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FOCAL POINT
Daily investigation finds allegations of toxicity, discrimination in U-M ADVANCE Program 12 former employees discuss high staff turnover in University office supporting faculty DEI LIAT WEINSTEIN
Managing News Editor
The ADVANCE Program is a “critical and evidence-based” component of the University of Michigan’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald. Through workshops, trainings, consultations and annual reports, ADVANCE synthesizes data about the University’s climate and conducts research on demographics among faculty and staff to ensure the “success of a diverse and excellent faculty.” ADVANCE also provides resources like a handbook for faculty searches and hiring, as well as support for faculty from underrepresented backgrounds through identity-based networks, among other programs. A Michigan Daily investigation of the ADVANCE program found numerous previously undisclosed allegations of discrimination, ranging from 2012 to 2020, in an allegedly toxic workplace with high staff turnover. In interviews with The Daily, 12 former ADVANCE employees — ten who quit or left, and two who were fired in the past four years — alleged that ADVANCE’s workplace environment hinders its ability to engage in meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion work. Documents obtained by The Daily also indicate that employees repeatedly raised their concerns about discrimination and racism to program leadership and University administration over the past five years. In one instance, an employee alleging discrimination was offered a non-disparagement clause after her position was terminated and she brought her concerns to administrators. When asked to comment on whether the University or ADVANCE leadership was aware of internal climate issues over the past five years, Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily on Feb. 25 that these concerns may have
been shared anonymously and that ADVANCE is working to support its employees. “There also may be instances where concerns are either not reported or are reported anonymously, which can limit any unit’s ability to respond,” Fitzgerald wrote. “The current leadership team and staff of the ADVANCE program is looking to the future and focusing on ways that it can continue to carry out its mission of supporting the recruitment, retention, climate, and leadership development for a diverse and excellent faculty based on research and evaluation; knowledge and skill development; community building; and resources and support.” “There was no one to really have your back” The University’s ADVANCE Program was born out of a 2001 National Science Foundation grant that aimed to increase the number of female-identifying faculty in science, technology, engineering and math and to promote gender equity among women at the University overall. The University was among the first nine higher education institutions to receive the NSF grant — between 2001 and 2007, it received nearly $4 million total. The NSF grant ended in 2007, but ADVANCE continued to grow. Jennifer Linderman, professor in the College of Engineering and former associate dean for graduate education, became director in March 2016. She currently oversees the program along with Shelly Conner, director of research and evaluation, and Associate Directors Cynthia Hudgins and Isis Settles. (Conner replaced Janet Malley, previous director of research and evaluation, this past year.) Linderman referred The Daily to Fitzgerald when reached for comment for this article. Both Malley and Hudgins declined to comment when contacted by The Daily. Conner was not employed by ADVANCE when any of the 12 employees that The Daily spoke to
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worked there, and all employees stressed that they had no issues with Settles. According to the University’s 2020-2021 Budget Detail, ADVANCE received almost $2.3 million last year, making it one of the most well-funded programs overseen by the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. This is more than twice the amount issued to the Office of Institutional Equity, which investigates sexual misconduct claims and other claims of discrimination. Fitzgerald wrote in the Feb. 25 email to The Daily that ADVANCE’s focus on faculty distinguishes it from programs run by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as the latter also includes issues related to student diversity. “The original focus of ADVANCE was to increase the presence of women faculty in STEM fields,” Fitzgerald wrote. “That focus has been expanded to include a broader definition of diversity among the faculty and all areas of research and teaching on campus. But its focus continues to be on university faculty. That’s different from the DEI office, for example, which addresses all members of the university community – students, faculty and staff.” In particular, ADVANCE produces reports that use institutional data to highlight gender and race gaps among faculty.
ADMINISTRATION
The most recent reports focused on faculty equity during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as exit interviews as a way of understanding job satisfaction and reasons for faculty departure. According to a 2019 report created by ADVANCE, ADVANCE programs have “positively influenced” the increase in faculty diversity and representation since 2002. But within ADVANCE, reports of staff dissatisfaction have been left seemingly unaddressed by program directors, according to the former employees who spoke with The Daily. In a 2017 survey mandated as part of the University’s DEI Five-Year Strategic Plan and obtained by The Daily, 50% of ADVANCE employees said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied by the program’s climate and environment, compared to an average of 21% for staff across all 49 units at the University who responded to the survey. 40% of ADVANCE respondents also said they experienced some form of discrimination in the past 12 months at work — a percentage considerably higher than the 15% University-wide total. ADVANCE leadership received the final report in December 2017, according to the copy obtained by The Daily. All 10 ADVANCE employees employed at the time responded to the survey. Craig Smith, former ADVANCE
employee and current University library assessment specialist, worked at ADVANCE from Dec. 2014 to May 2018 as a member of the research & evaluation team when the internal climate survey took place. Smith recalled that program leadership was hesitant to discuss the results of the survey after they were sent to employees. Smith said that a group of employees met in January 2018 and drafted a list of requests for program leadership to address the report’s results — specifically the part that showed that 50% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the office’s internal climate. “We had a meeting as a group to talk about (this result), and the director would only budget a halfhour for the meeting and initially didn’t want to talk about that result at all and wanted to just talk about campus-wide results,” Smith said. “And so we had to ask her specifically to start addressing the climate at ADVANCE.” On Jan. 16, 2018, Smith met with Linderman and read to her a seven-page document he had written describing incidents of perceived discrimination and racism at ADVANCE, according to Smith. Another former ADVANCE employee confirmed to The Daily that they saw this document in 2018; The Daily has also reviewed this document. Smith said while Linderman agreed to take these claims seriously, he never saw them followed up on or discussed after this initial meeting. Smith also alleged that ADVANCE leadership tried to undermine the survey results by saying they only reflected the opinions of a small group of employees. “The director of ADVANCE was saying that those results were just the result of disgruntled employees who had already left,” Smith said. “But the fact of the matter is that people left because of the climate there. And so she was dismissing, in some ways, the climate itself by saying that people who weren’t happy left and now it’s fine.” Another former ADVANCE
employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, also worked at ADVANCE in the years leading up to the internal report. This employee corroborated many of Smith’s claims. In this article, they will be referred to as Alex. Alex said that many of the climate issues at ADVANCE stemmed from microaggressions — small, seemingly mundane conversations or tones of voice that made the office a hostile place for employees, particularly people of color. They said that apart from anonymous surveys like the mandated internal DEI report, it was difficult to give voice to these microaggressions given the small size of the organization. “People were excited when the (University-wide) DEI survey happened because it felt like the first time where people could shine a light on some of the issues taking place within the ADVANCE office,” Alex said. But even with the DEI survey, Alex said tackling these issues was difficult because of how small and hierarchical ADVANCE is. “It was frustrating because you felt very silenced, because you didn’t have the numbers,” Alex said. “We’re the ones doing the work for the rest of the University. There was no one to really have your back if you had issues.” Fitzgerald confirmed that an allstaff meeting took place in January 2018 to discuss the survey results. According to Fitzgerald, this was followed by individual meetings between ADVANCE employees and outside consultants in 2019, where employees had the opportunity to discuss these results as well as their issues with the climate at ADVANCE. “There have been many additional staff discussions since, as the ADVANCE staff has worked to ensure that the unit’s climate is inclusive, equitable and respectful for all,” Fitzgerald wrote in his Feb. 25 email. See ADVANCE, Page 3
CAMPUS LIFE
Commission on Carbon Neutrality AAPI Heritage Month opening publishes final report, hands off task of ceremony talks rediscovering cultural reducing emissions to administration identities, anti-Asian racism After two years of deliberation and research, PCCN recommends achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040 ARJUN THAKKAR & CHRISTIAN JULIANO Daily Staff Reporters
After over two years of deliberation, research and engagement with community members, the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality released its final 104-page report on March 18. The document outlines 50 recommendations for the University of Michigan’s three campuses to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 as part of efforts to combat the ongoing climate crisis. None of the recommendations are binding — instead, they must now be approved by University President Mark Schlissel and the Board of Regents. Schlissel announced the creation of the PCCN in February 2019. The announcement followed considerable activism from students, who called on the University to take action to mitigate climate change. The commission, co-chaired by Engineering professor Stephen Forrest and Law professor Jennifer Haverkamp, consists
of faculty, staff and alumni from across the University’s departments and was created to develop a set of recommendations to achieve carbon neutrality. The commissioners set multiple goals outlining the path to carbon neutrality within three targeted scopes of carbon emissions. Scope 1 includes the University’s direct emissions, including those from the University power plant, the transportation and bus fleet on the campuses and emissions from boilers in University buildings. Scope 2 emissions derive from University off-campus electricity and “purchased power.” Scope 3 emissions are indirectly attributed to the University and include commuting to campus and food procurement on campus. The final report maintains the targets of achieving carbon neutrality on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2025 and achieving Scope 3 carbon neutrality by no later than 2040. The final recommendations were initially supposed to be released in December 2020 — instead, a draft report was released and community members were invited to respond, with
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some unsatisfied by what they considered the University’s unambitious 2040 end goal and reliance on carbon offsets. More than 521 comments were submitted to the commission responding to the draft recommendations. The commission also hosted community forums with the Planet Blue Ambassador Program and the Student Sustainability Coalition in January to engage with stakeholders and solicit additional feedback. Using carbon offsets According to the report, meeting the proposed emissions targets will depend heavily on the use of carbon offsets. This is a strategy in which the University would balance their greenhouse gas output by investing in carbon reduction or sequestration that would occur off-campus. Activists have long criticized carbon offsets, arguing they let wealthy institutions essentially pay to emit more carbon and do not directly cut an organization’s carbon output. See PCCN, Page 4
In wake of Atlanta shootings, podcast creators & attendees discuss dismantling white supremacy IVY MUENCH
Daily Staff Reporter
The virtual opening ceremony for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month began March 17 with a discussion about rediscovering cultural identities as well as anti-Asian racism in the wake of the Georgia massage parlor shootings in which eight people were killed, most of whom were Asian women. The shootings sparked discussion over the long history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the United States and rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly against women. Over 40 participants attended the opening ceremony, including the creators of “Continental Shifts,” a podcast aiming to explore Samoan and Filipino-American identities by discussing education, politics, union organizing and hiphop. This event was hosted by the AAPI Heritage Month Planning Committee in coordination with the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
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Affairs. It was co-sponsored by the United Asian American Organizations and the APID/A Staff Association. Public Health junior Victoria Minka, student coordinator for the AAPI Heritage Month planning committee, began by acknowledging March 16’s shootings. Minka emphasized the prevalence of xenophobia in the United States before asking attendees to honor a moment of silence for the individuals who were killed March 16, as well as others who have lost their lives due to hate crimes and racist violence. “This violence is not new to us,” Minka said. “There is a pattern of xenophobia and racism towards Asian Americans that only feels like it’s beginning to be recognized by the American public. We know its history, and we feel the reverberations of this pain.” Many students commented in the chat that they came to this event to be with a safe, comfortable and supportive community. Many others said they came to offer support. Gabriel Tanglao and Estella
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Owoimaha-Church, hosts of “Continental Shifts,” began with acknowledgments that the places they were Zooming from — New Jersey and California — were stolen Indigenous lands and recognized the tribes native to that land. While discussing Tuesday’s shootings, Owoimaha-Church shared various Samoan proverbs that create space for kindness and community. The two said their podcast originated when they met at a leadership event and connected over their curiosity about their heritage, which eventually became the project’s focus. “It’s really about wayfinding and self-reflection along our journey in the diaspora,” Tanglao said. Owoimaha-Church said while the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges, it also provided an opportunity for the pair to meet virtually and collaborate on a podcast about identity in ways they may not have been able to previously.
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ANNA FUDER/Daily I visited the Garfield Park conservatory in Chicago March 16, to fill the monotone void that midwestern winters create every year, and it made waiting for spring a little less dreadful.
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CSG candidates talk policy, platforms during Daily-hosted debate Ahead of election, CHANGE, IMPACT and ORGANIZE campaigns discuss their plans if elected MARTINA ZACKER Daily Staff Reporter
The 2021 Central Student Government presidential and vice presidential debates, hosted by The Michigan Daily, discussed the candidates’ positions on campus policing; diversity, equity and inclusion; carbon neutrality and amplifying all student voices. Included in the March 18 debate were both the presidential and vice presidential candidates from all three CSG executive tickets: ORGANIZE, CHANGE and IMPACT. Each round lasted 45 minutes with the opportunity for candidates to present opening and closing statements. The debate began with a question regarding each campaign’s anti-policing demands as they relate to anti-racism and DEI initiatives. CHANGE presidential candidate Abner Santiago, LSA junior, said he and his team want to rework the Division of Public Safety and Security, but does not specifically know how. Both ORGANIZE presidential candidate Sujin Kim, LSA junior, and IMPACT presidential candidate Nithya Arun, Public Health junior, cited specific plans to disarm DPSS. ORGANIZE is endorsed by the Graduate Employees’ Organization, who advocated for change in the structure of DPSS and for diversion of funds from DPSS during their fall strike when it comes to campus policing. Kim echoed their calls for demilitarization. “We know (demilitarization) was a specific demand that (GEO) had that wasn’t met and we are extremely regretful about that on their behalf,” Kim said. “We stand with them and we support their demands and we are committed to working with them on getting this specific topic, and their other demands met in the coming year.” Arun also noted that IMPACT hopes to work with GEO, as well as the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, to achieve their goal of demilitarization. “As a public health scholar, we are taught that data drives good policy,” Arun said. “I’m a research associate with the Office for Health, Equity and Inclusion, and there’s an ongoing study that discusses adverse police effects on students, and we will be utilizing their help to convince administrators to drive policy to disarm AAPD (Ann Arbor Police Department) and DPSS.” When discussing how to best support international students, all three candidates agreed they would work to cut the $500 international student fee, as they believe it is a barrier to the University. Kim said she would work to create an International Student Policy Coordinator position on CSG, while Arun said she would appoint a Chair of International
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Student Affairs to the executive branch. Each candidate had different ideas about how to support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the University and within student organizations. Arun laid out multiple initiatives that IMPACT would take to ensure all students feel supported and welcome on campus. “First, we will be pushing for the extension of Wolverine Pathways, alongside other groups on campus,” Arun said. “Secondly, we want to organize an annual research symposium led by people of color and LGBTQ+ scholars.” Kim said she finds it most important to work to increase the diversity of faculty and staff, in addition to the work her team would do to serve as advocates for students. “We would create a standing weekly meeting for representatives from racial and ethnic justice organizations with our chief of staff,” Kim said. “The purpose of this meeting would be for students to have a direct pipeline, direct access to advocacy resources and to CSG resources as a whole.” Santiago said CHANGE’s plan is to partner with already existing organizations, such as La Casa and multicultural fraternities and sororities, that he said promote DEI throughout campus. “I believe reworking DEI efforts throughout the schools (is important) to ensure that students actually know what DEI efforts are and what they mean,” Santiago said. “We also want to partner with current existing organizations that already know how to best tackle these problems.” The Daily also asked about the University’s recently released carbon neutrality plan which aims for the University to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the year 2040. Santiago said he believes the University needs to be more transparent with their investments moving forward. Kim stated she believes the University’s goals should be accelerated to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Arun cited the work she’s done with the Climate Action Movement, a campus activist group that pushed the University to enact environmentally sustainable policies, to call for the University’s complete divestment of fossil fuels and to call out the University’s reliance on carbon offsets. “As the Climate Action Movement cited in The Michigan Daily article that was published, we really want to find a way to catalyze the process to ensure that we’re not wholly relying on carbon offsets, because at the end of the day, carbon offsets are known as a cheat to hold institutions less accountable for the carbon emissions they emit,” Arun said. The candidates were also asked how they would improve mental health services and wellness on campus, to which they all stated that short-term solutions
such as the “well-being breaks” implemented this semester are not enough. They all also said Counseling and Psychological Services, which has long been criticized heavily for its long wait times, should be more accessible for students. The candidates each got a chance to discuss how they would amplify student voices on the Board of Regents. All three candidates stated they will lobby for a student position on the Board of Regents. Finally, each candidate spoke about sexual misconduct at the University and supporting student survivors. Santiago and Kim placed emphasis on screening all faculty and staff to determine if they have a history of sexual misconduct in response to multiple allegations against staff in recent years. Arun prioritized establishing a sexual misconduct task force. According to IMPACT’s platform, the task force would gather data and evaluate existing policies. After a ten-minute break, the vice presidential debate began with a question about how CSG would work to rebuild trust between students and the University’s administration after the tumultuous fall semester while still holding leadership accountable. IMPACT vice presidential candidate Carla Voigt, Engineering junior; CHANGE vice presidential candidate Nicole Lin, LSA junior; and ORGANIZE vice presidential candidate Sam Burnstein, LSA junior, all voiced their support for the GEO strike. “We hope to support GEO in their efforts, which is shown throughout our policies,” Voigt said. “We want to stand with grad students in supporting them with a fund for childcare, as well as a persons of color symposium.” As a resident adviser who participated in the R.A. strike that took place during the GEO strike in the fall, Lin said she looks forward to working with GEO if elected. “I think the student body can really trust Abner and I because we are just like normal students, we have connections with individuals outside of CSG, so I think we’re more relatable,” Lin said. Burnstein explained his ideas for making sure CSG advocates for students and works with the University to truly improve what needs to be reworked. “Our vision for CSG is to reimagine it as a source of collective bargaining, on behalf of all students, in which we can use the leverage and institutional
power of CSG to lobby ... the administration and advanced the demands put forward by by GEO, CAM and a number of other advocacy groups on campus,” Burnstein said. The vice-presidential candidates also shared whether or not they agree with the University’s plan to bring students back to campus for the Fall 2021 semester. All three candidates agreed the fall semester’s success would be contingent on how well the University follows public health guidelines and makes sure students remain cautious. Each candidate also said they would work to make sure University services are accessible to all students, especially those with disabilities. Burnstein spoke on the accessibility of the University’s technological services. “One of the big privileges afforded to the president and vice president of Student Government is being able to meet regularly with the (University) president and meet regularly with the Board of Regents,” Burnstein said. “And I assure you that, if we’re elected, pushing for more modern, easy to use, technological systems such as Wolverine Access and Canvas will be at the top of our list.” Voigt spoke about the specific plans IMPACT has to aid students with disabilities. “First and foremost we want to start within CSG, we are planning to create a chair of disability accommodations on the executive branch, and also a disability task force to look into ways that we can support our disabled students on campus,” Voigt said. Lin said she and Santiago want to make sure all students are aware of how the University supports students with disabilities. “Abner and I hope to increase awareness and make (discussing resources for students with disabilities) part of freshman orientation,” Lin said. “We will also invite student organizations that support students with disabilities (to speak with students).” Finally, The Daily asked how each campaign would work to be more transparent with students, as approximately $10 of every student’s tuition goes into the CSG budget. All three candidates said that they want funding to go to the organizations that need it most. Daily Staff Reporter Martina Zacker can be reached at mzacker@ umich.edu.
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Service industry workers in Ann Arbor face unemployment, economic constraints Repeated closures leave employees struggling to make ends meet MARTHA LEWAND Daily Staff Reporter
On March 16, 2020, Kat Dyke, a waitress at the Earle Restaurant in Ann Arbor, was told she would not be allowed to return to work for the time being — not because of her or anyone else’s wrongdoing, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dyke said she was thrown into a swirl of confusion when she received her boss’s text saying the Earle would be shut down for the near future. Her boss was required to close the restaurant due to a COVID-19 emergency order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which shut down restaurants and entertainment venues across Michigan temporarily. She said she worried about the future of her and her friends’ jobs in the service industry. “I was really nervous,” Dyke said. “Just in general. My boss texted everybody and was like, ‘Hey, you know, we’re done, we’ll let you know when we need you.’ It was scary.” Though Dyke said she was able to return to work after about three days to assist with takeout deliveries, which were still allowed under Whitmer’s order, the lack of work for some service workers lasted for weeks to months. In fact, in April 2020, the leisure and hospitality industry unemployment rate skyrocketed to 39.3%, but has reduced to 6.2% as of March 2021. Dyke said her colleagues and friends within the service industry who’ve faced layoffs have struggled to keep up with the economic strain resulting from the pandemic. “I talked to a couple of different people that I worked with and
ADVANCE From Page 1 Fitzgerald said these individual meetings led to the creation of a staff handbook, a redesign of staff meetings and the implementation of drop-in hours with program directors, among other changes. Chidimma Ozor Commer, a former ADVANCE employee from Nov. 2017 to August 2019 and a licensed social worker, confirmed that ADVANCE employees were given the opportunity to meet with an “outside consultant” in 2019 but said this person was a friend of the program’s leadership, making the meetings a potential conflict of interest. Ozor Commer also confirmed that there was a new staff handbook, new opportunities for professional development and a redesign of staff meetings — she said she did not recall drop-in hours with program directors. Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily on March 15 that because ADVANCE works to address faculty climate issues, “it is expected that the ADVANCE team would have knowledge of and have a professional relationship with experts in this field, both internal and external to the university.” Fitzgerald said ADVANCE hired Vineyard Associates, a “universityapproved vendor,” to meet with employees about internal climate concerns. Smith also said a number of his former colleagues — particularly women of color — often told him that their writing was criticized for not being eloquent or effective even when the language was similar to past ADVANCE work. Smith said he received fewer comments on work that was identical to that of his BIPOC and women colleagues. Two other former ADVANCE employees contacted by The Daily corroborated this claim. “(My colleagues) were made to feel, in very weird ways, like they were not articulate, like they were not skilled in terms of their writing and their expression, which is actually connected to some negative stereotypes around AfricanAmericans in our country,” Smith said. “And he said, ‘Who’s going to listen to you?’” All former and current employees who spoke to The Daily said climate issues coincided with a high
they’re like, ‘I either have to buy food or pay my bills,’” Dyke said. “(For the) people close to me, it was really rough.” In addition to high levels of unemployment among service workers during the COVID19 pandemic, those who have continued to work in-person faced new struggles maintaining their own safety while serving customers. Another service industry worker and a student at the University of Michigan spoke to The Daily about their work in the service industry. They asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation at their place of employment and will be referred to as Sam throughout the article. Sam discussed struggles to serve customers who specifically don’t want to abide by the statewide mask mandate and said it is hard to manage different priorities like her own safety versus customer service. “I remember one specific instance where (a customer) didn’t want to wear masks and they were very upset that we asked them to,” Sam said. “And they were really, really rude. We were treating them the same way as we would treat any other guests. And we were just doing our best.” Sam also spoke about the difficulties restaurant and bar staff have in trying to simultaneously remain efficient and follow increased protocols. They said the restaurant they work at has not properly kept up with COVID-19 cleanliness requirements, such as incorrectly sanitizing tables or not changing gloves after one use, and speculated that other businesses were likely similar. “There’s this expectation of just being ‘back to normal,’ or this
desire to have that,” Sam said. “And I think that it not only sets up an unrealistic expectation of what this worker’s going to be able to do for you, but it also creates an incentive for people to cut corners. You do have to take little shortcuts just to be efficient. There (are) competing incentives between how you want service to go and how you work and maintaining COVID-19 safety (protocols).” Many service industry workers have turned to Service Industry Workers of the Ann Arbor Area for help with their situations. SIWA3 is an organization dedicated to mutual aid, workplace organization and service worker advocacy and has helped ensure service workers in Ann Arbor can stay afloat and are being treated fairly by employers. Recently, SIWA3 raised more than $10,000 from the Ann Arbor community through a GoFundMe campaign during the holiday season, funding that helped over one hundred service workers in Washtenaw County. Gabrielle Bussell, an organizer for SIWA3, spoke to The Daily about the organization’s mission of helping workers who have faced various difficulties within the industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bussell specifically said the organization has looked to help workers facing wage-theft PPE shortages or workplace discrimination. She said she also thinks the state should put service workers higher on the priority list to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, they are included as essential workers in phase 1C who are eligible earlier than the general population, but later than healthcare or education staff. “We’re hoping we can get sort
of a stronger response from the organizations that are responsible for dealing with these workplace complaints and everything that’s been going on,” Bussell said. “That’s what we’re all about.” Dyke commended SIWA3 for bringing service industry workers together throughout this difficult time and the support they have given her and other service workers across Washtenaw County. “Industry workers need that level of solidarity that I feel like we’re getting with SIWA3,” Dyke said. “They’re definitely bringing industry workers together to look out for each other. It was already a difficult industry to begin with, and people now understand a little bit more the effects that our industry has on the greater world.” Dyke also said she thinks the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the importance of the service industry that will hopefully translate into better treatment for workers beyond the pandemic, especially as it pertains to their health being considered when decisions are made. “This service industry has such a huge effect on people; they want to go out, they want to have a nice time, but the people who are being a part of your experience need to be up to standard and need to feel comfortable giving you their best self,” Dyke said. “And they can’t do that if they can’t come to work (and) not (get) sick or if they can’t go to the doctor when they’re sick. So COVID definitely changed that perspective, and it was just very nice to see.”
turnover rate for ADVANCE staff. One former ADVANCE employee, who requested anonymity due to fear of professional retaliation, said they were struck by the irony of working in a unit dedicated to ensuring a positive faculty climate while they faced internal issues of retention. This source will be referred to as Taylor. “For a unit focused on faculty recruitment and retention, there was little done to create and maintain a positive work climate within ADVANCE,” Taylor wrote in an email to The Daily. “Our retention issues were probably worse off, number wise, than faculty’s. Our staff demographics, such as the number of staff of color, their status, and their length of stay at ADVANCE, were not impressive either.” According to interviews and anecdotal data provided by former employees, 30% of the ADVANCE team (three employees) quit in 2018 and 40% (four employees) quit in 2019. The Daily learned of one ADVANCE employee that was fired in 2020. When asked to confirm these numbers and comment on the rate of employee departure from ADVANCE, Fitzgerald did not specifically confirm these numbers but wrote that the turnover rate is unsurprising given the small size of the organization. “ADVANCE is a relatively small unit that typically has 12-15 employees,” Fitzgerald wrote. “With a unit this small, staff growth opportunities are limited and it’s not unusual for staff in small campus units to move to other campus positions.” In the months after the survey results were released, numerous ADVANCE employees said they took steps to make sure employees were aware of the issues facing BIPOC in the office. These included hosting a screening of the documentary “The True Cost” and facilitating “lunch and learn” sessions for employees to discuss white supremacy in academic organizations, according to reports written by former ADVANCE employees and submitted to the University’s Human Resources office. These reports were obtained by The Daily. Ozor Commer began the “lunch and learn” sessions in January 2019 to raise awareness about issues facing BIPOC in the workplace and to foster a sense of community among staff. In an email to The
Daily, Ozor Commer said these sessions gave ADVANCE employees a chance to do crucial DEI work within their own organization. “The most rewarding aspect of my work was starting Lunch & Learns — informal educational sessions during lunch — in January 2019 which became an opportunity to actually engage in DEI work, unpaid of course, and was instrumental in improving the culture and making it more inclusive and collegial,” Ozor Commer wrote. Ozor Commer said she was prompted to begin these sessions after experiencing a workplace culture she described as “racist, white supremacist, toxic, and hostile for BIPOC.” In June 2019, Ozor Commer underwent her annual performance review, which Linderman and Malley oversaw. According to Ozor Commer, the directors told her she was not in her office when people came looking for her and was not a strong writer — claims that Ozor Commer said were not valid. “One day I asked Jan(et Malley) what (she) would have wanted that I did not produce, in terms of my writing, and her response: clarity,” Ozor Commer wrote. “That is not constructive nor useful feedback. What would one do with that?” Ozor Commer said she pushed back against the claim that she was never at work, noting that she was almost always in the office, but struggled with migraines and often kept the lights off. She also alleged that when she would approach Malley for clarification or feedback, she was directed to other research & evaluation team members. “There were lies about my performance which relates directly to white supremacy culture at ADVANCE,” Ozor Commer wrote. “Mistakes are not seen as learning opportunities, questions are not answered.” These claims of discrimination have been echoed to The Daily by two employees on the administrative team. One of them, Benita Threadgill, former senior administrative assistant at ADVANCE, received criticism about her performance in the months before her position was terminated on June 19, 2017, according to a copy of the settlement agreement issued by ADVANCE, given to Threadgill and obtained by The Daily. Threadgill had just returned from a two-month medical leave due to foot surgery when she was placed on a Performance
Improvement Plan on April 17, 2017. The PIP gave Threadgill 60 days to meet the performance goals or risk termination from her position, according to a copy obtained by The Daily. Threadgill said issuing the PIP on the date of her return made it clear to her that ADVANCE leadership did not intend to support her recovery, which had kept her out of the office since February 2017. “The PIP? That’s legendary across the University,” Threadgill said. “That’s how they try to dress it up. They document, document, document, document. And when they want you gone, then you’re gone ... (Linderman) used it as a threat.” The PIP advised Threadgill to meet with the directors once a week to discuss her performance. According to a report submitted to University HR Representative Linda Dabrowski in June 2017 after six weeks of meetings, Threadgill wrote she felt she had reached a “stalemate” with Linderman and Hudgins, her supervisor. When contacted by The Daily for a comment on her involvement in Threadgill’s case, Dabrowski directed the request to Fitzgerald. In the report, Threadgill reiterated her commitment to ADVANCE and disputed the belief that she was consistently late to work by offering several examples of her working overtime or coming to work early. Threadgill said she was criticized for not completing tasks made difficult or impossible by her foot surgery, like greeting clients at the door or walking across the office. “If that’s what you wanted me to do, was to come back, and I did, you should’ve had somebody else do those things,” Threadgill said. “You had student helpers, you had other people that were in there that could’ve done that. They didn’t want it to work.” Rebekah Ashley, associate director of academic human resources, declined to comment on her involvement in Threadgill’s case due to privacy concerns. Fitzgerald confirmed in an email that Threadgill was an employee at the University from 2009 to 2017 but said there is no evidence her surgery impacted her position at ADVANCE being terminated. “We have consulted the ADVANCE staff, University Human Resources and others and I am absolutely confident in saying, categorically, that no staff member
Daily Staff Reporter Julia Forrest can be reached at juforres@ umich.edu.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 3
CITY
Gelman plume parties expected to present edits to consent judgment All groups will appear before court in early May to show their ideas on modifying the existing cleanup proposal KRISTINA ZHENG Daily News Editor
Polluter Gelman Sciences and interveners from Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Scio Township and the Huron River Watershed Council will appear before Judge Tim Connors from May 3 through May 5 to weigh in on potential changes to the cleanup plan for Ann Arbor’s decades-old dioxane plume. The Gelman plume is an accumulation of pollution, specifically the chemical 1,4-dioxane, that has existed in Ann Arbor groundwater for nearly four decades. Negotiations for cleaning up the plume have been ongoing for over four years — the relevant lawsuit against Gelman Sciences for this upcoming May hearing was filed in 2016. After hearing oral arguments from Gelman and the intervening parties Monday morning, Connors denied Gelman’s motion to cancel upcoming hearings centered around the potential new cleanup protocol. As a result, all parties will appear before Connors in early May to present their ideas on modifying the existing consent judgment presiding over cleanup efforts. A consent judgment is an agreement between two parties where the judge supervises to ensure that the agreement is enforced. “We need to move forward,” Connors said. “We need to have some decision made, and it’s my responsibility to make that decision.” Michael Caldwell, Gelman’s attorney, argued Monday that holding the remedy hearings
of the ADVANCE program has ever been terminated because of a disability,” Fitzgerald wrote. Threadgill filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January 2018, claiming ADVANCE retaliated against her for her disability and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The investigation, which found that Threadgill did not have a disability as classified under the ADA and would have been placed on a PIP regardless of whether she asked for accommodations, concluded in May 2018. Michael N. Hanna, Threadgill’s attorney at the time, continued to pursue the case and coordinated a settlement agreement with the University that said Threadgill would be unable to “demean nor disparage the University of any of its current or former employees or agents to any third party.” The nondisparagement agreement, which originally offered $4,000, was raised to $6,000 and submitted to Threadgill on Sept. 6, 2018. “They tried to ... give a concession: ‘Well, we’ll give you $4,000,’” Threadgill said. “I said ‘$4,000? For what?’ (They said) ‘You know, for it to all go away. Put a little something in your pocket.’ I said, ‘For that I will write a book, I will go to every news story, I will post it to Facebook myself.’ And (Hanna) laughed and he said, ‘Who’s going to listen to you?’” Hanna did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In December 2019, The Daily reported that the University spent over $1.26 million on confidential settlement agreements from Nov. 2018 to April 2019. These types of agreements, which prohibit former University employees from speaking negatively about their work experience, have received criticism as veiled attempts to silence former employees. Threadgill said leaving the University to work for a pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Wayne, Mich. drastically reduced her income, which she said made her attorney and the University believe she would more easily accept the settlement offer. Even so, Threadgill ultimately decided to decline the offer and never signed the agreement. “I might be hungry, I might be losing everything, but I have my integrity and I have my character,” Threadgill said. “And I’m not going to be bought for that.”
would violate Gelman’s right to due process because modifications to the current consent judgment should not be made without Gelman’s consent. Nathan Dupes, attorney for Ann Arbor, countered that Caldwell’s argument is “premature” given that Monday’s hearing is a scheduling order for all parties to present arguments. Connors said he anticipates Gelman will appeal his decision to move forward with the hearing, but he thinks this case has gone on for too long. Though he is the third judge to preside over the case since it was first filed in 1988, Connors said he doesn’t think he will be the last judge either. Currently, the city is following the third consent judgment, which includes a pump-and-treat cleanup plan that opponents have argued has not been enough to adequately clean out the dioxane. In August 2020, a fourth consent judgment was proposed. Changes to the third consent judgment included lowering the cleanup standard from 85 parts-perbillion to 7.2 ppb, thereby reducing qualifications for cleanup; expansion of the Prohibition Zone boundary to account for the lower cleanup standard; and increased monitoring of dioxane spread using well installments. The fourth consent judgment was ultimately rejected by the Ann Arbor City Council in October 2020, citing an insufficient plan to effectively clean the dioxane and hold Gelman accountable.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com “Without an organization that’s willing to listen ... I don’t see a lot of hope for change” Former employees said they were not sure how ADVANCE should address these equity issues, many of which employees said are so ingrained and commonplace that they feel unchallengeable. Some acknowledged that while the data collection and analysis ADVANCE does is crucial to diversifying departments and supporting BIPOC faculty, the department needed to change internally before it could ethically carry out its mission. Alex said ADVANCE leadership needed to learn how to talk about race and racism in ways that promoted equality and included the voices of the BIPOC employees within the office. Without this kind of understanding, they said, nothing would change. “Their ability to really have meaningful conversations when it comes to racial equity was nowhere near where it needed to be,” Alex said. Another former ADVANCE employee, who requested to remain anonymous due to fear of professional retaliation, said they also did not see the culture at ADVANCE changing without a major institutional shift. The former employee will be referred to as Morgan. “I didn’t have very much hope for ADVANCE changing, just because leadership seemed to be particularly defensive and were not really open to hearing or really understanding the challenges that their staff were facing in that environment,” Morgan said. “So without an organization that’s willing to listen, is open to change and (is) reflecting on (how) maybe they haven’t been great, I don’t see a lot of hope for change.” Threadgill said the treatment of ADVANCE employees, especially BIPOC employees, was ironic and offensive given the stated values of the organization. She echoed many other employees in arguing that ADVANCE had to address internal climate issues and racist practices if they wanted to effect real change on campus. “We’re expected to promote this work-life balance,” Threadgill said. “We’re expected to respect employees. But you didn’t do it for me, and you didn’t do it for anybody who works for ADVANCE.” Managing News Editor Liat Weinstein can be reached at weinsl@ umich.edu.
News
4 — Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Daily research finds only one ‘U’ building named after person of color, 12 after women ADMINISTRATION
On-campus structures mostly named for donors, alumni or employees CHRISTIAN JULIANO & JARED DOUGALL Daily Staff Reporters
In light of the administration’s initiative announced last fall to assemble a task force to help diversify the names of campus spaces, an analysis by The Michigan Daily of 103 on-campus buildings at the University of Michigan found that only one — the Trotter Multicultural Center — is named after a person of color. Trotter is named after William Monroe Trotter, a newspaper editor and activist for Black civil rights. This leaves 99.3% of the buildings included in The Daily’s analysis named for or endowed in the names of white people — the large majority of whom were white men. A vast majority — 78.2% — of these buildings are named after men. Only 9.9% of the buildings analyzed by The Daily are named after women, while 11.9% were named for couples. The Daily’s analysis found that 28% of buildings were named for former administrators, while 24% of the buildings were named for donors to the University. In addition, 25% of buildings were named for alumni and 10.6% after professors. The University announced in the fall that a task force of faculty, staff, students and administrators would convene this winter to develop a more diverse pool of names for campus spaces, according to the University Record. The goal is for more named campus spaces that reflect the breadth of backgrounds and perspectives of people who have vitally shaped U-M’s teaching, research and service missions,” the Record article states. In 2016, the University planned on naming a new building to house the William Trotter Multicultural Center after Regent
PCCN From Page 1 According to the report, offsets and carbon sinks would be used as a tool to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. While the University would not be emitting zero carbon by 2025, they would be sequestering as much carbon as they are outputting at that point, according to the report. The PCCN recommended that the University prioritize achieving netzero Scope 1 emissions without offsets by 2040. According to the report, the use of offsets to achieve net zero emissions would significantly reduce the social cost of University emissions. The commission notes that, assuming the social cost of carbon emissions is $50 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, offsets from the University would save $325 million in avoided climate change damages. “An important assumption underlying this recommendation is that the use of offsets to help meet this goal is financially responsible,” the report reads. “Expected carbon offsetting costs for U-M to achieve a Scope 1 carbon neutrality goal are relatively low compared to carbon reduction capital costs and the expected benefits from climate mitigation.” The report specifies that a majority of commissioners are in favor of using carbon offsets. The minority of commissioners who oppose carbon offsetting believe the administration should prioritize the reduction of direct emissions and accelerate progress towards actually eliminating emissions on campus rather than dedicating financial resources to offsets. The Climate Action Movement released a statement in response to the final report, pointing at plans for stustainable housing, discussions of accountability mechanisms, and attention to envornmental justice as improvements from the preliminary report. However, CAM also highlighted “critical flaws” in the report, including the reliance on carbon offsets and a lack of specificity on energy procurement. The 2040 carbon neutrality date is “far-toolate,” according to the statement. “Thus, while the report takes
(D) Mark Bernstein and his wife. Students pushed back against the University’s decision, citing it would erase the legacy of William Trotter, a prominent Black activist and co-founder of a 1905 civil rights organization. Bernstein withdrew his pledged $3 million donation to center after the naming controversy. Some of the buildings are named after controversial figures. W.K. Kellogg, the namesake for the Kellogg Eye Center, was a known eugenicist who advocated for “racial purity.” Angell Hall is named after the third University president James Angell, who championed accessible education but also drafted the predecessor treaty to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1862, which barred immigration of Chinese workers. The Taubman College of Architecture is named for billionaire Alfred Taubman, who was convicted on two counts of price-fixing in 2002. In 2018, the University’s Board of Regents voted to remove Clarence Cook Little’s name from the science building named for him after sustained student protest against the name — the building was renamed the North University Building. Little, president of the University from 1925 to 1929, was also the former president of the American Eugenics Society and believed in restricting immigration and in forced sterilization. A review of University demographics data compared to the demographics of building namesakes revealed a wide gap between the diversity of the campus population and the demographics of people its buildings are named after. Tracking enrollee demographics Records in the Bentley Historical Library contain limited enrollment data from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most years do
some steps in the right direction, it falls far short of what the science tells us is necessary: a radical, swift transition to a resilient, carbon free economy, centering the basic needs of our most marginalized community members,” the statement said. “The University of Michigan needs a climate justice plan, not just a carbon neutrality plan.” Plans to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions The report outlines several specific strategies for the University to implement to achieve Scope 1 and Scope 2 neutrality with carbon offsets by 2025. Many of the draft recommendations carried over into the final report, including an estimated $3.37 billion plan to transform the University’s heating and cooling infrastructure. The plan would replace the existing systems on all three campuses with a geo-exchange system that would provide heat by using the natural temperature in the ground. If implemented, this project would be one of the most costly strategies and would be the largest of its kind at any university, significantly cutting campus-related Scope 1 emissions. Regarding Scope 2 emissions, the commission recommends the administration decarbonize the University’s electrical grid by shifting from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy and purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates. These certificates would amount to investments in renewable energy that are generated off-campus, essentially allowing the University to offset the entirety of its electricity through renewables. Beyond energy, the PCCN recommends that the University move toward completely decarbonizing their transit fleet, which includes buses, vans, trucks and cars. The report also recommends that the University establish new building standards with more progressive emissions targets. Though the report proposes a timeline for Scope 3 emissions to be reduced to zero by 2040, targets for each category within Scope 3 emissions should be established
not contain any demographic data based on race/ethnicity or gender. In an email to The Daily, Brian A. Williams, assistant director and archivist for University History, wrote that the University did not track data on students’ races until the late 1960s. Williams is currently leading a project to identify every Black student that attended the University from its founding to the Black Action Movement in 1970. According to records in the Bentley Historical Library, Samuel Codes Watson, a medical student admitted to the University in 1853, is known as the first Black student to be admitted to any school or college within the University. Because the University was not required to track students’ races until the 1960s, it is possible there was another Black student who attended before him. In 1870, Madelon Louisa Stockwell became the first woman to be admitted — Stockwell Hall is named after her. Mary Henrietta Graham, the first Black woman to attend the University, was admitted in 1876. Gender breakdown of enrollees In 1922-1923, the first year on file where gender data of enrolled students at the University is recorded, women made up 33.8% of total enrollment. In 1930, 37.0% of the University’s total enrollment was female. From 1942-1945, women made up 52.4% of total enrollment — the steep rise likely came as a result of the Second World War. In 1955, this number dropped to 32.3%. From 1966-1967, the most recent year of historical data available until 2009, female students were 36.7% of the University’s total enrollment. The Michigan Almanac, which provides enrollment demographics from 2009 to the present, shows a near 50-50 male to female
by 2025, according to the report. One such category is commuting emissions. The commission proposed increasing investment in electric vehicle charging stations, which would theoretically incentivize campus employees to use electric vehicles, thereby reducing emissions. Due to recent breakthroughs in video conferencing capabilities and their widespread adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the commission recommended that the University de-emphasize traveling long distances for meetings that can be conducted remotely. The report also includes a recommendation to continue using the expanded virtual infrastructure and keep some employees working remotely. Additionally, the commission recommended that the University should attempt to lower the impact of Scope 3 emissions by offering a more plant-forward approach to their MDining menus and reducing animal proteins, which are more carbon intensive. The commission did not make any recommendations that addressed divestment from fossil fuel investments, a point frequently mentioned by climate activists at the University. When Schlissel initially created the commission, the issue of divestment was excluded from the scope of work. The Board of Regents announced a pause in pursuing investments in fossil fuel companies in February 2020. At the February 2021 Regents meeting, Regent Mark Bernstein (D) said the Board of Regents would provide an update on making the University’s investment policy more sustainable in March. New administrative and academic positions and priorities Since the draft report was released in Dec. 2020, student activists have expressed concern that the administration will not fully implement the proposed recommendations. In a previous interview with The Daily, Rackham student Matt Sehrsweeney, a member of the campus activist group Climate Action Movement, said the commission needed to ensure the administration pursued the report’s recommended carbon neutrality
Graphic by Naitian Zhou
ratio in the University’s current undergraduate enrollment. The report shows there was a less even gender split among graduate and professional students from 2009 to 2015, with males making up 10% more enrolled students. This ratio has evened out in past years and was equally split among men and women in 2019. White undergraduate enrollment decreased from 65% to 55% from 2010 to 2019, while Asian American undergraduate enrollment increased by 5 percentage points to 15% over the past decade. Black undergraduate enrollment remained at 3-5% over the decade. These numbers sharply decreased after Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 in 2006, which effectively banned affirmative action in the admissions process. In the year before Proposal 2 was passed, Black students made up 13% of total student enrollment. In 2019, Latinx students made up 7% of the student body, with Native American and Hawiian students both making up 0%. Racial and ethnic distribution of graduate students at the University from 2010 to 2019 saw a decrease in white enrollment from 52% to 45%, and slight increases
in Latinx and Black enrollment. Black enrollment remained around 3%, consistent with undergraduate numbers. In a recent interview with The Michigan Daily, University President Mark Schlissel said the University must elevate its commitment to Black students in the months and years to come. “We’ve worked hard and we’ve only been modestly successful increasing the representation, not just of African Americans, but of many other underrepresented groups on campus,” Schlissel said. While the University instituted the Summer Bridge Scholars program and the Community Scholar Program decades ago to help incoming Black students adjust to campus life at the University of Michigan, the program has become significantly more white in recent years. The Go Blue Guarantee, which offers full tuition to Michigan residents whose families make less than $65,000 per year, has increased the number of lower-income students at the University but increased Black enrollment has not followed since its establishment in 2018.
program. “There needs to be some sort of mechanism of accountability to make sure that all of these recommendations are actually put into place, because if there isn’t, then these are meaningless,” Sehrsweeney said. To hold the University accountable to implementing their recommendations, the PCCN asked the University to create an administrative “executive leadership” position. This position would be responsible for reviewing PCCN recommendations and prioritizing their implementation, advising the president on carbon neutrality, representing carbon neutrality interests in executive discussions and developing assessments of progress towards key carbon neutrality goals. In an interview with The Daily, Forrest discussed how this position could help create a culture at the University that values the importance of climate action. “It was not so clear in our draft report that really leadership does everything,” Forrest said. “We’re not just talking about the leadership at the very top, but a web of leaders, all the way through the campus with all demographics of the campus at all levels, so that whoever is the president, or whoever are the Regents, or whoever are department chairs and students, that this culture is embedded deeply within the University, because this is a decadeslong project.” The commission also recommended that a community advisory committee be set up to report on progress towards neutrality goals to the public and act as liaisons between them and the University. “A key purpose of a community advisory committee is to ensure that the perspectives of diverse stakeholders are well-represented and fully considered as U-M develops and implements its carbon neutrality plan,” the report reads. Representatives on this committee would include at least one graduate student and one undergraduate student, members from all three campuses, those from communities disproportionately affected by climate change and faculty and members of business or
nonprofit organizations with direct ties to environmental justice and climate change. The PCCN also proposed ways to better educate students and hold them accountable for reaching carbon neutrality goals. The report suggests the University create a required orientation module to familiarize incoming students and community members with the University’s climate action goals and commitments to carbon neutrality, as they do for sexual misconduct and alcohol and drug use. The report also urges all academic units to create a course on how climate change can impact their area of study and provide a list of existing courses that relate to carbon neutrality efforts. Environmental justice and accountability The final recommendations focus heavily on campus culture, organizational accountability and environmental justice. During the PCCN’s earlier stages, the Commission often faced criticism for perceived neglect of the latter. Now, a letter from the commission at the beginning of the report explains that evaluating the recommendations for reduced carbon emissions from an environmental justice perspective must be integral to the process. “We affirm that the climate crisis poses the most harm to communities that are historically and unfairly disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” the report states. “Each of our recommendations brings with it a different set of environmental justice considerations. Accordingly, environmental justice must be comprehensively interwoven throughout U-M’s climate action plan, rather than being a supplementary step.” The report defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” The commission underscored the importance of engaging with environmental justice experts and communities which are
U-M community discusses racial and gender disparities in the naming of campus buildings LSA senior Thomas Vance, president of the Black Student Union, said he was not surprised to hear that these disparities in the diversity of building namesakes exist because of the lack of racial diversity among the student body. Vance said there needs to be greater consideration of how the people that the University names buildings after impacted the University. For Vance, automatically naming buildings after former presidents is a misguided approach. “We can’t just keep naming s--after old white guys because of their status,” Vance said. “I think we should give the students who were there at that time a little bit of say. Whether they fill out a form to talk about their experiences at the University under that president, whether it’s direct interactions with whoever they want to name the building after.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. Each recommendation with an appendix has a section titled “Equity and Justice Considerations” to factor environmental justice into the proposed change to campus operations. Related to calls for more consideration of environmental justice are matters of accountability. “Achieving carbon neutrality will require coordinated action and accountability by all units and individuals throughout the university, and success requires that the structural and cultural architectures align with university goals and the associated work,” the report reads. Carbon neutrality in the state of Michigan In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report that concluded the damage of natural disasters could be mitigated if global warming were limited to no more than 1.5˚C. The IPCC said humans would have to decrease emissions to 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 and ultimately achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in order to keep this warming below 1.5˚C. Local and state governments have taken several actions in response to the climate crisis. The city of Ann Arbor launched the A2Zero plan in March 2020 to achieve carbon neutrality in the city by 2030. Last month, Mayor Christopher Taylor was also appointed to serve as a special adviser on the Global Executive Committee on Climate Action, an international body seeking to enhance sustainability within local governments. In September 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the state of Michigan would set the goal of going carbon neutral by 2050. Haverkamp said the release of the recommendations does not mark the end of the University’s efforts to achieve net-zero emissions, but rather a beginning to that journey. “It’s both the culmination of our commission’s work and the first step for the University’s implementation of carbon neutrality,” Haverkamp said. Daily Staff Reporters Arjun Thakkar and Christian Juliano can be reached at arjunt@umich.edu and julianoc@umich.edu
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 5
Michigan’s Got Talent falls flat at promoting DEI GIGI GUIDA For The Daily
Last week, “Michigan’s Got Talent: A Talent Show Celebrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Arts!” premiered on YouTube. The prerecorded talent show was curated and presented by Music Matters, a nonprofit student organization that uses music to advocate for social causes — their most notable event being SpringFest, an annual philanthropic concert series. The evening began with an introduction by host Adam Seltzer, University of Michigan class of 2020 alum and former Music Matters DEI chairman. “As an organization that’s devoted to making a social impact in the community,” Seltzer began, “it’s extra important that we look internally, inside ourselves, and think: Do we embody the values we’re trying to put out in the world?” “Michigan’s Got Talent” (MGT) was a program of at-home performances; undergraduate and graduate students broadcasted their talents from living room couches, bedroom desks, classrooms and several campus locations. Contestants performed covers
of Frank Ocean and Nina Simone, Bandari and hip-hop dance routines, a seven-part a cappella arrangement of Jill Scott’s “He Loves Me” and even some original music: a nostalgic singer-songwriter piece, a satirical musical theater number and some forward-thinking rap. Between acts were brief cameos by Martino Harmon, vice president for student life, Claire Hao, The Michigan Daily’s Editor in Chief and Tiffany Porter, University alum and two-time track and field Olympian, all answering the question: What does DEI mean to you? After a quick 35 minutes, the program came to a close, and viewers were directed to a Google Form for “Superlative Voting” to determine the most unique, creative, entertaining, impactful and most-likely-to-watchin-concert MGT acts. At the end of the evening, these artists and performers had undeniably been given a new platform to display their work and their passions. But was it a stage genuinely rooted in DEI values? While it indeed initiated a muchneeded celebration of diverse, distinctive talent on the University’s campus, MGT fell flat in actually addressing the DEI work under which it was branded. Rather than energize productive, intentional dialogue
surrounding the importance of DEI on the University’s campus, MGT hardly scratched the surface of the issue and, in doing so, felt notably performative. The whole program felt unnecessarily rushed, such that when Seltzer announced, “Wow, that was such an awesome show,” in the past tense, I felt startled by an abrupt conclusion. The acts themselves were quite brief and presented in an oddly nonuniform way. Most acts were just over a minute long, although a select few were closer to three or four minutes. Some students took time to introduce themselves and their talent, others didn’t. Some gave written introductions, but their words were displayed quickly, giving us hardly enough time to read and get acquainted with the artist. Such inconsistent, hurried presentations of the acts were a shame, not only because the acts themselves were impressive and entertaining, but also because it felt at odds with Music Matters’s goal of equity. To the viewer, watching MGT felt like being whisked through a museum filled with gorgeous art, without time to appreciate each individual piece. Considering that it was a pre-edited event, this was probably avoidable. Maybe the brevity of the program
was purposeful, its fast pace intended to capture and hold the attention of an audience situated within the digital age. Yet, whether or not this was the case, the show felt like a cursory glance-over, when DEI itself is deep, long-term work. If MGT’s goal was to honor these artists and their talents, to create space for what they have to offer, why rush them? Instead, they might have given acts more generous performance windows, more time to explain who they are and why their music matters, and perhaps even why DEI is important to them. By not fully engaging with their acts, MGT risked putting their contestants up for display, like colleges frantically proclaiming their diversity initiatives with pictures of token minority students on admissions pamphlets. MGT also lacked a crucial component: an intentional definition of its titular DEI principle. MGT asked, “What does DEI mean to you?” when most Americans haven’t yet asked, “What does DEI mean?” Without an answer to the latter, more fundamental question, any answer to the former is nearly meaningless. Harmon said, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is truly achieved when
it’s infused in everyday life, when it’s a part of who we are, when we don’t have to specifically call it out, because we know it, it’s how we live.” Although he speaks of a beautiful sentiment, the meaning of his statement evaporates to any audience member who isn’t really sure what “it” is. In her cameo, Porter, an alum and Olympian, gave the closest thing to a definition of DEI. She made the distinction between inclusion, which means “to give people opportunities to have a seat at the table,” and equity, which aims “to allow people to have a level playing field.” If it weren’t for Porter, Music Matters would have left DEI fully nebulous and undefined. But even then, Porter’s partial definition came in the last ten minutes of the show, after viewers had already been “celebrating” undefined DEI for 25 minutes. As a result, the audience received the message that “DEI is important!” without actually engaging with DEI itself. MGT’s hurried, surface-level execution was not enough to be considered conscientious, comprehensive DEI work. However, the 227 people who tuned in live to MGT may think it’s enough. They might be misled to believe that this version of activism is good enough,
that this is a place to settle in their own individual DEI work, or even that, by tuning in, they’ve taken action. Music Matters had a real opportunity to lead by example, to show what it looks like to truly engage in DEI work. Instead, they perpetuated the harmful ambiguity surrounding DEI, which so often leads to sanctified inaction and a sense of satisfactory performative action. However, Music Matters is vocal about its commitment to positive change. The group even recognizes the long-term nature of true DEI work and the importance of “collectively recognizing and embracing this challenge rather than avoiding it.” It is important that we invite Music Matters to pursue their DEI goals, but not without holding them accountable for surface-level performativity and challenging them to make sincere, deep-seated change. So, let’s return to Seltzer’s initial question: Do we embody the values we put out into the world? In the case of “Michigan’s Got Talent,” the answer Music Matters is looking for is no. But can they? And will they in the future? Yes, they can, with our support.
Kerrytown Concert House brings jazz to Debussy and quarantine PRISCILLA KIM For The Daily
French composer Claude Debussy undoubtedly remains at the forefront of impressionism in music. He may have denied it, shrugging off the movement as a mere label, but as of today, he’s the first to come up in a quick Googling of the musical genre. The next to come up in the search, other than “La Mer,” “Clair de Lune” and a few of his other staples, might be his Préludes. Capped at a few minutes apiece, these bite-sized works for piano are perfect for anyone new to his works. However, the Préludes are not solely for the unfamiliar, as they can be calming delicacies to frequent listeners of Debussy as well. To a performer especially, these pieces offer a range of emotional possibilities; each piece, like a character sketch in
an artist’s sketchbook, has a distinct essence and spirit to explore. Last Sunday, saxophonist Andrew Rathbun and pianist Matthew Fries brought Impressions of Debussy (Rathbun’s latest album) and a jazz tribute to the Préludes to the Kerrytown Concert House stage. The venue welcomed Rathbun and Fries as part of their weekly live stream, “Live @ The 415.” The month of March marks one year since the series first aired, and since then, the venue has consistently been offering free virtual concerts to the public. The venue’s move to online streaming has played a role in keeping Ann Arbor’s music scene alive. From the music of cabaret to the sonatas of Beethoven, “Live @ The 415” continues to bring a wide selection of performers to Ann Arbor. The virtual concert opened with a recent composition by Fries, titled
“Quarantine” — a nod to this past year. Despite its name, as Rathbun later pointed out to the audience, the piece carried a “slight air of optimism” with its lively rhythms and flourishes. Though written back in September, the composition was a perfect fit for last weekend, depicting a world more hopeful for the end of quarantine. With a brief cut in the live stream’s audio, the piece’s namesake was a gentle reminder that of course, it wouldn’t be quarantine without the technical difficulties. The program continued with works from Debussy’s Préludes for solo piano, reimagined by Rathbun in a jazzy saxophone and piano duet. Drawing from Debussy’s signature color palette, Rathbun interpreted the Prélude No. 10 “Canope” with a similar sentiment as the original, while emitting a much livelier feeling. Debussy’s “Canope” had hints of the
delicate and the ethereal, whereas Rathbun’s interpretation seemed more grounded in its elements. Similarly, his reimagining of the Préludes’s “Girl with the Flaxen Hair” and “Footsteps in the Snow” brought an earthiness to the originals — a color of voice that is absent in Debussy’s instrumentation and only available through the introduction of a second voice by way of the saxophone. By arranging Debussy’s Préludes for two instruments rather than one, Rathbun has made an interpretation tinged with optimism. The pianist of Debussy’s préludes is no longer alone, and while Rathbun’s version may have lost the striking solitary quality of Debussy’s original, it also brought a sense of companionship to Debussy’s lonely tunes. As a newcomer to jazz, I entered the concert unsure of what a jazz-classical crossover would
Kerrytown Concert House
look like, especially in a virtual setting. However, through Fries and Rathbun’s performance, I was able to appreciate the liveliness that a hint of improvisation brings. Ending the program with “Half Nelson” by Miles Davis, the performers departed from Debussy and let loose into the upbeat rhythms of bebop. This tune was lighthearted
and served as a swift final display of virtuosity from Fries and Rathbun. While distinct from the mellow qualities of the previous pieces, the finale was far from abrupt. Rather, it seemed that every part of their performance — from the original works of Fries to Rathbun’s Préludes to the ending bebop — was produced from the same lens.
Fortnite may be the biggest game ever LAINE BROTHERTON Daily Arts Writer
Like most kids born at the start of the millennium, video games acted as my live-in nanny. I learned to read with a clunky old LeapPad tablet, which, if I still had today, would be caked in a sticky goo that always seems to exist on the grubby hands of toddlers. I honed my hand-eye coordination as I internalized crushing defeat by Matt, the overpowered CPU in “Wii Sports.” I spent hours in the school computer lab serving customers in the foodservice simulator “Papa’s Pizzeria.” My idle mind never went very far as long as I could beat my Rainbow Road record on “Mario Kart” or speedrun an island of “Poptropica.” I can’t help but imagine how things would have been different if my brain’s development was supplemented with today’s video games, more specifically, the crowdpleasing cultural phenomenon that is “Fortnite.” Fortnite is a first-person shooter with a sparkly, cartoonish twist, but it is also a concert venue, a chat room, a battle-royale stadium and its very own multiverse. Somehow, under layers of whimsical depictions of violence, fantastical costumes and a detailed map is a nexus of pop culture. I’ve been trying to figure out how a game like Fortnite is able to have such a tight grasp on entertainment industry giants since its earliest collaboration deals were made.
The idea that the same game that programmed a TikTok dance to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” into its character emotes has creative liberties with parts of the John Wick franchise is bizarre, if not borderline dystopian. Maybe I am too cynical to recognize that not every game is designed to my taste — to me, Fortnite is a place for kids to scream at each other from across the world and force virtual Keanu Reeves to floss. Alas, as much as it hurts, it’s important to recognize Fortnite for what it is: a monumental asset to both the gaming industry and the world of pop culture. Fortnite is the accumulation of everything gaming has managed to improve upon in the last two decades. Cross-platform play, like that of “Minecraft’s” Xbox, Pocket Edition and PC versions, offers accessibility across players. Wireless communication popularized by the likes of “Call of Duty” and “Roblox” adds another level of stimulation and interactivity for children and teens alike. Fortnite takes advantage of both of these qualities and adds the third, most important element to the bunch: in-game purchases. Any regular person can play Fortnite, but the way to show prestige and expertise is with the trappings of professional, purchased costumes and dances with freshly minted V-bucks. In 2019, these microtransactions added $1.8 billion to Epic Games’s revenue. And Fortnite’s player base did not materialize out of thin air — its
Gage Skidmore
popularity has exploded in recent years, and this has only been accelerated by the pandemic. As a result of strict social-distancing policies, playing “Fortnite” over voice or video chat with school buddies may very well be the most stimulating form of social interaction available to most e-kids. For a parent to deny their children these lifelines could be seen as unfair, even cruel, especially considering that the game itself is free (excluding in-application purchases). Thus, the nature of Fortnite’s success is really not enigmatic at all. What was already a wildly popular game is now bolstered by such a high increase in demand that, for kids deprived of crucial social stimulation, Fortnite is somewhat of a necessity. Where the majority of kids with their parents’ credit cards go, businesses will follow, allowing “Fortnite” to create a metaverse of intellectual properties that could be the first of its kind. Upon examination of every cultural medium that Fortnite ties together, from the NFL to popular DJs Marshmello and Major Lazer, TV shows like “The Walking Dead” and a wide collection of films, I find it almost reassuring that the game is able to introduce younger audiences to different forms of art and pop culture. With so many brands eager to wedge themselves into Fortnite, Epic Games may be on its way to turning the game into an overstimulating post-capitalist hellscape. However, the game could be worse. At the very least, it keeps pop culture relics that are at risk of fading into irrelevance at the forefront of the video game industry. The possibility that Fortnite could be a kid’s first introduction to Sigourney Weaver’s character in “Alien” and the “Terminator” franchise is pretty strange, but at least it’s something. Of course, like anything fun and stimulating, playing the game comes with a risk — disillusioned parents have complained of crippling Fortnite addictions affecting their children. Maybe we will see a future where Fortnite does more harm than good, but right now, it’s a momentous force that’s worth keeping an eye on.
Design by Caitlin Martens
The Pit Stop for Heartened Surfaces: The 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition MATTHEW EGGERS Daily Arts Writer
As many of you probably don’t know, I am a loyal watcher of the Emmy Award-winning, Friday-night making, reality TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” I mostly tune in to the show every Friday night because the lip syncs and fashion are iconic, but also because an emotional backstory is my reality-TV kryptonite. Do I know anything about how to perform in drag? No. Did I once think that lip liner was a form of sharpie? Yes. But I am nevertheless entranced by the technical skills the queens bring to the stage, so I keep coming back. I say this because “Heartened Surfaces: The 2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition” and I have a similar relationship. I may not understand the complex nuance each artist brought to their projects. Yet it was still as thrilling to witness as “Drag Race.” Having the chance to go to an in-person gallery was the cherry on top for an exhibit that had almost everything I would typically look for — a little drama here, some camp there and a lot of artistry. So now I will delve into my tops and bottoms for the gallery, and just like the first half of season 13 of “Drag Race” — there are no losers, only winners, baby. So say “love” and start your engines for this review of “Heartened Surfaces.”
At the top this week are Christine Bruening’s “Permeable Bodies” and Rey Jeong’s “Screaming Yellow.” Bruening’s “Permeable Bodies” explores the intersection of the horror aesthetic and the artist’s own experience of fear and trauma. The artist’s body of work captures the camp nature of horror to the tee, using the broad strokes of the horror aesthetic as a foreground for her own experience. “Frankenstein and the Doctor,” also by Bruening, was one of my favorite pieces; it juxtaposes the artist’s fear of pregnancy with the discomfort of a “party-city” Frankenstein headpiece and cartoony green body paint, perfectly highlighting the innate discomfort of horror. This collection had high drama and a strong viewpoint to back it up, making Bruening my top toot (aka favorite artist) of the exhibit. Jeong’s “Screaming Yellow,” a social sculpture that talks about the experience of the Global Majority, also had its form of high drama in the form of a decked-out neon yellow truck. Yes, a real-life truck that looks like it just came out of “Jay Leno’s Garage.” It was definitely the centerpiece of the exhibition, catching my eye from the get-go. Jeong’s work felt immersive and full of color. The use of LED and neon lights highlighted the artificiality of the truck’s purpose as a fake grassroots campaign for an imaginary politician. This political
motif offered a structure for the social sculpture, providing a literal platform for participants in Jeong’s work to express their emotions and voices through conversations, poetry and personal stories. Unfortunately, along with my tops, I also have my bottoms of the week. Nathan Bryne’s “Equally Empty” lacked the payoff I had hoped for. Based on a graphite drawing by Dean Smith, Bryne’s piece was an immersive spatial encounter that used a soundscape by Emmerich Anklam, who is also known as Distant Reader, and Smith’s drawing as a foundation plan. Bryne’s installation felt magnetic at the center, the sound design along with the beautiful metalwork that accented the dark space bringing out the beauty in the still air. But as I began to move to the outer shell of the installation, it quickly lost its appeal. The piece needed to carry the energy to the ends of the installation, yet after that stunning center, the meandering wooden fences felt lost and tired. The winner for the gallery challenge has to be Christine Bruening. Her work spoke to me the most out of all the pieces and made me want to find more on Bruening’s website. And the loser: YOU! Because you haven’t already gone to see it. Located at the Stamps Gallery in Ann Arbor, Mich., this gallery’s artists are giving me life, at least until next Friday’s episode of Drag Race.
Arts SXSW Online 2021: ‘Potato Dreams of America’ brings joy in its creativity
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
6 — Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Potato and his mother through their immigration from Russia to America and his coming-of-age-whilecoming-out-as-gay experiences, using different actors and different filmmaking styles to tell it. The first part of the film takes place in 1985 Russia. This portion uses obvious sets, bright colors, dramatic orchestral scores and caricatures — think Wes Anderson — to tell the story of Hurley’s Russian childhood in notably unaccented English. The character billed as “Russian Potato” (Hersh Powers, “Sadie”) and his mother, billed as “Young Lena” (Sera Barbieri, “Lightning”) navigate the conservative landscape of the Soviet Union (and the new freedoms that come once the Iron Curtain falls) through a fond attachment to movies and quick comedic timing. Their love for films makes its way into their joy for finding a third “renegade” channel on their TV that plays American movies and the fact that Lena briefly moves in with a man solely so she and Potato can experience his color TV. This first part is staged almost like a
KARI ANDERSON Senior Arts Editor
Written, directed and produced by Wes Hurley (“Fallen Jewel”), “Potato Dreams of America” has been years in the making. The film, based on real events in Hurley’s life, has had different iterations, including a short, “Little Potato,” which won the documentary short Jury Prize at SXSW in 2020, and a VR short entitled “Potato Dreams.” But the runup to this film goes beyond its previous forms: Through its autobiographical format, the audience gets to see how film shaped the life of a young Hurley — and his proxy character Potato — throughout his life. Despite my initial misconception, the title doesn’t refer to dreams that are potato-based, but instead the action of dreaming done by Potato — his mother Lena’s pet name for him (the character’s actual name is Vasily, but since he is billed and referred to as Potato, I’m going to refer to him as such). The film follows the titular
play, with creative filmmaking choices that give this perception of childhood an almost whimsical feel. In an opening scene, a young Potato frames his arguing parents with his thumbs and forefingers, as a sort of imagination sequence. This instance of domestic abuse turns into a choreographed stage fight with a toddler-aged Potato watching from the audience. A moment where someone at school tells him to “take Jesus with him” prompts him to do just that: Potato creates an imaginary friend equivalent of Jesus (Jonathan Bennett, “Mean Girls”) and takes him by the hand into his apartment (truly, no one warned me that the love interest from “Mean Girls” would be playing a goofy, long-haired Jesus who yells at the TV and gives Potato bad advice). When his mother reads an advertisement to become a mailorder bride, the background behind the window becomes the stage for an infomercial-type advertisement that is meant to take place in Lena’s head: “Are you tired of Russian men?” And as Lena wretchedly observes how she
feels stuck — “Don’t you feel the walls closing in?” — it’s accompanied by rumbling and falling debris. This brings us to the next part, where Lena’s participation in the mail-order bride program lands them the opportunity to come to America to live with a man named John (Dan Lauria, “The Wonder Years”). As they head to Seattle, Wash., to live with John, however, the film takes an abrupt turn. The filmmaking becomes more conventional, the cartoonish sets disappear and the actors for Potato and Lena change — Tyler Bocock (in his feature film debut) takes over as “American Potato” and Marya Sea Kaminski (“Pacific Aggression”) takes over as “American Lena.” These two new actors have heavy Russian accents, making it clear that this is no longer a staged and exaggerated recreation but instead a more standard narrative. The new location brings new challenges for both Potato and Lena: the classic fish-out-of-water immigrant story, the going-to-a-newschool story, the coming out story.
SXSW
More importantly, though, there’s the addition of John, the stepfather, who holds the threat of sending them back to Russia over their heads if their “values” don’t seem to align with his. The conflict is clear: If John were to discover Potato’s sexual orientation, they would be forced out of America. In this context, John holds all of the cards. While the staged sequences in Russia find humorous moments in their unconventionality — like, say, an ostentatious, glittery dance number
that features the Virgin Mary tossing Baby Jesus to a backup dancer — the second part focuses on the subtle and sometimes unfunny comedy of everyday life, like a funny sequence where Potato tries to work up the nerve to check out a film from the “Gay and Lesbian” section of the video store. It also finds the beauty in their new home, with beautiful shots of the Seattle skyline.
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SXSW Online 2021: ‘Introducing, Selma Blair’ offers a different look at an actress’s life are barred. Honestly, I didn’t know much about MS prior to viewing this documentary but learning about it through Blair’s experience is truly shattering. Blair allows the audience to follow every step of her journey in which she reveals the good and the bad. Viewers get the fun, playful moments of her life, most of which center around her son Arthur, but also the moments of sheer exhaustion, unbearable pain and continual hopelessness. The jarring, abrupt shifts between those extremes provide the most meaningful glimpses into Blair’s life. One moment she could be jumping and laughing as she plays dodgeball with her son and the next moment has her in bed, so tired from playing she cannot move. The film shifts in tone when it moves from Blair’s day-to-day moments to
SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Film Beat Editor
Not many people know Selma Blair. She has been, by her own words, “a supporting actress.” And maybe that’s why seeing her stripped raw in her documentary “Introducing, Selma Blair” means so much. In the documentary, she’s the main character — a real, living, breathing person who finally has the camera’s attention. Unfortunately, though, when the camera is on her, it’s not for something funny or happy like her role in “Legally Blonde.” Instead, it’s devastating and honest, because she is showing the audience she handles her Multiple Sclerosis. What makes “Introducing, Selma Blair” so compelling is that no holds
her progression through her stem cell transplant treatment, from preliminary chemotherapy to engraftment. The cell phone videos of Blair in the hospital, combined with traditional documentary footage, are tear-jerking in a way that few things can be. We see the emotional effects of the chemo in her visceral sadness and the physical effects of her treatment, the way that her body swells and she feels a pain that overtakes her. The audience is privy to a moving flashback where she explains that she had asked Arthur if there was anything that made him nervous about her treatment, and he had answered that he didn’t want her to lose her hair; she said, “Well then, I’ll just have you cut it, so that it’s not so surprising to you.” After the flashback, “Introducing, Selma Blair” moves to a tender scene of Arthur
shaving her head with tendrils of hair encircling them both on the floor. In another clip, she winks at the camera as she administers her own injections. The camera follows her as she enters the hospital for a period of isolation. There’s a moment where the nurses, holding the stem cells that will be transplanted, are singing and saying a prayer as Blair’s eyes are closed tightly, internally praying alongside them that the transplant will work. These glimpses into her experience — into her life — paint a picture of who she is, what she has gone through and how strong she is for overcoming it all. The audience can never understand her pain, but by viewing this documentary, we are able to educate ourselves on MS and, more importantly, the people who persevere through it.
There isn’t a “happily ever after” once the treatment is over, and this offers a realistic understanding of Blair’s experiences. Following the treatment, she is disheartened that her recovery hasn’t happened in the way she expected. “I think I thought I was cured,” she says in a voiceover, as she, overwhelmed and crying, struggles to let herself into her hotel room after being discharged. In one of the most honest, melancholy sequences, Blair comes to the realization that her son (who had been living with his father while she was undergoing treatment) could potentially continue to live only with his father: “I don’t feel like I have to hold onto anything anymore,” she sobs. And then the scene cuts to Arthur bringing her flowers — another abrupt shift that only emphasizes her pain.
Every moment of “Introducing, Selma Blair” is unchoreographed. Every moment is painfully real — sometimes so intimate that I felt like the audience should perhaps look away and let her exist without our eyes on her. The documentary closes with Blair still recovering. “I’m really depressed … I’m really struggling,” she says. “But at the same time, I realize … everyone is.” She reaches some semblance of closure even if she’s not fully there yet. And when the credits begin to roll, the audience wonders how she’s doing now. We hope that she’s happy and healthy … content in her own existence. The documentary does just as its name suggests: It introduces us to Selma Blair as the person she really is, featuring the good, the bad and everything in between.
‘The Math Campers’ demands that you question your reality EMILIA FERRANTE Daily Arts Writer
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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
03/24/21 03/17/21
By Jerry Edelstein ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/24/21
WHISPER “Hey! Whadya want from me!?”
“And I know these stars will... bleed?”
Dan Chiasson’s new poetry collection “The Math Campers” is not a volume that can be read passively. In fact, the very style and construction of the collection demand the participation of the reader. Instead of including dozens of different short poems, which is the norm for most poetry collections, “The Math Campers” contains several long-form poems over 20 pages long. Instead of wrapping up every poem nicely in one page, the poems take shape over time and space, meaning that the reader must make a concentrated effort to maintain focus. This can be difficult because the poems often have no clear beginning, middle or end. Freed from the constraints of linear narrative, Chiasson experiments with form and function. Lesser poets, perhaps, would get lost in the myriad voices and seemingly rambling trains of thought Chiasson incorporates, but he proves himself to have a true mastery of language and his own writing style. As just one example of Chiasson’s playfulness with form, much of the first part of the collection, “Must We Mean What We Say,” is written in a back-and-forth quasi-epistolary format. Chiasson alternates between lyric form — “The sky was impossible, / then our heads turned. / The noon midnight came / it came to us one by one.” — and prose — “He viewed the Druidical majesty of the eclipse from the stone steps of Memorial Church, and it was then, a source confirms, that he knew all about New England.” While at times the dialogue of the narrator and the unnamed correspondent seems grounded in reality, with details like “It was already November when he wrote again” and “Before the correspondence slowed that fall,” the end of the poem calls this reality into question in a way that makes the reader want to go back and read it from the beginning. The narrator writes, “It was painful to imagine that someone I had imagined had imagined me, and could simply stop, leaving me stranded, without oxygen, like an astronaut alone in deep space.” Suddenly a mysterious and often philosophical back-and-forth between two unknown characters becomes a meditation on the nature of reality itself. Chiasson asks us if we even exist if we do not exist in the minds of others: “Now, since he was gone, I was gone, and since I was gone,
he was gone.” After indirectly posing this question, Chiasson proceeds to directly involve the reader. He transitions to the use of “you,” a subtle grammatical shift that could be overlooked because it is often used as a general term instead of a specific one, especially in the context of a poetry collection. However, Chiasson quickly makes it clear that he means you, the person literally reading his words at that instant. He is wittily self-referential, writing, “By the way: I know what you know about me. / And by I, I mean me, the author, Dan.” He goes on to speak in an even more direct way to the reader, creating intimate moments that shock you into understanding. These are not just vague allusions to the author-reader relationship; Chiasson is specific and pointed, asking, “if the reader will please turn over / her hands to expose her palms / I will do so too and together, stranger / together we shall contemplate enormity.” Chiasson’s careful manipulation of reality and exploitation of the author-reader relationship create a space where the reader is an active participant in the poetry. We never know when the author will turn to us and expect us to contemplate our relationship with him next. As a result, we are always on edge, waiting to be written into the poem once again. At some point, we realize that the initial question — do we exist only if someone else is imagining us? — is answered by our own participation in the poetry. Chiasson writes, “if the reader will now step away from the page / if the reader will now step away from the screen / together we will ponder who imagined whom,” thus implicating us, the reader, in the central philosophical question. By digging deeper into the complexities of the author-reader relationship — the pact that is made between reader and author to agree to a shared reality, the relinquishment of the reader’s own reality and yielding to the author’s — Chiasson manages to take us one step further into his philosophical meditation by making the reader a participant. Focusing solely on Chiasson’s philosophical overtones would be a disservice to his writing, however. He is also incredibly talented in the most basic poetic skillset: simply creating beautiful and moving turns of phrase.
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An ode to the women in my life UDOKA NWANSI MiC Columnist
I wanted to take the time to give thanks to the women I hold closest to me while we are still celebrating Women’s History Month. When I think about the women who have shaped me into the person I am today, my mind immediately takes me to my mother and two older sisters, who, in their own ways, have served as catalysts for my own personal growth. I commend my older sister, Uche, who carries herself as a free spirit, existing far beyond the confines of societal expectations. She pushes me to speak up even when I can’t seem to find the will to. She inspires me to reject the arbitrary social standards put upon me and live life by my own terms. She can always find a way to both clown me and shower me with praise in the same breath. She emboldens me to take no nonsense from anyone who chooses to treat me with disrespect. She is my unstoppable sister, a woman who fearlessly fights for me when I feel too weak to do so myself. I appreciate my eldest sister, Kelechi, who possesses the utmost level of poise and composure. She has pulled me out of sticky situations far more times than I can count. She fiercely protects her younger sisters and brother no matter
the circumstances. She can make any problem seem manageable after offering a nugget of her wisdom to me. I can always count on her for a warm, home-cooked meal whenever I return home from school. She rolls her eyes at my idealistic antics yet still encourages me to pursue my creative endeavors. She grounds me with common sense, reminding me to take things one step at a time whenever I feel overwhelmed by the weight of my responsibilities. And I give the utmost thanks to my mother –– my guide and my rock. My mother, who always challenges me to be the very best version of myself. She reminds me of my capabilities whenever my feelings of imposter syndrome are particularly amplified. She teases me for flinching whenever she cornrows my hair, taming my kinky strands. She won’t hesitate to check on me whenever I’m not acting like my usual self. She maintains a rigid moral compass, only acting with truth and honesty. Her love for me maintains a certain constant in my life. My beautiful mother, who is akin to a superwoman, is able to conquer any and every curveball thrown her way. Words can only begin to describe the gratitude I have for these three women. Here’s to the resilient women in our lives; may we love them, cherish them and reflect their strength in everything we do.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 7
Machismo culture must go HUGO QUINTANA MiC Columnist
I sit at my grandma’s kitchen table –– as I do every Sunday –– and the routine is always the same. It’s usually me, my brother, my dad and my grandpa just sitting and talking, waiting for our food to come. My sister, however, is typically given the task of fetching our drinks, silverware and any other item necessary for our traditional Mexican meal. As we sit and wait, my grandma is scurrying around the kitchen trying to handle flipping tortillas, making guacamole, cooking the carne and setting the entire table. While these experiences are not unique to my family, they demonstrate the roles defined by machismo. Machismo is defined as “a strong or exaggerated sense of manliness; an assumptive attitude that virility, courage, strength, and entitlement to dominate are attributed or concomitants of masculinity.” Derived from the Spanish word macho, this term too refers to the ideal societal role men are expected to play in their communities. Though machismo is another word synonymous with sexism and misogyny, it is also a strong and commonly-held belief in Hispanic communities that men are genuinely superior to women for the benefit of the family, work and society as a whole. This “role” assumes that the man is always seated at the head of the table, both figuratively and literally, to act as a protector of the family and to demonstrate dominance. On a societal level, the role of the macho functions as a collective group of dominating
men in all spheres of life –– from the employment force to ruling political and economic institutions. Being macho is often framed as a good thing; in having a man as the head of the household, the power dynamic supposedly secures the safety of women and children from harm or danger. But who is actually safe? Machismo is often perpetuated through the way Hispanic men raise their children. In Hispanic cultures, there is really only one right way to be a man. You have to be a hard worker, knowledgeable in “manly” things –– from soccer and football to cars and tools. You have to use your skills to provide for your wife and kids. You can never ask for help. You have to be strong. You have to be a womanizer. You have to conform to notions and expectations of heteronormativity. And you, of course, have to follow the sexist gender norms that continue long-standing machismo within your family. Growing up as a kid and now an individual who does not identify as “macho” came with years of insecurity and wishing I was like others –– the more masculine men in my family and Hispanic communities. I remember watching my cousins play soccer, video games and enjoy learning about cars while I was more interested in reading about the world’s tallest skyscrapers and staying inside. It is no surprise that falling short of these expectations resulted in years of ridicule, shame and embarrassment from my male family members and other “macho” men in Hispanic communities. Whenever I compared myself to other Hispanic men who appeared to be more masculine than me, I always felt alienated and constantly feared further rejection from my family. Not only does this
way of upbringing affect the mental health of Hispanic adolescents, it has also been associated with increased domestic and sexual violence. When social dynamics like machismo incite distress and violence, rather than protection and stability, they must be dismantled. Machismo has forced hundreds of generations of women to endure destructive masculinity. Domestically, many Hispanic women are assigned to the role of being the family’s homemaker before they are even born. A “macho” man would be shamed by his peers if he were to assume stereotypically female gender roles such as childcare, cooking and cleaning. These perceptions force millions of women with desires for careers outside of the home to be confined to a role that they do not necessarily desire, being told that this is the only place that they can provide value. Though women can aspire to be homemakers, they deserve the liberty to make this choice, free from cultural expectations. At such a young age, many Hispanic women are taught where they fall in the machismo ideology through learning the importance of household chores
ZAFIRAH RAHMAN MiC Columnist
Even when no one’s around, I mumble a sorry when I crash into the furniture. I say sorry when I ask my sister to buy Chick-fil-A on a Sunday. I write sorry as my final answer on my math homework. I say sorry when my friends say to stop apologizing so often. I am a chronic over-apologizer. To say sorry insinuates an apology, which is defined as an admission of error or regret. Simply put, when someone does something “wrong,” they would apologize with sorry. But what determines wrong? We all make mistakes. From the meanest to the sweetest person you know, they mess
ARIES
Enlist the support of friends, colleagues and your community to turn the impossible into something very doable after all.
TAURUS
Does your career align with your values? Does it fulfill you spiritually? If not, this is the week to figure out why not
same manner, it should not be easy to say sorry; I don’t believe a lot of people enjoy admitting their mistakes. People still say sorry, however, in hopes of reconciling any issues between themselves and others. It is a fundamental form of communication. Yet I say sorry when there’s no need. I blurt out the word as a common courtesy in my texts and emails. I say sorry after my mom helps me find my glasses. I write out sorry on Piazza before asking my question because I am worried it is a dumb one. I admit there are times I say sorry out of politeness or habit, rather than actually meaning it. That’s the worst thing I can do. In saying it so often, and equating all of my mistakes to the same single “sorry,” my apologies
become less and less effective. Don’t get me wrong, when I say sorry in more serious contexts, I do genuinely mean it and hope that sincerity is clear in my apologies. It is still a valid way for me to acknowledge my mistakes and express my sorrow towards others. The real issue with over-apologizing is how I perceive “sorry” in other contexts. I fail to see sincerity in the apologies I receive because I am used to throwing it around left and right. It has made it difficult for me to accept the significance behind an apology, because I’ll always question if they are an over-apologizer too. I can’t help but wonder if they truly feel sorry and are admitting to their mistakes or are simply saying because it is just
PISCES
YOUR WEEKLY
Come out of the shadows and stand tall in your own identity, free from worry and anxiety about who you truly are.
AQUARIUS
WHISPER
our values are starting to align more closely with your beliefs, making it easier this week for you to walk the walk.
“The times they are a-changin’” GEMINI Travel opens your eyes to new ways of life and new knowledge – and if you allow it to, this could positively impact your career too.
CAPRICORN Clear communication is essential in order to avoid misunderstandings this week. Strive for clarity above all else.
“Spidey, spidey, spidey.”
CANCER Energies this week allow for a lot of self-development and personal growth. Don’t be afraid to go against the flow.
LEO What a beautiful week for working with your partner on a project close to both of your hearts. Think big, and watch the obstacles fall away.
SAGITTARIUS Someone in the family may not be telling the whole truth – but why? Find out gently, with compassion and a good dose of humor.
“This week on...”
VIRGO Romance and idealism join forces this week, but first, you must take care of the practical, day-to-day details of life.
LIBRA Finding a higher purpose in even the most boring of tasks awakens your gratitude muscle this week, enabling you to find happiness in routine.
SCORPIO Creative communication will open doors and solve problems this week, especially on a family matter.
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The dilemma of an over-apologizer
up at one point or another. There’s a wide range of mistakes we make as people because of things like natural forgetfulness or simply messing up because of circumstance. The important distinction is the impact of our errors and whether or not they affect others (like how missing an assignment only really affects me, but failing to complete my part of a group project hurts everyone else’s outcome). In group settings, the impact of one’s mistakes can cause arguments, misunderstandings or further complications. And when one realizes they are in the wrong, it is natural to feel guilt. I understand apologies, and, by extension, “sorry,” as a way of expressing feelings of guilt. In that
and domestic labor that only they must partake in. In my home, my sister and mother would wash the dishes and clean the house. Meanwhile me, my dad and my brother were assigned to landscaping and taking the garbage out. These early manifestations are implemented so that young girls are aware of their “purpose” within society and the family, thus silencing women and forcing them to forego many of their aspirations. Marianismo is the term that reflects these early teachings. Similar to machismo, marianismo refers to the ideal role women play at home and in a machismo society. Rooted in Christianity, marianismo is a direct consequence of the Hispanic patriarchal society and describes a woman as one who should be pure, pious and self-sacrificing –– attributes that best benefit the family and husband over herself. Due to the harmful presence men have had on Hispanic women for hundreds of years, it has upheld the social construct of marianismo, which further maintains machismo.
“the right thing to say’’ –– just as I do sometimes. This reminds of a few weeks ago when I got a text saying “I am truly sorry” from an old friend. Even though he had apologized and I knew him to use “sorry” sparingly, I was still debating the genuineness of his apology. It might have had to do with how it was a two-year late apology and over text. Or the fact that his next few texts focus on how great of a show “Euphoria” is. It bothered me how it probably took him a second to type out the word “sorry.” His keyboard may have even automated the apology. Altogether, the word “sorry” didn’t feel sufficient enough to me. His apology might have been genuine, but I could not accept it, let alone believe in it.
But, what exactly could he have said or done to make a more genuine, better apology? There are not that many substitutes for “sorry” in the English language. He could have said “my bad” or “my fault,” but I would not have appreciated those phrases any more than the literal word “sorry” — in fact those other phrases would have made me feel worse. There’s other extra things people can add to their apologies, including adverbs or a full outlining of what they are sorry for, but the key word of an apology is “sorry.” It is the most basic way to summarize deep regret or guilt about one’s actions.
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Let’s talk about hip-hop EASHETA SHAH MiC Columnist
We know the drill. Oh, you listen to rap? Name every rapper, ever. Know your lyrics and know your artists, or you are a fake fan. Never mind the fact that the self-righteous Brown boy that demanded you prove yourself derives his entire personhood from a genre of art that he blithely hyper-consumes for clout. And this popularity contest of who engages best with the newest trends in music, footwear and fashion is at the forefront of a majority of the hip hop consumer discourse today, in classic appropriation of Black culture. But hip hop encompasses an entire cultural movement that expresses people’s lived and political experiences across a variety of different art forms, from street art and fashion to music, dance and MCing. The musical style influences much of our mainstream media, popular culture and trends which are superficially consumed without a second thought. On March 11, TedXUofM hosted the “Conversations in hip hop” winter salon, which gave me a chance to consider my own (often mindless) consumption of rap music and appreciate the larger culture, history and breadth behind the genre of art. I was fascinated and inspired by the insight and wisdom of the panel of speakers including Kwasi Ampene, University of Michigan professor, author, filmmaker and ethnomusicologist; Elisandra Rosario, dancer, DJ, activist and filmmaker; Paul (Fifty) Johnson, graffiti and multidisciplinary artist; and Tonie Arcon, Business senior and a musician. The panelists spoke about their first experiences with hip hop from The Sugarhill Gang’s quintessential “Rapper’s Delight” to Missy Elliott, Biggie Smalls and Tupac playing on the radio. In conversation with each other, they agreed on the curation of community and empowerment hip hop offers to those who engage with
it. Arcon confessed that much of the foundation of his relationships with his roommates and his friends has been rooted in hip hop. “(It) brings people together … I think hip hop has that kind of effect,” Arcon said. Ampene spoke to the manifestation of this solidarity, discussing a brief history of West African hip hop and its function as a platform for the youth to speak on ongoing socio-political issues. “My journey (with hip hop) starts across the ocean,” he said. While we often associate the earliest traction of the movement to the Bronx, N.Y., Ampene discussed the long tradition of hip hop in West Africa through interconnected spiritual customs. According to Ampene, in West Africa, the hip hop movement was a form of public transcript and socially conscious dialogue, empowering the youth with a platform and empowering entire communities with its sacred roots in religion and gospel. He attributed the gap in historical knowledge about hip hop to the Westernized erasure of African hip hop tradition, demonstrated by the modern manifestation of hip hop in the United States through certain practices of consumption. This resonated with me, as I thought about the modern-day hip hop that I know well compared to its African spiritual roots that I hadn’t previously considered. To me, while much of production and creation of the art of hip hop itself encompasses its own set of Western social interpretations and ideals drawing from tradition, history and lived experience, the almost robotic Westernized perspective of some modern-day consumer practices focuses specifically on the American Dream as the human ideal, singularly fixating the narrative of hip hop on music about possession of money and hypersexualization of women alone.
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Michigan in Color
8 — Wednesday, March 24, 2021
U-M just announced in-person classes: will this end the same way it did last year? KAYLA THOMAS MiC Columnist
June 2020 was a time in which my mind wandered between wondering and worrying. As the summer months progressed, I spent my time constantly wondering when my days would cease to be relegated to the boundaries of my parents’ house, with the exception of an occasional walk around my neighborhood to get a change of scenery and keep my body moving. Moments that weren’t spent wondering about my future were spent worrying about it. Key moments and aspects of my life such as my college experience, graduation and the nature of my personal relationships all had question marks by them, and existing in this space of uncertainty riddled me anxious. At the same time, the socio-political world that I was immersed in was undergoing a similar tug-of-war. It was one that took place between those who prioritized controlling the spread of the virus and those who were
wondered what side the University of Michigan would be on. On June 22, 2020, we got our answer. It was on that day University President Schlissel announced that the University was planning to have a public-healthinformed fall semester. According to that day’s announcement, this would include a mix of online and in-person classes, residence halls and dining halls that would still be open to serving and housing students and an availability of activities that would enhance the student experience. The promise of a semi-regular semester placed a glimmer of hope in many students, myself included. After months of having virtually no social interaction outside of those I lived with, I marveled at the opportunity of being able to once again be immersed in a world of my peers. What made the deal sound even sweeter was the fact that both the president’s announcement and the resulting Maize and Blueprint webpage announced not only an expected return to campus, but also a promise to utilize effective public Design by Emily Gordon
focused on reviving the U.S. economy. The former group was willing to endure hits to the stock market for the sake of saving lives. The latter, on the other hand, desired the immediate reopening of businesses, despite the health risks such actions would cause, especially for non-white communities. Around this time, I, along with my peers,
health measures, such as the expectation of social distancing and mask-wearing along with some level of COVID-19 testing, and a provision of quarantine housing in case students contracted the virus. This plan was marketed as a way to have the best of both worlds –– safety and the quintessential college experience. Maybe it
was possible to fulfill these two seemingly opposed priorities. This sense of cautious optimism was not long-lived. Within two weeks of movein day, it was clear that the plan to ensure proper social distancing, mask wearing and other safety measures among students relied mainly on circulating a set of guidelines that students were encouraged to follow for the sake of themselves and those around them. The only attempt that was made to enforce these public health practices came in the form of a student ambassador program, an initiative in which students who underwent an assigned training module were chosen to patrol campus neighborhoods to encourage students to follow proper public health safety measures. These ambassadors did not have the authority to enforce or deter any changes in the recurring instances of unsafe behavior such as partying or Fraternity & Sorority Life activities. However, concerning observations made by the ambassadors would be reported to the Division of Public Safety and Security, which initially would employ armed officers to de-escalate the situation. The use of minimally-trained students and police personnel to enforce guidelines brought about very reasonable concern about the potential of implicit bias and police harassment towards Black and brown students on campus. The threat of this program to the safety of non-white students was especially heightened at this time given the widely publicized instances of police brutality –– and the resulting protests –– that took place during the summer and beyond. The lack of trust and understanding between those administering the program and those who were supposed to be benefiting from it caused the program to not last beyond the first semester of its installation. The overall insensitive nature of the program, along with the increased sense of caution of police presence, ignited resistance of the student ambassadors from many student groups, which eventually led to the recalling of this program.
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The nature of the thrift Thrifting is For You When did everyone get so into thrifting? Scrolling through my TikTok, the zeitgeist of Generation-Z culture, the majority of my For You Page has been flooded with thrifting videos. I feel like I’ve seen all the thrifting Tik Toks possible at this point. A middle schooler explaining how her outfits of the day are sourced from Goodwill. A college student’s clothing hauls showcasing the latest finds from Salvation Army. A high schooler explaining how shopping second-hand helps the environment while creating a unique killer wardrobe. Interspersed throughout these videos are lip-syncs and comedy bits, and while watching, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted to go thrifting. Back in the ‘90s, my mom would go to Value World in Ypsilanti, Mich., with her college friends to look for Levi’s. Now, decades after my mom, LSA sophomore Rita Sayegh visits that same Value World with her friends. Now, it’s not surprising to hear of high school and college students thrifting on the weekends, but it was at one point. In the late 90s to the mid-
media has normalized and popularized secondhand clothing as seen through its prevalence on social media apps. Some speculate that the growing climate crisis has forced Gen Z to look more critically at their carbon footprint and refrain from supporting fast fashion and its terrible impact on the environment. Fast Fashion and Lasting Issues Thrift shops have provided college and high school students with new opportunities in fashion. One of these opportunities is to create a more intentional lifestyle that minimizes the impact on the environment. For LSA sophomore Brendan Bontrager, shopping at the Salvation Army started out as a way to find pieces for a Halloween costume or a themed party. Bontrager didn’t consider thrifting as a resource for his actual wardrobe. That began to change in college when he became aware of the nature of fast fashion. “I used to think of environmental harm as oil companies,” Bontrager said. “But I became aware of how fast fashion harms the environment (and) how H&M has unethical working conditions.” As Bontrager discusses, fast fashion creates various societal and ethical issues. Due to its cheap prices, clothing factories cut corners to keep manufacturing cheap, underpaying workers and
2000s, fast-fashion labels dominated the fashion industry. Hedonistic consumption of clothing was at its peak; Zara, H&M, Forever 21 and more were more than willing to feed societal haste. These brands are the pinnacle of fast fashion, because Zara, H&M and Forever 21 provide the latest trends off the runway in a cheap, quick manner. However, the trend began to shift as Gen Z grew older. A Deloitte study on individuals born between 19952012 (Gen Z) theorized that the Great Recession shaped the age group to become more focused on financial security and pragmatic about finances and as a result, willing to shop at thrift stores to score clothing goods at a better price. Others have reasoned that the rise of social
creating hazardous work environments. However, the harm does not stop there. Fast fashion has also fed into the climate crisis. According to the World Resources Institute, textile production releases around 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, which is linked to global warming and is responsible for 10% of total global emissions. These issues forced Bontrager to look toward other clothing options, but, like many, he ran into the issue of cost. Retailers like Patagonia, Reformation and Boden create clothing with minimal environmental impact and ethical labor conditions, but it comes at a steep cost to the consumer. For high school and college
KATHERINA ANDRADE OZAETTA MiC Assistant Editor
Design by Zoe Zhang
students, these costs can be a deterrent for shopping sustainably. Bontrager realized that he could turn to the Salvation Army or Goodfair, an online thrift store retailer, for his clothing needs without forgoing his passion for sustainability. Youtube Girls In Sayegh’s case, she developed this interest in thrifting through her love of YouTube. Sayegh said that in her childhood she watched a lot of YouTube and she “would see the YouTube girls thrifting all the time,” referring to creators like Liza Koshy, Emma Chamberlain, Hannah Meloche, Ashley Rous and others that began posting videos centered around thrifting about three years ago. The most popular video, “THRIFTING BRANDS!! GOODWILL WITH GREATLIZA,” from Liza Koshy has about 15.4 million views. Comparatively, the most popular clothing haul videos centered around Zara, H&M and Forever 21 have barely half as many views as many of the thrift haul videos — the most popular Zara haul video amassing only 3.1 million views. Thrifting became more mainstream as a result of young viewers watching their favorite internet personalities finding great pieces of clothing for cheap prices. The change in attitude was noticeable for LSA sophomore Abigail Miars, the owner of the clothing resale store Umich Apparel. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Mich., Miars frequently went with her father to garage sales and began shopping at thrift stores in 2014, but she never felt comfortable attributing her wardrobe to thrift stores until recently. “A couple years back, (thrift stores had) a negative connotation that you couldn’t afford (new) clothes if you shopped at the Salvation Army,” Miars said. But around two years ago, Miars realized that the conversation surrounding thrifting began to skew more positively and has grown into a massive industry of its own. Do the Hustle The resale industry has been growing rapidly. In 2019, it was estimated that the industry was worth $24 billion, outpacing traditional retail stores in growth over the years. At the center of this growth are students. Young adults have begun reselling clothing as a side hustle, an avenue worth pursuing for extra money. These students will come into thrift stores and buy in bulk. Then, they will “flip” the clothing by customizing their thrift finds, a process in which they crop the shirt or dye it or sew it into different articles of clothing entirely. Then, they typically post the clothes on a special Instagram account or a resale app like Poshmark or Depop to sell it.
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Amma’s daily schedule SMARANI KOMANDURI MiC Columnist
In honor of Women’s History Month, I wanted to offer an ode to the most important woman in my life, my Amma. As a homemaker, my Amma is constantly on her feet, 24/7/365. To gain more insight into everything she has to do, I recently sat down with her and simply asked her, “What’s your schedule every day?” She stared blankly, and after a couple of seconds, responded, “I don’t know.” I asked her again, phrased differently, “What do you do every day?” She stared blankly again and simply said, “Just sit around. I don’t do much. It’s not like I have a job.” My Amma never gives herself enough credit. I knew sitting down with her and asking her to talk about herself wasn’t going to help me write this narrative. But I don’t usually see my Amma in action, given the fact that for most of the day, I am in school or away from home. The only information I have managed to accumulate has been from asking throughout the years, “How was your day today, Amma?” All of my Amma’s days are busy, and I can intensely recall the busyness that filled her days from 2011-2012 when my father’s parents stayed with us. So, to the best of my ability, I will attempt to convey everything my Amma did in a day in those years. 6:00 a.m.: She would wake up and get ready for the day. 6:30 a.m.: She would do pooja, the Hindu act of saying prayers. My Amma always made sure to pray for our health and happiness. My grandmother would also be awake during this time, doing pooja of her own. My Amma made sure my grandmother had everything she needed. 7:00 a.m.: She would make lunch for my younger brother, my father and me. My brother and I never woke up in time to make it to the bus stop, let alone make and pack our own lunches. 7:15 a.m.: She would wake my brother and me up for school. We always slept through our alarm clocks, so our Amma was the only reliable alarm we had. Soon after, she would pick out our outfits. I don’t know how to dress now, so you can imagine how rough it was when I would attempt to pick out my own outfits between the ages of 10 and 12. My Amma was, and very much still is, my stylist, making sure I don’t look like a clown every day.
7:45 a.m.: She would make sure we were ready to take on the day. Amma would braid my hair every morning. I was awful at doing my own hair. In fact, I didn’t even know how to braid my own hair until my freshman year of high school, so I relied on my Amma to do my hair for me every single morning. As she brushed out all of its tangles and knots, slathering the infamous Parachute coconut oil along the way, she would ask us if we put our homework in our bags and ensure we had our water bottles. She would check to see if we picked up our lunchboxes she made from the kitchen counter and if we wanted to eat something before we left for the bus. Finally, she would take a breath for herself as the bus entered our neighborhood, and my brother and I would give our hugs and kisses and make our way to school. This was her only break before moving on to her next set of tasks for the day. It’s funny — this would be the moment I considered the beginning of my day. Meanwhile, my Amma would have been up and moving for almost 2 hours at this point. 8:00 a.m.: She would finish preparing a pot of coffee. My father would be up and getting ready for work at this point, so now my Amma made sure he would be ready to take on his day. This is also when my Amma had to think about what to make for lunch for herself and my grandparents. On top of being vegetarian, my grandparents do not eat eggs, onions or garlic. And no, not even onion powder or garlic powder. My Amma had to be creative to find something new to make for them each day. 8:30 a.m.: She would make sure my father has his water bottles, his coffee, his ID, his phone, his wallet and his keys. After he leaves, my Amma could finally take another breather. Immediately after she exhaled, she would need to start making lunch. 9:00 a.m.: She would make lunch for herself and my grandparents while making sure my grandparents are comfortable, not too cold and all-around feeling well. 10:00 a.m.: She would set the table with water, napkins and a placemat. My Amma’s pet peeve is when her tablecloths get messy. 10:30 a.m.: She would sit down with my grandparents as they eat lunch, making sure they have everything they need. My Amma would usually wait until after they were done eating to eat herself, so she could accommodate any of their needs as they ate.
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In defense of the female gamer ANCHAL MALH MiC Columnist
When people think of gamers, they usually picture a man sitting in his bedroom –– sheets everywhere, food all over his desk, clothes scattered across his room as he yells through his headset for his teammates to come save him. Men are allowed to be messy, obscene and obnoxious when they play video games. They can stream the video game missions they pursue through various online platforms like YouTube and Twitch and rack up millions of views within a day. However, I have noticed when women stream the video games they play, they are more likely to face sexist comments from viewers about their appearance. Women who game overall are four times more likely than their male counterparts to be harassed while playing online. For example, when Pokimane, a female gamer with over 7.1 million followers, had a makeup free streaming event, she received comments that called her “disgusting,” “ugly” and implied that she “catfished” her viewers. A female gamer is also required to take into consideration her relationship status and appear available in order to cater to her male audience. Another instance of sexism in the gaming industry can be seen with women not revealing their gender in order to be seen as a “bro” to avoid harassment from men online. In my experience, I have been told that I am not a part of the gaming community for playing games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley because they are “too feminine” to be considered a valid game to be streamed because of their low level of difficulty. They are considered unworthy to be streamed because they do not involve harming an opponent and blood and fighting scenes, all of which are characteristics of video games whose main target audience are men. Though Animal Crossing is not marketed as a game for women, the people around me perceive it as one because of its charming aspects such as fishing or tending a garden due to traditional gender roles. In my experience, men do not believe that growing different colors of flowers on an island takes as much precision and execution as finding and attacking a target in a field. Women, both as game characters and real humans, are oversexualized by male streamers and held to fantastical standards. In most video games, the female characters are always seen as innocent, thin women with slim waists and big breasts, sharing similar physical attributes with anime figures. This unattainable expectation of women’s appearance becomes a part of everyday reality when male participants interact with women on Twitch streams. Data provided by an Indiana University study shows that the average female streamer is more likely to receive comments involving words such as “hot,” “boobs” and “cute” while the average male streamer’s comments contain vocabulary much more centered around the game he is playing. These comments are a result of men
in the gaming industry becoming accustomed to seeing unrealistic, sexualized female bodies while playing video games and then expecting women to mimic those characteristics outside of the streaming world and within the professional gaming industry. Female streamers are oversexualized in the gaming industry primarily because the industry itself is dominated and controlled by men who perpetuate these harmful narratives. For example, Bella Poarch, a new streamer, has been subjected to hate and backlash from social media for her facial expressions in TikTok lip sync videos, which critics claim is promoting a child-like image solely to garner attention from men. The problem here is not Poarch or her facial expressions, but rather society and the hyper-sexualization of women starting from a young age. When a woman acts cute and happy, she is not encouraging men to prey on young women — she is simply being herself. Having a childlike or innocent demeanor isn’t an invitation to be sexualized. Male gamers need to allow women to be themselves. This oversexualization has made it difficult for female gamers to enjoy their hobbies and stream the content they wish to share. Now when women go to stream video games, viewers assume that they are “boobie streamers” — women who supposedly wear low cut tops and receive targeted sexual comments in exchange for money and subscribers for their channel. There is nothing wrong with a woman getting her bag or wearing what she likes, but it becomes an issue when the male gaze pressures her to do so for validation as a gamer. This makes many women feel pressured to fulfill such sexist expectations because they learn that being oversexualized is one of the only ways to climb to the top of the gaming industry. Male streamers do not have to worry about being oversexualized or changing their personality online because their community does not view them purely as a sexual object. They are free to play any video games they want without being told that they are not a “real gamer.” During their streams, viewers are focused on the hacks the streamer is teaching them and how engaging they are with the crowd. On the other hand, women are subjected to harassment, unsolicited messages and threats from men when playing online. As a community, we need to look at the way we treat women who stream and game and begin to show them the respect they deserve for their craft. Women continuously have to go above and beyond in all work settings in order to prove themselves, and the gaming community is no exception. This double standard of female streamers having to live up to this idea of perfection, while men are able to simply show up, has to end. Women can be gamers without streaming games that are gory or bloody. Women should have the freedom to stream whatever they want without having to feel like they will be left out.
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Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 9
JESSIE MITCHELL | COLUMNIST
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Instances of plagiarism found in several Daily articles
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ith over 130 years of independent student journalism, The Michigan Daily’s mission is to maintain “impartiality, fairness and the complete truth.” The editorial leadership of The Daily holds the concepts of journalistic integrity, accountability and transparency in the highest regard and we — as student journalists, University of Michigan students and Ann Arbor residents — derive a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunities and responsibilities this institution has afforded us. That said, in order to maintain transparency and hold ourselves accountable in pursuing that mission, we are notifying our readers that on Feb. 28, The Daily’s Managing Editor discovered numerous instances of plagiarism during the editing process in an ultimately unpublished Arts column submission. A day later, the individual who was found to have plagiarized — an Arts writer and The Statement contributor — was notified of their termination as a Daily staffer. As stated in The Daily’s bylaws, “A violation of these bylaws and/or the ethics code is cause for dismissal. … Plagiarism is a fireable offense, but should be considered in the context of the situation.” Per the bylaws, the individual appealed the firing, inviting a formal investigation and hearing to take place. Over the course of the
following week, the Managing Editor met with a panel of nine editors across three sections to review all published articles by the individual to check for any other instances of plagiarism. Unfortunately, in addition to the latest unpublished column submission by the individual, four other articles published September 2020 to December 2020 were found to have varying levels of plagiarism. Since the individual appealed the firing, The Daily’s Management Desk met on Sunday, March 14, to review the case. Management Desk determined that the writer’s plagiarism was intentional, that the firing should not be overturned and that the individual should not be allowed to join another section of The Daily. Seventy-six Management Desk members were present, and all three items were passed with majority support. Over the past two weeks since the initial discovery of plagiarism, we have taken steps to combat further instances of this unethical and unacceptable behavior. The Daily’s Copy Desk, as well as the Managing Editor, now use a plagiarism database checker; between the Copy team and the Managing Editor, all published editorial content will be scanned for plagiarism moving forward. It is important to note that The Daily’s Arts content was not edited by the Copy Desk until January of this
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of the worth of your labor is entirely dependent upon the final outcome. When our appreciation of our effort is entirely conditional like this, our sense of worth hinges on an imagined outcome that may never unfold the way we planned, no matter how much we went through in the hopes of achieving it. Subsequently, when we fail, we feel that it speaks to who we are as a person, and this outlook ultimately puts us farther away from our goals than failure itself does. When we permit our failures to intersect with our core sense of identity and self-esteem, we lose the ability to extend compassion toward ourselves and others. We become trapped in a painful cycle of criticism and anxiety. The underlying belief that self-worth and happiness is conditional upon a narrow view of success actually threatens our potential for success as it inhibits our ability to adapt to challenges in the future. It even threatens our ability to learn.
KEITH JOHNSTONE | COLUMNIST
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ar from the 1960s American promise of a nuclear family — a heterosexual couple, their 2 to 3 children and a stable unionized job with a guaranteed pension — college students now face a complex and troubling outlook. Today, many American college students and recent graduates are confronted by egregious student loans, a significant barrier to economic mobility in the United States. Not only are excessive loans a driving reason for students to drop out of school, but over half of indebted graduates claim that their loans have decreased their credit scores and forced them to delay saving for emergencies. Unfortunately, the brunt of this burden is on minority communities. Specifically, Black college graduates on average owe $25,000 more than their white counterparts. These diverse students have fewer job opportunities, contributing to the fact that default rates are 36% and 49% among Hispanic and Black borrowers, respectively, compared to just 21% among whites.
Brittany Bowman can be reached at babowm@umich.edu.
y worst habit involves reading the comments and quote tweets on The New York Times articles about sexual misconduct allegations. They are, without fail, a dumpster fire of victim blaming. However, given the well-corroborated account of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment of former aide, Charlotte Bennett, I thought the discourse might reflect reality. No such luck. It doesn’t matter that the simplest explanation is that Cuomo did, in fact, do what he’s accused of, at least in the case of Bennett. For some, it is apparently easier to believe that Bennett lied to both Cuomo’s Chief of Staff and the administration’s special counsel and planted contemporaneous text messages to several different people only to sit on the lies for months to wait for a convenient time to let them blossom. I haven’t heard anyone outright suggest that she did all of those things, even defenders of Cuomo, probably because it would be ridiculous. Skeptics of sexual misconduct allegations hold themselves to a low standard. It is simple to invoke a horrible hypothetical without considering publicly available information, but that doesn’t make it smart or logical. For some, it seems it is easier to believe that Cuomo’s lack of a categorical denial is inconsequential. However, Cuomo has denied other allegations — his press secretary called an earlier allegation of sexual harassment by a different woman “quite simply false.” In other words, if he could plausibly deny Bennett’s accusation, his own history indicates that he would. To me, the cries that Bennett is lying or that we must wait to pass judgment ring hollow. Cuomo has rights within the American legal system, but in the court of public opinion, I don’t know what stops people from simply being rational. Cuomo even issued a pseudo-apology, emphasizing that he never touched anyone inappropriately (Bennett does not
accuse him of touching her) but that he may have made people feel uncomfortable without knowing he was doing so. Whether he intended to harass Bennett is irrelevant to her experience of harassment. So let’s recap: Cuomo is accused of sexual harassment, and the accuser has an extensive paper trail to back up her claim. Cuomo has not denied all the allegations but has issued something that appears to be an apology. Same page? I believe Charlotte Bennett because I am typically far more willing to risk the small chance that someone who has experienced sexual misconduct or harassment is lying than the much larger chance that they are is telling the truth. In refusing to believe a survivor, one makes their worst nightmare even harder. You should believe Bennett, and the other women making accusations against Cuomo, because they are believable allegations. There is more research on the instances of false allegations of rape (somewhere between 2-10% are false) than instances of false allegations of harassment, but given it all falls under the umbrella of sexual misconduct, similar principles likely apply. Yes, false allegations are rare, but even the ones that do happen do not look like what Bennett asserts. For example, studies have repeatedly shown that a common type of false allegation is one that comes from a teenage girl looking to avoid trouble with her parents. In those cases, it is almost always the parents who get authorities involved, after which the truth usually comes out pretty quickly. Another common type of false allegation comes from those who use it in order to obtain medical care or medication. False accusers, much like real perpetrators, also often show a string of similar behavior. They may have a history of filing personal injury claims or committing fraud. But the most important characteristic of most false allegations is that, if they were true, they would be can’t-look-away horrifying (which is certainly not
to say that horrifying allegations can’t also be true). These are the aggravated assault cases; the University of Virginia case documented in the now infamous Rolling Stones article is a good example. False accusers want shock and action, so they wouldn’t make an accusation like the one made by Bennett, which involves no physical violence and one which any woman with access to the internet would know would be met with a solid contingent of people questioning whether or not it was ‘actually bad.’ Some may say it doesn’t matter whether they believe Bennett because Cuomo deserves due process anyway. For the wealth of other allegations that have been made, allegations which he disputes, I would agree. But the original calls for an investigation arose after Bennett came forward. As author and lawyer Alexandra Brodsky points out, investigations are for disputes and, insofar as she can tell, there is no dispute here. Bennett said she was sexually harassed, and Cuomo conceded that what he did might have made others uncomfortable. “Uncomfortable” is euphemistic, but it definitely isn’t a denial. Even if Cuomo manages to dodge the ever-growing chorus of voices asking him to resign, the question of whether we believe Bennett matters now. The investigation provides him time to let news cycles pass, to let other scandals take precedent. The investigation into a matter which the governor has seemingly already apologized for shifts the conversation from an uncomfortable one about workplace ethics to a familiar one about procedure. The conversation we need to be having is this: In the plausible event that Bennett’s accusations are true, what should happen? He should resign. And all of the not-that-bad naysayers need to take a hard look at their own workplace behavior.
“success,” it leaves us feeling so dead inside that we lose the ability to enjoy and appreciate what we are working toward in the first place. The more fulfilling source of motivation is internal — it lives within us in the form of hope, passion and commitment. We can avoid undue suffering by cultivating genuine motivation. Constantly feeling exhausted and overworked is not a virtue. It is an inability to understand the source of success. Success is not how much suffering you can endure, but rather how much suffering you can let go of, knowing that passion and determination will be there to carry you once you let go of fear-driven perfectionism. Academic performance anxiety can be useful to give us the boosts we need in small increments, but running on it for years is draining and destructive toward our physical health, ultimately depriving us of happiness.
Living life from a place of fear retracts from our limitless personal potential. Before we enter the professional world, U-M students need to dissect whether our fear of failure stems from a fear that we are not productive and valuable human beings at our core. Students can move away from this fear by developing a greater sense of self-compassion. This may seem simple, but it is far from a magic trick. Mindfulness practices constitute a family of research-backed therapeutic approaches to tackling low self-esteem and anxiety. By practicing powerful mindfulness techniques, we can create space between ourselves and our negative thought loops, enabling us to observe and correct damaging patterns without judgment. Hopefully, we will fail a few times in the process.
nonprofit, AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps. However, if the government were to expand the program through a public-private partnership, they could vastly increase the number of jobs that are available to recent graduates and decrease the amount of outstanding student loan debt. The system could operate in four different funding categories: large and medium-sized businesses (above 100 employees), small businesses (100 employees and under), 501(c)(3) nonprofits and state governments and federal agencies. All businesses participating must meet certain diversity standards and a $15 minimum wage. In exchange, the federal government would introduce a matching program: providing 50% of the new hires’ salaries (up to $50,000 per year per employee) in treasury bonds at large and medium businesses, 75% of the new hires’ salaries (up to $75,000 per year per employee) in subsidies at small businesses and nonprofits and a Medicaid-like dollarfor-dollar matching program with state governments.
In order to incentivize students to go into small businesses, nonprofits and government careers, PSLF requirements would be altered based on the category. For small businesses and government, students would have to work for seven years. For nonprofits, students would only have to work for five years. This desperately needed update to the PSLF would free students from the shackles of student loans more quickly while ensuring that the backers of these loans retrieve their principal. This, in turn, would create a large multiplier whose shockwaves would be felt across the nation, providing a sustainable roadmap for long-term growth. With that being said, there are many other ways of fixing this uniquely American problem, and, no matter your ideology, you should do the research and get behind one solution to student debt — our elected officials won’t fix this issue unless we make them.
Jessie Mitchell can be reached at jessiemi@umich.edu.
We need to get better at failing
ALEXIS HANCZ | COLUMNIST niversity of Michigan students are bad at failing. While there is no doubt that we form a community of extraordinary go-getters, it is often a fear of failure, rather than a passion for success, that propels us. In a highly-competitive academic setting, these fears may develop into chronic academic performance anxiety when left unchecked. Ironically, a formidable solution to our anxieties is to get better at doing badly. Here’s how. Picture yourself receiving a high grade on a test after several grueling nights of preparation. “It was all worth it,” you acknowledge, beaming. Now picture yourself failing that same test despite your hours-long commitment. Feeling the hole in your chest widening, you think to yourself, “it was all for nothing,” and you criticize yourself for not being capable enough. You dedicated the same amount of determination and labor in both scenarios. Yet, your evaluation
year and, based on comprehensive education of no-tolerance policies regarding stealing others’ work put in place by both The Daily and the University, section editors do not anticipate occurrences of plagiarism. No matter the intent, plagiarism is unacceptable and stands in stark contrast with the ethical values and goals of The Daily. With that in mind, the following articles containing plagiarism have been permanently removed from our website: “‘Raised by Wolves’ is a religious sci-fi mashup” — Sept. 7, 2020; “Without live audiences, Ann Arbor comedians search for ways to perform” — Sept. 24, 2020; “Good dog or bad dog? A condensed almanac of canines in history” — Oct. 21, 2020; “The Humor Column’s guide to offcampus housing” — Dec. 3, 2020. As we remain deeply invested in maintaining the transparency and integrity of The Daily, we apologize on behalf of our institution. As student journalists, we sincerely hope that this incident can be a learning process for all those involved and that we can all be better for it. It is our honor and privilege to provide our community with daily content, and we will continue to do so with an upgraded standard of factchecking and editorial solidarity.
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An investigation of what?
This amounts to an American crisis affecting the way 53% of borrowers choose their careers. It also decreases entrepreneurship and overall economic consumption while precipitously increasing household debt, and the problem is only getting worse, with student debt slowly encroaching on overall household spending. In 2019, the average student owed $30,062 upon graduation, which represents about a 26% increase over the last decade. Furthermore, the average 2019 college graduate makes $53,889 per year. The average loan payment is $393 per month, which means that the average graduate uses 8.75% of their yearly salary on loan repayment. Compounding on this, recent graduates of color typically have fewer opportunities for recent graduates. Now, while it is easy to dismiss this as an issue plaguing some individuals who were swindled into signing onto unaffordable loans, this is actually a systemic failure that has spiraled into a
Performance anxiety rests on the false assumption that the most gratifying step toward a goal is achievingit.Thisisamisunderstanding. The final result of our successes is not the most meaningful part of our journey. Accomplishments have value because of the knowledge and skill we gain in our effort to achieve them. For example, you might not value an accomplishment that took little effort on your part, but one that took years of training and preparation is cause for immense celebration. Because the value of our hard work is actually independent from the final result, hard-earned failure can hold the same value as hard-earned accomplishment. In order to feel good about ourselves, we need to appreciate the equal value of failure. From this expanded viewpoint, we are able to honor our shortcomings and bounce back from feelings of inadequacy. Another challenge to our relationship with success and failure is
our tendency to compare our suffering against our peers’ suffering as a metric for success. For example, when we observe our classmates pulling allnighters and living on caffeine, we worry that we ourselves are not doing enough. This mode of thinking is like watching a race. As a runner reaches the finish, you notice that she had been running with a knife in her foot. You assume that she won because of the knife in her foot rather than in spite of it. When it is your turn to compete, you proceed to stick a knife in your own foot, thinking that this will aid your success. Clearly, this is an irrational and inefficient mode of approaching success. When we use comparison of suffering to measure success, we cultivate disingenuous motivation. This kind of motivation is founded in insecurity, anxietydriven productivity and selfresentment. While perpetuating this negative feedback loop may lead to
Alexis Hancz can be reached at ahancz@umich.edu.
Fix the damn loans crisis that threatens our economy on multiple levels. At the microlevel, college dropouts make 35% less than graduates, which, in 2011, amounted to $3.8 billion per year in lost wages and likely more in lost economic output. At the macrolevel, the federal government holds $1.5 trillion in student loan debt,accounting for 29.8% of all government assets. Holding these high-risk assets is costing taxpayers $170 billion from 2017 to 2026. The current trajectory of this crisis, especially due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is untenable. Our government needs to formulate a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach to mitigate this impending crisis and develop more opportunities for economic mobility through education. Now, many at the federal level have devoted a significant amount of time and effort to fix the problem, specifically proposals from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the cancellation of student debt.
While both of these are admirable efforts that would make the problem better than it is currently, there are two main issues. Primarily, the idea is politically infeasible. But even if it weren’t, it would only provide an economic multiplier of 0.08x to 0.23x, which are both low returns — especially relative to infrastructure spending that provides a 1.6x multiplier in a recession. Instead, many on the more moderate end of the spectrum have chosen to advocate for modest reforms like increasing the availability of Pell Grants or switching the system to incomebased loan repayment, both of which would help mitigate the crisis. With that being said, I personally prefer a more market-based solution. Specifically, to free working capital, the federal government should increase the scope of the current Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Currently, PSLF forgives federal student loans for those who have paid loans on time and worked for ten years in the government, a
Keith Johnstone can be reached at keithja@umich.edu.
Opinion
10 — Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MARINA WAGNER | COLUMNIST
A future where your prescription reads “magic mushrooms”
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he Beatles fantasized about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Eminem rapped about mushrooms, A$AP Rocky celebrated “L$D.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, Harry Styles credits magic mushrooms for his creativity in producing his chart-topping album Fine Line. Psychedelics play a role in music and pop culture, but they are also increasingly relevant in scientific and psychiatric research. Psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, has recently made national news because of its possible benefits in treatment for certain mental illnesses. In November, Oregon legalized psilocybin, the first ruling anywhere across the globe to declare plans for regulating the drug’s therapeutic use. Ann Arbor has decriminalized magic mushrooms and other psychedelic plants, along with other cities such as Denver, Colo.; Oakland, Calif. and Santa Cruz, Calif. This past January, the Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute addressed the federal Drug Enforcement Administration requesting that psilocybin be allowed in the therapeutic treatment of “terminally ill cancer patients suffering from anxiety and/or depression.” The DEA responded, denying therapeutic use due to the current Controlled Substances Act regulations. On Monday, March 8, Dr. Sunil Aggarwal of AIMS filed a petition for review with
the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for medical treatment of cancer patients with mental health concerns. These updates may initially seem shocking, as psilocybin is still technically a prohibited Schedule 1 Drug, which is categorized along with marijuana as having “no currently accepted medical use.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, recognizes Compass Pathways’ research on psilocybin in that it shows potential for substantially improving patient outcomes with certain cases of depression. Psilocybin is currently undergoing Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for treatment-resistant depression, and it has been studied as a possible treatment for specific terminal illness-related depression and anxiety, as well as substance abuse disorders. In addition, John Hopkins School of Medicine’s research found that psilocybin had a significant effect on depression and anxiety symptoms after five weeks and persisting after six months. With the administration of psilocybin, one study noted significant reductions in smoking rates, while a proof-of-concept study reported increases in sobriety rates for individuals with alcohol dependence. Psilocybin has also been studied in relation to obsessivecompulsive disorder, and ongoing clinical trials are studying the use of
the drug in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, cocaine and opioid use disorders, anorexia nervosa and depression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Why should we research psychedelics in treating psychiatric disorders instead of further studying antidepressants and other medications that are already commonly prescribed? Many individuals are more interested in psilocybin because the current medications on the market have not worked well for them. Others like the idea of psilocybin because the treatment has quick and long-lasting effects and lacks various negative side effects such as weight changes and decreased sex drive that may come with antidepressants. How do psychedelics act as therapeutic agents from a biological standpoint? Its neurophysiology comes down to changes in metabolism and blood flow in the brain. Such changes activate regions of the brain that do not usually interact with one another. As a result, there is less activity in structures called the default mode network, which is thought to contribute to the therapeutic effects that psychedelics can have in treating mental illness. You may wonder why psilocybin is classified as a high-risk, Schedule 1 drug if it supposedly can treat psychiatric disorders. The stigma surrounding psilocybin and other psychedelics largely exists due to President Nixon’s War on Drugs. During the 1950s,
SHUBHUM GIROTI | COLUMNIST
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Joe Manchin’s value for Democrats
oe Manchin is to progressives what Mitch McConnell was to liberals. Or is he? Over the past few months, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has been in the crosshairs of many progressives and liberals for his staunchly moderate viewpoints. Manchin opposes a $15 minimum wage, removing the filibuster and other progressive policies like Medicare for All. He also responded to calls to “defund the police” last summer by tactfully tweeting “Defund, my butt.” Clearly, Manchin has not made many friends among Gen-Z or older progressive Democrats who strongly support the aforementioned policies. This leaves many of us to wonder why we need him in the Democratic Party and what role he serves. West Virginia, Manchin’s home state, is one of the most conservative in the country, with President Joe Biden losing the state by almost 40% in the 2020 presidential election. Manchin was uniquely able to get elected due to his deep ties to the state and his portrayal as a blue-dog Democrat, which means he is socially conservative but progressive on issues of labor and some governmental regulation. That is why West Virginians support Manchin who also supported Obamacare despite traditional conservatives strongly opposing that policy. All of this is to say that Manchin is the best Democrats could hope for out of a ruby red state like West Virginia. With the Senate in a virtual 50-50 deadlock, every vote can make or break legislation and Manchin often finds himself on the fence of Democratic legislation. Some call Manchin the most important politician in Washington at the moment — the Democratic party must
adhere to his will. If progressives had their way, Manchin would not be a senator; but it is important to consider the alternative. Considering how conservative West Virginia is, it is already a miracle that Democrats got someone from their party elected. If the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party continues to villainize Manchin, his reelection chances could be in danger. While at face value, some progressives don’t like that he is so powerful and want him removed from the Senate, we rarely look at the opposite viewpoint. If Manchin’s seat were filled with a Republican, the Republican Party would control the Senate, as they have since 2014. In an era of immense voter suppression and attempted GOP reversal of the presidential election, every blue vote is essential. It is imperative that Democrats maintain control of the Senate, yet every day that progressives vilify Manchin in the media is a day closer to McConnell and the GOP flipping another seat to the Republican Party. Democrats need to do everything they can to keep the seats they have and potentially pick up more in 2022. Tearing ourselves down from the inside out does not help the cause. This column is in no way a ringing endorsement of Manchin’s policies. I disagree with him in most of his centrist and conservative policies. Still, Manchin and I agree on one broad theme: advancing the Democratic party instead of the GOP. Without Manchin’s vote, the $1.9 trillion stimulus deal would not have passed the Senate. If Manchin’s seat were occupied by a Republican, Democrats would have to make immense compromises, potentially accepting a plan one-third the size of Biden’s. Instead,
Biden was able to make good on his first campaign promise of sending direct help to individuals who need it the most. The state of American politics and the structure of the Senate makes it difficult to even get a Democratic majority, much less one with a large enough margin for progressives to have any power. Manchin helps us achieve liberal policies and block conservative initiatives, even if it comes at the price of more progressive policies. It is imperative that we do not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. It is easy to point to and scapegoat Manchin as the reason Democrats cannot legislate with the stroke of a pen, but that takes away from some of the systemic problems within the Democratic Party and how certain Democrats have prioritized the wrong objectives throughout the years. In 2020, Democrats were outpaced in their ground campaign efforts leading to numerous inroads from Republicans, which represented a large failure from the Democratic National Convention. If Democrats focused on reforming these problems instead of directing their attention toward Manchin, they could have a five-seat majority in the Senate and Manchin would simply be a blip on all of our radars. Progressive attacks on Manchin are not only misplaced, but detrimental to the future success of the Democratic Party in the Senate. In a state that is right leaning, having a Democratic ally is a huge advantage and should be celebrated as a success rather than a failure.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Shubhum Giroti can be reached at sgiroti@umich.edu.
SAM WOITESHEK | COLUMNMIST
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The award for “most crucial” goes to ...
hroughout this past year, we’ve all made our fair share of sacrifices. For most of us, it’s been the beginnings and ends of varying chapters in our lives. For others, reality has been brutal, whether because of social isolation, unemployment, or, in extreme cases, sickness or death. Whatever the cost may be, there’s no doubt we’ve paid a high price. This is why, when I turned on the television on Sunday night, I was surprised to find the Grammy Awards being broadcasted. ‘What the heck,’ I thought, ‘aren’t there more important things going on right now?’ I did some research. Sure enough, the Golden Globes took place two weeks prior to music’s biggest night and the Academy Awards are slated to happen in late April. Seriously? Read the room, Hollywood. I mean really — none of this is that important. Does anyone really care what Netflix movie wins “Best Picture”? If Taylor Swift’s folklore wins album of the year? Other than the die-hards out there, I think not. The numbers speak for themselves. Only 6.9 million people watched the Globes, a 64% decrease from last year. The Emmys garnered a mere 6.1 million, an 11% decrease from 2019. The Grammys received 8.8 million viewers, a
53% decline from last year. I understand that some people find these award shows grounding during a pandemic. Despite the abnormality in format, there is normality in practice. Yet, the challenge of doing these ceremonies on Zoom is ten times more monumental. When “Judas and the Black Messiah’s” Daniel Kaluuya went to accept his award for Best Supporting Actor, he was muted. “Ted Lasso’s” Jason Sudeikis thought “Zoom casual” was appropriate attire for the event. I understand these awards shows can be a rare glimpse into celebrities’ lives, but at a certain point, it feels like the motivation is foolish. Perhaps I dare say … forced? Where’s the peace in that? Alas, the ego-fueled industry that is entertainment will say all the right things but, when push comes to shove, they won’t give up their recognition. It’s a shame, really, for those who believed these luminaries could lead by example. They can’t even stay away from each other when they’re supposed to! Last spring, all we heard from our beloved entertainers was to mask up, social distance and wash our hands. Our revered Tom Hanks was the first one to contract the virus! Then summer came, movie and TV show productions began upholding public health guidelines and somehow these imperative messages
got lost in translation. It rings hollow, a double-standard symbolized by gold trophies. I admit: Netflix and music eased quarantine life for me, as I’m sure it did for many of you, too. We tweeted about the absurdity of Carol Baskin and the relentlessness of Michael Jordan, while The Weeknd gave us an outstanding collection of songs to replay. This moment in pop culture undoubtedly warrants some type of reflection. But if we really wanted to reward Hollywood for their efforts, we would just make these celebrations bigger and better in 2022. Heck, make it 24-hour coverage for all I care. Then again, we don’t immerse ourselves in entertainment to critique it, we do so to be — oddly enough — entertained; award shows don’t heighten our experience. In this current pandemic world we live in, award shows lessen it, potentially along with the respect we have for the integrity of the industry. Right now, our focus should be on pushing vaccines out to as many people as possible.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Sam Woiteshek can be reached at swoitesh@umich.edu.
however, psychedelics were found to have positive effects and usage spread to mental health professionals clinically and in research. Nixon’s signing of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 criminalized psychedelics and terminated any research in the works on the matter. If psychedelics such as psilocybin are approved to treat psychiatric conditions, they will be highly regulated by psychiatrists. These drugs would not be readily available for just anyone to try. However, it is important to note that psilocybin has been used in some indigenous cultures for millennia and still is used for such practices in some areas of the United States today. What about the horror stories of bad trips? The concept of “set and setting” refers to the combination of an individual’s environment during a psychedelic session and their mindset beforehand. The psychiatrists who would be providing the psychedelicassisted therapy would be expected to evaluate and facilitate a safe set and setting to optimize their patients’ experiences. Yes, there are risks associated with the usage of psilocybin, as there are with any drug. According to Neurotherapeutics, a scientific journal, the main risk of psilocybin and psychedelics is potential anxiety and confusion, as these sentiments could lead to harmful choices when unsupervised. Additionally, individuals who have current psychosis, are
Design by Man Lam Cheng
at risk for psychotic disorders or are predisposed to cardiovascular problems are excluded from psilocybin studies due to the increased chance of a negative reaction. I am not, by any means, encouraging individuals with mental health concerns to experiment with psychedelics on their own. But drugs such as psilocybin seem to have a lot of potential for assisting certain individuals with their mental health troubles. Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, explains that his organization’s long-term goal is “mass mental health.” Doblin has a point. If society wishes to achieve “mass mental health,” we
must approach treatment for mental illnesses from all angles. There is no “one box fits all” in medicine; every patient is going to require a slightly different treatment plan, as we all have our personal preferences and individual differences in drug responses. So sure, pop culture’s obsession with psychedelics may not be solely rooted in medicinal purposes. There may be a lot of promise in psychedelicassisted therapy, though. And maybe, one day, there will be orange pill jars lining the shelves at CVS Pharmacy that read “psilocybin” in printed lettering. Marina Wagner can be reached at mwagnerr@umich.edu.
BRANDON COWIT | COLUMNIST
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Biden is not serious about Saudi Arabia
t has been well-established that the Biden administration’s foreign policy has not changed much from its predecessor’s. In fact, I have written about this continuity before; however, even in that article, I acknowledged one major change between the Trump administration’s and Biden administration’s foreign policy — the alleged end of United States support for the Saudi Arabian war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Doing so would unequivocally be a step in the right direction. Since the war began in 2014, it has caused over a million people to be displaced, widespread cholera outbreak, massive medicine shortages and a nation-wide famine. All of this has led the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund to deem the situation in Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Along with supposedly ending U.S. support for the war in Yemen, the Biden administration ostensibly made another big step toward ending the U.S.’s long-time policy of turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses. A few weeks ago, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, released a report stating that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi monarchy. These moves are consistent with President Joe Biden’s 2019 declaration that Saudi Arabia is a “pariah state” that is “murdering innocent people and (has) to be held accountable” and are a natural step for an administration that claims to center human rights in its foreign policy. You might have noticed by now that, in describing the Biden administration’s stated shift in policy toward Saudi Arabia, I have used a number of qualifiers such as “allegedly,” “supposedly” and “ostensibly.” This is because the Biden administration is not actually serious about changing U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia and has no intention of making anything beyond cosmetic changes. On ending the war in Yemen, Biden’s lack of commitment is evident
in the words he chose to use in his speech announcing this supposed move. He stated that, “We are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales” and that, “we’re going to continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people.” It’s already obvious that the Biden administration has no intention of ending support for the war in Yemen. What defines an “offensive operation”? Who gets to designate an operation as “offensive”? The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has indicated in speeches that he views Iran as the aggressor in Yemen, so by that standard, any number of actions in Yemen can be seen as defensive. Furthermore, what does “help(ing) Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty” mean? Again, if you accept the Saudi government’s view that the war in Yemen is about stopping Iranian aggression, many of the Saudi government’s abuses can be attributed to attempts to defend Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty. An administration that was truly serious about ending support for Saudi Arabia’s invasion of Yemen would have been far more direct in describing how it plans to end support for this invasion and would have qualified this shift far less than Biden did. Biden did not because he has no intention of ending support for the invasion. This lack of actual commitment is even clearer when it comes to holding Saudi Arabia accountable for murdering Jamal Khashoggi so that, as Biden put it, “Jamal’s death will not be in vain.” Here, the Biden administration makes it clear that it does not intend to even give Mohammed bin Salman a slap on the wrist for the brutal murder of a dissident journalist, fearing damage to American relations with Saudi Arabia. In particular, Biden administration officials cite “cooperation on counterterrorism and confronting Iran.” This is, simply, a joke. Saudi Arabia has, as
part of the war in Yemen no less, allied itself with large terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda — groups that the U.S. has committed itself to eradicate. Even putting all of this aside and assuming that the only reason Biden wants to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia is for access to its oil, it is not a good reason to continue to aid and abet Saudi Arabia’s abuses. Saudi Arabia currently supplies only 6% of the U.S.’s petroleum imports and 7% of its crude oil imports. Even with the assumption that every other Persian Gulf country would stop supplying oil to the U.S. in solidarity with Saudi Arabia — something that should not be assumed given recent tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar — the conflict would only cost the U.S. 7% of its crude oil imports. For comparison, during the 1973 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo, OPEC countries imported nearly 48% of oil imported to the U.S. While losing 7% of our crude oil imports — roughly 2% of our total oil consumption — would have some level of impact, it is not a reason to continue supporting a regime that murders journalists, especially when our government and government-funded media condemn other countries for doing the same. Nor do I see it as a reason to continue support for the immiseration of Yemen. If the Biden administration wants to show that it actually cares about Saudi Arabia’s crimes, it needs to genuinely end support for the war in Yemen, not just “offensive operations.” It also needs to punish those at the highest levels of its government for murdering journalists. Only then should talk of “recalibrating” a relationship with Saudi Arabia be taken seriously. Brandon Cowit can be reached at cowitb@umich.edu.
MADELYN VERVAECKE | CARTOONIST CAN BE REACHED AT MIVERVAE@UMICH.EDU.
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Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 11
Jewish geography: How Jewish students find space on campus amid rising antisemitism BY ABIGAIL SNYDER, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
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lot of my freshman year Welcome Week is now something of a blur in my memory because of my constant, utter confusion around where I was going and what I was doing. But there’s one thing I remember clearly. I was pregaming in a room in my hall with several other freshman girls, whom I’d met and was friendly with but didn’t really know. Between shots of the vodka my hostess’s parents bought her before they left, I mentioned to her how nervous I was to ask my professor if it was all right for me to miss lecture so I could be at services for Rosh Hashanah. A look of surprise crossed her face — she hadn’t realized I was Jewish. “Listen, we won’t have any problems as long as you’re not another jappy f--king b--ch. This school has too many of those already.” I laughed weakly, trying to hide my internal panic behind a sip of sicklysweet pink lemonade chaser. My hostess poured herself another shot as if nothing had happened. I made my excuses to leave as soon as I felt I could safely do so without her realizing I’d been insulted and called my mother, crying. Welcome to the University of Michigan. Don’t be so outwardly Jewish. That’s b--chy. I’d never actually met an antisemite before. Sure, I knew antisemitism was a thing, but only conceptually. I’d grown up in a suburb that had a large Jewish population. Until that moment, I had taken wholly for granted the strength of my Jewish community at home, both inside and outside of my family’s temple. Honestly, I had expected the University to be more of the same. The University has long had a reputation for its strong and welcoming Jewish community, so much so that Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life, ranks the University as a top-five Jewish school in the country. Lots of kids from my area — from my temple, even — end up at the University. To my mind, I had no reason to believe my experience as a Jewish person on campus would be all that different from what it had been at home. But maybe, starting college in the middle of the Trump era, I should have known better. Hate crimes, after all, including antisemitic hate crimes, have been on the rise since the nowformer president won the Republican nomination. Though he himself rarely expressed hatred for Jewish people explicitly, in the wake of his success, his supporters no longer felt the need to self-censor their own bigotry, antisemitic or otherwise. I spoke about this phenomenon over Zoom with Jamie Moshin, a lecturer in the Department of Communication & Media who specializes in rhetoric and American Jewish identity. “In so many ways, I think Trump calls in this audience that ends up being like the Proud Boys and the Charlottesville marchers who are looking for someone to speak their language, and he spoke their language,” Moshin said. “He didn’t speak about it as loudly as they did, but I think he gave them the courage to speak loudly.” Looking back over the exhausting events of the last five years through that lens, it’s easy to pick out the hateful pattern Moshin’s talking about. It’s there in the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the plot to bomb a Colorado synagogue, in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, Mich. In our own community in Ann Arbor, it’s also there during Saturday protests outside local synagogues during Shabbat morning services.
But I can also pick it out of my personal life with fairly little effort. Though thankfully they’re not nearly as explicit, the threads of discrimination are still there. The threads were there during an instance in my sorority rush process. I remember walking happily out of what would become my sorority for the first time, and hearing the girl in line behind me mutter, “Ew, I hated them. They were so… Jewish.” Yes, my sorority is historically Jewish, and yes, most of our members on campus are Jewish. But I’d never heard Jewishness sound like a slur, never heard it sound as derogatory as it did when it was coming out of her
“I think that there’s an assumption that, because you’re in a Jewish sorority, you automatically fall under that category,” Robin said. “There’s kind of a stereotype that kind of comes along with that, which I wasn’t really aware of before I joined, but there’s definitely a stereotype that comes up a lot of the time.” It’s sort of a Catch-22: Jews historically weren’t welcome in traditional Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL), so they formed their own organizations. Even now that they’re at least nominally welcomed into the houses that once shunned them, many Jewish students feel more comfortable in his-
dents as outsiders.“What these Jewish stereotypes tend to do is to signal that Jews are not part of the dominant group,” Moore said. “They’re ways to put down Jews in their aspirations to join this upper class standing with which comes the license to misbehave. Jews don’t have a license to misbehave.” The JAP stereotype is also interesting because it actually originates from Jewish men in the mid-20th century complaining about how much more demanding it was to date Jewish girls. The reason these women were allegedly higher-maintenance was because of American consumer cul-
ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE
mouth on that sunny, nerve-wracking September afternoon. To me, the word had always been neutral: Either someone was Jewish or wasn’t. Out of her mouth, it wasn’t an adjective. It was an insult. The threads were there when I proudly wore my new AEPhi shirt on campus the day after receiving my bid, which is the same day that my Welcome Week hostess stopped speaking to me. Before, we’d exchanged awkward hellos in the halls. Now all of a sudden, it was like I didn’t exist. One thing had changed: I was in AEPhi. I had branded myself, in her eyes, as a “jappy f--king b--ch.” It was not a major loss — anyone who doesn’t respect my religion or my right to be at the institution I worked so hard to get into has no place in my life. Still, it was something: just that little thread of prejudice, running through my college experience. I’m not the only one to feel like that. I spoke to LSA sophomore Yonit Robin, Michigan Hillel’s finance chair and Delta Phi Epsilon member, which is also a historically Jewish sorority, about her experience in Jewish campus life. She, too, had been branded as a “JAP” before. Though the term was originally a derogatory slur against Japanese people during World War II, it eventually came to have an additional meaning, which is unrelated but common: the Jewish American Princess. The JAP is essentially a rude caricature of a normal young Jewish woman, who, because of her religion and hobbies, is automatically deemed spoiled and bratty. Generalizations around shopping, bat mitzvahs, sororities and summer camp abound; so does snark around alleged sexual promiscuity. An Urban Dictionary definition of a JAP reads, “this girl dresses only in clothing that costs more than it’s worth (ex. Abercrombie, uggs, etc.) and is always getting what they want. The Jap is constantly shopping and buying this overpriced clothing, along with a ridiculous amount of jewelry and expensive, needless crap. The Jap is known for her very annoying, nagging voice.”
torically Jewish organizations like sororities AEPhi, DPhiE and Sigma Delta Tau and fraternities such as Alpha Epsilon Pi or Zeta Beta Tau, which remain mostly Jewish. These houses also often provide Jewish programming such as Shabbat dinners, though they do now accept non-Jews. And so students in these houses, for choosing organizations where they feel most at home, are often judged for their perceived lack of effort at fitting in as well as criticized for their reluctance to assimilate and explore outside the bubble of sororities and summer camps — even though they’ve been historically unwelcome outside of it. The double standards surrounding Jewish FSL don’t stop there though, as Deborah Dash Moore, University professor of History and Judaic Studies, explained to me over Zoom. When largely Christian or non-religious fraternities have lavish formals in Chicago or Canada, they’re college kids having fun. When predominantly Jewish houses have similar events, they’re flaunting their money, an accusation that plays on other harmful stereotypes of Jewish people as greedy and self-serving. When largely Christian or non-religious sorority girls wear expensive, fashionable clothing, they’re cool and trendy, but when Jewish sorority girls do the same, they’re JAPs “spending daddy’s money.” These stereotypes extend beyond Jewish students in FSL, but it’s in this social sphere that we often see them more clearly, Moore explained. “It’s not just Jewish behavior, it’s the intersection of Jewish ethnicity with class standing with age of the students and what is considered to be appropriate or okay for 18, 19, 20-year-old men to do, and conversely for the same age women to do,” Moore said. “There’s a double standard, especially if they’re (Christian FSL students) white. It’s not just their class standing and their behavior, but that they’re white: They’re part of the dominant group. Moore further commented on the role of these stereotypes, saying they’re a way to still label Jewish stu-
ture. For women especially, visible consumption such as fancy clothes and nice cars were (and indeed, still are) status symbols. Jews at the time, still not quite assimilated into the mainstream in the U.S., wanted to be seen in that ideal American light. So they turned to visible consumerism as their avenue, thus gaining themselves a reputation as spoiled. It’s no accident that this insult was directed specifically towards Jewish women: The JAP stereotype is also rooted in misogyny. Initially, this was borne out of resentment from Jewish men. But soon, the JAP stereotype was co-opted into the common vernacular, and there it grew from semi-joking insult into a full-on derogatory term. While the term was hurtful coming from Jewish people, it is unequivocally offensive coming from non-Jews. ven more concerningly, in the common vernacular, the JAP stereotype plays into the centuries-old antisemitic myth that Jews are controlling all of the world’s banks and money for their own profit. These stereotypes have been used to violently harm and discriminate against Jewish people for centuries. “(The JAP) is an antisemitic stereotype, there is no question,” Moore said. “That then gets spread to the larger society and picked up by non-Jews as well … That’s a real problem. It’s a stereotype. Wealthy, young Jewish women who spend money, that doesn’t mean that they’re JAPs. It means that they’re wealthy, young Jewish women who spend conspicuously.” Still, though, these harmful stereotypes persist in everyday language. Sometimes it’s out of ignorance. Sometimes it’s out of genuine hatred. Sometimes it’s somewhere in between. But the threads of antisemitism persist. Perhaps it should be less surprising that these stereotypes have taken on so strongly in the state of Michigan, which has a storied history of racism and antisemitism from Henry Ford to Father Charles Coughlin to the KKK. And on top of that come the issues around out-of-state admis-
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sions, which play into long-standing contempt for wealthy Jewish people from urban areas. This contempt is not unique to Michigan by any means; the Anti-Defamation League reports that similar prejudices are widespread across the country, and not limited to the non-wealthy. The state of Michigan has been decreasing public education funding for decades, so the University has turned to out-of-state students, who pay nearly double the in-state tuition, to keep its finances stable. This has been criticized by those who argue that the out-of-staters can pay their way into the spots that should be going to instate students. And since a significant proportion of Jewish students are from outof-state and are often fairly wealthy, these pre-existing tensions then intersect in ugly ways with the perception of Jews as rich, greedy and self-serving to breed contempt in many against the University’s Jewish population. None of this is to say that in-state students are less wealthy and/or less tolerant; but instead to point out how this important debate plays into longstanding antisemitic tropes. “That type of resentment is partly a class resentment,” Moore said. “Working-class and middle-class Michigan natives do lose seats to students who come from, say, the coasts, and many of these students are Jewish, they pay a lot more money … I’ve had in-state students who say to me, ‘This was the first time I ever met a Jew.’ And they only know what they’ve read, what they’ve heard, what’s in the air.” The stereotype just becomes the most logical answer to these questions in a larger society with baked-in antisemitism, Moshin said. “If you’re someone who has not had a lot of experience with Jewish people, there are so many narratives about Jews and money,” Moshin said. “That is such a common narrative that gets told over and over and over again, and so it’s part of our cultural knowledge of what it means to be Jewish. So when people go on very limited knowledge and very limited experience with actual Jewish people, and what they have is this story, then I think you read into that elitism, you read into that Jewishness, and it just becomes part of the cognitive schema. We’ve built up these cultural narratives that we immediately tap into, especially if we don’t have a particularly deep knowledge of it. So it just becomes the easy explanation for everything.” The results of this prejudice can be easy to miss if you’re not looking out for it. The insults and stereotypes are hidden deeper in the subtext of many conversations. Both Rabbi Fully Eisenberger, director of the Jewish Resource Center on campus, and Tilly Shemer, the executive director of University Hillel, discussed with me their efforts to counter this prejudice and make their organizations havens for Jewish students on campus. They’ve expressed how they’ve had to try to help students who have felt attacked for their faith on campus. “That line of when something crosses over into antisemitism can differ for different students,” Shemer said. “Whether people realize it or not, there’s hateful and offensive language that can be used towards Jewish students that can feel more painful to them as a minority group, and it’s important for Jewish students to be able to have the space to share with their campus community when they feel targeted and when they feel offended. Read more at MichiganDaily.com
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12— Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
What COVID-19’s done to the campus club BY GRACE TUCKER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
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t was the fall of 2019, a week or so into my first semester as a University of Michigan student, and I was launching myself headfirst into new experiences with a crazed level of zeal. Over the course of one week, I downloaded Tinder for the first time, then swiftly tried my hand at blocking someone from Tinder, vinyasa-ed my way through my first group yoga class, went to my first real party, the list goes on. I was buzzed on the kind of gluttonous ambition one can only classify as freshman fall hysteria. The next step, it seemed, was to find the student organization that would become my home. The dream scenario looked like this: it’s Festifall, the University’s take on the quintessential “club fair,” and I’m one of the thousands of freshmen anonymously moving in a stupid pack, a school of fish. Then, in slowmotion, a self-assured upperclassman plucks me gracefully from the crowd, guiding me safely to their respective club table, to whichever little community they had formed on campus. And a new group of friends would descend upon me, angels with wings. But reality failed to replicate this dream. On that fateful Friday, situated at the tail end of orientation activities, Ingalls Mall had been invaded by a mass of student leaders occupying little, rectangular factions of grass and darting around with manic enthusiasm. Intensely ornamented poster boards and colorcoded interest forms were in plentiful supply. And swarming past in congested packs were their unassuming attendees, the freshmen. Some were in pairs, beckoning their best friend of 24 hours to come to check out the perfect film society they “gotta join.” Some, like me, made the risky decision of attending the event alone, collecting a forest’s worth of mass-meeting informational slips. Cooking clubs, publications, acting troupes, fraternities, improv groups — I wanted to sample it all. And sample I did. RC Players, the University’s chapter of College Democrats, Camp Kesem, Dance Marathon, Women’s Glee Club and Her Campus magazine were just a few of the clubs I scouted. But, ironically enough, after weeks of mass meetings and enough GroupMe invites and listservs to make my laptop crash, I hadn’t yet found either of the two organizations I would later devote myself to at this school (one being this paper and the other being a co-ed a cappella group on campus). Essentially, a great majority of my freshman year can be summed up by this thrilling and exhausting chase to belong. Exploring these groups, then finding people I really clicked with and looked forward to seeing in these groups, was a cornerstone of my freshman experience. My first few meetings as a Daily Arts writer were icebreakers and trivial announcements but also stacks of newspapers, walls plastered corner-to-corner with campaign posters, a finely-tuned newsroom of worker bees. And on the left side of the room, the arts writers would congregate, each carrying their own notebook of scribbled story pitches and interview quotes; a cast of characters talking about new films or new music or a really dope new Korean restaurant on State Street. My mere proximity to these kinds of people made me want to write forever and then some. And my a cappella rehearsals were about sight-singing and vocal blend but were also about the way group members would file into a depressing, Barney-purple Modern Languages Building auditorium on a Monday night and find something to celebrate — a new job offer for Mark or Miriam’s fresh new manicure or something hilarious and perfectly delivered by Josh. We’d shake off the flush from the Michigan winter outside and find pockets of warmth in comfortable conversation and tight hugs. Little did we know that in just a couple of weeks, those jumbled rehearsal arrivals and flushed exchanges would be terminated by a little virus that has an affinity for those who speak (or better yet: sing) in close proximity to one another. A year has passed and, after conducting a handful of outdoor rehearsals in the Thayer Street parking structure, our vocal warmups muffled under the fabric of our respective facemasks, we’ve transitioned to Zoom. These
rehearsals tend to be characterized by a loud level of silence and a track that lags more than it actually plays our vocal parts for us. The booming “Za-Za-Za” exercises I used to belt with a full chest in a University auditorium are now whispered in my sad attempt to not disturb my roommates. Our group is joined by over 1,600 other registered student-run clubs on campus, meaning that there are thousands of Zoom club meetings just like ours taking place for every week that we remain under University-mandated virtual guidelines. While freshmen have reflected on the ways current circumstances have tarnished what was supposed to be an unforgettable year for them, I wanted to talk with the upperclassmen leaders behind these organizations to
While the event was admittedly very “DIY,” Harris tells me, “... we made it work, and we performed it via Twitch so it could be livestreamed. So instead of having an audience like we usually would, we had about 30 (virtual) attendees, which I think is pretty good for a virtual event.” Harris has been working feverishly to continue hosting virtual events, workshops and meetings via Zoom in order to maintain a similar level of activity that the group might experience during a normal school year. However, Harris admits that enthusiasm among members has been lacking simply because, “it’s obviously very hard to be creative (right now), especially (because) not many people want to get on another Zoom call after being in Zoom classes all day, which I under-
learn more about how other organizations are faring. How were they attempting to foster community during these unarguably bleak times? LSA senior Tiffany Harris was studying abroad in South Africa when the world’s favorite virus found its way to campus and the University effectively moved to a virtual format. At the time, she was the treasurer and devoted member of Creatives of Color, an organization that fosters collaboration and professional development opportunities among student artists of color. But upon returning home, she got an exciting request from the club’s e-board. “After … everything had kind of shut down they were like, ‘Tiffany, we want you to be the president (of the club),” Harris recounted in a virtual interview with The Daily. “You’ve been the most present and you’ve been there since the beginning, so you know so much more than a lot of other people.’” The club had just been gearing up to host their annual showcase, which sought to anonymously pair up artists of color — dancers, artists and photographers alike — to organize collaborative acts for their biggest event of the year. They held the informational meeting for the show just a month prior to the U-M shutdown in mid-March. Harris tells me CoC was forced to cancel all of their events and workshops for the remainder of the year, including the showcase. But once a hybrid fall semester rolled around, Harris hit the ground running with a presidential enthusiasm: I decided, as president, that I really wanted to have some in-person, safe events,” Harris said. “So, in the fall, we had this event called the ‘Creative Expo.’ So we had singers, filmmakers, dancers, rappers, and some people who were on the e-board as well … we transformed our e-board member’s basement into an event space. We edited the lights, (we) had just, you know, very good cameramen … we had masks on, we tried to stay socially distanced when we weren’t performing.”
stand.” Nevertheless, Harris’s persistent efforts within CoC serve as a testament to the ways student leaders are creatively adapting to abnormal circumstances. While she may have never anticipated organizing a livestream event in her friend’s basement to be one of her presidential responsibilities, this year has shown us that we can, in fact, conquer new feats with just a little creativity and a lot of flexibility. Ultimately, “There’s a lack of friendship that we truly need,” Harris admitted. “Our community misses it, our e-board misses it … we want to do more, but we’re doing the best we can.” *** Public Health senior Liadan Solomon, executive director of Wolverine Support Network, the premier peer-led support program on campus, says her position is “not a lowcommitment role.” She can spend upwards of 20+ hours a week working on her WSN executive duties alone, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “You don’t sign up to do basically a parttime job for free if you don’t care about it a lot,” Solomon said in a virtual interview with The Daily. Before she became executive director, Solomon was a member of WSN her freshman year, then became a group leader, then the director of operations. She found out a mere few weeks before the campus-wide shutdown, at the end of February of last year, that she would assume the head director position she carries now. Solomon acknowledges that the rapid change and elevated levels of anxiety that came with the pandemic go against all that WSN stands for: student mental wellness. And so, her task became trying to assume business as usual, as quickly as possible, within the organization. “That transition (to virtual meetings) was scary and threatening in some ways. It threatened … the communities that people had already formed, which is really scary, obviously,” Solomon said in regards to the close-knit
ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KELLY
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support groups WSN’s e-board had meticulously organized in spaces across campus. But Solomon describes the transition to virtual meetings as nearly simultaneous with the COVID-19 shutdown. “So we transitioned almost immediately to virtual… And for us, cancelling our groups was never really an option,” Solomon said. “We know that a lot of students rely on our groups for support and, especially during a time when there was so much rapid change happening, we knew that the support they were getting was so important, so that’s why we decided to transition straight to virtual.” Now, Solomon and the rest of the WSN eboard are utilizing virtual events and social media advocacy to continue the culture of inclusivity the network is known for. “In terms of operation, we’ve not used (the) virtual (format) as an excuse to bow down from a challenge if that makes sense,” Solomon said. “We hosted about 10 events over the summer that were all virtual. This semester alone, we’re hosting about 16 or 17 events that are all virtual.” Solomon even mentioned taking over for select group leaders who were not mentally able to assume their roles this semester — she’s doing the jobs of multiple people and executive-directing the entire network and she’s doing all of it with zero compensation. It is students like Solomon who demonstrate that, where the U-M administration has proven inept in terms of protecting the rights and wellbeing of their undergraduate and graduate student bodies, students can show up and provide that support for one another. *** Pre-law fraternity Kappa Alpha Pi was in good company last March as one of countless social organizations facing the cancellation of one of their semester-defining parties due to the onset of COVID-19. (The Michigan A Cappella Council was supposed to host our “AcaProm” the very weekend that students were evicted from campus housing). KAPi had just finished an in-person, Winter 2020 rush process when plans for their formal in Detroit were underway. Public Policy junior William Brown, who now holds the position of vice president of the fraternity, was social chair at the time and remembers that fateful week of cancellations and hurried transitions. “From the e-board perspective it was pretty hectic,” Brown told The Daily in a virtual interview. “… We kind of had to go into highgear and cancel (the formal) and try and get refunds … We (then) shut down everything and moved everything online, including our entire new member orientation system.” When asked about how they navigated a virtual rush process this semester, KAPi Executive Coordinator Ruby Yearling, an LSA junior, said that while the organization didn’t see too much of a drop in numbers, the process was simply not the same “on an interpersonal level.” “I’m sure that there are a lot of people who just aren’t comfortable on Zoom, or there are lots of barriers with that,” Yearling speculated. “And so, it’s very possible that there were a ton of amazing applicants who we just weren’t able to get to know because of the circumstances.” Pre-professional organizations like KAPi run like a well-operated machine, with each e-board member managing their own specific project or sector of the club — Yearling, for example, is tasked with organizing the club’s “Speaker Series,” a weekly event that exposes members to working professionals within or close to the law profession. And, ultimately, not even a global pandemic has proven to drastically disrupt this perfectly-running operation, partly due to the nature of the org and also to the credit of student leaders like Yearling and Brown. *** A part of me felt reassured to know that, similar to my intensely awkward and poorly executed Zoom a cappella rehearsals, other student orgs were also stumbling through a (dare I say it) unprecedented school year. When Ingalls Mall will once again be flooded with organizations’ coveted Festifall propaganda and schools of bright-eyed freshmen, I do not know. But nevertheless, student leaders continue to serve their communities in the best ways they can, come rain or shine, hybrid or virtual, Zoom or no Zoom.
statement
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 13
A love letter to the burgeoning spring
ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE LEE
BY MELANIE TAYLOR, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
M
y series of thoughts on seasons: If summer is a glass of cold lemonade, and winter’s a crossword at candle-light, then fall is a call from a very old friend, and spring is a coffee at sunrise. Summer is for enjoyment, fall is for ambition and winter is for perseverance. Spring is for rebirth. I’ve always felt that the first signs of spring marked the new year. I don’t care about what the calendars in my life say — New Year’s on the first of January, Rosh Hashanah on the first of Tishrei. Sure, they’re nice celebrations, but I’ve never found them to capture the air of change that reintroduces itself each spring. Spring is refreshing. It cleans the year’s slate. It breathes in crisp air and excitement. In spring, we reemerge from the spaces we’ve holed up in for months, taking refuge from the winter chill. The warmth thaws our sidewalks and porches and parks, revealing a season of leisure and camaraderie. It’s like stepping out of the shade into a patch of sunlight — suddenly, the world seems just a bit brighter. Spring is inherently hopeful. Seasonal depression wanes as snow banks recede. Dewy grass marks each morning with new opportunities for rejuvenation and growth. You can hear birds chirping in the trees, inviting the rest of us to join them in their celebration. Over these past few weeks, I’ve taken to walking around campus. I’ve found that I’m not the only one. On a warmer day, students are out in their yards, spending time with their roommates. Plus, the downtown area is almost back to its former glory: packed sidewalks, busy storefronts and cheery residents. It’s amazing that all it takes to repopulate the streets of Ann Arbor is a day where the thermometer breaks 50 degrees. One spring is stolen, the next is reclaimed. The contents may differ, but the framework remains. A cycle contin-
ues beyond our control, but our goal is to keep things from staying the same. One unique aspect of this spring in particular is that it’s long overdue. It follows a year of suffering — over half a million U.S. COVID-19 fatalities and counting. One year ago, our spring was ripped from the palm of our hands. Without much information about the unfamiliar threat spreading globally, all we could do was nervously wait for further guidance. And we were forced to sacrifice the hallmark of spring: a peaceful return outdoors. Anniversaries affect us biologically, even if we don’t realize it at the moment. Thinking back to this time last year, my memories are all tinged with fear. I’m naturally a pretty nervous person, but even my most easy-going peers had little to say in the vein of comfort. That kind of societal trauma is bound to have lasting effects. Still, the warm weather offered a slight padding to the weight of the oncoming catastrophe. Our social circles were constricted, but I was one of the fortunate few who still had access to the various natural comforts of suburban living and spend time outdoors by myself or with friends. Even a short stay in nature has been clinically shown to improve mental health. For at least the first portion of the pandemic, many were able to use our environment to our advantage. Once winter hit, though, our environment turned on us. Forced indoors by the harsh Michigan winter, the pandemic felt even more insurmountable. Just a month ago, the country faced one of the worst winter storms in recent history. And for those experiencing homelessness to whom winter already represented a threat to health and safety, the social distancing complications of the pandemic were an added stress on the underfunded shelter system. But amidst mounting cynicism that the winter would ever subside, the spring returned once again.
The seasons ebb and flow with no regard for societal happenings. Sometimes that means we face devastating disasters, but other times it means that we’re met with a much-needed sunny day. The weather is just a backdrop for our lives, and it’s our responsibility to do what we can. This spring, we’re taking the necessary precautions to remain safe while making up for lost time. Jovial children stumble through the playground to the field. They greet a patch of dandelions, intentions still concealed. Eventually, their daily pilgrimage presents a prize. The flowers, once a promise, now float wishes through the skies. Despite all my talk of using spring to forge a new and different path for the future, I often revel in the nostalgia of certain springtime traditions. Every time I step in a fresh patch of mud, I’m transported back to elementary recess in early March. As soon as the bell would ring, my friends and I sprinted past the four square courts and monkey bars, back to the corner of the field where a patch of dandelions grew each year. I thought they were beautiful, a bright yellow confirmation that spring had sprung. My friends and I picked the petals off one-by-one, musing about whatever it is that occupies elementary-age kids’ dreams. We crafted flower crowns — before they were trendy — and donned our new regalities until the teacher inevitably told us to throw them out. But the greatest gift of the dandelions came when they shed their yellow petals for a puffy exterior, filled with what my friends and I assumed must be magical properties. We would rush out to the patch and spend the hour blowing the dandelion seeds into the wind. They say that if you could get all the seeds in a single breath, you’d earn a wish. I didn’t know until years later that all we were really doing was planting new dandelion seeds for the coming season.
I felt bad when I first found out, because this is also when I learned that most people (and by that I mean all botanists and gardeners) considered dandelions a weed. But I still don’t believe it. To me, dandelions are never a nuisance. They represent a perpetual promise of past, present and future springtimes all bound together by fleeting wishes from a group of little girls. pring enters slowly, taking her time. She whispers, then mumbles, then belts sublime. She’s got my trust and earned my praise. So thank you, spring, forever and always. All of this is to say I absolutely love the spring. And I love this spring in particular. It’s been a real saving grace as we hopefully near the end of an endless year. In the sun, I feel like a kid again, savoring the peace and joy that a simple jaunt in nature can provide. Spring can’t solve all the world’s problems, especially with the laundry list we’ve accrued since this time last year. It can, however, release some of the tension that’s built after months of insular anticipation. That is spring’s purpose, and its gift. I sometimes wish I didn’t live in Michigan, particularly in the winter. But without that frame of reference (or, logistically, that climate), I couldn’t truly appreciate the wonders of springtime. I use this season as a time of reflection, so hypothetically, I wouldn’t be who I am today without the guidance of spring. This is my love letter to springtime. I thank you for your hospitality, your enlightenment and your dandelions. Thank you for the year’s first late-night bonfires; for Daylight Saving Time and the extra hour of life it offers; for gazpacho and for iced tea; for my birthday, my graduations, both past and future, and all the amazing experiences I can’t yet name. I love you, spring. I hope you come to love me all the same.
S
Sports
14 — Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday Column: Michigan says it’s adjusted without Isaiah Livers. Whether they’re right will determine when the season ends. Nine days and two games isn’t much time for Juwan Howard to have it figured out, but it’ll have to be enough. The last time Isaiah Livers got hurt, the Michigan men’s basketball team failed that test. It’s easy to forget now — that 2019-20 team ETHAN wasn’t as good SEARS as this team, that season’s end overshadows everything in a way this season’s won’t. Howard, of course, remembers. “We had some experience in this last season when Isaiah went down,” he said on a Zoom call Sunday. “I can’t recall how many games he missed last season. I just feel bad for Isaiah.” To refresh his memory, Livers missed 10 games. Michigan went 5-5 in those games, not to mention a loss against Illinois after Livers left the game with an injury. The Wolverines went from a pretty good team to one that was losing four straight home games. But that was a team whose ceil-
ing was nowhere near this one’s. This team can win a national title. It might even be able to win a national title without Livers, its best 3-point shooter and second-leading scorer. That, at least, is still the goal. “I think I’d be lying,” freshman center Hunter Dickinson said at the Big Ten Tournament, “if not every single player in that locker room fully believes that we are the best team in the country and that we will still win the national championship.” That was right after a one-point loss to Ohio State knocked Michigan out of the Big Ten Tournament, when the Wolverines were still reeling, having learned the night before that Livers had suffered a stress fracture in his foot. The only game Michigan has played since then, a first-round matchup against 16-seed Texas Southern, amounted to a scrimmage with the window dressings of March. So, what do we know about Michigan without Isaiah Livers? Probably less than we think we do. “Every guy has to step up, it’s not just one particular guy,” Howard said. “And Brandon (Johns Jr.) is the guy who’s filled in as far as the starting lineup, but not putting any
added pressure on Brandon. It’s each and every guy who understands that when a player goes down, we support him, but we gotta of course trust that the other guys (are) gonna be out there on the floor, they’re gonna go out there and compete from start to finish.” Johns, at least in the last two games, has held his own. Michigan even got some encouraging signs from freshmen guard Zeb Jackson and forward Terrance Williams against Texas Southern; though, that was the second-worst team the Wolverines have played all year by KenPom rank. All of that is, in a lot of ways, ancillary. Good for the Wolverines if they can survive a few minutes with their deep bench on the court. However, they won’t beat LSU on Monday without getting more from the best five players in their rotation. That means Hunter Dickinson, who fouled out against Texas Southern after committing six turnovers. And Franz Wagner, who fouled out against Ohio State and hasn’t reached double-digit scoring in the last two games. And Chaundee Brown Jr., who has a total of three points since Michigan announced
that Livers has a stress fracture in his foot. Point guard Mike Smith looked ready to go against Texas Southern, with 18 points in his first ever NCAA Tournament game. So did senior Eli Brooks, hitting early 3-pointers to set the tone. The rest need to follow. They didn’t when Brooks was hurt, earlier in the year. That’s when Michigan played its worst game of the year, a blowout loss on the road at Minnesota. When Brooks went out with an ankle injury at Michigan State in the season’s last regular season game, the Wolverines couldn’t handle that either, losing 70-64. It might be easier to play without Livers than without Brooks — Michigan has wing depth, but not guard depth. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. With Livers, Michigan is a team whose depth is its strength. Without him, it’s a team that will go as far as its best five can take it. The Wolverines can’t have foul trouble, a cold Chaundee Brown, a turnover-laden performance from their best player. They can survive without Livers, sure, and certainly they can do so against an LSU team that ranks 121st in adjusted defensive efficiency —
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Michigan convenes on the court during the Big Ten Tournament, sans Isaiah Livers.
third-worst of any remaining NCAA Tournament team. But the margin for error is low. Really low. Give the Tigers a window and they’ll run right through it. “LSU, they’re very skilled, yes they do have a backcourt of two amazing players in (Javonte) Smart as well as (Cam) Thomas,” Howard said. “We’re gonna do our best to try
to contain them.” Those guys — Smart, Thomas and Trendon Watford — are some of the best scorers in the country. It’ll be on Michigan’s guys to meet the moment, and it’ll be on Howard to figure out how. Sears can be reached at searseth@ umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_ sears.
Inside Erik Bakich’s decades of recruiting success JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer
Price was selected in the 19th round of the MLB draft after his senior year of high school, but he chose to go to Vanderbilt in large part thanks to the expert recruiting ability of Corbin and his staff. Corbin won him over with bold predictions for the future that included an SEC championship and a No. 1 selection in the 2007 MLB draft, both of which came true. Bakich played a key role in securing the lefthander’s commitment by building a relationship with Price’s parents. “I think once the parents have a mindset of, ‘We want our child to go to school,’ then the child has a mindset of going to school,” Corbin said. “If (it’s) open-ended and the parent allows the child to make a decision … they usually go down a different route. And I think (Bakich) cultivated a good relationship with Bonnie and Deb, in order to get David here.” Beyond a search for talent, Bakich and Corbin prioritized the recruitment of players with excellent character. Nearly 20 years later, they continue to reap the benefits of those choices. Price made a $2.5 million donation to improve Vanderbilt’s baseball facilities, and Bakich stays in regular contact with several players, including Baxter, Antoan Richardson and David Macias. “As coach Corbin would say, those are the paychecks that you continue to get, whether it’s a wedding invite or a birth announcement or a job promotion,” Bakich said. That’s the best part of recruiting — building lifelong relationships.” *** After a combined eight years as the head coaches at Maryland and Michigan, Bakich’s multitude of experience has shown its value in the prominence of under-recruited players turned Wolverine stars. In 2018, Bakich sat with stopwatch in hand in the grandstand at Lincoln Trail Community College to watch a guy best known for his high school football abilities. Jordan Brewer went 1-4 — two groundouts, a single and a strikeout. But Bakich was sold, impressed with his footspeed when he put the ball in play, his defense in center field and his high energy. The two shared a post-game dinner at Subway, during which Brewer talked about his Native American background and upbringing. Their conversation informed Bakich that regardless of the type of player Brewer would be at Michigan, he would add a lot of value to the program with his personality alone. Brewer, who hit .360 with 12 home runs and 73 RBI in his two seasons at Lincoln Trail, had
multiple scholarship offers, but his positive interactions with Bakich made the choice easier. “He really cares about you and gets to know you super quick,” Brewer said in an interview with MLive. “He knew all about me even before I went up there to visit. I am a huge family guy, and when I saw he knew me and my family already, that was huge. I was already bought in.” In his one year with the Wolverines, Brewer led the team in batting average (.329), hits (81), slugging percentage (.557), stolen bases (25) and several other offensive categories. But Michigan’s biggest offensive asset in 2019 — who surpassed even Brewer in advanced metrics like runs created and wOBA — was Jordan Nwogu, another lightly-recruited former football player. Nwogu earned an academic scholarship to the University and only committed to the baseball program during the fall of his senior year in high school, quite late in the recruiting process. Bakich would never have noticed either of these eventual standouts if he strictly recruited through the traditional channels like showcases, or if he evaluated players on the basis of physical skills alone. He had learned the importance of attention to intangibles like work ethic and character from Corbin. “There are kids all over the country who are very talented physically,” Bakich said. “But you just can never compromise with those intangible skills. Nothing will ever replace old fashioned hard work. And when you start to get to know how these kids were raised, what makes them tick and what drives them, you start to understand very quickly that any deficiencies they may have physically, they’re going to figure it out because there’s a high care level for what they’re doing. But you won’t know that unless you really do the digging to find out.” *** Bakich’s recruitment of Brewer and Nwogu paid off nearly instantly, with the two leading the Wolverines to a College World Series appearance in 2019. It netted the program longterm returns, too, with more and more talented high school players interested in bringing Michigan back to Omaha. “Kids look at that success and want to be a part of it,” assistant coach Nick Schnabel said. “It’s probably made the pool a little bit bigger for us, no question.” After coming within a game of a national championship, Bakich and his coaching staff are fiending to return to that level on a regular basis. The first step toward that
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Erik Bakich has built a successful program at Michigan through ability to recruit talent.
goal is recruiting consistently strong classes. The Wolverines lost a significant portion of their contributors to the pros after the 2020 season, so they began an exhaustive search for replacements in the transfer portal. Schnabel took the lead at the beginning of the recruiting process, watching most of the film, making most of the calls and performing background checks. By the time Bakich became involved, Schnabel had whittled about 100 names into a shortlist of contenders. These efforts, reminiscent of Corbin and Bakich’s thoroughness
at Vanderbilt, have paid dividends, as Michigan’s transfers have impressed on and off the field so far this year. Mazur was elected a team captain and hits for better power and average than former catcher Joe Donovan. Fifth-year shortstop Benjamin Sems has a better fielding percentage than former shortstop Jack Blomgren. Sophomore outfielder Jake Marti hits beyond description. With the success of his many transfers, Bakich is currently seeing what he hopes will be another in a long line of strong recruiting classes — one that he hopes can play deep into the summer.
IF THEY ONLY KNEW Informing Blacks and Whites about the Racial Wealth Gap
VINCENT HUTCHINGS Hanes Walton Jr. Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies
An online lecture. For more information, visit events.umich.edu/event/81873 or call 734.615.6667
Online Event: Wednesday, March 31st, 202 1 | 4:00 p.m.
In Michigan’s third game of the 2021 season, Griffin Mazur took a short stride and a quick swing, sending the ball skywards before it landed just over the left-centerfield fence for a grand slam. Mazur’s teammates charged out of the dugout, swarming him with hugs and backslaps. But Michigan baseball fans watching from home probably didn’t feel as familiar. He was making his second ever appearance for the Wolverines, but he wasn’t a freshman. The fifth-year senior catcher is one of six transfers joining Michigan this season. In most of Michigan coach Erik Bakich’s tenure, he has almost entirely recruited high schoolers and relied on their season-to-season development, but he elected to add the additional dimension of readymade graduate transfers this season. The Wolverines’ 7-1 start is less a reflection of Bakich’s ability to develop than his ability to recruit, a skill that he’s honed for nearly 20 years. *** Long ago, Erik Bakich wasn’t particularly interested in coaching, let alone recruiting. He graduated from East Carolina, where he hit .315 with a 1.000 fielding percentage in 2000, before beginning a short professional playing career with several independent league teams. In the fall of 2001, Bakich was taking batting practice on the East Carolina campus when Pirates coach Keith LeClair approached him with news that a volunteer assistant coaching position had opened at Clemson. “I said, ‘Really, do you think I should have interest in that?’ ” Bakich asked LeClair. “And then I took another swing, and immediately after watching me take another swing, he said, ‘Yes, you need to be interested in that.’ ” Slightly crestfallen, Bakich took his coach’s advice, and soon after, took the position. Despite poor conditions — he was compensated in T-shirts and Gatorade bars, and the Southern heat often woke him up at night — Bakich loved his season at Clemson. He worked closely with Tigers assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Tim Corbin, a former National Assistant Coach of the Year who shared Bakich’s penchant for long hours and hard work. Corbin taught Bakich how to recruit, often by example. “He was extremely thorough,” Bakich said. “He made a ton of phone calls, did a lot of digging and
background checks and gathered information. He knew a lot about every player before he even went to go watch him play. And then when he would go watch them play, he would be the first one there and the last one to leave, just paying attention to every little thing. So many recruiters just show up at game time, watch the game and leave, and maybe don’t sit in the front row and see the mannerisms and the body language and the interaction with teammates and coaches. “Everything is a piece. It’s one gigantic puzzle, and every piece of information that you can get determines if this is the right fit for the program or what type of player you’re getting. Getting to know the family and how the kid was raised is such a large dynamic that goes into putting these puzzle pieces together. “He was just the best I had seen doing all of it.” Impressed by Corbin’s affinity for thoroughness, Bakich followed him to Nashville as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator when Corbin became Vanderbilt’s head coach in 2003. “(Bakich) told me that I couldn’t hire anyone better than him and that no one would care more about the program than him,” Corbin said. “He didn’t say that in a bragging manner at all; he said it because he believed in it.” The Commodores weren’t the powerhouse they are today. They had been SEC bottom-dwellers for the previous decade, and Bakich, Corbin and pitching coach Derek Johnson initially received far more rejections than acceptances from recruited players. According to Corbin, the coaching staff had to work hard to establish a recruiting foundation. Modern perspective shows that they succeeded. A few seasons into Bakich’s seven year tenure, Vanderbilt reached the NCAA Regionals and successfully recruited eventual major leaguers, like Mike Baxter and Ryan Flaherty, with greater regularity. In 2005, the Commodores pulled in the nation’s top-ranked class, led by left-hander David Price. Price went to nearby Blackman High School, where he starred in baseball and basketball. Bakich noticed his outstanding athletic ability — including a loose, whippy arm that fired fastballs at a higher velocity than nearly anyone — as well as the need for some refinement. “You could tell that this was somebody who, 25 pounds from now and a couple of birthdays away, is going to be something super special,” Bakich said.
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 — 15
The NCAA’s excuses don’t add up As various instances of inequitable treatment from the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments circulate the internet, the optics are damning. To start, there have been images showing the difference between men’s and women’s weight rooms. JACOB There have COHEN been similar images regarding “swag bags” at the men’s and women’s tournaments. Moreover, there have been less tangible disparities in that the men’s tournament is the only to use the branding of “March Madness” and “the Big Dance.” On appearance alone, these conditions require explanation. And, quite frankly, the NCAA has failed to provide justifiable explanations for their actions at every turn. “In part, (the lack of a women’s weight room) is due to the limited space,” NCAA Vice President of Women’s Basketball Lynn Holzmansaid in a statement released by the NCAA on Mar. 18. “And the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament.” Without context, this explanation already seems weak considering the months of planning that went into this year’s tournament on account of
COVID-19, but we do have context here. And the context makes matters worse. As a video captured by Oregon forward Sedona Prince shows, the space was there the whole time. Just behind the abysmal setup the NCAA provided, a wide-open floor space capable of holding a much more adequate weight room awaits. It doesn’t make sense. The NCAA decided to hold its entire women’s tournament in a San Antonio bubble at the beginning of February. And while there is obviously a lot that goes into planning such an event, it seems highly improbable that there could be a misstep in something as simple as space availability. There is just no way that, with all the concerns over space relevant to conducting a large, bubble-style tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA hadn’t thoroughly considered potential spatial issues before booking the San Antonio venues. Even more, a proper weight room is fundamental to the preparation and success of collegiate athletes. And as such, providing appropriate facilities for women’s tournament participants should not have been an afterthought. With all of this being said, blaming the lack of proper facilities on a lack of space isn’t a settling explanation, it’s an excuse, and a false one at that. The merchandise provided to each group shows an equivalent disparity. While the men received a vast “swag
bag” of goods ranging from towels to T-shirts to banners all emblazoned with “March Madness” or “The Big Dance” branding, the women received a scant package of generic “NCAA” and “women’s basketball” branded merchandise. The NCAA has provided a statement about these packages, but they would have to do a lot better than “there wasn’t enough space” to explain away this unequal treatment. And to put it simply, they didn’t. Holzman stresses in that public statement that the dollar values of the two bags were equal, but one certainly does not get that impression from looking at the images. It would be understandable that the men’s and women’s merchandise teams would have created different bags if they were given an equivalent value to use and then sent their separate ways to fill that total, but that’s not what happened. In fact, Holzman explains that the men’s and women’s staffs “proactively” worked together on making the bags. So, what explains away the difference in appearance? The answer cannot be equivalent value because optics matter and, again, the optics are damning. Maybe an excuse is that the NCAA doesn’t use its trademarked phrase “March Madness” for the women’s tournament, so it doesn’t make sense to give them branded material. But again, why not brand the women’s tournament?
Pitching shines as Michigan falls to MSU STEEL HURLEY Daily Sports Writer
Senior right-hander Blake Beers threw his third consecutive curveball in the dirt and racked up his third consecutive swing and miss to retire the batter. He walked to the dugout at the end of the fifth inning, greeted by his enthusiastic teammates.
“He was much better today. Just a better job of getting ahead of hitters, minimizing base runners,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said. “Between Blake and Joe (Pace) and Willie (Weiss), their stuff was excellent, they were all throwing mid 90s. That’s the hardest Blake’s ever thrown, touching 97 and he just had good stuff.”
Gabby Ceritano/Daily Michigan senior right-gander Blake Beers pitched 5.2 innings on Tuesday, allowing two earned runs in a loss to Michigan State.
It was Beers’s best start of the season to date; but it wasn’t enough. The Michigan baseball team held Michigan State to just four hits in the entire game, yet lost 3-0. Beers threw 100 pitches over 5.2 innings, allowing just one earned run, but in the end Michigan couldn’t come through.
The stellar defense the team has played throughout the season continued, with junior infielder Riley Bertram making a leaping catch in the fourth inning to snag a line drive heading for the gap. Fifthyear infielder Christian Molfetta also made several critical plays, and fifth-year infielder Benjamin Sems
was in typical form, making several key contributions from shortstop. “Throwing to (fifth-year catcher Griffin Mazur) gives everyone on the staff a ton of confidence, everyone on the defense is great so everyone has a ton of confidence throwing,” graduate right-hander Joe Pace said. “We know we have an elite defense in Sems and Bertram and Molfetta. … We have an elite defense and that’s really our strength as a staff because we trust them so much.” Beers was replaced by Pace, who looked sharp as he allowed just one hit and no runs over 2.1 innings, continuing his strong start to the season. Junior righthander Willie Weiss replaced Pace for the ninth with Michigan down two runs and he recorded three outs on the four batters he faced, although he would allow an insurance run by way of a solo blast. “You talk about a guy who was just dominant, really found his stride,” Sems said of Beers. “I mean he was throwing 96, 97, that’s gonna play any day. He’s a grinder out there and he gave us everything, every opportunity that we need to win that game. He pitched really well.” In the end, the off day hitting was not enough to capitalize on the stellar pitching for Michigan. “It’s unfortunate we couldn’t create any offense behind (Beers),” Bakich said. “But we certainly pitched well enough to win today.”
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
The NCAA has come under fire after social media posts exposed disparities between the two tournaments.
There is nothing different about what teams have to do to get into the men’s and women’s tournaments. There is nothing any less difficult about making a deep run in the tournament. And there is nothing that makes earning such an appearance or run any less meaningful for the women than to the men. Put simply, this matter of branding, which is likely intended to preserve the integrity of the men’s tournament’s magic, binds the women’s tournament to a lack of comparable spectacle. You don’t even have to give the “March Madness” or “the Big Dance” branding to the women’s tournament, NCAA. You only need to give the
women’s tournament a brand of comparable appeal and consistency. The fact that the women’s tournament is completely unbranded is insulting, and it belies a lack of respect for the efforts of the student-athletes, coaches and staff involved. In 2021, there is no excuse for blatant preferential treatment of male athletes, and the NCAA is more than wise enough to know it needs to take specific measures to ensure equality in how it provides for its male and female athletes, no matter the sport. I don’t care about revenue differences; the NCAA makes $1 billion in revenue each year and the disrespect of women’s sports is a large part of
why women’s basketball does not bring in more of that revenue. The NCAA must acknowledge the power it has over people’s opinions about men’s and women’s sports and the power it holds over young female athletes’ self-esteem. As Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins said via Twitter Mar. 19, “It is time to consider ALL the athletes, ALL the time!” Hutchins is absolutely right, and it is time that the NCAA catches up with the moment. And to do so, the NCAA must start with providing better explanations for its current mistreatment. Jacob Cohen can be reached by email at jaccohen@umich.edu
Brooks keys ‘M’ win over LSU TEDDY GUTKIN Daily Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — With 30 seconds on the clock, an errant shot in the lane by Louisiana State’s Cameron Thomas bounced off the left side of the rim. As the Tigers’ Trendon Watford lunged for the rebound, he found himself outmuscled by senior guard Eli Brooks. Standing at just 6-foot2, Brooks came away with the rebound before calmly hitting two free throws on the other end, putting the finishing touches on an 88-76 win for the Michigan men’s basketball team to advance to its fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen. It’s fitting that Brooks was the man to clinch the Wolverines’ victory in an electric shootout. In the early stages of the game, Brooks sparked a seemingly dormant Michigan offense with an early barrage of 3-pointers. Brooks, who hit five of his nine attempts from beyond the arc, is shooting a blistering 53.3% from deep through two tournament games. “My shot is feeling as good as it has all year,” Brooks said. “Coaches always say next shot mentality, take the shots when you’re open. That’s what I’ve been doing.” Brooks’s barrage from long range proved to be instrumental in the Wolverines keeping pace with an LSU offense that ranks as the nation’s fifth-best unit, according to KenPom. The Tigers’ lead ballooned to as much as nine in the first half, with Thomas and
backcourt partner Javonte Smart hitting long contested jumpers with an efficiency usually only seen in layup lines. With LSU’s offense showing no signs of taking its foot off the gas pedal, Michigan needed to cultivate a rebuttal. WIth three 3-pointers and 13 first half points, Brooks answered the call. “Eli has been like this since the last year I started coaching him,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “He’s a basketball guy, has a high IQ. Very underrated in a lot of ways offensively and defensively.” Brooks continued to come up with big buckets in the second half. With the Wolverines trailing by three, Brooks nailed a 3-pointer to knot the score at 51 apiece. Just three minutes later, he delivered again from the left corner. With senior forward Isaiah Livers out indefinitely with a stress fracture, Michigan was left without a clear-cut go-to scorer when in need of a bucket. If tonight was Brooks’s audition to fill that role, he aced it. “The coaches have always been on me about being aggressive, taking my shots. (Howard’s) on everybody because we believe everybody’s really talented on the team. It’s just about confidence and instilling confidence into each other.” By the end of the night, Brooks produced perhaps the best game of his senior campaign, scoring 21 points on an efficient 7-for-11 shooting. As effective as he was
Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Eli Brooks is shooting 53.3% from behind the arc across the Wolverines’ four games across two tournaments.
scoring the basketball, he was equally as effective setting up his teammates for buckets of their own, registering a team-high seven assists. Seen on the surface to many as being primarily a defensive piece of the Wolverines’ equation, Brooks proved with more eyeballs on him than ever that he is much more than that. You could even say he may end up being the Wolverines’ most essential ingredient to a championship-winning formula. “Sometimes you look at a guy’s numbers, you say he deserves to be on the defensive team,” Howard said. “Well, watch our games, you understand why we appreciate Eli and what he brings to the table night in and night out. He’s our glue guy.”
Wolverines manage to withstand runs in back-and-forth affair CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — There’s an old saying in Indiana — and everywhere the sport is played — that basketball is a game of runs. The track meet that was the Michigan men’s basketball team’s second-round, 86-78 win against LSU on Monday night certainly lived up to that adage. After a late first-half surge got them back in the game, the Wolverines held a slim one-point lead over the Tigers at halftime. Virtually deadlocked coming out of the break, both teams had everything to play for. LSU went on a quick 8-2 run to regain the lead and momentum. Every time the Tigers threatened
to pull away, though, Michigan had an answer. Graduate guard Mike Smith and senior guard Eli Brooks hit consecutive 3-pointers to stop LSU’s scoring spurt in its tracks. “Our guys kept grinding it, grinding it,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “Each possession, we got stops when we needed it. We also continued to attack the basket and not settle. But we also made some good shots that were open.” Throughout the half, the teams went back and forth, trading six and seven-point runs. For a while it seemed like whichever team’s run coincided with the final buzzer would advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The Wolverines, grounded by their veterans, not only withstood the barrage, but wouldn’t let that scenario
come to be. After knocking down two free throws, senior guard Chaundee Brown Jr. hit one of his three triples on the night to put Michigan up by eight at the 5:57 minute mark. The Tigers tried to recover, but the Wolverines had had enough of the game’s seesawing nature. “(My teammates and coaches) told me before the game, ‘Come in and be aggressive, just play basketball,’ ” Brown said. “I had a talk with myself before the game, ‘Just be you.’ I feel like I did that.” Michigan’s advantage would only vacillate from six to 10 the rest of the way. “We couldn’t string together enough stops,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “We could just never string
together enough stops to make a run and to expand our lead. … After we got the six-point lead, we gave up a couple threes, we missed a floater in the lane. We could never sustain what we were doing.” Added Brooks: “To be honest, it was just about wearing on them, making everything tough. … It was mostly just staying the course.” Howard had told his team that a win against the Tigers would require them to “empty the tank.” Facing a do-or-die situation, the Wolverines responded in a big way. Having experienced back-and-forth contests throughout the Big Ten season, Michigan had been in a similar position before. The Wolverines were never fazed and delivered the knockout blow when the opportunity
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
The Wolverines overcame an early LSU run en route to an 86-78 win.
presented itself. “We (didn’t) wanna go back to the hotel regretting ‘I shoulda did this, I coulda did this,’ ” Brown said. “We have an off day tomorrow, go all out. I feel like that really sticks to all of us.
Like (Howard) says all the time, we want to rest on April 6.” Thanks to the cool heads of veterans like Brooks and Brown, the Wolverines won’t be resting for very long.
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BROOKS, BROWN JR. LEAD MICHIGAN TO WILD VICTORY OVER LSU JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — By the end of it, Michigan could finally exhale. Eli Brooks wiggled free from a scrum with the rebound as serenades of cheers washed down from a boisterous crowd. In the frontcourt, he dribbled out the inevitable. A special season will last at least one more game. In a high-flying shootout, the Wolverines (22-4 overall, 14-3 Big Ten) outlasted upset-minded LSU (19-10), 86-78, to punch a ticket to the Sweet Sixteen. For the fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament, Michigan survives into the second weekend. “That’s where you want to be, that’s where you dream of playing,” Brooks said after the game with a smile. “That’s what we expect at Michigan. But you have to earn it.” The upstart Tigers ensured the Wolverines did just that. For forty minutes, Michigan could not so much as breathe. LSU’s much-acclaimed fifth-ranked offense proved to be as advertised. The Tigers, buoyed by freshman sensation Cameron Thomas, roared out of the gates with an 8-2 start. Thomas, utilizing his 6-foot-4 frame to shoot over a series of smaller defenders, tallied a quick eight points of his own. Michigan’s offense floundered, enabling LSU to carry a nine point advantage deep into the first half. The Wolverines failed to capitalize on their height advantage — forward Darius Days, at 6-foot-7, drew the assignment on 7-foot-1 freshman center Hunter Dickinson. Throughout the first 13 minutes, Dickinson managed just one field goal attempt. An emerging track meet seemed to play into LSU’s hands. During timeouts, the Michigan huddle remained optimistic. “There were a lot of possessions out there where we could have held our head down because LSU made a great run, got the lead early in the first half,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “But our team stayed the course.” After scuffling early, Michigan weathered the blitz, exploiting a porous LSU defense that entered with the 124th ranked unit in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. Senior guard Eli Brooks led the charge with 13 first-half points, including a trio of 3-pointers. LSU’s white-hot start proved unsustainable. Though the Tigers led for all but two minutes in the first half, Michigan claimed a tenuous one-point advantage at the break. “I think the defense really sparked it, sparked our pace,” Brooks said. “Just the intensity that we brought on the defensive end. We limited them to one shot. We made everything hard in those four minutes and rebound(ed) the ball, got out, ran in transition.” Momentum, though, proved to be fleeting. An early 8-0 spurt placed the Wolverines back on their heels, ensuing a seesaw affair. Michigan responded with a 10-0 run. The Tigers, ever resilient, battled back with an 8-0 stretch of their own. An air-balled 3-pointer from Brooks, followed by a Thomas 3-pointer, stretched the LSU lead to five. Again, Michigan managed to respond. With 8:57 minutes to go, senior guard Chaundee Brown Jr. drilled a catchand-shoot 3-pointer from the corner. Minutes later, he again found the back of the net, stretching the Michigan lead to eight. Brown, bouncing back down the court, turned around to face thousands of Michigan fans, thrusting his arms into the air and basking in his newfound glory. The Wolverines, after 34 minutes spent enduring punches, could taste it. With 3:56 minutes to play, the tide turned permanently. Sophomore wing Franz Wagner, scuffling throughout most of the game, drained an off-the-dribble 3-pointer, putting Michigan up a game-high nine. On his way back down the court, he pounded his chest, arms raised in celebration. At last, the pesky Tigers relented, long faces draping their countenances. Michigan danced up the tunnel. Howard, lingering behind for a radio interview, was the last man off the court. Motioning to the fans on hand, he held up four fingers — one for each victory the Wolverines need to capture a championship. “The motto of today was, the words that were shared with the group: empty the tank, empty the tank,” Howard said. “Our guys did that.” And finally, they could let out a collective sigh of relief.
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