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statement Clearing the in-betweens CHECK MICHIGANDAILY.COM FOR PROFILES OF CSG & LSA SG EXECUTIVE CANDIDATES STUDENT GOVERNMENT
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The University’s chapters of Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority Inc. and Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity Inc. held an identity awareness event, “Game of Life: Check Your Privilege,” in East Quad Residence Hall Tuesday evening.
Simulation trains participants to confront effects of social privilege
Sorority, fraternity team up to convery real-world consequences in ‘ The Game of Life’ ATTICUS RAASCH Daily Staff Reporter
On Tuesday, approximately 30 people attended “Check Your Privilege: The Game of Life,” an event hosted by the Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority Inc. and Lambda Theta Phi Latin
Fraternity Inc. to discuss the real life ramifications of privilege and inequality. The event featured multiple simulations to convey various forms of economic difficulty and realities. Following the simulations, attendees split into small groups before convening in a large group to
discuss their thoughts. According to LSA junior Salvador Vargas, a Lambda Theta Phi member who helped facilitate the discussions, the simulations were necessary to open up conversations about privilege. “When we had the more collaborative event, the
simulator in the second half, I think the ref lection turned out well,” Vargas said. “It didn’t feel forced, people were very genuine sharing personal experiences, so I definitely think it was quality conversation.” See PRIVILEGE, Page 3A
CSG looks at concerns for 2 safety of A pedestrians Representatives also debate increasing number of bus routes to grocery stores PARNIA MAZHAR Daily Staff Reporter
Central Student Government held its final meeting of the 8th assembly Tuesday night. The assembly voted to pass several resolutions, including a resolution to designate University of Michigan Blue Bus routes from campus locations to grocery stores, as well as a resolution to improve pedestrian safety at the University. At the meeting, several non-CSG students presented a new idea for an app to better integrate first-year
students when they first come to campus. During community concerns, Engineering freshmen Sanil Gosain, Cooper Kennelly and Marcus Toure gave a presentation on their idea for a new app which would help first-year students adjust to the University. The app would provide freshmen with questions in academic, social and lifestyle categories and then use those results to match them with other students, clubs and organizations on campus. See CSG, Page 3A
Gender balanced among EECS IAs ‘U’ hosts Negligence recognition despite disparity among students alleged in
CAMPUS LIFE
ceremony for students
Leaders on campus receive awards for involvement, academic achievement CALLIE TEITELBAUM Daily Staff Reporter
The Office of Student Life hosted the Michigan Difference Student Leadership Awards on Tuesday to honor the outstanding work of various individuals and groups on campus. Thirty-seven groups and individuals were acknowledged for their work in public service, social justice, research and academic accomplishments. Students are nominated by peers, faculty, and staff through an online form. This year, more than 300 individuals and groups were nominated. The award categories ranged from leadership in club sports, sustainability, fine arts, research and innovation and social change. Many of the awards acknowledged both an individual and group. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior and graduate student of the year awards were also announced. See AWARDS, Page 3A
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RESEARCH
Study finds balanced distribution of men and women working as computer science aides LIAT WEINSTEIN Daily Staff Reporter
As a computer science major, LSA junior Armind Chahal often finds herself one of the only women in her upper-level CS courses. Chahal said though the uneven gender ratio in CS classes is significant, it is so commonplace that she has come to expect it and is usually able to ignore it. “I went to a discussion, and there were 30 people in the class, and about four or five of us were women,” Chahal said. “I think it’s definitely noticeable once
you get into the core classes for CS and even more noticeable once you get to the electives. You kind of just get used to it, I think, and it kind of seems like people get sick of hearing about it so you really just stop bringing it up after a certain point. You just ignore it and move on. That’s how I’ve coped with it.” Currently, Chahal is taking Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 376, an upper level course introducing students to the theory of computation.
Though her professor and most of her peers are male, she noted how having a female instructional aide reminds her of the importance of equal gender representation in fields like computer science. In EECS courses, IAs are the equivalent of undergraduate teaching assistants who aid students in course material and lead lab sections. “I think it’s very important that there is that even balance because even though you don’t have an even balance of women and men, the
people who are in those power positions should be a balance,” Chahal said. “I think that will get more people to either stay in the program or start the program.” Last month, a study published by three University of Michigan professors found the group of instructional aides for computer science classes at the University is nearly equally split between men and women, even though EECS 280, an introductory course for CS majors, is only 25 percent female. See EECS, Page 3A
ALEC COHEN/ DAILY
Researchers at the University of Michigan found found that women filled 56 percent of IA spots in EECS courses.
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 94 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
deaths of lab animals
Reports find zebrafish, mice died while being experimented on at ‘U’ ANGELINA BREDE Daily Staff Reporter
On March 21, reports from the University of Michigan Research and Animal Care and Use offices found that 11,548 zebrafish were poisoned by bleach, 53 mice died of dehydration, while others were given gastrointestinal cancer and a mutant rabbit went missing from University animal testing laboratories between March 2018 and September 2018. The reports were legally required by the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and eventually obtained by animal advocacy group Stop Animal Exploitation Now, which has now requested an independent investigation of the matter. In a letter to University President Mark Schlissel and the Board of Regents, SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie urged University administration to punish the staff involved in these incidents. See ANIMALS, Page 3A
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News
2A — Wednesday, March 27, 2019
MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
TUESDAY: By Design
WEDNESDAY: This Week in History
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: U DEVELOPS ANTI -RACISM WORKSHOPS March 26, 1987 A plan to add workshops on racism, sexism, and bigotry to the freshman summer orientation is in the developmental stages, according to Robin Jacoby, administrative assistant to Vice President and Provost James. “People have been thinking about this proposal for a while,but a mandate has come in the last few
weeks,” Jacoby said. “The BAM III it and UCAR demands gave a further impetus to the proposal.” The University’s offices of housing and orientation are responsible for developing the programs, which include a workshop to be conducted during the fall in all residence halls. Housing officials could not be reached for comment last night.
The workshops may fulllfill one of the United Coalition Against Racism’s proposals that demanded the establishment of a mandatory workshop on racism. UCAR members were not involved in planning the program. According to Marty Ellington, a UCAR member and LSA senior, “UCAR will go over the programs and make recommendations to
the administration.” UCAR member James McGee, a first year medical student, said he was unaware of the plan and speculated that other UCAR members are also unfamiliar with it. McGee would not comment on this particular plan, but said, “Any program that opens students’ minds to diversity and encourages open discussion is good.”
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DARBY STIPE/Daily During Veg Week 2019, students and attendees used virtual reality to witness conditions in a slaughterhouse after listening to lawyer and activist Bee Friedlander and watching the documentary “Peaceable Kingdom” in the Dana Building Tuesday. Veg Week events are happening all week, hosted by the Michigan Animal Respect Society.
ON THE DAILY: U-M DENTAL TO PROVIDE FREE DENTAL CARE TO CHILDREN ZAYNA SYED
with accessibility issues. The event will take place at the University’s Dentistry School on North University Avenue and aims to serve 80 families. Dental student Mary Claire Kiernan said the event is part of the American Dental Association Foundation’s “Give Kids a Smile” initiative. Forty people attended the event last year and just over 60 children are currently registered for this year’s event. Kiernan said dental decay is
Daily Staff Reporter
On March 30, the University of Michigan School of Dentistry will provide free dental care to children aged 4 to 18. The annual event, Give Kids a Smile Day, seeks to help communities that may have trouble accessing dental care, such as those in low-income communities, those without health insurance and those
widespread among children, worsened by obstacles to dental care access. “Today, dental decay is the most common childhood disease in the US,” Kiernan wrote in an email interview with The Daily. “To further complicate this, there are many barriers to access to oral health care. Give Kids a Smile Day serves to provide our community with the services they need as well as offer education and preventative care in order to promote lifelong oral
health.” According to the Michigan State Oral Health Plan, Michigan has a percentage of children with excellent or very good health higher than the national average (76 percent compared to 71 percent). Still, the National Survey of Children’s Health said 12 percent of young children and 11 percent of adolescents did not go to the dentist’s office for a preventative visit during the past year.
New restaurant planned to open on former Fingerle lot in Ann Arbor After 88 years of operation, family-owned lumber company will be replaced by eatery Fingerle will close on Saturday. Fingerle is a family-owned business that has been operating in downtown Ann Arbor since 1931. The third-generation owners, brothers John and Mark Fingerle, will retire once they close their business. Fingerle did not respond to requests for comment. Catallo noted that all of the lumber came from Fingerle when their first restaurant, the Clarkston Union, was built in 1995. Additionally, Union Joints co-owner Ann Stevenson, Catallo’s wife, lived in Ann Arbor for several years and has always appreciated the site. Catallo said Union Joints is honored to have
this opportunity. “This Fingerle Millworks building just checked all the Once Fingerle Lumber Co. boxes,” Catallo said. “It’s a closes its doors Saturday, Arbor building and a site that we fell in love with years ago and Bar, an entity of Union Joints, will move forward with plans to we’re very proud to be able to open a restaurant on Fingerle’s repurpose it and create a little former 45,000-square-foot something down by the railroad tracks.” site at South Main Street. They presented a restaurant proposal Catallo felt that this project naturally unfolded due to his to the Ann Arbor Design Review Board on Feb. 13. Curt Catallo, team’s familiarity with the co-owner of Union Joints company, land and the city of Ann Arbor. restaurant group, feels confident about their plan to repurpose the “In a way, we obviously knew old storage sheds of the Fingerle the mill building and then it Millworks building by turning it kind of came to us organically into a two-story restaurant. in that we knew it was there and Sudoku Syndication After 88 years of business, we felt that it was a good fit,” Catallo said. “Friends told us about it and then we really worked with the Fingerles to try to make it so you could repurpose that structure not knowing what they were EASY doing with the larger parcels that they sold to U of M.” On Dec. 6, the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents authorized the $24 million purchase of 6.54 acres of another piece of Fingerle’s property located along Fifth Avenue and south of East Madison Street, but the University’s plan for this land remains up in the air. Catallo said the restaurant’s working title is “Fort Fingerle,” and the goal is to bring to life the expansive concrete on the lawn by making a commons area, as well as to include a bar area on the second floor that leads out to a “groovy, charming” rooftop. “We’ll have a little portion of it dedicated to carry-out For personal use only. ... puzzle by sudokusyndication.com © sudokusolver.com. and dedicated to grab-andgo,” Catallo said. “Between that element, the rooftop, the KENDELL LEWIS For The Daily
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restaurant, and then the way we activate the sheds, it’s just going CATHERINE NOUHAN and JOHN FABIAN to be something that you don’t Managing Podcast Editors find anywhere else because you CARRINGTON TUBMAN and MADALASA CHAUDHARI can only do it if you have a little Managing Social Media Editors micro-campus like Fingerle has.” Catallo also shut down recent rumors about the proposal also being for a brewpub. ADRIANNA KUSMIERCZYK Creative Director “We’ve always been able to CAMERON COANE ZELJKO KOSPIC buy better beer than we could Sales Manager Special Projects Manager make and we’ve stuck to that,” ROBERT WAGMAN ANITA MICHAUD Catallo said. “It has allowed us Marketing Consulting Manager Brand Manager to focus on scratch-producing all of our food and then partnering with different brewers that are The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the proud of practicing their craft. fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available We’ve always been happy to http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for support micro-breweries and $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. craft breweries and focus on the University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. kind of comfort food that we’re proud to create. That’s the same with what we’ll do at this space.” All of Union Joints’ projects original use while adapting the Ferber said. “I think it’s going to thus far have involved taking an space. be financially successful because old building and repurposing it, “I’m a huge fan of keeping it seems to be in a good spot, while still respecting its original integrity of buildings and I think and kids are always looking for purpose and structure. that’s what this project seems meals outside of things they cook “We’re familiar with Ann to be trying to do,” Ferber said. themselves or dining hall food.” Arbor, but I don’t know if Ann “They’re trying to bring in a new Business freshman Maggie Arbor is necessarily familiar age to an old building.” Dahlmann said she believes with Union Joints,” said Catallo said they intend to play this establishment will enhance Catallo. “We’ve been proudly a part in all of the action in the the city and the University’s repurposing buildings since college town. popularity and culture. 1995 and practicing place“I think it will have a really “Just with the way you can making in these buildings that come in off of Main Street or positive impact on the city, as always served one purpose and Madison and whether it’s on restaurant culture is ingrained were destined to serve another. a Wednesday or your way to a in Ann Arbor,” Dahlmann said. And we think that this Fingerle brands encourage game at the Big House, we just “Unique Millworks building just checked think that people will use this tourism, which would make U all the boxes.” building and this restaurant as of M an even more attractive Catallo emphasized they are they see fit,” Catallo said. university.” not going to change Fingerle’s Ferber said he believes the Catallo said he is excited to footprint or original purpose new restaurant will do well by share updates as his project through their development. getting involved in student life. progresses, such as what they’ve Rather, he feels this is an “I think it’s a very, very cool “got cooking menu-wise” and opportunity to have something idea that they’re keeping the with the space. old become new again. “It’s been a while since the building intact and they’re trying Jack Ferber, a Business to get involved more with the saws in there were milling trim,” freshman at the University, said University and the student body Catallo said. “And now we’ll be he appreciates Union Joints’ by making it a part of game day milling food for people to enjoy, intentions in honoring the lot’s or a part of student life at night,” hopefully.”
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EECS From Page 1A Similarly, a report by the College of Engineering showed that across bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs at the University, women comprised less than 30 percent of degree recipients in the 2016-2017 school year. However, the professors’ study also shows that even though the applicant pool for IA positions averaged about 16.5 percent female, women tended to score about nine percent higher than men. As a result, women filled 56 percent of the IA spots. According to James Juett, an author of the study and EECS lecturer, the professors did not take gender into account when hiring IAs for EECS courses. Juett said the department’s focus on alternative methods of evaluation, like interviews and video teaching demonstrations, was one factor that led to a more genderbalanced class of IAs. “We found that the staff that we hired were much more balanced in terms of gender than if we had hired based on GPA or previous grades the student earned in the course,” Juett said. “If you hire based on those metrics, then you end up with a gender balance on your staff which is pretty much exactly the same as the balance in the overall student population. So through a process that is not just based on numbers on paper but is based on people actually coming in for in-person interviews, submitting teaching demonstrations, et cetera, this leads to a more gender diverse staff.” Amir Kamil, chief author of the study and EECS lecturer, said seeing diversity and representation in his classes
AWARDS From Page 1A The Nominations Committee, which determined the award winners, is comprised of nine members of campus life professional staff and undergraduate students. Some representatives included individuals from MLEAD, Graduate Student Employees for Fraternity & Sorority Life, Housing, Recreational Sports and the Center for Campus Involvement. LSA sophomore Evie Winter, Nominations Committee member for MDSLA and chief of staff of Central Student Government, said this ceremony aims to recognize individuals and groups on campus who are not typically acknowledged. “I think that a lot of groups that are nominated and win tonight are student groups who make really meaningful impacts on campus but often don’t get the recognition for it,” Winter said. Winter said groups like CSG are often more talked about campus, as opposed to other organizations on campus that also have impact on campus issues. “For example, student government gets a lot of clout, but you know we’re really visible and some of these other organizations don’t
PRIVILEGE From Page 1A The first activity, a budgeting simulation, had attendees disperse limited resources to various living categories such as housing and health care. The second activity, an online simulation called SPENT, prompted attendees to make day-by-day financial choices for a full month. Each day, a new scenario was presented, forcing participants to make difficult choices. According to Vargas, the simulations allowed students to invest in their choices and experience the consequences or rewards of their actions while keeping their societal privilege in mind. “The first simulation was straightforward, there wasn’t really any consequences that
as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley made him feel more confident about pursuing computer science. He said although the University of Michigan professors involved in the hiring process did not intentionally create a cohort that was diverse in terms of race and gender, they naturally achieved a gender balance that may be beneficial for students who are wary of entering the field. In the past few years, the University has taken steps to recruit more women to computer science in an effort to diversify the population of CS majors. In 2016, a team of doctoral students founded CS KickStart to introduce incoming freshman women to basic principles of CS. Beginning in fall 2018, the CS Department also ran a one-credit course, EECS 198: Discover Computer Science, aimed at freshman women with no formal experience in programming. Even with these programs, women remain a minority in almost all CS classes. Nonetheless, Engineering senior Amy Baer, an instructional aide for EECS 183, said she rarely experiences sexism or issues with professors or students in her classes at the University. Instead, Baer said there is a general sense of fear and intimidation that goes along with majoring in a field that is male-dominated. “The intimidation factor of women moving on is a huge part of it, when women are so aware that they’re among the minority and are thinking, ‘Oh, I’m abnormal, I’m not supposed to be here,’ makes them not want to continue,” Baer said. “It’s a circular reasoning type of thing, where there are not a lot of women in computer science so some of the women joining
News computer science see that, and then not join computer science. I think that’s the biggest problem, it’s intimidation and not seeing that there are other women.” Similarly, Engineering sophomore Bella Gribov noted how imposter syndrome, or the feeling that you have not fully earned your success, is common among women in CS and is something she occasionally struggles with as a woman and a CS major. Gribov said the professors and IAs in lower level CS classes discuss
“I think that a lot of the time, I would think I wasn’t good enough because I’m a girl and I didn’t see a lot of girls around me, and not because of things other people said or did... A lot of girls do drop out of the major just because they feel like, ‘There aren’t a lot of girls around me, this isn’t for me,’ when that’s not true.”
imposter syndrome in some of their first lectures to reassure students that they can succeed. “I think that a lot of the time,
I would think I wasn’t good enough because I’m a girl and I didn’t see a lot of girls around me, and not because of things other people said or did,” Gribov said. “... A lot of girls do drop out of the major just because they feel like, ‘There aren’t a lot of girls around me, this isn’t for me,’ when that’s not true.” Juett acknowledged that his study did not explicitly address why women performed better in the application process. However, Juett said it is possible there was some degree of self-selection among applicants, meaning only the most qualified women in CS sent in applications for IA positions. “We know that women tend to experience some barriers in computer science because of the culture that men don’t,” Juett said. “Studies have found that that can lead to lower confidence. One possible explanation is that the women who applied were those that were exceptionally qualified. That’s both encouraging, because we do have several qualified women candidates, and it’s also discouraging because if that’s the explanation, then it means that there are people who aren’t applying who should be applying.” Baer, who has some say in the application process due to her position as an IA, said the study revealed how women are equally qualified to occupy IA positions even though they remain a minority in CS classes at the University. “We can hire an equal amount of men and women and hire the best people still,” Baer said. “I think there’s this misconception that if you’re hiring more women, it means that you’re hiring worse candidates. I think the study shows that this is not true.”
necessarily have the same kind of name recognition on campus,” Winter said. “I think by recognizing a lot of these organizations and individuals it reinforces the idea that, you know, everyone has a place on this campus and a lot of people are doing good work even though it’s not often recognized the way it should be.” University President Mark Schlissel and E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, attended the event. Harper said the ceremony represents members of the University community supporting each other. “Being a part of a strong community means celebrating and recognizing the accomplishments of others,” Harper said. Harper said the awards are not about winning, but about recognizing the outstanding students working toward social change in the community. “It’s an award ceremony, but really that’s not what this is all about. It’s about hard work, the prospect of creating positive change in the world.” Harper acknowledged some individuals in the audience such as Meaghan Wheat, the recipient of the Social Change Award who worked with the Women’s Studies Department to create a new minor focused
on social class and inequality that will be offered in the fall of 2019. Public Health senior Amani Echols was awarded Senior of the Year. Echols is in the top 5 percent of her class in the School of Public Health, and program coordinator of Dial-a-Doula program, which connects women giving birth in the hospital to Doula services. In addition, she co-created and co-chaired the Health Equity High School Summit, which brings about 100 students to the Public Health School to teach about public health, and is on the Ginsberg Center Student Advisory Board for service and learning. Echols said she usually doesn’t speak publicly about her work, and she appreciates receiving the recognition. “The award means recognition for the work that I’m doing,” Echols said. “Because as people have mentioned, I don’t like to speak about what I’m doing. It’s not something I think about, it’s just I’m doing it because I’m passionate about it, it’s something that I want to do. So it’s nice that I have friends that are willing to nominate me and notice all the hours that I’m putting into my extracurriculars outside of school.” The First Year Student of the Year Award was awarded to Aya Fattah, Sophomore of the Year Award went to Brett
Zaslavsky, Junior of the Year Award was given to Olivia Livernois and Graduate Student of the Year was Kevin Lieberman. Many organizations were acknowledged for international work. The student organization Blueprints for Pangea was awarded the Global Impact Award for their work to alleviate global health disparities by distributing unused medical supplies from U.S. hospitals to people in need overseas. The LGBTQ Survivor Peer Led Support Group was given the Social Justice Award and The Dot Org won the Innovation or Research Award for their commitment to raising awareness of menstruation-based health disparities and providing people experiencing poverty with menstrual hygiene products. Winter emphasized the award ceremony’s intention of honoring the work of those on campus who are underrecognized. “We just recognize there are a lot of student groups and individuals on campus who might not be recognized in other ways, so we just wanna take a night to really recognize their accomplishments and thank them for everything they’ve done for campus.”
came with it, people were very idealistic,” Vargas said. “I think that happens when people are not really aware or in tune with those experiences so they don’t know the consequences that happen. The second simulation gave us more of that experience where we’re now facing the consequences and limitations that come with our actions and identities.” LSA sophomore Camilla Cantu, a Chi Upsilon Sigma member, helped facilitate the discussion and said the simulations fostered self-realization through difficult decisions. “I think it’s really hard to brush off our own privileges,” Cantu said. “But I think when people are forced into that mindset and forced into a perspective that shows them their daily privileges and lack of privileges from other
people, they think, ‘Wow, this is actually kind of a struggle.’ I think the simulations and the game is kind of necessary for people to gain the perspective for the privileges they may or may not have.” Engineering freshman Yanella Lopez said the event exposed her to different ways of thinking about her life and privilege. “It was an interesting take on our daily lives and how we perceive certain events and situations we’re placed in,” Lopez said. “There’s a lot of things that, one, we don’t really think about, and two, we don’t really have a lot of control over, like what race or class we are born in, the amount of money we have and things of that nature. I really enjoyed talking about that and hearing other perspectives.”
Vargas said he hopes to continue similar conversations by hearing perspectives on privilege from other groups who come from a different social and economic background. “I think in this room, we shared a lot of identities that are historically marginalized, disenfranchised,” Vargas said. “It was a very interesting space, because I am a student at the University, I am first gen, I can realize a lot of these privileges and I think it was a very important space to have where we can have these straightforward conversations about what are these privileges that come with socioeconomic status and intersectionality with gender and other social identities.”
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 — 3A
ANIMALS From Page 1A “This is a description of multiple incidents of clear and unadulterated negligence that must be punished,” Budkie wrote. “The staff involved in these incidents should never be allowed to work with animals again.” LSA freshman Josh Goettner works with mice in a lab at the North Campus Research Complex through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. Goettner condemned the animal life negligence in these labs, but said he maintains his support of animal testing for its potential benefits in improving human care. “I didn’t really know all this was going on in other labs,” Goettner said. “After finding out about the incident, I think that accidents that kill animals on such large scales should not be allowed to happen. However, I fully support animal testing just because I value human lives so much more. If all goes well, my research project will help tens of thousands of people with type 2 diabetes, and to me that’s worth some mice.” LSA freshman Sydney Musser also works in a UROP lab in the Department of Human Genetics and said she had to go through extensive training consisting of online courses, in-person training classes and a tour of the mouse room in order to be authorized to work with the mice in her lab. “This was a long process that I had to go through and I believe Michigan does a good job of making sure those wanting to work with mice or other animals in research are qualified,” Musser said. “I also learned about how much the animal husbandry monitors the animals and how communication between the animal husbandry and the lab is extremely important. Because of this, I can understand how mistakes could happen if there is a miscommunication between the animal husbandry and the laboratory staff. It is unfortunate that mistakes led to the deaths of so many animals.” In an email to The Daily, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote the University took all necessary steps to self-report and correct these isolated incidents, and corrective action plans were put into place to prevent any similar incidents from occurring in the future. “The University has many strong policies and controls in place to monitor all projects involving the use of animals,” Fitzgerald wrote.
CSG From Page 1A One of the group’s constraints is they need Apple laptops in order for it to become an iOS app, which none of the group members currently have. In addition, they expressed they do not have the resources to spread awareness for the app if it does end up being developed, which is why they came to CSG. “We know that one of our limitations is just our platform, and this is why we’re here to come present in front of CSG,” Toure said. “We know that CSG has the access to possibly send out emails to future freshmen that could be coming in, and we feel that this is the most effective way of getting this app across.” CSG Treasurer Niccolo Beltramo, an LSA senior, questioned how the group plans on ensuring first-year students do not take advantage of the app and engage in inappropriate dialogue and activity. “My number one concern when thinking about a large-scale social networking app is what messaging is going to look like,” Beltramo said. “I was wondering if you had thought about what form content moderation might take on the platform if there is harassment or what have you?” In order to prevent this type of behavior from occurring, the group explained they could filter out certain vulgar words. In addition, they said they could develop a strike system, in which users’ accounts would be disabled after a certain number of reports by other users. Later in the meeting, the
Fitzgerald wrote the University will continue to refine their practices to maintain their commitment to achieve and exceed national and professional standards in animal care and use. “The University of Michigan recognizes that working with animals to advance human and animal health is a privilege that requires constant diligence and a commitment to the highest standards of animal welfare in all aspects of our research and teaching,” Fitzgerald wrote. “We deeply regret the loss of these animals, most of which were zebrafish.” On The Daily: UM Dentistry School to provide free dental care to children aged 4-18 On March 30, the University of Michigan School of Dentistry will provide free dental care to children aged 4 to 18. The annual event, Give Kids a Smile Day, seeks to help communities that may have trouble accessing dental care, such as those in low-income communities, those without health insurance and those with accessibility issues. The event will take place at the University’s Dentistry School on North University Avenue and aims to serve 80 families. Dental student Mary Claire Kiernan said the event is part of the American Dental Association Foundation’s “Give Kids a Smile” initiative. Forty people attended the event last year and just over 60 children are currently registered for this year’s event. Kiernan said dental decay is widespread among children, worsened by obstacles to dental care access. “Today, dental decay is the most common childhood disease in the US,” Kiernan wrote in an email interview with The Daily. “To further complicate this, there are many barriers to access to oral health care. Give Kids a Smile Day serves to provide our community with the services they need as well as offer education and preventative care in order to promote lifelong oral health.” According to the Michigan State Oral Health Plan, Michigan has a percentage of children with excellent or very good health higher than the national average (76 percent compared to 71 percent). Still, the National Survey of Children’s Health said 12 percent of young children and 11 percent of adolescents did not go to the dentist’s office for a preventative visit during the past year. Additionally, Count Your Smiles, a basic screening survey, said that 55.9 percent of Michigan third graders experienced tooth decay in 2010.
assembly voted to adopt the Ethics Committee’s report on an ethics investigation involving Greene. The report found no evidence of unethical behavior on Green’s part. At the CSG meeting on Feb.12, Engineering junior Zeke Majeske, chair of the Executive Nominations Committee, brought up his concerns on the ethics behind Greene’s process for approving the position of chief of staff. Majeske pursued an ethics investigation against Greene. Concerns surrounded the executive branch’s varying interpretations of the word “may,” specifically in regard to the nominations process. After deliberation, the Ethics Committee ruled that at the time of the event, Greene proposed an interpretation of the word “may,” and, CSG Speaker Austin Glass, a Rackham student, did not object because he believed that doing so would, “irreparably damage the relationship between the Executives and the Assembly, given the partisan tensions and volatility present in CSG right after the election.” The committee also ruled that at the moment, the executive interpretation of the word “shall” meaning “may” was in the best interest of the situation at hand. Furthermore, Majeske brought up that Greene’s initial interpretation of the word should have set precedent for later the interpretations in the case of the approval of chief of staff.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, March 27, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DYLAN BERGER | COLUMN
Why we are losing the struggle against hate
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FROM THE DAILY
V
On CSG and student orgs
oting for Central Student Government candidates opens Wednesday after a quietly held debate last week. The candidates include presidential hopeful Ben Gerstein and vice-presidential candidate Isabelle Blanchard of the Engage Michigan Party. They face Shub Argha, who is running for president without a party. Though the candidates all ran and debated a slew of issues, and we encourage students to vote for whomever they view as most capable for the position, this year, the editorial board has decided not to endorse a candidate.
We are mistrustful of CSG campaigns that make sweeping, underdeveloped promises for a number of reasons. For example, though MVision’s candidates won the executive seats last year, their campaign with platform planks is no longer available online. This makes it difficult to hold the newly elected leaders accountable for the various promises made to students. The year before, we saw negligent initiatives yield a Campus Affordability Guide that was out of touch with the needs of lower-income students. Furthermore, the Engage Michigan Party, and their platform planks, resemble a generic, mixed bag of halfbaked ideas harvested from previous CSG campaigns. We do not see how Engage Michigan will act differently when its policies are both tepid and underdeveloped. For example, when discussing affordability, they advocate providing access to public microwaves on campus. While this may save students from buying food by allowing them to bring their own, this doesn’t address the more pressing issue of food insecurity. The burden of proving whether or not this policy would effect change ultimately falls on their shoulders, and they have yet to substantiate the claim that increasing access to microwaves is a legitimate means to solve the problem of food insecurity that is endemic to many students across campus. The weak and indirect plan to address food
insecurity identified above is found in the campaign’s “Accessibility and Affordability” (or, as they called it on their website, “accessability”) unit, while similarly inadequate plans are made across each sector of their campaign. In terms of “Sustainability,” Engage Michigan refers to building a five-year sustainability plan, stating that they will “work with university officers and student organizations to build a plan that addresses the specific needs of the university and lays out clear and concise action items.” Yet, Engage Michigan chooses to not establish specific changes the University should make to become more environmentally conscious, opting instead to simply acknowledge that there should be a discussion.
We are mistrustful of CSG campaigns that make sweeping, underdeveloped promises While we admire the spirit and authenticity of Argha’s campaign, we don’t see how he can truly implement his policy goals without a proper slate of representatives. Moreover, though we appreciate the light-hearted and personable elements of the campaign, we want students on campus
to vote for candidates who warrant respect and exhibit professionalism in their campaign and their role. So instead of endorsing a candidate, we want to highlight the bodies on campus doing diligent work to promote positive change. For example, the Climate Action Movement has been tenacious in their efforts to demand a meeting with University leaders, risking arrest for carbon neutrality by 2030. Or the Prison Creative Arts Project, known as PCAP, which is currently hosting one of the largest exhibitions of art by incarcerated people in the country on our campus and has provided artistic resources to those locked in the criminal justice system. Or Music Matters. Or HeForShe. Or any of the other countless organizations making a valiant push to impact our University. This is not to diminish the work of CSG, whose members are undoubtedly intent on having a positive inf luence on campus, which we’ve seen much of this year. For example, in September they passed their Buses to Ballots resolution encouraging students to vote. However, because the entire campus is allowed to vote for CSG’s leaders, it elevates their importance above other equally or more effective organizations. While we don’t discourage students from voting this week, we hope they see CSG for what it is: another student organization.
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W
ith last week’s heinous terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the menace of white supremacy has once again reared its ugly head. The terrorist, who ought to be rendered nameless, gunned down 50 worshipers in cold blood at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre on the basis of racial and religious hatred. The attack in Christchurch represents the surging threat of white supremacy and other hate-filled movements worldwide, including here in the United States. However, the conversation around this tragedy has been hijacked by politicians seeking to use this grave threat to score cheap political points on their opponents. For example, some have even tried to blame President Donald Trump for the horrific attack in Christchurch, despite his condemnation of the attack. The end result of this shallow discourse is more division within our society while hatred continues to grow unencumbered. In the wake of this frightening threat, we must instead unite to combat hate with strengthened communities. Fortunately, we the American people have far more power to purge our society of hate than our elected representatives do. Our founding fathers envisioned a nation of minutemen, with patriotic Americans taking action to better our society. Lately, however, our civic engagement hasn’t lived up to the legacy of our exceptional nation. By becoming more engaged in our individual communities, we have the capacity to rejuvenate American civic life from the ground-up. In doing so, we will ensure that no one continues to be left to fall through the cracks and turn towards hate. To defeat the rising threat of white supremacy, we must reject the divisive rhetoric of our leaders and return to our tradition stretching back from the Revolutionary War to World War II of banding together to effect change from the grassroots level. A more cohesive society and vibrant civic life will allow for the light of joining together for a common purpose to drown out the darkness of hateful
movements. The increasing digitalization of our society has allowed us to connect with friends and family across the world while, paradoxically, making it that much more difficult to connect with those closest to us. For example, a 2016 study involving more than 1,700 people found an increase in risk of depression and anxiety among people who used a large number of social media platforms. In addition to that, another 2014 study found people who browsed Facebook for 20 minutes reported a more negative mood than those who had just browsed the internet. While there’s also plenty of evidence to show social media as a positive force, it’s clear there are strong negative behavioral effects as well. With the combination of social media’s negative effects with a meltdown of the social fabric in areas left behind by economic globalization, we see a growing population disgruntled and without a community to which they can turn. Proponents of all kinds of hate — from white supremacy to radical Islamic extremism — have taken advantage of this situation to bring in new recruits, who are typically disaffected young men. As savvy online operators, peddlers of hate radicalize their sociallyisolatedpreyremotelythrough the internet. Unlike more traditional national security threats, digital radicalization is especially dangerous because it has no discernible face and can enter millions of American homes undetected. Twisted souls finally find the meaning and belonging they are craving in hate groups. Explaining this phenomenon, Jessica Stern, a research professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and co-author of “ISIS: The State of Terror,” said in an interview to CNN Business last week, “They’re picking up an ideology that helps them justify their rage, their disappointment, and it’s something available.” As Stern illustrated, the proliferation of white supremacy and other forms of hate is rooted in the lack of a greater sense of common purpose among a portion of the population. In joining a hate group, these predators finally receive the
attention they are craving, even if it is negative. The lack of belonging felt by white supremacists in mainstream societies breeds envy toward communities that embody the common meaning and purpose they never had. Tragically, this envy engenders the reprehensible acts of hate dominating our headlines all too often as of late. While we’re still learning more about what motivated the Christchurch terrorist, it’s clear the rottenness of envy afflicted him deeply. He even admitted in his 74-page manifesto of hatred that he wasn’t originally planning to attack New Zealand, but later chose to do so because of its status as a beacon for peaceful multiculturalism. The terrorist went on to state that his ultimate goal was to ignite an American race war, shattering the thriving sense of community of which he is so envious. Instead of acquiescing to terror, we must double down on our efforts to build a more cohesive society. Pillars of our society, such as houses of worship and recreational sports leagues, serve as a bulwark against hate. They provide a forceful alternative to the movements of hate currently reaching so many of our disaffected and socially isolated neighbors. By continuing to build up our cornerstones of community, we will provide those so removed from society with a way out from the lure of turning to hate. In fact, analysis of our current at-risk programs shows that youth all across America are becoming more productive members of society because of these programs. In lieu of finding belonging in a movement of hate, they can find belonging by connecting with others. Working together for something positive will, ultimately, prove far more powerful than the movements of hate currently ravaging our society. We must first, however, rededicate ourselves to working together to build up the infrastructure that allows cornerstones of community to reach out to at-risk youth.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Dylan Berger can be reached at dylberge@umich.edu.
HANNAH FRENCH | OP-ED
J
Dear regents: Felony disclosure is not safety
was napping on a couch in East Quad when he was approached by a University of Michigan police officer and asked to leave. The officer and the residential staff thought that he was experiencing homelessness because of the way he was dressed. J is financially independent from his family and attending school with the aid of scholarships. He was growing out a beard. J is Indian-American. M was hammocking over the summer on Packard Street when officers took down her license number because she was not supposed to hammock on University property, despite being off-campus and despite the numerous hammocks in the Diag at the time. When she was called into a disciplinary hearing, she was asked how she could make up for the harmful impact of her actions. M is Arab-American. L was working out in the University gym over the summer when officers arrested him. He was a freshman, and had just finished his spring term classes, so he would not be enrolled again (and hence, eligible to use the gym) until that September. He was cuffed, escorted across campus and kicked out of the University for breaking and entering. He later lost a job offer with the NFL due to this incident. L is AfricanAmerican. Is this what safety on campus looks like? The incidents described above are (relatively) minor. They did not result in felony charges, but they do illustrate the targeted and non-random nature of policing in our community. When events like these pose a risk to students’ or staff’s place at the University, the role and purpose of the University’s involvement in its students’ and staffs’ lives must be reexamined. The University’s new policy, the “Required Disclosure of Felony Charges and/or Felony Convictions”, requires faculty, staff, student employees, volunteers and visiting scholars who find themselves convicted of a felony, and even those merely charged but not convicted, to report it to the University within one week. The University of Michigan already requires all prospective undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members and staff employees to disclose any
previous criminal record during the admissions or employment application process, a procedure that has been increasingly abandoned by other educational institutions due to a lack of evidence that it ensures safety. When the University imposed the self-disclosure felony policy this winter, it added one more layer to the web of ways in which the University ingratiates itself with the criminal justice system. As an educational institution, is it outside both the University’s responsibilities and qualifications to be taking on the role of jury or judge in criminal proceedings. The Board of Regents and the University at large should be presuming our innocence, not our guilt. I am part of Umich Behind Bars, a student-led movement in collaboration and solidarity with staff, community organizations and other movements on campus toward a more comprehensive program for diversity, equity and inclusion. We’re calling for the University to rescind the felony disclosure policy, Ban the Box, and eliminate background checks. More than 1,800 students, staff and community stakeholders have signed onto the policy changes we support, outlined in the Carceral State Project’s open letter. In the years that my fellow organizers and I have been at the University, we’ve seen the regents and other officials act on their best intentions and create successful, productive spaces for dialogue and healing, practices that protect students at critical times, and widely successful educational campaigns, such as those on safe drinking. We know that good can come from a critically well-thought-out policy and/or University action. The University is, after all, “Committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.” I believe that the felony selfdisclosure policy did come from this same set of intentions and was created out of this same concern for students’ safety on campus. No University community member
should feel at risk, and those who actively undermine that and harm the community should not be allowed to continue doing so. However, police and prosecutorial discretion leaves people who are charged with felonies, which could include a wide range of severity, at risk of inequitable charge and conviction practices. The impact of the felony self-disclosure policy will have vast and disproportionate consequences for certain communities, preventing them from entering or staying at the University, while providing no prevention of harm or assurance of students’ safety. This policy, while coming from a good place, is only going to make staff and students who are already particularly vulnerable feel that they don’t belong, will not be supported in the face of adversity, or should leave before something happens. Where students are facing police action for nonviolent protest over climate change action, and where students practically expect danger at a vigil for Muslim victims of violence, the University’s duty to protect should take the form of mitigating, rather than exacerbating, the effects of overpolicing and surveillance of students. This starts with rescinding carceral policies like the felony disclosure policy, which continues to punish our communities for their unwitting interactions with the criminal justice system. It starts there, and ends with listening, learning and healing as a community. Students who believe that the University has work to do to move forward alongside a changing world can join us on our Facebook page or email us at behindbars@umich.edu — and all are encouraged to come to the Board of Regents’ meeting on Thursday, March 28, 3 p.m. at the Richard L. Postma Family Clubhouse. Tag us @umichbehindbars and tell @UMichRegents, @ DrMarkSchlissel, and @ LauritaThomas1 that we want DEI now. Hannah French is a part of a team of organizers with Umich Behind Bars. This piece is a personal account influenced deeply by the context, voices, and collaboration of individuals and communities impacted by and organizing against this policy.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
BOOKS NOTEBOOK
YOUTUBE
To Alex Honnold, the only man to belay into my heart ASIF BECHER Daily Arts Writer
Alex Honnold is one of the best rock climbers in the world. Alex Honnold regularly eats directly out of the pan using a spatula as a spoon. Alex Honnold is a giant, a visionary, a profoundly inspiring person whose story reminds me of all the good human beings are capable of. Alex Honnold is a big dumb buffoon who downplays every insane thing he does to the point that fellow climbers call him Alex “No Big Deal” Honnold. The boy has layers. Some background: Alex is having a bit of a moment right now. You might have seen him on viral YouTube videos, breaking down climbing scenes in movie based on realism. Or maybe you’ve seen his TED Talk. Or maybe you saw “Free Solo,” the documentary film about his 2017 ropeless ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan Freerider
route that recently won an Oscar. He’s arguably the most visible and popular climber in mainstream media since Edmund Hillary himself. His free solo of El Cap is one of the most singular and mindblowing accomplishments I’ve seen a single person achieve in my lifetime. The wall is nearly 3000 feet of sheer granite, and Freerider is a notoriously difficult path to the top (rated 5.13c in climbing circles, meaning that even with a rope and protective equipment, people very rarely ((if ever)) manage to climb it without falling). It’s hard to put into words the magnitude of what it means to climb this thing with nothing but a chalk bag strapped around the waist — when Alex completed his climb, a lot of people in the climbing community compared it to the moon landing. The New Yorker put it simply when they covered the event: “Another passage can be written in the
annals of human achievement.” Like most people who encounter Alex’s work, I’m pretty much endlessly inspired by him. His achievements induce awe, in the most biblical sense of the word. It’s impossible to be clever or cynical when confronted with the image of a person dangling by two fingers 2000 feet above the ground, grinning as though there’s no place he’d rather be (spoiler: there isn’t). Alex Honnold, for me, has been a breath of fresh air, an antidote to the poison that radiates so much media in 2019. The appeal is simple: He found what he loves most in the world, and dedicated his life to its ruthless and relentless pursuit. In the process of living his life exactly the way he wanted to, he changed a sport forever and redefined the boundaries of fear. In his book, “Alone on the Wall,” Alex explains that he primarily gets asked two types of questions: Why he free solos
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 — 5A
(climbing with absolutely no ropes, gear, or aid of any kind), and if he’s scared — both of which are polite ways of asking if he realizes how easily he could die at any minute. To respond, he has developed a strange but weirdly comforting math surrounding risk and consequence over the years. In his mind, he’s always climbing well within his comfortable range of abilities, so even though free soloing has high consequence (falling and dying), the risks for him are low. He’s worked methodically over 15 years of climbing to expand the range of experiences within which he doesn’t feel fear. All of this strikes me as a convoluted way of saying that he’s reached a level of excellence in skill that makes failure increasingly less likely. You could take that as a certain modicum of arrogance — and you probably should — but it’s an arrogance that works for him and that’s allowed him to do incredible things. I also take that response with a grain of salt — “Alone on the Wall” is Alex presenting himself carefully to his readers. Other climbers are quick to call bullshit on his convoluted risk/reward equations, noting that he can’t control everything, that it’s a matter of when, not if, he falls. Alex would be the first to tell you that he’s thought about this, and considered it deeply. He explains in his book that he doesn’t understand the point of living a life without passion, and if that mortality is inevitable anyway, why not go out doing what he loves. But he’s also clear about the fact that he’s not a daredevil — he loves living and loves climbing, and he’s said many times in his book that he steers clear of any kind of thrill-seeking. He writes: “There is no adrenaline rush. If I get an adrenaline rush, it means that something has gone horribly wrong.” He’s not trying to get away with anything — instead he’s on a lifelong project to slowly and incrementally become
a braver, better person. When the filmmakers asked him in “Free Solo” why he lives the way he does, he gave an answer that’s been ringing in my head since I first heard it months ago (and the answer that I can only imagine has haunted him years). He puts it simply: “If you’re looking for perfection, free soloing is as close as you can get.” He’s not wrong. One mistake and it’s all over. And let’s be absolutely clear here: A “mistake” in soloing is placing a thumb and index finger a millimeter too close together. Or letting his eyes wander from the rock in front of him for exactly one second. It’s not just focus or physical stamina that’s required to free solo at Alex’s level — it’s absolute clarity. While he’s climbing, Alex is paying attention to the movement of every muscle and sinew in his body. He knows exactly what he’s doing and exactly who he is. All the philosophical things that for most people remain conceptual — self-actualization, self-sufficiency, staying present — aren’t an abstract for Alex Honnold. They’re a matter of life or death. It’s easy to get caught up in the grand scale of all of his achievements — the legendary free solos he has pioneered, the sweeping expeditions in Chad, Morocco, Alaska and Patagonia, the multiday big wall linkups in which he shattered every known speed record in Yosemite. But despite all that, it’s the minutiae of his work that I find the most fascinating, because it’s clear that the details are what his survival relies on. He dreams big, yes, but what differentiates Alex from others with big abstract goals is his ability to break down every dream into its components and create a multistep plan as to how to achieve them. Case in point: In both “Alone on the Wall,” and in the film, Alex talks about his feet a lot. In a conversation in the film with fellow legendary free soloist
ALBUM REVIEW
Peter Croft, the two talk about their favorite part of soloing: how firmly rooted their feet get in the wall when they’re in the zone. These are two men who’ve scaled massive peaks and shattered records, but notice where they find the real joy — in the process, in the component parts of a big achievement. They don’t focus on the thrill of reaching the top, or the daredevil moments in which they almost died, but on the feeling of rootedness. In the book, he describes feeling perfectly planted when he’s high on a wall, climbing with complete certainty that he won’t fall. “It’s that certainty,” he writes, “that keeps me from falling.” There’s a lot to learn from Alex Honnold, but to me that’s the biggest piece — the ability to feel rooted anywhere you go, to build yourself a place where you’re certain you belong. Alex has made a living by making a home out of some of the most hostile places on earth — deserts and tundras and the tallest peaks in the world. He’s alone up there on the wall, yes, but when he’s up there he’s entirely complete. His solitude while climbing is pure, because when he’s up there, he needs no one and nothing but himself. It’s a quiet confidence that sustains him, a wholehearted belief in himself, his hands and his strength. When I watch Alex Honnold climb, it makes me crave that perfect solitude, the simultaneous rootedness and weightlessness he experiences when the sum total of his existence in that moment hinges on putting one foot in front of the other. Alex describes that feeling as ‘perfection.’ But I like to think of it as something a little more complicated, and a little more human: pure and absolute joy. We sometimes conflate being alone with being lonely, but in doing so, we forget how magical perfect quiet can be, how good it is to be alone. Feet firmly planted, one on front of the other — you always have everything you need to create something beautiful.
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Andrew Bird finds his Do we love sound or media? voice in a masterpiece SAMANTHA CANTIE Daily Arts Writer
MADELEINE GANNON Daily Arts Writer
Initially, Andrew Bird’s latest album, My Finest Work, felt lackluster. Granted, when it comes to the musical stylings of Andrew Bird, “easy listening” isn’t his forte. I don’t mean “easy listening” as in chill relaxation, but rather as lowbrain-energy music. The type of music you play when you trudge home worldweary at the end of the week; the music you listen to when you want to turn your brain off. At first listen, I made the mistake of sitting down to a musical meal with Andrew Bird in the midst of a week’s whirlwind. Unsurprisingly, my brain balked at Bird’s demand for undivided focus and attention; multilayered lyrics and symbolism were drowned in my mind’s futile search for a catchy, jaunty tune. Again, that’s not to say Andrew Bird’s music is not catchy, or that it isn’t suited for a lazy, sunny day. It is all those things, but also much, much more. And that “more” is where the true power of the album arises. With his trademark orchestration of heavy bass and light-footed violin, Bird’s masterful songwriting is center-stage. The many layers of his songs are hidden within unique lyrics and nontraditional song structure. Songs like “Sisyphus” recall haunting echoes of antiquity, harkening back to the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, a sly trickster who cheated death twice. As eternal punishment Sisyphus
was charged with carrying a boulder up a hill, never to succeed in this maddening task. The myth was meant to warn others from folly of trying to cheat the natural order. However, in his song Andrew Bird seems to speak from the mind of Sisyphus — the condemned — calling to “Let it roll, let it crash down.” In a sense, the song speaks to the futility of
My Finest Work Andrew Bird Virgin EMI
living a life within borders and expectations, of taking control of your own fate. Later in the album, “Don the Struggle” provides a stylistic breath of fresh air. The song starts slow, to a steady, weary march. Bird sings “Let’s settle down / We’re all just stumbling down,” echoing a sense of bone-deep exhaustion — but instead of physical weariness, the implication points again to the burden of greater expectations. Later the song breaks out into a sudden burst of vibrancy. The tempo drastically increases, like a car speeding up. Then someone slams on the breaks, and the energy divebombs back into the somber march. In the energetic haze, Bird sings “But dissonance is energy while consonance
reminds you of poverty” — another critique of the suffocation of the cookiecutter lifestyle. The final track, “Bellevue Bridge Club,” is comfortable, slow and eerie. What seems at first to be a somewhat sweet song quickly becomes a little … questionable when one tunes into the lyrics. Andrew Bird crafts a strange, twisted love song, singing “I will hold you hostage … You know there’s no you without me.” It’s almost reminiscent of Stockholm syndrome. However, the line, “And I will hold you hostage/ Make you part of my conspiracy,” hints at something deeper: Following the theme of the rest of the album of breaking through limitations, this last song symbolizes the perspective of the majority: Those who form the rules want everyone else to fall in line. But, in fact, rather than an encouragement of the herd-mentality, Andrew Bird calls attention to it in order to orchestrate a break to freedom from this wellbeaten, suffocating path. Ultimately, Andrew Bird is not the artist of the inattentive or indifferent. As a songwriter, he demands total and devoted attention. Bird makes every word count and forces the audience to pay attention to even the smallest details of his songs in order to capture the entirety of his multi leveled creations. Andrew Bird and his latest album is a prime example of how music can be an active, rather than passive, experience for artist and listener.
What’s louder — the music or the man? The more appropriate question in today’s digital age would be: What’s louder, the music or the media surrounding the musician? There is no lack of dialogue when it comes to the increasingly scary power media holds to dictate what we listen to — consistently, Buzzfeed articles are titled something along the lines of “How Social Media Has Changed The Music Industry.” The discourse is even more present around buzzwords like “DIY artist.” What’s more interesting, however, is the development in the last couple of years, wherein an artist’s media presence has become quintessential. It’s an age when listeners do not just subscribe to the music; they subscribe to the media representation of the art simultaneously or before they subscribe to the sound. Yes, it’s a longstanding trend — a band like KISS isn’t just a sound, it’s a phenomenon. However, looking at 2019 thus far and looking towards the future of music, listeners are not even aware of the subconscious associations and characterizations that develop the full image of an artist’s sound based on the content we interact with — when you listen to a song on Spotify you are not listening solely to the song, but rather the implied characterizations of the sound based on the media we subscribe to. Even scarier is the fact that the artists we react to only reach our ears because media launched that person or group. Today, media dominates every aspect of the human experience, so much so that almost every emerging artist only breaks through when accompanied with viral YouTube videos, an impressive twitter or Instagram, a Hollywood presence, or something along those lines. It is almost impossible to launch yourself as an artist unless you have accompanying media that creates a distinct vibe around your work. The examples are endless: Clairo establishes herself as queen of teenage nostalgia with 29 million views on her hit YouTube video “Pretty Girl.” The crowds go apeshit over Maggie Rogers when a video of a master class with Pharrell Williams goes viral. Artists like Troye Sivan and Conan Gray each had fully established
aesthetic, lifestyle YouTube channels with millions of subscribers before launching into the music scene. Most notably, the band Half Alive had practically no listens until the launch of their beautifully coordinated “Still Feel” music video. Half Alive is a perfect example of the idea that the media experience of music is absolutely essential to listening power. No longer does the music come first, which is then supported by interviews, “Tiny Desk” performances and social media that promotes the band and establishes viewer connection. Now, the media comes first. A viewer clicks on a “recommended” post or video, and they love the sound, yes, but there’s a space in the back of their brains that becomes obsessed and connected with the media (the beautiful appearance, the swaggy persona, etc.) I like to call it “The Mesh.” It’s an interlaced structure of appearance, dancing, lighting, vibe, the mannerisms and the slang. Yes, the sound is a part of this mesh, but it’s not necessarily the leading aspect. This idea of the “mesh” that lies in our subconscious came to the forefront of my brain when listening to a new favorite band of mine, Wallows. I found the band through Netflix. The lead singer of Wallows is Dylan Minette, who stars in hit Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” as Clay Jensen. Even if you haven’t watched “13 Reasons Why,” there’s a high chance you’ve seen the face: He’s the center of multiple memes on twitter, Reddit threads and even recognizable for his early appearances on shows like “Drake & Josh,” “Lost” and “Scandal.” This led to a personal investigation of Wallows’s rise to fame — did they gain most of their popularity from Dylan’s fame? Most certainly. Are they still extremely deserving of that recognition? Most certainly. Their sound is super cool. In almost every interview with Wallows, Minette is asked about his role in “13 Reasons Why.” Specifically, Minette told Paste Magazine: “The show that I’m on, I’m under a contract on that and stuff and that’s something that I got to do and that’s cool and whatever but just anytime we have we are doing this non-stop because it’s what we wanna do.” Social media is usually made up of at least half self-conscious representation. For Minette, he has no control over constant comments
on all forms of Wallows social media stating sentiments such as: “Severely disappointed their fan base is a bunch of 13 Yr. old fan girls who watch Thirteen Reasons Why, ruined the concert.” This trend comes from a longstanding notion in music. When you go to a concert and you gain face-to-face recognition with the artist, you listen much more. For me, going to a concert made me feel like the artist was mine. The media surrounding the artist is that same feeling: They become yours when the content you receive each day fully develops the vibe of who they are. All of this being said, there is a strong counter example: Frank Ocean. This is a man whose music 100 percent comes before the media. He is a minimalist in all media aspects, yet his music is an inspiration to the majority of emerging artists today because he’s a musical genius. Although Frank’s emergence into recognition does not fall into media trends or time frame I speak of, even he acknowledges media’s role in creating dialogue, fully shaping how we see artists and how we see their music. In a recent interview with GQ, he states: “I feel like there was dissonance between how I was seen by the audience and where I was actually … But there’s also the idea of dialogue and discourse and conversation — like theater where the audience can interrupt you versus the television.” Frank goes on to explain how he feels the way he is seen is not even close to correct, and it’s still not correct, which went into his thought process behind making his Instagram public. But he steps into the public Instagram scene, because media gives you a step towards control of developing the idea around an artist. Frank is a rare case of a music God who doesn’t need any source of media to launch his sound, but even he recognizes the media landscape of establishing how you are represented. Visual press is everything. To listeners everywhere: The content we view each day is the sound. Whether Wallows likes it or not, the back of the brain association with cutie “Clay Jensen” from Selena Gomez-produced “Thirteen Reasons Why” is an integral undercurrent of Wallows’s sound, and there’s no avoiding it. Think about your favorite music, and think about what’s behind the love of it.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, March 27, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
TV REVIEW
DC continues their losing Marcia, Marcia, Marcia game with latest ‘Shazam’
doing a particularly cruel impression — bumbling, inept, unfortunately-permed — as late as 2015. A little empathy now hardly makes up for two decades of ridicule. Can you really blame Marcia A few months ago, the writer Rachel Syme asked Clark for wanting a do-over? She gets one on ABC’s new drama “The Fix,” if on Twitter, “Who is a woman, who, growing up, you always thought of as kind of a public joke but only a fictional one. The show, executive produced upon getting older you realized her story wasn’t by Clark, imagines a maligned prosecutor being so funny after all.” Thousands of replies poured given a second chance to convict the beloved in: the elderly woman who sued McDonald’s in Black celebrity who got away. Maya Travis (Robin the famous hot coffee case, Monica Lewinsky, Tunney, “The Mentalist”) is living a quiet life on a ranch in Judy Garland, Washington Tonya Harding, State eight years Yoko Ono. It was after failing to a discomfiting convict the actor reminder of Sevvy Johnson all the women (Adewale unfairly written Akinnuoyeoff, left to the ABC Agbaje, “Lost”) wrath of a of the double vicious public Pilot homicide of and an even Mondays @ 10 p.m. his wife and more vicious her friend. But tabloid press. Maya springs Among the back into action more popular when her former answers to co-prosecutor Syme’s prompt (Adam Rayner, was Marcia “Tyrant”) Clark, the lead shows up on her prosecutor in doorstep to ask the O.J. Simpson for help: Sevvy’s trial, who, for a few months in 1995, was subjected to the most girlfriend has been found bludgeoned to death on derisive, intrusive media coverage imaginable. a beach, and this time, the Los Angeles County Her sartorial choices were mocked, her marital DA’s office wants to win. It’s about as O.J. as you can get without it being troubles dissected for entertainment. When the O.J. case was revisited in the form of two the real thing. There’s an oily, coiffed Robert spectacular TV shows in 2016 — an eight-hour Kardashian-Robert Shapiro wannabe defense documentary on ESPN and an FX miniseries — it lawyer, a floppy-haired Kato Kaelin analogue only seemed right that Clark be reappraised with living in the pool house, rumors of a dalliance between the prosecutors. To its credit, “The Fix” it. And she was. When Sarah Paulson won an doesn’t try to pretend this is anything other than Emmy for her thoughtful portrayal of Clark what it is: pure wish fulfillment, a postmortem in FX’s “American Crime Story: People v. O.J. revenge fantasy. Beyond that intrigue, there Simpson,” the actress took the opportunity to isn’t much here. There’s some slick production, offer a personal and symbolic apology: “The more self-important lines about carrying out justice I learned about the real Marcia Clark … I had to and some very good-looking people delivering recognize that I, along with the rest of the world, them — ABC is a perfect home for it. It’s mostly had been superficial and careless in my judgment. entertaining, with one caveat: A story about a And I am glad to be able to stand here today in white woman on a revenge crusade to lock up a rage-filled Black man plays a little awkwardly in front of everyone and tell you I’m sorry.” But Clark’s redemption is only a recent 2019. And if we learned anything from the O.J. development. The first season finale of revisiting in 2016, it’s that telling one side of a “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” had Tina Fey story doesn’t do anyone much good. MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN Daily Arts Writer
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer
Following the unqualified success of “Wonder Woman,” the equally unqualified failure of “Justice League” and that time they let James Wan dose the entire world with a cocktail of crack cocaine, LSD and seaweed, it’s safe to say that the future of the DC films slate is somewhat in flux, to say nothing of the numerous behindthe-scenes shakeups. The burden was on “Shazam!” (along with “Aquaman”) to shine a light on where things are going next. Are they going to keep trying to chase that most elusive of white whales, the Marvelstyle shared universe? Or are the rumors true that they’ll focus more on individual stories rather than risk another “Justice League”caliber cinematic belly flop? If “Shazam!” is any indication, its definitely the latter, but that doesn’t necessarily result in a better movie, as DC shows that even with a brighter coat of paint, they are committed to doing little more than the bare minimum in search of superhero success. “Shazam!” has been billed as a classic sort of family movie in the vein of “Big,” and not just in terms of story — we’ve been told it’ll pack thrills and laughs for parents and children alike, and to an extent it does just that. In the title role, Zachary Levi (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) brings the youthful enthusiasm and boundless, likeable energy that’s made him a nerd icon to a role he was born to play: a teenager with the ability to transform into an adult superhero. Again, the parallels to “Big” almost write themselves. The message
about the importance of family is a nice touch, as well, and if the movie is anything more than the sum of its parts, it’s because of the emotion Levi and costars Asher Angel (“Andi Mack”) and Jack Dylan Grazer (“It”) wring out of their scenes as foster brothers. “Shazam!” is an old-fashioned
Shazam! Warner Bros. Pictures Early Screening
movie in another way, though — like last year’s “Venom,” it’s the kind of superhero movie that was getting made before we knew they were capable of more. It feels like it’s from a time where it was enough to cast a couple likeable actors, put one of them in a supersuit and have them punch bad guys with the exact same power set as them, but it’s 2019, and the genre has moved on. “Black Panther” just won three Oscars and got nominated for Best Picture. “Into the Spiderverse” was one of the best movies of last year and opened an entire multiverse of possibilities for animation going forward. DC’s own “Wonder Woman” dragged the genre kicking and screaming into an era it should have entered long ago, but two years later, DC is back to playing catch-up, not with Marvel, but with superhero filmdom itself. I’m not saying that every superhero movie has to be a success on the level of those films; that would be deeply
unfair. But a little effort outside of the bare minimum is a necessity at this point. Write a three-dimensional cast, or a villain worthy of the actor you cast in the role or something interesting. That’s where these movies — where any movies — live and breathe. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” doesn’t have a good story, but what it does have that makes it easy to return to is a great cast of characters. Outside of Billy Batson (Angel/Levi) and Freddy Freeman (Grazer) not a single member of the cast of “Shazam!” gets a personality outside of their one quirk: the one who plays video games, the one going to college, the one who … talks, etc. Then there’s Mark Strong (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”) as Thaddeus Sivana, a villain who stops the film cold whenever he appears. His requisite CGI cohorts, despite ostensibly being the driving force of the plot, apparently don’t even merit the effort it would take to animate their mouths moving when they speak. “Shazam!” isn’t necessarily a step backward for DC, because at the very least, they’ve stopped mucking around in monochromatic doom and gloom, but it’s representative of something just as bad: stagnation. It’s good for a chuckle here and there and anything that gets Levi’s name on a marquee will always be somewhat welcome to me, but its overly simplistic story and underwritten characters are reminiscent of an era comic book movies are quickly leaving behind. If DC wants a chance at keeping up, they need to understand that adding a few jokes isn’t the solution, it’s taking a page from the superhero handbook and becoming something more.
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
The Fix
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Remixing ‘Legally Blonde’ ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
This past weekend MUSKET, the University’s student-run musical theatre organization, presented “Legally Blonde,” directed by School of Music, Theatre & Dance senior BFA directing candidate Bruna d’Avila and produced by a team of all female producers. The musical has some serious undertones, which in the “Me Too” era takes on a different face. d’Avila set out to reinvent what we think of when we think “Elle Woods” and her connection to modern, third wave feminism. As I watched the musical play out on that glorious Power Center stage, no longer was Elle a breezy, materialistic blonde on the hunt for a man. Instead, in MUSKET’s world, Elle is a fierce feminist in a universe that pushes back against her integrity, proving that surface level judgements don’t aggregate in truth. d’Avila’s direction was thoughtful and poignant, with an astute lens on the political implications of the text and how it can stretch and resonate with audiences today. She focused not only on aesthetic, but substance, giving audiences spoonfuls of what they remember from the film along with added layers of depth. The happy-golucky dialogue and impressive ensemble dance numbers choreographed by SMTD junior Maya Alwan read as nothing short of a party you just can’t help but want to join and married nicely with a strong consideration on the true themes of the story. d’Avila dug into the text, finding the exceptional
moments to highlight amidst the zeal and the sequins. Mikaela Secada, SMTD sophomore BFA musical theatre candidate, who took the stage by storm as Elle Woods, is nothing short of a star. She vocally carried the show — her clear, strong belt filled the Power Center, which is not an easily accomplished feat. She proved herself a triple threat, mastering Alwan’s choreography in three inch heels, riffing her way through act one finale “So Much Better” and bringing a new light to Elle Woods. She managed to render Elle as something more than the charming ingenue we’re quick to see her as. Secada’s Elle was as a passionate young woman with motivated choices, nuanced thoughtfulness, a selfless energy and peppy resilience — even when the world wants her to fail. Secada took the stereotypes Elle could be reduced to and subverted them. Secada’s Elle Woods isn’t the Elle we picture in our head — and that’s where the magic comes from. As a Cuban-American woman, the possibility to play Elle Woods was never on her radar. It has only recently become more common to see members of the Latinx and minority communities playing traditionally white roles. It takes directors like d’Avila and young theatre makers like Secada to blaze a trail for more inclusive casting going forward. When asking d’Avila, in an interview about the casting choice, she said, “My Elle Woods is Latina. In discussions with her about how we felt about that choice, Mikaela Secada told me, ‘I just never thought I could be Elle
Woods, it is an amazing role, but I never considered it one of my dream roles because I didn’t look like her.’ It’s actors like Mikaela Secada who expand young performer of color’s view of what they can do on stage.” Along with the nontraditional casting, which comments on the trajectory theatre is on toward a more inclusive reality, d’Avila made choices to open the piece to a larger socio-political dimension as well. Professor Callahan, the brusque, misogynistic law professor played by SMTD sophomore Henry Pederson, another strong cast standout, was dressed in a navy blue suit and a red tie, appearing eerily similar to a certain current U.S. president, as he belittled and picked on Elle to the point of sexual assault in the climax of the musical. The backbone of the excellence was the imaginative, multi-functional set. Rendered by SMTD Bachelor Theatre Art senior Emma Somers, it consisted of moving walls to exhibit multiple locations. This innovative set design allowed for seamless transitions between scenes. d’Avila truly outdid herself with MUSKET’s “Legally Blonde”, proving that she is ready for a larger career in pushing and illuminating minority stories on stage. MUSKET’s production of “Legally Blonde” was a sugar rush with no cavity, a believe in yourself comedy with a feminist protagonist and surprisingly weighty undertones. It is a perfectly pink confectionary experience which leaves you winded, thoughtful, pleasantly surprised and dancing straight out of the theatre.
FOR RENT Release Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Sow chow 5 Sport with clay disks 10 “House Hunters” channel 14 Kind of curriculum 15 Mural prefix 16 Nécessité for a soufflé 17 Food thickener 18 Anti-wrinkle option 19 Hearty bowlful 20 Shenanigans 23 Wrinkly little dog 24 Gore and Green 25 Defunct supermarket chain that once had nearly 16,000 stores 27 Lines on a list 29 Thick slice 32 Break bread 33 Adds bubbles to 36 Tropicana Field MLB team 37 “Nonsense!” 40 Cry under a pop fly 41 Shiraz resident 42 Find a job for 43 Organic compound 44 Freeways and parkways 48 Store in a queue for printing 50 Like some pkgs. 52 India-born author Santha Rama __ 53 Nabisco product whose package formerly displayed circus cages 58 Soon, long ago 59 Baby’s ailment 60 Oodles 61 URL connection 62 Tiny amount 63 Beekeeper played by Peter Fonda 64 Deck quartet 65 Underground home of the Ninja Turtles 66 Surname of the stars of 20-, 37and 53-Across
DOWN 1 Shrimp dish 2 Leave a chat room, say 3 Grand Marnier flavor 4 Central __: “Friends” coffee house 5 Female oracle 6 Drawer handles 7 Words to a traitor 8 Love god 9 Roll to the runway 10 Biblical prophet 11 Comes close to 12 When general U.S. elections are held 13 Ex-GIs’ gp. 21 Makes less difficult 22 Catch redhanded 26 Qt. halves 28 Stable mother 29 Base runner’s ploy 30 Like tough economic times 31 Wine province near Turin 34 Free __: carte blanche
35 Jackson 5 hairdo 36 City that aptly rhymes with “casino” 37 From Latin America 38 Like a typical therapy session 39 Capital of Canada? 40 Juilliard subj. 43 Shade tree 45 Colorful ring 46 Quick mover
47 English Channel county 49 Sty chorus 50 Haggling focus 51 Indiana NBA player 54 Show parts 55 Handed-down stories 56 Crab’s grabber 57 “America’s Got Talent” judge Heidi 58 Miss. neighbor
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
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03/27/19
03/27/19
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Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 — 7A
In win, Michigan turns Gators’ water off, advances to Sweet Sixteen JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Editor
DES MOINES, Iowa — Two years ago, when Michigan upset No. 2 seed Louisville to reach the Sweet Sixteen, John Beilein, Super Soaker in hand, crept into the locker room and sprayed water all over his jubilant players. Luke Yaklich, then an assistant at Illinois State, wasn’t around to experience it. But on Saturday, the Wolverines advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with a 64-49 win over Florida, and afterwards, Yaklich’s lightbrown close crop was matted down with water, the product of a celebratory bottle-pouring. Yaklich was perfectly fine
with it — sophomore forward Isaiah Livers said he ran “right for the water.” But if he had been upset and in search of for a culprit, Charles Matthews was to blame. “He literally said this: Going into the Sweet Sixteen, you’ll know that feeling when you pour water on the head coach,” Livers said. “He said, ‘Think about pouring water on the coaches when they come in here after we win.’ ” The redshirt junior’s speech came at halftime as Michigan led, 32-28 — a lead that felt like it should have been larger. The Gators were kept in the contest by a 6-for-12 shooting display from outside, uncharacteristic of a 33.4 percent 3-point
shooting team. This was even more the case seeing as many of Florida’s threes were tough, closely-guarded attempts. Eight minutes into the first half, Jalen Hudson heaved a three from several feet behind the arc. Jordan Poole did everything asked of him — he moved his feet, timed his jump and contested the shot well — but the sophomore guard was still left shaking his head as the ball smacked off the backboard and into the net.
“We’ll live with them hitting tough shots,” Poole said. “Not a lot of teams are able to be in a situation where they can make tough shots throughout the entire night, and if they do, tip your hats to them.” But the Wolverines weren’t about to take off their caps just yet. First came the strategic adjustment. Point guard Andrew Nembhard ran the Gators’ offense to perfection in the first half, dishing out five assists as Michigan couldn’t
...if they do (hit tough shots), tip your hats to them.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan men’s basketball team celebrated in the locker room after Saturday’s 64-49 win over Florida by splashing each other and the coaches with water.
stop him from getting downhill out of ball-screen situations. The Wolverines took these away by going under screens to alter Nembhard’s vision and prevent his penetration. “The guys understood the pattern and the flow of their offense and that’s where the basketball intelligence of our players takes over,” Yaklich said. “They understand what hurt us. They can tweak it, move all over the floor to take that away, and it ends up being good for us.” At the same time, Michigan’s leaders — Matthews and Zavier Simpson — were there to make sure their teammates kept their composure, continued playing strong defense and trusted that the logical result of good defense would follow. “They’re really good shooters, so they’re gonna make some of those,” Yaklich said. “But over the course of the game, you just gotta stay true to who you are and not make any lazy decisions at halftime that just take you out of who you are defensively.” Added sophomore guard C.J. Baird: “The one thing is our leadership and that’s the one thing that keeps us composed. Even if (Hudson’s) shot goes in, Jordan was like, ah come on, I can’t believe that went in. The leaders are like, ‘OK, you played good defense, look at the positives there.’ Everybody’s like, ‘OK, we can still do this, even though that shot went in, we’re still on it all the time.’ ” And when the Wolverines left the locker room, Matthews made sure they were, indeed, on it. “First time in the huddle, he came and said, ‘No more
threes. No more threes. Let’s limit their threes,’ ” assistant coach DeAndre Haynes told The Daily. “He held it down for us out there.” What resulted was a second half in which Michigan’s defense, as usual, looked elite to both the eyes and the stat sheet. Nembhard had just three assists against two turnovers. Florida hit 3-of-14 3-pointers. It scored just 21 points. The Wolverines, meanwhile, scored the first 11 points of the second half, and after weathering an offensive dry spell of their own, dunked the Gators out of the NCAA Tournament. When it was all said and done, Michigan had not only “shut their water off,” as Matthews demanded, but found its own water, using it to celebrate a 15-point victory. At this point, you don’t need any more evidence that the Wolverines will ride or die with their defense. It’s their identity, and they’re proud of it. And on Saturday, this meant rejecting the radical idea that opposing players will sometimes hit shots. Instead, Michigan put its clamps down as hard as it has all season. “The defensive identity starts with our leaders and our coaching and those guys, like taking pride in your matchup, taking pride in those shots,” Baird said. “I don’t think last year you would have seen Jordan Poole get upset about a shot going in over him. Now, with the culture we brought in and the coaches we brought in, it’s really been important to us. “It really helps us win games.”
First time in the huddle, he... said, ‘No more threes.’
Big innings holding Wolverines back ‘M’ Softball blows past Central ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer
Three outs. String them together however you can – a grounder, a strikeout, a pop-up; a double play, a triple play, a runner caught stealing. No matter how it happens, lately, that’s all that has stood between the Michigan baseball team and success: three outs. The Wolverines have been allowing big innings in crucial matchups. Their usual lightsout pitching has shown flaws, and as they face increasingly tough competition, those flaws are being exploited, causing significant problems for Team 153. Their series against No. 11 Texas Tech is the perfect example. In Thursday’s game, they gave up six runs in the fifth inning. On Friday, they gave up five runs in the sixth inning. And in Saturday’s contest, there was only one inning in which the Red Raiders did not score. “They hit against us almost like they knew every pitch that was coming,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich. “They took advantage of our mistakes. They did to us what we’ve done to a lot of the teams we’ve played and
opened up a big margin.” Whether it’s been defensive errors, Jimmy Kerr and Blake Nelson already have six errors apiece on the season; pitching difficulties, third starter Jeff Criswell has racked up a 4.41 earned run average over 30.1 innings; or a combination of the two, Michigan has not been able to string together those three outs. And their opponents are making them pay. Texas Tech swept the Wolverines in their three-game series. Michigan’s first loss of the season came in a game in which Cal State-Long Beach put runs on the board in three consecutive innings toward a final score of 8-7. And its 4-1 loss to Southern California came when they allowed the Trojans to put up two runs in two separate innings. “(Our errors) were just very costly, because they came at the most inopportune times,” Bakich said. “You can’t do that against any team, but especially a really good team. Every time, they will make you pay for it. And this weekend, they made us pay for it.” At times this season, Michigan’s offense has also proven its ability to notch big
innings. A three-run seventh inning against UCLA. An eightrun third inning and a six-run sixth inning against Manhattan. A five-run sixth inning against Western Michigan. All of those games were wins – 7-5 over the Bruins, 23-2 over the Jaspers and 12-5 over the Broncos. When the Wolverines can piece together several consecutive quality at-bats, they’ve proven difficult to stop. “When we can put big innings together, and score three or more runs in an inning, it certainly helps us win the game,” Bakich said. “That’ll continue to be something that we leverage.” Michigan is about to head into Big Ten play with a weekend series against nearby rival Michigan State. A home series against Minnesota – likely its toughest Big Ten competition – and an away weekend at Ohio State are not too far down the road. If the Wolverines can solidify their defense, and if their pitchers rediscover the dominance they showed in earlier stretches this season, they will look to be a serious Big Ten contender. All that stands in the way are three outs.
Michigan in run-rule victory LILY FRIEDMAN Daily Sports Writer
It was a long drive from Ann Arbor to Mount Pleasant. Many players had class earlier in the day. The atmosphere wasn’t energetic. Madison Uden changed that. Led by the junior third baseman’s two-run home run in the third inning, the No. 23 Michigan softball team beat Central Michigan, 8-0, in a five-inning run-rule win. With Uden’s home run and a three-run home run from senior infielder Mackenzie Nemitz, the win carried on the success the Wolverines had at the plate Sunday against Nebraska. To start the in-state contest, senior outfielder Natalie Peters hit a single past the third baseman into left field. Freshman outfielder Lexie Blair followed that hit with a single of her own, moving Peters to third. With two Michigan players on base, senior Mackenzie Nemitz stepped to the plate. She didn’t mirror her performance in Sunday’s game against Nebraska — when she scored a booming home run. She didn’t even come out of the play on base. But Nemitz’s subsequent groundout to the shortstop drove Peters home, putting the Wolverines on the board early. Already up by one run, Uden hit a home run to right field that drove her and senior first baseman Alex Sobczak — who was already on base — home, increasing Michigan’s lead to three and completely toppling the atmosphere at the Chippewas’ field. “(The home run) lit a spark
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior infielder Mackenzie Nemitz hit a three-run home run Tuesday.
in us,” Nemitz said. “Traveling to Central Michigan was kind of a long drive and we all were kind of just dead, and after she hit that, it was just instant light-up of everybody and we just continued to play our game.” Nemitz especially did that. After Peters hit a f ly ball for a double that plated both sophomore shortstop Natalia Rodriguez and senior second baseman Faith Canfield to increase the score to 5-0, Nemitz hit a home run past right center field that brought her, Peters and Blair back around the bases to their teammates celebrating the team’s 8-0 lead around the plate. “It feels good,” Nemitz said. “It’s something that I have known I can do, so finally having it happen is kind of like
It’s something that I have known I can do...
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior left-hander Tommy Henry has a 0.41 ERA this season, but allowed six unearned runs in his last start.
a breakthrough moment and kind of gives myself and my teammates the confidence that we need.” On the mound, that confidence also showed. Freshman right-hander Alex Storako, who pitched all five innings, threw for eight strikeouts, allowing only two hits and zero runs on the day. The game brought Storako’s overall ER A down to 2.00 — only 0.28 behind sophomore Meghan Beaubien, who hasn’t given up a run in her almost 30 innings pitching since resuming play at Alumni Field. “In the fourth inning, I got out of a bases-loaded jam, so going back on the field for the fifth inning, I just knew that I wanted to end the game and with a bang,” Storako said. “It’s just been exciting to be a part of the atmosphere in the dugout and on the field when we celebrate at the plate and it’s just really exciting to see people and their at-bats and just really getting to this point.”
Sports
8A — Wednesday, March 27, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Caroline Hendershot is here to stay From her sports broadcasting aspirations to her rowing prowess, Caroline Hendershot has left her mark at Michigan LILY ALEXANDER For The Daily
Caroline Hendershot is hard to miss. Whether it’s her height of 5-foot-11, her involvement in a student-run sports TV show or her cheerful demeanor guaranteed to light up any room, the senior on the Michigan rowing team is pretty distinct.
And, she has challenged the gender-binding stereotypes that have plagued the sports industry ever since she was little. “I think of elementary school where boys would say that they were faster because they were boys,” Hendershot said. “And, I would do anything to beat the boys, making sure that I was the last girl left. I didn’t care if I was dripping in sweat. You can’t
judge a book by its cover.” Coming from a family where both her parents and all three of her older siblings played college sports, Hendershot seemed predestined for collegiate athletics. “Family games are competitive to say the least,” she said, half-jokingly. Before committing to rowing as her sport of choice, Hendershot played nearly every
sport in existence. However, when she found herself sitting down in a boat her junior year of high school, it was the unique format of rowing that sold her. “There is a very specific feeling in a boat when you have all eight people moving in sync and pushing a boat at the same time as hard and as fast as they can,” she said. “It is one of the most incredible feelings.” Although she faces long
COURTESY OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS/Daily
Senior rower Caroline Hendershot hopes to go into the sports broadcasting industry when she graduates from Michigan in May.
days of practice that regularly similar to that of her team. “Everyone is so supportive produce blistered hands, Hendershot feels that her and so uplifting and wants teammates make everything everyone to succeed,” she said. worth it. In feeding off of “They helped me realize that their accomplishments to fuel yes, you can be competitive, but her own success, Hendershot you can also bring others along believes that her teammates with you.” In December 2017, she have driven her to become both a better person and a stronger interned with Tracy Wolfson — a CBS sports broadcaster and rower. When she’s not rowing, a Michigan alum — whom she Hendershot works with views as a role model both as a woman in sports Wolverine and as a person. Women, an allHendershot female sports talk show on I want to help open got to spend a weekend with WOLV TV, a Wolfson when student-run doors for other she worked television station. women to get into as an NFL correspondent What began with the New as a desire to get the industry. England Patriots more involved and Buffalo on campus Bills. the fall of her At the end of the day, sophomore year quickly evolved feels that into something larger. Two Hendershot years later, Hendershot serves everything distills down to as an executive producer for a statement of purpose. As Wolverine Women, doing a woman in sports, she feels everything from brainstorming that her role is to push down storylines to obtaining athletes boundaries. “Hopefully, when I have for segments. Her enthusiasm for the show a career, I want to help open comes from her personability doors for other women that — she wants to tell stories want to get into the industry,” the average fan might not be she said. To Hendershot, graduating aware of. After graduation, Hendershot hopes to work in this May will be bittersweet. She is grateful for her sports broadcasting. “Interviewing people is experience over the past four something that I love feeding years and is obviously sad that off of because I love finding it is ending, but is extremely out who people are,” she said. excited to navigate the world “Obviously, I can’t let (sports) with the skills she has learned go after four years, so I want at Michigan. “I am really happy that I to go into (broadcasting) and be able to help people tell came here for my experience,” their stories and express that she said. “There is nothing like representing the University of different perspective.” In terms of ambition, she Michigan with a block M on considers the community of your back. That is the biggest Wolverine Women to be very thing I’m going to miss.”
Men’s golf improves during final Youth offers high hopes for future round of Tar Heel Intercollegiate TEDDY GUTKIN Daily Sports Writer
CHRIS SULLIVAN For The Daily
The Michigan men’s golf team entered the final round of the Tar Heel Intercollegiate at the UNC Finley Golf Course looking to recover from a disappointing opening two rounds. The Wolverines were left trailing the rest of the field by the time players teed off Sunday morning in Chapel Hill. After shooting a combined 37 strokes over par as a team during the first two rounds and sitting in last place out of 14 teams after Saturday, Michigan coach Chris Whitten and the Wolverines were determined to respond. “It was unacceptable the way we played the first two rounds and we know we’re better than that,” Whitten said. In previous tournaments this season, Whitten felt that his team played well in final rounds, and the Wolverines did just that on Sunday. Despite being 39 strokes out of the lead and without a viable path back to contention, Michigan was unfazed and
settled down to improve its overall team score. The Wolverines rebounded by scoring three under par to elevate themselves from last place to twelfth. The Michigan coaching staff noticed an increased level in confidence and comfort on the course on Sunday after lackluster performances up to that point. “We were determined to play very solid golf with good decisions and good attitudes today and take a step in the right direction going into the next tournament,” Whitten said. The home squad, North Carolina, took the top spot on the leaderboard as a team over the weekend, while Illinois’ Adrien Dumont de Chassart dominated the competition individually by outshooting the next closest opponent by six strokes. North Carolina was the only team to remain under par by the tournament’s conclusion. Standout performances by Michigan came from sophomore Henry Spring and senior Nick Carlson.
Spring finished as the team’s lowest scorer for the second consecutive tournament, tying for 18th place after a successful two-under-par outing on Sunday. Carlson finished tied for 31st overall by shooting two under par on Sunday and seven over par in total. The Wolverines now turn their attention to the Aggie Invitational in Bryan, Texas, where they will most likely face their toughest field all year. Thus far this season, Whitten believes that Michigan has not arrived at its full potential. But the next tournament could offer the chance to change that narrative. “We know we have a good team and we haven’t put it on the scoreboard as many times as we wanted to this year,” Whitten said. “So this would be a great opportunity to go show some people that we can post the scores that we know we’re capable of.” The Wolverines will need to start off future tournaments as well as they did in the final round on Sunday to reach the top of the leaderboard.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan golf team rebounded from a poor first two rounds at the Tar Heel Intercollegiate with a strong showing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Right now, the wound is likely still fresh. On Sunday afternoon, the Michigan women’s basketball team saw its season end when it bowed out of the NCAA Tournament following a 70-51 loss to top-seeded Louisville. While it may be hard to see it now, this year’s tournament run may have laid the bricks that will eventually serve as the program’s foundation. Not long ago, Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico announced the nation’s 12th-ranked recruiting class, which was headlined by freshmen forward Naz Hillmon and guard Amy Dilk. Tasked with the impossible job of replacing the production of the program’s all-time leading scorer Katelyn Flaherty, Dilk ran the offense with great efficiency — as if she was a seasoned veteran. While there were some bumps along the way, Dilk looks poised and ready to handle having the keys to the Wolverines’ offense. “I’ve learned a lot obviously, mentally and physically, growing as a player,” Dilk said on Friday after the team’s win against Kansas State. Hillmon, on the other hand, became one of the biggest surprises of the season, averaging a team-high 13.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game despite coming off the bench. The season helped Hillmon earn two honors: the media’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the coaches’ Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year. If she continues her exceptional play, it’s hard to imagine that these accolades won’t be the last she receives in her career. For Hillmon, though, the bond she shares with her teammates means far more than whatever awards might come her way. “This has been the most fun year I’ve had playing basketball,” Hillmon said.
KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon will be a major contributor in the coming years.
“We’re really close as a team, that’s what makes it a lot of fun. That’s all that matters.” Despite having just finished their first collegiate seasons, Hillmon and Dilk represent the next generation of Michigan basketball. While seniors forward Hallie Thome and guard Nicole Munger helped to establish Michigan basketball as an NCAA Tournament-caliber squad, the next generation will be responsible for keeping it there. Barnes Arico believes that her squad is more than up to the challenge. “We are going to respond and we are going to show that it’s not just one year,” Barnes Arico said following the loss to Louisville. “We’re going to be (in the NCAA Tournament) year-in and year-out and we want to take the next steps in the program.” Next season, the Wolverines will be without Munger and Thome, who helped set the tone for the team’s culture both on and off the court. Despite losing two of its key pieces, Michigan will return virtually its entire roster, all of whom should only continue to grow and develop
with a season or more under their belts. “This is probably one of the first teams in my career that I have to throw them out of the gym after practice,” Barnes Arico said. “They want to continue getting shots up or they want to continue working or they want to get better.” Of course, a second consecutive defeat at the hands of one of the nation’s most dangerous squads will be a tough pill to swallow. That being said, if this Wolverine team has proven anything this season, it’s that it is more than prepared to put in the extra work to not only stay on the mountain that is the NCAA Tournament, but also reach its peak. And while this year’s departing class was never able to reach that point, those who will be able to fight another season are more than prepared to get there. “We have a lot of great pieces coming back and our kids know that they are hungry to take those next steps in the NCAA Tournament,” Barnes Arico said. With this group, these next steps look within reach.
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | M A RCH 27, 2019
Clearing the in-betweens
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
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Wednesday, March 27, 2019 // The Statement
Managing Statement Editor Andrea Pérez Balderrama
statement One last ride T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | M A RCH 27, 2019
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he night my first Daily article ran, I found myself sleepless, so I popped on some sneakers and went for a jog under the midnight moon. There isn’t anything quite like the sensation of running in Ann Arbor after dark, I learned that night. Sprinting north up Washtenaw Avenue, all five lanes will be devoid of traffic while 20-foothigh traffic lamps and the glass-paneled biomedical complex tower over you. Crossing the Broadway Bridge south into Kerrytown, you can see the Medical Center shine atop a hill in the distance, and hear the black river water gurgle beneath your feet. At 6 a.m. the morning after, I giddily hopped out of bed and finagled a newly-arrived copy of The Daily from the Markley Residence Hall newsstand while still in my pajamas, and read my piece below the fold of the front page. Then I read it again, and then again, absorbing my own words from the raggedy newsprint paper before me, searching for some sense of attainment. There was a magic in seeing the event I had covered — a campus visit by an alum-turned-congressman — translated to words on a Google Doc, and then transcribed to newsprint, printed out 10,000 times and dispersed around the city. Yet at the same time, I somehow felt I hadn’t yet done enough. There were so many stories to be written, so much more to be achieved. This sense of insecurity has been pervasive during my four years in Ann Arbor. It has manifested itself as a constant
Deputy Editors Matthew Harmon Shannon Ors
Designers Liz Bigham Kate Glad Copy Editors Miriam Francisco Madeline Turner
Photo Editor Annie Klusendorf Editor in Chief Maya Goldman Managing Editor Finntan Storer
BY BRIAN KUANG, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR and suggested we take a photo. The friend driving offered to pull aside. But by then, the barn was well behind us, swallowed behind another hill. Turning around wasn’t yet out of the question, but that would just make us late to our destination. t the end of every stage of my life, I’ve landed roughly where I’ve wanted to land, but also been swamped with new goalposts deemed necessary to reach an ever-elusive sense of satisfaction, an ultimate attainment of adulthood. Admitted to your dream school? Great, now you need to get perfect grades. Internship offer from a great company? Cool, work your heart out so you can exit to an even “better” job next summer. Enjoying your work for The Daily? Push for that ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN KUZEE one last promotion. It’s only now that I’ve realour destination a nondescript industrial park outside of Flint. ized external validation alone A line of our vehicles snaked out can never make one truly happy. As fortunate as I’ve been, I’ve of the newsroom parking lot for the hour-long drive, our cara- cast aside the fleeting moments van quickly broken up by traf- that give life its magic in the purfic lights and other cars as we suit of some grand future endgame. And then I’m left craning snaked north. Driving late at night under a my neck around, trying to make clear sky, you can see a bright out the outlines of the barn that white glow across the horizon has long since passed. After this article goes to print both in front and behind you, light pollution emanating from Tuesday night, I’ll slip on my the northern Detroit suburbs sneakers again and take advanfrom one side and from Flint on tage of the early spring. I move the other. Traveling through this out of my apartment the day of eerie zone, we passed a barn ele- graduation, so there aren’t many vated on a hillside, perfectly sil- more of these runs in Ann Arbor houetted black against the glow left for me. It’s all quite a sight along my from Flint and illuminated under jogging route, and you should a full moon and starry night. I was taken aback by the see it, too, before you leave Ann simple beauty of the structure Arbor.
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fear that I wouldn’t be “good enough,” and an overriding obsession with external accomplishments — grades, internships and the pettiest of distinctions. Any opportunity to succeed was also an opportunity to fail, and it terrified me. Arguably, this fear has helped me. In a month, I’ll be extremely fortunate to graduate and join a firm I couldn’t have dreamed of working for as a freshman. I’m also grateful for having the opportunity to pour my heart into The Daily, and to leave with a student newspaper career I can be proud of. Yet, I also feel like that freshman reading his firstever Daily article — I’ve accomplished what I wanted, but now what? Four years later, I still feel short of that final attainment
I tried to find in the Markley lobby. Over these same four years, my late-night runs across town allowed me a regular escape into my own thoughts — away from others and my anxieties. It’s during these runs that I felt most at home in Ann Arbor. ne night each December, The Daily’s graduating seniors finish production early, then drive to the industrial printer where we source the printed newspapers that plop in Ann Arbor’s morning newsstands. Over the years, this tradition has become the fabled culmination of each graduating class’ years of labor. I and four others merrily clambered into one of the cars making this midnight journey,
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IN DESIGN:
embracing the identity of a designer BY LIZ BIGHAM, STATEMENT DESIGNER My first experience with graphic design was in seventh grade, recklessly using Adobe Photoshop to cut out blurry photos of volleyball players for my middle school newspaper. In my ninth grade journalism class, my first Adobe Illustrator assignment consisted of inserting a picture of Nick Jonas and splattering paint and blades of grass around him. Now here I am today, building on the skills I first started developing in seventh grade, as a designer for The Michigan Daily. I truly thought my journalism career was going to end after high school. After years of being an editor for my high school’s weekly newspaper, I was worn out from dealing with the controlling high school administration and late Monday nights at school. However, when I got to college, I felt myself yearning for the chaos of the newsroom. My retirement from journalism lasted a mere four months because, by the end of September, I applied and was accepted as a layout designer for The Daily. I chose to continue with the design aspect of journalism because it is what I know and like best. During high school, I can shamelessly admit I devoted most of my efforts towards improving my paper’s design as opposed to the writing. A newspaper with strong design differentiates itself from others and leads people to read the stories inside. When I say I am on The Michi-
gan Daily staff, people assume I must be a writer. After clarifying I am on The Daily’s design section and getting an excited reaction, I feel like people look at me differently. They assume I am artistic. Although I am a graphic designer, I can say without hesitation that I have never considered myself an artist. I think that is why I didn’t give up on journalism when coming to college — I wanted to continue to call myself a designer, a label I would never hold if I never practiced graphic design. It brings me such confidence to be associated with an identity that consists of such creative, unique and inspiring individuals. Most of the graphic design I do is layout. When I come in to design on Tuesdays, I first get a sense of the stories, photos and graphics I will be working with for the issue. Most of my time is spent brainstorming how I plan to arrange the elements in an organized and interesting way. After that, it is all about execution. I don’t think of myself as creating, but rather presenting other people’s art. This is why I don’t consider myself an artist. Artists start from scratch and use their creativity to create something expressive. For me, I am given other people’s work — usually articles — and display their writing in an appealing way. I feel an obligation to do everything in my power to make sure their writing is read and appreciated by those who pick up the newspaper.
ILLUSTRATION BY LIZ BIGHAM
A layout designer’s work can easily go unnoticed because we don’t get an explicit credit next to the work we do, unlike writers and illustrators. There is a lot of effort behinds the scenes. So much skill and diligence comes with knowing how to utilize Adobe’s software as well as coming up with a variance of design styles to complement each story. The work never gets boring. I have been doing this for more than five years and still learn more about graphic design every time I open up an Adobe product. Sometimes when the design section is in urgent need of an illustration, my editors will ask, “I know you are on layout, but do you make illustrations?” and I quickly say no. Contrary to what I tell them, I do create my own graphics — very rarely. I don’t lie because I don’t want to make one, but because my graphics are not good enough to be published in The Daily. Like I said earlier, I am not an artist and am not good at starting from scratch. Portraits are the one exception of art I can do because it is remaking what is already there, which usually consists of me tracing over a picture of a celebrity I get from the internet. I simply transform a photo into a graphic without anything new being created. The illustration above was the first graphic I ever made that wasn’t meant for a publication. I remember seeing a photo of the model and actress Cara Delevingne on Instagram and immedi-
ately thinking I wanted to attempt to recreate the photo on Illustrator. After using yet another fake email to get a free trial of Adobe and watching hours of Youtube tutorials on how to properly contour skin tones, draw eyelashes and mimic bushy eyebrows, I had my design complete. I never did anything with it besides showing a couple of friends. I didn’t even save it on my computer. A screenshot on my phone is the only evidence of the graphic I spent weeks on. As the slight blurriness of the graphic shows, I did not really care about keeping the graphic because I did not plan on doing anything with it. I didn’t think it was particularly good. However, it is a great representation of my progression as a designer and is now being printed on a newspaper distributed all around Ann Arbor. I am self-conscious just thinking about it. I still don’t think it’s good. Regardless of how hard I can be on myself, I am extremely grateful to my younger self for sticking with graphic design. Having an eye for what is visually appealing is such a gift that can be utilized in all aspects of life. Most importantly, being a graphic designer has introduced me to a group of like-minded individuals with the same interests as me. There is nothing I love more than bouncing ideas off other designers and talking about our favorite fonts. I could talk about fonts all day.
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Wednesday, March 27. 2019 // The Statement
Clearing the in-betweens: Navigating accessibility during winter maintenance BY ERIKA SHEVCHEK, DAILY ARTS WRITER bumpy blocks placed at the beginning and ends of sidewalks used for visually-impaired people. But regardless of the minor obstacles I may face, that experience does not equate to those who can’t pass through at all. Mike Heinrich is an advocate for Americans with Disabilities Act rights and is someone who experiences setbacks while commuting around Ann Arbor. Mike is also member of the advocacy and community group Disability Culture at the University of Michigan — also known as DC @ U-M. Two Snow-blocked tactile block and curb ramp on South U. and years ago, Heinrich was Church, 8:00 AM paralyzed by a dead tree alking home on the University’s campus that fell on him. from down- Now as a quadriplegic, he seeks to educate town Ann himself and the community on ADA policies, Arbor last month, I watched regulations and violations. More importantly, an elderly couple clutch- Heinrich openly speaks of his experience and ing one another, walking struggles with being a quadriplegic, especially Image of a snow-covered tactile block at a crosswalk on Hill and Olivia at 12:20 PM carefully and diligently to during winter. “Winter used to be my favorite season … this avoid falling on the slippery sidewalks. The man used his year, with each snow storm after snow storm, I cane for as much support as possible, realized that when I was trying to get out and and the woman held onto his arm for do things, I couldn’t be independent with the more balance. I was only 20 feet behind walkways not being taken care of,” said Heinthem when suddenly, I was swept off my rich in an interview with The Daily. Though feet and landed on the asphalt of S. 4th his parents could drive him and drop him off Street. I hoped that the couple did not places Heinrich mentioned the difficulty of also experience a similar fate, falling finding handicap spots along the road that are clear of snow pile-ups and accessible. from the same black ice. For those who are able-bodied, a few inches It’s inevitable that living in Ann Arbor –– a Midwest city where winters feel like of snow is manageable –– surely a nuisance, but eons –– comes with horrific snow, ice bearable. But what happens for those with disand sleet storms. Nonetheless, as a city abilities whose wheels, white canes, crutches, whose prime modes of transportation walkers and other commuter accessories can’t include walking, biking and bus-riding, cross the street or feel tactile blocks? They the need for safe roads and sidewalks cannot safely or efficiently get to where they during winter conditions is inarguable. need to go. A few inches of snow or a thin sheet In addition to safety, accessibility on of ice could change their entire day. Traveling via wheelchair and handicap van, campus and within the city is another priority. Noting the high population of Heinrich’s experience commuting outside is pedestrians and bikers in Ann Arbor is highly dependent on weather. If it’s snowing essential when considering the main- or raining, he most likely won’t even go outtenance of our sidewalks, crosswalks, side. This is due to the difficulty of traveling ramps, streets and curbs. In my own through snow and puddles, not to mention the experience navigating public walkways, difficulty of pushing his wheels with cold, wet Sidewalk on Washtenaw and S. Forest shoveled just big enough for I’ve been lucky to overlook obstacles hands. a bike tire, 4:32 PM “We (the disabled community) are directly like deep puddles, slippery sidewalks and snow-piled tactile blocks –– the red, affected by what happens on those sidewalks,”
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Heinrich said. “Not even just handicap people: The reality is no one should have to deal with that.” Since being paralyzed, Heinrich has devoted much of his time to speaking with city and campus administrators about Ann Arbor’s lack of accessibility. Many of his arguments address non-ADA approved doors, entrances, ramps, sidewalks, elevators, parking and bathrooms. However, winter maintenance and accessibility isn’t as easy as changing door handles to be ADA-approved. Improving the maintenance of public spaces during winter is a difficult puzzle with an array of pieces –– it begins with a closer examination of all the moving parts between city regulations and resources. A solution would require the rigorous efforts and collaboration with the city, outsourced companies, landlords, the U-M grounds crew, University students and Ann Arbor residents. nn Arbor Code of Ordinances, Chapter 4 Section 58 A. “Sidewalk Maintenance” states, “all sidewalks within the city shall be kept and maintained in good repair by the owner of the land … if any owner shall neglect to keep and maintain the sidewalk … safe for the use of the public, the said owner shall be liable to the city for any damages … by reason of said sidewalk being unsafe and out of repair.” Further down in the section, it reads, “‘Sidewalk’ does not include curb ramps … that is both adjacent to the top edge of one or more curb ramps and at the corner of a property.” Essentially, street corners where tactile blocks and curb ramps are a few feet apart are not considered to be part of the “sidewalk.” If these spaces do not fit under the legal definition, then technically, by the language of the ordinances, it is not the property owner’s responsibility to clear it. However, Chapter 4 Section 60 #6 of the Ordinances –– titled “Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks, walks, and ramps” –– says that “compliance with this section requires making sidewalks, walks, and ramps free of snow and ice for their entire constructed width and length.” In other words, the entirety of a sidewalk and/or ramp should include the curb ramps and tactile blocks, considering that is the start to the sidewalk. Thus, the language in Section 60 contradicts the ordinance’s descriptions in Section 58 on how and where sidewalk maintenance happens. Some non-residential properties downtown can afford outsourced companies that have the machinery, staffing and finances to do an efficient job at clearing sidewalks and curb cuts. Meanwhile, some property owners manually shovel and salt on their own.
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To break down who is responsible for sidewalk maintenance and when, Section 60 states that non-residential property (downtown businesses, restaurants, etc.) will need to clear their “sidewalk” and “walks and ramps that are at bus stops or that lead to marked or unmarked crosswalks” by noon that day if snow is accumulated prior to 6 a.m. If a property is residential, the owner has “24 hours after the end of each accumulation of snow greater than 1 inch” to do the same. Not only do non-residential businesses have six hours to clear their sidewalks and ramps, but residential properties have a whole 24 hours. For
of ordinances. Rogers explained that if a property does not do their maintenance procedure by noon on the day of a storm and there ends up being a complaint from a citizen, a representative from Community Standards will come to investigate the property. If their property is in violation, Community Standards will give a warning (allowed one per season). If the violation is not treated after warning, Community Standards will come again, fine the property and fix the maintenance issue that was initially reported. That property may then receive a civil infraction ticket that is “no more than $100.00” according to Section 4:60 #11. These fines can grow in numbers up to $1000 if violations are further ignored. Luckily, representatives from Community Standards are the ones who come solve the issue, but only if someone in the community makes the complaint. Otherwise, they simply hope city residents are following protocol. And to make matters more complicated, Rogers said even when they do come, it’s not always a smooth or fast process. By the time a report is made, faxed over to the office, sent out to a driver and maintenance person and someone finally arrives at the scene, the situation could have grown worse, with more snow or ice further aggravating the original problem. Additionally, while Community Standards does fix the city’s problems, they don’t always have the staff or funds to be as efficient and effective as they’d like to be: “(We are) too understaffed to always be proactive,” Rogers said. These winter maintenance problems, however, should not fall on the shoulders of the Community Standards organization. Though I am grateful for Community Standard’s assistance to clear sidewalks, the concept of treatment is not as powerful as prevention. Treatment implies a long chain of events that relies on many external moving parts to help resolve the issues. Meanwhile, preventing the problems is set at the beginning: the initial action of shoveling and salting. The concerns are embedded within text and action: what the ordinances demand of its citizens and how and if its citizens are complying. Though some of the policy language feels vague, confusing and almost hypocritical upon reading (see: curb ramps not being considered part of the sidewalk), it doesn’t excuse the community to settle into inaccessible practices. These are spaces that commuters use all day, every day, and hence, they should be prioritized for winter maintenance.
“‘Do you know how much salt it would take for campus to never be slippery during an ice storm?’” those commuting by 9 a.m. the morning of a snowfall, they cannot afford to wait until noon or even the next day to ensure safe conditions for travel. If everybody is doing their part and following the policies set by the city, why do we still have so many winter maintenance problems? The answer is simple, harsh and true: We, as a community are failing to meet the necessary standards for the disabled community. That’s where Community Standards comes in. Community Standards is a unit in the Ann Arbor Police Department that has a “primary responsibility to enforce the city codes and ordinances that protect the public health, welfare and safety of the residents.” A2 Fix It is an app that allows community members to “report locations which may be in violation of the city snow removal ordinance.” From there, Community Standards staff will “perform an inspection,” and if the property or area does propose a violation, “they will then inspect all addresses” within the appropriate block “to ensure equitable treatment.” Jessie Rogers, Community Standards supervisor, discussed with me the logistics of their winter maintenance procedures and the code
See CLEARING, Page 6B
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 // The Statement
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Person walking over snow-piled curb cut and tactile due to snow widening on South University, 8:05 AM
Snow-covered path in the Law Quad, 8:00 AM ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ERIKA SHEVCHEK
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Wednesday, March 27, 2019// The Statement
From Page 5B Despite that initial first plow, Doletzky shared that “widening and moving snow takes days.” It becomes even more difficult if a snow or ice storm starts mid-day or later in the evening. His crew members can sometimes work up to 16 hours a day to get everything cleared, and the services have off-shift people on call for the hospital to clear entrances and sidewalks. To dive further into accessibility on campus, Doletzky and the Office of Services for Students with are PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIKA SHEVCHEK Disabilities looking to find out Unshoveled sidewalk on Hill Street between Church and S. Forest, 12:20pm. where it is exactly Understandably, major-scale winter that people need help when it comes to maintenance is difficult for both the commuting around campus and knowing University’s campus and the city of Ann their routes. “We’ve worked together with the Arbor. Nonetheless, the enviroments are wildly different. Downtown and off- Office of SSD,” Doletsky said. “We pricampus properties are given policies oritize ADA entrances first, like ramps that need to be followed by each indi- … Just one barrier to get into a building vidual property owner, meanwhile Uni- can stop people (with disabilities) from versity of Michigan Custodial & Grounds going in.” Additionally, he clarified that the grounds services are responsible Services has teams of hired staff. “It’s a lot of moving parts, and people for maintaining any tactile blocks and don’t always understand the work we put crosswalks that are on campus. Despite in,” said Rob Doletzky, the University’s a persistent and organized University landscape and grounds manager, when grounds crew, uncontrollable weather speaking about the laborious work of becomes a main setback in their operaclearing 168 miles of sidewalk each sea- tions, and pristine tactile blocks, sideson. “Some of this (winter maintenance) walks and crosswalks may not always be promised. is timing.” “It’s pretty rare for someone to say He went on to tell me an example of how his team will clear a sidewalk that good job to us,” he said. Regardless of borders campus and the city. The city the hard work and the long hours that then goes through the street and plows the crew does put in, there are commutit, but when they widen the snow to make ers who still complain, not understandstreets more clear, it creates a ridge that ing the ins and outs of the operation. To goes into the curb cuts, hence creating a extend their services even further, they “created volunteer groups with students snow pile. Doletzky explained that the team’s job who now get paid.” “They go out to curb is difficult because they work against the cuts and ramps that need more mainteweather: “The weather throws curve- nance,” Doletzky said. During the interview, he reminded balls,” he said. If snow is accumulating for a long period of time, it can take me of Ann Arbor’s four ice storms that Rob’s team “four to five hours just to get happened in just four weeks this winthrough each route.” The grounds ser- ter. With the constant effort to eliminate vices team splits up into different zones: slippery walkways, it would be almost East Campus, North Campus, Medical impossible for everything to be ice-free. “Do you know how much salt it would Campus, Central Campus and South Campus. With 16 parking structures, 21 take for campus to never be slippery durmiles of roads and 11 miles of steps and ing an ice storm?” he asked me over the handicap ramps, the responsibility to phone. I was afraid to hear the answer. “3,000 tons of salt for one day,” clear these spaces is never-ending.
Doletzky said. “That’s how much salt we use in one season.” Additionally, through drainage and debris becomes a salt brine mixture that drifts into the Huron River and pollutes it. “The better job we do, there is an expectation that rises,” Doletzky said. More complaints plus more effort from the crew equals more equipment, materials and labor. In those scenarios where tons of machine energy and salt brine are being used, it becomes an negative, enviromental impact that is solely used to satisfy commuters and ensure safety on campus. There is still a question of where the happy medium lies: How do we get enough snow plowed and shoveled that it isn’t overly laborious on workers or environmentally harmful, but is still accessible enough for the disabled community? These questions regarding winter maintenance and accessibility seem to become more multi-faceted and challenging each step of the way. For those like Heinrich who eagerly need an active solution, the answers become frustrating and fuzzy. Pieces that are clear and understandable, however, are awareness and effort from all. t is an unspoken truth that winter in Ann Arbor will never be trouble-free. As Doletzky mentioned, even if sidewalks are pristine after cleaning and re-assuring its accessibility for five hours, city snow plows can still come through at night and dump all that snow onto what once were snow-free sidewalks. There will be situations where sidewalks freeze, and someone will not be home until 5 p.m. to salt their sidewalk. These are all minor yet impactful situations that inevitably happen. Unfortunately, they become cyclical habits that we become accustomed to as a community. Toward the end of our interview, I asked Heinrich what he thinks the solution to all of this is. “It’s just people giving a shit,” Heinrich answered. After an hour and half interview, I could hear exhaustion in his voice. “People need to be less ignorant.” “It’s all about universal accessibility,” he continued. “If you can make it good for people who are disabled, you can make it even better for everyone else.” There isn’t exactly one answer or practice that will eradicate these issues. Factors like staffing, funding, timing, environmental impacts and overall communication are key barriers in this situation. But what we know are the facts: Commuters with disabilities can’t get to their destination during winter, the city ordinances aren’t ideal for accessibility expectations and organizing the University grounds crew involves a complex system of considerations, and more moving parts than one may expect. And there are pieces to this puzzle that are held in the community’s hands.
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Ann Arbor is commonly known for its progressive, liberal and open-minded nature. A place for leaders and the best with a highly-ranked position for higher-education institutions, artistic pursuits and athletics, the University is used to coming out on top. These practices of winter maintenance accessibility, however, don’t nearly fit the progressive model that the community tries to represent. Heinrich describes his experience of inaccessibility with a metaphor of Hatcher Graduate Library and its architectural design: “The front entrance of Hatcher is a frame for the University,” he said. “It has these steps to go upwards, to gain access to knowledge and intelligence. And there’s a wheelchair ramp on the side … but the reality is that is not accessible. There is literally a sign that says ‘Not accessible by wheelchair.’” “If you actually want to access the building (in a wheelchair), you have to go all the way around back to the one entrance,” Heinrich continued. “And that is such a physical manifestation of what this University has to say about accessibility: It’s not a priority. It’s show and tell.” As a campus that ignited a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative for the “assurance of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all persons in our community,” it’s clear after hearing Heinrich’s story and the story of so many others, the University is not granting that equal opportunity for all people in the community. Only when we begin to acknowledge and understand those who have difficulty accessing this city and campus, can we then take a step forward in our practices towards a truly inclusive DEI initiative. Only when we decide to sit down and discuss more effective winter maintenance operations with the city administrators, can we then take a step forward in our practices toward a truly inclusive DEI initiative. Only when we decide to shovel/salt just a few extra feet of pavement–– the tactile-blocks, curb cuts and all of the in-betweens –– can we then take a step forward in our practices toward a truly inclusive DEI initiative. Whether you’re a student, faculty member, a business person, a townie or an elderly couple walking to your car downtown, we are all vital pieces to this solution. While Heinrich still seeks a better future for the disabled community, he believes in a more accessible and more enjoyable city for everyone: “We need to better our city for everybody and recognize that you (the city) have the ability to set better rules,” he said. “It’s not just, ‘How do we make a better downtown for people who are disabled?’ but ‘How do we make winter downtown a more enjoyable experience for everyone?’”
Wednesday,January March 16, 27, 2019 2019 // // The The Statement Statement Wednesday,
The freedom of a fake account
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BY ANDIE HOROWITZ, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
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y most liked picture on Instagram is from the day I got into college. The photo features me walking down Hill Street past Ross on game day, decked out in Michigan apparel. My head is turned to face the camera, offering a subtle closed-mouth smile. The caption read a simple, yet clever, “going blue.” The post was fitting for the moment — I had dreamed of getting into the University of Michigan since I was a little girl. This picture perfectly, yet at the same time, nonchalantly, tried to capture the emotion of my acceptance. It looked natural. It looked effortless. It was neither of those things. I spent the beginning half of my high school years dreaming of what I would post if I got in. After I spending [COPY: “I spent” or just “After spending”] too much time thinking about it, I meticulously crafted the cool, calm and collected caption that would go along with the meticulously chosen picture. It was strategically crafted for an audience — my Instagram followers— a random collection of friends, family and acquaintances who have access to my “life in pictures.” But it wasn’t real. Instead, my fake Instagram account
secured with a black and white filter. The post was a cry for help out of my inherent awkwardness. The caption read: “so i know saying go blue at random people wearing michigan stuff is most definitely a thing but it’s happened so many times today and i genuinely don’t know what to do back. i freeze up every time. i forget that i have hands and they flail and my voice sounds like a broken cat it’s really cute” The picture took one second to take. The caption took three to write. Instead of spending hours tirelessly trying to construct the perfect post, I showed my 50 followers who I actually was. In general, I don’t consider myself to be cool, but in those few days I was especially not calm. When I was being berated with spirit by strangers, I couldn’t even begin to consider myself collected. I was an awkward, excited mess, overwhelmed with good news and anxious for what the future would bring. My Finsta post showed that version of me. It was genuine. It was real. Finstagram is a fairly new conILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL cept that came to my area when (Finstagram for short) painted the real I was a freshman in high school. Instastory. Finstagrams are people’s second gram itself created a platform in which private accounts. They often sport a lim- people carefully create an identity to ited number of followers, with the pur- display to their followers, allowing for pose of this being to cap posts’ audience users to pick and choose what they want to the people the user knows and trusts. their peers to see through their posts. It Since the content of these accounts is was fueled by both pressure and a need to made to display embarrassing moments, stand out. It promotes the chance to try it was the perfect platform for me to rant to be as physically and aesthetically perabout the antics of my experience after I fect as possible, as followers can’t really see how much time is spent on a post. got into the University. Instagram identities are not real idenIt was tradition to wear college apparel the day after a senior commits to a school, tities, and many girls were done with fakand I wanted to show I was proud of what ing it. So in direct backlash to Instagram’s I had achieved. I wore a U-M hat, a U-M pressure to fabricate, the fake Instagram shirt and U-M socks to school. What I (Finsta for short) [COPY: partway down didn’t realize — yet in retrospect, prob- the first page she writes “fake Instagram ably should’ve — was that my hometown (Finstagram for short) so the repeated was infested with U-M alumni, always structure here seems a bit repetitive. eager and ready to shout “Go Blue!” at Maybe just “the Finsta was born” cuz the any passerby sporting apparel. Random reader already knows what a Finsta is at people screaming at me was not an action this point] was born. Primary Instagram accounts allow I was mentally prepared for. In light of this, that day I posted a insight into the user’s life for the purpicture on my Finsta. My eyes were hid- pose of intriguing people who don’t den by my left hand pulling my hat as far know them better, while Finsta serves [COPY: Finstas serve? I’ve only down on my face. My teeth were pressed together, with my lips pulled back to heard people talk about Finstas in terms illustrate just how uncomfortable I was. of Finsta accounts, not “Finstagram” as a The intense mood of the situation was whole] as a form of updating people who
do. Finsta handles can range from being named after an inside joke with friends to a funny play-on-words of the user’s name. They’re quirky. They’re weird. They’re playful. Mine is named after my favorite rapper, while some of my friends’ usernames consist of weird declarations like @iwantsome_mashedpotatoes. The content on these accounts is constant. While I have been posting less and less recently due to a lack of free time, my Finsta was a platform for me to vent almost every day during my junior and senior year of high school. With stress induced by school, parents and sometimes even my friends, my account served as an outlet where I can let go. While Instagram showed me enjoying my “perfect” junior summer at the beach, looking as carefree as possible, my Finsta displayed the evident struggle behind the scenes. Instead of taking advantage of the weather, I was cooped up in my town’s dull and cold library. All that was on my mind was finishing assignment after assignment. My Finsta followers understood this truth, with me writing: “school hasn’t even started and it already fully consumes me. just when i thought i could celebrate for finishing parts of summer work i remembered that lang and italian still are fully dwelling over my head. i swear lang is going to swallow me whole” It was a popular sentiment that my surrounding rising seniors were relating to as well. That post received comments that reassured me I wasn’t alone in the process, and in a way, that was enough. That’s what the Finsta community is all about. It pains me that we live in an era where our social media presence has such a large impact on how others perceive us. We’re reminded to always look good in our posts, but not like we’re trying too hard. Make sure the picture is natural, and that there’s a good setting to fit the mood. Never forget the perfect caption to show everyone just how witty we are, but not too witty — it makes us look weird if the caption seems too thought out. Do this, do that. Be this, be that. It’s too limiting. Instead of limiting myself, I found a platform that lacks restrictions and unsaid yet strictly followed rules. Maybe one day, I’ll let myself [COPY: be/feel?] completely free and delete my primary account in general, but for now, my Finstagram makes me feel liberated. It sets me free from the useless pressure I feel to fit the wanted stereotype archetype. My Finsta inspires my real identity.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2019 // The Statement
VISUAL STATEMENT BY SARAH KUNKEL:
THE PEOPLE’S FOOD CO-OP OF ANN ARBOR
THE PEOPLE’S FOOD CO-OP OF ANN ARBOR ORIGINALLY OPENED AS A GRADUATE STUDENT PROJECT AT THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK IN 1971 AS A WAY FOR LOW INCOME INDIVIDUALS TO GET FRESH, HEALTHY FOOD. DECADES LATER, IT CONTINUES TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY.
THE PEOPLE’S FOOD CO-OP AIMS TO CONNECT THE COMMUNITY TO GOOD FOOD PRODUCED WITH BOTH SUSTAINABILITY & ACCESSIBILITY IN MIND, PRIORITIZING PRODUCTS THAT ARE GROWN WITHIN 300 MILES OF ANN ARBOR.
THE CO-OP ALSO OFFERS A VARIETY OF COOKING CLASSES AND FOOD LECTURES TO EDUCATE AND INFORM THE COMMUNITY ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY AND CLEAN EATING.