2025-09-24

MaIZE RUNNERS

Michigan relies on big runs in Big Ten opener versus Nebraska MICH 30

LINCOLN — For much of the No. 21 Michigan football team’s game against Nebraska, the Wolverines’ offense was ineffective. Michigan lost the time of possession battle, went 4-for-12 on third downs and freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood passed for a meager 105 yards.

But for the other couple of plays that combined for roughly one minute of Saturday’s contest, the Wolverines were unstoppable.

Buoyed by big plays on both sides of the ball, Michigan (3-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) bested Nebraska (3-1, 0-1), 30-27, to kick off conference play with a win.

“It’s no secret that we were

1-of-4 on the road last year, and then to lose that away game at Oklahoma,” sophomore linebacker Cole Sullivan said.

“So to win this one away just means a lot. … We always talk about being the most connected team and I don’t think there’s any better way to prove that than when you’re on the road.” Neither offense looked connected in the first quarter.

After the Cornhuskers missed a 44-yard field goal on their second drive, the Wolverines marched down to positive territory. Then junior wide receiver Semaj Morgan underthrew graduate wide receiver Donaven McCulley on a double pass, junior Justice Haynes rushed for no gain and Underwood just barely overthrew sophomore wide receiver Channing Goodwin in the end zone.

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After that misbegotten set of downs, even senior kicker Dominic Zvada’s 46-yard field goal felt like an underachievement.

Then came the Wolverines’ first big play. With under a minute left in the first quarter, junior defensive back Jyaire Hill tipped Raiola’s pass, and Sullivan reeled it in with one hand. Seventeen seconds were on the clock when Underwood kept the ball and — with the nearest defender in Omaha — dashed untouched into the end zone to go up, 10-0.

“It’s always huge to put ‘em in a good place to score,” graduate linebacker Ernest Hausmann said. “Turnovers are awesome, but especially having it on that short even

Almost exactly 15 minutes later, Raiola responded with a big play of his own, dotting his receiver with a 26-yard touchdown on a crucial third down.

Michigan didn’t need the two minutes that remained in the half for its next big play. Suddenly — as he has in every other game this season — Haynes found a gap in at the line of scrimmage. Breaking free and leaving several Nebraska defensemen in the dust, Haynes continued his touchdown streak for a 75-yard score.

Up 17-10 with the clock ticking down, the Wolverines were poised to finish the second quarter up a score.

Several Michigan coaches,

the impression that the clock had ran out — when they were corralled back to the sideline for the final play of the second quarter with one second left.

As they stood and watched, Raiola rolled out right, set his feet and launched a prayer to the end zone. With zeroes on the clock and Nebraska’s last hope of the half whistling through the air, wide receiver Jacory Barney Jr. leapt up amid a pack of Wolverines and secured the football.

The hail mary knotted the score, 17-17, and reinvigorated a weary Nebraska crowd that had just witnessed Haynes’ run.

“We felt like they got lucky on one play,” Haynes said. “One play ain’t gonna define us.”

already had. And after Zvada’s nailed 56-yarder returned the lead to Michigan in the third quarter, the Wolverines had an opportunity to go up two scores. This time, it was sophomore running back Jordan Marshall’s turn. After muscling through several tackles on first down, Marshall darted around Nebraska’s blocks on second down, breaking off for the longest rush of his career to put Michigan up, 27-17.

Another Zvada field goal in the fourth meant that Raiola’s late touchdown drive in the third quarter didn’t matter. Neither did the Wolverines’ inefficiency in the air, nor did their several penalties in key moments.

One play from the Cornhuskers wasn’t going to define Michigan — several of the Wolverines’ own plays

When Michigan needed to score on Saturday, it did. All the Wolverines needed were a few big plays.

Pete Buttigieg and Kara Swisher discuss the state of U.S. Democracy at Ford School Event

‘What worries me most is that the American people don’t understand their own power.’

HAYLEY WEISS Daily Staff Reporter

On Wednesday evening, about 900 people gathered at Rackham Auditorium to watch a live taping of the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast hosted by the School of Public Policy. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sat down with Kara Swisher, podcast host and member of the Ford School’s Policymaker in Residence program, to discuss the state of U.S. democracy at a time of intense political polarization.

Swisher began with a discussion on the death of Charlie Kirk, asking Buttigieg about his opinion on how political leaders have responded to the incident. Buttigieg said the incident was unacceptable and no one should face violence for practicing free speech.

“We still have to begin with the fact that a man was killed, that a family was robbed of a father, and that should never have happened, and that should never happen to anyone,” Buttigieg said. “I will say that we did see a truly bipartisan response, not a universal response, by any means. Still, we saw leaders ranging from a conservative Republican like Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, to Bernie Sanders on the left, saying things that really rhymed with each other about why and how political violence is unacceptable and how terrifying it is that America is at this fork in the road.”

Swisher and Buttigieg then discussed the growing influence of big tech companies in shaping political decisions. Buttigieg said careful, deliberate policy action is necessary to protect democracy from these large companies.

“What we really need to do is have a policy framework where (tech companies) can’t dominate us,” Buttigieg said. “Maybe you think you’re

benefiting right now because the president’s too busy going after the easiest pickings, like universities or law firms that employ people who were inconvenient to him… but you can’t imagine that you’re going to play his game. And, sooner or later, he will turn on you too.”

Buttigieg said he thinks no progress will be made unless the American people and elected leaders realize their power to do what they believe is right for the country.

“What worries me most is that the American people don’t understand their own power,” Buttigieg said. “I mean, obviously Congress is just completely incapable of standing up to this president. The only thing that will really change is if people, especially people in Congress, who now believe that their political survival depends on going along with things that they know deep down are wrong, is replaced by an awareness that their political survival depends on doing things that are right.”

Swisher asked Buttigieg about the Democratic Party’s strategy in the face

of a potential government shutdown. Buttigieg said waiting for a shutdown to occur could backfire.

“One thing (the Republican Party) is much better at than actually running the government is apportioning blame,” Buttigieg said. “They’re dominating some of the ways people get their information. I think there really needs to be a forceful response this time. I just don’t want to assume that (a government shutdown) is going to be easy or that it should be done lightly.”

When asked whether or not he intends to run for the 2028 presidential election, Buttigieg did not give a clear answer. Instead, he said it is our collective responsibility to shape the future of politics through active engagement.

“(Trump’s) presidency will end,” Buttigieg said. “His grip on one of the major political parties in this country will end, and when the sun comes up on that day, then what? We should build our answer to that question and then bring it into the present to hasten that day through political action.”

Public Policy junior Maggie

Hartman, who attended the event, said discourse between people with opposing political views is valuable for understanding each other’s perspectives and creating meaningful change.

“It is really important to keep having dynamic conversations about politics, even with friends or peers who might disagree,” Hartman said. “It is through our voices and the influence we can have, based on our own knowledge, that we can actually shift the direction of elections.”

Hartman said the conversation highlighted young people’s role in shaping the future.

“I think my biggest takeaway from the conversation is that we are currently in a very influential time in history, and what we do now will impact the future,” Hartman said. “One of the things Pete said that really stuck with me is that America is currently in a period of reconstruction. Now is the time to rebuild, while also acknowledging the failures of the government systems that were built in the past.”

Proposed restrictions on student visa lengths spark concern among professors and students

‘Students should not fear that they may not be able to continue their studies.’

visas to remain in the U.S. for extended periods of time by extending their enrollment.

On Aug. 27 President Donald Trump’s administration announced a proposed rule that aims to limit the length of time certain visa holders, including foreign students, are allowed to stay in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security states the proposed rule aims to curb “visa abuse” and help the department’s ability to oversee these visa holders.

Currently, foreign student visas are issued on a “duration of status” basis, meaning visa holders are allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as they remain enrolled as full‑time students and maintain proper status. If enacted, the rule would change the authorized admission periods for foreign students and exchange visitors to not exceed four years. The current regulations allow individuals to stay the duration of their enrollment. After the fixed period, all student visa holders would need to apply for an extension with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and allow DHS to conduct regular assessment and vetting. The Trump administration argues this rule is due to foreign students, which they called “forever students,” allegedly taking advantage of their

In an email to The Michigan Daily, U M alum Ben Goehring, assistant professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, wrote this rule would be in line with the administration’s other recent actions toward higher education.

“This policy fits with other recent actions taken by the Trump administration to financially weaken higher education institutions, including by cutting grants, threatening to not enroll any international students from specific universities and, as recently proposed by the Secretary of Commerce, potentially taking a percentage cut of university patent revenue,” Goehring wrote. Goehring also wrote the rule has the potential to negatively impact Michigan’s economy.

“By limiting the length of student visas and adding additional hurdles to receiving extensions, pursuing higher education in the United States will become riskier for many international students,” Goehring wrote. “As a result, fewer will likely opt to attend American universities, which will have a considerable impact on the budgets of these institutions, as international students often pay more in tuition than domestic students.”

In an email to The Daily, Law School Professor Luis C.deBaca said the University’s 8,600 international students aid its global reputation as a hub for talent and help contribute more than $825 million to Michigan’s economy.

“At Michigan, where over 8,600 international students contribute to research and tuition revenues, enrollment could decline, especially in STEM fields and PhD programs where degree timelines exceed four years,” C.deBaca wrote. “That drop would affect not only university finances but also the Michigan economy, given international students’ $825 million contribution to Michigan each year.”

C.deBaca also wrote the proposed rule creates uncertainty for students and changes the University’s processes.

“These changes would shift routine academic oversight away from UM’s International Center, which already works closely with DHS via the SEJIS system, into USCIS’s backlogged system with all of the other visa categories,” C.deBaca wrote. “Legally, that creates uncertainty for students and increases exposure to removal or status violations despite their full compliance and academic progress.”

C.deBaca said the proposed

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“The proposal undermines long established reliance interests by changing the ground rules midstream,” C.deBaca wrote. “It tramples on fairness by yanking away a framework students have relied upon for decades. It treats Michigan’s international scholars as abusers in waiting rather than as partners in research and innovation.”

In an interview with The Daily, LSA sophomore Barbara Guajardo said she worries the rule has the potential to create fear among international students, instead of inviting them to share their contributions with higher education institutions.

“Students should not fear that they may not be able to continue their studies, and we should encourage foreign students to come here to study and work because it is this diversity of thoughts, abilities and performance that makes America so great,” Guajardo said. Concerned parties can submit a public comment regarding their views on the proposed rule until Sept. 29. Following this period, the agency will review the comments and make changes to the rule before it is published.

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First Board of Regents meeting of semester marked by transgender rights protests, union picketing

University Staff United picketed to increase job security for U-M staff, others protested cuts to gender-affirming care

Zalucki said by moving away from the entrance and on to the sidewalk, protesters were outside of the University’s jurisdiction, which she had no issue with.

this access to health care is a human right.”

Mexican American author Erika L. Sánchez speaks at Latine Heritage Month opening ceremony

‘Pride lives in the way that I honor those who came before me and how I work to create opportunities for those who will come after.’

SARAH SPENCER Daily Staff Reporter

Feasting on platters of arroz con gandules with jugo de maracuyá, community members listened to the Latin pop tunes echoing through the Rogel Ballroom. About 200 University of Michigan students gathered Wednesday evening for the Latine Heritage Month Opening Ceremony hosted by the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs.

The theme of this year’s heritage month is “El Orgullo de Ser” or “The Pride of Being.” LSA senior Briana Gonzalez, administrative director of La Casa, told the crowd she felt immense pride in her heritage and the University of Michigan’s strong Latine community.

speaker, and the first 150 attendees received signed copies of the book. Her speech focused on her experience growing up Mexican American and how she always felt naturally pulled towards writing.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Sánchez said the inspiration for her writing comes from an internal drive she has felt throughout her life.

“I feel like it’s like this innate drive that I have that I don’t even have control over, in a sense, like it’s like what I was meant to do,” Sánchez said. “And to me, writing is like a spiritual act.”

feel pride in yourself when the rest of the world deems you unworthy.”

In an interview with The Daily, LSA senior Daisy Ruiz, MESA student coordinator, said she thinks heritage month events are important for all cultures to create an accepting community within the University.

Two separate groups of protesters, one in support of gender affirming care and the other in support of unions, gathered outside the Alexander G. Ruthven Building as the University’s Board of Regents held their first meeting of the semester.

One protest was held in opposition to the University’s decision to cease providing genderaffirming care to individuals under the age of 19. The other was organized by University Staff United, which picketed in support of a petition to increase job security for U-M staff. A contingent of pro-Palestine protesters also participated in the protests, lending their support to both causes.

Transgender rights activists, including the League of Revolutionary Students, initially gathered around the entrance to the Ruthven Building, but organizers announced to the crowd that University officials intended to call the police if protesters did not move away from the building. The protesters complied, relocating to the sidewalk alongside Geddes Avenue.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Ann Zalucki, the official who approached the organizers and special events project manager, said the protesters were told to move due to their use of microphones which violated University policy on noise control.

“We have no amplified sound on University property outside the hours of noon to 1,” Zalucki said.

“Amplified, you need a permit. You have to have a permit to utilize any space anywhere on campus, and we have a process of doing that. But we don’t allow amplified sound before 5 o’clock.”

“Honestly, I don’t, because I don’t control that space,” Zalucki said. “We’re trying to be helpful. There’s still amplified sound; we’re trying to be as helpful to them as possible.”

The protest continued on the sidewalk. University alum Kami Michels, who has a transgender daughter, said the University’s decision was an example of them yielding to pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration without legal necessity.

“Michigan Medicine, the health care system tied to one of the most powerful universities in this country, ripped medical care away from my child and thousands of others,” Michels said. “They did this not because it stopped being safe, not because it stopped being legal but because they caved to political pressure from a fascist administration, and they did so willingly and without a fight.”

LSA junior Richie Gerring also spoke during the rally, saying the University had cut off care to his transgender younger brother.

“Tomorrow my younger brother is going to have to come down to Michigan Medicine and have a final conversation with his doctor — who he’s been seeing since he was 14 years old — about how he needs to stop taking the medicine that has saved his life,” Gerring said. Gerring continued, saying he hoped the regents would recognize the humanity of transgender individuals.

“Please, if you’re not going to hear the cries of shame, hear my pleas, my tears,” Gerring said. “Hear that my brother is a human, that I am a human, that my friends are human and that

Just a few yards away, members of USU marched in a circle, carrying signs with slogans such as “union power” and “staff united will not be divided.” Expressions of solidarity between the two were evident during the rally.

In an interview with The Daily, University social worker Tyler Perala, a member of USU, said their union was picketing to advocate for increased job security against improper discipline after several U-M employees were terminated or suspended for conduct at protests.

“Our main focus is on delivering a job security petition to the (U-M) regents meeting here behind us today,” Perala said. “We’ve been made aware that there are some colleagues across the University that have been inappropriately disciplined or let go, and so we want to make sure we’re standing with them.”

In an interview with The Daily, University social worker Amanda Byrnes said USU was also fighting for University staff to make a living wage.

“We have members who are making $30,000 a year, who are going to food pantries and working second jobs while taking care of children in our child care centers — that’s a travesty,” Byrnes said. “So a lot of what we’re fighting for is folks’ right to live, and live comfortably.”

Perala said the protests were meant to challenge the University to live up to its values.

“(The University) says that we’re leaders and best, and I think that we just are challenging the University to live into that, and this is one of the ways that we can do that,” Perala said. “We love (the University), we love our students, that’s why (we’re here). If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Culture has always been more than my heritage — it is the rhythm of my words and the heartbeat of my being,” Gonzalez said. “Pride lives in the way that I honor those who came before me and how I work to create opportunities for those who will come after. There may be few of us Latinos here, but I make sure our presence is felt strong, proud and unmistakable.”

Erika L. Sánchez, author of The New York Times bestselling novel “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” was the keynote

CAMPUS LIFE

Sánchez pointed toward policies approved under the current administration she believes to be harmful to the Latine community in the U.S., such as intensified patrolling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. To combat this, she said she writes about Latine history to preserve knowledge and resist dehumanizing narratives.

“In writing about people who are oppressed in a very humane, complicated manner, you’re resisting these ideas that are being spread by the government, by society,” Sánchez said. “I think we should all feel pride in who we are, especially when we’ve been marginalized, because it’s an act of resistance to

“We can call ourselves a student body, but what makes Michigan important is the different cultures that come along,” Ruiz said. “Having a big pool of people coming from not only just different states but different backgrounds really makes the environment that we have so diverse and rich. We are able to have conversations with different standpoints because of it.” Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore Andrea Bustillo told The Daily she thought using “ser” in the event’s title was much more meaningful than the English translation, “being.”

“It’s not just ‘existing’ but also being here and being present,” Bustillo said. “I think that’s the vibe that I was getting from this being the theme of the event, that we are all here, existing together. I think that’s very special, how in all events that I’ve gone to for Latine Heritage Month or for other events that are put on by Latine students, I feel like community is the driving force behind it all.”

Psychedelic club wins Entheofest suit against UMich

‘I’ve been hoping that this could set a precedent for free speech on campus for all student orgs on campus’

AUDREY SHABELSKI Daily News Editor

On Wednesday evening, the Student Association of Psychedelic Studies stood before the Michigan Court of Claims to sue the University of Michigan over its denial of a permit for their annual Entheofest on the Diag. The court ruled in favor of SAPS, permitting them to hold the festival. Entheofest aims to promote the benefits of plant medicines and celebrate the five-year anniversary of the decriminalization of psychedelics in Ann Arbor.

In July, SAPS submitted its application to the University for a permit to host their fifth-annual Entheofest on the Diag. In early August, they received a denial letter.

Jim Salame, Entheofest founder and a SAPS collaborator, told The Michigan Daily he was surprised when he heard the news, especially given that Hash Bash received a permit.

“It was kind of a shock, because they let Hash Bash happen,” Salame said. “They didn’t give us any inclination that anything happened last year at Entheofest that would even give consideration to denying the permit. So it was shocking.”

In an interview with The Daily, Emily Berriman, Social Work student and SAPS president said the reasons for denial could’ve come from a fear of loss of federal funding due to violations of the Drug Free School and Communities Act.

“In their formal denial, they said that we plan to go against University policy,” Berriman said. “They said that our risk mitigation strategies were insufficient. … They ended up saying later on that they were afraid of federal funding.

There’s this thing called the Drug Free School and Communities Act and they feared federal funding (cuts) if there’s drugs on campus again.”

The University wrote it denied a Diag permit for the event due

to a desire to comply under state and federal law and to not host or promote illegal substances on their property. The administration also feared such a large gathering could become unruly and out of control. Salame said the University is likely worried about the risk of individuals bringing illegal substances to the event.

“They also said it was our fault for the fact that people came to campus and brought these illegal substances and sold them on campus,” Salame said. “There’s no selling of anything, much less things that are Schedule 1 substances, on campus, according to University policy, but they really relied on us to do a lot of that policing.”

After their permit was denied, SAPS filed an appeal. During the appeal process, Berriman said SAPS wrote a letter to explain how they would address the University’s perceived dangers and risks associated with the event. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

In The Stars B-side

CORA ROLFES Senior Arts Editor

I don’t believe in fate. Lives aren’t set in stone; there’s no such thing as “in the stars.”

I wasn’t destined to write this, and you probably weren’t destined to read it. We’ve either brought ourselves here or been thrown together by random chance — author and reader. And yet, I’m still thinking and

writing about it, and you’re still reading it. Maybe this constant musing about fate and predetermination, making art about this unprovable rule, is just what keeps us sane, helps us feel important or noticed by the vast universe. In art, all events are predetermined. There can be forces beyond humans. Sisters can be marked for death. Lovers can doom themselves to tragedy. Authors and artists

become arbiters of fate. They give us the chance to indulge in realities where prophecies can be realized, where the stars can be aligned. I don’t believe in fate, but there’s something thrilling about the fiction of it all.

Here, eight writers have been strung together by their shared fascination with the stars, exploring — whether real or imaginary — the many forms fate may take.

‘It’s happening again’: The dark side of destiny

Note: Trigger warning for discussions of sexual abuse, childhood sexual abuse and murder. Spoilers for “Twin Peaks.” How much of our lives do we control? How much of our fate do we really decide? Growing up, “destiny” was an enchanting idea: Prince Charmings and heroes’ journeys, grand finales and happy endings. Destiny meant that — no matter how distressed our damsel may be — everything would always turn out alright. Or, as special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, “Blue Velvet”), protagonist of “Twin Peaks,” would say: “Damn right.”

If there’s one thing “Twin

Peaks” and David Lynch do particularly well, it’s exposing the underbelly of these otherwise enchanting ideas: the homecoming queen is murdered, “the owls are not what they seem,” the woodsy small town is a fermenting ground for evil.

Destiny is not exempt from this, as the show forces viewers to confront our individual agency and the devastation our lack thereof might entail. Within the first few minutes of its pilot, “Twin Peaks” breaks genre conventions: The central victim is found dead, washed ashore and wrapped in plastic. Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”) death is one of the first things the audience sees, and it immediately sets the tone of “Twin Peaks” as one of doom. Contrary to other

thriller narratives, where the poor dead girl quickly becomes of secondary importance to our debonair detective cracking the case, Laura’s ghost is ever-present; her memory is a constant reminder that although we may be just starting our journey in the town of Twin Peaks, her story is over. We are witnessing a future she never gets to know. With each reveal, each clue uncovered, Laura’s death feels increasingly fated — a destruction as inescapable as her killer wants you to believe. The most terrifying thing about the prime antagonist of “Twin Peaks” is that inescapability. BOB (Frank Silva, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”), Laura’s supernatural killer, could easily be a trite villain — I personally tend to gravitate more toward nuanced, realistic threats, and an interdimensional demonic entity that inhabits the bodies of those he wishes to work his evil through is certainly not checking those boxes. BOB’s true terror, however, comes from what he represents. In the words of FBI agent Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer, “Robocop”) in the series’ climactic Episode 16: “ Maybe that’s all BOB is, the evil that men do .” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Meddling with fate: Destiny in ‘Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated’

Stumble into trouble: a roller coaster gone awry, the sabotage of a snowsports competition or the mysterious disappearance of innocent beachgoers. Have no option but to offer help, staying in a distinctively-themed location for the coming days. Investigate the enigma, running into a nightmare brought to life in a comically realistic manner. Split up to look for clues, make a trap for the villain and use the dog and his stoner owner as bait. If it weren’t for those meddling kids … Sound familiar? You’ve just run through the formula for countless episodes of the Scooby-Doo franchise. While each incarnation slightly tweaks it, the foundation remains relatively stable, a manufactured destiny enforced by the material realities of showrunning. Still, it’s a formula that works. Scooby-Doo has been around since 1969, spanning an impressive 56 years of on-and-off television broadcasting. In that time, more than 45 films, 20 video games and 13 television series have been produced centering the iconic five members of the Scooby Gang. As someone who was raised on Scooby-Doo — specifically the CDs of “What’s New, Scooby-Doo” played on the disc player in my parents’ car — the franchise will forever hold a special

place in my heart. I lived, breathed and even ate Scooby-Doo (shoutout the Scooby-Doo Fruitsnacks and Scooby Snacks). In elementary school, I would wake up every morning to my Mystery Machine alarm clock, leave my Scooby-Doo themed room (complete with cyan and lime green walls featuring a wall decal of “the gang”), grab my lunchbox and head to school. So yeah, you could say I was obsessed. But I’m not the only one. ScoobyDoo has captured the hearts of countless kids for generations. In such a long and storied history, there are bound to be some quirky pieces of media. When the media focuses on monsters, creeps and mysteries, those quirks tend to be the norm rather than the exception (see “Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery” for a prime example). But if you limit the search to solely where the franchise started

with the television series, you’ll find the biggest departure from the classic formula to be “ScoobyDoo! Mystery Incorporated.”

“Mystery Incorporated” focuses on the members of the Scooby-Doo crew in high school, a decision that both grounds the series in a specific location and introduces the lives of the characters beyond their sleuthing. It also has an uncanny sense of humor — from both the absurdity of certain plot elements (it already takes a lot to create a realistic scenario in which someone would dress up as a monster to commit a petty crime), but also from a previously unexplored sense of self-awareness. Four teenagers solving mysteries with a talking dog is laughable, and “Mystery Incorporated” isn’t afraid to acknowledge it. CONTINUED AT

Bunny Corcoran doesn’t get a page to breathe before he is marked as a dead man. Donna Tartt begins her iconic novel “The Secret History” with the murder already committed, framed not as a mystery to solve but as an inevitability — the only possible outcome of a story driven by beauty, death and desire. The now-infamous novel follows Richard Papen, a boy from workingclass California who transfers to Hampden College, a small but prestigious liberal arts school in Vermont. What he wants is the polish of scholarly elitism — the kind of intellectual aristocracy he has always imagined as the cure to his own mediocrity. What he finds instead is something stranger and far darker: the most elite, insular group within the school, a circle of six students studying Ancient Greek and presided over by the enigmatic Julian Morrow. Richard thinks he is stepping into a life of beauty and rigor, but the reality is much messier. Almost immediately, he becomes a key player in covering up one murder, and before long, an accessory to another. By the novel’s

end, the dream of elitism has curdled into violence and decay, and none of our Greek students make it out unchanged.

Tartt’s Greek-obsessed students believe they are above the ordinary world: chosen, refined, destined. Their lives are a closed system of intellectual elitism and aesthetic worship, a cult in miniature. But beneath the scholarly trappings, what truly binds them is not philosophy, but Eros. It is a cult of sex as much as a cult of beauty. The six are held together by desire — diffuse, repressed, sometimes incestuous, often unspoken — and this erotic economy determines who belongs and who must be thrust out.

Part of the novel’s strangeness comesfromthegroup’scomposition.

Francis, a hypochondriac twink in a tailcoat, takes his aristocratic languor almost to parody. Charles and Camilla mirror each other, their twinship both aesthetic and erotic, a doubling that unsettles as much as it entices. Henry, austere and brilliant, denies the moon landing with an intelligent charm — intellect weaponized into hermetic superiority. In isolation, their affectations, antique clothes and cultivated strangeness could

convince you the novel was set in the 1940s rather than the early 1980s.

And then there is Bunny. Bunny — with his off-stage girlfriend, his “yes dear” heterosexual banality and his homophobic recoil from the others — is excluded from this closed system. As tolerated as he is, Bunny refuses to participate in the group’s incestuous circle of longing. In such a cult, being sexless kills. Bunny’s murder is inevitable, not simply because of his loose tongue, but because his very existence as an outsider disrupts the group’s erotic compact.

At first, Bunny and Richard, the novel’s narrator, appear aligned. Both are poor — at least, Bunny is poor for the group’s standard — and feel the sting of exclusion in a classist, insular environment. Bunny extends an olive branch to Richard and is key to his integration into the group — a calculated move for Bunny’s own social validation, offering him someone to share mediocrity with and providing a lower rung in the pecking order. For a brief moment, Bunny has power: He can peck down at Richard.

CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Crossword

The Michigan Daily Crossword

ZHANE

EDITORIAL

Tom Muha Sophia Perrault

From The Daily:

Hunter Ryerson

The only way to stop political violence is to solve political

polarization

Charlie Kirk, right-wing political commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University during a debate hosted by his organization. With his death, America slides further into a dangerous new era of political violence. In recent years, the country has seen other high profile attacks — including the murder of Melissa Hortman, former Minnesota state representative; the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump; the fire-bombing of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home; the killing of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Officer; and the assault of Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

Kirk was best known for his viral, often heated, exchanges with college students about some of the largest issues facing the country. While this Editorial Board vehemently disagrees with most of Kirk’s positions and his use of soundbite-seeking debate tactics, we condemn his murder in the strongest possible terms.

The country must have a serious discussion about the

rising threat of political violence. The dehumanizing rhetoric coming from both sides of the aisle undermines the American principle that one can freely voice an opinion without fear of violent retaliation. We are in a dangerous feedback loop of polarization, with partisan bloodlust reaching its highest point in decades. The strength of our democracy rests upon our belief in the supremacy of the microphone over the gun in settling political disagreements — full stop.

The way out of this downward spiral is more speech, not less, especially at institutions of higher education like the University of Michigan.

Rather than allowing Kirk’s death to have a chilling effect on debate and dialogue — to give into the false choice of security or expression — the University must create a space where speech can be amplified, protected and impartially moderated so we can have productive conversations across the ideological spectrum.

This Editorial Board wants speakers of all political affiliations, from Ben Shapiro to Hasan Piker, to come to campus and make their case to the student body. Not because we agree, but because we disagree, and the best way to find consensus

and overcome polarization is by putting different ideas to the test. While the University has failed on free speech in the past, the opening of the new Institute for Civil Discourse presents a fresh opportunity to bridge the divide on campus. Rejecting illiberalism and embracing productive dialogue, no matter how difficult it is, is the only way to ensure that political violence fails. We can choose to retreat further into our partisan echo chambers — which could send our country into a death spiral from where there is no return — or we can start talking to each other again. This Editorial Board chooses the latter, and calls upon the University to facilitate the dialogue we desperately need.

Kirk was a controversial figure. But for all the talk of how the polarized reactions to his death are irreconcilable, this Editorial Board disagrees. If you viewed Kirk as a free speech champion and mourned his loss, you can embrace his legacy by picking up the microphone and engaging in good faith debate. If you viewed Kirk as a bad faith clipfarmer and are glad he’s gone, you can reject his legacy by picking up the microphone and engaging in good faith debate. It is the only way forward.

It’s the prelude to any night out: standing in a long curling line outside of a local bar, slowly shuffling toward the front as others clamor around you. Eventually, you’ll reach the door, where a tall, cold and burly man will snatch your ID, give it a glance and shoot you a quick scowl before he ushers you in. The infamous ID check is a quintessential part of the American college experience. Now, it’ll be an internet staple too. Regulating the internet has been tricky ever since its inception. Its largelydecentralized nature and global framework have impeded proper content moderation. With such sparse regulation, it has turned into a hotbed of criminal activity, violent imagery and illegal content. As young people’s mental health suffers through an unparalleled crisis, the lack of any real regulation has angered millions — resulting in a variety of global movements and initiatives aimed at protecting young people from illegal and dangerous content online.

Digital age verification and stringent content moderation may seem radical, but it is necessary. In a world where violence feels more prevalent than at any other

Labeling the dead is harder than you think

AUDRA WOEHLE Opinion Columnist

Every few weeks, another listicle crosses my feed declaring 10 or so historical figures that “you didn’t know were Queer.” Often there are recurring figures who are pretty obvious.

Both Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, for instance, were tried and convicted of “gross indecency” under British law, making their defiance of heteronormativity apparent. But other figures, especially from earlier in history, are sometimes harder to place when historical accounts can, at most, only suggest Queerness.

I know these articles are usually just for fun. Still, I can’t help but feel like labeling a historical figure with a sense of certainty misses the point of Queer history. Gathering a list of names spanning centuries, cultures and regions projects a modern understanding of identity onto a complex Queer past, oversimplifying what is often nuanced or undeterminable.

Living in today’s world comes with the understanding that sexual and gender identity are diverse and complex, but in the past, views on Queerness were diverse, too. In Ancient Greece, for example, laws regarding homoerotic relationships varied from place to place, with some cities harshly regulating same-sex relationships while others encouraged emotional, intellectual bonds between two men.

When it comes to looking at Queer histories in the more recent past, the ways in which

people identified themselves or their relationships to others can be difficult to parse. Boston marriages are just one instance of the indistinct nature of sexuality and romance in the past. In this 19th- and early 20th-century arrangement, two women lived together and remained independent from men’s financial support. Some partnerships, like that between writers Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Field, have enough documentation that we can conclude that it leaned more romantic than platonic.

With others, though, making a clear determination is more difficult. In a time when women were by and large considered to be the property of their husbands, a Boston marriage gave two women the autonomy to live without men in an arrangement that could be romantic, but could also be professional, companionate or something in between, blurring distinct lines drawn by a modern eye.

Just as we can’t guess how many heterosexual pairings in the past were lavender marriages and not love matches, we also can’t be sure how many Boston marriages were homoerotic in nature. However, combating heteronormativity with behaviors akin to allonormativity — the idea that all humans experience romantic and sexual attraction — removes other identities or intricate experiences from the discussion.

Putting terms to a historical figure’s experience is still an affirming act for Queer people in the present, demonstrating that LGBTQ+ people have always existed, even in societies that didn’t tolerate or acknowledge them. Looking to the past also grants power in knowing you’re not alone in your experiences.

From Alexander the Great to Anne Frank to Abraham Lincoln, the impulse to speculate or even outright label these figures stems from a comprehensible need for more Queer visibility in the span of history. Frank, for one, wrote an entry about kissing her female friend Jacque and her want for a girlfriend, leading some to label her as bisexual. Without a doubt, historians and laymen alike have historically cast aside orientations that were and are marginalized from a more inclusive narrative. As they do today, close friendships and roommate situations in the past could certainly have evolved beyond platonic bounds, and it’s reasonable to consider just how many. Heteronormativity permeates almost every aspect of social life in ways big and small, and challenging the assumption of heterosexuality as the default is the first step in achieving greater Queer visibility in history.

CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Beyond the scope of female pairings in the 19th and 20th centuries, the gray area continues to exist due to silences in the historical record. Some sources and artifacts go unrecorded, unpreserved and unrecognized — like letters, for example — which erase many Queer experiences. When that’s the case, it’s nearly impossible to attach a definitive label to someone.

point in recent history, we have to make the internet safe — if not for us, then for the millions of children who frequent it every day. The first major piece of legislation on the scene was the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act. Passed in 2023, the OSA was the first comprehensive legislation meant to protect children online and combat the rampant explicit imagery online. But now, just two years later, content moderation laws are going viral in their own right. Around the world, countries

are stepping in to protect young children from encountering violent, suicidal and illegal content online. In the United States, the Supreme Court recently upheld Mississippi’s online age verification law, a step that is likely to embolden similar initiatives across the country. As these laws take effect, the tech world is falling in line. From Spotify’s ID verification to YouTube’s new artificial intelligence-based content moderation, some of the largest players in the online space have announced their plans to institute drastic and wide-ranging policy

tweaks. These new policies are pragmatic and straightforward: They seek to keep tech companies accountable for the imagery that they allow on their platforms. Unsurprisingly, these changes have not garnered much love from the online world, as a strange coalition of teens and tech billionaires teamed up in opposition to these changes. Many, including Elon Musk and adult film stars, have cast a wide array of different opinions rejecting these policies, ranging from mild takes calling the laws “unnecessary” to grave

comparisons to authoritarianism.

This group points to recent instances across the U.K. where the government has arrested as many as 30 people a day for explicit or controversial online posts. Infamously, Graham Lineham — a local British comedian — was detained and questioned for a series of problematic online statements about transgender women. His, and many others’, arrest has vindicated widespread fears that the law could be weaponized to suppress people’s right to free speech. It is undeniable that the British

government’s heavy-handed enforcement of the OSA has posed a serious threat to the public’s freedom of speech. In the home of the original Bill of Rights, the British are imprisoning their own, simply for exercising the same rights they pioneered more than 300 years ago. Arresting people for speaking their mind — even if their statements are offensive — is unquestionably wrong, and many are right to challenge the U.K. government for this gross violation. However, the British government’s reprehensible acts should not be co-opted as an excuse to allow violent content to have a home online, or to tolerate the previous decades of lax regulation in which millions of young people suffered abuse and exploitation.

The internet has single-handedly bred one of history’s most tortured generations. Through the internet, malevolent actors have managed to use the lack of regulation to their advantage, luring children into exploitative situations and resulting in some of the highest abuse rates in recorded history. Along with this dramatic rise, the internet’s fomentation of toxicity and hate has turned Generation Z into the most mentally-unstable generation in history. Recent studies show that, in tandem with increased time online, young people are more depressed, suicidal and anxious than any other generation on record.

Identity and Adornment:

The South Asian Jewelry Series

Arya Kamat & Amrita Kondur MiC Assistant Editor & MiC Columnist

Photos by Kaira Bhutada, Design by Maisie Derlega

Jewelry is never just jewelry. It sings against brown skin, alive with the echoes of those who came before us. When banks closed their doors, it became our currency. When rights wavered, it transformed into our armor. When words failed, it spoke of our history. In South Asian cultures, jewelry serves as a unique mode of cultural transference and connects generations — grandmothers to mothers to daughters. For younger individuals of the South Asian diaspora, whose paths often diverge from those of their ancestors, jewelry is the one thing we share. It carries inheritance and intention, a silent language forged in gold and silver, spoken across time.

For South Asian Americans, jewelry represents both a bridge to heritage and a point of contradiction. Many grew

up navigating the complex relationship between their family’s treasured ornaments and Western ideals of minimalism. What was once deemed excessive — too bright, too intricate, too obviously other — is now being reclaimed as an essential expression of identity. What we were once told to tuck away now blazes our path forward. Dr. Usha Balakrishnan, historian and Chief Curator of the World Diamond Museum, describes South Asian jewelry as something that maintains “the mind and body in equilibrium,” a balance achieved through materials, design and intention. This reflects a deeper philosophy where adornment is tied to both beauty and wellness. Pieces are often designed with symbolic placement and physical benefit in mind, their forms shaped by centuries of shifting dynasties,

trade routes and cultural movements. But this harmony isn’t just aesthetic — it has always been a means of survival. For centuries, South Asian women have relied on their jewelry as their only secure financial asset. Legal systems denied them land, wealth and inheritance, leaving gold and silver

your wedding, the weight of your anklets as you dance. Each piece marks life’s moments and evolves with you — the gold bracelet you received as a newborn, the jhumkas you bought at a bustling market and the old jewelry boxes you scavenged through in your mother’s drawers. This is memory,

“Jewelry is never just jewelry.”

as their silent defiance — the one possession that others could not repossess. Even today, jewelry is not merely gifted; it is safeguarded, meant to be liquidated in times of need.

But these pieces are more than resistance. They are ritual. The clinking of bangles against your wrist in a crowded home, the tying of a thali around your neck during

solidified in metal, warm against our skin.

This sentiment extends beyond personal collections to the work of contemporary designers.

Visionaries like Suhani Parekh of MISHO and Simran Anand of BySimran are reimagining traditional forms for contemporary wear, creating pieces that honor cultural techniques while

speaking to modern aesthetics.

The artistic value of these pieces transcends adornment as wearable art that carries our culture forward. Meanwhile, there’s been a growing confidence in pairing traditional family pieces with contemporary fashion, creating visual dialogues between past and present, between heritage and individual expression.

This project celebrates that transformation at the intersection of history, identity and selfexpression. Through our lens, we explore how our models, all South Asian women, have used jewelry as both sanctuary and statement. How something as small as a ring or as intricate as a gold necklace can hold generations of struggle and joy. How we —through preservation and reinvention — are learning to wear them again, this time on our own terms.

Each model featured in this series highlights not just the gleam of their jewelry pieces but the stories, struggles and celebrations they’ve witnessed through time. As scholar Chinmayee Satpathy writes, “Jewelry constitutes an integral part of intangible cultural heritage, reflecting living traditions through cultural selfimage and aesthetic sensibility.” Through these adornments, we can connect to histories that are both personal and collective. Jewelry is reclamation, legacy and resistance. It is what we carry forward from those who fought before us and what we will leave for those who follow. It is, and always has been, ours to embody. Welcome to the South Asian Jewelry Series.

CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

By Adithya Sastry - MiC Videographer

Adornment: The Models & Their Jewelry

Asmita Tuladhar

Nepali (Newar)

Q: You spoke about the limited representation of your Newar/Nepali American culture and how creating POSA (Portrait of South Asia) became a way to share those stories visually. Are there specific pieces of jewelry that you feel carry untold narratives, and how might they expand people’s understanding of South Asian culture?

“I don’t think there’s any specific jewelry that you could say speaks upon an untold aspect of a South Asian narrative but rather the stories people bring with it. So anything can be monumental or carry a lot of memories, depending on what the person has to say about it. For me, it’s this ring. For other people, it might be some jhumkas or an anklet, but it’s about the memories that they associate with them, their families, and anything else that they hold close to their hearts. I think it’s really important to be able to share these stories in a way that people can see and enjoy.”

Nawal Ahmed Bengali

Q: You shared that your mother would dress you in jewelry growing up. Are there any pieces that, when you wear them now, make you feel like you’re honoring the version of yourself she saw and nurtured?

“To this day, I still wear a lot of those things. I’ve had some of my earrings since I was a baby, and it’s cool to see something grow up with me. And then I’ve added to that with piercings, like ear and nose piercings, as well as chains. My mom got me another chain for my graduation as well, so I wear both my chain from childhood and my chain from that. It’s like I’m holding all these memories with me from different milestones of my life.”

Vidushi (Ihaa) Mohan

Indian (Bengali + Bihari)

Sneha Sharma Indian (Rajasthani)

Q: You mentioned bringing cherished jewelry from India to the U.S. How has your jewelry helped you connect with other people and cultures in Ann Arbor?

“I stay at the International House, and there are people from all over. We get to share our cultures. The other day, we were talking about fabrics and how India is so colorful. When we say India, the first thing that pops into anyone’s head is colors. I did a culture table where others got to see everything. Usually, you could show pictures, but I brought the jewelry in person. People got to see what it looks like, feel it, even listen to the jingles of anklets. I also brought ghungroos with me, and they got to feel them. Someone told me they’d love to visit India now, which they never thought they would. That’s a good thing, now that everything is tangible and in your grasp. It made things easier as a cultural ambassador. I also had one suitcase just full of all this!”

Sree Leela Chitturi Indian (Telugu)

Q: You mentioned that your grandmother gifted you a necklace before she passed away. How has wearing this piece impacted your understanding of generational memory and how love carries across time?

“I didn’t have a strong bond with my grandmother because she passed away when I was very young. But through stories, I’ve come to understand the kind of person she was. The necklace she gave me has helped shape a bond with her, which extends beyond generations and time.”

Sanjana “Sanju” Sunilkumar

Indian (Malayali)

Q: You wrote about navigating identity as a person of color. Is there a jewelry piece that feels like an anchor for you — something that strengthens your connection to your roots when you’re in spaces that feel disconnected from them?

“In

Asian fashion into my personal wardrobe. A lot of my clothes are items that I have received from other people. Continuing to wear these clothes and pieces of jewelry are also a way for me to not participate in overconsumption.”

“It’s evolved with me, reminding me that growth is constant, that I’m forever changing, but still rooted in the strength and heritage passed down to me. The soft clinking of the bangles on her wrist holds a deeper significance. “It feels like an unspoken connection to all the women in my family. I carry their perseverance with me, and that’s why I wanted to be part of this project. South Asian jewelry is more than just ornamentation — it holds all the history, strength

Avanthi “Vani” Wijetunga

Q: You mentioned receiving a necklace with a dharma chakra pendant from your grandparents. How has this piece influenced not only your spirituality but also your sense of belonging or personal growth?

“My grandma lives back home with me, and I’ve always had a grandparent in my day-to-day life for as long as I can remember. They’ll usually come and visit for extended periods of time, or I’ll go see them. So it was definitely different moving away from them. They are getting older, so you don’t always feel the cultural connection,

me. Also, my family is Buddhist, and this pendant is a symbol of Buddhism, specifically representing the moral teachings of the Buddha. ”

Mehak Chohan Pakistani

Q: You noted the lack of spaces to showcase South Asian jewelry on campus. What kind of narratives do you think are missing from the conversation, and how do you hope your jewelry can help address that gap?

“There are a lot of South Asian events on campus, but jewelry is such an important part of the culture, especially in Pakistan, where weddings are a big deal, and jewelry plays a huge role. The pieces are often handmade, crafted with so much attention to detail, and deserve to be showcased. I think there’s a huge market for it, and I don’t think we have enough spaces on campus to display that cultural richness.”

Anjalee Raval

Indian (Gujarati)

Q: You (beautifully) described jewelry as a “proud, jingling, gilded reflection” of your identity. How has wearing pieces passed down from your mother, aunts, and grandmother helped you feel connected to them across generations?

“Two things play into that a lot—distance and loss. A lot of my family is in India, and my family here is very small. Also, many of my grandmothers and aunts have passed away, so I never really got the chance to connect with them on a physical, tangible level. It’s mostly hearsay. But you feel close to them because they’re your family, and that’s one thing you’re sure of. Wearing their jewelry and hearing stories from my mom, like, ‘Oh, we used to share this piece,’ or ‘I wore this to this event, and your aunt wore it to that,’ makes me feel connected to them in a deeper way. It’s like I’m making it mine, but it has belonged to so many people I care about, which is what makes it so special.”

NOLAN

“Repeal the 19th” — yes, the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which gave women the right to vote — is a sentiment to which I am ashamed to say I once was sympathetic. I thought of myself as a good person then; I certainly never would have admitted to any trace of misogyny in my worldview or personal animus towards women. My closest friends were women and I thought highly of their intelligence and competence. At the same time, I believed women generally couldn’t be trusted with the power to vote. I trusted and relied upon the women in my life while secretly harboring a desire to strip them of their most fundamental civil rights.

This is ugly stuff. I feel like shit writing it down. This mark of shame will live online forever. But I feel compelled to speak on this because I know I was far from the only young man caught up in reactionary anti-feminism, which is a key component of the growing gender polarization among Generation Z. So, what happened? I was raised in a context that, although solidly conservative, accepted the presence of women in the voting booth and in the workplace as established progress. But I wound up embracing an ideology that framed these — and other widely accepted markers of gender equality — as the greatest mistakes our civilization ever made. What led me to such backwards beliefs? Did I naively believe in falsehoods about gender, leading me to genuinely think all in society would be better off if we restored patriarchal norms and structures? Sure, but what primed me to accept those falsehoods? It was all about my emotional response both to events in my personal life and to discourse occurring in the media, particularly on the internet. In short, the girl I was in love with in high school didn’t feel the same way. Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that because we had dated previously, but no one wants to hear any more high school drama than is absolutely necessary. For contextual purposes, you just need to know that her lack of reciprocation as well as a few things she did and said made me feel that women, mainly in the context of romance and dating, were shallow and manipulative. Yes, I know how dumb that is. Trust me,

STATEMENT

A former insider on the young male right

I feel pretty stupid for letting one person represent an entire group, and for judging someone so harshly when she was also just a teenager who didn’t yet know how to handle these things. The point is that I felt insecure, inadequate and unlovable. I despaired for my romantic present and future. Despair turned to anger, as it so often does. I resented the girl I loved, and since I felt like I had no shot at romance overall, I began to resent women as capricious gatekeepers barring me from the romantic connection I desired. There were, of course, tons of internet content creators happy to harness my resentment for profit and politics. I didn’t want to feel pessimistic and resentful, but everything my algorithm fed me propped up those feelings. I quickly “learned” that the sexual revolution had turned young women into short-sighted and shallow pleasure-seekers who hated children, that evolutionary biology could explain everything about the relationships between men and women and, of course, that men were the foundation of civilization who used to be given the deference they were entitled before feminism came along.

That’s part of my story, but there’s another aspect that helps explain why I, as a man, felt more comfortable and welcomed in conservative spaces than liberal ones. It’s the same reason many men are frustrated with, or outright antagonistic towards, social progressivism — the counterproductive way in which the left talks to and about men. There are two things I want to note before getting into this: I am speaking in broad terms about a diverse group of people who do not hold every single view in common or speak in the same way, so I am inevitably making generalizations. There exist parallel and conflicting cultural narratives which come from different places within the whole that makes up society, so it is possible for our society to both reinforce misogyny and patriarchy while simultaneously creating narratives which make men feel diminished or like they were born wrong. I believe that such narratives have developed among the left in our culture.

Firstly, there are narratives in our culture that are explicitly antagonistic towards men. A good example is the man versus bear internet trend. For the lucky ones

who are unfamiliar, this trend (though this word feels trivializing, I don’t know what else to call it) posed a simple question to women: While hiking alone in the woods, would you rather encounter a man or a bear? This simple question spawned a staggering quantity of mind-numbing arguments as most women chose the bear, and many men became angry. As I pointed out above, anger often begins as sadness. Encountering this trend for the first time honestly just made me feel awful. I know it’s not what women mean when they say this, but to hear it as a man feels like, “Because of the way you were born, you are worse than a wild animal,” and that just really hurts. So why would so many women say that? It comes from a place of real terror and trauma. I have no wish to minimize the fear of violence that women live with every day. The women who said they would choose the bear weren’t trying to hurt me or make me feel subhuman; They were crying out against the horrific things they have to deal with, against actually being treated as subhuman to the point of unconscionable sexual violence or death.

It obviously bears mentioning that these discussions are born from the suffering of women at the hands of men, but the fact that the problem

is real does not negate the harm caused by attempts to address it nor render any attempt constructive and effective. Likewise, the harmful effects of a given rhetorical approach do not mean we can dismiss the problem itself. Additionally, I expect some will react along the lines of, “Boohoo, your feelings are hurt. Maybe men should look within and try to be better instead of playing the victim.” 1) Hey, that’s dismissive, and 2) this approach doesn’t open up genuine discussion. It pits men and women against one another and inflames conflict by shifting focus away from the suffering of women and onto an argument about men. I think this perfectly demonstrates both where these narratives come from — a genuine struggle — and what the impact they have on men is, encouraging not empathy but antipathy as men hear the cutting insult rather than the cry for help. In addition to these directly antagonistic narratives, there is also a significant problem with the progressive approach to how gender is discussed and by whom. There seems to be an implicit assumption that feminism is the end-all-beall of gender discourse, which is understandable given historical context but is becoming insufficient if we want to keep everyone in the conversation on gender progress.

Echoes across oceans

Feminism, as defined by MerriamWebster Dictionary, is the “belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.” For the context of this discussion, I am referring more narrowly to feminism as a lens of analysis and criticism which is concerned specifically with the rights and interests of women. Feminism has been and remains important. I am not someone who believes feminism has gone too far; in fact, in many ways it has not gone far enough. Just look at our current government if you need a reminder because Holy. Fucking. Shit. What I am saying is that the exclusive reliance on this feminist lens to guide gender discourse has caused problems for progressives such as a hesitancy to acknowledge men’s issues and an insistence on filtering those issues, when acknowledged, through a feminist perspective.

This hesitancy to acknowledge men’s issues has left a vacuum. The fact that only right-wing or centristbut-right-leaning figures were interested in addressing these issues created a feedback loop where merely acknowledging the male perspective constituted right-wing rhetoric, resulting in an aversion from the left. This aversion has

eased recently, especially since the 2024 election, but there remains a distaste and a skepticism towards legitimizing the struggles of men on which right-wing figures have capitalized. Take, for example, an episode of leftist commentator Matt Bernstein’s A Bit Fruity podcast entitled “How the Right is Winning Young Men” in which he and journalist Taylor Lorenz discuss the reasons why Gen Z men broke for Trump in the 2024 election. Bernstein introduces the topic of the male loneliness epidemic with a drawn out groan, as if he’d rather be talking about anything else. I should say that I like Bernstein; he is intelligent and compassionate and generally has good takes. That’s why this upsets me so much. It felt like even a deeply compassionate person had to be forced to care about male struggles, and even then still didn’t care all that much. Later, he admits with clear difficulty that he has some genuine sympathy for lonely men but feels uncomfortable voicing it to a progressive audience. “As unpopular as it is on the left to give grace to the male loneliness epidemic, I have mixed feelings about it,” Bernstein said. “I’m picking my words carefully so the leftists don’t murder me.” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

The sanctity of the State Theatre and independent cinemas

The news reached me in fragments, like waves carried across an ocean, their sound scattered by the wind. A headline popped onto my phone screen at midnight, glowing against the dark of my small apartment: “Indonesian leader pledges to revoke lawmakers’ perks after protests leave 6 dead.” I stared at the words as though they were written in smoke, difficult to grasp yet impossible to ignore. I could hear, faintly, the city of my childhood roaring on the other side of the world. But from here, thousands of miles away, all I had were images on screens and the sound of my own heartbeat as I scrolled through video after video. It was the kind of distance that felt like exile. My body was safe, tucked away in a foreign country where the streets were quiet, but my mind was still back in Glodok, in the noisy alleys where fried noodles sizzled and incense smoke curled from shrines. I imagined those same streets filled not with laughter but with chants, banners and the echo of sirens. The thought pressed against me like a heavy stone.

The scandal did not surprise me. Corruption in Indonesia has always been a low hum, running in the background of daily life, like machinery. It was not a sudden revelation but the bursting of a blister that had been swelling for years. Fifty million rupiah each month for housing was not just excessive — it was a reminder of how deeply inequality had seeped

into the marrow of our politics. I remembered my aunt’s hands, cracked from years of cooking noodles for customers, and imagined her shaking her head at the news. “Of course,” she would have said, weary rather than shocked, her laughter edged with bitterness. Receiving the news while abroad made me feel doubly powerless. I could not stand beside her, could not march with students, could not even share in the collective rhythm of shouting against injustice. My protest was silent, flickering in the glow of a laptop screen.

Then came the news of Affan Kurniawan, the 21-year-old motorbike taxi driver killed after being run over by an armored police vehicle during the protest

crackdown in Indonesia. His face appeared in photographs: young, full of life, suddenly reduced to a symbol. I felt my stomach twist. I was alone in my room, yet the grief felt communal, like a tide pulling me under. I imagined his mother waiting at a doorway that would never open again. I imagined the weight of his empty helmet, like the husk of a fruit left behind. Distance sharpened the pain. In videos, students in Bandung fled tear gas on campuses where laughter and debate once filled the air. Women in Jakarta carried broomsticks in protest, sweeping motions turned into political gestures. Ojek drivers ferried passengers to rallies for free, engines buzzing like a collective heartbeat. I could not touch any

of it, but the imagery burned into me: smoke curling like ghosts around parliament gates, banners stretching like wings against the sky, voices colliding like thunder rolling across islands.

As a Chinese-Indonesian, the news of the brooding strife in Indonesia stirred another layer of unease. My family carried scars from 1998, when riots targeted Chinese communities, when doors were bolted and whispers carried fear like contagion. Watching today’s protests, I felt pride that Indonesians of all backgrounds were rising together, but I also felt the old fear surface like a shadow. What if anger once again turned toward us? What if the solidarity I saw on my screen fractured under

the weight of history? Abroad, my body was safe, but history was a cage I could not escape. The irony of distance is that it magnifies both fear and longing. In the quiet safety of a foreign city, I scrolled through images of smoke and fire, feeling each one as if it had seeped into my skin. My friends messaged updates: “Campus raided,” “Curfew tonight,” “Another arrested.” Their words arrived like stones dropped in water, rippling through me until I could hardly breathe. I wanted to be there, to shout with them, to hold up a banner, to pour water over stinging eyes. Instead, I pressed my palms against a cold desk and whispered into the silence: I am with you, even from here.

The protests revealed more than economic inequality. They revealed a fracture of trust, a mirror held up to a government that asked citizens to sacrifice while indulging itself. I thought of my father’s voice, always warning me that politics was dangerous, that survival mattered more than ideals. But as I watched young people flood the streets, I wondered if silence was also a kind of death. Their courage became a light, flickering through the screen, reminding me that belonging is not passive. Even far away, I was part of their demand for dignity.

Imagery crowded my mind. I saw Indonesia as a great ship, battered by storms, its passengers clinging together even as leaders feasted in the captain’s cabin. I saw the protests as fireflies, small sparks that, when gathered, turned into constellations bright enough to be seen even from across the sea. And I saw myself as a thread stretched taut between two places: anchored abroad, yet pulled homeward by every shout, every plume of smoke, every broom raised in defiance. The helplessness was heavy. Sometimes I sat by my window at night, listening to the stillness outside and imagining that if I closed my eyes, I could hear the echoes of Jakarta: the clang of pots against gates, the coughs from tear gas, the murmur of prayers woven into chants. The sound reached me like an echo underwater, distorted yet undeniable. I could not answer it with action, but I could answer it with hope, with words, with the stubborn act of bearing witness even from far away.

It’s 9 p.m. on a Wednesday in high school, Frank Ocean’s “Lost” is playing for the 16th consecutive time and I’m scouring Zillow for houses in Los Angeles. The current object of my fixation is listed for $2.5 million, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,762 square feet, nestled between leafy palm trees and behind a large shrub that shields it from the six-lane road it sits on the side of. The photos in the listing begin in the living room, where low-backed orange sofas are situated around a wooden coffee table laden with colorful books. The bedrooms and bathrooms blend together, save the primary bedroom (which looks like a mini ballroom) and the bathroom connected to it, which is decorated with black and white tiles that go halfway up the wall matching the gold knobs for the sink. There’s a newly-renovated kitchen, striking in its contrast between wood-stained cabinets and a gleaming porcelain countertop. My screen is split between the listing’s floor plan and Wayfair, as I browse their selection of nightstands. According to Google Maps, Thai Town — a bustling neighborhood of Thai family-owned restaurants and shops — is a 12-minute walk away and the Griffith Observatory — an iconic L.A. attraction and fodder for Hollywood movies — is only a 19-minute drive. For Friday nights after work, I can get dinner in Thai Town before driving up to the observatory and becoming dizzy with joy at the sight of the sprawling night view, or I can begin the night at the observatory by taking in the sunset and then join throngs of happy drunks in Thai Town afterwards.

To go for a weekend getaway, Long Beach is only a 40-minute drive away, and for Sunday mornings, there’s a sequestered French café down the street I can walk to and get a pastry.

In high school, I routinely carved out a life for myself in cities I’d never been to by putting a song on repeat and passing hours at a time on

In New Hampshire, there’s a mountain that is approximately 3,490 feet tall. With its barren, rocky summit, Mount Chocorua offers a scenic view of the surrounding mountains and sky. This past May, during the New England Literature Program, I hiked my way up to the top of this mountain. Outfitted in DriFit clothing, a University-ofMichigan-branded baseball cap and brown Oboz hiking boots, I carried all that I needed for the three-day trip — from sunscreen and a sleeping bag to cooking supplies and rain gear — on my back.

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that since I was in elementary school, I’ve considered myself to have a moderate fear of heights. According to the Cleveland Clinic, approximately 3-6% of adults suffer from acrophobia, an extreme fear of heights. And though I wouldn’t quantify my fear as extreme, I definitely am not a thrill seeker. On the playground, my hands would clutch the hot blue steel of the monkey bars as I looked down at the five-foot drop onto a bed of woodchips, nervously maneuvering from bar to bar. While the trampoline in my neighbor’s backyard was fun, my fear held me back from frontflipping like the rest of my friends. So, it might make sense that, before this past summer, I had never hiked up a mountain before.

Generally, science suggests that fear is a mix of nature and nurture. Over many generations, our fear system has evolved special sensitivity toward extreme dangers that have the potential to kill, such as poisonous snakes, sharp cliffs or loud noises (which, in the past, often meant that something dangerous or disastrous was nearby). Other fears are learned, either from experiences we have

STATEMENT

Dream worlds, realized

Zillow. This was my escape from the smallness of suburban life. My world, as a result, temporarily grew bigger.

*** Growing up, I lived in a threebedroom house in the suburbs of Metro Detroit inhabited by four Chinese immigrants (my parents and grandparents) and the three Chinese American children they were responsible for. It was a quintessential immigrant home, unlike the perfectly colorcoordinated interiors that graced home magazine covers. The walls of my house were all painted in the same blank shade of white, none of the furniture matched, toys littered every available surface and the floors were carpet, not hardwood, disfigured by holes where chairs had been pushed around too much and marker stains my siblings and I had made over the years.

Like any other child with unfettered access to the internet (save my grandma’s reprimands, which I always ignored), I spent a lot of time on YouTube. I was a devoted fan of SevenSuperGirls’ comedy skits and EvanTubeHD’s food challenges, but I also religiously consumed home organization tips and lifestyle hacks by channels like WhatsUpMoms and Brittany Vasseur.

No matter the genre of channel, however, all my favorite YouTubers lived in impeccably organized, twostory houses with aestheticallypleasing interiors. YouTube fought boredom, but it also became an early mechanism for comparison. At the ripe age of 7, my house became the object of my disgust and embarrassment. Because all my favorite YouTubers’ homes were objects of perfection, anything less than that was unbearable. For all its messiness and disregard for conventional rules of interior design, I couldn’t bear to show off my home to my friends.

Near the end of middle school, my parents revealed to my siblings and me, rather anti-climatically, that they were on the search for a new place for us to call home. Since their house-hunting was also my househunting, I scoped out the real estate landscape I’d begun to increasingly hear talks of by going to the place

where house, apartment and mortgage dreams come true: Zillow.

After I moved past simply gawking at the prices of houses in nearby cities every time I opened Zillow, I began perusing listings like they were in a home magazine: for my viewing pleasure. The homes I liked the most were out of our price range or entirely unrealistic — a one-bedroom cottage on the coast of Lake Erie or a sleek, onestory mansion that looked like it belonged to an art curator or a large farmhouse in rural Michigan — but it soon began to dawn on me that one day, I’d get to choose where I’d live, too. In Zillow, I now had a way to channel my need to beautify my childhood home.

This coincided with my need to escape suburbia. My life was boring. It centered around school — which I didn’t even particularly believe needed to be the center, but without which I didn’t know what else to prioritize — and was uneventful in all of the areas that coming-of-age films aren’t: partying, falling in love and making misguided decisions that are unrelated to school, but which reveal some universal truth about life to the protagonist.

Alongside this, my thirst for independence was beginning to grow. As the eldest daughter, I was beginning to feel the pressures of having to perform by showing up for my siblings and being an affectionate daughter that was two steps ahead of what I thought my mom would want me to do. Even while these pressures weren’t particularly intense, they were there, and I knew that I wasn’t strong enough on my own to resist them if I continued living with my family as an adult. In other words, I felt a need to escape my home.

Above all, I craved intrigue, mystery and romance. Imagining the repetition of going to and from work, the gym, grocery shopping, the occasional night out and inviting my family over weekly for dinner made me think that my life post-college wouldn’t be any more interesting than it had been in high school if I continued to live in the suburbs. I would only be able to beat back some of that boredom and

sameness if I lived in a big city.

Thus, I began using Zillow as a tool to imagine the kind of life I wanted as an adult. I knew I wanted to live alone for at least a few years as an adult, when I’d answer to no one but myself. So, I pillaged Zillow for high rises in Chicago, townhouses in Georgetown and lovely condos in L.A. I imputed the addresses of homes that caught my eye into Google Maps to check out the neighborhoods. I combed through Wayfair and IKEA for furniture that fit into each space and fell within the confines of my imaginary budget, based on my imaginary job in said city. This has led me to my idealization of New York City — a place I’ve never been to. However, a combination of the knowledge that it’s the most populated city in the United States, its diversity and the mantra that the Big Apple holds something for everyone has convinced me that it is my dream city to live in once I’ve secured a steady job post-graduation. It pulses with the unbeatable expectation that we’re not here on Earth to discover ourselves, but to create ourselves.

I know the world is big, which is a lucky byproduct of having grown up in the age of the internet,

but I’m scared that if I claim the suburban lifestyle as my own, I’ll unquestioningly accept that the world — or the one that matters — doesn’t extend beyond the confines of work and home. NYC oozes of salvation from the boredom, sameness and restlessness of living in the suburbs. So, yes, throw me into the company of thousands, if not millions, of New Yorkers who are equally as unsure of their identities as I am, and maybe I’ll get answers to some of the questions I’m seeking about who I am and what I’ve been born to do.

Living there, my life plays out in much the same way that it does in the other cities I’ve imagined myself living in. I take long walks through Central Park, invite friends over for dinner parties at my apartment and throw myself into the city’s rich culinary scene. My apartment is small, but I don’t mind its size because it’s my own and I’ve decorated it to my liking. No longer is my home my most potent source of embarrassment, but it’s a sign that when left to my own devices, I can make a beautiful living space for myself.

Ironically, my Zillow obsession only picked up after my family and

The view from the top of the mountain

as children or from conditioning by the people around us. It’s why, when a toddler falls, they often look up at their caretaker before reacting — a split-second pause before they decide if they’re going to cry or keep playing. Typically, these fears remain present throughout one’s life, which would explain why, at age 20, I’ve been able to move past monkey bars but am now afraid of mountain cliffs.

It’s not a surprise that I have a fear of heights. In addition to acrophobia being a sub-category of an anxiety disorder, there are several physical symptoms that are common between both acrophobia and generalized anxiety disorder — shortness of breath, rapid heart beat — which I’ve suffered from in the past. While climbing Mount Chocorua, my mind kept flashing to visions of me falling off the edge. It seemed like only one slip of my hand and I could end up sprawled out on the ground. Beyond the tree line, I searched for handholds among mossy rock. Unlike the straightforward dirt trail we had hiked earlier, the final hundred feet didn’t have a pre-determined route, so mental judgment of the safest possible maneuver was critical. I looked up to the sloping indigo peaks, then down at the dirt gathered under my fingernails. I maneuvered past brush and lichen, grappling with a mix of emotions and questions. “How would I be able to walk all day long carrying all of what I needed on my back?” I thought. “What would it be like to look out from the top of the mountain and know that after taking in the view, I’d have to climb down?”

When I arrived at the top, I looked out to a great expanse of trees and mountains as the other climbers appeared slowly as little dots in the distance. I felt microscopically small, one human being in an area where I couldn’t see any civilization. I sat on the rocks eating my tinfoil-wrapped turkey baguette, chatting with

I had moved. My new house was relatively clean and allowed for each of my siblings and I to have separate rooms, so the issue was never that I didn’t have enough control over how the space I lived in was decorated or not having enough space for myself at home. Rather, the dissatisfaction that led me to become attached to Zillow was born from an inability to realize the value of the present. Around my senior year of high school, the excitement of houseand apartment-hunting in NYC, or otherwise, began fizzling out. With Zillow, I was like a child that had been given a bottomless bag of candy, free to eat as much as I pleased. So, I indulged, gorging myself on the pleasure of unchecked sin. Still, pleasures that come easily don’t stay satisfying for long. Afterwards, the only way to maintain those initial levels of enjoyment is to increase the intensity of what it was that made me happy. Unfortunately, I had already attained perfection through tirelessly dreaming up, polishing and finalizing my ideal lifestyles in a multitude of cities. Any future enjoyment I derived from Zillow would only be lesser.

CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

my friends about the fear of the edge. We noticed how our minds jumped to images of tumbling, picturing what the danger would be like, but not in a perilous way. With a breathtaking sense of accomplishment and awe, I realized that, in a sense, I was overcoming my fear. Or perhaps I had come to understand the importance of it. My anxiety about climbing mountains might not have entirely been an obstacle I needed to overcome. On the way up, it kept me vigilant and aware of my surroundings. In the moments when I had tried to speed up my hiking pace in order to get to the top faster, I always ended up accidentally further inconveniencing myself. My steps became careless and my boots slipped on wet rocks. I fell forward and pine needles brushed my

eyelid. I resigned myself to the fact that perhaps a small amount of fear was good and was actually meant to keep me safe. Here in Michigan, there aren’t many mountains to climb. Plus, now that the semester is in full swing, I haven’t had the time to return to some of the local hiking trails I explored over the summer. Since I’m not at the top of a New Hampshire mountain looking at the physical cliff, my day-to-day is instead ruled by a larger, more amorphous anxiety. Questions like “Will I get good grades?”, “Will I have enough time for a social life with two part-time jobs?”, “Will I be able to secure an internship for next summer?”, riddle my mind. Just like on the mountain, there are multiple paths for me to take, and it feels impossible to know which will be the right one until I try.

Some weekends, I wake up Saturday morning and attempt to have a “no worrying” day where I forget all the things on my to-do list that are taking up real estate in my head and have a fun day of grabbing coffee with my roommates, strolling around the farmers market and forgetting about my problems. However, I always wake up Sunday morning with an underlying sense of existential dread. Now, the homework is there staring me in the face and I have no choice but to stop ignoring it. Despite trying to stifle the stress, it has come back like a boomerang to greet me. In this sense, my anxiety about staying on top of my life keeps me from falling off track. Similar to the vigilance I had on the mountainside, this awareness is holding me accountable back in my everyday life. Though I wish

my anxiety didn’t consume me, it has allowed me to stay on top of my responsibilities relatively well. On many days, the labor I perform feels similar to scaling Mount Chocorua. Two years of college behind me, I am more than halfway to the summit of graduation, but each day is a never-ending cycle — wake up, attend lecture, take notes, do homework, clock in, come home, make dinner, go to sleep. I’ll reach the top on a cold December day, like any other day I’ve lived so far except, this time, I’ll have obtained a degree. Until I make it there, I have to keep my lessons from Mount Chocorua in mind. I can’t speed up, or I might lose my footing. I can’t avoid the edge, or I might miss out on something grand. Perhaps when I reach the top, I’ll be as happy as I was when I reached the top of the mountain. There’s a lot of view to enjoy.

On Sunday afternoon, the looks were there for the Michigan field hockey team to continue its dominance. However, it couldn’t seize them and was outplayed by its opponent.

The eighth-ranked Wolverines (5-2) had won five games in a row leading up to this one, but they failed to keep up with James Madison (6-3), falling 3-1. Michigan gave itself chances, but it only managed one goal out of 29 shots, while the Dukes made better use of their opportunities with three goals on 10 shots.

“We had a ton of opportunities in this game,” Wolverines coach Kristi Gannon Fisher said. “And just some of the details weren’t there today.”

It was a slow, uneventful first quarter. Michigan’s difficulties converting shots on goal to points became abundantly clear with six consecutive unsuccessful attempts, while James Madison only had one. It felt like only a matter of time before the Wolverines could break through and score, but it was soon proven otherwise.

In the second quarter, the Dukes started to get more aggressive on offense, catching Michigan off guard. James Madison nearly

scored in the very first minute of the quarter, but a last-second block by junior midfielder Abby Burnett held them back. This only delayed the inevitable, though, as the Dukes continued to overwhelm the Wolverines.

Eventually, James Madison forward Madelief Molier managed to score off her own rebound at 6:05 into the quarter. Michigan attempted to retaliate with a goal of its own, but ended up missing an additional six shots on goal in the second quarter. The momentum that the Wolverines had been carrying in this initial part of the season had been stolen entirely by the Dukes.

“We’re focused in the same way in every game no matter if we’re coming off a win or a loss,” Gannon Fisher said. Michigan fell flat in the third quarter as well. James Madison received green cards on two occasions, but the Wolverines were unable to capitalize on the temporary player deficit. Despite changing its goalkeeper, Michigan’s defense was pushed to its limit, and Molier scored once again. A few minutes later, the Wolverines appeared to score, but the goal was discounted due to height danger, continuing Michigan’s scoring woes.

The Wolverines played a

predictable and static game for the first three quarters, and it cost them against the dynamic Dukes. In the final quarter, it was imperative for Michigan to change things up.

The Wolverines’ win streak was snapped.

“Teams can go one way or the other after a loss like this,” Gannon Fisher said. “We’re gonna stay as a family and go learn from it and grow from it. … Sometimes you learn a lot from losing games, even more (than a win), because you just gloss over things when you win.”

Michigan had all the right pieces that got it on its streak in the first place, but they were unable to put them together in the face of James Madison’s unrelenting offense and solid defense. And that made all the difference.

The Wolverines’ offense improved in the fourth quarter, and one of their 13 shots on goal was successful. Sophomore back Eva Bernardy finally got the ball past James Madison goalkeeper Molly Schreiner. With five minutes left in the game, Bernardy’s goal gave Michigan a boost in energy and confidence, but it was too late to stop the Dukes from getting the win. A third goal by Molier put James Madison further ahead and carried them to the final buzzer.

Michigan unable to overcome early deficit in 1-0 loss to UCLA

NASCHA MARTINEZ For The Daily

It was a game of almosts.

After its most recent defeat to preseason favorites, No. 15 Southern California, on Thursday, the Michigan Women’s Soccer Team’s (3-5-1 overall, 0-2-1 Big Ten) stamina stayed strong almost entirely throughout its Sunday clash with No. 4 UCLA (5-2-1, 2-0-1). Despite their efforts, the Wolverines still fell short to the Bruins, 1-0, after a quick early-game score became an insurmountable deficit.

From the onset of the game, it seemed like Michigan had a chance at bringing it back from a rougher start to the regular season. The first half featured a fight not just between UCLA and Michigan, but also between the Wolverines and themselves as they tried to regroup after the early goal from the Bruins.

However, it quickly became apparent that stamina alone was not going to cut it against UCLA’s sturdy backline. Michigan almost overtook the Bruins’ defense, but the early score from UCLA in the first half was a marker for the Bruin-biased 1-0 finale. The Bruins’

first point in the first three minutes left an urgency for the Wolverines that was only underscored in the lack of scoring by either team for the rest of the tense half.

The second half presented a novel opportunity for the tested Michigan team. The Wolverines almost scored multiple times in the second half, breaking through the Bruins’ seasoned defenders, but time after time were thwarted by the iron-clad UCLA defense. The Bruins’ unique defensive formation that incorporated both their offense and defense into precise defensive maneuvers kept

Crosses from Michigan forwards generate chances in UCLA defeat

With three shots the entire game and just one shot on goal, the Michigan women’s soccer team lacked the finishing touch in the final third against UCLA.

Conceding a goal in the third minute of the game meant the Wolverines’ offense faced an uphill battle from the start. Due to high pressure from its offense, there were periods of the game where Michigan succeeded in breaking down the Bruins’ backline. Although the ball never rippled against the back of UCLA’s net, the Wolverines narrow 1-0 loss proved them capable of battling with the fourth-ranked team in the nation.

Senior forward Kali Burrell was a prominent attacking force for Michigan from the first whistle. Playing as a left forward in the first half, Burrell set up junior forward Gabrielle Prych with a cross into the box in just the second minute of the game. Prych’s attempt was wide of the goal. A long ball from junior defender Campbell Jewell found Prych in the 17th minute, who flicked it wide to Burrell for another delivery into the box. Yet again, Burrell forwarded a cross that wasn’t capitalized on.

Offensive buildup from the left side of the field was a pattern for Michigan, as it struggled to generate chances from anywhere else. A few attacking opportunities generated from other areas of the field were called offsides, with four offsides calls going against the Wolverines throughout the game.

“We’re working on trying to switch the field a lot more, but it is the left side that we have been cutting down,” Burrell said. “So that’s also something that we could work on, is finding distribution from both sides.”

Even in the second half when Burrell was playing as a right forward, most of her contributions occurred when she made runs on the left side of the field. With 10 minutes left in the game, Burrell tracked back on the left side of the field to defend a Bruins attack. She then won the ball and, with pressure on her back, played a throughball to sophomore forward Elle Ervin, which resulted in a corner for Michigan. This was one of just two corner kicks for the Wolverines in the entire game, neither of which they converted.

The tendency for Michigan to attack down the left side was heightened by Jewell’s positioning as a left back. Out of the three players in the

Wolverines’ defensive line, Jewell had the most enthusiasm for attacking forward. Her long balls to center forwards or down the line to the left forward set up many of Michigan’s deliveries.

While the Wolverines generated some crosses, there were many other moments of their possession that fizzled out before reaching their full potential. In both halves, Michigan attempted to play quick balls in behind right after regaining possession. Many of those attempts resulted in immediate turnovers and wasted opportunities to create better chances, and increased UCLA’s offensive pressure that the Wolverines’ defense needed to be relieved of.

“When you defend for longer periods of time and then you get the ball, you feel like you have to do something so quickly,” Michigan coach Jennifer Klein said. “If we can just take a pause and value the ball a little bit longer, we’ll start to generate some more in the attack. We’re just rushing.”

While the Wolverines will likely be disappointed to end the game without scoring, their ability to build out wide to players like Burrell and deliver crosses into the box is something they will view as a bright spot.

Meleck Eldashoury/DAILY

Michigan from finding the back of the net.

The real struggle UCLA’s defense posed for Michigan was one far harder in practice than premise: keeping possession of the ball.

“We just need to find a way to keep the ball a bit better,” Wolverines coach Jennifer Klein said. “It is disappointing because we feel like we played enough to get a result but, it is what it is, we just gotta pick ourselves up and get to it offensively.”

Passes from sophomore defender Ellie Fife and senior defender Aniyah League kept UCLA from upping its score in

FIELD HOCKEY

the first half. Communication on the Wolverine’s defensive end, however, was partially inconsistent heading into the second half. Several shots from the Bruins slid all the way to the goal line, leaving it to sophomore goalkeeper Sophie Homan to block them before they could nestle into the net.

UCLA dominated the field and Michigan’s shortcomings became advantages for the Bruins, as the Wolverines fought to break through UCLA’s backline.

“That one goal is one goal, but the rest of the game we did really well,” Fife said. “Communication

was good. It definitely got better in the second half, but it’s improving every game.”

Fife’s point was well taken as Michigan had kept the Bruins from scoring again. Though the defensive recovery was an assured step in the right direction, navigating UCLA’s defense proved too challenging for the Wolverines to penetrate.

While in the second half Michigan displayed promising in defensive improvements, it was the early pitfall that stopped the Wolverines just short of a marquee win. As a result, Michigan remains winless in conference play.

Michigan defense smothers rival Michigan State in a 5-0 shutout

ELLIE ANTROBUS For The Daily

Even under a fair share of pressure Friday, the No. 8 Michigan field hockey team stayed cool and collected. Although Michigan State started strong, the Wolverines always had a response.

Michigan (5-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) faced off against the Spartans (3-3, 0-1), and its skilled defense propelled it to a shutout victory with a final score of 5-0.

“(We knew) tonight was going to be super fun if we focused in on all the basic things that we’ve been working on,” redshirt senior midfielder Emmy Tran said.

“So honing in on knowing that they’re going to come in with their guns blazing, that we need to do the same thing.”

That focus paid off, with the Wolverines putting on a defensive showcase from the beginning of the first quarter. Both teams came out aggressive, with much

FIELD HOCKEY

of the quarter being a back-andforth battle for possession. Each team was able to interrupt their opponent’s scoring chances, limiting shots to one for each side. Michigan State was given a penalty corner, inserted by back Caro Schafer, but the resulting shot was wide due to Michigan’s defensive pressure.

The game remained scoreless until exactly a minute into the second quarter, with junior forward Juliette Manzur scoring her fourth goal of the season. And that’s where the momentum began to shift.

Within the next five minutes of play, the Wolverines were granted four penalty corners. The Spartans effectively defended each of the first three attempts, demonstrating the ensuing defensive battle. However, on the fourth, Tran both inserted and capitalized on the same play, giving Michigan a 2-0 lead — and her first goal of the season.

The Wolverines once again took advantage of a penalty corner

inserted by Tran in the third quarter, extending their lead to three goals, before two more goals brought them to their final of five goals.

While Michigan’s skill on penalty corners gave it the offensive edge, the main factor that contributed to the victory was its lockdown performance on defense. The Wolverines stopped every penalty corner granted to their opponent, which paired with key saves by graduate student goalkeeper Caylie McMahon, shut out Michigan State. Over the course of the game, Michigan settled into its defensive rhythm and the momentum on both ends of the field began to shift in its favor.

“Defense is our trademark,” Wolverines assistant coach Ryan Langford said. “I think we probably get as much opportunity from stealing the ball from the other team than we do just building it … And it just builds, builds, builds.” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Emmy Tran shoots and shines in rivalry against Michigan State

EVELYN MONTAGUE

For The Daily

It was a career night for Emmy Tran. With it being her fifth and final eligible collegiate season as a Wolverine, the senior midfielder has trained and worked tirelessly alongside her teammates to become a strong presence in the middle of the field this season and vital part of the No. 8 Michigan field hockey team’s defense.

Taking advantage of the Wolverines’ rock solid Wolverine defense against Michigan State, Tran took her opportunity to score her first two goals of the season and help Michigan shutout the Spartans 5-0.

“Emmy Tran is a superstar,” Michigan assistant coach Ryan Langford said. “Even though she just scored for the first time tonight this season, she has been a rock in the middle all year and she will continue to be.”

After an aggressive yet quiet first quarter, Tran inserted a penalty

corner in the fifth minute of the second and finished it herself to score the Wolverines first goal against the Spartans. With the energy that comes from an early lead, Tran and freshman back Maxine Rogge helped turn the Michigan offensive approach towards the center of the field. With this shift in their focus, the Wolverines brought pressure upon the Michigan State defense. Switching the field and ultimately assisting the forward line towards the Spartan goalkeeper.

“Our big emphasis this game was to really use our midfield to change the direction of the ball,” Tran said.

“So I think me in the middle, as well as Maxine did a really good job of using that and using it to our advantage throughout the game.”

Following halftime, Michigan began to ramp up its play speed and really challenge Michigan State with Tran in the driver’s seat. Tran led the forward line with shots flying by the Spartan defense and banking on their mistakes. When the game slowed to another penalty corner, Tran started the play by passing to

graduate midfielder Claire Taylor, who assisted Rogge towards a goal that secured the third point for Michigan against Michigan State.

With the win in sight, Tran continued her aggressive manner till the end of the game. After the fourth goal of the game by graduate forward Abby Tamer, Tran continued her penalty corner trend and took another two shots towards the goal, underlining the Wolverines’ strong offensive pressure.

In the last minute of the game Tran took her final penalty corner insert of the game by passing to sophomore forward Payton Maloney, getting the return to finish the goal and earning the final point of the game. Tran served as a core integer in the Michigan offense and ultimately led them to victory.

The Spartans allowed Tran to find her fire as a strong shooter, marking her as a newfound weapon among the Wolverine team of fighters. And with it, Tran started her final regular season with two killer shots to confirm Michigan’s reign over the rival Spartans.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Immediately after the opening whistle of Saturday’s rivalry matchup, the Michigan volleyball team was flying to the net, seeking to impose its will on Notre Dame. Although the Fighting Irish (3-4) was able to match the Wolverines’ (9-1) energy and engage in a back-and-forth game, it was Michigan who harnessed its ability to put pressure on the opponent’s defense and commanded its way to a 3-0 victory.

Notre Dame’s gameplan to crowd the net was effective from the onset of the match. Early in the first set, the Irish used the Wolverines’ offensive playstyle against them, winning 50-50 matchups against senior middle blocker Serena Nyambio and junior opposite hitter Lydia Johnson. On the back of this energy, Notre Dame roared ahead to a quick 6-3 lead. But Michigan refused to allow Notre Dame to dominate the net, as a tone-setting block by sophomore outside hitter Ella Demetrician early in the first set put the Wolverines back within two, before a service error gave the ball back to the Irish.

These short runs of possession were indicative of a disjointed game, where a combination of staunch defensive efforts and combative front row matchups contributed to inefficient hitting from both teams. This was especially true of Michigan’s normally prolific hitters, like Demetrician and graduate outside hitter Allison Jacobs, who had negative hitting percentages for the majority of the first set.

“You’re going to see some errors when you’re trying to stay aggressive,” Michigan coach Erin Virtue said. “And I know that had to be something Notre Dame was thinking about too.”

But Michigan’s defense and back row held up, forcing similar errors from its opponents and intensifying the pressure on the Irish’s backline to find an offensive groove. A couple of key kills from Jacobs put the Wolverines back on top, 15-14, rallying Michigan to the first sustained service run of the game and a comfortable lead. The Irish quietly came back within two before a service error secured the Wolverines the set, 25-22.

The trend of being unable to string points together resumed at the beginning of the second set, with the teams combining for 21

attack errors and 17 service errors. Instead, the flow of the game was decided by moments that allowed Michigan to overcome mistakes and continue charging forward.

Jacobs, who leads the Big Ten with 152 kills, put the Wolverines in the lead, 5-4, galvanizing a strong service run that put Michigan in the driver’s seat with a 20-12 lead.

“The conversations … at the end of the second set were like, ‘This is not the time to let up, this is the time to finish, this is the time to keep going,’ ” Jacobs said.

The Irish’s outside hitter Sydney Helmers led an emphatic reply to bring Notre Dame back

within two. But Michigan once again sealed the second set on a service error from its opponents, 25-22.

Forcing mistakes was key for the Wolverines entering the third set, with the Irish tallying seven attack errors to just eight kills, as Michigan stormed to a 21-12 lead. Against a tiring Notre Dame front row, Nyambio and sophomore middle blocker Jenna Hanes put out strong performances, finishing the game with a combined seven blocks, dominating matchups they had previously struggled with. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM