ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Saturday, April 29, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Hail. You arrived on campus, nervous. You were confident. You transferred here halfway through. You were part of a long line of Wolverine alumni. You were the first in your family to go to college. You declared right away in your freshman year. You switched majors a few times. You are going to medical school. You are going to take a couple of years to find yourself. You are a graduate of the University of Michigan. You are confident. You are capable. You are going to change the world. Congratulations, Class of 2017. DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS
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My Baby’s Graduating The Commencement Issue, April 27 - April 30, 2017
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 70 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
NEWS.........................2 NEWS.........................3 OPINION......................4
ARTS.....................6 SPORTS....................7 SPORTS....................8
News
2 — Saturday, April 29, 2017
NEWS
over the
YEARS
2013
SEPTEMBER 2: The University of Michigan adopted a new sexual
misconduct policy that emphasized investigation over testimonials of complaints. Its implementation followed a 2011 mandate from the Department of Education, which clarified Title IX such that University investigations into sexual misconduct became obligatory. The Office of Student Conflict Resolution, the Office of Institutional Equity and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center worked together to amend the policy.
NOVEMBER 19: In a Twitter campaign that prompted over 10,000 tweets, the Black Student Union gained national distinction. Central to the conversation were issues of race and diversity on campus. Students incorporated the hashtag #BBUM, which stands for “Being Black at the University of Michigan” to bring awareness to the lives and experiences of Black students.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2014 APRIL 22: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state of Michigan’s
ban on affirmative action, specifically the consideration of race in public universities’ admissions. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy held that under the Constitution, the voter-enacted ban in Michigan could not be overturned at the national level.
SEPTEMBER 5: Mark Schlissel bacame the 14th president of the University, succeeding Mary Sue Coleman. Schlissel, who was previously the provost at Brown University, discussed his vision for an inclusive and accessible campus in his inaugral address. He encouraged the exchange of diverse viewpoints and experiences to attain “true excellence.” Schlissel’s term began July 1.
#BBUM twitter campaign Community reacts to legalization garners national attention of same-sex marriage to the University By LARA MOEHLMAN
Summer Managing News Editor 2015
Black Student Union issues seven demands aimed at increasing campus diversity By SAM GRINGLAS and ALICIA ADAMCZYK Daily Staff Reporter and Daily News Editor 2013
University students took to Twitter in droves Tuesday afternoon to share their experiences as Black students in Ann Arbor and bring attention to issues of race and diversity on campus using the hashtag #BBUM. “Being Black at the University of Michigan has many shades and many levels to what someone might want to speak on it. It can go from someone being the only Black person in their class to someone with no problems at all.” -LSA senior Eric Gavin The campaign, initiated by the University’s Black Student Union, has built up over the past few days before trending nationally on Twitter Tuesday. The hashtag gained momentum after the student organization distributed an e-mail to community members and other campus groups encouraging them to participate in the online conversation. LSA senior Tyrell Collier, BSU’s president, said the #BBUM campaign was planned to raise awareness of the experiences of Black students and for the BSU to collect subjective data it can couple with University statistics to address pressing issues Black students face. Collier said BSU encouraged students to tweet both negative and positive experiences, though the tweets have been predominantly negative, which he expected. He said the issue is especially pressing on campus because while the University frequently discusses ways to increase diversity, many communities have yet to witness tangible results. “I would like to see the lives of Black students valued more,” Collier said. By 10 p.m., over 10,000 tweets included the hashtag from Ann Arbor and beyond. “I don’t think this is a problem specific to the University, I think it’s an experience that Black students at predominantly White universities
across the nation are facing,” he said of the far-reaching responses. Black enrollment at the University has fallen precipitously over the past decade largely due to Proposal 2, an amendment to the state constitution that bans affirmative action policies that was passed by Michigan voters in 2006. The proposal, formally named the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, bars the University from considering race in its admissions process. Immediately after the passage of the proposal, University President Mary Sue Coleman gave a dramatic address on the Diag promising to maintain the University’s commitment to diversity. However, the institution has been unable to stanch the decline in minority enrollment through alternative outreach policies in the wake of the affirmative action ban. In Fall 2006, Black students made up around seven percent of the undergraduate population. In Fall 2013, the University reported that Black undergraduate enrollment had fallen to 4.65 percent. Hispanic enrollment as a percentage of the overall undergraduate body also declined over the same period. At a search forum for the next University president in September, the Presidential Search Advisory Committee — which includes the University’s Board of Regents — heard from a number of students about diversity issues. Several student speakers at the event said many minorities feel they lack a voice on campus and occasionally experience bias incidents with both students and instructors. Collier said the University has not yet contacted BSU about Tuesday’s campaign. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald stressed that the University’s next step will be to listen to the students and their experiences on campus. “I think at this point the listening is the most important part and how we might respond is the next step and we haven’t gotten there yet,” Fitzgerald said. He said the University is aware of students’ concerns and recognizes that there is always room for improvement in any organization. However, the University’s social media team responded to the campaign via Twitter Tuesday afternoon: “Thanks for engaging in this conversation. We’re listening, and will be sure all of your voices
are heard. #BBUM” E. Royster Harper, the University’s vice president for student life, created a Twitter account late Tuesday to address the issue. “Got on Twitter to hear and support your voices. Proud of our students. More later,” Harper wrote. LSA senior Eric Gavin, BSU’s public relations chair, said several recent campus events spurred the organization to plan a campaign, including a recent controversy involving Theta Xi fraternity members who branded a party with racialized images and words. BSU also timed its Twitter campaign to correspond with a forum this evening hosted by the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, the Black Student Union, We are Michigan and Students of Color of Rackham. BSU hopes to not only engage members of its organization but also Black campus leaders from an array of groups, Gavin said. However, leaders didn’t believe the student organization would receive national attention for its efforts. “I definitely could not have foreseen the national attention we have garnered in such a short amount of time,” Gavin said. “We felt it necessary to push for an initiative that would bring more awareness to these issues and to the larger Black community.” Though traditional methods such as campus demonstrations play a role in raising awareness, Gavin said BSU decided social media could serve as an additional method for sparking dialogue. “It kept it open ended and that’s why it so successful,” Gavin said. “The hashtag leaves for open ended interpretation so people can say what they feel instead of imposing somebody’s thoughts on them.” So far, students have voiced an array of perspectives. “Being Black at the University of Michigan has many shades and many levels to what someone might want to speak on it,” Gavin said. “It can go from someone being the only Black person in their class to someone with no problems at all. It’s a spectrum, but we want people to be aware of everyone’s different ideas on the issue of being Black at the University of Michigan.” Renowned journalist Michele See BBUM, Page 3
As news that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage swept across the U.S. Friday morning, supporters rallied in both downtown Ann Arbor and Washington D.C. in celebration of this historic decision. The Jim Toy Community Center, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer residents of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and the greater Washtenaw County area, hosted a “Day of Decision Rally” so supporters could gather in response to the Court’s decision. After quieting the crowd, April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, one couple represented in the string of cases considered by the Court, offered remarks under rainbow colored streamers during the press conference portion of the event. DeBoer thanked her lawyers for their determination and hard work. In January 2012, Michigan residents April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, challenging Michigan’s ban on adoption by same-sex couples. DeBoer and Rowse separately adopted one son and two daughters, respectively, but were unable to jointly adopt their children because Michigan law did not recognize same-sex marriages, and only granted joint parent adoption rights to married couples. “It’s been a long, long, hard road,” Deboer said. “It’s been four and a half years in the making… We would not be here if it weren’t for many people, and first and foremost our attorneys: Dana Nessel and Ken Mogill, Bob Sedler and Carole Stanyar. So I want to thank you guys as well. My last comment is to my beautiful children: We did this for you,” DeBoer said. Carole Stanyar, one of the attorneys for DeBoer and Rowse, also spoke at the press conference, praising her team and clients for their hard work and resilience. She expressed pride in the accomplishments of her case. “This was a definitive statement under equal protection, fundamental right, liberty, due process,” Stanyar said. “It was for now, and it’s for future generations. The bans are unconstitutional. States cannot treat people this way. They cannot treat people unequally. Same-sex couples, their families, their children, have to be treated with dignity and respect,”
Stanyar said. In an interview with the press, Attorney General Bill Schuette said throughout litigations, his main argument challenged who would decide if same-sex marriage should be recognized in different states. “We argued this case is a question of who decides: the voters across the United States of America, or the Justices of the Supreme Court,” he said. “It was about voters and who decides, that was what the case was about.” Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor also offered remarks during the celebration. In an interview with the Daily, Taylor was enthusiastic about this progressive milestone in Michigan’s history. “I could not be more excited for the people of Ann Arbor and for all Americans. This is a day when the Supreme Court has redeemed the American promise of equality before the law. It has ratified that gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people are fully and finally embraced into the American family. It’s just — it’s wonderful,” Taylor said. Beth Sherman, assistant professor of social work at the University and her wife, Karen Hawver, owner of Precision Accounting in Ann Arbor, attended the celebration and press conference at Braun Court with their two children. Sherman and Hawver were one of the 300 couples married in Michigan in March 2014 after a U.S. federal judge struck down s the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Both were excited that the Supreme Court’s decision would further legitimize their marriage. “We’ve been together for 21 years and we have two kids, and now it just means eventually we’ll be able to both be their legal parents. We were able to marry the one day in Michigan, but now it just means our marriage will be recognized, so it’s good for us and for our children.” University alum Alanna Maguire, a project manager of the National Marriage Challenge, a non-profit committed to legalizing same-sex marriage in the U.S., said she was proud of her team. She also said she was proud of her fiancé Dana Nessel, also a University alum and an attorney for the April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse case. She said she was also excited that she and Nessel could now obtain a
marriage license themselves. “I can get married in my home state. Dana Nessel and I are both from Michigan. We’re both University of Michigan graduates. We love our state. We just wanted to make it better, and I’m so, so proud of Dana particularly today. She carried this case from start to finish,” said Maguire. Brad O’Connor, president of the Jim Toy Community Center, expressed enthusiasm for his own marriage, which was officiated in Illinois, to be officially recognized in his home state of Michigan. “It means that...my family, that was only recognized in twothirds of the country, is now recognized nationwide. I can go to Texas or I can go to Louisiana and Maine and California and have my marriage valid there,” said O’Connor. However, although O’Connor reserved today for celebration, he added that the Supreme Court’s decision resolves only one aspect of the LGBTQ community’s current struggle for equality in the U.S. “This is just something that we check off the list. There’s so much more left to do with regards to bullying in high schools, transgender rights — that’s huge— making sure that we’re protected at work, because we could be fired, still, for being gay. The fight’s not over. It’s just the battle’s won. It’s a big battle, but this battle’s won, and now it’s time to move on and keep fighting,” O’Connor said. Aside from granting same-sex couples the right to marriage, the Supreme Court’s decision could have further legal stipulations on health and work benefits. University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said the University will review the Court’s ruling and adjust benefits for same-sex couples in both a legal and timely fashion. “We realize that some members of our community will be anxious to change their benefit enrollment status and we will study the ruling carefully to ensure that we offer new eligibility in a manner that is legal and timely,” Fitzgerald said. In an interview with the Daily, University law professor Julian Mortenson said the Court’s decision could have an impact on health benefits the University offers. “For every category as to which marriage triggers rights and responsibilities, like benefits, access, permissions to health care facilities, etc., same-sex marriage couples will have exactly the same rights as opposite-sex couples,” he said. The Supreme Court’s ruling was thorough enough to address any other potential issues, he added, saying it was clear in its decision. “There were more complicated scenarios that could possibly have emerged from this opinion before it was released, but as it turns out, the Supreme Court has written a decision that is very straightforward and is very emphatic,” he said. Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) lauded April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse in a statement for their courage in taking their case to the Supreme Court. “With this decision, thousands of Michigan same-sex couples will finally be afforded the same opportunity to marry as other Americans, including April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse of Michigan, who courageously took their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court,” Peters said.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Saturday, April 29, 2017 — 3
2017
2015
2016
MARCH 31: Central Student Government rejected a resolution
FEBUARY 9: Two years after the outbreak of the Flint Water
to support a committee that would investigate the University’s investment in companies that allegedly violate the rights of Palestinian people. After four hours of discussion, 15 members of the assembly voted in favor, 25 opposed and one abstained. Dozens of University affiliates spoke regarding the issue at the deciding meeting.
SEPTEMBER 10: At a meeting of all members of University
Greek life, University President Mark Schlissel discussed alcohol abuse and sexual assault issues in the Greek community. Schlissel said such a party culture hurts the University’s reputation. The meeting came in the aftermath of the now infamous ski trips, in which several members of the Sigma Alpha Mu faternity vanalized a ski resort, as well as nationwide scrutiny Greek life’s party culture.
Crisis, nearly 100 protesters marched to the Diag, calling out Gov. Rick Snyder for acting carelessly. The crisis occurred as a result of lead contamination in the city’s water supply, following a switch in such supply. The situation was not rectified for almost 18 months, causing severe health problems.
NOVEMBER 9: Nearly 1,000 University affiliates took to the
diag the night after the election of President Donald Trump to protest the controversial candidate’s beliefs and policies. Schlissel spoke, as did students, who called for perseverence in light of the coming four years. Central to the speeches was fear — and a call for unity — on behalf of minority groups.
MARCH 27: University seniors were disappointed when it was
announced there would be no featured speaker at their commencement in late April. Instead, the commencement was to feature a multimedia project of University faculty reading the words from past commencement speeches. One belief was that the University focused more on the bicentennial festivities than on the graduating class.
APRIL 3: In conjunction with the Bicentennial, seven pop-art installations were set up on campus to draw attention to the University’s history. Such installations included a ticker tape sign above the enterance to the Michigan Union, which displayed rules that women had to abide by in terms of building accessibility, as well as 950 maize and blue chairs on the Diag to recognize the underrepresented minority students who did not attend the University after affirmative action was banned by Proposal 2.
Almost 1,000 protest presidentelect Trump’s victory in rally, vigil on Diag By NISA KHAN and CHETALI JAIN Daily Staff Reporters 2016
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Kinesiology sophomore Capri’Nara Kendall in a protest organized by the Black Student Union in front of Hill Auditorium on Monday. The speakers made demands concerning their campaign, Being Black at University of Michigan, giving University officials seven days to respond.
BBUM From Page 2 Norris, the creator of the Race Card Project — a nationwide initiative that gathers perspectives on race and aims to foster dialogue on the subject — partnered with the University during last winter’s theme semester on race, and will give the 2013 Winter Commencement address. In a form similar to BSU’s campaign, Norris used Twitter to broaden the reach of the Race Card Project because she said even though the social media platform only allots users only 140 characters, it’s a powerful way to stimulate
uncomfortable conversations. “I used to say the most productive conversations are the private ones, but Twitter made me rethink that,” Norris said. Norris noted that the University did not “take cover” once the dialogue took off, but rather embraced the campaign and encouraged students to take part in the conversation, which is not always the norm for large institutions. “This is an honest conversation,” she said. “They wanted to see an honest conversation and that’s what this is, as uncomfortable as this may be for people to read about this.” She said diversity has been an issue on every college campus she has visited, and after reading the tweets from Tuesday’s discussion at
Michigan, it is likely the topic isn’t going to subside once the Twitter debate dies down. “It really was not just people talking about their own experiences, but it turned into an actual dialogue,” she said. “People were talking to each other and perhaps even learning from each other, and more importantly listening to each other.” Norris added that she will likely address the issue in her commencement address next month. By asking students to share their experiences as Black students on campus, BSU is hoping to not only bring light to challenges, but also to call other student leaders to action.
University President Schlissel responds to anti-Islam Diag chalk By ALEXA ST. JOHN Daily Staff Reporter 2016
University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel responded to several political and religious statements chalked on the Diag this week, including “Stop Islam,” “Trump 2016” and “Build the Wall,” Thursday afternoon, stressing a campus committment statement to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all groups on campus “Attacks directed toward any individual or group within our community, based on a belief or characteristic, are inconsistent with the university’s values of respect, civility and equality, “ Schlissel said. “These are core values and guiding principles that will help us as we strive to live up to our highest ideals.” He emphasized the need for the University community to form a unified front and strive toward understanding and respect for all individuals. The statements, which were largely washed off by Thursday, prompted students to call University police Wednesday and group together to wash some of the chalkings off that same evening. Though the phrases were written in chalk, students gathered on the Diag Wednesday said they thought the effects of them were more permanent on campus climate. Rackham student Banen Al-Sheemary said she and fellow students who encountered the writing and gathered in the Diag found the sayings hurtful and disturbing. “This is so reflective of our student campus and the depths of racism and the things that students of color have to endure and that the administration is continuously silent on,” Al-Sheemary said. “This is just another example. This is happening year after year and we’ve been telling the administration the
same things over and over again.” Al-Sheemary said she and other students had been attempting to contact the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security as well as the University’s administration regarding the writing since Wednesday morning without much response. “I’ve been getting bounced around from one person to another, and I understand it’s after hours, but there should be some kind of emergency number besides the police because a lot of students of color don’t feel comfortable calling the police,” Al-Sheemary said. “They’re our only resource and that I think is ridiculous.” One DPSS officer arrived at the scene around 6:45 p.m Wednesday, but informed students that there was not much that could be done because it was after hours. In response, a group of about ten students began to wash the chalk messages off the Diag with water and towels themselves, pouring buckets of water to erase the statements and wiping down other concrete with rags. “It’s irresponsible of the administration that we are actually out here with buckets of water and napkins to clean off these hateful messages and the administration isn’t taking care of it,” Al-Sheemary said. “And not only is the administration not taking care of it, they are putting us through a really difficult process. That perpetuates these really racist and hateful stereotypes that turn into violence and turn into students of color feeling unsafe on campus.” LSA junior Tahany Alsabahi, one of the students who contacted DPSS, echoed Al-Sheemary’s sentiments. “There needs to be another resource for students, and I think, also, the University has to speak out against these things,” Alsabahi said. “Because oftentimes when this happens for other groups, they’re very quick to release statements and
say that they don’t condone antiSemitism or any other type of stuff like that, but it gets really iffy and it becomes really difficult to get them to speak out against Islamophobia.” In a statement Wednesday night in response to the incident, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said the University was committed to inclusivity. “Earlier today someone used chalk to write a #stopislam message on the main square in the heart of our campus known as the Diag,” the statement read. “Attacks directed toward any member or group within the University of Michigan community, based on a belief or characteristic, are inconsistent with our values of respect, civility and equality. We all understand that where speech is free it will sometimes wound. But our message is this: We are fully committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and inclusive of everyone. Tonight we are reminded there is much work yet to be done.” Fitzgerald also noted that several reports had been filed with the University’s bias response team, and officials from the team had been to the Diag Wednesday. Al-Sheemary said she was not surprised by either the various writings for and against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, or statements targeting Muslim students. “It’s nothing new,” Al-Sheemary said. “Maybe it has just been heightened with the election, but this is just something that happened before 9/11, spiked with 9/11 and it’s not anything new and it affects a lot of students of color.” Alsabahi also noted that she thought statements like those on the Diag had connotations beyond political. “When speech can incite violence and aggression and hatred towards another group, that’s when it becomes hate speech,” she said.
Both a vigil and anti-Trump rally were held Wednesday night in protest of President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected win in the Diag, drawing a crowd of nearly 1,000 University of Michigan students, faculty and staff, as well as community members. The vigil featured both student speakers and University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel. Speakers called for perseverance during the next four years of Trump’s term, discussing both the fear felt by minority students on campus and the importance of action. LSA senior Nicole Khamis opened the vigil by recounting conversations with her parents, who are Palestinian refugees, the morning after Election Day. “We came here for a better life and last night, I woke up at 2:30 to the election results,” she said. “I thought it was a dream. And I called my parents, they could see that my eyes are red because I had been tearing up. … And (my mother) looked at me and said, ‘This is not the end.’ ” Throughout his campaign, Trump has criticized President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s policy of allowing more Syrian refugees to enter the country. Trump’s immigration plan details an end to letting a number of groups into the United States, and in February Trump claimed he would look at Syrian children and tell them they could not enter the country. “Are we going to stand up in the face of racism, in the face of sexism, in the face of xenophobia?” Khamis asked the cheering crowd. “My parents have escaped a war to have a better life for me and my two siblings. And we did not come to this country for this.” In his remarks, Schlissel congratulated University students for waiting in lines and voting, stating that student voices were 90-10 in favor of a candidate other than Trump. Earlier today, he penned an email to students urging them to be inclusive and work toward intellectual honesty in their conversations. “Ninety percent of you rejected the kind of hate and the fractiousness and the longing for some kind of idealized version of a non-existent yesterday that was expressed during the campaign,” Schlissel said during the event. “So I urge you, continue your advocacy and your voices are already being heard. They are loud and clear — this is the way America changes. It’s the way it always changes. It’s the way it will change for the better.” According to USA Today exit polls, 56 percent of voters nationwide ages 18 to 24 voted for Clinton. There are no age-based exit polls specifically for Ann Arbor, but Michigan Daily surveys of students in the leadup to the election indicated a strong campus preference for Clinton at about 70 percent. At the rally, similar sentiments were expressed. Business junior Myles Hawkins said he felt shock after finding out the results of the election, and that he came to the rally to gain a sense of comfort about the situation. “(As an) African American, it’s hard to fathom Donald Trump being my president because he (has) no respect for my background, and it’s shocking to have gone from the first Black president, which was celebrated in my family … to
a person who doesn’t seem to care about (them) or my culture,” he said. The rally emphasized solidarity and began with a chant: “The people united will never be divided,” that progressively grew into a unified roar. Speakers at both the vigil and the rally also emphasized the need to take action moving forward. In remarks at the vigil, CSG President David Schafer, an LSA senior, asked all individuals in the crowd to hold others accountable for discriminatory actions. He said minority students have had to be the ones responsible for calling out hate speech in the past, citing an incident last semester when Muslim students were the ones to wash off anti-Islamophobic chalk drawings on the Diag. “To all that have been targeted or marginalized: You have a place on this campus,” he said. “The University of Michigan is yours just as much as anybody else’s. Don’t stop challenging each other. So I am challenging everyone here tonight who professes to be an ally — whenever you hear a microaggression, whenever you hear an act of discrimination and bigotry or injustice perpetrated by one of your friends or anyone of your acquaintances, step up and challenge them. Because if you don’t, you are part of the problem.” LSA senior Tina Al-khersan told the crowd at the vigil several stories about her younger brother being asked if he had bombs underneath his coat in a response to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, which has included statements about deporting Muslims due to their possibly being terrorists. Speaking before Al-khersan, University alum Harleen Kaur said she felt afraid for her life the day after Trump’s win. “I simply ask for you to not be comfortable as we have after violence and tragedy countless times before,” Kaur said. “Do not let yourself be destroyed by fear but do not let yourself be wooed into calm. There’s work to be done.” Multiple speakers at both the vigil and rally told the crowd they had the right to feel sadness about the election result, calling it a confirmation that the country does not support minorities. At the vigil, Khamis said her family has not traveled to the United States only to be deported. “We need to organize, we need to mobilize,” she said. “Remember this is not a new fight for my family, this is not a new fight for women, this is not a new fight for Latina/Latino, this is not a new fight for the LGBT+ community. This has been happening forever. But now we know that it has been institutionalized to the point it is in the White House.” Earlier in the night at the rally, Public Policy graduate student Sundar Sharma expressed similar sentiments. “(We must) grieve and rebuild … especially because of the forces trying to stop us,” Sharma said. “Trump and Trumpism isn’t going to be around forever.” LSA senior Adedolapo Adeniji, whose parents are both immigrants to the United States, told the vigil crowd she was not going to stop fighting — and asked fellow students to do the same. “I don’t care what the election said today,” she said. “I don’t care what it says in the next four years. I refuse to stop fighting not because of my family of immigrants who have nobody to fight for them, not just for me for the people for look like me, for the people who don’t look like me, for the people who have visible differences.”
LSA junior Darian Razdar asked for help from white students in particular to become allies. “White, straight, cisgendered students, it’s the time for you to show up for your loved ones,” he said. “Don’t fall to the silence of a racist and homophobic society,” he said. “Be there for those of us who need it.” Ford senior Thomas Hislop, a vigil attendee, said while he grew up in a Republican house, his family does not agree at all with Trump’s ideology. “I grew up in a house of love,” he said. “I grew up in a house where it was more important to care about marginalized people than about your marginal taxes.” Many students said they felt energized by the vigil and the rally, as well as unity with those were also scared about the future of the country. School of Music Theatre & Dance freshman Nina Renella said the vigil allowed her to have a more positive space to express how she felt. “I really just wanted to be surrounded by love… I feel like I have been very sad and despaired all day,” she said. “And as a person of color, I feel very threatened and shaken to the core. I am an immigrant, so I just wanted to be surrounded by love.” Echoing Renenlla, LSA junior Michael Miller said students needed to become more organized and continue to support each other. “While today was a very emotional day, we need to come together like we did tonight,” he said. “We need to come together for the future. Despite the election, despite all of the hatred, we need to make that happen.” Many students also expressed the fear and frustration they felt for friends and family who could be affected by the election’s outcome, as well as with how the electoral process works, throughout the vigil. LSA junior Dale Mallete said while he feared what it would create, he had to accept the process that led to Trump’s win. “The fact that I know LGBT friends and family and all of the people that I know that could be affected by this — it leaves a terrible feeling in my gut that sort of been there all day,” Mallete said. “So I am kind of disappointed that this is the route that America decided to go with. But ultimately I need to respect the democratic process and have to accept the results of the election. For some students, however, the events left something to desire. LSA junior Remi Murrey said she was upset with the lack of mentions of Black lives, emphasizing that she feels Black lives have been consistently excluded in both national and campuswide dialogues. “Our lives matter just as much as Muslim lives, Latina/Latinx lives, and LGBT lives,” she said. “We are constantly fighting our lives and our lives are being taken from us for however long. We have to see Donald Trump as the President of the United States and that is messed up. I understand that he had made threats against everyone’s community but we are just as affected as everyone else in this country that we live in.” “Again, I don’t matter. Not in this campus, not in this country, not in this world…(God) has pushed my ancestors for many years and he is going to push me for the next four to eight years.”
Opinion It’s #notmycampus — it’s ours
4 — Saturday, April 29, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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FROM THE DAILY
Reevaluating R&E requirement
O
11/21/13
n Tuesday, the Black Student Union organized a “Being Black at the University of Michigan” campaign both on social media and University spaces, where Black students were encouraged to tweet and share their experiences of being Black at the University. The #BBUM campaign is just one of many student movements to point to declining minority enrollment and a lack of support from University administration as instrumental in creating a hostile racial climate. Since Michigan is devoted promoting and nurturing a diverse institution, the administration should demonstrate this commitment by requiring all freshman to take a course concerning contemporary identity issues. Earlier this semester, We Are Michigan organized a “Freeze Out” protest, where minority students and allies banded together to form a circle surrounding the Diag, carrying signs that read “We want real diversity,” and “I am that one Black girl in your class” along with other signs outlining the low minority representation on campus. Following an offensive “Hood Ratchet Thursday” party planned by the University’s chapter of Theta Xi, student leaders have responded by organizing forums to raise awareness and urging campus leadership to hold students accountable for irresponsible behavior and, more importantly, to stop treating these aggressions as isolated instances. As part of their general LSA requirements, every student must take at least three credits from a list of approved courses that fulfill a race and ethnicity requirement. To be approved, classes must discuss the meaning of race, ethnicity and racism, inequality resulting from racial and ethnic intolerance, and comparisons of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, social class or gender. The goal of this requirement is to prepare students for working in multiethnic,
multiracial environments in school and beyond. However, many of these classes are history courses that are highly theoretical in material. This is misleading because they imply history alone is more relevant than discussing the very tangible lasting effects and contemporary legacy of that history. Students should be required to take specific courses that openly discuss issues related to racism, classism and sexism as they exist and inform their interactions — in society generally and particularly on this campus. Instead, a required course about identity will help us nurture a more socially aware and responsible student body, and will serve as an unprecedented demonstration to students that University administration is committed to promoting and institutionalizing diversity education. This required course should replace the current race and ethnicity requirement and should become a part of every incoming freshman’s schedule. The course should discuss social identity in its multiple forms — spanning issues of racism, sexism, LGBTQ discrimination, classism and discussing the ways in which power and privilege play an unignorable role in sustaining
these issues. Learning and reading material, assignments and discussions should challenge students to consider their own identities and the role they play in society. To nurture meaningful discussion and a safe space, the course should be dialogue-based, with facilitators who are trained by the University’s Program on Intergroup Relations and the Office of Student Conflict Resolution. We recognize that students in this course will interact and respond to material very differently, and some may feel uncomfortable. However, if the University is serious about creating a climate that is safe for all identities, it must urge students to confront the serious and often uncomfortable questions that our campus community cannot afford to overlook. Since the University has already instituted the race and ethnicity requirement, it only makes sense that it be refined and modernized to fulfill the goal for which it was created and adjust to the needs of shifting campus climate. Only upon having these serious conversations, both with themselves and with others, will students be prepared to enter a diverse world without threatening the safety of others in that space.
By MICHAEL SUGERMAN Columnist 2016
There have been many “not mys” this week. “Not my campus.” “Not my president.” “Not my country.” You’re all right — these things are not yours. They are ours. We should be concerned by how polarized things seem, and perhaps by how we may be complicit in amplifying that polarization. What we share and how we share it is increasingly contentious. This election and its aftermath illustrate as much. This isn’t a call for unity. Unity is overrated. We won’t always agree on matters of politics. In fact, it’s important not to, because more often than not, what makes a policy “good” falls to normative judgment. Sharing and debating a wide swath of opinions is invaluable; such discourse broadens our collective worldview and creates the framework for compromise. Now more than ever we need to (re) learn how to coexist, and to approach conflict with civility and respect, not judgment and violence. That much is true regardless of the candidate for whom you voted. We are all human beings with basic shared desires — these include security and wellbeing, with applications from physical to financial to psychological. Our individual pursuit of what we need varies infinitely, but at its core we can find common ground. If you didn’t vote for Trump, consider why such a vast portion of the country did. Know that their frustration and anger might have paralleled what you feel now if Trump had lost. Many Trump voters feel they are being mischaracterized as racist, bigoted xenophobes — and yes, clearly, some of them are this way — but why might scores of people have voted for him in spite of concerns about his language? If you did vote for Trump, consider why such a vast portion of the United States didn’t. Understand why, overwhelmingly, people of color, Latinx, Muslims, coalitions of women, those who identify as LGBTQ+ and more are so upset. Understand why they feel unsafe.
Trump’s diction throughout his campaign, intentionally or not, has seemingly made these contingencies even more subject to discrimination, hate and violence than they were before. We’ve seen it in our Ann Arbor bubble, and the reality is, many who have been and are being marginalized feel that having voted for our president-elect constitutes tacit approval of these consequences. Ultimately, then, now is not the time for either disillusionment or reticence. These will exacerbate political stratification and othering — which we cannot afford. If you signed the “#notmycampus” petition, I think you’re misguided. You don’t get to call “microagression” when it suits your agenda, but decry an overly sensitive, “politically correct” country when your status quo is challenged. If you’re so upset by the election’s outcome that you declare Trump is “not my president” and the U.S. is “not my country,” I think you may be misguided, too. People of all backgrounds talk about being disenfranchised by the system in one way or another, and the reality is that in democracy, we are all part of the system in some capacity, even when we feel outcast. Accepting this isn’t easy, especially when the institutional odds are historically stacked against you. Instead of retreating to our corners, let’s talk to each other. It’ll be hard. Emotional. At times, triggering. But it will be necessary if we have any hope for some semblance of reconciliation. I think it’s going to require adopting certain practices that common opponents of “political correctness” hate: creating safe spaces, dispersing trigger warnings and acknowledging microaggressions when applicable. Before you write these concepts off, consider that labels tend to be more divisive than the concepts they define. Some say trigger warnings and safe spaces are soft excuses for avoiding conflict. But, if I suggested that we warn students before a screening of “A Clockwork Orange” (which contains graphic rape scenes) that its content could prove traumatic
for victims of sexual assault, I doubt I’d be rebuked. If I suggested implementing a judgment-free zone for people to ask difficult questions about race for which they may feel apprehensive, ignorant or just plain stupid, my conjecture is that few would object. Don’t recuse yourself from dialogue that makes you uncomfortable. Be open to ideas you may disagree with, or even those which may offend you, so that we may find the common ground underlying opposing positions. On matters of policy, know that it’s OK if we don’t resolve our differences, but on matters of humanity, know that doing so is imperative. We should all be outraged by the crime alerts of the last few days. So, regardless of your political affiliation, be an ally to the marginalized. This is a term with which I wasn’t all that familiar until recently, and I turned to my Facebook friends to help me define it. They said “allying oneself” to the marginalized entails listening to them; protesting alongside them even when our experiences are not shared; advocating fairness, equality and equity; intervening when we come into contact with family, friends, acquaintances and strangers alike who push unjust rhetoric or ideology at the expense of others. It’s about asking people how you can be helpful, even if you don’t relate to what they’re going through. Really, being an “ally” is just having basic human decency. We are all capable of that. The result of this election is set in stone, and we need to work together to move forward from here. Facebook posts and catchy Twitter hashtags aren’t enough. Subversions of our democratic systems, like petitioning the Electoral College to change the outcome, aren’t the answer either. Conversations with homogenous groups who share our opinions will only further divide us. Do you want change? Let’s be good to each other, even when we disagree. Let’s do our homework. Read newspapers, get civically involved, vote and start listening. We can do this.
Opinion & Arts
michigandaily.com — The Michigan Daily
The value of an education By TYLER SCOTT Columnist 2015
It’s all but impossible to calculate the finite value of an education. At my middleclass high school in Michigan, one of the biggest pitches that teachers and administrators made to try and convince more of my peers to attend college relied purely on economics. “College grads make more,” they said. While that may typically be true, the f luctuating economy and subsequent job market doesn’t make attending a fouryear university a sure bet. Laying thousands of dollars on the table just to get a job can even seem paradoxical. Borrow money to pay for school, get a job, profit. Then pay the money back. But universities shouldn’t be seen as manufacturers of employees. Students shouldn’t look back after graduation and weigh the cost of a college against the job prospects they were able to line up by their first month as an alum. Education benefits society as a whole. No one’s chances of finding a job would improve if everyone in America held a bachelor’s degree, but the way our country would operate culturally and politically would transform and for the better. For example, Pamela Brandwein, a political science professor here at the University, wrote a book on reinterpreting Reconstruction-era politics and history after the Civil War. Some of her work has been especially relevant this year. After the Charleston church shooting in June, the nation entered a discussion about the Confederate f lag. South Carolina lawmakers, and the nation, debated the f lag’s meaning; one side claiming it as a symbol of Southern heritage, while others passionately bemoaned against the state’s use of a f lag that stood for a nation founded upon acute racism and slavery. In a resoundingly American fashion, we couldn’t even agree on what the ol’ stars and bars represent. The Civil War has been over for nearly one and a
half centuries, but we haven’t been able to reach a consensus on what it was about. I remember being taught (shout out public school) that the Civil War was about slavery. I also remember being taught that this was too simple of a summation, that slavery was the big issue, but really state’s rights were what was on the line for the Confederacy. And then I entered Brandwein’s class, and I re-learned two things. First, yes the Civil War was indeed fought over slavery, period. The prevailing sentiment in the South was that slavery was an institution of the utmost importance because the unlimited source of free labor was supposed to be the cornerstone upon which a Southern utopia (for white folks) was built. Secondly, political forces have the power to reshape history and affect our cultural understanding of it for decades and generations to come. After the Civil War, the loudest and most boisterous proslavery guys recognized a sinking ship when they were standing on it and began the line of rhetoric about states’ rights as the cause for the war. Unfortunately, they were successful, and this incorrect interpretation of history still exists around high school classrooms and water coolers today. Thanks, professor, for clearing that up. Brandwein isn’t the first scholar, historian or journalist to pin down the truth about slavery and the Civil War. But in the public, we still see its significance as something that’s up for debate. To drive a point home, anyone who believes the Civil War wasn’t a war about slavery is wrong. But the truth, though made relatively accessible to undergraduates here and at other universities, isn’t as easy to come across in the real world. Society has entered fullforce into the information age, and everyone is surrounded by accessible data. While there’s a lot of good that comes from this, there are now more channels than ever to launch a marketing campaign to sway public opinion. The ability of self-interested actors to control what story gets told in the newspapers and on TV has made it incredibly difficult to
find out what is really going on. Pick an issue: Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Detroit’s bankruptcy — it doesn’t matter. Each person and each news outlet frames things differently. And there have been countless cases where powerful people have lied to the public with their own motives in mind. “I am not a crook,” said Richard Nixon. Even with the brightest minds examining an event, like with the Civil War example, lies and political spin can slip past American common sense and become, for better or, more often, worse, part of what we accept as fact. We then carry on with an incorrect understanding of what is true and what happened. Knowing this, the high volume of lies and political pandering should cause anyone from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., to think more critically about the information they consume. In an educated society, we would all have the skills to at least do this. Making more people college graduates benefits the greater good. A college education exposes each person to perspectives, ideas and concepts they otherwise may not have stumbled upon. Students absorb all of this information and take it with them to parties, coffee shops and, eventually, society in some form or another. In a time where privilege is defined by access to opportunity, being educated turns over a blank page for new ideas and ways of thinking. If more people had access to education, it could aid in turning the echo chamber of social media unoriginality, bias and uninformed public opinion into something more symphonic. And more importantly, it undercuts the ability of politicians and billionaires to sell their own versions of history and manipulate the masses into acting or believing certain ways. Above all else, receiving an education may not get you a job, but it can provide some direction amid all the chaos and half the production of lemmings (the video game people, not the animals). Because as the late, great Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll wind up someplace else.”
Saturday, April 29, 2017 — 5
BOOKS
‘Cooking for Jeffery:’ An iconic American love story By KATHLEEN DAVIS Managing Arts Editor 2016
Ina Garten is a powerhouse. When the Food Network train hit new heights of popularity in the mid-aughts, Garten reached a new level of celebrity status attained by only a few other chefs on the network. Her long-running series, “Barefoot Contessa,” has been on air since 2002, making it one of the longest running series on the network. In each episode, Garten is effortlessly charming as she cooks a meal for a special guest — be it friends, a celebrity or her longtime husband, Jeffrey. Ina and Jeffrey’s relationship has reached an almost cult status, as the pair (who have been married since 1968) have a chemistry that would make any cynic a believer in true love. When so many marriages end in divorce these days, how can we not rally around a couple who has made it work for almost 50 years? It was no surprise, then, that Garten’s 10th cookbook, released last month, is titled “Cooking for Jeffrey.” The glossy hardcover is two parts cookbook, one part love story. The introduction traces the history of Garten’s relationship with cooking and her relationship with Jeffrey. The two things are inextricably interconnected, Garten says. According to her, Jeffrey was the one who encouraged her to work in the food industry and pursue her dreams in the public sphere. Jeffrey is no stranger to attaining lofty goals himself; he’s Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, and has worked in several presidential administrations. Not to be outdone by her husband, Garten has an extremely impressive resume from before her venture into the food world. She worked in the White House during the Ford and Carter administrations writing policy papers on nuclear energy. In the words of Garten herself, “how great is that?”
On first glance, I joked to my friends that the title of the cookbook seemed bad for feminism. I never thought badly about Ina for it — Garten is old enough to be my grandmother, and I am well aware of how gender roles have shifted since she was in college. However, I was surprised to see her actually tackle the topic of feminism in her introduction: “I often say [Jeffrey] was the first feminist I ever knew; he believed that I could do anything I wanted to do.” The couple’s mutually beneficial relationship is highlighted several times in “Cooking for Jeffrey.” It’s one thing to see their relationship on television, where Ina is queen of the kitchen and Jeffrey seems happy just to be on the receiving end of her production. It’s a completely different thing to read Garten’s heartfelt gratitude for finding a relationship that allows both people to follow their goals while loving each other deeply. While f lipping through “Cooking with Jeffrey,” I was fascinated that not only did every recipe sound delicious, but they all looked like something I, an amateur home cook, could whip up without too much trouble. One of the reasons Ina Garten has become a Food Network icon is her penchant for simple meals that require ingredients you probably have in your fridge. While there are recipes that require a thoughtfully planned grocery run (“Fried Oysters with Lemon Saffron Aioli,” for instance), most of the recipes are something you could easily make with a few hours notice. In Ina’s recount of her culinary history, she explains that she finds the best meals are often the simplest, coming from perfected classic recipes. This explains the prevalence of meals with humble names like “Roast Chicken with Radishes,” “Parmeasan Roasted Zucchini,” and “Roasted Italian Meatballs.” For a television personality, Garten has done a wonderful
job making her audience feel like they share an intimate connection with her. Skimming through the blurbs written at the top of each recipe, I found myself reading some of her iconic phrases in her voice, like I was watching the recipe unfold on her show (“How smart is that?”). It’s hard to tell if you want her to be your grandmother, or your mother, or your Hampton neighbor. But the overwhelming reaction is that her fans do want her in their life in some capacity becauseshe seems like such a fun and friendly person. Her voice translates nicely from “Barefoot Contessa” to her cookbooks, a hard-to-achieve skill that has certainly been perfected from years in the business. Sitting down with “Cooking for Jeffrey” is the reading equivalent of curling up in a blanket next to a fire — the warmth Ina has for her husband and her love for cooking radiates off every page. Even for the biggest skeptic, there is something beautiful about hearing how two people fell (and stayed) in love. “Cooking for Jeffrey” not only offers a glimpse into the first few years of Ina and Jeffrey’s relationship, but you can rest easy knowing the story has a happy ending almost five decades later. As Garten reminds us in her “Planning a Party” chapter, food is no fun unless you’re sharing it with the people you love, be it friends, family or Jeffrey. Cooking for others is a self less act that can be deeply personal, and the ritual of sharing a meal is only productive if we’re building on our relationship with that person through conversation and laughter. Though especially important in this political climate, this lesson is something that each and every one of us should hold deeply. Besides, if we learn anything about sustaining a marriage from Ina and Jeffrey’s relationship, it’s undeniable that sharing lots of delicious meals has only helped.
Michigan in Color
PHOTO COURTESY OF TYRELL COLLIER
Letter to the revolutionaries By SUNDAI JOHNSON MiC Contributor 2014
This piece was originally posted on Facebook in reaction to the grand jury’s decision that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the death of teenager Michael Brown. It has since been revised for publication in The Michigan Daily. I am usually not one to use Facebook as a platform to share my own voice. I might repost things I find funny or exciting, artistic and beautiful, reassuring. Repost about issues that are relevant and important that ref lect my thinking and beliefs, but when it comes to my own voice on this particular platform, I have been silent. But tonight, on this grave night, when my hands and
heart tremble, there is no other time that might merit a greater reason to speak out than this. We all know what happened months ago. We all know what happened tonight. We are all reacting in some capacity. I’m thankful for the voices that resonate with my own, the words I can snap to. It reminds me that I am not alone, that we are not alone. That we matter. And while I am hurt and angered by those voices that are dead set that this man is innocent, that this circumstance is not about race, these arguments are irrelevant to the matter and not only is there no room to discuss this, there is negative room to discuss this. Then there are those who believe they are not reacting at all. Those who have the power and privilege to look away. I
would just like to say that your passivity might be the biggest reaction of them all. Neutrality is the greatest threat to a world that might one day be just and free to all. This silence perpetuates a
There is no ‘neutral’ where human rights are concerned, only
responsibility. system in which accountability and responsibility are not required and tells those who believe that this is anything less than a tragedy that they are right. There is no more room for
passivity and complacency. There is no ‘neutral’ where human rights are concerned, only responsibility. This is not the time to police and criticize the reactions of a people beaten and broken down by a system in a country and society built on their backs and their blood. And please spare me arguments about how slavery is irrelevant. The institution of slavery helped create a system where Black bodies are seen as subhuman and where unlawful Black death is justified, rewarded and upheld socially, institutionally and politically. This is the mess slavery — and the violent distorted thinking and bloody actions that produced it — made. We’ll stop talking about it when its residual effects are cleaned up. Tonight I am ill with sadness
and trauma. I believed that maybe we might have made it a little farther than we’d come before. I am pained to admit that I was sorely mistaken and am now perplexed by this massive question of where we go from here. What do we do now? I may — we may — have been wrong in thinking our justice system would move away from its haunting history and surprise us with hope for the future, but I believe I am right about one thing: This time is different. The difference not being in a system that consistently fails us — but the difference being in a people tired of being failed. We have changed; we are the difference; we have the power to be the change. This cannot be put to bed. They wanted us to forget but
we cannot allow them to bury us, to bury this. We must keep organizing, keep speaking, yelling, screaming, until we are heard. Marching, stomping, pounding, shaking the ground until the system has no choice but to break. And by we I mean all. This is not a Black issue; this is a human issue, as all violations of human rights are. We did not enslave ourselves. We need just as many bodies that helped get us here to help us get free. I live by this always and I will say it a dozen times over: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion” — Albert Camus I will be a rebellion. I will be a revolution. I hope y’all will join me.
Arts
6 — Saturday, April 29, 2017
2014
ARTS over the YEARS
MARCH 2: “12 Years a Slave” wins the 86th Academy Award for Best Picture. MARCH: Chance the Rapper performs to a packed crowd at Hill Auditorium. SEPTEMBER: “Transparent” premieres on Amazon Instant Video.
2015
MARCH: Kendrick Lamar releases the socially relevant and musically brilliant To Pimp a Butterfly. MAY: Mad Men concludes after eight years, ending an era in the golden age of television. FEBRUARY: “Hamilton” makes its offbroadway premiere to a sold-out crowd at the Public Theatre.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2016
JANUARY/APRIL/NOVEMBER: David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen, some of music’s most defining figures of the 20th century, pass away. APRIL: Beyoncé releases her magnum opus, Lemonade, a visual album. FEBRUARY: Leonardo DiCaprio wins his first Oscar for his compelling performance as Hugh Glass in “The Revenant.”
2017 FEBRUARY: Moonlight wins the 89th Academy Award for Best Picture. APRIL: Lil Yachty, Desiigner and 2 Chainz perform at Crisler Arena for Springfest.
MUSIC COLUMN
If I could see all my friends tonight By LAUREN THEISEN Daily Music Columnist 2017
I used to listen to “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem and dream about when I would feel nostalgic for it. If you have never listened to LCD, “All My Friends” is its magnum opus, a bullet train of a song that’s undeniably one of the best of its generation. Over an unstoppable, unchanging piano rhythm and the slowly increasing crescendo of drums, synth and guitar, James Murphy — the unofficial spokesman of the lost, aging New York hipster — meditates on growing old while still trying to live the fast life. “You spend the first five years trying to get with the plan / And the next five years trying to be with your friends again,” he sings. “We’re running out of the drugs,” he continues. “and the conversation’s winding away.” Then there’s the line that received crazed cheers at their supposed farewell show back in 2011: “To tell the truth / This could be the last time.” And the repeating refrain to close out the song — “If I could see all my friends tonight…” — before the music seems to disappear into a puff of smoke. My senior year of high school was, of course, filled with goodbyes — but not really. I went off to a school that’s a 30 minute drive from where I grew up, if traffic is bad. I came here with over a dozen classmates I knew well. I still see several regularly, and I keep in touch with plenty more. I’m kind of proud of the fact that I have
only really “lost” a small handful of friends, and even these disconnections felt more-or-less natural. “All My Friends” was a fantastic song, one that grabbed me and didn’t let go for seven-and-a-half minutes, but it never conjured up any specific memories. It was never mainstream enough to be a song I danced to with people. It never soundtracked a celebratory occasion. It mainly just stayed in my pocket on my “Top 25 Most Played” iPod playlist. Through college, I always seemed to make a special point of listening to it at the end of the summer, usually when I realized I was driving around Livonia for the last time in a while. It turned into a ceremonial thing — I’d turn it up loud and try to inhabit the lyrics, even though I was usually just making a mundane trip to a grocery store or library. Each time, I felt like the song would touch some part of me that needed to connect, but even though I enjoyed the goofy devotion of the whole practice, I don’t know if I can say that it ever quite moved me. The line Murphy sings that always sticks out to me when I listen is the classic: “I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision / For another five years of life.” It’s tailor-made for a high school yearbook quote, and I always, every time I listen, think about whether it’s true. 2016 was the first year I started noticing the ages of celebrities who died. I subtracted my age from theirs and wondered what fraction of my life had already been lived — and whether I could
comprehend the amount of time I theoretically had left. More pressingly, I checked to see if they were younger than my parents, and if they were, I searched for mitigating factors and tried to find relief in the revelations that these famous people smoked cigarettes or lived otherwise unhealthy lifestyles. I have made a lot of stupid decisions in my life, only some of which turned out to be good stories later. There are hospital trips that could have been avoided; there’s that time I slammed a door on a friend and almost broke her mirror; the multiple times I spilled wine on carpets. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think I actually identify with “All My Friends.” Murphy sings like an everyman, and his arrangement is visionary, so it’s the kind of song any lover of music can appreciate. There’s a certain anticipation, though, that I have whenever I queue it up — I’m looking forward to powerful emotions. I’m ready to feel something that never quite hits. But now, I’m ready for actual goodbyes. The friends I never really left in high school are getting jobs out of state. I just finished up my time at the first job I ever loved. I’ll leave for the summer without the certainty of returning to see the same people again. I’ll finally be able to say “To tell the truth / This could be the last time and mean it,” and I can’t help feeling like at some point soon I’m going to listen to LCD Soundsystem and actually,
Claudia Rankine to talk about ‘Citizen’ at Rackham Daily Arts Writer 2017
According to author Claudia Rankine, the inception of her book-length poem, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” began with the question: “How did that happen?” Something of an investigation, the poem opens with secondhand prose poetry cataloguing the lived experience of racism among Rankine’s friends and colleagues. “I just wanted to see if people were sensitive to the fact that every day in small ways, they were themselves engaged in actions that were annihilating other people’s human rights, their rights to be here as a citizen and as a person in the world,” Rankine said in a phone interview with the Michigan Daily. As part of the Martin Luther King Day Symposium, Claudia Rankine, poet, professor and MacArthur fellow, will present on “Citizen” published in 2014. The event will take place in Rackham auditorium, hosted by the U-M Racism Lab. “Citizen” is the first and only book of poetry to ever be named on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list as well as the recipient of the NAACP award and PEN Open Book Award. The poem explores the brutal lived experience of structural racism against Black Americans. “Reading on Martin Luther King Day is always for me, an honor, because it puts me conversation with one of America’s greatest leaders, and not only a great leader in terms of Civil Rights, but for me he is a great leader in terms of human rights. He’s an example to us all,” Rankine said. It is more than fitting that
TV COLUMN
Searching for hope on a TV screen
By BEN ROSENSTOCK
COMMUNITY CULTURE
By MARIA ROBBINSSOMERVILLE
AMELIA CACCHIONE/DAILY
Poet and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine talks about racism and her poem, Citizen, at Rackham Auditorium on January 16, 2017.
Rankine read on MLK day, as her work deals with the profound urgency of the country’s increasing need for humanity and reversal of racist policy and practice. The way “Citizen” challenges poetic form is inseparable from the way it challenges the forms of oppressive sociopolitical structures in American society. The form of the poem is deeply interdisciplinary and interweaves personal narrative, image and news-style evidence. One section lists names of black Americans whose lives were taken by police brutality, the words fading from the page as the poem progresses. The poem is haunting and direct, elucidating the ways in which the recipients of such constant and inhumane treatment wear the oppression on their bodies. As a recipient of a MacArthur Genius grant, Rankine will be broadening her commitment to interdisciplinary work in founding the “Racial Imaginary Institute” in New York, a gallery space to explore race. “Our name ‘racial imaginaries’ is meant to capture the enduring truth of race that is an invented concept that operates with extraordinary force in our daily lives, limiting our movements and imaginations. We understand that perceptions, resources, rights and minds themselves flow along racial lines that confront some of us and give others unchecked power. These lines are drawn and maintained by white dominance,” Rankine, in describing the work of the Institute, said. Although many read Rankine’s work as a call for social change, she explained that she does not think that the artist’s responsibility to elicit a certain reaction or response from an audience. She put it simply: “I’m not into
any prescriptive definition when it comes to being an artist.” The book’s powerful statement on the experience of racism in America merges the personal and political in a way that has resonated with both timelessness and an eerie timeliness. The text places present-day microaggressions against black lives and beside text and images that allude to the era of Jim Crow laws, all culminating in poetry that unleashes something so personally and persistently felt. Near the end of the poem Rankine writes, “That time and that time and that time the outside blistered the inside of you, words outmaneuvered years, had you in a chokehold, every part roughed up, the eyes dripping.” In this moment, the immensity of history and politics upholds a visceral pain that is at once personal and shared. In this, the poet makes no real distinction between artistic intention that is or is not political. “I think that politics are part of life so they are unavoidable, so we don’t need to go out of our way to avoid them or engage them,” Rankine said. “They’re part of our life, our history, our day to day living. They determine everything. I think writers and artists need to do what they do for themselves, to write from the place of most honesty, imaginative, possibility that they can envision themselves in, but they can’t avoid politics whether or not they think they’re doing it.” Rankine will be appearing both at Rackham Auditorium Monday evening and at the Institute for Social Research Tuesday morning where she will talk about her ongoing research on racism in America.
Daily TV Columnist 2016
In the past two weeks since Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States, my weekly TV schedule has seemed less important than ever. Sure, TV is good for escapism, but in the face of such horrific things happening in the real world, whether I’ll catch up on “How to Get Away with Murder” or make time to binge “Transparent” suddenly seems trivial. Of course, I quickly remembered that in times of political turmoil, art is more important than ever. A wealth of smart pieces have been written about this already. Genevieve Koski recently quoted Roger Ebert’s famous speech in which he claims, “the movies are like a machine that generates empathy,” arguing that by setting out to engage with every piece of pop culture we encounter, we become more understanding people. The Michigan Daily’s own Dayton Hare suggested that artists are obligated to “bring people together into the oneness of human existence.” As I caught up on my shows recently, I realized that part of the reason I assumed Hillary Clinton would become president is that I watch an overwhelming amount of progressive, liberal-minded TV. Most of my favorite new fall shows have female leads — “Fleabag” and “The Good Place,” for example. Most of my favorite returning shows have predominantly female casts with a wealth of roles for women of color, like “Jane the Virgin” and “Orange is the New Black.” Hollywood most definitely still has a long way to go in terms of bringing marginalized groups to the screen — just look at last year’s Oscars controversy — but we’re in a period of unprecedented onscreen diversity. Being so used to that diversity, so used to the feminist beliefs I see regularly espoused on my favorite shows, has only emphasized how much of a bubble I live in. Living in a bubble can have negative consequences if you assume the rest of the world is the same as yours, but I don’t mean to say that these progressive shows got
Trump elected. With the impending Trump presidency, it’s crucial that we continue to work to populate the TV landscape with people of all races, sexualities, gender identities and ages. Still, though — in this time of darkness, I remember how far TV and movies have come, and it gives me hope. Take the recent trend of casual abortions on TV. In the past few weeks, three shows have featured women who make the decision to terminate their pregnancies without fanfare or excessive agonizing. Too often, abortion is portrayed as an absolute last resort, a tragic decision that women should only make in the case of rape or some particularly vulgar circumstance. Lindsay from “You’re the Worst” may be a terrible partner and a terrible person, but ultimately her choice to get an abortion is the sanest choice she’s made this season. Lindsay knows it would be irresponsible to raise a child with a man who frequently revolts her, and it would be cruel to use a child to force herself into staying in a marriage she doesn’t really want. Meanwhile, what’s revolutionary about seeing Lindsay or Paula from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” or Xiomara from “Jane the Virgin” get an abortion is that these women aren’t rape survivors, or teens who accidentally get pregnant and have to “pay the consequences.” These are middle-aged women who emphatically don’t want to have more children, so they choose not to. It’s that simple. I also recently watched “Moonlight,” a film that’s so personal, layered and subversive that I don’t even know how to begin to explain its radicalness. “Moonlight” isn’t exactly a feelgood movie, but I left the theater in awe, convinced that writer-director Barry Jenkins was capable of really changing the way people think about race and sexuality. Of all the art I’ve taken in since Nov. 8, though, nothing provoked so visceral and immediate a reaction in me as the season finale of “Better Things.” “Better Things” has brought tears to my eyes in more than half its episodes, but I was still shocked at my own reaction when I
watched the last scene. As Sam and her daughters sing along to “Only Women Bleed” by Alice Cooper, the camera cuts to a wide shot of their minivan barreling down the highway, a single line of text below closing out the season: “dedicated to my daughters.” There was something about that line that made me tear up every time I even remembered it for the rest of the day — something about the simplicity of it, the way it felt so quiet and elegant yet so enormously important. At the end of the day, we want our daughters to feel like they’re understood and respected and loved — not just because they’re our daughters, but because they’re people. As an upper-middle class, straight, white male, I am the apotheosis of privilege. If “Moonlight” profoundly affected me, I can’t imagine how it must feel to be a gay Black boy watching his own identity — an identity rarely acknowledged, onscreen or otherwise — come to life. And as emotional as it made me, the dedication in “Better Things” must mean more to the women who see it, women who are regularly denigrated with cumulative microaggressions and explicitly hateful acts of violence. Of course, we can’t let inclusive TV trick us into thinking the whole world is this open-minded. More importantly, we can’t let ourselves subside into complacency just because watching a show with an all-Black cast gives us the superficial appearance of social activists. I’m not advocating for ignoring reality and being blindly optimistic about the state of our country just because “Atlanta” and “Insecure” have been renewed for second seasons. I just think that in a time when it can be so hard to even log onto Twitter without seeing some heinous news pointing toward massive societal regression, the increasingly progressive state of TV is a small, hopeful sign. Sometimes, all you need to regain your faith in humanity is a little sign: a shot of a Black boy drenched in moonlight, or a four-word dedication. Sometimes, little signs are all we have.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2014
SPORTS over the YEARS
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FOOTBALL
MAY 24: The Michigan baseball team defeats Maryland Bis etum il ius eliquam usaerum eium 4-3 to win the Big Ten Tournament and advance to the velicti comnit dunt, tota que consequo is NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.
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ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Coach Jim Harbaugh at a spring press conference in 2014.
Jim Harbaugh welcomed as next ‘M’ football coach Jim Harbaugh’s first press conference as Michigan football coach was filled with laughter and clapping from the players, coaches and family looking on. But the room of hundreds went quiet when Harbaugh was asked if he was inheriting a turnaround program. “This is Michigan,” Harbaugh said. “There are no turnarounds at Michigan. This is greatness.” He added in his statement: “Throughout my life I have dreamed of coaching at the University of Michigan. Now I have the honor to live it.” The Michigan Athletic Department announced the hiring of the former San Francisco 49ers coach on Tuesday afternoon, the 20th coach in program history. Harbaugh agreed to a sevenyear contract paying a base salary of $5 million per year.
Throughout my life I have dreamed of coaching at the University of Michigan. Now I have the honor to live it. Hoarse-voiced from a gatorade bath in his NFLfinale Sunday, he handled his first press conference nearly an hour after addressing his team for the first time. Harbaugh didn’t give a timeline for when he planned to name a coaching staff. A former quarterback under Bo Schembechler, Harbaugh was an All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist, but he’s been part of the Wolverines’ program since he was nine years old. Harbaugh’s father, Jack, was the defensive backs coach at Michigan while Jim was growing up. It was then, Harbaugh
APRIL 2: With 1,459 wins, Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins becomes the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history. DECEMBER 30: The Michigan football team loses to Florida State, 33-32, in the Orange Bowl. The loss ended a season which the Wolverines began 9-0, their best start since 2006.
2017 MARCH 12: The men’s basketball team defeats Wisconsin to win the Big Ten Tournament, winning four games in four days as the tournament’s eighth seed. The Wolverines would later defeat Oklahoma State and Louisville in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen. APRIL 10: Red Berenson retires as coach of the Michigan hockey team.
Instant classic, eternal anguish
By MAX BULTMAN
Daily Sports Editor and Daily Sports Writer 2014
MARCH 19: The Michigan hockey team wins the Big Ten Tournament and qualifies for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 with a 5-3 win against Minnesota.
FOOTBALL
Managing Sports Editor 2016
By MAX BULTMAN and GREG GARNO
2016
2015
dolor molesti beriore, il ea ne plab ipsae SEPTEMBER 27: Michigan excero te volorep tation requarterback videnduntShane Morris returns to play in a 30-14 loss toetMinnesota omnihil ipienda veliqui nobites laboriame despite showing symptoms. The fallout lantiossunt hilconcussion ius arumqui dentibus, qui from contributed the resignation aliatthis pa incident qui simolessit, nestoescilit harumof athletic director Dave Brandon and the firing of head que volorit eicia con plis everum fugitatur coach Brady Hoke. si quiae esto blaturem labo. Itatas mos venis arumnihilla ntentotatem aut etum hil il mod DECEMBER 30:endaesc Former Michigan quam es est as ipiendisquarterback escium Jim Harbaugh is introduced as the footballaut coach. lation cupta doluptam abhead ipsapicit optiis
Saturday, April 29, 2017 — 7
said, that he first dreamed of coaching at Michigan. “When I was nine to 10 years old, there was a time when I was sitting in coach Schembechler’s office. I was sitting in his chair; I had my feet up on his desk,” Harbaugh recalled. “He walked in and said, ‘How ya doin’, Jim?’ And I said, ‘I’m doing great Bo, how
COLUMBUS — The play was called 29 lead. Curtis Samuel took a handoff going left. His blockers created a tunnel. He burst through it, jumped over the goal line and stretched his hands as wide as he could to the fans in the north end zone. It may go down in history as one of the enduring plays in one of college football’s great rivalries — not because it was exceptionally drawn up (though it was), but because it ended an iconic game that may outlive those who saw it live. The nation’s No. 2 team beat the No. 3 team, and then fans stormed the field. That doesn’t happen in games where the home team is favored. But this was Ohio State and Michigan, with the highest stakes in a decade. No celebration was unworthy. That’s the significance of what happened at Ohio Stadium on Saturday: Ohio State 30, Michigan 27. There will be time to rehash what was or wasn’t. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh offered plenty of thoughts in the moments following the game, when he said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the officiating. He thought one hold went uncalled, one passinterference was called unjustly
you doin’? He said, ‘Whattaya doin?’ and I said, ‘I’m sitting in your chair, coach!’ ... There’s just been times in my life where I’ve thought about it, dreamed about it, and now it’s time to live it.” In addition to his $5 million base salary, Harbaugh’s contract includes incentives for playing in ($125,000) or winning ($250,000) the Big Ten Championship Game, a $50,000 bonus if he is Big Ten Coach of the Year and a $150,000 bonus for each year the team’s Academic Progress Rate is 960 or higher. He can also earn $300,000 for playing the College Football Playoff or $500,000 for winning the national championship. His contract includes a $2 million signing bonus. Michigan marks Harbaugh’s fourth head coaching job in the last 10 years, most recently in San Francisco, where his base salary is roughly the same as it will be with the Wolverines. “I kind of think of myself as a construction guy,” Harbaugh said. “You build this home, and hopefully it’s a great cathedral, and then afterwards they tell you, ‘Go build another one.’ And I feel like that again. … But I’d really like to live in one permanently. And that’s what I’m really hopeful for here.” Harbaugh insisted his decision to take the Michigan job had little to do with his salary or financial considerations. “I really made a decision from the heart, which I thought was best for myself and my family,” Harbaugh said. “I’m very excited by it and very challenged by it.”
low contact from Delano Hill, and stretched toward the firstdown marker. Afterward, Harbaugh asked reporters what they saw on the TVs upstairs. “Short,” they agreed. The referees did not. They saw Barrett collide into Hill and fall just over the line of gain. The replay officials did not see enough to overturn it. That’s how these things go. Harbaugh has a legitimate gripe, but legitimate gripes are worth exactly zero wins. Instead, they are worth years, even decades, of anguish. Harbaugh may be able to eventually rid himself of that burden with other games, other calls that do go his way and maybe even a championship. But he will never be able to undo what happened on the north side of Ohio Stadium on Saturday. His team might have avoided it by gaining more than just five yards in the fourth quarter, or not committing one of its three turnovers, one of which occurred at the Buckeyes’ 1-yard line. But it’s too late for all that. Nothing will ever change the outcome. The game will be preserved, exactly the way it unfolded, for eternity.
instant classics don’t happen without heartbreak
After Harbaugh expressed his displeasures, Meyer held court in the southeast corner of the stadium. It couldn’t have been more different. There was Meyer, the victor, entirely f lummoxed. He was asked all kinds of questions, including what he thought his chances were when his team was down 17-7 in the third quarter. “I don’t know,” he responded. “We won the game.” As the questions continued, Meyer found refuge in a clever response. Asked about an unsuccessful fake punt call, he said: “On the last play, we ran a stretch to the left. It’s 29 lead, is the call, and Curtis scored.” Asked about his health, he started, “Curtis…” before laughter finished the sentence for him. On if he remembered anything from after the game: “Yeah, Curtis scored.” It was that simple for Meyer. Harbaugh didn’t even mention the play. That’s the difference between being on the winning and losing ends of a game like Saturday’s. Harbaugh is left looking back on what went wrong, remembering the calls that could have been different. Meyer doesn’t have to remember anything. History will do it for him.
BASKETBALL
Charmingly fun until the photo finish By ZACH HELFAND
There are no turnarounds at Michigan. This is greatness.
and one spot — on fourth down in double overtime, no less — should have given his team a victory. None of it matters. None of it’s changing. It took two overtimes for the Buckeyes to beat Michigan, but they did it. They twisted the most jagged of knives through the hearts of those who dared to hope. They did it in the last game of the regular season, and they did it in a year where the Wolverines looked like one of the nation’s four best teams. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called it an instant classic, and he’s right. Harbaugh said the implications of the rivalry weren’t on his mind. Both are probably true. That’s because instant classics don’t happen without heartbreak, “bitter disappointment” or whatever you’d like to call it. The ingredients of despair and ecstasy are exactly the same. In his postgame press conference, Harbaugh stuck up his hands and showed how far from the first down he thought J.T. Barrett was on a double-overtime 4th-and-1. With Ohio State down three, Barrett rushed forward, took
Daily Sports Writer 2014
INDIANAPOLIS — Moments after the game, the sun is low in the sky and Lucas Oil Stadium casts a long shadow across Indianapolis as, inside, Michigan walks off the court for the last time together. Jordan Morgan is first, well before anyone else. Glenn Robinson III gives a quick wave to the crowd and puts his head down. Nik Stauskas is emotionless. Mitch McGary, who was never getting into the game, walks off wearing the uniform his teammates have insisted he wear. Later, Morgan, held up by his press conference, is one of the last to enter the Michigan locker room. Most of the room is composed except for Zak Irvin, who is emotional in one corner of the room, and for Morgan. He wipes his face with his sleeve and cries in front of the television cameras. His teammates have said the loss is all the more difficult because it means they’ll never play another game with Morgan. The senior doesn’t know how to respond. He pauses to wipe his eyes. “I didn’t expect it to be my last game,” Morgan says. “It’s over. I don’t know what else to say.” *** It’s over — much later than anyone anticipated. Without Trey Burke, without Tim Hardaway Jr., without McGary, this team didn’t just win the Big Ten. It dominated. It improved, steadily, each game. The pieces, especially offensively, meshed seamlessly. A photo comes to mind now from the summer of 2012. The Michigan basketball team’s incoming class is posing together at the basketball facilities, maybe for the first time all together. Caris LeVert is wearing cargo shorts. Spike Albrecht looks small, even next to the wiry LeVert. All have their arms around each other, except Robinson, who has his hands in his pockets and smiles big.
McGary looks like a kid at summer camp. Stauskas stands at the edge and looks moody. College basketball today is brutal in this regard. Jordan Morgans are rare. Play as well as Michigan has and you risk losing your best players. A two-yearold photo feels like a sepia-toned memory. Almost certainly, some of those players will be gone next year. *** It’s unclear what Michigan could have done differently against Kentucky. It’s unclear what Michigan could have done better. A few more box outs, maybe. Less foul trouble. But Michigan played at just about its peak and stood with Kentucky’s size and talent and said beat this. And Kentucky did. It was hard to ask much more from this team in this game, this season. Michigan’s big men, simply, weren’t big. Kentucky was too much to handle above the rim. The final six minutes on Sunday were the best basketball of this thoroughly entertaining tournament. Michigan takes a timeout, down seven, the game slipping away. A pretty drive and kick back by LeVert finds Robinson open in the corner. His shooting has been inconsistent for most of the season. It’s good. Four-point game now. Two possessions later, Morgan gets a put-back and the foul. Free throw good. One point game —and now we’re off. Aaron Harrison three. Morgan dunk. Kentucky layup. Robinson layup. Kentucky layup. The under-fourminutes television timeout feels akin to interrupting Mozart mid-symphony to sell a few extra bratwursts. Damn your television timeouts. Back now. Stauskas makes both on a shooting foul. Harrison three. Robinson three. Nine possessions now without so much as a missed shot. How much fun is this? Michigan needs two to tie now, so John Beilein takes a timeout. And then LeVert goes
off. Stauskas misses a layup, but LeVert grabs it and dishes. Stauskas, again, from three rims out and LeVert slashes into the paint, dives after the ball and, falling backward, dishes back to Stauskas. Another miss, but a hand — likely that of Julius Randle of Kentucky — redirects the ball back in. Tie game. This right here was Michigan’s season. A flawless, smart offense (the most efficient, ever, it turns out, at least since we’ve started keeping track of such stats); a socialist-like insistence on sharing the basketball; and more effort than defense. LeVert was not going to let Kentucky get the ball back before Michigan made a basket. Then Aaron Harrison — that’s Aaron Bleeping Harrison, to translate for Ann Arbor readers — hit the shot of his young career. Stauskas’ prayer went short. And Kentucky won. Michigan will be back here again. This feels more certain than
it has in forever. For Michigan, this hurt not because it gave Kentucky anything. It didn’t. It hurt not because it squandered a rare opportunity. It will come again. It hurts because it won’t be with this team, this thoroughly surprising and likeable team. It hurts, because in college basketball today, teams like this are like comets — brilliant, breathtaking, brief. It hurts because that photo feels nostalgic. And it’s from 2012. It hurts because of Morgan. Morgan is talking about this team in the press conference after the game. He’s the last one to speak before it’s over. “Yeah, I mean, just this year has been the most fun time I’ve had, probably, playing basketball, ever,” he says. It’s over now, and it hurts for Michigan, but I don’t know what else to say except: how much fun was that?
Sports
8 — Saturday, April 29, 2017
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Michigan defeats Wisconsin, claims Big Ten Tournament championship By BRENDAN CARNEY Daily Sports Writer 2017
A little over a month ago, Michigan hit rock bottom. The Wolverines had just lost to Big Ten bottom-dweller Ohio State, and looked completely shook while doing so. But following the game, senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. stood in the corner of the Crisler Center pressroom looking as poised as ever. He knew his team had just hit its lowest point, but realized things could only get better. “If what we’re going through at this point spearheads a run and us taking the next step in some places we lagged in, then I’m all for it,” Walton said following the Ohio State loss. “I’m more so excited. I think it’ll make it a better story.” And what a story it has become, as the Wolverines have done what looked impossible over a month ago and improbable just four days ago. They’ve won a Big Ten championship. There were a lot of questions asked of Michigan following that Ohio State loss. Could Walton and senior wing Zak Irvin put together complete performances in the same game? Could the Wolverines’ defense get out of the basement of almost every statistical category of the Big Ten? Did Michigan players overall have a winning mentality? “The loss at home to Ohio State really opened our eyes,” Walton said on Sunday. “I think we played well but we just layed down and that was the biggest moment for us as a team. I knew after that very moment guys took it to heart, and really wanted to make the key adjustments to be successful for the rest of the season. We did that, and that’s why I was so confident going into the rest of the season.” Over the past four days, the Wolverines have turned the weaknesses present against the Buckeyes into strengths. And that all culminated in Michigan’s title-winning 71-56 victory over Wisconsin. The most suspect of all those questions was Michigan’s defense, but after watching today, one would never know the struggles the Wolverines once faced while defending. Michigan opened the second half on an 11-2 run to get out to a 10-point lead. That stretch included a 5:19 Wisconsin scoring drought and denying the Badgers from getting points from the field for over eight minutes. The Wolverines also were struggling to find points as the second half wore on, but their defense helped Michigan maintain a comfortable lead over that period. “Especially in the second half, we all came together and connected well on all cylinders on the defensive end,” said redshirt sophomore forward DJ Wilson. “Even when they brought in within six, we were able to get crucial stops and crucial rebounds. I think that’s really what sealed the deal.” But if there was ever a team built to respond to those types of runs, it’s the Badgers. Guard Bronson Koenig and forward Ethan Happ combined to score Wisconsin’s last
12 points of the half, reducing the Wolverines’ lead to only one heading into intermission. Again in the second half, the Badgers began chipping away at an 11-point Michigan lead slowly but with the sort of poise their core group of seniors have become known for over the past few seasons. The Badgers would get within six of the Wolverines, but Michigan had a response every time they were closing in. Irvin and redshirt junior wing Duncan Robinson each hit massive three-pointers when Wisconsin looked like it had found the slightest bit of momentum to get on a run. “I just feel lucky my teammates had that sort of confidence in me,” Robinson said. “I hadn’t really gotten any clean looks in the game. But to get that shot and knock it in was a special moment.” When the Badgers put on a full-court press for the final three minutes of the game, Wilson found junior guard Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman for a slam that brought the fans at the Verizon Center to their feet and all but shut the door on Wisconsin. Wilson was essential in the Wolverines maintaining their lead down the stretch, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the second half, while shutting down a first team all-Big Ten player in Happ defensively too. Walton and Irvin were Michigan’s primary drivers on both ends all game long. Irvin was efficient scoring points early on, mixing up cuts to the hoop through the Wisconsin defense and his signature mid-range jumper. He’s put together one of the most consistent runs of his career through the conference tournament, and finished Sunday with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. But no performance could compare to what Walton was doing single-handedly. The senior earned assists on the Wolverines’ first two scores of the half, and midway through the first, went on a personal 9-0 run, hitting three shots from beyond the arc on three consecutive possessions to give Michigan its initial 10-point lead. Most importantly, Walton quarterbacked his offense through a tough stretch in the second half, and put the ball in his teammates’ hands. His 22 point, six rebound, seven assist outing will go down as the final jewel that helped him earn the crown of the tournament’s most outstanding player. The Wolverines leave Washington as the Big Ten’s highest seeded team to win the conference tournament, and, most importantly to them, will be raising a banner at Crisler Center next fall. More than anything, they have a trophy with their names engraved in Michigan basketball lore for what they proved over the past five days. “I wanted them to imagine what it would be like for them to walk into that beautiful William Davidson Player Development Center and see that trophy and tell people about not the four games, the five days, and be able to tell them that story,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “Because that’s part of their legacy together, all 16 of those guys.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MEN’S HOCKEY
After 33 years at the helm, Red Berenson announces retirement By ORION SANG Daily Sports Editor 2017
On April 10, nearly one month after finishing his 33rd season as head coach of the Michigan hockey team, Red Berenson announced he would be retiring. “I’ve thought about this for a long time and I think this is the right time and it’s the right thing to do for the Michigan hockey program,” Berenson said in a press release Monday. “My heart will always be at Michigan and I look forward to the team taking the next step and making me proud as a former coach.” Added athletic director Warde Manuel: “Red Berenson is a legendary figure at the University of Michigan as well as in our ice hockey history. Throughout his career, Red has focused on the academic and athletic success of the young men who have come through our program while shaping the sport as we know it today. He has developed an astounding 73 NHL players but, more importantly, he has positively impacted hundreds of young men. We are forever grateful for his contributions to the University of Michigan and I look forward to continuing working with Red for years to come.” Berenson has pondered retirement in recent years. He said Monday that he had received questions on the recruiting trail about his future and how long he planned on coaching. It bothered him, he admitted, that it was an issue, and it played a part in his
conversation about retirement with Warde Manuel last year. The original plan was for Berenson to step down following last season. But Manuel was still settling down into his new job — according to Berenson, he hadn’t even moved to Ann Arbor yet. The new athletic director coaxed Berenson into staying, and so began the last year of his career in Ann Arbor. And what a career it was: to trace its outline with each of its stops is to follow the history of the sport — and even history itself. To put the longevity of Berenson’s term at Michigan into context, the last time the Wolverines took the ice without him behind the bench was during the Cold War, with Ronald Reagan serving as president of the United States. Many fine players have filed in and out of Ann Arbor over the years, doing their part to fill the trophy cases and bring glory to the program. Yet it is Berenson’s name that has become synonymous with ‘Michigan hockey’ — and rightfully so. Berenson himself was once the star on ice, playing for the Wolverines for three seasons between 1959 and 1962. He enjoyed an illustrious career in the NHL, becoming one of the league’s first expansion stars as it doubled in size during the late 1960s. Once his playing career ended, he became a coach for the St. Louis Blues — the team he had become famous playing for — and won coach of the year in just his second season. In 1984, he returned to his alma mater,
where he would remain for the duration of his career. It took longer for Berenson to achieve success in the collegiate ranks. Michigan, once mighty but since humbled, was in dire straits. It had been nearly a decade since the team experienced its last postseason success, and the onus was on Berenson to rebuild the program. It was no easy task. To begin his tenure, he endured three consecutive losing seasons. He took another step forward once the team was full of players he had recruited, leading the team to three straight winning seasons — but with zero NCAA Tournament appearances. The final breakthrough occurred in Berenson’s seventh year. The Wolverines recorded over 30 wins for the first time in school history and finished as an NCAA quarterfinalist, marking the beginning of a 22-year NCAA Tournament streak that remains the longest streak any team has ever put together in college hockey. During that streak, Michigan made the Frozen Four 11 times, finishing as the runner-up once while collecting two national championships. Berenson has left an enduring legacy not only with his achievements on the ice but off of it, as well. A graduate of the university’s Ross School of Business, Berenson has stressed the importance of education to all of his teams, priding himself on molding boys into men. Some of his players have even returned to the University after the end of their playing careers to
take graduate classes — like Berenson once did. In recent years, he has sought to raise money and awareness for the cause of Scott Matzka, a former Wolverine who is currently fighting ALS. Michigan will be in uncharted territory next year. This past year, the Wolverines struggled through their worst season in three decades, missing the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years. They will bring back the bulk of the team barring any unexpected early departures to the NHL, and may even have a new head coach with ties to the program — such as Michigan Tech’s Mel Pearson, a longtime assistant, or current assistants Billy Powers and Brian Wiseman. Berenson, in his new role as a special advisor to Manuel, will surely have a say in who his successor is, as well. “I hope there’s some Michigan awareness or Michigan connection for a coach that will feel the right way about what a Michigan man should be like or what a Michigan team should be like,” Berenson said. “We’ve got some of those coaches here today, and we’ve got some great alumni here today. I’m sure Warde will make the right decision. It might be an easy decision, it might not be. We’re going to get a lot of people interested.” But regardless of any ties the new coach might have to the program, things will undoubtedly feel different. It is the end of an era and oh, what an era it was.
SOFTBALL
Michigan can’t overcome early deficit, loses in National Championship By TED JANES Daily Sports Writer 2015
OKLAHOMA CITY — After falling to No. 1 Florida, 4-1, in Game 3 of the Women’s College World Series final, the Michigan softball team came just shy of a national championship. A complete performance from NFCA Player of the Year and right-handed pitcher Lauren Haeger carried the Gators to an early lead, and they never looked back. Haeger dominated on both sides of the ball, shutting down the thirdranked Wolverines’ offense which didn’t register a single hit until the fifth inning. The Gators wasted no time on offense. In the bottom of the first inning, Haeger flared a 1-1 pitch to shallow center with runners on first and
second. One run scored, and Florida was off to the races with no outs. A pair of batters later, Florida’s Taylor Schwarz dropped a double into left field, making headway for outfielder Nicole Dewitt and Haeger, who reached home safely, increasing their lead to three before the first inning came to an end. “They were the best team tonight,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. “They’ve been No. 1 all through the season. They showed up to come after us, and that first inning broke our back. We gave them a lot of free bases, too many, and you can’t do that to a team like Florida.” Florida’s leadoff hitter Kelsey Stewart came up to bat for the second time in just the second inning and blasted a double to left that scored outfielder Justine McLean from second base. The
Gators’ fourth run of the day prompted Michigan coach Carol Hutchins to take senior lefthanded pitcher Haylie Wagner out of the circle for sophomore right-hander Megan Betsa. Betsa solved the immediate puzzle and struck out two straight batters to strand three Gators on base. Freshman first baseman Tera Blanco recorded the Wolverines’ first hit of the night, ripping a full-count pitch to left field in the top of the fifth inning. Sophomore shot stop Abby Ramirez followed up with a single of her own, and the top half of the order would come up. With two outs and two on for junior second baseman Sierra Romero, if there was a time for the team’s superstar to step up, this was it. Romero sent the first pitch to left field and Blanco,
from second base, was able to score. The Gators got out of the fifth inning, but Michigan had finally gotten on board. Freshman pinch-hitter Amanda Vargas stepped to the plate in the sixth inning and produced, lining to center for a base hit. Next, Wagner, now the designated player, was hit in the shoulder. Another two-on, twoouts situation for Michigan’s offense, and this time it was Blanco’s turn. But yet again, the Gators got out alive when Blanco grounded out to the short stop. Overall, the Wolverines could not handle Haeger in the circle Wednesday night. She was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “(Lauren Haeger) was great tonight,” Hutchins said. “A very deserving champion. She definitely took care of business.” Against Betsa, the Gators couldn’t get a single run, as the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year handed Florida eight strikeouts. However, she hit a multitude of batters to load the bags and was taken out in the bottom of the sixth when Wagner returned to the circle. In the final inning, Ramirez got onto first base as Florida’s short stop couldn’t handle her slapper in time. Michigan’s next batter, junior centerfielder Sierra Lawrence, struck out looking, and Romero returned to the plate. Romero grounded to the shortstop, who tossed to second for the next out, and sophomore outfielder Kelly Christner stepped into the box, Michigan’s last chance. But after three pitches, Christner grounded out to first, and the season was over. The Florida Gators were the 2015 National Champions. “I told my team today, and I told my team (Tuesday), ‘Tonight doesn’t define our season,’ ” Hutchins said. “We would’ve liked to walk out of here with the other trophy, but this has been a great team. I’m really proud of them.”