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How the ‘U’ compares to rival schools in wellness
Colleges nationwide collaborate on mental health service practices JASMIN LEE & CALDER LEWIS
Daily Staff Reporters ANNIE KLUSENDORF/Daily Rep. Debbie Dingell listens during the community meeting on the Gelman dioxane plume at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center Thursday evening.
Debbie Dingell hosts community meeting on toxic chemical in water
Representative joins panel discussing threat of Gelman dioxane plume to public JULIA FORREST Daily Staff Reporter
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., held a community meeting Thursday evening at Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center to discuss potential action to stop the spread of the Gelman Plume, a plume of toxic chemical pollution currently running through Ann Arbor’s groundwater. Dingell spoke at the event alongside officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, Michigan
Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energ y and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. Approximately 150 community members and City Council members attended the event. At the meeting, community members asked questions and discussed ideas with the officials, who expressed a commitment to stopping the spread of the plume. Dingell told The Daily the goal of the meeting was to bring relevant government agencies together to discuss how best to solve the problem.
“The Gelman dioxane plume has been a problem in Washtenaw County for far too long,” Dingell said. “As local leaders work towards consensus on a solution, it is essential that we have all responsible government agencies at the table to publicly answer questions about the current situation and options moving forward. That is why I convened this meeting with representatives from the EPA, EGLE, and the Michigan Attorney General’s offices. It is important that everyone comes together
in the same room to have a productive conversation and be rowing in the same direction about how to best move forward.” The event began with Jason Morgan, chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. Morgan asked pre-planned questions from community members to the officials on the panel. The first question was directed towards the EPA and EGLE about their efforts to address the issue. See DINGELL, Page 3
This is the third installment of a three-part series investigating student mental health at the University of Michigan. The Daily interviewed students on campus, students across the country and prominent leaders of mental health to contribute to this series. In part one and part two, The Daily examined studentfound complains about CAPS and alternative mental health resources on campus. The Daily previously reported on mental health services and alternative resources that have emerged at the University of Michigan. However, student frustrations with wellness resources are not unique to campus, as many universities across the country are struggling to provide adequate service in response to increasing demand. The Daily completed an analysis of the mental health resources at schools comparable to the University, finding that the University and other schools are working together to improve
these programs. At Michigan State University, wait times for Counseling and Psychological Services are typically under two hours. The University of California, Berkeley offers a vast array of mental-health promotion clubs. While many universities have different resources and ideas for improving mental health, U-M CAPS Director Todd Sevig said the University is a role model when it comes to mental health at college campuses. “We’ve had a lot of successes at CAPS,” Sevig said. “People around the country kind of copy what we do.” Michigan State Michigan State University’s Counseling and Psychological Services offer slightly different services than University of Michigan’s. For example, instead of booking appointments in advance, they primarily offer walk-in appointments for initial consultation. MSU CAPS Director Matt Patishnock said their counselors try to fit in as many students as possible every day to match their students’ expectations. See CAPS, Page 2
Medical School faculty member SoulCycle Business professor talks media use, child development launches CAMPUS LIFE
discusses positivity
BUSINESS
Jenny Radesky examines effect of technology on parent-child relationship
1st Mich location Studio opens on South University Ave amid concerns from students about class affordibilty
Speaker encourages positive perspective, authentic dialogue to improve productivity ALYSSA MCMURTRY
FRANCESCA DUONG
Daily Staff Reporter
Daily Staff Reporter
Professor of management and organizations Robert E. Quinn, co-founder of the Center for Positive Organizations, spoke to about 100 students and educators about bringing out the best in employees and students on Thursday afternoon at the Ross School of Business. The talk focused on how authentic group discussions are the most constructive way to create a better work environment. The lecture centered on the analogy of turning horses into unicorns, which Quinn used to mean turning good employees and students into great ones. “This is the central question that I want to lay out: how can … leaders and others turn horses into unicorns?” Quinn said. “The real question is, how do you turn an ordinary company into a great company.” Quinn then introduced a colorful pie chart based on a balance of virtues and their vices. This chart was meant to show managers that every action has a pro and a con. For example, Quinn said encouraging creative action could also potentially introduce chaos.
Beginning Friday morning, community members can start taking classes at Michigan’s first-ever SoulCycle. The studio is located on South University Avenue near Espresso Royale. Classes are expected to run at least 29 times during the week and new bookings are available every Monday at noon. Prices, packages and schedules can be found on their website. Briana Krull, studio manager of SoulCycle Ann Arbor, said she’s excited to introduce the Ann Arbor community to this new experience, which features choreography as a way to obtain a full-body workout. Unlike other workouts focusing on competition, Krull said SoulCycle is focused on the individual’s goals. “A lot of workouts these days are quantified with metrics,” Krull said. “SoulCycle doesn’t really have a competitive aspect, it’s more about tuning into your body. You’re supposed to match the beat of the music that you’re riding with your pedal strokes, and you also ride with your pack.” Krull said the setup of the room is supposed to help members focus on doing the best of their ability. “We’ll have the bikes close
See POSITIVITY, Page 3
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ALEC COHEN/Daily Jenny Radesky, assistant professor of pediatrics, discusses mobile device measurment approaches during a lecture in North Quad Thursday afternoon.
BRAYDEN HIRSH Daily Staff Reporter
Approximately 15 students and faculty gathered in North Quad Thursday afternoon to hear Jenny Radesky, Medical School assistant professor, share her research on the effects of technology and media usage on child development. Radesky, who received her M.D. at Harvard Medical School, specializes in developmental behavioral pediatrics. She has trained at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. Radesky began her talk by discussing her research interests in parental
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inf luence on their children’s use of technology. “I was interested in how media fits into this situation: parents’ technology use and child technology use,” Radesky said. “I was really inf luenced by the research on background TV and parent-child interaction.” Radesky said she chose to study mobile technology as opposed to traditional technology because it has been studied much less and she was curious about its effects. She said she wanted to know what happens when media is in your pocket. Scott Campbell, Communication and Media professor, moderated the event. He said he chose
to showcase her work because it is unique to her department and impacts many community members. “I chose to host (Radesky) because of a mixture of her scholarship that fits with what we have going on,” Campbell said. “But there is also an applied aspect of her work that we don’t always get a chance to benefit from. Some of us are parents and very curious about the work that she does and how she does it.” Through observational studies, Radesky found that 75 percent of families used a device during meal times and and tended to have less interaction among family members. Radesky
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noted this observational study was not about making conclusions, but instead to learn more about what specifically she wanted to study. After much trial and error, Radesky landed on an application called Moment which tracks a participant’s phone usage. Specifically, it tracks when an app is opened or closed. Her sample consisted of Android and Apple users. Radesky found children used YouTube for at least one hour each day, which she said she wants to study further.
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Faculty panel to set academic agenda for presidential debate
2020 theme semester ‘Debate and Democracy’ aims to encourage student civic engagement JULIA FORREST Daily Staff Reporter
The Presidential Debate Academic Advisory Committee, a new faculty committee, will create a “Democracy and Debate” themed academic semester for Fall 2020 ahead of the 2020 presidential debate. The committee plans to incorporate various debate-centered academic events in all 19 schools and colleges throughout the University in order to make students more civically engaged. Additionally, the committee is encouraging each school and college within the University to host discussions, lecture series and other programs centered around the debate and civically engaging topics. Angela Dillard, the committee chair and a professor of Afroamerican and African studies, spoke to The Daily about the goals and plans of the committee
CAPS From Page 1 “As part of our counseling services, we offer a same-day access for any student for any issue every day,” Patishnock said. “On any given day, 50 students walk in without an appointment and they either get a brief consultation or routine screening or crisis appointment. Then there’s the continuity of care expectations meaning that the commissions here that screen that student will keep them here if we can. That’s a significant part of our resources for students.” According to MSU CAPS’ website, initial visits take
and the 2020 semester. “Ideally, the theme semester offerings will highlight the U-M disciplinary and interdisciplinary streng ths,” Dillard said. “The theme semester also provides a forum for exploration and discussion of a range of issues at play during the 2020 election season, from health care and economic mobility to climate change, immigration, education and mass incarceration.” Dillard expressed how important it will be for students from interdisciplinary backgrounds to participate in the activities. “In this moment in U.S. politics, the most pressing issues that confront us as a nation are radically interdisciplinary,” Dillard said. “Hence, solutions will need to span academic disciplines, will need to be responsive to citizens and other members of communities, will need to
anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes, including paperwork and waiting room time. MSU freshman Lily Callis said the walk-in appointments made it easy for her to find access to care right away at MSU CAPS. “The walk-in is very helpful when someone is having a crisis and I think that’s very helpful to have on campus,” Callis said. “They typically refer a lot of students to outside campus help since there’s so many students.” MSU CAPS offers referrals to resources outside of its own services, including hospitals, therapists and other mental health professionals in the East Lansing area MSU has staff members assign students with these
be grounded in evidence and open to inquiry, debate and the free exchange of ideas in ways that incorporate a diversity of opinions and lived realities.” Another member of the committee, Jenna Bednar, professor of political science, spoke on the committee’s efforts to get student input on the academic agenda. “We’re working with our student groups to make sure that we are able to incorporate as many student perspectives as possible into our decision making,” Bednar said. “They’re literally at the core of our decision-making process.” One of the groups the committee is working with is the Central Student Government. Public Policy senior and CSG President, Ben Gerstein, is one of the student leaders on the core committee, a unit of the PDA AC working with various departments involved with the debate. He said students have reacted
resources and ensure they are safe. Patishnock said he sees this as a solution to the drastic increase of students seeking mental health services at MSU CAPS in recent years. “Given the total increase in the number of counselors we had, we’ve had to refer out a significant number of students to the local community,” Patishnock said. “We’ve hired a full-time referral coordinator and social worker who meets with students all day long and helps them get connected into the community as opposed to just giving them information to make sure they don’t get lost.” At the University of Michigan, CAPS prefers to keep students within their counseling center for
positively to the idea of a themed semester. “I think it presents a unique opportunity for curricula from faculty who are putting together this with intention and the idea of making this an experience that not only do our students get to maximize their ability to experience what’s occurring when the debate is actually on campus, but have some sort of contextualized understanding,” Gerstein said. Bednar said the committee will continue to design and prepare the themed semester with student voices and campus resources in mind. “It’s the first time the University’s hosted one of these debates, and so I hope that students feel a lot of pride in hosting and in having the world tuned into the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,” Bednar said. “I hope that it gives (students) an opportunity to ref lect on their own role as a citizen in our democracy.”
mental health issues that can be solved for short-term counseling. The CAPS annual report showed more than 73 percent of clients attended five or fewer sessions in the 2018-19 school year. Since U-M CAPS is not designed for long-term mental health support, less than 1 percent of students receive more than 20 appointments. According to Sevig, CAPS has one care manager who places students with resources outside of the organization which they can access for long-term use. “One thing we started — and we were the first in the See CAPS, Page 3
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CAPS From Page 2 country to do this — (is) we have a care manager,” Sevig said. “So we developed one person, and now we have two fulltime people, to help with referrals that take a little work.” Emphasis on referring to East Lansing professionals also impacts the goal of students visiting MSU CAPS. According to The State News, MSU CAPS only offers students three free appointments, after which appointments must be covered by insurance or out of the student’s pocket. U-M CAPS, in contrast, never charges students and offers free counseling indefinitely for those with extenuating circumstances that prevent them from finding appropriate, outside long-term care. Sevig said U-M CAPS’ efforts to provide medium and longer-term service without charging students means it cannot base its appointment model on walk-ins like MSU CAPS. The report showed about 26 percent of patients saw CAPS for six or more sessions last school year. CAPS can offer longer treatment for students who are experiencing a complex reaction to a traumatic event, are uninsured or do not have transportation to off-campus referrals. Sevig said the average number of sessions is four to five, but it is important to continuously make appointments available. “We’ll see the person,” Sevig said.
“We’ll do it whenever we can. Our staff will do extra to fit students in, but I would like to, on a systemic level, increase our ongoing work to do more than average.” While students have complained about the inadequacy of CAPS at the University, many schools look to U-M services as a model to improve their own programs. Patishnock said Sevig has been helping MSU develop their CAPS service, which has been around for less than two years. “We have 29 full-time counselors,” Patishnock said. “I understand the University of Michigan has even more counselors per student. We’re trying to get ourselves about even with where you guys are.” Big Ten Conference and Okanagan Charter The University is not alone in its efforts to improve mental health. Representatives from CAPS attend the yearly Big Ten Counseling Centers Convention to exchange ideas with similar-sized schools. According to Sevig, the idea for embedded counselors — a branch of professionals from CAPS who specialize in the culture and students of different colleges throughout the University — came from Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. “It was really radical because in our profession, we have this idea that you have to come to us,” Sevig said. “So I waited for them to implement it for a year, and it was still working really well there. Then I wrote up this model for seven of our
staff to be with the four schools on North Campus and three of the professional schools on Central Campus and it all got funded.” The University is also a member of the Okanagan Charter, an international charter for health-promoting universities and colleges aimed at promoting overall well-being on campus. Wolverine Wellness Director Mary Jo Desprez said the charter guides many of the University’s efforts on mental health. To illustrate how the Charter’s framework could improve day-to-day practices, Desprez gave the example of a professor who can choose between setting a paper deadline at midnight or at six o’clock in the morning. While the six o’clock deadline gives students more time, she said many students would stay up all night writing. “There’s no reason the paper can’t be due at three o’clock in the afternoon,” Desprez said. “That is a way a faculty member can contribute to the health and well-being of the community just based on one small change.” Orientation During freshman orientation, the Educational Theater Company performances mention CAPS and include a presentation for parents as well. However, many students told The Daily they are unaware of how they can make an appointment with CAPS and how to get to their office. LSA sophomore Eva Schwarz told The Daily that finding out how to make an appointment was more difficult
Friday, January 17, 2020 — 3
than making the actual appointment. “I went to make an appointment and it took a lot of navigating, figure out how to watch a video and then the video, people acting out like a scene and then it finally tells you how to make your appointment, which you can’t even do online,” Schwarz said. “To me, it seems like such an ordeal to go through the process of trying to use the University’s resources.” Schwarz did not remember the information from orientation, raising concerns if it actually sticks with students. In contrast, Ben Crino, Western Michigan University sophomore, told The Daily that WMU tells students about their mental health resources and how they work during orientation. Unlike the University students interviewed, he remembered this information. “I did my orientation a month before school started and they take you right to the building, then they take you inside and they take you to one of the rooms,” Crino said. “They take your whole group like a tour, but they make sure to really cover that place. You know where it is on campus, you know what it looks like and you know how to (make an appointment).” When asked if the University was aware that students felt they did not retain information presented about CAPS during orientation, Sevig said he would be open to working on ways to make the information more prevalent. He said he would be interested in making a CAPS office stop as part of the campus tour like Western Michigan does.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Sevig said. “We’d be happy to do it.” Wellness Clubs at Other Universities Student efforts to improve the wellbeing on campus are also not unique to Ann Arbor, as examples of like-minded organizations can be found across the country. For example, Northwestern University’s Happiness Club “encourages and facilitates random acts of kindness … creating moments that lead those involved to think, ‘That just made my day!’” according to the organization’s website. The University of California, Berkeley, often ranked as a top public university along with the University of Michigan, is home to mental health promotion clubs like You Mean More, De-Stress with Dogs and Art & Mind. Akash Rathod, a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, said he is grateful for the student support at the highly competitive school. He recently attended a session for the Berkeley University Health Services nutrition team focusing on the intersection of healthy food and well-being. Rathod said he believes having wellness clubs is important to students prioritizing their mental health. “I think the organizations have had a positive impact,” Rathod said. “A lot of students that need the help and were previously not getting the help are getting more resources and are in a better position now.”
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SOULCYCLE From Page 1 together to feed off the energy of the people next to you and really feed off the music,” Krull said. “You’re supposed to disconnect from your phone, from metrics … really enjoy that 45 minutes of your day for yourself.” LSA freshman Celene Philip has participated in SoulCycle classes before. Philip said she enjoys the non-competitive aspect of the workout. “The instructors stress a lot that the only person you’re here for is yourself, and they stress a lot about the idea that you don’t have to follow their guidelines,”
POSITIVITY From Page 1 “The thing that’s different about this particular picture is that it’s cognitively balanced and the virtues have opposites,” Quinn said. “This picture is very simple, yet very complex. The average manager does not have this picture in their head.” His final point, social excellence, was based on the story of Gerry Anderson, chief executive officer of DTE Energy. When the recession of 2008 hit, Quinn said Anderson consulted
Philip said. “You just need to push yourself enough that you are out of your comfort zone.” Krull said each class is capped at 47 people and led by an instructor. The selection process for instructors is competitive, she said. After regional auditions, Krull said prospective instructors spend eight weeks in New York City or Los Angeles to train. Then, they teach practice classes in their respective markets, which Krull described as having “cut-throat” competition with high expectations for technique perfection. SoulCycle faced controversy in August when its owner, prominent University donor Stephen M. Ross, held a fundraiser for President Donald Trumps’s re-election
campaign. SoulCycle released a statement on Twitter, signed by CEO Melanie Whelan, saying the company did not endorse the fundraiser. LSA sophomore Nicole Lin participates in Michigan Muscle Club and has heard about SoulCycle from her teammates. She said she is hoping to try it. “I’ve heard a lot about cycling classes, so I would be willing to try it,” Lin said. “It’s really good cardio, especially since I’m not a fan of running.” However, Lin is slightly concerned about the prices of the classes. New riders receive an offer of $20 per class, and $26 per class afterwards. In an email to The Daily, Kimberly Gibbs, SoulCycle’s director of public relations and
communications, noted that for the first time ever at the Ann Arbor studio, SoulCycle is offering a discounted $22 class for students with a valid ID. Philip shared a similar sentiment to Lin’s regarding cost, but said she thinks it will be a fun workout she can do every once in a while. “It can be pretty hard for people to afford it,” Philip said. “On one hand, it can be good for people who come from big cities that often do SoulCycle when they’re home so they can have a piece of home to bring with them to Ann Arbor. But I also think that hopefully SoulCycle will market it in a way that’s more accessible to people here.”
with a financial advisor and was told he would have to cut his labor force. According to Quinn, Anderson decided to be honest with his employees. “Gerry goes to his ‘herd of horses’ and he says, ‘Let me share with you what’s really going on,’” Quinn said. “‘I don’t want to downsize. I’ll do anything to avoid downsizing. Problem is, I don’t know what to do. I believe you (the employees) do.’” Quinn made the point CEOs do not typically admit when they do not know something. However, Quinn claimed Anderson’s authenticity helped
the company have its best year in 2010. Chinelo Onuigbo, CJ Greer and Ty Moreno are master’s students in the School of Social Work. Onuigbo said the three came to the talk for a class. Moreno also said they wanted to learn new leadership styles. “We came here because we’re learning about new leadership styles and new philosophies,” Moreno said. “Not just, ‘You do what I say,’ but, ‘What does the group want?’ The idea of group wisdom versus manager wisdom.” Onuigbo said she enjoyed the talk and liked the multiple
options provided. “There were a lot of different models to consider and maybe adapt to different scenarios and work styles,” Onuigbo said. Greer said he particularly liked the example with Anderson. “I thought that the talk was very innovative, and it was very practical in the examples that it used, especially hitting close to home using DTE as an example,” Greer said. However, though Moreno enjoyed the talk, she admitted she had heard much of it before. She speculated the talk might be differently received by different age groups in the audience. “Individuals from the community who are out of school and are much older and maybe learning this as something brand new,” Moreno said. “And there’s students who, I think from our generation, are already hip to this. It’s very intuitive because we are not a generation who wants to be told what to do. We aren’t a generation that doesn’t have confidence in our own answers. To see this laid out in an educational framework is nice, but I didn’t think it was revolutionary.”
DINGELL From Page 1 EPA Deputy Director Joan Tanaka expressed the importance of the EPA working with state off icials to contain the toxic chemicals spreading throughout the g roundwater in Ann Arbor. “ We understand that lots of stuff is going on right now, there’s going to be a lot of talking,” Tanaka said. “I don’t think anybody wants the problems to get worse and so we would be working together to f ig ure out how it could not ( get worse).” Tanaka also said the site is not currently considered a Superfund site, a site requiring longterm care which receives government support, because the g roundwater contamination is not at a point of causing harm to people. Without this classif ication, it does not require emergency funds for cleanup from the EPA or from the responsible part y, Gelman Sciences, Tanaka said. Currently, EGLE is in charge of making sure the level of the toxic dioxane chemical stays below a certain level and does not harm Ann Arbor residents. The meeting then moved to cit y and count y off icials asking the panel specif ic questions. Most of the questions were geared towards the EGLE, Attorney General off icial and the EPA to better understand the timeline of diminishing the plume. Tanaka explained that at most it would take approximately 25
years for the plume to be entirely cleaned up by the EPA, but in the meantime, EGLE will continue to monitor the plume. The discussion then opened up to questions from all communit y members in attendance. Communit y members asked questions about the timeline of cleanup efforts and who would be in charge of the cleanups. Rita Loch-Caruso, an environmental health sciences professor who attended the panel, spoke to The Daily after the meeting about her concerns. “I’m ver y concerned about the plume,” LochCaruso said. “I live on the west side of Ann Arbor and I’ve been going to these meetings for over ten years, and I have watched the plume advance toward my propert y. I’ve lived in our home for over 35 years year. The plume is now under my house.” Loch-Caruso also discussed her thoughts on the communit y meeting after hearing the different representatives from the different agencies speak. She left the meeting feeling like there is more work to be done on this issue. “ What I take away is that we still have an uphill battle to climb,” Loch-Caruso said. “It’s not clear to me though that the reg ulator y g roups from the different government agencies and the different government entities and jurisdictions are really going to be able to come together in ag reement, but I really hope so because I think we need a solution.”
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Timothy Spurlin Miles Stephenson Joel Weiner Erin White Lola Yang
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.
RAY AJEMIAN | COLUMN
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Gender-neutral bathrooms aren’t for everyone
s transgender issues have entered the forefront of American politics, the issue of public restrooms has been contested in courtrooms across the nation. Between 2013 and 2016, almost half of states made efforts to pass laws restricting transgender people’s access to single-gender facilities by their “biological sex,” often with public schools as the battlegrounds. With the debate over where transgender individuals should use the restroom becoming more and more heated, many public facilities have opted for the middle ground: gender-neutral bathrooms. Bathroom bills — the most recent of which is the Kentucky School Privacy Act — and gender-neutral restrooms arose in response to widespread social anxiety over visibly trans people using gendered restrooms. While the courts argued with no verdict in sight, gender non-specific bathrooms were the easy solution. Rather than wholly accepting or rejecting transgender people, gender non-specific bathrooms create a third space where we can be ignored entirely. A bathroom that welcomes all genders eliminates the debate entirely. The University of Michigan is one of the countless colleges now offering a gender-neutral bathroom option for its students. Currently, the Spectrum Center lists 102 “genderinclusive” restrooms in campus buildings, not including those within the dorms themselves. The term “gender-inclusive,” however, is misleading. People of any gender can use them, that is true, but that doesn’t mean they are supposed to. The issue: When anyone can use a facility, anyone will. This is how I find myself waiting for one of Alice Lloyd Hall’s two singleuse gender-neutral bathrooms to become available each night. Unsurprisingly, with 520 students living in the building, I’m rarely fortunate enough to gain access to a restroom when I need it. And yet, I’m still luckier than the students in the many halls with no genderinclusive showers or restrooms whatsoever. For most, these singleuse restrooms are seen as a luxury. They’re private, they’re cleaner, they’re (typically) newer. But for transgender students — the people these restrooms are meant to
accommodate — it’s often a matter of safety. For transgender students who pass as their gender, not being able to use gender-inclusive restrooms isn’t an issue, but this isn’t always the case. Androgynous-looking or mid-transition trans people may look out-of-place in both male and female restrooms. The state of Michigan doesn’t have laws explicitly forcing transgender people into the bathroom of their assigned sex at birth, but because University housing cards only give students access to the restroom matching their legal gender, students aren’t always able to use the restroom they’d feel safer in. A student who looks like one gender (for instance, someone who is far along in transition but can’t get a legal gender change yet) is forced to use the bureaucractically-mandated restroom rather than the one their appearance implies, causing problems not just for the individual, but everyone involved. Whether or not people should feel threatened by the existence of trans people in gendered spaces, we know that they do. If cis people weren’t afraid of us, we would only have to deal with the discomfort of feeling out-ofplace, not the fear of being treated as predators. Trans people do not want to make ourselves or others upset by using the “wrong” restroom, but we often aren’t given any other choice. While individual incidents at the University have not been publicized, 21.3 percent of trans and genderqueer U-M students reported being a victim of nonconsensual sexual contact, surpassed only by undergraduate cisgender women at a rate of 26.9 percent. However, the same survey also found that only 42.1 percent of trans students thought campus officials would take a sexual misconduct report seriously, the lowest rate of any group, and a mere 23.5 percent expected an investigation of said misconduct would be fair (all other groups had rates over 40 percent). Perhaps most startling is the manner in which these assaults occur. When the results are broken up by the use of physical force, inability to consent or both, trans students are the only group that solely reported physical force as a tactic. Concurrently, an AAP study of transgender teens found that the risk of sexual assault
was higher for students who had restricted restroom access at school. Public restrooms are far from the only reason trans students are being assaulted, but they are an undeniable factor in the trend. At the very least, restrooms serve as a venue for the act. Gender-inclusive bathrooms are meant to be a safe haven for transgender students, but it’s this very inclusivity that often renders the spaces useless. They were designed to push trans people out of gendered bathrooms for the sake of cisgender society’s comfort — the safety of trans people was merely a fortunate byproduct. And, sure enough, these restrooms made to make cisgender people more comfortable are so often used by them out of a preference for privacy at the expense of their trans peers’ well-being. Having access to safe restrooms is especially vital on college campuses because many students have no access to private restrooms. Those who live in the dorms almost invariably have to shower there, too. There is nowhere else for transgender students to go if their residence hall lacks a genderneutral restroom, or if the few in their building are always occupied. Creating safe restrooms for trans and genderqueer U-M students requires individual action as well as the implementation of large-scale change by the University. Trans students need a gender-neutral restroom option, regardless of which residence hall they live in. We need an appropriate number of restrooms for the size of the building, or gender-neutral bathrooms with stalls to accommodate more than one student at a time. However, these efforts will be useless unless cisgender students are willing to acknowledge why these changes are being made in the first place. It is easy to forget that restrooms labeled “gender-inclusive” have an intended audience, and it is even easier to ignore it when the privacy of a single-use room is so tempting. By thinking twice before taking advantage of a vacant restroom, you can make someone else’s day safer. Ray Ajemian can be reached at rajemian@umich.edu.
KAAVYA RAMACHANDHRAN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT KAAVYAR@UMICH.EDU
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Green home incentives
ike many homes rented by students in Ann Arbor, my house was built over 100 years ago. Due to the antique, inoperable fire alarm still attached to our kitchen wall and the significant breeze felt near a closed window, I cannot help but wonder what level of care has been taken in bringing this home into the 21st century. The temperature is dropping, and the heating bills are rising. My housemates and I crank up our thermostat but often still feel cold in our home. As an environmentalist, it pains me to think about all of the energy and resources that go into heating this home just to be lost through our outdated windows and poor insulation. Leaking windows are the culprit for 25 to 30 percent of heat loss in a home. The 2012 Ann Arbor greenhouse gases (GHG) inventory found that the residential sector makes up 22 percent of Ann Arbor greenhouse gas emissions. Over half of Ann Arbor’s housing units are rentals, which means that the energy efficiency of these rental units has a huge impact on the city’s overall GHG emissions. A report shows that energy efficiency upgrades could reduce the United States’ emissions by half. Landlords have no economic incentives to improve the energy efficiency of a home when renters are responsible for paying electricity and water bills. This is problematic as it leads to extremely outdated homes. Replacing windows or appliances are home improvement measures that are not very invasive or difficult. The payoff is long-term for those paying the bill and for the energy grid we are so reliant on. However, if landlords cover
the costs of utilities and instead incorporate them into monthly rent (which some landlords do already), residents have no monetary incentive to reduce their daily usage. This is an issue of competing split incentives. A compromise is necessary so that both parties have some incentive to reduce energy waste for the benefit of students’ wallets and emissions reductions. There should be some level of accountability for landlords while still leaving some financial incentive for renters to limit their usage. One option would be if the management company was required to pay the remainder of our bill after it reaches a certain maximum (in a deductible-style). Another would be if it were required to pay a percentage of our utility bills. Or maybe the state should raise the Michigan energy improvement tax incentive of 10 percent so landlords to want to improve the efficiency of the homes they manage. Another way to hold landlords accountable for the efficiency of their homes would be to simply require that the insulation and appliances of a home meet a certain energy standard, similar to how homes must meet strict fire codes. Just as there is an inspection of fire safety standards, there could be an inspection of efficiency standards where records must be presented to prove that, for example, the windows have been updated in the past 20 years. Like fire hazards and asbestos, energy inefficiency can be considered a safety threat. While perhaps more abstract, outdated homes are indeed contributing to the safety threat of climate change. Living in an old house rather than an updated apartment is
a dramatically less sustainable lifestyle. Simply, the land use and energy for a single-family home outweigh that of a multi-family dwelling unit. That being said, the old homes of Ann Arbor give the city its character and charm. For me, living in one of these old houses has been a wonderful, unique experience. There is something to be said for the water usage in old homes as well as energy usage. Landlords and management companies can update water appliances and greatly reduce the water usage of a home. Low-flow faucets and showerheads are an example. Another is simply having a dishwasher, which uses less water than hand-washing (unfortunately, my rental house lacks a dishwasher, like many in Ann Arbor). But, similar to electricity use, there has to be some financial incentive or requirement for a homeowner to want to spend on these watersaving investments. The student housing market in Ann Arbor is such that this house, built in 1901, will continue to rent out each year, no matter if efficiency updates are made or not. After all, student housing in Ann Arbor has reached 98 percent occupancy each year since 2014. Even with high rent prices and dreadful utility bills, students will continue to pay to live in my house built over a century ago. The paint is chipping, and the bathroom door has no lock, but the thing about this old house that really matters is the functionality of it in the new century. Leah Adelman can be reached at ladelman@umich.edu.
VALENTINA HOUSE | COLUMN
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Language in a poltically correct 2020
he First Amendment of the United States Constitution is unabridged freedom of speech and expression — even ahead of our right to bear arms. Today, more than 200 years later, there are virtually no laws limiting speech, but there are thousands of federal and state laws governing actions. Not to worry. Every day, an angry mob of underqualified commentators is imposing limits on speech and thought more powerful than any law ever contemplated by our founders. Say the wrong word, think the wrong thought and the mob will shame you into submission and silence, ensuring you will always watch your tongue and “speak right.” “Speak right” is a term I use to explain the following phenomenon: similar to George Orwell’s famous term “NewsSpeak,” peers and commentators act as political correctness police who pressure people to “speak correctly.” Under this cultural norm, the wrong word or phrase can leave a person permanently marked as “bigoted” even if their values and actions prove otherwise. In the book “1984,” nonconformists would be jailed for critical speech, and yet pressure can work just as well to shame people into silence. With “speak right,” words speak louder than actions. Many believe President Donald Trump has utilized racially-coded rhetoric, so he’s racist. Never mind that the first piece of legislature he supported — the First Step Act — passed criminal justice reforms that benefited the Black community more than any other demographic. Due to his work in the economy, Black unemployment under his administration is at an all-time low. What is racist about those actions? Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has not been subject to the same level of scrutiny for her political speech. It went largely ignored, for instance, that in 1996, Clinton referred to young black criminals as “superpredators.” More startlingly, I’d argue, is that actions taken by the Clintons were detrimental to the black community. The Clintons supported a crime bill which held harsh provisions for the incarceration of drug traffickers and disproportionately affected Black citizens — in seven states, 80 to 90 percent of imprisoned drug traffickers were Black. Additionally, while white unemployment rates fell to record lows under Clinton’s administration, Black unemployment rates were consistently twice as high and in
some years, even higher. Whereas we speak in a stream of consciousness, our actions are thought out and deliberate and therefore should be evaluated with more weight. However, people’s speech is the subject of a lot of criticism today. People fail to realize that those who are politically correct can be just as bigoted, if not more so, than those who aren’t. The real concern attached to political correctness is the lack of transparency. People may think one way and speak another. In fact, as controversial as it is, a politician’s racist gaffe should probably be more worrisome than a kid whose vocabulary includes racist slang.
In a creative writing class, I saw political correctness stunting creativity firsthand. I’d argue that the former is more likely to be conscious of what they’re saying so when they have a speech mishap, it probably reflects their true beliefs because they said precisely the thing they were trying to avoid. Politically incorrect people — on the other hand—are less conscious of what they’re saying, so when they say something bigoted, it may be reflective of their bigoted notions, but it may also be due to nurtured ignorance. While ignorance can’t and shouldn’t be excused, I believe a lack of knowledge is less malicious than true racism, sexism, etc. The term “political correctness” by its nature does little to expose racist people and is more often used to censor or silence people. When one’s character is truly pure, they shouldn’t have to worry about what they might say. Actions will always shine through and mirror one’s character. In a creative writing class, I saw political correctness stunting creativity firsthand. My friend was eager to share a piece he had worked on for a long time. The piece, a romantic short story, centered around a heterosexual relationship. My professor spent the majority of class ripping my friend’s story apart because the female part didn’t have as many lines or vivacious characteristic traits as the male counterpart. He noted my friend’s piece fell into a
trope and decided that was pretty much all there was to it. In my final piece, my professor flagged the word “they” when referring to Mexicans, which he deemed insensitive and directed me to a list of politically incorrect terms. As a Mexican-American myself, it felt as though my intentions were being completely overlooked. It seemed that the words my friend and I chose were more important than what the story told — my friend’s overall story wasn’t sexist, nor was mine racist. It is hard to be politically correct in a world where “they” can’t be used. Political correctness in general is subjective — some consider Black to be the appropriate term, while others deem it offensive, preferring African American. It is more fruitful to look beyond the terms to people’s underlying intentions. Moreover, creative works can be good even if they aren’t progressive. The establishment of political correctness encourages uniform, progressive works. If an author can’t write a book without a progressive plot, we may end up with a lot of princess-and-princess fairytales but no way of knowing whether those authors actually supported homosexuality or just needed to check off a “politically correct” box. Even though we may need more roles like these, they shouldn’t be placed by default because it may be blatant they were incorporated as an afterthought and weren’t uniquely developed. My professor would’ve liked if my friend added more female lines. If afterwards he did, however, it might suggest that dominant female roles are unnatural and therefore, have to be forced. Underneath the blanket of political correctness, there’s no way of knowing whether notions of equality and justice were actually realized or if they were forced into submission. The end result of political correctness is always an approved form of speech (“speak right”) but not always a better set of actions. Free speech should be adamantly preserved if we want to progress as an equal and just society. The fear of being politically incorrect does nothing to shift people’s notions, but everything to silence true beliefs. The only way to combat ignorance is to let people speak freely and convince them of their ill-guided conceptions. Valentina House can be reached at valhouse@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, January 17, 2020 — 5
FILM REVIEW
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW
‘A Hidden Life’: a film that Mac Miller’s emotional should have stayed hidden new video ‘Good News’ EMMA CHANG
DIANA YASSIN
Daily Arts Writer
Daily Arts Writer
We all want to be remembered — there’s no doubt about that. If we didn’t, fame wouldn’t be so coveted and patent lawyers would be out of a job. But when it comes to making history, few of us are ever able to achieve anything “noteworthy.” Or are we? Terrence Malick’s (“Song to Song”) newest film, “A Hidden Life,” challenges the idea that, in order to leave a mark on the world our actions have to be outstanding. Instead, it suggests that simply following through on our beliefs, even in the face of serious adversity, is enough to make an impact on the world. The film explores this idea through the life of Franz (August Diehl, “Salt”), an Austrian farmer called up to fight for the Nazi
The “What’s the Use?” music video was slated to shoot the day Mac Miller tragically died of a drug overdose in September 2018. His wounded fifth studio album Swimming was a month old. It’s a work of introspective resignation, a plea to stay afloat amid depression, substance abuse and heartbreak. There was a lot to look forward to for the forlorn, 26-year-old Mac. “I just wanna go on tour,” he tweeted the night before his death. In a strange, surreal sense, it feels as though Mac never left. In the 16 months since his passing, he’s been immortalized through the gestures and actions of a music community that felt a void after his loss. Even more than the music he made, his fans grieved his lost potential. Each album was its own era, a monumental improvement from the last. The posthumous release of Circles continues this legacy. Conceived as a sister album to Swimming, Circles was nearly complete before Mac’s death. The album is scheduled to be released on Jan. 17 and it feels odd to leave an era as fresh as Swimming behind. Circles’s lead single “Good News” was released earlier this week directly following news of the album. The song itself is a dejected portrayal of the isolation and indifference Mac felt during those last few months of his life. And while it’s definitely in the same headspace as
The film lacks any intruige beyond the typical violence of Nazis
regime. Though “A Hidden Life” provides a timely conversation about what it means to “make history,” the film lacks any intrigue beyond the typical violence of the Nazis. “A Hidden Life” should not have been three hours long. The official runtime is 2.88 hours — 2.88 hours filled with Austrian mountainside, German prisons and little else. Though the contrast between a peaceful farming village and bare prison yards help create jarring transitions, the scenery adds nothing to the plot. The mood of the film was often affected by the cloud cover, but one can only stare at on-screen clouds for so long. The film is eventually split between two viewpoints — that of Franz in the German prison after having refused his position as a
FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
soldier and that of his wife, Fani (Valerie Pachner, “Bad Luck”). The couple’s letters, provided as voiceovers between scenes, narrate their feelings and longings as they grapple with Franz’s strained relationship with the Germans and Fani’s increasing loneliness. But even as they pour out their feelings, there is little to no emotional connection between the characters and the audience. Even though Fani bursts into tears while tilling the fields and the audience takes Franz’s point of view while being beaten by a Nazi, there is little passion. Instead of tearing up at the tragedies Franz and his family faced, most in the audience, myself included, just watched indifferently as these moments unfolded. Eventually, this leads to a pair of one-dimensional characters whose only distinctive quality is their farm in Austria. There is little nuance to the film’s message — Franz is nothing more than a man dying for his cause. And maybe that’s exactly just who he was. The simplicity doesn’t take away from the nobility of his actions, but it does mean that his story should be saved for World War II documentaries watched in high school history classes. The intent of the story is not the problem here. It’s still incredibly important to remind ourselves that our individual actions have consequences, no matter how small. Unsung heroes from wars should be remembered. But not at the expense of a plot. With further
research, or even just a basic understanding of how Hollywood works, it becomes increasingly clear why Franz’s story was told: he is a man. God forbid we make movies about women during the war that aren’t an American Girl Doll story. It’s obvious that the Austrian farmer’s story should be told before the women who cracked key Nazi codes and helped win the war. It is important to discuss men like Franz, the ones who quietly sacrificed their lives to stand up for their beliefs. We obviously can’t all be the next Greta Thurnberg or Gandhi. But that also doesn’t mean we have to devote a three-hour film and $7 million to $9 million, according to Wikipedia, to a story that could be told in a 15 minute segment in a Netf lix documentary.
MUSIC REVIEW
Colony House is back on ‘Where I’m From’ KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer
“A Hidden Life Fox Searchlight Pictures State Theater
Swimming, the song reveals Mac succumbing to his shattered interiority. He is exasperated, lonely and depressed. He doesn’t want “to find a way” as he did in “Ladders” and questions “Why does everybody need me to stay?” These jarring, surreal thoughts are accompanied by soft optimism in a sparse, plucky and breezy instrumental with some gentle bass embellishments. The music video is just as hazy and ambient as its instrumentals. The six minute video is bookended by clips of Mac entering and leaving a recording studio. This takes viewers on a journey through trippy, ethereal animated scenes that depict a desert, garden and ocean among many other scenic destinations. There are videos and photo clips of Mac dancing, joking around and playing instruments as he sings wearily of his trials and tribulations. A sense of comfort accompanies every image, almost pastel colors standing out despite the despondent lyricism that carries them. Flowers, birds, horses and other lively images scatter every scene. “Good News” is just as comforting and gorgeous as it is jarring. No one anticipated a posthumous release as personal as a Swimming track. This puts us in the same position many of us were in back in September 2018; Circles was produced in the same headspace as Swimming. They allow us to revisit the idea of legacy as we enter another era of Mac without him, just days before what would’ve been his 28th birthday.
Leave What’s Lost Behind, the upcoming album from the Nashville-native quartet Colony House, is lyrically fit to be a bestselling novel. In just a few pre-released songs, the band has already crafted an inspiring account of their own dealings with the past, filled with vivid imagery of expansive landscapes and the notion of playing a role in something much larger than yourself. “Where I’m From,” their latest single off the new album, adds to this narrative by describing the beauty found in both joyful and painful moments. The song begins with steady finger snapping before opening up to an electric piano riff.
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
With a mellow, resonant register, lead singer Caleb Chapman sings of “the scent of cedar” and “the warmth of a fire,” reminding us of the simple things about where we come from. The song as a whole is plain in nature, only incorporating a few musical elements and keeping the tune rather modest, but its simplicity pairs well with the soothing lyrics and creates a stunning sense of peace. “Where I’m From” offers vulnerable sincerity and freedom in playing a small role in a bigger picture. Unlike their previous albums filled with catchy chants and abrupt transitions, Leave What’s Lost Behind is more mellow and reflective. It’s an opportunity for the band to take a step back and meditate on the past few years as an indie group slowly climbing up the charts.
BOOKS EVENT REVIEW
LSA ‘Dynamic Lakes’ Kiley Reid on her new novel explores climate change TATE LAFRENIER For The Daily
TRINA PAL
Daily Community Culture Writer
I watched a video about five years ago that detailed how states in the U.S. would be affected by climate change in the next 50 years. Moving from west to east, I saw the expected: more droughts and wildfires on the West Coast, intense hurricanes in the East and rising sea levels all throughout the continental U.S., with large areas of Florida and North Carolina underwater. But what about the Midwest? Many hold a misconception that climate change will affect the Midwest less severely. The video affirmed this, concluding that Michigan would be one of the safest states to live in the near future. While this may, in part, be true, we often overlook one key factor: the Great Lakes. Water levels of the Great Lakes have been steadily rising, with a record rise in water levels from 2014 to the present. News feeds are cluttered with images of entirely submerged lakeshore properties, or staircases and ceilings being swept away by the passing water. Many of us may recognize that climate change is responsible for these rising water levels, but will they ever return to normal? And if not, won’t our Michigan shorelines suffer? The Great Lakes Theme Semester, hosted through LSA, tries to give us some answers. This past Monday was the first panel in a series of six intended to give the public perspective on issues surrounding the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Theme Semester also includes museum and photography exhibitions, among other events featured throughout campus. Speakers at this first panel, titled “Dynamic Lakes and Lake Dynamics,” included Drew Gronewold, professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability, Guy Meadows of the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technological University, Susan Och of Leland Township Parks and Recreation and James Clift, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Effects of climate change are startling, which is why some of us avoid thinking about it unless we have to. Climate change is also a slow process (remember, climate not weather), making it hard to directly observe unless an expert points it
out to us. The term “eco-anxiety,” anxiety about natural threats such as climate change, has been coined in the last decade, and it’s easy to understand why. Large scale global changes are stressful, even more so when options seem bleak without policy change. But I’ve found something strangely reassuring in talking about climate change with my friends, colleagues, experts or even roommates. This is the conversation that “Dynamic Lakes and Lake Dynamics” intended to continue. The panel offered both scientific and political perspectives on the Great Lakes, contrasting topics like the hydrological cycle and shoreline erosion with local and state-wide policies. Gronewold said the water levels of the lakes tend to oscillate between extreme highs and lows (unlike sea levels, which have been rising consistently for the last 150 years). Lows occur when higher average temperatures cause evaporation to increase, and highs occur when this increased moisture falls as heavy rainfall. It’s hard to predict the water level of the lakes in any given year, a trend that climate change is responsible for (this tug of war between extremes is the same reason that Michigan has extremely cold winter during some years, but very warm winters during others). This fluctuation between high and low water levels, as well as increased wave energy, has devastating effects through the process of shoreline erosion. Beaches and cliffs are being pushed further back each year, blurring the line between public and private property along the lakes. So, what can we do? In truth, not much. Water levels are dependent on continental moisture patterns, which by nature are challenging to predict. Aside from building lakeshore properties further from the shore, controlling one of the world’s largest reserves of freshwater is no easy task. Our best bet is to curb the effects of global warming at the individual and national level. Michigan will likely become a state that lives along the extremes, as will many other states in the U.S. As much as we like to believe it, the Midwest is not exempt from climate change. The Great Lakes Theme Semester opens up an important and accessible dialogue that I urge everyone to be a part of. More information about the Great Lakes Theme Semester and future panels can be found at https://lsa.umich.edu/greatlakes.
This past Monday, after attending Kiley’s Reid’s book signing at Literati Bookstore and hearing her read from her hit debut novel “Such a Fun Age,” I spent my night reflecting on the nature of art, authorial intent and what I have appreciated so much about my recent reads. I didn’t anticipate this book signing to be as evocative and engaging as I’ve heard Reid’s novel to be, especially not as I awkwardly jostled in between other attendees to the only available seat in the front row — but I found myself surprised. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading “Such a Fun Age” yet, so this won’t be a review (for that, see fellow Arts writer Verity Sturm’s review here), but rather a reflection on how the event highlighted the transformational nature of a work of art, and how art ceases to be limited by authorial intent once the work takes on new meaning for someone else. In many ways, Kiley Reid’s journey as a writer, as she outlined it throughout the Q&A segment, is emblematic of how a piece of writing can take on a life of its own, often in unexpected ways. Before her writing career, Reid was trained as an actress; she cited her love of telling stories as the underlying motive of this lost dream. In her early twenties, she landed a role in a commercial for a search engine and thought that the opportunity would finally be the gateway to a many-storied acting career, only to realize… she hated it. So, she decided to explore writing (again, citing her passion for stories), and set out on a journey that would lead her here. She applied to graduate school — two years in a row — nannied and, of course, wrote. Though not exactly a comprehensive biography, the portrait Reid presented of herself was as unpredictable as the way she characterized her novel’s journey. Reid began with a few fundamental ideas she wanted to explore — racial fetishism, awkward interactions and a weird three-person transactional relationship — but as the story evolved, it mutated in unexpected ways and took on a life of its own. Reid elaborated on a few things that surprised her, but what stuck out the most was how she seemed to continually underscore the autonomy of her characters. For example, veering away from using children in her story as convenient plot devices, Reid let “Briar be Briar,” who, like many other 3-year-olds, was basically “a useless person” in terms of contributing anything. And that naturalistic characterization was OK with Reid. Kiley Reid’s comfort with
allowing characters and plots to develop in the most natural way reflects an embrace of the interpretive and applicable nature that art is inclined toward. Thankfully, it’s something she allowed her novel to do as well. At the start of the event, she reflected on her surprise upon hearing what others have said about “Such a Fun Age.” Readers have taken away themes and messages far beyond the original vision Reid meant to broadcast. The novel’s value to readers has gone far beyond the insights into class, race and awkward relationships that Reid originally intended. To some, it is also a gateway into the mind of a privileged but well-meaning individual, a meditation on friendship, the tension between a nanny and the mother of the child she’s nannying and so on. Regardless of what it meant to Reid, her readers or anyone else, the book has a commentative power that is typical of well-written fiction. Complex and comprehensive literature is able to grow and flourish beyond the author’s original vision and in turn undergo various transformations in the eyes of each reader. In so many literature classes, we focus on authorial intent when analyzing a work, but when reading for pleasure, what the book means for you ultimately determines your level of enjoyment. I’m one of those unbearable English nerds, so I’m reminded of a lot of boring old literature when I think about what writings have taught me something. But there have also been recent releases that have demonstrated the same thematic transcendence, books from which I’ve gained wholly unintentional messages from. Maggie O’Farrell’s “I Am, I Am, I Am” is one such book and Matt Haig’s “Notes on a Nervous Planet” is another, but listening to Kiley Reid has truly made me realize how much we need to appreciate art that is able to do this. With these lenses on, I look forward to reading Reid’s hit, and seeing what other masterpieces she will create.
G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Arts
6 — Friday, January 17, 2020
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MUSIC NOTEBOOK
STYLE COLUMN
Listening to Pop Smoke: Consent and queer media an ill-advised decision SAMUEL KREMKE Daily Style Columnist
JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer
DANGER KEEP OUT HAZARDOUS MUSIC As they say, “listening to Pop Smoke is always an ill-advised decision.” All right, maybe it’s just me (I say it at least once each week), but it’s true — the Brooklyn driller has the ability (read: gift) to pull listeners into his world and never let go. This, of course, isn’t a bad thing by any means, but it can create some sticky situations for sure. In the car, Pop Smoke can cause you to miss your turn and get lost. At a party, Pop Smoke can make you ignore everyone around you and exist solely as a body for the music to move through. In short, Pop Smoke can cause people to do some pretty wild things, but why? The answer, of course, is multifaceted, but it all comes down to one thing: 808 Melo, his producer. The East London producer has been crafting beats for UK drill and UK hip-hop acts for the past couple of years, but he has only produced a one-hit wonder, “Know Better,” a disrespectful and boastful track by Headie One and Rv. The dissonant melodies, offkilter hi-hats and sliding 808s on the vocal sample provide the two men with the perfect sonic palette to talk some greasy shit and spew rude comments. Thanks to 808 Melo, “Know Better” has become a quintessential UK drill song and has even been used by Stormzy in his disappointing Wiley send, “DISAPPOINTED.” Suffice to say, Melo’s time was bound to come, but he’d need an American to do it: someone with global appeal and what is to some a more tolerable accent. Pop Smoke was that someone. From the getgo, the two men were a match made in drill heaven. Their earliest collaborations include “MPR” and “Flexin’,” two hard-hitting, hard-nose, hard-ass songs that immediately yanked listeners into
their frigid landscapes. Though the sound had been popular in the UK since around 2016, to Americans, it was fresh and new. It was exciting in the same way Atlanta trap and Chicago drill were exciting when they first exploded into the scene. Now, all Melo and Pop would need was a breakout hit. “Welcome to the Party” was that hit. When the track came out in May 2019, it immediately caught fire. And for good reason. “Welcome to the Party” is an absolute banger, and I don’t say that lightly. It’s the kind of song that commands everyone’s attention for the track’s entire three minute and thirty-four second runtime. Pop Smoke is cold as ice on the track, using a staccato flow to deliver absurdist tough talk like “Bitch, I’m a thot, get me lit / Gun on my hip / One in the head / Ten in the clip” and “Don’t let that Henny in my system / I catch a body, next day I forget it.” In his words, to be “welcome to the party” is to do what he has already been doing. The beauty of Pop Smoke is how assured of himself he is, like he knows he was bound to be the first to blow up with this sound. His charisma and energy is just plain infectious. However, 808 Melo is the reason that Pop Smoke was able to flex and move the way he does on “Welcome to the Party.” Melo’s beat is kicked off with what may be the best producer tag of 2019: a female voice slowly declaring, “Thisssss issss a Melooo beat.” As soon as the tag drops, you know both Pop and
Melo are going to go to work. Melo does most of the heavy lifting by crafting an expertly simple beat, highlighted by reversed horror movie piano slashes and pulsating, gurgling 808 slides. Pop Smoke and 808 Melo prove on “Welcome to the Party” that they’re the new rapperproducer dynamic duo, and no one is going to challenge them soon. Pop Smoke, thanks to “Welcome to the Party,” is on his way to becoming a breakout star, the harbinger of Brooklyn drill, similar to how Chief Keef introduced the world to Chicago drill. Hell, he was featured on Travis Scott’s Jackboys compilation on the song “GATTI,” co-produced by (surprise, surprise) 808 Melo. Most of Pop’s other songs are variations on “Welcome to the Party,” but they all work so well that it does not matter at all. However, when Pop does break the mold, he transcends. On “PTSD,” from his debut tape Meet the Woo, he does his best 50 Cent impression and crushes it, delivering an impassioned and emotional performance. With time, hopefully, he continues to both break the mold while creating more drill classics. What’s the point of all this? I’ll tell you: Pop Smoke is a force of nature, a veritable black hole. His charismatic gravity is so strong that nothing can escape him. He is one man sufficiently compact enough to disrupt the four dimensions of the spacetime continuum. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you when — not if — Pop Smoke takes over your entire world.
REPUBLIC RECORDS
Trigger warning: This article discusses issues of sexual assault and violations of consent in the media. I’ve recently taken the plunge into the Netflix original series Elite, a Spanish demi-soap revolving around the indoctrination of public high school students into an exclusive private academy and the lives of their opulently wealthy classmates. Over the course of its current two seasons, the round table cast find themselves embroiled in the throes of a murder investigation, a concurrent missing person investigation, class and racial tensions, relationship drama, sex scandals and light incest (why not pepper it in, right?). In many ways, it uses similar tactics as its most obvious predecessor, Gossip Girl, to draw in its audience. While it isn’t the same kind of buzzy location and fashion behemoth, it certainly offers an imaginary, salacious peek into the lives of the young, rich and powerful-subsisting viewers with highstakes, high-drama plot lines that play on a simultaneous disgust and fascination with extreme privilege and the kinds of problems that might come with it. My primary interest in watching the show, of course, is its undeniable queerness (before actually watching the show in earnest I just fast forwarded to all of the gay stuff), but like Mikelle Street of Out before me, I couldn’t help but notice there were some sticky dynamics going on around issues of consent, as well as familial and partner relations. This isn’t to say that the show presented these dynamics as acceptable behavior or even that by enjoying the show one is somehow co-signing them, but they certainly fall in line with how queer relations are often represented in the media, especially in content that’s marketed towards young adults. Some of the issues that I’m referencing specifically have already been touched on and I worry about belaboring points that have already effectively been
made, and those are the actions of a bi-questioning character named Polo (Álvaro Rico.) In the first season, Polo and his thengirlfriend, Carla (Ester Expósito), begin a three-way relationship with one of the new students, Christian (Miguél Herràn), and enter into it by pursuing a cuckolding fantasy without expressly telling him what was happening. Later that season, he establishes an imbalance of power between Christian and himself by offering him a modeling gig, specifically the cover of his mothers’ fashion magazine, and then initiating oral sex with him after his photoshoot with the knowledge that Christian had not expressed any interest in having direct sexual relations with men. In season two, he pressures his friend, Ander (Arón Piper), into kissing him and exchanging handjobs in the same bed as their friend, Guzman (Miguel Bernardeau), who is passed out drunk. The first two situations were presented as something that wasn’t okay and that Polo had to answer for, and the third was used more as a scandalous foreshadowing tool for a dynamic between the three that would slowly unfold over the course of season two. Without spoiling anything, Polo’s sexual behavior can easily be seen as a tie in to his violent and sociopathic tendencies, and his actions are by no means put on a pedestal by the show, but I have complicated feelings about the intersection between budding queerness and violation being treated so often as an easy access point in seemingly progressive storytelling. For one thing, the show brings up some very meaningful conversations around what consent means and what it means to violate it. Across the board, the show very aptly colors in several shades of gray in what is often treated as a subject involving only extremes. Sexual assault is usually portrayed as an overwhelming display of physical violence, or as the old, powerful boss attempting to coerce the new, unsuspecting employee, and not as something that can happen between people who know each other well, in a way that
involves more subtle methods of coercion, coming from people that might not understand (and, often times not be willing to understand) that what they’re doing is harmful. The show goes a long way to show that people have to learn how to ask for it and give it, to set boundaries, that it can take people time to realize that their consent has been violated, and that bringing it up can be even more difficult when the playing field isn’t even. Taking an extremely sensitive topic and showing how a conflict regarding it might play out in a youth-oriented context is sure to help create internal dialogues about how it might apply to one’s life in a way that is, well, groundbreaking. Any form of media that has the smallest potential of helping people advocate for themselves or, conversely, reflect on their actions with that subject matter is one I eagerly support. Yet, my issue stems from the fact that there are very few narratives revolving around queer sex that don’t involve an all encompassing kind of existential pain, let alone some kind of violation of consent, either contained within the act itself or by who has knowledge of it. Even in Modern Family, often considered a marvel of social engineering for essentially sanitizing a queer relationship through the lens of an American nuclear family, only ever hinted at their two gay characters, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), having sex on one occasion when they were being walked in on by Cam’s parents (which, if I remember correctly, was a point of contention in the episode). In Gossip Girl, the most noteworthy on-screen kiss was the result of Blair (Leighton Meester)’s scheming, manipulating her boyfriend, Chuck (Ed Westwick) into kissing a faculty member of NYU without his express knowledge. The only other same sex kiss in the show was in an episode that treated public outing as a punch line.
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ACROSS 1 “__ Is Betta Than Evvah!”: 1976 R&B album 5 “Disgusting!” 8 “The Real Housewives” series airer 13 Sprat’s choice 14 Slice of pizza? 15 Consuming 17 What dogs do to set a tempo? 19 One making amends 20 __ dog 21 Uproars 23 Miler Sebastian 24 Bartender’s lager-serving skill? 28 “Just __” 32 Creepy glance 33 Word said with a sigh 34 School subj. 36 Self-service bar offering 40 Convenience for a fish traveling around the city? 44 Join 45 Excavation 46 Green subj. 47 Barflies 50 Works free 52 Annoyed answer to “How’s your jobless roommate working out?”? 56 Beer choice 57 Prefix with byte 58 Name on Re-Nutriv cosmetics 63 Sport played on a variety of surfaces 65 Malady that accounts for four Across puzzle answers 68 V-8, for example 69 1979 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee 70 Brest bestie 71 Mild oaths 72 Feed bit 73 Coffee __
3 Cover during a delay 4 Pharaoh’s symbol 5 Gun designer __ Gal 6 Beloved person 7 Follows 8 Babies leader? 9 Total mess 10 Words on the first of a set, perhaps 11 Leonardo’s birthplace 12 Situation after a leadoff double 16 One of the Bradys 18 House of Dana fragrance 22 Down (with) 25 Old map abbr. 26 Octa- plus two 27 Sour __ 28 1995 Oscarnominated animatronics film 29 Pizazz 30 Credits heading 31 Rate 35 Like Brahms’ Symphony No. 2
37 Tie (up) 38 “... __ is given”: Isaiah 39 PC connections 41 Palomino pace 42 Missile site 43 Hunchbacked assistant 48 Dissertations 49 Preacher’s msg. 51 Binged (on) 52 Quick meal 53 Capsize
54 Japanese comics 55 Large mackerel 59 Union member’s nemesis 60 Great work 61 Academy award-winning director Kazan 62 Fall site 64 Diarist Anaïs 66 History book chapter 67 Fine print, say
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Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, January 17, 2020 — 7
‘M’ snaps skid, beats Badgers 68-56 Michigan readies for Garza rematch JACK KINGSLEY Daily Sports Writer
After Sunday’s blowout loss to Maryland, the Michigan women’s basketball team needed to bounce back strong. Thursday night against Wisconsin, the Wolverines did just that. Michigan (12-5 overall, 3-3 Big Ten) came out fast, scoring nine points in the first two minutes and jumping out to an early seven-point lead as the Badgers (9-8, 1-5) had trouble defending the Wolverines’ biggest threats. Sophomore point guard Amy Dilk — coming off two games in which she shot a combined 4-for-25 and turned the ball over often — was vital to the start, making Michigan’s first basket, assisting on another and grabbing a rebound. A Wisconsin timeout slowed the Wolverines’ offensive momentum, but they locked down defensively. Michigan didn’t force many turnovers, but the Wolverines prevented the Badgers from getting the ball in the paint and forced them to take contested outside jumpers. Wisconsin shot just 4-for-14 in the first quarter and only scored eight points. Michigan’s offense struggled at the beginning of the second
quarter — scoring just two points in the first three minutes — but yet again, its stout defense kept the Badgers from coming back. Just as Wisconsin’s offense started to gain some momentum with two baskets in three possessions over a minute, sophomore forward Naz Hillmon found her rhythm. Hillmon, after being held to just two points on 1-of-4 shooting in the first quarter, scored nine in the final seven minutes of the second, leading the Wolverines to a 16-point halftime lead. She finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Dilk added four of her 12 points in this stretch. “Naz seemed like she had a little bit of a slow start and then you look at the end of the game, and she was incredible again,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said on a postgame radio show. “(She) is a rebounding machine.” The Wolverines’ defense struggled a bit in the second half, though, allowing the Badgers to shoot 52 percent after shooting just 31 percent in the first half, but their offense continued to click. They got the ball into the paint for high-quality chances and often got to the line, where they were 10-for-10 in the half. Michigan led by 19 with four minutes left when Wisconsin ended the game
on an 11-4 run to finish with only a 12-point deficit —most of which came with the Wolverines’ reserves in the game. Rebounding was key to the Wolverines’ strong offensive performance, with Hillmon at the forefront. In three of Michigan’s five losses, the Wolverines have been outrebounded by their opponents. With a starting five consisting of players all 6-foot or taller, and not many 3-point shooting threats on the roster, outrebounding opponents and getting second-chance opportunities has been crucial for Michigan. Thursday, the Wolverines grabbed 48 rebounds — 22 offensive — compared to the Badgers’ 23, and scored 27 second chance points. “I thought we were awesome on the offensive glass,” Barnes Arico said. “Obviously we can count on Naz every night to really offensive rebound. But Kayla Robbins was tremendous on the glass, as was AK and Amy Dilk. We just had a motor to the basketball tonight and that was great to see.” This game came at just the right time for Michigan. Wisconsin is one of the weakest teams in the Big Ten, allowing the Wolverines to gain some confidence and pick up their first conference road win.
EMMA MATI/Daily
Sophomore guard Amy Dilk scored 12 points with six rebounds as Michigan beat Wisconsin on Thursday night.
JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Editor
On Dec. 6, Iowa center Luka Garza marched into Ann Arbor and dropped 44 points. Forty. Four. Perhaps even more astounding, though, was that his team lost — by double digits. Regardless of the outcome, there is no chance Michigan men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard is happy with letting any human being score 44 points on his team. So that leads to one big question heading into Friday’s match against the Hawkeyes: Should the Wolverines continue their defensive strategy of maintaining one-on-one matchups, or is it time to double the post and one of the nation’s most prolific scorers? That description is not an overstatement — Garza sits as the NCAA’s sixth-leading scorer with 22.3 points per game. For now, it seems that Michigan will look to maintain its defensive scheme — involving guarding the low post one-onone — and to trust the strength of its big men on defense to limit Garza in the points column. For many teams across the nation, thinking of a way to effectively prepare for a 6-foot-11 elite scorer may leave coaches and players alike scratching their head. But for the Wolverines, with their plethora of big-bodied centers, the task falls on the shoulders of its scout team. Junior forward Jaron Faulds, in particular. “We got Jaron Faulds playing Luka Garza,” junior walkon forward C.J. Baird said. “Jaron’s really good at taking his time and getting in good positioning, so we’re hoping that’s a good imitation of Garza. Cause Garza’s elite at getting his body, getting position in the post and scoring, so we’re trying to imitate that as best we can, but honestly, it’s hard. He’s,
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Iowa center Luka Garza scored 44 points on Michigan in December.
I don’t know, number six scorer in the country. So it’ll be a good challenge for us.” How effective Faulds will be at this game of impressions will unfold on Friday in Iowa City. Faulds’ impersonation, combined with the defensive capabilities of senior center Jon Teske, sophomore center Colin Castleton and senior center Austin Davis as well as how many fouls these players will commit against the shifty Garza will dictate whether or not Garza will have another career night down low. So far this season, early foul trouble and hacking opponents down low has been the Wolverines’ defensive “MO.” In no game was this emphasized further than the most loss on the road against Minnesota. The team committed 19 fouls, emphasized by four by Teske, and let Golden Gophers center Daniel Oturu drop 30 points. Baird insists that fouling has been a focus for the team, defensively, as well as one-onone situations, given the team’s defensive sets. “Guarding one-on-one without fouling is probably one of the hardest things to do in basketball, and I’d say, in my opinion, in the post as well, it’s probably one of the hardest things to do in basketball,” Baird said. “But there are some things that you can do with,
technique-wise, that you can say look at this technique, this will help you in this situation. Or make sure you keep your foot planted here and stay down on a second jumper so you’re not fouling. There are a lot of stuff that goes with technique, especially in the one on one defense, that you can improve upon rather than just saying, ‘Be better.’ ” And if the technique doesn’t work, it sounds like Howard is relatively fine letting Garza getting those touches and points in the paint. As long as that plan of attack ends in a victory. After Michigan’s last game against Iowa, Howard sat down at the podium, stat sheet in hand, and visibly revealed his shock at what he was reading. The first-year coach was floored by the opposing offense and joked about his role in the affair. “Second-chance points,” Howard responded when asked what shocked him. “(Garza) had 27 second-chance points, and then points in the paint, 56. I was like, ‘Wow!’ That’s on the coach, man. I did a horrible job.” Joking or not, Friday’s game will be as credible an indicator as any of whether Howard’s defensive gameplan is reliable, or makes as brazen of a comment as his own as to the state of his coaching.
Lambert focuses on improving defensive habits Wojcik leads comeback
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Sophomore forward Jimmy Lambert has been working to improve on his defense going into this weekend’s series.
MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer
Jimmy Lambert remained on the ice. Long finished was practice, players had come in, completed their drills and left thereafer. Long gone were the coaches, who hurried off the ice to prep for the Michigan hockey team’s upcoming matchup. But the sophomore forward was far from done. He worked on shooting, rif ling shots into the empty net. When he ran out of pucks, he collected them back up, and went again. And again. And again. Sometimes he’d spend up to 30 extra minutes on the ice, just firing the puck on target. If you look at Lambert’s numbers, it’s clear why he’s putting in extra time. He only has one goal this season, and he scored it almost three months ago. With just four total points, he’s tied for eighth on the team. Last year, he led the freshman class with 11. His name hasn’t been featured on the scoresheet since assisting on an empty net goal against Wisconsin on Dec. 1. Lambert’s offensive
statistics are emblematic of how the first half of the season went for the Wolverines: rough. “Obviously the puck hasn’t gone in as much as I’d hoped,” Lambert said. “But when it doesn’t go in the net you’ve got to contribute in other ways.” And that’s exactly what he’s done. During the middle of November, Lambert switched positions from right wing to center. While not a transition he’d been anticipating, the Michigan coaches made sure their forwards were prepared to play in whatever role the team called upon them to play. Despite this expectation, having the trust of the coaches to fill a gap in the lineup gave Lambert the confidence boost he’d been in search of. With a new role and a scoring slump, he decided to focus on the aspects of his game he could control. His backchecking and forechecking habits, faceoffs and ability to
set up opportunities for his teammates. “I think I made a lot of improvements in my game defensively,” Lambert said. “I think I’ve done a good job in the D-zone winning draws. I recently played on the penalty kill. Think it’s been good, really the only thing that could go a little better is scoring some goals.” Last weekend at then-No. 14 Notre Dame, with the Wolverines leaving a prominent penalty killer in Dakota Raabe home in Ann Arbor, Lambert saw significant ice time on the man disadvantage. Prior to the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI), he’d seen little to no time killing penalties. But in South Bend, he fit in seamlessly on the unit. He was getting his stick in passing lanes, taking away angles, even blocking shots. In the circle, he’s been averaging just over 50 percent on faceoffs with 68 won and 66
I think I made a lot of improvements in my game.
lost. Some of Lambert’s success on faceoffs can be credited to a new strategy Michigan has been using since the GLI — watching their opponents take draws. “It’s always good when you can have a little bit of an edge on the opponent,” Lambert said. “Being able to watch all four of their centers, and the guys that go in when they get kicked out. Just being able to know what they do. It’s really good for us to have a plan going into each faceoff.” This weekend, as Lambert and his teammates turn their attention towards the sixthranked Nittany Lions, his defensive improvements will be beneficial. Penn State’s offense is tied for second in the NCAA, averaging 4.00 goals per game while the Wolverines sit at 44th with an average of 2.32. While Michigan’s scoring numbers, much like Lambert’s, aren’t overly promising, the team’s defense is solid. Allowing just 2.05 goals per game on average, Michigan’s defense is ranked fifth. With that in mind, the key to this pivotal series for both Lambert and the Wolverines will be what they do without the puck — with Lambert noting that the most crucial aspect of the weekend is to play solid defense. “One way to keep the number-one scoring team off the scoresheet is by playing offense ourselves,” Lambert said. “And keeping them in their own end. If we can be heavy on them in the forecheck and get pucks in deep and just be relentless all night, I think we should have a pretty good weekend.” Coming off a weekend road sweep of the Fighting Irish that catapulted it out of last place in the Big Ten Conference standings, Michigan has an opportunity to prove itself. Its success will depend largely on Lambert and the rest of the team to make strong defensive plays, especially if the offensive woes of the first half creep in.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Natalie Wojcik helped Michigan to a win over Washington last weekend..
JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer
As Evianna Roberson climbed onto the beam, she received the full attention of all in attendance at Crisler Center. Her performance was the last of the meet, and with a perfect score, she would force a tie between her No. 17 Washington and the No. 6 Michigan women’s gymnastics teams. The lead margin throughout the first two rotations of last Friday’s meet had been consistently microscopic in favor of the Wolverines. But Michigan ran into trouble in its third rotation, the beam, allowing the Huskies to move into first place and Texas Woman’s University to make up ground. “Quite honestly I was very disappointed, very disappointed with beam,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “... We still have a lot of work to do.” The half-point deduction from sophomore Natalie Wojcik’s fall was symptomatic of an event performed at a lower quality than the vault and bars. A team score of 48.100 on beam was nearly a full point lower than that of any other event. The onus fell on the Wolverines’ floor gymnasts to reclaim the lead, and while not all were aware of the score, the necessity of ending
on a high note after a subpar beam was unanimously felt. “Bev had us circle up and she was like, ‘Let’s do floor like we’re on a mission,’ ” freshman Gabby Wilson said. Plocki encouraged her team to control its own destiny. “My mindset is never really anything to do with the other team,” Plocki said. “My mindset is we need to entertain this crowd, and we need to rock and roll here on floor.” That’s exactly what Michigan did. It was the only squad that posted more than 49 points on floor, led by a 9.900 from Wojcik; after handing over the lead on beam, she helped engineer the effort to reclaim it. “It was good to kind of reset and look at floor as a new opportunity, and try not to let beam affect what happened,” Wojcik said. “I knew I had to keep going, push forward and finish out the meet strong.” Roberson could not achieve perfection, leaving the Wolverines with a comeback victory. But for Plocki, not all wins are created equal. “When you’re satisfied, you’re done, because somebody is doing better,” Plocki said. “This team is capable of being a 49.5 on any event. And so you can see where we still have room to improve.”
This team is capable of being a 49.5 on any event.
8 — Friday, January 17, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“...Can’t say enough good things about him.”
Miles Macklin / Daily Design by Jack Silberman
There is no shortage of tangible measures by which Michigan football’s offense improved drastically over the course of the season. It turned the ball over less, scored more points, won more games and did so more convincingly. That’s the what. Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ growth, though, can be seen in the how. None more so than the usage of Giles Jackson. Jackson, a receiver who just finished his freshman season, possesses a skillset tailor-made to Gattis’. He’s 5-foot-9, speedy and athletic. Before Gattis found a consistent role for him in the offense, Jackson contributed as a kick returner, and it’s hard to imagine he won’t return to the role in 2020. Jackson won’t beat defenders with physicality or technique — at least not right now, a year into his college football career. He’ll beat them in the open field, by juking guys out of their shoes, or just being faster. Defenses must account for Jackson everywhere on the field. Once the Wolverines came to realize that, they started lining him up in different spots and putting him in as much space as they could, stressing opposing defenses to their breaking point. Early in a win over Michigan State, the Wolverines lined up in a tight formation and saw the Spartans show zone coverage pre-snap. Jackson lines up on the boundary, with the field-side receiver running vertical and occupying the corner. Michigan runs a split-zone look, with quarterback Shea Patterson faking the handoff and Jackson darting around the edge to take it instead. Tight end Sean McKeon arcs around the edge defender instead of blocking him, giving Jackson a convoy to the open field if he can turn the corner past a bigger, slower Kenny Willekes. Spoiler: He can. Later in the same game, Michigan runs Jackson on an end around again, but this time from a spread formation, against man coverage with no window dressing to make it look any different. Doesn’t matter. Anytime the Wolverines make it a contest between Jackson and an edge defender, Jackson’s going to win. “Every time he touches the ball, I think he’s gonna score,” sophomore linebacker Cam McGrone said after Michigan’s Citrus Bowl loss against Alabama. “He has that explosive-play capability, and he makes something happen with the ball every time he touches it.” By then, the Wolverines had regularly started putting Jackson in the backfield pre-snap, with only good things to show for it. Against the Crimson Tide, Jackson finished with a season-high four receptions for 57 yards, including a 40-yard catch. On that play, Jackson lined up in the backfield and Michigan sent slot receiver Mike Sainristil in motion, an Alabama defensive back following and indicating man coverage. That meant a linebacker would be covering Jackson — a mismatch of seismic proportions. Patterson faked a handoff. Jackson sprinted upfield on a wheel route, giving the linebacker no chance to turn his hips, easily gaining five full yards of separation. The throw hit Jackson in stride and he kept going after the catch. It’s reminiscent of another explosive play Jackson hit two games prior, at Indiana. Just the same way, Michigan lined up pre-snap with Jackson in the backfield and saw man coverage. They faked a handoff and the Hoosier linebacker assigned to cover Jackson took a step forward, making an already-lopsided matchup that much easier. Then it was just Jackson, upfield all by himself. By the time Michigan had a handle on Jackson’s usage in 2019, it was too late to seriously impact the outcome of games. Even with that explosive play against Alabama and a touchdown against Ohio State, Jackson finished the year with just 19 touches on offense, for a total of 211 yards. There are areas of his game — route-running in particular — that will benefit from an offseason of work. In 2020, Jackson will be a fulcrum of the offense, part by design and part by necessity. After Donovan Peoples-Jones’ departure for the NFL, Jackson will be in line for more snaps, along with Cornelius Johnson and Mike Sainristil. What’s yet unclear is whether the Wolverines see him long-term as a slot receiver or an H-back. Based on how they used him towards the end of this season, it may be the latter. “Giles is a real ascending player,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the Citrus Bowl. “... He’s a true freshman, so I didn’t know exactly what you’re going to have in a true freshman, but he has really produced and had a heck of a year. “... Can’t say enough good things about him.”