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CSG talks safety, game day dining Reps also discuss new DPSS unit for sexual assault, abuse victims EMILIE FARRUGIA/Daily
Engineering graduate student Ben Juliar practices an aerial silks routine outside of the Central Campus Recreation Building on Tuesday.
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RESEARCH
‘U’ partners with Ethiopian doctors to teach transplants Program aims to improve access to healthcare abroad By TOM McBRIEN Daily Staff Reporter
Three patients who would have normally died of kidney failure received the first kidney transplants in Ethiopia thanks to a partnership between the
University and Ethiopian doctors. The partnership between the University Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa aims to train Ethiopian doctors in sub-specialties such as transplantations and obstetrics while also helping the University train its students and faculty. By focusing on building the kidney transplantation services
first, the program intends to train Ethiopian specialists and improve hospital services such as laboratory facilities and the intensive care units — all improvements that can then be spread to hospitals across the country. Senait Fisseha, adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University and a native Ethiopian, has dreamed of participating in a program like this since she
By JACKIE CHARNIGA
started her medical training. “When I came here for school, all along from undergrad I had a conception of going back to work on building the healthcare system in Ethiopia,” she said. As a medical fellow, Fisseha traveled to Ethiopia about two times per year, building connections she hoped would someday benefit her country. First, she established ties with the Ethiopian Ministry of See TRANSPLANT, Page 5A
Representatives from the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security briefed Central Student Government on new initiatives aimed at preventing alcohol and drug abuse on campus and aiding survivors of criminal and sexual assault. The assembly also discussed CSG’s ongoing initiative to keep dining halls opening earlier on football game days. Prevention of alcohol abuse by minors Bryan Baker, the DPSS liaison to student life, said the division’s goals for reducing alcohol abuse by minors on campus will be attained through several new initiatives. One such effort is a plain clothes detail. Officers have already been patrolling campus in plain clothes and distributing
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Schlissel says Greek culture must change After speech in Detroit, ‘U’ president cautions fraternities, sororities By MICHAEL SUGERMAN Daily News Reporter
Questions about Greek life just seem to follow University President Mark Schlissel wherever he goes. After speaking to the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday afternoon as part of a presentation called “Powering Michigan’s Future with Innovative Ideas and Human Capital,” Schlissel spoke to reporters about what he deemed the potentially self-destructive nature of Greek life. According to reports from both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, Schlissel said fraternities and sororities may slowly fade out of campus culture if they continue down their current paths.
“Unless … the students themselves moderate some of the risky behavior … they may naturally wither and people may want to stop joining them,” he said. Schlissel and other key administrators met with students from all chapters of University Greek life last month, where Schlissel told those in attendance that the party culture associated with Greek life is a stain on the University’s reputation. “The value of their degrees are going to go down because the reputation of the University of Michigan won’t be the excitement in the Big House or our teams doing well under our fantastic new coach,” Schlissel said in the meeting. “It’s not going to be the kids who receive the Rhodes Scholarships and the Fulbright Scholarships, and the famous professors who do the work that you’re going to get reflected on for, or the National Medal for the Arts that our faculty won this See GREEK LIFE, Page 5A
minor in possession tickets. The detail began this year and is funded through a special grant. DPSS officer Justin Berent said the detail was not conceived as an undercover operation to trick underage students. “We always have some kind of badge,” Berent said. “Not entrapment, it’s just reducing underage drinking.” Special Victims Unit Berent has been with DPSS for five years and is now a member of the UMPD Special Victims Unit, which is dedicated to responding to and investigating cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and child abuse. The unit comprises of five officers trained to handle various emergency situations and who also receive specific training for dealing with trauma. “If you’re involved in a traumatic event, we know how your body and your mind responds to that,” Berent said. Baker asked CSG to spread the word about other new resources provided by DPSS with students in mind, including statistical information about past crimes See CSG, Page 3A
Ski trip participant to complete probation After vandalism charge, sentence includes $5,000 in restitution By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporter
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Roland Blackwood, associate professor of pediatrics, discusses how to eliminate healthcare disparities in southeastern Michigan in Danto Auditorium on Tuesday.
Professor discusses medical school, equity in health care Roland Blackwood fields questions from undergraduates By LYDIA MURRAY Daily Staff Reporter
Roland Blackwood, associate professor of pediatrics, spoke to undergraduate students about his work fighting health
care inequality in Southeast Michigan, and provided advice on thriving in the pre-med track and medical school on Tuesday night. Blackwood noted several statistics that point to disparities in health. For example, white women have the greatest life expectancy and Black men have the lowest. A person’s location and environment can dramatically
affect health outcomes, too, he noted. “Health can be related to all kinds of factors,” he said. “One of the things that people don‘t realize is that where you live can affect how long you live … In one ZIP code, the life expectancy can be 72 and another it‘s 86.” Turning to his efforts to fight these inequalities, See HEALTH CARE, Page 5A
The criminal case against a former member of the University’s disbanded Sigma Alpha Mu chapter has resulted in a probation sentence. University alum Jesse Krumholz received two years of probation for a misdemeanor charge on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. His sentence also includes paying $5,000 in restitution and $400 in costs, as well as 100 hours of community service, which he has already completed. Otsego County Prosecutor Michael Rola was unavailable for comment on Tuesday afternoon. In September, University alum Matthew Vlasic, See SKI TRIP, Page 5A
the statement A look at how students navigate the job search process
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Raising money for research A philanthropy event focused on hockey is coming to Evanston, Illinois to raise funds for brain tumor awareness, the Daily Northwestern reported Sunday. The event, named Dropping the Puck on Cancer, is scheduled to begin Jan. 16 over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend. According to the Daily Northwestern, the fraternities involved are the school’s chapters of Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Chi, Phi Kappa Psi and Pi Kappa Alpha. They are seeking more Greek organizations to collaborate with. They will host the
tournament for about two weeks during the winter semester after Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association recruitment has ended. The organizers of the event said they hope it will be successful. They also said it provides a chance for cooperation between Greek organizations because it is a cause that all students can support. Al Gore speaks at Stanford University About 2,000 people gathered at Stanford University on Friday for a climate change
rally featuring former vice president Al Gore. The Know Tomorrow rally was part of a national Day of Action, which aimed to raise awareness about climate change. The event was in preparation for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this November and December. According to the Stanford Daily, Al Gore covered several facets of climate change and the problems facing today’s advocates. He took several selfies with students, and told them the solution to climate change was their willingness to get involved.
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WHAT: University alum Jason Blessing, CEO of software company Plex Systems and former Oracle senior vice president, will discuss his career path from campus to software executive. WHO: School of Information WHEN: 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: North Quad, Ehrlicher Room
WHAT: Molly Lindner, who recently retired after serving as an associate professor of art at Kent State University, will discuss the significance of a marble Roman portrait of a young boy. WHO: Department of Classical Studies WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall, Room 2175
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WHAT: Merle Bachman, associate English professor at Spalding University , will discuss how contemporary Jewish poetry relates to Yiddish poetry in the 20th century, connecting both to the Jewish diaspora. WHO: Judiac Studies WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: 202 S. Thayer, 2022 Thayer
WHAT: Xiao Suhua, one of China’s most influential advocates of contemporary dance, will talk about the history of Chinese contemporary dance — as well of two of his own dance adaptations of Chinese literature. WHO: Confucious Institute WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League, Koessler Room
WHAT: Representatives from University funding offices will sit on a panel to address options for overseas internships and research opportunities. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work, Room 1636
WHAT: George Steinmetz, the Charles H. Tilly Collegiate Professor of Sociology and Germanic Languages and Literatures, will discuss British and French colonialism between the 1940s and ’60s. WHO: Department of Sociology WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Rackham Graduate School, Amphitheater
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Pharmacy student Kristen Griebe dumps old pills into hazardous waste containers during the safe medical disposal event at Ingalls Mall on Tuesday.
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Policy talks WHAT: James House — the Angus Campbell Distinguished University Professor emeritus of survey research, public policy and sociology — will discuss the underlying factors of the U.S. health care crisis. WHO: Ford School of Public Policy WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Weill Hall, Annenberg Auditorium
Career Expo WHAT: For the second day, organizations will be situated in the Michigan Union to showcase job and internship opportunities. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
The Justice Department has arranged for the release of nearly 6,000 federal inmates who were arrested for nonviolent drug crimes in the 1980s and ’90s, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
2
This week, The Statement takes a look at the University’s career fair and chats with the president of optiMize, a student organization that promotes entrepreneurship. >> FOR MORE, SEE THE STATEMENT
3
In response to a study showing that California women were paid 84 cents for every dollar a man made in 2013, Gov.Jerry Brown signed a bill that aims to eliminate the gap, The Los Angeles Times reported.
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Specimen to arrive at ‘U’ Farmer donates woolly mammoth fossils to Natural History Museum By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter
A mammoth win for paleontologists occurred Monday when the farmer who found woolly mammoth bones on his property in Washtenaw County donated the specimen to the University. Last week James Bristle was installing a drainage pipe in his Chelsea, Mich. soybean field when he discovered the unusual bones. What he first mistook as a fence turned out to be a rib bone. When Bristle realized the mag-
nitude of his discovery he contacted the University and Dan Fisher, a professor of paleontology and director of the University’s Museum of Paleontology. The mammoth will be named the Bristle Mammoth after the farmer who found it. Fisher said the discovery is in the top 10 most significant mammoth discoveries in Michigan’s recorded history. University researchers believe the mammoth is a hybrid of a woolly mammoth and a Columbian mammoth which lived around 11,700 and 15,000 years ago. Fisher hopes to display the mammoth at the Museum of Natural History after they excavate it. With a skull, two tusks, the pelvis, ribs, vertebrae, its shoulder blades uncovered, so far the researchers have 20 percent of a full mammoth skeleton.
RUBY WALLAU /Daily
Former Rep. John Dingell during the Mackinac Policy Conference in the Grand Hotel May 2014.
John Dingell hospitalized, will undergo heart surgery Former U.S. representative retired at start of this year By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
Former Congressman John Dingell was admitted to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Monday and will undergo a heart procedure, according to a statement released by his wife’s office. In a short statement, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) said her husband was “resting comfortably under doctor’s care and is his usual feisty self.”
Dingell also underwent a heart procedure at the same hospital last March to correct abnormal heart rhythms. The statement also noted that Rep. Dingell will remain in Michigan for the week, and will not travel to Washington. The House is in session Tuesday through Thursday of this week. Preceding the official statement from his wife’s office, Dingell also tweeted the news earlier in the afternoon. “Back in the hospital,” the tweet read. “Being old sucks.” Dingell, 89, retired from Congress following the end of his term this January. He first took office in 1955, following his father who previously held the seat, and is the longest serving
member of the body in history with 59 years in office. During his time in the House Dingell chaired the House and Commerce Committee and sat on multiple subcommittees within it, including those for Health, Environment and Economy, and Oversight and Investigation. He was heavily involved in a slate of landmark legislative environment achievements during his time in office, among them the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Dingell was also an advocate for health, sponsoring bills to protect patient rights through requiring private insurance for all Americans and increasing responsibilities for insurers,
as well as contributing to the Affordable Care Act. In 2014, Dingell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, which is the highest honor a civilian can recieve. He holds a honorary degree from the University, awarded at the 2015 spring commencement. Dingell is also a frequent visitor to the University’s campus,, teaching class sessions at the Ford School of Public Policy during the fall semester. He has also donated six decades of papers to the University’s Bentley Historical Library, including correspondence bills and photographs. At the time, the donation was one of the largest to the library’s historical archive.
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Detroit activist Grace Lee Boggs dies at age 100 Activist and civil rights pioneer Grace Lee Boggs passed away Monday morning. She turned 100 this past summer. The Detroit Free Press reported that Boggs died peacefully in her home. Boggs is to be cremated and a memorial will be held for her later this month. Throughout her life, she was a prominent figure in activism for Black power, Black revolution, educational reform and more. According to the Detroit Free Press, hundreds came to celebrate her birthday at the Detroit Charles H. Wright AfricanAmerican Museum. Boggs was unable to attend the event.
Michigan Senate raises fines for selling cigarettes to minors Tuesday, the Michigan Senate unanimously approved a bill that increases the fines for selling cigarettes to minors. The offense is a misdemeanor and was punishable by a fine of $50 for more than 27 years. If the Michigan House of Representatives also approves the bill, the fine would be raised to $100 for the initial violation and has the possibility of becoming a $500 fine for each subsequent violation. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Steve Bieda (D–Warren) and will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 — 3A
CSG From Page 1A and a new resource guide, titled Our Community Matters. The guide, released by DPSS in August, provides information about a survivor’s rights in an assault case and details next steps for after the incident. Resolution on increased funding for early game day dining A resolution to fund CSG’s pilot game day dining program was proposed Tuesday. The effort is a joint initiative with Michigan Dining to open dining halls earlier on game days to provide students access to food before tailgating activities. CSG’s finance committee reported that the program has resulted in significant financial loses for Michigan Dining, and funding support from CSG would help ensure the program continues. CSG President Cooper Charlton, an LSA senior, requested the assembly allocate RITA MORRIS /Daily $250 from the Executive Bryan Baker, DPSS liaison to student life, speaks about DPSS resources at the Central Student Government meeting on Tuesday in the Michigan Union. Discretionary fund and another $250 from the Legislative expenditures. and that they should encourage Dentistry student Alexander in the lounges or dorm rooms. Discretionary fund for each game CSG treasurer Kevin Ziegler, more students to show up for Ziegler proposed drafting a The rule, he said, restricts day, but members deemed those a Business senior, said more than early game day dining, in part resolution to allow residents of the ability of the community provisions inadequate. 2,600 students have benefitted by reaching out to student the Munger Graduate Residences members to drink in any other Ultimately, the resolution from the pilot program since its organizations. to consume alcohol in their own meeting room or communal area suggests $3,000 in funds from inception last month. “The more swipes, the better it hall. within the residence hall. the Legislative Discretionary “The highlight of this program looks,” Pearlman said. The newly opened Munger “Last weekend, there was and $4,000 from the Executive is the safety and well-being of Bursley Residence Hall and Graduate Residence exclusively supposed to be a Medical School Discretionary fund will be students on this campus, which I South Quad Residence Hall will accommodates graduate event and they were told shortly allocated to the program. The think everyone in this room can open at 9:30 a.m. for Saturday’s students, a large number of before the event that they could funds will help cover staffing get behind,” he said. 3:30 p.m. game against whom are older than 21 and can not have alcohol, which forced 80 costs and food supplies. Opening Public Policy sophomore Jacob Northwestern instead of their legally drink and possess alcohol. to 100 people into an apartment,” the dining halls early on game Pearlman, CSG student general normal 10:30 a.m. opening. Ziegler said Michigan Housing Ziegler said. days costs Michigan Dining counsel, said the program was a Alcohol consumption in informed the residents that about $3,300 in additional high priority for CSG members Munger Graduate Residences alcohol would only be permitted
Local weed advocate protests deer cull At the Monday night Ann Arbor City Council meeting, councilmember Chuck Warpehoski (D–Ward 5) shared concerns of an open carry protest in response to the deer cull. The deer cull, approved by City Council in mid-August, is planned for this winter. The cull is a controlled kill of 100 deer to help with population control in the city. Charmie Gholson, a longtime friend of Warpehoski, wrote on her Facebook page advocating for an open carry protest in front of City Council members’ houses. She said she wanted to show council members what a cull would look like in the city. Gholson also told MLive that she is against the cull because students often go to natural areas and city parks to smoke marijuana at night. She said she is worried tht the cull sharpshooters could harm the high school and college students. Warpehoski shared the status with his fellow council members and said he was looking at this issue as a learning moment. He said the cull is intended to help Ann Arbor’s ecosystem and lower the amount of deerinduced accidents. He also said the cull is done inconspicuously, unlike the open carry protest.
Downtown local restaurant reopens after renovation The Ann Arbor local restaurant Gratzi will reopen its doors to customers Thursday. After a week of renovations, the restaurant hopes the new look will keep the space fresh and exciting to customers. Gratzi opened in Ann Arbor in 1987 and has been renovated four times since. The restaurant is operated by Mainstreet Ventures, which also renovated the Chop House in 2011. According to MLive, there is a new color scheme as well as updated seating, flooring, lighting and design choices. —ISOBEL FUTTER
RITA MORRIS /Daily
Dentistry graduate student Alexander Ziegler proposes a resolution to allow Munger residents more alcohol privileges at the CSG meeting Tuesday evening in the Michigan Union.
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Opinion
4A — Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com JENNIFER CALFAS EDITOR IN CHIEF
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
Defending student journalists Michigan must pass legislation to protect collegiate newspapers
T
he First Amendment protects professional journalists, alongside all other citizens, enabling them to print news freely without censorship from the government. Unfortunately, collegiate journalists at schools without independent papers are not afforded the same protections from their governing bodies: school administrations. Currently, there’s no legislation in Michigan protecting the freedom of the student presses from administrative censorship. Without a clear right to editorial freedom expressed under law, collegiate newspapers, in both public and private schools, are at risk of being taken advantage of by school administrators and others seeking to repress students’ free speech rights. At Northern Michigan University, the newspaper staff’s investigations into the administration and Board of Trustees’ actions resulted in the removal of journalism faculty adviser Cheryl Reed. The newspaper’s administrative board provided no clear reason for the removal. In addition to removing Reed as the faculty adviser, current managing editor Michael Williams was prevented from taking the position of editor in chief, even though he was the only applicant. Reed and Williams filed a lawsuit last month to defend their rights as journalists. Clearly, some sort of legal protection must be put in place to protect the free speech of college journalists. A similar incident occurred at Butler University, a private school in Indianapolis, when the student newspaper faculty adviser, Loni McKown, was spontaneously removed and temporarily replaced with a public relations staffer from the university as an interim adviser. The Butler administration’s reasoning for McKowan’s removal cited her accidental forwarding of a confidential e-mail and her involvement in student editorial decisions. Even though students from the paper expressed their disagreement with the latter suggestion, the university still ousted McKowan as an adviser. Replacing a journalist with a public relations employee is an absurd action that limits the freedom of collegiate journalism. The administration acting for its own PR benefits at the expense of journalists furthers the need for protection of students that professionals have through the First Amendment. According to the Student Press Law Center, only nine states have laws protecting students’
IN CHAN LEE
free expression, in varying degrees; additionally, two states have adopted student speech rights in their education codes. Of the nine states with legal protections, California’s 2006 law allowing First Amendment rights to be extended to high school and collegiate newspapers from prior review and restraint from their administration in both the private and public sectors, is the most extensive. The state of Michigan should adopt similar legislation to protect free speech of all student journalists and to ensure non-financially independent newspapers remain editorially independent. The objective of collegiate journalism, beyond offering an outlet for students to be connected to their environment, is to act as a check and balance on the workings of school administrations. Without the watchful eye of the media, corruption may occur within the offices of high-ranking administrators. This combination of education and administrative oversight is a valuable resource for University communities to have. Administrators should welcome the challenge of being held accountable. Furthermore, just as student journalists shed light on managerial administrative misgivings for the student body, they also bring dishonest acts by students to the attention of those with authority. Censorship of journalism harmfully affects the education of future journalists. If young journalists are not allowed to report freely, they will not properly learn and practice the ethics of journalism and therefore not be able to keep university administrators in check. Ensuring their freedom of speech through law is the only practical option to keep the college press free.
E-mail In Chan at tokg@umich.edu
I
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Why I’m basic and proud to be
t’s government’s primary responsibility to make and sell all the products and services that privatesector business can’t or won’t. I believe the most basic of these responsibilities to be infrastructure. So, I want to take this column to talk about our infra- ZACHARY structure. Most- ACKERMAN ly because I’m trying to bore you all to death. Let’s quickly define our infrastructure in the local context. To be simple, let’s call it our roads, bridges and all the pipes that run beneath our streets. To be even simpler, let’s just talk about our roads. In Michigan, 40 percent of the major urban roads are in poor condition. To give some context, that puts our state at fifth-worst in the nation in a list including Washington, D.C. But why care? The simple answer is it costs you money. The average Michigan driver will spend $686 per year in added vehicle repair costs from poor road conditions. That’s the third-highest rate in the nation. Now drive 50 miles south and notice that Ohio has better roads than we do. How is the worst state in the Union able to do road repair right? The simple truth is Ohio spends more on roads than we do — by just $60 per person per year. While I’m not a statistician, I do understand that correlation may not mean causation. Surely a state’s
economy is more complex than the health of its infrastructure. But let’s ask again: Why care? The complex answer is that better roads mean more trade, more trade means more business and more business means more jobs. It seems as though when Democrats — full disclosure, I am one — want to demonstrate a positive effect from increased government spending, we point across the pond to Europe. When Michigan Republicans want to claim the opposite, they cite the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It’s startling then that both the European Union and the Mackinac Center hold the same to be true: Investment in infrastructure grows the economy, and the return on investment is huge. Better roads decrease the cost of transportation for everyone. That means a better bottom line for companies operating in Michigan. Those companies grow and hire more. And specialized manufacturers and service providers thrive in that economic environment. The effect is so evident that the return on investment can be as large a 0.24- percent growth in the economy per 1-percent increase in transportation spending. In Michigan, that would mean almost $450 million in economic growth for every $10 million invested in our transportation system. But despite everyone’s advice, the majority of our state’s legislators in Lansing disagree; Ann Arbor’s delegation is not among them. The result of this disinvestment in our basics is too many broken roads and crumbling bridges. Michigan’s general-fund revenues are nearly the same size they were 15 years
ago — in real dollars, not adjusted for inflation. I think a lot of bad politicians are proud of that fact. But good public servants would only take pride in that fact if their state were healthy and wealthy. Seemingly, ours is neither. The blunt truth is, when it comes to our roads, Lansing has failed the people of Michigan. Now it’s up to local governments, from progressive Ann Arbor to conservative Grand Rapids, to clean up the mess — a mess that can be measured in flat tires, decreased business and lost jobs. Now, these are the fixes we need today. However, I challenge us to expand our understanding of infrastructure from one that gives singular priority to the car to one that knows the only solutions to a city’s needs will take the walker, biker, bus rider and rail user into account. I challenge us to understand that the car cannot and should not be the future of the American city. But if you can’t trust your government to get the basics right, how can you trust them to tackle the exceptional? In Ann Arbor, we want to tackle the exceptional. So let’s ceaselessly strive to get the basics right. Let’s ensure our streets are maintained and safe, let’s clean up our customer service, and let’s pick up recycling and plow snow on time, every time. If I can be of any help, when it comes to the basics or the exceptional, feel free to reach out. — Zachary Ackerman is an LSA senior and the Democratic nominee (Ward 3) for Ann Arbor City Council. He can be reached at zdack@umich.edu.
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O
Through the looking glass
n a rainy Saturday afternoon, I anxiously sat on a large, mildly heated tour bus that was driving around Detroit for the course History and Future of Detroit. My anxiety stemmed from sitting on the bus, pretending to be a tourist in the land ALEXIS I call home. I’m a FARMER native Detroiter, born and raised in the place popularly known as Motor City, the birthplace of Motown, the Murder Capital, post-apocalyptic and, most recently, post-bankruptcy. Detroit is often associated with negative attributes, yet recent efforts to revitalize the city is constantly challenging this narrative. Because few people know the historical landscape of Detroit, and often formulate their judgements around personal or second-hand experiences with the city, their judgments about the city’s current standing are often ill-informed. I’m a defensive Detroiter, because I always feel the city is being scrutinized for its every action. I feel a duty to be prepared to counteract any negative critique or generalized stereotype of the city. Detroit is constantly being watched so closely, so precisely, that Detroit’s name appears in national headlines on a regular basis. Though I acknowledge that there is a lot that cities can learn from Detroit, I feel uncomfortable being observed as an ongoing case study. By taking the course, I was able to see Detroit through the lens of these academics and journalists who were curious about the city’s decline, and how it would manage to climb out of what seems like a rabbit hole. A tour of Detroit was the central component of the course. I took the class to continue learning about the history and contemporary conditions of Detroit. I also had ulterior motives to see what history, or whose history, of Detroit was actually presented. The class visited several neighborhoods and landmarks in the city and suburbs of Detroit, 95 percent of which I had visited before and was familiar with. Whenever students were let off the bus, people quickly whipped out their digital devices to collect their own primary documentation of their exposure to Detroit. I couldn’t help but feel like a bystander, one who was anxious to know people’s perceptions of the images their cell phones captured. I wanted to know what questions I could clarify, or what misjudgments I
could rectify with information. Despite being a life-long resident of the city, I’m no expert on Detroit. From taking the course, and even from taking the tour, I have learned a great deal of historical details. Yet, there were points in lecture and on the tour when I felt obligated to speak. While I couldn’t recite historical dates or cite specific policies that have led to the systematic, institutional and political demise of the city, I could talk about what citizens were doing to transform their own communities. I could touch on the intricacies of illusioned but somewhat accurate bureaucracy of the Detroit city government, bound by both external (lost sovereignty to an emergency financial manager for the city and the school district) and internal mechanisms (Detroit’s City Charter). I hesitated to speak for fear of being labeled the know-it-all. Inserting myself into the space of my professor’s authority and offering commentary felt intrusive. I felt as if I actually didn’t belong with my classmates on this tour; I belonged on the streets, with the other people going about their day. This is sometimes the complete opposite of how I have felt in classrooms, where I have been singled out to speak on first-hand accounts of living in Detroit, as if students from Detroit were either the witnesses or defense attorneys against the prosecuting evidence of Detroit’s demise. There never seems to be a comfortable place to situate my identity as a Detroiter at the University — I’m either a tourist or a representative, a student or a teacher. While these identities can co-exist, they often come with internal tension. I’m curious to know if this tension exists for residents of other metropolitan areas. I recently visited Boston. Being the independent adventurer I am, I mapped out a plan to visit Boston’s historic sites. I contemplated taking a trolley tour to give me a history of Boston and visit its historic relics, but the tour of the Freedom Trail that outlined landmarks of the Revolutionary War didn’t include places that encompassed Boston’s Black history. There was a separate Black Freedom Trail (because, of course, in our society, cultural histories are not a part of U.S. history, just a diversion from the main narrative) that I chose to explore in combination with the Freedom Trail. I felt my identity as a tourist exposed entering into museums and other obvious tourist destinations. Though walking throughout the streets of Boston, I wondered how often residents of a city get to know their own
history, their neighborhoods and their people. Do residents travel to different areas of the city? How frequently do residents visit their own museums and cultural centers? How often are we confined to our immediate boundaries that we never seek to know every part of a place that we tie our identities to? College students are easily susceptible to being confined in their immediate space known as the college bubble. Students come from all across the world to expand their education, though they sparingly capitalize on supplementing their education with becoming familiar with the area our institutions are rooted in. As residents of Ann Arbor, how much do students know about Ann Arbor history? How many people know Michigan Stadium is the largest stadium in the country, and the third-largest stadium in the world? Or that President Lyndon B. Johnson revealed his plan of the Great Society at the University in May of 1964? That Ann Arbor was the birthplace of the White Panther Party, which is an anti-racist political organization? That in 1975, Albert H. Wheeler was Ann Arbor’s first African-American mayor? Or how Ann Arbor’s historic train depot was transformed into a renowned restaurant called the Gandy Dancer? Do students know that the Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives was created as a result of the first Black Action Movement? Is our interaction with cities transactional? Are students merely tourists of the city that supports their educational grounding? Cities are transformational landscapes, most profoundly for the lives of its inhabitants. It’s imperative that residents have a grounding in the history and landscape of the city in its entirety, which is why initiatives such as place-based education are vital to educating future generations. Being a well-informed citizen doesn’t just mean attaining a certain educational level, but also knowing about the community that one inhabits. Understanding your community is a part of understanding your identity. I encourage everyone to expand their knowledge and identity by continuously engaging with their communities through events and community forums, visiting historic sites or learning the unconventional community spaces that designate the unique atmosphere of each city. Only through understanding our history, and thereby understanding ourselves, can we build livable, inclusive and sustainable cities for generations to come. — Alexis Farmer can be reached at akfarmer@umich.edu.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, Octoberber 7, 2015 — 5A
CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
!
GREEK LIFE From Page 1A past week. It’s going to be the ‘Shmacked’ videos. So it’s really up to you what the value of your education is going to be, what the reputation of this institution’s going to be.” Schlissel revisited this point Tuesday, adding, “Parties at frats and sororities send the wrong message that the University of Michigan is a party school and not a serious research university.” The University has recently taken a number of new measures to stymie alcohol abuse in particular, which administrators note is fairly prevalent in Greek life and linked to higher rates of sexual assault in the Greek
TRANSPLANT From Page 1A Health, which was supportive of her efforts. “Unless you accept that many men and women will be left to die, there is no other option,” Fisseha said. “And transplants are much more cost-effective long-term than dialysis. So the government is committed to making this work.” In 2011, Fisseha reached out to Surgery Prof. Jeffrey Punch, a transplantation specialist with experience doing mission work in Africa, and Internal Medicine Prof. Akinlolu Ojo, a Nigerian nephrologist with research projects in Africa. The three, motivated to enact lasting change, agreed that the program had to focus on training. “There are many universities around the United States and Europe where faculty or large groups of people will go and do these big fancy surgeries and leave,” Fisseha said. “That usually does more harm than good in that country because they’re not thinking of complications or teaching the local faculty. So (Punch) was really careful from the beginning to say that that’s not what he wants to do.” Though the program focuses mainly on transplantation services, Punch said all subspecialty care should improve due to associated infrastructure
community. These new policies include targeted education efforts and invoking parental involvement following alcoholrelated hospital visits. E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, has also said the University is considering delaying the Greek rush process in the future. “Does it make sense to have students come, and in a week, by the whole pledging process, we have thrown them into a whole environment that we’re worried about?” Harper asked in a September interview with The Michigan Daily. “Should we stay on this path we have, where we’ve been so committed to self-governance, that we allow rush to happen sometimes less than a week after students get here? So we’re certainly going to take a look at that.”
Schlissel, Harper and a number of other administrators have noted that their concern for Greek life is not meant to seem punitive. Administrators have frequently said it’s a matter of students’ health and wellness. They are also quick to acknowledge the “good” Greek life contributes to the University. Harper and Schilssel, in particular, have accounted for the philanthropic aspects of Greek life — as well as GPAs that are, on average, higher than the rest of the student body. Schlissel repeated this point on Tuesday. “It’s not my ambition to get rid of fraternities and sororities,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of positive they bring to our campus.”
and training changes. “The lab has to get better, the nurses have to get better, the ICU has to get better. Even housekeeping has to get better because everything needs to be cleaner,” Punch said. “Everything has to get better for transplant to be a success, and that’s why it took so long. They have other needs, too, like open-heart surgery, and many of the things that they needed to put in place for kidney transplant to be successful will be there when they get around to initiating an open-heart program at St. Paul’s.” Fisseha and Punch both said despite the success of the first three transplants, many Ethiopians who need dialysis or a transplant will not be able to receive medical care. From observing their neighbors’ efforts, Ethiopian officials realized the training and infrastructure improvements need to be methodical and thorough. “Many of the other countries that have started kidney transplants like Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, they’re honestly not doing it in a systematic way and honestly I think it’s hurting the development of that process in their countries,” Punch explained. “The way it’s going
to work in Ethiopia is there will be one major center that will be very well established and will become hopefully a high-volume place, so then it will have the resources to train additional people that can start other programs in surrounding cities.” The program organizers hope the supply of life-saving surgeries can match the demand within 20 years. Despite the slow training progress, Fisseha explained, the new program provides additional cause for optimism. “We are seeing a fascinating trend of a lot of young faculty who would otherwise leave the country staying in-country to train and serve their people. So really it’s been quite rewarding,” she said. There is no predetermined end to the partnership. Even after the formal program ends, program organizers hope collaboration will continue. “I suspect it won’t end in a year, but it will probably end by three years. I don’t know how that timeframe will work exactly. And then we will hopefully continue to collaborate because I think it’s mutually beneficial,” Punch said. “It’s an opportunity for our residents to train and see diseases they don’t see back here. I’ve seen more cases of tuberculosis in Ethiopia than I have during my 25 previous years as a doctor. And that will benefit me if I ever run across a case of TB around here, which may happen.”
“There are many universities where faculty will do these big fancy surgeries and leave.”
“The lab has to get better, the nurses have to
get better.”
HEALTH CARE From Page 1A Blackwood discussed various programs within the the University’s Office of Health Equity Inclusion, where he serves on the leadership team. “The goal of our office is to eliminate health care disparities in our lifetime,” he said. “One of the things that we can do to affect change is to create a safe environment and to increase representation by underrepresented minorities and by disadvantaged populations.” Though the talk was intended to focus solely on health care disparities, Blackwood spent much of the time counseling
pre-med students and sharing his own accounts of pursuing a career in medicine. When Blackwood asked students to raise their hands if they were pre-med, nearly all of the roughly 30 attendees put their hands in the air.
“I found my own path with the gifts I was given.” “I found my own path with the gifts that I was given,” Blackwood said. “You are all unique individuals. You
have strengths and you have weaknesses. Find them.” He then said students should work together to get into medical school instead of competing with one another. “When you become a physician, you will have to work together; it’s a collaboration,” he said. “When are you going to start?” LSA junior Jenna Yousif attended the event and said she found Blackwood’s talk encouraging. “I thought it was pretty inspirational because I am currently undecided in what I want to do, and I think his talk pushed me in a direction to explore medicine further,” she said.
WATCH US BEAT THE STATE NEWS October 16
SKI TRIP From Page 1A a former SAM member, also received two years of probation after he also plead guilty to malicious destruction of property totaling more than $200, but less than $1,000. Two other members, Business juniors Joshua Kaplan and Zachary Levin — the former president and treasurer for SAM, respectively — turned themselves in to the Ann Arbor Police Department in March on charges of providing alcohol to minors. They have yet to be sentenced. They are the only four to be charged in connection to a January incident during which 270 former SAM and Sigma Delta Tau sorority members caused more than $430,000 in damages at Treetops Resort in Gaylord, Mich. during a ski trip. SAM has since lost recognition by the University as a student organization and was disbanded by its national headquarters in March. The University’s chapter of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority, which also attended the January trip, is currently on disciplinary suspension for their failure to intervene during the incident.
7:30 PM
Location TBD
Arts
6A — Wednesday, October 7, 2015
FILM COLUMN
Tying the room together
TV REVIEW
CBS
“I just remembered that I need to fire my agent.”
‘Code Black’ does ER drama wrong New CBS series dissapointing for hospital drama fans By SOPHIA KAUFMAN Daily Arts Writer
There are few genres that are as formulaic as doctor shows. The most successful medical dramas all had something else D+ going for them: “Scrubs” was Code Black funny, “ER” was addicting Series and “Grey’s Premiere Wednesdays Anatomy,” well, “Grey’s” at 10 p.m. will probably just last forev- CBS er. But CBS’s new offering is none of these things. “Code Black” is clunky and tries too hard to make you care before you can. If you like seeing blood pooling on sterilized hospital floors in one corner of the frame while a different patient collapses in another, then this show is perfect for you. But, if you like developed characters and a reasonable lack of clichés, then keep looking. The gimmick in “Code Black”
that differentiates it is found in the title. “Code black” is the term for when an ER has too many patients and not enough staff or resources to provide for all of them. This particular hospital in L.A. deals with this frequently. The cast features Luis Guzmán (“Narcos”) as a nurse who refers to himself as Mama and likes to break into song occasionally. He’s close with the residency director Dr. Rorish (Marcia Gay Harden, “How to Get Away with Murder”), a tough doctor with a no-timefor-bullshit demeanor and a subtly hinted at tragic past, involving a mysterious accident. Harden does her best with what she has been given, but her lines are often cringeworthy. And it doesn’t help that there are more than a couple shots of her looking around or walking through the halls of the hospital in slow motion, taking it all in as people and noises fade and blur, reminiscent of everyone’s favorite angsty doctor, Meredith Grey. The patients in the pilot include a gunshot victim, a brain-dead dad, a pregnant woman passed out on her floor because no one realized she was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, a cute kid with a col-
lapsed lung and a stoned teenager with a mysterious head injury, among others. They get even fewer lines than typical guest characters on hospital dramas, because there are so many of them. And the brand new residents feel bland; there isn’t a single one who stands out. If I were a child, I would complain that watching this made me dizzy. As a professional adult TV critic, I would also like to complain that watching this made me dizzy. Of course, an ER is a busy scene, with everything happening at once; but it’s possible to convey that without having to use canted angles quite so often. This show is made for people who are still angry about Derek dying on “Grey’s Anatomy” and need something to fill that void if they’re boycotting it — or the people who just need more pseudo-doctor talk every week. It’s not quite “the new ER” like it was made out to be. “Code Black” may eventually build its characters into interesting enough people to make up for the transparent cases and clichéd writing, but it probably won’t. After flatlining for the majority of the pilot, there are few miracles that could jumpstart the heart of this show.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle DOWN 1 Ravi’s musical daughter 2 Disco era suffix 3 Mean 4 Wing alternative 5 Flatly denied it 6 Hit __: experience delays 7 Put out on the infield 8 One at the front? 9 Butter serving 10 “Meet the Parents” actor 11 Contents of some envs. 12 Neb. neighbor 13 “Do as __ ...” 18 __-Ashbury: San Francisco section 22 Court official 24 Smidgen of spice 25 Take the top medal 26 By surprise 27 New Age musician John 30 Compete in a heat 31 At any time 32 “Nothing to it!” 33 Siesta hrs.
34 Charging cable, e.g. 35 Not fer 36 Graphic novel artist 39 Isle of Mull neighbor 40 Land 41 Tide type 46 Classic Fords 47 Accelerator particle 48 Mournful tolls 50 Physical likeness
51 Chance to swing 52 Three-ingredient treat 53 Common dinner hr. 54 Nabisco cracker 55 Concert reed 56 About 500 pounds of cotton 60 Scholar’s deg. 61 Want-ad abbr. 62 Quick drink 63 Aye or hai
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10/07/15
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“That condo was my life, okay? I loved every stick of furniture in that place. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed, it was ME!” Edward Norton’s narrator goes on to thank the academy for a harrowed performance as someone JAMIE who actually BIRCOLL cares about his IKEA furniture. “Fight Club” reprimands the materialist society that defines itself by the things one owns: “you are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not your fucking khakis.” And maybe that’s true about people, but in a movie, it’s kind of important. In fact, the very essence of a movie is defined by the stuff that occupies the frame. No matter how mundane or trivial something seems, the director and set designer have specifically chosen that object to exist in their movie. And the effects can be incredibly rewarding. Take this scene from “The Godfather pt. 2”: the slant of Fredo’s chair prevents him from sitting all the way up. In the first shot of him, his chin is tucked in, creating a double chin effect compared to the cut, defined features of Michael. And when Fredo does try to sit up to express his anger, the chair pulls him back down; Fredo comes off as weak and squirmy. He’s trying to exert his power over Michael, but the chair deprives him of any shred of influence that might stem from his seniority. And, yes, Copolla could have achieved the same effect without the chair, relying only on his actors, but the chair adds a visual representation that words alone simply could not express.
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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Great Salt Lake component, to a chemist 5 Moved for a better view, in a way 10 Lucy’s partner 14 Fairy tale villain 15 Yoga position 16 Pair in a loaf 17 Sleeping in the great outdoors, e.g. 19 Big East or Big South org. 20 Generation 21 Org. recommending flossing 22 Like many stunts 23 Making sense 28 In the past 29 Start of a spelling rule broken by deists? 33 Flooded 36 Bring __ a substitute 37 Co-star of Burt in “The Killers” 38 Fair odds 42 Prefix with fold 43 “I get the idea!” 44 Skeptical 45 Guard 48 Korean automaker 49 Airport agent’s request 54 Adolescent sidekick 57 Indifferent response 58 “I did not need to know that” 59 Letter-shaped building part 60 Hockey punishment for the starts of the longest across answers 64 Narrated 65 “State of Affairs” star Katherine 66 Clanton foe 67 Jazz finale? 68 Schmoes 69 Leaf support
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Sometimes the object captures the essence of a movie’s message, rather than simply emphasizing a desired effect. The last scene of “Inception” created much debate over whether the top fell over, whether Cobb had entered reality or remained in the dream world. But the top itself is an act of deception, because it doesn’t really matter. The top was not Cobb’s totem to use to distinguish between the dream and real worlds but his wife’s. Cobb’s totem goes unnamed (though it’s probably his wedding ring), and Cobb’s using his wife’s totem is a clear violation of the rules and advice he gives to every other character in the film. Why? Because for Cobb, the ability to see his kids again, thereby achieving the happiness he has so longed for, supersedes whether it or not that feeling derives from reality.
Sometimes the object captures the essence of a movie’s message. Taking it further, one can view “Inception” as a metaphor for the creation of a film: dreams are the movie itself, Cobb is the director, Ariadne is the writer, Eames the actor, etc. Read in this context, the film concludes that the realizations and feelings we have when watching movies, these dreams, are as real and as important as anything we might experience outside the theater. The spinning top, this tiny black piece of round plastic, has been the focus of your attention, but you should have been watching everything that happens around it. And why this interest in objects, you might ask? Why am I not concerned with characters and camera angles? Because, dudes, I watched “The Big Lebowski” last night. And it, more than most films I’ve seen, takes great pride in the things that occupy its space, none more so than the Dude’s rug. You, know, the one that really tied the room together. I watched “The Big Lebowski” for the first time years ago, before I knew what drugs were, before I stopped using the bumpers when I went bowling, before I understood the Gulf War. But this time, I got it. I got “The Big Lebowski.” And no, it’s not a straight genre picture as you might think. It’s not a western, as the opening shot of tumbleweed strolling from the outskirts of the desert into the middle of LA or Sam Elliot’s The Stranger in full cowboy garb might insinuate. It’s not a reimagining of the film noir, with its mistaken identity plot line complete with a femme fatale,
as many critics have stated. And it’s not a stoner cult comedy as it has come to be associated with. Yes, there are strands of all of these genres (and musicals and screwball comedy and political satire), but they are not what the film is about. I had this realization when the German nihilists (“say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, but at least it’s an ethos”) break into the Dude’s house, sans rug, smash some of his stuff and drop a ferret into the bathtub with the Dude. After the nihilists left and I regained my composure, it hit me: this movie is really about just how wrecked this one dude’s house can get. It’s a test of one man’s will. The Dude is subjected to countless beatings, various events of bludgeoning of his car, kidnappings and drugging. He is used for sex for the sole purpose of obtaining his seed, and innocent, crazy eyed Steve Buscemi dies. And on top of it all, his house is destroyed. And it’s important that the Dude be the recipient of this insanity rather than the instigator of it. He’s a human punching bag, a modern Job, his house the plaything of porn star kingpins, thugs and nihilists (read: writers/directors Joel and Ethan Cohen). And it all happens because of a soiled rug — a rug that tied the room together, kept his life together. Without the rug, it all falls apart.
The rug that tied the room together, kept his life together. This rug is something of a holy grail, and it leads the Dude on a path of deceit and occasional death and destruction. And it’s a difficult path, a painfully funny path and sometimes a sad path, but, through it all, the Dude never drops his moral compass. He never forgets that lives are on the line, nor does he let cruelty go without at least calling it out first (I’m sure he’d stop it if he could. But he can’t, because of pacifism, man). He demands integrity and compensation, but never overstays his welcome. The rug represents this: something unattainable that challenges the protagonist. The Dude is constantly given the opportunity to veer from the path, to make a wrong decision, to be immoral or inconsiderate, but he never does. Such is the power of the Dude’s rug, and the power of objects in film. And if you say that I’m reading too much into it — well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. Bircoll definitely got an A in his SAC classes. To request his tutoring services, email jbircoll@umich.edu.
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Arts
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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 — 7A
ALBUM REVIEW
Wild Child pure, human on ‘Fools’
TV REVIEW
New album by indie-folk duo has European sensibility By DANIELLE RAY Daily Arts Writer
I first heard of Wild Child last semester when my friend came back from studying abroad and began gushing to me about Atheir show in Paris. She Fools quickly became obsessed and Wild Child so did I, thinkDualtone Records ing I had discovered this cool, upcoming French band before anyone else. Little did I know, they’re from Austin, Texas. But still. Wild Child’s third studio album, Fools, delves even further into this foreign-sounding pattern; this effort reminds me more of Coeur de pirate — a French-Canadian singer-songwriter who produces fresh, indie-sounding tunes — than anything I’ve ever heard come out of Texas. This is particularly evident on “Stones,” the fourth track that embodies a mix between Coeur and Ingrid Michaelson, as it bobs and flows up and down between melodies. Track seven, “Take It,” keeps the Coeur influence and bouncing beat, but also adds in a little Adele — a little European soul and sass — as lead vocalist Kelsey Wilson asks you to “take it, take it ... how about trusting when I’m not around?” The whole sound of Fools is highly refreshing, highly different than the mass-produced, cottoncandy pop music so common today — even highly different from other American folk or indie bands, as it weaves in a European style that makes it obvious as to why a Texas band could sell a show halfway across the world. The title track begins the album; Wilson coos, “thinking that I might go crazy. How am I supposed to breathe now, baby?” While Wilson’s voice is pure and beautiful, and the lyrics are enchanting, it’s neither of those that pull you into
SHOWTIME
“Just tell me if the food tastes like shit.”
DUALTONE RECORDS
“Maybe they’ve got baguettes in that cloud!”
Wild Child’s latest effort. Rather it’s the fact that Fools sounds more like it was mixed in your hipster, audio-file friend’s basement than a master studio. It becomes highly apparent that Wild Child’s latest effort isn’t only special because of its unique foreign sound, but it’s also because of the deep connection between Wilson’s raw vocals and her listener. Even more so than on previous albums, Wild Child sounds pure, simple and human on Fools — unprocessed, if you will. Wilson definitely takes center stage on all 12 tracks, but Alexander Beggins also makes equally enthralling appearances, most notably on “Meadows,” by far the standout track on the album. “Meadows” begins as a little ditty, much like the majority of the tracks on the album, but it then builds to a crescendo halfway through that features much more obviously processed vocals that directly contrast with the raw allure of the first half of the song. As Wilson asks you to “rid your devils; run through fields of meadows,” the vocal processing mimics that diabolical feeling in its opposition to the soft, pure, angelic sounds at the start. Fools is an album that slowly draws you in, getting better and better with each track. “Bullets,” track three, begins by sounding almost like a Christmas song. The chord progression and rhythm is oddly similar to “Jingle Bells,” but
it ends up sounding more like a French-influenced indie-pop tune. “Meadows” is the next big stepping stone as track five, followed by “Saving Face,” showing up in spot number eight. “Face” is the only true duet between Wilson and Beggins, and their soulful crooning really makes you believe their tale of a love-torn relationship. “Trillo Talk” closes out the album, a seemingly-happy-sounding up-tempo number about a breakup: “you say I should have been a better babe, and you can go be a better babe for anyone else but me.” Starting with the voice in her head at the beginning of the phrase and slowly traveling to her lower register, Wilson conveys the sense of regret by adding a little rasp, a little edge, to her sound. I can only imagine “Trillo Talk” to be an answer to “Rillo Talk,” the penultimate track on their previous studio album, The Runaround — a haunting ballad about trying to make a relationship work (but that’s kind of up for interpretation, as are much of Wild Child’s lyrics). On “Rillo,” Wilson’s voice is soft, dejected almost, and on “Trillo” she ramps it up, conveying her newfound couldn’t-care-less attitude about the relationship. Wild Child will be in Ann Arbor on Halloween, seemingly appropriate to the spooky feeling behind Wilson’s voice. Ten out of 10 would recommend going, singing along to “Meadows,” calling the devil out to play the day after Devil’s Night.
ALBUM REVIEW
JR JR in good form on third studio album By CATHERINE BAKER Daily Arts Writer
It’s the first Saturday of the year without a football game and I’m not entirely sure what to do with myself. It has been a B+ hectic week to say the least, JR JR and I could be using this JR JR time to write that essay that Warner Bros. I have been Records, Inc. putting off or doing some much-needed cleaning of my kitchen. Instead, I am spending the lovely but dreary day sitting in the same sofa crease for six hours, catching up on all the shows I have missed. (Is anyone else loving “Scream Queens?”) Besides Kerry Washington perpetuating my obsession with Scandal, I have also come across an up-and-coming band on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. JR JR, formerly known as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., is a classic American indie-pop band that originated in Detroit and now consists of Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein. The two met each other while playing in other Detroit music projects, and they began recording in Zott’s basement in Royal Oak. They recently released a self-titled album on September 25th that deals with the classic theme of youth, shed-
ding uncomfortable skin and being reborn as their true selves. It’s a typical recipe for the quintessential “coming-ofage” soundtrack, yet Zott and Epstein manage to transform a seemingly simple sound into one of poignancy and nostalgia. In this third studio album, they strip down unnecessary bells and whistles to focus on their own combination of ideas, creating songs like “Gone,” which to be sung in a karaoke bar, and “Hypothetical,” which uses musical techniques I have never heard before.
The classic theme of youth. “Caroline” tells a story of coming to terms with your own decisions through vibrating synthetic piano and lyrics, “Oh my Caroline / No one is going to live my life for me.” “In The Middle” is reminiscent of a Duran Duran disco dance track, complete with distorted voices and electric guitar riffs. My personal favorite track, “Philip the Engineer,” feels like the last song played at a bar before closing for the night, using strange dystopian future metaphors to represent fading youth and broken relationships. “Time
makes grownups sound like kids / You can’t stop the time / So kiss your kids goodbye,” the song fades, tugging on your heartstrings and forcing you to reflect on your own childhood.
Both cliché and very unique. “In My Mind (Summertime)” switches gears, sounding like an indie version of the Beach Boys that you would listen to while watching the waves lap up on the beach. The subdued “In my mind / You’re the summertime / So please don’t go away” are comforting words for someone not quite ready for winter yet. (Seriously, where did Fall go?) These common ideas of finding love, finding yourself and leaving things behind while growing up is what makes JR JR universal, despite how un-hipster they make make you seem. I’ve recently become quite nostalgic for myself (is that a thing?) and have been doing a lot of thinking about choices I’ve made, choices I will make and where I’ve come from. So on this rainy day, tucked away in a dark, quiet apartment, JR JR produces indie pop that simultaneously makes me feel very cliché and very unique. There’s not much more that I could ask for.
‘The Affair’ balances tone in season two By BENJAMIN ROSENSTOCK Daily Arts Writer
Over the course of the first season of “The Affair,” the series struggled to nail down what exactly its tone should be. The Apilot, possibly the best epi- The Affair sode, pulled it off better than Season Two any other epi- Premiere sode. It was a Sundays at 10 p.m. slow-paced, atmospheric show based Showtime around an affair, filtered through the conflicting perspectives of two lovers telling their story to the police. Each episode was essentially a pair of quiet, contemplative short stories, with a tantalizing crime mystery lurking in the background. As the season went on, “The Affair” focused a little too much on that overarching crime plot. By enticing the audience with murder and melodrama, the slow pace of the personal drama became increasingly dull. Luckily, the season two premiere of “The Affair” manages to recapture that precarious tone established by the pilot. Once again, there is a pair of understated short stories that share many of the same events and characters, and once again, there is a future timeline focused on the characters dealing with the police. The balance is crucial; too much slow-paced teasing and the audience will grow tired of wheelspinning, but too much crime and bombast and the show will lose the intensely personal tone that makes it unique. This year, instead of focusing exclusively on Noah Solloway (Dominic West, “The Wire”)
and Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson, “Saving Mr. Banks”), the series has added two new perspectives: those of Helen (Maura Tierney, “ER”) and Cole (Joshua Jackson, “Fringe”), the two spouses Noah and Alison betrayed by sleeping together. The first half of the premiere shows a day in the life of Noah as he meets with Helen to finalize their divorce and deals with his children’s resentment towards him, only to return home to his happy relationship with Alison. The second half shows Helen’s perspective for the first time. Much like with Alison’s last year, it becomes obvious that Noah probably isn’t exactly the great guy the audience imagines him being. In many dramas featuring infidelity and divorce, the exes are gradually phased out once their roles in the story are seemingly complete. In “Mad Men,” Betty and Megan’s episode counts were greatly reduced after their divorces from Don, and viewers recoiled whenever they made future appearances. Like “Breaking Bad,” however, “The Affair” benefits by taking the male lead’s victimized wife and giving her a more prominent, complex role in the narrative. Not only does Helen serve to pay for Noah’s expensive lawyer in the future timeline, but the audience finally gets a glimpse into her inner psychology. The show gives a previously underdeveloped character a newfound agency. Another great advantage to the addition of new perspectives is that it gives the show many more possible avenues to explore. When looked at as a whole, not much actually happened narratively last year. Noah and Alison began an affair and ended up separating from their partners to be together. At some point in the
future, we know that someone will kill Cole’s brother, Scotty (Colin Donnell, “Arrow”), and Noah will be suspected, probably because Scotty got his underage daughter Whitney (Julia Goldani Telles, “Bunheads”) pregnant. There were subplots, like Noah’s financial reliance on his disapproving in-laws and the writing of Noah’s new book, but most screen time was devoted either to Noah and Alison’s gradual romance or the sluggish telegraphing of Scotty’s murder. So the introduction of two new perspectives hopefully indicates that the secondary characters will play more of a role, and that there’ll be a slightly deeper plot reserve to draw from in upcoming episodes. More striking than the strong acting and naturalistic direction of “The Affair” is its pace and tone, which make it stand out in the TV landscape. Some viewers will inevitably be put off by long takes of people sitting motionlessly and silently contemplating their mistakes, but with these well-drawn characters, it’s fascinating to watch them slowly work through their issues and fall again and again into patterns of self-sabotage. Helen has always been presented the same way, as an angry nuisance to Noah, but as she lies dejected during sex with new boyfriend Max (Josh Stamberg, “Parenthood”), it’s immediately clear how much purpose her life has lost in the wake of Noah’s deceptions. Like the first season, the second season of “The Affair” starts on a very solid note, striking a wise balance of character introspection and serialized crime storytelling. As long as future episodes maintain that equilibrium and remain dedicated to the show’s exploration of memory bias, this season may surpass the first.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, October 7, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
On another blank slate, Rudock uses old lessons By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor
When Jake Rudock came to Michigan, much of what he found was new. He was in a new city, on a new team with new coaches and a new playbook. Rudock transferred to Michigan from Iowa, where he started for the better part of the last two seasons. He arrived in Ann Arbor as a college graduate, but also as a newcomer. Fortunately for Rudock, he could take solace in the fact that he had been through the acclimation process before. “It was similar feelings and memories of freshman year,” Rudock said. “But it was different enough, where you know you’ve had experience playing. I think that makes it a little bit easier, and I think it allows you to mesh better with the guys. And also, second time around, you have that familiarity with it. You’ve done it before. You’ve had to create new friends, create new relationships on the field.” The first steps to assimilation came when Rudock arrived over the summer, and all the “new” started coming at him fast. He had to learn the plays and compete with returning junior Shane Morris, all while getting his bearings. Rudock remembers calling his teammates “buddy” and “pal” while he continued to learn their names. He had to strike a balance this summer between being the new guy, but also playing the position most associated with leadership. He had to know his place, but also earn respect. “I think one of the big things is the guys let you know,” Rudock
said. “Maybe not verbally, but from their body language and how they react to things, they kind of let you know if, ‘Hey, you’re overstepping your boundaries, you just got here.’ ” Five games in, he appears to have earned the respect to lead his offense, as coaches and teammates speak positively about his even keel and leadership capabilities. “He’s a great leader,” said redshirt freshman receiver Maurice Ways. “He’s not really a vocal leader, but when he talks, you listen.” While he has quickly developed into the type of
leader Michigan sought when it brought him in, there is still at least one aspect of his game that needs more time to flourish: chemistry with his wideouts. At Iowa, Rudock wasn’t thrust into game action as a freshman, which gave him more time to grow into the offense and to perfect timing with receivers before he tested it against opponents. This season, Rudock took the first snap and every meaningful one since. And with limited time — Rudock called his acclimation process ‘accelerated’ — he has sometimes struggled to get on the same page with receivers.
“He’s not really a vocal leader, but when he talks, you listen.”
He has missed on multiple deep balls, often overthrowing his receivers. That has led to criticism of the fifth-year senior, who was billed as a safe option coming into the season but has already thrown more interceptions (six) than he did in 12 games last season. His quarterback rating, 117.4, is lower than in either of his two seasons as a starter. But QB rating and interceptions aren’t the stats that Rudock uses to measure himself. This is his last year of college football, and if that means he gets stuck with the game-manager label, Rudock is just fine with that — as long as he’s winning. “I’m OK with (only being measured by) wins and losses,” Rudock said. “The more wins, the better, and just let everything else take care of itself.”
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Moe Ways has become one of the better blocking wide receivers for Michigan.
Blocking gets Ways on field Redshirt freshman says he enjoys battles against opposing defenders By MAX COHEN ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Managing Sports Editor
Fifth-year senior quarterback Jake Rudock now has the benefit of his experience as a freshman at Iowa.
All-Star big brother comes home St. Louis Blues’ visit reconnects ‘M’ sophomore, former house guest By JUSTIN MEYER Daily Sports Writer
Niko Porikos rattles off the names of hockey players like an encyclopedia. There’s the story about when he started playing hockey. “It was class of ’05 — Nystrom, Gajic, Woodford,” Porikos said. “I was actually a soccer player. That was my No. 1 sport by far. They kind of brainwashed me into starting hockey, and ever since then, I’ve never looked back.” Ask him about what he did for fun this summer, and more names flow out. SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily “There was a wedding, Sophomore Niko Porikos reunited this weekend with Kevin Shattenkirk, who stayed with Porikos’ family years ago. Milan Gajic, he got married in (Los Angeles),” Porikos said. like to come and visit my old was a first-rate player for the the offseason. “Went down with the family house,” Shattenkirk said. “We NTDP team, drafted 14th overall “It’s really just nice to get for a couple weeks, made a little still keep in pretty close contact. by the Colorado Avalanche in away and have fun together,” vacation out of it. It’s always cool to come back here 2007. In him and others, Porikos Shattenkirk said. “We know “The first (NTDP player) we and be able to see everyone.” had older brothers to horse that when we come to practice had was (Andrew) Vlassopoulos, Added Porikos: “Saturday, around with, and an inside look there are a lot of things we have played for Colorado College after I hung out with him for a few at what junior hockey is like at to work on, and that for an hour USA. He’s living in (Los Angeles) hours, just like old times. Just the highest level. and a half each day we have to and we visited him while we hung out on the couch watching “There were a couple of skates put in the work. But for the most were down there.” TV.” where they had me come out and part, we’re here to get to know The Porikos family has been Host families, also known as just mess around,” Porikos said. some of the new guys and come in and around Michigan hockey billet families, are a common “(Shattenkirk) would come out together and have some fun.” for Niko’s whole life. He grew way for NTDP to our team Porikos is coming off a up with aspiring NHL players players, who practices, frustrating, injury-plagued roaming around the house, live and too, once in a year at Michigan. He still faces hosting four different National train in Ann while. He was an uphill battle for a game-day Talent Development Program Arbor, to find definitely into roster spot, but he believes his players. Youth soccer star or housing as helping me timing and confidence have put not, Porikos was always going to they play for out whenever him in a much better place this grow up a hockey player. America’s I asked him season. The sophomore walk-on may most anything Porikos and Shattenkirk try know everyone in the phone prestigious about hockey to see each other at least once a book, but his smile portrays a bit junior or anything year, and Niko even went down of his excitement about the All- hockey team. else.” to a Blues game with former Star he shared a house with this Shattenkirk Shattenkirk Wolverine Dylan Larkin last past weekend. and Porikos shared a house played three years at Boston spring. St. Louis Blues defenseman when Niko was in seventh and University and has played for There’s a story there too, of Kevin Shattenkirk headed to eighth grade. the Blues since 2010. Coming off course. Larkin just made the Ann Arbor last weekend as part “Pretty big years, hockey- his first All-Star appearance, Detroit Red Wings’ opening-day of a team bonding trip, and wise,” Porikos said. “I am an the 26-year-old was relaxed roster after leaving Michigan didn’t waste an opportunity to only child too, so growing up, it after practice in Ann Arbor early, and will face Shattenkirk spend time with the player he was cool having older guys in the alongside good friend Vladimir in St. Louis on Nov. 21. For now, calls a little brother. house to look up to.” Tarasenko, who signed an though, Larkin joins Porikos’ “I’ve been back plenty, still It didn’t hurt that Shattenkirk eight-year deal with the team in ever-growing encyclopedia.
“I hung out with him for a few hours, just like old times.”
Moe Ways smiles when he thinks about it. It’s a pleasant feeling, really. The sensation comes late in games, after the Michigan football team’s wide receivers have blocked for the better part of 60 minutes. The redshirt freshman wide receiver looks across the field and sees a change in the opposing team’s cornerbacks and safeties. “They slow down a little bit, they stop filling the hole quite as hard, they start to play off a little bit more,” Ways said. The tendencies of the Wolverines’ receiving corps could be seen as irksome to opponents, a thorn in their sides. On multiple occasions this season, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has praised the group’s blocking for springing long runs. Ways sees the frustration in his opponents. They comment on his position group’s blocking during games. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound receiver indicated they are frequently needled and engage in a little bit of trash talk as a result. “They say a little bit,” he said with a laugh. The trash talk is the price of a job well done. The Wolverines’ rushing attack has become a constant threat, a dramatic change from recent years. Michigan had rushed for at least 200 yards in three straight contests before Saturday’s game against Maryland, when it fell just short with 198. Though improved offensive line play has been at the forefront of the rejuvenated run game, the team’s wide receivers can be seen crushing bodies downfield on many of the team’s big gains on the ground. Ways, perhaps more than the rest of Michigan’s wide receivers, has parlayed his blocking success into additional playing time. Harbaugh considers redshirt junior Jehu Chesson to be the best blocker of the team’s wide receivers. Ways and redshirt junior Amara Darboh round out Harbaugh’s top three.
But where Ways differs from Darboh and Chesson is that he has not yet established himself as a consistent pass catcher, at least not during games. Ways has one catch for 21 yards in the team’s first five games. Instead, his blocking has earned him playing time. “Moe is really asserting himself,” Harbaugh said last week. “I think he’s climbing the depth chart right now. He just … he’s showing up in the play. On the down, he is finding somebody to block.” Ways does not know exactly how he developed his blocking skills. He considers most of his success to be natural, a desire to be more physical than the guy lining up across from him. In high school, Ways was more focused on catching passes. He could block a little bit, but when you catch 55 passes during your senior year, there isn’t much time for blocking. When Ways came to Michigan, though, he felt he needed to uphold a tradition of excellence at running the ball. He did not see the field as a freshman, but felt ready to contribute any way he could this season. Ways was never told blocking was a path to seeing the field, but it worked out all the same. He was asked to block in certain packages and series, and he succeeded. He hasn’t looked back. “As a group actually, we all want to be great blockers,” Ways said. “We take pride in that. We want to be known as one of the best blocking groups in the country, just help our team out, help the running backs keep getting loose.” The players primarily charged with setting the running backs loose have noticed, too. “When we run the ball inside and they come flying in and crack a safety or whatever it might be, it’s a fun thing to watch,” said sophomore offensive lineman Mason Cole. “They’re doing a really good job, and they work really hard at that.” As Ways progresses in his career, he wants to be known as more than an excellent blocker. For now, though, as he works on the other aspects of playing the position, he can take solace when he looks at the man guarding him late in games. If his opponent shows the slightest bit of hesitation in any regard, it means he has done his job.
“As a group, actually, we all want to be great blockers.”
statement THE MICHIGAN DAILY
OCTOB E R 7, 2015
2B
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
WHAT ’S NE W
Dear Google: Greek life, wall art
ON THE RECORD
BY EMMA KERR “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this.” –PRESIDENT OBAMA, in a speech on Thursday about the mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon last Thursday ***
“We’re trying to show Planned Parenthood that we still stand with them.” –LSA SENIOR AMANDA VITA, co-communications chair of Students for Choice during the group’s protest on Friday ***
“Once, during Welcome Week of freshman year, I slept in a bramble patch outside the Central Campus Recreational Building.” –DAILY OPINION COLUMNIST TOM WEST, reminiscing on his underclassman antics
THOUGHT BUBBLE
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/DAILY
PHOTO BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
“The theater business is so hard to get into. So even though we do have a strict plan and skill set and whatever else, it’s so much more difficult once we’re actually there.” – Music, Theater & Dance junior, HANNAH LYNNE MILLER
D
ear Emma,
Dear Emma,
I’m currently rushing and I was wondering if the sorority drama you hear about is true. Is that just the way Greek life is?
I have the poster given to me by an old muse hanging above my bed, a few years after the whole calamity concluded. Am I stuck in the past?
Thanks,
Best, Poster Puzzled
Drama Distaste Hmm ... this one is tough. I’ll start by saying this: Moderation isn’t just good advice when it comes to chocolate. (I once threw up in the back of a movie theater in the fifth grade after our teacher handed out giant Hershey’s bars in class one day.) Your sorority can be an amazing part of your time at the University. I’m not Greek, but the interpersonal conflicts you are referring to are universal, I would think. As such, I would suggest you read this article from my friend Chloe Gilke, and keep in mind: you have agency over how engaged you are going to become with any drama that may occur, or really in any aspect of Greek life. I’d also add: don’t let Greek life be the only thing you do. Explore passions and interests outside of Greek life (and focus on classes!) so things like the sorority drama doesn’t take over your life. Also, it seems to me like rush might not give you a clear enough idea of what life post-bid day will actually look like, so give it some time, then empower yourself to quit if it really is just too dramatic for your taste.
I have a hard and fast rule about these things: after a breakup, or even after it is clear feelings just aren’t mutual, that person ceases to exist. It’s childish, but effective. Snapchat, Facebook, teddy bears, even the shirt I wore on a date or something if I’m really hung up on someone — it all goes either into storage or into the garbage. The point isn’t to get a new wardrobe; it’s to hasten the recovery period. Things that make you dwell on
that person, that relationship — or worse, trying to stay friends when one or both of you isn’t capable of being an actual friend — drag out your emotional attachment to a person who is not right for you, for whatever reason. I’d say it’s time to take it down, if only because here you are, a few years after the relationship ended, still talking about her. Buy yourself a new poster, or accept that this person will always have a little place in your life, and that’s ok too. Or better, find a new gal to help you spice up your apartment walls with decorations. You’ve got 99 problems, send one to Emma at emkerr@ michigandaily.com to see your question published in next week’s column!
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement 3B
Don’t look at my Spotify B Y N A B E E L C H O L L A M PAT
THE
statement
Magazine Editor: Ian Dillingham Deputy Editor: Natalie Gadbois Design Editor: Jake Wellins
Photo Editor: Luna Anna Archey Creative Director: Cheryll Victuelles Editor in Chief: Jennifer Calfas
Managing Editor: Lev Facher Copy Editors: Hannah Bates Laura Schinagle Emma Sutherland
THE LIST TO FAIR OR NOT TO FAIR
I
’ve heard from my friends — an alarming number of times — that if they’re ever in need of a good laugh, they go and look at my Spotify account. It’s not even the names of the playlists, they say — it’s what’s in them. I’ve always been known to have an eclectic taste in music, to say the least. The sight of an IndianAmerican kid from the Bay Area with an amateur beard listening to Jagged Edge must be jarring for anyone, but it’s apparently provided ample comedic fodder for my friends. Prompted to answer the question, “What kind of music do you listen to?” I always accompany my response with an, “It’s kind of weird, but…” or “Actually, I don’t like EDM, but instead…” It’s not a fun addition to a conversation, but one I feel is necessary to prevent an early departure from the other camp. I watched “Straight Outta Compton” this summer. The scene in which a crowd full of white kids reciting violent, racially charged lyrics word-for-word made me think. For Black people, this music
was revolutionary. For white kids, play this kind of stuff aloud in my this music was just hella cool. I apartment. Is it wrong for me to began to wonder if I was guilty of like this? Am I allowed to? the same appropriation. There’s an inherent weirdness, I love listening to R. Kelly I know, to the concept of an Indian and Chris Brown (questionable kid playing Marvin Gaye aloud in people, unquestionably great his dorm room. Race and music music). I can quote lyrics off the have always been inextricably dome from Boyz II Men’s II (“On linked, and the conversation is Bended Knee” is probably the still ongoing. But most of this best track). And I also know the conversation is about those unfortunate fact that Keith Sweat creating the music, and not the hosts a festival called SweatFest ones listening to it. (dates for 2016 haven’t been After watching Dr. Dre say, announced yet). R&B, however, “Aftermath” to Suge Knight’s is just as rooted in African- face, and while I was staring at American culture as is hip-hop, the credits rolling, questioning just as important to Black identity my entire Spotify profile, I tried to as is gangsta rap, but with a placate myself by saying, At least different intent. I don’t use the n-word. But that’s Nineties R&B is more sensual superficial. I realize it’s more than modern music, more than that — it’s recognizing and interested in vocal range and respecting what this aspect of a ability than dance-friendly beats. long-suppressed culture means, Jazz, funk, and blues are the what its history is, what I’m backbone of the style. The lyrics really listening to when I listen to are often full of cheesy, on-the- D’Angelo’s Black Messiah. I think, nose wordplay about genitals at least, that I can like it. And I do. instead of the profundity that is And Mariah Carey is the best “I wanna be like Kanye.” It’s also recording artist of all time. very awkward when I ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHERYLL VICTUELLES
The time is upon us: Whether you are a senior searching for a way to sustain a living after graduation, or a freshman looking to build that resume, career fair brings feelings of pain and fear to us all. We came up with five types you are guaranteed to find at every career event — this is what they are thinking, though they probably won’t be saying it.
1
THE DREAMER
“I’m woefully under-qualified for this position, but if I act confident enough maybe you won’t notice.”
2 THE GO-GET TER
“I’ve already taken another job offer, I just came here to watch other people squirm.”
3 THE HONEST ONE
“I know nothing about your company — I just live in constant fear of living in my parent’s basement after graduation.”
4 THE FUN ONE
“I’m incredibly hungover from Skeeps last night. After I give you my resume I’m going to go vomit in the Union restroom.”
5 T H E L E G AC Y
“This conversation is just a formality, as my uncle is a VP at your company and I’m a shoo-in for this position.”
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
By Emilie Plesset, Senior News Editor
How students tackle the job search process
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
Staking Your Claim:
4B
S
tudents clad in finely pressed black suits and professional dresses walked briskly around the Michigan Union at the first day of the Career Center’s annual Fall Career Expo Tuesday. About 1,600 students, wearing their most impressive attire, fill nearly every room of the Union. Walking through the lobby, groups can be heard chatting about their previous internship experience and their job goals for next summer. Among them, Business junior Kristin Green sat on a bench outside the reading room. “I am building up my confidence to talk to companies for tomorrow so I just walked around,” she said, herself wearing a white dress and heels. The Business School hosts daily recruiting events on campus. But Green doesn’t see herself working at one of the companies that most eagerly recruit students on campus. She says she would feel lost at a large corporation. Most rooms were packed with students who were both nervous and eager for their turn to try impressing a recruiter, with some long lines spilling into the hallways. Many students not waiting in line were either leaned against a wall scribbling down notes or slipping their feet out of flip flops and into black heels. “Were you planning on talking to recruiters today?” I asked Green. “I was thinking about it,” she laughed in response. “But, I don’t know… I’m just working on my confidence. I got all dressed up — it took me a while — but I don’t know. I just wanted to scope things out … Tomorrow there are a lot more (companies) on my list.”
*** Though the semester has just begun, students are already under the gun to land a “perfect” summer internship or, if graduating, an elusive, full-time job offer. That’s where the Expo comes in. The event, which has been in the works for the past two years, features 185 organizations — about 29 more than last year — with 90 companies recruiting on Tuesday and 95 different companies today. Many of the participating organizations return to campus after the two-day event or stay for an interview day on Thursday. For students hoping to secure a job or internship, the Fall Expo is one of the Career Center’s biggest events to get students to connect with recruiters. Last year about 25,000 students attended the Expo, and according to Career Center director Karin Borland, attendance has increased each year by about 500 students. While various organizations host other specialized career fairs throughout the year, the Career Center says it gears its Expo to all University students regardless of year or major. Sally Schueneman, the Career Center’s career events manager, notes about 85 percent of this year’s visiting organizations are open to all majors. But that message may be lost on some, as student organizations and University offices outside of LSA — specifically the Engineering and Business schools — have developed specialized resources for career and internship guidance. ***
Ever since Engineering junior Ted Xiao spent this past summer interning at Optimal CAE Inc., an automotive supplier, he has been actively trying to meet recruiters and network a new opportunity for next summer. Since classes began the first week of September, he and his classmates have had constant recruiting and information sessions, many of which entice students with food in addition to the networking opportunity. Though Xiao said he has so far only attended around five information sessions, he said many students attend at least two a day. “If you play your cards right you don’t have to pay for food for like three weeks,” Xiao said, referencing the number of midday and evening events offered. While the Career Center Expo hosts companies offering some positions for students pursuing engineering jobs, many engineering students instead focus their energy the Engineering Career Fair, which was held on North Campus last Monday and Tuesday. The engineering fair, hosted annually since 1986 by the Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society, boasts that it is the University’s largest career fair. With 340 companies and over 4,200 students in attendance, the student-run event took over almost every engineering building. (Though it should also be noted that some of the participating companies at the engineering career fair make a second appearance at the Fall Expo.) Engineering professors are aware of the all-day, two-day fair and understand that many students may not be in class. Almost everyone wears a suit, many with a pin indicating the wearer’s major on the lapel.
“Homework this week is kind of out the window,” Xiao said. “It’s only a few days so it’s not going to kill you ... for the most part.” Engineering junior Eddie Godbold attended both events — the engineering fair and the Fall Expo. Though he said there were more opportunities for engineering students at last week’s fair, the Expo allowed him make a second impression at some of his favorite organizations. “The only reason I really came is because I’m considering maybe an opportunity outside of just purely engineering and there’s a couple companies here that were at both,” Goldbold said. “I just wanted to follow up and show that I’m very interested in their companies.” *** With so many companies and so many students waiting in line for their turn to impress a recruiter, students know they must come armed with their resume, an “elevator pitch” and a strategy. Research and preparation on the companies they plan to approach are key. Four days before the Career Center hosted the Fall Expo, it offered the “Great Expo-Prep-Tacular,” an all-day opportunity for students to prepare for the career fair with drop-in career advising and mini clinics. Additional events were offered in the weeks prior. The Career Center hosted a similar program last year. This year, in addition to featuring staple events focusing on what to expect at the career fair and how to speak and follow up with employers, the program included a session focused on freshman opportunities
at the fair. Tyler Wang, a Career Center recruitment coordinator, led a clinic advising students the best ways to speak with recruiters. “Students really want a prescription for how to be successful,” she said. “They want to know, ‘What do I say? How much time do I have to say it and how many people should I talk to?’ ” “Really the advice we give is that there’s not just one cookie cutter way to be successful at the career fair,” she said. “What we want is for students to be able to make a genuine connection with an employer and be able to take that connection to the next level by getting an internship or a job.” LSA senior Ali Miesel said she found the pre-Expo preparation extremely helpful. She hoped to take advantage of the opportunities provided to get an interview. “I definitely have a lot of preparation to do (before the Expo) but coming here gave me ideas on how to do that,” Miesel said on Friday. In addition to the prep day, the Career Center hosted another event Monday evening for students to ask additional questions and meet alumni returning as recruiters in a more informal “speed-networking” styled setting. “Our goal is to help students be successful,” Wang said. “If students are looking for an internship or a job or if they’re just trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, we want to provide them with all the tools and resources necessary to help accomplish that goal. That’s really our job: to help students.” ***
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Borland said she thinks the Expo has a reputation for featuring many corporate opportunities. However, she emphasized that there are a wide range of jobs, including opportunities in investment banking, consulting, marketing, HR and at large corporations, as well as opportunities to work at nonprofit organizations and government agencies. “There are what I call the hidden gems,” Borland said. Though Public Policy junior Heidi Payter spent her time at the Expo talking to two organizations, she said she didn’t feel like there were many participating companies that met her interests. “They do a lot of stuff at Ford and I feel like they help me more than this did, but it was still useful.” Payter said. “I used it for practice so when I have to do one for a scary business that I really want to work at, then I’m ready.” For students who may not find their interests represented at the Expo, Borland said not every career industry lends itself to the career fair set up. “It really reflects how different career fields do their recruiting,” Borland said. Since the Expo is considered a first step in the internship process, the Career Center does not have data determining how many students are eventually able to procure an internship through connections made at the career fair. However, Schueneman said the center does try to keep tabs on where graduating seniors first end up after college. She said about 93 percent of students end up at either their first choice of job or graduate school post-graduation.
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Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Statistically significant by Samiha Matin, Daily Staff Reporter
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’m a reason why the University can proudly declare they have students coming from more than 140 countries or more. I’m one of the many, many people which helps make this place have a global, diverse community — simply because I come from another place. I’m the token friend who you tell stories about to your other friends from high school. The friend from the exotic place. The friend whose nationality is more important than her personality, it occasionally seems. I remember when I was the only one standing in an auditorium of 500 or more international students, as they called out “Bangladesh” during the International Orientation Program. There was a typical scatter of applause; some people, however, looked mildly curious, as if trying to wonder where my country was located. I blindly searched across the auditorium, desperately hoping for another face like mine. There wasn’t. We were told during orientation that from now on, we were going to be representing our countries at Michigan. A foreboding chill ran down my spine as I realized the impact of the sentence. I’d stepped into America for the first time in my life two days before. I’d only ever gone abroad twice, and both times were for religious pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia nearly six years ago. I was undecided about my major. I’d hardly ever eaten with a fork. What I knew about American culture was everything I’d learned by watching television and movies. How could I, when I barely knew what to do with my life and constantly suffered from existential crisis, represent a country that consisted of a variety of people? How could they expect me to be excited about such a big burden? It was almost as if living up to a good image and become a minority model was the only way I could make my mark here. When I moved into my apartment last year, I didn’t know what to expect. On one hand, I’d heard stories from other Bangladeshi expatriates, who talked about how the transition was immensely difficult due to the racist treatment they had received. I’d also heard that it wasn’t
ILLUSTRATION BY CHERYLL VICTUELLES
true in most occasions, and people had a tendency to embellish stories to gain sympathy. I dragged my luggage into the room after the family who had sheltered me for a night since coming to Ann Arbor dropped me off, a piteous look upon their faces. That night, my roommate commented that I must be very rich and privileged to be able to afford to come here from far away. The same thing was said by many other students in my classes, when they realized I was an international student. I frowned, not because what they said wasn’t true, but because of the condescending tone they would sometimes use to say it. As if I was a filthy rich kid from a third-world country, wasting her parents’ money by getting a foreign degree. As if I had so much money stashed up somewhere that I was drowning in it. I glanced at the clothes I wore, and wondered about the jeans and T-shirts I’d bought from Bangladesh. I’d never buy anything from here, I decided, because when you converted dollars to the currency used in my country, it accumulated to an exorbitant sum of money. I had no desire for brand clothes or makeup; I couldn’t even afford them. I had brought my brother’s used luggage into my apartment, and piled all my clothes there when I was packing. It didn’t seem as if my attire played any part in giving people such an impression. Was it simply because I came from a place that I’d gotten hurdled by these assumptions? Another setback came when my roommates and I divided the chores of cleaning the bathrooms and taking out the trash. I found my roommate making a comment along the lines that I had probably not done them and I’d better do them now, as Bangladeshi households, along with many countries in Asia, hired domestic workers. I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t the case in all families, and there were many friends and relatives I knew who’d pay for the servants’ education, and even their marriages, as my father and uncles do. I wanted to tell her that such a system existed because majority of the people didn’t have access to good
jobs, education, health care and working at houses gave them something to get by. I wanted to engage with her, and ask her why she was holding me responsible for a system that had been circulating for centuries. I couldn’t hold her accountable for mistakes politicians made here; why was she doing the same thing to me? But I couldn’t. I felt a strong sense of dual identity that prevented me from saying another word. On one hand, I was a Michigan student, who had received the most amazing resources and opportunities my friends at home would die to have for. I have my parents’ financial support for undergraduate studies, and the only way I could repay them back was doing exceptionally well in academics and extracurricular activities and get into grad school. At orientation, I was told, almost compellingly, to give a good image of my country. And yet, it gets harder to put on a smile and never getting the chance to explain that I’m experiencing a double standard. My status as a Michigan student is firmly tied to the fact that I am international. I’m not eligible for any type of aid or scholarships. I’m a citizen of a country, which is famous for corruption, political instability and religious extremism. I cannot go home for the next three years, because tickets are too expensive. All my free time involves juggling two jobs, and looking into prospective summer jobs and internships so that I can save up and go to graduate school. I’m constantly watching my parents’ resources deplete into nothingness as they make sure I get the best education. In my country, I never walked alone at night. In my country, I’ve been molested and dealt with misogyny that’s a thousand times worse than here. I’ve been told there’s no value in education, and I’ve watched society try to heave its sexist views onto me time after time. I’m both privileged and unprivileged in many aspects, but I’m more than a statistic to proudly display. I’m more than a stereotype formed about students coming from obscure places. I’m more than the product of the society I grew up in, and I hope this is acknowledged someday.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
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optiMize: Saving the world, one idea at a time
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by Emma Kinery, Daily Staff Reporter
rin Johnson had just moved into her dorm room at Bursley and found her way around campus when she saw a poster: “ ‘Why not me?’ Stop waiting for someone else to change the world.” The poster for the student organization optiMize would ultimately chart the course for her time at the University. A year later Johnson, a sophomore studying business and international studies, is president of the organization. She said prior to joining optiMize she had minimal experience in entrepreneurship, but the passion and support from members of the organization inspired her. “ ‘Stop waiting for someone else to change the world’ — seeing that phrase come to life, that’s probably why I got so involved,” she said. Since 2012, optiMize has helped students with social innovation ideas make them a reality. The programs pairs student-entrepreneurs with experienced mentors, and offers $100,000 in prize money to the student groups that advocate for their ideas most successfully. The top five teams each win $5,000 in funding to create their design. The projects are funded primarily through donor money, but the group also receives funding from LSA Mentors can come from all backgrounds: “near peer” mentors are students who have previously participated in the program, while older mentors from LSA, alumni, and entrepreneurs in the Ann Arbor community. “Maybe someone has an idea but they have no idea how to get started, or no idea how to put it into action,” Johnson said. “Everyone has the soft skills; the mentors come in and really help them with the hard skills: how exactly are you going to implement this, how exactly are you going to take this idea and like what channel are you going to go through,
who are you really going to market to?” Last year ADAPT — a core team composed of Engineering junior Laura Murphey and Art & Design senior Sidney Krandall — won the competition by creating an umbrella attachment for wheelchairs. The team met at an optiMize “speed dating” event, which pairs students interested in participating but do not have a partner or a clear idea yet with others in the same boat. One of members came up with their idea when she visited the
“Stop waiting for someone else to change the world.” Ann Arbor Veteran’s Association hospital and asked what the patients needed. It’s this kind of problem solving Erin loves. “That’s the coolest thing I think about optiMize is that when people notice a problem, they can follow through, and we provide them with the resources to actually take that idea or the problem that they saw and help them along the solution,” she said. “Seeing people go and take real world experience and being like ‘I’m going to change that, that’s not that hard to change’ like making an accessory for a wheelchair — that improves so many people’s lives, that makes so much of a positive impact, but all you had to do was figure out how you’re going to attach an umbrella to a wheelchair.”
Since last year, ADAPT has used its winnings to expand and become a real company working on several other attachments for wheelchairs, and to improve disabled people’s lives. For people like Johnson, it’s these success stories and the reach optiMize has that keeps her passionate about the organization. “As soon as I got there I knew this was (a good fit for me), because I have a lot of experience with community service, and stuff like that, but it was always like a one on one basis — I tutored this person after school, I do this, I do this — but like I never felt like the work I was doing was making an impact on the community as a whole,” she said. “Being able to even help someone take their idea and even play the smallest part in helping them make that dream, that passion, into something real. That was the most rewarding thing for me.” As president, Johnson hopes to share her positive experience with as many people as possible and spread optiMize’s message that there doesn’t have to be a tradeoff between work and life. She believes in this message so much that after graduation, Erin would like to work somewhere with the same principles as optiMize. “People talk about concepts of work-life balance a lot, and what we want to show people is that just because you’re doing something to make a living doesn’t mean you can’t be passionate about it,” Johnson said. “Doing what you love and going to work everyday — they don’t have to be these two mutually exclusive things. The more overlap your life passions have with what you do on a daily basis — that’s what it should be.”
PHOTO BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 // The Statement
Shushmita and her cousin are students at ANKURI’s Literacy Center to supplement their government education.
Somrita sits with her daughter on their porch. In addition to keeping her kids warm, her talents can provide them with a safety net. Her four children attend public school, and her husband works as a pharmacy assistant in Missouri.
V I S UA L S TAT E M E N T:
FOOTHILLS OF THE H I M A L AYA S What took me seconds to swipe with a green paintbrush on the world map I painted for the literacy center took an hour of a bumpy and at times terrifying ride from the foothills of the Himalayas into the faces of the mountains. We weren’t even close to the top, but still at times I had the feeling we were at the cusp of the world, and all that was keeping me from a free fall to the bottom was the balance I’d acquired from our morning yoga sessions. The goats we encountered on our drive up the mountain seemed to be masters of this, as they climbed up seemingly ninety-degree cliff faces. I have climbed the Sierra Nevadas of Spain, the Appenninos of Italy, and just this spring, the Appalachians of our home country, but the stark monstrosity that is the Himalayas was something I had never experienced. A journey up one side of the monster, and we seemed to be on top of the world. The layer of smog and smoke over the sprawling city of Dehra Dun looked like a surreal mist nestled in a fold of the foothills. The quick incline from the rolling hills made it seem like we were just floating in the clouds over the city. Even more amazing than the view was the fact that after a while we started to encounter the villages in these mountains. Little homes were perched just as precariously as the goats on the edges of the cliffs. The purpose of our excursion was to meet, speak with, and bring supplies to the women working for ANKURI that live in one of the mountain villages, Rikholi. ANKURI is an organization promoting the long-term independence of village women through craft-making. Through
financial independence, they are able to gain agency in many other aspects of their life. ANKURI is such an inviting and accommodating experience for the women. It allows them to dip their feet into the workforce and see what financial freedom tastes like. Many are inspired for their children to succeed even further, and it gives the kids the chance to see how their mother is empowered by working. This initiative will help to foster an environment of independence in the village for the future generations as well. The isolation of the community makes it even more difficult for women to hold a job. Their husbands are already traveling a distance to the tourist town of Missouri to work, which leaves the women at home. ANKURI is unique because the owner, Rachna, understands the wool must be brought to them. Barriers of transportation already bar them from other work, so with ANKURI they have one less challenge to being a working woman and supporting a family. These women come from similar backgrounds, yet they are diverse individuals. However, many of the environmental factors working against them are similar. Abusive husbands, lack of safe job availability, cultural norms, families that have married them to husbands miles and miles away, and the pressure of caring for a family all impact the power they possess over themselves and their family. Knitting brings them together, and forms a community of powerful women.
A forest fire makes its way across the foothills. Burning of trash is not well regulated, and as the temperatures spike towards 120 degrees farenhight the fires were a common occurrence near Thikana.
Photo Essay by
Luna Anna Archey
Students at a local government school present woven reeds to the guests of their annual school show. The students presented skits of what they had learned and traditional dances.