ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Friday, September 6, 2013
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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CHALK ZONE
DEVELOPMENT
Students to be involved in capital campaign Committee is first of its kind for University development
TERESA MATHEW/Daily
Local artist David Zinn creates chalk art for Mott Children’s Hospital on Thursday in the Diag.
By JENIFER CALFAS Daily Staff Reporter
MARKETING
University to unveil TV ads Departments come together for collaborative project By ALICIA ADAMCZYK Daily News Editor
Whether sitting with 100,000 other Michigan fans or in the comfort of their own living rooms, prospective victors watching Saturday’s game against Notre Dame have some new commercials headed their
way. After a year of brand research and an additional year of production, commercials featuring students and scenes from across campus were shot by the University’s marketing team, with the primary intention of attracting prospective students to the University. The advertisements airing Saturday cost $600,000 to produce, while the entire campaign, which will be completed by advertising agency Lowe Campbell Ewald, also includes several
more expansive videos, web features and other marketing materials, cost $1.1 million. Matt Schlientz, the University’s director of marketing, said that the 30- and 60-second video spots were created through the collaboration of all the major units on campus, ranging from the Athletic Department to the University of Michigan Health System. “It’s a unique time in Michigan’s history where we have all of these units, schools and colleges and departments coming
Although students won’t serve on the University presidential search committee, a student committee has been formed to assist and participate in the upcoming capital campaign. It will be the first of its kind here on campus. Set to launch Nov. 8, the University’s fourth fundraising campaign will focus on providing financial aid to students and expanding classroom learning into real-world experiences. The campaign has a 38 fundraising units throughout the University’s schools and colleges, as well as volunteers and committees that will help connect the goals of the campaign. So far, the student campaign committee has 18 members representing under-
together,” Schlientz said. For its newest batch of recruitment advertisements, the University formed the Executive Marketing Council in the winter of 2011. The council includes heads from departments and units across campus and was “intimately involved in the production process.” The videos feature University students in some of the betterknown locations on campus. In one memorable scene, LSA junior Stacey Ervin, a memSee ADS, Page 3A
RESEARCH
FOOTBALL
Future transit focus of new research initivative
Stadium ops ready for night game limelight Marching Band, security take special measures for Saturday By MATT SLOVIN Managing Editor
All of the hype that comes with playing a prime-time game comes with hours of preparation and waiting for those trying to ensure its success. Rob Rademacher, associate athletics director for facilities and operations, thinks he knows about what to expect after his experience with the previous night game, a thriller the two schools played in 2011 that culminated in a last-second win by the Wolverines. “We went into it blind two years ago,” Rademacher said Thursday. “Will I sleep easier this year? Maybe just a little bit because we’ve done it before. But my job is not to sleep easy.” Instead, his job is to make sure that every wrinkle of hosting such a major event — ESPN’s College GameDay program will originate
from Ann Arbor the morning of the game — is taken care of. Rademacher and his team — which includes Shelly Fabrizio, director of operations and events — will monitor vehicle and pedestrian traffic around Michigan Stadium. They’ll ensure the lighting system, which was first used at 2010’s Big Chill at the Big House, is functioning before the game. For night games, they bring in extra lighting fixtures. And they’ll hope that their security team, prepared for the attendees who have enjoyed a long day of tailgating, doesn’t have too heavy of a workload. For the 2011 night game, Rademacher said administrators at other Big Ten schools reached out to him, telling him to expect at least three times more arrests and ejections than a typical Saturday at the Big House. Rademacher, however, said they dealt with the same number of incidents as usual. While the event staff can prepare for a night game by beefing up on security, there isn’t a whole lot that changes for Michigan Marching Band Director John See NIGHT GAME, Page 8A
M-TRACS to split $330,000 between a dozen projects By CHRISTY SONG Daily Staff Reporter
TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily
Co-owner of Bookbound Peter Blackshear reads a book at the end of the day on Thursday.
Bookstore opens doors near North Campus Former Borders employee, wife focus on locals By AARON GUGGENHEIM Daily Staff Reporter
A new independent bookstore is entering the turbulent Ann Arbor book market.
Bookbound, owned and operated by Megan and Peter Blackshear, will have its grand opening Saturday after completing renovations to its Plymouth Road location in The Courtyard Shops across from North Campus. The store will be the fourth independent bookstore in Ann Arbor, joining Nicola’s Books on the west side of the city as well as
Aunt Agatha’s and Literati downtown. The book market has been tough in the city, which in the past few years has seen the closure of Borders, Michigan Book & Supply, David’s Books, Crossroads Christian Bookstore and the Shaman Drum Bookshop. Megan Blackshear said she’s confident their store See BOOKSTORE, Page 3A
the maize ticket
engaging detroit
The debate over new ticket policies continues. What would you do for one? » INSIDE
The University has myriad initiatives in the Motor City, but can it do more?
WEATHER TOMORROW
HI: 84 LO: 64
graduate and graduate schools. Tom Baird, assistant vice president of campaign strategy of the Office of University Development, said the students involved will have a formal role in the campaign and will help spread awareness about how the money will be spent. “We actually have a student committee that is serving that has access to the real roles in the campaign and that will help advise us on how to get students involved,” Baird said. “It’s really exciting because it helps expand the culture of philanthropy around the University of Michigan.” University faculty members nominated students to become members of the committee. Kat Walsh, director of student engagement with the Office of University Development, said almost all of those invited joined the committee. The main purpose of the committee will be to extend the message of philanthropy to the whole student body in order to continue a long-standing tradition of stuSee CAPITAL, Page 3A
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The University is launching a new program in the hopes of putting the future of transportation on the right “TRAC.” The new initiative, Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization, works to advance the future of transportation technologies and boost Michigan’s economy. M-TRAC is a three-year program created to fund researchers from the College of Engineering and the U-M Transportation Research Institute to innovate transportation. Volker Sick, the University’s associate vice president for research and an M-TRAC oversight committee member, said the program was developed as a result of a public announcement made late last year by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The organization invited universities within the state to compete in finding a project that would enhance current transportation technologies. “The main goal of M-TRAC is to help See TRANSIT, Page 3A
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INDEX
Vol. CXXIII, No. 126 ©2013 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A ARTS......................5A
SUDOKU.....................2A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A F O OT B A L L S AT U R DAY. . . 1 B
News
2A — Friday, September 6, 2013
MONDAY: TUESDAY: This Week in History In Other Ivory Towers
WEDNESDAY: Professor Profile
THURSDAY: Alumni Profiles
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FRIDAY: Photo of the Week
Michigan Marching Band Director John Pasquale leads practice at Elbel field on Tuesday. To see more photos of the Michigan Marching Band’s preparation for ‘Under the Lights’ this Saturday check the gallery at michigandaily.com (ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily)
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CRIME NOTES
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
T-boned
Peek-a-boo
WHERE: 2600 Block of Glazier WHEN: Wednesday at about 3:35 p.m. WHAT: An automobile was struck by an exiting vehicle, according to University Police. There were no injuries. One driver was arrested for driving with a suspended license.
WHERE: 1200 Block Washtenaw Court WHEN: Wednesday at about 10:25 a.m. WHAT: A subject reportedly exposed himself to a passenger in a parked car according to University Police. The suspect was described as a white male with white hair in his late 50s to early 60s.
Patio pilfer
Rocking out
WHERE: 500 Block S. State WHEN: Wednesday at about 7:25 p.m. WHAT: Two patio chairs were stolen and a table was damaged, University Police reported. They were damaged sometime after 8:50 p.m. Tuesday. There are currently no suspects.
WHERE: Law Quad WHEN: Wednesday at 3:20 p.m. WHAT: A window was found damaged from thrown rocks, University Police reported. The rocks are thought to have possibly been thrown from a lawn mower. The incident occurred overnight.
Foreign service The Duhks The Duhks, a career lecture WHAT: band of five musicians from WHAT: Kelly McCaleb, University alum and consular officer to the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso, will give a lecture about her experiences. WHO: Program in International and Comparative Studies WHEN: Today at 12 p.m. WHERE: School of Social Work Building, Room 1644
MTango bootcamp WHAT: MTango will be holding a comprehensive beginner’s tango series for interested students. The cost is $25 for the series. WHO: MTango WHEN: Today from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. WHERE: Mason Hall, 3rd Floor
MORE ONLINE Love Crime Notes?
Get more online at michigandaily.com/blogs/The Wire
Canada, are returning to the Ark to perform their mix of a wide variety of music styles. General admission costs $21 and reserved admission costs $28. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ark CORRECTIONS l An article in the September 5 edition of the Daily (“Gift benefits highprofile departments”) misquoted Justin Pope regarding the purpose of the Ross donation. l An article in the September 4 edition of the Daily misstated Steven Ward’s position. He is an associate professor.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
Many schools are now sending letters to parents in order to notify them that their children are overweight, according to CBS Los Angeles. Experts say 19 states across the country are sending letters of the sort to parents.
2
Michigan squares off against Notre Dame under the lights part II in what will be the last matchup in the historic rivalry for years to come. >> FOR MORE, SEE SPORTS, PAGE 1
3
Australian billionaire Clive Palmer said Thursday he plans to sue Rupert Murdoch over Murdoch’s accusations that Palmer’s wife is a Chinese spy, according to AFP. Clive says Murdoch will be brought to Austrailia to face charges.
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Obama pushes G-20 to support Syria strike President cites chemical weapon use as a reason for proposed strike
Group of 20 economic summit, where he mostly made his case behind the scenes. China’s G-20 delegation spokesman, Qin Gang, was among those who countered, saying: “War isn’t the fundamental way to solve problems in Syria.” Obama’s public and private diplomatic wrangling partly was intended to ratchet up pressure on lawmakers back in Washington as they debate authorizing military action. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a use-of-force resolution this week, but the measure’s prospects in the full Senate and the House of Representatives are uncertain. The prospect of military action against Syria overshadowed the global growth agenda at the twoday G-20 summit, which opened Thursday in this historic Russian city on the Baltic Sea. Leaders did, however, hold a lengthy dis-
cussion about the crisis during a four-hour dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Syria’s strongest backers. The dinner at St. Petersburg’s Peterhof Palace stretched into the early hours of Friday and ended with an elaborate fireworks and ST. PETERSBURG, Russia laser light display. (AP) — President Barack Obama White House advisers said pressed fellow world leaders on Obama was seeking “political Thursday to support a U.S.-led and diplomatic” support from his strike on Syria, but he ran into international counterparts, not opposition from Russia, China necessarily military cooperation. Jerome Delay/AP Rebels withdraw from the Masisi and Sake areas in eastern Congo in November 2012. Rebels have been retreating from and even the European Union And Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy previously captured villages in hopes of obtaining a ceasefire with the government. — which condemned the deadly national security adviser, said recent chemical weapons attack the type of action the U.S. is conin Bashar Assad’s country but templating “does not come with declared it too soon for military significant requirements of interaction. national participation.” “The use of chemical weapons While Obama has long called in Syria is not only a tragedy but for the ouster of Assad, a deadly also a violation of international chemical weapons attack near law that must be addressed,” Damascus two weeks ago pushed conclude.” Congo’s government would Obama insisted during a meeting the U.S. to the brink of military In August, Congolese troops be interested in talks that can Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ with Japanese Prime Minister action for the first time during backed by U.N. forces battled lead to “the decapitation of Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Syria’s civil war. The U.S. position M23 rebels near the eastern M23,” he added. on Syria has increased tensions city of Goma, home to nearly 1 Thursday’s meeting in the with Putin, one of Assad’s most million people along the Rwan- Ugandan capital of Kampala important economic and military JOHANNESBURG (AP) — dan border. Rwanda accused was called by Ugandan Presibackers. Putin has blocked efforts The presidents of Congo and the Congolese military of firing dent Yoweri Museveni “to stop at the United Nations to take Rwanda on Thursday called for missiles across the border and the fighting and get back on the HARD action and has questioned intellipeace talks to quickly resume warned that “this provocation negotiating table,” according gence reports American officials between the Congolese gov- can no longer be tolerated.” to James Mugume, the permasay link the chemical weapon ernment and a rebel movement Then the M23 rebels last nent secretary at Uganda’s Fordeployment to the Syrian leader. that is widely believed to be week declared a unilateral eign Ministry. British Prime Minister David backed by Rwanda. cease-fire following a week of The summit in Kampala was Cameron said Thursday that the The summit organized in heavy fighting with the Congo- organized under the banner of United Kingdom had fresh eviUganda’s capital marked a rare lese troops, saying they want- a regional bloc called the Interdence that was being examined at opportunity for Congolese Presi- ed to “give peace a chance,” national Conference on the British laboratories. dent Joseph Kabila and Rwandan although Congo’s government Great Lakes Region. It also was Ahead of the U.S. president’s President Paul Kagame to hold said it wants M23 disbanded. attended by United Nations spearrival in St. Petersburg, Putin face-to-face meetings at a time Congo’s government now cial envoy Mary Robinson, who told The Associated Press in an when their countries are on edge will be less keen on the talks as has urged a political solution to interview that it was “completely over Rwanda’s alleged military its army and a newly strength- a crisis that recently threatened ridiculous” to assert that Assad involvement in eastern Congo. ened U.N. intervention force to spill over Congo’s borders. was behind the use of deadly The negotiations between appear to have the upper hand In their statement Thursday, gases against Syrian citizens. The the Congolese government and in the most recent clashes with the presidents said they “strongKremlin also announced it was the M23 rebels have repeatedly the rebels, according to Jason ly condemn” the deaths of civilboosting its naval presence in the stalled since late last year. Stearns, a Congo expert who ians on both sides of the border Mediterranean, where the U.S. In a statement issued late runs the Usalama Project, a and also urged M23 to stop its has five destroyers on standby for Thursday, the presidents and think tank that researches threats. a military strike. other regional leaders called for Congo’s armed groups. “M23 should put an end to In keeping with the economic peace talks to resume within “The primary drive to get all military activities, and stop theme of the meeting, Chinese three days’ time “and conclude back to the negotiating table war and threats of overthrowofficials saiduse only. military action within a maximum period of 14 is coming from Uganda and ing the lawful government © sudokusolver.com. For personal puzzle by sudokusyndication.com BEAT THE IRISH! would have a negative impact on days during which maximum Rwanda,” he said. “They (Con- of (Congo),” said the statethe global economy, particularly restraint must be exercised on go’s government) feel that they ment signed by the presidents oil prices. the ground to allow for talks to are in a position of strength.” including Rwanda’s Kagame. Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!
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Presidents of Congo and Rwanda call for peace talks Hope for dialouge between rebels and government renew
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News
Egypt’s Interior Minister escapes assasination
NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT
Prof. tells students Republicans ‘raped’ U.S. An award-winning novelist who told students that Republicans have “raped this country” lost his fall teaching assignments at Michigan State University after acknowledging the remarks were offensive, the school said Thursday. William Penn, whose writings often focus on his American Indian heritage, welcomed his students last week with an attack on Republicans as cheap, greedy and old. His remarks were captured on video by a student and posted online by Campus Reform, which is affiliated with the Leadership Institute, a conservative group based in Arlington, Va. Penn met with his bosses and “acknowledged that some of his comments were inappropriate, disrespectful and offensive and may have negatively affected the learning environment,” Michigan State spokesman Kent Cassella said.
SAN JOSE, Calif.
Google claims e-mail scanning practice is legal Google’s attorneys say their long-running practice of electronically scanning the contents of people’s Gmail accounts to help sell ads is legal, and have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to stop the practice. In a federal court hearing Thursday in San Jose, Google argued that “all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing.” The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 10 individuals, is expected to be certified as a class action and is widely seen as a precedent-setting case for other email providers.
KABUL, Afghanistan
Indian author murdered by Islamic militants An Indian woman whose memoir about life under Taliban rule was turned into a Bollywood movie was shot dead Thursday by suspected members of the Islamist militia, officials said. The killing of Sushmita Banerjee was the latest in a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, adding to fears women’s rights in a country where many are barely allowed outside the house will face setbacks after U.S.-led foreign forces fully withdraw in 2014. The militants arrived before dawn at Banerjee’s residence in eastern Paktika province, which lies in Afghanistan’s east — a region where the Taliban are especially influential. Her husband, Jaanbaz Khan, answered the door, only to be quickly bound and blindfolded, provincial police chief Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran told The Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
Russian to evacuate citizens from Syria The Kremlin’s chief of staff says Russia has been sending warships to the Mediterranean Sea for possible evacuation of Russian citizens from Syria. Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Sergei Ivanov as saying that Russia has been boosting its naval presence in the Mediterranean “primarily” in order to organize a possible evacuation of Russians from Syria. Russia has been one of Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s staunchest allies in the civil war that has been raging for more than two years.
—Compiled from Daily wire reports
Friday, September 6, 2013 — 3A
22 wounded in first bomb attack since Morsi’s departure
Eric Gay/AP Julie Pousson, right, and Jennifer Echeverry, left, celebrate after a non-discrimination ordinance was passed by the San Antonio city council, Thursday in San Antonio.
San Antonio City Council passes LGBT protections City leaders approve anti-bias ordinances in 8-3 vote SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio’s leaders on Thursday approved anti-bias protections for gay and transgender residents, over the disapproval of top Texas Republicans and religious conservatives who packed a City Council hearing and occasionally shamed supporters for comparing the issue to the civil rights movement. The 8-3 City Council vote in favor of the ordinance was a victory for gay rights advocates and for Democratic Mayor Julian Castro, a top surrogate of President Barack Obama. Castro has called the ordinance overdue in the nation’s seventh-largest city, where there is a stronger current of traditionalism and conservatism than other major Texas cities that already have similar gay rights protections. San Antonio joins nearly 180 other U.S. cities that have nondiscrimination ordinances that prohibit bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign. “This ordinance is about saying there are no second-class
ADS From Page 1A ber of the men’s gymnastics team, performs a back flip on a trampoline in the Law Library. Another depicts a number of students marching across the Wave Field on North Campus. Schlientz said responses from surveys sent out to students, faculty, staff and alumni during the research phase specifically mentioned the University’s academic excellence as a point of pride. The ads are designed to highlight the academic advantages for any student who attends, whether they come from Michigan or China. “Michigan is a great brand, but as you move beyond the borders of the State of Michigan ... the playing field gets leveled pretty fast,” he said. “We don’t want to shy away from athletics. That’s a key component of who we are.” “... At the same time again, we want to make sure that that academic message comes through loud and clear.” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the ads will be translated into Spanish and Mandarin to appeal to an international audience.
TRANSIT From Page 1A professors and researchers develop their ideas into products and companies and to provide jobs for Michigan,” Sick said. Total funding for the pilot program is $330,000, with which each one-year project receiving an average of $50,000 to $75,000 with costs split between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the University. M-TRAC is currently in the process of choosing projects to fund. An oversight committee consisting of a mix of University leaders, venture
citizens in San Antonio,” Castro said. Supporters in red shirts and opponents in blue sat on opposite sides of the ornate council chamber Thursday. Church leaders vowed petitions to recall council members, and the shouts of protesters outside City Hall often carried through the stone walls of the centuryold building. More than 700 people registered to speak Wednesday during a marathon session of citizen testimony that stretched past midnight. Just a few hours later, 100 people signed up Thursday morning to get in a final word before the vote. Dee Villarubia, 67, said she’s a former Air Force officer whose landlord at a San Antonio apartment evicted her two years ago because she is gay. “When I say the pledge of allegiance, I say ‘justice for some’ because there’s an asterisk that means not me,” Villarubia said. “Today, I would take that asterisk away and finally say ‘justice for all.’” The local measure roiled conservatives nationwide and was opposed by big-name Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Abbott, a Republican who is
“Marketing the university and putting out that brand, there’s a unified effort all across campus as we’ve never seen before,” Fitzgerald said. In preparation for the debut of the advertisements, posters showing various stills from the videos have been posted across campus with “#VictorsValiant” printed across the bottom. Schlientz said the inspiration to use “victors” in more than just the aptly titled University fight song came from University of Michigan Health System commercials, which also feature the song. “This word ‘victor’ isn’t just tied to a football team on the football field, or a basketball team on the basketball court; it’s in the DNA of Michigan,” Schlientz said. “They took this iconic song and these incredible words and brought it to life.” After the ads debut, the University will look for student feedback as they continue to refine their advertising methods. The 60-second video will premiere Friday at the “Maize Out. Lights On.” pep rally on the Diag. The 30-second spot will premiere at the Michigan Football game against Notre Dame on Saturday.
capitalists and transportation experts will choose the projects and provide mentorship starting in early December. Apart from choosing the projects, committee members will also mentor project participants. The candidates will do the technical work themselves, while the committee will assist with the business aspect of the project. Sick said the committee is looking for a product idea that can be licensed quickly and efficiently. The committee plans to choose two or three projects initially, but once more funding is available the ultimate goal will be to sponsor 10 to 12 projects.
seeking the governor’s office, predicted a lawsuit over religious freedoms, though he has not said the state will challenge the ordinance. Attention intensified after City Councilwoman Elisa Chan was caught on tape calling homosexuality “disgusting” and arguing that gays should not be allowed to adopt. Chan has defended her comments. “Just because I disagree with the lifestyle of the LGBT community doesn’t mean I dislike them,” Chan said before the vote. “Similarly, just because one opposes this ordinance, does not mean one is for discrimination.” San Antonio City Attorney Michael Bernard told the council the ordinance would apply to most city contracts and contractors. It prohibits council members from discriminating in their official capacity and forbids workers in public accommodation jobs, such as at restaurants or hotels, from refusing to serve customers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Opponents say the ordinance — which takes effect immediately — would stifle religious expression and does not have the support of most of the city’s residents.
CAPITAL From Page 1A dent fundraising efforts on campus. Many student organizations — including Dance Marathon, Galens Medical Society and Greek life — regularly raise money for a variety of University causes, and the student campaign committee aims to expand that practice. “It’s exciting to have students across the University who are going to come together and say, ‘We want a better University now and for the students who will follow in our footsteps,’ ” Walsh said. Walsh added that Stephen Ross, the philanthropist and real estate tycoon who made the largest donation in University history of $200 million, serves as an example of someone who understands the value of philanthropy. Serving as the chair of the fundraising campaign, Ross set the bar high with his donation, which will be split between his namesake school and the Athletic Department. “He will convince people that it is important to give,” University President Mary Sue Coleman said in an interview on Wednesday. “It is not only important for the Ross
BOOKSTORE From Page 1A will succeed because of its offerings and placement. Bookbound hopes to build off of Peter Blackshear’s 20 years working with Borders’ corporate stores and retail locations. The store will take advantage of his connections with resellers and will sell bargain books alongside a large number of children’s books to connect with the growing market in that genre. Megan Blackshear said she and her husband originally thought about opening their store downtown, but their “shoe-string budget” conflicted with high downtown rents. She added that Bookbound
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s interior minister narrowly escaped assassination Thursday when a car bomb tore through his convoy, wounding 22 people and leaving a major Cairo boulevard strewn with debris — the first such attack since the military ousted the country’s Islamist president. The strike raised fears of a militant campaign of revenge for the coup and the likelihood of an even tougher hand by authorities against protesters demanding Mohammed Morsi’s return to office. The interim president compared the attack to the insurgency waged by Islamic militants in the 1980s and 1990s against the rule of now-ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, when militants carried out numerous assassination attempts, killing the parliament speaker. Mubarak himself survived an assassination attempt in 1994, when militants attacked his convoy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. That insurgency provided Mubarak with a justification for a nationwide state of emergency, lifted only after he was driven from power by an uprising in 2011. Since Morsi’s ouster in a July 3 coup, Egypt has been back under emergency law, and police have arrested nearly 2,000 members of his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters. In mid-August, authorities forcefully dispersed two proMorsi sit-in camps in Cairo after days of warnings, setting off violence that killed hundreds nationwide. The move led to retaliatory strikes on government buildings, police stations and churches around the country. Islamic hard-liners have since stepped up attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula and in the south, and have increasing-
ly brought attacks to the capital. Still, Thursday’s bombing against Mohammed Ibrahim, who heads the police force waging the crackdown, was a substantial escalation. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Interim President Adly Mansour’s office vowed it would “not allow the terrorism the Egyptian people crushed in the 1980s and 90s to raise its ugly head again.” Military leader Abdel-Fattah elSissi, the man who ousted Morsi, pledged to continue the fight against terrorism. Egyptian media have for weeks vilified the protesters, blaming the violence on Morsi’s supporters and a terrorism campaign. After Thursday’s attack, state media urged citizens to exercise caution, report suspicious activities or individuals, and called on authorities to widen their crackdown on suspected terrorists. The attack is likely to further isolate the Islamists. Liberal politician Amr Moussa called on the ousted president’s backers to take a clear position against the bombing. “When lives of innocents are targeted, those who support that or justify it will not be accepted among us,” said Moussa, who sits on a newly appointed constitutional panel. Morsi’s supporters sought to distance themselves from the attack. The Anti-Coup Coalition, a group of Islamist factions that has spearheaded protests since Morsi’s ouster, predicted it would be used as a pretext for widening the crackdown on its opponents. “The coalition is against any violent act, even if it is against those who committed crimes against the people,” the group said. “It expects that such incidents will be used to extend the state of emergency and to increase the use of oppression, repression and detention which have been used by the coup authority.”
school, the athletics, the medical areas, in English, in writing, in history; we need those resources for our students all over the place.” Rather than serving an honorary role, Ross is already actively serving as chair by speaking to potential donors and connecting alums to the University, according to Baird. While the University has received a flurry of large donations — what Baird calls “leadership gifts” — from Ross, Charles Munger and the Zell Family Foundation, the campaign will likely receive gifts of all shapes and sizes. Judy Malcolm, senior director of executive communications at the Office of University Development, said the University received a record-setting number of gifts that were less than $25,000 this past year. Malcolm could not provide the exact numbers, but said Jerry May, vice president for development with the Office of University Development, will include the data in his presentation on the fiscal year at the University’s Board of Regents meeting on Sept. 19. While the Michigan Difference, the previous capital campaign, focused more on infrastructural projects with a total of $3.2 billion raised, Baird said this campaign
team will ensure that donors know the significance of their gifts going toward financial aid rather than physical enhancements to the campus. “Donors give where their passions are,” Baird said. “I think our donors understand the challenges our students have in terms of paying for their education. We’re going to see a tremendous amount support for students to come.” In an interview Wednesday, Tim Slottow, the University’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said philanthropy has allowed the University to grow. Slottow said that providing financial aid to every in-state student who is in need — and working toward offering the same to out-of-state students — will allow the University to develop its diversity. “We went all the way to the Supreme Court to fight for affirmative action and diversity, and we studied and proved that diversity prepares students more for successful lives,” Slottow said. “So, that’s a very important thing.” More details about the campaign will be released at the kickoff on Nov. 8. The Office of University Development plans to host a press conference regarding the campaign on Nov. 7.
wouldn’t need to sell the same amount of inventory as Borders did to stay open, noting that the store is only 2,000 square feet whereas the downtown Borders was 42,000 square feet. Hilary Gustafson, who owns and operates the similarly sized Literati with her husband Michael, said the past five months have been great for the store, as they have developed a base of customers that includes both foot traffic and regulars. “We will be here for a while,” Gustafson said. “We can’t speak to the long term, as it only has been five months, but we will be here for at least the next year if this continues the way it does.” Gustafson, who advised the Blackshears on the book market in Ann Arbor before they signed a
lease, said she is confident in Bookbound’s ability to stay open in the city. “The book market is really hard, but I think Bookbound did it right by going on the north side which really doesn’t have (a bookstore),” she said. “They are fitting a niche by selling bargain books as well as doing the independent bookstore thing.” She advised Bookbound to carry magazines as the absence of Borders has left the city without a store carrying a wide selection. Meagan Blackshear said there is space in their location to expand their inventory and she hopes to do so in the coming months. “Despite what you hear, there are quite a lot of people who actually still read real books and want to support indie bookstores.”
Opinion
4A — Friday, September 6, 2013
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Respect begins with a pronoun Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MELANIE KRUVELIS ANDREW WEINER EDITOR IN CHIEF
and ADRIENNE ROBERTS
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
MATT SLOVIN MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
Unfair and under-regulated
The University needs to take initiative toward unpaid internships
I
n June, a federal district judge in New York ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage law and overtime laws by treating unpaid interns as regular employees on the set of the 2010 film “Black Swan.” The case, along with many others, has shed light on the world of unpaid internships. Students are among the most vocal against the practice as many have been victim to injustices of these supposed mentorship opportunities. This recent movement brings to mind the University’s role in helping its students secure summer internships. The University’s Career Center and internship programs, such as the Public Service Internship Program and Semester in Detroit, are great resources for students to find internships. However, the University could do more for students financially by fundraising specifically for internship programs and working with other universities to provide reduced-rate housing. Furthermore, the Career Center should review the types of internships it posts to ensure that they are in fact mentorships if unpaid, not free labor, and create black lists of companies who abuse the positions. Two successful internship programs promoted by the University are Semester in Detroit and the Public Service Internship Program in Washington D.C. While both programs offer financial aid, their support is limited. Semester in Detroit mandates that all participants reside in Wayne State University residence halls, meaning students must pay the steep rates and fees. Both programs award need-based financial aid to students who qualify through the University’s Office of Financial Aid. However, this award process doesn’t take into consideration students who may not receive much financial aid and must maintain continuous employment in order to remain financially stable. The University should expand financial aid to students considering unpaid internships especially in areas where unpaid is the norm. Reports of abuse stemming from unpaid internships are on the rise. Since the ruling of the case against Fox, more than 20 lawsuits have been filed against major companies
for their abuse of unpaid interns. The rights of these unpaid interns who are being taken advantage of by large corporations need to be protected. In order for an unpaid internship to be considered legal under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the intern must be provided an educational experience in the workplace and the company must not gain an immediate advantage from the intern. The University can help ensure these requirements are met by reviewing and scrutinizing the companies the Career Center posts on its internship website or are actively recruiting on campus. This would promote positive mentorship experiences for its students and reward companies who provide actual educational internship programs. Internships play an important part in securing a job after college. Students who can afford to will continue to apply for unpaid internships and companies will still offer them. It’s up to universities like Michigan to acknowledge the reality of this situation and advocate for their students.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Eric Ferguson, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe COLIN KEIFFER | VIEWPOINT
Money (not) well spent
Dear Mr. Ross, The University announced on Wednesday that you donated $200 million — the largest single gift in the history of the school. As a fellow alum of the University, I want to thank you for your donation to our alma mater, but with reservations. As reported by The Michigan Daily, your gift allocates $100 million to the Athletic Department and $100 million to the business school. While the gift is commendable, I question if it will best serve the University’s community with its current recipients. The Athletic Department already has $386 million in net assets and a $64 million endowment. Dave Brandon, the University’s athletic director, presented a budget in June expecting $8.9 million in profit this year. Anyone who has attended a game at Michigan Stadium, the Crisler Center or Yost Ice Arena knows that our stadiums are the best in the country. Additionally, the athletic campus has grown immensely over the last few years, and our resources for fostering student athletes are second to none. The Ross School of Business is the premier business school in the country. Neither department needs your money to continue their success. As University President Mary Sue Coleman said in her 2002 inaugural address, “The glory of the University of Michigan resides in its ability to re-invent itself continually, to cherish its roots while inventing the future.” Donated elsewhere, $200 million has the ability to do just that. And I’ve come up with some alternative, transformative ideas for your donation.
The money could go toward scholarships for underprivileged and underrepresented groups. We should continue to commit to diversity on campus and give as broad a range of individuals as possible access to the University. We should also support public service students who may wish to serve in the military before attending school or after graduation, whose only deterrent may be the financial consequences of attending the University. Your donation could fund initiatives fostering student research and creativity. The next Facebook or the cure for cancer could be in the mind of an incoming freshman. These funds could help creative individuals make their dreams a reality. More social engagement programs could be implemented within the local community. With more than 40,000 students, the University can better serve the poor, sick and disenfranchised. More funds toward these objectives would make practical and quantifiable improvements in many people’s quality of life. You’ve said you wish for the University to be a world-class institution and to train our students for leadership opportunities in their futures. Former University President James Angell once remarked, “...every appropriation to the University sows seeds in the most fruitful of all soils.” I hope that you use your success for the good of the greater University community so it can continue to be the school that we love. Colin Keiffer is a University alum.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.
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radley Manning, the U.S. soldier praised as a whistleblower by some and condemned as a traitor by others, identifies as a woman. She wishes to be called Chelsea Manning, would like to be referred to KATIE with the femiSTEEN nine pronoun and would like to begin hormone therapy. As Manning put it, “I was born trans. I am a woman from birth but because I was born with a penis I was labeled a man. What we do choose is when to come out, not what our gender is.” So there it is — she said, “I am a woman.” Seems simple enough. See how I didn’t say, “He stated, ‘I am a woman?’ ” No, of course I didn’t, because to do so would invalidate Manning’s explicit request to be acknowledged as a woman. To do so would essentially say, but, yeah — you’re not really a woman. To do so would roll my eyes at not just Manning but the identity of all transgender people. To do so would be essentially calling Manning delusional — I don’t care if you think you’re a woman, you have a penis, damn it! This is the same kind of mentality that results in reactions to Manning’s statement like, “He’s crazy” or a “He’s a tranny!” It’s the same mentality that keeps genderidentity disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — that essentially tells
“
transgender people, “You have a disorder that can be treated,” just like how we can all pray the gay away, right, guys? (Homosexuality was once in the DSM as well.) And yet, transphobic mentalities continue. I’m not just talking about comments and tweets and whatever other mediums the peanut gallery uses to spew ignorant, hateful remarks. I’m referring to articles pertaining to Manning’s transgender identity that continue to refer to her as “him.” Even articles that specifically address the media’s failure to comply with Manning’s request to be referred to with feminine pronouns do exactly that. They literally do exactly what Manning requested they not do, effectively undermining Manning’s authority on her own gender and identity. It’s patronizing, disrespectful and, apparently, correct, according to the Associated Press Stylebook. Yes, the AP Stylebook, the holy book of journalistic style, states that reporters should, “Use the pronoun preferred by individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.” In other words, the identity of a transgender person is apparently not valid to a reporter until he or she undergoes surgery or hormone replacement therapy. It’s almost as if the AP Stylebook is trying to call a bluff — like, oh yeah, if you’re so trans, where’s your sex reassignment surgery, huh? It’s insulting — not to mention that it’s not always convenient or within someone’s financial means
to get surgery just because of some outdated stylebook. The gender of a trans person is not validated by a surgeon’s knife; it’s validated by the individual.
The gender of a trans person is not validated by a surgeon’s knife. And don’t even get me started on the need for trans people to “present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.” What the hell does that even mean? I don’t bake cupcakes when I’m stressed out, I’ve only seen one episode of “Girls” and I never laugh while eating salad. I rarely wash my jeans, I shower “when I feel like it” and I sincerely like to drink beer. I’m not the most “lady-like” lady, so does that qualify me to be a transgender man? Seriously, the idea that trans people necessarily need to “present” themselves as a certain gender not only reinforces baseless gender stereotypes, it’s a vague and absurd requirement. You don’t have to be a reporter to support, or at the very least respect, transgender rights. The mere act of using the appropriate language to address Manning and any trans person sets an example of how to respect a human being. — Katie Steen can be reached at katheliz@umich.edu.
(UN)NOTABLE QUOTABLE
A billionaire real estate developer has given $200 million to the University of Michigan — with the mandate that all of the money goes to the business school and the athletic department. Congrats on some shitty philanthropy, asshole.” — Gawker writer Hamilton Nolan said about Stephen Ross’s $200-million donation to the University on Wednesday.
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Recognize our roots
alkable streets, reliable public transportation, affordable retail, healthy dining and safe residential neighborhoods — all things we, as students of the University and residents of Ann Arbor, take for granted on a ALEXANDER daily basis. The HERMANN city, despite some subtle flaws, provides a high quality of life for the vast majority within its borders. The same cannot be said for many in Detroit, the major metropolis of nearly 700,000 people, less than 50 miles east of Ann Arbor. A declining population, hemorrhaging resources, high crime rates, a struggling school system and unemployment all culminated in the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history just filed on July 18. Needless to say, Detroit could use a helping hand right now. And the University isn’t doing enough to help the city. I don’t mean to imply that the University is at all responsible for more than 60 years of progressive decline in Detroit. Nor do I believe that the University must raise the banner as a champion of the city — quite frankly, Detroit citizens and community officials neither need nor want that. But I do think that the University needs to embrace the fact that a healthy, strong and vibrant Detroit is as good for the University as it is for southeast Michigan as a whole. I don’t intend to minimize current efforts in the city, represented by the accomplishments of thousands of students, alumni and faculty every year. The Detroit Partnership, just one student organization with strong ties to the city, sends 200 students to Detroit every week during the school year to participate in volunteer programs established in every part of Detroit. Their flagship volunteer event, Detroit Partner-
ship Day, brings 1,400 students to Detroit to volunteer. Semester in Detroit is another opportunity for University students to engage with the city. It provides a unique opportunity for participants to live in Detroit on the Wayne State University campus, attend classes and work in Detroit. The University’s Detroit Center in Midtown houses Semester in Detroit classrooms and also accommodates several programs benefiting Detroit residents from various schools across campus. For example, the School of Public Health’s Healthy Environments Project researches and promotes heart health in Detroit neighborhoods, where the death rate from cardiovascular disease is nearly twice as high as state and national averages. The School of Social Work partners with the Skillman Foundation to provide technical assistance in implementing its Good Neighborhoods program in six different Detroit neighborhoods. The School of Art & Design, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the College of Engineering and University of Michigan Health System all have some presence at the Detroit Center. In reality, the initiatives described here only represent a fraction of the good work being done by the University in the city of Detroit. But even the whole piece remains just a beginning. The first step toward greater engagement involves expanding students’ knowledge of the city’s history, problems and attractions. To that end, the University, from top to bottom, needs to facilitate a more prominent dialogue about Detroit and can begin by hosting an increased number of speakers discussing the issues Detroit currently faces that see national headlines almost daily. Just as importantly, more students need to go to Detroit. There’s no better way to learn about the city and all it has to offer than to physically be there. Whether from fear of the city’s negative reputa-
tion, ignorance of its treasures or typical student time constraints, too few of my fellow classmates make the trip to Detroit in their four years. The University could facilitate more opportunities to see Detroit and, likewise, better advertise the Detroit Center’s availability to students.
A healthy, strong and vibrant Detroit is as good for the University as it is for Southeast Michigan as a whole.
Also, as discussions with Feodies Shipp III, the Detroit Center’s associate director, revealed, some University departments are noticeably absent from the Detroit Center roster. The Career Center is an excellent resource for students on campus and could provide professional development resources, job-search assistance and resume feedback to Detroit residents desperately in need of such services. In May, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics identified Detroit’s unemployment rate to be above 16 percent — devastatingly high compared to the state’s near 9 percent. The University could positively impact the lives of many job seekers by establishing a branch of the Career Center in Detroit servicing, in part, local Detroiters. There are a number of other positive changes the University could make that would affect Detroit. But the most important is the collective recognition — as students, faculty and staff members of the University — that even though the University is first and foremost a major national public research institution, it also has local roots. And since the University was founded in 1817 in Detroit — before moving to Ann Arbor 20 years later — its roots are deepest in Detroit. — Alexander Hermann can be reached at aherm@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, September 6, 2013 — 5A
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
TV NOTEBOOK
Bad press ‘Can’t Stop’ Cyrus’s success By GIBSON JOHNS Online Arts Editor
COMEDY CENTRAL
The end is just the beginning.
‘Futurama’ meets bittersweet end Beloved animated series leaves fans satisfied By MAX RADWIN Daily Fine Arts Editor
Matt Groening and David X. Cohen finished their run with “Futurama” by giving Fry a button that can only travel back 10 seconds in time, which later leaves him stuck in an infinite 10-second time loop. But considering that this is the show’s third series finale, fans might be wondering if it’s actually Groening who has got some sort of looping time button on his hands. Yet this series finale is different. The show spends its last few episodes tying up loose ends — Fry reconciles with his mom and dad, and Zoidberg settles into a peaceful happiness (surprisingly) — so this last episode, which also shows Fry and Lela getting married, feels like a true finale. It gives closure, which is all anyone can really ask for. Still, the way it all wraps up at the end <em>does</em> allow for more episodes to be made should a different network pick the show up. “Futurama” is as good as it’s ever been, which is why so many fans were surprised when Comedy Central announced that it wasn’t going to buy any more episodes after this seventh season. Groening and Cohen created a cartoon universe with infinite worlds, dimensions, characters and possibilities. So with so much gas left in the tank, why wouldn’t it keep going on some other network? Fans should be happy even if it doesn’t. The finale certainly did the series justice, and there’s solace in knowing that there are 140 brilliant episodes to watch over and over again, which make up one of the best animated TV shows in history. “Futurama” was smart — as evidenced by the Méliès joke and time-travel paradox in the finale. The show always rewarded its viewers for noticing the details and for having a strong cultural and scientific background. The writers created their own language that appeared across multiple episodes; in one famous episode, they have to write a theorem to get all of the characters back into the same universe, and for some reason, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” makes a cameo in the finale. For those who missed details and references like these, the wickedly clever plot, puns and slapstick humor were there to enjoy as well. “Futurama” was one of those
few animated shows on television that took full advantage of its medium. The show was about the art of animation as much as it was about a delivery company, and it paid homage to that process. Episodes like “Saturday Morning Fun Pit” and “Reincarnation” both explore the sub-genres of animation, from the Disney- and Fleischerstyle of Golden Age animation to Japanese anime to the dopey, simplistic, Saturday-morning cartoon. Groening and Cohen’s future have rigid and scientific rules, but it is abstract and everexpanding too, which allows big stylistic risks like these to pay off so well. In many instances, it was the technology of their future that made it work. Professor Farnsworth’s gadgets and inventions are always screwing with elements of their fictional universe, which often alters the show’s animated style. The episode “2-D Blacktop” places the characters of an already twodimensional art form into a twodimensional universe. What happens next? “Futurama” repeatedly put itself into problematic artistic circumstances and then layered them with characters facing ones just as thorny and daunting, whether they be romantic, social or intergalactic. It created characters that, even when fighting giant space honeybees, somehow evoked empathy as well as sympathy. “Futurama” did it in a way that “The Simpsons” touched on before Season 10, that “Archer” is too young for, that “South Park” achieves every once and a while and that Seth MacFarlane only dreams about late at night when no one is home. Fry and Leela were as much Ross and Rachel as they were Rita and Runt, and Bender was the Iron Giant as much as he was Wakko, Yakko and Dot all rolled into one. The Planet Express team — and even the supporting characters — had depths and histories like few other animated shows really even made an effort to strive for. Groening and Cohen knew it, too. In later seasons, they took those characters and challenged their identities and the viewers’ relationship with them the same way Chuck Jones did with Daffy Duck in “Duck Amuck.” But they did it with Bender, and then Lela, and then Dr. Zoidberg and then with just about every other member of Planet Express. And it worked. That made it all the more difficult to say goodbye to “Futurama” on Wednesday; viewers were deeply attached to those characters and their world. But that bittersweetness at the end
of a series is the mark of a great show. And while many fans may hope that Groening will press a button and keep the world in some infinite time loop where “Futurama” is still on television, one gets the sense that the Planet Express crew is living on, out of our sights regardless, and never truly gone forever.
It’s no secret that Miley Cyrus is the most talked about celebrity of the past few months. From her bizarre, overtly sexual music video for “We Can’t Stop” to her frenzied performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards that shocked the world, the Miley discussion has been rampant. She’s perhaps the most divisive public figure there is right now and, if I had to guess, that’s exactly what she wants. It’s not like this is a new development — between that controversial Vanity Fair photo shoot at 15, her incorporation of a stripper pole into a performance of “Party In The U.S.A.” at the Teen Choice Awards and the salvia incident, Miley has always shown a penchant for controversy. The difference now, though, is that this new image of hers doesn’t feel natural: Whereas her previous moments of notoriety were simply ill-advised, most of what Miley does these days borders on desperate.
Nobody’s perfect, so I gotta twerk it. What’s frustrating about the way Miley’s acting is that her music is better than it has ever been. When I listened to her premiere “We Can’t Stop” on “On Air With Ryan Seacrest” in early June, I could tell she had put some genuinely hard work into her new
RCA
She’s just being Miley.
material. She may seem lost when it comes to her image, but there’s no denying the passion she has for the music she’s making. “We Can’t Stop” brought a fresh sound to Top-40 radio and became a bona fide hit. “Wrecking Ball,” the second single off of the upcoming BANGERZ, is a soaring power ballad fit for the likes of Katy Perry. For the first time ever, Miley has a chance to become a pop star with actual hit records and — coming from someone that wasn’t exactly dragged to the Best of Both Worlds Tour back when she was Hannah Montana — it’s exciting. I just hope she doesn’t screw it up. Miley 2.0 may be turning many people off with her endless
twerking and lewd behavior on stage, but isn’t there something to be said for the fact that, unlike many Disney stars before her, the spotlight isn’t on her personal life? If she’s doing drugs or partying too much, there’s not much evidence of it in the tabloids. She hasn’t been to rehab or gotten a DUI. Nobody knows (or really cares) if her engagement to Liam Hemsworth is on or off. The attention lately has been on what she’s been doing professionally and that’s not a bad place for her to be. The new Miley Cyrus isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, nor does she want to be. It’s her party and she can do what she wants to — we should all just be happy to get an invitation.
Arts
6A — Friday, September 6, 2013
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
Losing my honor at the karaoke bar This isn’t the time to sing something new By JOHN BOHN Daily Community Culture Editor
Karaoke is a strange art, no doubt. I say no doubt because, well, I doubt anyone would care to argue me on the point. Who’s talking about the art of karaoke? No one. And that’s the sweetest part. Welcome to a performance space with nothing to lose. Sing the damn song you’ve been singing in the car and the shower. Everyone is drunk, and they’ll forget your performance the next day. Nothing will remain. It’s you, Dionysus and the void. That’s not entirely true. Maybe to me, that’s the true pride and glory of karaoke. For others, it’s yet another proving ground. Seriously, get the hell out of here. All right, I’ll try and jot down what I feel might possibly be a rubric of the art of karaoke: 90 percent performance, five percent singing, five percent the people love it. First of all, when people are going to karaoke, they want a laugh. If you make them cry, it’s over. You just made 100 drunk people in a bar cry. Was “Jesus Take the Wheel” really worth it? The people must love it, and the people love a good, light song and a stellar stage presence. If you’re looking to show you’re the next great thing, I mean why? Now, we love our aspiring Marvin Gaye. You know the old guy I’m
talking about. That dude rules, and he deserves more attention. But for the most part, the people demand a good song and some presence. By presence, I mean some ironically distanced sillytime. Skill is a bunch of hokeypokey blah. Seriously. No one cares. I might be giving some bad advice though. It’s this kind of thinking that may have led to the day I lost all my cred. And that’s the story I’d like to tell. Karaoke had been a longstanding tradition among my group of friends. From the get-go of college, it was karaoke. I couldn’t go to the bar at first with the older dudes, but I grinded my teeth at house parties and Friends Karaoke on the weekends. For a while, I didn’t have a go-to song. You <em>need</em> a go-to song. Then it hit me: “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band. My parents loved that song. Rule of thumb: If your parents love it, the people love it. The ’70s and ’80s are ripe with the-people-love-it quality music. The ’90s too, but it seems like (my) parents really don’t know what happened after Bob Seger’s peak in celebrity. Anyway, I had found my identity. I would be “Centerfold” guy. What’s messed up, though, is that the song is pretty raunchy. I didn’t realize until after I had sung through it a few times. Here’s the general plot: A guy comes across an old crush in the centerfold of a “girly magazine.” And he’s torn up about it. And that is basically it. The rest of the song involves him speculating about them getting together, and then he buys
the magazine. I mean, he’s not that bad of a guy. He hopes one day to see her when her clothes are on. Still. For someone who has aligned themselves with the principles of feminism, it’s a stretch. All right, so I start taking this song to the big leagues, which for Ann Arbor is Circus on S. First Street. No cover charge. Free pool. 75-cent PBR. Karaoke. I keep saying this, but I’ll keep saying it until I die: That is the kind of bar I would want to open — if I decided that I actually don’t want to become a university professor … who knows these days what will happen. OK, so my downfall. Basically, I sang this song at Circus multiple weeks in a row. (Turns out everyone does that. Like I said, you need your go-to song). And everything was going real swell. I (actually) got compliments like crazy (twice). Then, one week, I wasn’t feeling “Centerfold.” I wanted something new. At the urging of friends, I did a different song. Doesn’t matter which one. The point is I didn’t know it as well as I thought. And I crashed real hard. In the middle, the DJ, for reasons unknown, turns down the volume of the music. I can’t keep up with the words. Out of nervousness, I try to chug the rest of my beer before the refrain. But that was dumb; there’s no time for that. To add insult to injury, I swallow it wrong and start choking. My friend recorded all of it. Like I said, I might be the wrong guy to talk to. But in my vision of karaoke, everyone is welcome. See you next Thursday!
Visit michigandaily.com/blogs/the+filter for a good time.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Friday, September 6, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
IFC
“Maybe if we touch foreheads, they won’t take me away.”
Lowery helms hackneyed love story By AKSHAY SETH Daily B-Side Editor
In the moments before “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” thrusts us into elegiac generalizations of mid-to-late 20th-centuB ry Texas, it throws up a Ain’t Them title card readBodies ing, “This Was In Texas.” I Saints guess writerAt the director David Michigan Lowery (“Pioneer” ... this IFC is NOT the guitarist) just wanted to be sure we knew. Or maybe he was giving us a peek at the sense of irrevocability that this film spends 90 minutes convincingly fantasizing. Who knows? What we get is a touching, if labored, examination of themes older than the Alamo itself: sacrifice, revenge, love and family. Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck, “Gone Baby Gone”) is only a shell of himself when he’s not with his wife. As is evident in most of the film’s unnecessary voice-over
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ACROSS 1 Sign of trouble 4 Sword holder 10 San Joaquin Valley concern 14 PC core 15 Yes or no follower 16 Dance that tells a story 17 Farm girl 18 Physicist got all wound up? 20 Prefix with European 22 “Enough!” 23 Race line 25 Fireworks reaction 26 “The Stepford Wives” author Levin 29 Mathematician got ready for a shower? 34 Swing around on an axis 35 Sigh of sorrow 36 Seismologist rose to new heights? 42 California’s __ Valley 43 Unrefined type 44 Physicist made an opposing move? 52 Explosive letters 53 “I’ll meet thee on the __-rig”: Burns 54 Fur piece 55 Socrates, for one 60 Selma or Patty, to Bart Simpson 61 Microbiologist spread some gossip? 64 Even up 65 On the lower side, in a heeling vessel 66 Twitterpated 67 Half of nine? 68 Insurance deals with it 69 Conical shelter 70 Web address component DOWN 1 Religious split 2 Not against entertaining 3 Cherry-topped treat 4 Former flier 5 Makes haste
6 In the past, in the past 7 He sang between Melanie and Joan at Woodstock 8 Where to get a brew 9 Victim of Achilles 10 LaBeouf of “Transformers” films 11 Six, nine or twelve, for three 12 Cry for a matador 13 Wander 19 Greeting to an unexpected visitor 21 Saturn, for one 24 Mrs. Addams, to Gomez 27 Interpret, as X-rays 28 They may be classified 30 Final: Abbr. 31 Mystery writer Grafton 32 __-Croatian 33 Amigo 36 Nothing, in Nice 37 Knocks off 38 One might be bummed, briefly 39 Almost worthless amount
40 Put one over on 41 Fine things 42 Pepper or Snorkel: Abbr. 45 K thru 12 46 Make more changes to 47 Fang 48 Greek vowel 49 Much more than edged 50 Periodic weather disruption
51 Not fancy at all 56 Long migration, say 57 “Lost” setting 58 One bounce, on the diamond 59 Campbell of “Scream” 61 Birdie plus one 62 “Hostel” director Roth 63 Low grade
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work, lil’ Affleck’s all hot and heavy for Ruth (Rooney Mara, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”), the type of Texan beauty who finds hidden pleasure in firing airsoft rifles at little kids. But this is no ordinary love — rather, it’s so deep that Bob takes the rap when Ruth plugs an archetypal Texan police officer (Ben Foster, “The Messenger”) using an archetypal Texan six-shooter. From that ill-fated shootout, Lowery guides us through an alltoo-recognizable turn of events involving 25-to-life, prison escape, gag-inducing love letters and, of course, more shootouts. But when all’s said and done, when the 10-gallon hats are on the ground, the been-theredone-that nature of what Lowery has concocted never really matters. This film, more so than most movies released in the past year, is about setting a mood — a mood so anchored in solemnity that we’re left wondering how the hell anyone in Texas ever smiles.
‘Ain’t Them Bodies’ boring. Lowery plays up the idea of star-crossed lovers separated by circumstance, but he takes special care to do so only through Bob. In many of the scenes in which Affleck is alone and separate from Ruth, Lowery only shows us half his face, one side washed in darkness to denote the piecemeal nature of existence without his baby mama. And in all honesty, piecemeal is an understatement. I don’t think Affleck has a single line anywhere in this film that doesn’t have to do with Ruth. It’s understandable when one considers he’s given up whatever
life he had for her, but what we’re meant to see in his desperate letters is an underlying assumption that Ruth will wait for him, no matter how long that wait may be. If not for love, then for the sake of their daughter. The weight of Bob’s sacrifice is painted on everything within view — the faces of old acquaintances, the way everyone talks to Ruth and, to some degree, even in the staid palette cinematographer Bradford Young (“Restless City”) employs. Ruth, on the other hand, is one of the few characters in Lowery’s world that isn’t still stuck in the past. Yes, she’s classically underwritten and underdeveloped along the lines of most heroines in anything remotely related to a western, but sadly, that’s to be expected. What sets her apart in the context of this film is a willingness to give up and move on. She still cares for Bob, but idealized concepts of love evaporate in the face of raising a child alone. And when Bob makes contact after his escape, Lowery’s quick to wrap us in a state of heightened reality that spotlights the crumbling relationship. It’s a frenetic 20 minutes, punctuated by spurts of violence that only reinforce the somberness of what Lowery has constructed. Eventually, the implied gravity hiding behind every corner of this movie becomes its most glaring flaw. Though most of the dialogue is meant to be a terse meditation on the past, the movie marches forward without ever drawing depth out of what has happened. The film never gives us an opportunity to suspect what’s going to happen at the next turn, so the one-note nature of being “sucked in by love” feels off-puttingly surface without context. And ultimately, the supposition that the whole ordeal has to be grim is annoying, plain and simple.
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Arts
TV NOTEBOOK
Friday, September 6, 2013 — 7A
FILM NOTEBOOK
AMC
Tread lightly.
A character study Blanchett dazzles as of Skyler White
SONY
Waiting for that Xanax to kick in ...
Analyzing the divisive woman of ‘Breaking Bad’ By SEAN CZARNECKI Daily Film Editor
Note: Spoilers ahead. This article was written before Episode 13 of Season 5 “To’hajiilee” was aired. In the center of today’s culture war is a woman, a TV character whose divisiveness has come to define the unanswered problem of gender in show business. Her name is Skyler White. When the talented actress who portrays Skyler, Anna Gunn came to the defense of that very “Breaking Bad” character in an op-ed for the New York Times, she asserted that the unequal ire Skyler endures from the show’s fans is due to her strength and, most importantly, to her gender. This is the gross generalization I wish to re-examine, but this I write with great unease. Among my concerns, which include being presumptuous or prejudiced, my gravest still is the possibility I might strip this issue of the gendered elements that are very real. The vitriol aimed at Skyler — and now Gunn — is some of the ugliest stuff Generation Troll has managed yet. It’s blind to say there resides no misogyny in those sentiments. But Gunn’s op-ed and other similarly written pieces preclude the possibility that there are other reasons besides sexism underlying the bitter disdain Skyler attracts. And so we have sanctified Skyler. We have sanctified her and established her as a feminist figure walled off from any legitimate criticism. I’m not here to bully or to diminish the feminist debate, but to complicate it. I want only to test Gunn’s argument and to re-imagine Skyler as an object for analysis. Many legions of fans would in fact refute Gunn’s claim that Skyler is a woman of steely resolve or any type of feminist hero at all. They’d say she’s helpless, hypocritical and passive aggressive. (Who else cringes when she gives her husband, Walter, the “silent treatment?”) She shares her bed with her oppressor and cooks his dinner. For five seasons now, she has done nothing to turn in Walter. I believe they loathe her for her helplessness because they have no empathy. They’re unable to identify with victims and they blame Skyler for her problems. In this way, she is more Fanny Price than Elizabeth Bennet, more desperate than efficacious, more crazed than delightful (and rightfully so). It’s now her lot in life to overcome her victimization. She’s trapped in an abusive marriage — in her own home — with no way out. So how are we to expect
her to climb out of the dangerous world Walter has imposed on his family? Lack of empathy is the beginning of all prejudice, but here helplessness (some would say willful helplessness) is the key factor and much of that has to do with how the story was told. The characters with which the viewer empathizes rely on the craft of storytelling, on what function to which the character is relegated, what the storyteller wishes to show us of him or her. In short, I won’t empathize with a character unless the storyteller gives me good reason. We naturally identify more with Walter as the protagonist, who used to be the one suffering silently, not Skyler. Somehow, they both let the other down: They never realize just how much they need each other. It makes you wish that, after all this time, Walter’s first “confession” in the pilot, before he ever had Heisenberg delusions, will find its way back to his family. That would be the way they remember him. Just as sympathy for Walter endures for once being a powerless high-school teacher, fans’ hatred of Skyler endures because of the way she was initially framed. Walter is a monster. He endangers all his friends, his family, all he loves. He never wanted to hurt anyone, but his tragic flaw — his hubris — compels him to continue down this road. And therein lies the difference on which everything depends: Walter is our tragic hero. Not Skyler. William Brennan of Slate calls Skyler the “moral grounding” of the story; I call her a moral irritant. Personally, I have no affinity for moral arbitration in stories as these. Skyler’s function in the story as an adjudicator of values simplifies morality in a complex story about the thrill and tragedy of crime, family and pride. Her proclivities for that time of unshifting morality, which now rapidly crumble, make her Walter’s natural antagonist in more ways than gender. Truly, it’s only until she reveals the darker depths of herself, when she finally breaks bad, that I was more drawn to her. And still, however much the need for survival has whittled down the list of good things in their world, there are two ideals they have kept: family and loyalty — and those, too, have their corruptions. Walter poisons a boy, lets Jane die, manipulates his son’s adoration, nearly gets Hank killed and more, but he never does the unthinkable yet really altogether logical: He’s Machiavellian, but he hasn’t killed Hank. And who knows? He just may yet. For the sake of argument, let’s contrast that to Skyler’s infidelity. Opposed to Walter’s utter devotion to family that first propelled him into the drug world and the pride that trapped him, Skyler’s disloyalty proves to be
a big barrier for many people. I don’t want to weigh the morality of actions, to judge Skyler. I want only to understand her image and to understand why Walter is not judged as harshly. And this, as a fan, I understand well: Loyalty is paramount to our feelings of likeability. Somewhere deep down — and this has been reinforced again and again — Walter is unable to break some bonds. Skyler is the love of his life. Junior is his big man. Holly is the innocence he wants to preserve. Hank and Marie happened to be on the wrong side. Jesse is the young man he regrets having hurt and yes, he loves him. And however unpredictable the finale will be, we know already it is too late for Walt to cherish those things as they should be cherished when his end comes. We can only hope Skyler and the children, Hank and Marie, and Jesse escape his sins. Again, however, we come back that fundamental principle that guides all character analysis: empathy. It took both Whites to ruin their marriage. And I think we can all agree it was Walter’s reign of terror that drove Skyler to Ted for revenge — out of spite. That said, we must still ponder further on empathy: Is it the responsibility of the storyteller to frame his characters in such a way to evoke empathy and love? Or is it the responsibility of the viewer to read beyond the frame of the story itself? Much has been said about ideals, but nothing of superficial dislike. Skyler has my empathy, but not my love. Because she has one and not the other. Because the blogosphere has simplified the discussion to feminist and anti-feminist positions, whatever reasons I have for disliking Skyler are deemed invalid. Gunn presents Skyler as a new way by which we can measure societal progression just as academics and critics use cultural pieces to track our values and to hold their failings accountable. The problem is that Skyler is a faulty measurement. I could very well dislike her for something as simple as her attitude. But I can’t say that. I can’t say her melodramatic displays are repulsive, that she’s spiteful and downright obnoxious. I can’t say her steep, cutting angle of condescension was grating to my ears. All that and more would insinuate I dislike her for inhibiting not only Walter’s but every male’s “masculine” urges. We have simplified the discussion rather than opened it. My question is why she has to likeable. Her function, how she was written into this tale, her trajectory from veggiebacon-cooking housewife to crime affiliate and Gunn’s deft performance — that is the singular achievement that arrests my attention. It’s a fascinating study. And really, it can be just as simple as that.
crumbling Jasmine By AKSHAY SETH Daily B-Side Editor
“Blue Jasmine” is more than just Woody Allen’s latest proclamation to the world that at 77, he’s finally figured it all out (“In 1942, I had already discovered women.”). It’s more than just a character study of a has-been socialite torn between denial and an ever-fading notion of absolution. More, even, than Cate Blanchett gesticulating. At only slight risk of hyperbole, I’d go as far as saying it’s more than just a movie — it’s an unanswered question, thought up by Allen and posed in Blanchett’s thistle-honey voice. It is, for no lack of a better phrase, The Shit. Most people who’ve seen it have echoed similarly fawning sentiments, albeit in slightly better wording. Yet, I find myself frustrated. Frustrated because so much of what I’ve read about the film in the month since its release has made the exasperating generalization that Jasmine Francis is another one of Allen’s one-note characters, smugly drawn to glimpse reality through a pair of binoculars. Is she darker, less neurotic? Yes, but ultimately etched in our psyche by perhaps the best piece of work by any actor or actress in five years. Don’t get me wrong — I wouldn’t have seen this movie four times had it not been for that gargantuan performance, and Cate Blanchett deserves all the praise she will ever get and more for what she’s accomplished in this film. Simply put, it’s the type of portrayal that inspires other actors to be better, one that will be remembered years down the line for its near-flawless examination of mental decay. But at the same time, it’s wrong to assume Jasmine was meant by Allen to be a horrible person, festering towards the madness she’s brought on her own snobby, perfectly coiffed head. No. This movie is better than that. It leaves you with something more meaningful than the bitter aftertaste that accompanies tongue-incheek simplification. In truth, it’s a refreshing change of pace considering Allen has erected a prolific, storied body of work around the pervading (some would say annoying) idea that any character, no matter how complex, can be caricatured to occupy unapologetically sheltered environments: either Park Avenue havens or wherever the people who occupy Park Avenue havens think the other side lives. Here, Allen underscores the aloof irony of those caricatures, and through that isolation, gives us an engrossing study of the complicity of weakness and amorality. The key word is complicity. One cannot exist without the other. Jasmine is rarely if ever truly amoral. Think about it: Is there ever a point in the film
where she intentionally attempts to hurt someone? She calls Chilli everything except “greased-up fuckhead” and lies to anyone and anything within earshot, but really, every single insult she heaves or story she spins is, at inception, a vain attempt to fool herself — a knee-jerk reaction at the notion of confronting reality. She shudders at the idea of being dragged back down to the confines of the middle class so she jaunts around with her nose so far up in the clouds, you’re left wondering why she hasn’t already suffocated. But again, the only person who really seems to care is Jasmine. SPOILERS In most of the reveries she gravitates toward when cornered, our protagonist ends up babbling about “Blue Moon,” a jazzy, crooning hit from a simpler time (when people could moon each other at high-school dances without getting sued). The song throws out flowery lines like, “You saw me standing alone / Without a dream in my heart / Without a love of my own.” These are lyrics that convey an almost naïve sense of vulnerability — vulnerability that latches itself onto Jasmine the moment she meets her con-artist husband Hal, and persists in her decomposition throughout this film. She tries to make it on her own, and her efforts are feeble yet earnest, only to be cut short by a hard-towatch scene featuring attempted rape. She falls because, as the song suggests, she’s only ever known how to be supported, and without that crutch there, she has no option but to revert back to looking for another.
Give her all of the awards. The first time I saw “Blue Jasmine,” I was reminded of the film “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” headlined by a similarly absorbing (though subdued) performance from Tilda Swinton. Both mov-
ies show us a woman’s struggle to find meaning in lives destroyed by personal tragedy and are both presented in an analogous intermittent-flashback structure. But they fall on opposite ends of the spectrum in their treatment of conflict. In “Kevin,” Swinton’s character is buffeted by public backlash, harassed and tormented for a perceived role in her son’s delinquency. She’s never in denial of what’s happened. She’s in shock, unable to think of anything other than where she may have gone wrong with her son, and the film excels in the deliberate buildup to their final, mutedly cathartic confrontation. Unlike “Blue Jasmine,” “Kevin” never caters to any notion of vulnerability. The only driving force is fear, and because Swinton’s character is merely reacting — trying her best to not cave to outside pressures — we never blame her for what’s happened. Jasmine’s story is the same, just marred by her own perceived weakness, a weakness that makes her push outwards. And because she’s responding in a more tangible, futile manner, we incorrectly think she’s a bad person. Vulnerability comes from love. Jasmine figures out early on that her husband has always been a crook, but she keeps herself in a state of denial because the feelings she has for him are genuine. Reality strikes in the form of Hal’s dalliances, and for the first time in her life, Jasmine goes out of her way to do something right: She turns him in. She’s hated for it, abandoned by her own son, who at first expresses horror at the realization that his father could be a fraud, but in the film’s heart-wrenching climax, admits he holds his mother more accountable for everything that has happened. Why? Because everything could have been fine if she kept her mouth shut. It’s a sad revelation, but one that reaffirms the nuance behind this third act and gives us a glimpse at the scale of Jasmine’s real predicament. And when she finally sits on that bench, babbling to nobody, the question that Allen set out to ask finally presents itself: Does amorality breed weakness, or is it the other way around?
Sports
8A — Friday, September 6, 2013
‘M’ takes on Pepperdine By JASON RUBENSTEIN Daily Sports Writer
The abundance of talent on the 2013 Michigan women’s soccer team was evident to head coach Greg Ryan before this season started. And though it’s still early in the season — only four games in — Ryan is glad to see all that talent materializing into results. The 11th-ranked Wolverines remained unbeaten after dismantling No. 23 San Diego State, 3-1, Sunday. The Aztecs (1-2-1) were Michigan’s highest ranked opponent to start the year. “We have a great balance with a team that defends very well and attacks really well,” Ryan said. “We have a lot of depth, and eight of our 14 goals have been scored by players coming off of the bench.” Now, Michigan (4-0-0) will look to earn its fifth straight win when it squares off against No. 22 Pepperdine Friday. In the preseason, Ryan recognized that certain freshmen would contribute to the team’s success and he hasn’t been disappointed thus far. Freshman Madisson Lewis’ three goals are tied with senior Nkem Ezurike and sophomore Christina Ordonez for most on the team. But Lewis has scored her goals with less playing time coming off the bench. Lewis has been critical in drawing defenders away from Ezurike, who is on pace to be Michigan’s all-time leading goal scorer. Lewis’ efforts led her to be named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week. “(Lewis) is a very gifted athlete,” Ryan said. “She is exceptionally fast, and any ball that is played behind the defense, she has the pace to get to. Some of her goals have been very highlevel finishes and she is putting her whole game together.”
Daily Sports Editor
The newest face of the Athletic Department is now Pete Skorich. Thursday, Athletic Director Dave Brandon announced that Skorich was hired as senior associate athletic director for communications, broadcast, multimedia and creative services. The position is newly created and will allow Skorich to report directly to Brandon and serve on the Athletic Department’s leadership team. Along with media services, creative services and video production, Skorich will be a liaison between the department and the networks for broadcast operations due to his experience as an access screener for the National Basketball Association and its TV partners, ESPN, ABC and TNT. “Pete is an excellent addition to our Michigan athletics team and will provide senior-level leadership to a growing area of our organization,” Brandon said in a statement. “Pete brings a wealth of experience from professional sports and the entertainment industry and will help us create innovative content for distribution on multiple platforms. His expertise will be a great asset to our Athletic Department.” Skorich spent the bulk of his career working with the Detroit Pistons from 1981 until 2011 while climbing up the corporate ladder, spending seven years as the senior vice president of broadcasting and multimedia for Palace Sports and Entertainment between 2000
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Lewis wins Big Ten Freshman of Week By JUSTIN MEYER Daily Sports Writer
PATRICK BARRON/Daily
Sophomore midfielder Christina Ordonez is tied for the team lead in goals with three early on in the season.
Ezurike and Lewis will look to continue their scoring ways against Pepperdine. The Waves are coming off a 3-1 road win over No. 19 Texas A&M. “They’re an outstanding team that has no problems playing on the road,” Ryan said. “I think they are much better than their ranking. They have one of the best forwards in the country.” Lynn Williams, the reigning National Soccer Coaches Association of America Player of the Week, scored two goals in two minutes against the Aggies to secure the win. “You can’t stop her with one player; you have to play great team defense,” Ryan said. “It is going to take a great team effort to stop Lynn Williams from scoring. She will be a challenge
Athletic Department hires Skorich as an associate AD By JEREMY SUMMITT
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
and 2007. His prelude to that role consisted of five years as the organization’s vice president of broadcasting and multimedia. His most recent title with the Pistons was executive vice president for Skorich’s final five years. He reported to the team’s presidents and managed all broadcasting and multimedia, brand marketing, website content and the creative design team for the Pistons, Palace Sports and Entertainment and DTE Energy Amphitheater. Additionally, Skorich acted as the chief communications and content officer, overseeing the television, radio, web, print, brand marketing, advertising and gameday areas. “I am thrilled to join the Michigan athletics team,” Skorich said in a statement. “I am looking forward to telling stories about the more than 900 student-athletes that participate on our 31 teams. The University of Michigan is an iconic institution with fans all over the world that have an insatiable appetite to follow their teams across all media platforms. I am excited at the opportunity to help deliver this coverage.” Skorich has racked up countless awards along the way. While leading the broadcast department with Palace Sports and Entertainment, his team won more than 30 Emmy Awards. Skorich received seven National Golden Matrix and two National Telly Awards. He’s been a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for 23 years.
for us, but it is one we’re excited about.” One of the biggest storylines before Friday’s match is the return of junior midfielder Christina Murillo who represented Mexico in Tuesday’s international friendly against the United States. Though Mexico lost 7-0, the junior had the opportunity to face international superstars such as Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan. “I am really excited for (Murillo),” Ryan said. “We were able to get through the weekend without her, but it wasn’t easy. We definitely missed her, but if you want to have national players on your team, you have to let them represent their country.” Michigan won both of its games in Murillo’s absences,
though Ryan knows her importance as she will be looked to anchor an already solid midfield. Perhaps Murillo’s best skill is her ability to help the Wolverines control possession. “She is one the most talented players on the team,” Ryan said. “She’s a very good possession player with great skills. She serves a fantastic ball on our set plays and defends very well and helps us build our offense.” Pepperdine might give the Wolverines their biggest test of the season to date, but Ryan knows his squad can counter. “They are a very dynamic and skillful team that’s talented in all facets of the game,” Ryan said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge for us against a very talented team.”
The No. 11 Michigan women’s soccer team broke open the 2013 season with a flurry of goals, thanks to outbursts from freshman forward Madisson Lewis and her fellow underclassmen. In the first four games of the year, Lewis netted three goals and two assists, which led to her first Big Ten Freshman of the Week award. “It was totally out of the blue,” Lewis said. But Michigan coach Greg Ryan said that superb play by underclassmen players including Lewis, freshmen forward Nicky Waldeck, freshmen forward Anna Soccorsi and sophomore midfielder Christina Ordonez is no surprise. “We really saw it before,” Ryan said. “We knew that we would have so much talent and so much depth, and that the freshman class was going to be very, very talented.” Lewis attributed her early season success to the experience of her teammates. “To play with those kind of players that we have, it makes it really easy for me to jell with them,” Lewis said. “They give a lot of direction on the field.” The work ethic and skill Lewis brings to the field is what Ryan said sets her apart. A track athlete in high school with devastating finishing touch, Lewis’ hustle and speed off the bench have allowed her to put the ball in the back of the net so effectively this season. “Madi’s a tireless worker, she’s constantly moving,” Ryan said. “She’s got so much pace that she just blows the doors off of most players. Most teams
aren’t used to seeing a player that has that kind of pace.” Lewis, a former Plymouth High School standout and twotime Gatorade State Player of the Year, said the atmosphere of collegiate soccer appeals to her. “We’re all on the same page with our goals,” Lewis said. “For high school, it wasn’t really like that because people were playing for different club teams. “This team, we have similar goals and we all want to go to the same place.” Though Lewis has made her impact coming off the bench as a reserve in this early part of the season, Ryan said that could change. “We have started with four veterans,” Ryan said. “That’s been a good formula for us, but now the young kids are going to win more and more playing time if they continue to be as productive as they are. “Don’t be surprised to see them in the starting lineup, rather than coming off the bench, if we think that they can help us to do better right from the very beginning.” The Wolverines play No. 22 Pepperdine, a talented team fresh off a road win at No. 19 Texas A&M, at home Friday. Ryan said the game will test his team. “We’ve been preparing for Pepperdine all week,” Ryan said. “We know we’re going to have a great challenge in front of us (Friday).” Lewis, who put the clinching goal away against No. 21 San Diego State last weekend, seemed unfazed. “We think we’re pretty prepared,” Louis said. “That’s our main goal … to keep a high pressure on the other team and to attack.”
NIGHT GAME From Page 1A Pasquale. But for his 405 musicians, Saturday is going to be a long day. It’ll begin at 8:30 a.m., when the band gathers to play on College GameDay, and won’t end until about 15 hours later. “We tell them to take it easy and hydrate as much as possible,” Pasquale said. “With those thick uniforms on, it gets a little warm.”
The band practiced in the stadium Thursday night and will do so again Friday night to incorporate elements that Pasquale said “have to do particularly with the evening.” He chose not to disclose these additions, only adding, “It’ll all make sense when you’re in the stadium.” Pasquale knows that, like the football team, his pupils will have to deal with nerves of their
own — nerves that, in a nighttime setting, can be intensified. He described the atmosphere at the 2011 Under the Lights game as “so loud it was nauseating.” His freshmen band members come from high-school bands comprising between 100 and 200 members who are used to playing for a maximum of 10,000 people — the equivalent of onethird of the Michigan student
section and less than 10 percent of Michigan Stadium’s capacity. For this year, he expects the same atmosphere — possible even more intense because of the comments made by Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly earlier this week. Kelly said that he doesn’t consider Michigan to be a great, historic Fighting Irish rival before going back on those comments later in the week.
“...Michigan is an iconic institution...”
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan fans enjoyed the celebration “Under the Lights” in 2011, but there is a lot more that goes into the preparation of a night game than meets the eye.
September 6, 2013: Notre Dame
THE TICKET ISSUE
2013 Schedule
Week 1 was a glorified exhibition game. The real season starts Saturday against Notre Dame. The game is usually a measuring stick for the rest of the season. Two years ago, when Michigan won it’s first night game ever, the Wolverines went to the Sugar Bowl. Last year, the Fighting Irish won and went all the way to the National Championship Game. You don’t want to miss this one.
Everett Cook, Zach Helfand, Matt Slovin and Liz Vukelich
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 4 8
Breakdown: The ghosts come out at night at Michigan Stadium. Who will step up this year? Here’s a look. The Ticket Issue: The student section is general admission. Single-game tickets are “dynamic.” What it all means to you. What to Watch For: Can Devin Gardner handle the pressure? Will atmosphere be like 2012? Michigan’s most-pressing questions.
Cover illustration by Amy Mackens and Nick Cruz
Central Michigan (Aug. 31): Michigan beat the Chippewas by their largest opening-day margin since 1905.
Indiana (Oct. 19): Long Island Bowl 2013. Winner drinks from the keg of glory and gets the finest bagels and muffins in all the land.
Notre Dame (Sept. 7): The real winner in this game is the electric company. Lights for days, yo.
Michigan State (Nov. 2): Michigan State’s defense is really good. Michigan State’s offense is really not.
Akron (Sept. 14): Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-adee-a, the Akron Zips are coming to play.
Nebraska (Nov. 9): The problem with Nebraska fans is they’re much too nice to hate. Unless, of course, the ‘Huskers win again this year.
Connecticut (Sept. 21): No really, this game’s going to be played in Connecticut. Seriously. Not lying.
Northwestern (Nov. 16): Don’t sleep on this one: a road game — officially at least — against one of the Big Ten’s best.
Minnesota (Oct. 5): Jerry Kill kind of looks like a walrus. Happy homecoming!
Iowa (Nov. 23): Vodka Sam!
Penn State (Oct. 12): Happy Valley at night usually isn’t so happy for opponents. Kickoff is at 5 p.m.
Ohio State (Nov. 30): The Game is The Game.
STAFF PICKS The Daily football writers pick against the spread to predict scores for the Top 25 and Big Ten in the 2013 football season.
2
Matt Slovin
Everett Cook
Zach Helfand
Josh Bartelstein, Former Michigan basketball captain
Liz Vukelich
No. 14 Notre Dame (+4) at No. 17 Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
No. 2 Oregon (-23) at Virginia
Oregon
Oregon
Oregon
Oregon
Michigan Oregon
No. 3 Ohio State (-28) vs. San Diego State
Ohio State
Ohio State
Ohio State
Ohio State
Ohio State
No. 4 Clemson NL vs. South Carolina State
Clemson
Clemson
Clemson
Clemson
Clemson
No. 5 Stanford (-26.5) vs. San Jose State
San Jose State
Stanford
San Jose State
San Jose State
Stanford
No. 6 South Carolina (+3) at No. 11 Georgia
Georgia
South Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Georgia
No. 7 Texas A&M (NL) vs. Sam Houston St.
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
No. 8 Louisville (NL) vs. Eastern Kentucky
Louisville
Louisville
Louisville
Louisville
Louisville
No. 9 LSU (-35) vs. UAB
UAB
LSU
LSU
LSU
UAB
No. 12 Florida (-3) at Miami (FL)
Florida
Florida
Miami (FL)
Miami (FL)
Florida
No. 13 Oklahoma State (-27) at Texas S.A.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
No. 15 Texas (-7.5) at BYU
Texas
Texas
Texas
Texas
BYU
No. 16 Oklahoma (-21) vs. West Virginia
West Virginia
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Oklahoma
West Virginia
No. 19 Northwestern (-12) vs. Syracuse
Northwestern
Northwestern
Northwestern
Northwestern
Northwestern
No. 21 Wisconsin (NL) vs. Tennessee Tech
Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin
No. 22 Nebraska (-28) vs. Southern Miss.
Southern Miss.
Nebraska
Nebraska
Southern Miss.
Nebraska
No. 23 Baylor (-27.5) vs. Buffalo
Buffalo
Baylor
Baylor
Baylor
Buffalo
No. 24 TCU (NL) vs. SE Louisiana St.
TCU
TCU
TCU
TCU
TCU
No. 25 USC (-15) vs. Washington State
USC
USC
Washington State
USC
USC
Illinois (+8) vs. Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Illinois
Cincinnati
Michigan State (-23.5) vs. South Florida
Michigan State
South Florida
South Florida
Michigan State
South Florida
Penn State (-24) vs. Eastern Michigan
Penn State
Penn State
Penn State
Penn State
Penn State
Iowa (NL) vs. Missouri State
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Purdue (NL) vs. Indiana State
Purdue
Purdue
Purdue
Purdue
Purdue
Indiana (-13) vs. Navy
Navy
Indiana
Indiana
Navy
Indiana
Minnesota (-13.5) at New Mexico State
Minnesota
New Mexico State
New Mexico State
Minnesota
New Mexico State
Penn State (-8.5) vs. Navy
Penn State
Navy
Penn State
Penn State
Penn State
Iowa (NS) vs. Northern Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Iowa
Last Week
19-10
18-11
17-12
14-15
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Overall
19-10
18-11
17-12
14-15
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FootballSaturday — September 6, 2013
Breakdown: Notre Dame at Michigan By ZACH HELFAND Daily Sports Editor
One more time we go, into the dark, looking out on the lights, the Victors and the Irish. Michigan and Notre Dame. The ghosts come out at night, under the stadium glow. Raghib returns and Desmond dives. Denard runs and Te’o chases. The legend of Tate Forcier is born and disappears again. Mike Hart takes a stand. Rick Leach makes his speech. Ghosts of Rockne and Yost. This rivalry, and that’s what it is, started with hate. Fielding Yost blocked Notre Dame from the Big Ten. Fritz Crisler feared Michigan’s Catholic students would cheer for the Irish. Notre Dame didn’t forget. The Irish laughed last in 2012. Michigan didn’t forget. The ghosts won’t come back until… we don’t know when. So turn on the lights and hold your breath. It’s Michigan and Notre Dame. Magic happens in this stadium at night. Michigan pass offense vs. Notre Dame pass defense To say the secondary is the weak spot of the Irish defense isn’t exactly fair. Remember last year? Last year, it seemed as if Michigan could punish Notre Dame through the air. The inexperienced secondary seemed vulnerable. But constant pressure took care of that. The secondary proved itself worthy last year and should be improved in 2013 with three returning starters. Cornerback Bennett Jackson is one of four Irish players on the Bednarik Award watch list for the best defensive player in the nation. His battle with senior receiver Jeremy Gallon is important. But pass protection will be more important. Notre Dame’s defensive line is back, and it’s just as terrifying. Fifth-year senior left tackle Taylor Lewan should contain All-American end Stephon Tuitt. Expect him to attack the other side of the line often.
Devin Gardner can elude rushers. He’ll need to. He’ll also need to improve on his blitz recognition or more bad decisions and crippling turnovers await. Players to Watch: CB Bennett Jackson, DE Stephon Tuitt Edge: Notre Dame Michigan rush offense vs. Notre Dame rush defense Notre Dame’s front seven led the team last year. The unit was one of the best in the nation and returns five starters. Manti Te’o has graduated — a good thing for Michigan. In 2012, Te’o harassed the Wolverines all over the field. We’ll skip the fakegirlfriend joke because we’re better than that. Michigan probably won’t play against an end this year better than Tuitt, who was an All-American as a sophomore. He’ll draw two blockers. Likewise, Louis Nix III is the size of two people (he’s 6-foot-2, 342 pounds), and redshirt sophomore center Jack Miller will also likely need additional help. That will allow the athletic linebackers to run more freely. Michigan’s line is inexperienced but has potential. It’s got lots of depth at running back. Both will be tested. Players to Watch: Tuitt, NT Louis Nix III, LB Prince Shembo Edge: Notre Dame Notre Dame pass offense vs. Michigan pass defense No Tyler Eifert. No Michael Floyd. No Golden Tate. That’s good news for Michigan. Notre Dame’s top two targets, T.J. Jones and DaVaris Daniels, have flown under the radar. Both are dangerous. Last week against Temple, Jones hauled in six catches for 138 yards. McDaniels had three for 69 yards and two touchdowns before sitting out the second half. But the Wolverines’ deep secondary has seen stiffer challenges from the Irish in the past. Quarterback Tommy Rees has
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Senior quarterback Tommy Rees is in charge of the Fighting Irish offense after Everett Gholston was suspended for the season.
a reputation for being turnover prone, but he’s shown improvement since the game two years ago, when his mistakes gave Michigan the victory. He’s nothing to laugh at. Against Temple last week, he was 16-for-23 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers. Yes, Temple was picked near the bottom of the American Athletic Conference and had numerous breakdowns in the secondary. Still, those numbers command respect. But senior safety Courtney Avery should be back. Michigan just has more talent here. Players to Watch: WR T.J. Jones, WR DeVaris Daniels Edge: Michigan
Zack Martin. Still, there are holes. A new center. A new right tackle. New running backs. And Michigan’s constantly rotating front seven should stay fresh. George Atkinson III is the No. 1 back, and they could look to get him downhill in the pistol formation. Like Michigan, they’re deep at the position. Look out for Amir Carlisle. He sat out last year with a broken ankle but opened the game with a 45-yard rush last week. Players to Watch: RB George Atkinson III, RB Amir Carlisle, RB Cam McDaniel LT Zack Martin Edge: Michigan
Both missed their only attempts in Week 1. A rare Brendan Gibbons missed field goal crippled the Wolverines in last year’s game. But he has been reliable. Returner Dennis Norfleet has the capability for a big return every kick. A call by special teams coach Dann Ferrigno created a blocked punt and a score against Central Michigan. Michigan owns the better special teams. And in a close game, that could be the difference. Players to Watch: PR Jones, KR Atkinson III Edge: Michigan Intangibles
Special Teams Notre Dame rush offense vs. Michigan rush defense Notre Dame’s linemen have a combined 81 starts, including a second-team All-American left tackle,
Notre Dame will be praying for the end zone, because field goals could be an adventure. Brian Kelly is deciding between Nick Tausch and Kyle Brindza at place kicker.
If you were at Michigan Stadium two years ago, you know. If not, you’ll find out soon. Edge: Michigan FINAL SCORE: No. 17 Michigan 27, No. 14 Notre Dame 21
TheMichiganDaily — www.michigandaily.com
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Oregon, $360
Season Ticket Pricing
Texas, $150
Other
It’s July 2013. You’re a couple years out of school, old enough to be making money but not old enough to be making a lot of it. Maybe you remember the 2011 Under the Lights game and want to experience that for yourself this year in what could be the last Michigan-Notre Dame game in the Big House for the foreseeable future. You’ve got a group of friends together. There’s only one problem: average tickets for Under the Lights II are running at about $300 each. Good seats are close to $500. The best seats might cost you $1000. In the past, single-game tickets could be bought through the Ath-
letic Department for face value. There was always high demand for big games, but seats could be had if you were familiar with the system. This year would be different. There was outrage when the Athletic Department announced that single-game tickets for the 2013 football season would be using a new dynamic pricing system, meaning that per-ticket prices fluctuated depending on the game. Groups of alumni felt like the University was trying to siphon as much money as possible off the bottom line, at the expense of former students. But what’s the better way to do it? If the Athletic Department continues to sell tickets at face value, they are basically giving money away to a secondary ticket mar-
ket. In years past, people would buy tickets from Michigan and sell them on sites like StubHub.com or ticketmaster.com for two or three times more than they bought them for. This year, Mark Bonges, a 2004 alumnus who is on the department’s email list, got on the Athletic Department’s website to find that the cheapest tickets available cost $450. They were well out of his price range, but tickets in the same section were selling for a lot more on StubHub. He bought from the Athletic Department, thinking that someone in his group of friends would want these “cheaper” tickets. Nobody did. He didn’t want to scalp the tickets, but still ended up making $500
on the secondary market, because here’s the problem: regardless of whom the money is going to, right now, there are enough people willing to spend an ungodly amount of money to go to a premium Michigan football game. It’s just a matter of where the money is going. Should the Athletic Department try to capitalize on that? “It makes a lot of economic sense, but the fallout could be if the alumni don’t see it as fair and if that affects the alum’s relationship with the school,” said Tammy Feldman, a University economics professor. “Will they donate less? Will they go to fewer games? What does it do to the relationship with alums? The bottom line is that most people don’t like change.” See DYNAMIC, Page 6
AVERAGE TICKET PRICE PER CONFERENCE ACC
$30
Big 10
$155
Mountain West
American
$21
C-USA
$0
PAC-12
$119
Big 12
$90
Independent
$28
SEC
$83
MAC
$5
Sun Belt
$0
DESIGN BY AMY MACKENS & NICK CRUZ 4
FootballSaturday — September 6, 2013
BYU, $115 Illinois, $99 Lousiana State, $84
Daily Sports Editor
West Virginia, $0 Navy, $0 Clemson, $0 Army, $0
Kentucky, $37 Pittsburgh, $25 Wyoming, $0 Western Michigan, $0 Western Kentucky, $0 Wake Forest, $0 Virginia, $0 Vanderbilt, $0 UTSA, $0 UTEP, $0 Utah State, $0 UNLV, $0 UAB, $0 Tulsa, $0 Tulane, $0 Troy, $0 Toledo, $0 Texas Tech, $0 Texas State, $0 Texas Christian, $0 Temple, $0 Stanford, $0 Southern Miss, $0 Southern Methodist, $0 South Florida, $0 South Carolina, $0 South Alabama, $0 San Jose State, $0 San Diego State, $0 Rice, $0 Old Dominion, $0 Ohio, $0 Northwestern, $0 Northern Illinois, $0 North Texas, $0 New Mexico State, $0 New Mexico, $0 Nevada, $0 Middle Tenessee, $0 Miami (Ohio), $0 Miami (Florida), $0 Memphis, $0 Massachusetts, $0 Maryland, $0 Marshall, $0 Louisiana-Monroe, $0 Lousiana-Lafayette, $0 Lousiana Tech, $0 Kent State, $0 Idaho, $0 Houston, $0 Hawai’i, $0 Georgia State, $0 Georgia Southern, $0 Florida State, $0 Florida International, $0 Florida Atlantic, $0 Eastern Michigan, $0 East Carolina, $0 Duke, $0 Connecticut, $0 Colorado State, $0 Central Michigan, $0 Central Florida, $0 Buffalo, $0 Boise State, $0 Baylor, $0 Ball State, $0 Arkansas State, $0 Appalachian State, $0 Akron, $0 Air Force, $0
Florida, $90 Virginia Tech, $66 Utah, $40 Oregon State, $0 Charlotte, $0
By EVERETT COOK
Kansas State, $150
General Admission Seating
Daily Sports Editor Ohio State, $252 Notre Dame, $80
Assigned Seating
By ZACH HELFAND
Nebraska, $189 Wisconsin, $188
Texas A&M, $225
Legend
Michigan, $295 Oklahoma State, $250 Penn State, $218 Southern California, $175 Oklahoma, $175 Iowa, $175 Boston College, $175 Arizona State, $169 Michigan State, $164 Missouri, $145 Colorado, $140 Auburn, $140 Washington State, $129 Iowa State, $125 Purdue, $119 Arizona, $110 Washington, $109 Ole Miss, $105 UCLA, $99 Syracuse, $99 California, $98 Arkansas, $85 Minnesota, $84 Louisville, $82 Indiana, $80 Alabama, $70 Rutgers, $66 Fresno State, $60 Cincinnati, $60 Bowling Green, $60 Georgia Tech, $49 Georgia, $48 Mississippi State, $45
Michigan Daily takes a look at the season ticket prices for FBS (or soon-to-be FBS teams). Colleges are sorted by ticketing type, then by price, then by alphabetical.
Dynamic, and for some, prohibitive
For GA policy, a costly success
$5
On Nov. 16 of last year, the Michigan Athletic Department sent an email to students with the subject line including: “Seriously, Remember to Set Your Alarm.” It was a reminder for Senior Day. In comparison to its typical messages, filled with light-hearted puns or practical information, this email seemed almost agitated. The message featured a photograph of a sparsely populated student section with the caption “HOMEFIELD DISADVANTAGE.” The week before, the Wolverines beat Northwestern in a thrilling overtime game, and nearly a third of the student section never showed up. This was becoming an irritating trend. The Athletic Department wanted to change that for the following week, Senior Day against Iowa. But during the pregame ceremonies for that game, only a tiny fraction of the student section dotted the bleachers, though more students eventually showed up. It would be the last game under Michigan’s long-standing policy of reserved seating, with the best seats awarded by credit hours accumulated. Seniors typically sat in the front. The Athletic Department had tried outreach and a new loyalty program, the H.A.I.L application, but nothing worked. It was ready for a new approach. “We did a study to find out what other schools are charging for student tickets, because maybe we’re too low,” Athletic Director Dave Brandon told AnnArbor. com in July. “Maybe one of the reasons students aren’t showing up is because they feel like they haven’t made enough of a significant investment in the ticket.” Analysis by The Michigan Daily, which compiled data on studentticket prices and policies at all 129 FBS or soon-to-be FBS programs, shows how far Michigan went to correct its prices. Coming off an 8-5 season, Michigan unveiled a new pricing model in April that, at the time, made it the most expensive student football ticket in the nation. The price of a season ticket increased to $295
for seven games in 2013, including service fees, from $205 for six games in 2012. For an average price of $42.14, students get a night game against Notre Dame, and home games against Nebraska and Ohio State. In August, Oregon knocked off Michigan to become the most expensive ticket at $360, though it offers nearly 4,000 of its roughly 5,000-seat student section in a game-by-game lottery for free. The second part of the Athletic Department’s plan proved to be more controversial. Reserved seating was out. General admission seating was in. Early arrivers would get wristbands granting access to the first 22 rows. All others would be assigned to a section when they arrived. Central Student Government President Michael Proppe, a Business senior, learned of the policy change like everyone else: through an April 23 email. The Athletic Department, he said, hadn’t consulted with CSG or any other students. “There wasn’t buy-in from the students,” Proppe said. “It was just kind of being handed down, here’s the new policy, like it or leave it.” Within three hours of the announcement of the new policy, the Facebook group “UMich Students to Reverse the New Football Ticket Policy” had more than 1,500 ‘likes.’ An online petition through CSG gained more than 2,600 signatures in less than 24 hours. Students, mostly juniors and seniors, felt cheated. They had sat high up in Michigan Stadium, they argued, for the chance to get to the best rows as upperclassmen. Now that opportunity was gone. In response, CSG itself passed two resolutions: one officially opposing the general-admission policy, and one calling for more student input on future decisions. Some prospective ticket-holders had recently attended the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four in Atlanta, where the NCAA-run student ticketing process required hours of queuing in a Georgia Dome holding center. There, students lined up five hours prior to the game in a dark, concrete room. Though Michigan gave the best See POLICY, Page 6
COMPILED BY ZACH HELFAND TheMichiganDaily — www.michigandaily.com
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Underneath the hype, game is full of emotions By LIZ VUKELICH Daily Sports Editor
Beyond the week-long bantering between Brady Hoke and Brian Kelly, beyond the tradition of the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry and beyond the lights being turned on at Michigan Stadium again, there are only two feelings that seem to matter to the Michigan football players who have faced the Fighting Irish before. The first was the indescribable electricity of Michigan Stadium before, during and after the Wolverines’ now legendary come-frombehind win in the first Under the Lights game in 2011. The second is about as far-flung off the first as pos-
DYNAMIC From Page 4 The new policy doesn’t affect anybody that has season tickets — those prices stay the same regardless of the game. But season tickets aren’t cheap, as mandatory donations and personal-seat licenses raise the price well above the face value of the ticket. The fans this ticket policy affects are people like Kara
POLICY From Page 5 seats to students who attended the most games, skipping the line was rampant. And the wait, with no televisions to watch the early Final Four game, created a mixture of boredom and frustration. Proppe said some students equated the general-admission policy to Atlanta, where “there’s this perception that you’re being herded like cattle.” By the morning after the announcement, in a Facebook poll conducted by the Daily with 643 responses, 77.2 percent of voters said they hated the policy.
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sible: leaving South Bend last year after taking a literal and figurative drubbing from the Fighting Irish. Both feelings are motivators for Michigan this week. The players know it. The coaches know it. It’s Notre Dame week, after all. “It’s a rivalry game to us, that’s us picking up intensity,” said fifth year senior wide receiver Jeremy Gallon. “The whole game of football is changing for that 60 minutes. It’s a different level. There’s more to it than just playing football, it’s about winning it and having the upper hand on your opponent.” Last week against Central Michigan provided a relatively easy test for the Wolverines and their new
pro-style offense. Now it’s time to see how redshirt junior quarterback Devin Gardner and the rest of the Wolverines will stack up against a team that was on the cusp of a national championship last year. Gardner threw two interceptions last Saturday, and according to offensive coordinator Al Borges, one was preventable and the other was not. But considering six turnovers against Notre Dame proved to be Michigan’s downfall last year, the challenge for Gardner will be walking the fine line between ball security and making the necessary big plays. Gallon said he doesn’t mind what Gardner does,
because at the end of the day he said he has trust in his quarterback. For the most part, Hoke shares those sentiments, but there’s always that lingering feeling of concern. “For Devin, believe me, we started this conversation in July about how we’re going to make decisions, how we’re going to take care of the football,” Hoke said. “I’d rather have a quarterback like Devin that you have to pull back a little bit than I would a quarterback who you have to kick in the pants to get out there to compete.” Where nerve-wracking might be the resounding phrase Hoke uses to describe some of Gardner’s spontaneous tendencies, the one adjective he picks to
describe Tommy Rees, his Notre Dame counterpart, is “accurate.” And when it comes to the Fighting Irish’s defensive line? Maybe the best words to use there are huge and experienced, especially when considering Notre Dame defensive tackle Louis Nix III, who weighs in at a hefty 342 lbs. With that mind, Borges is putting even more pressure on the offensive line to take care of Gardner and prevent a 2012 repeat. “(Former quarterback) Denard (Robinson) took a lot of physical and figurative hits in (last year’s) game,” Borges said. “A lot of those balls he got intercepted, he was hit on, which tells us we need to take care of our
quarterback so he can see the throws.” Saturday will be the last Michigan-Notre Dame game in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future. But amidst all the glitz and glam of the allday festivities and the lights turning on, the game is, first and foremost, a measuring stick. “I think (MichiganNotre Dame) was always a game that really (gave) you a little bit of a true north of what kind of football team you’re going to have,” Hoke said. “You’ve got two traditional national powers playing each other. I remember coach Schembechler all the time talking about, how that game, you kind of get an idea of where you were as a team.”
Jasina, a 2012 alumni who is in graduate school at Wayne State for social work. She lives close, but can’t afford season tickets and wouldn’t be able to afford singlegame tickets with the new policy. Her plan was to tailgate in Ann Arbor and watch the game on TV before she won the right to buy tickets in a lottery run by the Football Saturdays program in the Alumni Association (see chart). Without that lottery, she wouldn’t have been able to go to the game.
The ticket policy affects people like the engineer who works for one of the automotive companies in the area and who graduated last year but is using student tickets again this year. He requested his name be withheld because of his unauthorized use of student tickets. He couldn’t afford season tickets, and through a loophole in the system, got student tickets again this year (see chart). After his remaining friends still in school graduate, he won’t be
able to afford season tickets anymore and will have to scalp them. Most of all, it affects people like Bonges, who has younger children and lives in Chicago. Every year, he goes to one Michigan game with his college buddies. This year, it will be Notre Dame. He won tickets through the lottery, but two of his friends didn’t. They couldn’t afford the singlegame ticket, and are going to scalp before the game. Again, tickets were going
to be expensive anyway. Either the Athletic Department makes the money or the secondary marketplace does. Feldman, the economics professor, compared it to concert tickets. “Musicians set their ticket prices really low because they want their base fans to be able to afford it, but they know a lot of those tickets are going to be bought up by a lot of people who intend to re-sell them,” she said. “Because they
don’t want to turn off their fans, the performers don’t want to charge the $500 a ticket for their concerts. What’s happening is that the alumni are saying, ‘Is a football game more like a Bruce Springsteen concert, or is it more like buying an airplane seat.’ The alumni reaction is saying that it’s more like a concert ticket, where you want to make it affordable for everybody.” At what point does it become too much for just a football game?
senior safety Thomas Gordon. The Michigan Athletic Department is a big business. Brandon told the Regents he projects $146.4 million in revenue and $137.4 in expenses in the upcoming year. On Wednesday, Stephen Ross donated $100 million — out of a $200 — million gift — to athletics. But, as LSA prof. Andrei Markovits notes, schools still have an incentive to keep strong student sections. A strong football team has become part of Michigan’s image, he said. It attracts applicants and even boosts the reputation of a Michigan degree. A rabid fan base is part of that brand.
“And in that context, the student section is actually essential,” said Markovits, a co-author of Sportista: Female Fandom in the United States. “They would not give it up even if they could make a lot more money giving it to the free market, no question.” Michigan continues to make tickets available to all students at the University. Less than half of FBS schools, 51 total, don’t put a cap on student ticket allotment. Of those, only 19 are from one of the five major conferences or Notre Dame. In fact, Michigan will make less money off student tickets in 2013 than in 2012, even with the price
increase. The Regents’ plan to upgrade the University recreational sports facilities and the Union requires the use of $1.8 million of Athletic Department revenue. The Athletic Department says the entire increase in student ticket prices will go toward that project. With roughly 20,000 season-ticket holders, that covers about $1.05 million. Since 2,000 fewer students bought tickets this season, Michigan loses about $390,000 in revenue. According to Dr. Mark Nagel, a professor at South Carolina who has researched student fees, many schools charge an athletics fee and then charge for tickets.
Michigan has no such fee. “In that regard, Michigan does it right,” Nagel said.
The green that makes blue go All student sections, at Michigan and elsewhere, are subsidized. In the case of 78 FBS teams, student tickets are free. As Dave Brandon told AnnArbor.com: “If we’re going to sell you a ticket at a substantial discount, we want you to be there.” But many students weren’t there in 2012. Students averaged 5,434 no-shows per game in 2012, up from 4,376 in 2011. The team noticed. “You just look up there and see that your peers are not up there supporting you in a sense,” said fifth-year
FootballSaturday — September 6, 2013
Assigned seating going extinct In an interview with AnnArbor.com, Brandon revealed that when Michigan decided to switch to a general-admission policy, he felt he had no other options. “We had Denard Robinson doing appeals and (Michigan) coach (Brady) Hoke doing appeals,” Brandon said, referring to the attendance issue. “And we were talking about it in the student newspaper, and we were going around campus and we were really trying
For alumni who don’t want spend a chunk of money that could be used on rent and don’t want to buy season tickets, there are three options for cheaper tickets for premium games:
Know a student One alumni said that even though he graduated, he still knows a few current students and used them to buy season tickets this year. It’s technically against the rules, but getting a current student to buy you season tickets is by far and away the cheapest way to get tickets, even if you only go to a couple games. Technically, your M-Card will expire anywhere from a year to five years after you graduate depending on whether you get a new one issued, but the ushers never check dates and you don’t have to scan anything to get in.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan students who expected to have seat assignments before the season were disappointed in the new general admission policy.
to get people to understand how important this was.” The Athletic Department declined comment for this story. To Brandon’s credit, the Daily’s analysis shows, assigned-seating policies across the nation seem endangered. Michigan was the last school in the Big Ten to use a pure assignedseating policy, and just eight out of 129 schools — none in the Big Ten — currently use an assigned-seating policy. Twelve other schools employ a hybrid model, partially using assigned seating. Wisconsin, for example, has a general-admission policy for each section, but allows students to preselect a section so they can sit with friends. Brandon named Nebraska, specifically, as a school the department researched. Nebraska switched to general-admission in 2008, with one tweak: students are assigned to sections of the stadium, and seniors get
to select a section first. “It gives upperclassmen priority in their seating location, and allows students the freedom to sit with large groups of friends at our games,” said Keith Mann, Nebraska’s assistant athletic director for media relations. Mann said the policy has improved attendance and involvement. Michigan made no such tweaks, though Proppe had lobbied for the policy to grandfather in upperclassmen. Plus, some wondered whether the general-admission policy would actually solve the attendance issue. “General admission may do that, but it is not guaranteed to do that,” said Dr. Rod Fort, a professor of Sport Management at the University and co-director of the Michigan Center for Sport Management. “I have seen other stadiums where general admission leads to ‘reservation protection’ behavior. For example, a
campus social group may simply send four of their people in early — or in line — and then require that they save two blocks of seats.” By 2:07 p.m. before the Central Michigan game, though, the department had handed out all of its wristbands for early-arrivers. To improve the student experience and avoid a situation like Atlanta, the Athletic Department reached out to Proppe and others. Chief Marketing Officer Hunter Lochmann personally delivered pizza. There was water and toilets. TVs showed College GameDay and disk jockey’s played music. By the 3:37 kickoff, the student section was full. Some upperclassmen nonetheless expressed frustration with the policy, which no longer guarantees them the best seats. In the first CSG meeting of the school year, Proppe said that the resolution — calling for more student involvement in Athletic Depart-
ment decisions that affect students — had worked. “(The Athletic Department) got some bad press on it and now they are turning it around,” Proppe said. But that’s only partially true. The Athletic Department will send representatives to the Sept. 17 CSG meeting. Proppe said they assured him students will be advised on future ticketing issues. But for now, the football policy seems to be set in stone. Before Proppe spoke at the May Regent’s Meeting, he received an 8 a.m. phone call from Brandon. “I think he definitely understood there was negative reaction from the students and so he, I would speculate, he wanted to get buy-in from students,” Proppe said of the 30-minute call. Brandon said he understood the complaints, according to Proppe, but the decision had already been made.
Join the football Saturdays program through the Alumni Association If you are too far out of school to pass as a student, the Football Saturdays program through the Alumni Association is a great way to get cheap tickets. In the spring, you have to fill out an application ranking the games you want to go to. Your name is then entered in a lottery for the games you marked. Get selected, and you get tickets in the south end zone for face value. Some games are harder than others to win — there were 6,000 applications for the 1,000 allotted Notre Dame tickets — but the system is pretty straight forward and not revenuedriven, which makes everything cheaper. The program is free as long as you are a member of the Alumni Association in good standing.
Wait This might be the hardest option, because it’s basically a gamble. The athletic department released the tickets on July 31, saying to buy them earlier rather than later because ticket prices would rise the closer the event got. For Notre Dame this week, that simply wasn’t true. In the middle of August, the cheapest dynamic pricing ticket was $266, which is about $100 cheaper when they were when originally released. On Monday this week, the cheapest tickets started at $214 on StubHub, but by Thursday, the cheapest had dropped to around $180. Tickets might be even cheaper than that is you wait until after kickoff and go to scalper that is growing desperate to unload their tickets. It’s risky, but could ultimately end up being a lot less expensive than buying in advance.
TheMichiganDaily — www.michigandaily.com
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What to Watch for: Notre Dame By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Editor
How does Devin Gardner handle a front seven that can actually deliver pressure? Tuesday, offensive coordinator Al Borges said that Notre Dame’s defensive line is as good as any Michigan will see. He didn’t say the same thing about Central Michigan. Gardner looked good against the Chippewas last weekend, both through the air and on the ground. But the majority of his 52 rushing yards came on scrambles, which isn’t going to be easy against the Fighting Irish’s defensive line. The unit is one of the biggest and best in the country, and running lanes aren’t going to be as wide open as they were last Saturday. In terms of the passing game, Gardner is going to feel a lot more pressure in the pocket against Notre Dame. He blamed one of his two interceptions against Central Michigan on being hit while he threw, which is going to happen often against the Fighting Irish. The pressure will be there — it’s just a matter of how the redshirt junior quarterback responds. On a SportsCenter clip earlier this week, Gardner said, “If I protect the football, the defense is going to stop them, we’re going to score and we’re going to win.” He might be right. How will Michigan’s inexperienced interior offensive line do under the lights? That front seven will also affect Michigan’s interior line. Before last Saturday against Central Michigan, the group — redshirt freshman Kyle Kalis and redshirt sophomores Jack Miller and Graham Glasgow — had zero combined career starts. The trio didn’t make any major mistakes and played well for the most part, especially Kalis, who made highlights with a body-slam pancake block during a passing play. You can bet that Kalis, Miller and Glasgow are going to have a lot more trouble delivering those crushing blocks Saturday. Two monsters, tackle Louis Nix III and end Stephon Tuitt, highlight Notre Dame’s defensive line. Nix is 6-foot-2 and weighs more than 340 pounds, while Tuitt is about 6-foot-6. Both linemen have
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PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Fith-year senior offensive tackle Taylor Lewan will have a big challenge on his hands Saturday against Notre Dame’s massive and talented defensive line.
great quickness for players of their size — so protecting Gardner and getting the running game going will be a task. Fifth-year senior tackle Taylor Lewan will probably be matched up with Tuitt for most of the night, but Nix is going to be the responsibility of the young interior linemen. It’s a big test for them early in the season. How does Derrick Green do as the backup running back? The first depth chart of the year had six running backs listed, all of whom were in serious contention to get carries behind the starter, fifthyear senior Fitzgerald Toussaint. That list got one man shorter,
FootballSaturday — September 6, 2013
though, when primary backup Drake Johnson suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury on a special-teams play last Saturday. The redshirt freshman is out for the year. Wednesday, Hoke said that freshman Derrick Green is going to be the primary backup on Saturday behind Toussaint. Green still looks to be a little bit larger than the Michigan coaching staff wants him to be, but he showed flashes last weekend of why he was the No. 1 running back recruit in the nation. He finished the game with a team-high 58 yards on 11 carries and scored a touchdown. He also didn’t play until the third quarter, when the game was
well out of reach. The pressure will be different if he has to play while the score is actually close. “Didn’t make a lot of bad running decisions,” Borges said Tuesday. “Ran the ball pretty much where we wanted him to. So he grew a little bit. I don’t know if that means anything, but he grew a little bit with those carries.” Does the students’ energy hold throughout the whole night? Two years ago, the crowd was loud from kickoff until well after the game had ended, to the point where the public-address announcer had to ask fans to leave. For a variety of reasons, this year might
be a little different. In 2011, with no general-admission policy, students could get to the game whenever they wanted. On Saturday, the general-admission student lines open at 11 a.m., meaning students could potentially be at the Big House for 13 hours on Saturday. Will the energy still be there after all day in the sun, waiting for the game? Will it be sustained? There was a certain mystique in 2011. It was the first night game at Michigan Stadium, and from the get-go, the game just felt like a completely different experience than any other game in the Big House. Saturday is the second night game in Ann Arbor. Is the charm and mystique still there?
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