ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
CAMPUS LIFE
Community gathers to reflect 5 yrs. after BBUM Black Student Union exhibit mirrors original actions, demands from 2013 SAYALI AMIN
Daily Staff Reporter NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Mandy Coterillo, Alumni Chair of Zeta Omega Eta and co-host of SHIFT hugs an attendee of SHIFT at the League Monday evening.
Gender identity explored through performances at SHIFT showcase
200 people attend art event in League hosted by Redefine and Zeta Omega Eta CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
Featuring a mix of visual art, written word and performances by University of Michigan students with a diverse range of gender identities, the annual SHIFT talent showcase was held Monday to explore and celebrate the theme of gender. Co-hosted by Redefine, a student organization dedicated to creating platforms for the intersection of art and social justice, and Zeta Omega
Eta, a non-traditional sorority focused on the advancement of feminist ideals, the event first allowed attendees to browse a wall of visual art at the entrance of the room that showcased drawings, photographs, poetry and prose. The artwork had a variety of messages presenting the artists’ experiences of gender, from its intersection with ethnicity to societal gender pressures. Kendall Sidnam, co-president of Redefine and one of the organizers of the event, emphasized the mission of Redefine to provide a
space for artists at the University to express themselves. “To be able to have a safe and brave space where they can showcase their art without judgment and with full support and accessibility ... Having a space that’s solely devoted to them and their work and their talent is really important for them to feel supported in whatever identity they have,” Sidnam said. The organizers later shifted into the performance portion of event with a video asking University students about genders
norms they’d like to see changed and what gender empowerment meant to them. Launching from these ideas, one of the emcees, LSA senior Mandy Coterillo, explained the idea of the “gender unicorn” to the audience. “The gender unicorn is divided into gender identity, gender expression, sex assigned at birth, physically attracted to, and emotionally attracted to…” Coterillo said. “The unicorn works in a spectrum.” The performances that followed See SHIFT, Page 3
The Black Student Union held an event and exhibit in Mason Hall on Monday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of #BBUM, which stands for “Being Black at the University of Michigan.” The display included a large poster where students could share what it means to be Black at the University of Michigan in colored chalk. On Nov. 19, 2013, BSU launched a movement that brought Black students’ experiences at the University to light, with the viral hashtag, protest and institutional demands. BBUM represents a watershed moment of viral student activism on campus. A “hood ratchet” party organized by Theta Xi, a predominantly white fraternity, catalyzed the BSU’s launch of the hashtag
used in 10,000 tweets in its first two days. LSA senior Kayla McKinney, president of BSU, said the event was intended to give students a space to ref lect on the past five years since the hashtag began and also on the history of Black students at the University in general. “They did a demonstration similar to this (five years ago),” McKinney said. “This was right after the Trayvon Martin trial, racist incidents on campus, so Black students just needed a place to voice what was going on.” This dialogue gave way to seven demands addressed to the University. Many of the demands — most notably, the perennial ask for 10 percent Black enrollment — are reiterations of changes sought by previous Black Action Movements. These reforms include more affordable housing, a revamped Race See BBUM, Page 3
Course evaluation data reveal most Assembly Resolution expresses popular introductory-level classes for climate
ACADEMICS
ANN ARBOR
support for online vote
Twelve courses top list of those which most increase interest in subject matter
Faculty gov. also voices concerns over clarity of letter writing policies
At the end of each semester, University of Michigan students are asked to submit evaluations for the courses they have taken in that term. One of the most important metrics for introductorylevel courses is how much interest they generate in the field. Rankings are based on the percentage of students who answered some form of “yes” when asked, “Did this course increase interest in the field?” The top results for introductory classes are listed below: ASIANLAN 125: First Year Japanese I (94 percent) Ranked highest on the list, First Year Japanese I is designed for students with no prior Japanese knowledge and focuses on the fundamentals of learning a new language. According to Mayumi Oka, director of the Japanese language program, this firstyear course stresses several key skills of the language. “We do reading, writing, speaking and listening,” Oka said. “We teach everything like conversation and how to write characters, and we introduce Japanese culture. Culture is very important.” The class focuses on an understanding of Japanese culture as well. According to Kinesiology freshman
SARAH THONG For the Daily
The University of Michigan Senate Assembly convened Monday afternoon in the Michigan League to discuss the implications of electronic voting and participation in future meetings as well as what responsibilities University faculty hold regarding letters of recommendation. After opening the meeting with announcements, Senate Assembly Chair Neil Marsh, professor of chemistry, opened the floor for discussion about electronic voting and participation in future Faculty Senate meetings. Remote participation would be achieved through video chat platforms like Bluejeans or Skype. The discussion was a response to concerns that quorums rarely occur due to the participation minimum of 100 faculty members. As a result, there have only been three instances in which a faculty quorum has been able to vote on issues since 2004. “We never get a quorum, See ASSEMBLY, Page 2
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
ATTICUS RAASCH Daily Staff Reporter
Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
Xincheng Yuan, the class generates interest by appealing to the U.S. interest in different facets of Japanese culture. “I think Japanese culture is popular in America with anime and manga and those games,” Yuan said. “I think many people are trying to learn about these in Japanese to better play the things that they like.”
LHSP 125: College Writing (88 percent) With various sections of this course including “Writing and Seeing,” “Writing Genres,” “Monsters and Beasts” and more, this course in the Lloyd Hall Scholars Program offers several unique lenses while also providing a base of writing skills. According to Shelley Mannis, professor of “Our TV, Our Selves: The
Rhetoric of Television,” the various sections allow students to use writing to analyze the world around them. “A big part of this course, too, is helping students learn how to find real conversations happening in the world around things that they’re interested in,” Mannis wrote in an email to The Daily. “In See COURSES, Page 3
DID THIS COURSE CAUSE INTEREST IN THE FIELD? First Year Japanese I
College Writing
Intro to Dance
94%
88%
87%
ASIANLAN 125 Studio: 2D
LHSP 125 Elementary Spanish
DANCE 100 Planets and Moons
82%
82%
82%
ARTDES 115 Energy, Food, & Environment
SPANISH 101 Intro to Psychology
EARTH 113 Global X
81%
80%
80%
BIOLOGY 101 PSYCH 111 Elem. Programming Concepts Naked Eye Astronomy
COMPLI 100 The Dark Side of the Univ.
79%
79%
79%
EECS 183
ASTRO 127
ASTRO 107 CASEY TIN/Daily
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 35 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
funds fails in Council
Newly sworn in members provide deciding votes after hours-long debate RACHEL CUNNINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter
After four new Councilmembers were sworn into office Monday night, Ann Arbor City Council failed a resolution 7-4 to amend the Office of Sustainability and Innovation’s budget and appropriate funds for new climate and sustainability programs, and to scale-up existing programs. City Councilmembers Julie Grand, D-Ward 3, Zachary Ackerman, D-Ward 4, Chip Smith, D-Ward 5 and Mayor Christopher Taylor voted in favor of the resolution. The failure comes after the resolution was first postponed during the Oct. 15 meeting in which councilmembers could not come to a general consensus on the issue. Rackham students Jennifer Carman and Samantha Basile are both involved with climate change action both in their studies and participation in environmental groups both on campus and within Ann Arbor. Both Carman and Basile are residents of Ward 1. Basile said passing the resolution See COUNCIL, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7
News
2 — Tuesday, November 20, 2018
MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
TUESDAY: By Design
WEDNESDAY: This Week in History
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Behind the Story
CHRISTINE MONTALBANO/Daily
#BBUM 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN
NATHAN GUPTA
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 alexastj@michigandaily.com
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 nathankg@michigandaily.com
NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com
PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
ARTS SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com
arts@michigandaily.com
NEWSROOM
SPORTS SECTION
734-418-4115 opt. 3
sports@michigandaily.com
CORRECTIONS
ADVERTISING
corrections@michigandaily.com
dailydisplay@gmail.com
Editorial Staff DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily Engineering senior Cryserica Jeter writes on a banner responding to the prompt “Being Black at UM”, marking the five year anniversary of the use of the hashtag #BBUM in Mason Hall Thursday.
Those opposed to electronic participation expressed concerns that faculty could experience technical difficulties preventing them from participating. They also worried video chat participation would make it more difficult to discern what is happening at what time during the meeting with possible delays in connection. Assembly member John Traynor, a professor in the Medical School, brought up another concern. He worried the assembly may actually have less participation if people are able to participate online. “Will people even bother to participate?” Traynor said. “Or will they switch on computer and just do other things?” Courtney Snyder, a professor in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, said assembly members needed to “think carefully about the implications” of assembly meetings being broadcast
the University’s choice to discipline Prof. John CheneyLippold for rescinding his offer to write a student a letter of only when a crisis comes up … recommendation upon learning Which is not the best time to that the letter would be used make policies,” Marsh said. for a study abroad program Other assembly members, in Israel. The small groups including Social Work professor then reported to the larger Shanna Kattari, agreed the group, which would send out Senate Assembly would benefit its concerns to the Duderstadt from electronic participation Blue Ribbon Recommendation because the current meetings Letters Panel. are not accessible to many The assembly members faculty members. discussed any rules in their “It’s a (Diversity, Equity, and departments regarding Inclusion) issue with access letters of recommendation, … Someone who is disabled … key concerns regarding Who has children … in any other recommendation letters and situation could use Bluejeans,” recommendations any faculty Kattari said. members have to improve the U-M Dearborn process of writing letters of professor Caitlin Finlayson recommendation. echoed Kattari, saying As a whole, assembly during the workday with members were unaware of “other communities and is used for participation. rules regarding letters of responsibilities” it is difficult There was also concern that recommendation in their for her to travel the hour to as the group gets larger, it may departments. The assembly Ann Arbor to participate in become more difficult to pass members had not heard many Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ meetings. motions. concerns until recently and After the discussion, viewed this situation as an via straw polls, the outlier. assembly voted in Assembly members were favor of four proposals: more concerned about how this remote participation for controversy may set a precedent the Senate Assembly, for writing recommendations EASY electronic voting for in the future. Specifically, Senate Assembly, remote members expressed concern participation for the they would be forced to write a Faculty Senate and recommendation for everyone remote voting for the who asked them. Traynor said Faculty Senate. Though letters of recommendation these polls do not hold “would be useless if we went any governmental power, to that stage where everyone is they gauge the Assembly’s forced to write a letter”. thoughts on future steps. Further, assembly members “How do we move expressed concern University forward now that we administrators could make know there is interest in policies which constitute moving forward?” asked an abuse of power. Traynor Ruth Carlos, Senate mentioned rules surrounding Assembly member and writing recommendations professor of radiology. could easily violate First During the second Amendment rights to free half of the meeting, the speech. assembly broke into small “(Faculty) should be able to groups to discuss the not support certain institutions implications of a recent along with free speech,” controversy concerning Traynor said, providing the the duty of University example of the right physicians © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. THXGIVING WEEK. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com faculty to write letters have to refuse to perform of recommendation. certain procedures based on This dialogue follows beliefs.
ASSEMBLY From Page 1
online, fearing it created an opportunity for retaliation from administration and colleagues against statements made in meetings. The conversation then switched to the rules and nuances of how electronic participation would be carried out. Assembly members expressed concerns that participation will vary depending on what platform
(Faculty) should be able to not support certain institutions
SUDOKU
8
6
5
2
4
1
3
3
9
3
5
6
4
9
1
8
1
8
7
5
9
6
2
3
7
4
4 5
2 8
Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
DAYTON HARE Managing Editor
haredayt@michigandaily.com
RIYAH
BASHA and SOPHIE SHERRY
Managing News Editor news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Andrew Hiyama, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut, Matt Harmon, Maya Goldman Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Remy Farkas, Julia Ford, Elizabeth Lawrence, Rachel Cunningham, Molly Norris, Maeve O’Brien, Sayali Amin, Danielle Pasekoff, Katherina Sourine
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY and ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Tara Jayaram, Joel Danilewitz, Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Charlson, Magdalena Mihaylova
MIKE PERSAK and LANEY BYLER
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Mark Calcagno, Robert Hefter, Max Marcovitch, Anna Marcus, Paige Voeffray Assistant Sports Editors: Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Matthew Kennedy, Tien Le, Ethan Sears, Jacob Shames, Avi Sholkoff
DANIELLE YACOBSON and MADELEINE GAUDIN Managing Arts Editors
arts@michigandaily.com
Senior Arts Editors: Becky Portman, Sam Rosenberg, Arya Naidu, Dominic Polsinelli Arts Beat Editors: Jack Brandon, Fallon Gates, Shima Sadaghiyani, Tess Garcia, Sofia Lynch
ROSEANNE CHAO and CASEY TIN Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
Senior Design Editor: Jack Silberman
ALEXIS RANKIN and KATELYN MULCAHY Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
Senior Photo Editors: Amelia Cacchione, Emma Richter, Evan Aaron, Claire Meingast Assistant Photo Editors: Alice Liu, Darby Stipe, Max Kuang, Ryan McLoughlin, Alec Cohen
BRIAN KUANG
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford, Jennifer Meer
FINN STORER and ELISE LAARMAN Managing Copy Editors
copydesk@michigandaily.com
Senior Copy Editors: Emily Stillman, Allie Bopp, Miriam Francisco
ROBERT LESSER and JORDAN WOLFF
Managing Online Editors lesserrc@michigandaily.com Senior Web Developers: Patricia Huang, Abna Panda, Hassaan Ali Wattoo, Rebecca Tung
NOAH TAPPEN
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Abe Lofy, Robby Weinbaum, Jillian Drzinski, Danielle Kim
JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG Michigan in Color Editors
michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Zainab Bhindarwala, Christian Paneda, Nisa Khan, Na’kia Channey Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Angelo McKoy, Kareem Shunnar, Maya Mokh, Efe Osagie, Samuel So
KAYLA WATERMAN and CARRINGTON TUBMAN Managing Social Media Editors
AVERY FRIEDMAN Managing Podcast Editor
Business Staff ADRIANNA KUSMIERCZYK CAMERON COANE
Creative Director
DEANA ZHU
Sales Manager
Special Projects Manager
JEFFREY ZHANG
MARIO DRESAJ
ALEC SPELLER
ROHIT IYER
Local Accounts Manager Marketing Consulting Manager
Brand Manager
Business Development Manager
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 — 3
LSA student government candidates present platforms on campus issues Candidates discuss dining hall options, student accessibility and DEI plans LIAT WEINSTEIN Daily Staff Reporter
Candidates running for representative positions in LSA Student Government gathered Monday night for a candidates’ forum to pitch their platforms in preparation for the elections on Nov. 26 and 27. Prospective members discussed topics such as dining hall options, accessibility, diversity and student health. LSA SG President Nathan Wilson, an LSA senior, said the forum gave candidates the opportunity to develop a platform early on in the election process that would guide their work should they be elected. Wilson noted how urging prospective members to set goals for the coming semester exposes them to the ideas and objectives of their fellow members, allowing for increased collaboration. “(The candidates’ forum) really encourages the people
COURSES From Page 1 this case TV, maybe particular series, maybe particular representations, etc., so that writing becomes a way of discovering and joining
A lot of people in the class don’t have a dance background conversations in meaningful ways, not just some practice of spitting out what they think a professor wants to hear.” LSA sophomore Bhoomika Gupta said in her course, focusing on photography and writing, the differences between it and previous courses allow for an increased interest in the field. “I think it provides a different lens to writing,” Gupta said. “Everyone in high school and middle school, we write the same, but with this, you get to see writing in a different way and you also get to explore an art form a lot of people haven’t worked with in high school.” DANCE 100: Introduction to Dance (87 percent) With 15 different sections this past semester, the Introduction to Dance course provides lessons on the technical and creative aspects of a variety of genres in dance. Though many sections were available last semester, each term offers a new variety of genres, decided on by current Graduate Student Instructors
BBUM From Page 1 and Ethnicity requirement and emergency scholarships. Currently, Black students make up just 4.4 percent of the University’s undergraduate population –– a statistic for which the University received an “F” grade in a report on racial equity published by the University of Southern California. In October, the Bentley Historical
running to think about what they’re going to be doing for the next year,” Wilson said. “If they end up winning, then they have this platform that they can look back on and really use that as a litmus test for what they should be doing and what they promised that they would do.” During the forum, each of the 25 candidates spent three minutes presenting their plan for the coming semester before opening up to the audience for questions. LSA SG Appointed Representative Kaitlyn Colyer, an LSA freshman, said she hoped to tackle issues regarding financial aid and scholarships after receiving misinformation about the Go Blue Guarantee during her senior year of high school. Instituted in January 2018, the Go Blue Guarantee covers the full cost of tuition for Michigan residents with family incomes under $65,000 a year. “This year my theme is
equity –– making sure all students have access to the resources on this campus,” Colyer said. “I was told by an admissions counselor that I would be guaranteed the Go Blue Guarantee and so I accepted my admissions offer as soon as I got the offer. Unfortunately, I am currently over $28,000 in debt. However, I know 30 students who are in the same boat and we are willing to make a change.” Wilson said making the financial aid office more transparent, an issue touched upon by various candidates, is a major project LSA SG hopes to address because it would help alleviate the financial strain placed upon many students at the University. “It’s part of the job of student government to hold the University accountable and make sure that those things actually happen,” Wilson said. “Having people that are aware of those issues heavily involved in student
government, that’s really heartening for me.” Candidates also frequently mentioned the difficult transition from high school to college in terms of academic rigor. LSA SG Elected Representative Jordan Schuler, an LSA sophomore, proposed opening a “general learning center” that would provide basic information to students about test-taking strategies and anxiety management. Schuler, who served as the vice chair of the Academic Affairs Committee for the past year, said the center would help bridge the gap between high school and University coursework. “This is definitely a longterm project and something that might not be done by the time that I graduate, but I know that it could benefit so many students,” Schuler said. “I think that it’s really important to put in all the effort I can that while I’m here.”
in the department, according to Katie Gunning, administrative assistant in the Department of Dance. “The Intro to Dance classes change each semester and are based off of our graduate students and what they want to offer,” Gunning said. “We always have intro-level modern and ballet classes available, but all the time we’re getting new intro-level classes and it’s because of the graduate student cohort that we have and what they are interested in and want to bring to the department.” LSA freshman Alex Beaty said the unique style of her Introduction to Dance class gives her a break from her academic schedule. “I think it’s interesting because a lot of people in the class don’t have a dance background and it’s an experience getting to be in a dance class where it’s not super serious and not super rigorous in any way,” Beaty said. “You’re all just doing it for fun and it’s like a break from normal classes.” ARTDES 125: Studio: 2D (82 percent) This course allows for an elementary understanding of art and design for artists working in 2-D. The course also focuses on the study of visual perception with an understanding of the processes of visual communication. SPANISH 101: Elementary Spanish (82 percent) This elementary course offers an introduction to the Spanish language. In using listening, speaking, reading and writing, students gather a basic understanding of the Spanish language and culture. EARTH 113: Planets and
Moons (82 percent) This course focuses on the geology of the solar system as well as exploring the advances in space exploration over the past decade. The course also looks at the development of thoughts and attitudes on the geology of our solar system. BIOLOGY 101: Energy, Food, & the Environment (81 percent) This course focuses on the issue of energy, food and the environment and its implications on the well-being of the Earth. The course takes a biological and sociopolitical view to study current and historical issues regarding the state of our energy and food systems. PSYCH 111: Introduction to Psychology (80 percent) This course offers a basic understanding and theory of human behavior as an introduction to the field of psychology. Students in the course study different mental processes as well as history and theory in the field. COMPLIT 100: Global X (80 percent) This course focuses on the world impact of zombies in literature, graphic novels, movies and video games and how they can be applied to political theory and debates in public policies. Students focus on the implications of race, disease, power and more in this comparative literature course. EECS 183: Elementary Programming Concepts (79 percent) This course focuses on the basics of programming language. Students focus on various concepts such as flow of control, data structures and various algorithms as an introduction to computer
science and programming. ASTRO 127: Naked Eye Astronomy (79 percent) This course focuses on the basics of the study of astronomy. Students analyze the sun, the moon. Stars, meteors and more while focusing on how these can be observed and their implication on the Earth. ASTRO 107: The Dark Side of the Universe (79 percent) This astronomy class offers a basis for aspects of the universe that cannot be seen. Studies include that of black holes, dark matter and dark energy. The course focuses on how these are studied and measured from Earth. SOC 102: Intro to Sociology: Special Topics (78 percent) This course allows for an elementary study of sociology through various subjects that encompass real-world issues in the field. Students study various topics such as wealth and poverty as well as urban inequality and the implications of these issues. SPACE 101: Rocket Science (78 percent) This course allows students to study the science of space and its exploration. These studies include a history of the exploration of space as well as the math and theory of how these processes were made possible. ------Introductory classes on the other end of the spectrum, wherein students expresses courses did not significantly increase their interest in the subject, mostly comprise general STEM classes. These courses include Physics 136, Math 115, Chem 125 or General Chemistry and Introduction to Research, or ALA 104.
Library fulfilled one of BSU’s original demands by digitizing over 66,000 records from the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, making them available to the public. Many students have criticized the University’s race and ethnicity requirement, which still does not apply to some schools like the College of Engineering, for watered down subject matter. The display on the posting walls also included many historical events and dates
THE MICHIGAN DAILY’S
of importance for the Black community at the University. Education senior Camyrea Barnes, secretary of BSU, said history is an important aspect of the event. “I hope this event brings back remembrance and a sense of appreciation for the different protests and demonstrations that Black students have done on this campus to create a more equitable and comfortable (campus) for not just Black students but other students of color,” Barnes said.
GradeGuide
COUNCIL From Page 1 would have further committed the city to its climate action policies. “I think it will be following through with their stance,” Basile said. “Right now, people assume that because Ann Arbor is progressive in so many other ways that we assume their sustainability goals and their climate action programs, but they actually haven’t done much in terms of implementing their goals.” The resolution has been controversial because of how the money was acquired. In November 2017, Ann Arbor residents voted to in favor of a millage that allocated funds towards mental health facilities and public safety, though Council has reconsidered millage funds to go toward things like affordable housing and climate action which were not initially included in the ballot proposal passed by voters. Carman said she understands the controversy but feels climate action is already underfunded in the city. “On the one hand, I recognize that it’s complicated,” Carman said. “The source of the controversy is not that money is being taken away from mental health. It’s that there’s people who believe there should be additional funding for mental health. My feeling is that it’s not being taken away from mental health. It’s adding money that can go to something else.” Ann Arbor Resident Ryan Hughes, who was defeated by City Councilmember Jeff Hayner, D-Ward 1 during the 2018 election, questioned how the city will fund climate action, affordable housing and pedestrian safety without the revenues to do so. “If millage money isn’t how we think these things should be funded, then well how do you intend to (fund these)?” Hughes said. City Councilmember Anne Bannister, D-Ward 1, and City Councilmember Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4, sponsored a resolution to fund a pilot program for net zero energy affordable housing and electric vehicle chargers. The resolution failed 6-5. Eaton said climate action should not be addressed by creating new government entities. “I really believe that we have as our core value the desire to address climate change and that it should not be accomplished through setting up a new bureaucracy and pouring money into a new department,” Eaton said. Ackerman said the resolution does
SHIFT From Page 1 included the Women’s Glee Club, which emphasized its 128 years of history and tradition as a female community at the University. Female Gayo, a female Korean pop group closed the show, celebrating Korean culture while challenging ideas of femininity and female empowerment around the world. Other performances featured individuals, such as Maleny Crespo, whose spoken-word performance and dance was an expression of their queer identity as a person of color. Other spoken-word pieces related gender identity to religion and emphasized the importance of recognizing vulnerability in masculinity. Engineering junior Malika Taka said she appreciated the show because she felt it was different from what she is usually exposed to. In particular, she said she liked
McKinney also mentioned that the timing of this event is appropriate for ref lection with the initiatives to promote student diversity, equity, and inclusion having been established for over two years now. “It’s a great transition year for the University, going into year three of the DEI and Trotter building on State Street, we thought this was a perfect time to have some ref lection to see where we should be going,” McKinney
not create new bureaucracy in the city, but rather shares the city’s values with city employees. “This isn’t establishing another bureaucracy because it’s as simple as making sure every single department at this city hall share our values and live those values at their 9-5 every single day,” Ackerman said. Basile believes Bannister and Eaton want to address climate action in specific ways rather than holistically. “The responses from Eaton and Bannister (seem like) ‘We like the plan but we don’t like where the funding is coming from,” Basile said. “Now, they’re saying ‘We like the plan but we’re gonna decide what parts to fund instead of taking it as a whole way to address these promises that we made.’” Smith said the time to take action is critical due to the time period humans have to address climate change before damage is irreversible. “I understand where Councilmember Eaton is coming from by saying it’s not critical,” Smith said. “I look at the United Nations’ International Climate Change Organization paper that came out that we have 12 years to turn this around. That seems pretty damn critical to me.” Ann Arbor Resident Brian Chambers supported both amendments to the budget, specifically due to natural disasters throughout the nation that could cause migration north. “We’ve got a good climate generally,” Chambers said. “Now it’s like ‘everyone knows’ and they’re gonna move here. Our challenge to sustainability as it ties to affordable housing is that they’re tied together.” Council also voted to purchase four automated side loading refuse trucks and postponed a vote to authorize a lower town area mobility study and appropriate street funding. Councilmember Kathy Griswold, D-Ward 2, quoted a previous Michigan Daily article regarding a blind student’s experience using the crosswalk at the intersection of E. Madison and State Street. Commenting on the mobility study, Griswold critiqued the Council for what she says is inadequate use of data and public guidelines. “We don’t use the data we have,” Griswold said. “We don’t follow federal and state guidelines and it troubles me that we would do yet another plan when we do not have crosswalk design guidelines and we do not have safe crosswalks.”
a spoken-word performance that discussed the tension between masculinity and queerness. “I really liked the performance where (the performer) was nonbinary and talked about how even though (they appear) very masculine, but it’s not exactly what it looks like all the time,” Taka said. “I thought that one left an impression.” For Coterillo, she said her involvement in the show was meaningful because of the diverse audience. “It felt very exhilarating … Getting to talk about the many facets of gender to people of different ages, of different parts of Michigan, I saw different family members … It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of this event,” Coterillo said. The event was funded by Community Action Social Change program, Arts at Michigan, LSA Residential College, LSA Global Scholars Program and Central Student Government.
I hope this event brings a sense of appreciation for the different protests...that Black students have done
compare and explore course distributions across colleges at
gradeguide.com
said. McKinney added in her experience, the past five years have brought some positive changes in interactions with University. “In five years the University has become much more open to voices of Black students,” McKinney said. “I myself have gotten plenty of opportunities to sit down with the administration and voice what’s going on and be directly involved with the changes that are happening.”
Opinion
4 —Tuesday, November 20, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DANA PIERANGELI | COLUMN
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG
DAYTON HARE Managing Editor
Editorial Page Editors
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Emma Chang Ben Charlson Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram Jeremy Kaplan Lucas Maiman Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang Sam Weinberger
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
ANAMARIA CUZA | COLUMN
Where are the ethics in tech?
O
ver 20,000 employees of Google from all over the world walked out of their offices on Nov. 1 protesting the way in which the tech giant has dealt with claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism. The event happened in response to a New York Times article, which revealed that Google has been paying millions of dollars in exit packages to its executives accused of sexual harassment. This is not the first time Google’s employees have walked out in protest of the tech giant’s conduct, projects and policies. In the last few months, petitions have been signed, walk-outs have been organized and employees have resigned in protest of Google’s increasingly worrying projects, from working with the Pentagon to develop the future generation of military artificial intelligence, to secretly developing a censored search engine for China. With every single scandal Google gets itself involved in, there is a worrisome pattern emerging: As Google is increasingly becoming less transparent, more profitfocused and more forgetful about its founders’ motto “Don’t Be Evil,” employees are only finding out about the company’s projects and issues through leaks published by journalists. You could arg ue that this pattern is expected for a large company, whose only way of managing its employees is through increasingly bureaucratic measures. This arg ument, though, goes against the original nature of what technolog y was supposed to be. From its very inception, Google’s main goal was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and
“
useful.” This goal was very much aligned with the idealistic stances of hackers and technologists of the ’80s and ’90s: They saw technolog y as a way of demolishing bureaucracy, of giving each person a voice, of reclaiming knowledge from those in positions in power and distributing it equally to every citizen of our world. When someone says Google, they most likely think about the abstract structure, generating profit and deploying projects. I think we have to start thinking about Google as a community of people: people who once had the idealistic perception on technolog y of the ’80s and ’90s. These people nowadays are developing a censored search engine for China, despite having 14 human rights groups warning them about the inevitable human rights violations of developing this project. People deploying artificial intelligence systems to the military as a first step towards using this technolog y in advanced weapons. In this way, instead of blaming this abstract entity called Google, we can start asking ourselves who these people are. Usually, they are us. Or me. Or any skilled graduate with a science degree, whose dream has been to work at Google and, from early on, pursued internships at the company. They are people who spend their undergrad taking the most challenging classes, developing their interviewing skills and going through textbooks filled with coding challenges. These are the people who are told that they will do well. We are taught how to solve increasingly hard problems, we are taught how to enhance our LinkedIn profile by adding more numbers to our project descriptions, we are
taught to regard the “cool” internships that we get as our badge of honor for all our hard work, but we are missing out on a huge chunk from what we are supposed to learn. What if the numbers that we added to our internship description were the number of humans that our product negatively affected? What if one of the challenging problems we had to solve was how a government can keep track of its citizens’ every move? We are supposed to continue solving interesting problems without placing them above people’s needs. If we want our work to have a good impact, it has to abide by some ethical g uidelines. Guidelines which aren’t even clear to philosophers of artificial intelligence ethics. We are supposed to balance hours and hours of coding, while also mindfully considering the consequences our code might have on others. Why do we not get any g uidance in doing all of this? Getting a degree in Computer Science is already challenging. So challenging that our curriculum, peers and mentors sometimes forget about the negative disruptive power of tech. They forget that what they call “developing leaders” could also mean developing leaders for an autocratic regime, leaders of companies that completely disregard human rights, leaders of start-ups that contribute to systemic inequality and discrimination. Just read more about Uber, Facebook and the like and you will see what I am talking about. So what kind of leaders do we want to develop? What kind of leaders do we want to become?
Anamaria Cuza can be reached at anacuza@umich.edu.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
In this election, Democrats ran and won on a message of change... We promised to change the status quo, and we intend to deliver on that promise.
— A letter from 16 House Democrats opposing Nancy Pelosi as a candidate for Speaker of the House
”
JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD Our Editorial Board meets Mondays and Wednesdays 7:15-8:45 PM at our newsroom at 420 Maynard Street. All are welcome to come discuss national, state and campus affairs.
W
The faces behind the firsts
e’ve had a pretty rough couple of years in American politics. Having the opportunity to elect the first female president, and instead giving power to a sexist, racist, homophobic bigot was a tough start for a presidential turnover. But then we unsurprisingly saw a rise in hate crimes and ignorant policy changes, making life even more difficult for people of color, the LGBTQ community and women all over America. And to add insult to injury, that sexist president nominated a sexist Supreme Court justice, who will likely only exacerbate the hate crimes and ignorant policy changes. The past two years have been nothing but an orange stain on our honorable American f lag, making it a difficult time to be a proud American. The reign of Trump has basically taken any progress made by the #MeToo movement, the Black Lives Matter movement and all other recent civil rights movements, and spit in their faces. But this time we spit back. In a record turnout, Americans took up arms and went down to the polls — electing women, people of color and LGBTQ candidates in different positions all over the country. These midterm elections were not just a blue wave, or even a simply pink wave, but a wave of firsts that can start to reverse the damage of the past two years and take our country in the right direction. Women of different races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities and even political parties took the election by storm, putting a record number of women in the U.S. House of Representatives and giving a voice to many minority groups that have been overlooked in past elections. Overnight, a government run by old, upperclass white men began to
ref lect a more accurate image of our nation. And these are some of the faces behind the firsts. Democrats Cindy Axn and Abby Finkenauer were Iowa’s first women elected to the U.S. House. Janet Mills, a Democrat, became the first female governor of Maine. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, at age 29. Many of the firsts even cross-cut intersectionality. Ayanna Pressley became Massachusetts’s first Black woman in Congress and Jahana
These midterm elections were a wave a firsts that can start to reverse the damage of the past two years Hayes became Connecticut’s first black woman in Congress. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, is Arizona’s first woman in the U.S. Senate and the first openly bisexual person in the Senate. We also have Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Sharice Davids of Kansas — America’s first Native American women in Congress. Davids also happens to be Kansas’s first openly gay member of Congress. Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia became Texas’s first Latinx women in Congress. Ilhan Omar became America’s first Muslim women in Congress, along with our very own Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who we just elected to the U.S. House. And these are only a few of the many firsts of the midterms.
This is not to say the midterms were all progress. Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, could have become the first Black governor of Florida, but was unable to defeat Republican Ron DeSantis. Likewise, Democrat Christine Hallquist did make history as the first transgender nominee of a major party, but lost Vermont’s g ubernatorial race to Phil Scott, a Republican. However, these unfortunate losses do not erase the impressive gains made by women in this midterm, and the effects will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen in American politics. This wave couldn’t have come at a better time. Flipping a previously red House restores the checks and balances system to the government. In the coming years, we can expect to see the Trump administration struggle to pass any major legislation. We can trust many of these new faces to be the wall in front of Trump’s wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a repeal of Obamacare, any tax cuts and defunding Planned Parenthood. With these new leaders of America, we can rest assured that we as a nation are on the road to representation. It’s been a long time since I’ve been truly proud to be an American. For the past two years, my pride for my country has been tainted from the behaviors of those representing me and the discrimination and hatred against my fellow Americans, people of color, the LGBTQ community and women alike. While these midterms did not rid us of hatred or completely dissolve that stain, a little bit of justice has been restored a little bit of color is returning to the f lag. And a little bit of my pride has come back as well.
Dana Pierangeli can be reached at dmpier@umich.edu.
MARGOT LIBERTINI | COLUMN
Red? Blue? Purple? What are we, Michigan?
M
iichigan has long My intuition from growing up been considered a here, and from phone banking key part of the “blue and canvassing for the 2016 wall,” a term used to describe and 2018 elections, tells me the reliability of Democratic that Michigan is neither blue nor red nor even voters in the northern purple. Michigan Midwest states. This is a state of families is a nice sentiment and workers who but we in Michigan will vote for who have a Republican speaks to them governor (if for only and promises to two more months) advocate on behalf and a Republican of their concerns, state legislature. regardless of party. So maybe the blue wall only works for MARGOT This might sound the description nationwide elections LIBERTINI like of a purple state, — but then we went for Trump in the 2016 election, but there is nothing random or and the punditry became f lip-f loppy about Michigan’s unusually obsessed with voting. One party may speak “working-class voters” (read: to Michiganders for a decade white working-class voters), better than the other, then with many people writing become complacent and the thinkpieces about Macomb other party will step in and County. The mainstream prioritize the state. Michigan are consistently media was suddenly talking voters about Michigan, aiming to focused on job creation and understand what exactly infrastructure. So it isn’t our happened to make it switch priorities that change, but the from a state that supported messaging of the two major former President Barack parties. Democratic candidate Obama to a state that supported President Donald Hillar y Clinton famously Trump, and if that meant it ig nored Michigan in the f inal should now be considered days of the 2016 election — a more purple-red than blue. move many saw as fatal not Then, Nov. 7 happened, and only for the state, but the we elected Democratic women countr y. On the other hand, to be governor, secretary of Trump spent his f inal day on state and attorney general. We the campaig n trail in Grand f lipped two seats in the House Rapids f iring up voters to show of Representatives from up for him. This narrative red to blue (shoutout to my isn’t meant to discount the hometown, 11th congressional harmf ul and sensationalist district and our new member rhetoric of Trump’s campaig n of Congress, Haley Stevens!). that surely invigorated some We re-elected Sen. Debbie racists and sexists more than Stabenow, D-Mich., and we that last visit ever did. But adopted three statewide while Trump was talking proposals to legalize weed, to said racists and sexists, end gerrymandering and enact Michigan’s people of color, working-class families automatic voter registration. So now what are we? An icon and women were being of the resistance against the overlooked. But then came Democratic president we played a key role candidate in electing? Which election g ubernatorial was a f luke? Michigan voters Gretchen Whitmer and so have left me with so many many other new faces in Democratic questions about my own state. Michigan’s
Party like Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin. They weren’t focusing on partisan drama or strategizing in a manner that abandoned any of their potential constituents. During the primaries, Gretchen committed to visiting every last county in Michigan, not writing any off as a g uaranteed win or loss. This strateg y paid off, earning her a very comfortable win in the primary and in the general election, and by pulling her state much further blue in the general. So, what do we do in 2020? Thanks to Proposal 2, the uphill battle against intensely gerr ymandered districts will ( hopef ully) be resolved at that point, making all votes count as they should in a democratic election. This development means a more equal playing f ield and thus g reater room for expanding the Democratic Part y’s voters. Therefore, Democrats should not write Michigan off as a win or loss, but send resources to the state and commit to communicating with Michiganders about the issues. Proposal 3 will have an effect on the election as well, presumably by helping Democrats, as the proposal adopted automatic voter reg istration in Michigan. I hope this will encourage Democrats to focus more on the youth vote, as ever y citizen 18 and older will be an elig ible voter. We should not take the midterm elections results as proof of a rebuilt blue wall, but rather as evidence that when Democratic candidates make an effort to appeal to and accurately represent Michiganders, they have a true chance at winning their support.
Margot Libertini can be reached at mliberti@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 — 5
EVENT REVIEW
CONCERT REVIEW
Storytelling event Together Live X Hello Sunshine in AA ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
MATADOR RECORDS
boygenius was meant to be Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus supergroup turned The Majestic Theatre into a sacred space on Sunday CLARA SCOTT Daily Arts Writer
There is a certain kind of magic that happens when women’s voices fuse together — it’s always spiritual even if the listener isn’t, a joyful noise made unto the congregation no matter what the circumstances. While I wouldn’t call the collection of people at The Majestic Theatre on Sunday a church, with their nose rings and shearling jackets and well-worn band t-shirts, we were all there to have some experience of beauty, and that we definitely got. The three artists that form boygenius — Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — all took the stage with equal power, their voices ringing through the audience alone and then together. Though it was dark and crowded in the venue, with the fans whirring and heat blasting, the moments that hung in the air throughout each artist’s set were worth our heavy breath. The neon signs on the walls glowed in the darkness, but they could have easily been stained glass. Purity and soul were woven into every melody like a hymn, a naked baring of all three souls through the stories of their lives. The first artist to play was Lucy Dacus, a quiet brunette whose underlying power as a musician may not seem obvious at first, but makes sense as soon as she opens her mouth. Dacus was technically the opener, but her shorter set left the audience satisfied — each one of her songs sprawls across five or six minutes at least, constantly in flux between different movements. On songs like “Night Shift” and “I Don’t Want to Be Funny Anymore,” those that put her on the map of indie rock, Dacus’s raw soul came through in every note. The audience hung onto every lyric exiting her paintedred lips, jumping and whooping as each song came to its climax in a thumping crescendo of guitar and drums. The songwriter’s truest talent is hidden beneath her low and smooth voice, but emerges when the crowd gets loud; she’s
a secret rock star, one of a new generation that is bringing soul back into the genre with honest narratives of love and loss. As Dacus left the stage to huge applause, the audience waited for the next chanteuse to appear. The crowd buzzed excitedly as the mic was draped in fairy lights, a signature set piece of Phoebe Bridgers that only added to the cozy mood of the show. Bridgers stepped into the light with an almost alien beauty, her silvery platinum hair held back by a black headband and cascading down her shoulders. The concert’s feel was never funerary despite the black outfits of all three artists; instead, it was merely a blank canvas for their voices to stretch over like paint, as the audience’s attention was drawn only to their faces, contorted and smiling through each song. Bridgers’s performance of her debut LP Stranger in the Alps was truly something to be reckoned with. Her live skills mirror the beauty of her studio work almost exactly, the only differences found in the grand scale of her stage presence. A cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything is Free” performed with drummer Marshall Vore punctuated her set with a melancholy note, supporting her original songs with the wistful words of the past. The Majestic holds over 600 people, but it felt like she was singing directly to every audience member as a personal conversation, mulling over her own life with ease and the class of an artist beyond her years. Julien Baker then closed out the solo sets of the show with a bang, a Telecaster and a whole lotta soul. Seeing Baker live feels like you’re at a magic show — it’s hard to believe such a big sound can come out of such an unassuming and petite person, but this illusion didn’t last for long. As soon as she walked up to the mic, the crowd would have been stupid to think something big wasn’t about to happen. Even her small stature and general shyness on stage can’t hide the stage presence that Baker carries with her everywhere, a diamond beneath long blonde-brown hair and her understated banter between songs. She began with the song
that made her a household name, “Sprained Ankle,” immediately proving herself to the crowd as a powerhouse and riding that wave through a succession of similarly perfect tunes. Baker’s melodies are high and moving, accompanied by a performance of thrown-back heads and interjecting shouts that let the audience know how much she really loves making her music. The passion that all three artists have for their work was palpable throughout the entire four-hour set, making the long-haul stand worth every ache of the morning after. The three solo sets of the night were stunning, but the real magic of last Sunday lay when Baker, Bridgers and Dacus joined together to perform their EP as boygenius. It honestly seems like they were born to play music with one another, like siblings or sirens waiting in the water. Their allure is most obvious in the measured vulnerability of each member’s decisions to shine or support — all of them are stars alone, but their respect for each other leads to a cohesive group that allows everyone to soar and simmer in different ways. Bridgers’s stunning belt on “Me and My Dog” was countered by her quiet harmonies on “Souvenir,” and the same goes for both Baker and Dacus on other tracks. Watching the three interact on stage was like looking onto a family telling stories after dinner, as they shared in their musical similarities and differences to create a woven quilt of soft folk, anthemic rock and a pointed clarity that only comes from groups with natural chemistry. The last song of the show was an acoustic version of “Ketchum, ID” that took the crowd’s breath away in an instant — boygenius decided to go without microphones and instead asked the audience to join them in singing along, which resulted in one of the most moving concert experiences I’ve ever had. The harmonies of the crowd became a dysfunctional choir for a moment, as hundreds of voices rose to meet the group in the middle. It was almost as if we were praying together, celebrating music in the way that only those who really love it can do.
FILM REVIEW
NETFLIX
‘Princess Switch’ spins the lookalike formula for Xmas SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer
’Tis the season for sugarcookie feasting, family feuds, frostbite and, of course, romantic
holiday flicks. Would it really be the most wonderful time of the year without these old-reliable, quintessential hallmark-esque gems? Sure, the classics are great, but there is something especially comforting in settling in for
an hour and a half to witness the magic of an unrealistic yet pure love story unfolding right before your eyes. Though underwhelming in originality, riddled with cringe-worthy, PG-rated romantic tension
At the Michigan Theater this past Sunday, a group of diverse and inspiring women transported the city of Ann Arbor to a rare and beautiful place. Every space was a woman’s space at the Hello Sunshine X Together Live event. Together Live is a traveling storytelling organization that partnered with Reese Witherspoon’s media brand, Hello Sunshine, to bring authentic storytelling to spaces worldwide in order to help amplify diverse and inclusive female voices. Among the voices heard at Sunday’s event were comedian Cameron Esposito, soccer player Abby Wambach, journalist Noor Tagouri and Together Live co-founders Glennon Doyle and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. These women, and many other well-known feminists, are traveling to cities around the U.S. and splitting their hearts open — telling vulnerable stories of love, loss and their authentic journeys navigating the world. The women at Sunday’s event handed each of us a magnifying glass that allowed us to look into both their lives and our own. An immediate observation upon my entrance into the theater was that the audience was mostly women. This for me is always super empowering; but lately, I’ve been wondering why spaces created to amplify women can’t attract more men. I wonder if they feel excluded themselves. Or maybe they feel as though they do not need to be informed about this community and don’t think twice about attending a women’s empowerment event at all. Patriarchal systems dominate in all spheres of American life, including business, entertainment and media, and we all need to hear the unfiltered and empowering stories of women, regardless of who we are. There’s something so important and so rare about men genuinely looking to hear these female empowerment stories. Despite my love for the girl-power sentiment filling the theater, I wished for more male desire to learn from the event in order to be an allied force to the women’s empowerment and rights movement going forward. An important piece to the women’s rights movement is informed listening from those who have the power in exclusive spaces in order to help keep the door open for those of us trying to get through. Kicking off the evening of
and oozing with Christmas spirit, “The Princess Switch” is unexpectedly charming and ultimately successful in warming our hearts. With Christmas fast approaching, hardworking, talented and no-nonsense baker Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens, “High School Musical”) has business on her mind. However, when her handsome, easy-going best pal Kevin (Nick Sagar, “Ill Manors”) reveals that she has been accepted into a prestigious baking competition, which he secretly entered her into months before, Stacy’s holiday plans take an unanticipated toll. Persuaded by Kevin and his charismatic and uber-cute daughter Olivia, played by newcomer Alexa Adeosun, Stacy soon finds herself en route from Chicago to the royal kingdom of Belgravia to put her cooking skills on display. Shortly after her arrival, Stacy finds herself face to face with yet another surprise: Margaret (also played by Vanessa Hudgens), the Duchess of Montenaro and her literal double. When Margaret, eager for a taste of the world as a commoner before she weds the Prince of Belgravia, asks Stacy to swap lives for two days, Stacy hesitantly agrees. However,
girl power storytelling was vocalist and songwriter MILCK, whose brassy, clear voice established the evening as a warm, welcoming and, most of all, interactive space. The stage was set up like a boho-chic living room, which gave the impression of a private conversation between the women on stage and the entire, quieted audience. As MILCK’s voice bounced off the walls, everyone looked on with admiration. It was an emotional moment as she sang: “Ooh-ooh child / things are gonna get easier / Ooh-ooh child / things’ll get brighter / Ooh-ooh child / things’ll get brighter.” Halfway through her opening song, she took a pause to look at everyone in the audience and speak to us directly. “Ann Arbor … is gorgeous,” MILCK said before picking back up with her song. With her compliment to our precious little city, we all swelled with pride, even more excited for what the rest of the evening entailed. Jennifer Rudolph Walsh (Together Live Co-Founder) took over as the crowd cheered and whistled for MILCK and the rest of the guests flooded the stage. “We are using the power of authentic storytelling to transform ourselves and the world around us,” Walsh said, which brought about a roar of applause from the audience. “Loneliness. Anxiety. Rage. Addiction. Depression. The cure ... The antidote to all of this is storytelling. Especially in the disconnected times we’re living in.” I had the pleasure of interviewing Rudolph Walsh prior to the event and was thrilled to directly speak to her about something as important and life-changing as storytelling. “Storytelling is our magic superpower. It connects, elevates and heals us. It’s a salve to bring us together during these divided times,” Walsh said when asked why she felt inclined to turn storytelling into her full-time job. During the event, Priya Parker, the founder of “Thrive Labs,” also shared some beautiful words about the importance of storytelling and gathering together as a community. “There’s an element of heat, risk and intimacy when we gather together to tell stories,” Parker said. This really resonates, because I feel that when students who come from different backgrounds and have diverging opinions gather together to talk about something that makes us uncomfortable, we can make real breakthroughs. Abby Wambach, a professional soccer player, shared a bit about
her own personal breakthrough, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since. “We all know the story of Red Riding Hood, right?” Wambach asked the audience, who nodded in agreement. “Well, Red Riding Hood is told to stay on the path or else the big bad wolf will get her. She’s told stay on the path and only on the path. But I’ve sort of found in my life that when I’m off the path, is when the best opportunities and moments come my way. So my mantra is to go off the path, and I sort of had to look at myself and say ‘Oh Abby, you weren’t Red Riding Hood. You were the wolf all along.’” With that, a rush of energy filled the theater and suddenly we were all on our feet, yelling and cheering with enthusiasm and a new mantra: Be the wolf. As the evening progressed, I felt as though I was at a TED Talk — but subtract any morsel of toxic masculinity and add the most kickass, incredible women I had ever been in the presence of. “I think a lot of people think gays and minorities and liberals only live on the coasts but all I have to say is that we are everywhere. We are your fucking neighbors. We are HERE, ” said comedian Cameron Esposito following her stand-up set. We are here. So many voices are ready to be heard. When I asked Rudolph Walsh what she hoped people take away from the event, she said, “That everyone has a story and that it matters!” Gathering up stories and inhaling their themes and messages is the most incredible way to mend wounds, part seas and bring even the most diverging opinions together. What Rudolph Wash is seeking to do through Together Live X Hello Sunshine is something that should not only be celebrated but replicated, worldwide, by everyone — not just women. I wanted to go and use my voice too. I wanted to listen. I wanted to stop strangers on the street and tell them stories. I wanted to hear theirs too. Two words that are part of the Together Live X Hello Sunshine mantra were etched into my head: Stories travel. Stories do travel. They travel from coast to coast. Across the world. Across your dorm room hallway, next door to your neighbors, all the way to the city you were born. Stories travel great lengths and distances, across time and space. They traveled to Ann Arbor. I put the ones I heard in my pocket as the shiny tools of the work yet to be done. And what a joy it is to know we’ll always have stories, they will never go out of style. They will never run out.
as is expected, love gets in the way of the girls’ plan and things become, well, complicated. “The Princess Switch” can be best described as “The Holiday” meets “Monte Carlo,” a mashup that we probably didn’t need an entire movie to picture, but is enjoyable nonetheless.
a platter of gingerbread cookies. While both protagonists are incredibly cookie-cutter, with Margaret tied down by duty and seeking adventure and freedom, and Stacy, who is uptight, goaloriented and detests surprises for some reason, we don’t seem to mind. Whether it’s the mouthwatering displays of immaculately fashioned cakes and pastries, courtesy of the scenes used to exemplify Stacy’s superb baking skills, or the cheesy horseback-riding and Christmas-shopping dates, there is something about the film that allows us to ignore its flaws and bask in the gleeful combination of happily-ever-after and season’s greetings. With an open mind, managed expectations and a bit of Christmas spirit — instead of analyzing the seen-it-before, fairytale plotline and Stacy and Margaret’s respective onedimensional male suitors — we can focus instead on Vanessa Hudgens’s impeccable glow and allow ourselves to slip into the holiday mood. If you don’t feel quite hyped enough for the upcoming winter festivities or just need a little pre-finals season pick me up, this will likely do the trick.
“The Princess Switch” Netflix An undeniably “seasonal” film, much of its charm would arguably be subdued were it to be re-watched in August. The movie’s greatest shortcoming, however, is that instead of developing the chemistry between the characters onscreen, director Mike Rohl (“Kyle XY”) crosses his fingers that the age-old wonder of the fast-track-romance-with-astranger plotline will be enough to make the budding romances believable. At its very core, “The Princess Switch” is completely and totally wholesome, a movie that should be accompanied by a mug of marshmallow-laden, whippedcream-topped hot chocolate and
Arts
6 — Tuesday, November 20, 2018
DAILY HEALTH & WELLNESS COLUMN
For your consideration: Hangovers They were “there” in high school, but only in theory. While you wanted one — so you could, you know, say you had one — your 16-year-old body operated with the impenetrable inner mechanisms of a stallion and you went for a run the next day and then sat in a classroom from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the next day, because, again, stallion body. They’re here now. Hangovers are death that comes with an intangible cloudiness, a tidal wave of nothingness and everythingness that converges into silenced internal chaos, plucking at the functioning parts of you that remain and making sure any shard of productivity turns into mush (until the mush mushes slowly toward the next episode of “The Haunting of Hill House”). Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell once said that getting a hit off of Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax was “like trying to eat soup with a fork.” Nursing a hangover when you’re not a super young person feels like eating soup with a fork, except the soup is definitely of a Matzah Ball variety, injecting its rockethigh salt content into the frayed and dehydrated shell of human that’s somehow still in there somewhere. Really, I think I’ve come to accept hangovers for what they are: warning signs that arrive and linger with a familiar banality of doom. They hit everyone differently; rather than a more enjoyable strawdrawing or Tap Roulette. Leaving this up to chance doesn’t translate to nervous
excitement as much as the harsh reality that strikes between sips: Someone will be holed up for many hours tomorrow, someone else will see weird dots out of the corner of their eye for some reason and omelettes that might not, um, settle.
JOEY SCHUMAN Is that just me? Maybe that’s me. All three things definitely happened, all at the same time, to me, this morning. We then search for the cure, or things to proactively do before drinking. I don’t know if these solutions exist. I’m beginning to doubt they do. Pedialyte first comes to mind. The friend who initially recommended this allegedly magic mix became a drinking buddy demigod with its early success. The company behind the stuff — which was intended to be hydration fluid for sick children — soon recognized its exploding market and adjusted accordingly, leading to Costco-sized Pedialyte boxes appearing in college residences across the country. But the body ultimately adapted to kiddie potion. Your friend became less cool, and your hangovers became way less manageable.
A Google search for hangover cures reveals the following tips: Limit your alcohol intake (OK), avoid drinks with congeners (don’t know what “congeners” means), eat a good breakfast (doesn’t work), get plenty of sleep (unrealistic), stay hydrated (I do!), have a drink the next morning (seems like bad advice but it gives me an excuse to reference my favorite scene in “The Shining”) or take supplements like red ginseng or prickly pear (Oh! Well I guess I need to try that one.). These “fixes” are all disqualified, however, because I declare that none of them work, and maybe I want to keep wallowing here anyway. Yes, that’s it. We can keep wallowing. Our worst nightmare is confirmed — hangovers know no defeat — but just as Willie Stargell remained steadfast in his attempt to eat soup with a fork, we should also stay the course, because there’s a day after this one that won’t feel like booty, and I consider that a silver lining. I’m not thankful for hangovers this year, but I am thankful for how they make me feel, because I’ve learned to embrace the wallow. It seems to be the (most) correct antidote for a permeating poison that can only be described with “ugh,” “yeesh” or an otherwise unintelligible mumble. When the bother does in fact arrive, I won’t have dispensed any applicable health or wellness advice to apply, but that might be OK, because the hangover probably incapacitates you from reading words in the first place. Godspeed, mush people.
FILM REVIEW
‘Cam’ is muddled, alluring social media commentary EMMA CHANG Daily Arts Writer
In a world dominated by social media and the invention of new career paths, like being a YouTuber, the extent to which people share details of their lives online has skyrocketed. Netflix’s newest release “Cam” explores the disastrous effects of maintaining a popular online presence and the lack of authenticity that sites like Instagram and Snapchat have injected into our daily lives. “Cam” follows the life of Alice Ackerman (Madeline Brewer, “Orange is the New Black”) while she works to make it as a camgirl only to soon discover that someone, or something, has taken over her channel. With the fictional live-streaming site’s eerie similarity to YouTube and Alice’s career essentially that of a YouTuber, the film is able to highlight the more questionable practices prevalent in the online streaming platform. Alice spends days at a time coming up with new “shows,” and collaborations are often a way of gaining new fans. Views are directly related to how much money Alice makes and the company that runs the site takes a sizable chunk of the earnings away from its creators. Only the fact that Alice showcases and sexualizes her body instead of her makeup or DIY skills differentiates what she does as a sex worker from that of YouTubers like James Charles or LaurDIY. “Cam” also forces the audience to reconsider prejudices against people making a living in unconventional ways. The old joke of becoming a stripper becomes less of a joke and more of a reality as people realize the kind of money that
a good stripper can make and the kinds of skills that are required to work in that kind of trade. Again, the same thing occurs with Instagram models and YouTubers — the amount of work it takes to curate and develop a successful following on either of these platforms is a marketing marvel. Social media comes with its downfalls, though, and “Cam”
“Cam” Netflix doesn’t ignore them. The lack of authenticity that we’re all guilty of when it comes to posting on Instagram and Snapchat is casually noted when Alice is shown simply scrolling through a series of pre-taken photos to satisfy one of her “guys.” The sticking point of the film — when Alice’s strange twin who took over her account — is a harsh reminder of society’s fickle attention span and Abby Lee Miller’s famous words: “Everyone is replaceable.” Each moment spent watching Alice at work is awash in neon pinks and soft, flattering light that makes whatever she does as a camgirl seem like a dream. Even as her livestream ends, the same kind of hazy quality permeates throughout the house that she bought using money from being a camgirl. Only when she’s forced to leave her place of work and confront the real world does this dreamlike state end. The scenes become dull and are no longer pastel; where her camgirl life is awash in blues and pinks, the real world is a rough mixture of greens and greys. It’s where her mother calls her out for biting her nails instead of her fans showering her with love and online tokens, akin to likes on a YouTube video or an Instagram
photo. This juxtaposition of color schemes between scenes showing Alice’s reality and her career as a camgirl is reflective of the allure of becoming an internet personality and, in truth, the curated nature of the Instagram profile or Snapchat story. The movie’s social commentary, though, is overshadowed by its confusing plot that never actually answers some of the questions it poses. It suggests murder, stalkers and a strange entity that copies the profiles and styles of a popular girl’s site. The first two are standard thriller concepts but it’s the idea of some kind of virus or computer program that is preying on and taking advantage of girls online that leaves something to be desired. Given the amount of effort sites like Twitter and Instagram put into detecting fake accounts, this seems to be a bit far-fetched. The only realistic thing about the situation is that Alice never actually defeats it, but instead is just determined to avoid the same thing from happening again. More confusing still, though, is Netflix’s inability to tactfully handle triggering topics like suicide. The film shows Alice using it as a gimmick to gain views and money. The movie glorifies and sexualizes something that has had detrimental effects on the lives of many. The balance between individuality and popularity is a science that many influencers strive to perfect and “Cam” details this desire in a jarring manner by using a camgirl as the influencer in question. It’s a unique and thrilling movie, but the lack of understanding behind the plot and mental health make it about as authentic as a Kylie Jenner Snapchat story.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALBUM REVIEW
INTERSCOPE RECORDS
‘The Kominsky Method’ is a jumbled portrait of aging SAMANTHA DELLA FERA Daily Arts Writer
Chuck Lorre is not the type of guy you would expect to go off method. Deemed the “King of Sitcoms,” Lorre has risen to popularity under widely popular, three-camera laugh track productions including “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Mom.” His technique has worked so well, it’s a wonder why he would ever stray from the course. Yet in Lorre’s new 30-minute Netflix sitcom, “The Kominsky Method,” he does just that. “The Kominsky Method” follows the hypermasculine yet endearing friendship of washedup acting coach Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas, “Ant Man and the Wasp”) and his blasé agent Norman (Alan Arkin, “Going in Style”). Shot in single-camera fashion with a lack of blinding lighting and laugh tracks, the show immediately distinguishes itself from Lorre’s usual MO. In one of the first interactions between Sandy and Norman, Sandy asks his friend and agent about landing an acting job on a sitcom. “Those little pischers on ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ they’re making a million bucks a week!” Sandy tells Norman. “Sandy, it’s pabulum; it’s crap. You’re a world-famous acting coach. What’s it gonna look like, you doing a network sitcom?” Norman responds. It’s a moment
that could appear to just be an old man trying to help his struggling friend realize his worth. But then: “So I didn’t get the part,” Sandy says. “No,” Norman answers. In a funny little reference to Lorre’s other work, this exchange sets the dynamic for the remainder of the show: two old men who will complain endlessly about the world around them while
“The Kominsky Method” Netflix desperately longing to be a functional, meaningful part of it. This idea of duality is one that sews a common thread between every scene of “The Kominsky Method.” The show’s first two episodes center around the death of Norman’s fiery wife Eileen (Susan Sullivan, “Castle”). It’s heartbreaking — a clearly crushing blow to Norman who, unlike his threetime divorcee friend Sandy, has been with his wife for decades. Despite the tragedy, Eileen’s funeral is a celebration of fun and comedy MC’ed by Jay Leno and boasting performances of “Lady Marmalade” from Patti LaBelle and “The Way We Were” from a drag queen dressed as Barbra Streisand. These incredible moments in “The Kominsky Method” make the lackluster ones even more disappointing. This is Lorre’s first
Classifieds
venture into the “sadcom” realm, and the rookie mistakes are evident. Douglas and Arkin deliver exceptional performances as men dealing with all of the drama of aging, and their chemistry is contagious. Yet so often the show gets lost in the bond between these two men that it borders on the crime of self-obsession. “The Kominsky Method” focuses a bizarre amount on Sandy’s prostate problems, a truly normal issue for men of his age, but uses Norman’s daughter Phoebe (Lisa Edelstein, “The Good Doctor”) and her struggle with addiction as a punchline. “The Kominsky Method” has room to improve, but at its core the show is funny, touching and a welcome and much-needed departure from such “pabulum” shows as “The Big Bang Theory.” Most of the show’s viewers are probably not newly widowed men or has-been acting coaches, but “The Kominsky Method” is crafted in such a way that this doesn’t matter. The trials and tribulations of being human is something everyone can relate to. As Norman says, “It hurts being human. It hurts like hell. And all the exploring in the world doesn’t make that hurt go away because being human and being hurt are the same damn thing.” This may be so, but “The Kominsky Method” shows viewers all they need is a friend going through the same hurt as them — one to tease and yell at and laugh with, and just maybe that hurt will go away.
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
PARKING Release Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Worked off nervous energy, say 6 Grounded fast jet 9 Like imitators 14 Maine town on the Penobscot 15 Letter after sigma 16 Food from heaven 17 Traditional Easter dinner 19 “... better __ worse”: wedding vow words 20 Wedding rental 21 “Not bad, not great” 22 Cuts anew 23 “In your dreams!” 25 Steinway seat, perhaps 27 Biological mapping subjects 29 By the seashore 30 Garden tool 31 Scientist Wernher __ Braun 32 Undercover agent 33 Ohio’s has wheat and arrows 38 Transmission type: Abbr. 41 Line on many a receipt 42 Hold (onto) 46 Take advance orders for 49 Colder than cold 51 Boating safety feature 53 Former couples 54 Curly-horned goats 55 Mama’s mama 57 Vietnam New Year 58 Renaissance fair garment 59 Glancing blow on the road, and a hint to the puzzle’s circles 61 Still soft, as concrete 62 Sci-fi vehicle 63 Golf targets 64 Jury members 65 Wooden pin 66 Wide-mouthed pitchers
DOWN 1 Canoe carrying 2 Turned on 3 Cajolery 4 Running trio? 5 Colon components 6 Equilibrium 7 Polynesian island nation 8 “Rub-a-dub-dub” vessel 9 Microscopic organism 10 Analyzes grammatically 11 Babies 12 Mt. Hood hood? 13 How scolding words may be spoken 18 Leisurely gait 22 ABC exec Arledge 24 Enemies 26 Cpls. and sgts. 28 Muscular 2017 “Dancing With the Stars” competitor 31 Distress 34 Book of maps 35 Gymnast’s powder
36 Vatican vestment 37 Lounge (around) 38 Call it quits 39 Chicago newspaper 40 The “D” of “NORAD” 43 Silk or cashmere 44 Climbing vine 45 Snack cake maker with the Nasdaq symbol TWNK
47 More appealing 48 Spits out, as a DVD 49 Old salt 50 __ Reader: eclectic digest 52 Chef’s cutter 56 Tennis great Arthur 59 “How’s it hangin’?” 60 __ factor: impressive quality
CAMPUS PARKING $95/MONTH, near U of M bus and Ross. 734‑678‑3767 or in‑ fo@828greene.com
FOR SALE
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
By Craig Stowe ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
STORAGE FOR STUDENTS studying abroad. Indoor, clean, safe, closest to campus. AnnArborStorage. com or (734)‑663‑0690.
11/20/18
11/20/18
The Michigan Daily loves its readers a LATTE
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 — 7
Lockwood, captains trying to lead Michigan to defensive consistency The Wolverines have struggled at times on defense this season, relying on their flourishing offense to win them games BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer
It hasn’t always been pretty on defense for the No. 14 Michigan hockey team. Some games, the defense excels and the offense grinds — like in the Nov. 9 game against No. 7 Notre Dame, which the Wolverines won 2-1. Two goals scored doesn’t sound like a stellar offensive performance, but the Fighting Irish rank seventh in the nation in defense, allowing an average of 1.92 goals per game. In other games, the offense breaks through and the defense has difficulty. But lately, the offense has been more and more consistent, while the defense is still struggling to settle in and perform at the same level every night. This past weekend’s series against No. 5 Penn State exemplified that. The offense was undeniably important — it isn’t just about the defensive struggles. Without its talented forwards, Michigan may not have been able to come back from a two-goal, thirdperiod deficit — twice — over the course of the weekend. While Saturday, the game ended with a loss in overtime, the resilience and confidence of the offense was key for the comeback. “I think we’ve gotta have that confidence,” said junior forward Will Lockwood. “I think it’s good because we know we can play with anyone now, which is important, but I think we have to be more consistent. I think that’s gotta be the message throughout the locker room is consistency.”
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Junior forward Will Lockwood believes his team knows it “can play with anyone,” after the Wolverines split their series with Penn State last weekend.
After two comebacks late in games, the Wolverines have enough confidence. They have plenty of players who can score and the offense is finding a rhythm. Now, it’s time for the defense to find the same consistency and put all the pieces together for a complete team. “We just have to get everybody on the same page and we have to make a commitment to team defense,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “Once we do that, we’ll be even better. Otherwise,
“We just have to get everybody on the same page.”
we’re just gonna be inconsistent like we are.” And it’s up to Lockwood and his fellow letter-wearers — senior captain defenseman Joseph Cecconi along with alternate captains junior forward Jake Slaker, junior defenseman Luke Martin and senior defenseman Nick Boka — to help the team find a rhythm in all phases of the game. “I think it starts by leadership,” Lockwood said. “(Pearson’s) been preaching it a
little bit now, but I think now it’s gotta be up to myself and some other guys in the locker room to really get the guys going. That’s gotta be a platform for our game is (playing) with that energy all the time, not just a portion of the game.” With a team that’s the fifthyoungest in college hockey, leadership from the top down is important. It’s hard — especially at first — for the freshmen to feel comfortable stepping up and taking on an unofficial leadership role.
“I think we have some vocal leaders on the team.”
“I think we have some vocal leaders on the team,” Lockwood said. “I think those are the guys that are wearing the letters, but I don’t think guys should be shy who aren’t wearing letters to be vocal in the locker room. I think we have guys that lead by example and who aren’t specific leaders as far as letters go on the team, which is a great thing to see.” Developing leaders is a slow process, but it seems that Lockwood and his fellow upperclassmen are ready and
willing to encourage everyone on the team — not just those officially designated to be captains — to step up and take ownership. As part of his responsibility as an alternate captain, Lockwood took advantage of a moment to lead by example against the Nittany Lions. Late in Friday’s game, the Wolverines had a 5-4 lead, but Penn State had just pulled their goaltender to get an extra attacker and try to tie the game. But Lockwood managed to steal the puck from an opposing forward, and suddenly he was mere feet from a wide-open net. Rather than shoot the puck himself, he looked over his shoulder to find Slaker skating down the ice just behind him. He slipped the puck to his teammate, who tapped it home for his second goal of the night. It was selfless, pure and simple. “I’ve played with Jake a lot, and I think he would do the same thing for me,” Lockwood said. “I think it was more of just setting an example of how we need to play as a team. We’ve gotta be thinking of the guy next to us and not just ourselves.” Leadership won’t always come in obvious moments like that. Sometimes it’s the little things, like keeping your teammates fired up in the locker room when you’re facing a deficit or skating just a little bit harder toward a loose puck. But maybe, just maybe, as the leadership from the captains trickles down through the rest of the team, Michigan will finally find the consistency on defense it’s been looking for all season.
“I think it was more of just setting an example.”
‘M’ to host Wildcats, Spartans as Tourney looms Zavier Simpson shines in Tip-Off Tournament MEN’S BASKETBALL
DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer
Mark your calendar for Sunday, Nov. 25 — the 2018 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball selection show. The tournament’s 64-team field will be solidified that evening, and, perhaps more importantly, college volleyball will find out whether Ann Arbor’s Cliff Keen Arena will be a host site. No. 18 Michigan (20-9 overall, 9-9 Big Ten) is practically guaranteed a spot in the field. Coming off the heels of securing their fourth consecutive 20-win regular season with a fourset victory in East Lansing last weekend, the Wolverines have established themselves as one of the nation’s top-tier programs. Interestingly enough, the Wolverines are also ranked 18th in RPI. This formula — a critical tool in the selection committee’s seeding decisions — is used to measure teams across Division I on one uniform scale based on their wins, losses and strength of schedule. Every team ranked inside the top-37 of the NCAA’s final RPI release has qualified for the tournament field since 2010. The Wolverines may be a shoo-in for the big dance, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to worry about at this point. Because only the top-16 seeds host NCAA Tournament matches, Michigan needs to make a pair of statement wins when Northwestern (15-5, 5-13) and Michigan State (17-14, 5-13) come to town on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. With a win in both matches, Michigan can cement a season series sweep of each opponent. Since the Wildcats and Spartans are both well outside
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Mark Rosen and his team are competing to earn home-court advantage in the NCAA Tournament.
of conference contention, losing a match to either team will eradicate any chance of this year’s NCAA Tournament coming to Ann Arbor. After Michigan split its season series against No. 8 Wisconsin and unranked Maryland, dropped both of its matches to No. 6 Nebraska and No. 7 Penn State and compiled a 4-2 record against Big Ten teams it only faced once, it can’t pass up a golden opportunity to secure a pair of season series sweeps at home in its last impression on the selection committee. If the Wolverines can take care of business against two subpar opponents this week, they’ll put themselves in a strong position to reach the Sweet Sixteen if they capture one of the tournament’s highlycoveted top-16 seeds and its accompanying right to a pair of home matches. “We have great student
“We have great student representation (at home).”
representation (in Cliff Keen Arena),” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “They’re so fun, they’re so passionate, they’re funny, and they’re creative. Any time we have the students come out, it makes a big difference.” One aspect that separates Cliff Keen Arena from other NCAA venues is its configuration. The arena only has stadium seating on three sides of the court; the fourth side is solely dedicated to The Zone — Michigan’s notoriously rowdy student section. Most notably, the distance from the court to the beginning of the stands is next to nothing. With very little space separating the match from the crowd, Rosen’s players often claim that the crowd is more impactful at Cliff Keen than anywhere else. “When you play in Cliff Keen, all the fans are close, much more than other arenas for sure,” said senior outside
hitter Carly Skjodt. “We’re able to take the fans’ energy with us and use it.” Since stepping onto the court at Cliff Keen Arena for the first time in the fall of 2015, Michigan’s trio of seniors — Skjodt, libero Jenna Lerg and setter Maddy Abbott — have amassed a remarkable 51-15 record at home. Hosting a pair of NCAA Tournament matches would give the Wolverines’ senior class the chance to build on its dominant record in Ann Arbor while simultaneously saying a fitting goodbye to the friendly confines of Cliff Keen Arena. “Cliff Keen is our home,” said junior opposite hitter Sydney Wetterstrom on Oct. 5 after sweeping then-No. 14 Purdue. “We’re familiar with it — we practice there every day and it really feels like a home to all of us. The fans are a big part of that; they’re very passionate about representing Michigan.”
“We’re able to take the fans’ energy with us and use it.”
Zavier Simpson sat at a podium in Uncasville, Conn. on Sunday afternoon, somewhere inside the Mohegan Sun casino complex, fielding a slew of questions from reporters after Michigan won the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament. It was a nearly identical situation to Saturday, when the junior guard was called on to answer questions about the Wolverines’ win over George Washington to advance to the championship game. Only this time, he was flanked by freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis and junior center Jon Teske — replacing sophomore guard Jordan Poole and redshirt junior Charles Matthews from the previous day. Simpson’s repeated presence on the podium was no product of circumstance. Poole and Matthews stole Saturday’s headlines, with a combined 7-for-10 3-point shooting performance that sparked Michigan to its best offensive day of the season. That duo went quiet on Sunday, totaling just nine points as Brazdeikis and Teske led the Wolverines past Providence, 66-47. “Everybody can play on our team,” Brazdeikis said. “It’s not gonna be one person that’s gonna be the best player on the court every day. It’s gonna be, one day (Simpson), one day Jon (Teske), one day Charles (Matthews).” But both days, Simpson was the stalwart at the heart of the Wolverines’ success on each end of the floor. Known as one of the nation’s premier defenders, his near-triple double on Saturday put his offense in the spotlight, as he joined in on the 3-point barrage with four of his own — a sixth of his total from last season. “For him to have that success, to make those four threes, that’s a lot of work,” said Michigan coach
John Beilein after Saturday’s win. “Now let’s go do it again, whoever we play tomorrow.” Simpson didn’t replicate his 3-point performance on Sunday — he attempted just five field goals, none from beyond the arc — but played an equally sized role in the Wolverines’ win. After allowing a season-high 61 points against the Colonials (let that sink in), Michigan’s defense was back to its stifling form against Providence, limiting the Friars to 47 points on 16-for-57 shooting. As usual, Simpson was at the crux of that. Before the game, Providence’s success was deemed reliant on point guard Alpha Diallo, who came in averaging 19.5 points and five assists per game. Matched up against Simpson, he turned the ball over four times and managed just 10 points on three-of-13 shooting — good for his worst KenPom offensive rating in 15 games. “I think of defense as my pride,” Simpson said after the game. “I just want to pick everybody up, try my best to not let them score or try my best to help somebody who may not be in the right position. So, at the end of the day, we stress defense.” While only scoring six points against the Friars, he remained a key cog of the Wolverines’ offense, with eight of their 15 assists. When Providence cut Michigan’s lead to two points near the end of the first half, it was Simpson who assisted a three and scored a basket of his own on consecutive possessions to extend the lead back to seven. By the time the Friars scored again, the lead was in doubledigits for good. As usual, the Wolverines had Simpson’s contributions on both ends to thank for that. “He is a bit of a coach on the floor — a stubborn coach on the floor,” Beilein said. “But he is just all in to win for Michigan.”
Sports
8 — Tuesday, November 20, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
No Mercy ‘M’ blows out Detroit Mercy, 95-62 Michigan struggles from stripe in win BENNETT BRAMSON Daily Sports Writer
Detroit Mercy wasn’t supposed to put up a close fight against Michigan. Yet, with 4:44 remaining in the first half, the Titans (1-4) scrapped their way to a three-point lead over the Wolverines (3-0). Michigan, who would ultimately win the game 95-62, struggled early to find its rhythm. The Wolverines accumulated six turnovers in the first 15 minutes and shot a mere 3-for-9 from the free throw line in the first half — a consistent issue for Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico’s squad throughout this young season. Detroit Mercy capitalized on the Wolverines’ sloppy early play and shot over 50 percent from three in the first half. “I think we were playing to our opponent, we weren’t playing to our ability,” said senior center Hallie Thome. “We had three turnovers to start the game, so having that be the start of the game kind of makes everyone a little anxious.” Then, as soon as the Titans took the lead, Thome and freshman forward Naz Hillmon took over — scoring a combined 15 points in the final 4:30 of the half — leading Michigan on a 20-0 run going into the locker room comfortably up 54-37. From there on out the Wolverines dominated, forcing turnover after turnover. Their active press defense forced a staggering 29 turnovers and never gave Detroit Mercy a chance to regain its footing and climb back into the game. “(Hillmon) definitely helped us a lot,” Thome said. “Naz and the press. She definitely set the tone getting all those turnovers and those ten-second counts. So definitely to have someone, and especially a freshman, set that
J
im Harbaugh doesn’t like making comparisons. He says it demeans and diminishes accomplishments. Harbaugh, as he has done every year at Michigan, treaded lightly Monday to protect the focus of his players and not give ETHAN opponent’s WOLFE fodder. Despite being the expected road for Harbaugh to take, it’s still strange. In Bo Schembechler’s 1989 autobiography “Bo,” being conservative was the antithesis of what made him great. “Quarterbacks are a special breed,” Schembechler wrote. “They need to be cocky, and the cockiest I ever had was probably Jim Harbaugh.” Sitting at 0-3 against Ohio State as a coach so far, Harbaugh could just be saving face and reserving judgment. The farthest he went in Monday’s press conference was … not far at all. The message was standard, but the meaning was evident. “I expect our team to be very motivated,” Harbaugh said. “I know I am.” Yes, it’s rivalry week against the Buckeyes, so perhaps his caution is rooted in experience — a guarantee he made to beat Ohio State and an impending Rose Bowl appearance when Harbaugh was the Wolverines’ quarterback in 1986. Though the high-stakes game is fast-approaching, the expectations of provocative speech should no longer exist for this point of the season. Yet, the questions are inescapable, and the answers are becoming the same. “It’s the Big Game,” Harbaugh said about what motivates him. “Even got a name for it, doesn’t it?” Even after Michigan won that 1986 game, 26-24, in
tone and give us that energy I think we needed at that point and having it carry over to all of us helped us be able to kinda (put) our foot on the gas and keep going.” Thome — who scored 25 points in just under 20 minutes — could not be matched by the smaller Titan team and scored nearly every time she shot the ball from the low post. Hillmon, meanwhile, injected an energy into the lineup that seemed to have been lacking since the opening tip. With Michigan running a press for much of the game, Hillmon raced all over the court, forcing turnovers and causing problems for the Titans. “(Hillmon’s) energy is contagious,” Barnes Arico said. “I think she just does a tremendous job of bringing it each and every single day. I think it’s definitely a difference maker in our program’s success so it’s great to have her and I’m glad she’s playing well right now.” Hillmon’s most intense moment, though, came with just over a minute remaining in the first half and the Wolverines up 10. Following freshman guard Amy Dilk’s missed layup, Hillmon collected the rebound and put up a shot of her own while getting fouled. As soon as the ball slid through the cylinder, Hillmon turned around and let out an emphatic yell as she flexed her muscles toward her bench. “I like to bring a lot of energy to the game and if it’s ever flat I want to give a yell or a high five,” Hillmon said. “I think that being able to bring some energy to the team, that not only helps me and makes me want to go harder, but it definitely helps my teammates knowing that there’s somebody there encouraging them.”
ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon teamed with senior center Hallie Thome to score 20 straight points against Detroit Mercy.
Hillmon, who finished the game with 22 points and eight rebounds, and the rest of the Michigan starters, would not set foot on the court in the fourth quarter following the slow start with the game decidedly in hand. The Wolverines will now prepare for the Gulf Coast Showcase, where they will first take on Missouri this Friday, Nov. 23, before playing two more games over the rest of the weekend. “I think we just really need to pay attention to detail because we’re going to be playing against some tremendous programs in Florida,” Barnes Arico said. “Every possession is going to matter; we need to be locked in and we need to be focused; we need to know our personnel, know our assignments. We’re going to have a quick turnaround, not a lot of prep time for the games, so it’s going to be important that we’re focused.”
CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer
The Wolverines beat Detroit Mercy handedly on Monday night, 95-62, but for much of the first half that result was anything but assured. The two teams traded baskets deep into the second quarter. The Titans even managed a lead before Michigan rattled off a 20-0 run to end the first half. Two factors contributed to the Wolverines’ inability to jump out to a more commanding lead in the first fifteen minutes though: missed defensive assignments and poor free throw shooting. The former can be chalked up to spreading themselves too thin on the press — something they seemed to fix at halftime. But the latter is part of a more worrying trend. Coming into the game, Michigan was 27-for-45 from the charity stripe,
exactly 60-percent, a mark tied for 281st out of 349 Division-I teams. A 10-for-19 performance against Detroit Mercy does not help that average. Within the context of such a blowout, poor free throw shooting might seem like a trivial problem, but as the Wolverines’ schedule heats up in the next week with games against Missouri, and possibly two other top-25 teams, it may come back to bite them. The struggles at the foul line are more of a confidence issue than anything according to Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “I think that starts to get in your head a bit,” Barnes
Arico said. “The key is just to get in the g ym to just get your confidence back, get your touch back. And try not to think about the misses.” Even key contributors and typically-efficient shooters like sophomore guard Deja Church — who shot 74.7-percent last season — and freshmen Naz Hillmon have been susceptible to the trend so far. “Coach was telling us just now that it’s in our heads, so we just have to shake it off and make ourselves more comfortable at the free throw line,” Hillmon said. “We need to avoid thinking too much about it or too little (about it).” Senior Hallie Thome added in support of Church: “She’s kinda struggling at the line, but last year she made the hardest free throws. We were down three (against Nebraska) and Deja got fouled at the three-point line, made them, and we went into overtime. So I think it’s just definitely a mental thing.” The season is young and the sample size is small. But since the Wolverines seem to be hitting on every other cylinder, they are looking to correct their foul-shooting struggles before it manifests into something bigger. “You’ve been shooting them since you first started playing, since you were a little kid, so it’s something you can almost take for granted,” Barnes Arico said. “Right now, we can’t so we just have to make sure we focus on it a little bit more.”
“You’ve been shooting them since you first started playing.”
The tired verbiage of rivalry week
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Senior running back Karan Higdon was asked Monday if he would be willing to guarantee a win against Ohio State, and after some internal debating, he obliged, saying he’ll “take that stand.”
Columbus, Harbaugh sings a different tune, as well as in the years following his declaration. Dating back to his introductory press conference in 2014, he doesn’t make guarantees anymore: “I’ve learned from that.” About an hour after Harbaugh stepped away from the podium Monday, senior running back Karan Higdon stood in the same spot, with tight end Zach Gentry hulking him to his right. A reporter asked the question — goaded, essentially — that now serves as a prerequisite in a sound bite media landscape: Like your coach, will you guarantee a win? Higdon and Gentry shared a look. What came after was expected.
“Yeah, I do. I do,” Higdon said, followed by a laugh. “That’s how I feel. I believe firmly in my brothers and this team and this coaching staff. And as a captain, I’ll take that stand. Why not?” It was definitive, but it was hardly the assertion Harbaugh made 32 years ago. Higdon is a captain of the No. 4 team in the country with conference and national title hopes at stake. Yet, it has already grabbed headlines and incited social media furor. It was not an unprompted guarantee, and with the game’s
implications, should not be treated as such. The only notable aspect is that it breaks the character of a seemingly unbothered Michigan team. “Having done it, I don’t recommend it,” Harbaugh said of guaranteeing a win in The Game in 2016. Though more subtle, junior linebacker Devin Bush also made a lofty claim, referencing the 2016 overtime loss on Monday. “That was one of those games where we didn’t finish,” Bush said. “We’ve got another opportunity to go in there. “And I believe we’re gonna
“And as a captain, I’ll take that stand. Why not?”
finish the job.” It’s not breaking news. With everything to lose, the past shouldn’t be considered, and there is every reason to think the game will be close. Junior left guard Ben Bredeson said “It’s just different in this game,” with the exasperation of three years of getting the same question. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer also spoke with the media in Columbus on Monday. He assumed the same demeanor as Harbaugh, even talking about mutual respect. “I can only speak for myself, but I think the ‘R-word’ is critical here,” he said. “… How do you respect them and The Game? You work so very hard to do your best.” There is never truly a
breaking point of the exhaustive responses and unsettled debates for this rivalry. It’s interesting to hear Bredeson reflect on how getting flipped off energizes him, or how Bush feeds into the boos. Sharing experiences and the boredom of sameness are not mutually exclusive. Another reporter asked Harbaugh then if it was just another game on the College Football Playoff hunt. “Of course not,” Harbaugh replied with disgust, like it was blasphemous that the question was asked at all. Rivalry week doesn’t need to have a different tone. It speaks for itself. Wolfe can be reached at eewolfe@umich.edu or on Twitter @ethanewolfe.