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How Did We Get Here ?
A look at challenging the University’s administration since the 1960s.
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Students protested on their way to the “To Rename or ot Remain” panel about the C.C. Little building, walking down North University Tuesday.
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
A student speaks at the “To Rename or to Remain” panel about the C.C. Little building in the League Tuesday.
Students advocating for new name for C.C. Little building lead protest to panel discussing change
Hundreds of students, faculty members march to League to protest name, say eponym was a racist, relates building to current climate protest the C.C. Little building name as well as other injustices facing the minority community on Daily Staff Reporter & campus. Protesters rallied against For the Daily the University’s continued use of Little’s name on campus buildings because of his work with eugenics, Students and community which often targeted women members gathered together in of color. The protest included the Diag Tuesday afternoon to a march that ended at a panel AMARA SHAIKH & MORGAN SHOWEN
discussion hosted by LSA Student Government on the removal of Little’s name from the building. Before reaching their final destination, protesters marched from the Diag to the Fishbowl, where they expressed their frustration toward the University with other students. Afterwards, white allies blocked the street as
minority students marched to the panel held in the League Ballroom. For LSA sophomore Diamond Berry, the protest was especially personal because her friends were directly impacted by racist acts on campus. “Black people are being targeted on campus, and as a Black person I feel that I need to be out here in
support of my people,” she said. “A few my friends were targeted personally, so I’m here to support the movement for equality.” Once the protesters reached the panel, they were given an opportunity to talk about their own experiences, and explain why they advocated for the removal of Little’s name
from campus. Many expressed discontentment about the amount of time that the University has taken to address this issue as well as the lack of answers that the administration has provided students. LSA freshman Tyler Washington said she had hoped See CC LITTLE, Page 3A
Central Student Government responds HomeLab Religious project to to racist incidents, week of protests bias in prof.
RESEARCH
CAMPUS LIFE
investigate home living
The body also discussed allocating funds to a survey for religious-views on campus
The lab is fully functioning environment with kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms
In response to yesterday’s protests regarding racist incidents on campus, Central Student Government executives solemnly addressed the assembly Tuesday night, urging representatives to stand with the demonstrators and actively listen to the concerns of their constituents. CSG President Anushka Sarkar, an LSA senior, stressed the importance of maintaining the assembly’s purpose in representing the entire student body, including the voices of the demonstrations. “You were all elected to represent students and their views,” Sarkar said. “If there’s enough hurt and frustration in the student body that these demonstrations are happening, it’s your job to engage with it so please make sure you do your due diligence to represent those voices and that they’re heard.” While no official statement has been released by CSG, Sarkar took to her personal Twitter account speaking on behalf of CSG to weigh in on the demonstrations yesterday afternoon, standing in solidarity with the demonstrators. Sarkar offered support and services to the student demonstrators. “Folks engaged in these demonstrations — let us know
MAYA GOLDMAN Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan researchers have figured out a new way to help research subjects feel at home during experiments: actually doing the experiments in a home. The BioSocial Methods Collaborative at the University’s Institute for Social Research unveiled its new HomeLab Tuesday. The “lab” is a fully functioning research facility, with one catch — it looks like a regular apartment. According to Richard Gonzalez, director of the BioSocial Methods Collaborative and ISR’s Research Center for Group Dynamics, the HomeLab has a fully functioning kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. It also has hidden cameras and microphones, motion sensors and many other devices to help researchers collect data on their subjects in the most natural setting possible. Gonzalez said the idea for the lab came out of a need for increased interaction between different fields of science. “We started out about four See HOME, Page 3A
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DYLAN LACROIX Daily Staff Reporter
how we can help. Water, fans, solidarity, let us know,” Sarkar wrote. CSG Vice President Nadine Jawad, Public Policy senior, followed Sarkar’s statement by highlighting the emotional struggles students throughout campus are facing and offering strong condolences for the demonstrators. “A lot of students on campus right now are really hurting
and there’s a lot (of ), honestly, sadness going around campus right now and a lot of people don’t feel safe and included right now,” Jawad said. She spoke about the demands of recognition on behalf of the demonstrators, calling upon representatives to collaborate on ways to make the entire student body feel included. “As representatives of your respective colleges I think we
should really put our heads together to think about ways — not that we can solve the issue because that’s not a practical thing to say — but maybe just make a dent in making people feel included,” she said. CSG Rep. Hafsa Tout, an LSA senior, began first reads of a resolution she co-sponsored, which allocates $3,500 to conduct a study by See CSG, Page 3A
JULIA LAWSON/Daily
LSA senior Anushka Sarkar speaks about the recent protests on campus at the CSG meeting in the Union Tuesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 98 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
email spurs anger, sit-in
Social Work professor’s email about Dana Greene’s kneel-in leads to protest KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
Over 30 students lined the halls of the University of Michigan School of Social Work Tuesday afternoon to call attention to an email sent by SSW Payroll Coordinator Kari Dumbeck, in which she implored students to respect the Pledge of Allegiance, with an emphasis on overtly religious rhetoric. Dumbeck sent the email to the school’s Masters of Social Work listserv on Monday afternoon in response to Public Health graduate student Dana Greene’s decision to protest the number of pervasive racist incidents affecting Black students and students of color on campus. This year alone, three Black students have woken up to find racist vandalism in West Quad Residence Hall, anti-Semitic and anti-Black racial slurs have been spray-painted onto East Liberty and South State Street buildings and anti-Latino and pro-Trump graffiti have been scrawled on the Rock. Beginning Monday morning, Greene kneeled at the block See SIT-IN, Page 3A
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CROSSWORD...............6 SPORTS....................7
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2A — Wednesday, September 27, 2017
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W O LV E R I N E O F T H E W E E K Every Wednesday, the Michigan Daily will be asking a University faculty member, staff member or student what the University bicentennial means to them.
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“I think it’s so cool that the University has been around for so long, and having been around for so long, many people recognize Michigan and what it does. It is really special to be here to celebrate that–– the bicentenniel is a cool way to start off my time here.”
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LSA freshman Autumn McGuffie
Seeing students, staff, and the community come together to offer food, water, shelter, and support today @UMich was amazing. #BeTheExample
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CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES HET BROWN BAG | Topics in Axion Cosmology
Vestiges of Snake Cults: The Banana Python and His Sons
WHAT: Andrew J. Long, University of Chicago, will discuss light pseudo-Goldstone bosons in particle physics. WHO: Department of Physics WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. WHERE: Randall Laboratory Room 3481
WHAT: Professor Fan Pen Chen, SUNY-Albany, will discuss ancient snake gods through a multimedia presentation WHO: Confucious Institute at the University of Michigan WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. WHERE: Michigan Union Kuenzel Room
Fast Radio Bursts Nature’s Latest Cosmic Mystery
2017 Tanner Lecture on Human Values: The Intrinsic Reward of Life
WHAT: Duncan Lorimer, Associate Chair of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, will discuss the discovery and history of Fast Radio Bursts. WHO: Department of Physics WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. WHERE: West Hsll - Room 340
WHAT: Professor Allan Gibbard will discuss the history of philosophy and ethics at the University. WHO: Department of Philosophy WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. WHERE: Michigan League Ballroom
Brown Bag Recital Series
Pre-Law 101 Information Session
Michigan Students @UMichStudents
WHAT: Performed on the Letourneau Organ will be the music of Paul Haebig and Jewish composers. WHO: School of Music, Theatre and Dance WHEN: 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. WHERE: Thomas Francis Jr. School of Public Health Building - Community Room
WHAT: A presentation for students interested in applying to law school. WHO: Newnan LSA Academic Advising Center WHEN: 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall - Room G243
Alsoo (shameless plug) I’m looking for new friends for Sunday at 3:15 to play ultimate frisbee because my team needs more players so hmu
Mental Health: Personal and Policy Perspectives
Faculty/Guest Recital: Joseph Gascho, harpischord and Matt Dane, viola
WHAT: A panel of experts on mental health policy will discuss issues of personal experiences and the response of public policy. WHO: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Weill Hall (Ford School) - Annenberg Auditorium
JORDYN BAKER Daily Staff Reporter
Students were hoping to get their peers to turn up Tuesday on the Diag — turn up to vote, that is. The Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, in conjunction with Turn Up Turnout, a student group that aims to increase voter turnout among young adults, put on Register to Vote in the Diag. The event allowed students to quickly register to vote and acquire necessary information about voting in the 2018 midterm elections. The event, held on National Voter Registration Day, was the University of Michigan’s first major on-campus, in-person opportunity Sudoku Syndication for students to participate in the Big Ten
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Voting Challenge, announced by University President Mark Schlissel in early September. For those students who were unable to attend the event in the Diag, event administrators are encouraging registering to vote online. According to a statement from President Schlissel, 19 percent of students at universities throughout the country voted in 2014, while the Ginsberg Center reports 14 percent of University of Michigan students voted that same year. LSA freshman Archan Patel participated in the registration opportunity on the Diag, hoping to increase the number of undergraduate students voting in elections. “I heard about what the voting turnout was for undergraduates last year, and I
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I usually have this inborn talent to trip over thin air, but today it was the courtesy of the bricks on The Diag. Thanks, @UMich.
WHAT: Concert will feature members from the Baroque Chamber Orchestra. WHO: School of Music, Theatre and Dance WHEN: 8:00 p.m. WHERE: Earl V. Moore Building Britton Recital hall
Voter Registration Day takes place on Diag, encourages participation The event took place as part of the Big 10 Voting Challenge announced by Schlissel
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wanted to raise the turnout for 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 this year,” Patel said. “One way kineryem@michigandaily.com nathankg@michigandaily.com to do it is just go out and sign up for it.” While more than 40 students NEWS TIPS ARTS SECTION PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION marked themselves as “going” news@michigandaily.com arts@michigandaily.com photo@michigandaily.com on the event’s Facebook page, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SPORTS SECTION NEWSROOM students floated in and out of the tothedaily@michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com 734-418-4115 opt. 3 booth on the Diag throughout EDITORIAL PAGE ADVERTISING CORRECTIONS the four hours it was available. opinion@michigandaily.com dailydisplay@gmail.com corrections@michigandaily.com Leaders of the event were also scattered throughout the Diag area, encouraging students to register to vote in Michigan. Rackham student Madison AMELIA CACCHIONE and EMMA RICHTER McKenzie, graduate assistant Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com for democratic engagement at Senior Photo Editors: Zoey Holmstrom, Evan Aaron, Alexis Rankin, the Ginsberg Center, helped REBECCA LERNER Zach Moore Managing Editor rebler@michigandaily.com Assistant Photo Editors: Claire Meingast, Katelyn Mulcahy, Aaron run the event, stating Tuesday’s Baker, Sam Mousigian, Kevin Zheng launch of the voting challenge ALEXA ST.JOHN helped promote enthusiasm LARA MOEHLMAN Managing News Editor alexastj@michigandaily.com Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com among students in registering Senior News Editors: Riyah Basha, Tim Cohn, Lydia Murray, Deputy Statement Editor: Brian Kuang, Yoshiko Iwai to vote and participating in Nisa Khan, Sophie Sherry Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Colin Beresford, Rhea elections. http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Cheeti, Maya Goldman, Matt Harmon, Andrew Hiyama, Jen “I think the event is just one ELIZABETH DOKAS and TAYLOR GRANDINETTI Meer, Ishi Mori, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com really big, exciting kickoff to ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY and REBECCA TARNOPOL a whole bunch of stuff that’s Senior Copy Editors: Marisa Frey, Ibrahim Rasheed Editorial Page Editors opinioneditors@michigandaily.com going to be coming in the DYLAN LAWTON and BOB LESSER Senior Opinion Editors: Anu Roy-Chaudhury, Ashley Zhang, next year and a half to really Managing Online Editor lesserrc@michigandaily.com Max Lubell, Madeline Nowicki, Stephanie Trierweiler make sure that the students Senior Web Developers: Erik Forkin, Jordan Wolff know and engage in this BETELHEM ASHAME and KEVIN SANTO ABE LOFY challenge, because it’s a great Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com opportunity to make sure Senior Sports Editors: Laney Byler, Mike Persak, Orion Sang, Senior Video Editors: Gilly Yerrington, Matt Nolan, Aarthi Max Marcovich, Ethan Wolfe, Chris Crowder that students have their voice Janakiraman, Emily Wolfe Assistant Sports Editors: Rob Hefter, Avi Sholkoff, Matthew heard, and to beat the rest of Kennedy, Paige Voeffray, Mark Calcagno, Jacob Shames JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG the Big Ten Conference,” she Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com said. 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CC LITTLE From Page 1A University officials would have had tangible solutions, especially because they have spent many years on campus dealing with these issues. “Hearing another person higher up than me who has been here endless years — I’m a freshman, I’ve only been on this campus for three weeks and if someone else asks me, ‘Well what should we do’ — how are you going to ask me?” Washington said. “I’ve only been in college for three weeks. You work here, you’ve been through college, you have a degree, you’re doing your job, you should know the facts, you should know what you should be telling us.” After most of the protesters had filed out, the panel and forum began again as originally planned. History professor Martin Pernick opened the panel by discussing the topic of eugenics in a broad sense and what role Little played in it. Pernick made the argument that being in support of the idealistic form of eugenics was not cause enough to remove a person’s name from the building they were named after. “Eugenics meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Pernick said. “Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, defined it as the use of science to improve human heredity. Who can
HOME From Page 1A years ago and we wanted to build a stronger interface between the biological and behavioral sciences,” he said. “We realized that one area of exciting new development is around the smart home, but what if we added biology to that? Sensors on the body that are recording all kinds of stuff. … So we thought about making a home lab. This way we can study these new possibilities.” Collaboration is a big component of the HomeLab. It’s how it will run effectively, but it’s also how the lab was built. Jeannette Jackson, the managing director for the BioSocial Methods Collaborative, said students and faculty from the engineering, kinesiology, psychology and medical programs, among others, worked on putting all the pieces for the lab together. According to Jackson, student involvement has been a big part of the HomeLab’s creation. Over 33 undergraduate students from all different disciplines have been involved in the HomeLab, including Engineering sophomore Cyrus Najarian, who has been working on the project since last August. He said the teamwork and collaboration he’s experienced while working on the HomeLab have been very impactful and will make for a great research environment.
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argue with that? Using science to improve things.” Pernick explained Little’s interpretation of eugenics was what merited a renaming of the building named after him. According to Pernick, the type of genetics Little supported was one that promoted the advancement of those who held power in society in the early 20th century, through any means necessary. “The kind of eugenics that Little promoted included all of the American Eugenics Society’s most controversial methods: compulsory sterilization, ban on interracial sex, selective immigration and restrictions by ethnicity,” Pernick said. After Pernick concluded his speech, panelist and LSA senior Joshua Hasler explained Little’s life story. Hasler discussed Little’s work promoting eugenics before, during and after serving as the University’s president from 1925 to 1929. He noted Little’s close personal relationship with Charles Davenport, a man that Hasler described as the “godfather of American eugenics.” During his time at the University of Michigan, Little helped organize and was the president of the Third Race Betterment Conference held in Battle Creek, Michigan. “And as president of both the conference, a member of the American Eugenics Society, and president of this University, he played a crucial role in bridging the gap between East Coast
eugenicists and Midwestern eugenicists,” Hasler explained. American Culture professor Alexandra Stern spoke after Hasler and focused the majority of her time discussing parallels between the current debate over renaming the C.C. Little Building to those debates which have been held on other college campuses concerning their own buildings’ past history. Stern specifically cited the University of Virginia’s decision to change the name of their medical research facility from that of a eugenicist, as something she believes the University of Michigan should emulate. All of the panelists, along with several other professors, have submitted an official request to have the C.C. Little Building be renamed and have created an online petition to garner support for their proposal. As of Tuesday night, the petition has received 485 signatures since it was created on Sept. 1. That total includes over fifty signatures by University professors and deans, many of whom expressed their views on the issue of renaming in the comments section of the petition. Mika LaVaque-Manty, director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program, offered one of the most strongly worded comments in support of renaming the C.C. Little Building. “It is to honor, not degrade, the past and the present of the University of Michigan to revisit its values and commitments. When
“In the collaborative, we obviously work as a team, but working on the HomeLab specifically really took that to the extreme,” Najarian said. “There’s always something that we were collaborating on other people for. I was working on multiple different things at the same time … and we were always trying to synthesize all of our own perspectives and experiences to getting things as close to perfect as possible.” Thanks to this collaboration, the lab was finished less than a year after construction began last November. “This is a new space for research that facilitates what we’re calling collaborative team science,” Jackson said. “(People) aren’t working on one little slice. When you work with us, you work with everything we’ve got going on.” And the HomeLab already has a lot going on. The lab will be used to study mobility and cognition in older adults, and a research project from outside the University has already been lined up with Procter & Gamble to study adult incontinence. Gonzalez thinks the HomeLab will bring more data to these projects than researchers would otherwise be able to collect. “The (current) state of the art for that work is that you just ask people in a survey, ‘Do you have trouble washing dishes?’,” Gonzalez said. “And they say yes or no or rate on a five-point scale. But what our facility allows someone to do is actually
observe people in a controlled environment like at a kitchen sink.” Many future projects are planned. Gonzalez emphasized the lab’s compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act standards, so disability research would be a possibility. He’d also like to see intergenerational experiments in the lab. “We’ve had lots of inquiries about mother-child interaction studies, and right now they just do those in a classroom in East Hall where Psychology is located,” he said. “It would be much more natural to run those studies in the HomeLab where there’s a bathroom, a playroom, maybe a sibling involved. You just get higher-quality data.” However, running experiments in the home is not always straightforward. Psychology professor Jacqui Smith, who will do studies in the HomeLab on health in elderly populations, said the one-of-a-kind nature of the lab is exciting, but will require some extra thought when it comes to designing projects. “We need to be really creative in the way that we design studies to be able to do this, and of course we need to get funding to actually do it,” Smith said. “I think this is very unique and my colleagues that I’ve spoken to at a recent international conference in San Francisco, everyone was really excited about this idea … I hope we can encourage people from many different disciplines to write this into their studies.”
M AG IC MUSIC
a thoughtful examination, such as the one that informs this petition, concludes the past commitments are inconsistent with our real values, it’s necessary to make changes. We should teach and learn from the legacy of Little; our buildings should not bear his name,” LaVaque-Manty wrote. The petition has also gained support from the student body leadership with signatures from Central Student Government Reps. Jacob Cutler and Hafsa Tout as well as CSG President Anushka Sarkar, all of whom are LSA seniors. Sarkar said Little was a problematic figure in the University’s past and that he should not be honored with his name on a University building. “C.C. Little is emblematic of what is incredibly wrong about this University’s history, including putting big tobacco and eugenicism on a pedestal, quite literally on one of the largest buildings on campus,” she said. Sarkar voiced her support for the decision last week by LSA SG to pass a resolution supporting the renaming of the C.C. Little Building. She also outlined a plan for how CSG should approach the resolution. “I think that the resolution should be passed in every school and college-specific student government and that it should then be passed in Central Student Government to show that all nineteen schools and colleges
SIT-IN From Page 1A ‘M’ on the Diag for 21 hours to emphasize the difficulty of being a Black student at the University — an action supported by over 100 students, faculty and staff who lent their support, water and presence throughout the day. Greene took after the #TakeAKnee movement many professional athletes are participating in to protest racial injustice and police brutality. In the email, Dumbeck provided a link to a video of Red Skelton, an American entertainer, performing a monologue on the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. She drew upon personal beliefs and implied Dana’s actions disrespected her religion. “Although I can understand Dana’s feelings I feel that he must be reminded that it is not through ‘man’ that ‘man was create (sic) equal,’ but through GOD,” she wrote. “And it is a testimonial to GOD that we live as he would want us to, for we only answer to him in the end.” Dumbeck did not respond to the Daily for comment. Social Work student Lawrielle West responded to the email thread, calling on Dumbeck to apologize for the harm she caused within the community and educate herself on the difference between one’s original intent and the actual impact it can have on a group of people. “Intent versus impact is a thing, meaning that regardless of how you meant something, it can still negatively impact someone,” she wrote. “And that’s what this email did. Honestly, I personally don’t need an apology because I’m interested in you educating yourself, and spreading what you have learned from this in your community. However, an apology is needed to the public in an effort to start the process of restorative justice in a case where a staff member
CSG From Page 1A
JOSHUA HAN/Daily The University Philharmonic Orchestra performs their first concert of the year at Hill Auditorium Monday. Their piece, Felix Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, envokes an image of the artist’s visit to the ruins of th ePalace of Holyrood in Edinburgh in 1829. The whole work progresses through a musical stroll around the stones, arches, and half walls of the palace. The pieces are marked by somber tones, a folky section, magical textures, and a triumphant ending.
the non-affiliated interfaith organization Interfaith Youth Core to gather information on religious and worldview perspectives of the student body. The survey, also known as the Values, Interfaith Engagement and Worldview Survey, designed by the IYC, aims to empirically assess students’ perceptions of religious diversity on college campuses as well as students’ engagement with their corresponding worldviews.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017— 3A
individually support it, and therefore the entire University supports it, which is why our assembly passed it,” she said. Those who have proposed the renaming acknowledge that there are still large swaths of students who have not heard about Little’s past and his beliefs on race. According to Hasler, part of the blame for this lies in the hands of the University itself. Hasler noted last semester’s Stumbling Blocks exhibit, though it outlined failures in the University’s past, failed to mention anything about Little and his advocacy for eugenics. “They didn’t engage with C.C. Little and I think that’s an intentional choice, perhaps because it adds to the political climate and makes things potentially divisive when you talk about renaming a building,” he said. Hasler would like to see the University rename the C.C. Little Building by the end of this school year. “I think it’s something that we as a student body deserve … especially since we are living in such divisive and decisive times, this really requires immediate action.” After the panel concluded, some student activists felt their concerns had not been adequately addressed by the forum and that there was continued work to be done on the issue of renaming the C.C. Little Building. “After going into the meeting,
there was this façade that everyone is on the same page as us and moving forward we shouldn’t have any issues, but the fact that we have to go through to the president, to get to the regents, to get C.C. Little changed is going to be ridiculously hard for us because we can’t even get the president to listen to open racists on campus, so how are we going to get him to listen to white supremacy on campus?” Washington said. LSA SG President Nicholas Fadanelli, an LSA senior, concluded the forum by expressing his support for future dialogue about renaming the C.C. Little Building. “And I just hope that all these people that came out here tonight sign the petition and we keep having this conversation … because this is an important conversation to have, as much as possible,” Fadanelli said. LSA Student Government released a statement after the protest that acknowledged the protesters’ efforts and implored the University to rename the building. “We would not only like to thank the activists who, for years, have fought for the name to be changed, but also faculty members who have dedicated years of their careers to investing who C.C Little was,” it read. “We continue to urge the University to change the name of the C.C Little Building to further the University’s mission of making an inclusive campus for everyone.”
crossed the lines and triggered some students in the SSW and others.” Dumbeck responded to West, writing she did not mean to offend anyone, yet continued to express a belief in her right to hold her own opinions. “First let me say that I did not insult or diminish what Dana is doing by any means. That is not what I said or what I meant,” she wrote. “My opinion was expressed just as the emails opinion was expressed when sent out to all. The video I felt was something that all ‘Americans’ would benefit from hearing, or so I felt. I did not put race into my thoughts at all. I only meant that we as ‘humans’ can do better when we look into ourselves and for what purpose do we serve. To each his/ her own.” West explained the group of students showed up outside of Dumbeck’s office at 10 a.m. to begin the sit-in, but she had already left the building. After sitting in the hallway for a brief period, different faculty members told the group they had to move due to fire code and then called DPSS to assess the situation at hand. The students later moved to a larger space outside the dean’s office, after a DPSS officer advised they would be better seen there. In an email interview, Lisa Raycraft, communications manager for the School of Social Work, affirmed an associate dean called DPSS because the protestors were blocking a narrow hallway. “Space was available for students to continue their protest at either end of the hall, where the area is open. Students continued to sit and block the hallway. DPSS was called to assist with opening the hall so safety codes could be met,” she said. However, Raycraft stated the School of Social Work recognized the protesters’ concerns as legitimate and various faculty and staff members discussed the matter over the course of the event.
She said she could not comment on Dumbeck’s email, as it is a personal matter. “The School of Social Work respects peaceful gatherings and the right of demonstrators to express their views,” she wrote. “The students today engaged in a peaceful protest in the SSW building sharing their concerns. SSW faculty and staff engaged with students throughout the sit-in.” West expressed disappointment in how the School of Social Work responded to the protest — especially in the context that most of the students there had studied community organizing in classes within the building. “My major is literally community organizing, so this is what I do,” she said. “When they tell me to move, I’m like, ‘You tell me not to move, in my textbook it tells me not to move.’ ” She questioned where most of her classmates were during the six-hour sit-in, as they missed an opportunity to truly engage in their field of study. “I’m Team 96, meaning that we’re the 96th class of School of Social Work, so everybody in my class is usually graduating this December or in April,” she said. “I’ll be graduating in April. I see some of us here, but like, that’s 400 people. So I’m like, OK, maybe 50 graduated already from one year. Maybe 50 percent, like I said, are in field or in class. Where are the rest of the people? We’re all social workers, what does social work mean?” Brendon Holloway, recent graduate of the MSW program, expressed the importance of ensuring that the voices of students of color remain in the center of discussion. He shared an email, signed by the MSW program as a whole, in which they expressed disappointment in Dumbeck for using such insensitive language towards such a diverse group of students.
According to Tout, the survey would provide CSG and the administration with a better understanding of the campus climate and perspectives throughout the University to help guide public policy construction. “I think knowing and understanding on the whole what students perspectives are will be beneficial to us as student leaders in central student government and even more to the administration and it ultimately does play a part in policy formation,” Tout said. Addressing concerns about student participation in the
survey among the assembly, Tout stated that the survey would be conducted externally by the IYC, along with coordination by the Center for Campus Involvement’s Kelly Dunlop, who has signed on as the official institutional representative. If passed, the survey would be conducted during the spring 2018 semester, followed by a comprehensive report by CSG’s Research and Polling Commission for use by University administration and student governing bodies. A vote for the resolution will be held next week.
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Opinion
4A — Wednesday, September 27, 2017
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ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN
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LUKE JACOBS | COLUMN
L
Turn on, tune in and drop out?
ast year, I had what could be called a midcollege-life crisis. I switched my major four times, sliced my schedule down to eight credits and decided selfteaching was more valuable than going to class. I even considered dropping out of college. While making a dramatic exit excited me at first, I decided to take a skeptic’s approach to college. I began to research alternatives. I found a vocal community of college dropouts — or, as some refer to themselves online, “opt-outs.” I read the rants of frustrated students that sounded just like mine at the time. Frustrated by required courses, irrelevant material and the slowness of academia, they pondered leaving for the fast-paced freedom of the real world. They loved the idea of learning, but wanted it on their own terms. A cocktail of crushing debt, competitive admission standards and a shift in skills needed for jobs in the new economy has led many critics to question the value of going to college. With the advent of online programs and the development of alternative credentialing, students now have greater choice in whether to attend a university or to go to an alternative institution. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2013 that of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only five typically require a bachelor’s degree. To fill this gap, the alternative providers have swept in, promising students a new credential to secure these new jobs in less time with little damage to your wallet. These educators have a dynamic set of unconventional, experiential learning techniques, usually promoting personalized instruction, and focus on teaching 21st-century
skills like online marketing, coding and data analysis. Some lambast the traditional college education as deeply antithetical to learning. According to Dale Stephens, founder of UnCollege, “When you go out into the world, there’s no structure. … A job doesn’t give you a syllabus.” I caught up with one such company, Praxis, when I began questioning college. Praxis is run almost entirely by collegeage opt-outs. Derek Magill, head of marketing for the startup, was a particularly enthusiastic ex-Wolverine, a Classics major who shunned Homer’s “Iliad” to train opt-outs like himself for jobs in the new economy. Magill’s frustration wasn’t sudden like mine — once head of the University of Michigan’s Young Americans for Liberty club, he sued the school for discrimination in funding of student groups before opting out. While conventional wisdom holds that college molds you from a naive adolescent into a capable adult, Magill disagrees. He believes students party too much, make fake friendships and brag about being chronically behind on their studies. As he put it on Quora, instead of forging their way through their lives, “they actively sought opportunities to avoid class and patted themselves on the back for selecting the easiest classes.” The research seems to back him up — his gripes have actually been quantified. In their book “Academically Adrift,” Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa found that 45 percent of undergraduates at 24 institutions showed no significant improvement in a range of skills — including critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing — during their first two years at college. Derek wouldn’t be surprised; this was just evidence of students memorizing material to maximize their grade point
NIA LEE | CONTACT NIA AT LEENIA@UMICH.EDU
averages instead of truly absorbing knowledge. Yet many students are, rightly, bound to disagree with these sentiments. College is often regarded as a time of self-discovery, providing a space to test out a diverse array of interests with a safety net to fall back on. Unlike a job, where responses to failure are harsh, college lets students retake classes and lean on the support of similarly aged peers struggling with the same issues. This unique opportunity in a young person’s life should be cherished, not attacked as a naive false reality. As disgruntled students tune in to opt-outs’ messages, more and more will drop out of the system. Until then, however, the opt-outs have an uphill battle to wage against one of the most ingrained societal expectations of young people. Agree or disagree with the opt-outs’ conclusions on college, they do make valuable points about the changing nature of our economy. While students focus on attaining the best academic and extracurricular experience, they should dedicate equal time to independent projects that build their portfolios in whatever they want to do once they graduate. This could mean coding a new app with friends, publishing content online or interning at a startup. In today’s economy, students must build experiences independent of their college in order to signal employability to others — degrees alone won’t get you a job like they did for our parents. This doesn’t mean get the cookie-cutter, coffee-fetching internship at an accounting firm — it means build things in the real world.
Luke Jacobs can be reached at lejacobs@umich.edu.
A newbie’s guide to transferring
W
hen I walked out of my first class at the University of Michigan, the sky was dark and the streets I had familiarized myself with during the daytime were foreign. Out of stubbornness, I avoided looking at the maps on my phone and began to walk with a new classmate. I tried my hardest to look like I knew where I was going and keep it cool. As I anxiously searched for a landmark that would send me in the direction home, I realized this transition was going to be more difficult than I imagined. College is not easy, and transferring can heighten this feeling. Whenever I discuss college with my older friends and family, they tell me the best years of their life were in college. Since the beginning of my college experience, I have been confused by this statement. How are these going to be the best years of my life? How could this be true for everyone? Is there a secret that I have not been let in on? Last winter, when I decided to transfer to the University, I felt excited about the promise of my future. On the other hand, I also felt this great sadness as I was leaving a community that I had spent time and energy developing. During my freshman year at Michigan State University, I found myself searching for people that challenged me, lived active lives and had similar interests, but I had not joined any student organizations or any social groups. During my final semester there, I decided I was going to get involved, and joined multiple student organizations, got an internship and worked in a lab. Even with this new busy schedule and social life, there was still something missing, so I went to Ann Arbor for a fresh start. I wasn’t excited about transferring, but I ultimately had to find a way to make my college experience the best for me.
I had two weeks to find somewhere to live before I moved to Ann Arbor, and a friend suggested I check out the Inter-Cooperative Council at the University. In need of housing, an instant community and with little time, I signed up to live in a house of 23 strangers. After trial and error in my social life, I thought this could be a way to seek people and community that was both active and challenged me. Little did I know this might have been the most important decision of my current college experience. In my house, I finally felt like I had a community to come back to when I came home after a stressful day of classes. This didn’t happen overnight, but occurred slowly over the course of my first semester. I want to make it clear that this was probably the most emotionally draining semester I had experienced. There was no instant transformation. It took time, and I was impatient to be happy with my experience. Experiencing depression your first semester at a new university is quite common, as I learned in my positive psychology course. According to Steven Brunwasser, research instructor at Vanderbilt University and former Psychology Ph.D. candidate at the University, transfer students living off-campus experienced more depressive symptoms than freshman and transfer students who live on-campus. The depressive symptoms that the transfer students offcampus had reported also did not improve by the end of their first semester. Brunwasser concluded that this must be from their lack of on-campus support and resources. Transfer students living off-campus are not given opportunities to engage with campus student life and the social networks that develop from them. When I reflect on this period, I would definitely say that there were moments when I felt lost,
and I see these now as signs of depression. I took comfort in knowing I was not alone in my experience. As the semester came to an end, I entered the spring still battling these symptoms, but I had friends and a community that continued to reach out to me even after I left Ann Arbor for the summer. As a transfer student who continues to live off-campus, I was able to grow my campus social network through my cooperative home and the community of co-opers who attend our University. These were the individuals supporting and helping me navigate my first semester. My housemates have connected me to most of my closest friends, student organizations and university resources. They challenge me to become an active and involved student here at the University of Michigan. As my second semester begins to play out, I understand now how to make my experience happy and fulfilling. Whether it is filling my schedule with activities or student organization meetings, practicing self-care or spending quality time with my friends, I am taking control of my college experience. With the support of my community, co-op housemates and new friends, I feel comfort in the fact they will be there for me as I take control and create my college experience. And I think that must be the secret of making these years the best. If you just transferred or know someone who just got here, I am here for you, and there are other transfer students who are experiencing this unique path at our University. My best advice is to find your community and get involved as quickly as possible, because their support makes our large University feel a little more like home. Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at erosenz@umich.edu.
BILLY STAMPFL | COLUMN
Drop the on-demand attitude
M
illennials get dumped on all the time — on TV, on the internet and at family gatherings. We’re called lazy, unambitious, selfrighteous, image-obsessed, egocentric cybernauts who would rather stare at our phone screens than have a conversation. Maybe some of this is true, maybe some of this is not. If our generation really is all of these things — which would be terrifying for the future of the United States — I don’t think any column could even remotely describe how much trouble we’re in. However, there is one clear issue our generation faces, and it’s not really our fault. In fact, this problem was dropped on us by baby boomers and Generation X. The issue is millennials have become so accustomed to an on-demand world that we expect success to be on-demand as well. The reason for this is that baby boomers and Generation X-ers ushered in a technological revolution that led to us getting whatever we want, when we want it. Think about it: We grew up — or, at least, have spent the formative years of life — with Netflix, smartphones and Amazon next-day delivery. We hardly had to wait until Thursday night to watch our favorite TV show. If we wanted to know the size of Central Park, we didn’t have to walk to the library to check out a book — we have computers in our pockets. And for the last eight years, we’ve been able to use our pocket PCs to order a ride through Uber, meaning we rarely have to wait more than five minutes for a car to take us where we want to go. This “on-demandness” is not a problem. In fact, it’s great; it has revolutionized our economy and led to hyper-growth in several industries, from ground transportation to grocery to restaurant. The economics is
simple: It’s easier for people to buy goods and services, people buy more goods and services, businesses make more money, businesses use this money to innovate and expand, businesses can pay higher wages, people make more money, people spend more money. It’s a virtuous cycle. I have no problem with this, and neither should you. But we’ve made the mistake of transferring our attitude toward Netflix — “I want to watch it now, so I’ll watch it now” — to more difficult, important things that generations before us had to work hard for. These things are not on-demand. Take, for example, a millennial trying to learn calculus. If they apply their Amazon same-day delivery attitude to mastering the Taylor series — a representation of a function as an infinite sum of terms — they might be disappointed. Calculus is not your coming-soon Amazon purchase: You won’t get it that day or the next day and maybe not even that week or the next week. You have to work at it, sometimes for long periods of time. I think we look at this as a foreign concept now. We need to understand the situation: Our generation has lots of advantages, and, as a result, we expect things to come easy. We get frustrated when they don’t. Inevitably, we quit, and we never make the progress we’re capable of. This isn’t good, but it doesn’t mean we’re lazy, pretentious or unaspiring. It doesn’t mean we don’t care about people or hate talking to others. We just need to collectively realize a simple fact: things get better if you work at them. Most of the time, success won’t come right away. It’s not your Uber ride — it isn’t one minute away. This requires understanding that we are not going to score a touchdown on every play. But if we can move the ball down the field every time, if we can get a little
better every day, eventually we’ll get somewhere. An imperfect but somewhat illuminating illustration of this on-demand attitude came in 2008, when Barack Obama ascended to the presidency, partly because optimistic millennials supported him. Obama, armed with his hope-and-change rhetoric, won 66 percent of the vote in the below-30 demographic. Come Inauguration Day, the American people (especially hopeful millennials) anticipated near-immediate change amid a financial crisis, two wars in the Middle East and the impending collapse of the U.S. auto industry. It didn’t come, at least not right away. And though there are many variables that could have affected the following statistic, it’s worth noting that 60 percent of millennials supported Obama in 2012 — a high number, sure, but a noticeable drop-off from four years earlier, when we thought success would be immediate. Again, this example is inexact. The precise reasons for Obama losing millennial support are hard to pin down. But my overarching point — that we too often hold the false belief that achievement is a one-step process — has been echoed by the former president himself. On “The Daily Show” in 2010, Obama modified his famous slogan: “Yes, we can,” he said, before adding, “but it is not going to happen overnight.” Millennials should heed this modification. We can keep watching Netflix and using Uber, but we can’t transfer that same on-demand attitude to real life, where hard things don’t come easy. We just need to keep moving the ball down the field. Eventually, we’ll score a touchdown.. Billy Stampfl can be reached at bstampfl@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 — 5A
TV NOTEBOOK
RCA
Walk The Moon maintains consistency in new video SAM LU
Daily Arts Writer
With a freshly bleached mullet mohawk and a distinct nomadic-desert-hippie vibe, singer Nicholas Petricca bobs along to the bubbly indie pop that Walk The Moon is famous for, as cheery as ever despite the relative barrenness of the desert landscape behind him. Petricca’s wacky dance moves dominate most of the “One Foot” music video, interspersed with a few shots of a graceful dancer, the band together as a whole and a few shots of Petricca serenading the sky. From the first few lines of the song, it’s easy to figure out where the inspiration for the setting came from. “Not a soul up ahead and nothing behind / There’s a desert in my blood and a storm in your eyes,” Petricca sings as he
stares boldly into the camera, a geometric stripe design running down each of his cheeks. Both the production style and face paint are pretty consistent with Walk The Moon’s older aesthetic, seen on songs like “Quesadilla” and “Anna Sun.” Although “One Foot” isn’t terrible, it isn’t exactly groundbreaking, either, especially when compared to more bizarre, story-centered videos and even Walk The Moon’s own “Shut Up and Dance.” Although the music video is lackluster, the song itself is undeniably catchy, with the same tireless energ y that pervaded 2014’s uptempo, positive Talking is Hard. The track is similar to “Shut Up and Dance” in terms of style, composition and energ y, especially with respect to the chorus — both tracks have a
“One Foot” Walk The Moon
RCA Records
memorable, chant-like line that contains the song title — though “One Foot” lacks the harder riffs that set “Shut Up
Petricca’s wacky dance moves dominate most of the “One Foot” music video
and Dance” apart as more of a party song. With Walk The Moon’s consistent sound and release style, dependability might be the band’s greatest asset. In an industry where artists are continually redefining their identities, Walk The Moon fans at least know what they’re getting.
SINGLE REVIEW
ATLANTIC
Skrillex injects ‘Humble’ with an overdose of bass SALVATORE DIGIOIA Daily Arts Writer
Many argue that Skrillex has not had a vital new song in years — since either his chart-topping collaboration with Diplo and Justin Bieber (“Where Are Ü Now”) or his similarly ambitious crossover effort with A$AP Rocky (“Wild For The Night”). Meanwhile, others believe that Skrillex never created vital music in the first place, dismissing his wholly American translations of dubstep and dance music as computerized noise — viral fodder for the iGeneraton, sure, but undeserving of that sacred title: Art. Both of these groups, of course, are absolutely wrong. Earlier this year, Skrillex released his highest-profile single in years, finally returning to his electro-alias
after an oddly long hiatus during which he focused on running his label (OWSLA). That single — “Would You Ever,” a collaboration with go-to pop writer Poo Bear — is a melodious monster that instantly insinuates thoughts of sunshine and palm trees. It’s also one of Skrillex’s most beautiful tracks to date, despite not exactly being representative of his classic sound. Now, as if to compensate for his recent deviation from hardcore, the mega-producer has returned with a speaker-rattling remix of the year’s biggest rap song: Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble.” Perhaps Kendrick never needed to hear his words reworked into an ear-melting bass drop, but besides that point, Skrillex’s “Humble” slaps harder than Batman in that ever-so-perfect comic meme. For an artist whose work is often recognized as noisy, perhaps borderline obnoxious,
“Humble” (Remix) Skrillex
Atlantic
he makes effortless use of empty space, teasing listeners with a brief accapella leadin before employing anxious high-keys to initiate his assault. Eventually, jumpy snares and an intense pattern of whopping bass kicks arrive to foreshadow the song’s chorus, but even then, gaps between their kicks somehow leave sufficient room for Kendrick. Obviously, once the drop arrives, there is no secret who the song’s remixer is: Listening to Skrillex’s “Humble” can feel something like standing next to an airplane that’s mid-takeoff. Yet, his softer, perhaps more musical capabilities are still ever-present in the production, a point that’s driven home by his inclusion of in-character space-synths (think “Cinema” or “All I Ask Of You”) within Kendrick’s second verse. For a moment here, one might wonder if the song is about to slow down. It does not. Cue another “Shut up, bitch! Be humble,” and another drop. That is the Skrillex we fell in love with in 2010.
NETFLIX
The surprising depth and meaning in adult cartoons JACK BRANDON Daily Arts Writer
Cartoons are often a childish, reductive medium. They take the forms of people, animals and places, break them down to their bare parts, and illustrate them. That being said, plenty of cartoons are visually appealing and stimulating — but for the most part, they are not considered high forms of art. Often, cartoon programs are directed towards children, but a good deal of them are directed towards adults. These programs often air on Adult Swim, the nighttime programming block of Cartoon Network. While adult cartoons often lean towards irreverent or absurd comedy, in recent years, there has been an uptake in high-quality content that has a striking amount of purpose and message. Programs like “Rick and Morty” and “BoJack Horseman” are changing the reputation of adult comedy for the better. For the past decade or so, adult cartoons had mostly been directed towards the critique and lampoon of American culture. The stock formula is a middle-class family, with one son, one daughter, a baby and a pet or two. The longest running thirty-minute series, “The Simpsons,” does just that, having cemented itself in the hall of outstanding television many years ago. Variations on on the same theme, like Seth McFarlane’s three shows, “Family Guy,” “American Dad” and “The Cleveland Show” have been met with similar acclaim. The formula is tried-and-true, which has
discouraged experimentation and ingenuity. Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty” has inverted this formula by changing some of the roles. Instead of the dopey, dumb father, grandfather Rick is a genius scientist across galaxies, and actual-father Jerry is ineffectual and plain. Rick is often paired with Morty, his grandson, who is hopeful
For the past decade or so, adult cartoons had mostly been directed towards the critique and lampoon of American culture
and naive, but not stupid. The duo is a reworked Stewie and Brian from “Family Guy,” in a way, working with the same evil genius and simpleton dynamic that is referenced in countless other programs. “Ricky and Morty” also has a remarkable amount of depth in narrative and subject, taking place across countless galaxies and timelines. The blurring between real and fake that takes place is thought-
provoking and poignant without sacrificing too much meaning. Occasionally, cartoons are great ways to make larger-than-life ideas digestible. Netf lix’s “BoJack Horseman” completely ignores the stock formula and tackles themes in American culture that have often been ignored. The eponymous, washed-up sitcom star has to deal with his life after fame, with his then-contemporaries, like Mr. Peanutbutter, and PR agent quasi-girlfriend, Princess Carolyn. The show actually carries a main storyline, which is a deviation from the irreverence of adult cartoons, and is not told in a linear fashion. The audience sees snippets of BoJack in the past that inform the narrative that is playing out in the present, which leaves them without key points of information. BoJack, voice by Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”), has no family in the main characters, and the show turns to the fear of isolation more often than not. The creativity and novelty of “BoJack Horseman” shows the power of streaming companies to make content that is original without being derivative as other series. The genre of adult cartoons is stepping forward with its assistance. Overall, accessible pop culture hasn’t had an interesting adult cartoon in a long time. At high points in the arc of a television show, seasons three and four, respectively, “Rick and Morty” and “BoJack Horseman” provide viewers with an unforgettable, quasitrailblazing moment in the history of television.
SOMETIMES, YOU WONDER — WHERE CAN I FIND A LIKE-MINDED GROUP OF HEALTHYMINDED, FORWARD-THINKING COLLEGE STUDENTS I’D LIKE TO GROW WITH DURING MY FOUR YEARS HERE. WE’RE NOT REALLY YOUR ANSWER TO THAT. BUT IF YOU LIKE HEARING NIHLISTIC MALAISE AND CONSTANT PRETENTIOUS ART CRITICISM ON AN EVERYDAY BASIS, JOIN US MAYBE? E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for an application to join our section.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DAILY COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
FILM REVIEW
What we miss while we’re looking down
MUSIC BOX FILMS Catherine Frot stars in ‘The Midwife’
Understated but lovely, ‘The Midwife’ triumphs ASIF BECHER Daily Arts Writer
Claire (Catherine Frot, “Heureux en France”) is a midwife who lives a quiet but pleasant life in a suburb outside Paris. Her placid days are interrupted by the return of a figure from her past, Béatrice (Catherine Deneuve, “Le Cancre”), the mistress of Claire’s late father. Béatrice is a force of nature whose free-spirited and unreserved personality clashes with Claire’s tempered, careful nature. And yet, Béatrice and Claire strike up an unlikely friendship, beginning when Béatrice reveals that she is dying of brain cancer. “The Midwife” is a slow burn. Not much happens, per se, but the relationships are so carefully and gently developed that you find yourself engrossed nonetheless. Director Martin Provost (“Violette”) takes his time letting the characters warm up to each other, and the patience is well worth it. It’s a great film, not because
Not much happens, per se, but the relationships are so carefully and gently developed it’s big or dramatic, but rather quite the opposite: it makes the most of the tiny intimacies in this quiet slice of life. The
heart of “The Midwife” is in the details, carefully layered to create a work that’s rich and emotionally complicated. The best moments are the beats between the big character confrontations, when we simply follow Claire through her life. Over and over, we see Claire birth a baby with expert skill and pass it on to the mother. She’s a constant witness to some of the greatest joys and pains these women will ever see, and she gives her whole heart to them, every time. It’s a masterful performance by Frot, equal parts warm, empathetic and
“The Midwife” Music Box Films Michigan Theater heartbreaking as we realize her profound loneliness. That is, until Béatrice arrives. Deneuve and Frot really bring out the best in each other. Just like their characters, they build on each others’ strengths, and their dynamic feels real and lived-in. Deneuve brings a certain vulnerability to the oftentimes callous and careless Béatrice, and in her capable hands, she becomes a character who’s more tragic than grating, which she so easily could have been. Together, the two actresses are a powerhouse team, and by the end of the film, you find yourself caring as much about them as they do about each other. It’s a testament to the writing and
acting that a story as simple as this can achieve the emotional
The best moments are the beats between the big character confrontations
peaks it does. It’s a beautiful movie. A little sad, a little funny, quietly triumphant, full of earnest feeling. It’s small and personal, but somehow feels universal. At its core, it’s about betrayal and friendship, romance and heartache, birth and death — and all the spaces in between. There’s a moment near the end of the film when a young woman comes stumbling into Claire’s birthing clinic, in labor and all alone. It’s the middle of the night and the midwives are all on break, so nobody hears her as she cries out for help. She finds them eventually, and the six women help her through her birth. She’s supported from every angle, surrounded by these kind women who ease her fears. We find out later that this young woman was one of the first babies Claire had ever helped birth, now all grown up and continuing the cycle. Claire wipes away a tear, and I can’t help myself — I do too. Because really, this is a very old story: Women taking care of each other, holding each other up through the pains in their lives, one day at a time.
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You walk into the elevator. I’m standing right next to you, on my way down to floor one. This is our typical morning routine. You have pulled out your phone, your safety net of sorts, and your crutch to avoid the situation that you are now in. My eye contact has immediately prompted the movement of you taking out your phone, and pulling it closer to your eyes. You must be looking at something. The more I try to study the screen you’re so enthralled by, the more I realize I am mistaken. You’re not typing an email or a text. You’re not reading anything. You have your phone open to its home screen. And you’re just staring at it. This situation exposes many problems — but my objective in describing it, is to discuss our lack of communication, both in terms of desire and ability. I want to really understand how on earth we have reached this point. Where suddenly, a 20-second ride from floor six to floor one has proven impossible for most people to look up from their screens, and say “hi” to the person standing next to them. You may be wondering why I didn’t say “hi.” Right? Here I am talking about how we don’t communicate at all with those around us and yet, I didn’t say anything first. Well, I’m afraid I’ll throw you off guard. I’m afraid you’ll look up, and feel forced to converse with me, and thus frustrated that I took you away from the crucial task of studying your home screen. I’m afraid I am taking you out of your normal morning routine. And most of all, I’m afraid that this has really become the normal morning routine. Recently, I watched a video about a man named Otis Johnson, who was in prison for 44 years. Following his parole, he was sitting in Times Square, observing the people around him, and was struck by the phenomenon of iPhones held in front of faces, and headphones plugged in. He noticed that everyone seemed to be talking to themselves. They didn’t look up to see where they
were walking (really smart in Times Square), and they weren’t conversing with the people around them. This was puzzling to him, considering 44 years prior, he remembered people were engaged, they looked around, and they talked to those around them. To address what I think of technology and our generation of smartphones, I would have to compose a separate column. But it’s worth recognizing that we have become dependent on them in ways that stretch beyond sole convenience. We shouldn’t feel “thrown off,”
BAILEY KADIAN or at times, really scared, if someone says “hi, how are you?” in public. Of course, every situation calls for proper judgment, and maybe there are moments when staying quiet really is most appropriate. But in the elevator, on my way to class, I don’t think it is so outrageous to converse with someone who is also in the elevator, and maybe also on her way to class. However, it isn’t routine, and people simply don’t do it. During my freshman year of college, we were all advised to attend the New Student Convocation, and when I attended with the rest of my residence hall, the CSG president at that time gave a speech, which urged us to “look up.” He insisted that we look up and see what surrounds us, who surrounds us, and then engage with those things. There is about a two-week window at the start of the school year when it seems our student body commits to social interaction. Then we get started, we settle in, and we plug in. Many
opportunities to engage, learn, grow, and probably meet really interesting, intelligent people quickly vanish as time goes on. You can tell me you’re shy, you’re an introvert, you’re an INFP according to the MyersBriggs test, so it wouldn’t be natural for you to say “hi” to me first. I’m not suggesting we have a full out conversation about all our hopes and dreams in the elevator. I’m just suggesting we say “hi” to one another, and that that isn’t an odd thing to do. The speech at
The moments I have fought the urge to stay silent, I have actually met some wonderful people
the convocation was built on a lot of truth, I just didn’t realize at the time that while observing those around me look down and disengage, I would become like them in the process. The moments I have fought the urge to stay silent, I have actually met some wonderful people. Last year, I complimented a girl standing next to me on the pants she was wearing. She thanked me, asked what I was studying, and I later explained that I hope to attend law school. She then told me she was in the law school, and she still remains a good friend that I go to for my various pre-law questions. It took almost nothing to talk and discuss our interests. Saying “hi” to the person next to you is probably not taking you away from anything important most of the time. If it is crucial that you respond to an email or text, I can’t stop you. But my message is clear: look up. Look around. Engage with all that surrounds you. You might like what you see.
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, September 27, 2017
J O I N D A I L Y A R T S P L E A S E
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Got taller 5 Etching supplies 10 Ski area in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains 14 See 66-Across 15 Bad news for the waiter 16 Classic cars 17 Fall in love with something at the home improvement center? 19 “Pretty please?” 20 “Frasier” role 21 Debuting on screen 23 iPhone, e.g., briefly 24 Scooby-__ 25 Bring Bugs into harmony? 30 Golf tee, e.g. 31 “Flashdance... What a Feeling” singer Cara 32 Barbecue pair 33 Solo in a spotlight 35 Smallish batteries 36 Med. condition with repetitive behavior 37 Get voices in all ranges? 42 Colony resident 43 Gallery filler 44 Went like crazy 46 Second thought 49 Get fuzzy, as vision 51 Grand __ Opry 52 Severely criticize the store special? 54 “Breaking Bad” org. 55 Org. offering written and road tests 56 Mason jar attachment 57 Humdrum 59 Start bubbling 61 Criticize the stringed instrument? 65 Greek peak 66 With 14-Across, event with batons 67 Site with tech reviews 68 __ end
69 Wild West transport 70 Run-of-the-mill
36 In base eight 48 Permit to enter 38 No later than the States 39 Space 49 Unwise wager 40 Tiny tunes player 50 Country’s DOWN 41 Big events for McEntire 1 __ Joe, Charlie’s film studios 53 Whopper companion on his 45 Gives a hand creators tour of Wonka’s 46 Somewhat flabby 58 Basics chocolate factory male physique, 60 Young chap 2 Time before TV informally 62 According to 3 Environment47 Diffuse slowly 63 Give in to gravity related through a 64 Word after eagle 4 “Where __ you?” membrane or hawk 5 Actress Ortiz of “Ugly Betty” ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 6 Fish sticks fish 7 Midori on the ice 8 Pop singer Warwick 9 Binge 10 Reliever’s asset 11 Seize, as an opportunity 12 Pooch in your lap, maybe 13 Most people 18 Actor Morales 22 Keep an eye on 26 Personal attribute 27 Rip (up) 28 Opens, as an official document 29 Commotions 34 Jordan’s only port 09/27/17 xwordeditor@aol.com
By Bruce Haight ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/27/17
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 — 7A
Evans finally makes his case in running back competition KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
Chris Evans said Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium felt like a homecoming. For the Boilermakers, it literally was. But it was Evans — the Indianapolis, Ind. native — who took the spotlight like it was his, finishing with a teamhigh 14 carries, 97 yards and two touchdowns. Prior to Saturday, though, the Michigan sophomore back’s season hadn’t been running according to his plan. Coming off a stellar freshman campaign, Evans was essentially pegged as the Wolverines’ next starter after an Orange Bowl performance that saw him give Michigan the late lead with a 30-yard touchdown run before Florida State’s comeback. And in Michigan’s seasonopener, everything went according to that script. Evans took the field for the Wolverines’ first snap, and turned in 88 yards on a teamhigh 22 carries. The only problem, though, was that fifthyear senior Ty Isaac outdid him — turning 11 carries into a teamhigh 114 yards. After that game and in the week that followed, Jim Harbaugh was relatively mute about if Isaac’s performance had earned him the starting nod over Evans. Against Cincinnati, everyone got an answer. Isaac took the first snap. He got 19 more. Evans got five. Against Air Force, it was the same story. Evans carried the ball six times. The rest of the team rushed a combined 36 times. And even after Isaac sustained a minor injury against the Falcons, Evans wasn’t given his starting role back. Instead, it was passed to fellow sophomore running back
Karan Higdon in Michigan’s Big Ten opener against Purdue this past weekend. But finally, Evans got his chance to be the premier back again. Higdon’s fumble midway through the third quarter ended his day, as he didn’t receive another carry for the rest of the game. Evans filled the void, and he didn’t let the opportunity slip. The first touchdown rush, Evans admitted Monday, never looked good during the practices leading up to Purdue. But they
That’s my job, to make people miss in space. tried it anyway, and Evans reaped the benefits — taking a toss 10 yards, untouched into the end zone to put Michigan ahead, 14-10, with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter. “Every time we ran (the) toss that game they bit on it,” Evans said. “They would bite on it fast and break hard. We just creased them up the middle.” From there, Michigan slammed on the gas pedal and Evans provided the final exclamation point. With just under seven minutes remaining, Evans lined up in the backfield. He took the handoff from fifth-year senior John O’Korn, and the hole opened up. “I know that it was bonus,” Evans said. “Everytime I hear ‘bonus’ I know everybody is
FIELD HOCKEY
Way’s clutch scoring leads ‘M’ once again JACOB KOPNICK For the Daily
Junior forward Emma Way is no stranger to netting gamewinning shots. In fact, she’s no stranger to scoring gamewinning goals against rival Ohio State either, having scored the go-ahead goal against the Buckeyes her freshman year during the regular season finale. On Friday, Way and the Michigan field hockey team (3-0 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) shocked Ohio State (0-3, 4-5), again scoring the game-winning goal with just 20 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Wolverines a 1-0 victory. Over the course of her Michigan career, Way has managed to score or assist on an astounding six game-winning goals, netting five of them herself. As a freshman, Way scored or assisted on two overtime goals in the Big Ten Tournament, marking the beginning of her game-winning tendencies. From then on, she has not only provided the Wolverines with a clutch X-factor, but has contributed a steady offensive effort as well, finishing last season with six goals and four assists. Against the Buckeyes, Way managed to connect despite Michigan’s offensive struggles throughout the match. “The game was out of character for us,” said fifth-year forward Carly Bennett. “We weren’t as aggressive as we had been, but we luckily ended up winning.” The Wolverines definitely looked more in character offensively Sunday, decisively beating No. 3 Penn State (2-1, 8-2), 3-0. Bennett, a captain for Michigan, relied on her work rate to set the tone when other elements weren’t clicking for the Wolverines. “I just always give 100 percent effort,” Bennett said. “I think everyone sees that and steps
up. I actually also had a word with (sophomore forward) Meg Dowthwaite after the Ohio State game. I told her that we needed her to step up.” That’s exactly what Dowthwaite did. Scoring once in the match against the Nittany Lions, Dowthwaite was instrumental in the Michigan’s statement win against Penn State. The Wolverines’ game plan has consistently been to score early and often, with success coming when Michigan can effectively run its offense in the circle — a feat the Wolverines achieved Sunday. “We just had great team cohesion,” said senior goalkeeper Sam Swenson. “We followed the game plan well and our transitions were sharp — everyone on the team just plays really well together.” On the other side of the field, Michigan has played tremendous defense, as it has maintained shutouts in its past five contests. This weekend’s matchups cemented the team’s stellar defensive reputation as Swenson had eight saves against Ohio State and seven saves against Penn State. “Sam Swenson was huge today,” said Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. “She made some huge saves. The whole team was great defensively and we shut them down today.” The defense has shaped up to be the anchor for the Wolverines. Regardless of how well the offense has been performing, Swenson and her teammates consistently shut their opponents down and kept Michigan competitive at any time during a match, placing itself among the country’s most elite field hockey teams. “This is what we practice,” Bennett said. “We need to forget about how we played in the past and just come out and do our jobs.” Against the Buckeyes, they did just that. The defense bought time, then Way repaid them for it.
gonna get blocked. … I just knew I trusted my coach and my landmark and all my coaching that I had all week. They left one dry, and I just — you know, that’s my job, to make people miss in space.” Evans did his job, beating the safety and taking off for a 49-yard touchdown that — barring a miracle — put Purdue’s hopes of an upset in West Lafayette out of reach. The Wolverines’ affinity for scoring in the fourthquarter has become a risky, yet encouraging, trend. Michigan is outscoring opponents 43-0 in the final frame through four games, but more often than not, there hasn’t been much scoring up to that point. “I feel like it comes down to the workouts over the summer,” Evans said. “When we gotta run 16 gassers and it comes down to the 14th one, the 15th one, and everybody’s tired, and we know that everybody else is doing this so we gotta make sure we get the time. It just carries over to the game.” As for Evans’ role with the Wolverines, there’s no telling who will be out there for the first snap against Michigan State. Harbaugh has been vocal in saying that he is willing to go with the hot back. Right now, that’s Evans, but the rotating door could still keep turning. As for the impact a performance like Saturday’s can have for Evans personally, he stressed that it simply makes him push himself more — not because of the stable of backs in Ann Arbor, but because of the ones he will be facing from Penn State and Ohio State. “It’s gonna make me work harder,” Evans said, “because I know that Saquon (Barkley) and J.K. (Dobbins), they out there working too.”
57
Carries
Yards
47
33
356 220 136
1
Rushing TDs
2
2
Yards per carry
6.2 4.7 4.1
Yards per game
89.0 55.0 34.0
Wolverines upset No. 9 Wisconsin Michigan notched its first win over a top-10 team since 2014 on Sunday. JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer
Due largely to a list of injuries that seems to only grow, not much has gone as expected for the Michigan women’s soccer team this season. Sunday’s game at Wisconsin was no exception — but for a different reason. The Wolverines had fought Minnesota to an exhausting double-overtime draw just three days earlier, and took the field against the ninth-ranked Badgers in sweltering, 90-degree heat with five starters unable to play. But Michigan (2-1-1 Big Ten, 5-2-4 overall) did the unexpected again, upsetting Wisconsin, 2-1, in overtime for its first victory over a top-10 team since 2014 — which also came against the Badgers. After surviving being outshot, 39-7, by the Golden Gophers on Thursday, Sunday’s contest started much the same way. The Badgers (2-1, 8-2) took the first six shots of the game as the Wolverines attempted to absorb pressure with an atypical fiveplayer defensive back line. However, just as Minnesota didn’t score until the 76th minute, Wisconsin similarly struggled to break through. Despite a 12-2 Badger advantage in attempts, Michigan led at halftime, 1-0, thanks to sophomore center back Jada Dayne’s goal in the 37th minute. “Our biggest strength was really great team organization and defending,” said Wolverines coach Greg Ryan. “They just didn’t give Wisconsin many chances. That took all 11 of them to do that.” Added junior forward Reilly Martin: “We knew that we were going to have to defend for 90 minutes to keep this game close, and our back line really gave an unbelievable performance.” The Badgers equalized when forward Dani Rhodes fired a
penalty kick past Michigan senior goalkeeper Sarah Jackson in the 55th minute. However, it was around that point when the complexion of the game changed. After Rhodes’ goal, the Wolverines took control, as they fired off nine shots and earned four corners compared to Wisconsin’s six and zero, respectively. This shift was aided by Michigan’s defensive strategy of staying behind the ball and waiting for scoring chances on the counterattack. This style of play allowed the Wolverines to expend less energy than the Badgers, and eventually wear them down enough to gain the upper hand. “We got stronger as the match went on and they faded as the match went on,” Ryan said. “Maybe they punched themselves out a little bit. They definitely didn’t have the same level of energy.” This fatigue could be observed most in Wisconsin’s back line. In the late stages of regulation, Michigan carved out a number of terrific chances behind the
Badgers’ defense. Martin missed a volley over Badgers goalkeeper Caitlyn Clem and redshirt sophomore midfielder Katie Foug couldn’t find an open net in the 89th minute. But despite these near misses, it was clear that the Wolverines had momentum on their side heading into overtime. “We knew once we got into overtime that we were going to finish the game and win it,” Martin said. They did — and it was Martin herself who scored the winning goal in the 96th minute to finish off Michigan’s biggest win in years. While youth and inexperience — the Wolverines started four freshmen against the Badgers — could have derailed their chances of an upset, Ryan credited the play of Cooper, Sarah Stratigakis, Nicki Hernandez and Samantha DeVecchi as key to the victory, calling their execution of the game plan “perfect.” “It’s fabulous from a confidence standpoint knowing that you can put in a lot of young players to fill big shoes and
they can do this well against a top-10 opponent,” Ryan said. “Confidence for those young kids is sky high, and confidence for the whole team is sky high.” Cooper stood out in particular for her performance, as she started at a completely new position — outside back — on Sunday. “She was outstanding all day,” Ryan said. “She got forward well and attacked well, she had a great chance to score a goal and she defended very well.” Meanwhile, Stratigakis, Hernandez and DeVecchi impressed in the midfield as well, providing solid offense and defense for Michigan. “You don’t expect three freshmen midfielders ... to be up to the task against a top-10 team in the midfield,” Ryan said. “But they really, really held their own.” Michigan now has four days to recover from a grueling twogame stretch and prepare to take on Iowa at home Friday. But after an unexpectedly successful road trip, there’s no doubt the Wolverines have earned the rest.
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Junior forward Reilly Martin scored in the 96th minute to seal an upset over the ninth-ranked Badgers on Sunday.
Sports
8A — Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
A look back at Purdue
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight prepares to lead his team onto the field at Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday afternoon in West Lafayette.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight was sacked in the second quarter and sustained a second hit that left him motionless on the ground.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Speight eventually walked off the field with the help of trainers, but did not return.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Fifth-year senior quarterback John O’Korn replaced Speight, and helped lead the Wolverines in a comeback win.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Fifth-year senior quarterback John O’Korn finished with 270 yards and touchdown in a 28-10 victory over Purdue.
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | S E P T E M B E R 27, 2017
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
2B
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | S E P T E M B E R 27, 2017
Managaing Statement Editor: Lara Moehlman
Editor in Chief: Emma Kinery
Managing Editor: Rebecca Lerner
Deputy Editors: Yoshiko Iwai Brian Kuang
Design Staff: Michelle Phillips Ava Weiner Emily Hardie Erin Tolar Nicole Doctoroff
Copy Editors: Elizabeth Dokas Taylor Grandinetti
Photo Editor: Alexis Rankin
The picture stays in the kid: Plastics
T
he first time I watched “The Graduate,” I watched for the romance between the freshly graduated Benjamin Braddock and the older Mrs. Robinson. The second time, I watched for the romance between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. Now, I watch for plastics. “Plastics.” It’s one line in the movie, and one played for laughs with a brusque and confident, yet ultimately not terribly memorable, effect. But that line, terse and direct, is a perfect encapsulation, almost synecdoche, of the trappings of modern professional aspirations. Benjamin is at his graduation party, but from the guest list, it would hardly seem so. Everyone at the party is a friend of his parents — they offhandedly toss their congratulations to the newly anointed adult in between other conversations that hardly concern him. Mr. McGuire, one of the guests, starts talking to Benjamin by the pool. He puts his hand on his shoulder and promises the future — business success, self-confidence, a house in the suburbs with a lawn, a wife and two kids, the whole 10 yards, because nine yards isn’t quite good enough. It rests on one word. “Plastics.” Mr. McGuire may have made a savvy market prediction — the plastic industry has done quite well — but Benjamin would have found his life as synthetic as the material itself. * I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing in one year. For the first time in my entire life, the calendar is open. I don’t know where I’ll be, what work I’ll be doing, what friends I’ll still be in contact with. Will I live at home? Will I be self-sufficient? Will I be dead? The anxiety has set in. I’ve lost the naivety of a dreamer. The day-to-day costs required of a comfortable life more tactile and consequences of failing to find employment are palpable. My career search starts with wondering what I want to do in my life, but that question is difficult to answer. Not for lack of hobbies or interests, but rather because I don’t know whether my work will be capital-I Important when I die. I’d love to be a magazine writer, but will my writing end up in a landfill? Even if it’s read, will it help anyone? How do I live a
BY DANIEL HENSEL, DAILY FILM EDITOR
satisfying life if I can never be satisfied? So there’s that anxiety. There’s also the base anxiety of not finding work in the first place. Try as I might, following certain writers on Twitter is no guarantee of future success. During my middle school graduation, the principal said a significant chunk of our class would be working in industries not yet existent.
ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN TOLAR
The industries are clear now: augmented reality, virtual reality and the like. But I lack the skills and interest in these lucrative markets. I like to write. I like the news. I like art. And jobs that reward someone modestly skilled with common
interests are few and far between. But even given the opportunity to work in such an industry, I’m worried that, come my death, I’ll look back on a life that was not particularly worthwhile. A life composed of small assignments, of one or two viral tweets, of a frivolous notion that I might like to enjoy what I do for a living. The audacity! I am plagued by the concerns of a life not yet lived. And yet I am troubled by the life that has so far passed by — regrets of nights spent inside and decisions not made, of sunny days spent in the dark and rainy days spent dry. * The point of the plastics line is to illustrate a gap between baby boomers, disillusioned with the future — Benjamin is constantly seen underwater — and their parents, many of whom labored to achieve a middle-class life. That labor included, and still includes, factory jobs, desk jobs: working at a company with little personal connection, with the ultimate goal of the ability to raise children comfortably in a secure retirement. That dream doesn’t seem so appealing to me. Once, I thought an interest in law would be enough to keep me afloat through a corporate law job so I could eventually do less lucrative, but more personally fulfilling, legal work. Nowadays, the prospect of three years in law school, let alone the miserable career that would follow, doesn’t seem so appealing. In a perfect world — or more to the point, in a world in which I have a career interest that’s fully satisfying and personally rewarding — I may not have these concerns. If I were to work as a doctor, for instance, each day would be an opportunity to save a life or help someone feel better. Instead, I feel selfish for pursuing a career in media. Maybe spending nine hours in an office every day doing something not that interesting for good pay is respectable. But it’s not notable. I feel like if I end up in that sort of work, I’ll feel like I’ve failed. That I’ve wasted my one shot at life. That I’ve given up. But if the alternative is a life that is, in the grand scheme of things, only slightly more fulfilling and personally intriguing, but still ends in the same feelings of regret, then I don’t think I’ll feel terribly satisfied either way. Maybe plastics aren’t so bad.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
Let’s talk about it: Kneeling for justice
A
s a Muslim, I quickly learned that the claims of this being an inclusive campus were not as earnest as I originally anticipated. Every year I find myself expecting instances of hate, and thus far I have never been proven wrong. For many students with minority identities on campus, issues like the recent racist vandalism in West Quad Residence Hall are simply expected. This is an issue demonstrated over and over at the University of Michigan, as the administration and faculty alike often ignore the recurring acts of hate. It is only a question of when these incidents will occur, rather than if they will occur. Yet the question of who can talk about these issues is one that often halts conversations that could create any real change. I am lucky that I feel supported in writing about my experiences on campus, but I also know this can be a challenge itself. Although I do receive a lot of support, I also get a lot of concern about attaching my name to such strong opinions and putting a spotlight on myself. I feel, though, that the spotlight is already on me in a way — as everywhere I walk my hijab reveals that I am Muslim — so I might as well use it for something. As a future educator, I also know publicizing personal opinions can be a problem when searching for, and keeping, jobs. Teachers are generally discouraged from sharing too many of their opinions with their students, unless, of course, most parents share that same opinion.
3B
BY RABAB JAFRI, COLUMNIST
So though many newer teachers have in-depth knowledge on social issues, the discouragement from helping society move forward is one that a lot of teachers have to navigate, when teachers can often be
one of the most important catalysts of social change. Similarly, issues of diversity are not always directly spoken about in class and people are often not expected to understand nuances of diversity or
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HARDIE
appropriate speech until they are in the workplace. This university only serves as a microcosm of the country as a whole, where the line between acceptable and unacceptable speech begins to blur, and people are taking advantage of the opportunity on all sides. As Americans in 2017 take to the streets with torches in the name of white nationalism and Nazi slogans, the question of where the line is seems to disappear. The campus debates over how to handle incidents of hatred reflect the greater national debate on how such incidents should be handled. The debates surrounding Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem only intensified after President Donald Trump publicly stated anyone that who kneels for the national anthem in the NFL should be fired. In the aftermath of this statement, the response from NFL players, NBA players and fans alike began to break another barrier — one that often keeps professional athletes silent. The distinction between “hate speech” and other forms of “allowable” speech being pushed for by some campus voices is a specific point of contention. There is no concrete definition of “hate speech” in American case law that can legally be curtailed, though such a distinction exists in many European legal systems. And yet, it is only when hate speech is publicly condemned and restricted in various ways that society moves forward as a whole. In the same way that condemning practices like blackface or Nazi
propaganda undoubtedly moves society forward, hate speech should be classified as wrong. But this is often not the case. People often use the guise of free speech to justify verbal harassment and hate speech without realizing that there is a moral logic behind many of the laws that govern society. To claim that there is no underlying morality or to trust that people understand hate speech using their own judgements is unrealistic. The question of why speech is the exception to the rule remains unanswered, and when certain instances of hate speech go from being acceptable to unacceptable only happens over a great deal of time. Rather than have clear sets of rules defining hate speech, this keeps incidents of hate on campus and in the United States as a whole “debatable.” Year after year I see the same incidents on campus and across America. I see glimmers of hope as people come together to condemn hate, but the mental barriers have to be broken if there can be any hope to move forward. My identity as a Muslim and a future educator encourage me to protest hatred on campus and in society. When the ideal expectation is for people to correct one another, how is this supposed to happen when so many are asked to be silent? As a minority, Muslim, and future educator, I struggle with this question each time I choose to speak up even when some might find my opinions to create a biased lens. And yet it seems that some issues are worth kneeling for.
4B
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
HOW DID WE GET HERE? Six decades of challenging the University’s administration
by Timothy Cohn, At 7 a.m. on Monday, first year Public Health student Dana Greene faced the flagpole and took a knee at the center of the Diag. On Sept. 16, racist graffiti was found on LSA sophomore Travon Stearns’ West Quad Residence Hall door. The following day, posters stating support of Dylann Roof — the white supremacist and mass murderer, who killed nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 and is now on death row — were found on a mural in downtown Ann Arbor. In a letter to University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel, Greene expressed his frustration with campus apathy toward the recent racist incidents of vandalism that have plagued the student body since school started just a few weeks ago. “I will kneel in the Diag facing the flag in silent protest until there is nothing left in me,” Greene’s letter reads. “I am prepared to miss class and work for a simple idea. I am not kneeling in disrespect to our troops or to our country. I am kneeling because we should be better than this. I am kneeling because I am tired of doing nothing. I am kneeling because I want this campus and this country to acknowledge a fact that I know to be true. We are not and have never lived by the idea of our founding that ALL men are created equal. I am kneeling because we our (sic) better than this.” Hundreds of students joined Greene as the day wore on, pitching tents, providing food and Gatorade and — of course — kneeling beside him in solidarity. The same morning Greene took his spot in the Diag, a student protest blocked North University Avenue, preventing buses and traffic from following their usual routes. Throughout the hot day and well into the night Greene continued to kneel. Finally, at about 4 a.m., after 21 hours of kneeling in almost total silence near the iconic block ‘M,’ Greene said “I think I’ve said enough.” Greene’s activism on Monday did not occur in a vacuum — rather, it was a crescendo within decades of unrest between students and the University administrators along issues of race and inclusion on campus. Civil rights activism on campus has been central to student social justice activity since 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, prompting the University’s Black Student Union to stage a historic sit-in of more than 100 people in the LSA building until the University agreed to form an African American Studies department and committed to a goal of 10 percent Black student
Senior News Editor
enrollment. But civil rights activism is just one of many social issues that has brought students at the University together in a campus tradition of fighting for progress and social change. Greene’s ability to command the attention of our campus to the Diag recalls the days a man named Alan Haber empowered his peers to participate in strikes and protests on the very same Diag in protest of the Vietnam War. ************ When Alan Haber arrived at the University in 1954, he didn’t look particularly different than the average freshman — hardworking and from a respected family. Haber’s father, William, was a renowned New Deal economist who served in the Roosevelt administration, helping to establish the U.S. Social Security Administration. Later on, the elder Haber became a dean at the University and an eminent Economics professor. By his own admission, Alan was not very politically engaged when he first stepped foot on campus, nor did he have big plans to study politics — instead, he intended to pursue a degree in chemistry. But within six years of his matriculation, Haber would lead one of the most consequential student movements in American history. In the decade following World War II, most Americans were content to return to the traditional social order of the pre-war era. Wartime “Rosies” left their jobs, which were then filled by men — many of whom returning veterans. African Americans, who were once able to carve economic niches for themselves in the defense industry — as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 and the Fair Employment Practices Committee — were once again relegated to second-class economic status when attempts to permanently codify these groundbreaking laws were thwarted in 1946 by Southern segregationist Democrats. During the ’50s, America became fixated on the consumerism and traditional gender and race relations, as portrayed in works like “Catcher in the Rye.” Conformity was king — until it wasn’t. Almost every facet of the 1960s youth counterculture was a wholesale rejection of their parents’ values from the ’50s, and there is almost no place where this was more on display than in Ann Arbor. On the University’s campus, a reimagining of leftist politics
took place with the emergence of the “New nization linking labor and socialist groups. Left.” Not long after his initial election to the board Austin McCoy, a postdoctoral fellow who of SLID, Haber pushed for a change in name studies progressive political movements in and strategy. the upper Midwest, noted that the Univer“I told them that I wouldn’t do it because sity’s campus climate at the time was ripe for SLID had definitely ‘slid,’” Haber said. “And political and social activism. if we were going to make a national student “Michigan, at the time, had a decent ‘change the world’ organization, we had to cohort of students who were thinking more be called something else. … And at that meetradically in their politics and were capable ing, we decided upon a new name — Students of launching a student movement,” McCoy for a Democratic Society.” said. “They were thinking about the limitaSDS proliferated to campuses nationally tions of the old left, of Communist politics by attracting a primarily northern, mostly and of organized labor.” These limitations were particularly important on campus at the time, given the context of how entrenched liberal institutions were in state politics. If cars were king in Michigan, labor unions were queen. And many of the early adherents to the “New Left” were the children of blue-collar factory workers. Haber’s political engagement began in the late ‘50s when he made friends his freshman year with a group of politically active students. He soonafter created the since-defunct Political Issues Club — then a forum for students to discuss political matters without attaching themselves to a politCOURTESY OF BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY ical party. Former Daily editor-in-chief and SDS President Tom Hayden speaking at a 1960’s “Within a short demonstration time, my friends had said to me: ‘You know there’s no politi- white cohort interested in civil rights and cal discussion on campus,’” Haber said. “So anti-war politics. At the crux of the movemy friends told me that I should start a club ment was participatory democracy and that was focused on talking about political advocacy for America’s youth. During the issues.” ’60s, there was no singular issue that preBy 1960, after a few years leading PIC, sented a greater threat to the youngest genHaber became a well known student activ- eration than the Vietnam War. ist. Riding on his reputation, Haber was By 1962, SDS had grown to be influenelected vice president of the Student League tial in Ann Arbor and on dozens of other for Industrial Democracy — a national orga- campuses around the country. Its leaders
— many of whom were based at the University — concluded it was time to create a political manifesto that provided a synopsis of the organization’s official views. The Port Huron Statement — after which the Daily’s Statement magazine is named — became one of the seminal political documents of the era. The Statement was primarily authored by Tom Hayden, a former Daily editor-in-chief and later national president of SDS. The Port Huron Statement outlined a bold vision of leftist American politics for the 1960s. In the document, Hayden highlights the key grievances of his generation: dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party’s inclusion of southern segregationists, the Cold War arms race and a push for University reforms. In the massive 25,700-word document, Hayden makes a direct appeal to college students, convincing them of the urgency of his cause. “As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss,” the statement reads. “First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled
impact, too challenging in the demand that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution.” McCoy said The Port Huron Statement was so prolific on campus because it spoke to such a large part of the student body. “The Port Huron Statement seemed to tap into the discontent of mostly white, middle class students who wanted to think more radically about changing their society,” McCoy said. “Students were distributing it and sharing it hand to hand. And when I think about the intellectual history of the ‘New Left’ … it really became the most important document because it was written by a group of students and activists who were intentional about trying to create a new form of politics.” The SDS’s strategy was to incorporate their broader national political goals into localized action directed primarily at university administrators across the country. In the 1960s, when the federal government announced that eligible students could only obtain draft deferments if they were in the top half of their class, the SDS at the University responded with protest, pressuring the University not to hand over academic records.
In addition to organizing Vietnam War protests, SDS also engaged in the civil rights battles which shaped the ’60s — promoting racial and gender equality and calling for an end to the overbearing paternalism of the University’s administration toward the student body. Known as in loco parentis, the prevailing philosophy among academic administrators at the time saw themselves as responsible for the moral welfare of students in the absence of parental supervision. This included a prohibition on political speech deemed antithetical to the mainstream values of the University, and — consequently — expellingstudents without due process. After a riot in front of the police department on February 18, 1970, over 100 students were expelled for protesting. By the mid ’60s, the Vietnam War escalated and SDS grew in membership on campus, professors began to take action. On March 24, 1965, a group of professors held the first campus “teach-in” — an all-night lecture that covered the topic of “alternative positions to present American foreign policy.” “The Vietnam War was a very real threat for students on campus, and it seemed to many of these activists that the University
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The teach-in movement that began at the University would later expand to campuses across the country and become one of the most powerful weapons in the anti-war movement — 35 other colleges held their own teach-ins within a week. As the national political environment became polarized over the war, campus politics followed suit. On October 15, 1965, 39 protesters, many of whom were University students, werearrested during a mass demonstration against the Vietnam War draft for trespassing and civil disobedience. The same night, students and community activists staged an eighthour Diag vigil. Counter-protesters at each event came out in force. Some destroyed a student float at the demonstration depicting abuse within American POW camps and heckled arrested activists. Right-wing organizations like the Young Americans for Freedom, saw an increase in membership on campus as rightleaning students developed nascent fears of Communist sympathies within student groups like SDS. YAF’s sense of political urgency to resist leftist student movements only intensified as more radical break-away groups split from SDS. One such group, The Weather Underground — started at the University by thenstudent Bill Ayers — engaged in a domestic terrorism campaign that included a string of bombings in government buildings. According to Grant Strobl, LSA senior and current National Chair of the Young Americans for Freedom, the right-wing organization’s growth was a response to the increasing radicalization of leftist splinter groups. “SDS and the rise of The Weather Underground were different from previous protest movements because they used violence and they used domestic terrorism to advance their ideas,” Strobl said. YAF members on campus saw themselves in a unique position during the waning years of the 1960s — a political minority on campus, yet upholding the mainstream political values of former President Richard Nixon’s “silent majority.” On the national scale, the tenuous coalition of labor Democrats, younger radicals and later, Black nationalists would disintegrate due to internal divisions by the end of the 1960s — as was on full display during the violent clashes outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Riding on a “Law and Order” platform that played on a distaste for political unrest, Richard Nixon narrowly beat Democrat HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and won re-elecStudents and community members march in a campus walk-out organized by Students 4 Justice to protest racism near Ross, November 2016 tion in an electoral landslide against George McGovern — the Democratic candidate most most of us from silence to activism. Second, “We got together to have a student refer- was implicated in the war through research aligned with the “New Left” — in what was the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbol- endum about whether we should push the and development which fed into the military- arguably a repudiation of their politics by a ized by the presence of the Bomb, brought University to abandon its practice of calcu- industrial complex,” McCoy said. “There silent majority. awareness that we ourselves, and our lating class rank so it could not comply with really didn’t seem to be a space for students While the “New Left” continued to define friends, and millions of abstract ‘others’ we the order,” Haber said. “Not only did the and faculty to have a real conversation about much of campus activism into the 1970s, the knew more directly because of our common University not want to hear about this, but this until the teach-ins.” fractious coalition could exercise little power peril, might die at any time. We might delib- we also learned that the administration was McCoy described the all-night teach-ins as in electoral politics and remained tethered to erately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other turning over the names of student activists a compromise: The University did not want its roots in the ivory tower. human problems, but not these two, for these to the House Committee on Un-American its professors devoting time and resources ************ were too immediate and crushing in their Activities.” during the day to educate protesters. See ACTIVISM, Page 6B
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
ACTIVISM From Page 5B By the 1970s, Black nationalism emerged as a salient force in campus activism at the University as liberal leaders and students of color became increasingly jaded by the Civil Rights Movement’s painfully slow pace. The 1968 LSA building sit-in following King’s assassination proved to be a powerful model for civil rights groups on campus because it proved the potential of direct action to attract public attention. The sit-in proved students on campus could engage in successful negotiation with the University and leverage institutional change. It also foreshadowed activism in the 1970s, which looked to this event as an example for future organizing efforts. While the BSU was able to win key concessions in the years that followed the historic sit-in, some demands were not met, such as calls for hiring more Black faculty. As a result, the University saw an increase in civil rights activism. In 1970, the BSU, Black Law Students Association, Association of Black Social Work Students and Black students in the Psychology Department and Medical School launched a campus-wide strike, dubbed the Black Action Movement. A statement issued by BAM outlined the movement’s demands, including an increase in Black graduate and undergraduate recruiters and a call for 10 percent Black student enrollment by the 1973-1974 academic year. “BAM was a response to the fact that Black students did not believe that the administration had taken the demands of the (1968) lock-in seriously,” McCoy said. “So some of the students, while in a meeting with the administration became fed up with the conversation and these students decide to not go to class and instead to go on strike.” BAM’s successful disruption decreased class attendance by 75 percent and closed the University for 18 days. In the end, Fleming agreed to the 10 percent Black student enrollment goal, which the University failed to achieve. This move drew sharp criticismfrom then-U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, who insinuated the University would gut its admissions standards in doing so. A second iteration of BAM — dubbed BAM II — sprouted in 1975 when the University failed to uphold its promises from five years prior but quickly fizzled out after issuing a lengthy list of demands. Calls for 10 percent Black enrollment again failed. For the most part, the spirit of BAM and BAM II were not recaptured until 1987 when students from United Coalition Against Racism — an organization founded initially to fight for University divestment from the apartheid state of South Africa — organized BAM III in response to racist incidents in residence halls and a controversy in which a campus DJ for then-campus radio station WJJX broadcasted obscene
racist statements on air. UCAR leaders then presented a list of 11 demands to then-University President Harold Shapiro. When they weren’t accepted, BAM III staged a sit-in attended by over 250 students. Following talks between Shapiro and UCAR leaders, the University agreed to several of BAM III’s policy positions — including the recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the announcement of a six-point plan to increase Black student enrollment, the installation of a vice provost for minority affairs, a budget for BSU and an updated procedure for incidents of racial harassment. Also included in the University’s deal with UCAR were plans to break ground on the now-defunct Baker-Mandela Center for Anti-Racist Education. To McCoy, BAM III signified one of the last times on campus when a united front of Black student activists and their allies were able to extract major concessions from the administration. “BAM III was very consequential for influencing campus politics but then also for helping to diversify the University by pushing the President to do something more specific, like increasing Black enrollment and minority enrollment in general and hiring more minority faculty.” ************ The mixed successes of each BAM movement ushered in a new era of progress at the University — one in which Black students were more empowered to take direct action against the institution to correct historic injustices and help improve students’ sense of security on campus. In 1988, former University President James Duderstadt sought a solution to the years of tension over low minority enrollment. His solution was The Michigan Mandate, which increased representation of minority populations in the student body and among faculty members. The plan more than doubled enrolled minority students from 1986 to 1995. At its peak, the Black student population approached 9 percent in 1994. At the time, student activist groups saw The Michigan Mandate as the fulfillment of BAM I, II and III’s loftiest goals. Following Duderstadt’s resignation as University president in 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the University’s affirmative action policy in 2003 in Gratz v. Bollinger. In the landmark case, Jennifer Gratz claimed the method by which the University administered affirmative action policies was unconstitutional because it gave an unfair advantage to minority applicants. While the case did not prohibit the University entirely from using race-based affirmative action in admissions decisions, the decision weakened the University’s preferred methods of attaining a critical mass of minority students in each freshman class. It was not until 2006, when a statewide ballot referendum, Proposition 2, prohibited public universities in Michigan from tak-
ing race into consideration for admission. Ever since, the percentage of Black students on campus has declined, and later stalled at about 4 to 5 percent. Even today, the issue of affirmative action remains a contentious issue on campus. Some conservative student leaders, like Strobl, feel the ballot initiative removes any unfair advantages in the already-cutthroat admissions process. “YAF has always been against racial preferences — we don’t call it affirmative action because it is not true to its word, it does nothing affirmative,” Strobl said. “We have always believed that it is more important to judge a man by his talent and his hard work and you should not see color first.” It is clear that Proposition 2 was a major setback for those advocating an increase in Black student enrollment; however, not all proponents of affirmative action admissions policies feel it can fully account for the nearly 5-percent decline in Black enrollment from its peak in 1994. “Part of the goal of student activism should be to combat the narrative that the administration is pushing that the reason they can’t do anything about enrollment figures is because of Prop. 2,” McCoy said. “It is important to hold the University accountable for their role too.” ************ The student activist movement familiar to many current students, faculty and University administrators was born in 2013 when the BSU coined the popular phrase Being Black at the University of Michigan via the #BBUM hashtag on Twitter. The hashtag quickly became a public forum for Black students at the University to share their experiences with implicit racial microaggressions, encounters with hate messages, racially-motivated verbal assaults and the pressures of often being the only Black student in class. Former student Jeremy Cook tweeted on November 19, 2013, shortly after the coining of the #BBUM hashtag, his frustration with tokenization. “That first class when Black culture becomes the topic and you suddenly become the voice of all Black people #BBUM,” Cook tweeted. Other Black students shared stories about peers assuming they were from Detroit simply because of their racial identity. Once again, the spirit of BAM was recaptured. The BSU gained a national audience and sought to seize the political moment. In a 2015 interview, former BSU treasurer Robert Greenfield spoke about repeatedly pushing, albeit unsuccessfully, for the demands made by BAM years earlier. “Once we gained national attention, we (had) leverage to go back to the U of M black community and ask what they wanted to have done/fixed,” Greenfield wrote. “Many of the demands are lasting agreements that the University never came through on (but agreed to) — this included the 10 percent critical mass of black students on campus.” It is yet to be seen whether #BBUM had
success in swaying the administration. In 2016, Schlissel unveiled the University’s new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategic plan to address student concerns about racial inequality and enrollment. But many feel the plan isn’t robust enough to boost minority enrollment to the same degree as The Michigan Mandate, and is inadequate as a response to racist and hate-based incidents on campus. The last academic year alone saw a number of hate-speech incidents, including anti-Black fliers posted on University property and hacking of a University professor’s email to send anti-Semitic messages to students. This comes at a time when hate crimes are also on the rise nationally; according to a recent Huffington Post report, between 2015 and 2016, the number of documented hate crimes increased by about 5 percent. Many students simply do not feel the University is doing enough to create a safe environment for everyone. “We want actual action,” LSA senior Jenise Williams said last February after the anti-Semitic and racist emails were sent. “My parents were here 30 years ago fighting for the same things … and (now) I didn’t want my sister to come here because of the shit I deal with here.” To McCoy, the concern students feel regarding the administration goes straight to the top. “From my personal experiences, people of color on campus don’t have any confidence in President Schlissel,” McCoy said. “Whenever there are concerns about their safety or about racism, he seems to kick the question back to (the protesters), and he often asks, ‘Well what would you want us to do about this?’ And this could be an honest reaction where he just doesn’t know, so that doesn’t inspire any confidence. Or the cynical view is that it could be a deflection. … And I don’t know if either one is better.” ************ Last week’s racist vandalism in West Quad cannot be viewed in isolation. Years of student grievances and racially-motivated incidents led Greene to take a knee on the Diag Monday morning. As of fall 2016, Black student enrollment at the University stood at 4.94 percent — a far cry from the 10 percent demanded by each iteration of BAM, and a significant decline from the 1994 enrollment figures. No one has been implicated for the racist flyering, rock painting, email hacking or door tag defacing, either. The past six decades of the University’s protest culture and campus climate have led us to this point. SDS, BAM, UCAR and now #BBUM gave and give a public voice for liberal student activism — each generation passing the baton of social justice on to the next. This is a powerful political moment on campus, but it is not unique. The student body and administration have both been here before. The only question that remains: Where will they go from here?
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
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Personal Statement: Mandelbrot by Benjamin Katz, Daily Sports Writer
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ast week, just in time for the Jewish high holidays, a care package arrived from home. Grinning uncontrollably, I knew exactly what it was the minute I got it. Inside the box was a mound bundled in tinfoil and bubble wrap and cellophane, tied with a ribbon. “For a sweet New Year!” was written on a tag — referring to Rosh Hashanah, the holiday that signifies the beginning of a new year in the Jewish religion. After careful inspection, I opened the cellophane and tore through the tinfoil, instantly getting crumbs and cinnamon and sugar all over my shirt. My excited sneaking suspicion was correct: My mom sent me a package of her famous mandelbrot. Mandelbrot is a cookie popular among Eastern European Jews, literally meaning “almond bread” in Yiddish. Cut from a loaf into one-inch slices and baked twice, the delicate treat can be mistaken for biscotti’s softer first cousin or the chocolate chip cookies’ thinner — and somewhat frailer — uncle, but one bite proves otherwise. Every time I hear those three syllables, my ears perk up, my mouth begins to water and I mentally prepare myself to delve into a delicious piece of my great-grandmother’s mandelbrot recipe. The aroma produces a visceral reaction, a Pavlovian response. I know I’m about to enjoy a welcoming mouthful of chocolate, cinnamon and sugar. *** Our family’s mandelbrot — “or ‘mandelbread’ as the gentiles would call it,” my grandma would interject — dates all the way back to the early 1900s. I say it’s my great-grandmother’s recipe, but her neighbor, Mrs. Wertheim, was the true creator of this particular combination. In what has been retold to seem like a covert operation, my mom had to coerce Mrs. Wertheim’s niece to sneak her the top-secret recipe when her aunt wasn’t looking. We still give Mrs. Wertheim credit, but ever since that recipe handoff more than 25 years ago, the mandelbrot recipe has been altered a bit, thus becoming the nucleus of the Katz household. Hosting the Katz’s for Rosh Hashanah dinner? Get out a
tray for their delicious mandelbrot. Going over to the Katz’s house for Passover? Get ready for their amazing Passover mandelbrot, a different — yet just as tasty — recipe, made without flour and replaced with matzah meal. Sometimes I feel like our dessert gets us the invites. Much of Jewish culture is centered around food, as is the case with many different ethnicities. The laughable, yet accurate, remark I hear all the time from my relatives that summarizes every Jewish holiday is “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!” Food is a major part of our cultural identity — pastrami and corned beef on rye with a cup of matzah ball soup is a mantra I live by — and my family’s mandelbrot recipe perfectly describes this
importance. The word mandelbrot doesn’t just mean I’m about to eat my favorite sweet; that’s not what it truly represents. The tradition of a family recipe links the generations while facilitating the creation of new memories. This heavenly loaf has the power to bring together a family and sometimes an entire community together in times of happiness and sadness. Along with joyous occasions like holidays and birthdays, mandelbrot can also serve as a form of solace for those grieving. A staple in Jewish culture, the dessert infuses an inexplicable sense of comfort. Our family’s go-to dish to bring to a shiva — a weeklong grieving period in Judaism — is mandelbrot, for good reason. The crunchy bite doesn’t just give off
a homey feeling, but it also provides one of comfort, a sort of distraction from pain. Yes, I am biased, but I truly believe my mom makes the best mandelbrot in the world. Although a somewhat simple recipe of eight ingredients, for some unknown reason, friends who have attempted it have been unable to deliver. *** My mom used to tell me a man who knows how to cook or bake will always make his wife very happy. I immediately became her permanent sous chef. Looking back, that was probably just a ploy to get me to help make dinner — or maybe to spend quality time with her oldest child. Ever since I can remember, I have helped my mother finish off the loaves with a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. Now I know the recipe by heart, perfecting the chocolate-chip-to-batter ratio. With this comes a great responsibility to continue passing on the joy of this mandelbrot recipe to future generations — the common theme in Judaism of l’dor v’dor, “from generation to generation” in Hebrew — and doing so all the while touching others with this taste of family. It may seem cliche, but even though I’m 511 miles away from home, this dessert makes me feel like I’m still just a boy sneaking a taste after helping his mom with the cinnamon and sugar dusting. For a split second when I ripped through the tinfoil and started to pick at the mandelbrot, I wasn’t in my dorm room, but rather at home eating the treat that makes my ears perk up and my mouth begin to water. For that one moment, as I ate the first piece of mandelbrot, I felt a sense of love and security, protecting me from the outside and the stresses of college. I’m reminded of my culture, of home. Mandelbrot is so much more than food to me. It represents a special bond between a mother and her son. It represents a cultural identity being passed down for generations. It represents celebrating the happy times and mourning the PHOTO COURTESY OF BENJAMIN KATZ sad ones.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017 // The Statement
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SHMONGO Photos by Julia Lawson On Friday, September 15th, I headed to the Diag to photograph my friends’ band, Shmongo, at an event hosted by Stamp Nation, a student organization devoted to student musicians. Shmongo is composed of five students in the school of Music, Theatre & Dance: Geoff Brown, Aaron Willette, Jacob Suagrman, Ryan Cox and Joey Fortino. Having a large DSLR camera in my hands didn’t stop me from dancing to the music. It is almost impossible not to have a great time at a Shmongo concert because the band never fails to create a special experience for its audience. Lead singer Jacob Sugarman sings an original Shmongo song.
Ryan Cox plays his saxophone during the Shmongo performance.
Jacob Sugarman, lead singer of Shmongo, poses before the first song of the night.
Members of Shmongo Geoff Brown, Aaron Willette, and Jacob Sugarman, during their set.
Joey Fortino plays guitar later on in the set.
Aaron Willette plays bass for one of Shmongo’s final songs of the night
Geoff Brown jams out during his guitar solo.