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UMich forms task force in response to potential state wide abortion ban in Michigan In response to the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion, UMich takes action to protect rights to an abortion for students ANNA FIFELSKI Summer News Editor

Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual violence. The University of Michigan announced on Wednesday the formation of a task force in response to a potential statewide abortion ban in Michigan. A publicized draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court indicates the court could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. This ruling would leave decisions about abortion rights to each state’s discretion. The state of Michigan currently has a 1931 law making abortion — in all cases, including rape and incest — a felony. Though the law is not currently being enforced, it could come back into effect should Roe v. Wade be overturned. This law is the subject of multiple lawsuits seeking to protect access to abortion, with one lawsuit being filed by Planned Parenthood of Michigan and another by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A preliminary injunction was recently issued by a Michigan Court of Claims to prevent the 1931 abortion law from being enacted if Roe v Wade were overturned. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Interim University President Mary Sue Coleman discussed why the University decided to create the task force. “The specter of a complete ban on abortion care in Michigan is worrisome,” Coleman said. “I strongly support access to abortion care. We have a female-dominated institution; we care about our own communities as well as those we

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serve through clinical care and education. I am deeply concerned about how prohibiting abortion would affect U-M’s medical teaching, our research and our service to communities in need.” Coleman and Marschall S. Runge, the executive vice president for medical affairs, are leading the formation of the task force. The task force will include representatives from several U-M departments, including Michigan Medicine’s clinical teams, the Medical School, the Office of General Counsel, Human Resources and University Health Services (UHS). According to the announcement, the task force also includes students and faculty from the LSA departments of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies, the School of Information, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Library Health Sciences and more. In an email to The Daily, Michigan Medicine Spokeswoman Mary Masson said more members will be added to the task force overtime. “The task force includes representatives from multiple campuses, schools and colleges, and multiple facets of student, staff and faculty life,” Masson wrote. “As needs continue to be identified, the group will continue to grow.” In the University’s announcement, Michigan Medicine Professor Lisa Harris said the task force will consider ways to mitigate the impact of federal abortion access being overturned on Michigan Medicine’s clinical training programs, which include training centered around abortion and reproductive care.

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Alzheimer’s Association holds dementia caregiver support group for U-M community Students and staff at UMich who are also caregivers gather together to offer support and guidance for one another

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JINGQI ZHU

Daily Staff Reporter

The Greater Michigan Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association has a support group for dementia caregivers who are students and staff at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Concordia University and Washtenaw Community College. The support group, conducted by trained facilitators, aims to provide a safe space for students and staff with shared experiences in dementia caregiving. U-M staff Mallory MartinFerguson, a support group facilitator, said the support group serves as a place where people can share personal experiences and firsthand accounts related to caregiving for dementia patients. “In theory, people might have some shared experiences around being a caregiver and really recognize and understand the challenges that (caregiving) brings up for people,” Matin-Ferguson said. “We wanted to do this group specifically (for) faculty, staff and students. (There is a) concentration

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of folks who are experiencing stress in the U-M community. We thought (the support) would be really beneficial.” Martin-Ferguson said her personal experience as a caregiver drew her to volunteer as a facilitator in the caregiver support group. Her mother was diagnosed with earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease when Martin-Ferguson was a graduate student, and she attended some support groups and found them beneficial. “(My mother) passed away years ago, and I was feeling like now I have the capacity and emotional bandwidth to try to give back to the Alzheimer’s Association,” MartinFerguson said. “So I reached out to see if I could be a support group facilitator.” Michelle Phalen, program coordinator of the Alzheimer’s Association, oversees support services throughout Southeastern and South-Central Michigan. According to Phalen, the group was initiated in January 2021 and operates virtually. Phalen said they decided to create a support group for students and people working at the University

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who face stress as caregivers to someone living with dementia. Phalen said both staff and student caregivers can experience many challenges physically, emotionally and financially. “If you’re working or if you’re a student, you’re going to have some unique challenges with being a caregiver, whether that is your schedule and flexibility,” Phalen said. “You probably have little to no income. Trying to figure out how to pay for care and things like that. Those are all challenges.” Phalen said she hopes the group can be a comfortable place for caregivers to share and receive resources. Phalen also said that she hopes caregivers can come to the support group for advice on how to approach conversations with their supervisors about additional needs they may require in their situation. “It’s a lot to manage these multiple responsibilities,” Phalen said. “Just to have that conversation, so (when) you have to maybe alter your schedule a little bit, (people) will be more understanding.

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‘The Missing Middle’: Ann Arbor community members work to reverse the decline in working-class homeownership As people begin to notice a decline in home-ownership among the working class, several Ann Arbor community members begin working to address the issue CHEN LYU

Daily Staff Reporter

Brian Chambers, a Ward 3 resident and U-M alumni, has a long history of housing advocacy in the city. This year, his 39-page volunteer project, titled “Ann Arbor’s Middle-Income Needs Analysis: Introducing the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA),” motivated a May 5 City Council resolution to collect and communicate home mortgage information. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Chambers gave his first-hand account of the wealthbuilding power of homeownership. “I bought my first house when I was in graduate school (at the University) in 1984, with a joint investment from

shrunk by almost 60% in the past year, while the median price of single family homes increased by 11.4%. In an interview with TheDaily, Lauren Corneliussen, a buyer’s agent based in Ann Arbor, explained how these trends cause frustration for first-time home buyers. “It could take as many as three deals to get your final accepted offer,” Corneliussen said. “(For homebuyers), it takes longer to buy, it’s harder to buy and it’s more stressful, and you pay for stress in money by losing work or making snap decisions.” Chambers said he wants to unlock homeownership opportunities for more people and that the story of Veronica Brandon, who was able to own a house thanks to mortgages from NACA, is especially compelling for him. He examined the U.S. Census

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my in-laws,” Chambers said. “…since then, the housing price has increased a lot but we’ve been able to keep our housing cost at 1984 levels, as the mortgage payments are fixed.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, if Chambers was not a homeowner, the rent he would be paying today would have increased by 75% from the level it was at in 2000. The average housing price in Ann Arbor, on the other hand, is now five times the level it was in 1984. Prospective home buyers must have enough savings to cover the downpayment and closing cost before buying a house. The post-pandemic housing boom has made reaching this saving threshold increasingly difficult. According to the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, for-sale home inventory in Ann Arbor has

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(between 2010 and 2019) and Bureau of Labor Statistics to further understand recent home ownership patterns. He found that the lowertier of middle-income households (annual income between $50,000 to $100,000) has seen sharp declines in homeownership, and the low-income (annual income below $50,000) households are disappearing even from the rental market. Chambers presumed these renters were priced out by middleincome households forced into the rental market. In competitive housing markets like Ann Arbor, a larger range of potential homeowners would need help affording a house. Chambers said he believes NACA could help.

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Arts

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 — 3

Kendrick Lamar looks inward on ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’ NORA LEWIS & JACK MOESER Daily Arts Writers

Kendrick Lamar has been the king of emotionally fraught storytelling for almost a decade now. Across his unmatched discography, the Compton rapper has masterfully fused diaristic tales of his upbringing with sharp social commentary. Five years after his Pulitzer-winning fourth studio album, DAMN., Lamar returns with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, a sprawling and vulnerable project proving the rapper still has plenty of personal layers to reveal. Instrumentals have never been a weakness for Lamar, but they’ve never been an obvious strength for him either, often overshadowed by his otherworldly lyrical abilities. While Lamar’s rapping is still the main attraction on Mr. Morale, his instrumentals provide nuanced emotional backdrops for his lyrics, which ties the project together in

a stunning way. From the album’s first track, “United in Grief,” Lamar’s instrumental evolution is immediately obvious: The song begins with short, ominous piano chords that grow into a smooth, jazzy texture before immediately being replaced by a frenetic drum break. Later in the album, on “Auntie Diaries,” Lamar describes his path to accepting the gender identities of two transgender relatives with a powerful instrumental that grows from a glitchy, lo-fi beat to a glorious orchestral chord progression. Yet, Lamar’s message of personal growth is undercut by his repeated use of homophobic slurs and misgendering of his uncle and cousin. These charged lyrics have caused some serious contention amongst fans and raise the question of whether true allyship can result from such heavy-handed language. What serves as Mr. Morale’s guiding star is Lamar’s forthright discussions of personal relationships and history of

‘Conversations with Friends’ isn’t the new ‘Normal People’ and that’s okay SERENA IRANI Daily Arts Writer

Heralded as the “voice of a generation,” critically renowned for her uncanny knack for capturing the zeitgeist of millennial malaise and certainly well-loved by the writers at this publication, Sally Rooney has quite rapidly become a household name. In what the internet affectionately refers to as the “Sally Rooney Cinematic Universe,” Rooney’s various creative endeavors include collaborations with everyone from Phoebe Bridgers to Phoebe Waller-Bridge (and no, they’re not the same person). The TV adaptation of Rooney’s debut novel “Conversations with Friends” is simply the latest addition to her already substantial imprint on contemporary literature and greater popular culture. “Conversations with Friends” follows two university students — Frances (Alison Oliver, debut) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane, “American Honey”) — and a married couple — Melissa (Jemima Kirke, “Girls”) and Nick (Joe Alwyn, “The Favourite”) — as they navigate the relationships

developing between the four of them through discussions of love, art, theory and politics. While the success of Hulu’s adaptation of “Normal People” set the bar high for bringing Rooney’s source material to life, this second television venture remains aesthetically on par with its predecessor. The soundtrack effectively mirrors the romantic, melancholic and self-deprecating mood of Frances, floating through varying degrees of aloofness with tracks like Phoebe Bridgers’s “Sidelines” or CMAT’s “I Don’t Really Care for You.” The production design of Nick and Melissa’s house acts as a window into the character dynamics at play, as age and class differences bleed into Frances’s perception of it; the warmth it holds early on as the site of her affair with Nick juxtaposed to the later coolness of her fraught relationship with Melissa. At a granular level, the show’s energy feels authentic to the environment Rooney crafts on the page and makes the viewing experience akin to that of living inside of a Rooney novel.

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family trauma. The rapper has been remarkably private about his personal life since entering the public eye, making this in-depth exploration of romantic and familial hardships almost a novelty. We hear from Lamar’s fiancée and the mother of his two children, Whitney Alford, on the track “Father Time,” as she declares, “You really need some therapy,” to which Lamar defensively replies that he doesn’t “need no therapy, fuck you talkin’ about?” Across the album, he admits his infidelity towards Alford, tracing the roots of this behavior back to an unstable relationship with his father and subsequent indulgence in sex to cope. Lamar speaks through these moments with unabashed candor, revealing the therapy session-like narrative structure of Mr. Morale. As the album nears its midpoint, Lamar begins to express vulnerabilities far deeper than his disconnect from modern pop culture. The song “We Cry

Together” depicts a fiery domestic argument between Lamar and a woman, portrayed in the song by actress Taylour Paige. Above a dissonant piano line, the argument devolves into the woman blaming Lamar, and all men, for electing

feminists without real virtues. It’s a difficult listen due to the emotional weight behind the words of Paige and Lamar, but it’s also peak storytelling from Lamar, rivaling the powerful narrative of 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.

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Donald Trump in 2016, and Lamar accusing all women of being fake

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U-M’s 2022 creative writing thesis writers — the collections BRENNA GOSS Daily Arts Writer

Every Creative Writing and Literature major in U-M’s Residential College has the option to write a thesis over the course of their senior year, working with a faculty advisor to produce a polished body of work. These theses can take the form of novels, novellas, collections of poetry, short stories or essays. The 2021–2022 school year saw 11 students take on the challenge. We’ve heard from the novelists and poets; last up, the short story and essay writers. Grace Andreasen, “Endangered Species” Grace Andreasen always knew what her short story collection was going to be about. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, she said, “I always knew the title of it. That was one of the first things I came up with. I applied for the honors thesis, and then I got the email a few weeks later saying I’d been accepted, and the first thing I had in my mind was the title of it.” That title, “Endangered Species,” is a reference to her subject matter: “young women and women navigating the world.” Her interest in portraying these “difficult women … who aren’t doing so well in life, maybe, and have a lot of different sides of them and deal

with the stickier situations in life” was sparked by a gift she received when she graduated high school: a collection of short stories called “Difficult Women” by Roxanne Gay. She wanted to similarly create a collection by women, about women and for women — something that portrays women’s full humanity and doesn’t shy away from all the good, bad and messy in-betweens that accompany life. But she also thinks that “anyone can read

“ultimate inspiration,” Toni Morrison, who is her “favorite author of all time.” Reading Toni Morrison’s “Sula” in high school was the first time she read something and thought, “‘Oh my god, this is so amazing that a human being can write like this and can make these beautiful sentences and weave this story.’” She has since read many of Morrison’s other books and gushed that “every sentence is just the best sentence you’ve ever read, and it’s just

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it and get something out of it,” which is the “beauty of fiction: anyone can find something.” In pursuing this ambition, Andreasen also pointed to her

so well done.” She came out of all this reading thinking, “‘I’m going to do that.’”

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4—Wednesday, June 1, 2022

STATEMENT

From my mother’s garden AVA BURZYCKI

Statement Columnist

With streaks of verdant green and dots of blooming flora, few places hold the same sanctity and beauty as a garden. Gifted a natural green thumb, my mother introduced me to the art of gardening — she spent years of her young life managing a local greenhouse in a small Michigan town, and her natural inclination to grow and create never quite dissipated. Her floods of floral beauty are something for the world to admire. Even in the rockiest soils and under the harshest sunshine, she can sustain gardens of intricate beauty and careful curation. Asiatic lilies, her favorite, populate our front yard, as green vines of ivy snake alongside our house walls and windowsills. Her long days of planting ranging from functional fruits and commercial objects of beauty offer a moment of peace away from a tumultuous life. Her gardening — in every form — is nothing short of an act of love. On early spring days of rototilling and dirty knees, my mother and I can finally share the same language: outdoor planning, plotting and scheming. I have never been as naturally meticulous and intentional as my mother — my brain is a perpetual scatter of forgotten plans and tasks — but the specificity needed for gardening alleviates this. We silently understand the exact depths and distances between new holes dug for fresh seedlings, and exactly which plants should be placed where. This is a delicate art; it needs an extensive mutual understanding of how each plant explains its wants and needs. We can place our sweet lavender bush near cheerful marigolds, but know very well to keep onions away from the nutrient-suffocating peas and pole beans. Each year we spend weeks together in this way — working to create the perfect garden together, one that is unparalleled in its beauty and functionality. To create our art, my mother and I shop early in the season for a variety of colors, shapes and smells. We share the same habit of waking up around sunrise, and this shared rhythm holds out throughout this importantly ritualized day. We eat breakfast, she

boils green tea as I sip on a morning coffee, devising our garden-shopping strategies. Together, we settle on which store to visit, which plants to keep an eye out for and which annuals will grow back on their own this season. During particularly thought-out seasons, my mother will sketch out her ideal garden on the nearest napkin and mark where and what will be planted, a soil canvas she’s intricately designed. As spring dissolves into summer, the garden begins to settle into a living

smile, and soon enough our laugh lines will be mirror images of our well-aged joy. Our foreheads share a wrinkle of eyebrow-raising delight as we relish in the sardonic gossip we’re both eager to share within the sanctity of our late-summer garden. During these days, the sun seems to shine upon us with extra brightness and vitality. We share meals, slow mornings and soft evenings admiring our living work of art. As some flowers begin to close and vegetables no longer propagate, the season

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entity. No longer restricted to our preplanned seedling coordinates, the adolescent plants grow and spread into a living, breathing biome of their own volition. In its newfound glory, our garden turns into a ripe wash of flowers and vegetables as summer arrives. Through only light touches of tender weeding and watering, our garden is nearly a self-sufficient masterpiece. The proven formula of flower placements and strategic vegetable varieties yields an admirable array of floral colors and homemade salads in waiting. After sweating through its growing pains and need for constant attending-to, my mother and I have a garden to simply enjoy — to a garden we created together. Soil no longer needs to be washed away from our hands, dirt picked out from underneath our fingernails; instead, our fingers exist to pluck vegetableshaped jewels from our garden. In these long evenings spent sitting near our garden, I am reminded of just how much of my mother’s daughter I am. We share the same

of creation begins to halt, and our shared language will begin to stutter. At this point, it’s clear the evening of the growing season is coming to an end and we’re observing the final inhalations of our garden’s breath. As the hot summer sun slowly sets into fall, our garden becomes a dying relic of sunshine. Time spent in the garden is close to being ribbonwrapped and put away. The vegetables have completely lost their numbers, and few flowers make it through chilly fall nights. Now is the perfect time to pluck up the surviving bits of beauty and immortalize them — together, my mother and I pull apart lavender bunches from their wilting bushes, snip off the buds of black-eyed susans and echinacea, and immortalize the soft petals by pressing them between napkins underneath a hefty book stack. These small bits of petals and buds are all that remain from our garden as temperatures drop and the world gets colder.

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A history of Ann Arbor’s Queer spaces, from The Flame to Aut Bar KATRINA STEBBINS

Statement Correspondent

Sitting back and chatting with friends, enjoying the perfect weather and pleasantly buzzed off of a watermelon frosé, I looked around and wondered why I’d never noticed this place. I worked right across the street, in the Kerrytown Shops, and must’ve walked by it a hundred times. It was secluded and quiet, the drinks were good and the bar served a mean brick oven pizza. It felt like I’d discovered one of the city’s best-kept secrets, and, like Narnia, I became irrationally worried that it would only ever reveal itself to me again when I wasn’t looking for it. This, of course, wasn’t the case, and the Bar at 327 Braun Court easily became my favorite bar in the city. But it took a couple more visits for me to get over my tunnel vision, which was focused on Aperol spritzes and margherita pizza. Seven buildings, all commercial despite their residential facades, surround the courtyard. On one side: the Bar, Spiral Tattoo and Trillium Real

one of the shuttered buildings and noticed the signage that still remained. The house was white with green trim, and a sign with a bright yellow and pink logo announced the space as what it used to be: Aut Bar (named after the phonetic spelling of the word “out”). I’d heard about Aut Bar. In my second semester at the University of Michigan, I made a friend whom I, as a transfer who was desperately looking for other Queer people in Ann Arbor, latched onto as something of a gay mentor. She gave me two recommendations for where to find gay culture: the co-ops and Aut Bar — the latter being the city’s only gay bar. I should’ve taken her advice sooner. Only a month after she gave it, everything — including Aut Bar — was shutting down as COVID-19 started to spread throughout the country. I hadn’t thought much about the bar since I was made aware of it, but I remembered seeing on social media that it would be closing permanently in June 2020. As I looked up at its empty shell in August, I found myself

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Estate; the four on the opposite side are empty. As welcoming as Braun Court is, it’s impossible to ignore the space’s vague feeling of lopsidedness. During another visit one night in August 2020, I looked up at

feeling sorry that I hadn’t seized the few weeks between that initial introduction and the outset of the pandemic to experience the bar myself.

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Michigan in Color The formula for a birthday Not made for your consumption

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MAYA KOGULAN MiC Columnist

When I was younger, I would draw on the walls and furniture in my bedroom. One of my first memories was taking my mom’s bright red lipstick and smearing it on my dresser to replicate the dressers that I saw on HGTV. While I definitely got into trouble with my parents, the memory marks the first of many creative endeavors. In fact, art is the only thing in my life that came easy to me. It took years of bad essays and parent-teacher conferences for me to write coherently. It took hundreds of Kumon practice problems for me to be decent at math. And overall, I would say I was never really exceptionally good at any one thing. But art, in particular, photography, always came naturally. At first, I used photography as a method of breaking the ice and forming connections with people. I remember once approaching an elderly man near the farmer’s market in downtown Detroit. After asking him if I could take his picture, our conversation led to him recounting memories from his past music career in Motown. He was, of course, a natural in front of the camera, and I vividly remember the smile on his face after I showed him his portrait. That’s why I love photography: The entire process is gratifying. I love approaching a subject, asking them if I can take their portrait and watching the conversation rapidly grow and evolve into one about their daughter, their recent vacation or their old job instead. I love taking their picture and watching them find their angles, poses and, eventually, their confidence. I love showing them their image on the two-by-two screen of the camera, watching their face quickly light up as they realize that they are, in fact, beautiful. Photography, as a whole, has always given me fulfillment. When I take photos of others, whether it be a family member or a stranger, it has always felt like giving out a gift. In terms of self-expression, photography has always been able to capture the depth of human emotion

better than I have ever been able to write or say. And I am good at photography. In fact, it is one of the only things I am good at. I wasn’t chosen to go to math competitions. I sat on the bench for most of my volleyball games. I never placed highly at the science fair. So when my teacher submitted my photograph to an art competition in the 7th grade, and I won a national award, I felt a rush of newfound excitement in my life. My work was hanging in a fancy exhibit in New York City, I received a heavy silver medal and I got invited to an award ceremony in Carnegie Hall. There is a rush that comes with winning an award and being praised, especially when you have low confidence and are bad at a lot of other things. It inf lates your ego, gives you a false semblance of self-

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 — 5

is white. Artists and writers of Color have been reckoning with how the white gaze has inf luenced their work both subconsciously and consciously. Blaise Allysen Kearsley, a correspondent of the Boston Globe, writes that ” Foundational to the centering and elevation of whiteness in America, the white gaze sees Blackness only within the context of comparison and alterity. It’s the shallow lens of privilege, ingrained bias, and misrepresentation that creates both violent acts and microaggressive behaviors.” It didn’t take me long to understand what the white gaze wanted. I noticed a pattern in my photographs that won awards versus those that didn’t. The white gaze likes a shallow form of diversity. They like photos of brown skin subjects in bright color sarees and bindis. They like

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worth and grants you a sense of belonging in a hypercompetitive environment. My photography talents allowed me to express myself, but my awards made me feel like I was finally good enough at something. My view of art started to shift after I won my first award. It wasn’t a fun pastime anymore but a way to expand trophies on my bedroom shelf. I started taking many more photos, but more tactfully. You see, many of these art competitions are filled with a certain type of judges — rich, highly educated, white. And as I started to cater my work to awards, I started to inadvertently cater my work to the white gaze. The white gaze, popularized by Toni Morrison, is the assumption that the observer of the work

photos of brown skin refugees with a sad-longing on their faces. It feels exotic but still easy to consume, easy to understand. The white gaze wants to see photography fulfill their preconceived notions of people of Color. That’s why publications often solely show people of Color in states of distress rather than in celebrations. They like work that makes them feel worldly and well-traveled from the comfort of their suburban home. The work that won awards always had a serious tone, yet it didn’t really explore anything substantive. For example, in my college admission portfolio, I included a photo of my family friend standing in front of a Bollywood movie on a projector.

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party (if you’re my Amma and her friends)

SMARANI KOMANDURI/MiC

SMARANI KOMANDURI MiC Columnist

On April 24, my Amma turned another year older. This year was her third birthday during the pandemic, and thanks to vaccines and other precautionary measures, she was finally able to celebrate with her friends again. Over the years, I’ve been told by my Amma what she and her friends do for each other’s milestone birthdays. However, I have never actually seen what unfolds at one of these “aunty birthday parties,” as I like to call them, since the rest of my family and I typically wait at home while my Amma is away, pondering what to have for dinner. Instead, I just gather information from the hundreds of pictures and videos my Amma shows me the next day. I’ve always wondered what happens at one of these parties. I know everyone always has a splendid time, but there’s always so much coordination involved in executing said parties that I honestly could not even imagine. However, here’s what I do know: 1. They all wear matching saris. Matching saris are crucial for the photo ops. The birthday girl will wear a color no one else wears, carefully chosen by the friend group. They factor in things like what the birthday girl’s favorite color is, what color sari she doesn’t own yet and what she looks best in. For example, my Amma wore a dark pink sari this year. Two of her friends wore orange, another

two wore lavender, another two wore yellow, but she was the only one wearing dark pink. All the saris had a white floral design that glistened and shimmered in the light. The sleeves of their blouses had matching embellishments while the rest of the blouse was plain, creating a contrast that made the details of the sari even more striking. The group orders the saris and delivers them to each other slyly, keeping the birthday girl in the dark about what the outfit looks like until the night before, or morning of, the party. 2. Decorations are a must. Again, for the photo ops, decorations are key. Typically, these decorations include balloons, streamers or anything that fits the “theme” of the party. For my Amma’s party this year, the theme was “music,” since one of her favorite hobbies is singing, so the walls were adorned with streamers and balloons shaped like musical notes. In the corners of the room, they had little instruments and tanpuras set up, along with more balloons that said “50” on them. (Even though my Amma didn’t turn 50 this year, this was considered a “make-up” party since she couldn’t celebrate with her friends on her actual 50th birthday.) My Amma was even given a flower crown made of real, dark pink and white flowers, deliberately chosen to perfectly match her sari. 3. The birthday girl is blindfolded and taken to a “secret location.”

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Opinion

6 — Wednesday, June 1, 2022

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Ballot initiatives are our best bet SAM SCHMITZ

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

VANESSA KIEFER Editor in Chief

QUIN ZAPOLI

Editorial Page Editor

BRANDON COWIT Managing Editor

Our healthcare system is seriously broken and Michigan Medicine is not helping ANNA TRUPIANO Opinion Columnist

fter spending seven hours in the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital emergency room, I am embarrassed on the University of Michigan’s behalf to say that I never once saw a doctor or nurse — only the stark walls of the waiting room and the chaos of sick child after sick child passing by. This was the second time I had this experience at Mott’s within about a month and a half, and based on various Google Maps reviews of Mott’s E.R., it seems this inconvenience is relatively common. I left for home in the middle of the night, feeling defeated by the wait time and still struggling with the pressing health problems that I had originally come to the hospital for. The following day, I tried to make an appointment to see an internist, but, much to my dismay, there was no availability for me in a timely manner. It felt as though I had reached a dead end. Beyond my complaining, the idea I’m building up to is that if you want immediate medical care in the United States, then you have to be grasping at your throat with your airway moments away from closing or have blood streaming out of your body at an alarming rate. Am I being a bit hyperbolic? Probably, yes, but my point still stands that healthcare in the United States is known to be state of the art, astounding or even unparalleled. Despite that, the unfortunate bottom line is as follows: U.S. healthcare is expensive, inaccessible, corrupt and ridden with racial disparities. To make matters worse, Michigan Medicine is doing close to nothing to rectify that problem. Now, I know that is a lot of information to break down. To begin to understand our healthcare system, we must start with its most basic structure. The United States does not have universal healthcare and is

instead largely based on private health insurance or public health coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid. Because of this, the approximately 10% of U.S. citizens who are uninsured face an increased likelihood of death or chronic illness from certain conditions. In summary, healthcare in the U.S. is more of a privilege than a right. Satisfying the need for private health insurance comes at a great cost since insurance runs on a for-profit system. Even with insurance, healthcare is still outrageously expensive as insurance simply does not and cannot cover everything. Additionally, health services become expensive since we pay per service. This opens a gateway for corruption, whereby unnecessary tests are performed in order to make more profits. The Affordable Care Act made healthcare slightly more affordable to Americans and therefore slightly more accessible. Despite this increase in accessibility, it is still difficult to get healthcare in a timely manner, and many doctors are not even accepting new patients. To further outline the intersection of social issues with healthcare, people of Color, people with a lower income and women have a disproportionately lower ability to receive optimal healthcare than others. For example, a study involving 400 hospitals in the United States showed that Black patients with heart diseases were more likely to receive older and cheaper care, as well as to be discharged from the hospital earlier, even when not medically advisable, than white patients. One of our healthcare system’s most saddening flaws is the issue of sexual abuse by medical professionals, to which our University is no stranger. No one should experience these violations at all. It is disappointing and disturbing to know this happens to those who are simply seeking the medical help they need. As a note to the University directly: you first failed your students and staff

alike by allowing medical practitioners to sexually assault patients. Your response to that injustice, the $490 million Dr. Robert Anderson settlement, was only a monetary “solution,” which was paired with a lack of action, many half-hearted apologies and an eager effort for individuals such as Bo Schembechler and the administration as a whole to sweep the situation under the rug. Excuse my lack of propriety, but to be quite honest, these failures are embarrassing for the University, misguided on the administration’s part and blatantly disrespectful to the victims and their families. Your inaction directly allows the issue of sexual misconduct by medical professionals to persist. Despite these failures, I do not mean to exempt credit where credit is deserved. Our University’s Medical School has made ground-breaking discoveries, accomplished revolutionary medical advances and saved many lives, as well as been ranked among the best medical schools in the country. The Michigan Model (of full disclosure and open discussion when medical care does not go as planned) is unique, and also desirable from a bioethical standpoint. On top of that, the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion is helpful in encouraging a culturally inclusive and sensitive body of employees at Michigan Medicine. Given this progress, we must work to excel in other areas as well. We should foster and promote an environment with increased accessibility, a welcoming staff with an expansive knowledge base, a better system for processing patients in terms of wait times and frustration, an assurance that all patients are being given equal care no matter what their demographics are and a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct. Our University can expand upon the Michigan Model by including values such as these in its foundation.

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Opinion Columnist

magine you are walking down State Street on a surprisingly warm and sunny spring morning. You spot someone on the corner by Starbucks with a clipboard and pen. Immediately, you know what comes next: “Are you a Michigan registered voter? Do you support the Fight for 15?” Signature gatherers, also called circulators, are individuals who attempt to collect signatures for ballot initiatives, referenda or candidates running for office. They are also impossible to avoid at the University of Michigan. I have been approached everywhere from South Quad Residence Hall to North Quad Residence Hall, State Street to South University Avenue and from the Central Campus Transit Center to the Diag to sign for this or that. Especially during the warm parts of the winter semester, and the summer as well, signature gatherers are everywhere and typically make

up a slight annoyance of most students’ days. Ballot initiatives are the primary petitions I see in Ann Arbor, and it seems like there is always some new or different initiative to sign for, from a $15 minimum wage to better legislation on voting procedures. While these petitions may seem annoying and irritating, ballot initiatives could change our lives for the better. Michigan is one of 26 states that provide for ballot initiatives and referenda, allowing citizens to propose both laws and constitutional amendments as well as referenda on legislation. A ballot initiative specifically is a type of petition that can either place legislation before the state legislature (an indirect initiative) or place it directly onto the ballot for voters to decide (a direct initiative). These initiatives require a certain number, a varying proportion of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, of valid signatures by certain deadlines to appear on the ballot.

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Improve our national security; step away from fossil fuels ALEC TIMMERMAN, BOB KRZEWINSKI & KEVIN SHILLING

s Vladimir Putin’s heavy hand uses Russia’s power over oil and natural gas as a weapon against Europe and the people of Ukraine, it’s impossible not to wonder how we can mitigate the damages he’s causing. Simultaneously, it’s a devastating reminder of the freedom we so often take for granted and a warning to increase our energy independence as a nation. There are many ways we can achieve this goal, but one of the best is to follow the lead of the European Union and quicken our transition to green and renewable energies. We’ve known it for a long time: Our reliance on fossil fuels is a national security risk. Volatile prices mean that concerns over fossil fuel access have been a primary driver of foreign policy decisions. We’ve seen it happen countless times — most notably during the war in Iraq — and it is being played out again in Ukraine. Concerned by Russia’s

power over the oil and natural gas market, the United States and Europe have been quite reluctant to impose the harshest, most recent sanctions because doing so would hurt their citizens’ pocketbooks. We know how much decisions like these can hurt, especially with gas prices being historically high. However, the solution to this problem isn’t to drill more, as well-funded oil and gas interest groups have claimed. The best long-term solution is to declare our independence from the global oil market and invest in Americanmade clean energy. We need to electrify our vehicles, appliances and infrastructure and make America fully energy independent. This will save families thousands of dollars a year, make our country more selfsufficient and provide hundreds of thousands of quality jobs here in the Midwest. Already, over 600,000 Midwesterners are employed in clean-energy professions, and they make 25% more than the national median wage.

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com BASEBALL

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 — 7

Willie Weiss ejected and suspended for use of foreign substances

IAN PAYNE

Daily Sports Writer

In the Michigan baseball team’s Big Ten Tournament victory over Iowa, senior right-hander Willie Weiss was caught with an illegal substance on his glove and ejected. His actions earned him a fourgame suspension from the Big Ten, right in the heart of the Wolverines’ postseason. Just before he was caught, Weiss stood on the mound taking deep breaths as he played with the edge of his glove. In the fifth inning of an elimination game with a 4-1 lead, the stakes were high. But as he prepared to deliver, the home plate umpire raised his hands, motioning for him to stop and summoned his crew. They took Weiss’s glove, inspecting the edge Weiss had been rubbing. Moments later, Weiss was ejected for use of foreign substances. This ejection and subsequent suspension could spell danger for the Wolverines’ postseason as they try to claw their way into the NCAA

BASEBALL

Sports

tournament. If they were to make it to regionals, the already limited bullpen needs all the help it can get. And any potential run could be overshadowed by the cloud of this issue. Weiss’s season has been difficult. He has a 5.29 ERA on the year — far below the sub-3.00 ERAs he posted in both 2019 and 2021. However in the past few weeks, Weiss has stepped up and he began to rally. Since his three-run inning against Maryland on May 15, he’s only allowed one run. His three scoreless innings against Rutgers on May 20 signaled to the coaching staff that he was back. “Oh, he’ll have a significant role for sure,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said of Weiss’s position in postseason plans. And the pieces seemed to be truly falling into place. Weiss tossed three innings of one-run baseball against Maryland on Friday, looking more and more like his old self. However, against Iowa, all of those things were called into question. Weiss was not subtle in rubbing his glove, and was quickly suspected of using a foreign substance by the

Other than a brief post-game actions worthy of individual opposing dugout. The Hawkeyes informed the umpires of their interview with Bakich, no one else ramifications, but it could also suspicions, and as a result Weiss was affiliated with the Wolverines has warrant action against Michigan as a team. investigated. He had only faced two commented. Weiss is already charged with As the Wolverines hope to hear batters at the time of his ejection — one of which he hit with a pitch — and a four game suspension, but the their name called during the NCAA implications of his actions could Baseball Selection Show, this could he had thrown just five pitches. Any definitive detail on the extend further. Not only are his impact that. situation is still uncertain. When asked for a statement, Michigan Athletics declined to comment. Bakich, however, spoke to Big Ten Network about the situation in postgame interviews. “It’s like when you’re a parent and your kid makes a mistake,” Bakich said. “You don’t love them any less but you have to admit you made a mistake. … That’s not part of our SARAH BOEKE/Daily program.” Willie Weiss will face a four game suspension after his ejection from Sunday’s game.

With everything on the line, Jacob Denner came through for Michigan

DAVID WOELKERS Daily Sports Writer

With one game standing between the Michigan baseball team and a Big Ten Championship, coach Erik Bakich needed his team to overcome its greatest struggle this season: the bullpen. After an afternoon elimination game where the Wolverines used their strongest pitchers in the mustwin situation — and lost to an ejection and subsequent suspension — the depth of the pen would once again be tested against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. In previous situations, junior lefthander Jacob Denner struggled with the pressure. On Sunday though, When his team needed him most, he proved to be a stable hand. In 4.1 innings, Denner gave up just three hits and one run to a surging Scarlet Knights offense while striking out seven. It was more than Bakich could’ve asked for from a pitcher who threw39 pitches just one day prior, and it propelled Michigan to a 10-4 victory over Rutgers to win the Big Ten Championship.

“On the pitching side, Jacob really stepped up,” Bakich said. “He settled things down in the middle of the game and put zeros up against a dangerous offense.” Entering the game in the second inning, Denner inherited a precarious

situation. Despite recording two outs, the Scarlet Knights had clearly rattled senior right-hander Walker Cleveland. After giving up a home run to Josh Kuroda-Grauer, Cleveland allowed back to back walks, putting

the go-ahead run on base for Rutgers. With the Wolverines holding just a one run lead in the second inning, Denner’s first test had the ability to set the tone for the rest of the game. Instead of faltering under the pressure, Denner slammed the door shut on the Scarlet Knights, striking out Ryan Lasko — one of the Scarlet Knights’ most dominant hitters. In the next inning though, that good feeling faded quickly, as Rutgers put the pressure back on. A double and a triple tied the game and positioned the Scarlet Knights just 90 feet away from taking the lead with one out. But once again, Denner found a way. With a fullstrikeout SARAH BOEKE/Daily count Jacob Denner’s dominant performance pushed Michigan to its Big Ten Championship on Sunday. and a flyout, the

New Jersey native left the runner stranded on third, preventing a potentially game-defining play. In the next two innings not only did Michigan bolster its lead with its bats, but s Denner also appeared to have found a groove. And as he did so, Denner faced his final and perhaps biggest test of the game in the bottom of the sixth. After a flyout, a single and two walks loaded the bases, a strikingly similar situation to the one Denner had found himself in to enter the game arose. With 80 pitches thrown, the left hander looked ready to be relieved. In spite of that, though, his coach left him in the game, giving him the task of finishing what he had started. Down in a 2-1 count, the outcome was trending poorly. With one last push, Denner found the zone on back to back pitches, catching left fielder Mike Nyisztor looking for an inning ending strikeout. Instead of walking off the mound, Denner leaped, throwing his fists in the air in celebration — and perhaps in a gasp of relief. After a long and turbulent season, the left-hander, and the Wolverines at large, finally found what they had been looking for.

Sports

8 — Wednesday, June 1, 2022

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NO MERCY

Michigan defeats Rutgers, wins the Big Ten Championship JOSEPH ZAIN RODGER Daily Sports Writer

Two weeks ago, anyone outside of the Michigan baseball team would’ve called you crazy if you said the Wolverines could win the Big Ten Championship. After getting demolished by Maryland in three straight games — allowing 43 runs in the series sweep — Michigan was in jeopardy of missing the tournament altogether. But after the brutal losses, The Wolverines kept their cool, dominating the Big Ten over the past two weeks en route to a conference championship. Michigan (32-26 overall, 12-12 Big Ten) beat Rutgers (44-15, 17-7), 10-4 in the championship game. Scrappy RBIs, a clutch performance from junior left-hander Jacob Denner and a crucial dinger off the bat of junior catcher Jimmy Obertop completed the 5-seeded Wolverines’ improbable run to a Big Ten Championship. Junior right fielder Clark Elliott and graduate center fielder Joe Stewart continued their dominance of the tournament with one run apiece in the top of the first inning. Elliott won the honor of best player in the tournament and five other Michigan players made the first team. “My teammates here, they’ve been right by me for this whole entire journey, ups and downs this whole entire season,” Elliott said moments after winning the accolade. “So that’s a team award, it’s not an individual award at all. The coaches (and)

teammates have had my back since the beginning. So that’s all for us.” The victory was a team effort from early on. A two-out home run just over the left field wall cut the deficit in half for the Scarlet Knights to end the second. They soon tied it up at two runs apiece with a triple deep to the right field wall in the third inning. Rutgers was not going home without a fight. With junior second baseman Ted Burton on third with one out, junior first baseman Jake Marti executed a perfect suicide squeeze to bring him home and retake the lead at 3-2 in the fourth. Stewart gave the Wolverines an insurance run in the following inning off the bat of graduate third baseman Matt Frey, his ninth run of the tournament which ties the alltime record. “It’s a throwback, guys are just competing and I love watching it,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said in a mid-game interview with the Big Ten network. “I love watching what they’re doing and we’re just finding different ways (to score), squeeze or double a ball-and-dirt read and then score on a hit. I just love the way they’re fighting out there.” And the fight to score by any means possible continued throughout the game, displaying the Wolverines’ will to put runs on the board. Marti earned another rare type of RBI in the sixth, the third consecutive inning with a score for Michigan. He swung and missed strike three, but the catcher let the ball go right by. Senior shortstop Riley Bertram

scored from third and Marti made it to first, negating the out. After his ninth consecutive out to start the bottom of the sixth, senior left-hander Jacob Denner found himself in a tough jam. With the bases loaded and two outs, he caught the batter looking for an impressive seventh strikeout of the game. The New Jersey native was dialed in facing his hometown team. Obertop added to the Wolverines’ lead with a dagger in the top of the eighth with a three-run homer into the left field stands. His third of the tournament leads the Big Ten and put Michigan up, 8-3. Senior pinch hitter Jack Van Remortel had the second suicide squeeze of the game for the Wolverines in the ninth, this time scoring two men in the chaos. Burton showed hustle racing to the plate all the way from second to widen the lead to 10-4, which held. “This team has been fighting the whole year,” Obertop said. “It’s been tough, but we’re finally starting to get hot and at the right time. So we’re excited for this.” And in the Big Ten Tournament, they got hot when they needed it the most, facing the top four seeds in the tournament — the first team ever to do so and beat all four. Michigan’s had a wild past couple of weeks. The Wolverines are the hottest that they’ve been all season, and it’s at the perfect time. If they can continue their performance through the NCAA Tournament, they might just find lightning in a bottle again. SARAH BOEKE/Daily

FILE PHOTO/Da The Wolverines fell to UCF, ending their season.