2024-01-24

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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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BUSINESS

Sweetwaters Baristas United hosts “Solidarity Sip-In” to gain community support Event gathers support from the public ahead of Jan. 25 vote to unionize

GRETA FEAR Daily Staff Reporter

Ann Arbor community members gathered at the Washington Street location of Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea on Saturday to show support for Sweetwaters Baristas United at their “Solidarity Sip-In.” The SipIn comes in the wake of the backand-forth between employees and their corporate team, headed by Sweetwaters co-founders Lisa and Wei Bee, about unionization. The event was meant to garner public support ahead of Jan. 25, when 60 baristas across four locations will vote on whether to formally form a union. Community members and representatives from various unions, including Teamsters and Starbucks Workers United were in attendance.

SBU encouraged attendees to tip with cash, congratulate workers and vocalize their support for a union.

Workers at four of the seven Sweetwaters Ann Arbor locations are organizing as one bargaining unit. The unit includes the Michigan Union, West Washington Street, Westgate Library and Meijer Ann Arbor-Saline Road locations.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA sophomore Levi Pierpont, a Westgate Library Sweetwaters employee, said the union hopes to accomplish a variety of goals, ranging from wage accountability to fair scheduling.

“When a schedule is created, the CEO, the COO and managers get to look at it and assess it for the company’s needs to see if it’s going to be efficient and to see if it’s going to save them money,” Pierpont said.

KEITH MELONG/Daily Teamsters Local 243 Business Agent Bill Black addresses unionization supporters at a Solidarity Sip In at the Sweetwaters Downtown location Saturday afternoon.

“We want to do the same thing.

We want to be able to look at the schedule and assess it for our needs.”

In an email to The Daily, Lisa Bee argued that their current scheduling system is very fair to their workers, and that they have a lot of flexibility to meet their baristas’ needs.

“Our baristas see the schedules when they get posted and have the ability to request changes (and they do) as needed from store managers,” Lisa Bee wrote. “Changes are made to accommodate baristas’ requests.

and they have the ability to pick up more hours from the many other student baristas who are often willing to give up shifts. We have an incredible amount of flexibility built into our schedules to meet our baristas’ needs. We don’t see how a union is capable of scheduling to suit the baristas’ evolving needs that can change daily. What we understand is that unions heavily or solely bargain for schedules based on seniority rather than individual needs. With this in mind, we don’t see how union

CAMPUS LIFE

Michelle Alexander speaks at 38th annual MLK anniversary symposium Students and community members meet to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

GRACE SCHUUR Daily Staff Reporter

Several hundred students and community members attended the University of Michigan’s 38th annual symposium in tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The symposium featured a memorial keynote lecture from Michelle Alexander, author, legal scholar and social justice advocate, titled ‘Transforming the Jangling Discords of Our Nation into a Beautiful Symphony.’ The event — free and open to the public — took place in Hill Auditorium and was available online through a YouTube livestream.

The event opened with a performance of the Black national anthem, “​​ Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and a territorial land acknowledgement. The opening remarks were done by Dr. Tabbye Chavous, the University’s vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. Following Chavous’ remarks, Detroit-based

musical artist BLKBOK performed a composition with piano and a prerecorded track of music and spoken word.

During the symposium, University President Santa Ono spoke of the University’s commitment to pursuing Dr. King’s mission.

“Challenged, but not daunted; weary, but not tired; tried and tested, but resolute and unrelenting, let us continue the unfinished work of Dr. King,” Ono said. “Let us remain steadfast in pursuit of his vision, and let each of us contribute our distinct voices to our beautiful city.”

Before and following the event, several people handed out flyers and petitions to drop the charges against U-M students who protested in support of Palestine at the Alexander G. Ruthven building Nov. 17. Forty students were arrested at the protest, and their charges have not been dropped.

At the end of Ono’s remarks, an audience member rose and shouted at Ono to drop the charges against

U-M students. The outburst was met with applause, with some audience members chanting, “Drop the charges!”

Following Ono’s remarks, Alexander began her lecture expressing the challenges confronting society and reminding listeners that the world is constantly changing. Alexander said 2024 was a year on the brink of change with global conflict, U.S. elections, climate change, mental health crises and the development of AI technology.

“I have been struggling and struggling to find words that are adequate for the moment that we find ourselves in,” Alexander said. “We are gathered here at the beginning of 2024, a year that just might change everything.

Of course, everything is always changing. And impermanence is the way of life. Philosophers, theologians and poets have reminded us for centuries, the only constant is change.”

University of Michigan President, Santa Ono, speaks at the MLK Keynote Symposium Monday.

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methods of scheduling benefit the baristas.”

One barista, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from management, described their negative experience with Sweetwaters’ culture around addressing employee concerns. In this article, they will be referred to as Alex. “I think there’s been a lot of gaslighting when it comes to our demands and concerns before the union even happened,” Alex said.

“They were just like ‘Well, if you

don’t like how it is, work somewhere else.’ ” Alex told The Daily many of the workers who want to unionize do not intend to harm Sweetwaters as a business, but rather want to see them improve their practices for the good of the company. “(The owners) think we’re very anti-Sweetwaters and in reality we’re pro-Sweetwaters and we want them to do better,” Alex said.

“We want to have more time with the company to see it grow and see

people leave the company and be able to say, ‘Yeah, you should work there.’ ” In an interview with The Daily, Bob King, former president of United Auto Workers, said cooperative work benefits both workers and employers.

“I’ve worked in the labor movement for over 40 years and dealt with many different employers,” King said. “Employers that are smart enough to work collaboratively with their workers, improve productivity, improve quality (and) improve profitability — everybody wins when you work together. Workers can get higher wages, higher bonuses, better healthcare and will prosper more with that kind of approach versus an adversarial confrontation.”

SBU is unionizing in partnership with the local branch of International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Teamsters Local 243. In an interview with The Daily at the event, Scott Quenneville, president of Teamsters Local 243, said the Sweetwaters corporate team has responded to the unionization by trying to suppress organizing efforts.

“The problem that’s going on now — what always goes on in organizing — is the unionbusting,” Quenneville said. “(The owners) have a lot of state attorneys that they hired from Baltimore and New York telling our Michiganders how to vote.”

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ADMINISTRATION

MSA National releases statement in solidarity with UMich SAFE and MSA

MSA National encourages U-M administrators to take steps to create a safe environment for Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students SNEHA DHANDAPANI & MARISSA CORSI Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

The Muslim Students Association of the U.S. & Canada released a statement on Jan. 12 in solidarity with University of Michigan student organizations Students Allied for Freedom and Equality and Muslim Students’ Association. The press release cites multiple instances of targeted harassment against students who have expressed proPalestine views, and included three recommendations for U-M administration to create a safe environment for Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students on campus.

The statement referenced the Oct. 13 verbal assault of Arab and Muslim students by Carin Ehrenberg, a School of Information board member. The students had been attending a peaceful sit-in protest outside University President Santa Ono’s house in response to his Oct. 10 statement on the Israel-Hamas war, which did not include any mentions of Palestine. In a video posted to X that has since been taken down, Ehrenberg can be seen asking one student at the protest “Are you going to send one of your terrorists after us?” and shouted “rapists and murderers” at others. In the release, MSA National wrote that Ono’s statement disregarded the violence in Palestine and the experiences of Arab and Muslim students, and expressed disappointment in the Information School’s decision to not take action against Ehrenberg.

MSA National’s statement also mentioned that 40 U-M students were arrested in the Alexander G. Ruthven Building on Nov. 17 when protesting the University’s investment in companies with

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INDEX

financial ties to Israel. In response to the protest, the University called in police from more than 10 departments who denied protesters access to water and restrooms. According to MSA National, one protester fainted, and a police officer ripped off a Muslim woman’s hijab.

According to MSA National’s statement, a Central Student Government member proposed a resolution on Oct. 20 to ask the University to reconsider its position on the Israel-Hamas war. The resolution, which received more than 1,000 signatures, was rejected by the administration due to “issues with the resolution’s wording.”

Following the rejection of the resolution, two other resolutions, AR 13-025 and AR 13-026, went to a campus-wide vote during the CSG midterm elections in November.

AR 13-025 requests that the University takes an educated and non-discriminatory stance on violence and systems of apartheid in light of the IsraelHamas war and AR 13-026, which focused on providing support for those impacted by the war. The University decided to cancel the vote on these resolutions, claiming it violated CSG election integrity and the U-M Standard Practice Guide.

On Nov. 29 in a now-deleted post on X, two students engaged in proPalestine advocacy on campus were falsely accused of stealing U-M student emails to send a message to all undergraduates asking them to vote yes on AR 13-025 and no on AR 13-026. The email, which was sent by a graduate student, was authorized by an employee at the Office of Registrar to be sent through the Targeted Email service.

The statement included three recommendations for University administration: to issue a statement

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in support of Muslim and Arab students who have experienced harassment, to issue another statement explaining why the two CSG resolutions on the ballot were canceled and to arrange a meeting between administrators and students to discuss concerns related to the University’s past actions.

In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen said the administration has seen MSA National’s statement.

Citing previous University statements and a letter from Ono, she said the University will continue to monitor campus tensions and speak to student leaders.

“We are aware of the National Muslim Student Association’s statement in support of U-M’s MSA and SAFE,” Broekhuizen said. “We will review the suggestions and consider the appropriate action. …

The university’s executive leaders continue to engage with students to address campus climate concerns.”

In an email to The Daily, SAFE president Salma Hamamy wrote she expected the University to continue to receive national attention regarding its suppression of student advocacy.

“While there has been extensive advocacy work across hundreds of campuses, the statement of solidarity from the national board of the Muslim Students Association was meant to highlight that there is an extensive issue of repression at the University of Michigan that has drawn out national concern,” Hamamy said. “This statement covers issues of police violence, doxxing, harassment, canceling of student-led democratic procedures and everything in between from the fall semester. So long as these issues remain prevalent, national eyes will remain focused on our university.”

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CORRECTIONS

Remediation efforts are proving economically effective in the state

EMMA LAPP

Daily Staff Reporter A University of Michigan study led by the School for Environment and Sustainability showed that property values around the Great Lakes are rising as pollution remediation efforts increase. These efforts include contaminated sediment removal, wetland restoration and cleaning up the shoreline.

This research focused on designated Areas of Concern in Great Lake shoreline communities in both the U.S. and Canada. These areas were deemed to be of concern in 1987 when the two countries signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to better manage the lakes as a common resource.

Due to pollution remediation efforts sourced from different federal grants, property values increased by an average of $27,295 per house.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Michael Moore, co-author of the study and professor of environmental economics, spoke

about the need for a database that incorporates the costs of preservation efforts in estimated property values.

“Things like controlling invasive species, improving habitat and species numbers, and controlling nonpoint pollution into the lakes really makes a difference with the AOC’s property values,” Moore said.

“We are trying to get an expanded database where we can think about the housing market, as the medium through which the environmental benefits of restoration can get captured through this capitalization of property values.”

As an environmental economist, Moore felt the study demonstrated the success story behind remediation efforts, pointing out that the financial benefits outweighed the costs.

“The benefits of $8.7 billion (property cost values totaled) outweigh the remediation costs of $2.1 million, which makes for a four to one ratio,” Moore said. “This (study) is looking at the ecological significance of the application of these programs and from this study,

we found that there was a positive economic success story.”

In the future, Moore hopes the Environmental Protection Agency will grant researchers access to a second database of Great Lakes property data so they can continue the study.

Study co-author Alecia Cassidy, who worked on the research as a doctoral student, wrote in an email to The Daily about the benefits of effects of pollution remediation efforts on AOC homeowners.

“We would have thought that people already know that they live near a polluted lake, but the fact that housing prices dropped so much means that perhaps a lot of citizens are unaware of what is lurking in the water near their house,” Cassidy said. “We hope that our quantification of the payoff to grants to the AOCs can be helpful to the Great Lakes Community. Federal money can make a real difference to revitalizing these areas.”

LSA senior Steven Driest, policy chair for Students for Clean Energy, spoke with The Daily about his

thoughts regarding the study.

“I do not find it all surprising that the recent efforts to clean up the Great Lakes and the surrounding watershed resulted in increased property values,” Driest said. “I did find it interesting that the cost of these remediation efforts did not outweigh the increased property values. This is great news for future remediation efforts as such efforts can actually improve the strength of local economies.”

Driest also said the results of such studies are beneficial in gaining public approval and appreciation for pollution remediation efforts.

“Given many Americans are not that interested in protecting the environment, I believe convincing these groups is a matter of marketing,” Driest said. “If you can explain the derived economic benefits, you have a greater chance of garnering broad public approval.

This is an approach that clean energy advocates need to take as utility-scale solar and wind is now officially the cheapest form of energy generation.”

ANN ARBOR

Ann Arbor faces controversy over canceled unarmed crisis response program What is the future of a potential non-police response team in Ann Arbor?

AMANDA PIRANI Daily Staff Reporter

The city of Ann Arbor is facing controversy after canceling their search for a third party to implement an unarmed response program in the city last month. The request, opened in August, received only one application, which came from Care-Based Safety, an organization founded in Washtenaw County. CBS focuses on responding to conflict

lack of communication regarding perceived issues with the proposal and its subsequent cancellation.

As of now, the city plans to issue a new request for proposals in the coming months. A request for proposal is a document produced by private companies or municipal entities to solicit proposals from a third party, often for some kind of service. In order for the city to receive applicants for an unarmed response program, it had to first create a request for proposal outlining what

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and crisis in Washtenaw County and community building to address the root causes of violence. According to a press release from the city, they identified several issues with CBS’s proposal, including its timeline and operating hours, which prevented them from accepting it. However, community members and advocates connected to the organization have responded with criticism of the city’s

the city would require from the group it selects and their proposal.

In the press release, City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. said the city did not agree with the proposed timeline of five years to develop a program. The statement also criticized the plan’s limited dispatch hours, which would not extend after 11 p.m. or during much of the weekend.

The plan proposed to dispatch volunteers into situations which the city deemed to be too dangerous.

Furthermore, the city objected to what they perceived to be disproportionate attention to community-building activities as opposed to emergency response. Dohoney’s statement in the same press release said given these issues, the city could not accept the proposal.

“This is a new program that will involve challenging work,” the statement said. “While the city applauds CBS for their willingness to submit a proposal to take on this project, given the importance of unarmed crisis response for both the community and our City Council, we would be doing both a disservice to accept a proposal with the issues noted. The city will outline a new (request for proposal) timeline in January 2024.”

CBS responded to some of these concerns in a Dec. 23 Instagram social media post. Liz Kennedy, culture and operations director at CBS, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that the cancellation came as a surprise.

“We were very surprised at the city’s announcement that they would be canceling the RFP,” she said. “We had been awaiting better communication or further feedback from the city for months.”

Linda Huber, Rackham student and organizing committee co-chair for the Graduate Employees’ Organization, wrote in an email to The Daily that she hopes CBS will be reconsidered if a new RFP is opened given its strong ties and commitment

to the community. GEO advocates for defunding and demilitarizing campus police through their abolitionist caucus, and has been a staunch supporter of the creation of a similar unarmed crisis response team on campus.

“CBS’ proposal is supported by over 40 local organizations, businesses, and social service providers and reflects a program developed for community members by community members,” Huber wrote. “We hope that the city will maintain its commitment to establishing a service that is fully independent from the police by giving due consideration to CBS’ proposal.”

Donnell Wyche, a member of Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety, a local group advocating for an unarmed response team, said in an interview with The Daily that organizers were frustrated with the decision.

“We were completely surprised, and I will say, disappointed as well as just emotionally devastated that the city decided to cancel (the request),” Wyche said. “On Dec. 18, the last meeting of the year — with no notice — effectively hearing that this thing that the community has been working on for the last two years is being canceled and reissued … it led to a lot of uncertainty.”

Wyche said despite the cancellation, he is hopeful CROS can bring its key objectives to fruition in the new proposal, including a dispatch number separate from 911 for community members to call.

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U-M study shows Great Lakes property values increase as pollution remediation occurs

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Wednesday, January 24, 2024 — 3

BUSINESS

Mediterranean-inspired restaurant Spiedo opens in downtown Ann Arbor Detroit restaurant owner brings flavorful scratch kitchen to South Fifth Avenue

The Zhoug Knight, Farm Cheese dip and Charred Carrots from the menu at Spiedo.

GEORGIA MCKAY/Daily

MILES ANDERSON Daily Staff Reporter

Just off the corner of East Liberty Street and South Fifth Avenue sits a quaint restaurant with a different, bright color on each wall and a varied, Mediterranean-inspired menu. Spiedo opened in late September after some construction and permit delays.

Brad Greenhill, Spiedo’s owner, is no stranger to the

restaurant business. He also owns Takoi in Detroit, a highend Thai restaurant that focuses on using local ingredients. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Greenhill said he decided to open another restaurant after purchasing a vertical rotisserie and experimenting with spit-roasted foods.

“Before I opened Spiedo, I sort of whimsically purchased a vertical rotisserie with the hope (of ) doing a pop-up with it or using it at my

restaurant in Detroit,” Greenhill said. “Then it ended up happening that this spot became available, and it came with a large griddle and then, underneath the hood, there was room for a vertical rotisserie.”

Greenhill was already familiar with Spiedo’s current location, as the site was Takoi’s first pop-up restaurant space. Greenhill said this partially inspired him to lease the space for Spiedo after Jerusalem Garden relocated and the site was available.

“Eight years ago it was the original pop-up spot for Takoi so it got its start out of that space,” Greenhill said. “(Takoi) was there for about six (or) eight months while we were building out our restaurant space in Detroit. So I got a little bit of nostalgia for it. And I saw that it had become available, so I signed the lease.”

Ian Griffin, who has worked at Spiedo since it opened, told The Daily he has worked at several different restaurants in the Ann

Arbor area and he believes what is being done at Spiedo is special.

Spiedo is a scratch kitchen, which means all food served is made with fresh food that is never processed or frozen.

“Everything we’re doing is from a scratch kitchen, something you’ve seen less and less in the world in general,” Griffin said. “It does require us to obviously spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But it’s kind of gratifying in that when you get here you’re getting food that you can’t

really get anywhere else because it’s our own.”

Spiedo General Manager Matthew Ferreira has worked in the restaurant industry since he was 17 years old, both locally and in New England. With this amount of experience, he said he sees something fun and valuable about Spiedo’s environment.

“It’s just a fun place,” Ferreira said. “We try to be as nonpretentious as possible. Just having fun with our drinks. We’ve got our draft cocktails which rotate out as we please (and) chefs that are rotating menu items constantly.”

Ferreira said he believes people should come to Spiedo for the food, the accommodating prices and the overall value of the experience.

“I think first and foremost, the food is outstanding,” Ferreira said.

“We’re also trying to hit a price point that can be appreciated. There’s definitely some more expensive options around here that are great.

But we want to hit that mark where it’s available to everybody. The ingredients are there. The food is taken care of by some pretty skilled people, so you’re getting a lot of value for what you get here.”

Greenhill said he is always trying the new items at Spiedo and that his current favorite is the 2-Star Review, a falafel smash burger with various toppings. “(My favorite food at Spiedo is) usually something that’s new, but the sandwich I’ve been eating the most recently is the 2-Star Review,” Greenhill said. “We do it like a smashburger: take the ball, smash it on the griddle and then that’s wrapped with a fermented mango chili sauce and half sour cucumbers and then every sandwich has shredded cabbage, Spiedo sauce and pickled onions on it.”

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CAMPUS LIFE

Michigan Community Scholars Program organizes Circle of Unity event in honor of MLK day Event combines songs, poems and dance performances to honor MLK day

JAQUELINE AMBROSE Daily Staff Reporter

About 50 University of Michigan community members gathered in the LSA Building atrium for the MLK Day Circle of Unity Monday afternoon, hosted by the Michigan Community Scholars Program.

MCSP organized the event to commemorate and build on Martin Luther King Jr.’s advocacy during the civil rights movement.

The event included the performance of a variety of songs, poems and dances by a diverse group of local artists and U-M students. Among them were local singer-songwriter Joe Reilly, Detroit singer-guitarist Julie Beutel and LSA junior Angelique Dickson.

At the event, Dickson

performed an original poem in which she spoke about how leaders like King have inspired her to find her voice as an artist.

“These lips of wisdom, meek and young, the best friends with my tongue that will not be silenced, that will not stand still,” Dickson said. “Here, in this room and in this body, we can be heard.”

After the event in a message sent to The Daily, Dickson said she believes the event created a safe place for historically marginalized voices to express their art.

“As an artist and a Black woman on campus, I’ve always yearned for community and curated spaces to apply artistic expression, including my spoken word poetry,” Dickson wrote.

“With the MLK Joy and Unity event by MCSP program, I was able to reference historical efforts with a call to action through art and unity moving forward.”

Reilly sang traditional Cherokee chants and invited the audience members to dance together in a circle, symbolizing the solidarity across cultures. Reilly also sang an original song for the audience that underscored how the welcoming concept of the circle promotes unity and acceptance among all.

“There’s a place for you in the circle, the circle can expand,” Reilly sang. “Come and join the circle, all people hand in hand.”

LSA freshman Leah Adams, who belongs to the Michigan Community Scholars Program and she was glad she could come to an event like the Circle of Unity.

She said she appreciated that the performances highlighted artists and art forms from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

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Michigan Community Scholars Program Director Christine Money and Associate Director Joshua Thurman speak to students and community members attending the MLK Day Circle of Unity at the LSA Building Atrium Monday afternoon.

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Conquer the Cold is an annual promotion that aims to show that it isn’t as difficult to get to work without driving as it may seem in the winter months. Through education, outreach, and different challenges, the campaign aims to help commuters overcome the potential barriers of changing their patterns in colder weather.

News

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NEWS

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Ann Arbor celebrates its 200th birthday

Ann Arbor kicks off the celebration of its bicentennial at the Michigan Theater MICHELLE LIAO Daily Staff Reporter

University of Michigan students and Ann Arbor community members gathered together in the Michigan Theater Friday evening to celebrate Ann Arbor’s 200th birthday. The event, organized by the Ann Arbor Bicentennial committee through a partnership between the city of Ann Arbor and Destination Ann Arbor, is the first of many events scheduled throughout 2024 in honor of the anniversary.

The celebration included hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction and the reading of a poem written specifically for the occasion. Ann Arbor artist DJ Myint and the Community High School Jazz Program played music throughout the evening.

The celebration was hosted by John U. Bacon, a U-M alum and local author with long-standing ties to Ann Arbor. In his introductory address, Bacon described Ann Arbor as a great place to start a career, raise a family or grow as a person, regardless of one’s identity.

“I’ve lost count of how many magazines have ranked Ann Arbor in the top 10 — often number one — as the best place to live in the United States,

from students to seniors,” Bacon said.

“We have every demographic you can name, every race, religion, age and economic stratum. As a friend of mine said years ago, ‘If you don’t fit in anywhere else, you will fit in here.’ ” Following Bacon, City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. and Mayor Christopher Taylor each delivered opening remarks, reflecting upon how the unity of the Ann Arbor community will be remembered for years to come.

Dohoney called on Ann Arbor community members to change the city for the better as past residents have done.

“Our city is the result of the fingerprints of the founders 200 years ago,” Dohoney said. “This is our time. It is time for the 125,000 people who call Ann Arbor home to press their fingertips on their city.”

Immediately after, several state lawmakers from the Ann Arbor area presented a special bicentennial tribute to Ann Arbor. The document, signed by state representatives, senators, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, described Ann Arbor’s history and celebrated the city’s achievements.

“Founded on May 25, 1824, ‘Annarbour’ began as a small village with humble beginnings,” the tribute

reads. “Little did its settlers know that their dreams and aspirations would lay the foundation for a city that would become a beacon of progress and intellect.”

Aaron Dworkin, a spoken-word performing artist and professor at the School of Music, Theatre, & Dance and Ross School of Business, recited a bicentennial poem. The poem, “Arbor Quilt,” honors 200 years of past Ann Arbor residents and how their legacies are still ingrained in the city today.

The event continued with a brief trivia game on Ann Arbor history and information about Ann Arbor’s bicentennial legacy projects, including the Bicentennial Park and the James L. Crawford Elks Lodge. These legacy projects are dedicated to creating innovative spaces where neighbors, friends and families can connect. The projects also aim to renovate park paths to be more accessible and restore the Elks Lodge, which is a historical gathering space for Black Ann Arbor residents. All ticket proceeds from the bicentennial kickoff event went toward these projects.

The evening wrapped up with an unveiling of the bicentennial tile created by Motawi Tileworks.

Nawal Motawi, owner and founder

BUSINESS

Detroit-based ice cream shop Milk & Froth opens second location in Ann Arbor The shop features unique flavors like honeycomb and black sesame MALENY CRESPO Daily Staff Reporter

When customers walk into Milk & Froth, the newest addition to Ann Arbor’s collection of unique ice cream shops, they are greeted by bright red walls and a display of ice cream flavors including honeycomb, sea salt butter cake and malt cherry chocolate. Milk & Froth, Detroit-based ice cream shop, first opened its Ann Arbor doors three months ago on 328 S. Main St., but their ice cream can be found at a variety of stores across the state.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Emma Irvine, Ann Arbor Milk & Froth employee, said the atmosphere of the store creates a positive environment for employees, Ann Arbor residents and U-M students alike.

“Everyone’s in a good mood when they come here,” Irvine said, “It is a local business in Southeast Michigan and it contributes to creating jobs for a lot of students. It’s also a place where

students can hang out.”

Public Health graduate student Zainab Manzoor said she recommends the new ice cream shop to students.

Manzoor was particularly excited to see honeycomb ice cream offered at Milk & Froth — while it is one of her favorites, she said it is often hard to find.

“You don’t see honeycomb a lot in other places,” Manzoor said.

“Honeycomb is a super good flavor of ice cream and one of my favorites, so I appreciate having that here in Michigan. (Milk & Froth) is cute! It’s got really interesting decor and seating areas. It’s a nice location.”

The company prides itself on offering a variety of homemade ice cream flavors, including vegan and dairyfree options. Public Health graduate student Skylar Pearse said she feels the atmosphere and fun flavors make Milk & Froth a perfect place to visit, especially for the adventurous type.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

RESEARCH

Electric vs. gasoline Vehicles: U-M study compares costs and benefits

While electric vehicles are more expensive upfront, EVs are more cost effective in the long-run EMMA LAPP

Daily Staff Reporter A University of Michigan study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology Jan. 3 compares the costs of purchasing and owning electric and gas vehicles. The study examined differences in the costs of refueling, financing, buying home charging equipment and maintenance.

U-M researchers included 14 different U.S. cities in the study: Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. These cities were included in the research to understand a wide range of gasoline and electricity prices across the country.

The study found that, while purchasing an electric vehicle is more expensive upfront, over time, users will start to break even — both environmentally and economically.

Additionally, the federal government is offering qualified electric vehicle buyers tax credits of up to $7,500 for new cars and $4,000 for used cars to incentivize purchasing EVs. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Maxwell Woody, graduate student research assistant and lead author of the study, said the overarching goal of this research was

to compare transportation options in the context of the climate crisis.

“Electric vehicles are definitely an important piece in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Woody said. “My primary interest is seeing how these different transportation options impact climate change.”

Greg Keoleian, co-author of the study and co-founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Systems, said in an interview with The Daily that typically, electric vehicles with a shorter battery life are more affordable than gasoline vehicles.

“The total cost of ownership can be less expensive for sedans and smaller SUVs … due to lower costs for vehicle operation and maintenance,” Keoleian said.

A new study will continue this research by looking at the same metrics with used vehicles, which Woody said are an under-researched topic in the field, despite the fact that around 75% of vehicles sold in the U.S. are used.

“The vast majority of studies on vehicle total cost of ownership look at new vehicles,” Woody said. “So, it is a very under-researched area and we are excited to get started.”

Keoleian said there are both conveniences and inconveniences of owning an EV, which play a role in consumer decisions.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

BELA FISCHER/Daily Resident poet journalist, Aaron Dworkin, presents a poem for the bicentennial called “Arbor Quilt” at the Ann Arbor Bicentennial Kickoff Celebration Friday evening.

of Motawi Tileworks, spoke about the inspiration behind her piece and the struggle of designing a tile that incorporates 200 years of Ann Arbor history.

“In my first versions of this design, I tried to incorporate way too many things about Ann Arbor,” Motawi said. “Of course, I tried

to hit education and diversity, and diversity and religion, and history and affluence and poverty and art and fear and Hash Bash and guitar solos. But an artist has to make choices.”

Reflecting upon the event, local community member Carolyn Hall told The Daily that taking part in the

kickoff celebration made her eager to attend the rest of the events this year.

“I thought it was just wonderful,” Hall said. “It made me very enthused about all the upcoming events. I’m gonna have to try to sign up to get updates on what’s going on. I hope to be able to participate as much as possible during this year.”

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 — 5

The 10 best songs of 2023 DAILY MUSIC WRITERS

Standout singles, crazy collabs and anticipated comebacks: Last year’s songs gave us at the Music Beat a masterclass in artistry.

In no particular order, we’ve cataloged 10 of the best tracks that dropped in 2023.

— Music Beat Editor Amina Cattaui and Senior Arts Editor Thejas Varma “Melody Experiment” by Blonde Redhead Blonde Redhead was the band of my preteen years. In the mid2010s, they soundtracked an infamous scene in “Rick and Morty” — and while my care for that show has passed, my adoration for Blonde Redhead has not. The band was my first brush with no wave, the scene that bloomed out of the cruddy cracks of New York City, my hometown.

The band’s 2023 project, Sit Down For Dinner, comes after seven years of hard silence. Since bursting onto the scene in the ’90s, they’ve gone steadily poppier, more detached from corporeal instruments. On later projects, their pulse slows; frontman Kazu Makino sings without screaming.

“Melody Experiment” is this development’s logical conclusion:

a world of pure form, melting surfaces, all ecstasy and bliss.

The song opens on detuned guitar stabs, psychedelic fronds of synth weaving in and out. Makino drawls a reverberating lullaby, whacked out on her backtrack: “How would you feel if I kept you secret?” Punctuated by Amadeo Pace’s drums, the chorus takes on a muffled intensity, a stickysweet threat.

The back half of “Melody Experiment” stews in its effects — the roiling brass, the shimmering woodwind — to become the creaks and groans of some extraterrestrial machine.

This is where I decide: Of course I will Sit Down For Dinner. Just one last time.

project. Foushee opens the song floating over a syncopated bass line, creating a sound that is as joyous as it is addicting. Yachty assists Foushee with his melodies and begins his verse in the same style as the song starts. He holds well in delivery, although it is obvious he doesn’t have the vocal prowess of his predecessor. The track transitions into a slow bridge breakdown, which fits Yachty’s flow and vocals better, before exiting into a stringfilled section that leads into the next track. The jubilant nature present throughout this song keeps it in my rotation, and the artistic growth Lil Yachty displays throughout this record cannot be understated.

“drive ME crazy!” by Lil Yachty Lil Yachty’s transition from pop rapper to psychedelic rocker is something no one had on their 2023 bingo cards — but somehow, it worked. With Let’s Start Here.’s overwhelming critical reception, well-received singles in “SOLO STEPPIN CRETE BOY” and “Strike (Holster)” and a recent feature with Faye Webster on “Lego Ring,” Lil Yachty has proven himself as a cross-genre powerhouse. While “drive ME crazy!” doesn’t quite fit in sonically with the rest of Let’s Start Here., the track is a definite high point on the 14-song

“Tropic Morning News” by The National Ennui is back. And there’s nothing more bummed out and listless than a middle-aged white man processing a broken marriage on a tropical vacation.

I present to you “Tropic Morning News” by The National: one of the best songs of 2023.

The National’s production process is unorthodox. First, twins Aaron and Bryce Dessner work with brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf to create a host of instrumental tracks. Then, on his own, lead singer Matt Berninger writes and records

Design by Evelyn Mousigian

the vocals that are added on top.

Every now and then, this twostep process produces discordant tracks that don’t totally work. But most of the time, the stars align, and Berninger gets it just right.

“Tropic Morning News” is one of those times. “I was suffering more than I let on / The tropic morning news was on / There’s nothing stopping me now / From saying all the painful parts out loud,” Beringer talk-moans, like he doesn’t even want to be there,

perfectly matching the rising, eerie guitar loop and steady upbeat instrumentals.

“Oh, where are all the moments we had? Oh, where’s the brain we shared?” Berninger asks as the drums pick up and the chorus swells. It makes you feel sad, exasperated and cathartic all at the same time. What more do you want from five minutes of life?

“In Ha Mood” by Ice Spice Many have called Ice Spice

a boring rapper. After striking gold on TikTok in 2022 with her breakthrough single “Munch (Feelin’ U),” she has rocketed to her current rap star status, landing features with Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj among others. Like her signature ginger curlicue hairdo, she seldom switches up her tried and true drill beats, and her languid flow is unwaveringly monotone.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

The best books of 2023 DAILY BOOKS WRITERS

Another year past, another insurmountable collection of works published. Similar to the routine passage of a year and the events that can make or break it, every story written has the opportunity to either pass readers by nonchalantly or stay engraved in their hearts and minds forever.

Books play a large role in the lives of Books Writers. As years pass, we read and read in constant search of the next best book. And as our fingertips lightly graze page after page of stories and knowledge, every once in a while, we encounter a book that leaves us thinking. A book that transforms us.

Brought to you by The Michigan Daily Book Review, here are the books that transformed us this year. Read on to find out more about our favorite books of 2023.

— Graciela Batlle Cestero, Senior Arts Editor, and Camille Nagy, Books Beat Editor “The Good Part” by Sophie Cousens When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to graduate and go to college. Now that I’m set to graduate college in less than six

months — although there’s a part of me that’s scared and reluctant to do so — I wish I could graduate already and begin my adult life working and having a stable income.

Lucy Young, the protagonist of “The Good Part,” feels similarly.

She’s 26 years old, working in TV production (but not in the position she wants) and living in a crappy apartment, and she can’t seem to find her person. But one night, after another failed first date, Lucy stumbles upon a wishing machine.

She wishes that she could just skip to the good part of her life. The next morning, she wakes up next to a handsome man, a ring on her finger, her dream job and two kids calling her mom. When she looks in the mirror, she finds her 42-year-old self and discovers she can’t remember the past 16 years of her life.

I have always loved magical realist books. “The Good Part” reminded me a lot of the romcom “13 Going on 30.” These works of fiction take “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” to the next level. The characters find that getting everything they ever wanted might come at an unexpected cost, by sacrificing their friendships or morals.

As Lucy embraces her strange

Design by Sara Fang

situation, she realizes that her future life isn’t perfect, but she still falls in love with the new relationships she develops and can’t imagine giving them up. Not only was “The Good Part” relatable, but it was also a good reminder to be present and appreciate life as it is in the moment, which made it one of my favorite books that was published in 2023.

“Starling House” by Alix E. Harrow Despite the popularity of Harrow’s previous works — including her Hugo Award– nominated debut, “The Ten

Thousand Doors of January” — “Starling House” is the first of her works I have read. And I’m so glad I did.

The story follows Opal, a perpetually down-on-her-luck high school dropout who lives in a motel with her teenage brother, Jasper, as she works a dead-end job trying to get him out of their small town before it kills him.

That’s not an exaggeration: Eden, Kentucky is a coal-mining town, owned and controlled by the influential Gravely family, who are perfectly content to pollute the city with poisoned air if it means turning a profit — a condition that isn’t exactly healthy for anyone,

but one that could be deadly for Jasper, who has asthma. Opal worries that any day in Eden could be his last. Besides, Opal knows that Jasper is meant for more than the small town can offer him; it’s been her goal since their mom died to get her brother out of Eden once and for all.

A seemingly perfect opportunity presents itself when Jasper is offered a place at an exclusive boarding school hours away from Eden. The only problem? Opal has no idea how she’s going to afford it. As if fate is listening, Opal is offered a cleaning job at local recluse Arthur Starling’s dilapidated gothic mansion, paying what she needs for Jasper’s school and then some.

The deal seems almost too good to be true, which Opal quickly realizes it is when strange things begin to happen, all of which lead back to the House and the story of the first woman who lived there: E. Starling, a famous children’s book author who mysteriously disappeared after building the home over a century before.

“Starling House” is a beautiful, lyrical story that explores the questions of what and where home really is, as well as how power shapes the stories we are told and the stories we aren’t. If

you have ever wondered where you belong or if the histories you have been told are true, this enchantingly dark and surprisingly heartwarming story is a perfect read for you.

“Rouge” by Mona Awad When it comes to authors I love, I’m always hesitant to read one of their new releases for fear of it falling short of their past prowess, and Mona Awad’s “Rouge” was no exception. While desperately wanting to jump down the rabbit hole of gothic absurdity that is the hallmark of Awad’s work, I knew I needed to wait for the right moment to dive into her newest novel. Over winter break, I finally ripped off the Band-Aid and dared “Rouge” to be just as good as Awad’s previous masterpieces — luckily enough, it was another work of ingenious talent.

“Rouge” follows Mirabelle, a skincare-obsessed shop girl who is traveling back to California after the sudden death of her estranged mother. While battling her grief, she is left with the heavy burden of her mother’s debt and the responsibility of unraveling the mystery of her mother’s confusing life.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

The best TV shows of 2023 DAILY TV WRITERS

Television is (arguably) the most popular art form of our time. These 20-to-60 minute stories we watch from the comfort of our homes have the power to fundamentally alter us.

We absorb their themes, their style and their performances (especially the award–season–

sweeping ones) and carry them with us wherever we go. 2023 was a year full of stories to carry, and we’ve compiled only the best to spotlight for you to cry with and laugh at for many years to come.

— Mina Tobya, Senior Arts Editor, and Olivia Tarling, TV Beat Editor “The Bear” Season Two Sometimes watching

an

incredible first season of a show feels a bit like witnessing lightning in a bottle; the idea of someone recreating that magic a second time around feels nearly impossible. But season two of “The Bear” comes pretty darn close. While season one concentrated primarily on Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White, “Shameless”) storyline coping with the grief of his brother’s death, season two

Design by Avery Nelson

redistributes the focus across the ensemble, developing a rich tapestry of their work and home lives. Carmy’s sister Sugar (Abby Elliott, “Saturday Night Live”) steps up to a main role, as she, Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, “Bottoms”) work together to renovate the restaurant from the ground up and reopen under a new name.

With new characters and guest stars abound, this was the season of bottle-ish episodes that further developed their lives outside of the restaurant.

Episode four follows Marcus (Lionel Boyce, “The Jellies”) on his journey to Copenhagen, where he trains and grows more confident in his skills as a pastry chef. Episode seven centers on Richie (Ebon MossBachrach, “No Hard Feelings”) as he spends a week working at an upscale restaurant; he leaves with a newfound appreciation and respect for the dedication of his craft and performs a truly euphoric rendition of “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).”

But it’s the tension-fueled Christmas episode, “Fishes,” that is the true highlight of the season as a whole. The Berzatto family is filled out with star after star performing to the nines: Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”), Sarah Paulson (“American Horror Story”),

John Mulaney (“Big Mouth”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Halloween Ends”) and Jon Bernthal (“The Punisher”) all bring their A games in this hour-long pressure cooker of an episode.

The dinner scene is simply legendary. For every line that pulls an irrepressible laugh out of you, the next punches you right in the gut, which is the essence of the show’s comedicdramatic charm.

“Daisy Jones & The Six” So often in television and media, nostalgia is the name of the game. From reboots to revivals, a callback to simpler times has the power to garner unprecedented amounts of audience engagement. Throw in a salacious love story, stunning visuals and overt references to one of the best bands born of the ’70s, and you’ve got yourself a TV success story like that of “Daisy Jones & The Six.” Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by famed author Taylor Jenkins Reid, “Daisy Jones & The Six” was perhaps one of the most anticipated television releases of 2023, especially for those fans of the unique and engaging original novel. While the TV adaptation did choose to gloss over a few finer plot points, it gave audiences the gift of pure rock

‘n’ roll revelry as it documented the rise and fall of a fictional ’70s rock band.

Stars Riley Keough (“The Girlfriend Experience”) and Sam Claf lin (“Me Before You”) give a captivating performance as forbidden twin f lames Daisy and Billy, bringing to life the reckless danger of their toxic yet allconsuming relationship — all while delivering spectacular renditions of a soundtrack that I have been shamelessly streaming for nearly a calendar year. Camila Morrone (“Death Wish”) embodies her character Camila Alvarez poignantly and beautifully, putting forth a performance that helps to bring a touch of humanity and rationality to this narrative so laden with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Whether or not “Daisy Jones & The Six” succeeded in touching on every intricacy of the original story, it gave us the ’70s retro-rocker looks, enigmatic acting and good oldfashioned throwbacks that we all wanted and needed. For that, I’m eternally grateful. I, for one, will be thinking about the Camila/Billy/Daisy love triangle all throughout 2024, and I’ll be streaming “Aurora” until kingdom come.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Arts

6 — Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Digital Culture’s 2023 year in review DAILY DIGITAL CULTURE WRITERS

2023 was full of surprises for the digital world. There were video game adaptations galore (both nostalgic and disappointing), new memes and trends that should cause us all to question our internet addictions and — most importantly — The Josh Hutcherson Renaissance. New games were played, TikTok trends were analyzed and controversy was abundant. We’ve decided to highlight an iconic moment for each month of 2023, a surprisingly difficult but righteous task. Below are the Digital Culture Beat’s top picks for the year, some amusing, some lighthearted and others crucial to discuss.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane together.

— Rebecca Smith, Senior Arts Editor, and Cecilia Ledezma, Digital Culture Beat Editor January: maia arson crimew leaks the no-fly list We started the year off with the United States government taking the L, courtesy of maia arson crimew (it/she), a self-described “autistic enby trans artist and hacktivist” from Switzerland.

On Jan. 19, crimew revealed that it had come across the list using ZoomEye, a search engine for servers connected to the internet.

In its blog post about the leak, crimew recounted finding an unprotected server of a US airline named CommuteAir, sifting through repositories and files out of sheer boredom and then stumbling upon gold: In addition to the list later confirmed as the TSA’s 2019 no-fly list, it also discovered droves of personal info about airline staff

including passport numbers and full addresses. I recommend giving the post a read — crimew goes over the technical aspects in a way even my “Khan Academy coding made me rage-quit” self can follow, and I genuinely don’t know if that’s a testament to its skill as a hacker, or how abysmal CommuteAir’s IT was. crimew then brought the findings to The Daily Dot and, together, they started our year off strong with one of the funniest technically-not crimes in a while.

The absurdity and activism underneath propelled the situation to icon status. The blog post’s quote “holy fucking bingle. what?! :3,” paired with a picture of the eponymous Sprigatito plush obscuring the list on maia’s screen, became a meme. crimew itself also became a legend for being the trans catgirl wanted by its nine girlfriends and also the United States government. crimew’s identity as a Queer person is also a big part of its political identity as a socialist and anarchist. In an article from Blick translated from German, it states, “You’ll find out firsthand that right-wing people don’t want you to exist.

And so of course you have all the more reasons to be angry with the system.” The idea of trans oppression as a symptom of the larger capitalist government runs deep in many Queer liberation spaces, so it is at least somewhat satisfying to see one of your own take a swing and connect so solidly.

Keep up the good work in 2024, crimew!

February: Spotify’s new AI DJ With the rise in popularity of consumer-based artificial intelligence services such as AI art and ChatGPT, as well as AI-generated content in YouTube videos and disturbing deepfakes,

it was inevitable that the music streaming business hopped in on the trend of making their own AI gimmick for users. The AI DJ didn’t exactly take the world by storm, considering it was just a glorified playlist, but it’s still fun to play around with and is generally pretty good at picking songs that the user will enjoy.

Maddie Agne, former Digital Culture writer, chronicled her experience with the AI, poignantly pondering on whether AI will shape how we consume and share art; she says it already has, and I agree. Spotify has already been using machine learning and language processing to recommend new music to listeners, turning music production into even more of a corporate commodity with the “playlist-ification” of music. The cherry on top is because of how widespread the usage of streaming services like Spotify is, artists realistically don’t have other options for reaching an audience.

When advertising, the market and capitalism as a whole begin to shape a medium and art can be robbed of its potential.

Since the AI industry is made up mostly of white males, racism can end up rearing its ugly head. Whether it’s a chatbot regurgitating stereotypes or AI policing reinforcing an already troubling history of racial discrimination among the overmilitarized police of the United States, AI is not immune to the biases of its creators and users.

This and the appropriation of Black culture throughout music history feel like they come together in an unholy fusion upon hearing Spotify use a Black man’s likeness for the face of their hip new DJ. However, Xavier Jernigan does quite a bit of work with Spotify and seemed to be enthusiastic about

The top 10 films of 2023

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the whole thing, which is nice to see.

Ethics be damned, though, I still wanted to get my grubby little hands on the AI DJ and give it a try. Xavier started me off with “Can’t Make U Change”

by JID (ft. Ari Lennox), before launching me into “Roses” by Kanye West and “SUMMER” by BROCKHAMPTON. I did NOT expect my listening experience to veer from throwing my flat ass back to the five stages of grief in the middle of my kitchen, but I won’t complain. It hit.

March: AI-powered presidents play video games Amid fears and confusion over new developments in AI technologies like ChatGPT, a new twist on these technologies (specifically AI-powered deepfakes) appeared: Videos of political figures playing games

DAILY FILM WRITERS

It feels like every year is a great year for movies (2020 excluding), so deeming 2023 a great year for movies feels like an underreaction.

This was an incredible year for movies, including splashy debuts, genre resurrections, modern classics and career retrospective swan songs to cap legacies. All that to say, it was hard making this list. Very hard. There were a lot of close calls and tough snubs (sorry “Barbie!”) So just know this list is as cultivated as possible, and while we would tell you to use this list as a recommendation, we both know you’re gonna finish reading this and then watch TikTok for three hours.

— Senior Arts Editor Rami Mahdi and Film Beat Editor Alvin Anand 10. “Asteroid City” Fantastic simplicity. That’s what Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” gave me — the colors, the eccentricity, the plot. It’s just another coming-of-age story dealing with themes of grief, isolation and human connection all told through the creative plot device of a stage play. It looks and feels like a typical Anderson film, but it doesn’t shatter minds or make the audience question reality.

“Asteroid City” is straightforward, and that’s what makes it so special.

Nowadays, narratives feel overly convoluted. There always

seems to be a twist, a betrayal and a backstabbing scene somewhere in between — all to create a mindnumbing, thought-provoking finale that leaves audiences raving and questioning online.

But “Asteroid City” introduces the characters and the conflict, gives them their arc and concludes the plot all with a little peculiarity here and there. For some, this idea may seem underwhelming — especially with the expectations that come with a Wes Anderson film — but “Asteroid City” establishes a refreshing, candid narrative that feels like a productive, lighthearted and thoughtful watch.

9. “The Holdovers” Although it takes time to discover the true longevity of our socially accepted “classics,” I wouldn’t be surprised if this year’s “The Holdovers” remained a Christmas staple for years to come. Set in the 1970s at a picturesque New England private school, hardened teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti, “Big Fat Liar”) finds himself stuck watching over the holdover students during winter break.

While the students are no more eager than he is to be stuck there during the holiday, unlikely bonds begin to emerge, particularly among Mr. Hunham, troubled student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa, debut) and head chef Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “Rustin”).

The typically joyous holiday season finds Mr. Hunham and his makeshift family surrounded

by the more melancholic feelings that winter brings. Mr. Hunham feels stagnant and ostracized by his peers, Angus appears abandoned by his family and Mary deals with the recent loss of her son to the Vietnam War. A holiday once filled with joy and togetherness is now tainted with loneliness and grief, and the only way to cope is to find comfort in the company of near strangers.

Through much trial and error, the three help each other grow in ways they never thought possible.

8. “Anatomy of a Fall” Some have called 2023 a year for the courtroom drama, citing “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.” Triet’s effort outclasses those films in the courtroom, a deadly waltz to the music of warring perceptions of the truth with a marital fight scene so raw, biting and well-written that film history will surely offer it an esteemed place. Sandra Hüller (“The Zone of Interest”) stars as Sandra Voyter, a writer accused of killing her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis, “Softie”) and leaving their visually-impaired child, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, “Waiting for Bojangles”), fatherless and as the only witness.

With no definitive physical evidence, no eyewitnesses or contradicting testimonies, the defense and prosecution turn to Sandra and Samuel’s fraught marriage to form their theories.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

videos that are disgustingly racist and homophobic, the majority of the ones that I’ve seen have only some light ribbing, and some even portray the three as friends.

One YouTuber has even made a feature-length film that imagines them as middle-schoolers dealing with their high-school bully, Ben Shapiro. These videos are downright ridiculous, yet there’s a charm to some of them that I just can’t seem to describe. Maybe it’s hearing such influential figures act like everyday people, or maybe it’s how great Biden sounds on Ice Spice and PinkPantheress’ “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2.” Whatever it may be, this trend shows that while this new technology can be used for evil and manipulative means, it can also be used for what the internet does best: turning weighty issues into a joke.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

The 2023 ins and outs list that actually matters There was a lot to love and hate in 2023 from all corners of art and culture. The Michigan Daily Style beat is here to tell you that maybe your friend who posted about how they cannot get enough of highrise jeans for the fifth year in a row was, unfortunately, wrong.

These are what we consider the ultimate in and out trends, items and activities for the coming year (and you have to trust us; our list is published on more than just Instagram). The new year has just begun. Let us inspire you to throw on a scarf, burn that ironic T-shirt and make some better book (and breakfast) choices before you find yourself falling into obsolescence before the decade is half done.

— Erin Evans, Senior Arts Editor, and Constance Meade, Style Beat Editor

trend, but Patrick the Pig is the embodiment of the phrase “to be loved is to be changed.” In his faded fur, I see those annual trips with my Gramma, feeding the newborn lambs grass and sharing a bowl of our favorite peanut soup. I see elementary school show and tell with the friends I remember fondly even if we haven’t spoken in years. I see childhood happiness.

As I come to the end of my undergraduate career at the University of Michigan, the concept of growing up has become daunting. Near. Real. A little voice in my head constantly asks me “What comes next?”

But childhood memories keep me grounded in myself. I know who I am because of where I’ve come from. I’m not so worried about what comes next, but understanding myself in the present. And I sleep better at night knowing that Patrick the Pig is tucked under my arm.

In: your childhood stuffed animal Patrick the Pig was a gift my Gramma gave me after our annual spring trip to Mt. Vernon in the early 2000s. He is white with black spots, though they have now faded to gray. His fur, once soft and pure white, has become slightly matted; I fidgeted with his curly tail so much as a child that it’s now straight and its baby pink is now more of a dusty rose. It may be a cliche TikTok

Out: Gluten Celiac disease sucks. I’ve said it a million times and made it everyone’s problem, but that’s because I have to. I thoroughly wipe down the counters in my apartment before eating even if I’m pretty sure no one is home to have poisoned them. I remind the social coordinators for theatre parties that they should keep the traditional party bread away from other snacks.

But Celiac is more than just a

DAILY STYLE WRITERS

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like Fortnite and Minecraft.

Using vocal deepfake programs, memelords and edgy teens could upload just a short voice clip from Barack Obama’s 2013 inaugural address and have a scarily accurate voice model of the former president to puppeteer as they pleased.

The power of this technology is scary — it can be used to spread misinformation and scam people out of thousands of dollars.

However, as is the case with many of the existential threats we face in our modern age, people found a way to use this technology for the greater good of meme culture.

The most popular of these memes usually feature the three most recent presidents, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, playing some sort of game and arguing with one another, often making references to one another’s time in office. While some people chose to use this format to make

nuisance. It’s missing my favorite chocolate birthday cake from Wegmans and the candies I loved as a child, the packaging of which reads in tiny fine print that they were processed on the same equipment that handles wheat.

It’s being offered Biscoff cookies on a plane and aching for the taste of a snack I took for granted before I was diagnosed. It’s being left out at food-centered gatherings and watching everyone else enjoy post-rehearsal pizza and cupcakes.

So when I find a dedicated gluten-free restaurant with delicious pasta and bread that tastes like the real thing, I am overjoyed. Every once in a while, I can forget that autoimmune disease burden and enjoy the food I’ve been missing so much. And guess what? Everyone can eat there, Celiac or not.

Let’s leave cross-contamination in 2023 so I can eat fast food without worrying about whether or not it will destroy my digestive system. I want some French fries.

In: reading children’s books Is it weird that I, a 20-year-old, love reading children’s books? No. Not at all.

Remember Curious George?

Frog and Toad? Geronimo Stilton?

(Especially the sheer artistic genius in Geronimo Stilton: the word “angry” complete with flames rising from the top.)

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MiC

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Wednesday, January 24, 2024 — 7

An ontology of names

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DANA ELOBAID MiC Columnist

A name has the unique ability to encapsulate human identity, denoting the very specific context its owner exists in.

Names act as a historical recordkeeping mechanism; not only do they literally trace lineage and convey a specific meaning, but they also carve out a people’s place in this world, documenting their existence, their livelihood, their homes, their personalities, their values and so much more.

Arabic names, like my own, are composed of many different elements that distinctly define a person’s identity. The first name is chosen by the parents and can represent an important symbol or quality. The middle name is usually patronymic, tracing someone’s lineage based on their male ancestors. The last name is traditionally a family name and can come from one of three sources: a nasab, laqab or nisba. A nasab reflects a family’s pedigree, designating the son or daughter of someone using the terms ibn and bint. A laqab is an epithet that describes a family; for example, the last name al-Rahman means the Merciful. A nisba can refer to a

family’s historical occupation (e.g. Hakim denotes doctors), family descent from a tribe or other group (e.g. al-Quraishi), or a geographical location (e.g.

Baghdadi).

My name, ‫د‬١‫دماح ريما ةن‬ ‫ديبعلا‬, follows the same construction. My first name, ‫د‬١‫ةن‬, is followed by my father’s name, ‫ريما‬, his father’s name, ‫دماح‬, and my last name, ‫ديبعلا‬, named after El-Obeid, the capital of the Sudanese state of North Kordofan.

My last name traces my family’s history in Sudan: They were natives of North Kordofan and El-Obeid, specifically.

But the name does more than that; it contextualizes more than 30,000 years of Sudanese history. From the ancient kingdom of Kush to EgyptianOttoman rule to British colonialism to the current Republic of Sudan, the nomads of El-Obeid find themselves a predominantly Muslim, Arabicspeaking population. Thus, the name ‫ ديبعلا‬itself, printed neatly in six Arabic letters, is not only a testament to the persistence of the Sudanese over Western colonization, but also a reflection of a different kind of imposing force: the Arabization

of Sudan that’s divorced its people from our indigenous culture and languages, the vast majority of which I’ll never get the chance to know.

See, names can also represent something much more sinister: the erasure of a people’s history, which is oftentimes done purposely. The deconstruction of a name is a violent affair, whether baked into societal norms, imposed through forced assimilation or systematically stripped by the killing of a people left unable to record their own history. To say a name is to speak power into the name, to recognize its significance and honor the history it carries.

Conversely, to remove someone’s name is to disempower them, forcibly detaching them from their cultural roots — and on a larger scale, ripping the roots themselves out of the ground.

An obvious example of this is the patronymic nature of names. Yes, my name encodes significant information about my dad’s family and their heritage.

But what of the other half of my lineage — my mother’s side of the family, so rich with Nubian history and culture, complete with an indigenous language, too (albeit endangered)? While

my mother retained her maiden name after marriage — as is customary in Sudan and the rest of the Islamic world — naming children strictly after the father’s family effectively erases the mother’s history from the narrative, leaving it up to her male relatives to carry on their family’s history. In many Western cultures, women adopt their husband’s last names after marriage, essentially fusing their own experiences from thereafter to a man’s name and getting absorbed into someone else’s story.

Throughout history, the removal of names has been employed as a tool to erase specific populations’ cultures and make room for a colonizing entity. In the late 19th century, for example, the U.S. government forced Native children into boarding schools with the goal of assimilating them into American culture and effectively erasing their Indigenous heritage. As part of their assimilation strategies, these schools forbade children from using their given names or speaking their languages, instead assigning them American names and enforcing English-only policies. Uttering an Indigenous name legitimized

it, honoring the individual’s tribe, language and naming practices. An American name, on the other hand, was a blank slate — albeit a violent, bloody one — which allowed American settlers to impose their customs onto Indigenous children without acknowledging, and thus, legitimizing their original cultures. From then on, these children’s Indigenous roots were overwritten by a new, colonial history that accompanied their new, colonial names.

Further, the destruction of a people themselves, through genocide or ethnic cleansing, eradicates entire groups of names en masse. As the death toll in Gaza surpasses 15,000, I’m reminded of a figure I read in mid-October: 47 families were completely wiped out of Gaza’s civil registries. Fortyseven families — meaning 47 entire family trees, totaling more than 500 individuals — were killed, erasing them from history in one fell swoop.

With the number of Palestinians killed increasing almost eight times since that first figure was released, I can’t help but think of how many more families’ histories have been suddenly cut short. On a broad scale, this mass eradication of names removes living, breathing records of Palestinians’ lives and familial traditions and pedigree

and occupations and epithets throughout history. The names of the dead pile up alongside their bodies, leaving unspoken an archive of Palestinian memories and culture.

As I type this 6,700 miles from El-Obeid, the city’s residents continue to suffer under siege

by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces amid the country’s ongoing war. Every time I read my own name in news about the city, I feel inextricably linked to the people there, my people, and their pain. Despite being continents away, transliterating my name to fit into the foreign Roman alphabet, I’m forever tied to my roots in Sudan, unable to escape my people’s collective grief and suffering.

But with every “Dana Elobaid” I scrawl onto a piece of paper, I’m also struck by my people’s history and strength, of our steady and ever-changing existence through millennia, of its proof that we will persevere yet again. At the same time, I’m sobered by the fact that this hopeful picture is incomplete without the acknowledgment that others have been stripped of the ability to resonate with their names and histories in the same way.

I’m reminded that in the fight for liberation, we must say the names and share the stories of those unable to do so themselves.

Tea leaves and territories NURAIYA MALIK MiC Columnist

The robust aroma of a Darjeeling or an Assam blend, rich bergamot oil and a sprinkle of jasmine leaves: tea is an emblem of British culture.

Historically, the custom of tea drinking in England has been bound by rules of etiquette.

From raising one’s pinky finger to napkin placement, the English have mastered the art of such unreasonable, yet ingrained, traditions.

This dignified pastime was once reserved only for royals and the upper class, before filtering into other pockets of society during the 19th century. To this day, the affair of tea drinking charms royal families, overseas dignitaries and the masses.

Personally, I find no joy in Earl Grey or English Breakfast. The black tea base lacks depth, while the fruity f lavor is an unsatisfactory

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essence. Yet, when I tell people that I am from London, they presume that finger sandwiches and scones are staples of my daily routine.

There is always a playful ridicule of the refined British ritual of afternoon tea, one that I politely laugh off.

Instead, my cup of tea is a comforting mug of pink Kashmiri chai. Mixed together with a vibrant symphony of

cardamom and cinnamon spices and enhanced by the delightful crunch of pistachios layering the creamy chai, it is almost too easy to indulge in this sensory experience. Kashmiri chai dances like a kaleidoscope in a cup, its rosy opulence in stark contrast to its more subdued British counterpart.

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Opinion

8 — Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

UMich crisis of democracy: A farewell letter ZACKARIAH FARAH U-M alum

“

Let us embrace our mission as a public institution, be diverse, democratic, open & accessible; & always seek, encourage, & value all voices.” This is the admirable promise that the University of Michigan made in 2014 to the campus community, the state of Michigan and the world. Yet, as we all know, there has long been a deep divide between many of the University’s promises and its reality.

Arguably the greatest such inconsistency has been between the University’s rhetorical support of democratic values and its autocratic actions. The University has recently resolved this perplexing contradiction by finally dropping any credible pretense of being a democratic institution.

Unless the University’s openly antidemocratic posture is swiftly repudiated by every corner of our campus, it will be here to stay.

The University’s authoritarian attitude was revealed during the November Central Student Government election. The ballot featured two referenda, one of which, AR 13-025 “University Accountability in the Face of Genocide,” supported divestment from Israeli corporations. During the three-day voting period, a public request was made by University of Michigan Hillel, the chief opponent of the resolution, to cancel the CSG referendum. Hillel turned to anonymous external donors, raising nearly $50,000 to lobby against the resolution. The subsequent opposition campaign featured events hosted by offcampus lobbyists, an automated text banking effort and a airplane banner ad urging students to vote no on AR 13-025.

Under the enormous pressure and amidst a national climate of fear in academia, President Ono gave in to the opposition’s demand.

For the first time in CSG’s history, administrators seized control of the election system and suspended voting.

To justify its denial of democracy, the administration conveniently cited a procedural mistake made by a U-M administrator. However, this was quickly contradicted

by Ono’s decree that no future elections may be carried out on AR 13-025. If the administration’s excuse for canceling the vote were true, steps could simply be taken to prevent an error during a repeat election.

Ono’s true intentions were inadvertently revealed by Yinam Cohen, consul general of Israel to the Midwest, who posted a

LILA TURNER/Daily

message of gratitude online: “The (U-M) administration did the right thing by stepping in and stopping this vote on an exceptionally antiIsrael resolution, which accused the State of Israel of committing genocide from going forward.”

The real concern was never the integrity of the election, but rather that another resolution critical of Israel might pass.

CSG responded to this attack on democracy in a reassuring statement: “free and fair campus elections must not be interfered with by forces external to CSG.” They went on to confirm that they were not consulted on the campus coup d’état. Despite the strongly worded statement, at the most recent University’s Board of Regents meeting on Dec. 7, not a single CSG representative even mentioned the blatant act of censorship in their comments.

This unsettling events clarify a couple of facets of how our university truly works.

First, students do not have a functioning democracy on campus.

CSG is dependent on the University in several vital ways including: administering its elections, communicating with the student body and collecting fees. It has now been confirmed that, through these dependencies, CSG can be censored at any time and for any reason.

Second, the other body tasked with governing student life, the Board of Regents, is a deeply antidemocratic institution.

Seven of the eight regents signed onto Ono’s Dec. 5 statement outlining his censorship efforts.

The regents also notably supported Ono’s attempt to aggressively break the recent GEO strike, despite a local affordability crisis and widespread support for unions among our generation. The board consistently raises tuition instead of eliminating extravagant expenditures and administrative bloat, in one instance voting to raise tuition during the first months of the pandemic while barring all public comments (an apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act). They remained silent when President Schlissel attempted to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, and have ignored the numerous calls to add a student position to the board.

The board does not care about what is popular on campus and has repeatedly acted against the will of stakeholders on key issues. I am hardly the first to recognize this.

And when the community tries to change the board’s policies through protest, they are frequently met with nothing but malicious intent.

In fact, the board has a history of ignoring acts of civil disobedience or, worse, criminalizing them, such as in the case of the movement against sweatshop labor, the fossil fuel divestment campaign or the most recent call to divest from Israeli corporations. Shameful acts of political repression are now commonplace at the University, an institution renowned for being

the birthplace of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Considering this apparent cognitive dissonance, one is left wondering if the University will be advertising our current protests as part of its venerable history 30 years from now.

Even the experience of attending regents meetings has become more authoritarian. Going to Ruthven to make a public comment to the regents feels more like passing through a militarized border checkpoint than participating in the affairs of a publicly elected body. Multiple layers of steel barricades, metal detectors and countless armed police officers are now the norm. Comments are strictly controlled, both in terms of the number and length, and there is even a fence inside the room to separate the plebeians from the administrative aristocrats.

At the most recent regents meeting, a Michigan Daily reporter was blocked from entering until 20 minutes after it had started, I was not allowed to give my comment because security held me in line during my speaking slot and a student attendee was detained.

Security also confiscated red pens and markers for fear that attendees would use them to stage a peaceful protest, coloring their hands blood red as demonstrators have done in various protests around the world.

The facade has fallen and what remains is a deeply authoritarian university whose leadership cancels elections, silences critics, bullies workers and selectively

empathizes with certain groups of students while idly bearing witness to the racist maltreatment of others. Thankfully, civil rights organizations like the ACLU are beginning to publicly note some of these concerning trends.

While the beginning of the Ono administration was a glimmer of hope for some, it is now clear that our new president will not be making any pro-democracy reforms, at least not willingly.

I myself have come a long way from my initial rosy assessment of President Ono. Those of us who strive towards a democratic society must undertake an honest and brutal analysis of the current predicament and work together to dig our way out. No one is coming to save us — certainly not President Ono nor the Board of Regents. The change we want to see will only be accomplished by building and using our collective power.

Students still do have leverage at this University. Students pay tuition, a vital source of university income, and can choose to withhold those payments to win concessions from the University as has been done recently at Columbia, the University of Chicago and even the University of Michigan in 1973.

Students also work vital posts around campus and can force change through labor strikes as we’ve seen with the successful grad workers strike last year.

Finally, students have the capacity to disrupt business as usual

through demonstrations; the newly founded Tahrir Coalition has been doing exactly that to achieve its admirable aims. All of these tactics are only possible when students organize themselves and act collectively. Student government can and should be a tool to help facilitate this kind of organizing.

While the current situation may seem somewhat dismal, one can imagine a not-so-distant future in which our campus is dominated by a different status quo, one constructed by a more active and inclusive labor movement (that embraces undergrad workers), where much of school policy is determined democratically by all stakeholders, where students are supported by an active student government, one that is willing to assist and even participate in acts of civil disobedience to enact the will of the student body. These things are distinctly possible, but only if students start organizing themselves and refuse to stop.

My time at the University is nearly done and while I deeply love this place, it is breaking my heart. In fact, it is precisely because I love my university that its antidemocratic momentum hurts me. There is indeed a crisis of democracy at the University today, and in this moment when the vestiges of democracy outside our campus are withering before our eyes, my appeal to you is simple: Do not permit this administration to extinguish democracy at the University.

Can’t find a job? You’re not alone TALIA BELOWICH Opinion Columnist

A

s a senior in college still figuring out my postgraduation plans, I am far too familiar with the dreaded question, “What are you doing next year?” In an effort to defend my “I don’t know” reply in the face of judgmental adults, I have done extensive research to defend the claim that the job hunt is significantly harder today than it was 30 years ago, right around the time our parents were searching.

The percentage of kids who earn more than their parents has dropped drastically within the past few decades; 90% of adults born in the 1940s earned more than their parents, compared to 50% of adults in the 1980s. This 40% drop indicates a downward trend in mobility in which the sharpest decline is felt by middle class families and in Midwestern states like Michigan. If we measure the American Dream like it’s defined by an improved financial state, then 90% of people in the 1940s achieved the American Dream, compared to 50% of people in the 1980s.

In a similar vein, a Pew Research study revealed that 62% of Americans think their kids will be worse off economically than they were at the same age. Following the aforementioned trend, this prediction seems plausible and shows that not only is there statistical

evidence to prove a declining comparative financial state for Americans, but many Americans feel that fiscal success is on the decline.

One possible explanation for the generational financial decline is the decreasing percentage of full-time workers in the U.S. While only 39% of 21 year olds were working full time in 2021, 64% of 21 year olds worked full time in 1980.

Some may chalk this up to decreased motivation to join the workforce or the fact that more young people are heading to college instead, but surveys say that Generation Z is still interested in finding that postgrad job. Decent jobs are just harder to come across.

There is no shortage of open jobs, with the number of job openings reaching 8.8 million in November 2023. However, there is a shortage of jobs with good benefits and high pay.

When searching for a full-time job, college students like myself are looking for financial security, benefits and a promised trajectory for success and stability. Finding a job with these qualities is more difficult today than it was 30 years ago, mostly due to oversaturation and the rise of technolog y.

Gabriel Cohen, a recent Engineering alum with a degree in computer science, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that there’s an oversaturation of people looking for a job in the tech industry.

“Technolog y grows every year, and I think a lot of people

recognize that,” Cohen said.

“So now we have all these people just looking for jobs in this field, and the jobs aren’t necessarily caught up.”

The number of open tech jobs has rapidly declined in the past year, from about 470,000 in April 2022 to 180,000 in January 2024. While the projected 23% increase in computer science and information research jobs between 2022 and 2032 may look significant, the demand cannot catch up with the supply. There exists a far more competitive playing field today than 30 years ago, as the number of adults with undergraduate degrees nearly doubled from 17% in 1980 to 33% in 2015. Millennials are better educated on average than those in prior generations, leading to higher competition among other applicants. As a result of the supply and demand imbalance, only the best of the best are able to break into the tech industry.

In an interview with The Daily, LSA senior Jeffrey Hitchcock remarked on the increasing difficulty of finding a high quality job.

“As decades go on, you’re going to need more than a bachelor’s if you want to come out and get a really good job,” Hitchcock said. “Experience is the biggest thing. If you don’t have experience, it’s very hard to get because everyone wants it.”

Technolog y has also changed the job application process in another substantial way —

now, anyone is able to apply anywhere. It doesn’t matter if the job is in California or New Hampshire: If there’s a remote option, there’s a way. College graduates aren’t just competing with the people within a 30-mile radius, we’re competing with applicants from all over the world, which can be incredibly discouraging. This added competition makes the chances of landing a job in your preferred field even lower.

According to Business Insider, remote roles garner three times the number of applicants compared to on-site positions.

The mere 9% of remote job positions posted on LinkedIn in August 2023 accounted for almost 50% of that month’s total job applications on LinkedIn. The benefits of remote work are widely recognized by applicants around the globe, but the demand for remote workers is steadily decreasing.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, high paying remote job posts decreased close to 70%, while high-paying, in-person job posts increased by 93%, thus leaving aspiring remote workers out of luck.

In conjunction with the oversaturated applicant pool is the problem of machineread applications. According to Yahoo Finance, three-outof-four resumes are never even seen by human eyes. Instead, machines look at your resume.

Some applicants use this to their advantage, saturating their resumes with buzzwords and invisible writing to get past

the first round. Others are relying on luck that the words on their resume match up to what the machine is searching for, a gamble one is likely to lose.

Either way, knowing there’s a high probability your resume will never even be seen is a huge hit to morale.

Further, research into resume-vetting algorithms shows significant problems with machines vetting applications. Some artificial intelligence tools are proven to be biased against female applicants, while others use outlandish criteria unrelated to the role in their decision making processes. Even recruiters are admitting the failures of AI in reading resumes. In an international survey of business executives, 88% admit that the AI they use rejects qualified applicants.

Hoyt Bleakley, U-M professor of economics, noted the search optimization strategies necessary for getting your resume past the machines.

“There’s sort of resume optimization, which is to say you have to figure out ways to make sure, through the appearance of your resume or through keywords, that yours passes through their algorithm,” Bleakly said.

To make matters worse, some job openings aren’t really job openings at all; they’re ghost jobs, or open positions that employers post but are not aiming to fill. There are many reasons why employers post ghost jobs, including the claim that

their company is “always open” to new talent or to “give off the impression that the company was growing.” Regardless of the reason, the result is the same. While there appear to be millions of jobs open for hiring, 60% of postings have been open for more than 30 days, which makes it likely that either the job doesn’t exist or the employer is not looking to fill it. In other words, it’s a ghost job.

This may be the reason why in February 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 10 million fewer jobs on payrolls than in February 2020.

Additionally, it takes a lengthy amount of time to get hired to the jobs that do exist.

Applicants all over the internet are sharing stories about undergoing excruciating interview processes, with many undergoing up to eight rounds of interviews only to be rejected after the final round.

While the increasing presence of ghost jobs, machine reading tools and other qualified competitors can be discouraging, it’s worth noting that you’re not alone. Take comfort in knowing your consistent rejections can be blamed on outside forces and that it really is more difficult to find a dependable job today compared to 30 years ago. So, the next time you have to field a question about your post-graduation plans, try to say “I don’t know” with a little more confidence, and most importantly, don’t give up. Good jobs may be rare, but you’re exceptional.

Opinion

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 — 9

Socioeconomic status matters more than you might think BRINA GOLUBOVIC Opinion Columnist

“

Wait, you don’t have a MacBook?” my friend whispers during class. I never noticed how my laptop stuck out before. As I looked at the sea of other students ahead of me, I noticed how nearly everyone had a MacBook. Not only that, but it seemed as if they had every Apple product on the market. Beyond Apple devices, they had expensive clothes and the newest Canada Goose jackets, and I became suddenly aware of how my economic status compared to the rest of the University of Michigan.

For students who don’t own a vehicle, the trek to find reasonable prices, whether for food or personal items, is not easy. Fast food and grocery stores are nearly inaccessible,

except for students with vehicles. The closest Trader Joe’s is nearly two miles away from Central Campus, essentially limiting vehicleless students to the State Street Target for groceries.

Considering this disparity, the economic divide between students becomes increasingly apparent: The University has students who can afford Golden Goose sneakers and students who can’t make this month’s rent.

Roughly 20% of U-M students come from families in the top fifth percentile of the nation’s wealth distribution. Harvard University, one of the richest universities in the United States, has a similar demographic.

Why does higher education look this way? Because gaps in educational quality between rich and poor K-12 schools often put students from less wealthy

communities at a disadvantage.

While education in the United States is not legally segregated, it remains divided. Over the past three decades, incomebased housing segregation has become more severe in America.

As school districts are funded by property taxes, students from aff luent neighborhoods are given greater opportunities than students from poorer neighborhoods.

Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds don’t have the same admissions preparation for navigating college applications, preparing for the SAT or ACT, funding their extracurricular activities or other opportunities that those from aff luent households do. This makes it harder to compete with students from wealthier backgrounds with greater access to resources for admissions to top universities

including the University of Michigan. To better level the playing field, the University should consider outside factors more heavily in the admissions process.

In the University’s highly competitive admissions process, students are pinned against one another. The median incoming GPA for U-M students is 3.9-4.0, and the average incoming SAT is 1435. Considering that lowincome students are less likely to score this high on their SAT or maintain the GPA needed to attend top-rated universities, these requirements are indirectly discriminating against their socioeconomic status.

Although universities are the ones to decide who’s admitted — maintaining their prestige and competitiveness, therefore creating a desire to attend

— students, no matter their background, should be given an equal opportunity to attend the university of their choice. Little wiggle room is left to those whose backgrounds did not allow for opportunities to be as successful in their GPAs and test scores. If the University truly wishes to maintain diversity, socioeconomic status should be considered in applications to ensure that students from low-income backgrounds have a chance at admission. While it should not be the case that the University lowers its standards, it should consider giving weight to the socioeconomic status of applicants and consider that top students from lower-income neighborhoods may not appear the same on their application as a student from a higher-income neighborhood.

The U-M application should focus on gaps and shortcomings

in students’ applications that resulted from barriers in their environment, on top of current essay options. Students should at the very least have the option to elaborate and give as much of their story as they want to. Students who had to work multiple jobs in high school or care for younger siblings should be able to explain those circumstances in an interview or additional essay.

By primarily accepting students from mainly one background, the University continues to play a role in perpetuating systemic inequity in the American education system. Instead of adhering to these schools’ strict requirements, students should be given the opportunity to explain their situation and make a case for themselves in more than just a few essay questions.

It’s only a matter of time LARA TINAWI Opinion Columnist

T

here is a lot to enjoy about the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. From November to February, our months are filled with holidays dedicated to spending time with loved ones, eating great food and giving and receiving gifts we’ve waited months for.

While not everyone experiences the stif ling cold winter can bring, one common trait throughout the United States around this time is the sun setting around or before 5 p.m. The days feel infinitely longer, and I’m missing out on what little bit of sun we see because it is dark outside when I leave class or work. I want my extra hour of sunlight back. It is time to make daylight saving time the permanent setting of our clocks year round.

While there is no clear consensus on who truly invented the idea of turning back the clock, it is commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin because of his role in publicizing it. The time change was used sporadically throughout history, but became more commonly used during World War I to save energy.

The Germans adopted daylight saving time in 1916, and the British followed suit.

In 1918, the United States did the same, but Congress repealed the practice in 1919, which left the option up to the states. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act to standardize time in the United States and institute daylight saving time as the standard between March and November.

States can still choose whether or not to implement daylight savings, with Arizona and Hawaii being the only two states that do not participate.

Arizona can reach stif ling temperatures in the summer, and more hours of sunlight is exactly what the state is trying to avoid. Hawaii’s close location to the equator makes the time of sunrise and sunsets relatively consistent year round, and changing the clock would not result in more or less hours for them. These two states, however, have extenuating circumstances where it makes sense for them not to participate.

That is not the case across most of the United States.

On Jan. 1 in Ann Arbor, sunrise was at 8:03 a.m.,

and sunset was at 5:13 p.m.

If daylight saving time was permanent, sunrise and sunset would be pushed forward an hour. While sunrise being at 9 a.m. can be difficult to imagine, it is something college students should welcome.

Research shows that, on average, college students go to bed around 1:54 a.m., and they wake up around 9:17 a.m. This shift would coincide with college students’ schedules and provide an extra hour of daylight throughout their days.

Understandably, not many Americans have the luxury

of late classes or being able to sleep until 9 a.m., but they certainly should. Throughout my academic career in Michigan, from elementary school through high school, I never had school start later than 8 a.m. In high school, we started classes at 7:15 a.m., and it was extremely damaging to not only my sleep schedule, but my peers’ as well. Many students had to drive to school or wake up even earlier to catch buses. There have been several studies and calls for schools to start later so that students can get more sleep

and ultimately perform better in class. Students who do not get enough sleep are more likely to feel depressed, suffer academically and be physically inactive.

By making daylight saving time permanent, it’ll encourage school systems to push the start of classes and benefit students across the country physically and mentally. The shift would allow students to sleep in and encourage development, while allowing more daylight hours to partake in extracurricular activities outside of their classes.

Design by Hailey Kim

Researchers and health professionals have continuously said that switching our clocks twice a year can be disruptive and have negative effects on health. The switch disrupts sleeping patterns, and as we approach November and March, we are encouraged to slightly adjust our habits to curb the impact of the switch.

Congress has already begun the process of making daylight saving time permanent with the introduction of the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The bill would have made daylight saving time permanent effective Nov. 5, 2023, and was passed in the Senate on March 15, 2022. However, the law has since come to a standstill. Sen. Marco Rubio reintroduced the bill on March 1, 2023, but it has yet to be passed by the Senate. With some enthusiastic encouragement aimed toward our senators, we can make daylight saving time our permanent reality.

Humans do not handle change very well, and it is a shame that we still participate in this unnecessary practice that causes disruptions in schedules for weeks following.

A poll from Monmouth University found that 61% of Americans would prefer to completely do away with the practice of switching our clocks, and I am in complete agreement.

As March approaches and we make our way back to daylight saving time, the right time, I can’t help but dread the inevitable early sunsets and unseen sun for most of winter.

Sunlight and daylight are good for humans, and we benefit from exposure to the sun, both physically and mentally. If we stop moving our clocks, we will benefit immediately, and it could cause long-term changes that have positive effects on society as a whole.

Stop interacting with people you dislike online ELIZA PHARES Opinion Columnist

O

n Dec. 18, 2023 comedian Ziwe Fumudoh sat down with recently-expelled cong ressman George Santos for a satirical-st yle interview to recap his short-lived career in Cong ress and inquire about what he plans to do in the future. When asked how the United States could possibly get rid of him, Santos gave some of the best advice of his political career, saying, “Stop inviting me to your gigs.”

Santos’ sentiment could not be more true. He currently headlines news articles every day despite being removed from Cong ress for over a month now. He charges $350 for a Cameo while still having 23 felony charges awaiting trial. The only thing keeping him af loat is the media and public discourse.

If we want people to disappear, we need to ig nore them. The cliche that all press is “good” press rings true, especially in the United States’ current cycle of round-theclock news and doomscrolling.

This mantra also applies to everyone else on the internet, not just politicians. Popular comedian Matt Rife has come under scrutiny for a domestic assault joke he made in his recent Netf lix comedy special.

Yet, despite public discourse around him, Rife has added more tour dates, made rounds on podcasts and increased his Instag ram follower count — all because this controversy has brought him more attention.

Public shaming has the opposite effect of what many hope for. The original intent of cancel culture was to stop giving attention to people who are problematic. In theory, this sounds g reat — a mass movement of information explaining why someone is

problematic and telling the world to stop supporting them. But in practice, all this negative attention has the opposite effect: whoever is being canceled becomes more popular. In this case, the power of ig noring Matt Rife altogether would have more of a capacit y to hinder his problematic views and his follower count than cancel culture ever would.

This phenomenon of negative attention and criticism effectively promoting controversial platforms is supported by social media algorithms.

All content on social media works in the same way: The more users that interact with a video, the more it’s recommended to other people.

There’s no distinction between watching a video whether you hate it or love it. When we talk about a person, other people will begin to engage in conversations with them. This

spreads into traditional media and news outlets picking these stories up, further fueling the conversation.

This spiral of content sharing isn’t entirely our fault; we are biologically compelled to interact with things that make us ang ry. Experiencing anger tends to make us bypass all rational forms of thought.

Our brain is overrun with emotion and what results is impaired judg ment. People will act out by leaving hateful comments on videos, deepdiving into a person’s internet history or reposting content for others to see in hopes they will rationalize the anger that the viewer feels.

Furthermore, given the polarized nature of our current societ y, it’s often hard to change people’s minds once they have formed their opinions.

Choosing to share your own opinion about a public fig ure doesn’t do much to change anyone’s

mind; it only churns out more content that does nothing but add more fuel to the fire. By participating in these dialog ues, we give more popularit y to a person by introducing new content consumers into the mix. In this case, the best tool one has is silence itself.

However, ig noring content does tread a thin line.

Sometimes, sharing information about others’ wrongdoings is vital. While cancel culture can overstep, it can still help hold celebrities accountable.

During the #MeToo Movement in 2017, when women came forward with their stories of sexual assault and harassment, a mass uproar of anger helped bring those assaulters to justice.

By initiating conversations about these eg regious people and their actions, the public was able to avoid accidentally supporting them. Still, most times, simply blocking a person

or a g roup is the best way to personally stop fueling them.

Instead of inundating their posts with ang ry comments, let their hard-forged celebrit y image slowly decay with every “unfollow.”

There’s an easy way to end this: We need to be more in touch with our emotions. If you don’t like a person, stop watching them.

Nothing is more detrimental to a public fig ure’s career than irrelevance. Fewer followers and views online reduce brand sponsorships and money for views on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, which both have creator funds where creators make money based on how many views they get. Unfollowing someone also mitigates hate speech and other personal and unnecessary attacks on a content creator’s character.

Simply ig noring someone is much better for everyone in the long run.

10 — Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FOOTBALL

SportsMonday: Don’t blame Warde Manuel alone for Jim Harbaugh’s lack of extension

CONNOR EAREGOOD Daily Sports Writer

In the eyes of some, there’s only one man responsible for Jim Harbaugh’s lack of a contract extension, and it’s not the one who’s flirting with the NFL at this very moment.

It’s Warde Manuel, the athletic director so polarizing that fans have made petitions calling for his removal and naming him a “Public Enemy.” Scroll through social media or ask a passionate Michigan fan about Harbaugh’s future, and they’ll probably spend half their argument dragging Manuel through the mud.

To be clear, there’s a reason.

Manuel has made a number of questionable decisions in recent years — trying to retain abusive coaches, reneging on contracts months after signing them and taking up NIL at a snail’s pace, to name just a few. And in this case, at a time when a beloved football team has turned into a powerhouse, Manuel has failed to guarantee that the figurehead who built it will stay at home.

But Harbaugh’s lack of a contract extension isn’t Manuel’s burden alone. Rather, it’s the shared

fault of Harbaugh for constantly testing his NFL options.

Let’s face it, Harbaugh has plenty of baggage. With two NCAA investigations into his program unresolved — regardless of whether the Wolverines won “fair and square” — Harbaugh’s contract situation has to reflect his uncertain future. It’s why he’s reportedly seeking a clause that requires an agreed-upon arbitration panel for any for-cause termination, in a contract that will supposedly make him the highest paid coach in college football. Even if Harbaugh says staying at Michigan is not about the money, he’s not going to risk millions should the NCAA reveal a fireable offense.

Manuel, meanwhile, isn’t going to risk Michigan footing that bill.

It’s easy to give a national championship-winning coach like Harbaugh everything they want. A lifetime contract, a fat paycheck, even a holiday in his honor — many fans would give him these without batting an eye.

Harbaugh’s name means so much today that he got politicians from both sides to come support him and his team at Michigan’s championship celebration.

But it’s Manuel’s job to take this slow and get the contract de-

tails right — even if it means his name gets dragged because of it.

More than just getting Harbaugh onboard again, Manuel, the Regents and everyone with a stake in Harbaugh’s contract have to make sure the contract works for the Wolverines, too.

All the while, Harbaugh has turned up the heat through continued interviews with NFL teams. The L.A. Chargers and Atlanta Falcons have conducted interviews already, and he’s got a second meeting booked with the Falcons. He might still decide to come back, but every day he further tests his loyalty. That is fully within his rights. But it’s also a sign that Harbaugh isn’t fully sold on a Michigan return, regardless of what contract negotiations might look like.

If Harbaugh was 100% committed to a Michigan return, he would’ve said so. Clearly, with his continued NFL interest, he isn’t, and Manuel cannot change that.

Manuel can try to court him back to Ann Arbor, but Harbaugh’s decision is solely his to make. And that’s what his current emotional cheating with the NFL suggests to anyone not blinded by the glitz of a championship ring.

If anything, by allowing Har-

baugh to string Michigan along on his victory lap, Manuel is giving Harbaugh too much leeway.

While other schools might pull the plug from fatigue if their coach flirted with the NFL every offseason looking for an upgrade, Manuel has remained patient because he knows he has a proven winner. But his patience on the contract front doesn’t mean Michigan doesn’t want Harbaugh, even if Harbaugh vaguely bemoaned his lack of an extension earlier this season.

“You want to be somewhere you’re wanted,” Harbaugh said Oct. 9. “They like what you do and how you do it. Then … your bosses tell you that, and that gets reflected in a contract. Any of us, right? We want to be somewhere that likes how you do it and what you do.”

Clearly Michigan likes how and what Harbaugh does — win — but now he has to reciprocate the feeling. And if politicians, fans and administrators saying they stand with him and want him back doesn’t make him feel welcome — like they’ve repeatedly done since Michigan won it all — then there really isn’t another red carpet that Michigan can lay out. Right now, he has everything most coaches

would dream of. It’s not Manuel’s fault if Harbaugh is unsatisfied.

Of course, the elephant in the room is that Manuel and Harbaugh have a seemingly rocky relationship — smart money suggests that’s a major hurdle to inking a new contract. Even Harbaugh’s last extension happened with the helping hand of U-M President Santa Ono, who “communicated” the news to Manuel. Ouch.

But the Manuel-Harbaugh dynamic is more complex. If we wind back the tape to 2020, Manuel slashed Harbaugh’s contract after the worst season of Michigan football since John F. Kennedy was president. Yet the majority of fans at the time — the same ones lamenting Manuel — wanted Harbaugh gone. It was Manuel’s belief, though tempered by the new contract, that kept him around.

Manuel bet on Harbaugh to prove himself. Harbaugh has now delivered with enough rings to fill a fist. Jackpot.

“If he decides that he wants another opportunity to coach in the pros, then I’m gonna be happy for him, sad for us,” Manuel said Jan. 8, mere hours after winning the national championship. “We’re gonna move on and find the next person to lead. But I want him to

stay at Michigan. I’ve said it. I believed that three, four years ago when people wanted me to get rid of him. I didn’t because I believed it then, and I believe it now.”

And as much as fans can pound their own fists demanding a Harbaugh contract, it isn’t just Manuel’s problem alone. There are two parties to every contract, and Harbaugh takes some of the blame too.

Sure, in a perfect world, Manuel should be able to sign a coach who just won him a national championship. But Harbaugh’s world is imperfect, especially without a Super Bowl ring and with so many NFL executives hitting his line.

No one can predict what Harbaugh will do besides Harbaugh himself. It isn’t Manuel’s fault alone that his head coach has commitment issues.

It’s easy to side yourself on the winning side of a lovably zany coach and hate on the scandalclad athletic director, but don’t just dump on Warde Manuel because it is easy. He’s responsible for many Michigan shortcomings, but he isn’t a scapegoat for Harbaugh’s ever-present NFL saga.

Manuel doesn’t deserve that, and it blinds you from what’s really going on between Harbaugh and his program.

WRESTLING

Michigan bounces back in statement win over Rutgers

JULIUS COHEN Daily Sports Writer

On the heels of its first Big Ten loss — a 27-9 rout against Penn State — Friday night, the No. 11 Michigan wrestling team could have been discouraged by its frustrating defeat.

Instead, the Wolverines reasserted their position as one of the top teams in the conference.

Michigan (5-2, 3-1 Big Ten) came out strong, defeating No. 13 Rutgers (10-2, 3-1 Big Ten), 23-10, Sunday.

Rather than focusing on the loss two days prior, they found silver linings and refocused their energy on the

Scarlet Knights.

“Sergio Lemley (had) the No. 2 ranked guy on his heels, and Bullock, same thing,” Michigan coach Sean Bormet said in regards to Penn State’s win. “And Will Lewan (was) a score away.”

According to Bormet, keeping Penn State close was well within

reach, even if the score suggested otherwise.

So when the Wolverines entered Crisler Center Sunday, they did so with a point to prove — and prove the point they did. Michigan established the truth to Bormet’s words, defeating Rutgers 23-10 and leaving little doubt as to the quality of their

GRACE LAHTI/Daily

group heading deeper into Big Ten competition.

The Wolverines began hot, winning their first 3 bouts. In the first, graduate Michael DeAugustino kept Dean Peterson scoreless in their 125-pound pairing, winning 1-0. In the third, freshman Sergio Lemley hung tight on his way to a 10-9 victory despite having two overtime takedowns reversed.

“They kept on taking them back,” Lemley said. “So it’s just one takedown after another.”

Rutgers’ Michael Cetta got three points back for Rutgers, but by only the fourth bout, the match already felt close to over at 9-3. Michigan poured it on, extending their lead to 16-3 behind a major decision victory from graduate Will Lewan in the 165-pound class.

The Wolverines maintained the pressure as Jaden Bullock took down Rutgers’ Brian Soldano in the 184-pound weight class. Bullock’s win was the exclamation point for Michigan. Up 9-2 in the third period, Bullock stayed on the attack, adding another takedown to extend the lead to 10 and gain a four-point major decision for the team. “(Against) Penn State, I was tied and then I lost by not staying aggressive,” Bullock said. “Scoring as many points as possible — that’s usually

my gameplan, but I kind of blanked at Penn State. So I was making sure I executed this match.”

Bullock’s win ballooned the lead to 20-6, putting the match solidly out of the Scarlet Knights’ reach. The Wolverines’ victory exemplified the approach they want to take to every dual-meet going forward.

“The mindset was just control ties and a higher attack rate, which the guys today definitely did a better job of,” Bormet said.

Michigan’s success in controlling ties and maintaining leads was simply too much for the Scarlet Knights.

The Wolverines’ blowout win sends a message to the conference that they are able to take out high-level teams with authority. They’ll prepare for another opportunity to move up further, facing undefeated in-conference Ohio State Friday.

Michigan exited Crisler with another tally in the win column and proof they can put together a complete performance. After an 18-point loss, the win certainly felt good.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” Bullock said, smiling. “I want to keep winning.”

If the Wolverines continue to come with the mindset and execution they did Sunday, Bullock and Wolverines might just keep having fun.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Laila Phelia lifts Michigan against Rutgers, winning 56-50 MEGAN SMITH Daily Sports Writer

Reeling from a tough loss at the hands of Nebraska on Wednesday, the Michigan women’s basketball team needed to find some kind of offensive success. Against Rutgers on Sunday, the Wolverines found it in the form of their do-it-all player Laila Phelia.

With junior guard Phelia taking the reins, Michigan (13-6 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) conquered the Scarlet Knights (6-15, 0-8), leaving Piscataway with a 56-50 win.

Throughout the first half, the Wolverines struggled to spark their offense. These offensive woes are becoming commonplace as Michigan averaged just 61 points across its last four games, winning only one matchup in that stretch. But on Sunday, Phelia shouldered the offensive load, scoring 14 of the Wolverines’ first 20 points. With crafty footwork, contested mid-range shots and made free throws, Phelia kept Michigan’s offense afloat when it appeared to be sinking.

“She was unbelievable, we ran everything for her,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico told WTKA. “I asked ‘Can we run every play for her? I don’t know if she’s gonna get tired.’ But even at the end, just her decision-making in the pass to (graduate guard) Lauren (Hansen) was incredible. … She’s a phenomenal player.”

The Wolverines continued to

feed Phelia, who went 5-for-9 and made half of Michigan’s field goals in the first two quarters. Even in the 3-point column, Phelia had the hot hand as she tallied the Wolverines’ only two first-half triples, sending Michigan up 25-18 into the break.

And in the second half, it was more of the same.

Midway through the third quarter, Phelia continued her prowess, drawing two fouls and grabbing the Wolverines’ first two rebounds of that frame. But Michigan couldn’t rely on only one standout performance. As the Scarlet Knights began to heat up and cut their deficit to four, the rest of the Wolverines’ offense finally started showing up. “(I) definitely needed to make some extra passes to get my team somewhat involved so the defense wouldn’t just all gravitate towards me,” Phelia said. “But I definitely felt like continuing to move, pass, cut and trust that my teammates are gonna make the right passes (made a difference).”

While Rutgers forward Destiny Adams was on the bench with four fouls, Michigan had a clearer path in the paint. With the extra space, junior guard Jordan Hobbs nabbed an offensive rebound and scored with a put-back shot, while Hansen made a tough dribble-drive jumper on the next possession.

“We kept our composure, and then were able to catch a rhythm, pass and cut and stay aggressive,” Phelia said. “Sometimes I know we do a terrible job of just stand-

ing around a lot. But this time, I felt like there definitely has been a lot of growth.”

As the game kept going back and forth and the Wolverines held just a two-point lead with under a minute remaining, Phelia stole the ball, drove down the floor and kicked the ball out to Hansen. Hansen’s critical shot from downtown made the score 52-47, a margin that proved to be too

much for the Scarlet Knights to overcome. Although the first-half version of Michigan’s offense would have stagnated and forced Phelia to take a tough shot, the offense adapted and Phelia spotted Hansen rotating for the open three.

“It was a great kick out, I just lined it up and let it go,” Hansen said. “My teammates have the confidence in me, which was huge in that moment.

And thankfully it went in.”

With Rutgers forced to pay attention to other players like Hansen, Phelia crept back in with nine fourth-quarter points, two and-1s and another rebound. Irreplaceable to the team, Phelia played every minute of the Wolverines’ win against the Scarlet Knights. She led the team in points and rebounds, finishing the game with 25 points and six boards.

Michigan left New Jersey with a win, but it has plenty to improve upon if it wants to compete in the Big Ten. Laboring on offense and relying on Phelia’s singular performance against a Rutgers team that is winless in conference play is not something that the Wolverines were expecting. But on Sunday, Phelia’s showing was just enough to slay the Scarlet Knights.

RILEY NIEOBER/Daily

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 — 11

MEN’S GYMNASTICS

Paul Juda returns with an inconsistent performance against Army NIYATEE JAIN

Daily Sports Writer

As graduate Paul Juda stuck the landing after his still rings routine, the No. 3 Michigan men’s gymnastics team broke out into a chant.

“Paul is back.”

And while he may be physically back, his performances against No. 12 Army this past weekend beg to differ.

Juda returned to the Wolverines for his first meet after ankle, knee and finger injuries ended his season early last year.

And for the 2022 NCAA allaround champion, who is also coming off a recent third-place finish at the 2023 World Championship, his accomplishments on Saturday were sandwiched by lackluster performances.

Throughout the first event — the floor exercise — shaky landings filled Juda’s routine, resulting in a score of 13.450.

Though he placed third overall in the event, Juda’s performance fell short of his results with the national team, where he placed

first in the floor exercise at the U.S. Championship this past August.

Looking to move past the event, Juda then competed in the pommel horse. While he started strong, his momentum in the routine faltered, and he eventually fell off the pommel horse. However, Juda’s clean technique led to only 1.4 points of deduction and placed him second overall with a score of 13.900, a score and place he would be disappointed with.

Then something changed.

As Juda stepped up to start his still rings routine, it seemed like all was forgotten. The routine was well executed, culminating in a perfect landing. Juda finished with a score of 14.450 with 9.050 points coming from execution and 0.1 coming from a stick bonus.

“I really felt disappointed in myself after the pommel horse there but I just relied on my team,” Juda said. “… I got three more events to do and all I could think about was ‘this ain’t no time to quit. I’m a fifth year now and I can’t be acting that imma-

ture.’ And I like to do it for (the team) all the time and try to push them but they gave it right back to me (today).”

Juda carried the momentum from his still rings performance into his vault routine. With another perfect landing, Juda

Energetic women’s effort wins Simmons-Harvey Invite

Daily Sports Writer

It came down to the lean.

With 55 meters to go, Michigan sophomore Penelopea Gordon took the outside path around Penn State’s Madaline Ullom and Minnesota’s Brooke Jaworski. As the three blazed across the finish line, they were separated by less than twotenths of a second; but after all three crossed in sync, Gordon took second, with a time of 2:06.23.

For Gordon, the second-place finish was good for a new PR, the seventh-best 800m time in the country this season and eight points for the Michigan women’s track team. Her eight points set the tone as the Wolverines accumulated 138 total en route to a decisive victory at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational.

“I had a personal best so I’m really happy with how the race went,” Gordon said. “It was a great competition and a good finish overall.”

Although Gordon set the pace, Michigan as a whole outshined its Big Ten competitors Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan State and Purdue. The Wolverines were stellar across the board, earning a top-four fin-

ish in every race, which led to a comfortable 21-point victory.

“In a scoring meet you’ve got to have great competitors,” Michigan coach Kevin Sullivan said. “It’s not all about how fast or how far, it’s about trying to compete against the person next to you, and I thought we did a really nice job of that today.”

The Wolverines’ distance runners in particular came ready to compete as junior Samantha Hastie took first place with a 4:45.07 in the 1-mile run. Freshman Rylee Tolson set a personal record of 9:29.85 and finished third in the 3000m run, while senior Samantha Saenz won in the 3000m with a 9:28.93. Saenz felt comfortable, leading wire to wire, and winning by nearly a second.

“Some people were trying to make moves with three laps to go and I responded really well,” Saenz said. “I thought I finished strong.”

Michigan’s field efforts were headlined by the reliable junior Riley Ammenhauser. Ammenhauser, who set the school record in the triple jump at the Simmons-Harvey in 2023, finished second in the long jump with 5.62m and third in the triple jump with 12.58m behind senior teammate Nadia Saun-

this meet due to load management. For this meet, Juda did not compete in the parallel bars, and this break in competition seemed to halt his momentum.

Similar to his results in the pommel horse, Juda started strongly in his high bars

RILEY NIEBOER/Daily

TRACK & FIELD

IAN PRCHLIK

finished with his highest score of the night, 15.000, with 9.7 of the points coming from execution, a high of the night across all events.

Though Juda is known for doing the all-around, no Michigan gymnasts competed in it

ders.

As the meet wound to a close, the 4x400m relay team took home third place, running 3:44.20. While their competitors from Minnesota ran over five seconds faster, it was a season-best mark for the Wolverines and something Saenz felt the Wolverines could grow on.

“After last year we all know we have a championship team and we have a championship mindset,” Saenz said. “It’s going to lead into a good Big Ten (season).”

At the Simmons-Harvey Invitational, Michigan was presented with an opportunity: take control of a crowded field of Big Ten programs.

The Wolverines took a step towards seizing that opportunity Saturday, showed their championship mindset and solidified themselves as a program poised to make a run at the conference championship.

Last year, Michigan captured both Big Ten indoor and outdoor titles, and Hastie thinks Michigan can, “definitely win another championship.”

And after the first scoring meet of the indoor season, the Wolverines are one step closer to running it back.

routine. However, mid-way through his routine, he lost momentum in some of his skills, and ultimately fell off the bars.

After resuming his routine, he finished by sticking his landing and got another stick bonus — ending the meet with a thirdplace finish in the parallel bars.

“It was Paul’s first time competing since the last World (Championship) and you can see him starting off rough on the floor,” Michigan coach Yuan Xiao said. “He’s not the highest start value routine, but he handled the bar well … He tried to go too much on the high bar so we reset on high bars. But he’s back and next week, he will do much, much better.”

Though Juda did not have the best start to his season, there were glimpses of the decorated gymnast throughout the meet.

And with some more focus on the smaller techniques, Juda could return to his pre-injury consistency.

But one thing is clear from this match: Paul is not yet back.

Rather, he’s on the journey of returning.

WRESTLING

Michigan unable to shift the narrative, falling to No. 1 Penn State ANNABELLE YE

Daily Sports Writer

It’s a narrative that has yet to change.

Year after year, the Michigan wrestling team faces a top-ranked Penn State team hoping to come out on top. Yet year after year, the Wolverines walk away in defeat, reminiscing the bouts where victory was within reach.

And as No. 11 Michigan (4-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) saw a streak of tight losses widen their deficit against the first-ranked Nittany Lions (5-0, 2-0), eventually ending in a 27-9 defeat, it became clear that this year was no different.

“We really left three razor thin, winnable matches on the mat,” Michigan coach Sean Bormet said.

“From a score standpoint, the scoreboard looked and felt at times a little lopsided, but you really have to dissect all 10 matches.”

The night’s opening bout gave the Wolverines a taste of the “razor thin,” devastatingly-close losses to come. For the 157-pound bout, No. 9 graduate Will Lewan set foot on the mat to meet a familiar face — No. 1 Levi Haines, whom he’d narrowly lost to a year ago. After coming back from weeks of sickness, Lewan remained tenacious throughout his first bout of the year, holding off Haines’ aggression and remaining tied until late into the third period.

But the tenacity was not enough to garner him a comeback win, as the match ultimately came down to one stall point against Michigan, ending in a 2-1 decision loss for Lewan.

And for the rest of the night, the Wolverines continued to find themselves in tight situations where their attack rate simply couldn’t match that of their opponents’, causing them to drop eight of their 10 bouts to the Nittany Lions.

“The areas that we got beat tonight are clear,” Bormet said. “We have to do a better job controlling ties, and we wrestle tough, but we need to be more aggressive.”

While the night’s results mostly finished in disappointment, Michigan was still able to get two hands raised.

In the 174-pound bout, No. 4 graduate Shane Griffith achieved a reversal after starting the second period in the downward position, allowing him to narrowly defeat Penn State’s Terrell Barraclough in a 2-1 decision.

At 144 pounds, No. 6 redshirt junior Dylan Ragusin earned his first pin of the season in an intense overtime bout against No. 4 Aaron Nagao, adding another triumph to his undefeated 17-0 record.

Ragusin’s dramatic victory was preceded by a string of Michigan losses — but the scoreboard didn’t dampen the spirits of the redshirt junior. In fact, right before Ragusin was about to step on the mat, Bormet was seen walking into the tunnel

to give Ragusin some last-minute reminders about his mindset.

“While your teammates are out there competing, you really have to stay within yourself and stay focused on your match,” Bormet said. “…I really thought Dylan did a good job of that when I came back to the tunnel just to give him a few small reminders. I could see it on his face.”

Just as he found the silver lining to a team defeat in the night’s individual victories, Bormet also found the silver lining within the losing matches. He found the teaching moments they provided.

But those teaching moments didn’t spark any special revelation for Michigan. Instead, it confirmed what has consistently held true for the Wolverines this season: a much needed focus on increasing attack rates and winning tie offs.

“It’s really just fundamental wrestling,” Bormet said. “Everything we worked on leading up to tonight and everything we gotta keep working on as we build towards the Big Tens and NCAAs is the same — it’s fundamental wrestling.”

Against Penn State, Michigan strayed from the fundamentals when it mattered most. And if the Wolverines want to reshape the narrative of falling short, they’ll need to turn the learning experiences from tough losses into improved performances.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

Michigan’s young talent shines through amid loss to Ohio State ALINA LEVINE

Daily Sports Writer

Fingertips outstretched, junior Lindsay Flynn accelerated into the wall for a powerful finish to the 200-yard medley relay.

As strong as it was, though, it was one that came just milliseconds too late, as Ohio State’s A and B relays had already claimed first and second place in the event.

This event, while only the first one in the meet, foreshadowed what was to come for the No. 16 Michigan women’s swim and dive team. Fingertips outstretched, the Wolverines continued to finish short.

In a series of neck-in-neck races, Michigan (1-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) ultimately fell 184-116 to the No. 5 Buckeyes (5-0, 1-0) in a riveting dual meet on Saturday. The loss marked the third straight season in which the Wolverines have fallen to Ohio State — a streak that previously hadn’t happened since the 1950s.

Despite the loss, Michigan showcased talent within its roster, specifically among its younger members.

One such athlete was freshman Hannah Bellard. She started the day off strong, earning a third-place finish in the 1000yard freestyle. And she only built upon that momentum as

the meet progressed. With long, determined strokes, Bellard cut through the water, pulling ahead of her competitors to finish first in the 200-yard butterfly — one of five first-place finishes Michigan earned throughout the meet.

“I think the big thing we just talked about was that this is our rival,” Michigan coach Matt Bowe said. “They wanted to win this meet, and we knew we were

up against a really good team.”

But the Wolverines’ determination alone wasn’t enough to turn the tides of the meet. The Buckeyes wanted the win just as much. And so, Michigan’s hopes were dashed as Ohio State claimed first-place finishes in 11 of the 16 women’s events.

“We knew what we were going to be up against, but we got some good wins and, you know, just

performed overall really, really well as a team,” Bowe said.

One of the few other wins came from Wolverines freshman Stephanie Balduccini, another budding talent starting to blossom this season.

Slicing through the water, Balduccini powered into the wall, claiming first place in the 200-yard free, thereby joining Bellard as one of the only Michi-

gan swimmers to do so that afternoon. Following that performance, Balduccini continued to push, earning a close secondplace finish in the 100-yard freestyle.

While the bulk of the Wolverines’ wins stemmed from their younger members, their older teammates contributed as well. In fact, senior Casey Chung proved to be a standout

TESS CROWLEY/Daily

swimmer against the Buckeyes, winning both the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard backstroke events — the only Michigan swimmer to have two top finishes this meet.

These kinds of standout performances were exactly what the Wolverines needed to win this meet, but they rarely occurred, and even when they did, they were just too few for Michigan to be able to surpass Ohio State.

Race after race, the Wolverines were outswam, out-touched and ultimately outscored.

Despite the loss, Bowe remains optimistic about the rest of the season.

“We fought well, we raced hard every race and I just thought we raced with a lot of heart,” Bowe said. “The real kind of grind of training has been done, and it’s more about working on those details, getting more speed, and being more consistent. … I think the goal is just to put our best foot forward as a team and be competitive and try and beat them.”

While the Wolverines can find comfort in the young talent blossoming within their roster, by no means can they make themselves comfortable in defeat. Michigan will have to be more than just competitive if it hopes to come within reach of a Big Ten title, much less any NCAA glory.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

In Friday game, Michigan dominates Michigan State, 7-1 ANNA MILLER

Daily Sports Writer

E

AST LANSING — They say there’s always a calm before the storm. A moment of peace before chaos ensues.

However, as soon as the puck dropped in the rivalry matchup between the No. 15 Michigan hockey team and No. 7 Michigan State, there was no room for calm.

By the end of the game, the storm of Wolverine goals — along with 37 total penalties — overpowered the Michigan State barn.

On Friday, Michigan (11-7-3 overall, 4-5-2-0-1 Big Ten) took on the Spartans (15-5-3, 9-2-2) in a highly anticipated matchup, a rivalry filled with hatred and history. And from the first period, the rivalry was felt by players and fans alike. But, by creating an early storm in the form of goals, the Wolverines catapulted to a 7-1 win.

“They’re a good team, it’s a tough place to play,” Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. “A lot of prep has gone

into this (game) and I’m just really proud of the guys for sticking to it.”

Early in the first, sophomore forward Frank Nazar III took a penalty, forcing Michigan into early submission to Michigan State. However, that submission was short-lived, and the Wolverine storm quickly took control.

passed to McGroarty in the neutral zone, and McGroarty capitalized on a breakaway.

As Michigan State went on the penalty kill, a hush fell over a raucous crowd at Munn Ice Arena.

Duke, once again, cleared the puck through the air to a waiting Nazar in the offensive zone. Without

The storm of Wolverine goals — along with 37 total penalties — overpowered the Michigan State barn.

Shortly after killing off the penalty, sophomore forward Rutger McGroarty potted his first goal in a Michigan sweater since his November injury. Senior defenseman Steven Holtz started with the puck in the Michigan defensive zone and passed to an unchecked sophomore defenseman Tyler Duke. Duke then

even looking, Nazar passed to sophomore forward Kienan Draper, who scored a short-handed goal that fueled the fire for the Wolverines.

Even when Michigan State had an advantage, it didn’t look like it.

Although Michigan took some

W E M O H

penalties, the favor was soon returned as the Wolverines received two overlapping power plays, earning a 37-second five-onthree advantage. And in the final seconds, sophomore defenseman Seamus Casey propelled an offensive drive and passed to junior forward Dylan Duke, who sunk the puck at the netfront.

“I thought right away that we came out ready to play, and we showed that,” graduate goaltender Jake Barczewski said. “It’s pretty obvious we want to make a statement here this weekend, and coming in and starting the game the way that we wanted to start it was huge.”

Heading into the locker room with a three-goal lead, the Wolverines knew the storm they created couldn’t only last one period. They had to continue that dominance and make a Michigan State

comeback out of reach.

As most rivalries go, the heat between the two teams was evident in the form of penalties and scrums. In the second period, Spartan Tanner Kelly received a five-minute major penalty for face masking, and Michigan capitalized with another goal from Dylan Duke. And this penalty was just foreshadowing the chaos that would soon descend on the game.

Although the Wolverines scored another three goals in the third period, it hardly defined the 20 final minutes. A new kind of storm was brewing under the surface to the likes of 30 penalties in a single period.

Clear frustration came over both teams quickly after Michigan State potted its first goal and the teams got chippy. Scrums broke out across the ice,

and five Michigan skaters and six Spartans all received misconduct penalties. 37 total penalties were dealt across the teams over the sixty minutes, leaving both benches depleted as the clock counted down to a 7-1 win for the Wolverines.

“It’s a rivalry game, so things are gonna happen,” Dylan Duke said.

“Once it’s up by six or seven, the game is out of reach for the other team and has a tendency to always end up getting pretty chippy. That’s hockey, it’s gonna happen, you just have to do your best to stay out of it.”

While the storm was overpowering today, it’s far from over. Friday was only the first game of the series, and Saturday, the storm will enter Ann Arbor.

S R E K C E R SPOR

AY D S E N D TSWE

GAME ONE: MICH 7, MSU 1 GAME TWO: MSU 7, MICH 5

Michigan falls to Michigan State on Saturday, 7-5, splitting series REKHA LEONARD

Managing Sports Editor

T

he series sweep has been an elusive achievement for the No. 15 Michigan hockey team in Big Ten play this season. After dominating No. 7 Michigan State on Friday, the Wolverines had one of their best opportunities yet to break the trend on Saturday.

But once again, they blew their chance.

In a high-scoring, back-andforth affair, Michigan (11-8-3 overall, 4-6-2 Big Ten) failed to close out against the Spartans (16-5-3, 10-2-2), losing 7-5 to split the weekend series. The Wolverines dominated early, but met their downfall halfway through the game. They allowed six unanswered goals and subsequently failed to reignite their own offense.

“I think we played great the whole weekend,” sophomore

forward T.J. Hughes said. “(Out of) 120 minutes I think we played a great 110 minutes. So I think we won the weekend, but those last 10 minutes of the second (period) we just gotta do better.”

It certainly looked like Michigan was on track to win the weekend in the first period. The Wolverines came out swinging from the opening draw, tallying seven shots in the first three minutes — matching Michigan State’s eventual first-period total. Even on an early penalty kill, Michigan didn’t let up its offensive attack, initiating timely clears and strong forechecks that even led to a shorthanded shot opportunity.

A few minutes later, the Wolverines’ forecheck showed up once again as sophomore forward Rutger McGroarty stripped a Spartan player in the offensive zone. Slipping a pass behind his back, McGroarty put the puck on Hughes’ stick at the netfront, and Hughes delivered the goal.

Michigan’s 19 shots on goal defined the first period, but not necessarily the score. Michigan State managed to capitalize on its second power play of the night to tie the game at 1-1 heading into the first intermission.

The second period was a different story — two different stories, actually.

In the first 10 minutes, the Wolverines piled on three more goals, finally making the score reflect their dominant play.

Hughes notched his second of the night on a two-on-one breakaway with freshman forward Nick Moldenhauer. Then, McGroarty took over, scoring twice, with his second coming on the power play, to give Michigan a 4-1 lead.

“I felt like we controlled the majority of the game,” Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato said. “We dominated the first period. When it was 4-1, we were dominating that team.”

But then Michigan fell apart.

The Wolverines committed

multiple defensive miscues, allowing four unanswered Spartan goals to turn their commanding lead into a 5-4 deficit. Their failed checks, sloppy turnovers and diminished offensive presence easily let Michigan State back into the

And that was the difference in the game. As the third period got under way, Michigan’s defense sharpened, but its offense continued to sputter. The Wolverines won faceoffs and puck battles, but couldn’t score.

The Spartans, on the other

Winning 110 minutes of the weekend wasn’t enough, because those remaining 10 minutes sealed Michigan’s fate. game.

“I thought that they scored a power-play goal, and they scored on four turnovers,” Naurato said.

“It’s not like ‘oh my god, there’s this major turnover issue.’ They turned it over, and they scored every single time.”

hand, sustained offensive pressure and managed to expand their lead to 6-4. And with an empty net score in the waning minutes, Michigan State effectively put the final bow on its comeback victory, even though Michigan managed to notch an inconsequential, late

goal in the 7-5 loss.

“I don’t think we crumbled, it just (was that) when we made a mistake, (the puck) was in the back of our net,” Naurato said.

“We managed the game very well for 110 out of 120 minutes on the weekend, and you just see what happens when you don’t.”

Winning 110 minutes of the weekend wasn’t enough, because those remaining 10 minutes sealed Michigan’s fate.

After quieting the hostile Munn Ice Arena crowd with a slew of goals on Friday, the Wolverines had every opportunity to claim the weekend sweep in front of their home crowd. Instead, they let the Spartans return the favor with a slew of their own goals in the second half of Saturday’s game.

And for now, the Big Ten weekend sweep will remain an elusive feat for the Wolverines.

PHOTO: RILEY NIEBOER/Daily Design by Lys Goldman

1 — The Statement // Wednesday, January 24, 2024

On romance and girlhood: Why I’m glad I got broken up with

Design by Hannah Willingham

ANNA MCLEAN

Statement Columnist

I am the same age my mother was when she got engaged to my father: 18 and some change. She once said to me, in regards to her early marriage, “I feel like I didn’t get to experience girlhood in the way I wanted to.” And over sushi and a shared Diet Coke, we discussed how, if she could do it all over again, she’d make a lot of different decisions. After all, she really was just a girl when my father got down on one knee.

I have always been a “hopeless romantic.” I’ve doused myself in romantic media for as long as I can remember — from sappy romance books featuring slow burns to forced proximity to rom-coms from the ’90s, I’ve seen it all. Tay-

lor Swift’s iconic love songs have topped my personal charts since I was granted the unlimited freedom of Apple Music at 12 years old.

I have built my life and my expectations for love around things that haven’t actually happened to me yet.

Growing up and hearing the romantic story of my parents’ happy union (for however long it lasted, at least) gave me the idea that “Mrs.” is a title I should strive for. My mother, my mother’s mother and my father’s mother were all married young. The women in my lineage seem to have a generational expectation (or curse) that marriage is what is primarily expected of us.

And who would I be not to follow suit? The famous line my father said to my mother the first time they met was, “Do I have to date you, or can I just marry you right now?” They

would go on to spend the next 15 years together raising two kids before eventually divorcing. My parents’ love story might not have been a happily-ever-after, but that did not stop me from idealizing it.

I continued to search for love every chance I got and, unfortunately, this meant that I spent the better half of my formative years with a boyfriend or talking to some guy.

And — despite the hundreds of lectures from my mother about the importance of a fulfilling life beyond romantic love, urging me to avoid her own mistakes — I still grappled with the belief that, if I couldn’t consistently experience love in a romantic sense, I might be unworthy of love altogether.

After several failed relationships and many “I’m sorry, it’s not you; it’s me” conversations, I thought that the aforementioned

“one” had finally come along. It was the spring after my junior year of high school, and I was fresh out of a breakup when a coworker, whom I’d admittedly had my eyes on for some time, kissed me at a party. After a whirlwind of butterflies, slightly awkward first dates and stolen glances at work, we began dating. This would go on for another year and a half. I was happy.

I was content. I loved his family and the way he used my first and middle name when he said something to me. I truly, wholeheartedly, felt that I had found the one. We would go to farmers markets, dance around the kitchen at midnight and cook like we were already a seasoned married couple. I’d pictured the day he’d put a real ring on my hand and how we’d adopt a little Dachshund; that’s how convinced I was.

In August of 2023, I found

myself unpacked in my blisteringly hot Mary Markley Residence Hall double, ready to start my freshman year of college. The night before classes began, my boyfriend and I, now 88 miles apart, decided to FaceTime. I was sitting on the stairs of the School of Public Health when he told me, “It’s not you; it’s me.” I can still remember the way my heart dropped — my world came crashing down in a matter of minutes. I’m told now that this is a canon event; everyone breaks up with their high-school sweetheart the first semester of freshman year, but at the time I was convinced I was alone in this heartbreak.

I cried, begged and pleaded for him to change his mind, but nothing could stop the decision he had made for him, for us.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

2 — The Statement // Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Cunt: A powerful name for a beautiful thing MOLLY GOLDWASSER Statement Columnist

The first time I used the cword, I leveled it at my sister. Having just finished a run together and still blocks away from home, I was tired, sore and, for reasons I can no longer remember, very angry with her. As we bickered and exchanged tirades of insults, my frustration threatened to spill over — the low-hanging curse words proved too shallow to contain or convey it. I needed something more emphatic. Impulsively, I slipped past my normal boundaries, snatching “cunt” and throwing it out into the air between us, maybe just to see what she would do with it. And boy, did it dangle.

I felt inextricably bound to confess to my mother. That’s not to say my sister was personally offended by cunt, or that our vitriol was anything out of the ordinary. If anything, my hesitancy about using the word “cunt” stemmed from my lack of experience with it. Other curse words were thrilling when I first said them and then slowly tran-

sitioned into words within my vocabulary as I aged. But I was never exposed to cunt as a casual expression of frustration — neither in real life nor in media — and so it felt off limits in a way that basic curse words were not. When I used it for the first time in high school, years after swearing transitioned into my vocabulary, it felt amoral — like a betrayal of all women.

I don’t believe this is a unique experience. In England, Australia and other countries, a cunt can be your idiot friend or the driver that cuts you off. But, in America, it is taboo and considered to be extremely offensive even though cunt is not a slur and has never been weaponized to enforce oppression. Historically, it had a positive-to-neutral connotation and has been subject to pejoration, a linguistic process in which unassuming words develop negative connotations over time. Maybe unsurprisingly, feminine nouns are commonly the target, whereas masculine words undergo the inverse process: amelioration.

The origins of cunt are debated, but this much is clear: Its

demonization is a reflection of societal misogyny and a fear of women’s sexuality. I found the linguistic roots of cunt to be surprisingly empowering. For example, Kunti is the name of a Hindu goddess of fertility and wisdom, known for her beauty and wisdom, who can procreate without men. Quaint, a possible euphemism rooted in the word cunt, according to The History of English podcast, enabled cunt to take on meanings like clever, unusual or beautiful. Even Shakespeare wordsmithed cunt.

But the beginnings of pejoration can be found, with the following entry in Francis Grose’s 1785 edition of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: “C**T: a nasty name for a nasty thing.” More than 200 years later, it is apparent that we have allowed the Groses of the world to redefine our cunts.

Dictionaries list cunt as extremely offensive, a term of abuse for women. For more than 250 years, between 1795 and 1961, most English dictionaries left it out entirely. Yet, regardless of how society feels about cunts, they don’t just magically disappear and

words are still very much necessary to refer to that region. One would think.

I have spent my entire life using the word vagina. And while it is an excellent name for my birthing canal, rarely have I been referring exclusively to that when I used “vagina” in a sentence. The word vagina does not encompass any of the external parts of female genitalia — that would be the vulva.

By referring to everything as the vagina, we are linguistically reducing women to their reproductive capabilities. And yet, I know that I will colloquially still reach for “vagina” instead of “vulva,” in spite of the anatomical inaccuracy because there is something too medical and formal about the vulva. Vagina is the word deemed mainstream enough to use, and I never questioned it.

I have since discovered the etymology of the word “vagina” leaves even less to be desired. Its Latin roots mean “sword sheath,” thus labeling cunts as penis accommodators. So, not only do girls lack words for the external parts of their bodies, but the word

Design by Avery Nelson

they are given defines them in relation to man. Cunt, on the other hand, encompasses the vagina and the vulva, the ins and the outs.

This distinction is not just a matter of semantics, but rather a reflection of the societal shunning of female sexuality.

The avoidance of the vulva has real-life consequences. Many women are not comfortable with their own body parts, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are easy targets for mass manipulation. With trends like douching (which is now considered to be medically harmful), to labiaplasties (surgeries that reduce the size of the labia minora), women’s insecurities have been made quite profitable. Imagine middle school me’s horror upon finding out that “innies” and “outies” existed, and that one of those camps was definitely more desirable. Of course, I had never thought to examine which camp I was in. I was aghast at the prospect that my vulva could be failing a beauty standard I hadn’t even known existed, and if I had never considered the “proper” relative sizes of the labia minora and majora, who knew what else could have escaped my attention?

Obviously, these worries are not sex-specific and insecurities come with growing up. I digress to even say that I have spent many of my periods debating if I’d exchange monthly bleedings for a penis, and have decided I would prefer to stick with the menstrual cycle. However, especially in middle school, penises are everywhere — drawn on bathroom stalls, in the snow and on the walls because they are funny. Meanwhile, vulvas and vaginas are too shameful to discuss, much less publicly depicted.

While I am sure this comes with its own host of problems, it does emphasize the difference in society’s treatment of sexual organs.

Calling my sister a cunt won’t change any of these matters, and I’ll admit that the context of that situation was certainly not a defiant feminist act of reclamation.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 // The Statement — 3

Fish EVELYN BRODEUR Statement Columnist

Stripping the socks from my feet and stepping carefully over big rocks, I would run into Lake Michigan, taking long strides through the shallows until the water was too heavy and I finally collapsed into the waves, letting them wrap around me. I would hold still while sinking slowly under water, hit the sand, feel the cold set in and then burst back up to the surface to breathe. I’d kick around a little bit and it was the very best feeling, the water cradling my tired limbs after cross country practice.

This was a routine; my teammates and I would run through downtown then jump in the bay to celebrate the workout’s end, and my coach would shout from the shore that I was a fish after it took me too long to get out. I thought I wouldn’t mind that fate — belonging to the lake.

While my physical form isn’t something I find myself ruminating on (that particular identity crisis would perhaps belong in some sort of poetry or fiction), I appreciate my body as a vessel, something that permits me to experience and engage with the water — and everything else in my environment, for that matter. Clearly, I can’t live in a lake, but I can call it home in another way. Maybe the water is more meaningful as a place to return to rather than live.

At times, it seemed like the very lives of the locals revolved around waiting for the days that could be spent splashing along the shoreline — waiting for the sheets of ice reaching out from the beach to split and expose the water below on each winter’s day.

In the placid north, where towns are separated by winding roads that are barren, save for deer and old evergreens, the Great Lakes pull everyone together. Being there, the privilege that it was,

meant growing up in the water, learning to swim and, shortly after, learning to sail, flocking to the waterfront for peace or for friendship or just to see the stars.

The water is central to my community, something loved with a sort of ferocity. When I’m at home, I habitually check the wind forecast for days with a strong south wind — days when the waves will be good enough to go surfing. On those precious days, I drive out to the beach, passing other cars with fins protruding from the roofs, surfboards and paddle boards strapped on tight.

From the shore, I can see familiar faces bobbing around out where it’s deep, paddling back and forth to find the break. The lake is usually pretty choppy out there (I am cautioned by onlookers as I trudge through the sand, leaning with the strain of carrying my board) and I’m not the most skilled; for the most part, I end up getting tossed around by the water, sandy bottom to surface again

and again, wave after wave. Each moment of it is meditative.

Soon it’s dusk and Lake Michigan laps at my ankles, my mom in the distance still scouring the wet sand for Petoskey stones before it gets too dark to see them.

Skipped stones sink out of sight, torn from their sandy homes by children’s hands. The shoreline is marred with footprints, big and small. The sun meets the horizon and I’m making my way back up the beach, peeling off a sticky wetsuit, shouting goodbye.

It was on misty mornings in the summertime that the lake and I would occasionally reunite. Surfers from near and far huddled together on the shore, the steep sand dunes within sight and above us a gray sky that seemed infinite, daylight pawing at the clouds. My cousins and I gathered with others to participate in a rescue project, which was there early to provide our group with water safety training.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Design by Avery Nelson

Bedroom furniture and fresh starts ELI TRESE

Statement Columnist

I’ve only lived in my off-campus house for about a year and a half, but my bedroom arrangement is already in its fourth iteration. But it’s not because each rendition is better than the last — I’m simply in the fourth iteration of myself.

Every year, toward the end of the summer, my dad’s side of the family hosts a family reunion in Northern Michigan. My dad, brother and I always make the trek up there, but my mom always chooses to stay behind. She’s never been the biggest fan of traveling, and the oftentimes large, uncontrolled, figure-it-out-aswe-go reunions are more stressful than fun for her.

Once, when I was still in elementary school, I returned from this trip to find that the old, ratty

pillows that used to lay on our couch had been replaced by newer, more elegant ones. I was ecstatic. I ran over to test them out and make sure they worked properly — they were smooth, gray and fluffy enough to be comfortable, yet firm enough to support my head’s weight. They passed my inspection. Their sleek modernism completely changed the look of the room. The former pillows and their deep red dullness had absorbed all the surrounding light, but now, the new pillows played their part in the symphony, reflecting the light back into the room. They were perfect.

I quickly returned to my semi-carsick travel companions to encourage them to come inside and admire the exciting change, but they were more amused by my overreaction than they were thrilled by our new pillows. I wasn’t quite sure why they didn’t share my elation, but I wasn’t go-

ing to let my parade get rained on. In my eyes, a new chapter had begun in the Trese household!

With no more corduroy-textured pillows, our living room had entered a new era.

From there, an unexpected tradition began. After witnessing my joyous celebration of the simple change of living room pillows, my mom decided that she would change one thing about our house whenever we left for this reunion trip. When I would return, I would scamper around the house until I found whatever it was that had changed. No matter how many times she bought a new blanket or switched the fabric on our dining room chairs, my excitement for a new beginning never faltered.

The one thing that rarely changed, however, was my childhood bedroom: The dresser and bookshelf were always on my left, my bed and closet were to my

right, and a brown loveseat resided in the back corner. My dad used to read me and my brother bedtime stories in that loveseat when we were little. I would lie in my bed while my brother would sit snugly next to my dad on the sofa as he softly read to us. In middle school, I would curl up into a ball and cry into the back cushion of that loveseat so that my brother wouldn’t hear me.

It’s been years since anyone sat in the loveseat. Now, it only sits in the back left corner of my room to remind me of who I was when I needed it. Sometimes, I wish the loveseat wasn’t there anymore.

I had changed, but my room was stuck in the past — floating around in some reality where I’m still 10 years old. And it sucked me in, whether I like it or not.

Our space and our environment bear power over us. My mom would always harp the mantra of “dirty room, dirty mind.”

The state of our immediate environment not only has an impact on our emotions, but perhaps on our perception of reality as a whole. I have always, ever since I was young, found a fresh start through changes in my physical space.

With the stagnation of the environment that surrounds me comes the stagnation of my mindset. This idea manifests itself in a multitude of ways. I always begin my writing process in my room — at my desk with my fish, Louis, on it to the left of my door. As soon as my ideas start to come to a halt, I pack up my bags and move to my next location. It doesn’t matter where; the space just needs to be different. Each time I switch locations, I have a fresh start. My new surroundings breathe new life into my ideas, allowing me to pass through the mental block.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 // The Statement — 4

Bow down to the GSI PHILIP (SOOYOUNG) HAM Statement Columnist

Editor’s note: Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals referenced I think one universal University of Michigan experience is being the main character of a GSI horror story.

And, of course, I’ve already created one embarrassing GSI-centered core memory during my first semester at the University. One fateful Friday morning, I groggily rolled out of bed and trudged to the Samuel Trask Dana Building for my discussion section. Inside, psychology terms escaped one ear as quickly as they had entered through the other. Admittedly, the only reason I made it to my seat was to take a short, likely-meaningless quiz. Still, I powered through the hour and breezed through the quiz — a perfect six out of six.

Even with the quiz now behind me, some otherworldly force compelled me to linger and ask a question about the content. Was it the pang of dopamine from my score that tricked my mind into thinking I should ask a question just to one-up myself? The answer is still unclear, but either way, it was a question most certainly left better unasked.

I got out of my seat and slowly walked towards the front of the room, carefully scrambling through the handful of PSYCH 240 lecture slides with my iPad. Eventually, I reached my Graduate Student Instructor, Cindy, who greeted me with an unassuming smile.

So far, so good — nothing out of the ordinary.

I turned my iPad toward her, presenting a diagram of a neural network. As I explained my question, focusing on the jumble of interconnected nodes and three output layers, she naturally took hold of my iPad and began drawing out imaginary dotted

lines with her index finger, and I responded with gradual nods of understanding.

Wow, okay, I thought, I actually might understand this strange web of nodes all somehow connected to birds now.

“Okay,” she concluded. “Is that the only question you have?”

She extended her arms forward, handing me back my iPad. “Yes, that’s all, thank you.”

I took back my iPad and found my body habitually lowering itself into position. A cultural reflex.

An honest mistake.

Oh shit.

I bowed. An almost fully 90-degree bow. An uncomfortably long bow.

The brief, awkward silence that ensued was deafening.

Realizing my folly, I quickly looked up — my face, now red hot — and encountered her blank expression.

“Oh,” she said. “You’re welcome.”

I have never left a classroom faster.

It has been 122 days and counting since this blunder, but in the next 10 discussion sections I went to (I skipped a couple to recover), I never returned to room 1028 drowsy again. Like the quintessential Pavlovian dog, the sound of a muffled question only reminded me of myself standing just a couple of rows down, looking like a bendable straw. Still, I learned three things: Just email your questions (it’s a safe bet), grief takes time (which is why I’m still writing about this now) and gestures are truly an unspoken, but important, form of language (pay attention to the cultures you’re a part of).

I spent most of my life in Seoul, South Korea where virtually all aspects of life were different: the pace of life, the architecture, the people, the atmosphere.

Seoul is a technological metropolis compared to the cozy college town of Ann Arbor. Fortunately, most of these differences were simple adjustments for my college journey, but addressing the

culture of communication has been a bump — if not a mountain — in the road. In Korean culture, gestures and speech are frequently used and altered to abide by social norms shaped by Confucianism — most notably the principle of filial piety.

Confucianism is an ancient Chinese philosophy that first established a strong foothold in Korea after the Joseon dynasty was founded under Neo-Confucianism (a blend of Confucianist, Buddhist and Taoist beliefs) in the 14th century — those same values of harmony, wisdom, benevolence and fidelity that dictated social norms haven’t faltered much since, even centuries later. A strong pillar of Confucianism is filial piety, which essentially declares that elders are entitled to respect, so it’s ubiquitous to employ different levels of formality depending on social context and the relationship between speakers.

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