ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ACADEMICS
Professional orgs support faculty right to ideology
2 associations, 200 grad students ask ‘U’ to roll back Cheney-Lippold punishment ANDREW HIYAMA Daily News Editor
DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN
Water quality raises concerns about pollutants across Michigan
Not much known about high levels of PFAS chemicals linked to increased risk of cancer ZACK BLUMBERG Daily Staff Reporter
More than four years after the Flint water crisis, Michigan officials encountered a new challenge this summer when the Department of Environmental Quality revealed some water quality tests around the state — including in Ann Arbor — contained a toxic chemical called
perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. Brian Steglitz, manager of the Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant, believes on a local level there is very little to worry about and the plant is handling the situation well. He explained the risks associated with PFAS were still largely unknown, though the chemical has been linked to an potential increased risk for cancer and other health problems in some studies. In
September, Steglitz announced a “do-not-eat foam” warning at an Ann Arbor City Council meeting. “The challenge with PFAS is that it is emerging,” Steglitz said. “We don’t have all the information we really need to assess what the risks are and what the safe levels are. I think a lot of that is going to come in the coming months and maybe even years.” According to Steglitz, the
water treatment plant has been testing treatment technologies for the past year and the city recently spent $850,000 to implement an effective technology in all of the city’s filters. “In terms of PFAS, I think we’re very well-prepared to deal with this emerging contaminant. I feel extremely confident that See POLLUTANTS, Page 2
Two prominent educational and professional institutions — the American Association of University Professors and the American Political Science Association — are urging the University of Michigan to reconsider sanctions imposed on American Culture professor John CheneyLippold. Cheney-Lippold recently became ineligible for a salary raise for one year and ineligible for sabbatical credits for two years after rescinding his offer to write a letter of recommendation for a student studying abroad in Israel, as part of an academic boycott. CheneyLippold was joined last week by Rackham student Lucy Peterson, a Political Science graduate student instructor who also declined to write a letter for a student studying in Israel. Political Science prof. Juan Cole published a blog post over the weekend announcing he would also
National Review editor discusses ‘U’ releases names of immigration policy, new book release
refuse reccommendations for students studying in the occupied West Bank. University graduate students also published an open letter last week with over 200 signatures affirming their support for CheneyLippold and Peterson. Interim LSA Dean Elizabeth Cole informed Cheney-Lippold of sanctions in a letter dated Oct. 3. “Your conduct has fallen far short of the University’s and College’s expectations for how LSA faculty interact with and treat students,” Cole wrote. In a letter from AAUP Associate Secretary HansJoerg Tiede dated Oct. 16, Tiede claimed the sanctions on Cheney-Lippold violate the association’s standards of due process. These standards first call for an informal inquiry by a faculty committee to determine whether proceedings to impose sanctions are necessary and then call for the See IDEOLOGY, Page 3
ACADEMICS
RESEARCH
honorary graduates
Reihan Salam advocated for a new system which prioritizes highly-skilled immigrants
Fed funds enable new research on algo-fuels
Recipients range from a former US poet laureate to Ford chief exective officer
Wednesday night, students filled the Ford School of Public Policy’s Weill Hall to listen to Reihan Salam, a political commentator, columnist and executive editor of National Review magazine, talk about his ideas on immigration policy in his new book “Melting Pot or Civil War?” The American Enterprise Institute at the University of Michigan, along with the National Review Institute and Young Americans for Freedom, hosted Salam. Clare Ath, the NRI campus outreach coordinator, said one of the main goals of her organization is to promote civil public discourse, which is why she helps bring conservative voices to college campuses. “Our focus is to show that no political ideology should be trying to prove that they’re right, but they should be working to convince people to their side,” Ath said. “It isn’t a ‘we beat you,’ it’s a ‘let’s see where we can find commonality and come to the best solution together.’” Salam noted the difficulty of having civil debate on a hot-button issue like immigration, for which both sides are so impassioned.
MAEVE O’BRIEN Daily Staff Reporter
Four individuals have been recommended to receive honorary degrees at the University of Michigan’s 2018 Winter Commencement: Lynn Conway, a transgender activist and computer scientist; Rita Dove, a former U.S. poet laureate; James Hackett, an alum and CEO of Ford Motor Company; and Elizabeth Nabel, Michigan Medicine’s first female chief of cardiology. All are pending approval by the Board of Regents. Conway, who is scheduled to receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree, will be delivering the commencement speech at the ceremony. She is a former University professor and associate dean of the College of Engineering, whose research focused on visual communications and control. She made significant contributions to See GRADUATES, Page 3
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“Immigration is not an easy, slam dunk question at all,” Salam said. “There are very decent, goodhearted people on every side of this debate, and there is a tendency we have to talk past each other in the debate, and the reason is because many of us feel so passionate about it.” Salam spoke to the audience about how his proposed system, which calls for limited immigration and prioritizing high-
skilled immigrants, would better address issues of inequality, foster a sense of national solidarity, and create a balance of diversity and assimilation. Critics of merit-based immigration point out many industries in the United States rely on low-skill labor that generally raises economic output and reduces prices. He first talked about this idea of solidarity, referencing the book “The Paradox of Vulnerability:
States, Nationalism, and the Financial Crisis” by John Campbell and John Hall, which claims societies that are smaller and more vulnerable to outside threats are more likely to develop cooperative institutions. With a higher inf lux of immigrants and a lower birth rate of American citizens, Salam said, U.S. society may feel less inclined to bond together for See IMMIGRATION, Page 3
CARTER FOX/DAILY Reihan Salam speaks about his new book “Melting Pot or Civil War?” which discusses an argument against open borders at Weill Hall Wednesday evening.
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Vol. CXXVIII, No. 13 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
$2 million from the US Department of Energy will help ‘U’ scientists ATTICUS RAASCH Daily Staff Reporter
Though their research on turning algae into an environmentally-friendly source of diesel fuel has been ongoing, a team of University researchers’ funding has been extended with a new $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Headed by professors in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania, the group has been working to develop a cheaper fuel, according to research leader Brad Cardinale, professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability. “We’re trying to grow algal biofuels in a way that’s more sustainable, that we produce more energy but do so without creating a lot of environmental pollution or genetically modified species that might be a problem,” Cardinale said. The research team is composed of environmental sustainability professors,
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
See ALGO-FUELS, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7
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POLLUTANTS From Page 1 the water we’re delivering to our customers is safe,” Steglitz said. “We’ve been piloting new technology, a new granular activated carbon media in our filters, and we’ve been finding it to be successful at removing two of the PFAS compounds, PFOS and PFOA, that are part of the EPA’s health advisory. Because we’ve been piloting it and it’s been successful, we decided to put it in all of our filters.” Laura Rubin, vice chair of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability advisory board and executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council, said it was difficult to accurately gauge the level of the threat because it is a new issue. “We’re still in the process
of identifying where the sources are and how pervasive they are throughout the watershed,” Rubin said. “Regularly, there are new issues that come up that we need to address. I would say a lot of our work is continual monitoring, continual work with our local government … we need better science and understanding on what current levels are okay for human health.” Additionally, Rubin expressed frustration with the DEQ, which she believes is not doing enough to help the situation. Rubin said it is important for Michigan to be a leader in water safety because of its industrial past. “Right now, the DEQ has been underfunded for a couple years and also been undermined by many of the current policies and practices, and especially at the EPA level there’s been a rollback of oversight and rules and regulations, so we would
love to see more (regulations),” Rubin said. “Like many other states, it (Michigan) has a heavy manufacturing base, and because we have more manufacturing here, we have more chemicals and pollutants that have been released into the environment and into the groundwater and the rivers.” Public Health student Alextia Armstrong, a member of the Environmental Health Student Association, interned at Ann Arbor’s treatment plant and is confident the discharged water is safe. “In my opinion, students should worry about PFAS as much as they worry about every other emerging pollutant in any of our resources/environment,” Armstrong wrote in an email to The Daily. “Seeing how hard its (AAWTP’s) staff worked every day to provide a quality source of drinking water to many households in Ann Arbor/Townships, I believe that students shouldn’t be too worried about AAWTP’s ability to come up with and implement effective solutions to this problem. My only recommendation for students to stay safe is to become educated.” While the situation in Ann Arbor might be under control, State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, believes the problem is statewide and changes are needed. Earlier in September, Rabhi led a group of legislators who penned a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder (R) calling on the state to address high PFAS levels. “The first piece of legislation I introduced was a bill that, if it had passed, would have made companies that polluted pay to clean up the damages,” Rabhi said. “In Ann Arbor, the town council created a solution, but it was expensive, and that money still came from the taxpayers. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to clean up a mess they
didn’t make.” Rabhi also stressed farreaching effects of clean drinking water are not always fully considered. He felt it was unjust many communities in Michigan do not have access to clean drinking water, while the state’s contract with Nestlé Waters North America pumps 576,000 gallons of water per day from Michigan for $200 a year. “In Michigan, we’ve had schools that have had to be closed down because they didn’t have clean water,” Rabhi said. “Clean water doesn’t just impact drinking, when this happens it impacts education and our public schools … and while all this is happening, Nestlé is allowed to take water, basically for free, from Michigan. I introduced a bill that would tax Nestlé just a small amount, a few cents per gallon, which would go towards funding our public schools. Republicans in Lansing didn’t pass it.” Universally, most agree concrete standards for the acceptable amount of various chemicals within the water are needed. Steglitz believes there will be regulations sometime in the future, though preferably from a federal, not state, level. “I think it’s clear that something needs to happen related to these chemicals,” Steglitz said. “Our preference would be the federal government and the EPA take the lead on this, because there are states that are already legislating maximum contaminant limits for these compounds, and they’re all doing it differently … The problem with all states taking their own initiative is it’s really difficult to message to customers: Why are these chemicals more dangerous in one state than another state? We would prefer that they (the federal government) use science to develop a standard that they can apply across the board, and then we can all follow that.”
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P R I S O N C R E AT I V E A R T S P R O J E C T GRADUATES From Page 1 computer science, including the invention of dynamic instruction scheduling, a method in which computer hardware can issue instructions out of order, as well as pioneering the revolution in very largescale integration design. Many years prior to joining University faculty in 1985, Conway worked at IBM Research, where she was fired when she began her gender transition. After retiring from the University in 1998, Conway started publicly discussing her transgender history and has worked for the past 20 years to protect and expand the rights of transgender people. Nabel, president of Brigham Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has also been recommended to receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree. Nabel was previously worked at the University Medical School and was named director of the Cardiovascular Research Center in 1992. She was appointed Michigan Medicine’s chief of cardiology in 1997 and was the first woman to fill the role. As a renowned biomedical researcher, Nabel has focused her research on furthering the understanding of the genetic causes of cardiovascular diseases. She has authored over 250 articles, holds 17 patents and served as the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Dove, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, is scheduled to receive her
ALGO-FUELS From Page 1 as well as chemical and automotive engineers to the process of how these fuels will be created and utilized in the modern world. Cardinale said though other groups are researching this issue, different factors make their project unique. “There’s two things that are unique about our project,” Cardinale said. “We are one of two, maybe three, universities in the world that have experts from the biologists from the chemical engineers to the automotive engineers that all work together in a unified sequence to grow algae in literally an open pond to putting it in an engine to determine whether or not we’ve designed them properly.” The project initially began back in 2016 with funding from MCubed, an organization that gives funding to various research projects and ideas. This initial project led to a $2.5 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, and eventually allowed for the recent Department of Energy grant. Cardinale said he attributes much of the success of the project to the MCubed group. “(The research team) would have never worked together, never even talked, I mean we’re not even on the same campus, and if it wasn’t for the MCubed getting us together for some preliminary data, we’d never have gotten $4.5 million in grants,” he said. With the intent of working on an environmentally-conscious source of fuel, Andre Boehman, mechanical
Doctor of Fine Arts at Winter Commencement. Dove joined University of Virginia faculty in 1989 and is currently a commonwealth professor of English. She was named U.S. poet laureate in 1993, the second woman, first African American and youngest person to carry the title ever. Former President Bill Clinton awarded Dove the National Humanities Medal in 1996 and former President Barack Obama presented her with the National Medal of Arts in 2011. She is one of only four authors to ever receive both awards. Hackett is set to receive his honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Hackett received his Bachelor of General Studies in 1977 and played football under coach Bo Schembechler. After graduation, he worked for and eventually became president and CEO of Steelcase Inc., making him one of the youngest CEOs of a Fortune 500 company. After retiring from this position in 2014, Hackett became the University’s interim athletic director. Hackett began his 16 month-tenure in 2014, and oversaw new branding for the department following scandals surrounding the departure of predecessor Dave Brandon. He negotiated the University’s largest apparel contract ever with Nike and hired football coach Jim Harbaugh. He and his wife Kathy continue to support the University through two endowments for Public Policy students and donations to programs at the University Depression Center. The four individuals are scheduled to receive their honorary degrees on Dec. 16 at the Crisler Center.
engineering professor and research team leader, said the recent reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminded him of what the team is working for. “Now we have a chance to make significant strides to improve sustainability transportation, and that’s really one of our major goals, is to make the transportation sector more sustainable,” Boehman said. “Since this weekend when the latest U.N. report from the climate change panel came out, things are accelerating it seems. The models which have said, ‘Oh, you’re overpredicting,’ these dire predictions, things are actually worse, and they are getting worse faster, we have to act.” LSA freshman Madi Foster said she is glad to see the school taking steps towards global sustainability. “I feel like, overall, everyone should be doing more research. This is nice, but I feel like it’s a stepping stone,” Foster said. “Obviously our earth is getting worse from our inaction, but I think it’s good that we’re making these steps because it will lead to more action and eventually turn back climate change instead of making things worse.” With the new funding, the team hopes to have this version of the project begin at the start of 2019, according to Boehman. “The big thing is getting swift and effective launch of the project, and one of the things we’re working on right now is completing necessary paperwork for the launch of the project,” Boehman said. “We hope the project will officially be in place by Jan. 1.”
DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily Artist Martin Vargas speaks about his art at the opening reception for his solo gallery “Painting His Way Home” at the Detroit Street Filling Station Wednesday. Martin is a self-taught artist who spent 45 years in prison. His work has been displayed at the Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners for the past 23 years and one of his works was acquired by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
IDEOLOGY From Page 1 administration to demonstrate adequate cause for sanctions “in a hearing of record before an elected faculty body.” In an interview with The Daily on Wednesday, Tiede said the University had not yet responded to the letter. “The reason I pointed to the
severity of the punishment is that we do recognize that minor sanctions, such as a letter of reprimand, can be imposed without a full hearing. The ‘due’ part in due process is always relative to the severity of the punishment,” Tiede said. “But a major sanction, and what I was appealing to in the letter was that I think most people would consider being ineligible for a merit increase and ineligible for a sabbatical for some period of time to be not akin to a letter of reprimand but to have material consequences.” The premise of the standards, Tiede said, was that faculty are “better qualified” than administrators to determine “whether a particular action of a faculty member was a proper exercise of academic freedom or was not.” In the open letter addressed to Cole, graduate students from the University expressed
IMMIGRATION From Page 1 the future generations. “One thing you see happen is that in societies where you have smaller family sizes and population growth is chief ly coming from net migration, those societies are often societies where you don’t see the same level of enthusiasm in the idea of investing in the next generation,” Salam said. A 2016 report by National Academics, on the other hand, found children of immigrants contribute more to state fiscal coffers than do other native-born Americans, while immigrants make up roughly 14 percent of annual economic output. Salam claimed issues of social mobility, instability created by populism and ethnic inequality would be exacerbated by open border immigration policy. He said when immigrants first come to the U.S., they largely become a part of the working class, which can create feelings of isolation and anger. “If you are increasing the number of folks who are vulnerable to technological displacement or competition, you’re then creating a class of people who have every reason to believe that they’re being cheated by the system,” Salam said. To face these challenges, Salam wants to put in place an immigration policy that favors skilled immigrants, thus tightening the labor market for lower-skilled workers and giving them more
their support for CheneyLippold and Peterson, writing the University’s response had also been politically motivated. “The university president’s statement declares that ‘U-M strongly opposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and no school, college, department or unit at our university endorses such a boycott,’” the letter read. “This is an explicitly political stance in support of the apartheid state of Israel and, therefore, cannot be considered neutral, but, rather, one wholly aimed at shutting down BDS activism on campus and, more generally, on silencing support of and solidarity with Palestinians.” On Sept. 24, the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs released a statement on faculty responsibilities with regard to writing letters of recommendation, referencing the AAUP’s Statement on Professional Ethics. “Within the guidelines set forth by the American Association of University Professors, and ‘demonstrate(ing) respect for students,’ faculty should let a student’s merit be the primary guide for determining how and whether to provide such a letter,” SACUA’s statement read. In a public forum for
regent candidates Monday, incumbent candidate Andrea Fischer Newman (R) said SACUA had condemned Cheney-Lippold. Michael Atzmon, a SACUA member in the audience, responded the statement was not a condemnation. Writing on behalf of Peterson in a letter dated Oct. 15, the American Political Science Association said the sanctions “raise questions of procedural fairness” due to the lack of clarity surrounding an instructor’s obligations to write a letter of recommendation. “That the instructor we are concerned about is, in this case, also an early career graduate student only heightens our concerns that outsize sanctions may be imposed on one who could reasonably argue that the vague, unspecified, and changing norms regarding writing letters of recommendation were not adequately conveyed in advance,” the letter read. On Oct. 9, University President Mark Schlissel and Provost Martin Philbert published an open letter to the campus announcing the creation of a panel to “examine the intersection between political thought/ ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students,” and “make absolutely clear that faculty members’
personal political beliefs cannot interfere with their obligations to our students.” The letter from the APSA also expressed the concern that the sanctions “give at least the appearance of pressuring instructors to conform to the university’s position on what the university has itself termed not only an issue of university values but also a matter of political belief.” The letter defended CheneyLippold’s participation in the academic boycott on the grounds that the opportunity to study at Israeli universities is not equally accessible to all students in the United States. The letter specifically noted the case of Lara Alqasem, who was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport for 15 days on her way to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on a student visa because of her former position as president of the University of Florida’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which is a part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. “Given the unequal opportunities to study abroad in Israel - which in many ways violates the University of Michigan’s own NonDiscrimination Policy - the decision to not recommend a student to such a program is not only legitimate, but far from punishable,” the letter read.
opportunities. “Given those challenges, it makes sense in the future to say let’s have a skillsbased immigration policy, in which we prioritize people who will be able to provide for themselves and their families,” Salam said. In response to a question about how law enforcement should work at the border, Salam emphasized his belief that immigration policy goes beyond what happens at the border. One point he made was many people who want to emigrate to the U.S. have no means to do so. “Dealing with the situation reactively – we are just going to react to the people who show up at the border – does not actually deal with the underlying crisis,” Salam said. “And the underlying crisis is a crisis of public security, that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are in no position to move.” A Diag demonstration last week by the Latinx Alliance for Community Action, Support and Advocacy criticized inhumane enforcement at the borders. “There (are) people in Central America and all of these countries struggling and trying to come to the U.S. for more educational, economic opportunities, and who are facing violence, persecution in their communities...especially in interactions when it comes to border patrol,” LSA senior Yezenia Sandoval said last Tuesday. Salam’s talk drew a number of people, including Engineering junior Naman Shah, an international student
from Singapore. Shah came to country where the norms are Salam’s talk because he was different, the expectations curious about how people feel are different,” Shah said. about immigration in the U.S., as Singapore is dealing with similar issues. “I was invited by a friend, and immigration is a topic that we’re facing as well, so I’m just interested to hear another view on it from another
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very year, the are the step-sisters. They wait University of Michigan impatiently for food, engage in proudly welcomes in pointing and laughter as you walk by carrying a close to 6,000 young cleaning bucket and new students, full of rag and often leave hope and excitement plates and cups on about this new the tables assuming chapter of their it is your job to clean lives. It is true that them up. college is a great While this can time for so many often seem blatantly young people, and rude and sometimes some will always malicious, what I remember it as the ABBIE have learned is most “best years of their life,” yet college is BERRINGER of these freshmen undoubtedly a hard time when just simply aren’t aware of it comes to learning the big how their actions affect, not lessons of life. For so many only the dining hall employees of us, it is our first taste of ,but the overall dining hall true independence. We must environment. It seems they learn to function on our own truly don’t consider the as adults. The University students who will be coming tries to incorporate teaching in after them to eat or the moments on the macro level employees — fellow students through first year seminars — who will end up staying late on diversity and inclusion, to clean up their unnecessary and on the micro level in the messes. It is important to note not classroom, as students get their first real taste of having all students are like this. There to be accountable on their own are many kind and courteous for class attendance and time students I meet every day, yet the proportion of students management. However, there are still who are not is still too large. I some big areas of adult life have thought a lot about what that take many freshmen much contributing factors may have longer to grasp. It is striking to led to this cluelessness and one see how many students don’t thing stands out to me: There say “excuse me” when they is no one here to clean up after run past you on the street, them anymore. It’s true some of us did our don’t hold the door for you on the way into a coffee shop fair share of chores and cleaned and don’t clean up their mess up after ourselves in high at restaurants or in the dining school, but a harsh reality is halls, especially in the first few there are many very privileged months of a new school year. It students on this campus who seems many students of this may never have had to do such generation, upon coming to things. While some of us had college for the first time, lack jobs since we were 16, others an awareness of those around have yet to work. This leaves them and therefore an ability them with a disconnect when it comes to understanding the to be kind and empathetic. I see this most prevalently frustrations of being a public as a dining hall worker. For the service worker. While I know some people past three years, I have worked at Mary Markley Residence who view the more privileged Hall’s dining hall, used mostly on this campus with a sort of by freshmen. It is shocking contempt or bitterness, that how many students will simply is not how I feel. Instead, I throw used napkins on the feel some of us, due to life’s ground, spill drinks on tables circumstances, simply learn and f loors without cleaning some adult lessons earlier. As them up or ignore signs asking a waitress in high school, I them not to remove dishes from learned to gather up my dishes the dining hall. Additionally, and mess into one spot on a many treat the dining hall table to make it easier for the employees with a “Regina busser cleaning it up. My dad is George” sort of mockery; as if 50 years old but never worked we are all Cinderella and they as a waiter. If it weren’t for
my mother and me, I doubt he’d ever collect his dishes in such a way. The truth is that learning these lessons often has very little to do with age by itself, but more to do with an openness to learning and finding compassion for people and places one doesn’t understand as well. It is never too late to start taking into consideration how to be kind toward those serving us. One simple thing to keep in mind is most of the people serving you here in the dining halls, restaurants and cafes are other students! We are students who have to work one or maybe even two jobs to pay for rent and groceries in order to be able to afford attending school here. If that is not the reality for you, there is no need to feel ashamed, but maybe you do need to consider how you could be more courteous toward these other students. Something as simple as picking up a napkin and throwing it in the correct trash bin can go a long way. While you may not think your one napkin makes that much of a mess, if one hundred other students think the same thing this becomes a 10- to 15-minute extra closing task for a dining hall worker who still has to go home and do homework like you. The simple truth is, as a freshman, it is very mature to understand and be OK with the knowledge that you have a lot to learn about being a courteous adult. You are going to overlook some things in the struggle to acclimate to your new environment, but the more time you take to notice the people around you each day, the more you will find yourself willing and able to take the extra step of kindness and courtesy toward a stranger — whether it is holding the door, cleaning up your mess or simply saying “excuse me” when you pass someone on the sidewalk. These are all big steps toward becoming a fully functioning and aware adult in today’s busy world because, the truth is, you are not a child anymore.
Abbie Berringer can be reached at abbierbe@umich.edu.
F
My friends are Brown and proud
or the most part, my two my eventual recognition of the best friends and I are just beauty in foreign cultures. It is like any ordinary group of easy to claim open-mindedness, but the truth is American girlfriends. everyone is subject We frequent Chipotle, to some form binge episodes of “Curb of internalized Your Enthusiasm” and racism. We are all endlessly trash-talk accustomed to our people from our high own ways of life, so school. But aside from when we encounter providing me company something unusual when I spontaneously we naturally react feel like going to Petco to look at the hamsters, AMANDA in shock. But the sooner we can Anjali and Nithya have ZHANG acknowledge this also broadened my mind in ways atypical of most human tendency, the sooner we can learn to appreciate cultures friendships. My two best friends and I are and livelihoods unlike our own. Anj and Nith have since all people of color. I am ChineseAmerican, and Anj and Nith are exposed me to countless facets both Indian-American, but our of Indian culture, perhaps most identities manifest themselves in notably the region’s extensive very different ways. I, like many and delicious cuisine. As a 1 a.m. people of color, tend to tuck snack, we feast on Pop-Tarts my cultural identity away. For and cold pav bhaji. When we most of my life, I have lived by want to eat out but don’t feel the philosophy that chopsticks like paying, we head to Nithya’s were only for family dinner and family restaurant for roti and Chinese was only to be spoken lamb biryani and wash it down at home. Whether it was out of with some rich mango lassi. I shame or fear of ostracization, don’t always like everything, I did everything in my power and, admittedly, sometimes my to appear as acclimated to spice tolerance proves to be a limiting factor, but because American society as possible. Anj and Nith, on the other of my friends’ willingness to hand, are shamelessly proud share their culture with me, I Brown girls. They are outwardly have discovered Indian cuisine obsessed with Indian comedian stretches miles past just naan Hasan Minhaj and regularly and curry. Apart from the food, my listen to Bollywood Spotify playlists in the car. It is because friends have also been a window of their unabashed pride that to various Indian traditions I have a better understanding and customs. For Navaratri, of Indian culture than I ever a 10-day long Indian festival, we attended a local gathering thought possible. When I walk into Anjali’s where I learned the basics of house, one of the first things I garba, a dance native to the lay eyes on is an elderly woman Gujarat state. The event was a dressed in a sari speaking spectacle. We dressed in vibrant Gujarati. This is Anjali’s southeast Asian attire and grandmother. Naturally, I was a repeated intricate steps around decorative centerpiece. little jarred the first time I saw a her sitting on the living room Amid a crowd of Indians all couch browsing on her iPad. It moving in synchronization, wasn’t every day I witnessed my uncoordinated bare feet people casually wearing and lack of rhythm stood out traditional Indian garb, but I like a sore thumb. Despite the very quickly realized for many clumsiness, my experience with garba was a fascinating people, including Anj, it was. immersion only This initial recognition of my cultural own biases was paramount to made possible by my friends’
eagerness to share their own customs and traditions with an outsider. My friends’ pride in their own heritage is radiating. Because of them, I find myself excited to see an Indian playing a traditionally white role on television. I find myself frustrated at the sight of subtle Indian cultural appropriation and microaggression. But beyond that, I also find myself recognizing these same things within my own culture. Anjali and Nithya’s lively backgrounds have reminded me that my own background is fascinating and worth my attention. While it is easy to simply acclimate to American society, my experiences as a Chinese girl have left me with a unique and nuanced worldview. To allow this identity to simply fade away is to diminish the valuable and oftentimes hardearned perspective that came with it. I used to brush my Chinese identity under the carpet, and to some extent I still do, but today I feel honored to be a part of a culture with such vibrant history and tradition. Cultural exchange is a twosided matter. It obviously requires open-mindedness to work, but it is also not possible without people like Anjali and Nithya — people who take personal pride in where they come from and want others to know about it. For many of us, our cultural identities are not salient when they really should be. We acclimate so staunchly to our surroundings that we end up sacrificing some of our most interesting qualities in the process. This trend is counterproductive. We should take pride in where we come from not only because it makes our own lives more interesting, but also because the resulting cultural exchange and subsequent acceptance that makes us all better people.
Amanda Zhang can be reached at amanzhan@umich.edu.
HANK MINOR | COLUMN
T
If voting mattered they’d make it illegal
he line “If voting could change anything it would be made illegal!” is often misattributed to Mark Twain, and disputably attributed to anarchist Emma Goldman. The first confirmed appearance, if it matters, was from The Lowell Sun in 1974. Regardless of who said it, the phrase carries a sentiment shared by many Americans: Why bother voting if it doesn’t seem to affect anything? Of course, one vote does have some effect — collect enough of them for one candidate or one party and a number of things change on the surface. In reality, however, policy is implemented differently, stalled or walked back; judges are confirmed or blocked; districts (in census years) are drawn to increase or diminish the power of certain voting blocs. These things feel less and less like the sort of change Americans across the political spectrum are seeking. It seems Americans increasingly identify with Julius Nyerere’s quip: “The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.” I’d point out that in a lot of ways, “they” are making voting illegal — especially in Michigan. Laws requiring addresses on photo identification to match voter registration addresses specifically target college students. Laws revoking franchise from felons prevent citizens — disproportionately nonwhite — from reintegrating with and participating in society and the closure of polling stations allow precise suppression of specific demographics. Straightticket voting — choosing a party’s entire slate of candidates with a single notation — can furthermore increase participation in down ballot races; unsurprisingly, it’s only legal in eight states. On an individual level, voting doesn’t actually matter — hence all of the ink spilled over the paradox of voting. It’s also surprisingly controversial to say
nonvoting is a valid affirmative choice as a statement of lack of faith in the electoral process, the party system and the people who make it onto the ballot. I do recognize, however, that many nonvoters aren’t choosing to protest, but rather are being intentionally alienated from the process. The view that voter suppression — not voter apathy — is an issue seems to be catching on, surprisingly. There was a significant amount of petulant backlash in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, as liberals vented frustration at nonvoters, saying, “If only they’d voted with us, we’d have won.” In the intervening years, this vague outrage has coalesced into a project that might have some genuine effect and target an actual problem. Corporations are signing on to voter turnout projects: everything from registration to transport and time off. It’s been hard to miss the online promotions, too, especially on Voter Registration Day (Sept. 25). It seemed as if every social media site — Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Tumblr — was running a banner ad reminding their users to vote or providing information about how to register. This level of interest from the business world is hard to understate — for whatever reason, corporations from Patagonia to Uber agree on the desirability of turning people out for the November 2018 midterms and are willing to spend money making it happen. Many appeals to student voters especially rely on outrage: voice your distaste for Donald Trump, support marginalized people and enjoy the twilight years of democracy. I’ve been slowly convinced, despite deeply held assumptions to the contrary, that these negative appeals work — most people don’t actually need a revolution, and they don’t need a charismatic leader to rally around. A (debated) rise in negative polarization means for many partisans, spite is sufficient.
Voter registration drives and mobilization efforts, therefore, could just be a response to this shift; instead of inspiring people to vote against all odds, concerned parties are guiding frustration. Once nudged in the right direction, social media and news outlets provide momentum — a party or politician’s responsibility is then simply to ensure fewer people hate them than their opponent. The interesting part is, whether out of love or spite, we’re voting. Innumerable column inches have been wasted wringing our hands over whether people are going to vote for the “right” or “wrong” reasons, missing the fact that suddenly more of them are voting, exactly as people have been hoping for so many years. It’s strange to yearn for the masses to have their say when they refuse to participate and then suddenly recoil when they step forward. The GOP understands this dynamic (as usual) much more intuitively than Democrats do — suppress the other party’s voters, tailor registration laws to your constituency and reap the electoral reward. The Democratic mistake is looking at this as if it’s somehow distasteful — the Republicans are winning, but they’re doing it “the wrong way.” The GOP understands, though, that whether they lose out of incompetence or out of principle the outcome is the same, and they’d prefer to win. Encouraging electoral participation is a worthwhile project, even if the motives of certain actors are questionable. That said, increasing turnout isn’t a long-term strategy. Harnessing frustration at Trump works right now, but it won’t work forever. Legislators with sufficient motivation will move to cement their institutional advantages, and those pining for a mythical era of civility and pure intentions will continue to endure losing elections. Hank Minor can be reached at hminor@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
FILM NOTEBOOK
FLICKR
Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’ and the art of uncomfortable MAX MICHALSKY Daily Arts Writer
Horror has always been a genre of extremes. It’s something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; it’s difficult to evoke fear from that which is familiar, so horror filmmakers find themselves locked in a never-ending search for the bloodiest, the goriest and the scariest. This proverbial arms race has led the genre to feel a bit oversaturated, with many horror films prioritizing shock value over quality and depth. It’s no slight against these films, as they certainly have their place in the popular entertainment canon, but one couldn’t be faulted for hoping for an alternative. Enter David Lynch. Lynch is horror’s Andy Warhol: an enigmatic, white-haired virtuoso with a penchant for the bizarre. Operating on the fringe is Lynch’s modus operandi, originally making a name for himself on the midnight movie circuit that gained cult fame in the ’70s. These screenings, which started as a place for low-budget genre films, would eventually become a hotbed for some of cinema’s most bizarre and inventive films that would have never been funded by a major studio. Lynch produced his directorial debut, 1977’s “Eraserhead,” during his time studying at the American Film Institute, and would go on to blow up the midnight circuit, running for 99 consecutive weeks. The film tells the story of Henry (Jack Nance, “Lost Highway”), a young man whose one-night stand leaves
him forced to raise a grossly deformed baby in a hyperindustrial urban hellscape. It’s not only one of Lynch’s most iconic and recognizable films, but also a quintessential example of Lynch’s iconic horror style. Watch “Eraserhead” and you’ll find no jump scares, no dissonant string quartet; that’s just not Lynch’s style, which recognizes fear as a deep, complex emotion that
Lynch is horror’s Andy Warhol: an enigmatic, whitehaired virtuoso with a penchant for the bizarre
deserves exploration beyond just cheap tricks and gotcha moments. In “Eraserhead”’s runtime, audiences are treated to a factory that turns brains into erasers, a cabaret girl with severe facial deformities and a limbless, lizard-like baby that cries 24/7. Most horror movies tell stories about scary situations happening in our world. They’re meant to leave audiences with that nagging thought that maybe, just maybe, this could happen to them. Lynch, however, defies this convention entirely. The world of “Eraserhead” is like our world gone insane; Lynch
isn’t trying to scare you so much as he’s trying to make you extremely uncomfortable. Lynch’s cinematography purposely defies the typical “rhythm” of horror movies, forgoing the short, jumpy shots meant to build suspense. Rather, Lynch’s camera lingers on characters as they twitch and convulse, often in silence. There’s a realness to this style, and as a result, “Eraserhead” feel less like watching a scary movie and more like accidentally stumbling through a portal into a hellish alternate reality. Lynchian horror is effective because it toys with our expectations. It is at once both disturbingly bizarre and uncannily familiar. This dissonance is powerful and can make Lynch’s films viscerally difficult to watch. Lynch’s films upset the most basal part of us, the part that has observed an order and wants to see that order upheld. Lynch’s films take this order and warp it into deformity; the worlds his film occupies are like ours gone horribly wrong. While fans have long argued over Lynch’s messaging, he’s refused to ever comment publicly about the meaning of “Eraserhead,” leaving fans to find their own meaning in the insanity. Lynch’s penchant for secrecy expanded to his props, never revealing how he made “Eraserhead”’s deformed baby prop — even the actors and set crew had to close their eyes when he moved it onto the set. If you’re sick of the cheap tricks this Halloween and you want a ruin-your-life kind of horror experience, then look no further than the works of David Lynch.
FILM NOTEBOOK
Craven, master of horror ANISH TAMHANEY For the Daily
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved scary movies. When I was a kid, they had a distinct and very physical effect on me. I would yell. I would toss away the blankets, horrified. I would jump off the couch and pray in a sort of knowing, mischievous way, that the boogie man would not get me. That feeling of unfiltered, pure fear was ambrosiac to me. It’s a kind of rawness I chase every time I see a movie. It’s why I’ve never stopped watching horror. Nowadays, I pay attention to different aspects of horror movies, not the jump scares or the cheap tricks, but the narratives and what they may say about our understanding of fear. My favorites of the genre are the movies that meant one thing when I saw them in childhood and express a message entirely new when I watch them now. The truth is that, of the unhealthy heaps of horror I have seen, only one filmmaker consummately encapsulates the duality between my infantile adrenaline-seeking and my more mature reinspection: Wes Craven. Among the most successful
horror directors, Craven has sustained his mordantly brooding impact in the popular consciousness because his work transcends any single era of horror. From his voyeuristic 1977 cult classic “The Hills Have Eyes” to his decade-defining “A Nightmare on Elm Street” seven years later to his cinematically reinventive “Scream” in the ’90s, the master of his craft has engendered a revitalized adoration for horror on a multigenerational scale. Sure, on the surface, Wes Craven’s filmography is not astoundingly iconoclastic. At its core, it is a catalogue of slick grimy flicks with psychotic killers and (mostly) helpless victims awaiting their demises. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I remember watching the opening scene of “Scream” when I was 10. At first, all I could do was stare wide-eyed in disbelief, an indignant refusal to accept the bloody insanity I was seeing. Looking back, however, it was among the first times my reaction to a movie was so involved, so intensely visceral. In hindsight, that is the first solid memory I have of a film — any film — leaping so violently out of the screen and urging me to reflect
on the medium outside of simply watching it.
Thursday, October 18, 2018 — 5
to pull a viewer in so completely. There was always a layer of Wes Craven films that escaped me in my first viewings, even though I knew it was there, lurking in the background. I have, time and time again, revisited “Scream,” because, in myriad ways, it is an indictment of the genre itself — its lazy clichés, its predictability and its sanctimonious parables. On top of remaining the somewhat silly serial killer movie I’ve always cherished, the film is layered with metatextual messages in practically every line. Most memorable for me is when Jamie Kennedy is watching another horror film, “Halloween” and urging Jamie Lee Curtis to turn around. “Look behind you Jamie, look behind you,” he desperately mutters just as the very real killer looms behind him. A moment that had deeply frightened me as a kid had turned profoundly illuminating. This wasn’t just a scary movie; it was a scary movie that could speak volumes about the fallacies of its
BOOK REVIEW
‘Call Them By Their True Names’ is a call to action JULIA MOSS
Daily Arts Writer
When I find myself in times of trouble, Rebecca Solnit comes to me. But her advice is never simply to let it be. Quite the opposite, the essays in her latest collection “Call Them By Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)” encourage us to fight, in both word and action, against the forces of injustice, inequality and apathy that threaten the integrity of American society.
“Call Them By Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)” Rebecca Solnit Sept. 4, 2018
It was a pretty scarring experience that I probably shouldn’t have had so young, but it also opened my mind to the capability of a movie, horror or not,
harrowingly astral gorefest that gave birth to an equally famous razor-handed antagonist: Freddy Krueger. His particular brand of evil always terrified me more than any other because he took advantage of a necessity of human behavior: sleep. How could I find comfort in turning off the TV and tucking myself in when I knew the movie’s dangers were never really gone? There’s one line from “Scream” that embodies Craven, his outlook on cinema and his palpable reach: “It’s all a movie. It’s all one great big movie.” The truth is that the source of my appreciation of Craven years ago and today is one and the same: His films are a reflection of my relationship with cinema. They offer this basic lesson regarding our involvement with the screen. The more you want out of a film, the more you will receive. With this realization in mind, I will never stop watching Wes Craven movies. They remind me and can remind all of us of the reason we turn on the TV at all.
DIMENSION FILMS
Haymarket Books
His particular brand of evil always terrified me more than any other because he took advantage of a necessity of human behavior: sleep
own genre. I often laugh at this scene now, not just because of the general ridiculousness of the movie but because the double-entendre is strikingly clever. Another gem of the series comes from “Scream 2,” in which a group of college students in film class debate at length about the validity of movie sequels. The conversation is endlessly hilarious because of its interactivity; we, as viewers, are forced to evaluate our own perceptions of second installments. Craven openly plays with our own expectations of the very movie we are seeing now. It’s brilliant. And while it may be too generous to similarly laud the additional sequels the franchise, they too toy with our reality and its relationship to film, establishing a cartoonish mirror of our world in which the fictional “Stab” film series suffuses the fervor of horror fans. Of course, it is impossible to discuss the ways in which Craven interacts with our reality without “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the
Solnit is perhaps best known for writing on feminism in her earlier essay collections “Men Explain Things to Me” and “The Mother of All Questions,” but after writing over 20 books and countless essays, Solnit proves an insightful observer in a diverse range of subjects, from environmental activism to the history of walking to the culture of San Francisco. The essays in “Call Them By Their True Names” are exemplary of Solnit’s omnivorous appetite, and her ability to weave her own obsessions into a vibrant and complex image of American life. In the both grossly and charmingly titled “Armpit Wax,” Solnit meditates on how the creation myths of different cultures tint the lens through which we consider questions of perfection, grace and redemption; in the more somber “Death by Gentrification,” Solnit does a deep forensic dive into
the 2014 police killing of Alex Nieto to explore how it reflects on larger issues of displacement and inequity in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco neighborhoods; in “The Ideology of Isolation,” Solnit connects the American “cowboy ethos” of rough-and-tumble selfsufficiency to the disintegration of objective truth. Somewhere in this nimble navigation between the historical and the contemporary, the philosophical and the concrete, Solnit offers a remarkably clear-eyed understanding of American society, and pulls off the neat trick of untangling some wildly complicated issues into a comprehensible form without ever denying their complexity. Tying together the disparate subjects of these essays is Solnit’s interest in the power of language, both as a diagnostic tool for larger social issues and a weapon by which those issues can be obscured or distorted in the public eye, which she identifies as “one of the crises of this moment.” Though Solnit doesn’t shy away from the cerebral and abstract, her interest in language is deeply practical, coming from her history as a progressive activist. She writes, “Calling things by their true names cuts through the lies that excuse, buffer, muddle, disguise, avoid or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness. It’s not all there is to changing the world, but it’s a key step.” And “changing the world,” as grand a claim as that may seem, is the explicit goal of these essays. While that may seem naive to some, Solnit argues that it’s absolutely essential in her essay on “Naive Cynicism,” which she defines as the attitude that the world cannot be transformed in any substantial or ideal way, and therefore there’s no point in trying. Solnit argues that we must meet naive cynicism with practical idealism in the form of action: “What we do begins with what we believe we can do. It begins with being open to the possibilities and interested in
the complexities.” This prevailing emphasis on hope, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, makes Solnit a steady and necessary voice of the resistance. While her own values lie unapologetically on the far-left of the political spectrum, her mission applies
This prevailing emphasis on hope, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, makes Solnit a steady and necessary voice of the resistance
to anyone seeking a more just, more progressive social order, with a grounding in evidencebased reform. In a time when every week seems to bring a new defeat for minorities, for women and for the environment, Solnit reminds us that our actions matter even when they seem trivial. “Actions often ripple far beyond their immediate objective, and remembering this is a reason to live by principle and act in the hope that what you do matters, even when results are unlikely to be immediate or obvious … You do what you can do; you do your best; what what you do does is not up to you.”
Arts
6 — Thursday, October 18, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
COMMUNITY CULTURE PROFILE
Thomas Laub on the start of his production company Runyonland Productions ISABELLE HASSLUND Daily Arts Writer
I would be lying if I did not say that at first, I felt intimidated about the notion of meeting Thomas Laub, a Senior pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in Ross School of Business, to speak about his new production company, Runyonland Productions. Runyonland Productions has been extremely successful since it first took off. Its first production, “SHEL,” written by University graduate Noah Kieserman, who stars as Evan in the “Dear Evan Hansen” National Tour, sold out in just three hours. “SHEL” will do its first industry reading in New York City during the month of May. When speaking with Laub, it soon became apparent that he was a humble young man, who is trying to ignite change in the theatre industry that he wants to see. “I wanted to produce live
theatre and so I worked with Disney theatrical group on Broadway, and during that summer I was sitting in my little box on 136th and Broadway, and I was thinking: ‘I don’t know what the point of doing this is if I’m not doing this with my friends and cultivating our own creative cohort’,” Laub stated, speaking to his experience on starting a production company. From there, Laub gave Kieserman a call about producing his original musical; the company and “SHEL” took off from there. Laub takes advantage of the diversity of talent hosted on campus. He recruits Engineering students for stage, scenic design and lighting, benefits from the incredible business and creative talent at Ross and uses his fellow cohort’s talents in SMTD to create large scale and small scale productions of high caliber. “We exist to fill the space that isn’t currently filled on campus,” Laub said. Runyonland Productions is
not a student organization. In fact, it is a for-profit theatre production company that is a great and accessible way for students of all different backgrounds to do professional work in the theatre industry, with a company that has a direct pipeline to the booming theatre industry in New York. The mission statement of Runyonland Production company is “to bring the best live theatrical entertainment to the widest, most diverse audience possible. Runyonland Productions aims to both enrich the community through producing Broadway-level artistic experiences and providing educational outlets for young artists and creators at the University of Michigan,” Laub said. “If you want to do the best work you get the widest group of people. It seems obvious but it’s stunningly not … Growing up, I was told, ‘You’re into theatre: You should be a producer,’ and
HANNAH SEIGEL / DAILY
my equally smart, brilliant, talented female friends will be told, ‘You’re into theatre, you should be a stage manager.’” If the production world were filled with Thomas Laubs, who appreciated and thrived for diversity in both casting and production, the world would be a better and more appreciative place. Women and people of color not only need to see their identities reflected on stage, but also in the creative and logistics part of live theatre. Laub cultivates diversity in production to allow live theatre to reach new heights and see a brilliance that simply cannot be created by a team of solely old, white men. During his experience in a Broadway production office, Laub quickly
noticed that meetings consisted of teams of this demographic, so he sought out to change that narrative. Laub strives to make Runyonland Productions empower all different types of people into working in the theatre industry, to make art and theatre inclusive and unhindered. He knows the only way to create great art is by having everyone have a creative say in the industry. Runyonland Production aims to be an example of the change that needs to happen in the industry. Upcoming Performances for Runyonland Productions: “FOR THE RECORD”— December 6th and 7th at 7:00 p.m. in the Duderstadt Video Studio A new play by Broadway director and U-M faculty member, Jeff
Packard, about a young man whose father kills himself after learning he has Huntington Disease, a genetic disorder. World in HD and the Huntington’s Disease Society of America were major partners during this production, and representatives will be present for a talkback after the show. “MERRILY WE RIDE ALONG” — February 28th and March 1st at 7:30 p.m. in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre Written by Stephen Sondheim, a concert-style show, featuring some original Broadway cast members coming in. “A NIGHT OF MYTHS & HYMNS” — March 30th at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the UMMA A song cycle written by two time Tony Award winner Adam Gettle, who wrote “Light in the Piazza.”
ALBUM REVIEW
Ella Mai’s debut album is nothing new, easy to like DIANA YASSIN For the Daily
After a momentary blip in the last decade, women in R&B have been making their long-awaited return to the charts. Following a fruitful ’90s that brought in the success of powerhouses like Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill, the prevalence of new artists began to wane in the late aughts into recent years. SZA, Janelle Monáe and Jorja Smith have received widespread critical acclaim for their works, but their commercial success wasn’t up to par. It’s for this reason Ella Mai’s newfound success with sleeper hit
“Boo’d Up” came as a surprise, but not necessarily a shock: It’s been expected for some time now. The song is nothing new: a throwback-esque jam that harkens back to the twinkly choruses and saccharine lyrics that have all been heard before. “Ooh, now I’ll never get over you until I find something new / That get me high like you do.” But the star ascends at a time infatuated with all things ’90s — it’s as nostalgic as comfort food. Her music may not be as sonically complex or compelling as those of her peers, but it’s an earworm catchy enough to get stuck in the heads of tweens and old-school rockers alike. Her debut eponymous
Release Date: Thursday, October 18, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Cartman on “South Park” 5 John follower 9 European farewell 14 Default takeback 15 Formal agreement 16 Two-time Argentine president 17 Famous __ 18 Keys for Elton 20 They may be added to soup 22 Tennis’ Open __ 23 Smooth-talking 24 Fight 28 “25” album maker 30 Federal URL ending 31 Lennon’s lady 32 Recognition event 36 Prop for Frosty 38 Crown installer’s org. 39 Short strings? 40 Camp activities 45 Inventor’s monogram 46 Head for Vegas? 47 Carpenter’s joint 49 Like Justice League members 51 Stub __ 53 Stroke that doesn’t count 55 Vegas device used literally in three puzzle answers 58 Prime hotel time 61 Assessment 62 Comforting words 63 Support at sea 64 Destructive Greek god 65 Genres 66 Watch pair? 67 Sly attentiongetter DOWN 1 Rub out 2 Rider on a shark
3 Audio system connector 4 Cuban thing 5 Hotter 6 Color named for a sea animal 7 Detective role for Beatty 8 Cleaning area 9 Say yes 10 Reason-based faith 11 Lyricist Gershwin 12 Many ages 13 Mattel game since 1992 19 Furnishings and such 21 Root beer alternative 25 Proprietors for word lovers 26 Diarist Frank 27 Elves’ output 29 Ram fans? 30 Camping stuff 33 Root beer since 1937 34 Epidemicfighting agcy.
35 You won’t see one at Westminster 36 Trail 37 Requiem Mass hymn word 41 They’re assumed 42 Mother-of-pearl 43 Bottom lines 44 Feudal estate 48 John Wick portrayer
50 Natural clay pigment 51 Evaluate 52 More of that 54 Secret rendezvous 56 Title for Helen Mirren 57 Flutter 58 Baseball stat 59 Standoffish 60 Mountain pass
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Ella Mai Ella Mai 10 Summers/ Interscope Records album Ella Mai is no different. The album, like Mai’s past EPs, is produced by none other than the infamous club anthem churner himself, DJ Mustard. No “Mustard on that beat, ho” signature this time around, but the album is full of others: trapflirting beats, simplistic synthbass openings, electronic snaps and claps, plinking keyboards. This is by no means a bad thing; it makes for the airy, finger-snapping appeal the album strives for. There are points, however, where the sound feels monotonous. “Everything,” a slow jam featuring John Legend, is a prominent example: the trap influenced chorus ill-fitting against Mai and Legend’s crooning and the adoring lyricism. That being said, the album
offers its intricacies elsewhere. The leading track, “Emotion,” takes charge in framing the album around an acrostic poem for Mai’s name via spoken word skits that last about 10 seconds every two to three tracks. The move leans juvenile but provides a deft showcase of Mai’s British accent, emotive lyricism and views on romance. Other points where Mai shines on the album include “Sauce,” her words scathing and vivid, informing her partner “You gotta level up if you want this (Stop) / Chewin’ with your mouth wide open.” The more vulnerable “Trip” is also worth mentioning, as she confesses “I put my feelings on safety / So I don’t go shootin’
where your heart be.” Though centered on the idea of romantic love, Mai provides the story and personality that listeners have been waiting for since “Boo’d Up.” “Shot Clock” exudes confidence in its detailing of a confrontation between Mai and her lover, livid but assured as she demands to know whether or not what they have is serious. The doo-wop influence paired with an interpolation of Drake’s “Legend” heighten the already confrontational and sarcastic tone of the song. “Own It” adds a raunchy and fun element to the album. Mai eschews the more naïve air she paints for herself in other tracks by tapping into her more sensual side, her vocal range deeper
amid the sampled Adina Howard. Conversely, bonus track “Naked” carries immense emotional weight as it explores experiences beyond the physical, Mai insecure as to whether or not she can convey her truest self to another. The track stands as the album’s sole slow song, stripped-down and strummed on an acoustic guitar. By no means groundbreaking, Ella Mai provides a quick fix of nostalgia for the R&B sound many of us grew up to. If you’re a fan of some of the newer sounds surfacing onto the R&B scene, perhaps this album isn’t for you. That being said, the charming and upbeat nature of Ella Mai is undeniable; she is bound for success that goes beyond capitalizing as a one-hit-wonder.
TV REVIEW
‘The Romanoffs’ misses the mark SAYAN GHOSH Daily Arts Writer
10/18/18
The tragic story of the Romanoff family, and its youngest member Anastasia in particular, has captivated audiences since the earliest era of the silver screen.
“The Romanoffs” Amazon Prime Series Premiere
By Roger and Kathy Wienberg ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
INTERSCOPE RECORDS
10/18/18
Matthew Weiner, the creator of the widely praised series “Mad Men,” is the latest to take a stab at the story. The result is an anthology collection that shares “Mad Men”’s stylish flair but lacks the nuanced observations and character studies that made “Mad Men” memorable. “The Violet Hour,” the first installation of the series, takes place in present day Paris. It
centers around the estate of Anastasia LeCharnay (Marthe Keller, “The Escape”), an elderly, wealthy French woman who claims to be descended from the Romanoffs. Her nephew Greg (Aaron Eckhart, “Incarnate”) and his girlfriend Sophie (Louise Bourgoin, “I am a Soldier”) are her closest remaining relatives, despite the fact that they spend most of the episode waiting for her death and the resulting inheritance. Anastasia — who mostly goes by the diminutive Anushka — loathes her caretakers, especially the newest one Hajar (Inès Melab, “The Bird”), a young Frenchwoman of North African descent. Anushka is cruel and uncouth towards Hajar, calling her a “terrorist” and citing events throughout history where “Western Civilization” defeated the “Muslim World.” She initially uses her family name and heritage as a symbol of “Western Civilization” itself, using it to constantly insult
Hajar. While her tirades become rather uncomfortable to watch, it is even more disconcerting to somehow suggest that Hajar should sympathize with Anushka due to her clear isolation. The eventual thawing of relations never seems to feel quite natural. “The Violet Hour” is ostensibly an examination of power and its loss, but by using simple clichés such as a yellow Faberge egg and convoluted history lessons, the episode never gets its point across in a compelling way. The episode fleetingly tackles other social topics as well, including the shrinking of the French middle class and the immigrant experience as a whole, but each discussion and exploration feels annoyingly superficial. Anushka is the only well-developed, fleshedout character, leaving the rest to serve as mere props. While Hajar is portrayed as sympathetic, Melab is not given the opportunity to show much range beyond her mildly annoyed
reactions towards Anushka’s racial epithets. Moreover, her family’s story is not given much thought, despite the potential comparisons with Anushka’s own background. What “The Violet Hour” — and “The Romanoffs” as a whole — lacks in effective storytelling, it makes up for in the visuals. Anushka’s gilded Paris mansion is both stunningly beautiful yet hauntingly empty, giving better context for her misery than her own speeches. The shots are always controlled and varied, in typical Weiner style. Scenes featuring Anushka fittingly give the sense that despite her family’s wealth, she is little more than a petty, vindictive miser who is outof-touch with modern France. Perhaps due to its length, “The Violet Hour” never satisfyingly completes the discussions it brings up. While a beautiful watch, it straddles the line between “good” and “great,” lacking the subtlety to edge it towards the latter.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, October 18, 2018 — 7
Too skilled to sit, Brazdeikis to learn multiple positions ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
Ignas Brazdeikis is officially listed as a forward. Don’t let that fool you. The top-40 prospect, who headlines the men’s basketball team’s 12th-ranked recruiting classes, per 247Sports’ composite score, is firmly behind redshirt junior Charles Matthews at small forward. That’s more a product of Matthews’ ability as a scorer and anchor for a defense that ranked third in adjusted efficiency last season. But Brazdeikis’ talent is enough to warrant some unorthodox moves. “We gotta get him out on the court somehow,” Beilein said last week at Big Ten Media Day. Doing so means also playing Brazdeikis at shooting guard and power forward, forcing the freshman to learn multiple positions in Beilein’s notoriously complex system. Since coaching in Division I, it’s the third time Beilein has done that. The last was with Johannes Herber, who played under Beilein at West Virginia from 2003-06; the first was with Scott Ungerer, who was under Beilein’s tutelage from 1998-2002 at Richmond and who, like Brazdeikis, is listed as 6-foot-7. For Ungerer, too, playing multiple positions as a freshman was as much a result of necessity as versatility. The Spiders suffered so many injuries that Ungerer, a point guard in high school, had to play center in a game at UConn. “I’ll probably jump to a conclusion with Ignas,” Ungerer told The Daily in a phone interview. “You’ve gotta have somebody who’s smart enough, especially in
EVAN AARON/Daily
Freshman Ignas Brazdeikis was a top-40 prospect before committing to Michigan and is now learning how to play multiple positions for the Wolverines this season.
(Beilein’s) system, to be able to pick up and play multiple positions. Because there is a pretty significant difference in Beilein’s two-guard offense between the guard and the forward and the center. “Those are the three pivot spots. So you’ve gotta have somebody who’s adept and kind of comfortable, and can have a pretty quick, highlearning agility to pick up the different motions.” Being the 4-man means playing on the wing. Often, in Beilein’s offense, it means get-
“We gotta get him out on the court somehow.”
ting the entry pass as opposed to the shooting guard, who splits the responsibility of bringing the ball up. It’s a little more complicated than that, though. “The offense, a lot of it, is predicated based on motion and movement,” Ungerer said. “So, somebody makes one change and cuts backdoor, it changes the whole flow of the play. So I needed to know what everybody was doing from every position.” The reads Brazdeikis will have to make, in other words,
change drastically based on position. As much as his ability to slide between two positions depends on the physical — can he guard players across the spectrum without trouble? — the mental is just as important. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think he could do it,” Beilein said. “... One day I’m gonna say, ‘You’re a 4-man, you’ve gotta crash the boards on offense.’ And then I’m gonna tell (him), ‘No, you gotta be back when you’re a 2-man.’ So there’s a lot of things. He’s gonna not be per-
“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think he could do it.”
fect at it, but he’s gonna grow as a player. He’s a guy that can handle this. His basketball IQ is good, and he picks up things quickly.” Brazdeikis’ physical skill is already there, in droves. He’s older than most freshmen at 19 and lit up the prep school circuit last season at Orangeville Prep in Ontario, Canada. On Michigan’s trip to Spain in August, Brazdeikis averaged 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds in three games, leading the team in scoring, per stats compiled by The Athletic’s
Brendan Quinn. If you’re looking for a reason Beilein wants him on the court so badly, that’s it. Three exhibition games though they may be, if Brazdeikis can put up those numbers in that setting, having been with the team for just weeks, think about what he can do with once fully integrated. Brazdeikis is a hamster running in a ball. He may need a little more structure, but the energy — and ability — he brings is palpable. “He’s such a good driver that he’ll pass up an open shot, or he’ll doubt whether he’s open because he knows, anytime, (he can) just get to the hoop in prior experiences,” Beilein said. “In the Big Ten, you ain’t getting to the hoop. So we gotta get him to be able to slow down, play with pace.” It could take time for that slow-down to happen, Ungerer said, but Brazdeikis has a noted advantage in the Spain trip. Already, he has played live competition against real opponents, albeit in an exhibition setting. And his performance was up to par. Still, there may be kinks to work out early on. Miscommunication could be a telltale sign, Ungerer said, that Brazdeikis is still learning to play within the system. Once he does, Brazdeikis may quickly become good enough for the next level. “When (Brazdeikis) has the ability to go to the NBA — I think he’s got a great shot of playing professional basketball — (that) they’re gonna want a guy that can play a lot of positions,” Beilein said. “A guy that can pass, can rebound, can shoot and can defend three or four positions. Iggy, I believe he can do that.”
“In the Big Ten, you ain’t getting to the hoop.”
Lockwood ready to help Michigan offense ‘M’ sweeps road slate VOLLEYBALL
BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer
Standing just outside the left circle, Will Lockwood waited to receive the puck from sophomore forward Josh Norris. Norris rif led a pass right to the junior forward’s stick, and Lockwood fired a shot that found twine. With one f lick of his stick, he halved the Michigan hockey team’s deficit in the first game of the season. And though the Wolverines would eventually fall to Vermont in that matchup, Lockwood’s goal mattered for a different reason. It was his first goal in a Michigan sweater since 2017 after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in January 2018. “It was awesome,” Lockwood said of the goal. “Any time you get an opportunity to score in Yost and you end up putting one in, it’s an awesome experience. … To have that one go in was a good feeling.” It was a long road from the initial injury to being ice-ready. Lockwood worked toward returning for the beginning of the 2018-19 season, nine months after undergoing surgery. On April 15, just ten days after the Wolverines’ season ended with a loss to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four semifinal game, Michigan coach Mel Pearson tweeted a photo of Lockwood practicing on the ice at a darkened Yost Ice Arena — alone. “I saw determination, focus,” Pearson said. “He really did a great job getting himself ready to play and making sure he was strong enough to go. He redefined his body … He really committed himself to making sure he could do everything he could to get himself ready for the season.” After notching 11 points in 16 games last season, Lockwood’s return to the ice promises to help the Michigan offense recover from the loss of last season’s three top scorers. “It’s great having him back
because it gives us so many more options to have a player like him, whether on your power play or penalty kill,” Pearson said. “He can play in all situations. He’s a good player, too, so you put him with other players and he lifts their game up, too. He’s got great individual skills, but he makes people around him better.” Through their first game — plus two exhibition matchups — the Wolverines have scored 12 goals and given up 15. And at the same point last season, through two games and one exhibition, Michigan had scored 13 goals and given up just five. While the goals scored differs very slightly, the goals against shows a glaring change. And it’s that increased number of goals against — the sign of a struggling defense — that shows the real offensive issues for the Wolverines. The
best defense is a good offense, and Michigan demonstrates that the adage is true. “The best defense is to be playing in the offensive zone,” Lockwood said. “We’ve been working on that, and a lot of it is puck control and supporting each other.” When a team has possession in the offensive zone and manages to score, the defense has to do little work. But when a team loses possession entering the offensive zone or leaving the defensive zone, the defense is suddenly on its heels attempting to prevent a goal. And while the role of the defense is to prevent the other team from scoring, a lack of offense makes that job harder. “You get behind and then you start pressing,” Pearson said. “You do different things. Your style changes, it shouldn’t. … We’ve gotta make sure we take care of our defensive zone first.
If you’re giving up four and five goals, you’re gonna have to score more, and that puts a lot of pressure on your forwards to do that.” As one forward in the Wolverines’ top line, Lockwood stands in position to take on that pressure. And after sitting in the stands for Michigan’s trip to the Frozen Four, he’s ready to be back competing on the ice. With three points in the Wolverines’ first three games, Lockwood has settled back in as one of Michigan’s top scorers and has made it clear he won’t let opportunities pass him by this season. “I felt like I was missing a little something in my life (when I wasn’t playing),” Lockwood said. “But to be back — it feels great to be on the ice every day. I have a different mindset. I don’t really take anything for granted.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior forward Will Lockwood has notched three points through three games for the Wolverines so far this season.
ADAM RICH
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan volleyball coach Mark Rosen clinched his 400th career win with the Wolverines on Friday, after over 20 years in Ann Arbor. More dear to Rosen was that he achieved this accomplishment alongside his wife, associate head coach Leisa Rosen. No. 13 Michigan (17-2 overall, 6-2 Big Ten) swept its weekend road tilts against rival Ohio State (12-8, 3-5) and Maryland (12-8, 3-5) in five and four sets, respectively. On the road Friday in a hostile environment, the Wolverines jumped out to a two sets to none lead against the Buckeyes. But in a game with so much emotion, Ohio State did not go away easily, and countered by taking the next two sets behind a flurry of adjustments. “Every team in the Big Ten is good,” Rosen said. “But it’s those teams that maybe don’t have as good a record and haven’t had as much success that I don’t want to say you look past, but it’s a little harder to prepare for them because on a given night, they can play really, really well. “Ohio State made some pretty significant changes in their lineup and their tactics. They just did a great job of serving the ball aggressively and switching their blockers around so they could match up differently with our hitters. I just thought that they played really well and adjusted, and we had to make sure we adjusted to the their adjustments.” That they did. Although it dropped both the third and the fourth sets, Michigan remained confident in its gameplan and unleashed its not-so-secret weapon in the fifth set, senior outside hitter Carly Skjodt. She finished the match with 23 kills, tied for the team lead. “In the fifth we really challenged her to be super aggressive and bang out of
trouble,” Rosen said. “You know, when we’re in trouble, we tell her to just go after it, and don’t just try to keep the ball in play. Carly did a great job in the fifth set, and she was great all weekend.” Equally great was Paige Jones, the freshman outside hitter from Ohio, about whom Rosen gushed. “She was playing in her home state, against the big school in her state and she had her whole high school there, probably even her county was there,” Rosen said. “That’s a lot of pressure to have on you as an 18-year old freshman. And she played outstanding, and that tells you a lot about her fortitude and her makeup. She’s a kid who’s not afraid of those moments.” As Rosen alluded to, the stage elevated Jones’ play. She finished the match with a career high 23 kills, which tied the veteran Skjodt for the team lead. Coming off the rivalry game in Columbus though, Michigan had a hiccup in its first set against the Terrapins, and lost, 25-19. “Maryland came out and was serving the leather off of the ball.” Rosen said. “They were playing clean defense, they were great offensively and we just couldn’t get anything going. “But that’s why we reset it and play best of five.” And in an odd second set where the Wolverines won with just eight kills — around half their season average for killsper-set — they mentally reset. Michigan came out firing on all cylinders in the next two sets and never looked back en route to a four-set victory. But as the Wolverines progress deeper into the season, Rosen knows more work is needed to tack onto his now 401 wins. “Since we’ve got some youth on the court,” Rosen said, “we’ve got to continue to develop those guys and progress to where, by the end of the year, six weeks from now, we’re playing our best volleyball.”
Sports
8 — Thursday, October 18, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Warriner with different perspective on Saturday’s game MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor
Saturday will be nothing new for Ed Warriner. In fact, there’s not much anymore that is new for Warriner. Michigan’s offensive line coach remembers coaching as a graduate assistant in the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry “30-something years ago.” Now he’s on the other side coaching a much-improved Michigan offensive line that just might hold the key to a win in East Lansing over the 24th-ranked Spartans on Saturday. “You never know how life’s going to take you in this journey,” Warriner said Wednesday afternoon. “You just do the best you can to keep moving.” Warriner has done just that, reaching nearly every corner in the college football landscape on his winding path to Ann Arbor. Warriner has made stops at Army, Air Force, Kansas, Illinois, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Minnesota, in addition to his time at Michigan State in 1985-86. Then 25, Warriner had already put pen to paper on an agreement to coach in high school when Michigan State approached him. He knew he wanted to be a college coach. And working with then-head coach George Perles and thenassistant coach Nick Saban in East Lansing shortly after graduating college was an offer he couldn’t refuse. When Warriner speaks about his past, phrases like “learned a lot from” and “connected with” arise with frequency. The names of coaches and schools get tossed around at a rapid pace. He’s firmly intertwined in the complicated web that underlies college coaching. A football coach, through and through.
at UNC Invitational JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer
CAMERON HUNT/Daily
Michigan offensive line coach Ed Warriner used to work with Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio in East Lansing.
And with his laundry list of experience, Warriner approaches Saturday’s rivalry differently. Unlike others in the Michigan locker room, Warriner holds no such animosity toward the Spartans. In fact, Warriner remains friends with Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, who he roomed with during their time together with the Spartans. His son is a freshman linebacker at Michigan State. He speaks of Dantonio like one might speak of an old friend. “We were just two guys who loved coaching football, loved the opportunity. We were learning. We were working together. So we enjoyed that time together — we hit it off and had a great relationship.
And that’s carried through,” Warriner said. “Obviously our paths have gone different directions, so we don’t get to spend as much time together, but when we are together, it’s like we haven’t been apart. “Obviously now that I work here, that’s going to change a little bit,” Warriner adds, remembering where he stands. “But as far as, is he a good man? He is a good man. And you respect him, you respect what he’s done.” He doesn’t forget that there’s a game Saturday, though. Quite a meaningful one, at that. He likes where his offensive line stands at the moment, noting it has accounted for just four penalties all season. It’s unquestionably the most
“We were learning. We were working together.”
improved unit on the team through seven games, a credit to Warriner’s diligence. And Saturday is his unit’s biggest moment, a test against an aggressive team that always seems to turn up the physicality when it plays Michigan. He, like everyone else, looks forward to the challenge. Warriner’s laundry list of former employers doesn’t jade him to the moment. “They’re all the same, because they’re very important to the players on this team, to the alumni, to the former players,” Warriner said. “They’re all important. They’re important to us. We get the significance of them. It’s a privilege to be apart of a program that have these kind of rivalries. You turn it up a notch; that’s why you do this. “These are the great opportunities, the fun games, the memories you have playing in these games, coaching in these games for me, stay with you a lifetime.”
Wolverines, Metellus motivated by past mistakes MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan football team owns the nation’s top-ranked pass defense yet again in 2018, allowing fewer than 130 yards per game. That showed last Saturday when Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook did not complete a pass during the second and third quarters of the Wolverines’ eventual blowout win. It was as close as Michigan’s defense has come to perfection — the perpetual pursuit of defensive coordinator Don Brown. In the same vein as Alabama coach Nick Saban, Brown always has something to critique, even when the Wolverines are dominant. Sometimes, that means going back a few weeks to remind players that they’re not perfect. Such was the case in Michigan’s season-opening loss to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish scored three first-half touchdowns behind quarterback Brandon Wimbush, who was aided by a litany of the Wolverines’ penalties and mistakes on third down. Safeties coach and special teams coordinator Chris Partridge reminds his group about those first-game gaffes frequently. “Shoot,” Patridge said during Wednesday’s press conference. “I like to show my guys clips from that game every week just to make sure they stay grounded and understand that, if they don’t prepare the right way and they don’t play the right way, anything can happen.” Much has been made about the improvement in Michigan’s offensive line since that loss in South Bend. But the secondary has also flashed signs of growth. Penalties are down. Interceptions are up. Mistakes
Michigan places 14th From the outset, it appeared to be a perfect storm for the Wolverines. Over the weekend, the Michigan women’s golf team traveled to North Carolina and battled through unfavorable conditions to place 14th amid a stacked field at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational. Typically, the practice round before any big invitational is key. During this time the golfers check the speed of the greens, scope out any illusive tricks of the course and get a lay of the land. Exposure to the course is crucial for any golfer. If it can provide even a stroke of an advantage, it’s key for gaining that extra edge. But over the weekend, the Wolverines were not allowed their practice round due to safety concerns over Hurricane Michael rolling through the region. Instead of playing the full 18, Michigan merely walked the first nine holes and sat indoors meticulously strategizing how it would attack the new course. To make matters worse for the Wolverines, the UNC Finley Golf Course is made of different grass — Bermuda. Michigan typically practices on Flatgrass and had limited exposure to Bermuda this season. Not an end-all factor, but enough to set a golfer back if they’re not used to playing on the new grass. But when it came time to play, Michigan left those factors behind and put together one of its more solid outings of the f ledgling 201819 season. And leading the pack was sophomore Ashley Kim. Finishing at No. 20, Kim fig ured out the course early and definitively proved her role as the Wolverines’ most consistent golfer. Kim opened things up on Friday with the best round by a Michigan golfer with a 71, good for one under par and a new season best. Kim used four birdies in the round to set the tone early. “Ashley Kim, she’s been our best player so far,” said Michigan coach Jan Dowling. “She’s been close to par every round, and she’s on the verge of really breaking through and getting herself in contention to win. “She’s on the verge of
some great golf. She’s already playing some good golf, but she’s right on the verge of being able to win some of these tournaments individually, so that’s pretty huge.” And right on Kim’s tail is freshman Ashley Lau. Seemingly seeking to rise to the level of her teammate, Lau shot a 72 in her second round and proved she can compete with the best. Then shooting 76s on the bookends of the invitational, Lau demonstrated her potential while also showing room for improvement. For Lau, there’s no doubt that overcoming the challenges of living in a new country and playing against a different level of competition has been an adjustment for her. The Malaysia native is experiencing a whole new world of firsts and playing some quality golf in the process — two factors not lost on her coach. “I think she’s coming into her own,” Dowling said. “The kid knows how to play, and I think just moving onto collegiate golf and getting comfortable there, and starting to balance living in a new country and going to school, there’s a lot of elements that go into playing good golf besides the obvious things. And you can tell she’s on the verge of going crazy under par, and she’s starting to find her own. “Particularly, I hope that second round gave her some confidence. She got under par for quite a while. She’s just gotta clean up some things around her ball striking and her ball management, and she’ll be off to the races. We’re really excited about her potential.” Dowling believes the team still needs to eliminate the small mistakes — errors that have been dogging her team all season. She thinks Michigan needs to take advantage of wedge shots and avoiding three-putting. But still, it’s clear that the Wolverines are trending in the right direction. “We’re not doing some of the simple things as consistently as we need to be, and those include capitalizing on short wedge shots and avoiding free putting,” Dowling said. “So when we’re gonna do that, it’s gonna be awesome. We’re pretty close, but simple isn’t always easy, but simple is still simple.”
“Ashley Kim, she’s been our best player so far.”
“We’re pretty close, but simple isn’t always easy...”
EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior safety Josh Metellus was named Michigan’s defensive player of the week after the Wolverines’ win over Wisconsin.
have been mitigated. “We’ve made a huge step after the Notre Dame game because we got bombed on a few times that game,” said sophomore cornerback Ambry Thomas. “And (the coaching staff has) been hard on us ever since. They haven’t let up yet. “They’re more interactive, more vocal, more everything. They’re on the field really showing us what to do.” Partridge sees a connection between that increase in intensity and the play of perhaps the Wolverines’ most-improved defensive player, Josh Metellus. The junior safety had a difficult start to the season — he was ejected for targeting during the second drive of the Notre Dame contest. He and fellow safety, senior Tyree Kinnel, were also exposed occasionally against the slantheavy offenses of SMU and
“They’re on the field really showing us what to do.”
Northwestern. But while Metellus isn’t flawless, he has become more of a play-maker for Michigan’s defense with a team-high three interceptions. “He’s playing at a high level,” Patridge said. “He’s practicing at a high level, that’s why he’s playing at a high level. He is seeing the game really well. He’s seeing how we’re going to be attacked really well back there. He’s taken command, become more vocal and is finishing plays.” Metellus was named the team’s defensive player of the week Monday after collecting an interception and five tackles against the Badgers. “His best game as a Wolverine,” said Jim Harbaugh on Monday. “And he seems to be a solid tackler, good coverage safety. Great to see him get his hands on the ball with another
interception and create the big play. (He’s an) ascending player.” It was a year ago that Metellus first earned his starting role. During fall camp, he mentioned that confidence was an issue for him at times in 2017, when he was often a target of criticism from Michigan fans. That caused him to play “more passively” than he would have liked to. According to Patridge, however, Metellus entered spring practices with an “open mind” to potential improvements he could make. Six months later, that has him keying a defense that is playing strong football. “If I’m confident, I feel like the rest of the defense is confident,” Metellus said Saturday. “So I just feel like, being a leader on the defense, confidence is something you should have.”
“And he seems to be a solid tackler, good coverage safety.”
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore Ashley Kim notched a 71 in the first round of UNC’s invitational.