have a monumental meaning to be statistically — or even socially — significant. So, no, I get to decide when sex is significant to me.
DO COLLEGE STUDENTS CONSIDER ORAL SEX
“SEX”?
say yes when the woman has the orgasm
say yes when the man has the orgasm INFOGRAPHIC BY JAKE WELLINS, GABY VASQUEZ AND CAROLYN GEARIG
According to The Journal of Sex Research, May 2000
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement 3B
O N T H E R E C O R D COACH HOKE TOOK BULLE TS “Brady Hoke, Greg Hardin and Michigan football saved my life. Coach Hoke risked everything for me. He took bullets for me and my team the entire season. When it comes to caring and believing in his players, Brady Hoke does, more than any head coach in this country.” — Fifth-year senior punter, Will Hagerup
THE THOUGHT BUBBLE RUBY WALLAU/Daily
famous by association: everyone should want a beard BY MARIAM SHEIKH
I
began this column discussing the much-welcomed epidemic of the man bun. So it only seems fitting that I close the semester with an ode to another very welcomed trend. The past week marked two things: the beginning of the Christmas season and the unfortunate end to No Shave November. Now I realize that this sentiment may not resonate with everyone. I have been on Yik Yak enough to know that No Shave November is not everyone’s cup of tea. But can we take a moment to appreciate it? Guys expect girls to embody every aspect of femininity. So, I think it’s only fair that women expect men to embody what it means to be masculine, and ladies and gentleman, the beard is key. Maybe it’s my New York roots or my Brooklyn obsession, but men with beards are far more alluring. Especially at Michigan, a cleanshaven guy just screams immature frat star, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But for me, not
so much. Mysterious guys with manly beards just radiate a vibe of late night coffee chats and indie movies — a far cry from a night in a dingy frat basement. Right now as I write this in the Fishbowl, I see them everywhere: frat stars and beards alike, and there is a certain aura that surrounds the beard. Hipster glasses, a ripped olive T-shirt, a ring or two on each hand, black combat boots — there is a sense of style, without being too overtly full of themselves, and the need for adventure amid the mundane tasks of college life. Take a step back: Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhaal, Justin Theroux, Michael Fassbender, Jon Hamm, Ben Affleck, the guy sitting across from me at the Fishbowl — all better with the scruff, all possessing the mighty power of the beard. For this phase of every college student’s life, a man with a beard is three things: your parents’ worst nightmare, the best few months of your life and a check mark off the bucket list. So, why the hell not?
THERE IS A CERTAIN AURA THAT SURROUNDS THE BEARD.
“It’s important to find someone who really likes you for who you are. I think you need that personality chemistry… so if you’re dorky, you need to find that dorky girl who you’re cool with.” –JOHN DOHERTY, ENGINEERING SENIOR
P R I N T S : FA N M A I L
BY ANDREW FULLER
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
SEX
This year, 935 undergraduate students took our annual Sex Survey* — where we explored how technology influences the way that students on campus ‘do the deed.’ Here’s the breakdown.
19.59 average age
17
16%
700 600 500
are LGTBQ
40%
identify as male
identify as female
*
1% identified as female to male transgender, 1% identified as other
53%
have used tinder or grindr for a sexual encounter
7+ times
are virgins
average age of losing virginity
1 out of 10
have checked their phone during sex
8%
32%
59%
have sent or received a nude photo
5-6 times
3-4 times
1-2 times
0-1 times
HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU MASTURBATE PER WEEK?
64%
use the internet to masturbate
other
14%
12%
tinder
14%
400 300
200 100
45% of women
94% of men
20%
snapchat
alternate sexting platforms
64%
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
“Playing with matches, a girl could get burned”: Tinder on a college campus by Giancarlo Buonomo Editor’s Note: The students in this article asked not to be identified by their full names for privacy concerns.
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e are living in a world dominated by social media. There are the classics, like Facebook and Twitter, young upstarts like Yik Yak and Erodr, serious ones like LinkedIn, and not-so-serious ones like Vine. These platforms all have differing functions, yet they all share a key feature — a brilliant psychological insight, really. Users can approve others and be approved themselves, whether it be through likes, favorites, retweets or endorsements. The best part is that it’s simple. A like is a like. There’s no “ehhhhh” button. If Facebook and Twitter succeeded because they assuaged some of the anxieties of social interaction, then it was inevitable that a social media service would arise that took some of the anxieties out of romance: Tinder. Launched in 2011 by students at the University of Southern California, Tinder has a relatively Spartan design, considering its decidedly Athenian purposes. Users can log in via Facebook and create a profile, which consists of four or five photos and a short description. They then are given an extended slideshow of other profiles of users in the area, which they can then swipe “left” if they don’t like what they see, or “right” if they do. What shows up in this slideshow is just the username, age and first photo. You have to click on their profile to see the other photos, their description, and because Tinder is linked to Facebook, what mutual friends and interests you have. Two people will match if both swipe right on another’s profiles. If two people match, they can then message each other. Tinder’s function appears to be relatively straightforward. Match. Message. Meet. Mate. It’s fun to consider the possibilities. Paris, gallivanting around Lakonia, matches with some chick named Helen, and after a few days of texting invites her out for a ramhorn of wine. Romeo swipes right on “Jules, 14, Verona.” Your parents’ first date was a Tinder date. But upon closer inspection, not everyone is on Tinder to fit a quick movie-date/handjob into their schedule. *** LSA senior Isabel started using Tinder — to meet romantic partners. But she soon ran into issues. “I started out with women only,” she said. “(But) because I am really just interested in women, I found that it would run out of people to show me really quickly.”
Tinder allows you to pick which genders talking to guys because I was bored, and you want to show up in your feed, and then thought it would be funny … it’s like a game only matches you with people who have the that takes up my time, if I’m like waiting for same preferences. So in Isabel’s case, she a bus; it’s filler kind of activity,” she said. was only being matched with women seekBut there’s more to it than meeting the ing other women. occasional conversation partner. “I never seriously considered the idea of “There was someone whom I was interactually meeting people. Maybe just going ested in, in real life, and I didn’t know her at on dates, but for me, it was really just for all — I had never talked to her, I just know fun, a distraction, something fun and weird her because she works at some place that I to pull me out of the lonely state that I was frequent,” she said. in,” she said. If the age-old truth is that attraction In fact, she did go on one Tinder date. is complicated, then the new, but equally “It was just so funny, because I had never conspicuous one is that talking online is imagined myself meeting up with a strang- easier than talking in person. You can be er I had lying in bed, unshaven, with a thin film of met on the pizza crumbs and sweat forming on your YOU Internet,” chest, and still be witty and seductive she said. online. “It was “I think the fun, for weirdest the hell thing about of it, for Tinder is the giddy that it presfeelings of “Ohhhh, I’m going on a date,’” she added. Isabel was happy, though, with how the date turned out. “It was good practice for actually talking to people in ILLUSTRATION BY JAKE WELLINS real life.” After that, she sought out people, men and women, just to ents itself as a game … But is it a game? talk with them. But she matched with far You’re interacting with this virtual version more men. of somebody else, and you kind of have to “For every five women I swiped right on, remember that there are real people, with maybe one would match, but for every five real expectations and hopes and thoughts guys I swiped right on, it would be like four and ideas, but the social distance makes out of five would match,” she said. them seem like they’re not real people,” IsaThis is to be expected. Tinder keeps bel said. records of all their activity, and they estiIt’s hard to keep that in mind, and unsetmate that while men swipe left 54 percent tling to realize that the person on the other of the time, women swipe left 84 percent of end may not grant you the same courtesy. the time. *** Isabel swipes right on a guy if he looks For LSA junior Thomas, Tinder was both like he’ll be fun to talk to. But, in her opin- a test and a tool. ion, most men seem to have other aims. “I’d just gotten out of a relationship and “If I don’t express some sort of romantic wanted to bounce back a little bit,” he said. interest in them after even a few lines of “I wanted to know that I had the capacity to conversation, oftentimes they’ll stop talk- hook up with people, that I still had game.” ing to me,” she said. “Really I just started Unlike Isabel, Thomas used Tinder like
you’d expect: he’d swipe right on girls he thought were cute, and beamed when they matched with him. “It’s a thrill,” he said. “When you get that notification, you’ll be like ‘shit, this attractive girl thinks I’m good looking — alright!’ ” When it comes to typical Tinder encounters, Tommy claimed to only pay attention to the picture. “If I did see someone with a particularly long bio, I’d hold that against them. I mean, this isn’t a dating website; this is Tinder,” he said. When he did match with someone, he’d usually lead with a simple “Hi, how are you?” and see where the conversation progressed from there, noting that interest in hooking up would eventually become obvious. Tommy’s typical strategy was to talk for a day or two over Tinder’s messaging system, and then ask for the girl’s number, which indicated an escalation in interest. They would then talk for another day or so. “You have to flirt,” he replied. “If you’re not someone who likes to flirt, then you’re not going to have a good time on Tinder.” When he gets confident that a girl was interested, Tommy suggests that they meet up at a neutral location. Inviting a girl to his house would be too presumptuous. Neutral locations were the stereotypical date spots: movies, dinner, coffee, even a walk in Nichols Arb. “It’s like a blind date,” Tommy explained. “You’re meeting someone new, you’re making pleasant conversation, but the whole time, the subtext is that you both find each other hot.” But why jump through all these hoops, if you’ve already acknowledged that you find each other attractive? “You go through the formalities. You don’t just go up to them, shake hands and then start making out,” Tommy explained. “There’s still a human interaction to it. It’s not just ‘Let’s meet and bang.’ ” But what would Tommy do if the girl suggested they skip the dinner and small talk and head straight for the sack? “I’d be a little creeped out by that,” he replied. “I think you want to assure each other that you just got the app for the hell of it, and that you’re not just perverts.” “I think everyone’s embarrassed to say that they met someone on Tinder because it’s artificial,” Tommy said. “It’s not playing by the rules; it didn’t exist in the past; there’s nothing romantic about it. There’s no movies about people meeting on an app and ending happily ever after.” But then again, were there ever “rules” in the first place?
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
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Personal Statement: My real sex ed by Zak Witus Editor’s Note: This piece contains graphic descriptions of adolescent sexuality.
I
hockey tournaments, I had a hard time imagining what he was talking about. The idea of a “girl sucking on penis” had never occurred to me, strange as that may be. All my bunkmates appeared to already know what it was. Another time Mike told us the story of how he hooked up with the camp director’s kids’ babysitter. He told my bunkmates and I late at night about how he and the babysitter had gone out to the docks and started hooking up. He told us how he started to take off her pants to “finger” her — another new concept — but then she said, “No, I’m on my period” (and I did know what that was). Then Mike said, “Well, I’m not.”
I have another confession: I humped my pillows imagining they were my female middle school teachers, who weren’t hot but in fact pretty gross and old. I don’t remember exactly when it ended — maybe sophomore year of high school? — but at some point I knew: This has got to stop. I would insert my dick between the pillow and the pillowcase, and then just sort of lay on top of it and hump it. I would pull out just before ejaculating — because who wants to sleep on a cummy pillow? — and then cum into my pajamas. Which leads me to another disturbing memory: Being afraid of putting my pajamas with the dried up semen on them in
have a fragmented memory of my introduction to sex as a child. I remember hearing my parents having sex one time when I was probably 13 years old. At least I think so. I heard the rhythmic creaking of the bed, and somehow I knew automatically what that signified. But my most jarring and sudden introduction to sex was at summer camp going into sixth grade. My camp friends introduced me to two things that summer: swearing and porn. My friend Alex told me my first day there, “You can swear here. Everybody swears.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to swear, but everyone else seemed to want to, so I thought I should want to too. Also, all the guys at camp knew what porn was and were craving it. There was a sort of black market at camp where you could buy things that the camp didn’t allow: candy, Ramen noodles and porn. My friend Alex bought a porno mag at the end of the first week. He showed it to me. I remember the images pretty vividly. I’d never seen a vagina before. The ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND women were all white and totally hairless, except the hair on their “And what did she say?” we all with the rest of my family’s laundry, head of course, which was blonde asked excitedly. because what if the semen from my and straight. Their faces were heav“Nothing,” Mike said, “but then pajamas transferred onto my mom’s ily made-up and appeared fake. I she started blowing me.” undergarments and, well, um, you remember being disgusted initially. Years later, when I was hooking know, impregnated her? What’s The porno consisted of two or three up with my current girlfriend for even more disturbing is the Freudripped-out magazine pages, so the the second or third time, she said ian conjecture that that may have images had this glossy texture to the same thing, “I’m on period,” and been a repressed fantasy. them, which made them more dis- then I said what Mike said: “Well, And I’ve never been a porn guy gusting. The whole experience of I’m not.” But that time it didn’t either. I’ve always preferred imaglooking at the porn, especially with work. She just sort of squirmed ining sexual scenarios for myself a friend, felt dark. Dark, disgusting awkwardly and let out a nervous and Ms. Beyoncé, because no one and obscene. Yet somehow all the laugh. The joke came off not as cool could recreate the fucked up shit more intriguing. or suave, but as degrading. In retro- that goes on in my head. Maybe The next year at camp my coun- spect I doubt if it worked for Mike I never overcame that initial disselor entertained me and my bunk- either. I’m sure he embellished the gust with porn that I had at summates with stories of his sexual story to give his horny pubescent mer camp. Porn still seems too escapades. That’s when I learned campers something to jack off to. obscene. When I’m watching it, I’m what “head” was. When my coun- And it worked, especially because also watching myself. When I masselor, Mike, said he got “head” from we’d all already had our own baby- turbate to fantasies with my eyes a girl in a hot tub at one of his travel sitter fantasies. closed, I’m totally in it and there’s
no meta/postmodern-watching going on. So I should probably also mention my first sexual encounter, perhaps to the remiss of my now captive audience. Her name was Emily and she was a red head. It was the most fantastic pleasure I’d ever had. After overcoming my nervousness and associated flaccidity, I had, as Great Uncle Woody would say, “the sexual intensity of a jungle cat.” I could not get enough. But I had a lingering disgust with the vagina. It was obscene to me, just like the glossy vaginas in the porno I had encountered at camp. I knew that I didn’t want it to be obscene. I had a lot of anxiety about being gay
as a young adolescent. I was occasionally disgusted with parts of the female anatomy and bras and stuff, which at other times I was also attracted to. In my masturbation fantasies, I never recall imagining a vulva — only tits and asses. Someone (e.g., Ms. Beyoncé) was giving pleasure to me. I was “inside them,” but the geometrics of the insertion were always vague. When I showed my current girlfriend a draft of this article, and she learned that I find vaginas obscene, she said “that’s so you.” To which I replied, “What does that mean? Are there other facets of my personality that resemble this vagina aversion?” She then elaborated, saying that I’m “condescending toward them.”
She said “them,” as if she has observed me regularly being condescending toward them. How can one be condescending to a vagina?! “It’s OK, though,” she said. “It’s a relief that you don’t love vaginas because I don’t really care for penises. But I like them still.” That’s nice: My girlfriend and I are mutually disgusted by each other’s genitals. Is there a point to all this? Let’s find one. First, I don’t know much about what’s going on in anyone else’s head besides my own, and it’s especially difficult to make generalizations about something that’s as private and personal as sexuality. But it’s OK to feel lots of weird, conflicting emotions about sex, sexual organs, middle school teachers, pop stars, etc. What’s harmful is to repress those emotions. Expressing them on the other hand, can be cathartic, and you don’t have to embarrass yourself in print, like I am. Also I’m ruined for all women. No woman will ever satisfy like I want her to because I’ve created these impossible-to-obtain ideals in my masturbation fantasies. This explains my disgust with the reality of the vagina and the lack of sex organs in my fantasies. Can I blame the Victoria Secret ads? Maybe, but I as an individual agent deserve some responsibility. And, lastly, we should ask ourselves where we learn about sex. I argue that we learn basically nothing important about it in sex ed and reproductive health classes. We learn about sex from our camp counselors and from ripped-out pages of porn magazines. The sources vary for each of us, but the underlying point is that sex for human beings is not primarily something biological (e.g., penises going into vaginas) despite what our sex ed teachers tell us. It’s something psychological that our social environment manipulates and sometimes, in cases such as mine, perverts. The really interesting aspects of sex and sexuality are socially psychological.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Lasting by Yardain Amron
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND Author’s Note: I will use the word “caboot” to refer to ejaculating prematurely.
W
hen I started having sex in high school, I used to last about one minute on a good day. I was 16 and simultaneously felt like the 10-year-old kid in Billy Madison who pissed his pants, and the 60-year-old impotent man in every Viagra commercial. This lasted for a year and a half with one girl, who I’ll call Dara. Thankfully Dara, who was sensitive to my cabootion, never showed a glimpse of frustration with my unruly penis. If she had said something like
“Are you serious?” — or worse, laughed — I might have thrown in the towel and applied to Brigham Young University. I became so hyperconscious about lasting that sex became this self-fulfilling fuckery: the more I wanted to last, the less I lasted. We would be on my bed, just hooking up and my focus would gravitate to pole like it was actually magnetized. To conquer this problem, I turned on private browsing, and Google searched “sex problems.” I drowned myself in studies and articles on cabootion: “the most common sexual problem facing men under 40.”
celebrate the holidays
“as many as one in three experience it…” “the average man lasts about 14 minutes…” I explored sex forums, and found people like me. Qwerty4521: “Hello. Me an my girlfriend started having sex around the end of October. We are both 18 and we were both virgins. We have had sex probably around twelve times total now. At first I could last a few minutes before coming but now literally the second we start having sex I come. I don’t know why it got worse. I use a condom every time. This is especially wired to me because if she gives me a handjob or a blowjob I can last for literally hours. Please help me.” I’ll admit I felt a little better knowing men all over the world, with dicks of all colors, shapes and sizes, were dealing with the exact same fucking problem. But the stress was so real, and so mine. Confession: A part of me feared I would die the master of one-minute sex. There was also just no chance I would ever ask anyone for advice. This was by far my most humiliating secret. Instead, I went to the Internet for help. I tried numbing condoms. I tried Kegel exercises to strengthen my pelvic region. I tried Viagra (my mom’s boyfriend’s recommendation — “you’ll bust and be hard again in minutes!”). I tried thinking about wrinkly grandmas. Nothing worked. Sex became stress, orgasms became guiltspasms, pleasure became pressure. Dara and I broke up after high school, and I was left to cope with the manhood-shattering fact that not once during sex did I ever make her orgasm. Confession: A part of me didn’t understand why she stayed with me until the end; whether she felt leaving someone over bad sex was shallow? Or whether sex was actually less important to her? I worried she pitied me. For a little while, I avoided sex out of fear
of being shamed by some insensitive girl who didn’t understand what I was going through. Uncle Sam was breathing down my shoulder: “Be a man, son.” But a libido eventually gets what it wants. Flash forward to freshman year Welcome Week. I’ll call her Tina. I made the first move, taking the open seat next to her on the bus in the morning, asking her something flirty and stupid, probably like “How do you like the campus?” I liked her green eyes, and her long Hawaiian middle name that I don’t remember. We hung out in the grass in the afternoon, and she invited me along to her cousin’s place that night. When we got back to South Quad, Tina’s roommate wasn’t there. Eventually we were in our underwear — the point where with Dara, my anxiety and apprehension would already have been building inside my pressure-cooker brain for quite some time. But this time, I felt like Austin Powers. “Do you have a condom?” I did have a condom. I lasted — at least longer than ever before, and while I don’t remember if Tina came, I do remember the satisfaction on her face afterwards, and I do remember how she said, “We should keep hanging out.” Confession: Until that moment, I felt like I wasn’t a full man yet. Tina and I never had sex again (just one of those things), but I was cured, and it was lasting. Something finally clicked. I’m not saying I don’t think about lasting anymore; no, those thoughts are still very real. Now, they just don’t control me. It’s pretty absurd looking back at how much my cabooting harmed my psyche. How much lasting means to my manhood. Why do I feel a pressure to perform and pleasure her? Is it more a selfless or prideful pressure? Out of all pieces of existence, shouldn’t sex be the most absent of worry? Maybe it’s that the orgasm becomes an afterthought and it’s just free feeling, so by the end of it all, you’ve turned into a hippie.