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Government rescinds DHS and ICE policy
NEWS
What is the endowment? The Daily explains the endowment and how it can be used. >> SEE PAGE 2
Rule restricting international students from taking full online courses now barred
OPINION
Don’t stop talking about ICE
FRANCESCA DUONG AND KRISTINA ZHENG
International students should be valued for being students.
Summer Managing News Editor and Summer News Editor
>> SEE PAGE 5
‘U’ community debates whether the N-word has a place in the classroom
Design by Hibah Chughtai
ARTS
“Letter To My Younger Self” Quinn XCII’s new album is more reflective than his previous work >> SEE PAGE 6
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Dual-faithful
A glimpse into the beautiful reality of growing up practicing two faiths. >> SEE PAGE 9
SPORTS
Schedule changes
The fallout surrounding the Big Ten’s decision to play a completely in-conference season for fall sports. >> SEE PAGE 10
INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 122 © 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS/NEWS..........................6 MiC......................................... 8 SPORTS................................ 10
KRISTINA ZHENG Summer News Editor
LSA senior Dylan Gilbert was sitting in a class discussion with the other 20-or-so members of her class, when her English professor Scott Lyons read out loud the N-word from a short story by American writer William Faulkner. Gilbert, uncomfortable with the situation, left the discussion that day. Though the class carried on, the professor’s choice to read the racial slur and the student’s protest ultimately raised an ongoing academic debate: whether or not the use of racial slurs from academic text is appropriate in the classroom. In June 2020, around a year later, Gilbert told her story on Twitter, where she received an outpouring of support from fellow University of Michigan students, alumni, faculty and staff, many condemning the professor and the University for tolerating the behavior. “I was just kind of exhausted,” Gilbert told The Daily. “I don’t feel like I should have to sit in a room and have a non-Black person keep saying the N-word in front of me. So I just quietly packed up my stuff
into my bag, walked out of class and did not say anything.” Details of the incident surfaced amid a renewed national commitment against systemic racism, thereby calling into question the impact classrooms have on perpetuating racial injustice. “The environment wasn’t comfortable anymore,” Gilbert said. “I felt targeted in the environment, and I felt unsafe in the environment, and I didn’t feel like I was learning the way I needed to learn. So when you use racial slurs in the classroom, you’re taking away some sense of equality in the classroom because now a group of your students aren’t feeling the way they should be feeling to properly learn.” Gilbert’s tweets also included screenshots of email exchanges between her and Lyons after the class, in which Lyons did not offer an apology but committed to “avoid uttering the word for the rest of the term.” For the next class period, according to Gilbert, Lyons assigned an article defending the use of the word. “I’m not sure I understand the distinction between assigning a work with the n-word (written by a non-black writer and read by mostly non-black readers) and
reading it out loud -- imagination versus exhaulation? -- but I do take your point,” Lyons wrote in the email exchanges. The Daily reached out to Lyons multiple times for a comment, but was referred to University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald. “Students have a variety of ways to raise concerns about their classroom experiences,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily. “In this case, these concerns are being addressed through the appropriate channels.” This incident does not appear to be an isolated one, either. Universities across the country have struggled to address how professors should approach teaching racial slurs. Some institutions have taken to suspending professors for using racial slurs in an academic environment, while others have defended their use based on academic freedom. English professor Susan Parrish often teaches texts from Southern literature, which can include epithets against various groups. She explained how voicing these slurs can harm the ability for students to learn
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Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to repeal regulations that restrict international students from taking a full online course load while residing in the U.S. The rescinded regulations were announced by federal Judge Allison Burroughs during a lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the Associated Press. The decision comes after the July 6 federal guidelines that stated F-1 and M-1 visa students will not be allowed to enter or remain in the United States if all university classes were moved online. The announcement sparked an uproar of opposition from institutions across the country, including Harvard and MIT, who led the lawsuit against the federal government. The University of Michigan, along with several other universities and colleges, have since joined the lawsuit as a friend of the court. Rackham Student Government also filed an amicus brief in the Massachusetts District Court in the lawsuit against the ICE restrictions on Monday morning along with 15 other student government bodies. Since the federal government announced the new policies, international students were faced with difficult and unprecedented challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The
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2 NEWS
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Three women speak out against Philbert
More sexual misconduct allegations raised about former Provost SARAH PAYNE & CALDER LEWIS
Summer News Editors
This week, multiple women have spoken about Former University of Michigan Provost Martin A. Philbert’s alleged sexual misconduct for the first time since the investigation began. University alum Emily Renda spoke to Michigan Radio about her interactions with Philbert dating back to 2012. Renda, who worked as a global health and student life coordinator at the School of Public Health where she was previously a student, is one of the first of alumni to publicly accuse Philbert of sexual misconduct. Additionally, one of Philbert’s former lab employees allegedly told Anthony Walesby, former senior Director of the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX coordinator, that Philbert sexually harassed her. Philbert, also the executive vice president of academic affairs, was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 21 following a string of allegations of sexual misconduct. In addition, after being removed from his role as provost in March, Philbert retired from his position at the University on June 17. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told The Daily in an email that the University condemns sexual misconduct and wants to promote a safe community, but noted they are not able to comment on specific allegations due to the ongoing investigation. “At the University of Michigan, we condemn all forms of sexual misconduct,” Fitzgerald wrote. “Whether it takes place now or took place in the past, it is unacceptable. All members of our community deserve to feel safe and supported. The university has taken extensive measures to combat sexual misconduct...Because of the independent WilmerHale investigation, we are not able to offer a specific response to the allegations you outline in your
email.” In 2012, Renda said she was being stalked by her ex-boyfriend and Philbert began offering her rides home from the office, according to Michigan Radio. The car rides turned into a six-month physical relationship with Philbert, which ended in 2014, Renda alleged. After Philbert ended the relationship, however, Renda said he continued to make sexual advances. “(One day) he came into my office and hugged me for a very long time, and then started to put his hands down my pants,” Renda said. “And I was like, ‘whoa, whoa, what are you doing? I thought you said that this was over. We’re not doing this anymore.’” Renda decided to leave the University after changes with their professional relationship, including reassigning a large project from Renda to another staffer. Renda said she started experiencing panic attacks as a result of this shift in Philbert’s behavior. “I left (the University) in complete shame,” Renda said. “I felt like a complete professional and moral failure. I felt like I had engaged in an affair with a married man, who was also my boss, and that I ruined my career and that that was my fault for making such a poor choice.” Renda told The Daily in an email she decided to come forward with her allegations now because she feels it is important for the University community to know the details of Philbert’s alleged misconduct. “I feared that the University would decide to not provide any details about the kinds of predatory behavior he was engaging in for over two decades,” Renda said. “The investigation has been ongoing for over six months without any substantive updates provided to the University community. The survivors and the broader University community deserve transparency from the University about what happened, how it was able to happen, and the steps they plan to take to ensure such gross abuses of power are not able to persist within the University’s ranks.”
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ENDOWMENT FAST FACTS 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
EMMA STEIN Editor in Chief enstein@michigandaily.com
THE ENDOWMENT CONSISTS OF THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUAL ENDOWED FUNDS.
ABOUT $7BN OF THE UNIVERSITY'S ASSETS ARE RESTRICTED BY DONORS OR BY LAW.
ENDOWED FUNDS FINANCE SCHOLARSHIPS, BUILDINGS, AND SOME OPERATIONS.
THE UNIVERSITY CAN SPEND 4.5% OF THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF THE ENDOWMENT AS PART OF ITS BUDGET EVERY YEAR.
University’s $12B in funds explained
Design by Hibah Chughtai
After tuition increase, the endowment has come under question JULIANNA MORANO & DOMINIC COLETTI Daily Staff Reporters
The recent tuition increase passed by the Board of Regents as part of the fiscal year 2020-21 budget for the University of Michigan has thrust the University’s $12 billion endowment into the spotlight. Students, Regents and parents alike have pointed to the money as a possible way to avoid increasing tuition on families that are struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Put simply, the endowment is the pool of the assets given to the University by its donors — but the way these funds are used is anything but simple. Endowments are better understood not as a piggy banks, but as an actual bank in terms of the limits on appropriations of its seemingly ample funds and the way it generates income. As of October 2019, 11,700 different funds made up the University Endowment Fund, and each of these individual funds represents the money given to the University. Among the first funds added to the endowment were the proceeds from the sale of land ceded to the University in the Treaty of Fort Meigs by three Native American tribes. Over time, through contributions and investment revenues, the Endowment Fund has grown to $12.7 billion as of June 30, 2019. However, not all of those funds can be spent at will. In the 2019 fiscal year financial statements, the University
listed $4.47 billion in restricted endowed funds, with $2.38 billion in “funds-functioning-as-endowment,” a designation which holds the initial investment inviolate (meaning it can’t be spent in any way). These restricted funds are further split into expendable and non-expendable funds. The latter references the initial investment for endowed funds and the former represents both FFE and the growth of permanent endowments. Outside of the restricted funds, the endowment also includes unrestricted reserves. These are funds that can be spent at the Regents’ discretion. The Regents have elected to distribute 4.5 percent of the endowment each year. The University explains this decision in an FAQ from the Office of Public Affairs. “The 4.5 percent distribution rate helps to insulate the endowment from anticipated market volatility that includes lower investment returns and higher inflation,” the FAQ says. “It also ensures continued, steady support of university operations during uncertain economic times - including funding for student scholarships, faculty salaries and academic programs. The distribution from the endowment has steadily increased each year since 2003.” Most schools generally spend between 4 and 5 percent of their respective endowment every year, according to Connor Murnane, a spokesman for the American Council for Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). At the University, this strategy of spending a little and investing the rest has led to handsome returns. Since 2010, the fund has doubled in size and since 2000, nearly $5 billion has been distributed from the endowment.
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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2 per issue. Subscriptions for September - April are $250, and year-long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS 3
1U calls for equitable funding in report More funds are requested for U-M Flint and U-M Dearborn amid the pandemic ARJUN THAKKAR Daily News Editor
SMTD reveals climate report to improve transparency Design by Hibah Chughtai
Survey results conducted after sexual misconduct allegations are released ELIZABETH LAWRENCE & SAMMY SUSSMAN Editor in Chief & Daily Staff Reporter
The School of Music, Theatre & Dance released the results of a schoolwide climate survey on Thursday as part of the administration’s efforts to foster a transparent, inclusive environment. This survey was conducted after sexual misconduct allegations were reported against two high-profile SMTD faculty members, David Daniels and Stephen Shipps, in 2018. An investigation by The Daily from October 2018 revealed that SMTD awarded Daniels tenure in May 2018 despite knowledge of allegations of sexual misconduct against him. The Board of Regents has since fired Daniels after an eight-month process. Daniels currently faces a criminal charge of sexual assault in Texas along with his husband, Scott Walters. An investigation by The Daily from December 2018 uncovered 40 years of previously undisclosed allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault against Shipps, then-chair of strings and former associate dean. Shipps has
since retired from the University. SMTD has publicly committed to fighting a culture some have described as particularly conducive to sexual misconduct, as many arts disciplines require individual or physical lessons. The administration has held events on how to report sexual misconduct and has installed transparent panels in offices. The survey is just one step in an ongoing, multidimensional process to enact change, according to SMTD Dean David Gier. “The emotional vulnerability that artists bring is a necessary part of the training and we need to make sure that our environment is a comfortable environment for this to take place,” Gier said. According to the report, the survey was conducted by Giffen & Kaminski, LLC, a law firm hired by SMTD to help “learn what members of the SMTD community have experienced and solicit positive and negative feedback” so that “issues did not fester in an atmosphere of secrets and darkness.” 657 participants responded to the survey, which asked about both the overall climate and specifics around sexual misconduct, discrimination and retaliation within SMTD. These 657 participants included students, faculty, staff and alumni. The survey was distributed in January of 2020 to a representative sample of SMTD with 37% of students, 64% of faculty, and 73% of
staff responding, according to the report. The report noted that while 59 percent of participants felt satisfied by the climate over the past 12 months, women found SMTD to be less safe than men and faculty less safe than students, alumni and staff. Also, while 90 percent of the participants reported no experience with discrimination, Latinx individuals and people who identify as queer were the most likely to report experiences of discrimination. In terms of sexual misconduct, the report documented 107 incidents over the past 12 months. Sexual comments made up 40 percent of this total. The report specifically said “the role of the Faculty as accused perpetrators of Sexual Misconduct is an overarching theme that should be noted.” 41 percent of the sexual comments and 43 percent of the incidents of forcible touching over the past 12 months were allegedly perpetrated by faculty. The report found that only 27 percent of participants who allegedly experienced sexual misconduct reported their experiences to authorities. In terms of discrimination, the report said “most Participants would not involve the resources of the University or of SMTD.”
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Alec Gallimore, University of Michigan dean of engineering, and Laura Blake Jones, dean of students, held a town hall with various student groups involved in plans for the upcoming school year on Monday afternoon following University President Mark Schlissel’s announcement regarding fall semester earlier in the day. After walking through information presented in Schlissel’s email and the new website, Gallimore and Jones answered student inquiries in an event moderated by Public Policy senior Amanda Kaplan, Central Student Government president. The town hall was primarily intended for the more than 600 students involved in the COVID19 Campus Challenge, a studentcreated competition to brainstorm solutions for various problems that may arise in the fall. Kaplan said students in the Campus Climate Advisory Council, a group of about 40 students from various boards, organizations and student employee groups advising on fall planning, were also invited. In an email to The Daily, Jones wrote the town hall was meant to highlight key elements of Schlissel’s announcement as well as to continue seeking input from challenge participants. “The Challenge participants are a large representative group of undergraduate and graduate students from a wide variety of schools and colleges,” Jones wrote. “Their keen interest in the COVID Challenge and commitment to planning for a safe residential experience made them an ideal constituent group to talk with.” According to Gallimore, the original timeline planned for a decision about fall semester was to be made in July. The timeline was moved up one month, allowing for the decision to come at the end of June. “What we will do actually is in some respects use June and July and August to do a number
of things, to do some practice sessions, dry runs et cetera, so that we’re ready for you when many of you come back in late August for a wonderful semester of mixed educational experiences,” Gallimore said. “We will use the fall term to evaluate how things worked and improve upon them for winter 2021.” Gallimore emphasized the hundreds of administrators, faculty, staff and students involved in planning efforts by pointing to the numerous committees working on issues ranging from testing to transportation to student mental health. Similar to the new Campus Maize & Blueprint website, Gallimore said success of the school year would depend on “stacking” measures from physical distancing to administrative controls on density. Generally, classes with over 50 people will be conducted remotely, while classes with 10 to 15 or fewer students will be held in-person, subject to space availability, Gallimore explained. Classes in the in-between range may be offered in-person if physical distancing is possible in the learning space. Jones focused on the need for students to be responsible, which both she and Gallimore expressed was one of their greatest worries about the upcoming semester. She shared a draft of a behavior pledge which includes current public health guidelines such as wearing masks, maintaining social distance and limiting social gatherings. To encourage individuals to follow the pledge, Jones said there will be education efforts and social media campaigns to emphasize its importance. Jones said she hoped the University community would embrace a “culture of care” in which everyone acts according to the well-being of those around them — particularly those most vulnerable to the virus — and beyond their own desires of what they want to do.
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4 OPINION
NISHA HOLLINGSWORTH | OP-ED
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
What if my job is to be a savior?
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RAY AJEMIAN | COLUMNIST
J.K. Rowling’s transphobia isn’t just a Twitter rant
T
witter is no stranger to controversy, so it comes as little surprise that J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has come under fire for some bad remarks regarding transgender people. But this time, there’s something far more important than another poor-taste “cancel culture” debate or reminding people that freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from social consequences. Unlike most bad tweets, Rowling’s can do tangible harm — and they already have — through the spread of dangerous misinformation and the exploitation of marginalized communities. Rowling has explicitly categorized herself as “speak(ing) the truth” in these tweets, despite spreading misinformation at almost every turn. She made a show of responding to the use of “people who menstruate” rather than “women” in a sarcastic tweet. As both a woman in her 50s and a professional writer, she should know the two terms are not synonymous, transgender people notwithstanding — menopause exists, as do hysterectomies. On her website, in response to the condemnation she got for her tweets, she wrote, “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman — and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones — then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.” This would have merit if we had bouncers at every bathroom door, but we don’t. Nothing was ever stopping men from walking into a women’s restroom — they won’t
go through the trouble of getting a certificate to do it now. Sex crimes perpetrated by someone to take advantage of the legal provisions afforded to transgender people are rare. Trans people avoiding bathrooms out of fear and trans youth being sexually assaulted because they couldn’t choose the safest bathroom are depressingly common. That is the simple truth. These deceptive claims do have shreds of truth to them in that people who menstruate are typically women and men aren’t physically prevented from entering female restrooms. The same cannot be said of many of Rowling’s other arguments. She warns of “the increasing numbers (of trans people) who seem to be detransitioning.” In truth, they are overwhelmingly the minority. Eight percent of trans people have detransitioned, the majority only doing so temporarily, and the most common reason is pressure from parents; in full, only 0.4 percent of trans people detransition after realizing transitioning wasn’t for them. To claim the risk of regretting transition is significant is a bold-faced lie. The risks associated with detransitioning are far more real and far worse; people who detransitioned in some fashion were almost twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who hadn’t. Even more blatant a lie is the claim that minors are being prescribed hormones indiscriminately. It is downright impossible for anyone in the United Kingdom, Rowling’s own country, to start hormones until they are 16 — and those who do start so young have to go through plenty of other hoops first. Sixteen is generally the earliest an American can start hormones as well. And yet, she
likens hormone therapy to “conversion therapy” for gay and lesbian youth and claims hormones are overprescribed like antidepressants. (I wish I had known about that when I spent months searching for a provider willing to see me for hormone replacement!) By the way, that “lifelong path of medicalisation” doesn’t need to be lifelong unless someone’s body can no longer produce sex hormones (they’re needed to prevent osteoporosis). Otherwise, you can stop at any time and your body will return to its natural hormone levels and even reverse many of the changes caused by hormone replacement. One of the most troubling aspects of Rowling’s rhetoric is how she disguises it as being in the interest of cisgender women (e.g. public restrooms and “people who menstruate” tweets) and/or gay, bisexual and lesbian youth. Her “conversion therapy” argument is the most obvious example of the latter, comparing the very real, very horrific abuse of LGBTQ+ children (and yes, that includes conversion therapy specific to trans kids) to potentially life-saving health care that must purposefully be sought out and asked for, if one can even find a doctor who both can and will help them. This isn’t the first time Rowling has exploited gay people as a means to an end; claiming that Dumbledore, a main character in her Harry Potter series, was gay all along while refusing to write so much as a throwaway line to prove it is textbook queerbaiting.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Ray Ajemian can be reached at rajemian@umich.edu.
A
classic illustration of the problematic side of racial justice work is highlighted in the hit HBO series “Insecure,” where the leading character Issa Dee finds herself, a well-intentioned Black millennial, navigating her unfulfilling career in a hilariously tone-deaf, mostly white nonprofit organization. “We Got Y’all,” the name of the organization, is in itself a play on words that complements the performative, hand-waving saviorism in which the non-Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) who make up the organization use their mission of social justice to ultimately seem “heroic,” or like they’re “good” people, all while ignoring Issa’s opinions and consistently shutting her out. Like Issa, I am also a Black millennial female philanthropist. Like many University of Michigan students, I have spent my time on campus doing numerous outreach events to BIPOC youth in the Washtenaw County area and beyond, including Metro Detroit. I am also a director of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free music education in New York City to underprivileged children, the majority of whom are BIPOC. When the pandemic rattled New York City in early April, my organization was quick to leverage our privilege and influence to start a new virtual initiative with professional musicians and a focus on students in homeless shelters. When it came to COVID-19, our response was swift, intentional and unanimous. Then, the protests started. And, rather unsurprisingly, crickets chirped. At first, I was hesitant to break the silence. Why wasn’t anybody saying anything? Isn’t the community we serve largely Black? Were they waiting for me to say something — the sole Black person? Once I started composing my feelings, I realized I had more to say than I had for the last seven years of serving on the board. I finally realized that I had never really had a voice to begin with; I had never been listened to or approached for my opinion, and my voice had been consistently ignored and diminished. As we continue to be incited by anger and pain surrounding the untimely, unjust deaths of Black people at the hands of police, we have become so much more empathetic. For those of us already working in the racial justice space — whether that means as philanthropists in nonprofits focused on racial inequity, as student volunteers in educational initiatives, as public school teachers or even as civil rights lawyers — the Black Lives Matter movement strikes a particularly stronger chord, since the pain and
unjustness of systemic racism hit closer to home. The question then becomes: If I am not Black and it is my job to address racial injustice, how can I be an ally to Black people without being a savior? The answer, quite frankly, is surprisingly uncomplicated, and at the risk of sounding cliché, it starts by taking a look in the mirror. The only fail-safe way to avoid being a savior to Black people is by first and foremost recognizing the fact that you are, in fact, not Black. The oppression of Black people and the anti-Black experience is not yours. The BLM movement is not yours to co-opt — you may not use it to seek praise or recognition for literally just doing your job when that job is to address racial injustice. Ask yourself this: Before the BLM movement, was the purpose of your work to highlight your accomplishments, or to gain attention or notoriety in your profession? What, if anything, has changed now? Are you seeking to further yourself at the expense of Black people and a movement about the oppression of Black people to seem heroic or virtuous? The racial justice space needs to revisit how we even approach racial inequity. The saviorism inherent in our work that might have once motivated us must now be actively undone. Even if the actual work we do does not change as a result of this movement, it is time our philosophy does. Now, we must accept that it is not enough to provide a “helping hand” based on our privilege to address inequity. Instead, we must identify the root causes of these inequities and actively dismantle them. As for my organization, my advice to the board was to hire (and generously compensate) a Black professional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant who is highly literate to help guide us. While it’s my job to address racial injustice as part of our organization’s mission, it’s not my job to fix our racism problem. And until my organization starts to look like the communities we serve, we’ll need to give more Black people a seat at the table. Let us speak. Listen. Don’t silence us. Black people, who have been consistently dismissed, marginalized and exploited, are now facing a new threat: virtuous non-Black “allies.” If your job during the BLM movement is to address racial injustice, then treat it as such — your job. For once, this isn’t about you. This is not your story to tell. Nisha Hollingsworth is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Engineering and can be reached at nrhollin@umich.edu.
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LIZZY PEPPERCORN | COLUMNIST
America, look in the mirror
M
ake America Great Again — the motto of our current president, in reference to the distressed economy of the United States during the 2016 election. What if, however, America was never great in the first place? What if America does not need to return to the past, but reach for a new level of greatness? A 2017 survey from the Pew Research Center shows that a good proportion, right around 85 percent, of Americans believe the U.S. either “stands above all other countries in the world” or is “one of the greatest countries, along with others.” The American population is patriotic and proud, but this patriotism blinds us from our faults. The idea that we are not great now, but must return to “former glory,” is claiming that America used to be great despite its systemically racist institutions, massive economic inequality, disorganized healthcare system, horrific carbon emissions and more. America must not ignore these failures. It is easy to not feel the real urgency of a crisis until you see it with your own eyes. However, as a nation with a population of over 300 million people, Americans must change this backward way of thinking to address these domestic problems. Americans seem to have a sense of immunity when it comes to serious threats. We think because we are “above all other countries,” we will do things the best way possible and trust the government to ensure this. However, our government has proven itself extremely flawed and incompetent with respect to the deeply-rooted race problems embedded in our society as a result of slavery and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In American high schools, we were taught that the United States was portrayed as the savior. When other nations were struggling with corrupt leaders or war, the U.S. would step in and save the day with democracy (even if this meant replacing a just leader with a corrupt one). This teaching instills a sense of superiority in the American population. As the 2017 Pew Research Center survey indicated that only 14 percent of Americans believe there are nations better than the U.S., the people in power have failed at holding the government accountable for our own humanitarian crisis — the systemic and blatant racism that continues to plague this nation. This false sense of superiority has also led to the failure of containing COVID19, as only 56 percent of American adults view COVID-19 as a “real threat” as of March 17, 2020, which shows a drop of 10 percentage points from the previous month. Similar to taking personal action against global warming, many Americans prefer to not inconvenience them-
selves, often at the expense of others, because they have not seen the threat with their own eyes and therefore feel falsely immune to worldwide threats. It may be inconvenient to shop in person rather than online, eat less meat, recycle, compost and use reusable cups, but these are small everyday changes that would make a difference towards a more sustainable future — just like wearing a mask can lower COVID-19 transmission levels. According to a PBS Marist poll, the percentage of Americans that view the pandemic as a “real threat” has decreased from February to March, while COVID-19 cases in the United States have continued to increase. Last year, I took a class called Philosophy 183: Critical Reasoning with Professor Anna Edmonds, a LEO Lecturer I. This class focused on the failures our brain makes when reasoning. One failure we studied was how the brain feels more comfortable with risks it has already survived. Once we have survived a risk for a period of time, the risk feels less and less scary, even if the probability of a negative outcome remains the same or increases. As Americans continue to survive this pandemic without contracting COVID, their already heightened sense of immunity will only increase. America has done many great things of which its citizens should be proud of. The values of liberty and justice that define our goals in a democracy are great. But these values have not been achieved. The Pledge of Allegiance states, “with liberty and justice for all.” The U.S. has allowed this pledge to only apply to the white and wealthy of this nation for too long, with support for Black Lives Matter maxing at around 40 percent until the current rise of the movement. It is time for Americans to wake up to reality and acknowledge that although greatness is achievable, we aren’t close. The first step toward progress is acknowledging that we as a nation are flawed. It has taken centuries for white Americans to realize how significant race inequity is throughout our judicial, housing, law enforcement systems and more. Perhaps if students were taught current and historical crises in our own country and not just abroad, white Americans would be more able to reflect and make a change. If we want our nation to function as coherent and equitable and be truly great someday, we must hold our government accountable to protect the rights of ALL Americans, and be willing to sacrifice small inconveniences, like wearing a mask, for the greater good of the world. Lizzy Peppercorn can be reached at epepperc@umich.edu.
OP OPIINION 5
MAEVE SKELLY | COLUMNIST
Masked xenophobia under ICE’s rescinded student ban
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has forced colleges and universities in the United States to consider and implement alternative “public health-informed” fall semesters. Many schools are trying to avoid an all-online semester, but as cases continue to rise in the U.S., remote classes are becoming increasingly unavoidable. On July 6, less than two months before most colleges are set to reopen, President Donald Trump’s administration released a statement through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that had the potential to further complicate potential reopening plans. According to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, if a college is offering solely online classes, international students attending school would have two choices: transfer to a college offering some in-person classes or leave the country. On Tuesday, July 14, ICE rescinded this policy. While this is a huge win for international students, this rule should have never been proposed in the first place, and should force U.S. universities to reckon with the fact that international students are valued not for any potential economic contributions, but because they are students. This policy would have been a gross human rights violation that would have harmed international students. Every student has the right to learn and if they are here on a visa, the right to feel safe without the threat of removal. This policy infringes on both of those rights. Students who signed a lease for the academic semester would have been stuck with it, searching for a subletter in a market that has little to no demand. Students who are in their
Graphic by Hibah Chughtai
last year of school would no longer be able to graduate as planned, plunging them into further uncertainty and piling on financial difficulties. Students whose visas expire after the academic year would not be able to have them renewed, leaving them unable to return to the U.S. to finish their degree. Students forced to leave the U.S. would potentially be returning to unstable environments unsuitable for academic work and face challenges posed by faulty internet connection, inability to access educational resources, disruptive time differences and unsafe health conditions in the midst of the pandemic. Since ICE announced its student visa policy, many have invoked the economic benefits of international students as a counterargument. Universities in the U.S. have long relied on the revenue generated by international students’ tuition (international students pay up to three times more than in-state students at public universities) and the fact that international students contribute $39 billion to the national economy. These arguments are harmful in opposing human rights violations perpetrated by ICE. To reduce international students to their economic value is degrading. To suggest that their rights should be protected relative to that economic value is immoral. ICE has a disturbing reputation of dehumanizing those who do not enjoy the privileges of United States citizenship. To defend international students from ICE based on their economic status neglects the activism and struggle of marginalized groups — especially refugees, migrant workers and other undocumented individuals — that
have long fought to abolish ICE without the benefit of robust economic power. International students deserve protection from ICE not because of their economic contributions, but because everyone — from the wealthiest international student to the humblest refugee at the border — deserves safety, dignity and belonging. Beyond defending basic human rights, this policy would have made even less sense on the stage of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and will likely increase the spread of the disease. The U.S. has over one million international students each year. Deporting even a fraction of these students and forcing them to travel in unsafe conditions creates a large risk for a second wave of COVID-19 to affect other countries that may have recovered or controlled the spread. The policy also would have put international students themselves at risk for contracting COVID-19 if forced to leave their current homes in the U.S. In the policy, ICE stated that international students would have the option to transfer to a school that is offering in-person classes. However, this option to transfer is not a true alternative. ICE made its announcement less than two months before the beginning of the semester, rendering it nearly impossible for students to transfer to another university based solely on the timing of application deadlines.
Read more at MichiganDaily. Maeve Skelly is a senior in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and can be reached at skellym@umich.edu.
6 ARTS
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SUMMER SERIES
MUSIC REVIEW
Houston Ballet and the pain of distance ZOE PHILLIPS Daily Arts Writer
Much of ballet has to do with precision — exact placement is the gateway to physical strength and artistic allure. This dream of absolute clarity of movement is thus the founding goal of ballet training: toes that point but do not curl, ankles that rotate but do not roll, legs that turn out but only from the hips and never from the knees, ribs that lift off of the stomach and shoulders that remain relaxed and level below and long, lifted neck. These rigid requirements, though necessary and impressive, are not physically natural. It takes years to sculpt a professional dancer’s body, and much of that time must take place in childhood alongside developing bones and muscles. The result is a physique that is strong and supple enough to enjoy the adventure of ballet’s art. Even still, that end product of adulthood is never actually finished: Rigorous daily classes must continuously remind one’s muscles about the distinct requirements of balletic anatomy. Stop practicing and the body will inevitably spring backward into its natural position. This, of course, is not easy. To maintain such well-oiled bodily machinery at the professional level requires a substantial mix of blood, sweat and the occasional tear. This level of physical dedication is part of what makes ballet so otherworldly — there is mystery in the difficulty of the steps performed — and it also makes ballet dancers some of the strongest psychological warriors of our time. They will work with the same intensity and drive as a football player without the appealing draws of money or even fame. To keep going requires intense vision, usually with the constant inspiration of a moment onstage under the burning beauty of industrial stage lights. These two facets of ballet’s world — a stage and a studio — tend to coexist out of their reliance on each other. Good performance cannot happen without hard work in the studio; Hard work in the studio is difficult to motivate without good performance. For years and generations this coexistence worked seamlessly and productively in the creation of ballet. Dancers worked and learned with each other in the confines of humid dance studios, exchanging lessons and providing inspiration for each other to keep fighting for their shot on stage. Now, like many other previously accepted norms of society, COVID-19 halts the opportunity for such exchanges. Cancelled shows are of course heartbreaking events for dancers to bear, yet closed studios leave artists with little place to process such loss. Neither situ-
ation makes it any easier to maintain one’s well-sculpted technique, a level of fitness that begins to atrophy after a week, let alone a few months. Left to maintain their physicality alone and handle the mental stress of an art world in shambles, dancers continue to make do with living room floors and kitchen-counter barres. In an interview with her co-worker last week, New York City Ballet principal dancer Megan Fairchild said it best: “I’m miserable!” Enter Houston Ballet: Suddenly a ray of sunshine in the sea of gray clouds, the company gracefully disrupted the depression of ballet’s 2020 existence. Last week, they released a new short film aimed at maintaining audience engagement and hopefully salvaging their hemorrhaging finances. The seven-minute extravaganza features all 61 company artists as they bounce, jiggle and jive in an elation-inducing interpretation of Billy Idol’s 1980 “Dancing by Myself,” a song so perfectly crafted for quarantine that it’s hard to believe it’s 40 years old. In the film, the dancers start out comically downtrodden — highlights include one man dragging his bathrobe through the kitchen while cradling a pint of ice cream and another, also in pajamas, with his feet in the dryer. When the music starts, the loungewearcovered artists start to bounce. One of the women has a bright green face peel. Then, they twist, jump and twirl. As the energy builds, their outfits change. Suddenly they’re outside: The world is bright, their clothes are even brighter. They’re swaying and spinning and throwing their arms. They’re happy to move, excited to dance. The whole thing is masterfully edited and joyfully acted — and, it includes barely any ballet technique. Each of these dancers is classically trained. They know all the rules — they’re just not following them. Their shoulders can move and their knees can bend. Their toes don’t have to point and their legs need not turn out. At the same time, they are still wholeheartedly ballet dancers. Even in their pajamas, they move with a grace that’s quite impossible to acquire unless you’ve spent your entire childhood in a ballet studio. Their fingers don’t forget the distinct mold of a ballet dancer’s hand and their knees swivel without the joltiness of a layman. Even slouched, turned in and ready-to-roll, they do not shed the inherent liftedness of ballet’s mold. In this vein, they become strung across two existences, flying above us and walking among us in the same count of eight.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Quinn XCII reflects in his new album KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer
When I heard Quinn XCII’s single “Stacy” this past winter, I thought his upcoming album would be similar to his previous album, From Michigan With Love. “Stacy,” a playful depiction of a rebellious relationship between a high school freshman and a senior, possesses the same contradictions we’ve seen in his previous albums where the upbeat nature of the music sharply contrasts with the heavy and often complicated subject matter of the lyrics. But that’s what Quinn XCII does best — he loves to pull difficult subjects and make them lightheartedly digestible. Despite the cheerful singles he dropped in anticipation of the album’s release, A Letter To My Younger Self showcases Quinn XCII’s maturity and the amount of growth he’s experienced since his last album release. While this album grapples with many of the themes we’ve seen on his previous albums — mental illness, love and heartbreak — A Letter To My Younger Self takes these ideas and discusses them more honestly than they’ve been depicted before. One of the best examples of Quinn XCII’s growth is the most reflective tune on the album, “Second Time Around.” A prereleased single just a few weeks before he dropped the album, this song was described by Quinn XCII as “the most powerful song I’ve ever made” on his Instagram. The tune is softer than anything we’ve heard from him before, with delicate piano riffs and a raw cut of his voice crooning about his regret for the mistakes he’s made in the past and his vow to be better in the future. The song also unveils Quinn XCII’s spiritual beliefs, something he’s kept out of his music in the past, as he addresses his concerns to God and expresses how he doesn’t believe he deserves a spot in heaven after what he’s done in the past. This
reflective approach to songwriting contrasts starkly with his previous songs dealing with heavy subjects. While Quinn XCII has always been open about his battle with depression, he’s often glossed over the seriousness of the illness by playfully presenting the hard things he’s been through. “Sad Still,” a tune off his 2017 album The Story of Us, discusses depression in a simple way, as Quinn XCII chants “we take this red pill, green pill, black pill / I know deep down we’re sad still” over poppy drum beats and bubbly synths. “Second Time Around” takes a completely different approach with Quinn XCII getting serious about how mental illness has impacted him, and doesn’t shy away from honestly opening up about the hard things: “Been at war with myself / Makin’ my friends the enemy / I let all of them down.” It’s no surprise Quinn XCII’s become more serious with his music. Since the release of From Michigan With Love he’s married and settled down with his new wife, spending his time away from music cooking or attending their friends’ weddings. While he’s still the goofy, open artist who earned him so many loyal fans, it’s clear he’s gotten a better grip on his life and career, and is now ready to open up about where he went wrong in the past. Despite its reflective nature, A Letter To My Younger Self isn’t completely somber. Songs like “Stacy,” “Coffee” and “Two 10s” embody Quinn XCII’s signature, unsystematic sound that incorporates unique drum beats and lighthearted electric guitar riffs that can only be characterized as the rap-reggae style of Quinn XCII. He also incorporated collaborations with artists like Black Bear, Ashe and Logic in “Am I High Rn,” “Sleep While I Die” and the album’s title track.
Read more at michigandaily.com
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FILM REVIEW
SUMMER SERIES
The trans art of storytelling: ‘Nevada’ EMILY YANG Managing Arts Editor
‘Palm Springs’ is a zany and delightful comedy KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer
In an age where thousands of films get made every year, there’s often a push to make something different. This is how you ended up with rom-coms like “Love Wedding Repeat,” a recent Netflix film that ruined its characters with a complicated multiverse plot, or with Adam Sandler movies with fantastical plots. Most of these attempts to reinvent the wheel falter under the pressure of their own storyline, trying to pull something meaningful out of a jumble of half-baked ideas. Delightfully, “Palm Springs” was not one of these. If “Palm Springs” is a water park ride, it starts off as a Lazy River, meandering its way through exposition like a typical wedding movie. You meet Nyles (Andy Samberg, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), a relaxed but disgruntled wedding guest, and Sarah (Cristin Milioti, “How I Met Your Mother”), one of the bridesmaids for the bride, her sister Tala (Camila Mendes, “Riverdale”). After the two meet, it only takes about 10 minutes for the plot to explode as the roller coaster takes off: Nyles is stuck in an infinite time loop, à la “Groundhog Day,” and he accidentally pulls Sarah into it. The filmmakers’ ability to successfully pull off a plot of these proportions is a miracle, and even more so that they were able to fit it into a tight 90 minutes. And yet “Palm Springs” is brilliantly done, held together by a strong ensemble cast and a well-written story. It doesn’t hurt that the film is produced by The Lonely Island, an absurdist comedy troupe made up of childhood friends Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Having The Lonely Island team as producers brings plenty of their zany comedic choices — a fight end-
ARTS 7
ing with a fork stuck into someone’s face, for example, could’ve come straight out of one of their digital shorts on “Saturday Night Live.” Like many rom-coms, the success of the film is dependent on its two leads; in this case, Samberg and Milioti are an excellent match. Even as Sarah is trying to understand what’s going on, Nyles has long collapsed into the monotony of the time loop — a juxtaposition that is chaotic but effective. Both Samberg and Milioti’s performances are charming and compelling, subtly displaying their distress and helplessness without ever losing their comedic timing. As the time loop continues, the two come to a nihilistic consensus, choosing to give up and waste time. This leads to a number of delightful montages of their time in the loop: relaxing in the pool, making reckless choices, choreographed dances and more. It doesn’t hurt that this film came out during quarantine, where, for many of us, every day is the same as the day before. Nyles and Sarah’s choices to waste time feel especially real when your own life has been somewhat monotonous for months. For them, the days only broken up by their drunken adventures or the occasional appearance of violent and vengeful Roy (J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”). Still, the mental transition as the time loop continues is visible in their appearance — both of them become increasingly, but subtly, disheveled over time. Truthfully, this is a film that’s made to watch more than once: Fleeting moments end up being far more indicative that there’s more going on. In a movie where the same day repeats over and over again, I didn’t think there would be any spectacular twists, but there are — and they completely change how the rest of the film is viewed.
Read more at michigandaily.com
It’s the early 2010s in New York, and Maria Griffiths, a trans woman in her late twenties and the protagonist of Imogen Binnie’s 2013 novel “Nevada,” is writing a blog post in an internet café. After recapping the strange few days she’s had, she turns to a speculative exercise: “I imagine that you’re familiar with all the stereotypes around transsexual women: that we’re all sex workers, that we’re all hairy, potbellied old men, that we’re all deep-voiced nightlife phoenixes, that we’re all drag queens, that we’re all repressed, that we’re all horny shemales with twelve-inch cocks…. Can we talk about what the actual stereotypes around transsexual women should be. The ones that hit a little too close to be funny.” The taxonomy of trans women that Maria goes on to write is really more of a self-portrait. Trans women are, she writes, addicted to the internet (the place that guided many of us out of the closet) and often a little socially inept, awkward, unsure how to take up space in the world. Maria notes that “trans women try to shirk their male privilege before transitioning, disappear into themselves, and then can never really get back out to become assertive, present, feminist women.” Binnie’s novel is concerned, in a large part, with the problem implied in this blog post — how do you become a person when you’ve been avoiding yourself for so long before transitioning? Maria doesn’t have an answer, although she’s very good at identifying and picking apart her problems, relating them back to the structures of oppression she’s learned to identify. It’s just that she can’t get from there to a decision. Maria is painfully passive, almost directionless in her inability to assert herself. The novel opens with a crisis that forces Maria to act, something she’s unused to doing: Her girlfriend Steph, over vegan brunch one day, tells her that she cheated on her with a mutual friend. Maria’s reaction is to shut down: “She’s still there, still watching, wishing there were something to say but really all she can think is, okay, whatever.” She goes to work like nothing happened, only remembering later that she should probably do something. Something like talk to Steph about it. She doesn’t, though. She doesn’t even think about it too much. “The more she tries to think about it, whittle it down to how she feels about their relationship, the slipperier it gets. Thinking about Steph is like
trying to squeeze a fish.” Instead, her thoughts rove over everything else — her job at a Strand-esque bookstore in Manhattan, her past, her unresolved conf lict with her own transness — while she avoids Steph for two days. It becomes increasingly apparent that this crisis struck her in such a way as to expose the fault lines of her tenuously maintained existence, and she spends most of the first half of the book unpacking her own life in a long, unspooling inner monologue. Maria’s life has depended on her own ability to avoid herself that during this moment of crisis the avoidance starts to take on the air of selfsabotage. She’s late for work a few times and gets fired, right after Steph breaks up with her before she has a chance to do it first. Suddenly, she’s homeless-ish and jobless in one of the most expensive cities in America. At this point in the narrative, Maria’s avoidant tendencies go into overdrive: she borrow-steals Steph’s car and decides to road-trip across America. As you might have guessed, this doesn’t help either. When next we see her, she hasn’t showered in weeks and has just arrived at a Wal-Mart in a small town in Nevada. Before we see her again, though, we meet James, a local, who is “hotboxing the bathroom of his apartment halfway down the hill from the Wal-Mart.” He’s just had an argument with his girlfriend Nicole, and the only reason he’s getting stoned instead of making amends is that “she’s right to be mad: there is something wrong with him. He has no idea what the fuck it is, but he does need to figure it out if he’s ever going to have a normal human relationship.” If you get the sense that James’s internal monologue resembles Maria’s, you’re right: When he’s not watching art-house films or getting high, James fantasizes endlessly and tortuously about becoming a woman. Unlike Maria, James’s particular avoidance takes the form of abusing marijuana and masturbating a lot, but it’s avoidance nonetheless. When they meet, the two of them are mutually fascinated with each other — James because he has never met a trans woman before, and Maria because she’s certain James is also trans and doesn’t realize it yet. They establish an uneasy rapport, get high together, and eventually decide to drive to nearby Reno together.
Read more at michigandaily.com
8 MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The Asian Greek life community’s role in rape culture and misogyny JENNY CHONG MiC Staff Writer
CW: Sexual assault, rape, emotional manipulation. ** Over the past few weeks, stories of sexual assault, manipulation and rape have surged my Instagram homepage. In this second wave of the #MeToo movement, much of what has been circulating around is coming from my Asian-American community. This time, it feels more surreal as I hear from victims and perpetrators with whom I am acquainted. Both groups consist of people who have walked down the same hallways I walked, been to the same events and fraternity parties my friends have been to and currently live in the same neighborhood my friends and I live in. The prevalence and proximity of these stories are frightening, and it’s concerning to think about the many more left untold. These survivors have held months or years of emotional baggage and are using this movement as an opportunity to release their built-up torment. However, in an attempt to speak up against their perpetrators and empower others who may have gone through a similar experience, some victims are met with backlash and criticism. Linh Mai, University of North Carolina at Charlotte student and
SHAY SZABO
MiC Staff Writer
You slip on your coin skirt, your vibrant colored scarf and you declare yourself a “gypsy” for Halloweekend. Your most grave concern is what color lipstick will best suit your costume. You take no second thought about the struggle for liberation, the painful hate crimes and systemic oppression of the “gypsy” you are dressed as endures. The idea of a “gypsy,” which you believe to be an exotic Halloween costume, is rather a racial slur assigned to the Roma people (Romanis) intended to subside their value and isolate them in society. Romanis are a group of people originally from the Punjab region of northern India. They
Alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority sister, recently shared a post on social media (which has since been taken down) of her alleged experience of having consensual sex with a fraternity brother and later discovering she was involuntarily filmed doing so by her ex-boyfriend, a UNCC Pi Alpha Pi Fraternity brother. This brother allegedly sent this video to a Snapchat group chat consisting of his pledge brothers and slut-shamed her for “hitting up all his pbros on the East Coast,” which Mai denied. This post has been taken down but a screenshot of it is below. After sharing her story on Instagram, members of the Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity across several universities on the East Coast began to condemn her in a Facebook Messenger group chat –– a chat that @ktlyndng posted screenshots of. Many commented on her appearance, calling her “ugly” and “fat,” and implied she and other victims are only speaking out now for attention. One member even said he had already seen about 15 posts about rape and joked that he should make one about “how [he] was raped by bros.” As a result of these messages surfacing on social media, Pi Alpha Phi National Fraternity addressed the situation along with its other sexual misconduct, assault and exploitation allegations through a public statement. According to the state-
ment, all fraternity activities across all chapters were indefinitely suspended as of July 4. They hired a law firm to investigate the allegations of sexual misconduct and asked for an independent investigator to investigate the institution and third party firm to review the organization. The National Board of Directors also asserted to hold their brothers accountable and to rebuild the foundational culture of their fraternity in the meantime. However, many commenters on the Instagram post expressed outrage at their response and are skeptical of the fraternity’s plans to rid their organization of rape culture and misogyny. They criticize the board’s decision to reach out to law enforcement, as many women do not report sexual violence for fear of reprisal, or the belief the police will not help or that further harm might be brought to them. Commenters are also doubtful of how rebuilding the fraternity would lead to change as “fraternity culture was founded on misogynistic principles” and “enable toxic masculinity,” @kathytrinh commented. Some are demanding more actions to be taken, such as de-lettering the members in the aforementioned group chat and even disbanding the entire fraternity. The fraternity has not further responded since the statement. Pi Alpha Phi is only one of the
Design by Hibah Chughtai
many organizations in the Asian Greek life community with sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Its sister sorority, Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, has also allegedly enabled rape and sexual assault. University of Buffalo student, Ami, recounts the night her friend and at-the-time fraternity pledge — under the pseudonym, Z — allegedly raped her in an instagram post. Ami allegedly told their friend, and at-the time a aKDPhi pledge, what Z had done to her. Even so, their friend kept her ties to him for Greek life connections and put Ami in more situations which allowed Z to continue sexually violating and traumatizing her. Ami claims the sisters of aKDPhi have used her story to take action against the brothers of Z’s fraternity but are
not seeking repercussions for their friend’s involvement. The chapter has responded with a public statement to show their support with survivors and condemn acts of sexual assault. Ami feels the chapter is hypocritical as she reached out to them for help a while back and was told the situation was a personal matter, yet the sisters were quick to post an apology three days after Ami publicly shared her story. So far, 37 chapters across eight Asian-interest fraternities allegedly have at least one sexual assault allegation made against at least one of their brothers — including University of Michigan’s chapter of Lambda Phi Epsilon.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Stop saying the G word
are known as travelers because of their historic migration through the Middle East — some through northern Africa — into Europe; they are now the largest minority group in Europe. However, even with 12 million Romanis residing in the European Union and 1 million in the United States, there is no political power or representation for their ethnic group in government. For centuries, Roma people have been victims of chattel slavery in Eastern Europe which only ended in 1860. Today, the Romani are still victims of institutionalized racism; they are not provided adequate healthcare, lack sufficient access to education and have segregated living conditions. At least 90 percent of the Roma people live below the poverty line in Europe. Even the
Design by Hibah Chughtai
Roma individuals who found success in their communities are reluctant to claim their identity, affected by society-imposed shame. As sinister as this systemic discrimination is, some European officials do not bother to hide the cruelty directed towards the Roma
people. In 2013, Hungarian political figure Zsolt Bayer claimed: “A significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence. They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals, and they behave like animals.” This perpetuates a social stigma and normalizes the
abuse for the Roma community. Hence, it does not come as a surprise to hear governments have coerced sterilization upon the Roma women with intersectional intentions: racism and eugenics.
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MICHIGAN IN COLOR 9
The implications of a dual-faithful upbringing GRACE GARMO MiC Staff Writer
The smoke of burnt incense fills the measureless rows of pews as each churchgoer fervently bows their head in intense prayer. Stained-glass windows encompass the brick sanctuary and I hear the childrens’ choir singing “Amazing Grace” — the inspiration for my name. In the evening, I drive to my aunt’s house for Iftar, the meal eaten after sunset during the month of Ramadan. The sound of the sizzling halal chicken on the grill is drowned out by ardent conversations in Arabic, Chaldean, English or a mix of all three. With both sides of my family all together, I become aware of the uniqueness of my circumstances. Not many people can say they began their day in Catholic mass and end it with a traditionally Muslim celebration. I’ve had an uncommon fam-
VICTORIA MINKA
ily situation my entire life. I’m a first-generation American with a Catholic-raised father from Iraq and a Muslim-raised mother from Lebanon. Even though my extended family has been vastly accepting and tolerant of our dual-religious dynamic, I find it difficult to explain to my friends, teachers and even strangers that it is possible to be raised inter-faithfully. This notion was seemingly too complex for the masses to comprehend. The Muslim community viewed me as a complete outsider and my Catholic school classmates didn’t even consider me to be a “real” Catholic. I felt as though my completion of Baptism and Confirmation was invalidated merely because I didn’t regularly attend Sunday mass. Regardless of the unsolicited criticism from my peers, I consider myself vastly fortunate to have been brought up with such religious duality. I learned religious tolerance from a young age, and I
never devoutly practiced one religion or claimed I belonged to one. Rather than my parents negotiating a settlement between Catholicism and Islam, they celebrated both and were transparent with the differences between the two faiths instead of surpressing one. Growing up surrounded by both Catholicism and Islam has allowed me to integrate two worldviews despite the fact that both faiths have been in conflict with one another my entire life. In fact, as I emerge into adulthood and further delve into what I truly believe, I have gained a greater sense of respect for my parents for not coercing me to follow a singular religion and allowing me to make my own decisions about what I believe. My dual-faith upbringing has given me the freedom to compare and contrast in a way which is often hardly encouraged in a single-faith setting. Of course, there are myths that growing up with two religions
Design by Hibah Chughtai
causes a child to become confused or forces them to ally with one side, but in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. Both faiths embrace certain truths which resonate with me. Despite the absence of my allegiance to one religion, I have still been able to dissect the aspects of each faith I feel as though I truly believe in: humil-
what are you?
Tucked in a corner occupied by unused wine glasses and those that wear the blacks and whites of waitstaff Deep in the ugliness and insecurity of high school I knew a sweet boy, one who smiled easy and had a lyricism to his voice Wide hands and long fingers, worn from the burns of ovens or stoves Skin tanner than mine in those spring days
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I am known for what I carry, but never valued for who I am Which is a deeply fragile state to exist within To be told, not in word but in action, in the uncomfortable shift of gazes That I am hollow, worthless without some sort of description
MiC Staff Writer
Within my first two weeks at Michigan I was asked by a drunk white frat brother whether it was hard to see out of my eyes (they were half way squinty, not all the way there) I was called ‘halfie’ and ‘wasian’ by a chinese woman whom I had never met before — the conversation reminded me of the way one discusses mutt dogs, cavapoos and goldendoodles And I was told by my good friend, a black woman, that I wasn’t really asian at all So you tell me. Or rather, let me tell you a story.
ity, selflessness, courage, peace and patience. I’ve recognized the inherent similarities of each religion, and I don’t believe them to be so different. At the end of the day, there will always be Catholics and Muslims who hold judgements against...
Relating more to the wine glass than the person beside me I provide extra care, forcing a smile, bringing the glass’ spindly neck to a shine, letting everything that is me sink deep within, squinting at its design I tell him to guess Photo by Madeline Hinkley
Between patrons, he watched me intently I felt his gaze on the corners of my eyes and the arch of my skull where it breaks into my hairline Letting him look, I cleaned glasses slowly Studying each one, admiring how it sat in my hand, stubbornly holding on to scuffs and lint what are you? Stopping, I gazed up White shirt loosely tucked in, hands in apron, smiling lazily I knew him but in this moment, I
saw many faces below his smile Faces of my past, as well as those of the future Because this question never tires itself, constantly circling and circling above my head. In the english language, the use of what indicates a holding of content—a description beyond simple identification, but an explanation of existence To be asked what you are is to be asked to justify your own place Not through ownership of identity, but through those that brought
you here What, rather than who, treats an individual as a vessel, which can be filled with so much contents To be mixed race is to be hypervisible and yet deeply unplaceable I am merely a cradle for this unique blend of manifested features, The outcome of lack of belonging An embodiment of distance from homeland Creation of those that stray from origins
Because the only answer more pleasurable for him than a real explanation is a moment of mystery, a fulfillment of fantasy And my identity has always been about fantasy The story of how I came to be, what fills me up, is more worthy than the vessel which cradles it Yet, I give it shape, but my miracle of making it valuable and attainable, the pearl of the matter, quickly overshadows...
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10 SPORTS
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan releases plan for ticketing at fall sporting events KENT SCHWARTZ
Summer Managing Sports Editor
Michigan answered one of the many questions surrounding this year’s uncertain situation for fall sports on Wednesday, releasing its plan for football tickets. This fall, there will be no season tickets and no tickets open to the general public. Instead, individual
game tickets will be sold to a mix of season ticket holders and students as capacity permits — a number still undecided. “We have been working closely with a wide variety of leaders to ensure a safe and healthy environment for our studentathletes, coaches, fans and support staff associated with a game at Michigan Stadium,” athletic
director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “We will follow the direction that all of these agencies and experts continue to provide during this challenging time.” While all season-ticket holders who purchased a deal will have their seating location reserved for the 2021 season regardless, the University is offering three different plans to for what to do
with the money season-ticket holders have already given. They will have the option to convert their payment into a taxdeductible gift to Michigan’s athletic department, an option that will alleviate the pressure brought on by COVID-19 slightly. Season-ticket holders could also add their purchase towards paying for 2021 season tickets, making
those year’s tickets cheaper. Or, they could request a refund. “Once a final decision on the football season is made, the athletic ticket office will follow up with additional details on how to request the option for PSC and season tickets,” the statement reads. “Season ticket holders do not need to take any action at this time.”
Impacts of a conference-only schedule DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer
In a decision that created more questions than it answered, the Big Ten Conference ruled in favor of a conference-only schedule for all fall sports on Thursday. And while Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren’s audible keeps the hope of fall sports alive — for the time being — it will cause significant changes in the way student-athletes and coaches prepare for the upcoming season. The Michigan football team is no different. The idea of a 10-game Big Ten slate has floated around since the conference’s announcement on Thursday afternoon, but there’s no formal word yet regarding what to expect or when to expect it. Some Big Ten teams, including the Wolverines, have even pulled their original 2020 schedule off their official websites. For now, let’s operate under the working assumption that a nine or 10-game Big Ten schedule is in store for this fall. From position battles to a sense of urgency, The Daily breaks down how Michigan is impacted most by the Big Ten’s decision to impose a conference-only schedule: How does this affect the Wolverines’ quarterback battle? Between senior Dylan McCaffrey and junior Joe Milton, the winner of Michigan’s quarterback competition may not have a particularly long leash. Given the abbreviated season and lack of postseason expansion, the Wolverines won’t be able to afford many unnecessary hiccups if they want to pursue a conference title, let alone a College Football Playoff berth. The circumstances of this season’s title race will be far from normal, meaning a potential bump or two in the road could be enough to force coach Jim Harbaugh’s hand into a
quarterback change. But if the conference-only schedule delays the season by multiple weeks, the Wolverines will have ample time to allow the battle to play out. At this point, that’s Harbaugh’s sole focus. “I’m very excited about the quarterbacks that are on the roster right now,” Harbaugh said during a teleconference with reporters Wednesday. “… I see the drive that they have, which is very high. And they’ve been tremendous leaders, especially Dylan and Joe and (sophomore) Cade (McNamara) through the virtual meetings, the virtual workouts. Doing the right things, it’s very important to them.” Whether or not a clear signal-caller emerges, however, remains to be seen. Michigan can’t afford to ease into the season Even before news of a conferenceonly football schedule emerged, easing into the season wasn’t much of an option for the Wolverines. With a Week 1 trip to perennial Pac-12 contender Washington previously on the docket, the coaching staff already had little time to replace a host of starters from last season’s team, including 13 who signed NFL contracts this offseason. But now, without a trip to Seattle and home games against Arkansas State and Ball State, Michigan will have even less time to incorporate its new faces. That includes playmakers such as incoming freshmen wideouts A.J. Henning and Roman Wilson, who each ran verified sub-4.50 40-yard dash times in high school. Non-conference games would’ve provided an ideal opportunity to add a valuable dimension of explosive speed on offensive and special teams — something second-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has mentioned time and time again. For now, however, all that’s left is a
message that hinges on preparation and uncertainty. “The thing (the staff) suggested and I think they really bought into was, ‘The providence will favor the prepared,’ ” Harbaugh said. “… Better to be prepared and not have the opportunity than to have the opportunity and not be prepared.” It’s anything but an ideal year to break in four new starting offensive linemen There’s never a good time to replace four starting offensive linemen, but in a normal season, playing a trio of nonconference games would’ve helped get the new faces up to speed. Even more importantly, it would’ve helped offensive line coach Ed Warinner and the rest of the staff determine who those starters will be. Returning right tackle Jalen Mayfield appears set to headline the unit, while fellow junior Ryan Hayes is the likeliest candidate for the other tackle spot. The other three starting roles are up for grabs, with senior Chuck Filiaga, senior Andrew Stueber and sophomore Karsen Barnhart duking it out for the two guard spots and fifthyear senior Andrew Vastardis and sophomore Zach Carpenter battling for the starting center nod. While replacing four NFL-bound starters is no small task, it appears Michigan is off to a solid start. “Overall, I would say (the offensive line) looks good,” Harbaugh said. “It looks good right now. Both from a strength standpoint, really good length there and the athleticism is really good in that group. … Individually, they’ve definitely done a great job of understanding the system — installs have been probably installed three times, if not four. Mentally very sharp, and guys are knowing what they’re doing.” Beyond Mayfield, though, the Wolverines won’t have many answers until they’re thrown into the fire.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan sports attendance will be further restricted following changes to ticket policy.
Big Ten to move to fully in-conference schedule THEO MACKIE
Managing Sports Editor
Just one day after Jim Harbaugh said he would “want the responsibility of keeping our players safe and educating them” by having a football season, the Big Ten is planning to play a conferenceonly schedule, if the season happens at all, per a source. The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach first reported the news. “My thoughts would be, it’s a different conversation if there’s no students on campus,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “If students are on campus, then my personal belief as a parent of a daughter who would also be on campus that this is a safe place.” As first reported by ESPN, the ruling will extend to all fall sports, affecting men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, and volleyball. “If the Conference is able to participate in fall sports based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports,” the conference said in an official statement.
“Details for these sports will be released at a later date. “... This decision was made following many thoughtful conversations over several months between the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, Directors of Athletics, Conference Office staff, and medical experts including the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.” For the football team, the ruling will cause the cancelation of its scheduled games at Washington, vs. Ball State and vs. Arkansas State. While the Ball State and Arkansas State games were onetime matchups, the Wolverines are currently scheduled to play Washington in Ann Arbor in 2021 as part of a home-andhome series. As for the rest of Michigan’s schedule, it is unclear whether the Big Ten will add additional conference games to replace the three lost games — if the current plans hold up as coronavirus cases escalate across the country. Ethan Sears contributed reporting to this story.
Hintons, parents support fall shift THEO MACKIE
Managing Sports Editor
On Thursday afternoon, just one day after he went viral for saying, “There’s no expert view right now that I’m aware of that sports is going to make (COVID-19) worse,” Jim Harbaugh sat down for a Zoom call with all of his players’ parents. It was far away from the spotlight, in an environment that better suits the Michigan coach. No quotes from that Zoom will gain virality or even be posted on the internet. But to the parents of Wolverines’ players, this is the Harbaugh that matters. This Harbaugh was answering a list of their questions — 22 of them to be precise, all focusing on how Michigan was dealing with college football’s return to play amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a list borne out of concern back in late May, when the NCAA announced it would allow athletes to return to campus for voluntary workouts. At the time, something didn’t sit right with Chris and Mya Hinton, the parents of Michigan defensive lineman Chris Hinton Jr. As they looked at the guidelines put in place by all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs and 10 FBS conferences, they realized there was no consistency. “No guidance, there was no protocol that schools had to adhere to,” Chris Sr. told The Daily. “They just gave the date and said, ‘Have at it.’ ” So the Hintons started reaching out to parents of other college
football players and realized they weren’t alone in their concern. After getting feedback from some of those parents, they founded the Facebook group, College Football Parents 24/7. Just over a month later, it has 1,558 members and counting. Before the Hintons air their grievances, they want you to know something. They are rabid college football fans. Their other son, Myles, is a freshman offensive lineman at Stanford. Chris Sr. starred at Northwestern in the 1980s before his All-Pro NFL career. So they want a college football season more than just about anyone. “We just want it to be done right and safely,” Chris said. “We want our sons to be safe, as any other parent would want.” At Michigan, that’s a feeling that Harbaugh has cultivated throughout the past five months. Even though the NCAA is permitting full practices beginning Monday, Michigan’s players will continue training in groups of eight, as they have since returning to campus. The groups are consistent day-to-day and are designed to partner players with their closest friends so as to minimize contact between groups out of training. Of course, getting to a season would require the full team to practice together as normal. To ensure that next step can be executed safety, Michigan has implemented a robust testing system, as well as exploring innovative solutions such as bands that players can wear to help with
NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Coach Jim Harbaugh is keeping parents informed on the status of a fall season.
contact tracing and avoid a largescale breakout. Perhaps most encouraging to the Hintons, though, is how these decisions came about. While the program comes from Michigan’s own medical experts, Harbaugh has valued parents’ opinions from the beginning, sending out a survey before players returned to campus so that the team could implement the protocols parents wanted to see. “It was refreshing because from day one, we feel like Michigan has done a good job with dealing with COVID the best they can with the knowledge that’s available,” Mya said. “There’s so much unknown with the science, but they’re doing everything they can.” It’s a stark contrast, Mya says, from some other schools across the country, particularly in the SEC. One parent in College Football Parents 24/7 has a son playing at Notre Dame — a school with strict protocols in place — and expressed concern when she found out that Arkansas, the Fighting Irish’s scheduled Week 2 opponent, was only testing if players showed symptoms. In order to avoid situations such as that one, many parents have lobbied for teams to exclusively play conference games, a measure that enables more consistent protocols to be in place between opponents. Earlier this week, the Big Ten became the first conference to heed that advice. “The idea that now, it’s conference-only play, you don’t have to worry about a school that’s upholding the same standards that you are,” Chris said. “And that was one of the things that we talked about early was the lack of consistency from school to school, to know that, say, Wisconsin is doing the same thing that you’re doing.” But while the Hintons support the measures Michigan and the Big Ten have put in place, they — and other parents — remain concerned, with cases on the rise across the country. “It’s scary to think that football would be ramping it up as cases are going up,” Chris said. “Typically an epidemiologist would say cases are spiking so we need to distance more, and we’re doing the opposite.” With the scheduled start of football season less than two months away, that’s a daunting thought no matter what guidelines are in place.
SPORTS 11 Warren emphasizes shift Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
towards a flexible fall LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Editor
On Thursday afternoon, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren made one thing clear: nothing is set in stone. The press conference followed a statement by the Big Ten saying fall sports would be restricted to a conference-only schedule. “One of the things that was most important to us was the flexibility of scheduling all the operations,” Warren said in an interview on the Big Ten Network. “It’s much easier if we’re just working with our Big Ten institutions from a scheduling standpoint, from a traveling standpoint, all of those issues that go into having our student athletes compete.” He stressed that all decisions have been made with the safety and wellbeing of student athletes at the forefront. With the national situation constantly evolving, Warren and his staff believe canceling nonconference competition will give athletes “the best chance to play,” but canceling the fall sports season altogether remains on the table. Meaning, the announcement should be looked at more as an ‘if’ the season happens than a ‘when.’ Flexibility was stressed as a major factor in the Big Ten’s decisions. With the change, the conference will retain the ability to schedule games as they see fit, dictate travel and implement uniform testing policies. The conference will extend that flexibility to student athletes,
honoring the scholarships of any athlete who decides not to participate in the season due to COVID-19. The announcement is the product of many hours of communication between the conferences’ coaches, presidents, chancellors and conference administrators. Warren said a new Big Ten football is in the works, but fans shouldn’t hold their breath. Testing procedures have to be finalized, networks contacted and medical professionals consulted with. It’s one thing to revamp an entire fall season from an office. It’s another matter entirely to orchestrate that change over Zoom. Warren said he’s been in daily contact with athletic directors and has talked to football coaches weekly. They hoped to get the decision out as soon as possible in an effort to remain transparent. “When you sit in a seat like this, you always have to make sure that you are always preparing for the what-if scenarios, many of which may never come to fruition,” Warren said. “They may just end up in a binder or a desk drawer or saved on a computer somewhere.” With the number of COVID19 cases on the rise, the “what-if” scenarios are coming into play. Regardless of what the coming weeks or months bring, the Big Ten is clear in its priorities. “We’ll keep putting our studentathletes at the top of our list,” Warren said. “And we’ll always make sure we look out for them and make sure they are keeping safe.”
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is preaching flexibility for fall sports.
12 MULTIMEDIA
Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
PHOTO ESSAY
Champion Farm: A family farm’s response to COVID-19 ALEXIS RANKIN Staff Photographer
There’s an ambient humming noise inside the barn, an industrial sized fan circulating the sweltering heat and establishing a light breeze that moved through the straw covering the ground. Lindsay Champion enters the barn, breaking up the group of Jersey Cows gathered in front of the breeze. She leads the girls one by one to the opposite end of the room, tying them to the wall and spraying their legs with fly spray. Lindsay wheels in the milking equipment and sets up next to the first cow, who waits patiently throughout the process. Beginning with an iodine disinfectant solution and initial milking by hand, Lindsay connects the milking device once any bacteria has been cleared. The closed system makes the milk cleaner and safer for distribution to members of the herd share who receive milk from the Champion Family Farm. When the milking process is complete, Lindsay leads the cows out to pasture. The girls and the two calves follow her in a singlefile line to their designated area. The grass is tall in comparison to the plot next to it that was cut down by yesterday’s grazing. The silent solitude of the open field is disrupted by huffing, snorting, and tearing noises of grass being ripped from the ground as the cows spread out, chomping across the plot. They’ll stay here for the majority of the day, returning to the barn for the night when it is time for their second milking of the day at 11 p.m. With the cows and milking taken care of, everyone’s attention is turned to preparing for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) member pick-up happening in just a few hours. The Champion Family Farm’s CSA program allows community members to make an upfront investment in the farm in exchange for a bi-weekly share of the vegetables produced at the farm. Each member receives a crop box filled with in season, freshly harvested produce that varies with each pick-up. Today’s box includes a fragrant assortment of garlic scapes, green onions, shallots, kale, chard, strawberries, and lettuce mix. CSA share days are busy, as harvesting, dividing
and distributing the produce are all tasks that must be completed in addition to the other daily chores. Kevin and Lindsay Champion have been working since dawn, but time is still of the essence. Empty crop-boxes are lined up in the pole barn while Lindsay, with the help of employee Mark Abrams, work quickly to divide and prepare the vegetables for the crop boxes. There are more CSA members at the farm this year, an increase that the Champion family attributes to changes related to the COVID19 pandemic. After seeing empty shelves in grocery stores amid panicked food shopping, many community members turned to local CSA programs as an alternative to big-box stores and unreliable commercial supply
chains. The temporary closure of farmers markets and restaurants resulted in many small farms, including the Champion Family Farm, being forced to find alternative ways to distribute their produce. For many, this meant increasing the number of CSA memberships to make-up for what would normally be distributed at markets and restaurants. This pivot was successful for the Champion family, but according to Jae Gerhart, an MSU Food Systems Coordinator for Washtenaw County, was a struggle for others. “A lot of farms have sold too many shares and are struggling to supply all the members,” Gerhart said. “They just got excited by all the increased demand.” Meanwhile, large scale farms
have had their own struggles in relation to the pandemic, their size preventing them from adapting quickly to changes in supply chains. “They couldn’t shift as fast,” Gerhart said. “The system righted itself within two weeks, which is pretty fast, but it took all hands on deck.” Gerhart mentioned that some farms were forced to dump milk and overturn crops like onions and potatoes. Lindsay interjected in shock, “Oh, no! Storage crops!” The idea of turning over a storage crop like onions, that can cure in the field, is horrific to Lindsay, but the chaos that took place at industrial farms differed from the struggles of smaller, organic farms like hers. With her infant son strapped to her chest and her toddler kicking
up dust in the driveway, Lindsay described some of the trouble they’ve had with pests and weather at the farm. The unpredictable challenges bring a certain level of risk for share members, as some pick-ups can be lighter than others as a result. Lindsay worries about ensuring produce distribution, but it is a risk that members are willing to take in exchange for fresh, in season vegetables. As 3 p.m. approaches, Kevin joins Lindsay in the pole barn with their teenage son and Mark to complete the distribution process. Hands are busy cutting down the ends of the green onions and counting out sweetpeas, while the toddler, Solstice, quality checks the strawberries by sampling a berry from each box. The team finishes just in time, the cropboxes packed and lined up neatly as cars start to pull up in front of the pole barn. The Champions take a well deserved break, sitting and greeting the members as they arrive for their share. Members make light conversation beneath their face masks, talking to Lindsay about the contents of this week’s box, recipe ideas and goings on at the farm. Some stay longer than others, chatting with each other and enjo ying the views of open fields and rows of crops in the distance. Lindsay explains to one of the members that she has the choice between kale and chard, since some boxes have one or the other. The woman is happy to take either, and ends up selecting the box with chard to try something new. The rush of the morning chores, preparation and initial pick ups slows as the day progresses. A late afternoon lull seems to have set in, but work continues despite the slower pace. Lindsay leaves the pole barn with the baby on her hip. She sits down on the edge of a crop field and starts weeding the outermost row. A member that has just arrives comes to join her, chatting and sitting down to help with the task. Kevin is busy cleaning out the pole barn to make room for the freshly baled hay to be stored. There are a few more shares waiting to be picked-up, but there’s no rush. The evening chores still loom, but no one seems to be thinking of those now as they enjoy the relief and temporary relaxation of another successfully completed share day.