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Friday, October 19, 2018
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Offendum highlights importance of culture
Regents talk $1 billion endowment increase, Power Plant schedule The Board of Regents also approved model portfolio for long-term investment plans
Years after #BBUM, documents digitized
Syrian American rapper performs for more than 200 students and staff
Bentley Historical Library converts over 66,000 documents from DAAS
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RACHEL LEUNG
In a blended mix of English, Arabic, spoken word and rap, musician and activist Omar Offendum presented to a group of over 200 students and faculty on Thursday about his experiences as a Syrian-American hip-hop artist. Offendum spoke and rapped about growing up in his diverse Northern Virginia neighborhood, as well as the difficulty of weaving together his multiple identities into a coherent whole. Offendum’s presentation, which took place during a lecture of the Introduction to Arab-American Studies course at the University of Michigan, touched on themes of loss, political activism and rising xenophobia. Offendum said his experiences and musical style have changed over the years as tensions in the Middle East have become more visible to the American public. “I liked to think I was this ethnically ambiguous dude named Omar prior to 9/11 on campus — people didn’t really necessarily
Four years ago, the Black Student Union launched the online campaign #BBUM, or Being Black at the University of Michigan, and gave the University seven days to respond to seven demands. Some of the demands included more affordable campus housing, an increase in Black representation on campus and a digitization of documents in the University’s Bentley Historical Library. Now, four years after BSU put forward its initial demands, the organization and the Bentley Historical Library have completed the project to digitize over 66,000 records from the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. The formal demand from BSU stated: “We demand for increased exposure of all documents within the Bentley (Historical) Library. There
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CSG Vice President Izzy Baer speaks during the Board of Regents meeting at the U-M Flint Thursday.
JULIA FORD
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved the construction schedule and schematic design of the Central Power Plant expansion and discussed the University’s endowment $1 billion increase at its Thursday meeting in Flint.
Eucharia Ganda, president of the U-M Flint student body, and Izzy Baer, vice president of U-M Ann Arbor’s Central Student Government, also addressed their student government initiatives and concerns. In March 2017, the Board of Regents approved the $80 million Central Power Plant expansion, a 12,000-foot addition expected to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 100,000 tons per year. The new addition is intended to move the University closer to its 2025 sustainability goal — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 2006 levels. Though the project is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some question whether a longterm investment in fossil fuel is
the best solution. In a Public Affairs report, Kevin Hegarty, University executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the goal will help the University stay on target for reducing emissions as well as keeping track of finances. “Our targeted greenhouse See REGENTS, Page 3A
See DAAS, Page 3A
See SYRIA, Page 3A
Professors discuss election security, voting systems in panel as midterm elections approach Hacking the Vote event tackles Russian involvement, “election forensics” and security progress ALEX HARRING For the Daily
Amid questions of election security and potential system hacking in the upcoming midterm elections, Engineering prof. J. Alex Halderman spoke at the University of
Michigan Alumni Center Thursday night about vulnerabilities in U.S. voting systems. Last June, Halderman appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify about such. “Hacking the Vote” was presented by the Alumni Association, the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, the Gerald R. Ford
School of Public Policy and the College of Engineering. Halderman, who has studied voting systems for over a decade — and last made news on campus when his email was spoofed in a racist email scandal — was joined by LSA professor Walter Mebane, an expert on detecting electoral fraud. Steve Friess, a former Knight-Wallace fellow
and freelance journalist, moderated the discussion. The professors discussed the reasoning behind election security, past and current issues with voting systems, public response to elections and recounting votes and the federal government’s role in making elections See ELECTION, Page 3A
CAMPUS LIFE
Nigel Poor discusses role of art in prisons Podcast host speaks to crowd of 200 at Penny Stamps Lecture Series CALLIE TIETELBAUM For The Daily
MADELINE HINKLEY /Daily
Nigel Poor, a photography professor at California State University-Sacramento, spoke at the Michigan Theater Thursday night for the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series. About 200 University of Michigan students, faculty and Ann Arbor residents came to hear Poor speak about her work within San Quentin State Prison, a men’s detention facility in California. At San Quentin, Poor teaches an art history class to inmates and produces her podcast “Ear Hustle,” which details life inside the walls of prison. Poor became involved in the San Quentin State Prison in 2011 through the Prison University Project, a program in which professors from Northern California universities volunteer to teach college courses to inmates. According to Poor, the prison
University professors J. Alex Halderman and Walter Mebane discuss how safe the U.S. voting system is as the midterm elections approach at the Alumni Center Thursday night.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 13 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
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NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................5
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................1B
News
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MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
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University researchers contribute to mission to send spacecraft to Mercury The mission hopes to study the planet and gather data about Mercury’s atmosphere REMY FARKAS
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University of Michigan researchers are working on the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission to send a spacecraft to Mercury’s atmosphere, a University press release announced. The mission hopes to analyze the planet and the solar system as a whole. Stefano Livi, a research professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, leads the investigation on the portion of the craft that measures the gases in Sudoku Syndication Mercury’s upper atmosphere.
James Slavin, another professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, assists on analyzing Mercury’s atmospheric gases and its chemical composition. Slavin has worked on Mercury research since its start and, as a University of California-Los Angeles graduate student, he studied the planet’s plasma process and the impacts of solar wind. This mission, which launches on Oct. 20 from French Guiana, is only the third mission in history to explore Mercury. The European Space Agency’s BepiColombo hopes to answer critical questions about the planet’s makeup, atmosphere
and magnetic field. From Through the space mission, these results, scientists can researchers can gather work to learn more about the information from the orbit solar system’s past and future. time of the satellite, take Livi and Slavin work on the photos of the planet, analyze particle spectrometer called the x-ray and cosmic rays Strofio, which uses a rotating on Mercury’s surface and electric field and a time-of- evaluate the atmosphere — the f light system to evaluate the task of the Michigan research mass of particles in Mercury’s team. uppermost atmosphere. The The researchers can then time it takes for particles use the information about the to pass through the system particles and their proximity allow scientists to determine the sun to learn about the particle’s mass. Using the Mercury’s magnetic field and mass will give researches the its interactions with solar necessary information to date wind. the makeup of the planet. “As human beings, we all “Many theories have want to know how we come to been developed. … Without be as a species on this planet measurements of what this and, eventually, what’s going http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ gas is made of, how it reacts to to happen to us,” Slavin said in external events and how the release. “It’s all ultimately it is swept away from the about origins and destinies. planet, we are working almost completely in the blind,” Livi said in the press release.
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PRISONS From Page 1A administration informed her if she taught a course on the history of photography, she would not be allowed to show images of sex, children, violence, drugs or “complicated emotional imagery.” Poor scheduled a meeting with the prison warden and another department secretary and, after describing her curriculum, was granted permission to teach the class as she originally intended. The men in the facility were not allowed to have cameras, but Poor wanted them to experience
creating art of their own. The inmates were given images of well-known art and instructed to “map” the images by writing their observations and thoughts on top of the images. On the back of the image, they wrote narratives about the picture and their experience. Art & Design freshman Elizabeth Mizer commented on Poor’s artistic work at the prison. “Well I think it’s really important for people in the prison to get to experience like creativity and imagination when they don’t really normally get to have access to that,” Mizer said.
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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
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Friday, October 19, 2018 — 3A
WORLD PE RFOR M ANCE STUDIES
SYRIA From Page 1A
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily University of Michigan professor Stephen Rush talks with musician panelists Tomeka Reid and Famadou Don Moye discuss the Edgefest concert series at East Quadrangle Thursday afternoon.
DAAS From Page 1A should be transparency about the University and its past dealings with race relations.” In response to the 2014 #BBUM demands, Terrence McDonald, director of the Bentley Historical Library, explained archivists began compiling recorded interactions between University officials and Black activists. “The digitization project began when student members of the BSU, working on a history of the Black Action movements, asked if those records could be made more available through digitization,” McDonald said. “We prepared a digital edition of the demands from and
ELECTION From Page 1A more secure. They also touched on voter registration system issues, election audits, the 2016 presidential election and their experiences with research. “The Russians who hacked into state election systems and voter registration systems in several states in 2016, they had the ability to go much farther than they did,” Halderman said. “They chose not to pull the trigger. We’re right back in that position we were in in 2016. The question is not whether we’re safe because we’re not safe. The question is, are our adversaries going to decide to pull the trigger?” In addition to his six-minute testimony in June, Halderman has returned to the Capitol frequently to discuss the $380
REGENT From Page 1A gas emissions reduction is an ambitious goal and this project marks a significant step in the right direction as well as providing a sound financial projection for the university,” Hegarty said. The Board of Regents also reviewed the University’s endowment, which increased $1 billion this past year to $11.9 billion. According to U.S. News and World Report, the University of Michigan had the eighth largest endowment of all universities as of the end of the 2017 fiscal year. “We have great confidence in the University’s overall approach to investments and in the stewardship of these important financial resources,” Regent Kathy White (D) said. During the meeting, the Board of Regents also approved a model
University responses to those movements, and the idea for digitizing the collection grew from there.” In addition to demands, #BBUM sparked a national conversation on Twitter around the experiences of Black students in higher education. The movement staged protests on campus to bring further attention to their cause. According to the University Record, funds for the project were provided by the Office of the Provost and the process of digitizing the records took more than eight months to complete. The new online collection features audio and video recordings of visiting scholars and activists, including Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson, newspaper clippings
and other materials related to the Black Action Movements from 1969 to 1995. The entire collection can be accessed digitally by all University students, researchers, faculty and staff, and to the public in person at the Bentley Historical Library. Matthew Countryman, chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, said in a statement to the Record that he is especially thrilled that these historical documents have been digitized. “As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies’ founding, we could not be more excited to have these essential historical documents digitized and available online to students, scholars and community members,”
Countryman said. LSA senior Kayla McKinney, speaker of BSU, said the group called for digitization of the Bentley records to increase the accessibility of these materials. In addition, McKinney said the project grew out of the group’s desire to call attention to the relations between Black students and the University in the past. “Since then the Bentley has worked tirelessly both with the BSU and on their own to gain and digitize these records and we appreciate them greatly,” McKinney said. “Having these records digitized is important because student activism is often erased in U-M’s diversity effort.”
million in funding for states to modernize and secure their equipment with state legislatures and congressional staff. Halderman has also assisted Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., on an election reform package. According to an article in the Michigan Alumnus, Halderman said he was inspired to look into voting machines during a question-and-answer session in an Introduction to Computer Science class. Afterwards, he appeared with a United Nations ambassador to explain the Internet Freedom Technology Showcase and “refraction networking” — a way to allow users access to banned networks and services while tricking the computer into thinking they have not been granted access — in 2015. Halderman went on to lead a coalition funded by the State Department on the concept. “We’re much better at seeing unsuccessful intrusions
than successful intrusions,” Halderman said. “It’s silly to know someone is trying to get in — you see someone jiggling the lock — but, if they found an open window on the side of the basement and climbed in through it where you didn’t have a sensor, well, you wouldn’t know that by monitoring the front door.” Mebane focuses his research on “election forensics” — a term he created — with the goal of creating tools for detecting anomalies and fraud in voting. He said he uses statistical methods to look for patterns to see if voting reflects the intentions of the voters in elections around the world. He was specifically asked about his experience helping with voting security in Kenya last year and in the 2004 presidential election in Franklin, Ohio. Mebane said he did research on the Kenya election and recommended it should
be annulled, with the Kenyan Supreme Court agreeing. He said election and voter registration data in the U.S., however, is more difficult to attain. “The hard part is proving when something is unusual or when something is an anomaly … Is that due to fraud or is that due to just regular politics?” Mebane said. “Statistical methods can tell us when the votes are switched, but you can’t tell who switched them, and it makes a big difference if the voters switched them through strategic consideration compared to some bad guy switching them.” In Michigan, Halderman said people vote on paper, but only a few companies handle counting of the votes. If the software is bugged, a hacker could alter election results without touching any machines.
portfolio for the University’s long-term portfolio. The model portfolio provides a plan for the University’s long-term investment allocation of each asset class. Regent Andrew Richner (R), the chair of the board, said the approval of the portfolio is an effort to monitor the returns on University investments. “By putting this item on our agenda and approving the portfolio on an ongoing basis, the Board of Regents will keep current on the risks associated with the investment portfolio and further mitigate risks associated with noncompliance with University policy,” Richner said. Baer addressed the board, outlining CSG’s newest initiatives. In order to increase student voter turnout, CSG is providing free transportation to polling places on Nov. 6, as well as
stamped envelopes for absentee ballots. According to Baer, CSG plans to offer a series of town halls, the first of which is on Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. in the Michigan League. “We will be hosting our first town hall this month focused on housing affordability on campus,” Baer said. “Based on student feedback we have determined housing affordability to be extremely salient amongst our student body, and while we are working on initiatives now to tackle this issue, we want to hear directly from students and community members about what they think would decrease housing costs and improve housing initiatives in the future.” Baer also reported her administration has been working with MDining to improve dining experiences for students with dietary restrictions. According to Baer, South Quad dining hall
will open a kosher kitchen in the coming weeks, and the dining app will be upgraded to include the ingredients of each dish. “With the proliferation of food allergies, we have focused on ways to make all students feel confident and safe on campus,” Baer said. “As you may already know, all dining halls now carry Auvi-Qs, which is a device similar to EpiPens. The dining staff is now trained on how to administer them if a student suffers from an allergic reaction.” Ganda spoke about her administration’s student voting initiatives and the need for more on-campus spaces for student organizations. Ganda also addressed the need for minority representation and cultural awareness among faculty and campus at large.
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know where I was from,” Offendum said. “When I’d tell them I was from Syria, I’d get a weird joke about breakfast cereal or something. Now you can’t turn on the news without hearing about it at least once a day.” Rackham student Yahya Alami Hafez, a graduate student instructor for Introduction to Arab-American Studies, said Offendum’s presentation showed how current artistic mediums such as rap actually trace back to a long and rich Arab history. Hafez said before each discussion, he shows the class a music video from an Arab region to highlight this connection. “I think culture is a really good entry point to engage student learning,” Hafez said. “Cultural production is political, it’s something that shapes discourse. When folks are studying history, they’re looking toward material artifacts or something that they can examine — sometimes that’s archives and sometimes it’s museum exhibits or songs.” Offendum performed a number of his own spoken word poems and raps, often prompting the audience to participate by motioning to sing portions of the lyrics. Offendum opened the
lecture by rapping “Damascus,” an Arabic poem he strongly identifies with and ultimately transformed into a song. “For a kid growing up with a mother from Damascus, I had memorized that poem when I was like 12,” Offendum said. “It’s been a big part of my life and it’s kind of a good introductory piece to my work because it has the element of poetry in it and rap and cultural translation and longing for Syria.” Offendum said his work often contends with the changing idea of home, as he was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up just outside of Washington, D.C. He said he was especially inspired by one of his mentors, who told him he should look to the future to understand where home is. “I was telling him how I feel this sort of transient feeling in my heart, like I don’t really feel like I’m from here even though I’ve been here pretty much my whole life,” Offendum said. “He’s like, ‘Listen, home is not where your grandparents are buried — home is where your grandchildren will be born. Look to the future, think about the future, think about what your purpose is here today.’”
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Opinion
4A — Friday, October 19, 2018
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ANONYMOUS | SURVIVORS SPEAK
My body isn’t mine Editor’s note: The author’s name was omitted to protect their identity.
I
was sitting in Biology 172 on a Friday morning in November 2014 after my first semi-formal when I got an email from a woman involved with Title IX at the University of Michigan asking to speak to me about an event that had been reported. Then came the text from my resident adviser, who had apparently been on duty when I’d been locked out of my dorm and crying the previous night, explaining he was a mandatory reporter and that I’d said some concerning things. I had flashes of what had happened in my mind, but I couldn’t remember what I’d said to my RA. I panicked. Everything felt fuzzy, and I couldn’t face the memories threatening to surface — the drink from a boy I never should have accepted, how I felt like I was looking and speaking through a fog afterward. So I decided nothing had happened, emailed the woman back and asked her to never contact me again and told my concerned friends and RA that I’d just been drunk. That wasn’t the only time something happened my freshman year. Two nights, two different guys. The shame often threatens to swallow me whole. On New Year’s Eve, I was in Ann Arbor and went to a frat with a friend. She met up with her boyfriend, and I was with a boy who seemed nice enough. Until he wasn’t. To this day, I can feel the visceral terror that came when I realized what was about to happen, and that I couldn’t stop it. When I tried to scream, he put his hands on my throat and told me to shut up because he knew I wanted this. I froze, and my memories from that point feel like I was watching it happen. The sound of metal clicking sends me into a panic, even now, because of the sound of his belt buckle. I remember crying in a bathroom, and when I called a friend from home, they laughed and told me I sounded so drunk they couldn’t understand. In
reality, I was crying so hard and was too panicked to be coherent — I’d been sober for hours at that point. So, again, I decided I had to be fine. I pushed it away, told myself it had just been rough sex and that I needed to get over it. I pretended I was OK and that nothing had happened for years. I’d developed an eating disorder in high school, which had gone untreated, and after these events, I spiraled. I had panic attacks almost daily, missed class because I started to cry and my heart raced when leaving my dorm. I rarely ate, and when I did, I threw up, desperate to be so small that I would disappear. I eventually had to withdraw that winter semester, blaming the escalation of my eating disorder on poor body image, perfectionism and academic stress. For the next two years, I went in and out of treatment, plagued by impossible anxiety, poor sleep, jumping at small noises and a constant need to be in “survival mode.” I would exercise for hours, desperate to feel some sense of control over my body. After six months in treatment in 2016, after being nourished for long enough that my brain was working properly, I began having nightmares every night. I kept trying to say everything was fine, but my re-emerging restriction and exercise addiction said otherwise. I finally said, “Yes,” when my doctor asked me about abuse, and things spiraled from there. My therapist found out and told me I needed to talk about it. I couldn’t. I froze, unable to speak every time I thought about it. I lived on steamed vegetables, convinced that everything else was “dirty,” and that if I ate “clean,” then I would finally feel clean again. I didn’t care that I was dying. I thought I would never get past this, and that the constant fear wasn’t worth living through. I barely slept between nightmares and hunger. My mom and doctor threatened me with a psychiatric hold and a court-ordered hospital stay if I didn’t voluntarily receive treatment. I stayed in a hospital for a week before a residential treatment center declared me medically stable enough to receive their care,
and then had to go through the process of evaluation after evaluation, again. But I couldn’t pretend nothing had happened anymore. I still couldn’t talk or think about it much, but I tried getting a word out here or there about how it made me feel. I returned to Michigan after that last treatment stay and still hadn’t dealt with the post-traumatic stress disorder. I still avoid the streets where things transpired. I won’t go to Pizza House because I went there one of those nights. I’ve done a decent job of avoiding the memories whenever possible, even though I still have nightmares every night. When the #MeToo movement started, I once again missed classes, but kept eating. When the Kavanaugh case hit the news, I felt so much anxiety that I couldn’t breathe unless I curled up in a ball and used a weighted blanket. I missed three classes in one week because I just couldn’t feel safe outside of my house. I go to therapy twice a week, and still freeze and have flashbacks when we approach the subject of those nights. The Kavanaugh case sent me spiraling. I’m finally beginning to actually try a form of traumatherapy called EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. I’m terrified. But the past four years of my life have been defined by these nights. I’m so tired of being tired from lack of sleep — tired of feeling like my body isn’t mine. It’s hard being a survivor, right now. It’s hard calling myself a survivor. It’s hard being a survivor, period. I’ve built up grounding skills — essential oils in silly putty, carefully crafted playlists, breathing exercises — to keep me present instead of spiraling into memories. There’s no neat end to this story, because this will probably still affect me for the rest of my life. But I’m hoping that I can get to a point where it’s part of my story, not the defining factor.
EMILY CONSIDINE | CONTACT EMILY AT EMCONSID@UMICH.EDU
The author is an LSA senior.
W
hen I arrived at the University of Michigan at the beginning of freshman year, my friends and I discovered Bird electric scooters on the Diag. I’d never ridden e-scooters since they had not yet made it to my native New York City, where Citi Bike and Uber reign supreme. “Pick up and drop off anywhere,” the app promised, for only 15 cents per minute. We took them for a spin. Soon we were hooked. We used Bird to get to class on time, explore the Ann Arbor downtown scene and visit friends on North Campus, all for only a dollar or two a ride. Birds solved the busy student’s central problem: how to quickly get to a destination that is beyond a walk for a low cost. We kept saying to ourselves, “Why hadn’t somebody come up with this years ago?” After weeks of Birds popping up everywhere in Ann Arbor, the city began confiscating them off the street. Riders had driven Birds on sidewalks in violation of ordinances and left them parked in the street. Then, in September, the city of Ann Arbor talked about limiting Birds further. In an instant, it seemed the app that had given us inexpensive freedom and utility for weeks was now the vice of delinquent troublemakers. I set out to better understand the Bird: What are the dangers? Do e-scooters bring more benefit than harm to Ann Arbor? What I found is that Bird is the future of transportation for students at the University of Michigan. First, financially, Birds are for everyone. It is possibly the most egalitarian transportation available on campus. College is expensive and an Uber or Lyft comes with set minimum fees and a calculated route that can add cost. It’s hard to take an Uber anywhere on campus for less than $7. Bird offers point A to point B transportation for a dollar to start and only 15 cents per minute! You can get from the Hill Neighborhood to the Diag for slightly more than a dollar, and you’ll never miss that lecture again. Furthermore, Birds are far less expensive than bicycles. An average “lifestyle” bicycle is priced upwards of $250, and more specialized mountain bikes go for $2,000 and more. In addition, you have to account for maintenance, repair and a bike lock or two. During Welcome Week, we’re told that one
HANNAH HARSHE | COLUMN
I
Let the Bird fly of the most frequently stolen items on campus is a bicycle. So, for the hundreds of dollars you’d need to sink into a bike and accessories, you could just take Birds for the semester. Second, Birds are one of the most environmentally friendly transportation services on campus. The watts of electricity used by a Bird is nominal, so even if the energy is originally created by a fossil-fuel-burning power plant, the environmental harm is negligible. As electric generation in the state of Michigan gradually transitions to natural gas, solar and wind, the environmental argument for Birds becomes more compelling. E-scooters can also persuade people to use public transportation because most scooter trips are in the last mile of transit, that one to two-mile gap from the station to the final destination. Third, Bird’s e-scooters are the most consumer-oriented transportation choice. You pay only for what you want and for as long as you want it. Birds don’t have a waiting period of upwards of seven minutes which typical for an Uber, taxi or bus. Just scan it with your phone and go. Birds take you exactly where you want to go, right to the front door. Because of the à la carte nature of Birds, there is no obligation to maintain or lock it up when you’re finished. Just park it on the sidewalk, out of the way of pedestrian traffic, and go about your day. But what are the downsides of these e-scooters? The most frequently cited concern is the potential for accident and death. Major city newspapers, like the Los Angeles Times, report alarming upticks in e-scooter-related hospital visits, from scrapes and bruises to severe head injuries. As Bird and Lime, two dominant e-scooter providers, both launched their multi-city expansions in 2017, reliable statistics for these incidents have not yet been compiled. For the meantime, all we have to go on are anecdotal, often alarmist, news reports of e-scooter accidents and fatalities. Since their launches in two dozen cities over a year ago, Bird reports approximately 10.5 million rides and Lime reports 11 million rides. From the combined companies’ recorded deaths involving their rideables, e-scooter usage involves approximately one death for every 10.75 million rides.
By comparison, bicycles appear to be quite dangerous and expensive from a health care perspective, and yet remain a celebrated mode of transportation. The medical journal Injury Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco recently reported there were 3.8 million bicycle accidents and 9,839 deaths in the U.S. from 1997 to 2013. In 2016, there were approximately 470,000 bicycle accidents and 840 deaths in the U.S. The majority of those deaths (30 percent) were caused by being struck by an automobile and the next largest statistic (20 percent) involved bicycle riders not paying attention or suffering rider error. The majority of bicycle fatalities (58 percent) do not occur at intersection locations and only 4 percent occurred in bike lanes. The time period of 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. had the highest frequency of bike fatalities (26 percent) and alcohol involvement (BAC of .01) was reported in 35 percent of the crashes that resulted in bicycle fatalities. Despite these rather gruesome statistics, there is no local or national call to eliminate bicycles in our country. Virtually all of the responses to the dangers of bicycle use propose the imposition of stricter safety regulations, changing user habits or improving transportation laws and infrastructure. Apply these precautions to Bird and you’ll make them just as safe as bicycles. Similarly, the approach by the University and the city to the arrival of the e-scooter should be to find ways to encourage e-scooter usage, admittedly with improved safety and security. The University and the city government should encourage a scenario in which e-scooter companies like Bird unite with bicycle manufacturers to advocate for a shared solution. As scooters operate at much slower speeds than bicycles, the use of scooters on sidewalks should be evaluated. Electric rideables should be allowed wherever bicycles are legal, like bike lanes and protected paths. The statistics from decades of bicycle data should be used to craft sensible policy that recognizes the brilliant potential of an electric scooter future in Ann Arbor. Miles Stephenson can be reached at mvsteph@umich.edu.
Marketing to Gen Z
t seems that all people can talk about lately are those pesky millennials and their consumer habits, whether it means buying avocado toast or Kylie Jenner lipsticks. What we often seem to forget, however, is that the millennial generation is now comprised of adults and Generation Z is no longer comprised of babies. In fact, Gen Z, or the demographic group made up of those born between the late 1990s and around 2015, will account for 40 percent of all consumers by 2020. This means that we’ll likely see a vast change in mainstream forms of advertising in the next few years as Gen Z’s consumer preferences are fundamentally different to those of millennials. One example of such strategies is Dote, a shopping app that’s targeted mainly at Gen Z consumers. Dote works as a virtual mall: It allows users to select items from over 140 retailers, pay only one time (rather than pay separately to each retailer) and receive all the items in one package. According to Fashionista, “the typical Dote user is a female between the ages of 13 and 22 years old. She visits the app about four times a day and spends an average of 40 minutes on it.” How did these users find out about Dote? It wasn’t through traditional advertising. I learned about Dote through my younger sister, Brianna Harshe, who, at 12 years old, is smack in the middle of Gen Z and an avid user of Dote. “I watch a lot of YouTubers like Hannah Meloche and Summer Mckeen,” Harshe explained to me. “I got Dote because I saw them talking about it. They went on a bunch of trips because of Dote and they would advertise for Dote on their trips. It didn’t really matter to me that it was advertising because they were still going to Fiji and stuff because of it.” What is she talking about? Well, Meloche and Mckeen are high-school-age social media personalities who avidly post on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube about everything from their makeup routines to their inside jokes with their friends. They
recently went on a luxury vacation to Fiji with several other social media personalities. All expenses of the trip were covered by Dote. As members of Gen Z tend to do, they posted countless photos on Instagram and videos on YouTube of their trip. In every photo and video, they made sure to tag Dote, or at least thank them for the trip. Boom: Every Gen Z member who already watches Meloche’s and Mckeen’s videos has now been exposed to Dote. This isn’t the first trip that Dote has sent girls on. In the past, the “Dote Girls” have been to Miami, Aspen, Colo., Malibu, Calif. and even the music festival Coachella (or “Dotechella”). The reason that Dote appeals so much to Gen Z is that its founder and CEO, Lauren Farleigh, chose to advertise in a way that truly reached this segment. Gen Z is often called the iGeneration because it’s the first generation that can’t remember a world without smartphones and social media. Because of this, according to Forbes, “While traditional celebrities once had a monopoly on influence, ‘regular’ people are now gaining influence online based on their unique voices, opinions and perspectives.” Harshe affirms this sentiment: “I trust the YouTubers I watch because they’re a lot more genuine. It seems like they’re showing their true selves. With a lot of celebrities, it seems like they just put on a mask to please people. … I usually find out about products from YouTubers, even if it’s on Instagram or another app. It’s more like a friend recommending me a product than a commercial.” Members of Gen Z are generally cognizant of this generational gap. They see traditional advertising techniques and celebrity endorsements, but they tune them out fairly easily. Dote was able to catch onto this difference and use it to its advantage. “From our perspective, we see these retailers who haven’t fully identified or caught up with that shift,” Farleigh told Fashionista. “They really are trying to use old marketing techniques for this new generation, but not authentically engaging
these social creators and their Gen Z followers.” A good example of Dote’s ability to market to Gen Z is its partnership with 17-year-old YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, who is practically a household name among Gen Z, thanks to her sarcastic personality that shines through in her videos about thrift shopping, going to school and drinking coffee. According to Forbes, “(Chamberlain’s) social media engagement — the amount of likes and comments of a post divided by the total amount of followers — is averaging around 25 percent on Instagram. If you’re not in the social media world, you might not understand how mind-boggling that is. To give you a comparison, Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez are averaging 9 percent and 5 percent engagement, based on their last five posts.” Chamberlain might not be a typical celebrity, but she has an incredibly loyal following, and Dote made a smart but unusual move in partnering with her. Chamberlain’s store, which is called High Key by Emma, was the first brand to be sold exclusively on Dote and sold out in just two hours. Clothing lines by celebrities don’t usually have that kind of success rate, but the personal connection that Gen Z members feel with YouTube stars creates an indescribable loyalty. Harshe confirms, “I follow YouTubers more than celebrities because they’re more relatable. Like Hannah Meloche lives in Michigan and she just lives a normal teen life and goes to school, which is attainable for kids like me if we wanted to follow in her footsteps.” Sending a group of teenage girls on a trip to Fiji might seem like an odd way to advertise your product, but if you know Generation Z, then you know how important social media is to them. Put a group of teenage girls in Fiji, and the Instagram photos will come automatically. As long as they know to tag Dote, that’s all the advertising you need. Hannah Harshe can be reached at hhsarshe@umich.edu
Arts
5A — Friday, October 19, 2018
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
On the extended voice EMILY YANG For the Daily
At the beginning of Oct., I saw an unusual concert at Canterbury House. The School of Music, Theatre & Dance student ensemble Front Porch performed short sets with four singer-songwriters after collaborating on arrangements of their music. The group’s unusual instrumentation of violin, bassoon, percussion and piano can produce a surprising variety of colors, and it was interesting to see the diversity of the songwriters’ styles reflected in the differences in arrangement. Music usually backed by a guitar or a piano was expanded into music with evolving textures, symphonic flourishes and new countermelodies and embellishments. One of the choices that the singers had to make was whether to use a microphone or not — amplification is the exception in the idiom that Front Porch plays in, but a norm in a good deal of popular music. Evan Chambers, who is also a professor of composition at SMTD, chose to go without for his set and managed to project over the ensemble just fine. Another performer, Hannah McPhilimy, chose to use a microphone. The stylistic divide between their two sets was somewhat reflected in this decision. Professor Chambers, whose songs are rooted in the folk revival and Irish music, projected over the ensemble at their loudest and was expressive physically. He moved his entire body with the music and at times conducted himself with both hands. Amplification would have been inappropriate for the style, but mostly it was just unnecessary. McPhilimy’s set was more intimate and personal than Chambers’s, and her choreography was similarly in miniature. The microphone on a stand imposes its own choreography, which is necessarily smaller than performers who go without. Her hands played a primary “acting” role, moving slowly, at times grasping the stand as if for support or holding onto a dancing
partner. The acoustic effect of the amplification was to make quiet sounds louder — an audience member could hear her inhale and sing softly. Microphones include everything by default. Audio engineers have to set up special filters to remove plosives and sibilance from recording — little P and S sounds, respectively, that are magnified by the closeness of the microphone — and even with these filters, a microphone close on whatever it is recording will miss very little. This radical inclusiveness means that amplified performance and closemiked recording includes a lot of details, of the kind only otherwise heard when the singer is very close. Tony Bennett said of Frank Sinatra that he “perfected the art of intimacy.” Sinatra’s recordings have a certain subtlety and detail — you can hear him ease in and trail off his phrases, even as a big band with trombones and saxophones plays behind him. His voice isn’t on stage. You, the listener, are not in the audience; he is across the table from you or walking up to you at a bar. Billie Holiday’s live shows from the ’40s and ’50s are similar — she rarely sings loudly, but can be clearly heard over the band. Compare this style with St. Vincent’s 2007 “What Me Worry,” a pastiche of the midcentury crooning style (specifically echoing Holiday’s distinctive vocal timbre). Her voice is completely dry, and the sibilance is louder, sharper. The space between her voice and the listener has been collapsed from that of the crooners to a painfully small scale. The voice is in a totally different sonic world than the band, which is perhaps playing on TV in the background. This song is unusual in so specifically harkening back to the Crooners, and the microscopic vocal detail it offers the listener feels very out of place. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, with the radical improvement in recording capabilities, artists have used the microphone’s maximizing capabilities to extend the depth of their closeness to a surreal degree. The music of of FKA Twigs often contains vocal sounds that are
Classifieds
somewhere between whispering and hissing. The singer-songwriter Liz Harris, professionally known as Grouper, makes music that almost puts the listener inside her voice. “Way They Crept,” from the 2005 album of the same time, turns her voice into an enveloping drone. Extending voices with amplification works both ways — both intimacy and a kind of outsized violence are possible. The use of microphones in performance and recording allows for the transformation from small sounds to loud, aggressive ones. So-called “mumble rap” employs a technique something like this. The clipping vocals of Lil Pump, literally created by pushing a digital system past its limits and recording the results, make the transformation of human to machine almost uncomfortably visceral. On “D Rose,” it doesn’t sound like he’s delivering his lines particularly loudly, but it’s intended to be played loudly — mumbling, paradoxically, over loud parties or festival audiences. His voice resembles the cartoonishly large jacket he wears in a recent music video with Kanye West, in that his actual body is dwarfed by its representation. This drastic degree of separation is only convincing in the electronic landscape that Lil Pump and his listeners live in. The recordings of the Crooners (and even, to an extent, St. Vincent’s pastiche of them) are, at least, simulations of live performance. The voices of mumble rappers are placed in juxtaposition with synthesizers, and audiences barely blink when, for example, Lil Uzi Vert’s voice is autotuned so far that the result is more mechanical than human. But really, to emphasize the outsize artificiality of certain genres more than others is to distract from the fact that all recording is artificial. In a way, music that doesn’t use elaborate measures to obscure the means of its production is more honest about the nature of recorded music. The most captivating part of Lil Pump’s self-titled album is how much digital noise covers it. The computer it was made on enters the frame in a way it wouldn’t have if the
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
DOWN 1 Stained glass settings 2 Slip 3 Type similar to Helvetica
4 Nail treatment 5 Has too much 6 One involved in a memorable “bubble” 7 Puts forth 8 Tease 9 Juan’s “that” 10 Selfies, e.g. 11 Ancient region ruled by Athens 12 Small portion explanation 13 Ones neglecting their duties 17 Score marks 21 Soul singer Robinson’s debut album 23 Material for Michelangelo’s “David” 25 Train bottom 26 Series-ending abbr. 27 Pal of Piglet 28 Stepped (up) 29 Words from a balcony 30 Unsportsmanlike conduct
31 Baseball, in old slang 35 Former Mideast gp. 36 Member of the fam 38 __ value 41 Control tower device 44 Mobile home? 45 Hurried 46 Islands VIP
49 Some Viking appliances 50 “Odyssey” sorceress 51 Plus 53 Kind of D.A. 54 Diminish slowly, with “off” 55 Líquido para café 57 “The Cocktail Party” monogram 58 Grasped
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recording was left clean. In another direction, a lot of indie music has embraced a “lo-fi” aesthetic, which leaves in artifacts like fret sliding noises, sharp inhales and even sometimes the sound of moving objects around in the background. “Renee” by the Florida duo SALES has an almost messy guitar part, and there’s a thick layer of tape noise over the track that sounds like crickets from an open window.
One of my favorite songs, “Blue Mountain Road,” from Florist’s second album, layers barely audible backing vocals with an unaltered guitar part. The vocalist, Emily Sprague, sings at a volume that would be appropriate if she were trying not to be heard downstairs first thing in the morning, and her voice is hard-panned, giving the impression of singing directly into her listeners’ ears. Listening to this
music is a reminder of the event of its making. It tells the listener that the music was made at a specific time, with specific people. Listening to lo-fi music is often both a musical experience and a sort of bridge through time. Maybe that’s what all recording is.
This is part of a 2-part series Read more at MichiganDaily. com
BOOKS THAT BUILT US
KEVIN HENKES
‘Purple Plastic Purse’ TESS TOBIN
Daily Arts Writer
I must have read “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” upwards of 50 times as a kid. I loved it. I still do. I think I gravitated to the book because I myself was a little like Lilly. I too was a precocious, strongwilled, teacher’s pet with a burning love for red cowboy boots. I was so taken by the spunky character and her eponymous story that I managed to get my little hands on a purple plastic purse of my very own. Like Lilly, I adored that purse tremendously. For those of you who have never read the picture book, or have forgotten its contents, the story is, at its heart, a simple redemption tale. We learn early on that Lilly is completely smitten with her teacher, Mr. Slinger. She loved that he wore his glasses on a chain around his neck, greeted his students by saying “howdy” and baked them curly, crunchy, cheesy snacks for before recess. She’s so taken by him that she proclaims that she too wants to be a teacher, and even pretends to be him at home, while giving her baby brother Julien a “lesson.” However, things go awry when
Lilly comes to school one Monday with the spoils of a shopping trip with grandma. She brings in her new “movie star sunglasses complete with glittery diamonds, and a chain like Mr. Slinger,” as well as “three shiny quarters” and, best of all, a “purple plastic purse that played a jaunty tune when opened.” Like most little kids with a new toy, she just can’t wait to show it off. Only, Mr. Slinger has kindly asked her on multiple occasions to hold off and wait till recess or sharing time. But Lily just can’t help it, and in an outburst invites all her classmates to take a look. An unamused Mr. Slinger confiscates the purse. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Lilly scrawls a hateful drawing of her teacher where she haughtily writes “P.S. I do not want to be a teacher when I grow up.” She tucks this note into his bag. On her walk home from school, she discovers special snacks and a kind note from Mr. Slinger in her newly returned purse. She, of course, feels awful and banishes herself to the time-out chair when she gets home. The very next morning she arrives extra early with an apology, baked-goods, a kind drawing and story of Mr. Slinger. Naturally, he
forgives her and they proceed to have an amazing day. All is well. My rehashing of the book does little to convey its magic. A lot of what makes “Lily’s Plastic Purse”— and all of Kevin Henkes books for that matter — so special lives in the illustrations. They’re skilled, playful and spirited. They add immense heart to the story. But ultimately, the reason this book has stayed with me has little to do with its overall endearing message of forgiveness, but rather the specific content of Mr. Slinger’s note to Lily. In it he writes: “Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better.” As far as writing goes, the phrase is hardly groundbreaking. And yet the phrase reverberates through my head when I’m feeling down on my luck. I keep these words tucked in my pocket. Over the years they’ve become a personal mantra. When all has gone wrong and I catch myself crying at the end of a bad day I’ll whisper to myself Mr. Slingers’s words: “Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better.” Invariably, those nine simple words provide me some relief. Even the toughest days come to an end, and tomorrow provides the opportunity of a fresh start.
BOOK REVIEW
‘Fish’ is beautiful debut TESSA ROSE
Daily Arts Writer
GO BLUE
ACROSS 1 Trendy 8 No longer outstanding 14 Catch-22 15 “Am I the problem?” 16 Physician for Dickens’ Miss Havisham? 18 Morales of “Ozark” 19 Canada’s Buffy Sainte-Marie, by birth 20 Math functions 22 Fleur de __: sea salt 23 Clever remarks 24 Sedate 25 Station for exercisers on wheels? 29 Earth tone 32 Ancient colonnade 33 “Disgusting!” 34 Diamond figure 37 Play seriously 39 “... this night, being __ my head”: Shak. 40 Hideout 42 Soft touch 43 Expert guard dog? 47 Foil relative 48 Couple 49 Andean stew veggie 52 Rapper Ice Cube’s first name 54 Clothes to clean 55 Zipcar parent company 56 Cool cat’s affectionate friends? 59 Texas oil city 60 State 61 Waver 62 Computer input
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
From enigmatic plot to disconcerting characters, normality is but a common thread in Katya Apekina’s debut novel, “The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish.” Coming from a mother who swallows her loved ones whole and a narcissistic father, two daughters are torn between the chaotic obsessions and depressions of their parents. After Edith and Mae’s mother, Marianne, attempts to hang herself they are taken under the wing of their father, Dennis — a former civil rights activist and glamorous author. The plot is a series of question marks and unsettling flashbacks that are gradually filled out by the tangle of narratives. Turbulent and beautifully twisted, Apekina’s narrative pingpong game combines Edith’s present viewpoint with Mae’s retrospective future narration. Readers observe in discomfort the unraveling of each obsessively sinister relationship between parent and child. This charactorial tension is unsettling and glues your eyes to each passing word. Each character is layered with instabilities that compile and decompose. Alongside the instabilities of the other characters, they form a complex web of alluring destruction. The narrative is further peppered with psychiatric records, telephone conversations, letters and book reviews that provide backstage glances into the mental framework
of each character. Apekina employs a blend of perspective and shifting timeframes to propel the novel with stunning volatility. Edie’s chapters are dated with 1997, while much of the offhand excerpts are
“The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish” Katya Apekina Two Dollar Radio either dated from the ’60s or left completely undated. Many of the sideline excerpts are recited by witnesses like Dennis’s sister, Aunt Rose, his envious lover, Amanda, Edith’s new friend, Charlie, her recent boyfriend Markus and Cronus the cat. Each figure retells different pieces to this plot puzzle, and as the story unravels, so too does the mental stability of each character. It’s almost easy to dismiss Marianne as a hallucinating, deranged women, but Edith’s determination to reclaim her mother’s name brings Marianne back into focus as a character of intrigue. At the same time there is ambiguity in the source of Edith’s hunger for her mother’s attention as she had always been the secondplace child in her mother’s eyes. Mae struggles to distance herself from Marianne’s possessive influence as she describes, “Yes, mom dragged me with her to every terrible place. I needed to get as far from her as I could. She was
consuming me. That day she tried to hang herself from the rafter in the kitchen, I’d been lying on the bedroom floor. My mind was a radio tuned to her station and her misery paralyzed me.” Mae replaces her mother’s obsession with her own delusional infatuation with her father. Mae desires to fill his need for a damaged, unstable muse. As Marianne describes best Dennis “liked his birds with their wings broken.” Almost ironically, Mae slowly starts to embody her mother’s mannerisms and manic tendencies to become the not-soperfect muse for Dennis and is essentially consumed by insanity in the process. Apekina asks an essential question: Whose voice gets to be heard? The famed father, a suicidal mother, two neglected daughters or the side characters who observe the chaos from a safe distance? “The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish” exposes more than the inner workings of parentchild relationships and the darker shades of mental illness, it digs into pressing themes of today’s political climate and the gendering of society. It provides a timely interpretation of the silencing and reinventing of voices through the power of men. Apekina perfectly plants seeds for respecting and believing the voices of women while leaving ambiguous gaps in the narrative for the reader’s interpretative delight. The story is left unresolved for a much-anticipated follow up novel, and it’s good timing: The world was far overdue for such a relevant, tantalizing and desirably addictive novel.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
DAILY GENDER & MEDIA COLUMN
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
Joni and I
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI / DAILY
SMTD’s ‘Sweet Charity’ is a striking performance ISABELLE HASSLUND Daily Arts Writer
The Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre was buzzing with excitement, as the audience was antsy to see another spectacular performance put on by the University’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD). The energy in the room bounced off the bright red curtain that fell so elegantly, covering the floral, colorful, ’60s flower-power set of “Sweet Charity.” “Sweet Charity” is a musical based on an original screenplay by Frederico Fellini, written by comic playwright Neil Simon, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields and music by Cy Coleman. It debuted on Broadway in 1966, choreographed by the iconic Bob Fosse (known for the dance masterpieces “Cabaret” and “Chicago”). The show’s history boasts four-time Tony Awardwinning actress Gwen Verdon as one of its stars. Many tunes from “Sweet Charity” have made it into the mainstream, such as “Big Spender” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.” The musical follows the story of a woman named Charity Hope Valentine, a dance-hall hostess who thirsts to find a partner who would not pay much mind to her taboo job. In comes skittish taxaccount, Oscar Lindquist, who seems to be Charity’s chance at love, at last. Charity Hope Valentine, the fun-loving dance hall hostess desperately searching for love, is played by Nevada Koenig, a senior BFA Musical Theatre major. Koenig displayed her dance skill with an impressive performance of the Fosse-inspired movements. While even some of the most experienced performers struggle with the subtle movements of the Bob Fosse style on the big stage, Koenig was able to successfully make every movement effective. She makes movement informed by the bubbly demeanor of Charity Hope Valentine. Fosse
choreography lends itself to being sensual. However, Koenig put her own spin on the dance, making the movements appear innocent and playful. When the curtains open and we first see Charity, she uses movement to set the mood of the entire musical. It was truly incredible that Koenig could get the audience to giggle and laugh by using her witty movement. Although Koenig’s movement was impressive, her performance lacked in acting skill, which was especially seen once the music stopped and transitioned into a scene. When she was left to be the character without the music backing her, Charity’s chipper demeanour greatly diminished and the energy sank. Without movement guiding Koenig, she became a less genuine actress. Her lines were not internalized, so when she delivered them, the performance came across as very rehearsed instead of playing with character development in the moment. This resulted in some comedic moments being washed over the audience. I left the theater without much of an impression of Charity. The energy that radiated off the stage came from the incredible ensemble members and supporting roles. One of the most impressive numbers was in the second act, “Rhythm of Life.” The ensemble filled the stage with extravagant hippie prints and a fun and contagious energy emanated from the stage. It was one of my favorite numbers of the entire show because of how much fun the cast was having, which transferred to the audience. Commodore Primous, who had a featured role as Daddy Brubeck, had an especially explosive and compelling performance, which was showcased in his interactions with other members of the cast during this number and his powerful movement. My favorite dance number was “Rich Man’s Frug.” The
ensemble’s movements were sharp and effective, and this number showcased the incredible talent and versatility of the Department of Musical Theatre. I tremendously applaud Linda Goodrich, the choreographer of this production and associate professor in the Department of Musical Theatre, for her wonderful choreography. Throughout the entire show, I was thoroughly impressed with not only the execution of movement, but the creativity of the choreography. Goodrich was able to blend Fosse influence with her own personal style, which made the musical more accessible and fun to watch. It is worth buying tickets to see the movement for yourself. I was very impressed by the performances of Mikaela Secada, sophomore BFA Musical Theatre major and McKenzie Kurtz, senior BFA Musical Theatre, as Helene and Nickie, respectively. Helene and Nickie are dancers in the dance-hall that Charity works in, and they are Charity’s closest friends. Kurtz and Secada did an incredible job in embodying the sassiness and toughness of their characters, putting their own spins on them. Their authentic performance made them so much fun to watch. Another striking moment was when Blake Roman Bojewski, senior BFA Musical Theatre major, who played eccentric Italian moviestar Vittorio Vidale, opened his mouth to sing. His voice was incredibly enchanting. His performance of “Too Many Tomorrows” was moving and entrancing. His voice matched the hypnotizing smoothness of his character, as he showed off a more classical vocal style and color. SMTD’s Department of Musical Theatre, again, put on an enjoyable performance. “Sweet Charity” was a joy to watch, and I had a wonderful time marvelling at the great talent that we have right here on campus.
STYLE REVIEW
COURTESY OF NIKE
Nike’s Air Max 720 takes steps toward the future SAM KREMKE For the Daily
a to
This July, Nike released single image, meant represent the cusp of
something new. A sea of vacant black is punctuated by a luminous, gel-like structure outlining the character omega. The translucent white base graduates to an amalgam of electric magenta
Friday, October 19, 2018 — 6A
and cyan, which reflects itself onto a black heel barely distinguishable from the negative space that surrounds it. The picture communicates less of an upcoming shoe release than a re-centering shot
“I know, no one’s going to show me everything / We all come and go unknown / Each so deep and superficial / Between the forceps and the stone.” This is my favorite line from Joni Mitchell’s entire discography. It’s part of the title track off her 1974 album Hejira, a record full of longing and grit and beauty that is often overlooked in the great scape of her work at large. But it’s this line, this articulation of the uncertainty of life, that has stuck with me from the first time I heard it. Above everything she has done, Mitchell’s haunting voice captures the calm that comes from understanding the simultaneous grandeur and microcosm of the human experience. We are both deep and superficial, all unknown, all in limbo between birth and death at any given moment. In this statement, I have found strength and calm throughout some of the most difficult periods of my life. The relationship I have with Joni Mitchell has changed over the years, but ultimately it comes down to that line, and the message it represents carries across much of her work: No matter who you are, what you do, or where you go, we are all here together, and we might as well find something deeper in the world around us. As a young woman growing up in a time where it’s sometimes hard to find the truth in popular music, Mitchell offered a sense of perspective on a larger scale, and for that, I will always be grateful. Anyone who has ever had a conversation about music with me knows I love Joni; she is a puzzle and a master at the same time, an artist who has taught me more than even she could understand. Though I grew up with Mitchell’s hits like “California” and “River” playing throughout my house, it wasn’t until I had some of my own life experiences that I could truly appreciate her genius. I discovered her fully in the first few years of high school, which
were arguably some of the darkest times I’ve been through. Being a teenage girl can often feel like a living nightmare, and I dealt with both chronic illness and depression on top of that. During those rough years, Joni was a friend, a mother and a prophet for me in a period where I desperately needed something to hold onto. For me at that point, Joni Mitchell’s music was both a salve and a lens to see myself through, an aid in understanding that accepting the future as it is
CLARA SCOTT provides more than trying to fix it in place. Mitchell’s own story serves as a perfect example of strength and success in spite of a difficult past: She had a baby at 20 and gave her up, a choice alluded to in Blue’s “Little Green.” She went through a divorce at an incredibly young age, stood back up and became an unstoppable force in modern folk music. She is revered not only for her incredible talent for lyrics and music, but also her uncanny ability to synthesize her own experiences into universally applicable narratives. At the foundation of Mitchell’s work is a rock-solid sense of self, something that everyone who listens to her music cannot ignore. The songwriter has always known who she was, and while I was trying to find my own identity, her steadfast analysis of the toils and joys of her own life gave me hope that I would one day understand myself. I recommend her music to every young girl because of this: Though it may seem dense
or weird at first, Mitchell’s heart is clearly in everything she has made, and a shining example of how vulnerability can be just as powerful as defense. While that era of my life is fortunately over and I am happier and healthier than I’ve ever been, I firmly believe that the lessons I learned from Mitchell’s throughout those struggles will stay with me for a very long time. There’s a song on her third record Ladies of the Canyon called “The Circle Game” that details the cyclical nature of life, explaining that “We’re captive on the carousel of time / We can’t return we can only look behind / From where we came / And go round and round and round / In the circle game.” Here, Mitchell comments on the value of looking behind at the past to understand the present and future, something that serves as a window to much of her work. In every album that she has written, the singer takes stories from her own life and observations from the world around her and turns them into proverbs for the years to come. We have all been at a party sitting by ourselves (“People’s Parties,” Court and Spark), watched mundane life with awe (“The Hissing of Summer Lawns,” The Hissing of Summer Lawns) or felt misunderstood by romantic partners (“Woman of Heart and Mind,” For the Roses). In these narratives, Mitchell taught me resilience and patience with myself and my idea of the future. Though it is easy to rush through your days with an intense focus, it is in noticing the beauty and sadness of life that we can learn the most. Joni Mitchell’s music serves as a book of parables if you look hard enough, all set to piano, guitar and her singular voice. For those who have never listened to her, I offer this to you: Be ready to open your heart and mind, because fully understanding Mitchell is impossible, but trying will teach you more about yourself than you would ever expect.
REPRISE RECORDS
of energy — the sun rising over a black monolith, set by the sepia-toned haze of a sneaker market flooded with archival releases and lazy mash ups. Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” explores the exciting new trajectories brought about by the technological age, while addressing fears of its sterile, objective rigidity; Nike’s environmentally conscious intentions with the shoe are an appeal to the former. Their assertions of eco-benevolence as a corporate mega giant are a press-friendly spin on confronting waste issues that have gone unchecked until recent years. Expected to release on Air Max Day (Nike’s designated anniversary of the massively successful line, celebrated on Mar. 26th) of next year, the shoe’s credentials pack an undeniable punch. As purported by their website, the 720 will boast the largest heel of any sneaker in history, allowing for unparalleled comfort and agility for a trainer or a person that’s going to be trotting around midtown all day. Using their Vapormax technology, they removed the need for a foam midsole (a significant waste-causer that’s problematic across the
industry) and crafted the shoe out of about 75% recycled materials. It should also be noted that Nike is committed to using dying processes for the shoe that allow for virtually no water pollution and upcycling about 95% of sourced materials. With yearly plastic production projected to clock in at over half a billion tonnes over the next few decades, the ecofriendly race within sneaker and fashion communities is no longer just about feel-good PR or appealing to a vocal minority. It should go without saying that reckless industry and consumerism has run up a tab on the environment that may not be easily paid off. According to a recent study at MIT, the average lightweight running shoe (like the ones that, according to a tweet by Matt Powell, Nike sells at a rate of about 25 per second) produces almost 30 pounds of carbonic waste and existing processes are greatly contributing to the plastic barge in the ocean that will outweigh the total underwater life count in terms of weight by 2050. Currently at its zenith with about 20 billion pairs of shoes coming off the line each year, “drop” culture and its perpetrators have an ethical
responsibility to implement procedures that reduce waste from the standpoint of both material and the construction itself. While they may not be leading that charge, the Air Max 720 is a powerful step forward. In light of the IPCC’s recent report indicating that a concerted effort will have to be made in order to prevent permanent damage do the environment over the next century, it’s heartening to see titans of industry, like Nike, create products that acknowledge the dire circumstances under which contemporary industries are working. The introduction of new technology (coupled with, hopefully, a slower-paced sneaker release calendar in coming years) that is attractive, ethical and sustainable from the market’s leader will undoubtedly have an impact on future developments from competitors as well as habits of the consumer. The 21st century may be sold separately from a Pan Am sponsored trip to Jupiter or AI that has a pragmatic take on human life, but Nike’s retro-futuristic installment of footwear will at least have the aesthetic chops to sit next to those fabulous Djinn chairs.
OCTOBER 19, 2018
Preview of the 2018-2019
Michigan Hockey Team Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy
2B
Friday, October 19, 2018 // FACEOFF 2018
F A C E O F F 2 0 1 TABLE 8 - OF1 9 SCHEDULE 2018-2019
Oct. 6
Vermont
Jan. 5
at Notre Dame
Oct. 7
Waterloo (ex.)
Jan. 8
Merrimack
Oct. 12
U.S. NTDP (ex.)
Jan. 11, 12
at Ohio State
Oct. 19
Western Michigan
Jan. 24
Penn State
Oct. 20
at Western Michigan
Jan. 26
Penn State at Madison
Oct. 26, 27
St. Lawrence
Nov. 2, 3
at Lake Superior State
Feb. 1
at Minnesota
Nov. 9, 10
Notre Dame
Feb. 8
Michigan State
Nov. 16, 17
at Penn State
Feb. 9
Michigan State at Little
Nov. 23, 24
Wisconsin
Nov. 30
at Michigan State
Feb. 12
at Notre Dame
Dec. 1
Michigan State
Feb. 22, 23
Ohio State
Dec. 7, 8
Minnesota
March 1, 2
at Wisconsin
Dec. 30, 31
Great Lakes Invitational
March 8-10
Big Ten Tournament
Square Garden
Caesar’s Arena
3 4 6 7
CONTENTS
Michigan needs to let go of the past to have success in the present. Hayden Lavigne has built himself up into Michigan’s goalie. Big Ten poised for success after strong 2017-18 season. Inside the Wolverines’ 2017-18 roster, broken down by position.
STAFF PICKS The Daily hockey writers take their best shot at predicting what will happen in the world of college hockey this season. Michigan regular-season record Big Ten champion Big Ten second place Big Ten third place Big Ten Coach of the Year Big Ten Tournament champion Great Lakes Invitational Champion Michigan’s season ends here Michigan MVP Michigan top scorer Top Michigan freshman NCAA Frozen Four
National Champion
Jorge Cazares
Bailey Johnson
Tien Le
Rian Ratnavale
18-14-2 Ohio State Minnesota Michigan Bob Motzko, Minnesota Ohio State Michigan Second Round, NCAA Tournament Josh Norris Will Lockwood Nick Blankenburg Ohio State Minnesota-Duluth St. Cloud State Notre Dame
17-14-3 Ohio State Notre Dame Michigan Steve Rohlik Ohio State Michigan First Round, NCAA Tournament Will Lockwood Will Lockwood Jimmy Lambert Ohio State Minnesota-Duluth Notre Dame St. Cloud State
27-5-2 Michigan Minnesota Notre Dame Bob Motzko, Minnesota Wisconsin Michigan Tech National Champions Josh Norris Jake Slaker Nick Blankenburg St. Cloud State Notre Dame Michigan Boston University
16-15-3 Ohio State Notre Dame Minnesota Bob Motzko, Minnesota Notre Dame Michigan First Round, NCAA Tournament Quinn Hughes Will Lockwood Strauss Mann Ohio State Minnesota-Duluth Notre Dame Providence
Minnesota-Duluth
Ohio State
Michigan
Notre Dame
Friday, October 19, 2018 // FACEOFF 2018
3B
Let it go Michigan needs to forget about its past two seasons to have success with a new team in 2018-19
H
opefully, by now, you’ve regained your senses after the Michigan hockey team’s roller-coaster of a season last year. The Wolverines started in the shadow RIAN of Red RATNAVALE Berenson’s retirement and low expectations, struggled to escape the darkness until mid-January, then finished seconds away from a spot in the National Championship game. Not to mention this all happened in Michigan coach Mel Pearson’s first season running the team. Last season certainly assured the Wolverines that rebuilding didn’t mean a long road back to relevance. On the other hand, Michigan’s 4-3 loss at the horn to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four semifinals gave the program arg uably its toughest lost in recent history — and a bad taste in its mouth going into the offseason. Pearson knows that the tables are turned this year. The Wolverines are not sneaking up on anyone anytime soon — they started this season ranked No. 4 in the country — and although they haven’t looked as sharp as one would expect a preseason topfive team to look, the target is on the Wolverines’ back. They are no longer the hunters. Michigan is the hunted. “You’ve got something to prove still,” Pearson said. “If you’re picked to finish lower like you were, you’re trying to prove that they were wrong and that we have a better team than whoever picks the polls. If you’re picked high, then you’re trying to prove that those people know what they’re talking about ... You have to
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Mel Pearson had surprising success in his first season in Ann Arbor, but with some turnover on his roster this season, that doesn’t mean anything.
go from they don’t know what they’re talking about to being like, ‘OK they’re right.’” And while that umbrella covers the general expectations of a team that just made the Frozen Four, Michigan still wants to prove, at least in some ways, that “those people” don’t know quite know what they’re talking about. On paper, much has changed from last season to now. The top-line combination of Dexter Dancs, Cooper Marody and Tony Calderone — and all 122 of its net-shredding points — are gone. But who expected anything out of them when Michigan finished 13-19-3 the
“You have to from they don’t know what they’re...
season before? Sophomore Josh Norris returned to Ann Arbor despite being a first-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. He could be the new offensive ringleader. Same goes for sophomore defenseman Quinn Hughes, who was drafted 7th overall last season. He could surely be in the NHL right now, but he too returned with high expectations. Junior Will Lockwood is back from a season-ending injury. Junior Nick Pastujov and his brother, sophomore Michael Pastujov, have shown f lashes, albeit not for long enough to firmly establish themselves as forces quite yet. The recipe for success is not a quick one, and there may well be a lot of growing pains for the group. Michigan seems to understand that. It’s why, even
through a rough defensive start to the season and a slew of untimely turnovers, Pearson has remained level-headed about the f low of the offense, his blue line and the goaltender situation. Success, be it over the course of a game, a season or a coaching era, is not a sprint. Even Berenson didn’t finish above .500 until his fourth season coaching the Wolverines and didn’t make a Frozen Four until his eighth. In one season behind the bench at Michigan, Pearson did both. Reveling in their Cinderella run won’t help the Wolverines when they have to face No. 1 Ohio State, which swept them
last year and hardly lost any talent. Neither will sulking about the Frozen Four defeat to Notre Dame when they first gear up against the secondranked Fighting Irish. Those things happened then, but this is now. Pearson and the Wolverines didn’t let poor prior expectations and following in the footsteps of a legend cloud their thoughts then, so why do the same now? It’s time for Michigan to forget about last season, and enjoy the ride ahead.
... talking about to being like, ‘OK, they’re right.’ ”
Ratnavale can be reached at rian@umich.edu or on Twitter @RianRatnavale
OCTOBER 19, 2018
Preview of the 2018-2019
Michigan Hockey Team Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy
4B
Friday, October 19, 2018
FACEOFF 2018
Hayden Lavigne: No
H
ayden Lavigne is currently reading a mystery book. It should come to no one’s surprise, though. After all, he’s a mystery himself. Talk to people around Lavigne and two common themes emerge. One is that he’s a serious, intense guy. Two is that no one can ever tell what he’s thinking — he’s just an enigma. “He’s very closed book, he’s very — he doesn’t show a lot of emotions, he doesn’t reveal a lot about himself,” said Lavigne’s mother Julie. “He can be taken the wrong way sometimes, he doesn’t show excitement, it used to drive me nuts. Like, ‘Aren’t you excited?’ ‘Yeah, I’m excited.’ He doesn’t outwardly show it.” As Michigan coach Mel Pearson puts it, “You win, there’s Hayden. You lose, there’s Hayden.” And it’s hard for the goalie to express himself. His emotions are stashed under a mask and his body language locked away in a stance. But, if you want to know what he’s feeling, all you have to do is just ask. “Other guys will give you an answer,” said goaltender coach Steve Shields. “And they’ll make sure it’s something that’s an acceptable answer, but Hayden will just say what he feels. He’s real.” A few years back, National Hockey League goaltender coach Mitch Korn, now coaching his 27th year, came to Michigan to talk with the team. He gave them the regular spiel on the league. But then he asked, “Why do you think you’re going to be in the NHL one day?” The team answered with the answers everyone wanted to hear, the ones that wouldn’t spark any controversy if overheard. But Lavigne made his intent clear. He responded simply: “I don’t know; I just know I will.” *** Hayden Lavigne was born April 7, 1996 in Brampton, Ontario.
From a young age — three-yearsold — he made up his mind on what he wanted to do. He let his mom know that he wanted to be on skates, that he wanted to play hockey. Despite catching her off guard, not knowing where that desire came from, Julie tried to get him on a team. But being decisive didn’t get Lavigne any favors, it was too late for him by the time she found people his age on a team. “I know some kids who started when they were four, I think by the time I asked they were full and they wouldn’t take him,” Julie said. So when Lavigne turned five, his mother took him one more time to try and join a recreational team. At this point in his childhood, he had to make a decision. He dabbled in snowboarding and biking but Julie thought it was time he chose one sport to focus on. “Even when he was young, he had to choose what he was gonna focus on because any rec sport, you can’t do more than one rec sport,” Julie said. “There’s not enough hours in the day.” Around the same time he chose hockey, Lavigne fell in love with being a goaltender. Lots of players don’t choose to be a goalie by default. Many find that it’s due to a gear — the ability to be different as Shields noted. Others find it due to a lack of staking ability. But for Lavigne, it was different. “Now the best athletes are the goalies,” Shields said. “Lots of goalies had a similar thing, where they had a chance to play when they were younger or they really, some kids just like that position. You don’t think about that when you’re young, and you’re out there playing goal and stopping pucks.” And it’s as simple as that. Lavigne didn’t find out about the gears or the pressure until later. He
just loved being goalie because he thought it gave him the best chance to win. “He perceived that winning was under his control,” Julie said. “So, it was easy. Just stop the pucks.” Then, she said her and Jeff Lavigne, Hayden’s father, actively tried to convince him to switch. Seeing other hockey parents doing the same with their children only offered assurance. But Lavigne stuck with the position. The decision was largely to the credit of a coach of a six-year-old rec team. “(He) saw him playing once and said he wanted him as the goalie,” Julie said. “Saw him play once as the goalie. Like, at five years old, they had to rotate it, but I remember that the coach of the rec team (watched) the five year olds play and said, ‘I want him as my goalie.’ “And I said, ‘Well, could he come try out as a player?’ And he said, ‘Well, he could, but I really want him as my goalie.’ I said, ‘You saw him play once and he doesn’t even get a shot!’ I mean, they could hardly skate! He goes, ‘Yes, he was very focused.’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ But anyway, that was the start of it. He wanted it and the coach wanted him so that was how he started.” Lavigne differed from most of his teammates though. For one, he had other hobbies outside of hockey. “When you’re in minor hockey, it’s hockey 24/7, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year, almost,” Julie said. “And I think people, some people, will say, ‘You gotta get off the ice, you gotta do other things,’ but when you’re going to minor hockey and everybody’s doing it, you kind of just do it.” Minor hockey is an amatuer league just below juniors, and yet despite being less competitive in nature than most of the other hock-
“He can be taken the wrong way sometimes.”
ey leagues, it was serious enough to warrant national tournaments and regional championships. So while many dedicated most of their time to the sport, Lavigne found his time divided between other things he loved. Jeff would take him out to hunt at an early age and developed a love of the outdoors. Lavigne enjoyed games of tags while continuing to snowboard, hunt and mountain bike, despite pleas from his coaches. But when he approached the age of ten, he faced a similar decision to the one he saw when he was five. But this time, it carried a lot more weight. He was contemplating giving up hockey for a bit to try competitive snowboarding. Julie told him he couldn’t “He toyed with giving up hockey for a year, just because, you can’t do both competitive sports,” Julie said. “But, like any other athlete, they’re really good at almost any sport they try, right? “So, he toyed with wanting to be a pro snowboarder as well, or a competitive snowboarder, but he decided to stick with hockey in case — there’s a risk, right?” The risk of injuries are always present, but it was the risk of lagging behind that threatened Lavigne the most. “You leave one sport to do another and then you wanna come back and all of the sudden you can’t get in at the same level,” Julie said. “And it would probably be true with hockey.” So in order to keep up with his peers and to minimize the risk of injury, Lavigne gave up two of his hobbies for good. No more Christmas-time snowboarding or summer-time mountain biking. It left a hole in Lavigne — even with more time dedicated to hockey. But, when he moved up to the junior hockey level, he adopted a new hobby — fishing. “I got into it my first year in the USHL,” Lavigne said. “We were done playing pretty early and I had to stay down there to finish high
school, and there were a lot of small ponds and not really a whole lot to do because we were in a really small town in Nebraska, so I kind of got into fishing that way.” For a goalie, patience is a large aspect of the game. Move too early, and the attacking opponent could have an empty net to score on. Move too late, and the reaction to the puck might not be on time. So by picking up fishing, an activity that relies heavily on patience, Lavigne used it to better his skills on the ice. But the hobby held a higher importance than just improving an aspect of his game. “I think more than my patience, it’s helped me relax on the ice and realize that it’s just a game. I tend to get very tense and frustrated, and fishing was kind of a big outlet for me and how to just kinda let that go,” Lavigne said. “Like when I was on the water, it was like, ‘Okay, well I don’t have to do anything except fish.’ ” Adopting the hobby during his first year in the USHL might have been a stroke of luck. The first season with the Tri-City Storm, to put it lightly, was rough for Lavigne. He underperformed, splitting time with Jacob Johansson. Posting a subpar .895 save-percentage through 27 games, he was shadowed by Johansson’s .910 through 42 games. “Fishing kinda filled that void,” Lavigne said, “and gave me an opportunity to be outside and enjoy the weather and the scenery and all that stuff and still keep me occupied without worrying about falling and breaking my arm or leg.” If fishing was needed during a mentally-taxing first season, it was needed even more so through his second season in the league, when he went to the Waterloo Black Hawks. Faced with tighter competition after being cut from Tri-City — this time seeing a four-man rotation at the position — Lavigne was given less time in the net, and subsequently, the team saw less from him. Posted .866 save-percentage
Friday, October 19, 2018
FACEOFF 2018
5B
Page Layout by Kate Glad ; Designed by Roseanne Chao
longer a mystery Written by Tien Le
through 16 games, Lavigne’s performance proved uninspiring, especially with his competition including the current Mike Richter Award winner and Notre Dame goalie, Cale Morris, who posted a .937 through 28 games. “When I was in the USHL, I got cut from Tri-City and then Waterloo, which was a big low in my career and probably the lowest I’ve ever been,” Lavigne said. “And then going into Bloomington, I had a great goalie coach that I got to work with there who really kinda turned my game around and helped me realize the mental aspect of things.” If you didn’t know what type of goalie Lavigne was, he was always on the athletic side of the puck. His struggles were all mental. “I would collapse on myself and get frustrated with myself,” Lavigne said. “And so (the Bloomington Thunder goalie coach) helped me work through that, and that was a big turning point, but that was a year and a half long span of working with him and working through that stuff — that was big for me.” The situation Lavigne saw in Bloomington wasn’t that far from what he saw in Michigan last year. After the first month, where he sat behind Logan Halladay, he dedicated his time to developing. No games, just practice. It gave him time to fully accept that the starting job wasn’t just going to fall to him, that he had to work hard against the competition out there to win it. Even after he got his starts, he saw his time split in rotations. But that prepared him. “Then finally got my starts, we rotated for almost a full year, we rotated,” Lavigne said. “That kinda really just set me up for the competition that’s ahead and going in — coming in here, freshman year, there was four of us. I was competing with not only just one other goalie, now I was competing with three others. Then last year, Jack LaFontaine and I were competing neck and neck for the first half of
the season. This year, it’s (Strauss Mann) and (Jack Leavy) again. Through every start, Lavigne gained pieces of him that would define how he played. Defining moments of his career taught him lessons as a player bit by bit, allowing him to be the undisputed starter and late-season star the Wolverines needed from him last season. “Even just my first game at Yost, playing and winning, just knowing that right away that I could compete at this level was something that definitely gave me the confidence through the last two years and moving forward,” Lavigne said. “Those are probably the biggest things, and like I said, it’s little things along the way. Going to the Frozen Four is a big turning point, shows not only me, but the whole team, what we can do.” And it was by getting faster, better and more consistent that Lavigne found himself winning the starting job at Michigan. As a freshman, he averaged a serviceable .912 save percentage, with a 6-6-1 split through 13 games. It was as a sophomore, however, that he proved himself worthy of the starting job. After a weak stretch in the first half of the year, where neither him or former Michigan goaltender Jack LaFontaine could separate one another, Lavigne was given the starting job after LaFontaine let six goals in against Bowling Green on Jan. 1st. And when given the opportunity this time around, he ran away with it. On Feb. 2, Lavigne held his own against a ranked Wisconsin team, allowing only three goals in on 40 shots. His goaltending made all the difference in a one-goal win, ending 4-3 in favor of Michigan. Against Penn State, Minnesota and Notre Dame, Lavigne averaged a .947 save percentage during the crucial stretch, cementing his place in the crease. So while Lavigne might have been a mystery before, he’s made sure everyone knows just who is behind the mask.
Photo Credits: Top - Katelyn Mulcahy / Bottom - Alec Cohen
6B
Friday, October 19, 2018 // FACEOFF 2018
Big Ten Breakdown: Entire conference hoping to maintain success of last season, when three teams made Frozen Four Ohio State looks to top the conference thanks to returns of Jobst, Laczynski and Joshua BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer
When the No. 11 Michigan hockey team starts Big Ten play against Notre Dame three weeks from now, it will have a chance at redemption. In last year’s Frozen Four semif inal, a last-second Fighting Irish goal ended the Wolverines’ tournament run and their surprisingly successf ul season. But with Notre Dame ranked as the No. 2 team in the countr y, that chance at redemption may be a tall order for Michigan. Af ter the opening series against the Fighting Irish, the Wolverines’ Big Ten slate doesn’t get any easier. Three of last year’s four Frozen Four teams came from the conference — the Wolverines, Ohio State and Notre Dame. And the Big Ten is poised to be a talent-f illed conference again throughout the 2018-19 season. Six of the seven teams are currently ranked inside the top 15 in the USCHO poll, with four teams in the top 10. With that much talent in a single conference, the competition will be intense from now until March. The Daily takes a look at each of the teams in the Big Ten. No. 1 Ohio State Af ter reaching the Frozen Four for the f irst time in 20 years last season, the Buckeyes (2-0) are set for a similarly strong year. They returned 75 percent of their scoring, led by forwards Mason Jobst, Tanner Laczynski and Dakota Joshua. Jobst is the NCA A’s activeleading scorer, having notched 128 points — 52 of them goals — in his three years in an Ohio State sweater. Last year’s Buckeye defense had the top penalt y-kill
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan hockey team will have to play five teams in the Big Ten that are currently ranked in the top 15 of the USCHO.com rankings.
percentage in the nation, preventing their opponents from scoring on .894 percent of their chances, and ranked third in goals allowed per game with 2.1. With just t wo goals allowed through the f irst t wo games, the Ohio State defense — headlined by Wyatt Ege — appears poised for another year of high-level performances.
The Buckeyes (2-0) are set for a similarly strong year.
No. 2 Notre Dame
In their f irst year in the Big Ten, the Fighting Irish (1-0-1) made quite the impression on the rest of the conference. They lost just six conference games, winning the reg ular season title by eight points, and defeated the Buckeyes in overtime for their f irst Big Ten championship.
Af ter losing the National Championship to MinnesotaDuluth, Notre Dame surely has motivation to reach the pinnacle this year. And with the return of the Big Ten Player of the Year and a top-10 Hobey Baker f inalist in goaltender Cale Morris, the Fighting Irish’s defense shouldn’t have much to worr y about. At forward, Notre Dame has been led by Cal Burke and Bobby Nardella in the f irst t wo games. Burke’s three goals in the third period against Mercyhurst allowed the Fighting Irish to rally and tie the game at six goals before earning a shootout victor y. No. 7 Minnesota The Golden Gophers (1-01) opened the 2018-19 season with a series against the team that kept them from the NCA A Tournament last season, Minnesota-Duluth.
The Bulldogs edged Minnesota by just 0.001 points in the Pairwise rankings, leaving the Golden Gophers on the outside looking in. Minnesota has a new head coach, Bob Motzko, which sets up some uncertaint y in the early going of the year. The Golden Gophers have t wo talented goaltenders to choose from in Mat Robson, who was named to the watch list for the Mike R ichter award, and Eric Schierhorn, who was Big Ten Goaltender of the Year t wo years ago. On offense, Minnesota will have to replace forward Casey Mittlestadt, who departed for the Buffalo Sabres. Forwards Brannon McManus and Sampo Ranta have emerged as the
leading scorers thus far, but time will tell if they can replace Mittlestadt’s 30-point performance from last season. No. 10 Penn State Af ter making their secondstraight NCA A Tournament last season, the Nittany Lions (2-0) are seeking to improve on their Midwest reg ional loss to Denver and make it farther in the postseason. But with the loss of one of their top forwards, Andrew Sturtz, and a pair of talented defensemen in Trevor Hamilton and Erik Autio, Penn State will need to f ind replacements — and quickly — for those key players. Forwards See BIG TEN, Page 7B
Minnesota will have to replace forward Casey Mittlestadt
Friday, October 19, 2018 // FACEOFF 2018
BIG TEN From Page 6B Brandon Biro and Nate Sucese have so far looked the part of replacements to Sturtz’s production with four points each in t wo games. On the penalt y kill in the opening series against Clarkston, the Nittany Lions allowed just t wo power-play goals in f ive chances. Penn State’s power play, on the other hand, has scored on 50 percent of its opportunities. No. 15 Wisconsin The Badgers (2-0) are in rebound mode af ter last season’s loss to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament and their subsequent missing of the NCA A Tournament. Wisconsin lost six straight conference games to f inish the 2017-18 season, including the t wo losses in the Big Ten Tournament. Af ter sweeping Boston College to open the season, Wisconsin jumped from unranked to No. 15 in the USCHO poll. Goaltender Jack Berr y had a rollercoaster weekend, as he shut out the Eagles in one game and allowed f ive goals on 28 shots in the other. The Badgers’ offense seems
7B
to have found its rhy thm, scoring 10 goals across the t wo games. Forward Tarek Baker paces the team with four points on the season, and forward Wyatt Kalnuk — a unanimous preseason All-Big Ten selection — has added three points of his own. Michigan State Af ter f inishing last in the Big Ten for the third straight season in 2017-18, with just six conference wins, the Spartans (1-1) are in the most trouble of any Big Ten team. Michigan State was once again picked to fall to the bottom of the heap in the 2018-19 preseason poll, so improvement may be minimal. Last season, the Spartans managed to score just 91 goals — the worst scoring offense in the Big Ten. Forward Taro Hirose is expected to help increase that tally af ter being one of six unanimous All-Big Ten preseason selections. With three points in just the f irst t wo games, Hirose should help the Michigan State offense f ind its rhy thm. Beyond the top line of Hirose, Mitchell Lewandoski and Patrick Khodorenko, offensive depth and experience is a question for the Spartans, who have just three seniors on the roster.
BY THE NUMBERS Big Ten Hockey
75 %
Ohio State returned 75 percent of its production from last season’s Frozen Four team.
128
Ohio State forward Mason Jobst is the active leader in career points in the NCAA
8
Notre Dame won the regular season Big Ten Championship by eight points last season
.001
Minnesota missed out on the NCAA Tournament last season by .001 points, falling just short of Minnesota-Duluth in the Pairwise rankings.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Quinn Hughes returned this season and is the backbone of Michigan’s talented blue line.
Roster Breakdown: Michigan with a lot to replace, but talent to do so Talented freshmen and the returns of the likes of Lockwood, Hughes, Slaker and Norris give the Wolverines some hope JORGE CAZARES Daily Sports Writer
Through one game and t wo exhibitions this season, the No. 11 Michigan hockey team (0-1) has been enig matic. The expectations are high coming off a Frozen Four appearance last spring. However, the Wolverines dropped t wo of their f irst three games and have been outscored, 12-15. The team welcomes 10 freshmen and returns 17 letter winners. Where the newcomers will f it in with the returning skaters and how they will f ill the void lef t by the departed skaters remains to be seen. The high-scoring top line of Dexter Dancs, Cooper Marody and Tony Calderone is no more. The trio combined for 122 of the team’s 363 points last season — over one-third of Michigan’s offensive production. Now, the Wolverines will have to search for a new source of f uel for scoring the puck in the 2018-2019 season.
In what has been a disappointing start by Michigan hockey standards, the team is searching for consistency on the roster. The return of several key players such as sophomore Quinn Hughes, senior Joseph Cecconi and junior Will Lockwood f ig ure to uphold the framework of a powerhouse that the team reestablished in the second half of last season. The early struggles thus far are shaking the foundations of the powerhouse. However, the potential on the roster cannot be overlooked as the Wolverines beg in their quest for another deep tournament run. The Daily breaks down the 2018-2019 roster. Goaltenders Hayden Lavig ne is likely to get the nod as the starter g iven his status as the only nonfreshman goaltender on the roster. The junior recorded a .908 save percentage last season with a record of 18-11. However, in his t wo starts this season he has struggled,
allowing at least f ive goals in each contest. In his second start, against the U.S. National Team Development Prog ram, he was pulled in the second period in favor of freshman Straus Mann. Mann looked solid in relief of Lavig ne, allowing one goal in the subsequent 38 minutes of the contest. His f irst and only start against Waterloo got off to a rough start af ter allowing a goal on a bouncing puck from center ice. Since that moment, however, he has shown f lashes of brilliance in the crease. The t wo will likely split time in the crease with Lavig ne getting the edge based on prior experience and his performances in last season’s games. Freshman Jack Leav y has not yet made his debut but is an imposing f ig ure in the net with a 6-foot-5 frame. It is unclear how much playing time he will receive, but at the ver y least, he adds depth to the roster as the third goaltender. Defenders Last season’s top defensive See ROSTER, Page 8B
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Friday, October 19, 2018 // FACEOFF 2018
ROSTER From Page 7B pairing of Hughes and Cecconi is returning for this season. Both had the option of making the move to the NHL but chose to remain in A nn A rbor for another go-around. Hughes led the blueliners in points last season with 29 — edg ing out Cecconi by t wo points. The defense is returning four other skaters in addition to Hughes and Cecconi. Juniors Luke Martin, Griff in Luce, Christian Meike, and senior Nicholas Boka add a level of continuit y to the Wolverines’ defense.
The loss of Cutler Martin and Sam Piazza to g raduation is met by the arrival of freshmen Jack Summers, Jake Gingell and Nick Blankenburg. All three have received ice time thus far, but only Blankenburg played in the team’s one reg ular season game. Through three games this season, the defense has allowed at least four goals in each contest. Forwards The dissolution of the “DMC” line may be the biggest void for Michigan to f ill. The Wolverines’ 10 returning for wards will tackle the challenge. Thus far, sophomore Jack Becker is pacing the team with four goals through three
games and f ig ures to be a major contributor on offense. Junior Jake Slaker and Lockwood have also found the back of the net early this season. The former has improved on his point total in each of his f irst t wo seasons. Slaker and Lockwood ranked one and t wo, respectively, in points during the 2016-2017 season as freshmen. Lockwood had his 2017-2018 campaig n cut short due to injur y but is back on the ice, while Slaker f inished third in goals with 15 and tied for f if th in points with 27. They will need to shoulder the load offensively in order for the Wolverines to replicate last season’s success. Af ter an impressive
freshman season in which he notched 16 points in 29 games, junior Adam Winborg has struggled to stay on the ice consistently. If he f inds his way back on the ice with consistency, he may be a factor in the offensive zone once again. Sophomore Josh Norris made an impact on the ice last season as a freshman recording eight goals and 15 assists. He has found the net once in each of the t wo exhibition matches and has been featured on the top line alongside Lockwood and sophomore Michael Pastujov. Senior Brendan Warren brings stabilit y and experience as the lone senior for ward
and one of t wo seniors on the roster. In 115 career games, he has recorded 17 points and 25 assists. Freshmen Garrett Van Wyhe, Jimmy Lambert, Nolan Moyle and Jack Randl all made their reg ular season debuts against Vermont while Jack Olmstead has only played in exhibition matches. Van Wyhe and Lambert were players to watch out for coming into the season according to Michigan coach Mel Pearson. Van Wyhe combines speed and streng th in the center position with his 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame. Pearson says Lambert is a quick skater who “people will recog nize and notice on the ice because of his skill level.”
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore forward Will Lockwood was the second-highest scorer for Michigan in the 2016-17 season but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury last year. Now he has returned to the Wolverines’ lineup.