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STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CSG releases statement on misconduct, ‘U’ response Student leaders call for accountability on assault claims against SMTD prof.
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US Senator Debbie Stabenow speaks at the University of Michigan College Democrats pre-election rally for midterm elections in Weill Hall Monday evening.
DANIELLE PASEKOFF
College Dems host Get Out The Vote rally featuring Sen. Stabenow
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan’s student body president and vice president released a statement Monday denouncing the University’s decision to grant tenure to David Daniels, professor in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, in light of recent allegations of sexual assault made against him by multiple University students. The statement also affirms Central Student Government support for survivors on campus. “When the normal institutional processes fail,
Statewide candidates make final push in Ann Arbor on eve of general election ERIN GRANT For the Daily
On the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, the University of Michigan’s chapter of College Democrats held a pre-election rally to encourage students and citizens to vote on Tuesday.
There were several featured speakers, including current U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who is up for reelection this year. Addressing about 100 attendees at the event, Stabenow emphasized the importance of voting ethically, claiming an increase in seats won by
Democrats could make this happen. “We are committed to a country that reflects the right values, and we reject what has been spewing out of the White House,” Stabenow said. Stabenow echoed a sentiment that was common among other speakers — Democrats
are looking for change in the upcoming election. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, Jocelyn Benson, candidate for Michigan Secretary of State, and Sam Bagenstos, candidate for justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, all spoke of the opportunity this election See RALLY, Page 3A
we, as leaders of CSG, have a responsibility to hold the University’s administration accountable,” the statement, signed by CSG President Daniel Greene and Vice President Isabel Baer, reads. Many individuals have come forward with sexual assault allegations against Daniels, some cases dating back as early as 2010. Most recently, Music, Theatre and Dance School graduate student Andrew Lipian filed a lawsuit against Daniels on Oct. 24 and cited inaction pertaining to his case. See MISCONDUCT, Page 3A
Veterans, families share “Stories of On-request CSG passes snow plow Service” on life after military tours resolution BUSINESS
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service to come to A2
Event organized in support of Fisher House to launch annual Veterans Week programs
SnoHub allows residents to hire contractors to remove snow through mobile app
Veterans, their families and supportive attendees gathered at Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan Monday evening to listen to five veterans share stories
SONIA LEE
ABBY BERGER For the Daily
about their time in active duty and life after service. The event, dubbed “Stories of Service,” was organized by Fisher House Foundation, a veteran nonprofit, and was sponsored by Michigan Medicine. “Stories of Service” is a night to honor those who
have served in the military and to call attention to the importance of supporting veterans and their families. The ceremony included storytelling from the five veterans and performances by Concordia University’s choir and wind ensemble. Speakers at the ceremony
represented multiple generations, including 96-year-old World War II veteran Guy Stern, a Jewish immigrant who f led Germany to escape the Nazi regime. Stern spoke about his time as a member of a special military intelligence unit in the U.S. See SERVICE, Page 3A
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New measure will fund MDining vouchers for students with Pell Grants SOPHIA ROSE
Daily Staff Reporter
SnoHub, an app for on-demand snow removal services, is arriving in Ann Arbor this winter after a successful season on the East Coast. The Uber-like service connects homeowners who need snow removed from their driveways to contractors with trucks, plows or even just shovels willing to clear snow during their free time. SnoHub CEO James Albis, a Connecticut-native, said he came up with the idea for SnoHub after negative experiences dealing with snow removal, more particularly with snow removal services. While some homeowners shovel their own snow, others choose to hire a snow removal contractor who likely has equipment like snow blowers, winter service vehicles or plows to clear snow from driveways, roofs, sidewalks and decks. But Albis found some problems with the system, including a lack of reliability and transparency and the need to pay in cash or check. “If you’re a homeowner, a See SNOW, Page 3A
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Veteran Dale Throneberry salutes another veteran during the Stores of Service event at Hill Auditorium Monday evening.
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Vol. CXXVIII, No. 25 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
Central Student Government at the University of Michigan convened on the eve of Election Day to hear from the Division of Public Safety and Security and pass three resolutions. Bryan Baker, DPSS liaison to Student Life, outlined the avenues students can use to engage with DPSS. Students are encouraged to utilize the DPSS app, Twitter and Facebook pages, and the DPSS student advisory board, which is currently accepting applications. Special Victims Unit Coordinator Maureen Burke, who has been with the University of Michigan Police Department for 27 years, spoke about the department’s goal of decreasing obstacles to reporting sexual violence. The unit helps victims explore their options for reporting, which include obtaining personal protection orders and navigating the court process. DPSS also publicized self-defense classes available to students free of charge. See CSG, Page 3A
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UMMA fashion show promotes voting in style with fashion orgs, students Through themes like fall fashion for the polls and America, the show urged students to vote on Tuesday, spoke on the connection between politics and the arts gets a lot of people here, and role in politics,” Sanders hopefully that translates to said. “If you think about Daily Staff Reporter getting a lot of people to the how people dress when they polls,” Borgsdorf said. “It’s are politicians, they are very such a serious time, it’s such a particular about what they As part of their VOTE! 2018 initiative, the University big midterm election. It’s very pick, as we were particular important, but we also felt about what we picked in the of Michigan Museum of Art partnered with SHEI like there was room to have show, like the tones, even fun with it for the purpose of though it’s something you Magazine, Bronze Elegance don’t really pay attention to.” motivating people.” Fashion Show, NOiR Runway Engineering senior Lauren Fashion and enspiRED to LSA junior Sarah Jacob, put on a voting-themed a member of the UMMA Huang, an executive board fashion show Monday night. Student Engagement Council, member of NOiR Runway Also present were students said she felt the fashion show Fashion, agreed with Sanders was a great way to motivate and said she felt fashion had a from the Stamps School of people who were interested in large inf luence over elections. Art and Design’s Voting is “Depending on what (a Sexy class and members the arts to vote. “Ihttp://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ think it’s a really cool way politician is) wearing, it will from the Ginsberg Center Sudoku Syndication to the keep the conversation give you the vibe or tone of for Community Service going about voting,” what they’re standing for, Jacob said. “I think this or what they’re trying to get is one of the years that at,” Huang said. “Sometimes, I’ve heard people talk if someone’s not dressed the the most about midterm right way, you might not vote elections which has been for them or not believe what EASY crazy because that’s not they’re trying to say. But if usually the case, so I they are dressed the right way think adding a fashion and look very presentable, show really brings in the that will affect people’s arts, and forces people opinions and their vote who don’t think they are towards that person.” The second section of the political to just think about the fact that they show was America themed, with models strutting down should be voting.” The show was split the runway in “I voted” and into two parts — the first “voting is my superpower” focused on what to wear T-shirts or more subtle red, to the polls. The models white and blue looks, while walked the makeshift Childish Gambino’s “This runway wearing jackets, is America” played in the scarves and jeans, all background. After the models did their in fall hues. LSA senior Kamaaria Sanders, an final walk, LSA senior Liv executive board member Velarde, editor-in-chief of of Bronze Elegance SHEI Magazine, closed out the Fashion Show, said she show by asking everyone in thought fashion and attendance to vote Tuesday. A politics were deeply bulk of University programming related, even though has focused on turning out VOTE SZN puzzle by sudokusyndication.com © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. people might not think students—only 14 percent of whom participated in the 2016 about it. “Fashion plays a huge presidential election. and Learning who were helping about 75 students in attendance come up with a voting plan for Tuesday’s election. The show was the culmination of a series of events about voting and civic engagement that has been going on all fall at the museum. Lisa Borgsdorf, manager of Public Programs at UMMA, said she thought the fashion show was a great way to make voting fun. “We were really thinking about motivation to go to the polls, and making it fun … (and) a way to do that that
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RALLY From Page 1A presents in terms of giving Democrats a chance to win back important positions at the state and the federal level. Instead of focusing on discussing their platforms specifically, these candidates all emphasized the importance of actually getting out the vote. Several candidates mentioned President Donald Trump won Michigan by a margin of 0.3 percent in 2016 — only 2.2 votes per precinct could have swung the election in the other direction. The University has been urging students to vote for months leading up to Tuesday. Last September, the
University joined the Big Ten Voting Challenge, a competition among Big Ten schools to improve voter registration and turnout numbers. Candidates urged the audience to encourage everyone they knew to vote. State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, said his personal experience in his first campaign in 2010 — which he won by two votes — showed him no vote is insignificant. Public Policy senior Kellie Lounds, chair of College Democrats, cited several other large campus events that were geared toward getting students involved in politics and encouraging them to vote, including a rally with gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer early in the year and a more recent rally that featured U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. However, when asked
SNOW From Page 1A new homeowner, an existing homeowner, you’ve got a lot of things to attend to, one of those being snow-clearing, particularly if you live in a Snowbelt city,” Albis said. “When it comes to this type of service, you’re relying on a workforce that isn’t pretty business-savvy. There’s no rhyme or reason to how or when they show up. So even when you have a contract with them, the level of transparency is zero.” Albis designed SnoHub as a mobile technology solution to an inefficient industry, comparing it to services like Airbnb or Uber. The company first targeted individuals with trucks and plows to be contractors, and is now looking to expand testing in the Midwest. One of his goals was to make sure customers can rely on SnoHub to send the appropriate workers and equipment, from students with shovels to snow plow businesses with trucks. “As a contractor, this is part of your onboarding process,” Albis said. “You delineate what type of worker you are. So whether you’re a snow plower, shoveler, snow blower, you just tick that off and you take photos of whatever types of equipment
CSG From Page 1A “With the climate in the nation and here locally in Ann Arbor, we have seen an increased reporting of these interpersonal violence crimes, and we encourage increased reporting,” Burke said. CSG also voted to fund bringing motivational speaker Brandon Farbstein to campus for an event titled “Ten Feet Tall.” Farbstein was diagnosed with metatropic dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism, at age two. Business sophomore Paul Schmitz worked to bring Farbstein to the University, saying his story needed to be
MISCONDUCT From Page 1A University spokespeople maintain standard procedure is to defer any reports that have criminal elements to law enforcement before beginning an Title IX investigation This isn’t the only incident in which the University has recently received backlash for unreliable processes of
about the University’s role in encouraging students to vote through initiative such as the Big Ten Voting Challenge, Lounds expressed several suggestions based on her experiences at the University, such as canceling class so students can vote without missing lectures or exams. “I think the University does a great job on doing publicity on whether or not students should vote, but I think if they really wanted students to vote, they would not have class on Election Day, they would tell departments not to schedule major exams on Election Day, they would work with the city to have more polling places on campus,” Lounds said. “There are a lot of structural issues that the University does not do a good job of addressing.”
you have, upload that to our backend and we’ll approve. Customers can order and specify that they don’t want a snow plow guy ripping up their lawn.” Business sophomore Garrett Wilson works for SnoHub as its digital media director. He said SnoHub is now trying to recruit more contractors to supplement the high demand of homeowners. In particular, SnoHub is looking for shovelers to attend to smaller driveways unable to handle the huge plows of winter snow vehicles. “We noticed last year that a lot of driveways weren’t exactly fit for a pickup and a plow a lot of times,” Wilson told The Daily. “You know, smaller driveways or smaller houses, they’re more fit for just somebody with a shovel. And additionally, it provides another way for us to get contractors to get into the SnoHub ecosystem, people that maybe are interested in the concept but don’t exactly have a pickup and a plow on them. What we introduced this year is SnoHub Shoveling. So say you’re a student, a college student at Michigan, you can sign on to the app. It literally takes five minutes and then you can accept jobs the same way that other contractors do.” Wilson emphasized how easy the app is to navigate, and
heard. “He really has a story that resonates with every single person, and my goal is to get it to as many people as possible,” Schmitz said. Farbstein speaks about his experience with depression, cyberbullying and life with his diagnosis to empower his audience. This semester, the University has placed more of an emphasis on equity and inclusion of disabled individuals on campus, creating a new slate of programming titled Investing in Ability. CSG also passed a resolution to subsidize MDining gift cards during final exams. The resolution will provide a total of 150 cards, each good for one swipe, distributed over three
reporting sexual assault. In October, another Music, Theatre and Dance School student told her story of sexual assault and the stagnant investigation currently being conducted by the Office of Institutional Equity. Some students reported waiting months for correspondence from the University regarding their case, while others were still waiting for a response. “We expect the University
Central Student Government passed a resolution in 2017 advocating for Election Day to be a Universitywide holiday, but administrators have not acted on such a suggestion. Despite logistical difficulties, Lounds still said she believed more students seem motivated to vote in this election than in previous elections, based in part due to higher numbers of absentee ballots that have already been cast. As of Monday, the city clerk’s office counted 11,300 voters who turned in absentee ballots early in Ann Arbor. Across the state, the number of ballots issued and returned is up by more than 50 percent from 2014. “This compares more to a Presidential Election,” City Clerk Jackie
how the contractor job can be a great part-time gig for military veterans, firefighters or college students with free time. “You’ll sign on and you’ll get job notifications from all
Chen thought college students might find SnoHub attrative, especially as home renters. She pointed out how some students already use similar apps for other dayto-day services.
around,” Wilson said. “And you can just accept the job and walk to the house or you Uber or you Bird or whatever you do. All you do is snap a before picture, you shovel, you snap an after picture, you get out of there and you get paid in three days. So it’s just another way for us to get more contractors involved and
“We are all at this school and we are all Wolverines. I just want us to get to know people outside of ourselves so we can truly represent the school and act the way we were elected to act.”
to respond appropriately to allegations of sexual misconduct,” Greene and Baer wrote in their statement. “We will work to ensure that they do so.” Greene, a Public Policy senior, and Izzy Baer, an LSA junior, ran an executive campaign last semester that focused on survivors, and proposed an empowerment fund for the University’s Sexual Assault Prevention
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 — 3A Beaudry wrote in an email statement to MLive Monday. “We issued about 15,000 in 2016 and only 8,000 in 2014. We have had about 5-10 people in line waiting for ballots pretty consistently since last week.” Rabhi was similarly optimistic about the impact increased voter turnout could have in this election, but also recognized that people must be committed to vote. “Go to bed hopeful … but with that fire in your belly still,” Rabhi said. Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor made a point to mention Proposal A, an initiative on Ann Arbor’s ballot that would prevent the city from building a 17-story commercial complex on a vacant lot near the Ann Arbor District Library and would instead mandate
to suit customers’ needs better.” LSA and Business junior Jennifer Chen thought SnoHub was an innovative venture, but wondered about the sustainability of the business during summer months when snow would not be a problem for homeowners. “What are you going to do when there’s no one else requesting the service?” she asked. Albis addressed a similar concern of sustainability, saying he intends to use the SnoHub platform to start other similar ventures. “I have a pickup truck, but the utilization of the bed of that pickup truck is zero in the spring and the summer,” Albis said. “So we can use that, whether it’s to move a piece of artwork, move a piece of furniture across town, by using the same technical stack that we have right now for our app in the spring and the summer.” Chen thought college students might find SnoHub attractive, especially as home renters. She pointed out how some students already use similar apps for other day-today services. “College students are busy and they don’t want to do it themselves, or they might not know the resources on how to get snow removed efficiently,”
a city park be built in its place. Taylor and other City Councilmembers have opposed the proposal in recent weeks, though proponents of the measure push. Reiterating a similar point made by other speakers, Taylor targeted students by connecting this election to a pertinent issue for students looking for affordable housing. LSA freshman Andrea Bavikatty said she only voted for the first time in the primaries for the midterm elections, but explained why she felt this election was especially important to vote in. “In 2016, obviously there wasn’t incentive for people to come out to the polls, people weren’t really feeling connected to the candidates … They didn’t really care as much as they do now,” Bavikatti said.
Chen said. “So maybe asking for the Uber-like service might be really helpful. And there’s already a lot of services that do laundry for them. I think college students are more interested in getting other people to do the work for them.” On the other hand, Chen was unsure about whether or not the students she knew would want to work as contractors. “I think there might be some interest but it would be a very minimal amount,” she said. “Because we’re also college students, we’re very busy. And there might be some liability involved, like, we’re also college students, we don’t want to obviously get hurt. And it’s a very time-consuming business ... So I think it might be difficult to fit into a student’s schedule.” Wilson, however, sees SnoHub and the contractor job as perfect for college students needing extra spending money, and who want to get involved in the gig economy. Albis echoed Wilson, highlighting the increase in gig jobs and contractors in industries. For the snow removal business, he saw an opportunity for job creation for many to work in a field that doesn’t require a great amount of skill.
days during exams. Public Policy senior Drea Somers, co-author of the resolution, said the gift cards are “strongly recommended for Pell Grant students, but any student can pick it up.” The cards will not have an effect on financial aid. At the end of the meeting, CSG passed a resolution that will require its representatives to attend one event hosted by organizations representing students of color each month. LSA senior Cece Huddleston wrote the resolution to serve underrepresented voices on campus. “We are all at this school, and we are all Wolverines,” Huddleston said. “I just want us to get to know people outside of ourselves so we can truly
represent the school and act the way we were elected to act.” Finally, CSG President Daniel Greene, a Public Policy senior, read a statement denouncing the University’s response to sexual assault allegations against SMTD professor David Daniels. The council had no objection to the statement. “When the normal institutional processes fail, we, as leaders of CSG, have a responsibility to hold the University’s administration accountable,” the statement read. “We expect the University to respond appropriately to allegations of sexual misconduct. We will work to ensure that they do so.”
and Awareness Center, in addition to the implementation of a SAPAC Ex-Officio CSG Representative. Through these propositions, CSG would provide resources to students on topics such as bystander intervention and survivor empowerment, according to the MVision platform. “In this time when students and survivors on our campus may feel like they (sic) voices are not heard or do not matter,
we want to remind those who are struggling of the resources on campus at their disposal should they choose to seek help,” CSG Communications Director Lydia Barry wrote in an email to The Daily. “Most importantly, we hope to provide a voice for students that view the administration’s response to this investigation as inadequate.”
SERVICE From Page 1A Army. Edie Meeks, another speaker at the ceremony, served as an Army nurse in the Intensive Care Units at a field hospital in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Meeks referred to her patients as “her boys,” emphasizing the close connection she shared with the soldiers. The event was organized in to help fundraise and spread awareness for the creation of Michigan’s first Fisher House. Fisher House Foundation is a nonprofit organization aiming to build large communal homes next to military and VA medical centers for families of current military personnel and veterans to stay in at no cost while their family members are in the hospital. There are nearly 80 Fisher Houses around the world, but there are currently none in Michigan. Kate Melcher, co-host of the ceremony and former Apache helicopter pilot, said her own personal experiences with a Fisher House while her husband was in surgery were what led her to fight for construction of more. “It was my home from the moment that I crossed that threshold,” Melcher said. “We couldn’t do it for the generation that came back from Vietnam, but Fisher House Foundation has been doing this for the
Several of the speakers recounted their battles with post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health and loss... being a member of the military community helped (them) cope with mental health issues upon discharge.
last quarter century and we’re going to continue it here in Michigan.” Fisher House says it will open its first Michigan location in Ann Arbor in 2019, with a second opening shortly later in Detroit. The organization aims to raise $20 million for the construction and management of these houses. Several of the speakers recounted their battles with post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health and loss. Army veteran Melissa Raulerson illustrated how being a member of the military community helped her cope with mental health issues upon discharge, saying organizations like Fisher House, which facilitate communal support among military families, were necessary for people like her. “I went on to lead a small group of wives called Wives of Warriors,” Raulerson said. “We became a family. It was there that I learned the meaning of thriving and not just surviving.” LSA junior Michael Koch said the event helped to increase awareness and support for Fisher Houses in Michigan by showing people what they were supporting. “When you add a face and a story to a cause, it makes it a lot more personal,” Koch said.
Look out for Michigan Daily election coverage Tuesday, Nov. 6!
Opinion
4A — Tuesday, November 6, 2018
ALEX KUBIE | COLUMN
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UNDERSIGNED UM FACULTY AND COMMUNITY | OP-ED
Statement from UM faculty to administration
W
e are writing as concerned members of the UM community in response to Dean Elizabeth Cole’s letter to Professor John CheneyLippold outlining disciplinary measures. We are also disturbed by the covert politicization of teaching and service evidenced in President Mark Schlissel’s and Provost Martin Philbert’s letter to the campus. Under the guise of separating political commitments from our role as educators, the university administration has taken a clear political stance against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Irrespective of faculty positions regarding BDS, the President, Provost and Dean’s disciplinary actions threaten academic freedom and have had a chilling effect on workplace morale. Rather than debating the merits of an important political issue of our time, the university has taken a side, and disparaged pro-BDS students, staff and faculty. We stand in solidarity with others who have already expressed their disagreement with the administration. We agree with UM Professor Juan Cole who wrote that it is not “the place of a university administration to coerce faculty or other instructors’ conscience on these issues, which are much more complex than they seem to realize.” We agree with Stanford University Professor David PalumboLiu who wrote, “disciplining faculty who refuse to write letters opens up the possibility that universities will be turned into pawns of ideologicallydriven organizations who target professors critical of their views.” We stand with graduate students who have stated that such disciplinary measures set “an alarming, worrying, and dangerous precedent for impinging on the protected political speech and action of employees of the university.” We stand with signers of the Change.org petition who assert that such disciplinary actions promote the corporatization of education and thus trivialize our work as educators by “bypassing the educational mission of the university (...) and turning professors into simply service providers.” The University of Michigan has always stood firm on the issues of academic freedom enshrined in the faculty handbook. We remain committed to this tradition and to educating thoughtful critical thinkers and citizens. We call on the administration to refrain from any disciplinary actions against graduate student Lucy Peterson and to drop the actions against Professor John Cheney-Lippold. We call on the university to include diverse voices in the new panel the provost has created to examine the intersection between political thought/ ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students. We call on the university to affirm our shared institutional commitment to academic freedom.
Samer Ali, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies,
UM-Ann Arbor Evelyn Alsultany, American Culture, Ann Arbor Sascha Crasnow, Residential College, Ann Arbor Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, American Culture Deirdre de la Cruz, Department of History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Victor Mendoza, Women’s Studies and English, UM Ann Arbor Kate Jenckes, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor Anton Shammas, MES, UM Ann Arbor Dr. Savithry Namboodiripad Linguistics/LS&A UMich Ann Arbor Manan Desai, American Culture and Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, UM Ann Arbor Alan M. Wald, English and American Culture, U-M Collegiate Professor Emeritus (Ann Arbor Campus) Karla Mallette, Global Islamic Studies Center, U-M Ann Arbor Zoya Zalatimo, Middle Eastern Studies, Ann Arbor Campus J Carlos de Los Santos/RLL, Ann Arbor Evyn Kropf, University Library, Ann Arbor Farah Kader, International Studies, UM Ann Arbor Melissa Phruksachart, Dept. of Film, Television, and Media, Ann Arbor Sergio Villalobos, RLL Ian Watts, Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering Silan Fadlallah, Student LS&A, Ann Arbor Bushra Habbas-Nimer Mar Freire Hermida, Romance Languages and Literatures, Ann Arbor Howard Brick, Department of History, UM, Ann Arbor Sally Howell, Center for Arab American Studies, UM-Dearborn Joshua Akers, Social Science, UM-Dearborn Angie Achkar, Undergraduate Student Hani Bawardi, SSCI/ HIST&AAST, UM-D Kevin Kobelsky, College of Business, Dearborn Dennis D. Pollard, Romance Languages, Ann Arbor Antoine Traisnel, Departments of English and Comparative Literature, UM Ann Arbor Michael Lempert, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, American Culture/Romance Languages, LSA, Ann Arbor Pam Pennock, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, UM-Dearborn Clare Croft, Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance Kristin Poling, Social Science Department, UM-Dearborn Jalal, LSA, Ann Arbor Andrew Shryock, Anthropology/LSA, Ann Arbor Daniel Andrew Birchok, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, University of MichiganFlint Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Anthropology, LSA Daniel Nemser, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM-Ann Arbor Bruce Pietrykowski, Social Sciences/CASL, UM-Dearborn Sara McClelland, Women’s Studies & Psychology, Central Campus Nayli Ma, Asian Studies and Biology, Ann Arbor
Katherine L. French-HistoryUM Ann Arbor Elif Izberk-Bilgin, Management Studies, UMD Janice Molloy, Management Studies, Dearborn Reem Khatib, LSA, UM Campus David Skrbina, LPA/Philosophy, Dearborn Maria Ulayyet, LSA, UM Ann Arbor Mary Kelley, Departments of History and American Culture, UM, Ann Arbor Faith Sparr/Communication Studies Lisa Martin, College Wide Programs, UM-Dearborn Fatma Müge Göçek, Sociology/ LS&A, UM Ann Arbor Suzanne Bergeron, University of Michigan Dearborn Juan Cole, History, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Anna Watkins Fisher, American Culture, UM Ann Arbor H. Erdem Cipa, History & Middle East Studies, Ann Arbor Paolo Squatriti/History, Ann Arbor Osman Khan, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor Roi Livne, Sociology, Ann Arbor Nancy A. Khalil, American Culture/AMAS, Ann Arbor Saquib Ali Usman, Anthropology, Ann Arbor Will Glover, History, Ann Arbor Rima Hassouneh/Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies & the Center for Southeast Asian Studies/UM-Ann Arbor Muniba Saleem/ Communication Studies Holly Hughes, Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, Theater and Drama and Women’s Studies Rebekah Modrak, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor Andrew Herscher, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, UM Ann Arbor Javier Sanjines, Romance Languages and Literatures, UM Ann Arbor Rifaat Dika, Department of Language, Culture, and Communication-Dearborn Margaret K Willard-Traub, LCC, UM-Dearborn Rashmi Luthra, Department of Language, Culture and Communication, College of Arts, Sciences and Letter, University of Michigan-Dearborn campus Lara Rusch, Dept. of Social Sciences, UM-Dearborn Rose Wellman, Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn Patrick Beauchesne, Behavioral Sciences/ Anthropology, Dearborn Brian McKenna, Behavioral Sciences, Anthropology Dr. Maya Barak, Criminology and Criminal Justice, UM-Dearborn Peggy McCracken, Romance Languages, Women’s Studies, and Comparative Literature, Ann Arbor Stavroula Kyriazis, Ford School of Public Policy Giorgio Bertellini, Film, Television, and Media Holly Hughes, Professor, School of Art and Design Ian Shin, History & American Culture, Ann Arbor Maria Cotera, American Culture and Women’s Studies Khaled Mattawa, English, Ann Arbor Peggy Lee, American Culture, Ann Arbor Charlotte Karem Albrecht, American Culture, Women’s Studies, Ann Arbor
I
think I look too hard for love. Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic. Maybe I just long to have something — or someone — who could pick up the trail of pieces I have left and rearrange them in a way I am unable to do so myself. Upon moving to New York City, my hopes of finding this fix began to feel more palpable. Surely, I surmised, these pieces would effortlessly find a place to fall into. And after weeks of looking, they did. Yet it was not where I expected. The warm days of July began to fade, and a growing desire to mend this enduring discontent came along with it. An occupation of the mind with something different, I concluded, would be the best remedy. Hoping to get involved with the thriving gay community of New York, I decided to visit the local Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in an effort to find ways to volunteer within the community. Never before had I been to a major city health center specifically for LGBTQ people. And never before had I truly understood the significance these centers have. After being greeted by the building’s security guard, his weathered face marked with an enduring smile, I was pointed toward the entrance of the center’s youth program. I took a seat on one of the inviting green sofas that filled the room, waiting for the hall’s two receptionists to call me to speak. Both of them must have been near the same age as me, yet their poise and steadiness with each coming patient before them affirmed their experience. Despite the uncertainty that painted the faces of those in the room, a sense of belonging and safety filled the air. People from different corners of the country, some escaping tattered homes — some, the brutal grip of poverty — came to one, unified refuge. The woman next to me, gently unwrinkling a thin stack of dollar bills in her rugged hands, explained that she had to wait three extra days to return for her next round of injections for hormone therapy. The boy who walked in before me joked with
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A breathing place the young woman behind the desk, with a soft gaze affirming each word that left his mouth. The tightness in my chest loosened as I began to understand that no internal guard was needed here. I did not have to regulate my words or the way in which those words left my mouth. I had found a place that required no additional explanation of myself, or my experiences, because we all were sewn from the very same thread. I took a deep breath and peered around the room full of people who bore no physical or familial appearance, but shared something so palpable that it
These community centers are crucial to closing some of the many disparities affecting our health system. filled the air. This is what love looked like in its purest form. It wasn’t love by any traditional means — or at least the love I had imagined. But it was a love that I was missing in my life. Now, the pieces I had left behind were not picked back up but replaced with something stronger. Recently, there have been many days filled with hopelessness from what I see in the news, on my campus or even in my own home. While there is a crucial duty to maintain dialogue among all of us to bridge these seemingly irreconcilable differences, there remains a need for spaces where people from all walks of life can come together to heal and grow. Centers like Callen-Lorde remain crucial for such a reality. These centers do not just provide a space for people who have been kicked out of their homes or cast aside by society. They provide vital medical care to individuals who would otherwise often not have access to such resources. Some people are without such proper care due to discrimination
— others due to homelessness, a lack of financial means or limited English proficiency. In fact, in the case of community health centers in general, over 70 percent of patients seen have incomes below the federal poverty level. These centers have medical professionals trained to specifically handle LGBT-related health issues. There are many types of treatments and services, such as hormone therapy and preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), that many physicians may not be familiar with. Almost one in 10 LGBTQ people have said that a health care provider has refused to see them because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, and three in 10 transgender individuals experienced the same treatment due to their actual or perceived gender identity. Such instances have taken place in our own state of Michigan, and are often even protected under the law. For example, in Roseville, a pediatrician refused care to an infant because she had samesex parents. Beyond our own state, a transgender 14-year-old, admitted to a San Diego hospital for attempting to commit suicide, was continuously misgendered and discharged early from the hospital staff. Upon release, he killed himself. These community centers are not just helpful, they are crucial to closing some of the many disparities afflicting our health care system. My time in New York allowed me to see these integral spaces in our country firsthand. CallenLorde is an oasis for people who have been set aside because of who they love or the way they were born to exist in a place — no matter how temporary — without judgment. Through expansion and greater awareness of these centers, it is that very love and support that I hope to further on campus, and beyond, in the future. Consider donating to these LGBTQ+ health centers: http://callen-lorde.org/ donation/ https://www.jimtoycenter. org/donate Alex Kubie can be reached at akubie@umich.edu.
ANAMARIA CUZA | COLUMN
What if Facebook was created in Europe?
M
y childhood in Romania was pretty basic. I was raised in a conservative society and was fed American entertainment 24 hours a day. Everything, from the movies I watched to the books I read, came mostly from the U.S. When I was 10, I was in a bookstore with my father when I spotted a notebook that I wanted to buy. I asked my father for it, but his answer was a clear “no.” My response came just as clearly: I sat down on the floor, arms crossed. “Free speech,” I said, as I looked him in the eyes. “Child, you are not in America, you are under my dictatorship,” my father said, clearly amused by my misdemeanor. He pulled me up and walked me out of the store. As a European, hearing an American say “free speech” was fascinating. I couldn’t put my finger on the difference between Europe’s and America’s differing concepts of free speech, but I knew that Europeans never talked about it while Americans seemed to instinctively mention it whenever they could. Ten years later, as I hear tech companies defend their inability to regulate hate speech, the term “free speech” makes me shiver. In recent years, we have seen countries in the European Union clash with American social media giants, as with the General Data Protection Regulation laws, which gave users more control over their data; the “right to be forgotten” enforced in the EU, which bans Google from sharing people’s personal information online if they have asked to erase it; and the German Media Authority’s regulation requiring accurate contact information to better regulate the ads posted on social media. At the same time, we have seen Facebook allow its advertisers to specifically reach “Jew haters,” or create a censorship guideline to delete posts targeted against a “protected category,” but not against a subset
of that protected category. In one of the documents offering guidelines for Facebook’s censors, the question, “Which group is protected from hate speech?” was followed by three possible answers: “female drivers,” “black children” and “white men.” The correct answer? “White men.” Had they been created in Europe, social media platforms would look different. Their fight to avoid any kind of governmental regulation probably wouldn’t have flourished. Strictly enforced regulations from the European Union would have taken the place of their own censorship guidelines. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s motto, “Move fast
Once violence is inserted, humane understanding is forgotten. and break things,” would’ve probably raised more eyebrows — especially when “breaking things” creates a space where hate speech can flourish. Europeans reject and criminalize any kind of hate speech. Following World War II, the Council of Europe established the European Court of Human Rights, which protects free speech up to a certain limit: That limit is where it starts interfering with human dignity. Dignity is a word which seems missing from most of the debates we are having on the limits of free speech on social media platforms. We talk about the need to have our ideas heard, to be able to freely debate, to go against the statusquo. But as much as Americans value their “free speech,” this free speech does not happen in
a vacuum. It happens within a historical background from which we are supposed to learn and strengthen our belief in giving each human being the right to “dignity.” While many have already discussed the merits of regulating “hate speech” online in a similar fashion to European guidelines, others have complained that hate speech laws in Europe “suppress and punish left-wing viewpoints.” That is the point, though hate speech regulations were never meant to punish one side of the debate, but to punish those who bring the debate into the realms of violence and hatred. An example of Europe’s harsh laws was Azhar Ahmed’s case, when he as a British teenager wrote a post on his Facebook talking about the innocent Afghans killed by British soldiers after some British soldiers were killed in the war. In his post, he included the comment, “All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL! THE LOWLIFE F*****N SCUM!” which led to him being arrested for a “racially aggravated public order offense.” For many, this case might raise some question marks. For me, it only emphasizes the fact that both right-wing speech and left-wing arguments can be made without attacking the humanity and dignity of the “other,” whether the “other” is a group of innocent Afghans or British soldiers. Europe’s hate speech laws are not perfect, but compared to the “free speech” argument, it strives to allow for discussions to happen in a safe space, helping maintain human empathy when arguing for one’s side of an argument. Whether a tweet or a Facebook post comes from someone from the political left or right, once violence is inserted, humane understanding is forgotten. In a political climate of increasing hatred, we should look for creating empathy on our social media platforms. Anamaria Cuza can be reached at anacuza@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
CONCERT REVIEW
Courtesy of Tomberlin
Tomberlin’s new talent shines at The Blind Pig CLARA SCOTT Daily Arts Writer
The music industry is and always has been inherently jaded. It seems that most audiences need something either wildly out of the norm or blatantly terrible to jostle them out of their typical listening cycles. And then, there are acts like Tomberlin. These artists and bands serve as fascinating bright spots on the face of new music, using existing genre norms to form something pure, intense and brutally honest that cuts to the core. Though unassuming at face value, these acts hold a veiled power that comes through in every song. At Ann Arbor’s own Blind Pig on Sunday night, Tomberlin stunned the crowd with this very candor, seizing their attention completely for a f leeting hour. Tomberlin, the moniker of lead singer and writer Sarah Beth Tomberlin, performs with only a guitarist and keyboardist — a spare ensemble that works to enhance the pure emotion of her music. Sunday’s performance was a date on her first tour supporting alternative rocker Mirah. “I am so excited to be touring for the first time,” she giggled at the beginning of her set. While Tomberlin may be green, her intensity is old, evident in songs from her debut album At Weddings that
have been percolating since her high school years. Raised in southern Illinois by a minister father and homeschooled until the age of 16, the religious inf luences in her music are clear but not contrite — the
Her gravitas silenced the sparse crowd at The Blind Pig on Sunday
only obvious similarities to hymns are Tomberlin’s piercing clarity and smooth choir-girl voice, which serve to carry emotionally-complex lyrics in a peaceful haze. Tomberlin took the stage in black jeans, an oversized grey sweatshirt and her long blonde-brown hair pulled back in a large scrunchie, standing at the mic with the same calm I imagine she would have standing in line at the post office. She is obviously a natural performer, and it’s not because of any crazy stage antics — her presence speaks
for itself, devoid of any glitter. Her gravitas silenced the sparse crowd at The Blind Pig on Sunday, while they settled into their seats anticipating the headliner. As soon as Sarah Beth Tomberlin’s mouth opened, everyone else’s closed. There’s a special kind of magic in her intonation: While her songs are beautiful and emotionally poignant, they cover bases that have been run a million times before — love, loss, tears, family struggle, confusion, life struggle. What makes Tomberlin’s music stand out is that incredible voice, and everything that seems to hide behind it. It seemed as if she was able to project every emotion at once through that club microphone, enhanced by the atmospheric guitar and synth of her modern arrangements. Tomberlin effortlessly played through the entirety of At Weddings throughout her hour at The Blind Pig, leaving the audience slack-jawed with her quiet power. On songs like “Tornado” and “Any Other Way,” the songwriter’s voice soared and dropped with equal measure, all within the net of her beautifully plain presentation. She is an example of what pure talent can really do in a space where it is allowed to run free: In that sparsely populated club, under a slowly turning disco ball, Tomberlin was the brightest spark there.
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The paradoxical nature & way of ambient music EMILY YANG
Daily Arts Writer
“Ambient” is an adjective increasingly used to describe music of all kinds, and the boundaries of the genre the word used to signify are becoming more porous all the time. The primary criterion for “ambient” music is that it doesn’t go anywhere, and in its immobility it becomes akin to an object or a presence. Most non-musical sound is like this: Sounds indicate some kind of activity outside of the frame, giving subliminal information about the environment. Ambient
music zeroes in on these small, typically ignored sounds and takes them as a compositional model, using musical techniques to create the sensation of an enveloping background, a standin for organic acoustic ecologies. It’s an interesting approach, and more than a little paradoxical. By its very nature, we generally don’t pay much attention to the “background,” or whatever borders the frame of human sonic perception, so making music that focuses intently on sound-as-landscape is almost contradictory in and of itself. Ambient music is the art of the afterthought, or else an invitation to pay a deep attention
to the edges of perception. This leads to a certain confusion about the function and intentions of ambient music — is it music that’s intended to be put on in the background, for blending with the sounds of a situation, or is it music that creates the sensation of a new background? Can it be a little bit of both? The composer and producer Brian Eno once described the difference between conventional and ambient music like the difference between architecture and gardening. His music exemplifies this sonic garden, and in many ways he has led the development of the form from the ’70s onward. He wrote in
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 — 5A
the liner notes to his 1982 album On Land that, “what qualified a piece for inclusion on the record was that it took me somewhere,” and he means that both literally and specifically. Titles are references to real or abstracted places where the listener can imagine the sounds living in — for example, “Lizard Point,” “Lantern Marsh,” “A Clearing.” The music in On Land doesn’t really go anywhere — tracks simply fade in, camp out for nine or so minutes and then fade out. The liner notes for On Land are interesting to compare to the notes for the earlier Ambient 1: Music For Airports, where he alludes to the idea of sonic landscape but seems to suggest that the intention of Airports is to live alongside spaces: “Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, ambient music retains these qualities.” In 1978, Eno was still conceiving his music as essentially living in the background, but later moved to music that supplants environmental sound (and therefore a sense of place) altogether. The notes for On Land conclude that, “as the listener, I wanted to be situated inside a large field of loosely-knit sound, rather than placed before a tightly organised monolith.” Airports “retains” its context, On Land “takes” the listener to a new place via sound. The space between Eno’s approach in 1978 and 1982 is encapsulated in the difference between “for” and “on.” And indeed, the sound-world of Music For Airports is much more conventional than On Land, with its foregrounded piano lines and gently sweeping cadential gestures. There is little noise, whereas On Land is full of field recordings and various non-pitched burbles, often deeply submerging any recognizably “musical” material. Music For Airports, its materials basically being tones and silence, seems to suggest that the surroundings will provide plenty of site-specific noise. On Land provides all the noise you would need for a soundscape, and is thus more a stand-in or proxy for the background and all its environmental noise.
The kind of ambient music in On Land seems to have caught on. It’s rare to find an album of slow, filmic, largely empty music like Airports in the 2000s and 2010s, but it’s much easier to find the enveloping omnipresence pioneered in On Land. The work of William Basinski, for example, is generally as close to the Airports model as 2000s ambience gets, and he much more often suggests deep, thick soundscapes. 2007’s Shortwave
Ambient music is the art of the afterthought, or else an invitation to pay a deep attention to the edges of perception
Music uses a kind of Lynchian mode, with vaguely orchestral tones submerged under crackling, hissing and humming. The work of Sarah Davachi is less noisy than Basinski’s, but her approach is similarly immersive. She conjures slowly moving textures out of long, overlapping tones, and the sort of microscopic details she uses require a lot of focused attention for the music to pay off. The tracks on the recently-released Gave In Rest have the quality of a world made of tones. Davachi’s conventional ensemble (strings, a monophonic synthesizer and occasionally a piano) is placed inside the “field of loosely-knit sound” Eno describes, like people milling about in a room together, sometimes having conversations but usually just thinking out loud. It’s unsurprising that ambient music evolved from a genre of music that stands behind an environment to a genre that
supplants an environment, because the form Eno had in mind for Airports and the earlier Discreet Music is unstable. It’s ambient music’s refusal to go anywhere, to simply make statements, that makes it so unsuitable as actual music to put on in the background of a business or a social situation. Music invites attention, and music that has a low level of activity or progression invites a deeper, almost meditative engagement, the kind best done alone. In my experience, putting on an album of recent ambient music in a room will make conversation peter out pretty quickly, but most anything else, from Mozart to Young Thug (depending on context), is paradoxically easier to ignore. Ultimately, I think ambient music doesn’t work in its professed role, because by its very nature it overreaches. What is the appeal of music like this? It seems to make sense that in a moment of accelerated technological advancement and media saturation, contemplative, immobile music is an appropriate response, a place one can go to retreat. However, music is also never entirely effective at putting up a front to society, always bringing pieces of the past and present with it. The writer Meghan O’Gieblyn argues that meditation and contemplative practice — what she calls the “Eternal Now” — represents a continuation of the logic of the internet rather than a repudiation of it: “In lieu of context, in lieu of vista, one is forced to find meaning in the microscopic details which must eventually come to seem intricate and endless … To exist within that room of perpetual updates and endless opinions is to believe that history can be divided not by centuries but by seconds, that every idea must lead to finer sub-points and infinite distinctions that eventually contradict one another.” Ambient music is perhaps sort of a record of cultural exhaustion, of being caught in situations that seem to demand a collapse of context. It seems to say — if we have found our present cultural landscape unlivable, the best we can do is create miniatures of it for ourselves.
Release Date: Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 “__ Buddies”: ’80s sitcom 6 Words on a check 11 Asian noodle soup 14 Lavender is similar to it 15 Hon 16 Toondom’s Olive 17 Frank McCourt memoir 19 “XING” one 20 Postcard view of a city 21 Hold the deed to 22 Sandy slope 23 Salacious 24 J.M. Barrie play 26 Sharp turns 29 Many, many years 31 Deli subs 32 Game with Wild Draw Four cards 33 Of an arm bone 35 Response to bad service 38 Shakespeare comedy 42 Wombs 43 Mar. parade honoree 44 Genetic messenger 45 Starr knighted in 2018 48 Nine-digit ID 49 Antiprohibitionists 50 Gillian Flynn novel 53 “In that case ... ” 55 Discovery cries 56 Blossom buzzer 57 What discreet acts are done on, with “the” 61 Big Apple paper, for short 62 Portmanteau for a collection containing 17-, 24-, 38- and 50-Across? 64 Sticky stuff 65 Joe of “Casino” 66 “__ to suggestions” 67 California’s Big __ 68 Second-string squad 69 Fork points
DOWN 1 Camp bed 2 Wild party 3 Wizards’ castings 4 Skateboard leap 5 Have good intentions 6 Smartphone predecessor, for short 7 Greek storyteller 8 God, in Judaism 9 Jacque’s “thirty” 10 Cries of worry 11 Temporary retail space 12 “Laughing” scavenger 13 From days past 14 Faux __: social goof 18 Arizona resort 22 Crave, with “over” 25 Dadaism pioneer 26 Z, in a pilot’s alphabet 27 Playing an extra NBA period 28 Ahnold’s political nickname 30 Captures
33 Employing 34 Decays 36 “Money __ everything” 37 School orgs. 39 Great Lakes natives 40 Silver lining 41 Fled 46 Thanksgiving gravy ingredient 47 Ultimatum words
49 Chinese dumpling 50 __ up on: unites against 51 “What a kidder!” 52 High-end German camera 54 Hindu guru 58 Rapper __ Fiasco 59 Mining hauls 60 Benign cyst 62 BOLO kin 63 Apple CEO Cook
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
By Joe Deeney ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/06/18
11/06/18
6A — Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2B
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 // TIP OFF 2018
MICHIGAN BASKETBALL
PREVIEW
TIP OFF 2018
SCHEDULE 2018-2019
Nov. 6-10 Nov. 14 Nov. 17-18 Nov. 23 Nov. 28 Dec. 1 Dec. 4 Dec. 8 Dec. 15 Dec. 22 Dec. 30 Jan. 3 Jan. 6 Jan. 10 Jan. 13
Tip-Off Tournament at Villanova at Tip-Off Tournament Chattanooga North Carolina Purdue at Northwestern South Carolina Western Michigan Air Force Binghamton Penn State Indiana at Illinois Northwestern
Jan. 19 Jan. 22 Jan. 25 Jan. 29 Feb. 1 Feb. 5 Feb. 9 Feb. 12 Feb. 16 Feb. 21 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 March 3 March 9 March 13-17
at Wisconsin Minnesota at Indiana Ohio State at Iowa at Rutgers Wisconsin at Penn State Maryland at Minnesota Michigan State Nebraska at Maryland at Michigan State Big Ten Tournament
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
6 8
Column: These aren’t your parents’ Wolverines. Jordan Poole and John Beilein are polar opposites — here’s how they made it work. Beilein is one win away from 800, and here’s what people have to say about it. Michigan’s roster for 201819, broken down position by position.
STAFF PICKS The Daily men’s basketball writers do their best to predict what will happen in the world of college basketball this season. Michigan regular-season record Big Ten champion Big Ten second place Big Ten third place Big Ten Tournament champion Big Ten MVP Big Ten Coach of the Year Big Ten surprise team Michigan MVP National Player of the Year National Freshman of the year Michigan’s season ends here NCAA “Bracket Buster” NCAA Final Four
Aria Gerson 23-8 Michigan State Indiana Michigan Indiana Carsen Edwards John Beilein Iowa Charles Matthews Luke Maye Zion Williamson Sweet 16 Buffalo Tennessee Nevada Duke Syracuse
Theo Mackie 22-9 Michigan State Purdue Indiana Purdue Carsen Edwards Fran McCaffrey Iowa Charles Matthews Caleb Martin RJ Barrett Round of 32 Western Kentucky Kansas Duke Virginia Tennessee
Ethan Sears
Jacob Shames
23-8 Michigan State Nebraska Michigan Michigan Carsen Edwards Tim Miles Nebraska Zavier Simpson Carsen Edwards Zion Williamson Round of 32 Iowa State Villanova Nevada West Virginia Kansas
23-8 Michigan State Michigan Indiana Wisconsin Carsen Edwards Tom Izzo Iowa Zavier Simpson Luke Maye Zion Williamson Sweet 16 Davidson Duke (sigh) Virginia Nevada Villanova
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 // TIP OFF 2018
3B
An evolution and a new breed of Wolverine D oes the name Maverick Morgan ring a bell? In case it doesn’t, Morgan was a center for Illinois from 2013 to 2017 and had a perfectly fine career, averaging 5.6 points JACOB per game SHAMES in 135 total appearances. But if you primarily follow the Michigan men’s basketball team, that’s not what you remember him for. “They are more of a whitecollar team traditionally and at Illinois we’re about toughness and together,” Morgan said of the Wolverines after his Fighting Illini thumped them, 85-69, in January of 2017. Michigan, of course, returned the favor later that year, ending Illinois’ season on the way to an unexpected Big Ten Tournament title and Sweet 16 appearance. But everyone makes statements they might regret making later on. I’m not bringing this up to make fun of Morgan. Maybe you remember him, and maybe you don’t. What you do remember is his perception. And, well, if “white-collar” maybe wasn’t the most refined wording, it’s not like it was unfair. When you remember the Wolverine teams of the mid-2010s, you don’t think of physical freaks crashing the boards, swatting shots into the second row or driving hard to the rim. Instead, you think of precise ball movement, constant motion and Trey Burke, Nik Stauskas and Moritz Wagner draining triples from all over the court. You won’t find much of that on this year’s roster. Where Burke, the 2013 Naismith Award-winner, once manned the point, there’s junior Zavier Simpson, a pitbull of a defender with a limited offensive game,
but the heart of the team regardless. On the wing, visions of Stauskas and his silkysmooth 3-point stroke have given way to redshirt junior Charles Matthews — one of the best athletes Beilein’s coached at Michigan, but a mere 56 percent foul shooter. The holes created by the departures of Wagner and Duncan Robinson this offseason are being filled by sophomore Isaiah Livers — a versatile defender and strong rebounding presence — and junior Jon Teske — a hulking, 7-foot-1 rim-protecting colossus. As a team, Michigan shot above 35 percent from 3-point range every year since 2011. Only one player on the roster — sophomore guard Jordan Poole — did so last season. The first glimpse of the 2018-2019 Wolverines came last Friday against Division II Northwood. Michigan took just 11 3-pointers, scoring 56 of 90 points in the paint and 24 on the fast break. It didn’t make its first three until 19 minutes into the game. It forced 10 steals, which led to 22 points. Simpson and Poole jumped passing lanes, led the break and got to the rim. Livers and freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis ran the wheels off the Timberwolves and threw down transition slams. It was an exhibition, sure, but it told this much: these aren’t your parents’ Wolverines. “We’re definitely going to be another really good defending team,” Poole said. “We’re going to want to get up and down the f loor extremely fast and get it out and go. Lot of high-f lyers, lot of attack-the-rim guys, back cuts and being able to throw lobs. This is an extremely athletic team, and we’re able to attack more and get to the basket more.” Michigan coach John Beilein has spoken of the need to adapt his complex offensive system to his team’s personnel. He’s also aware that his team will rely first and foremost on an elite
“This year, it’s a different breed on the team...”
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Junior guard Zavier Simpson, one of the best defenders on the roster, exemplifies Michigan’s new mentality on the court.
defense. But it’s one thing for a coach to tailor his gameplan to the strengths of his roster, or to preach attacking, downhill offense and tough, hard-nosed defending. Mostly, that’s just good coaching. It’s another thing entirely for a team to take scrappy defense and aggressive offense to heart and make it its identity — especially a team whose identity, until recently, has been the complete opposite. That identity was apparent when the Wolverines finished with the third-most efficient defense in the country last season. It’s apparent when Beilein states that Simpson and Matthews — the upperclass leaders of the team — will “not let you not play defense.” It’s apparent when players and coaches mention the defensive improvement of players such as Poole, whose inconsistent effort often kept him off the court last year. Under Beilein, Michigan has had five top-30 seasons in offensive efficiency, per Ken
Pomeroy’s advanced ratings system. Until last season, though, it had never had a defense rank above 37th. But last season, that all began to change. A misfit group of role players, unheralded veterans and promising freshmen clicked with a defensive mastermind in first-year assistant coach Luke Yaklich, with Simpson’s tenacious leadership spurring them on. An offense that was, for Michigan’s standards, inconsistent, did just enough to win, and occasionally much more. It all culminated in one of the more unexpected Final Four runs in recent memory. This year, the evolution is just about complete. The Wolverines have taken a formula that worked last season and doubled down on it this year. “We built a name last year that we could be a pretty good
defensive team,” Simpson said at Michigan’s media day in October. “This year, it’s a different breed on this team, and that breed is more aggressive.” In a sport with as much season-toseason change and personnel turnover as college basketball, however, f lexibility is key. Maybe in a year, another evolution will take place. Maybe Poole, Livers and freshmen such as Adrien Nunez, David DeJulius and Colin Castleton start bombing away in a fashion resembling the Wolverines of yesteryear. But it’s unlikely that anyone will be calling Michigan “white-collar” anytime soon.
This year, the evolution is just about complete.
Shames can be reached at jacosham@umich.edu or on Twit ter @Jacob _ Shames
4B
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
TIP OFF 2018
I
t was June, and Jordan Poole wanted to talk. He dialed John Beilein, fresh off a flirtation with the Detroit Pistons, and secured a meeting. The two, along with assistant coach DeAndre Haynes, sat down in Beilein’s office. This wasn’t the first time the trio met over the course of the Poole’s first year in Ann Arbor, but the tone had changed — and that change had come from Poole. The sophomore wanted Beilein to know that he was ready to be a leader. He wanted Beilein to know he was locked in, putting in hours at the gym. He wanted Beilein to know that, with Duncan Robinson, Moritz Wagner and Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman gone, he was ready to step up and help fill the void. More than anything, he wanted Beilein to know that freshman year was behind him. Haynes quietly smiled throughout the whole thing. “He was proud, I guess, for the way that I called the meeting,” Poole told the Daily, all 6-foot-5 of him hunching forward in his chair. “Cause he was in all the other meetings that weren’t so good, earlier on in
the year.” Three months before making that phone call, Poole etched himself into Michigan lore with a game-winner that sent the Wolverines to the Sweet Sixteen and added a sentence to his epitaph. He ran laps around the arena that night in Wichita, then embraced a horde of cameras disproportionate to his playing time as the Wolverines carved their way through the NCAA Tournament field. That moment is what his freshman year — and perhaps his entire career with the Wolverines — will be remembered for. It’s not what his freshman year was about. Five days after that shot, against Texas A&M, Poole jumped a passing lane when he should’ve stayed put, handing the Aggies’ Robert Williams an uncontested dunk. Poole went straight to the bench. That wasn’t what his freshman year was about either. Rather, it was finding the balance between those two moments — the unafraid shotmaking that extended Michigan’s season and the undisciplined flashes that would send Beilein into a conniption — that defined the last year for Jordan Poole.
“I was just outgoing,” Poole said. “And coming from a high school where I’m always able to be the man, and the coach who has been here so many years and he wants things his way. And a kid with so much confidence — I wasn’t gonna let him break me. “… It was definitely like a clash.” *** Jordan Poole is a walking superlative — unique, outgoing, confident. Anyone who has ever met him will tell you this, and it doesn’t take long to see. Once Poole arrived at Michigan, it took all of one pickup game for that to become apparent. “He came in and just fired the first shot,” said Ibi Watson. “I knew that from right there, he wasn’t lacking any confidence.” It wasn’t just the first shot though. It was the first shot, on his first touch, in his first pickup game, of his first year, and it was a deep 3-pointer. The next time down the floor, as soon as he touched the ball, Poole launched it again. Oh, and he hit them both. “It’s not that it’s disrespectful or anything like that,” Robinson said. “But it definitely kinda put everyone else on notice.”
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Poole said he felt like the most ready freshman of the group, and it showed in those early practices. He talked trash. He was loud. He took every shot that came to him. And he backed it up. Poole hit a whole lot of those shots — teammates knew right away he would have a role to play down the line. Beilein did too, but Poole had to learn to play with structure. When Beilein culled the rotation, about a week before opening night, Poole wasn’t a part of it. Instead, for the early part of the season, he was resigned to the scout team. In his year at LaLumiere, a prep school in LaPorte, Ind., Poole was the sixth man — a product of the talent on the roster, which included five-star recruits Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brian Bowen II. Even then, Poole estimated he still played more minutes than the starter at shooting guard. The scout team — that was unheard of for someone with Poole’s talent and effervescent confidence. “When (Beilein) first said it, I was kinda like, in shock,” Poole said. “... And then that hurt, for a little bit. But then I realized why I was on the scout team. I was gonna get up more shots and be aggressive and just hoop at the end of the day. That’s kinda what the scout team really is. It wasn’t as bad as people make it seem.” Sitting in Crisler Center’s media room with a year of perspective under his belt, knowing how well things worked out, Poole can say that. At the time, it wasn’t so easy. Poole is, for good and for bad, himself. That means wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and at first, this one was disappointment. The rest of the team could feel that he was unhappy. Beilein rode him, calling Poole out in practices whenever he saw something. Poole took it personally. At times, responsibility fell to Wagner, Zavier Simpson and Charles Matthews, who took care to make sure Poole was attentive, listening and above all, encouraged. Poole was too good — too important — for them to let him get down on himself. “We all kinda knew that we were gonna need him,” Wagner said. “And he kinda needed to understand that. … We really pushed him to keep focus on the practice, even when it seemed like it wasn’t gonna have any impact, which is not true.” It didn’t take long for Poole to play his way off the scout team. He got his first big chance on Dec. 2 against Indiana, when Matthews got in early foul trouble. Then he ran with it, scoring 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. The fourth of those five — a pull-up jumper over the Hoosiers’ Zach McRoberts from a step
inside the 28-foot line — set the tone for the rest of his season. Poole, still, took risks. He took those deep threes (and made a good amount), ball-watched on defense and turned it over more than he assisted. One December day, sidelined with an injury and watching a practice in which Poole was playing well, Wagner turned to Beilein. “Man,” he recalled saying, “this kid is really good.” “You know what’s crazy?” Beilein responded. “He can be so much better. That’s what I see.” “I probably have said that to many, cause you could see the talent oozing out of him,” Beilein told The Daily. “But knowing how he can be more efficient with his game. If you saw his assist-to-turnover ratios — you didn’t see the practice ones — and you saw his shooting percentage, you’d say, ‘He’s better than this. These are like, tough guys that aren’t very good players.’ ” *** Beilein is a perfectionist, and every bit as stubborn a personality as Poole. Just days ago, he walked into a press conference and called the Wolverines’ performance at Selfie Night — a fanfriendly open practice the team puts on in lieu of Midnight Madness — a “defensive massacre.” More than that, his system demands adherence. Poole needed to understand that this wasn’t about shotmaking, it was about the little things. Watching film. Defense. Playing within the system. “I didn’t know what a bad shot was, but I wouldn’t stop taking bad shots,” Poole said. “... I wouldn’t really lock into film as much as I should have, only because I was more thinking about, ‘Let me show (Beilein) I can make this shot.’ Or, ‘Let me show him I
can do this. Let me show him I can do that.’ “I was just out there hooping, but then when I really settled down and looked at film and started thinking, ‘Alright, what’s a good shot? What’s a bad shot?’ And try to think more about the game without thinking too much about the game is where I found a happy medium.” Nearly everyone asked pointed to either the Maui Tournament over Thanksgiving or the Indiana game a week later as the place where that medium was found. Everyone except two people: Jordan Poole and John Beilein. Those games got Poole into the rotation, but that was about it. Still, the same issues existed, and Poole struggled to rectify them. For both Poole and Beilein, finding that medium took the whole year. “I think that in high school, he was a really, really good player. Certainly the best player on his team,” Beilein said. “And, perhaps, it was very difficult, where he probably thinks, ‘Oh, I gotta carry the load for this team.’ And he doesn’t. He’s got other good players around him. And then you get there and the pressure on a freshman, especially one as highly recruited, or highly-rated, to live up to expectations, it just wraps them all up.” “I didn’t realize it until the end
of the year that it wasn’t more like, he was picking on me cause I was a freshman. It was more like he just wanted me to be able to do this,” Poole said. “... As the year starts to go on, you realize that he just wants the best for you. He wouldn’t have recruited you if he didn’t know what you were capable of. I realized that later in the year, and that’s when our relationship really started to grow.” Most of that adjustment was Poole’s to make. But some of it fell to Beilein. As the gregarious freshman learned to tone things down and focus on film sessions, the coach learned that Poole does well with positive reinforcement. Now, when Beilein sees Poole commit turnovers in practice, he doesn’t get on him unrelentingly, instead asking the sophomore what he saw and working from it. “As I watched him adapt, right, I could see that he was trending in the right direction,” Beilein said. “And it’s never fast enough for a coach, but I could see him trending in the right direction. So, I embraced that.” That doesn’t mean Poole’s personality is gone — it’s very much intact and always will be. That’s part of the package, and there’s a notable upside to his personality. Poole talks people up, taking his confidence out on the rest of the team. He saw himself as a leader from the moment he stepped in the door
TIP OFF 2018
at Michigan. At the Final Four, he walked the walk. Beilein mentioned his “leadership possibilities,” but for Poole, that’s already a reality. When he talks, people listen. It has been that way at every level Poole has played basketball, he said, and it was no different last year despite his freshman status. “We use technicalities as like, the juniors and seniors are the leaders of the team,” Poole said. “But I feel like I was always trying to find a way to give us a boost.” Still, he could get away with having a bad day last year. That’s not the case anymore. When you’re always on, you always need to be on. Otherwise, it’s noticeable, and it rubs off. One day this year, Poole let himself have a bad practice. The rest of the team followed suit. That’s the burden of being the guy who calls Beilein over the summer asking to meet. The challenge in front of Poole has shifted. Now, he wants to be the one pulling someone aside to offer help instead of the person receiving it. Yet, in so many ways, it comes back to the same theme, one that Poole has wrought through the last year of ups and downs — sulking on scout team, hitting that shot, embracing those cameras, calling that meeting. Through change and through growth, Jordan Poole will always have the challenge of being himself.
5B
6B
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 // TIP OFF 2018
Players, assistants, opponents reflect on Beilein ahead of 800th win THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer
Tuesday night against Norfolk State, Michigan coach John Beilein will begin his 37th season as an NCAA head coach. Along the way, he has collected 799 career victories, from Division III Nazareth College to his current 11-year tenure with the Wolverines. Ahead of his 800th win, The Michigan Daily spoke to former players, assistants and opponents to learn about their experiences with Beilein. Patrick Beilein, son; guard, West Virginia, 2002-06; graduate assistant, Michigan, 2008-10 I would just remember always being excited to go to the gym with him for practice or a game. I remember if I couldn’t go to a game with him because it was too late on a school night, I would give him a toy, one of my favorite toys that I thought would give luck, and he would put it in his suit. So that was just big growing up, we looked forward to the basketball season because we would be able to go to the games, practice but also be around the game that I obviously grew up to love. Once I got older, once I got into high school, I was able to play with the University of Richmond guys in the summer and in the spring. So that was good for my development. But at a young age, my brother and I, we would just be there at the gym, and we’d be on the side, whether dribbling a ball or chasing each other around, getting into trouble. So that’s how it was. *** It was great (playing for him), I called him ‘Dad’ on the sideline all the time just cause that was the relationship we had. My favorite moment, like kinda a sonfather moment, was going into my sophomore year, he pulled me aside. And I thought I had a decent freshman year, he had brought in new guys, and I was kinda going through the motions to begin the start of sophomore year because I played my freshman year, I thought I was a big shot. He pulled me to the side and said, ‘When’s the last time you’ve taken a charge, dove for a ball, boxed somebody out so hard that they fell over? Would you stop being a pretty boy and play the game the way you were taught to play?’ After that, I know that practice, I had blood everywhere it seemed like.
’Cause he was my father figure at the time and said, ‘You’re better than this,’ and that I disrespected him. So that was my favorite moment, and I never looked back from that. Isaiah Livers, forward, Michigan, 2017-present Coach (Beilein) is an amazing coach. I’ve never met any coach like this, especially on the visit, how he carries himself and what he stands for. He cares about the players so much to the point where, if you make the decision to stop playing basketball, just give him a reason — just give him a good, constructive reason, and he’ll support you all the way no matter what. That’s just insane to me, like he cares more about your school than your basketball career. (The first time I met him), we talked about baseball. I was a huge baseball fan. I loved baseball, baseball was my first love. And I think when we connected on baseball, that took our relationship to another step. Ignas Brazdeikis, forward, Michigan, 2018-present
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein has collected 799 career wins over 36 seasons as a head coach, 11 of which have been at Michigan.
DJ Wilson, forward, Michigan, 2014-17
Michigan, 2016-present He was exactly the same (during the recruiting process) as he is now, that’s the one thing I absolutely love about him. Everything he said, everything he told me was the same and he was just an honest guy. Like really, really honest and he never lied and I felt like I could trust him. Saddi Washington, assistant coach, Michigan, 2016-present Man, it’s been awesome (working with Beilein). I think that the biggest thing that you learn under coach Beilein is just, he’s an excellent CEO. But even more than that, he’s just a great person, you know? And I think the genuineness that he treats everybody with and the authenticity that comes across when he engages not just our players or recruits but our kids, our spouses and everybody in between. And I think, if anybody is deserving of the accolades that he gets, certainly it’s coach Beilein. His attention to detail in every aspect of the program is like none other. And I think that’s why we’re able to operate with great efficiency, both on and off the court. I think that’s a huge strength of his that I hope that I am able to absorb and acquire moving forward. Austin
Davis,
forward,
It’s really been amazing (playing under Beilein). I feel like he’s one of the few coaches that genuinely focuses on bettering each one of us as a man, not just as a player but as a man, and for the rest of our lives. He really, really instills a lot of our core values into us and makes sure that we always consider those and live every day by those. So I think he’s a great coach to play for and wouldn’t have wanted to play for anybody else. Moritz Wagner, Michigan, 2015-18
forward,
He was always really hard on me, and I — something I felt I was the blame for everything. But after my sophomore year, I understood that was the way he wanted to get me better. … It was for my sake. He sees the potential in you, and eventually I committed to that and said, ‘Ok, whatever. I know what you’re doing, so let’s work together.’ I don’t really know if I have a specific story but that’s just what I’ve experienced. Coach Beilein really cares about his players. I still have a really good relationship with him, try to talk to him as much as I can. And yeah, it was the best decision of my life to go there, 100-percent.
He’s a great person. That’s one of the sole reasons why I chose to go to Michigan, just him and his staff at the time. I just felt like they were genuine people, me and my family both got that vibe, it was kinda just natural. Then, just playing under him, he stuck with me when he coulda went elsewhere, he had other players to recruit. He never really recruited over me, he just stuck with me and everything worked out for the both of us. So that speaks to his character and the type of person he is. I thought he was a great guy, I thought he was real genuine. Like I said, that’s something that I kinda observed. Especially, you know, going into college, as far as what I was looking for in a coach because, I don’t know, it’s kinda like you plan on being with that coach for the next four years so you kinda just want to look for somebody that you can relate to and be real down to earth. Because you’re gonna spend a while with them so that’s a vibe I got from him. I think it’s just all around with everything that he does. He plays by the rules, he never does anything in any grey area, he’s honest, he’s a man of his word. And then, I just talked
to a few players at Michigan at the time when I was on my visit and they kept it real, they kept it honest with me, and they had nothing but good things to say about him. Spike Albrecht, Michigan, 2012-16
guard,
I played AAU with Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson, and they were both already committed to Michigan at the time. So my AAU coach, when he started catching wind of this Trey Burke situation, he reached out to coach Beilein like ‘Hey, I got a guy you should look at for a point guard, just like insurance policy, basically, if Trey leaves. And he was like ‘Hey, he doesn’t really look the part but you should go give him a call or go see him.’ Coach Beilein told me I didn’t pass the eyeball test, is what he told me. He still tells a story, when he came in, he did an in-home visit with me back at my house in Crown Point and he got out of the car and was walking up, I came outside to come say ‘hi’ and greet him, welcome him into my house. But, like, my driveway’s kinda on a slant so he, like, got out, and I was on the low end, and he was looking at me, and he was like, ‘Holy shit, who is this little dude. Like, I can’t believe I’m gonna recruit this kid to play in the Big Ten.’