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share opinions on Ono stepping down in May, legacy he leaves behind
KAYLA LUGO
On May 4, former University of Michigan president Santa Ono announced his departure from the University. The Michigan Daily spoke to students across campus to hear their opinions on Ono stepping down as president and the legacy he leaves behind.
In an interview with The Daily, Eric Veal Jr., LSA rising senior and CSG president, said he appreciated that Ono’s departure was not announced during spring commencement May 3. “I, along with a lot of other students on campus, was very surprised to hear that President Ono was leaving,” Veal Jr. said. “I think the timing of it was very interesting. I’m glad that it did wait until after graduation, though, so the spotlight could be on students across our campus and making sure that those graduating got the due respect and the due time in the spotlight before he announced that he was leaving.”
Ian Moore, LSA rising senior and College Democrats at the University of Michigan co-chair, told The Daily College Democrats disagreed with Ono’s decision to cut diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and the actions his administration took against student protestors.
“We were kind of happy,” Moore said. “But we generally haven’t really been happy with
the way that President Ono had led with dismantling DEI and cutting down on student protests.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising sophomore Isaac Gardner said he was not surprised with Ono’s departure. “I honestly was not surprised,” Gardner said. “I mean, his job was really a thankless job between the Palestinian protesters and then the DEI activists, both of those groups deeply opposed him, I’d say, and they made up probably the majority, definitely the majority, of the voices surrounding his job. So I think he had a pretty thankless job, and (the) University of Florida offered him a more thankful job, I would say.”
In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Tyler Fioritto said he was dissatisfied that Ono failed to meet his goal of listening to students during his presidency, citing a lack of involvement on campus after a strike by the Graduate Employees’ Organization March 2023.
“He branded himself as the Michigan man,” Fioritto said. “That positivity and that unorthodox ‘student first’ presidency just absolutely faded the moment that the first strike for the graduate students happened. I don’t know if that was him or the regents, but at the end of the day, if he goes along with it, that’s as much his decision as it is theirs. And it was disappointing.”
In an interview with The Daily, Aidan Rozema, LSA rising junior and College Democrats co-chair, said he was greatly frustrated by how Ono silenced protesters on campus.
“DEI, Palestine, you name it, President Ono regularly and consistently expressed a willingness to absolutely trample on the civil liberties of his students, and do so in a pretty unapologetically authoritarian and brutal way,” Rozema said.
“From everything between the tear gas used on protesters at the encampment to his reform of University policies to essentially give himself a blank check of power, he was a very authoritarian and anti-protest president.”
Gardner, however, believes differently with how Ono dealt with student protesters, specifically at the Diag encampment.
“I think he really tried to take more of a non-partisan approach in the beginning,” Gardner said.
“I think he had more of a timid leadership. I think he was more worried about how the student body would react to certain policies. For example, when there was the encampment on the Diag, I remember that was up for almost a month, and that was a surprisingly long time, I think, considering that didn’t have a permit or anything like that.”
Moore said U-M faculty and staff were also unhappy with Ono’s presidency, specifically mentioning controversies between the administration and the GEO and Lecturers’ Employee Organization.
“I think there was definitely
some friction between President Ono and the faculty, especially towards the end,” Moore said.
“The Faculty Senate was very much opposed to a lot of the suppressions of free speech, if you’re including GSIs in there. There was a lot of friction between GEO and LEO and the Ono administration.”
Veal Jr. said there were areas where Ono made a positive impact, particularly regarding student well-being by promoting initiatives such as the Well-Being Collective.
“President Ono cared a lot about mental health support on our campus,” Veal Jr. said.
“One thing I really hope is that things like (the) Well-Being Collective and other things like that continue in the momentum that they have.”
Rozema also said he appreciated Ono’s expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee, which allows low-income in-state students to qualify for free tuition.
“One thing that comes to my mind is the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee,” Rozema said. “It’s nice that part of being a country of opportunity is making sure that every citizen has access to a high-quality education, and the Go Blue Guarantee certainly helped towards that.”
Gardner expressed how he liked Ono’s stance on free speech and that it needs to evolve.
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Sydney Olthoff, co-chair of the U-M undergraduate chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said since many students were dissatisfied with former U-M president Santa Ono’s tenure, the University has to engage in more conversations with the community.
In addition to being more open with students, Olthoff said she wants the University to be more transparent, referencing their contract with Liberty Security Group and the salaries of administrators that are only accessible through expensive Freedom of Information Act requests.
world right now. No one should be paying hundreds of dollars for a FOIA request.”
with executive search firm Spencer Stuart following Former University President Santa Ono’s resignation in May. Domenico Grasso, former chancellor of the U-M Dearborn campus, is serving as interim president while the search takes place. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA rising junior
“Moving forward, we really need a president who supports students, staff and faculty in the community,” Olthoff said. “I think that one of the biggest struggles with Ono’s administration is that we weren’t really able to have open dialogue with students and student groups that are trying to work towards change.”
“I think that if there’s transparency on these things and we’re all more open, we can all have a more honest conversation about what’s going on,” Olthoff said. “The reality is that the issues that we’re seeing on our campus are a reflection of what’s going on across our country and across the
Rogério Pinto, Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs secretary, played a role in constructing the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. In an interview with The Daily, he said he disapproved of Ono’s decision to close the Office of DEI and the Office of Health, Equity and Inclusion and hoped for a president who is more transparent.
“It’s by being extremely transparent about their intentions, being transparent to the faculty and students and looking for
those who have the expertise to make pronouncements about the evaluation of anything that is going on in the University,” Pinto said.
“Moreover, (we need) someone who’s not going to betray us and make a decision that is so important without consultation while looking for another job.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising junior Summit Louth, Central Student Government representative, said he wished for a strong leader who is not afraid to stand up to President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I want to see a president who doesn’t give in to every single demand of the Trump administration,”
Louth said. “I understand that there could be blowback, but these people get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to be university presidents to find the optimal way for the University to function.” Student protests have played a major role on the U-M campus over the last year and a half. Olthoff said she wants the new president to instruct Division of Public Safety and Security officers to respect the rights of peaceful protestors by decreasing tensions during campus demonstrations, unlike previous interactions between protestors and the police. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
THOMAS GALA-GARZA Summer Managing News Editor
The University of Michigan received over 115,000 first-year and transfer student applications for the fall 2025 term, a record number for the University. About 109,000 first-year students applied, an almost 11% increase from 2024. Application numbers for first-generation students, international students, students of Color and students from selfreported low-income backgrounds have also risen. Transfer student applicants, on the other hand, have fallen, with 6,157 applications, a 2% decrease from 2024. However, transfer applications increased among in-state students, first-generation students, students of Color and students from self-reported low-income backgrounds.
In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesperson Kay Jarvis wrote that increased applications have made the admissions process more competitive.
“At the University of Michigan, we have seen a large increase in application volume,” Jarvis wrote.
“As application volume increases, acceptance has become more competitive and the admit rate has decreased for both first-year and transfer applicants.”
In an interview with The Daily, Michael Bastedo, School of Education professor and associate dean, said decreasing birth rates in the Midwest may impact enrollment at smaller colleges, but is less likely to impact enrollment at the University and similar institutions.
“The number of people being born in the Midwest is in decline, and as a result, we’re going to see declines in the numbers of high school graduates,” Bastedo said.
“Now there’s a deep concern that there could be issues with enrollment at the college level unless we increase the percentage of students who go to college. Because the demand for places like the (University) are high and only increasing at the moment, we
wouldn’t necessarily expect these demographic issues to be crucial for this institution in particular. But there are other institutions where the demand is not quite as high and that’s where we expect problems.”
Bastedo said parents of applicants may not realize the sudden and rapid shift in admissions selectivity that comes with increased applications.
“People who might have applied 10 or 20 years ago and would have been admitted easily to the University — that’s no longer true,” Bastedo said. “I think that is something that’s hard for people to get their heads around sometimes. They might be alumni of the (University), and now their children are applying, and they’re surprised to find that their children haven’t been admitted, and they’re having to look at other options. This change in selectivity has happened so rapidly that it’s been a little head-spinning for a lot of families, both in and out of the state.”
As incoming first-year students meet with academic advisors over the summer to plan their fall semester schedules, many are beginning to search for supplemental advice online. Reddit — a social media platform divided into niche subcommunities, including one dedicated to the University of Michigan — has become a popular source of guidance. On r/uofm, students often post their prospective schedules with the intention of receiving feedback from current students who are studying the same major.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Engineering rising freshman Alex Tiska said she used Reddit in advance of her advising appointment to feel more prepared.
“I wanted to feel confident in what I was going to talk to the advisor about as an incoming student,” Tiska said. “I haven’t had much experience talking to an academic advisor, so I just want to be as informed as I could be before talking to someone.” Rackham student Tyler Fioritto told The Daily Reddit has a lot of information from past years to help students determine their schedules.
“You have this infinite access to information, because not only
do you have this semester, but you have two years ago, you have five years ago, you have 10 years ago of people posting on the Reddit about schedules and how courses have changed, not just schedules, but somebody will say ‘Hey, who’s this professor? Is he good?’” Fioritto said. “And you can find discussions from literally five years ago about if they’re a good professor. And you have basically an infinite amount of information.”
In an interview with The Daily, Mike Stowe, LSA coordinator for student communication and engagement, said he has a strategy for students who engage in academic advising with prospective course schedules influenced by Reddit.
“If somebody comes to me with a schedule that they got influenced based on Reddit or based on any conversation with peers, as those happen in many different contexts, I think the first thing that I want to do is get a sense as to why they think that advice is accurate, why they think it is going to support their goals,” Stowe said. “And if they have strong context for why that is, then that helps me ensure that I’m further supporting their goals. If, on the other hand, the response is ‘Somebody on Reddit told me that it was the right schedule,’ that doesn’t automatically make it wrong.”
Mark Collyer, director of the Engineering Advising Center, said in an interview with The Daily advisors have unique and extensive experience with University degree requirements that Reddit users may not.
“As their advisor, we know the way that the degree was designed, and we know that there are certain courses that need to happen in a certain order, (and) in a certain way, and that context is usually not included when someone is just going to Reddit saying, ‘I’m thinking about taking class X for the fall. Is this a good idea for someone in their first term?’” Collyer said. “The person giving advice on Reddit may not know that a given class, in fact, is a very reasonable course for a first-year engineer to take even if the person giving advice may have concerns about that particular class.”
In an interview with The Daily, art lecturer William Burgard said a student’s course load can impact their success in his class.
“We have homework almost every day, and sometimes as the semester goes on, (students) prioritize and spend more time on other classes,” Burgard said. “And I’m always surprised sometimes when they are honest about it and they say, ‘I didn’t really have time to work on this, so I just threw it together.’”
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In an interview with The Daily, director of the Adan Hussain, Kessler Scholars Program, which supports first-generation college students, said the increased number of first-generation applicants and the spread of the Kessler Scholars Program to other universities is indicative of growing support for first-generation students in higher education.
“We’re seeing this focus on first-generation students happen across higher education,” Hussain said. “For example, the Kessler Scholars Program started at the (University) in 2017. It then, because of its success, spread to 16 other institutions by 2022. Even our program has spread across the nation. Students are hearing about this program knowing that it’s for first-generation students.”
Hussain said having more first-generation students on campus makes it easier for them to find peers that share their experiences.
“(Being first-generation) is the type of identity where you don’t
know who else is first-gen, unless you’re wearing a T-shirt that says ‘I’m first-gen’ or ‘I am a Kessler scholar’,” Hussain said. “If people aren’t bringing up those experiences, it can feel isolating.
To have a critical mass where it’s easier to find other first-generation students and it’s more normal to bring that experience up, I think it normalizes that andI think it makes the (University) feel more welcoming and a place where students who are first-gen do belong.”
LSA senior Princess-J’Maria
Mboup, member of the University’s Black Student Union, told The Daily that working as student staff in the Center for Educational Outreach has helped her show prospective students, specifically Black students, how to find community at the University.
“will
EMMA SPRING & MARISSA CORSI Daily News Editors
In the past two weeks, the Department of Homeland Security terminated the visas of 22 confirmed individuals affiliated with the University of Michigan, including 12 enrolled students and 10 recent graduates. The individuals were informed after the International Center found F-1 visas terminated from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, the federal database that tracks international students’ immigration status. Students’ status within the SEVIS system allows them to live and study in the U.S. Students must maintain their status by following rules and regulations associated with their visa, including guidelines on education, authorization to work and eligibility to take a vacation. Once that status is lost, students become deportable.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said the recent events involving the removals of student
Mboup said BSU’s current four-point platform, which was released in 2022, outlines demands for Black student enrollment that the University has not yet met.
“There have been historic demands from Black students to get Black enrollment to 10%, which was mirroring the percentage of Black students in the state of Michigan,” Mboup said. “While the explicit number was 10%, it should accurately reflect the student or the Black population in (the University). I believe that’s about 14% right now, anything less than that is not satisfactory. With the implementation of DEI 1.0 and 2.0, we’re seeing an increase in Black student enrollment, but until that 14% is reached, the University’s still not honoring their commitment.”
“Showing students how they could come here and find a sense of belonging, find community and really thrive here has been really helpful in making people feel like they have a space here and that they belong,” Mboup said. “The University can be an isolating place for a Black student. It can be a harmful place. It often has been and continues to be.”
a crime while you’re in this country; your visa’s gone.’” American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is currently suing the federal government on behalf of two U-M international students who allege they were never informed of any potential violations, have never been charged with a crime and have not been active in any protests. Rackham student Qiuyi Yang received two SEVIS termination emails just over an hour apart on April 8. The first, sent at 1:09 p.m., cited “OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS — Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked.” The second, at 2:17 p.m., simply said “TERMINATION REASON: OTHER.” Rackham student Xiangyun Bu, a student from China who previously interned at Tesla in Shanghai received a similar message on April 7 at 4:22 p.m., with the same SEVIS termination language. Neither student was given further explanation. The U.S. State Department spokesperson wrote they are not usually required to inform individuals when their visas are revoked, though they may choose to do so when feasible. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM U-M international students face uncertainty after visa terminations and data restrictions 22 U-M affiliated individuals faced visa termination, Department of State
continue to do so”
visas have been accompanied by the additional termination of their status.
“What we’re seeing, and which is a lot more rare and definitely a cause for concern, is the termination within SEVIS of status in the (U.S.),” Robinson said. “Overnight, someone can be an F-1 nonimmigrant in status, and then the way they wake up the next morning, they’re out of status, which means they are deportable from the (U.S.), and they have to leave or face certain consequences.”
A U.S. State Department spokesperson wrote in an email to The Daily visa revocations are an ongoing tool for national security enforcement.
“The Department revokes visas every day in order to secure America’s borders and keep our communities safe — and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson wrote. “The Department looks at information that arises after the visa was issued that may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under U.S. immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted. … The Department of State does comprehensive vetting, and that includes review of criminal records of visa holders. As the Secretary has said, ‘You commit
How UMich students fall victim to scams
More sophisticated scams are appearing online, and traditional internet safety may no longer be sufficient
The email looked legitimate. It offered an easy gig: water plants and check the mail for a University of Michigan-affiliated professor. A student accepted the offer. Soon after, a check for several hundred dollars arrived — more than initially promised. The sender asked the student to deposit it and return the difference. The student did. The check bounced. The scammer vanished. According to AnnMarie Vaquera, Division of Public Safety and Security community outreach sergeant, scams like these sent via email, social media and housing forums are becoming more common and sophisticated. The rise in scams throughout higher education has prompted
warning notices from the University’s Information and Technology Services office. Many begin with what appears to be a legitimate job offer, but end with the student losing money, and in some cases, having their identity used to defraud others.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA rising senior David Smith said his near-scam experience came just weeks after enrolling at the University, when he received multiple emails claiming to offer paid on-campus work in his field. Smith said he was about to unknowingly send a scammer money when Cash App flagged the transaction as fraudulent.
“CashApp has a database of known scammer emails and blocked the transaction,” Smith said. “At first, I was frustrated because I thought it was an error.
When I told them the payment failed, they gave me a PayPal address, and as gullible as I was at the time, even that sent off warning sirens in my head. Once I called the use of PayPal into question, the person blocked all forms of contact with me in an instant.”
Smith said he was surprised by how easily he had been drawn in by the scam.
“After everything was over, I felt extremely foolish,” Smith said. “I am a nontraditional student, and I am generally a cynical person, so when I almost let myself get duped like that, I had a period of pause where I had to really think about how I was interacting with others online and reassess the current landscape for scamming and phishing attempts.”
In an interview with The Daily, Gayle Rosen, a housing attorney
with Student Legal Services, said scams, specifically those revolving around housing, often rely on reused images, impersonation or pressure tactics to appear real.
“It could be someone who’s not the property manager, not the owner of the property, but will take the pictures from the actual owner and put them on Facebook, or send those to the tenant,” Rosen said. “A tenant will send some money to that person, then that person will then ghost them.”
AnnMarie Vaquera, community outreach sergeant for the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security, told The Daily even simple safety advice, such as being wary of housing or job offers that lack face-to-face meetings, may be outdated as scammers evolve their tactics.
“I was telling students, be suspicious of these job offers with-
out an interview,” Vaquera said.
“Well, now we’re
Over 250 CEOs released an open letter in May asking for computer science to be mandatory in high school
Over 250 CEOs, including the heads of College Board, Lyft and Khan Academy, released an open letter early May calling for computer science to be a required part of high school curriculum nationwide. The open letter echoes Michigan’s recent mandate requiring all high schools to offer computer science courses and builds on a study by the Brookings Institution published last year about the impacts of high school CS classes on college students during college and later careers. While the open letter calls for CS and artificial intelligence education, it does not specify what curriculum the high school classes should have.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rackham student Anindya Das Antar said this uncertainty could affect professors’ decisions regarding computer science and engineering course curricula.
“We don’t have any idea on how the high school program is gonna implement this if that mandate gets passed,” Das Antar said. “We see that it’s now mandatory that
every high school student needs to take a CS course in their high school. I guess without that particular knowledge on what is being covered in high school curriculum, it would be extremely difficult for a university professor to even do any kind of minor change in what they are teaching.”
In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Vrinda Desai, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate student instructor, said the flexibility to adapt course content to student skill level could be leveraged in the introductory courses for students who have different levels of CS knowledge.
“The way these intro CS courses work is that they’re a little bit rinse and repeat,” Desai said. “We recycle our projects year to year. But every class is different. And typically it’s the case that, especially for the intro courses, the instructors are very hands-on. They’re very involved, so they definitely have that flexibility.”
Desai emphasized the importance of the introductory courses as students enter them with different backgrounds and experiences.
“The introductory courses are super important because hope-
fully they’re meant to level the ground a little bit,” Desai said. “We have people that have had a taste in programming. We have people that have maybe never really programmed, honestly. And I feel like we won’t see it, maybe immediately, but I think what we’ll start to see is maybe more and more people testing out.”
Still, Desai said she believed the introductory courses are not in any danger of disappearing even if CS in high school becomes required.
“As these classes become more and more developed at the high school level, and students really do have the skills that they would need to test out of a college CS programming class, I think we’ll start to see more and more people generally testing out,” Desai said. “But also I wouldn’t see anything, like the courses retiring completely, or at least not in my decade.”
In an interview with The Daily, Mark Guzdial, EECS professor and director of the Program in Computing for the Arts and Sciences, said difficult computer science courses in high school may deter broader general interest in computer science. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
U-M community shares how to succeed in the highly competitive technology industry
ing graduate degrees in response to a tighter job market.
While the University of Michigan offers over 280 degree programs, the Computer Science and Engineering program is one of the largest academic communities on campus, consisting of 3,229 undergraduate and 651 graduate students as of the fall 2024 semester. For years, computer science has been viewed as a safe, high-paying path with strong job security. However, in today’s highly competitive technology industry, that perception is quickly changing.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Charlene Yee, LSA rising junior and CS student, said it takes great effort to secure an interview for a CS internship, which is widely regarded as an essential step in advancing one’s career.
“I think it’s really hard these days to get an internship in computer science, especially if you want to do software engineering,” Yee said. “I mainly started applying for internships during winter break for this summer. Based on my experience, there are a lot of different job openings on LinkedIn, Handshake and other platforms, and I think that was pretty useful. It kind of felt like a constant process of just applying, waiting and never hearing back.”
Yee’s experience mirrors that of many other students amid the competitive job market in recent years. According to data from the University’s Engineering Career Resource Center, job placement for bachelor’s degree-level CS graduates has declined slightly over the past three years. In 2022, 64.79% of bachelor’s students were employed after graduation, but by 2024, that rate had fallen to 53.99%. The number of students still seeking employment rose from 3.75% in 2022 to 8.08% in 2024. The share of graduates who chose to continue their education also increased from 29.35% in 2022 to 35.01% in 2024, suggesting more students may be pursu-
U-M alum Brenden Saur, who graduated in 2025 with a CS major, is one of many still searching for a full-time position. In an email to The Daily, Saur wrote that, despite having several job interviews, none have led to offers.
“I am still actively searching for a software engineering position,” Saur wrote. “The process for me has been grueling; I have probably sent out close to 100 applications at this point. … After my second interview, I didn’t hear back for more than two weeks. I reached out but didn’t get a response until the third email. Come to find out, they had done a lot of layoffs, including my connection there.”
Saur wrote he found his activities outside of coursework to be more relevant for the job application process.
“The one thing I would say is that I don’t think the classes I took necessarily taught me skills to find a job,” Saur wrote. “I most often talk about my internship or side projects with companies, not my courses.”
The rise of artificial intelligence has also raised concerns that companies may no longer need to hire junior developers, or entry-level programmers. Despite this, Saur wrote AI has not impacted how he approaches his job search.
“Companies are looking for less junior devs because they think AI can do what a junior can do,” Saur wrote. “There are a lot of listings of AI companies looking for jobs. I do consider these but I wouldn’t say AI is affecting my choices in my job search.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has also implemented funding and hiring changes. In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Anindya Das Antar, who is studying CSE, said he had hoped to pursue a postdoctoral position before experiencing uncertainty with funding from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation in the final year of his doctorate program.
“A couple of professors wanted to hire me as a postdoc in January before the (2024 presidential) election,” Das Antar said. “But after the election, things changed. There were funding cuts and uncertainty with NIH and NSF funding. I got an email back from them that this year they are not able to hire a postdoc, even if they wanted to.”
Das Antar said an increase in applicants who hold advanced degrees has shifted the hiring dynamic.
“Once upon a time, it was a situation in computer science that even if you don’t have a degree or just have an undergrad degree or high school degree, but you are really good at programming and do well in the job interview, you may get a high-salary position,” Das Antar said. “Now, you may get rejected in the screening round when most people who are applying have a higher degree.
So that’s why there are some people who are, even after getting a job, trying to get a degree, if that job funds their master’s.”
Despite student concerns, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that employment for computer scientists will grow 26% from 2023 to 2033, which is well above the average for all fields of 4%. CSE professor Atul Prakash told The Daily that while the job market is facing a decline, long-term prospects remain strong for students who remain engaged in the field and take advanced courses.
“Even as an undergrad, while you’re taking your courses, getting a broad exposure to the field is important, as well as trying to get involved in some research so that you get used to following the latest happenings,” Prakash said.
“Our courses are very up-to-date in computer science at the University of Michigan … Students should be taking advantage of these cutting-edge courses that the department offers that may not be the rage right now, but may become the rage in four or five years.”
termination follows five
should ever be targeted for their beliefs or affiliations.”
Grasso also wrote that since the University has learned of an incident involving one of the employees, they will no longer be utilizing plainclothes security.
Domenico Grasso stated the University will be terminating external contracts for plainclothes security, or officers who do not wear uniforms, on campus. The statement follows after five U-M students who had previously participated in pro-Palestine protests reported they had been surveilled by undercover investigators in an article published by The Guardian Friday evening. The Guardian also obtained two videos showing U-M alum Josiah Walker confronting a man, presumed to be an undercover investigator, who had recorded Walker from a car.
In his statement, Grasso wrote the University began contracting external plainclothes security officers last summer.
“In July of 2024, as part of our security strategy, it was decided to augment our organic resources with outside firms to use plainclothes security personnel—a common approach for large, high-traffic areas such as hospitals, sports venues, shopping malls, and college campuses,” Grasso wrote. “These individuals were intended to help us keep watch over our campus and enable us to respond quickly to emergencies. However, we are clear: no individual or group
“We recently learned that an employee of one of our security contractors has acted in ways that go against our values and directives,” Grasso wrote. “What happened was disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical, and we will not tolerate it. Going forward, we are terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus.”
Sunday night, the University also updated a public statement initially released Friday. According to the statement, plainclothes security contractors were only authorized to observe and report criminal activity, not to surveil anyone.
“The university does not surveil individuals or student groups, nor has it requested or authorized the surveillance of any students on or off campus,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, recent media reports have mischaracterized the role of contract security personnel who were engaged solely to support campus safety efforts … The responsibilities of the contracted personnel were limited to the observation and reporting of criminal or suspicious activity on university property to the Division of Public Safety and Security (DPSS)—not surveillance.”
The statement also read that the individual who did not comply with this authorization no longer works for a security firm contracted by the University.
“We recently learned that an employee of one of our vendors acted outside of the university’s contracted services,” the statement read. “Their behavior was unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it. In discussions with the vendor, we have been informed that this individual is no longer employed with their company. Additionally, the university has informed the vendor that we will no longer utilize their plainclothes security services for on campus security details moving forward.”
In a press release published Monday, Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, wrote the chapter is calling for an investigation into the undercover surveillance.
“This reported attempt by the University of Michigan to chill the free speech of anti-genocide groups through secret surveillance and alleged harassment must be investigated in an independent and transparent manner,” Walid wrote. “Academic officials would never allow this type of outrageous behavior if those targeted were members of any other groups speaking out against genocide and for human rights.”
Across schools and subjects at the University of Michigan, there is one element found on nearly all course syllabi: the textbook section. Sometimes these books are offered through online academic portals such as VitalSource, while other times students must search for and acquire the textbooks themselves. The Michigan Daily sat down with some U-M students to hear their opinions on textbook prices, thoughts on piracy and hopes for the future of textbooks.
In an interview with The Daily, LSA sophomore Cameron Maddock said students might have difficulty affording required textbooks because textbook retailers charge high prices.
“There are production costs associated with making a hardcover book,” Maddock said. “I understand it’s not free, but a lot of these sellers will retail them for over $100. That’s just absurd price gouging. They do that because they know they can make us pay that. It makes sense on their end, but they’re kind of just gouging us when the cost of education in the United States is already ridiculous these days.”
While textbooks can be bought new or used, a more common alternative is piracy, the unauthorized copying and redistribution of textbooks online.
An LSA student, who will remain anonymous to prevent legal action, told The Daily they pirate textbooks to save large sums of money despite the fact
that downloading textbooks from the internet is illegal.
“Realistically, I’ve probably saved $1,000 doing it this way,” the student said. “That’s an important amount of money. When faced with the choice of paying $100 for this book or getting it for free, there’s an obvious choice there for me.”
Maddock said while textbooks can be costly for students, they also allow students to hear directly from a variety of experts in the field they are studying. Maddock said this was exemplified in one of the courses he is currently enrolled in — ECON 380: Public Finance — because the author of the course’s textbook is Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who took part in drafting the Affordable Care Act.
“Being in a class about public finance and having units on health care policy, I really want to learn from the dude who wrote the Affordable Care Act,” Maddock said. “I really want to hear what he has to say. There are very much times where, if you’re a pro-
fessor here, you can choose great textbooks that really enhance the learning experience of the class.” Courses vary in the amount of materials they require students to purchase. Business junior Mary Wells told The Daily she paid less for textbooks as she entered more specialized courses.
“When you’re taking these classes as a freshman, there are very hefty prices that are associated with a lot of the textbooks,” Wells said. “As I’ve gotten further into my degree, I’ve found that the reading material that we have is more specialized. Because of that, we do have to pay less for textbooks.”
One way students can save money on textbooks is by sharing login information for textbooks accessed via online subscription services such as Cengage, according to Wells. Cengage’s terms of service state that some content can be shared, while some should be acquired either using an individual account or through an institution.
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Several local and national political groups organized the protest, which garnered over 2,000 protestors
walks come together to protest.
Over 2,000 protestors lined the streets surrounding Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan Tuesday evening while President Donald Trump hosted his 100 days in office achievement rally. Several local and national political groups organized the protest, including the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, 50501 Michigan, Macomb Defenders Rising, Friends of Bernie Sanders, We the People Dissent, Michigan United Action, North Macomb Democratic Club and Michigan 10th District Democratic Party.
Named “I dissent” after the final words of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion in the 2024 Trump v. United States decision that expanded presidential immunity to any ‘official acts,’ the protest included signs expressing fears of democratic backsliding, autocracy and fascism. Some compared Trump to a dictator and Elon Musk to an oligarch. In an interview with The Michigan
Daily, Robert Johnson, 50501 Michigan member and one of the protest’s planners, said he sees parallels between the current U.S. government and fascist Germany during World War II.
“This is a disaster happening and people have to stand up to it,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to be part of history like in Germany, where people ask later on, ‘Why didn’t they stop it?’ Well, here we are trying to stop it.”
Rachael Rewitzer, League of Conservation Voters regional organizer, told The Daily she came to raise awareness on the effects of environmental federal actions.
“These past 100 days have been absolutely disastrous for the environment,” Rewitzer said. “All of these federal cuts to the EPA, the NOAA, all of these job losses, it’s just making it harder for us to protect our state specifically. It’s bad for our air, our land, our water … We’re out here to try and make it known that Trump is destroying our planet in more ways than just our democracy — but also our environment.”
MLCV regional organizer
Keough Lemieux told The Daily he loved seeing people from all
“The turnout has been absolutely spectacular,” Lemieux said. “This is what coalition building looks like. You have us from the environmental movement, we have people from the immigration movement, people from the labor movement… People in Michigan (are) fighting back against fascism and making sure that they know that we’re not going to take it.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA junior Ian Moore, co-chair of the College Democrats at the University of Michigan, said he hopes the support generated at protests like this one is channeled into political action.
“The thing that protests do is keep things in the news, which is really important,” Moore said.
“But with that, we’ve got to be able to kind of deploy the power that we build up at protests towards actual action and actual policy. In the protest, we need to be saying, ‘Keep paying attention. Keep paying attention until next November, and get on campaigns, actually help them do the work to do this.’ Because protests are great for building up support, but we actually have to do something with that.”
Former University President Santa Ono and Regents symbolically charged as University police surveil protestors
Around 200 University of Michigan community members gathered on the Diag Monday afternoon to attend a symbolic trial held by the TAHRIR Coalition, an alliance of 99 pro-Palestine student organizations. At the trial, University President Santa Ono and members of the Board of Regents were were charged for refusing to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel, firing pro-Palestinian students from campus jobs and allegedly complying with the targeting of international students by the federal government, among other charges. Approximately a dozen University of Michigan Police Department and Division of Public Safety and Security officers surveilled the protesters.
LSA senior Alifa Chowdhury, former president of the University’s Central Student Government, told the audience she felt Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) contributed to the harassment and doxxing of students during her term as a regent.
“Rather than upholding her duty to protect student welfare and academic freedom, Regent Sarah Hubbard amplified and circulated inflammatory claims on her public platforms and engaged directly with far right accounts whose explicit purpose is to endanger,
surveil and blacklist student activists, especially Arab Muslim and pro-Palestinian students,” Chowdhury said. “She helped incite and legitimize harassment, and it resulted in real life consequences, including threats to our safety.”
Chowdhury said she believed Hubbard’s actions were part of a wider crackdown on student activism.
“Regent Hubbard’s actions were not neutral and they were not accidental,” Chowdhury said.
“They are part of a broader campaign to silence student activism, particularly when it challenges this university’s complicity in systems of apartheid, war profiteering and racialized violence. Her participation in this campaign should be recognized for what it was: unacceptable, unethical and deeply harmful.”
In an email to The Michigan Daily, Hubbard emphasized her commitment to student safety.
“I remain steadfast in my commitment to make our campus a safe place for all our students,” Hubbard wrote.
Zainab Hakim, a recent U-M graduate who was fired for her involvement in a pro-Palestinian protest last May, accused Regent Mark Bernstein (D) of working with the Anti-Defamation League to push for the firing of herself and other pro-Palestinian workers, such as the former executive director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives.
“I am not the first worker to face employment-based retaliation on campus, as the University has moved to retaliate against all those who reject their complicity in the genocide of Palestinians,” Hakim said. “The targeted firing of another staff member earlier this year due to pressure from Regent Mark Bernstein and the ADL is evidence that nobody at this university is safe as long as the regents have unlimited power to act as judge, jury and executioner.”
Hakim also criticized the University’s conduct regarding the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Ann Arbor, the revoking of student visas and the elimination of scholarships.
“(The regents) will consistently choose to line their pockets instead of investing in the well-being of people on this campus,” Hakim said. “Students live in fear that ICE will revoke their visas and that they will be violently deported. Dozens of students and grads have lost their status, have had their status revoked, and instead of providing them with legal or financial help, the University has poured even more time and resources into targeting pro-Palestine workers.”
During Ono’s symbolic trial, Public Health senior Mohammad Sheikh-Khalil, president of the Muslim Students’ Association, accused Ono of fostering an environment of Islamophobia.
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ANJALI BUDHRAM Daily Staff Reporter
On May 22, President Donald Trump’s administration announced a halt to Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students through the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program. This restriction prompted Harvard to file a complaint May 23 against Trump administration members.
In a proclamation June 4, Trump directly attempted to suspend entry of new international and exchange students to Harvard. In response, Harvard amended their complaint and sought assistance from Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, who temporarily blocked this effort June 5. The Michigan Daily spoke to University of Michigan community members about these actions and their consequences.
As of 2018, 23.8% of Harvard’s student body consists of international students. If Trump’s proclamation is implemented, no prospective foreign students will be allowed to enroll at Harvard, and current international students must also transfer out of the university or risk losing their legal status as foreign nationals.
In an interview with The Daily, political science professor Robert Franzese, a Harvard alum, said he was shocked by the administration’s actions and believes the freeze on international admissions will be harmful to the U.S. public.
“I think it’s a decidedly stupid policy, self-defeating and it does damage to the United States in many ways,” Franzese said. “I suppose we had seen this coming from the leadup of attacking the heart of Harvard and higher education and research. But still a shocking development
and an incredibly counterproductive action and mean-spirited.”
In an email to The Daily, Ian Moore, co-chair of the College Democrats at the University of Michigan, wrote he was highly dissatisfied with the administration’s policy.
“(The College Democrats) were incredibly disappointed,” Moore wrote. “The move to disbar international students from Harvard isn’t only self-sabotage—especially in an era when STEM and AI-development is so important—it’s a threat to thousands of international students. Trump has decided to toy with their lives to get back at his political opponents, to the detriment of America.”
In an email to The Daily, U-M alum Luke Galvin, member of the University of Michigan chapter of International Youth and Students for Social Equality, wrote the chapter believes actions of the Department of Homeland Security threaten individuals’ constitutional rights and may reflect broader foreign affairs.
“The prohibition is a major assault on the democratic rights of international students, and all workers and youth, reaching far beyond Harvard’s campus,” Galvin wrote. “The DHS also seeks to transform Harvard and all other universities into cooperating surveillance arms of the state. Moreover, it serves as a significant escalation of U.S. imperialism’s bi-partisan plans for war with China.”
In an email to The Daily, education policy professor Brian Jacob, a Harvard alum, wrote the policy would ultimately send talented students to other countries and limit domestic diversity.
“If we make it more difficult to study in the U.S., they will simply go elsewhere – Canada, the European Union, China or India – and will be putting ourselves in a com-
petitive disadvantage relative to other countries,” Jacobs wrote. “As importantly, we will miss out on the food, music, literature and traditions that international students bring to the U.S. and help enrich the lives of native-born students and others.”
Franzese wrote the possibility of international faculty also leaving the U.S. to accept funding in other countries may compound the loss of international students at Harvard and other universities.
“So another thing that’s happened is that my colleagues and myself, we receive invitations and offers to go where grants and research and the science that you do is supported,” Franzese wrote. “And those offers to some will be more appealing, and some will have more or less an anchor to hold them here. I know that Chinese American scholars and scientists have an open invitation to return to the top universities in China or Hong Kong and the rest of the world has noticed and wasted no time making generous offers to European universities offering positions to Americans who’ve had their grants canceled.”
Moore wrote he hopes domestic leadership will see the value of international students and award them the same rights that all U.S. students are entitled to.
“In the Second Trump administration, universities must choose between their financial wellbeing and their values,” Moore wrote.
“For our international students’ safety and freedom—and to preserve American democracy—we urge the incoming university administration to choose the latter. Strengthen the legal services provided to international students. Increase our financial independence from the federal government. And make the University of Michigan a sanctuary campus.”
SAVANNAH HALPERN Daily Staff Reporter
A recent study by University of Michigan researchers on the efficacy of an antiviral drug, baloxavir, in preventing transmission of influenza found that a single-dose treatment with the drug led to a significantly reduced transmission of influenza to close contacts. Published April 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study analyzed the effect of baloxavir use specifically within households.
Using a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, the study included 1,457 influenza-positive patients and 2,681 household contacts across 15 countries and ranging in age from five to 64 years old. By day 5, transmission of influenza was reduced using baloxavir by approximately 30% compared with a placebo.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Arnold Monto, professor emeritus of public health and lead author of the study, said baloxavir is unique compared to older classes of antivirals used to treat influenza. One such antiviral, Oseltamivir, also known by its brand name Tamiflu, inhibits the neuraminidase enzyme used by the influenza virus to spread throughout the body after it has replicated. Baloxavir, in contrast, inhibits the cap-dependent endonuclease, which stops the virus from replicating itself to begin with. Baloxavir also requires only one dose whereas Tamiflu requires twice-daily dosage for five days.
Monto said studies on Tamiflu did not clearly show the treatment reduced influenza transmission, whereas baloxavir
shedding, or the virus spreading to others from an infected person.
“We always wondered whether the older neuraminidase inhibitors (such as) Tamiflu, which is all over the place, inhibit transmission, or is it only useful within (a patient’s) family, for example, in treating influenza, and does it reduce the spread at all,” Monto said. “Most of the studies have been equivocal or negative. And we wondered, was it the study design or was it the fact that it really wasn’t reducing transmission? Along comes baloxavir, and in comparative studies with influenza, we could see that the shedding of the virus from infected individuals dropped much quicker than when an individual was treated with Tamiflu.”
In an interview with The Daily, Public Health student Joshua Foster-Tucker, who is studying under Monto, said he thinks baloxavir has the potential to change how flu outbreaks and pandemics are handled by public health systems, describing an ideal outcome where an entire household is tested for influenza and treated with baloxavir after one member tests positive.
“I could see this drug being
cascade testing paradigm wherein the index patient who tests positive for influenza, in a perfect world, triggers a perfect cascade of all other household members being tested for flu within a week,” Foster-Tucker said. “Then we are able to, with baloxavir, catch transmission at its base and prevent household transmission, but also prevent transmission outside of that household.”
Foster-Tucker said one unintended consequence of his scenario is family members being prescribed baloxavir even without testing positive for influenza, which may make the virus more resistant to baloxavir for those patients in the future.
“I could also see it maybe not necessarily going as perfectly as we would intend,” Foster-Tucker siad. “Sure, an index case in a household is prescribed the drug after a positive test, but everybody else in the household, at least if they were to seek it out, would also be prescribed baloxavir, even without a positive test. You could see how that could be good, but it could also have unintended consequences of furthering resistance, if resistance is clinically meaningful in this context.”
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Campus safety resources include 330 Emergency Blue Light Phones and several late-night rideshare options
finds comfort in knowing the phones are all around campus.
“I would feel comfortable using them,” Naasko said.
July 2024 to January 2025. Over approximately the past 12 years, the average wait time has been 15 to 18 minutes, with four to five vehicles in operation per night.
The University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security offers various safety resources to help students, staff and faculty navigate campus, including the Emergency Blue Light Phone system and partnerships with rideshare services.
Recognizable by their tall black poles with blue lights on top, Emergency Blue Light phones connect users directly to DPSS Dispatch Services, transmitting the caller’s location automatically. No dialing is required, and an officer is immediately sent to the location where the button was pressed. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Shannon Hill, chief Freedom of Information officer at the University, wrote there are 330 Emergency Blue Light Phones located across campus, including on-campus parking structures and elevators.
“(The FOIA) office was advised that there are 330 operational Blue Light emergency phones on the Ann Arbor campus,” Hill wrote. “There is no responsive data pertaining to activations of Blue Light phones because the University does not track this information.”
In an interview with The Daily, U-M alum Juan Naasko said he
“Whenever I’m walking at night especially, there’s just a sense of added safety. You see the Blue Light Phones and it’s like, ‘Okay, if something were to happen, it’d be easy to reach out to someone.’”
LSA rising junior Valeria Strickland said in an interview with The Daily that while she has never used a Blue Light Phone herself, she still appreciates their presence on campus as extra security.
“I’ve never used one,” Strickland said. “It can’t hurt, right? I’m not sure how eager I’d be to use it, but if I had to and it was nearby, I would. I think it’s nice that they’re around, because a lot of times, as a college student, you don’t really have a choice but to walk in the dark. Having that extra layer of security is definitely a plus.”
U-M students, faculty and staff also have University-managed alternatives to the Blue Bus system for free, late-night transportation. SafeRide runs nightly from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., transporting riders to residence halls, parked vehicles and nearby off-campus homes. Riders can request a ride using the TransLoc OnDemand app and must show a valid MCard.
According to data obtained by The Daily, SafeRide provided 25,374 rides from July 2023 to June 2024 and 20,901 rides from
While SafeRide can be a latenight transportation option for those navigating campus with injuries or mobility limitations, some students have faced difficulties using the service.
U-M alum James Hackworth wrote in an email to The Daily that he experienced delays using SafeRide after injuring his ankle in the fall of 2023.
“I used SafeRide to get from campus back to my house in the evenings,” Hackworth wrote.
“Sometimes, (getting a ride) would make it into a wait time of up to 2 hours, although generally it would be between 30 minutes and an hour. As the semester went on, rides being cancelled or switched didn’t happen as much and then I just had longer wait periods, especially on Fridays.”
Other rideshare services begin operation once the Blue Bus system stops running each night.
FlexRide, run by the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, is a curb-to-curb service during latenight hours and major holidays and is subject to variable fares.
Golden Limousine International partners with the University to offer four additional free late-night services for U-M students, faculty and staff. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Many U-M students take classes outside the University that transfer to their transcripts
KAYLA LUGO Daily Staff Reporter
Alongside returning home, working or landing an internship, some University of Michigan students spend their summers taking classes, sometimes outside the University. Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor is one such alternative, offering numerous courses transferable to students’ U-M transcripts.
MATH 115: Calculus I is a prerequisite for multiple U-M majors, so students often take the course’s WCC equivalent, MTH 191. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, WCC mathematics professor Mohammed Abella said his MTH 191 students often appreciate the more personalized class environment.
“A lot of them say they come to WCC because of the personal attention that they get,” Abella said. “They get more personal attention at WCC than they do at any four-year college, not just (the) University of Michigan.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising senior Alejandra Smith said she believed WCC courses’ smaller class size would have made asking questions easier.
“It’s a lot more hands on, because the classes tend to be smaller,” Smith said. “I took economics at U-M, and I really wish I’d taken it at WCC because the lecture hall had
like 500 people in it, and I felt like if I had a question, it was a lot harder to ask. If I had taken (economics) at WCC, there would have been maybe 20 to 30 people in my class.”
Abella said WCC regularly meets with the University to ensure course curriculum aligns across the two institutions for smooth credit transfer.
“We are in constant communication with the University of Michigan to see exactly what their curriculum is,” Abella said. “And yes, we do meet. They told us (when meeting), these are the topics we want, and we teach the same topics, and we meet with them on a regular basis. It used to be like once every five years or so. They look at what we are doing, they look at the exams, they approve it and that’s how it has been since I came to WCC.”
In an interview with The Daily, Mike Stowe, LSA coordinator for student communication and engagement, said classes transferred from other institutions such as WCC may take additional time to be recognized by the University, which can delay the registration process for upper-level classes that require prerequisites, such as those in economics.
“The most common occurrence for that would be taking Calculus I over the summer as a prereq to ECON 401, which is the first core class in economics,” Stowe said. “If a student is registered for Calc I (at the University), they can just register for ECON 401 in
the next semester, because the system has ways of checking to see if they passed it. If they’re registered for that course (at a) community college, instead of being able to register for the fall course in April, they may have to wait until August.”
LSA also requires that no more than 60 of the 120 credits used to graduate are transfer credits. Stowe said this requirement can present another logistical challenge for U-M students, especially transfer students intending to register for summer classes at a community college.
“It’s more common that (transfer) students, if they want to take courses at WCC, may be facing more limitations in terms of the course,” Stowe said. “(The course) might still count to be a prereq, which is a common reason students take courses, but it might not be contributing to the 120 total credits they need to graduate.” Smith said it is important to work wiWth an academic advisor to determine whether WCC summer classes are transferable.
“I feel like all of my classes at WCC were transfer-friendly and easy to manage,” Smith said. “I think I only took one class that was non-transferable and I was told beforehand that it was non-transferable by an advisor. But it’s important that you work with an advisor, because (if) you honestly like working alone, you can mess up and you can add a class that won’t transfer.”
October 4: The ice hockey team starts its season in Yost Ice Arena against Mercyhurst
October 24: Michigan’s field hockey team plays Northwestern, a rematch of the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship where the Wolverines came out as champions
October 25: The football team squares off against Michigan State for the rivalry’s classic Halloween weekend matchup
October 31: The volleyball team hosts the reigning national champions, Penn State, at Crisler Center
December 6: Big Ten Football Championship game
Mid-February: The softball and baseball teams start their seasons
August 30: The football team kicks off its 2025 season against New Mexico at Michigan Stadium
September 12: The women’s soccer team faces rival Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio
September 19: Michigan’s field hockey team faces in-state rival Michigan State at home
Early November: Women’s basketball begins its season
November 6: The field hockey team kicks off the Big Ten Tournament as the reigning champions
November 25: The men’s basketball team faces Auburn. The Tigers ended the Wolverines’ season in the Sweet Sixteen last season
November 29: After a huge upset last season, the Michigan football team faces Ohio State at home, in hopes of extending its winning streak
Early March: Men’s and women’s basketball begin their respective Big Ten Tournaments
Mid-Late March: Men’s and Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament takes place
XAVIER CHOUSSAT
Daily Sports Writer
A year ago, leading through the 10th and final hurdle, the thenreigning national champion in the 400-meter hurdles, Savannah Sutherland, was poised to repeat 2023’s success.
But that second title failed to materialize for Sutherland — at least not in 2024 — as immaculate form over the final hurdle gave Southern Californian sprinter Jasmine Jones the final push she needed to secure the win by just 0.11 seconds.
Now with four other competitors from the Michigan track and field team, Sutherland had one more opportunity to succeed while wearing the block ‘M’. She had been at the pinnacle before, but faltered moments before reaching the summit only a year prior. But after coming off an easy semifinals victory in the 400 hurdles, Sutherland was primed for the finals.
“The semifinal for her was getting around the track, making sure she qualified and ran a relatively clean race,” sprints and hurdles coach Steven Rajewsky said. “It was one of those for her, it was an easy run.”
While a heavy favorite, a win was not guaranteed for Sutherland. With competition coming from the Southeastern Conference champion, Akala Garrett, who had placed fourth nationally in 2024, Sutherland would still have to execute a clean race plan if she was to double up on championships.
Garrett stuck to her aggressive running and was the first to jump. Despite initially falling behind, Sutherland overtook her, running with more fervor than she did in the semis. Still, she maintained her composure, and kept flowing through the race.
By the seventh hurdle, Sutherland had diminished any possibility of her not finishing first. Even with a jump onto her non-dominant leg in the ninth hurdle, it didn’t matter — she was gone. With a final 40-meter dash, she left no room for any other competitor, finishing with a time of 52.46 seconds.
Not only did she break her personal record, she broke the course record, Michigan’s record, the NCAA record and the national Canadian record.
“I knew that I could get a personal best, and so that’s where my mind was at,” Sutherland said. “But when I saw that number on the board, I was definitely pretty shocked, especially because the race felt easy.”
Amid Sutherland’s recordbreaking run, her fellow Wolverines also competed to their fullest potential.
While battling injuries, graduate multi-athlete Clare McNamara secured a spot in the heptathlon. With a fourth- and seventh-place finish in the 800 and shot put, respectively, McNamara closed her career with a score of 4980, good for 20th place. In the field, the underclassmen
duo of freshman Abigail Russell and Elizabeth Tapper both competed in shot put. Tapper, who has broken record after record and earned second in the Big Ten, finished 14th overall. Russel placed slightly behind her at 21st.
“(Tapper) has just continued to be on this awesome trajectory now as a sophomore,” Rajewsky said. “To do what she’s done and continue to ascend both at the Big Ten level — which the Big Ten and throws is as good as it gets — and then to be able to come to the NCAA championships and just be a competitor. We really know there’s more there for both (Tapper and Russell).”
Off a fourth place finish in the Big Ten championships herself, junior Emma Yungeberg, competed in javelin throwing. A school record holder, Yungeberg has been a valuable part of Michigan’s throw team for years. And with a throw of 50.08 meters, Yungeberg placed 17th overall.
While Michigan as a team didn’t take home any trophies, Sutherland propelled herself to one anyway. After tasting defeat a year ago, Sutherland didn’t just secure her second championship — she secured her legacy.
WEST LAFAYETTE — The No. 8 seed Michigan softball team had been here before.
The Wolverines have won 22 Big Ten regular season championships and 11 conference tournaments in their program’s storied history — the most recent of which was their Big Ten Tournament championship from last year. But this time, it felt different. Because Michigan hadn’t just won its 12th Big Ten Tournament. It had done so against No. 2 seed UCLA — the gold standard of college softball programs. The same opponent the Wolverines had defeated 20 years earlier to win its sole national title, who are now a Big Ten rival to Michigan as a consequence of the reshaped landscape of college athletics.
And on Saturday, 20 years after the national championship game between the two teams, the Wolverines (38-19 overall, 15-11 Big Ten) shut down UCLA (49-10, 17-6), 2-0 off the back of an imperious outing from its pitching staff to defend their Big Ten Tournament title. When the Wolverines defeated the Bruins in 2005, it had AllAmerican right-hander Jennie Ritter in the circle, anchoring the victory with a complete game. And 20 years later, on May 8, 2025 Michigan had senior right-hander Lauren Derkowski and sophomore right-hander Erin Hoehn combining their powers to produce a similar effort.
Derkowski needed just seven pitches to assert her presence in the circle. At the bottom of the first inning, Derkowski
retired three batters in quick succession, setting the tone for her resolve from the circle which would come to anchor Michigan throughout the championship game.
“Just throwing my pitches,” Derkowski said, when asked about her approach. “Not really thinking about their hitting, as much as attacking the hitters and going at it from the first pitch to the last pitch I threw out there.”
But on the other end for the Bruins was right-hander Addisen Fisher. Touting a 16-2 record and a 2.43 ERA, Fisher faced nine Michigan batters and retired all nine through the first three innings of the game, quickly settling into a duel with Derkowski.
It became clear that whichever team could make the opposing ace crack was going to lift the trophy. And UCLA came close, putting two runners on base at the bottom of both the fourth and fifth innings. But in both situations, Derkowski bunkered down and forced an out from the field to quell the threat. And finally, at the top of the sixth inning, Michigan drew first blood.
Sophomore second baseman Jenissa Conway stepped to the plate and slammed a double into center field that sent Langford home for the game’s first run.. Conway tacked on a run of her own on the next at-bat, as sophomore right-fielder Ella Stephenson drove her home with a single.
Through six innings, Derkowski managed to outlast Fisher, as UCLA opted to pull her in favor of right-hander Taylor Tinsley — herself boasting an impressive resume consisting of a 12-4 record and a 2.52 ERA.
But the pitching duel took on a brand new form in the next inning. In a continuation of the trend that characterized Michigan’s pitching approach all season, the Wolverines’ coaching staff brought in Hoehn in relief. Hoehn immediately picked up where Derkowski left off, with three consecutive outs at the bottom of the sixth.
“You’re looking at two really talented pitchers in the circle who have the ability to put their team on their back,” Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said. “I didn’t expect this to be a 100% pitchers duel. I definitely didn’t think that we were going to shut them out, but I’m thrilled.”
Even with two changes of pitcher, the duel persisted. In the very next inning, Tinsley responded. She struck out junior third baseman Maddie Erickson and forced two flyouts, keeping the Wolverines’ bats silent through the top of the seventh to keep UCLA treading water.
But Hoehn finished what Derkowski had started, as she had done all year. First, she forced a pop up of shortstop Kaniya Bragg to shortstop. Next, she struck out designated player Sofia Mujica swinging. And finally, she forced a groundout of left-hander Kaitlyn Terry, as Erickson made the throw to freshman first baseman Madi Ramey for the out.
“They have each other’s backs,” Conway said. “If Derk’s struggling, Erin knows she needs to do her thing. And they work really well together.”
And off the backs of its pitchers, Michigan made a similar statement to the one it had in 2005 against the sport’s most decorated program — once again stunning the softball world to claim a championship.
VIHAAN EASWAR Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men’s lacrosse team, coached by Kevin Conry, doesn’t step on the “M” in the locker room.
It’s an extension of the superstition in the Diag that prospective and incoming students at the university learn about the second they set foot on campus. And it’s one that senior attacker Bo Lockwood learned about the hard way, at the very beginning of his playing career with the Wolverines.
“I didn’t know that right away,” Lockwood told The Michigan Daily. “It happens to a lot of people — you step on it right away, and you gotta go down into a ‘single’, as we call it. Which is (when) we just do one push-up to kind of reset our memory.”
Not stepping on the “M” is a tradition steeped in respect — respect for the significance of the logo, and the decades of history of Michigan athletics it represents.
And by carrying that tradition into his locker room, Conry is instilling his own culture of respect in his team, by reminding them the weight of the colors that they play for. It’s that same respect for tradition, alongside a deep respect for the individuals he coaches, that has served as the cornerstone of his coaching career and allowed him to make his programs his own. ***
Conry’s East Coast roots run
quintessentially Northeastern experience of working in a deli.
“I make a mean chicken cutlet sandwich,” Conry told The Daily.
The East Coast’s status as the hotbed of collegiate lacrosse made it an ideal spot from which Conry could launch his career in the sport. And the respect for tradition that characterizes Conry’s career bloomed at one of the most storied programs on the East Coast, and in all of college lacrosse — Johns Hopkins. At Johns Hopkins, Conry attended and played lacrosse from 2001 to 2004.
The Blue Jays boast 44 total championships, the most of any college lacrosse program. Though Conry played a small role throughout his four years with Johns Hopkins, his time with the Blue Jays still left an indelible mark on him and helped shape his aspirations in the sport.
“By no means was I the best player on that roster, or a monster contributor, but what I did believe in is the path, and
Randall Xiao/DAILY
being caught up in the history and tradition to know that you’re a member of an elite group,” Conry said. “That was really special for me, and it kind of got in my blood, and it’s all I really wanted to do. I always wanted to be a part of the game, and it really helped me round out my passion for the game of lacrosse, and then direct it after my career was over, as somebody helping young men get to the same spot that I was.”
The height of Conry’s success as a lacrosse player was during his junior year, 2003, where he played 15 games as a defender while Johns Hopkins finished runners-up in that year’s NCAA Tournament. Though his role was relatively limited, as he did not start a single game, it was still portentous of the man Conry would become over the course of his career in the sport — someone who could arrive at programs with rich tapestries of legacy, and etch his own name into them.
‘Do it, own it, give it, appreciate it’: How Mark Rothstein’s coaching has shaped Michigan rowing
ELLA GURFEIN Daily Sports Writer
Since its varsity inception in 1997, the Michigan rowing team has fostered hundreds of collegiate rowing careers as well as team wide results on the leaderboard. And while the program has fostered various personalities, gained immense success and suffered frustrating defeats, one person has remained constant — head coach Mark Rothstein.
A Michigan alum and Ann Arbor native himself, Rothstein has been a lifelong supporter of the Wolverines. At Michigan, he rowed on the men’s crew team while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in physics and continued to work as a club rowing coach after graduating.
So when the University of Michigan announced that it was adding a women’s varsity rowing team, it didn’t have to look far for the perfect coach.
“In 1995, the athletic department announced that they were going to add a women’s sport,” Rothstein told The Michigan Daily. “So they chose rowing as the sport to elevate and I was the club coach at the time. … I got pretty lucky. I was kind of in the right place at the right time and they hired me.”
The decision proved successful for both Rothstein and the Wolverines, as he has led the program to nine Big Ten titles
the program has also produced a multitude of Olympians and All-Americans, as well as many former athletes who have seen major successes in their professional endeavors outside of the boathouse.
In Rothstein’s early seasons, the rowing team saw quick success, with a fifth-place overall finish in its second year and a Big Ten championship title two years later.
“Our goal is not necessarily to produce Olympians, although we’ve produced a lot from our program, but it’s really to produce Olympic-caliber people,” Rothstein said. “Not everyone wants to pursue that, but I think everyone can be really impactful in their life post-Michigan and that’s the goal.”
But Rothstein’s impact extends far beyond the many trophies and accolades he’s brought to the program. The rowers Rothstein have coached often cite him as ‘the best’ and reflect fondly on their experiences with him, largely due to the individual attention he provides each member of his team. Rothstein’s mentorship has helped student-athletes in their lives beyond the boat. There is a common sentiment among Rothstein’s rowers — no matter what these athletes pursue after college, they all laud Rothstein for his role in shaping their wellrounded abilities.
“Mark is a really great coach because he can adapt
volunteer assistant coach Felice Mueller told The Daily. “He could be more of a hard driver with people who need it, he had an adaptable coaching style, which really speaks to his strength and time on the field and being able to understand the nuances between athletes.” Rothstein’s drive to help his athletes develop is a testament to his overall strength as a coach. Rather than just focusing on the strength of the team as a whole, he cares about individual athletes and motivates them to be their best selves — both in and outside the boat — a belief that has brought him success in his many years of coaching.
*** The rowing team is the largest women’s varsity sport at Michigan, with 58 athletes on its roster in the 2024-25 season and amassing as many as 85 rowers in previous seasons. Despite the size of the team, Rothstein continues to focus on each individual rower, always striving to grow and improve the program.
“I really try to evaluate myself as a coach and our program and what we’re doing well, what I’m doing well and when I’m not doing well,” Rothstein said. “I just try to stay in a mindset of perpetually getting better. Every year I learn something new and every year is different. Every team is different and I think it’s just really fun to constantly learn and grow.”
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The revenue-sharing era of college sports is officially here.
After five years of litigation, Judge Claudia Wilken approved a settlement between the NCAA, its power conferences and lawyers representing all Division I athletes. The settlement is a long time coming.
For years, the NCAA maintained that college athletes were “amateurs,”, receiving fair compensation in the form of their academic scholarships and other benefits, despite top athletic departments producing an upward of $200 million in revenue annually, according to USA Today. The claims of “amateurism” came into question in 2021, when the Supreme Court
upheld a district court ruling that prohibiting NCAA athletes from receiving non-education related compensation violated federal antitrust law. With the recent ruling, “amateurism” is now dead.
In the upcoming academic year, athletic departments nationwide are set to distribute $20.5 million to student-athletes, Michigan among them. The $20.5 million mark was created by a formula that accounts for average revenue calculations across Power Four athletic departments.
According to the ruling, universities will be able to offer revenue-sharing agreements to high school prospects starting Aug.ust 1 of their senior year. And while universities will be distributing revenue to athletes, they’ll no longer be able to profit from many of the name, image and likeness (NIL)
deals that have dominated the college athletics landscape for the past few years.
All NIL deals must be approved by a newly formed NIL clearinghouse, operated by the consulting firm Deloitte, to confirm that a player is receiving fair market value for an NIL deal. While ath-
letes receive their ample market value for some deals — like former Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy’s Beats’ sponsorship — others, not so much. The days of pay-forplay deals, where boosters or collectives dish out large checks for athletes to come to their schools, are over. In fact, Deloitte estimates
that 70% of past deals from NIL collectives would have been denied by the clearinghouse, according to an article by Yahoo! Sports’s Ross Dellenger.
Michigan will no longer have a massive NIL war chest to tap into, leveling the playing field between it and programs with less NIL support. All programs will have the same revenue sharing limits, preventing schools with an abundance of NIL funds from dominating recruiting battles for top talent.
Similar to the standard across the country, Michigan’s football players are expected to receive the bulk of the revenue, with men’s and women’s basketball following behind.
“It’s going to be 75% to football,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said on a February episode of 247 Sports’s Michigan Insider
show. “And then the (remaining) 25%, almost all of it is going to go between men’s basketball and women’s basketball.” According to Manuel, these figures are proportional by the revenue generated by each respective sport. After all, the Wolverines’ football team generated over $149 million in revenue in 2023-24 fiscal year. Men’s basketball generated $20.9 million, while women’s basketball made just under $1 million. In addition to paying out rosters, this revenue will go to keeping the Wolverines’ teams competitive in the transfer portal. To land a player via the portal, teams will have to buy a player out of their existing contract, and the buyout paid will contribute towards the $20.5 million revenue-sharing limit.
Cameron Catrabone has been wrestling on a Michigan mat since he was 5 years old. While it may have been a homemade 14-by-14 mat painted maize and blue in his Buffalo, N.Y. basement, it predestined his journey to Ann Arbor.
This childhood practice mat of the freshman 149-pounder was constructed by his father, Jeff Catrabone, a Wolverines wrestling alumnus and three-time All-American. As Jeff laboriously crafted
the wrestling mat with the iconic block ‘M’ insignia, he dreamed of the Catrabone legacy being continued at the same school — a dream that was cemented when Cameron verbally committed to wrestling at Michigan in the 10th grade. Now with his own chance at achieving greatness, Cameron works to build his own legacy while carrying on his father’s.
As Jeff and his wife Amy were growing their family, they recognized the importance of getting their kids involved in physical activity at a young age.
“When you’re a kid, in my eyes,
you wrestle or you do gymnastics,” Jeff told The Michigan Daily. “If you’re done with that, you can jump into just about any sport and be
good at it because it’s a head-to-toe workout.”
The Catrabone children have proven this philosophy true. Jeff and Amy’s two daughters, Aria and Aja, have broken records in gymnastics and track, while their two boys, Cameron and Tanner, are on their way to becoming wrestling stars. With Cameron paving the way as the oldest child to enter into the college athletics scene, it’s undeniable that the Catrabones are a family of high level athletes — this comes as no surprise however, given their father’s wrestling career.
Jeff, starting his wrestling career at age 5, put his son in the sport early in hopes of making Cameron a well-rounded competitor. He never wanted to pressure any of his children to follow in his footsteps, and as a young athlete, Cameron was invested in both hockey and wrestling. But when the time came for Cameron to choose between hockey and wrestling, Jeff was internally hoping he would opt to don the singlet. After a night of weighing his options, 7-yearold Cameron came to the breakfast table with a decision in mind. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
XAVIER CHOUSSAT Daily Sports Writer
Benny Casillas’ baseball peak came early — over a decade ago in the 2014 Bronco World Series championship.
After besting Florida for the U.S. Title, 12-year-old Casillas, and a cohort of other future collegiate and MLB players from Santa Monica, punched their ticket to the Bronco World Series. Taking on an uber-talented Puerto Rico team, the 12U Santa Monica Ponies were in for the game of a lifetime.
For Casillas, at least, that came true.
“I say that was my prime all the time — joking — but that was seriously one of my best baseball experiences I ever had,” Casillas, now a graduate shortstop for the Michigan baseball team, told The Michigan Daily.
In an arena in Los Alamitos filled with cheering fans, Casillas went on to have a legacy day. He sprayed six home runs across the park and was a pivotal factor for Santa Monica in the resulting slugfest. However, with a final score of 15-9, the Ponies ultimately fell to Puerto Rico — but even that couldn’t sour Casillas’ high.
“It was like a dream come true the way he played,” Casillas’ dad, Paul, told The Daily. “And from that point on, he did other things, but baseball was always a big focus. He always (said), ‘I’m going to try to get there. I’m going to try to go play Division I.’ ” Eight years later, Benny made his Division I debut. While standing at the peak of a travel ball
World Series was a fun story to tell, Benny set his sights on taller mountains. Through a supportive community of coaches and family alongside an undying determination, Benny fulfilled his childhood dreams, and became the Big Ten’s best hitter in the process.
Benny’s start in baseball was about as seamless as it gets. With a dad who had pitched in college, Benny was literally and figuratively born with a bat in his hands. An athlete from a young age, he took to many sports, but it was baseball — and his dad — that really called to him.
A young Benny Casillas holds his arms out and looks down at the ground.
Courtesy of Brae and Paul Casillas.
“My dad played and growing up, like every son does, I viewed my dad as Superman,” Benny said. “He was everything as my coach and I just wanted to be exactly like him, and that meant playing college baseball.”
This desire to become a Division I player manifested in Benny’s relentless work ethic.
Recruiting his dad for countless hours of batting practice and ground balls, Benny honed his skills from a young age. Especially after games when he performed poorly on the plate, Benny would make sure to hit the cages with his dad that night to work on his swing. To reach the next level, Benny knew he had to be better than those around him.
Benny’s mental resilience carried into high school. As a junior, Benny transferred to El Segundo high school under head coach Billy Traber, who had spent eight years in the MLB. Earning the shortstop position after a successful tryout, Benny’s big smile and willingness to do whatever it took to win made him an easy addition to the team.
“It couldn’t have been more seamless,” Traber told The Daily. “… He’s a baseball-loving guy who really meant a lot to me and our program. I can’t really say much more to that. He was special. He is special.” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
DREW LENARD Daily Sports Writer
The NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships are a culmination of a year’s worth of effort. While June temperatures warm up many collegiate runners begin cooling down, and only the most elite racers are consolidated to compete on the biggest stage as their months of training boil down to one final bell lap.
Two Michigan distance runners made the cut for that final lap this season — freshman Brendan Herger and sophomore Trent McFarland, in each runners’ first Nationals appearance. The pair of underclassmen placed ninth and 11th out of 12 competitors, respectively, in a tactical and tight 1500 meter final amongst a stacked field.
Before the race began, McFarland saw it going one of two ways: Either his opponents would pace the pack at a speed significantly slower than what they’re capable of in order to utilize racing tactics in a positional game, or they would get out as hot as they could from the gun in a more one-dimensional battle of wills.
What happened instead was something in between. Oregon mid-distance runner Simeon Burnbaum took the field out at a pace fast enough to remain uncomfortable, but controlled enough that every runner in the field could maintain it. The result was a single pack of 12 runners all jockeying and elbowing for better positioning for 1100 meters before the final lap became an all-out sprint.
“That wasn’t how I expected it to go,” McFarland said. “It was a
pretty chaotic race, and you had to be on your toes the whole time.”
The chaos didn’t play in favor of Herger or McFarland. The duo was never able to jostle themselves into the top five from the outside lanes in order to have a chance to outkick those in front of them when the race picked up. Instead of going to one of the Wolverines, the victory went to Washington distance runner Nathan Green — Washington’s fourth consecutive title in the event.
“In a race like that, your fate is decided with a lap to go,” Herger said. “You can’t move around guys on the curve when you’re running 51 (seconds per lap) pace… you have to be in a position near the front.”
While Herger was stuck behind the leaders of the pack for the majority of the race Friday, he is anything but behind. While still a highly-touted recruit, Herger was not among the select few at the top of the 2024 recruiting class. He wasn’t expected — or expecting — to have a breakout season ending as the only member of the class to reach the 1500 meter final, but his 3:52.36 on Wednesday in his preliminary heat made just that the reality. Quite a feat came with a fair dose of surprise, which Herger has had to get used to this season as he continued to surpass the expectations of others — and himself — in his first collegiate season.
“I honestly didn’t have super high stakes for myself this year. At first my goal was ‘maybe you can hit a Regional mark, if you make Regionals that’s a success,’ ” Herger said. “At any point I was ready for it to be my last race, but then I just kept going.” In the eyes of McFarland, the journey to Nationals felt overdue.
After a promising freshman season that included a school record in the indoor Distance Medley Relay and multiple impressive marks in the 1500, his 3:39.81 at the NCAA East finals fell short of National qualifying.
“I thought I was good enough to race my way here last year, and I didn’t,” McFarland said.
So he came back a year later, this time with more than just one school record under his belt and multiple new personal records, and mustered the strength to qualify for a Nationals bid at the East Finals this time around. But unlike Herger, simply making it so far didn’t satisfy McFarland, and his 11th place finish left some feelings of dissatisfaction in the young runner.
“It’s hard to look at it and be perfectly content with (my season) when the final race of the season ends in what I consider a failure,” McFarland said.
Satisfied or unsatisfied, the pair was able to accomplish what only 12 runners in the nation could, and as underclassmen they have left themselves plenty of time on the clock to come back even stronger in future appearances at Nationals.
“I have more in the tank as I get stronger aerobically,” Herger said. “Hopefully I can take away as much as I can from this and in the future stay at the top of my class.”
There is nothing more important on big stages than experience having competed on them. And at the end of a highly successful season out of both the Michigan underclassmen, that’s exactly what they have earned themselves as they begin to prepare for the next season.
With hopes of redefining its postseason, the No. 9 Michigan rowing team fine-tuned its rhythm and looked to put its disappointing Big Ten Championships performance behind it. While the Wolverines set themselves up for success on Day One of the NCAA Championships, their stamina ultimately dropped off and the team finished 11th place overall.
While Michigan’s refined intentions led to early success, as the weekend continued and competition increased, the Wolverines struggled to sustain their initial momentum. Even so, the unit performed cleanly and illustrated the chemistry that the boats had curated throughout the season.
“We really were struggling early in the season, and it was really impressive how much the team
improved,” Michigan coach Mark Rothstein said on Sunday. “We had a really strong May and I was hoping we would finish a little stronger at NCAA, but I was just really impressed with our team’s resiliency.”
Entering the regatta on Day One, the first varsity eight race set the tone for the competition. No. 1 Stanford quickly established itself in the lead while No. 8 Brown hesitated. At the start, things looked positive for the Wolverines in the battle for runner-up. But a momentum shift worked in the Bears’ favor and pushed them comfortably into a second-place finish. Michigan barely held onto third and progressed its boat to the semifinals.
For the second varsity eight race, the Wolverines mirrored their prior performance with another third-place finish. To round out Day One with its final race, Michigan’s first varsity four pulled
through and secured an impressive second-place result.
But on Day Two, the Wolverines began to slip.
The 1V8 race threw Michigan up against the nation’s best and it struggled to stand out. From the beginning, it was clear the Wolverines were fighting for a fourthplace finish as the top three boats bolted ahead. Soon enough, the Day Three grand finals became unattainable as Michigan fell to last place, leaving it with a spot in the petite finals instead.
Later in the day, things looked hopeful in the initial moments of the 2V8 boat’s race. And, although tight competition kicked the Wolverines to fifth place, the boat’s chemistry was inspiring given its early-season struggles.
“We struggled at Big Tens,” senior Abby Hathaway said. “We weren’t finding the most perfect rhythm in our lineup so we spent a lot of time over the two weeks just
pushing things up, trying to find our boat’s rhythm and personality together.”
Competing in the 2V8 lineup, Hathaway built up her boat’s rapport as she compiled her years of hard work and experience into her final race with Michigan. While the 2V8 boat didn’t cross the finish line in an optimal position, its display of power and technique provided the Wolverines encouragement.
While the 1V4 race resulted in another sixth-place finish for Michigan, officially eliminating the team from the Day Three grand finals, the Wolverines held out hope for their 2V8 lineup.
The 1V4 race kicked off Day Three where Michigan narrowly took fourth place. While the next race, the 2V8, presented another battle with Brown, the team displayed another hard-fought race that ended without the intended result. As both teams simultane-
ously crept up behind the leader, No. 4 Tennessee, attention seemed to fall away from the fight for first. The Bears began pushing forward little-by-little but remained neckand-neck with Michigan until Brown ultimately clinched second place in the final moments.
“I thought they had a great regatta and showed a lot of tremendous improvements from two weeks ago,” Rothstein said. “We’re not
experienced.
KAYLA LUGO
For three years, senior goalkeeper Sophie Homan has mostly sat on the bench watching her teammates on the Michigan women’s soccer team. Appearing in just five games since joining the Wolverines, Homan’s collegiate career hasn’t racked up many statistics thus far. But she hasn’t let this get to her. Because, while she was patiently waiting for her turn on the big stage, one quality about Homan has guided her path: her faith.
Soccer has given Homan countless opportunities and joy, but the sport is her passion, not her purpose. Her life’s journey is guided by her Christian faith, not her time on the pitch. While Homan’s faith keeps her grounded and humble now, the transition from a prolific high school athlete to a support role on Michigan’s squad was tough at first. Homan holds her high school’s record in shutouts with 16 to boast, was given First Team All-State honors in 2021 and was awarded a spot on Michigan High School Soccer Coaches Association’s 2020-21 Dream Team.
Because of the Wolverines’ strong goalkeeping unit, formerly led by Izzy Nino and Stephanie Sparkowski, Homan redshirted her freshman season and didn’t tally even one second in the net. At the end of the season, though, Homan’s faith was strengthened through Athletes In Action, which taught her that there’s more to life than just being on the field.
Athletes in Action, a Christian sports ministry with chapters on 200-plus campuses and in 60-plus countries, helped Homan realize that her life doesn’t revolve around sports.
“Going home the winter of my freshman year and going into summer, I really found my faith and learning through AIA,” Homan told The Michigan Daily.
“They taught me ‘you are more than your sport. You are a child of God, and what you do, what you produce as an athlete, does not define who you are, and your sport is an extra thing in your life that you can be proud of and work really hard at. But that’s not all of who you are.’ ”
But still, like any big transition, going from playing consistently and racking up awards in high school to now sitting on
the sidelines in college wasn’t an easy shift in perspective.
“That’s a transition for a 17-18 year old girl to have her whole idea of what soccer is kind of flip around,” Homan said. “But faith, my coaches, my family and my teammates all supported me through that, and I learned very quickly what my role was and how to be successful and where I could find joy and success in whatever role I was in.”
Despite the major shift in the time she’s spent on versus off the field, Homan’s faith gave her strength as she established herself at a new post. Homan kept faith that even off the field, she could make an impact. So she became a vocal supporter for her teammates competing on the field. Embracing her role, Homan channeled her faith by uplifting others. Through this, she redefined what contributions matter to her. It’s not just about tallying minutes and saves. Rather, it’s her contributions and her constant presence that have made a positive impact on the team’s culture.
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Layout designers are in charge of page layout for The Daily’s weekly print editions, which get distributed to the entire Ann Arbor community every Wednesday. Layout designers will meet every Monday to work and collaborate on designing these pages. There are also opportunities to lay out special editions, like the Sports section’s Women’s Month insert, where you can really bring out your creativity!
Focal Point is The Michigan Daily’s dedicated investigative journalism team — we are one of a handful of collegiate investigative units in the country! We work to reveal stories of wrongdoing that those in power have sought to suppress and aim to provide accountability and public transparency to readers in the Ann Arbor and University of Michigan communities. Because of the sensitive nature of our investigations, we focus on trauma-informed reporting, keep our stories confidential and remain an editorially independent team, not answerable to the University or other bodies. We host weekly informational meetings about investigative journalism,
sometimes even bringing in investigative journalists to talk about their work, and we make sure to dedicate time to meet with our story teams. Combining traditional reporting, institutional records requests and open-source intelligence, Focal Point incorporates journalistic techniques from many backgrounds. We’ve covered stories detailing alleged Ann Arbor City Council misconduct, breached U-M faculty protocols, workplace harassment and police department wrongdoing. Our long-form investigations shed light on the inner workings of our institutions, centering the individuals most affected by their shortcomings.
The Michigan Daily Games are a beloved staple for thousands of students across campus and beyond, with a new crossword or mini crossword being published seven days a week throughout the semester (themeless puzzles on Saturdays, themed puzzles on Sundays) and weekly during the summer! We also release our very own Links puzzles every weekday. Upcoming this fall, we are launching a new game, a soon-to-be-announced collaboration project … Games staffers have excelled in every aspect of their field,
including being published in The New York Times! Games is one of the most tight-knit communities at The Daily and extremely collaborative — just not when it comes to our official NYT Mini crossword leaderboard competition. Prospective Gamers do not need experience in writing puzzles, though it is an amazing plus. All that’s required is a curiosity to learn, sharp wits and a creative eye to write awesome puzzles for our solvers! If you love to solve things in any way, shape or form, make sure to check us out!
The Photo section engages in developing visual stories for The Michigan Daily’s publication. Apart from capturing news events to supplement reporters’ writing, our photographers embark on their own multimedia projects, covering their own events both visually and in writing. The process of visual storytelling, done through a lens, authentically provides a unique perspective; each image is a historical document of its own. Photographers cover a wide array of stories, including but not limited to sports, concerts, protests and community events, while gathering short excerpts of writing through specified captions. There are also an array of editors who work with specific sections to ensure each story is fully streamlined between visual and written portions. The Statement senior editor meets with The Statement section to aid writers in the visual aspect of their long-form storytelling by connecting them to photographers. The outreach senior editor connects photog-
raphers with University alums through a monthly newsletter and coordinates all necessary communication for concerts and competitions. Likewise, the sports senior editor works closely with the Sports section and secures photographers’ credentials. The multimedia senior editor, similarly, works closely with photographers on photo essays and galleries to help bridge a common gap in their writing experience, while also helping to develop stories from the start of the process, all the way to the final layout. The Audience Engagement senior editor works with the named section to streamline all things Instagram and X, while a bulk of their work is creating the Frames of the Games graphics. Largely, the senior editors represent the many avenues a photographer can take their role. Because it is an exhaustive section, photographers have the opportunity to engage with The Daily as a whole through the lens of a camera.
The Podcast section at The Michigan Daily is where storytelling, reporting and audio editing come together to create engaging audio content. Whether you’re passionate about politics, pop culture, campus life or investigative features, the podcast team is the place for you. Our section produces a variety of podcasts, including: The Daily Weekly (News) Arts, Interrupted (Arts) Might I Add... (Opinion)
Highway to Hail (Sports) Pass the MiC (Michigan in Color)
Each show has its own team working on different schedules throughout the school year. We also support new show development and encourage members to bring fresh formats and ideas to the table. If you’re excited about making stories come alive through sound, we’d love to have you on the team.
Journalism is becoming more digital and online every day.
The Michigan Daily meets these demands with the Video team! We create all the videos for this newspaper, whether that’s alongside an article or edition (like the recent Orientation Edition!), or as fun videos on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok that capture the more social side of campus. You’ll find yourself
getting really creative with ideas. If you’re interested in video work, from editing to filming, join the Video team. You’ll also grow in other professional skills, like idea generation, interviewing and outreach. We are one of the few teams on The Daily that does not require previous relevant experience! We love being the start of someone’s creative journey. Apply!
The Daily’s Web section
“leads the digital-first future of The Michigan Daily.” We are comprised of three subteams: Engineering, Data and Product Design. Engineering builds web apps and interfaces that support the work of other sections at The Daily — particularly for special occasions like the 2024 general election or Orientation Edition. It is the principal maintainer of the Games section’s infrastructure, and it develops internal tooling to assist with digital publishing at The Daily. Its frontend stack is primarily React, Svelte and Astro. Data is concerned with
data journalism: the practice of gathering, analyzing and visualizing data to deliver news stories and investigations. Previously, Data has reported on everything from the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion at the University to menu trends at MDining halls. Product Design creates designs for all engineering output, including The Daily’s main page and specials. If you’re interested in web development, data journalism or design, consider joining Web to apply those interests in a highimpact position inside The Daily’s newsroom!
As a parent, there’s nothing more difficult than knowing your child is unwell and you can’t be there. We understand how stressful this can be. That’s why our student-centered care is just a phone call away — offering expert support, comfort, and peace of mind when you need it most.
“Dr. Markman is not only a top-notch doctor, she’s become a trusted member of our extended village helping raise our boy.”
-Parent Sophomore
“Dr. Markman was such a savior for my son’s healthcare his first semester at Michigan. And most importantly, she was a caring mom on the ground taking such good care of my son.”
-Parent Freshman
“Dr. Markman is an incredible doctor who has helped me tremendously this year.”
-College Sophomore
I am a board-certified pediatrician with over 25 years of experience. I have worked at the University of Michigan and Trinity Health, building strong professional connections within these esteemed healthcare systems.
The Opinion section of The Michigan Daily is a platform for your most pressing thoughts and strong perspectives on anything from pop culture to STEM, from University of Michigan politics to national politics or anything in between. In the Opinion section, you can either write a biweekly column as a columnist, write a monthly column as an analyst or draw up a topical cartoon as a cartoonist! As a member of the section, you also will be a participant in our weekly Editorial Board meetings where we have a dialogue on current events as an entire section, with the opportunity to become an official member of the Editorial Board. Each week, we collaborate to write an Editorial discussing the most pressing campus and national issues. The Opinion section is also the only section at The Daily that accepts external (non-Daily staff) writer submissions, including Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor. This includes current U-M students, alumni, Ann Arbor residents and more, giving external voices the opportunity to have their opinions heard. For all of your pressing opinions or outstanding debates with your friends, The Michigan Daily’s Opinion section is the place for you.
SOPHIA PERRAULT Editor in Chief
ZACH AJLUNI AND ANGELINA AKOURI Editorial Page Editors
MICHELLE LIAO AND MEGAN GYDESEN Managing Editors
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Liv Frey
Mateo Alvarez
Zach Ajluni
Angelina Akouri
Jack Brady
Gabe Efros
Lucas Feller
Hunter Ryerson
Maximilian Schenke
Seth Gabrielson
Jovanna Gallegos
Jack Kapcar
Sophia Perrault
Unsigned editorials reflect the of f icial position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
On May 4, former University of Michigan President Santa Ono was unanimously recommended as the sole finalist for president of the University of Florida. Since then, Ono has announced his intention to leave Ann Arbor and assume his new role in Gainesville, Florida. After nearly three years of broken promises, restrictions on student rights and damaging executive decisions, this Editorial Board believes it was high time for Ono to resign. Looking forward, we call upon the University’s Board of Regents to learn from the mistake of selecting Ono, and choose a new president dedicated to protecting the student body. Before he was sworn in, the U-M community was optimistic about Ono. He used social media as a way to connect with campus, making him seem more relatable than his predecessor, former University President Mark Schlissel. As a result, it appeared he would be more open to productive dialogues on campusrelated issues.
Ultimately, this Editorial Board believes Ono’s tenure reflected the opposite. His consistent disregard and suppression of pro-Palestine protesters — often under the guise of institutional neutrality — underscored his unwillingness to listen to students. His decisions to end the Gaza encampments and fire pro-Palestinian faculty members for protesting are blatant attacks on the very people Ono promised to support: University students and faculty. As a result, he was frequently criticized by campus for turning his back on students.
Ono refused to listen to the U-M community on domestic issues as much as foreign ones. Last December, students and faculty protested the administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Ono ignored the outrage, and in March, announced that the University would be closing its Office of DEI and Office of Health, Equity and Inclusion, along with other related programs, a decision he later lauded as a major accomplishment.
Ultimately, the facade wore off; when it truly mattered, Ono neglected his responsibility to equally support the students he was hired to serve — a dereliction of leadership that marks his presidency as a failure, even by his own standards.
While Ono’s tenure was one marked by a secretive and tight-lipped administration that avoided any possible confrontation with the student body, we remain hopeful that a new president will bring change. For the time being, Domenico Grasso has been named the University’s interim president. In his time as the sixth chancellor of the University’s Dearborn campus, Grasso was generally liked by both students and faculty. Dearborn saw a period of growth that included new additions to campus and a 50% increase in its endowment.
DEI at U-M Dearborn had become a politicized issue, but the support for its alternative — largely spearheaded by Grasso — has been positive. There, the Office of Holistic Excellence acts as a neutral way of encouraging diversity through individual and holistic analysis.
After two years of an uncommunicative president, this Editorial Board is calling for transparency and clear communication from the administration. As the board searches for a new president, we hope that Grasso keeps students’ best interests at the forefront of his decisions-making. He might have been present at football games and commencements, but Ono never really seemed to defend the interests of students behind closed doors. We hope Grasso learns from his predecessor by serving as an advocate for students in private just as much as he champions them in public. His actions should make it clear that the president is an ally, not an adversary.
With Grasso not applying for the permanent position, the hunt for the next University president begins with a clear mandate: This time, students cannot be sidelined. The search for Ono’s successor must prioritize not just academic credentials or political palatability, but a genuine commitment to student voices and democratic values on campus.
A key lesson from Ono’s presidency is that institutional neutrality must not be a shield for silence. The concept, while well-intentioned in theory, was wielded by Ono as a tool to avoid moral clarity on critical issues affecting students. But neutrality is not the same as submission. A wise and intentional application of neutrality would recognize that some issues — like the dismantling of DEI initiatives or the suppression of student protest — are not simply “political controversies,” but decisions
that directly impact the lives and well-being of marginalized students. In these moments, leadership demands courage, not capitulation.
The next president must be someone who understands that student trust must be earned, not assumed. Too many major decisions in recent years — such as discreet changes to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities and the cancellation of the Central Student Government resolutions related to the war in Gaza — have been made behind closed doors, often without student input or basic explanation. We cannot afford another presidency where students feel like an afterthought. If the administration is truly committed to fostering a campus that reflects the values of diversity and academic freedom, then students must have a seat at the table — not just in town halls, but in the presidential search process itself.
That means creating transparent mechanisms for student engagement, like public forums, regular Q&As with administration and anonymous feedback systems with real accountability. It also means including students on the presidential search committee — not as tokens, but as participants. The University should actively solicit the views of the communities most affected by presidential decisions: student activists, cultural organizations, first-generation students and those involved in academic governance.
The days of curated photo ops and sanitized email statements must end. We need a leader who speaks to students with honesty, listens with humility and governs with the understanding that leadership on this campus means more than administrative management — it means moral clarity, accessibility and genuine connection.
We are not asking for perfection. We are asking for presence.
Ono’s resignation leaves behind more than an open administrative position — it leaves an opportunity to rebuild University leadership at a time when higher education is increasingly under attack. It is imperative we take this transition as a chance for a fresh start — an opportunity to build a more honest, collaborative and inclusive community. Only then can the University move on from Ono’s disastrous tenure and move forward toward upholding our values of integrity and respect.
Something in the maize and blue tells me we’re not through
Nothing compares to the anticipation of seeing your favorite artist live.
For many, that is Zach Bryan.
The Okie-troubadour is known for his introspective and deeply personal songwriting. Bryan has been a staple of summer playlists and August campfires since his hit debut album, DeAnn, in 2019. Since then, Bryan has blown up as one of country music’s hottest artists, with his critically acclaimed Quittin’ Time Tour grossing more than $321 million and counting as Bryan continues to add shows for this summer.
It is no surprise that the University of Michigan picked Zach Bryan to headline the firstever concert at the Big House. This show, which subsequently sold out, will be the largest ticketed show in American history. Joining Bryan on stage is guitar virtuoso John Mayer, adding to the culture-defining mythos of Sept. 27, 2025.
Despite the event being the first of its kind at the University, students have been left out of it almost completely. An email sent out by the University Athletic Department highlighted that only emails directly attached to season ticket holders could access the special presale before the general release.
This is ironic for an artist whose live album is titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster In today’s world, failing to acquire presale tickets is a death sentence for your live music aspirations.
With the growing commercialization of live music through ticket monopolies like Ticketmaster and Live Nation, affording a ticket has become harder than ever. The average price of a concert ticket in 2024 was just above $135, a steep increase from the $78 price tag in 2015.
Especially as Ann Arbor seems to become increasingly expensive year after year, it becomes harder for students to afford tickets to their favorite shows regardless of the artist’s popularity.
Following the announcement for the Big House show, Bryan recently announced two more college-specific shows that he will be performing at this year. He will play at Notre Dame Stadium Sept. 6 alongside comedian Shane Gillis and at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards Stadium Aug. 30.
The administrations of Marshall University and the University of Notre Dame sent similar emails to students. However, there was one crucial difference. The emails sent to Marshall University and the University of Notre Dame encouraged students and faculty
to buy tickets for the show, even promising a presale specifically for students and faculty alike.
The U-M administration’s failure to prioritize student interest in this historical event raised my suspicion about the motives behind planning such a spectacle. Other Universityaffiliated organizations directly contrast the agendas of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
Sara Billmann, University Musical Society vice president of marketing and communications, works day-in and day-out to provide students and the greater Ann Arbor community access to world-class acts. Just in the past year, there were performances by the Berlin Philharmonic and Wynton Marsalis with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Billmann spoke on the importance of live performances to the college experience.
“We would love every student to graduate from (the University) having had a UMS experience,” said Billmann. “It can open up your world to a completely different kind of entertainment experience. … Those kinds of experiences can be pivotal,” Billmann added. “We really want every student to have that kind of experience and have that be on their (U-M) bucket list.”
UMS, however, is a non-profit organization largely funded by private donors; it is not directly affiliated with the University. The University, on the other hand, has about $200 million poured into its athletic department alone. With the growing world of NIL, that amount is only going to increase as college athletes’ paychecks get bigger and bigger.
With that being said, UMS’s central mission is to encourage students to engage with these live performances. Part of that mission involves lowering costs for student tickets, which has increased student involvement with UMS.
“Somewhere between 20-25% of our total audience is students, and we prioritize student attendance for the events that we know are going to be of interest,” Billmann said.
Billmann’s overwhelming commitment to student experience is what students would want to see from the University. The Bryan concert is an experience that concertgoers will be bragging about to their friends for years. This is the culture-defining event of some lucky students’ college experience, but due to a lack of engagement with the student body, some students will, unfortunately, have to watch the concert through the countless Snapchat stories and Instagram posts that pop up the next day.
“We could charge a lot more money for some of our events, but our mission isn’t about making
money,” Billmann said. “It’s really about providing people with opportunities to engage with the arts.”
With a national platform like the largest ticketed concert in American history, one would think the University would use it to showcase some of the local talent in Ann Arbor.
Some local musicians feel that putting a local artist on the bill could once again prove to the world that Ann Arbor still has a rich music scene waiting to be shared. In an interview with The Daily, local artist Maddy Ringo spoke on how she would like to see the University become more involved with the local scene, especially on the Big House stage.
“There has to be a way to bring Ann Arbor to the Big House,” Ringo said.
Ringo, whose new album People of the Earth and Sea was released March 28, is deeply ingrained within the musical tradition of Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor has a long history of culturally significant music moments, like Nirvana’s show at The Blind Pig in 1989 and Bob Dylan’s show in 1964. Ringo looks to continue in this tradition by performing at local venues like The Ark or Canterbury House. “I think that having local talent open is a basic step that the University could take to make a show that is friendlier to our city and our student body,” said Ringo. “There are so many talented people in our music community who could absolutely open, … no question about it.”
Some students may say that this show will attract more artists to perform at the Big House. The magnifying glass placed on Ann Arbor during the show’s weekend will attract national attention and entice other headlining artists to perform at the biggest stadium in North America. The hope is that the Big House will attain the same venue notoriety as Madison Square Garden or the Grand Ole Opry. Bringing shows of this caliber to Ann Arbor every year would be a great way to excite students and the community about the forthcoming school year. Despite this excitement, there has to be an act by the promoters of these shows to provide incentives for the students to fill the seats of their stadium where they watch football every Saturday. Without the involvement of students, whether on stage or in the crowd, the student body is playing second fiddle in the profitability and publicity of the show itself.
Singing “Revival” with 100,000 plus people losing their minds will be a memorable experience and one that adds to the Big House’s legendary resume. It is unfortunate that, for a school that is synonymous with “the team, the team, the team,” this show feels like a solo act.
LINDSEY SPENCER Opinion Columnist
In a little over a week, I will be an alum of the University of Michigan. It’s both nauseating and exciting to write out that new title. It means new possibilities, new people and new places, but it also means leaving behind my tried-andtrue routines and comfortable life in Ann Arbor. Having the privilege of a college education is not lost on me, especially as a student at the colloquially — and, might I add, correctly — titled “greatest university in the world.”
However, the fate of the American university — and education in general — is in untrustworthy, insecure hands. We’re watching in shock as President Donald Trump’s administration targets the colleges’ federal funding, threatens to undertake judicial oversight over an Ivy League university and allows the deportation of college students. Our university has been no exception to this rule, just recently cutting all University diversity, equity and inclusion programs and standing idly by as international students’ visas are revoked. Higher education is falling behind on the lesson plan it drafted at its birth: Protect, educate and better its students.
Over the last decade or so, the worth of a college education and degree has diminished. Not only has attending university become incredibly expensive, but the gift of a diploma at the end of your four years on campus is also no longer necessary for success. Fewer jobs require a college degree and Americans are no longer under the impression that you necessarily need to be
a college graduate in order to be successful. Despite this collective change of heart, it’s crucial to recognize that college is not all about that piece of paper, and remains key to personal development.
We enter the halls of higher education with the belief that we will be learning who to be and what we want for our future. But there’s more to it than that. Both inside and out of the classroom, we more critically reflect on the kind of people we don’t want to be. The power dynamics, political instability and interpersonal disputes taking place on modern college campuses expose us to bad actors with even worse intentions. It’s like they say:
“Never meet your heroes.” Our university presidents, deans and campus administrators — the people meant to serve us — are leading us astray, and aren’t teaching us how to be our best possible selves. You don’t make those kinds of moral judgements on a graded Bluebook exam; you make them with a critical eye toward power.
In looking back on my four years at the University, I see multiple instances of extracurricular education. A former University president resigned, the Graduate Employees’ Organization went on strike, U-M students set up a Gaza solidarity encampment — which would be taken down a month later — and numerous assaults on students’ rights were approved by the University’s Board of Regents. I’ve learned dozens of lessons from my professors, lecturers and graduate student instructors, but these non-traditional educational experiences have been even more formative. Watching as campus organizers, faculty and community members have fought to expose the dark underbel-
ly of the University and turn traditional hierarchies on their head has taught me lessons you can’t obtain in the classroom. My college degree will certainly prove to be useful in the long run, but it is entirely separate from my college education.
A college degree is strictly institutional, a few sentences on a piece of paper that attest to one’s completion of a bachelor’s degree. Your education, however, is something more nuanced. It is defined by the teachings received from peers and complete strangers, the groups that teach you how to be intellectually critical and vocalize your discontent. There are great benefits to possessing knowledge, but it goes further than the classroom. Knowledge means having a firm grasp on politics, power and people; it means having a disposition toward truth and the proverbial “right thing.” A classroom can’t teach you this, but an institutional crisis can.
In this regard, a university campus acts as a microcosm of American society. Diversity in belief and background broadens our horizons and we are challenged by obstacles sometimes greater than ourselves. Administrators and bureaucrats can make our lives harder, but we can come together as a unit to fight back. When leadership fails, the onus falls on its constituents to bring forth stability and care. Our community keeps us sane and our principles keep us grounded in these moments of disrepair. We are not only preparing for the workplace in our undergraduate years, but also for how to overcome the unequal dispersal of power among humankind.
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Growing up, I watched family members battle nutritional deficiencies, chronic illnesses and various forms of cancer. I simultaneously came to know friends battling mental health issues, an illness that disproportionately threatens young people. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic — which put our public health establishment in the spotlight for millions of Americans — dominated my high school years. The mass exposure to these critical health issues fostered my interest in public health as a discipline. Like many of my fellow undergraduate students, I am still narrowing down my major and ideal career path. While I am certainly drawn to studying public health, it is not my primary academic focus. Much to my disappointment, the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus does not offer a minor in public health, despite the extensive list of offered minors.. At present, the School of Public Health effectively restricts a comprehensive public health education to students who are fully committed to careers in public health. While non-public health students can still take public health classes, the constraints of graduation and major requirements make it difficult for students to pursue non-major subjects to the depth that a minor provides.
The Public Health School ranks second in the nation. If the University’s Ann Arbor campus expanded access to its resources through a program similar to the
U-M Dearborn campus’s public health minor, it would diversify the student population in its public health courses and enhance students’ educations across a myriad of disciplines.
The lack of a public health minor at the University is unique. The Stephen M. Ross School of Business and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, two global leaders in their respective fields, both offer minor programs that all undergraduate students, no matter their school of study, can apply for.
By making public health education more accessible, the University could attract a broader range of students to the field and generate public health innovation from unique perspectives and industries. Students can benefit from such a minor because public health already has a significant influence in fields beyond its own. In 2022, businessman Mark Cuban set out to combat America’s unfairly high prescription drug prices. As a result, early customers of his company, Cost Plus Drugs, are saving 40 to 60% on prescription spending. The legal system is confronting this same issue, with attorneys suing pharmacy benefit managers to secure lower prices for consumers. While these occupations are not traditional public health careers, graduates going into these fields would still have a competitive edge from a supplementary public health education.
If the Public Health School provided a minor to future U-M alumni across disciplines it would allow critical public health practices to better inform and influence industries.
This minor curriculum could include targeted courses about systemic inequality, health care access disparities, disease control and the food supply. These niche focuses, while not sufficient for a full-fledged bachelor’s degree in public health, would be valuable for undergraduate students hoping to pile on some useful knowledge via a minor degree.
Unlike individual classes, minor programs provide students with access to schoolwide emails, networking events and world-renowned networks. These extensive resources better enable students to leverage the information they learn in courses in a real-world context.
On a national scale, we are facing a public health crisis: Among high-income nations, the U.S. spends the most money on health care while having the worst health outcomes. It has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, a rapidly declining fertility rate, the tenth highest obesity rate in the world and the highest rate of individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
For students who grew up amid a global pandemic and an abrupt decline in American health, a public health education would expand their understanding of the problems that plague the country, giving them the ability to make educated health choices across different industries. By creating an authentic program for completion, the University could incentivize more students to pursue this education for great societal benefit. CONTINUED AT
ELENA NICHOLSON Opinion Columnist
Growing up, my family often recounted The Legend of Sleeping Bear. In this tale, a mother bear and her two cubs flee a forest fire in Wisconsin, swimming across the northernmost part of Lake Michigan to reach safety. But the cubs tire after hours of swimming and drown in the lake’s waters. The mother bear, in her sorrow, reaches shore, climbs a dune and lies down, where she transforms into the dune, keeping vigil over the cubs that morphed into two islands: North and South Manitou. At the time, I was ignorant of the fact that this was a centuries-old Ojibwe tribe legend, the tribe that once dominated the Great Lakes area, including the land that the University of Michigan was built upon.
This story represents a traditionally Indigenous understanding that land is rich in history. In attaching legend to the land, the Ojibwe people created a feeling of responsibility toward it. Land wasn’t something that was just owned. It was common practice that communities cared for land together, conserving what they could and taking only what they needed. This concept is called stewardship, a form of sustainable land management that emphasizes a reciprocal relationship with the land, lived through spirituality and community-wide interconnection. Including Native American ideas of stewardship in modern sustainability practice is imperative. Tribes like the Ojibwe
understood the importance of preserving land because of their spiritual connection to the land they inhabited for thousands of years. By having a historical connection to the land, Indigenous people should be an integral element of land management and conservation in the United States. They are the only ones who understand the rich and storied history, like that of the mother bear and her two cubs, that tribes pass from one generation to the next to provide meaning and importance beyond just what land can offer us.
In 1817, the Ojibwe – sometimes referred to as the Anishinaabe – gifted the University of Michigan its land in the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids, also known as the Treaty of Fort Meigs. The University recognizes this in their Land Acknowledgement Statement that is often tacked on to the end of emails and in introductory speeches. This tribe once ceded their land to help create the University with the hopes that their children might be educated there, and now we should replace some of our Western perspectives with the art of Indigenous stewardship; if not to better understand the natural world around us, then to preserve what is left of it.
In 2019, the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that land managed by Indigenous groups and communities was less severe or almost completely unaffected by human action. When land is managed community-wide, rather than exploitatively, it is healthier. Not only is this in the interest
of the land, but also in the selfinterest of these communities. Minnesota’s Leech Lake Band, part of the Ojibwe tribe, is a primary example of effective land stewardship in conjunction with land management. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the Leech Lake Band renewed a co-stewardship agreement in 2024 to ensure that land remains protected and utilized appropriately. In addition to rejecting the construction of a new pipeline through their reservation in 2021, tribal members are prominent leaders in climate change protests. From the Standing Rock Sioux movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline to Indigenousled educational programs on environmental stewardship, leaders in these communities are fighting to expand Native American perspectives to protect sacred land. Stewardship in itself is a means of protest against current land management practices. In March of 2024, Indigenous leaders, including Leech Lake Band members, lobbied at the Capitol in the fight against climate change. Leanna Goose, Leech Lake Band member, spoke about growing up on Leech Lake land, where wild rice (known as manoomin) is diminishing due to the changing climate. She detailed the long history of her people on this land, and her vision to restore biodiversity with both this legacy and future generations in mind. Her primary talking point was the land she grew up on, and the importance of preserving it.
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Every summer, Americans celebrate their independence with fireworks and barbecues. Freedom, we’re told, is something we must never take for granted. Since our earliest days, we’ve been conditioned to view America as the “land of the free.”
After all, liberty is central to our national identity, declared by our founding fathers as an inalienable right. As the age-old mantra goes: Freedom isn’t free.
Freedom certainly has a price, and thanks to the cash bail system, that price has become outrageously expensive. In a country that jails 2 million people in over 4,000 prisons, thousands of our citizens pay cash bail to secure their release before they even face conviction. For a nation founded on the principle of innocent until proven guilty, it seems that freedom is a lot more alienable than we thought.
Before we discuss cash bail, it’s important to consider the primary population it targets — the unconvicted. About 446,100 people in the U.S. jail system have not been convicted of a crime. The number increases for local jails: In midyear 2023, more than 70% of America’s jail population was unconvicted and awaiting trial. The jailing of unconvicted defendants is a significant part of the nation’s mass incarceration crisis, costing taxpayers over $182 billion annually.
Historically, mass incarceration has not impacted all Americans equally: racial inequality
has played a significant role in the nation’s mass incarceration epidemic. One study found that Black Americans were more than three times more likely to have cash bail assigned to them than white defendants. Overall, Black defendants are 25% more likely to face incarceration before trial. We must ask ourselves what role cash bail has played in this disparity. After all, in a country whose average Black citizen makes significantly less than their white counterpart, a pretrial system which assigns freedom or imprisonment on a purely financial basis does not begin from an equitable foundation. If we want to fight against mass incarceration and racial inequality, all while building a more efficient and effective justice system, the use of cash bail should be the first thing on the chopping block.
Since its introduction in the late 19th century, forty-seven U.S. states still rely on a cash bail system. The three exceptions — Illinois, New Jersey and New Mexico — passed legislation repealing the use of the practice entirely. In Illinois, for example, lawmakers passed the groundbreaking Pretrial Fairness Act. To determine pretrial release in Illinois, the act requires judges to weigh a defendant’s risk of recidivism and the severity of the crime, rather than their bank account. But critics maintain that while cash bail may lead to inequality,it was designed as a way to encourage people to make their court appearances rather than skipping town. Across the country, however, alternate forms of bonds led to an 88% appearance rate — 7%
higher than that of cash bail. When it comes to discouraging future crime, cash bail appears to have the opposite effect, with one study from Philadelphia showing that cash bail led to a 6-9% increase in recidivism rates. The bottom line is that cash bail is not the most equitable method for deciding pretrial release. It perpetuates racial inequality and contributes to America’s prison crisis. The solution for the problems posed by cash bail lies in replicating the success of Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act across the country. Instead of keeping poor people in jail, the Pretrial Fairness Act establishes the bar for release solely based on the severity of the crime and risk of reoffending — a fairly reasonable concept, especially if you agree that prisons should deter crime and make people safer. Still, it makes sense to ask how Illinois has fared since the bill became law. Many have argued that the bill would overwhelm the justice system and cause inefficiency. But rather than resulting in higher crime rates and fewer court appearances, the bill did exactly what it intended. Researchers at Loyola University found that although the bill led to an increase in pretrial releases, there was no noticeable increase in crime rates. Abolishing cash bail is the first step to combating mass incarceration and structural inequality. America will still have a broken prison system, but eliminating cash bail can at least make it a slightly better one. By abolishing the practice, we can ensure more people in America finally know what it means to be free, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
AUDRA WOEHLE Opinion Columnist
istory might not always repeat itself, but it often rhymes. President Donald Trump’s administration has put isolationism — which dominated United States foreign policy in the 1930s — back on the table. Even before the disastrous Feb. 28 meeting in which President Trump and Vice President JD Vance demeaned and demanded gratitude from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president has articulated how little he values Ukraine’s defense against Russia. While some may argue that Trump doesn’t fit the bill of a true isolationist, his “America First” attitude no doubt puts ties to long-time allies on the line.
One of those allies is Germany. Friedrich Merz, leader of the victorious conservative Christian Democratic Union and self-described transatlanticist, has made his dislike of Trump clear. Moving forward, developing European independence — and aiding Ukraine — is of greater interest to him than working with Trump’s America.
This decision is no skin off of Germany or Europe’s back. After all, how would you intend to work with someone who has no interest in working with you? As a student studying abroad, however, I can’t help but wonder about the implications for us young Americans. In times like these, studying abroad and building connections to foreign places becomes all the more important.
One of the greatest benefits of studying abroad is that it allows
the student to develop greater empathy. Through studying abroad, you gain new experiences and immerse yourself in a culture unlike your own. You’re required to approach unfamiliarities with curiosity and understanding, confront your biases and build bridges to new places and people.
The personal connections you build while studying or traveling abroad are not meant to completely replace the political ties between countries, but they certainly are a start.
According to the Pew Research Center, Americans who travel abroad follow international news more closely and have greater interest in and knowledge about foreign affairs than non-travelers. Furthermore, researchers at the University of Chicago’s Center for Practical Wisdom found that students who study abroad are more civically engaged due partly to improved “perspective-taking abilities.”
Consequently, studying abroad sows the seeds of a sense of duty and care at a global level. While it shouldn’t be a one-to-one substitution for international relations, encouraging engagement and compassion through global travel is how we create ambassadors, political or personal.
My travels in the U.S. and abroad have been so impactful because they’ve shown me what’s worth protecting. Whether it’s the incredibly unique ecosystems of the Galápogos Islands, eroding Roman ruins in London or a dying dialect in Germany, building connections through travel gives us something to care about beyond our own situations within our borders.
Considering the importance
of these experiences, it’s especially important in times like these that U.S. colleges and universities make study abroad opportunities more accessible to students. At the individual level, students at the University of Michigan have a good place to start with the Center of Global and Intercultural Study. Funding for study abroad is also available through LSA, as well as the scholarships set up through other smaller programs and departments. There are also countless organizations offering scholarships of their own. All of that to say: Even if the current administration has little interest in fostering global relationships, there are people out there who want to support you in building your own. Should studying abroad not be in your cards right now, there are many other ways to be an engaged global citizen. You can take a few minutes out of your day to catch up on global news or pick up a book on a foreign country or culture. You can start learning a new language or start a correspondence with an international pen pal. You can advocate for people all over the world in ways big and small. While I’m disheartened to see this break between my current home and my home country, no part of me finds it unwarranted. Our representatives to the world have rebuffed our closest allies and let down those who counted on us the most. As a younger generation, however, we have the ability to build and maintain foreign relationships for our future by taking advantage of all the engaging, educational and impactful experiences a study abroad program has to offer.
With the “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” executive order on his first day of office, President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to end all federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. This order cemented a long-standing Republican attack on DEI, showing that the executive branch views DEI efforts as wasteful and unnecessary in government and in any program around the country.
Much of this anti-DEI sentiment is centered around a belief that DEI results in self-censorship and ideological programming. In simple terms, critics allege DEI programs promote liberal thought. Most conservatives also argue that DEI doesn’t work because it excludes intellectual diversity. An October 2024 New York Times article criticized the University of Michigan’s supposed DEI failure on the grounds of a lack of ideological diversity.
The potential loss of diversity, equity and inclusion will not fix the University’s lack of diversity of thought among its faculty and student body, nor will the University’s recent decision to eliminate diversity statements in its faculty application. The discourse surrounding “diversity of thought” is not rooted in intellectualism or education, but rather in masking the proliferation of harmful rhetoric. DEI policy at its best creates safe, open spaces for people to discuss their differences and find common ground.
Intellectual diversity refers to uplifting a variety of ways of thinking from people with different backgrounds and viewpoints. But recently, it’s been conflated with the need to have both sides of the argument present, even if one side is blatantly wrong. Climate change serves as a great example. The vast majority of data and sci -
entific studies support the fact that human activity is causing climate change. Yet, a population of Americans believe that the scientists are lying despite having no convincing evidence to prove that conclusion. If a professor taught a class called “Climate Change Isn’t Real,” the University would rightly take issue with that.
While this is an extreme example, it could be a reality we are facing with the loss of DEI. One of the challenges with the DEI debate is that it has become a politically polarized issue. Certain arguments that are grounded in misrepresentation or misinformation are presented as having equal footing to those that are based on research and lived experiences. This can distort the conversation to make it seem like there are legitimately two sides to the argument when there don’t need to be. By conflating the idea of intellectual diversity with the need for argument, we risk moving backward in society.
For example, the anti-vaccine movement is presented by some media outlets as being just as legitimate as the provaccine scientific establishment. There’s a myriad of public health data attributing vaccines to the eradication of diseases and presenting these arguments together leads to harmful rhetoric about vaccines not working, thus causing a greater spread of disease by people who choose not to get vaccinated. While it’s difficult to draw the line between what is fact and what is an open line of debate, debates that have substantial research backing and deadly implications should not fall victim to bothsidesim.
Even if we assume intellectual diversity doesn’t mean perpetuating blatant falsehoods, changing U-M culture to be more conservative or moderate is likely impossible. It would take a much bigger shift than the loss of DEI to change campus culture. Students with liberal-leaning values are attracted to the University of Michigan because it’s a liberal-
leaning university. The same goes for conservative students. Hillsdale College, a university that’s been coined as the leading conservative in higher education, boasts 400 students in their college republicans club but only 6 in the college democrat club.
This is not to say that the University and its peer institutions shouldn’t be teaching its students about different ideas of political thought or communication. A well-rounded education means showing students the entire landscape of facts and letting them choose which one they think are right. This is already happening on campus. The Ford School of Public Policy regularly holds events with politicians associated with the Republican and Democratic Parties, bringing both sides in for productive conversations and employs republican leaders, like the former Michigan head of the Republican party teaching a class. I don’t disagree that there is room for improvement. The University should be hiring more sensible right-of-center faculty to help balance the partisan scales on campus without cutting against rigorous research and truth standards held by the University. But current efforts are mostly ignored by antiDEI activists since they seemingly aren’t changing students’ minds about politics.
It’s important that the University of Michigan not become a monoculture or echo chamber of thoughts and ideas. But taking away diversity, equity and inclusion to procure a stronger “diversity of thought” on campus will not help. The University, like all top universities, is innately liberal because of the way it grounds research and education into its environment. The far-right need for “bothsidesism” conflates misinformation with actual fact and inhibits productive academic conversations that push research forward. Diversity of thought, in the way right-wing conservatives imagine it, will never exist on top college campuses — and it shouldn’t.
their contributions to the GDP.
IJOVANNA GALLEGOS Opinion Analyst
’ve had more conversations about immigration than I can count. No matter the setting, there’s always someone who, in an attempt to defend immigrants, points out their economic contributions. They always say something like “They pay taxes,” “They do jobs Americans don’t want” or “They boost the economy.” While these statements are true, they just feel incomplete, as if immigrants must justify their existence in dollars and cents. This economic argument is wellintentioned, meant to counter antiimmigrant rhetoric that always paints newcomers as burdens. But it inadvertently strips immigrants of their humanity. Whether documented or undocumented, immigrants are more than their labor. They are family, friends and neighbors. They are people who deserve dignity and safety, regardless of
Too often, discussions about immigration reduce people to statistics. But immigrants don’t just exist in the workforce — they are integral parts of communities. Immigrants are living and breathing individuals with aspirations, loved ones and vibrant histories. They raise children, volunteer at churches, run small businesses and care for elderly family members. They form bonds, add to culture and make neighborhoods lively. These contributions are not quantifiable, yet they are invaluable. By focusing solely on economic metrics, people ignore the emotional and social ties immigrants build. A child should not have to hear that their undocumented parent deserves to stay because they “contribute” financially to this country. Their worth should just be inherent. Reducing people to their economic output creates a transactional view of human value — one that is so deeply flawed.
A pervasive myth is that undocumented immigrants drain public resources without contributing financially in return. Undocumented workers do pay taxes — federal, state and local. The Internal Revenue Service requires individuals earning money in the U.S. to pay taxes, regardless of immigration status. Many
undocumented immigrants file tax returns using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, despite knowing they won’t receive Social Security or Medicare benefits that those taxes help fund.
People who oppose the presence of illegal immigrants, like Vice President JD Vance, frequently point to overburdened resources,
particularly in cities facing housing shortages. This concern is valid — local governments must address this logistical challenge. But it is also important to recognize that immigrants are often scapegoated for broader systemic issues.
For example, the strain on public services in New York City is not just about recent immigration. It is also about decades of underfunding, budget cuts and housing policies that have failed to keep up with demand. Blaming immigrants oversimplifies the problem and distracts from meaningful solutions.
While the focus of discussing immigrants should remain on moral and ethical grounds rather than economic justifications, it’s worth noting that immigrants — documented or not — are unfairly blamed for overburdening resources. In reality, they significantly contribute to sustaining essential industries like agriculture, construction and healthcare. Without them, many cities and towns would struggle even more. Address-
ing resource concerns requires policy solutions, not exclusion.
Furthermore, misconceptions about immigrants’ impact on public resources overshadow the reality that they are ineligible for most government assistance programs, including Medicaid, food stamps and federal housing subsidies. The idea that they drain resources is not supported by data. Instead, they support systems they cannot fully access.
Additionally, it’s essential to understand the difference between civil and criminal law when discussing immigration. Most immigration violations fall under civil law rather than criminal law. For example, entering the U.S. without authorization or overstaying a visa is classified as a civil offense. This means that these actions are similar to regulatory violations like failing to pay a parking ticket, rather than criminal acts like theft or assault.
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Bilingualism has always been a major part of my identity. I grew up in Madrid, so Spanish is my native language, but my father enrolled my brothers and I into a school that spoke predominantly English because he understood the importance of a bilingual education. Throughout my childhood, the two languages intertwined as I jumped from speaking English with my teachers and Spanish with my friends. When I started college at the University of Michigan, my friends and relatives commended my bravery for attending university in a non-Spanish-speaking country. However, I knew I was not going to have problems speaking English. What I did not expect was seeing my fluency in Spanish slowly dissipate — a language that had always
been so natural to me suddenly felt like an unfamiliar landscape of irregular conjugations and accents. It started with forgetting a few words for a split second. Now, there are times when my conjugation is wrong or I lack confidence while speaking, relying on mixing languages when talking to my parents. Moving abroad, though enriching, often leads to a gradual loss of one’s native tongue. Because language is a key part of culture, this shift away from one’s first language can feel uncomfortable. Such experiences create a complex sense of lost culture, causing international students, as well as anyone from a multilingual household, to struggle with the disconnect between their roots and their current environment. This is a key issue impacting thousands of students on campus, and the university should be doing more to help these students combat language loss. There’s a term for this decline
in native language proficiency: first language attrition. The isolation from other speakers causes first language comprehension and production skills to deteriorate, especially when coupled with an increased use of a different, second language.
All multilinguals experience FLA to some degree, but for some people, it can have a significant impact on their everyday life. For international students spending their full education time abroad, the process is particularly pressing: The move abroad forces them to navigate a new culture and the presence of a different language at the same time. The sudden change of environment causes discomfort and uncertainty, and FLA only exacerbates these feelings.
Language, the primary tool for expression and communication, then becomes a source of profound alienation. And to make matters worse, while an interna-
tional student may be undergoing FLA, they are also trying to surmount the incredibly difficult task of becoming proficient in a second language. International students often struggle in this crossfire — between a decrease in fluency in their native language and an attempted increase in fluency in a second language. Not being able to express yourself confidently in any language is extremely anxietyinducing, especially for students already navigating a whole new country by themselves.
Our ability to connect and understand each other stems from the way we communicate. The inability to find the correct word in a native language evokes a sense of cultural disconnect. If that language is their connection to family and country — even if it’s just a single word — it can be isolating, especially for students already physically separated when studying abroad. Grief, anxiety and even
guilt can arise as students grapple with losing a major part of their identity.
For international students to thrive academically, the university must address the emotional toll of first language attrition. Without proper support systems, the distress that comes with losing a part of your identity can cause a significant impact on the student’s wellbeing, and in turn have a negative impact on their academic performance.
Thankfully, first language attrition can be reversible in most cases: re-exposure to the native environment can help return language use to near-native norms. Fluency can be easily reinstated after returning home; however, going back home is not often possible for every international student, as finances alone pose a significant barrier.
Online communication has made it extremely easy to stay in communication with people from
home, allowing students to practice their native language and stay connected with their culture while living abroad. However, a once-aweek thirty-minute conversation isn’t a long-term solution to offset FLA. Nonetheless, the University’s international students are at an advantage because of the diverse student community. With students from every state and 114 countries, it’s easy to find someone who shares the same language and culture. There are also over 1,700 student organizations, and many of them celebrate different cultures and bring communities together. Although these organizations are doing an important job of celebrating cultures and helping maintain cultural connections, there is only so much students alone can do for their international peers. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
No matter how committed I am to the pre-law pathway, my parents will always hold onto the hope that I will one day wake up and choose to become a doctor. You would think that since my older sister harbors an intense passion for the sciences and is on the path to becoming a surgeon, I would be off the hook by now. Unfortunately, this is not the case. My dad insists I should become a doctor so I can open up a hospital with my sister and mom, who’s also in the medical field. Part of him is joking, I’m sure, but as the saying goes, behind every joke is a kernel of truth. I’m not alone in my struggle. Most immigrant Arab parents push their kids toward one of three paths: doctor, engineer or lawyer. I mistakenly thought that by choosing to go into law, I’d made an acceptable decision. According to my parents though, the medical field is the best one to enter, both in terms of intelligence, respect and salary. The stereotype of Arab parents pushing their kids toward the medical field is
fueled by the reality of them wanting us to take full advantage of the opportunities we have here in the United States. I can’t argue with the fact that being a doctor offers a degree of security that the blue collar jobs many of our parents had to work don’t. It’s a privilege to even have the opportunity to make a choice, and while the number of options overwhelms me, it’s better than having no choice at all. Yet as an Arab woman society pushes us even further in varying directions. While we’re still expected to pursue higher education and take on high earning careers, we’re simultaneously reminded at every step of the way that our responsibility remains first and foremost to raise a family. It’s not that I don’t want to have kids someday, but the fact that Arab women are constantly told they cannot both be mothers and have successful careers is exhausting, especially when Arab men get the opposite treatment. I want to have both, not in spite of the fact that my ancestors couldn’t, but precisely because I have the opportunity here and now to earn my own money and raise kids at the same time. My parents have always instilled within me the importance of education,
and my mom especially fostered a love in me for learning and the understanding that I can have it all if I am willing to work for it.
My parents’ only concern is that I won’t live up to my full potential and will pursue something misaligned with my capabilities. One of the biggest reasons they want me to become a doctor is because they feel that I’m “too smart” to do anything else. I’m so lucky to have a family that believes in me the way they do, but knowing this, I struggle to pick a career that aligns with my passions out of fear of disappointing them. For example, as much as I want to pursue the arts, I worry that it’s too abstract of an option for it to make sense to them. I’ve always loved creative writing but have never before seriously considered it as a possible career path. As Arabs, we’re often expected to excel in the arts but never actually go into them. As an occupation, art is unpredictable and doesn’t give the guaranteed stability that being a doctor or engineer would.
Being a writer has always been something of a pipe dream for me. The combined pressure of my parents’ expectations and my imposter syndrome has led
me to almost entirely put off creative writing as a hobby and nothing more. Recently though, I’ve realized that in order to make my dreams a reality, I have to take them seriously. It won’t happen overnight, but by majoring in creative writing and actively building a writing routine, I believe I can become a published author in the future, no matter how far away that future might be.
Although I’m currently undeclared, I plan on double majoring in philosophy and creative writing. However, I actually applied to the University of Michigan as a computer science major. I spent the entirety of my four years in high school preparing to become an engineer. I was on the board of my Girls Who Code club, participated in hackathons and took several computer science courses. I was a proud woman in STEM and it was practically my
entire personality. Before that, I wanted to be an optometrist. Before that, a teacher. If you can think of any generic response to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” it was probably mine at some point in time. My whole life, I’ve struggled with making a career choice and discovering my passion, so much so that it was literally the premise of my personal statement. I was — and still am — terrified about making a finalized decision regarding the rest of my life. Even now, I’m worried that once I finally officially declare my major, I’ll want to change my mind. There’s something about being in the in-between that’s comforting to me, like I can just continue to explore and do what makes me happy as opposed to having to pick a road and stick to it. In the real world though, I know that I can’t do everything. Throughout my first year
in college, I’ve grown to understand more about myself as a student but also more generally as a person. While I don’t think I’ll ever be confident enough to completely stop second-guessing my choices, after shadowing lawyers and progressing in my studies, I feel more at peace than I ever have. However, it’s easy to feel that my time in high school has now gone to waste because of how committed I was to computer science. More than that, it’s easy to feel less than my pre-med or comp-sci peers now that I’m no longer in STEM myself. When my friends complain to me about organic chemistry labs and infamous Electrical Engineering and Computer Science projects, I worry that the classes I’m taking are too easy and that I’m not taking full advantage of my opportunities at the University.
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with
A woman.
I am sick
The modern woman — typically middle-class, typically white — an always-already “feminist.”
Modern, every woman she is presumed to be She, the subject
She is already spoken for She is made common.
Feminist adj. She’s a feminist Colloquial. To be contested.
A “liberated” hypersexual. An always-angry man-hater. An aggressor.
The common “she,” She is a myth.
To be used in a sentence: a bra-burning cunt, she is.
She is a bimbo, a slut.
I think I am ill
I know yearning
I am not fun
She loves him I do not forgive him
I am a non-woman as it were
Nonconforming. Mannish and ill.
Do we not exist to conform Does my body offend you now?
There is something about you
Me
She is distinctly unlovable
I am sick
Yet I I wish to be beautiful.
Perhaps, I remain ill.
A few months ago, while studying away in the Hatcher Graduate Library carrels, my eye caught something unexpected — a copy of the Boburnoma (Baburnama), fully in Cyrillic Uzbek, shelved among other books of Indian history. I picked it up and flipped through its pages, surprised to see a historical text I had always heard about but never actually read. I never expected to find the text, much less in my native language which is represented so rarely in academic spaces.
My first response was the usual — to call my parents and express my wonder and excitement at the existence of an Uzbek classic hidden within my midwestern university. Then I tried to actually read the book to understand who exactly Babur was beyond the scattered facts I had informally absorbed over the years. Babur belonged to a lineage of conquerors, each carving empires out of the Central Asian lands they marched through. His ancestors, Timur and Genghis Khan, had built vast dominions through warfare and strategic alliances, and Babur inherited that legacy, along with a desire to reclaim his ancestral homeland of Samarqand. His early years were marked by struggles to hold onto Samarqand, a city he captured and lost multiple times before he was ultimately forced to abandon it. Exiled from the land of his birth, he turned his ambitions southward, leading his followers into Afghanistan and then across the Indus River into India, where he founded the Mughal Empire in 1526.
His memoirs offer a personal and detailed account of his life and the world around him. Unlike many royal chronicles that glorify rulers with exaggerated stories, Babur’s writing is candid, filled with reflections on his victories, defeats and the landscapes he encountered. He dwells on the beauty of the places he traveled
through — like the lush valleys of Kabul, the rivers of Hindustan, the symmetry of Persian gardens. He expresses a deep appreciation for nature, often pausing to describe flowers, fruit trees and the changing seasons. Yet beneath his observations of the world, there is an undercurrent of loss. He writes with nostalgia for the lands he left behind, particularly Samarqand, often reflecting on the impermanence of power, recognizing that conquest alone does not guarantee stability or fulfillment. His memoirs reveal a man torn between ambition and longing, between the reality of ruling a foreign land and the memory of a home that remained just out of reach.
I wondered if I should feel pride in him. He is one of the few historical figures from my heritage known beyond Uzbekistan, but does that alone justify admiration? Should a conqueror be a source of pride, or is that just a product of inherited nationalism? Is there value in his legacy beyond military success? His life was defined by displacement and survival, by the challenge of maintaining his identity as he moved from one place to another. That, at least, is something I can understand.
But Babur wasn’t the part of his lineage that interested me the most. Instead, I was fascinated with his great-grandfather, Ulughbek. Unlike the others in his family, Ulughbek wasn’t a conqueror — he was a scientist, an astronomer, a ruler more interested in the stars than in swords. In the 15th century, he built an observatory in Samarqand, a structure that still partially stands today. It was one of the most advanced observatories of its time, suggested to contain a massive sextant used to measure the positions of celestial bodies with remarkable precision. His team created a star catalog that rivaled anything in Europe, calculating the length of a year to an accuracy within a minute and two seconds of what we now know to be true.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Michigan in Color: The University doesn’t protect us, we do
At this point, it’s a given that each new statement from President Santa Ono and the Board of Regents will be a disappointment. And on March 27, just one week after the discontinuation of the LEAD Scholars program, a merit-based scholarship initiative specifically created to support underrepresented minority undergraduate students, U-M administration unsurprisingly announced the termination of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The statement outlined the closing of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, as well as the cancellation of their DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan and the removal of all diversity statements in faculty hiring, admissions and other formal considerations. In their statement, they also claimed these decisions were a result of pressures from stakeholders and threats to higher education on a national level.
But there’s a lot the University doesn’t want to say out loud, and for us, those values are clear: The University has never had the interests or protection of their marginalized students in mind. The cuts to DEI are a stark reminder of that. While students continue to organize for the right to exist and thrive at this institution, the U-M administration has once again shown that they have no problem sacrificing the safety of their students in exchange for donor approval.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are not simply politically charged buzzwords. They have provided us with the scholarships that have helped fund our education, built us the cultural centers
‘That’s some white people shit’
and lounges where we’ve established community, and created the policies that aimed — however imperfectly — to facilitate the acknowledgement and understanding of systemic inequalities.
Michigan in Color was founded as a commentary section of The Michigan Daily in response to the overwhelmingly resounding noise of doubt, erasure and minimization of the experiences of students of Color present on campus. In over 10 years of production, we have had to regroup, shift our focus, rediscover our voices and change. The University administration, on the other hand, has not.
The Michigan in Color staff, and all minority groups on campus and beyond, are all too familiar with the dilemma of tokenization. There is an extremely fine line between taking pride in your students and taking advantage of them. One seeks to elevate and empower members of the community toward collective advancement. The other treats the diversity of human experience like fine china: meticulously collected and only used when needed.
You will see us everywhere that you look on campus. We will be front-page on your University website, laughing with our multiethnic friend group on the Diag. Our faces will be plastered on the social media pages and, most importantly, we will be a key statistic, paraded during tour groups and admissions brochures alike as a bragging point: “Look how many of them we have!” And yet, when the cameras are off and the hashtags fade, when we demand real equity and ask for sit-downs with University leaders about divestment instead of a halfhearted MDining “shish tawook” and “lamb kofta,” we are met with silence.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
In the summer of 2021, one of the major streets in my city was reduced by a lane to add bike lanes and expand the sidewalks for pedestrians. The goal was to transform the area into a more walkable space, encouraging patrons to stroll through the area and visit the gamut of stores, cafes and boutiques. This decision was met with frustration, since this street is essential for traversing my neighborhood. If you want to go to the grocery store, go out to eat or go to other parts of the city, you have to take this street. Reducing car lanes creates massive traffic backups, especially during rush hour. Every time I’m on that street, the person driving laments about the traffic jams caused by these bike lanes.
However, there’s one specific phrase I hear tossed around in addition to this complaint: “That bike lane is for white people. They’re the only ones that bike around this area.”
Despite what you might assume, biking around my neighborhood is not difficult. In fact, I find it to be safer and easier than biking in Ann Arbor, even before these new additions. So why the disdain, and why the racialization?
The grievance is, in part, a frustration at the changes to our city occurring due to an increasing white population. I’m from Detroit, an area that’s been called one of the Blackest cities in America. This started to change a few years ago, a bit before the bike lanes popped up. The primary difference between the Detroit of today and the Detroit of five years ago that was allegedly a wasteland is that now there are more white people, expensive restaurants and corporate offices. Why do we consider these things
to be upgrades from Black and brown establishments with our senior apartments and community owned stores?
When phrased like this, I fully agree. I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet in welcome of the wealthy white people gentrifying our city and shaping it in their image. I totally understand — and experience — the simmering anger this evokes. But there’s a hidden part of this sentiment that I fully reject: the idea that bike lanes are for white people.
Whether it’s witnessing white people walking in the middle of the sidewalk or making EDM remixes of rap songs, the chuckled phrase, “That’s some white people shit,” is a cultural mainstay. Most Black people hear or say it regularly. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a funny, and often appropriate, saying. There are some things that just feel so … white. Further, there are some (arguably white) things I would never do as a Black person for cultural, respect or safety reasons, like cursing at my parents or catching an attitude with the police. Disrespecting your Black parent is a quick way to get read for filth and disrespecting the police is a quick way to put yourself in serious danger. Many of these precautions just aren’t the norm in many white communities. I’ve definitely said, “That’s some white people shit,” myself, whether it’s while watching students go out to parties and bars every Thursday or raising my eyebrows at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend ski trip advertised on campus (which seriously feels like “Get Out”). The phrase is often funny and relevant, a sociopolitical analysis of race wrapped in a joke to soften the blow.
But under the surface, another idea lurks. After, “That’s some white people shit,” there’s an unspoken, “therefore, Black people can’t or shouldn’t do this.” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
In the Arts section, we bring attention to all the art around us, writing reviews, notebooks and features. Reviews provide a quick summary of a work of art while detailing its cultural and artistic relevance. Notebooks are personal articles, allowing the writer to explore their unique observations and emotional connection to a work, art movement or general trend. Features are a new format where writers perform a deep dive, exploring their topic of choice with a strong focus on research. On top of these three formats, we also conduct interviews with creatives and organize The B-Side, a biweekly series of themed articles.
Arts section is divided into
Note: This article contains spoilers. During the first half-hour of “Sinners,” hundreds of thoughts rushed through my mind, ranging from how gorgeous Miles Caton’s (debut) voice is to wondering how they seamlessly shot Michael B. Jordan (“Creed III”) passing a cigarette to himself. But the thing that stuck out to me the most was the appearance of Bo (Yao, “#LookAtMe”) and Grace (Li Jun Li, “Babylon”) in the film; an Asian American shopkeeping couple in the Deep South. As an Asian American, my personal knowledge of the Asian American diaspora in the early 20th century consisted of the large communities on the West Coast of the United States — not anywhere near Clarksdale, Mississippi. After the film ended, I did some research and discovered that Chinese Americans really did have a presence in the Mississippi Delta at that time. The spread of Chinese Americans to the Mississippi Delta area began
in the late 19th century, as white plantation owners used newly immigrated workers to pick cotton in a similar manner to the recently freed Black slaves. Over time, these Chinese communities began opening their own businesses — grocery stores — in the area, serving both white and Black customers. But still, the Chinese Americans in these Mississippi Delta communities found themselves in limbo; they were not Black, but they were not white either. They were stuck in this
awkward middle. This overlooked community played a vital role in small towns across the South, and as such, director Ryan Coogler (“Creed III”) includes them in “Sinners,” providing meaningful, historically accurate representation. Coogler even went so far as recruiting Dolly Li, a documentarian on Asian American history, as a historical consultant in depicting the Chinese American community for the film. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
There is truly nothing more embarrassing than arriving at Mason Hall 3330 at 10 a.m. panting, beads of sweat beginning to perspire on my forehead. No, I did not run to class (an image of me lumbering down State Street with my backpack haunts my nightmares) nor did I have some illicit affair in the inner workings of the Mason/Angell/ Tisch/Haven Hall labyrinth. Unfortunately, it’s much worse: I took the stairs.
In a time where our tallest skyscrapers reach more than 130 floors and stairs are hidden in dingy back corners of buildings, elevators feel like a Darwinian adaptation. Not only do they provide a modern luxury and the slight thrill of feeling the floor rise or fall under your feet, but they also have their own sub-genre of music to bump on your way up or down. Yet, as someone who hates cramped
spaces and the awkwardness of spamming the “close” button, the stairs are often my favorite mode of ascension and descension. Maybe it’s some lingering childhood trauma from the “Stretching Room” in Walt Disney World, or the omniscient voice of my father describing how he always takes the stairs — a separate form of childhood trauma — but since coming to college, I’ve been the one searching for the staircase in any building.
On a campus more than 150 years old with a diverse array of architectural styles, this search has led me to some interesting places. Back hallways, strange doors and coming close to setting off emergency exit alarms are all a part of the stairseeker journey. So is trudging up the Hatcher Graduate Library stacks steps before another long night, or circling the Kinesiology building 500 times in order to find a study spot (they knew what they were doing with that architectural maze). After climbing up and down (and then
up again), I decided it’s time to bring to light the highs and lows of the best, worst and strangest stairs on campus. So start stretching those hamstrings and fill up your water bottle because by the end of this article, you’ll be out of breath, too.
Worst: Mason Hall Staircase Yeah, we’re starting here, and I have thoughts. To keep this from turning into its own essay, here they are, rapid-fire: First off, you’d think you were waiting in line for Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s or trying to get a taco from the dining hall in South Quad Residence Hall judging by the way the line looks at 11:50 a.m. on a weekday. The poorly planned locations of the exits mean you are constantly cutting someone off, or awkwardly holding the door for someone — only to find out they’re going up another level. That’s because there is always another level with these stairs, especially since the building starts on ground floor instead of floor one. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Warning: There are spoilers for The Last of Us seasons one and two as well as The Last of Us: Part I and II. Maybe the expectations were too high.
Maybe a TV adaptation of one of the most controversial games in recent history didn’t stand a chance, and this show was always destined to share the same turbulent fate as its source material. Maybe expecting “The Last of Us” season two to somehow unite a heavily divided fanbase while still remaining faithful to the source material was a death sentence waiting to happen.
Regardless, I was disappointed by the aftermath.
With a universally beloved first season, it was hard to see how its successor could go wrong. Although season one changed many aspects of the source material’s plot points, fans of both the show and the game believed the adaptation to be faithful and respectful to the original story. Every change, big and small, elevated both the overarching narrative and character development, with the understanding that some elements of the game wouldn’t function in the medium of television.
A stellar example of these broadstroke changes is Bill (Nick Offerman, “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning”) and Frank’s (Murray Bartlett, “The White Lotus”) love story, a beloved original addition to the show. Even though this was a large step away from the source material, this new inclusion allowed for the story’s overarching theme of love and hope to permeate through more subplots, strengthening the core of the game’s message.
The show continued making bold changes in the same fash-
ion: taking themes at the center of The Last of Us video game and making tweaks to positively impact the new narrative format. Essentially, “The Last of Us” season one became the blueprint for a perfect video game adaptation by making meaningful changes to the source material without damaging the essence of the original story.
I expected season two to be no different. In fact, the second season held boundless potential as an adaptation that could improve upon its source material, given the game’s reception to material.
The Last of Us: Part II is about two women’s desire for revenge and the destruction that this desire causes. Since its release, Part II has been one of the most divisive games of all time, being simultaneously vilified and adored by thousands.
The sequel strays quite far from the original narrative of its predecessor, both thematically and through its protagonists. In the first game, we play as Joel Miller, a smuggler tasked with taking a potential cure for the Infection across the country. Only the cure isn’t a vaccine or a probiotic — it’s a young girl immune to the Infection. Joel and Ellie build a strong familial bond that is tested once it is revealed that creating the cure would kill Ellie in the process. Choosing between saving the
world or saving his newfound daughter, Joel kills everyone involved in the vaccine-making process, including the surgeon planning on operating on Ellie.
In the second game, Joel is abruptly and violently murdered by a group of strangers, with a woman named Abby asw their leader. Unbeknownst to Joel or Ellie, Abby’s father was the surgeon murdered by Joel five years prior. In turn, Ellie succumbs to the same vindictive rage and becomes driven to find and kill Abby. A vicious cycle of violence consumes the two of them, causing the women to lose everyone they hold dear. At the same time, Abby and Ellie are in the middle of a warzone in Seattle, where two factions, the Wolves (Washington Liberation Front) and Scars (Seraphites), are massacring each other for land they both believe they lay claim to. Both the characters and the setting reflect how the only way to end the cycle of violence is to walk away from it.
Many critics cite the strange pacing, Ellie’s character arc, Abby’s character and, of course, Joel’s untimely death as the sources of its failure. In stark contrast, many fans of the game praise the bold risks the story took to tackle themes of empathy, violence and forgiveness. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
I’ve always liked Taylor Swift in her deficits. Swift is often best at her most unexpected, at her most doubted. From the shitstorm-causing reputation, to the complete shock of folklore, she seems to thrive when writing in secret.
Last year, Swift released her 11th original studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, to a culture completely overexposed to her presence. In the middle of the highest grossing tour in music history and in the process of (re-)releasing an insane amount of music, she has had more eyes on her than are comprehensible for a human being.
Statistically, The Tortured Poets Department thrived. It was the fastest album to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify, and “Fortnight” stands as the song with the most streams ever in one day.
Socially, however, it failed. It would be redundant to summarize the album’s failures, as it seems everybody has already done it. In
short, it’s stylistically boring and lyrically corny. Not only was the album dull, but it was also shrouded in controversy. Many of the songs are seemingly about Swift’s public appearances with The 1975’s Matty Healy, a man who has a difficult and confusing reputation. It’s bloated with an overreliance on sloppy, overdone, immature lyrics, seen in titles like “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” These elements bred a culture of hatred for this album, one that I played into at the time. But a year later, I cannot stop thinking about this album. There is something frightening about it — something I can’t peel myself away from. The album is like watching someone you know drown underneath something they refuse to talk about. It’s me, as a 12-year-old girl, miserable for no specific reason, posting slightly concerning Snapchat stories in the hopes that somebody would recognize my nonsensical growing pains.
There is so much I still don’t like about this album, so much that leaves me both bewildered and bored. It is The Tortured Poets
Department’s argument, however, that’s starting to pull me in.
In an explanation regarding the opening track, “Fortnight,” Swift summarized the spirit of her songwriting.
“Inherently, this album is wildly dramatic. ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life.’ These are very hyperbolic, dramatic things to say. It’s that kind of album.”
The album oozes with this hyperbole, presenting love as something genuinely ruining her life, a wildly theatrical and melodramatic take.
When this album came out, this dramatic position on love held no weight for me. It was too pretentious to pretend that love was more than just something to secretly attempt and publicly scoff at. It was too writerly in my eyes to devote shitty poems to somebody, to brim with an obsession so consuming that it has to end in ink-stained fingers. To say that loving someone could ruin a life was, to me, a wild misstep — an incredibly naive admission.
The Tortured Poets Department refuses to back down from admitting the weight of love. It refuses to cower, like me. I’m reminded of Salma Deera’s poem “salt” which begins, “In front of my mother and my sisters, I pretend love is cheap and vulgar. I act like it’s a sin — I pretend that love is for women on a dark path. But at night I dream of a love so heavy it makes my spine throb.” The Tortured Poets Department, unlike Deera, unlike me, does not pretend that love is nothing — it argues that love is everything. And as everything, it holds the power to rot you from the inside.
HOLLY TSCH Daily Arts Writer
In January of 2021, Adobe Flash went offline. A nearly uncountable number of games, animations and webtoys made with the software went along with it. Though Adobe’s unsavory practices have been known for a long time, I felt betrayed. The entire internet was going down: Armor Games, where I spent hundreds of hidden computer lab hours; Orsinal, a bizarre little site none of my friends seemed to remember; Nitrome, home of all the most lavishly overproduced flash games a child could ever want; and, of course, Newgrounds, home of every type of juvenile content imaginable.
In response to this fire in the library, my friend tipped me off to the Flashpoint archive: a massive, near-comprehensive collection of 200,000 games and animations. It’s a library taking up more than a terabyte and a half, with a smaller version of the app starting at 3.5 GB. I downloaded it as soon as Flash went down, and have returned to it every few months ever since. This is a tour of that graveyard.
While all modern versions of Flash activated a kill switch functionally stopping these games from existing, the code is still there, and new stuff is presently being added to Flashpoint. At the same time, it’s clear that all this is the lowest priority art to be preserved, on account of it being considered a low artform mostly occupied by teenage boys and juvenile comedy. What needs to be protected more? These are the groundwork for the groundwork of the modern internet’s culture. Our towers of immaturity owe their existence to places like Newgrounds.
Storage of artistic history is one of the fields I’ve been the most consistently frustrated with since becoming an adult. I’ve even written about it for The Michigan Daily. The internet is rich with companies that would rather let art rot than be freely accessible, given Dig-
ital Rights Management and restrictive copyright laws.
When asked about piracy of his own game, Ultrakill, indie game developer Arsi Patala said, “Culture shouldn’t exist only for those who can afford it.” In the frequently asked questions segment of Flashpoint’s website, they say this on its legality, “The only real answer is nobody knows and really, nobody should care. Games that more or less have a ticking clock until they die need to be saved now, as fast as possible.” The funny part is, no one cares. Flashpoint has run with few notable challenges, and the games have been saved. 200,000 flash games and animations. Let’s take a walk.
First, the computer lab classics. Bloxorz is always first. Perfect for skipping your Type
to Learn assignments. The second option is probably This is the Only Level. Are the games fun? It’s complicated. They all follow a no-price arcade style of design. They are overwhelmingly simple, and from the perspective of a 22-year-old, more than a little flat. What they lack in interesting ideas and high artistic sensibilities, they make up with a sense of pale, empty nostalgia. That emptiness always gets to me first. Games like Bloxorz pass up on music for ambience. It’s a well-acknowledged fact that Flash is not very good at doing sound consistently. This informs the older games, but once the craft was developed, some of the best games kept that emptiness.
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ers, peering into these real lives.
Ocean Vuong’s bestselling debut novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” took the literary world by storm. Upon its release, the book was widely praised for its heartbreaking character depictions which were matched equally by the beauty of the author’s prose. When writing this epistolary novel, Vuong leaned into his roots as a poet, with flowery, lyrical language at its core. In addition to the author’s many accolades, including the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship and the American Book Award, his newest novel, “The Emperor of Gladness,” has been recognized by Oprah’s Book Club and quick-
ly rose on bestseller lists. As “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” focused on beautiful prose, it lacked a coherent plotline, which drew me to pick up “The Emperor of Gladness,” which seemed to have a far clearer plot progression and apparently tangible characters. The individuality of these novels also encouraged my attendance at his national tour which enriched my reading experience by providing insight not only into the production of his novels, but also what it means to write. The novel opens with our narrator, Hai, standing on a bridge, ready to end his life. Breaking through the rain and the noise of his thoughts, an elderly widow, Grazina, calls to him and saves his life. Hai becomes Grazina’s caretaker as she falls deeper into her dementia, and in spite of it
all, they become unlikely companions, leaning on one another as they live through their respective hardships. Taking place during the rise of the opioid epidemic in 2009, this story is one of resilience and the beauty in the most mundane aspects of life. Vuong reminds readers that the stories of everyday individuals are just as beautiful as the fantastical and epic stories more widely represented in literature.
While “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” focuses on the complications of generational experiences and the meaning of blood, “The Emperor of Gladness” takes an even deeper look at the meaning of chosen family. The thickness of blood can be suffocating, and the turn to the purity of friendship can be the breath of fresh air we so desper-
ately need. Both of these perspectives are important in their own ways, though in “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” I found that the characters felt more like ideas than people. There is a certain beauty in describing a Queer relationship and the complexities between a mother and son, the way Vuong wrote into his first novel. Hai, living in East Gladness, however, lives the unaesthetic life of a fast food worker, including anecdotes like butchering pigs or racist customers, which exemplify that these people may not fall into the role of an “ideal” protagonist. While Vuong’s debut was beautifully written and heart-wrenching, the silent beauty of this second novel allows for a rich cast of characters that truly feel like real people rather than ideas of them. The readers are intrud-
Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner
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Though we come to read a story, we turn the last page feeling as though we have worked, laughed and cried with these characters as their friends.
On Instagram, Vuong has described each book he writes as “reincarnations of one another.”
The stark difference, yet evident interlinking of his two novels is indicative of this sentiment.
While “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” is a dark, contemplative story of a Queer immigrant experience, “The Emperor of Gladness” is witty, even hilarious at times despite discussing topics not entirely different from his first novel. By focusing on the individuality of a singular life rather than generational trauma, Vuong’s personality shines through the characters, and his humor introduces a new side to
his writing that we, as readers, had not previously experienced. To Vuong, his first novel was a story reflecting his heritage. In “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” Vuong’s individuality is relevant, but the book loses purpose without the generational focus. Its serious nature is a response to its audience, which is a largely non-Vietnamese demographic. On tour, Vuong explained that in order to do his work justice, he remained hyperaware of this audience and felt humor was inappropriate, leading his prose with respect for those who came before him. His second novel, by contrast, is largely inspired by a singular story, and its hope and humor are equal to the adversity these characters share.
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‘Yes I said yes I will Yes’ to James Joyce’s Dublin
KATIE LYNCH Statement Deputy Editor
Living in Ireland is teaching me how to walk slower. I’m in Dublin for an exchange semester, and sometimes the change of pace is all I can think about. In Ann Arbor, I’m a fast walker, always hurrying to class, the library and back home again, headphones on as I call my parents or listen to an audio recording of my next reading assignment. But here, I feel I am given permission to take my time and to move through the day without rushing.
Earlier this week, I went for a stroll along Sandymount Strand, a beach on the Irish Sea southeast of Dublin city center. It was well after sunset and the tide had gone way out, leaving behind rippled patterns in the sand and little pools of water that glistened under the nearby streetlights. I stayed close to the water line and stared out at the ocean, the warm city lights of Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire to my right and two red-and-whitestriped smokestacks surrounded by gray factory buildings to my left. Cold wind stung my cheeks and whistled in my ears, but the
ISHA JAYADEV Statement Columnist
his first real gift — a secondhand harmonium — and he’s spent the past week learning how to move his fingers across the keys. It’s much smaller than a piano, with only 42 keys as opposed to a piano’s 88, but the hard part is training his left hand to pump air every few seconds, breathing life into the sound. It’s a small rectangular box, just big enough to reach his hands comfortably while he sits cross-legged on the dirt. The daylight has run out and there’s no electricity in the hut, which is why he’s gravitated to the only part of the village with a
water’s surface remained still. I walked as slowly as I could, indulging in the salty sea air and the way my footsteps sunk into the wet sand.
As I moved down the strand, I found myself thinking about James Joyce’s Dublin. The words “Sandymount Strand” have been ringing around in my head ever since I took a class on Joyce last year at the University of Michigan and read three of his most notable works: “Dubliners,” “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and “Ulysses.”
Sandymount Strand is the setting of the “Nausicaa” chapter of “Ulysses,” a sentimental and uncomfortably erotic episode that takes place at twilight and culminates in Leopold Bloom (the book’s protagonist) falling asleep in the sand. It’s also where Joyce’s semi-self-inserted character Stephen Dedalus goes for a walk in “Proteus” and spends an agonizing chapter stuck in his own head. Ever since reading these books, I’ve been so eager to see the strand which seemed to be, according to Joyce, one of the best spots in Dublin for people-watching and self-revelation. I wondered, like Stephen said in “Ulysses,” “Am
I walking into eternity along Sandymount Strand?” It sort of felt like I was. The strand at twilight felt liminal, inviting me to continue walking further and more curiously along some of the scenic inspiration for Joyce’s writing.
Almost everything I knew about Dublin before arriving here in January came through the lens of Joyce’s writing, which was informed by the way the city looked in the early 20th century. Joyce isn’t the only reason why I wanted to come to Ireland, however. Ancestors on my dad’s side were Irish, and I’ve always been interested in the country’s traditions of resistance and literary splendor, not to mention proximity to the ocean and the lush, green countryside. But still, it is undeniable that just as much as Joyce’s writing was inspired by Dublin, the city itself has in turn been influenced by his work. He is everywhere — in statues and bookstore display cases and building names. Half of the postcards I’ve seen on metal racks are adorned with Joyce quotes in cursive or photos of him wearing his iconic round glasses and a crooked top hat.
It’s a bit of an odd thing to experience the real-life version of a place that I was first intimately introduced to in a literary and fictional capacity. For Joyce, having grown up in Dublin, it was almost the complete opposite — his fictional works, including the modernist masterpiece “Ulysses,” were reflective of the Ireland he already knew well. Joyce once famously said to a friend that in writing “Ulysses,”
lightbulb. He knows he’ll be called in soon and all eight of his siblings will be asleep together on the floor. He dreads returning to his one-room hut, built from just mud and water, never sturdy enough to keep out the lizards. So before the sound of his mother’s voice permeates the village air, he lets his music fill the silence, relishing in the harmonium his father gifted him despite struggling to feed his children three meals a day.
He doesn’t know it yet, but 50 years later, he’ll be yelling at his children to handle it carefully, to always hold it with two hands and to never set it down on the hardwood floor. 50 years later and it’ll still be the most important thing he owns. My grandpa, Thatha in my
native tongue, was only eight when he was gifted his first harmonium — worn but sturdy. From that day on, he spent every waking minute teaching himself to play. It was the 1950s in some of the poorest parts of India and his family didn’t have much besides cows, a few acres of farming land and a radio. Thatha and his siblings would spend their evenings finishing their homework while listening to popular Bollywood songs that crackled over their radio — melodies that eventually had him hunched over the keyboard, following the notes with his fingers. Finally, his dad, the first person to notice his son’s passion for the instrument, searched far and wide for a teacher who would train Thatha for cheap.
His dad finally found a blind music teacher and brought him
from the village he was from to their home. They couldn’t pay him, but the teacher was willing to give Thatha proper harmonium lessons in exchange for care. He needed Thatha to take him to the bathroom, shower him and give him an easier life in exchange for his musical expertise.
When I asked my grandmother, Ajji, when he would even get the chance to play, she responded, “Oh, there’s always a hubba.”
I laughed, mainly because she’s right — there is no shortage of hubbas, or religious gatherings, in India; there is always a god to celebrate and always people there to celebrate it.
He’s sitting at the front, facing the crowd of freshly-showered villagers, all in their nicest garments. He’s only had his harmonium for a year and he’s
keenly aware of that as his fingers race across the keyboard, trying to keep pace with the seasoned Carnatic singer beside him. Everyone’s hands are together in prayer to show respect for the bhajan being played.
He didn’t know it at the time, but a swamiji, a religious leader, was in the audience, patiently waiting for the bhajans to end before he could meet the boy playing the harmonium. He was mesmerized by this young boy swaying to the tune of his keys and, when he finally got the chance to speak to him, he fervently clutched the boy’s hands in his own and implored for his presence at his residential school.
When the boy told his parents, his mother cried and wailed and begged his father not to let him go. The son she birthed, left alone in a
different town — nothing could be worse. The swamiji spoke calmly to them, explaining the education he hoped to give the boy and the opportunities it would open up for him. Swayed by this proposal, the boy’s dad agreed and, with a heavy heart, sent the boy off to live at this new school.
Thatha stayed at the school until he was 16. The students were all poor and the school wasn’t much better off. They ate the same thing every day — rice and mudde — and were only fed twice a day. When Thatha first arrived, there wasn’t even a resident music teacher at the school, but the swamiji kept his promise and began bringing him to the ashram, where Hindu sages stay, to learn from his new teacher, Raju Master.
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There are echoes soft as breath reverberating off hidden doorways each night when the sun slips into the sea and the hush of darkness descends — a velvet weight across the world. To some, hopes bloom into tangible treasures. For others, they remain just out of reach, as if suspended between life and death, chained instead to the unyielding anchor of reality. Dreams can stretch across a vast spectrum — shifting and twisting between blooming wishes and harsh nightmares that grow darker with the gravity of deviance or beam brighter the more you pray. They can be restless storms raging behind closed eyes or fragile gifts so familiar they fade into the quiet background of life.
It has always been easy for me to drift into dreams — to become weightless, if only for a fleeting instant, feeling burdens not as shackles but as the fierce, molten fire that forges my character into diamond. My ability to crave for more, to strive to become a force to be reckoned with, to want to mark my impact on the communities I build, is met with such ease that I have come to take aspirations for granted. My dreams hold the power to morph. One moment, I envision myself as a lawyer; the next, I am a designer who is passionate about social justice advocacy. Walking this tightrope feels daunting, yet beneath me lie invisible safety nets — a bed of threads whispering from the lips of my ancestors, “As long as you do it for yourself, things will turn out okay.”
But not everyone holds the privilege to dream for themselves. Not all are granted the chance to be the star of their own
unfolding story, to chase desire without apology or to imagine a life shaped by choice rather than circumstance.
My relationship with dreams is ever-shifting, molded like clay by the hands of those I have met and the cultures I have moved through. During the summer of 2023, in a small neurodivergent orphanage in Kalimantan, I saw dreams distilled to their essence — children longing simply to see, to hear, to belong in a world that felt beyond reach. Arif — one of the residents who found delight in music when I played an opera performance on my phone screen — could only imagine the movement of the singer’s lips and the warmth of her smile dissolving into a sea of standing ovation. Hearing opened a surreal window to his world, while sight remained an inevitable absence he could only imagine. He longed to see his mother’s touch, not just feel it — to witness the arms of performers striking gamelans and shaking angklungs, not merely hear their rhythms — and to build towers of neatly pressed nasi kuning dishes without having to rely solely on taste.
A whole world existed beyond the senses he was given, and to receive the ability to see would unlock unfathomable doors that he often spoke of as the key to his mother’s happiness. It would replace his burdens with blessings, unbind him from a life woven chiefly by sound and bring a smile of relief to his mother’s face. It would grant him the precious gift to feel more deeply and draw portraits with greater clarity. But most of all, he dreamed of seeing for her.
The nature of dreaming for others does not end at one orphanage; it unfolds across generations, carrying with it
layers of yearning, sacrifice and transformation. Growing up, the dreams of my grandparents and parents were carved from the rugged stone of hardship, shaped and restrained by the unforgiving hands of life and the immigrant journey. They dreamed in quiet colors — simple wishes for clean food that nourished, any work that braced their weary hands and the brittle courage to speak without fear amid political and economic oppression. My father sought nothing more than a haven within an all native-Indonesian school where Chinese Medanese children were marked and targeted. He balanced the weight of earning money to support his parents while my grandmother worked tirelessly — two full-time jobs as a florist by day and a mathematics professor by night — sacrificing everything to save enough for my father and his older brothers to pursue an education. Similarly, my mother sought the fragile comfort of safety in a homeland shadowed by a legacy of racism and unease — where many of her ancestors had ventured far to labor in the tin mines of Bangka and the goldladen hills of Borneo, their hopes weighed heavy with history and hardship.
It is their sacrifices, etched deep into their cyclical, life-enduring fears, that allow my dreams to soar boundless and free. I carry the gift of seeing the world through a kaleidoscope of possibility and the rare privilege to wrestle with my passions. I dream of touching lives, of becoming a steady hand — an extension of the future my parents once had to wait for. What would it be like to live a life where savvy meets innovation? Could I become an inventor, a creator of new worlds? Is there a place waiting for me in the limitless realms of design and technology, research and craft
— where ideas take flight and hands can bring dreams to life? Is it wrong to carry this privilege — one shaped by the sacrifices of those who gave up their own dreams? Is it just to pursue mine without earning the cost they paid for my ambitions? And if that is the case, are my dreams truly unfettered or are they held back by the unspoken bind of obligation?
The questions I face are seldom “could I,” but more often “would I.”
And when “could” dares to surface, it is scarcely due to the lack of opportunity, but rather the subtle shadows of self-doubt and neglect that I let rise between me and the fragile rarity we call dreams. I never had to deeply examine whether I could do something because of circumstances where life-and-death dilemmas unveiled — only whether I truly wanted to. I have had to confront my values and wrestle with what I seek in life, but I have never had to silence
my ardor beneath the crushing shadow of urgent needs and desperation.
Dreams are a reminder of my potential — delicate yet powerful, like the wings of a butterfly unfolding from its cocoon. In that serene, formative space, I prepare for a life of flight, of exploration. Now, I am the butterfly, rising toward the light above the surface. But in my ascent, I ask: Am I leaving behind the vestiges of my family and local community? How do I make peace with the piercing truth that the very shadows that sheltered me — the cocoon that once nurtured me — is not my destination, but instead the stepping stones that carried me to where I am today? If there were ever a world where the dreams of those who dreamed for others could be fulfilled, I would not be asking could or if, but how — how will these dreams unfold and through
whom? Because there is a delicate balance — of selflessness and selfhood, of the tamed and the wild, the intrepid and the secure. A balance held by those who spent their lives wishing quietly for themselves and those who gave up their wishes so others might dream
AVA FAYAD Statement Deputy Editor
I am 11 years old, laying in bed on a school night, staring at my ceiling, and swirling, swirling, swirling in the deep crevices of my mind as I try to fall asleep is the question: “Will God accept me into His heaven?”
I had always been an uptight child. Some may call it neuroticism or emotional instability, but the telltale signs of anxiety were evident within me from the very beginning. Questioning mortality and my own holy trials and tribulations was not something novel to me at my ripe age of 11.
Many cultural communities are formed around a shared religion. Within the culture of Abrahamic religions — not the religions themselves, but within the shared society that has been formed from the commonality in practice — there is the idea that sadness or depression is largely conquerable.
It’s thought that such negative feelings can simply be traced to some sort of inherent deficiency, one that must be overcome through prayer and drowned out with pleas for forgiveness and mercy. Sadness and depression are thought to be a test of strength and one must pull through to prove that they have come out on top, to prove that they are, in fact, deserving of eternal salvation. Or, very simply put, if you are depressed, then your faith in God is just not strong enough. You must pray, pray, pray, repent, repent, repent and then maybe — just maybe — you will be normal like all the other devout human beings.
Heaven is perfection. Heaven is goodness. Heaven is purity. To be acceptable for heaven you must be perfect, you must have goodness, you must have endless love. But if you are sad, if you are stuck in the limbo that is depression, if you feel that you are none of these things, then what?
Which comes first: sadness or doubt? How do you make sense of either?
When depression renders you so incomplete, so fractured and cracked, right down the middle, can you still possibly be worthy of the faith that you hold? Worthy to be accepted to heaven? Can you still even possibly be human?
I felt that, for a long time, people would look right through me. I wasn’t completely there in the way that most normally functioning people are able to be in a present moment — even I myself know this. Among the many symptoms of depression is the oh-so-notorious fog that seemingly overtakes everything: it slows your thoughts, movements and social capacity and does away with each, one by one. It puts you in a sleepwalklike stupor — eyes closed, senses numb, with everything outside the mind almost imperceptible and unintelligible. It is, or it feels like, an inhuman state.
But what is human, anyway? What is the mind, the soul, the
body — spoken of so highly, revered so violently — that must be kept intact, must be kept whole, must be, must be, must be? If humans and humanity have slowly ebbed away, slowly been crushed out, slowly been lost, what is one to do now? If I am no longer whole, then what?
To be human is to be whole, to be full — full of life, of love, of energy, of the ability to speak without being afraid, of an overflow of sheer love for life. To not be whole is to be tired — to be too tired to muster up the energy, the courage, to walk through life. It is to feel like you are not human.
My childhood self wonders if she was still worthy too. She wonders, what is human?
The holy test tells us to endure our suffering, to push through, for by the end of it, we will be made better. We will come out stronger. But what if, when it comes time for my test to end, I cannot be fixed?
I used to think that “test” was the cruelest word I could think of. We all have our battles and the word “test” is plastered over them, as if that word makes it better, as if they all have a purpose and justification.
We test, we are tested, we are made to endure the test, but by the end of it, is who — or what — we are acceptable? Acceptable enough for the beauty, the lushness, the purity of heaven? The test injures, the test mars, the test disfigures. The test is meant to test, and we, in turn, are broken by the end of it. But will we be fixed? Heaven promises respite, but does it also promise wholeness?
The “fixing” of the injured human psyche — does this take place after our sentence of suffering has been endured, quietly, submissively, shamefully?
Head down, hands in prayer, brows knit in shame? Am I to wake each morning and simply move past the grief, past the strife, past being knocked down, over and over again? Am I to expect, pray, hope, that the fixing takes place soon so that I will be made whole again?
The very deep, very impassible stigma surrounding the “act” of being depressed, if you can even call it that, is incomprehensible. Yes, I prayed and prayed and prayed. I fasted. I tried my best to be kind, even when I didn’t receive the same in return. I tried to help others when I could. But, even through all this, I was sad. And no
one could understand that. And this, in turn, led to me to wonder, “What now?”
In what state is God willing to accept us into heaven? In what state can we still be considered human?
Is humanity a threshold, and can pain — or what it does to us — make us any less human? What if, by the end of the battle, we are so scarred, so disfigured, that we can never again be what we once were? Where do we go from there? What if we cannot heal properly?
Depression and chronic mental illness are framed as battles — something to be won, something to be scarred for, something to get as close as possible to death for, but to never actually let it kill you, of course, because then you would be a sinner. There is shame in admitting that you are having qualms, that you are sad and unsure if you are able to get through it.
But we are not bulletproof. We are not invincible. We are human.
Elyn Saks, University of Southern California law professor and mental health law expert, after having lived with undiagnosed schizophrenia and through multiple bouts of psychosis for 28 years, wrote a memoir on her experience titled “The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness.” While speaking of the conviction instilled in her by a drug rehabilitation center that anything can be overcome through sheer willpower, Saks writes:
The fundamental flaw in all this, though, is that it neglects something intrinsic to the complex real world and to complex real human beings. In fact, it is not necessarily true that everything can be conquered with willpower. There are forces of nature and circumstance that are beyond our control, let alone our understanding, and to insist on victory in the face of this, to accept nothing less, is just asking for a soul-pummeling. We feel how we feel. We do with that all that we know how.
Saks brings up the point that rather than separating ourselves from our illness and treating it as something bad that must be done away with or must be taken care of, we must learn to accept that it is a part of us — to accept that we must we can make it better, can improve, but that we also must learn to live with it.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Just friends: Are boys and girls ever purely platonic?
LISKA TOROK Statement Associate Editor
Sixteen was a year of entirely new experiences for me: it was just after the COVID-19 pandemic and the first time I’d attended in-person high school without a mask. I was immediately thrown into the chaos of young adulthood. But when I think back to 16, one new experience stands out the most: boys. Having attended an all-girls middle school, going to school with boys was a novel concept and an experience I had to learn from scratch. For the first time in my life, I had boys around me, and even some boy friends. However, by my 17th birthday, I’d discovered one of the downsides of befriending boys: the confusing and blurry line between being friends and something more.
At one point in the infamous romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” Harry (Billy Crystal, “Standing Up, Falling Down”) turns to Sally (Meg Ryan, “You’ve Got Mail”) in the car and says, “What I’m saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form — is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.” One of the most famous ideas prompted in cinematic history, and my 16th year, begs the question of whether the media created this idea of men and women being unable to stay platonic friends, or if it simply portrays it because it’s true?
First, we need to understand the aspects that make a relationship romantic versus platonic. For the purpose of this article, when I reference media and my personal experiences, I’m referring to friendships between women who are attracted to men and men who are attracted to women. While attraction is multidimensional, I would argue that there are two things that make up romantic attraction: emotional attraction and physical attraction. However, I think physical attraction is different from finding someone objectively attractive. It’s important to note that it’s possible to think someone is an attractive person
without being attracted to them. Harry and Sally’s notorious conversation sets the framework for the claim that boys are only friends with girls they find attractive. However, a study from the University of Texas debunks this, finding that men often take advantage of opportunities to have sex with their girl friends, even when they are not attracted to them. What this study reveals is not that boys are more attracted to their girl friends, but that they are simply more likely to have sex in general. In this sense, Harry is right: Men will often think about the women they are friends with in a sexual way, but this is simply because many men are taught to view all women in a sexual context.
“When Harry Met Sally” ultimately upholds the idea that sex — or at least, feelings of physical attraction — frequently interfere with opposite-sex friendships, because Harry and Sally end up together. Maybe this is the Harry and Sally effect: If a boy and a girl spend enough time together, attraction is inevitable. A possible explanation for this comes from a 2022 study that found men appear to be more motivated than women to befriend the opposite sex because of the potential for sex, regardless of whether they are single or not. The final sentiment expressed in the conclusion previously stated is important because it implies that even if a man is in a relationship at the time he befriends a woman, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee strictly platonic feelings. So, can we be friends with someone we find attractive? I think we can. I don’t think any of my friends — boy or girl — are unattractive. However, I am not attracted to them, and that is the key distinction. I didn’t befriend them because of the possibility of being something more, or because of the way they look. Additionally, I’ve also liked people I didn’t initially find attractive after getting to know them, meaning that even if you swore off of befriending anyone you found remotely attractive, strict platonic feelings are not guaranteed. But as long as
you don’t pursue a friendship because you are attracted to someone, the possibility of it being platonic is strong and your intentions are in the right place. But what happens if the girl is also interested in physicality? “Friends with benefits” has been tried again and again by many, sometimes ending because one party is too attached or because one party finds another partner or because both parties end up realizing they are attracted to one another emotionally as well. To many college-aged students, this might be the ideal situation — low commitment during busy class schedules while still enjoying the “benefits” of a romantic (sexual) relationship. But these relationships are often not as straightforward as we would like them to be.
There are several explanations to this, and most have to do with the inherent differences between men and women when approaching sex. While this statement is generalized, it is also frequently found to be true: Women are more likely than men to form emotional bonds from sex. Part of this has to do with the release of the hormone oxytocin which is essentially a feel-good hormone released during sex. Oxytocin promotes feelings of trust, empathy and attachment, which is key since women tend to produce more oxytocin than men during sex. Biologically, women are wired to have stronger feelings of attachment in sexual situations. Moreover, gender roles also play into this. Men are often conditioned to view sex as something disposable, while women are shown through the media and traditional gender stereotypes that casual sex is not for them — from the shaming language we use to describe women who have lots of casual sex to the risk of pregnancy that men simply don’t have to deal with. So, these two factors make “friends with benefits” likely to turn into “friends with feelings.” If we have sex with someone we emotionally enjoy, we essentially create romantic feelings because all three types of attraction are then ticked off.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
