ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
GOVERNMENT
Two former legislators talk taxes, security law RITA MORRIS/Daily
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Clarence Page moderates the discussion during the Diversity Summit held in Rackham Auditorium on Tuesday.
With summit, ‘U’ solicits input for diversity plans Hundreds fill Rackham as Schlissel calls on community for suggestions
filled Rackham Auditorium and crowded the lobby outside, University President Mark Schlissel told the room that diversity is a long-term ideal that can only be improved with the help of every member of the community. Schlissel and other administrators hosted a community-wide assembly Tuesday morning to discuss diversity and inclusion on campus. The assembly was
By LARA MOEHLMAN and ALLANA AKHTAR Daily Staff Reporters
After hearing responses from audience members who
part of the week-long Diversity Summit, organized to engage faculty and staff in dialogue and brainstorm solutions to make campus more inclusive. The assembly was emceed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Clarence Page, who told The Michigan Daily on Monday he hoped the forum would get people past their shyness in discussing race, gender and ethnicity in public. “The University is one place
EVENT PREVIEW
By DAYTON HARE Daily Arts Writer
Humans are irresistibly drawn to drama. Some people even have a penchant for creating it in their own lives, though most are content to witness How to it run havoc over oth- Deceive ers — even Your Family if those others are ficti- (Two Operas tious. Thus, About Love the theatand Greed) rical perNov. 12-15 formance was born, Thursday at and plays 7:30, Friday and of expansive emo- Saturday at 8:00, tional depth Sunday at 2:00 became $22 and $28 central to the soci- reserved seating $12 etal psyche students with ID
of peoples in locations ranging from the Yucatan to the Japanese archipelago. Music has also been historically associated with drama and emotion, so it’s hardly surprising that the two arts managed to combine into one of the oldest and most theatrical genres in classical music: opera. This week, contributing a little bit more towards the 400-year-old tradition of opera, students from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance will demonstrate this dramatic art in several performances of two one-act operas. “Every time we try to select works to produce for the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, we try to find pieces that fit the student population that we have — the singing actors who are in the program — and we try to offer pieces that have as many roles as possible,” said Robert Swedberg, the production’s director and associate professor of music, in an interview with The Michigan Daily. “We have a tremendous number of really worthy singing actors who we would like to be able to accommodate with See OPERA, Page 3A
By LYDIA MURRAY Daily Staff Reporter
Two alums of the U.S. House of Representatives — former Republican Congressmen Dave Camp and Mike Rogers — addressed a crowd of 120 people Tuesday night during the Ford School of Public Policy’s final Policy Talk of the fall semester. Camp served in the House of Representatives for more than 24 years and is known for introducing the Tax Reform Act of 2014, a comprehensive tax reform bill. Rogers worked in Congress for more than 14 years, specializing in cybersecurity and national terrorism policy. Before his time as a representative, he served in
the United States Army and was an FBI special agent. Rogers, who chaired the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence while in office, said he thought one of the biggest national security issues is how the United States prepares for cyber attack, due to the rapidly increasing technical capabilities of antagonistic countries. “What most people would find shocking is that they are overwhelming us with numbers,” he said. “There are more SBR (Russian intelligence agents), or what you would know as KGB agents operating in the United States than there were at the height of the Cold War, and there are more Chinese espionage operations being conducted than we have ever seen.” Rogers said the most important first step the government can take toward addressing the issue is cyber See CONGRESS, Page 2A
CAMPUS LIFE
LEARNING THE FLUTE
SMTD stages opera ‘Deceive Your Family’ Two one-act operatic farces revived by ‘U’ students
where the very purpose of it is to learn about the universe, the world around you beyond the world you are accustomed to,” Page said. “I am glad the Michigan folks are doing it and I’m glad to be a part of it.” Despite a slight increase in the enrollment of underrepresented minority students in the 2015 freshman class, Schlissel and members of the campus community have See DIVERSITY SUMMIT, Page 3A
Ford School hosts discussion with Rep. Dave Camp and Rep. Mike Rogers
Students engage in poverty simulation Event host emphasizes need for affordable housing in A 2 By ANNA HARITOS
EMILIE FARRUGIA/Daily
Flautist Michal Zak, a member of the Polish music and dance group Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, teaches a song during the Kompania’s music and dance workshop at the Michigan League Ballroom on Tuesday.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CSG discusses proposals for sanctuary campus, funding Resolution asks ‘U’ to not assist in immigration enforcement By JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily Staff Reporter
Central Student Government brought multiple resolutions to the assembly floor at
their Tuesday meeting, including proposals related to immigration policy and funding. During the session, CSG vetoed a resolution to support making the University a sanctuary campus and heard several options for spending the remainder of their legislative discretionary fund. The assembly also received an update on the University’s ongoing debate over the release of course evaluation data.
Course evaluations CSG President Cooper Charlton, an LSA senior, reported to the assembly that conversations about the release of course evaluations are ongoing with the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs. Cooper said the three stipulations CSG wants to met are the release of course evaluations to advisers See CSG, Page 2A
Daily Staff Reporter
The University’s Sociology Department hosted a simulation Tuesday night meant to show students how it feels to live below the poverty line. The workshop, titled “Experiencing Poverty in America,” was facilitated by the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, an Ann Arbor group that envisions a world free from violence and poverty. ICPJ Director Chuck Warpehoski, who is also a member of the Ann Arbor City Council, said he aimed for participating students to gain deeper knowledge of and empathy for those living in poverty. “Our main focus of the simulation is the empathy See SIMULATION, Page 3A
» INSIDE
eating purposefully How to be a vegan in Ann Arbor
HI: 53 LO: 37
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM Schlissel talks future of Wolverine Pathways MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/NEWS
INES
WEATHER TOMORROW
INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 28 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A ARTS........................... 5A
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A T H E S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . .1 B
News
2A — Wednesday, November 4, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Campus Voices
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
ALL SMILES
System president resigns than Butler announced Nov. 2 he was going on a hunger strike that he said would end either with his death or the ousting of Wolfe. Members of the Missouri football team announced Saturday that they would boycott all footballrelated activities until the end of Butler’s hunger strike, with the support of head football coach Gary Pinkel. “My decision to resign comes out of love, not hate,” Wolfe said during Monday’s meeting. “Use my resignation to heal and start talking again, to make the changes necessary.” Fraternity files $25 million lawsuit against Rolling Stone
EMILIE FARRUGIA /Daily
Dancer Joanna Wiedra of Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, a Polish music and dance group, participates during their workshop at the Ballroom
Student veteran panel
Organ master class
Liberal arts lecture
WHAT: Veterans from the Gulf War and the Cold War will be speaking about their experiences in honor of Veteran’s Day. WHO: Veteran and Military Services WHEN: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Wolverine Room
WHAT: Various student veterans will discuss their time in the military and their experience transitioning to a university setting. WHO: Veteran and Military Services WHEN: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Kuenzel Room
WHAT: Vincent Dubois, general director of the Strasbourg National and Superior Conservatory, and visiting artist at the Univesrity, will be giving a free master class. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: 3:40 p.m. WHERE: Earl V. Moore
WHAT: Angela Dillard, associate dean of LSA undergraduate education, will give a talk called “Liberal Arts in the 21st Century: The Next Wave #SocialInnovation #HigherEd.” WHO: Residential College WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: East Quadrangle
WHAT: CWPS will perform Frederic Chopin’s compositions with traditional polish dance and music. WHO: Center for World Performance Studies WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Museum of Art, Stern Auditorium
CSG From Page 1A by Winter 2016, a written commitment by the Faculty Senate regarding a new course evaluation instrument by fall of 2016 and for the CSG executive committee to be given access to the content of course evaluations before an official release. CSG Communications Director Alexandra George, a Public Policy junior, said CSG is privy to the information about course evaluations through oneon-one meetings with members of the Faculty Senate. “We have a timeline for the release of course evaluations, and we are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that deadline is met,” George said. George said CSG felt its efforts regarding course evaluations are not finished, and noted that the ability to review the results further would make them more equipped to make suggestions for improving the instrument and the questions asked. “For Central Student
WHAT: David North from the World Socialist Web Site will speak about how and why Trotsky was murdered. WHO: International Youth and Students for Social Equality WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall, Auditorium C
Government to have course evaluation data at our disposal, we not only gain the ability to utilize a system of checks and balances, but we can further our agenda to improve the instrument itself,” George said. Along with course evaluations, Charlton also said CSG is working with LSA Dean Andrew Martin to examine accommodations for students who require additional time during exams. CSG vetoes sanctuary campus resolution The assembly vetoed a resolution to make the University a sanctuary campus for undocumented students. The resolution was promoted by the activist group By Any Means Necessary. Nine assembly members voted in favor, 10 were opposed and 12 abstained from the vote. The distinction would have meant that the University would promise not to turn over undocumented students to U.S. Immigrations Control and Enforcement, a pledge that has been taken up by several campuses and cities across the
Swing dancing WHAT: Swing Ann Arbor, a student organization dedicated swing dance instruction, will offer a free drop-in lesson. WHO: Swing Ann Arbor WHEN: 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League, Vandenberg Room •Please submit corrections to corrections@ michigandaily.com
country, including Ann Arbor. Before the assembly voted on the resolution, two amendments were allowed on the floor for voting, one written by BAMN and the other put forth by the Resolutions Committee. The Resolutions Committee proposal aimed to clean up language in the amendment and remove words such as “racism” and “bigotry” to characterize the University’s opinion on undocumented students. BAMN noted that they sat down with the Resolutions Committee to craft an amendment to their resolution, which is what they said they presented Tuesday, but CSG drafted their own resolution anyway. Funding requests CSG also considered resolutions regarding how to spend the remaining $18,000 of its legislative fund, which is the amount the CSG budget sets aside for its own projects. CSG began the year with $28,000 to be allocated at the discretion of the assembly. Currently, the only initiative that has been funded was an
CONGRESS From Page 1A sharing, which involves realtime information sharing between the government and the private sector. “The amount of information that the private sector, a company like Google or Amazon, collects on you every day is staggering,” he said. “They know more about you than you could possibly imagine. The NSA would dream about having a database like that.” However, he noted efforts to allow cyber sharing, including a bipartisan bill he worked on in office, have been unsuccessful because of citizens’ desires for privacy. “Most Americans don’t know it, but the United States is in a
News Tips news@michigandaily.com
Corrections
Letters to the Editor
corrections@michigandaily.com
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Arts Section
Editorial Page
arts@michigandaily.com
opinion@michigandaily.com
Sports Section
Photography Section
sports@michigandaily.com
photo@michigandaily.com
Display Sales
Classified Sales
dailydisplay@gmail.com
classified@michigandaily.com
Online Sales
Finance
onlineads@michigandaily.com
finance@michigandaily.com
Managing Editor
Sam Gringlas
Gulf, Cold War panel
WHAT: Free screening of “Good Men, Good Women,” a film by director Hou Hsiao-hsien, with subtitles. WHO: Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies and Asian Languages and Cultures WHEN: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Theater
Newsroom 734-418-4115 opt. 3
Lev Facher
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
CWPS Chopin Leon Trotsky concert lecture
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 rfilipp@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL STAFF
—MEGAN DOYLE
LRCCS film series
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com JENNIFER CALFAS ROSE FILIPP
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 jcalfas@michigandaily.com
chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, the main subject of a 2014 Rolling Stone article that detailed an alleged gang rape at their fraternity house, filed a $25 million lawsuit against the magazine and the story’s author Monday. The Cavalier Daily reported Monday that the lawsuit is based primarily on alleged defamation in the article, as well as subsequent public statements from the magazine and the reporter who wrote the story, Sabrina Erdely. Erdely’s article was retracted in April following discrepancies in the story uncovered by both the Charlottesville Police, the Washington Post and the Columbia School of Journalism.
The University of Virginia’s
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
Two key administrators at the University of Missouri have resigned following a series of campus protests. Tim Wolfe, University of Missouri System president, resigned, effective immediately Monday morning, The Maneater reported. Chancellor R. Bowin Loftin also announced his resignation, effective Jan. 1, during a University of Missouri System Board of Curators meeting Monday evening. Both resignations come amid a series of instances on campus that activists cited as evidence of a culture of discrimination, such as the end of Planned Parenthood services and the student government president being called a racial slur. In response to those instances, Missouri graduate student Jona-
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
President Obama is the first sitting president to be photographed for the cover of an LGBTQ magazine. Out Magazine reported the story when he posed for their Out100 issue. The publication called Obama the “Ally of the Year.”
2
lfacher@michigandaily.com
Managing News Editor
gringlas@michigandaily.com
SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Shoham Geva, Will Greenberg, Amabel Karoub, Emma Kerr, Emilie Plesset, Michael Sugerman ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS: Jackie Charniga, Alyssa Brandon, Katie Penrod, Sami Wintner, Gen Hummer, Emma Kinery, Tanya Madhani, Lara Moehlman, Lea Giotto, Isobel Futter
Aarica Marsh and Derek Wolfe Editorial Page Editors
opinioneditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Claire Bryan and Regan Detwiler ASSISTANT EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Mary Kate Winn, Melissa Scholke, Stephanie Trierweiler, Ben Keller
Max Cohen and Jake Lourim Managing Sports Editors
Adam Depollo and Chloe Gilke Managing Arts Editors
Allison Farrand and Ruby Wallau Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
SENIOR PHOTO EDITORS: Luna Anna Archey, James Coller, Virginia Lozano ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS: Amanda Allen, Zach Moore, Sam Mousigian
Emily Schumer and design@michigandaily.com Shane Achenbach Managing Design Editors Ian Dillingham Magazine Editor statement@michigandaily.com DEPUTY MAGAZINE EDITORS: Natalie Gadbois STATEMENT PHOTO EDITOR: Luna Anna Archey STATEMENT LEAD DESIGNER: Jake Wellins
Hannah Bates and Laura Schinagle Managing Copy Editors
>> FOR MORE, SEE THE STATEMENT
BUSINESS STAFF
3
adepollo@michigandaily.com chloeliz@michigandaily.com
SENIOR ARTS EDITORS: Jamie Bircoll, Kathleen Davis, Catherine Sulpizio, Adam Theisen ARTS BEAT EDITORS: Alex Bernard, Karen Hua, Jacob Rich, Amelia Zak
Michigan Daily Arts Writer Giancarlo Buonomo writes about living as a vegan in the city of Ann Arbor.
After droughts and floods throughout the country, North Korea is experiencing damage and shortage in cabbage crops and kimchi, The Gaurdian reported. Cabbage is a vital ingredient in making kimchi, a staple Korean condiment.
sportseditors@michigandaily.com
SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS: Max Bultman, Minh Doan, Jacob Gase, Simon Kaufman,Jason Rubinstein, Zach Shaw ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: Chloe Aubuchon, Chris Crowder, Kelly Hall, Ted Janes, Kevin Santo, Brad Whipple
copydesk@michigandaily.com
SENIOR COPY EDITORS: Emily Campbell and Emma Sutherland
Amrutha Sivakumar Online Editor amrutha@michigandaily.com Kaylla Cantilina and Katie Colosimo Managing Video Editors Carolyn Gearig Special Projects Manager Hussein Hakim Finance and Operations Manager Claire Ulak Production Manager Jordan Yob Marketing Manager Matt Pfenning UAccounts Manager Asja Kepes Local Accounts Manager Colin Cheesman National Accounts Manager Anna He Special Guides and Online Manager Claire Butz Layout Manager The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
initiative to open dining halls earlier on game days, for which CSG gave Michigan Dining $10,000. The aim of the program is to curb dangerous drinking on these days. There is $18,000 left in the fund. The Maize and Blue Cupboard, a food bank program for University students, was the first funding request heard at Tuesday’s meeting. The Maize and Blue Cupboard operates under Enactus, an entrepreneurial organization founded at the University. The cupboard takes unsold food from local grocery stores that would have been thrown away and distributes it to students at the Michigan Union one Wednesday per month. The request asked CSG to pay a $650 application fee for the program to register as a nonprofit as well as $350 for the creation of a stockpile of canned goods for distribution. Public Policy junior Matt Fidel, a co-author of the resolution, said there were no downsides to CSG involvement in the project. “It’s an ideal role for CSG,”
Fidel said. “We can reach a greater number of students.” Business sophomore Zoe Hawtof , current president of the program, said the Maize and Blue Cupboard is like a second kitchen for students on campus who are unable to travel to Kroger or afford the prices of closer grocery stores. “We want to be that extra monthly go-to place when a student feels like they’re struggling,” Hawtof said. A second funding request for 15 additional water refill stations around the University was also put forward Tuesday, totalling to $7,500. Resolution authors said the request was an effort to satisfy sustainability initiatives on campus by encouraging the use of refillable water bottles and lower waste from plastic water bottles. Business senior Kevin Ziegler, CSG treasurer, said Barbara Hagan, a representative from the Office of Campus Sustainability, approached CSG about the project. “There’s really two costs — the cost of the unit and the
cost of installation,” Ziegler said, “We’re just paying for the units.” Ziegler added that he’d like to hear from students where they believe the stations should be placed. Rackham student Jared Ferguson, CSG rules committee chair, noted that CSG has funded similar initiatives in past years. In 2010, he said, CSG funded 18 water refill stations. “We’ve sort of been doing this off and on for the last several years,” Ferguson said. Ziegler said the stations would be on both Central and North Campus to be accessible for all students. DPSS relations CSG representative David Schafer, an LSA junior, said he has been talking with Bryan Baker, the Department of Public Safety and Security liaison to Student Life, about creating online profiles on the University police officers. He said he hoped the initiative would help better relations between DPSS and students.
cyber war, and, by the way, we are not winning,” he said. “We are losing this fight because we cannot get over this privacy versus security hangover.” Camp also spoke about his legislative work, calling for reform in a different realm — taxes. In particular, he pointed to the need to change international tax laws. “We really do have to make a change here,” Camp said. “Our business tax was changed in ‘86 under President Reagan, but our international tax laws basically date back to the 60s. Clearly the ability for ideas, people and money to move around the world have changed dramatically since that time.” In addition to changes due to technology, Camp also pointed to a disconnect between the electorate and the U.S. economy. “I don’t think we’ve seen the
end of it,” Camp said. “I think part of the reason tax reform is being presented is there is this tremendous unhappiness with what is going on in the country, in particular Congress’s lack of response, and part of it is that we haven’t seen the kind of recovery that we wanted to see.” Both also spoke to the future of Congress overall, citing a need for changes in how the body functions. Camp said he thought congressional committees need to work on creating groundwork for larger, more controversial issues. “I think that issues have to be developed. They have get back to work and propose things that might cause some controversy,” Camp said. “It’s not glamorous, but it’s the work that legislatures do. We have to
get back to that and then have ways to bring them to the floor.” Rogers said the current gridlock reflects the frustration in the United States toward the country’s lack of progress, and that the body needs to find a way to compromise to move forward. “Congress is a lot like American,” he said. “We are sending those people there, and they are reflecting their districts in a pretty important way. That dysfunction is exactly what voters are like. They are frustrated about different things for different reasons and we are not telling legislatures to go and try and bridge the difference. We are telling them to go up there and fight and stand their ground and don’t agree to anything, and that gets us to a place where we do not function.”
COME TO THE DAILY STORY SLAM: FRIDAY NOV. 20 @ 7PM
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPERA From Page 1A more performances,” Swedberg added. “So by doing two one-acts, we’re able to engage like 30, 31 singers, with double casting … so that’s giving a lot of our students a good opportunity to sink their teeth into some performance time onstage, and that’s how you learn to do it.” “The other nice thing about this double bill is that one is in Italian and the other is in French, so it gives our singing actors an opportunity to increase their ability to sing in these foreign languages as well,” Swedberg said, expanding his focus on the educational aspects of the production. The first of the two operas being produced is L’heure espagnole (“The Spanish Hour”) by French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel, who is associated with Debussy and the Impressionist movement (though they both took issue with that term), is known for his popular composition Bolero, his colorful orchestrations and numerous
DIVERSITY SUMMIT From Page 1A said there is more to be done. Earlier in the semester, Schlissel introduced the HAIL scholarship program to attract low-income students by giving them resources and information on financial aid prior to applying for college. In October, he announced a second scholarship — called Wolverine Pathways — which mentors middle and high school students from Southfield and Ypsilanti and gives them a full ride to the University upon admission. With these initiatives in mind, Schlissel and Page asked audience members to come to a microphone and talk about their goals for a more inclusive campus — with the year 2025 as a benchmark for evaluating potential successes. “An interesting common theme, for me, which came out of several of the comments today, was the fact that improvement has to be led, but it can only come from the folks…in working groups, on admission committees,” Schlissel said. “It happens in the trenches as everyday acts of commitment, it doesn’t necessarily happen with folks sitting in front of a room making suggestions or setting rules.” Emily Lawsin, a lecturer in the American Culture and Women’s Studies departments, said faculty diversity plays an important role in campus climate. She noted that one way to retain a diverse faculty is to offer faculty members of color incentives to stay on campus — adding that many of her co-workers of color have left the University because they were denied tenure and not given retention offers. “I appreciated your comment earlier about retention, and how retention of students of color are very important,” she said. “Retention of faculty and staff of color is equally as important.” Comparative Literature Prof. Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, said Muslim students, in particular, must be included on campus.
SIMULATION From Page 1A aspect to help people have not just an academic understanding of the barriers of poverty,” Warpehoski said. The three-hour-long workshop replicated a month of poverty by dividing an hour into four weeks, each week covering 15 minutes. The concept, Warpehoski said, was developed by a group of welfare rights organizers in Missouri. “There are all these victim blaming narratives out there,” Warpehoski said. “The lived experience was that it’s not that easy, and so they developed this simulation to give people just that tiny window into all the barriers that all the people in poverty face.” The students were given scripts and asked to assume the roles of low-income people of a variety of backgrounds and family structures. Volunteers
News & Arts
masterworks. Composed in 1911, the comical opera is Ravel’s first foray into the genre. “This is sort of a French bedroom farce … although it has a Spanish flavor,” Swedberg said. “The Spanish hour is a time in the day when the husband might be away and the wife might possibly entertain lovers … on this particular day, though, the husband (a clockmaker) is away and the wife has complications with the lover that she expects, who turns out to be more interesting in writing poetry than in her.” This Gordian knot of romance is further tightened when a muleteer and third potential lover arrive on the scene, leaving the wife to juggle her delicate and amusing situation. The second of the two operas being performed is Gianni Schicchi, written in 1919 by the seasoned Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini, one of the most frequently performed composers of opera, known for masterworks like Madama Butterfly, Tosca and the unfinished Turandot. “It’s one of the best written
comic operas, in my opinion,” Swedberg said of Gianni Schicchi. “It’s mostly about how groups of people deal with greed, and it’s just a really funny piece.” The opera tells the tale of a welloff family squabbling over the will of a deceased relative, and how to rewrite it. Matters are further complicated by the fact that a young man within the family has a fiancée from a working-class background, which troubles his snobbish relatives. The production of the operas also reflects an update to the settings, a change made with the aim of making the themes more accessible to contemporary audiences. Similar adjustments have been occurring with increasing frequency over the past several years — for example, Charles Gounod’s Faust, based on Goethe’s famous retelling of the German legend, was performed a few years ago at the Metropolitan opera in a recontextualization that included the titular character as a physicist involved in the development of atomic weaponry.
“Since that has not been stressed in discussion so far, I would also just like to mark that there is one group that also needs to be included,” Weineck said. “It would be good by 2025 if we had religious inclusion as well.” Rackham student Ashley Wilson said the University should be up front about diversity challenges from the very first interactions with new students. She said on her first day at the School of Education, Dean Deborah Ball was immediately open about the lack of diversity on campus. Wilson said she appreciated Ball’s straightforward approach to talking about diversity, instead of waiting to discuss the issue later on. “When we have these conversations immediately in our first interactions with students, I think it sets the tone for us to be able to do the rest of the things that we want them to learn and be receptive of,” Wilson said. Jerrica Delaney, a program coordinator in the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, said she felt she would like to see significant progress in terms of inclusion starting as soon as next year, rather than by 2025. She noted that professors should receive training to better prepare them to facilitate healthy dialogues concerning race in the classroom. “One thing I would like to see next year is a classroom setting where professors from adjunct all the way up to tenure are culturally competent to handle the battleground — the arrows and the darts that are thrown at students of color in their classrooms,” she said. She additionally challenged the University to seek out students who may not fit the stereotype of what it means to be an underrepresented, but exceptional student, as defined by the HAIL Scholarship and Wolverine Pathways programs. “While we seek out this cream of the crop in Southfield and Ypsilanti, don’t forget the rest of the crop, because there
are outstanding and exceptional students that may not be at that GPA that can still offer many beautiful things to this University that they really do need,” Delaney said. In an interview with the Daily on Tuesday afternoon after the assembly, Schlissel said Southfield and Ypsilanti are only the pilot locations for the Wolverine Pathways location. The University, he added, intends to expand the program into Detroit as soon as possible, provided that its methodology finds success in Southfield and Ypsilanti first. University alum Hector Galvan, a program coordinator in the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, said his ideal climate would be for students of all identities to safe and comfortable on campus. “I would very much like this place to feel like home,” Galvan said. “I didn’t feel like I fit in, and I didn’t feel like I was aptly represented here. What’s even worse — I feel like no one really cared.” Schlissel said the summit marks a critical point in the University’s ongoing planning process to create a more diverse and inclusive campus. “Up to this point, campus leaders, representatives from different units, chairs, deans, executive officers and individuals have been coming together to discuss how to refocus, but I think this is the first event during this process, and perhaps ever, where everybody in our community is given an equal opportunity to step up and tell us what you’re thinking,” Schlissel said to the assembly. “What kind of campus do you want us to have for our successors, and how do we get there?” He further emphasized that the most effective plan will not come directly from the input of only the University’s executive officers, but from all members of the community. “We need all of you to work with us,” he said. “We need to crowdsource the solutions to the challenges that we all share in an environment that we all love.”
from the community played staff members of a fictional town, taking up the roles of store owners, welfare office workers, grocers, food pantry employees, police, employment interviewers and others. Public Policy senior Blair Sucher said she felt very trapped in her character’s situation. Sucher said, in the simulation, her character’s income changed from a $60,000 per year to less than $1,000 per month. “I didn’t know what I was doing from the get go,” she said. “I didn’t know where to go get resources. There were so many externalities that weren’t even covered, and I was already so overwhelmed by what was happening while sitting here. ” Students were instructed not to break character. Murmurs of frustration could be heard in the room. One student cried out, “This is so hard.” Assistant Sociology Prof. Alexandra Murphy noted a change in the overall
atmosphere of the room as students felt the burdens of their mock situations intensify. “It seemed like no one could trust each other and that everyone was looking out for themselves, and their families,” she said. “That stress made it difficult for students to navigate relationships with one another. They were trying to make the most of what they had without getting ripped off by their neighbors and the offices.” At the end of the event, Warpehoski talked to the students about the need for affordable housing in Ann Arbor. He said the ICPJ supports an affordable housing development on Platt Road and he urged students to lobby elected officials in support of the housing program. “The price of housing in Ann Arbor is very high,” he said. “There have been some voices that have come out that oppose affordable housing. Don’t let these be the only voices.”
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 — 3A
FILM REVIEW
Nostalgic ‘Peanuts’ By BRIAN BURLAGE Daily Arts Writer
What do we know about Charlie Brown? Only a few things. He’s a kid who never grew out of his baby hair. AHe’s got a sister named Sally, The a best friend named Linus Peanuts and a pseudo- Movie rival-slash20th Century girlfriend named Lucy. Fox The four Rave & Quality 16 friends live in a suburban neighborhood, presumably in the Midwest, alongside a colorful range of other kids, including the Beethoven-obsessed Schroeder, the perpetually dirty Pig-Pen and the best athlete in town, Peppermint Patty. Oh, and Charlie Brown has Snoopy, his loyal beagle. These aspects of Charlie Brown and the “Peanuts” gang have remained true and untouched for the better part of 50 years. Director Steve Martino (“Ice Age: Continental Drift”) is extremely careful not to get in the way of this, and he even goes so far as to incorporate quotes and scenes verbatim from the renowned cartoons. In this way, “The Peanuts Movie” is a fantastic continuation of the comic strip’s long-beloved values, a testament to its resounding popularity. The question is, though: how does this movie contribute to the “Peanuts” saga? From what necessity does this story arise? Well, we learn pretty quickly that Charlie Brown is a hopeless romantic. The Little Red-Haired Girl has just moved in across the
OPERA From Page 1A “We have a tremendous number of really worthy singing actors who we would like to be able to accommodate with more performances,” Swedberg added. “So by doing two one-acts, we’re able to engage like 30, 31 singers, with double casting … so that’s giving a lot of our students a good opportunity to sink their teeth into some performance time onstage, and that’s how you learn to do it.” “The other nice thing about this double bill is that one is in Italian and the other is in French, so it gives our singing actors an opportunity to increase their ability to sing in these foreign languages as well,” Swedberg continued, expanding his focus on the educational aspects of the production. The first of the two operas being produced is L’heure espagnole (“The Spanish Hour”) by French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel, who is associated with Debussy and the Impressionist movement (though they both took issue with that term), is known for his popular composition Bolero, his colorful orchestrations and numerous masterworks. Composed in 1911, the comical opera is Ravel’s first foray into the genre. “This is sort of a French bedroom farce … although it has a Spanish flavor,” Swedberg said. “The Spanish hour is a time in the day when the husband might be away and the wife might possibly entertain lovers … on this particular day, though, the husband (a clockmaker) is away and the wife has complications with the lover that she expects, who turns out to be more interesting in writing poetry than in her.” This Gordian knot of romance is further tightened when a muleteer and third potential lover arrive on the scene, leaving the wife to juggle her delicate and amusing situation. The second of the two operas being performed is Gianni Schicchi, written in 1919 by the seasoned Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini, one of the most frequently performed composers of opera, known for masterworks like Madama Butterfly, Tosca and the unfinished Turandot. “It’s one of the best written comic operas, in my opinion,”
street, and Charlie Brown sees it as an opportunity to finally start fresh with someone. He tries to win her heart in the school’s talent show; he writes a book report for her while she’s out of town, wooing her with flowers and trying to return her pink pencil along the way. But the course of true love never did run smooth, as Charlie Brown, aside from being a hopeless romantic, is also hopelessly accident-prone. Despite his best efforts, he just can’t beat his own tendency to screw up. We learn, too, that Snoopy is a rather prolific novelist. After he finds an old typewriter in a dumpster outside the school, Snoopy begins writing an epic World War I-era love story. Most of the movie’s action scenes emerge from Snoopy’s jet-fueled rivalry with the Red Baron, a skilled pilot who has kidnapped Fifi, Snoopy’s love interest. A multi-part war story develops, in which Snoopy tries to win back the love of his life. The beautiful part about this storyline is its wordless entanglement of puppy love. The two dogs can’t talk, of course, but in Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” world, that doesn’t matter. These are the basic story points of a very G-rated “Peanuts Movie.” Vince Guaraldi’s legendary, and wholly American, score accompanies light-hearted iceskating scenes and breezy walks through the park. Guaraldi’s subtle but upbeat music — “Skating” and “Linus and Lucy” mostly — is by now inseparable from the characters themselves. However, the film does throw in modern pop music like Flo Rida’s “That’s What I Like,” and it’s not a detriment so much as a distraction from the otherwise perfectlyframed “Peanuts” world.
Part of the reason why “The Peanuts Movie” works so well is that it feels suitably subdued in time. Telephones are still wired, Snoopy flashes in and out of the 1910s, the kids still wear galoshes and grades are posted on bulletin boards in the hallway. The animation, though certainly modern, is simple and linear, a conflation of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes — an odd but endearing throwback to Schulz’s cartoons. Adults are never around, and if they are, they stay off camera and mutter gibberish to the children — the “wah-wah” voices still a perfect double-sided pun (are the kids simply not listening, or are the adults just sputtering totally insignificant things?). In either case, the absence of adults renders the “Peanuts” world warm, wacky and completely insecure. Without any of those elements, everything would unravel. There’s a moment in the movie (borrowed from the Christmas special) that captures viewers’ interest from generation to generation. In the winter, Lucy sets up and operates her own fivecent Psychiatric Advice stand, which is a lovely play on the lemonade stand. Charlie Brown is, of course, Lucy’s first and most frequent customer. He tells her all about his anxiety, his growing fear of responsibility and bad luck with girls. Lucy listens intently like a good friend. And as she gives him advice (good advice, too) something about the whole exchange strikes us: these kids genuinely depend on one another for help. “The Peanuts Movie” and indeed the “Peanuts” empire teach us that only children really understand each other. And that’s where the nostalgia sets in.
Swedberg said of Gianni Schicchi. “It’s mostly about how groups of people deal with greed, and it’s just a really funny piece.” The opera tells the tale of a well-off family squabbling over the will of a deceased relative, and how to rewrite it. Matters are further complicated by the fact that a young man within the family has a fiancée from a working-class background, which troubles his snobbish relatives. The production of the operas also reflects an update to the settings, a change made with the aim of making the themes more accessible to contemporary audiences. Similar adjustments have been occurring with increasing frequency over the past several years — for example, Charles Gounod’s Faust, based on Goethe’s famous retelling of the German legend, was performed a few years ago at the Metropolitan opera in a recontextualization that included the titular character as a physicist involved in the development of atomic
weaponry. “We thought it would be interesting to go for the Victorian, Industrial Revolution and Steampunk look,” the director said of updates to “The Spanish Hour,” drawing inspiration from the clockmaker’s workshop in the opera. Of the Puccini, Swedberg said, “Gianni Schicchi was set in 1299 … but we thought with an update to the ’20s, we would be able to use a different costume and scenic palette that might be more relevant.” In discussing the complementary nature of the two operas, Swedberg spoke about the slight differences in comedic style between the operas. According to him, Ravel’s work is far more exaggerated and farcical, whereas Puccini’s is more a “slice of life” style. “They stand up really nicely,” Swedberg said of the operas. “Having the two styles together in one evening is very interesting — two different types of comedy.”
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, November 11, 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
AARICA MARSH and DEREK WOLFE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
LEV FACHER MANAGING EDITOR
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.
M
Treat yo’ self
aybe it was Princess Barbie or Ballerina Barbie who prompted me to cast my eyes downward to my stomach only to realize that it was no longer as flat or toned as I remembered. Maybe I was 10? Maybe sooner? Ten-year-old Megan didn’t have to worry too much about having a stomach like Lizzy McGuire; she was more preoccupied singing an off-key “What MEGAN Dreams Are Made Of.” My MITCHELL first exposure to the word “diet” was when a classmate’s mother packed her a “Diet Sunny-D” for lunch. But with the Kardashians ruling social media and the pressures on young girls to always look their best in today’s society, it’s hard not to envision a future made up of anorexic supermodels and super-super-super skinny jeans. However, there’s a glimmer of hope for confidence, and her name is Amy Schumer. Weight has been a problem that, for most of my life, I’ve struggled with — even if I’ve learned how to expertly hide my insecurities. If a conversation involving weight comes up, I usually joke that my stomach currently looks like the topographic map of Colorado. The comment receives some laughs, distracting me from the fact that I’ve just unintentionally put myself down. I’ve never felt very comfortable in my body for long, constantly fluctuating between the “fat” and “skinny” standards, but never staying on one long enough to accept my weight and move on. With a wardrobe consisting of jeans bigger and smaller than my current size and shirts capable of stretching easily, it’s hard not to look at the numbers. Last year, the pressures of beginning my time as a University student in difficult courses created low confidence in my academic abilities, which led to eating habits ranging from skipping meals to midnight pantry visits for a fourth meal. I was paranoid of gaining the dreaded “freshman 15” and letting the number on the tag multiply as my meals fluctuated. I stayed in that funk for almost an entire year until a fellow resident commented that I reminded him or her of Amy Schumer because of my blasé comments about my own size. At the time, I thanked him or her for picking my favorite comedian to represent me and moved back to working on my bowl of sliced pineapple. But recently, Schumer has drawn national attention for her open and honest comments about her relationship with weight (I’m not talking about that Kardashian comment). My younger sister, Kellen, remains at a size 0 despite the amount of food she practically
inhales. (I used to have a theory that our stomachs were swapped when we were younger.) So naturally, shopping was always hard on my self-image when we inevitably headed to the dressing rooms. Outfits I found beautiful would often not fit, and almost anything Kellen tried on would result in a solid “yes” as my “no” pile steadily grew. I was often unable to find clothing that both flattered my body and did justice to my personality. Wanting to look as fashionably savvy as the models on those magazines but without the body for those clothes, I felt like I should fix myself first rather than go up that size or two. Most times, I pulled my sweater back around my shoulders and slid down the mirror of the dressing room, plastering on a fake smile to tell the assistant, “Nope, didn’t find anything.” The first steps toward fixing this problem for future generations has begun with comedians like Amy Schumer and Rebel Wilson paving the way for style and clothing tailored to fit the person, not the image. In a serious moment not typical of the critically acclaimed comedian, Schumer becomes emotional, recalling her struggles with selfimage in Hollywood and finding clothing that made her feel as confident on the outside as she was on the inside. That is, until the “Trainwreck” star met Leesa Evans on the set, who dressed Schumer in more flattering clothes tailored to compliment her looks, not hide them. Soon, she felt like a professional, beautiful young woman and regained the humor she’s most well known for, referring to her body recently as a “lava lamp.” Yeah, maybe now I can see the similarities. Nowadays, I still find myself looking down at my thighs in those tiny lecture seats thinking “Shit, guys. What’s the deal?! You were supposed to stay in those size fives!” And though these thoughts are ever-present, the humor wipes away insecurities as I find the ability to laugh at myself in a positive, healthy way. Self-image is a problem in today’s progressive society that won’t be fixed by one comedian admitting to her struggles with weight, and I know that. Though we can’t very well expose children to the Schumer’s skits, we could do well to teach confidence and self-respect to young girls, using Schumer as the face behind the revolution, not those that promote weight loss and plasticity. The focus should shift toward being healthy and feeling good on the inside. You can run a mile a day and eat salad all you want, but sometimes, you’ve just gotta treat yo’ self. And Amy’s right. Khloe should learn to compromise and eat a bagel every once and a while, too. — Megan Mitchell can be reached at umeg@umich.edu.
Revitalizing nationalism
A
s a collective, Americans have grown less patriotic. In the last 16 years, the amount of “very proud” American citizens has dropped from 77 percent to 56 percent. Americans have openly admitted to the drop in national pride. According to a poll by The Atlantic and The Aspen Institute for the Aspen Ideas Festival, “More than two-thirds (of the public) believe that American values have SAM declined.” Reportedly, COREY these values — freedom of speech and individual liberties, equality under the law and free enterprise — are seen to be deteriorating, as many believe these values only apply to the wealthiest Americans. Specifically, the majority of Americans “believe that an obsession with money and material things, the influence of money in politics” have weakened core values, making them relevant to individuals of the highest socioeconomic status. Our lost national pride is likely due to a general distaste for our political leaders and institutions. Approximately 64 percent of Americans don’t want their kids pursuing a political career, according to Gallup. Similarly, people’s trust in Congress ranks 16th (last) behind institutions like churches, the military, public schools, etc. Furthermore, most teens don’t want to grow up to be president. In general, we’ve become disattisfied with American representatives, institutions and values. The proliferation of media sites constantly covering power holders in Washington, D.C., has influenced this general decline in nationalism. With the rise of digital media sites, people have more exposure to news events than ever before. This coverage often unveils corruption,
deceit, and ignorance of and general disappointment in our political leaders. While there isn’t necessarily more corruption or malfeasance today than before, there are more organizations attempting to hold our leaders accountable. As a growing body of journalists uncovers unfortunate truths within our political leadership and institutions, Americans have turned to themselves for inspiration. About 70 percent of Americans have stated that they can get anything they want in this country if they work hard enough. More depressing, though, is that Americans’ personal narcissism has climbed to higher rates. According to a cross-temporal study of American college students, two-thirds of students’ narcissism scores (measured by psychologists) have risen 30 percent over the mean since 1982. Additionally, a Pew Research Center poll found that 59 percent of millennials admitted to being more self-absorbed than previous generations. Considering the decline in nationalism and trust in political leadership, it should come as no surprise that Americans believe themselves to be more important than previous generations. Who else can they trust but their families, friends and selves? Unfortunately, the decline in nationalism and rising individualist mentality is correlated with lower civic participation. Since people are less dedicated to the goals of America, they’re less willing to volunteer or make sacrifices for their country. Over the past few decades, volunteerism has declined significantly. According to Robert Putnam, participation in the Boy Scouts has dropped 26 percent since 1970, and activity in the Red Cross has fallen 61 percent in the same time period. While youth involvement rose significantly just after 9/11, the general trend of decreased volunteerism has remained consistent, as of 2014, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
N
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Exploiting social justice
o more please, I’ve had enough social justice for this week. I can’t consume another bite. Social justice warriors are easy to find at the University. They’re big-hearted opponents of systemic oppression, who chase out discrimination wherever it crops up and TYLER strive to uphold SCOTT the politically correct. They are idealistic (never a bad trait) and heartfelt, but they have become a gang of extremists. The nickname itself isn’t my own creation. It’s definition isn’t concrete, but it’s a term being widely used to characterize the modern do-gooder and was just added to Oxford Dictionaries. Nothing is ever progressive enough in the eyes of a social justice warrior. Masses of these pro-everything protesters fight for social justice with the dedication and energy of soldiers on the front line. The collective passion for social fairness has been growing rapidly and unconfined to the point of backlash — it’s too much of a good thing. There’s no function of the social justice movement that discriminates between serious issues and the absurd. There are real issues at the University, where the pursuit of social justice brings about solutions. In 2014, protests by the Black Student Union led to negotiations with University administrators to address campus diversity. I don’t need to congratulate the BSU for the progress it’s achieved, but it stands out as an act of effective activism. Used in this way, calls for social justice can be a constructive element of campus discourse. However, tireless efforts to sustain political correctness, inclusion and a safe space for everyone, sometimes get applied to
other topics of discussion. In the past week, two articles about meat have been published in this paper. While I personally never gazed across a dining hall menu for intrigue, perhaps I was wrong not to do so. The first meat-gate column and the subsequent response each garnered vocal discussion on social media. Though it would lack tact to reference any particular student’s thoughts on meat-gate, it was a subject plenty of social justice warriors were ready to battle over. The details of meat-gate aren’t worth delving into, but it remains a prime example of how social justice is overplayed. Pro-meat, anti-meat — it doesn’t matter which stance to take because it’s an inane and meaningless conversation altogether. If these are the types of discussions we as a student body decide to have in public forum, then we should remember to take breaks to laugh at ourselves. The core values of social justice — inclusion, diversity, freedom from discrimination, etc. — are important issues, and should be taken seriously. Yet, they have been applied in ridiculous circumstances that undermine the reputation of the entire social movement. Almost by definition, social justice warriors are emphatically liberal. After all, expanding social programs and the welfare state are classic liberal ideas. However, the needless policing of political correctness, on social media in particular, by social justice warriors, in social media in particular, has gone too far. A movement meant to unite is causing diversion, and social justice warriors are making the left wing of politics look bad. In the same way that millions of Americans are moderate voters, most people are moral moderates as well. Most people aren’t homophobes or racists, but they aren’t archangels of social justice either. None of us
can expect to always be perfectly refined in our social lives, and we all carry prejudices. Failing to acknowledge these truisms grinds any conversations about social rights and justice to a halt, because prescriptive social justice wants humans to act as something they can never be — creatures without bias. Social justice warriors have proudly claimed their place at the helm of human morality, taking offense with any action that hasn’t been bleached clean by political correctness. Life on campus is sometimes like an episode of South Park. But not everything needs to be examined through a crystallized lens of social idealism. Kanye gifted us with the wisdombomb “the art ain’t always gonna be polite” during his vanguard acceptance speech at this year’s VMAs. And indeed, it’s interesting to imagine what the landscape of art might look like if someone tried to restrict Kanye’s choice of words. Social justice is clearly a positive and important cause, but in a microcosm like Ann Arbor’s University community, it has, ironically, become somewhat difficult to practice self-expression without having to consider the infinite ways words might be misinterpreted to betray the intended meaning. A bland statement of opinion can ignite a fiery debate about dining hall menus. We should forgive people who cause offense or ignorance in our communities today, not digitally tar and feather them with Facebook comments. It needs to be accepted that people aren’t perfect, and we should stop heralding social justice buzzwords to such extreme lengths. If the tendency to force-feed political correctness goes unchecked, we might start suffocating our collective ability to have any meaningful conversation at all. — Tyler Scott can be reached at tylscott@umich.edu.
STUDENTS FOR CHOICE | VIEWPOINT
Ending the stigma around abortion
Despite the deep political entrenchment of the abortion debate in American politics, we never seem to talk about the fact that abortion is a common experience among American women. According to 2008 research from the Guttmacher Institute, one in three women* will have an abortion in her lifetime. Yet, we don’t talk about abortion: We legislate it, regulate it, define what it is and isn’t and what it should and shouldn’t mean. Rather than being looked at as an individual experience, abortion is too often examined and dissected through a framework of politics and cultural standards that trap women who have had abortions in a double bind. When a woman feels relieved after having an abortion, she is vilified as an individual, then treated as the representative for all women who have had abortion, accused as being heartless or accused of repressing her “true feelings.” On the other hand, if a woman experiences even the slightest regret of her abortion, anti-choice activists will use her narrative as a tool to advance restrictive policies that police women’s access to abortion care. In the midst of this political trivialization and cultural classification of a person’s lived experience, individuals’ abortion stories are effectively silenced. Stigma exists on all levels: individual, community, institutional, legal and in the media. This stigma is pervasive, as we can identify it at all of these levels. For example, myths of the danger of abortion circulate and women who have had
abortions experience shame, guilt, marginalization and are labeled either victims or promiscuous. Likewise, abortion providers are stigmatized. Research conducted at this very university has linked consciousness clauses — which permit doctors to opt out of performing abortions — to the stigmatization of abortion providers who are often stereotyped as incompetent physicians. Providers may also fear for their physical safety as a result of the stigma: Since 1993, eight clinic workers have been murdered. As you can see, this stigma affects people’s lives. These people are women in our University community. One in three isn’t just a statistic; it’s a representation of all the women in your life who have had abortions but have not been given the opportunity to talk about them. Every time an anti-abortion law is proposed and every time a group of anti-abortion activists stands in front of a clinic entrance with signs that shame individuals who have abortions, we’re shaming one-third of our nation’s women for a choice that they made about their lives. This shaming effectively tells women who have had abortions — and women who are going to have abortions — that their experience is invalid, and that the choice they made about their pregnancy is shameful. It’s our duty as young people who care about the safety and wellbeing of our community to amplify the voices of individuals who have had abortions by creating a space for them to share their stories
free of the shame and stigma that currently surrounds abortion. We’re reclaiming our voices and telling our stories so that women around the nation can tell theirs, too. Not only do we hope that the sharing of personal abortion stories finally puts an end to the stigmatization of abortion, but we hope that it mobilizes abortion supporters to advocate for safe, legal and affordable abortion care. This Thursday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. in the Anderson Room of the Michigan Union, Students for Choice will be holding its third annual Abortion Speak Out. The Abortion Speak Out is an opportunity for members of our campus community who have had an abortion(s) to share their experience in a safe, supportive and judgment-free space. Afterward, the Speak Out will be open for anyone to share their personal abortion story. While we encourage all University community members to join us in listening to the stories of friends and peers, only individuals who have had an abortion will have the opportunity to speak. It’s time to come together to end the stigma and shame around abortion. *We recognize that not all people who have abortions identify as women; transgender men and gendernonconforming individuals also opt to terminate pregnancies. However, available statistical data only measures the prevalence of abortion among cisgender women.
Curiously, these stats raise an interesting question: Should the increased exposure of political corruption influence us to become less appreciative of (and therefore less service-oriented toward) America? Personally, I don’t think so. The fact that America is not the idealistic nation we want to reside in now doesn’t mean it can’t be more like that place tomorrow. In fact, our recognition of problems and failures in our political system provide us all with an opportunity to make it better. These circumstances are particularly inspiring in a democratic society. The identification of our opportunities should galvanize us to be more grateful for America; more thankful, more selfless and more service-oriented for what we have and for understanding our possibility to become better nationally and
individually. One particular satirical news anchor has adopted this thinking. Jon Stewart, the former host of “The Daily Show” and an avid critic of American politics and the dirty incentives that drive our political leaders, has harped on the importance of civic duty. He believes national service, as long as it doesn’t stray from one’s critical understanding of our leaders’ goals and one’s personal goals, is beneficial for everyone. In other words, he believes we should be critically proud of America for what is has given us, and for what it can give us, because we are citizens with the capacity to change it. That opportunity implicitly demands responsibility from everyone continuing to question our leaders and then improving America’s standing in our world. In this context, former
president John F. Kennedy’s words ring true: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” And while it’s necessary to recognize the possible xenophobia, discrimination and genocide that groupthink patriotism creates, a strong dose of critical nationalism provides our country and our communities with a stronger civil society and a more participatory democracy. In rather obvious terms, it’s beneficial for everyone to dedicate themselves to their fellow citizens. Without doing so, we’ll continue losing a sense of selflessness, a duty to something greater and a commitment to giving back to what and whom we’ve benefited from.
Wrriten by LSA junior Meg Rattani on behalf of Students for Choice.
— Sam Corey can be reached at samcorey@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 — 5A
TV NOTEBOOK
NEW MEDIA NOTEBOOK
Essena O’Neill Jon Stewart to HBO, ‘Star Trek’ to CBS drops Instagram By ALEX INTNER
Social media celebrity stuns fans with departure By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK Daily Arts Writer
First, a picture: Tall and blond, tan skin framed in a backless white dress, hands scrunching perfect beach hair. She’s laughing — her profile crinkling — while her toes, curled on the edge of a dock, point out to the shimmery water. We, the Instagram stalkers, soak it in, and try to replicate it. We change out of sweats and into season-appropriate casual wear (i.e. what we weren’t casually wearing before), find an inspiring (yet still natural) backdrop for our spontaneous adventure. We copy the angle of the camera, capturing our own curved silhouettes and sidegrins; we hook a finger strategically behind our ear, taming an imaginary lock of hair. We wait until dusk for the perfect light and the “prime time” to post on Instagram (roughly 7 to 9 p.m., according to my 18-year-old sister). We laugh 100 times. We get super annoyed that we still don’t look candid enough. And we wish our lives were as cool as Essena O’Neill’s. Over the past four years, O’Neill, a 19-year-old from the Sunshine Coast of Australia, has become a social media celebrity — followed by half a million on Instagram, nearly 250,000 on her YouTube channel. On her IMG modeling profile, O’Neill claims to be “committed to inspiring young women to love their bodies and to make good lifestyle choices.” Her Instagram feed proves it: she laughs on the beach, makes açai breakfast bowls, unwinds
Daily Arts Writer
with yoga. On YouTube, she reveals beauty tips and vegan recipes, giving followers insight to her perfectly zen, perfectly candid life in the sun. So when O’Neill changed her Instagram name to “Social Media Is Not Real Life” last week, the Internet blew up. Without warning, she re-captioned her photos — the ones hundreds of thousands of us had pinned as “goals” — to tell the real story behind them. For the photo of her in the backless white dress, she wrote: “NOT REAL LIFE — I didn’t pay for the dress, took countless photos trying to look hot for Instagram, the formal made me feel incredibly alone.” She revealed the advertising deals made covertly, writing on another, “Was paid $400 to post a dress.” She said that with her number of followers, online brands now pay up to $2,000 per Instagram. Promotional photos aside, the real shock was the intention behind O’Neill’s personal pictures. Because when there wasn’t a brand — just a natural, laughing picture of O’Neill — we felt connected, like we were in on her secret. But what social media users don’t see (or choose to ignore) is what’s really being sold: not a brand, but the Instagrammer (or blogger, YouTuber, etc.) herself. O’Neill uncovered pictures of herself on the beach, writing, “Nothing is candid.” On another: “A 15-year-old that calorie restricts and excessively exercises is not goals” — a message that’s dangerously ignored by masses of “fitspiration” boards and blogs. Consumed by numbers — views, likes, followers — O’Neill deleted her Instagram and YouTube, calling it quits on her “perfect life” as we knew it. She opened a Vimeo account, where
she recently posted a 12-minute video on “Why I think social media sucks,” in which she demands of future social media: “Would someone please make something that isn’t based on views, likes and followers?” She continues on the video, “If I had no likes or follows, I thought I meant nothing.” But (as we all know) feeling validation from likes or views isn’t anything new; O’Neill firmly states that she doesn’t blame social media itself for her unhappiness, but rather her own addiction to it. Her aim for Vimeo is to post three videos a week, sharing her thoughts on social media, body image and what it means to live a (real) healthy lifestyle, free from comments or approval from YouTube. Since the fallout, O’Neill has posted three more videos to her site. Despite her youth, despite how trivial the topic of social media seems, they watch strangely like a documentary: a behind-the-scenes look at a fallen celebrity. O’Neill is giddy and aspirational, inviting us all to be “game changers” by talking about ideas instead of Instagrams, reading books instead of counting likes. She promotes a movement for authenticity: “Go outside, go to a park, go to a beach, go somewhere there are people around you.” She ends solemnly, “You don’t have to appreciate what I’m doing, but I hope it feels somewhat real ... What I’m doing here is a statement that real life isn’t through screens.” It’s a sweet sentiment, but there’s something not quite right about it. Though her makeup is gone, her hair stuffed in a bun, O’Neill is still blinking up from a screen. An unsettling question remains: Didn’t her Instagram feel somewhat real to us as well?
FILM NOTEBOOK
James Bond and the endless franchise By MADELEINE GAUDIN Daily Arts Writer
I remember dressing up with a cape and a wand to see the midnight premiere of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” I bought my ticket weeks in advance, waited in line with 100 other wizards for spooky-themed snacks. Most importantly, I got to the theater early to pick the best seat (right behind the railing so I could put my feet up). I was excited to see the movie because I’d read all the books. The evening oozed anticipation more than surprise. I, along with everyone else in the theater, already knew what would happen, and that’s exactly why we were there. That’s the case for fans of any book series-turned-film franchise. I’m sure (though I don’t have any firsthand experience) that the “Twilight” movies brought out just as passionate a crowd. However, James Bond is different. No one dresses up in white tuxes and sips martinis in the movie theater to celebrate the next 007 addition. Although that would be pretty suave, James Bond is a different kind of series, if you can even call it that. “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” have a beginning and an end. Everybody (and I mean everybody) cries at the end of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” because they know it’s over. I’m assuming no one cried at the end of “Spectre,” the latest episode in the adventures of James Bond, even if they thought it was the finale of 007. An air of possibility hangs over the ending of a Bond movie — the possibility of another film or another Bond somewhere in the not-so-distant future. This begs the question: Will James Bond ever be over? I don’t think so, or at least not in
20TH CENTURY FOX
Where are the shirtless Instagram pics?
my lifetime. As long as a Daniel Craig look-alike (though it’s about time for some diversity) can throw on a tux and shoot a gun, there will be more movies. And that’s interesting, seeing as James Bond was originally a book series. It would, therefore, make sense to have a set beginning and end. But the storyline has spiraled off from the novels completely, drawing on elements from all the books in each film rather than following their plots exactly. Bond is a bit like Sherlock Holmes in the way the stories, both stemming from books, are malleable — actors, time periods and plotlines can be adjusted to fit popular demand. In the past 10 years, both Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch have played Sherlock, the former in a ho-hum film adaptation and the latter in a brilliant BBC TV series. Bond has been played by seven men, ranging from the mediocre Pierce Brosnan to the
classic Sean Connery. Anyone can play Bond or Sherlock, in a way that doesn’t exist in other series. Only Daniel Radcliffe can play Harry Potter (and that’s a fact). But, like Sherlock, Bond can embody different representations; many different actors (who all look eerily similar) can take on the role. Maybe Bond films are just too profitable to give up on. The 2012 installment “Skyfall” made over $1,000,000,000. That’s not too surprising, considering these films are full of everything the public loves: sex, guns and unnecessary explosions. Bond lives adjacent to Marvel Comics’ superheroes (another series of sorts that will never die) and down the street from more sophisticated spy thrillers, making the franchise a unique blend of artistry and mass market appeal. Maybe one day our hero will meet his fateful end, but perhaps the allure of sex, guns and fast cars is just too good to pass up.
Last week, two deals were announced within 24 hours that each can shift the online streaming landscape. The first involves a new “Star Trek” series that will air on CBS’s streaming service, CBS All Access. The second announced that Jon Stewart will bring his breaking news commentary to HBO Go and HBO Now. If these deals reach their maximum potential, they will allow each service to establish itself as an original content provider, though each will face stiff challenges in the process. CBS is trying to send the message that it’s ready to stand with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus with its “Star Trek” deal. The series will be executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote the last two movies of the franchise, and will premiere in January 2017 on CBS All Access after airing a “special preview episode” on CBS. The “Star Trek” franchise is one of the largest in the CBS library, with six television series and a gigantic fanbase. So it’s a logical place for CBS to go to try to push viewers to its streaming service. Also, this isn’t the first time that a Star Trek series kicked off a new platform. Back in 1995 when Paramount was looking for something to support the new network UPN, they created “Star Trek: Voyager,” which aided the fledgling network by earning a high viewership during its first season. The Trek deal is the largest splash for a streaming content provider since the initial twoseason, $100 million pickup of “House of Cards” by Netflix in 2011. But Netflix had more to build on than CBS All Access. Les Moonves, the head of CBS, has refused to say how many are currently subscribing to the $5.99 per month site, only suggesting that the number is greater than the 100,000 that currently subscribe to Dish Network’s Sling service. At the time of the “Cards” announcement, Netflix had 20 million subscribers. CBS is likely working from a smaller base than Netflix, so it will be more difficult to make the Trek show a success. However, CBS will be using their linear audience, which is still the highest of any of the broadcast networks. It will include a season’s worth of NFL promotions to try to push viewers to their preview showing. The key will be making a high-quality episode of television with a cliffhanger that will help the shove. As for Jon Stewart’s HBO deal, the details are slim. But we do know Stewart signed a fouryear deal with HBO that covers new short-form digital content for HBO Now and Go, as well as a first-look deal for any film or television projects Stewart might produce during this time span. Stewart, who left “The Daily Show” earlier this year,
COMEDY CENTRAL
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
has the opportunity to make new content multiple times per day, all of which will be uploaded as they’re ready. In his former role, Stewart was one of the preeminent names in news, doing 22 minutes of commentary and comedy four times a week. This appears to be a part of a larger push by HBO to enter the news commentary arena, which started with “Last Week Tonight” and will continue with an upcoming nightly newscast from VICE. The key difference between HBO’s prior news projects and Stewart’s videos are that Stewart’s will be exclusively online, on the subscriber-only streaming sites. Given the success that Oliver has enjoyed in his time at HBO, it’s only natural that his mentor, Stewart, will
have a similar level of triumph creatively. Still, the big question is whether Stewart is enough of a name to guide people to HBO’s online presence. HBO is probably shelling out a great deal of money to Stewart for this deal, and they need the viewership to make it worthwhile. Ultimately, the subscriber numbers will decide whether or not these deals will be valuable to the networks. HBO has a subscriber base that will make it easier for them than CBS, but CBS has the NFL as a launching pad, which is larger than anything HBO has. However, if both deals bring the ideal number of viewers, they will open up both CBS All Access and HBO Now and Go as original programmers in the online space.
Sports
6A — Wednesday, November 11, 2015
FOOTBALL
‘M’ defensive line aims to play mean Hurst, Wormley focused on toughness as home stretch approaches By JAKE LOURIM Managing Sports Editor
To open a chat with reporters Tuesday night, redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Maurice Hurst credited his breakout season to his coaches, defensive line coach Greg Mattison and student assistant Will Carr. Then, Hurst expounded on his praise of Carr, referencing his All-American career as a nose tackle at Michigan in the 1990s: “He was a bad dude.” Carr, an All-American in 1996 with 180 tackles, 38 tackles for loss and 11 sacks in his career, isn’t the only one in the locker room who could be described that way. “We try to see ourselves as that,” Hurst said of the Wolverines’ defensive line. “There’s certainly times when we’re like that.” Michigan’s defensive line has been tenacious this season, accounting for 19.5 sacks and 40.5 tackles for loss. The front is a big reason that the Wolverines rank first in the nation in scoring defense. Just as jarring, though, have been the individual highlights. On Oct. 31, Hurst crushed Minnesota running back Shannon Brooks for a loss of three on 3rd-and-goal from the
two-yard line, forcing a fieldgoal try. In the previous game against Michigan State, redshirt junior Chris Wormley stormed the backfield and sacked Spartans quarterback Connor Cook on third down, forcing a punt. “Especially when you’re winning games and you have that confidence, that just makes you play a little harder, a little faster, a little tougher, a little more mean,” Wormley said. “You have that arrogance to come in and say, ‘You’re not going to push us around, and we’re going to win this game no matter what it takes.’ ” Wormley leads the team with 10 tackles for loss, and he and Hurst have both at least doubled their output in that category from last year. Hurst, who made just one such stop in 2014, has already made 5.5 this season. “Although he plays nose, he’s the fastest guy off the ball,” Wormley said of Hurst. “He’s very quick. He’s very sneaky, and he makes plays, which is what we need on the defensive line.” Though quiet and unassuming off the field, Hurst has ramped up the intensity at various points this year, providing highlight plays for the Michigan defense that carry over until the next time the unit takes the field. “I definitely think you have to turn it up on the field,” Wormley said. “You can be the quietest, calmest guy walking down the street, but when it’s Saturday and you turn it up, you have to have that mentality, (different)
“For sure, I think we’re playing a lot more physical.”
than you would if you were watching TV with your mom or dad.” Hurst and Wormley could be critical Saturday if redshirt junior Ryan Glasgow, who injured his shoulder in the first quarter last week against Rutgers, can’t play. In that case, presumably, Hurst would make his first career start. But the shuffling along the line won’t be anything new for Michigan, which also lost sophomore nose tackle Bryan Mone to a season-ending injury in August. Rotation has been one of the hallmarks of the defensive line, and it will be a key Saturday against Indiana’s up-tempo offense. Hurst noted that while constant changes on the offensive line can bring chemistry issues, the practice is common on defense. It helps that the Wolverines are also feeling better physically than they were at this time last year. Strength coach Kevin Tolbert, whom head coach Jim Harbaugh brought from the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, has focused more on recovery in weekday workouts, making sure the players are freshest on Saturday. That ensures that Hurst, Wormley and Co. can wreak havoc in the opposing backfield as they have all season. “For sure, I think we’re playing a lot more physical,” Hurst said. “Even if you turn on the Michigan State game from last year and you turn it on from this year, I think we’re playing a lot more physical up front. I think that was a big game where you could see that. “I definitely think that’s something we really improved on. (We) kind of stopped ourselves from getting knocked around, and really trying to be the hammer, not get pushed back and push everyone forward.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Walk-on Hibbitts picked Michigan over scholarship By KELLY HALL Daily Sports Writer
For most high school basketball players with Division I aspirations, college decisions are made long before May of senior year. Brent Hibbitts, however, had to wait until he was admitted to Michigan before making his. Hibbitts had already received a handful of scholarship offers from mid-major schools such as Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Appalachian State when Michigan coach John Beilein and the Wolverines entered the mix during his senior season. But playing for Michigan came with a catch: Hibbitts would have to be a walk-on and pay his way through college. Days after hearing of his acceptance, the 6-foot-8 forward decided to become a preferred walk-on for the Wolverines, and just a few weeks after that, he arrived in Ann Arbor for summer training. “I had several offers that I was considering,” Hibbitts said. “But then Michigan came up, and that was obviously a different option because I’d be a walk-on and have to pay, but it also had its benefits: the academics, the level of play, just being a part of Michigan. “I’m a Michigan guy, so I guess that’s kind of always been a dream.” The role of a walk-on is less glamorous than that of a scholarship athlete, but the benefits that come with playing against Big Ten talent and earning a Michigan degree were too hard to ignore. “I’m undecided on my major right now,” Hibbitts said. “But obviously, it’s Michigan, it has very high academics. When I do decide, I know I’ll be getting a great education no matter what I major in.” Hibbitts averaged 17.5 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game as a senior at Hudsonville High School, garnering an Associated Press Class A All-State honorable mention and an offer from Central Michigan, where his
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Brent Hibbitts is expected to redshirt in 2015-16.
older brother, Blake, is a two-sport athlete, was particularly enticing. Though his brother initially wanted him to be a Chippewa so they could play together again, the elder Hibbitts backed off as time went by and more offers rolled in. “As (recruitment) went on, he was just like, ‘Do what’s best for you,’ ” Hibbitts said. “I waited it out and decided that this was best for me, and he was really supportive as well, just like everyone else in my family.” During Michigan’s 2014-15 season, the importance of the walk-on role was apparent. After then-junior guard Caris LeVert and then-sophomore guard Derrick Walton were sidelined with season-ending injuries, then-sophomore walk-ons Sean Lonergan and Andrew Dakich appeared in 17 and 13 games, respectively, playing over 120 combined minutes. They were more than just garbage-time players. Though the Wolverines are healthy and experienced for the time being, Hibbitts knows from history that if he puts in the work, he’ll get meaningful minutes down the road. As one of just two freshmen on a
seasoned squad, it’s expected that Hibbitts will redshirt this season. The other freshman — German forward Moritz Wagner — is Hibbitts’ roommate. “He’s a really goofy dude,” Hibbitts said of Wagner. “It’s been good. (The team) really accepted us with everything, on the court, off the court. Moe is my roommate, so we got to know each other really well, and then we got to know the team together. It’s been a good relationship.” For now, Hibbitts and Wagner are just learning the ropes in practice, side by side with future NBA talent, while simultaneously adjusting to college life. “I was a little bit overwhelmed when I first started playing with (LeVert),” Hibbits said. “I was just like ‘Wow, he’s a really good player.’ A lot of other guys are like that too. Now I’m kind of used to it, but I’m still impressed by how good of a player he is. He works really, really hard too, so it’s no surprise that he’s that good.” After giving up full rides to other schools just for the opportunity to contribute to the Wolverines, Hibbitts plans on working hard, too.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
FOR RENT
SERVICES
! NORTH CAMPUS 1‑2 Bdrm. ! ! Riverfront/Heat/Water/Parking. ! ! www.HRPAA.com !
DEFENSE OF FACULTY misconduct cases Nachtlaw.com 734‑663‑7550
APARTMENT ON A horse facility. New one bedroom, 15 min from main campus. Must be an accomplished horse person. Light farm and horse work and farm sitting in exchange for rent. Email all inquiries to jchaconas@ccim. net
DEFENSE OF STUDENT sexual misconduct cases Nachtlaw.com 734‑663‑7550
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Inaugural ball, e.g. 5 Calcium source 9 Open, as toothpaste 14 Very dry 15 Down to business 16 Former Cleveland oil company acquired by BP 17 San __, Italy 18 “Of course” 19 Match with bishops 20 Access to 54Across 23 Catalina, e.g. 24 Houston-based scandal subject 25 Wood-shaping tools 27 Phone button trio 30 Badminton barrier 31 Short-legged dog 32 Emotionally out of control 34 “Mad” social in 54-Across 37 Spud 38 Benefit 39 Butte relative 40 Like 2016 41 Antacid choice 42 Deteriorate 43 34-Across napper in 54Across 45 Remove pieces from? 46 Fencing defense 47 Keep out 48 Mao __-tung 49 Shortening brand 51 Divided country 53 Wild West weapon 54 Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 59 Loafs 61 Some intersections 62 Slushy treat 63 Approaches 64 Bond girl Kurylenko 65 Facial area under a soul patch 66 Prickly shrub 67 Corset stiffener 68 Fish caught in pots
DOWN 1 Teri of “Tootsie” 2 Neck of the woods 3 Common perch 4 Acrobat creator 5 Restaurant host 6 Soup server’s caution 7 Use, as a chaise 8 “As seen on TV” record co. 9 Pac-12 powerhouse 10 Baseball rarities 11 Critter who kept disappearing in 54-Across 12 It may be graded in an auditorium 13 Plays to the camera 21 Deep-seated 22 Online money source 26 Alsatian dadaist 27 Took steps 28 “Top Chef” network 29 Hookah smoker in 54-Across 31 Bus. brass 33 Highly respected Buddhists 34 Improvised booster seat for a tot, maybe
35 Romanov royals 36 Selfcongratulatory cheer 38 Active 41 “The Burden of Proof” author 42 Restaurant visitor 44 Hobbit enemy 45 Venture to express 47 Barrio food store 49 Keeping in the loop, briefly
50 Wild West show 51 Lowered oneself? 52 Visitor to 54Across 55 Plains people 56 Overexertion aftermath 57 Diamond of music 58 Man caves, maybe 60 Nottingham-toLondon dir.
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
xwordeditor@aol.com
11/11/15
THESIS EDITING, LANGUAGE, organization, format. All Disciplines. 734/996‑0566 or writeon@iserv.net
ARBOR PROPERTIES Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerrytown, Central Campus, Old West Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 2016. 734‑994‑3157. www.arborprops.com FALL 2016 HOUSES # Beds Location Rent 6 605 E. Hoover $4350 6 716 E. Kingsley $4500 6 1207 Church $4650 5 515 S. Fourth $3500 5 1019 Packard $4350 4 827 Brookwood $2800 4 927 S. Division $2800 4 1010 Cedar Bend $2400 2 935 S. Division $2100 Tenants pay all utilities. Leasing starts Nov. 10th Reservations Accepted till 11/7. CAPPO/DEINCO 734‑996‑1991 MAY 2016 HOUSES # Beds Location Rent 6 417 N. Thayer $4260 5 1119 S. Forest $4200 4 505 Sauer $2440 Tenants pay all utilities. Showings Scheduled M‑F 10‑3 24 hour noticed required DEINCO PROPERTIES 734‑996‑1991 WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.‑ COM 734‑332‑6000
By D. Scott Nichols and C.C. Burnikel ©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/11/15
FOR SALE
TICKETS & TRAVEL
IPHONE 5S, 64GB, MINT $350 Text: 734‑337‑3325
TIX ‑ WANTED to Buy Ohio State FB Call Dave (614) 761‑7653
Ristovski readies to play her sisters Detroit matchup personal for Wolverine senior guard By TED JANES Daily Sports Writer
The trash talking has already begun in the Ristovski household. Three sisters — Madison, Haleigh and Lola Ristovski — have been playing basketball together for as long as they can remember. Madison, a senior guard at Michigan, will go head-to-head with her younger siblings this weekend when the Wolverines face off against Detroit on Sunday. Haleigh, a junior guard/ forward, and Lola, a freshman guard, are now together for the first time since they played high school at University Liggett in Sterling Heights. Now that Lola has moved into the collegiate ranks, the younger pair has the chance to team up and go against their older sister when the two teams meet on Sunday. “I’m really excited to play against them,” Madison Ristovski said. “We’ve been playing together since we were little. I’m really looking forward to the game, and I know a lot of people from my hometown are going to be there, which is going to be really special.” The middle child, Haleigh, is likely to start for the Titans, and while Lola might not be in the starting five, she managed to play 15 minutes and nail a 3-pointer in the team’s season opener against Lawrence Tech,
so it’s likely that at some point, all three of them will take the court. Back in high school, for Madison’s senior year, all three started for University Liggett, and the Ristovski trio came together for a monster campaign in Madison’s last go. Even though they all play different styles now in college — Lola being more of a transition player and Haleigh developing more inside with a post presence — when they linked up in high school, with Madison at the point, and Haleigh and Lola playing the ‘2’ and ‘3’, the guardheavy lineup was lights-out all season. “That year, we lost two games, and we played the toughest nonconference schedule,” Madison Ristovski said. “We made it to the state championship.” University Liggett lost, 61-57, in the closely contested 2012 Class C championship game, a shootout in which Madison went for 42 points. The team fell to Morley Stanwood, but Madison, the newly crowned Michigan Miss Basketball, had the performance of a lifetime, supported by the aid of her younger siblings. “We lost, but I think me, Haleigh and Lola had 53 of the 57 points,” Ristovski said. Four years later, Lola is again a freshman and Ristovski again a senior, but in completely different realms. Michigan and Detroit have met each of the last two years, and the Wolverines hold a 2-0 advantage over the Titans. Sunday afternoon, Madison will try to bump that number up to three, proving that she’s still the alpha in the loaded basketball family.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 — 7A
FOOTBALL
Hard-headed Houma a man of many talents By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor
Sione Houma is sometimes a man of few words, but he’s not a man of few talents. For most of his career, the senior fullback from Salt Lake City has flown relatively under the radar as a fullback on the Michigan football team. Prior to the 2015 season, Houma had caught two passes, returned two kickoffs and recorded a smattering of tackles. Most of his work went unseen, be it blocking as a fullback or contributing on special teams. But when Jim Harbaugh was signed to coach the Wolverines this past winter, that all changed for Houma, who already has 22 carries for 114 yards and three
touchdowns in 2015, as well as five catches for 53 yards. Suddenly, the player who was hadn’t recorded a carry before this season is now eighth on the team in allpurpose yards with 167. Last week, Houma took snaps as a running back, a development that originated from his successes running fullback dives earlier in the season. And while he never would have expected it, he’s embracing his expanding role. “I got caught (off guard) when they (asked) me if I wanted to try
out at running back,” Houma said. “Everything happens for a reason, and I’m put in this position right now for a reason: to help the team out. … That’s what I’m here for.” Houma is still playing fullback, too, but his skills are more visible now than they ever were in the past. Against Rutgers, Houma found himself wide open on a wheel route after a fake to Jabrill Peppers drew defenders off him. The play went for a 32-yard gain, and were it not for a throw
“It’s always protecting the running back and quarterback.”
that was slightly behind him, Houma might have scored. “Right after that, my little brother came and talked to me,” Houma said. “He said, ‘You’ve gotta high-knee it! High-knee it!’ Just critiquing me. He said if I high-kneed it, I would have scored, because I got shoelace tackled. “I just gotta work on my speed. There’s a lot of things I’ve gotta work on, and speed is one of them.” Among the things he has down, his power run game comes to mind as a definitive strength. His 5.2 yards per carry are the second most of any Wolverine with at least 10 carries, trailing only junior running back Ty Isaac. And while he often has to
absorb cringe-worthy hits, Houma is predisposed to the power style. “I’m just hard-headed,” Houma said. “Hard-headed, like, football wise. Coming down, if it’s me and the linebacker, I’m pretty much using all head. I know that’s wrong, but it doesn’t really phase me as much. “I think the first couple years I was here, a lot of people would be having concussions, and — knock on wood — I haven’t had one yet. So, I’ve just been using that to my advantage.” When he isn’t taking a pounding on the field, Houma likes the same things most college kids do. He likes playing Super Smash Bros on Nintendo 64 with junior running back Drake Johnson, and he and
sophomore defensive tackle Bryan Mone enjoy making music together. Houma plays the ukulele, and Mone provides the vocals. Houma’s favorite song to play is “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” But don’t let Houma’s musical taste fool you into thinking he has gotten away from his roots doing the dirty work. Even after getting a taste of carrying the ball and scoring touchdowns, he still enjoys blocking for his teammates first and foremost. “That’s my number one deal, right there,” Houma said. “It’s always protecting the running back and quarterback.” So yes, blocking is still his number-one job, but as his role in the offense continues to expand, it’s far from his only one.
8A — Wednesday, November 11, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2B
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement
Dear Google: Confidence?
C A M P U S CO N F L I C T S & CO N V E R S AT I O N S
BY EMMA KERR
D
ear Emma, I’m wondering about where your confidence comes from, if not from relationships. Do you feel like you have achieved self-confidence in a way I haven’t? Explain to me how you’ve gotten there. Professional and academic accomplishments just don’t feel as emotional to me, so my mind just doesn’t focus on them in the same way, the same kind of high. Do people ever feel as fulfilled in their jobs as they do when they are in love? I have serious professional goals for myself but I don’t feel the same visceral feeling I get from romantic relationships. Sincerely, Seeking Confidence *** Dear Seeking Confidence, I really appreciate that this question assumes I am confident. There’s an easy answer here and it’s mostly rooted in defensiveness: find passions that lead to personal success, and those personal successes will give you a sense of confidence that can only be attributed to you. That’s it. And maybe that’s the way it should be and the way it will be with time — as we learn not to rely on one person to build our selfesteem. But in saying that, I can also add that I listen to Kurt Vile when I walk between my classes during the day, and it’s not necessarily because I dig a good indie singer-songwriter. I do things like that, within the constraints of my real life (re:
COVER BY JAKE WELLINS
classes, journalistic pursuits), because a tiny part of my mind is on my boyfriend, and I guess subsequently his funky music taste. And in that sense, a part of my identity is wrapped up in him, but as much as having a significant other can seem like everything, my boyfriend is not my source of confidence — and it’s not for lack of trying. I still feel extremely insecure about the way I look, I keep failed exams in the back of my mind, and when anyone at the Daily brings up internship prospects, my feelings of insecurity skyrocket. Confidence comes in waves, no matter where you get it from. I understand what you’re saying about being extremely dedicated to your professional life but feeling something special and unreplicable about the romantic part of your life. Maybe dealing with this means reconciling the self that is an amazingly ambitious, driven woman with the person who likes to feel good, who has fun romantically, and gets high on that whole experience. Realize that the value you receive from any other person is ephemeral — but that also doesn’t make romantic relationships a pointless black hole you need to eliminate from your mind. And more than that, the truth is the confidence and personal value you, or others who feel fulfilled by their jobs or majors or passions, derive from the professional and academic world can be just as fleeting. Confidence seems to me to be a decision you have to make every day — choosing to be persistently dedicated to the things and people you care
about will make you feel positive, and you should. There are so many things you absolutely do not have control over in your life, but if you can rely on having a sense of self that is unwavering, all of those things suddenly feel a lot more simple. It’s fake at first, maybe, but the success confidence brings eventually turns into real confidence. I also think people just go through phases where certain things are on their minds more. I don’t think it’s too much of an unfair generalization to say students of our age are feeling romantic emotions pretty strongly, and honestly I don’t think that’s a problem. Sincerely, Emma
ON THE RECORD
“I hope to get people over their initial shyness about talking about race in mixed company. The funny thing about race, gender and ethnicity issues, people are very reluctant to discuss them in mixed company.” — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist CLARENCE PAGE in an interview with The Michigan Daily ***
“We just wanted to use our platform to take a stance for a fellow concerned student on an issue. We love the game, but in end of the day, it is just that: a game.” — University of Missouri football team captain IAN SIMON after over 30 football players boycotted the team in response to increased incidents of racism on campus.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement 3B
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
On virtual death B Y N A B E E L C H O L L A M PAT
T H E L I S T B U Z Z F E E D, B U T B E T T E R GR ADES ARE A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT The pre Thanksgiving push of exams, essays, and group projects is upon us. We should all buckle down and study. (Should.) If you aren’t feeling it, here are five ways to productively procras-
1
M U S K E T ’ S “ S P R I N G AWA K E N I N G”
2
C O O K YO U R M E A L S F O R T H E W E E K
The U’s first student-run theater company is putting on the award-winning play four times next weekend. Don’t miss it.
Therapeutic for the body and mind, and an effective way to ensure future productivity.
3 “MASTER OF NONE”
Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix comedy is a masterpiece in its own right, richly mining issues of race, gender, sex and adulthood.
4 G O O G L E H O M E WO R K S T R AT E G I E S We’ve killed many an hour looking for that perfect Facebook-blocking app. Ugh, #millennials.
5 NAP
Pretty self-explanatory.
O
ne of Facebook’s most peculiar capabilities is the “legacy contact feature.” Only recently implemented, the functionality allows users — usually loved ones — to inherit control of the Facebook accounts of the deceased. A quick “Remembering” is affixed before the profile name, maybe a profile picture or cover photo is updated, and the account survives. What was once a picture on the mantle has become a full-fledged social media profile. Objectively, this is almost impossibly odd. While our tangible bodies are laid to rest, our Facebook profile keeps on humming, still attracting likes and receiving “Happy Birthday!” posts. A hasty Facebook stalk unearths an eerie archive of past comments and unsettling time stamps on status updates. Our Internet selves — who are, arguably, often our most elaborate fabrications — survive our real selves; a corporal end does not necessitate a virtual one. On an entirely separate note, the most frightening thing happened on the day before Halloween: my favorite website was shut down. It would be impossible to understate Grantland’s importance to me nor my slavish devotion to its publication; I was slightly embarrassed
by how sad I was from the end of a website. In an era of lists posing as articles and blog posts with more gifs than words, Bill Simmons’ site was refreshingly (somewhat) traditional. Sure, there was a series of podcasts called “Food News,” and the site ran a full-length piece scrutinizing a single picture of Nicki Minaj’s appearance at a random kid’s Bar Mitzvah (it ranks as one of my all-time favorites), but Grantland also allowed its almost universally talented writers the freedom to write what they wanted, to dive deep into their own oceans of interest and produce thought-provoking, complex long-form criticism. That kind of latitude is rare in an industry preoccupied with beats and word counts and short attention spans. I read their stuff every day. I dreamed of working there. The writers seemed so at ease and so comfortable that Grantland seemed like that pipe dream you have when you’re younger that you and your best friends will all work at the same place. And some form of the eulogy above has all been published online in the past couple of weeks numerous times, by people more important and more talented than I, but the simple fact is this: clicking
Grantland on my favorites section now produces a solitary, somber, “It was a good run.” To access the archives, it tells me, I must use the navigation above. I don’t aim to equate the death of a human being with the shutdown of a website owned by ESPN. What’s interesting is how we, as a culture, have decided to memorialize both equally, with a URL and a permanent home in cyberspace. What is the point of death, of endings, if our dependence on the Internet has produced such a disfigured and superficial sense of immortality? Why do we love so passionately and grieve with such force if only to be constantly reminded of our loss by, well, its presence? This is all representative of our gradual, collective devaluation of endings. Franchises are rebooted, spin-offs are planned, updates are released — everything finds a new home. And when things do finally end, they are memorialized in the same space they were once thriving. The Internet and everything it has touched has simply become too big for just the living; it now houses the hollow remembrances of things past. A grave requires work: digging, laying, crying, visiting, remembering. A dead man’s Facebook account is just another tab in a window of many.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHERYLL VICTUELLES
4B
Wednesday, November 11, 2015// The Statement
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement
Eating Purposefully:
A look at campus vegan culture by Giancarlo Buonomo, Daily Food Columnist
O
n the morning of Oct. 21, 2015, Eva Roos, an art and design senior, slept through five alarms before finally arising. She yawned and stretched her arms, pulled her blankets off, hopped into the shower and got dressed. In her kitchen, she prepared breakfast, like she does any
morning. She poured a half-cup of oats into a bowl, added one level cup of water, nuked it for thirty seconds, and garnished with flax seed and a heaping spoon of cinnamon. Before leaving the house, she grabbed a bottle of kombucha, a fermented tea beverage which she brews and bottles herself in her basement. That same morning, I woke up after three alarms and the sound of a car passing by my window. I rolled out of bed, and on my way to the shower, paused to pick up a bowl from my desk, the dregs of last night’s chicken soup at the bottom. I pulled on a pair of wool socks and brown leather shoes. Before leaving the house, I checked on two baseball-mitt sized pork cheeks I have curing in my basement. For breakfast, I drank a cup of coffee with a splash of milk in it, and a croissant — which must have contained a half-stick of butter. I ate in a hurry, because I was on my way to see Eva Roos. We met in the basement of a local coffee shop. Eva is tall and striking, with fiery hair buzzed into a Skrillex cut. A button, reading “End Police Violence,” was pinned to her jacket. I turned on my recorder, and spoke, quite timidly: “So … veganism.” Eva is a vegan; she consumes no animal products. She became a vegetarian Thanksgiving of her freshman year, and then fully vegan last October while studying abroad in Copenhagen. But why would she make such a drastic change? Why would anyone? “I’ve always had huge concern for the environment, and it just didn’t match up with my morals anymore to continue eating meat,” she said. “I also know my relationship with other animals and creatures. I know that if I knew the animal I could never be the one to kill it. That would be really hypocritical of me, and it just didn’t sit right.” Copenhagen wasn’t exactly
the best place to start as a vegan, and not just because Denmark, like most Northern European countries, is notoriously meatheavy. “What I ate was pretty undiverse, because I couldn’t read any of the labels,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I did vegan wrong.” The idea of doing veganism “wrong” is as old as the term itself. Vegetarianism has been around for thousands of years — the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras supposedly forbid his followers from eating meat, as did many of the earliest Hindu and Buddhist teachers. But a named veganism only came about in 1944, when Donald Watson founded The Vegan Society in Leicester, England. A group of dissidents from the established Vegetarian Society, they rejected not only meat, but dairy and eggs. Fast forward to modern times, and the United States is home to 1 million vegans. Veganism, like feminism, has its own internal subdivisions and sometimes-radical disagreements on self-definition. There are ethical vegans, environmental vegans, health vegans, even “flexible” vegans. Some people are only dietary vegans. Others won’t wear leather or wool. There are continuing arguments over the ethics of consuming honey and oysters. Eva is an environmental vegan, noting the impact of animal industries on carbon levels, water purity and land use. For food, she splits a farmshare (a stake in a local farm’s vegetable crop) with her sister, who isn’t a vegan but likes cooking. They get together on Sundays to convert the mound of vegetables into bulk vegan meals for the week: lentils, butternut squash soup, vegetable pizzas, even “frittatas” made with pureed tofu instead of eggs. At this point in the conversation, I expect Eva to say “And this is why everyone should go vegan!” Instead, she remained almost painfully non-judgmental. “If you’re a vegan, you can’t be — I think, personally, that I don’t have the right to be picky, because I’m imposing this on myself,” she said. Not all vegans are as nuanced. Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli historian and ethical vegan activist, recently took to the pages of The Guardian to claim that “animals are the main victims of history, and the treatment of domesticated animals in industrial farms is perhaps the worst crime in history.” So I decided to hunt down some ethical vegans. Laura “Lita” Brillman is an LSA junior studying in Washington, D.C this semester. Lita became a vegetarian when she was 12, and then a full vegan her senior year of high school. She comes at it from a broader animal rights perspective — she avoids cosmetics tested on animals, won’t visit a zoo or aquarium, and wouldn’t go horseback riding if the opportunity arose.
“I didn’t know being a vegetarian you still harm so many animals,” she said. “I didn’t realize dairy and eggs kill. You can’t feel great about being a vegetarian if you want to save as many animals as possible.” It’s true. Even if you aren’t opposed to the idea of breeding and holding animals for human purposes, the dairy and egg industries still deal out an unsettling amount of death. The dairy industry obviously only requires adult females — many male calves are sold as veal. Millions of useless male chicks are born a year, and many are killed in huge meat grinders soon after birth. Cows and chickens too old to produce anymore are usually slaughtered for meat. It was this reality that made LSA sophomore Sarah Gallagher go vegan four years ago. She heard a story about a cow that gave birth for the fifth time, and the calf was taken shortly after so that the mother could be milked. But she was dry. The farmer investigated, and found that the mother had actually birthed twins, and in a bovine version of “Sophie’s Choice,” was hiding one of the calves in the woods, and allowed the other to be taken away. “I didn’t really care about the health benefits — I’ve always considered myself a pretty healthy person,” she said. “It was the ethics that really got to me.” Our campus is full of vocal activists, students who identify inequalities and injustices, and are ready to remind others, publicly and privately. After talking with several vegans, I was left wondering how a vegan could even associate with meat eaters anymore? Or, more realistically, how do they resist the urge to chastise them? Sarah lives in a sorority house with its own dining hall, where she finds enough cereal, salad, and hummus to make meals. But many of her friends eat meat and dairy. “I don’t like to push my views onto them, because that makes people really uncomfortable most of the time,” she said. “I don’t talk about it much with people who I know wouldn’t be receptive.” This is a common pattern amongst the vegans I spoke with. Because eating is such a common, yet intimate experience, many people become anxious and/or defensive in the presence of vegans, and feel like they’re under attack. In a struggle between personal morals and social decorum, the latter often wins. “There’s this perception is that vegans talk about veganism all the time from a morally superior point of view,” Lita told me. “I’m not going to express discomfort unless it comes up.” She was quick to add that she didn’t even judge non-vegans as harshly as one would think. “A lot of the time people feel guilty, but don’t have willpower or drive to do it,” she explained. “We all have things like that. I should drive less, but I don’t.” The primary difficulty of adopting a vegan diet isn’t giving up animal products — in fact, most vegans I talked to reported having few to no cravings for meat, cheese, eggs, or milk anymore. Instead, it’s ensuring that what they eat doesn’t have any animal products in it. Jell-O and many gummy candies are made with gelatin derived from animal bones. Most barbeque chips have traces of milk in them. Guinness recently pledged to go vegan — for 257 years, they’ve used a fish-bladder compound, isinglass, to filter their beer. What’s a vegan to do? In Ann Arbor, you could go to The Lunch Room, one of only two vegan eateries in town. It began as a food truck in 2010 by vegan friends Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo. In August 2013, it opened as a permanent space, followed by a sister bakery a year later. I spoke with Panozzo at the restaurant over cups of vegan coffee. As he explained the restaurant’s philosophy, a fly buzzed near my head, and I suppressed the instinct to immediately crush it. “We put a lot of effort into assuring that every point of contact in the restaurant is entirely vegan, and has absolutely no animal products in it,” Panozzo said. “I’ve made sure even the sugar and the liquor are vegan.” Unsurprisingly, The Lunch Room has become a safe haven for campus vegans, unable to trust most restaurants. What’s
surprising is that, according to Panozzo, almost 90 percent of their customer base isn’t vegan. Most people come in because they want an affordable, healthy, meat-free meal. “We assume that most vegans out there will find us,” Panozzo said. “We’re really interested in reaching everyone else, and hopefully influencing their choices, and breaking the stereotype of vegan food as bland, expensive and unfulfilling.” Obviously, most vegans can’t make it to The Lunch Room for every meal. Many cook for themselves, or head to University Dining Halls, all of which serve vegetarian and vegan entrees at every meal. The two newest dining halls, South Quad and East Quad, even have purpose-built vegetarian stations. But when eating becomes a matter of personal morals, many vegans still feel the need to inquire about their meal, even if it is advertised as vegan. “Being a vegan, you have to be okay with being a nuisance sometimes.” Dylan Nelson, an LSA junior and South Quad Residential Advisor said. “You have to be an asshole sometimes, in order to make the choices you want to make.” Dylan became a vegan a year ago, after eight months of vegetarianism. Improbably, his parents, sister and high school girlfriend were all vegetarians. “I’d always say ‘Nah, I couldn’t that,’ ” he said. “In fact, I ate more meat than most people.” When he got to college, he gradually became a vegetarian, as he cut down on eating meat for both ethical and environmental reasons. Last Thanksgiving break, ironically, he watched a vegan documentary, “From Farm to Fridge.” He hasn’t looked back since. “I just couldn’t participate in that anymore,” he said “And after that, I found many more reasons to go vegan.” He cut out animal foods from his diet, and stopped buying clothes made with animal products. Last month, he even swapped out his old leather wallet for a pleather one. He feels more at peace with himself, but doesn’t want that to come off to others as smugness. “People assume that vegans are self-righteous, and certainly some of them are,” he said. “I hope I don’t come off as self-righteous. The reason that I say anything to anyone is to open up a conversation. I want them to ask me why I’m a vegan, and why it’s important to me, so that either they can something about the meat industry that they didn’t know, or at least get my perspective, and understand that I recognize that for some people, veganism or vegetarianism is completely unrealistic.” Before our conversation ended, Dylan suggested I watch another documentary, “Earthlings,” to get a better idea of why some people choose to become vegans. After a scene of a bull getting dehorned with bolt cutters, I slammed my laptop shut. Ann Arbor, given its progressive climate and number of veg-
5B
PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
an-friendly restaurants and shops, is certainly not a half-bad place to go vegan. And given the relative wealth of the student body, many can afford to buy more expensive products like organic vegetables and faux-meat products. Veganism, it should be said, is not a feasible lifestyle for everyone here. But for those who do choose to be vegan, I still wonder what the point is. Our world runs on animal usage and death. Vaccines are incubated in chicken eggs. Most condoms contain a milk extract. Growing vegetables’ food uses animals — ground bones as fertilizer, captive bees to pollinate, countless mice crushed during plowing. I asked Eva Roos why, as an individual, she would go vegan, in the face of such large, entrenched systems. “It just, morally, sits better with me, because I don’t feel like I have a lot of control in the system I’m existing in,” she said. “As far as making an environmental impact, I do what I can. But food is the one thing I have control over, so I really don’t allow myself to make exceptions.”
6B
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement
Student Profile: Nicole Potchen by Tanya Madhani, Daily Staff Reporter
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
L
SA senior Nicole Potchen, president of Circle K, a service organization on campus, said she’s been involved in community service her entire life — from helping her church to National Honor Society in high school. But she didn’t get involved in community service at the University until some of her friends had mentioned that she could take part in an Alternative Spring Break trip with them to Denver, Colo., for Habitat for Humanity. “A long drive like that, you definitely bond with everyone else in the car after being with them for so long,” Potchen said. She didn’t have any experience with construction or building houses, she said, but the experience grew her passion for service and for Circle K, who sponsored the ASB trip. Circle K’s largest event, Potchen said, is Service Day, a 24-hour cycle of continuous community service and is the first large Circle K event she participated in when she first joined. “I just got to meet a lot of great people on Service Day,” she said. “Even though I was a member of the club, I wasn’t very active at that time, but after Service Day, I became very active. I got involved with the leadership team the next year and I’ve been involved ever since.” The event this year is from 8 a.m. on Nov. 14 to 8 a.m. on Nov. 15. The organization has partnered with twenty different student organizations, 200 Greek Life students and the Ginsberg Center for its eleventh year. The Michigan Daily interviewed Potchen as she made final preparations for the upcoming event. What do you think the climate is surrounding community service at the University? I think I have a unique perspective, because I’m so involved with Circle K. I probably view it differently than most people. I would say, in general, I think sometimes community service can be viewed as a burden rather than something that is good. I think a lot of people do community service for their resumes and because it will help them in their personal growth in their career. But, I think that, for me and for most of the people that I’m surrounded by, we do community service because we think that it’s our duty and that’s what we should do. I think a lot of people actually do
view it that way, but they think that college is very tricky to find the time to actually do community service. I’ve learned that it really doesn’t take that much time. It’s really fit into your schedule and can work pretty well. Why do you think it’s important, as a college student, to participate in community service? Just because you’re in college, doesn’t really mean that you don’t (have) time for service. I think that a lot of people brush it to the side. But doing community service really breaks you out of the college bubble that you’re living in. It’s really easy to get sucked into “I need to study,” “I need to do well on this exam,” and by doing community service and by getting out of even just Ann Arbor for a day or a few hours, you get a different perspective on real life. I think that’s really important to keep in mind, that we’re not just isolated here on campus. The University of Michigan is not the only thing that matters right now, even though a lot of people get sucked into that. How do you think Service Day impacts those who participate in it? If you have not really been involved in Circle K, then this even will definitely push you to be involved because of the people you meet and seeing the impact that we have. You really get to know the people that you’re volunteering with and you personally feel like you’ve accomplished so much at the end of the day. My freshman year, I left around 10 or 11 p.m. and I just felt so fulfilled. I had just done all these awesome things in just a day. It’s definitely a way for people to get a taste of what community service feels like and see all the benefits it can have. It’s a way for people to break out of their study cycle where you’re always worrying about your next project or your next exam. It’s a way to do something different and meet new people. How is it beneficial to the community to have this one, 24-hour day where students give back? Just because of the volume of people we get at this event. We’re sending a lot more people to each community partner we’re going to than we usually send. For example, we have a project with MAC Therapeutic Riding and we send four to five volunteers every week, but for Service Day we’re sending
40 people. So by sending so many people, we’re really helping out the organization and, because it’s run locally, they will really see the impact of just this one-day. There are a lot of other projects similar to that and because of the volume that we’re sending, then its really helping organizations. What do you think has been the most rewarding experience for you through Circle K? That’s a big question. Just my personal growth throughout the years and the change in perception I’ve had. I think I view community service completely differently than what I did four years ago when I first joined. I kind of viewed it as something that I have to do or something that I should do. It felt just like an obligation to me, but now I understand the reasons behind why I’m doing it. For me a lot of that is rooted in social justice. When we do a project at a food bank, it’s really important to understand why we’re doing that project and all of these social inequities that make that service necessary. This is also local and people don’t understand that these are problems that are happening in Ann Arbor. There are so many people that go hungry every day and so even just by making my small contribution, I feel like I’m doing something that can try and reduce some of the problems that other people are having. What kind of support have you had from the University and local community? So, this is the first year that we’re being sponsored by the Ginsberg Center, which is the place that does community service on campus. It’s really exciting to be working with them for the first time, officially. We’ve always had the event at the Ginsberg Center and now we’re officially working with them and it’s been really great so far. It’s been really helpful to have advisers and people there to help us with some of the planning aspects of it and have been really helpful with planning the reflections that we do all throughout the event. It’s great to know that we’re being recognized for doing something that’s impactful. It’s also comforting because I know this event will continue to happen in the future with continued sponsorship. Just knowing that we have the University’s support behind us is great for us.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Getting it on paper by Mayank Mathur, Daily Arts Writer
ILLUSTRATION BY CHERYLL VICTUELLES
W
riting isn’t easy. Hell, I’ve been writing this piece for over an hour now. I might have been staring into empty space for most of that time, but it’s all part of the process, isn’t it? It’s not. It’s funny how I find myself in the same position almost every time I sit down to write something. It’s not like I don’t have ideas — they hit me so often during the day that I can’t keep count. In the shower, on the bus, in class, before I fall asleep … the opportunities are endless, but none are taken. I’ve always thought that college students take a certain amount of pride in procrastinating. It makes us feel kind of cool. “Dude, I had a totally unproductive day today.” “My week has been so unproductive.” “I should have started this assignment five hours ago, but then I opened Netflix…” How many times have these statements been made, and how many times have we actually felt a little good saying them, instead of feeling a great deal of regret? I’ve done it a few times. And so have you — don’t lie. The fact of the matter is that procrastination is wrong. It’s a horrible thing to do, we should be glad we have the time to do anything, really, and we should make the best possible use of it. Carpe diem the shit out of everything. This is pretty rich coming from a guy who’s basically been sitting around for the better part of the day thinking of something to write about. I guess what’s making me regret it now is that I’ve actually had ideas, things I want to write about … it’s just that I get too comfortable too quickly. Dreaming out the perfect idea is so satisfying I forget to actually write the idea down. And really, what good is thinking of everything
within your head if you don’t have anything to show for it in terms of tangible creative output? I’ve always thought that writing is a two-part process. Writers have to be good thinkers, and they have to be good writers. Surprising, isn’t it? For an idea to be worth writing, it has to be well thought out, original, and interesting. That is the job of the thinker within the writer. The writer half is responsible for effectively translating thoughts into word. Crafting out the sentiment that you carry within you is what makes you a writer. Without it, you’re just a dreamer. That’s obviously not a bad thing; it’s just not what most writers want to be. Writing is a skill that needs to be nourished and polished over time. And what’s the best way to do that? It’s to actually write. It’s absolutely essential for writers to devote time and energy to their craft and let it blossom over time. Again, I realize this is priceless coming from me, someone who’s literally writing about how he cannot write, but I’m preaching to myself. I’m writing down what’s on my mind at this very instant, and after all — didn’t I just say that’s what I’m supposed to do? (Wow, talk about a self-serving piece.) I remember watching a TED Talk a few years ago, which connects directly to this moment and this piece. I don’t remember who the speaker was, but it was a really successful and famous author. She spoke about how every writer, or every aspiring writer, has a “friend” that helps him or her write. She referred to this “friend” as a creative genie. Now this genie is a funny little guy. At random points in the day, whenever he chooses, he’ll climb into your ear and whisper brilliant ideas that you’re supposed to turn
into brilliant stories. Technically, the only real job of a writer is to listen to the genie and write. But the catch is that if you don’t listen to your genie instantly, it’ll run away with its idea and you’ll never get a hold of that idea again. I thought that this was the most ridiculous TED talk ever. I couldn’t believe I had wasted fifteen minutes of the time I usually wasted on PlayStation listening to this. Fast forward a few years and I’m sitting here, writing this, to tell you that the genie is real. I’m serious. And he’s a slimy little bugger. Every time I was hit with an idea in the shower, bus or wherever, I really should have been writing it down. Writing isn’t easy. An idea might seem brilliant at one moment and ridiculous after a while, but that’s because in that moment, you’re able to really see the idea for what it is. You’ll be able to plan it out perfectly in your head and really feel it. It’s then that you should put pen to paper and write something, anything. Once the moment’s gone, it’s gone forever and you’re probably never going to feel it again. The reason I’m talking about this is because I’ve just realized how many times I’ve been struck by something seemingly inspirational, but I just get so content with the idea itself that I forget to write it down. The thinker within me effectively lulls the writer into a false sense of security and subdues him, and the idea gets lost within my head. It’s a wonder that my genie keeps coming back to me because, really, I’m not a good friend to it. But I’m done messing around now, I’m ready for a serious commitment and I’ll be waiting for my genie with a pen and paper in hand. (As long as I’m not in the shower.)
7B
8B
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 // The Statement
Two thousand ninety-six women dressed as Rosie the Riveter gathered at Willow Run Airport on Saturday, Oct 24 to reclaim the Guinness World Record.
Two-year-old Kaylee Klostermeier, from Pittsford, Mich., waits with her mother and sister while the other 2,093 Rosies check in and explore vintage planes.
VISUAL S TAT E M E N T:
COMING UP ROSIES Lindsey Martinez, of Monroe, pins a polka-dot bandanna on her 2-year-old daughter Mackenzie.
Frances Reeck, of Adrian, wears pins of her daughters and granddaughters dressed as Rosie the Riveter. Mrs. Reeck worked at the bomber plant during the war and was one of 43 “original Rosies” in attendance.
Two thousand ninety-six women gathered at the historic Willow Run Bomber Plant on Saturday, October 24th in search of a Guinness World Record. Each one wore blue coveralls, work boots, and a red and white polka-dot bandanna to reclaim the record for the number of Rosie the Riveters gathered in one place. The participants, some as young as one year-old, joined fortythree original “Rosies,” women who worked at the plant during World War II. The plant was one of the country’s largest bomber plane producers during the war and the workplace of Rose Will Monroe, the inspiration for Rosie the Riveter. While the official count is still being validated by Guinness, it appears that the women will soon hold the record.
Photo Essay by
Allison Farrand The Rosies wait for the official picture to be taken. The women entered the staging area through turnstiles to reach the final count of 2,096.