ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
RESEARCH
New app lets patients map their pain in 3-D imagery Doctors say the technology will make communication with patients easier ZACK BLUMBERG For the Daily
CARTER FOX/DAILY
Dr. Sandra Gonzales, Associate Professor of Bilingual/Bicultural Education at Wayne State University, discusses the state of Latinx education at the Alumni Association Building Wednesday evening.
Panelists consider state of Latinx education in 1st annual gathering Speakers advocate for more culturally competant staff members in schools ATTICUS RAASCH For the Daily
The Michigan Hispanic Collaborative and the University of Michigan Latino/a Alumni hosted “The State of Latinx Education” panel Wednesday, which drew approximately 60 people for a discussion about the quality of the Hispanic education
environment from elementary to post-secondary levels. The panel opened with a series of guided questions from moderator Anita Martinez, the executive director of the Michigan Hispanic Collaborative. Panelists later answered questions that ranged from the state of elementary education all the way to expectations and issues in the corporate arena. The Latinx
community at the the University of Michigan is the fastest growing underrepresented minority grup on campus; students identifying as Hispanic comprised a record high 5.64 percent of the entire student body. “We’ve got panelists from the high school spectrum and experts, people that touch on community college and four-year institution
access,” Martinez said. “(We) have a representative from the corporate sector just to talk about where there are gaps, if any, where there are opportunities to enhance and to improve high school and college graduation rates.” The five panelists, comprising professors, educators and a corporate executive, discussed the importance of See EDUCATION, Page 2
Over the past several years, University of Michigan-based startup Moxytech has been developing an app that lets medical patients explain their pain to a doctor by drawing it on a 3-D model. Founded in 2014, the company allows users of the app GeoPain to highlight which areas hurt and indicate how much pain they are in to professionals. Moxytech Co-Founder Alexandre DaSilva, director of the University’s Headache and Orofacial Pain Effort, said the app — which was released to the public in September — is an invaluable resource and part of a logical progression in evaluating patients. “I’m a clinician, and when I was doing my doctorate I was looking at the brain of patients with pain, and with the technology they have, they were
much more precise,” DaSilva said. “But in the clinic, it was always subjective. Even though I could look at very high-tech things in the research side, in the clinical side, to correlate things, it was much harder, because I had to ask my patients, ‘zero to ten, what’s your pain,’ which was very subjective.” DaSilva also believes the app is useful for patients because makes it easier for them to accurately describe their symptoms. “I started to create a grid so the patient could put not only the intensity of the pain but where the pain was,” DaSilva said. “So that started to really help me with my research. When I arrived here in Michigan, then I realized that the 2-D map, the drawing, was not really good for the patients, because a body is in 3-D. The patients in the studies, and even those in the clinics, they were excited about this. ‘Hey, I want to use that, for See APP, Page 3
Criminal justice experts talk activism, Active style ‘U’ shutters of learning solutions to inequitable carceral state China Data
ACADEMICS
RESEARCH
gets mixed feedback
Panelists discussed Ann Arbor-Detroit divide, importance of students taking action
More profs using small group discussions to increase participation
At the first panel of the Carceral State Project Symposium Wednesday night, panelist Justin Gordon, an activist and University of Michigan alum, asked the crowd of University faculty and students to listen and care about young Black people affected by inequality and mass incarceration. “Why don’t you all listen to us?” Gordon said. “Why don’t you all listen to young Black and Brown people until it happens? You all don’t listen to nobody, until they make you listen. Until See INCARCERATED, Page 3 they break into your house because they ain’t got no food. Or because they sell your kids drugs. That’s why I’m up here, because you all don’t listen, you all don’t care unless somebody do something and make you all care.” This roundtable, the first in a yearly series presented by the Carceral State Project with support from other University departments, centered around the challenge of defining the carceral state. Panelists with expertise on criminal justice and defense, mass incarceration, and conditions in prisons engaged in a dialogue on how to attempt to solve these issues. Before introducing all the panelists, moderator Ruby KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Tapia, an associate professor in Justin Gordon, Activist and University of Michigan Alumnus speaks on his past experience the carceral system DESIGNwith BY JACK SILBERMAN English and Women’s Studies at the What is the Carceral State Roundtable as part of The Carceral State Symposium at Hatcher Wednesday.
SAM SMALL
Daily Staff Reporter
A new form of teaching dubbed “active learning” has started to slowly make its way into a variety of classrooms at the University of Michigan. This new model attempts to engage students more deeply with content through more mandatory participation in discussions and smallgroup work. This operates in contrast to the traditional “passive learning” technique used in the typical lecture format. Students often admit to missing their packed, 300-seat lectures or losing their attention span. LSA sophomore Victoria Sheetz said she is barely awake when she attends lectures. “I constantly find myself falling asleep due to the monotonous structure of my lectures,” Sheetz said. “A lot of classes have aspects of repetition that don’t make the learning new and exciting. Sometimes, a professor will show us a See LEARNING, Page 3
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Daily Staff Reporter
Check out the Daily’s News podcast, The Daily Weekly
and one of the Carceral State Project’s founders, explained the term carceral state for the audience. “The carceral state encompasses the formal institutions and operations and economies of the criminal justice system proper, but it also encompasses logics, ideologies, practices and structures that invest in tangible and sometimes intangible ways, including orientations to difference, to poverty, to struggles for social justice, and to the process of constructing orders at all times,” Tapia said. The Carceral State Project is a new cross-disciplinary initiativeby various professors
to open a new center dedicated to research of America’s prisons and criminal justice system, as well as granting degrees to incarcerated individuals in Michigan correctional facilities. After the panelists introduced themselves, Tapia asked them to recall an experience illustrating the importance of the work they do. Ronald SimpsonBey, the director of Outreach and Alumni Engagement at JustLeadershipUSA, talked about his time in prison and how his experience led him to show mercy for the teenager who killed his son. Simpson-Bey also spoke of how his experiences led him to JustLeadershipUSA, an organization dedicated to
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
decreasing the incarcerated population. “Being someone that had been in the system and experienced what I experienced, I did not want to see that child being treated the way I’d seen people treated in prison,” Bey-Simpson said. “So I advocated for him to be tried as a juvenile, instead of as an adult … Fast forward, the work that I do now for JustLeadershipUSA, we are committed to cutting the national prison population in half by 2030.” Mary Heinen McPherson, co-founder and program coordinator of the Prison Creative Arts Project, also talked
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 4 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
Center with no warning
Site will continue to run independently but profs. worry it will lose credibility RACHEL LEUNG Daily Staff Reporter
Users of the China Data Center website last week were shocked to discover the site was no longer available. Instead, the University of Michigan research program was replaced with a brief message explaining the CDC was closed effective immediately. The CDC, which collected historical, social and natural science data on China, had been part of the University’s International Institute since 1997 and became a partner in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research in 2012. The University cited results of an internal review as the reason for the shutdown. CDC users, however, and the center’s director still have questions about the sudden shutdown. Faculty and staff forwarded all inquiries regarding the CDC to University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen, who stated the decision was made after
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
See CDC, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7
News
2 — Thursday, October 4, 2018
MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
TUESDAY: By Design
WEDNESDAY: This Week in History
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Behind the Story
Prof Dynarski @dynarski
Collin DeShaw @CollinDeShaw
yoon @yoongeehwang
Shout-out to the non-academic men in my feed explaining to me that it makes perfect sense the female Nobel Laureate is not a full professor bc they have anecdotes
I am more than a StudentAthlete, I’m a mental health advocate. I believe mental injuries are just as important as physical injuries. Mental health affects everyone.
just had a mental breakdown in the ugliest building on campus everything is fine --- MLB
Luca Mouhajer @lucamouhajer
kat calvin @KatCalvinLA
I never thought I’d be the person to tell people in the library to shut up but umich has made me old and bitter and I just did it
So if anyone wants to know what people in the midwest are thinking, I just had a white male Lyft driver who went off on how Kavanaugh is a violent sociopath who needs to be disbarred and removed from the bench
Sean DeMonner @ysdemonner Despite conventional wisdom that computer labs are in decline, whenever I go by the “fishbowl” on the #umich central campus, nearly every station is in use. Perhaps due to larger monitors, or printers, or quiet workspace, but I don’t see demand waning any time soon.
W O LV E R I N E O F T H E W E E K Who was your childhood celebrity crush and why?
“We’re going to get swallowed by garbage... the Earth is going give up on itself.”
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN
NATHAN GUPTA
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 alexastj@michigandaily.com
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 nathankg@michigandaily.com
NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LSA Senior Zeyna Alsaghir
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com
PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
ARTS SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com
arts@michigandaily.com
NEWSROOM
SPORTS SECTION
734-418-4115 opt. 3
sports@michigandaily.com
CORRECTIONS
ADVERTISING
corrections@michigandaily.com
dailydisplay@gmail.com
Editorial Staff DAYTON HARE Managing Editor
haredayt@michigandaily.com
RIYAH BASHA and SOPHIE SHERRY
Managing News Editor news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Andrew Hiyama, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut, Matt Harmon, Maya Goldman Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Remy Farkas, Julia Ford, Elizabeth Lawrence, Rachel Cunningham, Molly Norris, Maeve O’Brien, Sayali Amin, Danielle Pasekoff, Katherina Sourine
CARTER FOX/Daily
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY and ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Tara Jayaram, Joel Danilewitz, Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Charlson, Magdalena Mihaylova
MIKE PERSAK and LANEY BYLER
EDUCATION From Page 1
enjoyed how they spoke of what the pressing issues are for the Latinx community,” Inahuazo said. “I really do think to give the students access and to be able to give them an opportunity to grow and to obtain these resources is important, but it does show we don’t have the resources currently to get that for the Latinx community.” Last school year, the Latinx Alliance for Community Action and Support published demands calling on the University to increase the share of Latinx executives, staff and faculty across campus. A recurring message in the discussion was
increasing staff members in the education system who were culturally competent, or more aware of other cultures, cultural understanding and to relate with students. bilingualism in the education Inahuazo said though there system. The discussion were many conversations also included strategies for during the panel, cultural students to find success in competency was one of the school and the workforce. most important lessons. La According to Social Work Casa also requested a “LatinX student Stuart Inahuazo, the Campus Climate Study” to discussion offered support assess the opinions of Latino and encouragement for firststudents, faculty and staff generation students while on campus and to further commenting on the poor state support additional programs of the education system for — a campus climate survey Latinx students. last year found Hispanic “As someone who is a firststudents are 132 percent more generation college student, or likely than white students to college now, I really experience discrimination. Loadinggraduate “Sudoku Syndication” “One of the biggest takeaways was, in the whole sense, cultural competency. To be more open-minded on how (the staff ) perceive their EASY students, especially people of color and Latinx students, just because many could be first gen or it could be their first time far away from home,” Inahuazo said. “To be able to understand their perspective, to be able to give them a chance to speak up in classrooms or to give them resources necessary, I think it’s important for teachers and faculty to understand to be much more open-minded of other cultures.” LSA sophomore Thania Flores said it is encouraging to hear successes of other women like her. “It’s important to have Latinx representation and GRANOLA puzzle by sudokusyndication.com © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. see other Latinx alumni (and to) see what they’re doing,” Flores said. “That
SUDOKU
8 5
3 2
1
7 8
9
3 8
9 2
2
1
3 5
9 7
2
3 9
6 2
8
9 7
4
7 5
Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Mark Calcagno, Robert Hefter, Max Marcovitch, Anna Marcus, Paige Voeffray, Assistant Sports Editors: Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Matthew Kennedy, vTien Le, Ethan Sears, Jacob Shames, Avi Sholkoff
DANIELLE YACOBSON and MADELEINE GAUDIN Managing Arts Editors
To be more open-minded on how (the staff) perceive their students, especially people of color and Latinx students, just because many could be first gen or it could be their first time far away from home
5/20/09 2:53 PM
arts@michigandaily.com
Senior Arts Editors: Becky Portman, Sam Rosenberg, Arya Naidu, Dominic Polsinelli Arts Beat Editors: Jack Brandon, Fallon Gates, Shima Sadaghiyani, Tess Garcia, Sofia Lynch
ROSEANNE CHAO and CASEY TIN Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
Senior Design Editor: Jack Silberman
ALEXIS RANKIN and KATELYN MULCAHY Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
Senior Photo Editors: Amelia Cacchione, Emma Richter, Evan Aaron Assistant Photo Editors: Alice Liu, Darby Stipe, Max Kuang, Ryan McLoughlin, Alec Cohen
BRIAN KUANG
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford, Jennifer Meer
FINN STORER and ELISE LAARMAN Managing Copy Editors
copydesk@michigandaily.com
Senior Copy Editors: Emily Stillman, Allie Bopp, Miriam Francisco
ROBERT LESSER and JORDAN WOLFF
Managing Online Editors lesserrc@michigandaily.com Senior Web Developers: Patricia Huang, Abna Panda, Hassaan Ali Wattoo, Rebecca Tung
NOAH TAPPEN
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Abe Lofy, Robby Weinbaum, Jillian Drzinski, Danielle Kim
JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG Michigan in Color Editors
michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Zainab Bhindarwala, Christian Paneda, Nisa Khan, Na’kia Channey Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Angelo McKoy, Kareem Shunnar, Maya Mokh, Efe Osagie, Samuel So
KAYLA WATERMAN and CARRINGTON TUBMAN
5 4
7
1
will motivate me to see what my future has as a Latinx woman.” Martinez hopes students will use the panel and
Managing Social Media Editor
AVERY FRIEDMAN
discussion as an opportunity to work together to progress the state of Latinx education. “I hope that they take away that we are at a critical point in history where we must lock arms with one another in order to identify low-hanging fruit and opportunities to create greater clarity for parents and great clarity for students on how to access post-secondary opportunities.”
Managing Podcast Editor
Business Staff ADRIANNA KUSMIERCZYK CAMERON COANE
Creative Director
DEANA ZHU
Sales Manager
Special Projects Manager
JEFFREY ZHANG
MARIO DRESAJ
ALEC SPELLER
ROHIT IYER
Local Accounts Manager Marketing Consulting Manager
Brand Manager
Business Development Manager
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LEARNING From Page 1 YouTube clip or a segment from a television show, but more often than not you can expect the same structure every time you attend. A lot of the time, the simplicity of the lectures rarely leave any room for discussion. I feel like I would retain the information better by learning it myself.” The University will attempt to broaden its usage of the novel model with the help of a recent $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Cindy Finelli, the director for engineering education research at the University, will work with a group of professors –– Maura Borrego, Jenefer Husman and Michael Prince –– in attempt to research the fundamentals of active learning and distribute the findings to U-M faculty. Finelli hopes the findings will bolster studentclassroom participation and communication. “When instructors successfully use active learning in a classroom, students can learn the material more deeply and apply principles better in different contexts,” Finelli said in a press release. “Their self-confidence and their ability to communicate with each other can improve, and they often begin to identify themselves as future engineers instead of as students just taking a required course.” In some classrooms, active learning can already be found in the required discussion sections of many STEM-based classes, such as organic chemistry, physics and biology. In a similar way, writing workshops serve this function through essay and short story analysis during class discussions, in addition to peer-reviewing classmates’ work. LSA sophomore Sofia Salinas has observed the active learning approach in two of her classes, Introduction to Anthropology and Creative Writing, but she said she had mixed thoughts about the changes. “I feel like the active learning isn’t successful in my anthropology class. In small groups, we get distracted and talk about other things. I would rather have the GSI go over things that we find confusing. However, I do find it engaging and think it’s healthy to build relationships with classmates and bounce ideas off of each other, but I would also like some more structure,” Salinas said. “In my creative writing class, I like talking about the readings. It helps a lot actually. It helps me understand better –– hearing other people’s ideas and perspectives. But I don’t think it would work for chem or math, because I think that with those classes, having the professor go step-by-step with the problems will help you, rather than trying to figure it out with other confused students.” On the other hand, LSA sophomore Kendall Johnson praised the honors study group offered by her Structure and Reactivity class. She said she found the option to attend the group that meets in the classroom once a week for two hours necessary for success in the class. “We don’t have any class time for assignments –– they pretty much have to be complete by the time you come to class. We peerreview, though, and quick fixes are allowed. Overall, you kind of have to know what you’re doing in order
to participate in class discussion,” Johnson said. “It’s not boring, and it’s definitely a lot of learning and practicing the material. I’m not a huge chemistry fan, so I wouldn’t call it the most engaging or exciting, but that’s part of the reason I wanted to do the group. I wanted to study and work in a way that would make sure I really got to know the material in the hopes that it would help me when it comes to the actual class and tests.” Public policy senior Tom Aiello agreed that active learning has been a positive addition to his University courses. He thinks it’s improved his understanding of class materials. “Active learning is a good way to break up otherwise monotonous lectures and try to explain complex concepts in my own words,” Aiello said. A downside of active learning is that the format is enacted through another class, thus failing to replace the traditional lecture model. Though it encourages students to interact more intimately with the content, it increases pressure on students to participate. In the case of the secondyear Italian program, for example, the entire course is structured as a “f lippedclassroom.” This requires students to complete online homework and grammar lessons alone, and in class employs group-work that spans for the entire 50 minutes. Prof. Michela Russo, one of the multiple second-year Italian instructors, said she finds active learning beneficial for language students because it mirrors real-life situations when traveling to a foreign country. “You do in class what you cannot do by yourself. When you put in the effort, that is when you really begin to understand things and allows you to speak a wider majority of (the language), beyond just basic grammar structure,” Russo said. “When a student is an active participant in class, it is more effective in the language context because it’s similar to what you would be doing in a reallife situation when you’re in the middle of the street, or you’re in a new city. You’re not going to be thinking about grammar, you’ll just be reacting to different situations. You need to find your own strategies and make people understand you, so this is why we discuss in class.” Nonetheless, this form of active learning still comes with some pushback. LSA sophomore Jillian Rice feels as if the class has begun to feel like a lecture. Rice said she expects the same type of lesson every day; though it is delivered differently than the conventional lesson, it has none of its own variety. “I do not find the active learning model effective at all,” said Rice. “In class, we do not address what we are supposed to be learning at home. This causes confusion while doing the homework because we must learn all of the topics strictly from the textbook. In my opinion, it is much easier and clearer to learn from a teacher and in-person. I would benefit much more from a mixed classroom model. I believe that the point of homework should be to practice and reiterate what was learned in class, rather than the other way around. There is almost no incentive to come to class because all of the class time is spent talking to other classmates about things that most likely will not be covered on exams or anything else that determines our grade in the class.”
Thursday, October 4, 2018 — 3
MICHIGAN CONCERT BAND
RUCHITA IYER/Daily Michigan Concert Band performs at Hill Auditorium Wednesday night.
INCARCERATED From Page 1 about her time in prison. She talked about the sexual assault women in prison experienced, and the extreme overcrowding creating unlivable conditions. The most dangerous aspect of the carceral state, McPherson said, is the invisibility of the issues. “The malignant carceral state is by and large invisible,” McPherson said. “You can’t see it, you don’t know what’s going on back there because they block access to mail, to the phones, to visits, to your money. You have no way of being able to communicate with the world what is happening to you.” According to Victoria BurtonHarris, a criminal defense attorney, the unlivable conditions McPherson described change the mentalities of incarcerated individuals. When released, the individuals may find it difficult to adjust to the outside world. When prisons treat people like animals, Burton-Harris said, these people return to the civilian world with animalistic survival instincts. For this reason, among others, Burton-Harris said she aims
APP From Page 1 my own good, and show it to my doctor,’ (they said).” Moxytech’s other co-founder Eric Maslowski discussed how important it is to ue technology in the medical fields in order to optimize medical procedures. “When I was at Michigan, I’d always been captivated by the meaningful uses of technology,” Maslowski said. “Not just technology for technology’s sake, but to actually use it as a positive agent on larger groups of people.” The app is now used in various medical offices across the state of Michigan, including those of Dr. Thiago Nascimento, a pain research investigator in the University Research Lab.
CDC From Page 1 the center was found to be no longer cost-effective. “Following the recommendations of a recent internal review of the China Data Center, it has been determined that the University will not undertake remediations that would have been required to continue hosting the CDC,” the statement read. CDC Director Shuming Bao explained the University sent him notice Sept. 24 that the center would be closed within days. Bao says the University provided vague responses to his inquiries about the internal review and he is still largely unaware of why the University made the sudden move to disaffiliate from the center. “They did address some concerns but nothing really solid,” Bao said. Broekhuizen explained the internal review concluded the CDC site would have required
to humanize her clients. “They’re traumatized, they can’t find jobs and they are on survival mode,” BurtonHarris said. “They oftentimes commit more crimes simply in an attempt to survive. And we don’t understand that, and we as a society tend to judge that … My job is to try and humanize my clients. I don’t call my client defendant in the courtroom. That’s not who they are. They’re Mr. Jones. Mrs. Smith. They’re a mother, father, a husband. And I need the judge and the jury to see them as who they really are.” When Tapia asked about how the University can use its resources to find solutions to these social justice problems, panelists had a variety of responses. Burton-Harris emphasized the need for people to visit prisons and interact with those communities. “I don’t think that sitting in a building doing research is going to solve it,” Burton-Harris said. “Get out on the streets. Go to the prisons. See what I’m saying, see what all of us are saying. See what they’ve lived. Smell the air. That’s the research you need to do.” Simpson-Bey built on BurtonHarris’ point, stressing the
necessity of research that needed to encompass the perspectives of people who have lived in prison. “Research is necessary, and I think research needs to be updated because there is a lot of research out there, but it doesn’t include the voices of those directly impacted,” SimpsonBey said. “The majority of the research out there is done by people basing their papers on theories and suggestions instead of talking to people who have actually lived these experiences.” Monica Lewis-Patrick, an activist from Detroit at We The People, also discussed how crucial it is to speak with these communities and learn about their experiences. She urged the University to take greater concern with education and housing crises in Detroit as well as the Flint water crisis. “You tell me on God’s green earth, why is Flint still not fixed when I’m sitting at one of the greatest engineering schools in the world?” Lewis-Patrick asked. Gordon spoke about the Ann Arbor-Detroit divide and the privileged bubble of the University, which recently received an F in representation of Black students on campus.
Gordon pointed out the audience was majority white, and expressed how people in his Detroit community don’t have the same luxury to attend these types of talks. “Why is it all white people in the audience when we talking about jail?” Gordon said. “I mean, like what? That’s cool, I’m glad you’re all here to listen … but we don’t have these conversations in my neighborhood, because we don’t have time. You all have the privilege to be up here and take notes and absorb. We want that privilege.” LSA senior Hoai An Pham said Gordon’s point resonated with her, as she feels students often speak about liberal topics but often don’t go the extra mile in taking actual action. “I think what Justin was saying about the disconnection between Detroit and Ann Arbor was really important, because I think oftentimes students forget what a privileged place this is,” Pham said. “People often think that learning about things is enough, we oftentimes have the privilege to do more than that.” To help inspire the audience
At the time the app was first being developed, Nascimento was a student of DaSilva’s, allowing him plenty of handson experience with the app. Nascimento explained how the app played a valuable role in patient evaluation. “The drawing of the pain (was useful). Every time somebody had pain, you ask them ‘one to ten,’” Nascimento said. “However, that doesn’t really paint the picture of how they’re feeling, it’s not very precise, not very accurate. We were studying the technique of giving the patient a 2-D or 3-D space, so they can visualize it, something better than a number. It’s easy for us to kind of to see what the patient is feeling, although it’s just a drawing … For me, a more visual guy, it was useful. ‘Okay,
you have pain in your head,’ is okay, but to have the patient draw for you how it spreads and the progression of the pain (was helpful).”Nascimento said the app helped bridge the gap between the rudimentary medical knowledge of most patients and the expertise of the doctors. “You kind of find common ground,” Nascimento said. “You can remove that gap. The doctorto-patient relationship, it makes it easier for them (the doctor) to explain what’s going on. We’d start with the app: ‘Okay, just tell me how you’re feeling and let’s try to see the picture and compare.’ Like, let’s look and see how you were feeling a few months ago, and how you’re feeling today … It was easier for us to even track the follow-up
– Are you feeling better or not – instead of just choosing a random number, like, ‘Before it was a 7, now it’s a 6.’ You can really see, ‘Oh, you’re getting better.’ It was clear for us to see.” According to Nascimento, the app had helped him learn as a student as he studied under DaSilva. “Back in the day, with their first versions, just to be optimized, it was good for them to also use our feedback, not only the feedback from the patients, but ours (the students),” Nascimento said. “You have the theory in the classroom, and you try to apply the concepts. For us, it was like, ‘Okay, we learned that, but we don’t see it used in the app.’ So it was good for us to give them some feedback as well.”
the University to make costly repairs and upgrades. “The review identified serious technology upgrades that were needed, which were not the best use of university resources,” the statement provided read. “As a result, CDC and its related websites and tools will no longer be available from or associated with the University of Michigan or ICPSR.” However, Bao claimed the CDC receives private funding and the center paid the ICPSR for technical assistance. “The CDC has been financially on its own resources for years, and CDC paid ICPSR for computing support,” Bao said. “I am not sure how it will cost the ICPSR for those technological upgrades.” Additionally, Bao said he was unsure as to which technological upgrades the University was referring in the statement. He explained the CDC had a security issue two years ago with a hacker, which was resolved with help from the University’s
Information and Technology Services. But since then, the CDC has adopted more intense security measures and not detected any security issues. Bao also said the CDC has a significant amount of funds that can be allocated to any technological upgrades the University deems necessary. He still has hope the CDC can reconcile with the University and ICPSR. “CDC left over $1 million on our account to ICPSR at the time of its closure, which probably should be good enough to fix any tech upgrades if there are some issues there,” Bao said. For now, the CDC has moved to a separate online domain but remains unaffiliated with the University. While many users are satisfied that they can access the data center through the alternate website, scholars and other academic professionals shared concerns about a data center unlinked to an institution. Christoph Steinhardt, University of Vienna assistant
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
professor of East Asian studies, has previously used CDC data numerous times for various research projects, but said he is unlikely to utilize the unaffiliated center. “I would be hesitant to use their data until I know more details on the reasons behind their separation from UMich (the currently released information is cryptic and sounds like something was seriously wrong),” Steinhardt wrote in an email. Steinhardt explains it is critical for a data center to be affiliated with an accredited university, and until there is more information about the CDC’s new host, he will not be using the center’s data. “Data from China is more trustworthy if a reputed Western university is behind it,” Steinhardt wrote. “At present, it seems some company from Beijing is running the site. Without more information on the sponsor, I would probably rather look for other sources of data.”
Opinion
4 — Thursday, October 4, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
HANNAH HARSHE | COLUMN
Why Nike really made Kaepernick the face of its campaign
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG
DAYTON HARE Managing Editor
Editorial Page Editors
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Emma Chang Ben Charlson Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram Jeremy Kaplan Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
T
Protect us from PFAS
he drinking water of the Great Lakes State is, once again, in danger. While the citizens of Flint are still combating the presence of lead in their water, another lesser known chemical, PFAS also threatens the purity of Michigan’s most abundant natural resource. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board calls upon the Ann Arbor City Council and the state of Michigan to take more affirmative steps to inform the Ann Arbor community of the dangers of PFAS, mitigate the damage that has been done and implement strategies to protect citizens from further harm. Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the growing threat posed by PFAS is the fact that it is a relatively unknown danger. PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, encompass a wide family of chemicals that are used in industrial, agricultural and manufacturing processes. PFAS can be found in many everyday objects and goods, including commercial household products, drinking water near contaminating facilities and organisms like fish that live in contaminated water sources. Because the PFAS family of chemicals does not naturally occur, they take years to decompose. Consequently, the buildup of PFAS in the body can cause devastating health effects. While PFAS is a growing danger for all who work, live and play around Michigan’s waters, the efforts to alert the public to the potential hazards of PFAS exposure have been minimal. Though signs do warn residents against drinking the foam buildup in the Huron River, little has been done to make citizens aware of the existence of PFAS in the water supply and the
potential harm of overexposure. PFAS contamination in the The state of Michigan’s website Huron River. To compensate does have a “Frequently Asked for Environmental Protection Questions” page about PFAS, Agency standards, Adept Plastic but the answers downplay the Finishing developed its own severity of the issue. This lack of filter and will enforce its own information stands in contrast regulations. In a perfect world, to the way a public health crisis all PFAS-emitting companies would follow the example set by should be handled. As a result, many affected Adept Plastic Finishing. However, until business residents are unaware of the danger they are in. Not only does interests stop being prioritized the city of Ann Arbor need more over clean drinking water and information, less affluent cities the health of Michigan residents, legislation is in northern Michigan require regulatory assistance and attention. So far, necessary to protect Michigan’s the state — and country — have water supply. The Michigan Daily Editorial put profitable companies before residents’ health and passed Board urges the Ann Arbor City lax regulations regarding water Council to inform and protect safety. This is especially true in its citizens from the dangers areas that do not have the money of PFAS and contaminated in their city budgets to challenge drinking water. At the same time, the companies responsible for we urge the state of Michigan pollution or decontaminate the and the federal government to be more proactive and to prioritize water supply themselves. health over The lack of information environmental circulating about PFAS is corporate bottom lines. Without exacerbated by weak federal action, this pattern will become standards regulating the debilitating – much like the PFAS chemicals. The absence in our water. of national benchmarks (aside from unenforceable recommendations) means Ann Arbor is completely reliant Do you love to debate today’s on its City Council and state important issues? Do you want your government for spreading voice heard? We hold twice-weekly information, enforcing Editorial Board meetings at our protection mechanisms and newsroom at 420 Maynard St. in Ann conducting damage control Arbor, where we discuss local, state where necessary. and national issues relevant to campus. Adept Plastic Finishing, Inc., We meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 7:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. an industrial plant in Wixom, plans to install a filter to reduce
JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD Our Editorial Board meets Mondays and Wednesdays 7:15-8:45 PM at our newsroom at 420 Maynard Street. All are welcome to come discuss national, state and campus affairs. EMILY CONSIDINE | CONTACT EMILY AT EMCONSID@UMICH.EDU
I
This post, and Nike’s campaign n 2017, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank said President video (which now has more than Donald Trump’s “pro- 26 million views), sparked a fire. A Quinnipiac poll business” policies are showed the majority “a real asset” to the of those 18 to 34 years country, and Under old approve of Nike’s Armour stock fell 40 Kaepernick ads, while percent. Sam Poser, an the majority of those analyst for Susquehanna 65 years and older International Group, disapprove of the ads. told Business Insider Customers (and Plank’s praise for former customers) Trump made it “nearly impossible to effectively HANNAH on both sides made their views known. build a cool urban HARSHE Kaepernick supporters lifestyle brand in the applauded Nike for “doing the foreseeable future.” In 2018, Nike released a new right thing” as if it was a purely marketing campaign, the face altruistic decision in which Nike of which is Colin Kaepernick, sacrificed profits to show its the former San Francisco 49ers support for racial justice. Critics of quarterback who Trump once Kaepernick had equally loud voices, called a “son of a bitch.” Kaepernick as #BoycottNike and #JustBurnIt is best known for protesting police trended on Twitter the whole day brutality by kneeling for the national Nike released the ad campaign. anthem during professional football games, a move that has been highly criticized primarily by those who identify with a conservative political ideology. Kaepernick no longer plays professional football, allegedly because his protests are so controversial that no team wants to deal with the backlash that will come with signing him. The New York Times described Kaepernick as “the most polarizing figure in American sports,” saying “outside of politics, there may be The reactions of both nobody in popular culture at this complex moment so divisive and sides show Nike executed this so galvanizing, so scorned and so marketing campaign effectively: Nike convinced its consumer base appreciated.” When he became the face of that it used Kaepernick as the Nike’s new marketing campaign, face of its campaign because it Nike’s online sales increased 31 wanted to make a statement about percent and its stock closed at $85 a his protests, not because they used statistics and data to make a share, a company record. This is the young, urban risky but well-calculated business consumer base. You can love decision. Matt Powell, a vice president them, you can hate them. You can disagree with them. But if you’re and senior advisor at The NPD in marketing, none of that matters. Group, confirmed this analysis; Your goal is to make money. If “I think Nike went into this you’re marketing for an athletic absolutely knowing what they wear company, you make money were doing, with the intention that by appealing to the young, urban some people would be offended,” he told the The New York Times. consumer base. Kaepernick kicked off Nike’s “But the people buying their marketing campaign on Sept. 3 products, whether they are a by tweeting a picture of his face millennial or a Gen Z consumer, and a message that read, “Believe those consumers want their brands in something. Even if it means to take visible, social positions, and this is an opportunity for Nike to sacrificing everything.”
This is the young, urban consumer base. You can love them, you can hate them.
do just that.” In fact, Nike had initially been planning on dropping Kaepernick completely. It made logical sense: Kaepernick is no longer signed with any NFL team, so they can’t put his name on any jersey. But as an undisclosed former Nike employee told the New York Times, Nigel Powell, Nike’s head of communications, “went ballistic” when he heard this decision. Analysts say “the largely white, older N.F.L. fans angry at the league over (Kaepernick’s) protests” aren’t a priority for Nike. Instead, their target customer base is a younger, more urban demographic who is passionate about racial justice and tends to support Kaepernick’s protest. As Fast Company noted, “The bulk of Nike-sponsored athletes are young and black, so the company is already aligned with Kaep’s issue and why it matters.” This group would have undoubtedly been furious if Nike dropped Kaepernick, and this is the group whose support Nike needs. As Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, tweeted, “Nike is marketing to their customer of the next thirty years, not the last thirty years.” Granted, it was a risky decision. But in this day and age, companies don’t have much of a choice when it comes to taking a risk. If a company chooses not to speak out about a controversial social issue, it risks losing its customers to a company that will speak out. According to a recent survey from Morning Consult, urban and young consumers “were more likely to say they would react favorably to a company that advocated the right of protesters to kneel during the national anthem.” Sports apparel companies learned the hard way last year that one mild comment in support of Trump can be detrimental. This year, they learned that what may appear to be an extreme and risky decision in support of an antiTrump public figure is a fantastic business decision. Love it or leave it, that’s what the market demands. Hannah Harshe can be reached at hharshe@umich.edu.
MELISSA HALL | WOLVERINES ABROAD
“
Hard change is good change
My parents took me to Paris when I was 13 and the minute I saw the Eiffel Tower, I knew I was going to study abroad here, eventually.” “My mom studied abroad in Spain, so I want to follow in her footsteps.” “I’m trying to visit a new country every weekend. I’ve had this planned out since freshman year.” None of these thoughts were going through my mind. To be completely honest, I didn’t submit my abroad application until the day it was due. My hesitancy to commit was a result of mixed emotions, an internal battle and parental and peer influences. Growing up in Michigan, having some of my closest childhood friends follow me to the University of Michigan and being a short 45-minute drive from my parents all made my transition from high school to college smooth. As much independence as college life provided me, I still felt like I was in my senior year of high school; I had the same friends, the same interests and the same need to text my mom every day. I consistently have had the comfort of entering a new space with at least one person with which I’m familiar. I haven’t been challenged to navigate a new place on my own or make an entirely new friend group. Some may think of this as a privilege, but to me I felt sheltered. Junior year came around and the talk of the campus was, as per usual, the question of whether people would be studying abroad. I knew I was behind my other classmates who had already filled out their applications. On the other hand, I was still making procon lists every day, having tense conversations with my parents, and spending hours opening and closing the Center for Global and Intercultural application page. I kept thinking: What do I want to do? What do others want me to do? My parents were anxious and uncomfortable with the thought of me living in another country
for four months. In relation, none of the friends in my apartment were going abroad, so they eagerly started making exciting plans for next semester. Meanwhile, my mind was racing with opposite feelings: This would be an entirely unique experience. I’ve never left home before. I’m the type of person who needs this. Despite these contrasting opinions, I still decided to research what programs would fit me best. The Danish Institute for Study Abroad seemed like a match made in heaven. I could get credit on my transcript, the classes seemed educationally engaging and I guess living in Copenhagen, Denmark, for four months is a perk as well. Step one was complete once I was able to convince my parents, ignore the external pressures and verify my beliefs about how a study abroad experience could benefit me. Arriving in Copenhagen was an adventure itself. I truly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. However, the minute I stepped into my apartment and met my roommates, I felt a sense of belonging. These were my people and this was my place. It’s crazy how being in the right environment made me feel right at home so quickly. The first day of class rolled around and, of course, I was nervous. Psychology classes with less than 20 people? Does that even exist? Where’s the graduate student instructor? My worries continued throughout the day into my developmental disorders class. The teacher went around the room and asked each of us to complete the sentence: “I’m the type of person who …” As it got to my turn, I just stated what was on my mind. I quietly said: “I’m the type of person who wouldn’t go abroad.” Everyone turned their heads with a puzzled look. I went on to explain I have lived a life of sameness without any drastic changes. I explained I’m not usually someone who would be confident in moving across the
world for four months, meeting new friends and navigating a new city. This seemed to be a sufficient answer as everyone nodded and smiled. However, at the end of the semester, our teacher asked us the same question with a twist. She wanted us to complete the following sentence: “After this semester, I’m now the type of person who …” I didn’t even have to hesitate. My answer was: “I’m now the type of person who would feel comfortable going abroad.” In other words, after befriending my amazing roommates, learning a new language, meeting Danes, figuring out how to bike and use the transportation in a new city, I truly felt like I could do anything. I gained more knowledge about the benefits of change and just how much I am capable of. The friends I made also pushed me to be my most confident and best self. In conclusion, my decision to go abroad was not something that had been part of my life-long plan. It was more of a spontaneous reaction to my gut feelings. I’ve never been happier that I was able to put all other doubts and negative feelings aside. If there’s one thing I recommend, it is to push yourself out of your comfort zone. For those of you who are not sure whether you have the “right personality” or “are capable of such a dramatic change,” try not to let those thoughts affect your decision. As much as jumping out of a plane or summiting a mountain can feel like being out of your comfort zone, nothing beats living in a new place, with new people, in a new culture and only letting yourself make the decision of whether to take advantage of these opportunities. By allowing myself to do what I wanted to do, in this case, something different, I eventually became the person I wanted to be. Melissa Hall is a LSA junior. To search for education abroad opportunities and register your travel visit global.umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 4, 2018 — 5
Paulie Blecker, introvert and ... a father figure?
MICHAEL CERA DAY
If not an advert for life after love and a belief in the universe of second chances, “Juno,” the 2007 epitome of indie, is a stalwart defender of orange tic-tac aphrodisiacs, colorsafe bleach and the idea that, to the question of belonging, there’s not one answer that fits everyone. Centered around 16-and-pregnant Juno (Ellen Page, “Flatliners”), Diablo Cody’s (“Tully”) script aims at evaluating a few particular cross-sections of modern (white) American life, pulling the poignancy of the film out of the thin intersections between them. Just about every important character in the film is a part of a romantic couple, each binary pair mired with their own setbacks and emotional deficiencies. The juxtaposition of these couples is the heart and soul of this coming-of-age spectacle, specifically how one character’s hoard of life-experience versus another character’s dearth can change how each of them responds to a certain situation. It’s fantastic writing, and for once a Best Original Screenplay winner that isn’t masochistically sad. Now, without reducing the girl-power of this femalewritten, female-starring teenpregnancy-flick, I want to bring to the forefront of the conversation the men in the proverbial overly knick-knacked Minnesota living room. Cody’s excellence with the pen can be seen in just these three characters alone, the three father figures almost as different as they could be, however fundamentally linked. Juno’s father Mac MacGuff (J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”) is on his second of two marriages, content in his new life, though inexorably linked to his ruinous first attempt. Mark Loring (Jason Bateman, “Horrible Bosses 2”) is a dream-chasing, middle-aged man who believes
he has not chased his rock-star aspirations far enough. Feeling unfit for the suburbs, he comes to question all that had brought him there in the first place. And at the head of this paternal Cerberus, the most biologically potent of AP chem students, the cross-country runner batting 1000 from downtown, goldshorts Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera, “Superbad”) himself — a geeky high-school junior who must deal with the fact that he’s impregnated his gregarious best friend (and that he’s also in love with her). Cera plays the most pivotal role of the three fathers in the movie. Complete with all the awkward, endearing charm he has brought throughout his career, Cera plays Page’s more timid opposite — the more reserved, simpler one of the two, whose wholesome honesty with Juno is able to bring her back around in the end. Cera has played these types of characters before — his style as an actor is the perfect counterpart to the standard, precocious to the point of annoyance, a role that a lot of young actors/actresses bring to the table. Cera’s characters are always approachable, because, for better or for worse, there’s not much intimidating about him. I think in a slightly skewed way, Cera’s late 2000s run can find an analog in Adam Driver’s recent success. Both are actors who play a perfect “everyman” — solid performers who don’t look like traditional movie stars, and who are able to peel back a layer of ego to bring roles downto-earth. Of course, this type of character, this type of actor, isn’t going to find their way into every big role in every bigbudget movie. Their niche is, for better or for worse, in the types of heartfelt indie projects that come out of individual creative minds like Cody’s. They’re the Alfonso Gomez-Rejons and Bo Burnhams of the world, directors who can pick out talent that turns characters into real people on screen. And at least to me, there can never be enough of them.
remains one of the high points of comedy in the 21st century. Hill’s infuriated shouting is what most will remember, but Cera’s deadpan summation of the whole ordeal is the perfect punchline: “This guy is either gonna think, ‘Here’s another kid with a fake ID’ or ‘Here’s McLovin, the 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor.’” It could certainly be argued that Cera has never gotten another role as perfectly suited for him as Evan, another part that lets him loose low-key gut busters with dizzying frequency yet also
tap into surprising emotional depth. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” comes close, and he voiced the best onscreen Robin of all time in “The Lego Batman Movie” just last year, but that unquantifiable something has never clicked back into place. This shouldn’t be seen as a condemnation of his career in the years since, however, though it’s certainly regrettable. Rather, it should be a reminder, should we ever need one, of the quality of “Superbad” and more importantly, the quality of its pasty co-lead.
STEPHEN SATARINO Daily Arts Writer
FOX SEARCHLIGHT
What even is Michael Cera Day? BECKY PORTMAN Senior Arts Editor
Dear Michael Cera, You may be wondering why the heck a college student newspaper in Michigan is dedicating a day to you in print. Truthfully, Mr. Cera, I have no freaking clue. What I do know is that discussing your filmography brought a zealousness out of my fatigued staff of writers that I haven’t seen since Oscar’s season. In the sad spread of September wide releases and mediocre streaming specials, the film writers of The Daily were out of sorts, dejected and depressed by the outlook of the film industry. But you, Mr. Cera, you brought us out from this dark place and
invigorated our creative juices. You reminded us what we college journalists and movie snobs love about your films. We love the nice guy. You know, the character you play in each of your films is the quintessential nice guy. Whether it be the adorkable, tic-tac-tossing Paulie Bleecker in “Juno” or babyfaced Nick from “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” or even the boyish charm of George Michael Bluth in “Arrested Development,” we know your honest and realistic performance of nerds in love won’t disappoint. We can count on you, Mr. Cera, to remind us of the kind of guy we want and need in this time of toxic masculinity, rampant sexism and misogyny. You are a good one, or at least we think so. Please don’t make us regret this. You embody the sweet chump
that society tells us will finish last and probably will, but we keep rooting for you. You are the vice president of pasty white dorks because President Pete Davidson got more votes than you, by like, a lot. You are the cousin our mom tells us we need to bring to prom even though you go to a different school and it would be really nice and maybe there’s a set of air pods in it for us. Even though we thought it would be rough, we had a great time. You sprained your neck trying to do the worm and slipped on some punch, but overall, solid time. You are the one who at parties stands in the corner and nods nonchalantly, kind of just looking around in a way that’s less creepy and more just odd. And every time you wave to someone, they either pretend not to see you
or just ignore you, so you are left there just sort of waving at nothing. So you use the hand that’s waving and scratch your head or start doing the “Single Ladies” dance to cover up the fact that no one is responding to your wave. So Mr. Cera … can we call you Michael? Are we on that level yet? Yeah, we like it better too. Michael, we just want to say thanks. Thanks for making films that always make us a little uncomfortable, but in a good way, usually. Thanks for reminding us that sometimes the nice guy does get the girl. Thanks for unapologetically being your awkward, high-pitched, delightful self: We appreciate you. On this Michael Cera Day, we honor you. Happy you day! Love, The Daily Film Writers
‘Superbad’’s perfect straight-man JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer
Michael Cera cut his teeth as George Michael Bluth on “Arrested Development,” acting alongside one of the best comedic straight men of his generation, Jason Bateman (“Ozark”). By the time “Superbad” introduced the younger actor to mainstream audiences, it seemed like some of Bateman’s gift for po-faced wit had rubbed off on Cera. The opening credits, which feature brightly-colored silhouettes of Cera and co-star Jonah Hill (“Maniac”) dancing in the style of a ’70s porn film cement this: Hill’s dancing is animated and confident, while Cera’s is more reserved. On more than one occasion, Hill stops Cera to demonstrate how the job is really done. It’s an early glimpse into the relationship that defines the film. Cera is far from the buttoned-down introvert stereotype that most comedies would have rendered Evan
as, but he’s still restrained in comparison to Hill’s Seth and spends a good deal of “Superbad,” or at least the first half, reacting to his friend’s insane quest to lose his virginity. It would have been easy to turn the performance into a perpetually raised eyebrow and shaken head, but Evan is so much more than that in the same way “Superbad” is so much more than a typical romp. In Cera’s hands, he becomes the perfect straight man for the perfect teen sex comedy. Much of what works about the performance can be traced to what works about the film as a whole. It allows him to be hilarious — “Fuck off, Greg, it’s soccer. It’s soccer” — but it also treats Evan as a fullyformed character, giving Cera
space to portray a believable emotional struggle. For all the weird, outlandish crap that they get into over a single night, Evan and Seth always feel like real teenagers with a real friendship. They talk like real teenagers, overanalyze every social interaction like real teenagers and do nothing but try to prove to themselves and others that they’re adults, like real teenagers. They clearly love each other even before they say it out loud — a fact that is never played for laughs, a rarity even now, over 10 years later — and they’re wondering what life is going to be like without each other, just like teenagers. When they fall out, it’s a genuinely heartbreaking scene, and Cera doesn’t pull
It could certainly be argued that Cera has never gotten another role as perfectly suited for him as Evan
his punches. Most of the scene is Evan rebuking Seth, as the former wants to mature but isn’t sure how to reconcile that with their friendship, and the latter doesn’t want to grow up if it means losing their closeness. By the end of the movie, both will have been confronted with the f laws in their thinking. Seth has to grow up and own his immaturity in his interactions with Jules (Emma Stone, “Maniac”), and a drunk-out-of-his-mind Evan must depend on Seth in order to “escape” the police. Much of “Superbad” acts as either a satire or subversion of the unhealthy ways men express their masculinity — through guns, sex, booze or fighting — but Evan and Seth discover that the best way to grow up and “be a man” is to actually grow the hell up. And of course, it almost goes without saying that “Superbad” is incredibly funny and Cera is incredibly funny in it. Much of the humor hasn’t aged a day, and the scene where the world was introduced to the wonder that is McLovin
Reappraisal: ‘Scott Pilgrim’ ages poorly, retains its fun MAX MICHALSKY Daily Arts Writer
Let’s be honest, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” wasn’t ever going to age gracefully. As a film, it’s essentially the embodiment of late-2000’s internet culture, from its frequent references to retro video games to its slightly dated slang to its pink-haired “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” love-interest. So yeah, “Scott Pilgrim” is pretty unapologetic about what it is, and this can’t really come as a surprise. I mean, it’s a movie about a guy who has to fight a girl’s exes to be with her. It’s not exactly going to pass the Bechdel test with f lying colors. Most films don’t age well. I don’t think that’s a very controversial statement.
So long as a movie is given time, it will likely find itself in violation of some nowunacceptable social norm that was once the status quo. “Scott Pilgrim” definitely falls victim to this phenomenon, f launting incredibly dated messages about gender and sexuality. Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “All About Nina”) is written with little depth and exists more like an aloof and quirky accessory to Scott’s story (Michael Cera, “Arrested Development”) than a threedimensional character with her own desires and motivations. At multiple points throughout the movie, I found myself thinking, “Why is she with him?” and found little in the way of a convincing answer. If this weren’t enough, the film’s LGBT characters — like Scott’s roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin, “Infinity Baby”) and
Ramona’s ex-girlfriend (Mae Whitman, “Duck Butter”) — are little more than hypersexualized punchlines. As we’ve established, plenty of films age poorly and are still enjoyed today (looking at you, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), but something makes “Scott Pilgrim” especially graceless. Let me preface this by saying that I love video games and I had fun with the movie’s use of video game tropes and references. But here’s the thing about people who love video games: Some of them are the worst. My friends can attest that I would never be caught dead referring to myself as a “gamer,” and with good reason. A not-so-insignificant number of 2010’s nerdy, retroloving white guys are 2018’s QAnon, 4chan-esque redpillers espousing obscenely hateful, misogynistic rhetoric.
Of course, “Scott Pilgrim” couldn’t have known this, but while watching it one can’t help but feel that they’re watching something that contributed to a toxic internet culture that normalized misogyny and ignorance. Despite all of this, “Scott Pilgrim” director Edgar Wright (“Baby Driver”) still managed to do what he set out to do: He kept me entertained. “Scott Pilgrim” is an undeniably impressive effort from a filmmaking perspective, one that crackles with energy and creativity. At this stage in his career, Wright had proven himself to be a master of creating visually compelling films, and “Scott Pilgrim” is legitimately a joy to watch. The fight scenes are impressively choreographed, the editing is smart and genre-relevant and the integration of visual effects
is clever and fun. It would be very easy for me to write off “Scott Pilgrim” as yet another stylish film with little in the way of compelling characters and messages. It would be easy, but it wouldn’t exactly be honest, either. Despite its f laws, “Scott Pilgrim” isn’t just some heartless slugfest. Scott is a surprisingly deeper character than Michael Cera’s typical man-boy persona; he’s an awkward jerk, yes, but Cera’s signature brand of passivity and low self-esteem makes him just endearing enough to root for. His character arc is both satisfying and believable, and Wright manages to do the unthinkable: He actually turns Michael Cera into kind of a badass. To stroll into spoiler territory for a moment, Scott realizes he must defeat Gideon (Jason Schwartzman, “Golden
Exits”) — Ramona’s final ex — not with the power of love, but with the power of self-respect during the film’s climax. It’s a surprisingly touching moment, and one that sends an important message: The only kind of love that can fix your self-esteem is the kind you give yourself. “Scott Pilgrim” falls victim to a trap that’s essentially unavoidable for filmmakers: Culture changes, and what was once relevant, funny or socially acceptable can now prove to be none of those things, and there are moments of the film that fail on all three fronts. Like hanging out with your grandpa who sometimes says some stuff he doesn’t mean, there remains enough at the core of the film — mostly stemming from Edgar Wright’s inimitable style and heart — for the experience to feel rewarding.
Arts
6 — Thursday, October 4, 2018
ARTIST PROFILE
Dear Pasek & Paul: A talk with ‘Evan Hansen’ duo ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
“Ok Michigan Daily! We see you!” was the greeting Benj Pasek and Justin Paul welcomed me with in a spare moment of their busy lives as burgeoning Broadway legends. To my elation, the University alumni were thrilled to converse with a fellow Wolverine. Coming off of their 2017 Tony Award for “Dear Evan Hansen,” 2018 Oscar for Best Original Song for “La La Land” and 2018 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album for “Dear Evan Hansen,” the pair is on the precipice of embarking on a national book tour, following the release of a “Dear Evan Hansen” novel. Their acclaim, fame and popularity run rampant in mainstream pop culture and the theatre world alike these days. Writing the score for 2017 smash hit “The Greatest Showman,” Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen” and Oscar-nominated “La La Land” certainly fostered quite the following. In addition to a resume stacked with film and stage musicals, the duo has also written original material for NBC’s “Smash” and the 2012 OffBroadway musical “Dogfight.” Their newest project takes them away from their home in musical theatre and into the literary world, pairing them with author Val Emmich and “Dear Evan Hansen” writer Steven Levenson to create a novelization of the cherished Broadway musical, allowing the musical to fill the minds of those who don’t have access to seeing the musical live. When asked if he anticipated that “Dear Evan Hansen” would
blow up the way it did the duo and writer Steven Levenson laughed. “If we said yes, would you believe us?” Levenson asked, pausing. “No, we didn’t know. All three of us can confirm that when we began working on this show, we knew it would be incredibly fulfilling in the process of writing it — but we didn’t know the world would gravitate toward it.” The world is more than gravitating toward “Dear Evan Hansen” — they are ravenous for it. This past week the New York musical grossed $1,444,251, with average ticket prices at $181 and the top ticket going for $488. The audience reaction was nearly immediate — when the team saw the audience respond to the out-of-town tryout in D.C., they realized that people were going to truly fall in love with the characters they had created. Putting characters that have been created for the stage on the page is unusual in the theatre world. Society is familiar with page-to-screen adaptations, or even page-to-stage, but the concept of transforming a musical into a novel is uncommon. When the team first brought the show to Broadway, they started to notice that people were really connecting to the story and wanted to make it their own. People were hungry to dig into these characters and go deeper into their journey. And that’s the moment the team knew that the piece would thrive in a variety of mediums. They wanted to expand to reach more people — especially those who do not have access to seats in New York’s Music Box theatre or the newly-launched national tour. They had to stop and ask themselves how they could reach
a wider audience and go deeper — finding pieces of the story that were lost in the process of writing it. This in and of itself is a thrill — being able to find nuggets of story and character they had to omit in the musical, and breathe them back to life. They wanted to make this story as accessible as possible, and that’s just what the novel seeks to do. Responding to questions with a synchronized passion and heightened enthusiasm, it is clear that the three creators are mastering the art of collaboration. Where one leaves off, the other picks up seamlessly — almost sounding like one mind. For them, working together is a special alliance. When Benj Pasek and Justin Paul went looking for authors who could work with them on the novel, they looked for the same things they had found in Steven Levenson (who wrote the book of the musical). They wanted to find someone who was in the world of Evan Hansen with them, who had the same language, who found the same things funny or ironic or sad. And that’s how they found author Val Emmich. They wanted this story, in all its forms, to fit together seamlessly — to feel like it has one voice. After having the privilege to see the musical, it certainly feels as though the piece has one voice, and the novel is no exception to this sentiment. One thing that truly sticks out to me as exceptional in the musical is the dialogue. Pasek and Paul give the credit of such wonderful dialogue and character development to Levenson. “‘Dear Evan Hansen’ the musical is basically a play with songs,” Pasek said. “Steven is a master of dialogue and character and relationships,
ARTIST PROFILE
Novelist Sigrid Nuñez on her process & inspiration MIRIAM FRANSISCO Daily Arts Writer
When I asked novelist Sigrid Nuñez about the inspiration behind her latest book, “The Friend,” her answer was both surprising and not surprising. “A few years ago,” she said, “I realized that I had several friends who had started thinking about suicide. Not necessarily that it was something they were going to do, or that they were threatening, or that they were in immediate danger — but it had started becoming part of the way they thought, a stronger and stronger possibility that (suicide) was something that very likely might happen to them sometime in the future.” On Sept. 27, Nuñez and poet Aracelis Girmay spoke at UMMA as part of the Zell Visiting Writers Series. Nuñez read from her 2017 novel “The Friend,” which is longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award in Fiction. A pattern of philosophical repositioning among Nuñez’s friends may seem like unlikely source material for a novel, but Nuñez, a prolific and uniquely talented writer, mines inspiration from all parts of her life. She is emphatically unafraid to draft responses to the questions and curiosities of the human experience. “The Friend” is the most recent result of this eager attentiveness to the world. On “The Friend” At turns heartbreaking and delightful, “The Friend” traces the interior life of a writer whose mentor has committed suicide. While taking care of her mentor’s aging Great Dane, the writer expounds on the nature of companionship, aging, love and the act of writing. “The Friend” is a joy to read, for both its language and the urgent necessity of its content. There are two central relationships guiding the narrative of “The Friend” — one between the writer and her mentor, and one
between the writer and the dog. Nuñez leaves it ambiguous which partnership the title refers to; perhaps it is about both. Nuñez’s frank empathy for humans and animals structures the novel’s dense interiority and grounds its frequent digressions into history, literature and culture. “I’ve always been interested in animals, I’ve always been fascinated by animals and I always wanted to write something that would have an animal that would be a main character,” Nuñez explained. Of the novel’s relationships with other texts, Nuñez explained that her own experiences as a writer, reader and teacher pushed her to write about the role of literature in a writer’s life. “I’ve spent my life reading, writing and teaching literature and writing,” she said, “and I’ve been so engaged in that for such a long time that there was a lot I had on my mind about that.” Suicide, a dog and literature are an uncommon trifecta of ingredients, but Nuñez manages to combine them exceedingly well. “I felt I had a story that could bring these three things together,” she explained. The elements converge organically, which says as much about the material as it does about Nuñez’s writing style and methodology. On the writing process Nuñez’s writing materializes spontaneously. “I’ve never worked from an outline for any of my fiction books,” she said. “With the fictional work, I never have an outline — not for short fiction or long. I just start writing. I make a beginning and then I proceed from there.” She doesn’t rush the writing process, either. “I work in sections,” she said, “linearly, chronologically, one thing after another, and I don’t move on to the next section until I’m more or less satisfied with what I have. Everything comes out of what was written before.” While writing, Nuñez uses both
a computer and handwritten notes. “I’ll use the computer as a word processor — as a typewriter, basically. I’ll type something out and then make some changes and then print it out and work on the printout by hand. But most of it, really, at this point, is done on the computer,” she said. “It probably has changed things,” Nuñez said of her use of technology as a tool for writing. “But it’s too hard for me to see how, because other things — such as time and life and experience and practice and age and all those things — have also changed, so it’s hard for me know, actually, what has changed, going from somebody who did write in longhand a long, long time ago.” Still, Nuñez emphasizes the importance of incorporating handwritten notes into her editing practice. “There always has to be a hardcopy and a pencil in my hand for the final draft,” she explained. In both form and content, Nuñez’s work pushes its reader to think more deeply about the world and its inhabitants. In regard to her intended audience, Nuñez does not write with one in mind. “I don’t really think about the audience of my work. I guess I just have in my mind some kind of ideal reader, and that would just be a person who likes to read, who likes to read fiction and who is interested in the same things that I’m interested in.” On becoming a writer Becoming a writer was not a difficult choice for Nuñez, and books have been an important part of her life since childhood. “Something that was really important to me when I was a little kid was being read to, before I could read myself, and then reading,” she said. “So I was one of those kids who loved to read, it was a favorite activity. I loved children’s books; I was always trying to get my mother to read to me. And then, you know, that made me want to do that. It was really as simple as that.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
and that guided how we created the musical. We created it in a way that lends itself to having a strong story at its core that has the ability to be adapted — hence the novel. So much so that during the process, sometimes Justin would say, ‘Are we sure we want to make this a musical and not a play?’” The path of sharing the story with the world at large begins in early Oct., when the creators will embark on a 10-day book tour to speak to audiences and promote the book. On Oct. 11, the duo will return to Ann Arbor, the place where it all began. Justin Paul and Benj Pasek met in Ann Arbor, where they both studied for a BFA in musical theatre, and feel very passionately about coming back to the place where it all started. “I think it’s a really sweet time because as we look back on everything, it reminds us how it isn’t that far away — college and learning things and our very early, mediocre, sloppy attempts at writing songs. That all happened in those practice rooms late at night. Our first songs together started in our friends’ apartments in Ann Arbor, in Kerrytown Concert House performances. This is all the beginning of what has led us to come back and speak to students,”
began Justin Paul, sentimentally. Benj Pasek picked up his statement with similar emotive feeling. “It feels like such a long time ago, but it also feels so grounded, and it gives us so much hope for people. This is what happens when you’re surrounded by incredible people who are passionate about collaborating and learning. That’s what we learned at Michigan.” It’s a really special thing to think about the places that we, as University students, go every day: the practice rooms we play the piano in for hours, the lecture halls where we learn and the studios where we create. We think about the potential before us, and about those who have been here and gone on to achieve greatness. As a huge fan of Levenson, Pasek and Paul, I was curious as to what advice they have for young people interested in a career in the creative arts. “Before you can be a theatre major, you need to be a theatre watcher. So much of the curve you go on as an artist is to find what electrifies you. Get as many free tickets as you can. See as much as you can. Read as much as you can,” Paul said passionately. Pieces of art like “Dear Evan
Hansen,” a musical where story makes love to melody and lyric, electrify so many of our tired, trying, anxious artist hearts. In the last moments of such a fervent conversation, I was excited to find out why the creators believe the book is a necessary installment in the modern American literary world. “I think we’re really struck with the fact that we’re living in a time that people don’t want to speak to each other. ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is about our desire and our ability to connect with people,” Pasek claimed, and without missing a beat, Paul picked up smoothly midsentence: “We all feel a little bit lonely. We all feel a little bit detached. And we all feel a longing to be a part of a community. We see these characters having to cross difficult lines or have difficult conversations. That’s the message of this piece.” The novel is guaranteed to open the door (or window, rather) for difficult conversations, inner exploration and eye-opening truths. It is a truly sensational addition in the world of young adult fiction, a piece of art that will last in our minds and our hearts “for forever.”
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
SINGLE REVIEW: ‘DADDY’ It’s time to hide all your dads, because Tommy Genesis fans are officially on the hunt after the release of her newest single “Daddy.” The track — featuring production from Charlie Heat (credited on one of her other singles “Tommy”) — opens with a staccato flurry of high-pitched moans before dropping into the immediately provocative opening line: “He like me better with no makeup / Oh, you wanna get it, daddy?” From the start, Tommy opens the gates to her chaotic, alluring fantasy of raw desire and unbalanced attraction. Tommy is masterful at painting these fantasies, speaking to our deepest, darkest desires for the glamorously taboo — road head, coke and sexual fluidity are
“Books and writing and stories made me happy,” Nuñez explained. Literature is not Nuñez’s only creative pursuit; as a teenager, she became obsessed with ballet. “I did do that very seriously, and I thought, ‘Oh, I want to be a dancer, there’s nothing I want more than to be a dancer and that was closer to a fantasy than a reality.’ But that’s the only other thing, really, that I could say was an idea for a career.” Rather than pursue dance, though, Nuñez committed herself to the world of reading and writing. “There was always creative writing,” she said of her of childhood and adolescence. “Then, when I got to college, there were creative writing workshops. It was always there; it was always encouraged.” Nuñez’s natural tendency toward keen observation helped her coalesce her childhood interests in literature and writing into a career. “I think it was Henry James who said that a writer is somebody who has to notice everything, who can’t miss anything,” Nuñez explained. Nuñez certainly does not miss anything, and she fills her books with the kinds of details that only a writer would think to articulate. It is this earnest perceptiveness that bridges the divide between fiction and reality, interior reflection and outward-facing analysis. “You can almost tell who is a writer or who could be a writer,” Nuñez began, “by the fact that they are always noticing things.”
just a few of her favorite topics. Her music’s subject matter is thrilling, delivered with an air
“Daddy” Tommy Genesis Interscope Records
of complete nonchalance that is almost intoxicating in context. How could you not want to be her? “Daddy” is Tommy at her most biting, most menacing and certainly most enticing. “He just say he love me, I can’t say it back / He just bought me diamonds, I don’t feel bad,” she
quips softly over the disorienting production with an enviable hint of detachment. Her brand is inspiring, awakening a demonic hunger for material satisfaction without the emotional investment. Whether or not she’s an actual witch we may never know, but her music is undeniably spellbinding, hypnotizing and addictively sexy. With “Daddy,” Tommy perfectly mixes all of the most attractive aspects of her music with precision and ease. With a self-titled debut album on the way, we’re left hoping she’s able to maintain her charm and power while remaining true to form. - Dominic Polsinelli, Senior Arts Editor
Release Date: Thursday, October 4, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Abruptly end a relationship with by ignoring texts, calls and such 6 European airline 9 Uninspiring 14 Pizazz 15 Flightless bird 16 Not in the dark 17 Prickly shrub 18 Prefix with match or fire 19 One with no hope 20 Spotify category for courageous Motown lovers? 23 Alpine lake 24 Fair-hiring initials 25 “The Waste Land” monogram 28 One hiking in a Maine national park? 32 Org. for the Williams sisters 33 Blood fluids 34 Damascus native 35 Says 22-Down, perhaps 37 Octane Booster brand 39 Loan figs. 40 “Field of Dreams” actor 43 Cy Young stats 46 Final: Abbr. 47 Weekend in the Hamptons, say? 50 Pinafore letters 51 Hebrew for “day” 52 Small fruit pie 53 Like a delivery truck blocking your car, maybe ... and a hint to 20-, 28- and 47-Across 58 Gulf States inlet 61 Bagel go-with 62 Flower child’s greeting 63 Track meet part 64 Cooperstown winter hrs. 65 Legally bar 66 Sees regularly 67 Rehab issue 68 Angioplasty implant
DOWN 1 Mongolian desert 2 Traffic sound 3 Jump over 4 Ancient Peloponnesian state 5 Winds (one’s way) through 6 Some advanced college courses 7 Surrounded by 8 Prince Harry’s dukedom 9 Without much detail 10 MPs’ concern 11 Bad review 12 Steam 13 German article 21 __-dieu 22 Unwelcome word from a barber 25 Catch in a lie, say 26 NutraSweet developer 27 Accounting giant __ & Young 28 Courtyard that may feature glass elevators
29 Pod-bearing trees 30 Consumed 31 60 minuti 32 __ corgi 36 R-V link 38 Excuses 41 Casting calls 42 “__ Ben Adhem” 44 “Stat!” 45 Skins, as a knee 48 Strolled 49 Taking it easy
53 Finished 54 In need of guidance 55 “This Is Us” role for Chrissy Metz 56 Micro or macro subj. 57 Cabinet div. 58 __ Bath & Beyond 59 “Selma” director DuVernay 60 Nevertheless
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
By Wendy L. Brandes and Martha Jones ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/04/18
10/04/18
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, October 4, 2018 — 7
Lavigne benefitting from starter’s confidence Wolverines ready for a HOCKEY
second course this year
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
Earning the job was the hard part. Keeping it? Well, that’s just a confidence booster for Hayden Lavigne. The junior goaltender, this time last year, was fighting tooth-and-nail for playing time, competing practice after practice just to see who would start. But this season is different. With the job firmly in his possession, Lavigne’s attention is elsewhere. He doesn’t have to worry about competing for playing time, but rather can focus on improving himself and preparing for upcoming games. “It definitely kinda just adds a little bit of confidence and calmness to every day, coming in and knowing what I’m going to be doing is focusing on Saturday, and I know Saturday, I’m going to be starting in between the pipes,” Lavigne said. “So it’s just a little bit of confidence, little bit of calmness, plus I know I can worry about just getting ready for Saturday and not so much on out-competing each practice. “Not that I don’t do that, but I don’t have to worry about earning my game time during practice, which allows me to work on a couple things I want to without hesitation of kinda not making saves that I should.” For goaltenders, confidence is everything. The difference between a lucky, shaky goal can be as simple as thinking you can save it. And even if that random bounce happens and a goal occurs, the stability to know you won’t get pulled only helps. “The goalies that question themselves, there’s a lot of times that there’ll be goals that
A
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior goaltender Hayden Lavigne has been able to work on his game without worrying about keeping his starting job.
go in that the confident goalies won’t let in,” Lavigne said. “The confidence just leads to not just your performance, but your team, your teammates really see that, especially in a game. “You’re kind of the backbone being the last man back there, so I think being confident shows a lot; just kinda team momentum, your momentum, and it helps in preparation knowing that you’re confident about what you’re going to do.” Lavigne’s confidence can be attributed to building momentum from last year, when Wolverines coach Mel Pearson named him the starter midway through the season. After former Michigan goaltender Jack LaFontaine allowed six goals against Bowling Green on Jan. 1, Lavigne was made the permanent starter and proved it was the right decision.
“It definitely kinda just adds a little bit of confidence.”
Though he ended the season with a middle-of-the-road .908 save percentage, he strung together a series of stellar performances in high-profile games — averaging a .947 against Notre Dame, Penn State and Minnesota — while having clutch performances throughout the backend of the season, including a career-high 48 saves against Wisconsin. And while that would sit well with most players, Lavigne is focused only on improving. “This summer, I’ve been working on my patience,” Lavigne said. “I’ve been waiting for that shot to be released before I decide if I’m going down, if I’m going to move left or right, and I kind of noticed in practice when I noticed not to stay on my feet as long, not to be as patient, that’s when I get beat really easily.” And though he worked on it during the summer, patience is an ongoing process. It’s not easy being patient. You can ask
anyone, but Lavigne will tell you himself. “Patience is a hard thing to kind of figure out, but that’s been my key thing so far,” Lavigne said. “So that was kind of my big thing over the summer that I worked on hard to fix and work on, obviously it’s an everchanging thing.” And one of the biggest boosts to his confidence comes from the people standing in front of him — his defensemen. Returning is one of the more talented groups of defensemen, one that Lavigne proclaimed no other team had. The communication between them is there. The trust is there. And inexplicably, the confidence between them is there as well. So yes, it’s his job to lose, as Pearson likes to put it. And that’s enough to inspire confidence that Lavigne uses to elevate his game.
“You’re kind of the backbone being the last man back there.”
s Mel Pearson sits down in a plush, blue Michigan armchair in Yost Ice Arena’s media room, something is hiding under his trademark calm demeanor. Pearson was collected like that last year, no matter the ups RIAN and downs of RATNAVALE his inaugural season as the coach of the Michigan hockey team. Back then, nobody thought the Wolverines would be within miles of where they are today — it was supposed to be a slow march back to respectability, a gradual rebuild in the shadow of the retired Red Berenson. Understandably, Michigan was unranked following a 13-win season the year before. Questions about whether or not forward Cooper Marody could stay healthy, if the front line could score consistently enough to keep the Wolverines competitive and just how long it would take for Michigan to return to prominence all loomed largely. And yet, Pearson and the Wolverines defied all of those modest expectations, doubling their previous win total, catching fire mid-season, rallying from a disappointing start to the Frozen Four and being seconds away from playing for a title. More than anything, that Michigan team started a new era. It wasn’t Red’s former team anymore. It was — and is — Mel’s team. “Last year, that was the appetizer,” Pearson said. “We got to the meal, we’ve got the appetizer, and we didn’t get a chance to finish the full course. Now, we’re still hungry. We want to sit down and make sure we have that full course
— and eat it.” Questions, though, remain abundant even for a team that had the season that Michigan did. Who will step up to replace last year’s departed “Run DMC” line of forwards Dexter Dancs, Cooper Marody and Tony Calderone, and their combined 122 points? How long will it take the ten freshmen on the team to adjust to college hockey? Will there be regression back to the mean after last year’s improbable run? Can they do it again? “No college hockey team has played a game yet, so nothing really matters,” said junior forward Jake Slaker. “They can talk about last year as much as they want, but every team has new players and new identities on their team, so we just have to play the way we want to play.” For Slaker, Pearson and the rest of the Wolverines, a clear-cut recipe to success has emerged: just as they formed a new identity and style regardless of the past, they must do the same this year to replace the seven departures from the team. Michigan won’t be sneaking up on anyone anymore — the United States College Hockey Poll has them as the No. 4 team in the country, and there’s a year of film for opposing coaches to dissect. Behind the calmness, it’s obvious that Pearson is excited to continue building on the success of last year. While last season was, by all means, a taste to remember, it would serve Michigan well to cleanse its palate, christening Yost’s ice this year with a fresh outlook, while still remembering the joys of last season in the back of its mind. One might say the Wolverines are ready for what’s next on the menu. Ratnavale can be reached by email at rian@umich.edu or on Twitter @RianRatnavale
‘M’ beats Oakland, 2-1, Wolverines place 12th at Windy City Classic in final Big Ten tune-up
MEN’S SOCCER
JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer
CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer
It was only a matter of time before the Michigan men’s soccer team broke through. That moment came in the dying embers of the first half, as junior attacker Jack Hallahan made a marauding run into the penalty box. After gliding past a number of last-ditch tackles, an Oakland defender chopped Hallahan down in the box, and the Wolverines were awarded the penalty kick. Sophomore midfielder Marc Ybarra stepped up to the spot and coolly slotted it past Golden Grizzlies’ goalkeeper Sullivan Lauderdale to open the scoring right before halftime. The goal was a sign of things to come, as Michigan (8-1-1) would dispatch Oakland (5-4-2), 2-1. Problematic field conditions translated into a sloppy opening 15 minutes from both sides. Once the Wolverines were able to gain a foothold, though, the Grizzlies couldn’t keep up. “We still tried to play,” said Michigan coach Chaka Daley. “As the stats suggest, we dominated possession and dominated the quality chances. Sometimes having a lot of scoring opportunities doesn’t always mean getting the goals, but fortunately for us tonight it did.” If the stats favored the Wolverines at the end of the first half, they definitely did in the second. From the whistle, Michigan played almost exclusively in Oakland’s half. Shot on goal after shot on goal, corner kick after corner kick,
the Wolverines gradually wore their opponent down. In the 58th minute, one of their 13 second-half shots was parried by Lauderdale right to the feet of senior striker Noah Kleedtke. Kleedtke, who has been filling in for injured sophomore goalscorer Mohammed Zakyi, one-timed the rebound into the net for what would be the gamewinning goal. “Noah’s contribution this season has been tremendous,” Daley said. “He’s been committed and has stepped right in. I thought he deserved a goal from two, three, four games ago from all the hard work he’s been doing for the team.” The Golden Grizzlies would pull a goal back late in the match, which made for a testy final five minutes. The Wolverines refused to allow all their hard work to go to waste, though, and took control of possession once again to close out the game with the ball at their feet. This game marked Michigan’s final tune-up game before Big Ten juggernaut, No. 2 Indiana, comes to Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines, having won seven of their last eight, seem unfazed by the impending challenge. “Indiana is a perennial powerhouse,” Daley said. “So we’ll have great perspective going into the game, but our guys are ready. We tied them down at Indiana, 1-1, last year, and I believe our group will be ready on Sunday. I certainly believe our guys are going to put their best foot forward and we’re gonna go for it.”
“He’s been committed and has stepped right in.”
beat themselves after falling behind in the second round. Shooting a combined 302 strokes on the first round of day one, they subsequently let the course slip away from them with a 307 on their second time around. Be it due to weather or mental adjustments, though, Michigan found its shot again and finished with a strong 299 total on the third round. Leading the charge for the Wolverines was junior Hannah Ghelfi. Ghelfi completed a career performance in which she set personal bests in individual finish (24th), singleround total (72, E in first round) and 54-hole total (222). “I think mostly my mental game (was my biggest strength), just getting comfortable, and this week, I think my putting was definitely a strength,” Ghelfi said. “I was having a lot of putts drop. I think I had five birdies my first round which is cool.” Ghelfi, while not the most experienced Michigan golfer having to fight for her place in
the lineup, has found herself thrust to the top of the pack due to an insatiable work ethic and improved mental toughness. After making her first start in late October of last year, Ghelfi has only trended upward and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. “It’s so cool to see,” Dowling said. “She’s a really hard worker, and has really improved a lot every season, and a lot of that can be accredited to her hard work. To have her come in here, and I think this was her lowest three rounds total of her career, and to do it in this field is pretty impressive, and the whole team is super excited for her. “She’s a leader on our team, and just from a character perspective, she always works really hard, and to see her make the improvements that she has over the last two and half years is pretty awesome.” Other Wolverines supplemented Ghelfi’s stellar outing with solid rounds of their own, including sophomore
Ashley Kim’s Michigan-low 73 in the third round. After consistently gaining and losing momentum throughout the tournament’s first and second rounds, Kim finally found her groove and sailed to her best round to close out the event. “She really played well the first two days as well, but she had a couple holes that really killed her momentum,” Dowling said. “Then (Tuesday), same thing, she played well, then she had one double bogey on her 11th hole, so that killed her momentum a little bit. So her scores don’t really reflect how well she played. Golf doesn’t really work that way, but if you can eliminate five holes, then she’s got a lot of really good positives to take away.” In Kim’s case, she beat herself. In Ghelfi’s case, her opponent beat her. For the team itself, it was simply outmatched. As the Wolverines move on to the rest of their fall season, the goal is to limit mental mistakes and beat all opponents regardless of skill level.
Losses come in many ways. Sometimes your opponent beats you, sometimes you beat yourself and sometimes you’re just plain outmatched. On Monday and Tuesday at the Windy City Collegiate Classic outside of Chicago, the Michigan women’s golf team managed all three by placing 12th of 14 teams amid fierce competition. From the beginning, the Wolverines were fighting an uphill battle. Stiff competition filled the field that included four top-ten teams and no team ranked below No. 75. Going into the meet wary of its chances of walking away with the victory, Michigan wanted to prove it could play with the best of the best and gain some exposure to elite competition ahead of the upcoming high stakes tournaments. Early into the fledgling 2018-19 season, it appeared the Wolverines were overmatched. But Michigan coach Jan Dowling tells a different story — one of failure to reach potential rather than David v. Goliath. “I don’t think we were overmatched,” Dowling said. “If anything, we weren’t even close to full cylinders. I hope our team walks away feeling pretty confident about what our program can do and about our potential. “In order to win the National Championships, you gotta be playing and winning against these teams, so I think by the time we get to the end of the year, we’re not intimidated by seeing these teams, and we know that if we clean things up and get a little bit better, than we can compete with them.” Despite the elite play of its KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily competition, the Wolverines Junior Hannah Ghelfi set personal bests in individual finish, single-round total and 54-hole total this weekend.
“If anything, we weren’t even close to full cylinders.”
“She’s a really hard work and has really improved a lot.”
Sports
8 — Thursday, October 4, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Ed Warinner explains strategy for coaching Michigan’s offensive line MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
Ed Warinner’s first year with the No. 15 Michigan football team (4-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) didn’t get off to the best start. The offensive line coach’s unit was torn to shreds against Notre Dame to open the season on the field, but also off it, as the front five was widely blamed for the offense’s shortcomings. The criticisms came from a few places. For one, the offensive line play was suspect in that game, and it was suspect last season as well. Additionally, Warinner brought with him a pedigree for producing NFL talent at places like Ohio State and with the Fighting Irish. Since then, though, the line has improved drastically, albeit against worse competition. In fact, Saturday’s win over Northwestern might have been the Wolverine offensive line’s best game to this point, especially in pass protection. This season, they have given up just eight sacks this season. Through five games last season, Michigan had given up 16 sacks. “That’s pretty good,” Warinner said. “We’re trying to improve that area. We’ve simplified our protections, and our guys are getting real comfortable with them. “… I think it’s just consistency in their technique and then understanding the protections and then not changing them on them.” Those things are what is always brought up when asking about the offensive line.
CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Offensive line coach Ed Warinner has stressed not taking plays off, in practice or games, to his offensive line, which has improved over Michigan’s last four games.
It seems every player or coach, when asked about the hog mollies up front, mentions the importance of communication and technique and consistent play. Those same things are true with many positions, but especially with offensive line play, there isn’t much more to be said, because there aren’t many stats that properly quantify how well an offensive line is playing. Despite the slow start, the Wolverines’ front has passed the eye test in the past four weeks. That’s something that wasn’t true very often last
“... our guys are getting real comfortable with them.”
season without Warinner. To Warinner, it’s a product of the things mentioned above, but it’s also due to the dogged pace and perfectionism he has tried to instill in the unit. “You just gotta push people, make them uncomfortable, you gotta make them do stuff they really don’t want to do,” Warinner said. “That comes with trust. So, they have to trust that what you’re doing and what you’re telling them will make them be a better player, make the team be a better team. So you develop trust, then you push them to challenge them to do more than
they’ve done in the past, do it better than they’ve done in the past. And you hold people accountable. “… I just think that until something you tell them shows on film, where they can see themselves doing that against our team or somebody else, that’s when it really becomes reinforced. Like, ‘I haven’t given up a sack this year. These pass protection drills — cause we didn’t do these drills last year. Or I never did these things.’ ” Another thing that Warinner was said to have helped with this offseason was simplifying
“You just gotta push people, make them uncomfortable.”
the play calls for the offensive line in an effort to help with understanding and, as a result, speed. That, too, is hard to see as a casual observer, but Warinner explained it in simpler terms, saying on each play, he gives his offensive linemen two options to limit thinking. And if the defense forces a third option, it’s on Warinner to adjust the gameplan. “That’s how I envision it,” Warinner said. “Cause the more you put in there, the slower they play. And the less confident they are. ‘What if he
does that?’ You know. You get that question a lot. So I love to tell them, ‘Don’t worry about that. That’s on me. You worry about this stuff.’ Know what I mean? That’s my job. And then make adjustments. “And if something happens that we’re not prepared for, nobody’s getting yelled at. There’s no stress, it’s just, ‘Hey, this is the answer.’ We have tools in our toolbox to fix all problems, but you can only have two tools in your hands at once. One in this hand and one in that hand. Here we go. You can’t have more than that. So, we need a new tool, we get the new tool out, next series, here we go.” As is always the case with the offensive line, or the Wolverines as a whole, it is worth noting that they still have to prove they can stand up against a defensive front like Wisconsin’s, Michigan State’s, Penn State’s or Ohio State’s. Those tests will come soon enough. For now, though, the improvement is all anyone could ask for. Michigan was supposed to play well against its last four opponents, and while this last weekend was a closer game than many expected, the offensive line wasn’t the reason. If you had read that sentence four weeks ago, you would have been shocked. “The narrative has been going in ever since I’ve been here that the Michigan offensive line hasn’t been up to the standards that people outside this building would like,” said redshirt junior tackle Jon Runyan Jr. “We take that personally, and we’ve been trying to (change that) every day.”
“There’s no stress, it’s just, ‘Hey, this is the answer.’ ”
Don Brown sees ‘maturity’ in defense MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan football team’s defense couldn’t have started much worse last Saturday. Heavily favored in a de facto neutralsite game, the Wolverines allowed touchdowns on two of Northwestern’s opening three drives, as penalties, missed tackles and a lockedin quarterback dismantled defensive coordinator Don Brown’s group early. It was their second poor start this year. In the season-opener, Michigan spotted Notre Dame three first-half touchdowns. But in both games, Brown’s group adjusted. His defense had little room for error last Saturday after falling into a 17-0 hole, and it responded accordingly. After the first quarter, the Wolverines allowed just 119 yards of total offense and prevented Northwestern from scoring after the 12:56 mark in the second quarter. And though Michigan couldn’t complete the comeback in early September, its defense gave it a chance — the Fighting Irish only scored a field goal in the second half. Despite his perpetual expectation of near perfectionism, those turnarounds have Brown encouraged. “I’m also going to tell you this: A year ago if the wheels came off, the wheels were off,” Brown said during Wednesday’s press conference. “This group has the ability to have wheels off, (then put the) wheels back on. I think that’s a little bit of a sign of the maturity of this group and the quality of the character our guys have. There’s no doubt about that.” Michigan’s defense — despite finishing with a top-three ranking nationally — indeed had boom-or-bust tendencies in 2017, unraveling in losses to Penn State and South Carolina. This season, however, the Wolverines have showed resilience, which has helped
them allow the fewest yards in the country, averaging 4.1 yards per play. But that doesn’t mean it’s all roses for Brown and company. Michigan has struggled with penalties all season, with an average 9.2 calls accepted per game. The secondary, especially, has been targeted — though that’s partially a byproduct of Brown’s man-toman scheme. Junior cornerbacks Lavert Hill and David Long were caught with holding and pass interference penalties, respectively, during critical moments of both Northwestern touchdown drives. Junior VIPER Khaleke Hudson and junior safety Josh Metellus, meanwhile, have missed parts of games due to suspensions after targeting penalties. That’s caused Brown to adjust how he teaches tackling. “I’ve never had to transition due to how things are officiated,” Brown said. “I don’t recall that ever in my coaching career that happening, but now I feel that happening. It’s a tough deal but, you know, (you) get it done.” Frustration lies in what isn’t being called, too. Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich said he was “baff led” by the lack of holding calls against the Wildcats’ offensive line Saturday —
something that’s also bothered Brown. “You know what’s shocking to me? We’ve played two Big Ten games, we have 10 sacks and 24 TFLs, but we don’t get held,” Brown said. “Take a look and compare to the other teams around our league. That one is a little tough.” Brown is also annoyed with the wide-spread criticism his players have received over social media. Sunday morning, Long tweeted, “If you’ve never played man to man please refrain from making comments about secondary play.” Brown would rather you take up your concerns with him. “Be critical of the old guy. Don’t be critical of the players, now,” Brown said. “That’s crossing the line, in my opinion. I guess that could be a topic we could stand here and argue. All they do is do what they’re asked.” Despite the poor start, Michigan’s defense did just that Saturday. In the halftime locker room, Brown told his players that they’d need to pitch a shutout to win. The Wolverines did as they were asked, saving their season in the process. “I thought that was a good test for us,” Brown said. “Every experience you go through … you’re looking to build on. We (knew) how to handle this situation.”
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Defensive coordinator Don Brown is encouraged by Michigan’s resilience.