Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Four
days at the UMich pro-Palestine Freedom School
“For us to achieve freedom, we must have steadfastness.”
Coalition wrote their week-long series drew inspiration from student-led movements and the subsequent freedom schools that took place in Michigan.
NEWS BRIEFS
UMich officially updates student conduct policy, launches OSA Announcement
Erik S. Wessel, Director of the University of Michigan’s Office of Student Conflict Resolution, formally announced changes to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities and the new Office of Student Accountability in an email to the University community Monday afternoon. According to reporting from The Michigan Daily, discussions surrounding the newly formed office, designed to split investigative and disciplinary functions from OSCR, began this summer but not announced formally until Monday. This announcement also comes after OSCR charged 11 pro-Palestine student activists with SSRR conduct violations in July.
include changes to arbitration, resolution timelines and process language for OSCR. In cases involving multiple students, joint arbitration can now proceed only if both respondents and complainants consent. In addition, the update also clarifies timeliness requirements for complaints. While conduct complaints are generally limited to incidents within the past six months, the resolution coordinator may now waive that restriction if a late filing is deemed reasonable. Additional revisions bring the SSRR in line with new federal requirements, such as the Stop Campus Hazing Act and Title VI rules on discrimination. Wessel wrote in his email the new structure will better balance accountability with education.
For four days last week, University of Michigan students passing by North University Avenue and State Street would see a series of events called the “Popular University for Palestine Freedom School,” featuring music, speeches and artwork intended to educate and build a community in support of the pro-Palestine movement.
The events were hosted by the TAHRIR Coalition and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, two organizations calling for the University to divest its endowment from companies with ties to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Public Health senior Erek Mirque, who helped organize the series, said he felt inspired by those who attended the events and hoped Freedom School would help the community grow in both knowledge and numbers.
“I think we’re building something really beautiful and every person that just stops by, even for a second, is helping build that,” Mirque said.
SAFE members are seen in the background behind a table with a sign that reads “Freedom School for Palestine.”
Tuesday
Freedom School opened Tuesday afternoon with an introduction to the history of freedom schools, reading circle and film screening. One of the day’s events, a lesson on the concept of freedom schools, tied the week-long movement to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools, educational events hosted by groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that encouraged members of the Civil Rights Movement to fight for equality through written expression, music and learning about key figures in Black history.
In an announcement on Instagram, the TAHRIR
“The original freedom schools, spearheaded by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and staffed by thousands of university student volunteers, empowered Black youth across the state to articulate their own desires, demands, and questions in order to find new directions for transformative action,” the post read. “Since then, there have been various freedom schools across the country, and specifically in Detroit, to demand change from educational institutions that were failing their students.”
Wednesday Wednesday visitors to the Freedom School participated in a drum circle while waiting for the arrival of a Michigan Divest representative. The organization, dedicated to calling for the state of Michigan to divest its portfolio of Israel bonds from public pensions, has criticized institutions such as the state’s Retirement System, Investment Board and Michigan Department of Treasury. Mirque told The Daily he hoped Michigan Divest’s participation would remind the local community that the pro-Palestine movement for divestment exists beyond the University and Ann Arbor.
“Hopefully — and this is something that we’ll get to build on together — we’ll all be able to see that it’s not just the University of Michigan that’s complicit. It’s not just one institution and it’s not just one group’s responsibility to fight for divestment,” Mirque said. “It’s a statewide effort, it’s a nationwide effort, it’s a global effort and each one of us has our own unique role to play.”
Lex Eisenberg, a public health lecturer who supports Black and Pink, told The Daily they believe Black and Pink and the proPalestine movement at Freedom School were united in the fight for universal freedom.
“The experience of homophobia and transphobia (is exacerbated by) the structural violence of incarceration,” Eisenberg said. “Abolition is imagining something like the end of prisons and the freedom beyond that, which ties to (the) Palestinian Liberation Movement, which is also an intersectional solidarity movement that believes that when Palestine is free, everyone can be free. That’s an abolitionist principle in many ways. We have to fight for the most impressed people in order for us all to experience freedom.”
The night ended with a public performance of dabke, a traditional dance style in the Middle East’s Levantine region, in the North Quad Residence Hall’s courtyard. Thaer Lutfi AlKiswani, a member of Al Hub, a Chicago-based Palestinian art collective that led the performance, told The Daily the dance was a symbol of sumud, the Arabic word for steadfastness.“For us to achieve freedom, we must have steadfastness,” AlKiswani said. “Steadfastness, especially in this form, also rekindles and connects the collective and the peoples to the land that they are on, and as well as has them shake off the materials, the dunya, the things that are not real. When we stomp, when we dance together, we shake it off collectively.”
Thursday
On Thursday at 5:30 p.m., the Freedom School featured Engineers Against Apartheid, a pro-Palestine automotive engineer collective. Four speakers from EAA criticized engineering companies and
Seated next to a keffiyeh sale, LSA sophomore Amelia Isacksen participated at a station that allowed Freedom School attendees to make birthday cards for incarcerated members of the LGBTQ+ community. The cards were organized by the Black and Pink at the School of Public Health, an organization that provides support for members of the LGBTQ+ community impacted by the prison industrial complex.
military contractors such as Raytheon, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin for providing arms and technology to the Israeli military. The speakers claimed the companies’ expressed values of safety and defense did not align with the act of manufacturing weapons of war.
They also criticized academic institutions, including the University, for associating with and allegedly promoting military contractors through career fairs, information sessions and recruitment.
Student attendees spoke up about their experiences with military contracting companies and recruiters at the University, claiming that these companies targeted engineering students and military recruiters targeted students who couldn’t afford tuition. EAA speakers also claimed universities were motivated by profit to associate with contracting companies and the military, citing the $85 million over 430 projects the former U.S. Department of Defense, also known as the Department of War, contributed to research at the University in 2024.
Friday
On Friday evening, the Freedom School held a group painting activity accompanied by an art exhibit, both led by AlKiswani. AlKiswani displayed several group paintings from the Al Hub archives, each originally painted in response to specific events in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shooting of 14 Palestinian emergency workers. A canvas along with a line of Palestine flags are placed along South University Avenue.
In an interview with The Daily, Mirque said the Freedom School had been kicked off of University grounds by the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security earlier in the day, a move he felt was biased against pro-Palestine speech.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Every three years, students, faculty and staff are able to submit amendments to the SSRR. The 19 approved amendments that will now be considered as violations to the SSRR include harm to animals, doxxing and AI-facilitated impersonation. Updates also
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“This reorganization will best allow OSCR and OSA to together offer the full range of conflict resolution and community accountability pathways that are educationally-focused, studentcentered, and restorative in nature,” Wessel wrote.
UMich makes all U-M employees mandated reporters
The University also released a new
anti-discrimination policy
The University of Michigan announced updated policies Tuesday effective immediately that expand reporting obligations to all University non-confidential employees and establish a new interim anti-discrimination policy for students.
Previously, reporting requirements applied only to a select group of supervisors, faculty and staff known as Individuals with Reporting Obligations. Now, all nonconfidential employees of the University, including student employees, are mandated to report information about alleged discrimination, harassment, retaliation or sexual misconduct learned in the scope of their employment to the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office within 48 hours.
Reportable information gathered from a classroom, classroom discussions or assignments are not required to be brought to ECRT, and the updated policies do not apply to employees already
held to confidentiality agreements, such as therapists and healthcare professionals. Failure to report information may result in sanctions from a formal reprimand to expulsion depending on the number of infractions.
Other institutions such as Michigan State University, Northern Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University already have mandatory reporting obligations for all employees. The University also introduced a new Interim Policy and Procedures on Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation by Students, which outlines the University’s nondiscrimination policy, support options and processes for complaints. ERCT will conduct listening sessions for the University community before the policy is finalized.
The updates fulfill a 2024 agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights requiring the University to clarify procedures for addressing complaints after an investigation launched June 2024.
EMMA SPRING Daily News Editor
Akul Gunukula/DAILY
Varun Tandon/DAILY
Varun Tandon/DAILY
EMMA SPRING Daily News Editor
A lot happened this summer. Here’s a quick recap
From Santa Ono’s resignation to federal investigations into the University
GLENN HEDIN Daily Staff Reporter
While students were away from campus this summer, a variety of events occured. From University president Santa Ono’s resignation to changes in the 2026 undergraduate admissions cycle, here’s what every member of the University of Michigan community should know as we head into the 2025-2026 school year.
University President Santa Ono resigned
On May 4, Ono announced that he would be leaving the University and was the sole finalist for the presidency at the University of Florida.
Prior to his departure, Ono took several actions which were met with criticism from large sections of the University community including cutting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, speaking at a summit hosted by the Anti-Defamation League and praising the educational policies of Florida’s Republican state government. However, on June 3 Ono was ultimately rejected by the UF Board of Governors after criticism from conservative members of Florida’s Board of Governors.
Following Ono’s resignation, former U-M Dearborn chancellor Domenico Grasso was appointed as interim University president. Members of the campus community have expressed hopes that the next president will increase transparency within the University administration and provide a more firm response to the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, such as rolling back diversity and civil rights protections, canceling federal research grants and increasing restrictions on international students.
Pro-Palestinian activists faced legal hurdles
On April 23, FBI agents conducted a series of raids on the homes of several pro-Palestine individuals in coordination with the Ann Arbor Police Department.
Two days later, one of 11 protesters charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in connection
with pro-Palestine protests on campus t was sentenced to four days in jail for allegedly violating a campus ban.
The TAHRIR Coalition, a coalition of pro-Palestine student organizations, alleged in a press release that the jailed student, along with other pro-Palestinian activists, had been surveilled by private security company City Shield on behalf of the University. The Guardian confirmed these allegations in an article published June 6. The University announced it had terminated its contract with City Shield two days after the article was published. Nessel dropped all criminal charges against seven protesters arrested at the 2024 Gaza solidarity encampment May 5. But in July, charges were brought against 11 students involved in the encampment through the Office of Student Conflict Resolution. These are the third round of charges brought through OSCR, which has recently restructured, leading to accusations that OSCR is being used to exact political retaliation against protesters. The University has denied these allegations.
The University faced increased pressure from the Trump administration Universities around the country have been feeling
the presence of the Trump administration, and the University was no exception.
On June 12, the University’s Board of Regents passed a budget for the 2025-2026 school year the same day the Michigan House of Representatives passed a 65.1% cut to the University’s state funding. A state budget has not yet been passed for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, leaving local school districts and institutes of higher education alike in a state of uncertainty as the school year begins.
On June 22, Michigan Law Review was sued by America First Legal, a law firm founded by Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security advisor. The lawsuit alleges MLR’s holistic application process unfairly discriminates against men and individuals of White or Asian descent.
On July 15, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University’s funding, specifically funds received from foreign institutions, alleging improper reporting of the money. The University announced it would comply with the investigation.
On July 23, the DOE also announced an investigation
into the University’s Dreamer Scholarship, which provided support to members of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The University declined a request for comment on the lawsuit from The Daily, and the scholarship’s webpage has been deleted.
Unions ratified, rallied and requested recognition
This summer was also marked by union activity on campus. On April 30, the galleries, libraries, archives and museums unit of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization announced it had quit its existing contract with the University in the midst of contract re-negotiations, threatening to strike. Five days later, the union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the University that included salary increases for members ratified on May 15.
On May 1, eight former U-M employees filed a federal lawsuit against the University for wrongful termination in retaliation against the plaintiffs’ participation in proPalestine protests. Campus unions such as University Staff United have rallied in their support.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Graduate student research assistants launch campaign for unionization
law previously excluded graduate researchers from the definition of “public employee”
union protections to prevent the University from cutting benefits without recourse.
More than 13 years after their original campaign ended due to state law, graduate student research assistants at the University of Michigan have relaunched their push for unionization. On Aug. 19, the Graduate Employees’ Organization announced researchers would seek support for a union election in the hopes of bargaining for competitive contractual benefits.
In March 2012, Former Gov. Rick Snyder signed Senate Bill 971, which amended Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act to exclude graduate researchers from the definition of “public employee,” effectively terminating GSRAs’ hopes for unionization. That changed in 2023, when House Bill 4497 reversed the 2012 decision and restored GSRAs’ collective bargaining rights.
GEO is the legal bargaining unit for Graduate Student Instructors and Graduate Student Staff Assistants, who fall under the protections of the union’s current contract. GSRAs, however, are excluded from these benefits. In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Ben Litterer, co-chair of the GSRA caucus, said graduate researchers want
“We really don’t have any sort of contractual protections for researchers,” Litterer said.
“That means that when the going gets a little bit tough for the University, or for whatever reason, really, that can sort of trickle down and into the benefits that we have being cut without any real legal recourse.”
According to the campaign’s FAQ, the University typically gives GSRAs the same wages and health care benefits as those listed in GEO’s contract, but other benefits — including parental leave, sick leave, vacation time, a dedicated grievance process and an emergency fund for international students — are not guaranteed. Litterer said that because many of these benefits are left up to individual advisors to decide for their graduate researchers, GSRAs need a grievance process for unfair conditions.
“Not getting vacation time, not having time to go renew their visa, which requires you to travel to another country — I think that’s completely not acceptable,” Litterer said. “We need to have a mechanism to stand up for those folks.”
GEO’s contract also offers GSIs transitional funding, which provides students with
one semester of financial support and other assistance to move away from unhealthy working environments or advisor relationships.
In an interview with The Daily, Rackham student Christa Ventresca, a former officer in GEO and a current GSRA, said they were particularly concerned about securing transitional funding for researchers at a time when limited or cut funding drives many students to take positions under difficult conditions.
“Funding is getting shot, (and) you’ve got a ton of students that can’t find a lab that has money to support them, or their only option is a very toxic (Principal Investigator),” Ventresca said. “They end up stuck, or they end up dropping out of grad school, and we end up losing a lot of this generation of scientists this way, which is just really sad.”
Litterer said many details about GSRA’s potential future contract with the University have yet to be determined because the campaign is currently focused on the unionization process.
“The specific solutions and the specific demands are going to be something that comes out of these collective discussions,” Litterer said. “The first thing we’re trying to do is just get the union formed and make sure
we actually have that avenue to actually talk about that.”
Many GSRAs also hold positions as GSIs, which then includes them in the GEO bargaining unit. However, once their position as an instructor for a course ends, they lose the ensured protections of the GEO contract. Ventresca, who knew they wanted to teach when they started graduate school, said the difference in their guaranteed benefits while holding a teaching position compared to the lack of protections as just a researcher encouraged them to get involved in the fight for unionization.
“When I’m a GSI, I’m part of a union,” Ventresca said. “When I’m a researcher, I still get those benefits, but I’m not in the bargaining unit and things like that. Seeing the lack of protections for researchers and almost the need for awareness of this issue among researchers is really what started getting me invested.”
The campaign hopes to include both graduate researchers funded through the University and research fellows supported by external sources. Ventresca, who has held a federal grant for the past four years, said they worry the University may attempt to exclude fellows. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
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Miss Kim owner opens vegetarian spinoff
‘Little Kim’ in Ann Arbor
After running Miss Kim for almost a decade, owner Ji Hye Kim has opened up a spinoff restaurant next door. Little Kim, a fast-casual restaurant that draws on a variety of international cuisines, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Indian, opened in July 2025 to bring refreshing vegan and vegetarian food to the Ann Arbor community.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Kim explained her goal with Little Kim was to create a casual but health-driven dining option.
“I think we only have like two or three dishes that are vegetarian because it either has egg or cheese
on it, but most of it can be turned into vegan,” Kim said. “That’s sort of what I wanted. I wanted a good, hearty, healthy food that’s grab and go and you can order and eat, and it’d be delicious.”
Some menu items include fried chickpeas, Jjajangbap with black bean sauce and tempeh, chilled tofu noodles, a paneer tomato sandwich and eggs in purgatory.
Kim said her perspective shifted after traveling to a Korean Buddhist temple, where she learned vegetarian food could be more than an alternative or substitute.
“Every time I go to Korea, I would stay at a Korean Buddhist temple,” Kim said. “Food there is just amazing, and it sort of blew my mind, because … I’ve had a lot of food that’s trying to be meat food, and then they’re just doing (a)
KAYLA LUGO Daily Staff Reporter
The ‘Big Brother’ dilemma
CORA ROLFES Senior Arts Editor
There’s a lot to be said about “Big Brother.” It is a reality show that, beyond its three weekly episodes, also streams a 24/7 live feed of its contestants as they compete for $750,000. It’s a thrilling concept, one that attempts to push reality TV to its extreme. As houseguests are voted out week after week in a process called “eviction,” they form alliances — and break them — trying to be the last one standing. It’s often hailed as more of a social experiment than reality TV, a shiny Los Angeles “Survivor” counterpart. But the start of its most recent season has proved that the crux of any reality TV show is its casting. And with “Big Brother,” the question is, how familiar should these players be with the game before they enter it?
“Big Brother” is played in a pretty consistent format. At the start of the week, players compete in a competition to be crowned head of household. Not only is the HOH safe for the week, but they are also responsible for making the nominations for eviction. Halfway through,
players are also able to compete in a Veto competition — to win the Golden Power of Veto (the right to take someone down from the chopping block). Then, on Thursday, there’s a live eviction ceremony where the players who are not on the block vote for who to send home.
The core of any reality show is who is on it. The current players of “Big Brother” are a mix of people who’ve never seen the show before they found out they were going to be on it, selfprofessed die-hard fans and people who agree to the show to advance their social media careers. For a lot of modern contestants, the most valuable boon can often seem to no longer be the $750,000 prize, but becoming popular enough among fans that you can establish your own social media presence.
The bottom line is that a lot of these cast members don’t just not know how to play or have never seen the show; they also don’t really need to win. The first part of this deal isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Season 2, the first time the game was played with the current eviction format, birthed one of the most iconic “Big Brother” players — both entertainment and strategy-wise — of all time,
the evil dermatologist Will Kirby. No one entering the house had seen the game played before, but the season is both fascinating and dramatic. Houseguests grapple with the constant perception that comes with the live feeds and being isolated from the outside world, and define what role morality should play in what is essentially a game — but a game that has life-changing money at stake. It’s one of the only seasons to fully live up to its social experiment claim, having a much more serious and emotional tone, a large part of this being due to none of the houseguests having any notion of how to cope with being in the surveilled house.
But only casting people who are superfans is also risky. A cast that holds all their cards to their chest from over-caution and meta-games through the show will not be interesting. Messy, entertaining gameplay and exciting emotional outbursts will not reliably come from people who have already learned the lessons of the past seasons, who know about the various strategies that have been established, like what a floater is and how to backdoor someone.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
‘Ugliness’ isn’t about ugliness —it’s about love
I spent four years of my life looking down. I avoided all attempts at eye contact, allowing myself to be labeled shy or weird because it was more comforting than the truth: I couldn’t look anyone in the eye. I had a lazy eye — strabismus. At about age 14, it gradually showed itself, beginning as a drift, but running like hell to the right within a year.
I couldn’t comprehend that the way I knew myself, knew my reflection in the mirror, had changed without any warning. In my mind, I was still that boy with a steady gaze — but facing pictures of myself brought me back to a reality that I resented. My self-conception was incongruous with how I was perceived.
Through this process, I felt that I had lost autonomy over my body. Worse than this dissociation, though, was the realization that I am terribly superficial. It became embarrassing to verbalize how badly I just wanted to fit in, wanted to avoid being reduced to my face — a single uncoordinated eye.
This sense of alienation and longing for acceptance is at the heart of Moshtari Hilal’s “Ugliness.” As an Afghan woman raised in Germany, Hilal grew up with beauty standards that were at odds with her own appearance. In the book, she recounts facing prejudice from society and the ways in which she internalized this discrimination as a young woman. Taking a post-colonial lens to the concept of beauty, Hilal uses “Ugliness” to explore how these ideals emerged and to better understand the hatred that swallowed her during her upbringing.
Hilal looks to the historic bigotry — supported by eugenics, Darwinism and colonialism — which has resulted in a caste system of ugliness. The book repeatedly echoes how beauty thrives upon the creation of in- and out-groups. Thus, the intentional formation of a dominant, exclusive concept of one’s worth, predicated upon Western aesthetics, underlies the beauty standards we unconsciously uphold.
Starting from the initially superficial-sounding issue of not feeling beautiful, we are then faced with an incredibly alienating aesthetics-centric society — one
built upon the reward of belonging and the threat of exclusion. Those who do not “belong” are constantly pressured to conform to oppressive standards, worsening the alreadypresent feelings of dysmorphia. What should be a purely aesthetic dilemma has been perverted into a new societal standard of judgment and discrimination. Hilal’s recollection of her isolated childhood poignantly reveals that ugliness has never truly been about our appearance, but hatred. The book recounts the author’s gradual realization that the solution to these feelings is not about becoming beautiful, but rather about coming to love oneself.
While these feelings of hatred and ugliness can be amorphous, Hilal’s use of poetry alongside prose broadens her ability to express the trauma of feeling like a prisoner in a body that she had been taught to loathe. The author recounts anecdotes with a verisimilitude that dips into surrealism, allowing her to step out of the bounds of reality and translate an internal agony into compelling literature.
Though Hilal speaks primarily to the female immigrant experience — particularly the xenophobia she faces in Germany — her desire for belonging and security in her appearance are universally relatable. When we read “Ugliness,” it is like looking into a mirror that reflects our own insecurities. Though my specific standards differed, I clearly saw the ideal features that I lacked in everything Hilal left unwritten. Anyone who engages with this text will be met with the faceless ideal they carry around with them.
But why do we carry this around? Why torture ourselves with the unattainable, creating our own psychological prison? Hilal points to the perennial pressure of assimilation — through cosmetic surgery, shaving, makeup, etc. — to obscure the “ugly self” and distort our image. The external forces of societal judgment and predatory advertising have alienated Hilal from her body and culture, leading the author to feel forced to imitate her oppressor.
Since Western ideals have presented their self-serving concept of beauty as the norm, the onus is placed on the rest of the world to change. Hilal repeatedly comes back to the temptation of cosmetic surgery, posed as a simple fix for ugliness and an
easy path to acceptance. While she empathizes with those who undergo these operations, the author argues against this choice. Hilal explains that undergoing procedures results in admitting that one’s appearance needs fixing and implicates the Western model’s authenticity. This issue is central to Hilal’s investigation of ugliness: If we adhere to the European ideal, we become complicit in an exploitative, hierarchical system.
But is this what life truly is like?
Is cosmetic surgery actually some Faustian bargain for beauty? Is the shape of your nose and how much facial hair you have really tied to Charles Darwin and colonialism? Is ugliness such a fundamental issue as Hilal makes it out to be?
For four years of my life, it was. Being unable — or unwilling — to accept my appearance, I became alienated from myself and began to feel deeply isolated. I was utterly self-conscious and everything I did reflected that — every attempt to distance myself or minimize my presence so as to not be perceived.
Then, after undergoing surgery for my lazy eye at 18, all of these problems dissipated. Those four years of self-loathing suddenly seemed trivial; with no lasting scars in the aftermath, I shed my adolescent insecurities in an instant.
But how is this possible? All of the hierarchical structures that enforce beauty standards are still in place, all of the “remedies” to ugliness are still being sold — so why does it feel to me like a problem that doesn’t exist anymore? Here there is a twofold issue of privilege and ignorance: By instantly fixing my most salient insecurity, I was able to overlook a structural, institutional issue since it no longer negatively affected me.
My ability to ignore my own “ugliness” highlights the importance of Hilal’s writing. We need to be reminded of the discriminatory hierarchies in place, especially those that benefit any of us who exist inside the norm. The author asks readers to shift their perception of ugliness, aiming to destroy the notion that Western aesthetics are a timeless, universal concept — because they aren’t. They are a social construct, a tool for the social subjugation of those who don’t conform to a set of Eurocentric ideals. CONTINUED AT
The legacy in Ann Arbor
AUDREY HOLLENBAUGH Daily Arts Writer
My friends have called my apartment building many things, well before it was my building. Last year, we’d walk by it and they’d call it scary, gross, old or sketchy. They scoffed at its solemn and stately structure, long since worn by the passing of time and tenants, and I’d feel a pang of defensiveness for the place. My mother found the building to be rickety: somewhere she wasn’t quite sure she wanted her kid to live. She eyed each room suspiciously as we carried my furniture and boxes inside, searching for something wrong, something that would confirm its inability to host her precious daughter. It’s difficult for me to grasp the distrust they have for my building’s old bones; I always thought it was beautiful.
The four-story structure is short and square, made entirely of red brick and gray concrete. Above and below the windows, the dark brick is arranged to form decorative rectangles with happy pointed corners, and the edifice is adorned with carved stone spirals and ornamentation darkened from decades of dirt and exhaust.
Inside, the floors are made of real hardwood, with a strip of lighter wood going down the center of the walkways — the memory of a floor runner that is no longer there. The air in the halls always smells like old cigarettes. The doors lock with real keys and I struggle with the entrance to the lobby each time I use it; I jiggle and twist my old key while trying to turn the handle, the scuffed glass of the door rattling in its wooden frame during my daily dance with the knob. There is no elevator, and the wood stairs and railings are deeply penetrated with grime that couldn’t be sanded out when they were refinished last week.
When I get to my apartment, I struggle again with my own
ACROSS
heavy wooden door. The entryway usually smells like cinnamon, unless the neighbors across the alley are cooking something that drifts from their kitchen to mine, or the wind brings the smell of Indian spices from the restaurant next door. Our windows are always open to the sounds of the street, the rain and the person above us who likes to sing. The wooden floors creak loudly under my feet as sunlight pours in, illuminating the clumpy cream-colored paint on the dusty windowsills and walls, which reflect the light and make the entire room feel golden. These warm walls have only been mine for three weeks, but they feel like home. It feels like I’m supposed to be here; it feels like a place made for people, made for me.
My friends’ apartments are not like this. Theirs are in greyscale, sans creaky floors or shabby curtains for the breeze to wander in through. Their apartments are crisp, cold and silent, not built to last but instead to be easily reworked when part of them gives out. The shapes are square. Their mothers must feel very relaxed knowing their children are safe from the world in their little glass boxes. There are no sweet ceramic cabinet knobs with flowers painted on them, nothing to grab onto with your eyes or soul. Even the sun manages to feel cold, sliding in through blue-filtered windows
that look down on the streets, so far below you can’t hear the people walking on them. I find my little building from their high-rise view and think of how alive it feels — rough around its edges instead of unnervingly smooth. These kinds of apartments have mostly been built in Ann Arbor within the last 20 years — some within the last 10 years, 10 months or 10 weeks. They pop up like daisies, an intensely invasive species, each new complex getting taller and taller with the same minimalistic modern interiors and short names that try to evoke some kind of history or grandiosity: Saga, The Legacy or Verve. Tucked between them sit the unnamed buildings of Ann Arbor’s actual legacy. There are pillars, stonework, cupolas, ornate trim and heavy arches. Colors besides blue, beige and shades of gray welcome you and tell unique stories. They are buildings that were designed to be lived in — not just paid for. They were born from blueprints that took artistry, designs that spent the extra money to imbue real architectural history that lives in porticos and gables. The only saga behind Saga is the decision to build a frugal box from glass and metal and then hide its dullness behind the words “sleek” and “functional.” But we aren’t here to simply function. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
antelope
70. Means' partners
71. Green vehicle, in short
DOWN
1. Jedi adversary
2. Sushi seaweed
3. He played Obi-Wan after Alec
4. 1993 baseball movie, with "The"
5. "Criminal Minds" group, for short
6. "Do ___ say, not ..." 7. Yap 8. Budget airline 9. Thwarted 10. Big Apple vehicle
Hoppy brews, briefly
Oktober suffix 13. Riles up 18. Preliminary test: Abbr. 19. ___ Push (football play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles)
24. Pt. of EMS or IRS 25. Wilderness trek
27. "It takes ___ to tango"
28. She/her alternative 29. Military denial 30. Bearing weapons
31. The left, informally 32. Exam for an aspiring atty.
33. Key of
Symphony
6 34. Country singer McEntire
39. "Yeah, right" exhale
40. Georgia's home
43. "Vox populi, vox ___" 44. Got out
46. Sense of completeness
48. Red-carpet event
49. Carnegie or Cuomo
50. Vaping device, casually
53. Orchestra reed
54. Southern contraction
55. Blues great Fitzgerald
57. Swedish furniture giant
59. Bric-a-___
60. Soccer org. that runs the Champions League
61. Ivan or Peter
63. Basketball's Jeremy
64. Soar
65. Home away from home for astronauts, briefly
LORENZO NORBIS Daily Arts Writer
Beethoven's
No.
Lara Ringey/DAILY
The fast fashion of fitting in
The sanctity of the State Theatre and independent cinemas
To understand how deeply fashion culture runs at the University, I only have to look in my own closet, between what I do have and what I don’t have, yet wish I did. This past summer, my sorority sent out multiple clothing orders with a variety of game day outfits, and I wanted to buy every single one. I love the idea of fitting in and representing a group that I feel proud to be a part of, but I couldn’t afford to buy a single one of the merch sets. I was lucky enough to receive my favorite set as a birthday gift, but I definitely still feel twinges of jealousy when I see girls casually wearing $50 tanks that I couldn’t bring myself to buy. It comes as no shock that I felt this pressure to fit in within Greek life. This is a common phenomenon that warrants a vast array of resources. I know that “no” is always a valid response. And yet, even if it almost feels humiliating to admit, I sometimes wish I could just pull together the money to be able to purchase and wear the uniform.
The clearest example of this uniform is reflected through what can be seen at the Big House nearly every Saturday in the fall. Students don’t just throw something on. They plan outfits in advance, swap clothes with friends and value the time they take preparing for the game day experience. Of course, people in Greek life have their matching outfits, but we aren’t the only ones who think that outfits are important to game days.
Engineering freshman Campbell Clark talked about the excitement that surrounds game day outfits.
“It’s fun getting ready and (outfits) add to the excitement of game day. Seeing everyone decked
It’s 9 a.m. on a Saturday in Ann Arbor and sidewalks are already packed full. The streets smell faintly of beer and breakfast sandwiches and music spills from porches lined with students dressed in maize and blue. The outfits are just as loud as the speakers: striped overalls, cowboy boots and hand-cut University of Michigan T-shirts. These outfits represent a message: This isn’t just a football morning but, rather, a ritual, and to dress the part is to prove you belong. The ritual of dressing for campus isn’t confined to football Saturdays, however. On any weekday, a stroll through Central Campus tells its own story. I constantly find myself matching with every girl around me, from our navy Longchamp Le Pliage shoulder bags to our denim jackets to the fast-fashion tops purchased last-minute on Edikted for a party. What students wear is about more than just covering the body. It’s about navigating a culture where image, affordability and individuality collide in complex ways. At the University, campus fashion trends — whether the game day uniform or the rise of secondhand shopping — circulate quickly, adapting to what feels current while still carrying old markers of belonging. There is a bigger story, however, behind every striped overall or thrifted crewneck. Who can afford to keep up with these trends, and at what cost when it comes to sustainability? How do students negotiate the pressure to look a certain way, especially within social groups like Greek life, where the expectation is to match with your peers? And what does our appetite for short-lived trends say about how we consume, both as students and as a culture?
ALEXANDRA COULOURIS Statement Columnist
TeaHaus patio, Sunday, noon.
The leaves above are filtering the sunlight that wavers across me and my friends as we discuss the performative artist archetype and bringing pigeon costumes into a Mason Hall bathroom. The kind of subjects I’d never come up with on my own. Our pitcher of iced tea is dispersed in IKEA glasses around our circle. A sketchbook the size of a binder, an electric blue notebook with a quote inscribed on it, a mint green journal with an Acadia National Park sticker on the front. They sit open in our laps, each a naked underbelly that we’re neglecting to write in because it’s so special to be with each other again. It takes us 20 minutes to get through a round of Rose, Bud, Thorn.
I’m in a wooden outdoor chair that somehow hasn’t hurt my tailbone yet, rubbing my thumb over the “MADE IN CHINA” inscription on my pen. I stare at the petals of an orange peel on the table, the remnants of the slices we’ve shared. We’re giggling about something new, and the intimacy of knowing each laugh, tracing them to the people sitting next to me, harbors me from the stress of my first week of classes.
Often when I’m experiencing these tender, raw, special moments, I am already fixated on them being over. A premature gloom about what’s going to happen after the good thing is gone, if anything will ever be this good again and how to get this magic back or at least how to remind myself that it exists and I’m capable of feeling it when the monotony of a college week settles in. The weather will get too cold to be outside, I’ll become too tired to make the commute here and we’ll get too busy to make time for each other.
Am I living in the moment if I’m focused on its fleetingness, if I’m spending more energy thinking about how to savor it rather than noticing it, experiencing it, just the way it is? If these moments can’t last forever, can’t I at least learn to be present in them?
My introduction to meditation started in elementary school. Our
out in UMich gear adds to our school’s community.”
That shared ritual turns fashion into part of the anticipation, a way of heightening the stakes of the day while also weaving students, especially freshmen, into the larger fabric of U-M tradition.
Finding U-M gear adds another dimension to campus shopping culture. Rally House is always an option, but you might find yourself spending upward of $100 on a plain sweatshirt with the word “MICHIGAN” printed on the front in bold letters. There are other options that, although they may also be pricey, might be better for overall sustainability and consumption within our town.
Shane Perlin, co-owner of University Vintage, touched on the unique quality of vintage merch pieces.
“If people are paying a high price point, they want a really unique item.”
Although prices might be high at popular vintage shops, you are paying for uniqueness, quality and a chance to protect the environment. Clothes that have already lasted 20+ years and are still in good condition show their strength of production compared to modern clothes that are typically made with no regard for durability yet are still sold for the same price. Vintage clothes become a type of investment, both in the context of style and sustainability.
Buying secondhand from vintage shops like University Vintage is important not only for our town, but for the world. When more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are embodied in what we consume, it becomes critical to take steps to lower that rate of consumption, an easy way to do so being by shopping
secondhand. Perlin further explains how people can do their own part to be sustainable by selling their clothes to University Vintage to be repurposed and sold again. This is a huge part of what sets vintage shops apart from other secondhand retailers. Yes, people can donate their clothes to Goodwill, but at places like University Vintage, they can make money and know that their quality items will be passed on to a new generation of people who represent something that they care about: the University of Michigan.
Price doesn’t always have to be a worry with vintage clothes, either. Engineering junior and owner of uofmvintage Will Pinto says, “Jerseys, particularly baseball ones at the start of football season, are among the fastest sellers, yet I’ve kept them priced at $50 when in great condition.”
He also described to me other standard prices he keeps, which were all very competitive in comparison to other shops and platforms. Pinto says he hopes to keep expanding his business and continue to prioritize offering the best pieces at the most accessible prices. At the University, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by a large number of innovative students, and they are often just a five-minute Internet-dive away.
School gear is just another piece of a much bigger U-M fashion ecosystem, though. Two more expensive cases are the Dairy Boy pop-up on State Street last spring and the Parke “Back to School” mockneck — conveniently in the colorway “Denim + Maize” — that recently came out. In each case, you get one single sweatshirt for more than $100, simply branded with a popular name colored in blue and yellow. Despite the price
Inviting in the ghost of college present
school pushed students to spend five minutes of each homeroom class meditating, which usually went as well as one would expect from a group of restless fifth graders. I was never particularly good at it, unable to actually have a single second where I didn’t hear my internal monologue prattling about how my mind wasn’t clear, what they were going to serve us for lunch and that I hoped it was the french toast sticks. I fidgeted, sighed, shifted around and used the time instead to think about what could happen next in the book I was reading, similar to how I think now.
My brain operates in organized chaos; it’s not messy or unmanageable, but it would resemble a room of stuffed bookshelves and filing cabinets like the office of my interviewee.
Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, drew out his syllables in a way that made my computer speakers crackle when he told me that modern undergraduate students are statistically depressed. He taught a history course during the winter 2025 semester titled “History of Happiness,” which turned toward ancient traditions to solve modern wellness problems. In this course, students were asked to do breathing exercises and encouraged to meditate as a part of their external wellbeing — Cole’s way of giving them tools to push back against the consumer society we live in. Advertisements selling us food, sex and products commodify our attention, he says, “and it’s not necessarily healthy to live a life that is scattered with how you’re thinking.”
With a smile on his face and a wistful gaze upwards, he recalled visiting a Buddhist meditation center in Hawaii, guided through a walking meditation. Upfront, he was told his mind would wander, get busy and start daydreaming. He was told not to be discouraged when this happens. The goal wasn’t to exercise control or achieve anything, but just “be here now.”
Meditation, as Cole defines it, is the process of training focus to resist the trend that “over the (last) 50 years, we’re less and less here now.”
“Focus,” as Dr. Cole puts it. I have a word to describe it that I like best, that helps me orient myself in the direction of the nebulous concept of “now.”
In English, the word attention is derived from the Latin attendere. Literally, to stretch yourself towards something: ad “toward” and tendre “stretch.” This is the definition of attention I like the best. Not a state of being, something that has to be achieved or requirements to be met, just an effort.
The best thing I can do for myself is make that effort wherever possible. To take out my earbuds on my commute to class or to catch the bell tower’s show this hour. When it’s snowing, I can train my gaze on one flake and watch it sink down the length of my windowpane, then look back up and catch another. Or watch the kids in front of me toss a baseball, listen to the hearty thud as it hits the Palmer Field bubble when it’s soared too high to catch. I don’t think it’s a coincidence
that we call some works of writing “meditations” on topics, like their goal isn’t to figure something out or innovate but just to sit and ponder them. To pay attention to them, as the writer, and bring that experience to the reader.
Simone Weil, a Twentiethcentury French philosopher, puts it best in her book “Gravity and Grace”: “I need have no fear of not making the supreme effort — provided only that I am honest with myself and that I pay attention.”
Here, the supreme effort Weil references is the intrinsic passions that make life meaningful. In the modern day, they are the habits and hobbies we are distracted from if we aren’t intentional. It feels almost a little too easy that, should we simply pay attention to ourselves, our desires and the world around us, they should manifest themselves. Yet it’s still our work and our attention to what matters to us that reveal our supreme efforts and helps us follow through on them.
Sewing also built me a wardrobe of clothes that truly fit my body. So many campus trends, especially game day and going-out styles, center on cropped tank tops, tight skirts and pieces designed for very specific body types. For students who don’t feel like they fit that mold, the choice becomes complicated. They can either wear the clothes and risk feeling uncomfortable or opt out and risk feeling excluded. The culture of matching outfits, particularly in Greek life or among friend groups, magnifies this, as not fitting into the clothes can feel synonymous with not fitting in at all. The excitement of sharing a look or putting an outfit together often masks the fact that not everyone enters the conversation from the same place. Sewing gave me a way around that — it allowed me to make and alter clothes that worked with my body instead of against it. I created pieces that let me feel like myself without forcing myself into a trend’s narrow silhouette. This may not be the answer for everyone, and it surely didn’t completely dissipate the pressure I felt to fit in. Body image isn’t always about what you wear; it’s about the constant comparison to how others look in the same clothes. Creating clothes that fit you can be nice, but not when it feels like other people look better in the same clothing. Those comparisons only intensify as popular styles are picked up and replicated until they feel inescapable.
CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
and lack of forethought behind them, however, people were lined up for the Dairy Boy pop-up hours before it started, and I have seen at least one blue-and-maize Parke sweatshirt every day since getting back to Ann Arbor. It’s obvious that not every person can afford to stand in line for hours on a weekday to buy a $100+ sweatshirt, but their visibility still sets a standard. When these popular brands seem to come with bragging rights, the hype surrounding them builds, and so does the pressure to drop the money on their products to fit in. I am grateful for the clothes that I do have, but I am always itching to buy more, which is hard when trends turn expensive. To combat that throughout my freshman year, I turned to sewing. My first semester, I hadn’t brought my sewing machine with me, as I assumed that a school with a large art department would be a school with available sewing supplies for its students. However, I spent weeks trying to find a sewing machine to use and was constantly denied access to the sewing machines within the Stamps School of Art & Design. By the time I did find a sewing machine to use (which sits in Shapiro Undergraduate Library’s Design Lab and requires a reservation), I had already caved and brought my personal sewing machine to school after Thanksgiving break. From that point on, I used sewing to DIY my way into Michigan fashion culture. What started as a practical workaround quickly became a metaphor for the lengths I, and so many students, go to just to keep up. Every time I threaded a needle or cut into old fabric, I felt like I was piecing myself into a culture that can otherwise feel exclusionary. Sewing gave me a sense of control in a space where style often comes with a price tag and, while it didn’t erase the pressure, it offered me a way to participate in trends on my own terms.
I need this reminder often in college, to keep myself afloat in the pressure of resume building and internship searching. In the foreshadowing I’m getting of adult life, where making time for friends and hobbies is last on my list, what I want most is to learn how to stay present. How to be meditative, allowing my attention to be absolutely held by one object, subject, facet of what I’m experiencing and to not hold everything at once, or worry about what happens when it’s gone.
As I put on the same playlists to walk through campus, I try to isolate the different parts of each song and hear something I somehow haven’t before. When I look at the window panes of a building soaked in sunset, I do my best to come up with the words that describe how I’m feeling, to make the supreme effort toward the writing that matters to me. I might not be able to meditate, but I can pay attention.
I can pay attention to the motorcyclist with a red bow on her helmet passing by on South State Street, the squeal of the brakes from a moving truck. The sunlight receding behind the apartment building as it rises, still reaching half of the metal bistro table that’s pushing its pattern into my elbows as I write. We all stumble through the morning: the students inside the coffee shop and in the class buildings behind and my friend who is in an interview somewhere at this moment. The crescent moon sticker on my spacebar, yellow, then smoothed down to its white base from the pressure of my thumb. This is not meditation, perhaps, but it’s an intentional stretch toward the exact moment that I am in. Attention is never alone. The gratitude tends to trickle in. Thank you for letting me be here, share this moment, as it’s over and I have to go to class and a new one will begin.
Hailey Kim/DAILY
STATEMENT
You’re not a thought daughter
The sanctity of the State Theatre and independent cinemas
MEGHAN DWAN Statement Correspondent
Every few months, the internet spins a wheel of popular pop princesses to scrutinize and accuse of evil. Whether it be Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo or Beyoncé, hate always seems to swing through mainstream female artists like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. From Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover to Swift’s reaction to the infamous stolen Video Music Awards speech, people seem to assume that every decision is a reflection of the talent, morality or character of the women themselves.
Each time these pop-star princesses exhibit any sort of complex human emotion, there seems to be a cry from the masses. These women aren’t supposed to be angry! Or, god forbid, strategic. When Beyoncé switched genres, people were angry she did well. When Miley Cyrus began breaking away from the Disney image, she was heavily criticized. They’re not supposed to be sexual or jealous or vindictive. They’re apparently supposed to be the same happy-go-lucky girls they’ve always been, whether they rose to fame at 12 or 22.
From the moment they reach stardom until the day they leave the limelight, women are held to different standards. They have to prove they earned their spot and
deserve to keep it. Their work is “overrated” and “repetitive” and they have to defend themselves at every turn. But then again, this may just be a reflection of women’s very real experience in the world, regardless of the career. There are rules imposed upon women like invisible Minecraft barrier blocks, and that’s most startlingly clear in professional settings. When entering a professional context or applying for a position in nearly any field, women are tasked with finding the perfect balance. It’s possible to be too bossy or too submissive, too girly or too masculine and are you wearing the right length of skirt?
The right top? Heels or flats? Don’t look like you’ve considered every aspect of your outfit, but make sure you’re not wearing something that’s too revealing, and make sure it’s not too prudish either. Be friendly, network, but don’t be too friendly lest your eagerness be interpreted as a different kind of interest. Be proactive but don’t be annoying. Be chill, but take your job seriously. Don’t offend anyone, but don’t be uptight either, learn to take a joke!
The top priority in the professional world is making yourself palatable. No matter how strong your experience is or how long you’ve worked, it can all come crumbling down if you don’t laugh at your peers’ degrading comments disguised as “jokes.”
Beyond the working realm, a woman needs to find her niche
— make herself easier to think about, easier to break down and digest. Are you a girl’s girl? A pickme? A thot daughter? A thought daughter? Forget how you treat other women, how do you treat men? Are you Madonna? Or the whore?
For years, it seems there’s always been categories for women to squeeze themselves into, and it’s incredibly limiting. Once a woman falls into a category, even remotely, she becomes coerced into a cycle of fulfillment. If you grow up a girly girl, you learn to lean into what girly girls do in order to meet expectations. Instead of pursuing every interest that comes your way, you’re boxed in. It’s unfortunate knowing there’s a world of possibilities I didn’t explore because I was too busy fitting the image of what I was supposed to be. Hockey, martial arts, football, makeup and dating are all things I thought were cool but I avoided until I was older. I was supposed to be bookish and academic, the Hermione Granger. Those other pastimes were tomboyish or girly and I didn’t fit into those categories at the time. Now, it feels too late.
These categories were supposed to give us community and a sense of belonging but don’t even seem to exist in practice. I’ve never met a girl that simple. Just because you’re a girl’s girl, doesn’t mean you can’t have moments where you aren’t. It’s
possible to spend time doing your makeup in the morning and be passionate about kickboxing.
In reality, every woman is a cool girl and a pick me girl and a girl’s girl, because women are people. We aren’t onedimensional categories with the correct interests to correlate, we are multifaceted individuals. Not every sorority girl is the same, not every artsy girl is the same and not every gym girl is the same.
Perhaps men face the same struggle. I’m not a man, I wouldn’t know. Though I don’t see anyone yelling at Benson Boone or The Weeknd for being too sexual or too emotional. Yet Sabrina Carpenter faced scrutiny for playing into the male gaze with her concert performances. No one is asking Justin Bieber for his opinion on political issues or telling Zach Bryan his music is overrated and all sounds the same. Olivia Rodrigo is called overrated for writing “angsty, heartbroken girl anthems.” I’m not saying no man is ever critiqued, but it always feels like the people who are being critiqued more frequently are women.
Maybe it’s because their audience is women and we hold artists to a higher standard, but then again, artists like Harry Styles or Ed Sheeran with stereotypically female audiences are still not held to those overly-critical standards. Often, internalized misogyny takes root quietly and grows
strong. Weeding out the selfcriticism and the criticism of other women is difficult and takes practice. Every woman is at least the tiniest bit guilty of it. We live in a world that rewards women who push other women down on the ladder. That’s why lifting one another up feels so powerful. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t built a way of clipping out the internalized misogyny on a societal scale.
This is most glaringly obvious when it comes to parenthood, both in real life and for celebrities. The most recent example on my mind is Huda Mustafa, a contestant on season seven of “Love Island USA.”
Though much criticism of her is valid, the way she’s slammed for being a mother and leaving her daughter behind to appear in the show feels hypocritical. Even aside from the fact that she is a co-parent and she’s getting hate for leaving her daughter with the father, I haven’t heard a peep about the contestant who is a father on Love Island (UK).
The expectation for mothers is vastly different.
Women are expected to give up their bodies, their careers and their personhood, but it feels like fathers aren’t given the same expectation. It’s not that men are expected to care less about their kids, it’s that women are expected to do so much more.
When parents have a child, who is expected to take off work for
months? Who is expected to feed and change the baby? To take care of the sporting events, the schooling, the temper tantrums? It seems like being a mother means to stop being anything else, but fathers still get to be multifaceted.
Women are judged for things that men never seem to be judged for. I hate to say it, but a lot of the hate comes from inside the house as well. I’ve never seen women turn on each other faster than when motherhood knocks on the door. I’ve seen lots of women judge each other for being too emotional and too sexual and too this or too that. These categories divide us. It gives us a platform to judge each other from. The idea that women fit neatly into every category is ridiculous. We are all capable of mistakes, interests and changing. Not one of us is a finite being and to claim that a woman is too much or too little of one thing or another is a disservice to us all. You are all the things you are interested in, every mistake you’ve made and every achievement you’re proud of. You are capable of change, of longevity, of any hope and any despair. Do not limit yourself because people want to think they understand you. You were never simple, and you were never meant to be. You are a complex bundle of everything. Embrace every part of it.
The sanctity of the State Theatre and independent cinemas
ANNA WHITNEY Statement Correspondent
I had driven five hours to Toronto. I had no cell service, but I had printed versions of the set list and the merchandise prices (all translated into Canadian dollars, of course). Everything was decorated to match the wizard sleaze vibes. I had driven to the wrong venue and I had to use the Wi-Fi at a nearby cafe to find the right one. I must have circled the block three times because the real venue was a giant warehouse full of clothes, purchasable by the pound during normal business hours. It was all worth it, though, when I looked through the glass front of the building and saw the warm glow of the mic check. The band was setting up and unwrapping cables, and they would come get me when they needed me. In the meantime, I could mingle with the rest of the crowd. Outside, people clustered in groups to pass around cigarettes and stories. I don’t smoke and I wasn’t sure I had enough gumption to butt into an existing conversation, so I approached a fellow straggler standing alone. Being in another country always makes me feel different — the defamiliarization gets me out of my head — and my brain was still set to that eyes-open, highabsorption frequency.
The saoirse of our dreams
We talked about the venue’s coolness and also its hard-tofind-ness. But then we started talking about saoirse dream, the band I was there to see. My best friend Roy McKenzie had gotten recruited into the act and his sister Cleo McKenzie was the manager-slash-drummer. I had let them sleep on my floor the night prior, so I met the lead singer Catherine Egbert, or “saoirse dream the woman,” as she says on her X profile. My fellow straggler, however, wasn’t with the band. He was instead their Number One Fan. His Spotify Wrapped put him in the top .01% of saoirse dream listeners. He was hoping to get a signature on his jacket tonight. Once he found out I was famousadjacent with behind-the-scenes knowledge, he expressed his incredulousness that the miracle of this concert had befallen him. “Why did the band choose Toronto,” he asked me. I was befuddled. Isn’t Toronto, like, the biggest city in Canada? I told him as such, with enthusiasm. He was just as befuddled and even more enthusiastic. He told me he’d never been out of Canada in his life and he had only ever left Toronto once to visit cousins in Nova Scotia. For him, saoirse dream wasn’t just another show. It was something he couldn’t believe. I’ll never forget what he told me then: He said that when he heard saoirse dream was
coming to town, he didn’t just ask, “How is this possible?” He asked himself, “Did I do this somehow?” Later I would find out that, in a way, my conversation partner had played a role in attracting the little band over the border. Toronto was one of the major sources of the band’s internet traffic and Spotify plays. On a less logistical and more mystical level, though, I knew the feeling exactly. I’ve been a fan before, so I’ve felt it. When you’re out in the audience and the band does something cool and you’re cheering or singing along or crying, it feels like you’re part of one greater organism with the band at its head. That feeling seems only more intense for smaller artists and their fans, especially when the music is about being transgender and figuring out how to build a magical life in an otherwise pretty grim landscape, as is the case with this band. saoirse dream has been thinking a lot about magic, and this Number One Fan guy felt that magic. saoirse dream was Number One Fan’s fairy godmother and she was real and she had appeared on the windowsill to save the day. At one point during the set, Catherine asked out into the audience for some water. I was conveniently located near the orange Igloo cooler on the bar and poured her a cup. Number One Fan, though, asked to carry it over, to hand it off to Egbert, in hopes of meeting the saoirse of his dreams. “Thanks for
letting me have this one, man,” he told me. “Go give her her water!” was all I said back. After we all started milling into the building for the show’s actual start, I got a better look at the crowd. It was a good group: There were so many proud trans people, so many goths with enviable tattoos and punks with enviable boots and a good handful of furries. People seemed extremely free and comfortable with one another even though it seemed most were strangers. Still, they threw their jackets to the side of the room and left them there. People enjoyed the music however they wanted. At one point, I saw someone pull out a Kindle Paperwhite (notably not an iPad) and read a book in the middle of the show.
Some people danced, some people stood against the wall and some people stood outside for most of the night, but everyone enjoyed themselves and the environment the music created. There were three sets that night and each one had, quite frankly, a radically different and unique vibe. The first performer, 666. pastel, had a DJ setup and mixed the range from Nine Inch Nails to kid’s pop. Then, saoirse dream took the stage and did a live version of hyperpop with a lot more bass and drums than you can normally hear on the tracks. We finished the night out with the screamo band boxcutter
(outside, a few people lovingly called the genre “creamo”). The common denominator of the atmosphere was transness, not style. This seemed to be the key to the crowd, too. Not that everyone was trans, of course, but everyone seemed at home with the message: Sometimes you have to figure yourself out in ways that don’t make sense to other people. You need to look out for each other in case the big guys don’t. Things can be really hard and ugly yet still be beautiful and life-improving at the same time.
That was six months ago. Now, saoirse dream is only getting bigger. They’re kicking off another Midwest tour as we speak! Instead of an unmarked clothing warehouse, I’m going to see them perform at Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago. It’s still a small venue, but it’s associated with big names — ever heard of Audiotree and their nearly one million subscribers on YouTube?
But I can’t shake the feeling that it’ll be different. I’m so excited to see my talented friends take on a historical venue. And yet, I’m a little scared.
It’s not about the size of the crowd, really. I think we all have a tiny part of us that wants to gatekeep our cool niche finds, hoarding the coolness for ourselves. But I’ve been promoting saoirse dream to anyone who will listen. I think the real question for
me is the energy of the crowd. The crowd in Toronto was enchanted by the music. I want that for Chicago, too. What if they just don’t get it? I feel like the stereotypical music snob, stopping people in band tees to ask, “Oh, you’re a fan? Name three of their songs.” The only difference is that I want to stop people at the door and ask, “You think you’re ready for this show? Tell me three ways you’re going to make the hyperpop community glisten with mutual adoration tonight. Tell me three ways you respect trans artists.” And then maybe I’ll ask if they can name three songs. The truth, though, is that I’m not a gatekeeper. I know I won’t actually hassle anyone and I know I won’t need to hassle anyone — these people play a rocking show and their community has roots in every city. It might be easier to find the venue, but there will still be thick Dr. Martens and plush cat ears in the crowd. The trans kids will come together like a family. Even when you’re nervous, there are few feelings as electric as standing in a crowd of people who share your enthusiasm. The anticipation is spectral and the collective, effervescent. To watch a friend perform well is the opposite of secondhand embarrassment. It’s a rockstar contact high. If I see you in Chicago, I’ll introduce you to the band so you can see what I mean.
Hailey Kim/DAILY
On July 29, in a tacky display of support for the auto industry, Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, declared that President Donald Trump’s administration is reconsidering the endangerment finding, a statement explaining that greenhouse gases harm human health and welfare, at a truck dealership in Indianapolis. Zeldin, appointed to spearhead Trump’s campaign for environmental deregulation, sought to dismantle the monumental finding from the
Big Oil’s billions are bankrolling climate denial
start of his appointment, but has only now taken concrete steps toward that reality.
Yet, the Trump administration believes the finding’s revocation will save American taxpayers billions each year. Repealing the endangerment finding might save on government spending
Established in 2009, the endangerment finding is the basis for environmental regulation in the United States, protecting citizens from pollution perpetuated by a variety of forces: primarily vehicles and power plants. The finding consists of hundreds of pages of scientific analysis, concluding that six greenhouse gases pose a significant threat to American society. Considering dismantling this legal basis contradicts 97% of climate scientists over the past few decades who believe that human-caused climate change is happening, partly through our admission of greenhouse gases.
allocated to monitoring environmental contaminants, but the climate implications will certainly cost more.
In a world plagued by extreme weather, heat and an increase in pollution, the likely explanation for the consistent influence of climate denial is
that a collection of large oil companies — often referred to as Big Oil — consistently pays large sums of money to install officials in office. The world’s largest oil companies hinder any sort of shift toward sustainability in the United States by deliberately creating dependent monetary relationships within political, educational and social media spheres to perpetuate climate change denial.
The companies included in the Big Oil distinction are familiar, including names like Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell and Valero Energy, and they have exorbitant amounts of money to spend as they see fit. In 2023, one of the hottest
years Earth’s climate has faced in recent history, these companies were among several that pulled in record-breaking profit, while also raking in $760 billion in taxpayer dollars. These subsidies are not only supported by the Trump administration. Previous administrations, regardless of party affiliation, maintained these oil subsidies as well. However, the Trump administration remains singularly focused on the $54 billion saved through mass environmental deregulation rather than ending $760 billion worth of subsidization of Big Oil companies. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
4:30–6 p m , Hutchins Hall 100
Request a video recording of the lecture by contacting lawacademicevents@umich.edu.
Co-sponsored by U-M Office of the Provost THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ASSAULT ON IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Lee Gelernt, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
ELENA NICHOLSON Senior Opinions Editor
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ZHANE YAMIN
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Unsigned
Epstein shows us the limits of MAGA’s cult of personality
Toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump asserted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still not lose voters. He is currently testing his luck. On July 7, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation effectively ended its investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump applauded the decision, wondering aloud why anyone even cared about Epstein in the first place. The Make America Great Again movement is unusually divided on the administration’s handling of Epstein. The first fracture in Trump’s movement came from former FOX News host Tucker Carlson. The massively popular podcaster mocked the idea that Epstein acted alone before publicly warning the president against accepting the Department of Justice’s findings. Leading conservative voices — Candace Owens, Matt Walsh and General Mike Flynn, to name a few — released their own statements of discontent. Despite Trump’s ironclad grip over the Republican party, this particular issue tests the limits of his political stardom.
MAGA’s obsession with Jeffrey Epstein cannot be overstated. FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino both rose to prominence in part because of their assertions that Epstein was behind an operation to blackmail government officials. On the campaign trail, the president and vice president both promised to release files pertaining to the Epstein case, lambasting former President Joe Biden for his refusal to do the same. Suddenly deciding that Epstein is irrelevant and not worth further investigation is an unprecedented level of contradiction, even from a hypocrite like Trump. It’s as if he were
to declare his support for illegal immigration or swear his allegiance to former rival and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Providing transparency around Epstein was not a policy item written in fine print on a campaign memo — it was one of the administration’s utmost promises.
As a result, Trump’s subsequent actions — releasing a doctored video outside Epstein’s cell and relocating co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum security prison — repositioned Trump in the eyes of many of his voters. Far from being the repeatedly victimized enemy of the Deep State, he is now doing its bidding.
That said, Trump still may be untouchable. His supporters stood by him through two impeachments, 88 criminal charges and countless debunked claims of voter fraud. All for a president whose signature legislative achievement consists of tax cuts to the wealthy, financed by savage cuts to social services. MAGA’s loyalty to Trump has few parallels across American history. Still, this time is different.
It’s different because Epstein is central to MAGA’s theory of politics. He was a globe-trotting billionaire deeply ingrained within elite political circles. Meanwhile, he maintained a global sex trafficking network that existed above legal accountability. From Pizzagate to QAnon, the idea of a small group of political and financial elites sexually exploiting minors is fundamental to MAGA’s worldview. Trump’s reversal on Epstein constitutes a betrayal of his movement’s most intimate convictions.
While MAGA is often referred to as a personality cult built around a charismatic politician, it’s also based on a coherent ideological underpinning, at least in how it views the so-called deep state. Contrary to the Obama-era belief of politics as a vehicle for positi-
Letter to the Editor: Responding to Michigan Medicine’s gender-affirming care decision
JANET BOURGON Opinion Contributor
Ihope Dr. David Miller, president of U-M health and Michigan Medicine, will reconsider the decision to stop gender-affirming care for minors. As a patient who has for many years received medical care exclusively at Michigan Medicine, I am aghast that they are letting President Donald Trump dictate medical care at the University of Michigan. Bullies usually come back for more — if they don’t draw the line on evidence-based medical care,
does Michigan Medicine have any lines? Will they completely knuckle under? They’re joining a politically motivated hate-group in targeting a vulnerable, fragile population. Have they no shame? And what will be next? Will it involve my medical care? The authoritarian Trump administration no doubt has Michigan Medicine down as an easy touch.
Speaking of shame, I am also a U-M alum and a current volunteer at University Hospital. I have been proud, until now, of being a part of these institutions, especially the hospital. But if they allow Trump to tell them how to care for patients, they are betraying the
trust of their patients, excellent dedicated medical staff and those of us who have till now proudly supported them. I’ll continue to support them, but not without a lack of confidence in the benevolence of the medical administration. When I worked in a middle school, I was aware of some students sorting out their identity, those who might possibly be transgender. They were generally fragile, vulnerable and a bit isolated. They need strong affirmative support, not a weak, cowardly betrayal from a powerful, prestigious medical institution. I hope Michigan Medicine will reconsider.
From The Daily: Ono’s replacement can’t make Ono’s mistakes
THE MICHIGAN DAILY EDITORIAL BOARD
Ave change, MAGA takes the position that politics obfuscates the true, nefarious inner workings of government. Epstein is how Washington really works, while everything else is window dressing.
Trump, then, is not supposed to be a political solution. That’s why his base didn’t revolt after the Big Beautiful Bill gutted social services popular even among Republicans. It’s not about the policies enacted, but who Trump destroys and what he uncovers. Working-class Americans, feeling voiceless in a sea of economic and demographic upheaval, elected Trump to disrupt the system, not become part of it.
By playing a pivotal role in the government’s abysmal Epstein probe, Trump demotes himself in the eyes of his voters. He is now a politician, subject to establishment beliefs and customs. Lecturing his supporters about why they shouldn’t care about Epstein makes him a particular kind of politician — one that views his position of authority as a license to scold everyday Americans asking entirely legitimate questions.
This could mark the beginning of the end for MAGA, or it might not. The question of postTrump conservatism is as interesting as it is unclear. What we do know is that MAGA is reaching a breaking point on a number of issues, with Epstein batting leadoff. Accordingly, Democrats are waking up and demanding answers of their own. Whether they can go back to being the party of government skepticism is another fascinating question.
As for Trump, his approval rating is plummeting. That’s nothing new, and certainly does not sound the administration’s death knell. However, we are witnessing a divergence between a man and his movement. If Trump shot people on Fifth Avenue who knows what would happen — it’s in his interest not to find out.
s students return to campus this fall, questions about who will lead the University of Michigan continue to loom. Following former University President Santa Ono’s surprise resignation last May, the University has begun the search for his replacement. The Presidential Search Advisory Committee, named in August, has set out to select the candidate they believe will best serve the U-M community. Committee members include the University Board of Regents and a mixture of prominent faculty and staff. There are only two students — one undergraduate and one graduate.
The committee has its work cut out for it. Choosing the right leader for one of the largest and most renowned public universities in the world is a difficult undertaking even in normal times. Now, the task is even more onerous. As students of the University, the Editorial Board would be remiss not to outline the qualities, characteristics and values that we believe the committee should prioritize when finding the future president.
Ono’s tenure can serve as a teaching moment, and the committee would do well to learn from both his mistakes and successes. The failures in the latter half of his term often obscure the fact that he came to campus a popular man. In the wake of his predecessor’s scandalous final days, Ono played an integral role in making the University believe in itself again. He was omnipresent and fiercely positive, posing in photos with students, appearing at football games and enga-
ging with the U-M community on social media.
Now that Ono is gone, the University needs a similarly restorative figure. As one faculty member put it in a recent Letter to the Editor, the campus deserves “a cheerleader-in-chief.”
This Editorial Board agrees. Putting a fractured U-M community back together will not only require a tactful administrator but also an upbeat leader willing to meet students where they are.
If we had to sum up Ono’s term in a single sentence: He was a good fair-weather president, but proved incapable of handling the difficulties of the last two years. His replacement has substantial cleaning up to do as a result.
A new president should start with transparency. From backroom alterations to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities to the disturbing surveillance of campus organizers, U-M leadership has become increasingly secretive and deaf to feedback. The next president must rebuild the trust between the campus and the administration that this misguided approach destroyed. That means including students, staff and faculty in the decision-making process.
It also means promoting the University’s values in both policy and presentation. Academic freedom, the exchange of ideas, a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives — these are the principles that made this institution great. We abandon them at our own peril. From cutting the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to implementing institutional neutrality, the University has made this mistake in the past. Ono’s successor must have the conviction to hold the line against political attacks and
defend the University’s academic mission. This quality has become more important than ever as President Donald Trump’s administration attempts to bludgeon colleges across the country into conforming with his agenda. This Editorial Board doesn’t expect — or want — the next U-M president to pick avoidable fights with the federal government, but we understand that some fights cannot be avoided. With Trump deporting international and undocumented students, outlawing DEI and holding federal funding hostage, it is a grave error for the University to confuse the battlefield with the negotiating table. Ono erred by prioritizing political expedience over the needs of the U-M community. The next president won’t restore campus unity by making the same mistake.
Harvard University just showed that legal fights with the Trump administration are winnable. Last year, many Big 10 schools, excluding the University, joined a Mutual Defense Compact to unite against the federal government’s predations. This is what conviction looks like, and it’s a shame that the so-called “Leaders and Best” weren’t the ones to set the example. We hope the new president will be more open to defending our academic autonomy. But above all else, Ono’s replacement must remember to invest in our campus. In the political tumult of the last two years, national and international events have largely overshadowed Wolverines’ everyday concerns. Occupied by attacks from the Trump administration, the fight over DEI and student protests, the ultimate presidential duty of protecting and lifting students up has fallen by the wayside.
JACK VERRILL Opinion Analyst
Caroline Xi/DAILY
The next president of the University of Michigan will confront challenges and crises generated by President Donald Trump’s tyrannical and authoritarian administration, and U-M administrators’ reckless consolidation of power. The person who assumes this role must do so fully prepared to confront the former and undo the latter. So, I say to that person, to effectively lead the institution, you will need to actually LEAD, by which I mean Listen, Educate, Acknowledge and Divest.
You should listen to the multiplicity of voices, appeals and ideas that come from beyond your inner circle of the University’s Board of Regents, executive officers and donors. During former University President Santa Ono’s brief and unhappy tenure, various parts of the University community spoke in a wide variety of ways. This included speaking at regents meetings, holding rallies and marches, staging protests, presenting faculty senate resolutions, sending open letters and mass emails and writing Op-Eds in The Michigan Daily. These went largely ignored and dismissed by U-M leadership. You should welcome and genuinely engage such efforts. One way to signal your commitment to
The next U-M president needs to LEAD
listening would be to hold monthly town hall meetings. You should embody the educational mission of the institution by first educating yourself, and then educating the Board, your executive leadership team and the general public about the underlying causes of the discontent, distrust and conflicts that have embroiled our campus. This education will begin with the listening that you have done as described above. I urge you to deepen this by studying the history of protest in Ann Arbor and finding ways to impart your understanding of this history and the contemporary conflicts to the campus community and the public at large.
You should acknowledge the harm and detrimental impacts caused by this institution’s misguided actions and policies. Our current leadership has much to answer for: the reckless and arbitrary dismantling of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; the targeted (and likely illegal) firing of employees, such as Rachel Dawson, former director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, and Zainab Hakim, a program specialist in the International Institute, for alleged statements and actions which constitute protected speech; the regents’ unilateral revision of the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities and Standard Practices Guide; the authorization
of police violence against students; the use of chemical irritants against students, staff and faculty at protests; the hiring of private security to surveil students on and off campus; the repression of students through employment bans, campus bans and referrals for formal criminal charges; and most recently the corruption of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution, turning a restorative justice process designed to mediate conflicts between members of the University community into punitive disciplinary proceedings lacking due process and beset with procedural violations. Through a rushed process
choices from the past; they are ongoing administrative actions negatively impacting members of the University community right now, including alumni. Admission of these violations of student rights, free speech and the principles of academic freedom must be followed by action to restore balanced procedures and policies. Acknowledgement requires apology and affirmation. You should personally undertake an effort to publicly apologize to those harmed and the community at large, while making amends to those who lost employment and suffered in other ways. You should then craft robust ways to reaffirm these vital values and
“The next president of the University of Michigan will confront challenges and crises generated by President Donald Trump’s tyrannical and authoritarian administration, and U-M administrator’s reckless consolidation of power.”
that began over the summer, OSCR is conducting disciplinary hearings against student protestors (including some who have graduated) in which OSCR itself, acting as representative of the University, simultaneously serves as the investigating body, the complainant and the convener of the hearings. These are not simply poor decisions or policy
Performative male 101
core principles: fairness, free speech, academic freedom, shared governance and yes, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Finally, you should commit to divesting the University of Michigan from the apparatus of surveillance that it has erected through private security, amplified policing and widespread use of video cameras.
Today, a girl transferred to her fourth school in just two years. She didn’t tell anyone that her dad was deployed overseas. She walked to the back of the classroom, sat down, and remained quiet. She loves school, but is tired of having to start over. No one understands what it’s like to say goodbye to a parent for months at a time, to have to adjust to a new school and many new faces, all while worrying if she is ever going to see her dad again.
This story isn’t unique — it’s becoming the norm. According to the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, there are more than 100,000 military-connected students in the state of Michigan.
Military-connected students are constantly transitioning at every stage of life. Active military families typically
You should commit to divesting the University leadership from its current approach to governing, characterized by a consolidation of power, diminution of shared governance and degradation of trust. You should commit to divesting the University from the framework of punishment it has recently constructed, whereby multiple offices and officers of the institution are engaged in the repression of dissent, suppression of speech and curtailment of expression. You should commit to divesting the University from its apparent adherence to the national political currents that cynically misappropriate civil rights language and law in the service of reactionary and racist aims, derisively distort the meaning of DEI, denying its origins in the struggle for racial justice and contemptuously conflate criticism of the genocidal, apartheid state of Israel with antisemitism.
When you do all of this, you will conclude that you must also lead the effort to divest the University of its financial holdings related to Israel, just as the University previously divested from apartheid South Africa, from the tobacco industry, from fossil fuels and most recently from Russia. Your studies in this area will reveal that an ignoble stain lingers on the University, and particularly the Board, as they resisted, for many years, the call to divest from South Africa, thus placing
the institution on the wrong side of an international movement against apartheid. I trust that you will find it instructive as you learn how the University was ultimately compelled to divest from South Africa in the closing decades of the 20th century. Apartheid was formally instituted in 1948, the same year as the founding of Israel. Today, Israel has constructed an apartheid state, and the decadeslong international movement calling for divestment from Israel has grown as we witness the current genocide in Gaza. If you listen, you will see that the students and others who have been calling for the University to divest from Israel have this history on their side. You have the opportunity to chart a different, more humane, more just course for the University. I know that each of these, and especially the final one, will be hard to accomplish. But this is what the circumstances of the historical moment require, and the dictates of the principles we should hold dear demand. In short, your challenge is to affirm in word and deed the University as a public good. If you do, you will help the University realize its mission, and perhaps even offer an alternative to the current evisceration of both of those ideals — the public and the good — being authored by authoritarians and autocrats far and near.
Letter to the Editor: On the CSCAR closure
Like other University of Michigan faculty members, I was dismayed and disappointed when I heard about the planned closure of the Consulting for Statistics, Computing and Analytics Research. CSCAR is a unique and valuable resource for the U-M community, students, faculty and staff. To my knowledge, there is no other unit where one can so easily go to have a statistics question, large or small, answered. When I was a doctoral student more than 25 years ago, I benefited greatly from CSCAR services — receiving formal consultations, workshops and answers to various statistical or software questions asked over email. In the years since,
My dad was deployed and I was all alone at school: Why Michigan must pass SB 211
move every two to three years, leaving their children to deal with the absence of one or both of their parents during deployment for an average of six months to a year.
Mary Keller, the longtime leader of the Military Child Education Coalition, found that military-connected students face social and emotional challenges, which can lead to difficulty adjusting to curriculum and school climate. Without the necessary understanding and support, military-connected students often fall behind emotionally and academically.
Michigan Senate Bill 211 aims to change that. SB 211 creates positive changes by assisting military-connected students in transitioning to new schools. This would be a major benefit for military families that are frequently on the move.
State Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr., R-Monroe, introduced SB 211 in April, and it is currently under review by the Committee
on Education. The bill aims to provide implementation guidelines for the Purple Star School Program. This program ensures that schools have the necessary resources to support military-connected students.
The Purple Star School Program will provide schools with trained staff liaisons and guidance for connecting the children of our service men and women to much-needed resources. This includes interpretive learning styles for military connected students, social integration, and student development of emotional connections.
States that have already implemented Purple Star Programs have seen significant impacts: positive student engagement, inclusivity of school cultures and staff feeling empowered to support students facing extraordinary challenges. This is addressed in SB 211 with the implementation of professional development for school staff. With the
continuation of targeted professional development for this topic it fosters inclusive classroom environments, which is crucial for academic success and emotional wellbeing of military-connected students, Moreover, Katherine Sullivan found military deployment cycles demonstrate an increase in depression, suicidal ideation and lower academic engagement. This can be mitigated with SB 211 and its focus on the school, staff, families and community.
The American Home Front Project conducted a survey that found that the frequent separation from one or both parents being deployed resulted in over 40% of militaryconnected students reporting low mental well-being. The survey was conducted in October of 2021, prior to the implementation of the Purple Star Program. According to the Columbia Law School Center for Public Research and Leadership, Purple Star
Programs that have been implemented since then have shown a 77% positive impact on not just military-connected students, but their schools overall. These programs mean everything to a child who needs someone to understand their unique challenges as a military-connected student.
Another benefit of SB 211 is that it connects a new student with a peer who is already in the Purple Star School Program to act as a mentor. This eases the student’s transition into an unknown school and community. SB 211 not only greatly benefits the militaryconnected students, but it also promotes the members of the Purple Star program to consistently give back to the community through various volunteer opportunities.
Those who are and have served are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Their children, who sacrifice alongside them with missed birthdays and
I cannot even count the number of times I have recommended it to others, especially students and mentees. CSCAR enables non-statisticians to get the statistics help they need, when they need it. Knowing that CSCAR is there as a safety net allows us to be more ambitious while using new or more advanced analytic techniques in our work. Most services are free or low-cost, making them broadly accessible. I have no doubt that CSCAR’s overall impact on learning, research productivity and even wellbeing among its many users has been immense. It is truly a gem, and I am baffled by the decision to shut it down, at a time when academic research and higher education are facing challenges on so many fronts. This one, at least, is avoidable.
constant relocations, deserve an educational environment that meets their unique needs. I’m asking all Michigan lawmakers and every reader to imagine being a 10-yearold who is starting over, missing your parents and feeling completely alone. Now, imagine walking into school knowing that there are trained staff who understand how you feel and are ready to help you achieve your goals. Imagine finally feeling heard and not feeling alone anymore.
SB 211 offers just that. It’s not just another bill — it’s hope. The Purple Star School Program already has a demonstrated track record of success. Lawmakers and all Michiganders would be remiss to ignore the positive impact this program and SB 211 will have on those that need and deserve our unmitigated support. Passing SB 211 is exactly what must be done for those who sacrifice so much for us and their families.
MORGAN GREEN Opinion Contributor
MARY JANEVIC Opinion Contributor
STEPHEN WARD Opinions Contributor
Erin Coleman/DAILY
Michigan backline keeps Youngstown State scoreless
XAVIER CHOUSSAT Daily Sports Writer
Outscored 11-2 in their previous four matchups, the Michigan’s women soccer team had clear gaps to tighten up on the defensive side. Especially with the Wolverines’ most recent loss to Western Michigan stemming from earlygame defensive breakdowns, Michigan needed to remedy its play in the back half ahead of its tough conference schedule.
And though Youngstown State is not as competitive as the Wolverines’ previous opponents, Michigan’s backline played a near-perfect game. Giving up just four shots — with none of them posing much of a threat — the Wolverines demonstrated that they have the personnel and the talent to keep a clean-slate.
“The last couple of days, we definitely have given up goals,” Michigan coach Jennifer Klein said. “And, it’s always nice when you can have a result where you don’t give up any. So overall, I’m just proud of the team.”
While still utilizing their offensive-focused three-back formation, the Wolverines came out attacking. After five corners, two shots and a goal by the eighth minute of the match, Michigan’s defense pushed up the field. With only a singular striker to mark, the Wolverines backline aided in resetting plays, giving midfielders support in flipping the field when needed.
“In this game, we really wanted to focus skipping lines,” junior defender Stella Tapia said. “So driving the ball forward a lot and really exploiting their back line as much as we can since they were very deep.”
ROWING
Michigan playing its backline high up, though, opened itself up to counterattacks. The first of these came in the 24th minute, with the Penguins playing the ball up the right, while two other players streaked towards the goal on the left. However, with composure, the Wolverines cut off the passing lanes and cleared the cross as soon as it arrived.
Nine minutes later, Michigan remained solid again. In a oneon-one at the top of the box, sophomore defender Ellie Fife minimized damage, drawing her attacker in and then forcing her outside. Youngstown State managed to get a shot off at the inside post, but senior goalie Sophie Homan easily made the save.
In the second half, the Penguins turned up their offense a notch, but the Wolverines contained the flame. Even with two shots in the first five minutes of play, Michigan’s man coverage kept a header harmless
and transformed a long ball over the top into a goal kick.
Offensively, the Wolverines still continued to depend on their backline, especially junior defender Campbell Jewell. Playing as an inverted back, Jewell opened the field. And after checking into a throw-in, she ultimately set a series of passes in motion that became Michigan’s second goal of the game.
“As we look it’s, ‘How can we continue to track teams higher up the field?’ ” Klein said. “Have a good shape behind the ball to one, to help us lock teams in and recirculate possessions, but also it puts us in a good place for some defensive transition moments.”
With less room for error due to their three-back formation, the Wolverines need consistent composure at all times from their backline. And on Sunday, in its last opportunity before Big Ten play, Michigan dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s against Youngstown State.
Michigan loses focus and early lead late, ties Oakland 2-2
DREW LENARD Daily Sports Writer
ROCHESTER — Michigan
men’s soccer coach Chaka Daley’s postgame thoughts were cut off by a cacophony of whoops and cheers coming from the opposite side of the field.
The source was the players and coaches of Oakland, celebrating an improbable late comeback with their fans who had packed the bleachers for their only home matchup against a ranked opponent in the 2025 season. As the noise reached a fever pitch, Daley had no choice but to acknowledge it.
“It’s like they won the World Cup, and they just tied (us) 2-2,” Daley said, glancing over his shoulder at the celebration.
“But that’s what these local games are, and we need to know that. … We need to know that it’s gonna be highly competitive.”
It wasn’t some kind of championship victory or a win against a conference opponent, or even a win at all for that matter. But Friday the Golden Grizzlies (0-2-3) battled back late against the 25th-ranked Wolverines (3-0-2). After scoring a pair of goals in the last 10 minutes of the game as Michigan lost focus, Oakland ended the night in a 2-2 draw. And for the Grizzlies, it warranted celebration.
For the Wolverines, however, the result was an unexpected disappointment. They had hoped to enter conference play with relatively no blemishes on their record, and Oakland was the last obstacle in the way.
For a while, those hopes felt as if they would materialize.
Even though the scoreboard remained unchanged throughout the first half, it was clear who was in control from kickoff. With constant pressure in the Grizzlies’ third, the Wolverines mustered six shots in the first half — twice as many as their opponent — and earned four corner kicks compared to Oakland’s zero.
It wouldn’t take all night for that pressure to bust through the Grizzlies’ tiring back line.
The first ball got through in the 55th minute, courtesy of a half volley from junior forward Kyle Pierson, and the second just nine minutes later off the foot of sophomore forward Michael Ramirez. With a 2-0 lead and a clear advantage in every offensive category and just 25 minutes remaining on the clock, it seemed Michigan had snuffed out another lesser opponent.
But perhaps they grew too comfortable.
Quickly after the second goal, the Grizzlies went on the attack. Oakland was desperately trying to create opportunities out of free kicks, throw-ins and substitutions.
Initially met with push back, it yielded some results in the 80th minute when forward Christopher Jean Leger caught the back line off guard. Leger broke into the box and split two Wolverines defenders to punch Oakland’s first ball into the back of the net.
“We gave them life at 2-1, and that made it difficult for us,” Daley said. “They believed and they hung in there and got their goal, and their belief shot up.” It was a mistake on Michigan’s part, but with
just nine minutes left, the aggression would have to amp up even more for Oakland to have a fighting chance for a comeback. It was up to whether or not the Wolverines could regain their focus to put the pressure back on.
In the midst of their efforts to swing things back in their favor, Michigan earned themselves a penalty kick at 86 minutes, a golden opportunity to punch in one more goal and put the game out of reach. Junior forward Grayson Elmquist took the kick, taking a few choppy steps before delivering the strike. The ball sailed high over the crossbar, missing their chance to seal the deal. Rather than putting Oakland to bed, the Wolverines instead gave it the ball back with a shot of adrenaline.
The Grizzlies immediately put pressure back into Michigan’s third as the Wolverines made an effort to clear any ball that threatened a shot. But now that Oakland had realized their chance, it held all the momentum. In the 89th minute, a deflection off the foot of Jean Leger rolled on the ground past junior goalkeeper Isiah Goldson’s outstretched hands, and Michigan’s lead had all but vanished.
“We relaxed, maybe a little too much,” Daley said. “We have to see things out better, even at 2-0.”
The last minute quickly ran off the clock. As one team ran to celebrate the tie, the other walked to the sideline with heads hung low. What had shaped up to be one last nonconference win slipped away from the Wolverines as quickly as it had transpired.
For Michigan rowing, it doesn’t take experience to become a champion, it’s about embracing the transition
CATIE PUSH Daily Sports Writer
The athletes of the Michigan women’s rowing team spend countless hours driving their legs, tearing open the skin of their palms and powering through to the watery finish. In order to handle such intense training, most varsity athletes have generally put in years, if not a decade, of dedication to succeed in their chosen sport as a Wolverine.
Remarkably, though, the Michigan rowing team is home to three athletes that didn’t.
Senior Grace Hammis was a member of the 2023 Big Ten Championship team and beat Ohio State as a sophomore. Junior Megan Higley owns a Big Ten Boat of the Week and carries nine top-three race finishes. And skilled graduate Halle Loveday beat Michigan State in just her second race as a Wolverine and is a 2024 Big Ten Champion.
Above are the achievements of three well-rounded athletes at Michigan who all take part in the competitive, and nationally ranked, women’s rowing team. But not one of these women set foot in a rowing boat before coming to Ann Arbor. ***
Grace Hammis spent her time in Saginaw, Mich. at Heritage High School as a powerful forward, and midfielder, for the girls soccer team. Outside of high school, she found herself playing for the Nationals Soccer team, which was a part of the US Soccer Girls Academy League and won tournaments nationally. Unfortunately, that success came with the burden of multiple injuries, which left Hammis unable to play soccer at the level she desired. However, with the recruitment profile she created, a former Michigan rowing coach reached out,
and soon Hammis was scheduled for an unofficial visit.
“Right off the bat, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Hammis told The Michigan Daily. “I didn’t know rowing was a thing at all, it was just kind of a gamble.”
Taking the gamble, she did a little research and met the team, falling in love with the idea of learning something new.
Used to the terminology of being goalside or to switch fields, and the chirping of ‘yep yep’ or ‘man on,’ Hammis turned her soccer lingo into 1V8 (first varsity eight), learning the difference between port and starboard. Now she listens to the coxswain commanding and keeping the crew at a steady rate.
***
Halle Loveday joined the Wolverines in 2023 as a transfer from Michigan State. After transferring to Michigan her junior year, Loveday, like many other new students, received an email stating that the women’s rowing team was looking to add to its roster. After surveying the questions on the questionnaire, Loveday learned that she fit the criteria to become a Division I rower.
Remembering her time in high school as an athlete playing basketball and coming from Bayfield, Co., an area not long-established as a rowing state, Loveday didn’t know what the tryout process would entail.
“It was definitely a little overwhelming,” Loveday told The Daily. “I wasn’t expecting it to be such a rigorous tryout process, but I did end up having a lot of fun.”
The rowing team carries the boat.
Overwhelming is understandable, but to emerge from tryouts learning the new mechanics included with rowing while still having fun, is enthusing.
After joining the team, the early mornings were difficult to get used
to, yet being on a team that had an organized schedule helped her structure her daily life and ease into the new role of being a studentathlete more gently.
“Hanging out in the teamroom before practices, especially hard practices, everybody is trying to figure out their goal split,” Loveday said. “We’re all chatting together and taking a difficult thing and making it our own.”
Loveday, with the help of her other teammates, quickly acclimated into her new environment, understanding that everyone else is competing and wanting to perform at their best — just as much as she was.
***
Inspired by gymnastics teammate and former Michigan rower Anna Muench, Megan Higley was riveted by rowing. Higley followed in Muench’s footsteps and reached out to Michigan directly for recruitment.
After signing her letter of intent in November 2023, Higley was soon ready for her first day of practice.
Higley’s first day of practice was tryouts, as all the new recruits are required to go through the process of learning what rowing really is. It also gives the new athletes a chance to see if they like it.
“The hardest part was transitioning to an aerobic endurance sport,” Higley told The Daily. “Going from a 90 second floor routine to 20 minutes of being on the rowing machine was a big transition.”
Gymnastics is strictly an anaerobic sport based on strength, which demands high intensity and short bursts of power while jumping, twisting in the air and sticking the landing. Rowing on the other hand is repetitive and rhythmic, but the two share something major: technique.
In her first year, Higley applied her technique from airborne flips
to mastering her stroke. That same year, she won a gold medal helping the team win the Big Ten Championship in May 2024, going on to make the varsity squad in 2025 for her sophomore year.
***
A rowing stroke consists of four phases, including catch, drive, finish and recovery. The catch is the start of the stroke, where the oar is placed in the water and is followed by a power phase, or drive, that sets the oars in the water and the boat moves forward sequencing the rowers legs, body and arms. Then, the end of the drive is finished and the oars are removed from the water. For recovery, it’s when the rower applies the sequence of arms, body and legs to prepare for the next stroke.
Redefining their bodies to adjust to a different physical demand, each new athlete was tasked with mastering skills they’d not yet heard. Beyond that they must comprehend unfamiliar terminology, and learn how to rig, carry and launch the most important part of the sport: the boat.
It takes technique and camaraderie to glide through a repetitive race.
These athletes soon learned that they don’t just play with a team, they move as one.
“Going into my senior year, I am excited to challenge ourselves to place better than we did last year at Big Tens and NCAAs,” Hammis said.
“I’m really focused on growing and developing as an athlete, and looking back to see how far I’ve come.”
Despite being completely foreign to the sport of rowing, these three athletes all have a clear championship mentality. Each took only one year to become a varsity athlete on a competitive varsity program. The entire process is a challenge, but with the prior attributes of a strong work ethic, discipline and resilience, the women know how to keep themselves buoyant.
“Last year at the Big Ten/ACC Challenger Dual our group did really well,” Higley said. “It was really fun and I feel like that was the first race I was able to come out of my shell and feel comfortable with the team.” These three athletes all embraced the dedication towards an unfamiliar sport and still found the same pump of adrenaline as they finished each race. It didn’t take years for these athletes to find success. Instead all they needed was a little drive and some belief in themselves to become champions.
The Michigan rowing team possesses nine Big Ten Conference Championships, where it has secured top-three finishes for the past 20 years. It has strived to produce 11 top-five NCAA finishes, with two individual boat titles in 2001 and 2012. Success comes with growth, and whether or not athletes want to contribute to the success in their life, the possibility is always there. Hammis, Loveday and Higley have all pitched in to their own growth with early mornings and weeks packed with training, to prove that even with no prior knowledge, victories are in closer reach than they thought.
Alum Julianne Yoon/DAILY
Meleck Eldahshoury/DAILY
ZACH EDWARDS Managing Sports Editor
It feels like the No. 23 Michigan football team has used Bryce Underwood in doses.
The freshman quarterback came in as the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2025, yet he hasn’t had the opportunity to showcase his entire bag of skills. While we’ve seen some highlight plays from Underwood, the offensive gameplan — specifically against No. 13 Oklahoma — hasn’t maximized what Underwood brings to the table.
For starters, Michigan’s offense has relied heavily on the run game so far, as it has historically. But aside from junior running back Justice Haynes’ 75-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half, the Wolverines couldn’t get anything going against the Sooners. Besides that run, Michigan averaged less than 3 yards per carry in the contest.
“We had a couple runs early, the running game really was just okay, and we didn’t get the rhythm we needed to,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said Saturday.
“We didn’t get the quarterback in the rhythm we needed to and that’s on everybody. That’s not just one person. That’s not just the calls, it’s the execution. So we just got to be better.”
FIELD HOCKEY
SportsMonday: Michigan’s offensive scheme is limiting what Bryce Underwood can be
Moore has a point when saying the execution wasn’t there. But when the run game didn’t work — mostly because Oklahoma stacked the box with seven or eight players on some run plays — Michigan didn’t open up the offense, even when it may have needed to.
Especially when you’re looking to put more trust in a freshman quarterback to make a play, varying from the run proves the Wolverines don’t want Underwood to make mistakes — because it’s a risk worth taking.
Because Michigan decided to stick to its gameplan and identity of running the ball, the Wolverines will never know if an unleashed Underwood could have transformed their offense this early in the season.
Despite the limited opportunities, Underwood did flash some of his potential. On a third-and-9 in the second quarter, Underwood took the snap and rolled out to his right. Looking like he was going to run, the Sooner defenders started pursuing Underwood, before he launched a bullet over their heads to graduate wide receiver Donaven McCulley 15 yards down the field for a 38-yard gain.
Again in the first half, Underwood found McCulley, who made a catch over a defender’s head for a 44-yard
gain and the first passing play over 40 yards for Michigan since the 2023 national championship game.
“He was rolling out, making throws way better than I was as a freshman,” Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer said. “That’s why he was rated the way he is. And you can tell he’s a confident kid. He put up a good fight and that’s not the end of his career. He’s going to be a very, very good football player.”
The problem is Underwood wasn’t given many other opportunities to sling it. Underwood showcased his ability to move outside the pocket and even move down the field with a 9-yard run on Michigan’s penultimate drive, but the options were limited due to the high volume of runs designed for Haynes and sophomore running back Jordan Marshall.
While Underwood’s 9-for-24 passing mark is less than ideal for Michigan, he was hurried 10 times, accounting for nine incompletions. Additionally, three incompletions appeared to be the result of miscommunication between Underwood and his receiver. So yes, Underwood did make some mistakes, but much of it was due to a collapsing pocket, miscommunication and play calling that limited
his opportunities to display his skillset.
“As far as handling the crowd, noise and atmosphere and all that, he handled it fine,” Moore said. “It was just the execution. And that’s on everybody, it’s not just him.
Everybody puts the pressure on him, but we all got to do our jobs and that’s on the O-line, that’s receivers, that’s running backs, whoever it is in those situations to make it easier for him.”
Michigan is in a unique position.
A blue-chip freshman starting at
Michigan celebrates multiple firsts in 13–0
KATIE ROSE
Daily Sports Writer
Sunday’s home opener was a game full of milestones for the No. 7 Michigan field hockey team. With the game being its first shutout and involving three players scoring their first collegiate career goals, there was a lot to celebrate for the Wolverines.
In a strong performance, Michigan (2–1) offensively dominated Bellarmine (0–4) from start to finish with strong communication and passes, winning 13-0. The final shot count illustrated the Wolverines’ dominance on both sides of the
ball, as Michigan’s 40 shots on goal greatly outnumbered Bellarmine’s one shot on goal.
“It’s our home opener and it’s a lot of the girls’ first (game),” Michigan coach Kristi Gannon Fisher said. “… First goal for several people. So we’re going to celebrate those victories.”
The Wolverines set the tone early, controlling both possession and pace of play while getting on the board quickly. Within the first five minutes, freshman back Maxine Rogge scored her first career goal off a penalty corner, giving Michigan an early 1-0 lead and sparking the offense. Redshirt sophomore forward Payton Maloney followed with her
first goal of the season, while graduate forward Abby Tamer added another goal from a corner before the end of the first quarter, furthering the Wolverines’ lead to 3-0.
Michigan continued to show its aggressiveness in the second quarter. Junior forward Natalie Millman, sophomore midfielder Natalie Machiran and sophomore forward Cami Wiseman all found the back of the net — this being Machrian’s first career goal — as the Wolverines doubled their lead to 6-0 by halftime.
Michigan kept the Knights’ off the board by controlling the midfield, moving the ball quickly and testing Bellarmine from
quarterback means that rather than just sticking to the norm, the Wolverines have the liberty to play around with the playbook to mold it around the player of their future — especially with a more balanced offensive coordinator in Chip Lindsey.
When Underwood is in a big, top-25 game, the playbook should be designed for him to push the limits of his skillset, and by extension make some mistakes. Underwood made some of those freshman mistakes, but mostly on miscommunications that led to incompletions. So that risk is something that Michigan has the luxury of taking now. If the Wolverines want Underwood to grow, they should put more trust in him to make some of the high-level throws he’s already proved he’s capable of making. If some of those mistakes come, he’ll learn from them — then at least Michigan would be making the most of its investment. Because it’s an expensive one.
home-opener win over Bellarmine
every angle. The Knights spent most of the quarter on defense, rarely gaining possession. Even as players rotated, the Wolverines maintained their focus and intensity, fully controlling the game with team effort throughout the half.
“It was a team win, which was amazing to see,” Gannon Fisher said. “… At all levels of our play today, it was a team effort, and we got a lot of people in that don’t normally don’t normally get a ton of minutes.”
The third quarter continued in Michigan’s favor, as Tamer and Maloney each recorded another goal, extending the Wolverines’ lead to eight.
Michigan never backed off
offensively, even as newer players gained experience on the field, keeping the Knights on their heels.
The Wolverines finished the game strong in the fourth quarter, scoring three goals in just over two minutes. Junior forward Juliette Manzur converted a penalty stroke, while redshirt junior midfielder Zoe Bormet landed the ball in the back of the net. Sophomore midfielder Dru Moffett scored her first career goal, giving Michigan a burst of energy and widening the gap to 11-0. Later in the quarter, Moffett added two more goals, completing her first career hat trick and capping off a dominant team-
wide offensive performance, 13-0.
“Today we came in with a full plan to just work as a team on every play,” Moffett said. “Our main goal was playing with the two touch, so lots of passing and making sure everyone got touches on the ball. And I think we really accomplished that. The game overall speaks volumes, because we had so many different variety of scores that it’s really cool.” Michigan controlled the game from start to finish while giving multiple players the chance to make an impact. By the final whistle, the Wolverines had earned their shutout and an array of firsts across the roster.
Michigan pays the price for squandered opportunities against Oklahoma
ALINA LEVINE Daily Sports Editor
NORMAN, Okla. — When Saturday’s matchup between the No. 15 Michigan football team and No. 18 Oklahoma entered halftime, the score seemed to indicate the Sooners had played a near-perfect game thus far. Up 14-0 against the Wolverines, Oklahoma jubilantly jogged into its locker room with a relatively comfortable lead while Michigan appeared deflated, dragging its feet.
While the lack of Wolverines points on the scoreboard was certainly a factor in their dejected demeanor, the more likely reason for it was that the Sooners had actually played far from a perfect game — Michigan simply couldn’t capitalize on their miscues.
From the start of the game, Oklahoma’s offense had its foot on the gas. On the first drive of the contest, the Sooners ran it into the endzone for a touchdown, seizing the lead just five minutes in. The Wolverines’ offense, on the other hand, barely sputtered to life, barely making it to Oklahoma’s 47-yard line before punting it away.
However, on the Sooners’ last drive of the quarter, Michigan had an opportunity to even the score.
With just 30 seconds left, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer slung the ball deep into the middle of the field, intending to connect with tight end Will Huggins. Instead, the ball sailed
over Huggins’ fingertips and right into the waiting hands of Wolverines junior defensive back TJ Metcalf — interception.
Now sitting at the Sooners’ 38-yard line, Michigan was prepared to notch a touchdown of its own. But it never came. What followed were two failed rushes up the middle, an incomplete pass and, finally, the punt away. Such was the pattern that followed the Wolverines throughout the contest.
“There’s the stuff that we gotta do right,” graduate tight end Max
Bredeson said. “A lot of it’s just about the how, not always about the what. … We just gotta execute our plays better.”
Regardless of “what” the approach was or “how” they executed their plays, Michigan had chances — Oklahoma made mistakes — but the Wolverines were unable to seize the moment.
In Michigan’s second drive of the second quarter, opportunity once again came knocking, this time in the form of penalties. The start of the Wolverines’ drive looked eerily
familiar: three failed attempts to reach a first down followed by the punt away. On this particular punt, though, things were different.
A roughing the kicker penalty issued to the Sooners gave Michigan an automatic first down and a renewed chance to catalyze its offense and make a touchdown. Despite the opportunity, what followed looked the same as before: an incomplete pass accompanied by a bleak 1-yard rush up the middle. Interestingly enough, the Wolverines got lucky again. A
holding penalty gave Michigan yet another first down, advancing it to its 41-yard line.
It still wasn’t enough.
While the Wolverines managed to obtain a first down and get senior kicker Dominic Zvada within range, Zvada missed the 32-yard attempt, and Michigan’s offense retreated to the sideline without putting up a single point.
“There’s always plays you can go back on, thinking about (how) you’re close there, but at the end, almost don’t count in this
league,” senior linebacker Ernest Hausmann said. “It’s point-blank. You can almost be there, but (it) doesn’t matter. You don’t get the job done. We did not get the job done.”
In the first half of the game, Oklahoma had four penalties for a combined 43 yards while the Wolverines had one for 15 yards. While Michigan’s offense wasn’t firing anywhere close to the rate at which the Sooners were, the Wolverines still had ample opportunities to balance things out — they just couldn’t convert.
Michigan’s final chance to turn things around came in the third quarter. Oklahoma notched another touchdown, but junior running back Justice Haynes also ran it home for the Wolverines’ first and only touchdown of the evening. The game seemed to be back within reach, especially after the Sooners fumbled a punt return, giving Michigan the ball at its own 31-yard line and the chance to put it within one score.
Alas, like all the times before, the Wolverines failed to seize the opportunity. With limited rushing yards and a slew of incomplete passes, Michigan’s offense ran dry, and with it went the Wolverines’ hopes of a win.
Oklahoma made mistakes, but Michigan made nothing of them. And because of it, the Wolverines left the stadium the same way they went into halftime: deflated and dragging their feet.
Alyssa Mulligan/DAILY
WUCHTER Managing Sports Editor
NORMAN, Okla. — The No. 15 Michigan football team’s offense was under pressure from the moment it took the field. After Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer commandeered the 18th-ranked Sooners down the field to score on the opening drive, freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood and the Wolverines were burdened with playing from behind.
With zero first-half points and a sideline spat, Michigan folded early under the Norman night sky. The Wolverines’ offense regularly got behind schedule and failed to move the chains. The lead the Sooners (2-0) took
five minutes into Saturday night’s game never capsized, as Michigan (1-1) and its dormant offense fell, 24-13.
Outside of junior running back Justice Haynes’ 75-yard house call to start the second half, Oklahoma’s defensive line was unrelenting, and the Wolverines’ offensive line couldn’t open any holes for their backs to find.
Taking away that one outlier, Michigan averaged less than 3 yards per carry.
“In the run game, it’s all about connectivity,” Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore said. “It’s all about everybody doing their job at that point. … We just got to continue to be more connected in each play, because you play five as one or six or seven as one in the run game, and everybody’s got to do their job.”
Despite the disconnect, Michigan was attempting to establish its run game on early downs. Its first drive was a quintessential example. On the Wolverines’ second set of downs, Haynes’ two runs left them with third-and-4. Then Underwood was forced to throw an ill-fated screen to Haynes. All in all, they converted just three times on 14 third downs.
It was rinse and repeat as each time Michigan found itself on third down, it felt like the drive was already over, especially on obvious passing downs. Underwood, who completed 38% of his passes overall, was a lessthan-desired 4-9 for 47 yards on third down.
Even on their best firsthalf drive, starting from their own 14-yard line and going 72
yards downfield, it ended in disappointment. Underwood’s pass sailed over graduate wide receiver Donaven McCulley, who was entangled with a defender. Then graduate kicker Dominic Zvada missed a 32-yard field goal that left them truly empty handed.
Meanwhile, unlike Underwood, Mateer could lead drives when he needed to. To tail end a mostly disappointing first half, he kept the ball for his first rushing touchdown of the game to set up a 14-0 halftime lead.
Trailing 21-7, Zvada did redeem himself with two third-quarter field goals, but both felt like consolation prizes. The first came after the Wolverines’ offense failed to move the chains even once after being set up on their own 31-yard line by a muffled
punt return. The next 3-pointer was set up by a 44-yard pass from Underwood, followed by a series of short runs, incomplete passes and another failed conversion on third-and-medium.
“When you get behind, you make second-and-long and third-and-long,” Moore said. “Third-and-long is just harder to convert. And when you’re in those situations, it’s harder (on) third down to really convert, to get that first down. … But again, it all comes down to execution.”
Still, Michigan had Underwood under center in a one-score game in the fourth quarter. But the pressure — literally from the pass rush and figuratively from the moment and the environment — got to the Wolverines. Michigan’s first drive of the final quarter featured only one first
down, a sack and two wasted timeouts. And with a mundane incompletion on third-and-15, the Wolverines’ offense was back on the sideline. Never again did the Wolverines take a snap with a chance to win or tie the game. They watched once more as Oklahoma did what they couldn’t. Starting from their own 19-yard line the Sooners methodically moved the ball, converted three third downs and sealed the game with an eightminute field-goal drive. Michigan was under no pressure as it took its final snap. The game was already over whether the Wolverines executed or not on their final set of downs — they didn’t.
AIN'T NO LOVE
JONATHAN
Holly Burkhart/DAILY Alyssa Mulligan/DAILY Design by Annabelle Ye