2016-10-06

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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The B-Side Two students plan performance pieces centered around experiences of assault as senior theses.

» Page 1B

ADMINISTRATION

Schlissel to recommend new exec. role for diversity President also announces new programs on poverty and academic innovation

HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

A man smokes outside the Undergraduate Library, a smoke-free zone, on Wednesday.

RIYAH BASHA

Five years later, smoke-free campus policies still cloudy

Daily Staff Reporter

ALLANA AKHTAR Daily News Editor

Students question how policy has been implemented at the University ALEXA ST. JOHN Daily Staff Reporter

LSA sophomore Caitlin Walrath was casually smoking a cigarette near the fountain behind the Michigan Union Tuesday night — an area the University of Michigan designates as “smoke-free.”

Walrath was fully aware of the smoke-free policy when she lit her cigarette — after all, smoke-free campus stickers are pasted on trash cans around campus, literature on smoking cessation sits at the front of University Health Service and student ambassadors frequently hand out kits with tools and information about quitting to those

they see violating the policy. But despite the University’s efforts to keep students from smoking, Walrath said she smokes with friends at popular spots near campus buildings, calling herself an occasional, social smoker of both traditional cigarettes and vaporizers. Needless to say, she does not

think this smoke-free policy is effective. “People smoke in non-smoking places regardless (of policies),” Walrath said. “It’s a fair policy, but should it even be there? Questionable, because no one’s going to follow it.” As of this year, all three of the See SMOKE, Page 3A

Following a week of student protests over campus climate and calls for more action from University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel, Schlissel announced two new diversity initiatives Wednesday morning. He also announced a new multidisciplinary program, Poverty Solutions, that aims to use research to aid those living in poverty, along with multiple other diversity initiatives at Wednesday’s leadership breakfast. “At Michigan we are

strongest when we work to solve problems and promote understanding together as one community,” Schlissel said during a leadership breakfast Wednesday in announcing the changes. Schlissel additionally revealed plans for the University’s upcoming bicentennial next year, including the first University event, set for Jan. 30, 2017, which will feature U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Susanne Baer of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. As the first of the two diversity initiatives, Schlissel announced he would See DIVERSITY, Page 3A

Regional transit plan vote may impact Initiative Robberies looks into ‘U’ Detroit Connector bus services committed

ACADEMICS

CRIME

expanding digital ed.

Funding typically approved only on year-to-year basis

Push aims to connect University education to information age

Though funding for the University of Michigan’s Detroit Connector bus service from Ann Arbor to Detroit has been approved for the next academic year, the long-term future of the service is once again uncertain in the face of new transit advancements. The service, which has faced a tenuous future several times in its short history, transports students between the two cities four days a week. In July of 2015, University officials decided to cancel funding for the MDetroit connector service by the end of 2016, but in April of 2016, CSG passed a resolution to encourage the University to extend the service. However, a regional vote on a proposed transit bill this November, may lead to changes in the service. In August, leaders from four counties in Southeast Michigan — Washtenaw, Maccomb, Oakland and Wayne — agreed on a plan put forth by the Regional Transit Authority that would expand mass transit in the region, including the development of a direct rail service between Ann Arbor and Detroit. This agreement allowed for the bill to be put forth for a referendum vote on the Nov. ballot. Public Policy junior Dylan Bennett, who is co-chair of the

RACHEL COHEN Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s new Academic Innovation Initiative, announced during a kick-off event last week, is intended to transform higher education, according to James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation. “The Academic Innovation Initiative was created to build upon Michigan’s longstanding leadership in higher education, to foster a culture of innovation in learning, and to chart new pathways for leading the way for higher education through the information age,” DeVaney wrote in an email interview. Physics Prof. Tim McKay, who also serves as the faculty director of the Digital Innovation Greenhouse within the Office of Academic Innovation, said while the world has greatly changed with the transition to the information age, undergraduate education has only just started to reflect that. “Almost every aspect of our lives has changed because of this transition into an information See INITIATIVE, Page 3A

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KEVIN LINDER

Daily Staff Reporter

Central Student Government Commission on Detroit Engagement — and is in charge of working with the Office of the Provost to maintain the Detroit Connector — said financial support for the existing service is constantly at risk of not being renewed. “Every year it’s technically in jeopardy, because they’ve been waiting for the Regional Transit Authority to get their referendum on the ballot this November,” he said. Bennett said the results

of the upcoming vote do not necessarily put the bus transit service at risk of being shut down, but rather changed, adding that University President Mark Schlissel and University Provost Martha Pollack have both expressed support for continuing of the bus line. Rather than shutting down, Bennett said if the regional transit bill passes, he expects the Detroit Connector will continue to operate, and will merge with the greater regional

transit system as it continues to grow. “If it’s a yes vote, it’s going to exist, it’s just going to play a bigger part of a bigger transit system,” he said. “I’m really hoping that the RTA bill does get passed and that maybe the Connector becomes phased into a bigger regional plan.” LSA junior Rohin Patel, who co-chairs the Commission on Detroit Engagement, expressed a different view, saying while he thought the RTA would be See CONNECTOR, Page 2A

CONCERT CONNECTION

CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily

Courtney Snyder conducts the School of Music, Theatre & Dance Concert Band’s “East Meets West” concert at Hill Auditorium Wednesday night.

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVI, No. 6 ©2016 The Michigan Daily

by armed clown in A2

Masked individual steals money from two local businesses TIM COHN

Daily Staff Reporter

An armed gunman wearing a clown mask robbed the BP gas station located at 3270 Washtenaw Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Later that night, the Ann Arbor Police Department responded to another report of an armed robbery by a man in a clown mask, this time at Domino’s Pizza located at 2601 Plymouth Road. The descriptions of the suspects, according to AAPD detective Matthew Lige, were identical. “Currently, our working theory is that the two armed robberies that happened last night in the city were carried out by the same person,” Lige said. “Who that person is, we still do not know. That is still part of our investigation.” The suspect, according to Lige, displayed the handgun at the BP gas station and Domino’s, and fled both scenes with undisclosed amounts of money. Though the suspect’s identity was concealed by the clown mask, Lige remains confident that the Ann Arbor police will be See CLOWN, Page 2A

NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A

SUDOKU.....................2A SPORTS...................5A B-SIDE.................1B

News

2A — Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ON THE DAILY: LUKE’S DINER COMES TO MICHIGAN Several cafes in Michigan adopted a “Luke’s Diner” theme from the popular drama series “Gilmore Girls” on Wednesday. The show, which ran from 2000 until 2007, will be rebooted on Netflix this November in a fourepisode mini-series called “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” Netflix arranged for participating stores to take up the theme for a day of advertisements for the show’s reboot and a celebration of the series’ debut on Oct. 5, 2000. Cafes in Detroit, East Lansing and other locations around Michigan participated in the promotion. Stores opened at 7 a.m. and offered free coffee from 7 a.m. until noon. Cafes that adopted the theme for the day were not required to incorporate any other details. However, some shops opted to go one step further because of the number of devoted fans visiting. Amanda Brewington, the owner of Always Brewing Detroit, said in an interview before the event she and her staff will be sporting the same style

worn by the show’s character Luke Danes, whose diner is the model for the promotion. “Personally, I am just a big ‘Gilmore Girls’ fan. I’ve watched the show a couple of times through,” she said. “We are all wearing flannels, backwards hats and aprons.” Meghan Wheeler, the co-owner of a Bigby Coffee location in Williamston, Mich., said she was a fan of the show and her store planned to reflect that on Wednesday. A Facebook post by the Williamston cafe advertising the promotion garnered 93 interactions and 28 shares, over triple what the page’s usual posts receive. “Our Facebook post has blown up way more than I expected and I have had non-stop calls today about it,” Wheeler said. “A local news station will be broadcasting about it and the local newspaper has written an article about it.” Netflix provided participating businesses with 250 “Gilmore Girls”-themed cups and other

promotional materials. Cafes will be selling their own coffee, but Netflix will provide compensation for the coffee they serve during the promotional period. Information senior Ania Abdulhamid said she thinks the

promotion is really attractive to longtime fans of the show. “I’ve seen every episode of ‘Gilmore Girls’ three times through, and what fan wouldn’t want to spend a day in Stars Hollow at Luke’s Diner?” she said.

C.S. Mott Children’s @MottChildren #Umich takes lead role in national $13 M project to improve pediatric health care quality in the country: umhealth.me/2dH72FR @ UMchear

ELECTION ANGER

Angela Dillard @adillard4 Faculty & staff #LSA #Umich are signing statement against racism in real time on Google; just hit 266 @ umichLSA

HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

Communications Prof. Nicholas Valentino discusses the role of anger in this year’s election at the Pre-Election Talk at the Institute for Social Research Wednesday.

CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES Warfare in pre-Columbian Andes Lecture WHAT: Dr. Liz Arkush, professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, will speak about the practices and symbolism of warfare among the Andean people. WHO: Museum of Anthropological Archaeology WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Ruthven Museums Building, room 2009

Digital Marketing career advising WHAT: Charlie Pawlik, a UM alum and account executive for Magnetic, an ad-tech company, will give a seminar about careers in digital marketing. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Student Activities Building, program room 3003

CONNECTOR From Page 1A a benefit to students traveling to Detroit, it may lead to shutting down the Detroit Connector service. “I think that this bill would be a good thing for people who are not aware of the Connector but are aware of this bill; however, I think that it will render the Connector’s function obsolete if it does go through, if it is more accessible to students,” Patel said. University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen said the outcome of the November vote will not necessarily lead to the expansion or ending of the Connector bus program. “While the RTA regional transit bill does not directly impact this service, the University explores all transit options available each academic year to support and cultivate the relationship between UM and Detroit,” she said. Bennett said the University has declined to support a long-term funding plan for the service due to a constantly changing mass

Foreshadowing: endangered and threatened plant species WHAT: Local artist and photographer Jane Kramer will display photographs of plants native to Michigan. WHO: Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. WHERE: Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Piano recital WHAT: Jazz pianists Craig Taborn and Kris Davis will present a two-piano concert of improvised music followed by a Q&A. WHO: School of Music, Theatre and Dance WHEN: 6:30 p.m. WHERE: Earl V. Moore Building, Britton Recital Hall

transit environment, preferring contracts on a yearly basis. “In general, and especially with the RTA, the solution can change from year to year, so that’s why the provost isn’t going to come out and say ‘We’re not going to fund the connector for five years,’ ” he said. “I wouldn’t even agree with that because the whole landscape of regional

“I think (the service) could be made more secure and safer.” transit could change.” Last year, the Detroit Commission distributed a university-wide survey to students last year to gauge student interest and use of the bus, receiving responses for 2,954 students. Of the students who responded, 56.4 percent said they had used the bus service, and 22.4 percent of

Japanese Cinema Talk WHAT: Philip Kaffen, a professor of East Asian Studies at New York University, will speak on the relationship between cinema and security in Japanese film. WHO: Center for Japanese Studies WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work Building, room 1636

Intramural Sports Building Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony WHAT: E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, will speak at a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of the IMSB. WHO: Department of Recreational Sports WHEN: 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: IM Sports Building

those who responded said they used the service every month. LSA sophomore Olivia White said she does not personally take the bus to Detroit because she has a car, but knows a lot of people who regularly take the bus, particularly to attend concerts. She said overall the service is useful to students, though some changes would make it better. “I think the service could be improved. I think it could be made more secure and safer,” she said. “Some of the drop-off points are a little sketchy.” Bennett said the results from the CSG survey played a key role in securing funding for this year, because they established a present desire from the student body for the service. “The provost’s staff is not worried that funding will get pulled just based on the work we did last year,” he said. “The provost is aware that the students want it, support it and need it to some extent, but the renewal will just be on a year-toyear basis. It’s not stagnant; it’s a constant discussion.”

RobG @RobTG4

Governance in the Phillippines under U.S. occupation talk WHAT: Victor Mendoza, a professor of Women’s Studies and English, will give a lecture highlighting the sexual interactions between U.S. forces and locals in the 1900s. WHO: Institute for Research on Women and Gender WHEN: 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Lane Hall, room 2239

@THEBSU needs to look into joining @WeWillBoycott , you too @NAACP_UMICH !!! #BBUM michael P coleman @ColemanMichaelP

EEB Thursday Seminar WHAT: Jacob Allgeier, a postdoctoral fellow in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at University of California, Santa Barbara will discuss challenges for marine ecosystems. WHO: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Chemistry & Willard H Dow Laboratory, room 1210

My eldest packed up her #UniversityofMichigan degree and moved from #Indiana to #California because of #Pence #nuffsaid #VPdebate2016

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able to track down the suspect. In recent weeks, clown sightings, and in some cases, attacks, have been reported across the United States. So far, there have been reports of clowns in 20 states and 20 Michigan towns, according to the Ann Arbor News. “In the two decades that I’ve done this job, people wearing disguises to commit crimes has always been a practice. The latest has been people wearing clown masks in order to commit violent crimes. So yes, while it does present a level of complexity, it is also something that we have dealt with before.” Some instances of clown sightings are in connection to crimes, like Tuesday’s armed robbery, but others are suspected to be attempts to cause widespread fear.

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SMOKE From Page 1A University’s campuses have been smoke-free for five years, and were one of the first colleges in the state to make the switch. However, for many students, the guidelines and feasibility of this initiative are still. Policy history The initial decision to designate all University affiliated buildings as smoke-free in 2011 was part of then-University President Mary Sue Coleman’s MHealthy wellness campaign. This campaign, started in 2005, is still in effect today and includes programs geared toward improving and sustaining all aspects of health — whether physical, emotional or mental — on campus. The decision to go smokefree was made by a Smoke-Free University Steering Committee, composed of members of the campus community, in conjunction with Robert Winfield, the University’s chief health officer and Kenneth Warner, the dean of the School of Public Health at the time. The initiative completely prohibits smoking on the Diag and near academic buildings. Smoking around residence halls had already been banned in 2003, according to the Smoke-Free University Initiative website. The policy states that students who wish to smoke must do so in public spaces or on sidewalks further from University buildings. Many faculty members and members of the initiative committee — including Kallie Bila Michels, current associate vice president for communications, Simone Himbeault Taylor, associate vice president for Human Resources and Linda Thomas, former manager of the Tobacco Consultation Service at the University of Michigan Health System — said at the time that they supported the decision to go smoke-free on campus because of the health risks associated with smoking. Tobacco use, for example,

DIVERSITY From Page 1A recommend the creation of a new executive member, a chief diversity officer, to the Board of Regents at their monthly meeting this month. To fill the position, Schlissel has suggested Rob Sellers, current vice provost of equity, inclusion and academic affairs and executive leader. The new position will expand on the existing vice provost position and will serve as the principal advisor to all diversity efforts on campus. As well, the chief diversit officer will be charged with leading the campus-wide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan, a year-long effort started by Schlissel and set to be released Thursday morning. He also announced a new initiative to create two advisory groups to the president, which Schlissel will select. The groups will have 25 members each. One will be composed of graduate students and the other undergraduate students. Schlissel said the advisory groups will have diverse representation and will be created this month. Since the discovery of racially charged, anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ posters on campus throughout the past week, students and the community have called for more administrative action when issues of campus climate arise, with protests drawing over 600. The Twitter hashtag #Schlisselwya, or “Schlissel where you at,” started after the president was absent at several protests and events over the posters and other incidents, has so far garnered over 100 tweets. At the time, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said Schlissel was out of town. On Monday, chalk reading Schlissel “doesn’t care about black students” was found on the Diag. After a first round of fliers last week, both Schlissel and other administrators condemned the messages and issued statements of solidarity with students of color on campus. The University has not released a statement about newer fliers discovered Monday.

has long been a factor in the development of heart disease, lung disease and cancer, including of the esophagus, pancreas and stomach, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette smoking also causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. Secondhand smoke, which was as much of a concern as smoking when the policy was created according to Lena Matthias, Smoke-Free Environment project coordinator and tobacco specialist, is almost equally as harmful as firsthand smoking, the CDC has reported. Consequences of secondhand smoke range from inducing lung cancer even among nonsmokers, to increased risk for asthma attacks and adverse effects on the cardiovascular system. In a statement released prior to the policy’s introduction, Coleman voiced a similar sentiment, stating it was put in place to improve campus-wide health and reduce risks of secondhand smoke. The University also isn’t alone in promulgating policies like this, and according to Matthias, the University’s policies are often mimicked and built upon by other universities who want to adopt similar regulations. As of Oct. 1, 2016, there were 1,427 smoke-free campuses nationwide, of which around twothirds were completely tobaccofree, according to the National Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative, in part sponsored by the University of Michigan and its Board of Regents. Tobaccofree includes vaporizers and other forms of tobacco. “U of M was one of the first major institutions to go smokefree back in 2011, so we get a lot of calls and inquiries on how we did that,” Matthias said. “For a while we served as a model to help others with their endeavors to go smoke-free.” Following the smoke-free decision, the University also made available a variety of resources for students and faculty on smoking reduction and cessation, including the MHealthy Tobacco

Schlissel said at the leadership breakfast the inspiration for the creating of the student advisory groups was a community forum he hosted on the Sunday following the discovery of the first set of posters. At Wednesday’s leadership breakfast, Regent Mark Bernstein (D) condemned the messages and said action to address them should be taken. “We all have a responsibility to speak up, to stand up, to embrace each other and stand up for values that make this institution so important,” Bernstein said. Faculty and staff also gathered in solidarity with students impacted by the racist posters on the Diag Tuesday afternoon, after an online faculty petition condemning the flyers was erased by an unknown person and replaced with the words, “All of the Communists will Hang on the Day of the Rope.” During the breakfast, Schlissel also highlighted the launch of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategic plan on Thursday, which includes 49 distinct plans, one for each academic or administrative unit. The University is allocating $85 million to the plan, in addition to existing funding for diversity efforts. Schlissel said the DEI initiative is not only a plan but a “pledge” to be committed to diversity in the following years by including metrics and measure of accountability for role makers on campus. “I would like to thank the members of the diversity working group who led the process, and to the many, many others who led the process in our schools and colleges and administrative units who have helped produce a plan that is specific, inspirational and sets us up for implementation work to come beginning now, and in five years and beyond,” he said. Poverty Solutions will be headed by Luke Shaefer, professor at the Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Social Work and community members and University researchers on campus. Schlissel pointed to existing partnerships, like that with the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center, as foundations for the University’s commitment, and thanked

News Consultation Service program, which are still available today. Matthias said the policy was not implemented as a negative measure, aiming to punish those smoking on campus, but rather was intended to create a shift in

“I don’t think it’s worth the social cost. People smoke here all the time” mentality. “(Administrators) decided they wanted to do it as more of a cultural shift and behavior change-type initiative rather than a punitive one,” Matthias said. “Through input gathered from students, faculty, staff, they decided it would become more of a voluntary-type enforcement.” Because of this, legal repercussions from the University or the Department of Public Safety and Security were not part of the policy. However, students or faculty could face minor consequences via the University Standard Practice Guidelines, such as a discussion with a member of the residence staff following multiple offenses. Matthias said following the policy’s implementation, a decrease in smoking and cigarette butt litter around campus was noticeable. Corroborating Matthias’ sentiments, a follow-up survey conducted in November 2012 — just over one year after the introduction of the Smoke-Free Campus initiative — found more than 28 percent of faculty and staff reported cutting down on smoking due to the policy. Seventy two percent of the same demographic reported noticing either a slight or significant decrease of smoking on campus in the year following its implementation. Data from the University of

faculty for recommending the creation of Poverty Solutions. “One out of eight Americans live in poverty, and some Michigan cities are sometimes three times higher than that,” he said. “The aim is to translate research into actionable interventions and rigorously assess their effectiveness.” Lynn Videka, dean of the School of Social Work, connected the new program with ongoing diversity issues in education policy. “In addition to labor organizations, structural elements like unequal schools and mass incarceration … drive a lot of poverty in the United States,” she said. “I know faculty engaged in that center will indeed be investigating all of those issues with an action perspective.” Schlissel also discussed plans for a new sustainability school to be opened in the next year in place of the current School of Natural Resources and the Environment. The academic program, which will be named later this semester, will have a broader mission than the Natural Resources and Environment School and focus on centralizing scholarship on the environment. “We have yet to fully tap into our campus and the community’s potential as a living and learning laboratory,” he said. Other updated sustainability efforts include the Zero Waste Program introduced last year. Schlissel set a goal for all University football games — which currently average an attendance of 107,601 spectators — to produce no unrecyclable waste next year. Schlissel also emphasized two big data compilation initiatives: one dedicated to academic innovation and understanding student needs, and the other exploring how faculty members can boost the connection between their research and public discourse, during the breakfast. “This will formally help us consider how we can leverage networked, accessed information, new modes of communication and data analytics to enhance a Michigan education and tailor it to each individual student and enhance impact on society,” he said of the innovation program.

Thursday, October 6, 2016 — 3A

Michigan Monitoring the Future survey has also found a decline in smoking habits among all collegeage individuals. According to the survey, smoking has been steadily decreasing since 2004, and recently dropped to 17 percent in 2015 from its recent peak of 31 percent in 1998 among the collegeage group. Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of this survey and senior research scientist at the Institute for Social Research, said in a September interview that these statistics are indicative that the noticeable decrease in smoking on campus could be due not only to the 2011 policies, but also an overall cultural and generational shift toward less tobacco smoking and the use of some other drugs. However, Matthias acknowledged that even among the overall declines in smoking, there have been some issues with repeat offenders or visitors who are unaware of the policy. “We still have people who don’t comply,” Matthias said. “Probably our biggest issue is when we don’t know who somebody is, we can’t really approach them and talk to them about it.” Skirting the law When walking toward the center of campus from South University Avenue, a bench sits in a small inset near Hatcher Library, another smoke-free part of campus. But passersby would probably never know this area was designated smoke-free, as piles of cigarette butts can often be observed underneath the bench. On colder mornings on Maynard Street, people can often be observed drinking their coffee and smoke a cigarette, despite the fact that this, too, is a part of the prohibited smoking areas designated in the Smoke-Free University Initiative. Psychology graduate student Joseph Calabrisotto works as a student ambassador for the Smoke-Free Ambassador program — UHS’s student-run initiative to inform students about the policy. As an ambassador, he hands out smoking cessation literature and

INITIATIVE From Page 1A age: the ways we interact with one another personally, a lot of careers have changed, the ways we do our research has changed enormously since the launch of this information age,” McKay said. “One thing that hasn’t changed so much is the nature of an undergraduate education in a college or a university. I think what we’re seeing now is that’s also beginning to change.” McKay noted, however, that many individual faculty members have undertaken individual projects that have created new approaches to education over the past few years. Last year, he said, it was decided that the University would bring together these efforts into a campus-wide initiative. “So a bunch of different people on campus were doing things that were moving in the direction of this academic innovation initiative,” he said. “And over the last year a set of conversations that took place across the whole campus between all the different schools and colleges led to the suggestion that we should launch a campus-wide initiative.” DeVaney wrote the initiative incorporates three design groups with different topics to be tackled by members of the campus community. “We are forming design groups that will engage the UM community around a set of themes in order to launch a rich set of experiments to explore the future of education and enhance our impact on society,” he wrote. “New ideas will originate within design group activities, from individuals and teams of faculty, and through discussions with academic unit leaders that take aim at solving global problems through new innovative approaches to learning.” McKay said the first design group, aimed at fostering broad and enduring participation at UM, will explore reaching individuals who are not students on campus. They will focus on ways the University can work with students before coming to campus, using platforms like Massive Online Open Courses. “(The first design group) is really recognizing that while we

smoke-free kits to students he sees engaging in the behavior on campus. Calabrisotto said, much like Matthias, he has encountered some students who either simply did not know of the policy or did not realize it would be enforced; however, he has also had some negative responses to his efforts. “There are the few people that say, ‘No, until you say the police are going to come arrest me for smoking, I’m going to smoke,’ ” he said, adding that these reactions reinforce the need for the program and policies. Walrath said she does not feel it is inappropriate for student ambassadors to approach those who are smoking, but does feel there has to be a mutual respect with both parties involved and open, mature discussion about it. “I feel people are in their right to criticize, but have to respect the choices other people make,” Walrath said. “It’s not their ability to say someone shouldn’t choose to do something with their life, but they are free to comment on it.” Though the ambassadors typically only approach students and do not remind faculty members of the policy, Calabrisotto said he has noted an interesting trend in faculty smoking. “It’s typically not the ‘faculty’ faculty who are smoking; it is actually staff members that are smoking for their 15-minute breaks, where if they go walk five or 10 minutes down the street to get off campus, their break is already over, so that’s their justification,” Calabrisotto said. Earlier this year, the city of Ann Arbor introduced their own measure to disincentivize smoking, raising the age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21, a decision which could result in legal repercussions for those under 21 found purchasing these products. However, Walrath said she thinks even this law might not have much merit, comparing a minor fine given to those smoking cigarettes on campus to legal actions taken with regard to a marijuana offense. Because

marijuana is decriminalized in Ann Arbor, the Ann Arbor Police Department only fines first-time offenders. Walrath said because she does not believe the fines given for a marijuana offense are effective, she does not think using the same tactic for cigarettes would deter the behavior either. Likewise, Calabrisotto said he was not sure if police enforcementbased policies could be more effective than the non-punitive policies in place at the University, as an effort to resolve gray areas still remaining with the policy. “I also don’t feel like it could be right to penalize students with a misdemeanor crime for something such as smoking on campus,” Calabrisotto said. “But at the same time, there are some students who just won’t listen. So it’s going to have to be a hard balance … I definitely think before criminal enforcement should come potentially more severe University sanctions.” Along with enforcement, students have also run into another gray area in the past year — whether devices like e-cigarettes are included in the policy. Matthias said there is still some ambiguity regarding whether the University will expand its policy to be completely tobacco-free — much like some universities have — to include new methods of smoking tobacco like vaporizing. Calabrisotto said he wasn’t sure if e-cigarettes should be held to the same standards as traditional cigarettes, due to a lack of scientific consensus about the health risks of vaping. Vaping can lead to lung inflammation and exposure to harmful chemicals, though risks are dependent on how much tobacco is in each individual e-cigarette. For Walrath, however, the clarify all the gray areas were simpler — continuing the status quo. “I don’t think it’s worth the social cost,” she said of enforcing this policy. “People smoke here all the time.”

historically have mostly been about the residential experience people have when they move to Ann Arbor and join us as a student, it’s now possible for us to reach and interact with and teach and learn from people all over the world at almost any time,” McKay said. The second design group, exploring innovation in the residential experience, will focus on engaging students who are a part of the University community. “We’re thinking of new ways that we might work with students while they’re on campus — ways in which we might make courses that are more engaged with the community, ways in which we might rethink things like the credit hour and the grading system,” McKay said. “Maybe have an undergraduate experience be really different for four years.” The third design group, creating catalysts for academic innovation, will think about possible future projects the Office of Academic Innovation, according to McKay. He said often the reasons why they haven’t worked on innovative projects are because the current structures of education do not allow for certain projects, making the purpose of the third design group to think about how the University can change those structures. The Office of Academic Innovation itself is also divided up into three labs — the Digital Innovation Greenhouse, the Gameful Learning Lab and the Digital Education and Innovation Lab — which similarly aims to encourage academic innovation. McKay said the Digital Innovation Greenhouse is a place where professors can bring projects they created at a small scale for their own classes to be developed and expanded for a large number of people in a variety of contexts. “(The Digital Innovation Greenhouse) takes in a good idea that’s not yet well developed and works with software developers and uses experienced designers and behavioral scientists to work with the campus community to understand how you should develop this technology to make it something that would

really work well for everyone on campus,” McKay said. “Eventually, these ideas that come into the greenhouse as a little seedling, these ideas will grow up into a full grown plant, and we’ll plant them out in the field and use them at scale.” Noni Korf, the director of the Digital Education and Innovation Laboratory, said the lab is a place for faculty to come to for help with their projects. “The Digital Education Innovation Lab is a place to partner with faculty on innovative projects where we’re expanding on efforts to change the University of Michigan’s reach… and creatively work together to solve some of the issues we see in access to education,” Korf said. The Gameful Learning Lab focuses on projects like GradeCraft, a grading platform in which students positively rewarded for choosing their own projects and assignments to complete. McKay said the timeline for the overall initiative is difficult to establish because of the wide range of projects and metrics. He said for him, his timeline is longer because his goal is to see major features of undergraduate education change. “I would like to see our opportunities to teach at different scales be much more wide open. Right now we mostly teach in courses that are one semester long and are usually three to four credits; that’s the kind of unit of teaching we do,” McKay said. “I would like to get to the point where education feels much more flexible in that way instead of just adding up a whole bunch of class units that are about the same size and duration.” DeVaney wrote the overall success of the initiative will be measured by the quality of the projects created, as well as how well they engage the community. “Success in the initiative will be a function of the quality of new experiments, the creativity of recommendations about our future and the level of engagement across our diverse community of faculty, students, staff and alumni,” DeVaney wrote.

Opinion

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

4A — Thursday, October 6, 2016

ANU ROY-CHADHURY | COLUMN

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FROM THE DAILY

Literacy is an important skill, not a right

A

s Detroit Public Schools continues to face turmoil, the Youth and Education Law Project, a nationwide legal organization, has brought a lawsuit against the state of Michigan in federal court on behalf of students in some of Detroit’s — and indeed the state’s — worst performing schools, arguing literacy is a constitutional right. They argue that people who are illiterate cannot exercise other constitutional rights, such as political participation, involvement in the legal system or ability to serve in the military. Literacy is, of course, an indispensable skill for being selfsufficient, and schools should be equipped to teach that skill to students. And while we commend the Youth and Education Law Project for bringing attention to DPS’s problems, making literacy a constitutional right is not the way to fix the problem in the school system. Rather than rendering literacy something that should be regulated by the federal government, we believe the most important next step to take is reform of the education system with legislation, specifically for Detroit’s public schools. Though we do not believe that changing the U.S. Constitution is the best route, the importance of the action taken by the Youth and Education Law Project cannot be understated. In March 2016, the Editorial Board of The Michigan Daily published an editorial calling on the state of Michigan to help the suffering Detroit Public Schools foster a suitable learning environment. The organization’s most recent action taken against the state will help keep the conversation alive on this all-too-important topic. That said, attempting to change the Constitution to include literacy as a right is not the best course of action for several reasons. Though all children do have the right to equal access to education under

Title IX of the Constitution, literacy adds another complicated layer. Literacy is difficult to quantify because it is not easy to measure. Although each person should have the right to equal access to education and equal access to universal educational tools, it is not as feasible for the Constitution nor the courts to guarantee that one will be literate even if proper tools are implemented. What is more attainable, and arguably more urgent, is education reform. While it is not something that can be achieved overnight, there are important ways we can work toward crucial change. First and foremost, we need to strengthen each school’s resources. On a fact sheet on its website, the United States Department of Education suggests numerous possible ways to improve our schools and classrooms, one of which is providing adequate school facilities. The conditions of some of Detroit’s school buildings have been in such disrepair that teachers participated in various “sickouts,” calling in sick in mass numbers and foregoing teaching for the sake of political statement. Furthermore, education reform must go hand in hand with increased funding. While some funding can continue to come from local sources, such

as property taxes that currently go to DPS, this alone will not suffice. In addition, Detroit’s average household income is half the national average, which speaks volumes about taxpayers’ inabilities to pay more in taxes to help failing schools — a problem which is rooted in larger economic issues in the city. Detroit’s economic position and historically high crime rates also influence the types of homes many students are coming from, impacting their experience in the classroom. Students with disadvantaged backgrounds can also be less likely to succeed academically, which could be yet another factor contributing to low literacy rates in Detroit Public Schools. The conditions of Detroit Public Schools must improve. Literacy is a basic skill that each student should be given the resources to attain in a public school. But even with adequate resources, there is no way to guarantee all students can achieve this goal, and it is infeasible for the federal government to have to regulate such a skill on a district level. Therefore literacy should not be considered a constitutional right under the U.S. Constitution. Though this recent lawsuit is commendable for starting this conversation about literacy in Detroit Public Schools, legislation is where immediate action should be focused.

JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD The Michigan Daily’s Editorial Board meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Come join us one evening and discuss University, state and national policies with other students who have something to say about it.

OR ... CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. ANTHONY LABONTE | CONTRIBUTING CARTOONIST

It’s not just about chromosomes

T

his November, I’ll diplomacy. Her history, although be voting for Hillary tainted with controversy, has and Clinton. I believe in her, I always will run Trump’s into the believe in what she stands for and ground. Yet, media, public figures I believe in what she can and will and even the Clinton campaign do for this country. itself have upheld I’m voting for Hillary gender as the slogan of Clinton because there her campaign. is no one who is more I’m not arguing ready, more qualified that voting for or more experienced Clinton because than she. I’m not she is a woman voting for Secretary isn’t valid or that Clinton just because Clinton’s gender is she is a woman. unimportant. But her This presidential gender has become ANU election has seen the too important. It has resurfacing of identity ROY-CHADHURY started to take away politics: the tendency from the fact that to vote for someone based on her experience, intelligence and the interests and perspectives of strength are also what qualify their social groups. It’s rational to her to govern a nation. It has vote for the person who will work prompted the opposition to argue to help you and those like you. women are voting for Clinton Derived from this idea of common only because she is a woman — identity is the expectation of delegitimizing her credibility and women, young and old, to vote the credibility of her supporters. for Hillary Clinton because she is It isn’t solely due to feminism that also a woman. I, or many others, are with her. For the past year, feminists The fact is: Secretary Clinton everywhere have brought up this doesn’t need her gender to be the sense of obligation, including reason she should be president, Madeleine Albright, who in because she is the only one with April of last year said, “There’s the capacity to successfully a special place in hell for women lead this country, and that is who don’t help each other.” This reason enough. We shouldn’t type of reasoning is dangerously be stripping Clinton supporters skewed. It puts a spotlight on down to their genders. And the candidate’s gender and, in more importantly, we shouldn’t this case, it obscures the fact be stripping her down to her that Hillary Clinton is the best, gender, because if we do that, we most qualified candidate in the overlook the simple fact that she game. In fact, I believe she is is qualified to lead change and the only candidate for the job, prosperity in this nation. but her gender isn’t her sole Every individual experiences attribute and we shouldn’t allow feminism in different ways. it to be. According to The Washington It is almost a paradox. The Post, demographics play a driving idea behind feminism has huge role in women’s voting always been to promote equality patterns. As a millennial, for both men and women in a I haven’t only experienced world where women have long political discrimination, but also been the underdogs. Yet, in this cultural discrimination. This presidential election, where a includes distorted images and female candidate has made her unreachable expectations put mark, and in a few weeks could out by the media, being shouted be the first female president — a at through the window of a car historic triumph for all those filled with a group of boys, facing suffragettes and strong-willed judgment for not acting feminine women who helped pave her path enough or being too feminine, — some are focusing more on her being thought of as less athletic gender than her accomplishments and less strong than my male and experience. She is a candidate peers and consistently being held who has already altered the to different standards than them. country through politics and The gender issues that have

plagued my own life are drastically different than my mother’s, and even more different than my grandmother’s. As a woman, I want to be recognized for my accomplishments, my hard work, my dedication. I want to be recognized solely for these traits, not measured by the backdrop of my gender. Not measured differently because I am a woman. I do not want to be seen as a female doing these things, but as a human being. This consistent gender twist has shifted the focus off of Hillary Clinton’s tremendous career, one that far overshadows Trump’s. Vote for Hillary Clinton both because she’s a woman and because she’s qualified. In the past year, it seems like we have forgotten the “and.” If anything, last week’s presidential debate was the truest testament to her capabilities. While Clinton was composed and concise, Trump’s responses seemed to be a string of unreliable statements and aggressive assertions. Numerous media outlets, including The New York Times and NPR, fact-checked the debate and showed pretty one-sided inconsistencies. As the moderator brought up Clinton’s past faults, she ran toward them, instead of away from them. She has continuously remained strong in the face of adversity, as a woman, first lady and secretary of state. While her competitor strayed from directly answering questions on his past, Clinton met hers with dignity and poise. For the millennials who think voting for Hillary Clinton just because she is a woman is wrong: You aren’t just voting for a woman, you’re voting for the woman who will change this country. Both sides of the political spectrum should look beyond their own identities and hers. As American citizens, we don’t have the obligation to vote for what benefits ourselves, even if we usually do. We do have an obligation to vote for who benefits this country, and that is Hillary Clinton.

Anu Roy-Chadhury can be reached at anuroy@umich.edu

MICHIGAN POLITICAL UNION EXECUTIVE BOARD | OP-ED

O

A call for respectful dialogue

ur student body comprises people coming from around the world representing several races, genders, ages, religions, sexual orientations, national origins and veteran statuses. We hail from densely populated metropolitan areas, sparsely populated rural farmland and everywhere in between. One thing that we all have in common, however, is we all chose to attend the University of Michigan. But what does that really mean? It means that by choosing to attend a top-tier university, we elected to challenge ourselves. Of our own free will, we placed the burden of expectations on our shoulders. And it means that each one of us is part of a rich and storied history spanning over the course of almost 200 years. The University will unveil the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan on Thursday that was initiated by President Schlissel last year. Recent events on campus have led to many asking what “diversity, equity and inclusion” actually entails. While the focus in the days ahead will be on the University’s responsibilities to ensure these objectives are met, students must also examine their role in building a strong community on campus. As stated before, there are many varying paths that can lead to earning the title of Wolverine. Each of us has a unique background with experiences that have shaped our worldviews. We develop our morals and values from these perspectives, which in turn form our opinions on individual matters. Obviously, at a campus with over 43,000 undergraduate and graduate students, we represent a wide range of opinions on each issue. Right now, that is something we are allowing to divide us — but it should be our greatest strength. Respect for diversity of thought has been at the cornerstone of higher learning since Plato

founded the Academy 2400 years ago. This long-standing belief needs to be at the forefront of the University’s initiative. More importantly, it’s our duty as students to live this value. Whether it be in the classroom, at a formal event or during an impromptu conversation on the Diag, we will be presented with thoughts and ideas different from our own. We need to cherish these moments because they are the opportunities for learning and personal growth. Having a diverse student population is meaningless if we don’t listen to one another. Civil discourse is the means to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. This entails willingness to listen to thoughts and opinions other than your own. It includes providing a thoughtful and respectful rebuttal. Most importantly, it demands we recognize that people with whom we disagree are entitled to their own opinions. This last aspect seems to be the most difficult for students on campus. It has been implied several times recently that someone who hasn’t experienced something shouldn’t be able to speak about it. If this is the standard which we use to grant people the right to express opinions on issues, then no one who is not a naturalized citizen should get to speak about immigration, no one who has not reached the age of 66 should have a voice about Social Security, and no one except combat veterans should be allowed to discuss war policy. Sadly, instead of working to build better communication on campus, we seem to be intent on creating division instead. In recent days, we have an unknown party posting incendiary and racist fliers on campus. These events are disgusting, and below our standards as Wolverines. However, in response, we cannot

allow ourselves to be divided further. Rather than shutting out alternative viewpoints and opinions, we should cherish diversity of thought as critical to our University, much as we do diversity of background and experience. We are disappointed that our recent debate, which was based in this spirit of diversity of thought, has been so strongly condemned by other organizations, including Central Student Government. As our Michigan community works to build a better society in the future, we need to have greater respect for this critical value. We do not have to wait for the University to take action. We can live up to the title of Leaders and Best and begin on our own. Surround yourself with people of different backgrounds, ideologies and opinions. Listen to what they have to say and share with them your thoughts and experiences. Remember that it’s perfectly acceptable for us to disagree. Each one of us has the ability to help build a better and stronger campus community and it is time that we begin. By putting our name to this letter, we, as members of the Executive Board for the Michigan Political Union, are declaring our commitment to ensuring that all students at this University will have a forum for their thoughts and opinions to be presented and challenged in a respectful manner. Signed, Joshua Strup, President Greg Graham, Vice President Carlos Owens, Speaker of the Union Wm Presley, Director of External Affairs Allison Hellman, Party Leader of the Left Luke Zimmerman, Party Leader of the Independents Jake Roodvoets, Party Leader of the Right

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, October 6, 2016 — 5A

Simpson more than an understudy at point guard BRANDON CARNEY Daily Sports Writer

Xavier Simpson scored 65 points in a high school game last year, but the only memories he recalls from that performance were his first two shots, both layups that he missed wildly. The freshman guard doesn’t like making mistakes. He’d rather pick up a box score and see a zero in the turnover column beside his name than some ridiculous stat, like 65 points or a triple-double. As Michigan moves on from relying on the basketball minds of Caris LeVert and Spike Albrecht, a perfectionist with great vision like Simpson will bring fresh ideas to a Wolverine backcourt looking for a change in identity. At the prep level, Simpson showed that he has all the intangibles — excellent ball handling, solid perimeter defense and efficient passing — to become a star collegiate point guard. But the one trait that has impressed Michigan coach John Beilein the most is his quickness. While many freshmen initially struggle to speed their game up to the college level, Beilein doesn’t expect that to be a problem for Simpson. “He’s very, very quick in small spaces,” Beilein said. “He’s almost like a running back who can hit the hole, cut and get into spots. He’s really good. He really sees the game very well.” It’s no surprise that comparisons between Simpson and a young Derrick Walton Jr. have been a part of any conversation involving the freshman, given the similar skills they left high school with. “I feel like I can model my game around (Walton),” Simpson

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Freshman point guard Xavier Simpson (#3) has a senior mentor at his position in Derrick Walton, but will also look to fellow Lima (Ohio) native Tyler Ulis to model his game in college.

said. “We’re similar in some areas and different in some areas, but at the same time he’s been in my shoes three years ago. It’s good to have someone there that can help me through certain situations.” While it’s easy to imagine how Simpson will fill the role as Walton’s understudy, Beilein wants to cast the freshman in a bigger part from the start. By playing them together, Beilein hopes the combined

quickness of Simpson and Walton can push the tempo of any game to the benefit of the Wolverines. “Derrick knows (Simpson) is the heir-apparent here and Derrick’s going to be challenging him,” Beilein said. “You should look forward to seeing both of them in the backcourt at the same time. We’re going to let Derrick come out to hunt shots and let ‘X’ run the team. You could see that more than you’d ever expect.”

In addition to shaping his game around Walton’s, Simpson looks to a close friend who is about to start his NBA career for inspiration. Phoenix Suns guard Tyler Ulis and Simpson both grew up in Lima, Ohio. They’re both undersized guards who, as kids, developed past-first games that focus on minimizing turnovers and mistakes. The two remain in contact today, as Simpson continues to look up to and

praise Ulis’ strengths. “His assist-to-turnover ratio,” Simpson said. “The small plays he makes, the IQ, and the plays he makes at different times. His awareness to the defense. He told me growing up to try not to pay too much attention to the person who’s guarding you, see what the other defenders are doing.” During his freshman year at Kentucky, Ulis earned a 4-to1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and since Walton started 36 games

his first year, using Ulis’ stats as a measuring stick for Simpson will be more rational. If the freshman can replicate the production Ulis delivered coming off the bench for a Wildcat team that went 38-1, he could turn Michigan into a top contender in the Big Ten and beyond. Sometimes this season, he’ll draw from Walton, other times from Ulis. But by season’s end, don’t be suprised if Simpson has a brand and style all his own.

For Will Lockwood, speed matters AVI SHOLKOFF

Daily Sports Writer

Throughout his seven-year friendship with Will Lockwood, Alex Kile has noticed something. “(Lockwood is) one of those kids who kept getting better as he got older,” the senior left wing said Wednesday. “It’s cool to see him develop into the player he is today.” Now teammates on the Michigan hockey team, the two will have the chance to play together on the first line this weekend. Last Sunday, Lockwood began the game on the ice playing with Kile and freshman center Jake Slaker. On a team with many new faces, it is beneficial that two wings on the first line already have a connection. That means Kile and Lockwood’s relationship could be crucial to the 11th-ranked Wolverines’ success. In the Wolverines’ preseason tune-up against Windsor, Lockwood sprinted all across the ice, zooming from one side to the other, chasing after the puck. While Lockwood could not net himself a goal, his speed was evident last weekend. In one instance, he skated the length of the ice, but his shot landed straight into the glove of the Lancer goaltender. On a another play, Lockwood found himself on a breakaway as he sprinted from Michigan’s face-off

circle to Windsor’s goal, but again, Lancers’ goaltender Kris Joyce made an excellent save to prevent the goal. “My skating is one of my best attributes,” Lockwood said. “It definitely helps to have my legs out on the ice. There’s also an aspect to it where you don’t want to overskate on the ice, (to skate) smart on the ice, but also use my speed in the right situation to my advantage.” From a young age, Lockwood dedicated himself to increasing his speed on the ice. And it has showed because, after practicing with Kile for a month and playing with him last weekend, Lockwood reminds Kile of his former speedy linemates. “I’ve always liked playing with fast players,” Kile said. “In the past, I played with Boo Nieves and Dylan Larkin and Will is right up there with their speed. I feel like you get in on the forward check and you can create havoc with a lot of speed.” As a freshman, Lockwood is still learning the nuances of

Michigan coach Red Berenson’s system. But to assist him, he has Kile and the other captains, who are eager to guide Lockwood and his fellow freshmen, four of whom played with Lockwood on the U-18 United States National Development team last year. Unlike many of his classmates, though, Lockwood is no stranger to Yost Arena. Not only did he play there last year as a member of the USNTDP, he heard about his father Joe, who played four years in Ann Arbor as part of Berenson’s first four-year class. The elder Lockwood scored scoring 36 goals in 147 games between 1984 and 1988. Still, even for the son of a former Michigan player, playing in Yost for the first time as a member of the Wolverines did have special meaning. “It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for a while,” Lockwood said. “We played at Yost against Michigan last year (with USNTDP). (Even so,) suiting up with the ‘Block M’ is definitely a dream come true for me.”

“I’ve always liked playing with fast players.”

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Freshman right wing Will Lockwood relies on his speed to “create havoc” for the Michigan hockey team.

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6A — Thursday, October 6, 2016

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Fisch’s style helps quarterbacks grow JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

In one brief comment in his press conference Monday at Crisler Center, redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight showed enough confidence to call one of the legends at his position by his first name. “Tom’s just Tom — everyone knows that,” he said. Tom as in, you know, future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady. To Michigan’s starting signal caller, the opportunity to study some of his counterparts at the NFL level has become normal. He even met Brady when the Michigan alum came to town Sept. 17 to be the honorary captain for the Wolverines’ game against Colorado. The NFL flavor in Michigan’s offense comes largely from head coach Jim Harbaugh and passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch, who both worked in the pro league in their last jobs. Now, they add every NFL game to their video library each week. In the 15 years since Fisch’s first NFL job as an assistant with the Houston Texans, he has built up an extensive base. “Each day, we start a meeting off with about eight or 10 clips of an NFL QB or an NFL offense,” Fisch said. “Really just there’s different things to show them all the time, whether it be pocket presence, whether it be how they throw the screen game, whether it be how they maintain a base in the pocket when they’re going to throw the deep ball.” Often, Fisch’s film study will begin with something that gave his quarterbacks trouble in practice the previous day. He’ll show the players how a professional such as Brady or the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger does it. Just this week, Speight studied Roethlisberger’s pocket strength

KELLY HALL

When asked if senior cornerback Channing Stribling has displayed more confidence lately following his career game against Wisconsin, secondary coach Mike Zordich couldn’t help but imitate a strut. “He’s got the little ‘Strib’ thing going,” Zordich said. “He’s got a little bounce in his step, for sure.” In the Michigan football team’s 14-7 victory over thenNo. 8 Wisconsin, Stribling recorded two pass breakups and two interceptions at crucial points in the game. Though Stribling had one interception and three pass breakups going into the weekend, the boost from a breakout game was noticeable. And the timing for his emergence could not be

S T A T S MICH 44.4 23.0 209.8 4.9 16 234.2 63.9% 7.4 10 2 74.4 444.0 47.2 62.5% 4.0 15.5 21.5 43.4 4-9 4/1 43.8 33:05

Points/Game First Downs/Game Rush Yards/Game Yards/Rush Rushing TDs Passing Yards/Game Completion % Yards/Pass Passing TDs Interceptions Offensive Plays/Game Total Offense 3rd-down Conversions 4th-down Conversions Sacks/Game Kick return average Punt return average Punting average Field Goals-Attempts Fumbles/Lost Penalty Yards/Game Time of Poss

OPP 12.4 13.2 112.2 3.3 2 135.4 46.6% 5.2 5 6 60.6 247.6 15.4 41.7% 1.8 19.9 13.0 37.4 2-5 8/3 45.0 26:55

I N D I V I D U A L S PASSING Player Speight O’Korn Morris TOTALS

Cmp Att Yds TD 92 146 1094 10 5 8 32 0 4 4 45 0 101 158 1171 10

INT 2 0 0 2

Att Yds 56 325 37 247 41 198 22 145 7 56 7 44 2 24 11 19 2 17 2 16 2 11 3 7 1 2 1 1 1 -1 3 -4 1 -11 15 -47 214 1049

RUSHING

SINDU KILARU/Daily

Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight (#3) watches tape of NFL quarterbacks such as Tom Brady to help him learn the intricacies of the position.

and how he fends off pass rushers but still looks downfield for an open receiver. According to Speight’s teammates, Roethlisberger’s approach has rubbed off on Michigan’s quarterback — especially since both have similar stature, Roethlisberger at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, Speight at 6-foot-6, 243. “Wilton always talks about Ben Roethlisberger, so it’s just funny when … I don’t know, maybe just an inside joke with some guys on the team,” said senior tight end Jake Butt. Sometimes, Fisch will take not just tendencies but also plays from NFL teams and implement them into Michigan’s system. The Wolverines run a pro-style system with multiple looks, some of which come from that vast reservoir of game tape.

“I think we’re always game planning every week, every day,” Fisch said. “Every day is a new game plan. We put together the best possible pass game, run game we can, and then we try to deliver it in the way that they understand why the plays are in. And then maybe show them examples of plays, whether or not they’ve worked in other places, or whether they’ve worked here, or whether it looks like they’d work based on the coverages we get.” Perhaps part of the reason Fisch is always looking for new material is that he’s always teaching. He has now mentored a new quarterback in each of the past six seasons. In 2011, he coached senior Jacory Harris at Miami (Fla.), a fourth-year starter. The next year, he replaced Harris with junior Stephen Morris. He then moved

to the Jacksonville Jaguars and taught former Michigan quarterback Chad Henne, Blaine Gabbert and rookie Blake Bortles before coming to Ann Arbor and starting Jake Rudock and Speight. Most of those quarterbacks had career years under Fisch, and Speight has made similar improvements on Rudock’s numbers. “He came in and really transformed me as not only a quarterback but as a leader,” Speight said. “How I study the game, how I approach the game, pretty much how I approach every day, whether it’s up on campus or in Schembechler Hall. That’s not a complete, formed thing — it’s a process every day. Our relationship continues to grow, and he continues to make me better and push me.”

Fisch acknowledged that he would like to get more comfortable with a quarterback, rather than constantly having to teach a new one. All of his quarterbacks so far have been either first-year starters (like Speight and Bortles) or veteran starters new to the system (like Rudock and Harris). Barring a change, Fisch and Speight could break that trend by working together again next year. By that time, Speight will have already established a strong relationship with his highly respected position coach. “Everything that he does is football-related,” Speight said. “Every thought that goes through his head, it’s probably about football. If it’s not about his family, it’s about football. It’s helped me a lot. It’s helped all the quarterbacks a lot.”

Zordich confident in secondary despite Clark injury Daily Sports Editor

T E A M

better. After fifth-year senior cornerback Jeremy Clark tore his anterior cruciate ligament against Penn State two weeks ago, it is vital for Michigan that both Stribling and senior cornerback Jourdan Lewis remain healthy competitors. “I think the more he’s playing this way, the more confidence he’s getting and starting to see the light,” Zordich said. “Not that he hasn’t, but confidence can go a long way in this game.” He wasn’t the only member of the secondary to make heads turn, though. Lewis saved the day on Wisconsin’s last drive of the game with a leaping one-handed interception that stopped a potential touchdown pass. Though Lewis missed the first three games of the season due to injury, it didn’t look like he missed a beat, especially when he made that pick.

“It’s insane,” Zordich said. “I haven’t seen anything like that from a defensive player. I’ve seen a few guys offensively do it, but nothing like that defensively. It was a hell of a play.” While both players are standouts that contributed significantly in Michigan’s win, more fans seem to notice the latter. But Zordich said it’s not that way within the team. “I don’t think (Stribling is overlooked), I really don’t,” Zordich said. “He may be out here with most folks, but not in (Schembechler Hall). If you watch a game, if you’re at practice and you see Strib make a play, Jourdan make a play, it’s the same kind of enthusiasm. I

don’t think so. “In here, I think everyone understands that Strib’s pretty damn good.” Right behind Stribling and Lewis are three players who are waiting for the chance to show their worth. With Clark out for the rest of the season, Zordich has three contenders who are competing for the extra playing time. “Brandon Watson has had a hell of a camp, really since spring,” Zordich said. “He played well in the spring, played well all camp and he’s going in and filling in just fine. Lavert Hill, extremely talented young man. Really talented. He’s just got to grow and mature, he’s

“(The chances) are out there. It’s out there for sure.”

young. David Long, same way.” While Hill and Long are just freshmen, redshirt sophomore Watson may have the best chance at maintaining a consistent backup role. Watson has seen the field in all five games this season, and against Wisconsin, he recorded two tackles. If Saturday’s game at Rutgers proves to be the blowout it’s projected to be, then fans will likely get a better look at both Hill and Long as well. Zordich wants them to fill in and play when needed, because down the road, it may be vital that the duo is experienced. “I think they realize in practice and their reps increasing in practice time that it’s real now and that the chances of them playing are a lot,” Zordich said. “(The chances) are out there. It’s there for sure.”

Player Smith, D. Evans Isaac Higdon McDoom Chesson Peppers Hill Davis Morris Crawford O’Korn Hirsch Beneducci Hewlett TEAM Allen Speight TOTALS

Avg 5.8 6.7 4.8 6.6 8.0 6.3 12.0 1.7 8.5 8.0 5.5 2.3 2.0 1.0 -1.0 -1.3 -11.0 -3.1 4.9

Lg 42 43 25 40 19 17 17 4 10 14 11 3 2 1 0 0 0 9 43

TD 2 3 2 3 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16

No. 23 22 13 6 6 5 4 9 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 2 1 101

Yds Avg 335 14.6 265 12.0 197 15.2 114 19.0 47 7.8 33 6.6 28 7.0 25 2.8 22 22.0 21 21.0 20 6.7 18 18.0 15 15.0 12 12.0 10 5.0 6 3.0 3 3.0 1171 11.6

Lg 46 25 35 54 15 15 14 9 22 21 8 18 15 12 5 4 3 54

TD 5 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10

No. 12 1 0 13

Yds Avg. Long 246 20.5 54 27 27.0 0 6 -6 279 21.5 54

RECEIVING Player Darboh Butt Chesson Perry Hill Poggi Evans Smith Ways Isaac McDoom Crawford Hirsch Jocz McKeon Bunting Asiasi TOTALS

PUNT RETURNS Player Peppers Jocz Perry TOTALS

TD 1 0 1 2

INTERCEPTION RETURNS Player Stribling Hill, D. McCray Lewis TOTALS

No. 3 1 1 1 6

Yds Avg. Long 60 20.0 51 27 27.0 27 22 22.0 22 0 0.0 0 109 18.2 51

TD 1 1 0 0 2

Yds 9 9

Avg. Long 9.0 9 9.0 9

TD 0 0

Yds 95 28 21 6 5 155

Avg. Long 31.7 55 14.0 15 10.5 18 6.0 6 2.5 5 15.5 55

TD 0 0 0 0 0 0

FUMBLE RETURNS Player Hill, L. TOTALS

No. 1 1

KICKOFF RETURNS Player Peppers Henderson Lewis Hudson Hill, K. TOTALS

No. 3 2 2 1 2 10

KICKOFFS Player Allen Foug TOTALS

No. 32 7 39

Yds 2066 403 2469

Avg. 64.6 57.6 63.3

TB 19 2 21

No. 18 18

Yds 782 782

Avg. 43.4 43.4

Lg 56 56

PUNTING Player Allen TOTALS FIELD GOALS Player Allen Tice

FG Pct. 1-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+ Lg 4-8 50.0% 0-0 1-1 3-5 0-2 0-0 39 0-1 0.0% 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0

LEADING TACKLERS Player Gedeon Peppers Thomas McCray Winovich Gary Glasgow, R. Godin Wormley Hill Hurst Stribling Clark Kinnel Charlton Watson Lewis Bush Glasgow, J. Hudson TOTALS

Solo Ast Tot 13 31 44 24 11 35 18 11 29 13 15 28 4 15 19 6 11 17 2 15 17 8 8 16 7 9 16 8 7 15 6 8 14 4 6 10 6 4 10 5 3 8 1 6 7 4 3 7 6 6 2 3 5 3 1 4 2 2 4 154 182 336

TFL 6.0 9.5 4.5 4.0 4.5 1.5 1.5 4.5 2.0 4.0 0.5 2.5 1.0 47

SK PBU 2.0 1 2.5 1 2.5 4 2.0 1.0 1.0 1 1.0 4.0 1 2.0 5 3 2.0 2 20 19

UPCOMING GAMES 10/ 8 at RUTGERS (2-3) 10/22 vs. ILLINOIS (1-3)

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Channing Stribling had two interceptions in Michigan’s 14-7 win Saturday.

10/29 at MICH. ST. (2-2) 11/5 vs. MARYLAND (4-0) 11/12 at IOWA (3-2) 11/19 vs. INDIANA (3-1)

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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, October 6, 2016

EXPRESSION EXP XPPRESSIO ON O in A

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2B — Thursday, October 6, 2016

COURTESY OF SARAH POSNER

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

website where people will be able to anonymously log their reactions to the piece. There will be a sign in front of her performance that will indicate where and how to do so. “I hope to receive the gamut of possible reactions. I’m not looking for people to validate me, I’m not looking for solely art critics or solely political critics, I’m interested with how the public deals with this material, be it negative, positive or neutral; I think that’s more valuable than searching for the correct reaction,” Cadoux said. Both Cadoux and Marten talked about a community of survivors on campus, a commu-

nity that is full of powerful and passionate individuals working for change. But they also both noted that even within the survivor community, there are no fail-safe ways to talk about these issues. Cadoux said that the hardest part of her performance will be knowing that there will be survivors who are encountering her work, and she won’t be able to engage with them in that moment, though she strongly believes that “art surrounding survivorship does need public space.” “Retriggering or re-traumatizing one another is something that is common in survivor communities and while I know I

have the obligation to work for the rights and safe spaces of people who have suffered this kind of violence, I also recognize part of what keeps survivors silent and from each other is the fear of re-traumatizing others, when every day we come across media that can start up triggering,” Cadoux said. Cadoux has reached out to SAPAC and SafeHouse to alert them that this performance will be happening. When asked what she hopes audiences will leave feeling, Marten thought for a minute before answering. “I would hope that they lose a little bit of fear. Yeah. I’ll leave it at that.”

LSA senior Eliza Cadoux will perform her senior thesis on Friday at the corner of N. University Ave. and State Street.

Two students share their stories in performances

Cooking up a sense of community during the Jewish holiday season

Senior theses seek to present a visual representation of assault

A recipe for chicken and a satisfying family meal away from home

SOPHIA KAUFMAN Daily Arts Writer

On Friday, Eliza Cadoux, a LSA senior majoring in Women’s Studies, will be standing in a thin, white, spaghetti-strapped nightgown in front of a white canvas on the corner of North University and State Street. She will be painting her body and the canvas behind her so that a vague snow-person shape will emerge, and then she will step into a crib-like structure and wash the paint off. She’ll launch herself out of the structure and scrub her body clean. Then she’ll do the same thing, again and again, for eight hours straight. This performance piece is called “Trauma Rite.” She will attempt not to break, because “Once you’ve had a violent experience pressed upon you, it is difficult to take a break from your own reality, and I want to create that conceptual continuum.” During the last weekend of March, Larissa Marten, a senior in SMTD majoring in acting, will be performing her one-woman play, “I Killed the Cow,” in the Duderstadt Library on North Campus. The piece is multimedia and interactive; she will be interacting with audience members before the show while they’re waiting in line, and much of the set is composed of projections. Both of these performance pieces deal with sexual assault, and more broadly, disclosure of trauma, female sexuality and the histories of violence that people bring with them when they arrive on campus. “ ‘Trauma Rite’ ruminates on and deals with trauma, vulnerability and social reaction to survivors and to survivor bodies,” Cadoux said. “I came up with the piece originally as a type of reclamation ceremony ... it has become a piece about disclosure of rape and sexual assault and mental health repercussions of assault.” Both performance pieces are partly academic. Cadoux’s piece is her Women’s Studies honors thesis, and Marten calls her piece a “pseudo-thesis;” acting majors aren’t required to create theses, but Marten feels strongly about the need for acting majors to be constantly creating their own work, a message she hopes to convey to the theatre department. Both Cadoux and Marten said they realized when they were thinking about what they wanted to do for their theses that they couldn’t separate their experiences from the art they wanted to create. “The words ‘the personal is political’ are both antique and incredibly contemporary, in that the scholarship that I love the most is emotional, and the art I love the most has something to say for itself politically,” Cadoux said. “And I can’t separate my need to create theory with my need to create art. Those two things are inextricable for me and deeply entrenched within my affective being in the world.” Cadoux sees her thesis as a way to “project her voice into a space that is void of survivor voices, but is full of orations and writing on sexual assault as a

concept, as an action and as an essentially disembodied talking point. My piece comes into purposeful conflict with that disembodiment.” When Marten was first deciding on the kind of piece she wanted to perform, she said she was drawn to ideas of female sexuality, and the kind of questions that young people are asking themselves at this age, especially in terms of who they are as sexual beings. The title comes from a relationship that Marten sees between cows and female bodies in how they are used; the “killed” part comes from the idea of “obliterating the use of the female.” “ ‘I Killed the Cow’ is about a woman who unearths moments in her life that create her as the sexual person she is,” Marten said. It deals with her relationships with her sexual identity and with family members. It is also largely autobiographical; Marten said because her first sexual experience was one of assault, she knew that her piece would have something to say about that. At the beginning, she said, the piece was largely therapeutic, because it was the first time she had written about her assault. Her adviser, Performing Arts Prof. Gillian Eaton, was blunt with her about that, and helped her turn what started out almost as a diary into a play. Though her work is highly centralized on her own experience, she believes a lot of it is accessible to anyone who sees it. “A lot of the scenes that precede the sexual assault scenes in the play in the end could be scenes that precede any sexual assault in reality,” Marten said. Scenes like parties, or talking about sex with friends, she noted, are ones she’s heard over and over as the kinds of days that have preceded other people’s stories of their own assaults. For example, when Marten recalls the details of the night of her assault, she remembers feeling excited. She was a teenager out on the town in New York City. She had gone to a fancy dinner with her friends. She had just gotten a new haircut. She still has pictures from that day. “I Killed the Cow” ends on a dissatisfied note — Marten believes that we as a society are not in a conclusive place when it comes to discussions of things like rape culture and discourse about sexual violence, so there was no reason to have a play focusing on those topics end in a conclusive way. Both Cadoux and Marten emphasized that their projects have been emotionally taxing. Marten performed a part of “I Killed the Cow” during Wall-to-Wall Theatre Festival last year, titled “Lost, Shared, Taken.” Before she performed, she said she hadn’t realized at the time how scared she would be, and she anticipates that performing the full play in March will be similar. However, their pieces do not solely deal with sexual violence in a campus sphere. “I was not raped (on campus), and to me the interface of the city with the campus is very

important. Campus assault is talked about, not enough, but it is more on people’s political radar right now than gendered violence in society and I’m concerned with both groups of survivors,” Cadoux said, adding that the University has done “pretty incredible works of institutional negligence,” and is absolutely deserving of the ongoing Department of Education Title IX investigation it is currently under. The investigation was opened in 2014 in response to several complaints about the University’s process for investigating sexual assault claims. “So many people come to campus with histories of violence behind them and so many people have experiences outside of the university setting that are really important to note and can’t be invisibilized by campus assault rhetoric,” Cadoux continued, noting that this is why the location of her piece is meaningful. Marten said her assault also did not happen here; she was still in high school, and didn’t tell anyone for a long time. It wasn’t until she arrived on campus that she started to realize how universal an experience it was. Both Cadoux and Marten have found supportive environments in their respective departments. Marten said many people in the theatre department who had heard about her piece followed up with her this year, asking her if she was still going to do it and if they could help in any way. When asked why she decided to major in Women’s Studies, Cadoux answered, “I was driven to Women’s Studies by a grumbling feeling in my stomach that I was missing the point. I had an idea of how I had been affected as a girl, but until becoming part of this department, I can’t say I had racial consciousness, ability consciousness … the work that Women’s Studies as a department does is transformative to the people who do it and incredibly necessary to counteract a social ambivalence and ignorance surrounding privilege and oppression.” Cadoux, who identifies as genderqueer and uses both she/ her/hers and they/them/theirs, also noted that her queer identity has affected her reaction to assaults. As well, like several other students at the University, she has had the experience of walking into a classroom and seeing her attacker. She said she plans to focus her life’s work on combating gendered violence, and her life dream is to create a home and community space for people who have survived abuse, assault or violence to create a community where they can find a break from isolation. While rape crisis is incredibly important to her, she is also interested in long-term healing from trauma and the people who are edited out of assault narratives. Both Cadoux and Marten also want to make their art and messages accessible to the wider Ann Arbor community. Marten’s performance will be filmed, edited and put online, and Cadoux plans to set up a

FOOD COLUMN

SHIR AVINADAV

Daily Food Columnist

Food brings people together. I’ve never been more certain of the incontrovertibility of that fact than when I sat on the living room floor of our neighbors’ house with a plastic cup of wine in my hand and a plate piled high with food in front of me Sunday. They had spent all day cooking for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, and extended an invitation to their friends and friends of their friends to celebrate together. In that moment, sitting among my closest friends, friendly faces and people I had just met, I felt a sense of belonging. The plates in our hands served as the unifying force between us –– a group of college students striving to grasp onto that sense of community that surrounds us but often eludes us. Though most of us may come from tight-knit families and communities back home, this wasn’t about sentimentality or tradition. This was about a budding group of people from different walks of life sharing a meal in their own right. There is an immense sense of pride that accompanies moving into your first home off campus. Paying your first bills. Cooking in your own kitchen. The life you lead within the walls of that home feels like it’s suspended in time –– like you’re living within an isolated bubble, where everything you do is tinged with a sense of excitement and newness. Nothing feels permanent, but it feels important in some way. This feeling surges when it becomes collective. And collectively, we celebrated the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. After brisk introductions and bashful suggestions of helping in the kitchen, we joined together in our meal. Surrounding a table laden with food stood a group of group of individuals, some religious and some secular, many of whom had just met for the first time, who had elected to spend a holiday meal together. Regardless of our relationships to one another or our backgrounds, we had decided to honor old traditions together in a new way. That is partially what the culture surrounding food is rooted in after all –– tradition. Our parents’ recipes become ours and

our children’s. From tradition, however, emerges new practices. Practices that unite us with people and in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The minute I walked through the door of our neighbors’ home, the smell of food and sound of lively chatter evoked a familiar, welcoming feeling. To my initial discomfort, but joy soon after, this feeling was brought on by circumstances we too often take for granted –– the hospitality of others.

Sitting, at that moment, I felt a sense of belonging. I’ve spent the holidays with many different friends and family. Despite the warm greetings and good intentions of each host, I’ve always had a dull, nagging feeling of encroaching on others’ preciously held traditions. That isn’t to say I’ve never felt welcome nor wanted in someone else’s home for a holiday, but other people’s hospitality has this strange way of making me feel uncomfortable, even in the homes of some of our closest friends and family. But once platters of food are brought out, compliments to the cook are politely doled out between hungry bites and dishes pile up in the sink, the feeling quickly fades. With our eclectic group of students, this feeling was negated by its prevalence among all of us. Scattered throughout our hosts’ living room, collectively enjoying a meal we’re all accustomed to sharing with friends and family back home, a sense of familiarity washed over us. It’s a Jewish custom (and I’m sure a practice of most religions and cultures) to open your home to those who don’t have a place to partake in a holiday meal, and I’m grateful for this custom, because it brought me to one of the most memorable Rosh Hashanah meals I’ve had during my time at college. The recipe below is one that my mother used to cook out of my grandmother’s old recipe book for almost every holiday. I

made it for the first time in my junior year, when I had finally been freed of on campus housing, in a shabby white little kitchen that my housemates and I spent the majority of our time in. Since then, I’ve adapted the recipe into my arsenal of college meals and feel compelled to share it with you all. After all, what’s a good meal without sharing it with others? My Mom’s Chicken Recipe: Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 2.5-3 hours 1.5 lbs Chicken drumsticks (or thighs) 2-3 Medium carrots 1 lb Baby potatoes (or sweet potatoes) 1 Medium onion 3-4 Whole garlic cloves 2-3 Sprigs fresh rosemary 1 Cup (or 8oz container) Chicken broth 3-4 tablespoon Olive Oil 1 tablespoon Paprika 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder Pinch of cumin Salt & pepper to taste 1. Preheat oven to 425º. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Season with paprika, garlic powder, cumin, and salt and pepper. Rub seasoning mixture into chicken. 2. Slice carrots and onions into thick pieces. Cut potatoes in half, or leave whole if small enough. Peel the garlic cloves, and place all the ingredients into a large 9”-13” dish (or a dish with similar proportions). 3. Nestle the pieces of chicken into the vegetables, leaving room between the pieces of chicken (it’s OK If some of the vegetables get pushed over the chicken). Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and vegetables. Sprinkle additional paprika, salt and pepper over the chicken. Pour the broth into the chicken mixture by slowly pouring it over the side of the dish (avoid pouring it over the entire mixture). Add the rosemary sprigs on top and cover with foil. 4. Bake the chicken for approximately 20-25 minutes (or until the broth begins to bubble). Lower the heat to 375º and bake for an another 2 hours. If desired, bake the chicken uncovered for an additional 15-20 minutes after. 5. Remove from oven and let rest 10-15 minutes. Serve over rice or with a salad and enjoy! Side note: Seal in a freezer safe container for up to a month.

SINGLE REVIEW A“Butterfly” Grimes

On Wednesday, Oct. 5th, Grimes released a total of seven music videos. They each can be viewed separately, or as one continuous film, “The AC!D Reign Chronicles.” “Butterfly” is the second video of this project. Enlightening and ethereal, each delicate step taken by Grimes is a wonder of enchanting

paces. Surrounded by an ancient villa in the Italian countryside, Grimes paints an ideal and bubbly picture. Accompanied by her friend Hana, the two are garbed in lightweight, loosely fitting dresses. The music itself sounds like an ideal summer track. Synths ping about, and Grimes fastpaced vocals are drenched in auto-tune. The combination creates a sound that matches perfectly with its visuals. Grimes dances as if the wind itself has seeped into her bones and controlled each of her movements. Upon

watching her it’s easy to fall into a relaxed trance, as the music carries you from one shot of the beautiful rustic countryside to the next. The setting is not completely devoid of well-known locations, as Grimes casually strolls past the Coliseum in one shot, and the Palazzo de Congressi in another. The music video for “Butterfly” is a truly escapist experience. At the start of October, when the leaves begin to change and tank tops are replaced with sweatshirts, it is a welcomed gift. - ZACH GREEN

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Sleepless in Ann Arbor: Inside 24 Hour Theatre

Thursday, October 6, 2016 — 3B

TV REVIEW

Historic student group Basement Arts continues tradition of student-run stage productions made in one full day DAYTON HARE Daily Arts Writer

The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is very clear — “adults should sleep seven or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health.” Despite several Google searches and a certain amount of vain hope, I simply can’t find any way around it. I suppose I had really suspected as much before I started looking, but I’m of the age when my actions are guided by an optimistic naïveté which often leads to severe overestimation of my personal abilities, though once in a while, it may lead to a fundamental challenge to the concept of impossibility (except, of course — as in this case — when confronted with the impenetrable wall of hard data and empirical reality that is science). Personally, I don’t imagine that I’ve slept for seven consecutive hours more than once in the past week, and I suspect that many among the Daily’s readership (and a majority of its editorial staff) could probably say the same. But such is life. With all that in mind, and in order to spare the reader (and my editors) too much undue distress, I’ll just skim over the adverse effects of sleep deprivation. To name a few: decreased focus, decreased alertness, decreased working memory, decreased practical reasoning, decreased autoimmune ability and (in extreme cases) hallucinations — there, done. Try not to think about it too much. The point is, some really interesting things start to happen. “It was a whirlwind, to speak euphemistically,” said Music, Theatre & Dance senior Barry Riggins, artistic director of the student organization Basement Arts, about an annual Basement Arts event known as 24 Hour Theatre. 24 Hour Theatre is a project in which several plays are written, rehearsed and performed all within the span of a single planetary rotation, one evening to the next. The British composer Benjamin Britten once famously remarked, “The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and staying up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping,” but if you substitute “playwright” for “composer,” 24 Hour Theatre may just furnish the exception that proves the rule. “The clock is obviously your biggest enemy. You drink as much coffee — or in my case, a 5-Hour Energy poison — as your body will allow, to keep you up,” Riggins said. “I’m always in a sort of unique position every year, writing the musical and then coming in at 10 a.m. to teach it,” Riggins said. “From a physical health standpoint, I wasn’t doing all that well, but the thrill and excitement of hearing the work get received live for the first time … for it to all happen so quickly is really overwhelming, and when you juxtapose that with being really, really physically tired, it’s really unlike anything else in the world … it’s a very unique thrill.” 24 Hour Theatre allows for people from all sorts of theatre backgrounds to come together to create something fun. “24 Hour is a festival, if you will, but it’s essentially just a crazy day where a whole bunch of people — mostly from the theatre school, but definitely lots of people from outside as well — get together and write, direct, tech and then perform four shows in 24 hours” said Music, Theatre & Dance senior Leia Squillace, a director for 24 Hour Theatre. On the day before the performance, writing teams — this year containing four writers each — are compiled and paired with directors. At 11 p.m., the teams are given a few creative constraints, locked in the Walgreen Drama Center and told to have at it. Their task is to compose an original play before 10 a.m., when the directors and actors return to begin rehearsal.

“(Each writing team was) assigned a prop and a line they had to use in every show, as well as a genre,” Squillace said. “This year’s genres were ‘Shitty RomCom,’ ‘Horror,’ ‘Dads Doing Dad Things’ and ‘Porn Epic.’ ” Actors are chosen to participate through a very short audition process, and oftentimes 24 Hour Theatre is a opportunity for new students in the Department of Theatre to become involved. “For freshmen, they’re not allowed to audition for shows in their first semester here, so this is sort of the one opportunity that they’re given,” Squillace said. “It’s a good way for people to bond … additionally, for me, it’s kind of fun to get to know the freshmen.” More than just a social event, 24 Hour Theatre serves an artistic and creative function, allowing for an exploration of approaches that can yield fruitful results. “It’s a stretch of your creative limits,” Squillace said. “One of our professors always says that limitations foster creativity, that when you have less you’re asked to do more, and I think that is the definition of 24 Hour Theatre; you have no budget, you have no time — you don’t always even have a fully functional script sometimes.” The writing process of 24 Hour Theatre is generally an intense and exhausting experience, with writers wearing out as the night goes on. “I sort of oversee 24 Hour, and it’s sort of fascinating,” said Emma Jo Boyden, the executive director of Basement Arts. “I check in on the writers, and in every room it starts out so hopeful, and there’s brainstorming on all the chalkboards … and then suddenly it hits 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. and you go into the room and sometimes the script readings are incoherent … and the scripts just get weirder and weirder and weirder as the night goes on. And suddenly it’s 6:30 in the morning and we’re doing a final read of a script, and it’s actually pretty good.” Despite (or perhaps because of) its ramshackle nature, 24 Hour Theatre is an extraordinarily popular event, and draws a significant number of people. At one point during the day of rehearsal, I heard the potential audience size described as “a fuck-ton of people.” (At the risk of pedantry, it’s probably valuable at this point to discuss in what ways a fuck-ton is quantifiably different from other related metrics. It seems obvious from the etymology of the word that it is a unit of weight. One might initially be inclined to dismiss a comparison with its parent unit, the ton, as excessive, but upon further thought, the similarities might not be so slight. In fact, the fuck-ton might be a unit of far greater magnitude than the ton. According to a 2012 study by BMC Public Health, the average North American adult weighs 177.9 lbs. Given that the performance space of Studio 1 was filled to capacity (with many people sitting in the aisles or standing by the doors), that the Facebook event from 2015 event indicates there were 125 confirmed attendees and that it was widely suspected turnout this year would exceed that of the past, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to claim about 150 people probably viewed the show. Doing some rudimentary calculations, one could estimate that there were about 26,685 pounds in attendance, or 13.34 tons. It’s quite a large unit, then. Compared to other units in colloquial use, such as “shit-ton” and “shit-load,” it is likely far in excess, though by how much, it is difficult to say. Regardless, I’m certain I would not have had a seat if it had not kindly been marked with a sign reading “MICHIGAN DAILY.”) 24 Hour Theatre is, of course, not the only part of Basement Arts, a student-run organization within the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. “We’ve been around for … a very long time,” Boyden said. “Basement Arts has had a lot of

different incarnations and a lot of different names so it’s sort of a hard history to track.” Basement Arts produces student work at the Walgreen Drama Center, presenting a wide variety of work throughout their season. However, to organize all this, Basement Arts requires complex organization. “We have an executive board, and then a more general board, that consists all of students,” Boyden said. “We cover marketing, finance, lots of different things — we have people who work on the website, we have people who will help you find grants, we have people who actually manage the money we get from the department and the money we’ve raised through various projects, all to help produce plays.” The organization aims to produces works as a facilitator, with works that are produced by students on campus. “We go through a proposal process where anyone who is interested on campus can propose to the board a play that they want to produce — that they think is well fit for Basement Arts,” Boyden said. “We then discuss as a board what makes the most sense for Basement to produce that semester and we put together a season. And then we do our best to facilitate shows in a very short amount of time with almost no money.” The upcoming season of Basement Arts includes a play for three actors — or a “three-hander,” in theatre jargon — called “Boom,” a play called “The Whale” about a father trying to reconnect with his daughter, “Hand to God,” only recently off Broadway, “In the Red and Brown Water” and a workshop-style presentation of a student-written play. “We really like working with student writers, because it allows us not to spend money on rights but help the production in other ways,” Boyden said. “There’s no rule that we take one student work every semester — we just sort of feel it out, and if the student work feels ready for a full-scale production, and we think that the playwright is ready to step away and let it be a script on its own, then we take it on.” Basement Arts has been an important aspect of the student theatre scene in Ann Arbor for some time, and in the eyes of people like Riggins, it is a core part of Michigan’s appeal. “The first time I ever heard about the University of Michigan as an arts entity at all was when I was in seventh or eighth grade when I saw a little thing called ‘A Very Potter Musical’ on YouTube,” Riggins said. “And I was momentarily very engaged with it. It came to my attention that that was created at the University of Michigan and I found out that it was put on by a student organization, all for no money.” “We take it for granted here … the amount and the passion of student theatre that occurs at U of M is really unparalleled,” Riggins said. “And lo and behold, once I was coming here, the first show I ever did was an original musical in the same space I had seen ‘A Very Potter Musical’ those four or five years previous, and it was absolutely surreal and just as fun as I could have imagined it.” To Riggins and people like him whose lives have been altered by Basement Arts, the organization is extremely important. In his view, one of the best aspects of Basement Arts is the passion its people bring to their work. “The thing about Basement Arts is it’s really the only time you’ll find every single person in the room wants to be there … they are there because they want to be and create theatre and tell good stories,” Riggins said. “All my favorite university experiences artistically have occurred through it and I’ve made some of the best friends of my life. I feel very much indebted to the organization.” Riggins likely wasn’t the first, and probably won’t be the last person for whom that’s true.

AMAZON

The usual suspects.

‘Transparent’ showcases strength in Season 3 premiere on Amazon Prime Award-winning tragicomedy is back to bring on the laughs and tears SHIR AVINADAV

“Transparent” not only addresses religion and spirituality, but does so in a grounding and accessible “I’ve got everything I need, way that layers meaning into its so why am I so unhappy?” narrative. asks Maura (Jeffrey Tambor, After answering a distressing “Arrested Development”) in phone call from a young “Transparent” ’s transgender woman powerful season three on the verge of taking premiere. Though this her own life, Maura emotionally charged is shaken. Struggling question is directed to find an appropriate “Transparent” at her girlfriend, response among a list Season Three Vicki (Anjelica of scripted phrases Huston, “The Royal provided by the Amazon Prime Tenenbaums”), it center that suddenly seems that Maura is seem unfitting, looking to herself for Maura goes off book the answer. Herein lies the theme and addresses the individual of the third and most compelling more personally. In a rapid series season yet: desire. of cuts, we’re taken into each Though the source of Maura’s character’s respective worlds, unhappiness isn’t immediately while being given only extreme clear, her question doesn’t close-ups of their lips. This necessitate a response right away. intimate approach in depicting It suffuses the episode with a the phone call amplifies its vague feeling of discontent that urgency. Both the audience and mounts as the episode progresses Maura are drawn into the teen’s and Maura gets nowhere nearer plight. to finding the answer. However, After the teen hangs up, Maura it foregrounds the emotional searches for her. She grows journey that Maura will embark increasingly perturbed and her on this season as she begins to concern becomes more apparent assess what she really wants. as time goes by without any leads Sparked by Maura’s question, on her location. Maura arrives at the tone of the episode carries the mall, where a conversation a subdued unease that builds in with three women turns its restless tension. This feeling contentious, her shoe breaks and is intensified by the episode, a fast food employee accuses her which structured entirely of stealing a beverage. around its main character. In a The heart-wrenching daring formal conception, the escalation of Maura’s efforts to episode excludes all but the main save someone not only heightens character from its storyline. The the tension in the episode, but audience is compelled to align also hints at the forces Maura themselves with only the show’s struggles against in her own protagonist. life. This becomes evident when Nearly the entire cast is Maura collapses in a panic when excluded from the episode with she is being escorted out by mall the exception of Raquel (Kathryn security and encounters the teen Hahn, “Bad Moms”), who is who is justifiably confused by crosscut with the main storyline Maura’s intense determination while narrating a Passover to help her. sermon over shots of a secluded The carefully rising tautness walk through the woods. The throughout the episode suddenly juxtaposition of the two, Maura’s surges at this climactic moment. story with Raquel’s spiritual Her failure to feel redeemed in musings, adds meaningful her efforts to save someone is subtext to what would otherwise tinged with all the burdensome appear to be an offshoot from sadness of Maura’s own inability the season’s overarching to overcome obstacles in her own storyline. Unlike most shows, life. When Maura desperately Daily Arts Writer

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pleas to be taken to a Jewish hospital, her wishes aren’t met, and the audience is reminded of the constant barriers she faces in her transition. After she wakes up in a county hospital in the following episode, the arrival of the Pfefferman clan is a welcome relief after the intense isolation that pervades the first episode. “Transparent” has a knack for bringing in characters when they are needed most. Following her release from the hospital, Maura announces her desire to get surgery to her family at her birthday dinner — yet another timestamp marking the status of her gender transition. A resounding uncertainty falls over the family members. Shelly (Judith Light, “Ugly Betty”), after haughtily announcing that she is “transitioning” into her own brand at dinner, quickly deflates and voices her dissent when Maura tries to insist she wants to be called “Mom.” All it takes for us to glean the family’s reluctant acceptance is the camera momentarily resting on the faces of Ali (Gaby Hoffmann, “Girls”), Sarah (Amy Landecker, “Louie”) and Josh (Jay Duplass, “The Mindy Project”). The show’s grounded actuality comes from moments like these — where it takes nothing more than a few glances between the three children to convey their close bond and evolving relationship with Maura and one another. Maura’s internal plight is mirrored in her children’s own search for happiness, which the series develops through a series of flashbacks that intertwine the narrative of their past with their present. With the opportunity afforded by television to develop characters over time, the series has successfully mastered its use of the medium to do just that with Maura and the Pfeffermans. The show takes great pains in both its narrative structure and formal tendencies to illuminate complex transition over time — making its third season its most gripping foray into family, identity and gender.

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW A“Starboy” The Weeknd

“Starboy” is a strategic return for Abel Tesfaye, whose gritty, hyper-sensual R&B act, the Weeknd, finally reached mainstream superstardom with his latest album, Beauty Behind The Madness. The Daft Punk-assisted single, which shares its title with the Weeknd’s upcoming LP, arrived after he carefully built anticipation by deleting all of his Instagram posts and tweeting cryptic emojimessages that hinted at new music. In a similarly synchronized fashion, the music video for “Starboy” released last weekend, just hours before the Weeknd performed on ‘‘Saturday Night Live!’’ It opens with slow, eerie pans of an empty, luxurious home and leads

into a fatal confrontation for the Weeknd, who is ziptied with a plastic bag over his face. He then gets suffocated beneath a massive chandelier, his familiar, dreadlocked face falling hard to the floor, and the murderer takes off, unmasking himself when the beat kicks in: it’s the Weeknd, with his freshly buzzed hair and consequently boosted ego. He brags about cars and women while strutting cooly past platinum records. Moments later, a fluorescent red cross reveals itself in sci-fi fashion and the Weeknd uses it to destroy artifacts of his success: music awards fall to the floor and his closet is set aflame. The Weeknd frames fame

XO

as an inheritable condition worthy of sympathy and leans heavily on “Starboy” ’s unapologetic hook to pass off blame (“Look what you’ve done!”). At the video’s end, the Weeknd speeds off toward Santa Monica’s mountains in a $1.5 million McLaren P1, while a black panther, previously pictured on his wall, sits in the passenger seat, tame as a puppy. His cars are the only things he is unwilling to wreck. - SALVATORE DIGIOIA

the b-side

4B — Thursday, October 6, 2016

ARTIST

IN

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN

PROFILE

Rethinking rejection: The silver lining in risk-taking Mistakes are made sometimes, but it’s all worth it in the end

I

LANGSTON KERMAN

Stand-up comic and UM alum Langston Kerman made a stop in Ferndale with Jak Knight this past week.

SAM ROSENBERG Daily Arts Writer

Stand-up has often paved the way to mainstream success for some of the funniest, most captivating people in pop culture: Amy Schumer, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Louis C.K. and Richard Pryor, to name a few. Once the success of a stand-up comic builds, they ultimately venture into careers in television, film or both. But at the heart of all the success is a comic’s humanistic drive to entertain people through the art of creative, observational storytelling. Jak Knight and Langston Kerman are two hilarious, up-andcoming stand-up comedians right on the cusp of success in their relatively new careers, both balancing on a tightrope between obscurity and popularity. Since mid-September, Knight and Kerman have been touring together on a 14-stop joint stand-up expedition across the Midwest and along the East Coast, titled “The Hennessy x Tickles Tour.” On Sept. 25, they stopped in Ferndale. “The goal for stand-up is to figure out a way to meld the person you are in real life and the person you are on stage,” said Kerman. “We’re all trying to figure out a way to just start talking and then come out funny.” Both comedians have been performing as early as 2011, and continue to do so even with their multitude of television appearances. Knight is a notable presence on Comedy Central, starring in shows like Adam Devine’s “House Party” and Chris Hardwick’s “@midnight.” Kerman has also appeared on Comedy Central, as well as HBO, IFC and the Oxygen Network. He also happens to be a University of Michigan alum, and graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in English. While Knight and Kerman continue to climb the ladder of newfound fame, their journeys toward becoming comedians had rather unexpected starts. A native of the Chicago suburb Oak Park, Kerman grew up watching comedy as a kid, but never thought it was something he wanted to do professionally. At a certain point, Kerman said, he developed an interest in performance poetry, which ultimately evolved into a teaching job. He spent a year as a poetry instructor at his old high school and then spent the following two years in Boston, where he worked as an English teacher for 11th and 12th grades. But even then, Kerman realized that he “could be on stage not

necessarily to read poems, but to basically talk shit in between other people’s talks.” Thus, he began doing standup while still teaching classes and eventually quit his job to pursue comedy full-time. Since then, his stand-up has led to a variety of opportunities, including his own video on Above Average’s “Storytime” and a guest spot in Issa Rae’s forthcoming HBO comedy “Insecure.” Though Kerman noted that he’s not a “classically trained actor,” he works hard to take it as seriously as possible and enjoys working in new spaces. Doing stand-up, however, seems to be the most fulfilling for Kerman. “I think that there’s no greater thrill of making people laugh on a stage with a microphone,” Kerman remarked. “Nothing else I’ve done up to this point has ever matched what that feeling is.” Similarly, Knight has found stand-up to be his calling, though his origin was much more low-stakes. Born and raised in Seattle, Knight’s interest in comedy began at the age of 14 when he and a friend watched the Dave Chappelle episode of HBO’s “Comedy Half-Hour” special. He recalled seeing Chappelle do standup and thinking it was “the craziest thing I’d ever seen in my life.” It wasn’t until Knight’s senior year of high school that he thought of doing comedy as a career. As Knight casually put it, he had “nothing else going on.” Once he moved to Los Angeles and found his way onto Comedy Central, Knight established his comedic voice among other newcomers like Brandon Wardell, Andrew Santino, Vladimir Caamano and Meaghan Rath. At the moment, he’s writing and voicing a character on Netflix’s upcoming animated sitcom “Big Mouth,” which stars a slew of famous comics including Nick Kroll, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney and Jordan Peele, and is set to premiere sometime next year. Like Kerman, Knight enjoys writing and acting, but doesn’t find it as gratifying as stand-up. “It’s less satisfying, but it pays the bills,” Knight says. “I didn’t really grow wanting to be a movie or TV star, but I just like making funny things just so I can make better stand-up. We all just want to grow up to be Bill Burr.” As for the relationship between the two comedians, Kerman and Knight could not be more of an inseparable duo. Their banter is exceptional and witty, with the two making clever quips while bashing

one another. When Knight described his upbringing into comedy, Kerman brushed it off, saying that Jak “just wasn’t busy and so he started doing comedy.” Knight quickly retorted, joking that Langston leaving his teaching job was the reason why the American educational system is at such a low point. After trading a few more sarcastic insults, Knight told Kerman to “eat a dick,” to which Kerman replie, “That should go on the record because it only proves that I was right when I said [Jak] is an awful person.” On paper, this conversation sounds mean-spirited, but they just seemed like two regular friends poking fun at one another and chuckling about it afterwards in the way that any good pair of friends would. Though Kerman and Knight believe people like Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Richard Pryor influenced their comedy, the two find their real comedic inspirations from stand-up comedians today. Knight recognizes Jerrod Carmichael, Jamar Neighbors and Jake Weisman as his influences; Kerman lists Dan Soder, Jeffrey Joseph and Ali Wong as some of his own. Seeing these comedians fail and succeed, as Knight said, helps him understand how to accept failure and continue to shape his own craft in order to succeed. Despite their shared love for stand-up comedy, the comedians have very different ideas for how they want to continue their slowly gestating stardom. Referencing an analogy made by his friend and fellow comedian Brent Morin, Knight describes stand-up as “the trunk of a tree” and writing and acting for television as “the branches of that tree.” “I’m only doing this for the trunk, because I want to be a great stand-up and that’s the only thing I really want to be,” Knight says with unabashed honesty. “But to be a great stand-up, you need to do branches.” Kerman hopes to continue to work in TV and film, saying that “stand-up is where my heart is, but I love the idea in being able to explore these other spaces because I like them and they enable the stand-up.” Attaining a strong, singular voice is hard enough against such a crowded environment of talent. And in the competitive landscape of stand-up comedy, being successful can be based both on a lot on skill and luck. Fortunately for Knight and Kerman, they have definitely proven they have the skill and they’re certainly on the right track for luck.

IN SEARCH OF SOMEONE TO WRITE THESE DEAD ADS. Email katjacqu@umich.edu and ajtheis@umich.edu if you’ve got what it takes.

ts grasp is suffocating. goals, permitting someone The pain stings deeply else to see them and respond. as we dwell on what we During one of many long offered and what someone else phone conversations with my dismissed. sister regarding my incessant This is, of course, thoughts of my our crippling fear of inadequacy, I asked, rejection. “Why do I feel like We often reflect I’m rejected more on the experience than most people?” of rejection and Her response was conclude we weren’t everything I needed good enough, thus to hear at the time. allowing someone “Bailey, you feel like else’s view to hold you’re rejected more enough power to just because you’re BAILEY alter our own view trying more.” KADIAN of ourselves. To It occurred to me become the people we want to then that, although rejection be — successful, inspiring and was not something I was proud ultimately happy — we have to of, it came from a positive change our view of rejection. trait of mine: my willingness Oftentimes, it isn’t so much to always try. For every “no,” what we have lost that causes or negative response to my our turmoil, as much as it’s writing, ideas or performance, the fear of the process that I wonder if I should just stop awaits us following rejection: offering myself as a target for rebuilding both our confidence the inevitable rejection that and incentive to try again. follows me. But because of A negative and destructive this rejection, I’ve been able view of rejection hinders our to properly discern what I ability to take risks and try, and actually want for myself, and it simultaneously blinds us from makes attaining that thing all seeing the path we actually the more satisfying. want to follow. In 1944, T.S. Eliot rejected Rejection is deeply rooted in George Orwell’s renowned the personal. When positioned “Animal Farm,” believing it was in a vulnerable state, we are unfit to be published. Joyce’s more prone to take someone’s “Ulysses” caused a great deal opinion and attach it directly to of controversy before finally ourselves, often becoming more getting published. Even J.K. critical and harsh to our own Rowling’s star series got its a self-worth. If you are looking dose of rejection. The list goes at what others have rejected, on and on. their decision often has very Aaron Tveit, one of the most little to do with you as a person, successful stars on Broadway yet it’s the first thing we attack. and best known for his roles as It’s our point of blame and it Frank Abagnale Jr. in “Catch has become a habit to fall back Me If You Can,” and Gabe on this tendency. in “Next to Normal,” refers Most refer to “putting to Broadway as a “rejection yourself out there” as a very business.” Even Meryl Streep positive thing, because it was on the verge of quitting proves you are making yourself her acting career in 1976 after available. You are displaying being told she was “too ugly” to your talents, experiences and play a certain role. Now, she is

nothing short of phenomenal. It’s no surprise that even the best have faced rejection, but it’s still associated too closely with failure for my liking. A lack of a desired response such as not getting the job, the role in a show, the acceptance letter or even hearing from a person of interest that he or she simply doesn’t like you is not failure. Failure blocks the way to success. Rejection, if anything, illuminates the path towards it. This isn’t supposed to be a euphemistic response to something as prevalent and painful as rejection. An underlying tone of fear arises in the aftermath of rejection that I think in many ways can be alleviated. Does fear dictate your life? Is that job interview less appealing because the chance of hearing a “no” is higher? We limit ourselves more than we realize. I often want to stay in the safety net of comfort and avoid too many challenges, out of fear I might fall short. Rejection doesn’t knock you off your path, it just repositions you. Why are we so disturbed when that happens? I think we’re under the delusion that we have more control over others’ reactions to our work than we actually do. For the countless “no”s that are coming your way in the future, the only thing that should actually trigger your fear is the lingering inability to expect rejection and in turn accept it. Only when you’re able to do that will you be fully prepared for what is to come — greeting your success with a newfound appreciation and pride. Does fear dictate your life? If not, email Kadian at bkadian@umich.edu

BOOK REVIEW

Daily Book Review: ‘Underground Railroad’ a strong but tough read Colson Whitehead’s new historical fiction is an unflinching look at a young slave girl’s choice between freedom and familiarity SOPHIA KAUFMAN

of free Black people and sympathetic white people, but literal railroad tracks humming Colson Whitehead pulls no beneath the earth. punches in “The Underground The escape doesn’t go as Railroad.” There are accounts planned. Cora’s friend Lovey is of suicide and rape on the captured and Cora badly hurts second page, and elucidations a young white boy. Cora and of the danger of loving another Caesar escape their wouldperson while be captors the enslaved three pages first time, but “The later. None of these the sense of Underground experiences, nor being hunted by the emotions that overly invested Railroad” accompany them, slave-catcher Colson are enunciated in Ridgeway follows Whitehead so many words, but them for the rest as in other slave of the novel, as August 2, 2016 narratives, there does Ridgeway Doubleday don’t need to be himself. Their many words to get first stop seems the ideas across. too good to be Whitehead stares true — South unflinchingly into the past, Carolina, contrary to intuition, reaching in and pulling out the feels safe. But the smooth stories which we most need to surface of the town — filled hear, the ones we often pretend with white people who seem we don’t see right in front of us. willing to help and house them “The Underground Railroad” — is revealed to be a scummed follows Cora, a slave girl from over veneer hiding the true a cotton plantation in Georgia, intentions of those people. as she makes one of the hardest Cora, upon learning that these decisions for a slave: to stay people just want access to Black on a plantation, stripped of bodies, feels trapped all over humanity and subject to a white again. The former slaves in master’s depraved and cruel this community have no idea whims, or run away and risk that their bodies are being used facing torturous punishment if for studies of sterilization and caught. She makes her decision syphilis. when Caesar, another slave, Part of the power in “The tells her about a possibility Underground Railroad” comes for escape that she’s never from the variety of stories that heard of before. Following in Whitehead is able to eloquentthe footsteps of a mother who ly braid together, stories that left her behind to flee, Cora one might not expect in a book agrees to accompany Caesar on about slavery — there are charhis endeavor. Caesar’s escape acters who are not heterosexual route is not just a network and even a possible reference to Daily Arts Writer

a pre-Civil War BDSM community. He complicates the stories of the white people implicated in slave narratives: some of the slave catchers have weirdly stringent moral hang ups about what they will and will not let their men do to slaves, and some of the people who are helping runaways have a voyeuristic enjoyment in watching the desperation in their eyes of the people they’re helping. Whitehead’s use of description touches the deepest chords of sympathy within us. There are description of the tiny manacles used to chain the wrists of children. There is a description of a slave who is roasted alive; you hear his screams in your head, despite the fact that part of his anatomy was cut off and sewed into his mouth. The white guests drink spiced rum as they revolve around his burning body, which serves as the main entertainment. But Whitehead also describes the joy that comes from playing music as a freed slave and the inherited trauma of lost languages. “The Underground Railroad” might be based on a literalized metaphor, but it doesn’t require suspension of disbelief. The railroad feels just as real as the rest of the wrenching heartache that accompanies the stories. The history of chattel slavery in America will never be easy to talk about. But Whitehead has found words that offer us a glimpse into a window of the grimmest part of our history. He makes it impossible for us to look away.