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Wednesday, January 11, 2017
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CRIME
Federal court dismisses case filed by student after alleged sexual assault ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
BAMN member Keysha Wall addresses the Central Student Government at a meeting in the Union on Tuesday.
CSG passes resolution to call on White House to aid DAPA, express solidarity At first meeting of the semester, BAMN expresses concern for undocumented students RHEA CHEETI & HEATHER COLLEY Daily Staff Reporters
A resolution asking President Barack Obama to support undocumented students — brought to the table by BAMN, the national coalition to Defend
Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary — passed at Central Student Government’s first meeting of the semester. The body voted 26-4 with 7 abstaining. Last December, CSG passed a similar resolution — authored
GOVERNMENT
50 students gather, view last speech by POTUS College Democrats, others admiring screened remarks in Ford School KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
About 50 students gathered Tuesday night inside the Ford School of Public Policy, where they ate pizza and chatted as a part of the “Pizza and President Obama’s Farewell Address” watch party organized by the University of Michigan’s chapter of College Democrats. Though students in attendance said they were disappointed by the outcome of the 2016 election, many pointed to the importance of continuing to band together as a party. Public Policy junior Rowan Conybeare, explained the importance of continuing to fight for progressive ideals, even though the election results did not occur as she had hoped. “(I) worked on Hillary’s campaign so we obviously thought tonight would be a little bit more exciting,” Conybeare said prior to the speech. “But I think (in Obama’s speech tonight) that he will create this picture again of hope for the future, and just that even though we didn’t get the presidential outcome that we want, we can still fight and we can See WATCH PARTY, Page 3A
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by CSG President David Schafer, CSG Vice President Micah Griggs and Chief of Staff Noah Betman, all LSA seniors. The resolution was a joint-statement by members of CSG expressing solidarity for undocumented students and need for a continuation of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrival program, which allows undocumented immigrants to “apply for temporary deferrals of deportations and (for) work permits.” Currently, according to a New York Times article cited by Shafer in his resolution, about 741,000 individuals protected See CSG, Page 3A
U.S. district judge declares the claim of a due process violation inaccurate KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
A federal district court dismissed a lawsuit filed by an former University of Michigan student who violated the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy. A final opinion dated Jan. 5 declared the plaintiff’s claim of a due process violation was inaccurate. According to court records, U.S. District Judge David Lawson upheld the reasoning behind the appeals board’s decision to expel the plaintiff because it did not violate his underlying due process. The incident in question occurred at a fraternity house
in January 2016 when the victim was a freshman at the University. According to the version of events presented in the case of the former male student, indentified as John Doe in the claim, the woman was served a shot of vodka in the his room upstairs after they met earlier. After the shot, the pair went back downstairs, danced and eventually started kissing before they went back his room. The two then allegedly had sex. The male and female students’ lawsuits differ in their description of the event. Though the male’s suit said the woman had no problem dancing or talking, her lawsuit described a witness who said she later See ASSAULT, Page 3A
$85 million renovations for Michigan Start-up Union supported, despite tuition fee offers local BUSINESS
Increased accomodation of patrons with physical diabilities head construction plans MATT HARMON Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan’s plans to renovate the Michigan Union, which include creating easier access to the building for patrons with physical disabilities, have so far received overall positive feedback from students. The 98-year-old Union — a haven of student offices, dining areas and large rooms for meetings, traditionally regarded as a centerpoint of campus — will be under construction as part of a large infrastructural renovation in the spring of 2018. An $85.2 million budget will go toward improving student study and lounge space in the building, as well as historical restoration. The plan was approved by the Board of Regents on July 21, 2016 at its monthly meeting, a vote which approved the building’s most extensive renovations since its opening. The budget for the project comes from the $65 University Unions and Recreational Sports Facility Improvement Fee that all full time students started paying in 2014. Susan Pile, senior director of University Unions and Auxiliary Services, said as of now there is no intention of increasing this fee due to additional funding from the University. “That fee is set by the Board of Regents,” Pile said. “There is
also funding coming from some other University sources such as Parking and Transportation and others to help shoulder the cost of the renovations but all that funding, all those funding sources are set at this point.” LSA freshman Cindy Chu said she does not have a problem with the fee as it stands but expressed concern for lowerincome students having to pay the fee. “Relatively, $65 isn’t much so right now; I don’t see too
much of an issue but if you’re one of those students struggling to make ends meet, then of course it’s more difficult to them,” Chu said. “I feel like some people should be exempt from (the fee) if they’re under financial strain.” The largest issue with the Union right now, according to Pile, is the lack of comprehensive compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which mandates that buildings not discriminate against people
with disabilities and provide equal opportunities for access and travel through the building. Issues such as ramp access and elevators that reach all levels of the building are scheduled to be improved in the renovations. Currently, the main levels and the mezzanine levels of the Union are not connected by one main passenger elevator, making travel between floors difficult for those with See UNION, Page 3A
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Students walk through the Union on Tuesday.
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business’ networks
Student-created app aims to connect, improve community advertising JENNIFER MEER Daily Staff Reporter
Companies in Ann Arbor looking to increase foot traffic and sales can now advertise in nearby locations, serving the local small business community and college students looking for discounts. Spade, a mobile application launched in early December, aims to help local small businesses advertise for one another. Spade serves as the middleman between businesses looking to advertise and locations looking to profit, according to Kinesiology sophomore Jake Fleshner, the company’s co-founder and chief marketing officer. Fleshner’s older brother came up with the idea three years ago and developed it for about a year before handing it off to Fleshner, who saw the app as an opportunity to create a network of businesses. “We thought ‘Why is no one doing this yet?’ ” Fleshner said. “Why aren’t businesses helping each other, cross-remoting and helping the local small business See BUSINESS, Page 3A
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS...............6
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS....................7
News
2A — Wednesday, January 11, 2017
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ON THE DAILY: DEVOS’ CONFIRMATION HEARING DELAYED
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Betsy DeVos, U.S. Department of Education Secretary nominee, will wait one more week until she can officially be confirmed to begin her responsibilities under president-elect Donald Trump’s new administration. The Senate announced a delay of Devos’ confirmation hearing late Monday evening; though the original hearing was scheduled for Jan. 11, the Michigan native, education activist and philanthropist will now seek confirmation next Tuesday. The Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) postponed the hearing due to Devos’ incomplete financial disclosures and an unfinished ethics review with pending conf licts of interest. Such potential conf licts include DeVos’s status as the chairman of Windquest Group Inc. and her family’s philanthropic fund, which has donated heavily to education causes. Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R–Tenn.) and Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray (D–Wash.) said in a joint statement the delay was “at the request of HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily LSA junior Collin Kelly, Chair of UM College Democrats, watches President Obama’s farewell address in the Senate leadership to accommodate Senate Ford School on Tuesday. schedule.”
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CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES LSA Cross Campus Transfer Information
Race and Music in Communist East Germany
WHAT: If you’re thinking about transfering to LSA from a different college or school, come learn about the transfer process and LSA requirements in a group session. WHO: Newnan Advising WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall, G243
WHAT: German Prof. Kira Thurman will lead a presentation on the complicated anti-racist legacy of East Germany under the German Democratic Republic. WHO: Center for European Studies WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work, Room 1636
Startup Career Fair
Internet Finance in China
WHAT: Do you have what it takes to be part of a startup? Come hear from entrepreneurs from several startups, learn about startup culture and network. WHO: Innovate Blue WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: Duderstadt Center, Media Union
WHAT: Luo Yu, a finance professor at the Renmin University of China, will overview modern developments in the Chinese Internet economy. WHO: Confucius Institute WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to 1 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union, Pendleton Room
Are You LinkedIn? WHAT: Staffers from the University Career Center will provide a hands-on workshop for graduate students seeking to use the online platform for professional branding, network and exploration. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. WHERE: Rackham Amphitheatre
Garret Chandler @garrettc2306
Cooking 101: How to Buy on a Budget WHAT: A head baker at the People’s Food Co-op will give a hands-on tutorial on how to shop well on a budget, teaching students also how to save money and minimize food waste. WHO: People’s Food Co-op Ann Arbor WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WHERE: Ann Arbor Library
Black Womanhood workshop
The Career Expo-PREPTacular
WHAT: Award-winning Wesleyan Prof. Kali Gross will lead this session on Black sovreignity, violence and sex. WHO: Department for Afroamerican and African Studies WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Haven Hall, Room 4701
WHAT: Student participants will have an opportunity to prepare themselves for the upcoming Career Expo. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 5 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. WHERE: Student Activities Building, Room 3200
Students concerned by rumors of illness outbreak on, around campus KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Since Monday, there has been ongoing speculation regarding a recent norovirus outbreak in certain dorms, dining halls and off-campus locations. One student tweeted about the virus on Monday morning, expressing concern over a possible outbreak happening on campus. Another tweeted about the virus early on Tuesday. However, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said he verified with University Health Service today that in the past two days just 14 students have come into the clinic with
AVERAGE.
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the emergency department, further indicating the number is normal for gastrointestinal illness in the winter. Fitzgerald added it will take time to confirm this through lab tests and there have been no confirmed cases of norovirus at this point. Students have also heard rumors of the norovirus at Chi Phi fraternity located on Washtenaw Avenue, though the Daily was unable to confirm this as of Tuesday evening. The most recent outbreak of norovirus was in February 2016, when speculation about the virus on campus began when approximately 75 to 100 students were confirmed to be experiencing symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, according to an email sent by the late Dr. Robert Winfield, then-executive director of UHS. These instances were confirmed later in the week by the Office of Public Affairs as confirmed cases of norovirus. The norovirus remained on campus until early March. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most common symptoms of the norovirus include diarrhea, throwing up, nausea and stomach pain, along with fever, headaches and body aches. Symptoms usually develop 12 to 48 hours after exposure to the virus. The CDC also states norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the United States, many of which occur in the food service industry.
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Public Affairs verifies gastrointestinal illness not confirmed as norovirus gastrointestinal illness, something he said is normal during the winter months. “It’s not concentrated in any area at all,” Fitzgerald said. “They always ask where students live and they said they’ve been scattered on campus and off campus — no concentration that would indicate any sort of outbreak. They’ll continue to watch this closely, and working with keeping track through — again this is normal practice, but they’ve reached out to Housing and Health Department.” Fitzgerald also said representatives at Michigan Medicine — formerly the University of Michigan Health System — have seen no uptick in normal number of gastrointestinal illness at
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POSTERS GALORE UNION From Page 1A disabilities. Pile also mentioned the handicapped ramp on the north end of the building needs renovation. After the construction, Pile said, the building will be much more accessible for all patrons. “One of our challenges with a building that’s going to be 100 years old in 2019 is that it was built in a time that really didn’t need to take (physical disabilities) into consideration,” Pile said. “And that’s a commitment that we have today, to ensure that we’re going to be able to better address those needs and make a more inclusive community.” Engineering freshman James Surge said the direct passenger
BUSINESS From Page 1A community? We thought they should be working for each other — making more revenue and getting more foot traffic.” Spade takes print advertisements from clients — local restaurants, for example — and places them in local apartment buildings such as Zaragon or University Towers. Consumers can download the app and take a photo of the ad to unlock the discount. Fleshner said a small town can benefit from a company like this because small businesses are aware of where other small businesses fit in the market. “We thought Ann Arbor was the perfect place,” Fleshner said. “Everyone knows what each other’s gist is and what people are trying to do.” According to LSA junior Ben Kriegsman, Spade’s regional manager, Ann Arbor also serves as a good place to develop the company before hopefully establishing it in other locations such as New York or Los Angeles. “The beauty of this for us is we get to have our idea explored in our college town,” he said. “We get to have consumers who are also our peers, who are also students, use our products, use the app and get benefits from it. That way, we can adjust our business model and adjust our ideas going forward based on how that works.” Fleshner said he believes students will enjoy the app as it is easily accessible on their phones and offers desirable discounts. “Students — everyone wants discounts, everyone wants
CSG From Page 1A under DACA in the United State. BAMN returned to CSG to propose a resolution that would urge Obama to use his executive power to stand against President-elect Donald Trump’s future intentions to overturn DACA, an act that allows undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents as minors to defer deportation. The resolution asked CSG to directly send a statement to the White House expressing support for students under DACA. University of Michigan alum Kate Stenvig acknowledged the past resolution, hoping to now directly talk to the White House instead of merely the previous general statement of solidarity. “The reason that we want you to take it a step further to specifically ask Obama to do this action is this is a real concrete thing that can be done, that can be a real victory against the threat of deportation,” she said. “If Obama does nothing to protect those people, the people who have DACA and the people who applied for DACA would be in a worse position than before they applied. That would be a real betrayal, and I
elevators will contribute to the Union’s plan of inclusion for everyone. “I approve of that,” he said. “It makes it easier for everyone to get around. If there’s one elevator that goes to all the f loors, then everybody has equal access to the space.” LSA freshman Alexandra Niforos said the fact that the improvements to handicapped resources haven’t been a larger issue earlier is concerning but the renovations are better late than never. “I don’t know why we don’t have elevators right now that go all the way up to all the f loors,” Niforos said. “But anyways, it’s good that they’re doing this.” One of the largest spaces slated for renovation is the courtyard in the middle of the Union. According to Pile, the outdoor courtyard behind Starbucks will be covered and
converted into a larger study space for students. Niforos said the plan to build the ceiling over the courtyard closes off the Union’s connection to fresh air in the warmer months. “I think it’s cute, the courtyard,” Niforos said. “I mean I’ve never been into it but I feel like we have enough rooms in this place that we can have one outdoor space.” As of right now, Pile said there are no further plans for renovations after the $85 million is exhausted. Furthermore, she said as much will be done with the budget as possible. “This isn’t a phased project,” Pile said. “This isn’t phase one of more to come. We’re spending the budget that we have and moving forward with that.”
content,” he said. “We’re always looking for stuff and we’re always on our phones. Through this app, you’re going to be able to unlock discounts to places that are local. For students it’s going to be great to unlock stuff and it’s also going to be great to see what other people are unlocking.” The app consists of a feed that allows people to see what their friends and other local people are unlocking. They
improve the app, specifically by incorporating beacon technology, which will allow advertisers and partners to connect virtually. This new form of technology works by way of a small device that can pick up signals from app users and instantly send the advertisement to their mobile devices. That way, store-goers can have access to discounts instantaneously. Business junior Jordan Golshan said she saw several Spade ads in the elevator of her apartment — one of which was for 25 to 50 percent off for the rest of the day at Bivouac, an outdoor gear and apparel store on State Street. Golshan said she followed the directions posted nearby, downloaded the app, took a picture of the ad and then proceeded to buy something from Bivouac. Golshan said she was pleased with how userfriendly the app was. She also said the app is ideal for a city like Ann Arbor because it makes popular places affordable to college students. “I think this is a great college-town app, because there is already a community of these local restaurants that you can frequent,” she said. “Because Spade is able to conveniently place these ads in places that people go a lot and offers discounts to the places that people go a lot, I think that combination is really beneficial to college students who are interested in saving money.” Golshan said she thinks the app would benefit other college towns as well. Meanwhile, Fleshner said he wants to encourage students to check out their local favorite businesses for discounts.
Because Spade is able to conveniently place these ads in places that people go a lot, I think that combination is really beneficial to college students
can like and comment on these items. Overall, the company has more than 150 app downloads, 22 partnerships between businesses and 12 businesses on board overall. Over the winter holiday, the company worked to
think it would show the huge bankruptcy of principal in our whole political system.” The new resolution, authored by CSG members who are also involved with BAMN, cites several problems left by the Obama administration. “Applying for DACA required giving the government extensive personal and familial information, including school records, addresses, fingerprints and a DNA sample,” it stated. “DACA applicants relied on the promises of President Obama and his administration that the data they provided would never be used against them or their families, and took this risk in order to advance their own futures as well as their families and their communities.” LSA senior Keysha Walls said protecting documented students was Obama’s obligation, since he was elected with the promise of protecting them. The resolution’s authors believed Obama failed to take appropriate action toward immigration rights during his final days of presidency, pointing to this as evidence of abandoning those under DACA. Walls noted applying to DACA was a large risk for undocumented youth as it required personal information, including DNA samples, that could be used to identify and deport them.
According to BAMN, this data should be protected through executive action because of his administration’s moral obligation to continue protecting immigrant youth. “The safety of these undocumented immigrants is only promised under the Obama administration,” Walls said. “For Obama to know these things, and not take every cautionable step to ensure the continued safety of undocumented peoples in this nation is disgusting and inhumane … If he will not act on his own, then we must take action, in doing so set the example for him.” Trump’s campaign has been controversial — especially in regards to immigration. Trump has promised to build a wall on the United States’ southern border, and claimed Mexico would pay for it — though recently Trump has asked Congress to do so instead. Trump has discussed a “Muslim ban,” and has suggested stopping those who practice the religion or come from Muslim-dominate countries from entering the United States. CSG had a heated debate over whether to keep the political aspects of the resolution. Schafer asked the authors to remove references to Trump in order to keep CSG politically unbiased. This decision was contentious among the body, as a few members felt that the
Altyn Ciang Knight, coordinator of The College Postersale, sells a poster to a student in the Union on Tuesday.
ASSAULT From Page 1A saw the woman “crying, naked, swaying a lot, with slurred speech, vomit in her hair, a f lushed face, and unable to stand or walk on her own.” Later in the evening, the female went to the hospital, where a rape kit was administered by medical personnel. No criminal charges were made against the male at the time, though it was investigated by the University’s Office or Institutional Equity. The OIE initially concluded the male in question did not violate the sexual misconduct policy in April 2016, though the decision was overturned by an appeals board in May 2016. Following the decision, the student was expelled from the University. The suit against the University by the former male student was filed on Sept. 1. He said he was forced to sign a permanent separation agreement with the University on June 27 based on an “improper and erroneous determination” by a University appeals board made up of two faculty members and a student. Lawson’s decision references a preponderance of evidence considered by the appeals board, including the plaintiff’s inconsistent accounts. “Nothing about the panel’s rationale for discounting Doe’s testimony suggests that it did so because of his sex or gender,” the opinion reads. “As to Doe’s own testimony, as noted previously, the appeal panel found his account of the sexual encounter significantly
resolution should hold Trump to official statements he has made during his campaign and the impending prospects of his presidency. “Understanding the ability and the responsibilities of this organization, I don’t feel comfortable the way in which it’s worded,” he said, explaining CSG should support students across the political spectrum. Despite the debate, Schafer’s suggestion was included in the draft. Ultimately, with several modifications eliminating all mentions of Trump, the resolution passed. Engineering senior Alex Brewster commended Schafer’s amendment, stating he feels University students could still show their support for immigrants without pointing fingers and implicating certain figures. “As an immigrant myself, I think it’s really important to stress immigrants rights, but on the other hand, I think one thing that, even though I did vote for the resolution, I didn’t enjoy was that we were playing the blame game, and I do appreciate David for taking the names out,” he said. “I think the resolution that we passed still hammers home that University of Michigan students still care about immigrants … whether they are documented or undocumented, we accept them as human beings.”
less credible because of his abrupt reversal during his interview with police wherein he conceded that his account was ‘wrong’ and the complainant’s was ‘right,’ with the exception that he continued to insist that he never heard the complainant say ‘no sex.’ ” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said he was pleased the federal judge ruled in favor of the University’s process for handling sexual misconduct. “We are gratified that
We are gratified that the federal court affirmed the University’s ... process the federal court affirmed the University’s sexual misconduct process,” Fitzgerald said. The sexual misconduct policy was updated July 2016, adding changes to definitions of consent, sanctions and the appeals process. An appointed appeals board consisting of a faculty member, staff member and student was replaced with an expert external reviewer with legal knowledge. Though the policy change was not in effect at the time of the case, Deborah Gordon, his lawyer, said her client would have not been expelled under the updated appeals process and definition of incapacitation in the new sexual misconduct policy. “My client did have a fair
WATCH PARTY From Page 1A still band together.” Also prior to the start of the speech, LSA junior Ellen Endres echoed this statement, expressing her belief that Obama would deliver a strong farewell address. “I really expect him to give the speech with the same amount of grace and intelligence that he’s carried out throughout his campaign,” Endres said. “I’m really not expecting anything less tonight.” As President Barack Obama took the stage at McCormick Place in Chicago and began his speech, murmurs of “this is the last one” echoed throughout the room and faded into silence. Some students in the auditorium pulled out tissues to wipe away tears. Obama framed most his address around urging his listeners to respect all American citizens, and fighting against the political division caused by issues such as terrorism, economic crisis and race relations. He said Americans must respect one another as equals and work to empathize with the immigrants coming into the country. “So regardless of the station that we occupy, we all have to try harder,” Obama said. “We all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do, that they value hard work and family just like we do. That their children
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
hearing in front of the OIE investigator,” she said. “That was all swept away by this appeals panel. I’m really surprised by the lack of due process rights provided to students whose lives are going to be completely changed forever.” Gordon applauded the updates, though, which Fitzgerald said were not instituted in relation to the case in question. “Like so much of the policy, we spent several months looking at other schools’ policies, doing outreach in our community with open forums and meetings,” he said. “Most of the changes grew out of that process.” In response to Doe’s lawsuit, the female victim — identified as Jane Doe — filed a suit of her own in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Sept. 21, in which she claimed battery and assault stemming from the alleged sexual assault, as well as a breach of contract over the male’s decision to seek readmission to the University following his agreement to permanently withdraw. Jennifer Salvatore, the female student’s lawyer, welcomed the federal court’s decision. “It has been very difficult for my client to come forward and go through the university’s process,” she wrote in an email interview. “Then with the respondent suing and attempting to get back into the university after he agreed to withdraw — it injected a lot of uncertainty into her life and her educational experience. She is relieved that his case has been dismissed and is grateful for the court’s swift decision.”
are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.” The president also encouraged Americans to not be complacent and to exercise their full rights as citizens in a democracy. “So you see, that’s what our democracy demands,” Obama said. “It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try talking with one of them in real life. If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing.” LSA junior Collin Kelly, College Democrats chair, said he thinks all of Obama’s speeches have been remarkable, including his farewell address. He explained he was sad to see his long-time role model leave office, but said he found Obama’s words both empowering and inspiring. “He has a sense of optimism about the country that’s inspiring and that’s really all we can say about it because he makes us want to keep working hard to fight for the values that we believe in and that definitely accomplished it,” Kelly said. “It was bittersweet for sure to see someone that we all grew up with as our president, someone that we all adore and look up to as a role model, it’s sad to see him go in his final speech as president, but he left us with words to continue living and fighting by.” College GOP did not respond for comment by the time of publication.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, January 11, 2017
GINA CHOE | COLUMN
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VICTORIA NOBLE | COLUMN
Explaining away partisanship
“Y
ou’re on Trump’s how those policies actually work side,” a tall gets similarly little attention in mother, hair the popular press. pulled out the back of her Yet a strong public baseball hat, told understanding of her young, bikinipolicy is critical to clad daughter. While sound democratic we all waited in line governance. When for ice cream at the constituents lack beach, the daughter information about asked her mother the economic, social about the recent U.S. and national security statements on the implications of policy, Israeli settlements. politicians and spinThe settlements doctors are free to VICTORIA had become the scapegoat the other NOBLE focus of renewed party and its policies public scrutiny after their and win elections by promising condemnation in a United policies with little potential to Nations resolution and a speech achieve their purported goals. by Secretary of State John Kerry When voters expect their — and President-elect Donald leaders to explain how a policy Trump’s tweeted condemnation works, rather than just tell of those condemnations — in late them to support it, it becomes December 2016. infinitely harder to prop up bad I was impressed that the policy with partisan rhetoric. daughter — who looked like she We live in a tell, don’t show was only in middle school — media landscape when a wellwanted to talk about the Israeli functioning democratic society settlements at the beach. But requires the exact opposite. the mother’s response struck This trend is new and me as well. Rather than attempt reversible. At the height of the to describe the controversial Great Depression, Franklin and endlessly complex situation D. Roosevelt pioneered the in Israel to her daughter, the use of radio to explain policy mother simply told her which developments to American side to support. citizens. FDR used radio But in many ways, the to explain the economics mother’s response reflects of his policies designed to media coverage not only of the prevent banking panics and Israeli settlements issue, but of stem the financial crisis. He all issues. Instead of describing briefed average Americans on and explaining issues, policies economic processes taught in and events, the news media college classrooms. simply relays information To be sure, the media about who is on each side of the landscape has changed issue and what they are saying since the Great Depression. about it. Political parties Consumers have a broader function similarly, providing range of news sources of varying ample information on which quality. The vast quantity of policies, ballot initiatives available information makes it and non-partisan candidates, increasingly difficult for media like judges, party adherents leaders and political innovators should support. to capture and sustain public This is reflected in public attention. Experts at Harvard knowledge of politics and University predict that, going current affairs. While the forward, success in media will majority of respondents to go to the organizations that a Pew survey conducted in pioneer ways to best capture 2012 could correctly identify the attention of their audiences. all major policy positions of Explanations of the the Republican or Democratic economics and political parties, barely half could processes that undergird policy determine the correct partisan do not lend themselves well to composition of the Senate, the kind of Twitter outrage and even when shown a picture meme cycle that candidates of the Senate. Only a third of took advantage of in the last respondents knew how many election. But that doesn’t Supreme Court justices were mean that current news men and how many were industry frontrunners can’t women. Roughly a third knew work to regain public trust who the chief justice of the and establish a new standard Supreme Court is; whereas in for quality political reporting 1986, about 43 percent did. by consistently publishing Understanding who is articles that explain rather making policy is central to than assert. understanding that policy, but Some publications do those details are often left out this already. Nate Silver’s of media reports. The processes FiveThirtyEight blog explains that produced those policies and the statistics supporting
NIA LEE | CONTACT NIA AT LEENIA@UMICH.EDU
politics and sports for a lay audience. The Economist and the Financial Times tend to incorporate more analysis into their articles. However, none of these sources inform large swaths of the American electorate or command large enough lay audiences to change the standards for reporting writ large. That requires editorial changes at publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. It’s tempting to take the problems with American news organizations as an indictment of their quality and relevance in the digital age. These organizations face pressure to adapt by adopting the language, style, tone and content of the blogosphere to transform serious content into clickbait that will stand out on Facebook and Twitter feeds. Others condemn media professionals as biased insiders who intentionally mislead their audiences. In a media environment that rewards speed — often at the expense of analysis and accuracy — mistakes are all but destined to occur and personal biases are likely to emerge. This holds true for professional reporters and the Twitter commentariat alike. Professional journalists governed by strict professional standards have proven themselves more adept in producing quality, accurate content in the face of these pressures than anonymous amateur bloggers and those working for media organizations whose business model revolves around creating content that its audience will agree with. Professional journalism has the greatest potential to solve the problem of tell, don’t show. Doing so seems likely to address the problem of perceived media bias as well — showing readers how the facts of a situation interact to support a given conclusion seems more likely to engender neutral storytelling than reporting where journalists and experts simply tell readers what they ought to take away from the story. Sound good? Then one of the best ways to make this happen is to embrace organizations and reporters that embrace this model. Reading and supporting explanatory journalism increases the likelihood that publications will expand their use of, and other organizations will adopt, this kind of storytelling.
Victoria Noble can be reached at vjnoble@umich.edu.
I
What is a true intellectual?
n one of my classes, we we, as millennials, have come had an opportunity to talk to only acknowledge success by candidly about grades. glorifying the final product. One student humored the At a prestigious university crowd: “The smarter like ours, there is you get, the worse a large sense of grades you get!” He pre-professional received a laugh culture created by from his audience, competitive groups of including me. It was students. Seemingly, a typical “talent” vs. there are three types: “striver” debate. 1) a 4.0 GPA student Initially, I found with an obsession some comfort in my over perfection, 2) classmate’s statement a 3.8 GPA student GINA CHOE — it was a tempting working on an way to justify the bad honors thesis and grades I have received. However, 3) a 3.5 GPA student with an the utterance carried a belittling appetizing resume. However, tone toward the “strivers,” I was a fourth type: a student which I found offensive. If you with a fine GPA but with no try to get good grades, are you career title attached to my not a true intellectual? introduction. I did not identify Researchers at Vanderbilt myself as “pre-med” or “preUniversity have found that gifted law.” Perhaps I felt confined by people are more likely to hold this sense of identification that top positions in all professional I don’t feel the need to perfect domains. On the other hand, my GPA. Angela Duckworth, a professor Reality hit me when I of psychology at the University met with a professor at the of Pennsylvania, finds that it is University Medical School to perseverance and passion for ask for a research position. long-term goals — grit — that Her office had a scholarly aura leads us to achievement. “Talent with loose papers draped over doesn’t make you gritty,” she her desk. “You need better corroborates the old adage that grades,” she instructed me. “A hard work does pay off. bad grade can haunt you for a According to Professor Chia- lifetime.” Her dissatisfaction Jung Tsay from University with the 0.1-point difference College London, however, in my GPA to her expectation it is human nature to prefer of excellence felt massive. I “talents,” or “naturals,” over had predicted her response, “strivers.” His research shows but rejection is always a headthat employers innately spinning experience. prefer the potential in those Grades were not unimportant who are naturally talented to to me, but I found myself giving those who have demonstrated more importance to things achievements with effort. outside of school: I chose The popularity of the college- to attend my friend’s mom’s dropout-turned-mogul success funeral instead of preparing story — think Bill Gates, Steve for an exam. I chose to spend Jobs, etc. — illustrates the my study nights providing idolization of “naturals.” A company for my stressed father. friend once told me, “I wish I And I chose to spend my last didn’t have to go to college so summer as a travel guide for my I can get rich quick.” Rather grandma’s first and last visit than small rewarding steps, from Korea instead of getting
an internship. Was I sacrificing my grades for the wrong things? I held back my tears and soldiered forward with my integrity. After an hour of conversation, her push about good grades diminished. Instead, she emphasized building character and her appreciation of my own. “You remind me of my best student who now studies at Harvard Medical School,” she said. “Pursue what makes you happy and have fun.” This was an important puzzle piece for me. I began to pick out courses that truly interested me, which were less lecture-based biological science courses and more discussion-based neuroscience and social justice seminars. The following semesters, I prioritized learning as a student and gave my best effort to be a present daughter to my parents and an exciting friend to others. As a result, I became smarter, with better grades. I realized that emerging interest and effort produced the best work. The professor’s message to me rings every day like a morning alarm. The message was not to simply get perfect grades, but to use them to show that you are responsible and to reflect your character as a motivated person. Considering what my classmate had said in class, I find that sometimes we are so focused on the end results that we undermine the hard and grueling effort it takes in the process. Barbara Corcoran, a real estate mogul, reminds us, “I imagined every great thing that happened in my life. Then I worked like hell to make every detail come true.” Stand on two feet. Focus on the person that you want to become and the characteristics that you want to build. Perhaps as a side effect, you can get smarter, too. Gina Choe can be reached at ginachoe@umich.edu.
ALEXIS MEGDANOFF | COLUMN
E
Don’t ignore your entitlement
very year, almost all the Entitlement only makes it more top students from my difficult to work together, find high school attend the happiness and reach our goals. University of Michigan, and I According to Neil Blumenthal, am no different. I had co-founder and always been a student co-CEO of Warby who excelled at my Parker, “Entitlement work, so naturally I is the root of all knew I would go to evil within an this fantastic school organization.” with the rest of my This type of equally excelling attitude degrades peers. Together we collaboration among would be the best of co-workers, as shown the best. Because of by one psychological ALEXIS this, I thought I would MEGDANOFF study, which found handle any challenges an increased sense I may face with ease just as I had of entitlement leads to increased done previously. aggression after an individual My logic was simple, but receives criticism. The inability extremely skewed: I was a top to handle feedback from others student in high school, so of makes it difficult for teams course I would be a top student to function efficiently in any here because that is who I was. situation. It took me a while to realize how But the negative effects go wrong this mindset was, and further than the workplace. The when the work started building truth is entitlement is disastrous up, I pacified myself by thinking not only for workplace everything would work itself out community but also for personal just as it had before. happiness — the same study also Where did I get this idea? found that higher entitlement is Why did I believe I would more likely to lead to a person’s maintain the honors standing I emotional instability. had in high school while finding In a recent interview with leadership positions in student Tom Bilyeu on the talk show organizations, making a whole Inside Quest, The New York new set of friends and learning Times bestselling author how to manage life on my own Simon Sinek discussed simply because I thought this was millennials in the workplace. who I am as a person? Where did While comparing the journey this entitlement come from? to affecting the world to a One of the most popular journey to the summit of a criticisms of millennials is our mountain, he said, “What this sense of entitlement. We think we young generation needs to deserve recognition constantly, learn is patience. That some even demand it of employers, things that really, really matter, while never expecting to stay like love or job fulfillment, joy, in a job position for more than love of life, self-confidence, a a few years. Whether it is true skill set — any of these things from individual to individual or — all of these things take time. not, we all must become aware Sometimes you can expedite of any amount of entitlement pieces of it, but the overall we maintain and do our best to journey is arduous and long remove it from our personalities. and difficult, and if you don’t
ask for help … you will fall off the mountain.” Our entitlement is preventing us from maintaining the patience needed to take lesser opportunities to make it to the ultimate goal. When we act entitled, we are unable to see the slow journey toward success, and if we try to forget about this timely process, we are never going to fulfill our dreams. We want change, and that is admirable, but change is not always sudden. The gradual advancement of society takes a long time and we need to admit that one generation cannot do it all before we hit 40. Entitlement taken at face value is naturally viewed as negative. Someone who believes they deserve a raise, a promotion or a bonus simply for doing a mediocre job is bound to be disliked. Yet, Forbes came out with an article this past September that claimed millennials are punished for being anything but entitled. There are also many studies that show entitlement is not always negative. The confidence entitlement gives to individuals leads many to believe it is permissible. Despite all of this, entitlement still damages relationships and discourages teamwork. If we have one group of people who are unable to work together and form meaningful relationships, they will be incapable of successfully working with the rest of society for the greater good. So rather than accepting our entitlement as fact, we need to begin taking responsibility for the results of our actions and stop ignoring the long journey of life ahead of us. Alexis Megdanoff can be reached at amegdano@umich.edu.
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Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 — 5A
FILM COLUMN
TV REVIEW
A Technicolor World Made Out of Music & Machine ‘La La Land’ and ‘Swing Time’ have a penchant for dreaminess and nostalgia that brings love for art to life
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IFC
‘Portlandia’ fails to match past seasons’ offerings While latest season delivers on signature humor, a dependence on guests takes away from potential success and originality impressive anecdote. After hearing their friends recount Daily Arts Wrtier how Tom Hanks pretended to mug them in Venice, the couple goes to extreme Following its fifth season, lengths, soliciting the help “Portlandia” was renewed for of a performing arts teacher not one but two new seasons. (Claire Danes, “Homeland”) IFC can’t get enough of Fred to instruct them in the art of Armisen (“SNL”) and Carrie dramatic storytelling. Brownstein (“Transparent”), However, the result of their the dynamic duo and efforts is less art and more artifice. The co-creators/ stars of the couple shocks sketch series. their guests with a dramatic And neither can audiences. The retelling (drum “Portlandia” show’s quirky beating and vibraslap ringing comedy lives Season 7 Premiere on the edge of included) of what IFC the primarily is likely the most anticlimactic parodic sketch Thursdays at 10 story ever told, humor it p.m. bringing the employs, with sketch’s short characters and life to an equally scenes ranging unsatisfying from affably satirical to grotesquely end. Though it’s clear what the sketch is getting at, its bizarre. Yet after seven seasons, it’s predictable (albeit kind of become clear that Armisen and funny) arc falls f lat. Another sketch that fails Brownstein have no shortage of crazy comedy to dole out to fulfill its comedic promise, within a structure that serves despite its amusing pretense, boundlessly as a vessel for is Armisen and Brownstein’s their original content. Their depiction of a couple of sketches turn themselves another kind: the goth Vince and their audiences on their and Jacqueline. As they f lip heads, employing every back and forth between sharp tool of wit and over- deceptively dark personas and the-top performance to Bed, Bath & Beyond-loving push the boundaries of their stock characters — sometimes fictionalized version of abruptly though often too subtly — the two meander Portland, Ore. While the miscellany through what ultimately turns of content and apt parody out to be a half-baked sketch. typically work to the benefit At each turn, it falls short of of the show’s inexhaustible its promise to be funny. The writing and humor, the season Bed, Bath & Beyond employee, premiere suffered under the seems as unfazed by the lack of a cohesive tone. As characters’ bizarre behavior we’re shuff led from scene as we’re expected to feel, to scene, one sketch swells but the discrepancy between from subtle, acute humor to reality versus expectation slapstick visual comedy and just doesn’t achieve the full subsequent disappointment comedic impact the sketch is for both its fictional characters designed to accomplish. In an even more pointless and the audience at home. Perhaps this last sketch one-part sketch – a commercial is designed self-ref lexively, selling children’s toys made poking fun at the difficulty out of “100 percent organic” of engrossing storytelling. In men’s beards to expose them it, Armisen and Brownstein to germs early on – the strange play a couple desperate to humor falls short of making its dazzle dinner guests with an point or making us laugh. It’s SHIR AVINADAV
B-
sly and it’s snarky, like much of “Portlandia” ’s best, but it’s a little too on-the-nose. However, the series still benefits from the aid of returning guest stars like Natasha Lyonne (“Orange Is The New Black”) and Vanessa Bayer (“Saturday Night Live”), who help bring the show’s unconventional characters and scenarios to life with convincing dynamism. After Bayer, playing a tired traveler, arrives at her hotel, she is met by the the bell boy (Armisen), who relentlessly explains the use and and function of every single hotel room item, from the light switches to the bathrobes. He even embellishes his demonstrations with little theatrical bits, much to the weary guest’s vexation. The simple play on conventional hotel check-in experiences taken to the extreme is a prime example of one of the show’s better executed sketches. The premise sets a perfect background against which Armisen demonstrates his idiosyncratic humor and Bayer plays the great sport that goes along with it all (that is, until she f lings herself out her hotel window only to be caught by Armisen, who she’s trying to escape form in the first place). Though the series premiere isn’t a shining example of Armisen’s and Brownstein’s distinct talents, it nonetheless delivers a compelling enough sequence of sketches that convey their keen awareness of the ingrained and unfortunate circumstances of our society. While not laugh-out-loud hilarious, it still entertains. I’m not convinced though that the comedic duo is by any means settling. The best part of “Portlandia” is that we never know what to expect, and that’s precisely the quality that a show nearing its end must hold on to if it’s to make a charming and memorable exit. Luckily, we have a full season to look ahead to and Armisen and Brownstein aren’t going anywhere anytime soon — except to Bed, Bath & Beyond, that is.
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In my elementary school the smallest of f lickers, a little music class, in addition to spark of love. learning to play the recorder — “La La Land” is a film built and we played a lot on a foundation of of recorder — each love, one that pulses year we watched through every shot, one movie musical. every beat and every In the third grade note. it was “Singin’ And it wasn’t just in the Rain.” It’s another movie about hard even now to the magic of movies; it describe what it was a movie that was felt like to watch magic. That’s why, something like that as I left the theater, for the first time. MADELEINE I was overwhelmed Sitting on the choir with emotion. Movies GAUDIN risers, craning Senior Arts Editor like “La La Land” my neck to watch remind me why I love from the small VCR-only TV what I love. hanging from the corner of Something I want to do the ceiling. It reminds me of more is give suggestions for a poem by Marilyn Nelson, companion pieces for recent in which she recalls hearing movies I have loved. I have a poetry for the first time. The pairing suggestion for “La La room melted away, and it was Land.” For maximum effect, just me and Gene Kelly and read Zadie Smith’s latest novel, Debbie Reynolds. “Swing Time.” The book is I have been looking all over about two girls, both dancers. for that feeling. And I have One “has it” and the other does found it here and there, in not. But Smith chooses to give moments of other movies. But voice to the one who is never rarely (almost never) as wholly going to make it as a dancer. as I did when watching “La La Through her, the audience Land.” sees the world through the Recently in my columns, I eyes of someone who loves have praised a lot of movies dance, and more specifically for being “anti-referential,” movies about dance — the very which, in addition to being same Fred Astaire and Ginger pretentious as hell, I defined as Rodgers-type thing that has movies that exist on their own, its fingerprints all over “La La without homage or reference Land.” to film history. Movies without Much like “La La Land,” acknowledgement of the “Swing Time” is interested base they were built upon — in the way art, especially movies wholly unlike those of film and dance, shape our Tarantino, which exist, almost understanding of the world. entirely, as a series of film Much of how the narrator sees references and homages. and interacts with the world “La La Land” isn’t “anti- is shaped by the musicals she referential” (and really, nothing watched as a child. She talks can be); it’s anti-cynical. about these movies in a way It’s purely, unabashedly that mirrors how I found enthusiastic. It loves without myself talking about “La La embarrassment the foundation Land.” At one point she notes: it was built upon. When Ryan “The opera-like comings and Gosling slides around that light goings, the reversals of fortune, post I could feel in my chest the outrageous meet cutes and
coincidences.... To me they were only roads leading to the dance. The story was the price you paid for the rhythm.” This is, of course, the perfect rebuttal to the argument that the plot of “La La Land” is unrealistic. The plot is not the point! The point is the spectacle that the plot lets happen, the song and dance, the pure splendor of the whole production. Another thing the two share is a certain self-awareness of their own nostalgia and the danger that that kind of dreaminess carries. It seems, at first, in “La La Land” that Mia’s is more enthralled in her own nostalgia — early shots of her stand out for their saturated colors and her final ballad is an ode to the “fools who dream.” But, it’s Sebastian’s brand of nostalgia, as well as the desperation that accompanies it, that becomes crippling. He’s so wedded to his own idea of what jazz needs to be that he can’t adapt his dreams to the reality of his world. His nostalgia becomes his ethos and Mia must leave him behind — surrounded, quite literally, by relics of the past — as she moves forwards toward her own success. The narrator in “Swing Time” falls somewhere close to Sebastian’s breed of nostalgia, although hers is a little more complex. It’s nostalgia both for the art (in this case, movie musicals) of her childhood, but also the childhood itself and the friendship she has that colors most of that time. Although perhaps more the darker cousin than “La La Land” ’s true companion, “Swing Time” is enhanced by and in turn enhances the viewing of the movie. I cannot suggest either one highly enough.
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
All Things Reconsidered: Looking back on ‘FWN’ Arctic Monkeys’ loud and brash second record, ten years later MEGAN WILLIAMS Daily Arts Writer
As we enter 2017, it seems only fitting to look back on some of the most pivotal albums from the year 2007, now shockingly a decade ago. As I was a mere eleven years old at the time, my music taste was still very questionable, and I’m not going to go into detail about the albums I listened to back then (Linkin Park, anyone?). Instead, a brief Google search tells me that the Arctic Monkeys’ sophomore album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, was released that year. At the time of its release, there was a lot of pressure on the band to produce something as strong as their record-breaking first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Of course, this pressure was unnecessary — the album has since gone triple platinum in the UK. From the first chords of FWN, it’s loud, brash and very fast. This is the ‘classic’ Arctic Monkeys’ sound that so many people fell in love with, and it’s a defining album of indie rock in the mid-late ‘00s. The band is now a regular festival headliner, and it’s hard to imagine they were destined for anything else when listening to this album. The songwriting prowess has been there from
the very start. If you stripped the album to just a single instrument, it would still be a great listen. In stand out track “505,” a song about romance and distance — the remnants of the band’s long world tour before this album is clear. This is a more cultured band than
This is a more cultured band than they were in their debut they were in their debut, and it shows in nearly all of the tracks. Frontman Alex Turner seems more self-aware, and the instrumentals carry a wide array of inf luences, like The Smiths and Oasis. This is an album that was written on the f ly, with nearly half the tracks performed and played live before the album was even released. But, for such a speedy release and apparently throwntogether track list, there are no signs of sloppiness. With perfect production, there is no drop in quality from their debut album. Although musically FWN still stands on its own, some of the lyrics are somewhat jarring, even ironic now. Turner has
always written about “fakes” and “the industry” with an outsider’s perspective (see: “Fake Tales of San Francisco” from their debut, and “Brianstorm” from FWN). But considering where the Arctic Monkeys are now, that struggle with the concept of fame feels odd in retrospect — they’re now a major, mainstream band. Compared to their most recent album, AM, which has songs about Alexa Chung, and others inspired by Drake and Lil Wayne, this album is a large jump in tone. FWN era Arctic Monkeys were those cool indie kids from Sheffield who built a following on Myspace. On AM, Arctic Monkeys have all moved to Los Angeles and now ride motorcycles in the Mojave desert in their free time. Clearly, artistic progression isn’t a bad thing, and the band is an example of that. With the several albums between FWN and AM, Arctic Monkeys have showcased all manners of style, and the individual members of the bands have explored their own voice (drummer Matt Helders played for Diddy under an alias). It’s a testament to just how good this band has been throughout their varied, decade-long existence. You can still go to an indie night club and hear “Brianstorm” sung back to the DJ, almost word for word, ten years later. That’s how you know you’ve written a classic.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, January 11, 2017
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
STYLE NOTEBOOK
All Things Reconsidered: ‘Apologize’ Enjoy the Show: What to expect is not just another basic pop song from the world of fashion in 2017 A reflection of where last year left us, and where it will push us TESS GARCIA
Senior Arts Editor
We can’t make fun of OneRepublic more than they’ve already made fun of themselves.
SAMANTHA LU Daily Arts Writer
Some might argue that OneRepublic’s “Apologize” is one of the most basic pop songs of the 21st century, but the piece possesses an instrumental and melodic genius that is difficult to find in many of the radio hits of the past 16 years. My first experience with “Apologize” was just outside the smelly gates of the Detroit Zoo. I am a wee fourth grader, exhausted after a day long field trip filled with scorching sun and caged animals. My friends and I sit in the backseat of our parent chaperone’s car, fervently discussing our favorite exhibits while the unassuming mother looks on, fiddling quietly with the radio knobs of the slightly dusted dashboard. She finally settles on channel 98.7, leaning back as smooth pop rock swells to fill the slightly sweaty interior of the car. I’m silent within seconds, stunned by the beauty of the piece. I listen intently, picking at the strains of golden cello that weave in and out of the piece, jumping a little bit as I am prodded back to life by my friend, who chuckles at me as she realizes I’m mouthing the lyrics to myself. Our attention slowly shifts from the end of
our field trip to the song, and soon the car has transformed into a chorusing, slightly off key rendition of “Apologize,” with the mother even joining in at times. For the longest time, I didn’t have a very personal connection with music. I never went out of my way to discover songs
“Apologize” made me nostalgic for things I’d never experienced that I liked, and as a result, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I even enjoyed. If my classmates decided that a song was hip, I’d tag along too. It was a few years before I thought to explore music for myself; I started out surfing YouTube in an avid search for songs to download onto my MP3 player, then eventually graduated to the more streamlined process of Spotify. Discovering music that I loved was a gradual but rewarding process that not only made me happier but also cemented my shaky self esteem by helping me determine key aspects of my personality.
Classifieds
COLUMBIA
“Apologize” personifies everything I’ve grown to cherish about pop music: A slow buildup contrasted with an intense chorus, a catchy tune and dramatically heart wrenching, yet easily recognizable lyrics. The combination of cello with the faster paced percussion balance each other out perfectly, in a way that keeps the song mellow but ensures the melody never gets so slow that it drags. Tinkling piano notes add a lightness that helps the song move as it unfolds, lending the music a delicate, dancing nature that further flavor the complexity of the melody. “Apologize” made me nostalgic for things I’d never experienced. Even though I was yet to have a relationship that was even remotely romantic, I’d belt out lyrics with the grace and passion typical of an angsty teen drama. But what I loved most was the cello in the background. Back then, I had no idea that I’d be playing the cello in just a few short years, but even without prior string experience, I loved the rich resonance of the instrument and the depth it added. Whenever I listen to “Apologize” today, I’m still struck by the artistry of the piece and the same cocktail of emotions I experienced back in elementary school. It never fails to remind me of the way music can impact much more than just the present.
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RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
FOR RENT
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Bowling alley button 6 European cheese town 10 Puddle jumper trip 13 Wedding figure 14 ChapStick container 15 Fix up 16 Newspaper reporter’s compensation? 18 Big star 19 “I’m with ya” 20 Threatening words 21 Farming prefix 22 “Wheel of Fortune” buy 23 Smooth, as transitions 25 Wise 29 DOJ bureau 30 Dry as dust 31 Speaker’s spot 34 Get out of bed 37 “__ who?” 38 Chiropractor’s compensation? 40 N.L. player whose home games include a Presidents Race 41 Brownish-green 43 Greenish-blue 44 Some prosecutors: Abbr. 45 “Selma” director DuVernay 46 Drops in 48 Medical emergency alert 53 Baby fox 54 Soon, to a bard 55 Kibbutz setting 57 Actress Thurman 60 Cooling meas. 61 Comedian’s compensation? 63 Bass’ red triangle, e.g. 64 Moran of “Happy Days” 65 Flared dress 66 New Testament bk. 67 German battleship Graf __ 68 Connection point
DOWN 1 Former NYC mayor Giuliani 2 Seesaw sitter of tongue twisters 3 Send in a box 4 Sushi selection 5 “Taste this” 6 French I verb 7 Stereotypical dawn challenges 8 Take down a peg 9 Scorned lover of Jason 10 Landscaper’s compensation? 11 Aromas 12 Shirts named for a sport 15 Theater district 17 Lee who was the top-charting female soloist of the ’60s 22 Helping hand 24 Painter Cassatt 25 Over-theshoulder band 26 Square statistic 27 Domino’s delivery driver’s compensation? 28 Diplomatic skill 32 ’50s prez
33 Health resorts 35 Swedish automaker 36 Internet crafts marketplace 38 Spill the beans 39 PC feature only used in combinations 42 “All the same ... ” 44 Fitting 47 TV’s J.R. Ewing, e.g.
48 Part of CNN 49 Winning 50 “__ Been Good”: Joe Walsh hit 51 Take over 52 Bath-loving Muppet 56 Novelist Rice 57 Windows alternative 58 Drop-down list 59 Yes votes 62 Chihuahua cheer
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01/11/17
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In 2016, the fashion world partook in a giant game of hide-and-go-seek. Which designers left their respective brands? Where were they going? Would diversity ever emerge as anything more than an afterthought? Who was going to come forward to voluntarily dress First Lady-elect Melania Trump? Some of these scavenger hunts remain unresolved, but they have made one thing clear: 2017 will be a year of spectating, of observing the implications of 2016’s chaos. Expect an onslaught ethical battles. Even in high fashion, widespread use of sweatshops has persisted into the New Year, forcing corporate giants like Kering (owner of Saint Laurent, Gucci and Puma, among others), who have been accused of employing immoral labor tactics, to reevaluate their manufacturing processes — and fast. Although 2016 saw the close of ethically-conscious label Suno, sustainable, sweatshop-free brands are infiltrating mainstream consumerism at a breakneck pace. Online boutiques like Reformation are reaching levels of ubiquity that sustainable fashion has never seen. On the positive side of the
coin, 2017 is bound to give way to some seriously revolutionary branding. Raf Simons will make his debut at Calvin Klein next month, which, knowing Simons, will likely erect a side of the brand that it didn’t even know it needed, one full of the raw, youthful energy both he and CK are known for. Alessandro Michele (Gucci) and Demna Gvasalia (Balenciaga, Vetements), 2016’s key tastemakers, are sure to bring even more outlandishly styled looks and unexpected collaborations to the upcoming fashion cycle.
No trillion dollar industry can clean up its act in a matter of months This year, non-traditional models will continue their rise to the top. Kickstarted by designer Rio Uribe of streetwear label Gypsy Sport several years ago, the movement has slowly but surely gained speed, thanks in large part to exposure provided by Instagram. Bald-headed, gap-toothed beauty Simone Thompson has become an Instagram darling as of late,
receiving features from the likes of Vogue and CR Fashion Book by the latter end of 2016. Thompson is but one of many models that has contributed a true sense of diversity to the high-fashion scene. Other new muses like Barbie Ferreira and Hari Nef add serious depth to fashion’s coolest band of outsiders (who, might I add, are now surpassing the insiders in both numerical and abstract terms), paving the way for even more diversification in the months to come. Despite all the recent guesswork, the ever-dreaded fashion cycle will remain chaotic in 2017. No trillion dollar industry can clean up its act in a matter of months, let alone one that has relied on an archaic system for far too long. Sure, more attempts at forging a seenow, buy-now market will be made on an individual brand level, but such isolated changes cannot turn the entire industry on its head unless they appear across the board (and they won’t — ahem, traditional Paris fashion houses). Hide-and-go-seek is getting old. But something tells me we’ll be able to relax a bit this year. We should not push ourselves answer fashion’s most abstract questions. 2017 is our time to sit back, let the industry unfold as it does, and simply enjoy the show.
STYLE REVIEW
NBC
Golden Globes so white?
Golden Globes 2017: Who brought it, and who should have left it at home From Zuhair Murad to Dolce & Gabbana, certain looks wowed the red carpet, others showed a complete disregard for all that is holy DAILY STYLE WRITERS Best Dressed: Tracee Ellis Ross (Zuhair Murad Couture) This year, the “Black-ish” star threw the notion of “dressing her age” out the window, favoring a strapless, crystallized number accented with a ring on each finger. Murad’s creation hugged her curves, and its silver-cream colorway made her golden skin appear ethereal. Ellis Ross is living proof that fun and beauty do not have to die when we turn 30. - Tess Garcia Worst Dressed: Natalie Portman (Prada) A giant yellow shift dress … oof. Not a good look IMO. But the true travesty is that hair! Natalie consistently looks chic at all red carpets, but tonight she faltered. - Tess Tobin Best Dressed: Ruth Negga (Louis Vuitton) It takes a special kind of girl to charm LV’s Nicolas Ghesquière into making her a one-
of-a-kind look. And yet Negga finessed her way to an impeccably-cut sequin ensemble just a week after the New Year. The “Loving” actress’ closelycropped mane complimented her dainty-robot-warrior aura in a way that will never be topped. Brava. - Tess Garcia Worst Dressed: Janelle Monáe (Armani Privé) I was shocked this was Armani. It genuinely looked like her next-door neighbor made it, and the neighbor’s 10-year-old daughter whipped out a glue gun and added those spots. - Tess Tobin Best Dressed: Evan Rachel Wood (Joseph Altuzzara) Her suit not only comes as a nice change of pace from the usual dresses on the red carpet, but also has a cool f lair to it. The longer length of the jacket, the f lared trousers and the bow on the shirt all push the envelope of a traditional suit. - Naresh Iyengar
Worst Dressed: Karrueche Tran (Dolce & Gabbana) It screams PROM a little too much. - Tess Tobin Best Dressed: Emma Stone (Valentino) She looks stellar. Maybe even interstellar wearing all those stars. - Sarah Agnone Worst Dressed: Carrie Underwood (Iris Serban) The light pink frock probably intended to be soft and feminine but, unfortunately, just looked like a walking “Cupcake Wars.” - Sarah Agnone Best Dressed: Donald Glover (Gucci) In addition to bringing home the award for best performance in a TV show - Musical or Comedy, for a show that was risky to make, Glover took another risk with a brown velvet (!!!) suit that looked terrific, especially when paired with black shoes and a beautifully colored bowtie. - Naresh Iyengar
WE WANT YOU FOR ARTS Email anay@umich.edu or npzak@umich.edu if you’re interested in joining. By Robert E. Lee Morris ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/11/17
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 — 7A
Michigan defeats Indiana, 78-74 Thome shines again in crucial win NATHANIEL CLARK Daily Sports Writer
Before the season began, the Michigan women’s basketball team set two goals. The Wolverines wanted to finish in the top four of the Big Ten and secure a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Michigan (3-1 Big Ten, 14-4 overall) took a big step toward those ambitions Tuesday night. The Wolverines rode a doubledouble performance from sophomore center Hallie Thome to a 78-74 victory over Indiana (2-2, 12-5). With Tuesday’s victory, Michigan avenged a 77-69 overtime loss to the Hoosiers on Jan. 3, 2016 in which the Wolverines blew a nine-point lead with four minutes to go in regulation. “That’s definitely something we talked about,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “We’ve definitely have shown growth. We’ve shown our ability to make free throws down the stretch and to take care of the basketball down the stretch and even just getting some stops.” For a moment, though, it looked like the Wolverines might be stunned again. Michigan led 71-62 with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, a seemingly comfortable advantage. But Indiana center Jenn Anderson scored six points in three minutes, helping the Hoosiers narrow the gap to 74-72. Ensuring that the Wolverines would not be stunned again, senior guard Siera Thompson drew two fouls in the waning seconds and made all four of her free throws to ice the game. “I am very confident in my freethrow shooting,” Thompson said. “I just went up there and shot like I always shoot in practice.” The game was a back-and-forth contest throughout. The first quarter appeared to be going the way of the Hoosiers,
who led 16-13 with under a minute to go despite making just 35.3 percent of their shots. But sophomore guard Nicole Munger broke through with three quick points to tie the game. She then made a baseline layup to put the Wolverines ahead, 18-16, as time expired in the frame. “Munger is a scorer,” Barnes Arico said. “She’s a great kid. She’s one of the hardest workers we have in our program.” Michigan began to open up a cushion in the second quarter thanks to a bruising performance by Thome. In just the first four minutes of the frame, she tallied seven points and drew two fouls as well. Junior forward Jillian Dunston contributed two layups off turnovers, and the Wolverines took a 37-25 edge with 3:09 to go in the frame. “That’s definitely what separated us in the beginning,” Thome said. “We were able to get fouls on their key players, which took them out of what they wanted to do so they couldn’t really defend without worrying about picking up another foul.” But the Hoosiers had no plans to go away quietly. Indiana
proceeded to go on a 12-0 run in just two minutes before freshman guard Kysre Gondrezick nailed a three-pointer to stop the bleeding. Gondrezick scored eight more points in the third frame, which allowed Michigan to take a sizable 64-55 lead into the fourth quarter. She finished the game with 17 points and a career-high eight assists. “I was just running within the offense,” Gondrezick said. “Whatever shot was open, I took. Luckily, they just went in.” With the victory on Tuesday night, the Wolverines move to third place in Big Ten play, behind No. 3 Maryland and No. 11 Ohio State, both of whom are undefeated in conference games. Michigan will face the Terrapins on Jan. 19, hoping to pull off an upset. Before then, though, Michigan will have to contend with Minnesota on Jan. 15 at Crisler Center. Though the Golden Gophers are 0-3 in Big Ten play, they have had tough match-ups against Maryland, Ohio State and Indiana, all of whom are in the top 60 in the Ratings Percentage Index.
ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Writer
With 7:04 left in the first quarter, junior forward Jillian Dunston corralled a rebound off an Indiana 74 INDIANA miss and MICHIGAN 78 promptly threw it across the court to freshman guard Kysre Gondrezick at the top of the 3-point line. As an Indiana defender began to charge at Gondrezick, she launched the ball to a gliding Hallie Thome down the middle of the court for a smooth transition layup. Just like the layup, the rest of Thome’s game followed suit, as she finished with 21 points, 10 boards and two blocks to help Michigan to a 78-74 win. The sophomore center was the recipient of four more assists from Gondrezick, a connection that Thome has flourished from since Gondrezick was put in the starting lineup Dec. 28. “That’s definitely something fun to play with,” Thome said. “We had Madison (Ristovski) last year so to have someone in
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Freshman guard Kysre Gondrezick had an eight-point third quarter.
that spot and take on her role is something special.” Added Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico: “Kysre is a great passer. She does a tremendous job of finding Hallie, so we try to keep them on the same side sometimes.” Thome’s success against the Hoosiers can also be attributed to her physicality. Thome muscled her way down low at will, tallying three and-1 buckets and notching her second-highest rebound total for the season, including two on the offensive end. Thome’s forcefulness was instrumental in coercing the Hoosiers into foul trouble. “That’s what definitely separated us in the beginning,” Thome said. “We were able to get fouls on their key players and take them out of what they wanted to do.” When Indiana finally adjusted by doubling Thome, her game changed entirely from scoring to passing out of the low block to the
wings. “We were able to get the ball in early, and they weren’t ready from the start,” Thome said. “In the second half, they were doubling more in the post, so we were able to get the shots and knock them down.” If Thome’s last two games didn’t already prove it, her performance against Indiana showed that her presence on the court makes the biggest difference for the Wolverines. “She has great hands and such great touch,” Barnes Arico said. “Such a great finisher around the rim. When she touches it, good things are going to happen.” While her double-double stands out, the most meaningful part of her stat line was her two fouls. The Hoosiers simply couldn’t match up with Thome, and she managed to stay in the game for 36 minutes to expose the mismatch. In the Wolverines’ four losses this season, Thome has suffered from early foul trouble, a point of weakness that both Barnes Arico and Thome have previously acknowledged. With redshirt junior Abby Cole still out of commission, it is crucial that Thome maintains her recent run of play, as Michigan’s depth down low runs thin when she has to sit. After giving up a nine-point lead last season in Bloomington and losing, 77-69, it is reassuring that the Wolverines were able to eke out a win at Crisler Center and pad their NCAA Tournament resume. What has become clear of late is how instrumental Thome will be in the effort to end Michigan’s three-year tourney drought.
When she touches it, good things are going to happen
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Sophomore center Hallie Thome led the team with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Recapping the first half of the Michigan hockey season AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer
Through 18 games, Michigan’s offense has failed to muster a consistent goal-scoring threat, relying on its defense and goaltending to keep the Wolverines competitive until the final seconds. This weekend, Michigan will face another challenging Big Ten opponent in No. 9 Minnesota, who it split the season series with last year. Before the Wolverines resume conference play, the Daily recaps the first half of their season: MVP: Goaltenders It’s been the same story all season. Michigan’s offense struggles to control possession, and then the Wolverines must constantly defend the puck in their own zone. Fortunately for Michigan, its trio of netminders have proven themselves as a solid last line of defense. The Wolverines sit dead last nationwide in percentage of shots taken vs. opponent and as a result, Michigan’s goaltenders have faced a barrage of shots. However, the trio of Wolverines have earned a .924 save percentage, good for sixth best nationally. Freshman goaltender Hayden Lavigne anchors the unit, ranking third in save percentage with a .937 clip. Before an illness forced him to miss a few games, Lavigne ranked first in goalsagainst average. Though he hasn’t officially been named the starter, statistically, Lavigne has shined the most. Lavigne isn’t the only freshman making himself known between the pipes. Even though he has four losses in seven starts, Jack LaFontaine ranks first in saves on the Wolverines. Senior forward and captain Alex Kile praised the young goaltender after a rough loss to Penn State last month. “He’s tough,” Kile said. “He’s a freshman, it’s not easy during this game. We didn’t really give him a great effort tonight defensively. We gave up 50-plus shots, so anytime you’re a goalie and you see 50 shots, it’s tough to win
games and stop all the pucks.” Rounding out the goaltenders is senior Zach Nagelvoort. While not a regular starter, Nagelvoort has been called upon multiple times this season — like in the Great Lakes invitational with LaFontaine — when one of the two freshmen has faced problems early in the game. The three goaltenders have nearly singlehandedly ensured that Michigan stays competitive late in games. Most improved player: Sam Piazza On Oct. 7 against Union, Piazza scored the Wolverines’ first goal of the season at the 8:54 mark of the first frame, coming off a power play attempt. The game against the Dutchmen would prove to be the first step in a season of tremendous growth by the junior forward. Last year, it took until the Great Lakes Invitational — Michigan’s 17th game — for Piazza to notch his first goal. It turned out to be Piazza’s only goal of the season. Recognizing Piazza’s improvement, Michigan coach Red Berenson consistently places him on both the penalty kill and power play, along with the Wolverines’ other top scorers. “He’s a player who hasn’t played regularly in his first couple years, but he’s shown signs of taking the next step,” Berenson said in October. “I thought he showed some of that last year, and we didn’t play him maybe as much as we should’ve in the stretch run. But we’ve seen moments and we have high regard for his offensive vision on the ice and his puck skills, and now it’s starting to pay off for him.” Through 18 games, Piazza ranks third on the Wolverines with five goals, including a teamhigh three on the power play. His continued success on special teams will prove essential to Michigan as it goes forward. Top freshman: Will Lockwood When Michigan’s offense needed a spark plug earlier this season, Lockwood would
outsprint the opposition’s defensemen and attempt a shot on goal. For a team that lacked veteran presence, Lockwood immediately showed his ability to start games on the first line. Playing on a unit with Kile and fellow freshman Jake Slaker, Lockwood used speed to win pucks on opposite sides of the ice. “My skating is one of my best attributes,” Lockwood said earlier this season. “It definitely helps to have my legs out on the ice. There’s also an aspect to it where you don’t want to overskate on the ice, (to skate) smart on the ice, but also use my speed in the right situation to my advantage.” Currently, Lockwood ranks first in scoring on the Wolverines with seven goals and 13 points. He also leads Michigan in shooting efficiency with a .219 clip. While many freshmen have had to step up in more extended roles and learn the Wolverines’ playing style quickly, Lockwood has demonstrated why he is the highest-drafted Michigan player. He regularly leads the power
play and scored twice this season on special teams. He has also notched a team-high three gamewinning goals. Though he found himself in a scoring drought over the past few weeks, he scored in the GLI thirdplace game, showing promise as the season continues. Top moment: Lockwood’s goal to defeat Michigan Tech Michigan was in a familiar situation. Two weeks prior at home, the Wolverines held onto a slim lead against Union heading into the third period. But Michigan couldn’t hang onto its advantage, eventually falling to the Dutchmen, 4-3. Against Michigan Tech, the Wolverines led 2-1 going into the final frame. Within 10 minutes however, the Huskies took a 3-2 lead. Michigan seemed primed for a similar fate, but Lockwood would not permit it. With 52 seconds remaining, senior forward Max Shuart passed the puck from behind the net to Lockwood, who had skated toward the middle of Michigan
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
The Michigan hockey team hopes its offense comes alive in the second half.
Tech’s zone, and Lockwood slapped it past the Huskies’ goaltender. “When the game was on the line in the third, our team rallied,” Berenson said after the game. “Even though (Michigan Tech) tied the game on a weak goal on our part, our team rallied and played harder and gave ourselves a chance.” Worst moment: Penn State series In its Big Ten opener, Michigan traveled to State College as the underdog, but with hopes of surprising No. 6 Penn State. The Nittany Lions would jump out to a 5-0 lead before the Wolverines could find the net even once, and Michigan ended up losing the game 6-1. The second game was similar. LaFontaine saved 53 shots, but the offense and special teams both struggled in a 5-1 loss. The attack mustered a measly 23 shots and its power play failed to take advantage of its three attempts. Defensively, Michigan’s penalty kill allowed two goals and 10 shots. “I didn’t think our team had a good game in front of our goalie,” Berenson said after the Saturday game. “… But (Penn State) got behind us, they got through us, our forwards weren’t picking up men. I mean, give them credit. They won all the races, and they won all the battles and they got all the goals.” Player to watch in second half: Cooper Marody After a season watching from the bench and from the television while Michigan traveled, Cooper Marody is finally eligible to play. The sophomore forward was suspended until the Great Lakes invitational because of academic issues last winter. In just two games — a small sample size — he notched three assists. Berenson clearly believes the forward will continue his play from last season, inserting him on the first line against Michigan State in the GLI third-place game. “The first game back, (it was) going to be a lot different than just practicing,” Marody said
during the GLI. “It had been a while since I played a game and really got up to that speed.” With Marody returning to the lineup, the Wolverines return their second-highest leading scorer from last season to a group that is lacking offensive firepower. In just two games, Marody has demonstrated his playmaking skills, and he will certainly be a player to pay closer attention to as Michigan continues conference play. X-factor: Alex Kile As the leading returning scorer of the Wolverines, many expected Kile to anchor Michigan’s offense. Through much of the first quarter of the season — much like the entire Wolverines’ offensive unit — he struggled to find any consistency. In his first 14 games, he tallied just two goals. Recently though, Kile has tabbed three goals in three contests. “(Kile) really felt that this was not necessarily his team, but this was his time,” Berenson said last week. “He’d been part of a highscoring machine last year, but when we lost all of those guys, now he looks around and it’s just him. He embraced that. “I can’t tell you it’s gone smooth for him — I think it’s been a challenge. Maybe he hasn’t had the supporting cast. He was playing with two freshmen for the first number of games, and playing pretty well but not playing as consistently and productively as he would like, or that I would like.” For Michigan to make any run at the postseason, it will need its captain to rally his fellow forwards. During his recent threegoal surge, the Wolverines have earned two wins and one loss. It could be just the recipe for success that the Wolverines need. With some signs of life in recent games against Wisconsin and Michigan State, and the return of Marody to the lineup, Michigan’s offense looks on the upswing. This weekend’s matchup against Minnesota will provide the Wolverines with their first test of the second half of the season.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Wolverines travel to Champaign to take on Illinois and find some consistency KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
In the days since the Michigan men’s basketball team loss to Maryland on Saturday, the word “frustration” has been used relatively often Michigan around Crisler at Illinois Center — and Matchup: rightly so. After all, Michigan 1-2 Big Ten, 11-5 the Wolverines overall; Illinois (1-2 Big Ten, 1-2, 11-5 11-5 overall) have dropped When: Wednesday two of their 8 P.M. CT last three games by a Where: State Farm Center combined margin of just TV/Radio: BTN 10 points. Michigan isn’t getting blown out by any means, which arguably makes it even more frustrating. And it forces one to wonder what the team could be if a new defensive approach and new offensive weapons molded together into a polished product. The games are there for the taking. The Wolverines just have been incapable of taking them recently. “Now, we gotta get it, there’s no excuse,” said senior guard Andrew Dakich. “There’s no, ‘OK you guys are young, you shouldn’t understand this.’ But we’re a veteran group. “We’ve got seniors, juniors and a team that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. It’s time to step up. There’s no excuses anymore.” On Wednesday night, Michigan will have an opportunity to back up Dakich’s words in a matchup with Illinois (1-2, 11-5). The Fighting Illini are essentially in the same boat as the Wolverines. Like Michigan, they are a
veteran team that returned eight upperclassmen. But — also like Michigan — Illinois has yet to produce the results that could be expected from a roster hardened by Big Ten play for multiple seasons. The Fighting Illini’s biggest threat is senior guard Malcolm Hill, who leads the team in points and rebounds with 18.8 and 6.2 per game, respectively. Yet even that kind of production hasn’t been nearly enough to carry Illinois through the beginning of conference play. Through their first three games, the Fighting Illini notched a win against Ohio State but also lost to Maryland and No. 25 Indiana by 25 and 16 points, respectively. The Wolverines haven’t fared much better themselves, as even some of their most promising players also contribute to their growing problems. Individually, sophomore EVAN AARON/Daily forward Moritz Wagner has Michigan coach John Beilein hopes his team can put together a complete game. enjoyed an uptick in production, discussion today — what are we we’re just not in there enough, in as he is averaging 11.9 points doing at shot clock time? We’re that right place.” while shooting 61.3 percent from going to make sure the ball is in Through their first three Big the floor. Redshirt sophomore the right guy’s hands at shot clock Ten games, the Wolverines are forward DJ Wilson’s newfound time, and maybe it’s in nobody’s allowing an average of 75.7 points scoring ability has been an hands and we’re just playing ball per game. Yet back in November encouraging sign as well. and trusting what we do.” at Madison Square Garden — But with their emergence has The more pressing issue, when Michigan arguably looked also come a bit of confusion. In though, is the ongoing struggle its best — it allowed an average the past, there was no doubt that the Wolverines are having in of 57.5 against comparable teams the offense would run through attempting to adopt assistant such as Southern Methodist and senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. coach Billy Donlon’s new Marquette. or senior wing Zak Irvin. Now, defensive schemes. The frustrations, then, as though, that choice might not be After Saturday’s loss, Wagner the Wolverines have alluded to so simple. was visibly frustrated, explaining plenty of times, boil down to the The matchup with Illinois that there are moments when issues of consistency. could prove to be the first step Michigan seems to “fall asleep Illinois is the second-to-last toward some clarity in that collectively.” And that is even team Michigan will face before phase. more concerning given the the beginning of a month in “It’s good news and bad simplicity of the system. which the Wolverines will news,” said Michigan coach “(The defense) couldn’t be play Michigan State, No. 18 John Beilein. “We have several much simpler than it is right Wisconsin and No. 25 Indiana guys that can score the ball now, now,” Beilein said. “We’re doing twice apiece. especially with the emergence a classic hedge. We’re tagging Consistency has been of DJ and Moe. We’re looking at guys. We’re probably doing less preached since the beginning of that very much. than we’ve done before. We’re in the season. But the time to talk “That was a big part of our the right places a lot of times, but about it is running out.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Behind Enemy Lines: Illinois’s Tracy Abrams BETELHEM ASHAME Managing Sports Editor
After suffering two losses in three games to open its Big Ten season, the Michigan men’s basketball team will have a chance to turn its fortunes around on the road against Illinois on Wednesday. The Fighting Illini are powered by seasoned veteran guards Malcolm Hill and Tracy Abrams, who lead the team in scoring with 18.8 and 10.9 points per game, respectively. Despite missing the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons after tearing his ACL and then his Achilles in back-to-back years, Abrams has come back strong and helped carry the load for Illinois. The Michigan Daily sat down with Abrams at Big Ten Media Day in October to talk about his road back from injury and his excitement about returning to the court. The Michigan Daily: How has your recovery from injury been, and how has the extended period of time off affected you as a player and as a person too? Tracy Abrams: My rehab and stuff has been great. I’m pretty healthy right now. I can honestly say I’ve gotten stronger, I can run a little faster — I’ve improved overall — so it’s been a great experience for me so far. I’m definitely looking forward to the season, being out there and competing with my teammates. Right now we’re just building (and) trying to keep putting in hard work every day so it can translate to the court. TMD: How excited are you to step back onto the floor to join your teammates again and
compete at a high level on the college stage? TA: I’m definitely, definitely, definitely excited to be back out there. Just using my experience and my leadership, most importantly, to help those guys out as well as them help me (and) just continue to grow. I think the sky’s the limit for our team so we just gotta have that mindset and put in that effort. TMD: This is your sixth year of eligibility, so how do you think your vast experience at the collegiate level will help both you and the team this season? TA: Just being out these last couple years, I was able to gain a different perspective. Learning my teammates, learning the game a little bit better, so I think just using what I’ve learned. And if I can translate that to the court, just knowing my teammates and their strengths and stuff like that, it would definitely, definitely be helpful for our team. So I’m just trying to keep remembering all that stuff and taking it and giving it back. TMD: How do you think you will be able to handle the balance between a master’s program and the rigors of being a studentathlete? TA: One advantage with that is all my classes are online, so I wake up early and do that. That way I can have good balance, and when I go to practice, I don’t have to worry about schoolwork and stuff like that. It’s going pretty well. I’m in my second master’s program right now, so I would say I have a pretty good feel to how it works and what you have to do to be successful.
I think the sky’s the limit for our team
Peppers leaves ‘M’ to declare for NFL Draft Dakich earns second-semester scholarship JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Writer
A decision that seemed inevitable for months is now official. After a season in which his versatility and explosive play landed him in New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist, redshirt sophomore linebacker Jabrill Peppers announced Tuesday that he will forgo his remaining two years of eligibility at Michigan and enter the NFL Draft. Peppers informed Sports Illustrated of his decision Tuesday, later sending out a tweet thanking the Wolverines and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh “for the memories and preparation.” Immediately following the Wolverines’ Orange Bowl loss to Florida State on Dec. 30 — which Peppers was forced to sit out after suffering a hamstring injury the day before — a visibly upset Peppers had told reporters he would take as long as he could to make a decision about his future. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Peppers reiterated to SI on Tuesday. “I’m choosing between cementing my legacy as a college player and starting my pro legacy. It’s something you dream of when you were a kid. I was torn between the two.”
He finally came to a decision over the weekend while at home in New Jersey and informed Harbaugh on Monday. Some questions linger about where Peppers will fit in at the professional level. He primarily played safety in 2015 and linebacker in 2016, and he also took snaps as a slot corner, running back and punt returner, among other positions, but he figures to be a surefire first-round pick in April’s draft. ESPN’s Todd McShay projects him among the top 10 players available. “All the questions will be answered,” Peppers told SI. “And they’re good questions. I think I’ll be able to show that I can play one position well when I focus all my time and attention to it. I’m really excited to focus on my back pedal, flipping the hips and my coverage. I’m going to really hone in on that and iron out my weaknesses. I know my weaknesses and I know what I’m good at and need to improve on.” Peppers finishes his Michigan career with 125 tackles (21.5 for loss), four sacks, a forced fumble and an interception on defense. He also posted 239 rushing yards, 82 receiving yards and five offensive touchdowns, as well as 993 kick/punt return yards with one punt return touchdown.
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Jabrill Peppers declared for the NFL draft.
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
They say good things come to those who wait. Andrew Dakich certainly knows that now. Tuesday night, the Michigan basketball team posted a video on its Twitter account in which two officers from the Division of Public Safety and Security interrupted a team film session in Crisler Center. They requested that Dakich leave the room and follow them to a compliance office, before revealing it was a prank devised by coach John Beilein to inform him that he would be receiving a scholarship for the winter semester. The mood in the room took a distinct turn from uncomfortable anxiety to pure jubilation, as the senior guard’s teammates surrounded him in celebration. Freshman guard Xavier Simpson, however, was frozen in his seat. “They were in shock,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “Xavier was trying to figure (it) out. I think once he thought (Dakich) was going to jail, he didn’t hear anything else. He still — at the end — said, ‘Yeah he got a scholarship, but he’s going to jail.’ ” Added Dakich: “To be honest, there was one time I almost said, ‘Can we talk about this privately?’ I almost said, ‘Am I being punked?’ “But I was like I gotta let these guys talk because they’re just doing their job. And they came out with a document, some kind of warrant to get me out of there, so it was really scary for me.” According to Beilein, the stunt was inspired by Eastern Michigan football coach Chris Creighton. Last August, Creighton surprised a walk-
on player with a full-ride scholarship in a prank that was nearly identical to Tuesday’s. Beilein granted the same scholarship to senior forward Sean Lonergan last season but said it was a tough decision for the staff to choose between Dakich and Lonergan in 2015. Dakich began his Michigan career as a preferred walkon in 2013. As a sophomore and junior, Dakich requested a redshirt in hopes of preserving a year of eligibility to be used as a fifth-year graduate transfer. But when the Wolverines suffered season-ending injuries at the guard position in both of those seasons, Dakich decided to burn his redshirt for the good of the team.
I almost said, ‘Can we talk about this privately?’
Now, he has finally been rewarded for that selflessness with a second-semester scholarship worth roughly $30,000. Dakich’s future is still uncertain, but he would like to use his final year of eligibility to take on a more significant role for another Division I program before pursuing his dream of coaching. While Dakich won’t necessarily explore his options until the season is over, he said Tuesday that he ideally would like the opportunity to play for a team that runs a similar offense to Beilein’s with some opportunities to learn new concepts as well. His motivation to become a coach is simple.
“When I’m out there on the court, or when I’m watching Coach Beilein or something like that, I find a passion that I don’t think about anything else,” Dakich said. “And I just think about these guys, and it’s just easy, to be honest.” For now, though, the future can wait — Dakich has one final semester in Ann Arbor to enjoy. “It’s fun,” Dakich said. “I came in with Zak, Derrick, Sean (and) Mark. I’m with (Xavier) all the time because I know this is going to be his team once Derrick leaves. But just enjoying it, and kind of just leaving some kind of legacy with wins. I don’t care if I score or play, being on a special team is what I really want to do.”
Being on a special team is what I really want to do
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Senior guard Andrew Dakich began his career as a preferred walk-on but was awarded a scholarship Tuesday.
statement T H E M I CH I G A N DAI LY | JA N UA RY 11T H , 20 16
the of
newspapers in Ann Arbor
2B
Wednesday, Janurary 11, 2017 / The Statement
the tangent
t h e s t at e m e n t Magazine Editor: Lara Moehlman Deputy Editors: Matt Gallatin Yoshiko Iwai Design Editor: Katie Spak
Photo Editor: Claire Abdo Editor in Chief: Emma Kinery Managing Editor: Rebecca Lerner
Copy Editors: Danielle Jackson Taylor Grandinetti
Little Things: Pura Vida B Y E R I K A S H E V C H E C K , D A I LY A R T S W R I T E R
I
learned the true meaning
people. They sold handmade items
of benevolence in a flea
for a living –– they stood every
market.
treble clef that laid on the table.
did not look up.
towards you, you give yourself the
“¿Cuánto?” I asked the man.
energy of pure life. If you point
day in the heat trying to sell some
He proposed a price in colones
When he finished, he cupped his
it towards others, you give them
American
sort of material, material they
(Costa Rican currency) that was
hands around the ring. Lifting it to
the energy to live pure and to live
traveling in a place like Costa
re-crafted with their bare hands.
equal to about five American
my eyes, he showed me a hidden
happy.”
Rica, I didn’t know much about
It wasn’t materialistic; it wasn’t
dollars. Before I left the tent with
P in the middle of a V. The letters
My mind raced back to “¿520
the culture, the way of living or
bogus or cheap. It was someone’s
the newly bought ring, the man
represented the words “Pura” and
años y dónde está la paz?” I thought
its people. While there, I learned
precious work, their creation —
told me to wait one moment.
“Vida.” Sun rays filtered through
of the suffering the people of Costa
of the immense fighting the
their child, in a sense.
As
a
16-year-old
He held up long piece of copper
the tapestry ceiling of his shop,
Rica have faced. I looked at this
Costa Rican natives, called Ticos,
Strolling through, a ring maker
and cut it with pliers. He began to
and the copper ring illuminated
man who wrapped metal for his
had to suffer through for their
caught my eye. He sat at a wooden
wrap the copper around the hot,
slightly. I smiled, and once again
life. This man had given me more
independence. I learned of the
table with a burning, iron rod in
iron wand.
asked how much.
than a free ring — in a sense, he
consistent poverty the majority of
one hand, wrapping and twisting
“In Costa Rica, our motto is ‘Pura
“No, no. No money. It’s for you,”
Costa Rican communities battle
metal to shape rings. There was
Vida’ or ‘Pure Life’ in English,” he
he answered. “Enjoy your time in
Pura Vida is more than a lesson;
every day. I had truly entered a
a pre-made ring in the shape of a
said to me in broken English. He
Costa Rica, and remember, if the V
it’s a greeting, a healer and an
universe unknown to me.
points
“¿520 años y dónde está la paz?”
gave me hope.
overall way of life. The piece of metal wrapped
Translation: “520 years and
around my finger reminds me
where is the peace?”
each day that I am grateful for
These words were spray-painted
my own life –– it reminds me
on a cement wall in the center of
to be fearlessly optimistic and
San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.
continuously thankful. It reminds
As I stopped at a flea market in
me
that
impoverished,
kind-
the city, I looked in many of the
hearted people live in this greedy
corners and crevices of the tent. I
world, but are still fighting for Pura
looked at wooden jewelry boxes
Vida.
for my best friend and wine holders
In that instance, I placed the ring
for my parents. I found homemade
on my finger with the V facing the
candles and oddly shaped purses; I
ring maker.
did my best to bargain prices with
I offered the man even the
the Ticos.
smallest tip. With a bright smile,
But as I tried to lower prices, I was ignorant to the reality of these
he refused. He sat on his throne of ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE FARRUGIA
creations in his kingdom of hope.
Wednesday, Janurary 11, 2017 / The Statement
3B
The Golden State Worrier : The Last Time I Threw Up Was 1978 B Y H A R R Y K R I S N K Y , D A I LY A R T S W R I T E R
“
The last time I threw up, it was 1978. I was in the back of my buddy’s pick up truck and I had been drinking Seagrams 7 and 7up — we used to call those 7 and 7s. Anyway, I had eaten Cheetos before, so you can imagine what it looked like.”- My Dad Almost any time someone in my family talks about throwing up, gin or the 1970s, my dad tells the story of the last time he puked. If it wasn’t so disgusting, it would almost be cute. I remember thinking about that story hunched over one of those robotic airplane toilets, about 35 thousand feet above rural Pennsylvania . I was projectile vomiting the last of the coffee and Odwalla superfood that had been percolating in my stomach. My own puke-abstinence streak was over. I’d been going strong for 8 years until The Airplane Fiasco, though it pales in comparison to my dad’s 39-andcounting streak.Still, it’s respectable in its own right. I’ll back up. I woke up the day after my grandfather’s funeral and my stomach felt like it was upside down. I am terrified of f lying, so I filed my morning stomach pains under “anxiety induced symptoms” and did my best to forget them. Still queasy when we got to the airport, I purchased a black coffee and an Odwalla Superfood, which, as you already know, would eventually come back to haunt me, and anyone between row 18 to 25 on my f light. Among a set of mild to severe phobias and anxiety dis-
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS COVER DESIGN BY CLAIRE ABDO AND KATIE SPAK
orders I have, Emethophobia — the fear of throwing up — is one of them. I’ve been pathologically afraid of vomiting for as long as I can remember. Throwing up is fucking crazy. I’m sorta surprised more people aren’t terrified of it. I mean come on, by the end, somehow, the inside of your body is on the outside of your body. Like what if humans had this weird kind of hiccup or cough that temporarily popped our eyeballs out, and we had to plug them back in whenever this annoying and uncomfortable eye-jaculation happened. Its different, but not that different. In truth though, Emetophobia is relatively uncommon. According to Fear Of.net, it’s the 40th most common phobia, behind Triskaidekaphobia, which is the fear of the number 13, and Gephyrophobia, the fear of bridges. I think someone without capital “A” anxiety could still relatively easily conceptualize why someone might have Emetophobia: Throwing up is uncomfortable. Being afraid of something really uncomfortable seems rational. But my Emetophobia is divorced from the actual physical discomfort of throwing up, and more about my obsessive need to feel at least marginally in control of my own body. When you throw up, something which 99% of your life is under your control — your stomach — rebels against you. Emetophobia is not really about throwing up for me. It’s about everything else that could or might happen. If
I can wake up one day with my stomach turned inside out, why can’t I wake up one day with a missing eye, or a tumor behind my ear, or a loved one dead? Phobias are fueled by “what if’s” that worm their way into the consciousness. What if it never ends, what if it gets worse, what if I caused it? What if I never stop throwing up and end up like that snapchat filter with the rainbows coming out of my mouth forever except it won’t be rainbows or a snapchat filter it will be vomit and my real life? I boarded the plane, and got settled next to a woman and her tweenage daughter. I have a window seat, and would have traded my kidney for a middle seat just so I’d have one less set of legs to bypass. The pilot informed us that, because of irregular wind patterns, my normally 5 and half hour f light from Boston to San Francisco would be 6 hours and 15 minutes. Jesus. We start to take off. I’m releasing enough Fight or Flight juices that maybe, with the right coaching, I could have moved things with my brain à la El from Stranger Things. The What Ifs are shooting out, each one increasingly absurd, but convincing at the same time. It strikes me now how accurate the word “pang” is here. What if I throw up, what if I die, what if I throw up my left lung somehow, and die? What if I throw up Odwalla superfood and coffee in this aisle right now, 15 seconds into a 6 hour f light, and then die? I’m gonna throw up. The plane is going down. I’m definitely going to throw up. Then suddenly, calm. “May I go to the bathroom” I asked the mother-daughter combo to the right of me. The mother looked at me, then at the f luorescent seatbelt sign and shrugged. “Umm, no.” “Ok.” In some combination of resentment and delirium, I stood up and puked over both of them, into the aisle — gloriously and triumphantly — and then asked if I could please please please use the restroom. Stunned, she let me by. I power walked to the bathroom aware that I had made very few friends so far on this f light. I puked a few more times, thought about my dad, apologized to the family I puked over — and on — and somehow made it back to San Francisco. I don’t really know where that wave of calm came from, but it’s the key to beating Phobias. The mental and physical energy I spend worrying about puking is so much more unpleasant than the actual puking, even if it is a strange combination of coffee and green smoothie on an airplane. The only moral of The Airplane Fiasco I can see: Don’t worry about things that are out of your control, which is a lesson I already vaguely and intellectually understood, and rarely adhere to in practice. I’m still afraid of puking, but I’d estimate I’m 30% less afraid of puking than I was prior to the f light, and 30% of a diagnosed pathological fear of vomiting is nothing to scoff at. And If I don’t puke until 2056, I’ll even a shot at beating my Dad’s record. But I’m gonna try not to worry about it.
4B
Wednesday, January 11th, 201 / The Statement
Wednesday, January 11th, 2017 / The Statement
T h e Tw i l i g h t o f Newspapers in Ann Arbor: City Reckons with the Decline of Newspapers
byBrian Kuang,
W
ashtenaw County Commissioner Conan Smith resigned his elected post in August of 2016, after accusations that he engaged in a self-serving conflict of interest surfaced. In a letter to the County Board, Mary Morgan, former opinion editor of the now-defunct Ann Arbor News, alleged Smith was unethically using his position as an elected official to secure a position as Washtenaw County’s director of community and economic development. The position likely would have carried a 6-figure salary. “The board of commissioners is not responsible for hiring county employees, other than the county administrator,” Morgan wrote. “So there’s no reason for commissioners to be involved in the hiring process for other county staff, much less a single commissioner acting alone.” Although acknowledging he had been pursuing the position, Smith denied any wrongdoing in an interview with the Daily. In October, Smith announced his intention to run for re-election to the county commission seat he had resigned from just two months earlier, taking himself out of consideration for the economic development position. Faced with only write-in opposition — several protest candidates and his board-appointed interim successor — some of Smith’s former constituents said few voters seemed to be aware of his conduct, which they attributed to lax local media coverage of the issue. “It’s kind of sad how many people don’t know about this situation,” Ann Arbor resident Judy Foy said in an October interview. “He’ll just be the name on the ballot.” When Ann Arborites turned out en masse for Hillary Clinton on November 8th — Clinton carried 68 percent of the county — Smith’s writein opponents secured only 9 percent of the vote. Ninety-one percent of voters on Ann Arbor’s west side were either unaware of Smith’s resignation and waffling, or they were content to overlook it. Some of Smith’s critics would blame a variety of factors, from straight-ticket voting to civic apathy. “He had the luxury of turning his back on the people he’s supposed to represent for a couple months... knowing that he’ll get re-elected in November because of straight-ticket voting,” local resident Jeff Hayner told the Daily in October. Others — such as Morgan — attributed the scandal and Smith’s reelection to a more systemic problem: The deterioration of local news coverage’s ability to ensure government transparency, beginning with the Ann Arbor News’ 2009 closure
Daily Staff Reporter
amid flagging revenue. “If I had not reported on (Conan Smith), it wouldn’t have been daylighted,” Morgan said. “In terms of things that are happening in our government that aren’t getting covered, that is a good example.” On the Monday morning of March 23, 2009, Ed Petykiewicz, then-Ann Arbor News editor in chief, was seen walking out of his office visibly distraught, according to former News copy editor Domenica Trevor. “(Petykiewicz) looked like somebody had whacked him in the face with a two-by-four, he looked shocked,” Trevor said. Several minutes later, a staff meeting — with almost 100 attendees despite recent waves of buyouts — was called with little explanation. Many thought a new wave of cuts was about to be announced. Instead of announcing more staff cuts, Ann Arbor News publisher Laurel Champion, with a pained expression, informed them the newspaper, with 174 years of history and 45,000 daily subscribers, would cease production that July. The staff was stunned, and most would be out of work in four months. In a letter to the public later that day, Champion wrote the decision by its owners — New Jerseybased Advance Publications — to close the paper was due to declining print advertising revenue. Champion also announced the shift of the publication’s remaining resources to a soon-to-belaunched platform, AnnArbor.com. “We have shared with you before in our pages the extreme challenges that our industry and our newspaper have faced over the last couple years,” Champion wrote. “Out of those challenges has come a new opportunity. Our new strategy reflects shifting media consumption habits and advertising revenue in the newspaper business, and particularly in Michigan.” Though few, if any, Ann Arbor News staff expected an outright closure prior to the announcement, warning signs of the paper’s troubles had been present for years. The size of the print edition was reduced in 2007 to cut newsprint costs, according to several former staff members. In 2008, Advanced Publications announced the News’ copy desk and several of its other production functions would be downsized and centralized to a Grand Rapids office. The size of the staff — including newsroom, distribution and business — was whittled through attrition and concurrent waves of buyouts, from 400 to 272 by 2009.
Some left of their own accord in the period immediately before the closure. Morgan left as opinion editor in 2008, after 12 years at the News. “At the time, you could see they were not investing in the newsroom and that when people left, they weren’t being replaced,” Morgan said. “Generally, it did not seem like there was a vision from the leadership.” Trevor, seeing poor future prospects for her role as a copy editor at the News, accepted a buyout offer in late 2008, though she continued working through July 2009. She now works as a paralegal and freelance copy editor in Ann Arbor. “A bunch of people were offered buyouts,” Trevor said. “Any copy editor with any sense took it because there was an ‘opportunity’ for employment in Grand Rapids, but we were being told it’s just not going to happen.” The Ann Arbor News staff was promised an opportunity to apply for positions at the new publication, AnnArbor.com and about a dozen employees were retained, according to several former staff members. The rest moved to other publications, freelance positions or entirely new careers. The market trends ending The Ann Arbor News were hardly confined to Ann Arbor. Until the advent of the Internet, most medium-sized cities could support at least one independent daily print publication that could reap healthy profit margins by holding a de-facto monopoly on local classified ad sales. Although the Internet would begin eroding newspapers’ competitive advantage as a onestop shop for local advertisers in the 1990s and early 2000s, newspapers were largely able to weather the changing market. Total U.S. newspaper ad revenue would peak in 2005 at $49.4 billion — even when daily subscriptions had been in decline for years — according to Pew Research. Freefall ensued during the 2007 financial crisis and the subsequent recession. Newspaper ad sales plummeted 60 percent below their prerecession peak to $19.9 billion by 2014 (the last year the Newspaper Association of America published figures), as advertisers realized they could target audiences more effectively online and slashed their print spending. The employment prospects of newsroom staff have followed their employers’ tanking earnings. The number of U.S. newspaper employees plunged by 40 percent from a pre-
recession peak of 55,000 to 32,900 in 2014. In the decade between 2004 and 2014 at least 126 daily papers closed, according to industry publication Editor and Publisher, and the approximate 1,300 that remained increasingly had to make do with less. The same year The Ann Arbor News ceased production, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer moved solely online, and both The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press cut their print schedules to three times per week. With its stock price slipping below $5, the New York Times Co. was only dissuaded from shutting The Boston Globe — one of its properties — when the Globe’s employees agreed to $20 million in concessions. AnnArbor.com — which fully merged into the Mlive brand in 2013 — is a leaner operation than its predecessor. The print schedule was cut to twice a week and its copy desk, sales, production, circulation and sports coverage were consolidated into its parent company’s statewide operation alongside seven other local papers. Individual reporters are saddled with greater responsibilities than their forerunners: They cover multiple beats, take their own photos and run their own social media, according to Jenn McKee, a former entertainment reporter at the Ann Arbor News and MLive . “Really focusing on your writing and having that be your calling card isn’t enough; you really need to be a more well-rounded journalist and be able to offer all those things,” Mckee said. “That’s a pretty sharp shift for people who have been doing this for a while to make.” John Hiner, vice president of content at MLive, said the economic realities of the news industry make the scale of old local newspapers financially unrealistic, and traditional media companies must increasingly explore alternate sources of revenue. “We don’t dream about putting everything back the way it was,” Hiner said. “But I think you can find continued growth in digital revenue.” Hiner further said MLive has prioritized preserving its reporting capacity, explaining that while about 25 staff members work in the Ann Arbor office — less than 10 percent of the 272 who were in 2009 — most cuts have been to non-editorial positions, like those consolidated under MLive’s statewide functions. He estimated between this one-third means the andreporting half ofstaff its preis
2009 headcount. He also admitted not as much coverage is possible with fewer staff members, but argued that the web-based platform of MLive makes news more immediate to its audience. “The Ann Arbor News used to be at every school board meeting, every city zoning meeting, every library meeting,” Hiner said. “We still go to those things when they’re newsworthy and important to the community, but we don’t babysit boards and council to the degree we used to when we had more resources.” Jen Eyer, who held various editorial leadership roles at MLive’s Ann Arbor office until 2016 and is now communications director for gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer (D), described maintaining Ann Arbor coverage as a “constant struggle,” but expressed admiration for the dedication of the remaining staff in the face of challenges. “It pains me to hear the criticism they sometimes get,” Eyer said. “That newsroom and the whole organization is still filled with journalists who believe in the mission of journalism.” While acknowledging the efforts of MLive’s staff, many local residents say the consequences of large staff cuts and the reduction of printing to twice a week are difficult to ignore. Vivienne Armentrout, former county commissioner and long-time Ann Arbor resident who actively blogs about city issues, said the loss of daily print distribution has steeply affected public awareness of local news. “I was here when we actually had an afternoon paper … we could be sure that virtually every resident of Ann Arbor was reading the same news as you were reading,”
Photo by Amelia Cacchione
Armentrout said. “There was sort of a common community memory, and now a lot of people are pretty ignorant of what’s going on.” These sentiments were echoed by City Councilmember Jack Eaton (D–Ward 4). “I have to tell you that (MLive reporter) Ryan Stanton covers City Council very well,” Eaton said. “But the public doesn’t necessarily read everything he writes because it’s only published twice a week and not very many people bother to subscribe to it.” Both Eaton and Armentrout added that they see less long-form investigative reporting, and it is evident the smaller staff is spread thinner than its predecessors. “A local person who’s involved, such as myself, kind of has to piece together the news,” Eaton said. “You need to listen to WEMU, because they do fairly good local coverage, you need to hunt down a copy of The Ann magazine.” A year after the News’ closing, The Ann magazine, a monthly glossy magazine featuring long-form pieces on local news, was launched. Jim McBee, creative director of The Ann, has worked at a variety of local papers in California, the Carolinas and Wyoming. However, he found himself increasingly disillusioned as long-term prospects soured. “While I was still in newspapers, I just felt like I was just riding it out,” McBee said. As The Ann Arbor News was closing shop, McBee’s former co-worker Kyle Poplin was in Ann Arbor on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship, an award for mid-career journalists to study at the University of Michigan for a year. Poplin saw an editorial void left by the News’ closure — a lack of in-depth longform reporting — and reached out to McBee, ultimately conceiving the magazine. “Our desire editorially is to do the big
projects newspapers used to do,” McBee said. “That’s the idea, to do the big in-depth story … that newspapers have a really hard time doing now because they’ve fired all their experienced reporters.” In the past year, The Ann has featured stories on topics such as the local startup scene, emotionally heavy profiles of homelessness in Washtenaw County and a piece from Morgan outlining the circumstances surrounding Conan Smith’s resignation. A large portion of content comes from freelance writers, while a core team of four manages editing, production and advertising sales. Each month, 18,000 copies are printed and distributed through direct subscriptions and a distribution partnership with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which include The Ann as an insert in local deliveries to respective papers. McBee readily admits, however, that no monthly publication can fully substitute the day-to-day and breaking news reporting capacity of a daily newspaper. By relying heavily on freelancers, the Ann cannot readily do follow-up coverage on recurring issues, particularly local government. “I don’t know if I would structure beats the way a newspaper does, but the fact that I don’t have a staff of reporters … is a little frustrating,” McBee said. “Somebody needs to be keeping an eye on government officials, on businesses, on whatever. I think it’s a glorious golden age for graft and corruption.” Some Ann Arborites were not daunted by the task of holding local government to task, though. When Morgan departed from The Ann Arbor News shortly before its demise, she and her husband, Dave Askins, launched The Ann Arbor Chronicle, a Web-based publication focused on local government, in September 2008. Aiming to increase civic awareness and participation, the couple sought to fill a vacuum left in local government coverage by the departure of the News. Their site primarily featured detailed chronicles of local government meetings and decisions, while also including original analysis of local policy issues, columns and cartoons from freelancers. “By covering government the way we did, we could lower some of the barriers to entry,” Morgan said. “The idea was: If people want to know what’s happening so they can get more involved, we would provide them with that information.” Raising revenue through advertising sales to local businesses and “voluntary” subscription fees — the Chronicle was a for-profit entity — Askins said their site drew between 30 and 40 thousand unique users per month. The couple was adamant, though, that their success be measured not by their readership but by their impact on the functioning of civic life. Though the Chronicle’s revenue was sufficient to cover its costs and the couple’s living expenses, Askins and Morgan found a fundamental challenge: Covering every public meeting could consume as much as 80 hours per week, even with freelancers’ help. They determined it would not be possible to
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scale up the Chronicle’s revenue to hire fulltime staff without compromising key elements of their publication. In an August 2014 post, Askins announced the Chronicle would end publication. “In past columns I’ve compared this kind of labor to running a marathon — with one key difference: There is no finish line,” Askins wrote. “You can never really finish. But as a practical matter you will quit running one day. And if you never decide to stop, then when you do stop, it will be because you are dead. So we’re setting an end date as a kind of artificial finish line.” That September, a final post was made on the Chronicle: A heartfelt farewell from Morgan. The Chronicle’s departure put residents in the same predicament they felt when the Ann Arbor News began downsizing — a lack of investigative city coverage. Many residents, including Eaton, still remember the Chronicle’s reporting fondly. “The Chronicle wasn’t really traditional journalism, it was exhaustive journalism where you’d get 15,000 words on one meeting,” Eaton said. “It was a great resource for activists or board members like myself … and I don’t expect a daily newspaper like MLive or anybody else to do that kind of exhaustive meeting coverage.” Now, Askins is on his way out of the city he has covered for so long. This week, he filled a U-Haul to move to Madison, South Dakota (pop: 7,258) to start again as a local journalist. Despite having a population less than onetenth of Ann Arbor, Madison has maintained its daily print paper — the Madison Daily Leader — which he and Morgan credit to the publication’s ownership by the same local family for multiple generations. Morgan plans to remain in Ann Arbor for the “medium term,” until she can transition the leadership of her civic engagement nonprofit — the CivCity Initiative — which she began after the Chronicle closed, before joining her husband in Madison. While acknowledging he would miss Ann Arbor — which he has called home for the last two decades — Askins bristled with optimism for what new adventures would await him out west. “The work of a local journalist, if you do it well … you make the place you live in better, because it allows more people to participate in the life of the community than otherwise would be able to,” Askins said. “That’s the work I want to do ... Ann Arbor’s clearly not the only place you can do it, and it’s not clear to me you can work as a local journalist in Ann Arbor anymore.” In early 2016, the last two Ann Arbor News staff members to remain through the entire transition to MLive — McKee and Managing Producer Cindy Heflin — were laid off. Heflin is now a copy editor at the Detroit Free Press, while McKee works as a freelance reporter. Today, MLive continues to serve the Ann Arbor news market. “I harbor no malice against MLive,” McKee wrote in a text message. “They’re just trying to make it through this era, as every news outlet is.”
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Wednesday, January 11, 2017 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Story of a Curl
by Maria Robins-Somerville, Daily Arts Writer
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y mother comes from a family of blonde Irish Catholics with smooth, compliant hair. Maybe she was blindsided by the delicate way my curls framed my head as a toddler, soft ringlets that formed a gentle puff of yellow around my head. It would become clear that I inherited the Jewish father’s hair: frizzy, twisted locks, thick and prone to expanding upon contact. It’s not her fault that my mom didn’t know the rules of curly hair. She would brush it out, often resulting in abundant static and the dreaded “yield sign” effect christened by Mia Thermopolis of “The Princess Diaries.” I spent ages 4 to 7 with puffy bangs, and in a third-grade picture I wore an orange athletic sweatband as a fashion (?) accessory, brandishing a full Tweety Bird forehead and a sea of cowlicks parted down the middle. When I was young, my hair frustrated me. My sister and I would cry when it got combed out. I envied my cousins’ pale blonde hair, cascading over their shoulders and swishing around their bodies when they walked. At infrequent haircuts I would tell the hairdresser that I didn’t want my hair to make me look like a triangle anymore, to which she would laugh and promise that things called “long layers” and “product” would solve those woes. When she was done I would climb down from the chair, smile and thank her politely, feeling even more triangular than before. During tweenhood a lot of curly girls I knew took to their straighteners, opting for sleek and flattened looks, especially for special occasions, and this left me torn. I grew up with other curly-haired women who praised costly chemical treatments and straightened their hair so frequently that it was hardly curly anymore. There was nothing wrong with this, but I knew deep down that process was time-consuming, and I was not patient enough. I knew deeper down that my curly hair was maybe a marker of my Jewishness. For me, straightening my hair was an attempt to make something different about me disappear. When I was a shy 14-year-old, a boy I thought was cute touched my hair unexpectedly. I was flustered and flattered at first. Then he continued: “It’s so … coarse.” I blushed and shrugged it off without saying anything, but vowed to condition religiously, focusing on the ends. Nobody was going to
call my hair coarse again, especially not cute boys. I grew more and more self-conscious of having hair that was unpredictable and somehow “different” — it felt like it was always taking up too much space, too much time or shedding onto someone’s carpet. There have only been a few times I’ve had my hair straightened — the lengthy process takes up to two hours. When someone asks if I like my hair straight, I’m not even sure how to respond. I like the way it feels when it brushes against my shoulders. I like it the way I like a pet: The sleekness and smooth silky texture is all right for a night, but it has never been worth the effort for me. I could tell them I seem to get more male attention with straight hair. Even friends have paused to say, “Maria, you look … different,” and something in the pause seems to be something of an admiration I didn’t know could exist. I could tell those who ask that it makes me look nothing like myself. As I get older, I’ve started to make peace with my hair. I avoid brushes at all costs, and swear by minimal shampoo and maximum moisture. I like that I can be easily picked out of a crowd by it, and I like it as an accessory to my sub-par dance moves. People, even the occasional stranger sometimes, say nice things about my curly hair, and I don’t really know how to feel about it — I usually blush. In “Paradise Lost,” Milton rewrites Adam and Eve, going into detail about Eve’s hair, a tangled mess that is somehow enticing and intoxicating. Milton describes her hair as “wanton” even, which suggests that Eve’s untamable mane is just one of the things that contributes to the babeliness that makes Adam want to kiss her and eat the fruit and disobey God and all that wild stuff. Amid objectively sexist undertones of women as mere promiscuous objects of the male gaze, I admit that I found the characterization somehow humorous, comforting and unnerving. What if this frizzy brown mess could be the seat of power? This is not to say that I don’t sometimes wish for frizz-free hair that looks like a Pantene ad, or hair that would take nicely to all of these hip shoulder-brushing cuts so many of my friends
ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE ABDO have been getting, but I do think there is something more than hair here. For example, that boy who touched my hair without asking and said it felt “coarse” is definitely a jerk, and I can’t help but hope the tragic poofy bangs made me a little tougher on the inside. Part of me wants to hold on to a complicated story I’ve let my hair tell, but another part wants to say, “it’s just hair, it doesn’t have to mean anything.” Couldn’t I just shave it off or ignore it or write about something more important? In asking these questions, I resist the urge to let something as superficial and arbitrary as a collection of dead cells define me, yet maybe that choice isn’t even one that is up to me. I can’t ignore the fact that I have been exposed to constructions of female beauty that come in sleek and uncomplicated packages. I joked to a curly-headed friend of mine a few weeks ago that our curly hair drew us to all things cozy — fluffy blankets, snuggling,
semi-sloppy clothing, small animals. But it’s not even about texture. Maybe it’s the freedom that comes with letting something just be, in all its messiness and unpredictability. I don’t mean to paint this as a picture of a purely “chill” girl who has come to complete peace with all parts of herself. Though I no longer have crippling fear of triangle head (and if you have a negative comment on my hair, I have cultivated some choice words for you), I still think that such in-depth contemplation and anxiety on something superficial is strange in a way I can’t seem to shake. It continues to vacillate between feelings of importance and unimportance. It continues to contain the pieces of my parents, and their parents. My hair continues to take up space — to frizz, to tangle, to shed and to grow. My hope in all this tangly mess is to only do the same.
Wednesday, January 11 2017 // The Statement
Personal Statement: Goodbye, It’s Been Reel by Benjamin Katz, Daily Sports Writer
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little under a month ago, I received a Facebook notification that the Regal Cinemas Bethesda movie theater in my Maryland hometown was shutting its doors after more than 20 years of business. “Thank you, Bethesda. We will miss you” has now replaced the multiplex’s film titles that used to casually scroll across the marquee. What was once a staple of downtown Bethesda slowly became a deserted theater with sometimes more employees than movie-goers milling about the concession stand. What was once a hotspot where the likes of boxer Mike Tyson, sportscaster James Brown and I — yeah, I’m feeling I should be in the same category — would go to catch a movie on a Saturday night, is now merely a place to meet up with friends. The place where ushers once donned burgundy uniforms with ear pieces and perfect customer service turned into a place constantly plagued with air conditioning failures in the summer months and teenage workers who were too busy to clean up the popcorn crumbs and soda spills in Theater Eight. I had two or three birthday parties at Regal Bethesda, as we referred to it. I don’t even remember what the movies were or how old I was, but I distinctly remember those birthdays as being some of the best. Going to the movies with a bunch of friends, passing popcorn down the row to make sure everyone got some. Racing over to the candy machines, sliding quarters into the slots and eagerly awaiting a handful of M&Ms to drop into my cup. Afterward, heading next door to Uno’s Pizzeria (sadly, also a distant memory) to construct make-your-own pizzas. What was once a special experience, from birthday parties to date nights, became a way to go out with others without having to talk to them for at least an hour and a half. What used to be appreciated by everyone had merely been demoted to satisfying middle schoolers enjoying their newfound independence, senior citizens attending
10 a.m. screenings to ensure the matinee rate and small children mesmerized by the newest animated sensation. What used to be a place where people of all ages went to make memories became just a building with too many seats. With the demise of Regal Bethesda goes the theater of my childhood, along with old-school aspects of movie theaters that have been lost in the shuffle and replaced by newer — but not always better — features. The spontaneity of movies has been replaced by expensive tickets that must be reserved at least a day in advance to claim a good seat. Yes, reserved seats in a movie theater is now the norm. No more pushing in line to grab a good seat to the latest box office hit. Just like everything in our lives nowadays, something as classic as going to the movies can be purchased without any human interaction needed at all. The adventure can be calculated and meticulously planned into our schedules. But reserved seating aside, there is nothing like going to the movies. The lights dim, you sit back in your seat, brace for impact and delve into the storyline. And for the next two hours, you’re immersed in darkness and transported to another universe. Watching movies in a theater on a big screen will never change for me. From trailers to credits, I instantly become invested in the characters and the plot and the setting, the dialogue and the music and everything that encapsulates the story set before you. For two hours, it’s a constant fight worth fighting — combatting the talkers, the texters and those who open their candy wrappers with such ferocity that it seems like they need to bring in the National Guard to open a stupid bag of Skittles. It’s watching previews and mentally noting which films you want to see and others that you’ll take a hard pass on — including the requisite thumbs up or down motion you give to your friend sitting next to you.
ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE ABDO AND KATIE SPAK
For those fleeting hours, you forget everything that’s not in that one theater on that one screen — your bad day, your looming exams, your laundry list of things to do. Because for just this magical moment, none of that matters. The only thing that matters is what’s on the silver screen. When I was 2 years old, I saw my first movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove.” When I was 3, I saw “Ice Age,” but walked — actually more like sprinted — out of the theater because the tiger scared the living hell out of me. When I was 5, I saw the new “Peter Pan” movie with my mom and was afraid to even step foot into a large, dark room and watch a movie with just four people in the theater. When I was 6 years old, I saw “Because of WinnDixie” and threw up 20 minutes into the movie because I had food poisoning. I never did find out what happened to that dog. At Regal Bethesda, I saw my first PG-13 movie, “Shall We Dance” and my first R-rated movie, “The King’s Speech.” I also snuck into “22 Jump Street” even though it was R-rated and I was too young to buy a ticket and went to a “double-feature,” paying for one movie, then slipping into a second right after (I know, I’m sort of a badass). Over winter break, my mom and I went to see the instant smash-hit musical “La La Land,” a genuine throwback to classic cinema. This film perfectly solidifies why films are so special, especially on the large screen. The surround-sound that grabbed me into a world full of song and dance, the bright colors pristinely displayed in high-definition quality that fully engrossed me into the plot, were electrifying. This is the power of coupling a wonderful film with an irreplaceable movie theater experience. All these memories come from going to the theaters. Not sitting in bed watching Netflix on my laptop or streaming Hulu on my iPhone, but actually going out to the movies. And, yes, it’s well worth the investment of paying upward of $14 a ticket. Not only do I have less time to see movies in theaters while I’m at college, but the rise of online streaming and television has unfortunately made going to movie theaters somewhat irrelevant and pointless. Unless you’re a film student or, in my case, have a parent in the film world, the luxury of sitting in plush theater seats surrounded by the requisite popcorn aroma no longer feels so compelling to my generation. I’m a film buff who demands no interruptions during my movies. Maybe I’m old-fashioned. Yes, I’m the same guy who also likes holding a newspaper in my hand and wandering around bookstores for hours upon hours. But the movies are sacred in theaters, more important than anything else in the world at that exact moment when the lights go down and the image spreads across the screen. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to experience one last film at Regal Bethesda before its doors closed. But luckily I have endless childhood memories to help me move forward. Thank you, Regal Bethesda, for doing your part in showing me the power of film in its truest form — across the theater’s largest screens. I will miss you.
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Wednesday, January 11 2017 // The Statement
VISUAL S TAT E M E N T: BELIZE PHOTOS BY JEREMY MITNICK
From the beaches of San Pedro to the rainforests of Belmopan, Belize’s beauty radiates. Taken softly before the interuption of Hurriance Earl, which swept through and devastated the natural beauty of this country.