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Students talk DEI progress in Business

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‘U’ has spent $1.6 million on sexual assault case litigation

University defends against lawsuit alleging policies violate due process rights CLAIRE HAO

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As of Sept. 27, the University of Michigan has spent $1.6 million defending against a lawsuit alleging its policies violate the due process rights of those accused of sexual misconduct, MLive reported at the beginning of October. When asked by The Daily, University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald clarified costs incurred by the Doe v. University of Michigan lawsuit are not drawn from tuition money and state appropriations. Instead, Fitzgerald explained, the

University’s legal fees are covered by its insurer, Veritas Insurance Corporation, which the University owns. A report in 2017 found higher education institutions around the nation spend an average of $350,000 on sexual misconduct lawsuits. To explain the significantly higher cost of the Doe v. University of Michigan lawsuit, Fitzgerald pointed to the amount of legal work required in the “3-year-old, heavily litigated case involving complicated legal issues.” “The plaintiff filed an initial complaint, an amended complaint,

and second amended complaint, the latter of which is 40 pages long and contains more than 200 paragraphs of allegations,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email. “There has been a total of 64 briefs in the trial court, with 38 filed by the plaintiff, resulting in a record that exceeds 5,000 pages. There have been five lengthy hearings and four status conferences in the trial court, as well as full briefing and oral arguments in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.” However, Deborah Gordon, the attorney representing the anonymous plaintiff, pushed

back against the University’s explanation. According to Gordon, $1.6 million is an “incredible” sum of money to spend on a case not involving discovery of evidence. Instead, she blamed the cost on the University’s legal briefings. “I’m a four-person law firm, I do contingency fee work mostly,” Gordon told The Daily. “At one point they had 12 different attorneys working for them from three different law firms, two of them outof-state … I’m a very small firm and they’re saying it’s me that caused this? That’s laughable.” See CASE, Page 3

Every time Business senior Mia Heard walks into class, she is the only Black person in the room. “When I walk in a room, I don’t get the luxury of being like, ‘Oh, I’m just a person walking to class,’” Heard said. “It’s like, I’m the Black girl walking into this class, and I can just feel the pressure of just being that Black girl; the black dot that always has to be there or they know I’m gone.” According to the Office of the Registrar, for the winter semester of 2019, 2 percent of students in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan were Black, 6 percent were hispanic and 57 percent were white. In addition, 62 percent of students were male and 38 percent were female. These demographics are not unnoticed by the entirety of the Business School. To improve diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, students and faculty developed the DEI Task Force during the winter of 2018. Part of the Bachelor of Business Administration Council, the Business School’s student government, the taskforce

Council Search Advisory Commitee hosts considers first townhall for VP of Student Life regulation Community members express areas of interest, expectations for Harper replacement for rentals

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Officials talk impact of Airbnb, VRBO on local housing crisis in city of Ann Arbor ANGELINA BREDE Daily Staff Reporter

Ann Arbor’s frequent sporting, academic and cultural events draw in large numbers of tourists, creating an expansive market for short-term rentals through platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. But, in light of Ann Arbor’s lack of affordable housing crisis and the threat to the hospitality industry, city officials are considering regulating short-term rental companies. There are currently 978 Airbnb listings in Ann Arbor, and over 300 of these are for an entire home — whether it is a house or one bedroom apartment. This means there are 300+ less homes available for people who want to live in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor City Councilmember Elizabeth Nelson told The Daily she is concerned about how short-term rentals are affecting Ann Arbor’s housing market. “If people are going to advocate strongly to city council that we need to build new housing, those same people should be every bit as concerned about the housing that we are losing to short term rental,” Nelson said.

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ROSEANNE CHAO and JACK SILBERMAN Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com marijuana normal business activities recreational The council discussed Senior Design Editor: Sherry Chen CA-4, a resolution to this soon into the fiscal to take effect November year is not the kind of fiscal 1st, this is just protocol increase the amount of fullALEXIS RANKIN and ALEC COHEN responsibility I believe we in allowing that to follow time city employees. The Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com through,” Ramlawi said. resolution would increase need to maintain.” Senior Photo Editors: Alexandria Pompei, Natalie Stephens, Alice Liu, Allison Engkvist, Danyel Tharakan the budget to include Councilmember Jeff “The fees that are associated Assistant Photo Editors: Miles Macklin, Keemya Esmael, Madeline Hinkley, the permitting funding for new staff Hayner, D-Ward 1, agreed with Ryan McLoughlin with Lumm’s concerns process will go back into members, which caused about budget f lexibility. administering the program, discussion across the ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERRAMA Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com He also argued that city I just hope that future fee council. Councilmember Deputy Editors: Matthew Harmon, Shannon Ors residents didn’t specifically that we collect give us the Jane Lumm, I-Ward 2, latitude to put money into indicate a desire for these http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ discussed how she believed Sudoku Syndication Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ SILAS LEE and EMILY STILLMAN social programs associated new positions. adding another fullManaging Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com “We reach out to with the social ills and Senior Copy Editors: Dominick Sokotoff, Olivia Sedlacek, Reece Meyhoefer these communities and social injustice that come CASEY TIN and HASSAAN ALI WATTOO we ask them, ‘Would along in everybody’s life.” Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com Hayner expressed you want us to lower Senior Web Developers: Jonathon Liu, Abha Panda, Ryan Siu, David Talbot, Samantha Cohen your revenues next concern with the high year or do you want fees, citing they may act ELI SIDER HARDmore service?” Hayner as barriers to entry in EASY Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Ryan O’Connor, Joseph Sim said. “They say they the market for supplying want more service. medical marijuana. 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time city employee was unwise from a budgetary standpoint. “For fiscal year 20, we added 14 full-time employees to the city budget, and over the last three years, we’ve added 30 FTEs,” Lumm said. “That is a huge number...It roughly represents three million dollars a year additionally… Adding FTEs during the year and outside of the budget process is poor budget discipline at any point during the year, and it’s especially poor process when we’re three and a half months into the fiscal year.” Lumm went on to discuss how seeing the budget as a f lexible document is a bad habit for the council to

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CASE From Page 1 The lawsuit Doe v. University of Michigan was first filed in June 2018 by a male undergraduate student, referred to in the lawsuit as “John Doe.” It arises from a complaint filed by a female student against Doe in the University’s Office of Institutional Equity, claiming Doe sexually assaulted her. At the time, the University’s sexual misconduct policy operated under the singleinvestigator model, which involved one investigator who had conversations with the accuser, the accused and witnesses, without opportunity for parties to confront one another. Doe claims this procedure violated his due process rights and amounted to gender discrimination against male students accused of sexual assault. In the lawsuit, Doe denied the female student’s allegations and said he was not made aware of them when he was interviewed by the OIE investigator, leaving him unable to fully respond to the accusations against him. In addition, the University put Doe’s official transcript and degree on hold following the complaint, which the lawsuit argued put Doe’s academic and professional future at risk without full investigation. Doe’s transcript was released soon after the lawsuit was filed. Three months later, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the University’s single-investigator model in Doe v. Baum, a separate lawsuit filed by Gordon against the University. The ruling required the University’s sexual misconduct policy to grant students accused of sexual misconduct the option of a live hearing and crossexamination. The University tried to appeal the ruling, arguing cross-examination discourages those who have been sexually assaulted from reporting and disadvantages lower income students who cannot afford legal counsel. The Sixth Circuit Court declined to re-hear the appeal, forcing the University to release a new interim sexual assault policy in December 2018 that included cross-examination and a live hearing. In June, a week before University President Mark Schlissel was prepared to appear in U.S. District Court for a private, off-the-record settlement conference, the University filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, contending the due process argument was no longer relevant because of changes in the new policy. U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow opened the conference to the public and to the media two days before it was scheduled to occur. Sixteen hours before the planned conference, the Sixth Circuit Court granted a request by the University to postpone the meeting, a move criticized by Tarnow. In August, the Sixth Circuit Court ruled that Schlissel did not have to appear in court for the settlement conference, determining Tarnow had overstepped his discretion by requiring so. The University maintains the ongoing lawsuit is irrelevant now that the sexual misconduct policy requires a live hearing and cross-examination and already meets the ruling of Doe v. Baum. However, Gordon explained she is still pursuing the lawsuit because she wants to obtain relief for her client, which includes clearing his permanent record. Ultimately, she said she wants the District Court to issue an order requiring the University to have a live hearing and crossexamination to further ensure the University will maintain these due process procedures. Gordon explained the ruling in Doe v. Baum is a court opinion, which only allows the University to be sued. If there were a court order and the University changed its policy, it would be in contempt of court, which imposes further punishment. “It’s like a University rule you could think of it … Unless there’s somebody that sends you disciplinary action, the rule doesn’t really mean as much,” Gordon said. “You just know you’re not supposed to violate it, until you get a directive saying if

you do violate it you’re out.” Gordon said she believes the University should address sexual misconduct by providing the option of a live hearing and crossexamination as it does all other cases of student misconduct. She disparaged the Start by Believing campaign, a program the University’s Division of Public Safety and Security has signed onto, that nationally works to change the way sexual misconduct is responded to. “They think student-tostudent sexual misconduct is not like other misconduct. Why is that, I don’t know,” Gordon said. “I guess it’s because they want to be politically correct, they like the ‘Start by Believing campaign,’ which is the antithesis of due process … But our whole system of justice is based upon the concept (of) innocent until proven guilty.” In November 2018, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed new regulations for Title IX — the federal law preventing sex discrimation in federally-funded universities often raised in discussions about sexual assault — that would allow for cross-examination of victims. Some have lauded the move as a necessary to ensuring due process rights of the accused. However, students at the University and activists against sexual assault across the nation have criticized the use of cross-examination in cases of sexual misconduct, arguing it re-traumatizes victims and thus discourages reporting. In addition, some scholars suggest the practice is actually counterproductive to truth-finding as it encourages manipulation and intimidation. Lawyers and Title IX professionals also worry crossexamination will push colleges to facilitate courtroom-esque hearings they may not have the capacity to take on. LSA sophomore Emma Sandberg is the founding member and executive director of the non-profit Roe v. Rape, which works to help survivors of sexual violence heal through activism and prevent sexual misconduct through education. She explained she believes cases of sexual assault should be handled differently from other cases of misconduct because the former can often be very personal and is especially traumatizing. Sandberg also noted only 5 percent of campus sexual assaults are reported to the University and only 2 percent of sexual assault accusations nationally are false. However, Sandberg said she knows several students who didn’t report or who dropped their case because of the cross-examination requirement. “The amount of students who would be falsely accused at the University is just so low compared to the amount of survivors who are prevented from both getting justice and ensuring they feel safe at school,” Sandberg said. “When a perpetrator is off the hook, it puts all the rest of the students in danger.” When asked about concerns surrounding cross-examination, Gordon pointed to resolution of sexual assault cases in the criminal justice system. According to Gordon, students who protest cross-examination by bringing up the trauma it can cause are “extremely immature,” “short-sighted,” and “focused only on themselves.” “Rape victims that don’t go to the University of Michigan don’t have these special protections, and still the system somehow works, more or less,” Gordon said. “There’s nothing unique about being a college student that should give you more protection than anybody else … I realize they’re college students, and so maybe they’re just not thinking of the bigger picture, but lawyers are. To me, it just seems really straightforward situation. Whatever pain you feel and trauma is unfortunate, but it doesn’t trump throwing aside our justice system.” The University has received criticism for implementing crossexamination in its sexual assault policy. However, in a previous Daily article, LSA junior Sidney Aloisi, co-coordinator at the Sexual Assault and Prevention Awareness Center, noted some may not realize the University did not voluntarily require a live hearing and cross-examination.

News “I think that a lot of people have the misconception that it was Michigan’s decision completely and that’s what we wanted, but that is a myth I am happy to debunk,” Aloisi told The Daily in October. “It wasn’t our decision … We didn’t really have a say in the hearing, and it’s something that we’ve tried and tried again to get the Sixth Circuit Court to reconsider, but repeatedly they will not.” Many remain unsatisfied with this explanation. Though the Doe v. Baum decision requires cross-examination in sexual misconduct cases, it allows the option for representatives to do the questioning, yet the University’s policy requires the accuser and accused to crossexamine one another. In January, Sandberg created a petition — which has over 78,000 signatures at the date of publication — calling for the University to allow crossexamination by a third-party adviser instead. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union, at Sandberg’s request, released a public letter calling for the University to change its policy. In response to these concerns, University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen previously told The Daily the University does not allow for a third-party representative to conduct crossexaminations for equity reasons. “Questioning by personal advisors — often attorneys — is not allowed at U-M out of concern that not all students would be able to afford counsel,” Broekhuizen said. However, both Sandberg and Gordon agreed the University should pay for legal counsel if a student, either the accused or the accuser, would like a lawyer but cannot afford it. Gordon noted she would be willing to represent these cases pro-bono for both sides and conjectured many other lawyers would feel the same. She accused the University of intentionally preventing thirdparty representatives to provide justification for fighting the Sixth Circuit ruling. “I personally think they’re doing that on purpose to make this more traumatizing so they can they were right all along,” Gordon said. Sandberg conjectured the University refuses to change its policy to discourage reporting. “The conclusion I have reached is that they chose this crossexamination model because they want fewer students reporting,” Sandberg said. “They want less perpetrators suing them, and it’s about money. I find this very concerning, that administrators seem to be valuing the school’s money over the emotional wellbeing of survivors.” In messages to the University community, Schlissel has emphasized the University’s hopes to increase rates of reporting. In support of this claim, the administration has pointed to the implementation of the adaptable resolution pathway to handle sexual misconduct cases without a live hearing or cross-examination. The University recently released two reports on trends of sexual misconduct on campus. The Campus Climate Survey found a decrease in sexual assault rates overall since 2015 and an increase of trust in the University’s investigation process, and the DPSS report showed the number of on-campus sexual assault reports have dramatically increased. In an email to University students, faculty and staff last week, Schlissel announced a new draft umbrella policy for sexual and gender-based misconduct. According to Schlissel, the umbrella policy aims to clarify the University’s policies to ensure consistency between them for all University groups. Before the umbrella policy is implemented in early 2020, Schlissel asked members of the University community in an email to submit survey feedback through Nov. 22. He said the University continues to work on its goal of ensuring a safe and respectful community for all. “The number of sexual assaults and misconduct cases continues to be too high at U-M, on college campuses across the country, and throughout our society in general,” Schlissel wrote. “We must do everything we can as we strive to reduce the number to zero.”

DEI From Page 1 “You kind of just want to go with the flow to get things over with,” Ramesh said. “So, when these problematic things happen, you just kind of have to sweep them under the rug. And unless your professor makes it intentional that they’re open to talk about things like that, you’re not going to trust them with that information.” In one instance, Heard, head of the Communications Committee for the DEI Task Force in the Business School, said she was the only Black woman in a class of 60 or 70 people. She said one day, the professor told students to promote themselves in an elevator pitch, and then after, had students go around and select groups. Heard described the immense discomfort she felt from this exercise after having to convince people why she deserved to be in their group, especially because she was the only Black person in the room. “I literally felt like a slave in that instance, because I felt like I was begging people to buy me. I feel like the professor didn’t realize that’s how that experience would impact me, because there were plenty of groups that looked at me and were like, ‘we don’t want you, we just don’t want you’ for 30 minutes.” According to Heard, her experience shows the significance of the activities and general teaching approaches used by professors. “I remember, I went home and I cried and I wanted to drop the class,” Heard said. “I didn’t end up dropping the class, because I had to remember who I was, but there’s been a lot of times where I feel like teachers don’t realize that or don’t take into consideration that how you teach or the examples you give in class or anything that makes up the class experience can impact someone with a different identity.” Ramesh, who is an international student herself, took issue with the case studies her professors used and had students work on in class. Often times, these studies were US-centric, focusing on American brands and companies, which made it difficult for international students to relate. Another issue was with students and professors having trouble pronouncing certain students’ names in class, according to Ramesh. Working towards a Race and Ethnicity class requirement in the Business School Unlike the University’s College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts, the Business School does not have a race and ethnicity requirement for students. In LSA, all students must take a minimum of one course of at least three credits which discusses the meaning and effects of race, ethnicity and racism in the U.S. or across the globe in some form. Classes also promote discussion on social class, gender and/or religion. According to Taryn Petryk, director of diversity and inclusion for the Business School, the school is working to have this requirement in the future. They also want to ensure that, if and when the course does come, students truly feel as though it will be beneficial to them, rather than just being an add-on class. Business sophomore Matt Person believes the Business School has provided students with sufficient exposure to different backgrounds and identities thus far, despite not having a race and ethnicity requirement. “At least from my perspective, I think we’re doing a lot of that within Ross without having a specific three credit course solely dedicated to it,” Person said. “So, I feel as if I have been getting exposure.” “I had a ... general lack of understanding of how much Michigan cared about DEI” According to Heard, many students and faculty alike feel there has been a communication gap between the Business School administration and the rest of the community. While the small percentage of people working directly with administration recognize the DEI work it has been putting in over the past several years, Heard said those not involved with the administration are unaware of these efforts. “I think that before I was part of taskforce, I had a very bleak and probably just general lack of understanding of how much Michigan cared about DEI, but in having these conversations through taskforce and just being on the administration level and talking to them about it, they really actually genuinely care, and that was very

Tuesday, October 22, 2019 — 3 surprising for me,” Heard said. “But I feel like they’re struggling with connecting to students as well as communicating with students.” As a Black woman, Heard said if she had understood the DEI-related actions the administration took as an underclassmen, she would have had an overall better experience. This year, the Business School has focused largely on the development of the school’s culture and betterment of DEI efforts, according to Petryk. She said Business Dean Scott DeRue’s 2019 Dean’s Report highlighted these efforts. “(The report) really talked about diversity and inclusion at the center of our values,” Petryk said. “I do think that there’s probably been some messaging gaps or communication gaps around what our values are and what we aspire to be, and that’s changing this year. We’re really focusing on the culture that we want to create and the values that we hold that really do stem from our deans.” While the administration may be putting in effort to promote diversity this year, Ramesh described how its current methods are not effective in connecting with the student body. “It’s like what would be the best medium to communicate (administration’s efforts) through, because no one is going to read the emails. They put together a dean’s report, but no one is going to read (the) report,” Ramesh said. “So, I think there’s no good medium, there’s no good way to communicate it in terms of what to say … I think that’s what we need to focus on.” According to Heard, students should be apart of the administration’s messaging efforts. “I think (the) administration is just now realizing that, ‘Hey, we’re discussing amongst ourselves about how to communicate to the students; let’s involve students in a conversation to figure out how we should communicate to the students,’” Heard said. “I feel like once they get more students involved with that, things are going to just start rolling.” “I am an IDO peer facilitator, and, even within that, I would say that that’s not enough” Currently, the Business School provides students with mandatory Identity and Diversity in Organizations workshops, which “prepare students to interact with people from different backgrounds who have had different experiences from their own.” Workshops occur once a year and are 90 minutes long. According to Petryk, they are run by about 25 peer facilitators, who are Business upperclassmen trained in diversity and inclusion facilitation. Though she sees the workshops as a value to students at the Business School, as a peer facilitator, Ramesh said they are not sufficient enough to fully educate students on the necessity of cultural sensitivity. “I am an IDO peer facilitator, and, even within that, I would say that that’s not enough, because I engage with these students in a one and a half hour workshop,” Ramesh said. “There’s not enough time to build that relationship, build that trust, have those important conversations. We need a race and ethnicity requirement.” The IDO workshops are solely offered to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Business school, though certain students have explained the beginning years in the Business School are crucial for the students’ development. “I feel like once you’re a junior and senior, you’re kind of set or don’t care anymore,” Heard said. “If we refocused a lot of this work for freshman year, the culture would completely shift.” According to marketing professor Carolyn Yoon, faculty director of diversity and inclusion, professors are moving beyond the IDO workshops this year by integrating curriculum regarding identity and diversity. For example, in Business Administration 100 and 200 courses, professors are incorporating workshops to educate students on how their identities affect their opportunities in business. Both faculty and students are aware of pushback from Business students who do not see the value in taking the IDO workshops, Petryk said. “We are also working with some resistance which is with students especially within the BBA population around, ‘Why do I need to do this? Why is it important? How is this going to help me in my career?’” Petryk said. “So, we are working in multiple different ways to make that connection

for folks who don’t necessarily see themselves in the problem of diversity and inclusion.” According to Ramesh, the polarizing views of Business students regarding these IDO workshops have stemmed from their different socioeconomic backgrounds. On the one hand, Ramesh said white students from privileged backgrounds might feel uneasy having these discussions. “I think it’s that students who come from very white, upper class communities are not comfortable talking about these things, don’t want to say the wrong thing, don’t know how to be in that environment because they’ve never really been in an uncomfortable space like that,” Ramesh said. Ramesh said that on the flip side, minority students are tired of having to have the same conversations regarding diversity. “They’re one of two of their identity in the entire class, and they have to sit in this workshop where they’re the only ones speaking for their whole community again, having to learn this information that they already know, having to teach their peers,” Ramesh said. “So, I think on both sides it’s very uncomfortable.” The presence of wealth is especially noticeable in the Business School, even outside of the IDO workshops, according to Ramesh. While many people are financially comfortable, others without the same financial capabilities can be at a disadvantage in regards to certain elements of the school’s culture. “I think SES is very noticeable in the way people dress and the way people show up,” Ramesh said. “Even I think just small things, like we do a lot of team projects and they encourage team bonding, and people tend to want to eat out, etc. and that’s not always accessible to a lot of people. Even recruiting, I know someone was talking about having to fly out for an interview, and you have to pay for your flight and they’ll reimburse you, but if you don’t have that money in the first place, it’s an obstacle.” “The burden is always falling on the same people to do the work” The taskforce, BBA Council and certain faculty members have worked to further improve the culture of Ross by trying to make it a more inclusive environment for international students and minorities as a whole. Business senior and BBA Council President Liza Hochberg said the DEI taskforce has worked with faculty to expand the conversation on case studies to include a more diverse range of topics. Business senior Robbert Massie, BBA Council vice president of leadership and ethics, said in one of his courses, his professor now encourages student feedback on the cases he chooses and asks whether students feel they are inclusive for everyone. The taskforce also encouraged the introduction of name tags with phonetic pronunciations, which the Business School implemented schoolwide this semester. People like Petryk and Yoon have led initiatives with the faculty to raise awareness around unconscious biases and how to promote more of an inclusive classroom environment. For instance, they run several workshops per year for faculty within the Business School. Within the past two years, faculty evaluations also explicitly ask professors questions about what they are doing in terms of inclusive teaching practices and promoting DEI. “That signals and lets the faculty know that this is an important part of their professional development and it matters,” Yoon said. “And the vast majority of faculty really care and they do show up to these workshops, and many have thought very carefully about how to incorporate that into their own teaching or pedagogy.” Ramesh said though great work is being done, more people need to be involved in efforts to better DEI at the Business School. Plus, those who are currently involved should get the recognition they deserve. “The burden is always falling on the same people to do the work, and there is so much work to do that it cannot just be them anymore, and it cannot be them doing this work and then upper administration getting credit,” Ramesh said. “I mean, if our diversity numbers go up, or students of color are landing these amazing job offers and things like that, it doesn’t fall on the programs that put them through this. It’s not often that those programs and the amazing people that lead them will get credit.”

Opinion

4 — Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

JOEL WEINER | COLUMN

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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

ALANNA BERGER | COLUMN

Who is to blame for America’s opioid crisis?

he epidemic surrounding opioid abuse in the United States is inescapable. On average, 140 Americans die everyday of drug overdoses, with over 90 of those deaths resulting from opioid abuse alone. Accidental drug overdoses recently became the leading cause of death by injury for Americans under 50, surpassing homicides and car accidents. Beyond the obvious impact on human life, the current opioid crisis has had massive economic effects. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the economic costs of the opioid epidemic total around $78.5 billion every year, including “healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice” costs. By this point, it is clear that the opioid epidemic is a colossal emergency our society faces. Much less clear, though, are the reasons behind this outbreak of substance abuse disorders and exactly what steps can be taken to combat it. The catastrophic level of opioid abuse has become increasingly common in recent years. As cases of addiction and overdose deaths reach new heights, many Americans are looking for the reasons behind the mounting crisis and where to place the blame. The obvious first place to look for many is the pharmaceutical industry. In terms of history, this is a logical place to start. The opioid crisis in its current form effectively began in the 1990s. In 1996, Purdue Pharma began manufacturing OxyContin, a narcotic used to manage moderate to severe pain. Prior to this point, doctors in the United States had demonstrated a long history of what was referred to as “opiophobia,” or an extreme resistance in prescribing opioids because of the possibility of addiction. In order to combat this trend and, in effect, increase their drug sales, pharmaceutical companies began to aggressively market their products. Such companies also started to engage in misleading advertising techniques. For example, pharmaceutical company Endo International sponsored a website claiming that the notion of opioid painkillers causing addiction was a myth. As a result of such marketing, health care providers began to prescribe opioids at ever increasing rates. Since this point, opioids have become dangerously overprescribed, with prescription sales increasing alarmingly since 1999. Opioid use thus became more widespread, and opioidrelated overdose deaths much more common. The immoral acts of companies such as Purdue, Allergan, Johnson & Johnson and Endo in prioritizing their own profits over the lives of their consumers are clearly reprehensible. In fact, over 35 percent of all opioid-overdose related

deaths are from prescribed opioids, demonstrating just how influential the actions of pharmaceutical companies were in creating the current epidemic. The guilt of the pharmaceutical industry is highlighted by the abundance of lawsuits against varying companies over their roles in manufacturing the crisis. However, pharmaceutical companies do not stand alone in their guilt. The government officials who enabled the sales of opioid drugs to skyrocket are equally to blame in the opioid crisis. Agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration were created to protect the American people from abuses and misuses of drug distribution such as this one. This past summer, a federal court ordered the release of DEA-collected data, revealing that the agency began collecting data on the manufacture, distribution, and sale of all opioid pills in 2006.

Pharmaceutical companies do not stand alone in their guilt

Despite the documentation of data recording the astronomical surge in opioid sales and related overdose deaths, the DEA effectively did nothing to help save the lives of American people. In conjunction with the malicious marketing techniques employed by the pharmaceutical industry beginning in the 1990s, the inaction of the government in the face of clear misuse of opioid prescription implicates it in the current state of the opioid epidemic. It is difficult to deny that the disastrous effects of the opioid crisis clearly have their origins in abuses of power and governmental inaction. More difficult than determining the overall causes of the epidemic, though, is figuring out how to handle the effects. As hundreds of thousands of people die of drug overdoses annually, it is clear that the current methods of dealing with the crisis are not working. Many pharmaceutical companies are in the early stages of being held accountable for their own parts in the epidemic. Most recently, a $260 million settlement was reached between three major drug distributors and two Ohio counties, allowing them to avoid the first federal opioid trial. The government should begin to acknowledge their own guilt by vowing to combat the epidemic more aggressively.

They can first do this by portraying opioid addiction and related substance abuse issues as the mental health issues they are, instead of criminalizing them. The decriminalization is particularly necessary in Black communities or communities of lower socioeconomic status. The majority of the media attention on the opioid crisis has been on white Americans, and the reason for this may be the fact that opioid deaths among white individuals outnumber those among Black individuals. However, deaths from opioid overdoses are more rapidly increasing among Black Americans. Furthermore, Black drug addicts are more likely to be portrayed as criminals than their white counterparts, who are more often seen as requiring medical treatment. In the pursuit of combating the opioid epidemic through decriminalization, it is imperative to include all demographics in this process, especially those who have been hit hardest by the criminal justice system. Beyond the total decriminalization of opioids, the federal government should fund and implement effective public education and awareness campaigns about the opioid crisis, including instructional information about where to find effective treatment options. Furthermore, the government should additionally develop, fund and implement more effective school and community-based prevention techniques. These techniques must be nonpunitive in nature and address the often underlying mental health issues that contribute to opioid addiction. Finally, the federal government must circle back to the origins of the crisis and be more stringent in holding the DEA accountable in their documentation of opioid sales. This can include requiring that the DEA uphold stricter standards in the issuance of registrations to doctors with the ability to prescribe opioid medications, as well as the prohibition of directto-consumer advertising of opioids. The complexity and magnitude of the current opioid crisis in the United States is overwhelming. It is important to avoid getting caught up in the intricacies and hold those responsible to account. By holding both the pharmaceutical companies and the federal government accountable for the epidemic, society can begin to more fully combat the crisis and prevent any further catastrophic loss of life. Alanna Berger can be reached at balanna@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.

Legalizing marijuana should include retroactively clearing convictions

ince Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana use in 2012, nine more states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational consumption. An additional 15 states have decriminalized it, making it a civil infraction or low-level misdemeanor with no possibility of jail time. Despite these recent trends, thousands of people across the United States continue to have records of marijuana convictions, even in states that have legalized or decriminalized it. Though some states have instituted policies to address this, every state that has legalized marijuana should automatically expunge all convictions and clear citizens’ records. States should clear marijuana convictions because those records can continue to haunt past offenders. Even if the state in which they were charged no longer considers it a crime to possess or consume small amounts of marijuana, people still struggle to access public services or get jobs. A 71-year-old Vermont man named Glyn Wilkinson was first charged with a marijuana violation in 1968. As a result, he was unable to purchase a firearm and even travel to Canada. Wilkinson’s record was cleared last year on an “Expungement Day,” during which he was required to travel to Burlington. Rather than making someone petition the state and travel to clear their record, the states that have legalized marijuana use should do it automatically. Before Illinois legalized marijuana, 42 percent of all drug arrests in that state were for cannabis-related offenses. Since prosecutors targeted marijuana users during the War on Drugs, the default should be to update every offender’s record to current standards. If someone was charged with a misdemeanor for an act that is now legal, that charge should be wiped from their record.

Furthermore, marijuana enforcement historically disproportionately targets African Americans. Despite the fact that people across all races consume marijuana at similar rates, African Americans are almost four times as likely as white people to be arrested for possession of cannabis. Legalization is a way to stop this specific instance of discrimination going forward, but it does not address the continuing effects of these historically oppressive policies. While automatically clearing records does not erase the actions of the past, it is a step in the right direction. Since drug convictions negatively impact people’s eligibility for federal student aid, clearing records is all the more important in ensuring the ability of Americans to attend college and university.

Punishing someone with that outdated standard undermines the legal system Some states have taken the initiative and have already begun to automatically clear past marijuana convictions. California in particular has been making headway on this issue. After marijuana was legalized there, officials expected waves of people to petition to clear their old convictions, but the process was so complicated most people did not even attempt it. To remedy that problem, the counties of Los Angeles and San Joaquin enacted plans to automatically clear or decrease the 54,000 recorded convictions. San Francisco did similarly and promised to clear 9,300 convictions going back decades. Aside from the concrete issues associated with the failure of states to remove convictions, moral issues still exist with leaving them on the books. The

point of maintaining criminal records is to make certain people who may come into contact with the person, such as employers or universities, are aware of serious problems regarding a person’s conduct. But because certain states no longer believe that possession of marijuana is as serious an offense, punishing someone with that outdated standard undermines the legal system. To be clear, this does not work the other way around. A state should not press charges against someone who acted a certain way if the act was subsequently made illegal. That is called an ex post facto law, and it is immoral to punish someone based on an action that was unpunishable when it occurred. On the other hand, if someone acts in a certain way that society eventually comes to understand as legal, their record ought to reflect the same data as someone who engaged in the newly legal activity. The difference between the two lies in standards of culpability — that of the state versus that of an individual. If an individual engages in an activity that is legal when it happens, but the state outlaws it afterwards, it is unacceptable to punish the individual for an action that was legal at the time it happened. On the other hand, if a state eventually changes its laws to legalize a certain action, the state is acknowledging that it was in the wrong to prosecute anyone for that action when it was illegal and therefore should make amends by wiping the convictions. As more states legalize and decriminalize marijuana, they face the issue of what to do with past convictions. Since it is clear that keeping these criminal records makes it far more difficult for convicted Americans to get jobs and federal student aid, and that it disproportionately targets people of color, those states should clear these convictions. Joel Weiner can be reached at jgweiner@umich.edu.

YASMEEN DOHAN | COLUMN

When partisanship poisons the Supreme Court

ince its inception, the term, judges could execute their Supreme Court has long duties in preserving the intentions been regarded as the of the Constitution unbeholden to external pressures. United States’ The gravity of judicial arbitrator of the law. independence only It was created as a intensified with Marbury neutral institution, v. Madison, which devoid of any bias ruled that the Supreme or party inclination, Court could void acts by only to intervene Congress that it deemed when legislative or unconstitutional. As executive action a result, Supreme deviated from what Court justices are now was constitutional. YASMEEN given the immense Yet now the Supreme responsibility of Court, previously DOHAN impartially interpreting seen by some as the quintessence of justice, has the Constitution out of duty simply been plagued by the partisanship by serving on the highest tribunal that has afflicted other facets of of the land. American government. As a result, American legislators should seek to reconsider our interpretation of the Constitution’s “good behavior” clause in order to better combat the maladies partisanship has created. Tracing back to Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton dictated that the judicial branch would be the weakest of the three, as it would only issue judgments and remain dependent on the other two branches for efficacy. Furthermore, Article III of the But truly how impartial are the Constitution, which established the judicial branch of the federal judges of today? In the last two government, refrained from Supreme Courts, more than 20 delineating the exact organization percent of all rulings were decided of the Supreme Court, leaving by a 5-4 majority: pre-World War its development largely up to II, less than 5 percent were. Unlike Congress. What was specified, in the past, the voting behavior though, was that judges would of most any justice can be highly continue to hold their offices predictable given the party of the during good behavior. This “good president who appointed them. behavior” clause maintains that In fact, six out of the ten most those who serve as judges for important Supreme Court cases the Supreme Court can only be thus far in 2019 were decided along removed from office through ostensible partisan lines, with an impeachment — essentially added swing vote by either Chief Justice John Roberts or Associate establishing lifelong tenure. The purpose of lifelong tenure Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This was to sequester judges from any newfound court polarization can volatile political landscape that be attributed to the changing could jeopardize the integrity of dynamic of norms regarding the court. Judicial independence judicial appointment, for example, was imperative to the notion of a strategically-timed retirements Supreme Court; with a lifetime by judges and near-exclusive

The Supreme Court seems to be nothing more than a puppet of the executive branch

consideration of ideological similarity and reliability by presidents. With justices voting so commonly along party lines in controversial cases, the Supreme Court seems to be nothing more than a puppet of the executive branch. The framework of European nations’ constitutional courts demonstrate that perhaps our Supreme Court isn’t doomed to democratic degeneracy if reform can be achieved. In Germany, the appointment process is conducted bipartisanly, with negotiation between both parties in order to reach concord on suitable judicial candidates. Spain and Portugal similarly require a legislative supermajority in order to confirm most or all court nominees. European nations’ implementation of a bipartisan confirmation process seems much more sensible, and the United States would be wise to imitate it if it hopes to overcome its rampant hyperpartisanship. Fortunately, modifying our current Supreme Court wouldn’t even require the arduous amendment process. The “good behavior” clause is ambiguously worded, and it’s possible that our Founding Fathers meant something other than till death when articulating the length of a judge’s tenure. Rather, “good behavior” could plausibly be interpreted as behavior in which the duties of office are executed professionally and righteously. And with the blatant partisanship seen on the Supreme Court today, it isn’t unreasonable to believe that the current state of the court is not in good behavior. Therefore, a simple act of Congress would suffice as a step in the right direction to fight the plague of hyperpartisanship that has weakened the integrity of our nation. Yasmeen Dohan can be reached at yasmeend@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, October 22, 2019 — 5

HUMOR COLUMN

Becky Portman: Modern love is a look on the subway

MUSIC REVIEW

BECKY PORTMAN Humor Columnist

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

New BABYMETAL is a trip DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer

When I first volunteered to write about METAL GALAXY, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I had a vague memory of BABYMETAL as a band with some sort of gimmick. My editor said it was right up my alley, which upon first listening to “Chocolate,” I understood that to mean BABYMETAL was in line with my taste for weird and unique. Later I would remember where I first heard the band: My JPop-superfan cousins were showing me videos of them performing on YouTube back in 2012. BABYMETAL might be kind of a meme, but their staying power is beyond any gimmick. Somewhere at the intersection of anime and Death Grips, BABYMETAL has amassed an enormous international following for their hardcore-cute JPopmetal fusion. Its members, Su-Metal and Moa-Metal, are pulled straight from the Japanese idol industry, which reflects in the band’s focus on performance and theatrics. The core members sing and dance and scream at their shows, while a group of backing musicians (called Kami Band) provide the heavy metal instrumentation. The band’s idol industry roots are crystal clear in their sound. Something to get comfortable with to properly enjoy this record is that most of the music sounds like it was concocted by record company executives spitballing ideas at a round table meeting. For “Shanti Shanti Shanti,” the men in suits said, “BABYMETAL, but make it ‘Aladdin.’” For “OH! Majinai,” they said the same, but fantasy-renaissance. This is a natural extension of how the band came to be in the first place — somebody said “Baby, but make it metal,” and now here we are. While BABYMETAL’s existence is itself a left hook, the tracklist on METAL GALAXY rolls out surprise punch after surprise punch. The guests are unexpected and brilliant. Japanese music legend Tak Matsumoto plays guitar on “DA DA DANCE.” Tim Henson and Scott LePage of Polyphia fame help compose “Brand New Day.” Thai rapper F.Hero spits a verse on “PA PA YA!!” Sweden has multiple footprints on the album: Joakim Brodén, vocalist of Swedish power metal band Sabaton, singing and screaming on “OH! Majinai,” and Alissa White-Gluz, vocalist of Swedish death metal

band Arch Enemy, growling on “Distortion.” Despite these features, nothing can eclipse the bizarre power of young women singing over aggressive heavy metal, so every track remains distinctly BABYMETAL. Other than the novel JPop-metal mix, it’s hard to pinpoint what is distinctly BABYMETAL; they skillfully juggle so many different sounds in their music. “Da Da Dance” manages to smuggle a bit of electropop into the album. “Arkadia” oozes with Dragonforce energy. While “Elevator Girl,” “Shanti Shanti Shanti” and “OH! Majinai” are clearly contrived to have a certain aesthetic (just like everything about BABYMETAL), it all still kinda bangs. All the global fame that BABYMETAL capitalizes on with their international sounds, however, complicates the issue of Western influence on Asian media. The

METAL GALAXY BABYMETAL Babymetal Records

current media talk about American studios altering their content to get through Chinese censorship makes me wonder how much Asian media producers are coloring their material to be Western-friendly. “Elevator Girl,” sung entirely in English, is a clear appeal to a Western audience. I can’t speak to the songwriting on the rest of METAL GALAXY — I can’t understand it — but based on the lyrics to “Elevator Girl,” I think I prefer to keep things a mystery. And yet, the track has been integral to the band’s international promotion, coinciding with the announcement of their most recent world tour. For the purpose of providing tracks to perform live, METAL GALAXY is a great addition to BABYMETAL. While the band has an enormously talented support system — the backing band’s instrumentation is often skillful and flashy, and the guests are highly accomplished — the joy of BABYMETAL is in their music videos and live performances. More than anything else, listening to METAL GALAXY has had me on the lookout for BABYMETAL’s next stop in Detroit.

I’ve only been in love once, and it was with the back of a stranger’s head on the two train. I was listening to Frankie Cosmos and had just spilled cold brew on my sundress, so it was ripe to happen. I looked up from my New York Times Crossword app and my eyes met his cervical vertebrae; it was magic. His head wasn’t perfectly round, like maybe he was dropped a few times as a baby. I was intrigued. He had just gotten a haircut, I could tell because his neck was still slightly red. He wore a suit that was just a little wrinkled, as if to say I am employed but I don’t own an iron. His socks were “Firef ly” themed — the show, not the bug. He listened to his music or podcast (probably podcast) on wired headphones, not AirPods, a rare sighting in New York City or Ann Arbor nowadays. His posture looked like he had been touched by scoliosis or hit a growth spurt late in high school. He wasn’t popular in high school but he wasn’t unpopular. His friend group was solid and he still keeps in touch with some of them, they catch up every time he comes home for Thanksgiving at the diner they used to frequent. He probably went to a good college, maybe one in the Ivy League, but not Harvard or Yale, one of the underrated ones like Brown or Cornell. He probably studied English or history or political science or my favorite, philosophy. There was a time where I only dated philosophy majors, not because I love philosophy but because I love guys who think they’re smarter than me and then proving them wrong. But he wasn’t like that, he was considerate, he calls his mom once a week, he has a little sister he cares madly about but not in a weird way. His family had a golden retriever named Florence but she died in a tragic car accident when he was eight years old. His dad ran her over in the family Jeep but they never told him that. His parents replaced Florence with a beagle named Harry but it wasn’t the same. He played soccer in elementary school and he

was really good. When people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up he said a professional soccer player and people kind of believed him because he was so confident. He still has that air of confidence, the certainty of a child telling someone what they want to be when they grow up. When all the other boys on the team hit their growth spurts in seventh grade, he was still the same size. He didn’t hit puberty till age 15. His soccer dreams faded, but he had new hobbies, new passions. He loved playing street hockey with his buddies and f lying small planes above his neighborhood. He had a highschool girlfriend. She was controlling and paranoid. He lost his virginity to her when he was 17 in the back of the family Jeep, the one that killed his dog. He plays golf with his dad on the weekends and helps his mom in the garden. He has a collection of thimbles from everywhere he has traveled. He loved to travel so he studied abroad in Spain. He fell in love with a girl he met in Cartagena named Anna. They had a short-lived courtship and a tearful goodbye at the end of the semester. She sends him nudes sometimes. His name was Ethan or Adam or Josh or Nathan or Peter, definitely not Jason. His eyes were blue or brown, definitely not green. I didn’t know anything about him apart from the back of his head but I felt like I knew him. His face was a mystery but I could see it clearly in my head. He had strong features with a softness to them. He had braces when he was young but he doesn’t wear his retainer so his teeth have shifted a bit, adding some imperfection to his perfected pearly whites. His jawline was sharp enough to cut marble. He was a suburban James Dean, a Jewish Marlon Brando, the long lost Franco brother. He was perfect. It was rush hour, people shuff led in and out but he stayed right where he was, trying to figure out the Casper-mattress advertisement riddles. We got off at the same stop downtown and I walked behind him for a little while hoping to catch a glimpse of his face, to see if he was everything I imagined he was. He left the station before I could even see it.

FILM REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

The confusing beauty of Fellous’s ‘Tilting World’ ‘Mistress of Evil’ is lacking

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES

JO CHANG

For The Daily

Colette Fellous’s “This Tilting World” takes place at the shoreline of a nameless sea. There, its narrator reflects on the 2015 Sousse mass shootings that had occurred just a day before, the lives and deaths of various men in her life and the many places she has called home. The novel’s slimness tricks readers into believing they are in for a quick and simple read; I felt slightly betrayed when I realized (just a few pages in) that I had been made a fool. “This Tilting World” is dense. The winding passages are devoid of quotation marks and steeped in poetics, which effectively has the effect of making me feel as though my body was being hit with wave after wave of text, struggling to stay alive and afloat. “This Tilting World” is filled with descriptions of the people, marketplaces, foods and smells of Tunisia, France and other places the narrator has lived and loved in. The novel is described as being “a love letter to (the narrator’s) homeland,” but it is arguably also a love letter to her father, literature and her life itself, which she is reflecting on in response to the massacre that had unfolded the previous day, and the death of her friend Alain. Once I reached the end of the novel, I understood how Fellous combines these elements

This Tilting World Colette Fellous Two Lines Press Sept. 10, 2019

to paint a portrait of the burden of responsibility and guilt of being a child of expatriates, one who is also without a country she can firmly claim as “home.” The narrator has inherited the trauma of exile from her parents; it has become “(her) wound now.” “...I felt like an orphan even when my parents surrounded me with the best they could provide… this is what I’ve done all my life: cradle (my father), cradle them both in their innocence and sweetness, and even cradle what I call the country … Tunisia or

the long-past memories of my parents? I don’t know. I held them up so they would not collapse.” This is one of those books that lack a cohesive plot structure. This writing style, however, is the novel’s downfall. Without the aid of the back cover, it is hard to understand what “This Tilting World” is even about. Minimal plot structure can be liberating if done right, but Fellous’s writing is suffocating. I initially attributed it to the fact that the novel is translated from French. I attempted to slow down and savor the prose, thinking that perhaps I was rushing too much and it would be more comprehensible if I tiptoed my way through the landmine of poetics. I soon realized, though, that there was no escaping the convoluted nature of the text. I discovered that the most effective way for me to read the novel was to skim it slightly, or at least not dwell too long on every sentence. But there were undeniably several gems, including this image-heavy moment of reflection: “So many images in a few seconds. With each sip the throbbing of even more invisible hearts joins me, moments of a life, reflections of light on a face, the scars of hours, culled from the past or perhaps still unknown, thousands of sparks dissolved in my every breath. Hearts in thrall drawing together. Geraniums, pink and white carnations, the unfurling leaves of bougainvillea, odd fragments of broken pots, pieces of colored glass…” The way that Fellous writes feels as though she is a poet attempting to pummel a very long poem into submission through the rigid structure of a fiction novel. Pummel romantically, of course. Fallous’s writing style is refined, but too flowery for my taste. I felt minimal connection to any of the characters, even the narrator herself. While there are several segments of the text that are undeniably beautiful, they are too far and few between to fully appreciate, and wrapped in a complicated snarl of text that made my eyes glaze over. “This Tilting World” is certainly not an easy read. See, the thing about love letters is that they are meant for one person in particular. The letter that “This Tilting World” offers is carefully crafted, laced with beautiful prose, but, unfortunately, intended for the select few who enjoy murky plot structures and poetry-prose hybrids.

SABRIYA IMAMI For The Daily

Disney rarely puts out unsuccessful movies; almost all of their films please fans and maintain box-office success. Often, the movies do well in the box office because fans can expect to enjoy a Disney film, but that doesn’t mean that all the films are necessarily amazing. Most Disney films fall somewhere in a neutral middle ground — not bad, not great. “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” directed by Joachim Rønning (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), fits perfectly in this category. Overall, the film’s not a bad watch, especially with kids who would love the fairytale aspects and the special effects, but it’s still a film with a lot of issues, especially in how the plot unfolds. “Mistress of Evil” picks up five years after its 2014 predecessor, “Maleficent.” Aurora, played by Elle Fanning (“Super 8”), who now rules over the Moors as their wide-eyed, barefoot, fairy-like queen, accepts a marriage proposal from Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson, “Trust”). Their union has the potential to link their respective kingdoms, the Moors and Ulstead, but Philip’s mother, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer, “Batman Returns”), has other plans. The premise of the plot, though a little derivative with its fairytale aspects and evil mother-in-law, is tolerable. Despite the plot not being unique, the film has some really high points. Where the movie succeeds is in its stellar understanding and explanation of two major characters and their bond: Maleficent (Angelina Jolie, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”) and Aurora. The two talented actresses do a fabulous job of making their relationship seem real; little details like Aurora being the only one who was able to calm Maleficent down, Maleficent practicing how to smile to avoid make a bad impression on Philip’s parents and their nicknaming of each other (Godmother and Beastie), all contributed to a believable mother-daughter-like relationship. Disney’s attention to detail makes for wonderful world-building. However, the amount of plot holes in the movie

make it difficult to follow and frustrating to watch. One of the most confusing parts of the movie is understanding the motive that Queen Ingrith had for wanting to hurt Maleficent personally. Ingrith’s grudge against the fae kingdom in general makes some sense after hearing her backstory (though told too late, in the last 45 minutes of the film), but the feelings of resentment and hatred that she harbors against Maleficent alone seem unfounded and unbelievable. The other plot hole, this one even harder to ignore, is the reveal of an underground society of Maleficentlike creatures. We get very little background on them

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX Walt Disney Pictures as a group, just that they were driven into hiding by humans. We miss out on learning the extent of their history, and more importantly, why Maleficent doesn’t know they exist when she seems to play such an important role in their hierarchy. With the addition of these creatures in the movie, it feels like too much was going on at once, with not enough detail or time spent on anything. “Mistress of Evil” is a nice escape from midterm stress and 40-degree October weather in Michigan, but not a must-see. It’s one of those trademarked Disney movies that you know you’ll enjoy and you know will have a ‘happily ever after,’ but not necessarily worth spending ticket money on. In a world of Disney live-action remakes and in the era of sequels, “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” falls exactly where you would expect it to. It doesn’t have the nostalgia of the original cartoon “Sleeping Beauty” nor the novelty of the 2014 film — the live-action remake that started the trend. It feels obvious that they dragged out a sequel to make money, and while it wasn’t an unenjoyable film, it didn’t feel necessary. I think it’s safe to say that this probably won’t be a trilogy, and that’s OK.

Arts

6— Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

TV REVIEW

Who hurt Zac Brown? KATIE BEEKMAN Daily Arts Writer

AMAZON VIDEO

The antithesis of Hollywood romance is ‘Modern Love’ SOPHIA YOON Daily Arts Writer

Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. They hit it off, hold hands into the sunset, get married, have kids — the whole shebang. It’s a tale that’s been recycled throughout all of time, and while it’s not entirely realistic, it doesn’t mean there’s no hope for us. As society has slowly started to realize, love takes shape in infinite forms, and “Modern Love” presents this to us in a beautiful, realistic, painful and sometimes convoluted way. The eight-episode anthology was inspired by a column in The New

If you’re a crier, you’ll surely shed tears at the best parts of the series. It crushes you, gives you hope, rinses and repeats.

York Times under the same name, and portrays love stories in a light that’s true to life. Like all great anthologies, some episodes will stand out among the rest and leave you thinking for days, and some will simply disappoint. This season has a strong start and finish with not much of value in between, but a great part of the anthology format is that you can skip episodes without missing a beat. Under a common theme of love, each episode features nuances of affection rarely seen on the big screen: The platonic love between a woman and her doorman, the ones that got away, two gay men and their adopted daughter and a bipolar woman and herself, to name a few. These episodes

were some of the most impressive ones from the series, and their departures from the romance genre are just enough to provide a fresh new take, but not far enough to be cold and detached. They hit you just as hard as any cheesy love story would, but force you to think about love in a more realistic sense. The episode featuring Anne Hathaway (“The Hustle”), in which a woman reconciles herself with the presence of her own mental illness, marks the end of a great start to the season. After that, the season takes a weird dip downward into the territory of stale acting and unrelatable plotlines. The worst and frankly creepiest episode of the season is about a young girl named Maddy (Julia Garner, “Dirty John”) with serious daddy issues. She attaches herself to Peter (Shea Whigham, “Joker”), a higher-up at her workplace who seems to be around 30 years older than her. Long story short, she begins to see him as a father figure, he thinks of her differently, mixed signals are exchanged and things get very, very weird. Maddy’s story makes you wonder whether the creators thought it was supposed to be watchable. On the bright side, the good stuff picks back up in the last two episodes of the season. If you’re a crier, you’ll surely shed tears at the best parts of the series. It crushes you, gives you hope, rinses and repeats. With the diversity of topics the stories cover, anyone should be able to find an episode they vibe with the most and, who knows, maybe it’ll be the daddy issues one. The anthology format makes the show a lot more watchable and digestible, and we can only hope that the show will get picked up for a second season so we can continue feeling all the things.

When Zac Brown Band released Welcome Home in 2017, it sounded as though they were home to stay. Songs like “Roots” and “Family Table” celebrated Brown’s family-man image and firmly planted the band back in the country soundscape in which they started. But this September, the band’s latest album, The Owl, found them on a different planet. The Owl is Frankenstein’s monster: Dancepop beat drops, questionable lyrics, rock and country all mashed together haphazardly. It’s not like there weren’t any warning signs beforehand — Zac explicitly made the leap in 2016 by starting the EDM trio Sir Rosevelt. It’s just that Welcome Home seemed to promise that these interests would be kept separate. The Owl blends them together. Unsurprisingly, fans were disappointed. But what was most shocking was when Zac Brown doubled down on his new sound by dropping a solo pop album, The Controversy, a week later. Then fans were worried. The band’s album titles have always been markers of their artistic development. Their first album, The Foundation, poured the foundation for Zac Brown Band’s wheelhouse with hits like “Chicken Fried” and “Toes.” These songs established the band in its corner of country music filled with strings, salt water and sincerity. Jekyll + Hyde (2015) embodied two personas — one at the beach, one suited for the club, both still country. This album is sonically closest to The Owl, the only difference on the former is that Brown doesn’t try to be both Jekyll and Hyde at the same time. The Owl is an equally revealing title. Like Zac Brown’s interest in the EDM world, owls aren’t seen as much as they are understood to always be around, living in the shadows. Additionally, owls are nocturnal. So it’s fitting that The Owl would come out during a period of darkness for Zac Brown a year after he and his wife announced they were separating. The first song, “The Woods,” invites the listener into that darkness and a side of the band they’ve never seen before, while acknowledging that a longtime fan might decline the invitation. “What makes me smile / might make you cry” he shrugs over an auto-tuned and fiddle-heavy pop track. While “The Woods” is bearable, other tracks, like “OMW,” are not. “When you see that OMW / OMW / meaning I’m on my way, yeah / hell yeah / I’m on my way, yeah,” Brown croons like a dad rushing to hook up with someone half his age. Most of the songs on The Owl fall somewhere in between. For example, “Already on Fire” has a

believable Western film groove and catchy hook that a deep, dark, out-of-nowhere autotuned bridge derails. The title of Brown’s solo album, The Controversy, speaks for itself. It’s clear that Brown knew what he was about to incite when he dropped it. Labelled pop instead of country, (unlike The Owl), the album still feels too busy with EDM, hip hop, R&B and rock meshed together. But the music itself isn’t really what I have a problem with, it’s the lyrics. In “Swayze,” Brown brags that, “every time I get a new bitch, I need a new bitch.” It’s so gross that it’s comical. In “This Far,” the song questions how he became so successful — something listeners will be wondering throughout the album, Brown sings, “No C-G / I’m still I” so solemnly I can’t help but smile. The only joy I get from listening to The Controversy is from recognizing how ridiculous it is. Every artist changes their sound. Whether it’s a switch in genre or producers, a musician’s urge to try something new is as natural as a fan’s initial discomfort in hearing their favorite band sound different. But I don’t feel uncomfortable listening to The Owl or even The Controversy despite how cringe-worthy both can be. I just feel sad. It’s tempting to write an obituary for the Zac Brown Band, but the situation is worse than that. No-fun attempts to push genre boundaries like Jekyll + Hyde, The Owl and The Controversy sound like cries for help. It’s assumed that when musicians go through difficult times, they make their best music. But what happens when an artist already made meaningful music about their happy everyday life, and then has their world flipped upside down? In Zac Brown’s case, all that was deep turns shallow. Still, there are two songs to return to out of all of this. “Someone That I Used to Know” pulls off EDM-country and offers some explanation for the band’s new direction. “When you keep on losing / with the path you’re choosing / then it’s time to let go / of someone that I used to know,” Brown advises. Unfortunately, that someone seems to be the “cold beer on a Friday night / pair of jeans that fit just right” beanie-wearing Zac Brown fans grew to love. The other song is The Owl’s closer “Leaving Love Behind.” Entirely acoustic with gorgeous harmonies, this song is so good it’s frustrating. It’s a reminder of what the Zac Brown Band is capable when Zac Brown is in the right headspace. It also provides context for the rest of the album by showing what got him in the wrong headspace — his heartbreak at the end of his marriage. “Everything we lose / will be a gift in time” he sings, and I agree. But it’s obvious this time hasn’t come yet for Zac Brown.

Modern Love Season One Amazon Prime Streaming Now

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

RYAN COX

Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

FOR RENT

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Barbecue glowers 6 Priestly robes 10 Cobblers’ tools 14 Neighborhood map on a city map, e.g. 15 Java neighbor 16 Former Iranian ruler 17 Classroom text 19 Deep sleep 20 Represent 21 Like a bike 23 Goes on to say 24 Summer on the Riviera 25 MLB Network analyst Martinez 28 Twinkling in the night sky 34 On bed rest, say 36 Lupino of “High Sierra” 37 Bird’s crop 38 Colorado native 39 Relief from the daily grind 42 “__ Am”: Alicia Keys album 43 Screen material 45 Sinus doc 46 Growing weary 48 Office spot with a coffee pot 51 Landlord’s income 52 Tell tall tales 53 Field of study 55 Pays some of 59 Closed in on 62 Cut __: dance, in old slang 63 Start of a sports season, and what each half of 17-, 28-, 39- and 48-Across can have 66 Hightail it 67 Trait carrier 68 Mozart’s “Così fan __” 69 Spill the beans 70 Taiwanese PC maker 71 Most common roll of two dice DOWN 1 Prefix with gender

2 How software was once sold 3 Queens tennis stadium 4 Johnny’s “The Big Bang Theory” role 5 Was conspicuous 6 Convent leader 7 Language of Southeast Asia 8 Hard punch 9 Many a Punjabi 10 One leading a Spartan lifestyle 11 Healthy bread type 12 Like a weak excuse 13 Roe source 18 Inc., in the U.K. 22 Slender aquarium swimmer 25 __ bob: vertical measuring tool 26 Diner 27 Gas at a truck stop 29 Connect with 30 Big deal 31 Whitewater ride

DME to channel Eno’s ‘Airports’

32 “Who __?!”: “Join the club!” 33 Small sticks 35 Jetty 40 6, on a cellphone keypad 41 Insects with a painful sting 44 Stylist’s supply 47 Debate again 49 Hawaii’s Mauna __ 50 Style

54 Camping gear brand 55 Inane 56 Mystery writer Gardner 57 Tranquil exercise 58 On __: without a contract 60 1999 Ron Howard film 61 Go out with 64 WSW’s opposite 65 Japanese money

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Mozart’s “Requiem.” Mahler’s “5th Symphony.” Glass’s “Glassworks.” Davis’s “Kind of Blue.” All of these pieces of music have proved to be seminal works that have proved to inf luence the shape of music yet to come. It’s common to see them performed live by different symphonies, chamber groups or jazz combos. However, despite being the spark that began the ambient movement of music, Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music For Airports is rarely heard outside of a prerecorded context. The Digital Music Ensemble hopes to change that. Stephen Rush, the director of the the University of Michigan’s Digital Music Ensemble (DME), compares Eno’s Music For Airports to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. “It’s not that hard to see live,” Rush said of the Symphony in an interview with The Daily. “But has anyone seen Music for Airports done? This is a piece of music that founded a genre. And we have not seen it live? That’s crazy!” Although it wasn’t his first dive into ambient music, Music for Airports is certainly Eno’s most popular and inf luential work. In the winter of 1975, right after he released his criticallyacclaimed art rock album, Another Green World, Eno took a sharp turn in the opposite direction with his first ambient album, Discreet Music. This album proved to be a teaser for what was to come three years later with Ambient 1: Music for Airports. After waiting for a delayed f light in a European airport, Eno was inspired by the soundscape he heard. “Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting,” Eno said. Eno accomplished this through a series of tape loops — tape that has been spliced together to create a seemingly infinite loop that continuously repeats itself. Eno originally recorded the piece by phasing in and out tape loops of different lengths, using a variety of sounds from instruments like piano, voice and even synthesizer. Just like the original piece, the Digital Music Ensemble plans on recreating the album through tape. Although Rush wrote that the group plans on recreating the piece as closely as possible, he also chose to make the piece more of their own. “I asked all of the students to write their own loops to place

or play over the original music,” Rush wrote. “People that love the original may be disappointed because they will hear it (the original piece), but they will also hear what our students have placed over the top. The main thing that is different, of course, is that this is a physical installation … not an LP record.” The official title of the group’s performance is “Pond Music XVII: Brian Eno’s Music for Airports.” In the past, the ensemble has done a variety of performances on the pond by the Earl V. Moore School of Music, each serving as more of an installation than a performance. While the pond doesn’t directly play a role in making the music, Rush says that it plays an integral role in the installation.

Pond Music XVII: Brian Eno’s Music for Airports Digital Music Ensemble October 24th-27th Free

“The pond provides a beautiful natural landscape. It is also a neutral gathering space for music. No one has any expectations of what music would come from a pond space,” Rush wrote. “It also messes with the audiences notion of time. When is the piece over? When does it start? Most of it really doesn’t matter with 40 hours of installation time. Just sit and listen, or walk by and notice.” The group spent time installing airplane propellers on the pond in order, spinning and mimicking the tape loops in order to visually accompany the music. The Digital Music Ensemble will present four performances of “Pond Music XVII: Brian Eno’s Music for Airports” on Oct. 24 through 27, starting at noon on the Pond near the Earl V. Moore School of Music. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to come and go as they please.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, October 22, 2019 — 7

Johnny Beecher settling in faster than expected Defense spurs victory BAILEY JOHNSON

JARED GREENSPAN

There were 46 seconds left on the clock. Michigan led, 4-3, but Lake Superior State was pressuring after pulling its goaltender for an extra attacker. If the Wolverines could get the puck cleared out of their zone, it would likely seal a sweep over the Lakers. In that high-pressure situation, where a faceoff win could mean the difference between victory and defeat, Michigan coach Mel Pearson had a decision to make. Seconds later, 6-foot-3 freshman forward Johnny Beecher glided into the faceoff circle to take the draw against 6-foot-6 forward Hampus Eriksson. As the referee dropped the puck, Beecher beat Eriksson to the puck, twisting as he sent it back between his legs to senior defenseman Luke Martin, who waited in the corner. Martin brought the puck up toward the blueline, looking to get the clear or put the puck in the empty net, but forward Ashton Calder was waiting to keep it in the zone for his team and his play created two scoring chances for Lake Superior State. After a flurry of activity in front of the net, sophomore goaltender Strauss Mann covered the puck, which meant another faceoff was coming. This time, there were just nine seconds left. Once again, Pearson gave Beecher the nod. Once again, Beecher won the draw. “You just kinda have to dial it in and focus on the draw,” Beecher said after the game. “Obviously, there’s a lot on the line with a one-goal lead, but I’m extremely happy that coach has that much faith in me and my teammates as well. I just wanted to go out there

As the No. 9 Michigan women’s field hockey team took the field Friday night, the lyrics of Queen’s We Will Rock You blasted through Ocker Field. The song proved a fitting backdrop to the type of match that followed: a smashmouth, defensive slugfest. For the Wolverines (11-3 overall, 4-1 Big Ten), it was a team effort on the defensive end that ushered them to a 1-0 victory over No. 2 Maryland (13-2, 5-1). “We just worked as a team together,” said sophomore goalkeeper Anna Spieker. “Everybody knew exactly where they were supposed to be, in their right pockets and having a good angle with the ball.” Throughout the game, the Wolverines’ press was relentless and aggressive, often forcing Maryland into sloppy play and rushed passes. “It all starts with the forwards,” said senior midfielder Guadalupe Fernandez Lacort. “The forwards, they had a great press. You would see their sidebacks fumble the ball or hesitate, not knowing what to do. It really all started from there.” Limiting Maryland’s corner opportunities also keyed the defense. The Terrapins are known for having a robust corner game, led by two standout drag flickers, forwards Bibi Donraadt and Jen Bleakney. With Michigan’s press helping keep the ball predominantly in the Wolverines’

Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Freshman forward Johnny Beecher won two crucial faceoffs late in Saturday’s game against Lake Superior State.

and try to win the draw for them.” The second time, Beecher beat Calder off the drop and sent the puck out and around the corner, where sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg chased it down. Blankenburg’s pass around the boards came up to senior forward Will Lockwood at the point, who ensured a gamewinning clear for the Wolverines. “(Beecher) was really good, we tried him there and he’s been excellent,” Pearson said after the game. “Two big important faceoffs, and we win them. But we got to make sure we get those out though, especially the first one. But got a lot of confidence in Johnny in his faceoff ability.” Just four games into his Michigan career, Beecher’s earned Pearson’s full confidence to win crucial draws at key moments of the game — and Beecher’s 16-of-20 record on draws throughout Saturday’s game exemplifies why Pearson trusts him implicitly.

I’m ... happy that coach has that much faith in me.

But he didn’t always expect to be turning to Beecher this early in his career. Earlier in October, Pearson told MIHockey.com that he thought it would take Beecher time to adjust to college hockey. In his two years at the U.S. National Team Development Program, Beecher was somewhat buried on the line chart behind future topfive picks Jack Hughes and Alex Turcotte. His role wasn’t to be the go-to scorer — Hughes and Turcotte and their linemates were there for that. At Michigan, Beecher’s role is expanding, and Pearson thought it would be a month or two before Beecher — the No. 30 overall pick to the Boston Bruins in the 2019 NHL Draft — fully adjusted. But with three points in his first four games, it’s clear that Beecher is settling in faster than anyone expected. “He’s got a quick learning curve,” Pearson said Monday. “He’s picked a lot of things up. … His practice habits have gotten

better. I think that’s the biggest area we’ve seen and then that’s flown into — just flow right into the game with his preparation and whatnot. “Practice, it took him a while to get going, and now he’s practicing better. He sees the importance of it and understands, and that’s part of the learning curve, too.” And Beecher’s teammates can also see and appreciate how quickly he’s adjusted to the pace and style of play in college hockey. “I don’t think it really took much,” Lockwood said. “I think he kinda jumped right in and has been great. He really uses his speed well. In practice, he wasn’t always utilizing that, but in games, he was blowing by guys. I think the first couple games he was a bounce or two away from having three, four breakaways and then this past weekend, I think he did have three or four breakaways. “He’s been able to jump and do really well.”

He’s got a quick learning curve. He’s picked a lot of things up.

possession, Maryland only managed to create three corners. When the Terrapins did slip through the cracks in the Michigan defense, Spieker was there to thwart any notion of a goal. Despite facing ten shots, Spieker, the anchor to the Wolverines’ defense, ensured none reached the back of the net by recording four saves. The shutout helped her improve upon her nation-leading .75 goals against average. “She made really solid, poised decisions back there,” said Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. “Obviously she shut them out, and that’s not an easy team to shut out. So it was a great game from her.” Michigan was humming defensively from the very start, allowing no shots and no corners in the first quarter. Any doubt that the Wolverines would lose the intensity and physical play for the remaining 45 minutes gradually washed away as the game went on. Stout defensive performances are nothing new for this Michigan squad — the team now has eight shutouts on the season. Yet doing it against a Maryland team that entered the match eighth in the nation with 3.29 goals per game is an impressive reminder of the team’s defensive capabilities moving forward. “They played 60 minutes tonight,” Pankratz said. “That’s one of the goals we’ve had all season, to play an entire 60 minutes really strong. We know we had to against Maryland, and they did.”

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Anna Spieker made four saves Friday, helping Michigan to a shutout.

Michigan women take fourth place Wolverines’ practice competition intense after offseason departures CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

The Michigan women’s cross country team finished fourth of 37 teams in Pre-Nationals over the weekend.

SPENCER RAINES Daily Sports Writer

As the sound of the gun pierced the fall air and sent a f lurry of runners into the opening straight, the Wolverines clad in pink ran to battle against some of the nation’s top programs. The No. 5 Michigan women’s cross country team took fourth place out of 37 teams, only losing to the other three top-10 teams that were present at the meet: No. 7 Washington, No. 3 BYU, and No. 6 Colorado. It was a strong performance from the Wolverines, but still wasn’t enough, as they were 80 points off first place and never truly in contention for the team title. “We’re satisfied, but at the same time looking to improve,” said Michigan coach Mike McGuire. The main problem for the Wolverines was the back half of their top five not moving

up enough. Their top runner, freshman Erika VanderLende — who ran the second-fastest time for a freshman at this course in the meet’s history — came in fifth, but their second runner, junior Kathryn House, came in 31 seconds later in 31st place. In comparison, the winning team — the Washington Huskies — put their entire top five ahead of House. Michigan did tie for the most in the meet with six runners in the top 50, but nearly all of that depth was near the back of that group. “Our key is gonna be our depth moving up a bit,” McGuire said. However, this doesn’t mean that depth is a problem — in fact it is one of the Wolverines’ strong suits. In the open race, where Michigan used their runners not in the top seven, they showcased this with a one-two finish, and put five runners in the top seven. “I thought the performances we had in the open race put us

Our key is gonna be our depth moving up a bit.

in a good position going into Big Tens,” McGuire said. And, with the regular season coming to a close, giving way to the November postseason, all of the Wolverines’ goals are still attainable. McGuire hopes that the team will hit its stride once the postseason hits. “We’re happy with the 12 we had today,” McGuire said. “We’ll continue to build on that.” The race did see some very strong individual performances as well. VanderLende held the lead up until the last kilometer, senior Anna West raced competitively for the first time this season, and junior Jenna Metwalli had what McGuire labeled a “career performance” — coming in 43rd and besting her 6k personal record by 26 seconds. As Michigan looks ahead to the EMU Fall Classic on Friday and beyond, they know what they have to work on as a team before they can reach their goals. “We’re excited for the opportunity that’s presented to us going forward,” McGuire said. And what an opportunity that is.

Charles Matthews, Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis. If you followed Michigan basketball at all last season, those three names probably ring a bell. Names like Brandon Johns Jr., David DeJulius, Adrien Nunez and Franz Wagner likely don’t, at least not to the same degree. And yet, some combination of this youthful quartet, the first KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily three all sophomores and the Sophomore guard David DeJulius will likely see an uptick in playing time. last a true freshman, will feature significantly for the Wolverines gotta do your job. You wanna Indiana in early January. “Brandon is a very athletic guy this year. The departures of be the best teammate you can Matthews, Poole and Brazdeikis be because at the end of the day, who has a beautiful stroke in his — who together accounted for they’re still on your team. You jumpshot,” Howard said. “He’s 56 percent of Michigan’s scoring have to just let the better player been competing hard in practice. He’s grasping a lot of the new get the job.” last season — make it so. While Brooks has the most responsibilities in teaching what “We’re ready to step up to that challenge,” DeJulius, a guard, playing experience of that group, is asked of him. I see that he’s said. “It’s big shoes to fill losing he hasn’t been much of a scoring gonna have his chance to play a those three. We understand that threat throughout his career, lot this year, but as he knows, it and are mature enough to know averaging just 2.2 points per starts in practice. You gotta earn that. All of us are just locked in game. Brooks knows that and your minutes.” Wagner’s temporary absence has tried to focus on it in the to fill those big shoes.” will put even more of an onus on Roster turnover is an intrinsic offseason. “One thing I lacked was his teammates, like DeJulius and part of college athletics — basketball especially — but losing offensive production,” Brooks Johns Jr. to pick up the slack. The three starters to the professional said. “So I’ve been looking for freshman played professionally ranks, all of whom had eligibility my shot more, getting to spots in his native Germany as an remaining, came as a bit of a where I’m comfortable at and 18-year old last season. His polished offensive game, sneaky being more aggressive.” surprise for the Wolverines. Regardless of Brooks’ athleticism and maturity have As the saying goes though: improvements, been major talking points thus when one door closes another one expected opens. Let’s just say that door is DeJulius and Nunez pose a far. Upon his return, look for significant threat to his playing Wagner to eventually crack the gaping. Especially with the recent time. DeJulius featured in primary rotation. news that Wagner, who’s 25 games last season and has Until then, the fierce received the most praise of impressed new coach Juwan competition that characterized anyone early on, suffered a non- Howard with his work ethic. practice will be even more “He’s like (Simpson) in so important. That relentless drive surgical fracture in his right wrist this week and is set to miss many ways,” Howard said. to improve is just what Howard Nunez, who was left on the wants from his team though. four to six weeks. On the perimeter, there will outside looking in last season, “Coach said that any drill likely be two starting positions is also trying to make a leap we do, where we’re trying to up for grabs between senior forward this season with his compete, is like the Hunger point guard Zavier Simpson and sharpshooting ability being his Games,” Nunez said. “At the junior forward Isaiah Livers — biggest asset. end of the day, we’re all family Both Johns Jr. and Wagner and teammates. When it gets on who primarily played the ‘4’ last season. So far in practice, the are natural scorers who are more the court though, we’re all just aforementioned young guns and than capable of slotting into the trying to compete and earn that junior point guard Eli Brooks are starting lineup this season, too. spot. Johns Jr. played in all 28 games all in the battle. “It’s all just healthy “There’s always competition, last season, flashing his offensive competition but whoever is the especially when there’s a sudden potential in an eight-point, eight- hungriest is gonna be the one change,” Brooks said. “You just rebound performance against who plays in the end.”

Sports

8 — Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Coaching scared

moke still drifted over the field at Beaver Stadium, a remnant of the pregame fireworks show. Fans clad all in white raised their pom-poms in unison, screaming as Penn State players gestured to get even louder. Amidst the commotion, Michigan took the field. ARIA Before running a GERSON single play, the Wolverines took a timeout, and everyone who’d seen Michigan play a game in the past five years said, “Here we go again.” This team is known for going on the road and playing scared, and on that front, coach Jim Harbaugh is guilty until proven innocent. In previous games, that’s manifested itself in the team completely crumbling after allowing an early score — like at Wisconsin, when it was 35-0 by halftime after the Badgers scored on their first possession. But that’s not what happened Saturday, at least not quite. This time, the players did about as much as you could’ve asked for after a slow start. Instead, it was Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis who panicked. The Wolverines put together a first drive that was surprisingly good. Junior wide receivers Nico Collins and Tarik Black each had a catch — Collins’ for 17 yards and Black’s for seven. Senior quarterback Shea Patterson kept the ball himself on a read for two more after criticism he hadn’t done so enough. Michigan stared the whiteout right in the face and drove

into the Nittany Lions’ territory. For a minute, it looked like an offense that maybe really was hitting its stride. It was fourth-and-1 from Penn State’s 47, the perfect time to be bold. The Wolverines could’ve sent a message that their pregame jitters were over, that the narratives weren’t true this time, that they were here to win. Instead, the punt team came on the field. “We were playing for field position, and we wanted to get the ball put inside the 15 or 10-yard line,” Harbaugh said. “Unfortunately, it went into the end zone.” Playing for field position can be a legitimate strategy, but it’s one you use when you’re playing a team like Iowa, one that struggles to string big plays together. It’s what you do with

a game you expect to be a 10-3 slog. Anyone who thought that was where Saturday’s game was headed was deluding themselves. Penn State runs a pro-spread offense and has a playmaking receiver in KJ Hamler, who has at least one catch of 20-plus yards in every game this season. On Saturday alone, the Nittany Lions hit six plays for 15 or more yards. Against a team that moves the ball like that, field position doesn’t mean a lick. Statistically, fourth-and-1 conversion rates are pretty high — Michigan did it itself with a Patterson quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter. A 2017 Football Study Hall report concluded that in college football, with just one yard to gain, it’s better to go for it than punt anywhere past a team’s own 43.

But decisions like this aren’t just about the analytics. Harbaugh’s been preaching all season that the offense was better than anyone had seen. Going for it would’ve been a manifestation of everything he’s been saying. Last week against the Illini, he did just that, converting a fourth-and-2 quarterback run in the fourth quarter that turned into a touchdown. “We all knew that we wanted to get the first down and end the game on our terms,” Bell said of the Illinois game. It follows that Michigan would’ve wanted to start a game on its own terms, too. One playcalling decision probably wouldn’t have been make-or-break, and the truth is, the Wolverines probably wouldn’t have scored a touchdown on that first drive. But at the end of the first half —

after they had found the end zone and cut the deficit to two scores — Harbaugh opted to try a 58-yard field goal with Jake Moody instead of going for it on fourth-and-6. (He missed). Then, in the third quarter, Patterson appeared visibly frustrated when Harbaugh opted to punt on fourth-and-3 from the 50. (Michigan scored a touchdown on its next possession.) “Thought we could make it,” Harbaugh said of the field goal attempt after the game. “Right at that line where we could make it and it’s a long field goal. It was that or go for it on fourth down, so we decided to kick the field goal.” Yes, it was fourth-and-6. But Moody, while generally reliable, has never made a field goal longer than 48 yards. If the Wolverines were still playing for field posi-

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made several questionable decisions on fourth downs during Michigan’s 28-21 loss at Penn State on Saturday night.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Franz Wagner out 4-6

tion, kicking was probably the riskiest choice — and without the upside of rejuvenating the offense’s confidence. In his Monday press conference, Harbaugh extolled Patterson’s virtues, calling his performance against Penn State “heroic” and reaffirming that he’d seen that potential all season. “He’s excited about it, being in that atmosphere and playing that type of game,” Harbaugh said. “You could sense it from everything about him.” And after Patterson had his best game of the season in the toughest possible environment, it was easy to believe. Except that, on the sidelines of Beaver Stadium, Harbaugh didn’t act like a coach who could sense Patterson’s enthusiasm. Instead, he acted like a coach who was scared, who was doing damage control before there was any damage to speak of. There is, of course, blame to go around for Saturday. The defense gave up too many big plays. Bell wasn’t the only wideout with a crucial drop. Patterson threw a costly interception on a screen pass attempt. But on a day when the offense bucked the trend and fought back, a day when it showed that — at least after a shaky beginning — it wasn’t scared, Harbaugh seemed to abandon the trust he’d so steadfastly preached. Sure, Michigan didn’t make the most of its chances until it was too late. But facing his best opportunity yet for the elusive big road win, Harbaugh didn’t give his team nearly enough of them. Maybe he was the one rattled by the lights. Gerson can be reached at amgerson@umich.edu or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

Seniors grappling with reset goals after PSU loss

weeks with wrist injury DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Writer

Michigan freshman wing Franz Wagner will miss the next four-to-six weeks with a non-surgical fracture to his right wrist, according to a Michigan spokesperson. “While this is an unfortunate situation for Franz, we know he will make his return as soon as he is able,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said in a statement. “We have the finest medical staff and trainers at Michigan so we know he is in good hands.” While Wagner is expected to make a full recovery, the news comes at a particularly poor time for the Wolverines. Wagner was expected to bring immediate offense to a Michigan team that lost Ignas Brazdeikis, Jordan Poole and Charles Matthews, a trio that combined for over half of the team’s scoring last year, to early departures in the offseason. Now, it becomes crucial to make sure the wrist fracture doesn’t become a lingering injury capable of limiting Wagner’s shooting abilities throughout the season. At 6-foot-8, Wagner provides a rare combination of size and skill for a player capable of creating his own shot. At Big Ten Media Day on Oct. 2, Howard lauded such abilities. “Franz is talented,” Howard said. “Franz is a big, huge pickup for us. In my opinion, if Franz lived in the U.S. he’d be the equivalent of what today’s players are rated fivestar — he’s that good. And to be almost 6-foot-9 at a wing position, he has a high IQ. He’s tough, he’s skilled. He can put the ball on the f loor, create his own shot, and he’s not afraid to dunk on you. “One thing I did not mention which I should’ve mentioned first was he’s an underrated

defender. We all talk about his skill level offensively, but the guy can defend. He wants to defend, and that’s the beauty of Franz. He’s going to be a pro.” If the timetable holds, it appears the Wolverines will be without their highlytouted freshman until sometime around the team’s trip to Atlantis during the week of Thanksgiving. Wagner’s return would be a crucial boost with potential matchups against teams like North Carolina, Alabama and Gonzaga.

FRANZ WAGNER at Alba Berlin (stats per Real GM)

50.9 FG% 38.4 3P% 13.0 MPG 5.6 PPG

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Senior guard Ben Bredeson is trying to focus on the next game after Michigan’s second loss all but ended its chances of reaching its goals on the season.

THEO MACKIE Daily Sports Editor

Ben Bredeson situated himself at the center of a media scrum Monday afternoon, an expressionless look plastered to his face beneath a low-riding trucker hat. The first question was as simple as it was predictable: What are your goals for the rest of season? Implicit in the question was that the goals Michigan carried into the season — win the Big Ten and make the College Football Playoff, at a minimum — are bust, evaporated in the familiar pitfall of road losses to ranked teams. Bredeson, a captain and one of Michigan’s unofficial senior spokesmen, stared into the surrounding cameras and provided the diplomatic answer. “We’re just taking it week by week,” Bredeson said. “We can’t control anything other than our own play so just focusing on that is the next step.” Minutes later, defensive tackle Carlo Kemp — another one of those captains and spokesmen — echoed

Bredeson. “Yes, we lost, but you gotta remember, this wasn’t our last game of the year,” Kemp said “This isn’t, ‘Alright, we’re done, let’s start packing up.’ ” Neither will say it, because that would undermine the significance of the season’s final five games, but both know their senior seasons will end without achieving their ultimate goals. Bredeson chose the Wolverines despite offers from Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Kemp could have gone to Notre Dame or Wisconsin, calling Michigan an opportunity to play “top-caliber football” when he committed. Yet, both will finish their collegiate careers without an appearance in the Big Ten championship game or College Football Playoff, unless Kemp successfully petitions for a retroactive redshirt. Those goals — repeated ad nauseam through the offseason — are so entrenched in the Wolverines’ self-identity that redshirt freshman linebacker Cam McGrone promised a Big Ten championship game rematch with Wisconsin after last month’s 35-14

loss in Madison. “I know when we see them again, we’re going to smack them in the mouth,” McGrone said at the time. That same week, VIPER Khaleke Hudson — another senior captain often paraded in front of the media — was more cautious, but still delivered a message of confidence rooted in controlling their own destiny. “We still are able to reach our goals that we had for the whole season,” Hudson said. Not anymore. Now, the only mention of expectations is to dismiss them. “Win our next game, that’s our goal,” Jim Harbaugh said, when asked how he defines a successful season. “Expectations, those are just outcomes,” Kemp said. “And you start focusing on expectations, like ‘we were supposed to do this, we were supposed to do that’ — none of that really matters.” The message stands in direct contrast to everything that was said all offseason, through Wisconsin’s rout and up to Saturday night’s 28-21 loss to Penn State. That loss, featuring a spirited

fight back from a 21-0 deficit, proved Michigan with its latest reason for optimism. Built into that optimism is that whatever the Wolverines do over the next five weeks carries into next year — for everyone except the seniors. It’s why Bredeson, Kemp and the rest of those seniors have turned to using their experience to help keep Michigan’s underclassmen grounded. “Worrying about Big Ten championship, National Championship, really the only thing you can control is the next game,” Bredeson said. “So just trying to help them see that and see there’s still a lot of great things that we can attain this season.” Asked whether that’s hard to grapple with as a senior, when winning those championships was the goal he brought to Michigan, Bredeson called it “part of being a teammate” and reaffirmed his focus on this week’s game against Notre Dame. “You can’t let two losses take your season,” Bredeson said. Take your season, no. Take your goals, well, that’s unavoidable.