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LSA sophomores Anais Rachel and Sara Uhlenbecker pet a therapy dog as part of a stress reduction event at Shapiro Undergraduate Library on Monday.
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‘U’ officials discuss sexual misconduct, alcohol use Experts say universities must combat excessive drinking By JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporter
Though national reports may illustrate a correlation between alcohol use and sexual assault,
recognizing the problem is just half the battle for universities trying to create a safer campus. Antonia Abbey, a professor at Wayne State University who has been researching alcohol’s prevalence in sexual assault cases since the early 1980s, said alcohol plays a large role in sexual assault, but emphasized it is not the cause of sexual assault. In addition, Abbey noted many perpetrators have multiple risk factors for committing sexu-
al assault — such as different attitudes about women, anger and aggression — that contribute to a pre-inclination toward sexual assault. “If somebody already has some of these risk factors and then they’re drinking, I think that can be that kind of final igniter that puts them over the line,” Abbey said. “But, it’s not like alcohol is going to make someone be sexually aggressive who doesn’t have any of those risk factors.”
Proposal requires governing boards to open ‘informal’ meetings to public Daily Staff Reporter
Abbey said the impairments and questionable decision-making alcohol can cause adds to the risk factors for a perpetrator committing sexual assault. Abbey cited a research study in which women, after drinking, were randomly assigned to read a story that featured common characteristics of a date rape. These stories were embedded with risk cues, such as a man giving a woman a lot to drink at See MISCONDUCT, Page 3
A group of Michigan state representatives introduced a proposal earlier this month that would require records belonging to governing boards be open for public inspection. Furthermore, the resolution would change the wording that requires “formal sessions” of governing boards be open to the public, to all “meetings.” The proposed amendment to the state’s constitution — which would apply to the University’s Board of Regents — would require an agenda or specific statement regarding the purpose of all meetings be made public. According to Ed McBroom (R–Vulcan), the resolution was developed after he and other rep-
resentatives learned that during an unspecified public university governing board meeting, almost all the regents phoned into the meeting, and nearly none were physically present during voting and public comments. “Where do people go for the meeting, and how could the members of the board know the opinion of the public when they weren’t even here to hear the testimony?” McBroom said. McBroom said the representatives who introduced the bill believe accountability and transparency for elected governing boards is essential. “This constitutional amendment will return transparency and accountability to these boards, and give the legislature the constitutional authority to decide when these boards can meet in closed session,” McBroom wrote in an e-mail. The resolution has been submitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Ethics, and must be approved by the House and Senate before being placed on a statewide See OPEN MEETINGS, Page 3
ADMINISTRATION
Faculty senate talks changes to OIE policy
DETROIT businesses
Red House Imports coffee company partners with area non-profits By NEALA BERKOWSKI Daily Staff Reporter
The Detroit Beat came up with the business series to take a look at what some University alums were doing in the city. Whether these wolverines were from the city originally, or just studied here in Ann Arbor, they, like many alums, were drawn to Detroit and its start-up culture. In the series, we profile these UM grads and the small businesses that they began, to get a better idea of the diverse range of opportunities in Detroit. Read the rest of the series online at michigandaily.com. A red house on Hamilton Road in Ann Arbor now serves as the logo of Red House Imports, a Detroit-based coffee company co-owned by University alums Jamie Olson and Travis Heeren, who graduated in 2011. Olson said he remembers sitting on the porch of the house on Friday afternoons, he had valuable conversations with his friends. “We sort of selfishly named the company after the house to remind ourselves that you want
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to be a business that’s going to make the right decisions for the right reasons every step of the way,” Olson said. Though Red House Imports was founded in August 2013, it really began in September 2014 after more time and energy was put into growing the business, Olson said. He is currently running the company while Heeren is in graduate school in Vermont. Olson said Red House Imports sells their coffee online on their website, through Door to Door Organics and in seven stores in Metro Detroit. These locations include Parker Street Market in Detroit and Ypsilanti Food Co-op. “Our landlord from Hamilton has a bed and breakfast on Washtenaw and she was the first business-to-business sale that we had,” he said. “So she brews it for her clients every morning.” Red House Imports has a special focus on being environmentally and economically conscious, while also giving back to the economy, Olson said. “One of the things that is kind of unique is that we chose to start it without seeking investments because we didn’t want to give away from the mission of the business,” Olson said. Heeren said he chose to base the business in Detroit because of his love for the city and Olson said he is also coming to understand
this appreciation for the city. “I just got back from Seattle and was like, ‘This is the best city I’ve ever been in,’ ” he said. “Everything is perfect and everything is functional. You can walk five miles straight across the entire city and feel totally comfortable the whole time. And then it kind of dawned on me, like, after living in Detroit for six months, I thought, ‘Well I don’t know if I like that.’ You want to be a part of something and it’s not always easy. And Detroiters have that pride, and I’m just starting to get that.” Red House Imports has partnered with nonprofit organizations in Metro Detroit. Olson said he has been working with Hope Center, a nonprofit food pantry in Macomb. “A lot of food pantries will just be a depressing scene of metal shelves, and a lot of it is empty so you feel like you’re getting the scraps,” Olson said. “You’re having a having a subhuman experience when you’re going out and seeking food from people who are trying to help you, and so Hope Center has totally redesigned it. They’re trying to make it look like almost like a farmers market.” Coffee from Red House Imports supplies the coffee for the pantry. Hope Center pays for the coffee at cost, meaning Red House See RED HOUSE, Page 3
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One Custom City printing, design shop aims to help Detroit community By PAIGE PFLEGER Daily Staff Reporter
The outside of Ron Watters’ studio in Detroit doesn’t look like much — just a door with iron bars on a street scattered with broken glass. But through that door is Watters’ office, a white room with cement floors and walls covered in brightly colored prints and posters. He has a low, smooth voice and comes across as though he’s not trying to impress anyone. He doesn’t have to. Through a heavy metal door, the space opens onto a warehouse containing a spattering of abstract, artsy-looking things — there’s a plastic mold of a dog, a giant Plexiglas dome with sound equipment inside of it, some sort of science experiment involving melting candy and, in Watters’ domain, gigantic screen-printing machines. They look like massive mechanical spiders with multiple arms that reach out to flat metal feet. There are boxes on the floor with T-shirts and sweatshirts spilling out of them.
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This is where Watters does the printing for the business he started, One Custom City. With a mission to give opportunities to rising printers and to help nonprofits in the city, One Custom is more than just a T-shirt business. Watters went to the University in the late ’90s, and he wasn’t surprised to find there weren’t many Black students. His childhood had prepared him for that though. He lived in Detroit with his mother and in Grosse Pointe, one of Metro Detroit’s richest suburbs, with his father. When he attended Grosse Pointe South High School, he was one of the only Black students. “You start liking girls and then their fathers say you can’t go to dances because you’re Black,” Watters said. “At the end of the day, it rounded me.” He pursued a dual degree in LSA’s General Studies and the School of Art & Design industrial design program. During the summer, he worked at automotive plants — not because he needed the money, but because his parents encouraged him to see what the real world was like. Watters said many people he knew from high school didn’t get a college degree because they were making such good money in the plants, but in See PRINTER, Page 3
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Assembly discusses process of resolving discrimination and harassment issues By CARLY NOAH Daily Staff Reporter
During the Senate Assembly’s final meeting of the academic year Monday afternoon, the faculty governance body discussed concerns with Office of Institutional Equity procedures, reviewed a number of standard practice guidelines and discussed the potential for fossil fuel divestment. One of the primary focuses of the meeting was reviewing a report SACUA filed in March which detailed a number of concerns with OIE’s process for handling allegations of instances of discrimination against faculty or misconduct. The report’s central concerns focused on the adequacy of due process protections in OIE procedures, as well as how OIE’s has applied of those procedures in the cases of three faculty members who submitted complaints to SACUA. At the meeting Monday, SACUA Chair Scott Masten, a professor of business economics and public policy, said SACUA was “pretty disappointed” with the written response the faculty governance body had received from University Provost Martha Pollack. See ASSEMBLY, Page 3
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2 — Tuesday, April 21, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
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THURSDAY: Alumni Campus TwitterProfiles Clubs Talk
Her Campus grows at ‘U’ I knew. No matter where I wanted to go to school I wanted to be involved. What have you done during your time as editor in chief that impacted the publication?
Why did you get involved? I had heard about Her Campus when I was a senior in high school. I don’t even remember how I happened to fall on the site, but I knew that whenever I was doing college chores and when I came to Michigan for Campus Day I always somehow met girls who were involved with Her Campus in some capacity. So that was something
There is actually a ranking system at our national institute. The technical title for my role on campus is editor in chief, but the national organization views it as something called a campus correspondent. My job is to not only lead the publication here, but also coordinate with the nationals in Boston every week and let them know what we have written, what kind of
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THE WIRE
Former SAM member arraigned BY ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS
A member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity has been arraigned on criminal charges resulting from a January ski trip.
THE WIRE
Sexual assault reported on South U. BY ALLANA AKHTAR
The Ann Arbor Police Department is investigating a reported case of sexual assault on the 1300 block of South University.
events we have been hosting, who we have been interviewing and things like that. So there is a ranking system that they have, based on the number of social media giveaways, different types of events and our traffic overall. They kind of rank us and give us points. So when I came onto the staff we were a bronze level chapter, which was an accomplishment because more than half of the chapters didn’t rank at all. But under me, we improved to a silver level, and now we are actually gold level chapter so that’s been really exciting to be a part of. -ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS
CPPS lecture WHAT: Dariuz Stola of the Institute of Polish Studies, will talk about immigration from Poland between 1949 and 1989. WHO: Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work Building, Room 1636
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Engineering senior Gillian Sissman pets a dog in Shapiro Undergraduate Library Monday afternoon. There will be more therapy dogs in the library this Thursday to help with exam stress.
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WHAT: Various environmental organizations will present WHAT: Advocates for Mental Health will provide their work and teach how to take car of the planet. food and host various WHO: SNRE activities on the Diag. Communications WHO: Advocates WHEN: Today from 12 p.m. for Mental Health to 2 p.m. WHEN: Today from WHERE: Between Dana 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Building and Dennison WHERE: The Diag Building
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Lelisa Desisa, won the Boston Marathon on Monday, Reuters reported. The Ethiopian runner also won the Boston Marathon in 2013 when the bombiongs occured. Kenyan Caroline Rotich was the first female to finish.
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Michigan assistant men’s basketball coach LaVall Jordan has been a driving force behind Michigan’s successful guard play in recent years. Learn about his methods and WHAT: Students of the teaching tactics. African Aerican Song WHAT: Lydia Bell, NCAA WHAT: Dr. Saeid Amiri of the University of Literature class will present >> FOR SPORTS, SEE PG. 7 Associate Director of Nebraska will discuss their work Research will speak about The European Union a new technique for WHO: School of Music, trends in the well-being modeling, analysis and will conduct military Theater, and Dance of student athletes. intereperation of Big Data. WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. operations against WHO: Institute for WHO: School of Nursing WHERE: Pierpoint migrant smugglers in Libya, Social Research WHEN: Today from Commons WHEN: Today from the Guardian reported 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. l Please report any 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. The move comes WHERE: Palmer error in the Daily WHERE: Michigan after 1,300 people were found Commons- Great League- Hussey Room to corrections@ dead in the South of Sicily in a Lakes Room michigandaily.com. fortnight.
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Students produce videos State residents to vote on to learn about genomics roads proposal on May 1 Biology class documentary project explores genetics, society By KATIE PENDROD Daily Staff Reporter
Since the beginning of the semester, students in Biology 144 have been creating documentary projects related to genomics. The documentaries will be uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday. A branch of biotechnology, genomics focuses on applying genetics and molecular biology to genetic mapping and the sequencing of genes, or complete sets of genes known as genomes. The results are often compiled in a database and then applied to medicine, biology and other aspects of human life.
Vincent Denef, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said the class covers a variety of topics, including many facets of society impacted by genomics, such as medical treatments and agricultural methods. He said the social issues discussed in the class are sometimes controversial, with many of the films shown featuring topics like employer discrimination based on health history and issues of race and gender. “There’s a lot of social issues,” he said. “We can look at the sequencing and see how people are different and ask, ‘Are there different categories of people?’ There’s a lot of biological determinism, there’s things that have gone on for a long time and they’ve been used sort of by both sides to make their argument.” Rackham student Senay Yitbarek, a graduate student instructor for the class, emphasized the
importance of teaching students how to interpret genomic data and apply the information to other issues. “The main thing is to make the connection between science and society,” Yitbarek said. “As teachers, as people in academia, we do have a responsibility in transcending this kind of information. I think for the students the main goal is allowing them to really interpret when they read a news article or get informed somehow that they can make intelligent decisions based on what they know about genomes, genes and some of the particular machinery around that.” Denef said the documentary projects have allowed each group of students to study a topic of their choosing in depth — an opportunity he would not otherwise have been able to provide from lecture. LSA freshman Kelsey Fox said her project focuses on biological sex in relation to the definition of gender. Fox said interviewinga variety of people for the project has been the most signficant part of it. “We interviewed a lot of students about what they felt about their own gender identity and what they thought sex versus gender meant,” Fox said. “Then we talked to professors and specialists and it was interesting to see how many opposing views there are even within a bunch of people who are generally in agreement.” Both Denef and Yitbarek said the students received help from technological experts at the Duderstadt Center throughout the semester. “It also gave them some skills because there’s something independent of this project that’s just being good at sort of bringing some information and condensing it down into a visual medium. That is something that can benefit the students in whatever careers they go into later on,” Denef said. Read the rest of this story online at michigandaily.com.
Plan includes sales tax increase, could impact higher education funding By EMMA KINERY and JACK TURMAN Daily Staff Reporters
After gaining approval from Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) administration in January, Proposal 1 goes before Michigan voters May 5. Beyond repairing Michigan’s roads, the proposal also aims to raise funds to improve the state’s mass transit system, increase the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and provide additional resources to cities and schools, among other provisions. David Waymire, spokesperson for Safe Roads Yes!, a special interest group advocating for Proposal 1, emphasized the proposal’s importance. “Michigan’s roads are in very serious disrepair,” Waymire said. “Some of them are dangerous, and the situation is getting worse everyday. There is insufficient money in the state budget to be able to get ahead of the deteriorating roads. This is the one and only proposal that has made it through the legislature that will help us repair all roads.” The proposal aims to repair Michigan’s roads and other infrastructure upgrades, but it has a potential to result in serious implications for higher education funding as well. The proposal calls for an increase in the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, along with the removal of the sales tax on fuel sales. Currently, fuel sales taxes fund schools through the School Aid Fund and provide funding to local governments. About 20 percent of the yearly appropriation for public universities comes from the School Aid Fund. Under the proposed bill,
public universities will no longer receive this money. However community colleges and K-12 education will continue to receive money from the fund. While there is potential for the proposal to impact University appropriations, public universities in the state have only recently been allocated funds from the School Aid Fund and, in the past, have always relied on the General Fund for allocations. Waymire said while it could conceivably affect higher education funding, if anything, the proposal will make it easier for institutions to draw from the General Fund. “In the last couple of years, we’ve taken money out of the General Fund, when it clearly could be used for higher education or other purposes, not to say that it would have, but it could have, and used it for roads,” Waymire said. “Passing this will take pressure off of the General Fund, and will allow those decisions to be made by the legislature.” If approved by voters, the money from the 1-percent increase in the sales tax would be put into the General Fund, and would be guided toward offsetting the eliminated state sales tax on fuel. Government officials predicted this 1-percent increase would result in an additional $300 million per year for schools. This increase is projected by the Senate Fiscal Agency to raise $2 billion in state revenue every year. Many residents support the improvement of state roads, however, not all think this plan is the best way to go about it. Some believe increasing the sales tax benefits special interest groups and hurts lowincome residents. Randall Thompson, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against Higher Taxes and Special
Interest Deals, a group against the enactment of Proposal 1, emphasized how for some, the 1-percent increase can be a considerable burden. “A guy making $1 million a year — is he really going to miss 1-percent sales tax? No, because he can already meet his basic needs,” Thompson said. “But to a single mom or a college student, 1-percent sales tax? That’s an additional 16.7 percent (in tax) on every single thing you purchase.” Thompson said 40 percent of the $2 billion that will be raised in revenue for the state will go to other projects and only $1.2 billion will go towards fixing the roads. Dave Murray, Snyder’s deputy press secretary, wrote in an e-mail that it is improper for the administration to tell people how to vote. Rather, he said, state employees and the Safe Roads Yes! campaign can provide information about the roads and advise voters. In addition to the roads proposal, the legislature is still making changes to Snyder’s state budget proposal. In a February interview, Rep. Al Pscholka (R–Benton Harbor), chair of the appropriations committee, said his ideal goal would to have a budget by May 29. In an interview with The Michigan Daily in March, Murray said he hoped the budget process would conclude by June, but noted that the budget was far from being finalized. Snyder announced that higher education will see a 2-percent increase in funding, but also said the 2015 budget had a projected shortfall of $325 million. The 2016 budget has a projected shortfall of $532 million. To account for these shortfalls, the governor proposed multiple cuts to the State Police, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Community Health.
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OPEN MEETINGS From Page 1 ballot and then considered again by both houses of the legislature. Currently, the University and other state institutions are required to follow provisions outlined in the state of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. The act, which took effect in 1977, requires public bodies, such as public university governing boards, to give notice of meetings, make all decisions available to the public and allow attendees to record the proceedings. “In enacting the OMA, the legislature promoted a new era in governmental accountability and fostered openness in government to enhance responsible decision making,” the act states. After the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in Federated Publications, Inc. v. MSU Board of Trustees that governing boards of public universities can decide when to hold “formal” and “informal” sessions, McBroom said boards began to choose which meetings were subject to the Open Meetings Act. The decision also allowed governing boards to make decisions in private with a voting quorum. The Open Meetings Act also contains additional limitations for the jurisdiction of public meetings. For example, the act allows bodies to hold closed sessions when negotiating collective bargaining if a party requests a closed session. Additionally, if a candidate for public office requests
RED HOUSE From Page 1 Imports will break even. “We always envisioned being able to do something at both ends of the supply chain, in the community and Costa Rica where we import from,” Olson said. “This was the first opportunity at such a low budget that we’re able to do something. Hope Center could obviously go out and get Gordon Food Service coffee for many dollars less but the point is that this coffee is good enough to be in snobby coffee shops so you’re offering a great quality product in a great aesthetically pleasing environment.” Olson said he also hopes to have a section on their website where customers can pay a couple extra dollars for their coffee and choose a nonprofit to donate the money to, which will be matched by Red House Imports. This would give these nonprofits small, consistent donations, rather than large, inconsistent lump sums, which can be difficult to manage. Olson said Red House Imports their coffee from farmers in Costa Rica. The connection to Costa Rica was made while Heeren participated in a University Program in the Environment trip to Costa Rica. “Some high-quality coffees will have a really distinct citrus flavor or something like that, but that’s not really what ours is,” Olson said. “It’s distinctly smooth and that’s what’s known for Costa Rican coffees.” By importing their coffee
PRINTER From Page 1 hindsight, he’s glad he didn’t do the same. “My mother said, ‘This is the condition that other people have to work in,’” he said. “‘You’ve been given privilege to not have to do this.’” Just as he was preparing to graduate, Watters said, he learned he would have to remain at the University for another semester to take required 100-level art courses. Because of this, Watters said he chose not to walk during graduation. Instead, he moved to Chicago to start his career, but he always knew he would come back to Detroit. Watts started his first business called SCIDE Design while he was still in college, and took his business with him when he moved to Chicago. He sold highend products, but found little success in the fading market of the early 2000s. He tried to continue SCIDE Design when he returned to Detroit, and on a whim, starting making T-shirts so his friends could afford something he was selling. That was when One Custom City began. His first big job was for activist and author Grace Lee Boggs, who is famous for founding the Boggs School and Detroit Summer. Wat-
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their application to be confidential, representatives are allowed to review appointments for public office in a non-public setting. The Open Meetings Act does not apply to “a social or chance gathering or conference,” though if the public body meets to discuss matters of public policy, the meeting must be open. “The OMA does not define the terms ‘social or chance gathering’ or ‘conference,’ and provides little direct guidance as to the precise scope of this exemption,” the act states. Several complaints have been filed alleging public universities were violating the Open Meetings Act. Most recently, the Detroit Free Press <a href=http://www.michigandaily.com/news/detroit-freepress-sues-university-ove... the University in July, alleging that the Board of Regents holds most discussion and makes most decisions on University issues in private. According to the Free Press, the regents held discussion on only 12 out of 116 votes held, with with one or more regents voting no on a proposal only eight times. The University potentially violated the Open Meetings Act again in November, after the regents meeting was interrupted by a protest from the organization By Any Means Necessary. The regents moved from their usual meeting place in the Anderson Room in the Michigan Union to the Regents Room in the Fleming Administration Building. University officials did not publicly announce where the proceed-
ings would be located, signs on the building read “The building is LOCKED” and security guards blocked the public from entering the building. University administrators said the meeting location changed due to public safety concerns. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the University upheld provisions of the Open Meetings Act because members of the media were present. “The meeting was reconvened at a different location, but not until all members of the news media were present,” Fitzgerald said at the time. “We believe these steps provided for a balance between keeping those in attendance safe while still providing public access.” Regarding the current resolution introduced to the state House, Fitzgerald said in a statement: “All I can say at this point is that we will watch this resolution closely as it moves through the legislature.” McBroom said because of the bipartisan nature of the resolution, he does not believe the resolution will encounter problems passing through the state legislature. “I believe that it’s very important that the members of those boards and other elected bodies see their constituents, and are present and can look them in the eye while they give their opinions, and they’re not at some airport with the phone on mute, doing other things just waiting for the vote to come around,” he said.
beans already roasted, Red House Imports also supports their farmers in Costa Rica. The company is able to pay the farmers $4.50 per pound, while the fair trade price is only $1.40 per pound. The farmers also have a low impact on the environment by growing the coffee under a canopy of trees with high biodiversity in low light. This is how coffee is naturally adapted to grow. “If you’ve got more tree species then you’ve obviously got more diversity in trees, more diversity in food sources, more diversity in space, so more ecological niches for other species to survive,” Olson said. “The point is these are much better than a monoculture like where you would grow corn. It really doesn’t make sense to grow coffee in a monoculture like that because it doesn’t do better when it’s exposed to more sun.” Olson said some other coffee companies intentionally deceive buyers by using buzzwords like “local roasting” to create the idea that they are helping the local economy. However, local roasting offers little benefit to community because the coffee was still grown elsewhere and that’s where a lot of the money goes. Local roasting also has a more negative environmental impact because unroasted beans are heavier than roasted beans, meaning the plane burns more carbon dioxide when flying them to the U.S. Other businesses also import unroasted beans because they stay
fresher for longer, so they don’t have to pay the farmers as much money, Olson said. “We try to combat that freshness issue by having really frequent shipments so that we can offer it close to fresh,” he said. “We know that our farmers are great at roasting and by importing it with it roasted already, we kind of put that part of the supply chain on them and their expenses might be higher but it allows us to pay them a lot more.” Though running a business is challenging and time-consuming, Olson said, he likes the daily obstacles and freedom to do things his own way. “I like that we’re not really trained in it and so there’s so much to learn and that challenge is fun,” he said. “And then we can do it our own way. Like coming from a direction of this is how you’re supposed to do it, we can solve how we think is the best way to do it. And it’s a learning process definitely. Our first cold e-mail was probably like a page of text. But no one will ever read that, so just refining that and getting better and better at it is awesome.” Because of the hard work it takes to run a business, Olson said, he enjoys the victories. “Friday I think I delivered 700some dollars in coffee and then I invoiced two or three stores and it was just like, ‘This is awesome. You’re actually doing this,’ so that’s pretty fun,” he said.
ters said he viewed Grace Lee Boggs as a grandmother — he was a part of one of the first groups of students to attend Detroit Summer, and grew up admiring Boggs and everything she stands for. He made Grace Lee Boggs T-shirts for her 92nd birthday with the slogan “Revolution Evolution” on them. Today, Watters has two apprentices who work with him at One Custom City — Jovan Naves and Elijah Ford. One of the biggest benefits of working as an apprentice, Naves said, is being able to work on his own projects on top of the work he does for One Custom. His line is called Bare All Clothing. “Since coming to the studio, it’s been nothing but positives,” Naves said. “Working here, you learn a lot about hard work, dedication. Working under Ron, I’ve learned a lot about business.” Since his return to Detroit, Watters has focused a lot on embedding himself in the city. He has taught graphic design to some of the city’s leaders through Detroit Future Media, and he works with local artists to help produce T-shirts or other goods. His goal is to inspire and be inspired, with a greater mission to serve Detroit’s communities. Watters participated as an artist in residency at Detroit Community High School as a part of the School of Art & Design’s
Detroit Connections program. “That’s really what my mission is,” Watters said. “I want to teach product design to kids that aren’t exposed to knowing where they can take their artistic abilities.” The program was supposed to run for one month, with local youth who were interested in product design specifically. Watters said the program itself was chaotic. He was put in another classroom that accommodated a robotics program. Students were pulled randomly to come to the class instead of chosen based on skill or interest. Watters ended up staying for three and a half months. He said the experience helped him realize he wants to have a space of his own big enough to teach Detroit students that they can succeed as he did. “Usually when they have somebody from Michigan, they don’t look like them, you know, it’s some white dude or Asian guy that will be teaching these classes,” Watters said. “So to have a Black guy from Detroit come and say, ‘Hey, I can do it here, I was living in Chicago, I was doing all this other stuff, I traveled all over the world but I picked to be in Detroit.’ In the end, Watters explained, Detroit needs something. He’s not sure what that something is or if he’s a part of it, but he said he’s sticking around to find out.
ASSEMBLY From Page 1 George Garcia, professor and chair of medicinal chemistry, said OIE’s current procedure, where the same person investigates and adjudicates a complaint, is not proper due process. “That is wrong,” Garcia said. “That is not due process. It’s a huge flaw in their system.” In an interview with the Daily, University Provost Martha Pollack said two of the three faculty members who filed complaints to SACUA are no longer employed by the University. She also said the University plans to change the way respondents are notified of complaints lodged against them. The process will now occur in two stages, instead of simultaneously. In March, Pollack joined SACUA to address the report. During the meeting, Pollack said she would not discuss the three individual cases mentioned in the report and emphasized the importance of moving forward. At the time, Pollack said she hoped to release material in May that would clarify how the grievance hearing board will specifically address cases. She added that she plans to reconvene with SACUA on the issue by the end of the summer. SACUA also provided updates on the University’s Standard Practice Guide Fitness for Duty policy. In October 2014, SACUA began working to revise the Uni-
MISCONDUCT From Page 1 a bar. Abbey said the results displayed alcohol’s role in missing cues that could warn of potential risks. “Women are often not as good as noticing those cues or saying that they would kind of have a plan to act on those cues,” she said. However, she emphasized that these circumstances do not provide an excuse for the perpetrator’s actions or for placing blame on the survivor. “It is the acknowledgement that alcohol affects our ability to think clearly, to think well,” she said. “When you’re drinking, you may not think things through as clearly as when you’re sober and that can put you in situations that sometimes are dangerous.” Abbey said in sexual assaults involving alcohol on college campuses, the perpetrator and the victim are often both drinking. However, she said, it is hard to measure whether each person was equally intoxicated. “It’s really hard to assess how intoxicated someone is, exactly,” she said. “It does seem that there are some perpetrators that will kind of look for somebody who is really fall-down drunk.” According to a report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007, 89 percent of sexual assault survivors reported drinking alcohol and 82 percent said they were drunk at the time of the incident. The research report was a web-based survey conducted from January 2005 to December 2007, which surveyed over 6,800 undergraduate students. Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the University’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and Mary Jo Desprez, director of Wolverine Wellness, both said alcohol is a tool, but not the cause of sexual assault. “Our University is not unique in that we do see alcohol play a significant role in the majority of sexual assaults that are reported on our campus,” Rider-Milkov-
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 — 3 versity’s Fitness for Duty policy. The policy offers protections to University faculty and staff if they find themselves physically or mentally unable to perform their jobs, including financial compensation during the investigation and one-year severance pay if they are let go due to their condition. The new policy aligns more closely with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which places emphasis on job performance and not the reason the individual is unable to perform their job. Though Masten said SACUA had several additional concerns, he added that the provost has made it clear that they are not willing to address the remaining issues. SACUA also discussed a request for the consideration of a resolution to support the formation of an ad hoc committee to review the University’s investments in oil and coal. A similar proposal was also introduced to Central Student Government in March. If formed, the committee would research the University’s investments and use that research to inform recommendations to the University’s Board of Regents about whether or not the University should continue to invest in fossil fuels. At an April 6 meeting, SACUA voted to present the proposal to the Senate Assembly. However, not all members were in favor of this decision. Masten did not want to bring it to the assembly because he
thought SACUA should not have a singular opinion on policy issues. “There’s scope for a lot of disagreement,” Masten said at the April 6 meeting. “I think there’s a huge variety of opinion.” Masten noted a 1978 SACUA statement regarding the University’s decision to divest from companies that operated in apartheid South Africa. The statement said the University should only divest in cases of extraordinary social evil and that the decision must express the broad position of the campus community. LSA junior Nicholas Jansen, the director of “Global Divestment Day,” wrote in an e-mail interview that because the University is such a large institution, it has a responsibility both to continually contribute to and heed scientific research. “It is important for the faculty senate to be aware of this because the coal and oil companies we are asking to divest from are on a decades-long misinformation campaign that goes against some of the very research that the Senate Assembly puts out and goes against some of the very information that assembly members teach,” Jansen wrote. Garcia said public policy issues like divestment from fossil fuels are more important now than in the past. There were not enough faculty members present to vote on a resolution.
ich said. Rider-Milkovich stressed that statistics on sexual assaults involving alcohol are hard to determine due to their underreported nature. However, she said she thinks there is a high incidence of alcohol involvement in sexual assault on college campuses. Desprez added that universities and college students should challenge the idea of having an unlimited amount of alcohol at social events if it’s know to be a tool that can be used in sexual assault. She also said responsibility falls both on the people who are drinking and people who are hosting a social event. She cited “jungle juice,” or fruity mixed drinks, as a particularly significant problem at parties because people may not realize how much alcohol they are consuming. “You serve some sort of a common source of alcohol that has lots of fruity flavors in it and people have no idea how much alcohol they’re having, that doesn’t allow people to make the best choice for themselves about what they want happening to them that night,” Desprez said. Desprez said alcohol is overemphasized in collegiate social settings. “I think the goal would be to right-size it, not demonize it,” she said. “But right-size the role alcohol plays because what that allows us to do is acknowledge that we have thousands of students … who don’t drink for whatever reason.” LSA junior Alyssa Gorenberg, executive vice president of the University’s Panhellenic Association, said she partnered with SAPAC to bring workshops related to consent, alcohol awareness and the University’s sexual misconduct policy to sororities. Gorenberg said this workshop was piloted with 11 out of the University’s 17 sororities. She said these workshops were facilitated by sorority members and a SAPAC volunteer. “What we talked about in the workshop in terms of alcohol is that if you consume alcohol, you’re not legally allowed to give consent,” Gorenberg said. So,
it was more informing girls of their options.” In an e-mail to The Michigan Daily, LSA sophomore Chloe Horowitz, president of the University’s chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, said the Panhellenic Council does its best to educate students on alcohol awareness and how to drink safely through informative workshops. However, Horowitz said not enough is being done to address this issue. “I think that Theta individually, along with the whole Greek community, could be doing more to address this issue,” she wrote. “We could host more events to raise awareness on prevention, and just to spread the word in general. I would love to see Greek life working to make the campus a safer place, and I know we’d like to be involved in whatever way we can.” Gorenberg added that the Office of Greek Life is committed to improving this issue on campus through multiple efforts across all four Greek councils. “I think sexual assault will always be an issue until we eliminate it entirely,” she said. “In especially the Office of Greek Life across all four councils, we’re doing a lot of work to combat the issue. I think we always want to be doing more.” In January, University President Mark Schlissel announced a student survey on sexual assault as a way to hear students’ concerns on the campus climate. During fireside chats and in interviews with the Daily, Schlissel has identified alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct as two of the most pressing issues facing the campus. In September, the University shortened Welcome Week to curb unsafe drinking, and Schlissel has pledged to propose revisions to the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy by the fall. “When you see a president saying, ‘I think that (something to focus on),’ I think what you are hearing him say is we have genius on this campus, that we would like to be realized and we understand that alcohol harms,” Desprez said.
Opinion
4 — Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com JENNIFER CALFAS EDITOR IN CHIEF
AARICA MARSH and DEREK WOLFE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
LEV FACHER MANAGING EDITOR
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.
FROM THE DAILY
‘14-‘15 Edgar Awards
A Michigan Daily editorial page tradition ack when J. Edgar Hoover, that infallible defender of our constitutional rights, was playing dictator and spying on Americans as head of the FBI, The Michigan Daily’s editorial page handed out the Edgar Awards annually to individuals and institutions best embodying his many admirable characteristics. Of necessity, we revived the tradition in recent years.
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And so, without further ado and the protection of the First Amendment on our side, we present the 12th Annual Edgar Awards. The Mark Zuckerberg Award goes to University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald for issuing a press release via Facebook comment. At the bottom of the Daily news story “Investigational Equity: Student challenges University sexual assault policies,” Fitzgerald used his personal Facebook account to “add some information regarding two important points that are not clear in this detailed account in the Daily.” Thanks for helping out, Rick! Now you can add “social media proficiency” to your LinkedIn profile. #professional The Fifty Shades of Grey Award goes to Central Student Government for once again tying up the election in an obnoxiously long litigation process. There’s nothing quite like public bondage. The Richard Simmons Award goes to University President Mark Schlissel for becoming the campus fitness figurehead. Multiple sources at the Daily and many pedestrians on South University have confirmed seeing The Schliss hitting the elliptical in the President’s house presumably to work on his summer bod (or to stay in shape — whatever). President Schlissel, let us know when you’re releasing the sign-up sheet to use your equipment … since the IM Building is no longer an option. The Michigan State University Needless Destruction Award goes to former fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu and suspended sorority Sigma Delta Tau for their just-alittle-over-the-top shenanigans at Treetops Resort during the weekend of Jan. 16. They
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only caused an estimated $430,000 in damages. Good work, everyone. At least there weren’t any couches burned! The Hillary Clinton E-mail Scandal Award goes to former Athletic Director Dave Brandon for having “no responsive records” for FOIA requests for e-mails requested by the Daily between March 13 and March 14, 2014. This can only mean one thing: his resignation was no coincidence. Dave Brandon for President 2016, anybody? The Francis J. Underwood Award goes to former CSG President Bobby Dishell for his incredibly quick rise to power during his tenure at the University. First a representative, then vice president, then president? This is a little too similar to our favorite politician, Frank Underwood. Luckily for us reporters, the train station is far away. The Taylor Swift “Shake it Off” Award goes to LSA and Engineering junior Will Royster for continuing to do great things on campus despite losing CSG elections by a mere five votes. Keep dancing on your own, making moves as you go. Keep cruising. Don’t stop groovin’. The Kanye West “I Am a God” Award goes to Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh. Well, this one needs no explanation. And lastly, the Stephen M. Ross Award goes to Stephen M. Ross for his infatuation with naming things after himself. Mr. Ross, did you hear The Michigan Daily is launching a fundraising campaign? Throw us a few million bucks and we’ll tack your name on to our paper. How does The Stephen M. Ross Michigan Daily sound? The Michigan Ross? Take your pick!
Leaving my sanctuary
wice a year, I pick up my life and move it 2,000 miles east or west. This will be the eighth time. The eighth time I have moved in my four years at college and the eighth time I have gone to an airport just this year. I spend finals week splitting my time between packing up and taping boxes and cramming for my finals. My belongings are all labeled: “Michigan” or “California.” And I am labeled. In Michigan, I JESSE am the “California girl.” KLEIN In California, I “go to Michigan.” I am defined by where I am not. But slowly, the room that I have spent the last eight months turning into my home reverts back to its Ikea-issued bedposts and desk, ready for the next student to move in. I take my last final, return my textbooks to Ulrich’s and call a cab to pick me up from Espresso Royale. I pass out on the plane since I probably haven’t gotten that much sleep in between all-nighters for study, packing and hanging with friends. When I wake up, I am on summer vacation. Even with so much practice, I still hate goodbyes. I usually have to leave so suddenly after my last final that I get to avoid them all together. But this year I can’t. This year, it isn’t a goodbye for a few months and I’ll see you when football season starts up again. This time it’s a real goodbye that I can’t schedule my way out of. My friends are all
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moving to different parts of the country, and this time it isn’t for internships or vacations for a few weeks. It’s for years at new jobs or graduate school. As an out-of-state student, I always felt like my heart was in two places: half in my hometown and half at Michigan. There are things I love about California that I can’t get anywhere else. But I can get sick of living with my parents and bored of doing the same things I did in high school. I start to crave the craziness of life at the University. And then, after eight months here, I can’t wish for anything more than to be on a plane back home. I have always been moving, rushing between one state and the other. But it felt like Michigan would always be here waiting for me in September. The school will stand for the next 200 years. Pushing open the Chemistry Building’s doors will still be the equivalent to a weight lifting workout. The Law Quad will still kick out undergrads at 8 p.m. Charley’s will still serve individual Fishbowls — “perfect for sharing” — to everyone at the table. But it won’t be my Michigan anymore. I won’t count pushing open the Chem Building doors as my workout for the day. I won’t get kicked out of the Law Quad and walk, defeated, to the UGLi. I won’t not share a Fishbowl with my friends. Just like the rooms I vacate every May, someone else will move in and make it their sanctuary. And I will come back and stand outside, looking in the windows and reminisce. — Jesse Klein can be reached at jekle@umich.edu.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
The emotion just brought back everything from that day and I started reliving the whole experience. But when I was able to see the finish line, I knew I had to finish.”
— Rebekeh Gregory said Monday after finishing the Boston Marathon. Gregory lost her leg in the bombing of the 2013 marathon.
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Put yourself out there
his semester has been an exercise in “putting myself out there” in terms of my writing. Last Saturday, I read one of my short stories aloud for an audience. My whole family drove out to listen to me. I’m not usually one for public speaking, so this was SYDNEY a rather big deal HARTLE for them. My dad commented that he didn’t think he had heard me read since he and I would read “Harry Potter” together when I was in first grade. (This is not strictly true. In fifth grade, I read my D.A.R.E. essay about saying no to drugs for an audience of elementary school kids and a few parents. It was a truly moving piece, if I may say so.) Reading my own work in front of people was a gratifying and terrifying experience — terrifying because I mostly enjoy writing by virtue of it
not being public speaking. I tend to be a very high-anxiety individual, so the terror was something I expected. I was surprised, however, to feel so truly grateful for the opportunity to share my writing with people who normally would never read it. Writing these columns has been like that, too. This is the first time I’ve had writing of mine out in a public space with my name attached to it. Like speaking in front of an audience, there’s terror in this, too. It’s a bit like sending your children out into the world to fend for themselves, some better equipped to do so than others. The ones with clearer arguments can fend for themselves well enough, but the weaker ones don’t do so well. I learned this the hard way when my first column came out and the first comment on it said it was “disheartening” to see a newspaper give it space. But I tried again, mostly because I didn’t have a choice. I shared my opinions on current events and then I started sharing things about myself. The Michigan Daily has
been very generous in allowing me to share some very personal details about my life, and it has turned out to be extremely rewarding for me. I wrote a column about recovering from major depression that resulted in a slew of e-mails in my inbox from students thanking me for writing. It’s heartening to have your own experiences resonate with others — that’s what writing these columns has done for me. The University has some really cool forums for self-expression if you’re looking out for them. Sometimes it’s public readings or student publications, but in my four years here I’ve also been to all kinds of art shows, musical ensembles, stage performances and film productions. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to share something you’ve made with others, college might be a good time to try it. It’s horrible and incredible and I highly recommend it. — Sydney Hartle can be reached at hartles@umich.edu.
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, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe TERESA MATHEW | MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Platelets, past and present This was the year I gave my blood away. A brusque nurse pricked my finger and tested my hemoglobin count as I sat in the Michigan Union Ballroom. She told me that if I had gone to Kerala just one year later I wouldn’t have been able to donate. I lay back on a makeshift bed and looked away as red cells clustered fluidly into a bag, out of my body. My blood comes from a place carefully crafted to be the perfect setting of a Southern Gothic novel. The walls of white buildings grow moldy seemingly overnight, and secrets hang like overripe mangoes from trees in parts of the country that have not yet been tamed. Everything is alive in Kerala, a state in India’s southernmost tip; Kerala, where backwaters run like veins through the state’s green, pulsing land. Kerala, where I want, always, desperately, to feel at home. Kerala is light and lush flora and love: love unspoken, love implicit, love tied to land and blood. The sense of belonging I have to a state so different than the one I grew up in can be explained by nothing else. I’m Californian; I grew up surrounded by mountains of watercolored blue and In-N-Out and libraries I lived in. But I’m also Malayali, I’m also a Keralite, and I know that must be part of my truth because that’s what my mother and father are. And if I’m not theirs, if I’m not Kerala’s, then what am I? Love is a tricky concept; home is a tricky word. Blood connects us to one — it draws us back to the other. Blood is the most essential tie I have to my heritage, even as someone who has spilled little of it on Kerala’s soil. My blood is undeniably Malayali — my family has been for generations. I am proud of my bloodline, and I am proud of the place and people from where it springs. My maternal grandfather was in the Indian Navy; his favorite book is “The Count of Monte Cristo” and both of us swear by the same fierce loyalty. He left the Navy to become a chicken farmer, and the old chicken house lies a stone’s throw away from the home my brother and I stay in every time we visit. My grandmother roots for Germany during the World Cup for reasons I don’t understand and Parkinson’s has made her movements butterfly-quick but has not stolen or dulled her mind. She can still tell me about my mother as a young girl; she still cries when my brother and I leave to fly back across the Pacific. My mother and I bear little physical resemblance. Our hands and eyes don’t look the same, but they gesture and widen in parallel when we tell a story or are caught up in worry. Half of my genetic makeup comes from her, a woman who came to snowy New
Hampshire as a young bride with a flawless knowledge of the English language as her greatest asset. It is from my mother that I inherited a love of words and the storytelling she has made my birthright. I carry my paternal grandmother’s DNA as well as her name. Teresa isn’t an Indian name, people often say to me. And then I launch into my well-practiced speech about Catholicism in India, how it’s older than Christianity in Europe and how Teresa was passed down to me through love and lineage. I never met my namesake, by all accounts an elegant and educated woman who died when my father was four years old. Recently, my father said he wishes he had asked his father what had driven him to be the first person from his family — and from his village — to attend college. What had driven him to be a lawyer? What had driven him to become part of India’s fight for independence, a cause he believed in strongly enough to be jailed for? I looked at my father, a man whose blood and forehead and sarcasm I share, and I saw that what whatever light and drive his father possessed had been passed down to him as well. My father, who never wanted to come to America; my father, who is quiet and reserved and doesn’t protest when my mother’s stories are the only ones my family tells. My father, a child from a rural community who spent his summers in the trees. Who, when he was 11, decided he would attend one of the nation’s most prestigious engineering universities — and did. The youngest of six; an orphan at 21; a man whose word and approval carry immeasurable weight. He is forged of a strength I am still trying to attain. Blood carries both intangible and tangible weight. It manifests itself in the way I speak, in the hard “t” I give the word “question,” something I picked up from my mother. It manifests itself in the clothes I wear, in the difficulty I have justifying my own short skirts and push-up bras. It manifests in the dreams I allow myself to have and the dreams I have put aside. Because blood can remember, blood can forgive — blood can be disappointed. Kerala manifests itself in ways my cousins back in India would not understand — to them, I am the American. I am the one who can’t speak Malayalam and comes back once every two years. Coconut, they call me affectionately, brown on the outside and white within, and I know they love me but it still stings. My skin is more than a husk; in this country it decidedly marks me as other. My mother once told me I would never be mistaken for a true Indian. The geography of my face, she informed me, marked me as an
American. I didn’t know what she meant then; even now it’s unclear. How can the planes of my face convey anything? In America, my face marks me as Indian. In India, apparently one look at the same features is enough to tell people I don’t belong. And so I am a mixture of an Indian-American face and Indian blood. Look into my veins, look into my eyes. See my blood, which, once spilled, would look no different from a born-and-bred Malayali or an Anglo-Saxon American. My blood, which tells me so much, but gives me no direction. The iron in my veins is trying to lead me due north, but every platelet has its own idea of where that may be. Maybe I do belong in America, where my blood has mixed with the soil. Where I was born and raised and wore a plaid schoolgirl skirt more than I’ve ever worn a sari. Where I have loved and been loved, where I have hurt and been healed. But my blood and the weight it holds mean that I do not have the luxury of forgetting where I came from — even if I want to. And I have no interest in living in a world where what I do and who I am are not influenced and enriched by my love and light and blood. A few weeks after I donated, the card that came from the American Red Cross told me that my blood type is O positive. I’m close to being a universal donor, apparently; I can give blood to anyone with a positive blood type. But I’m not a universal recipient — I can only draw from so much. I can only receive what is directly, intangibly mine; I can only take what is found in the marrow. I have gained an immeasurable amount from my blood. I have gained strength, I have gained iron — I am still trying to gain belonging. I know what flows within me but I don’t yet know what — and where — I can claim. But I can give blood out, and so maybe the point has never been to examine the texture and ties of what lies within me. I have no power over that, but I do have agency over where my blood and love go. I have the agency to not choose one over the other. And I should not have to choose. I should not have to pick A over B, India over America, any future over my family. I will not be afraid to give my love away. I am made of tendons and muscles and bones. I am made of the scars I have gotten in America and the forehead I have gotten from my father. But, most of all, I am made of my heart, which pumps out dark fluid and vibrant feeling and the knowledge that the past and the future and the present are not tied to any one land or any one love. Teresa Mathew is a Michigan in Color editor.
Doing something fun this summer? Want to write about it? Apply to be a summer opinion columnist! Not doing anything fun? Still apply! For more information, e-mail Melissa Scholke at melikaye@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
TV REVIEW
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 — 5
BOOK REVIEW
‘Thrones’ opener ‘O’Briens’ blends explores power science and drama Characters’ roles shift in season premiere
future is shit just like the past,” he says between cups of wine to Varys (Conleth Hill, “Suits”). Dinklage has always been reliably excellent in his role, but this season finds him at his most downtrodden. At By MATT BARNAUSKAS least when he was imprisoned Daily Arts Writer last season, he had something to fight for. But there is hope for the “Everybody wants to know character, as Varys points out, “I their future, ‘til they know their don’t believe in saviors. I believe future,” says a witch to a young men of talent have a part to play in Cersei Lannister the war to come.” (Lena Headey, Tyrion’s sister Cersei struggles “Terminator: The to come to grips with her father’s Sarah Connor death. Harkening back to the Chronicles”) Game of opening flashback, Cersei knows in the opening parts of her future, but Thrones some sequence of solace can’t be found there. In a “Game of Season 5 world of the unexpected, knowing Thrones” ’s Premiere one’s future, ironically, only fifth season. brings dread. Cersei’s paranoid Throughout the HBO response to words uttered long ago run of HBO’s Sundays at 9 p.m. precipitate her precarious position acclaimed as her family stands on a knife’s fantasyedge in regards to their power. epic, there’s Daenerys (Emilia Clarke, “Dom been an overriding sense of Hemingway”) sits on the throne unpredictability, at least for of Mereen, ruling with absolute those who haven’t read George power. “I’m not a politician, I’m R.R. Martin’s books. Characters a queen,” she says to an adviser. scheme and plan but can never However, her leadership shows truly know what the end result cracks beneath her strong facade. will be. Yet there is a cyclical, In a stunning sequence, Daenerys fatalistic nature to these events – visits her imprisoned dragons. a character comes to power, falls Darkness surrounds her until and a void is left, and then another pillars of flames erupt, revealing takes their place in the cycle. In gigantic beasts that can no longer the season premiere, “The Wars be controlled with words. to Come,” most characters find Several characters are covered themselves in various stages of the in the premiere, establishing the cycle with the events of last season multiple, interworking storylines still hanging over them. that comprise a season of “Game Few characters can fall lower of Thrones.” This leads to the than Tyrion (Peter Dinklage, episode’s biggest issue: it feels “X-Men: Days of Future Past”). primarily like setup, reminding The former Hand of the King now the viewer of where everyone is finds himself a fugitive, ready to and hinting at what is to come. drink himself into oblivion with While the show has proven that no care of what lies ahead. “The it can deliver on promise, this
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By VANESSA WONG
premiere felt stretched a little thin. While the moments spent with each character are solid, they feel sometimes too short. The most satisfying arc in the premiere comes with Jon Snow (Kit Harrington, “Pompeii”) dealing with Stannis Baratheon’s (Stephen Dillane, “Zero Dark Thirty”) arrival at the Wall. Last season, Jon’s storyline was a simplistic but effective war narrative with him and his fellow Night’s Watch brothers desperately defending Westeros from the impending Wildling threat. Now, with the arrival of Stannis, Jon must learn to play the game of diplomacy and political tact. This comes to a head when Stannis charges Jon to convince Wildling leader Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds, “Frozen”) to bend the knee. Faced with subjugation or death, Mance chooses death, “The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I’ve ever wanted,” he tells Jon. In regards to what they believe, Mance and Stannis are uncompromising and it creates an effective conflict for the episode. Stannis offers freedom to the Wildlings if they fight for him, but freedom gained this way is a perversion of what Mance dreamt for his people. Unable to see that happen, Mance decides the only thing left for him to do is die in protest. “The good lords are dead and the rest of them monsters,” Brienne (Gwendoline Christie, “The Zero Theorem”) says as she sharpens a sword. There are no saints in “Game of Thrones” – just people within the cycle of power. Choices are made and characters unpredictably rise or fall, but as long as power exists, the circle will keep turning.
Daily Arts Writer
Of all the trite writing adages tossed around, perhaps one of the most often repeated is to “write what you know.” Inside the Whether budding O’Briens authors heed that advice Lisa Genova with eager Simon & Schuster ears or scoff and promptly April 7, 2015 ignore it, Lisa Genova’s writing career may indicate its truth. After studying a P.h.D. in neuroscience at Harvard University and working as a healthcare industry consultant, she became … a novelist? Since Simon & Schuster snapped up rights to her debut, Genova has gained popularity for her probing insight into neurological diseases and their effects. In her latest novel, “Inside the O’Briens,” Boston police officer Joe O’Brien discovers he has the genetic defect that causes Huntington’s disease. Though initially oblivious to the disease’s existence, Joe’s involuntary spasms and growing inability to control nervous-system functions teach him exactly what the degeneration of nerve cells wrought by this neurological disease entails. More painfully for him, he also learns how it hurts his family in terms of potential inheritance and the burden of caring for a terminally ill parent. Even though it sounds morbid, the family’s resilience makes this a story about living, not dying. For those who have read Genova’s previous bestselling
novel-turned-film, “Still Alice,” many of the themes in this story will seem familiar. A character initially diagnosed with the eventually fatal disease struggles to define his/her identity, especially once the symptoms escalate to the point where he/she cannot do their jobs anymore. And yet, “Inside the O’Briens” seems to expand on concepts that didn’t get much focus in her other work. At first, it comes off as repetitive. Where “Still Alice” settled its narrative focus on Alice herself, “Inside the O’Briens” gathers the entire family into the folds.
Illuminates a deeply important and engaging issue. The story centers on Joe at first, but then breaks into parts that delve into his children and how they live their own lives. The children must decide whether to take a test to see if they have Huntington’s, too. The test itself is a simple blood draw, but its implications span much broader psychological effects. Once you know, what happens next? The solution requires individual courage and decision-making, but also taps into a complex interplay of personal relationships — how to proceed living and loving others knowing that you’ll contract a disease with no cure, how to support other family members
dealing with their gene statuses regardless if your own is positive or negative. While Genova’s previous work touched upon the psychological aspect of chronic illness, only in “O’Briens” did she really illuminate what is a deeply important and engaging issue. However, the dialect-infused narration sometimes verges on grating. Though told in the third person, Genova tries to emulate Joe’s Irish-Catholic police officer colloquialisms in more than just his dialogue by peppering words like “ain’t” and “friggen” into narration. Though this brings the reader closer to him as a character and allows for more intimate access to how his beliefs and goals evolve during and after his diagnosis, the execution often feels unnatural. Fortunately, the latter parts of the book bring marked improvements in this area, though the narrative distractions from the rest of the storyline don’t disappear entirely. Still, the novel as a whole takes us beyond the book club. What Genova does best in all of her work is gracefully weaving scientific and psychological knowledge into her storylines. The readers learn facts about how Huntington’s is inherited and the symptoms it causes as they are unveiled to the characters themselves. It’s an organic means of advocacy. She probes deep into characters we can imagine meeting on the street, peeling back the layers and recasting acquaintances into people who we care about. We care about their feelings, we care about their fate and readers who may have never even heard of the disease before now care about Huntington’s.
Arts
6 — Tuesday, April 21, 2015
FILM REVIEW
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALBUM REVIEW
Eerie ‘Sisterhood’ Powerful Shakes By REBECCA LERNER Daily Arts Writer
Teenagers running through the wooded night. This idea has long evoked images of a woodland backdrop of drugs, sex and mischief that permeates The the paranoid minds of wor- Sisterhood ried parents. Add of Night the possibility of a sex cult of teen Cine Mosaic witches, and the Quality 16 bubbling cauldron of chaos that erupts is “The Sisterhood of Night. Born as a Kickstarter, the female-driven cast and production crew frames the story of a modern day Salem Witch Trials in a suburban New York town in the wake of a massive media scandal. Started by the alluring Mary Warren, (Georgie Henley, “The Chronicles of Narnia”) whose name is just one of multiple allusions to the work of Michigan Daily alum Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” Mary and her best friends, Catherine (Willa Cuthrell, “Whatever Works”) and Lavinia, (Olivia DeJonge, “Eleven Thirty”) choose its members to join
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their secret bonfire-lit rituals in the woods. While all the girls in school wish to be selected for The Sisterhood’s vow of silence, one outsider with a burning desire for popularity and social media fame, Emily Parris (Kara Hayward, “Moonrise Kingdom”) goes to extremes to join them. Infuriated by the events of a night in the woods, Emily uses her blog to start rumors about The Sisterhood that spiral fatally out of control. The film had the potential to be a banal dismissal of the overwrought feelings of teenagers, but instead it dives deep into genuine problems of today’s youth. The difficult situations of each girl’s home are made clear, but the real issue dealt with is cyberbullying. The power of the Internet is illustrated by the clout of Emily’s growing blog and The Sisterhood’s lack of a social media presence. The trade for secrecy over Facebook is one of the most shocking things to the confused and incompetent grown ups of the town as they beg the girls to tell them everything, an effort they respond to with closed lips and shaking heads. Contributing to the sense of teenage superiority, the girls in the film prove to be better actors than the fumbling adults whose lines
Classifieds
seem awkward and out of place. Henley gives an especially fantastic performance as the fierce and beautiful Mary whose undeniable essence of cool makes it plausible that she could actually lead a cult. The montages of perfectly manicured suburbia are reminiscent of messages in films such as “The Virgin Suicides” and “American Beauty,” where things are not as they seem. First time director Caryn Waechter’s shots of Kingston, New York give an eerie sense of ominous presences behind the preened lawns and perfect houses. Like their escape from social media, the girl’s constant forays into the night conveys their yearning to break out of the oppressive structures and find their real selves. While the film deals with serious subject matter, its best moments display the happiness of female friendship. Unlike most popular culture, it places equal importance on platonic and romantic love. Some of the best scenes are the celebrations and dances of The Sisterhood, when the pure joy that emanates from the girls puts a smile on the face of everyone in the audience. The triumphs of girl power frolic with the actors throughout the movie, with their secrets following close behind.
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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4 Infielders 37 More than 55 Kathryn of “Law & Order: C.I.” 5 Autumn mo. dislikes 39 Not barefoot 57 Appropriate room 6 Fraternity counterpart: 40 Old audio system for the sequence Abbr. 43 Includes in the comprised of the poker game starts of 18-, 27-, 7 Nursery bed 45 Sci-fi weapons 47- and 598 Like some military housing 48 Tiny fraction of a Across min. 58 Legal suspension 9 Literary 49 Adage 59 Family room postscripts 10 Makeup tables 50 One in Paris 60 Soda container 53 Therefore 61 Do-over on the 11 “Chocolat” actress Lena 54 Opposite of hor. court 12 Royal flush card 13 Second lang., for ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: some 19 Wisc. neighbor 21 Stuck-in-the-mud gear 24 University VIP 25 AFB truant 27 Broken pottery piece 28 Helga’s Viking husband, in comics 29 Extremely impressed 30 Bargain hunter’s mecca 31 Spanish “I love you” 32 Astronomical red giant 04/21/15 xwordeditor@aol.com
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HAPPY TUESDAY!
By MELINA GLUSAC Daily Arts Writer
Alabama Shakes is intriguing. The name alone is an enigma, begging the question: What exactly is Alabama shaking? Or, even weirder, does Sound & Alabama have Color the shakes? Does any of Alabama this relate to Shakes milkshakes? (In the case Rough Trade of the latter, Records Kelis must be brought into the picture.) There are endless possibilities. But what’s definitively alluring about these southern charmers is, you guessed it, the music. It remains just as mystifying as their name, rife with gritty guitars, soulful vocals and a bluesy-throwback aura. Lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard formed the group back in 2009, and its first album, Boys & Girls, produced the likes of “Hang Loose” and “Hold On,” two of the band’s biggest hits to date. Its sophomore release, Sound & Color, takes the band a step further — a fitting, slightly modern departure from nostalgia-driven songwriting. Slow, experimental rock grooves permeate almost every tune, and it’s a mighty beautiful thing. The title track, “Sound & Color,” is no exception. It combines the eerie irresistibleness of alt-J with the inherent R&B of Howard’s vocals — unexpected peanut butter and jelly. “Gemini” is perhaps the most avant-garde, with its minimalistic guitar and dark, otherworldly vocals. Both songs lend to an oddly techno deviation for the band, but Howard’s gruff timbre eases the transition, bringing the listener right back to the roots of the band and of good ol’ rock ‘n’
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COURTESY OF JOHN SHORE
Are you even from Alabama? (Editor’s note: Yes.)
roll. We’ll call it southern-fried unconventionality. “Don’t Wanna Fight” is a clear standout; it’s the musical interpretation of getting in a fight with the love of your life — angry, raw and repetitive, but still so sexy. Howard’s yawp is perfect for songs like this, ones that summon the singer to splash her soul onto the recording like an angry girlfriend splashes vodka on a much-too-dry, foulmouthin’ boyfriend. Do your thing, Britt. In the vein of girl power and the like, “The Greatest” brings out refreshingly revved-up energy — a Ramones-esque, driving punk beat supports the hardest rock song on the album. This style shockingly suits Alabama Shakes. No worries, though, because Sound & Color has plenty of cooldown melodies like “Dunes” and “Shoegaze” to mellow you out without sacrificing that signature rock aesthetic. Both sound like cruising around in the summer, windows rolled down, hair blowing every kind of way. And you can actually hear the breeze in the background of “This Feeling,” a wispy, acoustic number that draws much from Van Morrison, king of chill. It’s a beautiful and intimately emotional love song, weaving a delicate story with patience and soul. This is the virginal twin to its lusty predecessor, “Gimme All
Your Love,” an intensely sultry recording that explodes after a falsetto intro and never really calms down (lucky for us). Once again, Alabama Shakes proves they can try on any pair of jeans and look good. Yep, they’re those people. “Guess Who” and “Future People” toy around with interesting harmonies and jazzy chords, while “Miss You” is perhaps the epilogue to one of the album’s alluded themes: one grand romance. Howard sings: “I’m gonna miss you and your Mickey Mouse tattoo.” (Poor bastard.) The song’s got amazing crescendos, drunken bar piano, lagging, traditional blues beats with modern touches and smoky guitars. It’s all too much but it’s all too great. And then “Over My Head” ends the journey with a surprisingly soft, slow groove. Howard’s mantra, “Loving so deeply, I’m in over my head,” echoes as it’s layered in different keys, brought up at different times. Alabama Shakes seems as though it’s of a different time. As for Sound & Color? It’s a radical, prodigious beast of the rock/ soul/et cetera crossover breed. Most importantly, though, it’s a modern beast, and therefore a fearless one. Rock musicians ought to take note: Be bold, move forward. Maybe someday you’ll make people shake like Alabama.
FILM NOTEBOOK
A denouement to FilmSquad & Arts By ANDREW MCCLURE Daily Arts Writer
“Unless subtitle reading makes you purple in the face, sprint to the box office for this Iranian goodness.” That sentence is how I bookended my first full film review after joining this publication in January 2012. I thought I was funny, I wasn’t. I thought I saw the movie differently, I didn’t. I thought “sprint” was reason enough to ignore the rest of my shitty prose. I probably also thought getting assigned a foreign film signaled good things to come, and I’d be right but not how I imagined. The Michigan Daily, to me, actually didn’t make me like movies more, or like writing that much more, or like the eschewal of the serial comma more — it made me want to be a more interesting person. My relationship with the newspaper almost invariably walked the tangent: skipping elections, skipping parties, not talking to the cute and cultured female staffers, “missing” the karaoke nights, the list goes on. I was the nine-to-five staffer: doing my part and never missing dinner. I had other obligations, other interests, other friends, I told myself, without any real conviction. And here I am, days before commencement, days before not seeing my byline anymore, days before when people won’t care one iota what I recently “wrote about” — and I regret only walking the tangent, too afraid, I suppose, to run into something I might like too much. It took me three years
to realize that. Three years to see that my friends outside the Daily, for numerous reasons, shared less in common with me than I convinced myself. Three years to conclude that I could have done more. That I should have. I should have, because I looked up to the people here. I didn’t look up their carriage or poise or sartorial profiles, but rather the impassioned way they spoke about movies. They gave a shit and every nerdy cinephilic mannerism proved it — a sniffle, a tremble, a not-comfortable pause when hammering a point. They were weird, and I wanted to join the ranks of this rarefied intelligentsia. (And by “rarefied,” I mean I understood only 25 people would read my “Life of Pi” review, and half of those would be me on various University computers.) Until then it seemed that the other organizations I had joined, and even immersed myself in, left me tepid, wanting, hungry for stimuli. And that’s what these Sunday afternoon meetings did for me: They woke me up in a way international trade theory couldn’t. There’s a good moment in HBO’s Susan Sontag documentary when her son, paraphrasing his mother, said, “A writer is someone interested in everything.” That hit hard and it hit deep. It mostly made me sad, though. Here was a woman who made a living writing about thinking about whatever she deemed interesting. The boundless vocation, free reign, unchained liberty. It wasn’t sad because I necessarily wanted to be a writer, but it was sad that she
had created for herself the best job in the world: One in which, as Socrates would’ve greenlit, her knowledge and virtue were one, her interests and desire for truth married. I wanted that. I want that. The Daily showed me that the written word comes in handy in more places than 4 and 6A; it comes in handy in e-mails, texts, moleskine musings and, most of all, in the spoken word. By submitting over 70 written articles of some kind, over three and a half years, I finally learned how to talk. And for that I am eternally grateful. Sontag wrote about whatever she wanted, and I’d be hard-pressed to say The Daily didn’t provide me that very editorial freedom. Scores of great writers look back on their college newspaper days with disgust and sardonicism, and I think I will too, no matter where I end up. My reviews were often bad, sometimes readable, always sophomoric, occasionally humorous and never perfect. My editors should have been tougher on me, kicking my ass a tad more, telling me in plain English that that sentence makes no fucking sense, that maybe I should start over. What did happen in this process was I began to look at words through a simpler lens. How can I say this with just enough words, commas, em dashes and colons to tell a reader — who likely doesn’t give a shit and just wants the assigned letter grade — that I am smart, not full of crap, unpretentious and maybe funny? The Daily didn’t teach me how to precisely do that. But the Daily taught me that I should at the very least try. Thanks.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 — 7
THE GUARD WHISPERER LaVall Jordan helps Wolverines harness untapped potential PHOTOS BY ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
After successful playing career, Michigan assistant uses wisdom to inspire, motivate By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor
Nik Stauskas remembers it clearly. The game. The play. The trap. But mostly, he remembers the timeout. It was his sophomore year, and Michigan was playing Minnesota. Normally able to create his own shot off a ball screen, Stauskas was struggling to get open. Frustrated, he went to the sideline during a timeout, where Michigan assistant coach LaVall Jordan was waiting with the answer Stauskas didn’t even know he was looking for. “I remember going to the timeout and he was like, ‘Reject the ball screen. Just fake middle, go baseline and you’re gonna have a wide-open layup,’ ” Stauskas recalls Jordan telling him. “I was like, ‘Alright, whatever.’ ” When he went back in, Stauskas did exactly what Jordan told him to. Jordan Morgan passed him the ball and rotated over for a screen. But as Minnesota’s Daquien McNeil started to cheat the screen, Stauskas blew past him, finishing a layup at the rim. He finished with a game-high 21 points. “I looked back to him, and he was like, ‘I told you so!’ ” Stauskas said. Stauskas could have been a junior this season, and as he recalls the moment, he could be getting ready for a trip to Northwestern. Instead, he’s talking on the phone in Orlando, where his Sacramento Kings are preparing to play the Magic.
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n the same day, Trey Burke, who could be a senior, is in Philadelphia, getting ready to play the 76ers. Tim Hardaway Jr. is in New York, between two games against the Indiana Pacers. Darius Morris is in Brooklyn, where his Nets will soon host the Phoenix Suns. And while on March 5 they were spread across the country, getting set for NBA games, the common thread woven through all of them is the same — they once stood on the sideline, taking instruction from LaVall Jordan. One of the wonders of John Beilein’s tenure at Michigan is how the Wolverines have been so successful at producing NBA-caliber guards. The answer, or at least a big part of it, is Jordan, one of the best-kept secrets in college basketball. But Jordan doesn’t want the spotlight, nor does he seek it. He’d rather it be on his players. That way, he can stay under the radar, seeing the openings no one else does. *** Jordan likes to use the phrase “Chess, not checkers,” when thinking about the game. It’s a nice phrase to turn, but it’s also a window into the way he plays, watches and now coaches basketball. He honed his basketball mind at Butler, where he played from 1998-2001. He never put up huge numbers or had NBA scouts calling, but he was a steady contributor during a particularly successful period in Bulldog history. While he was there, Butler won three straight Midwestern Collegiate Conference titles and appeared in three NCAA Tournaments. During the stretch, Jordan was named All-Conference twice. And after his stint as a player, Jordan moved quickly into coaching, serving as the Bulldogs coordinator of player operations in 2003 and becoming an assistant coach a year later. He left Butler to work in the same role at Iowa in 2007, before ultimately being hired by Beilein in 2010. And it’s no wonder he has ascended so quickly. He observes the floor like a chess master looks at a board, viewing his opponent’s move less as a threat and more as an opening. “He sees things that I think a lot of people don’t see,” Stauskas said. “He sees things before they happen.” Added sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr.: “The game is a lot mental, but he takes it to another level.” There are a few words that hold a universal meaning to Jordan’s players. He likes to do what he calls “bullet-point coaching” from the bench, shouting phrases meant to elicit specific responses. Without revealing their exact meanings, players know exactly what to key on when they hear words like “Bingo” or “Hostage.” But in some cases, words or phrases are tailored to individual players. “The one he used to always say to me was ‘one one-thousand,’ ” Stauskas said. “When he said ‘one one-thousand,’ it was pretty much him telling me I need one one-thousandth of a second to get a shot off. “That was basically him telling me
there’s no one out there who can stop me, just go out there and do you.” But getting to the point where athletes buy in requires Jordan to relate to his players in a way many coaches don’t. Much like Jordan finds otherwise unseen opportunities on the floor, he sees them in his players. He can take a talented guard with the right physical tools and unlock whatever it is that puts him over the top. “You’ve gotta tell them your stories,” Jordan said. “When (they’re) going through good times or tough times, just to let them know they’re not the only one to go through what they’re going through.” For Stauskas, unlocking his talent meant helping him harness the killer instinct he already had inside him. He could shoot; there was never any doubt about that. But Stauskas’ sophomore year he turned into a bona fide threat to drive, dunk or distribute. “Any time I was struggling, any time I was doubting myself, any time I was second guessing anything, he would look at me and be like, ‘Nik, one one-thousand,’ ” Stauskas said. “And I would just go out there and just play.” Sometimes, it can be as simple as a verbal reminder. In other cases, it takes a long-term effort. But no matter what it is, Jordan almost always sees his guards turn into standouts, breaking through the ceiling they once thought limited them. Stauskas was called “just a shooter” his freshman season, but turned into the Big Ten Player of the Year as a sophomore. Sophomore guard Zak Irvin had a similar label until he won the team’s Loy Vaught rebounding award this year. Junior guard Spike Albrecht was supposed to be a bench player — more of a feel-good story than someone to game plan around — but averaged over 30 minutes per game this season
and shared the Wolverines’ MVP award with Irvin. “Watching them grow, that’s the fun part,” Jordan said. “Watching them think and understand the game at a higher level, because it is a thinking man’s game. You’ve gotta be athletic and have the skill and all of that, but you also have to have the understanding and the IQ and an acumen where you can be a little ahead of the play.” *** In 2000, Jordan’s junior year of college, his Butler team was leading Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by one point. With less than 10 seconds left, Jordan missed two free throws, giving Florida a chance to bring the ball down the court for a late win. Mike Miller hoisted up a two-point jumper, and Jordan went for a block, sprinting in from behind. His fingers missed the top of the ball by mere centimeters. The shot dropped. “I thought I had it,” Jordan said, chuckling all these years later. “And our point guard tried to take a charge.” But he has never told any of his players that story. At least not that he can remember. “Maybe if they bring it up, or if one of them has a similar experience,” Jordan said. “I’ve had guys miss what’s perceived to be a game-winning shot, or maybe a big free throw or two, and you just have a testimony you can share that it’s not the end of the world. It happens.” But rather than tell them, he has done his teams one better. His attention to detail and game preparation have kept Michigan from suffering the same fates time and again. In 2013, before Michigan’s game against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament, Jordan had a particularly difficult
problem to solve. The Wolverines relied heavily on pick-and-rolls in their offense, but then-sophomore Trey Burke and then-freshman Mitch McGary appeared to be mismatched against Kansas center Jeff Withey. So Jordan turned where he often finds himself turning when he wants to see great guard play — Chris Paul. An admirer of Paul’s backcourt artistry, Jordan encourages players to watch film of Paul and how he handles different situations. Usually, he watches it with them. So when he was game planning for Withey, Jordan knew that Paul’s game film could have the answer to his problem. As then-senior Josh Bartelstein remembers it, Jordan queued up clips of Paul running pick-and-rolls against tall centers who contested shots, and he crafted an attack based on those. “They would drop the big, and, for Trey, he’s not going to really be able to finish on a 7-footer like that,” Bartelstein said. “So many coaches you hear say, ‘When you pass the ball, don’t jump.’ Cause that leaves you with no options.’ “Chris Paul would be great at throwing lobs to DeAndre Jordan, they called them ‘Lob City.’ Against (Kansas), we practiced all week, Trey going up to shoot, and at the last second instead of shooting it, throwing up a lob to Mitch. If you go watch the highlights of the Kansas game, Mitch probably had 10 points off just straight pick-and-rolls where Trey would go up to shoot, and Jeff Withey would go up to block him, and Trey would lob it to Mitch and Mitch would lay it in.” McGary had 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting in that game. He might have never even taken that many shots without Burke’s lob passes to get around Withey. That’s the move of a chess
master. Jordan can find a weakness and quickly figure out how to exploit it, even if it means doing something conventional wisdom would prohibit. “Val is a champ at giving me different options,” said Michigan coach John Beilein at last week’s team Award Ceremony. “He looks at it a bit different perspective. He’s definitely not a yes man.” *** In his five completed seasons with the team, Jordan’s impact was perhaps never more important than 2014-15. The Wolverines lost their entire starting backcourt — Walton and junior guard Caris LeVert — to injury midway through the season. For most teams, and most backcourts, that would’ve meant a complete collapse. But for Michigan, which had Walton and LeVert as the centerpieces of its offense, it meant a completely new starting backcourt stepping in and, somehow, remaining the focal point of the offense. And as the season wore on, it was Irvin — a guard-turned-forward who previously spent extensive time working with Jordan — leading the charge. After LeVert and Walton went down, the team didn’t have a go-to scorer, and Albrecht was its only proven distributor. Seemingly out of nowhere, Irvin came alive in the final few games and delivered polished, determined performances both passing and shooting the ball, sparking the Wolverines late in the year. “(LeVert and Walton) were second and third (on the team) in assists, and they didn’t play half the year,” Beilein said. “So passing was a big issue for us this year, and all of the sudden, Zak Irvin’s dropping dimes, like five a game down the stretch? Big.” But it wasn’t so sudden when you think of the context. Irvin had been working with Jordan for two years, trying to locate the spark that would round out his game and push him over the edge. It just finally paid off. “Coach Val — he’s incredible,” Albrecht said after the Wolverines thumped Illinois in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. “Best point guards coach in the country.” *** While Stauskas talks on the phone from Orlando in March, he’s at a bit of a crossroads. His NBA career didn’t start as hot as he might have hoped. Over the first half of the season, he averaged less than four points per game. He played under three separate head coaches and had to battle with Ben McLemore for playing time. But Stauskas came on strong late, nearly doubling his first half scoring average after the AllStar Break. There are flashes of the greatness he showed off his sophomore season — the greatness Jordan helped him and so many others harness. But even still, Stauskas hasn’t yet found the type of success he had at Michigan. No one reminds him to embrace his killer instinct. No one tells him, “one onethousand.” “I’ve kind of forgotten it this year,” Stauskas says. “It might be good for me to kind of remember that.”
Sports
8 — Tuesday, April 21, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Slap-happy Ramirez keeps defenses guessing By CHRIS CROWDER Daily Sports Writer
The outfielders are all shaded in, as is typical when the slap hitting Abby Ramirez enters the batter’s box. She takes two pitches and hits the next one farther than any other in her two-year collegiate career. The Rutgers outfielders take a few steps back, but it’s no use. The ball is already over the right-field wall. Ramirez had just hit her first home run as a Wolverine. And at the same time, she proved why she is one of the most dangerous slap hitters in the nation.
Ramirez, who is batting .375, is often overlooked when opponents prepare for the Michigan Michigan softball team’s lineup. With a State at team that boasts Michigan some of the top hitters in the Matchup: conference such Michigan State 16-29; as junior second Michigan 41-6 baseman Sierra Romero, junior When: Tuesday 7 P.M. centerfielder Where: Sierra Alumni Field Lawrence, junior right TV/Radio: fielder Kelsey BTN
Susalla and sophomore left fielder Kelly Christner, it’s natural that Ramirez is not in the forefront of opposing pitchers’ minds. She’s not at the forefront of the lineup, either, batting ninth. But that’s right where Michigan coach Carol Hutchins wants her. “She’s a great person to have come up with (Lawrence), (Romero), and Christner (on deck),” Hutchins said. “You want one of your better hitters in the nine hole to bring around for the top of the order.” Ramirez has the fifthbest batting average on the team, right behind Romero, Christner, Lawrence and Susalla, respectively. Her role at the bottom of the order is crucial, setting the table to both start and continue rallies. The only slap hitter in the lineup, Ramirez brings versatility to the team. Instead of standing still in the batter’s box like the rest of her teammates, she gets a running start before she hits the ball. And with Ramirez’s quickness, the extra few steps out of the box make it even harder to get her out. This ability to get on base frequently is what stood out to Hutchins when Ramirez was in high school. “She was a slapper when we got her,” Hutchins said. “You don’t only recently learn to slap, but that’s what caught my eye when I recruited her. I watched her play, and she was always on base and made tons of things happen from the left side.” But Ramirez wasn’t always exclusively a left-handed slap hitter. In high school she was a switch-hitter known for her power hitting, setting an Illinois Class 4A record for home runs in a season with 20. This is why
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Sophomore shortstop Abby Ramirez is thriving as a slap hitter after slugging her way through high school.
Hutchins wasn’t surprised when Ramirez blasted her first home run against the Scarlet Knights. During her freshman year, Hutchins worked with Ramirez on her hitting from both sides of the plate. They also worked on both power and slap hitting, but with neither being consistent, they decided to go with the latter, with Ramirez batting lefty. “I prefer whatever is working,” Ramirez said. “Before I started doing both and it wasn’t really working that well for me, so I decided to take one and focus on one so I could get that the best I could. Maybe down the road when I get better at lefty, I could start switching again. It just kind
“She was always on base and made tons of things happen.”
of depends on how I do.” By picking one and sticking with it, Ramirez came into her own. After batting a respectable .289 in her freshman campaign, Ramirez has gained more confidence and composure at the plate in her sophomore season — her primary goal ever since the season began. “Recently, I’ve just been trying to stay loose and I have more confidence,” Ramirez said. “When I start to struggle, I start doubting myself. So it’s just going up there and not carrying my past at-bats into it.” Added Hutchins: “She’s so even-keel. She’s consistent whether she’s having a good day or bad day and she always works at her game. She just stays within herself and doesn’t have too much expectation out of herself. Her consistency is fantastic.” And with Ramirez’s consistency, defenses have no
idea how to play against her. In the next game against Rutgers — a day after the game in which she hit her first home run — Ramirez smacked another homer over the wall. Even after that, opponents still continued to play their outfield in when she is up to bat. In last weekend’s series against Indiana, Ramirez hit another ball over an outfielder’s head, this time for a double. It would have been a routine play if the outfield was at normal depth. Ramirez is an integral part of the Wolverine offense, and she shouldn’t be underrated or overlooked by opponents any longer. When No. 4 Michigan (14-2 Big Ten, 41-6 overall) plays Michigan State (1-15, 16-29) on Tuesday, she’ll strive to do what the best slap hitters do — keep the defense on its toes. “I like to have a slapper in the lineup,” Hutchins said. “Then there’s a lot more things that can happen.”
MEN’S BASKETBALL
LeVert will announce future plans Tuesday Junior stopped using walking boot last week By LEV FACHER Managing Editor
Caris LeVert will announce his NBA Draft decision Tuesday, according to a representative of the Order of Angell, a campus honor society from which LeVert has accepted a membership invitation for the 2015-16 academic year. LSA senior Natasha Dabrowski, a member of the Order, sent the Daily a full list of the organization’s 22 incoming members earlier Monday evening. She later indicated via text
message that the announcement regarding LeVert’s future plans was slated for Tuesday. Dabrowski told the Daily on Monday night that while LeVert accepted the Order of Angell’s invitation to join, his current status as a member of the organization has no bearing on his decision. When contacted Monday evening, a team spokesman could not confirm that an announcement was planned for Tuesday. At the program’s annual awards banquet on April 15, LeVert revealed that he had submitted a second request for evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee to determine where in the draft he would likely be selected.
“I don’t think it really makes sense to go early and be drafted in the second round,” LeVert said at the event. LeVert sustained a seasonending foot injury at the tail end of Michigan’s 56-54 win over Northwestern on Jan. 17. Prior to his injury, he averaged 14.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and a team-high 35.8 minutes per game. The 6-foot-7 guard had surgery in May 2014 after suffering a stress fracture on the same foot. He missed early-summer workouts prior to the 2014-15 season but played during the team’s August trip to Italy. Managing Sports Editor Jake Lourim and Daily Sports Editor Max Bultman contributed reporting.