04-16-2015

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HISTORY

Students prompted creation of SAPAC

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Teal forks are placed in the grass on the Diag on Wednesday afternoon to represent survivors of sexual assault at the University.

Campus sees push to increase activism around sexual assault Campus leaders cite policy modifications, increased involvement

By CAROLYN GEARIG Daily Staff Reporter

In the last two years, the University community’s attitude toward sexual assault has been frequently discussed and, at times, hotly debated on campus.

Most recently, a report in The

Michigan Daily identified a discrepancy between the definition of consent applied by the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy and the one taught by the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.

The Student Sexual Misconduct Policy describes consent is a “clear and unambiguous agreement, expressed in mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in a particular activity. Consent can be withdrawn by either party at any point.”

SAPAC’s definition goes farther, identifying consent as an explicitly verbal agreement, not satisfied by silence or body language.

Though the issue of sexual assault has faced scrutiny from University students and administrators, and even prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, a number of campus leaders say climate around sexual assault is improving.

SAPAC administrative coordinator Jen Sharkey, a University alum, said the positive culture

shift has been evidenced in part by an increase in the number of SAPAC student volunteers. Ninety-two students joined in January.

By contrast, 54 volunteers joined in 2014, 56 joined in 2013 and 25 joined in 2012.

She said part of the reason the number of volunteers increased so rapidly was because of a new class offered through the Health Sciences and Women’s Studies Departments called “GenderBased Violence: From Theory See ACTIVISM, Page 2A

Administrator’s comments spurred push for education on sexual assault

By ALYSSA BRANDON Daily Staff Reporter

It was a cold January day in 1985 when University students occupied former Vice President for Student Services Henry Johnson’s office to protest his comments regarding sexual assault that appeared in Metropolitan Detroit Magazine.

The magazine quoted Johnson saying, “Rape is a red flag word — in many people’s minds it conjures up something that’s to be suspect at best — a very bad environment to be in. (The University) wants to present an image that is receptive and palatable to the potential student cohort.”

He also compared rape to Alzheimer’s disease and mental retardation, saying it affected a

ELECTIONS

GOVERNMENT

Discussion highlights LGBTQ legal issues

A City Council candidates talk housing, police 2

Ford School hosts debate in advance of primaries in August

By ANASTASSIOS ADAMOPOULOS Daily Staff Reporter

The Ford School of Public Policy hosted a debate Wednesday between seven Democratic candidates running for City Council, addressing topics from affordable housing, police, traffic congestion and the electoral system in Ann Arbor.

The debate featured Ward 1 candidates Sabra Briere (D–Ward 1) and William Leaf; LSA senior Zachary Ackerman running for Ward 3; Jack Eaton (D–Ward 4) and Jamie Magiera running for Ward 4; and Mike Anglin (D–Ward 5) and Chip Smith for the Ward 5.

No Republicans are currently running for seats on the council, meaning that August’s Democratic primary will largely decide who takes office in November, unless candidates from other parties enter the race.

Public Policy Lecturer John Hieftje, former Ann Arbor mayor, organized and moderated the discussion with students from a class he teaches at the Ford School of Public Policy on local government.

Not all the candidates currently running for office participated in Wednesday’s debate. Councilmember Stephen Kunselman (D–Ward 3), up for reelection this

WEATHER TOMORROW

HI: 72 LO: 45

year, was not present. Sally Hart Petersen, who is running in the August Democratic primary for the Ward 2, was present in the audience, but did not participate in the debate.

In an interview after the event, Hieftje said an additional independent candidate running in the Ward 1, Jeff Hayner, also did not participate because the debate focused on the August primary and not the November elections.

Councilmembers Kirk Westphal (D–Ward 2) and Julie Grand (D–Ward 3), who are not up for election this coming year, were also present in the audience.

Affordable housing Many questions asked candidates to address the creation of more affordable housing in Ann Arbor. The issue has been discussed in various City Council meetings throughout the year — most recently, citizens spoke before council in favor of accessory dwelling units.

Accessory dwelling units are built within a property and can take the form of either a separate unit within one’s own home or a new unit attached to the house.

The unit can then be rented out.

Anglin said he believes reconsidering zoning regulations present a useful tool, as the problem must be dealt with on the neighborhood level.

Briere also favored zoning reconsideration to facilitate accessory dwelling units and denser neighborhoods. She added that all these schemes, however, would not solve the underlying factors that lead to expensive See CANDIDATES, Page 3A

small portion of the population and the issue may have to reach a crisis level “in order to get things done.”

He also said he didn’t anticipate a centralized rape prevention and treatment center because of the University’s current financial situation.

“Our responsibility is to provide, within our resources, a safe environment. Given the current (financial) climate, I just don’t see something labeled ‘rape prevention clinic’ or ‘office’ as necessarily germane to the mission of the institution. That’s a cold thing to say but it’s (so).”

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Holly RiderMilkovich, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness Program, said the comments were taken as offensive by sexual assault survivors on campus.

“It was not intended to be an affront to survivors on campus, but survivors on campus definitely took it that way,” she said.

University alum Pamela Kisch, See SAPAC, Page 3A

Lawyers point to challenges beyond same-sex marriage legalization DELANEY RYAN/Daily

By ISOBEL FUTTER

LSA seniors Kamille Tynes and Liana Kallman lead a march with low wage wage workers to attempt to raise the minimum wage to $15 on State Street on Wednesday.

Students lead march to raise minimum wage at the ‘U’ Protest supports national movement to raise pay to $15 an hour

By EMMA KINERY Daily Staff Reporter

Imagine a $15 minimum wage.

Protesters in support of raising the minimum wage to $15 for University staff marched to the Fleming Administration Building on Wednesday in hopes of receiving a response from the University.

LSA seniors Liana Kallman and Kamille Tynes led the protest, which called on the University and all of their subcontractors pay employees a minimum wage of $15 and recognize and bargain with the appropriate union or organization of employees.

Currently, the University sets minimum wage for temporary employees at the same rate as the state of Michigan. Minimum wage

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in the state of Michigan is $8.15 per hour. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed a bill into law last year that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $9.25 by 2018. Full-time University employees currently earn a University minimum wage of $22,320 per year, or $10.73 per hour.

The protesters at the University were not alone. The Guardian reported that protesters in cities across the country also rallied for a $15 minimum wage on Wednesday. These efforts follow decisions in Seattle and San Francisco to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and in Massachusetts to $11 per hour beginning in 2017.

These numbers have surpassed the $10.10 federal minimum wage President Barack Obama called for during his 2014 State of the Union address and in a speech at the University in April 2014 The protesters gathered on the steps of South Quad Residence Hall holding signs reading, “$15 for all workers” and “15 and a Union.”

They began by chanting: “What do

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we want? 15. When do we want it?

Now.” and “Low pay is not OK.” Several individuals came forward to share their stories pertaining to wages. One such individual was University alum Blair Ellis, who spoke dressed in his Starbucks uniform.

“Asking for $15 an hour is asking to be part of a conversation,” Ellis said. “A lot of people say why they don’t want $15 an hour; they say it’s going to hurt small businesses or be too much of a change at once, and that’s a conversation that could be had, but that’s a conversation that’s being had amongst people who are making $15 an hour. If we want to make decisions that will have the best outcome, we need to have people who are involved to be a part of it, and if those people are working, then they can’t be a part of it.”

While he spoke, a small group of counter-protesters against raising the minimum wage shouted at him and booed.

LSA senior Ryan Miller, a leader See WAGE, Page 3A

Vol. CXXIV, No. 104 ©2015 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com

Daily Staff Reporter

Before the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case on the legality of same-sex marriage, Outlaws, the University’s Law School LGBTQ organization, hosted a community conversation Wednesday on LGBTQ rights.

About 35 people attended the event, which began with speakers and then opened up to a Q&A session focused on LGBTQ issues in Michigan and the United States.

Speakers included Jay Kaplan, LGBT project attorney for ACLU Michigan, Lisa Ruby, Michigan Poverty Law Program attorney and Angie Martell and S. Kerene Moore, co-chairs of the Washtenaw County Bar Association LGBTQ Rights Section.

The conversation centered on the upcoming Supreme Court case on the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The court is scheduled to begin oral hearings on April 28.

The case could have several major implications, including the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage across the country.

Many attendees said they wished to know how the See LGBTQ, Page 3A

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News

2A — Thursday, April 16, 2015

MONDAY: This Week in History

TUESDAY: Campus Voices

WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers

FIGHT FOR $15

THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

#Victors2019 have taken to Twitter to share their excitement about officially attending the University.

“Deposited my money for U of M. I’m officially a Wolverine (even though I’ve been one my whole life) #Victors2019

-@Justine_Ezell

“ DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Ann Arbor resident Blair Ellis marchs in solidarity with low wage workers on Wednesday in an attempt to raise the minimum wage to $15.

ACTIVISM From Page 1A To Action.” The class, taught by Nursing Prof. Michelle Munro — a former participant in SAPAC’s Peer Education Volunteer Program and University alum — requires enrolled students to undergo SAPAC or SafeHouse volunteer training. In January, the class brought 30 new volunteers to SAPAC. Sharkey has been employed by SAPAC since 2010, but has been involved with the organization since she was a freshman at the University in 2002.

When she was a student, Sharkey said, SAPAC volunteers mainly focused on starting an initial dialogue about sexual assault, rather than facilitating it.

“It didn’t feel as prevalent or relevant as it does today,” she said. “I feel like I was the student in class who was trying to bring in that perspective, and we had to try really hard to get volunteers and build relationships to do our workshops.

Now, there’s not so much of a need to go out looking for that because people are coming to us.”

LSA junior Fabiana Diaz, who said she was sexually assaulted as a freshman, said there was a point at which she felt isolated and unable to tell anyone about her experiences.

“When it first occurred, it was very a hush-hush situation,” she said. “I felt like I couldn’t speak to anyone about it. There were no communities where I felt I could talk to anybody about it except SAPAC.” Diaz, a SAPAC volunteer and former LSA representative in the Central Student Government assembly, said she has seen a positive shift in campus climate since her first year here in 2012.

“I see it way more in my classes, and when I’m walking around I hear people talking about it,” she said. “The awareness is getting out there. I would still say there is a stigma around it but I’m seeing a lot of survivors sharing their stories. That bravery has opened a lot of doors and has given us a voice.”

Two years later In September 2013, the University debuted a new sexual misconduct policy, shifting from a model driven by complaints to one that more actively involves University investigators.

The University’s debate team has reached a historic win for their senior members.

“Debate Team wins 2nd place at 69th annual National Debate Tournament for 2nd year; historic achievement for seniors.”

-@umich

In the new policy’s first year, there was a sharp increase in the number of cases of reported sexual misconduct — which the University defines as “unwanted or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is committed without valid consent, including sexual assault and sexual harassment.”

According to the first Student Sexual Misconduct Annual Report released in November, 129 cases were reported to the University between June 2013 and June 2014.

By comparison, 83 cases were reported from 2012 to 2013, 62 were reported from 2011 to 2012 and three were reported from 2010 to 2011.

In January 2014, the Daily reported that former Michigan football kicker Brendan Gibbons was “permanently separated” from the University after he was found responsible for sexual misconduct.

A Title IX complaint filed over this case ultimately resulted in a federal investigation into the University’s handling of sexual misconduct.

In April 2014, the Office of Student Life hosted a panel discussion in partnership with the Daily about the University’s sexual misconduct policy, which included numerous administrators — SAPAC Director Holly Rider-Milkovich; Dean of Students Laura Blake Jones; Jay Wilgus, Office of Student Conflict Resolution director; and Anthony Walesby, the University’s Title IX coordinator. The panel drew 40 students.

“We are trailblazers,” Blake Jones said at the panel. “And an institution that most of the country looks to in terms of our prevention and education efforts.”

In September, Central Student Government planned a number of events pertaining to sexual assault in response to the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign, which aims to end sexual assault at universities across the country.

In October, protesters covered the Diag with a list of seven demands calling for the University to improve campus sexual assault policies. Students carried mattresses around campus to raise awareness of sexual assault and abusive relationships as a part of the national Carry That Weight campaign. The campaign originated when Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz began carrying a mattress around the New York City campus in September after her alleged rapist was found

not responsible for sexual misconduct by Columbia.

LSA junior Donald Lyons is the co-coordinator for SAPAC’s Men’s Activism Volunteer Program, which focuses on engaging men in the conversation surrounding sexual assault through workshops with a variety of campus communities like fraternities, athletics and ROTC. Lyons said in the past few years, he has seen the Men’s Activism program triple in size, indicating men are becoming more involved in the dialogue about sexual assault. He said Carry That Weight exemplified this progress and campus-wide progress overall.

“If I were to choose one moment this year where I was like, this is going to be something that’s huge, that’s going to get people involved, it was Carry That Weight,” Lyons said. “I think that day on campus was so powerful.”

At SAPAC’s 28th annual Sexual Assault Speak Out in November, survivors were invited to speak openly about their experiences and attendance was so high — nearly 300 people — that it was standing room only.

LSA junior Anna Forringer-Beal is a co-coordinator for SAPAC’s Networking, Publicity and Activism program, which organizes the Speak Out. In the five semesters Forringer-Beal has volunteered with SAPAC, she said she’s seen a shift in how prominent the issue is on campus.

She added that this year’s Speak Out was indicative of this shift.

“I’m so proud that we had such a huge attendance,” she said, “So many people came and shared and spoke and really took ownership of their healing and their experience.

Bringing up these issues and talking about it and creating a space for survivors to share is just so monumental.”

In January, University President Mark Schlissel announced that the University would randomly survey 3,000 students about the climate and knowledge of sexual assault on campus, the results of which are now in and being compiled.

The University is also part of a 27-school survey distributed by the Association of American Universities to compare trends in sexual assault across campuses nationwide. This survey was sent to students March 31.

“I figured that it would be valuable to have us be able to compare our data to that at a lot of different schools that are similar, big research universities, but different than us, to see how we’re doing,” Schlissel said in a January interview with the Daily.

CSG, LSA Student Government and the Engineering Student Government passed resolutions in February and March supporting the addition of the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy to course syllabi. These proposals recommend but do not require professors to add the policy.

LSA junior Laura Meyer, SAPAC volunteer coordinator, approached several student governments with the idea in February and CSG passed the resolution on March 17.

LSA senior Corey Walsh, former LSA-SG vice president, said there has been increased talk within the organization on this issue “I think it’s permeating a lot of student organizations right now across the spectrum, partially because of the campus climate surrounding it and partly because of national campaigns like It’s On Us,” Walsh said. “I think it’s something everyone can get on board with and

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wants to put an end to.”

LSA senior Emily Lustig, the former CSG vice president, echoed Walsh’s sentiment.

“Sexual assault awareness in general has exponentially increased across campus,” she said.

“I think we have a really strong community that is really passionate. I think it has fostered a very different environment than the one I came in to.”

Additionally, the recent Daily report raised questions regarding how the University handles the investigation and sanctioning processes following a report of sexual assault — pointing out discrepancies between SAPAC’s definition of consent and the definition outlined in the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy.

In response to the article, SAPAC updated information on its web page about consent.

“One of the core values that guides SAPAC’s work is respect,” the new page reads. “And for SAPAC, consent is respect. As we work towards a world free of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking and sexual harassment, we promote equality and respect for all members of our community through our commitment to primary prevention. Our primary prevention approach is centered on our vision and hope for a future where we all expect consent for sexual activity to be verbal or oral, sober, and enthusiastic.”

However, language around the University’s definition of consent — as articulated in the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy — remains largely unchanged compared to a version of the website updated on Jan. 17, 2015.

Culture shift and targeting specific demographics In the last year, perhaps one of the most concentrated studentdriven forums for discussion about sexual assault and violence was the Culture Shift retreat in January.

Forringer-Beal, Diaz and LSA juniors Meagan Shokar and Olivia Rath organized the two-day event in conjunction with the Office of Student Life to focus on topics such as rape culture and the University’s sexual misconduct policy.

“We wanted to bring people, and bring student leaders, together to give them a space to learn and collaborate,” Forringer-Beal said. “It was a strategic way to try and have this conversation collectively.”

Diaz said one of her goals is to bring more identities to the conversation, from men to members of the LGBTQ community to Black students.

“We need more intersectionality on our campus,” Diaz said. “We always focus on one identity, when survivors have multiple identities. We want to continue educating because that is the only way this will happen — by educating student leaders, who will pass that down. There’s not a united place where (student leaders) can all come together, and that’s what we are trying to do with Culture Shift, so we actually do create a shift in our culture.”

In this vein, Lyons said he hopes some of the dialogue about sexual assault will help men to broaden their perspectives and understand more nuanced narratives.

“Since there’s so much popular discourse around sexual assault, a lot of narratives end up being ‘those poor women’ narratives,” he said. “This can

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Ruza said she’s noticed a change University alum Josh Buoy, one now that sexual assault is a more of I Will’s founders, said in Febru- prominent part of campus converary 2013 that the program would sation. place additional focus on men.

“When I was a freshman, I went “Sexual assault and violence through Relationship Remix and takes so many forms beyond rape, we had that hour and a half long and that’s what we really want to conversation, and then it died off do — we really want to educate — and the conversation ended,” she what qualifies as sexual assault said. “What I’m starting to see now because I think so many people, is that conversation is continuing in especially of the male gender, don’t a lot of aspects on campus.” know what it is,” Buoy said. “With Ruza said she thinks that a lot this campaign, we’re working with of progress needs to be made, both everyone where they are.” among students and administraLSA senior Hannah Crisler, I tors.

Will director and a former ath“I think there’s a ton more work lete, said she saw a big change, to be done,” she said. “For a lot of especially within athletics, after it campus, this really isn’t a topic of was reported that former football conversation. I think that adminkicker Gibbons was permanently istrators are recognizing that stuseparated from the University in dent voices around this issue are January 2013. critical, and that students really do “It’s just so prominent in our have a unique perspective. More culture right now,” she said. “Defi- work can be done in terms of edunitely having one of your star foot- cating the campus and raising ball players kicked out of school for awareness.” doing a horrific act is going to stir Diaz said, she most of all hopes up the water.” to see more education on campus I Will regularly hosts coffee about sexual violence. shop events for students to talk “I wish that, on campus, everyabout specific issues, in addition one knew what a survivor was, to workshops with CSG and other and the real statistics of it, and the campus organizations and an whole idea that it can happen to awareness week every April. you,” she said. “It’s very possible.

What the future holds It can happen to your friend, your Public Policy senior Laurel roommate. One people start openRuza, the former CSG vice speak- ing their eyes to those facts, I think er, is an It’s On Us student orga- we’ll see a shift in our culture.” nizer. Though she wasn’t directly

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housing in Ann Arbor.

“We are not going to get anywhere if we don’t also tackle the income disparity that’s in our community,” she said “And that’s a bigger issue than just talking about housing affordability.”

Leaf also noted that restriction of housing supplies due to current zoning restrictions is a fundamental cause of expensive housing in the city.

Read the rest online at michigandaily.com

of the countermovement, said he led the protest because he believes minimum wages are destructive, in part because they cause people to lose their jobs when employers can’t afford to pay all of their employees after a pay raise.

Miller said raising the University minimum wage to $15 would not be beneficial for the community.

“Prices will go up, prices will be worse off in the long run,” he said.

The protesters marched from South Quad to the steps of the Michigan Union. Upon reaching

SAPAC From Page 1A then an LSA undergraduate, was among the students who participated in the sit-in. In an interview with the Daily, Kisch said one of the goals of the sit-in was to educate Johnson about sexual assault on campus.

“We spent the day in his office and we educated him about date rape and acquaintance rape, and that those were huge issues on campus, and the things he said in the magazine weren’t true,” she said.

Kisch also said she and other protesters felt University administration did not view sexual assault as a relevant issue on campus.

“The comments he made really made it clear to us that University administration didn’t really take these issues seriously and were really kind of clueless about the lives of women on campus in this regard,” she said.

Rider-Milkovich said students also wanted to discuss the need to open a rape crisis center for students on campus.

“The students really wanted for there to be more institutional infrastructure and for there to be more of a comprehensive and integrated response, and more specific dedicated resources for sexual assault survivors,” she said.

Following the protest, University administrators created a task force comprising students and administrators to develop an outline for a sexual assault program for the campus community.

“It couldn’t be just a little office somewhere,” Kisch said.

“It needed to be its own program, with its own budget and director and needed to be on Central Campus.”

In May 1985, the University approved $75,000 for an assault prevention program for the campus community.

Students played a significant role in helping operate the program early on. Kisch collaborated with fellow protester David Lovinger to develop the Peer Education Program and become the program’s first co-leaders.

“We trained students and sent one man and one woman to groups of students to model and demonstrate things like stereotypes around men and women and what consent really was,” Kisch said. “The Peer Education Program launched even before the first director was hired.”

It was not until February 1986 that the program officially opened and named the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, hiring Julie Steiner as the first director.

In 1988, SAPAC launched its 24-hour crisis line, which was, at first, monitored by students.

Rider-Milkovich said they even-

the Union, individuals were given another opportunity to discuss why the cause was important to them. Tynes recounted times she simultaneously worked and took classes at the University, when she worried about being evicted from her apartment and her electricity being turned off.

“I’m here today because I understand the struggle; I understand not living a lavish life, but still just trying to have the bare minimum,” Tynes said. “As a worker, and as a student worker, we have to do something to make sure that people aren’t struggling. Some people are just trying to eat food — we are not a third world country — and at the University of Michigan, we are the

tually decided to hire professionals for the job to protect students from trauma.

“The University made the determination that students who were staffing the crisis line and answering crisis line calls would sometimes experience secondary trauma and came to the decision that that was not responsible for us to allow,” she said.

Rider-Milkovitch also said another one of SAPAC’s bigger innovations was transforming the program to focus more on intervention rather than sexual assault education.

“We wanted to move away from awareness raising kind of model to one that focused more on primary prevention and promoting healthy sexuality,” she said. “Now, college campuses across the country are mandated to provide that type of training.”

This year, as SAPAC celebrates its 30th anniversary, RiderMilkovich said she wants to work with her colleagues to continue providing necessary innovations for the program.

“We are always scanning the horizon and looking for what are the most promising practices out there,” she said. “We ask ourselves, ‘What are new ideas that need to be tested? What are ways in which we see gaps in the kinds of services the campus provides that we might innovate or pilot for the benefit of students and others?’”

leaders and the best, so we need to take up and step up and fight for 15.”

Kallman advised the protesters to leave one of their large banners lying on the steps of the Union so that passerby would see them.

From there, the protesters continued on to the Fleming Administration Building.

Sociology Lecturer Ian Robinson attended the rally and spoke in favor of raising the wage.

“I would say almost everybody on the council is strongly supportive of this because we realize that we can’t really have a labor movement that’s just comprised of unions,” Robinson said. “If we had just kept up our minimum wage with inflation, let alone productiv-

LGBTQ From Page 1A Supreme Court decision will impact LGBTQ families in Michigan as well as understand the current legal landscape.

Moore, who is also the vice president of the Jim Toy Community Center — a group focused on offering resources to LGBTQ individuals in Washtenaw County — said she thought the law community as a whole was becoming more open to granting legal statuses to LGBTQ individuals.

One example, she noted, is how courts are addressing divorces between same-sex couples.

“We’ve had a few judges here in Washtenaw County who have entertained annulments and we had one judge perform a divorce,” Moore said. “It’s a lot of pressure, but the legal community is coming around. We’ve been working on the conversation of how to give same-sex marriage these legal rights.”

Martell, an attorney specializing in family law, said the legal definition of marriage is also an ongoing issue. She said many in the legal community still disagree over the differences between marriage as a civil concept and marriage as a religious institution.

According to Martell, civil marriage doesn’t differentiate between gender or sex, whereas many conceptions of religious

Thursday, April 16, 2015 — 3A ity, in the real dollar terms back in the late ’60s, we’d be about $18 an hour for minimum wage.”

During this portion, some of the leading members of the movement marched inside to speak with University President Mark Schlissel, but when they reached his office, they were met by police officers.

The protesters said they handed the officers the list of demands, read them aloud and left. They said they have already e-mailed the regents and are awaiting a response from them. If the regents do not answer, protesters said they are willing to take less “polite” action.

“We explained to them that we’re doing it politely this time, we’re not trying to walk in there

marriage do.

“I believe the U.S. Constitution has required universal marriage equality,” Martell said. “We’ve gotten lost in the difference between civil marriage and religious marriage.”

Kaplan, from the ACLU, addressed the potential aftermath of the Supreme Court case specifically, citing several other issues as areas of concern for the LGBTQ community in Michigan.

“One fear that I hold is that many people will think that once we have marriage equality, that everything will be taken care of,” Kaplan. “We still have tons of issues to take care of. For example, in most communities in Michigan, it’s legal to be fired from a job because you’re gay.”

Kaplan also touched on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has generated national controversy in recent weeks following the passage of a similar proposal in Indiana.

The RFRA is also a federal law that aims to protect religious freedom by allowing businesses and individuals to not follow laws they deem in violation of their religious beliefs. Because of a 1997 Supreme Court decision that ruled the federal RFRA not applicable to state laws, multiple states have passed their own state RFRAs. In Michigan, no RFRA has been passed, but a bill has been introduced several times over the past few years.

“The marriage equality for

and cause a ruckus, but that’s not going to be true next time,” Ellis said.

University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the University has received the list of demands but has yet to address them.

“It’s not unusual for our students to make their point of view known on different topics and we certainly respect their rights to bring this issue to the attention of the University community,” Fitzgerald said.

“At this point, they did drop off a letter to the president’s office, and we’ll have to take a careful look at that.”

same sex couples is coming, and (RFRA) is the last gasp of people trying to find their way around it,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan also highlighted some challenges transgender people face in Michigan.

“We make it very hard for transgender individuals to get a driver’s license or a state ID,” Kaplan said.

“We require that a transgender has to have surgery and have a gender mark and change on a birth certificate. This is expensive, complicated and dangerous to many people.”

Ruby, with the Michigan Poverty Law Program, focused her remarks primarily on discrepancies found in Social Security, adoption agencies and public benefits for LGBTQ individuals.

Following the speaker’s remarks, the panel opened up to questions from the audience, many of which touched on personal questions such as how they could file for taxes as a same-sex couple or what their legal rights were if married in a different states.

The conversation ended on the topic of homophobia. Ruby said she hopes the idea of homosexuality was becoming less alien to people. She recounted her former fear of using the term “wife” to address her partner.

However, she said she receives many positive reactions to her relationship and no longer feels that kind of discomfort.

Opinion

4A — Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Finding the peanut butter to your jelly

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BENJAMIN KELLER | VIEWPOINT

Individuals, not parties The 2016 presidential campaign season has just started up its proverbial engines, and many see this election as simply a decision of Republican versus Democrat as opposed to a competition between two unique individuals who happen to belong to their respective political parties. As Paul Krugman wrote in a recent New York Times article, regardless of who our next president is, their platform will be fairly predictable simply based on their party label. This reality clearly has palpable effects on our nation and its governing system — as parties become more extreme and drift further away from one another, it becomes increasingly difficult to effectively govern a nation that is yearning for some degree of action out of Washington D.C. Krugman wrote, “ … there has never been a time in American history when the alleged personal traits of candidates mattered less.” To me, the personal characteristics of an individual vying to become arguably the single most important person on the face of the planet should certainly have an effect on voting tendencies. For instance, a candidate may possess all the right ideas, but if they cannot communicate those policies or lack the necessary skill of conveying those ideals to our nation’s policy makers, then it would not be wise to put that person in a position of considerable power. Or, if a candidate is particularly divisive and is unable to work cooperatively with other members of government, then that person is, similarly, likely unfit for office. Personal traits can go a long way in alleviating many of the issues that currently bottleneck our governing system.

Recently, there have been several campaign announcements — Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have all told the world they will attempt to become the next president of the United States. The fact remains that all of these candidates carry their own personal baggage, and both parties are already churning out attack advertisements targeting one another.

Thus, it is possible that we haven’t found

one uniting persona because of both parties’ immediate inclination to write off any member of the opposing party as wholeheartedly incorrect in their political assertions. Certainly, part of campaigning involves juxtaposing oneself with the other candidate with regards to policy platforms. However, as Mr. Krugman puts it, “(this) level of political polarization (has) not (been) seen since the Civil War.” What this country truly needs is an individual who possesses not only a sound mind able to advocate positive policy reforms, but also the all-too-important quality of being able to serve beyond their party label and work alongside — in a friendly manner — those across the aisle. Obviously, this type of person is fairly hard to come by, but some of our greatest presidents have been able to fit this description.

Names such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and others conjure up feelings of better times in simpler eras.

Yet all of these men faced tremendous adversity stemming from political opponents — but their personal traits helped to guide the nation through those times of peril.

Can we expect another legendary president to ascend our nation’s political hierarchy any time soon? We can only hope. For now, however, it remains imperative that we elect someone with a personality that will be more than suitable for the White House. Moreover, we must all work to collectively shed the extreme labels of our political parties, and try to once again form a government that will cater to the true needs of an increasingly anxious population.

Obviously, most of my rhetoric sounds extremely idealistic and general in nature.

Nonetheless, I would contend that these ideals aren’t necessarily at the conscious forefront of some of those who occupy the highest positions in our government. Hopefully this message will be heard by our current leaders, along with those who aspire to one day be in government — even the presidency.

Benjamin Keller is an LSA freshman.

KEYA PATEL | VIEWPOINT

Awareness doesn’t equal action On March 8, when you saw a post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #InternationalWomensDay or #IWD2015, what did you do? Did you like or share the photo? Did you try to figure out more about International Women’s Day? Did you question gender boundaries?

You, like me, probably did nothing. At most, you read the content, sent out a quick response or had a conversation about the topic, and then moved on. Through talking about three campaigns, I will show you that a human rights social media campaign has no impact on long-term change. These campaigns only raise awareness for a short amount of time, and then become erased in memory.

On International Women’s Day this year, one of the most popular campaigns was the #NotThere campaign. Social media users removed their profile photos and replaced it with the silhouette of a woman, showing that there is a long way to go to achieve gender equality. According to the New York Times, the campaign also removed women’s faces from 40 advertisements — leaving blank spaces where Scarlett Johansson was on the March cover of W magazine and where Serena Williams was on a billboard in Times Square.

The #NotThere campaign was great for a one-day campaign: it drove over 100,000 people to learn about gender equality by visiting the Not There website and interacting with data involving the status of women and girls. But I, like journalist Mahvish Ahmed, believe many readers and future activists needed to hear more of the emotional stories to understand the heart of the human rights issue instead of just seeing the numbers. Now more than a month after International Women’s Day, #NotThere is literally not there and the data is no longer publicized. #NotThere brought up gender inequality issues for one day, allowing the public to momentarily be more aware.

Beginning in late September 2014 and ending on Dec. 15, 2014, the Occupy Central conflict began in Hong Kong through protests.

According to an article in The China Journal by Ian Scott, the campaign’s primary demand was for citizens to directly nominate and elect the chief executive of Hong Kong’s government, instead of only having pro-Beijing chief executives elected. Western and international media quickly called these protests the

“Umbrella Revolution,” since protesters used umbrellas to protect themselves against police brutality by tear gas.

On social media, Occupy Central created its own handle (@OCLPHR), which served as a united front to update protesters and share information. Content was released by protesters and supporters through the #OccupyHK and #UmbrellaRevolution hashtags. The social media campaign encouraged those in Hong Kong to unify and protest, and also allowed for international recognition on the human rights issue. Now, over six months after the Occupy Central campaign, the Hong Kong government has not budged, and requests for a complete democracy have been ignored.

The final example of a human rights social media campaign is the Human Rights Campaign’s support for marriage equality initiative. On March 25, 2013, the campaign launched, asking supporters to change their profile photo to a red-tinted version of the HRC logo. The new logo symbolized supporting marriage equality as the United States Supreme Court debated California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Celebrities, prominent brands, politicians and the American public turned the Internet into a sea of red, with over 2.7 million Facebook users updating their profile photos. Many think this campaign was successful due to mass awareness of the marriage equality discussion and what was and currently is at stake. Although there was mass awareness, I do not think most people learned more about human rights challenges facing non-heterosexual couples. To me, the mass awareness was more about everyone on social media feeling the need to fit in for a 24-to-48 hour period instead of gaining knowledge and advocating for long-term changes in marriage equality.

The International Women’s Day #NotThere campaign, Hong Kong’s Occupy Central campaign and HRC’s marriage equality campaign were all initiatives amplified by social media over a relatively short amount of time. In order for these campaigns to have any sort of long-term impact, campaign organizers must motivate social media users to understand the core of the issue and then provide clear action points to inspire change.

Keya Patel is an LSA senior.

T

he concept of choice is really interesting, both in economics and its real-life implications. When you eat out for lunch, what makes you choose one restaurant over the other? It’s easy to justify decisions like that by saying, “It’s what I wanted.” But why did MICHAEL you want it?

SCHRAMM Basic economic theory tells us that human beings are rational and make decisions that maximize their utility, or benefit, from a purchase. This makes a lot of sense and is pretty intuitive. If you’re deciding between an apple and an orange, if you want the apple more, you’re going to pick it because it provides you more utility.

But this model of human rationality doesn’t always hold, and it only leads us to wonder why we make the purchases that we do.

Take, for instance, the paradox of choice. This theory states that providing humans with more options can actually hinder people from choosing what they want the most. Traditional economic theory assumes that a consumer with more options will be able to evaluate the utility of each option and choose the one that’s best for them. Since consumers have more options, they should benefit through having more options to maximize their utility.

Contrary to this notion, a recent study revealed that consumers with just six options for jelly were more likely to purchase one than those who were offered 24. The intuition behind this idea is that humans have a more difficult time processing all the avail-

able options, and will therefore have a harder time coming to a conclusion.

See how it can be much more complicated than, “It’s what I wanted?”

Traditional economics fails to incorporate human irrationality and psychological functioning into its model. This leads to a big problem, in that it insinuates humans are stiff in an unrealistically robotic manner.

We’re not robots.

Instead, factors outside of rationality mix with utility to explain why we consume what we do.

Take, for instance, our capacity for exerting energy. A robot is capable of performing tasks with the same level of energy and precision, but if we as humans are constantly bombarded with the need to make decisions, we get tired. Choosing something over something else requires energy.

At times when we must make decisions in rapid succession, we have the potential to lose the desire to maximize our utility, and we just want to be finished with a task.

I’ve certainly experienced this.

After winding through the aisles of a grocery store, I’m ready to check out. So when I get to the cheese section, I’m ready to just throw in the first pack of square dairy that I see, whether it’s pepper jack or muenster.

We’re also susceptible to our emotions influencing which decision we believe maximizes our utility.

This is exemplified by the concept of overconfidence, which states that we’re more susceptible to purchase something when we or others have trust in it. It doesn’t matter whether the product is actually trustworthy, but rather, what’s important is that consumers believe something is trustworthy. For example, if you grow up in a household that only

purchases Jif peanut butter, it’s pretty likely that you’ll develop an inherent trust in the product. If this happens, you’ll have more trust in Jif peanut butter, and likely purchase it, whether or not it’s actually the brand that you’d like the most.

So we’re not completely rational, but economics can still help us explain why we choose to consume certain things over others. Though the traditional model isn’t completely accurate, when we incorporate what we know about human irrationality, we can adjust the model to account for human emotion and psychology.

It’s important for us to recognize the power of what these theories can do for us. They have the power to tell us why we consume what we do, and what obstacles cause us to make irrational decisions. Knowing the intricacies of concepts like paradox theory provide us a portal into our own mindset and why we choose to purchase what we do. If we understand these theories, there’s also a possibility that we can become mindful of our irrationality, which could lead us to force ourselves to overcome our initial irrationality in place for what maximizes our utility.

At the very least, when you have 24 options of grape jelly, make sure to at least pick one. If you really can’t decide, I’d recommend grape. And don’t immediately pick the peanut butter that you grew up eating. Try some variety. Natural peanut butter does wonders over regular in stickiness value.

After writing this column, I’m going to need a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, whether it’s rational to consume or not.

— Michael Schramm can be reached at mschramm@umich.edu.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Ben Keller, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Victoria Noble, Michael Paul, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Allison Raeck, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Linh Vu, Mary Kate Winn, Jenny Wang, Derek Wolfe RYAN MOODY | VIEWPOINT

All you guys do is bitch “All you guys do is bitch.”

“Michigan in Color is just a place where people complain.”

“Whenever you all bring up race, I can never win.”

Though they take many forms, I often hear and read sentiments such as these, expressed by white people, when referring to people of color talking about race. These white readers speak of wanting to engage in deep, meaningful exchanges regarding skin-privilege in our society, yet feel unfairly boxed out by angry people of color.

Just yesterday, one of the MiC editors received yet another of these responses, expressing annoyance with White-collar whiteness. He said, “This is what I understand when I read (the article): ‘I’m going to bring up a topic and I want us to have a productive conversation about it. But in the course of this productive conversation, I don’t want you to argue, remain silent or leave. If you in any way challenge my point of view, I will suggest that you are either racist or furthering racism.’

What that suggests to me is that the author wants white-skinned people to have “conversations” with her that consist only of them nodding their heads and saying, “uh-huh” over and over again ... You cannot respect someone with whom you cannot be honest. This strategy eventually translates to, “Don’t say what you think, because you’ll hurt my feelings if you do.”

Though I am undoubtedly biased (I am a Michigan in Color editor, after all), I can understand the “you all say you want an open dialogue about race but then shut it down” sentiment that some of our white readers have shared. I can see how it’s difficult to see the nuances of a seemingly contradictory statement that many of our contributors express (and one that I personally share) when you don’t know what it feels like to have the same conversations about race on a regular, if not daily, basis. So I’ll explain.

Trying to have a conversation about systemic racism with someone who knows little about it invokes similar frustrations in me (and, I suspect, other people of color) as it does to others when trying to discuss March Madness brackets with me.

You see, I grew up in a household where we didn’t really talk about

basketball. Because sports-minded people were never in my social circle, it has always been incredibly normal to not think about — and consequently not care about — sports events that occur. Even when big things like the Super Bowl and NBA Playoffs are going on, athletics are barely on my radar. I honestly don’t understand why people in this country want to talk about sports so much, why they evoke so much emotion and why people feel so strongly about identifying with their chosen teams.

When someone who likes sports tries to talk about them with me, I struggle to have an effective conversation with them — at least from their perspective. Not because I don’t want to, and not because I’m not willing to try to, but because I am at a significant knowledge deficit.

The only things I can really speak to are things I’ve either seen on TV (go Duke?) or heard about from that one local team I’m semi-familiar with (yay Michigan!). Because I’ve said things like, “I like that team because I look good in their colors” and “I hope they win because their quarterback is cute” in the past, people who had previously wanted to have a conversation about sports with me now roll their eyes and dismiss me in frustration. It’s not as though my opinion will always be unwanted, but as of right now, it’s uninformed.

That sense of irritation is whatI feel when trying to have an intelligent conversation about race with most white people. While I don’t blame them for having limited — or no — experiences with race, it’s repetitive and unproductive to talk about something so complex with someone who often doesn’t even know what modern-day racism looks like. Because I’m Black, society has forced me to see how race colors our personal interactions and social mobility. For me, it has been inescapable. As a white person, it’s easier to miss. This doesn’t mean you won’t get a seat at the table; I want you there with me. But at a table where I so often don’t have a voice and instead have my story told for me, I need you to first listen.

I’m not going to have conversations about race if your main focus is on defending the intent of a racist action, instead of analyzing the impact it creates.

I am unwilling to discuss police brutality if your working knowledge of the topic started and ended with Ferguson. I won’t have a dialogue on the merits and drawbacks of Affirmative Action if the bedrock of your opinion is an Ivy-league rejection letter. Maybe you view this strategy as me saying: “Don’t say what you think, because you’ll hurt my feelings if you do,” but in reality, I’m saying “Don’t say what you think if you have unfounded opinions because it is both offensive and a waste of our time.” I do want to have the conversation, but not if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I know that you will never truly understand what it feels like to walk in my shoes. I don’t expect you to. But in the same way that I have ample insight into a broad spectrum of white people’s experiences — from history classes, from TV shows, from books, from magazines, from commercials, from news reports, from social media, from white friends, from white boyfriends, from white family members, from being raised in a majority-white society — I need you to have some insight into the experiences of my people if we are going to have the honest, respectful conversation you say you desire.

You may consider this information gathering to be “nodding (your) heads and saying ‘uh-huh’ over and over again,” but I view your learning about the oppression of others as helping get you up to speed. As I see it, you cannot earnestly challenge a perspective until you (at least partially) understand it.

Of the white people in my life, a good number share equal airtime with me in conversations about race. A larger number don’t. The latter have yet to show me that they’re willing to consider facts, viewpoints and experiences unfamiliar to them. You might see that as “bitching” or “complaining,” but for these exchanges to be productive from my perspective, I need to be met halfway. Maybe it’s unfair that I won’t have truly engaged conversations on race with just anyone. Maybe it makes you feel like you “can never win.” But that’s one racial privilege you’ll have to earn.

Ryan Moody is an Engineering senior and a Michigan in Color editor.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

LITERARY COLUMN

W

Turning to the last page

ell, my friends, the time has finally come. This is it.

The final scene. The closing sentence. The last column. The end.

Last summer, when I applied to be the literary columnist here at The GRACE Michigan PROSNIEWSKI Daily, I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t anticipating literary-centered spring breaks or the fact that one of the most celebrated and reclusive American authors was going to release another book. Truly, the literary gods have been good to me.

No, all I knew was that I wanted to write about my passion, and so came the column. Writing during that labyrinth known as the last year of college has been delightfully challenging. In the past eight months, I’ve experienced happiness, heartache and Harbaugh.

It’s been quite a ride, but now it’s time for me to say goodbye.

So what final words do I have for you?

Read! Read everything and anything you can get your hands on. Yes, read books, poems and plays, but also read newspapers, magazines, flyers and the back of cereal boxes.

Why? Because you never know what you might learn from even the most commonplace of texts.

Read! Read whenever and wherever you can. Read before you go to bed. Read when you first wake up. Read on the treadmill. Read on the bus, but don’t miss your stop! Read while you’re waiting for something to start. Why? Because at any time, you have the power to transport yourself to anywhere you want to be, so why settle for

a subway station or a line at the post office?

If there’s one point I would like to leave with you, it’s this: You are the author of your life.

Your story is important. So write yourself into adventure, mystery, romance, action and comedy. Fill your life with all manner of strange and exciting characters, but know when to write certain people out. Every so often, change up your setting or pacing, if just to keep things interesting. Accept nothing less than poetry. And always remember, at any moment, you can start on a new chapter.

It’s difficult to explain how significant writing the literary column has been to me. For someone who embodies the phrase “painfully shy,” and who’s much more comfortable listening to the thoughts of others than espousing my own, who doesn’t often speak up unless directly asked; this column has provided me a space for self-reflection and exploration that has made it possible for me to not only find my voice, but to claim it. It has allowed me to be bold, in my own, quiet way.

And now we come to the sweet sorrow that is parting.

And perhaps most importantly, my columns have introduced me to you lovely readers. It has been a pleasure speaking with you and learning about your own thoughts about and connections to my literary ramblings.

Whether it was lamenting the football season or pitching the premise for my sitcom (seriously, let’s get that thing on

the air), you have come to know me as both a writer and as a person, and I pray that you have not found me too sorely lacking as either.

And now we come to the sweet sorrow that is parting.

But before this columnist goes gentle into that good night, a few final words, to you, my dearest readers.

If this is the first time you’ve read one of my columns, I sincerely thank you for your interest and I apologize for the copious amount of schmaltz.

If you’ve been with me from the beginning, I can only assume we’re related and I’ll see you at the next family function. If, on the off chance, we’re not bound by blood or marriage but you’ve still stuck with me, I cannot adequately express my gratitude and astonishment. In short, let’s start a book club.

Please know if I ever provided even a moment of entertainment or introspection among you, dear readers, I will consider my time as a columnist a rousing success.

It has truly been an honor to share in your Thursdays and encourage community discussions around the literary topics, serious and silly alike, which mean so much to me.

I’m not sure where I’m headed on this crazy road called life, a fact that, depending on the day, can be both dizzyingly exhilarating and terribly frightening. But of this I am certain: Every time I glance at the clock and promise myself just one more chapter. Every time I buy three new books but decide to reread an old one first. Every time I sigh in contentment at a perfect closing line – I’ll be thinking of you all.

Prosniewski is finding that you can’t pay student loans with books. To see how she’s doing, email gpros@umich.edu

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

A how-to guide for buying festival tickets

By CARLY SNIDER Daily Arts Writer

The snow has melted and calves are cropping up everywhere.

Questionable cutoff denim articles of clothing and aggressive long-boarders are steadily emerging from hibernation. With warmer weather comes, among other things, concerts: annual events, popup shows, world tours. In other

words, “festival season” is upon us.

The festival experience is many things – exhilarating, moving and, at times, sticky. While the event itself is likely to be unforgettable, the equally important pre-show process is often overshadowed and forgotten.

The emotional roller coaster that is planning for and purchasing a ticket to a festival can be draining – the highs are high and

the lows are low. Through careful observation and the personal experiences of many, a distinct pattern of behavior, occurring in the months before the big event, has come to light. It is known as the Five Stages of Buying Festival Tickets.

1. Excitement: Categorized by an overall feeling of well-being, this phase is the easiest to get through, and often the longest lasting. Common side effects

Thursday, April 16, 2015 — 5A

DAILY BOOK REVIEW

Zakaria makes the case for liberal arts

By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK Daily Arts Writer

Full disclaimer: I am an English major.

I’m the bookish oldest child who’s often referenced last in my mother’s In Defense conversations of a Liberal with her hospiEducation tal co-workers when the topic Fareed Zakaria of children comes up: “Yes, W.W. Norton my college kids March 30, 2015 are doing well!

My younger daughter is set on the pre-med track and my oldest is —” Always a pause. “Studying English. She likes to write.”

More than anything else, it’s the pause that gets to me. I don’t blame the hesitation on my mother, but on the environment we live in: one in which college is staggeringly expensive, where students are herded into STEM and business fields, compulsed to keep up with the technological race and scared stiff by the prospect of post-graduation unemployment.

Success (and therefore money) seems to be a byproduct of being business savvy, fluent in computer science, mechanically detailoriented and charismatic enough to catch attention. When we think of billionaires, we picture Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg — all innovative geniuses who molded our visions of technology and corporations.

In his new book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education,” CNN host and bestselling author Fareed Zakaria proposes that students may be chasing success in the wrong way.

Funneling undergraduates into business, engineering and other trade fields may lead to a good paycheck straight out of graduation — and for anxious students and their parents, this fact is certainly reassuring — but Zakaria argues that in our rapidly advancing world, the likelihood of someone holding the same job until retirement is outdated and obsolete. As technology evolves and corporations

include a quickened heart rate and light sweat when thinking of the upcoming event. Thoughts along the lines of, “This is going to be the wildest, most inspiring, epic concert experience of my young life” or “I cannot believe I get to see *insert favorite artist here* in the flesh” can become pervasive.

2. Planning: This phase causes the future festival-goer to heavily strategize the purchasing procedure of his/her ticket. Looking ahead to the date and time of the release, it is not uncommon for the subject to blow off previous engagements and obligations in favor of securing the cheapest passes possible. Behaviors such as scoping out the best Wi-Fi locations and enlisting friends or family to assist with the purchase may occur.

3. Anxiety: Though the short-

outsource more products, their efficiency elevates, eliminating the need for as many employees.

Zakaria argues that our generation is stuck at a crossroads.

In his final chapter, “In Defense of Today’s Youth,” he illustrates common conceptions of millennials: labeled as the “Me, Me, Me” generation, we’re obsessed with screens, blatantly selfish and bored with serious conversation. At the same time, Zakaria observes, we are diminished for being too polite — we’re no longer the dazed waifs of the ’70s or the rock punks of the ’80s (rebels with a cause) — instead, we’re generally closer to our parents, more conscious about health and the environment, motivated to succeed rather than risk everything to make a statement.

Societal pressure, Zakaria says, makes career choices complicated.

If we pursue science and technology, our intelligence may be praised and rewarded, but we run the risk of not being able to compete creatively — as Steve Jobs explained at the unveiling of a new iPad edition, “Technology alone is not enough.

It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”

If we choose the liberal arts, Zakaria says, our creative thinking and analytic skills may be finely tuned, but contrary to Jobs’ statement, our degrees could be dismissed as “irrelevant” to future employers. Or even worse — a waste of a college education. Even President Barack Obama, who graduated from Columbia University with with a political science degree, voiced this in a 2014 speech: “I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or trades than they make with an art history degree.”

Why do we think this way? In a country that steadfastly promotes individualism and thrives on diversity, why are students passionate about art history frowned upon? And if our nation’s future success is strictly correlated with our advancement in math and science, how is it that countries with more rigid curricula haven’t

passed us in innovation? Zakaria tries to answer these questions by digging into the history of liberal education, examining stories from teachers and students as well as his own experiences.

For Zakaria, who grew up in India and received a scholarship to attend Yale University, one thing is clear: “The United States has poorly trained labor force in general, which is a disadvantage. But it makes up for it in several ways ...

Good test scores are not enough to make the next Google.”

He arrived on the Yale campus set to pursue medicine, but instead graduated with a history degree.

He was fascinated by the subject, stimulated by classroom debates and a desire to know how the world works — not just on the technical level, but the personal one.

“The crucial challenge (was) to learn how to read critically, analyze data, and formulate ideas — and most of all to enjoy the intellectual adventure enough to be able to do them easily and often,” Zakaria writes of his experience at Yale.

“In Defense of a Liberal Education” emphasizes that innovation doesn’t come from scientific advancement alone — it comes from human ideas, set into motion.

Zakaria forms his defense in six concise chapters, walking the reader through a liberal education timeline from ancient Greek teaching, through his school experience and to the challenges of today’s students. His argument draws on hundreds of references, detailed in 29 pages of citations — pulling quotes from scientific journals, Ivy League deans and corporate executives, Zakaria fleshes out his claims clearly and convincingly.

In the end, college is the place to find our passions. It’s where we absorb information and scheme up “the next big thing” in our dorm rooms, whether that be a social media phenomenon or an Oscarwinning screenplay. We succeed by learning from each other, by collaborating our strengths and weaknesses. Our passions in English or science or Art History are what empower us. We shouldn’t be scared to admit them.

est of the five phases, the third is often the most stressful. It is in this period that the festivalhopeful actually goes through the purchasing process, often causing increased tension and perspiration. Behavior may become erratic, as options such as multiple-day passes often sell out quickly, but should return to normal postpurchase. Bargaining (with oneself, others or a higher power) is common, as well as fervent refreshing of various web pages.

4. Post-Purchase Shock: After dropping what is likely to be some serious coin, a period of denial is likely to follow. Bank account balances are usually at record lows, causing ticket holders to rely on their frugality – taking on more shifts at work, skipping the guacamole at Chipotle, etc. It is possible to slip into a state of denial,

characterized by thoughts such as, “If I just don’t look at my account balance, it’s like the money is still there” and “I don’t really need to buy food this month, anyway.” The duration and severity of this shock can vary based on the ticket holder’s financial stability and emotional predisposition.

5. Acceptance: With the passage of time, the future-festival goer is able to come to terms with his/her purchase. It is likely that the lineup has now been released and more concrete plans are being made, allowing him/her to return to their initial, excited mindset. The thought of the musical euphoria to come soothes any and all previous inhibitions. This period of peace continues up until the event, allowing for full emotional closure – leaving the lucky music junkie free to take in each magical moment.

Arts

6A — Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘The Music Man’ Jon Bellion deserves your full attention comes to SMTD Classic musical to be performed at Power Center

By CAROLINE FILIPS Daily Arts Writer

Sauntering about the unexpectedly massive lawn of the Power Center, I approached each door only to find they were all locked. The Music One hand was pressing my Man phone to my ear April 16-19 for a daily check- Power Center in with mom, the other pulling Reserve Seating each door handle $22 and $28, to no avail.

“Didn’t she Students $10 say to use the with I.D. stage door?”

I struggled to remember, as I kept repeating the question to my mom, fully tuned out to whatever she had to say.

Eventually I made it to the back of the theater and was greeted by a translucent-glasses-clad lad exchanging cash for a presumably No Thai!-filled bag … two dead giveaways of a collegiate actor.

This year School of Music, Theatre & Dance is presenting the romance-tinged comedy under the direction of University alum Linda Goodrich, a BFA of the school and current associate professor of musical theater. The show is “Music Man,” which she considers to be the one of the best in musical theater.

What began as Wilson’s extraordinary novel later became a staple of the “Golden Age of Musical Theatre” in the late ’50s with a quirky script and endearing lyricism also crafted by Wilson. Originally premiering the same season as “West Side Story,” “Music Man” snagged the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1957 and remains a time-honored Broadway hit.

“The Music Man” withstands the test of time with its quintessential simplicity — a relatively unintellectual piece of theater punctuated with a unique vivaciousness throughout. Set in the early 1900s in the deep Midwest, the plot centers around the conman Harold Hill and his grand scheme to hoodwink the bucolic ‘Iowa Stubborn’ townsfolk of the city. As a unique breed of charla-

By CATHERINE BAKER

tan, Hill’s goals aren’t initially seen as criminal, as he convinces them he will save the impressionable youth by way of music education – selling instruments and establishing a marching band within the city. Seduced by his charm, blinded by his charisma and fooled by his conviction, the townspeople succumb to his act, save an incredulous librarian who — well I won’t give everything away.

“Didn’t Director Goodrich say to use the stage door?”

I followed the actor through the mysterious world of the backstage, the savory scents of his takeout wafted behind him, and I realized I’d forgotten to eat dinner.

As I pondered the solutions to my comestible conflict, I took a wrong turn and ended up onstage.

Between squinting into the lights and struggling to find my way, along with being rattled by the unexpected booming orchestra, I was more than a little jarred, amazed at how actors deliver in these conditions, albeit while singing memorized lyrics, speaking memorized lines, and dancing choreographed movements.

In my final strong squint, I recognized Linda, and descended from the stage to introduce myself.

She spoke excitedly of the show because, well, why wouldn’t she?

It’s been Goodrich’s big project since auditions began in January, a time when she was eager to assemble a cast as energetic and charismatic as Meredith Wilson’s original troupe. Congruent with this vision, the show also cast local children. Rather than attempting to imitate or put a unique spin on the show, Goodrich makes a point to honor and accentuate the bold personalities that characterize “Music Man.” “We have a lot of comic characters in the play, and it’s really a kind of specific style of comedy,” Goodrich said. “We were looking for students to handle the language and understand the comedy of the period.”

She stated that the show boasts a full orchestra of 24, rather than the usual 18-member pit, which explained my brief stint of stage fright, but I kept that to myself.

Knowing she had a show to run, I ended our casual chat, but as I walked away she recommended I have a seat in the mezzanine (her preferred seating area) for its optimal full-view. Sure enough, the

theater expert was right.

As I assessed the scene, looking at the old-timey drop-down showcasing detailed illustrations of key scenes within the show’s setting in River City, Iowa — the Madison gymnasium, park, library, railroad and Main Street — I was transported back in time for a moment, a feeling that persisted throughout the show. I remembered why I and other artistically attuned nerds resort back to the classic pieces of literature, art and, in this case, theater.

There’s a reason the classics are classic, and a reason why timeless musicals like “The Music Man” have enjoyed that distinction for nearly half a century. Time-honored mainstays of American theater, like “Music Man,” are ultimately ageless with distinct character, vibrant soundtrack and heart.

The show opens on a bevy of bachelors clad in pinstripe and plaid delivering knee-slap-worthy puns and delightfully awkward body language. It was then that I suddenly understood what Goodrich was referring to when she explained the show’s unique brand of physical comedy that is nearly extinct in contemporary theater. I found myself enticed by the era and enchanted by this fantastically overzealous production.

For two and a half hours, I was captivated by the energy of SMTD’s “The Music Man,” and equally drawn to the wit of the period and the swagger of its Harold Hill. By the finale, after ordering Jimmy John’s at intermission, I had a full stomach and a full appreciation for the theatrics of the show.

Recalling Goodrich’s favorite line of the show that encapsulates the unintentional example Hill sets for the townspeople of River City.

Goodrich pointed to the show’s message, expressed in a line by Harold: “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make today worth remembering.”

After struggling to get into the theater, following a stereotypical college actor, stumbling onto the stage, nearly being blinded, conversing with Goodrich, ordering a sandwich and enjoying an excellent production – I decided my day was worth remembering, too.

EVENT PREVIEW

Zell Writers’ Series to host Richard Siken

By BAILEY KADIAN Daily Arts Writer

The Helen Zell Writers’ Program welcomes Richard Siken to campus this week. His collection, “Crush,” won the Yale Series of Young Richard Poets Competition in 2004. Siken Siken is the edi- Hopwood tor of the liter- Room ary magazine spork, which he April 16, cofounded and 2 p.m. has received multiple awards Free including the Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment of the Arts, two Arizona Commission of the Arts grants and two Lannan Residency Fellowships.

For years now, the Zell Visiting Writers Series has brought exciting and talented writers to the University to share their recent work and inspire young students to improve and develop their own writing. The weekly readings are held at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, with the books of visiting writers available to purchase following the reading.

MFA students, as well as undergraduate English students, attend these weekly readings from visiting writers and are encouraged to apply the new ideas that they have learned toward their own work in creative writing.

“It’s more co-curricular,” said Megan Levad, assistant director of the Zell Program. “The series not only brings renowned authors to Ann Arbor, but introduces MFA and undergraduate students to the work of writers they may not otherwise have found on their own.”

Richard Siken, in titling his collection Crush, explores all meanings of the word.

“Both being crushed, and falling for someone, can feel transcendent. Like one is re-made, reborn from the destruction,” said Levad.

“The kind of pain that Siken writes of also sharpens one’s observations — everything suddenly seems clearer, we feel wiser, like we have some esoteric knowledge, can see through the veil.”

In her foreword to the collection, Louise Glück writes, “If panic is his groundnote, Siken’s obsessive focus is a tyrant, the body.”

Siken never wavers from communicating these obsessive feelings through his work, weaving panic through his words.

“The poems in ‘Crush’ are vulnerable, but also precise, rigorous,” Levad said. “Siken invites us in to his emotional and intellectual world, and we respond.”

Siken explains the thoughts of panic through conflict with, as Glück describes, “an impeccable sense of timing,” and writes through the voice of an honest speaker, who explores consciousness in depth, allowing readers a

certain intimacy with the speaker.

“The blond boy in the red trunks is holding your head underwater / because he is trying to kill you / and you deserve it, you do, and you know this/and you are ready to die in this swimming pool / because you wanted to touch his hands and lips and this means/your life is over anyway / You’re in the eighth grade. You know these things.”

- Siken in A Primer for the Small Weird Loves Described by Glück as “lines that predict and summarize a life,” Siken uses inconsistency and interconnectedness to demonstrate the daring, but beautiful elements of his collection.

“I think the realization that writing is something that real, live people who come to campus and eat lunch and visit classes and sign books do can make a world of difference in young writers’s beliefs in the possibilities for their own work,” Levad said.

Students are encouraged to attend this event by the UM English Department and enjoy Siken’s reading of his extraordinary collection filled with power and driven by an obsession and panic that critics have claimed “makes this one of the best books of contemporary poetry.”

Siken’s question and answer session will be held at 2:00 PM, 4/16 in the Hopwood Room, his reading following at 5:00 PM in the UMMA Helmut Stern Auditorium.

Daily Arts Writer

I have an extremely short attention span. It’s something I struggle with every day and causes me to jump from topic to topic in the blink of an eye. It also leaves me available to devote my entire mindset to anything that strikes my fancy, even if just for a short period of time. Today, this devotion belongs to Jon Bellion.

Jonathon “Jon” Bellion was born and raised in Long Island, New Jersey and has released three free mixtapes since 2011.

His most recent, The Definition, was released in September 2014.

Bellion’s name may be somewhat unknown, but you are probably familiar with his work; in 2014, he wrote the chorus to “The Monster” by Eminem featuring Rihanna and co-wrote and produced the song “Trumpets” by Jason Derulo.

His most recent single release, “Woodstock (Psychedelic Fiction),” continues his upward trend and blends the most interesting parts of R&B, electronic, rap and hip-hop to create an entirely new sound. With lyrics like “She fell asleep during Coachella and she woke up here” and “They all dropped acid cause the time was right,” “Woodstock” narrates the ethereal experience of a music festival through background beatboxing and experimental synths.

Many of the songs on The Definition resonate with listeners because of their authentic and honest lyrics. Bellion uses his musical platform to detail his own anxieties and experiences, singing “Eighth grade, I feel depressed as shit” and “Nineteen, I’m feeling

CAPITOL RECORDS

He looks like a fuckboi.

scared as shit” in “Munny Right,” vocalizing the deep-seated fear of failure that lurks within all of us. He continues this theme in many other songs, most noticeably within the religious juxtaposition of “Human,” relaying “The pastor tells me I’ve been saved I’m fine / Then please explain to me why my chest still hurts.” The hook, “I’m just so sick of being / Human,” encompasses much of what Bellion attempts to illustrate in his minimalist beats.

Bellion continues to comment on the grim depths of the artistic industry through creative syncopation and syntax in “Jungle,” emphasizing the harsh underbelly of New York’s finest in the lines, “These models don’t mean soda when they’re offering coke / There’s quicksand in the nightlife, it will swallow you whole.” By minimizing production sounds and complicated instrumentals,

Classifieds

Bellion’s verses are able to take the listener by the hand and pull him/her into a world full of glamorous metaphors and interesting insights.

While Bellion’s musical style is innovative and fresh in a musical scene that is full of repetition, it is his lyrics that make you stop and evaluate what he is aiming to accomplish. With echoing vocals and constructed pulses, Bellion has set out on a mission to leave his own mark in the minds of his audience, laying all his cards out on the table for you to criticize. His introspective observations force you to evaluate your own hopes and ambitions, as well as reflect on where you come from and where your own strengths lie. It is music that does more than make you dance — it makes you think.

Jon Bellion may not have my attention forever, but he certainly has it right now.

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

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 16, 2015

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

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Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Albrecht talks recovery process

By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor

It’s still early, but so far, Spike Albrecht’s recovery is well on track.

After playing with a fractured bone and torn labrum for most of the season, Albrecht had surgery last week on his right hip.

And as he hobbled into Crisler Center for the Michigan men’s basketball team’s annual awards celebration, the junior guard showed off a contraption that’s keeping his hipbone properly aligned while he rehabs.

But that’s not to say the process has gone without a hiccup.

“The first two to three days after surgery were terrible,” Albrecht said. “Just with it being my first surgery, I think with the whole anesthesia and stuff.

But I’m feeling really good right now. I’m able to get up on my own, crutch around. I was in bed forever, it felt like.”

Despite doctors’ advice, Albrecht couldn’t keep himself from feeding his appetite after surgery.

“With the anesthesia, I tried eating too much, I think the first or second day,” Albrecht said.

“The doctors told me, ‘you’re gonna be hungry, but don’t eat.’

And I was like, ‘What does that mean? If I’m hungry, I’m gonna eat.’ And sure enough, I got sick as a dog for the first couple days.

So that was brutal.”

But otherwise, he has been able to get back into his routine, albeit aided by crutches and the thigh contraption.

And with crutches in tow, the rising senior guard cleaned up at the team’s award ceremony.

Albrecht split the Bill Buntin Most Valuable Player award with sophomore forward Zak Irvin.

He also won the Steve Grote Hustle Award and Thad Garner Leadership Award for himself.

He also took home the Gary

EAST LANSING — Two scoreless innings served as warning signs early on for the Michigan softball MICH. STATE 0 MICHIGAN 10 team.

But the Wolverines quickly turned the game around behind sophomore right-handed pitcher Megan Betsa’s hot hand and sophomore outfielder Kelly Christner’s powerful bat.

Wednesday, after two scoreless innings in which they stranded three batters, it seemed like the Wolverines would have a slow day in the batter’s box.

That lasted until a five-run third inning put Michigan (11-2 Big Ten, 38-6 overall) on track for a 10-0 mercy-rule victory over the Spartans (1-12, 16-26) at Secchia Stadium.

Junior centerfielder Sierra Lawrence knocked a steady pitch into shallow left field to start the contest, and the next three batters hit rockets deep to the outfield, but all were all caught, leaving Lawrence out to dry in scoring position.

The second inning was much of the same. Despite a few walks, shallow pop-ups and base hits, the Wolverines could not bring anyone home. And then the inning changed one more time.

In the top of the third, while junior Sierra Romero was stealing second, the catcher’s throw sailed over the shortstop’s glove, allowing Romero to advance to third. After walking sophomore Kelly Christner, Michigan State pulled starting left-handed pitcher Bridgette Rainey.

The newcomer, right-hander Dani Goranson, sent her first pitch well over the catcher’s head, and Romero stole home, chalking the first run of the day.

The rest poured on from there.

LeVert mulls draft decision

By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Editor

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Spike Albrecht, who played most of this season with a hip injury, will have to recover from two surgeries this off-season.

Grant Award, given to the player with the most assists — he finished the season with 121, nearly four per game.

Whereas other award recipients went up on stage to pose for pictures with their plaques, the coaches presenting Albrecht’s awards implored him to stay seated, resting his legs and letting the hardware come to him.

With a recovery timetable that he hopes will put him back on the court in late September, he’ll have to adjust to taking a step back from the action.

“It stinks,” Albrecht said. “I’m gonna miss probably the whole summer, most of the offseason, which is tough.”

His recovery plan could be complicated a bit by an additional procedure to his other hip, which

he also injured during the season.

The surgery he already underwent involved three incisions: two to shave down his hip bone and socket and another to repair his labrum.

If he has the second surgery, which would occur sometime in May, he expects the procedure would be similar.

Whether he gets it or not, Albrecht is confident he will make a full recovery, in part because he has seen the effects of this type of operation before.

Senior forward Max Bielfeldt had hip surgery last spring, and Albrecht has been using his recovery process to gauge whether he would.

“I’ve said this all season: Max was the guinea pig,” Albrecht said.

“I wasn’t ready to go do it myself.

“I’m going to miss probably the whole summer.”

I wanted to see how he recovered and all that. He was telling me from … a few weeks out, he could tell it was such a big difference.

You could tell last year.”

Bielfeldt rode his recovery to a career year that saw him average 15 minutes per game and earn the team’s Sixth Man Award.

And from a surgeon’s perspective, Albrecht was even easier to operate on. “(The doctor) said it went really good,” Albrecht said. “I think the fact that I’m smaller helps, so he said my surgery was easier than Max’s, cause Max’s legs are like tree trunks trying to move those things around.”

With one successful surgery complete, and another potentially on the way, Albrecht is laying low right now. Fortunately for him, his time away from the court coincides with his roommate, Caris LeVert, returning to good health. LeVert got his walking boot off Tuesday.

“I chauffeured him around a lot,” Albrecht said. “He’s got some payback.”

SOFTBALL

‘M’ dominates Same process, Michigan State different day for Christner

By TED JANES

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Junior will ask for a second evaluation from Undergraduate Advisory Committee

SOFTBALL

Daily Sports Writer

Thursday, April 16, 2015 — 7A

Goranson returned to the circle in the fourth inning, but her outing didn’t last long.

Christner crushed a 1-2 delivery over the right-field wall for the solo homer and the sixth run of the day. When Goranson walked the next batter, the Spartans changed pitchers again. Valerie Kaff entered the circle and forced a pop-up and strikeout to rescue the Spartans from any more damage.

While pitching was a hindrance for Michigan State, it was the opposite for its in-state rival. In the circle, Betsa threw a five-inning no-hitter, posting six strikeouts and just one walk.

“She stayed in her moment,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins. “When she didn’t have some good pitches, she came back and stayed with the process. The game is not over until it’s over, and if it’s a no-hitter, great. When you stay in the process, the outcomes happen. If you focus on a no-hitter, chances are you won’t have it.”

Added Betsa: “I was just coming out to here to do my part and put the fewest amount of runs on the board. Getting ahead of hitters and cutting down on walks was also nice to see.”

In the top of the fifth, Michigan State’s pitcher loaded the bases with no outs for Christner. She stepped up to the plate again, and just like her last appearance, launched a grand slam over the right-field wall.

Now 10 runs ahead, Michigan needed just a three-out inning from Betsa to reel in the road victory.

Christner’s two homers brought in five batters total, good for half of Michigan’s runs.

After a groundout and infield pop-up, there was one out left for the struggling Spartans.

With a 1-2 count, Betsa fired in the final pitch as catcher Ellie Stoffer struck out swinging, bringing the game to a close.

By KEVIN SANTO Daily Sports Writer

EAST LANSING — In the top of the fourth inning, the Michigan softball team was firmly in the drivers’ seat of its in-state rivalry matchup with Michigan State, boasting a six-run lead. It appeared the Wolverines (11-2 Big Ten, 38-6 overall) were already capable of simply coasting to a victory.

But sophomore left fielder Kelly Christner stepped up to the plate with other ideas. Maybe she wanted to get back to Ann Arbor early.

The bases were loaded.

She patiently drew a full count, waiting for her pitch.

And she got it.

Christner put the nail in the coffin of a dominant 10-0 run-rule victory over the Spartans (1-12, 16-26), roping a ball over the right-field fence for her second home run of the game and leaving no doubt on the diamond of who was the superior team Wednesday.

Despite the fans’ tendency to exaggerate the importance of a rivalry victory, Christner was quick to acknowledge it as a normal game.

“It’s just great to keep working towards our goal,” Christner said. “But as a specific game, it’s not any more special than another one.”

Christner’s first home run came in the top of the fourth inning when she sent a ball soaring to right field out of Secchia Stadium.

Things could have been even more lopsided in the Wolverines’ favor if Christner had some luck to go with her talented performance. In the top of the

first inning, Christner nearly had a two-run homer to put Michigan on the board almost immediately, but it was robbed by the right fielder at the wall.

Though Christner put on a display of eye-popping power hitting, that wasn’t necessarily the Wolverines’ strategy entering the game on Wednesday.

“We scouted them, and their outfielders play right up against the wall,” Christner said. “So our game plan was to try to hit line drives and gappers to drop into the outfield.”

“I guess I failed at that,” she added with a smile.

Christner clearly established herself as the contest’s offensive juggernaut, going 2-for-3 with five RBI, three runs and a walk. She was a part of a lineup that forced three pitching changes and drew seven walks.

So far this season, Christner has more than quadrupled her home run total from last year.

She has already surpassed her hit total from the 2014 campaign.

And the sophomore has shown no signs of slowing down lately.

In the past five games, Christner has posted 14 RBI. “She’s just really doing a great job of seeing the ball,” said Michigan coach Carol Hutchins.

“When you see the ball (well), obviously your chances of hitting it goes up. And I think she’s confident.”

Added junior second baseman Sierra Romero: “Same thing, different day for her. She’s doing awesome right now. I’m really proud of her in that three spot right now because she’s absolutely killing it.”

“She’s absolutely killing it.”

Caris LeVert “probably will have a decision pretty soon” regarding his declaration for the 2015 NBA Draft.

With the NBA Draft early entry eligibility deadline quickly approaching on April 26, the junior guard is still deliberating and evaluating all the available information he can get before making up his mind.

After previously submitting for an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee following the end of the regular season, LeVert and Michigan coach John Beilein recently resubmitted for another assessment.

The fact that 37 underclassmen have declared for the draft will most likely sway LeVert toward coming back for his senior year, but other factors will certainly contribute as well.

For one, LeVert is still recovering from surgery on his left foot. He just got his boot off Tuesday, but there’s a still long way to go before he is up to full speed.

“But I still have a ways before I can start running and jumping,” LeVert said. “Going out there tomorrow would probably be a stretch. … But I don’t have to do that. The combine isn’t tomorrow. I still have a couple more weeks to go.

Hopefully in a couple weeks I’ll feel a little bit better.”

Additionally, LeVert admitted Wednesday night that if the second evaluation reveals he would likely be a secondround pick, he would most likely come back to school.

“I don’t think it really makes sense to go early and be drafted in the second round,” he said.

When the NBA Undergraduate Advisory

Committee lets Beilein and LeVert know how many players are ranked ahead of LeVert, forming an analysis off such a projection is pretty simple.

And while projections will certainly be a factor in LeVert’s ultimate decision, there’s still plenty of pros and cons that will play into his final choice.

“Another thing is, I love playing here,” LeVert said. “So that would definitely be tough to walk away from, if that’s the decision I decide to make. But like you said, going out on a high note would be really good, too.”

With Wednesday marking the final day of the NBA regular season, the rest of the team’s draft order outside of the lottery will be known. Because of that, Beilein will know what teams will pick in the latter end of the first round and which scouting directors and general managers he can talk to on LeVert’s behalf.

The process of whether to enter has been long for LeVert.

But because the issue is “a good problem to have,” he hasn’t found it to be very distracting.

LeVert figures he’s done enough to prove his capability in the NBA from his sophomore year and the beginning of his junior campaign.

But at the same time, he knows the foot injury is still a lingering issue.

With the NBA Draft Combine taking place from May 12 to May 17 and resulting individual workouts to follow, it’s still unclear whether LeVert will be back to full health to take part in both or either activity.

“I would definitely want to (be back at 100 percent), but I don’t know if I’ll be able to (by then),” LeVert said.

In the meantime, he’ll continue to go to class, stay low and play the waiting game. He’s not going to allow the decision to stress him out.

“I can’t really make a bad decision.”

“I still have a ways before I can start running and jumping.”

For continuing updates Check MichiganDaily.com throughout the week

Sports

8A — Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BASEBALL

Michigan unable to find offensive spark

By BEN FIDELMAN Daily Sports Writer

After walloping Eastern Michigan last week, the Michigan baseball team headed into Wednesday’s rematch at Ray Fisher Stadium with E. MICHIGAN 4 MICHIGAN 2 its sights set on another midweek win.

But the Eagles had other plans, topping the Wolverines, 4-2.

Michigan (6-6 Big Ten, 21-16 overall) relied on a group effort on the mound, using a total of seven pitchers on the evening.

Just three of those seven gave up earned runs, but the Big Ten’s best offense was unable to pick up the slack and push Michigan over the top.

“We knew it was going to be one of those days where a lot of guys could get their names called, and it just so happened that today we had to match up our pitchers with their offense and try to minimize as best we could,” said Michigan coach Erik Bakich.

“With the exception of the beginning and the end, we put up some zeroes in the middle. With our lack of offense and ability to score today, it just wasn’t enough.”

The Eagles (4-8 Mid-American Conference, 14-23 overall) put numbers on the board first, pushing single runs across in the first and third innings. They jumped on Wolverine right-hander Keith Lehmann in the top of the first, scoring once and loading the bases with two outs, but the junior was able to get out of the

jam, allowing only one run.

Lehmann didn’t return to the mound for the second inning and was replaced by right-hander Jayce Vancena. The freshman worked a perfect top of the second, but ran into trouble in the third. Eastern Michigan capitalized on a leadoff single from second baseman John Rubio, who then stole second and scored on a triple off the right-field wall.

Vancena then gave way to senior right-hander Donnie Eaton, who induced two groundouts to end the Eagle threat.

Eastern Michigan’s Kyle

Huckaby held Michigan hitless through three innings, before freshman shortstop Jake Bivens singled to right field to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Huckaby hit junior third baseman Travis Maezes with a pitch, putting two runners on base with no outs for Michigan left fielder Carmen Benedetti, who leads the Big Ten in RBI. The sophomore came through, delivering a run-scoring single to right field, pulling the Wolverines to within one run of tying the game.

Michigan continued the pres-

“It is frustrating because it hasn’t been our issue.”

sure, eventually pushing across the tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Sophomore right fielder Johnny Slater led the inning with a double to the right-field corner and moved to third base off a single from senior first baseman Kyle Jusick. Senior designated hitter Dominic Jamett eventually hit into a double play, bringing Slater home from third to knot the score at 2-2.

After the Wolverines threatened once again in the bottom of the eighth, Eastern Michigan broke through in its last at-bats.

Shortstop David Lett started things off with a one-out infield single, which preceded a double to the left-field corner by right fielder Jordan Peterson to put two runners in scoring position

for the Eagles with only one out.

The next batter up was Rubino, who tripled to center field for his fifth hit of the game to put Eastern Michigan on top, 4-2. The top of the Wolverine lineup went down in order in the ninth.

Wednesday’s loss marked the second in a row for Michigan after they fell to Michigan State on Tuesday night. “(The lack of offensive production) is frustrating because it hasn’t been our issue,” Bakich said. “We’ve been able to score and score in multiple innings this year, and this just hasn’t been our (week). That happens in baseball. You have some peaks and valleys, and hopefully this is just some little team valley and we can rebound and get right back on top.”

Men’s Basketball Awards List

Bill Buntin MVP >> Spike Albrecht >> Zak Irvin Most Outstanding Defensive Player >> Zak Irvin Sportsmanship Award >> Spike Albrecht Most Improved Player >> Aubrey Dawkins Sixth Man Award >> Max Bielfeldt Hustle Award >> Spike Albrecht Leadership Award >> Spike Albrecht Iron Man Award >> Zak Irvin Academic Achievement >> Sean Lonergan

For more awards

Check MichiganDaily.com for the full list