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Thursday, September 5, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
There’s a cloud on the horizon for flavored e-cigarettes in Michigan, and it definitely doesn’t smell like mangoes. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hit juuls across Michigan hard on Wednesday, declaring a statewide ban on flavored nicotine vaping products. Whitmer called on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to issue emergency rules, banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes both in stores and online. The mandate also includes a ban on misleading marketing of vaping products that use terms like “clean” or “safe.” The ban will expire in six months, at which time
Whitmer can decide to extend it. The ban makes Michigan the first state in the nation to bar the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. In a press release, Whitmer said she issued the order after Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive and chief deputy director for health at MDHHS, found that youth vaping constituted a public health emergency. In recent weeks, health officials have been investigating an outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses across the country. “As governor, my number one priority is keeping our kids safe,” Whitmer said. “And right now, companies selling
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vaping products are using candy flavors to hook children ADMINISTRATION on nicotine and misleading claims to promote the belief that these products are safe. Alec Co- hen That ends today.” Data from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey showed a 78 percent spike in e-cigarette use among high school students between 2017 and 2018, with more than 3.6 million kids currently using them in 2018. AMARA SHAIKH Whitmer also ordered & RACHEL CUNNINGHAM the Michigan Department Daily News Editors of Transportation to double down on enforcement of An online petition asking existing state law prohibiting the University of Michigan to billboard advertising of such bring back coverage of sexually products. transmitted infection testing at University Health Service began circulating online Wednesday. See E-CIGARETTES, Page 3
Petition circulates to change UHS STI policy
Over 1,400 signatures gathered to reinstate coverage At the time of publication of this article, the petition had over 1,400 signatures. UHS and Michigan Medicine quietly introduced a new policy in July to bill a student’s insurance plan for laboratory testing, radiology x-rays and ultrasounds and allergy injections. Previously,
CRIME
Libraries Center of the City task force talks put in new park planning stages at City Hall security ‘Library Lot’ will become central commons after Prop. A passage cameras Security meausures will be placed in stairs and entrances at the UGLi and Hatcher EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan has installed security cameras in the main libraries on campus for the start of the fall semester. The additional safety measure is the result of a collaboration between the University Library and the Division of Public Safety and Security. Though campus libraries are typically safe, crimes still occur, said Rebecca Dunkle, associate university librarian for library operations. “The libraries are generally very safe places, but we do have occasional groups of thefts,” Dunkle said. “Mostly when people leave their belongings unattended, but on rare occasions from library offices or labs when they are accidentally left unlocked. We hope the cameras will help prevent thieves from coming into the library at all and will help the Department of Public Safety identify perpetrators if a theft does occur.” Dunkle explained the security cameras will only be placed in the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library and the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, the two biggest library buildings on campus and the locations of most past thefts. See SECURITY, Page 3
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The Center of the City Task Force met at Larcom City Hall to discuss the planning stages of a new park in the center of Ann Arbor Wednesday afternoon. The 10-person municipal committee was designed to promote long-term beautification projects in Ann Arbor. The group first
met on Aug. 1, after local voters approved Proposal A in November which designated the library lot between Fifth Avenue and Division Street as a space for the construction of a new community commons. Meghan Musolff, the chair of the task force, explained the group is still developing plans for the park’s construction and will be doing so over the next several months. Bringing in support and
input from the community in the next few months will help the project’s development, Musolff said. “My goals for today are to really start thinking about how we engage the community in an inclusive, meaningful way, starting from where we are in the conversation,” Musolff said. “This group is really coming together to start thinking about the vision, and today … we (are) going to bring the
community into the decisionmaking process.” While the Center of the City project ultimately gained approval via direct vote last November, task force members explained the idea has been in the works for several years. Alan Haber, task force member and local political activist, says the idea was originally shot down by the city over ten years ago. See TASK FORCE, Page 3
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Task Force members gather at the third Center of the City Task Force meeting at City Hall Wednesday afternoon.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 125 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
a mandatory $199 Health Service Fee paid by students through tuition covered these examinations. UHS said they implemented these changes “to keep the health service fee unchanged this year, despite significant increases in expenses. See PETITION, Page 3
CAMPUS LIFE
Writers generate funds for migrants
Donations will go towards families seeking refuge at southern border MARIA SOBRINO Daily Staff Reporter
More than 50 students, faculty, poets and community organizers gathered in the Diag Wednesday evening for a protest reading and fundraising event through the national movement Writers for Migrant Justice. The movement is comprised of poets who joined together to raise money for organizations providing financial, legal and medical aid to detained or formerly-detained migrants. The open-air event featured 16 speakers performing original poetry and literature, including poets and writers who were both students and faculty members. Writers for Migrant Justice partnered with Immigrant Families Together, an organization that provides legal and financial support for those affected by immigrant issues, and the local organization One Michigan for Immigrant Rights, which provides support to immigrant communities through “organizing, education, and empowerment.” Sumita Chakraborty, Michigan Writers for See MIGRANTS, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................6
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................7
News
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Ancient Sudanese graffiti exhibit opens Kelsey Museum of Archaeology hosts 600 artjfacts found at El-Kurru site relating to area’s religious, trading, and historical movements across North African region EMMA RUBBERG Daily Staff Reporter
The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology debuted a new exhibit titled “Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile: El-Kurru, Sudan” on August 23. The exhibit focuses on approximately 600 graffiti artifacts found at the site of El-Kurru in ancient Kush, located in modern day Sudan. Geoff Emberling, co-curator of the exhibit, said the project began when a group of researchers traveled to Sudan in 2015, expecting to find an ancient royal city. “We found a temple and started seeing these graffiti and that was not what we went looking for at all,” Emberling said. “But that’s what archaeology is all about:
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finding the unexpected.” The exhibit also features information about the graffiti and the culture of ancient Kush. Visitors can read about how the graffiti relates to the region’s religion, trade and tradition of pilgrimage. There are various multimedia elements in the exhibit, including a soundscape of ancient Kush and an interactive simulation of the ref lection transformation imaging researchers used to analyze the graffiti. This technology compiles approximately 30 photos taken of the graffiti with different amounts of light and creates one file. Using this file, researchers can examine how light affects the visibility of the graffiti. The exhibit also
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features a map of the region printed on the f loor. Rackham students Caitlin Clerkin and Shannon Ness explained how they believed multimedia impacts visitors’ experiences and deepens their connection to the exhibit. “We think that these elements help to bring a visitor a little closer to the reality of a place,” Clerkin said. “For us, the map provides a sense of geography as well as a reminder that the Nile ties some of these locales together. The soundscape gives a little sense of human activity, and brought us, as visitors, into the site and village.” Emberling said he hopes visitors will gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of ancient African civilizations. “I think the ancient civilizations of Africa don’t get as much attention in the public eye as they deserve,” Emberling said. “I hope people will become a little more aware of their complexity and cultural achievements.” He also compared ancient Kush to the modern-day United States, explaining that understanding a culture solely through its elites is problematic. “Most of our ideas about history come from the elite and that’s not a satisfactory way to understand any culture, even our own,” Emberling said. “The graffiti art are important and interesting in the sense that they are marks left by individual people.” LSA junior Madeline Topor, president of the Student Archaeology
Club, said she believes the study of ancient civilizations is especially relevant today. “Studying things from the past is a way to learn about where we came from,” Topor
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said. “How it shaped the world we are living in today and how traditions from the past are still carried on in the present.” This winter, researchers will be continuing the project, relocating to the capital of ancient Kush. The Kelsey Museum is hosting various events related to this exhibit, including an opening lecture on Sept. 5, a curator’s tour on Sept. 8 and a half-day symposium on Sept. 20.
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TASK FORCE From Page 1 “In 2009, the city put out a request for proposals as (to) what should happen on top of the parking structure, and at that time I and another person with a larger group put in a proposal for the Ann Arbor community commons,” Haber said. “The city, under the table, had decided, already, that this was going to be a kind of conference center ... So our proposal for a community commons was not considered nor another proposal for a town square.” LSA senior Hannah Boettcher is the sole University of Michigan student voice on the task force. Boettcher is a part of the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank and campus network at U-M focused on public policy. The Institute originally campaigned against the proposal, instead advocating for an affordable housing complex at the same location. “The alternative to the Proposal A in the center of the city would have been an affordable housing building,” Boettcher said. “So we as a student body took the opinion that affordable housing near campus would have been more beneficial, not only to students, but also to the community at large.” Following the approval of Proposal A, Boettcher applied to be on the committee in order to represent the student body
and ensure the project took all community members’ needs into account. “All that aside, I’m interested as a student on this project, because it does lie in the intersection of student neighborhoods,” Boettcher said. “There are student neighborhoods pretty much all around this location, so to me it’s really important to have a student voice representing this so it doesn’t become another wasteland park in the middle of downtown that nobody uses.” At the top of the agenda on Wednesday was community engagement, and members of the task force proposed several tactics to gather local support and inform the community. Heather Seyfarth, an Ann Arbor city planner, suggested several methods of increasing awareness, including invite letters, town social media accounts, holiday letters and posting flyers across town. However, Councilmember Chip Smith, D-Ward 5, warned against the use of mailings to consolidate community support, explaining they tend to be less effective than other means of spreading information. “It’s been my experience, because I do this work for a living and I’ve organized more than a few political campaigns, that we shouldn’t spend any money on mailings,” Smith said. “Mailings don’t generate any feedback, they don’t get people to meetings, generally if they’re looked at at all, they’re quickly tossed in the recycling bin. I think we need
PETITION From Page 1 Many students have insurance coverage through their parents, and when plans are billed, an Explanation of Benefits is often sent to the insurance policy holder to detail the services provided at UHS. If students want to avoid this, they have the option to pay for STI testing out-ofpocket. The fee is $90. In the comments of the petition and on social media, students wrote about the importance of accessibility of STI testing, especially for those in vulnerable medical situations and in the context of the University’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion goals. Engineering sophomore Kaleb Clover signed the petition. Clover said he recently came out as gay, and explained to The Daily if these changes had been made before he had came out, he would not have gotten tested for STIs. He would have feared his family would know he was gay and sexually active before he felt
MIGRANTS From Page 1 Migrant Justice co-organizer and Helen Zell Writers’ Program visiting professor in poetry, opened the event by explaining the group’s background and its mission within a national context. “This started as a nationwide movement when a few poets got together and thought, ‘Hey, while America has always been a fairly inhospitable place to a bunch of varieties of people, this is an especially cruel and brutal period of time in America for folks who are migrants seeking refuge and immigrants and racial minorities,’” Chakraborty said. “We wanted to raise some money to benefit some organizations that were directly targeting and trying to ameliorate the worst effects of this.” Brittany Rogers, one of the evening’s performers, teaches in Detroit Public
News to prioritize what’s going to be the most effective way to reach the different populations we’re trying to reach for each event.” The task force also set out goals for the next several months of project development. By the end of October, the committee hopes to complete outreach to the public and members of the community who have vested interests in the project. During November and December, a public proposal will be written, and by February, final discussions will be had about gaining approval from the Ann Arbor City Council. While members of the committee are eager to see the projects progress in the next few months, Boettcher explains she has some reservations about the task force’s composition. Boettcher says the multitude of city planners and local officials on the task force gives it a diversity of opinion, though not necessarily of race or socioeconomic background. “I’m disappointed in the lack of minority voices, when we’re talking about the ethnic diversity and the racial diversity of this task force, and likely the socioeconomic diversity of this task force,” Boettcher said. “I don’t think it’s been wellconsidered that this is an area downtown that maybe is not the most welcoming to all walks of life. That’s disappointing in that regard, but I think we’re mindful of that, and I think we all have a vision of inclusivity.”
comfortable telling them. “I wasn’t going to have them (my parents) know before I wanted them to know,” Clover said. Information junior Harrison McCabe also signed the petition and noted his disappointment with UHS Executive Director Dr. Robert Ernst. Ernst told The Daily last week students should consider obtaining their “own personal health insurance plan” if they’re uncomfortable with their parents finding out about STI testing from an insurance statement. McCabe felt Ernst didn’t take insurance accessibility into account when making those recommendations. “I thought that comment about how students should get their own insurance was very insulting and condescending because it’s not that easy to find insurance,” McCabe said. “Looking at me, I’ve had a lot of chronic health issues and I’ve gone through a lot of insurances and it’s been very difficult for me.” The University does offer a health insurance
plan through the Blue Care Network of Michigan. The cost for a full-year plan for domestic students is $1,709 annually with a $100 deductible. McCabe also said he wonders why the services were being cut in light of increasing tuition rates. “My tuition has gone up every year since I’ve gone here,” McCabe said. “Why are you cutting the cost when we’re paying more? We’re paying more for less.” In an earlier interview with The Daily, Ernst said billing changes were a result of creating new revenue streams for UHS. “In the context of being asked to stay creative, stay innovative, and hold increases in the health service fees to a minimum, the easiest first step is to let the hospital bill what they’re doing, instead of us just paying for them,” Ernst said. University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald told The Daily the University was aware of the petition but had no new information to add at this time.
Schools in addition to her work as a poet. Rogers commented on the urgency of donating money to organizations that support immigrant communities. “A lot of our students come from migrant families,” Rogers said. “Seeing how our students are affected by (immigration issues) is one of the hardest things for us to watch.” Samantha Magdaleno, director of One Michigan, elaborated on the continued necessity of the local support to immigrant communities her organization provides. “A lot of folks, since (immigration issues are) popular on the news now, they’re like ‘I want to do something, I want to get involved in it,’” Magdaleno said. “And all this money is going to new (organizations), who are kind of thinking they’re reinventing the wheel, right — but we’ve been doing this work, and we’ve been having strategies in place, and we have these
connections.” Many of the poems and short literature pieces focused on themes regarding migration, oppression, cultural belonging, undocumented experiences and firstgeneration experiences in the United States. LSA sophomore Hannah Martin attended the event and said she particularly resonated with one poet’s commentary on the absurdity of referring to a human being as “illegal.” “How can you be that when you’re everything this country’s built on?” Martin said. “That was a very, very powerful piece that I would love to hear again.” The group hosted more than 40 similar fundraising events across the country on Sept. 4, with the goal of raising $5,000. By the time the final speaker performed at the University of Michigan event, Michigan Writers for Migrant Justice had raised nearly $2,000.
Thursday, September 5, 2019 — 3
E-CIGARETTES From Page 1 Khaldun commended Whitmer for her move to block the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. “In the past few years, we’ve seen an explosive increase in the number of Michigan kids exposed to vaping products,” Khaldun said. “This is a public health crisis. These products can contain harmful chemicals that put our kids’ health at risk. I’m looking forward to working with Governor Whitmer to mitigate these effects and keep our kids healthy.” Though the University of Michigan is deemed a smokefree campus, e-cigarettes are popular on campus. LSA junior Blake Richards owns a Juul electronic cigarette and said he is trying to use it less because of the negative health effects. “Juul already stopped selling fruit flavors so I’m not really affected by that, but people like my brother would probably be pissed,” Richards said. “From my experience the addiction is strong enough that if people have already started smoking this (ban) won’t stop them. But it could probably make it much less attractive for non smokers to start smoking.” The ban goes into effect immediately, giving retailers 30 days to days to comply with
SECURITY From Page 1 According to the University Library’s announcement, the cameras will only be installed in entrances, exits, elevator lobbies and stairwell landings. They will be carefully placed in order to protect the privacy of library goers. Despite the limited placement of the cameras, they will still be instrumental in helping DPSS solve reported crimes, DPSS deputy chief of police Melissa Overton wrote in an email to The Daily. “Security cameras can be a useful tool used to identify those in the facilities if a crime has been committed and a suspect description or time frame of the crime has been identified,” Overton wrote. Engineering junior Hadley Peterson had her wallet stolen at the Graduate Library last February. She said she briefly left her belongings alone in a cubicle in the stacks, then came back to find her wallet missing. Due to the secluded nature of the stacks, no one else saw the theft. “I was up in Hatcher on the
the mandate. In a statement, Juul Labs, a popular e-cigarette startup based in San Francisco, said the company had not reviewed Whitmer’s order, but supports
While e-cigarettes are often marked as smoking alternatives, the FDA has not formally certified them as cessation aids
guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration calling for more restrictions on e-cigarettes and that “strong and serious actions need to be taken around certain flavored products.” “There is simply no place for kid-appealing flavors in the marketplace,” the statement reads.. “That is why we would also support an outright ban
fifth floor,” Peterson said. “It was the morning of one of my exams. I was studying, and I just kind of figured I could run to the bathroom real quick, and so I was only gone for a couple of minutes, and then when I came back, all my stuff, like my backpack, was opened up. Of course, no one saw anything.” Peterson said she turned to look for the potential perpetrator and saw a tall man leaving with her blue wallet sticking out of his pocket, but he went down a side stairwell before she could confront him. She then called the police and tried to get it sorted out, but because there were no cameras at the time, not much could be done. “I just called the police and I ended up talking to an officer,” Peterson said. “They weren’t able to really help much with the case because there wasn’t really much to do other than get a description, and it’s not really the sort of thing that will get resolved typically.” Peterson said the addition of the cameras might have helped her get her wallet back and feel more secure because DPSS could potentially use
on such flavors, including those that mimic kid-specific candies, foods, and drinks.” The statement also said Juul Labs backs laws prohibiting minors from purchasing tobacco, but added electronic nicotine delivery systems can help people quit smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, a claim that has faced scrutiny from scientists and researchers. While e-cigarettes are often marketed as smoking alternatives, the FDA has not formally certified them as cessation aids. In June, Whitmer signed a senate bill, which banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, and another senate bill, which mandated electronic nicotine delivery systems be sold in child-proof containers and “vapor products or alternative nicotine products” sold in retail stores be kept behind the counter. In a press release, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel praised Whitmer for instating the ban. “With a more than 1.5 million increase in the number of students using vaping products in just one year, the governor’s emergency actions today are exactly the bold measures we must take to protect Michigan’s children from the dangerous effects of vaping,” Nessel said in the press release.
them to identify a face. Dunkle said the University Library is dedicated to student privacy, and the reason the cameras are placed strategically is to protect the students in their work. She said neither the University or DPSS will actively watch or check the security cameras, and they will only be used in the case of a criminal incident. “We do not want to know what people are looking at in the library, what subjects they are studying, what print or online resources they are looking at, who they are sitting with or generally anything else they are doing,” Dunkle said. “We are careful to install the cameras where they will record people coming and going in the stairwells and entrances but not record what they are looking at on a computer screen or checking out at a service desk.” Peterson said she isn’t sure if she would appreciate more cameras in the main study areas of the library. She explained she prefers to have her computer activity private for security reasons, but could see the importance of cameras in terms of catching a thief.
POLICY TALKS @ THE FORD SCHOOL
STEPHEN BIEGUN U.S. Special Representative for North Korea
Photo: Josh Burek/Belfer Center
WEISER DIPLOMACY CENTER LAUNCH SERIES
International diplomacy challenges: North Korea Friday, September 06, 2019 1:30 - 3:00 pm Rackham Amphitheatre (4th Floor) 915 E. Washington St.
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Info: fspp-events@umich.edu fordschool.umich.edu
@fordschool #policytalks
Hosted as part of the Ford School's Conversations Across Difference Initiative. Co-sponsored by the Nam Center for Korean Studies.
Opinion
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S
The substantive flaw of the Green New Deal
ince its introduction by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., earlier this year, the Green New Deal — a sweeping proposal for widespread climate-centric reforms — has dominated political discussion on climate policy. I believe climate change is probably the most pressing and consequential issue facing the United States. I also oppose the Green New Deal. Perhaps those statements seem contradictory, and perhaps “oppose” is a bit strong; implementing the GND is far better than doing nothing, and several of the plan’s components — such as modernizing our nation’s infrastructure and investing in renewable energ y — are long overdue. I, along with many others on the center-left, am strongly skeptical that the Green New Deal is the right path forward. While many leftwing critics of the GND point to its political impracticality, the plan’s substance is equally concerning. It’s difficult to estimate the quantitative effect the GND would have on carbon emissions, since the resolution Ocasio-Cortez introduced was more of a vag ue outline than a detailed piece of legislation. What is clear is that the GND is a hodge-podge of command-and-control style reg ulations such as building a high-speed rail network to “eliminate the need for air travel” and “upgrading all existing buildings” for energ y efficiency. These proposals are bold ideas, but they will inefficiently, and perhaps insufficiently, reduce our carbon emissions. The solution is far simpler: Carbon pricing through either a carbon tax or a capand-trade system, which are the most efficient and costeffective ways to reduce emissions. Carbon emissions, as any economist can tell you, are a classic externality. This means they have external social costs (including, for example, sea-level rise, extreme weather, health risks and much more) but emitters do not pay for — and therefore don’t consider — these costs when deciding how much to emit. This leads to excessive emissions of greenhouse gases. Taxing carbon emissions at the rate of the social cost of these emissions will lead to a socially optimal amount of emissions, which will be
lower than current amounts. A cap-and-trade system works similarly, but instead of setting the price of carbon emissions and letting the market figure out the quantity, a cap-andtrade plan caps the quantity of emissions by issuing permits to emit and letting the market trade permits and decide their price. Ideally, either plan would be revenue neutral: All government revenue from the tax or selling permits would be rebated to lower-income communities to assist with potentially high energ y costs or invested in renewable energ y technolog y.
A climate plan is virtually meaningless at this stage unless it can be enacted There are still finer details to work out under either system — calculating the social cost of carbon to determine the ideal tax amount, covering other greenhouse gases like methane, creating a border carbon adjustment for imported goods, among others — but compared to other policy priorities like reducing poverty or fixing the health care system, solving climate change is tantalizingly achievable. Moreover, carbon pricing is more easily incorporated into an international system, which is critical since international collaboration and globally coordinated policies are essential to solve climate change. For all the Green New Deal’s bold ideas, noticeably absent is any carbon pricing proposal. Some proponents point to a line brief ly stating the need to “account for the true cost of emissions,” as a reference to carbon pricing, but this vague statement hardly constitutes a true proposal. Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the absence of carbon pricing in statements to NPR, in which she said that a carbon tax or cap-and-trade plan would be at most a “tiny part” of the GND and be initially “off the table.” She continued to say that carbon pricing “misses the point” and “assumes the existing market will solve this problem for us.”
This characterization of carbon pricing is egregiously inaccurate and borderline nonsensical. Carbon pricing doesn’t “assume the existing market will solve the problem for us” — it recognizes the failure of the current market to address emissions. The whole point of carbon pricing is to intervene with sensible taxes or emission caps to allow market forces to reduce emissions in a way that maximizes efficiency and minimizes economic loss. Keep in mind that these answers were prepared, written statements, not off-the-cuff remarks — they represent a grave f law in Ocasio-Cortez’s understanding of climate policy, not an innocent misstatement. It is discouraging to see so many other Democrats abandon market-based solutions to climate change. Despite the fact that the most promising state-level and international climate plans are carbon tax and capand-trade systems, through four rounds of Democratic debates, each of which devoted time to discussing climate change, only U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and former U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., brought up market-based carbon pricing mechanisms. Lastly, a carbon tax proposal is far more practical to pass than the GND. Far-left Democrats have grown fond of scoffing at the importance of practicality, but the hard truth is that a climate plan is virtually meaningless at this stage unless it can be enacted. The GND has met universal opposition from Republicans and several redstate Democrats. It is frankly unpassable, even if Democrats manage to retake the Senate and the White House in 2020. Passing a carbon pricing plan will also be difficult but far more realistic. The late Senator John McCain supported a cap-and-trade system during his 2008 presidential campaign, and an admittedly imperfect carbon tax bill in the House has Democratic and Republican co-sponsors. While those on the far-left jeer at market solutions, they’d be wise to remember the urgency of climate change. We only have time for one major push to get emissions under control, and it’s imperative we get it right.
Noah Harrison can be reached at noahharr@umich.edu.
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I
Oh, to graduate during a recession
f you have followed the news the last couple weeks, you have seen loads of articles predicting economic Armageddon. It is possible the media’s hysteria may have tangible negative economic impacts, but I am sufficiently stressed, so I will join the chorus. A brief disclaimer: All of this terror is preemptive. Economic trends can change, and if they do, this article and the anxiety that bred it would be rendered moot. And always remember that economists have a less than stellar record when it comes to predicting recessions. But, for now, the stress is real! And if the forecasters are right, we — college students — will disproportionately feel it. Over the last year, pessimism about the U.S. economy’s outlook has become routine as the stock market has fluctuated along with President Donald Trump’s tariff whims. But this is different. On Aug. 14 the yield curve inverted, meaning the interest rates on 10-year government bonds were lower than those for two-year bonds. In other words, the market began thinking the U.S. economy’s long-term outlook was less risky than its short-term. That set off lots of alarms. The last six inversions of the yield curve each preceded a recession. The typical lag time? Between one and two years, meaning many current college students could very likely enter a recessionary economy post-graduation. As young people entering the labor market, a recession would have a serious impact on our futures — more than any other generation. Academic research shows that graduates entering the labor force during a recession are kind of screwed. They are more likely to be unemployed, since firms hire less during recessions. If someone does manage to land their first job, they are more likely to be overqualified for it because firms become more risk averse. And those impacts last. Initial overqualification has long term consequences since it can delay promotion and reduce motivation. Recession graduates also have lower starting salaries, and though the gap is modest, it persists for approximately 10 to 15 years after labor market entry. Those 10 to 15 years of diminished income matter, and
research shows they impact the rest of recession graduates’ lives. By the time the income gap fades, key personal financial decisions may have been delayed or abandoned. For example, recession graduates are less likely to be married, have children, buy a home or car. They also start saving for retirement later. The impacts are also behavioral. Not to get too morbid, but recession graduates are more likely to die in middle age. It is not clear why. One suggestion is financial precarity throughout the first 10 to 15 years of work leads to less healthy lifestyle choices. The other possibility is without consistent or challenging work, an unstable transition from school into the labor market makes it more difficult to shed unhealthy habits from school, like binge drinking or poor sleep habits. No matter the cause, it is not a happy picture.
A recession would have a serious impact on our future Recessions disproportionately impact many demographic groups, not just college graduates. According to an ACLU report, by 2031, the Great Recession will have reduced the wealth in Black households by 29 percent more than in white ones. Furthermore, a higher proportion of lowincome households reported they were in worse shape after the Great Recession than wealthier households. And though college graduates suffer, recessions are far more destructive for high school graduates entering the labor market. The possibility of graduating into a recession would be a bummer if it was part of the natural economic cycle, but it is particularly frustrating because this potential recession has been expedited. The first and most obvious preventable cause is President Trump’s trade
war with China, which has raised consumer prices and unsettled investors. The second attainable way to prevent or delay recessions in countries with labor shortages is to increase immigration. Much of the international economic anxiety is over reports of recessions in developed economies experiencing population loss, like Japan, United Kingdom and Germany (also the United States). Yet none of them have meaningfully increased immigration to fill open jobs. Meanwhile, at the time of this writing, the Trump administration is denying that we may be headed towards a recession for political purposes and has thus ignored any of the preventative steps it could take. The potential that we may be recession graduates thanks to our government’s economic mismanagement has filled me with a lot of frustration for the past couple weeks, but in the research, there is a silver lining. Recession graduates are on average happier than labor market entrants into a healthy economy. The theory behind the data is recession graduates are just grateful to be working and spend less time thinking about other possible career paths. Recession graduates also seem to be less narcissistic, perhaps because they had to overcome more hardship during their initial working years. These attitudes can have tangible manifestations. CEOs who were recession graduates were less likely to commit a certain kind of business fraud (backdating stock options) ubiquitous at the turn of the century. How the economy fares over the next couple years will likely have a disproportionately large impact on the rest of our lives. If things go poorly, our bad graduation timing will limit our generation in many tangible ways. That is scary, but ultimately beyond our direct control. What is partly under our control is how we approach the work we are doing. Instead of letting fear and frustration consume us, we should focus on channeling the philosophy that recession graduates hold: An appreciation of the work we do, regardless of the economic conditions around us. Solomon Medintz can be reached at smedintz@umich.edu.
JOSHUA KIM | COLUMN
A
In defense of the Electoral College
s the 2020 presidential election rears its head over America, so does the bitter tension and frustration that arose from the aftermath of the 2016 election. After 2016’s Election Day, businessman President Trump claimed the presidency through the Electoral College, but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Trump through the popular vote. This situation reignited a nationwide debate about the efficacy of the Electoral College. And that very same debate has reappeared as the 2020 election begins. Ma i n st rea m Democrat ic ca ndidates v y i ng for t he presidenc y — including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt. — have expressed some desire to outright abolish the Electoral College. Other Democrats like entrepreneur Andrew Yang admit that the Electoral College is antiquated to some extent. With this growing opinion on the Electoral College, it is important to recognize not only its origins, but also how the Electoral College still fulfills its purpose within the current American political battlefield. In Doug Linder’s “The Electoral College Debate,” he recognizes that the Electoral College provides states “a role … in the selection of the president, (reminding) us of their importance in our federal system.” Some would argue that the Electoral College is counterintuitive to the democratic values of the United States. Linder cites in the same article, a “a vote by a resident of Wyoming counts about four times more — electorally — than a vote by a California resident.” Though true in the context of the electorate, that does not mean that small states like Wyoming hold disproportionate and absolute federal power over larger states like California. The entire framework of the U.S. as a
democratic republic was designed to divide power, and the Electoral College and the presidency are only allocated a slice of that power. The electorate champions America as a republic, and institutions like the House of Representatives champion America as a democracy. The outright failure to recognize or even consider why the Electoral College distributes power to states in such a way demonstrates a limited understanding that American politics expands far beyond the presidency.
The Electoral College does not hinder the democratic process; it emboldens it Look back to the 2016 election. In an infographic published by The New York Times, it showed that Clinton won the popular vote by “2.2 million” votes even though “her votes were very concentrated in only a few states.” She spent little time in Michigan, never visited Wisconsin, and focused on Pennsylvania where she still lost. She lost those states by a collective total of roughly 73,000 votes. Imagine if the United States operated on a popular system, also known as a direct democracy. Clinton would have secured the presidency by concentrating her efforts in the East and West Coasts. The idea that a popular system would be more fair than the Electoral College is absurd. Direct democracy as an idea is morally antithetical to the values of civil rights and equality. The French Revolution first decided on their system of government to be a direct
democracy, and look at the results: a tyrannical and politically invincible majority terrorizing and censoring the concerns of the minority. With direct democracy, the majority would have unmatched power to silence the minority, hypothetically controlling the presidency and at least one house of Congress. The Electoral College gives the minority and disenfranchised the opportunity to control how their society around them operates without fear of being politically sidelined. This debate will surely continue as “a 2018 report on America’s future political demography found four realistic scenarios in which Democrats win the national popular vote but lose the Electoral College because of the geography of the electorate.” With more Democrats than Republicans preferring a popular vote rather than the Electoral College, 81 percent and 51 percent, respectively, it would be reasonable to assume that if any of these scenarios occur, it could lead to more fervent calls to drastically alter or even outright abolish the Electoral College. However, these knee-jerk reactions to default to a supposedly more “democratic” popular vote lack both political and moral foresight, possibly opening the door for dangerous factions and leaders to seize power in America. The Electoral College does not hinder the democratic process; it emboldens it. It serves as a reassurance that the politically weak and deprived have the opportunity to protect their civil rights and community. A shock to the system — whether that is spontaneous transformations or immediate abolition — would entail an inimical and rapid erosion to the founding doctrines of the United States, sideline political minorities and create a far more polarized and divisive political landscape in the future. Joshua Kim can be reached at joshica@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, September 5, 2019 — 5
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
Sammy Sussman: An exploration of the strange concurrence between an artist’s voice and style SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Community Culture Columnist
One of the first exercises I did in my 16th-century counterpoint class this semester was an identification game. Our professor took a famous theme from a Mozart piano piece and set it in six different styles. After playing each variation, he asked us to name the style we thought he was trying to imitate or the specific composer. Going into the exercise, I thought I’d have a lot of trouble hearing an imitation of a famous composer from a short eightbar variation. I thought we might be able to g uess the style or period of the music, maybe even the specific sub-period or nationality of the music, but never the specific composer. Yet for five of the six styles, my three-person class was able to g uess not only the style, but the specific composer our professor had sought to emulate. In eight bars of music based on a theme by an already famous composer, our professor was able to adapt the stylistic nuances and notational idiosyncrasies that define specific famous composers. And he was able to so decisively. This got me thinking about artistic voice and artistic style. Is it possible to disting uish an artist’s “voice” from their “style”? Given that everyone probably defines these two concepts differently, I should clarif y that I take “voice” to be an artist’s small technical habits that define their artistic output within the larger “style” of cultural context, genre and subgenre of art that these artists are usually defined with. The best artists, I believe, are those whose artistic voices are immediately recognizable. The composers that we were talking about in class, for example, are some of the most prolific and ground-breaking composers within the classical music
This got me thinking about artistic voice and artistic style. Is it possible to distinguish an artist’s “voice” from their “style”?
tradition that have ever lived. They’ve succeeded in cultivating voices that are distinctly their own even as they pushed the boundaries of their style. One artist that I think best embodies this concept of a welldefined voice is Kurt Vonneg ut. I am a huge fan of Vonneg ut, having first been introduced to him through his relatively
comedic and light novel “The Sirens of Titan.” When we talk about Vonneg ut’s style, we think of his background and the larger cultural context surrounding his work. The modern
voice can quickly become a liability for successful artists. Take for example Taylor Swift and her recent album, “Lover.” I should start with a disclaimer that I am far from being
It’s not just a unique voice, I’ve come to realize, that marks a successful artist. It’s also an ability to bend style to match this artistic voice. It’s the ability to bring this context and artistic voice together and allow them to influence each other.
and postmodern periods, for example, and the World War II generation. But when we talk about Vonneg ut’s voice we have very few words or larger concepts to compare him to. Though I can’t articulate how I know this, I can almost always tell if I am reading a play, novel or short story by him. I might use some fancy-sounding descriptors to identif y specific aspects of this voice — nonlinearity in time and plot, randomization surfaces with hidden patterns beneath them, dark humour as a means of expressing larger concepts — but none of these descriptors in sum or part capture everything that makes up his voice. Even within his chapters and titles, for example, one can get a clear sense of his artistic voice. Vonneg ut’s extremely well-defined artistic voice had a positive effect on his career and the perpetual success of his estate. A performance of “Happy Birthday, Wanda June”in New York City this past year, for example, garnered many more positive reviews than one would expect from a rarely performed work. Audience members and critics couldn’t help but compare the play to other Vonneg ut works. For many, myself included, it was the transference of this artistic voice onto the stage, and not the contents of the play itself, that made the performance such an interesting experience. On the other hand, as was made quite obvious in many of the artistic reviews this past month, a strongly-defined artistic
well-versed in Swift’s music. But in reading some of the reviews of her most recent album, however, I couldn’t help but notice the complaint that many critics have. Her new album, while effectively mimicking her voice, has nothing new to offer. It exhibits no new ideas, no new iterations on this voice. I can think of many other artists that have become weighed down by their voices. Many successful artists become constrained by their voice, their pathway to success. It’s not just a unique voice, I’ve come to realize, that marks a successful artist. It’s also an ability to bend style to match this artistic voice. It’s the ability to not only be informed by the cultural context in which the artist creates, it’s the ability to bring this context and artistic voice together and allow them to inf luence each other. The best artists are those whose artistic voices are inf luential enough to bend the stylistic realm that they occupy. And that, I realized, is how my class was able to so easily identif y the composers my professor was imitating. In a world where Beethoven’s name is virtually synonymous with early German Romanticism, a piece that is distinctly early German Romantic is assumedly by Beethoven. And thus, in a paradoxical way, artistic voices are perhaps best defined when they lose all sense of definition, when they become so embedded in their larger cultural context that they can no longer be pointed to as a specific artist’s voice at all.
SINGLE REVIEW
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW
Malone’s ‘Circles’ is trippy, but plays it safe JONAH MENDELSON Daily Arts Writer
Post Malone released the fourth single, “Circles,” from his upcoming album Hollywood Bleeding on Aug. 30, following in the footsteps of the wildly successful “Sunf lower” and the regularly successful “Wow.” and “Goodbyes.” In many respects, “Circles” is the same old Post. His vocals are lovelorn, shot through with powerful vibrato. The chorus is an instant earworm, the type upon which Post built and maintained his fame. The structure is about as straightforward as it gets, and there’s not much in the way of experimentation or risk in any respect. However, Post makes some interesting departures from his traditional sound. The use of a bright round-string bass line (a great one, at that) as opposed to his typical electronic 808s is perhaps the most notable. The sonic palette as a
whole seems to be heavily inf luenced by psychedelic pop (e.g. Currents), a sound that suits Post surprisingly well. “Circles” is profoundly catchy, tastefully upbeat and well-arranged. The bridge is on the weak side, a little too harmonically dependent upon the preceding section. Other than that, it’s hard to find any real problem with this song other than the fact that it plays it safe. I continue to be astounded by Post’s ability to churn out hit after hit — his sense of catchiness in melody is nonpareil in pop music today. Hopefully Hollywood Bleeding finds him continuing his hot streak.
‘Circles’ Post Malone Republic Records
BROCKHAMPTON
‘Dearly Departed’: A sobering group message to Ameer Van Ameer Vann’s departure from the band in May 2018, the video depicts Daily Arts Writer current members breaking the fourth wall as though speaking to Somewhere on a dingy, pale- a particular person. Kevin Abstract blue sofa in a poorly lit room, kicks off this intervention deadpan, BROCKHAMPTON is situated staring into the eyes of the viewer before your screen in silvery as he spits his verse about betrayal jumpsuits. Their quintessential and backstabbing, only to leave Cheeto-dust orange garb and the scene immediately after he’s cheesy smiles are supplanted by finished. From that point on, the somber, subdued semi-dancemoves music video centers on every and emotionally raw lyricism. This member in the scene as they bare is their latest album GINGER at their heartbreak and pain from a its overarching emotional core, different point of view. It pans out as Joba belts out the high notes in “Dearly Departed.” An obvious sly at former vocalist the chorus and collapses. It zooms DIANA YASSIN
From that point on, the music video centers on every member in the scene as they bare their heartbreak and pain from a different point of view. REPUBLIC RECORDS
in on Matt as he reads his verse from notecards only to tear them apart and abandon the track that’s still playing — Merlyn is in this cut but says absolutely nothing, sobered. And Dom gets up close and personal, punching the camera as he describes a situation in which a “friend” of his set up another friend to get robbed. Conducted in a single take, the nuances of the video stand out, from the panning in and out of the camera to the eye contact of the members to the actions they take as they sing their verses. The art of this video pins itself in symbolism, every action directed towards the camera as though it’s an actual person. This emphasizes that any beef in the room is not among the bandmates but between the group and someone else in the room. They’re together in the emotional battle between BROCKHAMPTON and this other person. Ameer Vann is never explicitly brought up, but given the lyrical content, the unity of the members and the emotionally unhinged gestures, BROCKHAMPTON makes it clear that Vann is no longer welcome and has left deep, vulnerable scars in their lives.
Arts
6 — Thursday, September 5, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
THE ALLMAN BETTS BAND
ANNAPURNA PICTURES
Ann Arbor Blues Festival ‘Bernadette’ needs to do continues to invigorate some real soul searching ZACHARY M.S. WAARALA Daily Arts Writer
Since 1969, the nation’s most popular blues and jazz musicians have made a stop in Ann Arbor to take part in the now-historic Ann Arbor Blues Festival. B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters, among others, introduced the Ann Arbor population to true blues: the blues of Chicago and the Mississippi Delta. As a dedicated blues fanatic myself, I was thrilled to be able to attend the 2019 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which took place Aug. 16 through Aug. 18 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds. After finishing up at work, I made the short drive to the Fairgrounds, going against the flow of the congested traffic eager to leave Ann Arbor for the weekend. With the windows down, listening to “Lightnin’ Hopkins”and “Otis Rush” live in Ann Arbor in 1969, my Camry hopped onto a gravel road leading into the Fairgrounds. It does not require a deep study of music to understand that the blues are not as popular as the genre once was. The biggest names in presentday blues are some of the smallest names in the grandeur of the modern music industry. Whether this can be attributed to a change in taste or a systemic decline of the genre is difficult to understand, but the fact is the blues, specifically in the style of Chicago or Delta blues, is a rather niche musical interest. And “niche musical interest” is exactly the feeling I got as I
sat down in the matted grass in front of the stage. It was clear that outside of those brought unwillingly by parents and fellow press from other nearby university publications, I was the youngest member of the audience by a significant number of years. Somehow, I felt out of place, out of touch, as I waited for the first performance to take the stage. The first performance
The music was loud, and this elderly audience was loving it, and I began to love it too.
was Thornetta Davis, a jazz and blues musician from Detroit. Her performance and demeanor struck me. She was certainly talented, but there was something else in her that injected some serum of liveliness and happiness into the veins of the seasoned audience. As Davis sang, audience members got up from their lawn chairs and shuffled to the stage to dance along with her. My jaw dropped as I saw
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis 3 Space Race inits. 4 Room often with a slanted ceiling 5 Pulled quickly 6 Early Mexicans 7 “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel 8 German article 9 Crimson, e.g. 10 Bluegrass legend Scruggs 11 With 28-Down, words to a cheater ... or an honest hint to the answers to starred clues 12 Original 13 At the ready 18 Heart sonograms, familiarly 21 Food safety agcy. 23 Paleozoic and Cenozoic 24 Retina cells 26 Exchange barbs 27 Curly cabbage 28 See 11-Down 31 Church area 33 The Cardiff Giant, notably 34 __ Bath & Beyond
35 Zap with a beam 36 Equally matched 38 __ En-lai 39 Iron-rich blood pigment 42 Portent 43 Giggly sound 45 “Don’t you agree?” 46 Resides 48 1556-1605 Mogul emperor
49 Screwball comedy 51 Celestial red giant 52 Director Welles 54 Like good Scotch 56 LaBeouf of “Transformers” films 57 Informal contraction 58 Toll rd. 60 Prohibition 61 “__ Maria”
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
DOWN 1 Help for the needy 2 Animal on the Cubs’ 2016 World By Kristian House ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC Series rings
EMMA CHANG Senior Arts Editor
The concept of a “suburb” has always been a pop culture staple — from the cult classic “Heathers” to 2016’s “Bad Moms,” these enclaves of society are a thing of intrigue. Rational conversations and enriching activities are thrown out the window only to be replaced by raging mothers and parent-teacher conferences over a child’s mild cough. Based on the book of the same name, “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” follows Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett, “Ocean’s 8”) as she, and her life, seem to unravel underneath the artificial pressure of suburbia. As a movie, “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” is perfectly average. As a book-to-movie adaptation, however, it leaves much to be desired. Especially given the fact that much of the important plot points and character development occurs between the lines of emails and messages sent between characters. The kind of nuance that sets apart “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” as a book doesn’t lend itself to an easy transition to the big screen. Bernadette herself is a well-developed character — her long-winded monologues to Manjula (her online “assistant”) capture the manic energy of Bernadette in the book. Sadly, she is the only character that receives this kind of treatment. Her daughter, Bee (Emma Nelson, “Margaret and the Moon”), is left to occupy the movie solely as the stereotypical
“nerd” at her school, with little exploration into how her childhood heart issues might have affected her or even the lengths to which her life was affected by her mother’s disappearance. What little emotion that came from Bee was the result of Nelson’s acting — no credit can be given to the less-than-impressive screenplay. The “Galer Street Gnats,” as Bernadette so lovingly calls the other mothers at Bee’s school, fail to incite the kind of
“Where’d You Go Bernadette?” Annapurna Pictures The Michigan Theater
strong hatred these characters should garner in any situation, fictional or otherwise. Audrey (Kristen Wiig, “Bridesmaids”) and Soo-Lin (Zoe Chao, “God Particles”) are pivotal characters in the book, with each woman going through some intense changes in their relationship and their personal lives. Yet we see none of that in the movie. On top of that, their relationship with Bernadette changes dramatically as well. There seemed to be an
attempt at showcasing this change between Bernadette and Audrey. However, without many of the details from the book, it seems far-fetched that in a moment of vulnerability Bernadette would go to one of her sworn enemies for help. If we recognize that there is a difference between the kinds of details included in a movie compared to those in a book, this abrupt change could potentially be warranted, but that would be a hard argument to make. Within every average movie, though, there are always a few good moments. Take Cate Blanchett, for example. Fox is a force to be reckoned with and Blanchett was the best person to do it. Her rough bangs and sharp features come together to create the kind of intimidating woman who really doesn’t belong in a Seattle suburb. Add to that a slight edge to her American accent (Blanchett is Australian, after all), and the effect is complete. “Where’d You Go Bernadette?” is not a bad movie, per se. It simply serves as a reminder that not all books need to be turned into movies. Maybe this let-down is my own fault because I prefer to read the book before I see the movie or because I continue to see adaptations no matter how many times I am disappointed. All I really know is, despite how fun it might be to think about what my favorite characters would look like on the silver screen, some of their stories are better suited to the detail-oriented environment of a book.
TV REVIEW
Release Date: Thursday, September 5, 2019
ACROSS 1 Isla surrounder 5 Real cutup 10 Italian volcano 14 TV series that had flashbacks, flash-forwards and multiple timelines 15 Kemper of “The Office” 16 Truant GI 17 *Brain trust member 19 Meander 20 Afflicted with illness, say 21 Gastric woe 22 *Nixon’s cocker spaniel 25 PC key 26 Reel Big Fish music genre 29 Pigs out (on) 30 Flying frenemy of Godzilla 32 “Beaten” ways 34 One who is rotten to the core? 37 Quartet member 38 *Influential record company named for co-founding brothers Leonard and Phil 40 Serb or Croat 41 Went over again and again 43 Razz 44 Geometric given 45 Ox tail? 47 Hankering 48 Toward the stern 50 *Playful question spoiled by caller ID 53 2010 Supreme Court appointee 55 Shows derision for 59 Boast 60 *The USS Iowa, e.g. 62 Toon mail-order company 63 Be of use to 64 Sty sound 65 Swamp stalk 66 “Aw, fudge!” 67 Corddry of TV’s “Mom”
80-year-old people dancing and singing along to the music. The music was loud, and this elderly audience was loving it, and I began to love it too. I was out of my usual place, out of touch with my usual life, but creating that environment in a positive and invigorating way is precisely where this festival triumphs. I was out of my comfort zone in a way that was beneficial to me. Another performance that piqued my interest was that of Bernard Allison. As he took the stage, a mass of bodies again waded to the edge of the stage to sway along with his guitar. I learned that Allison’s father was a performer at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in its early years, and Bernard had attended at the young age of seven. He continued to play the blues since, and upon returning to Ann Arbor to show what he had learned, Allison was greeted by a warm and welcoming Ann Arbor audience that indeed remembered him and his father. Despite the widespread falling-off of the genre over the years, I was delighted to see that the blues were alive and well in Ann Arbor, kept afloat by the love of its audience. When one of the hosts asked how many original audience members from the 1969 festival were present today, I was shocked to see so many hands rise. Perhaps these lovers of the blues are what keep the genre alive. The blues artists and their audience trade a musical love that keeps the heart of the blues beating and the lungs of the blues breathing.
09/05/19
09/05/19
Skarsgard and his mullet shine in ‘On Becoming a God in Central Fla.’ SAYAN GHOSH
Daily New Media Editor
I had not done any research about Showtime’s “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” before sitting down to watch it, and perhaps for that reason, I spent the first half of the pilot trying to figure out what exactly was bothering me about it all. We follow Travis Stubbs (Alexander Skarsgard, “The Little Drummer Girl”), a typical Orlando area middle class working man whose life is consumed by the insidious, omnipresent multi-level marketing company FAM. In a thoroughly engaging, bizarre and surprisingly dark (yet charming) pilot, the show sets up a world in which rhetoric straight from the playbook of capitalism-onsteroids consumes and leads a man to his end. But what really bothered me for the first half or so was the fact that I couldn’t pin down why I recognized who was playing Travis, because Alexander Skarsgard was wearing a beautiful, glorious mullet. But the real star of the show is one if its own executive producers, Kirsten Dunst (“Fargo”). She plays Travis’s wife, Krystal, a
firm yet supportive woman who works a minimum wage job at the local water park. Travis’s relentless ambition and desire to become a millionaire leads him to sacrifice nearly every waking moment of his life to recruiting for the FAM pyramid scheme, leading to a simmering and rising tension between him and Krystal, as well as an unexpected, absurd demise. Travis is ultimately an endearing yet sad, pathetic fool. Unlike the usual roles he gets, Skarsgard plays one which is dumpy and weak rather than charismatic and godlike. His full devotion to FAM takes on the character of a cult member or a religious zealot, leading him to eventually quite his full time J-O-B (FAM doesn’t permit saying the cursed word out loud) and submit fully to the company’s cause. However creepy and dystopian FAM seems, it’s an even creepier reality out there, considering that about 100 miles west of Ann Arbor lies the town of Ada, headquarters of Amway, one of the biggest multilevel marketers out there (created by a DeVos, perhaps a familiar name). Many struggling working
people are seduced in the same way Travis Stubbs is, and while Stubbs’s persona is hilarious, it doesn’t completely mask how pitiable it is. Meanwhile Dunst, who is poised to be the main protagonist after the pilot, is equally stunning. Dunst season is indeed in full swing, and her range is as well in the pilot. Equipped with a charming Floridian accent, braces and rather delightful outfits, she is nearly the polar opposite of her husband: steely, firm and a long-
term thinker and planner. While she is supportive of her husband and even tries to help him in his FAM ventures at one point, she is rightfully exasperated by his sheer stupidity and the danger it poses to their young family. “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”’s pilot is a promising springboard into future explorations of capitalism and the rehabilitating effects of MLM companies. Oh, and maybe Kirsten Dunst’s performance of a lifetime.
‘On Becoming a God in Central Florida’ Series Premiere Showtime Sundays at 10 p.m.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019 — 7
How Eubanks unlocks the offense ‘NASCAR’ package gives versatility ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
A spread offense, as with any other, is usually defined by its personnel. Philosophically, the idea of forcing opponents to defend all 53.5 yards of horizontal space on a football field translates to getting athletic guys to run routes and spreading them out. Usually, that means wide receivers. The proliferation of the spread means that the three receiver, or 11 personnel (one back, one tight end) looks have fast become the norm. In the NFL last year, teams used it 64 percent of the time, per Football Outsiders’ Almanac. More traditional looks with two backs (21 personnel) or two tight ends (12 personnel) — the kind Michigan fans have become accustomed to under Jim Harbaugh — were used 7.3 and 16 percent of the time, respectively. More relevant, the last three offenses with Josh Gattis on staff have used 11 personnel 96, 94 and 61 percent of the time, per Pro Football Focus. Hiring him with the promise of a pro-spread offense seemed to imply that the 35 percent of the time Michigan spent in 11 last year would rocket upwards. This did not account for Nick Eubanks. Eubanks, a senior tight end, came to Michigan at 236 pounds. He checked in this year at 6-foot5, 256 pounds, or in other words, the same height and four pounds smaller than Travis Kelce of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Athletically speaking, that means Eubanks can line up next to a tackle and block. It means he can split out wide and run a route. It means he’s probably bigger than most defensive backs and faster than most linebackers, which in turn means that when defensive coordinators prepare for the Wolverines, they need to spend time figuring out how to deal with Nick Eubanks. Football is a never-ending game of chess where if you can force an opponent to react to what you’re doing, you’re probably winning. Eubanks can force a reaction.
“I think it really clicked at the end of the summer and then training camp it started to show up,” tight ends coach Sherrone Moore said. “Cause he was starting to make play after play after play, but that was not only in the passing game, it was in the run game.” Even without a high volume — just 10 catches in three years — Eubanks’ ability had always been obvious. In those 10 catches, he went for 218 yards. This summer, he met with Moore as much as possible and put in extra work in the run game. Last Saturday in Michigan’s opener, the fruits of that labor started to become apparent. The Wolverines, new offense and all, spent more time in 12 personnel, with Eubanks and Sean McKeon at tight end, than in 11. On an early second quarter drive where two RPOs and a post route to Nico Collins resulted in a touchdown that seemed to personify Gattis’ speed in space philosophy, they were in 12 personnel the whole time. In an offense where the purpose of everything is to create conflict for the defense, Eubanks just raises more questions for opposing coordinators to try and solve. On that Collins post route, Eubanks is lined up as the H receiver, a threat to either run block or run a route — conflict exacerbated by Michigan having run RPOs on the two previous
plays. Eubanks runs a wheel route, taking two defenders including a safety with him and helping create a 1-on-1 for Collins. Later in the game, this time as the lone tight end on the field, Eubanks lined up as the H receiver again on second-and-2. At any prior point in his career, that would have been a smoke signal telling the defense it’s going to be a pass. Instead, the Wolverines ran a split-zone read with Patterson keeping the ball as Eubanks arced around the formation as a lead blocker. McKeon said Monday that part of the reason Michigan used so much 12 personnel was specific to the matchup against Middle Tennessee. “But I think Nick as the H tight end, he’s so versatile, he can line up as a receiver or come in and block,” McKeon said. “So really got to defend everything out of that personnel with us.” The Wolverines aren’t about to take it out of their rotation, and the percentages are unlikely to dictate a more traditional spread. As long as they have Eubanks, they don’t need to. “We can get in any formation we have in the offense in that personnel and do whatever we want,” Moore said. “We can use him as a fullback, we can use Sean as a fullback. We can use them both split out wide, as receivers. We can use them on the line. “So it’s just going to create problems for defenses.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior tight end Nick Eubanks has worked on his run-blocking ability leading up to this season in order to complement his receiving ability.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson is one of the four defensive ends who frequently plays in the package.
THEO MACKIE Daily Sports Editor
All offseason, the hype surrounding Michigan has been a product of its offensive promise. The phrase at the core of that hype, of course, has been Josh Gattis’ mantra of “speed in space.” Saturday night against Middle Tennessee State, Don Brown made sure his defense didn’t get left behind, adding speed with regular NASCAR packages — looks with four defensive ends. A year ago, the Wolverines never needed the look to generate pressure. Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary, with the occasional third-down appearance from Josh Uche, filled that task with ease. But with Winovich and Gary gone, Michigan’s strength at defensive end lies in its depth. Sophomore Aidan Hutchinson and junior Kwity Paye are the starters, but Uche — typically a linebacker — can slot in as an edge rusher. Behind them, senior Michael Danna, a transfer from Central Michigan, brings a skillset that produced the nation’s second-highest success rate on pass rushes in 2018, according to Pro Football Focus. So when Brown looked at the personnel in front of him, his solution became clear.
“When you realize you got guys you can run and you want all of them on the field, that’s when we’re like, ‘We got to get them on the field,’ ” said defensive line coach Shaun Nua. “So coach Brown does a great job of making sure that we identify good players, their strengths and design packages to get them on.” Saturday, the look’s first appearance brought a mix of confusion and intrigue — the sight of Uche and Hutchinson’s speed on the interior makes that inevitable. On the MTSU offensive line, confusion prevailed, with a pulling guard leaving a gaping hole for fifthyear senior linebacker Jordan Glasgow to blast through. After one NASCAR package, MTSU’s statline against it: one sack, negative-eight yards. The next time the Wolverines ran it, they nearly added a safety to the tally, as a potential hold on Uche in the end zone went uncalled. Midway through the third quarter — the package’s fifth usage — it forced MTSU quarterback Asher O’Hara into a lame-duck pass that senior cornerback Lavert Hill dropped with 20 yards of open field between him and the end zone. Despite the miscues, Michigan’s final statline on its NASCAR packages that weren’t nullified by penalties: seven
plays, one sack, 3-for-6 passing, 10 yards. “It just adds pressure to the quarterback and something for the other team to think about,” Glasgow said. “And when you think about it, we have a lot of other people that could fill the roles of everyone in that package, or anyone on the field at that time.” For now, the package is largely constrained to 3rd-and-long situations because of the speed the defensive ends provide, but when asked about the possibility of using it on other downs and distances, Nua said: “Coach Brown likes to call it whenever, we just got to be ready.” The one time Michigan used it in another situation Saturday — 2nd-and-9 at midfield — Uche and Paye jumped offside, all the defensive ends stopped and MTSU picked up an easy first down. Those are the unavoidable miscues that will take more than a week to iron out. But the tape is resoundingly positive. And this week, the assessment at Schembechler Hall has followed suit. “It’s great cause it’s a lot of quickness and speed on that front so we can attack every position on the offensive line,” Danna said. “And we got a whole lot more of that coming this season, so I’m excited.”
Robinson, Pertofsky prove versatile enough to support new system DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer
In Friday morning’s season opener, the Michigan volleyball team’s two class of 2019 early signees f lashed more than just potential. In their debuts, freshmen Jess Robinson and May Pertofsky were the driving offensive forces in the 15th-ranked Wolverines’ sweep of Oakland. The duo maintained the two highest attack efficiencies on the team, even while leading the offense in total volume. Pertofsky and Robinson finished with nine and eight kills, respectively, on just 22 combined swings. While most freshmen are prone to mistakes, the two committed just three hitting errors in total — good for a collective hitting percentage of .636. For reference, roughly .250 is considered the average for a pin hitter. It’s only August, and the program’s two blue chip recruits are already posting encouraging numbers. Take one play in the second set, for example. With Michigan up 17-10, Robinson’s eyes lit up as an errant Golden Grizzly forearm pass began a trajectory across the net. She took a halfstep backward, loaded up and leapt almost immediately. She seemingly levitated and, soon after, celebrated after burying the overpass with ease. “When she jumped, we all thought she jumped early,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “But she kept going up and the next thing we knew, she was perfectly on time. With things like that, you don’t know them real well yet so you see those things and they’re exciting.
“… There’s still tons to learn for them. They’re good learners and they’re super competitive, and I think they did a really nice job coming out of the gates.” Expectations for Robinson — the nation’s No. 8 recruit, according to Prep Volleyball — were particularly high over the summer. After finding herself in the middle of a four-horse race for two middle blocker jobs, the 6-foot-2 in-state product’s debut will only keep the hype train rolling. Pertofsky, meanwhile, hails from Los Angeles, where she racked up three All-League Gold Coast MVP awards during her high school career. Though both of them are natural outside hitters, they’ve been seeing the most court time at opposite and middle blocker in what Rosen calls his “three middle offense.” With four legitimate candidates for just two starting middle blocker spots, Rosen got creative. In order to preserve the 6-2 system — a volleyball notation that translates to six eligible hitters and two setters — the Wolverines are able to keep Pertofsky and Robinson at the right side pin. Fifth-year senior middle blocker Cori Crocker and sophomore middle blocker Kayla Bair both perform best with attackers on each side of them, and Rosen is able to sandwich them between two other eligible hitters by keeping his two prized freshmen at the right pin. Bair opened the season sidelined with an injury, but it’ll be a sustainable system even when she returns. It’s the best way to keep each weapon involved without sacrificing one of senior setter MacKenzi Welsh’s options, but the option wouldn’t even
They’re good learners and they’re super competitive.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Mark Rosen noted the value of two new freshmen — Jess Robinson and May Petrofsky — in their successful debuts with the volleyball team.
be on the table if Robinson and Pertofsky weren’t versatile enough to handle it. Thanks to their experience as outside hitters, adjusting to the new system didn’t take long for the newcomers. “It allows us to put (Bair and Crocker) in a position where
they can play straight up middle and never have to worry about being in a 5-1, but you have to have versatile players to do it,” Rosen said. “When Jess and May came in, we could see they can hit second tempo balls, they can block on the right, they can hit in transition and they can hit out of
system. So we started cooking up this system because it allows us to hide some of our weaknesses while maximizing our strengths.” Friday morning wasn’t a sign of what Robinson and Pertofsky can do in this system down the road, it was a sign of how they can help take the Wolverines back to
the Sweet 16 — if not deeper into the NCAA Tournament — sooner rather than later. “We’re excited about (the system),” Rosen said. “It gives us the best chance to be competitive at a high level. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but they’ll get there.”
8 — Thursday, September 5, 2019
Sports
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