2016-02-23

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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ACADEMICS

Assembly discusses release of evaluations HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

Joint faculty and student committees await approval of reccomendations

Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, discusses the important role of entrepreneurship in the future of Detroit in Robertson Auditorium on Monday.

Facebook co-creator talks impact of social media site Chris Hughes gives advice to young entrepreneurs at Business school By REBECCA SOLBERG Daily Staff Reporter

Audience members browsed Facebook on their phones while waiting for one of the

social media site’s creators to speak in the Robertson Auditorium Monday evening. Allison Davis-Blake, dean of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, moderated the event. She asked Chris Hughes about a number of topics, including his journey as one of five people co-founding Facebook, his work for the Obama campaign in 2008 and the advice he had for young entrepreneurs. Facebook was founded in 2004

by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCullum and Hughes. The social media site now has more than 1 billion users in 19 countries. Hughes began the discussion with a disclaimer: the Facebook story was different from that portrayed in the popular 2010 film “The Social Network.” Rather, he said, a few undergraduate students at Harvard University

had the idea for a social media site and with the right spark and motivation, Facebook was able to become the massive network it is today. He told attendees that a small idea can have a significant impact on making a huge difference in the world: Facebook, he said, began with the simple idea to connect friends and family and 12 years later, the site has evolved into See FACEBOOK, Page 2

By ISOBEL FUTTER Daily Staff Reporter

Silke-Maria Weineck, chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, discussed student course evaluations at Monday’s Senate Assembly meeting, updating the assembly on their initiatives to create policies for the release of evaluations. Last fall, the Faculty Senate voted to defer releasing course evaluations until policies on the release were in place and there were changes in the structure of the evaluations to be viewed. Two committees, composed of faculty and representatives from Central Student Government were charged with performing these tasks. The recommendations

BUDGET

CAMPUS LIFE

A City Council examines 2017 deer cull funds

‘U’ chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta disbanded

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Body also discusses solutions for high number of retiring police officers By MARLEE BREAKSTONE Daily Staff Reporter

Monday evening, Ann Arbor City Council convened for its first work session on the city’s fiscal year 2017 budget, which is slated to be passed in May. Staff retention in the Ann Arbor Police Department and funding for the city’s ongoing deer cull were among the most contentious budgeting factors discussed at the meeting. Ann Arbor’s budget is determined over a two-year process, and this is the second year in that process. However, City Treasurer Matthew Horning said there are still many important new factors to consider. “It’s a much easier process than last year, but we still have some decisions to make,” Horning said at the start of the meeting. Larry Collins, Ann Arbor’s interim community services area administrator, discussed funding for the city’s ongoing deer cull. The deer cull was initially budgeted as a one-time cost of $20,000 for 2017, but Collins said the actual cost of the project will be around $35,000. Collins said no current bill exists to account for the total

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costs of the cull. Before the cull began, the city agreed in its contract with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to receive a bill at the end of the first quarter of the process. The cull began Jan. 2, 2016. Collins said he was unsure how much the culling activities will cost in the upcoming years. A city meeting to discuss potentially using nonlethal methods for the cull will be held with city residents on Friday. “We just don’t have the data yet … we’re not done,” Collins said. “My hope and my belief is that $35,000 won’t be needed for the cull in the upcoming year.” Ann Arbor residents have complained since the summer of 2015 about the lack of transparency from city officials regarding the cull’s costs and the details and effects of the cull. Councilmember Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1) said she disapproved of Collins’ inability to provide clear parameters of the cost of the cull. Collins said he does not know at this time the amount of funding required to complete the deer cull. City Administrator Tom Crawford promised to provide Briere and other city councilmembers with written updates containing information about the costs of the deer cull. He did not specify when those updates would be distributed. Along with the cull, Robin See BUDGET, Page 2

have been sent to University of Michigan Provost Martha Pollack for review, Weineck said. If approved, course evaluations will be released starting fall 2016. The policies suggested include a stipulation that allows course evaluations to only be released to students, preventing their release to other UM community members or the public. Additionally, course evaluations would only be released if one of two thresholds are met: a 50 percent participation rate for the class overall or a minimum of 30 evaluations total per class. “We decided to put the threshold in to encourage participation,” Weineck said. “The students told us they wanted this information, so it seemed a good idea to say, ‘OK, you can have this, but you need to provide the information as well.’” Another suggestion made by the committee was to allow faculty facing difficult life situations or emergencies to opt out of release of evaluations for that year. See SACUA, Page 3

Women’s fraternity faced multiple disciplinary sanctions over past months By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily News Editor

RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily

University of Cincinnati professor John Eck shares his opinions and ideas about police issues at the 21st Century Policing meeting held in Weil Hall on Monday.

Panel on police reform cites Cincinnati as model city During event, speakers emphasize problem solving, community equity By KEVIN BIGLIN Daily Staff Reporter

At the Ford School of Public Policy Monday evening, panelists discussed ways police reform in Cincinnati can serve as a model for cities across the United States to adopt a more community-based approach to issues of police brutality, touching on collective

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experience in the field. The event, “21st Century Policing: Lessons from Cincinnati,” was hosted as part of the University of Michigan 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium and moderated by David Thacher, assistant professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning and Reuben Miller, assistant professor of Social Work. In his remarks, Thacher emphasized that opportunities to implement police reform are made possible through the work of social activists. “We’re at a really important moment in American policing right now,” Thacher said. “We

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have a level of social attention to policing and scrutiny in policing that we haven’t seen in probably about 50 years. We have a window of opportunity in policing for real and lasting change, and we have that window because of the passion and commitment of so many civil rights activists over the past two years who have put policing in the national spotlight so successfully.” Participants in the talk were key members involved in the process of Cincinnati’s police reform after a series of deaths prompted a lawsuit from the Cincinnati Black United See POLICE, Page 3

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The Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta women’sfraternity at the University of Michigan was disbanded Monday. A letter obtained by The Michigan Daily from Theta’s national president Laura Doerre to chapter members states the decision was made in a unanimous vote by the fraternity’s grand council on Sunday. In the letter, Doerre said the decision to disband the chapter came after several suspensions and disciplinary action from both the University and the national chapter, including a recent suspension effective during the spring semester. The letter didn’t specify what events prompted the disciplinary actions or suspensions. Doerre also wrote that the fraternity recently violated University sanctions that were administered during the Spring semester. “On February 10, Vice-President Mandy Wushinske and I visited campus and met with members of your cabinet and university administrators including the dean of students,” Doerre wrote. “At that time it was clearly stated that all members and new members of See THETA, Page 3

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS...............6

SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................6 SPORTS......................7

News

2 — Tuesday, February 23, 2016

T R A D ITI O N A L DA N C E

TENTS AND TABLES The American Medical Student Association, Students for Choice and Michigan Animal Respect Society each tabled in Mason Hall on Monday to raise awareness about the causes of their organizations. AMSA members encouraged students to register as organ donors in their respective states. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA sophomore Marianna Dorta said the organization targets students who didn’t sign up to be organ donors when they received their driver’s licenses. “It’s stressful, so we’re doing this today so more people can have the opportunity to sign up,” she said. Dorta said it’s important to sign up students to register as organ and tissue donors to increase the chances of saving the life of someone who may

need it most. “The list of people who need organ transplants is so long,” she said. “I think it’s important for people to sign up because anyone can help. It’s just about putting yourself out there.” LSA senior Meghan Rattanni and LSA junior Kelsey Almony tabled on behalf of Students for Choice’s menstruation station — a three-day informational booth aiming to educate the campus about stigmas associated with menstruation. “We’re basically trying to end stigma around menstruation,” Rattanni said. “By promoting this positive thing where you can help somebody and also not feel ashamed about menstruating. That’s the main goal of this, to end the stigma around having a period.” As part of awareness campaign, the organization

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also gave out women’s health materials, as well as raffled off prizes and displayed pamphlets on women’s health. Almony added she thought that their outreach is beneficial for students who are uncomfortable with buying feminine products. “It’s especially for people who might not feel comfortable or safe buying period staples at the store,” she said. LSA freshman Daphne Blumin, a member of MARS, said the organization was tabling to spread awareness about veganism and animal rights on campus. She said the organization is currently focusing its efforts on raising money for SASHA Farm, a farm animal sanctuary in Manchester, Mich. Blumin said SASHA Farm houses runaway farm animals and takes care of them. -TANYA MADHANI

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As musicians look on, dancer Zoe Mclaughlin perform The Gambyong Dance, a traditional Indonesian dance at the Indonesian Culture Night presented by Permias Michigan in Angell Hall on Saturday evening. The dance is often performed during wedding ceremonies to welcome guests

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CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES

Off-campus housing fair

Careers in STEM

Dance lecture Seminar on demonstration Biology topics

WHAT: The Off-Campus Housing Fair will be on North Campus. Come meet property managers and a financial aid adviser. WHO: Beyond the Diag WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. WHERE: Duderstadt Center, Atrium

WHAT: Versatile Ph.D. will host a panel discussion on careers in software development as part of their “STEM Forum.” WHO: The Career Center WHEN: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: OnlineVirtual Event

WHAT: Dance Prof. Peter D. Sparling will present a hybrid of screendance to evoke kinesthetic empathy. WHO: University and Development Events WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Duderstadt Center - Video Studio

Celebrate Jon Wellness Onye Lockard lecture WHAT: The acclaimed artist and professor’s widow, Mrs. Leslie Kamil, will attend as an honored guest to the presentation of his life and work. WHO: University Library WHEN: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Tappan Hall, Fine Arts Library

WHAT: Michigan Dining nutrition specialist Lindsay Haas will speak about how to make healthy snack decisions and general wellness decisions for students in college. WHO: Department of Recreational Sports WHEN: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Central Campus Recreational Building, 3040

FACEBOOK From Page 1 an avenue for sharing photos, messaging and advertising. “It is possible to come from the most simple means and have an enormous impact on the world,” he said. However, Hughes also said for a company to succeed, it’s not just about generating ideas — entrepreneurs also have to think about making those ideas into successful companies. He stressed that Facebook’s success was not a stroke of luck, but an immensely difficult fight

WHAT: Dr. Kaushik Ragunathan will present a seminar on “Molecular Mechanisms of Epigenetic Inheritance.” WHO: Biological Chemistry Department WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Medical Science Unit II, North Lecture Hall

Health Equity 365 Days of Success lecture WHAT: As a part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, this dialogue will focus on race and ethnicity and health issues related to incarceration of vulernable peoples. WHO: Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs WHEN: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: Hatcher Graduate Library, Gallery Room 100

to get the company to where it is today, which he said was a key message for entrepreneurs. “It is a reminder that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to feel like you have to build the company,” Hughes said. “It is the difference between having that idea, and being so obsessed by that idea that you can’t let it go.” When asked what aspect of the social media site he was most proud of, Hughes said Facebook was the first network that enabled people to be truly authentic. “When I think of what I am most proud of, it is really

WHAT: Lecture highlighting what your first year working will be like. WHO: The Career Center WHEN: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. WHERE: Career Center, Program Room l Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.

creating an environment where people can be authentic, where people use their real names, where people talked about what they actually cared about, and connected to their friends, family, and eventually colleagues and co-workers,” he said. The conversation then shifted to Hughes’ impact on President Barack Obama’s campaign as its online organizer in 2008. He used the Internet to foster a community of supporters and grassroots supporters, allowing the campaign to represent something larger than Obama himself, Hughes said. Davis-Blake asked if Hughes’ efforts had a lasting impact on political campaigning. Hughes

BUDGET From Page 1 Wilkerson, director of Ann Arbor’s Human Resources, addressed issues associated with staff retention on the AAPD with the council. Wilkerson said due to the average age of the current police force there is an expected increase in retirement rates in the upcoming years. According to Wilkerson, officers typically retire after about 25 years on the job. The percentage of officers eligible for retirement is expected to increase by about 22 percent — from 10 percent to about 32 percent — within the next three years. It is expected there are currently four to six Ann Arbor police officers who will become eligible for retirement between now and July, which makes up 50 percent of the department’s staff. If these individuals retire as scheduled and positions are not filled, the police force will be running at half-capacity in the coming months. Wilkerson said the ongoing issue of officer retention stems from the improving economy. “With the better economy, it takes longer to find good candidates to fill the positions,”

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY

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Jason Brian Dalton, who is a suspect in the recent string of shootings in Kalamazoo, appeared in court over the weekend, CNN reported. During the hearing, Dalton declined comment when asked about his case by the presiding judge.

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>> SEE SPORTS on 7 Ted Cruz has fired the communications director for his presidential campaign, Rick Tyler, after he reposted a video criticizing Rubio’s faith, CNN reported. Cruz said the video inaccurately characterizs Rubio.

noted current presidential candidates’ understanding of the power of social media, and pointed to Donald Trump’s “masterful” use of Twitter to convey messages in particular. Beyond politics, he also brought up the success of technolog y to spread awareness of ALS through the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014. “It’s not just about politics,” Hughes said. “It’s about activism and social change in general. If you can come up with a concept that resonates with people, for a cause that matters, and you use the network effects well, it can explode.” Similarly, he said, the drive behind Facebook wasn’t to make money; it was to bring value to the world and make an impact.

she said. “That goes across all jobs, including managerial, nonunion and police and fire.” Councilmember Zachary Ackerman (D–Ward 3) said he agreed that improvement in the economy is making it harder to fill these important positions. “Recession is an employer’s job market,” Ackerman said. Wilkerson added that vacancies in the police and fire departments are especially difficult to fill because applicants are not hired individually, but rather as groups completing training together, to ensure efficient initial field training, which means the positions won’t be filled immediately when the retirements occur. She said it can take 36 to 40 weeks after hiring before an officer works alone in the field when factoring in the extensive hiring and training processes. “There will be vacancies between now and July that we won’t fill purposefully to make sure that we can fill a class,” she said. Jack Eaton (D–Ward 4) asked Wilkerson whether any extra funding designated for this initiative would rollover for future years, to which Wilkerson said the city must be adequately prepared and responsible for the possibility of this situation.

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“We never started Facebook to make money,” he said. “Mark Zuckerberg cares more about the impact of the world than money.” Hughes also stressed the importance of having the right team when creating a startup, saying that not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur — one must have the focus and commitment to see it through, and the ability to deal with challenges. Ann Arbor resident Ann Clinger, president of the Michigan-based small business Dazzle Pet, said she attended the discussion to gain insight from someone who was once in a position like her own. “I wanted to get some inspiration from someone who has walked in those shoes

and seen incredible success, and I think the ideas he can share with people right on the cusp of their own careers is invaluable,” Clinger said. University of Michigan alum Nathan Pilcowitz, who works at the safety startup Companion, said his interest in entrepreneurship inspired him to come to the event. Pilcowitz thinks Ann Arbor is ripe for business opportunities. “Right now, more than ever, there is a spirit of people wanting to make something huge, and actually make a difference in the world. So definitely coming here and seeing a person our generation looks up to is really important,” Pilcowitz said. “He is someone we can relate to.”

KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily

Councilmember Sabra Briere (D—Ward 1) questions the deer cull budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting in the Council Chambers on Monday.

She added that the amount of money allocated to new officer training will depend on how much notice the city staff receives prior to officers’ retirements and how long it takes to hire a replacement.

Crawford said having such a vacuum in the force’s staff would be an embarrassment to the city. “Almost every (vacant) position feels like it’s a point of failure,” Crawford said.

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News

‘U’ professor looks at science of creating new ideas, questions

NEWS BRIEFS

Accused shooter in Kalamazoo admits to killings Uber driver Jason Dalton — who was accused of shooting and killing six random people — admitted to taking the lives of those individuals on Saturday, the Detroit Free Press reports. Dalton allegedly shot and killed six people while taking Uber fares and injured two more across three different locations. He faces 16 charges including six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent of murder and eight counts of felony firearm. Evidence against Dalton includes an eye-witness who picked him out of a photo line-up and video surveillance featuring Dalton. Dalton was arrested Sunday, two hours after the shootings began when a Kalamazoo County sheriff’s deputy recognized a car matching the description of the shooter’s vehicle. Dalton was arrested peacefully, given a courtappointed attorney and held without bail. Upon arrest, police seized a semi-automatic handgun Dalton had supposedly used in the killings. Police investigation has yet to determine a motive for Dalton’s suspected shootings.

Heavy snow, wind expected to reach Michigan Wednesday A winter storm moving up from Texas is expected to bring at about six inches or more of snow and greatly reduced visibility on the roads, according to the National Weather Service. The details of the storm including its path and the amount of snow is still unclear. The bulk of the storm could be preceded by rain Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, but will likely turn to snow by Wednesday afternoon. Following the start of the snowfall, the storm is expected to continue until Thursday with winds of about 30 miles per hour reducing visibility to a quarter mile or less. “Blowing and drifting of snow will occur, ptentially leading to near white-out conditions,” the NWS said in a statement on its website. Areas further north of Detroit could receive as much as 10 inches of snow as the storm arrives.

Snyder to release e-mails relating to Flint dating back to 2011 Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration will release e-mails dating back as far as 2011 on topics relating to the Flint water crisis, the Detroit Free Press reports. Snyder released his personal e-mails in January and the remainder of the executive branch — including the Michigan Departments of Environmental Quality, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Argriculture — released more than 20,000 pages of e-mails 10 days ago. The e-mails revealed that the bureaucracy downplayed and disregarded the complaints made by both residents and researchers regarding the quality and safety of the water. In his State of the State address in January, Snyder said he would release his own e-mails but initially opposed releasing those of the members of his executive cabinet. Under the state’s Freedom of Information law the executive branch and state legislature are exempt from public disclosure of documents. Snyder’s stance changed last week when he stated a goal of increased transparency on all levels involving the crisis. —LYDIA MURRAY

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 — 3

David Meyer awarded Henry Russel lectureship By ALEXA ST. JOHN Daily Staff Reporter

HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

Silke-Maria Weineck, SACUA chair, discusses revamped course evaluation questions set for release in Fall 2016 in Palmer Commons on Monday.

SACUA From Page 1 “This will be rare,” Weineck said. ”Obviously, if every teacher opts out then it will make the data less meaningful.” The committees also worked on modifying the questions asked on course evaluation surveys. “These questions are much more targeted and the committee worked with quite a bit of research to see

POLICE From Page 1 Front and the American Civil Liberties Union over alleged racial profiling in the city’s police force, ultimately leading to a series of reforms. Rev. Damon Lynch III, a key community leader in filing the lawsuit who was a panelist at the event, said there was a clear need for change at the time. “Some of (the killings) were justified, some of them were not, in our eyes,” Lynch said. “But at that point everybody dying was Black, every officer that killed them was white. And we felt there was a problem in the city of Cincinnati.” Panelists cited the case of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed Black man shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer, in explaining the situations that led to the lawsuit. Thomas was the 15th Black man killed by Cincinnati police since 1995 according to the New York Times, and shortly after his death riots ensued throughout the city. These riots were prompted by a number of factors, including statements from the police officer in question who charged that Thomas was “reaching” for the officer’s waist at the time of the shooting. “But of course there were these five famous words that every officer will use when they take a person’s life: ‘I feared for my life,’ ” Lynch said. “When Timothy Thomas was killed, Cincinnati divided.” In particular, audience members and speakers discussed a collaborative agreement between the police and various stakeholders — the result of the lawsuit — enacted in 2002. The Collaborative Agreement calls for the initiation of a proactive problem-solving method for police officers rather than letting incidents play out to ultimately make an arrest. Thacher said the model is an effective, new approach that fundamentally changes the system, adding that the brutal use of authority is a problem that must be avoided all across the country. University of Cincinnati Prof. John Eck, another panelist, served as an academic consultant for the reforms team and was a part of the negotiation processes. He said he noticed many citizens oscillating between wanting fair policing and effective policing, and realized the Collaborative Agreement had to break this cycle and resolve underlying conditions. “The one strategy of policing I was aware of, since I worked on it for 17 years, was problemoriented policing,” Eck said. Eck said the “problem oriented” policing approach addressed the kinds of things for which police were getting

which questions seemed to be meaningful and worthwhile asking,” Weineck said. Central Student Governement has been advocating for the release of course evaluations since 2011, when the assembly made a Freedom of Information Act request to the Office of the Provost for all course evaluations data. In a recent interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA senior Cooper Charlton said the body hopes evaluations will be released to students by fall 2016.

in trouble in Cincinnati, like unnecessary shootings. From the police perspective, panelist James Whalen, former Cincinnati assistant chief and public safety director, said community involvement was not welcomed by the police department at first. Whalen was a part of the team that adopted the change and helped decrease the number of misdemeanors by working with the community. “We would listen to what folks had to say and then when they walked away we would decide what we thought the best way was to go,” Whalen said. “I think we didn’t have a sense of the whole.” James White, assistant chief of the Detroit Police Department, also joined the panel to reflect on ways local communities may be able to learn from Cincinnati’s example. He said that engaging with the community is the best way to make reform, and that the old policies should be changed in order to more appropriately teach new police. “You have to be progressive in policing,” White said. “There is no one-size-fit-all type approach to policing.” White added that race must also be addressed when talking about policing. “When we refuse to acknowledge the fact that policing in urban America is different, I think we miss an opportunity for a discussion,” White said. After the event, Public Policy graduate student Sabiha Zainulbhai said she had knowledge of the Department of Justice working with cities like New York, but wasn’t sure what exactly happened in Cincinnati until she took a course with Thacher. “I took a class at the Ford School called Thinking About Crime with David Thacher,” Zainulbhai said. “We talked about Cincinnati a little bit. I didn’t really know much about what went on there when, so this was kind of like a more comprehensive picture of what it looks like when the DOJ comes in and then like what happens after that.” Lynch noted that many cities across America, such as Ferguson, Cleveland and Chicago, are seeking ways to reform policing to deter the use of deadly force by their police officers. In 2014, Ann Arbor resident Aura Rosser, a Black woman, was shot by a police officer in her home. Since her death, a group called Ann Arbor to Ferguson has regularly held protests and rallies calling for reform and action to prevent police brutality in Ann Arbor and beyond. Lynch said cities must constantly keep addressing those issues in order to effectively focus on a successful future. “Somebody has to climb the flagpole to make this country a better place,” Lynch said.

David Meyer — this year’s Henry Russel lecturer as presented by University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel — dissected the process of thinking and discussed the importance of idea creation during his lecture at Rackham Amphitheatre on Monday. Meyer, professor of mathematical psychology and cognitive science at the University, focused particularly on what makes an idea influential in society. “One of our major missions is to have big ideas,” Meyer said. Each year, a Henry Russel lecturer is chosen based on a person’s achievements in research, scholarship and/or creative endeavors, according to the Rackham website. Nominees are also supposed to display an outstanding record of teaching, mentoring and service to both the University and communities outside the University. The winner receives an award of $10,000. Meyer emphasized common questions in explaining ideas as a concept, such as what an idea actually is and how big ideas should be. In his lecture, titled “Toward the Biggest Idea of Them All: 50 Years of Advances in Mathematical Psychology and Cognitive Science,” Meyer specifically emphasized “big ideas,” which he said lead to dramatic change in psychology fields. “Universities should be idea factories,” he said. Another key to understanding

THETA From Page 1 Eta Chapter were to adhere to all sanctions from the university and the Fraternity. It is disappointing that the chapter violated both the university and fraternity sanctions last week.” In an e-mail to the Daily, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said Theta was suspended for inappropriate conduct. “In January, Kappa Alpha Theta

and generating ideas is practicing unique thinking, as each individual has a unique perspective on how to approach challenging subjects, Meyer said. He cited chemist Marie Curie as an example, who he said thought differently from astrophycisist Neil deGrasse Tyson, though both were able to make successful contributions in physics. Physical and mental diversity within a population is responsible for such a diverse range of successful ideas, he added. “No one format is always best for representing various ideas,” Meyer noted. “Instead, the best format depends on the person and the context.” Ideas come in many forms, Meyer said, and three factors — connectionism, computation and control — are key to big ideas. Ultimately, Meyer said combining the big ideas of connectionism, computation and control resolve the challenge of interrelating science and the humanities, called consilience. Schlissel presented Meyer with the Henry Russel Award at Monday’s event. Through models, theories and experiments, Schlissel emphasized that Meyer has enhanced knowledge in the fields of cognition and mathematical psychology. “His work spans the boundaries of psychology, mathematics, linguistics and computer science,” Schlissel said. Four faculty members also received the 2016 Henry Russel award and were honored at the event. Awardees include Julia AdlerMilstein, assistant professor of Information, Clare Croft, assistant professor of Dance, Christopher Friese, assistant professor of Nursing and Jeremy Bassis, associate professor of atmospheric,

oceanic and space sciences in the College of Engineering. The award is conferred to dinstinguished faculty who have demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their fields. Provost Martha Pollack presented these winners with their awards, highlighting their professional dedication and successes in research. Following the lecture, LSA Dean Andrew Martin said among the things most important about it was celebrating the University’s faculty and their accomplishments. “It’s also important to have talks like this that are really aspirational where our students can learn what our most distinguished faculty think are the horizons of knowledge going forward,” Martin said. Martin said he was interested in many of the topics Meyer touched on throughout the lecture, particularly Meyer’s emphasis on the intersection between natural and social sciences and the humanities. “(This) is something that many of us in LSA think about and need to continue thinking about going forward,” Martin said. Neuroscience graduate student Sharena Rice said she is interested in many of the topics that Meyer planned on speaking about. “I’m interested in computational neuroscience and this is extremely relevant,” Rice said. “It’s cognition and cognitive neuroscience and math and being able to put this all together and having things at this intersection is really great for expanding one’s mind in terms of thinking about the mind. I want to learn more about the methods behind this and what kinds of things have arose over the last 50 years. Sometimes the history isn’t discussed in class.”

was suspended through the Greek Activities Review Panel process for violations involving hazing and under-age drinking,” he said. A video obtained by The Michigan Daily and heavilty circulated throughout the University community depicts Theta members consuming alchohol. Fitzegerald said the decision to disband Theta was from the organization’s national office. “My understanding is that this was a decision of the sorority’s national office,” he said.

Theta is not the first Greek life organization to face disbandment. Sigma Alpha Mu wasdisbanded by its national chapter after acrueing more than $250,000 in damgages during a January 2015 ski trip to Treetops Resort. Members of Theta were not immediately available for comment regarding their disbandment or University sanctions. According to the letter, all chapter members in Kappa Alpha Theta residing in the fraternity house will be required to vacate the area by no later than April 28.

Opinion

4 — Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DOMINIC RUSSEL | OP-ED

Flint: Rewrite the rules

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com SHOHAM GEVA EDITOR IN CHIEF

CLAIRE BRYAN AND REGAN DETWILER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS

LAURA SCHINAGLE MANAGING EDITOR

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

Enforce copyrights, protect music

A

s Taylor Swift has so famously asserted, “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.” That may be true, but unfortunately for Swift — and the music industry as a whole — the right to determine the commercial value of music no longer rests with creators, labels or VICTORIA publishers. It rests with the anony- NOBLE mous pirates of the World Wide Web. Though endemic for decades, music piracy exploded when digital and web-based technology rendered illegal music replication and dissemination costfree, leaving the legal ramifications of copyright infringement the last remaining barrier to large-scale piracy. But, save for a cluster of lawsuits initiated by the Recording Industry Association of America, music pirates have faced few legal challenges to their thievery. Absent more rigorous enforcement of copyright laws, the music industry has little hope of recovering the profits lost from a decade replete with intellectual property theft. Absent uniform, large-scale copyright enforcement, consumers can get pirated songs for free on file-sharing sites, often rendering them unwilling to pay for physical or digital copies of CDs in the future. This dealt a catastrophic blow to the music industry, which operated on a sales-driven business model. As industry profits plummeted from $45 billion in the early 2000s to roughly $7 billion today, entrepreneurs scrambled to develop distribution models that might entice listeners to actually pay for the music they consume. These efforts produced Spotify and other streaming services, which allow listeners to play music on demand for free in exchange for listening to brief advertisements. Spotify has provided an accessible, no-cost way for 60 million consumers in 58 countries to legally listen to music, while still compensating songwriters and recording artists for their work. By providing its services to consumers for the price set by music pirates — absolutely free — Spotify has played a role in the industry’s anti-piracy fight. Upon initial introduction in Sweden, the service reduced music piracy by 80 percent. But the streaming model returns notoriously low profits to artists, who rely on publishers, labels and performing rights societies to quickly and accurately pay out royalties on billions of individual song plays valued at fractions of a penny each. High-profile artists like Swift have pulled their catalogue from the service in protest, despite the risk that doing so might drive consumers back to piracy sites. Even if artists had vigorously supported

the service, Spotify could not have solved the piracy problem. Allowing users to listen to music free of charge merely enables the service to compete with — but not defeat — the pirates. Today, more than 20 million Americans still consume pirated music, and it will take much more than a creative distribution model to reduce this number. This is not a surprise. Intellectual property laws exist precisely because ideas like song lyrics and composition are infinitely replicable once they become public. Until the government enforces copyrights more effectively, pirates will continue to replicate and disseminate music unabated. Just as the government has a responsibility for enforcing traditional property rights through policing and standard deterrence, it too should direct resources to defending the rights it has guaranteed intellectual property owners. Currently, copyright enforcement relies on entities like the RIAA to sue individual infringers. But in a digital era where pirates are often anonymous and host sites across international borders are outside of U.S. jurisdiction, relying on lawsuits is wholly inadequate. At the very least, it can only tackle the problem hosted in the United States, leaving cross-border theft unenforced in the vast majority of cases. Music pirates exploit technology to carry out their crimes, and government agencies tasked with copyright enforcement should employ digital resources to detect and prevent infringement. The music industry itself has invested substantial capital to develop watermarking and fingerprinting technologies, both of which are designed to detect piracy by tracking where songs appear online. The technologies aren’t perfect. But the government — staffed with trained computer scientists — could conceivably improve these technologies and employ them to defend the rights that it has guaranteed to music creators. Digital watermark and fingerprint codes could be synced with the metadata already on file for works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, allowing enforcement teams to match pirated copies of works with copyright holders, empowering rights owners to pursue damages in civil court. Additionally, armed with more information about the nature and scale of piracy activities hosted by individual sites, the government could itself prosecute the pirates, or in the case of foreign-hosted websites, provide data to similar agencies in foreign states. Granting federal bureaucracy the legal purview to police the Internet is not necessarily an attractive option. But after a decade of failed market solutions and piecemeal enforcement through the occasional private lawsuit, it’s certainly time to try something new. Empowering the government to enforce the laws it created is a good place to start. — Victoria Noble can be reached at vjnoble@umich.edu.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Caitlin Heenan, Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala, Kit Maher, Madeline Nowicki, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason Rowland, Lauren Schandevel, Melissa Scholke, Kevin Sweitzer, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung, Stephanie Trierweiler, Hunter Zhao

FRANNIE MILLER

E-mail Frannie at frmiller@umich.edu

Shortly after the city of Flint’s switch to the use of Flint River water in April 2014, residents raised concerns about rashes and hair loss. In January 2015, protesters called for higher-quality water. By March 2015, even the city council voted 7–1 to end the use of Flint River water, but because of a Michigan law that stripped local leaders of their power, all of these factions were excluded from the decision-making process. A month ago, Gov. Rick Snyder released e-mails from 2014 and 2015 related to the Flint water crisis. In many of these, members of Snyder’s administration dismiss and belittle the concerns of poisoned residents. Snyder’s former chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, accuses affected residents of turning the situation into a “political football” and calls groups asking for investigations “anti-everything.” Another Snyder staffer refers to “data” in quotes to undermine the credibility of information provided by a local physician indicating high levels of lead in Flint water. In his State of the State address and recent interviews, Snyder has tried to deflect blame by pointing to the Flint City Council’s 2013 vote in favor of a new water system. Yet shortly after December 2012, the governor signed an emergency manager law that allows the state to intervene in financially struggling municipalities — an idea that Michigan voters rejected just months before. Under that law, the state’s treasury held the power to make the water switch. Indeed, Snyder’s hand-picked emergency manager called the council’s vote

to end the use of Flint River water “incomprehensible” and chose to ignore it. Snyder’s administration has created a system in which public leaders are neither responsive to nor reflective of their constituents, and this inevitably leads to outcomes that do not benefit the community. In this case, the result is a tragedy: A generation of children will never have the opportunity to reach their full potential as a result of lead poisoning.

“A generation of children will never have the opportunity to reach their full potential as a result of lead poisoning.”

One of the released e-mails, in which a staffer writes to Snyder about a Flint taxation debate, shows just how removed Michigan residents can be from the decisions that greatly impact their lives: “Governor, as you know Flint would like to increase its city income tax from 1.0% to 1.5% … Farrington, Chair of House Taxation — said he would take up this bill over his dead body. Then he said he would take up if you asked directly. You are having lunch with him today — can you just mention the importance of getting this bill done before we adjourn.” Flint, an urban center

predominantly made up of residents of color, had its taxing power decided over lunch by the governor and Jeff Farrington, a representative from a suburban district that is 87-percent white and nearly an hour away. And this was business as usual. Coming from Michigan’s middleclass suburbs, I know it can be easy to distance oneself from these political problems until something like the Flint crisis makes the news. In my small hometown, Wixom, and in the vast majority of Michigan cities and towns, there is no fear of political leaders taking away our way of life. But democracy is not an exclusive right of upper- and middle-class white suburban communities. And as Michiganders, we must realize that situations like Flint will happen again if we do nothing. It matters who writes the rules, and empowering Flint residents could have shortened or prevented the crisis. Participatory rulemaking at the city level, for example, would have ensured residents had a say in their water regulations. Some form of participatory budgeting process would have allowed residents to make their own cost-saving tradeoffs. Our democracy only works if all the voices in our state have an opportunity to take part in writing the rules of governance. When we fail to create opportunities for inclusive decision-making — or even basic democratic access — there is little to protect our state’s most vulnerable residents from catastrophes like this one. ­— Dominic Russel is an LSA senior.

Distracted living with the RE-vibe

Elliott Rains wears the RE-vibe for a week.

I

t’s a Thursday afternoon and I’m five minutes into reading about Marco Rubio’s tax policies. In reality, I should be paying attention to my professor who is discussing the different types of volcanoes on Earth. Given that his class is a mini-course that I am taking ELLIOTT pass/fail, I have RAINS little motivation to pay attention. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the small plastic box velcroed to my left wrist vibrates, reminding me to redirect my focus toward my professor. That small, plastic, watch-esque device is called the RE-vibe, and it was created by FokusLabs, a small tech company based in North Carolina. Rich Brancaccio, the founder of FokusLabs and a school psychologist specializing in ADHD and autism, created the device to help young children stay focused in school. “The RE-vibe is essentially a virtual tap on the shoulder,” Brancaccio explained to me. “When it vibrates, it poses the question, ‘Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?’ If you answer ‘yes,’ use that as positive reinforcement. If you answer ‘no,’ use that as a reminder to get on task.” This mechanism is decidedly simple; there is no screen on the RE-vibe and you can’t actually do anything with the device. As Brancaccio explained to me, this was intentional. “We originally planned on putting our algorithms on smartwatches, but we found that the smartwatches themselves were distracting. People will get a text or

a Twitter notification and go, ‘Oh, I should check that out.’ The very thing that is supposed to keep you from being distracted is the thing that distracts you.” While the device was originally created for young kids, the modern college student is the key test subject in analyzing the RE-vibe’s functionality. Tasked with maintaining stellar grades, active social lives and general social productivity, college students are forcing their brains to multitask beyond physical capabilities more than ever before. Such a society has seen a rise in students turning to medication like Adderall for help focusing, despite not having prescriptions. In our world context, singular focus is not an option; multitasking is the desired result that is worth risking even one’s life over. This ideology exists in stark contrast to the RE-vibe. When discussing the simplistic nature of the first-edition RE-vibe, Brancaccio stated, “I think it’s important to pick one thing and do it really well.” Though he was speaking about the design of his company’s first product, his message permeates through the device’s guiding ideology: Stop messing around and focus on the task at hand. For the past month, I have been trying to focus on the task at hand with the help of the RE-vibe. In many cases — like my mini-course — I have found the device extremely helpful. When I found myself wandering off, the RE-vibe would often buzz me back into focus. While reading a long, dull textbook chapter, my wrist-worn “tap on the shoulder” made sure I didn’t fall asleep or check my Twitter. In these instances, I felt empowered to maintain focus for extended periods of time.

David Song /Daily

However, the buzzes didn’t just occur when I was distracted. Due to a lack of sensor technology, the RE-vibe can only approximate when it thinks the wearer might be distracted. What this meant for me was a lot of buzzes while I was walking to class, taking exams and focusing intently on my task at hand. Over time, these meaningless buzzes encouraged me to ignore the device in situations where buzzes might actually help me. Brancaccio said future versions of the RE-vibe hope to tackle this issue; his team already has an algorithm that can sense when somebody is truly distracted. The real problem — the one without an answer in the pipeline — lies in determining when people are focused. In their current state, motion sensors, heart rate monitors and related sensors aren’t advanced enough to detect such nuanced context. Despite false vibrations, I found myself appreciative of the instances in which the reminder served a purpose for my brain. However, for college students, I don’t know that the RE-vibe, in its current state, is the perfect answer I wanted it to be. With future iterations — which Brancaccio promised me are well in the works — that could all change. Maybe a smarter, more contextaware RE-vibe could keep college students from using Adderall as a non-prescription focus drug. Or maybe a future version will just keep me from checking the tax policies of Bernie Sanders later on in my mini-course. My wrist hasn’t vibrated in five minutes and I’m already on the fourth page of proposed policies. — Elliott Rains can be reached at erains@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

TV REVIEW

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 — 5

FILM REVIEW

FORECAST

One of these leads will be eligible for an Oscar.

Owens biopic ‘Race’ runs slow and steady ‘Broad City’ back COMEDY CENTRAL

“Dude, your shirt’s hanging on a pole.”

and wild as ever Third season premiere is another wacky adventure in New York City By MARIA ROBINS-SOMERVILLE Daily Arts Writer

They talked openly about pooping and wore the same outfits more than once. They worked thankless jobs just to make ends A meet. They Broad City were sweaty, hungry and Season Three stoned a lot of Premiere the time — selftitled “Jew- Wednesdays esses tryna at 10 p.m. make a buck.” Comedy Central At “Broad City” ’s inception in 2014, Ilana Wexler (Ilana Glazer, “The Night Before”) and Abbi Abrams (Abbi Jacobson, “Inside Amy Schumer”) were unlike the majority of female television protagonists. They played on New York as if it were an adult playground. “Broad City” ’s third season premiere “Two Chainz” lives up to this unvarnished and wacky depiction of the duo’s mishaps as hedonistic and selfproclaimed queens. The show is often compared to “Girls” due to its focus on twenty-something women in New York, but a much more accurate comparison would be “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or “Seinfeld,”

which feature irreverent humor through meditation on the mundane. The episode opens with a split frame. We see Abbi and Ilana in their respective bathrooms, engaging in a wide range of activities on their porcelain thrones. They get high, have sex and eat chocolate. Set to Lizzo and Caroline Smith’s “Let ‘Em Say,” the show’s opening scene announces that “Broad City” is back and irreverent as ever. Here are two besties who are confident in their fabulousness and unabashed about their slacker-stoner lifestyles. The next scene encapsulates what often holds “Broad City” ’s comedic essence together — the amplification of the trivial, juxtaposed casually with the serious. While in pursuit of brunch, Ilana talks about the plight of oppressed Saudi Arabian women in the same breath as her masturbation habits. Ilana frequently tries to express wellmeaning but often misguided expression of cultural political awareness; she expresses her discontent about the turmoil to Abbi but almost cries when the waiter tells her the brunch deal no longer includes bottomless mimosas. True tragedy. The sweetness of “Broad City” ’s humor stems from the deeply affirming and unshakeable love between the best friends. When Abbi demonstrates insecurity and unease, Ilana lifts her up. In a moment of doubt about her fashion quotient, Ilana reassures her that she looks “sexy and viva-

cious, like young wife material, but taut and teasy still.” When Abbi responds to a sleazy man calling out “Nice ass!” with a “Yeah, I know,” we know Ilana’s constant affirmation has likely helped cook up the quippy retort. Even Lincoln (Hannibal Buress, “Neighbors”), Ilana’s loveable friend with benefits, aids in the show’s subverting of traditional gender roles. He expresses sensitivity through funny banter about “Sex and the City,” and by proudly calling his mother after his graduation from trapeze school. Another feature of the show’s comedy is exaggerated interaction with features of the urban landscape. Abbi gets stuck inside of a porta potty. A warehouse sale becomes a literal battleground. The women engage in spitfire shade-throwing with a pretentious brunch host. Ilana and Abbi nonchalantly find themselves at an overtly phallic art show. They travel by foot, bike and truck with a fluidity that is distinctly urban in a way that lends itself to the show’s surreal humor. The physical movement is key, keeping energy high and punch lines quick. Abbi and Ilana have continued to reclaim the word “broad” in multiple senses. “Broad,” typically used as old-fashioned slang for women, now celebrates the flawed, spontaneous and fluid nature of being a woman. The humor is “broad,” too; it provides an inclusive, open landscape for more superb comedy to come.

By LAUREN WOOD Daily Arts Writer

The goal of historical dramas and biopics is often to enhance our understanding of past events and to shine a light on moments that may have B dimmed over time. These Race films can help Rave & reshape our Quality 16 understanding of current Forecast Pictures events we face, adding depth to today’s problems by demonstrating their echoes throughout history. “Race” is the latest of these biopics. “Race” tells the story of Olympic runner Jesse Owens (Stephan James, “Selma”) and how he won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin games, held in the middle of Nazi Germany. After coming to Ohio State University as one of the first black athletes and facing bigotry from other players and coaches, Owens’s qualification for the Berlin Olympics only augments his struggle to succeed when the NAACP calls on him to withdraw from the games in solidarity with the Jewish people. Attending the games with the hope that defeating Germany will send a greater message, the film explores the politics behind the involvement of the U.S. in the Olympics and the way

‘11.22.63’ struggles to engage its viewers Daily Arts Writer

Breaking: Kanye is an asshole, still OK By CARLY SNIDER Daily Arts Writer

Kanye West is an asshole: an incredibly talented, multifaceted, boundary-pushing asshole. But despite the feelings you may have about him as a person, to deny his societal clout and musical prowess is naïve. His ability to maintain an enormous global fan base despite his aggressive persona and lyrical styles is both impressive and puzzling. He shames women and other social groups, but wraps it in such impressive packaging that it is hard to resist. Listeners are in love with the madness — the suspense of not knowing what the icon will do next. West’s views are often problematic and offensive, leaving it up to the listeners to decide if the power of his music is enough to outweigh his, at times, unsavory personality. As a young woman, I have a hard time justifying my support of the artist in his often sexist and unkind artistry. Take West’s “Cold,” feat. DJ Khaled, as just one example of ’Ye’s paradoxically brilliant and distasteful nature. In just the first verse of this track alone, West disses PETA, brings up

monetary inequalities between races in America and reminds listeners that he can snag a “bad bitch without no flaws.” The song goes on to name drop Anna Wintour, model Anja Rubik, Jay-Z and Wiz Khalifa. West wants you to know that famous people respect him too, not just public peasants. It wouldn’t be a true Yeezy track unless the rapper called someone out in a not-so-subtle fashion. As the track was released in 2012, it comes as no surprise that West’s scorching gaze fell upon Kris Humphries. It was around this time that ’Ye’s future fiancé was involved with Mr. Humphries, prompting ’Ye to vent his jealousy in the most appropriate way possible — an aggressive verse threatening to get Humphries dropped from his team. “Cold” is arresting, surprising and not for everyone, just like the artist who wrote it. Its soundscape is abrasive, with repetitive beeping tones, yells and coughs from West and Khaled. Lines like “Don’t talk about style cause I embarrass you / Shut the fuck up when you talk to me ‘fore I embarrass you” are not for the weak of heart, but neither is West. The

song hints at the artist’s ever rising dreams for himself, like being the creative director of Hermes, and his never-faltering self-confidence. His belief in himself is both enviable and overbearing. It proves that Kanye really does love Kanye more than anyone else. (Sorry, Kim.) West is a prime example of the relationship between an artist, their work and public opinion. Is it the public’s job to differentiate between an artist and their work, then judge each accordingly? Or are artists to be taken as a whole? These questions become even more convoluted when the artist in question is guilty of transgressions that are deemed essentially harmless — making sexist comments or being elitist, rather than committing a hard crime. I think that these kinds of questions can only be answered on an individual level. West is undeniably iconic and deserves to be honored for the art he has produced and inspired. I think that Yeezus is a masterpiece and that West is nothing if not driven. But, he’s also a jerk. And I am still unsure how exactly to think of him, and am doubtful that I ever will.

Olympic Committee and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s director of propaganda (Barnaby Metschurat, “L’auberge espagnole”), as the two angrily argue over Germany’s treatment of the American athletes, both Black and Jewish. What’s interesting about these moments, though, is not just the way these athletes’ ability to compete in the Olympics is based on white officials’ opinions about race, but the way the officials’ power and brutality seem to go hand in hand. Leni Riefenstahl (Carice van Houten, “Game of Thrones”) is problematically seen as more of a heroic, anti-establishment artist, instead of Hitler’s close friend and Nazi supporter. The instances of camaraderie between athletes on the Olympic team, regardless of race or country, is a powerful inclusion to the story, and one of the most striking moments of the film comes from the on-field friendship between Owens and fellow German competitor Lutz Long (David Kross, “War Horse”). Once Long fouls and disqualifies himself from the long jump, he invites Owens to finish the competition, the two then taking a victory lap together in celebration of the new world record. Looked down upon scornfully by the Nazi officials at the top of the stadium, there is a sense of progress and unity on the field, and a glimmer of hope in the drab landscape of the time.

TV REVIEW

By MEGAN MITCHELL

KANYE WEEK

Owens’s race plays into decisions at levels as large as international relations and as small as congratulatory remarks after a race. The film addresses race from a vast array of angles, living up to its name and depicting the multifaceted complications that come from tackling such a pervasive and complex subject. From the first time Owens boards the bus to Ohio State for his first semester, we see snide comments from the white women sitting in the front, and these microaggressions escalate to confrontations in the locker room or interactions with other teams’ coaches. Establishing the pervasiveness of racial inequality in Owens’s everyday life sets the floor of the film well. When we do move onto larger issues, such as his decision whether or not to compete in the games, or the prejudices of the German Olympic committee, these are not the only times his race is a point of contention. Additionally, the film ends on a note of continued bigotry in the United States, with a scene of Owens and his wife arriving at a dinner at the Astoria held in his honor and being forced to use the service entrance behind the hotel. The image of the two walking through a bustling, dirty kitchen in elegant evening wear is shocking and honest, ending the film on a sober note. There’s a huge amount of screen time devoted to interactions between the American

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated when his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza during a visit to Dallas, C+ TX. Shots heard 11.22.63 originating from the Texas Series Premiere Book Deposi- New episodes tory led to the on Mondays arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald Hulu for the murder of the president. When Oswald himself was assassinated before we could hear his account of what happened on 11/22/1963, the fuel that would light the flame of conspiracy theorists began its slow burn. “11.22.63” is a Hulu miniseries adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name. The premise explores the complex idea of time travel and the implications that might arise if people mess with time. It’s a butterfly effect that basically boils down to “If you fuck with the past, it’ll fuck with you.” Specifically, the series presents the idea of altering a fixed point in time — the JFK assassination. Showrunner Bridget Carpenter (“Friday Night Lights”) and producer J.J. Abrams (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) head the adaptation of the novel into an 8-part series. “11.22.63” may work well as a novel, but it ultimately falls short of expectations as a television series. If anything, the adaptation serves as a dramatic period piece with a savvy science fiction hook. Playing off of concepts that stemmed from successful predecessors such as “The Twilight Zone” and “Back to

the Future,” the series tries to utilize the goodwill associated with depicting American history. And while the target audience is most likely aimed at the baby boomer and millennial generations, the time commitment of the first hour-and-20-minute episode is unrealistic. Although it isn’t much longer than an episode of “Game of Thrones,” the show lacks “GoT” ’s emotional payoff when the episode is finished. With “11.22.63,” you’re left feeling emotionless and without a desire to continue to the next episode. Frankly, it is an easy show to forget. Diner owner and apparent time traveler Al (Chris Cooper, “The Muppets”) believes that if the assassination of JFK is averted, then events that led to advancements in Vietnam by JFK’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy would never have happened. It’s an interesting idea, but as he’s a Vietnam veteran himself, the question arises of whether Al’s motives are self-serving and limited to his own motivations. However, when Al is diagnosed with cancer, he entrusts the secret of time travel to friend Jake Epping (James Franco, “The Interview”), an adult educator and recently divorced deadbeat, in the hopes that he will travel back to the past and carry on Al’s mission. The delivery in the present day segment of the premiere is a sloppy portrayal of the ordinary meeting the extraordinary. While Franco is unconvincing as a small-time man who has given up trying in life, Cooper’s Al is reminiscent of Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” performance, but trading in conviction for wide-eyed madness. The portal in time, aptly dubbed

the “rabbit hole,” is located in the diner closet, and is where Stephen King’s influence melts smoothly into that of J.J. Abrams. An endless black Hitchcockian hallway engulfs Jake for a few slow seconds before we are transported to the glittering brightness of the ’60s, sans the trademark lens flares. As soon as Jake Epping steps through the portal, so does Franco, who shines in his fish-out-of water performance, caught in the ambiance of the 1960s. As Franco becomes more comfortable with his surroundings, we feel that he is more sure of himself in his performance. However, as is the case with any Stephen King adaptation, suspenseful music and horror scenes lie just around the corner of each commercial break. A supernatural edge slices into the past at unexpected moments, eliciting a “scare jump” from the audience. Later, Jake edges closer to George de Mohrenschildt (Jonny Coyne, “Nightcrawler”), a friend of Oswald that Al suspected was in touch with the CIA and ultimately persuaded Oswald to assassinate Kennedy. After following Mohrenschildt to the restaurant El Conejo, Jake is almost set on fire and crushed to death by a falling chandelier as history pushes back against his actions; a telephone booth is run down and strangers warn Jake of his unwanted presence in the past. Tragedies literally fall out of the sky in “11.22.63,” and we’re never sure what the outcome of the domino effect will play out for the cast. The trailers show much promise from King’s side, so hopefully we’ll get to see his influence later on as the miniseries picks up pace in accelerating towards its ultimate end game — November 22, 1963.

Arts

6 — Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

LITERATURE COLUMN

ALBUM REVIEW

Revisiting the legacy of the ‘Alice’ series I DOMINO

This is the weirdest version of “Wonderwall” I’ve ever heard.

‘Painting With’ is bland and lacking Animal Collective returns, but they shouldn’t have By SELENA AGUILERA Daily Arts Writer

Since the beginning of the century, the always abstract Animal Collective has been traveling down a long road of wonderful creations. Unfortunately, its newest release, Paint- Cing With, takes them down Painting a very wrong With path. Animal Collective Painting With begins Domino with bright and fast synths paired with vocals repeating “Floflo-flo-rida,” in the song “FloriDada,” and I wish it didn’t. The vocals sound like they could be used in a toothpaste commercial, and every component in the song is repetitive and dry. Previously, Animal Collective has used repetition to great effect in their music. They were the epitome of the ambient drone, but the repeated notes in past albums seemed to create a rhythm that coincided your heartbeat. “FloriDada” sounds repetitive in an exhausting way and each

song thereafter imitates the first, illuminating this unauthenticity. The songs just travel through one ear and escape out the other because they lack personality. Each element in every song tries too hard to be recognized. They all wash each other out, creating a collective, irrelevant piece of almost nothing. None of them touch my heart like the 2005 album Feels, which had every single element strategically placed. Painting With’s elements felt carelessly thrown together. There’s no evocation of any type of feeling until “Burglars” begins, and the feelings it does evoke aren’t exactly pleasant. “Burglars” follows the same strict, fast-paced sound as every other song off Painting With, but being the fifth song, it becomes irritating. Animal Collective mastered the strategy of atonality in their previous works, creating a sometimes life-altering experience with each listen. They allowed me to be high without getting high, which is why they were so rad. But “Burglars,” like every other song on Painting With, feels uncomfortable. The synths are too fast and the sound is too atonal. I feel my heartbeat increasing when I listen to it, and paranoia starts to creep over my shoulder. “Burglars” thankfully ends and “Natural Selection” begins, and

it sounds like Animal Collective is desperately trying to reach for their old style, but their arms are too short. The repetitions remain present and it feels played out. Animal Collective used to pull off this psychedelic ambient drone cross with originality, but Painting With sounds like a broken record. The ninth track, “Spilling Guts,” sounds plastic compared to the reality of songs on previous albums. Most of these grievances can be blamed on the way the vocals are structured in Painting With. Generally, in the older albums by Animal Collective, the instrumentals were the main focus. Even in vocal-heavy albums like Strawberry Jam, the vocals held one purpose: to be a guide to keep you grounded through the music’s majestic experience. Band member Noah Lennox once discussed the summer the band first tripped on LSD, saying, “everything since has been a variation of what we explored that summer,” and their experience became ours through their music. Their previous albums were personal, and each song was beautifully constructed with individuality. The atonality worked, and the vocals followed the tail end of each sound to create this avant-garde piece of art. Listening to them felt like a psychedelic trip, and Painting With is burnt-out.

Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, February 23, 2016

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t was a snowy day in January, and my roommate Sophia and I were walking home. As usual, our conversation had turned to books, but this time we talked specifically about those of our childhood. Sophia offhandedly asked me if I would let my hypothetiREBECCA cal children read these LERNER same works. When I joked that I would incinerate garbage like “The Clique” or “Gossip Girl” before letting it into my future home, Sophia asked what I would encourage my children to read. Without hesitation, I said that if I had a daughter I would sequentially give her all of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s “Alice” books when she started third grade. There’s a moment in the film “The Royal Tenenbaums” when a voiceover from narrator Alec Baldwin responds to a statement made by the patriarch of the family, quietly disclosing that “Immediately after making this statement, Royal realized that it was true.” The exact same line boomed in my head after I mentioned “Alice.” It’s comforting to think that the series critical to my adolescence is always on the tip of my tongue and a bit disconcerting that Alec Baldwin’s voice lurks in the corners of my minds. The “Alice” series started in 1985 with “The Agony of Alice.” Alice McKinley is an awkward, motherless sixth grader being raised by her father and her brother, Lester. Lacking a maternal figure, Alice feels doubly clueless heading into adolescence and attempts to find a mother in teachers, aunts and Lester’s teenage girlfriends with their

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extensive knowledge of perms. Naylor follows Alice through 28 books — we see her teenage years to her adulthood in the last book. Naylor has described Alice as the daughter she never had, crafting her with love and reality. I read the first book when I was in fourth grade. In the start of the year, the girl sitting across from me — my future best friend, Elizabeth — saw me reading it. I had just taken “The Agony of Alice” out of my desk when she leaned across the table. Elizabeth has always been one to play it cool, but this was way too important to be nonchalant. “Did you know that Phyllis Reynolds Naylor lives in our neighborhood?” I did not. But it made me feel even closer to Alice. Alice, who loved words and who got herself into awkward situations by thinking without speaking just like I did, was conceived two blocks away from where I was growing up. The proximity of the author amplified my intense obsession with the books, but the origin of my infatuation with Alice was the message, because it was different from the simplistic didactic prose of other young adult I was reading, where themes of “being yourself” littered every page. But Alice doesn’t conform to that confining argument, instead embracing that change and uncertainty are necessary for growth. In “My So Called Life,” another inspirational and important form of teen media, the protagonist Angela proclaims with angst “People always say how you should be yourself, like yourself is a definitive thing, like a toaster or something.” This was a problem I encountered as a teenager and continue to experience — is there inauthenticity in perpetual change? “Alice” helped me mitigate this shame of not immediately knowing who we are and who we could be. My friends and I were never not going to be simulacra and Naylor knew that — but it felt like she loved us anyways. We could be whoever we wanted for as long as we wanted, and that was beautiful. What truly made the “Alice” series different from other young adult books like “The Song of the Lioness” series or “The Babysitter’s Club” was its unabashed treatment of sex. I have the clearest memory of being 10 and reading one of the “Alice” books on a car trip with my family. Through Naylor’s rather graphic descriptions, I learned what oral sex was, and asked my mother if it was true because I genuinely could not believe it. After affirming that this aspect of sexuality was not a joke, she craned her head from the front seat with a perplexed look. “What? Rebecca, what are you reading?” Through the awkward sexual misadventures of Alice and her friend, Naylor, a self-described

“enlightened grandmother,” the series strives to demystify sex and the taboos surrounding it. The expression of sexual development in “Alice” doesn’t follow a typical mold, especially in its focus on female pleasure and masturbation. Alice’s undaunted discussion of masturbation leads to more pleasurable sexual relations later in her life. In “Intensely Alice,” Alice and her boyfriend Patrick mutually masturbate on a park bench where she “guided his fingers just where I wanted them, showing him how hard to press and how fast to do it, and a few minutes later, in the dark of Botany Pond, I came.” Scenes like the one can be jarring but also informative for a young readership just learning about sex and relationships. Thankfully, my parents were either too busy or cool enough to let me continue reading the series, but its frank discussion of sex has made the “Alice” series one of the most frequently challenged series in schools and libraries in the United States. The stories of Alice McKinley emulate the mores of young American women in a way that no other series has had the courage to. The narratives are taken from a myriad of sources — from emails and letters from readers of “Alice” to Naylor’s own mother’s experiences in the early 20th century. In an interview with The New Yorker, Naylor aptly described that “What happened to women in 1914 still resonates in (the 21st century).” When I told Elizabeth, who is now a sophomore at Vanderbilt University, that I was writing this column her first reaction was “I’M CRYING I LOVE YOU.” After calming down she said, “I remember ‘Alice’ because she had these really great two best friends. Maybe it’s not that different from other books but it felt very real and honest and they went through a lot. Their problems and experiences weren’t trivialized or made to seem immature — they felt authentic. Also, I think you should mention that Phyllis Reynolds Naylor gave out Almond Joys when we went trick or treating at her house.” Through Alice, Naylor thoughtfully explores what it means to be a girl and a woman in public spaces and fearlessly lets her young female readers know that they have power in this world, a revolutionary act in any time period. In “The Agony of Alice,” Alice’s teacher and friend, Mrs. Plotkin, tells her that “we grow up whether we’re ready or not.” These words are terrifying in their inescapability but reflective of Naylor herself in their very nature — unafraid to inspire action in simplicity and truth. Lerner always enjoys it when you tell her “I’M CRYING I LOVE YOU.” If you’re in tears and in love, e-mail rebler@umich.edu.

ARE YOU FASCINATED YET REPULSED BY PRO WRESTLING? DO YOU HAVE A TATTOO OF EVERY EZRA KOENIG TWEET? WELCOME HOME. Check out more articles online at michigandaily.com/section/arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

F

Sports

Michigan’s difference

reshman Kate Fahey nailed two backhands cross court before hitting a forehand approach shot that pushed her opponent, Jessie Aney, beyond the baseline. The North Carolina freshman JASON couldn’t control her RUBINSTEIN next shot, sending the ball long. Prior to the ball landing, Fahey looked to her left toward her teammates, extended her arms, and belted the words “Come on!” as loud as her lungs would let her. Just as she could scream no longer, six of her teammates all surrounded her to celebrate her win. And this was all before Fahey and Aney, who are close friends from the junior circuit, could even shake hands. That could seem rude, but it’s not: It’s just the identity of the Michigan women’s tennis team. The eighth-ranked Wolverines will cheer louder than any of their opponents — no questions asked. It’s what coach Ronni Bernstein demands, even when Michigan’s opponents don’t come anywhere close to matching her team’s intensity. “We’ll have teams come in here and we’ll say ‘Wow, it’s so dead in here,’ ” Bernstein said. “I think all of our girls have that. It’s hard when the other teams don’t have it, but when you’re playing North Carolina, you definitely need it.” That was the case on Saturday when the Wolverines dethroned No. 2 North Carolina, 5-2. Added Fahey: “Honestly, since I’ve been here, between every team I’ve seen, we’re the loudest, definitely, and it helps. It throws (opponents) off.”

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 — 7

BASEBALL

Pitching leads ‘M’ By ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Writer

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

The Michigan women’s tennis team knocked off No. 2 North Carolina at the Varsity Tennis Center on Saturday.

For most of the match, Fahey looked in control. She had played Aney countless times in juniors, yet had never beaten her. Aney has a style that would make any player cringe, including Fahey. The Tar Heel won’t beat you with power, but instead plays like a brick wall. And to make matters trickier, she slices nearly every backhand she takes. This match was different, though. Prior to the match, Bernstein told Fahey that she needed to be more aggressive and get into the net — that was her only chance. She listened and executed, remaining in control nearly the entire match. Her one blip, though, seemed significant. She had a match-point opportunity as she was up 5-3 in the second set, and found herself coming into the net. All she needed to do was smash a routine overhead, and her and Michigan’s match would be sealed. As she was gearing up for the shot, her

teammates, who were watching from no more than 15 feet away, started to run toward Fahey, anticipating the victory. But the ball went wide and her teammates awkwardly walked back to where they were before. Fahey could’ve dwelled at the missed opportunity. But her teammates’ cheers swallowed out any of the crowd’s gasps, as well as her internal emotions. That’s Michigan women’s tennis. “You could see Kate there, and she felt everybody in the crowd,” Bernstein said. “It’s a different dynamic.” It’s that dynamic that Bernstein pines for. Not only does it help her team run opponents out of the building like it did on Saturday, but it’s also one of her key recruiting tools. Three weeks ago, Bernstein hosted a blue-chip recruit for her team’s match against Ohio State. She knew the Varsity Tennis

Center would be electric. And it was, despite the Wolverines falling, 4-2. Still, Bernstein knows the recruit saw how a Ronni Bernstein team functions. She saw how every player screams “Go Blue!” after every point — yes, every point. And she saw how tennis could transition from being an individual to team sport. “Any time (a recruit) comes to Ann Arbor, they see how the fans support our programs, and they want to be a part of it,” Bernstein said. “If they can get past the weather … then we are in the mix with any recruit.” And if they ever make that decision to come to Ann Arbor, they’ll know one thing: It’s all about the team. Because that’s Michigan women’s tennis. Rubinstein can be reached by e-mail at jasonbr@umich.edu and on Twitter @jrubinstein4.

Like a kid in a candy store, Michigan coach Erik Bakich knew he would get something good with whichever pitcher he brought to the mound during the Wolverines’ four-game sweep against Canisius. No. 15 Michigan (4-0) outscored the Golden Griffins (0-4), 27-5, over the weekend, en route to its first 4-0 start since the 2009 season. Despite flashes of excellence at the plate, the series was headlined by the Wolverine pitching staff’s dominance. Between all four games, the Wolverines debuted 13 different hurlers, including three freshmen, and just one of the five runs allowed was an earned run. “They all looked to be in attack mode and they all competed very hard,” Bakich said. “Our entire team and our coaching staff are very pleased, not only with the three freshmen but with all of the pitchers.” Junior left-hander Brett Adcock started the first game of the series, and he showed why he was named to the College Sports Madness Preseason Big Ten First Team, tossing 5.1 innings of threehit, no-run baseball. Adcock also struck out seven batters on his way to picking up the 9-0 win. “Going into the first weekend of the year, you want to start the first day off with a win, and we did that Friday,” Adcock said. In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, sophomore righthander Ryan Nutof threw four innings, not giving up a hit and allowing only one unearned run in the 6-2 victory. Sophomore left-hander Michael Hendrickson relieved Nutof and kept Canisius hitless until the sixth inning, fanning five of the nine batters he faced.

In the second game of the doubleheader, it appeared that senior left-hander Evan Hill was going to be the first starting pitcher to have difficulty against Canisius bats. But with the bases loaded and one out in the first inning, Hill struck out a batter and forced a pop out to escape the inning unscathed. Hill’s contributions, alongside the relief efforts of freshman lefthander William Tribucher, junior right-hander Mac Lozer and sophomore right-hander Bryan Pall, combined to strike out 12 batters for a 3-0 win — the second shutout of the series. In the series’ final game, sophomore left-hander Oliver Jaskie got the nod. Jaskie, who started only one game last season, was electrifying in his season debut, tossing six innings while allowing just three hits and putting nine batters down on strikes. He was also named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for the impressive outing. With the game out of reach, Bakich turned to junior righthander Keith Lehmann, freshman right-hander Jack Bredeson and junior left-hander Carmen Benedetti, who surrendered no hits, to close out the final three innings. “The whole staff is able to show it can get efficient contact and get outs,” Adcock said. “That’s your starting point and you want us to work up to where we don’t have to worry about tiny mistakes. The defense definitely helped me out when I struggled.” Adcock may have believed that he made mistakes on the mound, but the scoreboard would tell another story. Michigan’s pitching was the crux of a dominant four-game sweep, and will bode well for the Wolverines if they want to maintain a high level of play.

Wolverines building postseason foundations early Offseason training designed to push players’ physical, mental limits. By BETELHEM ASHAME Daily Sports Writer

Though the offseason typically represents an opportunity to recover after a long and arduous season of competition, the way teams choose to spend their time off can set the tone for the upcoming season. For the No. 2 Michigan softball team, the offseason wasn’t a time simply to sit back. Even after falling just short of a Women’s College World Series title last year, the Wolverines knew better than to assume past success is an indicator of future results. If anything, Michigan’s second-place finish instilled a source of motivation for the team to tackle its offseason workouts in order to bridge the gap between itself and the reigning national champion, No. 1 Florida. A key cornerstone of that regimen was the Oklahoma City Challenge. Named for the site of the Women’s College World Series, the OKC Challenge pits four teams of Wolverines — a blue team, a maize team, a gray team and a white team — against one another in a three-day series of strength and conditioning challenges in the days leading up to Thanksgiving break. Despite an 8-1 start to the season, Michigan’s lone loss came at the hands of the Gators, reminding the Wolverines why the OKC Challenge laid the foundation and set the pace for their offseason routine. “The main purpose is to compete and to be challenged,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. “We put them into groups so that it’s (the) team competing to beat the challenge. We made it very difficult this

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Senior outfielder Olivia Richvalsky and the Michigan softball team spent the days before Thanksgiving break doing a set of workouts called the “OKC Challenge.”

year — we upped the ante — and it’s something the kids really embrace and work really hard at. You’ll have to ask them how much they could move over Thanksgiving break.” The first day consisted of four timed stations — medicine ball burpees, sandbag runs, tire flips and sled pushes — where the team that covered the most distance or completed the most repetitions won. A double-elimination tug of war tournament topped off day one. The second day followed a similar format, with four different timed stations — hurdles and ladders, bear crawls, sled pushes, medicine ball throws and weighted barbell carries — where distance and repetitions again served as winning objectives. The third and final day proved to be the most demanding, courtesy of a strenuous 6 a.m. obstacle course that included a sandpit crawl, a weighted sled

push and pull, box jumps, bear crawls, and a weight drag and sprint, capped off by a team relay race. Though a winning side is crowned in the OKC Challenge, the ultimate payoff isn’t about the competition itself. Rather, the challenge is designed to teach the Wolverines important lessons about perseverance and teamwork that they can apply to the season ahead. “It’s a lot of grueling exercises to push us really hard physically and see how we react mentally,” said junior shortstop Abby Ramirez. “A lot of it is just pushing yourself to see how far you can go, and I think we all learned how strong we are if you don’t give up. You can do a lot

more than you think you can.” During the eight-month absence of games, save for a few fall exhibitions, it can be difficult to recreate the feeling of live competition between seasons. For Michigan, the OKC Challenge simulates that experience to fill the void with energy. “It’s very effective,” said fifth-year senior righthander Sara Driesenga. “It’s hard to find that game pressure to put on yourself when you’re just running in the conditioning sessions. So when we do competitions, that’s when we push ourselves. (That) is how we want to be out on the field, so we’re able to pull that out of nowhere when we need it.” Though most of last year’s

“We didn’t lighten up in their physical training at all.”

squad is returning, no team is exactly the same in two consecutive seasons. The offseason provides a space to create a new team dynamic, mixing and matching new and old players to form a cohesive unit. Using the OKC Challenge to its advantage, Michigan examined its strengths and weaknesses to better understand and prepare for the potential struggles inherent in its upcoming journey. “It’s a dogfight, it’s a battle,” said senior captain and outfielder Olivia Richvalsky. “But the team aspect also makes you think about strategy, so it definitely correlates to what we would have to do on the softball field. “You look at your team and you see who’s stronger in this area and who’s faster in this area and who you need to pair together, so the strategy that goes into it gets our competitive juices going. When it’s so physically exhausting, that’s the

mental part that really comes out, and I think that’s the reason this has become such a staple.” The title of the OKC Challenge is no accident. The intense difficulty of the challenge mirrors the onerous nature of the Wolverines’ journey to reach their ultimate destination — the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Despite having that main goal looming overhead, Michigan understands it won’t be a cakewalk, which explains the level of effort in its dedicated approach. “Hutch talks a lot about onepitch focus,” Richvalsky said. “We not only narrow down the series to the game to the inning, we narrow it down to the pitch. It’s kind of our overarching mission, and that’s what keeps us focused every day. We have an end goal in mind, but we can’t get from zero to 100. It’s a progression, so I think that’s what keeps our perspective and keeps us focused.” After the Wolverines’ heartbreaking loss in the Women’s College World Series last season, the name of the OKC Challenge took on more meaning. Hutchins made a clear effort to push her team even harder, knowing the team would need to learn how to rely on both their teammates and themselves in order to achieve their ultimate goal. “We didn’t lighten up in their physical training at all,” Hutchins said. “We challenged them to try to push them to their frustration level so they can learn to deal with it. It’s not about just making them feel good every day, it’s about how they respond, because when the game comes, nobody feels good unless things all go your way. We try to make practice harder than the game so that the game seems easier, and I don’t know if we accomplished that. I guess we’ll find out.” Only one game can decide if Hutchins pushed the Wolverines hard enough: A June contest in Oklahoma City will provide her answer.

Sports

8 —Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

An unfitting end to the Fresh Five era N

early four years ago, Michigan basketball coach John Beilein welcomed five freshmen to his program: Mitch McGary, Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson LEV III, Spike FACHER Albrecht and Caris LeVert. The group was quickly dubbed the “Fresh Five” — an homage to the infamous “Fab Five” of the early 1990s, arguably the best recruiting class of all time. Four players in that group reached the NBA, and the Wolverines reached the NCAA championship game in 1991 and 1992 before a pay-forplay scandal forced the program to vacate those wins. Unlike the Fab Five, the Fresh Five were never a cultural phenomenon, and they were never the center of massive controversy. They joined a team already stocked with established stars and NBA prospects in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke, and while the Fab Five arrived in Ann Arbor two years after Michigan’s national championship in 1989, the Fresh Five arrived unburdened by the trophies of seasons past. The Fresh Five, dealing with less hype and less pressure, quickly made a name for themselves anyway. Stauskas quickly earned a reputation as one of the nation’s best pure shooters. Robinson proved himself to be an elite athlete. McGary’s freshmanyear NCAA Tournament play sparked a run all the way to the 2013 national championship game. Everybody remembers what happened next. Albrecht scored 17 points in the first half of that game to give Michigan a 12-point

lead over Louisville, and though the Wolverines couldn’t hold their lead, a legend was born. After an Elite Eight run the following season, the trio of Stauskas, McGary and Robinson were gone. Their early NBA Draft entries left just LeVert and Albrecht in Ann Arbor for the second half of their college careers. That was never the expectation. “That year, we were recruiting guys to be here for four years,” Beilein said in October. “Mitch was the only one that we felt probably wasn’t a four-year player at the time. I underestimated their DNA.” Having lost three players to the NBA, Beilein and Michigan’s fan base recalibrated its vision for the future to center instead on LeVert and Albrecht. Once again, those expectations were shattered. Expected to carry the team in their final season, LeVert and Albrecht have instead fallen victim to injuries, appearing in a combined one game in 2016. In LeVert’s 11-minute appearance Feb. 13 against Purdue, he suffered what Beilein called a “temporary setback” in his recovery from a mysterious injury to his lower left leg that the program has long refused to detail. LeVert hasn’t seen game action since, and with just four regularseason contests remaining, time is running out. Relative to Albrecht, LeVert is lucky. Albrecht’s time ran out months ago, as he announced in December that his attempt to return from a pair of offseason hip surgeries was unsuccessful and that he was ending his career at Michigan. “I never, in a million years, would have envisioned it going like this,” Albrecht said then. “To see my playing days at Michigan come to an end like this — that definitely wasn’t part of the plan.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

‘M’ looks to keep up recent success By TED JANES Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan women’s basketball team has two games left to prove itself and climb the Big Ten standings. Michigan at After a bumpy start to Northwestern the conference Matchup: schedule, the Michigan 16-11; Northwestern Wolverines (8-8 Big Ten, 15-13 16-11 overall) When: have won four Tuesday of their last five 6:30 P.M. games, which Where: has them tied Welsh-Ryan with Purdue Arena and Nebraska TV/Radio: at the No. 6 BTN spot in the Big Ten. Coming off a 79-73 win against Penn State last weekend, Michigan heads to Northwestern (4-12, 15-13) on Tuesday. “(Beating Penn State) was good,” sophomore guard Katelynn Flaherty said after the Wolverines’ win Saturday. “It just gives us confidence. It’s a big win today. They just beat Northwestern. They beat Michigan State. It’s going to give us momentum going into the last two games.” Michigan will meet forward Nia Coffey against the Wildcats — a 2014 second-team All-Big Ten selection. Coffey averages a doubledouble with 19.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. She is by no means Northwestern’s only option, though. Five Wildcats average double digits — guard Maggie Lyon is the next highest with 17.0 points, and guard Christen Inman follows her with 14.4. Forward Pallas KunaiyiAkpanah and guard Ashley Deary also average 13.0 and 12.6, respectively. Under the basket, Coffey will be met by Michigan freshman

Hallie Thome. While Thome will have the height advantage — she is 6-foot-5 — there have been times this season when more experienced, veteran players have outmuscled the Wolverine freshman. Coffey could pose a similar threat in the post. Out on the wings, Michigan will likely have the advantage. The Wolverines’ offense is led by Flaherty, whose 22.5 points per game is the seventh highest in the nation and third highest in the Big Ten. Flaherty, senior guard Madison Ristovski and junior guard Siera Thompson have combined to shoot 39.2 percent on 3-pointers this year — 7-percent higher than Northwestern’s three starting guards. But the Wolverines’ backcourt does more than just drain 3-pointers. While Flaherty leads the offense, Thompson captains the defensive efforts with a teamhigh 37 steals. Northwestern has taken top Big Ten opponents to the wire this year, beating No. 5 Ohio State by four points the first time they met, and losing by just six in the second meeting. While the frontloaded schedule put Michigan in a rut through most of January, the Wolverines have taken advantage of their weaker opponents to earn a higher Big Ten Tournament seed. Moving up in the standings won’t be easy, though, as the five middle teams in the Big Ten — Iowa, Rutgers, Purdue, Michigan and Nebraska — are jammed into a race for seedings. Both the Hawkeyes and Scarlet Knights have 7-9 conference records, putting them both only a game behind the three-way tie in the No. 6 spot. Tuesday’s game against the Wildcats, Michigan’s only scheduled meeting with them this season, gives the Wolverines the chance to move above .500 in conference play for the first time.

LeVert wears sweatpants to games and doesn’t emerge from Michigan’s locker room until pregame warm-ups are done. Albrecht joins his teammates on the court before games, but with the prospect of playing long since eliminated, he’s left to focus on his outfit instead of his jump shot — sometimes an eye-catching combination featuring red pants or a pink shirt. Neither seems likely to play substantive minutes again for the Wolverines. Michigan has four regular-season games remaining, and in the unlikely event LeVert plays Wednesday against Northwestern, his minutes will be limited. It’s tough to imagine him returning in time to reintegrate himself into Michigan’s offense and return to his early-season form before the Big Ten Tournament, or the NCAA Tournament, if the Wolverines survive that long. In the seniors’ absence, Michigan has shown infrequent glimpses of its post-Fresh Five identity. The Wolverines have lived and died by the 3-point shot and have been bullied inside by Big Ten front lines, often falling victim to game-ending scoring runs against elite opponents. The 3-point shots haven’t fallen lately, and the results generally haven’t been pretty, save for a pair of home-court upsets against Maryland and Purdue. It’s hard to imagine Indiana going on a 25-0 run at Crisler Center with Albrecht or LeVert on the floor, and it’s tough to imagine Michigan State jumping out to a 16-point halftime lead four days later. It’s a senior’s job to be a run-stopper and a rivalrygame rally starter. But Michigan is a team without seniors and, consequently, a team that still has missing pieces. LeVert has been one of the missing pieces before, and has plenty of experience rehabbing from long-term injuries. He

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Caris LeVert and Spike Albrecht didn’t expect to spend most of their senior seasons on the Michigan bench.

underwent surgery in May 2014 to repair a stress fracture in his left foot, then injured the same foot the following January, causing him to miss the remainder of his junior year. In light of the injury, LeVert elected to forego the NBA Draft for another year and return for his senior season. “He understands the process,” Beilein said of LeVert in October. “He understands God’s will. He is just working like crazy to do everything he can to take care of each day, and everything will work itself out.” Much to the chagrin of Beilein, LeVert and Michigan fans everywhere, everything hasn’t worked itself out, or come particularly close. LeVert and Albrecht were supposed to spend their final weeks at Michigan on the court,

leading a team back to the NCAA Tournament after a 16-16 finish last season that came in no small part due to LeVert’s injury. The pair, who saw floor time together as freshmen during the 2013 Final Four, instead seem destined to spend their final weeks at Michigan on the bench, sitting and watching. “Am I happy he came back?” Albrecht said in October. “Heck yeah, I am. I didn’t want to be the lone senior, be the old man in the group by myself. … I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about that, but at the same time, I told him, just know that whatever you do, I’m here for you and I’ll be rooting for you regardless.” The plan, of course, was for LeVert and Albrecht to root for one another on the court. Instead, they’re keeping each other

company on the bench, watching their senior years play out without any seniors playing. In a twisted way, it makes sense. The Fresh Five were unpredictable from the moment they set foot on campus, and this four-year period could have ended any number of ways that defied belief, like Michigan’s 16-0 start their freshman season or Albrecht’s 17-point national championship outburst the same year. This ending is certainly unexpected, and it seems destined to defy belief, though in exactly the wrong way. Barring a miracle, however, this much is certain: The Fresh Five era wasn’t supposed to end like this. Facher can be reached by e-mail at lfacher@umich.edu and on Twitter @levfacher

Quick Hits: Joe Cecconi on Netflix, roomies and Lysol By JASON RUBINSTEIN Daily Sports Writer

It may come as a surprise, but freshman defenseman Joe Cecconi’s plus-17 plus-minus rating leads all of his fellow defensemen in that statistical category. For that reason, Cecconi joined the Daily for this week’s edition of Quick Hits. The Michigan Daily: You lead all defensemen on this team in plus-minus. Do you rub that in their faces? Cecconi: (Laughs) No, I don’t rub it in. I take pride in that. TMD: (Junior defenseman Michael) Downing said we should ask about not having a goal. Cecconi: Well, it’s coming. Hopefully, it’s coming. He teases me that there is something I can do to break the slump, but that’s a secret. I might have to pull it off. TMD: We won’t ask what that is (laughs). Well what was it like rooming with (freshman forward) Cooper Marody while he had mono? Was he always asleep? Cecconi: He actually went home. He lives 20 minutes away and he went home for three weeks, so I didn’t have to worry about anything. TMD: Did you clean up his area? Disinfect it? Cecconi: Yeah, lots of Lysol. A lot of cleaning. It’s still a mess. TMD: Who is messier, you or Cooper? Cecconi: Cooper. I always clean up. His side of the room is disgusting. He’s got all his guitars and his amps and all that crap everywhere. TMD: Is it annoying living with somebody who makes so much noise making music? Cecconi: He actually goes downstairs, to be honest. Sometimes he’ll give me a performance, and I’ll be tired and it helps me fall asleep, so it’s good. TMD: Why weren’t you featured in his recent song? Cecconi: I don’t know. I got to

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Freshman defenseman Joseph Cecconi leads all Wolverine defenseman with a plus-minus rating of plus-17.

talk to him about that. I’m not too happy. TMD: What were your thoughts about that song? Cecconi: I think I heard the first 10 seconds; I didn’t really listen to it (laughs). I’ll look at it tonight. TMD: What did you think of (sophomore) Cutler Martin (playing) forward (this past weekend)? Cecconi: I liked that. Big body up front that can hit. He brings a lot of energy to the line. TMD: Have you ever made (coach) Red Berenson laugh? Cecconi: Me, personally? I don’t think so. I think I’ve gotten a couple of grins or smirks. I’m not sure if I got a laugh. TMD: Cooper told us to ask what you said to your grandpa about eating the free dining hall food. Cecconi: So, everyone knows about the virus going around

and I really didn’t want to eat that food and get sick. My grandpa and I have a really good relationship, and I say some funny things to him from time to time, so I told him that you can’t put regular fuel in a Ferrari and he loved it. He actually put money on my card to go eat somewhere else. TMD: (Laughs) That’s just practical. I mean, you can’t get sick. Cecconi: We got a big weekend ahead of us. TMD: Were you happy to get out of Muskegon? (Cecconi played for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the United States Hockey League prior to Michigan.) Cecconi: I was happy to move on to be on my own. I had a billet family there, but now I just have Cooper. So there are no parents who tell me I can’t stay up late. TMD: Cooper doesn’t tell you not to stay up late? Cecconi: He’s the one who stays

up all the time watching Netflix. TMD: He told us that you needed to watch a show, “Chuck,” and you were against it and then watched the whole thing. Cecconi: He told me to watch “Chuck” and I looked at it and it looked stupid. And I got bored one day and turned it on. The first episode was all right, the second episode was good and then it was just unreal, so I crushed it all in two weeks. TMD: You don’t give him the satisfaction of telling him that? Cecconi: No (laughs). Now he tells me to watch “The Office,” but I’m already watching something good. So I kind of just blow him off. TMD: We saw a sheet in Madison that had the roommate pairings. Why did you have your own hotel room in Wisconsin? Cecconi: According to it, I had my own room. But I opened the door and Cutler Martin was laying in the other bed (laughs).