Weekly Summer Edition Ann Arbor, MI
inside NEWS
Local housing Students and city leaders discuss various housing issues affecting Ann Arbor residents.
michigandaily.com
ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Full tuition guaranteed to in-state students in need
>> SEE PAGE 2
NEWS
City Council
>> SEE PAGE 3
OPINION
Summer Daily News Editor
“those with political power tend to reap the benefits of free speech...” >> SEE PAGE 4 DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS
performs to a packed crowd in New York City >> SEE PAGE7
University Regents affirm committment to low-income Michigan families By RIYAH BASHA Daily News Editor
SPORTS
Muckalt hired The new associate head coach worked with Mel Pearson at Michigan Tech. >> SEE PAGE 11
INDEX Vol. CXXVII, No. 77 | © 2017 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ...............................4 ARTS ......................................6 CLASSIFIEDS.........................8 MiC.........................................9 SPORTS................................ 10
Residents, lawmakers voice their criticism of Trumpcare
By ANDREW HIYAMA
Free Speech
Concert Coverage: Lorde
ANN ARBOR
Planned Parenthood supporters emphasize impact of bill on women’s health
Councilmembers discuss Paris Accords and voting.
ARTS
Thursday, June 22, 2017
University of Michigan alum Lehman Robinson applied to his now alma mater on a whim. As a first-generation college student coming from a low-income household, he assumed the school would be out of his family’s means — until he received his financial aid notice. Six years later, he said he’s still grateful for his aid package, which covered much of his tuition. Still, he had no idea what was in store when he applied. Robinson would now be covered by the University’s new Go Blue Guarantee: a commitment to free tuition for in-state undergraduate students on the Ann Arbor campus with family incomes under $65,000. Set to go into effect in January 2018,
the announcement was publicly revealed at the Board of Regents meeting June 15. Even though the 3,000 students currently on campus under that financial threshold already typically receive full aid, the guarantee succeeded in making national headlines as a model of affordable higher education. University officials’ comments last week centered around breaking down perceptions of the University as cost prohibitive. “I think about the seventh grader in Ypsilanti or Detroit or Grand Rapids whose mom or dad can say to them, ‘Work hard. Do well in school. You can go to the University of Michigan,’ ” University President Mark Schlissel said Thursday. “There are a lot of folks now that can’t really say that because they don’t know if they can afford it.” Will the University’s bet — that a public, visible commitment to financial aid will boost low-income students’ application rates — pay off? Kedra Ishop, vice provost for enrollment management, said the University’s preliminary
analysis indicates such signaling messages can be that powerful. Much of the University’s impetus for the guarantee came from the two-year-old HAIL Scholars program, an initiative offering “high-achieving, low-income students” with four years of free tuition. Last fall, 262 freshmen arrived on campus after being directly pursued through HAIL; select high schools in low-income target areas received application waivers, communication to parents and school advisers and packages complete with a note from Schlissel. Though final results have yet to be released, Ishop said early HAIL analyses were enough to convince administrators of the guarantee, with application rates at target schools rising by as much as 43 percent. “That was almost a two-anda-half-fold increase,” Ishop said. “We’re taking what HAIL taught us, and going public with a version of that specific commitment.” HAIL draws from national studies like that of Stanford See GO BLUE, Page 3
Over 100 Ann Arbor residents and Planned Parenthood supporters rallied at the Michigan Union Wednesday night to march in opposition of the Republican health care bill quickly and quietly making its way through the Senate, as well as the proposed federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. The bill has received widespread criticism for its lack of transparency. Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Kentucky) said a draft of the bill will be released Thursday — one week before it is expected to come to a vote — so far it has only been seen by a handful of Republican senators. The version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives in May is expected to increase the number of uninsured Americans by 23 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Speaking to the crowd ahead of the march, Lauren Bacans, the Mid Michigan Field Organizer for Planned Parenthood, emphasized the disproportionate impact of the Republican’s proposed health care plan on women. “Everything is on the line for the 2.4 million patients that rely on Planned Parenthood services annually and whose healthcare is on the chopping block as See PROTEST, Page 3
2 NEWS
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Increasing affordable housing options remains top concern for students, city In 2016, 599 students listed an Ypsilanti zip code as their home or permanent address
would want to split the costs of living.” Larrance further noted her expenses for living in Ypsilanti are almost a thousand dollars cheaper than if she were to rent an apartment in Ann Arbor. “I’d say on average, I pay By KAELA THEUT approximately $1,400 a month Summer Daily News Editor when living in Ypsilanti,” she said. “This includes rent, food, Rather than merely walking gas and other college expenses. across the Diag to get to class, For a single room apartment in Music, Theatre & Dance senior Ann Arbor, that’s about $1,200 Mackenzie Larrance’s morning which is $400 more than my routine consists of fighting traffic apartment in Ypsilanti. Then during her daily commute across once you add my other expenses, town from her Ypsilanti residence. I would be paying $2,200 a Her reasoning behind renting month. I took out gas in that an apartment so far from central calculation too.” campus? The rapidly rising cost of According to the U.S. Census living for both students and Ann Bureau, the median rate for rent DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS Arbor residents. in Ann Arbor has increased 14 “I decided to live outside of percent from 2010 to 2015 and high enough that in 2016, 599 affordably priced rental units by Ann Arbor for two reasons: I had now sits at approximately $1,075 students, such as Larrance, 2035. They also hope to augment a car, and it was less expensive,” per month — despite the amount listed an Ypsilanti zip code as demand for housing in Ypsilanti Larrance said. “I’m also in a of high-density housing areas either their permanent or local by 4,187 units through measures serious relationship where my also rising by 32 percent. It is address — a number troubling to such as increasing energy boyfriend and I have been dating important to note this number urban planners. efficiency and tearing down for almost 5 years. He and I can’t accounts for the entire city, so it A 2015 study, commissioned vacant buildings. afford an apartment in downtown may not ref lect the experiences by the Washtenaw County Office In a Central Student Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Sudoku Syndication Ann Arbor without getting a full of students living in areas suchhttp://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ of Community and Economic Government 2016 fall panel, time job. It’s also difficult finding as Kerrytown or South Campus. Development and prepared by czb Councilmember Zachary other couples like ourselves who However, rent prices are L.L.C., a Virginia-based urban Ackerman (D–Ward 3), who is planning and neighborhood a recent University graduate, development consulting firm, and then-County Commissioner stated the increasing economic Yousef Rabhi, who is now an inequality between the two cities Ann Arbor state representative, will negatively affect the county. expressed concern that increased EASY HARD Unless policies are changed, housing costs would continue to the report states Ann Arbor lower socioeconomic diversity will only continue to become within Ann Arbor as students more expensive, while Ypsilanti move elsewhere in search of property values will plummet due cheaper rent. to high turnover rate. “(Ann Arbor’s) diversity is “The result will be a county slowly escaping us,” Rabhi said. decreasingly affordable and “If we don’t work hard and make out of balance and, eventually, sure we have our full options on unsustainable, as some parts where to live, not only will our of the county possibly degrade student body become less diverse, beyond a point of no return, our community will become less and others grow in value diverse.” beyond a point that’s ever again Yet, despite the commitment affordable,” the report reads. by city officials to work towards “The imbalance in income, increasing housing diversity in education and opportunity Washtenaw County, the issue between the jurisdictions, remains at the forefront of the along with the socioeconomic minds of both University students segregation that goes with it, will and city residents — especially in hamper the regional economic regards to the influx of luxury growth potential of the area.” housing being constructed in As a result of this report, in downtown Ann Arbor. 2015, Ann Arbor City Council © sudokusolver.com. For For personal useuse only. © sudokusolver.com. personal only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com CALCULUS. members voted 10-1 to adopt affordable housing goals such Read more at MichiganDaily.com as creating nearly 2,800 new
SUDOKU
8
2 8
1 6 7
6 9 3 4 9 7 8 7 8
2
1
2
85
9 58 1
56
2
6
3
43 21
8
6
17 55
5
17 49
2
9
8 8 1 4 2 1 9 5 2 1 6 4 8
Generate solve Sudoku,Super SuperSudoku Sudoku and Godoku Generate andand solve Sudoku, Godokupuzzles puzzlesatatsudokusyndication.com! sudokusyndication.com!
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
NISA KHAN
JUEUI HONG
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 nisakhan@michigandaily.com
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 jueuih@michigandaily.com
CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom
Office hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. 734-763-2459 opt.3
News Tips Corrections Letters to the Editor
news@michigandaily.com corrections@michigandaily.com
tothedaily@michigandaily.com or visit michigandaily.com/letters
Photo Department Arts Section Editorial Page Sports Section Magazine Advertising Department
photo@michigandaily.com arts@michigandaily.com opinion@michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com statement@michigandaily.com Phone: 734-418-4115 dailydisplay@gmail.com
EDITORIAL STAFF Dayton Hare
haredayt@michigandaily.com
Jennifer Meer
Managing Editor
Managing News Editor
news@michigandaily.com SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Andrew Hiyama, Kaela Theut
Sarah Khan
Editorial Page Editor
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Jacob Shames
Managing Sports Editor
sportseditors@michigandaily.com
Will Stewart
Managing Arts Editor
arts@michigandaily.com SENIOR ARTS EDITOR: Dom Polsinelli
Alexis Rankin and Max Kuang
Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
Michelle Phillips
Managing Design Editor
design@michigandaily.com
Emily Miiller
Managing Copy Editor
copydesk@michigandaily.com SENIOR COPY EDITOR: Ashley Woonton
Christian Paneda
Managing MiC Editor michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Abe Lofy
Managing Video Editor
video@michigandaily.com
Ishan Vashinta
Managing Web Editor
ivashi@michigandaily.com
Ellie Homant
Managing Social Media Editor
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published every Thursday during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press.
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
PROTEST From Page 1
MAX KUANG/DAILY West Bloomfield resident Judith Mihalko-Mueller and Michigan United organizer Melissa Bruzzano march together in the Planned Parenthood March on the Diag on Wednesday.
GO BLUE From Page 1
part of Trumpcare,” she said. “Trumpcare is the worst bill for women’s health in a generation, and it must be stopped now.” Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor noted while the Republican’s health care bill often carries President Donald Trump’s name, it was the responsibility of the party as a whole. “When we woke up on November 9, we anticipated the dishonor that our nation would endure, having elected and entrusted our country to a people and a party as cruel and as reckless as the ones we have now in Washington,” he said. “But I think few among us really imagined the breadth and heartlessness of the assault on science, on poverty, on climate, on immigrants, on refugees and the disfranchised, and now, of course, the final insult that brings us here today: the assault of this president and this party on women and health care.” Continuing, Taylor said it wasn’t for lack of capacity the United States had so many uninsured people.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Economics Prof. Caroline Hoxby, who found in 2013 a “vast majority of low-income, high achievers do not apply to any selective college” — even though less competitive schools might mean higher out-ofpocket costs. “Telling students we’ll meet all demonstrated need … that language can get complicated,” Ishop said. “This signals the element of achievement and aspiration — if a student wants a high-quality institution like ours, they have to aspire and work hard. But by taking cost off the table, that allows them to be in the space of achievement and aspiration a little bit differently than if they just decide they can’t pay for it anyway.” Robinson spent a year in the Michigan College Advising Corps mentoring students in that space, often working to persuade first-generation and low-income students they were qualified enough to apply to schools like the University. “These kids, they just don’t know from the outside looking in,” he said. “When I went back to my own high school to advise, there were all these notions of
NEWS 3
me being stuck-up or that they could never get there. Even though they had the scores and GPA, it’s a matter of access. They just don’t know this information — and neither did I.” Misperceptions of financial aid can often swing the other way, with many assuming free tuition for some students means more cost for others. That tuition rates for the 2017-18 school year increased by 2.9 percent for in-state students and 4.5 percent for out-of-state students didn’t help. Last week, the Detroit News published an editorial titled “Free not always a great deal,” blasting the University for offering the guarantee at the expense of middle-class students. The editorial cites Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R), who voted against the tuition hikes June 15 and said middleclass families would be “priced out of the opportunity for the world-class education available at the University of Michigan.” Schlissel fired back with a letter to the editor Wednesday, arguing the University has really “made college achievement easier for this critical and financially challenged segment of the population.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
City Council affirms dedication to Paris Accords and voter registration, urges importance of reduced emissions Westphal noted true compliance with the agreement requires more than passage of the resolution By ANDREW HIYAMA Summer Daily News Editor
Ann Arbor City Council convened for another biweekly meeting Monday night, passing an ordinance making it easier for residents to register to vote as well as a resolution committing the city to the goals of the Paris Climate Accords. The ordinance, sponsored by Councilmembers Zachary Ackerman (D–Ward 3) and Chip Smith
(D–Ward 5), as well as Mayor Chris Taylor, amended the City’s housing code to require all landlords to provide tenants with a booklet “explaining the rights of tenants under city and state law” at the beginning of their leases, according to the text of the ordinance. “No owner of rental property located in Ann Arbor or agent of such an owner shall lease or contract to lease such property without furnishing to the tenant, before the time of leasing or contracting, a copy of said booklet,” the ordinance reads. Ackerman noted the ordinance would affect the majority of the city’s residents. “This ordinance would mandate that landlords, at the beginning of leases, provide voter registration forms to their new tenants,” he said. “This will help keep our voter
rolls updated, but also in a time when voter access is being threatened in this state, will make access to the polls a lot easier for the 58 percent of residents in this city who rent their housing.” Councilmember Kirk Westphal (D–Ward 2) said though the idea had already been pitched in years past, it was the initiative of the sponsors that brought it to finally pass. “I just want to thank the sponsors for pushing this forward,” he said. “An initiative like this has been mentioned on and off for years, but as always, it takes leadership to pick up the flag and carry it across the finish line, so I’m really happy that this is coming to a second reading.” The initiative passed unanimously with nine votes in favor, as Councilmembers Jason Frenzel
(D–Ward 1) and Graydon Krapohl (D–Ward 4) were absent from the meeting. The ordinance will go into effect August 1. Ann Arbor also added itself to a growing list of municipalities, states and corporations that have committed themselves to upholding the Paris Climate Accord following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the agreement. The agreement’s main goal is to hold the average global temperature to less than 2º C above the average temperature prior to the Industrial Revolution. Smith said the commitment of smaller jurisdictions to the agreement was more important than the commitment of the White House. “One of the most important things to come out of the Paris climate agreements is the realization that cities globally play the biggest role
in reducing carbon emissions,” he said. “Just because the administration in Washington is not interested in meeting the goals set forth in Paris does not mean the city of Ann Arbor is interested in also shirking our responsibility.” Westphal noted true compliance with the agreement would require more than the passage of the resolution. “For us to really move the needle, it’s abundantly clear we have to radically rethink the things that we do have control over if we want to stay consistent with the Paris agreement when it comes to emissions per capita,” he said. “A couple I can think of: housing supply near jobs, heavy rail transit, rules that mandate parking spaces. So in short, we’ve got plenty of resolutions on the books, but we’ll see if we have the resolve to make it work.”
4 OPINION
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
REGAN DETWILER| COLUMN
The first settlers, part three
P
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NISA KHAN EDITOR IN CHIEF
SARAH KHAN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
DAYTON HARE MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Summer Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
BRENNAN POPE| COLUMN
T
Free speech for the disempowered
he founders of the United States created our country on many guiding principles, the first being freedom of speech and the press. Despite it being a value settled centuries ago, it is a concept that contemporary society still grapples with today. Specifically, the limits of free speech are contested when discussing mainstream media, speakers on university campuses, and words considered hate speech. I argue that those with political or capital power tend to reap the benefits of free speech more so than oppressed groups. This is evident when evaluating state legislations punishing students who protest speakers and prominent media figures saying controversial phrases. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board recently highlighted two Michigan bills that give public institutions the power to disrupt peaceful assembly given the correct circumstances and punish students for participating in these assemblies. State senators produced these bills because of the many instances of students preventing controversial speakers from doing events on campus. The bills look to preserve free speech; however, by doing so they restrict peaceful assembly and protest, another avenue of free speech. The instances that have sparked this argument are mainly those such as events with Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter at Berkeley. These events ended with violence and fear at the university, an outcome most people agree should be avoided. Personally, I don’t feel that violence is the answer to fighting these ideas. On the other hand, many protesters were not those who simply disagreed with Milo or
Coulter’s political stances, but rather felt similarly attacked and unsafe by their messages. Yiannopoulos has a history of prejudice, whether it be from his racially-motivated attacks on Leslie Jones, or his denunciation of a transgender student. For these reasons, students often feel threatened by prejudice and bigotry being preached on their own campus. Therefore, I very well could be privileged not to feel compelled to violence, as it could feel like self-defense. Of course I don’t condone violence, but I have not had to endure the conditions that make violence seem necessary. Violence has obviously been the catalyst behind these bill, as it not only looks to improve free speech, but also safety. But a byproduct of the bills is restricting the free speech of the ones who feel threatened the most. Ultimately, it protects the powerful speakers who already have political capital, and dismisses and punishes the oppressed who stand to lose the most. This also stands true when evaluating how uses of “free speech” are treated among celebrities, notably Bill Maher and Kathy Griffin. Recently, both comedians sparked controversy by pushing the boundaries of acceptable free speech. Bill Maher referred to himself as a “house n*****” in a slavery joke on his show Real Time With Bill Maher. Kathy Griffin posted a photo with a violently decapitated Trump head. While both were distasteful jokes, society criticized Kathy much more vehemently than they did Maher. In fact, in the YouTube video in which Bill discusses the incident with Ice Cube and Symone Sanders, the comments are filled with praise for Maher and hatred for Sanders and Ice Cube’s criticisms. After Sanders notes that the
history of house slaves is not only black but primarily female, one commenter goes as far to say, “Symone Sanders is a disgusting racist who is in no position to lecture others on racism. Hypocritical, disgusting, racist, horrible person.” This comment has seventy-seven likes. The video itself also has four thousand more dislikes than likes. While I grant that Ice Cube is far from the posterchild for prejudicefree America, the video speaks to the pass that Maher gets because of his political capital. Not only is he free from criticism, those who object to his use are condemned. On the other hand, CNN fired Kathy Griffin and many claim her career to be over. While she did make a very insensitive joke toward a sitting president, it sparked a much fiercer blowback that Maher’s incident did. Both in the name of comedy, although only Maher is free from criticism. I love Bill Maher and watch him weekly, but it clear that he is benefitting from privilege that grants him more free speech power. And although Griffin is a powerful woman, she is a woman nonetheless and has been afforded far less room to push the societal boundaries of free speech The free speech incidents surrounding university campuses and comedians have showcased how the free swpeech of disenfranchised groups in America are put behind others. There can be arguments over which jokes are tasteful, or what form of protest is appropriate, but we shouldn’t punish those already at a disadvantage in society. If you value free speech and its principles, value everyone’s free speech. —Brennan Pope
reserving and marking the sites of ancient Native American burial mounds, which are prevalent in the Midwest where ancient tribes such as the Adena lived until 1 A.D, is crucial for acknowledging the depth of the scars colonialism has left on our society. However, a simple marker or plaque beside a mound can only do so much — a deeper understanding of different indigenous cultures is needed if we are to truly empathize with and respect people who lived here before Europeans laid their first camps. Imagine this situation: an Adena mound is located on the construction site of an office complex. The contractor has bought all the supplies, has promised their employees work and has promised their client an office building. Construction commences, and in the process of digging out the basement someone finds a skull. Federal law requires the contractor to call law enforcement and establish a crime scene. Then a coroner works with ethnoforensics specialists to excavate, halting the project for, say, a year. By the time they finish, the contractor has to pay his builders for the work they were shorted and is eager to speed along the building process so the client doesn’t hire somebody else for their next job. Ethnoforensics say some remains — some tools, an arm or a leg — might still be there, but they extracted what they could to comply with the law in a timely manner. The land on which the mound once sat is then partially covered with an office building, and the other portion has been flattened to create a clean-cut lawn. The remains found in the mound are safe inside a local historical society, guarded by the meticulous hands of conservation specialists in a temperaturecontrolled room, but the land from whence it came bears no mark of the objects ever being there. And nothing marks the site that was once a sacred tomb. Something kind of similar (kind of) happened in 2012 with Richard III of England, whose remains were found under a church parking lot. I don’t think construction workers knew what they were building on when they were laying pavement, but the fiasco became a media sensation, and now there are memes about it. It’s funny when the thing being defiled is perceived by the dominant culture as larger than life — has the privilege of, well, royalty.
It’s not so funny when the people whose legacy is being defiled are the ancestors of a demographic that has been, and continues to be, consistently undervalued and mistreated by dominant American culture. So, what should we do about it? One option is a plaque. A memorial. More extensive museums. But, surprise, it’s not that simple. When I visited Shrum Mound, I could obviously see it, but I couldn’t feel the depth of its meaning in my own bones the way I could in St. Paul’s Cathedral. I needed a better translation of Adena culture than what the plaque could give me. Because of this, my visit to Shrum Mound in some ways felt trivial. I saw a giant bulge in the earth, but I didn’t know quite what to make of it. It’s impossible to connect with these ancient communities when there are no markers, but even when there are markers, I can’t glean as much as I need from them to feel any such connection. What I know I share with the Adena people is the land. Without conflating indigenous people and “nature,” which can be a dehumanizing and dangerous thing to do, I’ve been trying to learn more about the landscape I’ve dwelled upon all my life, as I know it offered powerful resources to ancient communities who hunted, gathered and farmed on it. My new field guide about wildflowers in Ohio will give me a Westernized, classificationfocused education. Though I can’t say for sure, it’s likely a much different understanding of local flora than what the Adena had. Still, it’s a start. Flipping through its sturdy pages, I take note of which are native and which were introduced from abroad (mostly Europe), as those are the plants the Adena most likely used. I learned the Oswego people used the red-flowered plant Monarda didyma, a type of mint, for tea (the plant is now colloquially called Oswego Tea). Though I’m not familiar with its red flowers, I see the light purple blooms of its relative, Monarda fistulosa, everywhere around here. That plant, colloquially named Wild Bergamot, has been cultivated for European commercial teas. I haven’t yet made the tea, but I hope to try it soon and taste what the Adena might have. —Regan Detwiler can be reached at regandet@umich.edu.
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LENA DREVES| COLUMN
W
Helping each other
e, the new generation of Wolverines. We, the Victors and the Valiant. We, the Leaders and Best. We, make up a group of students of all colors, backgrounds, economic positions, religions and sexual orientations. Including graduate, professional and undergraduate students, there is roughly 45,000 of us. Most of us spend four years or more at the University of Michigan before we go on to our destined careers. During our time here, we face challenges that are often unique to the college experience, and unique to us as individuals. Amid the challenges we all face, we as students have responsibility to look out for our fellow Wolverines and offer a helping hand. Being a student in college is a difficulty in itself; however, minorities experience all kinds of challenges unique to them. These include building communities, facing a new culture, financial difficulties and sometimes discrimination. Today, 44 percent of college students in America have at one time reported feeling symptoms of depression. Depression is high among college students, and the statistics are even higher among minorities. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, African-Americans and Mexican-American students face the greatest barriers to receive mental health treatment. As it stands right now, 17 percent of students at the University come from low-income families. About 5 percent of students are first-generation students. As of the fall of 2015, 14 percent of students at the University are nonresident aliens, according to the Office of the Register. In fact, about 5 percent of students on campus are African American, and about 5 percent are Hispanic. Though there is not an exact statistic for the number of LGBTQ students on campus, LGBTQ-identifying people make up about 4 percent of the population in the state of Michigan. These statistics tells us who the minorities we see and talk to on campus every day are. More often than not, firstgeneration students are initially on their own when it comes to figuring out the ins and outs of college. Navigating the financial burdens, choosing a major and understanding study techniques are examples of practical knowledge that first-generation students are not simply handed down by their parents. Non-
resident aliens face a new world away from home without the benefits that U.S. citizen-students can take for granted. The current political scene makes that clear enough. Students from low-income families at times experience their uniqueness on campus by being unable to afford the daily comforts that other students never question. In the past year, African-American students have felt the spite and hatred of racism through obscene flyers postedaround central campus. As a lesbian student myself, I have come to understand the “wear and tear” of finding my way on such a large campus, especially relating to my sexual orientation. The characteristic that make individuals “minorities” are usually sensitive topics and hard to address until a level of comfortability is found with others, and this takes time. I have only mentioned a few challenges; yet, as students, we all face obstacles that are unique to us. The University has done an extraordinary job of making the campus a welcoming place no matter who you are. At only a 5 percent dropout rate, the University has proven that they will be there for its students. While the University can always do more, we as students can always improve as we come to the aid of our brothers and sisters on campus. We must help each other by offering our hand when we observe the challenges that our fellow students are facing. Many times, we read these kinds of prompts and feel overwhelmed, as though we as individuals are responsible to make change in people’s lives. What we should understand is that change takes teamwork. The answer is simpler. We can make a difference in the lives of whoever is around us at that moment, such as looking out for our friends who we know are short on money. Coming alongside a new transfer student on campus and showing them around. Taking our roommates to a campus medical service if needed. Standing up for each other. Sure, this is a competitive university, but what makes us the “Leaders and the Best” is taking initiative to understand what our peers are going through, and being each other’s support.
STEPHANIE MULLINGS| COLUMN
I
f you know me, then you know there are about four things I need to survive in life: Drake, Lush Cosmetics, Buffalo Wild Wings’ chicken wings and basketball. I can remember one of my first birthday gifts being a basketball and creating an entire imaginary team I would play against in tournaments. As the years passed, I started collecting NBA jerseys, starting with Michael Jordan, then after that Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo. After my fir st honor roll report card in elementary school, my dad bought my first hoop, and I spent hours outside practicing my shot. Though I am only 5’4’’ on a good day, I was able to join both my middle school and high school teams, serving as a member of the starting lineup and was a captain for both teams. I have always been a fan of the NBA and WNBA. I remember asking my mother to purchase extra sports channels from DirecTV so that I, a Chicago native, could watch the Boston Celtics, my favorite team, play. Some of the best memories I have from my childhood include going to the United Center and seeing the Chicago Bulls play. Sitting at the game, I was able to feel the excitement and energ y of the crowd, the passion of the players and the overall love for the game which makes any sporting event a blast to attend — as I am sure anyone who has been to the Big House on gameday can attest to. I am excited to tell my children that I was able to witness Derrick Rose’s campaign to winning the 2010-2011 NBA MVP, along with the rise of LeBron James — the 2nd greatest basketball player of all time, the awe of Stephen Curry and the seemingly unstoppable Golden State Warriors or even the farewell tour of one of the greatest players the game has ever seen, Kobe Bryant. I have seen so much in relation to this sport, yet when it comes to women in it, I have seen so little. — Lena Dreves can be reached Just a few weeks ago, my at ldreves@umich.edu. boyfriend sent me a text which said, “If I were a girl
MY-Player?
it would suck creating a MyCareer because I couldn’t design a player to ref lect my own identity.” As a recent Playstation 4 owner, he had been tinkering around with the different features on the game “NBA 2k17.” One of these features was the widely popular “MyCareer” where the gamer creates a customizable player and develops a story/ career in the NBA through gameplay. Knowing that I too play “2k12,” he shared his thoughts regarding the lack of diversity within the game, which inspired me to write this piece. Though he is a writer for male sports and, as I put it, a “know-itall,” I was impressed with
We are told we should be subservient. We are told we should be inferior his refreshing ref lections, as he usually does not consider female perspectives regarding professional athletics. His text was referring to the fact that each of the NBA 2k games which have been released to date with the “MyCareer” feature lack the ability to customize and develop the career for a female basketball player. Instead, the game limits the gamer to customizing from default settings a man’s identity/persona, and then pursuing his dive into the professional basketball world. You would think, “Of course there isn’t an option to design a woman on ‘NBA 2k’ because it ref lects the likeness of the NBA, which does not include women athletes.” This is a reasonable arg ument, one which could be easily settled if there were a “WNBA 2k” game to reference. However, there is a complete lack of any WNBA related video games. I can ref lect upon the days my cousin and I would battle it out on the game
OPINION 5
“NBA Street Vol. 2” using the original Xbox console. As a young girl admiring the sport and the fun of the games, related toys and other fan paraphernalia, the fact that women were left completely underrepresented in regards to it all went completely over my head. Now, in my older age, as I sit with my younger sister, who is also a basketball player and complete our career on “NBA 2k” as men or lace up our Kyrie Irving basketball shoes designed and marketed for men, I wonder, “What happened?” These inequalities don’t just exist in video games, or in the basketball world, it ref lects real life. In real life, women experience unequal pay and restricted reproductive rights, access to health care and education, and many women around the world are subjected to violence without ever receiving justice. These issues contribute to gender inequality and plag ue our world and women every second. It isn’t virtual. It isn’t a game. It is damaging, discriminatory and a threat to women everywhere. We are targeted. We are exploited. We are unprotected and underrepresented, and one of the worst aspects of it all is that we are told this is how it is supposed to be. We are told that we should be subservient. We are told we should be inferior. We are told that we cannot and will not ever be equal to men. It starts with relatively small things like video games or sports, then it slowly infiltrates the infrastructure of our everyday lives. Therefore, it is crucial that we pay attention and open our eyes to both overt and covert messages. Awareness is the catalyst to both problem solving and change. Are your eyes open? —Stephanie Mullings can be reached at srmulli@umich.edu.
6 ARTS
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MUSIC MUSIC REVIEW REVIEW
MOVIE REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW
DISNEY STUDIOS
Lightning McQueen smirks at his rival.
‘Cars 3’ crashes By JEREMIAH VANDERHELM NONESUCH RECORDS
Fleet Foxes pose for a photoshoot.
‘Crack-Up’ is expansive By SEAN LANG Daily Arts Writer
Might as well add Crack-Up to the list of albums whose singles spoil their opening tracks. The album, an epic across space and time, is the first by Fleet Foxes in six years after “artistic differences” led to some form of break-up after 2011’s Helplessness Blues. Crack-Up begins with the whisper of “I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar,” but explodes one minute into the track as “The band kicks the loner off the stage” — according to the liner notes, which are interspersed through songs, drawing a narrative out of the album. Had we not been exposed to “Third of May / daigahara,” “Fool’s Errand” or “If You Need To, Keep Time On Me,” this explosion would have carried all the weight in the world as the beloved folk rock band from Seattle transitioned from indefinite silence to a grandeur even greater in scale than their first two efforts. Between Helplessness Blues and Crack-Up, vocalist Robin Pecknold — also the driving creative force of the project — enrolled in literature courses at Columbia University in 2012, a decision he has cited as having a serious effect on not just his music, but his life. His venture into academia is evident on the surface level with references to Beowulf — “Mearcstapa” is named for the legend’s antagonist, Grendel — and Julius Caesar — both in “Cassius” and “I Should See Memphis.” The album name itself, CrackUp, comes from an essay by F. Scott Fitzgerald of the same name, widely quoted for his idea that one of the greatest marks of intelligence is the ability to engage with and
understand both sides of an argument and still function. It’s hard to tell exactly how this plays into the album’s themes, and some may write the album off as a slew of semi-pretentious name-drops, but there is a sense of duality to the album: the city versus the ocean, the individual versus the collective, January versus June, and the homophones “wide/ white” and “heedless/heatless” on “Keep Time On Me.” Still, literary references can’t in and of themselves give a truly creative sense of greater meaning to a new work. Rest assured, Pecknold reaches inward just as often as he does outward. The album’s first single “Third of May / daigahara” is serious self-reflection through time, ultimately a triumphant yet melancholic ode to the passage of time and the loneliness that can come with it. Twice on the song he asks “Was I too slow?” The first time, he then asks “Did you change overnight?” The second time, “Did I change overnight?” Pecknold might be looking for someone to blame, but he seems to realize it may be himself. The song is also startlingly interwoven in the band’s history. Helplessness Blues was released on May third, so when Pecknold sings “It all fell in line on the third of May / As if it were designed / Painted in sand to be washed away,” it feels like he is acknowledging that the band couldn’t have lasted, or at least not then. May third is also the birthday of Pecknold’s close friend and bandmate Skyler Skjelset, and the line about congregating at “the firing line” is a reference to a painting also named Third of May by Francisco Goya — perhaps further evidence of his return to school or, more likely, a happy coincidence that he stumbled
upon the painting outside of his formal studies. While enrolled at Columbia, Pecknold also took up surfing according to an interview with Rolling Stone. It may be a stretch, but the way he talks about being humbled by the sport in the interview and one quote in particular — “You’re new when you get out of the water” — make it feel like the new hobby has influenced his songwriting. More so than Fleet Foxes and Helplessness Blues (save for the titular track), Crack-Up juxtaposes the hugeness of nature with the, well, helplessness of humankind. Choices like the aforementioned opening of “I Am All That I Need” and the album’s obsession with the ocean — every song contains some reference to an ocean, sea, flood or tides — lend to this, creating the feeling that the album is just big in a geographical sense. Since completing the band’s tour in support of Helplessness Blues in 2012, Pecknold has been on a journey through himself and through academia in an unfamiliar city. He has shed his lumberjack look for something cleaner and seems to have given the “capital-q” Questions of his life a lot of thought. Crack-Up The result is an Fleet Foxes expansive epic, an album that both Nonesuch Records builds satisfyingly on the legacy left by the first two but also feels like a fresh starting point. In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Pecknold is quoted as saying “I’d like to just make another album right now.” If Crack-Up is any indication of what’s to come, we should take as much as we can get.
Daily Arts Writer
Let’s start this “Cars 3” review by talking about Rocky. The Italian Stallion’s most recent outings, “Rocky Balboa” and “Creed,” respectively featured Rocky dealing with a world that was seemingly leaving him behind and training the son of his late best friend. I open with this because everything done in those two separate movies, “Cars 3” tries to do in one. In one movie, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson, “Masterminds”) is supposed to come to terms with the changing landscape of racing while mentoring a younger character and making peace with his legacy. Its story hinges on these arcs, yet by the time the credits roll, neither of them has been given enough attention to carry the movie. In its rush to do everything, “Cars 3” does nothing instead. It’s hard to even decipher what the main story of the movie is supposed to be. Cars 3 The gist of it at first seems to be Walt Disney that Lightning Studios has to prove that Rave Cinemas he’s not washed up. That’s simple enough and potentially emotional. The problem is that it’s not clear who Lightning has to prove that to. Is it himself? No, he’s as confident as ever. His friends? They barely feature. The only people who we ever see doubt Lightning only appear on TV screen to remind you that this is allegedly an underdog story, but by the end, even the crowd is still on Lightning’s side. It’s like the ordinarily brilliant minds at Pixar wanted to tell an underdog story but forgot to add the underdog. There’s no doubt on anyone’s part — least of all the audience’s — that he will win until far too late in the movie. If Lightning’s struggle had been focused on and developed a bit more it could have worked and worked well, but then comes the other part of the story: Lightning mentoring
newcomer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo, “Cristela”). In theory, Cruz is supposed to share the spotlight with Lightning. It’s clear this it’s meant to be her story as much as it is his, but as with Lightning’s struggle, she is never given enough focus to make her anything other than a jumpedup side character in her own movie. It’s hard to care about her when she is distracting from his story and he is distracting from hers. “Cars 3” should have either been Lightning’s story with Cruz playing a supporting role or vice versa. As it is, it splits its focus between the two, seems to finally put it on Lightning, then pulls back and puts it on Cruz, only to finally cop out in the worst way possible and try to give them both Big Emotional Endings without having properly done the character or story work to earn those moments. It cheats and continues to cheat even when it makes no sense. Finally, in the late second act, “Cars 3” arrives at an interesting place that could potentially sustain both stories. But by that time, it’s too late. It can only spend a few scenes in that interesting new setting with its interesting new characters before it’s time for the climax that no one in the audience will care enough to get excited for. As per the Pixar norm, the animation is quite spectacular. The environments are nearly photorealistic, especially during the otherwise lackluster racing scenes, and that complements the more cartoony designs of the characters to create an effect like the one on display in “The Good Dinosaur.” That’s almost all that can be said for “Cars 3,” though. It’s not even clear what the lesson kids are supposed to learn is. Do your best? Even if this wasn’t Pixar — possibly the best storytellers not just in animation but in cinema itself — that’s boilerplate and boring. But in a way, that sums up “Cars 3” quite well. For a normal animation house, this would be a subpar, pointless flick. For the masters themselves, it comes close to being their worst work so far.
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
COMMUNITY CULTURE EVENT
Roxane Gay gives powerful discussion about new book By NISA KHAN Summer Editor in Chief
“What you need to know is that my life is split in two, cleaved not so neatly. There is the before and the after. Before I gained weight. After I gained weight. Before I was raped. After I was raped.” “I began to eat to change my body. I was willful in this.” Renowned writer Roxane Gay presented her new book, “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body,” to a crowd of over a thousand gathered in Hill Auditorium this past Friday, where she discussed her process writing the difficult moments of her life as well as the social faults in approaching weight and sexault assault. The event was hosted by Literati Bookstore. According to event organizers, “Hunger” is already the store’s bestselling book. Gay is well known for her series of essays titled “Bad Feminist” and her novel “Ayiti,” and she is the first Black female lead author for Marvel in a Black Panther series “Wakanda.” “So I have a new book out called ‘Hunger.’ Because I’m a masochist,” she said. “But really, this is a book about my body. Often times when you are overweight, or fat, your body becomes a public text, and people project a lot of bullshit about your body. A lot of things like why you’re fat, why you don’t lose weight, and so with this book, I wanted to redescribe the narrative of my own body. To tell the story about my body in my own words.” Two passages were read from “Hunger.” One is about her time with her physical trainer — “I have a membership to Planet Fitness, although I have never visited. Basically I donate $19.99 to Planet Fitness every month,” Gay said. The other is her search for and imagining the confrontation with the man who assaulted her years later. Gay was 12 years old when her classmate, along with several other boys, raped her. “I Googled him when I wrote this book. I don’t know why. Or I do,” she read. “I sat for hours, staring at his picture on the webpage on his company’s website. It nauseates me. I can smell him.” She admits that writing “Hunger,” revealing her vulnerabilities, made the process much more dif-
ficult than her previous work. Gay explained writing usually comes more naturally to her — therefore, the hesitancy she was facing in writing “Hunger” was a new experience. “I am used to words coming quickly. With this book... when I was trying to figure out the scope of this book, I thought and thought and thought. When I got somewhere where it made me uncomfortable, I would stop,” Gay said. “And so there was nothing to write, because there was nothing going on in my head at all. And so ‘I don’t want to go there.’ And so, I found myself forcing myself to go to those places I did not want to go.” “Oh my God, it was just coming out in the most painful paragraphs. And for me, it was a foreign experience. Usually it’s great, but this was just shitty paragraph after shitty paragraph. I kept looking at it like, ‘Who is this person?’” While the new memoir revealed much of Gay’s personal thoughts, she also set up borders for topics she would stray away from such as details about her relationships or some of her experiences. “I really stick to my gut where my boundaries are concerned... I remind myself, I am allowed to have boundaries,” she said. “I am allowed to tell people ‘no,’ even though they are good people. You don’t have to give people everything they want.” “Hunger” was delayed, forcing Gay to write it faster. “It was just difficult. I think facing yourself is difficult,” she said. “Looking at your body and looking at all of the baggage I have been carrying along with being fat, baggage that is not mine to carry but I carried nonetheless, was challenging... It was worth the delay. Anything I would have put out June 2016 would have been mediocre at best.” One audience member, who said she was nervous in writing a memoir on a similar topic, asked if Gay had any fear of her attacker’s retaliation. Gay explained she kept all of the details of the assault vague and used pseudonyms. “Lastly, I would say that we often fear retaliation, and it’s totally understandable... one of the things you can try to do is look that fear for what it is and try not to let that fear be an obstacle to writing what needs
to be written,” she answered. Reactions to weight were a central point of discussion — especially the term “fat”, and how it has been fashioned to become an insult. “What they are conceiving is that ‘fat’ is an insult. That I am insulting myself,” she said. However, Gay finds the term “overweight” to be worse — implying that there is a normal weight. “Obese” or other medical terms have also left her with negative experience from doctors. “As a fat, Black woman, I am sometimes degendered. I am called ‘sir.’ Every day, I am called ‘sir.’ Which is weird, because I have huge boobs. It’s just like, they are magnificent,” she said, explaining the conception that being fat takes away femininity. “There is always this cultural baggage in this intersection of Blackness and fatness. And, it’s challenging. It’s really challenging... But I find that the Black community tends to be far more accepting of body diversity.” Throughout the event, Gay was also asked about her opinions on Black Panther (“It was so sexy.”), the Bachelorette (thrilled to see “31 mediocre white men” court an exceptional Black woman. “It’s about goddamn time.” “Collectively, those 31 dudes make half a good man.”), and the Handmaiden’s Tale (one of Gay’s favorite books, according to an audience member. Gay said she loved the first episodes, but stopped watching in disbelief after hearing the cast say it wasn’t a feminist work) As the event neared an end, Gay was asked how many users she blocked on her active Twitter (her bio: “If you clap, I clap back.”): over 2,700 users. “I block people every single day. Because people are trash.” When asked if “Hunger” allowed some healing, Gay explained that in the beginning of writing, she would have said “no,” as she had to look at difficult stages of her life. “I feel now I am finally in a position in my life to truly move forward in a way I haven’t been before,” she said. “So yes, it turns out that writing this book was healing.”
ARTS 7
MUSIC REVIEW
Lorde is magical on ‘Melodrama’ By JACK BRANDON Daily Arts Writer
When Lorde won the Billboard Music Award for Top Rock Song, with “Royals” in 2014, she turned her fists into rocker horns with a confused expression on her face. Her smash single had won her an award in a category that not even she thought she deserved to place in — a testament to her artistry, skill and charm. Her sophomore album Melodrama was released on June 16th, a culmination of four years of work, crafted by a young artist who isn’t afraid to poke fun at herself. Despite being the dreaded sophomore album, Melodrama surpasses Pure Heroine creatively. The persona of Lorde has outgrown her teenage ennui and has developed into a thoughtful, tender young adult unafraid to embrace her experience. While songs off Pure Heroine repeat a similar theme in a different manner, Melodrama offers a complete experience of thought, emotion and expression. The sound of her sophomore album is rich and diverse. Singles “Green Light” and “Perfect Places” are energetic tracks comprised of driving percussion and heavy synth. Others like “Liability” and “Writer in the Dark” are made soley by the accompaniment of guitar or piano to Lorde’s voice. These emotional ballads are reminiscent of the compositions that dominated Pure Heroine, but brought to a new level by traditional instruments. Melodrama takes the old formula, mixes it up and adds another step. Vocally, Lorde stretches herself to embody a distinct feeling on each song. Her voice starts husky on the first track, but by the prechorus of “Homemade Dynamite,” it has morphed into breathy sighs. On the deeply poignant ballad “Liability,” Lorde croons in a full, warm voice to contrast the cold sounds of the piano. By “Writer in the Dark,” she coughs and spits each note out, her voice frayed. These two tracks demonstrate the remarkable nuance in Lorde’s delivery that is evocative and powerful. On “Hard Feelings/Loveless” and “Liability (Reprise),” Lorde’s voice is warped and molded by a harmonizer.
Apart from her impressive growth as a singer, Lorde has catapulted to new heights as a compositional artist. She manages to balance the tragedy and comedy of the break-up that inspired the record without seeming “melodramatic” or insincere. Lines like “So they pull back, make other plans / I understand, I’m a liability” are mocked by “Are you lost in us? / Have another drink get lost in us / This is how we get notorious.” While in opposition, there’s a tenderness and an edge to Lorde’s candor, that by some sleight of hand rub together to make magic. Other moments reveal Lorde’s flirtatious and adventurous side, as written on “Homemade Dynamite”: “See me rolling, showing someone else love / Hands under your t-shirt / Know I think you’re awesome, right?” She is far from the 16-year-old girl who sang of “craving a different kind of buzz” four years earlier. Lorde has always shone as a lyricist; every line off Pure Heroine is poetry, and Melodrama is no exception. Multiple songs ditch traditional rhyme schemes in favor of slant rhymes and from her synthesia comes vivid and miraculous images: “I’d get your friend to drive, but he can hardly see / We’ll end up painted on the road, red and chrome, all the broken glass sparkling / I guess we’re partying.” Always incisive, Lorde critiques teen culture while implicating herself. However, we can Melodrama take the bitter Lorde with the sweet, as so many Republic Records songs are heartachingly tender: “Blow all my friendships / To sit in hell with you / But we’re the greatest / They’ll hang us in The Louvre.” In a pop music market that often feels dry and repetitive, Lorde is as refreshing and original as she was four years ago. Her work has an element of artistry that eschews the mainstream idea of pop stardom. Melodrama, just like Pure Heroine, is filled with hidden treasures: keen insight, a full heart and youthful charm. Lorde is an artist you can put faith in.
8 NEWS
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
New chair of DNC emphasizes change within party Renaissance Center in Detroit for the Democratic National Committee’s seasonal executive committee meeting, where the committee discussed its transition and strategy for elections going forward. As one of the first such meetings
By ANDREW HIYAMA Daily Summer News Editor
Several of the most prominent figures within the Democratic Party convened Saturday morning at the
Classifieds
for newly-elected DNC Chair Tom Perez, much of the talk centered around the “culture change” he intends to effect within the party. After narrowly defeating Rep. Keith Ellison (D–Minn.) in the contest for chair in February, Perez received
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, June 22, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
FOR SALE
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Sheepish? 6 Seeks information 10 Wave back? 14 Fashion flap 15 Eliza Doolittle’s creator 16 Noah’s firstborn 17 __ blank (was stumped) 18 Big East hoopster 19 One of many on a sweater? 20 Headshot, e.g. 21 Rapper-turnedactor in “NCIS: Los Angeles” 24 Tiny, made tinier 25 Collect 27 Cake grain 28 Decadent 30 Perceived Hollywood oversight 33 Gold standard 34 Univ. aides 35 Luau fare 37 Joyful dances 38 With 41-Across, corporate status symbol ... and a hint to the circled letters 41 See 38-Across 43 Hindu title 44 Modeled for a portrait 46 See 54-Across 47 Tennyson’s “__ Arden” 49 Character who debuted in “First Blood” 54 With 46-Across, quit working 56 Fam. member 57 Spotted 58 Terminate 59 Genuine, for real 62 Bloke 63 “Rich men sin, and __ root”: “Timon of Athens” 65 Princes, but not princesses 66 Advice to sinners 68 __ stick 69 “Beetle Bailey” pooch 70 Slice-and-dice product suffix
71 Crimean War leader 72 Lamp gas 73 Walter White’s Pontiac model in “Breaking Bad” DOWN 1 Hardly a neophyte 2 Fluctuates 3 Emetic drug 4 Never used 5 Airline since 1948 6 Rubbish bin 7 Have a growth spurt 8 Drop to the canvas 9 Marshy hollow 10 Mentalist’s gift 11 Ill-tempered 12 Ancestry 13 Morning orders 22 Setbacks 23 35th pres. 26 Indy racer Danica or sportscaster Dan 29 Sizzling Tex-Mex dish 31 Conducted 32 Didn’t say __: had no comment
36 Words of regret 38 Camera named for a goddess 39 Five Nations tribe 40 “The Big Bang Theory” astrophysicist 42 Pelt 43 Register printout 45 Home city of Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper
48 Cock and bull 50 Muppet master 51 Giant in Cooperstown 52 Small cap 53 Next up 55 Bagless vacuum pioneer 60 Staff member? 61 Crib cry 64 Craggy peak 67 Tornadic Looney Tunes spinner
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
WINTEK CORPORATION AND Wintek Electro-Optics Corporation Auction. Wintek Corporation and Wintek Electro-Optics Corporation are auctioning off its overseas assets and equipment. Bid closing date: July 4th 2017, bid opening date: July 5th 2017.For more detailed information, go the Reorganization section at the Wintek website, website at: www.wintek.com.tw
FOR RENT ARBOR PROPERTIES Award-Winning Rentals in KerrytownCentral Campus, Old West Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 2017. 734-649 8637. www.arborprops.com CENTRAL CAMPUS, FURNISHED rooms for students, shared kitch., ldry., bath., internet, rent from $650 and up. Call 734-276-0886.
xwordeditor@aol.com
06/22/17
NOW AVAIL. FOR FALL 2017! Hill & State, fully/semi furnished 2 bdrm apts w/ heat, water, parking, laundry &A/C 734-904-6735 or 734-497-0793
HELP WANTED SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST at Rainbow Hospitality Job description: Plan, direct and manage production and distribution of HPPed packaged Indian Curry. Job Location & mailing address: 2876 Washtenaw Avenue, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. Job Skills: a. A degree in business or related field b. Experience in packaged food industry. Visit www.DisruptiveEating.com/contact
HAPPY THURSDAY! By Peter A. Collins ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
06/22/17
Enjoy the Sudoku on page 2
criticism for being part of the party establishment that had failed to listen and appeal to the more progressive wing of the party. During the meeting, Perez sought to show he understood the need for change within the party, emphasizing a turn toward a culture of inclusion. The organization of the meeting room itself, Perez said — with four long tables arranged into a square, so all of the over 50 members of the executive committee were facing each other — was proof of that. “One of the dimensions of this culture change has to be our interaction with our members,” he said. “We’ve heard loudly and clearly that you are under-utilized. We are changing that. And we want to change that together. I’ve asked a lot of people who have been to many executive committee meetings, ‘What has often happened?’ And all too frequently, many of you have been able to walk out not having been called on to offer your opinions on anything.” The second dimension of the culture change, Perez said, was rethinking the committee’s mission statement. “We have to clarify, because it seems to me that the de facto mission statement of the DNC had been that we are here to help elect the President of the United States, the Democrat, every fourth year,” he said. “And it’s borne out in our structure. So we have absolutely changed our mission statement. Our mission statement is to elect Democrats up and down the ticket, from the school board to the senate.” Ellison, who Perez named deputy chair moments after becoming chair himself, said the culture change needed to include the way the party interacts with voters as well as its own members. “The way that we’re going to win elections is not only by persuading people but also by getting new people into the fold that we haven’t talked to,” he said. “90 million people didn’t vote in the last election that were eligible to do so.” Many members of the committee reacted positively to Perez’s message, saying they had already experienced a change in the few months he had been Chair. Earl Fowlkes, who has been a member of the DNC for eight years and the Chair of the DNC’s LGBT Caucus for four years, said it was the first opportunity he’d ever had to speak in an executive committee
meeting. “Basically, I see us having 3 protocols,” he said. “And one of them is the right to advise the leadership, the other is the right to warn leadership, and the other right is to be consulted by leadership. And I think when those protocols are not adhered to, as they haven’t always been in my time here, the DNC is offkilter, because we represent the core constituencies of this party, and we have to be in the mainstream of the decision-making process so that we can strengthen our party.”
Even being the Democratic Party, knowing that we have this generation leaning towards us, we still do not have the voice — in numbers at least — that we need Other members, however, expressed they still didn’t feel included by the party. Louis Elrod, President of the Young Democrats of America, pointed out that for the level of support for Democrats from young people, they weren’t very well represented in the committee. Asking how many of them were millennials, fewer than five people at the table raised their hands. “Even being the Democratic Party, knowing that we have this generation leaning towards us, we still do not have the voice — in numbers at least — that we need,” he said. “We have existing infrastructures that no one invested in last year. No one. No one invested in our organizations to try to turn out young people, at all. And if that continues again, we are going to lose heavily in 2018.” Before Elrod finished with his remarks, however, Perez cut him off, citing the need to give everyone the opportunity to speak in a short period of time. “I’m sorry, but it’s the first time I’ve been given access to talk to you here,” Elrod said.
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
On pride and being out By KHANG HUYNH Michigan in Color Contributor
For eighteen years of my life my mother’s arms were the warmest home I ever knew. A home for when I felt scared or lonely or sad. What an actual home lacked in structural support, my mother made up for in love and kindness. For eighteen years this home allowed me to grow and learn and supported me in every endeavor until the day I felt this unnerving urge to tell her that I was gay. No, that I am gay. Like I mean I was gay in the past tense as I retell this story but I also still am very gay and like … you get my point. Okay but anyways, at this point in my life, everyone except my immediate family knew of me being gay, like it wasn’t really hard to guess; I didn’t really try to hide it. Like even if I was trying to hide it, I wasn’t doing that hot of a job at doing so. Why was it so hard to tell the most loving person in my life what I had openly told to so many strangers before? Okay to be fair, coming out to strangers and friends never warranted the fear of being kicked out of my own home, which was a valid excuse for me to hide myself for so long to my own mother. I don’t really remember exactly what led up to me finally coming out to my her; everything’s just really hazy and sad, but I do remember that it just really needed to be done, and as I was telling her what I needed to tell her, I was doing so through this flood of tears, and it wasn’t anything cute either. I cried so hard my contact lenses fell out and my entire face was swelling up from the tears and the snot … It was the immediate opposite aesthetic of this emotionally strong and well-puttogether person that I try so hard to build up as myself. As I was going through this profoundly hideous breakdown, my mother didn’t really know what to do. She tried to tell me it was okay but she also didn’t want to touch or hold me. This home she had built for me couldn’t hold the well of emotions she was feeling. She just told me that things would be okay
in between my teary gasping and just sat at the side of my bed for awhile. We don’t really talk about it now. You know the whole gay thing. Like it’s just something we both know is there but neglect to bring up like some big fabulously gay elephant in the room. But the fact of the matter was that I was out. I didn’t need to hide anymore. Coming out and being out is this really weird and often really touchy subject that’s unique to the LGBTQ+ community. Everyone who is out in this community has their own story of how their coming out went that ranges anywhere from pleasant to heartbreaking. Like much of everything else in the world, it’s a spectrum from good to bad to maybe even horrendous, but it’s also not this once in a lifetime event either. Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that coming out isn’t this end all be all. It’s a reoccurring event. I will always have to come out to every person I meet in some way or another, verbal or otherwise. I feel like this is where I can explain the bulk of my personality; it’s so much easier to be overtly and openly gay and make things very clear right up front than to have to say that you are gay to every person that you meet. It’s not that I feel any shame in being gay, but it’s just different to have to say that you are something as opposed to just freely being it. The only thing was, this practice of my open gayness was a newfound source of contention; the home of this social friction I would feel from so many people. There’s something very subversive about simultaneously being Asian and being openly gay. From both the outside looking in and inside looking out you’re almost required to uphold this certain group of expectations for yourself that contradict the very core of being out and being proud of yourself. Looking in from the outside world you’re expected to be this submissive figure of conformity. All that you say and do must follow a stringent mold of what is expected from you; you know, the whole model minority bullshit and all that comes from it. What is expected of you is silence. Nobody likes to hear from a loud gay, and god forbid hearing things from an Asian one who has meaningful things to say when all that is expected from them is obedience to an anti-
quated system of societal expectations. Looking out from your own community at the world in front of you, you’re only ever told by those inside of it to submit to what is the norm of those around you, and in that regard you try to do your best to conform. Pride in itself is not a prideful trait; to freely boast your strengths and exist as yourself in any raw and uninhibited form is a symbol of anything but pride, but rather the most profound weakness. It’s a largely cultural aspect for where these views come from. There’s like this unspoken sin to deviate from conformity in the Vietnamese community I came from, and not only being out, but being openly out is seen as just about the pinnacle of all sins, on par with not taking your shoes off when you come inside and disrespecting your elders. So much of my culture is marked by obedience and reverence to our elders and following long held traditions, so to deviate from common practice is just about the worst possible thing you could ever do. It was the amalgamation of all of these things that made me so scared and forced me to hide for so long. I became very familiar with the closet, so the moment where I didn’t feel the need to hide in there anymore, I chose to take every opportunity to become myself and make up for lost time. To be gay is to be resilient, but it is an incredibly lonely place to come of age in. Nobody ever tells you how incredibly lonely it can be. You grow up questioning these expectations placed upon you before you have the vocabulary to be able to vocalize and defend yourself. You grow up bombarded by both media that does not rep-
MICHIGAN IN COLOR 9
resent you and systems of hatred and prejudice that force you to hide for so much of your life out of this fear that the feelings of guilt,
To be gay is to be resilient, but it is an incredibly lonely place to come of age in. self-hatred and fear itself become a part of your identity. Nobody really speaks about how exhausting it is to have to validate your right to coexist. You feel as if your queerness is unwelcome in these overwhelmingly unqueer spaces. The thing is, nobody ever asks to be gay. Nobody asks to be treated like how so many of us have been and have to overcome the many struggles that our identity brings to us, but to be gay is to also be an overwhelming pillar of strength. In helping others, you bring up these memories that aren’t always easy to retell to yourself, let alone others, but in doing so, you kind of get to see how strong you are, to have overcome the many hardships that being gay can bring to you. It’s like you’ve almost forgotten all that you’ve needed to do to simply be here today. I find praise from others at my uninhibited love and expression of my identity so strange sometimes. Like why wouldn’t you want to freely be yourself? I would always find their
kind words to be so … off putting? But then I remember that simply being gay in itself is an act of resistance and it’s a privilege that is not afforded to everyone. Being gay and being out is a powerful act of declaring your right to simply exist at all. You have to be proud of yourself and all you have been through, a practice much easier said than done. I feel like that is the defining message of gay pride and pride month. You acknowledge the pain and difficulty both you and your community have not only gone through, but overcome as well. Not only have we survived, but we have thrived and shall continue to do so. We have this huge shared experience of learning to love ourselves, and the journey toward doing so is not always an easy one. It’s this journey sometimes marked with more downs than ups, and I feel like I’m just throwing out these analogies and sayings, but that’s just really how it really feels. From being beaten down so many times you grow this thick skin, both good and bad in its effects, but I think the major idea of pride is that we cannot close in on ourselves. We can’t close in on ourselves and expect a change to come. This thick skin of ours was formed to deflect the hatred of others and allow us a closer understanding of those like us. I think the ultimate end goal would be to learn for ourselves how our ideal sense of self resonates and reflects in the context of the greater community. We must learn how to coexist and take care of one another and learn to grow from our shared hardships. In doing so, we can truly resonate with the love, happiness and empathy behind what it truly means to be prideful.
10 ARTS
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Lorde is ethereal perfection at album release show in New York By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY Online Arts Editor
AVERY FRIEDMAN Daily Arts Writer
A mood hung over Manhattan last Friday — maybe due to the low grey clouds mixed with summer humidity — but weather notwithstanding, it was bound to be a Melodramatic day as Lorde’s second LP filled the space between the headphones and ear drums of morning commuters with magic. About 12 hours later she would fill Bowery Ballroom with that same magic. The dichotomy of a day at the office blurred by monotony and a night of the town blurred by youth (and various substances) isn’t lost on Lorde or her fans; the ephemeralness of youth and inescapability of adulthood can be heard on Melodrama front to back. When the lights went down, a sliver of light shone through the cracked stage door and those lucky to be close enough got a glimpse of Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor) amping herself up, jumping around in white Adidas tennis shoes. Opening the show with “Homemade Dynamite” (one of Melodrama’s many highlights), Lorde appropriately sets expectations: quickly f lowing pre-choruses that melt into luscious refrains to keep all the dancers in the crowd on their toes. Lorde continued through her
release-day show with an excitable effortlessness. Her visible giddiness from sharing songs that once belonged to only her combined with her signature, f lailing dance moves served up an inarguable authenticity. Flexing all of her performative muscles, Lorde shifted between moments of live magic at the hands of nuanced production (the seconds of quiet in “The Louvre”) and open connection with the crowd via gut-wrenching lyrics (one attendee sobbed during “Liability”). “Everyone leaves,” she said of her thoughts while writing the latter. But the 20-year-old’s ability to infuse the air with her energy, through her music, is nearly unmatched in music’s current landscape, which became clear during an a capella encore of “Writer In the Dark.” Quieting a screaming crowd, she began without a mic except when it would pick up her echo as she moved from one side of the stage to another. Exuding power and confidence, she shushed the front row of a packed Bowery Ballroom so even those in the back could hear the raw, unplugged delivery. It has always been clear that Lorde is an extremely talented writer and artist, but her performance of “Writer In the Dark” showcased an emotive strength of voice to be reckoned with. The magic of Lorde, Melodrama and the show rests with feeling: the tingling rush of new love, the dull, prolonged sting of loneliness, the
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SIRIUS XM
fear that “someday” might actually be today and the restlessness in trying to make sense of them all. — Christian Kennedy It wasn’t long after I found out I’d be spending a few hot months in New York City that I established my primary goal for the summer: befriend Ella YelichO’Connor, a.k.a Lorde. Before the singer’s anthemic single “Greenlight” dropped in March, I hadn’t considered myself a superfan, but let’s just say that Lorde’s new heartbroken-twentysomethingspends-summer-in-the-city aesthetic hit home and cemented “Greenlight,” and consequently the rest her new album, as staples within the soundtrack of my subway commutes. Last Friday afternoon, I was at work attempting (unsuccessfully) to write a coherent article while taking in the magnitude of the just-released Melodrama, when Christian (see above) texted me: “OMFG Lorde is doing a show at the Bowery Ballroom tonight.” Lorde had tweeted about the show in New York just hours before she was set to take the stage; And after a couple of frantic emails and eventually just showing up, we managed to find ourselves in the second-row of the sensual Bowery Ballroom, just one really-long-arm’s-length from the stage. The surrounding crowd was a mixed bag of characters tethered together by a common radiating enamoredness with Lorde. Throughout the evening, two different audience members told me, “Pure Heroine is the only reason I made it through high school.” A fifty-something yearold man to my left glanced at his fourteen year-old daughter, an aspiring musician, and said, “You know, we have immense respect for Lorde, she’s really an inspiration for my daughter.” To my right, a mid-twenties Brooklynbased music blogger anxiously clutched a thick packet of papers: an old college essay about Lorde that he planned to toss onto the stage. Lorde’s crowds aren’t limited to one demographic, but rather a diverse group of individuals who feel an intense, electric kinship with the artist. Across ages, genders and
sexual orientations, there was a deliberate, almost studious dedication in the way we sang wordfor-word the lyrics of Melodrama tracks that had been released only a few hours earlier; just as there was an instinctual, visceral way in which some wept as Lorde sat and crooned “Liability” at the stoop of the stage. That’s the thing about Lorde — at only 20, she infuses her melodies with a dangerous concoction of intellectualism and emotional insight that grants her special access to our minds as well as our hearts.
I walked out of the Bowery Ballroom last Friday haunted by the echoes of Lorde’s encore — an acapella rendition of “Writer in the Dark.” She had tenderly hushed the crowd as she sang in an octave that rang more like a whimper: “I am my mother’s child, I’ll love you ‘til my breathing stops.” In that final chorus, Lorde captured the essence of her second album: the paradoxical coexistence of all-consuming love and longing alongside a keen awareness of the melodrama of youth. — Avery Friedman
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS 11
Michigan soccer recruit named Michigan adds Muckalt Gatorade Player of the Year HOCKEY
as associate head coach
Muckalt was an assistant coach under Pearson at Michigan Tech for four years ORION SANG
Senior Sports Editor
To say Bill Muckalt and Mel Pearson have some shared history would be an understatement. With Pearson — now the head coach of the Michigan hockey team — as assistant coach, Muckalt helped lead the Wolverines to two national championships, in 1996 and 1998, as a player. Then, after a lengthy professional hockey career, Muckalt joined Pearson’s staff at Michigan Tech as an assistant coach between 2011 and 2015. Now, the pair will be reunited once again after Michigan officially announced Muckalt’s hiring as associate head coach Tuesday. “Billy has had great success everywhere he has coached,” Pearson said in a statement Tuesday. “Having won two national championships, he is familiar with the winning tradition of Michigan hockey. “Billy will be a great addition to our staff, and I’m extremely excited to be bringing him back to Ann Arbor. Our players will really benefit from his experience and knowledge of the game.” Muckalt’s rise through the coaching ranks has been remarkable. He began his coaching career in 2006 as an assistant with Eastern Michigan University; in the next four years, he would hold three head coaching jobs — with the Eagles, the Valencia Flyers of the Western States Hockey League and the New Mexico Mustangs of the North American Hockey League, respectively.
In 2011, he departed the Mustangs to become an assistant once more — this time under Pearson as he sought to rebuild the Huskies. Under Pearson and Muckalt’s direction, Michigan Tech reached unforeseen heights, posting a nationbest 29-win season in 2014 — its first 20-win season in over 30 years — that also included a No. 1 national ranking and an NCAA Tournament berth. Muckalt left the Huskies in 2015 to become a head coach once more — this time for the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League, where he was also named general manager. In his first year, the Storm won their first-ever championship. Muckalt’s hiring at Michigan appears to round out Pearson’s staff — one with a lot of familiar faces and ties to the program. Brian Wiseman and Steve Shields, both of whom are also prominent alumni, will return after serving as assistant coaches under former coach Red Berenson. “I am humbled and privileged to be back at Michigan — it’s a special place,” Muckalt said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m excited to work with Mel again and looking forward to working with Brian (Wiseman), Steve (Shields) and the rest of the staff. “I can’t wait to start getting to know our student-athletes and helping them develop and help them reach their dreams and goals. I look forward to embracing the tradition and enriching the future of Michigan Hockey.”
“Our players will really benefit from his experience”
AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer
Incoming Michigan soccer recruit Umar Farouk Osman earned the Gatorade National Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year award last week. The 5-foot9 midfielder scored 19 goals and added six assists for his Hotchkiss, Conn. squad. Osman will be the second member of the Wolverines from Hotchkiss as well as the second player from Ghana, along with junior midfielder Francis Atuahene. The two played with each other in high school, and Osman is looking forward to joining his fellow Ghanaian once again. “I knew him way back before we came to the United States,” Osman said. “At Hotchkiss we had a great bond. I always looked up to him and I’d go to him for advice. He’d tell what to do and what not to do. “I can’t wait to play with him. He’s a very dangerous player with a lot of pace, so I can’t wait to play with him, connect
passes with him and run with him.” Last season, Osman was named the 2016 Connecticut Soccer Coaches Association’s Player of the Year. During the campaign, Osman had a direct hand in 28 of Hotchkiss’ 30 goals. For his career at Hotchkiss, he accumulated 63 goals and 45 assists in total. Osman aims to attend the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at Michigan because he believes it is one of the best in the world. Away from the classroom and on the pitch at U-M Soccer Stadium, Osman is excited by Michigan coach Chaka Daley’s style of play. He’s also encouraged by the kind and welcoming atmosphere Daley has fostered in Ann Arbor. “I like the system he plays
Osman scored 19 goals for his Hotchkiss, Conn. squad.
with,” Osman said. “He doesn’t just want to attack, attack and attack. He likes to keep the ball, play good soccer and I really like that a lot.” Within that locker room though, is something else that epitomizes what attracts Osman to Michigan — a sign that led him to commit to the Wolverines. It’s a sign that combines his passion for teamwork and friendliness. “There’s a writing that says ‘the team, the team, the team’, and it really speaks a lot to me,” Osman said. “Because everything is about the team. It’s not just about the individual. It doesn’t matter how talented you are. You have to put the team ahead of you before you do anything else.” At Michigan, he’ll look to take those lessons on the field in order to help a team that finished with just four wins last season. With Atuahene by his side and Daley advising from afar, Osman looks like he could be in the right place.
“It really speaks a lot to me. Everything is about the team.”
“I am humbled and privileged to be back at Michigan”
PHOTO CREDIT/GATORADE
Soccer recruit Umar Farouk Osman, pictured with New York City FC’s Jack Harrison, was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year.
12 SPORTS
Thursday, June 22, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan baseball draft update JACOB SHAMES
Summer Managing Sports Editor
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Oliver Jaskie was drafted in the sixth round of the MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners.
Before the 2017 season began, Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich pointed to the five Wolverines selected in the previous year’s MLB Draft as emblematic of the long-term success and culture he has aimed to create. “That’s the nature of the beast in quality programs, (you) try to build the best program you can,” Bakich said in February. “One of the impacts of that is that the players are going to develop and get drafted to professional baseball.” After Michigan’s first 40-win season since 2008 and its second NCAA Tournament bid under Bakich, the 2017 MLB Draft served as an even stronger representation of Bakich’s efforts to build the quality program he has envisioned. The Wolverines had a school-record 11 players selected in the MLB Draft last week, which also tied for the most of any college program. It’s also significantly more than the five that were drafted last season, and also includes seven underclassmen, who have the option to forego signing a professional contract and return to school. Depending on how many of those 11 players actually sign with major league teams, the 2018 season could be the greatest test for Bakich’s potential dynasty, in terms of the rebuilding necessary for sustained success. The Daily looks at Michigan’s 2017 draftees and breaks down which players have signed professional contracts, which players have not and what these decisions, along with the departure of the Wolverines’ seniors, mean for next season. Junior left-hander Oliver Jaskie (Seattle Mariners, sixth round), junior right-hander Bryan Pall (Mariners, 25th round) and senior centerfielder Johnny Slater (Mariners, 28th round): The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. reported last Sunday that the Mariners had agreed to terms with 26 of their 40 draft picks, including all three Wolverines. As Michigan’s No. 1 starter, Jaskie went 8-3 with a 3.77 earned-run average while tying a school record with 119 strikeouts, and Slater hit .299 with five home runs and 47 RBIs in a breakout senior season. Pall missed most of the 2017 season due to injury, but recorded seven saves and a 3.18 ERA in his college career. Junior third baseman/catcher Drew Lugbauer (Atlanta Braves,
11th round): Lugbauer had been drafted out of high school in Arlington, N.Y. — by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 21st round — but elected to attend Michigan instead. This time, however, he signed with the Braves after a junior season in which he hit .290 with 11 home runs and slugged .518. “It’s a dream come true,” Lugbauer told the Poughkeepsie Journal. “This is something you’ve fantasized about since you were a little kid, and now you’re seeing it start to become real.” Junior right-hander Ryan Nutof (Cincinnati Reds, 16th round): Nutof told the Elgin Courier-News in his hometown of South Elgin, Ill. that he planned to visit the Reds’ Goodyear, Ariz. training facility and sign with the organization while there. In his final season as a Wolverine, Nutof was 6-2 with a 4.27 ERA. Junior first baseman Jake Bivens (Detroit Tigers, 27th round): Bivens officially signed with the Tigers organization last week. The Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2015, he hit .273 with a .436 on-base percentage this season, and finished his Michigan career with a .318 batting average and 46 stolen bases. “I just talked it over with my family and decided this is the right decision for me and my baseball career,” Bivens told the Battle Creek Enquirer. Senior catcher Harrison Wenson (Los Angeles Angels, 24th round), senior righthander Mac Lozer (New York Mets, 33rd round) and senior shortstop Michael Brdar (St. Louis Cardinals, 36th round): Wenson and Brdar have both signed with their respective teams. Wenson was a focal point of Michigan’s success on defense this season and helped guide the Wolverines’ pitching staff to a 3.46 ERA as a team, which ranked 18th in the country. He struggled to make contact at the plate, hitting just .191, but provided power with nine home runs. Brdar contributed in every facet of the game this season, with a .310 average, 37 RBIs, 19 stolen bases and a .988 fielding percentage at shortstop. Lozer, who compiled a 1.00 ERA and averaged almost 1.4 strikeouts per inning as a senior, has not signed yet, but intends to do so. Junior left-hander Michael Hendrickson (Cleveland Indians, 28th round) and redshirt sophomore left-hander Grant
Reuss (Detroit Tigers, 29th round): The two left-handers are the only two who have yet to decide whether they will return to Michigan or turn professional. Hendrickson broke out as part of the Wolverines’ rotation this season, posting a 6-3 record and 4.06 ERA while holding opponents to a .236 average. Reuss struck out 11 batters in six innings in his redshirt sophomore season. How do these decisions impact Michigan’s outlook for 2018? With the departures of Bivens and Lugbauer made official as well as that of Brdar, the Wolverines’ defensive infield — one of the best units in the nation this season — is now down to only one returning starter — sophomore second baseman Ako Thomas. Sophomore Jimmy Kerr, who filled in for Thomas after he suffered an injury against Indiana, has shown the ability to play all across the infield, and likely will have a permanent role in 2018. Redshirt freshman Joe Pace and freshman Dominic Clementi should see expanded roles as well, and sophomore Nick Poirier, who spent most of the season as the designated hitter, is also capable of playing third base. But replacing three-fourths of Michigan’s defensive bedrock won’t be an easy task. Neither will it be easy to rebuild the Wolverines’ starting rotation, which will be without a proven ace for the first time since 2014. Hendrickson, if he returns, and junior right-hander Alec Rennard were both capable last season, and it’s possible that soon-to-be sophomores Karl Kauffman and Tommy Henry, both of whom showed flashes of their immense potential out of the bullpen last season, could claim starting spots as well. Henry recorded a 3.18 ERA and struck out 39 batters in 31 innings last season, while Kauffman had an ERA of 2.08 in 10 innings. Overall, this will be a very different team next season, at least relative to the limited turnover between the 2016 and 2017 squads, where Michigan returned seven regular starters. Another factor to keep an eye on is the role of the Wolverines’ incoming freshman class, which is again ranked as the best class in the Big Ten. Last season’s freshman found it hard to obtain regular playing time on such an experienced team, with Henry being the main exception. But with a wide-open infield and pitching staff, that may not be the case this season.