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Bicentennial time capsule launching soon in space Michigan Bicentennial Archive hosted a panel to showcase the capsule’s contents
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SAYALI AMIN
As part of the UM Bicentennial Fall Festival, students signed a block M during the day on the Diag and a video projection was shown at night on Rackham.
University hosts Bicentennial finale 3-D interactive light HAILstorm! show paid “Arriving Home” art installment reflects tribute to the 200 year legacy of the ‘U’ on dedication, diversity of faculty, staff AMARA SHAIKH Daily Staff Reporter
Students, faculty and community members gathered together in Ingalls Mall to watch HAILstorm! on Friday night, the 3-D light show that paid tribute to the University of Michigan’s 200 year legacy. The show was projected on
the outside of the Rackham Building, and was deemed the pinnacle of the University of Michigan Bicentennial Celebrations. It was produced by the Bicentennial Office, Bluewater Technologies and Maxin10sity, and featured a wide variety of high-tech graphics and animation. Along with the show, there was music, food and festivities for See BICENTENNIAL, Page 3A
The events began with the MORGAN SHOWEN, RACHEL dedication of a new statue called CUNNINGHAM & “Arriving Home” — a stainless KATE JENKINS steel and acrylic spiral which Daily Staff Reporters & For the Daily reflects colors that change depending on time of day and sun angle — located near the C.C. Pop-up tents and exhibits Little Science Building. According showcasing the future of the to Diane Vasquez, co-founder of University of Michigan littered Voices of the Staff, the circular the Diag on Friday as the nature of the statute reflects that University concluded celebrations “the staff are important to the for its Bicentennial. See FINALE, Page 3A
For the Daily
The University of Michigan is no stranger to outer space. Now, with the closure of the University’s Bicentennial, a first-ever time capsule — containing information all about a modern Michigan — will be launched into the cosmos. The Michigan Bicentennial Archive, referred to as “M-BARC”, hosted a panel Friday afternoon in Stamps Auditorium to reveal the finished Bicentennial time capsule. The capsule was presented to the students who created it, and includes interviews from hundreds of members of the University of Michigan community including students, faculty,
staff and alumni to give future generations a clear image of what the University was like during its bicentennial year. The event began with various speakers including University President Mark Schlissel and Gary Krenz, executive director of the Bicentennial office. The event continued with M-BARC’s panel, in which students showed videos of the process, answered questions regarding the creation of the time capsule and unveiled the finished product. “The M-BARC project represents a new chapter in Michigan research and educational excellence, and also in Michigan ambition,” Schlissel said during the event. “The M-BARC project unites the extraordinary talents of the See CAPSULE, Page 3A
Women’s Convention in Detroit brings Men’s soccer LEO rally clinches first female leaders in business, government advocates
SPORTS
ever Big Ten title
Michigan defeated Maryland, 2-1, in double overtime KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
Billy Stevens still hadn’t let go of the trophy. Not when he got on the bus to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Not when he got landed in Detroit. Not for the bus ride back to Ann Arbor, either. He said he couldn’t let it out of his sight. And really, can you blame him? The Michigan men’s soccer team was the Big Ten champion. It took 104 minutes, but the 17th-ranked Wolverines topped No. 9 Maryland, 2-1, in College Park. No one could have seen this coming. Last season, the Wolverines finished with four wins in 19 games. Two years before that, Stevens came to Ann Arbor as a member of the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation, only to finish with six victories. But Michigan held a meeting after the 2016 season, one that ended with an unsurprising loss to the top-ranked Terrapins. Stevens doesn’t remember exactly when it happened. He remembers what it was about. See SOCCER, Page 2B
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ACADEMICS
The convention was the first in 40 years, reconvening in response to President Trump NISA KHAN
Daily News Editor
“What can we do now?” was the question for many after President Donald Trump’s election win back in November, particularly at the Women’s March — a day after his inauguration in January — which saw thousands of women protest Trump’s policies and behaviors towards women and minorities. Many activists considered his presidency the embodiment of discriminatory policies and thought. After the end of the afternoon’s main event, one of the Women’s March co-chairs, Linda Sarsour, told all women to “get to work.” The Women’s Convention, set in the Cobo Center of Detroit, was organized around the idea of giving women and allies the political tools to understand the problems in the country and turning concerns into action. A central message seen this weekend was to support female politicians in 2018, when Congress is up for grabs. Despite the priciness of the event — tickets were $295 — scholarships and group registrations were provided, over 5,000 were in attendance from across the country. The host city was also a focus in the discussions across the three nights — according to Sarsour, Detroit represents many of the systematic concerns the speakers and panelists hoped to address.
“We actually intentionally chose Detroit as a place we wanted to invest our resources in,” Sarsour said earlier this year in the Detroit Free Press. “As a city that reflected a lot of the issues that people were working on across the country with poverty, police brutality, gentrification, we thought there was a lot of really great organizing already going on in Detroit and wanted to give a platform to those organizers with the conference.” The morning welcome saw
#MeToo founder Tarana Burke and actress Rose McGowan; #MeToo is the hashtag created to bring awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment in women’s lives, created shortly after the take down of former media mogul Harvey Weinstein. Friday evening saw prominent female politicians, including Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., as an emphasis throughout the event was the importance of electing women in
office. According to the Women’s March organizers, more than 20,000 women have committed to run for office. “Do not wait for some white knight in Washington,” Gillibrand said. “It is the grassroots ... it is you. The resistance is you.” Lawrence expanded on the concept of losing birth control but still having Viagra covered by insurance companies. “The conversation changes when a woman takes a seat at See CONVENTION, Page 3A
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Attendees of the Women’s Convention in Detroit Friday.
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 19 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
for increase of benefits The Lecturer’s Employee Organization promotes awareness, wants more pay ALEX COTT
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Lecturers’ Employee Organization gathered Friday morning in Pierpont Commons on North Campus to bargain for higher wages, improved benefits and fairer performance evaluations. LEO organizers, lecturers and allies of the union also held a rally outside to promote awareness of these issues. LEO is a member-run organization for non-tenuretrack instructional faculty at the University of Michigan across all three campuses: Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. The union, founded in 2003, serves as a bargaining agent for 1,500 lecturers. LEO not only unites lecturers across all three campuses but also serves to protect their members from injustice. LEO Flint Chair Stephanie Vidaillet Gelderloos, lecturer III in English, teaches on the Flint campus and has been a member of LEO since 2013. “The Union to me is like a See RALLY, Page 3A
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Tweets Every Monday, the Michigan Daily will be publishing a photo found from the Daily’s archives of an important part of University of Michigan history. DECEMBER 9, 1978— FRUIT FOR FINALS: Frayed frosh Business students prepare fruity care packages at the Business School for today’s delivery to lucky freshpersons. Working for AIESEC, the International Association of Students in Economics and Business Management, the packagers successfully raised enough money to send six University delegates to the organization’s Seattle convention. PETER SERLING/Daily
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES PhD PathwaysTransferable Skills for PhD students
Identifying Predictors of Depression under Stress WHAT: Listen as Dr. Srijan Sen shares his studies regarding how workplace factors, as well as genetics, contribute to an individual’s chance of depression while under high stress levels WHO: Department of Psychology WHEN: 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. WHERE: East Hall, Room 4464
WHAT: Attend this session that aims to help graduate students identify their unique skill sets before going on to use these skills to procure a career. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Rackham, West Conference Center
From Affirmative Action to Diversity in Higher Education
Characterizing and Quantifying Public Conversations Online
WHAT: Distinguished Diversity Scholar James S. Jackson will discuss the University’s role in the celebration of diversity in higher education, as well its triumphs and failures. WHO: Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion WHEN: 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Rackham Ampitheater
WHAT: Facebook social scientist Sean Taylor wll present on the wide array of measurements taken to analayze what kind of online conversations are most valuable to people. WHO: School of Information WHEN: 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. WHERE: North Quad, Room 3100
Job Search Strategies and Mindfulness
Brazil Initiative at LACS Round Table
WHAT: Learn how to implement modern strategies in the career search process, such as online resources and neworks, while also practicing mindfulness during a stressful time. WHO: Center for the Education of Women WHEN: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: CEW building
WHAT: Join a panel of experts as they discuss the current political crisis in Brazil, and how various instiutions and intense polarization contributed to the tense situation. WHO: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies WHEN: 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: Weiser Hall, Room 555
Student Designed Cake Day at Bursley Dining Hall
How to Get a Biotech Internship (Student Panel)
WHAT: Head on over to Bursley Dining Hall and sample a wide variety of Halloween themed cakes all designed by students. WHO: Michigan Dining WHEN: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. WHERE: Bursley Hall
WHAT: Receive valuable information from students as they discuss how they obtained their internships at various biotech/ pharma companies this summer. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. WHERE: University Career Center, Program Room
SEAS Climate Change Summit talks sustainability careers and research Daily Staff Reporter
Climate change and options for supporting the environment were among the central topics discussed at the Climate Change Summit Friday, where seven panelists — each with a career related to the environment and sustainability — discussed the best ways to contribute to climate research and environmental stability. The event was moderated by SEAS Dean Jonathan Overpeck and was part of the SEAS Opening Ceremonies. Sean Watkins, community manager at the Solutions Project — an organization committed to a conversion to 100 percent renewable energy — said one of the reasons he is Sudoku Syndication most passionate about climate change is for the dialogues it
Hail to the Victors! First #B1GXC team title sweep since 1993! #GoBlue
L. Keen @lkeenmusic How cold does it need to be for @UMich facilties to turn on heat in Burton tower? Apparently 40 outside isn’t cold enough in a stone office
Michigan Students @UMichStudents My favorite on-campus study place is actually the blue bus. I study while desperately hoping I can snatch MWireless from passing buildings
David Mack @daviidmack siri play Mariah Carey’s 1994 masteriece All I Want For Christmas Is You on repeat
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Event attended by business leaders, television personalities and think-tank analysts JENNIFER MEER
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entails, much like those at the the steps that need to be taken EMMA KINERY NATHAN GUPTA Editor in Chief Business Manager panel. to mitigate those results? How 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 “It’s having this conversation, do we get people to build in the kineryem@michigandaily.com nathankg@michigandaily.com having this conversation with areas that are safer and build people who don’t always look safer homes? How do we help like who you look like, to really people and communicate that further the conversation about this natural disaster is linked NEWS TIPS ARTS SECTION PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION not only how is climate change in X, Y and Z ways to these news@michigandaily.com arts@michigandaily.com photo@michigandaily.com affecting folks in different actions?” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SPORTS SECTION NEWSROOM communities around the She said it is important to tothedaily@michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com 734-418-4115 opt. 3 country and around the world be on the front end of disasters EDITORIAL PAGE ADVERTISING CORRECTIONS but how folks are acting in their rather than cleaning up after opinion@michigandaily.com dailydisplay@gmail.com corrections@michigandaily.com own communities at their own the fact. levels to really create change,” To Parker’s point, Varun he said. Sivaram, Douglas Dillon Fellow Kait Parker, a meteorologist and acting director at the at Weather.com and ABC News, Council on Foreign Relations, AMELIA CACCHIONE and EMMA RICHTER said the human aspect of climate said he agrees mitigation is Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com change is most important to her. extremely important but that In Senior Photo Editors: Zoey Holmstrom, Evan Aaron, Alexis Rankin, REBECCA LERNER She also pointed to a need for to mitigate at a global level an Zach Moore Managing Editor rebler@michigandaily.com Assistant Photo Editors: Claire Meingast, Katelyn Mulcahy, Aaron mitigation. is going to require energy Baker, Sam Mousigian, Kevin Zheng “As a meteorologist, I have transformations at a scale and ALEXA ST.JOHN LARA MOEHLMAN Managing News Editor alexastj@michigandaily.com been there as people have died speed the world has never seen Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Riyah Basha, Tim Cohn, Lydia Murray, in natural disasters and those before. The Council on Foreign Deputy Statement Editor: Brian Kuang, Yoshiko Iwai http://www.sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Nisa Khan, Sophie Sherry are getting worse,” she said. Relations is a nonpartisan Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Colin Beresford, Rhea “So how do we communicate think tank that addresses Cheeti, Maya Goldman, Matt Harmon, Andrew Hiyama, Jen ELIZABETH DOKAS and TAYLOR GRANDINETTI Meer, Ishi Mori, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut foreign policies issues. Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com “We do not have the energy ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY and REBECCA TARNOPOL Senior Copy Editors: Marisa Frey, Ibrahim Rasheed Editorial Page Editors opinioneditors@michigandaily.com and technology we need today to achieve a decarbonized DYLAN LAWTON and BOB LESSER Senior Opinion Editors: Anu Roy-Chaudhury, Ashley Zhang, world,” he said. “In order Managing Online Editor lesserrc@michigandaily.com Max Lubell, Madeline Nowicki, Stephanie Trierweiler EASY Senior Web Developers: Erik Forkin, Jordan Wolff to get there we’re going to BETELHEM ASHAME and KEVIN SANTO need to invest heavily in ABE LOFY Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com innovation.” Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Laney Byler, Mike Persak, Orion Sang, Senior Video Editors: Gilly Yerrington, Matt Nolan, Aarthi Sivaram said he enjoys Max Marcovich, Ethan Wolfe, Chris Crowder Janakiraman, Emily Wolfe studying the environment Assistant Sports Editors: Rob Hefter, Avi Sholkoff, Matthew Kennedy, Paige Voeffray, Mark Calcagno, Jacob Shames in science labs, the business JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com sector and through a public ANAY KATYAL and NATALIE ZAK Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Christian Paneda, Adam policy lens, as each angle Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com Brodnax, Halibut Olaniyan, Tanya Madhani, Sivanthy Vasanthan contributes differently to the Senior Arts Editors: Dayton Hare, Nabeel Chollanpat, discovery of new technology. Madeline Gaudin, Carly Snider Arts Beat Editors: Danielle Yacobson, Danny Hensel, Erika Building off Sivaram’s talk ELLIE HOMANT Shevchek, Matt Gallatin, Naresh Iyengar Managing Social Media Editor of innovation, Ben Bunker, Senior Social Media Editors: Kayla Waterman and Anna Haritos a University alum and MICHELLE PHILLIPS and AVA WEINER CEO at Global Brightlight Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.comeffort to increase awareness Foundation, a nonprofit that of opportunities within the aims to bring solar power to CAYLIN WATERS people without electricity, Brand Manager EMILY RICHNER said certain existing CLAIRE BUTZ Sales Manager technologies are, in fact, Business Development Manager JUEUI HONG capable of making a change. JULIA SELSKY Special Projects Manager Local Accounts Manager Bunker currently works to CAROLINE GOLD assist rural communities in SANJANA PANDIT Media Consulting Manager Production Manager Latin America.
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CONVENTION From Page 1A the table,” Lawrence said. “It’s the women who stand up and lead.” Saturday centered around headliner Congresswomen Maxine Waters, D-Calif., with the Sojourner Truth Luncheon. Waters was introduced by speaker Michaela Angela Davis, as the voice the Democratic National Convention ignored. Davis insists when women of color are in the room, they are bringing a plethora of different voices with them. Before Waters took the stage, Women’s March co-chair Tamala Mallory clarified the Bernie Sanders controversy that clouded the convention a few weeks before. “The media likes to lie,” she said, explaining while they are disappointed Sanders could not speak due to his choice to travel to Puerto Rico, Waters was always the main speaker for the event and was in fact consulted over their slogan, “Reclaiming our Time”. Waters took the stage, focusing on rampant sexual harassment and assault women face in all aspects of the industry. She referenced
RALLY From Page 1A security blanket. Something that I know will protect me and take care of me if I need it.” Unlike tenure-tracked faculty, lecturers must renew their fixed-term employment contracts whenever they expire. Lecturers at the Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses teach a third and half of all available student credit hours, respectively. Shelley Manis, LEO Ann Arbor co-chair and lecturer IV in the Sweetland Center, started the minor in writing program and has been working at the Ann Arbor campus for seven years. “We are not necessarily any different from tenure-track faculty and yet we are on a lower rung on the hierarchy and we think it’s time for that to stop,” Manis said. Ashley Lucas, associate professor of Theatre & Drama, is an ally for LEO and spoke at the rally. According to Lucas, lecturers have more in-person contact with students on a daily basis and are an integral part to her own work as director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. “I think you all deserve the salaries, job security and all the benefits that are equal to tenure-track folks,” Lucas said. “We need to keep fighting together. One faculty, one University.” Manis has worked with LEO organizers over the past year to put together a platform bargaining for salary and benefits such as increased pay, reliable health care and minimum year-term contracts. LEO surveyed members to inquire what they wanted most out of the bargaining session. According to Manis, members overwhelmingly wanted increased wages. According to Bill Emory, campus organizer for Flint and Ann Arbor North Campus, each University campus has different minimum wage salaries with a 40 percent wage gap — $27,300 for Flint, $28,300 for Dearborn and $34,500 for Ann Arbor. As a Flint lecturer, Gelderloos emphasized not only the need for increased wages for all lecturers but also for closing the wage gap among all three campuses. “I think we feel pretty united as a union. We do teach more and we are paid less, but I think the union does work for all of us,” Gelderloos said. “I am not envious that (Ann Arbor lecturers) are paid more than us, but if we are all one union and all one school with students getting the Michigan experience, I think the pay should be more equitable across campuses.” Some lecturers rely on benefits from the state due to their low salaries. With many living below the poverty line, Manis explained that these burdens affect teaching in the classroom. “We want lecturers to be able to afford to spend their time
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s book “What Happened”, in which Clinton described her discomfort of Trump’s behavior during the 2016 debate. Waters said Clinton was advised to not speak up but she should have ignored that advice. No longer, Waters said, should women tolerate sexual harassment and should call it out when they see it: “Keep your hands off!” she said to a standing ovation. “Every day (Trump) is in office is an affront to this nation,” she said. Throughout the event breakout sessions were held on various topics including discussions on the Muslim travel ban, women in the media and the Flint Water Crisis— were “Little Miss Flint,” Mari Copeny herself, was a panelist. Michigan gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer was one of the speakers for the Planned Parenthood event. She continued the theme of the lack of female representation in the government. “There were more people named ‘John’ in the room than women,” Whitmer said, referencing that there are only two female Democratic governors in
the country. Another panel, “Say Her Name: Police Violence Against Women of Color is a Feminist Issue,” featured University of Michigan Rackham student Maryam Aziz. Aziz is one of the organizers for Ann Arbor Alliance for Black Lives, a civil rights group that, among many tasks, hopes to bring light to the police shooting of Ann Arbor resident Aura Rosser. Aziz said Ann Arbor has been able to ignore its antiBlackness within the police department because of its reputation as a “neo-liberal,” smaller Midwestern city. She emphasized to the crowd that it did not matter whether there are less deaths caused by police in the city compared to New York or Cleveland— Rosser’s still needed attention. Aziz also explained Ann Arbor mayor Chris Taylor consistently affirms that she was at fault for Rosser’s shooting and that there is constant overpolicing of Black residents on and off campus.
on their teaching rather than constantly spending their time trying to prove that they’re good enough teachers to keep their jobs,” Manis said. “We love what we do and we just want to be recognized more financially so that we can afford to live here and afford to keep doing these jobs.” In terms of healthcare, Emory explains in order for a lecturer to receive healthcare from the University, the number of credit points they teach must be within a 50 percent, halfcredit load, and 75 percent, 3-credit load, range. Rather than lecturers’ healthcare fluctuating depending on their number of credits taught each semester, LEO is bargaining for the University to average their credit points over the semesters for lecturers to have a more reliable healthcare source. The union is also fighting for more health care subsidies for parents with young children and for single parents, whose low salaries put a burden on child care costs. “One woman was being paid $28,000 per year and child care costs $22,000 per year,” Manis said. The lecturer review process is more extensive compared to the tenure-track reviews. Manis explains the University holds interim reviews for the first three or four semesters and later conducts two major reviews. Lecturers must go through this process every three years with the first three reviews tied to renewal of their contracts. “We feel like they should know after twelve years if we’re good enough to stay,” Manis said. “Our review packets are roughly the size and the rigor of tenured review packets but the tenure-track faculty goes through that process once.” Through this bargaining campaign, LEO wants more guaranteed renewals and fairer performance evaluations. The union believes this can be done by simplifying the system and eliminating redundancy. The lecturer tier system plays a large role in how lecturers are treated in the review and renewal process. There are two separate tracks — lecturer I/II which include solely teaching appointments, and lecturer III/IV which include additional service responsibilities. Lecturer III/ IV have stronger job security, since they have passed major reviews. According to Manis, some lecturer Is are hired on a semester basis and will not know until December if they will be teaching next term. “Lecturer I’s are in a really precarious situation because (the University) can lay them off or bring them back at will. That not only means that they can’t prep appropriately, but that also means that they can’t budget,” Manis said. “They don’t know where their next paycheck is coming from.” However, lecturer IVs also hit a wage-earning ceiling. Manis highlighted lecturer IVs will never have a significant increase after reaching this
level and can only achieve salary increases with these bargaining sessions. “I am 42 years old, my earning potential will top out after my major review session this January,” Manis said. According to Manis, due to the rigorous nature of the review process, lecturers are unable to teach to the best of their abilities in the classroom. “Because our review process is one that makes our jobs not as secure and stable, it oftentimes means that lecturers aren’t going to take risks as much in the classroom to try new things because there isn’t as much room to fail splendidly,” Manis said. The main issue of lecturer salary also plays into the student experience. Gelderloos highlighted that when lecturers are working several jobs, they do not have the time or energy to put effort into quality teaching. “It’s in the University’s best interest to have faculty who are good at what they do and our students deserve someone who doesn’t just teach part-time here and there to make ends meet but deserve people who have been teaching for while, who are good at what they do,” Gelderloos said. “I think the students get a better education from more seasoned and less overworked professors.” Although many elements factor into the review and renewal of a lecturer’s contract, the review committee takes teacher evaluations into significant consideration. What many students do not realize is their lecturers’ jobs depend on the evaluations. “It always takes two or three times when a new course starts to get it to really work exactly the way you want it to and because student evaluations are so important, that can sometimes put a chilling effect on innovation,” Manis said. In spite of this, Manis still encourages students to be honest in their evaluations and emphasizes that the review results are never at the fault of the student. Academia-bound graduate students’ futures also depend on LEO’s work. Rackham student Rachel Miller, president of Graduate Employees’ Organization, spoke about the implications of these bargaining sessions. “You are our future. You are where we are heading,” Miller said. “And only 17 percent of the current faculty teaching in higher education are in tenured-track, so your fight is our fight and your fight today is our fight in the future.” Due to the wide range of concerns, LEO will hold bargaining sessions every Friday until contracts terminate in April 2018, according to Emory. “You’re spending so much time putting together materials to prove that you’re an excellent, rigorous, present teacher, that it’s harder to be an excellent, rigorous, present teacher in the classroom because your mind is divided,” Manis said.
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FINALE From Page 1A University in the continuum” and the ever-changing colors represents diversity amongst staffers. The statue was built to honor past and present University staff for their hard work over the years, as well as the Bicentennial celebration itself. The idea of creating a marker honoring the University’s staff originated from the Voices of the Staff members — an employee engagement program consisting of University staff members — in 2013, who believe staff members that contribute to the University, should be recognized publicly for their dedication. Designed by artist Dennis Oppenheim in 2007, the artwork was gifted by University alumni Jagdish and Saroj Janveja who donated the funds for the statue in recognition of their appreciation of the staff’s commitment to the University’s goals. The President’s office matched Janveja’s donation. The couple previously funded public art placed outside of Michigan Stadium, the Museum of Natural History and the soon-tobe-completed Biological Science Building, among others. Jagdish Janveja said he felt he owed the University something in return for all that it has done for him, and hopes future generations will feel similarly. “I’d like to inspire the students and staff to give back to the University where they are studying and spending their life
BICENTENNIAL From Page 1A spectators to enjoy. Gary Krenz, executive director of the University of Michigan Bicentennial, explained the goal of HAILstorm! was to take people through the history of the University with an exciting presentation. “It’s a 3-D projection mapping light show on the façade of Rackham,” Krenz said. “It’s going to incorporate all kinds of stuff from the history, present and future of U of M-lots of lights, lots of motion, a huge amount of energy. People are really going to enjoy it.” Krenz also reflected on the Bicentennial celebrations as a whole. He discussed how even though the University enjoys showcasing all the good it has accomplished over the last 200
CAPSULE From Page 1A students today across different disciplines while also issuing a challenge to the students of the future.” The students who helped to create the time capsule had the responsibility of collecting interviews and information in a way that would represent the community and would be relevant in a century. The project team was led by Hashmita Koka, a recently graduated aerospace engineer, as well as other important members of the team including Engineering graduate students Aakar Sheth and Connor Bluhm, and faculty lead Aaron Ridley, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering. The team also had non-engineers to offer alternative perspectives when gathering interviews.
Monday, October 30, 2017— 3A at,” Janveja said. “This is a way of giving back. I am trying to encourage everybody else to help the university in whatever way you want to (enrich) the people for the incoming generations.” Laurita Thomas, associate vice president for human resources, discussed how the statute reflects the University’s community. “With its many hues and constant prismatic changes, the piece is an apt reflection of our community, constantly changing and evolving, comprised of many colors, backgrounds and beliefs,” Thomas said. University President Mark Schlissel then explained why the University chose to dedicate a campus site to its employees. “We wanted to commemorate the amazing work of the past, but also recognize that all of our future goals for Michigan’s third century and beyond rely on the dedication and intellect of our talented staff,” Schlissel said. After the dedication, attention turned to various smaller presentations held under tents in an effort to keep out the pouring rain. The tents stretched from the Diag to the Chemistry and Kraus Natural Science Buildings. Food and drinks were provided to students and passersby at the event. The featured tent in the center of the Diag held various displays highlighting the revolutionary new programs and groundbreaking innovations coming out of schools and colleges at the University, and were designed to be interactive in their format. Among these activities were presentations by the College
of Pharmacy highlighting the college’s programs in personalized medicine and the Ross School of Business with speakers including Business Dean Scott Derue. Photos could also be taken with props sponsored by the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus. Both the College of Pharmacy and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital used virtual reality headsets. The College of Pharmacy utilizes VR technology to examine human lungs, among other uses, while C.S. Mott uses their VR headsets to provide an entertaining and positive distraction for young patients. Those who attended the exposition had the chance to try on both pairs of VR headsets. Since 2015, volunteers from the Ann Arbor-based technology school GameStart have partnered with C.S. Mott to provide VR headsets that allow patients to experience roller coasters, submarines and other virtual worlds. GameStart’s work goes hand-in-hand with that of the Jim Harbaugh Foundation to help provide VR headsets for patients. The remaining tents held exhibits on the value of teaching and education in the 21st century and showcased some of the scientific advancements from the College of Engineering and other schools and colleges. Christie Donahue, assistant director of program development at the Center for Socially Engaged Design, explained the importance of problem-scoping and social, economic and cultural contexts related to engineering design.
years, it’s also important to come together as a community to understand the areas where the institution fell short. “When you reach an anniversary like this, you really can pull the whole community together to reflect,” Krenz said. “Part of this is to celebrate how great we are, but part of it is also to think about where we’ve made some mistakes, and how do we think about that as we go forward.” Rackham student Kaitlyn Portal echoed Krenz’s statement about the value of bringing the community together. She also pointed out recent racist incidents on campus show the University still has areas it needs to improve on. “I like the way that they focused on bringing the U of M community together, and identified ways that we can improve ourselves-especially recently with the racial events on campus,” Portal said. “I
think the campus still has issues it needs to work on. But, I think events like tonight’s really show us how we come together as a community.” Along with areas for improvement, LSA senior Aiya Saad was very impressed with the Bicentennial showcase of new technology the University is developing. Saad explained she looks forward to seeing the diverse range of innovations University students and faculty create. “I hope Michigan keeps doing what they’re doing. I’ve seen a lot of what people have been working on in different areas of campus, and I was so amazed. I hope to see more of that going forward,” Saad said. Krenz hopes the Bicentennial celebrations allowed people to reflect on the University’s legacy, understand the challenges it has faced and obtain a stronger historical awareness going forward.
M-BARC’s unique challenge is that in 100 years students will have to figure out how to bring the time capsule back to Earth and read the encoded interviews. The time capsule also contains the words of the song “The Yellow and Blue” embedded in DNA sequences, which will allow future students to study the effect of radiation in space on DNA. “This was the first official event with the Bicentennial committee, and it was really great to talk about it and to share our experiences working on the team,” Koka said. “I hope that 100 years from now people will actually go back and retrieve (the time capsule).” The panel of students held a Q&A session, during which members of the audience inquired about the many technicalities of the project. One of the students present in the audience was Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore
Zoha Bharwani. “I didn’t realize how extensive it (the project) was,” Bharwani said. “I think it’s so cool because it bridged so many diverse groups of people and so many different schools of thought.” At the conclusion of the event, the audience was given 3-D printed models of the time capsule itself, which featured the Block ‘M’ on one side, as they exited the auditorium. Prof. Ridley said the idea to have the audience leave with a miniature version of the time capsule came from the students. “The students have been unbelievable throughout this, and they’ve pushed really hard,” Ridley said. “A lot of the faculty led initiatives are the faculty saying you do this and this, but really it’s been the students who’ve driven the whole thing.” The launch date for the time capsule is expected to be sometime in May 2018.
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Opinion
4A — Monday, October 30, 2017
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EVAN SIRLS | COLUMN
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ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN
T
Making academia accessible
he clock strikes 10 after, and class begins. Only three slides into the lecture on the greenhouse effect, I’m already confused. I understand these greenhouse gases affect our planet, but when the professor begins to explain the specific ways this occurs, the language he uses leaves me lost. All of his lectures have left me in this state of confusion, and it has to do with the fact that my professor assumes we understand all these “basic” terms that relate to climate change, so he uses them to explain even more complex concepts without defining them first. While not trying to be rude, I pull out my phone to Google the terms on the slide. The definitions I find are filled with scientific jargon that lead me to search more definitions. Before I know it, my professor is on the next new concept. So, I take a breath and decide to scribble question marks next to the terms I don’t know and the concepts I still don’t fully understand in order to try to focus on his next point. As a social science student, I signed up for this lowerlevel course discussing climate change, thinking I would finally gain a small understanding of this extremely complex issue. However, I finished the course more confused than when I started. Instead of trying to understand the concepts in this issue, I found myself spending all my time just trying to learn and memorize the scientific jargon surrounding the topic. In the context of climate change, which scientists are constantly trying to prove is important, shouldn’t the language around it be accessible to the masses? Even as someone who has spent time studying in an academic setting, I still find this language incredibly complex and confusing. How is the public supposed to vote on critical issues regarding this information if we don’t understand these basic concepts?
This doesn’t just happen in academia relating to natural sciences, but also in several other subjects. I find myself reading through journals in my social science and humanities courses where they assume the audience knows the jargon they use. As a student at one of the top public universities in the country, I still do not always understand the language surrounding information that I am expected to read in my courses. And if getting an undergraduate degree means I am an academic, then who is the target audience for articles and journals such as the ones I read in my classes? I would argue they are for the academic or intellectual elite. This extremely small group of intellectuals is an exclusive club who create information and studies for one another. They have the ability to generate terms to describe concepts to one another and exclude those who do not have access to their journals and research. And this assumption that everyone has knowledge of the specific terminology in a particular field is elitist, especially when the only trusted studies of empirical research and peer-reviewed journals are produced using complex language full of jargon that is not accessible to everyone. This means that information is only reaching those with the resources and the ability to read and understand. So even if the average person wanted to be an informed citizen of our world and planet and try to understand these complex issues, they face many obstacles. Furthermore, the ability to access these resources via journals or in classrooms is expensive. Being a student at a research institution will grant you this access, but the price of university alone excludes many people from a lower socioeconomic background from attaining this education. And for those who have graduated and want to stay informed, signing up for a subscription to
these journals can cost a lot of money. For example, “Nature,” a scientific journal known for its credibility, has an annual subscription of $69. I’m not the only one who has thought about creating accessible language in academia. It is a controversial issue that academics have been discussing for years. According to Patti Lather, an educational instructor at Ohio State University in feminist theory, language should be accessible to everyone. But the academics writing in this field have been known to push back against this notion, which shows how academics are continuing to make information inaccessible, even though they have a message that highlights social change. If you don’t have access, you may go searching on the Internet, where there are several sources, but they are not always reviewed or trusted. Ultimately, this leaves a majority of our population without credible information. Information should be accessible to everyone and at level that is comprehensible to the average person. I’m suggesting that we as academics, students, professors and researchers take a look at the language in our studies and journals. We should make the extra effort to use language that is not confusing with the intention to spread our information to everyone. The research we collect and the writings we produce should not just be for the academic elite. As a university that prioritizes inclusivity and equity, this is a space where we can set an example for the academic communities around us — where we can make credible, trusted and comprehensible information accessible for all people who want to be informed. Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at erosenz@umich.edu.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. NIA LEE | NIA CAN BE REACHED AT LEENIA@UMICH.EDU
A nightmare on State Street
O
ctober is one of my movies are based on true favorite months of stories or contain some type of the year. It’s home to paranormal phenomena. These beautiful fall days, movies penetrate visits to the cider deeper and their mill, corn mazes and effects on the mind pumpkin patches. linger. I cannot leave But above all, it’s that behind at some home to Halloween. farm in Ypsilanti. This is the one time The few times we can put fake that I’ve actually corpses and bones watched one of on the lawn without these movies, I’ve seeming creepy or experienced terror in EVAN hand candy out to two phases. The first SIRLS children without phase takes place getting the cops called. during the movie when my As much as I love Halloween heart rate is consistently above and its spooky aura, there 150 beats per minute, and the is one ritual that I’ll never question “Why am I doing understand — horror movies. this to myself?” ricochets Just having f led my apartment through my mind. The second after my roommate insisted on phase takes place immediately watching “The Ring,” I think after the movie and may last that now is an appropriate hours, days, months, years or time to ask: Why do people a lifetime — who knows. This watch them? Why does one when I rediscover my fear of feel the need to suffer such the darkness and accept that mental torture? monsters are, in fact, real. Let First, let me establish that me give a few examples. when I say “horror movies,” I’m not referring to those in which the protagonist trips over a pebble, takes 34 seconds to recover and then gets killed by a guy with a chainsaw after hiding in a conveniently-placed slaughterhouse. Similar to a haunted house or maze, while these types of horror movies may have a few jump-scares, there’s always a sense of comedic relief due to their unrealism. For this reason I can tolerate scary Halloween decorations, haunted mazes, haunted Before watching the “The houses and the like, as they Blair Witch Project:” all have a similar underlying “Oh, look at that odd fakeness. After visiting one formation of sticks and leaves of these attractions, I have no in the shape of a human,” trouble falling asleep because I think while hiking in the I’m pretty sure the guy dressed woods. “How cool! Nature is up in the mediocre headless marvelous.” horseman costume didn’t After watching “The Blair follow me home on his donkey. Witch Project:” But the horror movies I’m “Hey Evan, wanna go referring to are different. I’m hiking?” referring to horror movies “No.” that are scary on a much Before I accidentally glimpse deeper psychological level the “Paranormal Activity” trailer: — the movies that induce an “I slept so well last night.” inability to sleep and cause After I accidentally glimpse the emotional scarring. I know “Paranormal Activity” trailer: that everyone is different — for “Ghosts don’t exist,” I think example, maybe tripping on a as I get into bed with the lights pebble really gets some people still on. “But then again, no going — but for me, the scariest one knows for sure that ghosts
As I hesitantly shut my eyes, I hear a creak in the hallway and accept death.
don’t exist. Wait, did it just get colder in here? OK, even if ghosts do exist, why would it want to kill me of all people — and why tonight of all nights? It’s had 20 years to do the deed. Just go to sleep.” As I hesitantly shut my eyes, I hear a creak in the hallway and accept death. With the level of distress that horror movies cause me, I find it absolutely fascinating that there are people who like them. After a thorough Google search, I’ve found that it baffles psychologists as well. Though there are many theories as to why certain people are drawn to this voluntary mental suffering, no one knows the exact reason. One theory is that people enjoy the thrill and are genetically wired to seek out scary images. We have a primitive instinct that helps us identify threats to keep us alive, and when we identify these threats, we experience a rush of adrenaline and dopamine. As a result, after watching a horror movie people forget they were scared but remember having a good time. Therefore, they keep watching them to re-experience these heightened states of arousal. Others, however, may be overstimulated by these feelings and have a negative experience. Another theory puts a rather philosophical and ironic twist on the enjoyment found through horror movies. It claims horror movies offer an escape from the terrors of the real world by introducing people to new ones. The difference between movies and life, however, is that movies usually have happy resolutions. This provides a newfound belief in justice when going back to reality. So during times of stress — like right now during midterm season — maybe watching a horror movie isn’t the craziest of ideas. After all, there’s not much scarier than exams. And according to research, watching an exorcism may be of great relief to certain types of people, but I’m not that type of person. I think I’ll stick to The Bachelor. Evan Sirls can be reached at esirls@umich.edu.
STEPHANIE MULLINGS | COLUMN
Be appropriate, don’t appropriate
I
n high school, we would have all-school weekly assemblies (a little excessive, I know, tell me about it). However, there was one which I was always excited for: the Diwali assembly and presentation. It was vibrant, colorful and — my favorite part — it included delicious samosas. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, celebrated every autumn in the northern hemisphere. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, it spiritually represents the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance and hope over despair. To celebrate Diwali night in mid-October/midNovember, participants shine lights on housetops, outside of windows and doors and around temples and other buildings in the communities where the festival is observed. It is often viewed as one of the happiest holidays. In preparation for the celebration, gifts are exchanged, decorations hung and seasonal specialties of food may be prepared. One popular dish often enjoyed during Diwali is the samosa. Served fried or baked, savory in flavor and triangular in shape, samosas typically contain potatoes, vegetables and meat. They can be compared to a mini chicken pot pie, for those who are not familiar. Last weekend while I was home for fall break, my sister, who now attends the same high school as I did, was beginning preparation for the Diwali assembly, where she had a speaking role. She excitedly told my mother, “I don’t have to wear a uniform if I wear you know...like Indian stuff. I know it is short notice but maybe you could buy me something?”
My mom started searching the web muttering to herself, “Where do you find clothes like that?” I immediately interjected, “Well you don’t want to just buy the first ‘Indian looking’ thing you see online. You don’t want to be culturally insensitive.” Both my mom and sister nodded in agreement, my sister ultimately deciding to wear her uniform plaid skirt and polo shirt. I am going to pause right here. Now. Rewind back to my comment to my mother and sister. “You don’t want to be culturally insensitive.” This sentence is rather short and sweet, not much to it, so why is it that more people don’t say this as well? Halloween is around the corner, and I am certain college students throughout the nation have partied throughout “Hallo-weekend.” With the fun of this holiday, I am sure the ever-so-present debate about cultural appropriation and culturally insensitive costume themes and party ideas will arise yet again. We see this almost every year on our campus. Sometimes, the debate is not even related to Halloween celebrations — such as when Delta Sigma Phi found themselves in hot water because of an Egyptian -themed party this summer. In the past another fraternity’s “hood ratchet” party invitation went viral, gaining national attention for its controversy. “Rappers, twerkers, gangsters (no Bloods allowed), thugs, basketball players, bad bitches” were invited. This provoked the birth of the Being Black at Michigan movement, uniting the Black community through
the use of social media to promote activism, awareness and social change on campus. These “mistakes” are not just limited to young people on college campuses, as celebrities often make public apologies for poor selections in costumes or commentary. Let’s not forget when Prince Harry wore a Nazi costume to a party in 2005 or when Katy Perry dressed as a geisha during a 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance. Even more recently, Kendall Jenner starred in a Pepsi advertisement which seemingly degraded the Black Lives Matter movement. This prompts me to ask my question again: How is it that more people cannot ask or at least acknowledge the question, “Could this be culturally insensitive?” In high school, I loved the Diwali assembly not just because I was able to eat samosas and get out of class. I was able to learn and immerse myself in a different culture. Not to use it as a trend or a joke, a costume or party idea, but to understand and educate myself on the various different cultures and backgrounds my peers at school came from. Halloween is fun. I do not mean for this piece to diminish that. I love seeing all the different creative costumes, and I am a huge fan of themed parties. However, it is also important to remember that someone’s heritage, the color of their skin, their religion or their culture are NOT costumes. They are NOT party ideas. Because after Oct. 31, when you take the costume off, the person you stole it from will carry on living as they do. Stephanie Mullings can be reached at srmulli@umich.edu.
Arts
5 — Monday, October 30, 2017
FILM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
GOOD DEED ENTERTAINMENT ‘So B. It’ is now playing at The Michigan Theater
‘So B. It’ lacks whimsy Film fails to inspire with its poor display of mental illness MEGHAN CHOU For the Daily
“So B. It” follows the crosscountry journey of Heidi It (Talitha Bateman, “Annabelle: Creation”) from Reno, Nevada to Liberty, New York as she searches for her origins. What could have been an autumn feel-good movie instead holds desperately to the narrative voice in the children’s book by Sarah Weeks, an Ann Arbor native. As a result, “So B. It” is riddled with awkward voice-overs (sometimes interjected into the middle of conversations) and artificial dialogue. The cast only emphasizes the stiffness of the script through monotone deliveries or, on the other end of the spectrum, out of place, ear-splitting and melodramatic screaming. Heidi lives in an apartment with her special needs mother, So B. It (Jessie Collins, “Revolution”), and their former neighbor, Bernie (Alfre Woodard, “12 Years a Slave”). Suddenly spurred to discover her past when her mother conspicuously adds a new word to her extremely limited vocabulary, Heidi digs up old photos and follows the clues to a special living community, called Hilltop Home, in New York. Before she runs away, though, she throws a series of temper tantrums that feel unaligned with Heidi’s supposed selflessness and kindness. In fact, many of the characters Heidi
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meets on her trip to New York are contradictory, like the bus driver who first eyes her with suspicion, then inexplicably vouches for her, or the owner of Hilltop Home, Thurman Hill (John Heard, “Home Alone”). When Heidi first meets Thurman Hill, he is belligerent and threatening, eventually ordering her to leave. A week later, after it is revealed they are related, he offers to be a real grandfather to her. This complete 180 in personality is not the only aspect of the film
“So B. It” Good Deed Entertainment Michigan Theater that is questionable. The film attempts to defend its improbable plot as a result of Heidi’s supposed good luck. Somehow, viewers are expected to believe a 12-year-old with some lipstick could sneak into a Las Vegas casino, play a slot machine and win enough quarters to travel nearly 3,000 miles. Or that, like voodoo magic, Heidi can whisper at a jar and guess the exact number of jellybeans in it. Or, as the film opens, her correctly predicting 10 coin flips in a row is a good reason for a cop to take her back to his home and attempt to adopt her. Besides being ridiculous, Heidi’s good luck has no other relation to the story or her character
development, only existing as an excuse for an absurd plot. “So B. It” fails most in its attempt to be inclusive and tug at heartstrings with its depiction of mental illnesses. Heidi’s mother functions almost like a prop throughout the film with a shallow background, no role other than to utter a word that sends her daughter on a bratty tailspin and a cringeworthy, unnuanced performance by Collins. Similarly, Woodard’s performance delivers an over-the-top depiction of agoraphobia. In a scene where Bernie struggles to overcome her fear that is meant to induce tears, Woodard jerks around like a woman possessed in a completely inaccurate and ultimately insensitive interpretation. Contrastly in films like “Silver Linings Playbook (2012)” and “Black Swan (2010),” mental illness served less as a tearjerker and instead as a complex, multi-faceted part of the character’s personality. Natalie Portman (“Jackie”), Bradley Cooper (“American Sniper”) and Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy”) — the lead actors in the aforementioned films — clearly put in the effort to understand the psyche of those with disorders outside of their physical manifestations. “So B. It” may have been based on a successful children’s book, but the film forgets to retain the very nature of stories about children that make them so moving — hope, fun and authenticity.
TBS Yes, I too am utterly repelled by the premise of this show.
‘Drop the Mic’ is fun, but not necessary to watch TBS’s latest promotional stunt is ultimately uninspiring JACK BRANDON Daily Arts Writer
Hear me out — I love amateur live performance as much as the next guy. There’s something about going to a bar, open mic, party or drag show and listening to burgeoning (or dwindling) talent and having a good evening. Maybe you talk to the performer afterward and find out they’re a cool person. Maybe you come back home afterwards and decide to become a groupie. Maybe you watch their rise to fame and say, “Hey, I knew about them before everyone else did.” I’m all about that. There’s an issue, however, when the performer is already famous. James Corden’s “Drop the Mic,” which premiered Tuesday, Oct. 24 on TBS, is a corny little segment where two celebrities of varying relevance duke it out in a rap battle. Corden, who has a very specific affinity for musical competition, has taken already taken a similar series (“Carpool Karaoke”) to
Apple Music in 2016. Like “Carpool Karaoke,” “Drop the Mic” started as a segment on “The Late Late Show,” but after increasing popularity and demand from celebrities for the opportunity to rap battle, the series has become its own being. Corden himself does not host the series, although he does appear
“Drop the Mic” TBS Series Premiere Tuesdays at 5 p.m. in the first episode. In an effort to cast a broader net to attract viewers, the series has recruited Hailey Baldwin (“Love Advent”) and a haggard-sounding Method Man aka Clifford Smith (“The Deuce”) to anchor. The pair of second-generation Hollywoodfamily ingenue with a short resume and Wu-Tang Clan member-goneactor is as confusing to me as it is
Classifieds
‘Voices’ & moral grayness Ulli Lust’s graphic novel explores disturbing nature of war
ACROSS 1 Press (down), as pipe bowl ash 5 Life-saving proc. 8 Collect $200 in Monopoly 14 Top poker pair 15 Feel remorse for 16 Brewpub fixture 17 *Palestine, to many 19 Soccer game shout 20 St. plagued by wildfires in 2017 21 Leaves out 23 Colorado resort 24 Other side in a fight 26 Monterey County seat 28 *Slam-dance area 30 Spontaneous notion 33 Classic Ford 36 One of eight Eng. kings 37 Cola, e.g. 38 Actress Longoria 39 Vienna’s country: Abbr. 41 Gobble up 43 Do sales work (for) 44 Baseball glove 46 Baseball throw 48 Multi-room accommodations 50 Praiseful verses 51 *What “blows no good” 53 More geeky 55 V-shaped carving 59 Happy expression 61 “Six __ a-laying ... ” 63 Yokohama yes 64 Descartes’ “I think” 66 “Spring forward” partner (a reminder for November 5th) ... and what the last word of each answer to a starred clue can literally have 68 From boat to beach 69 Island strings 70 Pre-deal wager 71 Poker player, e.g. 72 ’60s hallucinogen 73 Enjoys 23-Across
SEAN LANG
Daily Arts Writer
Based on Marcel Beyer’s “The Karnau Tapes” (1997), “Voices in the Dark” is Ulli Lust’s first fictional graphic novel and an ambitious undertaking. The novel’s protagonist, Hermann Karnau, is an audio engineer/scientist in his late twenties who is hired by the Nazi Party to work on strange projects during World War II. “Voices in the Dark” draws the reader into the niche world of sound recording and editing. Karnau’s interest in the essence of sound borders on obsession, driving him not just onto shaky moral ground, but far beyond it. Lust’s translation of Beyer’s story into graphic form is well paced, and her deliberately imprecise, gothic illustrations complement the emotional quality of the story. Her rendering of Beyer’s narrative stands on its own, a nuanced exploration of humanity that challenges our understanding of both ourselves and how and with whom we empathize. Part of the novel’s strength comes from the ambiguity of Lust’s storytelling. Told primarily from Karnau’s standpoint, the novel shifts abruptly between his perspective and the perspective of Helga Goebbels, one of five siblings and the daughter of a high-ranking official of the Third Reich. The stories begin separately but become intertwined when the children run into Karnau’s dog, Coco. From this starting point of pure innocence, the novel progresses by degrees into an atmosphere of what can only be recognized as evil, before leaving its reader with a conclusion that is morally challenging in more ways than one. It does so in such a way, though, that the reader hardly notices if they aren’t paying attention.
The feeling of watching Karnau’s involvement in the Nazi government’s sinister “research” is one of disbelief. After much of the events of the novel have transpired, it is revealed that Karnau’s narratives are told from his perspective in the “present” — 1992 — after the discovery of audio recordings from the Führer’s final days in a bunker where they and many others spent the final days of the war. This revelation opens up space for a re-reading of Karnau’s recounts as a collective exploration of cognitive dissonance at its peak. The novel’s first half is punctuated with profoundly disturbing images, but images
“Voices in the Dark” Ulli Lust New York Review Books October 17 accompanied by relatively benign or, at the very least, detached descriptions. At one point, Karnau gives a scientific description of a particular procedure: “The jaws are clamped apart to avoid damaging the enamel … several microphones are needed … One is secreted in the immediate vicinity of the sound source to pick up special frequencies.” Then we learn that he is preparing a human subject for torture through intense shocking. Other instances similarly juxtapose commentary that seems coldly out of touch with the images with which it is presented. One disturbingly memorable scene involves opening a subject’s throat in order to remove his entire tongue — without anesthetic. Thanks to Lust’s presentation, moments
like these feel appropriately uncomfortable. Together, they provide a challenging look at how Karnau has, over time, distanced himself from the reprehensible eugenics-related “studies” that he himself orchestrated. After challenging us, the narrative continues beyond Karnau’s recollections and enters territory that broadly questions empathy as he listens once again to the recordings he saved for himself. Throughout “Voices in the Dark,” we are drawn closer and closer to the five Goebbels children. Though they live with immense privilege, belonging to a family deeply implicated in the most thoroughly evil movement of the 20th century, they themselves are innocent. They poke fun at Karnau for having named his dog “Coco” — the youngest of the five breaks out in tears when her favorite stuffed animal is forgotten at the family’s estate when they move to a bunker in anticipation of air raids; once there, they find themselves missing the amenities of their previous lives: Chocolate and sugar and pastries. While the children remain pitifully unaware of the grave nature of their situation, the reader knows too much, and watches the eldest of the siblings realize their fate. The mechanism that brings them to their fate, though, presents the emotional climax of the novel. Certain details are never clarified and, like Karnau’s war crimes, neither blame nor guilt assigned. Little is left truly resolved, but it seems a resolution would just undo all of the beautiful tension that builds up throughout. A true resolution would destroy the atmosphere of ambiguity so crucial throughout. Even the final pages of “Voices in the Dark” are doused in chilling mystery, as the titular voices, one by one, fall silent.
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BOOK REVIEW RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 30, 2017
to you. However, both Baldwin and Smith carry their weight and hype up the audience of “Drop the Mic.” Baldwin is fresh and enthusiastic and Smith is engaging and in-control. I can’t be mad at professionalism. The show itself is broken into two separate battles. Each celebrity gets three opportunities to disrespect their opponent through the brutal power of spoken word, before Smith reigns everyone back in to decide the winner. Victory is synonymous with the magnitude of applause, but Smith himself has the final say on who is the real winner. Before the battle can really begin, however, the program switches gears from the high-energy set to a promo reel, essentially, which highlights the career of the participants. It’s a huge break in tone from the program and reminds the audience that the series stems from a talk show, where celebrities come to promote their new projects.
HELP WANTED
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis DOWN 1 Nevada border lake 2 Bit of a squirrel’s stash 3 Messy fight 4 Future therapist’s maj. 5 Study at the last minute 6 Say “You’re grounded” to, say 7 Administrative complications 8 Kung __ chicken 9 Edgar __ Poe 10 Up-and-down playground fixtures 11 *Jam on the brakes 12 More than a breeze 13 Ready for customers 18 Common Jesuit school name 22 Playground fixture 25 Sra., on the Seine 27 Formal “My bad” 29 Dumb 31 Camille’s concept 32 Route providers 33 Note to the staff 34 Exiled Roman poet
35 *Regular dinnerand-a-movie evening 40 Former MLB commissioner Bud 42 Way under a river 45 “Cats” poet 47 Full of joy 49 About-to-be spouse’s words 52 Inflicts, as havoc
54 Nostalgically trendy 56 Say “Much obliged” to 57 Desert plants 58 Walks with backpacks 59 Picket line violator 60 Jazzman Allison 62 Word with bob or dog 65 Poetic “above” 67 Eng. majors’ degrees
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
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Arts
6A — Monday, October 30, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DAILY LITERATURE COLUMN
FESTIVAL COVERAGE
A Halloween Poetry Playlist for the spooky soul
Poems meant to spook and scare before the holiday is upon us
ACL takes place once a year at Zilker Park
COURTESY PHOTO
Best of the Fest: Daily Arts takes Austin City Limits
Daily Arts recount the wins and woes of the Austin festival DAILY ARTS WRITERS Daily Staff
Earlier this month, three Daily Arts Editors went on an odyssey to Austin, Texas to attend Austin City Limits, a three-day festival of music, art and — most importantly — breakfast tacos. Solange Solange is an artist you must see live. All the elements that make her such an important recording artist are amplified on stage. Her precision, her joy, her presence — it’s breathtaking. The visuals, in all their color coordination and choreography, enhance Solange’s sound without overpowering it. After some travel delays, Solange and her band took the stage, awash in orange light. Every aspect of the show was quietly and soulfully choreographed; from the sways of her singers to the grooves of the musicians, each in some variation of an all orange outfit. But it didn’t feel forced. Each motion, no matter how small or grand, was meant. Pulling mainly from A Seat at the Table, Solange moved seamlessly between tracks. She delivered the more pointed moments of her music with grace; striking a balance between giving the content the respect it deserves without making the performance too heavy. The importance of Solange’s art was palpable in the crowd; the faces of those along the guard rails were nothing if not exuberant. But even those in the furthest reaches of the crowd, those just barely touched by her warm light, felt Solange’s quiet power, too. — Carly Snider Vulfpeck Jack Stratton guided the crowd in breathing exercises, six beautiful boys sang an a cappella to “Back Pocket,” Antwaun Stanley, Joey Dosik and Theo Katzman crowded around a keyboard and harmonize to “Birds of a Feather, We Rock Together,” and Stratton finished it all off with a handstand in the center of Honda Stage. All of these things, these images were faroff myths to me before Friday, October 13th. I’ve been listening to Vulfpeck ever since my sister played “Back Pocket” for me back in 2013 and despite going to their alma mater, I always managed to miss my chance at seeing them live. But somehow, that chance came to me in Austin, Texas, hundreds of miles from where the group formed. And it was so, unbelievably worth it just to see “Beastly” live. Opening with the clipped chords of Cory Wong and Stratton’s guitars on “Cory Wong” Vulfpeck took the stage after their pre-recorded introduction in the style of Don Pardo. Stratton yelled something about taking it “down south the coast of California” and my heart stopped as the first notes of “El Chepe”’s piano progression began. Antwaun brought the “Funky Duck,” “Aunt Leslie,” and “1612,” and Dart, of course, brought the bass. I wish there were more words to describe the experience of watching “Beastly” and “Dean Town” performed live, hearing the small fraction of the crowd
who were down with the music singing along to the bass notes and chord changes as if they were words, lyrics, stories. I was worried the set would be identical to the week before’s; I shouldn’t have underestimated them like that. Because even after performing the previous Friday and two shows at Emo’s in Austin, the boys were still their magnetic, charming selves. — Natalie Zak Whitney I saw Whitney frontmen (and certified cute boys) Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich play ACL back in 2013 and 2011, while they were playing with Smith Westerns. I was in high school and their music made me feel impossibly cool. Now that they’re playing as Whitney, they make me feel — like all good bands do — very cool and very, very uncool. But, I didn’t fall in love with Whitney until I saw them live for the first time at a small show in Burlington, Vermont. They’re smooth and magnetic and crushingly cool. They’re the kind of band that is elevated by their own persona. It’s not a persona, though, that’s acted. Their charm and energy and sheer talent make them one of the best live acts currently on tour. During their set last weekend, they played all the way through their debut album Light Upon the Lake, which, Ehrlich jokingly reminded the crowd only clocks in at 30 minutes. Opening with “Dave’s Song,” which holds a high ranking on my list of “Song that Make Me Want to Dance and Cry (at the same time),” the band drifted from song to song. The extraalbum side of their set was filled out with Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan covers, and Ehrlich punctuated his airy falsetto with intimate banter. He met his girlfriend’s parents last week, they loved him (of course), and that morning he was really, really hungover. Whitney sounds like summer, but they also sound like fall and spring and best parts of winter. They make sparkling nighttime driving songs and dreamy lay-onyour-bed-and-stare-at-the-ceiling song and (thankfully) swelling, dizzying, dancing in the sun songs. And, actually, all of those things apply to all of their songs. — Madeleine Gaudin Angel Olsen Anything I write about Angel Olsen should be called “Why I Am Not A Singer.” Watching Olsen perform proves something I’ve long suspected: I’ll never understand everything that goes into musical performance. And I think that’s why I enjoy it so much. Olsen was bubbly and electric, increasingly excited by the crowd and the night and how much she loves doing what she does, how much she loves doing the thing that blows my mind. And that thing is really just singing. She and her music are all about her voice and it’s airy ineffable quality. Olsen swayed through tracks from her first three studio albums and played “Special” the most recent single from her forthcoming collection Phases. As the sun set and Austin started to (finally) cool to a brisk 85, Olsen broke into the opening
notes of MY WOMAN standout and certified bop “Shut Up Kiss Me.” The way she smiles when she sings, the sharp twinkle of her voice, the electric current that runs between Olsen and the crowd, each one requiring the other to live: This is why people go to shows. — Madeleine Gaudin Red Hot Chili Peppers At this point in their career, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have live performance down to a science; they know exactly what a crowd (especially an enormous festival crowd) wants to hear. Anthony Kiedis and Flea sprinkle in just enough banter to be charming, the band rocks just hard enough to warrant woos and shoves from the masses. And, despite playing what is expected, their weekend two set still proved entertaining. On top of the hits — “Snow ((Hey Oh)),” “Californication,” “By the Way,” “Give it Away,” etc. — the Peppers threw in some deep cuts and covers to round out their setlist. Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and Tom Petty’s “A Face in the Crowd” were among the covers. But the most notable had to be The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” There was a pause over the crowd as tried to decipher the opening notes, but once those iconic sleigh bells hit, it clicked. I could tell that not everyone recognized the track, but for me, a punk-centric youth from Ann Arbor, this homage to proto-punk made the set. Even after the last notes of “Give It Away” faded out and a shirtless Kiedis bid us all a goodnight, all I could hear were those opening lines, “So wrapped up / I want you here….” — Carly Snider BadBadNotGood Have you ever gotten down to a jazz quartet? Like literally down on the ground as the band shouts at you to get low with everyone else in the crowd? In the final moments of their set, this is exactly what BadBadNotGood had their crowd do, and the intimacy of the small crowd tucked under Tito’s Handmade Vodka tent made the experience all that more incredible. Because while the music the group plays may be strictly called jazz, their foundations were originally geared toward reworking songs by the likes of Nas, Odd Future, and A Tribe Called Quest. And this becomes entirely clear when surrounded by a sea of 18 year old boys in cuffed jeans and oxfords throwing their hands and jumping in sync to the instrumental “Hedron.” BadBadNotGood has it, that thing that makes crowds fall in love with you. It’s in their music, in their extreme command over their instruments, their youth and vibrancy that brings so much life to their performance. In the small tent in front of Tito’s stage for the hour that the quartet played, that entire crowd was cut off from the outside world and caught up in Leland Whitty’s sax. — Natalie Zak
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
It’s that time of year again — by which I mean the absolute best time! October is almost over and Halloween is officially upon us. We’ve had some truly beautiful autumn days, and the weather is starting to get chillier. “Stranger Things” season two is out, along with fresh scary movies like “It” and “Happy Death Day.” Pumpkins have been carved, and theories about potential Halloween costumes are finally coming to fruition. But if you’re looking to really round out the season, there may be one more thing left to check off the Halloween bucket list: reading some high-quality spooky poetry. Spooky poetry is fun anytime, anywhere, but Halloween offers many advantages if you want to get really extra about it. You can recite the scary lines around a hearth with your friends, or flip through them during an afternoon excursion to the cemetery. I know what you’re thinking: Where am I going to find good scary poetry at such late notice? Don’t be afraid! (See what I did there?) Here is a list of some of the creepiest verse out there to get you started. “The Homemade Mermaid,” by Matthea Harvey This poem starts out interesting and becomes downright terrifying, using mermaids and homemade science as a way of exploring gender dynamics. Horror can be a great way of digging into social issues, and Harvey does this brilliantly, especially in her live reading of the poem. She has other mermaid poems, too, like “The Backyard Mermaid” and “The Objectified Mermaid.” “Ghost Q & A,” by Anne Carson
“Ghost Q & A” is deceptively simple, but also inventive, taking the form of a conversation between a ghost (A) and an unnamed questioner (Q). The ghost is surprisingly straightforward and even kind of sassy, but not in an over-the-top way. And the poem invites so many questions that it’s almost impossible not to read it more than one time. (Who is talking to the ghost? And who is the man who does the zeroes?) Note: It’s worth checking Carson out beyond this poem, because she’s done some really terrific work
LAURA DZUBAY in the past with poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translation — pretty much everything. “Scary Movies,” by Kim Addonizio We all know the feeling of lying in bed after watching a scary movie, not wanting to move out of the fear that a monster might be lurking underneath. Addonizio captures this sense of terror and more in “Scary Movies.” “Song,” by Brigit Pegeen Kelly Probably my personal favorite on this list, this prose poem is effective in so many different ways. There’s horrifying imagery (a goat’s head is hanging in a tree in the first line), but even that doesn’t cut nearly as deep as the
horrors of death, sin and stolen innocence that eventually emerge from the lines. What’s more, Kelly reaches deep into these layers to explore thoughts about the meaninglessness of tragedy and the beauty of life itself. “Schizophrenia,” by Jim Stevens This is a haunted house poem told from the perspective of the haunted house, in which the building becomes its own presence and the rooms become almost like characters. It’s full of eerie, visual imagery, and the relative absence of humans makes it all the more interesting. “The Session,” by Jeanann Verlee This poem doesn’t contain any witches or ghosts or Halloween imagery; the horror is a lot deeper and more psychological. It’s also very sad. I will admit, I wasn’t entirely sure whether or not I understood it at first, but this live reading was pretty emotional and left me with a stronger sense of what it was about. “Ghost Dance,” by Sara Littlecrow-Russell This is another one that, while definitely not about Halloween, is hard not to include here because it’s just so haunting. There’s also an undercurrent of hope toward the very end, which is both refreshing in the context of this list and very powerful within the poem itself. “my eyes in the time of apparition,” by Rachel McKibbens Rachel McKibbens uses a lot of surprising and sometimes even grotesque imagery in her work, but always to deeply emotional and significant ends. This poem is a good example of that, using sirens and witches as a way of exploring anger, grief and personal agency.
MANY VOICES
OUR MICHIGAN Brad Ebenhoeh, U-M Student
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION SUMMIT YEAR ONE: CELEBRATING PROGRESS, ADDRESSING CHALLENGES NOVEMBER 7
MICHIGAN LEAGUE BALLROOM 4:30–6 pm | Opening Keynote Acclaimed social psychologist Dr. Claude Steele
NOVEMBER 8
STATE STREET (NEAR BETSY BARBOUR/HELEN NEWBERRY EAST LAWN) 11:30 am | Trotter Multicultural Center Groundbreaking RACKHAM AUDITORIUM 2–3 pm and 5–6 pm | Poster Session 3–4 pm | Community Assembly Year One Progress Report update 4–5 pm | Interactive Panel Discussion With select Bicentennial Alumni Award Recipients MICHIGAN LEAGUE BALLROOM 5:30–9 pm | Student DEI Summit Student-organized Summit focused on developing actionable plans to improve campus climate. Dinner provided.
PLUS MORE UNIT-SPONSORED AND CENTRAL EVENTS THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 6–10, INCLUDING CLIMATE SURVEY INFORMATION SESSIONS FOR STUDENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF
LEARN MORE ABOUT EVENTS:
diversity.umich.edu/summit-events
B
The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com | October 30, 2017
AN EV AA AILY N/D RO
ERA
Brandon Peters made the most of his opportunity Saturday The redshirt freshman quarterback took over the starting job, throwing for 124 yards and a touchdown TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh pulled Brandon Peters in close and gave the 20-year-old a few final words of advice. Peters had worked on everything his coach had told him to. He needed to be louder, communicate better and have bigger presence on the field. When Harbaugh let him go, Peters jogged 15 yards out, shuffled his feet and sprinted right back — one last warm up. After a season and a half of waiting, he was finally going in for a legitimate drive. Peters, the quarterback Michigan fans have called for since the Spring Game, took over the reigns. The fans at Michigan Stadium cheered at the sight of No. 18 lining up under center. With him in
command, the Wolverines marched downfield for a touchdown, and on their next two drives, they reached the end zone as well. The offense surged, the passing game connected and the Wolverines defeated Rutgers in a comfortable 35-14 win. Peters’ performance — 124 passing yards, a 71 percent completion rate and one touchdown — garnered praise from his teammates, coaches and the entire crowd. With less than a minute remaining in the second quarter, Peters dropped a lofted pass to sophomore running back Chris Evans for his first career touchdown pass. Streaking for the end zone, Evans made the catch and fell across the goal line for the 20-yard score. “Ever since (redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight) went down, I stepped into the
Michigan 35 Finally champions
With a 2-1 double overtime victory over Maryland, the Michigan men’s soccer team clinched its first conference title in program history.
» SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
backup role, and ever since then I’ve been preparing like I’m the starting QB,” Peters said. All the preparation finally became worthwhile. Michigan (3-2 Big Ten, 6-2 overall) made the switch to Peters on its fifth drive of the game, after fifth-year senior John O’Korn was intercepted and threw for just 13 yards. The mood at Michigan Stadium changed immediately, and so did the Wolverines’ game plan. When O’Korn was in, the coaches’ conservative play calling leaned on the running backs. Michigan would give the ball to junior Karan
Higdon, fifth-year senior Ty Isaac or redshirt freshman Kareem Walker. Rarely did O’Korn get the green light to pass downfield. When O’Korn finally received that signal midway through the first quarter, he was picked off. So Peters entered, and Michigan balanced its offense. On his first drive, the Wolverines ran five times, passed three and capped it off with a 10-yard rushing touchdown from Higdon. Though Peters passed more consistently than O’Korn, the running backs still made major contributions Saturday against the Scarlet Knights. Higdon led the team with 158 rushing yards and two touchdowns, Isaac
ran for over 100 yards and Walker had a career-high six rushing attempts to go along with his first touchdown at Michigan. Rutgers found its own success on the ground, as both of the Scarlet Knights’ touchdowns came on run plays. The first — a direct snap to receiver Janarion Grant — came midway through the second quarter, when Grant sped past Michigan’s secondary for a 65-yard rush. Running back Gus Edwards scored the second touchdown on a two-yard rush in the third quarter. Michigan’s defense allowed a total of just 195 yards, keeping Rutgers (2-3, 3-5) contained for the majority of the game. Fifthyear senior defensive lineman Maurice Hurst led the unit with eight tackles, two tackles for loss and one sack on Rutgers’ first play of the game. “It felt huge to get that first
sack on the first play,” Hurst said. “I think it really did get our defense going. Anytime you can three-and-out them early on in the game is really important.” The defense played as expected and so did the running backs, but when O’Korn had another hiccup, Harbaugh knew that the time had come. He made the choice to put Peters in, and the move paid off. He led the team on 50, 60 and 70-yard scoring drives. He played a pivotal role in each of them, leading Michigan to a muchneeded win. And more than that, Saturday was the inception of the Peters-era in Ann Arbor. “I feel really good about the way he played,” Harbaugh said. “I feel good about (Peters) now taking the next step and being the starting quarterback.”
Rutgers 14 Real deal?
The Michigan hockey team split its series with No. 15 Penn State, making the case that the Wolverines can legitimately compete in the Big Ten this season.
» Page 4B
SportsMonday
2B — October 30, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
SOCCER From Page 1A
A glimpse of the future
M
ichigan fans finally got what they asked for. For weeks now, they have been calling for the future. It started with a loss to Michigan State, as the upset eliminated any margin for error and catalyzed visions of grandeur for 2018. The idea of forsaking this season in the name KEVIN of playing SANTO those that would benefit from experience before next year suddenly became appealing. And after the Wolverines were thrashed in State College, that same plea became deafening. It was there that the idea finally gained some weight. After all, no two-loss team has ever made the College Football Playoff. A Big Ten championship was reduced to a hope of a miracle. Still, Jim Harbaugh said nothing to suggest that Michigan was suddenly looking to the future with no focus on the present season. Last Monday, he said his team needed to respond to the blowout loss. And his press conference made it appear as if John O’Korn was still the Wolverines’ starting quarterback. So, we knew this day would come eventually. But on Saturday, it came sooner than many would have expected. Michigan fans asked to see the future. Harbaugh, in part, granted their wish. It wasn’t only about Brandon Peters, the man once dubbed as the quarterback of the future, who is suddenly very much the quarterback of the present. He is still a large part of it, but he was joined by Kareem Walker, Nico Collins, Aubrey Solomon,
Michael Dwumfour, Kwity Paye and O’Maury Samuels, too. Thanks to those six, Saturday became a quasi time machine. Peters received his first meaningful college snap in the second quarter. He got plenty after it — completing 10 of his 14 attempts for 124 yards and leading touchdown drives on three consecutive series. With 23 seconds remaining in the first half, he threw a 20-yard pass to Chris Evans for the first touchdown pass of his career. As for Walker, the redshirt freshman was given a career-high six carries and rushed for 34 yards. And in the third quarter, one of those carries ended with Walker laying the ball on the end zone turf as he wheeled away with a finger in the air in celebration. He had just scored the first touchdown of his career as well. Solomon was given a starting nod for the first time. He turned it into a three-tackle performance, and combined with Paye for a sack. Samuels burned his redshirt in garbage time, carrying three times for seven yards on Michigan’s final
offensive series. Collins recorded his first catch, a 12-yard reception for a first down that set up junior running back Karan Higdon’s ensuing touchdown rush. And Dwumfour recorded the first sack of his career. By the end of it all, the Wolverines dispatched Rutgers, 35-14. Six relatively new faces each played a part in it. The Michigan faithful were gifted with a sense of calm — not only for the present, but just maybe for the future as well. This is not to say that a crop of newcomers’ mostly minimal role in a win over the Scarlet Knights is cause for celebration. After all, Michigan still sits in fourth in the Big Ten East, and those conference championship hopes still require a whole lot of luck. It doesn’t call for grand projections to 2018, either. But for fleeting moments Saturday afternoon, that ‘future’ so many have called for finally showed out on the field. If Peters is an example of anything, it’s that slowly but surely, that may become
more consistent, too. “I thought he was ready,” Harbaugh said of his new starting quarterback. “You base a lot of things on practice, you know, good in practice good in games. Now that’s not always the case, especially with young players. Sometimes they’re not good in games. … It was great to see him be good in games. “That’s something where (if) players are good in games, that helps their confidence, that builds their confidence. We all felt good, nobody was nervous about what was going to happen. I think he did better than everyone thought, too.” That he did, only week after a game that ended with Harbaugh telling his team that the “fake love” was gone. He said it was his team’s job to move forward — alone. He said that people would be jumping off the bandwagon. But those who didn’t, well, they got a nice preview of what could be coming. Santo can be reached at kmsanto@umich.edu or on Twitter @Kevin_M_Santo.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Redshirt freshman running back Kareem Walker scored the first touchdown of his career on Saturday afternoon.
A core group of upperclassmen gathered with coach Chaka Daley, intent on getting this team on the same page. As Stevens admitted, in the past, that wasn’t the case. Players would sulk. They would talk under their breath. But in the meeting, that was all buried. A new path began. “Once some guy sees you bought in, they’re like, ‘Alright well I’m gonna have to buy in too, otherwise I’m not gonna be able to fit well on this team,’ ” Stevens said. “There was just no room for anybody who did not want to buy into this team. And you could see it tonight.” Yes, you could. It took 104 minutes, and it took soul searching. But the Wolverines had captured their first conference title in school history, 17 years after the program’s inception. As for that No. 2 recruiting class, there were just two left to hold that trophy Sunday: Tristan Jacob, and Stevens. Ask Stevens if he expected this, and even he can’t tell you completely. He will reflect on his first year, when Michigan had no choice but to play a brand of soccer it didn’t want to. He will reflect on the moments when the talent gradually started to fall into place. And he will admit that he has been thinking about it for the last few days. It’s for all those reasons that this is that much sweeter. “You just can’t make these things up man,” Stevens said. “… I mean, I’m so proud of this group of guys, and it’s just like a fairytale ending, man. *** “Did we dream about being champs?” Daley said. “Absolutely. You always do. But did we think it could be a reality after last year and the disappointment?” He didn’t have to think about it. After all, his vision came to
fruition. He wanted Michigan to keep things in perspective. He wanted the Wolverines to put themselves in a situation where they controlled their own destiny at the end of the the season. Now, that’s exactly what they’re doing. They just needed a little bit of luck to get there. Daley asked his staff if it was true at least four times. He asked the director of operations, too. They checked four or five different websites. They checked Facebook. They checked Twitter. Finally, they were certain. Michigan State had tied Indiana. If it had gone any other way, the Wolverines would have never had a chance at a Big Ten title. Instead, it was theirs for the taking. He told Robbie Mertz first, when the junior midfielder subbed on in the 71st minute. Mertz spread the word around, but his message didn’t reach everybody. Then came Stevens’ injury in the 80th minute — one that he would later say was never going to keep him off the field Sunday night. That’s when everyone found out, for good, what was at stake. Score a goal, go home Big Ten champions. “We went for it, no question about it,” Daley said. “We went for it.” They got it. Jack Hallahan sent in a cross from the left wing. Mohammed Zakyi stretched as far as humanly possible, couldn’t get his foot to it. But Francis Atuahene was on the back post and the perfect time, getting just enough of his foot on the ball to notch the golden goal. Stevens watched it over and over again. “Once it went in, everybody’s hearts just dropped,” Stevens said, “and you just couldn’t believe it.” We believe you now, Billy. Even if you still don’t.
‘M’ wins B1G title Atuahene clinches B1G in OT thriller MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Editor
It was a good weekend for the Michigan men’s cross country team. After a lackluster season in 2016, where the Wolverines finished fifth out of 12 teams in the Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines wanted nothing more than a little redemption. Mission accomplished. This year, the 13th-ranked Wolverines were favored to win the Big Ten Championships by the smallest of margins, and they defended that position by topping runner-up Michigan State by 11 points. Michigan led the 12-team bracket with 71 points to take home the championship, headlined by an elated group of five fifth-year seniors along with a rotation of younger athletes. For Michigan coach Kevin Sullivan, it was a little more along the lines of relief. “We were aggressive early, which we hadn’t been all year,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to run up near the front, so early on we were aggressive. But really the last half mile of the race we were bleeding a little bit and Michigan State was coming up hard, and we gave those guys — between (redshirt sophomores) Ben Hill and Keenan Rebera and (freshman) Jack Aho — a half mile to go and said, ‘You guys need to catch Michigan State’s fifth,’ and they all rallied from behind to either outkick him or come between a tenth of a second, and that’s kind of the untold story you don’t see from the stats.” Redshirt seniors Ben Flanagan, Aaron Baumgarten, Connor Mora, Billy Bund and Micah Beller all remained consistent throughout the race, finishing in the top-25. In a championship meet, that depth gave the Wolverines the advantage. Only the first five runners from each team contribute to the team’s official score, while the remaining two runners
are meant to displace runners from other teams. Michigan consolidated most of its runners in the top-25, giving it an edge over other teams like Michigan State and Wisconsin, which had higher individual placers but less consistency in packs. “We had good leadership up front from Flanagan and Baumgarten, Mora, those really helped us,” Sullivan said. “But what really set us apart from the rest of the conference was that we were so consistent at four, five, six — that depth where we had interchangeable parts really helped us out today. Because, you know, we had a couple guys who had off days, and we had a couple guys who could step up and fill that gap, and you need that to have a successful meet.” One of those consistent runners is Flanagan, who was the Wolverines’ top individual finisher at sixth place, and was a leader throughout the race. But his biggest contribution to the team may come off the course. “Ben’s just a fantastic leader on our team, and he has been since I came in his sophomore year,” Sullivan said. “He was a team captain his sophomore year on the team, and I think that pretty much tells you all you need to know about Ben. “The way the rest of the team looks at him, he’s the kind of guy who really grabs his team by the scruff after a year like last year and said, ‘Hey, we’re not satisfied with being in the middle of the conference, we want to be a team that’s always competing to win. Whether we win or not, we want to be putting ourselves in a position to try and win.’” Riding an emotional win such as this one, Flanagan will have to help Michigan buckle down moving forward to prepare for the Great Lakes Regional, where it’ll see top-three finishers in Michigan State and Wisconsin. Good performances in the meet will punch the Wolverines’ ticket to the NCAA Championships, which could transform a good weekend into a great season finale.
PATRICK REED For the Daily
Big Ten champions, for the first time in its history those are words you can finally associate with the Michigan men’s soccer team. The Wolverines were able to pull off the victory in College Park, 2-1, in double overtime, clinching the regular season conference title. The game was sealed by standout junior forward Francis Atuahene, he was able to score with a sliding goal that came off the pass from sophomore forward Jack Hallahan. The game was all aligned for a Maryland win, as it was a home game for the more experienced Terrapin squad that have, for the past couple of seasons, overpowered the Wolverines. But this season, as has become abundantly clear, is profoundly different from last. The Wolverines weren’t
fazed, scoring inside the first ten minutes of the game thanks to a header from junior defender Daniel Mukuna. The weather wasn’t optimal, as a rainstorm in Maryland and caused for some sloppy play at points. But the Wolverines looked to be in better control, thanks to its preparation. “Fortunately for the past two weeks in Michigan there has been some bad weather,” said Michigan coach Chaka Daley. “We have been able to get some practices in the heavy rain.” The weather played into the hands of the Wolverines, as they controlled most of the game. The young Michigan team played at their own pace and tempo, wearing out the Maryland defense.
For much of the game, though, it appeared Maryland might come close to the crown. Late in the first half, forward DJ Reeves scored unassisted with less than 10 minutes to go. Most of the second half was a game of field position and ball possession. The Wolverines were able to get some decent looks on goal, but were unable to capitalize. Late in the game, Daley was given the news that his team was given the chance to win the Big Ten title due to the overtime game with Michigan State. With a break in the game due to a minor injury to senior Billy Stevens, Daley relayed the message to his team that they were given the ability to become Big Ten Champions for the first time in school
This is your only chance and you have to make it.
history. “Once we were sure we told the guys,” Daley said. “There was a little lift but the guys weathered the storm no pun intended.” The first overtime period was controlled by the Terrapins, but with only a few looks on net, they came up empty handed. Knowing quite well it would come up shy of the title without a goal, the players pushed the tempo. Fittingly, it was Atuahene, the team’s energizer and go-to playmaker who scored the championship winner. It will go down as the most important goal in program history. “It is golden goal is what I told the guys,” Daley said. “This is your only chance and you have to make it.” The Wolverines didn’t shy away from that challenge. Instead they relished it, sealing their fate and winning the Big Ten championship.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior forward Francis Atuahene scored the game-winning goal in double overtime Sunday to clinch the Wolverines’ first-ever conference championship.
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SportsMonday
October 30, 2017 — 3B
Michigan’s offensive line sparks The good, the bad and the ugly: strong outing from ground game Nordin misses short field goal TED JANES
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
Daily Sports Writer
Michael Onwenu looked out of place on the play. In this case, that was a good thing. With just over 14 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Michigan lined up on 1st-and-10 from the Rutgers 49-yard line. The Wolverines ran a counter to the left, and Onwenu pulled to that side. He looked for a man to block. What he found was open space, enough to make him hesitate, if only for a moment. Karan Higdon found that space too, trailing Michigan’s right guard before breaking to the left and busting the play open for a 49-yard touchdown. By the end of the 35-14 victory, the Wolverines had commanded their way to four rushing touchdowns, 6.5 yards per carry and two rushers with 100-plus yards. They totaled 334 yards on the ground — the most since Michigan ran for 486 in Piscataway last year. And the Wolverines’ backfield can thank Onwenu, and the rest of the offensive line, for that. “I thought our running backs played extremely well, but you have to start giving the credit to the offensive line — a lot of credit to the offensive line,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “There were some nice big holes. Coach Drevno (did) a nice job with the run scheme. We had some very good schemed-up runs and they were executed extremely well. Tight ends, fullbacks, receivers, and especially the offensive line.” The unit’s performance wasn’t perfect throughout. On the Wolverines’ final drive of the third quarter, Higdon was dropped twice for loss and redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Peters suffered the same fate on a broken play. By the end of the game, though, the Scarlet Knights mustered
There’s a new quarterback in Ann Arbor. After fifth-year senior quarterback John O’Korn bobbled two snaps and got intercepted, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh knew it was time to make the switch. The coaches had decided earlier in the week to play redshirt freshman Brandon Peters against Rutgers, and in the second quarter on Saturday, they implemented that plan. Peters came in and led Michigan to three consecutive touchdown drives and a 35-14 win. The Daily breaks down Michigan’s win in this week’s edition of the good, the bad and the ugly. The good Switching to Peters against Rutgers proved to be a great decision for the Wolverines. What Peters showed in the pocket was keen patience and an ability to keep plays alive with his feet. He hit 10 of his 14 pass attempts for a total of 124 yards and threw a touchdown
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan’s offensive line paved the way for the running backs to find holes.
just two more tackles-for-loss, and didn’t record a single sack — something that was paramount for a Michigan team giving Peters his first meaningful minutes. “The protection was great all day,” Peters said. “We had a great game plan coming into the game, and we executed it perfectly. It was great protection all day.” Granted, Rutgers isn’t the most challenging test for what has been a struggling position group for the Wolverines. After all, Michigan was sacked seven times for 49 yards and sputtered to just 2.5 yards per carry in State College last weekend. For that reason, Rutgers’ pass-rushing and run-stopping ability was, for the most part, irrelevant. The offensive line needed to establish, once again, that it is capable of protecting its quarterback and sparking the ground game. And that’s exactly what it did. “My boys had something to prove,” Higdon said. “They had a ‘S’ on their chests. We got a little dominated last week against Penn
State, had some troubles. We knew we were better than that, and we know what we’re capable of. I think it was good to hit adversity and bounce back. Those guys are tremendous at bouncing back off of adversity, and that’s what they did today. I’m proud of those guys.” Higdon, more than anyone, reaped the benefits of his line’s performance. His 49-yard touchdown was the highlight, but he finished with a game-high 158 yards and two touchdowns. More impressively, the junior running back eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for his career. It was an honor Higdon wasn’t aware of until after the game. It was one he didn’t take credit for, either. “I didn’t even think about that, but it’s a big-time accomplishment,” he said. “It’s very big, especially in my career here at the University. I give all the credit to the guys up front, the guys in front of me. Without them, I couldn’t make things happen.” The same, it appears, applies to Michigan’s offense as a whole.
pass to sophomore running back Chris Evans as well. Granted, Peters’ performance was against the Scarlet Knights’ defense, which is objectively bad. Nonetheless, now seems like the best time to for Peters to take over permanently. Peters has two favorable matchups — Minnesota and Maryland — before the season’s penultimate game against Wisconsin. The Golden Gophers and Terrapins allow an average of 184 and 277 passing yards, respectively, which should give the young quarterback an opportunity to showcase his arm. The timing should allow Peters to get comfortable before the real tests later in the season. More than anything else, Peters gave the team and the fans something to be excited about. Peters was Harbaugh’s first quarterback recruit, and when he walked out for his first series, everything changed about Michigan’s offense. It was dynamic, moved the ball well and wasn’t one-dimensional, like in weeks past.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior running back Karan Higdon rushed for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
Peters wasn’t the only Wolverine with a big day, though. The offensive line also excelled specifically in the run game. Michigan rushed for 334 yards, getting major contributions from junior Karan Higdon and fifthyear senior Ty Isaac. A big reason for the running backs’ success was the offensive line’s blocking. Michigan gave up zero sacks, and just three of the Wolverines’ 51 rushing attempts resulted in tackles for loss. The bad Michigan’s defense failed to stop a play that should’ve been familiar. Last week, when Penn State running back Saquon Barkley lined up for a direct snap on the second play of the game, he burst through the Wolverines’ defense untouched for a 69-yard touchdown run. Saturday, Rutgers receiver Janarion Grant also took a few direct snaps, and on one of them he ran for a 65-yard score. The Wolverines ultimately bottled up Grant’s direct snaps after that play, but failing to stop an identical play in back-to-back weeks was not a good sign. The ugly For the second week in a row, redshirt freshman kicker Quinn Nordin missed an attempt that he should’ve easily converted. He botched a PAT against Penn State and then missed his only field goal attempt against Rutgers — a 37-yard kick. Whatever the issue may be, Nordin is still going to be the Wolverines’ field-goal kicker. He’s a fan favorite, and he also carried the team at times through the first three games of the season. If Michigan’s offense runs into red zone trouble again, Nordin could be called upon, and the Wolverines can’t afford to be missing field goals and PATs. Nordin has hit 14 of 17 field goals, though, so there is reason to believe he can rebound from this two-game slump.
Five Things We Learned: Peters will be the starting quarterback The redshirt freshman entered the game in the second quarter and changed the complexion of the team ORION SANG
Daily Sports Editor
It was only Rutgers. But Michigan’s 35-14 win over the Scarlet Knights felt like so much more. A step forward for the offense, which finally debuted its pilot episode of the Brandon Peters Show. A return to the norm for the defense, which was very good only one week removed from a rough game against Penn State. So yes, it was just Rutgers. But, thanks to their new quarterback, the Wolverines seem like a different team now. And without the weight of expectations going forward, it’ll be interesting to see just how far this young group can progress over the final month of the reg ular season. Saturday, they certainly moved in the right direction. Here are five other things we learned: 1. Peters will remain the starting quarterback It would’ve been understandable for Jim Harbaugh to slow things down following his redshirt freshman quarterback’s performance Saturday. Of course, Peters performed admirably in the first game action of his career, but the hype had already reached unsustainable levels before he even completed his first pass against the Scarlet Knights. But Harbaugh — who has seemingly been more reserved this season than in years past — was clearly enthusiastic about his quarterback’s performance, noting that Peters has exceeded expectations, and that for now, he has a grip on the starting job. “Right now I feel really good about the way that he played,” Harbaugh said, “and feel good about him taking the next step and being the starting quarterback and
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh put his faith in his redshirt freshman quarterback against Rutgers, and Brandon Peters repaid him for that vote of confidence Saturday.
having a great week of now knowing he’s the starting QB in practice.” 2. Higdon continues to establish himself It was a big day for Michigan’s junior running back. Karan Higdon enjoyed a career day against Indiana just two weeks ago, and his game Saturday ranks among his best as well: 18 carries for 158 yards and two touchdowns. As the Wolverines have improved at blocking power and counter runs, Higdon has benefited. Despite his size, he’s a true north-south runner who has a low center of gravity and good speed — qualities that were all on display when Higdon sliced through the Rutgers defense for a 49-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. With Saturday’s performance,
Higdon now has over 1,000 career rushing yards — and now that he has a firm grip on the starting running back position (in addition to another year of eligibility), it’s safe to say he’ll be adding a lot more to that total. 3. Defense’s kryptonite? There isn’t much to harp about with this defense. Penn State did bomb them last week, but the Nittany Lions have done that to everyone this year, and that seemed like an aberration for the Wolverines. Michigan was expected to bounce back
against a middling Rutgers offense, and that was exactly what happened. Rutgers quarterback Giovanni Rescigno had a 13.9 quarterback rating, the Scarlet Knights averaged just three yards per carry and the Wolverines gave up under 200 yards of offense yet again. The only error that Michigan made, in fact, was a 65-yard touchdown run by Janarion Grant. The lightning quick receiver did it the same way Saquon Barkley scored his first touchdown last week: by taking a direct snap and
Right now I feel really good about the way that he played
outrunning everyone. But that just about does it when it comes to any qualms viewers could reasonably have after the Wolverines’ defensive performance. 4. Offensive line continues to march forward Michigan’s pass-protection miscues have been well documented this year. The offensive line struggled to keep Wilton Speight upright, it struggled to keep John O’Korn clean in the pocket and it’s reasonable to assume that Peters will take his fair share of hits going forward. But the Wolverines have made major strides in the run game, and that was evident against the Scarlet Knights. Peters simply didn’t have to do much — his offensive line was busy bashing the Rutgers
defense into the turf. Michigan ran 51 times for 334 yards for a healthy 6.5 average yards per carry. Two running backs went for over 100 yards, three different rushers scored and the Wolverines had over 13 more minutes of possession. Running the ball will be more difficult when teams like No. 3 Ohio State stack the box and dare Peters to beat them with his arm. But if the run game continues developing at this pace, that may not matter. A well-executed power or counter, after all, is nearly impossible to stop, and this is the most similar Michigan has looked to Harbaugh’s well-oiled rushing attacks at Stanford. Back then, everyone knew what was coming — and opponents still struggled to defend it. 5. BOLD PREDICTION: Michigan’s next quarterback controversy will take place in December Wilton Speight has gone on record saying he hopes to be back for Michigan’s penultimate reg ular season game, a Nov. 18 date at No. 4 Wisconsin. But with no shot at the playoffs, there’s no need for Speight to rush back from his traumatic injury. The Wolverines might love to have a quarterback with his experience for the road game against the Badgers and a home date against the Buckeyes. Three broken vertebrae just seems like an awfully difficult injury to come back from in such a short period of time. Having an extra month to rest up before Michigan’s bowl game ensures that Speight will be fully healthy. And once he is, the Wolverines will need to deal with yet another quarterback controversy — almost regardless of Peters’ production the rest of the season. Speight’s eventual return and his stake in claiming the starting spot will be yet another interesting storyline in a season full of them.
SportsMonday
4B — October 30, 2017
Changing the equation W
hen did you realize it was time? Was it after the first interception? Was it when a routine snap was bobbled and fumbled for a 14-yard loss? At first, it appeared Michigan’s fourth drive spurred the action: a second fumbled snap and then two incomplete passes as boos cascaded down upon the field. Those boos quickly turned into cheers once ORION Brandon SANG Peters entered the game on the following drive, injecting the crowd with an excitement rarely seen this year. After the game, though, Jim Harbaugh cleared the air — the Peters era was always going to begin Saturday afternoon, regardless of fifth-year senior John O’Korn’s early struggles. “We had made that decision well before the game,” Harbaugh said after Michigan’s 35-14 win over Rutgers. “It was time. It was time for him to play.” Harbaugh said the situation was “like a bird leaving the nest.” And to the relief of Michigan and its fans, Peters had little trouble spreading his wings. According to Harbaugh, the redshirt freshman quarterback exceeded expectations by completing 10-of-14 passes for 124 yards and one touchdown. Karan Higdon was asked what felt different about the offense with Peters. The junior running back didn’t answer the question. He didn’t have to — quite simply, everything felt
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FOOTBALL
Evans finds end zone BETELHEM ASHAME
different. The Wolverines scored touchdowns on three consecutive possessions for just the second time this season. They made it look easy, all with a gameplan that could be described as vanilla. That was the biggest difference between Peters and his new backup. He did all the simple tasks that were asked of him. Peters went through his progressions. He worked the naked bootleg. He checked down and picked up easy yards. He hit curl routes. He read zone coverages. Eight of his 10 completions went for first downs. One of the other two went for the first touchdown pass of his career — a pass that displayed the talent that made Peters such a highly-touted recruit and had everyone clamoring to see him on the field. There weren’t any flashy deep balls or any 15-yard outs that would’ve left NFL scouts salivating. Still, this was a paradigm-shifting performance. With this defense, Michigan doesn’t need sustained brilliance from the man under center. It just needs someone who can do enough to keep opposing defenses honest against a flurry of power and counter runs. What Peters did on that 20-yard touchdown pass to Chris Evans? That’s the cherry on top. If Peters can replicate what he did Saturday going forward — especially on the last two Saturdays of November — you’ll be looking at a team that can play its way to a bowl game on New Year’s Day. “Every drive, he was moving the team,” Harbaugh said. “Touchdown drive with the
two-minute drill, 80-yard drive, 75-yard drive, starting his first series in football and (as?) starting quarterback. … I think it’d be very good for his confidence to build on that.” Of course, the obvious question remains: why did it take so long? For Peters, it all had to do with his ability to command the huddle and be a vocal presence. That ability lagged behind his natural athleticism, behind the natural arm talent. It might’ve taken some prodding — Devin Bush Jr. said with a smile that he constantly teased his classmate about not being loud enough — but that ability is finally catching up with the rest of Peters’ game. “Probably late in training camp, it was like, ‘Wow, he’s a lot louder,’ ” Harbaugh said. “...
Felt that he was ready, and time to get him in.” Added Bush: “I feel like in the fall, (Peters) broke out of that shell and started taking a grasp of that offense.” Peters might be a naturally “shy guy” who doesn’t show much emotion. Yet it’s doubtful anyone will care if he continues to play like he did Saturday. “Right now, I feel really good about the way that (Peters) played,” Harbaugh said, “and feel good about him taking the next step and being the starting quarterback and having a great week of now knowing he’s the starting quarterback in practice.” Sang can be reached at otsang@umich.edu or on Twitter @orion_sang.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Peters proved he can lead the team.
Managing Sports Editor
Chris Evans stood beside Brandon Peters as the redshirt freshman quarterback called for the snap. The two were on a single wavelength. The sophomore running back took off sprinting to his right before the ball even hit Peters’ hands. It didn’t stay in his hands for very long, either. Evans burst through the open space, using his standout speed to leave the defensive lineman assigned to pick him up in the dust. Peters took a short hop and then launched a pass right over the shoulder of the Rutgers defender, who wasn’t even looking the right way when Evans corralled the ball in his grasp and landed in the end zone. “I saw man coverage, a one-onone with Chris,” Peters said. “I just read it out, gave him a chance on the play. He made a great catch. “... It was a great playcall, and it worked out good.” Evans jumped to his feet and pumped his fist in the air in celebration. The gesture was a mixture of excitement and relief for Michigan. With 23 seconds left in the first half, the Wolverines finally had some breathing room against the Scarlet Knights in the form of a 21-7 lead. The 20-yard score was Evans’ first touchdown — and Michigan’s first passing touchdown — since the Purdue game on Sept. 23. “I thought Chris made a heck of a catch on it,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “Thought Brandon saw it well — good protection — and Brandon put it a little short, but Chris adjusted well to the ball and made a nice catch.” In Saturday’s 35-14 win, the Wolverines targeted 10 different receivers in an effort to jumpstart their struggling passing game. Evans was the only one who came away with a touchdown. If not for sophomore tight end Sean McKeon, who caught two more
passes and finished with 11 more yards, Evans would have been Michigan’s leading receiver. It may have only been one catch, but until the game wound down in the fourth quarter, Evans only had one carry as well. In the Wolverines’ three-back rotation, Evans has occupied the third spot, behind junior Karan Higdon and fifth-year senior Ty Isaac. Saturday, he fell to fourth, behind redshirt freshman Kareem Walker. Walker earned six carries and gained 34 yards against Rutgers, including a 13-yard touchdown — the first of his Michigan career — before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with a sprained ankle. Though it hasn’t been announced if the injury will force him to miss any time, Walker’s emergence could diminish Evans’ role in the rotation even further. But that touchdown catch demonstrated how much Evans still has to offer the Wolverines on the field. With freshman Tarik Black’s season-ending injury and sophomore Kekoa Crawford sitting out Saturday’s game for undisclosed reasons, Evans could become a receiving threat despite limited touches in the ground game. Michigan’s wideout options still include junior Grant Perry and sophomore Eddie McDoom, as well as McKeon and redshirt sophomore tight end Zach Gentry. But Saturday, he topped nearly all of them with one contortion of his body. Though the Wolverines gained 137 yards in the air, the total still fell far short of the ground game’s 334-yard outing. While that is a good sign for the running backs rotation, it isn’t for Evans, who wasn’t needed in the backfield. With Peters taking over under center for the foreseeable future, the redshirt freshman will need reliable targets in order to breathe life into Michigan’s passing game. He and Evans showed they already have a connection.
‘M’ defense leads the Michigan splits series with No. 15 Penn State, bounces back for 5-2 victory Saturday night way to weekend split ICE HOCKEY
ROBERT HEFTER Daily Sports Writer
Sophomore right wing Will Lockwood leveled a Nittany Lion defenseman into the board Saturday, quickly drawing ire — and the tweet of a whistle — from an official. But while the hit wasn’t glamorous and sent Lockwood to the penalty box for five minutes, it still represented a Michigan hockey team committed to all-around defense. “Last night we talked about not going anywhere giving up five goals against anybody,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “And we’ve got to buy in and make a total commitment to team defense.” Sophomore goaltenders Jack LaFontaine and Hayden Lavigne did their part of the job, recording 49 and 42 saves, respectively, in a pair of up-and-down defensive performances that saw the Wolverines earn a split in their Big Ten opening series against No. 15 Penn State. As the clock ran past the 10-minute mark in the second period Saturday, Michigan was leading the Nittany Lions, 3-0. The Wolverines had seen an eerily similar situation the night before. Leading by two goals, the Michigan front seemed caught off-guard when the Nittany Lions brought an onslaught of offense that ultimately granted them an overtime win in the series debut. However, determined to put a disappointing late-game loss the night before behind them, the Wolverines entered Saturday with a clean-slate mentality that would afford them a dominant 5-2 victory. They didn’t just will themselves to a win on Saturday, though. In fact, Michigan looked like a completely different group.
And that was the reason Pearson didn’t see his team give up the five comeback goals that Penn State had netted Friday. This time, 29 blocked shots, a mean defensive front and a stellar performance from Lavigne allowed the Wolverines to keep their lead. Even while its aggressive defensive mentality afforded Michigan nine penalties Saturday, its penalty kills seemed to have new legs to stand on as well. “They had some opportunities,” Pearson said. “Hayden Lavigne and LaFontaine were our best penalty killers. They did a real nice job, but we blocked a lot of shots too.” Despite 11 shots by the Penn State offense during the period, Lavigne’s prowess in front of the net and solid performances from the likes of sophomore defenseman Griffin Luce and junior left wing Brendan Warren killed off the penalty. An even truer testament to the durability of the Wolverines’ back line was its ability to hold the Nittany Lions to one goal in the third period Saturday opposed to the three – one in overtime – that it had given up the night before. “It’s huge. I think we learned from our mistakes last night – we made a lot,” said senior right wing Tony Calderone. “And early in the season we hadn’t played with too many leads, but we watched video and (were) able to come out tonight and correct those mistakes.” While the Wolverines’ record reflects a weekend that was evenly split, unlucky late-game breaks Friday and a dominant rout Saturday proved that Michigan has the ability to compete against some of the top teams in the nation.
JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer
STATE COLLEGE — Some statements take less time to make than others. With just over five minutes left to play in the second period Saturday, Michigan senior forward Tony Calderone received senior forward Dexter Dancs’ pass, took his time on the puck and fired it past Penn State goaltender Peyton Jones from the top of the crease for his second goal of the game. Before the Nittany Lions had a chance to blink, the Wolverines had another, as junior forward Brendan Warren ripped a shot off a face off into the top left corner. In just nine seconds, Michigan went from desperately protecting a 1-0 lead to having a comfortable three-goal cushion, and was well on its way to a decisive 5-2 victory over No. 15 Penn State (2-2 Big Ten, 4-4 overall) at Pegula Ice Arena, proving not only that the Wolverines could hang with the Big Ten’s best, but beat them as well. For much of the contest, one
could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching the same game as they had watched the night before. Just as they did Friday night, Michigan (1-1, 4-2) withstood early Nittany Lion pressure before jumping on the scoreboard first. Four minutes into the game, Calderone took a pass from junior forward Cooper Marody and although his initial attempt was saved, Calderone stayed with it and directed the puck past Jones into the net. The physical nature of Friday’s game extended to Saturday as well. Seven minutes in, sophomore forward Will Lockwood unloaded a massive hit on Penn State defenseman Cole Hults while chasing after the puck near the boards. After a small scrum ensued, Lockwood was assessed a major penalty for boarding. But thanks to four saves by sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne, the Wolverines escaped the penalty kill with its lead intact. “(That was) big time,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “With their power play that can totally change things, you can
get behind by a couple, crowd gets into it, so that was one of the keys to the game.” Michigan killed a second penalty late in the period, but not without a close call. With just under two minutes left in the first, Alex Limoges’ shot from the right side deflected off junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi, but Lavigne prevented it from crossing the line — a decision which was upheld upon review. Lavigne stopped all 14 shots that came his way in the first period, and finished with 42 saves in facing 44 shots. Thanks to this effort, the Wolverines took a lead into the locker room for a second straight night, despite having been outshot, 14-4. Lavigne’s performance came after a 49-save effort by sophomore Jack LaFontaine on Friday. “We’ve rotated them right from day one and it looks like that’s going to continue,” Pearson said. “If they’re both playing, that means they’re both playing well.” The game’s chippy tone continued to escalate throughout the second period.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior forward Tony Calderone scored Michigan’s first two goals to take an early lead that it held onto Saturday night.
Seconds after Lockwood was penalized for interference, freshman forward Josh Norris and Nittany Lions forward Brett Murray were both sent to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct with just under 14 minutes left in the second. Seemingly every check or scrum in the crease was met with a standoff between the opposing players. “Some things sometimes happen and guys go down,” Pearson said. “But we’ve got to be more disciplined.” Penn State responded to Michigan’s flurry when center Nate Sucese drilled a long-range shot through Lavigne’s legs. But any spark the Nittany Lions may have received following that goal failed to materialize. The Wolverines put the game to bed with two goals in quick succession. Dancs scored his third goal of the weekend with just under 16 minutes left in the final period, and sophomore forward Nick Pastujov wrapped a shot around Jones just 74 seconds later. With 11:33 remaining, Penn State forward Nikita Pavlychev scored a consolation goal to create the final margin. Michigan accrued 18 penalty minutes compared to just eight for Penn State. But the Nittany Lions, who entered the weekend ranked sixth nationally in power-play percentage, failed to convert on any of their five power-play opportunities, and were scoreless with the man advantage in both games, going 0-for-8. “Our penalty kill was awesome,” Calderone said. “They couldn’t have been better tonight. I don’t know exact stats, but they came up big, blocked shots — awesome work by those guys.” On Friday, the Wolverines were one minute away from sending a message to the rest of the Big Ten. And Saturday, behind an improved defense and efficient finishing, Michigan delivered that message.