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ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

“In-State”: A reflection on the U.P., its

students and the University of Michigan the

statement ANN ARBOR

Issues with water draws conflict with 2 A landlord Tenants recount problems dealing with manager of Carlson Properties

ASHA LEWIS/DAILY Students and Ann Arbor residents enjoy Springfest, the annual festival organized by MUSIC Matters to showcase the best of what the University and Ann Arbor have to offer at the corner of State Street and North University Tuesday.

SpringFest showcases live music, local arts, student organizations

Festival features more than 65 student organziations and Ann Arbor businesses HANNAH MACKAY Daily Staff Reporter

Tuesday afternoon, MUSIC Matters hosted their annual SpringFest, a festival of live performances, art installations and dozens of local and University

showcases. SpringFest was held alongside State Street and North University Avenue, which were closed down for the duration of the event. Attendees enjoying longawaited warm weather walked among food trucks, exhibitions and tables from more than 65

student organizations and local businesses while listening to continuous live music. SpringFest Chair Anuksha Singh, Business senior, said MUSIC Matters went into the year with ambitious goals for the daytime festival, which is actually only one part of

SpringFest — the event also includes a nighttime concert, which this year featured rapper A$AP Ferg. Singh remarked on a desire to continuously expand the event, involving and attracting more people. See MUSIC, Page 3A

RACHEL LEUNG Daily Staff Reporter

Housing disputes tend to be between a landlord and a tenant, but in LSA junior Samantha Goldstein’s and her roommates’ case, their disagreement found them allied with their landlord and fighting against their neighbor’s landlord. Now, Goldstein and her landlord, Kaveh Esmael, are speaking out about their neighbor’s abusive proprietor. Goldstein and her six roommates live in a house on South University Avenue between Walnut and Linden streets, about a five-minute walk from campus. On March 25, Goldstein and her

roommates notified Esmael, their landlord, that their water had stopped working and their basement had f looded. Esmael, manager of Ava Holdings LLC, checked on their property. He suspected the problem was larger than just a plumbing issue and called the Ann Arbor Public Works Department. According to Esmael, an Ann Arbor Public Works employee, whose name Esmael could not remember, responded to the property. The city employee determined the water main line had burst, but it also needed to be replaced due to the 2018 revised Lead and Copper Rule. See LANDLORD, Page 3A

Outgoing VP Jack Hu looks back on PD Soros Sierra Club fellowship career overseeing research at ‘U’ hosts talk

ACADEMICS

awarded to grad student Cherline Bazile receives prestigious scholarship to pursue higher degree LIAT WEINSTEIN Daily Staff Reporter

Rackham student Cherline Bazile won the 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, making her one of 30 students across the country to be selected for the scholarship. The PD Soros Fellowship offers $90,000 to high-achieving immigrants or children of immigrants to pursue a graduate degree in any field of study in the United States. Since its founding in 1997, 12 University of Michigan graduates have been selected for the award. Bazile, who was raised by Haitian immigrants in Florida, earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Harvard University before coming to the University. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and is in the process of writing a novel. Bazile said she is grateful for the support system that helped give her strength to succeed, especially because systemic barriers like poverty and lack of opportunity often stand in the way of many immigrants or first-generation students seeking higher education. See FELLOWSHIP, Page 3A

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ANN ARBOR

After 30 years at Michigan, professor to leave for new post at University of Georgia SAYALI AMIN

Daily News Editor

S. Jack Hu is the current vice president for research at the University of Michigan, but will be joining the University of Georgia as its next vice president for academic affairs and provost beginning July 1. Hu has spent the past 30 years at Michigan, first as a masters and doctoral student (’86, ’90), then as a faculty member. He is a J. Reid and Polly Anderson professor of manufacturing, professor of mechanical engineering and professor of industrial and operations engineering. Prior to his role as vice president for research, Hu served as the associate dean

for academic affairs and the associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Engineering. The Michigan Daily sat down for an interview with Hu to discuss his time at the University as he reflects on his academic and administrative career. The Michigan Daily: As your time at Michigan comes to an end, how do you feel? Jack Hu: I’m not completely leaving Michigan — I have a few students, I have a few active grants, so those will continue in some way. But as a graduate of the University, I will always be affiliated, associated with the University. I may be departing from here, but the University will

never leave me. TMD: In this position, what are you the most proud of while you have been here? JH: I would say I changed the culture somewhat in a number of areas. We (the Office of Research) really instilled a service attitude, and I think in our value statement we have the word ‘altruistic.’ The words we use are that we take joyful satisfaction in faculty success, so I think that really is what we do: supporting faculty, catalyzing research. I think Michigan has done well as the top public research university for seven years in a row, in spite of challenges with uncertainty in federal support for research.

We tried to diversify sources of funding, tried to have more support from industry, from foundations and from individuals … together, the University has done well. The reputation is always excellent, other universities — big and small, good and not so good, they all come to Michigan to benchmark. Whether we’re doing the right thing or not, people come to us, but I think we are doing the right things. Maintaining that leadership role as the top public research university, of course credit goes to faculty. If they’re not writing grants, they’re not doing research — we would not be as successful. See RESEARCH, Page 3A

on PFAS in Michigan

Presentation analyzes ongoing crisis caused by chemical contamination JIALIN ZHANG

Daily Staff Reporter

On Tuesday, the Huron Valley Group of the Sierra Club hosted a presentation at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens Auditorium addressing the per- and polyfluoroalkyl crisis in Michigan. The presentation featured Christy McGillivray, Great Lakes state organizer for the Sierra Club, and Brian Steglitz, manager of water treatment services for the city of Ann Arbor. The presentation began with McGillivray defining PFAS and identifying its properties and uses. Known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS is a class of chemicals that is waterproof, greaseproof and fireproof. They are often found in industrial and consumer products such as fire fighting foam, non-stick cookware and stain-resistant fabrics. McGillivray then discussed the health risks associated with PFAS, such as cancer and immune system weakening.

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Opinion

4A — Wednesday, April 17, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ANONYMOUS | OP-ED

Survivors Speak: Life as a male sexual assault victim

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CAROLINE LLANES | COLUMN

Mind, body, boats

e’re four months very comfortable mattress pad into the year now, — turns out, your back needs a time by which support at night when you sleep! It was tough, the majority of but I left rowing people have shed behind, and since the shackles of I was no longer a their New Year’s competitive athlete, resolutions. One I had to change my common resolution relationship to food that’s probably been as well. abandoned by now I no longer is losing weight, needed thousands whether it’s five pounds or 50. I’ve CAROLINE and thousands of calories at every made countless New LLANES meal, and as it Year’s resolutions, but I’ve never explicitly made happens, I wasn’t hungry for one about weight loss. This is them. I adjusted to dining hall interesting considering the food, and having access to that contentious and tumultuous food at nearly all hours. As relationship with my body quickly as I gained weight when and my own weight, which I started rowing, I lost that for a very long time now I’ve weight when I got to college. never really talked about There would be days where with anyone. Let’s see if I can all I would have was a glass of cranberry juice and some explain it here. In high school, I rowed fruit snacks, and others where competitively. We had practice I would have three full meals for two to three hours a day, in the dining hall. Food was six days of the week. Every no longer fuel, so it had little day before practice, we did value to me. I ate when I was a mile-long warm-up run, hungry, and sometimes I’d just accompanied by sets of 50 to forget with my busy schedule. 100 squats, jumpies, sit-ups, Yet, once I moved off campus, push-ups, jumping jacks and I realized that cooking was everything in between. We not only necessary, but fun. I rowed in boats on the water love trying new recipes, seeing most days, but one day a week what works and what doesn’t, was set aside as our “land experimenting with spices and day.” On land days, we would f lavors. Most of all, I love how row on a machine, also called communal cooking is. I love an erg, and do weights, often cooking with my boyfriend, accompanied by a timed run. having friends over and In short: It was a lot of work, cooking meals for them, just and we had to eat accordingly. making other people happy. In high school, it felt like I But unfortunately, the journey was hungry all the time. I had doesn’t end here, as I have a 64-ounce water bottle that confronted more obstacles on I would drink in its entirety the road to happiness with and then refill throughout the my diet. It is a struggle to find school day. I had a big lunch, a balance for myself that is accompanied by frequent healthy in every facet. snacks throughout the day so I could fuel up for practice later on. I’d come home from practice, and I would be starving. I would eat as much as I possibly could for dinner, then later on, I’d have a snack as I did homework. I saw food as fuel, and it was — it got me where I needed to go, and sustained my body as I put it through hell. I gained a ton of weight the year I started rowing, all of it muscle: I felt I have been lucky enough great, I felt strong and I felt like I was finally happy with to experience rowing from dimensions. A my body because I was putting multiple it through the impossible, crucial part of any boat is the and it not only survived, but coxswain, a smaller person who sits either in the bow or thrived. This happiness wouldn’t stern of the boat. The coxswain last long. My senior year, I is responsible for steering, sustained a lower back injury directing practice, running and coaching the through a combination of drills overuse and overcompensating rowers, whether that’s giving for weak ankles from my years them motivation or making of middle school soccer. I am corrections on their form the first to admit that I did not and technique. When I got to handle my injury the way that the University of Michigan, I I should have. I prioritized joined the men’s rowing team rowing through the pain over as a coxswain on a whim, just taking time to heal out of fear to see what it was like. If I of being seen as weak or lazy. hated it, I’d quit, and if I liked My back never fully healed, it, great. After not rowing and I still deal with pain today. for a whole summer, being Some days are better than back in a boat was thrilling. others, and I’ve learned to deal It made me realize just what with it, mostly by buying a I missed so much about the

Recently, it seems that every calorie I eat is accompanied by an omnipresent sense of guilt

sport, and it gave me a second home on campus, a family and teammates who had my back. And here was where I started changing my relationship to food yet again. Coxswains are small. It’s a part of the job description. They’re shorter than their rowers, and weigh anywhere from 90 to 130 pounds, and have to fit into the tiny seats built for them in various boats. Certain races even have weight minimums for coxswains, where they weigh in and are given bags of sand to make up for missing weight. For example, if a race’s minimum weight for coxswains is 120 pounds, a coxswain who weighs 110 will have to carry 10 pounds of sand. It’s all very technical and a part of the rules of racing, a completely normal part of the sport. It’s also a source of near constant stress for me. I am not a large person by any means, but at five-footsix, I am the tallest female coxswain on the team. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty details of my weight in this column, but let’s just say it’s something I struggle with when I’m forced to confront my weight on a near weekly basis, all while reminiscing on my time as a tan, muscular, powerful high school athlete. Recently, it seems that every calorie I eat is accompanied by an omnipresent sense of guilt: What will I weigh in at if I eat this sandwich? If I skip lunch? If I go to yoga twice this week, can I eat these jelly beans? What about water weight? How much can I sweat out? Now, is this a healthy attitude to take? Probably not. But I’m not sure what else to do. I love to cook and I love to eat, but right now I feel guilty for enjoying it. I feel like I have to sacrifice because my athletes are sacrificing so much for the same sport. I don’t talk about this with anyone, and have never told anyone this whole story because I don’t want anyone to worry. People think I’m chill, laid back and go with the flow. I’m the coxswain who loves to cook, not obsessed with weight at all. I don’t have all the answers. I have to admit that I don’t know how to have a healthy relationship with my body, the food I eat and the sport I love. I’m so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people who love and support me, and make sure that I’m treating myself with care and respect and want me to be healthy, because I know others don’t receive this same support. I have a long way to go before I find that place where I’m happy and healthy and confident with my weight, my body and my place on my team, but just by writing this, by processing my own emotions on the subject, I feel like I’ve taken steps in the right direction. Caroline Llanes can be reached at cmllanes@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

it’s what she wants, almost daring me to claim that my desires are as important as hers. Therapy helps, but a lot of the pain, a lot of the struggle is the everyday anxiety. I’ll just be out at Potbelly Sandwich Shop by myself, eating lunch before my afternoon classes, and suddenly, I’m transported back to that night. Smelling her perfume transports my mind into that fight or f light response. Post traumatic stress disorder is not a simple disease that you can just ignore occasionally. You live with it; it becomes a part of you. Through therapy, you learn to “make the beast beautiful,” but even then, it never goes away. You learn to live with it.

t was a couple years ago, with my then high school girlfriend. She was going through a tough time — her father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness; her life turned upside down. I was there to support her in any way that I could. “Don’t worry,” I’d say. “I’m right here next to you. You aren’t gonna be alone in this.” She knew she could count on me. Mental illness got the best of her, however. Her initial sadness turned to anger and rage and frustration, grief to deep unrelenting desperation for her mind to be eased. Longing for control and quick hits of dopamine to help her through her struggles, my support became a crutch, and eventually, her addiction. I remember the day well. She had expressed she wanted to have sex. I did not. “But it’ll make me feel good,” she said, as she began to touch me. I didn’t want to. My body did what physically male bodies do when exposed to stimulus, and my courage disappeared. She did what she wanted, as my quiet objections of “No, stop” turned to only hearing her muff led moans and a “See, wasn’t that good?” when she was finished. And here I am, years later, left to pick up the pieces. It’s been a decent bit of time here, we’ve since broken up, and I’ve met an incredible, beautiful, intelligent woman with whom I’d be lucky to spend a long, long time with, who supports my struggles mentally and is patient with the occasional lapses I have with sexual dysfunction. Dysfunction takes the form of different physiological hiccups. For myself, I find it difficult to climax, as what fills a lot of my mind during sex is anxiety. I have nightmares nearly every night of this particular scene in my mind, my ex-girlfriend on top of me, telling me that

We, as men, should encourage other men to speak up, to be courageous The road is long and arduous, but it’s worth it. I find beauty in my life again. My friends, my family, all support me and my endeavors. I’m never truly alone, and I know that. Whether it’s a quick Costco run with my best friend, or a walk around campus with a couple of others, I always have someone I can talk to, to help carry the burden with me. But, once again, it’s always there. Especially at night, when I’m alone, and all I have are my thoughts. But, it’ll get better. I know it will, and I know that with work, with laughter, with intention and determination, this part of myself that I hate so thoroughly will, one

day, become an even more beautiful part of my soul. Meeting my partner was one of the most spectacular times of my life. I never thought I’d be able to have a healthy sexual relationship with a woman ever again. I still remember the night I told her what had happened to me. I was worried about what she would think or say. Once I was finished, she held me, and told me that she was there for me, and that we could be as patient with our sexual relationship as we wanted. That there was no rush, and she wasn’t with me for the sex, but because of who I am as a human. Being comforted not only physically, but emotionally, was so refreshing and changed how I viewed my own sexuality. I could be patient, and find comfort in that patience. One in six men will be sexually assaulted at some point in their life. It doesn’t make us weak or less masculine — nor should it. Rather, we, as men, should encourage other men to speak up, to be courageous, share this burden with others and to attend therapy and take medication. There is such a thing as healthy masculinity, and we can find that in our fellow men, in comforting those who are having a rough time. Seeking help in a healthy way, wanting to be better, practicing empathy and compassion and caring for each other are ways of practicing healthy masculinity. This is the fourth piece in the Survivors Speak series, which seeks to share the varied, first-person experiences of survivors of sexual assault. If you are a survivor and would like to submit to the series, please see our guidelines for submissions on our website. Though the deadline has passed, we may accept late submissions.

SAMANTHA SZUHAJ | COLUMN

When I grow up

e all do it. It’s know I am not alone. I am struggling to find a not considered a surprise for balance between focusing on most of us. But despite its my future and taking time to live in the moment. commonality, it I find it difficult is still a uniquely to allow myself to individual de-stress and enjoy experience — and an this time before intimidating one at responsibilities that. increase and more What is it, you is expected, but may ask? Growing also focus on what up. It is something is to come. As a that I always looked forward to in some SAMANTHA college student on this campus, I feel capacity as a child. SZUHAJ as though there is I wanted to be able to make my own decisions, such a fixation on the future. stay up as late as I wanted This is not a new phenomenon, and be able to watch that but rather one accelerated one show because I could. with the onset of the college There was this air of glamour admissions process. “Taking associated with being an adult this class will help you and considering yourself a prepare for this test, which “grown up,” as depicted in will look better for this the famed “13 Going on 30.” school,” the story goes. There Jennifer Garner wanted is this persistent expectation nothing more than to move for students in most schooling past the awkwardness of environments to, at a young adolescence and suddenly age, possess a keen awareness live an established lifestyle. of the “next” thing. With eyes This concept seemed ideal locked on the future, will we to me in the past, and I fail to enjoy the now? genuinely believed that the progression of growing up worked somewhat in this way. I convinced myself that one would move past all of the uncomfortable growing pains and find themselves in a position in which everything had panned out akin to one’s vision. I am now learning that the movies are unrealistic. Moving toward the summer, I find myself at a crossroads. Will I miss out on an I am nearly halfway through college. As of now, I think I opportunity because I failed know what I want to do, but to dedicate the extra time to such is seemingly as subject it? Or instead chose to pursue to change as the weather other interests? Can I find a report on my phone. The balance between managing past two years have been my own expectations and still transformative, but I also enjoy living in the moment? feel as though they have gone Am I doing enough or too in the blink of an eye. For much? I do not have the answers. me, time feels as though it is moving so quickly that I am As summer comes, classes end barely running fast enough to and the next phase begins, catch up to it. Fortunately, I I challenge myself to be OK

The next thing may not always be what I anticipate it to be

with not knowing all of the answers, but instead knowing that the next thing may not always be what I anticipate it to be. Recently, someone told me that if they could go back in time and advise a younger self, they would say to not plan life out. As someone who calendars everything, this idea terrified me. When growing up and moving into the next phase or stage of something always seemed like a priority, how could I just not plan? Would it be possible? Now, I am not saying to completely abandon an idea or plan for what you want and how you envision reaching a goal. If you find yourself in that place, that is amazing. But as I look to the final two years of college, or tackle the sometimes daunting task of applying to more job opportunities, I am going to advise myself to take hold of that notion. Sometimes one cannot plan, or anticipate, even if they believe they are following everything according to the predetermined steps they have laid out. The secret is that no one person truly has everything figured out. This is something that I have not fully wrapped my head around yet, or accepted in its entirety, but it is true. No one person has all the answers for how we can surpass the difficulties or ensure that we achieve all of the steps we predetermine that we need to take to reach our foreseen goals later on. Despite glamourizing the concept at the beginning, Jennifer Garner’s character realizes this — that growing up is not really as easy as it is depicted to be. I am going to hold on to that, and remind myself sometimes there are growing pains, regardless of age. Samantha Szuhaj can be reached at szuhajs@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 — 5A

BOOK REVIEW: SALLY ROONEY WEEK

Socialism and sociality in Rooney’s ‘Conversations’ EMILY YANG

Daily Arts Writer

Sally Rooney entered the literary scene in 2015 with “Even if You Beat Me,” a nonfiction essay published in the Dublin Review recounting her years as a champion debater. A year later, Rooney made the jump to fiction with “Mr Salary,” a short story picked up by the literary magazine Granta and quickly shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the richest prize of its kind. In 2017 Rooney released “Conversations with Friends,” her first novel chronicling the nuanced adultery that combines and recombines a couple and a pair of best friends. Rooney’s debut was met with electric praise, awarding her comparisons to both Salinger and Joyce and landing her in the VIP zone of the literary radar. For a year, we salivated. In Aug. 2018, Rooney released her sophomore novel, “Normal People,” in her home country of Ireland, where it quickly spread like rapid fire across the globe via social media and Amazon. In the short span of three years, Rooney has evolved from essayist to fiction writer to “the first great millennial novelist.” Sally Rooney got a New Yorker interview in January, told The Guardian that she “do(esn’t) respond to authority very well” and has a 10-minute YouTube video on writing and Marxism. She’s a veritable cultural event, heralded for her bare prose, biting irony and slow burn of love in the time of late capitalism. Just check out what happens when you search #normalpeople on Instagram. “Normal People” drops in the States on Tuesday, Apr. 16, and The Michigan Daily Book Review is celebrating by reviewing Rooney’s fiction career, last to first. Catch “Normal People” on the 16th, “Conversations with Friends” on the 17th and “Mr Salary” on the 18th. Frances, the central character of Sally Rooney’s debut novel “Conversations With Friends,” is worried she doesn’t have a personality. More specifically, she’s worried about how porous she is, how willing she is to go along with things that happen to her: “At any time I felt I could do or say anything at all, and only afterward think: oh, so that’s the kind of person I am.” She is always pretending to be interested in something or other, or is otherwise carefully evaluating the cultural valences of what she says or does. This never results in anything bad or evil, but it mostly involves a lot of Frances second-guessing herself in microscopic ways. She’s never quite sure if she’s fulfilling the

role she ends up in correctly, or often, what that role even is. But there are roles. In the place of a fixed personality, Frances experiences a series of intense, often contradictory and overlapping emotions that she frequently doesn’t find the right words to express. Instead, we get complex interpretations of things that happen to her and snippets of revelatory action. The prose is always even and precise, almost clipped at times; her fraught emotional landscape is rendered with what can be merciless objectivity. Frances also seems to contrast her accommodating personality

Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney Hogarth May 27, 2017

with her best friend and former lover, Bobbi, who is pretty, smart and self-assured to the point of being a little mean. It’s clear Frances is contrasting her unsteady inner life with Bobbi’s glittering exterior, a comparison destined to be maddening. Late in the novel, Frances writes a thinly-veiled short story in which she describes Bobbi as “a mystery so total I couldn’t endure her, a force I couldn’t subjugate with my will, and the love of my life.” If the idea of a “personality” seems, itself, a little elusive by this point, Frances’s story fully reveals the extent to which she tries to replace her desire for love and belonging with the dream of individualist autonomy. She wants to be Bobbi, in that Bobbi has no legible internal strife, in that Bobbi is worthy of love as a result of it. Rooney, who came of age with the 2008 financial crash and austerity politics as a central event in her life, is skillful at teasing out the social mythologies of the present moment, where everything is in f lux and precarity reigns. In one interview, she mentions “the particular nature of the crash, which came

out of our first ever period of prosperity and revealed it to be a mirage.” Her fiction is subtler than simple allegory, though, and she treats her thematic material on the scale of a small cast of people who, by themselves, can’t be blamed for much. Much is made of her Marxism as well as her attachment to an antiindividualist personal style that is popular with millennials, but she really has more in common with Jane Austen or perhaps Henry James. She has said herself that it’s sort of difficult to represent Marxism, which is societal in scope, in the confines of her chosen medium. She instead considers the framework of a social novel, its network of overlapping and contested relationships, as a way to show how dependent people are on each other, in a way that can be usefully compared with the larger-scale question of society. Social class itself, the ways in which our interactions with each other are somewhat circumscribed by class tension, certainly crops up in Conversations — when Frances first goes to Melissa’s house, she quickly notices a framed print, a glass conservatory, other expensive objects. “Rich people, I thought. I was always thinking about rich people then.” A few chapters later, Frances recounts how her father accused her of “changing her accent.” Class is communicated, ultimately, through small signifiers, in the same messy space where everything else about human personality is kept. Close to the end of the book, Melissa rips into Frances, making almost 300 pages of subtext text. “You treated me with total contempt … Suddenly I’m looking around my own fucking house, thinking: Is this sofa ugly? Is it kitsch to drink wine? And things I felt good about before just started to make me feel pathetic.” It’s impossible to know whether Melissa is necessarily referring to these things being signifiers of her relative class position above Frances, but it’s so obvious that such rhetorical questions wouldn’t be possible without their disparity. Rooney’s characters have all the theoretical tools they need to understand these things, but they prove useless in the face of class divisions, real and fake, and the book is remarkable in how combative the characters are even in the best of situations. Actually, the novel is remarkably effective at showing how little it helps, on a day-to-day basis, to have knowledge. You can read feminist theory and thoroughly get to know the present state of neoliberal rot, and all of that won’t give you a course of correct action in the minutiae of day to day life that we are all subject to.

MUSIC: PSEUDONYM WEEK

STYLE EVENT REVIEW

Pseudonym Week: Quinn Fashion Media Summit is XCII and the world of pop an opportunity to explore KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer

K nown for his hit song “Straightjacket,” Mikael Temrowski, bet ter known as Quinn XCII, has recently introduced a new sound to the pop sphere. With elements of pop, electronic, hip-hop a nd hints of Motown, Temrowski has certainly redef ined music struct ure a nd ly rical approach. Temrowski released his new album From Michigan With Love in Februa r y a nd is in the middle of his second tour. While Temrowski has already performed in both Gra nd Rapids a nd his hometown of Detroit, Michiga n, he pla ns on ret urning to his home state later this month to perform at Michiga n State Universit y. Graduating from the universit y in 2014 with a deg ree in advertising, Temrowski sta rted recording a nd sha ring his music to SoundCloud during his time in East La nsing a nd frequently skipped classes to drive out to the

Universit y of Michiga n where he collaborated with his pa rtner a nd producer, Ayokay. Initially playing small shows in East La nsing, Temrowski performed under the na me Mike T, but later opted for Quinn XCII. A lea rned acrony m from a college professor, Quinn sta nds for “Quit Unless Your Instincts A re Never Neglected,” while XCII is the Roma n Numeral for Temrowski’s birth yea r, 1992. While Temrowski almost always introduces himself as Quinn XCII, he has dropped references to his real na me in his songs, a nd of tentimes his most v ulnerable ones. In his song “Pa na ma,” a t une ref lecting over the loss of his g ra ndmother, Temrowski includes a voicemail message from his g ra ndmother at the end of the song where she addresses him as Mike. Temrowski’s real na me also ma kes a n appea ra nce in his song “A lways Been You” when he describes the way his g irlfriend ta kes him by surprise by calling him

PRIYDARSHINI GOUTHI Daily Arts Writer

His real name increasingly becomes a symbol for the person he was before his big break in music.

Mikael a midst the ma ny fa ns who know him as Quinn XCII. As Temrowski’s music continues to ma ke waves in the pop music scene, his real na me increasingly becomes a sy mbol for the person he was before his big brea k in music. The distinct sepa ration he ma kes bet ween his life in the spotlight a nd the one behind the scenes suggests he still views them as bina ries a nd hopes to maintain a personal life out of the eyes of the public.

On April 12, t he second a nnua l Michiga n Fa shion Media Summit wa s hosted at t he Ross School of Business. The at mosphere could be described a s pa ssionate, st ylistic a nd above a ll exciting. The level of pla nning a nd dedication of t he tea m wa s v isible in each deta il. Be it t he aest hetica lly plea sing g if t bags, t he photo boot h or even t he pa nels highlighting t he feat ures of t he event, each piece complemented t he ot hers perfectly. A li Gropper, one of t he founders, sa id MFMS intends to “brea k t he fa shion stig ma in academia.” This daylong event of fered a rat her ra re oppor t unit y to bridge t he seemingly la rge gap bet ween t he Universit y of Michiga n, a n instit ution know n for educationa l excellence, a nd t he complex but commonly misunderstood world of fa shion a nd media. The morning key note wa s hosted by Sophia Macks (founder of Beyond t he Mag ) a nd feat ured Jennifer Powell who is a ma nager for some of t he most inf luentia l socia l media persona lities including Chia ra Ferrag ni. Listening to Powell spea k about building one’s bra nd but more impor ta ntly

prioritizing “intention a nd potentia l” st r uck a chord w it h me for she t r uly embodies t he spirit of ta king t he risk a nd relentlessly follow ing t he pat h you see best for yourself. This is ref lected in t he fact t hat Powell wa s one of t he f irst agents to revolutionize t he space of socia l media a s a business. Out of t he t hree pa nels held, t he one t hat stood out to me t he most wa s “The A r t of Stor y telling,” hosted by Sophia Chabbot t (Dig ita l Director at Women Wea r Da ily). The spea ker wa s A liza Licht (former DK N Y PR head) — t he mind behind t he infa mous DK N Y PR Girl who took T w it ter by storm. I t horoughly enjoyed t his pa nel due its focus on a s A liza described building a “multi-pronged” persona l na rrative, somet hing t hat is cr ucia l but not a lways touched upon t hrough our college education. Fur t hermore, it wa s a n ent hra lling time to listen to A liza’s experiences in t he fa shion indust r y over t he la st 20 yea rs. She is a woma n who ha s done it a ll right f rom working at DK N Y to A lice + Oliv ia to w riting her ow n book a nd even launching her ow n compa ny. Thus, it is safe to say t hat Licht ’s insights were inva luable but when she sa id, “if it doesn’t hur t a lit tle, it isn’t cha nge,”

it rema ined w it h me, because a s st udents t r y ing to nav igate t heir ca reers, t his wa s somet hing t hat a ll of us could benef it f rom lea rning. I a m so g ratef ul to have got ten t he oppor t unit y to at tend t he Michiga n Fa shion Media Summit because it wa s educationa l, inspiring a nd of course, fa shionable. Being able to listen to professiona ls f rom a va ried ra nge of a rea s of such a diverse indust r y enabled one to go so much deeper in comprehending t he world of fa shion. Moreover, t he event a lso of fered t he oppor t unit y to adva nce professiona lly t hrough its net working sessions while highlighting t he fa shion space at t he Universit y w it h t he Fa shion For wa rd Showca se ( presented by Steve Madden) t hat recog nized t he work of st udents in t he indust r y. MFMS highlighted t he possibilities t hat lie in lesser explored f ields while g radua lly t ra nsforming t he relationship bet ween t he Universit y a nd t he world of fa shion. I believe t hat a nyone w it h even a brief interest in related indust ries or even t hose simply in need for motivation should def initely at tend t he MFMS next yea r to ga in novel perspectives f rom t hose who have not only excelled but have rat her re-def ined what t hey do.

Be it the rather aesthetic gift bags or the photo booth or even the panels highlighting the features of the event, each piece complemented the others perfectly.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Arts

6A — Wedensday, April 17, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

FILM REVIEW

‘Deserted Island’ was a The Orpheus Singers live terrible film experience up to their legendary name

bonds shared between these longtime friends were able to topple faster than a house of playing cards seems quite unrealistic and excessively One of the most melodramatic. unforgettable scenes from Despite assumed attempts “The Breakfast Club” is to wow audiences with high when each student reveals drama and attractive actors, their juiciest secrets. Now, the hard truth is that this take that same scene and film is literally about nothing. imagine it without all of the The majority of its scenes context that precedes it: no feel pointless and without impromptu dance sequence, direction because, with such a no racy banter between Claire barebones plot, and Bender and there truly is no recollection nowhere to go of the nerd, but in circles. jock, burnout The film is and princess a dangerous archetypes that combination of each character puddle-deep embodies. characters Without these Who Would You Take to a Deserted mixed with previous scenes, Island reality TV which are level drama. fundamental Netflix The year-long in establishing Canica Films resentments the characters’ and heated personalities love-triangles and backstories, that are thrown we would have our way seem zero reason to come out to invest in of nowhere, any of the making the protagonists, theatricallyand this staged infamous scenes appear classic would be just another to their apartment for a argument mediocre ’80s teen f lick. nightcap. As the drinks f low more dull and confusing than “Who Would You Take to freely, the roomies strike up profound. Further, without a Deserted Island” is this a seemingly innocent game of exploring the intersection hypothetical Breakfast Club what-ifs, but soon suppressed and history of the characters’ failure. Unable to create secrets bubble to the surface, stories, the film makes the multidimensional characters, tears are spilled and the very costly mistake of expecting and providing a minimal fabric of the foursome’s bond us to put together the pieces ourselves. This leads us to frame of reference for the threatens to tear. Central to the film’s disconnect entirely. characters’ relationships, Harsh or not, there is the film is nothing short of f limsiness is its practically lifeless, earning itself the non-existent plotline. It is honestly not much that can be label of just another low- almost insulting to viewers to said on behalf of “Who Would suppose that we would latch You Take on a Deserted quality drama. On a hot, summer day onto a drama crafted under Island.” Lacking rhythm, in Madrid, tensions fizzle circumstances as stupid and direction or tang, though only between twenty-somethings immature as a party game. a mere hour and a half long, housemates Celeste (Andrea Yes, the game was just the the film feels unbearably Ros “[Rec] 2”), Eze (Pol spark that blew up the layers slow, ultimately coming off Monen “Loving”), Marcos of resentments and hostilities as a tedious and valueless (Jaime Lorente “Money beneath, but the fact that the muddle. SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer

Heist”) and Marco’s livein girlfriend Marta (María Pedraza “Money Heist”), as they each prepare to enter new life chapters and go their separate ways. Determined to celebrate their friendship with one last hurrah, the gang hits the town for a wild night saturated with alcohol and drugs. Though intending to dance the night away, their spirited evening quickly turns sour upon returning

DAILY HUMOR COLUMN

Call me by my name: On learning to love ‘Becky’

DANA PIERANGELI Daily Arts Writer

The legend of Orpheus recounts the tale of a musician — the best musician of all time, according to legend. Son of the muse Calliope and taught how to play the lyre by Apollo himself, it is said his music had the ability to charm animals and make trees dance. I didn’t see any hypnotized Diag squirrels or dancing oaks, but the Orpheus Singers certainly lived up to their name. Directed by Eugene Rogers, the smallest of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance choirs put on a night of beautiful classical choir pieces that charmed their audience. Admittedly, the concert was off to a rocky start with “Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Though the sections had perfect blend, f lawless harmonies and angelic tone, the performance lacked enthusiasm. With few vocal dynamics and no facial

expression, the first section of the concert was relatively unengaging. There seemed to be no passion for these hauntingly beautiful pieces. Though singing pieces in different languages are typically less engaging, the best performances can convey meaning even through the language barrier. However, the enthusiasm increased as the concert progressed. The remaining two pieces, “Fern Hill” and “Five Mystical Songs” were much livelier. Halfway through the concert, it seemed as though a switch had been f lipped, and lo and behold! Dynamics! There were so many shifts in the music, designated by the sharp crescendos and decrescendos, skillfully and beautifully executed. The many soloists throughout the evening particularly embodied those strong connections, really bringing the pieces to life. All of the singers had beautiful voices, but SMTD Master’s

Though singing pieces in different languages are typically less engaging, the best performances can convey meaning even through the language barrier.

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FOR RENT Release Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2019

I’ve always been Becky. I think it’s because my parents felt weird calling an infant such a large and syllable-filled name like Rebecca. First I was Baby Becky then Becky Boo then Miss Becky then just Becky. I liked being Becky, mostly because it wasn’t basic like Rachel or Sarah or Leah. Becky was also temporary, a name that I would outgrow like my Velcro light-up sketchers or my cheetah print Limited Too camisole. I thought one day, I would wake up and know today was the day I would become Rebecca. I would develop a slight affectation and go to an Ivy League school and marry a man named James or Henry or William. When college rolled around, I tried Rebecca on for a while. I let her come with me to parties and dates and even The Daily’s mass meeting. My first article was published under the name “Rebecca,” but I could never fully take ownership of it because it didn’t feel like me. I wasn’t Rebecca, I was Becky. But Becky has not been an easy name to bear. Every Starbucks order, every job application, they wonder. Becky, really? Yeah, the name’s Becky, what’s it to you, Denise? From Sir Mix-a-Lot’s buttgazing Becky to Beyoncé’s “Becky with the good hair” to the criminal behavior of our once beloved Aunt Becky, my name has become one heavy with cultural significance. When I was in middle school, the hottest thing to do was look words up on Urban Dictionary. People would look up everything from “hairbrush” to “flogging” and giggle to their

dirty little prepubescent selves. One day, a boy in my class thought it would be “funny” to look up every single name in our class (easy coming from a dude named David). When he

BECKY PORTMAN looked up my name he found that Becky is synonymous with oral sex or “a stereotypical, basic white girl; obsessed with Starbucks, Ugg boots and trying to have a bigger butt.” I think that was the first time I felt insecure about my name, anxious and eager for the time I would become Rebecca. For a few weeks, my name would provoke explicit gestures and catcalls, but like anything in middle school it went out of vogue almost as quickly as it entered it. A few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal Opinion section published an article with the title “Notable & Quotable: Beckys.” My mother sent me a picture of it because, obviously, she gets the Wall Street Journal (and what college student actually subscribes to the Wall Street Journal). The blurb highlighted a symposium at the American Education Research Association’s annual conference in Toronto. The symposium addressed

fanfiction about “Beckys.” The panel on said “Beckys” was titled “Critical Becky Studies: Critical Exploration of Gender, Race and the Pedagogies of Whiteness” and included a variety of essays and discussions on the topic. One paper titled “Becky Book Club: White Racial Bonding in the Living Room” considers book clubs in white, suburban living rooms and the underlying white supremacy and surveillance that lurk beneath the charcuterie board and chardonnay. Another paper titled “Border Becky: Exploring White Women’s Emotionality, Ignorance, Investment in Whiteness” explores white women who may be found on the edge, on the border of choosing to be a “race traitor” or “repledging their allegiance to white supremacy.” OK, so I thought Critical Becky Studies would be more about uncovering the true identity of Jay-Z’s accomplice in his extramarital affair (Rachel Roy? Rita Ora? Me?) and less about white supremacy. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how far the concept of Becky has come. The Becky has surpassed tabloids and song lyrics and has now officially entered the point of no return: academia. Say what you will about the stereotypical Becky; the bleach-blonde-haired Becky, the Juicy sweatsuitwearing Becky, the Pinot in a Swell bottle Becky. But I am reclaiming Becky. I am my own Becky and my Becky is not those Beckys, she is her own goddamn Becky goddamnit.

student Meridian Prall was particularly impressive. She didn’t just sing with exquisite tone and impressive vibrato — she performed. By the end of her solo, I had chills. Another stand out soloist was University alumni Sam Kidd, who was featured strongly in “Five Mystical Songs” to end the concert. His powerful voice rang through the auditorium and could even rival the choir when they joined him. Some of the best parts of the entire concert were when the orchestra dropped out and the choir harmonized with hums in the background as Kidd continued his solo. Those few moments seemed almost magical. While the concert at times wasn’t quite as engaging as it could have been, the Orpheus Singers made up for it with their incredible sound. Very rarely have I heard such a pure tone and the perfect blend between sections. If Orpheus is the best musician of all time, this choir is aptly named.

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Another name for hopscotch 6 Naysayer 10 West Coast salmon 14 Curly-tailed guard dog 15 Brought into being 16 Intl. oil group 17 Develop hives 20 Golden years group 21 Wedding invite request 22 Wedding vow word 23 Tablecloth material 25 Snake, periodically 26 Part with a gesture 31 Red __ 32 Inexperienced, as a recruit 33 “I should add ... ” 37 Easter beginning? 38 Glittery bit on a dress 42 Uber info 43 Like Tommy, in the rock opera 45 “That hurt!” cries 46 Swell up 48 Be a secondstringer 52 Eucharist plates 55 Hops-drying oven 56 Protestant denom. 57 Close buds 59 Spanish hors d’oeuvre 63 2002 Spielberg film ... and a hint to the start of 17-, 26- and 48-Across 66 Cuatro times dos 67 Red Sox star Big __ 68 Phased-out Apple messaging tool 69 Takes in 70 Vane spinner 71 Lecherous looks DOWN 1 Bygone sunscreen ingredient 2 Fried side with a po’boy

3 Organization chart level 4 Fastening gadget 5 Chatter 6 One taking advantage of privilege 7 Rule during homework time, perhaps 8 Word with road or side 9 Traveler’s rest 10 Toyota compact 11 Dizzying pictures 12 State bordering Bavaria 13 Orangy-yellow 18 Seal predator 19 Object of a mil. search 24 Siesta hrs. 25 Cry weakly 26 Beauxbatons Academy coat of arms symbol, in Harry Potter 27 With 28-Down, hand lotion ingredient 28 See 27-Down 29 Dadaist Max 30 Bit of a tail flip 34 Boxer Spinks

35 Legato’s opposite, in mus. 36 Hand-on-theBible promise 39 Vanilla containers 40 Leave dumbstruck 41 Drops off 44 Paintings on wet plaster 47 Salad green 49 Go very slowly 50 Go on foot

51 “Slow down!” 52 Rio Grande tributary 53 On the double 54 10% donation 57 Steady guy 58 Places for patches 60 Yoga aftereffect, perhaps 61 Carson predecessor 62 Little scurriers 64 Rd. efficiency stat 65 Engine need

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HEY. 04/17/19

04/17/19

Don't give up!

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 — 7A

Alex StoraKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKo Freshman right-hander fans 15 in career day, leading Michigan past Michigan State in East Lansing, 12-1 AKUL VIJAYVARGIYA Daily Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — Looking to avenge last year’s first round loss in the Big Ten tournament, the Michigan softball team traveled to East Lansing and was greeted by an even mix of green and white as well as maize and blue. The Wolverines ensured they dazzled the strong visiting crowd, nearly securing a run-rule victory and winning 12-1. Early on, though, it seemed tough to predict such an outcome. After a lackluster offensive showing in the top of the first by Michigan, sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien stepped into the circle looking to rebound from Saturday’s extra-inning loss against Ohio State. But Beaubien did the exact opposite — she gave up three hits and a walk to her first four batters. And that was plenty enough for Wolverines’ coach Carol Hutchins to visit the pitcher. Rather than having a few words with Beaubien and leaving her in, Hutchins pulled the trigger and substituted Beaubien out for freshman right-hander Alex Storako. Storako, even when facing a bases-loaded situation, wasn’t fazed and dished out two strikeouts and a scoreless inning. “Just like we’ve been focusing on all year, just the one-pitch focus, I think that really got me through (the jam),” Storako said. “Just clearing my head and having no thoughts during (it).” That was about the only difficulty Michigan faced the entire evening. Trailing 1-0, the Wolverines began to string together hit after hit, starting with the bottom of the lineup — exactly what Hutchins asked for after the Indiana series. Starting with junior third baseman Madison Uden, who hit a double to the centerfield wall, Michigan found its first runs on a two-run home run from senior catcher Katie Alexander, giving the Wolverines a 2-1 lead. Sophomore shortstop Natalia

Rodriguez continued her consistency from the ninth spot in the batting order, finding herself in scoring position after a single and a stolen base — her eighth of the year — and coming home on a RBI double from dependable senior second baseman Faith Canfield. But that was only the start of the Wolverines’ onslaught. After a RBI single in third inning from senior first baseman Alex Sobczak, Michigan exploded in the top of the fourth inning. With each playing in the lineup seeing an at-bat during this inning, the wheels came off for the Spartans. First, Canfield added another RBI, this time on a triple. The outfield pairing of senior Natalie Peters and freshman Lexie Blair combined for the next run as Peters, who preceded Blair’s at-bat with a single and a stolen base, came home on a double from Blair down the left field line. A couple batters later, the Wolverines found their next run through a rather unconventional method. Michigan State pitcher McKenna Gregory, who had just come into the game, walked Uden home from third and Michigan found itself leading 7-1. Junior Haley

Hoogenraad also got in on the party, driving in another run off a Spartan error at first base. In the meantime, Storako was having herself a career night. Continuing her dominance from the first inning, Storako pitched six no-hit innings along with a careerhigh 15 strikeouts. “I didn’t know (I had a careerhigh) until just now,” Storako said when asked about her performance. “Just not focusing on the results and focusing on the process has really helped not only me but the entire team.” After a couple quiet innings of being one run away from winning on a rule-run, Michigan made sure it left Secchia Stadium with a bang — literally. Alexander drove a high-flying home run to center, extending the Wolverines lead to eight in the top of the seventh. And with a surefire victory in the bag, the freshman pinch hitters kept the intensity going. With Hannah Carson on first base after a full-count walk, Morgan Overaitis made sure they both were accounted for on the scoreboard as she unleashed a long ball to center field, capping off the ideal bounceback performance for Michigan.

Daily Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — Alex Storako finally demonstrated the endurance that Michigan coach Carol Hutchins has been looking for all season. The freshman right-hander proved herself in Tuesday’s game against Michigan State when sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien struggled right off the bat. Beaubien, typically the team’s reliable ace, allowed three singles followed by a walk to force a runner home in the first inning, putting the Wolverines at a one run early. Storako — substituted in with no outs and the bases still loaded — took the opportunity in stride. She ended the inning with a flyout followed by two strikeouts, rescuing Michigan from the jam without sacrificing another run. “Her team needed her to step up and she did a fantastic job,” Hutchins said. “She has that in her and she hasn’t always shown it. Tonight we needed it from her, and she stepped it up and did what we think she’s capable of — shutting down an opponent.” She registered a career high of 15 strikeouts and went six innings before Michigan State registered a

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Freshman right-hander Alex Storako racked up a career-high 15 strikeouts in her six shutout innings of work on Tuesday.

Big game woes he Michigan baseball team is 24-11 overall and stands third in the Big Ten. The Wolverines have scored 100 more runs than their opponents, only one regular starter has an KENT on-base perSCHWARTZ centage less than .300 and the team has 38 total home runs. They’ve won five games by double digits, 16 by four or more runs and have a defense that shuts down opposing hitters. That is, if they’re playing lesser teams. Teams like Michigan State, Binghamton or West Michigan. The Wolverines have a .800 winning percentage against opponents with a losing record and have committed just 15 errors in the 20 games, coolly putting teams away. Michigan has rock solid leadership and a great communal effort, obvious even from a press box a hundred feet away. “This is some of the best leadership and team chemistry that I’ve seen in the program in the six and a half years I’ve been here,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said at the beginning of the year. Added senior infielder Blake Nelson after a home opener win: “It starts with our team. We’re all bought in for the win. Whether that’s warming up with the outfielders, doing the chart or playing in the game. It doesn’t really matter, we all know our roles and we’re all ready to come in when our number is called.” But then they play good teams. They still have a winning record against those at or above .500, winning eight of 14, mostly

LANE KIZZIAH

thanks to a 5-0 record against teams with a dead even record. Their impressively clean defense, though, falls apart — doubling its rate of errors from .75 errors per game to 1.5. Michigan’s 100-run advantage over its opponents? It shrinks all the way to one. “We were shaky at times defensively,” Bakich said after a deflating weekend against the Buckeyes. “We didn’t get the clutch hits when we needed to and a rivalry series is very emotional. It has all the characteristics, the look and feel, of big-time baseball whether your opponent is ranked or not.” Big time baseball hasn’t been kind to the Wolverines. Like they did in Columbus when they went 1-2, Michigan folded in Los Angeles and Lubbock. It was unable to compete with the spotlight on them. Bakich, though, has always been big on growth. “What I’d like us to do better is continue to trend upwards when we have setbacks like this, to use it as growth and fuel to better our performance in

We have a lot of big... opportunities ahead.

the future,” Bakich said after Ohio State. “If we’re going to be the team that I think we’re going to be, then we’re going to have to play well when it means the most and a rivalry series is one of those weekends when it means the most.” When will that growth come? The losses to Ohio State came a month after losing four out of five in California and two weeks after being swept by Texas Tech. At what point, if ever, will the Wolverines’ experience settle their nerves in big series’? In time, we’ll learn. Four of Michigan’s final five series are against teams with a .500 record or better, with its final two series against the teams ahead of the Wolverines in the Big Ten standings. As they enter the final month of the regular season, Michigan needs to limit its mistakes in the face of tough competition — its pitchers can’t miss, its defenders can’t make costly mistakes and its offense needs to be consistent. That is, if they want to reach their lofty aspirations in the playoffs.

Schwartz can be reached via email at kentsch@umich.edu or on Twitter @nottherealkent

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Michigan coach Erik Bakich noted that his team needs to step up its game.

hit against her. She began to shake in the second inning. While she struck out the first batter she faced, Storako walked the next. She repeated this pattern with another strikeout and walk, putting two Spartans on base. With these two walks, it looked like Storako might be suffering from a challenge that’s plagued her all season: late-game struggles. Facing tough competition and close games, recently Hutchins has opted to pull Storako at the first sign of trouble. In the contest against Indiana earlier in the month, Storako was switched for Beaubien after hitting a batter with a pitch. But not Tuesday. Storako remained composed, throwing a ball followed by three pitches straight into the strike zone. With a flyout, the inning ended scoreless. These struggles were entirely absent in the following inning when Storako retired three batters with consecutive strikeouts, ending the third almost as soon as it had begun. Storako’s performance began to waver again in the fourth, starting the inning with a leadoff walk. Clawing her way back from behind in the count, Storako struck out the next two batters, though the leadoff runner advanced on a wild pitch. Another walk put runners on first and second, but Storako wasn’t fazed. She struck out the next batter to end the inning, once again leaving Michigan State without a run. She regained her rhythm in the fifth inning. After the first batter flied out, she struck out the next two. Storako’s performance only

improved as the innings went on. In the final two innings, she registered four more strikeouts and allowed just two batters to reach base. “She came in and got out of that hairy first inning, then she had some ups and downs — a few walks in the middle there — but she was able to bring herself back,” Hutchins said. This game is the first in over a month in which Storako has pitched seven full innings. Despite not usually pitching into the fourth and fifth innings, Storako didn’t feel physical or mental fatigue. “It’s been a while since going a long game like that,” Storako said. “I think my workouts have been a lot of conditioning. I’m not really focused on results, just the process.” This contest marked several other firsts in Storako’s career, including the first time she has pitched six innings without a hit and seven innings with just one hit. Storako’s stamina would be a huge asset to the Wolverines if it were to continue into the rest of the season. With 147 innings already piled on Beaubien’s left arm, having Storako as a reliable second pitcher may be the difference between success and failure in the postseason. Hutchins made it clear that Storako would have further opportunities to show this persistence after Tuesday’s performance. “That is good for us to see,” Hutchins said. “She worked through it and in the future we’ll have more confidence to allow her to work through it.” Michigan went on to win, 12-1. They have Storako’s newfound endurance to thank.

She came in and got out of that hairy first inning...

Hutchins’ history lesson: At MSU, a reminder of progress DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — Each year, the Michigan softball team plays a road game at Michigan State. And each year, coach Carol Hutchins seizes the opportunity to give her team a history lesson. At Secchia Stadium, the right field fence is draped in a green 1976 AIAW National Champions banner. The crown, which came four years after Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments, ALEC COHEN/Daily is the Spartans’ lone national Michigan coach Carol Hutchins uses the banner in the Michigan State outfield to championship. remind her team of the immense inequalities that used to plague female sports. On a team that featured “I want my kids to experience talent from top to bottom, Michigan State) and she teaches senior pitcher Gloria Becksford us how far we’ve come,” said what it is to be great,” Hutchins stood out. Becksford’s three senior second baseman Faith said. “We achieved greatness at consecutive shutouts and 25 Canfield. “She lets us know we Michigan State when I played, strikeouts propelled Michigan need to be thankful for where and greatness isn’t just defined State to the 1976 AIAW Softball we are now because when she by a national championship. College World Series title was here, it was not like that. Greatness is (defined by) great that is commemorated on the … She’s one of the core people friends, great teammates and Spartans’ fence to this day. who have given us the platform great work, and it’s a life lesson That season, Becksford for where we are now. It’s to be a college athlete.” After three and a half took a certain Michigan State unbelievable and I’m thankful decades of greatness in Ann freshman under her wing. for it.” To Hutchins, it’s just one Arbor, Canfield sometimes Today, that freshman is the NCAA’s winningest coach of component of a meaningful struggles to associate Hutchins college experience. The with her alma mater’s colors. all-time. “It’s weird to see (the banner plays an On Tuesday night, Hutchins philosophy made her 35th homecoming instrumental role in the in East Lansing), just seeing how passionate (Hutchins) as the Wolverines’ coach. legend’s approach to coaching. She tallied her 1,601st career “I had a great college is about Michigan,” Canfield coaching victory — the most in experience,” Hutchins said. said. “It’s actually really weird the history of the sport. No. 21 “It’s one of the reason I stayed seeing it in green. She’s one of Michigan (30-11 overall, 12-1 in college athletics. When I the greatest to ever do it. All Big Ten) throttled the Spartans got college and then started of us have played for her, it’s (15-25, 3-9), 12-1, behind senior coaching, my mom said, ‘You interesting to remember that catcher Katie Alexander’s know, you’ve never left college.’ she actually played too.” Forty-three years after two home runs and freshman And I said, ‘Why would anybody taking home the national right-hander Alex Storako’s 15 ever leave college?’ ” strikeouts. Today, Hutchins strives championship, Hutchins uses After taking care of business, to offer her student-athletes the banner as a benchmark. well-rounded college But not a benchmark of time, the Wolverines boarded their a Her program success or experience. Instead, bus with something more experience. valuable than just a win. The goes far beyond the diamond. she smiles every time Michigan experience of competing on the Words like “relationships” launches a home run over the same field that Hutchins played and “education” come up in wall it covers — the same one on — and often maintained conversation before wins and she helped build. Asked about the banner herself amid an underfunded losses are even mentioned. era of women’s athletics— gives Her definition of greatness and its legacy after the game, — as with everything she does Storako flashed a smile. Michigan an annual reminder. “She told the hitters to hit “She talks a lot about where — comes with its own unique the ball there.” sports were during her time (at flair.

Sports

8A — Wednesday, April 17, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan football freshmen experiencing benefits of early enrollment Wide receiver Mike Sainristil and cornerback Jalen Perry are among those who have shown promising early signs THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

There’s a phrase ringing around Schembechler Hall: Michigan’s early enrollees “should be at high school prom.” Cornerbacks coach Mike Zordich described them as “raw” and “green.” Certainly, they’re not ready for college football, not yet. This is what spring ball is for those who graduate high school a semester early to come to Ann Arbor. There are exceptions, of course. Mike Sainristil, a three-star athlete-turnedreceiver in the 2019 class, has stolen the headlines and threatened junior cornerback Ambry Thomas’ mantle as the fastest player on the team. But Sainristil stands out as the exception, the extreme version of more moderate success stories like defensive lineman Mazi Smith and tight end Erick All. For most, the adjustment isn’t so glamorous. The beauty of spring ball is that it doesn’t have to be. Take four-star cornerback Jalen Perry, one of the eight early enrollees not in the spotlight. Despite his four-star billing, Perry isn’t expected to play much this season. When you ask Zordich about him, his response says as much without saying as much. “Jalen?” Zordich asked, outwardly surprised that Tuesday’s press conference had made it that far down the depth chart. “(He’s) young. And I keep telling myself, hitting myself on the head cause I don’t want —

he should be at the prom and he’s here with us now. And he’s gifted, he’s got the skillset, but he’s still in high school. And he’s got a little ways to go catching up, understanding the speed of the game, the technique that we use.” Zordich, though, doesn’t mind the slow learning curve — the focus of spring ball for incoming freshmen is rarely on the upcoming fall. “He’s getting all this under his belt now so he’ll walk in in the fall,” Zordich said. “He won’t

...he should be at the prom and he’s here with us now.

have to go to the bridge process school and hopefully with his mind — he’s a very bright kid — he’ll retain all this and just be able to retain all this and just have that under his belt and feel a little more comfortable than he did walking in here raw, green as hell.” Slow learning curves and “feeling a little more comfortable” are the point of spring practices. Even Sainristil figures to be behind Donovan PeoplesJones, Nico Collins and Tarik

Black, and possibly Ronnie Bell and Oliver Martin, on the depth chart. All will likely slot in behind Sean McKeon and Nick Eubanks. But spring ball is about the future. It’s about the next generation of Donovan Jeters — the redshirt sophomore who arrived at Michigan in January 2017 and played sparingly during his first two years. His first spring accelerated him to becoming a key member of the Wolverines’ defensive line next fall.

He won’t have to go to the bridge process school...

There’s a reason Jeter glows with excitement when talking about this year’s class, especially Smith. “I tell (Smith) all the time, I was you, I was in your exact same position,” Jeter said. “So with him, it’s just gonna become how fast he can pick up the speed of the game cause (Smith), dude’s like a monster.” Vincent Gray is among those on the opposite side. The sophomore cornerback committed to Michigan late in the 2017

recruiting cycle and didn’t have the chance to enroll early. Instead, he spent his freshman year learning the playbook and played in just two games. A year later, Gray — now expected to be among the Wolverines’ top trio of defensive backs — has become a mentor for Perry, guiding him through the spring he never had. “With Jalen Perry, yeah, we’ve been working on the playbook a lot,” Gray said. “He’s really got it down, more advanced than I thought he would at this point is what I’d say, so he’s been making big strides. … That’s like the biggest part of what we do, being able to gain the trust from the coaches that you know what you’re doing when you get out there.” The sacrifices of enrolling early aren’t small. Those little tidbits intermingled in football talk — the high school prom mentioned in passing, the allure of graduating with your classmates — matter to athletes. Parents want their kids at home for one last semester. “Being a father of two Division I players,” Zordich said, “a father and mother don’t want them to go. But as a coach, it’s a beautiful thing.” It’s a conversation that Michigan’s coaching staff has with any player considering enrolling early. And despite the benefits of getting to campus six months before everyone else, it’s a conversation that usually ends in fall enrollment. But when it doesn’t, the Wolverines reap the benefits. Even if they take a while to come to fruition.

I tell (Smith)...‘I was you, I was in your exact same position.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Freshman cornerback Jalen Perry has shown cornerbacks coach Mike Zordich signs of potential, an opportunity afforded to him by enrolling early at Michigan.

Seniors appreciated in Sunday win Thomas maturing into leader JAMES HILL

Daily Sports Writer

In their last home matches at the Varsity Tennis Center on Sunday, seniors Gabe Tishman and Myles Schalet made sure to leave their mark for the Wolverines. The Michigan men’s tennis team (15-6 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) defeated Wisconsin (9-9, 3-5), 5-2, with both Tishman and Schalet winning their respective matches. The seniors also both won their doubles matches, in which Tishman paired up with sophomore Harrison Brown and Schalet with freshman Andrew Fenty. After the doubles matches, Tishman and Schalet participated in a short ceremony celebrating their four years playing for Michigan. Their career stats were announced and their parents walked with them across the court. “It’s been an unreal four years,” Schalet said. “It f lew by so quickly. The school has given me so many different experiences, and it has been

the best four years of my life for sure. I have no regrets.” After the ceremony, the match transitioned to singles play. Tishman played at sixth singles and Schalet at third. Schalet cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory. On match point, after a crosscourt rally, he hit a down-theline forehand winner that just barely clipped the net. Immediately, Michigan coach Adam Steinberg came out and hugged his senior after he earned his final regular season singles win, 63rd for his career. “The coaches have taken my teammates and I great places on and off the court, and I’m gonna miss these guys more than anything,” Schalet said. “We’re not done, since we have a lot of work to do. But this program has meant everything to me.” The environment established by Steinberg

and the rest of the program contributes to how the entire team plays and even how they act off the court. “The way we play, we play together as a team so much. We’re not selfish on the court and we’re not selfish on the court,” Schalet said. “(Steinberg) has implemented that mindset to be a better person and I’ve built so many great relationships that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.” Other victories at singles included a 6-1, 6-1 victory from junior Connor Johnston and Fenty, who won 7-5, 7-6 (5).Tishman won his singles match as well, defeating his opponent, 6-1, 7-5. His win gave the Wolverines their fourth point for the match and sealed the victory for Michigan, showing Tishman’s ability to lead by example as captain of the team, along with Schalet. “This year we knew we would have our hands full from the beginning, because we graduated four seniors and got four freshman in and the majority of our team is made up of underclassmen,” Tishman said. “I think taking on the role of captain with Myles has taught me a lot. It’s taught me to take the high road sometimes and when to get on some people. But it’s all out of love, and everybody understands that. They’ve been a great team to lead.” And come next season, Michigan will have to find two other players to replace the leadership of Schalet and Tishman.

The coaches have taken my teammates and I great places...

ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Writer

increase no matter what — even if Long or senior defensive back Lavert Hill both stayed. In that, Thomas wanted to take the new guys under his wing, just as the veterans had done for him when he was a freshman. It’s a role Thomas has wanted to have from the beginning, but now it’s also one he finally has the on-field clout — and the maturity — to truly assume. “I’ve matured a lot on the field,” Thomas said. “I usually, everybody knows I bring that energy to the field but … I really just wanna focus in on myself and the young players, trying to bring them along, because we want everybody to be a part of the team this season.” Compared to a senior like Hill, the smaller age gap between Thomas and the freshmen allows him to connect with them. Redshirt freshman defensive back Vincent Gray, preparing for his first year as an on-field contributor, credits Thomas with showing him the ropes and

helping him learn the playbook. According to Zordich, it was the end of last season when Thomas really started to improve. He knew there would be a spot for him and he was hungry. So Thomas seized the opportunity and began to understand his body and his limitations — an important development for a player who will so brazenly proclaim his quickness. Thomas can, in turn, help younger players make the same leap he did. Lots of guys come in with the same kind of confidence Thomas has, without knowing the boundaries of their abilities. Now that Thomas understands that, it will not only help him, but the rest of the secondary as well. “Everybody was talking about this mind change and slow your mind down,” Thomas said. “I really see it now, and that’s one thing I’ve noticed, if anything. I believe my playmaking ability has always been there but it’s just the mind, the whole mindset that changed a lot.”

Ambry Thomas didn’t mince words. When asked about his speed last Thursday, the junior defensive back had a simple response: “I’m the fastest guy on the team. Not many guys faster than me in the NCAA. Just keeping it real.” A reporter asked a followup about Thomas’ 40-yard dash. He then launched into an explanation about how his time was “pretty fast,” but his real pride lies in his in-game, not straight-line, speed. “People can run fast,” Thomas said. “But can you play fast? I play fast.” Ironically, Thomas’ ability to play fast once held him back from becoming a main contributor on the Michigan football team. Defensive coordinator Don Brown’s press man scheme requires technique and patience from its defensive backs. Those are two things that can become lost if you rely solely on your speed — as was the case for Thomas. Last year against Ohio State, the game slipped away as the secondary struggled to keep up with the Buckeyes’ speedy receivers. Thomas, unquestionably a quicker corner, still didn’t come into the game — a testament to the flaws he still needed to iron out. But now, teammates and coaches say Thomas has stepped up his game and come on as a player who could be a major contributor on a secondary that has a lost several key contributors — including cornerbacks David Long and Brandon Watson. “The sky is the limit for that guy,” said cornerbacks coach Michael Zordich on Tuesday. “He’s really had a great spring. … His technique and his patience with the line of scrimmage and the fact that he knows that he has the opportunity to start. He’s really embraced that role and he is becoming a leader.” ALEC COHEN/Daily Thomas knew at the end of last Junior cornerback Ambry Thomas appears primed to step into a starting role. season that his role was going to

People can run fast. But can you play fast? I play fast.

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | A PR I L 17, 2019

“In-State”: A reflection on the U.P., its students and the University of Michigan

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN KUZZEE

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | A PR I L 3 , 2019

Managing Statement Editor Andrea Pérez Balderrama Deputy Editors Matthew Harmon Shannon Ors

Designers Liz Bigham Kate Glad

Photo Editor Annie Klusendorf

Copy Editors Miriam Francisco Madeline Turner

Editor in Chief Maya Goldman Managing Editor Finntan Storer

Copy that: Turning my passion into reality

BY ALEXANDER COTIGNOLA, PRIMARY COPY EDITOR

aining a solid foundation in grammar was one of the hallmarks of my 10 years attending Catholic school. Every year, from first grade to eighth grade, there was a class dedicated solely to grammar, a 45-minute block of time each day dedicated to learning the intricacies of the English language. While most other schools include grammar as a unit in the all-encompassing “language arts” class curriculum, my school gave it the attention it deserved. We had both a textbook and workbook for the class, with nightly homework in each. While many of my classmates bristled at the repeated instruction of nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives, believing it to be redundant and unnecessary, I found grammar class to be the best part of my day. I loved the challenge of continually trying to master the complexities contained in learning grammar. There were always new concepts to learn, year after year. Dangling participles. Collective nouns. Passive voice. Even the standard concepts underlying the language needed continuous attention; with grammar, there was always more work to be done. There were always new situations for which to apply the concepts, and every situation presented unexpected complications that made it different from another sentence. It was a never-ending quest to master the material, and I enjoyed every second of that journey. All those years of grammar class instilled in me an unconditional love of all things commas, appositives and semicolons. Having good grammar became an integral part of my identity, and I jumped at any chance to express that characteristic. I would help my mom with grammar questions in her marketing presentations, ensuring there were no glaring errors in her sentences. I would edit my sister’s college papers for grammar. I would (sometimes) correct my parents when they used “who” instead of “whom,” at great annoyance to them. I would mark my classmates’ papers full of comments in English class, pointing out every little deviation from the rigidity of grammar I could find. It gave me great pleasure to flex my grammar muscles, and doing so made me a better speaker and writer. Unfortunately, many of these muscles atrophied dur-

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

ing my time in high school, as I didn’t have a class or activity in which to use them. That part of my identity lay dormant, waiting to be put to good use. And I found that good use when I joined the copy desk at The Michigan Daily. When I showed up at The Daily my first semester of freshman year, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at the paper. I planned on applying to News because it seemed like the “cool thing” to do, but I wasn’t so keen on the idea of covering events and interviewing attendees; I like working behind the scenes more. I didn’t think I had the people skills required for beat reporting, and I felt as though it would take me too far out of my comfort zone. I had almost resigned myself to leaving The Daily without finding a role when I heard the copy chief start to speak. The minute I heard the words “grammar”

and “editing” come out of her mouth, my ears perked up. Here was just the chance I desired to reorient myself with my true love: correct grammar. At the sight of the pre-test, I was instantly transported back to the good old days of middle school grammar class. I dived into those questions with a sense of eagerness and happiness that I hadn’t found being stuck in the doldrums of distribution classes. I knew then that I found an outlet to channel my grammar energies (without annoying my parents). I was beyond overjoyed to learn I was selected to be on the Copy team last October, and my joy has only increased in the past two semesters. Being on Copy has made me proud. While there would be no paper without the content sections, there would be no readable paper without the Copy section. Though our work may not be considered “sexy,” and we don’t get to

put our name on the articles like writers do, our work is no less important. We maintain The Daily’s journalistic integrity by ensuring the statistics cited in articles are accurate and represent the situation correctly. We certify students don’t have their names misspelled or their student organizations mischaracterized, avoiding students from being turned off by our work. And, most important of all, we make sure the paper is stylish; that is, there are no grammar errors and reading it aloud would sound pleasing to the ear. In short, Copy smooths out the rough edges that can come with writing and makes The Daily the beautiful final product you can find in many campus buildings. I am glad to be a part of that process every week, knowing that I can use my grammar knowledge for something positive.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 // The Statement

3B 3B

The business case for robocalls

BY ROMY SHARMA, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

“Congratulations, you won!” have become words to fear in the age of robocalls. Nearly every cell phone owner is familiar with the feeling of answering what looks like a local number, but hearing a cold, robotic voice awarding us a free Hawaiian cruise, or warning us of a vendetta from the IRS. When taken for face value, robocalls seem to exist for the sole purpose of malicious irritation, but a closer look reveals that they have slithered their way underneath the innocuous umbrella of direct marketing, becoming the evil stepbrother of advertisement catalogs and emails. While direct marketing is governed under three levels of regulation (federal, state and local), there is a thin line to cross before abusing the luxury of direct marketing — thin enough for businesses to have to consult attorneys just to engage in legitimate direct marketing practices, such as delivering sales pitches through mail, phone or email. Robocalls have been a source of nuisance, deception and con artists for decades. In 1991, the federal government passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to regulate telemarketers and attempt to terminate fraudulent activity. It prohibited solicitation by autodialers, unsolicited fax marketing, calls before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m., and calls to those who have indicated they would not like to be called again. The Federal Communications Commission does not award mercy to those who violate the TCPA. Last year, the FCC slapped a $120 million fine on Adrian Abramovich of Miami, who flooded consumers with 97 million phone calls promoting illegitimate travel deals using an autodialer. It was the largest fine to date. But even more powerful than the FCC’s newly found authority to regulate telemarketers is the consumer empowerment that came with the legislation: TCPA also gave consumers a way to personally pursue a case against a telemarketer that they believe has violated the law. An individual can earn up to $500 per violation that they have experienced, and if caught by the FTC, telemarketers can be liable for $10,000 per violation. But being caught is a tough bet in the industry. Because small illegal operations either run on anonymity or are based overseas, tracking robocallers’ assets is one of the biggest pain points in trying to stop this fraudulent practice. Many times, operations are so small that, when fined, they are unable to even pay the full penalty. As of three weeks ago, the FCC announced that they have fined robocallers $208 million, but have only been able to collect $6,790. With the TCPA now being the No. 1 lawsuit filed in the U.S., comedian John Oliver has a point: Hatred of robocalls may just be “the only thing everyone in America agrees on.” But the problem is only getting

worse. According to Robocall Index, there are roughly 170 million robocalls made per day, and it continues on an incline. Mobile scam calls made up 3.7 percent of total calls in 2017, 29.2 percent in 2018, and that number is now projected to reach roughly 45 percent before the end of this year. But robocalls are not solely used for deception: We rely on automated calls from our hospitals and dentists reminding us of appointments, pharmacies notifying us about medication refills, school districts announcing snow days and banks alerting us of fraud. And while federal law requires that companies cannot conduct robocalls without giving consent, most of us have opted into them without realizing it — in the lengthy terms of service box we habitually check before using a product or service. Nevertheless, the robocall ratio of necessary to unnecessary is remarkably lopsided. In the pursuit to combat robocalls and profit, cell phone providers (e.g. AT&T, Verizon Wireless) and third party apps (e.g. Nomorobo, Hiya) are charging monthly fees to help fend off robocallers. They detect repeatingdigit numbers (i.e. 222-222-2222), numbers with more than 10 digits, and, the latest tactic, neighborhood spoofing: suspiciously similar phone numbers to those of our neighbors. The annoyance of robocalls has expanded to our inboxes with the rise of email. In 2003, the federal government also cracked down on unsolicited emails by passing legislation called “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act,” or CAN-SPAM. While the government was originally relaxed about email marketing due to its free receipt, easy discarding and legalphysical mailbox spam, it began cracking down on misleading emails, demanding only truthful and straightforward content in order to prevent spam from turning to scam. That same year, robo regulation continued as the government established a national Do Not Call registry. Despite more entities cracking down and more legislation being passed, the fact of the matter is that becoming a robocaller and getting away with it is fairly simple. Downloading software only requires internet access and a computer, and the cost is typically less than a penny per call. And while scammers can see windfalls when consumers naively fork over their credit card numbers to purchase illegitimate services, they can also make incremental income just by calling phone numbers that provide caller ID. These IDs originate from databases that try to identify who is calling,

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

and when a caller’s name is displayed, phone companies pay small fees to databases that store the names, and occasionally to the caller himself as well. These fees can sometimes even be enough to offset the cost of making the calls in the first place. While we can appreciate the government’s endeavors to double down on this issue, there is another layer of complexity to consider: the honest victims who get caught in the fishnet. Since the TCPA is what’s called a strict liability statute, one harmless mistake can result in a violation — no exceptions. And since 100,000 phone numbers are reassigned every day, it isn’t hard for wellintentioned companies to accidentally call the “wrong person,” or rather, the new owner of a subscribing phone number. If the new call recipient brings the call to court, it could cost the company. Three weeks ago, Roger Meiners, a professor at University of Texas-Arlington, proposed a novel solution that quickly gained traction online: the “Penny for Sanity Tax” or a 1-cent tax on every call made. The five billion robocalls made this past year would cost $50 million — a notable government incentive to act. Because targeting individual robocallers is virtually impossible, the tax would apply to all calls to affect any caller in the U.S., robo or real. Because society is moving away from frequent calling, the tax would hardly affect

common man’s wallet. The average adult makes six calls a day, meaning a mere $1.80 a month. Once you get past the idea of yet another tax, this could be our silver bullet. While the FCC works day and night to combat this incessant issue, it came to a head last week when federal investigators unearthed Operation Brace Yourself, one of the biggest health care scams in U.S. history, amounting to $1.2 billion. The Department of Justice has charged 24 people from New Jersey to California after telemarketers in the Philippines and Latin America advertised “free” orthopedic braces to those newly eligible for Medicare in the U.S. Doctors deliberately wrote prescriptions for braces that patients never asked for, and sold the prescriptions to brace manufacturers who then billed Medicare anywhere $500 to $900 for each brace. After processing, doctors were given kickbacks of roughly $300 per brace. Needless to say, it did not pay off. Whether it’s through the Penny for Sanity Tax or another round of legislation, robocalls may remain the FCC’s top priority for a while. You can protect yourself from robocalls by signing up your mobile phone on the Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov, and refraining from answering any phone number that mimics the first 4-6 digits of your phone number.

Wednesday, April 17. 2019 // The Statement

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 // The Statement

“In-State”: A reflection on the U.P., its students and the University of Michigan BY FINNTAN STORER, MANAGING EDITOR

eople in Houghton, a town in the Upper Peninsula, only wake up at 4 a.m. to do one of three things: plow snow, watch the sunrise or catch one of the two daily flights from Houghton County Memorial Airport to Chicago O’Hare. My intention to watch the sunrise drew me to wake up at 4 a.m. in July 2017. I gathered my siblings to drive “up north” — an hour drive maximum or you’ll end up in Lake Superior — to Bare Bluff, a hike looking east over the lake. Our little pack hiked all the way to the top of the bluff, looked out on the calm freshwater and watched the sun slowly illuminate the trees. Many at the University of Michigan consider Traverse City or Mackinac Island to be “up north,” but for us in Houghton, that’s not the real “up north.” For us, the real “up north” is the Keweenaw Peninsula and the beautiful sunrise that comes up on Bare Bluff, over Superior’s horizon. When introducing myself to other University students, I take pride in telling them that I’m from the U.P. I mention the 300 inches of snow from the previous year, describe the beautiful landscapes and detail the two-hour drive to Target and my orthodontist’s office in Marquette. While the U.P. is my original home, the University has become my second one. I have found comfort here at the University over time, becoming accustomed to walking the campus, watching sporting events, going to class and working at The Daily. Houghton, my home in the U.P., will always be comfortable, but here at the University, I have found comfort along with opportunity — professional, academic and social. The footprint of the University extends across the globe, and the faculty and resources are world-renowned with a massive student body of students from across the U.S. and the world. But as a premier institution of higher education, founded with the goal of providing opportunity to college-aged students in the state of Michigan, how does the University associate with prospective students in the U.P.? How does the University breach the geographical divide to reach U.P. students who are so far away? How does it help them once they are at the University? What role does the University have as the state’s flagship institution? These two communities are certainly different. The University and greater Ann Arbor is far more liberal, relatively more diverse and certainly less snow-laden. The Upper Peninsula, which has 29 percent of the landmass in the state but just 3 percent of the population, is isolated from the rest of the state by the Mackinac Bridge. Many U.P. residents live closer to the capital of Wisconsin than to Lansing. This relative isolation leads to limited travel and exposure, which can make a transition to life in Ann Arbor different for Yoopers. For many including myself, Ann Arbor doesn’t even seem like Michigan. But unlike some, I have fortunately been able to travel and gain exposure to life in urban areas with diverse populations. The culture shock of a more liberal, larger, diverse Ann Arbor was a learning curve, but the adjustment period for me was short. hen I submitted my deposit to the University of Michigan, I’d only seen the campus once, at night. I visited a family friend in 2013 and we watched Trey Burke hit the game-tying three against Kansas in the Elite Eight. Later, I figured out we watched in a lounge in Alice Lloyd Residence Hall and shouted, “Go Blue!” at every person in the Diag. But other than those four hours, I hadn’t seen the

University — not even in daylight. Three months later, my mom dropped me off at East Quad Residence Hall for freshman orientation. I nervously joked I should have gone to Michigan Technological University in my hometown. That day, I wondered why I chose the University. I’d seen Washington University in St. Louis in the daylight, I’d strolled around what George Washington University can call a campus in the middle of Washington D.C. Hell, I’d even walked around the University of Virginia over a high school winter break. So why was I being dropped off for my freshman orientation in Ann Arbor? Part of it was cost-benefit analysis — the University was by far the cheapest option and either a better school or an equal one to all the ones I listed above (though I could have celebrated a national basketball championship this year if I’d gone to Virginia). I also knew I wanted a school that didn’t make me feel like I still lived in Michigan, so the University made sense because Ann Arbor felt so different from the Michigan I knew and it still allowed me to pay in-state tuition at a world-class university. I knew that the University had a broad scope of resources and opportunities in every possible academic field, which allowed me to take a shot in the dark when I submitted my enrollment deposit. I knew if I somehow wanted to switch into engineering, I’d enter a top-five program. I ultimately ended up in the Ford School of Public Policy, which has graduate programs ranked first in public policy analysis. But I realized the consequences of my shot-in-the-dark decision when the culture shock finally hit at East Quad in mid-July, and later again at South Quad Residence Hall in early August. It was more a realization I was outside of my comfort zone, but I credit much of my eventual adjustment to the University to my parents, who took great lengths to travel and visit family when we were kids. My story is one of many Upper Peninsula students going to college, here at the University or anywhere else in the state and the country. n thinking about U.P. students and the University, I immediately thought of my friend David Alger. Alger was one of our three high school valedictorians, and was admitted to the College of Engineering at the University. But despite his admittance, Alger currently studies chemical engineering at Michigan Tech in the Houghton area where we grew up. Alger is the quintessential Yooper. On his Instagram, you can find photos of beautiful areas he’s hiked, massive fish he’s caught and even a couple deer he’s snagged on opening day of hunting season, often in a few feet of snow. Now, I personally like to hike, and fishing seems fun, but Alger takes these activities and others to the peak of an outdoorsman. His answer to why he chose Michigan Tech and the U.P. was simple — don’t leave what you love. “I really loved living here, and still love it,” Alger said. “That was a huge part of it. I didn’t want to move away.” Too often, U.P. students are eager to move away and fail to recognize opportunity in the U.P., especially at Michigan Tech. In my experience, other students I’ve met from my area find an allure outside of the U.P. One girl in my driver’s ed class even asked what my favorite New York City borough

was, clearly dreaming of living in the Big Apple. But Alger recognized the opportunities he had at home through Michigan Tech, including the Leading Scholar Award at Michigan Tech, which, according to the Michigan Tech website, “Recognizes resident and non-resident high school seniors who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and scholarly achievements both in and outside the classroom.” “Knowing that I get the scholarship that I already had got at Tech and then I’d come into Tech knowing everything about the campus (helped me decide),” Alger said. “And having a bunch of connections there already. And that kind of weighed in my head like saying, ‘OK, I’m not going to have to spend the time to develop all those things and to try and pay for my school if I just go to Tech and it’s still a really good education.’” Thanks in part to his valedictorian status, David received this full-ride scholarship to Tech in the town he loved. Money certainly makes these decisions easier, but David also recognizes the social aspects that went into his choice. “And certainly I figured Tech would be a better fit for me culturally than Michigan would be, just being who I am,” Alger said. “Along those lines, a small town kid is going to be a small town kid. You could try and throw him somewhere, but if he’s really a small town kid, it’s not going to go too well.” When I came to the University, I made friends with other students in my residence hall, and met students from across campus in the Roosevelt Institute. Ann Arbor might not be so big for students from New York and California, but it has roughly 15 times as many people as Houghton does. In Alger’s case, the University missed out on an outstanding student for cultural, social and personal reasons. Additionally, the earning potential and career potential needs to be noted in Alger’s decision. According to the Michigan Tech Admissions Office, Tech graduates are in the 90th percentice of early career salaries and currently, Tech graduates earn a median starting salary of $66,400. Through his studies at Tech and the resources available, Alger has landed an internship with manufacturer Georgia-Pacific, which will likely become a full-time opportunity post-grad. Alger’s girlfriend, Rachel Fuller, a second-year environmental engineering student at Tech, is from Brighton in the Lower Peninsula and also had an opportunity to come to the University, but chose Michigan Tech coming out of community college for financial reasons and personal ones. “I liked the culture more (of Tech),” Fuller said. “I was given more opportunities and better scholarships up here than at Michigan … I just kind of always had a problem with living in tight cities. With Ann Arbor, the population there is just so compact and crazy that I didn’t really like that type of ‘busy all the time’ lifestyle.” Fuller referenced the constant busyness and pressure dynamic that other U.P. students and students from other universities are acutely aware of at the University. This and the more outdoorsy nature of Michigan Tech pushed her to the U.P. n contrast with Alger and Fuller, there are many U.P. students who do choose to study here at the University — I sought them out in our “Marquette Wolverines” Facebook group. Olivia Anderson is a junior at the University studying history and communication studies. Hailing from Munising, a smaller town three hours east of Houghton, Anderson saw the University’s size as a benefit. “I … hated how small like U.P. communities are,” Anderson said. “The kind of bubble effect that happens in the U.P. is something that really bothers me. And when I came to Ann Arbor it reminded me a lot of ... Madison (Wis.). It reminded me a lot more of that vibe where there’s a lot of people and stuff to do. It just clicked for me more rather than other places I’ve visited.”

Anderson also highlighted her desire to experience more diversity and be a part of a more progressive community. While many in Ann Arbor term the city a “bubble” that is not representative of “the real world,” the U.P. bubble also exists in isolation. Made up of relatively homogenous white, conservative communities, the U.P. can seem to be reluctant to change at times, especially in towns that lack higher education institutions such as Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan University. “Especially for me, being from an area that doesn’t have a lot of high academic achievement, is that there’s a lot of pressure here,” Anderson said. “There is an insane amount of pressure that can’t be matched anywhere else. I feel like, and it might just be a thing about where I’m from, but I just haven’t experienced something like this. And even talking to friends that go to Tech or go to Northern or just anything like that, they don’t get it.” I’ve heard this account from other students, no matter if they’re from the U.P. or the East Coast. This is reality on a highachieving college campus, but Matthew Knudsen, a junior at the University studying molecular and cellular biology, didn’t agree. Knudsen is a fourth-generation University of Michigan student who grew up going to football games at the Big House. He hails from Escanaba in the southern U.P., and when asked about pressure at the University, he claimed it didn’t affect him as much. “I don’t know about that,” Knudsen said. “I think it’s just so much bigger than those U.P. colleges. The only difference I can speak on is that you get to meet people from all over.” Knudsen runs the Yooper Club at the University and lives with a few other U.P. students, but appreciates the opportunity to meet students from every state in the country. And while he and Anderson disagree on the pressure at the University, they both know students who had the chance to attend the University but decided not to. “I’ve heard from people who had the ability to come here or applied to come here who are accepted and they’re just, ‘I’m glad I didn’t go,’” Anderson said. “My best friend got into Michigan and he’s at Iowa instead,” Knudsen said. “It’s another Big Ten school, and the only reason he didn’t come to Michigan is because he got a full-ride at Iowa … Maybe one girl from my class ended at Central, but financial reasons again.” Interviews with Alger, Fuller, Anderson and Knudsen showed the variation of interests and experiences U.P. students. They showed the University doesn’t click for everyone and that’s OK. But for the students who do wish to come to the University, what does the future hold? interviewed two high school counselors in the Upper Peninsula to discuss past interactions with the University: Susy Talentino of Sault Ste. Marie in the eastern U.P. and Kristen Rundman, my high school counselor in Houghton. Talentino and Rundman both had positive things to say about the University but noted its academic rigor. Talentino highlighted a lack of recruiting of Sault Ste. Marie students. “Academic quality, of course, the attitude is that it’s high,” Talentino said. “U-M has tough admission standards. As far as recruiting, we don’t really have any recruiting. We used to have a U-M admissions adviser come here sometimes, but we haven’t had them come in several years.” “I think that it’s a very challenging school and diverse, it has a diverse population,” Rundman said. “And prepares students well for their future.” Recruiting at Sault Ste. Marie has slowed, but the University still typically sends a representative to a college fair in Houghton each year. However, Rundman noted the

college fair is typically an extremely busy time and it’s hard for students to interface with University representatives. Because of geographic distance, traveling to the U.P. takes a toll for University representatives. However, the lack of representatives poses a problem as the University misses out on talented U.P. students. I did not meet with a representative my senior year and most of my information came from the internet and mailers I received at home. However, meeting with someone from the University could have reduced the “impostor syndrome” I felt with my acceptance to the University. Impostor syndrome is a horrible little thing where you feel you don’t deserve to be somewhere or in some position or have some achievement. For me, meeting with a representative would have greatly reduced this, but I had to wait until I settled in at the University for it to go away (of course, these things never completely go away). While I pushed through this mental block, the failure of the University recruiting could be damaging other students’ opportunities, which is something Talentino noted in her experiences. “I feel that it maybe makes some kids feel like U-M isn’t really an option because no one really comes to talk to them about it,” Talentino said. The University might rely on the Student Ambassadors program to cover this ground. The program involves training current University students, giving them a PowerPoint presentation and having them speak at their high school alma mater. But this relies on current U-M students going back to their high schools, so U.P. high schools with no students at the University suffer. Anderson mentioned previous students from her school going to the University were unwilling to share their experiences with their hometowns. “I had two people from my high school before me and the people I knew graduating that came here and they just, they exed out completely of their own community,” Anderson said. “They … went to the University of Michigan. No one ever heard from them again. And I just went in completely blind here.” If University students from the U.P. and other undercontacted areas aren’t willing to go back to their hometowns, the Student Ambassadors program will prove to be ineffective. Because of this, students in the U.P., with its isolation, might not feel ready or up to the challenge of the University. Missing out on visits from representatives because of hectic schedules, or not hearing from a former peer about their experience inhibits the confidence of U.P. students and their likelihood of enrolling downstate at the University. Talentino had an admissions case where a student she thought was well qualified was denied admission to the University. “One that still bothers me is a class of 2017 boy who applied to U-M. He had a 4.0 and a really good SAT score, I think it was 13-something,” Talentino said. “And he did not get in and when he told me, I said, ‘I don’t believe you, you screwed something up. Like, you did not click submit on your application or something’, and he said, ‘No, I’m telling you the truth’, and he forwarded me the email he got declining, telling him he didn’t get in. So I’m still floored by that. As a counselor, I see U-M as very competitive as far as being admitted.” With an increasing number of applicants, admission to the University is becoming more of a crapshoot. Talentino also detailed a perceived advantage for U.P. students that has seemingly fallen by the wayside. “And I feel like there used to be that kind of legend that if you were from an Upper Peninsula county, your chances of getting into U-M were

better because U-M needed kids from all areas,” Talentino said. “That U-M needed kids from rural areas in the U.P. to kind of fill out their, ‘Yes, we are getting kids from all areas of the state.’ But lately, it kind of seems like that’s not as true anymore.” A University of Michigan admissions counselor was reached out to for comment but was unable to do so. The undergraduate population of students at the University from the state of Michigan is 16,036. If its student body were to be representative of the state in terms of population distribution, then the University should have nearly 500 U.P. students. It’s unlikely enrollment at the University reaches that number, given Talentino and Rundman both estimated their schools produce between one and 10 U-M students per year. The Universityt does not provide specific admissions statistics for students from the U.P. Far more U.P. students go to the U.P. schools like Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie or Northern Michigan in Marquette or Michigan Tech in Houghton. Rundman noted the growing popularity of community colleges because of the high cost of four-year institutions. here are no other examples of a state with a top nationally-ranked institution of higher learning that has this isolated a population, and simply no one at the University talks about it. Few students have actually been to the U.P., but it’s there. Its people, its culture, its politics — nearly completely surrounded by water and tucked away in forests, hills and plains. Some of its students stay home and get an education, others go straight to work and a few come to the University of Michigan. If the University can figure out how to offer more financial aid and perhaps changed a “pressure” and “busy” culture, maybe it can snag more of them.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019// The Statement

Mending the college narrative I

BY YASHASVINI NANNAPURAJU, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR

have heard it all. About how there’s nothing in the world quite like walking to Michigan Stadium with your friends on game days — when jubilant music floods the streets and Ann Arbor is indisputably wide awake. About hunching over crinkled papers and halffinished lattes in the library late at night. About the fading intensity of homesickness as you find the friends that’ll speak at your wedding someday and the growing sense of who you are meant to be. With conviction and nostalgia, my teachers, neighbors and older friends promised, “It’ll be the best years of your life.” The best years of my life. As the first person in my family to attend college in the United States, I was both very impressionable and cautiously optimistic about college. However, as I stood on the steps of Angell Hall and read the words “the means of education shall forever be encouraged,” learned from professors who are nothing short of experts in their respective fields and passionately sang the fight song at my first home football game, I couldn’t help but believe those words. After all, how could it possibly get any better? It truly felt like I was on the brink of something extraordinary. However, my college experience largely deviated from what my friends and teachers had recounted. There was an unexpected and acute loneliness that pulled at the hem of my jeans just about everywhere I went. After just a few weeks of walking to class, staring at my blank phone during rushed meals in the dining hall, and exchanging empty words with my roommate, I found myself reaching for my earbuds more and more often — not for the music, but simply to drown out that dreaded feeling of loneliness. Like most freshmen, perhaps, I decided I needed to put myself out there and get out of my comfort zone if I wanted to meet people. So I sat down and scrolled through Maize Pages religiously to fill out countless applications for clubs. One, in particular, was for a pre-medicine fraternity, founded on the pillars of service and leadership and on the passion for medicine. The organization and its members embodied everything I wanted for my future. I pored myself over that application — citing years of involvement in various clubs from my high school career. I remember picking out my favorite yellow blouse, meticulously flat-ironing my unruly hair just to pull it back into a neat plait, and rehearsing exactly what I wanted say. But when my interviewers looked like they were trying to keep their heads from flopping over from boredom during my responses, I walked out of Angell Hall

feeling more than defeated. Just a month earlier, I had stared up at the promising words at the top of that very building, filled with hope and enthusiasm. And when the rejection finally came via email, it felt like a door was shutting right in my face — like an entire group of people told me I wasn’t enough. Alas, there I was again: trapped and pushed into a corner with my dear loneliness. The rest of that first semester of college followed much of the same pattern. I desperately tried out for everything I was even remotely intrigued by. An Indian dance team, an a cappella singing group, more medical clubs. Each one responded with a resounding “no.” I couldn’t help but feel confused. Of all the people that had told me about what college would be like, not one had mentioned feeling inadequate or alone. For a long time, I thought I must be the only person who felt this way. That misconception didn’t change until a close friend confided in me that she would feel the same way even after a night partying with a whole group of people. Slowly, I began to see how pervasive and typical these feelings of loneliness and inadequacy really are, and a bigger picture began to unravel. Now, I can’t help but feel obligated to speak to the gaping hole in the narrative I had heard about the college experience. The best years of my life. Though it may look different for each person, so many people experience this period of instability. After all, college is full of change, and the road to figuring out who you’re meant to be isn’t always glamorous. Self-discovery can be a ferociously grueling process that forces us to look our scariest inner demons in the eye. I didn’t come to this realization until I headed home for Winter Break. After a stressful round of final exams and nagging feelings of loneliness and inadequacy buzzing in my ear for the past few months, I was so grateful to be surrounded by my family. When I finally opened up to my parents about how difficult my first semester was, my dad reminded me of a story I knew all too well. When I was just 2 years old, my family moved to the United States from India. On my first day of kindergarten, I stared with wide eyes at my teachers and fellow students — not comprehending a single word. My teacher actually met with my parents

to express concern about my English language ability. Worried, my mother would sit with me each day as I forced my tongue to make strange new sounds and memorized the curves of a foreign alphabet. I remember being so frustrated that I would throw my pencil across the room — refusing to learn anymore. Ever so patiently, my mother would coax the pencil back into my hands and assure me that the language would come naturally to me soon because our ancestors in India were writers. She gently insisted I had the strength in me to thrive in this foreign place. Soon enough, I was spewing English as fluently as Samantha from next door — more naturally than my native Telugu, even. By the time I got to middle school, I was writing poems and stories. With his crinkling brown eyes and graying hair, my dad offered, “You’re like Hanuman. You don’t know your own strength.” I smiled, remembering the ancient Hindu stories about a man that didn’t know he had the strength to lift mountains or the creative intelligence of an inventor unless someone told him so. My dad’s reminder of my own strength stuck with me. When I returned to campus for winter semester, I wrote his exact words on a piece of paper and stuck them to my dorm wall. I didn’t want to forget them. Most importantly, I wanted to live by them. So, I was more kind to myself. I relished victories and failures alike, heeding that

each would help me in some way. And even though I started to carve my own niche on campus, I told myself that I shouldn’t be afraid of not knowing where I fit in or not feeling like I am enough. I realized my dad was right. It is during the most trying of times that you discover your purpose and some of your greatest strengths — things you’ve always had within yourself. Of course, success is all the more gratifying when you can appreciate and acknowledge every struggle that you fought to overcame. Thus, I choose to acknowledge the loneliness and confusion that colored much of my first semester. I know that somewhere in the future, I will be grateful for the challenges my freshman year posed and how they pushed me to discover more about myself. Already, I am at a point where the blaring loneliness has quieted down and I am comfortable simply being with myself. I learned to enjoy my own company. It is this firm awareness and acceptance of the struggles embedded in the college experience that allowed me to embrace every extraordinary opportunity that college has to offer. I wish more than anything that someone had told me, “You might feel alone and lost, and that’s OK. You are not alone. Treasure those experiences.” I am persistently optimistic that this thread of truth can help stitch together a more realistic picture about the college experience and remind anyone who needs to hear it, “You are strong enough.”

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

Wednesday, April16, 17, 2019 2019 // // The The Statement Statement Wednesday, January

7B 7B

A love letter to “U”

BY MICHELLE KIM, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

decided to go to the University of Michigan without ever having stepped foot on this campus. I had a really good feeling about it, and for some reason, my gut knew. I loved what people had to say about U-M grads — that they are wicked smart and successful, but also extremely friendly, kind and humble. From the beginning, I was sure it was something I wanted to be a part of. I saw this campus for the first time when I arrived for orientation. I knew so little about the University that I asked someone where the center of campus was, and for a while, I thought it was the engineering arch by the South University Espresso Royale. I arrived here by myself, without knowing a single soul, and ready to start my new life. Sometimes, I think the reason why I especially loved college was because I was ready to leave high school and my boogersized, suffocating suburban town in New Jersey. It was the kind of bubble where every generation came back and did exactly what their parents did. I was tired of nonsensical drama and of not growing as a person. College, to me, wasn’t just a place to get a degree. It was my chance to finally become the person I wanted to be but had hidden in constant fear of being judged. It was the promised land where I could start new, make friends and learn, learn, learn. My first semester, I was having so much fun meeting people and getting to know my new home that my mom texted me two months in, asking if I was alive. I had completely absorbed into my new life of classes, friends and tailgates. Now as a graduating senior, I think back on how every day, even with the difficult and

impactful, thoughtful and incredible things. You are all more than just another person on this planet. You’re going to be leaders and mentors (and the best!). I learned what it truly means to have a community when I came to college because of your words of encouragement and thirst for life. I have cherished our times together, whether it’s a messy night at Rick’s or a chat on our walk to class. You didn’t just accept me for my eccentricities, but also encourILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL aged them to shine. stressful ones, has been so exciting. As I Thank you for being the best dance partwrite this, with 27 days left, I still wake up ners and for always making me laugh. Your admiration of intelligence and every single morning in disbelief that I get creativity has inspired me to always work to be a student here. It honestly makes me angry, after all hard. We have all excelled in our own the waiting I did to get to college, that this rights and prioritized our responsibilities experience is already coming to an end. as students, while always putting relaA lot of my friends at other colleges say tionships first and balancing the perfect they’re ready to graduate, but I am heart- amount of work and fun. You have taught broken at the thought of ever having to me to grind through the long hours, think leave. I want more time here. I want to go beyond textbook material and be diligent. to Charley’s trivia a couple more nights You have instilled in me ambition without and attend one more basketball game. I the need to bring others down, but instead want to have one more movie night over to value others as part of the team, the feta bread and one more long run as the team, the team. Thank you for believing leaves around the Diag start to change col- that being smart is cool, being different is ors in the fall. I’ll even take another exam even cooler and being kind is a necessity. Most importantly, you have been there to stay here for a minute longer. It’s been pretty terrifying and miser- for me in my lowest points — when I was able to watch the days go by during my stressed about career choices, grades senior year. Friends that I chose to be my or life in general. You reminded me that family for the past four years are signing everything was going to be OK, and time leases and confirming start dates for their and time again it always is. We experijobs all across the world. I won’t be able to enced each other’s worst moments and simply call them up for lunch or see them helped each other through our mistakes. every single day in class. We won’t be see- You were my coach, and motivated me ing Main Street at sunset or deliriously through the toughest of times out of pure giggling in the UGLi at 3 a.m. I try to con- love. Thank you for never giving up on me stantly remind myself that it’s a good thing I’m devastated about graduating. It means whenever I gave up on myself. Because of all of you, I learned for the I really built something special here. So other than this being a tale of woe, first time to enjoy life as it comes. I have this is my thank you to all the people who become a better family member, colleague, have made these past four years the most stranger, friend and human being overall by learning from you. The compassion you special and happiest of my life. Each and every one of you has filled me have shown has filled me with an energy with more love and support than I could’ve to only do good things in the world. I hope ever imagined or thought I deserved. I you know that even if we don’t touch base cannot wait to see where you will all go, often, I am forever appreciative of you. The because I know you’re going to be doing love you have given me has made me love

myself, the person I’ve become in college and who I will grow to be in the future. I think that’s what makes this place so special. It reminds me of a conversation I had with friends at the end of sophomore year about how extraordinary this place is. On this particular day, we had been sitting on the steps of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, enjoying a rare warm day with what felt like the entire population of Ann Arbor. Some students were playing frisbee outside, others were running late to their next class. The commotion of student life happening all around us, through the stunning campus buildings and quaint State Street stores, created an unparalleled energy. We reflected on moments like this where we look around campus and think how lucky we are to attend the greatest university in the world. Now, as I’m at the home stretch, I see that it’s the people, and our belief that the success of another student on campus is a shared success, that make this place extraordinary. I mean, my friends cared so much that they would wake up early just to call and make sure I got up for morning exams. We’re bonded by this culture and experience that is like no other. This place is straight magic. Michigan, you are my first and greatest love. Thank you for giving me the chance to meet these friends who have forever changed me. This University is a classic Midwestern school and is known for being amazing at sports, but it’s more than just that. Besides the archaic private school labels and beyond the sports, it’s a place where people excel in every field and interest imaginable, while also growing to be genuinely good human beings. It’s a place of possibilities, and it’s a place that has given me more happiness than I’ve ever known. I got to spend four full years surrounded by endless opportunities and remarkable people. I now have a lifetime to think back on these memories, and strive to make more that could instill as much joy. Go 18-year-old me for choosing the University of Michigan without even visiting. You knew what you were doing when you chose this school because you heard the people were good. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving me this life-changing opportunity, and Michigan for being the best decision I ever made. How fortunate I am to call myself a Michigan Wolverine. How blessed I am that no matter where I go, the adage is true — this campus and the people in it will always be my home. And of all the beautiful cities I’ve seen, this is still my favorite place in the world. How lucky I am.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 // The Statement

“SPENDING THE LAST THREE YEARS AS A PHOTOJOURNALIST FOR THE DAILY HAS BEEN A BLESSING. FROM THE FIRST WOMEN’S MARCH ON ANN ARBOR IN 2017 TO THE HASH BASH WHEN RECREATIONAL CANNABIS IN MICHIGAN WAS LEGALIZED, I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE HELPED CAPTURE KEY MOMENTS OF THIS UNIVERSIT Y AND ANN

VISUAL STATEMENT SENIORPHOTOSTAFF

ARBOR’S HISTORY. MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE EVENTS I’VE COVERED, HOWEVER, ARE THE PEOPLE I’VE MET THROUGHOUT MY JOURNEY. I’M GRATEFUL FOR MY FELLOW PHOTOGRAPHERS AND EDITORS WHO HAVE CHALLENGED MY PERSPECTIVES, AND I’M THANKFUL THAT I COULD CONTINUE GROWING IN PHOTOGRAPHY EVEN AS A SENIOR. I’LL FOREVER CHERISH MY TIME HERE AT THE DAILY, AND I’M EXCITED TO SEE WHAT WILL COME NEX T.”

— MAX KUANG

“THE DAILY HAS BEEN A SPACE OF DEVELOPMENT FOR ME, A PLACE TO MEET INTERESTING PEOPLE AND WHERE I FOUND SOME OF MY DEAREST FRIENDS HERE AT THE UNIVERSITY. I'M GRATEFUL FOR THE MEASURED CHAOS OF THE NEWSROOM, ITS COMMUNITY AND HOW IT SERVES THE ANN ARBOR COMMUNITY AT LARGE.”

— EMMA RICHTER

“I’VE BEEN SUPER FORTUNATE TO SHOOT NEARLY EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN AND DO IT REPRESENTING THE DAILY. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT I WAS WALKING INTO WHEN I JOINED, BUT I COULDN’T HAVE HOPED FOR MORE. FROM MY FIRST EVENT TO MY LAST, I’M PROUD TO CALL THIS NEWSPAPER MY HOME.”

— KATELYN MULCAHY “IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME FRESHMAN YEAR THAT I WOULD BE CHASING JORDAN POOLE AND THE MICHIGAN BASKETBALL TEAM AROUND A COURT IN WICHITA, KANSAS AND THEN SPEND THE NEX T 15 HOURS (AND MANY RED BULLS) DRIVING BACK TO ANN ARBOR, THEN SPEND 6 HOURS MAKING A NEWSPAPER, THEN SOMEHOW MAKING IT BACK TO MY BED, I WOULD HONESTLY NOT BELIEVE YOU. BECAUSE I STILL FIND HARD TO BELIEVE TODAY ALL OF THE INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES, FRIENDS, MEMORIES AND SKILLS I HAVE GAINED OVER THE PAST 4 YEARS BECAUSE OF MY TIME ON PHOTOSTAFF. IT’S NOW HARD TO BELIEVE THAT MY TIME HERE ON PHOTOSTAFF IS OVER, BUT I KNOW IT WAS TIME WELL SPENT, AND EVEN THOUGH I MIGHT NOT BELIEVE THE MEMORIES SOMETIMES, I WILL NEVER FORGET THEM.”

— EVAN AARON

“WORKING AT THE DAILY FOR THE PAST YEAR HAS BEEN AMAZING. BEING ON THE PHOTO TEAM HAS GIVEN ME SO MANY UNIQUE EXPERIENCES THAT I'M SO THANKFUL FOR. IT'S GOING TO BE REALLY DIFFICULT TO SAY GOODBYE.”

— CAMERON HUNT