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Big Ten university leaders used private, third-party platform to discuss fall reopening, football season U-M President Mark Schlissel asked staff to move communications to keep them hidden from public eye LILLIAN GOODING Daily Staff Reporter
Big Ten university leaders — including University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel — used a private network exempt from public record laws to communicate about fall COVID-19 outbreaks on campus and the 2020 football season, the Washington Post reported Friday. Through public records requests, The Washington Post accessed emails between the chancellors and presidents of Big Ten universities. In these emails university officials asked to move their discussions to the Big Ten portal, a platform hidden from the public eye. “Just FYI — I am working with Big Ten staff to move the conversation to secure Boardvantage web site we use for league materials. Will advise,” Schlissel wrote in an email to
other Big Ten chancellors and record. I know I’m not the only one “becky, if you simply delete presidents. for whom this is true,” University emails after sending, does that Though each individual Big Ten of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor relieve you of FOIA obligations? university is subject to Freedom Rebecca Blank wrote. I share your concern of course,” of Information Act laws, the In a direct private email back Schlissel wrote. conference as a whole represents to Blank, Schlissel responded According to The Washington a private, third-party entity not by suggesting they delete their Post, there is not significant required to share their records. emails. evidence that implies either Blank Despite a football season ridden with COVID-19 outbreaks and forced game cancellations, The Washington Post was unable to find evidence of significant discourse involving both coaches and administrators. There is no indication as to why Big Ten leaders reversed their original decision to cancel the season. Instead, from an exchange of emails from August 2020, The Washington Post identified university leaders expressing their shared concern to not disclose any information to the public. “Mark (Schlissel) and others MADDIE FOX/Daily & ALEC COHEN/Daily — please note that anything that University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel and other Big Ten university leaders arrives in or is sent from my communicated through a private network exempt from public record laws about campus email can be requested as a public COVID-19 outbreaks and the 2020 football season.
or Schlissel acted on this idea and deleted their communications. As Blank then informed Schlissel, the Freedom of Information Act prohibits public leaders from permanently deleting their messages. The Washington Post requested the release of all emails, including those sent over the private platform, but was unsuccessful, as university representatives said they belong to the Big Ten Conference. Many Freedom of Information Act experts, including David Cuillier, associate professor at University of Arizona, and Chip Stewart, professor at Texas Christian University, said these communications between public leaders on a third-party server can still be accessed by the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Additionally, senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information
Act expert Adam Marshall said to the Post he believed it was “troubling and wrong” for public leaders to try and evade public information laws in this way. In an email to The Michigan Daily Friday afternoon, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote Schlissel uses several different means of communication with colleagues, and the conversations in question were not moved to the Big Ten portal. “U-M President Mark Schlissel regularly communicates with the presidents of other Big Ten universities in a variety of ways on many topics,” Fitzgerald wrote. “President Schlisel notes that this was simply a conversation among colleagues trying to help each other by sharing information on how to navigate a novel, shared challenge – COVID-19 on campus.” Daily Staff Reporter Lillian Gooding can be reached at goodingl@umich.edu.
Schlissel: Well-being days ‘U’ ends hiring, salary freezes for fiscal year 2022 don’t ‘solve the problem’
merit raise program at June meeting Announcements on Fall 2021 semester expected mid-March Board of Regents to vote onalsoreinstating stabilized.” this as, ‘hey, we did our part,’ and CALDER LEWIS, JARED DOUGALL & CHRISTIAN JULIANO Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporters
The Michigan Daily sat down with University President Mark Schlissel March 2 to discuss the University of Michigan’s fall planning, well-being days and sexual misconduct processes. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Mark Schlissel: Things are actually going well now and the number of cases are coming down all across the country. The number of student cases are coming down, and staff and faculty (cases) have remained low. So, I just want to compliment and thank everybody for continuing to put up with the incredibly disrupted lifestyle for the sake of keeping as many people healthy until we can vaccinate everybody. I’m more optimistic now than I’ve been at any point in the last year. We’re also getting good compliance with the mandatory testing. Basically all of the dormitory
students are complying, and then many off-campus students. We’re up to about 21,000 tests a week, and the percentage positive is quite low — it’s below 1% positive. As it gets warmer, it’s going to be easier too, as we’ll be able to spend more time outdoors, and it’s safer outside. TMD: It’s common nowadays in college classes for students to be asked by their professors or instructors to self-evaluate their performance. As U-M’s President, what grade would you give yourself, out of 10, for your response to the COVID-19 pandemic now a year into it — especially when compared to other institutions of higher education? MS: What we’re talking about is actually a group project — it’s not an individual project. It involves the leadership of the campus, our medical and public health experts, our faculty, our staff and then all of you. It’s not a project where any one person can be responsible or do it alone. We’ve had some successes, and other things haven’t gone as well. So, amongst the good news is students are progressing towards their degrees. Our enrollment is
normal enrollment. Students whose families have run into difficulty, we’ve been able to help them stay in school by providing special financial aid. Our health system has done spectacularly well. We’re the largest public research university in the country that was shut down during the height of the epidemic, but we ramped up again. Our labs are at 75% capacity now, and we’ve published over 1,000 papers on COVID; so, a lot of things in that area are going well. Our public health experts are advising the state government — all of the government’s plans are based on our expertise — that feels good. The challenge is there have been lots of student cases in particular. When we do the tracing of those cases, the overwhelming majority are due to contacts being made off campus, usually in social circumstances, too high density and not being as rigorous about masks. I wish we had fewer cases, but we’ve only had two (brief) hospitalizations, so I’m glad that no one’s taken more seriously ill amongst our student community. See SCHLISSEL, Page 3
DOMINIC COLETTI Daily Staff Reporter
Starting July 1, the University of Michigan will end its yearlong hiring freeze and employees will be once again eligible for a merit raise program, after the University halted both programs last April in response to lost revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Board of Regents will vote on reinstating these programs at their June meeting. At the University’s weekly COVID-19 briefing on Feb. 26, Provost Susan M. Collins said the University’s financial situation is strong despite being dependent on how much money the state of Michigan allocates it in 2022. Last month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that the state budget would offer a 2% increase for Michigan’s public universities relative to the previous fiscal year. “2021 total application volume is actually up about 26 percent compared to 2020,” Collins said. “Our current enrollment remains steady. The financial position of the University of Michigan has
But Collins said the University’s finances will remain constrained as units such as University Housing and Michigan Athletics continue to suffer from lost revenue. Despite that, she said, the University is prioritizing efforts to support faculty and staff affected by the pandemic. Collins also said a merit increase program for faculty will be implemented for the upcoming fiscal year after the 2020 program was scrapped due to the pandemic. William McAllister, executive manager for transportation and waste management, told The Michigan Daily that the merit increase program reaffirmed his confidence in the University’s financial situation. “To hear Provost Collins mention that there’s going to be some sort of modest merit increase… further solidified the feelings I had about (the University’s financial position),” McAllister said. “It just shows what we did as employees… (that) made a huge difference financially for the University, and I think a lot of people look at
now the University is going to do their part by reinstating the merit program.” In an email to Michigan Medicine staff published in the University Record, Marschall Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs, said the hospital would reinstate several of its own benefits programs, including paid time off, merit and competitive pay raises, tuition reimbursement and departmental professional development programs. Michigan Medicine restarted its retirement match on Jan. 1. “You have played a critical role in helping Michigan Medicine return to routine operations and a stable and positive financial outlook for the current fiscal year,” Runge wrote to hospital employees. “Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our mission of advancing care for Michigan and the world, especially during the peaks and valleys of COVID-19.”
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Second lawsuit against U-M OIE director alleges mishandling of Title IX case while at University of Nebraska First suit accused Tamiko Strickman of violating sex discrimination and civil rights law at UNL JULIANNA MORANO Daily Staff Reporter
Another lawsuit was filed Feb. 28 against Tamiko Strickman, associate vice president of the University of Michigan’s Office of Institutional Equity, alleging she and other University of NebraskaLincoln personnel mishandled a student’s sexual misconduct report. The first lawsuit, filed in July 2020, accused Strickman of violating sex discrimination and civil rights law at UNL. The July 2020 lawsuit also states that Strickman was terminated from UNL in December 2019, a claim that both University of Michigan spokesman Rick Fitzgerald and UNL spokesperson Leslie Reed denied to The Daily in July. The suit names nine current or former UNL students as plaintiffs.
Strickman did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment in time for publication. Strickman previously served as the UNL interim Title IX coordinator and director of the UNL Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance, but she left in 2019 under disputed circumstances. The February lawsuit, filed by Title IX lawyers Karen Truszkowski and Elizabeth Abdnour, details a new set of allegations against Strickman and other UNL personnel for their handling of a former graduate student’s report of alleged harassment. The student alleges that a professor harassed her while she was enrolled in a Ph.D program at UNL. A copy of the lawsuit was obtained by The Daily. The new lawsuit states the student experienced “numerous violations of her rights” in UNL’s
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reporting and investigation process. Strickman is specifically accused of pressuring the student to drop her case, making false statements about the investigation to the student and ignoring the student’s questions about the investigation, among other allegations. “When Plaintiff went to the IEC (Institutional Equity and Compliance) office to check on the status of her case, Strickman made Plaintiff feel like she was the harasser rather than the victim,” the lawsuit reads. “Strickman would speak to Plaintiff in an angry tone that made Plaintiff feel like she was wasting her time.” The unnamed plaintiff in the Feburary lawsuit was a graduate student at UNL from 2014 to 2017. She alleges that her unnamed faculty adviser, referred to as John Roe in the court filings, kissed her on the lips in his office without her
consent. She was 26 years old and married at the time of the alleged incident; he was over 60. After she attempted to limit interactions with him after the incident, she alleges he started a “retaliation campaign” against her to limit her interactions with other instructors, increase her financial dependence on him and humiliate her in front of her colleagues. The alleged romantic advances also escalated from there, the lawsuit states. In what the lawsuit describes as the “worst” instance of retaliation, the professor allegedly demoted the student from first to second author on a research paper without giving her prior notice, a decision which compromised her ability to fulfill degree requirements. During the investigation, which took place during the summer of 2016, the plaintiff’s
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ALEC COHEN/Daily A lawsuit was filed against Tamiko Strickman, associate vice president of the University of Michigan’s Office of Institutional Equity, Sunday evening.
primary points of contact were Strickman and fellow UNL IEC employee Susan Foster, according to a letter to the student mentioned in the lawsuit that was signed by Strickman. Following the conclusion of the investigation in August 2016, a no-contact directive was put in place between the student and professor. The student alleges the harassment from the professor did not stop, leading her to file a second report with IEC in October 2016. According to the lawsuit, no investigation was opened into the second complaint. This led the student to transfer to
Vol. CXXX, No. 24 ©2021 The Michigan Daily
another university and begin her program again there. “Plaintiff had been hopeful that UNL would protect her from Roe’s harassment and retaliation, but her faith in the school had been completely broken,” the lawsuit reads. In an email to The Daily March 1, Abdnour, one of the Title IX lawyers on the case, wrote that the new lawsuit has much in common with the July 2020 one, as both reveal discrepancies between UNL’s policies and their practices.
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Phoenix, a secret society at U-M, votes to disband permanently CAMPUS LIFE
Organization discontinues as another society Order of Angell considers potential dissolvement BROOKE VAN HORNE Daily Staff Reporter
Phoenix, a co-ed secret society at the University of Michigan, voted to discontinue their organization on Feb. 21, according to a statement by the current Phoenix class obtained by The Daily March 1. The society, which formerly went by the name Adara, has been in existence since 1979. Senior Phoenix members usually “tap” students in their junior year to join the society for the upcoming academic year. This year, however, they voted “by an overwhelming majority” to forego that responsibility after months of studying the organization’s history and debating its future, according to the statement. “Though we make no judgments on Adara / Phoenix’s past, we do not believe that we have a future to play on this campus,” the statement reads. “This decision was not taken lightly by our class, nor was it made out of convenience.” According to their statement, Adara/Phoenix was formed after a Title-IX complaint was filed against Michigamua — now known as Order of Angell — the University’s previously male-only secret society. Phoenix aimed to give women leaders on campus a space for support and empowerment and was founded on principles of “character, achievement, leadership, loyalty and service,” according to the statement, as Order did not accept female members until 2000. “When we were first tapped for Phoenix almost a year ago, we were told that ‘P’ was what we made of it,” the statement reads. “The only purpose of our organization was to anonymously improve campus through our roles as campus
leaders. We were to launch our own projects and initiatives for the improvement of the University as a whole. We were to build friendships in the process, taking advantage of relationships that would otherwise not have been formed.” In their statement, Phoenix also urged Order and “all other secret societies” at the University to dissolve indefinitely. Phoenix specified that their decision was not made in connection or influenced by Order’s “recently publicized outreach to it’s alumni regarding its future.” The Michigan Daily obtained an email Feb. 23 from Order’s current class to the group’s alumni saying that the organization is considering disbanding and has already suspended its “tapping” process. The email sought feedback from alumni on the role the organization plays on campus. A group of Order alumni of color also drafted a letter on Feb. 23 urging the organization either permanently disband or at the very least institute a series of five reforms due to its history of appropriating Native American culture and claims of a continued hostile environment for members of color. According to the letter, “race-based aggression was assumed to have been limited to ‘the past,’ even while racialized power dynamics continued to shape the day-to-day of the organization.” The extent of Order’s misuse of Indigenous artifacts and culture was brought to light in February 2000 when protestors from the Students of Color Coalition occupied the seventh floor of the Union, the organization’s former meeting place, for more than a month. According to The Daily’s reporting at the time, two other secret societies also met in the tower, and the new Phoenix statement acknowledged that Adara
was one of them. “Adara occupied the upper floors of the Michigan Union’s tower alongside Michigamua in what was known as the Tower Society,” Phoenix’s statement reads. In 2006, Michigamua went through a series of reforms, including changing its name to Order of Angell, a tribute to the University’s former president James B. Angell. This choice has also been criticized, since it went against the wishes of the Angell family and Angell himself negotiated the Angell Treaty of 1880 that restricted Chinese immigration to the US. In Fall 2019, racial justice groups at the University — including the United Asian American Organizations, La Casa and the Arab Student Association — released statements condemning Order and all other secret societies at the University. The Michigan Daily voted to prohibit any of its editors from joining Order or any other exclusive senior honor society on Feb. 7 — this vote came before The Daily was aware that Order was considering disbanding. In their statement, Phoenix pointed to the cognitive dissonance that BIPOC members and potential members feel in joining their organization and discussed what they called “the inherently elitist” nature of all secret societies on campus. “We believe that our organization’s mandate of ‘campus leaders’ as a prerequisite for membership is inherently elitist,” the statement reads. “Leadership roles are obtained through and sustained by privilege. The meaning of this phrase has never been defined. In reality, each class of Phoenix is tapped by friends in previous classes, compounding issues of elitism and homogeneity
that have long plagued our organization.” A BIPOC Phoenix member of the class of 2021 — who remains anonymous in the statement for fear of professional retribution — wrote that joining the club raised ethical concerns for them and made them question their place in the organization. “It is weird and discouraging to have to think, ‘Am I joining a racist club?’” they wrote. “It is even more unnerving to be actively told while being recruited that Phoenix is not racist. I did and still do believe that Phoenix is not a racist society. However, it is modeled after one and I think that it is time to realize that distinction.” Suzanne Saunders Hecker, a 1989 University and Phoenix alum, wrote in an email to The Daily that Phoenix alumni are “deeply saddened” upon learning that the current class has decided to disband the organization. “Adara/Phoenix has helped the leadership path of many underserved and underrepresented constituencies at the University of Michigan,” Hecker wrote. “The current classes of students on campus are struggling with enormous social upheavals in our nation and world and are trying to be as responsible as possible in this environment. We respect the time and care that these seniors took in making their decision. We look forward to reflecting on our experiences within the organization. We will strive to listen and continually learn to better understand the University of Michigan students, leaders, and community.” Daily Staff Reporter Brooke Van Horne can be reached at brookevh@ umich.edu.
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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2021 semester 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. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order. RYAN LITTLE/Daily The secret society Pheonix has reportedly voted to discontinue the organization, as Order of Angell considers potential dissolvement.
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Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson announced as Spring 2021 commencement speaker
CAMPUS LIFE
Author of ‘Just Mercy’ will address graduates during virtual ceremony ALEC COHEN
Daily Staff Reporter
Bryan Stevenson, notable civil rights lawyer and social justice activist, will give the commencement address during the University of Michigan’s virtual Spring Commencement Ceremony on May 1, the University Record announced Thursday morning. Stevenson has worked to exonerate prisoners on death row for more than 30 years and is a bestselling author. His memoir, “Just Mercy,” was adapted as a motion picture in 2019, where actor Michael B. Jordan portrayed Stevenson. Stevenson is also the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted, improperly sentenced or abused while imprisoned. Through his work with the Equal
SCHLISSEL From Page 1 So, I think when this is all over and behind us, I think we should really take stock and see how we did. It’s almost like the grading system that’s in effect now for students, right? You get to wait till you have your grades to know whether you should take a grade or a pass/fail, so maybe I’ll wait until we have a little bit more perspective, but it’s really a group project; and I appreciate everybody who’s been helping. TMD: In a recent tweet, Regent Jordan Acker (D) said, “I hope Dr. Fauci is right that every American can get a vaccine by July … That would go a long way toward getting back to the Michigan experience we all love.” You’ve said that the University is looking at scenarios based on what fraction of the campus community is vaccinated. Can you walk us through some of those scenarios? What’s the difference between if, say, 60% and 90% are vaccinated? MS: I think what’s most likely is that by the time the summer rolls around, all of the faculty and staff that want to be vaccinated will have that access to the vaccine. But, when the new school year rolls around, probably not more than half of students will be vaccinated. So we’ve got to figure out how to have as much in-person education and student life as possible. So it could be the semester will begin more constrained and become less constrained as time goes by, but those are the plans we’re working on now. And what we’re doing in the last couple of weeks and then the next week or two is talking to faculty, staff and students and learning about what they’d like the fall semester to look like. The Regents are weighing in; parents are weighing in. The best of all possible worlds would be everybody, including all students, who want to be vaccinated to have been vaccinated by the fall semester. And I think when we get to that stage, campus might be quite normal. For sure we’ll get to the stage eventually where there aren’t masks; you can have football games and big classes. I don’t think we’ll be quite there in the fall, but I think it’ll be a good part of the way there.
Justice Initiative, Stevenson has won major legal battles to overturn wrongful sentencing. During his time with the nonprofit, he has saved more than 135 wrongfully convicted prisoners from the death penalty. In 2012, Stevenson successfully brought a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which he argued mandatory life sentences for juveniles convicted of murder without the opportunity for parole was in violation of the Eighth Amendment. This announcement comes one month after the University said a virtual ceremony would be held for the Class of 2021 rather than an in-person event. The virtual ceremony is slated to include student performances and speakers in addition to the conferring of degrees. The University also released information Thursday for graduates regarding various socially-distanced photo sessions at Michigan Stadium. The photo sessions are set to begin
April 6, and graduates will be able to have free professional photographs taken with other graduating friends and classmates. University President Mark Schlisssel told the Record the decision to hold photo opportunities in Michigan Stadium is a result of feedback received from graduating students. Since the confirmation of virtual commencement, some students and families have pushed the University to try for a safe in-person commencement event. “We’ve heard from them that they want inspiring commencement speakers and the opportunity to have a celebration in Michigan Stadium,” Schlissel said in the press release. “We created our photo event in the Big House and invited influential leaders to share their message and make this spring special for our graduates.”
TMD: If much of the class instruction remains online, how does U-M plan to combat virtual fatigue from students, as the end of the fall semester would mark nearly two years of almost entirely online instruction? MS: I think no matter what state we’re in, there’ll be more activities on campus for students to participate in, and not just virtual activities. If we have to continue to be conservative, we would still wear masks, but we do things together; we start to get people out of their rooms. I can’t predict yet what percentage of classes will be in person, but it’s very likely to be much more in person than it is now. TMD: Rich Holcomb from U-M Human Resources shared poll results on Feb. 12 that said 87% of Ann Arbor staff would be interested in continuing to work remotely after the pandemic. Three days later, Public Affairs tweeted that U-M remains optimistic that the fall semester “will be more normal.” Given this juxtaposition, do you expect there to be conflict between staff/faculty and administrators if you choose to introduce a more in-person fall semester plan? If so, how will you handle it? MS: The survey that vice president Holton was talking about was for a significant number of back-office staff at the University that aren’t face-to-face with students. Our staff that deals with students, such as student affairs people, the Student Life folks and the faculty of course — we’re a residential, in-person higher-ed institution — and they’re going to do their jobs. That said, I do think there are going to be reentry challenges for people as they come back to work. Just like you’ve been studying remotely a lot and you’ve got Zoom fatigue, a lot of our faculty and staff have been working remotely for a long time. We have to do everything we can to convince people that they’re safe on campus. TMD: Given that classes are entirely asynchronous for many students and that we live in an unprecedented time where the 9-to-5 work week has been completely disturbed, do you feel that “well-being breaks” make a real improvement to students’ mental health? If you were a student, would
you feel like this is enough to make a difference? MS: I think for many people it was a welcomed day not to have to take class and not to have to Zoom. By itself, no, it doesn’t solve the problem. But it recognizes that there are little things we can do to make things marginally better, at least for a little while. One thing that I learned relatively early in the pandemic which surprised me is students said that many of their classes are actually harder than they are when you’re doing regular classes in person. The workload seems greater, there seems to be more tests and more quizzes. I talked to faculty about this, and they said they needed to be sure students were keeping up and paying attention when they couldn’t see you. So we’ve tried to give feedback to the faculty to get them to better adjust the workload to reduce stress. The well-being days (are) just a day to give time. We’re not under the illusion that the wellbeing days solve all our problems at all. TMD: When can we expect a more detailed plan for the fall? MS: In the coming couple of weeks. We’re working on the details right now, but in the grand scheme, we’re expecting to have a significantly more in-person fall semester with much more residential life and more of our classes in person. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it to you by the middle of the month. TMD: In late January, the Office for Institutional Equity released two annual reports on sexual and gender-based misconduct, one looking at students and one looking at University employees. The student report included breakdowns of reported allegations and investigative and appellate outcomes (if any), whereas the employee report did not include an appendix or distinguish between assault and harassment in its data. Both employee and student misconduct affect the University community, and cases like Philbert’s and Anderson’s have brought attention to alleged sexual misconduct from employees in particular. Do you have any thoughts on the University’s attitude toward these two sources of sexual and gender-based misconduct on
Daily Staff Reporter Alec Cohen can be reached at cohenale@umich.
ALEC COHEN/Daily The Michigan Daily talked with President Mark Schlissel about well-being days and plans for the Fall semester in an interview March 2.
ALEC COHEN/Daily The University of Michigan announces civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson as this year’s commencement speaker (NOTE: This photo was taken at the 2018 Spring Commencement, before the COVID-19 pandemic).
campus and/or an explanation of the difference in detail between the two public reports? MS: I think you’re pointing out something that’s important that many of us have noticed: The nature of the reporting is quite different when it comes to student events as compared to faculty and staff events. One of the recommendations we got in an earlier review of our policies is that we should have a single umbrella policy that uses the same definitions and provides the same information for everybody. That’s what we’re in the process of doing; we’ll be ready to push that out hopefully by the summertime. TMD: Especially following the WilmerHale investigation of Philbert, which detailed several instances where allegations were brought forward to OIE and University officials but not thoroughly investigated, can you comment on this single-digit rate of investigation for reports against students and the approximate 12% rate of investigation for employee reports reflected in the two reports from this year? MS: When I first started reading these things, shortly after I got here, recognizing that sexual misconduct and sexual harassment are incredibly serious problems, I was surprised how few full investigations were done compared to the total number of reports. What I’ve learned is OIE reports every single report of misconduct or harassment. We report everything. The other thing that I learned is that investigation is only one way forward. There’s another pathway forward that involves more of a discussion or mediation between individuals where a person has made a complaint against another person. There are many people that just want to be heard and undergo some kind of process of accountability, and that sort of more restorative justice approach is being used and offered as an option. Sometimes we’ll get complaints that actually aren’t illegal or disallowed by our rules. In order for something to be sexual harassment, it has to be severe and pervasive. So sometimes we get a complaint of moderate severity, and we don’t ignore it. We feed back the information to a local leadership, and we try to address it. It doesn’t become an investigation because it doesn’t fall under something that’s disallowed by Title IX. When it comes to Philbert, one of the things that we’re trying to learn from the report and from the help that Guidepost is giving us, is how we can do a better job fully investigating reports of misconduct to prevent multi-year serial misbehavior. We have to look at and revise our procedures and make sure we’re not missing things. We have to get better at this. TMD: On the website of Guidepost Solutions, the investigative firm hired to help implement the WilmerHale recommendations, they claim their goal is to “help you seize opportunities on the horizon, minimize disruption, or move on from difficulty.” What message do you think that sends to survivors of alleged sexual assault at U-M, and does U-M see the entire process as just another disruption?
Are you committed to structural change when it comes to sexual misconduct? MS: Well, the description you give is certainly not the reason we hired them. What they’re contracted to do is to help us implement the recommendations of the WilmerHale report. We’re absolutely committed to diminishing the frequency of misconduct and harassment to zero. It should never be tolerated. What we need their help with is establishing an environment where the people who are subjected to misconduct feel that their complaints are going to be taken seriously — that there won’t be retaliation against them. The fact that only a fraction of instances of misconduct ever gets reported is a huge problem. We really need to increase our community’s confidence that they’re going to be treated well and fairly. The other thing they’re going to help us with is look(ing) at our procedures inside of OIE and how we do our investigations. They’re not here to reinvestigate the Philbert matter. They’re here to help us make the place better and stronger. TMD: The Lecturers’ Employee Organization is in the midst of bargaining for a new contract with the Regents. Last year, Regent Ron Weiser (R) sent an email to the entire board that disparaged Graduate Employees’ Organization picketers as probably “hired union hacks” and one member as “an idiot.” With this type of discourse going on behind the scenes, how can organized labor on campus believe that the University and the Board are negotiating with them in good faith? MS: All of our employees are important and essential for our mission. The institution respects and values the people that work with us. There’s no way we could be outstanding in research and teaching and service and patient care without the tens of thousands of people that work with us. For example, in recent months, I’ve been down on South Campus at our transportation facility visiting with bus drivers and talked to them about their experience and thanked them for being frontline workers. In the Dow Building a couple months ago, I sat and visited with maintenance and custodial staff for the University and thanked them for working under difficult circumstances; you can’t do custodial work from home. When it comes to our organized workers and our unionized workers, we always endeavor to bargain in good faith. It’s incredibly important for both sides to believe that the other side is bargaining in good faith, otherwise the whole system breaks down and the University suffers. TMD: In that same email, Weiser wrote about a GEO member: “While he was cleanly dressed it was impossible to imagine him in a classroom. Janitor maybe from the mental content.” What kind of message does that send to the University’s custodial staff and other frontline workers, most of whom have risked their health to work in person and keep the University functioning throughout
the pandemic? MS: I can say the board, myself and the leadership of the University incredibly appreciate the work of those folks in particular. Think about when you come to campus the morning after snowfall. Those darn paths are all clear, and there’s rarely patches of ice. These folks do a spectacular job. They’re outside shoveling my driveway at five in the morning. I can’t even get any exercise; they’re out there before I would get out there. So, they have a huge amount of gratitude and respect from me. TMD: February was marked by several virtual events around campus in honor of Black History Month. At the kickoff event Feb. 1, one student panelist, LSA Student Government Vice President Josiah Walker, said he wants the University to continue to highlight Black history beyond the month of February. What is or will the University do to elevate its commitment to Black students in the months and years to come? MS: I think Josiah is 100% correct. You pick out a month just to draw people’s attention. But we should focus on issues around racism, equity, Blackness in America, Black Lives Matter — almost every day of the academic year. Also from a research perspective, the Institute for Social Research runs a very famous program called the Program for Research on Black Americans. We’ve got a Center for Research on Ethnicity and Culture and Public Health, the Center for the Study of Black Youth in LSA and the National Center for Institutional Diversity. We’ve worked hard, and we’ve only been modestly successful increasing representation, not just of African Americans, but of many other underrepresented groups on campus. In terms of studying Black History, I don’t think we understand American history without understanding Black History. The Black experience is the American experience in many, many ways, and we have to understand it to live together and to be scholars. TMD: We know that the men’s and women’s basketball teams are both having great seasons. When was the last time you got out on your driveway — on that hoop you have — and shot some baskets? MS: It was last fall before the weather turned. It’s often on the weekends, sometime in the late afternoon when I just have to shake the cobwebs out. The embarrassing thing is I’m 63 now, and I can actually just shoot baskets by myself and pull muscles. So, I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like. One of my bucket list things is I’d like to invite some of our coaches or basketball players to come and play some pickup on the driveway. So, maybe after the season’s over or maybe when they bring home a national championship we can play some hoops here at the president’s house. That’d be great. Daily News Editor Calder Lewis can be reached at calderll@umich. edu. Daily Staff Reporters Jared Dougall and Christian Juliano can be reached at jdougall@umich.edu and julianoc@umich.edu.
4 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Michigan in Color
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Reaching for the stars ANDREW NAKAMURA MiC Columnist
I am a Gemini sun, Libra moon and Cancer rising. To people well-versed in astrology, these placements indicate that I am an idealist, easily approachable and generally easy to get along with, but I tend to get bored almost as soon as I start a conversation and cannot make a decision to save my life. However, most people, when I begin discussing the practice of astrology, think that I am a complete fool. Many people, mostly other men, dismiss astrology as some ridiculous practice that only unreasonable people, mostly women, believe in. This idea, of course, is narrowminded, condescending and misogynistic. I invite disbelievers to see astrology through the perspective of people who actually do take it seriously and perhaps listen to my account before completely disregarding the topic. Astrology is often the butt of many jokes, but it has helped me discover newfound confidence, form connections with other likeminded individuals and further challenge my understanding of human behavior. In the summer of 2019, I attended a summer writing program in Ohio, about 4,000 miles away from my home in Kapolei, Hawaii. When I was young, I had always kept to myself in the back corner of the classroom. In this program, I was suddenly dropped into completely new and unfamiliar territory, surrounded by 200 brilliant writers from all over the country. When I arrived, I was terrified beyond any fear I had ever felt before. I thought my writing and ideas were neither poetic nor important enough to share, and I found myself subconsciously muting my child-like fascination with fireflies and willow trees (neither of which existed on my island home) in order to fit in with my peers. Even when the residence hall common rooms echoed with laughter and excitement, my body tried to merge into the concrete walls — until an outgoing stranger named Minnie asked me if I knew anything about astrology. I had never believed in astrology before, but I was so desperate to make friends that I was willing to learn more about it just to appeal to this kind stranger. She first used an online natal chart calculator to show me my own placements and help me understand how astrology may play a role in my own personality. For instance, my moon in Libra suggests that I strive to maintain peace in my personal relationships, which may lead to surrender during arguments. My shy nature has always
made me despise confrontation (even now that I have become more confident), so this description was dead-on. It felt nice to know that Minnie was able to gather this information about me without me having to actually be vulnerable with somebody I had met one day prior. After doing a little more research on the anatomy of the natal chart, I found a wealth of information about all the even more intricate parts of astrology like houses, decans and Chiron: all important sections and celestial bodies of a natal chart that can be easily overlooked. However, simply learning more about the inner workings of astrology didn’t convince me that any of this information was worth learning about –– or truthful, for that matter. One of the biggest reasons for my skepticism about astrology was that it is not supported by scientific evidence. Even now, I recognize that astrology is not backed by scientific discovery; what does planetary orbit have anything to do with my character? I could easily find correlations between my behavior and the planets’ positions in my birth chart, such as my scattered thoughts and curiosity about others’ lives reflected in my mercury placement in Gemini. However, I still found no evidence to prove that these were more than mere coincidences, even if these connections seem eerily accurate. Though my TikTok application’s For You Page is full of explanations of planetary returns and energetic frequency, I still find concepts such as Mercury retrogrades and planetary placements illogical. So, why do I still believe in astrology? Well, that’s simply because I am not a logical person. Irrationality is a fundamental part of the human experience. Astrology may be irrational, but so were my impostor syndrome and intense fears of social rejection. Nevertheless, these manifested in very real ways, and I still clung to my anxiety toward approaching new people. If I could believe one irrational theory, what was stopping me from believing in astrology as well? As I tried to wrap my head around the petroglyphic symbols scattered around my birth chart, I realized that believing the stars influence our personalities is no more unreasonable than believing that I was an unintelligent and unlikable person. Logically, upon having this realization, I could now recognize that my fears from before were irrational, but I was still afraid of judgment. In order to combat an irrational fear, I decided to approach it with another irrational belief system. I decided to learn more about how the astrological traits
of the signs in my birth chart could help me grow. When I read more about the traits of Gemini suns, I discovered that they were typically popular, outgoing and loved sharing their knowledge with others. Suddenly, I felt like I had the potential deep within me to overcome my intense fear of social rejection. I simply had to embrace my innate Gemini characteristics and grow into the person I was destined to be. At the same time, I learned that it was common for Geminis to frequently shift their personalities to appeal more easily to a wide variety of people. I wasn’t aware that I was shunning parts of myself to fit in at the time, but reading about it made me realize that this was a fault I wanted to correct. Without reading about the common tendencies of Geminis, I may never have realized that I was hiding parts of myself away. My birth chart never told me something about myself that I didn’t already know; it just made me confront the perception of myself that I never desired to acknowledge. I used astrology to analyze myself. When I confronted the shy, anxious parts that I wanted to change, I formed a clear vision of the person I wanted to be. After years of conscious growth and introspection, I am much more outgoing and expressive than before. I am much happier with the man I am today than the shy young boy I was that summer. Over the course of the two-week program, I continued to ask Minnie about astrology and her journey as a writer and her dreams for the future. Together, we spent many hours editing each other’s poetry, running around the campus and talking until the late hours of the night. Two years later, she remains one of my best friends. Had I scoffed in her face and told her that astrology is irrational and fake, I surely would have never been able to form the connection that I did. I understand why people often don’t take astrology seriously, but without astrology, I would have never formed connections with others who shared my interest in astrology, and I would not have become cognizant of the unique parts of myself that I repressed in order to assimilate. I’m not saying that everyone has to adopt the practice of astrology; people should do whatever works for them. I think we should all take the time to examine the things that we have initially dismissed as unimportant. Perhaps remaining openminded and focused on our own growth is more important than forming a rigid and perfectly rational worldview.
Design by Erin Shi
The scent of my mother By Rachael Kong, MiC Columnist
mysterious as a 1975 alchemical creation concocted out of 132 perfumes from her symphony of sweet florals dusky ambers & oceanic linens all fused with her natural chemicals and last night’s kimchi stew yet her underlying melodies simply untraceable like the base colors of Pollock paintings like the diffuser of life she inhaled her pride while i spewed secrets in english: words she would stumble upon as she carried dictionaries of puzzles piling them gently despite her clogged filters she exhaled only the shasta daisies into my lonely garden i’m sorry umma but how can i forget those sighs and salty tears you wiped with the hands that carried whiffs of burnt bulgogi hoping to conceal the embarrassment of which i was the cause with spritzes of patience and fresh nectarine blossom
when it’s already imprinted in my memory and your memory foam i now dive straight into its fluffy haven and kiss the nostalgic whiffs, scrambling for hints that’d later haunt me like the unopened letter stashed away in my suitcase if only i could then forget how your bruises hardly appeared to heal i’m sorry umma but i needed time to heal as my spit-out sharp-edged words slashed rare diamonds unabatedly yet the mother in you knew my whimpers were sirens so you’d pretend not to crack while bruising internally saying nothing yet everything with your smile lines your light spritzes of nectarine hope your scent is medicine without expiration taken on nights i grapple with my future becoming and as your scent permeates my mind i bottle you up in my heart’s crevices knowing you’ll want me to wear my life proudly the way you could not.
Why you should keep items that spark joy ANCHAL MALH MiC Columnist
I love learning that I’ll have the apartment to myself for the day. Just the words “I am heading out for a few hours” send endorphins rushing through my head because of the realization that I now have several hours I can dedicate to tidying up my apartment. The prospect of organizing my life by cleaning overtakes my mind as I start a load of laundry while “Neon Guts” by Lil Uzi Vert blasts through my speakers. Before I moved to college, I was a hoarder. If you’d taken a peek under my bed, you would have found my McDonald’s receipt from four months ago, my middle school yearbook and the Adidas Superstar shoebox I got with a shoe purchase from three years ago. But after discovering the inner peace I gained after using my own will to remove useless junk from my space, I changed my lifestyle from that of a hoarder to that of a neat freak. Cleaning had always been a chore to me. My mother taught me how to do laundry and iron my clothes when I was nine and clean dishes when I was ten. By twelve, I was hovering over her shoulder as she taught me how to measure the perfect amount of salt for any dish. With my Indo-Caribbean heritage, it was expected of me, the girl of the house, to learn to cook
and clean from a very young age. I began to dread cleaning because I was required to live up to this cultural standard while my brothers would never have to fathom the idea of using a bucket and a mop to wipe the hardwood floors every Sunday morning. The scent of Clorox wipes and Scrubbing Bubbles Bathtub Cleaner attacked my lungs, choking me slowly as I scrubbed the dirt and grime off the bathtub walls. Eventually, I became Cinderella before she received her magical carriage, gown and glass slippers; my free time was spent picking up after my older brothers. While my brothers were able to laugh in the hallways as they got ready to go see their friends, the sound of water coming from the kitchen sink was my small companion for the weekend. Having to clean up after yourself and be responsible for the adults in your household is an emotionally grueling task as a child. It sours your perspective on cleaning because it’s a parent-mandated duty rather than an act of self-care. After moving to Ann Arbor for my freshman year, keeping my side of the dorm room clean was initially challenging. It was frustrating to come home to my room, with makeup and clothing scattered across my desk and my unmade bed, serving as a constant reminder of my terrible time management and sleep schedule. I felt defeated every day as I shoved my little black makeup bag under my desk and into an organizer. My eyes felt heavy
and exhaustion washed over me, because I was always wondering when this cycle would come to an end. One day, I discovered Marie Kondo’s method of tidying, where she worked with those in cluttered spaces to declutter their environment and introduce them to a new perspective on cleaning. Kondo would ask people to only keep the items which “spark joy” in them, meaning that if someone held an object in their hand and did not feel excitement or happiness, then they would remove the object from their space. Ultimately, the purpose of the exercise was to declutter by getting rid of various old items and creating space for something new. After coming across the KonMari method of cleaning, I decided it was time to purge my room. I ran to my dresser, starting with the top drawer, and removed every piece of clothing one by one until they were heaped into a mountain on the floor. Band t-shirts from middle school and jeans from my first year of high school had all followed me to college. I was holding onto memories that I felt neither emotionally connected to nor thought were relevant to me as a freshman in college. I did not understand how holding onto old pieces of clothing could block me from reaching a sense of peace until I took the time to hold each garment in my hand and ask myself, “Does this spark joy?”
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Once my wardrobe no longer consisted of old clothing, I felt as if I had been set free from all the weight that had been holding me down. Though I was thankful for my past memorabilia that accompanied me throughout summers in New York City and time spent with friends, I was approaching a new beginning. All of a sudden, the sun looked brighter and the breeze came through the dorm windows. There was an extra skip in my step as I lined up my three garbage bags of clothes against the wall to take out. I stood in the middle of my room, looking at the small pile of clothes I had left, and smiled. Finally, cleaning made me feel good.
Decluttering is now a weekly routine of mine. A surface can be properly cleaned without having to move something. A workplace is like a temple, so having a clean environment is essential. In a time when everything is virtual, keeping items that “spark joy” can keep you motivated, happy and focused. Nurturing your environment with sunlight and plants is a way to improve your mood and your point of view towards work. You deserve to study, work and play in a stress-free environment this semester, so give yourself a chance to fall in love with cleaning.
The next step MEGHAN DODABALLAPUR MiC Columnist
I have always been waiting. When I was too young to be in school, I envied my older siblings for having math homework. When I was in elementary school, I woke up at the same time as my older siblings, who were in middle school and high school, because I wanted to make sure I was ready to be on the “big kid” schedule. When I finally got to middle school, I bubbled with anticipation while spinning the dial on my brand-new locker, but this excitement quickly faded; after all, high school was more intriguing than a locker. By the time high school came around, I was determined to get into a good college and spent my time doing everything I could to prepare for that next step. Before I went to sleep, I imagined scenarios of what my life would be like on a college campus. I saw myself decked out in maize and blue at tailgates. I pictured the rush of being in the Big House for my first college football game. I fantasized about
making new friends and bonding over our everlasting love for John Mulaney. The next night, I would be at the library studying for a biochemistry exam. I imagined nearly all mundane activities becoming slightly more tolerable once I was in college. I slept knowing that my dreams for the next step might just be a reality. I slept peacefully and with hope. Now, as a freshman, I sit here typing this in my Ann Arbor apartment after getting kicked out of the University of Michigan residence halls. Though I’m quite literally in the place I spent four years dreaming about, the satisfaction I expected to come along with it didn’t come the way I imagined it would. Making new friends comes with the anxiety of COVID-19 exposure. Sleepless nights cramming for exams at the library have become me sitting at home alone, without friends — studying and coming to the bitter realization that my time management skills have become subpar. It’s far less glamorous than I had anticipated. Days blend into one another, all consisting of an endless cycle of
homework, Zoom and staring at the four blank concrete walls of my apartment. On top of it all, my constant need for being overly prepared for the next step seems to have disappeared. When you’re younger, the milestones are so clearly predetermined. You get your driver’s license when you turn 16 years old, and you pursue higher education if you have the means and desire to. No one ever mentioned how the next steps get fuzzier when you’re older — how, to a certain extent, you have to choose your next step. You can decide what the future holds for you, but now with the pandemic, the future is filled with uncertainty more than ever. Preparing for the next step isn’t what it used to be. It’s no longer as simple as waking up at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. It’s not as easy as spinning the dial on my brand-new locker. What I can do is learn how to be content with the way things are, instead of drowning in sorrow that things aren’t as pictureperfect as I had imagined them to be. I can bring light into the seemingly dark
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four walls around me and have that be enough. Life appears to be at a standstill with the ongoing pandemic, yet the vast majority of people are still clinging to their hopes of what they want to do in the future. With estimates of herd immunity being achieved in 2022, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that I shouldn’t waste a year of my life glorifying what’s next. As college students, we often forget that we are still so rich in time. The ongoing pandemic makes it so easy
for us to see how much time is slipping away, but we are still young in the grand scheme of it all. The pressure that I put on myself in my youth to be over-prepared for the next step has always been selfinflicted. Recognizing that there is time to prepare at a normal rate while still learning to enjoy the nuances of everyday life is something that is more than achievable for me. I’ve spent so much of my life waiting for the next step. I’m done waiting.
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Michigan in Color
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 5
God’s own country ALOK ABHILASH MiC Columnist
Returning home to Kerala, my home state in India, is as exhilarating today as it was the first time when my parents brought our young family from America. I was five years old. I remember incessantly pestering my mother, asking, “Are we there yet?” Annoyed, she handed me a brochure with pictures of Kerala that captivated me. The greenery and the lakes were a stark contrast to what I witnessed in Atlanta. Instead of the brochure keeping me pacified for some time, like my mother hoped it would, it evoked more questions than answers: “Does this place have a school where they don’t give homework?” and my personal favorite, “Why is it called God’s Own Country?” Finally, my mother found something she could quiet me with. She asked me to close my eyes and believe that we were indeed going to God’s Own Country. Even now, every flight home carries with it the same evergreen brochure highlighting Kerala’s natural splendor and tourist attractions along with our grandiose slogan in big proud letters, “God’s Own Country.” (Tourism accounts for 10% of its revenue but 24% of the state’s total employment). It always brings a smile to my face, as I may not believe in God anymore but I do believe in God’s Own Country. The first striking thing about Kerala is its peculiar color of green that dominates our coconut trees. I can’t claim that I’ve traveled the world extensively, but having seen most of India I can claim that no other place has our green. Kerala, geographically, is just north of the equator, but it’s in the peninsular part of India bordered by the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea creating an optimal climate I sorely miss at times in the cold of Ann Arbor. It would seem that the sunlight and the moisture — much like the ebony and ivory in a piano creating a symphony — interacted to create a sunkissed green that shimmers with dew drops. Every Thursday in school, I had the best view to witness our gifts of nature. My school was built prior to stringent ecological laws passing in Kerala. So, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of our relatively big city, there’s an expansive forest accompanied by a lake that offers a spellbinding view from the school library on the top floor. Every Thursday, we’d have to sit in the library for an hour, but no book in the library quite interested me like the view outside the window. I was captivated by it. I remember towards the end of tenth grade, on a particularly melancholy day, I was making my way to the library. I had just become aware of the fact that I’d be leaving Kerala for the last two years of high school. I knew that soon I’d have to say goodbye to friends who I’d met in the third grade and who knew me inside and out. I’d have to say goodbye to teachers who watched me grow up and, more importantly, helped me grow
up. And so I made my way to the library — which was empty at the time — so that I could collect my thoughts. A wave of nostalgia hit me. The normally stern librarian saw something serious was going on in the back of my mind and let me in as long as I kept quiet. I sat in the same spot I had for years, but on a Friday and in the evening when the sun was setting. The sunset that day was captivating. An eclectic combination of different colors layered upon one another. There was yellow light emanating from the sun that gave way to orange that gave way to a neon-like pink capped off by a sky blue trying its hardest to stave off the night. The lake was more than happy to become the sky’s canvas, and the green of the forest had an orange sheen that seemed to make the light bounce off of it. I remember trying to create a save file of that image in my head, Alok don’t forget this, Alok don’t forget this. It was the second time in my life that I implored myself to never forget what I was witnessing.
where we couldn’t continue on, as there was no pathway. So we got out of the car and made our way through a forested area with an inviting canopy. I call it inviting as it let just enough light so we could see each other, and it brought a coolness along with it that made me want to snuggle in a warm blanket. The acned, frail dude who suggested the location assured us that we’d find the spot just around two corners. He wasn’t lying when he said two corners, but he didn’t do us any favors by omitting how long the two corners were. To our shock, we found a relatively flat terrain getting steeper, and we realized we were at the foot of a hill which nearly depleted our morale and would have made us consider going back had we not looked back and realized that the way back was long as well. We persevered and got to the bottom of the hill, and we realized we would have to walk upstream before we got to the waterfall. The once-formidable stream had lulled in the summertime as it glided
Design by Yasmine Slimani
Tarab: music’s mystical ecstasy YASMINE SLIMANI MiC Columnist
AZHAR P./Daily
The first time was earlier in 10th grade when I visited my ancestral home in Thodupuzha, which directly translates to “the touch of a river.” A huge district in Kerala, Thodupuzha is a compilation of uninhabited forested hills, streams, lakes and a sleepy town which makes it a trekker’s paradise. It was on visits there that I interacted with nature in its rawest form without a defined path and numerous dilemmas along the way with no phone signal to bail us out. While hanging out with my cousins and their friends, we got wind of a cool place we hadn’t yet explored. Apparently, there was a waterfall at the start of a stream that joined the river that was secluded and set to become our spot. I continuously relented against visiting it, not trusting my ability to swim and anxious of dying from a waterfall fall. Huh, waterfall fall would get me on the news, I thought (and it’s a fun thing to say). Armed with a sudden stoicism about impending death, we made our way to the stream. Tarred roads gave way to concrete ones which gave way to mud roads that made the car rattle. Finally, we reached the point
along in no rush to meet its river. We could now see the waterfall in its entirety, and it was microscopic compared to the stock image in my brain (of Niagara Falls), but it was still big enough to make us question the sanity in our plans to get near it. Our guide assured us there was a spot behind the waterfall that we could stand behind where it would be perfectly safe. So, we made our way through the bushy coast of the stream until we reached a point where we had to get into the water. Eventually, we got around the side of the waterfall. There was a sizable gap between the rest of the stream and the waterfall due to the rock structure. I joined the audacious members of the group who were standing under the plunge, and the water felt like a cold compress massage, or as if the shower had a 50% spike in its water pressure. With great trepidation, we made our way to the front of the waterfall, and I was asked to look up. The water here seemed to be devoid of any constraints or concerns.
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There are many words that are impossible to translate directly to English; their existence in one language and absence in another makes it difficult to ascribe a particular meaning to them. Tarab is one of those words. Loosely translated to “enchantment,” tarab is an Arabic word describing a deep, stirring musical performance that launches the audience into a trance-like state of ecstasy. The creation of tarab by an artist or musical piece is difficult to pinpoint. Whether it be a result of poignant, lilting vocals, mesmerizing riffs, stirring instrumentals or profound lyrics, these seemingly mystical components culminate to create an experience of mesmerization, a world in which all that exists is the music and the intense bodily response one has to hearing it. When discussing the cultural presence of tarab in Arabic music, Umm Kulthum is almost always used as the pinnacle of such a phenomenon. An Egyptian diva who rose to fame in the mid-to-late 1900s, Umm Kulthum was known to bewitch her audience, rousing their souls in her entrancing live performances. With a powerful singing voice and intensive training in Quranic recitation, Kulthum held a firm command over her tone, unwavering and expertly controlled as it swelled into triumphant notes or dwindling cries. Her live performances can best be characterized as a conversation between Umm Kulthum, her musicians and her listeners. The audience is deeply immersed by the divinity of her vocals and the way they blend seamlessly with the powerful instrumentals backing her, sending the crowd into a delirious fit of cries and shouts. The spectators are steeped in rapture, and with every powerful waver of her voice or deliberately drawn-out note, they respond with unrestrained enthusiasm — a holy sermon between a preacher and her listeners. Umm Kulthum’s live performances, and the tarab which she so expertly cultivated among
her listeners, are rooted in a sense of ambiguity. Such profound bodily experiences engage with one’s mind, body and soul, and that power is difficult to articulate. No words I could muster would ever seem to do justice to the bewitching performances of Umm Kulthum and the seemingly supernatural force that fell over her listeners. Tarab as an experience, in traditional Arabic music and beyond, harbors that same sense of mystery. Because tarab is difficult to translate and is typically connotated with Arab musical performances, it feels like any attempt to neatly confine tarab to a short English definition falls short. Perhaps the experience of tarab is not meant to be translated or systematized at all — it must be felt. After all, the indescribably deep connection that one can have with music is a universal part of the human experience; the out-of-body euphoria that music can evoke is one that transcends the simplicity of language. As a lover of music, I know that I’ve experienced the peculiar magic of tarab in ways that cannot adequately be described by words. You too can probably recall a moment in which that ineffable force has stirred you, whether it be unsuspecting tears welling in your eyes or an explosive, nameless sensation rising in the pit of your stomach. Maybe it’s the song that comes on in the car and hurls you into a fit of screams with your friends as you all pour every ounce of your strength into the lyrics. It might even be the quiet lull of your favorite Frank Ocean song, heard with eyes shut and body still, unraveling you through its celestial beauty. The beauty of tarab is heightened by its lack of simplicity; it is more than a superficial engagement with the production or lyrics, rather it is a complete surrendering to the nameless, spiritual exaltation that this type of music demands. Though the conditions of tarab are difficult to explain, it moves us all in a way that does not need to be entirely understood. In its enigmatic nature lies a comforting sanctity: a shared, almost holy experience that connects us all.
Raise the federal minimum wage HUGO QUINTANA MiC Columnist
This past summer, I worked at an Amazon fulfillment center. With an “appealing” starting wage of $15 an hour, I forced myself to work 10-hour days beginning at 7 a.m. for four days straight, every week. This was an attempt to make as much money as possible before heading back to college in the fall. I worked with hundreds of workers operating forklifts, box cutters, tape guns and pallet jacks. Though the work takes a toll on your physical health, the $15 hourly wage and the ease of picking up shifts attract many people to the facility. I was just a broke college kid trying to save up some spending cash for the fall, but the majority of the workers were mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers working to make ends meet. The federal minimum wage has remained unchanged for over 10 years at $7.25 an hour, and it is essential that this minimum be increased to $15 an hour. These blue-collar head-ofhouseholds were some of the hardest working and nicest people I have met. Yet, working 40 hours a week at $15 per hour only brings home a bi-weekly check of $1,200. And that’s before taxes. As the cost of living continues to rise and more people cannot afford basic necessities such as housing and food, large trilliondollar corporations continue to underpay their workers while constantly receiving tax cuts from the federal government. My coworkers at Amazon represent people who were lucky enough to score a “high-paying” job, while many other Americans continue to work for even more substandard wages. Our federal government seems to have been heavily founded on the principles of Economics 101such as minimal regulation of the free market and “trickle-down” economic policy in an effort to spur economic growth. This economic theory refers to the idea that
have to work long and tiring hours for most of their life just to afford a roof over their heads and food on their table. The lack of a higher federal minimum wage also negatively affects already marginalized communities. Approximately 42% — almost half of all U.S. workers — make less than $15 an hour. Of the 42%, people of color and women disproportionately hold jobs paying less than a $15 per hour wage. Federally uplifting the poor, especially those who are people of color, will create huge opportunities for upward mobilization — something already proven to be difficult for minorities. Increasing “The rich have never had to worry wages will better economic about facing eviction or where their disparities and racial disparities by reducing next meal was going to come from the disproportionate and have instead worried about number of poor people of color. A study done where to distribute their next tax by the Economic cut: toward an increased net worth Policy Institute found that raising or to neoliberal campaign support. the minimum wage Meanwhile, millions of workingto $15 would affect 38.1% of Black workers class people have to work long and and 33.4% of Hispanic tiring hours for most of their life just workers by creating the opportunity for them to to afford a roof over their heads and earn raises, compared to food on their table.” approximately 23% of White workers receiving raises. Thus, this policy can begin to bridge the economic wage gap existing across racial lines. A federal minimum wage of $15 is not the adjusted for inflation — fell to negative levels in 1991, following the only thing to be done to diminish economic end of his presidency. Similarly, following inequality. Though more states have begun this series of tax cuts, the American working investing in the working class, the federal class experienced a decrease in hourly wage government has yet enacted a living wage following a second round of corporate tax for its working people. Increasing wages cuts in the 1980s. In that same vein, this to $15 is key to ensuring an affordable trend continues today. Instead of mandating living situation and will drive the economy a basic living wage, our government has upwards, advancing the welfare of the decided that they work for corporations and American people. The strong and hardtheir definitions of “economy” instead of working mothers, fathers, grandmothers their constituents. The rich have never had and grandfathers I knew at Amazon were to worry about facing eviction or where their a small representation of working-class next meal was going to come from and have Americans. I know that any industry which instead worried about where to distribute pays below $15 has the same dedicated their next tax cut: toward an increased net individuals who are in deserving need of a worth or to neoliberal campaign support. raise so that they can finally begin to live a Meanwhile, millions of working-class people more comfortable life. reducing taxes on wealthy corporations will stimulate business investment and therefore economic growth. But giving huge tax cuts to these large corporations like Amazon has only made the rich richer and the poor poorer. In fact, when looking at Reagan-era tax cuts for the rich, the real gross domestic product growth rate — a statistic showing how much a nation’s GDP grows from one year to another, as
Design by Marina Sun
Scallion pancakes on Sunday MARINA SUN MiC Columnist
Every Sunday without fail, my mom and I gather around the kitchen island and make (cong yóu bing), or Chinese scallion pancakes together. The flaky layers and simple ingredients combine to create an aromatic and easy-to-make dish! Ingredients (makes 2 scallion pancakes): 1.) 2 cups all-purpose flour 2.) ½ cup boiling water, 1 cup room temperature water 3.) 2 bunches of scallions, thinly sliced 4.) 1 tablespoon salt and extra to taste 5.) 2 tablespoons olive oil Step 1: Making the dough Combine the flour, water (both boiling and room temperature) and 1 teaspoon of salt together in a large bowl — order of ingredients added doesn’t matter! Use your hands to knead the dough for eight minutes, or until the combination forms a wet dough. Cover the bowl with a towel or cling film, and let the dough rest for around 2 hours. Step 2: Assembling the pancake Take the dough out of the bowl and split it into two even parts. Set aside one half, and place the other half on a lightly floured rolling board. Coat all sides of the dough with flour, and use a rolling pin to flatten the
dough into a thin layer, keeping a circular shape. Sprinkle a couple pinches of salt across the surface of the dough. Once the dough is shaped, use the back of a spoon or a cooking brush to spread a thin layer of olive oil on the open surface of the dough. The oil should cover most of the dough, but be sure to not let it spill over the edges! Then, spread your scallions evenly across the surface of the dough. Step 3: Forming the pancake Starting from the bottom edge, tightly roll the dough into a coil. Once the coil is formed, twist and press it into a spiral shape, firmly pressing the tail end of the coil into the middle of the spiral so it seals properly. Then, use your rolling pin to shape the dough back into a moderately thin circular shape. Repeat the assembly steps with the other half of dough. Step 4: Cooking the pancake Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into a cast iron skillet on medium-low heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then, place one pancake into the pan and cover it with a lid. The stove should be on medium-low heat throughout. Each side should take around five minutes to cook, but be sure to continuously monitor the pancake to ensure it doesn’t burn. Once you see the surface form a golden brown color and/ or start to form bubbles, it’s time to flip. Repeat with the other pancake, and serve warm!
Arts
6 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Artist Profile: Grace Coudal captures intimacy through a camera lens
All photos courtesy of Grace Coudal
NINA MOLINA Daily Arts Writer
Traveling and living out of a converted Sprinter van last August, Art & Design senior Grace Coudal discovered the beauty and vastness of the American Southwest. With her friend and Art & Design class of 2020 graduate Dante Tsuzuki, Coudal drove through Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico to photograph the sweeping landscape. Thousands of miles away from Coudal’s native Chicago, this coveted region of American terrain inspired Coudal’s debut photography book Intimately South, Intimately West, which was ethically printed in Minneapolis and released Feb. 11.
Coudal believes that embracing a nomadic lifestyle during the pandemic led her toward a deeper intimacy with the landscape where she traveled
and the people she met. In a virtual interview with The Daily, Coudal she described a particular night at a Utah campsite. “The whole sky was black except for this sunset that was happening all across this mountainscape. I’ve literally never seen colors like that in my life,” she said. “When I started crying, I didn’t know why. It was like I was seeing heaven.” Funded by the Kelly McKinnell Memorial Scholarship grant from the School of Art & Design, Coudal launched her vision of a travel photo project into action. The dynamics of intimacy have always enamored Coudal. “Intimacy is just being blown away, and entranced by land that I have never seen. Feelings that have emerged that I couldn’t really even anticipate,” she said. Coudal only brought 10 rolls of 35 mm film for the month-long trip. “It was a very active choice to do film photography. I did not want to at all do digital. I did not want to be able to see the photos that I was taking. I wanted there to be an element of surprise,” Coudal said. Only after returning from her trip and scanning the film did she see the photos she took. “Photos serve as artifacts. With a digital photo, you can take as many
photos as you want just to get your ‘perfect’ shot,” Coudal said. “And I kind of liked that that was not an option.” Through the spontaneity granted through film photography and journal entries, her book revels in the joy of the unknown and unplanned, all while capturing an otherworldly landscape. Photos featuring nudity in nature, like people bathing in a creek, are included in her book as well — physical intimacy is a common thread throughout her other photography, as seen through Coudal’s personal projects like “Lusting Longer.” Coudal speaks on the self-portrait series as growing out of a transformative time in her life when she was navigating her own identity as a queer femme. “Lusting Longer” subverts the common fairytale trope of a girl venturing into the woods; Coudal re-imagines the tale by reclaiming her identity through fashion and photography. Hauling photography equipment and various outfits to Nichols Arboretum in the early morning, Coudal photographed herself.
“I was trying to reclaim myself, sensuality, desires and lust that I’ve been feeling toward people,” Coudal said. “It was a really meaningful project at that time, and I was happy with how it turned out.” Though she has been creating and selling zines — self-published work curated by images and text — since childhood, Coudal gravitated toward photography as a medium. The vulnerability one could capture through a lens enamored her. “You could display, entice people and provoke people very quickly, which I
really liked … Trying to progress the world into the way that we (Coudal and her friends) wanted it. We wanted it to move it. Photography was an accessible way to do that,” she said.
universal language of art,” she said. Coudal contextualized her mission: “Literally less than seven percent of LGBTQ+ individuals were ever taught an inclusive sexual education in the
The pairing of intimacy and photography stems from Coudal’s interest in how her sexuality intersects with the art she creates. Informed by her minor in LGBTQ and Sexuality Studies, her senior thesis project is on the future of queer femme intimacy. Coudal said that if she wasn’t a photographer, she’d be a sexologist. The intersection of these interests led her to conceptualize and launch her startup STAA, a brand focused on sex education and empowerment. Growing up as a queer teen, Coudal didn’t see her sexuality reflected in sex education class. So, STAA was born. “I wanted to make a company that was unapologetic about talking about sexuality, sex, intimacy and identities,” she said. Coudal found that much of LGBTQ+ and studies on sexuality can be dense and academically challenging to read. In an effort to promote more accessible content, Coudal hopes to inform other young people about sex through art, particularly her photography. “It makes life confusing when you aren’t taught those things, or you just don’t feel validated or seen if you are like a part of those communities. … And so I’m trying to translate that into a
United States, which is awful,” she said. “The brand is basically just trying to open these conversations, empower people about their own desires and their own intimacy.” Coudal also hopes to add a podcast to STAA where she can interview guests about sex, desire and LGBTQ+ topics. By broaching especially sensitive topics that can be really difficult and sensitive, such as sexual and gender identity and sexual intimacy, Coudal finds that having her photography online helps others feel validated and seen.
“There are so many things that are perfectly normal and amazing that people need to feel validated about and need to feel empowered about,” Coudal said. “They shouldn’t just feel validated — they should be celebrated for being themselves.”
The Michigan Music Business Club is here to dominate BEN SERVETAH Daily Arts Writer
SUDOKU
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
Release Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Is sporting 6 Bobby who lost to Billie Jean King in tennis’ “Battle of the Sexes” 11 Place to unwind 14 Grenoble’s river 15 Sign up, in Sussex 16 Reliever’s asset 17 “ABC” group, with “The” 19 USN clerk 20 Hot state 21 Heat unit 22 Ruhr Valley city 24 Art class subject 26 Part-plant DC Comics superhero 28 Compulsive thief, for short 30 Thoughts spoken onstage 31 Prefix with comic 32 “Not for me” 35 Left on a liner 36 Pioneer’s wagon with an upwardcurved floor 39 Popular side 42 Sore 43 Makeshift knives 47 More minute 49 Without a musical key 50 Weight loss guru 54 New Haven Ivy 55 Stream of insults, say 56 “It’s __ to you” 58 Given a meal 59 Printemps month 60 Skirt, as an issue ... or a hint to the puzzle’s circles 63 Outer: Prefix 64 Slices in a pie, often 65 Gold unit 66 Blue shade 67 Designer fragrance 68 Prepared for a TV interview
DOWN 1 Mischief 2 Ordinarily 3 Any of 11 1860s states 4 Sitcom planet 5 Outdoor home 6 Agree to more issues 7 Start to structure 8 Big name in fairy tales 9 Federal URL ending 10 Makes things slippery, in a way 11 Closes the marital deal 12 Peacock, e.g. 13 Surrounded by 18 Extremely 23 Shout from the main mast 25 Momentous victories 27 Part of UTEP 29 Excessively 32 Bench press target, for short 33 Bat wood 34 Metaphor for a mess
37 “Breaking Bad” agent 38 Prime meridian std. 39 Place near the Pennsylvania Railroad 40 Relax 41 Retirement income source 44 Down 45 Chemical bonding number
46 Tobogganed 48 Ophthalmologist, for short 49 Lago filler 51 Wound up costing 52 Highway through Whitehorse 53 __-France 57 Senior’s highlight 61 Comic strip cry 62 Non opposite
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
03/10/21 03/03/21
By Roland Huget ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/10/21
WHISPER “Is Saint Patricks day the best holiday of the year?”
“Is that even a question?”
When asked about the future of the newly-formed Michigan Music Business Club, Business junior Jonathan Hayman, co-founder and president of the club, did not shy from divulging all that the club has accomplished in its two years of existence. “This semester, we will have had (executives from) Amazon Music and Spotify, two of the most popular digital streaming platforms, speak for our club on behalf of the school,” Hayman said. “There’s not been any club in school history that has had that. There’s not been any club in school history that has had the president of the largest festival company (Gary Gersh) in the world speak (on their behalf).” Combining the passion of a music fan with the unrelenting drive of a Ross major, the MMBC is here to dominate. From the Ross School of Business to the School of Art & Design to LSA, the membership pool is filled with music industry hopefuls, united in their drive to break into the music scene, as talent managers, artists, marketing executives, concert planners — you name it. Thanks to the diverse crew of members (carefully curated by Hayman and Business junior Cassie Alexe, fellow co-founder), the MMBC has a massive network that has allowed them to plan events with some of the most powerful executives in the industry. Hayman and Alexe began developing the group in the summer of 2019, when the two were both just rising sophomores at the University. At that point, Hayman had already gathered a remarkably impressive resume in the music industry with experience planning concerts and marketing music for some of the hottest acts in hip hop. The idea for MMBC came to Hayman after the success of rapper Safari’s “Late Night Lover,” a song he had helped advertise. He realized he had nobody on campus to share this moment of accomplishment with. Hearing that Alexe had also been looking to enter the music industry, the two built an organization that seeks to make up for the lack of a music
business major on campus. “We just want to excite people and make them want to come to our events,” Alexe explained. “We think the best way to do that is to have these exciting people with super cool experiences come in and tell us what it was like working with Kanye. Tell us what it was like driving to Colorado to sit at a Nirvana concert and listen to them for the first time before signing them. These are such cool stories and it’s so intimate that everyone gets a lot out of it.” Indeed, it’s hard not to be impressed by the list of people the club has managed to secure: the former marketing director of Kanye West’s Yeezy apparel, a head executive from Coachella Music and Arts Festival, managers of artists like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters and The Chainsmokers. And these are just to name a few. With the availability of Zoom and the increased normalcy of over-the-computer meetings, the pandemic has only made it easier for the MMBC to bring in notable speakers — though, they explain, they had been hosting some meetings over FaceTime even before COVID-19 had reached campus. This, along with an impressive social media rollout, has allowed the infant group to continue expanding even in the midst of a global crisis. “We expect to have even greater turnouts for our future events once things are back in person,” Hayman said. “The club is just exponentially growing and we expect MMBC to grow into the biggest club that Michigan has ever seen.” If that sounds like a bold proclamation, that’s because it is. If asked why they built the club, Hayman and Alexe will tell you how important it is to have a passion for music and to build a community for those with like-minded goals. While this is undoubtedly true, make no mistake — the MMBC is a welloiled machine and their ambitions are trekking toward something bigger than a passion project. Few things are out of reach for these aspiring professionals, and if you are looking to one day score a job in the music industry, the Michigan Music Business Club is the place to be.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 7
Examining adolescence and stardom in ‘Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry’ ROSS LONDON & KATIE BEEKMAN
Daily Arts Writer & Senior Arts Editor
It is always exciting to get a look behind the curtain. In R.J. Cutler’s (“Belushi”) new documentary, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” he lifts the veil on the pop icon, who turns out to be just another teenager. In 140 minutes, Cutler mixes concert videography, home video and backstage footage of Eilish’s life to tell the story of superstardom. As the documentary tracks the conception and recording of her debut studio album — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? — the viewer is let into Eilish’s inner sanctum. Now 19 years old, Billie was only 15 at the beginning of the documentary and 18 when she swept the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, becoming the youngest ever to win in several categories. While pop newcomers like Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray have drawn comparisons to Taylor Swift and Lorde, the documentary positions Eilish’s predecessor as … Justin Bieber? Starting with a call from a manager about Bieber’s interest in collaborating and ending with a congratulatory FaceTime call backstage at Eilish’s 2020 Grammy sweep — one throughline is Eilish’s intense adoration, not necessarily of Bieber’s music, but of the artist himself. Still, after meeting him at Coachella, she sings every word to “Fall” — a song that sounds utterly boring sandwiched between Eilish’s discography.
It would be easy to call Bieber and Eilish opposites. To start, Eilish writes her own music at home with her brother, Finneas, while one can picture the entourage that has likely surrounded Bieber in the studio at all points in his career. A different argument, one that the documentary seems to make, is that Billie is her generation’s Bieber. Her music is “sad,” but as evidenced by the growing hordes of adoring fans, people her age are looking for someone who sings about feeling numb or broken — accompanied by the sounds of dental drills and crosswalk buzzing, no less. This is what makes one of the few scenes without Eilish so funny. Before the release of her debut album, Finneas explains to their parents that they need to write a hit song to please their record label. Of course, what they didn’t know is that they already had. “Bad Guy” — a song that Eilish represents with eel-like monsters in her journal — ousted the recordsmashing “Old Town Road” in the summer of 2019. The higher-ups wanted something more “accessible” but didn’t realize just how “accessible”
a teenager’s threats to seduce your dad can be, at least when Eilish is doing it. Despite Eilish’s dark lyrics and frank statements on mental health, we are welcomed into a loving and incredibly supportive family home. Eilish is coddled at times and spoiled at others, like when she is given her dream car on her 16th birthday. All of this, footage of a comfortable life in a warm home, reminds the viewer that mental wellness is often independent of one’s family situation; Eilish’s mom even says, “It is a horrible time to be a teenager.” Citing the 2008 recession, climate change, racism and the opioid epidemic, she says, “Kids are depressed, it’s a scary time.” But outside factors aren’t solely to blame. Adolescence is difficult, no matter how loved and supported one might be. Much of the film is about Eilish’s adolescence. Her woes are familiar — a boyfriend who has no time for her, a sense of self-consciousness (exacerbated by her fame) and a bad case of imposter syndrome. Throughout the film we glimpse her feelings of unworthiness; she fears Neon
letting her supporters down and doubts her own abilities. The arrogance of adolescence is on display too. Eilish seems to be under the impression that her own creative vision is unmatched; after a bad experience working with the director of one of her first music videos, she declared she would direct them herself in the future (and made good on that declaration). This was another common thread throughout the documentary — few people seem to grasp where Billie’s power comes from. When the screen at Coachella isn’t working correctly, Eilish is adamant that it displays her planned visuals, not her. Then in Italy, she runs off stage when she tears ligaments in her leg because she’s scared she can’t give the crowd a good show without jumping around. Even though her management assures her that the audience is there to see her, not the spectacle, Billie knows it’s about something more. Her fans want to see themselves in her and her brand — in tarantulas and uninhibited dancing. Despite claiming to “hate songwriting,” Eilish knows that she has tapped into a highly accessible weird. It’s no wonder then that the handful of 40-something-year-old, white, male executives don’t clap when Billie and Finneas finish playing new music for them. One insufficiently explored aspect of the film was the burden of stardom. When Eilish is criticized online for being rude during a meet-and-greet, she laments that she “can’t have a bad moment.” It is clear that Eilish
Design by Jonathan Walsh
wasn’t in this for fame, but it can’t be said that she doesn’t enjoy it. Fame has consequences for young people: Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and, yes, Justin Bieber, come to mind. When a member of Eilish’s public relations team suggests she withhold her (negative) opinions on drugs and alcohol, lest she grows up to change her mind, Eilish’s mother has a naïve response. Her mother lets the viewer in on her own fears, saying, “Why are your parents with you all the time … trying to help you not to decide to destroy your life like people in your shoes have done before.” The reality is, no amount of parental oversight can save a kid from the inferno of fame. And, to be clear, no one “decides” to succumb to that sort of pressure.
Moments like that one, and when Eilish’s mother worries about the freshly-licensed pop star driving to West Hollywood alone, only reinforce the normalcy of Billie’s home life. The presence of her parents only strengthens the fact that Eilish was only 16 years old when she toured around the world. Billie Eilish is the product of unconditional support from her family. The love she shares with her brother is heartwarming. The lesson to be learned is that teenage superstars are still adolescents with adolescent problems and that acknowledging and embracing one’s demons can unlock a supportive community that celebrates and shares your weirdness.
‘Ginny and Georgia’ and what it means to be biracial JESSICA CURNEY Daily Arts Writer
The relationship between a mother and daughter is always powerful — but have you ever wondered what kind of dynamic a white mother has with her biracial daughter when they are just 15 years apart in age? It’s a relationship worth examining, and “Ginny and Georgia” gives you a front-row seat. The series is supposed to be a modern-day “Gilmore Girls,” but it’s far from it. Perhaps it could be better described as a mix of “Euphoria” and “Black-ish” with a hint of “How to Get Away With Murder,” and undertones of sex, drugs, money and murder. The show, though produced
by Netflix, has an HBO style to it, which makes the plot high-quality and entertaining. The drama follows a family of three in the fictional New England town of Wellsbury, Mass., where they’ve relocated to start a new life. Wellsbury is the kind of town where if you’re a minority, you stick out like a sore thumb, and if you come from wealth, you’ll fit right in. Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey, “Batwoman”) is the mother of 15-year-old daughter Ginny (Antonia Gentry, “Raising Dion”) and son Austin (Diesel La Torraca, “Heroes for A Day”) who plays more of a best friend role to her children. After the shocking death of her wealthy ex-husband, Georgia is on the prowl in search of the next best
thing, while Ginny struggles to be the new girl for the thousandth time as her mom is always running from her past. As she adjusts to new friends, new boys and new experiences, Ginny is faced with the cold hard truth of what it means to be in strife with her identity. Faced with microaggressions, racial injustice and the dreaded questions about her racial background, Ginny is constantly reminded what it means to be biracial and the complexities that it brings to her life, no matter how hard she tries to ignore it. “Ginny and Georgia” presents itself merely as an emotional tale between a mother and daughter, but the show uses this trope as a vessel to tell a
PISCES
ARIES Work on hidden emotions or repressed feelings. Journaling or shadow work could be very productive for you this week.
much bigger story about the nuances of social identity. What’s so great about this series is its way of depicting the social injustice and discrimination Ginny experiences without any sugarcoating. It portrays real-life situations faced by biracial people, like being singled out in AP English under the assumption that they’re unable to “keep up,” or taking the fall for stealing even though their white-identifying friends were the main culprits. The show allows for further discussion on why Blackwhite biracial people could never be seen as two races, and why they are often only associated with their minority side and treated as such. The objective of the show is to feel empathy for Ginny. Who
YOUR WEEKLY
The deeply spiritual Pisces New Moon makes this an outstanding week for meditation, divination, prayer and manifestation.
Netflix
can she talk to as the only biracial person in her family and the only person of color in her friend group? In a sense, the show attempts to form some relatability for its biracial viewers who may be in the same boat. Sure, shows that include topics about race and identity could be
‘Splatoon 3’: The postapocalyptic world that gender forgot M. DEITZ
Digital Culture Beat Editor
TAURUS
Find a new tribe of like-minded souls and expand your social life. It’s also a great week for manifesting a new life direction.
AQUARIUS
WHISPER
Your relationship with money is in the spotlight, but your spiritual understanding of finance and abundance is growing by the day.
“Somebody needs you!” GEMINI
CAPRICORN
Your creative talents are exceptionally strong now, so use this to your advantage at work and in your career.
Reach out to people you have lost touch with. Spending some time going down memory lane this week will make you smile.
“It’s never the wrong time to celebrate yourself. ”
CANCER There’s a lot of spiritual growth potential for you this week, but you may feel slightly uncomfortable as you being to question your own beliefs.
LEO Expect intense emotions within a relationship, but any jealousy you feel may also be an opportunity for growth and self-improvement.
SAGITTARIUS Love, kindness and forgiveness are key themes within your family this week, helping to heal a rift or to move on from a trauma.
“Send someone a letter.”
VIRGO The New Moon in your love zone is great news for your relationship. Enjoy a magical, ethereal, romantic week.
LIBRA It could be a forgetful, slightly confusing week, but the imaginative vibe is great for positive creative visualizations.
SCORPIO Choose to do things simply because they make you happy. This is a week for indulging your creative streak and your inner child.
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considered cliché, but it’s up to the viewers to dissect the meaning of what it means to be biracial in a racialized society. The series opens up many doors for conversation, and if you’re okay with watching Ginny’s character constantly go through emotional turmoil, prepare to learn something new.
Science fiction has long been an effective medium for examining deep questions of humanity, morality and our relationship with rapidly evolving technology as the world changes underfoot daily. Some of the best works of sci-fi, such as the 1982 neo-noir thriller “Blade Runner,” or 2014’s macabre “Ex Machina,” make this interrogation look easy. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Parables about human identity and relationships take time, effort and a deep desire to probe into the status quo. That might be why I’m surprised that the next big property to take a shot at this type of groundbreaking questioning is “Splatoon 3.” Announced during the most recent Nintendo Direct, “Splatoon 3” is the third entry in Nintendo’s squid-themed third-person shooter series. Splatoon’s main appeal has always been its surprisingly addictive multiplayer option, where modes range from the paint-the-map based “Turf War” to the cooperative horde mode “Salmon Run.” There are single-player modes present in 2015’s “Splatoon” and its 2017 sequel “Splatoon 2,” but the campaigns generally felt like a loosely connected bunch of levels rather than a true narrative. If the announcement trailer is anything to go by, “Splatoon 3” looks to buck that trend by establishing a new setting for our squid-kids to explore. But this isn’t what caught my attention along with many other fans. When creating a character in the previous two games, players were forced to choose between a male or female body type. No such option exists in what we have seen of “Splatoon 3,” merely the choice
between hair length and whether you want to be a squid-based Inkling or octopus-based Octoling. There is no gender in the world of “Splatoon 3,” and I couldn’t be happier about it. In a world that is rapidly changing, it has become increasingly difficult for game developers to ignore accurate representation of the LGBTQIA+ community. No longer are queer voices shoved back into the closet; to actively not include any queer representation is to exclude a vocal minority of gamers and their allies. Not only does it make for bad optics, but there are growing financial and societal repercussions for such a negative decision. Even still, not every developer chooses to acknowledge real-world issues. Nintendo has long been the top culprit for refusing to place real-world issues in their “family-friendly games,” which is why the decision to throw out gender in “Splatoon 3” is so refreshing. Being a Japanese studio, Nintendo has a heritage of being on the more conservative side of the spectrum among game developers, which makes it all the more fascinating that they are doing more impactful work than some Western studios. Polish developer CD Projekt Red got flak for tying voice pitch to gender in their hard sci-fi action game “Cyberpunk 2077” (among many other issues). It took over a decade for Ubisoft’s blockbuster “Assassin’s Creed” series to add a playable female character and still struggles with deeper issues apart from their generally white male protagonists. Even RPG darling Bioware has been on record saying it’s difficult to include non-binary characters since it would be “a lot of content.”
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8 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
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‘Pelé’: New documentary fails to dig below the surface MITCHEL GREEN For the Daily
“Pelé,” Netflix’s latest foray into “30 for 30”-esque sports documentaries, chronicles the former Brazilian soccer player’s career from his first World Cup in 1958 to his last in 1970. With a mixture of strange, half-dubbed/half-subtitled talking-head interviews and old television footage, directors Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn (“Crossing the Line”) try to unpack the legacy of one of the most iconic figures in sports history. Unfortunately, the film never gets deep enough into the material to give the audience a more thorough understanding of Pelé’s story. There are plenty of surface-level sports documentaries that are perfectly enjoyable to watch — like this past year’s “The Last Dance” — but the biggest problem with “Pelé” is that it could have a much bigger impact. While something like “The Last Dance” can just have fun with the personalities and dynamics of the players, “Pelé” feels like it is attempting to make a greater statement about something but never quite takes the risks necessary to get there.
For example, a large portion of the documentary is focused on the rise of the military dictatorship that ruled over Brazil from 1964 to 1985. However, because the dictatorship and Pelé never quite intersect, the film never gives the audience great insight into either. The documentary has a moment when it looks like it might criticize Pelé for not using his status and influence to speak out against the new oppressive regime — à la Muhammad Ali speaking out against the Vietnam War — but the film quickly brushes this aside in favor of continuing to paint him as a hero. It would be one thing if the film was always trying to keep Pelé’s mythic image intact — plenty of good sports documentaries do that — but the fact that the documentary brings up the criticism of Pelé means that it creates an opportunity for depth that it completely fails to capitalize on. It’s a disappointing choice by the filmmakers, especially when doing the opposite could have turned the film into something special. Another example of the documentary’s failure is that it decides not to focus on the potential psychological effects of Pelé’s celebrity status. The film spends a few minutes talking about how Pelé’s worldwide fame forced him to travel a lot
which put a strain on his family life, but these issues are never brought up again once the segment ends. From both old and new interviews, we can see in Pelé’s face the mental toll his life must be taking on him. But by spending so little time on it, the film passes up the opportunity to deconstruct the toxic nature of the celebrity lifestyle. “Pelé” feels like it’s trying to cram too much into one film. It tries to be a film about athletic greatness, celebrity and political unrest all in under two hours. As a result, parts of the film feel rushed, which is no doubt the reason it fails to explore any of its themes in greater depth. The part that gets the most attention is, unfortunately, the least interesting aspect of the film: Pelé’s athletic ability. Focusing most of its attention on Pelé’s incredible talent satisfies no one. Soccer fans already know how great he is and do not need over an hour’s worth of reminders. Non-fans of soccer can get the gist of his greatness pretty quickly from a few of his highlights. By spending so much time on Pelé’s soccer skills, the film keeps hammering home a point that ultimately doesn’t tell the audience much about anything.
Netflix
The best sports documentaries always use sports as a backdrop to explore bigger themes: “Hoop Dreams” uses high school basketball to explore race, class and education in the United States; “Diego Maradona” uses soccer to explore addiction, fame and identity.
“Pelé” uses soccer to explore … soccer. It mentions bigger issues outside of the sport, but it never focuses on them long enough to make an impact. Considering how iconic of a figure Pelé is, and how interesting so much of his story is, “Pelé” is ultimately a forgettable disappointment.
On ‘Tyron,’ slowthai is headstrong, hopeless and everything in between DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer
Few artists can take control of their listeners’ emotions the way slowthai can. On his debut Nothing Great About Britain, he could make you want to start a revolution one minute, then compel you to call your friends to tell them you love them by the end of the next song. Slowthai still has his hand on the joystick, playing with his listeners’ hearts on his latest album, TYRON. But this time around, he’s toned down the social commentary and looks inward more than ever before. It’s not unexpected — after all, what’s a self-titled album without introspection? (Slowthai’s name is Tyron Frampton.) TYRON is a two-disc album, but not because of its length — it’s only a 35-minute record. The two-disc format is a stylistic divide. Disc one is for the slappers — more music to fuel the insane moshpits that are central to the slowthai concert experience. Disc two, on the other hand, is raw and unfiltered emotion, a musical heart-to-heart that sees slowthai at his most vulnerable on the mic. Slowthai doesn’t wait until disc two to get introspective. The front half of the album sees the artist rapping about drug use, depression and suicidal thoughts, often sandwiched between less conspicuous lyrics about making money and slinging drugs. “Mazza,”
featuring A$AP Rocky, is emblematic of this. It’s a hazy, dream-like track in the style of popular Soundcloud and emo rap. From the get-go, slowthai lays his heart out in his verse: “Feeling like these drugs made me better than I was / But I never felt love before the drugs,” he raps. Slowthai is so raw on the track that it’s almost jarring to hear A$AP Rocky’s generic guest verse afterward. Admittedly, I was nervous when I first saw the title of the track “CANCELLED.” When the single came out, I learned that slowthai had been “canceled” by Twitter before after an incident at an award ceremony. When someone talks about their experience being canceled in their music, it can often drag out the drama and make it harder for everyone to move past it. Thankfully, slowthai’s tried-and-true partnership with Skepta makes “CANCELLED” the hype highlight of disc one. The beat is driven by a zen-like flute melody that nosedives into an eerie horror-movie-esque synth halfway into the track. Skepta’s hook is the catchiest on the album, and fortunately, slowthai is beyond acknowledging his cancellation at this point — he aims well-deserved jabs at the Oscars and the Grammys. The front half goes hard, but the back half of the album is where TYRON truly shines. It’s the same heartfelt introspection that’s spread throughout the whole album but often delivered more gently, reflecting the vulnerability of the lyricism.
The beats are a refreshing switch-up from the first half’s sinister aesthetic. The acoustic guitar on “push” or the piano melody on “nhs” are at odds with the synthetic instrumentation of the first half, bringing a touch of rawness and authenticity. Featured guest singers like James Blake and Deb Never reinforce this somber style with beautiful echoey choruses. Most tracks have moments where the instruments mellow out for a moment, or the drums take a pause, giving breathing room for the verse to take the forefront. Many of slowthai’s verses are dripping with existential dread. When he uses his talent for clever songwriting to depict his own pain, slowthai’s lyrics become bullets to the heart. “We filled cracks of broken homes with broken dreams and broken bones / If walls could scream, ears would bleed,” he sings on “i tried.” Heart-wrenching songwriting like this is all over the album’s back half, and it’s impossible to fully digest it even on the fourth, fifth and sixth listen. Slowthai captures every facet of mental illness in each track: The sinking depression of “i tried,” fighting an uphill battle on “focus,” the persistence to move forward on “push.” All these feelings are resolved on “nhs,” the highpoint of slowthai’s emotional rollercoaster. In it, he wholeheartedly embraces life’s hardships, showing gratitude to the lows for giving meaning to all of life’s joys.
Method Records
Despite this, the album ends on its darkest note in “adhd,” a tracklisting choice that colors the whole tone of the album Here, slowthai dives deepest into the mental trappings of depression and loneliness, singing each line with such defeat that it feels as though he’s given up. I keep asking myself, what does it mean that slowthai chose to end the album on the loneliest track rather than the happy resolution of “nhs”? When I reflect on my own struggles with mental health, I think
slowthai is suggesting a cycle — the sense that once you’ve felt that depth of loneliness, it lives with you forever, always under the threat of resurfacing. TYRON is a gut punch. It feels less like a page from slowthai’s journal and more like a slice of his brain, taken from the part that holds his stream of consciousness. Few artists can so eloquently and passionately lay their darkest thoughts out, and few albums so uniquely encapsulate the magnitudes of mental illness.
Whose job is it anyway?: Accountability as a student stage manager MATTHEW EGGERS Daily Arts Contributor
Working as a stage manager is intense. Like studying for a final or bingeing the entirety of Grey’s Anatomy in a week, stage management is mentally, physically and emotionally draining. But that is what students working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in stage management at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance sign up for — or is it? The eternal question lies in whether or not the training of the theatre industry’s future stage managers should be carried out traditionally or if it should constantly adapt to the current landscape of theatre. And in the middle of a pandemic, one has to wonder: Should students be the ones monitoring the COVID-19 safety of their faculty and peers? After interviewing Emily Hanlon and Harrison Hoffert, two juniors in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance who also work with University Productions (UPROD), I got to know the “WWW” — not the worldwide web, but the “who, what and when” of accountability as a student stage manager. Stage managers are traditionally known for being all about paperwork. From daily calls, cue sheets, production analysis and a multitude of other documents needed to run a production, stage managers are worth their weight in the number of trees consumed by printing. However, stage management can also be about relationship-building and communication, according to Hanlon. “(Stage managing is) being a liaison between a multitude of departments. It is more about keeping an open line of communication between everybody involved than it is about the role itself,” Hanlon told The Daily in a virtual interview. “It is you working to serve all the other people in the production rather than running a department of your own.” Although it involves working closely with the directors, designers and actors, stage managing is truly about “facilitating everyone’s ideas as they come together into one unified production,” Hoffert said.
However, COVID-19 has changed the nature of stage management drastically. Now, things look a little different for Hoffert: “Now that we are rehearsing over Zoom, communication over email, text or Zoom has become so much more important.” It is also important to recognize that traditional stage management does not have the same efficiency when UPROD guidelines for rehearsal spacing are
two distinct kinds of accountability is no easy task. “There is a high level of human error to COVID protocol,” Hanlon said. “If a director approaches an actor to give a note and isn’t mindful of the six-foot distance … it puts a stage manager, specifically a student stage manager, in a difficult position of (determining) what is COVID policing and what is stage managing.” Added Hoffert: “It is very easy to step six feet near someone; it is very easy to
Design by Grace Aretakis
counterintuitive to the way traditional theater has been conducted in the past. As Hanlon expressed, “I know that my management style goes beyond a stage manager; it is more about being a facilitator.” Facilitating with a proactive mindset allows stage managers to, as Hoffert said, “notice things before other people do,” which is useful in adapting to the perpetually changing virtual rehearsal process. Working during the COVID-19 era, particularly in-person, has created a whole new set of struggles for stage managers to adapt to. In addition to their normal set of responsibilities, student stage managers now have to deal with maintaining safety in accordance with UPROD COVID-19 guidelines. Walking the line between these
take your mask off to take a sip of water, and stage managers are already in a unique role where they are already watching and staying one step ahead (of everyone else in the production).” Both students agree that student stage managers should not be the ones to carry the entire weight of a production’s health and safety on their shoulders. “I think there are improvements that can be made,” Hanlon said. “Always finding ways of taking the (COVID-19) responsibility off students is important.” Steps have been taken to address this concern. “In the fall, it was shop heads (maintaining COVID-19 policies), and now there are house technicians who are responsible,” Hoffert assured. “The Health and Safety Coordinators are responsible
for walking around and making sure we are following protocols.” Added Hanlon: “The days I felt the safest and the COVID policies were most enforced were days when someone who was not involved in the project, who didn’t even know what we needed to accomplish for the day was there, because their only interest was maintaining COVID protocol. I think one of the difficulties of a student stage manager is setting boundaries.” Conversations about theater accountability need to account for the fact that stage managers are already asked to invest 110% of their effort in order to “succeed” in normal circumstances. In the current theatrical climate, when theaters are reopening under the constraints of rigid COVID-19 regulations, stage managers have to find ways to make time for safety while already trying to juggle the rest of their responsibilities. Is asking this much of stage managers simply part of the job, or is it something that needs to change? “I personally think UPROD asks … me to do the job of a professional filling the role, which is demanding, but that’s what I signed up for,” Hoffert said. “We came here to do the role, we came here to do the entire job and it is hard as a student and is a lot to do, but it gives us a great life experience we can take with us later.” Added Hanlon: “I would say all stage managers are overworked, period. I hope to see the death of this ‘perfect stage manager’ ideology.” To put it simply, I agree with Hanlon. As a costume designer, I have often seen stage managers be pushed to the side for the sake of getting the scene just right. It is not okay for stage managers to be the last defense for accountability in the theatre world. To ask stage managers — unpaid student stage managers at that — to be overworked for the sake of meeting the “industry standard” is a futile waste of the University’s vast resources and influence. The path to allow stage managers to voice their concerns about COVID19 safety is a difficult one, but it is one that the Department of Theatre & Drama signed up for when agreeing
to the terms of the Department of Theatre & Drama strike this past fall. According to the demands of Theatre & Drama students for stage managers, and by agreeing to “prioritize wellness,” one might cynically suspect that the department would take the easy way out. (I’m looking at you and your two “wellness days,” University President Mark Schlissel). On the contrary, the Department of Theatre & Drama, specifically the design and production faculty, have done a great job of hearing the concerns of their student stage managers. “I appreciate production manager Paul Hunter (and stage management faculty Nancy Uffner) because they hold those student demands very highly in the work they do,” Hanlon said. Hoffert agreed. He added that it is important to have “grace for people and understanding that everyone’s going through different situations daily, and then having the grace to deal with those situations.” With regard to the effect that COVID-19 will continue to have on theatre, Hanlon said, “Things are going to change, and as much as everybody wants things to go back to the way they were, I don’t think they ever will, so why cling to them when we can try new things, important things.” There is still work to be done. Although both Hanlon and Hoffert believe that positive change has occurred, Hanlon remarked that “the seriousness that (Theatre & Drama strike) demands are taken is more from professor to professor, rather than the unity of a department.” The question posed in the title is rhetorical, but it is one of the fundamental questions in stage management. Whose job is it? Without defining the role of a stage manager, you are creating an unjust workplace. Without explicitly asking for feedback from a stage manager, you are creating inequity. Theater needs to start asking more questions, and not the softball kind, but the kind that will end this unattainable perfection that is asked of stage managers.
Opinion
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Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 9
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SHUBHUM GIROTI | COLUMNIST
How Democrats can safely end the filibuster
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ince President Joe Biden took office and the United States Senate flipped blue, a lot of Democrats have thought about removing the filibuster, a procedure used in the senate to delay or block the vote on a bill, to ensure policymaking can actually happen. The way the filibuster currently works in the U.S. Senate is that without reaching a 60 vote cloture threshold, 41 or more senators can hold up legislation by filibustering. This applies to almost all bills in the Senate and prevents legislation from reaching the president’s desk. If, as Americans, we are to remove the filibuster, it must be coupled with immense safeguards to ensure the continuation of democracy and rule of law. It is no secret that the Republican Party of today stands in stark contrast to Paul Ryan’s GOP or the party of 10 or 20 years ago. Today’s GOP is heavily focused on protecting Trumpism and denying all the criticism surrounding that crowd. We have seen that they will go to great lengths to protect former President Donald Trump and his views at any and all costs insofar as they tried, unsuccessfully, to overturn what experts have dubbed the most secure election in our nation’s history. If Democrats remove the filibuster and the current version of the GOP ever returns to power, there could be dire and irreversible consequences for this country. The first thing Democrats would need to do to prevent this is to ensure statehood for both the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. This is for two reasons: It would tilt the Senate more to the left and it would act in the core interest of democracy. D.C. and Puerto Rico both have progressive possibilities that Democrats can utilize, the former especially so. It would be crucial for Democrats to gain the extra three or four Senate seats from these two new states to shore up their growing majority. With these states
added, the flimsy one or two-seat majority that has become more common in recent years would turn more solidly blue, and, without a filibuster, the Democrats could ensure that policymaking is actually accomplished. However, without these two prospective states and their senators, we could be looking at a Senate run by Republicans committed to blocking any legislation Democrats try to promote, especially when coupled with the filibuster. Thus, it is incredibly important that if the filibuster is removed, it is coupled with D.C. and Puerto Rico’s statehood and subsequent congressional representation. Their statehood will also ensure that democracy is perpetuated throughout the country. D.C. has about 700,000 residents and Puerto Rico has another 3 million. These are individuals who pay taxes to the U.S. government, yet do not have voting representation in Congress, which goes against one of the core values of this country: no taxation without representation. It is morally wrong to continuously take from these people without giving them what is rightfully theirs. This is an argument that Democrats can lean on if they need to find the right framing for this proposal. The second biggest safeguard which should follow filibuster removal would be to reform voting rights and pass a new Voting Rights Act. Democrats in the House have taken great steps to make this a reality by proposing the For the People Act, which will be voted on soon. This proposal would create more transparency in donations, attempt to minimize big money interests’ impact on politics, require same-day voter registration in many places, allow congressional districts to be drawn by non-partisan committees and many other provisions to increase access to voting for all eligible individuals. Not only is this bill good in
theory, but when polled, a majority of Americans had a favorable opinion on the proposal, with 68% of those surveyed across party lines saying they would be in favor and only 16% in opposition. It is clear that there is already public support for this change — the Democrats should capitalize on it. All of these measures have come in response to an unprecedented level of voter suppression attempts by Republicans across the country. As of Feb. 19, the Brennan Center for Justice found that there have been 253 bills — majorly spearheaded by Republican representatives — introduced to limit voting rights in 43 states in 2021, with some seeking to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. This shows the levels to which some members of the GOP may go in order to retain power, namely stifling the voice of the people. The two aforementioned measures that Democrats in Congress could work toward without the filibuster would greatly change the party’s dynamics in the coming years. The Senate would be more firmly in the Democratic column for the foreseeable future as more people casting legal ballots leads to more liberal candidates winning, and they would have an advantage in the two new states. Republicans would be forced to move away from divisive Trump-fueled hate and back towards their laissez-faire policy platform, in hopes of recapturing their previously moderate voter base or risk losing power until a new generation of Republicanism is born. While there are potential risks of opening the door for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to regain control of a post-filibuster Senate, passing these two measures can ensure that actual policy making becomes the primary goal of politics in this country once again. Shubhum Giroti can be reached at sgiroti@umich.edu.
MEERA KUMAR | COLUMNIST
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Should we rethink suburbia?
h, the suburbs. Strip malls abound. Neighborhoodsupon-neighborhoods of cookie-cutter McMansions lining endless perpendicular streets, full of minivans driven by parents shepherding their children around. What’s not to love? A lot. Okay, fine. The suburbs certainly have plenty of benefits. The main advantage that comes to mind is the sheer amount of space: huge houses, large parks, wide roads, etc. When people are (hopefully) confined to their homes during a pandemic, feelings of claustrophobia often arise — especially in cities where people have smaller living quarters. Recently, spacious suburbs have become more enticing to citydwellers. During this quarantine period, people have been moving in huge exoduses into the suburbs. As the populations of alreadyshrinking cities continue to diminish faster than ever, it’s essential to address the question: Should we rethink negative opinions of the suburbs? Are suburbs the answer to our global problem of overcrowded cities? My answer? No. Suburbia isn’t a productive solution: not to the overcrowding and under-planning of cities, nor to public-health crises we are currently facing. When mentioning suburbs, it’s important to acknowledge the premise on which they were founded: racism and capitalism. Often, suburbs were built for white Americans in the 1940s and 1950s. Many developers sought to capitalize on racial fears and the white flight by portraying living in the suburbs as more attractive to white buyers. White Americans with money –– especially
veterans assisted by GI Bills — were eager to leave cities that struggled through the Great Depression and World War II. Cars were, and still are, an expensive necessity to navigate through neighborhoods and were only accessible to the middle and upper classes. Suburbs are often built around exclusion, self-isolating into “acceptable” communities. Founded on exclusionary ideals, removing suburbia’s past from its present is tricky — racism is alive and dominant in our communities. De facto segregation, extremely rampant in the 1940s and 1950s, is still common today, even in the suburbs where we live. Metro Detroit and its surrounding suburbs are still one of the most segregated areas in America. Not even three years ago in Rochester Hills, a school disctrict that sends hundreds of students to the University of Michigan, a Black teen was shot at just for knocking on a door to ask for directions. This pattern of overt and fatal racism makes people of color feel extremely unwelcome in the suburbs. It’s worth noting that the people currently fleeing major cities, such as New York City, come from incredibly wealthy neighborhoods, as this study shows. The suburbs frequently create barriers for entry and in communities where conformity is expected and cars are expensive but necessary for transportation, it can feel impossible to be accepted unless one is rich and white. Thus, the suburbs feel like a terrible solution to the overcrowding of cities as they exacerbate inequality. Currently, suburbia is not a productive goal for urban development.
But are suburbs safer during pandemics? It seems intuitive that since there’s more distance between people, transmission should be lower. However, that may not be the case — actually, quite the opposite. According to studies recently done by Johns Hopkins University and a slew of other publications, suburbs are actually more unsafe than cities since people in the suburbs have to travel further distances, have a lack of access to health care and take fewer risk. Additionally, countries reported to have the most controlled COVID-19 outbreaks, including Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, are incredibly densely populated. The density of their population didn’t seem to matter in relation to the outbreak — what did matter was the response from public health officials and the efficiency of their contract tracing. All of the countries mentioned above had efficient and effective public health committees, travel restrictions and smart, datatracking cities, which enabled efficient contact tracing. Lowering the human density of a city isn’t a solution to public health crises, but increasing public health and urban planning infrastructure is. Suburbs currently don’t have the public health resources nor the urban tracking systems in place to effectively combat COVID-19. So, what advantages can they actually provide? Personally, despite all of these facts, a small part of me still longs for the open spaces of the suburbs.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Meera Kumar can be reached at kmeera@umich.edu.
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A rant against legislative terrorism
ept. 25, 2015. One day after achieving his dream of listening to Pope Francis’s address to a joint session of Congress, the embattled Speaker of the House, former U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, gathered reporters for a surprise press conference. While he initially performed as a strident reformer for government accountability when he first was elected in the 1990s, Boehner grew into an establishment Republican. During his run, he became increasingly focused on making the government function despite being met with growing far-right obstructionists: the Tea Party. The far-right had vilified Boehner at every turn for the past five years, but their recent outgrowth, the Freedom Caucus, pushed his final nerve and forced Boehner to retire. Upon leaving, however, he did not fail to take some parting shots at those he referred to as “legislative terrorists” who are tearing apart the Republican Party. And, almost as a final show of independence, Boehner’s final piece of legislation, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, passed the House with no Freedom Caucus votes, instead co-opting a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats in Congress who neglected the far-reaches of their respective parties. This act, however, was a brief veer from a larger overarching narrative of legislative radicalization by ideologues willing to hijack the legislative process. The Freedom Caucus began as nine Tea Party members who were emboldened by the 2014 midterm elections to form a group of “bright junior legislators who do not look kindly on an established leadership that has largely failed to achieve conservative goals it has promised the voters.” While they view themselves glowingly, the establishment of the Republican Party, specifically Boehner, viewed their cohesiveness and activism as intransigence and false prophecy. Despite this, their membership has grown to as high as 40 members and currently sits at around 36 (an estimation because the Freedom Caucus does not release its membership). This original group of nine were even further to the right than many of their Tea Party contemporaries. They were willing to exercise their influence to make
legislation more conservative at all costs, including killing bills that they disagreed with despite these bills having the support of the majority of Republicans. While their principles are up for debate among both caucus members and Republicans at large, the former largely functions as one voting bloc and has undoubtedly caused widespread frustration and dysfunction in Washington D.C. While Freedom Caucus members cause major disruption in Washington, their home districts’ Republicans do not look very ideologically different than those of the average Republicancontrolled district. Common thought suggests that constituents’ ideology should be embodied by their member of Congress. However, given that Freedom Caucus members’ policies are significantly more conservative than the average Republican, the ideological similarities of Republican constituents is baffling. The House Freedom Caucus refuses to take responsibility for the division that they cause throughout the Republican Party. They instead find enemies in congressional leadership to blame, and they exert this blame through not only rhetoric but also their political action committee: the House Freedom Fund. This PAC, according to former U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., is devoted to “sending principled conservative outsiders to D.C.” Functionally, they support mostly far-right primary challengers to establishment candidates in House elections. In the 2018 midterms, the HFF was affiliated with 18 primary challengers, eight of whom won. This success rate for both the HFF and other far-right conservatives in Republican districts contributes to the overall polarization of Congress — it either forces establishment Republicans to move right to avoid a primary challenger or replaces incumbents with far-right newcomers. This ideological purity enforcement that the Freedom Caucus supports is systematically taking over the Republican Party and ultimately polarizes Congress because of progressive liberals’ scaledback yet significant movement to the left. This limits the choices of the American people and ultimately leads
to increasing inefficiency in Congress until the entire institution grinds to a halt. In other words, the Freedom Caucus and some progressive groups are willing to sacrifice incremental action for ideological purity, and that harms all of us. It ruins everyday American’s faith in government and slowly pushes us to want to burn the place down. This mentality led to the election of former President Donald Trump, the birth of QAnon and the failed Jan. 6 insurrection, which is not going to stop unless we make it. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” my favorite scene is when a strange car pulls into Gatsby’s driveway after he has died, flashes its lights and leaves. The narrator says, “I didn’t investigate. Probably it was some final guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn’t know that the party was over.” While it is such a simple statement, it makes a profound point about this country and our core values. Our greatest quality as Americans is innovation, which is sourced from a fundamental curiosity and a desire to improve our world. However, when hope is taken away from us, we cease exploring because we are no longer curious, which is when the party is truly over. I’ll be honest; I believe that the Republican party faces an existential threat. It’s neither Trump nor the Freedom Caucus members themselves. Republicans are threatened by so many people turning off their televisions and tuning out political processes because they have lost hope, contributing to our dangerous culture of polarization and diminished communication. Polarization has spread into everything from watching the news — when we choose to consume it — to who we choose as friends. At the center of it all is a growing mentality that says we cannot get along if we do not agree. Slowly, this polarization has turned many of us — on some issue or another — into miniature voting terrorists who are more willing to watch the world burn than get along. Keith Johnstone can be reached at keithja@umich.edu.
SAM WOITESHEK | COLUMNIST
Keep reaching for your goals — you might get a hole-in-one
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magine turning your passion into your career. Maybe it’s art, music or sports; you might consider academia in areas such as science, history or math. Whatever it is, take a second and envision yourself at the highest professional level of that interest. Relish this thought. Now imagine it’s been stripped away from you completely and suddenly. No warning — it’s gone. You’d be upset, right? For Eldrick “Tiger” Woods and those of whose Sunday afternoons he occupied, this is a new reality. In a car accident in which he plowed through a massive sign and wrestled with 50 feet of forest off a boulevard in Southern California, the likelihood that we see him back on a golf course hangs in the balance. In emailing with my high school teacher, he wrote about how Woods may finally achieve peace in giving up competitive golf. “Tiger,” as we know him, has been the pinnacle of the sport for the past twenty-five years and defined by the game since he was three years old. With that, my former instructor believes, comes a lack of freedom to enjoy life’s other experiences and an absence of personal
sanity that cannot be replicated by anything else. While he may be right about the consuming nature of professional sports and the toll they take on their athletes, I reject the notion that a competitor is better off without competition. Within all of us, not just athletes, inherent qualities exist that predispose us to our preferred environments. To depart these communities is to lose a piece of our individuality — an irreplaceable strain of our DNA. Thus, we search for proper closure. Often, we fantasize about saving the day and riding off into the sunset with many stories to tell future generations. While this conclusion may seem idealistic for many, it is this “Hollywood ending” that gives us something to aspire to, a pleasant thought to occupy the vacancy of the daily grind. I doubt totaling a Genesis GV80 in a 45 mph speed zone is the lasting thought Woods wants of himself. If someone told me today that this was the last column I’d ever write for The Daily, I’d be utterly disheartened. I love expressing my opinions through written words and have done it for the past five years of my
life. It’s become ingrained in my life, though not at the same level of intensity as how golf and Woods co-exist. Hence, I’d search for another credible, successful platform to voice my “hot takes.” However, for the class of 2024, we do know what this feels like. All of our quintessential senior high school moments went from postponed to canceled in a whirlwind and all we could do is watch them vanish before our eyes. Does it bring me peace knowing there is more ahead in life? Possibly, but I will always feel as though there are loose ends that are unlikely to ever be tied up in my hometown. Granted, starting college in a virtual setting hasn’t helped. Conversely, think about this year’s graduating class and the internships they had lined up this time last year. These pivotal opportunities are instrumental for after college, yet they were nearly impossible to coordinate during the height of the pandemic.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Sam Woiteshek can be reached at swoitesh@umich.edu.
MRINALINI IYER | COLUMNIST
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The LSA Economics department is failing us all
want to learn, but they aren’t teaching me. This thought echoed in my mind as I found myself drowning in yet another meaningless formula. I am an economics major, and I’ve known that I wanted to be one since my junior year of high school. At the University of Michigan, many students think of economics as business-adjacent — we’re the “Rossholes” who couldn’t get into the Ross School of Business. To me, though, it is so much more. I fell in love with economics because I wanted to understand people and their decisions. I believe in economics as a tool for social growth, and that understanding how people behave and act is key to creating a highfunctioning society. Economics provides a way for people to learn how we interact with the world and with each other, which gives us the tools to fundamentally change the workings of society. That said, the department of economics at the University has
been beating this society-focused ideology out of its underclassmen students. Simply, the curriculum lacks accessibility, social thinking and a global outlook. Economics 101, a class taken by many students at the University of Michigan, provides an introduction to economic theories for students from every college, including the Business School and College of Engineering, as well as students from a myriad of majors in LSA. The quintessential class for freshmen, Economics 101 has the unique opportunity to provide students with a new outlook on the society they are poised to enter. However, the applications of economics are not discussed in introductory economics classes and only rarely are discussed in the upper-level classes. They ruin this unique opportunity by using cut-and-paste formulas to explain economic theory instead of using the most basic logical theories to ground the class in reality. We should be
learning about the applications of and reasoning behind economic theory to ground students in the practice of thinking using economic analysis. Instead, these classes dive headfirst into problems that often make it difficult for students with no economic background to understand why the answers are correct. Is it really a wonder, then, why so many students complain about having to take economics classes when it is never shown to apply to their own majors and future careers. Engineers will understandably roll their eyes at supply and demand even though the analytic thinking required for economics could give them a different way of problemsolving that can be applicable to their own lives.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Mrinalini Iyer can be reached at iyermili@umich.edu.
Opinion
10 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LIZZY PEPPERCORN | COLUMNIST
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Another summer with the pandemic
hrough speaking with my peers and friends, I know I am not alone in thinking for a long time that things would be relatively “normal” by this summer. Especially with the beginning of the vaccine rollout in December, I was confident that by June I would be vaccinated and the pandemic would be much more under control. While the daily number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States has decreased, the vaccine rollout has problems. With the University of Michigan still in Phase 1b of vaccinations and the continuous weekly emails about how the University is behind on its original vaccination goals, I am now skeptical that I will be able to get the vaccine by the end of the winter semester. One summer in a pandemic was difficult enough for college students. Internships were canceled, travelling and immersive experiences were put on hold, and any programming that did happen was mostly remote. When I began my search for what I wanted to do this summer, most programs mentioned
that they would likely be virtual and that there was still a chance of them being canceled last minute given the level of uncertainty surrounding the future state of the pandemic. Summer programs are usually a time for college students to try out fields of interest and explore what they want to do after college. Whether an internship is a good or bad experience, it allows the student to gain clarity on what they want to study and pursue. Two summers in a pandemic could prevent college students from gaining hands-on experience to enhance their studies and confirm that they are on the right track. Because many undergraduate students were unable to participate in summer internships or programming last summer, there is a lot of pressure to find something this summer. Whether or not a program gets canceled is mostly based on luck, but the students who are able to gain experience to add to their résumé will be ahead of those who aren’t as lucky. In my experience, reliable, engaging and in-person internships are extremely hard to find. Furthermore, the few I
KATHERINE KIESSLING | COLUMNIST
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fter deciding to check Facebook following weeks of being offline, I immediately saw an opinion article one of my former classmates shared with the title: “Transgender athletes don’t belong in girls’ sports. Let my daughter compete fairly.” Immediately, the author claimed that allowing “biological boys’’ to participate in girls’ sports is the exact opposite of gender equality and destroys years of progress for girls in athletics. The article then framed the landmark Supreme Court decision that banned employment discrimination based on gender identity, which preceded this development, as unfortunate. Then, it pronounced sex as defined by our bodies’ DNA. That, however, is a classic example of pseudoscience used to justify continuous transphobia by claiming sex can be boiled down to a binary definition. Opponents of trans rights often miss three key indicators when it comes to determining a person’s sex according to science: genetics, endocrinology and neurobiology. Basic biology taught us that those with XX chromosomes are females, while those with XY chromosomes are males. But what about other combinations of Xs and
did find were extremely competitive because options are so limited. The summer application process has been a point of stress and anxiety for many students this school year. Even if a majority of internships are not canceled this summer, the likelihood of them being in-person and offering the programming they would in “normal” times seems unlikely. When adapting to a pandemic world, in-person internships will have to sacrifice parts of their programming such as large meetings, collaborative projects and team building that would normally enrich the internship experience. And internships that are fully remote and involve staring at a screen all day make it challenging for students to evaluate if this is a field they want to pursue further. There are multiple consequences of these pandemic summers that could have serious implications for the futures of current undergraduate students. One potential impact is that students will not be able to determine if they dislike an industry or career path during college. Internships help students decide
identifying feminist groups. One of the most infamous includes TERFs, an acronym that stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, a group that has repeatedly euphemized themselves as “gender critical feminists.” TERFs have increasingly divided the feminist movement, leading to controversy over who falls under the protection of feminism. Harry Potter fans may have noticed a very prominent display of TERF ideology when “cancel culture” swarmed J.K. Rowling in June after she posted a tweet implying that true women menstruate. However, instead of providing the typical mediocre apology and claiming innocent ignorance, Rowling doubleddown on her stance, claiming “It isn’t hate to speak the truth.” This ignited a torrent of fuming subtweets between defenders of Rowling and supporters of trans rights, with both sides calling themselves feminists. However, the dueling perspectives concerning J.K. Rowling and her tweets invoke the uncomfortable, yet inescapable, roots of feminism. Simply put, the feminist movement was rooted in a philosophy founded on the principles of white supremacy and bigotry. The second wave of feminism
JOHN TUMPOWSKY | COLUMNMIST
Why White House dogs don’t deserve your criticism
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Design by Man Lam Cheng
and Overland offer a break from Zoom and an environment that is much easier modified to follow pandemic guidelines. A worry for many college students when considering outdoor programs compared to a job or internship in their field is that they will not develop applicable skills to their studies and that their résumé will not be as strong. However, students have the remainder of their lives to work in an office environment and develop technical skills. Working as a camp counselor or leading an outdoor expedition provides participants with experience regarding leadership, responsibility, delegation
and independence that are applicable to most work environments. Undergraduate students must understand that if they are unable to find the perfect internship or academic program this summer, it is not a reflection of their application but rather the challenges employers are facing in offering internships. Even internships themselves may not offer the experience and growth they would in normal times and alternative summer plans should be embraced as a great and unique option. Lizzy Peppercorn can be reached at epepperc@umich.edu.
Stop acting like trans women are a threat to feminism
Ys? What about the various strengths of male-differentiating genes? What about studies proving transgender people’s brains more closely resemble the gender they identify as? However, challengers of transgender rights will point to psychology with the claim that being trans is a coping mechanism for gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia. However, many of these studies have already been dismissed for ethical reasons and numerous public health organizations are steadily working toward declassifying transgender identity as a psychological disorder. On the other hand, reevaluation of former psychological studies has revealed that gender-based discrimination and violence is most often the root cause of mental illness within the transgender community. In the contentious debate over whether self-proclaimed gender identity should be respected, the idea of feminism has been called into question. Political activist and American journalist Gloria Steinem defines a feminist as “anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” Unfortunately, that sentiment is not universal across all self-
s thousands of new pet-owners have discovered during the pandemic, dogs are simply the best. I have two myself and being without them has made returning to Ann Arbor each semester incredibly difficult. During a pandemic that has burdened millions with increased anxiety and stress, it should be no surprise that a significant number of people have recently chosen to add some furry members to their families. After all, dogs are proven to provide legitimate health benefits, both physically and mentally. The University of Michigan realized this fact long ago, offering times for students to hang out with dogs at least a few times a year. Nearly 40% of all American households own dogs, including (except for former President Donald Trump) every U.S. president since William McKinley, which is over 100 years of presidential dogs. President Joe Biden revived that presidential trend, welcoming his two beautiful German shepherds, Champ and Major, into the White House. This past week, Greg Kelly — host of the conservative news outlet Newsmax — took a dig at Champ, Biden’s 12-year-old dog. Kelly and presidential historian Craig Shirley labeled Champ as unpresidential, saying he looks like he is “from the junkyard.” In response to both Kelly and Shirley: Find something better to do with your time than ridiculing the president’s elderly dog. Although I suppose they should not be surprising in the context of an increasingly petty and partisan political sphere in the U.S., these comments were ridiculous. Criticizing a president’s dogs is crude and criticizing Champ as ‘unpresidential’ is simply incorrect. If not an American icon, dogs are most certainly a presidential staple. German shepherds have long been considered a favorite amongst Americans in several categories, for both their loyalty and intelligence. Most police canine units country-wide, including the Michigan State Police, rely on German shepherds for their high work rate and intelligent problemsolving abilities — two ideal presidential qualities. So, if Champ’s smarts were at all in question, they shouldn’t be. This is also not the first time a German shepherd has been a resident of the White House. Former
whether a career is appealing to them, so not having that opportunity could lead many to make mistakes in their first job out of college. Another potential consequence of not being able to engage in hands-on immersive summer experiences is that students may need to try out different fields and industries after graduation, since they did not have the opportunity during their college summers. Getting a job out of college is already stressful, and now it will be many students’ first time working in the field outside of an academic setting. Many might have to test multiple jobs post-graduation to truly figure out what they want to pursue. While virtual internships still offer experience and useful skills, to me, the possibility of an entire summer on Zoom did not seem worth the benefits. I began looking at outdoor non-academic experiences that have, so far, seemed less likely to be canceled and can take place in-person. Summer jobs such as working at a camp or in a national park and programs such as Outward Bounds, Northern Outdoor Leadership School
presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy also had German shepherds — they were certainly considered adequate presidential pets at the time. If it was his physical appearance, give Champ a break. He is 12 years old — that is well into his 80s in human years. Would you go up to your grandpa and say he was junkyard-like or looking as if he was uncared for simply because he looked old? No. It should be normal for an old dog to look, well, old. One of my dogs is starting to become a bit feeble, but I am certainly not going to ridicule her for it. Personal attacks have sadly become the new norm in politics, it seems. We saw it consistently throughout the past two presidential elections; Vice President Kamala Harris was regularly mocked for her tone of voice, her name and her race — as were many politicians before her. It is frustrating that these attacks have become standard in the U.S. They reflect poorly on the character of both American politics and the intelligence of the American people as a whole. Our time is spent on narrow-minded, irrelevant jabs and Twitter comments, including Greg Kelly’s response to the backlash he received following his segment. But, if personal attacks are going to be a norm, so be it — it seems there is not much that can be done to buck that trend in a post-Trump America. With that being said, dogs need to be left out of those digs. A politician’s dogs are irrelevant to their politics and should only be discussed as a potential judge of character for any candidate. Using them simply as a way to belittle a president or politician is immoral. Instead, find a way to criticize Biden’s agenda or policies. That is the basis of what politics should be: informed debate regarding what legislation our elected officials should be passing. Rather, this is a wake-up call for the state of our political discourse in this country. It is time to bring back some intelligence to our discussions. Leave Biden’s dogs alone. Dogs have only served to be a positive American icon within the White House — Major and Champ are no different. Jack Tumpowsky can be reached at jgtump@umich.edu.
in the 1960s and 70s was dominated by white women, who utilized the inferiority of their sex in a progressive age as an aegis to perpetuate their own prejudices. This feminism aimed at promoting the voices of its constituents who were usually limited to the demographics of middle class, white and heterosexual. In its beginning, the movement never incorporated minority women, and certainly would not have considered transwomen among its ranks. Despite public resistance to the TERFs’ approach toward transgender people, the consequences of its internalized ideology have led to de facto inequality including the trans military ban, removal from the workplace, discrimination in health care and “bathroom bills.” Here at the University of Michigan, it is apparent when professors use the wrong pronouns despite the correct ones placed beside names on attendance sheets and then excuse themselves for being “old-fashioned.” Or, for example, when trans people are asked their “preferred” name and pronouns instead of simply name and pronouns. On Jan. 20, President Joe Biden made a national effort to combat transphobia
through an executive order combatting “discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.” Soon after, “#BidenErasedWomen” began to trend on Twitter with intolerance disguising itself under the shroud of feminism to attack the advancement of equal rights. With the passage of the Equality Act on Feb. 25 by the House of Representatives, the battle between supporters and opponents of trans rights was reinvigorated. These so-called feminists that oppose the president’s executive order and the Equality Act were outraged at lawmakers for putting cis girls and women at risk by allowing trans women to play sports and use bathrooms according to the gender with which they identify. Instead, opponents prefer to keep trans people as the marginalized and severely oppressed community that they have always been. No, Biden has not erased women. Comparatively, the president has given validation to the existence of trans people across the United States who have been constantly ridiculed, questioned mercilessly and abused for decades. In the words of renowned anti-racist activist Franklin Leonard,
“When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” The “feminists” that feel as though they are facing discrimination remain trapped in the delusions of second-wave feminism. They pursue a narrative that is substantiated by neither biology nor psychology to maintain hostility toward transgender people, all while pretending to advocate for the rights of women. Therefore, to truly be a feminist in the 21st century, people must first acknowledge the history of hate and discrimination feminism has fostered. From there, it is possible to build upon the faults of the past to construct a more inclusive and forceful wave of gender reckoning. But let one thing be clear: You are neither an ally nor a feminist if you pick and choose the circumstances in which it is acceptable for trans women to have equality. Feminism advocates for all women regardless of surgeries, hormonal treatments, menstruation or appearance. Transgender women are women and deserve the same recognition from society as cis women. Katherine Kiessling can be reached at katkiess@umich.edu
PHOENIX CLASS OF 2021 | OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
Disbanding Phoenix — secret societies don’t belong on our campus Editor’s Note: This statement was previously provided by Phoenix to the News section last week and was partially quoted in this news story. The Michigan Daily is now reprinting Phoenix’s statement regarding the discontinuation of their organization in full so that it is on the public record.
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n 1979, Adara, later renamed Phoenix, was founded as a senior-only female secret honor society at the University of Michigan. According to the organization’s documents, Adara was founded after a Title IX complaint was filed against the University’s male-only secret society, Michigamua, who later changed its name to Order of Angell. Founded on principles of “character, achievement, leadership, loyalty and service,” and to give women leaders across campus space for support and empowerment, Adara occupied the upper floors of the Michigan Union’s tower alongside Michigamua in what was later known as the Tower Society. This past year, the history and practices of secret societies have been top of mind for many students on campus. They have been top of mind for us, too, the Phoenix class of 2021. We were “tapped” for this organization the week that the University switched to virtual classes. We were initiated over the spring and summer through numerous Zoom meetings. Though our class never met in person, Phoenix’s traditions dictate that we “tap” around 25 juniors in “leadership” positions around campus this month to become our organization’s class of 2022. However, for the first time in our organization’s history, we will not be tapping another Phoenix class. Instead, we are discontinuing our organization’s presence on campus. When we were first tapped for Phoenix almost a year ago, we were told that “P” was what we made of it. The only purpose of our organization was to anonymously improve campus through our roles as campus leaders. We could launch our own projects and initiatives for the improvement of the University as a whole. We would build friendships throughout the process, taking advantage of relationships that would otherwise not have been formed. We’ve spent recent months studying our history and debating our future. On Feb. 21, our class voted by an overwhelming majority not to tap another class. We view our vote not as a judgment of the past but as a declaration about the future: Phoenix and other secret honor societies do not belong on our present campus. This decision was not taken lightly by our class, nor was it made out of convenience. It was not made in connection with — nor was it influenced by — Order’s recently publicized outreach to its
Design by Man Lam Cheng
alumni regarding its future. There are many reasons why we have made this decision. We believe that our organization’s mandate of “campus leaders” as a prerequisite for membership is inherently elitist. Leadership roles within this organization are obtained through and sustained by privilege. The meaning of this phrase has never been defined. In reality, each class of Phoenix is tapped mostly by friends in previous classes, compounding issues of elitism and homogeneity that have long plagued our organization. Twenty-five seniors could never be truly representative of the wealth of cultures, beliefs and experiences that make up a senior class of the University. We also recognized the cognitive dissonance Black members, Indigenous members and members of color face in secret societies. Our members should never have had to contemplate their relationship to secret societies’ racist history and elitist nature. Over this past year, we’ve watched members face backlash for their role in these organizations. A number of student groups for students of racial, religious and ethnic minorities have specifically denounced secret societies and forbade their members from participating in these organizations. We believe this is a cycle that will continue if left unchecked. Recruiting a diverse class does nothing to alleviate this structural flaw. “It is weird and discouraging to have to think, ‘Am I joining a racist club?’ It is even more unnerving to be actively told while being recruited that Phoenix is not racist,” one BIPOC member of our class said. (This member has asked to remain
anonymous for fear of professional retribution.) “I did and still do believe that Phoenix is not a racist society. However, it is modeled after one and I think that it is time to realize that distinction.” This member recalled speaking to another prospective BIPOC member about this dissonance. Ultimately, this member decided not to join after citing similar concerns. Given these facts, we cannot in good conscience move forward with Phoenix knowing the harm that secret societies have caused and will continue to inflict if still in existence. No amount of rebranding can plaster over the inherently problematic nature of these organizations. If there was one redeeming quality we found in Phoenix, it was the random friendships that it fostered between our members. Despite our class meeting mostly over Zoom, we recognize and appreciate the value in bringing together people who would likely never otherwise cross paths. We hope that interest in forming new senior-year cross-campus friendships rises from the ashes of our decision, though we believe it needs to be completely separate from the existing constructs of senior secret societies on campus. Rather than contemplating a year-long “pause,” we urge the current members of Order, and all other secret societies, to discontinue their organizations indefinitely. Beyond discontinuing our own organization, we believe the dissolution of all secret societies to be in the best interest of the U-M community. The Phoenix Class of 2021 can be reached at aurigaclass@umich.edu.
statement
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 11
For student first-responders, COVID presents social and personal dilemmas BY MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
K
inesiology senior Alexander Phillips began working as an EMT in December 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the United States and altered our lives forever. As part of the typical testing protocol for new EMTs, he was fitted with personal protective equipment, including a respirator. At the time, it was business as usual. “I was tested with (the respirator) to make sure it functions and everything,” Phillips said. “I’m thinking like, okay, I’m probably not gonna use that very often.” But within a few months, that PPE switched from a mandatory guideline to a scarce, crucial resource, as the U.S. and Michigan experienced a rising number of COVID-19 cases. Phillips, who is studying Athletic Training, recalled these turbulent first few months of work in a Zoom call with The Michigan Daily. “(The pandemic) was just constantly changing at that point, it was like you’d wake up every day and the news will be saying something different,” Phillips recalled. “And it was pretty much the same thing at work. It was pretty chaotic … it just felt like there was so much information happening so quickly.” Phillips wasn’t the only student who took their medical studies to the workforce during the pandemic, but some had more trouble finding ways to help, like LSA junior Stephen Moss, studying Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Stephen received his EMT license at the end of February 2020, around the time the pandemic began to encroach on life in Ann Arbor. “As soon as I tried to find a job, I was just thrown right off the deep end into the pandemic,” Moss said as we spoke over Zoom. “I had just got my license and then everything shut down, and the place I wanted to go work at put in a hiring freeze because they couldn’t afford to hire more people.” After spending months applying for jobs and volunteer positions at ERs and field hospitals in Michigan to no avail, Moss returned to his home state of Rhode Island, where he finally found some luck volunteering for the Medical Reserve Corps. By then, it was already May, and Moss was eager to get to work. “One thing that was just really weird to me was how hard it was to find a way to help,” Moss said. “I mean, I was looking for a job, I like getting paid for my work, but I was also just looking for a way to help, and it was astonishingly difficult to do that.” Moss described getting trained by the National Guard and being placed at a testing site in the parking lot of a senior center. At the time, the U.S. was experiencing PPE shortages, and Moss recalled trying not to waste his equipment while working for hours in the summer heat. “Every day we were out there in like, 80-degree heat, in these enormous hazmat suits, head to toe,” Moss said. “Everyone had one face shield that you cleaned … We had to wear six pairs of gloves. You had three base layers, and then you had your suit on top, and then you had three more. And it was very hard to manage all of that.” If you are someone like me, who is not studying medicine or involved in health care work, it can be difficult to imagine standing face-to-face with COVID-19 patients, responding to 911 calls that report shortness of breath or administering one nasal
ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE LEE
swab test after another. It’s scary to picture being in such close proximity to danger, suffering and even death. It’s part of the reason we tend to characterize health care workers as superheroes; we view them as unafraid, charging into turmoil and emerging unscathed. Dr. Janice Firn, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Learning Health Sciences and a clinical ethicist at the Center for Bioethics & Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan, said sometimes the heroizing of health care workers can become problematic. “A system can take advantage of people if we praise them for their selfsacrificing, but then we start penalizing people who won’t play the game or ‘sacrifice to that level’ when actually maybe they’re just being healthy,” Dr. Firn said. Indeed, data has shown that during the pandemic, health care workers have experienced elevated rates of PTSD, anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions. Some have even quit their jobs due to high stress and burnout. “With the people that don’t really understand or know about health care, it feels like there’s a reduction of health care to a quantitative, checking boxes kind of thing, where it’s like, ‘We have the ventilators, we have the ICU beds, we’re good,’” Phillips said. “And it’s frustrating seeing the more human side of that, and going into hospitals and talking to the nurses and working with co-workers who are just so exhausted and burnt out from literally a year of doing this, because that’s the qualitative side of it that is hard to describe.” he way we portray health care providers, and our subsequent expectations of them, originates from a historical and social narrative, as doctors and nurses have been viewed as healers for thousands of years. Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician and one
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of the leading figures in the history of medicine, urged that doctors have two main tasks in treating patients: “to do good or to do no harm.” But what does “good” mean, and what does it mean to be a good provider? Is it casting aside one’s own needs for that of the patient? Is it stepping away when the burden becomes too heavy for effective work? These dilemmas loom even larger in the context of a rapidly changing, high-stress situation like a global pandemic. I wondered, then, how these pressures fall onto students like Moss and Phillips, whose first experiences providing health care — before they even start their formal careers — are during the COVID-19 pandemic. How do these accelerated lessons in witnessing pain and loss impact their psyches? How do they grapple with seeing suffering at work while their neighbors on campus throw parties? How do they understand the virus medically while making sense of the pandemic socially? I spoke with five students who work on the frontlines — EMTs, nursing assistants, medical technicians, those who administer COVID-19 testing — to explore these questions. And while each interview was humbling, giving hints of that all-familiar heroism, I felt a sense of heaviness behind their words. “Even with the medical field, I think it’s going to be a long process to recover from it,” Nursing senior Rebecca Petrella said. “Not even just cost wise, but mental health wise, for everyone who went through it. And it’s hard to think that I’m just about to start off my medical career because I already, in a sense, feel burnt out from having to go through all of this.” *** Petrella started working as a patient care technician (also known as a nurse’s assistant) at the beginning of March 2020. Within a week of the new job, she was told their floor, an adult pulmonary and general medi-
cine unit, would be filled solely with COVID-19 patients. “I had about a week of orientation, which was normal,” Petrella said. “And then I came back the next week and they were like, ‘Yeah we’re all COVID now. Is that fine with you?’ And I was like, ‘I guess.’” Petrella described the energy in the hospital for those first few months of the pandemic as nervous and uncertain. And while she didn’t worry too much about getting sick herself, Petrella told me the fear of infecting others kept her isolated for most of the summer. “All my friends went home, and I didn’t have family here, and I was really worried about passing it to other people,” Petrella said. “So I basically went to work and my apartment the whole time, and it was really hard mental health wise.” That isolation was compounded by what she saw at work — patients struggling with or dying from COVID-19, some being moved to the ICU, others asking her if they would die. “Just hearing patients’ stories about everything was really hard and really sad,” Petrella said. “I was very much in my own headspace and internalizing a lot of things … As a nurse, you’re told to leave work at work, and that’s sometimes really hard to do.” While incoming health care workers are trained to deal with the pain, grief or death of their patients, being thrust onto a COVID-19 floor as an undergraduate is a new phenomenon, to say the least. And yet, one of the most celebrated traits of health care professionals — one especially heightened during the pandemic — is adaptability. “At this point, what I’ve gotten way better at doing is separating myself from patients,” Petrella explained. “And I can still feel that empathy with them while I’m with them, but after that I need to just leave it behind me and think about the general picture of everything that’s going on.” Nursing senior Reagan Cloutier
expressed a similar sentiment when we spoke over Zoom. Cloutier, who is the president of the Student Nurses’ Association, works as a nursing assistant at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Throughout the pandemic, the floor she works on has admitted both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 pediatric patients. While children experience milder COVID-19 reactions than adults, many of Cloutier’s patients are chronically ill, and are thus at greater risk for complications if afflicted with the virus. Cloutier described how one of her greatest fears during the pandemic is that she will unintentionally infect one of these patients with COVID-19. But despite this anxiety and the tense energy in the hospital, Cloutier spoke confidently about her work as a nursing assistant. “Being resilient health care providers is really important because … you’re not going to see a patient die every day of your career, but you certainly are going to deal with heavy stuff almost every day of your career, and it’s good to know and have the skill set to be able to deal with that,” Cloutier said. Nurses often spend the most faceto-face time with patients, especially during the pandemic, when the hospital limits the number of people such as visitors allowed in COVID-19 rooms. For that reason, nurses are not only providing medical attention and information, but also emotional and social support. Of course, this means that they bear witness to — and help mitigate — tough situations. “It’s important as a nurse to internalize those things your patients are telling you, but it’s also important to protect yourself, so that you know that’s not coming home and affecting your day-to-day life,” Cloutier said. “And that you’re able to come home and enjoy your life and not necessarily live in your patient’s grief or live in your patient’s concerns or worries.” It’s a mentality that takes time to build, according to Dr. Firn, who spoke about the training of young health care professionals in dealing with patient loss and pain. “I don’t think we necessarily go into these sort of service positions thinking we’re going to help people die,” Dr. Firn said. “That’s a lot of what health care is, but I don’t think we do a good job of training folks in an area where we can talk about it.” Dr. Firn mentioned that pre-clinical exposure to topics in grief and loss can help health care professionals better react and empathize with patients. She noted a course like this that she took during her own education in medicine and social work, which she said had significant impacts on her clinical work. “It did help me, sitting with those uncomfortable feelings,” Dr. Firn said. “And sort of playing out those scenarios meant that I had done some of the pre-work, so I could be more present to patients and families in the moment.” But Dr. Firn noted that it’s difficult to mimic this gradual, classroom introduction to grief during the pandemic; and while Cloutier and Petrella both indicated that the pandemic had strengthened their emotional durability, I wondered if it was enough, considering how new they are to the workforce. Read more at MichiganDaily.com
12 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Nostalgia in the time of COVID BY EMILY BLUMBERG, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KELLY
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t was yet another lonely, endless night in the spring of 2020 spent mindlessly rewatching “Parks and Recreation” for the third time. The painfully familiar feeling of restlessness washed over me — my glossy eyes began to burn from countless hours of screen time and my brain’s insatiable appetite for unachievable social stimulation had returned. I shifted my position in my teal and pink chevron-patterned childhood bed as a desperate attempt to feel any remote sense of change. All was calm and yet little was well. Suddenly, a sound I hadn’t heard since my preschool days blared out of my phone’s speaker: the gritty, pixelated music of early 2000s children’s computer games. I felt a rush of serotonin as I pulled a long forgotten memory out of my brain’s deepest crevices. For the first time in the weeks since the shutdowns of midMarch 2020, I had actually felt something. I had randomly stumbled upon a TikTok showcasing an old Holly Hobbie game I suddenly remembered playing as a kid on an account called @noughtienostalgia. Hearing the forgotten yet familiar “Hi! I’m Holly! And I’m Perri. Amy here! And we’re the Hey Girls!” was the most exciting event I had experienced in almost three months. It whisked me right back to staring at my dad’s clunky old computer, choosing sparkly dresses for my Polly Pockets and baking cupcakes with Barbie. The pure, unadulterated excitement of rediscovering a silly, mindless computer game I hadn’t played in over a decade allowed me to travel back to what felt like simpler times. For just one minute, it was if I had
reverted back to being four years old, pink Barbie brand glasses and all. I spent the rest of that lonely night diving deep into the abyss of childhood memories on the brink of being forgotten. I chased that nostalgic high until I had drained every ounce of my curiosity. Nostalgia is an undoubtedly and underratedly powerful emotion. It ’s what drives your best friend to get back with their clearly problematic ex-boyfriend and what convinces college students to blast Hannah Montana’s Greatest Hits at pregames. It gives bygone music artists the chance to milk their last profits through reunion tours and draws viewers’ attention to bland reboots of once successful TV shows, like “Fuller House” or “Arrested Development: Fateful Consequences.” It ’s what drove me to spend an embarrassing amount of time trying to redownload Adobe Flash Player on my computer so I could play “Holly Hobbie and Friends Muffin Maker.” Nostalgia, defined by Oxford Languages as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, can be a positive emotion. Studies have shown that nostalgia in healthy doses can provide us with feelings of continuity and purpose in our lives. As New York Times columnist John Tierney wrote in his piece “What is Nostalgia Good For?”: “When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future.” Hearing songs or seeing photos that spark old memories of an elementary school graduation or family vacation can remind us of how far we’ve come. Acknowledging our pasts allows us to understand the
scope of our lives and find meaning in personal growth and development. It prompts us to reconnect with old, cherished friends and appreciate what may seem like simpler times. felt trapped in my childhood home and chose to spend my days unproductively waiting for an alternate reality to swoop in and create some miraculous COVID -19 cure that, of course, never arrived. Rediscovering those silly, low-quality Holly Hobbie games gave me a sense of purpose in a time of extreme uncertainty. Reminding myself of such a random yet warm childhood experience inspired me to appreciate every moment of that forced family time I could because I would hopefully be leaving for college in a few short months. I was put back on track and focusing on how I could make the most of our family quarantine rather than angrily ponder what experiences I was being forced to miss. Those games brought me back to simply being young, easily fascinated by every object, activity and person that entered my life; but more importantly, they reminded me of the atmosphere of my childhood — the comfortable feeling of being entrenched in familial love. It reminded me to be eternally grateful for the endless sacrifices made out of compassion so that I could go to school each day and come home excited to experience the fun that was in store. My parents worked tirelessly to ensure my happiness, even in times of extreme financial difficulty like the 2008 recession. My grandparents came over rather than spending a night with their friends to give my parents a break, simultaneously providing me with all the love I could dream of. And the ironic
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beauty of it all is that they were so successful that my biggest concerns as a child were choosing what color icing to put on my virtual Holly Hobbie muffins. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Hollis Griffin, an LSA Communication and Media professor, discussed how we often utilize nostalgia as a comforting tool to soften the blow of a currently stressful reality. “I think there’s a way of looking back that is understanding the past as somehow simpler and more desirable than the present moment,” Griffin said. “We tend to look back when we’re nervous about what’s going on around us in the present, and there’s a way in which when you’re nervous about, express trepidation about or have kind of wary cautious feelings about something going on in your immediate surroundings, there’s a way in which looking back is deeply comforting.” Nostalgia can be wonderful. It can bring us back to our roots and revive our excitement for the pure, simple joys of being alive. But like anything, excessive focus on the past can hinder our personal progress. Spending our days reminiscing may cause us to neglect the necessity of moving forward. When does it get to be too much? When does rewatching “Friends” for the nth time transition from harmless reminiscence into an emotional downward spiral driven by reversion? Where is the line between appreciation and excessive longing for times we will never get back? It’s tempting to get wrapped up in reliving what seems like the glory days, particularly in a pandemic, where daily life often feels simultaneously monotoaI have spent so much of this time reminiscing on simpler days that I have lost almost a year and counting ’s worth of potential memories. Hollis also noted humans’ tendency to oversimplify the past. When I think about that Holly Hobbie game and its association with the warm love of my family and early childhood, it’s easy to quietly disregard the time’s miserable meltdowns and ever-present stress. “I think that there’s a way of seeing the past that way as being simpler than it was a lot of times,” Hollis said. “It doesn’t mean the past was without its problems, it means that the conditions of the present are looking at the past in particular ways.” After hearing from Hollis and giving it more thought, I believe what we have learned and experienced in our past is necessary to propel us to elevated personal happiness and success, but our past should not prevent us from advancing to the nextstages of our lives. The past is an indispensable mechanism for learning and growth so long as we use it wisely and moderately. A rewatch of your favorite Disney Channel show or a scream-singing session of 2000s pop hits may not clue us in on how to solve a global pandemic, but they can, and have, kept our endurance high in these infinitely trying times. When the present reality feels suffocating and stressful, sometimes the best escape is to allow ourselves, even just for a moment, to revert back to the simple joys of being an imaginative, naïve child. Nostalgia essentially provides us with the chance to time travel, allowing us to rediscover the brightest aspects of our past in order to motivate and comfort us in the present.
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 13
Bob Seger’s Ann Arbor
BY ABIGAIL SNYDER, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT REBECCA MAHON /Daily
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f all the unnecessary worries I had going into my freshman year at the University of Michigan (and there were a lot), the one I now laugh at most is that I wouldn’t like Ann Arbor. Having grown up in a major metropolitan area, I was hesitant about going to school in a college town. As if it’s possible to not like Ann Arbor. This place means something different for all of us who’ve lived here, certainly, but something I especially love is how much history is embedded in the city — how many people have walked these streets, have discovered my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, have pulled all-nighters in my favorite study spots before I arrived. I love that idea — that I am becoming one of so many people that have been shaped by this place. Something I love even more is that the people who live in Ann Arbor shape the town as much as it shapes those who temporarily stay. The energy in these streets is somehow more malleable, more attuned to the specific group that’s here right now than to the countless faces that came before. Maybe that’s just the nature of a college town, but it’s still amazing to think about what Ann Arbor used to be like and what we could help it become. One of my favorite times to picture is the Ann Arbor of the late 60s. I’m an avid fan of what my friends have jokingly termed “dad music” — Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, The Beach Boys, basically any music that resulted from the Vietnam War — and seeing photographs from The Michigan Daily of the University in those days sparked that interest even more. With this in mind, you can imagine how excited I was to learn that Bob Seger, singer of “Old Time Rock & Roll” and numerous of my other dad playlist staples, is from Ann Arbor. I immediately started listening through his songs, on guard for
anything that might be about Ann Arbor. After doing some research, I was able to piece together a Bob Seger’s Ann Arbor tour, so to speak. It’s beautiful how this place that’s shaped me so much has also shaped some of the music I love. The song “Mainstreet” was written about a little old jazz club on West Ann and North Main Streets, where Seger used to listen to a performer known to everyone in town as Washboard Willie. There’s a certain wistfulness to the opening guitar riff. You can almost picture it echoing down the quiet streets, the soft piano chords underneath it as solid as the footsteps on the pilgrimage home. “Standin’ on the corner at midnight / Tryin’ to get my courage up …” That club is long gone now, and the dreamy dancer Seger longs for has long since disappeared into the chords of life. Instead, there’s a party store with faded awnings and crackling window paint at that intersection, a brick building casting a shadow over the juncture. There’s a hotel across the street, the kind where visiting parents or alumni or businessmen might stay when they come into town. But somehow, the sort of hazy, hopeful scene that the song sets up doesn’t feel that far off. Sure, it might not be happening in the exact same place, but even now, decades on, something of Seger’s sentiment still rings true. Walking these streets at night, the everyday commotion not gone, but softened, wondering about the lives of passersby — that Ann Arbor scene still happens, still shapes us, still compels us into that same wistful wondering that’s audible on Seger’s record. “Sometimes even now, when I’m feelin’ lonely and beat / I drift back in time and I find my feet / Down on Main Street …” Seger grew up in the neighborhood along Packard Street. He’d frequent Blue Front, the old convenience-store-turned-craft-beer oasis, with his brother; it was an easy walk from their home. Another of
Seger’s old haunts is still as much an institution in 2021 Ann Arbor as it was in the 1960s. Brown Jug Restaurant at the corner of Church Street and South University Avenue is today just as beloved as the music of Seger, their former pizza delivery boy. Although Brown Jug declined to comment for this story and Seger’s music rarely plays at the restaurant these days, it still somehow seems fitting that he was involved with this Ann Arbor staple; it seems right that he, like so many of us, has memories of nights centered on this place. Brown Jug isn’t the only longstanding legacy Seger grew up with. The singer also used to play concerts at the University’s fraternities. Chris Cioe, the musician and writer who provided jazz instrumentals to The B-52’s and The Manhattans, among others, vividly remembers seeing Seger, clad in “skin-tight black jeans, a turtleneck and a blue Beatles style cap — the quintessential greaser-rocker,” performing on the front lawn of the Chi Phi house at 1530 Washtenaw. hese days, the music echoing out of the old stone structure might tend more towards Chance the Rapper than Creedence Clearwater Revival, more towards hip-hop than oldtime rock ‘n’ roll. But if you think hard enough about what this scene might’ve looked like in 1966, it’s not so hard to picture Seger playing on those front steps. It’s not so hard to imagine the twanging of the guitar floating out across the busy street as the brothers and their dates danced in the sunshine, caught at that exciting juncture between culture and counterculture that came to define their generation, both shaping and being shaped by Ann Arbor. Seger’s fingerprints are also still visible at Pioneer High School, which Seger attended back when it was still Ann Arbor High. He lettered in track and field, graduating in 1963. You can still find his photograph in the yearbook. It makes all of this a little more real:
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He really was here. Those lyrics really are about this town. You really have seen the same landscape, walked the same streets. That shared experience is wistfully portrayed by “Night Moves,” one of Seger’s most-loved songs, and arguably one of his best. Its longing lyrics and the vivid scenes of late nights sneaking away whenever possible still feels like a real account of what it means to be young. “Workin’ on our night moves / Tryin’ to lose the awkward teenage blues …” The song was inspired by “grassers” that Seger and his friends held in high school, out on Zeeb Road. They turned on the headlights, played records from the car, drank, smoked and danced. “Night Moves” is simultaneously an idealizing tribute to that youthful rebellion and a sincere, profound rendering of it. “We weren’t searchin’ for some pie in the sky, or summit / We were just young and restless and bored / Livin’ by the sword / And we’d steal away every chance we could / To the backroom, the alley, the trusty woods …” As I reached the end of the Bob Seger tour, it felt as if it truly came full circle, from the wistful longing of “Mainstreet” all the way back around to the earnest remembrance of “Night Moves.” The songs seem to have the same energy as Seger intended when they were initially created, somehow — the same bittersweet recollection of earlier, less complicated, but no less meaningful days. The honest version of Ann Arbor we see in Seger’s lyrics that still affects us years down the road seemed a fitting place to end. Maybe this candid sentimentality is why Seger’s music has endured these many decades, because it’s Seger’s Ann Arbor that I’d most like to think is still accurate: Young people, still trying to figure their lives out, earnestly stumbling towards some nebulous future, but just as sincerely trying to appreciate the good days before we’ve actually left them.
Sports
14 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Coming off draining competition at Winter Cup Challenge, Bock leads Michigan to win over Iowa SAMI RUUD For The Daily
Approaching his dismount off the pommel horse, senior Cameron Bock could hear the screams of encouragement from his teammates at the edge of the mat. He pushed himself up into a handstand on the horse, using the motivation from the sidelines, and ended the routine with a solid landing — earning a score of 14.550, a new career high. Although the voices of his teammates helped motivate his routines during the Michigan men’s g ymnastics win over No. 7 Iowa, Bock has also had to discipline himself to perform the same routines in almost complete silence. In the Winter Cup Challenge on Feb. 26-28, the atmosphere was completely different than that of a normal Michigan dual meet. “Whenever someone goes up and does their routine (at a Michigan meet), everyone is yelling for them, you got the team support, it’s pretty loud,” Bock said. “In USA competitions, it’s almost dead silent. The music is low, you have maybe one or two other g uys on your team there or your coach rooting you on, but it’s really just a different vibe.” Both Bock and sophomore Paul Juda competed in the Winter Cup Challenge and were named part of the U.S. national team, with Bock placing first in the meet and Juda placing sixth. Bock competed in
both days of the Winter Cup, as well as at a meet on Feb. 21 against No. 3 Nebraska and No. 7 Illinois, for a total of three draining meets in a span of a week. With the meet this week against Iowa following the intense stretch, Bock did not compete on all events to allow for a break. “Our two main all around g uys are Cameron Bock and Paul Juda, and they just finished a stretch of competition that was really grueling, really brutal,” Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. “Even if it weren’t — which it is — physically fatig uing, it’s mentally fatig uing because all of those meets were big pressure cookers.” The strain of the last few meets did not seem to have much of an effect on Bock’s routines for the Wolverines on Saturday. Following his performance on the pommel horse, he tallied a 14.400 on the still rings, sticking the landing on the dismount and getting a huge reaction from the team once again. Bock’s lowest-scoring event of the day was vault, where he scored a 14.150, but he finished his day off with a solid parallel performance, landing a solid double back pike dismount to post a score of 14.400. Bock competed last in the lineup on each event during the meet in order to stay consistent and help the team finish with a strong performance. “From a more logistical standpoint, I go last simply because I do all the events, so it gives me a little more time to rest,” Bock said.
MADDIE FOX/Daily
Senior Cameron Bock scored a career-high on the pommel horse this weekend’s Winter Cup Challenge.
“But in terms of the mentality, I’ve been put in that position many times, where if we have a couple falls or some adversity in the routines prior, I’ll just keep my head down, do my routine and try to get a good score for the team to bring it back.” In the meet against the Hawkeyes, Bock captured event titles on the pommel horse, still rings and parallel bars. Bock, alongside Juda, is not only training towards the Big Ten and
NCAA Championships like the rest of the Michigan team: he’s also training for the USA Championships and the Olympic Trials in June. It means they often have different practice schedules from their teammates, but they’re still key leaders for the Wolverines. “(Juda and Bock) are both in the same (practice) group … and the group coach there, I just let him do it however he wants to do it with those
two guys,” Golder said. “During the week, we’ll have scheduled intersquad meets on various events, and we don’t require those guys to be a part of it. So they can just do their own training plan for what they need to do.” Ultimately, although it was a grueling few weeks, Bock didn’t miss a beat against Iowa, and the Wolverines notched solid performances with Bock at the forefront.
Transfers bolster lineup in opening series JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
After a lopsided game, Michigan finally drove in its win against Nebraska with a double overtime goal.
Wolfe’s double overtime goal lifts Michigan over Nebraska HAYDEN GRIJNSZTEIN For The Daily
Raleigh Loughman carried the ball up the right wing with pace. The junior midfielder cut to her left on the edge of the box and looped in a cross that was knocked down by a Nebraska defender. Freshman forward Sammi Woods scooped up the loose ball and — without looking — tapped the ball with the back of her heel over towards a lurking Danielle Wolfe. The sophomore forward took one touch on the ball and fired a left-footed screamer into the top right corner of the Nebraska goal, putting an abrupt end to a 3-2 doubleovertime victory for Michigan (2-1-2 Big Ten) over Nebraska (1-2-1). While Michigan ultimately prevailed, the first half made winning appear unlikely. In the second minute of play, junior defender Janiece Joyner overshot senior defensive partner Alia Martin on a cross-pitch pass just outside the Michigan box, perfectly setting up Nebraska forward Reagan Raabe for a first-touch shot that gave the Cornhuskers an early 1-0 lead. Ten minutes later, Raabe weaved through multiple
Wolverine defenders but lost possession two yards outside the box, coming just short of doubling the Cornhuskers lead. In the 30th minute, though, the Wolverines received a modicum of karma. A Nebraska defender couldn’t clear the ball near the penalty spot, perfectly setting up freshman forward Kacey Lawrence for a highvelocity strike that landed in the top left corner of the Nebraska net. Lawrence’s first career goal tied it up 1-1. Just one minute later, Cornhusker midfielder Dakota Chan connected with her teammate Marissa Popoola for a set-piece corner kick goal that gave Nebraska a 2-1 lead. Popoola’s goal was a powerful header, giving senior goalkeeper Hillary Beall no opportunity to make a save on the shot. Despite trailing 2-1 at the half, Michigan came out firing on all cylinders at the start of the second. During the first 25 minutes, Michigan racked up 10 shots, compared to zero from Nebraska. One of those shots, a cross-net header by junior defender Sydney Shepherd, coming off of a Loughman corner kick, found the back of the net in the 60th minute, equalizing the score at 2-2.
“We figured if we could make it through the first half, and get the wind ( blowing) with us in the second half we would really give us a huge boost,” Michigan coach Jennifer Klein said. “I do think that it did (help us).” Even-footed play during the next half hour resulted in a defensive struggle, sending the match to overtime. In the first overtime period, neither team put a shot on net. The Wolverines changed that in the second overtime period. They came out of the gate with an offensive barrage, sending three shots toward the Nebraska net. In the 104th minute, Wolfe hit the post. In the 105th, she hit the back of the net. “I (am) really proud of (the team’s) fight and grit,” Klein said. “They stayed the course and stuck to the game plan. We (got) the result so (I am) extremely proud of them.” Neither goalkeeper played all too well today, as Michigan’s Beall and Nebraska’s Makinzie Short combined for five goals allowed but just six saves. At the end of the day, it all came down to momentum. Nebraska felt the hot hand early, Michigan caught fire during crunch time.
On March 6, sophomore outfielder Jake Marti stepped into the batter’s box for the first time as a member of the Michigan baseball team — and as a Division I athlete. He’d spent the last two years raking at Heartland Community College, where he earned an All-Midwest Athletic Conference selection, but that’s no guarantee of success in the Division I game. “It’s a big jump coming from a junior college to this level,” Marti admitted. Still, in his first taste of Division I action, Marti looked right at home. On the first pitch he saw, he connected for a tworun double that gave the No. 18 Wolverines an early lead in their season opener against Iowa. Marti wasn’t the only transfer bat to help Michigan to its 3-1 weekend series victory. He and shortstop Benjamin Sems, catcher Griffin Mazur and third baseman Christian Molfetta — all fifth-year transfers — combined for a .334/.480/.590 slash line and participated in several game-breaking rallies. “They’re here to fill some holes and plug some gaps, and that’s exactly what they did,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said.
When the Hawkeyes tied game one in the seventh inning, the Wolverines didn’t wait long before reclaiming the lead. After sophomore outfielder Tito Flores began the eighth with a double, he advanced to third off a bunt from Sems and driven in by a Molfetta single. “He’s a hell of a player and a versatile player,” Bakich said of Molfetta. “He stepped right into third base and filled in for (sophomore third baseman) Ted Burton,” who missed the series with an illness. “He made outstanding plays defensively and he had a ton of quality at-bats.” After a quiet showing in game two, Michigan’s offense returned in game three, led by its transfers. With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, it was Mazur’s turn for heroics; he crushed a changeup to leftcenter field for a grand slam. “We weren’t hurting for a hit, but we needed a hit to open things up, let everyone relax a little bit,” Mazur said in an interview posted on Michigan baseball’s Twitter account. “It was pretty awesome to get that first hit in a Michigan uniform. These guys have done nothing but accept me, and bring me into the team.”
Mazur’s coaches and teammates shared his enthusiasm for the highlight. “He got voted one of the team captains, and his leadership is just off the charts,” Bakich said. “He’s a sparkplug, he gets big hits, he’s a clutch hitter. He’s a general out there on the field. He’s got all the intangible skills you would want.” Added Flores: “You love to see your brother hit a homerun. … He’s a wonderful person, and that’s why he’s one of our captains on this team.” By the final game of the series, Marti, Molfetta and Mazur were hitting first, third and fourth in the order, respectively. They joined Sems to combine for six runs and nine hits in a dominant 11-4 win. None of this quartet had played for Michigan before, and one of them was new to Division I baseball entirely. But they needed just one series to establish themselves as cornerstones of the Wolverines’ offense. “It’s an awesome experience to come in here and know that I’m not alone, with all the transfers,” Marti said. “A bunch of new faces, making the lineup and just stringing together at-bats. I felt like we fed off each other’s energy really well all weekend, so that was really cool to see.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Wolverines’ transfers were central to their success in their opening series against Iowa.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — 15
Through Saddi Washington, Michigan bridges past to future JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer
Saddi Washington rolled out of bed and into basketball purgatory. On the morning of May 13, 2019, John Beilein, Michigan’s all-time winningest coach, accepted the head-coaching position with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. In his wake, a stunned program pondered its suddenly precarious future. Washington, an assistant under Beilein, had no intention of leaving Ann Arbor anytime soon. Across three years on Beilein’s staff, he emerged as an integral part of Michigan’s success, helping spur the Wolverines into college basketball’s upperechelon with two consecutive 30-win seasons. Meanwhile, his daughter, Sidney, had settled into high school while his son, Caleb, transitioned into middle school. “I always say, the Michigan experience has been very kind to the Washingtons,” Washington told The Daily. For days, Washington wondered whether that experience was over. Two weeks later, loitering toward the back of Juwan Howard’s introductory press conference, Washington found himself as Michigan’s longest-tenured assistant coach. Suddenly, he was the seniormost link to Beilein’s program. As the staff’s holdover, his priorities shifted. He needed to work alongside the new staff to maintain Michigan’s success, an effort rooted in conserving the culture. A pair of pictures drape the back wall to Washington’s office, tethers to the past. The first, a photo of the 2016-17 Wolverines celebrating their Big Ten Tournament championship. The other, a team picture taken on the court in San Antonio before the 2018 Final Four. Since those moments, players and coaches have come and gone within the program. And yet, success has endured. It’s early February, and when Washington leans back in his desk chair, both photos come into view, blown-up and framed. He didn’t know that, a month later, he would be standing underneath a drizzle of maize confetti in the belly of a hollow Crisler Center, exchanging hugs and fist-bumps at the outeredge of a mosh pit. Michigan, in domineering fashion, secured the outright Big Ten regular-season championship.
Another photo to add to the display. The last 11 seasons comprise arguably the greatest period of sustained success in Michigan men’s basketball history. Eight (soon to be nine, would have been 10) NCAA Tournament appearances. Five Big Ten championships. Two Final Fours and perhaps more forthcoming. The transition from Beilein to Howard elicited no apparent drop-off, with the two tenures merging into one glorified era. Scanning those photos — both the pair already framed and the one soon to be there — reveals Washington to be the constant. *** After graduating from Oakland in 2010, Johnathon Jones was alone, bound for Slovakia on a pro-contract having spent the first 23 years of his life in Michigan. A few days before he left, he received a phone call from his former assistant coach, Saddi Washington, with some advice. A decade earlier, Washington wore Jones’s shoes. He was en route to France, having left behind his wife and fleeting NBA dreams to prolong his playing career overseas. Challenges awaited — new teammates, a new style of play, a new culture — with no simple remedies. Washington had no one to guide him through the transition; bootlegged TV programs represented the only sort of contact with home. And, early on in his tenure as an assistant coach at Oakland, Washington sought to provide his players the mentorship he sorely lacked during that time. “I just tried to be there every step of the way, even though I wasn’t physically there,” Washington said. “It goes back to that day you’re sitting in a kid’s living room and they’re on campus and you start the recruiting pitch and you’re talking about family, from my perspective that shouldn’t end the moment they leave campus.” Drawing upon his own international experience — stints in France, Italy, Israel and Greece — Washington curated a running Microsoft Word file dubbed the “European Survival Kit.” It encompassed everything from packing essentials to advice on acclimating to foreign customs, to stipulations to watch for in contracts. “Kinda like when a freshman goes to college, you have certain
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Michigan assistant coach Saddi Washington has been the one constant through two coaching regimes.
things that help you get by,” Jones, who played for Oakland from 2007-2011, said. “First time going overseas, he sat me down, made a checklist, told me what I could expect.” As Washington’s players continued to embark on international careers, he would “make his rounds,” checking in on dozens of players at a time. “He’d reach out, ‘Young fella, man, you got everything you need?’ ” Reggie Hamilton, who played in seven different countries after his Oakland career, said. “He really just wanted you to be successful from the times he had.” That’s what gravitated Washington to coaching in the first place. As his playing career fizzled, coaching emerged as a way to give back through future generations. “To put them in a position … to be successful not just in basketball, but in life,” Washington says. He served one year as a volunteer assistant under current-Alabama coach Nate Oats at Romulus High School before moving on to Oakland University in 2006 as an assistant coach. There, he quickly embraced his different hats — not just that of an assistant coach. “You ask Saddi, ‘Who are you?’ and he’s not gonna tell you he’s a basketball coach,” Oats said. He extended open invitations to his house, hosting players to watch film, eat dinner or simply relax and watch the nightly slate of NBA action. In an academic setting, he pushed his players to take more strenuous classes and ensured they completed their assignments on time.
“That’s not his job, man,” Jalen Hayes, who played at Oakland from 2013-2018, said. “His job is to coach us on the court. Just going the extra mile, stuff that he didn’t have to do, but he did anyway because he wanted to see us be successful.” That mindset is reflected in everything Washington does. When NBA speculation inundated Kay Felder during his junior season, Washington initiated a heart-to-heart at the baggage carousel before a flight home. “He didn’t try to steer me and say, ‘Oh, you should stay another year’ or ‘you should go,’ ” Felder said. “It was basically, ‘I’m on your side.’ ” And when Drew Valentine, an uncommitted high school prospect, tore his ACL in September of his senior year, Washington made sure to be at the hospital. When Valentine opened his eyes after surgery, he saw Washington first. “His biggest attribute is he’s real,” Carlton Valentine, Drew’s father and a close friend of Washington’s, said. “You could sense his genuine care and concern. There’s not a fake bone in his body.” There’s no perfect science to a coaching change. On multiple levels, it’s a balancing act, between players and staff members, pre-existing program values and the new regime’s vision. Each one is different from the next. Most new coaches at high-major schools inherit floundering programs in need of a complete makeover. At Michigan, that was far from the
case. Beilein ingrained a culture that bred sustained success; Howard faced the challenge of building off it. “Going off, ‘Well, it’s not exactly broke here at Michigan, let’s keep a staff member on,’ and (Juwan) did that,” Beilein said. “We also understand that Juwan has to put his own stamp on it. The whole idea of creating his own identity but not letting go of the success that we’ve had.” Retaining Washington offered a tangible way to do that. On Howard’s staff, Phil Martelli offered 24 years of collegiate head-coaching experience and Howard Eisley brought a heralded NBA pedigree. Yet Washington, hired by Beilein in May of 2016, possessed a familiarity with the players and program that others lacked. “You gotta have somebody that knows these guys,” Oats, who was present for coaching changes at both Buffalo and Alabama, said. “It’s hard to just come in, everybody on staff building a new relationship from scratch. You have to do it sometimes, but it’s not easy. It’s a lot easier and better to do it when you keep somebody.” Beilein recommended each of his staff members to Howard. Washington and Howard had crossed paths before, both on the recruiting trail with Howard’s son, Jace, and during times when Howard would visit the program in past summers. They hit it off immediately. “Coach Juwan, he’s a peopleperson, a relationship guy much like myself,” Washington said. “So you got two guys that
really thrive off the energy in a relationship.” Once on board, Washington’s innate ability to develop relationships rendered him a perfect fit to connect one era to the next. He first thought to address the needs and apprehensions of his players. He sought to hasten Howard’s learning curve, parceling out information and compiling cheatsheets on personalities, strengths and weaknesses. As Howard devised a playbook, Washington served as the liaison between systems old and new. “He’s been a star in his role as far as doing a great job in assisting the staff and myself,” Howard said. “He could have easily gone to any school, I’m sure, and joined someone else’s staff as an assistant … because of his knowledge for the game and understanding of how to relate to players. I’m just happy that Saddi’s on our side.” Washington added: “I really just tried to serve as the bridge.” Last March, lost in the shuff le of the pandemic, Western Michigan relieved its longstanding coach, Steve Hawkins. The opening seemed tailor-made for Washington: a two-time All-MAC player, he starred as a Bronco from 19941998. Except, he didn’t want the job. He consulted with his family and, collectively, they agreed the timing wasn’t right. “A quality of life decision,” he deems it. The thought of a head coaching position, though, has crossed Washington’s mind before. “I would love to one day have the opportunity to be a head coach and run a program and do a lot of things that I’m doing now as an assistant in terms of inf luencing and making an impact on young men’s lives,” Washington said, a sly grin creeping across his face. “But just doing it from the first seat.” It’s a role that anyone who has interacted with Washington knows he’s prepared for. “That dude is a one-of-akind man,” Hamilton said. “I can’t wait until he leads his own team. I’m really excited to see a Saddi Washington-driven culture.” In reality, though, Hamilton doesn’t have to wait to see a Washington-inspired culture. All he has to do is look at Michigan.
Michigan unable to overcome injury to Brooks CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Editor
The floater went in, but the result of the play couldn’t have been worse for the Michigan men’s basketball team. Just four-and-a-half minutes into the Wolverines’ 70-64 loss to Michigan State on Sunday, after scoring his second basket of the game, senior guard Eli Brooks injured his left ankle after landing awkwardly on the foot of Spartan forward Marcus Bingham Jr. Assisted by Michigan coach Juwan Howard and athletic trainer Alex Wong, Brooks hobbled to the bench and eventually into the locker room, emerging in a walking boot at the start of the second half. “I don’t have much information for you about Eli’s injury,” Howard said afterward. “(We’ll) get home, gonna take a look and see after we’ve had our doctors take a look at it.” Added senior wing Isaiah Livers: “You know he’s a warrior. … I didn’t get to see the replay but had to be bad if Eli can’t get back out there.” As was the case in its first loss of the season against Minnesota on
Jan. 16 — which Brooks missed due to injury — the Wolverines looked a shell of their typical selves without him. Michigan’s offense was disjointed, its defense erratic and its depth stretched. In their loss to the Golden Gophers, Michigan shot just 39% from the field. This time, it was only slightly higher at 41.7%. While graduate point guard Mike Smith is the team’s primary ball-handler, Brooks initiates the offense in his relief. Brooks entered the game averaging only 2.8 assists, but his steady presence has proven invaluable for the Wolverines this season. Brooks, who shoots over 36% from deep, also usually gives Michigan another scoring threat on the perimeter. “First we could do better by making better decisions,” Howard said. “Also there was some questionable shot selection. I loved (their) aggressiveness, but we have to be smart-aggressive. And then there were times too where we were missing guys when they were open. We can’t have those moments either.” Senior guard Chaundee Brown
stepped in for Brooks. Typically the first player off the bench for the Wolverines, Brown filled in well from a scoring perspective, going 5-for-10 from the field with 13 points. Unfortunately for Michigan, though, its depth behind Brown was stretched extremely thin. Freshman Zeb Jackson had played just five total minutes in the last three games but played eight against the Spartans. “No matter what, you can never prepare when you lose one of your main guys,” Howard said. “Chaundee did a good job of stepping in, Zeb had some good minutes out there as well, but we just pray that (Eli) gets back healthy.” The void left by Brooks was especially pronounced on the defensive side of the ball. Michigan State’s guards Rocket Watts and Aaron Henry Jr. combined for 39 points. Brooks, the Wolverines’ best perimeter defender, would’ve matched up with one of them. Michigan showed signs of life late in the game, cutting the deficit to two with a minute left. But, the Wolverines’ offensive strides were ultimately canceled out by their inability to get stops down the
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior guard Eli Brooks went down with an ankle injury against Michigan State in the last game of the Wolverines’ regular season.
stretch — exactly when you’d want a guy like Eli Brooks on the floor. “We gotta do a better job of defending. We always pride ourselves on defense being a staple of getting stops, but unfortunately today, we didn’t do a good job of getting stops when we needed it. I loved (their) effort but we gotta do a better job of being more locked into the details.”
While the severity of Brooks’s injury is unknown, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Michigan plays its first game in the Big Ten Tournament this Friday, before the NCAA Tournament starts the following week. How quickly Brooks can return to action may end up being the difference between a second-round exit and a run to the Final Four.
“When a guy that important goes down, you gotta adjust,” Livers said. “It’s a next man-up mentality, not making no excuses. We’re gonna watch film, see where we can improve at.” As Michigan’s learned without Brooks, believing in a “next manup mentality” and actually living up to it are two very different things.
Sports
16 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsWednesday: The vindication of Warde Manuel The best coach in school history had just left only a year after signing an extension. Warde Manuel started his coaching search with an idea of where to go. He’d been the sport administrator for Michigan hockey for some time in the early aughts, getting to know now-Michigan coach Mel Pearson well. Manuel knew, of course, that Red Berenson would be leaving after the 2016-17 season. He ETHAN approached SEARS the interview process with a crisp professionalism, Pearson says — one interview, no conversations before or after until the job was offered. All things equal, he preferred someone with a Michigan connection, Berenson said. It wasn’t long before Pearson received an offer. “I thought they were really thorough on the process, what they needed to know and who they talked to,” Pearson said. The hire of Pearson was Manuel’s first high-profile personnel move as athletic director, and it paid immediate dividends. Pearson led Michigan to a Frozen Four in his first year coaching the program and has the Wolverines on pace for an NCAA Tournament berth this year after netting an NHL prospectladen recruiting class. Meanwhile, on Sunday in East Lansing, Juwan Howard — Manuel’s hire as men’s basketball coach — wrapped up a regular season that culminated in a Big Ten title and will likely yield a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Howard, in just his second year as a head coach, has made Manuel look like a savant. Between him and Kevin Ollie, who led UConn to a national title the
year after Manuel hired him there before NCAA sanctions crippled the program, the man seems to have a way of finding basketball coaches. To find out why, let’s start with a common description of Manuel. He’s direct and honest, the kind of boss who can be firm while letting you feel you were heard. The best way to say it comes from Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun: “He’s not a bullshitter,” Calhoun said. He tells a story to demonstrate. After Calhoun retired, Ollie was widely considered an easy pick to replace him. Initially, he didn’t want to do it. “Warde said, ‘Tell him he’s got two hours,’ ” Calhoun recalled. “Within two hours, under my advice, he took the job.” Manuel didn’t have time for bullshit then, and he didn’t have time for it in May 2019. He read the stories during an unusually long wait between Michigan hiring Howard and the school introducing him at a press conference. They described the hiring as a risk and a gamble, given Howard’s lack of head coaching experience. When a reporter asked Manuel about that perception, he spoke for over five minutes straight, voice rising with inflection as he went. Softball coach Carol Hutchins started out as a part-time administrative assistant, he said, football coach Jim Harbaugh as a part-time assistant under his father in the offseason. He issued a plea — let Howard evolve. “In the last two years, folks, 110 schools have changed basketball coaches. A lot of those people who change have great deals of experience,” he said, throwing his arms out. “Let him evolve, let him develop into a head coach of his own. That’s what I’m gonna do. Support him, answer questions, put people around him and let him evolve.
“All these things about, ‘He hasn’t coached a game’ and ‘What’s Warde doing, oh my god he’s taking a risk and a gamble’ and all these different things — I’m gonna gamble with people who love this place the way he does. That gets emotional when he looks at his family and he talks to those kids. I’m gonna take that risk, I’m gonna take that challenge. Put it on me.”
just days after her initial hire and apologizing after a Michigan Daily story on Faehn sparked outrage. More recently, Manuel also failed to follow University policy with regard to the Robert Anderson investigation, forwarding a letter alleging sexual assault by former team doctor Robert Anderson to University lawyers instead of Title IX investigators.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel’s coaching decisions have proven to pay immediate dividends.
Manuel, through a spokesman, declined an interview request for this story. Suffice it to say, though, he should be happy to have the hire put on him. It’s important to note that Manuel’s performance as athletic director has not been perfect. In early 2019, he green-lit the hire of Rhonda Faehn, a former USA Gymnastics official who had allegedly waited a week after being told of Larry Nassar’s abuse of athletes before reporting it to the FBI. Manuel admitted in a public statement that doing so was “the wrong decision,” firing Faehn
Manuel’s performance as athletic director, in sum, includes all of those issues every bit as much as it includes who he’s hired. When all is said and done, the Anderson scandal could eclipse any good he or other University administrators have done. Manuel, though, has telegraphed a desire for stability above all else through who he’s hired. He wants coaches he can trust and coaches who will stick with the program. It helps of course that there’s been no need to start firing anybody, but keeping everyone on board is an achievement of its own. Manuel
wants to stay out of the public eye — since hiring Howard, he’s done just two formal press conferences — but among his most revealing public comments came in May 2018, when he said he wanted Harbaugh and John Beilein to retire at Michigan. Soon after, it was reported that Beilein — in the midst of negotiating a contract extension — had interviewed for an NBA job with the Detroit Pistons. Beilein told Manuel he could take back the contract he offered, as he’d extended it without knowing there was discussion between Beilein and the Pistons. Manuel told him no. Beilein eventually returned to Michigan another year before leaving for the Cleveland Cavaliers the next summer. “When (Manuel) likes the direction of your program,” Beilein said, “he’s gonna stick with you through thick and thin.” Manuel’s persona fits the politics of Michigan well, his background as a football player in Ann Arbor tends to come up. More important to his success, though, is that in an environment where the University’s administration wants its highprofile athletics program to be anything but a headache, he is, for the most part, able to keep things above board. That is what makes his decisions surrounding Harbaugh and the football program so compelling. After a Murphy’s Law-inspired, 2-4 pandemic season, Manuel extended Harbaugh, but did so on a University-friendly contract with a low buyout. “Following the completion of the season, we talked for many hours on what it will take for Jim to lead and get us back on the right trajectory,” Manuel said in a statement announcing the extension. That unto itself represents a departure from the hands-off style Manuel usually employs. During one stretch early in his tenure, two
basketball assistants both left the program, leading Beilein to meet with Manuel a handful of times to get new hires sorted. “I think that in the future, you’ll find out I won’t be in your office unless you want me here, but a couple times a year,” Beilein recalled telling him. This to say — big-picture conversations about the trajectory of the program aren’t the sort of thing Manuel’s having regularly with all his coaches. Given the circumstance wrought by the pandemic, both financial and on the football field, where opt-outs and injuries helped the team’s misfortune spiral, Manuel took the easiest option in front of him. If things don’t work out with Harbaugh, he can move on at a low cost at a point where it’s more financially prudent to do so. If Michigan gets back to winning nine games next year, he can go back to ignoring the portion of the fan base that calls for a coaching change after every loss. Ironically, it’s a third-way move — the opposite of a gamble. Different circumstances dictate a different approach, though Manuel might still dispute the notion that Howard was a gamble to begin with. Howard, who earlier this season aimed a diatribe at the doubters who questioned his hire, might as well. “He will, in my opinion, evolve into a great coach, a great head coach,” Manuel said in 2019, “cause he’s already a great man as you all saw.” On Thursday, when Michigan clinched the Big Ten title, Howard found Manuel in the stands and pointed amid the celebration. Socially distanced, they shared a moment before Howard returned to his team. Sears can be reached at searseth@ umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_ sears.
Seven years later, 2014 squad reflects on Big Ten regular season title TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
On March 4, 2021, the final seconds ticked off the clock as the Michigan men’s basketball team swarmed together at center court following a win over Michigan State. With the opening notes of Drake’s “Trophies” blaring over the PA system, a mass exodus of Wolverine players, coaches and managers alike ran out from the sidelines and began dancing, jumping and hugging as they celebrated a Big Ten regular season title on their home floor. It was a heady mixture of relief, pride and triumph, all exactly seven years to the day after their last regular season conference title. The 2013-14 season didn’t always look like one destined to end in a Big Ten regular season title. Following the departures of star guards Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. to the NBA Draft, Michigan limped into conference play with a 6-4 record and without a bona fide closer. The situation looked even tougher when then-sophomore forward Mitch McGary, a projected
lottery pick, suffered a seasonending back injury. “It was one of those things where we looked at each other and we were like, ‘Look, he’s not coming back anytime soon. There’s no one coming in to save the day for us. This is all we have,’ ” then-sophomore guard Nik Stauskas told the Daily. “I think it was that kind of realization where we said, ‘We’ve gotta do our part in stepping up and helping this team win if we wanna turn this season around.’ ” But in the furnace of conference play, the Wolverines started to forge an identity. After picking up four games against middling foes, Michigan had to run its toughest gauntlet of the year: playing top10 opponents Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State all in the same week. Similarly to this season, there was no margin for error against any Big Ten opponent. “That’s what you get with Big Ten basketball,” then-sophomore guard Spike Albrecht told the Daily. “There’s no nights off no matter who you’re playing. Every time you go on the road, you know it’s gonna be a challenge.” Added Stauskas: “We knew coming into Big Ten season, ‘This
is who we have, and we have to turn it around.’ ” Coming into a road game against Wisconsin in Madison on Jan. 18 that year, the Wolverines were heavy underdogs against the top-ranked team in the Big Ten. With the game on the line, Michigan coach John Beilein tried to draw a play up with his team clinging to a one-point edge with a minute left. After passing up an open shot prior to the timeout, Beilein told Stauskas he didn’t think he was ready to be the team’s go-to man in the clutch. The Wolverines’ search for a closer would remain open. Stasukas wasn’t having it. “I think he knew saying that would kinda light the fire underneath me, that made me furious,” Stauskas said. “I was like ‘No, coach. I got this. Run it back.’ So we came back out on the floor and ran the same play, and that’s the play where I hit that stepback. And that’s why when I was walking back to the bench, the camera zooms in on me and you can see me saying, ‘I want this,’ and it was just me telling him, ‘I’m not scared of the moment.’ ”
Michigan’s run the the Big Ten gauntlet was reminiscent to that of the 2014 team’s defining run.
ANNIE KLUSENDORF/Daily
ANNIE KLUSENDORF/Daily
Michigan won its regular season championship on the same day that the 2014 squad won its championship.
Carrying the momentum from the win over the Badgers, Michigan went on a tear. With wins over the Hawkeyes and Spartans, the Wolverines launched into the top 10 of that week’s AP Poll. With an official closer and a newfound level of confidence, the Wolverines became the team to beat in the Big Ten. “As a team, we just had this confidence about us like, ‘No one in the Big Ten can mess with us,’ ” Stauskas said. While Stauskas was Michigan’s unquestioned star, the Wolverines were aided in large part by the play of two freshmen, guard Derrick Walton Jr. and forward Zak Irvin. The two were irreplaceable parts of the 2014 squad who played with veteran poise and made a plethora of clutch shots and big plays in their debut campaigns. “Both of them, they weren’t scared of the moment,” Stauskas said. “They always wanted more.” On March 4, Michigan traveled to Champaign. While Illinois was a middling team in that year’s Big Ten, the Wolverines refused to look past them. This wasn’t just another conference game: this was a chance to clinch a Big Ten regular season title. “I think we knew with the way we were playing that year we were going to win that game, but (Beilein) didn’t want us to
take them lightly,” Stauskas said. “And the amount of focus and concentration that coach Beilein had, he was not gonna let us lose.” Sure enough, the Wolverines blazed their way to a dominant win, clinching the Big Ten regular season title with an 84-53 victory. While the celebration was sweet, it was even sweeter when the team celebrated its title at Crisler Center following a win over Indiana later that week. “That moment of accomplishment on your own court, to be the sole champion,” Beilein said. “Just think about how many times that’s happened. That hasn’t happened a lot. We won two of them and one of them was a three-way tie.” And seven years later, the Wolverines added another Big Ten regular season title banner to the Crisler Center rafters as Beilein watched from the stands. “It does mean a lot to win the regular season championship, because it means you withstood the test of time,” Beilein said. “Only the National Championship is a better gauge for how good you are.” While this year’s Michigan team has not finished writing its narrative, the 2014 team can see pieces of themselves in
what they have accomplished to this point. Besides following suit by winning a regular season championship, the way the Wolverines of today play together reminds its former players of their own days on the court. “The biggest parallel is that they look like they genuinely love playing together and playing for one another,” Albrecht said. “I think that’s part of the reason we were so successful. We were a really close-knit group, all really good friends, had fun going out on the court. “Nobody cared who was scoring, making all the plays. At the end of the day we just wanted to win. And I think that’s something that this group does as well.” This fall, Michigan will raise another Big Ten regular season banner to stand beside 2014’s. Whenever Stauskas returns to Ann Arbor, he reminds himself that the banner bearing his squad’s name is a sign that they left their mark. Now that this year’s squad has accomplished the same feat, he hopes it feels it, too. “You’re a part of history,” Stauskas said. “You’ve left your mark on the school, and it’s a good feeling knowing whatever new players are stepping into that arena and are a part of that program, they’re gonna look up and see that part of history.”