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PIPELINE PROTEST
GOVERNMENT
State groups await ruling on same-sex marriage
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Ann Arbor Resident Sue Brewington speaks to protestors of the Keystone XL Pipeline protest outside of the U.S. Federal Building on Tuesday.
ACADEMICS
By CARLY NOAH
Court: HathiTrust does not violate copyright law Four years later, Authors Guild filing against digital libraries is closed By LINDSEY SCULLEN Daily Staff Reporter
A lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild in the fall of 2011 against five HathiTrust Digital Library
institutions, including the University, formally concluded Jan. 6. According to Mike Furlough, the University’s executive director of HathiTrust, the lawsuit has been formally settled. HathiTrust is a coalition that compiles millions of digitized titles from its 100-plus academic and research library partners and the University is one of its founding members. Its website, hathitrust.org, gives users
around the world the ability to conduct full-text searches of its 13 million volumes. It further preserves works —many of which would otherwise only be available in their print copy forms — by maintaining them online and provides book access to people with certified print disabilities. The original lawsuit cited allegations of copyright infringement against the University and four other HathiTrust contribu-
SCOTUS has yet to announce decision to hear Michigan’s case Daily Staff Reporter
tors — Indiana University, University of Wisconsin, Cornell University and the University of California system. Similarly, the Authors Guild filed an additional lawsuit against Google for its digitization of works. The Authors Guild filed the lawsuit believing that these universities’ digital HathiTrust collections infringed upon copyright laws, citing the fact that See HATHITRUST, Page 4A
The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to announce plans to hear a case challenging Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage and many same-sex marriage advocacy groups across the state are expressing their frustration. While the U.S. Supreme Court has passed on hearing a same-sex marriage case from Louisiana, the court has yet to announce any information about the four cases from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, including the challenge to Michigan’s ban, DeBoer v. Snyder. The U.S. Supreme Court will have two more conference days this month, Jan. 16 and Jan. 23, in which these possible cases will be discussed. Jay Kaplan, project staff attorney for the American Civil Liber-
DETROIT
TECHNOLOGY
Industry execs hail resurgence at Auto Show University alums encourage students to pursue careers with automakers By PAIGE PFLEGER Daily Staff Reporter
The 2015 North American International Auto Show shifted into drive in Detroit on Monday, showcasing driverless cars, fully electric vehicles and an automotive industry beginning to rebound. For several companies — including Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, formerly known as Chrysler — the presence of University alums runs deep. Two former GM chief executive officers, Roger Smith and Frederick Henderson, are University alums, as well as Hal Sperlich, a former president of Chrysler. Inside Cobo Hall on Tuesday,
several employees of FCA emphasized the opportunities in the state’s automotive industry available to University students. Though former University students work for a host of Detroitbased companies involved in the automotive industry, representatives from FCA were most immediately available on the floor of the Auto Show. “Detroit is the birthplace of the automotive industry,” said University alum Erica Crane, a communication lead for FCA at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant. “Being at the Auto Show today, it was clearer than ever to me that it’s going to be a huge part of the city’s future,” Crane added. “I know I want to be a part of that, and U of M students tend to be on the cutting edge of things like technology, engineering, and even the liberal arts. Those skills can all be applied in the automotive industry.” President Barack Obama visited the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant Jan. 6 to laud the auto See AUTO, Page 2A
ties Union of Michigan’s LGBT Rights Project, said he is hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will take Michigan’s marriage case to hear on appeal. The Michigan marriage case, along with cases in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, is currently up for consideration by the Supreme Court. “Now is the time for the United States Supreme Court to weigh in and to provide finality of the issue of marriage equality for all 50 states,” Kaplan said. “It’s time for the remaining states (like Michigan) which do not permit marriage equality to join the fold and a favorable decision from the Supreme Court can provide both that clarity and finality.” Last spring, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, a decision which was appealed after the state issued a stay on the ruling. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling and upheld the ban in a decision announced by the last November. The three-member panel of See COURT, Page 2A
‘U’ acquires student-run scheduling technology
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Sarah Zearfoss, dean of the University’s Law School, speaks on the issue of race in regards to admission at the Central Student Government meeting in the Michigan Union Tuesday.
CSG agrees to help fund police brutality speakout Past resolution called for event, student activism, dialogue By TANAZ AHMED Daily Staff Reporter
The University’s Central Student Government began its first meeting of the semester
by passing a resolution to fund Wednesday’s Police Brutality Speakout. Sarah Zearfoss, senior assistant dean for admissions at the University’s Law School, also attended the Tuesday night to discuss initiatives to recruit a diverse class of students. Tuesday’s resolution requests $300 from CSG’s Legislative Discretionary account to fund the Police Brutality Speakout, sponsored by CSG,
the Black Student Union and Students of Color of Rackham. The money will fund room rental, audio-visual equipment and refreshments. Last semester, CSG passed a resolution calling for a conversation on campus safety and police brutality. Wednesday’s Police Brutality Speakout is a product of that resolution. CSG’s initiatives were in response to events in Ferguson, See CSG, Page 2A
What was once Buzzn, a mobile application, will be phased into CTools By NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT Daily Staff Reporter
The University has acquired Buzzn, a social networking application created by LSA senior Aashay Kumar and University alum Zakir Tyebjee, who graduated in 2014. The application allows students to upload their course and extracurricular schedules to find shared free time to meet up with friends. Kumar said they created the app for exclusive use by University students. “There’s obviously Facebook, but it wasn’t as exclusive to Michigan as we wanted it to be,” he said. “You couldn’t know your class schedule. We wanted to create something that would allow See TECH, Page 2A
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the statement A look at how ‘U’ social sciences contribute to national security
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NEWS......................... 2A OPINION..................... 3A SPORTS......................6A
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News
2A — Wednesday, January 14, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
A WINTER WALTZ
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LSA junior Michelle Huang and Information junior Josh Blumberg ballroom dance at WinterFest at the Michigan Union Tuesday.
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Bones found By Lara Moehlman Mastodon bones were found two hours away from campus in Bellevue Township. The bones have been brought to the University to be analyzed by students and faculty. They will also be added to University research collections. Correction appended: A previous version of “SACUA discusses changes to Information Technology policy,” which ran Jan. 13, incorrectly reported the nature of the conversation on LSA faculty grievances. SACUA discussed bringing LSA procedures in favor of a more uniform policy. CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections @michigandaily.com.
AUTO SHOW From Page 1A industry resurgence. In his speech, Obama cited the industry’s recovery as an example of America’s recovery post-economic recession. Vice President Joe Biden visited the Auto Show Jan. 15, 2014. There, he spoke of similar themes of recovery in the auto industry and praised automakers for creating middle-class jobs amid economic downturn. University alum Tom Finelli initially planned to pursue aerospace engineering, but when he graduated in 1992 there were not many jobs in the field. After a few career moves, and returning to school for his business degree, he became the vice president of purchasing and supplier quality for FCA. “Michigan and the metro Detroit area have a lot to offer, even outside of the opportunities within Chrysler,” he said. “We have really made an effort to promote not only Detroit but the state of Michigan and the advantages that young people have by living here. You can see here everyday in the city of Detroit the rebirth that is going on.” Finelli said like Detroit, the auto industry is on the rise — and as the companies grow, so does
COURT From Page 1A judges, who began hearing oral arguments from both sides last August, ruled in a 2-1 decision. Numerous marriage-equality interest groups have expressed their frustration with the U.S. Supreme Court’s lack of action pertaining to same-sex marriage. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette issued a statement Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court did not announce a decision. Schuette has vowed to enforce the state’s ban. “I am hopeful the court will eventually take up this issue and optimistic they will choose to do so at their next conference,” Schuette said. “The sooner the
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
THURSDAY: Student Voices
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FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
SEXUAL ASSAULT
JENNIFER CALFAS
UVA reinstates fraternity The University of Virginia has reinstated its chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity after a police investigation did not find any evidence of the alleged gang rape detailed in a controversial article in Rolling Stone Magazine, The Cavalier Daily reported Monday. UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan announced the decision after Charlottesville Police Department officials told the university they did not find “substantive basis to confirm that the allegations raised in the Rolling Stone article occurred at Phi Kappa Psi.” “We welcome Phi Kappa Psi, and we look forward to working with all fraternities and sororities in enhancing and promoting
a safe environment for all,” Sullivan wrote in a statement. Columbia University under investigation for mishandling sexual assaults Columbia University officials confirmed that the school is participating in two federal investigations by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over the school’s handling of sexual assault and harassment cases, The Columbia Spectator reported. The Department of Education is reviewing Columbia’s compliance with Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and Title II,
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Leadership workshop
Ford school lecture
Steve Forbert concert
WHAT: Students can attend this introductory course to improve and identify leadership skills. WHO: Human Resource Development WHEN: Today from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. WHERE: Administrative Services Building
WHAT: University of California President Janet Napolitano will discuss politics and public service. The event will be livestreamed. WHO: Ford School of Public Policy WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Power Center
WHAT: The Mississippi singer-songwriter will be performing songs from his latest album, “Over With You.” WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Tonight at 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ark
Mixed media performance
North Korea’s Mini interviews WHAT: Students are juche myth invited to attend a
WHAT: Performer Joseph Keckler translates modern experiences into a variety of mediums including monologues, videos and songs. WHO: Institute for the Humanities WHEN: Tonight at 8 p.m. WHERE: Kerrytown Concert House
WHAT: Brian Myers, a Professor at Dongseo University, sets out to refute the consensus that Kim Il Sung’s Juche doctrine is central to North Korean ideology. WHO: Nam Center for Korean Studies WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work Building
their demand for workers. The job market has continued to grow so extensively in Southeastern Michigan that it’s becoming difficult for FCA to find enough talent in the area, he added. University alum Brian Johnson, the executive business planner in Purchasing and Supplier Quality for FCA, echoed Finelli’s sentiments and stressed that students don’t need to leave the state to find jobs. He made reference to the book “Acres of Diamonds” by Russel Connell, which he said “talks about this guy that goes and searches the whole world to find his diamonds when they’re really right under his feet.” “I kind of equate that to the automotive industry; what we have in Detroit where there’s a great opportunity for students that are graduating here,” Johnson said. “The opportunity that exists in the automotive industry is huge.” FCA is one of many employers that actively recruit University students. Crane found her job after participating in Chrysler internship program. “There’s so many jobs, even if they’re not in automotive, that are connected to automotive,” she said. “At the Auto Show, I ran into fellow U of M students who were reporters, who were product specialists, who were there for all sorts of different functions, all because it was an automotive-based event.”
United States Supreme Court makes a decision on this issue the better it will be for Michigan and America.” Emily Dievendorf, executive director of the advocacy organization Equality Michigan, said the state of Michigan is more than ready to join the 36 other states where same-sex marriage is legal. Brad O’Conner, vice president of the Jim Toy Community Center, said the wait for many Michigan couples, for both instate and out-of-state licensure, has been difficult and emotional. “With the arc continuing to bend toward justice in the United States, we look forward to the day when all families, not just here in Michigan, but nationwide are recognized under the law,” he said.
workshop discussing Multiple Mini Interviews and how schools use them. The workshop will feature team projects and ethnical questions. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: Today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: The Career Center
APP From Page 1A Michigan students to know when they’re free.” Sean DeMonner, executive director of Teaching and Learning for Information and Technology Services, said buying the app in August constituted a valuable investment for the University. “In the process, we concluded that there was some value that we were interested in learning from Aashay and Zakir,” he said. “How they had thought about this problem, how they had formulated a solution — we came to a conclusion to purchase the holdings of the company they had formed.” Kumar and DeMonner declined to disclose the University’s purchase price. The University is planning to add the application’s mechanisms to its CTools gateway pages, according to Kumar. DeMonner said the University’s current online tools such as Wolverine Access and CTools don’t include modern social features, like Buzzn. “We’re interested in trying to understand how students think about these features and capabil-
CSG From Page 1A Mo. in which unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown was shot by a white police officer, sparking a nationwide debate on racial stereotyping and police violence. Later in the meeting, Zearfoss, the Law School assistant dean, discussed minority enrollment at the University during the time allotted for guest speakers at CSG meetings. Zearfoss discussed the history of minority enrollment at the University, including a timeline of U.S. Supreme Court cases related to affirmative action and the state of Michigan’s 2006 passage of Proposal 2, which banned the use of affirmative
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Chris Christie outlined his agenda in a State of the State Address on Tuesday in Trenton, New Jersey. Christie, who many suspect will run for President, highlighted his accomplishments as governor, The New York Times reports.
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ities, also seeing if we can apply those learnings to services available from the University,” he said. Kumar and Tyebjee have been friends since meeting during Welcome Week in 2012. Since neither originally knew much about coding, they outsourced the iPhone and Android beta test version of the application. After the beta launched in April 2013, the students hired two more developers that summer to create a more developed version, which launched in 2014. The two had been in contact with Engineering Dean David Munson since they began working on the app. “He’s always open to talking to students,” Kumar said. “He told us to just build it because that’s when we were going to see if this would be useful or not.” Munson eventually brought the students’ idea to the University’s attention, resulting in a meeting between Kumar, Tyebjee and Laura Patterson, the University’s chief information officer. After the University purchased the app, Kumar and Tyebjee shut down the iPhone and Android versions. DeMonner said the acquisition was part of
an effort to learn more from the University’s students. “We’re also trying to get better at interacting with the student body in general,” he said. “We’re trying to better understand how they think about technology, how they want to use technology, and trying to make sure that input is reflected in our services.” Kumar said he and Tyebjee started to really work on the app when they realized the product could be useful to many students. “We originally thought this was just our issue, but as we talked to more people, we realized that this could be useful for the general Michigan population,” he said. For Kumar, the most useful part of the app is “Groups,” which allows people to make groups with their roommates or others — allowing the app to automatically show when everyone is busy. LSA senior Alec Pinchak, who used the Buzzn mobile application before the University purchased it, said Buzzn was useful and easy to work with. “I use it a lot to meet up with people I work with, as well as friends,” he said. “It’s really convenient and simple to use.”
action in admissions. “Racial diversity improves the dialogue on campus and the learning environment,” she said. In recent months, several events have called on the University to improve its efforts to recruit and enroll minority students, including protests and campaigns organized by the BSU. Zearfoss said the Law School makes a concentrated effort to recruit a diverse applicant pool by personally reaching out to potential students, visiting campuses and waiving application fees. However, these efforts have not yielded a significantly diverse enrollment. “All of the steps we take are useful and helpful but it will never substitute the more direct route of just taking race into
account,” she said. “So, it will always be something we have to continually give attention to and examine to see what we can do better.” CSG representatives had the opportunity to ask Zearfoss questions after she finished speaking. CSG President Bobby Dishell, a Public Policy senior, asked about the potential implementation and impact of pipeline programs, outreach programs designed to prepare targeted students for higher education. Zearfoss said pipeline programs would not be effective for ensuring diversity in a program as competitive as the University’s Law School. “I think making personal connections is the key for us,” she said.
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which prohibits discrimination by public entities on the basis of ability. The investigations opened Jan. 8 following federal complaints filed against the university by 23 Columbia and Barnard College students last spring alleging violations of Title II, Title IX and the Clery Act. Columbia and Barnard join a list of 93 universities under investigation for their handling of sexual misconduct cases, including the University of Michigan.
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — 3A
RACHEL DAWSON
JEFFREY SUN | VIEWPOINT
E-mail Rachel at rdawson@umich.edu
Hope and Leelah Alcorn It goes without saying that Leelah Alcorn’s suicide is about more than just Leelah Alcorn. It’s about the thousands of LGBTQ young people in the United States and abroad whose collective torment led about a third of them to attempt suicide by the age of 18. Of the hundreds or thousands of LGBTQ youth who committed suicide in 2014, why is it that Leelah has become the focus of the debate? Because of her note. Her note, controlled and alive in the face of unimaginable pain, shows us an inescapably real human being in an inescapably real tragedy. Her voice, more than any photograph, breaks through the noise and forces us to recognize her. Anger has been a large part of the reaction to her suicide and note: anger at her parents, now grieving the loss of a child as they receive harassing phone calls, messages and death threats daily; anger on behalf of a generation of LGBTQ youth at the society that did this, with her suicide note ending in a simple request: “Fix society. Please.”; anger that her society didn’t listen to her. This anger, among many reactions, is justified, but the focus of the reporting and the discussion must be on LGBTQ youth across the United States, not on Leelah’s parents or the indi-
viduals around her. (Although she has no notes to be read, Leelah’s mother is a real person too, a person who has just lost a child.) Focusing on only Leelah risks doing a terrible thing: contributing to the danger that affects a whole generation of LGBTQ youth. Four times as many LGBTQ youth attempt suicide as heterosexual youth. It’s a fact that the risk that an LGBTQ teenager will attempt suicide is high. At a time when an LGBTQ suicide has entered into the sympathies and minds of hundreds of thousands or millions across the country, that risk becomes highest. Leelah’s note, originally posted on Tumblr and subsequently shared by many media outlets, has likely been read by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. In it, she says it doesn’t get better, that it gets worse, that all that awaits her is a life of loneliness. There is no way out. We need to be careful about sharing this message in a country with millions of LGBTQ youths at risk. We spread these messages of despair as messages that must be read and taken in, that must not be ignored. It puts a nation of LGBTQ youth in danger to share these urgent messages of despair without also spreading messages of hope. It
can get better. Life is long, and loneliness, misunderstanding and pain are not all that awaits you. Do not do as Leelah has done. Leelah’s note ends with a glimmer of hope. After saying that all of her possessions should be given to trans civil rights movements, she ends her note by writing, “The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was. … My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s fucked up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please.” We can’t let her down by focusing only on her and not the generation of LGBTQ youth who are still alive and still in danger in America. By sharing Leelah’s note with no context other than statements of agreement with her and the urgency of her message, we risk encouraging hopelessness, anger and suicide in the minds of many young people. We need to talk about Leelah as well as about a generation of teenagers who can be saved. Together with the story of this tragedy, there is one thing that also needs to be heard: that it can get better. Jeffrey Sun is an LSA junior.
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Edvinas Berzanskis, Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Devin Eggert, David Harris, Rachel John, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe
Alleviating the underfunded
E
very break, as I try to escape the University’s enclosed sphere of academia, I’m reminded — after approximately a seven-hour drive and a family discussion — of the extent to which education is firmly MELISSA entwined with SCHOLKE my life. Memories of chalkboards, glossy motivational posters and the smells of acrylic paint and glue wafting through the air permeate the mind of every former public school student. In more ways than one, I’ve literally grown up in a classroom. My family’s livelihood and my financial ability to attend college depend upon Michigan’s public education system. My mother works as an elementary school teacher, while my dad is the head custodian at a high school in my hometown. As a little girl, my afternoons were spent bouncing between my parents’ respective workplaces. If I wasn’t coloring or placing graded assignments back on empty student desks in my mom’s classroom, I was with my father who briefly acquired a tiny shadow with a messy blonde mop-top as he traversed the halls emptying wastebaskets. However, my parents are certainly not the only members of this surrounding community of educators. My family’s circle of friends includes a sizeable portion of custodians, teachers and administrators; even some of my closest friends are the children of teachers. For a while, friends outside of the education circle held onto the peculiar notion that my mother’s occupation bolstered my academic performance somehow — as if she wrote a separate lesson plan for home and quizzed me during dinnertime. They were surprisingly right in one respect. While I thankfully never received any extra assignments at home, I quickly learned education is both an extremely important and tremendously costly venture. Likewise, a strong work ethic is indispensable. As the daughter of a teacher and a custodian, I saw firsthand the vast amount of effort necessary to manage and
maintain a classroom. I watched and waited in the background as my mother spent hours preparing for the next day’s lesson, or as my father arrived home late after a long evening of cleaning. As I grew, I came to understand that although education is absolutely crucial for the development of our society, it’s also severely underfunded and inaccessible to far too many people. The sight of my mother buying supplies demonstrated how money from teacher paychecks often contributes to keeping a classroom stocked. Education, no matter the grade level, is expensive. As students matriculate in the public school system, the price of education evolves from teachers supplementing the classroom’s supply of construction paper and crayons to students assuming massive sums of student loan debt — as well as time-consuming part-time jobs — in order to afford tuition, books, rent and everyday essentials. According to an analysis conducted by a youth advocacy group known as Young Invincibles, the state of Michigan’s attempts to offer funding for higher education deserve a failing grade. The group ranked states’ investments in higher education by measuring five criteria: tuition, state appropriations average, average burden on families, financial aid for students and higher education as a priority. Young Invincibles then issued each state in the country a report card. Tom Allison, policy and research manager at Young Invincibles, speculated in an interview that cuts to the education budget were one of many factors contributing to Michigan’s poor performance. For example, during the beginning of Gov. Rick Snyder’s first term in 2011, the amount of money allocated for funding higher education was reduced by 15 percent. In another interview responding to the ranking, Donald Heller, dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University, stated: “The cut in state funding which has caused the universities to raise tuition very rapidly … The relatively high rate of tuition in the first place and the relatively low grade of spending by the state on scholarships means Michigan is a fairly unaffordable state for higher education for most students.” Increasing tuition and deplet-
ing state assistance for higher education further hinders students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds from attaining a degree or attending any academic institution of higher education in the first place. An alternative method to improve the accessibility of higher education was recently proposed by President Barack Obama last week. Following a plan that is already in place in Tennessee, Obama’s proposed tuition initiative guarantees that “two years of community college will become as free and universal as high school is today.” The tuition plan, if enacted, would offer free community college tuition to qualifying students for three years as long as they attend school at least halftime and maintain a 2.5 grade point average. Unfortunately, the plan as it currently stands doesn’t necessarily offer a definitive plan of action. The program would greatly benefit Pell Grant recipients who attend community college by financing their tuition and allowing them to use grant funds toward cost-of-living expenses. However, the program would also offer assistance to students of the upper and middle classes, who may not often be in desperate need for these funds. Likewise, other flaws in the initiative could include the states’ reluctance to partially fund the program and the need to reform community college courses so they provide a bridge between institutions by offering credit that’s transferable to other universities. Also, if enacted, the program should be amended to offer aid to students attending four-year institutions as well. Considering countries like Germany and Finland offer free tuition to their college students — and even to English-speaking international students — Obama’s proposal hopefully demonstrates an impending reform in the realm of U.S. education. The plan is not perfect, but it’s a spark to reignite a broken system. Education is crucial but costly. Whether Obama’s plan is passed or not, the fate of the initiative’s main goal in future legislation will illustrate to the public how much our elected officials actually value providing access to quality education. — Melissa Scholke can be reached at melikaye@umich.edu.
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#Hashtagsforhope
n Sydney, Australia on Dec. 15, a man dressed as a Muslim cleric took a number of people hostage in a busy café. Australian police were able to kill the gunman and thereafter freed the hostages. Two hostages died in the incident. RABAB In the after- JAFRI math of this crisis, Muslims in Australia feared they would be subject to hate crimes, as is common in the aftermath of such events. Australian Rachel Jacobs was sitting on a public train when she noticed a Muslim woman begin to remove her hijab, the Muslim headscarf, as a result of this fear. Jacobs ran up to this Muslim woman at the train station and told her to put the hijab back on, and reassured her by saying “I’ll walk with you.” The Muslim woman began to cry and hugged Rachel in appreciation. Jacobs wrote about the incident on Twitter, which resulted in the hashtag #illridewithyou. Australians tweeted the hashtag with offers to ride the train with Muslims to offer them a sense of safety. The tweet trended worldwide, because people were touched by these acts of kindness and responses by the Australians. Although this is not the only form of activism necessary to create change, the first battle is always awareness. Social media is bridging the gap between what major news sources write and the general public opinion. Some people may think that activism through social media is not true activism, but positive responses to Twitter activism prompted major mainstream
news sources to cover it as a legitimate form of activism. In this way, news sources turned away from arguments from people that view the Islamic doctrine as inherently violent and turned toward talking about the problems of anti-Muslim backlash, recognizing Islamophobia as a problem. They encouraged peace and solidarity with these Muslims, and went a step further by encouraging people to take action by offering help to Australian Muslims. As a Muslim woman who wears hijab, I am grateful for people like Rachel Jacobs. My hijab is a symbol of a choice that I made and a reflection of my beliefs. In all honesty, it is my favorite part of my religion and it pains me to see that someone could fear so much for their own life that they feel forced to take it off. Some may assume that every person who wears hijab is forced to by someone else, making it difficult for me to explain that, as an American-born Muslim, I freely choose to wear my hijab. While I fear the possibility of hate crimes during times such as these, I also feel that people are becoming more and more aware of the difference between Muslims and extremists. Social media activism played a role in spreading both awareness and support for the protests in Ferguson and against police brutality. Protesters live-tweeted with hashtags like #PrayforFerguson and #BlackLivesMatter. Again, the prevalence of social media made it so major news sources could not ignore Ferguson and its ties to racism. Instead of treating Ferguson as an isolated case in which only one town was affected, it became recognized as part of a greater national problem. Whether or not this would have happened without social media can only be speculated, but it did make the news travel much faster
through average people witnessing the protests. In addition to this, it attracted awareness and support from celebrities and athletes like Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush and many others from the NFL, as well NBA players such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, who all wrote “I Can’t Breathe” on their shirts during pregame warm-ups. This was originally a hashtag on Twitter as a tribute to Eric Garner’s words as he was tackled by police officers. These athletes’ actions brought a new group of people into the conversation. As a Muslim, the hashtag #illridewithyou warmed my heart. It gave me hope that maybe more people see Islam the way I see it, or maybe the world is slowly starting to realize the difference between Islam and people who use the name of Islam for their own agendas. I cannot speak on behalf of African Americans who have been subjected to racism, but my hope is that the awareness spread via social media about police brutality made them feel that someone is speaking out for them. Social media activism can be a catalyst for change and the beginnings of much larger movements, as anyone with Internet access can write their opinion and share it with a large audience. This gives people who may have been previously overlooked the power to speak their mind, particularly young people. This can cause an overwhelming sense of community and solidarity, giving people a sense that there are others that agree with their viewpoint as well. Social media allows a post to travel from one end of the world to another, in a matter of seconds, connecting the globe and allowing solidarity to be spread. — Rabab Jafri can be reached at rfjafri@umich.edu.
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4A — Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Arts & News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CONCERT PREVIEW
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
San Cristobal bring live set to Blind Pig By GRACE HAMILTON Daily Arts Writer
COLUMBIA RECORDS
Fifty shades of Bey.
Sexy soundtrack for ‘Fifty Shades’ ‘Fifty Shades’ soundtrack latest in new musical trend By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY Daily Arts Writer
“Fifty Shades of Grey.” Romance. Sex. BDSM. Music? It all started about six months ago when Beyoncé posted a teaser for the “Fifty Shades of Grey” film featuring a slow and intensely sensual “uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh no no.” It’s a clear rework of her debut solo single, “Crazy in Love.” Movie soundtracks have picked up considerable steam in the past year. Some recent examples include Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap” for “The Fault in Our Stars” and the Lorde-curated “Mockingjay” soundtrack. Never have soundtracks been as star-studded and successful as they are now. As one of the most talked about books/movies, it comes as no surprise that the “Fifty Shades” soundtrack will be nothing short of incredible (especially with the legitimacy Beyoncé grants everything she touches). Clearly, Beyoncé didn’t simply
remake the short clip. Five days later the full trailer was released, revealing a nearly entire remix. It’s sultry, to say the least, and it works perfectly with the premise of “Fifty Shades.” Then to throw gas on the fire, a second trailer was released in November featuring Beyoncé’s appropriately-titled “Haunted,” another tantalizingly sexual track. Originally, it seemed that Bey might have been curating this soundtrack in the same manner Lorde handled “Mockingjay.” However, in past weeks, it seemed as if Universal Studios were rolling the album out as just that: an album. More than that, they’re doing it brilliantly. A Beyoncé teaser to get the entire world’s attention on the project? Check. Now, instead of simply releasing the full rework, “Earned It” by The Weeknd pops up on iTunes, landing itself in the top ten a couple days before Christmas. The Weeknd’s electric vocals keep the song’s sound in check with its content. Even the title, “Earned It,” lends an air of dominance to the track. Now, just as the newness of “Earned It” has worn off, and the Beyoncé void has opened up again, Ellie Goulding has released the beautifully
FILM REVIEW
Weak plot in static ‘Eyes’ By VANESSA WONG Daily Arts Writer
In an era when women like Beyoncé, Sheryl Sandberg and Chimimanda Adichie make power moves left and right, it may be difficult to remember the recent past when women didn’t even have a chance to build their reputations
HATHITRUST From Page 1A HathiTrust did not ask the permission of copyright holders before digitizing their works. In a 2012 decision, Judge Harold Baer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled all of HathiTrust’s endeavors fall under fair use. Fair use is a provision of copyright law that allows for the use of copyrighted works provided their use is for nonprofit educational purposes or that it doesn’t affect the market value of the copyrighted work, among other criteria. Though the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in HathiTrust’s favor in 2012, the Authors Guild appealed the ruling. Ultimately, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit evaluated the case in 2014. Again the court ruled in HathiTrust’s favor, stating that no copyright laws had been violated. However, the court remanded the case back to the district court to settle disagreement over HathiTrust’s practice of replacing works that are lost or destroyed. To resolve this element of
in professional fields. Set during that period of professional exclusion, “Big Eyes” follows the true story of artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adams, “American Hustle”), whose husband took credit for her wildly successful paintings of hauntedeyed children. Fresh out of an abusive marriage with nothing
the lawsuit, Furlough said the University cited Section 108 of the Copyright Act. This section states “it is not an infringement of copyright for a library or archives, or any of its employees acting within the scope of their employment, to reproduce no more than one copy or phonorecord of a work.” Furlough said the Authors Guild accepted the stipulation, which led to the lawsuit’s official resolution. The Authors Guild was unavailable for comment. Paul Courant, a professor of public policy, economics and information who previously served as the University’s dean of libraries from 2007 to 2013, said he was glad to see the case officially come to a close. “I’m very pleased that it’s over,” he said. “We’ve agreed to continue to make legal uses and to be careful. We were doing that all along and that now seems to be satisfactory. It concludes what has been a long and arduous experience of dealing with this lawsuit.” Courant added that only occasionally have individual authors objected to having their pieces copied for HathiTrust’s digitization.
crafted “Love Me Like You Do” on iTunes. The lyrics are infatuated, yearning and intelligent. They embody everything that is Ana Steele, the novel’s protagonist. Alternatively, “Earned It” is protective and demanding, akin to Christian Grey himself. This musical representation of today’s most controversial love story is completed by expertly designed cover art. “Earned It” showcases strength undone in love — Jamie Dornan (“Once Upon A Time”) in a designer suit and undone tie. “Love Me Like You Do” features a noseto-chest shot of Dakota Johnson (“The Five-Year Engagement”) biting her lip. Both covers are in shades of black, white and silver, thus tying the movie, books and soundtrack into a perfectly orchestrated multi-media brand. Music has always been an intricate aspect of film, but recently it has gone beyond enhancing the stories told through movies. Now, a good soundtrack tells the complete story through a separate medium. While fans of the trilogy are feverishly rereading the first installment in anticipation of the film, I will be patiently waiting for the soundtrack.
but a typical ’50s housewife’s nonexistent work experience, Margaret attempts to sell her paintings on the streets to support herBself and her young daughter. Big Eyes She soon succumbs to neigh- Brighton Town boring artist Sq. Cinema 16 Walter Keane’s The Weinstein (Christoph Company Waltz, “Django Unchained”) charms, and accepts his whirlwind marriage proposal to keep custody of her daughter. However, Walter ensnares her into another form of abusive marriage. Though Margaret is infatuated by his initial flirtations, he still
“Part of our point defined in this suit is that we haven’t done anything that would cut into the ability of authors, members of the Authors Guild and other copyright holders to do what they’re doing,” he said. “We never actually made anything openly available, except to people with print disabilities.” For the general public, the only service that HathiTrust offers is the full-text search research capability. This service allows anyone on the web to search through digitized works and find where in the work their search item appears. However, the full work itself is generally not made available. The only works that are made fully accessible are already available in the public domain or those whose copyright holders have granted explicit permission. For Jack Bernard, the University’s associate general counsel, the end of this case means more time to focus on HathiTrust’s initiatives — one of which is its commitment to making works accessible for people with print disabilities. “Until HathiTrust came along, the library was not equally accessible to patrons who had print disabilities,” Bernard said.
For budding Ann Arbor artists, performing frequently is key. “The number one thing is just playing as much as pos- San Cristobal sible,” said Jacob Sigman, Saturday lead singer of 9:30 p.m. student six- The Blind Pig piece band $7-10 San Cristobal. This maxim has undoubtedly proved successful for the group, which has been sling-shotted forward with full force since my first interview with Sigman last spring. The group performs back-to-back weekends, is recording a new album and is constantly increas- Rock me mama like a wagon wheel. ing its social media presence (as own, a feat Sigman is proud of. evidenced by its omnipresence “There’s a lot of really talented on my news feed.) people behind the scenes, the This Saturday, Jan. 17, San other guys in San Cristobal, the Cristobal will showcase their string and brass players, the audio new sound at the Blind Pig, argu- recording majors who helped do ably Ann Arbor’s most endearing the mixing and put their spin on music hot-spot, and an impres- things,” he said of the improved sive venue to land for any young collaborative process. musician. After playing there in San Cristobal attributes much 1989, Nirvana went on to call the of their growth to the important Blind Pig the band’s favorite place relationships they have formed to perform, ever. Ann Arbor bands with other Ann Arbor musicians Which Way the Train and Yada and groups. Yada will open the show. “I like showing our music to When Sigman sent me “Lovely other musicians. We kind of geek Lisa,” a new track featuring 16 out together to some of the stuff string and brass players from the we do,” Sigman says. University’s School of Music, TheHe mentions Yada Yada, Which atre & Dance, I hardly recognized Way the Train, Caves, Chris Terthe explosion of melody as the rell, The Euphorics and Asante as same band. While the band began a few student bands in the commuwith relatively humble roots, only nity who support each other. playing music Sigman had writ“People know what’s up and ten in high school, they quickly they’ll go and we hype each other found a groove and began writing up,” Sigman said. as a group. Now, San Cristobal has One of the band’s triumphs was departed almost entirely from its learning what it takes to record in folksy early days to a much larg- a studio, which also proved to be er sound. Sigman describes the one of their biggest challenges. It music as having “a ’60s Beatles can be difficult to preserve the raw pop vibe ... tighter and snappier.” quality of home recordings and The band has made enormous demo tracks once in the studio. strides in musicianship. Its new Sigman noted, “That’s something songs demonstrate a far greater we wanted to keep. So taking it level of intricacy and complexity from that point to a point where as each player has come into their we can release it takes a lot of work
comes off a little too slick, a little too slimy. He parlays that egotism into business acumen when he relentlessly chases social connections he doesn’t have in order to market his subpar paintings. But Margaret’s work is what draws the crowds, and little by little, Walter assumes credit for them. Her meager art stand blossoms into a sprawling print phenomenon … but with Walter’s celebrity persona at the head. Adams deftly portrays Margaret’s tumultuous journey to take back her art, and more importantly, her life. She encapsulates Margaret as fragile without seeming weak, and balances a plethora of conflicting emotions – anger, betrayal, independent strength – realistically
and profoundly. Waltz’s performance counters Adams’s well. His smarmy arrogance interspersed with legitimate threats showcases a side of abusive relationships that the public does not always acknowledge: a man acting in the name of benevolence, but actually fostering a dominating, toxic domestic life. It’s an empowering feminist story that is guaranteed to sell in today’s cultural climate. Unfortunately, though people will appreciate the plot, it remains relatively static. The trailer reveals the full story, so the audience enters the theater already cognizant of the events to follow. Of course, no one can demand storytelling suspense from a film based on a true, well-known
He noted that while other people are able to go to the library and easily access research materials, people with print disabilities are not. “It may take a couple of months for someone to digitize those works or to read them into a tape recorder for you to even decide if you want to use those works,” he said. Bernard, who is legally blind, said HathiTrust provides immediate accessibility to the books in its digitized collection and enlarges print in a way that makes accessing works efficient for him. HathiTrust also provides people who cannot see at all the ability to listen to its books and read them in braille when using refreshable braille on their keyboards. “It’s amazing technology that enables these 13 million volumes to be available to the people who need them,” Bernard said. “Think about what this means for scholars, researchers, students … anyone who has to interact with an academic library really for the first time in history will have access to the full library, or at least in every part of the library that’s already been digitized.”
“It’s not that we couldn’t have digitized the books before, it’s that they’re already digitized, that they’re there and available just like they are to the average patron who walks into the library who wants to work,” he added. “The National Library for the Blind and Handicapped has somewhere between 25 and 30 thousand digitized books. We have over 13 million digitized books. This is an enormous step forward that the University of Michigan heralded.” Melissa Levine, the University’s lead copyright officer, said she was disappointed that the lawsuit was filed at all — constructive conversation, she said, would have been preferred. “I am moved by the University of Michigan’s vision in creating HathiTrust, the vision that partnership represents, and the willingness of the University to fight for principles of central value and interest to the academy,” Levine said. “The University’s commitment to the principles at stake is inspiring — freedom of inquiry and the progress of knowledge, discovery as well as the fundamental need for preservation of the scholarly record in a way that makes possible access now and into the future.”
SAN CRISTOBAL
with a lot of different people. It’s challenging but exciting.” Sigman showed me an example of the way that this works, the bits and pieces, often recorded separately, coming together in the studio. He played a vocal line of high-pitched “ahs” in its bareboned form. Then, he played me the part of the song into which the line was thickly woven in later, accompanied by the rest of the band and a saxophone. In the concert on Saturday, San Cristobal will premiere several new songs, and two others from its new album, accompanied by Chris Tabaczynski, a saxophone player from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. While the music is widely available from San Cristobal on the Internet, Sigman explained that “it’s not really indicative of (the band’s) sound. That’s why we’re excited to show people what we’re really about with this new album.” Gauging by my own excitement over two tracks played through a laptop, the live delivery will be worth seeing. This kind of music feels designed to get people moving and is fed by the enthusiasm of the audience, who will no doubt be compelled to provide it.
series of events. Still, many of Margaret’s most probing, selfreflective scenes find their way into the trailer, robbing the audience of the chance to appreciate them with the full chronology of events. As such, though the film is well done overall, the majority of viewing time feels like an extended version of the trailer. But thankfully, some of Waltz’s and Adams’s most powerful scenes, particularly toward the end of the film, do remain out of the trailer. “Big Eyes” should not be about plot twists, or a complex story, but rather, the individual characters and their relationships with themselves and each other, and in that respect, it succeeds.
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Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — 5A
FILM COLUMN
STYLE NOTEBOOK
Mark Wahlberg’s Worst of 2014 List Mark Wahlberg’s latest declaration that he has a penis, “The Gambler,” debuted to middling reviews over Christmas break. In it, the former underwear model plays Jim Bennett, a debt-riddled literature professor who, between inspired sermons on Shake-speahh and lectures to his students about how AKSHAY they’re shitty SETH writers, casually boondoggles faculty checks at a Roulette table. Things are good until they aren’t. And “When sorrows come, they come not single spies / But in battalions.” With a bald John Goodman breathing down his neck, “Good Vibrations” must pay off any outstanding funds before the week is out — or risk being beaten to death with a tire iron the size of Dirk Diggler’s schlong. Whether or not you enjoy watching The Wahl expound on the values of well-crafted sentences and punctuation marks in front of a lecture hall full of undergrads, you’ll probably agree with me when I say “The Gambler” is just the capstone on a 2014 marred by mediocrity for the former Oscar nominee. If not, please take a moment to think about why any year when the highlight reel starts and ends with a shot of you throwing up your arms to lackadaisically exclaim, “I think we just found a Transformer,” has certain … issues. So, when I took a look back at the other big cinematic disappointments of the past 12 months, it only seemed natural to think, “What would Marky say?” After all, this is a guy who once got eviscerated on social media after claiming he could have stopped 9/11 had he been on one of the planes. This is the guy who got skinned on social media, again, after requesting that the governor of Massachusetts pardon him for the slew of hate crimes he committed 25 years ago. This is a guy who opens up HBO Go to watch “Entourage.” If there’s anyone on this planet who is OK with disappointment, it’s Mr. Rhythm & Rhyme himself.
So without further adieu, put your hands together for Mark Wahlberg, cluing us in on the biggest Hollywood letdowns of 2014: 1. “The Amazing SpiderMan 2” Honestly, when they gave that British pretty-boy the right to play Tobey Maguire, I knew shit was gonna hit the fan. I knew. Akshay, don’t look at me like that. I knew. The second the trailer ended, so I turned to my wife and I said, “Rhea, they gave that fucko Spider Man. Do they even have spiders in England? This can never work.” I mean, why not just get Tobey? He has that fuckin’ hair. He has those eyes. He has it all. I am aware he’s a vegan, but I heard on “Regis & Kelly” once that all those soy patties are great for the ass. This was a case of classic miscasting, Akshay. Why the hell was Jamie Foxx here? If I want to be electrified by Jamie Foxx, I’ll put on “Intuition.” 2. “Transcendence” Akshay, I don’t know how the Internet works. I’m no genius. Is it a bunch of pipes that we shoot emails through? I don’t know. Is it like a giant inflatable pool in the yard that everyone jumps in during a barbecue? Everyone’s peeing in it. I don’t know. What I do know is that Johnny Depp is not the Internet. The script is all wrong, Akshay. If you’re going to have one guy take over all facets of technology, he wouldn’t be going after America. He’d be going after the Taliban. Have you seen my movie “Lone Survivor?” That’s where he’d be. If Johnny Depp was the Internet, porn wouldn’t be as good, I can tell you that much. Wally Pfister didn’t see all these angles. He’s a cinematographer, but he still didn’t see all the angles. What are you gonna do? 3. “Let’s Be Cops” Hey, I get it — we all played that game when we were kids. Act like you’re the fuzz, maybe run around as cops and robbers a little. You got the pretend gun, the handcuffs. Not me. Donnie and I used to beat up little Asian kids at the grocery store. Then these blue assheads show up and put me in jail. It was a horrible experience and it’s been 25 years since it happened. I’ve apologized for it. I wrote the fucking letter, but they won’t let it go. It’s on them. I hate the police, Akshay. I hate everything about the law. I’m
sorry, I’m getting off topic, but I get emotional — I’m from Boston. The thing is, you already have enough of these doughnut-eating shits out there. Do you really need to have two more assholes harassing everybody? It’s just an off-putting premise. No one wanted to see it, and I think it shows. 4. North Korea When I heard what they did, I cried. I locked myself in the bedroom and I sobbed for two hours, because I knew this great country would never be the same again. What if these sick fuckers take down the HBO Go page? I can’t have them releasing Jeremy Piven’s emails, Akshay, that guy is an animal. When I came back out, my eyes were bleary and my nose was runny and my forehead was bleeding for some reason — but I knew what I had to do. Do you know what I did, Akshay? I called up Doug Ellin and I told him we’d have to add a North Korea subplot to the “Entourage” movie. That’s right, you heard it here first, you freeloaders — Vinny and the boys are headed to Pyonyang this summer, and we’re going to finish what Seth Rogen started. We’re going to show up at Un’s crib and demand some real answers. I’m from the street. This is what we do. 5. “Transformers: Age of Extinction” I’ll admit it. It wasn’t a good year for the “Transformers” odyssey. Michael Bay told us straight up that it would be a tough, tough shoot and an even tougher postproduction phase, but we didn’t listen. We’d show up for work, we’d goof around all day and one time, I even knocked a guy out with a wrench. I threw it at him and it hit him in the face. He went right the fuck out. I must’ve laughed for two hours, but Michael wasn’t too happy about it. I get that. Half of the days, I didn’t even know my lines. It seems really polished now, but that scene in which I find a Transformer in my truck was pure improv — no planning. The movie’s a fucking mess, but we’ll always have that little gem. It’ll be in our back pockets, sitting there when we start shooting the fifth one. Seth is looking for his next imaginary conversation partner. To help him pick, email akse@umich.edu.
TV NOTEBOOK
Intense ‘Apprentice’ By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK Daily Arts Writer
There is something incredibly exciting about seeing celebrities out of context. It’s like seeing a teacher at the gym — nylon Ashorts, Nikes pounding on a The grimy treadmill belt, real- Celebrity life sweat. You Apprentice realize that Dr. Kimbob rips Season Seven out bicep curls Premiere and Professor Sundays Loopy Lulaney at 9 p.m rides the spin cycle like a sea- NBC soned pro. In “The Celebrity Apprentice,” now airing its seventh season on NBC, 16 C-list celebrities are plucked out of their niches — whether that be reality TV, Hollywood, a sports field or the newsroom — and are thrown into the entrepreneurial world, all with the goal of fundraising for their chosen charities. And they aren’t fishing for money in just any pocket. The celebs have a boss with a hefty wallet: business tycoon himself, Donald Trump. Each week, the men’s and women’s teams designate a Project Manager, and under his or her guidance (or lack thereof ), the teams compete in a series of tasks around New York City, ranging from baking pies to directing commercials. The contestants must tap into their business-savvy, past experiences
and occasionally their famous contacts for fundraising. And they have to cooperate with each other — super-sized egos and all. At the end of the day, the teams assemble before Trump in a boardroom and the winning team is announced. Trump then whittles down the losers, cracking questions and listening to celebrities’ accusations, until the contestant who is most responsible for the team’s loss emerges. Then, at the height of the drama, Trump “fires” the incompetent celeb from the show. The cast is definitely stacked with characters: eldest Jonas Brother Kevin Jonas, Olympians Shawn Johnson and Jamie Anderson; former athletes Terrell Owens and Johnny Damon; comedian Gilbert Gottfried; TV personalities Geraldo Rivera and Leeza Gibbons; actors Lorenzo Lamas (“Renegade”), Ian Ziering (“Sharknado”) and Sig Hansen (“Deadliest Catch”); reality star Kate Gosselin (“Jon and Kate Plus 8”); “Real Housewives” Kenya Moore and Brandi Glanville; and finally actresses Keisha Pulliam (“The Cosby Show”) and Vivica Fox (“Kill Bill”). The women collectively became “Team Infinity,” while the men labeled themselves “Team Vortex.” After they made introductions and decided team names (a ridiculously drawn-out ordeal), Trump administered the first task of the season: to bake a sweet and a savory pie to be judged by “The Cake Boss” himself, Buddy Valastro. The real winner wasn’t
who had the best pies, however. The challenge was primarily a fundraiser, so the teams had to sell their pastries and whichever team raised the most money — in pie profits and donations — won. So really, the trick was to have the most rich friends on speed dial. Knowing this, Geraldo Rivera snagged Project Manager for Team Vortex and began calling up his wealthy buds while the rest of the team baked (and burned, as a distraught Kevin Jonas discovered) their pies. Cosby-kid Keisha confidently headed Team Infinity, though she floundered, failing to bring in any substantial checks and refusing to ask Papa Bill for money. Where the women fell behind in the money race, they triumphed in the taste department (to the chagrin of business women everywhere), wowing Buddy with their unique blueberry-pear pie. Mother-of-eight Kate Gosselin pounced on kitchen duty, claiming that baking for the masses was second nature: “I make three meals a day for nine people!” Bless her heart. Though Buddy gave a $25,000 bonus check for the best tasting pie, Team Infinity still lost the challenge, raising only $93,862 to Vortex’s whopping $185,322. In a tense, teary boardroom, Trump fired Keisha because of her unsatisfactory leadership skills, but compensated by donating $25,000 to her charity. The lessons learned? Don’t bake with Kevin Jonas. Do call Bill Cosby. And if you must be fired, let Donald Trump do the firing.
GETTY IMAGES
Found: Lost Jonas brother. Call Keira Knightly for details.
Pantsuits and bold style at 2015 Globes By MARIAM SHEIKH Daily Arts Writer
In my family, gathering to watch award shows has been something of a cult ritual since I was old enough to appreciate celebrity obsession. The Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes — we sit around eating copious amounts of food, vehemently judging every performer, presenter, celebrity and security guard in sight. In addition to the jokes, the tipsy celebrities, the concerning amount of selfie sticks, there is the fashion and the style. Sunday’s Golden Globes did not disappoint in this department. The trends of the evening seemed to be more skewed than usual, but it gave us style-obsessed people at home more to swoon over. Metallic Everyone knows the red carpet is a place to make a statement. What better way to do that than by donning head to toe in a shimmer? That’s right, metallic was all over the red carpet. To single out a few of the top looks: Jennifer Lopez stunned, looking like the ultimate dominatrix in Zuhair Murad (while also having the longest nip slip of the century). In the words of Jeremy Renner, it simply was the night for her and her “golden globes.” Golden Globe winner Julianne Moore wore a fitted shimmering Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci gown that cinched with ombred feathers toward the bottom. Diane Kruger glimmered in her dress, between swigs of champagne, of course. There to support her was longtime bae Joshua Jackson (the cutest couple at the Globes FYI), who showed off her impeccable style in Emilia Wickstead (frequented by HRH Kate Middleton, so you know she’s legit). Monochromatic Color Another trend all over the red carpet was bold minimalism. We saw many monochromatic looks: an outfit of one solid color throughout. Accompanied with a structured fit, there are no frills, no fuss, just
simplistically clean color. This theme produced looks that were the most elegant — the most couture. In line with this theme was Taylor Schilling in a bright red Ralph Lauren ball gown with a halter neckline (a big step up from the green nightgown she wore last year). “The Theory of Everything” actress Felicity Jones may not have snatched up the Golden Globe, but she was #winning at fashion. She had on a teal Dior gown fit for a queen and perfect for the red carpet. The piece had a high collar, but buttoned detail down the back, a fit and flare that was everything. As two ladies whose outfits are always on-point, Amy Adams and Kate Hudson both opted for a monochromatic look but with more muted, neutral colors. They both donned Versace, making statements in more ways than one. Adams wore a one-shouldered periwinkle gown and Hudson added sex appeal with a skintight, icy-white cut-out dress. She looked so hot that even Jennifer Aniston took a second to grab her ass before an interview with Ryan Seacrest. (Don’t act like you didn’t notice). Pantsuits and Tuxedos and Jumpsuits, Oh my! While it wasn’t a trend that was as prevalent as the others mentioned, perhaps one of the most understated themes of the night was the revival of the pantsuit, and no, I’m not talking about Prince’s (although he looked fly as hell with his outfit and cane). I am more or less referring to my spirit animals: Lorde, Emma Stone and Tina Fey. Lorde was in a custom-made Narciso Rodriguez piece. Not just an ordinary pantsuit though — she rocked a low-cut, elegant crop-top, frosted in a shit-ton of diamonds. She was clearly one of the chicest and youngest (if we aren’t counting Quvenzhané Wallis) people nominated. Emma Stone showed up with her (... interesting ...) brother, wearing a Lanvin jumpsuit embellished with jewels along the top half. She paired the piece with
black pants that sprouted the biggest black bow on the back. Normally, the rule of thumb is to steer clear of anything and everything with bows after the age of five, but she managed to make it work. For those who stuck around for the entire show, Tina Fey’s second outfit change was into a glittering tux. Now deemed Tina “The Tuxedo” Fey, the suit was by far her best outfit of the night — and no doubt the most comfortable. Can pantsuits and tuxedos please come back forever? When styled right, it makes anyone and anything high-fashion. Nature made a comeback (or at least it tried) Along with the some of the natural colors celebrities wore, there was a resurgence of embellishment in the form of flowers, butterflies and all things Mother Nature. While most of the trends on the carpet were to die for, others, like this one, not so much. Sienna Miller was probably the only person to have bested this trend, in a low cut, floorlength cream-colored Miu Miu gown, embroidered with flowers and mini crystals. She looked radiant. Not so for pregnant Keira Knightley, though, dressed in a Chanel dress (I know, who can go wrong in Chanel? Well …) that looked straight out of “Little House on the Prairie” — leaves, feathers and butterflies galore (even a tacky bracelet). I didn’t understand this look, and I don’t want to, frankly. Claire Danes also embraced her inner Mother Nature with a Valentino dress that reminded me of two things: a DIY art project or a gross furry moth. Better luck next time, perhaps. As the first award show of the year, the Globes sets a precedent for trends and styles. Thus far, it was all about the details (Amal’s white gloves anyone?), while returning to style fundamentals. Basic colors, cuts and fits ruled the red carpet, much like in 2014. However the resurrection of all things pants has potential to turn any tacky prom outfit into coveted couture.
Sports
6A — Wednesday, January 14, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arnone readying for MLS By TED JANES Daily Sports Writer
The past month has been hectic for Tyler Arnone. The former Michigan soccer player has been all over the East Coast, playing soccer day in and day out. But he’s not playing just for fun. Tuesday morning, he concluded the five-day Adidas Major League Soccer Player Combine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The goal of the 55 college prospects at the combine is to perform well enough to impress the scouts and get drafted. Arnone, though, had an advantage. Prior to the combine, he got a brief taste of professional soccer. He drove straight from his last final exam to Columbus, where he trained with the Columbus Crew. After a four-hour session with the Crew, he got on a plane to Philadelphia, where he received a similar evaluation from the Philadelphia Union. The key component of these evaluations was the physical tests: the 40-meter dash, agility drills and the vertical jump. While he only stayed in Columbus for a few hours, he trained with Philadelphia for three days. “We would train in the morning and play in the afternoon for three straight days, so that was a little more tasking physically,” Arnone said. “I did pretty well. They even brought that up here at the combine when I met with them.” Once the holiday break had passed, it was time to head down south to the combine. Upon arriving, one of the biggest changes for Arnone was the professionalism of the atmosphere. While the combine was based around playing soccer, for the players, it was much more. Every other day was a rest day, during which the players learned about other aspects of their future careers. “We’d have meetings throughout the rest days,” Arnone said. “We met with the Players Union. We met with different people from around the MLS. We even had a financial meeting, kind of just to educate
us young players not to blow all our money on our first paycheck. It was really informational and very professional.” One of the most important components of the combine was the individual meetings, which became swtressful for many of the players, especially since clubs only offer interviews to specific players they are interested in. Fortunately for the former Wolverine, multiple clubs showed interest. Over the course of the combine, Arnone had individual meetings with the Crew, New York City F.C., Real Salt Laake and the Union. “They kind of pick your brain a little bit,” Arnone said. “They get to know you as a person. They ask you about your background and what you like to do. They want to know, since they may potentially draft you, who they’re bringing into their locker room. A bunch of character-type questions, and then they’d ask you about the game. Where do you think your best spot is? What do you think your strengths are? Some of your weaknesses or things you need to improve on? Performance as well as personal questions.” While the clubs did make a point to ensure they’d bring in good personalities, the actual
on-field performances ultimately make the biggest difference, and Arnone felt he had a strong showing. Even though Arnone didn’t show up on the stat sheet much, he consistently produced many contributing plays for his team. He took nearly every free kick and corner kick, looked to make connecting passes instead of attempting to take on defenders one-on-one, organized the midfield and did all the dirty work that coaches want to see out of defensive-minded midfielders. “Each day, I didn’t score goals, but that wasn’t my job,” Arnone said. “I thought I had three solid days because I connected well, possessed the ball well and tackled well. I got a lot of feedback about my fitness. A lot of teams were impressed with how fit I was.” The MLS SuperDraft begins Thursday afternoon and is composed of four rounds. The final two take place Jan. 20. Whatever the outcome, Arnone knows he did everything in his power. He met the coaches, battled the competition and made his case. Now all that’s left to do is wait.
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Tyler Arnone recently showcased his skills at the MLS Combine.
RITA MORRIS/Daily
Kim Barnes Arico frequently preaches the benefits of a Michigan education to recruits. Sunday, she had proof.
‘M’ present and past unite By MINH DOAN Daily Sports Writer
As the Michigan women’s basketball team ran out of the locker room for the second half of its game against Ohio State on Sunday, the Wolverines ran by a human tunnel comprised of past Michigan players, some from Team One and others who graduated just two years ago. It was Alumni Day at Crisler Center, and the program’s graduates were back to not only be honored at a halftime ceremony, but also to support the current team. While all of the alumni don’t play on the court anymore, they have gone on to have successful careers in other fields because of “the 40-year plan” and the opportunities that a Michigan degree has opened up for them outside of basketball. The plan is one of the tools Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico has in her arsenal when she talks to potential recruits. Sunday, she had her examples right in front of her. Take Jennifer McLogan, who was a member of Team One back in 1971. McLogan is now a news reporter for CBS in New York. But without having gone to Michigan, she may have never gone down that career path. “I thought I was going to go to Broadway,” McLogan,
who was a theatre major, said. “I never knew or dreamed I would be a news reporter, but my professors engaged me in politics, religion, history and everything else, and you start to become a sponge and want to branch out.” And for many former Wolverines, that’s exactly what made Michigan stand out during their recruiting process. It’s what makes the Michigan experience for the players, something that’s more than women’s basketball. “(Academics) was a big deciding factor,” said former player Sam Arnold, who played for the Wolverines from 20082012 and is currently a graduate student at Loyola-Chicago. “Being the best on the court, and in the classroom — that’s why Michigan was a top choice for me.” The evidence of the program’s message continued down the line of former players at the game. “Because everything is so structured and we have to be places at a certain time, and we have away and home games, you have to be able to balance school life and your basketball life,” said Janelle Cooper, who is currently in the University’s dental school and played for Michigan from 2004 to 2008. “So now that I’m in dental school, even with all of
the classes, I’m able to balance things very well because I had to do it as an undergrad.” Members of older teams — such as Team One — who received little to no help from the Athletic Department, had other responsibilities as well. “We wore our game uniforms from home to the game and back,” said Team One member Sheryl Szady. “We washed our own uniforms, and there were no practice uniforms.” Times are different now. Women’s players share facilities with the men. But still, the program remains united today. A strong showing of alumni at the game echoed Cooper’s sentiments on the value of a Michigan degree as well as participation in the women’s basketball program. “I think 29 or 30 players came back this weekend, and that shows the greatness of the program and the strength of Michigan,” McLogan said. “Everyone wants to be affiliated and stay affiliated.” While the alumni who came back for Alumni Day all didn’t play under the same coach or even in the same gym, each and every player graduated from Michigan and has moved onto bigger and better things outside of basketball. And that’s the meaning of the 40-year plan.
ICE HOCKEY
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 14, 2015
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Martin adjusting nicely to college By JASON RUBINSTEIN Daily Sports Editor
Prior to the season, Michigan coach Red Berenson didn’t know what to expect from freshman defenseman Cutler Martin. And Martin didn’t know what to expect from himself, either. Martin arrived in Ann Arbor having not played a game since December 2013, due to a concussion he suffered while playing with the Tri-City Storm in the United States Hockey League. “When you miss half a season, you don’t know if you’ve improved or if you’ve gone backwards,” Berenson said. Fast forward to this December, and Martin has become a catalyst of Michigan’s defense, registering nine points in 15 games. Last season, Michigan’s highestscoring defenseman tallied 15 points throughout the entire campaign. Moreover, Martin has become the anchor of the third defensive unit. This happened despite the lack of a consistent defensive partner. Unlike the top two defensive pairings — which haven’t been shuffled around — Martin hasn’t been able to play with a consistent partner. Instead, Martin has been paired with a rotation of sophomore Nolan De Jong, freshman Sam Piazza and senior Mike Chiasson. But, to the surprise of some, it hasn’t affected his game. Martin says it’s because he keeps the game as simple as he can. Berenson agreed, and noted that’s why he warrants big minutes. “We kept liking when Cutler was in,” Berenson said. “He was doing what we expected him to
do. Now we see him as a player that should compete for ice time every night.” His sound defensive game, though, isn’t the only thing keeping Berenson pleased. Martin has tallied three goals and nine assists, including the game-winning goal in overtime against then-No. 9 Minnesota and a goal against then-No. 5 Michigan Tech in the Great Lakes Invitational. That, too, has taken Martin aback. After all, he could barely remember the last time he produced consistent offense. “Years and years ago,” Martin said. “I definitely don’t consider myself as an offensive player. I consider myself a shutdown defenseman. I think the points come hand in hand with working hard in practice.” Added Berenson: “His offense is a surprise. He’s one player that has a knack to get his shot through. He gets his shot through quick, rather than overhandle it. So it’s been a pleasant surprise.” Better yet, Martin hasn’t reached his ceiling. He knows that, and so do his coaches. But with the addition of Mike Komisarek, a former Wolverine defenseman and NHL AllStar, to the coaching staff, Martin will have an easier time improving. “Every time I get off the ice, I like to sit next to him and pick his head and learn something from him,” Martin said. Komisarek will be especially helpful when it comes to offensive production from the blue line. After all, in the 2001-02 season, Komisarek led all Wolverine defensemen in points. One day, Martin might be able to say the same about himself.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — 7A
BUCKEYE BLITZ OHIO STATE, 71 MICHIGAN, 52
Michigan falls flat in loss By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Editor
One step forward, one step back For 20 minutes, Ohio State pounded the Michigan men’s basketball team. The Buckeyes forced out sophomore point guard Derrick Walton Jr. with two early fouls, then went to work on a backcourt of junior Spike Albrecht and freshman MuhammadJAKE Ali AbdurLOURIM Rahkman. They scored, forced turnovers and scored some more. They opened up a 15-point lead at halftime. And then things got ugly. Not only did the deficit increase — Ohio State went on a 13-0 run to open the second half and pull ahead 52-24 — but the cut ran deeper. Late in the game, the outcome long since decided, a fan in the student section unveiled an “NJIT Basketball” shirt, reopening memories of the Wolverines’ embarrassing Dec. 6 loss. A moment later, the students started chanting “Just Like Football!” reminding the crowd of Ohio State’s rivalry win over Michigan, to say nothing of the Buckeyes’ national title victory 24 hours earlier. Lessons don’t come as much from games like the Wolverines’ Dec. 13 blowout loss at Arizona, after which Beilein said it would have taken many games for Michigan to beat the Wildcats. They don’t come from home upsets by NJIT or Eastern Michigan. They come on the road in cavernous Big Ten arenas when the crowd starts to file out with 6:57 left. This wasn’t like any of those December losses. The Wolverines knew then that they were a learning, improving team. Coming into Columbus at 3-1 in the
Big Ten, they might have expected better this time. In the end, Michigan tidied up the deficit and lost by 19, three points fewer than the margin between the Ohio State football team and Oregon a night earlier. But the Buckeyes weren’t trying to hammer the Wolverines by that many. “No, we were trying to win by 50,” said senior forward Sam Thompson. “That didn’t work out. We just wanted to send a message.” Early in the second half, as the deficit piled up and that message became clearer, Ohio State forward Amir Williams blocked Michigan freshman guard Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman on a drive. The Buckeyes’ Marc Loving grabbed the rebound. And then Ohio State started the fast break. At the other end, Thompson found Shannon Scott for an easy layup, plus a foul on the Wolverines’ Kameron Chatman, a freshman forward. Michigan coach John Beilein sat back in his chair with his hand on his chin, watching as his young team took a beating. The Buckeyes were putting on a clinic, and he wanted his team to witness every painful second. “Every loss stings me the same way — just talking personally, I don’t know about the team,” Beilein said. “We grow from it — that’s it. We grow from it. By the time we get home, I’ll have watched the whole game, and we’ll try to find some answers to what we could do better.” The Buckeyes showed passing when freshman guard D’Angelo Russell fed a nolook dish to Williams for an open dunk in the first minute. They showed X’s and O’s when Thompson got open for an easy jumper off an inbounds pass with 10 minutes to go in the
first half. They showed quickness when they scored a layup with 5:18 left, then immediately stole the inbounds pass and laid it back in for two. They showed interior defense when Williams swatted a shot halfway to the state border in the second half. They showed perimeter defense with 11 steals, five by Thompson and four by Russell. They showed alertness in the first few minutes when Walton lobbed an alley-oop pass to freshman forward Ricky Doyle, only to have it knocked away by Russell. The beating was far from over. Beilein’s first substitution was Abdur-Rahkman for Walton at the 16:37 mark of the first half. Abdur-Rahkman played a career-high 15 minutes, usually guarded by either Russell or Scott, one of Ohio State’s six seniors. For Abdur-Rahkman and the other freshmen, the game was a baptism by fire, one that started with the pregame fireworks during Ohio State’s player introductions and lasted until the final buzzer. The Buckeyes outplayed Michigan’s regulars and preyed on its inexperienced reserves. “We were trying to send (a message) from the jump,” Thompson said. “No matter what lineup they had on the floor, no matter what lineup we had on the floor, we wanted to show that we were the better team, and we wanted to do it decisively.” Mission accomplished. The Wolverines won’t own this rivalry this season as they did last year. With memories of a loss, a T-shirt and a chant, they’re headed back home. But it’s a good thing Beilein didn’t let them leave with 6:57 left, like the fans did. They might have missed an important lesson. The old wounds are open again. Now it’s about how fast Michigan can close them. Jake Lourim can be reached at jlourim@umich.edu and on Twitter at @jakelourim.
COLUMBUS — It was far from the typical raucous environment one comes to expect at a major Michigan-Ohio State sporting event Tuesday night. “The last two times we came in here, one time we were undefeated (and then) last year, you couldn’t hear yourself think,” said Michigan basketball coach John Beilein. “It was just quiet from the beginning.” With a contingency of Buckeye supporters still on their way back from college football’s National Championship in Dallas on Monday and an entire segment of the student section empty, Value City Arena seemed nothing like the hostile venue Michigan has known it to be over the years. But even with seemingly friendlier confines, the Wolverines (3-2 Big Ten, 10-7 overall) fell flat, losing 71-52. “From the very beginning, it was a little different than what I was expecting,” said junior guard Spike Albrecht. “Because usually at Ohio State, it’s a big rivalry, they jump out at you — all the rah-rah and things like that — but they didn’t do that. We just kind of coasted along with them for the first four minutes and then I just felt like we stayed in that coast mode for the first half, and they picked it up. We just didn’t match it.” Uncharacteristically for Michigan, foul trouble plagued its guards. The Wolverine backcourt of Albrecht and sophomore Derrick Walton Jr. picked up two first-half fouls apiece,
as did junior swingman Caris LeVert. But with the deficit inching toward 15 points, Beilein was forced to keep both Albrecht and Walton Jr. in to counter the Buckeye onslaught at the end of the first half. “I thought we had to,” Beilein said. “I thought all of a sudden it could get over 20. We had to try to withstand it. They were only in for three minutes. They were told not to foul, unless they felt (so). We wanted them to compete. We rarely do that, but the flow of the game was very bad at that point.” Desperate or not, Michigan seemed dead to begin the second half, allowing Ohio State (3-2, 14-4) to open up on an 8-0 run before finally calling timeout with 15:15 left. At that point, following three turnovers and an alley-oop dunk by Ohio State forward Sam Thompson, Beilein finally threw in the towel, inserting freshman guards Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman and Aubrey Dawkins, freshman forward Kameron Chatman and senior forward Max Bielfeldt. Adding even more insult to injury, Michigan went until the 13:25 mark of the second half before scoring its first points of the stanza, with the Buckeye run extending to 13-0. Thanks to a Bielfeldt basket, Michigan managed to cut the lead to 26 — at the time, that number matched its point total. “I think they’ve been down 10-15 points every game in the last (several) games in the second half,” said Ohio State forward Sam Thompson. “We know they can come back to send it
into overtime. We knew the game wasn’t over at halftime. We knew they were still very capable of making a run.” But that run never came. While the Wolverine backcourt struggled to stay in the game, Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell’s play enabled the Buckeyes to pull away. Tallying 21 points and six assists, the freshman helped spread the scoring for the Buckeyes, who had five other scorers with at least six points to go along with 34 points in the paint. Things didn’t start entirely terribly for Michigan, though. The Wolverines actually led 14-13 after a Dawkins put-back. But after that basket, everything seemed to fall apart. The Buckeyes went on a 25-9 run over the final 12:02 of the first half, taking advantage of Michigan turnovers and second-chance baskets to take a commanding 39-24 halftime lead, with Walton, the defender Michigan was determined to stick on Russell, playing just eight first-half minutes. “Whether (Walton) is in foul trouble, it’s going to happen again,” Beilein said. “Our guys — he, Caris — they’re going to get in foul trouble. And we need to be able to get better off the bench.” Even with the hushed crowd a non-factor, Michigan was constantly outworked on the offensive glass. Totaling 11 offensive rebounds, the Buckeyes outscored Michigan in secondchance points, 13-7. Meanwhile, Michigan turned the ball over 13 times, resulting in 19 Buckeye points off turnovers.
Photos by Allison Farrand Layout by Emily Schumer
8A — Wednesday, January 14, 2015
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T H E S C I E N C E O F S E C U R I T Y: H O W ‘ U ’ R E S E A R C H I M PA C T S O U R N AT I O N ’ S S A F E T Y
statement THE MICHIGAN DAILY
JAN UARY 14 , 2015
2B
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
From the Pews: An answer for Death B Y C L A I R E B R YA N
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y older sister lost one of her best friends in a fatal car crash eight months ago. Grief in large and consuming proximity was not something I had much experience with until this year. The powerful denting it has done to someone who I am so close with is vexing. My own grief has become disoriented in my
heartbreak for her struggle and has brought me piles of questions for the world beyond on our own world: heaven. My reasons, driven by what Sunday school teachers had plastered in my brain as common
sense, were what I first turned to for answers. God needs her in heaven. She was better than human, immortal, meant for the life of an angel. We will be reunited with her one day. Though these reasons are beautiful, they never fully settled with me. She was many things in this world that were grand and admirable, but deeming her a better human — as heaven and an angelic life appeared to do — seemed belittling of individual’s life here on Earth. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, one-fifth of Americans today do not identify with any religion, some of the highest percentages ever recorded. However, of these 46 million unaffiliated adults, two-thirds say they believe in God, more than half say they have a connection with nature, a third of them classify themselves as “spiritual,” and one in
THE
statement
five say they pray every day. Perennial philosophy offers a path of philosophy for those who are spiritually independent. According to the book “Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent” by Rami Shapiro, an author and Jewish Rabbi, the philosophy includes there is one reality and that reality can be called ‘God,’ individuals identify with “our culturally conditioned individual ego,” and that this identification leads to peace replacing anxiety and suffering. Humans should realize that their true nature is this manifestation of the single reality, God, and place responsibility and reason in themselves. Perennial wisdom and my struggles with my original answer to death collided when I read Shapiro stressed “to know God is to know yourself; to know yourself is to know God” and “knowing you are God is knowing everything else is God.” For individuals to truly know themselves they must recognize themselves as grand as God, and each person next to them, equally grand. Some find inspiration and guidance in God’s grace or heaven’s refuge, but after swimming through the ideas of perennial wisdom I find
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
inspiration in the individual. We are each grand and living our most moral lives because of the humanity and goodness of the person sitting to the right and left of you. We are each capable of being what God is to each other, of providing that comfort. We are every part of our
IN COMMAND: READ ON PAGE 5
reality on Earth. Though final answers might take a lifetime to find me, for this moment, honoring her best rests in honoring that we are worthy of each other, and that we are worthy of the world we are a part of, nothing more.
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“George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an advisor to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a three-person commission investigating rules of war violation in the Gaza Strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award.”
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– Golden Globes host TINA FEY, in her and AMY POEHLER’S opening monologue Sunday January 11th
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement 3B
T H E L I S T BUZZFEED, BUT BE T TER FIVE DAY TRIPS FOR THE LONG WEEKEND While there are a range of events and memorials being held this upcoming Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., here are a few ways to spend the other two days of the long weekend.
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FRANKENMUTH
Michigan’s Little Bavaria — also known as the only Bavaria you will probably ever actually go to . The town is only an hour drive from A2 and is great for an afternoon of old-timey fun.
2 . T H E TO L E D O ZO O
While there may not be many wolverines found in this state, this zoo is one of the best in the country, hosting a wide range of wildlife and non-Midwestern habitats. And unlike other zoos, Toledo’s is open year-round. Only an hour outside of A2, this is a more adventurous option than watching “Brother Bear” again on Netflix.
GR AND R APIDS ARTS MUSEUM
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All the Pretty Things: The Snow B Y J A C K LY N T H O M A S
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retty things this week: Snow. I step out of the warm halls of East Quad and into the chilly streets on my way to class. I pass countless faces, each asking the same question: “Why, why am I
being pelted by sharp, cold daggers of snow?” I differ from these folks, my face upturned to the sky and a smile on my face. Big, fluffy flakes falling from the sky begin to create a temporary wonderland in the Diag. I live for the snow. Call me basic, but it seems as though something magical happens when it snows. I am not even talking about how with snow comes the jolliness of the holiday season. No, snow is its own event that promises a certain cozy quietness. Campus becomes a little quieter, the students a little puffier. Snow is the assurance that, “Yes, ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE MILLER
Jackie, you should stay inside tonight. Don’t go trudging to that dirty party over on Hill St.” Snow gives the permission to indulge in that second caramel brulée latte because it’s cold. And, I suppose I would be lying if I claimed the snow doesn’t conjure up the excitement of the holidays. It’s acceptable to listen to Charlie Brown’s Christmas album and wear snowflake-covered onesies to bed. The snow is the key to all things cozy and all things soft. So, as I fall up the treacherous slippery steps at the Michigan Union in my pursuit of the Queen of Cozy, Starbucks, I don’t look to the snow gods and curse them, for this is only a small token I must pay for the feeling we all will get at least once while going to school in Michigan: the feeling of the first snow and all that it promises.
THE THOUGHT BUBBLE
Though Grand Rapids can seem far (given its West side/best side status) this up-and-coming art museum is worth the two hour drive, named a 2014 notable small art museum by The Wall Street Journal.
4 . W E S T L A K E N AT U R E P R E S E R V E
Southeastern Michigan can thank the glaciers for its relative flatness, but hikers still have found spots to break a sweat. The West Lake Nature Preserve, located in Chelsea, provides two miles of trails through wetlands, open fields and beautiful forests. This is the place to have your Cheryl Strayed moment.
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H U R O N H I L L S G O L F C LU B
Hear us out. While it may not be the ideal season to golf, one thing Michigan boasts an abundance of is snow. And what’s better on a snowy January Saturday than sledding? Whether with a trash-can lid or dining hall tray, sober or under the influence, all college students secretly love a good sled ride. Only ten minutes from campus, Huron Hills lives up to it’s name, providing hours of cheap fun.
PHOTO BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
“Our campus isn’t particularly good … The CO2 emissions that we put out per student is the highest in the Big 10. I did a project on it last year and that was pretty eye-opening to show how inefficient we can be at times … If we’re supposed to be the leaders and best and have all this income to be distributing, I feel like we should becoming more eco-friendly if we have the means to do so.” – LSA JUNIOR, DRAKE JOHNSON, MICHIGAN FOOTBALL RUNNING BACK
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
Students contribute to national security through social science research By Victoria Noble, Columnist
$2,777,257 Budget for large-scale government project to support business stabilization
$2,479,069 Funds recieved by Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio
People laid off in these three states since 2012 cuts in funding
3,900
DESIGN BY JAKE WELLINS
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efore transferring to the University of Michigan, Cody Giddings — now a Public Policy junior — attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. As a Military Academy cadet, Giddings developed an interest in international security, in part through his interaction with professors, some of whom had experience gathering information for military purposes. At West Point, Giddings explored this interest by assisting on a security-related research project. The opportunity allowed him to develop a deep knowledge in subject areas pertinent to the safety of U.S. citizens — areas receiving a considerable increase in attention post-9/11 and that remain important today. The 2001 terrorist attacks prompted a tangible and immediate shift in perspective on U.S. national security. It also evidenced a gap between in the level of information that the government had on terrorist activity and the level needed to keep the United States safe from other potential attacks. Even after 14 years, the
fear of a subsequent attack has not subsided to pre-9/11 levels. According to a Gallup poll conducted in March 2014, 39 percent of Americans were worried a “great deal” about future attacks. The concern is justified, evidenced by more recent terrorist activity in both the United States and abroad — including targeted attacks in Paris against the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo.” Efforts to combat such acts of terrorism require a host of information on the structure, dynamics and interactions of terrorist groups. While this knowledge is most often gathered by state organizations such as the CIA, certain projects have been subcontracted to the University and various research institutes nationwide. In 2011, for instance, the University received $62.7 million in Defense Department funding. Though much of this funding went to projects based in the health and engineering research, other areas of study, such as the social sciences, make up a unique component of the work going on at the University contributing to
national security efforts. DOD-funded social science research doesn’t just contribute to national security efforts. These projects also provide student researchers with a unique opportunity to develop research skills through real-world applications. When Giddings transferred to the University, he assisted on a project focused on studying the alliances between terrorist organizations through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program — a University program that helps underclassmen find jobs as research assistants in labs across campus. Philip Potter, a former public policy assistant professor, manages the project in conjunction with the University of Denver and the University of Pennsylvania. Under the Defense Department’s Minerva Initiative, which provides funding to universities for social science research, the project posed a unique opportunity to contribute to national security by exploring the relationship dynamics of non-state violent actors. “When I ended up deciding
to leave, I wanted to be able to contribute more than I was at West Point,” Giddings said. “So that’s why I came here — because it was one of the biggest research universities in the world, and I knew that Dr. Potter had been putting something unique together, and I wanted to be a part of it.” The project is unique in its attempt to collect and code data on every terrorist organization in the world in a centralized database. And it is the first effort to do so, according to Rackham Student Isaac Jenkins, a graduate student manager for the project. Students working on the project are tasked with researching and coding information on the interactions and relationships between various violent non-state actions, and in doing so, develop a deep knowledge of the politics of terrorism. “I have seen students in our group meetings who are far more knowledgeable on terrorist organization, and rebel group alliances and relationship dynamics than almost anyone else,” Jenkins said. “Students that are working on this project have developed
expertise. It’s actually quite extraordinary.” Students working on the project were exposed to the methods and dynamics of social science research, allowing them to not only learn about the various terrorist organizations that they were researching, but also their academic discipline. For LSA sophomore Erin Eusebi, who also came to the project through UROP, this academic element was especially important. She said her experience on the project has contributed to her current interest in pursuing a graduate degree in political science and a career in research by allowing her to see the ways in which academic research can bring different perspectives to issues of national security. Through her work, Eusebi was also able to connect with a mentor, who provided information on pursuing an advanced degree. Psychology Prof. James Jackson, director of the University’s Institute for Social Research, said undergraduate researchers involved in social science projects often have the opportunity to grow in
both their research and writing skills. These roles can allow for significant development, and some experienced undergraduate researchers may even assist with analyses or paper writing on their projects. Those working on projects designed to help contribute to national security seem to have an additional benefit — the opportunity to contribute to research that they personally find impactful. “It’s often hard, especially on defense projects, to see the full impact you’re having,” Giddings said. “I do know that just coming from West Point and knowing people who were currently in Afghanistan and Iraq that I was personal friends with … every bit, detail helps, every piece of information can save someone’s life … It’s projects like this that are going to support efforts that we have going on abroad.” However, not every social science project designed to promote security is related to terrorism. This past year, the Defense Department awarded more than $2.4 million in funding to See PAGE 7B
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In Command: New student leader of ROTC discusses challenges, rewards of highest post on campus By Tanya Madhani, Daily Staff Reporter T he army-administered backpack slung over Nursing Senior Autumn Augustine’s shoulders wasn’t the only item that signaled her role as a Reserve Officer Training Corp student. Augustine arrived at 12:00 p.m. on the dot. Her punctuality, firm handshake and straight posture indicated her trained discipline. In ROTC at the University since her freshman year, she rose through various leadership roles in her career. This semester marks her new role as battalion commander, the highest leadership position available to students in the program. Augustine said she initially joined ROTC largely because of its financial benefits regarding tuition. Through a School of Nursing scholarship, the army paid for her schooling. “It started off as a means to pay for school. I wanted to go to Michigan and then I thought ‘Wow this sounds like a really great opportunity,’” Augustine said. “And then I got into it and I loved it. I love the people I met. I love the culture. It’s been a great experience.” The U.S. Army requires all individuals interested in staff positions to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree before starting off as a second lieutenant, the first officer rank. There are three routes that can be taken to become an officer: joining ROTC, attending a military academy, or completing the intensive Officer Candidate School program. The ROTC is a four-year program at a non-military university that allows interested students to achieve both a bachelor’s degree and a military sciences education simul-
taneously. ROTC students at the University are offered scholarships and monthly stipends in return for meeting certain obligations during their time in the program. Students in ROTC are not referred to by academic years, but by their military science
a military science student is junior year, where students are now required to attain at least one leadership position. “The third year is more of your leadership capstone,” Augustine said. “You’re learning a lot about tactics and are also in roles such as platoon
ion commander was the next natural step. As platoon sergeant and squad leader, Augustine led her peers through battle drills in the Nichols Arboretum as part of previous lab experiences. “We’d have a two hour lab
“Everything that happens with the battalion, whether good or bad, rests on my shoulders,” she said. “I’m the one that ultimately answers to our cadre for that.” Answering to the ROTC cadre, high-ranking military officials, is immense pressure
PHOTO BY LUNA ANNA ARCHEY
years. A freshman in ROTC, for instance, would be called an MS1. All students in the organization are required to attend an hour-long physical training class three times a week at the CCRB and a two-hour lab. Juniors teach lab classes for freshmen and sophomores, while seniors run classes on their own. The most pivotal year for
leader, platoon sergeant and squad leader. You have a direct role in the organization and you’re facilitating the training, so junior year is kind of a big step.” Augustine, in her own junior year, held three different leadership positions: platoon sergeant, squad leader, and executive officer under a previous battalion commander. Her promotion to battal-
where we would be running a mission as a squad or running a mission as a platoon,” she said. “You start off with building up with squad tactics and then you shift into platoon and patrolling tactics in the winter semester.” But in her new role as battalion commander, Augustine serves as the face of the organization — and her cadre, or staff — as a whole.
for a student. Added Augustine: “That’s the way it should be.” She manages her own staff, comprised of her fellow peers, who brief her on everyday issues cadets are facing or possible changes that may need to be addressed. Notably, Augustine is the only woman in her staff. ROTC itself is largely male. But Augustine said she does
not feel any prejudice against her because of her gender and has always been welcome by her peers. “I’ve never felt like I’ve been excluded because I’m a female,” she said. “Everyone treats each other the same. We all have that ability to make a lot of friendships with each other. I might have to be a little bit more firm sometimes, just because I am a female as opposed to male, but there’s no animosity between us for sure.” Rather, challenge rather, she said, will be leading her peers — the atmosphere is much different with her interaction with them inside the organization versus outside. “That’s one thing that makes it hard,” Augustine said. “It’s your peers that you’re leading as opposed to strangers.” Kinesiology student Jordan Macocha, her executive officer and battalion commander, said she is a hands-on leader, invests effort into her work and is receptive to ideas, but is “by no means a push-over.” “She’s not just going to stand back and let something run and pat you on the back and say ‘Hey, good job,’” Macocha said. “If she sees something where she believes you can be improved or has an idea, she’s going to let you know and that’s a good thing.” Augustine said she plans on partnering with Team Red, White and Blue, a veteran nonprofit organization, and hosting STEM events in southeast Michigan high schools with JROTCs in her final semester as a University student and military sciences leader. “These aren’t ideas that just happened overnight,” Macocha said. “She spent a lot of time preparing for this role See PAGE 7B
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Don’t call it a disorder by Amrutha Sivakumar, Online Editor
A
ll I felt was pain. I couldn’t breath. It felt as if someone had pulled my voice box out of my throat to its maximum, only to let go and have it spring back as if it were a plastic slinky. I felt tears collapse around my eyes, but they might as well have been tears of joy. Eating, purging, living. For five years, I was living through a binding cycle. I don’t remember what made me start. All I know is that once I had begun, I could not stop. I remember waking up six months later and seeing someone completely different in the mirror. And it felt good. You are so lucky. That was all I needed to hear. Months of wiping my system clean of fats, sugars and nutrients, and I had reached the point where my friends were envious of my body — scotfree. I should have realized things were too good to be true. I vaguely remember passing out on multiple occasions. I remember liking it. Just the mere sight of food disgusted me, and watching people eat infuriated me. My metabolism must have slowed dramatically, because not long after, I hit the point where a lack of food didn’t affect me. But even a tinge of it did. After one full meal, in my mind, it was as if numbers on the scale had shot up. My days were dominated by trying to retain food in my system without reverting back to who I had been before. Because I would rather do anything than take a step back when I had worked so hard. People stopped complimenting me. People called me sick. That’s the thing: I didn’t purge to prove something to them. I purged to prove something to myself. I wanted to prove to myself that I could be beautiful. For so long, so many people had labeled me based on my frame. I needed it to end. I had had enough of standing by and listening as my classmates, uncle, parents, cousins cajoled at the fact that I was “chubby.” I didn’t want to look in the mirror any longer and think I would be nothing more than plus-sized. In college, I stopped. It wasn’t out of realizing that I didn’t need to build an image of myself based on a perfect picture. It wasn’t even that I was forced to. After all these years, I looked the way I wanted to. I physically did not
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
need to lose any more weight. In a way, I had done what I needed to do to get me to the place where I wanted to be. And now, I could move on with my life. I could run (it sure was easier!) to stay fit, and I could start fresh with trying to eat healthier. I finally had a fair chance at being in good shape. It wasn’t quite the end of it, though. It’s been four years since I stuck two fingers down my throat, but every once in a while, like the past usually does, it all creeps back up. As I sat on my best friend’s bed, wagging my legs back and forth, waiting for my time in front of the mirror on the eve of this new year, she reminded me of how I had constantly denied that anything was wrong when she nagged me about my eating habits in high school. In our junior year, she had repeatedly asked if I regurgitated meals, and I had blatantly (and, in my mind, convincingly) denied. You really needed the wake-up call, to make you stop all that bullshit, she said as 2015 headed our way. But did I? It wasn’t like I stopped because I was told I should. I stopped because, in my mind, I had gotten what I wanted. I succeeded. There was nothing left to be gained. Hello! I won. The strategically choosing bathrooms, turning on faucets, hiding behind music to carefully calculate how I was to expunge meals had worked. For half a decade, I played a game until it became my life, and then when the game had gotten spiritless, and rather futile, I stopped playing. Yet, in letting my pride take over my memories, I forget. I forget that there were more than a few dinner table meals with my family spent just waiting to dash out of my seat and into a secluded bathroom far away where no one would dare to look for me. In friends’ houses, I would always make it a point to leave soon after meals. I would cringe and then shake off the feeling of guilt before it set in too deep; I didn’t have a choice, after all. Restaurants, they were often the easier ones; I couldn’t really feel bad when I didn’t know the chef behind the plate. Sure, it’s been four years since I stuck two fingers down my throat, but now I know that as much as I can hold my head up high, there is no way out. I am cursed into examining nutrition labels and counting calories. There will never be a day when the numbers on a weighing scale
mean nothing. Nowadays, I joke about it. I joke about how my halfwits led me to believe that purging was the solution to my problems. I wave off any consequential flashes of sympathy thereafter. Whenever someone slightly suggests that I might need help, I laugh, smile, and do everything but reveal the knots in my stomach. Every day, I try to make myself believe the person I am conquers my weight — only to realize that I’m stuck flipping that two-sided coin. My mood is so gravely determined by food. Whenever I feel disconsolate, all I want to do is eat. And 30 minutes and 1,000 calories later, all I want to do is expunge the evidence that it ever happened in the first place. Purging was never the disease. No, the disease is always believing that everyone else’s opinions are your truth. I was a gifted student, a good daughter, and talented. Why didn’t this matter? Chances are that I will never have the answer. All I know is that it took me starvation and endured exercise to be able to believe that I had any merits at all. It’s astonishing how much it hurts to hear the incredulity in people’s voices when I tell them that used to be overweight. No way, they go. In a way, it undermines all the struggle that went into what made me into the more confident and less anxious person that I am today. After all these years, I still struggle to accept that my eating patterns (don’t dare call it a disorder!) did anything other than good. It all feels like another lifetime ago. Writing this, I don’t feel like I’m writing about me but instead writing about a stranger I’ve been staring at from the outside. I can’t imagine there ever being a time when I was that insecure and that reactive to people’s opinions. I promise you that things are different now than they were those four years ago. I am happy, ambitious and in love. I see a greater future for myself independent of how I look, but acquired on the basis of my accomplishments. But I will always believe that I am here today because of the choice I made in my basement bathroom to change myself for good. Let me tell you — in the moment, it was worth every last hurl. I am a bulimic.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
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the Defense Manufacturing Assistance Program, which is run through the University’s Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, in conjunction with Ohio State University and Purdue University. The DMAP project is designed to help struggling small and medium-sized defense sector suppliers prevent layoffs, job losses and plant closures during periods of lower military spending, such as peacetime. Should the country need to mobilize for war, capacity and capability to produce necessary equipment must be available, according to Larry Molnar, ILREE associate director. Because companies that have gone out of business can’t be mobilized in the event of an unexpected attack, keeping private sector defense suppliers viable is important to overall military preparedness. “We don’t want to be in the situation where we have to respond (militarily) and we don’t have the infrastructure, and the capacity, and the capability to be able to provide critical technology,” Molnar said. Military industry also provides jobs and other benefits to local communities. If the companies see less demand, those communities can face hard times. Preventing these hardships is another goal of the DMAP project, which attempts to work with the communities to provide support as well as stabilize firms to prevent the need for job loss. While the DMAP project has a different mission from the Minerva-funded social science project, the undergraduate students who work on it similarly have the opportunity to develop a broad set of skills as well as make a difference. According to Molnar, the students work to identify companies that might benefit from a partnership with the project. For these students, the work they’re doing has a tangible impact for the employees the project attempts to help, their families and the surrounding community, in addition to contributing to national security efforts. “What they’re doing is not a theoretical or academic exercise,” Molnar said. “We’re working with real companies, with real people.” At the University, another Defense Department project contributes funding to the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers project, which studies suicide prevention for men and women serving in the Armed Forces. Since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 3,000 military service men and women have died through suicide, while more than 6,800 died in combat during the same period. In 2012 and 2013, more servicemen and women died by suicide than by any other means, including combat. “The Army STARRS project has been involved with the ways in which we can improve the health and well-being and resilience of the American soldier,” Jackson said. The project, which is run in conjunction with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Diego and the National Institute of Mental Health, represents the largest effort to collect data on and study military personnel mental health risk. The Army STARRS project is rooted in psychology, representing the diverse ways in which University research contributes to national security. But this might come as little surprise. In 2013, the University had a $1.33 billion research budget. However, situated in Ann Arbor, far from the bureaucratic politics of Washington, the University’s participation in national defense research may sometimes go unnoticed. Such efforts allow undergraduate student researchers the opportunity to contribute to impactful research and develop important academic skills, by providing the opportunity to develop expertise that they may not otherwise have gotten through traditional education.
From Page 4B
From Page 5B
and thinking of ways to make the battalion better and even leave it better. Her thought process and the ideas she has are going to bring a lot to the table.” Through her years in ROTC, Augustine said, she has sensed a change in her personality and anticipates her role with the military. After graduating this May, Augustine will enter a nine-week training program with other second lieutenant nurses, before being stationed at a hospital in active duty. “I feel I’ve grown a lot through ROTC,” Augustine said. “I just feel like I’ve had a lot of personal development and the commitment seems super exciting. I love the opportunities that are available to me because of ROTC and serving the patient population is going to be great. I’m really looking forward to that.”
PHOTOS BY ALEXA BORROMEO
TOP: LSA sophomore Graham Gerdes and LSA sophomore Bryan Jones take a break during a morning training session as part of the University ROTC program; CENTER: ROTC cadets prepare for an exercise on Ingalls Mall; BOTTOM: ROTC cadets participate in physical training four days per week at Palmar Field (See more on PAGE 8)
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015 // The Statement
VISUAL STATEMENT: TR AINING WITH THE ROTC
Engineering sophomore Alex Mundorf, LSA junior Patrick Cummings and LSA sophomore Bryan Jones on a break during morning training session.
LSA sophomore Bryan Jones and other cadets stand at attention during field training.
In the early hours of the morning last fall, I had the opportunity to photograph LSA sophomore Bryan Jones, a cadet in the University’s Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program, during his morning trainings. The ROTC cadets have physical training — known as PT — four days per week at 7 a.m., at which time they complete cardio and weight training in the CCRB and on Palmer Field. I also had the opportunity to photograph the cadets in other training exercises outside of standard PT, such as military field training in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and 5 to 10 mile ruck marches throughout Ann Arbor. The dedication they demonstrated was incredible, and they worked exceedingly hard to meet the high demands of being both Army ROTC cadets and University students.
PHOTOS BY ALEXA BORROMEO
LSA sophomore Bryan Jones trains in the CCRB.
LSA sophomore Bryan Jones before morning physical training.
LSA sophomore Bryan Jones and other cadets stretch during morning trainings on Palmer Field.