2019-02-05

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Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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‘U’ policy prevents residential staff from removing hate speech in dorms

Housing no longer allows RAs from interfering with oppressive speech posted on student doors AMARA SHAIKH Daily News Editor

After free-speech watchdog group Speech First filed a lawsuitagainst the University of Michigan last May, the University has restricted the housing staff, such as resident advisors and diversity peer educators, from removing speech from student doors — including hate speech. The lawsuit was filed against the University’s Bias Response Team and accused the school of limiting students’ abilities to express themselves freely. Since then, the University has attempted to show its commitment to the First Amendment by allowing more student expression. In the dormitories, this means no writings or postings can be removed from a student’s door

without the student’s permission. One RA, who has chosen to remain anonymous due to legal concerns, believes the implementation of a policy restricting how racist speech is handled could be problematic. They think the policy will negatively affect the students it targets. “I most definitely think it can have an emotional impact,” they said. “If you wake up in the morning and you open your door and see something [offensive], it can make you feel like you don’t belong, it can make you feel like you’re not a valued member of the community and that you’re out of place.” The RA also brought up past incidents involving racist messages on student doors. Last year there was an incident in West Quad involving three

Black students’ whose doors were vandalized with hate speech, including the N-word. The RA emphasized how having to be in an environment where derogatory speech is present can have an impact on students’ wellbeing. “Even last year’s event of the n-word being on the door... ” they said. “I knew some of those people [who saw were affected by it] and it most definitely has an impact on you and other people who have those same identities or simply empathize with you. It can have an emotional toll because as a human being, sometimes you say, ‘This is wrong,’ but it gets a lot into what is right and wrong and who constitutes that, so I do think it can be difficult to maneuver and that’s where morality and University policies have trouble interplaying.”

LSA sophomore Ruchi Wankhede also reflected on the incident in West Quad Residence Hall when considering the policy. As someone who has lived in West Quad for the last two years, she recalled how upsetting the situation was. She said she’s wary of RAs and DPEs losing their ability to remove oppressive speech. “Last year, I was in West Quad when the whole incident with racist slurs on doors happened,” Wankhede said. “Those are my hallmates. It was so jarring for everyone involved, everyone in the community. The fact that the free speech is there, the fact that the University didn’t help out that much with the investigation is very upsetting. We still don’t even know who did it to this day.” See SPEECH, Page 3

University adopts felony disclosure amendment Employees must reveal their criminal felony charges within week of incident EMMA STEIN

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan implemented a new policy Monday requiring members of the community to disclose all charges and convictions of felonies within a week of the charge or conviction. The policy applies to all faculty and staff, including student employees, volunteers and visiting scholars. According to the policy, those who do not disclose felonies will face serious consequences and potential dismissal. After the felony charge or conviction has been selfreported, the University Human Resources department will assess the incident based on the gravity of the offense, the timeliness and accuracy of the disclosure and the relevancy to the role held at the University. The reporting of a felony does not necessarily mean the individual will face disciplinary action. Laurita Thomas, associate vice president for Human Resources, said the University implemented the new policy to ensure the

campus is as safe as possible. “We became aware of circumstances where we were not aware of this kind of situation across higher ed, not necessarily at Michigan,” Thomas said. “And many institutions have moved to enhance the safety of our community and this knowledge will help us do that.” When asked about how Human Resources will determine what consequences, if any, are deemed appropriate, Thomas said they will use similar standards to the criminal history questions and background checks all applicants are required to go through before employment. “We indicated in the announcement we would use criteria similar to our background check policy,” Thomas said. According to the U-M Graduate Employees’ Organization, the new policy applies to residential advisers but does not apply to graduate student instructors or other graduate students covered by the collective bargaining unit. See EMPLOYEES, Page 3

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CAMPUS LIFE

Ford panel Trump administration refuses to set discusses limit for PFAS chemicals in Michigan gun safety EPA faces pressure by President to leave poisonous substance unregulated in water perspectives RACHEL LEUNG

Forum talks firearm policy, mental health, injury prevention EMMA STEIN

Daily Staff Reporter

The Ford School of Public Policy hosted a talk Monday to debate different frames of mind surrounding gun control and its effectiveness. Each panelist discussed opposing perspectives on firearm policy as well as the pros and cons of looking at the issue in terms of injury prevention, mental health, education, politics and journalism. Michael Barr, dean of the Public Policy School, began the event by highlighting the frequency of mass shootings in the news cycle. Panelist Rebecca Cunningham, professor of emergency medicine, said she views gun policy from a public health perspective – the same way she would look at any other harmful situation. “Firearms are not really different than any other injury prevention framework, not to be thought of any differently from a vehicle crash to a fire and burn,” Cunningham said. See SAFETY, Page 3

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Less than a year after the Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency received backlash for attempting to block the publication of a federal study that concluded PFAS chemicals at low concentrations were dangerous, it is expected the Trump administration will not set a limit for PFAS chemicals in drinking water. According to the city of Ann Arbor’s site, samples collected from the city’s drinking water

in the fall of 2018 revealed a rise in PFAS levels since 2016. Since the reported increase, Ann Arbor has been committed to monitoring PFAS levels. In late 2018, City Council approved a proposal to replace all of the city’s old carbon filters with new filters. PFAS chemicals have been used for several decades in industrial and consumer products such as cookware and fire-retardant materials. Some scientific studies have shown PFAS chemicals can have significant health consequences such as learning and growth

impairments in children, weakened immune systems, and increased risk of cancer. The EPA’s decision against a PFAS limit in drinking water would mean PFAS chemicals would remain largely unregulated. In response to news of the EPA’s impending decision to continue to allow PFAS levels to be unregulated, 20 U.S. senators, including Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., penned a letter this week to acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to urge the EPA to set a limit for PFAS.

Devin Pascoe, a sophomore environmental engineering major, expressed her displeasure with the government’s lack of response to the health risks associated with PFAS. She said she believes the government could do more to address the health risks. “It seems like the government is not addressing the issue in the manner that they should, especially since they were making citizens pay for testing their water themselves,” Pascoe said. See PFAS, Page 3A

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVIII, No. 67 ©2019 The Michigan Daily

ANN ARBOR

Council supports Wendy’s boycott Members pass nuclear emergency plan for Ann Arbor community CATHERINE NOUHAN Daily Staff Reporter

On Monday night, Ann Arbor City Council passed resolutions to encourage members of the community to support the boycott of Wendy’s, to strengthen nuclear emergency planning and to support a strong Clean Air Act and strong Clean Water Rule. At City Hall, before the city council meeting began, the A2 Safe Transport, a citizens advocacy group working to ensure pedestrian safety, rallied for their cause. They are attempting to implement Vision Zero, a multidisciplinary approach to address local traffic technologies and policies. LSA junior Cindy Lin, intern for Councilmember Kathy Griswold, D-Ward 2, is on the A2 Safe Transport committee. She discussed how the New York-based organization can bring its initiatives to Ann Arbor. See WENDY’S , Page 3

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Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Samuel So, Ana Maria Sch lissel told The t his won’t just be a Sanchez-Castillo, Efe Osagie, Danyel Tharakan repeat of t he President ’s Da ily in a n inter v iew in Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Grace Cho, Harnoor Singh, Nada Eldawy, Maya Mokh fa iled Green house Ga s Ja nua r y he believes ca rbon Reduct ion Com m it tee em issions a re a profound CATHERINE NOUHAN and JOHN FABIAN problem a nd four yea rs ago, societa l Managing Podcast Editors pa r t icula rly g iven some t he Universit y is in good CARRINGTON TUBMAN and MADALASA CHAUDHARI of t he new com m ission sta nding to f ind a solut ion. Managing Social Media Editors “ I’m conf ident we ca n get members were on t his to our 25 -percent decrea se pa st com m it tee.” Addit iona lly, Vea r in g reen house ga s em ission pointed out how some goa l even ea rly, but t hat ’s of t he members of t he not enough, a nd we litera lly ADRIANNA KUSMIERCZYK Creative Director com m ission may have do have to f ig ure out how to CAMERON COANE ZELJKO KOSPIC approach 100 percent , how conf lict ing interest s. Sales Manager Special Projects Manager “ It is a lso high ly to approach a susta inable ROBERT WAGMAN ANITA MICHAUD disappoint ing t hat DTE level of ca rbon c ycling in Marketing Consulting Manager Brand Manager a nd Consumers Energ y t he env iron ment ,” Sch lissel were g iven spot s on sa id. t he com m ission it self The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the instead of potent ia lly fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available Read more at in a n adv isor y pa nel, free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. MichiganDaily.com MIDTERMS puzzle by sudokusyndication.com g iven t heir histor y of $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. t he env iron menta lly susta inable a nd com munit y-inclusive goa l. Avenues t he init iat ive w ill cover include energ y sourcing, polic y cha nge a nd tech nolog y development , a mong ot her topics. The co-cha irs of t he com m ission a re Jen nifer Haverka mp, director of t he Gra ha m Susta inabilit y Inst it ute, a nd Stephen For rest , professor of elect rica l eng ineering a nd computer science. There a re a lso t wo spot s for st udent s, which yet to be f illed. 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SPEECH From Page 1 Amir Baghdadchi, senior associate director of University Housing, explained the intricacies of dealing with housing spaces. While the policy does not extend to community areas, such as housing notice boards, student doors are deemed personal spaces, and the individuals whom they belong to have the right to express themselves in almost any way they please. “Housing spaces are unique for a couple of reasons,” Baghdadchi said. “One is that they actually are a balance between being community spaces — places that we all share and we want those to be inclusive. At the same time, individual rooms — those are personal spaces. Of course, the building has to balance both of those, and that means in every housing building you’ve got at least two different kinds of spaces.” He further emphasized the University’s dedication to the First Amendment, and noted how even if some individuals find speech on a student’s door upsetting, the student still has a right to express themselves. “It’s the University’s commitment as a whole to be very clear about how we do not suppress speech, even

PFAS From Page 1 Despite the reluctance to establish PFAS limits, a draft of the EPA chemical plan states PFAS will be listed as a hazardous substance, a move that will make it easier to hold companies accountable for their waste. In January, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and Dan Kildee, D-Oscoda, introduced legislation to declare PFAS chemicals as hazardous. By listing PFAS as a hazardous chemical, the PFAS Action Act would allow the EPA to devote federal resources to clean up water in contaminated areas. Dingell stated in a press release that PFAS are a threat to Michigan residents, and it was her desire by introducing the PFAS Action Act to urge the EPA to clean up Michigan’s drinking water. “Michigan has been hit hard by PFAS,” Dingell said. “It’s clear

WENDY’S From Page 1 “One of the initiatives we are working on is based on Vision Zero, which is really successful,” Lin said. “I live in New York Cit y and that’s where it’s based, so it’s interesting to see how New York is really successful in this and Ann Arbor is not. I’m trying to work with the CSG assembly to work on a resolution to get the school to support issues that Kathy Griswold has for pedestrian safet y.” At the meeting, the Resolution to Encourage Transportation Collaboration initiative passed, allowing the cit y of Ann Arbor to work closely with members of the Universit y of Michigan and other appropriate collaborators to create innovative solutions for the urban transportation landscape of Ann Arbor. Griswold sponsored the resolution. Following the discussion of transportation, the Resolution to Encourage Ann Arbor Communit y Members to Support Farm Workers Rights and to Boycott Wendy’s and Other

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when it is an opinion we find detestable,” Baghdadchi said. “We don’t censor that speech.” Though not all speech can be removed, there is a process in place for RAs and DPEs to follow if racist statements are present on an individual’s door. Baghdadchi said the first response to potentially harmful speech is reporting it to a professional staff member who then takes the information to the Housing Diversity and Inclusion unit, which directs the incident to the Division of Public Safety and Security, the hall director or another University official. There are also conversations held with the student who was the source of the speech as well as with those who are impacted by the speech. Additionally, if any speech threatens violence against another individual or group, the threat is handled by DPSS. Along with filing reports, Baghdadchi explained how RAs can use their connection to hall residents to help guide them through difficult situations. “Now on the other hand, one of the most important things RAs can do is support their residents,” Baghdadchi said. The RA also explained how they would go about handling a situation involving a racist or derogatory comment on a door, and emphasized the

importance of taking the impacted student’s lead as to how to resolve the issue. “One thing I’ve been a big proponent of is treating people how they want to be treated,” they said. “Let’s say someone who was impacted by this situation, I may want to take this action, but first you need to talk to them and see what they want to do and see how they feel. It’s important to take care of them first, whether that be a conversation or connecting them with other resources because as RAs, you can’t do everything.” While the RA has a plan for responding to a situation where a resident posts an offensive comment on their door in a manner that coincides with the policy, they also admitted it would be difficult to watch their residents go through these types of situations. “I think it’s hard,” they said. “I see something and say, ‘That’s obviously not right,’ or, ‘That’s obviously going to have some sort of implication on the resident.’ I don’t want them to see that. It’s not like I walk around like, ‘That’s not my problem, that’s on you.’ I feel bad, too, but understanding on several ends of things people have reasons for why they do things and there are other mechanisms to create understanding.”

Baghdadchi acknowledged how even though immediately removing harmful speech may seem like the right way to handle a situation, it is not always the most permanent solution. He explained while the University is demonstrating its commitment to free speech, he also believes they are demonstrating their commitment to students impacted by racial slurs through providing the appropriate responses. “The responsibility (to impacted students) lies in responding in a timely, effective way to that student, giving that student support, making it clear that the message they see, that they may find harmful to them, does not represent the University’s point of view,” Baghdadchi said. “... Taking it upon ourselves to do a followup with the source of that speech.” Moving forward, the RA explained how even though the inability to immediately remove racist speech may make some residents feel like nothing is being done, the housing staff is working to make sure the right reports are being filed so the right steps can be taken to handle the situation.

it’s a threat to human health and our environment. It’s been found in our drinking water, air, food, and consumer products.” Ann Arbor water treatment manager Brian Steglitz said he was confident Ann Arbor could easily meet new EPA standards if PFAS were listed as hazardous. Many states have acted independently to set limits on PFAS and Steglitz said Ann Arbor is currently planning to meet some of the strictest standards set by other states. “The position in Ann Arbor we’re taking so far is attempting to meet the most stringent requirements that currently exist around the U.S. on regulating PFAS because many states have already taken that initiative,” Steglitz said. “So I think we would be wellpositioned to meet any standards if they were legislated at the national or even state level.” Steglitz said Ann Arbor’s current goal is to have levels of PFAS below 10 parts per trillion. According to Steglitz, Ann

Arbor is on its way to meeting that goal, and because no states currently have any PFAS limits at that level, he believes Ann Arbor would have no issue with meeting any potential national limits. “This is an emerging contaminant, so I feel very good about the work we have done to stay ahead of the regulatory curve,” Steglitz said. “But there’s a lot of research going on. Based on the information we know, we’re in a very good place.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order Monday to establish the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team as a permanent organization to continue to identify sources of PFAS and protect Michigan’s water. Created as a temporary team in 2017, MPART has already identified numerous contaminated sites in Michigan. Councilmember Jeff Hayner, D-Ward 1, said he was thrilled to see many Michigan officials respond to the threat of PFAS, despite the national

administration’s reluctance. He explained Ann Arbor continues to monitor its water and to work with county and state officials to provide clean water for residents, but said more legislation will need to be passed to hold companies accountable. “If you want the polluter to pay (to do the clean-up) then these standards are set, but if these standards are set real high, then they don’t have to do any clean-up,” Hayner said. “The bar is set very low for clean-up.” Hayner believes more local control is needed to help protect environmental resources. He hopes legislation can change at either the state or federal level so cities can have more of a say in environmental issues. “One of our big policy goals is to continue to work with our state representatives and our federal representatives to change these laws to allow local control over environmental

Food Service Providers not Supportive of the Fair Food Prog ram was passed. This resolution, which advocates the boycott of the fast-food chain because of labor concerns, was sponsored by Councilmembers Elizabeth Nelson, D-Ward 4, Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4, and Griswold. Kimberly Daley, a postdoctoral fellow in Public Health, spoke during the public commentary section of Cit y Council. She works to spread awareness about labor justice in the food system and explained the history of the Wendy’s boycott to the council. “The Fair Food Prog ram ( has sig ned) with 14 multibillion-dollar corporations, which has virtually eliminated exploitation for hundreds of thousands of farm workers,” Daley said. “Of these 14 corporations, McDonalds, Subway, Chipotle, Taco Bell, Burger King and Walmart have all sig ned on. Wendy’s refuses, which is why workers have asked consumers across the country to boycott them.” Councilmember Jane Lumm, I-Ward-2, did vote to pass the resolution but expressed some hesitations with the political message

that this boycott would give. “For me, resolutions like this, there needs to be a direct local connection,” Lumm said. “Otherwise it becomes a more political message or statementwith all due respect to the cosponsors. But I just think in the future I’d like to focus on making positions and statements like this that have a direct local connection.” Next, the council passed the Resolution to Streng then Nuclear Emergency Planning for the Population of the Cit y of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This resolution would support the stockpiling of nonprescription potassium iodine in communities located within 50 miles of an actively operating nuclear power plant, for the preservation of public safet y. In the instance of a nuclear accident, Ann Arbor residents would be encouraged to take the nonprescription potassium iodide (KI) pills in order to prevent thyroid cancer. Ann Arbor resident David Schonberger spoke during the public comments and highly recommended preparing for a nuclear emergency

for health reasons and financial reasons. “Even if public health officials do not recommend it, the demand for KI will be high following a nuclear emergency,” Schonberger said. “The KIU should be a part of an emergency plan including evacuation, sheltering, and avoidance of contaminated food in the event of a nuclear emergency.” Councilmember Ali Ramlawi, D-Ward-5, approved of the spending, and brought forward President Trump’s withdrawal from nuclear treaties as reasoning for supporting the policy. “I think this is a very forward thinking resolution that is being brought forward and appreciate the efforts to bring it to council,” Ramlawi said. “We have a president right now that is withdrawing from the nuclear treaties with Russia. We’re entering a new arms race possibly with nuclear weapons, so for the cost of less than a dollar per person this is a sound investment.”

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SNOW From Page 1 “If we look at the death rates over the past 10 or 15 years, we see that firearms are the second leading cause of death among children and teens in our country … we’re not allowing the children in our country to become 18-year-olds.” Cunningham claimed guns are never going away and it is important to work together on preventing future deaths and injuries from firearms. “Guns are going to exist in our culture, cars are going to exist in our culture,” Cunningham said. “And now, together, we have to work towards how those things are going to be more safe and how we’re going to have less children dead.” The conversation transitioned to discussing the importance of understanding other people’s experiences with guns. Panelist Jane Coaston, senior politics reporter at Vox, said people often lack an accurate understanding of how others think about firearms — even between different pro-gun groups. “When you talk to some folks in the conservative movement, how they think about guns is very different from how they think people that own guns in other communities think about guns,” Coaston said. “So their guns are very much their means of self-defense, whereas they’re (other communities) using guns to be terrible and shoot everyone. Whereas if you go and talk to people who are living in Baltimore or elsewhere, they’re interested in owning guns for the same reason as people in Iowa. In the interest in self-defense or because they want to go to a gun range at some point.” Coaston continued and claimed showing different communities their gun usage and beliefs are not as different as they think is crucial to altering policy. “We need to make sure communities understand they’re not as dissimilar as they think when we’re talking about these particular issues,” Coaston said. Coaston then discussed how one’s views on firearms may appear to be an accurate depiction of one’s political beliefs as a whole, but she claimed the two can be

EMPLOYEES From Page 1 “We want to let our bargaining unit members know that this does not apply to employees who are ‘covered by the terms of a collective bargaining unit,’ which includes GSIs and GSSAs under the GEO contract,” the statement read. “However, if you hold an R A position in addition to a GSI or GSSA appointment, this new policy does apply to you.” Some faculty have expressed concern about the new policy. The Daily obtained an email sent by Rowell Huesmann, professor of communication studies and psycholog y, to the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs. Huesmann claimed the policy disregards the rights of all faculty and staff to due process by requiring disclosure of charges and not just convictions. “To me, it seems like an outrageous violation of faculty, staff, and student rights,” Huesmann wrote. “The policy not only requires one to report

entirely separate. “Polarization and how guns have become a slang way of getting to know someone’s politics when it really shouldn’t be, is something that’s been a really big hindrance to this conversation,” Coaston said. Cunningham said the main focus of firearm policy going forward should be a deeper understanding of gun accessibility and why families feel the need to own guns. “Whose responsibility is it in our society to have a 4-year-old not have access to a loaded gun?” Cunningham said. “And why is this young family with a 4-year-old and a pregnant mother feel they need to sleep with a loaded gun under their bed?” The panelists then discussed how some of the current perspectives surrounding gun policy are not effective. Panelist Jonathan Metzl, professor of psychiatry and sociology at Vanderbilt University, discussed barriers between activists, academics and politicians. “I do feel that part of the issues that are happening are tied to the relationship between the activism realm and the legal realm,” Metzl said. “The legal realm is really where those everyday practices are being shaped.” Coaston ended the discussion by adding that gun safety is only mentioned after a mass shooting, but it should be talked more frequently if real change is going to happen. “We start talking about gun policy when something terrible has happened, specifically a mass shooting, and we saw that after Parkland and we see it after pretty much every wellknown mass shooting,” Coaston said. “That is the time to have a conversation about gun policy when we should be talking about gun policy at all times.” Public Health student Jane Smith said a priority in gun safety should be really trying to understand why people and communities own guns in order to figure out the next step. “I think really getting at the root of gun ownership and why are people owning guns, and understanding the cultural aspect behind, it can help us in identifying where to go next,” Smith said.

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‘convictions,’ (which would be bad enough), but it also requires one to report simply ‘being charged’ with a felony which often involves no ‘due process.’” In response to these concerns, Thomas stated the University upholds legal procedures and respects the rights of all community members. “The due process continues,” Thomas said. “If we make a decision that the individual wants to appeal, the normal appeal processes at the University will be available.” Thomas said the University is not stripping faculty of due process, and the wellbeing of the campus is most important. “Felony charges are very serious; it means that they wwhave found enough evidence to do the charge, and so we will review charges in order to ensure the safety of our community,” Thomas said.

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Opinion

4 — Tuesday, February 5, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

REED ROSENBACHER | COLUMN

Rethinking the engineering humanities requirement

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ETHAN KESSLER | COLUMN

D

Look to the lawmakers, not the courts

espite attempts to individual and their home, in remain out of the District of Columbia v. Heller public spotlight and and McDonald v. Chicago, dodge partisan it also left alone judgment best “longstanding reserved for elected prohibitions” on officials, the U.S. the ownership, Supreme Court has sales and carrying cultivated quite of firearms. The a prominent (and opposite case romantic) image also remains. in the American While the g un imagination. control measures Perhaps it is challenged in the ETHAN because of the case KESSLER NYSRPA countless TV are uniquely shows and classic films such restrictive, even for New as “My Cousin Vinny,” in York’s standards, a less which the law is a backdrop expansive ruling could still for drama and the judge’s drastically bolster the g un gavel an instrument of lobby’s latest crusade to climax. Or perhaps we owe it weaken municipal and state to emotive portrayals of the concealed-carry restrictions. high court as a force for good, Those still inclined to as “The People vs. Larry prognosticate generally view Flynt” evokes. For whatever Justice Brett Kavanaugh as reason, the allure of a body so apolitical and professional in its composition, yet so absolute in its authority, has become inescapable. The latest Second Amendment case to land on the Supreme Court’s docket, New York State Rif le and Pistol Association v. City of New York, exemplifies this phenomenon. The New York State Rif le and Pistol Association represents the latest battle between New York City g un owners, the case’s deciding factor. represented by the plaintiffs, Indeed, they are right and the city’s stringent to characterize the new controls over where they may addition to the Supreme keep their constitutionally- Court as a staunch Second protected handg uns. At Amendment defender, more stake, however, may be inclined than former Justice much more than the travel Anthony Kennedy to take considerations of armed aim at basic firearm sale New Yorkers. Many predict and registration laws. Those a broader expansion of same pundits would do well g un rights by the Supreme to consider, however, that the Court, in part because the conservative majority of the court has not often heard Supreme Court that enhanced cases concerning the Second Second Amendment Amendment. protections in 2008 and 2010 However, such still needs Chief Justice John speculation largely obscures G. Roberts Jr. to realize any more relevant g un issues of Kavanaugh’s pro-g un that do not require a writ of aspirations. Roberts — who certiorari to debate, namely as chief justice acts not only the continuing plag ue of g un as a judge but also as the violence across the country. high court’s “custodian” — Supreme Court decisions, may well avoid co-signing to be sure, impact people’s any controversial opinions lives in big ways. Second on such an issue as sensitive Amendment decisions are as the Second Amendment. no less impactful. But truly Roberts’ cautious tendency addressing g un violence can could hold especially true at a only come through policy and time when the Supreme Court policy from legislatures. The — steadily losing confidence NYSRPA case, by directing among the American people our attention to the Supreme — has already been roped into Court and its judgment, President Donald Trump’s counterproductively nakedly partisan remarks downplays these policies and and likely stands to be drawn their consequences. into the contentious border Still, panic and wall issue as well. excitement over the case Surely, it is anyone’s g uess are abound. It would be one as to the implications of the thing if the case was in any NYSRPA case. This is all way predictable. Yet, while the more reason to redirect the Supreme Court did break undue attention away from ground in its last two Second g un rights and toward Amendment decisions by g un policy. No liberties — expanding “the right to even those protected as keep and bear arms” to the fundamental rights — are

But truly addressing gun violence can only come through policy and policy from legislatures

immune from the realities of the people to whom they are gifted, and g uns are no exception. Rates of per capita firearm homicides, as well as those of per capita suicides, are on the rise. When bad things continue to happen, we as Americans should expect policy changes from our lawmakers. Guns should differ from other policy issues only in the degree of scrutiny to which their restrictions are subjected, not in the legality (or lack thereof ) of restrictions wholesale. Nor should g uns be held up as some sort of permanent American fixture immune to Constitutional reform. If our goal as Americans is to reduce the incidence of these tragedies (which affect both Republican and Democratic regions of the country), then there are plenty of g un control measures that are proven to possibly work. If the Constitution continues to be interpreted as a veto to these measures, then the American people should be encouraged to consider whether that same constitution ought to be amended. To decry this process as somehow “unpatriotic” would neglect the Constitution’s deliberate adaptability (and one of its current amendments). Of course, g un control measures short of repealing the Second Amendment still infringe to a sig nif icant deg ree upon the state of freedom in which g un owners choose, use and interact with their f irearms. As with any policy, these are the costs of attaining a g reater good, and will have to be incurred by someone, somewhere. Those “someones,” Americans to whom g un rights are not mere policy obstructions but deeply cherished parts of life, must therefore be included in these future debates. Regardless of where these discussions may lead us policy-wise, we should be having them. For now, there remain many g un control policies within Constitutional reach of our legislatures, where we can engage one another instead of idly waiting for opinions to be handed down to us. Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, we should continue to debate the efficacy of g un policies within the Constitutional confines last set by Heller and McDonald. Let us find recourse in the halls of Congress, not in the gavels of justices — even if the latter provides for better entertainment.

Ethan Kessler can be reached at ethankes@umich.edu.

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A

lmost every student in a major of the humanities has experienced the same dreaded moment. It’s during the first few weeks of class when everybody is introducing themselves, when the classroom environment is still setting in, that the realization sets: The class is filled with engineering students desperate to fulfill their 300-level humanities requirement at the University of Michigan. When I experienced my first real run-in with this phenomenon, my mind swelled with optimism, hoping the students from different academic backgrounds could offer distinct and valuable contributions to the conversation. As the course progressed, however, I was met with a harsh reality: My “fellow classmates” in the engineering school, most likely students who never had an affinity for seminar discussion, were filling discussion with hollow comments in hopes of earning participation credit. Engineering students who have gone through years of curriculum structured by endless lecture halls, harsh curves and impersonal learning environments should not be expected to equally contribute to a 300-level humanities class. The upper-level humanities curriculum is designed with two things in mind: that the students have taken other courses in the humanities and that they have a genuine interest in the course material. As a result, students are expected to have developed their skills in reading, class participation and writing. Students whose skills and interests are still maturing should pursue lowerlevel courses. Engineering students who have spent their years watching online lectures and completing auto-grader homework assignments tend not to have the experience it takes to contribute to humanities courses in a way that elevates the conversation. In some ways, the requirement as it stands feels like a form of disrespect to the humanities — no one expects a philosophy student like myself to survive in a random 300-level engineering class (I really wouldn’t). Why should we expect the opposite? I want to make clear that my point is not that engineering students are in some way less smart or incapable of valuably

contributing to a 300-level humanities class. In fact, there have been some engineering students who did have a lot of excellent contributions to the class, but that tends to be the exception, not the rule. Rather, engineering students are not given the tools or experience to help elevate class discussion. The idea behind the requirement is one I fully support. Taking engineering students out of their comfort zones and putting them in contact with more critical and personal disciplines is a wonderful idea. I even think that having the requirement

Students whose skills and interests are still maturing should pursue lowerlevel courses

be an upper-level class with in-depth seminar discussions is a good idea. I simply question whether the current approach is effective. From here, I will weigh a few potential proposals as a starting point for rethinking this issue. Proposal 1: Offer humanities classes designed for engineering students. The School of Art & Design, for example, offers classes to non-majors. The idea behind this curriculum is that nonart students should have a way of pursuing the arts without having to do so in the confines of a classroom filled with aspiring artists. This proposal would solve the issue of filling LSA humanities classes with engineering students who take away from class discussion due to their lack of experience, disinterest or some combination thereof. The problem with this proposal, however, is that the “humanities classes for nonhumanities majors” would become an echo chamber that wouldn’t provide engineering students with the “outside perspective” the requirement is built to give. I also fear these classes may run the risk of becoming “joke classes” or classes they don’t find challenging. Proposal 2: Create a cap on the number of engineering students who can enroll in a

specific humanities class. In all honesty, much of my irritation stems from my experience in a 300-level philosophy class that was dominated by engineering students. The engineering students took the class because it hit three birds with one stone: It fulfilled the race and ethnicity requirement, the 300-level humanities requirement and was rumored to be “easy.” If there were only a few engineering students in any given class, then the class discussion would not be hampered and the engineering students could really engage in productive seminar discussion. On the other hand, this proposal would prevent some engineering students who do have real interests in the humanities from getting into the classes they want and would make them feel even more like they are being forced to do something. Additionally, this just seems like a cruel idea to implement from an institutional level. Proposal 3: Require engineering students to take more humanities classes! Maybe, instead of creating odd concoctions that account for engineering students’ lack of experience in the humanities, engineering students could just receive a more holistic education. Some kinks regarding fitting it in the schedule would obviously have to be worked out, but the requirement could be expanded to something along the lines of 12 humanities credits with a minimum of two upper-level humanities classes. All three of these proposals have benefits and f laws to them. None of them should be viewed as a perfect solution, but they all do serve as starting points for fixing this issue. The sad truth is that many students in the humanities have experienced signing up for a class to pursue a genuine interest, only to find a classroom filled with inexperienced engineering students looking to fill requirements. On the other hand engineering students do seek out “easy” humanities classes to fill their requirement instead of truly expanding their academic horizons. Something needs to be done to create a learning environment that is more satisfying to everyone’s academic needs. Reed Rosenbacher can be reached at rrosenb@umich.edu.

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Arts

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FESTIVAL COVERAGE

NETFLIX

Sundance coverage day four: Efron, Awkwafina SAM ROSENBERG Daily Arts Writer

On day four of Sundance, I noticed a pattern in my notetaking. If I enjoyed a movie, I would only write a few details in my journal. If I didn’t enjoy a movie, I would scribble down criticisms like a madman and sometimes doodle during the more cringe-worthy scenes. This dichotomy became no more apparent than when I saw Lulu Wang’s excellent dramedy “The Farewell,” Joe Berlinger’s awful Ted Bundy biopic “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Vile and Evil” and Joe Talbot’s immensely cool “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” For “The Farewell” and “The Last Black Man,” my notes were minimal. I simply relished in watching both movies with the rest of the crowd, who were as receptive as I was to each film’s moments of humor and melancholy. As for “Extremely Wicked,” my notes took up two pages. I tried looking around to see if there were other audience members who were just as baffled as I was, but to my surprise, everyone seemed engaged with what was essentially a watereddown romanticization of one of America’s most notable serial killers. The movie theater etiquette was much better today than the two days before, with the exception of the guy sitting next to me during “The Farewell,” who took out his phone at least five times to text someone, look up who was in the movie (wait until the credits, bro!) and open and close Hinge. After

boiling with fury in my seat and waiting for the right moment, I politely whispered to him to turn off his phone. His response? “It’s a press screening. You can take out your phone.” Sigh. The audacity! As the day went on, Sundancegoers seemed more and more exhausted. The general vibe of weariness while waiting in line for each screening was apparent: people glued to their phones, fatigue plastered on their faces, clearly worn out by the constant standing, sitting and visual stimuli. It was only after each screening that the energy shifted into something more excited. Crowds of critics would stand outside in the hallways of the theater, chatting and exchanging interpretations with intense vigor on what they just saw. Even when the hours and hours of watching movies felt like a chore, the postscreening conversations would beg to differ. ‘The Farewell’: Happiness is too simple a word to describe how I felt watching Lulu Wang’s delightful sophomore effort “The Farewell.” Adapted by Wang from a real-life story she narrated on NPR’s “This American Life,” this film is truly a phenomenal feat, the best kind of dramedy where joy and grief are intertwined to complement one another rather than exist adjacently. By avoiding the cliché trappings of intergenerational stories — rigid immigrant parents vs. assimilated children — “The Farewell” seeks to understand how secrets and lies are sometimes the only way we can protect those we love most. As dramatic as that illustration

seems, “The Farewell” produces plenty of laughs, most of which stem from the main character Billi (an outstanding Awkwafina, “Ocean’s 8”), a wisecracking Brooklyn-based writer who discovers that her grandma Nai Nai (newcomer Shuzhen Zhou) has fallen ill with terminal cancer. The twist: Nai Nai has no clue, and Billi’s parents (Tzi Ma, “Arrival” and Diana Lin, “Australia Day”) intend to keep it that way. Feeling guilty and helpless, Billi follows her parents to China to spend time with Nai Nai and the rest of her extended family, all of whom are aware of Nai Nai’s condition, but decide to use Billi’s hapless cousin’s wedding as the reason for why they are all gathered together for the first time in years. Rather than take a more farcical path, “The Farewell” focuses on exploring the tension between the illusory safeguard of happiness with the reality of sadness. Billi’s multifaceted ensemble of a family is prone to this emotional strain, diverging from a sad subject whenever it appears in conversation over dinner. The suppression of deep-seated sorrow, especially in a family setting, is something that almost everyone can relate to on a certain level, but through the lens of the Chinese-American experience, it takes on a much greater weight. Growing up in America, Billi knows exactly why it’s so wrong to lie to her grandmother about her illness. But as she learns during her time in China, she recognizes that it’s customary to keep this kind of information away from loved ones until the final moments of their life so the ill don’t have to carry that burden. It’s a revelation

Tuesday, February 5, 2019 — 5

that’s as devastating for Billi as it is for the audience. Despite the bleakness in this tradition, “The Farewell” is skillful enough to find the humor in the quiet suffering Billi and her family are forced to endure. We see it during Billi’s cupping therapy session at a Chinese spa, where her aunt tells her that “a little pain is normal, otherwise it doesn’t work.” We witness it during a visit to her grandfather’s grave, where Billi and her family present offerings that include a variety of snacks, flower petals and a cigarette, even though her grandfather had allegedly quit smoking while alive. We observe it at her cousin’s extravagant wedding banquet, where her uncle delivers a heartbreaking monologue about Nai Nai, bookending his tearful speech with an equally comical and poignant irony: “Sorry, I’m just so happy.” It cannot be emphasized enough how incredible Awkwafina’s performance is in “The Farewell.” The up-and-coming actress/ rapper from Queens made huge strides in two of the biggest summer movies from last year, “Ocean’s 8” and “Crazy Rich Asians.” Here, Awkwafina continues to flex her comedic sensibilities, while showing off her dramatic range with superb naturalism. Zhou also provides a beautiful, measured performance as Nai Nai. For a first-time actress, she excels in her role, balancing a sensitive earnestness with infectiously adorable charm. Her on-screen relationship with Awkwafina is also quite sweet and authentic, their intimate banter making it seem as if they were actually related. Though it may check off all the boxes of a Sundance dramedy, “The Farewell” does everything in its glorious power to transcend that expectation. It’s a film for everyone, but also manages to infuse a compelling amount of specificity into its universal story. Not to overhype the film, but I’ll be damned if “The Farewell” isn’t nominated for Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars.

‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’: True crime documentarian Joe Berlinger’s narrative debut derives its laborious title from a quote used against nefarious serial killer Ted Bundy for committing a series of brutal killings between 1974 and 1978. But after seeing the film in full, perhaps it should be retitled to “Extremely Dumb, Shockingly Inept and Vile” not only for romanticizing Ted Bundy

— who, mind you, kidnapped, murdered and raped a multitude of women — to an absurd degree, but also failing to capture what makes the much-talked-about subject so complex and fascinating in the first place. Aside from the gross glamorization of Bundy’s image, “Extremely Wicked” is just another oversimplified, by-thenumbers biopic, fulfilling every single possible facet of the formula you can think of. There’s a predictable claim to fame and inevitable downfall, a way too on-the-nose soundtrack, an excess of exposition explained through archival footage and dramatized interviews and, worst of all, strangely generic dialogue for events that actually took place. In its rushed first act, “Extremely Wicked” introduces us to Bundy (Zac Efron, “Neighbors”) on the day preceding his execution in 1989 before transitioning to a Seattle bar 20 years earlier where he meets and falls in love with single mother Liz (Lily Collins, “To the Bone”). While Collins and Efron have decent chemistry, their relationship is established a little too quickly, condensing the time between when they first meet to when they start living together to less than a few minutes. Bundy’s transformation from regular nice-guy law student to murder suspect also occurs within a minimal timespan, and while the efficiency of this shift in his character certainly helps with the pacing, the lack of actual dimension given to Bundy and his romance with Liz makes it more difficult to stay interested. The film ostensibly is supposed to take place from the perspective of Liz, who, like Bundy, was in complete denial that he carried out any of the heinous acts he was accused of. Strangely, however, “Extremely Wicked” dedicates more of its screen time to Bundy himself, leaving only a string of scenes with Liz, whose sullen reaction to Bundy’s growing reputation as a ruthless felon is limited to crying in the shower, drinking and smoking all day, staring somberly at the TV news and getting mad at her disposable character of a best friend Joanna (Angela Sarafyan, “The Promise”) for forcing Liz to face the truth. Though it may be accurate that Bundy lured his victims using his charisma and supposedly good looks, attaching Efron and his handsomeness to the reallife serial killer feels somewhat distracting, like something out of a melodrama (Penn Badgley in “You,” anyone?). Transforming Bundy into an ultra-appealing hunk is an intriguing attempt at

BOOK REVIEW

Daily Arts Writer

The most influential character in Mary Adkins’ debut novel “When You Read This” is not even alive at the time the novel takes place. Iris Massey is a 33 year old who died months after being diagnosed with small-cell carcinoma, a deadly lung cancer commonly developed by smokers. Iris’s death has a profound impact on those around her. There’s her sister, Jade, a chef at a Michelin starred restaurant in New York City, who hasn’t gone back to work since her sister’s death. There’s Iris’s boss, Smith Simonyi, the president of brand management firm who’s struggling to keep his business afloat. And there’s the hundreds of people who follow her blog. When Iris discovered she was dying, she turned to a website named “Dying to Blog,” a place where people who are dying can come together and form a community. Smith discovers her blog and her wish to have it published after her death, which leads him into contact with Jade and a journey of self discovery and realization. Adkins weaves the story together out of excerpts from Iris’s blog, email and texts between various characters, as well as other forms of media like Jade’s submissions to a therapy website. The majority of the story focuses on the relationship between Jade and Smith as they try to come to terms

with Iris’s passing. While they first email about cleaning Iris’s things out of the office, their emailing quickly evolves into confidences shared by the closest friends. After Iris’s death, the one true spot of light in their lives is a new intern Smith hires named Carl. Carl is an extremely outgoing and intelligent college student who has a habit of sending emails to people he shouldn’t, something

‘When You Read This’ Mary Adkins Harper Feb. 5, 2019

that conveniently propels the plot forward on numerous occasions. While Carl’s optimistic outlook and wit brings humor and a refreshing lightness to a story that deals with such heavy subject matter, he is undeniably a terrible intern. It’s hard to believe at times that he would not have been fired within his first few days of working at the office. The fact that Smith keeps him on makes the story somewhat less believable, but the loss is worth it for the enjoyment Carl’s character provides. Iris’s contemplation of death and how a person makes peace with death are the most thought-

provoking and interesting parts of the novel. She records her feelings on her blog with topics ranging from her reaction to seeing images of the cancer that’s killing her to her relationship with Jade. Readers also see the comments left on her blog and come to know the commenters as well as Iris herself. The formatting of Iris’s blog, in addition to the email formatting used throughout the novel, makes for a story that keeps the attention of readers in a way that is easy to read and follow. Iris uses drawings and pictures to communicate how she feels about having cancer. It’s an intimate presentation that helps both Iris and readers contemplate dying. For a book whose back claims it’s “for fans of Rainbow Rowell,” it does not exactly deliver. The characters don’t have as much depth and aren’t as realistic or relatable as those in some of Rowell’s works like “Fangirl” or “Eleanor and Park.” They aren’t as well defined and have more static personalities as well. With the exception of Carl, they don’t stand out as individuals as much as they could. Distinct and vibrant characters are hallmarks of Rowell’s novels, and are simply not as present in “When You Read This.”“When You Read This” does lead readers to contemplate intriguing and important philosophical questions, such as what makes life worth living and how, if at all, the dead should be honored, but it lacks in plot and character development.

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SHOW REVIEW

‘When You Read This’ is not like Rainbow Rowell SOPHIE WAZLOWSKI

making the audience sympathize with his character, suggesting that any hottie with a naughty body could have malicious intentions. Still, despite Efron’s best efforts in embodying Bundy, from his cunning personality to his luscious head of hair, the dreadful emptiness of “Extremely Wicked” outweighs his serviceable performance by a long shot. Buried within the murky mess of the film’s skeletal plot are a few fleeting — emphasis on “fleeting” — moments of genuinely captivating entertainment. A goateed, very good John Malkovich (“Bird Box”) plays Edward Cowart, the snarky judge who presided over Bundy’s final trial in Florida, and delivers some of the very rare great lines of dialogue during the climactic third act. Bundy’s brief escapes from his jail sentences are fun to watch too, so much so that they almost make you forget just how abhorrent the film is as a whole. The final confrontation between Liz and Bundy on the day of his death sentence is really the only true moment in the entire 108 minutes of “Extremely Wicked” where a great deal of tension is palpable, in that we actually get to see, through flashback, Bundy carry out one of his many documented killings. Then again, why does the movie try to make us sympathize with Bundy? In addition to narrativizing Bundy’s experience in the public through the guise of a glitzy thriller, “Extremely Wicked” provides no solid justification for why we should spend our time following Bundy, no plausible end goal in questioning what motivated him to be so cruel and relentless. Some might find better answers in the recently released Netflix docuseries “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” which was also produced by Berlinger, or even FX’s “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” a much more welldeveloped and layered drama that focused on a different famous alleged murderer who consistently denied the terrible things he was accused of. If “Extremely Wicked” proves to be a box office success once it’s released in theaters, it won’t be because of the promise of understanding Bundy on a more psychological level, but rather, it will be solely due to the undeniable appeal of Efron’s star power, a reality as unsettling as Bundy’s impact on the cultural consciousness.

SVEN GAMSKY

Still Woozy, confident and awkward at El Club show SAMANTHA CANTIE Daily Arts Wrtier

The vibes of Still Woozy’s live concert can be perfectly synopsized by the first 10 seconds of his music video for the song “Goodie Bag.” There’s this brief, pure moment when Sven Gamsky (Still Woozy) holds up a photo of himself and asks, “Who’s that fucking pig nose?” after which his friend questions if the video is doomed to fail from the outset. It quickly cuts, and in comes the dreamy, woozy sound of “Goodie Bag.” I swear these first 10 seconds of endearing selfdepreciation play a monumental role in the video’s 1.7 million views. Take the wholesomeness of those opening 10 seconds and extend it for an hour and a half set at El Club, and you get Still Woozy live. It’s awkward, but it’s a confident awkward. Sven Gamsky is the poster child for “I see myself as a gawky lad” persona, yet coolness exudes from every bone in his body, with that groovy, woozy sound leaving me gawking. His stage presence

consists of intense head bops with wide eyes and shimmies that could pass as an attempt at The Chicken Dance. I never knew chicken-arm shimmies could be so damn cool. Gamsky grasps the essence of “Hi, I’m awkward!” paired with a boyish charm. Yet, his groovy sound has artsy college kids bending over backwards to brand themselves in a similar way. This vibe he radiates makes a 19-year old girl with an English major and freshcut bangs step slightly closer to self-actualization (I speak from experience). Walking into the concert, I couldn’t help but question how he would fill an entire concert with only six songs. These six songs (which fall somewhere between lo-fi, electric, acoustic and indie) were written and produced in his garage. You can add Still Woozy to the list of recently successful D.I.Y. artists, for his garage approach has landed him a spot on Coachella’s lineup this upcoming April. When choosing how to fill his time, he made some stellar choices and some mediocre ones.

The stellar choices included repeating “Lucy” for his encore and playing two songs off of his new EP (which, according to Instagram, should be released this month). These fresh songs push into Gamsky’s upper register and even feature some “rapping” (the sort of rap that Rex Orange County creates). Moreover, Gamsky attacked two phenomenal covers: Mac Demarco’s “Still Beating” and Hank Williams’s “Angel of Death.” The mediocre choices, on the other hand, included a “danceoff” between his drummer and synth-player for this tour: Skinny Pete and Tiny. About half-way through, Skinny and Tiny competed on the dance floor while Gamsky narrated from the side. Remember how we talked about awkwardness, but the sort of awkwardness that’s so cool and endearing it makes a girl with bangs (me) freak out in admiration?

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Arts

6 — Tuesday, February 5, 2019

FILM NOTEBOOK

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

What we reward when we celebrate ‘Green Book’ JULIANNA MORANO Daily Arts Writer

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says to a movie, “You are the best picture of the year,” what are they really indicating? The Academy itself explains, “We recognize and uphold excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences, inspire imagination, and connect the world through the medium of motion pictures.” This lofty mission statement is worth unpacking, and, with the Academy Awards coming up this month, worth testing. Controversial Best Picture nominee “Green Book” gives a perfect occasion for such a test. In the context of Best Picture nominations, recognizing and upholding “excellence,” implies that the Academy just wants to honor the most remarkable film of the year. But this is an annual award, so there is no such thing as an isolated incident in a yearly contest. By design, the Academy is always in the process of scribing and publicizing its own history.

So this year’s nominations do more than tell us that each movie is one we should have seen this year or that it stands out at a particular moment in time. With the force of history behind the nominations, the Academy indicates to us: This is a movie that tells you something you need to hear, and you probably have not heard it before — at the very least, you’ve never heard it in such articulate terms. “Green Book” wants to be just that: a unique, articulate entry into the canon of Best Picture nominees. It wants to be thought of as progressive, as a story which rewrites the long, disturbing history of race relations in American history. But it is none of these things. It is the story of a historically

unlikely friendship that emerges in the 1960s between a Black pianist and his white driver and bodyguard as they venture into the Deep South. The two men learn from each other, but consider what audience members learn from their dynamic: That white men will respond to the realities of racism by fighting for rather than with Black men. In other words, that even in supposed narratives of resistance to racism, white men will be billed lead actor and Black men will remain members of the secondary,

If we reward “Green Book” a Best Picture prize for the second time, we continue to curb momentum.

Release Date: Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

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supporting cast. At least, this is how “Green Book” understood it; Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”) is the lead to Mahershala Ali’s (“Moonlight”) supporting role. Beyond what the film tells us by itself, what are we saying when we reward it? What do we reward when we reward “Green Book”? We saw a preview of the answer at the Golden Globes, where “Green Book” took home Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Particularly, we watched “Green Book” screenwriter Nick Vallelonga take the stage for the second time (after winning Best Screenplay for the same film). Nick Vallelonga, one of multiple filmmakers involved with “Green Book,” unsurprisingly attracted advancing problematic rhetoric outside of the film. Though he has since deleted the tweet and apologized, Vallelonga retweeted President Trump’s claim that he saw Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on Sep. 11, 2001. In some ways, “Green Book” is just like Vallelonga’s Twitter scandal: a statement that recirculates sentiments adverse to social progress in the United States. The difference is that Vallelonga was pressured to apologize for the damage his Twitter post did. Despite its problematic content, award shows continue to commend him for “Green Book.” If we reward “Green Book” a Best Picture prize for the second time, we continue to curb momentum. Slow down. Pipe down. Back down. It tells white people there is no need to use their racial privilege to work against the system of privilege itself; rather, it is enough to reconsider prejudices and wage quiet, half hearted resistance. It tells Black people it is their job to teach white people about racism — but that white people will remain the protagonists, the main characters, the saviors in any subsequent struggle for equality. We gesture toward the myth of a post-racial America instead of confronting the continued, urgent realities of racism. Wanting to be progressive isn’t enough. Rewarding fraudulent progressivism is threatening. I hope we set our sights higher.

CULTURE NOTEBOOK

Talking with Ten Commandments ALIX CURNOW Daily Arts Writer

I am the Lord thy God I. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me — and I promised You there wouldn’t be. I’m not sorry. II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image — but she ironically wears this cheap plastic cross necklace that she won at a claw machine in the arcade downtown. When she hovered over me, it kept tapping my nose and we both couldn’t stop laughing. I was so happy. I’m not sorry. III. Thou shalt not take thy name of thy Lord in vain — but, oh my. God, it is so unfair of You to create someone that thinks it’s cute (!?) when my palms get sweaty, and then tell me it’s a sin to want to hold her hand. I held her hand. I’m not sorry. IV. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy — but how could I possibly remember anything when she keeps texting me restaurant recommendations and photos of her aunt’s cat? I couldn’t focus on You with the excitement of my phone buzzing, and her name shining brightly on my screen. She put a sparkly heart emoji next to her contact. I’m not sorry. V. Honor thy Father and thy Mother — can I still honor them, even if I keep the most vital parts of me locked away in a crimson chest beneath the dirty dresses in my closet? I don’t think so. (I am a little sorry about this one.) VI. Thou shalt not kill — but I just want the secret online chat rooms, the rainbow pins, my daydreams of Kristen Stewart, the way I felt when she remembered my favorite song, to die. I want to kill it. I want to bury it beneath the ground and let it rot amongst the tombstones of my ancestors, never to see the light of day again. This is Your fault. I’m not sorry. VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery — but everytime my new “boyfriend” grabs my thigh, I look

down and wish his nails were painted that dark shade of purple that was always a little bit chipped on hers. I wish he was wearing far too many rings for his fingers and that wristband from the Vampire Weekend concert she went to three years ago that she refused to take off. I’m disappointed when he tells me he loves me. I’m not sorry. VIII. Thou shalt not steal — but I can’t stop stealing glances at her in class as she scribbles out all her words because she thinks erasers are lame. She puts her hair up in a ponytail. She always said it “helped her concentrate,” but I lose my train of thought as the circular red marks down her neck are quickly revealed. I can’t help but wonder if the perpetrator of this skin-sucking made a map of the freckles down her torso that leads directly to home, like I did. I miss her. I’m not sorry… IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor — but it’s so hard to say anything besides “I’m okay,” when the words “I loved a girl” don’t fit right in my mouth. And when my mom tells me I’m wasting water by constantly washing all my bed sheets, I don’t tell her it’s because I can’t seem to get the rosy scent of that expensive perfume my ex-girlfriend stole from her sister out of my blankets. I say I spilt earl grey tea, and the stain just won’t wash away. And when I lie in bed at night and my mind drifts to the thought of long eyelashes and soft lips and curves, I tell myself that this is what every girl does. This is what every girl does. I’m not weird. I’m not sorry. X. Thou shalt not covet — but I envy everyone who’s never met her, and I envy everyone who will ever get to meet her for the first time. I envy those who can follow You blissfully because I have sinned in more ways than one. I have bent down on my knees for all the wrong reasons, but You have to understand that she was the only one who ever showed me any faith. God, I don’t really believe in you, but I can’t believe myself. I guess maybe I’m the one I should be apologizing to.

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Ring ref’s decision 4 Hindu division 9 Rig up 14 Hankering 15 Aquaman’s realm 16 “Grey’s Anatomy” staffer 17 Immigrant’s ID 19 Extend the library borrowing term 20 Tries to hit 21 Low singers 22 Blackjack elevens 23 Not fitting 25 Title for Jose or Diego? 27 Tuition-paying aid 32 Rude and crude 34 “Begone, feline!” 35 Unsubscribes, with “out” 36 Jazz trumpeter Al 37 Indian prime minister mentored by Gandhi 38 Eric Carle’s “The __ Hungry Caterpillar” 39 Viral internet item 40 Improve text 41 Porto-Novo’s land 42 Competitive swimming venue 45 Cul-de-__ 46 Sniffling maladies 47 Mother’s Day gift holder 49 Old phone company nickname 52 Biblical opening 55 Food recall culprit 56 Emmy-winning reality series for entrepreneurs ... and a place for the ends of 17-, 27- and 42-Across? 58 Biblical verb 59 Fictional Swiss miss 60 “Excusez-__” 61 Frankfurt’s state 62 How ballerinas dance 63 Sinus doc DOWN 1 Rapper whose name sounds like an endangered cat

2 “The Americans” co-star Russell 3 Many an action film hero 4 Admit 5 Greet aggressively 6 Burn a little 7 Road covering 8 Conclude 9 Fascinated 10 The Roots’ frontman on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” 11 Big coffeepots 12 “Noted” 13 Church rows 18 PC panic key 21 African language group 23 Tracking implants, for short 24 A few feet from 25 Blockhead 26 Princess who gives up her voice to be human 28 Vintage music purchase 29 Magical access words

30 Glass-roofed lobbies 31 Timberlake’s former band 33 Biological building blocks 37 Sam of “Peaky Blinders” 41 Tot’s comforter, affectionately 43 Not at all 32-Across 44 Work too hard 48 Opposite of rise

49 Screen door material 50 Aleve target 51 Jungle squeezers 52 Canter or gallop 53 A party to, as a private joke 54 Classroom acting 56 “Shameless” network, briefly 57 Egg layer

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By Tyler Lian and Jeff Chen ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

COLUMBIA RECORDS

Has Vampire Weekend always been dad rock? SHIMA SADAGHIYANI Daily Arts Wrtier

02/05/19

02/05/19

Junior year fall break I spontaneously decided to go on a road trip to Montreal with a few friends. It was an ambitious decision that entailed driving nearly 20 hours within a four-day span, but I found myself packing up a small suitcase anyways. I didn’t even particularly care about seeing Montreal, but it was junior year and I had an itch to leave Ann Arbor and never look back. The trip itself was a blur. Montreal was too cloudy and supplied too much alcohol for me to remember much of anything. There was only one moment that has remained crystal clear within my mind: driving back from Montreal at the break of dawn, horrifically hungover and weighed down with a bone-deep fatigue, playing the entirety of Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City from start to finish as the barren Canadian countryside sped past our windows. As momentous memories go, this

one is particularly nondescript, but I close my eyes and there I am: hands curled around the steering wheel, all other passengers passed out in near comas, half crying but also half smiling because even though Montreal took more out of me than I thought it would, the way this small, ragtag collective of polo-wearing preps infused charisma and hope into their distinct blend of indie pop made even the churning unknown of lands outside of Ann Arbor seem less imposing. Vampire Weekend has always been with me, even before the unfortunate Montreal trip. High school was soundtracked by the whimsical Afro-pop of their first self-titled album, by the shameless eccentricity of Contra, by the slightly more serious overcast of Modern Vampires. The inside of my friend’s car always hummed with “Unbelievers”’s bouncing optimism on the way back from school. The summer before I left for college, “Hannah Hunt” put a gossamer tint over the sky; I would tilt my head

back against the low arc of the setting sun as the delayed tempo change pushed the song into motion and be filled with a nearly incomprehensible serenity. Vampire Weekend emerged from the shadow of a postStrokes New York — leather jackets were traded in for boat shoes, the sweaty raucous of hole-in-the-wall venues at the heart of the city were replaced by manicured lawns and the crisp prestige of Columbia University. On paper, Vampire Weekend’s clean-cut pretentiousness seemed to pale in comparison with the grimy authenticity of their predecessors, yet as the post-9/11 alternative rock era of New York City started to rip itself to shreds, they emerged like a beacon of light, quiet and sincere in their mission to make music that not only reached far past the bounds of the city itself but also never took itself too seriously. The main appeal of Vampire Weekend was in their playfulness. Even the band’s name came from the title of a short film project lead vocalist

and guitarist Ezra Koenig created sometime during his early years at Columbia about a man who traveled to Cape Cod in order to warn the president that vampires were attacking the United States. The project was abandoned in record time, but that initial spurt of juvenile creativity was never lost, resulting in albums that tiptoed the line between exuberance and childishness. There was always an air of lightheartedness around Vampire Weekend, one that allowed you to listen to their music over and over again without getting bored. This past week, Vampire Weekend dropped two new singles in preparation for their upcoming album, Father of the Bride. The songs “Harmony Hall” and “2021” came after nearly five years of complete silence. The buzz the singles created was real and tangible, as people found within the plodding melody of “Harmony Hall,” in the drawn out notes of “2021,” an opportunity to relive the rosiest parts of their youth. And yet, I couldn’t help but be disappointed, at “2021,” at “Harmony Hall,” at Vampire Weekend themselves for re-emerging with the blandest possible version of their infamous early 2000s sound. Carefree no longer, there is a certain anticlimax within these two songs. Ezra Koenig, weighed down by the passage of time, is at his most serious, his most mature, as he turns back to look at the legacy he created. “I don’t wanna live like this but I don’t wanna die” he says in “Harmony Hall,” echoing a line from Modern Vampires of the City, but rather than sound nostalgic he just sounds regretful, pushing to once again embody a vivacity that has long since died out.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, February 5, 2019 — 7

Wolverines vault past Buckeyes

On back of strong performances from Kevin Penev and Cameron Bock, Michigan tops Ohio State, 413.900-402.300 LILY ALEXANDER For the Daily

Kevin Penev cleanly lifted his arms to the roof of Cliff Keen Arena as he prepared to begin his floor routine. The freshman’s arms dropped down as he leaped into a graceful run that transformed into laid out flips and twists. Penev migrated to the floor and supported countless orbital spins with only his muscular arms. The move evolved into a headstand that he quickly burst out of, progressing into his final cross. Penev casually finished his routine with three in-air full body backward twists. The judges flashed a 14.300. His floor routine tied with Ohio State’s Sean Neighbarger for second place behind senior Emyre Cole, who scored 14.600 for the Michigan men’s gymnastics team. Penev, who was the first freshman to compete for the Wolverines this season, was a standout in Michigan’s 413.900 - 402.300 triumph over the rival Buckeyes. “After my floor routine, I used all of my energy from that to motivate everyone else on my team,” Penev said. “We beat our rival, so that was so exciting.” Penev built off the momentum from his early success in the first rotation for his second and final event of the day, the high bar, which earned him a 13.000. “I did not expect to get that score and it was one of the highest scores I’ve ever gotten,” Penev said. “So that was a plus for me and the team.” While talking about his precompetition mental state, Penev oozed calmness. His relaxation juxtaposed with the physical intensity of the sport. “Before I do any routine in any event, I think of doing one skill at a time and not rushing it and being patient with it and letting it go,” Penev said. With a team score of 72.500 on the vault, the six Wolverines

who competed in the event all demonstrated Michigan’s gradual ascension this season to a national ranking of third place. Wolverine coach Kurt Golder hinted that Penev might be a secret weapon to help his team become even more powerful on the vault. “We will get stronger,” Golder said. “By the end of the year, I expect (sophomore) Cameron (Bock) and Kevin to do those more difficult vaults and, like you saw, our top-five scores will be in that range, instead of just three.” Though he fell while dismounting from the high bar, Cole, who competed in all six events, was another standout for Michigan. With an all-around score of 84.100, he placed in the top three on five events. In his fourth year with the team, Cole has assumed a role like that of a mentor towards his younger teammates. The composure he exuded during his failed dismount

set a great example for a freshman like Penev. “I thought I managed it well,” Cole said. “If you do make a mistake, make sure you don’t make anymore. That’s something I yell out to the guys all the time. ‘Perfection. Perfection.’ It was a little fluke, but I think I bounced back well.” As a freshman, Cole, much like Penev, performed with unbounded potential. He scored an 84.950 allaround for the Wolverines in the 2016 Big Ten Team Finals. Based on Saturday’s consistently strong performance, Cole complimented his teammates and expressed optimism for the rest of the season. “These boys have been putting work in the gym and we look really good now,” Cole said. “If we can just transfer what’s going on in the gym out to the competition floor, we’re going to have a Big Ten championship on our hands.”

AIDAN WOUTAS Daily Sports Writer

Getting sick in the middle of winter is never enjoyable. It’s even less so when you’re the College Gymnastics Association National Gymnast of the Week with a meet against your school’s biggest rival only days away. This was what sophomore gymnast Cameron Bock faced ahead of Saturday’s home opener against Ohio State. Having won the allaround competition against Minnesota on Jan. 26 with the country’s highest score, Bock had high expectations for his performance against the Buckeyes. He came into the meet ranked No. 3 in the NCAA in the all-around and as the two-time reigning Big Ten gymnast of the week. It might have been his week

to shine, but soon he wasn’t feeling that way. “We were coming back from Minnesota and I was feeling good,” Bock said. “Then, throughout the day Monday, I just started deteriorating really quickly. I was constantly shaking and had a lot of body aches. My stomach was hurting. I couldn’t eat.” In light of this, Bock’s performance on Saturday was all the more impressive. He walked away having won two individual events — the parallel bars and still rings — and earned some of the best scores in the country in the process. Such a performance certainly wasn’t a guarantee. Bock was out of commission for most of the team’s practices throughout the week and his status for the meet was in doubt until Thursday.

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily

Freshman Kevin Penev posted a 13.000 on the high bar, a score which he admitted he did not expect going in, helping Michigan top Ohio State on Saturday.

“We didn’t even know if he was going to go until (Thursday),” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “And even then we were just going to have him in a couple of events. But his role just grew and grew and he did a great job.” Bock’s ability to shine even in challenging circumstances speaks to a consistency that was on display throughout the meet. His score of 14.65 on the parallel bars is the third best in the country so far this season. “The parallel bars are probably my favorite event,” Bock said. “I am pretty consistent at it, so it actually wasn’t that hard to get back into it after taking almost the whole week off.” Bock also excelled on the still rings with a score of 14.50, alongside a strong slate of performances from Michigan’s other gymnasts, Bock’s success did not extend to performance on the high bar, however. Midway through the routine, he fell off and was forced to restart. With the determined look that was present on his face throughout the meet, he chalked up his hands again, took a deep breath, and started over. “The tension on the bar was not the same tension I had planned on,” Bock said. “It threw me off for the release that I missed. “But, you know, you just have to deal with those things sometimes.” Whether with his sickness or getting back up on the bar, Bock indeed seems to have a propensity for dealing with things. But asked about the strategy behind his recurrent success, he isn’t too philosophical. “I just did my best to power through it,” Bock said. “I felt pretty good today, so I guess it worked.”

Michigan accelerating into 2019 ‘M’ sees mixed results on weekend LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Writer

CARTER FOX/Daily

The Michigan men’s lacrosse team is adjusting to the new 80-second shot clock ahead of the upcoming season.

DREW COX For the Daily

The sport of lacrosse is speeding up, and Michigan is poised to capitalize on new shotclock regulations as it amps up for the 2019 season. In an attempt to accelerate the pace of the game and facilitate a more exciting, aggressive play strategy, NCAA rulemakers have followed professional lacrosse leagues by implementing an 80-second shot clock for the upcoming men’s lacrosse season. “We want to play a more up-tempo style,” said Michigan coach Kevin Conry. “We have the horses to do it.” Conry’s “horses” include nine of 10 returning starters from last season, who accounted for 87 percent of the team’s offensive productivity in 2018. “(They) have a good sense of where the ball should go and when it should go there,” said Conry. After tying the program’s single-season win record with eight in his first season at the helm of the Wolverines’ coaching staff, Conry is eager to test out the new rules and more fast-paced playing philosophies with his experienced core. Of the returning starters, most notable is senior midfielder

Brent Noseworthy, the first USILA All-American in team history and a 2019 preseason All-Big Ten honoree. In 2018, Noseworthy led the team with 48 points and 41 goals, propelling the Wolverines to signature wins over highlyranked opponents Notre Dame and Penn State. Behind the goal at X is sophomore attackman Kevin Mack, who could be poised for another successful campaign as the quarterback of the Michigan offense following a breakout freshman season, in which he led the team with 21 assists. Despite his relative youth, Mack has already proven to be a leader and force of nature on the field. “Behind the net, seeing what the defense is doing to us … it gives (me) good perspective,” Mack said. “I can be a leader in communication.” On the other side of the field, senior defenseman Nick DeCaprio, who led the Big Ten with 23 caused turnovers last year and led the Wolverines with 46 ground balls, is primed to be Michigan’s top defender. Between the pipes is graduate student goalie Tommy Heidt, who missed the first six games of the 2018 season but retains his starting job going into 2019. In front of Heidt, the

Wolverines defense has adjusted well to the quickened pace of the game in practices and exhibitions. “Our defense is playing better with it,” praised Mack. “(They are) really good at locking teams down.” Dark horses in a challenging Big Ten conference, Michigan has finished last in the conference the past three seasons but seeks to run the table against EastCoast lacrosse powerhouses like 2017 NCAA champion Maryland and historically-dominant Johns Hopkins. New to the Wolverines assistant coaching staff is Major League Lacrosse midfielder and Duke graduate Justin Turri. Conry has praised Turri since his arrival in Ann Arbor. “He has a lot of experience with shot clock (management). He’s a great developer,” Conry said. “He’s a guy who can take our guys, make them good players, and take them one step further to greatness.” With a strong veteran player presence and the addition of Turri, Conry is very hopeful for what will come of the 2019 season and his experienced roster. “The game is much faster (now),” Conry said. “But we can’t get caught up in it.”

The men’s and women’s track and field teams came away with quite a few victories along with some disappointing performances at this weekend’s Power Five Invitational. The Wolverines hosted nine teams at the new Michigan Indoor Track Building during the two-day event. The men started off strong Friday, doing particularly well in the preliminary heats of the 60-meter hurdle event. Junior Roland Amarteifio led the pack with a career-best time of 8.01 seconds. Three of the other four Michigan athletes in the race qualified for the final and ended up taking the third, fourth, sixth and seventh places. The Wolverines also had success in the men’s 60-meter dash. Freshman Asani Hampton took the top spot with a time of 6.77 seconds, his new career best. The next day, Hampton outpaced much of the competition en route to a second place finish. Michigan was no stranger to broken records this weekend with a total of 34 career-bests set between the men and the women. While the men excelled in

the short races, the women found better results in the middistance runs, particularly the 400, 600, and 800-meter events. Junior Jade Harrison and sophomore Chloe Foster secured first and second place, respectively, separated by a mere .26 seconds in the deceivingly long 400-meter race. “400 (meters) doesn’t seem very long but it is,” Harrison said. “Finishing strong is definitely a hard part that I’m going to try to work on.” The women’s 600-meter event went just as well for the Wolverines, who earned four of the top-eight times. Foster came in first, adding to her successful 400-meter performance. In the 800-meter race, Michigan again claimed four of the top-eight places, with freshman Aurora Rynda leading the pack in second place. “I think we really focused on getting out hard and getting into a good position,” Rynda said. “Shannon just told me ‘lets do it’ so I was really excited to push myself and see how fast I could go.” After Rynda’s strong performance this weekend, she is ranked 12th in the nation, but the freshman isn’t settling for top-15. She knows she can do

more. “I think there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Rydna said. “I need to get stronger for sure. I’ve just been having good workouts and (assistant coach Mike McGuire) has been awesome.” The women had trouble repeating this level of success in the field events. Constantly falling somewhere between fourth and ninth place, the Wolverines had trouble breaking into the top three spots. Weight throwing duo Kayla Deering and Bailey Baker finished eighth and ninth respectively, both finishing just shy of half a meter below the back-to-back school records set earlier this year at the Wolverine Invitational. In contrast, the men had a series of strong performances in the field events with senior Andrew Liskowitz placing first in the shot put and sophomore Daniel Butael coming in second on the triple jump. Graduate student Joe Ellis, who holds the school record in both the weight and hammer throw events, placed second in the weight throw event. This event precedes the Big Ten Indoor Championships which will be held in Ann Arbor later this month.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Junior Jade Harrison finished first in the 400-meter race, topping teammate Chloe Foster by just .26 seconds.

Sports

8 — Tuesday, February 5, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Steve Pikiell and the unenviable task of building Rutgers basketball ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Back in October, when the Big Ten was a mystery and Rutgers’ place in it a foregone conclusion, Steve Pikiell sat at a round table near the edge of a hotel ballroom in Rosemont, Ill., trying and failing to dissuade reputation. The Scarlet Knights, who had won a combined nine conference games in their first four Big Ten seasons — two of them under Pikiell’s tutelage — had no traveling reporters at Big Ten Media Day. Their coach had no choice but to project optimism to every stranger he came across. “I don’t know what the perception is,” Pikiell said, earnestly. “I know for two years, we’ve been a program that has competed against everybody in this league. We went from seven wins before I got here to 15 and 15. We’ve beaten teams that we had never beaten before in the conference, and I think we’re getting better.” The perception, to put it bluntly, would be that Rutgers is a laughingstock — a joke of a program heaped onto the Big Ten for the sole purpose of TV subscriptions in the New York market. The Scarlet Knights haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1991, 28 years and three conferences ago. In March 2016, they turned to Pikiell to spearhead a nearimpossible rebuilding project. At his introductory presser, Pikiell said he would’ve walked across the New Jersey Turnpike to get the job. A 51-year old Connecticut native who went to college near home and has coached in the tri-state area his entire career, Pikiell projects honesty into absurdity. That’s why, when he ends his roundtable by saying, “I’m excited about where we’re headed and hopefully that’ll help us get out of last place, which is where we’ve been for the last two years,” you are, too.

When he runs down a roster that finished 270th in adjusted offensive efficiency the season prior, you start to think his tenets — rebounding, defense, hard work and a slow, methodical build — might just work if given enough time. And when you hear the stories about Pikiell, you start to think he embodies those tenets. For example, the 32 times he has dislocated his shoulder, if Jim Calhoun’s estimate is to be believed. The first of those came on a loose ball at a Connecticut practice. Pikiell dove, then came up with his shoulder out of his socket. The scene repeated again and again over Pikiell’s four years as a player with the Huskies. “You could tell he was in incredible pain,” Calhoun said. “And then every time he did it, we took him to the orthopods at UConn Medical Center, and they (said), we can operate, he’ll be out in seven months, and Steve wanted no part of it. He wanted to play the year.” Over four years, as that shoulder kept subluxing, FILE PHOTO/Daily Calhoun started to build a Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell is optimistic despite facing a long rebuilding project for the Scarlet Knights, who have not made the NCAA Tournament in 28 years. powerhouse in Storrs. In Pikiell’s freshman year, which doubled much as any of its more recent if notching a three-game guy who’s motivated his kids to October. “I look at what we’ve conference win streak for the be really good. No one says — if done in two years and we’ve as the coach’s first, the Huskies history. To make the Scarlet Knights first time since the Scarlet it’s going to be easy, no one would improved in every area. I believe went 9-19, finishing at the that. And we’re building new bottom of the Big East. By 1990, relevant, Pikiell has to convince Knights joined the Big Ten ever get fired.” Pikiell, after signing a three- practice facilities, almost done, UConn was 31-6, making it to the recruits that the Scarlet Knights counts as such. When Michigan can be relevant — a particularly comes to town on Tuesday, year extension last January, is nine months away. We put down Elite Eight. “My first year was the first year hard task when they have not Rutgers will have a chance to win likely in no danger of losing his a new court. Like I said, season of the Big East conference,” said been so since the coach was its fifth conference game for the job. When the UConn job came tickets are up. Enthusiasm in our Glen Miller, a longtime Calhoun still in school. He has to do that first time since joining for 2014- open last year, his close ties to the program’s up. Recruiting up. Our assistant who coached Pikiell in a talent-rich state where the 15 season. That’s progress, even Huskies were seen as more likely players getting better is up. “We play in the toughest at UConn. “And a lot of people talent wants to be anywhere but if progress is measured like the to end his tenure in Piscataway didn’t think UConn belonged in Piscataway. And he has to do it success of a row boat paddling than anything performance- league in the country. So, to get to the NCAA Tournament is not based. the Big East conference.” while competing against a league upstream. It would be wrong to say easy. We gotta do a lotta things to “They’re gonna have bad Sound familiar? that, as Pikiell dutifully noted on Pikiell’s task is larger, more Big Ten Media Day, might be the days, trust me,” Calhoun said. success has eluded Pikiell. do that. I know where everyone “Because I went through three Whether the timetable to achieve picks us. Until we get out of that daunting than his mentor’s. best in America. That doesn’t just mean or four years before we got to a success will mean the clock ticks position, that’s where they’re The rebuild he undertook over 11 years at Stony Brook before Rutgers getting better, it means significant place in the Big East. out before he does so remains to gonna pick us. But I think we’re pretty good.” getting the Seawolves to the a couple other programs falling But I just think people — the be seen. Right now, and for the slow “How I measure success is the NCAA Tournament in 2016 pales by the wayside. Sum it all up, biggest thing I think watching in comparison. The identity that and the task in front of Pikiell is, his teams play and watching him goal I had two years ago. Go to the build still to come, he’ll be given work, I think people realize they NCAA Tournament, that’s how I every chance to prove those Rutgers has unwittingly built in well, intimidating. There is room for optimism, got a guy on the job 24/7. And a measure success,” Pikiell said in words true. the last 30 years makes it so as

For the seniors, there and back again Depth key to Michigan’s success TIEN LE

CONNOR BRENNAN

Daily Sports Writers

Joseph Cecconi and Brendan Warren sat silently and thought for a moment. Three years removed from their first trip to New York, the seniors could barely remember how the game in Madison Square Garden went during their first collegiate season. “I don’t remember the game at all,” Cecconi said, laughing. “But if I had to take a snap at it, we were down a few goals and then we threw out the CCM line, and then we came back, so I’m going to go with that.” He wasn’t wrong. The CCM line — consisting of JT Compher, Kyle Connor and Tyler Motte — accounted for five total points, scoring three goals and two assists. Two of the goals were part of a thirdperiod comeback during a 6-3 win. But the game itself was the least memorable part of the trip. They were two freshmen with the city that never sleeps at the palm of their hands. And for Warren, it was his first time. “That was a really cool experience,” Warren said. “I’ve never been to the city, or at least Madison Square Garden, around there, so it was cool being with the team. “Got a little bit of time sightseeing, and we played in MSG, which is obviously iconic and historic and we got to watch the basketball game before that, and that was really cool. It was a really fun experience.” With a little bit of time on their hands, they walked eight blocks north, venturing through Times Square on their way to the arena to watch the basketball game preceding theirs — before Michigan faced off against Penn State on the ice, the Michigan men’s basketball team tipped off against Penn State on the hardwood. For the two freshmen, playing at Madison Square Garden fulfilled a lifelong dream. “It was fun. Up until then, I

Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Brendan Warren visited New York City for the first time as a freshman.

don’t think I’ve played a game in an NHL rink,” Cecconi said. “Except if we did the ‘Duel in the D’ or the Great Lakes Invitational so I guess I did, but it’s always fun to play in an NHL rink because it’s your dream one day to play in rinks like that. So when you can do it in college, just a fun different experience than a college atmosphere.” The excitement wasn’t all in the sightseeing, the city exploration or even the game itself. As Cecconi noted, once you start playing, you don’t “remember how many fans were there, or how long the goal horns are.” What stood out to him was the build up. “Everything is there (at Madison Square Garden): basketball, hockey, concerts. Everyone knows Madison Square Garden for all the sports and all the music festivals and things like that, so just the hype around New York City and Madison Square Garden, that’s what I remember the most.” Fast forward three years — an eventful three years that encompassed a Big Ten Tournament championship and a Frozen Four appearance — and Cecconi had a chance to relive the hype. Three years ago, they were wide-eyed freshmen looking to tour the city. Ten days ago, they were focused seniors who already experienced some incredible memories.

The team arrived in the city on the afternoon of Jan. 25. With no practice, everyone had downtime to do whatever they wanted. “We got to do a lot more sightseeing,” Warren said. “First day we got there, we got there early. We walked around Times Square, went into a bunch of stores. And then walked around 5th Ave., went to some of the designer stores just to see some of the stuff we can’t afford.” Only a few hours were to themselves, though, as the team got together for a team meal at Carmine’s and then left for the hotel. Just like they did three years ago, Cecconi and Warren were able to take in the mystique of the city that never sleeps. But while Michigan had a fantastic Friday once again, the team to have a super Saturday was the one hailing from State College. The Wolverines once again fell to an early deficit against Penn State, but with no CCM line to stage a rescue, Michigan ultimately lost 5-2. “On the ice, not the outcome we wanted,” Warren said. “Probably worse than freshman year because we won the first one.” Win or loss, the experience the two had was something that resonated with them through their collegiate career. As much as it was for hockey, it was for much more.

Friday afternoon it was Akienreh Johnson and Kayla Robbins. On Sunday, it was Naz Hillmon. The common thread: two wins, two strong performances from the Wolverines’ bench. At the beginning of the season, much of the conversation surrounding a revamped Michigan women’s basketball squad centered around its depth, which looked to be one of this team’s greatest strengths. That notion has been supported a number of times this season, but especially of late. Prior to Friday’s matchup with No. 13 Iowa, Michigan had lost consecutive games and sat in tenth in the Big Ten with their tournament hopes teetering on the brink. Additionally, senior guard Nicole Munger hadn’t practiced that week due to an ankle injury — despite eventually playing 35 minutes against the Hawkeyes. All signs pointed to the Wolverines dropping their third in a row. Thanks in large part to bench players like Johnson and Robbins, the Wolverines didn’t. Instead, on the back of a combined 32 points and 15 rebounds from the junior guard and junior forward respectively, they won. Hillmon, too, chipped in eight points. “Munger and Hallie (Thome) were a little beat up so they haven’t been practicing as much as the rest of us,” Johnson said. “That means

players like me, Naz and Kayla had to step up a lot in practice. So I think their absence made us grow more because we’re like, ‘If they can’t play then they expect us to play better.’ ” In a quick turnaround, Michigan traveled to Madison the next day to take on Wisconsin on Sunday. Despite the Badgers’ .500 record, the Wolverines’ struggles away from Crisler Center this season suggested the game would be anything but straightforward. The inclination was correct, but Michigan still came away with its first Big Ten road win of the season. Once again, some of the best performances of the day came from the Wolverines’ bench. Hillmon scored a team-high 20 points, while Robbins posted a solid stat line, with six points, four rebounds and two blocks in just 16 minutes. “I think our bench has proven itself all year long,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico after the game. “We were really confident that Kayla and Naz could really help us today.” The games against Iowa and Wisconsin are just the latest examples of how important the Wolverines’ depth has been in their success this season. Though Michigan has extended its rotation when necessary, the usual threedeep rotation of Hillmon, Johnson and Robbins has come up big during some inconsistent spells from starters.

The Wolverines likely wouldn’t have picked up wins against Washington and Ohio State earlier this year if it weren’t for the play of their bench. Against the Huskies, Hillmon, Robbins and Johnson combined for 21 points and 16 rebounds — including six on the offensive glass — while both sophomore guard Deja Church and sophomore forward Hailey Brown went scoreless. In the four-point victory against the Buckeyes, when the starters shot 37-percent from the field, Hillmon finished with 20 points and eight rebounds — one of her six 20-plus performances this season. In terms of scoring, no one player has carried the load for Michigan this season. Thome leads the team, averaging just 12.9 points per game. Right behind her is Hillmon with 12.7. The Wolverines’ balance and depth are some of their greatest assets. On any given night, anybody can shoulder the offensive burden. It should go without saying, though, that Michigan’s best chance for success in the last seven games of the season comes when the starters and bench excel in tandem. “If we have two or more players playing exceptionally well off the bench and our starters are on their game, we’re a tough team to beat,” Barnes Arico said. In the meantime though, the Wolverines’ bench play has helped get their season back on track.

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Junior wing Akienreh Johnson was a key contributor off Michigan’s bench in the Wolverines’ two wins last weekend.