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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
After suits, voters cite flaws in CSG proceedings RUBY WALLAU/Daily
LEFT: LSA junior Devin Jones, an author of the divestment resolution and SAFE member, during the CSG meeting in the Rogal Ballroom on Tuesday. TOP: Students raise their hands in support of the divestment resolution. BOTTOM: Others raised their hands in opposition of the resolution.
By EMMA KINERY
Divestment resolution rejected for second year Hundreds gather to hear arguments about the proposal
Government voted to reject a resolution calling for the creation of an ad hoc committee to investigate the University’s investments in companies that allegedly facilitate human rights violations against Palestinians. The resolution failed to pass with a vote of 15 in favor and 29 opposed. There was one abstention. A roll call voted determined that the vote on the resolution would be public
By TANAZ AHMED and LEA GIOTTO Daily Staff Reporters
After more than four hours of discussion and public comments, the University’s Central Student
instead of a secret ballot. The resolution asked for CSG to support the creation of a committee through the University’s Board of Regents to examine the University’s investments in four companies: Boeing Company, Caterpillar Inc., G4S and the United Technologies Corporation. The resolution claims these specific companies profit from violations of Palestinian human rights.
Pending litigation yields student-voter disillusionment with election system
Hundreds of members of the University community packed the Rogel Ballroom in the Michigan Union on Tuesday evening to hear dozens of speakers express reasons to vote for or against the resolution. Similarly to last year’s CSG vote on a similar resolution, attendees entered the meeting on a first-come, first-served basis and were given tickets See DIVEST, Page 3A
Daily Staff Reporter
The closest Central Student Government race of the decade is not over yet, as ongoing litigation between Make Michigan and The Team could alter the outcome of the presidency. There have been nine complaints made by both parties overall, but three have yet to be decided on and the results are expected to be released on Wednesday. Each case’s outcome has the potential to result in demerits against either party, and if both receive more than 10 demerits, they will be disqualified from the race. So far, The Team has received four demerits for destruction of campaign materials — party members were found guilty of erasing promotional Make
ACADEMICS
RESEARCH
The digital divide: laptop equity at the ‘U’ Access to personal computers is not required, but many recognize benefits By SAMANTHA WINTNER Daily Staff Reporter
College is expensive: tuition, rent and social expenses can add up to tens of thousands of dollars per year. Smaller expenses, including the cost of buying a laptop, can get lost in this grand total. News outlets often write broadly about the effects of socioeconomic status on success in school, but more specifically, how does restricted access to technology impact a student at the University? Students are not required to own laptops in the majority of schools and programs at the University. According to the University’s Computer Showcase website, the University maintains
computing sites on both Central and North Campuses equipped with both Macs and PCs for student use. However, the site also advises students “to consider a laptop computer.” E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, spoke to this contrast in a March interview with The Michigan Daily. “As you can see, in the Unions and every place we can, (we) have computers and computer centers available for students,” she said. “But we know that that’s different from you having your own and being able to have the flexibility of 4:00 in the morning.” Individual school requirements Students in the School of Art & Design are required to obtain a specified computer package, which the school website says they can purchase for about $3,500. This is the only school with such a requirement. Joann McDaniel, assistant dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Art & Design, said See LAPTOPS, Page 3A
Stand e W r e v Where INSIDE »
WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 66 LO: 40
Michigan chalk advertisements and replacing it with “Vote the Team.” Neither party has been disqualified yet; however, individual candidates have. Art & Design sophomore Tanner Petch, a candidate for The Team, and First-year Law student Stevin George, a Make Michigan candidate, were both disqualified for e-mailing listservs that did not belong to them. While Make Michigan has yet to receive any demerits, the results of Monday night’s hearings could drastically change that. The Team charged Make Michigan with harvesting 5,719 e-mails from listservs that were not theirs. If found responsible, Make Michigan will be penalized with up to more than 17,000 demerits. Make Michigan has also alleged that The Team and its Representative Manager Andrew Loeb, an LSA senior, harvested 534 e-mails. Subsequently, The Team could be charged with up to 1,602 demerits. Third-year Law student Paige Becker, the University’s elections See ELECTION, Page 3A
Scientific leaders lay groundwork for policy BRIAN BECKWITH/Daily
Dr. Stephen Strobbe, clinical associate professor in the department of health behavior and biological sciences in the School of Nursing and the recipient of the 2015 Golden Apple Award, gives his acceptance speech at Rackham Auditorium on Tuesday.
Golden Apple winner talks mental health, vulnerability Nursing Prof. addresses experience with addictions in speech By LAURA SCHINAGLE Daily Staff Reporter
Nursing and Psychiatry Prof. Stephen Strobbe’s voice quavered with emotion as he stood before a nearly full
Rackham Auditorium to deliver a lecture during his reception of the Golden Apple award on Tuesday evening. The Golden Apple award — which is sponsored by the University of Michigan Hillel and more than 30 other campus organizations and departments — is the only student-nominated award for student teaching. “The Golden Apple Award honors those teachers who consistently treat every lecture as if it were his or her last
chance to impart knowledge on their students,” said Business junior Jake Berman, the Golden Apple Committee co-chair. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the award at the University. The Golden Apple Award Committee said they received a record of more than 750 nominations this year, of which 75 were submitted for Strobbe. Recipients of the award are invited to present a lecture See GOLDEN APPLE, Page 3A
Symposium proposes recommendations for new ‘U’ STEM initiatives By IAN DILLINGHAM Magazine Editor
Scientific leaders are looking to lay the groundwork for new science policy initiatives at the University and beyond. The exploration of initiatives was discussed at the Jerome B. Wiesner Symposium on Tuesday. The two-day event at Rackham Amphitheatre brought together some of the nation’s leading scientific minds and policymakers to discuss the current state of scientific research. During the symposium, attendees created a series of recommendations for the University to better engage with policy issues facing the field. Topics from the conference covered a wide range of concerns See STEM, Page 5A
The history of Pro-Israe l g ro u p s o n c amp u s
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIV, No. 93 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A SPORTS......................8A
SUDOKU.....................2A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A T H E S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . .1 B
News
2A — Wednesday, April 1, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Campus Voices
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
L E T ’ S C H AT
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THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
CRIME ON CAMPUS
UC, Berkley student found dead A University of California, Berkeley student was pronounced dead on Monday near the University of Southern California campus, The Daily Trojan reported. 19-year-old Eloi Vasquez was a freshman and also a member of Berkley’s men’s soccer team. He visited the USC campus this past weekend and had been missing since early Saturday morning. Police reported that Vasquez was hit by a car after leaving a party. WILLIAM LYNCH/Daily
LSA Dean Andrew D. Martin addresses student concerns at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology during a student meet and greet on Tuesday.
Stanford University student accused of poisoning A Stanford University graduate student has been charged
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ACUPCC vetoed By SAMANTHA WINTNER CSG President Bobby Dishell, a Public Policy senior, announced Monday morning that he has decided to veto a resolution that would have encouraged the University to become a signatory on the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.
THE FILTER
Andy Grammer By DANIELLE RAYKHINSHTEYN
Andy Grammer creates welcoming and loving environment for the smaller shows he consistently performs. Pop duo Alex & Sierra recently opened his show with a mix of songs ranging from their own originals to song covers.
with four felony counts for putting a chemical known as paraformaldehyde in the water bottles of the subject’s labmates’ water bottles, The Stanford Daily reported. The suspect admitted to tampering with the bottles and apologized for the actions, claiming to have not been conscious of doing so. The suspect pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. University of Virginia releases sexual misconduct policy The University of Virginia published a revised interim sexual misconduct policy, The Cavalier Daily reported Monday.
The revised document establishes new policies for reporting sexual misconduct, and delineates the process for protecting those who undergo this process. Furthermore, a Student Resource Guide to help university members through the new policy was created. According to the new policy, a number of acts — including sexual assault, stalking and retaliating against a person for reporting a violation — are explicitly prohibited. Violators of the new policy could face disciplinary action, a punishment that encompasses the possibility of expulsion. — ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Mullin Welch lecture WHAT: Michel Martin, an NPR and ABC News journalist, will discuss her career. WHO: Center for the Education of Women WHEN: Today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building
Public meeting “That That” WHAT:A discussion will book release be held on the causes of recent police violence and what can be done concerning the issue. WHO: International Youth and Students for Social Equality WHEN: Today from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League
Sing and Variety Distinguished professorship WHAT: University Greek Life will conclude lecture its annual Greek Week fundraising event. Teams will participate in song and dance competitions and a Greek Week champion will be crowned. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Today at 7 p.m. WHERE: Hill Auditorium
WHAT: Prof. Victor Lieberman will discuss nationalism and democracy across Eurasia between 1400 and 1850. WHO: University and Developements Events WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Rackham Graduate School
WHAT: Ken Mikolowski, a Residential College poetry instructor, will sign copies of his book “That That.” WHO: Residential College WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: East Quad, Benzinger Library
Disabilities awareness event WHAT: Students with disabilities will speak about their experiences. WHO: Services for Sudents with Disablities WHEN: Today from 7 p.m. t0 9 p.m. WHERE: Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
The Arkansas state House passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act Tuesday morning. The Act allows people, including corporations, who feel their religious freedom is “substantially burdened” to fight an order in court.
2
The Israel-Palestine debate has been waged on college campus — including the University’s — for decades. But how did this debate come to polarize student leaders, and where are we going? >> FOR MORE, SEE STATEMENT
3
The deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran passed Tuesday, but U.S. representatives said the talks would go on for another day. The talks have been extended twice since an interim deal achieved in 2013.
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LSA dean fields questions, shares gelato, lemonade Students gather to discuss campus affairs, with focus on dual-degrees By COLLEEN HARRISON Daily Staff Reporter
LSA Dean Andrew Martin chatted with around 40 students Tuesday evening to discuss a variety of campus affairs. Throughout the course of his first year, Martin has held similar talks on campus to offer students the opportunity to discuss his administration and other topics of interest. Martin held two talks earlier this academic year where he discussed the LSA Race and Ethnicity Requirement, and diversity and socioeconomic status, among other issues. Students led the discussion in a town-hall style, asking questions on topics such as adding potential new majors, challenges
associated with student-athletes missing class for practice and games and the perceived disconnect between faculty and students. “We want to make sure that they’ve got the robust support necessary,” Martin said. Many students discussed problems of obtaining dual-degree credits, specifically the restriction on students within the Ford School of Public Policy and their inability to double major. Martin said he believes having students obtain a dual-degree could only help rather than hurt them. He said eliminating this policy should happen and would only benefit students. LSA freshman Nicholas Fadanelli said he appreciated Martin’s discussion of some of the issues with majors and minors on campus. “If you have certain programs, like journalism, that don’t have the major like they used to, or have the applied field outside of college, that having new minors to come to those would be very
beneficial to LSA students so they could have that liberal breadth,” Fadanelli said. Discussing students on campus with lower socioeconomic status or who find themselves unable to academically continue at the University, Martin said he wants to ensure that all students admitted to the University are able to stay and finish their degrees. “It does happen, and we want to do everything we can to make sure that it doesn’t happen,” Martin said. “Every student that we admit to this university deserves to be at this university.” As a former professor, Martin spoke about a disconnect between students and faculty at the University. “Sometimes we forget what it’s like, sometimes it’s been many years since we were undergraduate students,” Martin said. LSA freshman Patrick Mullan, an office ambassador in the LSA dean’s office, said he appreciated Martin’s efforts to increase contact between students and administration, citing the creation of the ambassador program to further facilitate this contact. “I’ve been working in close contact with him for six weeks and I think he did a really good job in an hour of reiterating what we’ve been working on in the office,” Mullan said. Students in attendance also mentioned problems with turning a degree into a career, especially for those pursuing the humanities. Martin said these degrees do not tend to provide a direct path toward a career as majors in other fields might, but he said the liberal arts education helps turn these degrees into careers. “The reason why the liberal arts education is so empowering is that it allows you to look at things from a different perspective,” Martin said. To help students explore careers in their fields, Martin said he believes the University could do more to assist students in finding sustainable careers post graduation. “As a college we can do a better job helping to connect you with those people,” Martin said.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Investigative reporter Ellen Gabler speaks about the effects of her reporting on newborn screening in hosptials at “Newborn Screening: The Cost of Delays” in Forum Hall on Tuesday.
Award-winning journalist leads panel on newborns Investigation into screenings leads to hospital reforms By KATIE PENROD Daily Staff Reporter
Award-winning journalist Ellen Gabler visited campus Tuesday, accompanied by three professors and the director of the Utah Newborn Screening Program, to lead a panel discussion about deadly delays in processing newborn blood work and the severe risk these delays can pose to newborn health. Gabler’s investigative series on delays in newborn screening published in the Milwaukee Journal Senteniel led to reforms at hospitals throughout the country. Her talk focused on options to improve the screening process and how hospitals and institutions can implement these changes. Newborn babies have blood drawn to test for rare diseases immediately after birth. Though the blood work is sent to labs, the process of sending and screening is often drawn out unintentionally, leading to delays. Gabler started the panel by discussing her interest in the transparency of public data as well
as her inspiration for beginning this investigative series. She said one of her colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brought in a story about a child who almost died because his blood work screening was delayed. Gabler said she realized this delay could be happening around the country, adding that she believed hospitals as well as state governments needed to be held accountable. She insisted institutions analyze how quickly these newborns and their parents get the health information they need so rare diseases can be addressed. “Holding people accountable is how you make change,” she said. Throughout the investigative process, Gabler said she often struggled with getting data from certain states and that governments did not always want to share their hospitals’ lapses in responsibility. “It’s simply not OK for governments to just say ‘listen we’ve got this handled, trust us’ and that’s kind of what they were saying, and that’s just not OK,” she said. Throughout her talk, Gabler also discussed improvements made across the country because of her investigative reports. Prior to her work, she said Arizona was
one of the worst states in regard to timeliness of screenings, but after her series was published they had a 30 percent improvement in efficiency. Panelist Edward Goldman, a lawyer and associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology, spoke about how the newborn screening process is multifaceted. He said because of its complicated nature, addressing the issue requires analysis of every aspect of the process. “The testing is for rare conditions with significant medical implications, as you’ve heard,” Goldman said. “That means testing has to be fast, it needs to be accurate, it needs to be returned to physicians who understand the testing and can act on it to provide treatment. That should show you all the places where this could break down.” The panelists discussed the screening process from many different perspectives. Sharon Kardia, senior associate dean for administration and professor of epidemiology, said one important problem to consider is the monetary pressure on health departments. Andreas Rohrwasser said he has only been at his post as Newborn Screening Laboratory Director in See JOURNALIST, Page 5A
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ELECTION From Page 1A director, said in an interview Sunday that the potential demerits could result in the disqualification of both major parties and their entire slates of candidates. If this were to happen, she said the Defend Affirmative Action Party would win the election, and LSA junior Keysha Wall and LSA sophomore Katie Kennedy would respectively become president and vice president of CSG. In addition, all members of each disqualified party in the legislative branches would be removed as well — meaning that only DAAP and independent candidates would remain in power. Though 22 percent of the University student body voted in this year’s election, the voter turnout was actually one of the highest returns in recent years. DAAP received 742.05 votes — 17 percent total, which is less than a quarter of what The Team or Make Michigan received. Though last week’s election was decided by five votes, the chance that the final outcome could be determined by litigation — not the popular vote — has lead some students to question
LAPTOPS From Page 1A the cost of this computer package is included in the cost of first-year tuition for Art & Design students — which is sometimes covered by financial aid. “Our students have a larger budget for financial aid,” she said. “The cost of being a freshman in the School of Art & Design is greater than the cost of being a freshman in, say, LSA. And the difference is that our students are required to buy a computer package. So it’s included as part of their budget — if a student qualifies for financial aid, then they get aid for their Art & Design tuition (including the computer package).” She said students are given a four-year warranty for their purchase of the package, which is discounted through the Computer Showcase, so the laptop should be a one-time expense while they are attending the University. McDaniel added that the Art & Design computer package is necessary because every discipline within the school requires a significant amount of computer-based work. She said standardizing the package puts all students on an equal playing field. “When everybody has the same equipment, it’s a little bit like wearing a uniform,” she said. “(The package) doesn’t mean that there is perfect equity, but it’s one more step (towards equal opportunity).” Ross School of Business students are not required to purchase a laptop but are warned that they will likely be at a disadvantage in both class and group work if they do not own a personal computer. The Business School’s website says that while students do have access to several public-use labs around campus, they should consider the fact that space in those labs will be limited. Similarly, the School of Information does not have any specific laptop requirements. Education and Information Prof. Barry Fishman said decisions about what technology is required for classes are left up to the instructor. Furthermore, neither the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the School of Kinesiology nor the College of Engineering require students to obtain a personal computer. Monika Dressler, director of LSA Instructional Support Services, said in an e-mail interview that LSA does not have a laptop policy and does not require students to own their own computers. “While some instructors do encourage students to use laptops in their classes, other faculty discourage or even ban the use of laptops or other mobile devices because they find them disruptive and distracting for students,” she said. The digital divide and equity of access Dressler acknowledged that lacking access to a personal computer can be difficult for students, but she echoed Harper’s sentiment that the University has done its best to make up for potential disparities in resources.
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how much their participation really matters. LSA freshman Molly Aronson said she felt it was her responsibility to vote regardless of how much of an impact doing so actually had on the election results. However, she added, the trials take away from the significance of that responsibility. “I think that this definitely undermines the student vote because considering if the litigations go through neither of the top two parties will actually have control,” Aronson said. “I do think that’s telling.” LSA freshman Kate Stankey expressed disappointment in the litigation and said CSG was not maintaining a real democracy. She also called the process for enforcing election code violations as “flawed.” “I don’t think it typically follows the democratic government that the CSG should,” she said. Stankey also expressed discontent with parties’ campaigning in the weeks leading up to the election, adding that it may have dissuaded students from caring about the election. “I don’t think many people were very interested in the election, especially when they were campaigning and they
were bothering a lot of students,” Stankey said. “I think that made the student body pretty upset.” Stankey said the individual candidates also deterred interest. She cited The Team’s vice presidential candidate, LSA sophomore Matt Fidel, a current CSG representative, due to his attendance at the Sigma Alpha Mu ski trip. LSA junior Evan Gerstein said he did not know either major party’s platform and only voted for people whom he knew personally. He said campaigning on either side had no effect on his vote, which made him question the necessity of the efforts. “The presidential party vote was separated by five, so clearly my vote actually had an impact, because I voted for an actual party,” Gerstein said. “At the same time, it didn’t really matter as much, because I didn’t know any of the candidates because they didn’t campaign well. Sure I saw Make Michigan, actually I saw more of The Team, with their chalking and everything, but I don’t know the platform; I don’t know the president; I only knew my friends who were representatives and I voted for them.” Aronson took the opposite
approach, noting that while students care about the selection of the CSG president, she doubts how much party platforms really matter. “To an extent, I think people do care who the face of student government is,” Aronson said. The last time a party secured executive seats through litigation after losing the initial election was in 2013. In that election, youMICH’s Michael Proppe, a current Business graduate student, and Bobby Dishell, current CSG president and Public Policy senior, assumed office without having won the popular vote. Dishell went on to become CSG president in 2014 on the Make Michigan ticket. If Make Michigan were to officially secure the seats upon conclusion of litigation, this would be the second consecutive year that the incumbent party holds office. Law student John Lin, CSG student general counsel and a member of the current Make Michigan executive team, said the continuation of the party’s power results from the lack of a large priority shift for the student population in the last few years. “It means there’s a consistent philosophy,” Lin said. “The Make
“LSA does understand there is differential access to expensive technologies and expensive resources among the student body,” she said. “This is true of textbooks, co-curricular activities, as well as computer technology; and is part of a larger issue of access that LSA is deeply concerned about.” She said the potential of a “digital divide” is what drives University investment in facilities like the Angell Hall Computing Site — known as the Fishbowl — and other computer labs, and University Housing’s investment in the inclusion of computing sites and “community learning centers” in all residence halls. She added that LSA is committed to providing sufficient equipment to support students’ completion of their coursework. Dressler said in LSA classes that have decided to use laptops for collaboration or in-class work, LSA ISS encourages faculty to ensure that all students are able to participate through group work so that any students without laptops can engage. She also noted that students can check out a laptop from LSA Instructional Support Services for this type of in-class use. According to the LSA ISS website, there are three equipment loan centers on Central Campus — in Mason Hall and the Modern Language Building, from which “students enrolled in an LSA course may check out a wide variety” of equipment for short-term use. Long-term loan requests require additional paperwork. In an e-mail interview, Kedra Ishop, associate vice president for enrollment management at the University, said students should not and do not appear to feel discouraged from taking classes in technology-heavy fields — even if they lack access to relevant technology. “The colleges and schools work hard to direct students to resources and our application numbers to technology-rich majors don’t suggest that students are not pursuing their areas of interest because of a lack of access,” she said. Fishman said the “digital divide” is clearly and fundamentally an equity issue because students with personal laptops have a much easier time getting their work done. “Even when you provide a full scholarship to college, there’s all these unintended costs of college — so just buying books can be a struggle,” he said. “And if you can afford to buy all the books that are on your course list and have them in your dorm room, that gives you an inherent advantage over someone who has to go read them on reserve all of the time. It’s the same thing with laptops and other kinds of technology.” Fishman said instructors should be aware of what “implicit assumptions” their course syllabi make about their students’ access to certain resources, such as technology. He said there are many contexts in which instructional technology is an imperative element of the learning process, but added that instructors should consider how to make the required technology available to all students.
Limited access LSA senior Cesar Vargas, a senior computer consultant in the Fishbowl, said space there is limited, especially during peak times and around finals, because students both with and without laptops come to use its study space and other resources. “Especially when it comes to finals, we have to open up the Angell Hall classrooms for overflow,” he said. LSA senior Kelsey Pakkala, another computer consultant in the Fishbowl, said even students with laptops come there to use expensive software the University provides for free to students on its computers. “There’s SAS, SPSS, MatLab — it’s around $150 to buy that software,” she said. “Students who have laptops can’t afford that, so they come here. They’re subscription-based (and have to be renewed every year), but they’re free on campus.” Pakkala also said she frequently sees people in the Fishbowl using the desktops to watch TV shows because they have bigger screens than laptops. Vargas said the 2013 renovations to the site were intended to make additional lounge space for students using laptops, but added that he regularly finds students sitting at the desktop computer spaces using their personal laptops instead. “There are definitely a lot of students that come up to us and complain that they see a lot of students in front of a desktop and a laptop and the desktop is off and they’re just on the laptop,” he said. “The main problem is people not understanding that there are students that obviously do need these desktops.” He said that not having his own personal computer to use would certainly be an obstacle, especially because it can be hard to find a computer to use at campus computing sites. “I was a first-generation student — I could definitely see not having a laptop as a huge disadvantage,” he said. Pakkala said she believes the University has gotten better over time at providing resources for students without personal computers. “(The Fishbowl) is 24/7 almost every day, I know the UGLi is 24/7 all of the time — during peak hours obviously, that’s the bad times,” she said. “There’s a lot of options if you’re flexible with when you’re willing to work.” Dressler said she does not know of any research that found drawbacks of not owning one’s own personal computer, but recognized the benefits of owning a personal computer. “One might imagine a benefit of having one’s own computer because it would allow a student to work on her or his own schedule.” LSA junior Ricardo Rubio said he comes to the Fishbowl and other campus computing sites to complete all the work he cannot get done on his iPad, which does not have programs like Microsoft Word and SPSS. He said he finds the sites convenient, and that he is always able to finish his work. “I don’t necessarily need a laptop,” he said. “I am able to do everything that I need to get
done.” Funding for technological expenses Fishman noted that the way people choose to pay for college — including loans and scholarships, among other financial plans — can affect how they finance the technology they buy for school. “You can only use some of those resources to pay for technology if the technology is required by the syllabus,” he said. Depending on how students pay for college, Fishman said, they may find it helpful for their respective schools to require certain technology rather than suggest students obtain it. Ishop said the Office of Financial Aid considers many factors in addition to the cost of tuition when offering aid to students. “A student’s Cost of Attendance is based on estimated student budgets that include not only tuition/fees and housing, but also books/supplies and personal/ miscellaneous expenses,” she wrote. “Those students who are unable to purchase a computer may acquire additional financial aid to purchase a computer once during their educational career at the University.” “Other required technology also can be included in financial aid,” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an e-mail interview. “Students simply need to provide documentation that the technology is required for a class.” Ishop and Fitzgerald also said the University is piloting a laptop loan program in Fall 2015 with LSA. The initiative will provide the opportunity for incoming firstyear students with the greatest financial need to receive a laptop from LSA to use for the entirety of their academic career at the University.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 — 3A Michigan/youMICH strand is very focused on certain issues, working on small tangible goals, whereas the other party, The Team, and FORUM before that, were very idealistic, kind of going for big moves: more culture, more social justice.” He noted that if Make Michigan does maintain its win, there will
DIVEST From Page 1A once allowed into the room. Department of Public Safety and Security officers monitored the entire meeting from both inside and outside the room and officers organized a line for people to enter the meeting. CSG speaker Christian Bashi, an LSA senior, said MultiEthnic Student Affairs staff was available outside the meeting room for students who felt they needed a break from the meeting to speak with someone. Students Allied for Freedom and Equality is the University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that advocates for Palestinian solidarity across campuses. One of the group’s main initiatives is promoting the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. As defined by BDS, divestment calls for institutions to divest from companies involved in alleged violations of Palestinian human rights. The meeting began with guest speaker Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian American journalist who writes for The Chicago
GOLDEN APPLE From Page 1A on topics of their choice as if it were their last opportunity to do so. Strobbe was learned of his selection for the Golden Apple award in February. In his lecture, titled “Lessons from an Imperfect Life: A Premature Last Lecture,” Strobbe discussed how students’ anonymous nomination comments were made available to him upon his selection. Strobbe said his purpose for talking about the comments was twofold. First, he said, he wanted faculty, staff and administrators to hear what students said they valued in a teacher. Second, he wanted students to reflect upon their comments and their collective importance. “Remember that if these qualities were important to you as students, they’re undoubtedly important to others, including the patients who you will treat,” he said. Stobbe said many of the comments addressed his approach to the difficult and challenging themes dealt with in his class, Mental Health and Illness Across the Lifespan. “My stated overarching goal is ... to help students develop the skills and knowledge to
not be a large shift in the approach to campus issues and resulting policies created by student government. “I think that you’re not going to see much of a change in terms of culture and student government priorities,” Lin said. “Personally, I think that’s a good thing, other people might not.”
Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, speaking in favor of the divestment resolution. Abunimah called the situation in Palestine an emergency and said social change needs to occur. He said he did not believe a peace process is currently being discussed between Israel and Palestine. “Just a few weeks ago, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected after publicly repudiating the twostate solution and saying he would never allow a Palestinian state on his watch,” he said. Abunimah compared divestment from the companies listed in the resolution to divestment for apartheid South Africa. “We heard the argument divestment is divisive,” he said. “But, who looks back now and says divestment in Africa was a mistake.” History Prof. Victor Lieberman, who currently teaches the course “The History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” spoke against the divestment resolution. At last year’s meeting concerning a similar divestment resolution, Lieberman offered See DIVEST, Page 5A
talk to anyone about anything, generally during one of the most difficult and vulnerable periods of their lives,” he said. Strobbe mentioned his own experience recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, and said he does not withhold that information from his students. “I don’t share that information as something to draw attention to myself,” he said. “I think it’s important for us to humanize this solution to challenge preconceived notions of and convey a sense of home.” Strobbe’s former students said his honesty distinguishes him as an influential professor. “His genuineness made the whole semester easier for other people, for us as students, for us to be open and genuine about mental illness or all of these (things) that are pretty controversial or stigmatized … in normal conversation,” Nursing senior Allison Kosaian said. Nursing senior Maggie Craft expressed similar sentiments about Strobbe’s teaching style. “This kind of transparency and being so emotionally open is something we saw the entire semester,” Craft said. “The genuineness is completely who he is.”
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CORINE ROSENBERG | VIEWPOINT
I am a survivor
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
I
“Girl crush” on country
f you know me closely, I make my predilection for music apparent. My iPod isn’t just a device I carry with me on my walks to class, on jogs or during study sessions at the library; it’s an appendage. My conversations — perhaps to the chagrin of my friends and roommates — revolve almost solely around newly released singles, the quality of recent music videos and album critiques. I’ll often surprise (read: annoy) MELISSA my friends with random bio- SCHOLKE graphical tidbits about artists when we’re riding in the car and listening to the radio. My love for music is easily described as an obsession lingering on the cusp of an addiction. I proudly (and quite frequently) declare my immense appreciation for indie and pop artists, like Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds, and Bastille. Despite my selfdeclared status as an indie and pop music aficionado, country music — much to the surprise of my friends — is a genre that remains entwined in the measures of my life. Scroll through my music library, and you’ll discover a small selection of country amid tracks my mother prefers to call “my weird music.” I vividly remember her shock when she heard “Amazed” by Lonestar playing from my iPod. Admittedly the song is a bit before my time, but it’s connected to a memory. Memory and recollection are the forces responsible for my country music appreciation. Contrary to what some may suppose, a love for country music is not hardwired into my DNA because I’m a Yooper. Rather, the genre connects me to recollections of everything I have left behind in the Upper Peninsula. I can vividly remember the nights my cousin and I would sing along to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel like a Woman” when we were little girls. Fast forward to our first summer back home from college, the incessant plays of “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line on the radio quickly led it to acquiring the title of the “song of the summer” among my friends. Whether it involved awkward school dances, sitting around a bonfire during summer nights, driving with friends or even going to the bar with my family when I was back in the U.P. during holiday breaks, country music was most likely playing in the background. My fondness for the genre occasionally leads to defending it when people refer to it as “hick music.” As my mother once aptly explained, country is music meant for common, everyday people. It’s a relatable depiction of working-class life, which easily explains its popularity in areas like the U.P. I look fondly upon my hometown and love the people who reside there. However, like some residents of that same area, country music, in recent years, continues to uphold problematic and archaic ideologies I passionately disagree with. Despite the progress made toward obtaining marriage equality and other rights for the LGBTQ community in recent years, various communities across the country continue to display vehement disgust and prejudice toward anything remotely homosexual appearing in the public arena. A subset of country music listeners can now be added to the list. Within the last week, a single released by
Grammy-winning country group Little Big Town became an object of controversy, as an abundance of listeners nationwide experienced selective hearing. Meant as a song about a woman desiring the physical features of her ex-boyfriend’s current girl and wishing she possessed those attributes in order to win back the guy, the track entitled “Girl Crush” was viewed as propaganda to “promote the gay agenda.” Focusing solely upon lyrics like “I want to taste her lips/Yeah ‘cause they taste like you/I want to drown myself/In a bottle of her perfume,” angry listeners ignored the rest of the song and automatically thought the track was about a lesbian relationship. Parents actively opposed the notion that their children be exposed to such material. As a result, the track was removed from radio stations playlists, and its radio rankings plummeted to No. 33. The fact a song mistaken for presenting a homosexual relationship caused such an incendiary uproar only further illustrates the flawed nature of our media industry. Country music, in its contemporary state, features sexually explicit lyrics and objectified descriptions of submissive female conquests in order to appeal to a heterosexual male audience. This trend, accurately described as “Nashville’s bro explicit adventures” in a Washington Post article was mocked by two young country starlets Maddie and Tae when they wrote a “Girl in a Country Song” to illustrate the ridiculously sexist representations of women in many of today’s country songs. Taking into account that I can remember hearing Big & Rich’s highly suggestive track “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” frequently as a 10-year-old in 2004 when it was released, I find it hard to understand why suggestive, sexually explicit and misogynistic lyrics aren’t as concerning as the possibility of a song portraying a romantic relationship between two women or two men. The “gay agenda” parents and politicians are exceedingly suspicious of creeping up in our media and “infecting” the minds of children, in reality, is exactly the same as the agenda of every human being. Humans, regardless of sexual orientation, want to appreciate the everyday, to be respected, to experience love, to enjoy our family and our friends, to have fun, to grow as individuals and to sort out our place in the world — basically partaking in every theme ever discussed in a song. The entire point of creative expression, whether in the form of writing, artwork or song, is to encompass and celebrate the entirety of experiences available to humanity. Considering the ever-present struggle to both extend and ensure basic rights to the LGBTQ community, trying to enclose children and the general public in a world of heteronormativity will only further inhibit future legislative and societal progress. Music provides an excellent example of this. If you refuse to expose a student of any age to a subsection of notes solely because some individuals incorrectly deem them immoral or inappropriate, their ability to comprehend and play music — possibly music they strongly identify with or enjoy — will be limited. Limiting awareness of the world will likewise inhibit the ability to enact future change we need. — Melissa Scholke can be reached at melikaye@umich.edu.
MEGAN BOCZAR | VIEWPOINT
Why I relay
When I showed up to my first Relay for Life event my freshman year of high school, I had no connection to cancer. Sure, it was inspiring to see my friend Marissa fight against cancer so passionately, but I never felt a ton of emotion toward the cause. Just a few weeks after attending my first Relay, my grandpa got up early from the lunch table after a round of golf and said, “I gotta go, I have an appointment.” When my mom asked what was wrong the reply was, “Just a tickle in my throat. Probably just a cold.” My grandpa was a doctor. A Michigan alum. He knew what was wrong, right? After a week, the diagnosis of Stage 1 thyroid cancer came to my family. He waited a week to start treatment because the doctor said it wasn’t too urgent. I wasn’t worried. This is a man who had served in Korea, raised seven kids and gone to Egypt eight weeks after having knee-replacement surgery. After a week, it had progressed extremely rapidly. The treatment plan changed. Chemotherapy once a week and radiation twice a day, seven days a week. When I looked up his actual diagnosis, Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer, I read some pretty scary stuff. “Anaplastic tumors are the least common (only 1% of thyroid cancer cases) and most deadly of all thyroid cancers. This cancer has a very low cure rate with the very best treatments. Most patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer do not live 1 year from the day they are diagnosed.” As his condition worsened, we did get to spend
more time with him. My mom went to help my grandma cook dinner while my sister and I watched TV with my grandpa. When he became too ill to eat solid food, I made him my famous frozen chocolate mousse pie. To this day, some of my best memories are sitting with him on the couch listening to him yell at Tiger Woods to let someone else win for a change. After less than 90 days, we were told he would live three more days without treatment or three months living in the hospital. Ultimately, he decided that having three months staring at a hospital wall and having everyone worry wasn’t worth it. My aunts and uncles flew in from San Francisco, Manhattan and Savannah to say goodbye. He passed away after we had all left for the night, holding a picture of my grandma. Even though cancer stole my grandpa, it brought my family closer together. Before his diagnosis, we hadn’t seen my uncle from Savannah for years. Now he comes to visit us twice a year. We started a family e-mail chain and shared our favorite stories and quotes about grandpa. Now, when I ask for support for Relay, I get notes from all my aunts and uncles saying how proud my grandpa would be. All that makes me feel like I’m doing all I can to honor his memory. After my grandpa’s passing, I have watched countless friends and families be affected by this disease. When I was 15, my friend Matt’s dad died from cancer. When I was 16, my friend Angela’s dad died in less than 60 days from his
I am a survivor. I am a survivor of sexual assault. I am a survivor of sexual violence. I am a survivor. It took me a long time to feel like I could claim this identity. I didn’t like the term, the way it implied that I had the choice to give up, or as if I was carrying that weight with me wherever I went. The thing was that I was carrying it, every day, every moment, wherever I was. I would hear someone use the r-word, in class, in a joke, in passing, and felt myself shut down, check out, physically and mentally disassociate. For the longest time, I didn’t want to call myself a survivor. I didn’t know how I felt about the term “victim,” and more than anything, I did not want those instances, those times, to define who I was. I have found that I tend to shut things out, black out memories, forgive too easily, attempt to forget. In ignoring the hurt, I failed to begin the process of healing. When I signed up for a conference called “Culture Shift” on campus, I didn’t know it was about sexual assault and violence on campus. I wasn’t ready for what I found myself thrown into. After the first evening, I wasn’t sure if I would go back the next day, I wasn’t ready to talk about these things with my peers. I had never understood the speak-out events in which survivors told their stories. They triggered me and reminded me of things I was trying so hard to forget. But I decided to go back. I challenged myself to share with this group of strangers that I was a survivor. I didn’t need to tell him anymore, I didn’t need to explain myself, and if I ever felt like I could not handle it, I knew I could leave. I almost did leave multiple times that day. Near the end of the day, they asked us to make signs that said, “I stand with survivors because …” or “I stand against sexual assault because ...” I spent what felt like ages staring at the paper, not knowing what to write, and when I finally did it the sign said, “I stand with survivors because … I am one and I no longer want to live in fear in my own community.” Claiming the identity of a survivor
has helped me to begin on the path of healing. Sharing that day, holding up my sign for others to see and verbally saying that to my peers, without any judgment, without any pity, made me realize just how much I had been holding myself back. By attempting to forget these parts of my history and identity, I had been allowing them to control me even more. A couple of weeks after the conference I went to the peer-led Support Group with SAPAC. Another girl from the conference was there, just the two of us, both totally new, and the facilitators. We didn’t have to talk about anything we didn’t want to, we didn’t have to share. But I knew that I could. We talked about coping mechanisms and how we had been. And while we didn’t share our whole stories, I found a safe space in these people. I went back the next week, and plan on continuing to do so. I want to start to tell my story so that I can start to heal. I wasn’t ready to call myself a survivor before, I wasn’t ready to start that healing process, and I know that there are many people who are not either. But I can now understand the power in sharing our stories. The power in reclaiming ourselves and our memories without letting them define us, just acknowledging how they shape us. In April 2014, I was assaulted by someone who I thought was a good friend, someone who was close to my partner at the time, someone I trusted. My partner pushed me to press charges, and I did, just to be told later by the judge that my actions were not reflective of someone who was being assaulted. I was being blamed by the government, being told that I should have said, “no more,” louder, should not have let them come to my place in the first place. Almost a year later, I am still working to heal and process. My partner left me, in many ways because I think that they felt they needed to do the same, and for each of us, that looked different. But after a year, after that conference, after sharing myself with
a group of strangers and peers, after finally admitting to myself that I am a survivor and that I am carrying that weight with me wherever I go, I can finally reclaim myself. In August 2009, at the age of 16, I was assaulted by two men in my suburban hometown outside of Boston. I spent that fall in the mental hospital, and the following years doing traumafocused CBT, DBT and other types of therapy to help with my PTSD and severe depression. I faked my way through most of it, feeling that if I lied and said that I was okay, that the pain would go away. It wasn’t until last spring that I realized just how much healing I had neglected to do. I realized just how much of myself I had tried to erase. When people ask whether there is one thing I would go back and do differently, I think about this weight that I carry and I wonder what I would do differently. A lot? Nothing? Regardless of the alternate realities I could live in, I am here in this one and I wouldn’t change a thing. I will only make the choice to continue the process of healing as I move forward. I will not black out years of my life or moments in time because of the pain. I will work through them and understand why they are important in who I am. It took me five years to call myself a survivor. We all heal in different ways and at different rates. I wasn’t ready to share my story before, to claim this identity, but I now understand why others could and have. It is not so that others can hear their stories and say, “What strong people, how much we must change.” This is a part of it, but that is not why I, as a survivor, want to tell my story. I want to tell my story so I can say that this is what has happened to me, but this does not define me. This is what I come from, but it is not who I am. I am more than those who blamed me, more than the decision of the judge or the lost friendships. I am reclaiming myself. Corine Rosenberg is an LSA junior.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Ben Keller, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Linh Vu, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe
O
Not a damsel in distress
n Thursday, March 26, the Muslim Students’ Association and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality co-hosted an event titled “Confronting Islamophobia.” The event was a panel followed by a question-answer session with guest speakers Dawud Walid, the execu- RABAB tive director of the JAFRI Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations; Fatina Abdrabboh, the director of the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee; and Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, who is on the advisory board of the Islamic Studies program at Claremont Graduate School. The panelists covered many aspects of Islamophobia and its effects on Muslims and American society. One aspect that the speakers highlighted was the problems associated with oversimplifying Muslims and how Muslims, in turn, deal with their Muslim identity. When asked about the effects of Islamophobia on Muslim identity, Walid explained that he has seen a mix of responses from Muslims. He reflected on how after 9/11 many Muslims changed their names to hide their Muslim identities, but he also explained how he saw Muslims embracing their identities. Walid said, “I also saw this, especially in Dearborn, where there was a group of younger Muslim ladies who weren’t wearing hijab who also began to start wearing their hijab almost as a form of resistance and showing off their identity.” Walid’s example highlighted an instance in which Muslim women decided to wear hijab voluntarily, another narrative not commonplace in the media. Abdrabboh expanded on the media’s oversimplification of Muslims,
diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. One week to the day after he passed, my best friend Anna’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Three months later, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. The list goes on and on, unfortunately with more people losing their battles than winning. Every time I go to an MRelay meeting, all of these people are in my
using Muslim women as an example: “Somehow there is a green light that our very womanhood can be described as cheap, or as you know, with one sentence, genie in a bottle or you know burkha head to toe, abused, the whole stereotype.” She then continued to explain how this stereotype should be viewed in the broader context of women’s issues in America. So, let’s talk about the stereotypical Muslim woman in this context of women’s issues in America. The idea that somehow the only way a woman can be liberated is if she abides by the impossible expectations set by society is a problem that women in America face. Women are expected to be proud of their bodies and put them on display as people point out every flaw and imperfection. A confident woman is seen as someone who dresses a certain way with the right body. The stereotype that the Muslim woman who wears a hijab is oppressed and in need of saving is a misconception that portrays the idea that a Muslim woman isn’t capable of making her own choice — specifically to wear the hijab. The idea that a Muslim woman is in need of saving is parallel to the narrative of the damsel in distress ingrained in society. I am not a damsel in distress and I do not need saving. So when I tell you that I’m very aware of the decision that I have made to wear my hijab, I would hope that you understand that it was an informed decision that I am completely capable of making. Wearing hijab to me is an act of servitude to God and my understanding of His infinite wisdom. Everyday I wake up and am reminded that I am a Muslim as I carefully pin my hijab to ensure that all my hair is covered and check my clothes to see if they are loose-fitting. It keeps me aware of my faith and away from being influenced by the media, which places impossible
expectations on women’s beauty. People continue to view the Muslim headscarf as oppressive by separating it from the long standing tradition of women of faith covering their head. When you meet me, you confront my faith — my success in explaining to others why exactly I wear hijab has had varying success. When confronted about by my hijab, people often ask me what I am. If you ask me what I am, I’ll tell you I’m human. If you ask me where I’m really from, I’ll explain again that I was born and raised in America and that my first language is English. In frustration, you ask me where my parents are from; I’ll tell you they are South Asian. Finally you can whisk away my previous remarks and put me in one of your boxes, although the answer you were hoping for was Arab. You may think that my hijab is slowing me down, but it only makes me focus more on what is really important to me. I am one of those snowboarding, poetry slamming, fun-loving hijabis that will not be constrained by stereotypes. And so when you ask me who is making me wear my hijab, I’ll explain that it is a choice I made as I believe it as the command of God to dress modestly. With a concerned look you reply, “But you are in America, you can be liberated here.” In my eyes there’s nothing more liberating than the feeling I get when I wear my hijab. I put it on with the hopes to impress God and no one else. So when people confuse something I see as a beautiful act of worship with something inherently oppressive, it’s distressing. I hope that people will begin to learn more about hijab and Islam before making such assumptions.
thoughts. I Relay so nobody else has to go through what my friends and family did. I Relay because I know that, in my lifetime, we will find a cure. Grandpa was a doctor, and when my mom used to ask how his day was when he got home, he’d say, “just another day of saving lives and stamping out disease.” Well, I want to stamp out this disease. I have seen what MRelay can do, rais-
ing more than $1,000,000 in the last three years. I know we are making a difference, and I’m so excited to see what we can do together this year. Please join us on April 11 at 10 a.m. on Palmer Field to help finish the fight against cancer. Visit mrelay.org for more information.
— Rabab Jafri can be reached at rfjafri@umich.edu.
Megan Boczar is an LSA junior.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 — 5A
‘Genes for Good’ study could predict diseases ‘U’ researchers analyze fluxuation in wages and poverty, among other factors By IRENE PARK Daily Staff Reporter
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
James S. Jackson, professor of psychology, health behavior, and health education, speaks at the Jerome B. Wiesner Symposium “Strengthening the Roles of Universities in National Science Policymaking: Education, Research, and Engagement” at the Rackham Building on Monday.
STEM From Page 1A within the scientific community: the lack of scientific representation in policymaking, the need for improved scientific communication to the public, the challenges facing STEM education and the concerns over a lack of diversity in scientific fields. The recommendations were presented by School of Education Dean Deborah Ball and Rosina Bierbaum, former dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment and current member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The list included improving science policy education for students, offering resources to faculty to support science communication and fostering engagement between the University, state government and federal government in policymaking. Education Several presenters discussed ways for Universities to potentially improve the quality of undergraduate education in STEM fields. The most pressing need identified was for students in science to gain a better understanding of science policy in the future. Currently, the University offers a certificate program for graduate students in Science, Technology and Public Policy. The recommendations encouraged the expansion of cross-departmental programs like this. They also called for the University to compile a directory of currently offered courses in science policy, which would foster better review of its effectiveness in training students for potential careers in research or policy. Whether through undergraduate curriculum or internships, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said scientists should spend as much as 10 percent of their time working on policy issues related to their research. Given that many grants from federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, are funded through taxpayer dollars, many presenters said it is important for the public to understand the importance of continued investment in the sciences. Holdren said scientists, engineers and mathematicians need to concern themselves with how the public receives research and how it is implemented in the public sphere. He added that the scientific community should also encourage young members who may wish to pursue policy professions full time. “Obviously some will, at some point in their careers, engage with these issues full time,” Holdren said. “I think it is appropriate to train some people to do so early in their careers.” A key dividing issue during the first day of discussion was how to implement such policy experiences in science curriculums. Some experts, such as former U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, promoted the use of fellowships to allow scientists to gain exposure in federal offices. Holt, who is currently chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, discussed his experience as a congressional intern and highlighted the role of current AAAS fellowships, which place young scientists in congressional and department offices in Washington, D.C. each year. James Jackson, director of the Institute for Social Research, acknowledged that policy internships might not be suitable for every scientist, but said it was
important to provide opportunities for students who might be interested. Other panelists considered more formalized methods of integrating policy into science curriculums. Tobin Smith, vice president for policy at the Association of American Universities, suggested involving students in science policy and history courses early in their academic career, along with experiential learning courses and internships. He added that it is concerning that many undergraduate and graduate students working in laboratories have little to no idea as to the source of their funding. Physics Prof. Homer Neal, who currently conducts research at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, also known as CERN, expressed a similar sentiment. He noted that the College of Engineering allows certain science policy courses to count toward optional distribution requirements in some programs, but that LSA does not. Rackham graduate students Kim Daley and Rachel Merzel said they believe that integrating policy courses would make sense either later in undergraduate coursework or early in graduate coursework. Merzel referred to current funding methods in science as a “black box” — rarely do young scientists fully understand what happens to research grants after they are submitted to a federal agency for review. Because they rarely receive formal education to apply for grants, most researchers face a steep learning curve when attempting to do so in their professional careers. The pair agreed that formalized courses could overcome some of these obstacles. Beyond policy decisions, several presenters discussed the need for improved STEM education and teacher certification courses. Ball said the current system of producing STEM teachers — a system that primarily involves students graduating from four-year institutions like the University before starting a teaching career — do not prepare graduates for the true challenges of teaching, such as understanding different learning styles and encouraging student to pursue a variety of fields. “The most important job that we ask any adult in our society to do — the cultivation of the next generation of thinkers, doers, problem solvers — we really leave largely to chance,” Ball said. “It’s a problem that’s squarely in the responsibility of universities, and yet we fail often on university campuses to understand our role in that.” Communication In addition to education, improving scientific communication was another widely identified area of concern among many presenters. Recommendations in this area included providing training resources to faculty in media communications, hosting regular meetings of science policy experts on campus and encouraging engagement with government officials. As scientific research struggles under the weight of sequestration — blanket cuts to government spending that have reduced scientific research significantly since 2013 — and other political pressures, there is a need for the community to develop effective means of communicating research to the public and Congress, said France Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation. Cordova said some research — specifically, she referenced a now infamous video of a shrimp running on a treadmill — can receive
criticism from the public as a frivolous use of taxpayer money. However, as was the case with the aforementioned video, she said there is almost always a serious scientific purpose for such studies that, if effectively communicated to the public, encourages support for such research. Cordova added that the key is not creating communications experts within science, but rather convincing scientists to engage in heartfelt conversations with political leaders. In research, where emotional attachment to a subject is often discouraged, Cordova said it is important that scientists are able to communicate the personal importance of their own research to earn the public’s trust. “When you speak from your passions, when you have something to say, when you have a good knowledge of and you’re truly interested in the person that you’re talking with and want to hear what they say, you are a communicator,” Cordova said. “I just don’t want anyone in this audience — and especially our young people — to sell themselves short because they haven’t taken some public speaking class.” “If you take the effort to share what you care about, you can just make a tremendous difference,” she added. In addition to communicating with Congress, presenters discussed the various ways that scientists could make their research more available to the public. Chemical Engineering Prof. Sharon Glotzer referred to the research being conducted in certain departments at the University as one of the best-kept secrets in science. The presenters recommended the University provide resources and workshops that teach faculty how to better engage with media, acknowledging how such communication is often different from what a researcher might encounter when speaking with students or government officials. Value Another discussion held among the presenters regarded the value of public research universities to local and national communities. Traditionally universities are the harbingers of cutting-edge research and academia, but it appears the fundamental driving forces could be changing to reflect the changing needs of the country. President Emeritus James Duderstadt highlighted the three main competencies of the modern research university: providing learning communities for students, promoting access to a broad scope of knowledge and verifying truth in sciences. While some of these roles have shifted in response to the rapid expansion of easily accessible online resources, the presenters contended that there is still a major role for universities in serving the public good. Moving forward, universities will likely need to adapt to the changing landscape of public support for research. This could, in part, involve a reevaluation of how universities value different forms of research, — potentially placing more credibility on entrepreneurship and translational research, in addition to traditional research, as a path toward tenure. Engineering Dean David Munson said his college has already started considering other aspects of impact that contribute to promoting learning goals. In particular, he noted that when requesting letters of recommendation for tenure appointments, the college uniquely asks about a professor’s contributions to entrepreneurship, along with standard mea-
Doctors may soon be able to predict if patients will develop a particular disease based on their genes and lifestyle. University researchers launched a study Tuesday titled “Genes for Good,” which aims to collect health and genetic information to better understand human health and preventative medicine. The study is co-led by Biostatistics Prof. Goncalo Abecasis and Scott Vrieze, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Vrieze wrote in an e-mail interview that the goal of Genes for Good aligns with the aim of the Precision Medicine Initiative, which was announced during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in January. Obama characterized the initiative as a research effort to “revolutionize” how diseases are treated. The program was launched with a $215 million investment in the president’s 2016 budget. The initiative aims to help clinicians provide the best possible care for patients by taking the patients’ genes, environments
DIVEST From Page 3A his recount of the history behind the conflict. Lieberman said the resolution rested on untenable premises and the resolution assumes that Palestinians are solely innocent victims without responsibility for their own conditions. He also gave examples of conflicts in other nations such as Syria, Russia and India as issues that should be given greater attention. “Israel has offered to recognize Arab sovereignty on five occasions,” Lieberman said. “If any of those offers had been accepted, there would be no refugees. Lieberman did not directly speak against divestment last year, though in response a CSG representative’s question, Lieberman did say the resolution would have furthered the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. During the Community Concerns portion of the meeting, speakers were heard in random order. The speakers included students both for and against the
JOURNALIST From Page 2A Utah for one year, but the change he has been able to invoke in what he calls the “Post-Ellen” era, has been immense. When he began his job, he noticed there was already momentum to raise the standard for screening efficiency. “The field wanted change, and I was ready to do some changing,” he said. He said prior to his post, the Utah screening center was only open five days a week, delaying screening over the weekend and causing sick newborns to get sicker. Now, the
sures of evaluation. More broadly, the symposium drew attention to one major divergence in academia: professors are best suited to engage on complex social and policy issues, yet engaging with the public does not usually gain them the same level of recognition in their professional careers. Jackson, director of the ISR, contended that science rarely rewards the best and brightest for taking interest in policy efforts. He said this perceived disinterest can color the entire scientific community when it comes to engaging the public. “For a lot of our colleagues and for a lot of students, there is often something unseemly about involvement with regards to public policy and I think that we have a
and lifestyles into account when determining medical treatments. “What we’re doing is not unlike that which is being proposed and discussed for the new NIH Precision Medicine Initiative,” Vrieze wrote. Abecasis said the recent technological advances have facilitated biomedical data analysis, which traditionally has been the limiting factor. He said researchers now need ways to generate and collect a large dataset of genetic and health information for analysis. “One of the questions we were interested in was figuring out how to engage large numbers of people in research in a cost-effective manner,” Abecasis said. “By reaching large numbers of people, we can explore questions that can’t be tackled in small studies.” Genes for Good collects health information by having its participants complete various health and lifestyle surveys. Once a certain number of surveys are completed, the participants can send in saliva samples to get their genes analyzed. The genetic information includes details about an individual’s ancestry, such as what fraction of a patient’s genes originated from which continents. Though participants can also download a full copy of the genetic information compiled through the project, the information will not be completely user-friendly in its current form. “(It) is probably more useful
for aficionados at the moment,” Abecasis said. “But that will become gradually more useful as more annotation services become available.” Currently, the study uses Facebook as a platform to engage and reach out to a large, diverse group of people. “We thought Facebook would be a place where many people already spent time as part of their regular routine,” Abecasis said. “And that perhaps they might answer some questions about their health as a small addition to that routine.” Abecasis also said his team is currently working on a mobile version of the app to reach more individuals. Rackham student Shweta Ramdas said she participated in Genes for Good because she wanted to contribute to the ongoing research. “I saw this as win-win, really,” Ramdas said. “It’s also a great feeling knowing that you’re contributing to a research study, even if in a small way.” Ramdas, who is studying bioinformatics, said she participated because her research project centers on human genetics. However, she wants to see others who do have background in genetics to participate in the study as well. “I’d also want my non-Ph.D. friends to get excited about genetics and its increasing presence in our lives over the next few decades,” Ramdas said.
resolution. Community Concerns lasted 90 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes due to CSG voting twice to extend the time limit. Speakers in favor of the resolution spoke about how they believe there is consensus that human rights are a universal right. They also emphasized that the resolution did not call for CSG to make a decision on divestment, but rather to support a University committee investigating the University’s investments. Speakers against the resolution discussed the perceived lack of consensus on campus on the alleged violations. They also spoke about the issue being a divisive subject on campus. Speakers urged students to focus on dialogue between groups instead. During the Executive Communications portion of the meeting, CSG President Bobby Dishell, a Public Policy senior, as well a CSG Vice President Emily Lustig, an LSA senior, said they were against the resolution. “This resolution in no way embodies or is in concert with the University’s mission statement,” Dishell said.
SAFE introduced a similar proposal to the student assembly last March. Last year, CSG initially voted to suspend the vote on the resolution indefinitely. This decision led to a sit-in at the CSG chambers. The following week former CSG President Michael Proppe, a current Business graduate student, motioned for the assembly to reexamine the resolution. That year, CSG ultimately voted not to pass the resolution in a 25-9 vote with five abstentions. This year’s resolution received six more votes in favor over last year. The University has only divested twice in the past. In the first instance, the University divested from apartheid South Africa due to the “serious moral or ethical questions” raised by the investments made in South Africa at that time. In 1999, the University divested from tobacco companies because of their distorted advertising and presentation of health information. After the meeting concluded, members of SAFE gathered around the Cube in Regents Plaza and thanked the supporters before disbanding for the evening.
center is open every day, allowing for a much smoother process. The panelists concluded the panel by emphasizing that these newborn tests detect rare diseases and many pediatricians are not familiar with them, creating more room for error. Gabler said she had talked to parents who noticed abnormalities in their babies, and had doctors reassure them that everything was fine when their children were sick. In addition to parents opting out of tests for religious reasons, individual states have control over which tests they conduct on babies, which can further complicate newborn health.
In an interview following the event, Gabler emphasized the importance of these tests and said patients can better advocate for themselves in these situations and demand the truth about the timeliness of their children’s screenings. Public Health student Matthew Fillare said he found Gabler’s work impactful and important. “It’s pretty cool that this is such a non-politicized subject as well, like it’s pretty easy to get people behind saving the lives of babies,” Fillare said. “It’s pretty objectively easy to do. Like someone said on the panel, sometimes journalism can have more of an effect than legislation.”
responsibility,” Jackson said. One recommendation was for faculty to be asked to include engagement and outreach efforts in their annual report to deans and the provost, thus encouraging it as a means of career advancement. Another called for the University to better promote itself in Congress, the White House and Lansing in an effort to provide students the best possible chances of being selected for one of the highly competitive internships or fellowship that offer access to policymakers. But value doesn’t just rest in public perception, but student perception as well. As the symposium was drawing to a close, Space Science Prof. Lennard Fisk raised one last concern over challenges facing scientific
research. While students are sometimes despondent over the inherent struggles of becoming a scientist, Fisk said it was important to keep in mind the public arena that they will eventually enter — the problems they face now only prepare them for the problems they might face later. Neuroscience Prof. Huda Akil agreed with the sentiment, but said she still works to encourage students to pursue scientific careers. As she struggles with the pains of funding concerns and contentious policy, she said it’s important to remain optimistic and demonstrate to students that there are still great opportunities. “The best antidote for the despair is for them to understand why I love what I do,” Akil said.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
Dull ‘Serena’ not worth the wait
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Poor performances and directing mar historical drama By REBECCA LERNER Daily Arts Writer
“Serena,” starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, is a film Hollywood wants you to forget about. It is, on all possible levels, an D aching disappointment. The Serena failure is the Streaming fault of both Online the lackluster performance Magnolia Pictures from two of America’s most buzzed about actors and Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier, who has proved that she can do better. Worst of all, “Serena” cheaply reproduces Ron Rash’s 2008 novel full of vital characters, issues that make an audience gasp and think and smash them into flat, trite versions of themselves. The movie begins in 1929 with sweeping views of the North Carolina timber business. It is a place that would be lost without lumber tycoon George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”) and his superhero complex. He must routinely save his men from broken equipment and an increasingly environmentally conscious Congress that wants to halt his destruction of the Appalachian forests to create a National Park. After casually impregnating Rachel, (Ana Ularu, “A Very Unsettled Summer”) a local teenage girl, he leaves and happens to meet Serena (Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”). She rides into the movie in slow motion on a white horse. Serena’s personality does not enter her own story until her future husband chases her on horseback and allows the third sentence he says to be, “I think we should be married.”
PC MUSIC
A photo of the lovely Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren ... April Fools!
PC Music is colorful, bizarre, kawaii pop
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
This is a screenshot from classic American romance ‘Casablanca’ ... April Fools!
According to the jumbled and awkward sex scenes intended to illustrate their blossoming love, Serena accepts Pemberton’s proposal before heading back to North Carolina. George introduces her as his equal to his crew and his right-hand man Buchanan (David Dencik, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”). At first, Serena shows no qualms about taking charge in the camp, proving herself as she insists on training an eagle to hunt the rattlesnakes that terrorize the men and directing them to more efficiently cut lumber. Serena quickly proves herself to be “the real pistol” that George introduced her as – when people in the camp threaten to expose the Pemberton’s shady financial records, she shows no hesitation about ordering the murders of anyone in the camp for the good of the company. After a miscarriage, however, Serena learns she will not be able to bear children and angrily watches the way George cares for his and Rachel’s bastard son. With the help of her clairvoyant one-handed henchman Galloway (Rhys Ifans, “The Amazing Spider-Man”) she determines that the child must be killed to save their marriage and the rest of the movie
is a tangled race against insanity. Aside from the stilted dialogue and the fact that the audience must constantly guess what quirky accent Bradley Cooper is going to try next, the film is unsatisfying in a far more important way. The women are given one or two personality traits without enough backstory to justify the emphasis on these traits. Lawrence seems afraid to play Serena to her full murderous glory, as the protagonist of Ron Rash’s novel is the coldest, baddest bitch around. But through her shift from a confident capitalist to a baby-crazy psycho with little explanation, there is an artificial softness added to her coldness. Because of the director’s fear of a truly inhospitable and aloof female character, they ruin her. While there are gorgeous scenes of Czechoslovakia and both actors are dazzling in their Depression-era apparel, physical beauty is not enough to save “Serena.” The unjustified lunacy of the film is made even more unbearable by the possibility of what could have been. Rash provided a solid novel with intriguing characters that were understandable in their madness, but they are caricatured on screen as condensed and dull versions of themselves. “Serena” deserves better.
By DANIEL SAFFRON For The Daily
PC Music, a mysterious, London-based label founded by A.G. Cook in 2013, deviates from all recognizable paths. The label has received its fair share of encomia and vituperation. Easily pass-offable as innocuous consumer pop, the label’s self-aware, sarcastic affectation hints at quite the opposite. Many critics have approached the goings-on over at PC Music with a high level of scrutiny, but it’s not a label that should be taken too seriously; it does better with a grain of salt and some chaser. The music itself is hyper-digital, Kawaii-influenced synthpop with a heavily treble-skewed auditory range, high-pass filters aplenty and amphetaminic rhythms. The lyrics are peculiar, awkward and obtuse. Hannah Diamond’s “Every Night” awkwardly relates the familiar first moments in a romance: “I know you like the way that I look / And it looks like I like you too / You know I do / I like the way you like / That I like how you look / And you like me too.” The rhythmic phrasing is choppy and noticeably quantized, but behind the heavy digital influence is a seductive candor. The vocals resembling Alvin and the Chipmunks are perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the genre. They are highpitched, digitally manipulated and
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Britishly accented. You either love it or hate it. While the music is immediately unsettling, exposure uncovers an insidious infectiousness. It can be likened to Crystal Palace. A vehicle for intoxication, it is to be stomached with a grimace, but the more you consume, the more powerful the effects become. The label’s bizarre, refined aesthetic sets it and its artists apart and makes it worth the attention it receives. To start, the artists under the label bear Hello Kitty names like easyFun, Princess Bambi, GFOTY (Girlfriend of the Year) and Lipgloss Twins. SOPHIE, while not on the label, is an act often associated with it. The SOPHIE himself is male, but often has female DJs perform as him at his shows. Strange fashion taste features heavily in the persona of the artists. In an interview with VICE, Hannah Diamond says she likes “all white and … veer(s) towards pink and black print and trainers,” while GFOTY likens her style to “a pink onesie covered in Swarovski crystals with loads of money coming out the pockets and Ugg boots.” It is uncertain how much of what GFOTY says is genuine and how much she says with a wink. Her grandiose persona seems to be a loud commentary on female sexuality and club-culture customs. Listen to “Friday Night” and you’ll get the idea – it’s hard to
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take at face value. The artists behind the PC label are easily cast off as preternaturally enigmatic, but attractive, human qualities come to light in some of the artists’ interviews. In a video on her YouTube channel, Hannah Diamond tells us about her music’s focus on failed romance. I have to admit, I developed something of a crush for Hannah Diamond after watching the video. Her cute, innocent personality is somehow both in keeping and incongruous with her focused artistic presence. Diamond studied fashion communication and styling and is the Diamond behind imagemaking duo Diamond Wright, who are responsible for creating promotional images for many of the label’s artists. The label most recently released a music video for effervescent “artist” QT. QT, also referred to as drinkQT, is not a person, but rather an “energy elixir,” which the website describes as a “5-calorie … drink manufactured to contribute to upward shine, vertical connectivity and personal growth.” The music video for QT’s “Hey QT,” made with collaborators A.G. Cook and SOPHIE, dropped last Wednesday and is part of the mass-marketing ad campaign for the “sparkling future pop sensation.” Confused yet? You’re not the only one. The video capitalizes on everything that makes PC PC; its visual aspects are in no way an exception. The video takes place in a drinkQT “testing facility” and features a copper-haired, short-banged woman – the spokesperson/face behind QT. She is initially clad in hygienic hospital whites and maintains an uninvolved, laconic disposition as she gets ready to experience drinkQT. When the chorus drops and the elixir takes over, the whites are traded for a tight, reflectively pink dress and her slow movements fall to the wayside of digitally sped-up dance moves. Boy oh boy, if she doesn’t look like she’s having a ball, I don’t know who is. It must be QT’s doing, as we are incessantly reminded, she can feel QT’s “hands on (her) body.” The visuals do well to capture the music’s exuding pinkness and the artificial dance moves complement the pitched up vocals. Everything about QT hints at its being a mockery of the heavily ad-influenced pop industry. The whole label, which frequently refers to its music as pop, seems a sardonic caricature of the industry. The “Hey QT” music video reminds us that pop artists themselves aren’t treated all too much differently than the latest energy drink and vice versa. PC Music is absurd and nightmarish in a bubble gum and candy canes type of way, but the label’s approach to music production and its heavy emphasis on image is not any stranger than the traditional pop approach; it only takes PC’s jarring music to bring it to light. I’ve come to develop a taste for PC Music. It’s not musically groundbreaking, but it is definitely the first synth pop that I get down without dry heaves. Much has been written about the happenings over at PC Music, and it seems pretty universal that no one is entirely certain what exactly to think about it. I sure don’t. The twoyear-old label has yet to receive widespread notoriety, but as the fan base grows and the artists develop, it should be interesting to see what comes of this motley crew of London artists.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 — 7A
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
DETROIT ARTS COLUMN
Musicians aim to Bringing music back retake streaming to Detroit’s kids W
Tidal is Jay Z and friends’ challenge to Spotify By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY Daily Arts Writer
In the early hours of March 30, many of the Internet’s elite artists went blue — turquoise to be exact. Beyoncé, Jay Z, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna were the first I noticed. They urged followers to change their profile pictures to the bright blue color as well. Lastly, all of them featured the caption “#TIDALforALL.” So, what is #TIDALforALL? At first glance, I figured it must be a new charity they unanimously decided to support: possibly a tsunami relief fund? But no, it refers to a newly relaunched subscriptionbased music streaming service. Tidal, originally launched in 2014, was acquired by Project Panther, which is owned by none other than Jay Z. Following the aqua profile pictures, a countdown began. “Five more hours… are you ready?” was posted to Rihanna’s official Facebook along with a video in which the music industry’s A-listers assemble around a conference table. Five hours later, at 5:00 p.m. Monday evening, a press conference appeared on Tidal.com (and is still available for viewing) in which it was revealed that Tidal will enter the streaming industry, currently dominated by Spotify and Pandora. But there’s more. With this crowd of artists, there always has to be more. While there is no free version, Tidal offers “the best High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos and expertly Curated Editorial.” Vania Schlogel, a member of the Tidal team, revealed that not only
TIDAL
Hillary Clinton signs the Declaration of Independence ... April Fools!
is this a new streaming service, but it is owned solely by artists, and even more importantly can also be taken offline. Following her brief introduction, she invited the owners of Tidal to the stage: Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire, Beyonce, Calvin Harris, Chris Martin, Daft Punk, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Jay Z, Kanye West, Dead Mau5, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher. Now, that is what I call a knockout line-up. Keys then took to the podium to expand on what Tidal is, and what it means for the music industry — for both artists and fans. Her speech is filled to the brim with anecdotes about music. How it makes us feel, how it connects us. Not a word she said is false, but it’s also hard to see what exactly she is getting at. The music industry is in freefall. Between illegal downloading, album leaks and streaming services such as Spotify, which seem to rip off artists (ahem, T. Swift), it seems that these artists have banded together to claim what is theirs — music. And can we blame them? It is their work that we love. It is their passion and effort that
we wake up to in the morning, that makes road trips bearable and that lifts us up when we feel low. At first glance it comes off as a power-grab, which in the end, may turn out to be just that. Only time will tell. However, as each of these innovators walked up to the front of the stage and signed their declaration, it’s hard not to feel as though music history were being made in front of us. I am very interested to see the experience of Tidal as compared to other companies that seem to fit the same niche. Will the quality of sound be noticeably better? What type of editorial content will be featured? Will it be so original that I need to have Tidal in my life? In all seriousness, I hope so. Some will bitch about having to pay; even more will bitch if their favorite artists move solely to Tidal, but it’s their work and they can do what they choose with is. As fans, as people, we should respect that. Innovation is what keeps the world running, and it certainly allows the music industry to grow before our eyes every single day. Tidal, you’ve certainly made a splash. Now, it’s time to see if you can truly live up to your name.
hen 11 University of Michigan students walked through the doors of Woodbridge Community Center, a chorus of elementary schoolers greeted them with cheers, shouting “They’re here! They’re here!” as they PAIGE ran down the PFLEGER hall. The University students are part of a club called Seventh Mile Music, which gives free after school music lessons to kids in Detroit’s Woodbridge and Brightmoor neighborhoods. University alum Sam Saunders was inspired to start the club nearly two years ago. He grew up in a low-income town in West Virginia, and participated in a similar music program when he was younger. The program helped him realize his love of music, which led him to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance to pursue a degree in piano and composition with the help of a scholarship. Without his music program, he wouldn’t be where he is today. When Saunders came to Michigan he was instantly impressed with the University’s resources and the wealth of talent in SMTD. He learned that the funding to Detroit Public Schools’ music programs had been cut, and wondered why one couldn’t help the other. That’s when Seventh Mile Music was born. “I just thought it was such a shame that an entire generation
ABBA remains one of life’s greatest joys By CATHERINE BAKER Daily Arts Writer
Friends, family and esteemed colleagues, I have gathered you here today to discuss an important topic: ABBA. Now before you scoff, roll your eyes or laugh, let me explain. I believe ABBA to be one of life’s greatest joys. In addition to being an excellent source of feel-good songs to sing in the shower, ABBA’s music is full of drama, humor, wit and heartbreak — basically everything good music should contain. A few nights ago, I was scrolling through Spotify in search of a song that would help me jumpstart my essay due the next morning when I stumbled upon “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” in the depths of an old playlist. This is what dreams are made of. Regrettably, my first introduction to ABBA was through the movie “Mamma Mia.” I had probably heard “Dancing Queen” during a climatic montage in some movie, but this time the combination of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan singing “SOS” was enough to send me to Google. (Yes,
I know, I’m not proud of this part of the story, either.) While Pierce Brosnan should probably never sing again, I would like to thank him for jumpstarting my devotion to this Swedish pop band. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, is more than welcome to serenade me any day of the week. There are iconic names in music that all people recognize, even if they have never listened to them before. These are the bands and musicians that transcend generations and gain the coveted title of “classic” (in varying degrees). The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA — I could go on, but you get the point. This mishmash of cultures and genres has very little in common except for the fact that they are occasionally played on the oldies station and are widely regarded as timeless. While it’s still unclear what exactly allows a song or artist to cross the boundary from good to immortal, it’s clear that ABBA has it. Let me break it down for you. ABBA was one of the first groups to emerge from a non-Englishspeaking country and achieve
success worldwide, and is one of the best-selling music groups of all time. It brought disco/pop to the forefront of the music industry, spawning several tribute bands and a musical, “Mamma Mia!,” that toured worldwide. In early 2010, ABBA was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone listed “Dancing Queen” as one of the greatest songs of all time in 2011. Whether you love, hate or are simply indifferent towards ABBA, you can’t deny its impact on modern music or the success it garnered throughout its 12-year run. Despite my far-fetched dreams of an ABBA reunion, no new music would top “The Winner Takes It All” or “Take A Chance On Me” simply because the age of ABBA is over, even if its allure is eternal. I don’t want to live in a world where “Dancing Queen” doesn’t exist, and — deny it all you want — I don’t think you do either. So, ABBA, thank you for the music that inspired a generation. (Just for the record, “Mamma Mia” is still a fantastic movie and anyone who says otherwise can go fight my 13-year-old self.)
Pfleger is learning how to play ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. To help her with ‘Hot Cross Buns,’ email pspfleg@umich.edu.
Nothing new about ‘Highwayman’ tale Daily Arts Writer
POLAR
in June. The fledgling club is trying to solidify itself by creating board positions to help things run more smoothly and be more organized. Right now, Saunders is the glue that is holding the group together — he rents the vans, rents the instruments, communicates with the community members and even pays out of pocket to keep things going. He’s dropped over $1,000 of his own money to help pay for transportation, or to buy kids instruments that they get to keep for themselves so they can practice at home — all because the club is having trouble securing funding, even from the University. “Since we have not been able to acquire funding, if I stopped funding it, then it would fall apart completely,” Saunders said. “We’ve put in too much work to just let it go to waste.” Saunders said the organization has applied for several University grants in the past, but was turned down from them. “If the school were able to provide us funding, that’s just all that’s holding us back,” Saunders explained. “We have plenty of interest. There’s obviously a huge need for it in Detroit.” Seventh Mile Music’s goal is to be able to provide instruments to every kid that is interested in learning about music but hasn’t had the opportunity to in Detroit. Because, as Saunders knows first hand, music can make all the difference.
BOOK REVIEW
By BAILEY KADIAN
This is the Ramones...April Fools!
of kids in Detroit were getting no exposure to the arts, especially because African Americans have had such a huge impact on the arts, they’ve kind of cultivated our musical style,” Saunders said. The student volunteers with Seventh Mile Music travel to Detroit twice a week using University transportation. They rent instruments and meet with the kids after they get out of school for their music lessons. The kids pick an instrument that they are interested in out of the instruments that the University students can teach, like drums, piano, guitar, banjo, cello, violin and more. In a colorful classroom in the Woodbridge Community Center, LSA sophomore Michael Payne teaches one little girl to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the cello. Payne began teaching with Seventh Mile Music last year. He was most worried about not having any teaching experience, which ended up not being a problem at all. “The kids are all so sweet, genuinely the nicest children I’ve ever met,” he said. “They’re so friendly and they’re really interested in learning the instruments.” The program director and cofounder of the Woodbridge Community Youth Center, Margaret Wilson, said that this program is filling a void that exists in Detroit schools. “The children love it, they’re very excited about it,” Wilson said. “They love the opportunity to be able to play an instrument.” Wilson said that parents in the neighborhood enjoy the program too, and the kids get to show their families what they’ve been working on at a recital that they put on
Ben Tripp’s “The Accidental Highwayman” is written “in the tradition of class fairytale fanta- The sies,” but I Accidental would say it’s more of Highwayman a fantasy to Ben Tripp believe that this novel Tor Teen would be $17.99 viewed in the same light as the fairy tales we have grown to love, such as “The Princess Bride.” It never makes it close to those stories that keep us engaged and excited, because there is a lack of depth to the characters and plot. Instead, Tripp attempts to produce a story with similar elements of magic, love and heroic acts, but does so in a mediocre way, with nothing new to add. We know what to expect based on the genre and how the story is told, but we find little else to make a distinction between this novel, and anything we have read before. Set in 18th century Britain, the novel follows the story of Kit Bristol, a servant to highwayman “Whistling Jack,” who is infamous for his gambling and unethical tactics. Kit serves loyally to his master, when one day, to his surprise, his master returns home bleeding from a fatal wound, a result of gunshots from those attempting to catch the dangerous highwayman. Kit’s reaction to the death of his master is one of a weak and fearful young man who is confused and lost, while attempting to plan an escape. Kit is on a quest, accompanied by his horse Midnight, to rescue a mysterious princess who is caught in an arranged marriage. His journey takes him through a magical series of events filled with fairies, a circus, a witch and numerous dangerous acts that call for a refreshing and heroic protagonist. Kit has some heroic
qualities, so it’s fairly easy to side with him through his various trials, but overall, it’s not enough to add much dimension to the story itself, or offer anything new to a traditional fairy tale. Despite being the novel’s protagonist, Kit also serves as a major weakness because of his youth. We root for him because he is nice, not because he does much to deserve our support or acts like a courageous hero. He regularly appears as the stereotypical hero of any good fairy tale, failing to add any dimension to his type. This lack of innovation has been a conscious choice meant to put a satirical twist on the entirety of the novel, but I’m not going to give Tripp that much credit, particularly while he is targeting a young adult audience. Young readers want to walk away with something new and exciting towards a genre they love, and I’m not certain a satire will accomplish that. The relationship between Princess Morgana and Kit is enjoyable, but there isn’t enough interaction between the two characters to make up for what’s lacking in the rest of the plot. This makes it difficult to support the love between both characters, because readers cannot truly grasp the dynamic between the two of them. Their love doesn’t fully develop into anything that shifts or changes the story, though, in a fairy tale, that’s typically what readers want a love story to accomplish. More interaction between the two of them could have made up for weaker elements in the novel. However, Morgana is definitely a redeemable character in the novel — she is strong and adds excitement to their relationship, given her admirable qualities of strength and courage, but unfortunately, her characterization doesn’t drastically alter the way the story moves. It’s fair to say that a young adult novel can get away with a few stupid scenes or conflicts that are frankly just a result of misfortune.
However, regardless of who this novel is directed toward, I would have liked more of a build up of conflict, where we question the emotions of the characters that we are rooting for and understand Kit’s relationships to those around him. Some secondary characters were occasionally dropped into the story, but overall added very little to the resolution. Some may say this novel can stand alone, regardless of its similarities to “The Princess Bride,” but it can’t simply because there isn’t anything that keeps readers fully engaged with and dedicated to its plot or its characters. Tripp uses a dialect similar to eighteenth century speech, which is mixed with some degree of humor and lightness as an attempt to find balance. I doubt a young reader will finish the book and say “I appreciate the wit and modern humor woven through the old language in this novel.” They want an engaging and moving story and there isn’t anything humorous about a fairy tale that lacks those elements. Critics describe this book as “fun,” and in some ways, there are fun elements to the work, but within that, there must be substance that allows for readers of all ages to stay engaged in the story. I’m not sure this novel does anything close to that, because through moments of long descriptions and limited character growth, there isn’t much left to look for, and while looking, I doubt you’ll find anything. Even if Tripp intentionally created a series of clichés as a way to exaggerate all elements of a fairy tale for the sake of humor and wit, there still needs to be something distinguishable for a young audience, considering the humor may or may not go over their heads. All in all, if you are looking for a heart-warming fairy tale and find yourself reading this book, it’s safe to assume that decision was entirely accidental.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
UCLA awaits Michigan in semifinal Offense stays hot in midweek win BASEBALL
By JACOB GASE Daily Sports Writer
As April begins and the collegiate year draws to a close, there are only eight women’s basketball teams in the country UCLA at that are still Michigan playing. And while Matchup: UCLA 17-18; it’s not one Michigan of the four 20-14 battling for When: the national Wednesday championship, 7 P.M. Michigan is Where: Crisler playing in Center April for the first time in program history. Fresh off a 69-60 win over Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg last Sunday, the Wolverines return to Crisler Center on Wednesday to face UCLA in their first WNIT semifinal matchup since 2010. Just two wins away from hanging the first women’s basketball banner at Crisler, the team couldn’t be more excited to be back in Ann Arbor. And after two WNIT victories in front of raucous road crowds — at Toledo and Southern Mississippi — Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico wants the Wolverine faithful to create a similar environment. “Any time (this season) that we have a had a tremendous crowd, a supportive crowd and a rowdy crowd, it has made the difference between winning and losing,” Barnes Arico told WTKA Radio on Tuesday. “It gets the team so fired up, and it really is a wonderful environment.” Michigan (20-14) is hoping for a strong turnout Wednesday night, but lately, it hasn’t really mattered where the Wolverines are playing. Despite playing two games in unfriendly territory, Michigan
managed to escape with two wins in large part due to its seniors, who have been bound and determined to extend their careers. Led by senior forwards Nicole Elmblad and Cyesha Goree and senior guard Shannon Smith, Michigan has been playing arguably its best basketball of the season. Most recently, Elmblad filled the stat sheet against Southern Mississippi with 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals, all while holding leading scorer Tamara Jones to six points. Goree added 15 points and 12 boards for her 17th doubledouble of the season, and Smith posted 11 points of her own. “All through this WNIT run, we have been led by our seniors,” Barnes Arico said. “They don’t want to stop playing. Nicole is playing with so much confidence right now — she has been a difference-maker for us on both ends of the floor. “We have five people (scoring) in double figures, and that really makes it hard for other teams to defend us. A lot of times when (Elmblad) wasn’t scoring during the course of the season,
people would step off of her and double Cyesha. Now that Nicole is knocking down that shot, it makes it that much tougher.” The Wolverines will have to continue that momentum Wednesday against a team that barely made the tournament but has caught fire as of late. The Bruins (17-18) entered the WNIT as the only team in the field with a losing record — two and a half games below the nextworst team in the field — but they have now won four straight contests. They won three of the four by double digits, along with a five-point upset of NCAA Tournament bubble team San Diego (24-7). UCLA’s offense is led by a trio of guards — Nirra Fields, Jordin Canada and Kari Korver — that, together, scores 30 points per game. The rest of the Bruins’ lineup has been fluid all season — nine other players, including guard Dominique Williams (twin sister of Michigan sophomore guard Danielle), have made at least one start and appeared in at least 17 games. “UCLA is super athletic and
really, really big,” Barnes Arico said. “They have probably six or seven players on their four-five rotation that they rotate in and out, play about 10-12 minutes a game, and they’re all about 6-2, 6-3.” As the Wolverines make their push to advance to their first-ever postseason championship game, they expect to lean heavily both on their seniors and their fans at Crisler Center. And though Barnes Arico doesn’t know what to expect from the crowd Wednesday, her team has earned the support of the Michigan athletic community, including athletic director Jim Hackett and men’s basketball coach John Beilein, who attended last Thursday’s game against Missouri. “(Beilein) is just the most supportive coach and coworker, and just tremendous to work with,” Barnes Arico said. “He said, ‘Kim, everyone’s going to be there (Wednesday). I will be there, (my team) will be there, and anything we can do to support you and your program, we will do.’ ”
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Nicole Elmblad recorded 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals in Michigan’s quarterfinal victory.
By NATHANIEL CLARK Daily Sports Writer
Lately, the Michigan baseball team has had no trouble scoring. Tuesday was no different, as the Wolverines (2-4 Big Ten, 15-12 overall) defeated Toledo (3-3 MAC, 9-19 overall), 7-3, for their third 3 TOLEDO consecutive 7 MICHIGAN victory. “It was great to see us come out the way we did in the first two innings,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. Michigan launched its offense right away in the first inning. Junior third baseman Jacob Cronenworth led off with a solo home run, his third this season. “(The home run) was a good tone-setter,” Bakich said. “You don’t see that very often.” After freshman shortstop Jake Bivens flew out to center field, senior center fielder Jackson Glines drew a walk before he advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Sophomore first baseman Carmen Benedetti then drove Glines in with a double to put the Wolverines up 2-0. But it was junior left fielder Cody Bruder who stole the show. He blasted a two-run homer — the first of his Michigan career — to extend the lead to 4-0. Bruder is now carrying a 13-game hit streak and a 21-game on-base streak. “(Bruder) strings together a lot of quality at-bats every week,” Bakich said. After the Rockets put up a run in the top of the second, the Wolverines gave themselves breathing room in the bottom of the frame. With the bases loaded and one out, Glines hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in a run. Benedetti and Bruder each followed up by drawing walks,
forcing in another run and putting Michigan ahead 6-1. “We just kept throwing punches at them,” Bakich said. From there, Toledo chipped away at Michigan’s advantage. With two on and two out in the fifth inning, right fielder Ryan Callahan hit an RBI single to left to make the score 6-2. The threat ended when the Wolverines’ starter, junior right-hander Matt Ogden, struck out designated hitter Dan Zuchowski. But the situation only got more tense for Michigan in the sixth. The Rockets had runners on second and third with none out, prompting Bakich to pull Ogden in favor of sophomore right hander Cam Wysocki. Wysocki got the next two batters to ground out, but surrendered a run in the process. Following a walk to put two on with two out, sophomore righthander Mac Lozer came on to relieve Wysocki. Lozer quickly shut down Toledo’s rally by striking out second baseman Matt Hansen. “In that situation, we used three pitchers, and we needed to get out of that unscathed. Mac Lozer has thrived in that role,” Bakich said. In the eighth, Benedetti was called on to pitch for the Wolverines. He was up to the task, pitching the entire inning without allowing a run, walking one and striking out one. While Tuesday’s victory was not as flashy as Michigan’s 19-5 blasting of the Rockets on March 7, the win improved the Wolverines’ already sterling all-time record versus Toledo to 37-13-1. Michigan will face another team that it has been historically successful against, Central Michigan, on Wednesday.
Draft results unknown Haylie Wagner looks to SOFTBALL
right ship after struggles
By JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
Any assistant coach on the Michigan football staff will tell you there’s no experience quite like working for Jim Harbaugh. Plenty of oddities separate Harbaugh from the rest — his expressions, his tough attitude, his competitive antics — but a notable one is that he holds a draft to select teams for the spring game. Michigan’s draft, held Saturday, helped solidify some of the strengths and weaknesses of the team. While offensive coordinator Tim Drevno and defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin were hesitant to elaborate ahead of this Saturday’s spring game, they did talk about drafting a team for the first time since they last worked on Harbaugh’s staff at Stanford in 2010 and 2009, respectively. “It’s great experience,” Drevno said. “It’s something that we’ve done in the past with Coach Harbaugh. You go through the roster, and you pick out your strengths and weaknesses, and you pick out your positions. You’re strategizing as the draft goes on because you have to fill those positions to make sure you don’t lose out on somebody. … It really makes you a better coach because you have to fill a team and build your strengths.” The two wouldn’t give specifics on the players they picked, but Durkin said he had an idea of some of the top players on his defense are as he closes spring camp. “We’ve got a much better sense now than a month or two ago,” Durkin said. “It’ll give us a good starting ground for (fall) camp. We’ll (go back) through it in camp. One of the best things in practice is to keep it competitive.” Neither coordinator has been shy in his career about shaking things up and starting new, younger players. Drevno hasn’t been an offensive coordinator since 2006
Left-hander’s outings have been a cause of concern for Michigan By TYLER SCOTT Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
D.J. Durkin did not reveal his strategy in Michigan’s spring game draft.
at San Diego, but as the offensive line coach at Southern California last season, he started two true freshmen all year and a third late in the season because of an injury. This year, he has a stable of linemen to rotate during spring. Durkin had a solid, experienced defense at Florida last season, but he started two freshmen and two sophomores toward the end of the 2013 season, his first year as defensive coordinator for the Gators. Durkin has most of his defense returning this year, but he gave some early names to look for at defensive end, where Michigan lost both 2014 starters, Frank Clark and Brennen Beyer. Durkin mentioned senior Chris Wormley, senior Royce JenkinsStone, junior Maurice Hurst Jr. and sophomore Lawrence Marshall, the latter of whom has made tremendous strides this spring. “He’s a young guy, he’s a freshman — first two practices, it looked like he could barely line up,” Durkin said. “Now he’s out there and he’s playing really well for us. We expect him to help us.”
Durkin specializes in coaching linebackers, who are his most experienced group of players. “Joe Bolden, who’s played a lot of football here, he’s had a really good spring,” Durkin said. “I like his toughness. I like his leadership. (Desmond) Morgan is the same way. Those two are pretty much the same type of guy there for us.” And then there’s the secondary, which holds the one true wild card: top 2014 recruit Jabrill Peppers, now a redshirt freshman. “The guy loves football,” Durkin said. “He’s intelligent off the field. He’s very intelligent on the field as well. I’m not surprised at all. He works really hard at it. He’s got a great attitude every day.” Durkin added that he’d feel comfortable throwing Peppers anywhere in the starting secondary, just as he has with young players in the past. “Freshman, true freshman, that doesn’t matter to me,” Durkin said. “A guy’s either ready or he’s not. That’s been my experience and my track record. We’ve played a lot of young guys.”
Another narrative has been eclipsed by sophomore right-hander Megan Betsa’s spectacular pitching performance against Iowa. It’s hard to follow, but has been slowly developing throughout the season. It’s the story of how senior left-hander Haylie Wagner has suffered a few ill-timed lapses and now faces the challenge of regaining control midway through a season. Every athlete undergoes troubled times, and so far in 2015, Wagner is no exception. But as the season has continued, Wagner has seen her struggles grow from footnotes in otherwise-respectable outings to a full-fledged chapter in the story of her season. Wagner allowed four runs, had four errors and walked two batters in Saturday’s 7-4 win over Iowa. A three-run fifth inning for the Hawkeyes had the Michigan coaching staff visiting Wagner on the mound several times before she was finally subbed out for the final frames. “I just wanted her to get angry,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins after Saturday’s games. “That other team wants to beat her and she needs to get mad at them. … I wanted a pitcher that was going to play to win.” It got worse in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Iowa, when Wagner was brought in for Betsa to protect a one-run Michgan lead with one out and runners on first and second. Wagner’s
first pitch was wild, allowing the runners to advance. After intentionally walking catcher Holly Hoffman, Wagner gave up a double, surrendering the Michigan lead. “We needed Haylie to do her part,” Hutchins said after Sunday’s loss. “That did not occur, so we got what we deserved.” Wagner, a 2014 AllAmerican, has amassed a 13-2 record and recorded two saves in her 20 appearances this year. Outings like her complete game, one-run win over then-No. 3 Alabama on Feb. 21 have proved she can pitch as well as her accomplished résumé suggests she can. Yet the instances where Wagner has faltered have been critical. It all started in the first game of the year against No. 1 Florida. After pitching six innings of two-hit softball, two walks followed by a fielder’s choice put runners on first and third in a tie game. With two Florida outs, Wagner threw a wild pitch that allowed the winning run to score. It was a microcosm of Wagner’s entire season. One bad inning undid an entire game of solid work. On March 5, the Wolverines played the Gators again at the Judi Garman Classic, and Wagner hit three Florida batters in the third inning as the Gators scored three runs and cut into Michigan’s lead. In the home opener against Kent State, Wagner allowed three runs and was outdueled in a pitching battle by Golden Flashes right-hander Emma Johnson in an upset loss for the Wolverines. “We’ve blown a lot of teams
out,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins after the Kent State loss. “But to get where we want to go, we’ve got to be able to chip it out and win a tight series.” Nobody who has watched the Michigan softball team can question the support the players and coaches openly show for one another. One need only look to the pregame ceremony of highly choreographed handshakes and highfives, or watch the throng of supportive teammates that gather outside the dugout after every home run or inningending strikeout. “Confidence comes around from the entire team,” Wagner said after the win against Bowling Green. “As long as I trust them and they trust me, we’re going to be good.” Despite her troubles against elite competition early on, it seemed like Wagner was settling into a rhythm as she chalked up quality wins over Bowling Green, Ohio State and Western Michigan. But Wagner’s struggles against Iowa are a cause for renewed concern. A decorated veteran, the senior left-hander plays an important role for the Wolverines. She still has the regular season to overcome this adversity, and she still has the ability to pitch at an elite level. But to contribute to Michigan’s hopes of a championship run, Wagner will have to right the ship before the problem grows larger.
“That other team wants to beat her and she needs to get mad at them.”
For more softball coverage Check MichiganDaily.com throughout the week for updates
statement THE MICHIGAN DAILY
APRIL 1 , 2015
2B
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
Becoming a Townie: Ann Arbor sucks
T H E L I S T B U Z Z F E E D, B U T B E T T E R
BY EMMA KERR
S
tand in the inescapable rain and question everything. Then once you’ve figured it out, question it again. Stop on the corner of Main Street and watch the white walking signal turn to red, then back again to white. Sit down next to a man playing the violin with a wolf mask on his face and listen for a few hours, because the city is talking to you. Most of the time, Ann Arbor spins me in circles and leaves me dizzy, forces my eyes shut after long days and then somehow manages to force them open again every morning with the eastward sun. Most days, the only word I want to use to describe Ann Arbor doesn’t sound flowery — Ann Arbor is not beautiful or alive or freeing, it’s lonely. In four weeks, Ann Arbor will be rid of a huge percentage of students following the end of the winter term, but the 40,000 here now already make me feel like I’m the only living thing for miles. Standing on the Diag on the hour, it’s like everyone around me is a different species or worse, playing an entirely different game with rules no one bothered to tell me. It’s April 1 and I’m not in the joking mood. I would be overjoyed to write about the warm sun and how it feels for spring to have finally
sprung, but it hasn’t. As I am writing this, it is overcast and the weather predicts ice showers and lows of 15 degrees for the coming week. Ignore everything I’ve written so far about the hidden treasures Ann Arbor holds just awaiting discovery, because the seasonal depression everyone talks about is real and it hit hard on myself and on my peers in the past month as we all wait for one warm weekend. Ann Arbor is cold, and our relationship mirrors that of my relationship with the Ross boy who sleeps next to me on Friday nights — once a week it’s pretty great, but most of the time I could take it or leave it. I see photos of Pasadena taken on my brother’s iPhone that induce dreams of California beaches and rollerblades and burgers that don’t
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
SCIENTIFIC VISIONARIES FROM THE ‘U’ The University of Michigan is known as one of the premier research universities in the world. Here we honor five of the science leaders who once walked the halls of Angell.
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A P O L LO 1 5 C R E W
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E D G A R “ T E D ” CO D D
An all-Wolverine crew, the three alumni on this 1971 mission to the moon made sure to leave a charter of the “U-M Alumni Club of the Moon” on the ol’ ball of cheese. After graduation Codd worked for IBM, where he invented the relational model for database management — one of those things we all use everyday but no one knows about.
3 TO N Y FA D E L L
Among other storied accomplishments, Fadell invented the i-Pod. We’re sure the first song he played was “Hail to the Victors.”
4 S A N J AY G U P TA taste like they’ve previously been frozen longer than I’ve been alive. Ann Arbor is cold, and it will not be sympathetic to you. It is recklessly ambiguous and will be heartlessly honest with you when you are indeed wearing that mini skirt in the middle of January or you go to NYPD for a slice and the guy serving it to you knows you by name. Ann Arbor will tell you when you’ve got a problem and I know because I get told a hell of a lot by this city that I am in the wrong. That what I want is wrong or that I made a mistake, a quick reminder that my mother is 800 miles away and there will be no warm dinner waiting in the oven for me tonight and there will be no one to stop me from standing on the street looking like a lost puppy, watching colors turn until things make sense. And then I remember that this is exactly what I’ve always wanted. The loneliness that follows the first few years of freedom is normal; at the very least we can take solace in knowing we are surrounded by seas of people who all feel alone. The Keds I got just three years ago remind me that, while Ann Arbor has gone around the sun time and time again, twenty is a new decade for me, so it might be alright to not be quite so hard on ourselves. Ann Arbor is the city a whole lot of people live in alone for the first time, taking our proverbial virginities and welcoming us to reality. It’s unbearable at times, but the truth is, you never forget your first.
Currently CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, in 1988 Gupta was another harried undergrad trying to Orgo.
5 A N TO N I A N OV E L LO
This 1974 grad was the first female U.S. Surgeon General, part of a illustrious group of trailblazing Wolverine women.
THIS WEEK AT THE DAILY
THE
statement
Magazine Editor: Ian DIllingham Deputy Editor: Natalie Gadbois Design Editor: Jake Wellins
Photo Editor: Luna Anna Archey Illustrator:
Managing Editor: Lev Facher Copy Editors:
Megan Mulholland
Hannah Bates
Maggie Miller
Laura Schinagle
Editor in Chief:
Emma Sutherland
Jennifer Calfas COVER BY JAKE WELLINS
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement 3B
ON THE RECORD
M O D E R N AC T I V I S M
An interview with former Congressman Rush Holt BY IAN DILLINGHAM
RITA MORRIS/DAILY
“The past five years, there has been a real explosion of collective action amongst students. I think the students today are more knowledgeable, strategic and more disciplined than we ever were.” –Jewish Civil Rights activist LARRY RUBIN in a talk Monday evening, in regards to the current landscape of student activism.
THE THOUGHT BUBBLE
PHOTO BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
The following is an interview with Rush Holt conducted during the Jerome B. Wiesner Symposium on Strengthening the Roles of Universities in National Science Policymaking. Holt is currently chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Before taking over this role in February, he served sixteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives (NJ– 12). In Congress, he was a proponent for the advancement of science and technology policies. He also held a faculty appointment at Swarthmore College as a professor of physics and public policy. How do you define science?
LUNA ARCHEY/DAILY
“Last week, these three girls were walking into Skeeps, and one of them was eating a hot dog; her friends walked in and she took one bite of her hot dog, set it down on the top of the trashcan and went in ... And then this guy with his shirt ripped open all the way picks up the hot dog and eats the whole thing.” –Kinesiology sophomore TOBI HELLER on the funniest thing to ever happen at the Maynard St. bar Scorekeeper’s
Rush Holt: It’s a way of asking questions so that they can be answered empirically and verifiably … You try things, you observe things, you communicate your conclusions, and you subject your conclusions to other people who will check your work. That’s science. That’s the whole of science right there. It’s empirically based — evidence-based — it involves open communication and an invitation to others to check your work. If you do all of those things you’re thinking like a scientist. And if you understand that, I think you begin to understand and can appreciate why it is important that you have good science involved in legislation and regulations, why it is important that you have good science involved in international problems, why it is important that you have good science involved in social and economic decisionmaking.
What is the role of science and scientists in policymaking? We have a problem in our society understanding what science is and why science is. For starters, we should say that it is a liberal art. You want to understand science just as you would understand history or literature or other aspects of human intellectual experience … Science is not the exclusive path to knowledge — there’s poetry and story telling and religion — but it is the most reliable and it happens that it is also the most applicable. It is a way of thinking that leads to progress — in what most people would say is progress. We need a broader appreciation of that in society; and the appreciation of science in society at large is only so-so. There are a lot of people that appreciate the fruits of science — the ultimate applications: your iPhone here or something. But they don’t understand the scientific enterprise, how it works, what is needed to sustain it. We really need to develop that understanding in society at large; and, surprisingly, we need to develop that among scientists as well. Most scientists don’t think about science beyond the methodologies and the terminologies. They’re working on their techniques, whether they’re on paper or on the computer or in the lab, and would be hard pressed to give an understandable definition of science — would be hard pressed to talk about where science fits in with the overall human endeavor. How is science perceived by Congress and the public?
I served in the House of Representatives. Members of Congress are representative of the population at large. So when you see members of Congress denying evidence about vaccinations, denying climate change, avoiding any thought about evolution, cutting basic research funding, they’re reflecting what is widespread in our society and in our body politic. It’s not as if they’re particularly illinformed or mendacious. They’re representing what people are saying and thinking, and people are saying and thinking that the fruits of science are really pretty good. Most people would say that science is beneficial and society is making progress because of science — but that number is eroding, so that’s a troubling sign. And furthermore, they don’t quite know what that means, because they don’t have that basic appreciate of what and why science. They value the fruits of science but really don’t have a clue what it takes to sustain science and how scientists work … We need to communicate not what science says is true and false, but rather we need to communicate how science works and where science leads. And you have to do that with good stories. That’s how people communicate. All humans in modern history communicate with stories and anecdotes. That’s the way you learn. That’s the way you make decisions How has the President played a role in science policy? This president is intellectually very curious, and that says a lot — to me anyway. I was at the White House last week for the science fair, where he invited in a lot of high school and elementary school kids who had science projects and they all had their posters up. He just loved it. He said it’s his favorite day of the year — to interact with kids who are discovering things. It’s fun to watch their sense of discovery, and he interacts with them a lot.
Read the rest of the interview at MichiganDaily.com
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Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
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‘Wherever We Stand’: Pro-Israel groups and the campus divide By James Brennan, Columnist ILLUSTRATION BY LEVI KIPKE
I
n 1988, the Muslim Student Association and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee took to the Diag to construct a wooden “shanty house,” a popular protest among antiapartheid activists of the time. The MSA and PSC were demonstrating in solidarity with the first Palestinian Intifada, painting on their shanty “STOP ISRAELI OPPRESSION.” Angered by the demonstration, members of the right-leaning pro-Israel group Tagar responded in the fall with their own carpentry project: an Israeli school bus painted with flames shooting from its windows. The display was a memorial to a recent attack, where a mother and her three sons burned alive after terrorists firebombed the bus they were riding. The Tagar model carried the names of the four victims, as well as the demand “STOP ARAB TERRORISM, COME TO THE PEACE TABLE.” Within hours of its construction, student complaints led Tagar members to reword their sign as “STOP ALL TERRORISM.” But it was already too late. Outraged by the initial message, the Michigan Student Assembly — a predecessor to Central Student Government — moved to condemn Tagar, demanding an apology and threatening to derecognize the group. The Michigan Daily’s editorial page piled on, calling Tagar racist and endorsing the Assembly’s resolution to cut off funding. The 1988 controversy over Diag demonstrations was one in a long line of battles between the University’s large Jewish student population and vocal left wing — battles that go back more than thirty years. Fights over divestment resolutions are just the latest manifestations of tensions that have boiled over into racism, anti-Semitism, and exclusionary rules on speech. Israel-Palestine is a polarizing topic on any campus, but this is exacerbated at the University of Michigan, a school equally known for its radical activism and vibrant Jewish community (two traits not mutually exclusive). Powerful pro-Israel groups fuel this extreme polarization, whose resulting climate has led students to attack each other personally, question their own identities, and try to overthrow the status quo.
ILLUSTRATION BY LEVI KIPKE
On campus and abroad The University first became a popular school among Jewish students in the 1920s, when a rising tide of anti-Semitism led elite schools like Harvard to begin capping the number of Jews they would admit. The University was one of a handful of schools to scoop these students up, building a long-term pipeline from Jewish communities across the country. During a tour of Michigan Hillel last month, Tilly Shames said she often meets Jewish students from out of state with three or even four generations of Wolverines in their family. Shames is the executive director of Michigan Hillel, which has served as the University’s center for Jewish life on campus since 1926. The state of Israel was founded two decades later in 1948, but its inception as a major political issue for American Jews, let alone college students, would not come until the late sixties. In their book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt contend that a political connectivity to Israel is largely the result of a number of Arab-Israeli wars, especially the Six Day-War. From “The Road to Renaissance,” a history of Hillel International: “Spurred by pride in Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day-War Jewish students created groups that championed causes from Soviet Jewry to Israel, Jewish feminism to chavurot, Ethiopian Jewry to the environment.” Victories led to a mixture of pride and fear among Jews worldwide; pride in defending Israel, but fear of future wars. By the 1970s, Israel had developed into a crux of Jewish cultural and political identity, which became a contributing factor in the deep relationship between America and the Jewish state. During the same time, college towns like Ann Arbor became ground zero for the New Left. The University has remained synonymous with radical student movements, while continuing to cultivate one of the largest, most vibrant Jewish communities of any university. The tension between these two factions would be palpable by the 1980s, with the 1988 Diag demonstrations serving just one example. In 1989, after three Michigan Daily editorials were particularly harsh in their criticism of Israel and Zionism (“Zionism … is from its inception a racist construct” read one
piece), hundreds of students protested outside of the Student Publications Building. They held signs like “Daily editorials are anti-Jewish” and “Print facts not slander.” This tension between Jewish students and pro-Palestinian advocates on the left did not disappear, though it temporarily eased during the less contentious 1990s. After the failure of the Camp David peace talks in 2000, Palestinians launched the second Intifada and began calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions on Israel — BDS. In April 2002, students rallied for divestment from Israel at more than 30 campuses across the country. That same year, University students founded Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, or SAFE, the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. SAFE called for divestment and peacefully protested outside of a large Israel-focused conference at the University that year. The Daily came under fire again, this time erroneously publishing that SAFE incited riots. In the early 2000s, many of the same narratives surrounding BDS were playing out across the country, leading national proIsrael groups to revamp their campus strategies. As tensions rose in 2003, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, brought 240 students to Washington, D.C. for advocacy training seminars. Since at least 1980, allexpenses paid trips, national conferences and training seminars have been a key tactic in AIPAC’s campus effort. Michigan Hillel sends a cohort of students to the annual policy conference every year. In a speech at AIPAC’s 2010 conference, Leadership Development Director Jonathan Kessler told a crowd, “AIPAC’s job is to identify, engage, and educate” leaders in student government and political groups. Doing this fulfills two goals for AIPAC: advancing the proIsrael cause in academic environments, where opinions of Israel are typically more critical, and befriending the students who are “self-selecting” to become America’s future policymakers. When students return to campus, they come with the tools and the zeal to spread the pro-Israel message and dismantle BDS efforts. Talking about a 2010 divestment resolution by students at the University of California, Berkeley, Kessler stated matter-
of-factly, “We’re going to make sure that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote.” “This is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capital,” Kessler told the audience. “This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses.” This March, some 2,500 students from all fifty states attended AIPAC’s annual policy conference, including hundreds of student government presidents. Defining “pro-Israel” at Michigan Like AIPAC, Hillel has taken on an aggressive and often controversial strategy in pushing the pro-Israel message on campus. In 2002 Hillel International established its Center for Israel Affairs and co-founded the Israel on Campus Coalition; the latter began as a national coordinating committee and provides strategic consulting to improve Israel’s image on campus. For a short time in the mid-2000s, Hillel produced signs and T-shirts with the slogan “Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel.” Michigan Hillel is home to seven Israel-focused student groups (not all political in nature) and estimates that its programs reach around 3,000 of Michigan’s 4,000-4,500 Jewish undergrads. Along with being the center of Jewish life on 550 campuses, Hillel often speaks with the presumed authority of a united Jewish voice. At the University and other schools, Hillel International’s hard line stance on Israel can be deeply problematic, as it represents a large break for many progressive Jews. Some of these students have found representation in J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that preaches a two-state solution and opposes BDS. J Street has seen its presence grow both on campus and in Washington, acting as a foil to the increasingly controversial AIPAC. Last week, 1,100 students from around the country attended J Street’s fifth annual conference as members of J Street U college chapters. Speakers blasted recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and after Hillel International President and CEO Eric Fingerhut rescinded an offer to speak, students walked to Hillel headquarters, posted sticky notes on the windows in protest, and left a box of letters demanding a meeting. Despite disagreements with J Street by Hillel International, J Street U chapters are growing and often find a home in the campus Hillel. More than 40 Hillels sent groups to J Street’s conference, including Michigan. “A lot of times you’ll see pro-Israel as ‘you have to love Israel no matter what’ and just supporting Israel blindly,” said Ari Schoenberg, co-chair of J Street U’s Midwest region. “ProIsrael is loving Israel in its best way that it can be. So that means,
like, being critical of things that we aren’t proud of.” Schoenberg speaks for many young Jews with a progressive view on Israel, whose growing numbers have led to more representation and power on campus than in the past. In February, students packed into the Michigan Union for an event with Ari Shavit, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and enthusiastically applauded as he demanded a more progressive view on Israel. “We need liberal Zionism again.” Shavit told the energized Hillel crowd. “Only that will give (young people) the energy, the tools, and the concepts to belong to our people.” Hillel International has moved slightly away from its former slogan in allowing J Street into the fold, and its Israel Guidelines assert that it “welcomes a diversity of student perspectives on Israel.” But there are still those who feel marginalized. Hillel’s standards of partnership prohibit sponsoring “organizations, groups, or speakers” that present certain points of view. Chief among these disallowed perspectives are those who deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, but the list extends to anyone that “delegitimizes” or “demonizes” Israel or who supports boycott, divest, and sanctions. In a recent Michigan Daily op-ed, a handful of Jewish students discussed their frustration with Hillel after the organization refused to sponsor a “Palestinian Solidarity” themed Shabbat dinner. LSA Junior Sarah Blume, a co-author of the op-ed, felt a clear takeaway meeting with Shames at Hillel: “You are a very much not invited here.” This fall Blume co-founded, and now co-chairs, the University’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP is a Palestinian solidarity group for Jews and supports the BDS movement. Blume, a junior with a disarming smile, spoke in a quick, fiery passion about divestment and Hillel. “As a Jewish organization and as Hillel as the umbrella of Jewish student life, one would think that we would be a part of Hillel, but we are not,” Blume said. “They actively disclude people who … disagree with the political stance on Israel.” Asked if she considered herself pro-Israel, Blume responded, “I’m anti-occupation,” adding, “I don’t like the labels.” That dislike of labels was evident as JVP’s op-ed called for the University to join the “Open Hillel” movement, which presses individual chapters and Hillel International to abandon the pro-Israel standards of partnership. Along with a few other students, Blume also attended Open Hillel’s conference at Harvard this fall. Swarthmore College Hillel, after officially breaking from the international organization, renamed itself Kehilah, meaning “Community.” In an e-mail, Shames, the Hillel Director, defended Hillel’s “broad and diverse array of programs,” writing that Israel is a
ILLUSTRATION BY JAKE WELLINS
part of Hillel’s mission. “Our Hillel does not expect or insist that all participants in Hillel will pursue our Israel mission. But we expect that our mission will be respected just as our Hillel respects the diversity of views among our Hillel and campus community.” Blume does not feel very respected. “I don’t want to be affiliated with an organization like Hillel that discludes and speaks out against and … totally discourages and offends the voices that I support.” LSA junior Jonathan Friedman, chair of Hillel’s Israel Cohort, was empathetic to Blume’s position. Though Friedman opposes BDS, he said he hopes students with differing views “have the same opportunity to express themselves.” A major goal of Friedman’s as cohort chair is to “make the environment more inclusive” for students who feel unwelcome at Hillel — concerns he called “quite disheartening.” Friedman, with shaggy hair, a bushy beard and dark, glassy eyes, speaks slowly and hesitantly, with an inflection of nervousness that grows when discussing more sensitive topics. At numerous events on Israel and BDS, he engaged with students across the ideological spectrum. He believes in the necessity of a Jewish state, but was cautious to note that he can only speak for himself. “Criticism of Israel is healthy, and by no means disqualifies someone from being pro-Israel.” BDS, Friedman fears, divides people and hardens them, pushing Israelis and Palestinians further apart. LSA Junior Jacob Abudaram, a CSG representative and Friedman’s roommate, was disappointed with the 2014 divestment debate and the current campus climate since, which he calls “terrible.” “It puts everyone in a box,” Abudaram said, “I was immediately put in the Hillel box, the pro-Israel box, so that immediately excludes me from being pro-Palestine, which I very much identify as.” Abudaram is Jewish and spent a gap year living in Israel through the program Kivunim, where he worked on grassroots, peace-building efforts. He spoke at length about the conflict, Judaism, and tensions within American Jewry. As an underclassman, Abudaram interned at AIPAC, worked with pro-Israel groups WolvPAC and Tamid, and ran for CSG — he had “poured his soul” into unifying work during his gap year, and hoped to do the same on campus. When asked what was going through his mind during last year’s divestment debate, the usually well-spoken Abudaram struggled to articulate his feelings on the polarization and grew quiet. “It was saddening for me.” See ISRAEL, Page 8B
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Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
The Public Ivy: A brief history of University governance
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by Claire Bryan, Senior Opinion Editor
ublic Ivy.” Richard Moll, an admissions officer at Yale University, originated the term in his 1985 book titled “Public Ivies: A Guide to America’s best public undergraduate colleges and universities.” He noted eight schools that offer an Ivy League experience at a public school price, naming University of Michigan as the leader — “the prototype Public Ivy.” History Prof. Terrance McDonald, director of Bentley Historical Library, echoed this sentiment in an interview with the Daily. He said the term Public Ivy defines public universities with very high prestige that are on par with the Ivy League universities. Though the term has been used in defining the University for the past thirty years, the University has experienced success since its origin in 1817 because of two unique factors. Unlike many state universities, the University was founded at a request from the federal government: specifically, a land grant from Congress. Congress — not the state — initiating the creation of the University suggests to some that the University should equally strive to serve all Americans, not primarily Michigan state citizens. Second, because the University was created before the state of Michigan was created, the original 1851 state constitution did something unheard of in the history of state universities: the constitution granted the University complete autonomy from the state legislator. That is, the governing Board of Regents had complete control over all University matters and in no way was controlled by state legislators. “The constitutional autonomy is one of the most important features of the University,” said President Emeritus James Duderstadt, who served as President from 1988 to 1996, in an interview. “It allows the University, its Board of Regents, and faculty to really think very carefully of how to build the quality of the institution and not be subject to the whims of today.” Regent Kathy White (D), chair of the Board of Regents, said the end result of the Michigan framers intentions has been the creation of fifteen excellent, autonomous public universities. “It is very impressive that framers of the state Constitution thought carefully about higher education and how important autonomy is for good governance,” White wrote in an e-mail. McDonald agrees that these characteristics are unique. “This (autonomy) had a huge impact on the rest of the history of the University because it was a publicly run but a very self-organized institution in contrast with public universities elsewhere that were micromanaged by the state legislator,” McDonald said McDonald likens this historical independence, as well as religious independence — the University has consistently been a secular institution — as contributing factors to why the University has been so success-
“The constitutional autonomy is one of the most important features of the University.”
ful. Moreover, this autonomous system took the University out of the public realm while still provided political accountability, because the people of Michigan must vote to elect the regents. The regents serve eight-year terms. They are not constantly running for re-election, which allows them to take a long-term view of how the University is growing. “Having an autonomous governing board that is solely focused on the university allows the Regents to make decisions that are best for the institution over the long-term,” White said. “Those who seek election to the Board of Regents have a very deep commitment to the University and to the public that it serves.” The citizens of Michigan elect regents so that citizens’ voices and concerns about the University are represented. “At the time, the public had a much more cynical view toward standard politics and government,” Duderstadt said. “That is one of the reasons why they wanted to control how regents were elected rather than appointed by a governor or other mechanisms.” The University of California system — the other flagship public research university comparable to the University of Michigan — also boasts a Board of Regents constitutionally autonomous from its state legislator. After the Civil War and the passage of the Morrill Act — an act providing public lands to each state to build colleges with a focus on agriculture and mechanics education — the California Assembly passed the legislation creating the University of California. According to Duderstadt, pages from the Michigan constitution were inserted in this legislation, giving the University of California the same constitutional autonomy the University of Michigan has held for many years. The UC system is different though, because California’s state governor appoints the regents, instead of the people of California electing them. Additionally, the University of Michigan Board of Regents has sued the state, which has strengthened the true meaning of their autonomy, unlike the regents of the UC system. The 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger, concerning the use of affirmative action in college admissions policy, is an example of the University’s Board of Regents national leadership. “The (UC system) regents’ autonomy hasn’t been defined through the courts in the same way the state of Michigan has had constitutional autonomy defined,” Duderstadt said. The UC system has historically received generous funding from their state legislator, whereas in the Michigan state legislator higher education funding has not been a large priority. Duderstadt likens this lack of state support, contradictorily, to this autonomy, as well as the success of national research funding the University has received from outside donors and the state of Michigan’s economic tragedy of 1980. Prior to the Civil War, the University relied on the sale of its federal lands and student fees instead of the state’s resources to fund expansion. According to Duderstadt, this is a continued reason that has caused the University to regard itself as much as a national university as a state university. These opposing facts — that the University must
serve the nation but is run by leaders who capture the votes from citizens of Michigan only — contribute to issues of ownership and who exactly the University should be serving. White said she believes that, in striving for excellence, the University not only serves the state of Michigan well but the nation and the world. She stressed though that the commitment made to state students is particularly extraordinary. An example of this is the University’s commitment to lower tuition for in-state students. “(The election process) ensures that those who become stewards of the University have listened to the people of the state of Michigan, separately from other political entities in the state,” White said. “This gives great ownership of this institution to the people of the State of Michigan.” Different University presidents have had a variety of ideas of what the University should be providing when it comes to if they are serving the state or the nation first. While serving as President of the University in the late 1800s, President Emeritus James Angell said the University of Michigan’s purpose was to “provide a common education for the common man.” According to Duderstadt, the fraction of students who come from low-income families has dropped in the last 10 years. In 2011, 63 percent of incoming freshmen reported family incomes over $100,000. “Today, we are not providing a common education for the common man.” Duderstadt said. “This is in part because the state has abandoned its level of support for students based on need.” Duderstadt says right now is a time where less than 10 percent of support comes from the state, and this fact may change, therefore changing citizens sense of ownership. “I think right now if you look at the quality of the University, our form of selecting regents seems to work so well,” he said. “I’ve seen both sides of it though and I think it depends on the time. It is my hope we can be much more influential in the years ahead in persuading the people of the state just how important it is to invest in higher education.” McDonald argues that the citizens of Michigan have a large sense of ownership because of how expansive the University campus is and how far it reaches, but may not always be attentive to the changes the regents are making. “Michigan citizens on the whole are not paying close attention to what is going on at the University but at the same time they appear confident in the University and are pretty proud of it,” he said. “The average attitude towards the University I think is quite positive.” Despite conflicting views, because of how the University is defined as a state university and how the Board of Regents is elected by the citizens of Michigan, the University should be serving the people of Michigan first. But because of its origins, the University has always done its best to go beyond the state level and serve the nation and the world. Its creation from a congressional land grant and the Board of Regents being autonomous from the state of Michigan have shaped the University’s unique structure. This structure has allowed the University to think bigger, grow expansively and truly be distinctive in the higher educational world.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
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Personal Statement: The image of a scientist by Irene Park, Daily Staff Reporter
I
knew what I wanted to be since I was three: a scientist. The thought of solving the mysteries of the universe was the only thing that got me excited — even more than Disney characters, or whatever three-year-olds were into at the time. For the next twenty-something years, I dedicated my life to science. I read Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” as a five-year-old and I started doing experiments in our family house’s basement in elementary school. I also built my computer from scratch in high school. Oh, and if you were not impressed already, when I took an IQ test, I scored over 200. Only none of what I just said is true. I wish they were. If you are reading this, picture a scientist in your head. At least some of you pictured a person who is extremely intelligent in a pristine white lab coat, wearing goggles and gloves, and holding a flask with mysterious, bubbling liquid in each hand. And of course, sporting the messy, mad scientist hairstyle and the social ineptitude too. As a Human Genetics graduate student, I have faced several stereotypes associated with being a scientist. In Ann Arbor, where students make up a good chunk of the city population, I fit in. But when I hang out with people who are mostly working, I almost feel out of place. It has become pretty common for people to stare at me with awe or act intimidated by me, though the only thing I’ve said is: “Hi. My name is Irene, and I’m a genetics Ph.D. student.” Either the person’s eyes grow wide and they interject something like “Whoa,” and walk away, or they start complimenting me on how smart I must be because I am doing a Ph.D. in science. Situations like these have happened so often that I sometimes hide my true identity and just say my name when I first meet people to save the trouble. You might wonder why I feel uneasy to have people think I am smart. After all, isn’t that better than the other way around? Isn’t this a first-world problem? Sure, I like it when people compliment on my intelligence. And I do prefer to have people think of me as smart than
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
not. But the problem here is that most of these people have met me for the first time, and they are assuming something about me solely based on what I like or what I do. Isn’t that the problem with all stereotypes? Yes, I like science. That’s why I am doing a Ph.D. that will take me anywhere from four to “n” years to complete. Unlike other advanced degrees, you graduate when your thesis committee, a group of four to five faculty members, agrees that you are ready. And I do like to do science. But, in contrary to what most people think, doing science is simple problem solving, which sounds fancier than what it actually is. Virtually everyone does a bit of problem solving here and there without realizing it. People follow the steps of the scientific method all the time: observe, ask a question, construct a testable hypothesis, test your hypothesis, analyze the results, and draw a conclusion. For instance: 1. Observations: I have gotten many texts from this particular guy lately. He always wants to hang out with me and is possibly flirting. He is single. I am single. 2. Question: Is he interested in me? 3. Hypothesis: He is interested in me. 4. Test: I will ask him in person if he is interested in me. 5. Result: He says that he is indeed interested in me. 6. Conclusion: He is interested in me. Sounds familiar? Congratulations! You think like a scientist. With simplicity and the unlikeliness of the situation aside (usually no one does the test in #4), you get the idea. We all are capable of thinking through a problem. The only difference is that scientists, myself included, routinely apply this process to scientific problems. As a person who has been doing science for several years, I do not think science is as difficult as the public perceives it to be. Don’t get me wrong — it takes a lot of hard work, but some people (e.g. my parents) seem to see science as something “normal” people simply cannot understand even if they tried. Because of this I am troubled when people per-
ceive me as extremely smart. I immediately sense an invisible barrier and people distancing themselves away from me, as if I am an alien doing something that is far out of their reach. I see that barrier in people’s attitude toward the STEM subjects. Why is it that when people struggle with science and math it is almost readily accepted, as if doing well in science and math is not normal? But when people struggle with reading, they are treated like idiots? My high school required four years of English for graduation, but only required two years of science and math. The ability to read is clearly important for everyday life, but being able to think logically is equally as important. That is the skill you pick up from science and math classes. What is so intimidating about science? Is it the jargon? At the end of the day, those are just words. They are just as specialized as the words that we encounter in other fields, like finance, history, and art. Could it be the people? The people who have made the scientific discoveries that we read about in textbooks and newspapers are not too different from you or me. I have been on the other side before when I was talking to an eminent, accomplished scientist who has received many awards and recognitions for his work. But when he started talking about his hobbies and what he likes to do for fun, I realized that he is just like the rest of us, and he became less intimidating. I am certainly not a genius who knows everything there is to know about science and thinks about my project all the time. On my off-days I like to wind down and watch the Food Network and try to re-create some dishes (and eat them), jog through the Arb when the Ann Arbor weather is nice for once, or waste time taking BuzzFeed quizzes. And I’m sure this isn’t just me. So maybe the next time when people in lab coats intimidate you, you should ask them what they like to do for fun. Their answers just might surprise you.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2015 // The Statement
ISRAEL From Page 5B The issue of funding This ultra-polarization of campus is often blamed solely on BDS, but the responses rather than the act itself may be more culpable. Campus leaders have bemoaned the breakdown of dialogue and meaningful debate regarding Israel-Palestine — people like Friedman and Abudaram, Dishell and Blume, and even Tilly Shames, the Hillel director. “Something’s gotta change,” Abudaram told me. “I don’t know what.” “I think if things continue the way they are we’re just gonna further split our campus,” he added. Plenty of other students — from both the campus left and the pro-Israel community — have similar sentiments to share. Younger Jews are also increasingly critical of Israel, with only 26 percent of 18 to 29 year olds believing the Israeli government is making a sincere effort for peace with the Palestinians, according to a recent Pew survey. So why are things still so bad? At the core of this constant strife is an issue that all institutions face, one that often leads to bad outcomes: the need for funding. While younger Jews are considerably further to the left of the ideological spectrum, their parents are not. Significantly more Jews aged 50 and older — 43 percent according to the Pew survey — feel that Israel is making a sincere effort for peace. Older, more conservative Jewish Americans still control the funding, and hence the direction, of many powerful pro-Israel institutions. Groups like AIPAC and Hillel have both conservative political views and the cash to make sure they get heard. AIPAC’s yearly budget is estimated to exceed $60 million, some of which pays for hundreds if not thousands of student trips to conferences and seminars. In 2013, Michigan Hillel had expenditures of over $2 million — $300,000 alone for student organizations. Hillel has many functions beyond Israel advocacy, but few campus organizations have that level of funding available. This influence can go beyond advocacy work, often spilling into academia. In October 2013, the Center for the Education of Women withdrew a speaking invitation for Pulitzer Prizewinning author Alice Walker. On her website, Walker wrote that she was disinvited due to her controversial views and activism surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a claim the CEW denied. The events’ funding, Walker withdrew, was compromised as donors angered with her politics had threatened to pull out. Seven years earlier, in 2006, University History Professor Juan Cole, a prominent blogger, was being considered for a position at Yale University. Due to his often-harsh criticism of Israel, Cole’s appointment became highly politicized and was voted down. Rumors quickly surfaced that Yale’s appointment committee came under pressure from prominent pro-Israel donors, but Cole, who declined comment for this story, has downplayed the incident. In a similar situation this past summer, the University of Illinois reversed an appointment for Professor Steven Salaita after a string of anti-Israel tweets, some of which were interpreted as anti-Semitic. Illinois denies that de-hiring
Salaita, who favors BDS and spoke to SAFE this December, was at all influenced by donors. A trove of e-mails show several threats by alumni to never enroll their children or donate another dollar as long as Salaita teaches at Illinois. In 2014 both UCLA’s The Daily Bruin and UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian released e-mails showing student government candidates soliciting funds from pro-Israel donor Adam Milstein. Milstein appealed to other members of the pro-Israel community in Los Angeles, invoking a looming campus divestment resolution. Avi Oved, who now serves as the University of California’s student regent, thanked Milstein and promised to “make sure UCLA maintains its allegiance to Israel and the Jewish community.” This is not to posit that wealthy donors and powerful, nefarious organizations are using their wealth to control college campuses. This line of thinking is terribly blind to a more nuanced and reasonable reality. Like most pro-Israel students, Bobby Dishell did not begin his connection with Israel after a free trip or “brainwashing” by AIPAC. But he has had extensive opportunities to cultivate his interests that most students don’t — from a paid internship in Washington to AIPAC’s Saban Leadership Seminars, which are named for wealthy pro-Israel businessman and philanthropist Haim Saban. Programs like these, and the money behind them, do not control campus debates on Israel — but they do have an influence. LSA sophomore Lindsay Hurwitz is currently a fellow with the Committee for Accuracy on Middle East Reporting in America, a right-leaning pro-Israel group. CAMERA pays student fellows to hold CAMERA-funded campus events and write op-eds with a pro-Israel spin. Hurwitz published articles with the Daily in November 2014 and February 2015, though only stipulated her fellowship in the November piece. Both were displayed on CAMERA’s website as an example of Hurwitz’s work through her fellowship. Students who are enthusiastically pro-Israel, like Dishell and Hurwitz, do not hold their stance purely because they were enticed by donations or a paid fellowship. There are many students who grew up in staunchly pro-Israel environments and did not change their views to assimilate in college. There are even some students who become more Zionist in college, or adapt a pro-Israel stance after being exposed to the issue for the first time. This could be because of a panel at an AIPAC conference, or from a 3:00 a.m., heart-to-heart conversation with a new friend. The influence of money on the Israel-Palestine debate is often an impossible topic to breach, even more hot button than the conflict itself. The concept of wealthy, manipulative, Jewish donors trying to control politics hits on the worst of anti-Semitic stereotypes, one that is both dangerous and untrue. The influence of money on campus politics and climate is a reality that must be acknowledged, even though it is not the sole reason behind the current feelings on Israel and BDS. Alex Adler, the chair of Hillel’s student governing board, explained in clear terms that Hillel limits its group membership and events due to its mission as a long-standing (and private) institution — not donors. Shames said the same. It is possible to live in a world where money, institutional
barriers, and genuine commitment to Israel all work in tandem to amplify some campus voices and stifle others. On the other side of the debate, the once dominant and always vocal campus left has of late been pushed to the margins. Student government, once a platform for firebrand activists, has taken a step back and focused on athletics, Greek life, and day-to-day campus problems. CSG will give an occasional endorsement to initiatives like tuition equality or increased diversity, but they seldom inspire social movements and have set a high bar for any divestment initiative. Likewise, The Daily’s editorial voice is far removed from the radical liberalism of the ’80s and ’90s. The paper has also turned away from opining on international conflicts to focus on campus issues, the city of Ann Arbor, and higher education. During divestment debates the last two years, The Daily has published numerous student op-eds, but the editorial board has not taken a firm stance one way or the other on BDS. Moving forward In the midst of this year’s divestment resolution, which was voted down at the March 31 CSG meeting, several proIsrael students formed the group Wolverines for Peace, which opposes BDS and has spoken out in favor of more space for dialogue about the conflict. Jonathan Friedman, the Israel cohort chair, hopes this dialogue will be purposeful and lead to support for people who empower positive change in the region. While their goals for action have been vague, and primarily defensive about Israel, it would be action nonetheless — like supporters of divestment, many, especially progressive — Zionists are dissatisfied with the current stalemate. Predictably, however, BDS supporters are not impressed. On Twitter, UM Divest supporters juxtaposed the hashtag #WolverinesForPeace with images of Israeli oppression, while former SAFE co-chair and Public Health student Farah Erzouki condemned the group in a March 24 speech. “They have not reached out to Palestinians on campus, but they want dialogue?” Erzouki asked. “They have done nothing to listen to the voices of Palestinians on this campus.” Even a progressive group like J Street U is far from making friends with SAFE or Jewish Voice for Peace, but a number of campus leaders are committed to building a less divided community. Progressive Zionists have consistently played the difficult role, the child exchanging passive aggressive messages between her feuding siblings. After the 1988 controversy over Tagar’s bus and the Palestinian students’ shanty, the Progressive Zionist Caucus placed a sign in the Diag painted with a dove and the slogan “TWO PEOPLES, TWO STATES.” Uniting the campus without taking sides is a goal equal parts ambitious and idealistic; as Herzl once said, “If you will it, it is no dream.” But the doubts loom: Another failed peace plan; another grisly war in Gaza this summer; another right wing Israeli Prime Minister denying Palestinian statehood. In their op-ed this fall, the students of Jewish Voice for Peace quoted Hillel the Sage, asking, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Student activists of all shades do not have a response for this question, but they are frantically searching for an answer.
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