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Finance VP will return to Chicago Controversial shared services architect to depart for alma mater By YARDAIN AMRON Daily Staff Reporter
He’s heading home. Rowan Miranda, associate vice president for finance and former head of the controversial shared services initiative, has left the University for a position at the University of Chicago, his alma mater. Miranda confirmed the decision Tuesday, and said he is excited for his new position as treasurer and senior associate vice president for finance and administration at the Chicago school. “I’ve been interested in working at the University of Chicago for a long time,” Miranda said. “It’s the place where I went to school and the opportunity presented itself so it was a good time to make a change.” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said Director of Procurement Nancy Hobbs will assume Miranda’s responsibilities while the University begins the search for a permanent replacement.
Hobbs has financial experience managing the $1.5 billion budget that supports the three University campuses and the University Health System. She was unavailable for comment on Tuesday. Miranda’s decision to move comes one month after Thom Madden, the University’s director of sponsored programs, took over the reigns of the University’s shared services initiative. In a statement released the day the transition was announced, the University said Miranda would focus his attention on the health system’s agreement with Allegiance Health, the search for a new University treasurer and the next stage of strategic procurement as the shared services initiative transitioned into its next phase. Miranda spent four years at the head of the shared services project. The initiative, still planned to launch this summer, will downsize and consolidate approximately 275 staff from different departments into a single center, and is expected to save the University about $5 million annually. The plan itself was widely protested by faculty — a petition in opposition has garnered more than 1,100 signatures. Miranda himself also became a point of contention because of his past See VP, Page 3A
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Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) speaks to a panel representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineering Tuesday evening at the Michigan League. Stabenow expressed her concerns during the presentation about possible solutions to the spread of Asian Carp into the Great Lakes.
Stabenow talks Asian carp Army Corps report outlines options for fighting damaging invasive species By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
Though the Twenty Pound Carp lost its bid for election to the Ann Arbor City Council in November, its aquatic relatives are continuing to generate conversation around the state. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D–
Mich.) spoke at a public meeting hosted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers on campus Tuesday to discuss plans to stop the spread of the invasive species Asian Carp. Held at the Michigan League and attended by nearly 100 people, the event aimed to giving residents a chance to speak on the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study recently released by the USACE. The event is one in a series of public meetings being held across the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes regions. The GLMRIS report explores
PHILANTHROPY
strategies to stop Asian carp and other invasive aquatic species from entering the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins. It focuses on the Chicago waterway system as the primary connection between the two bodies of water and offers seven potential solutions to control the flow of aquatic species between the waterway and the Great Lakes. Asian carp feed on many endangered species of mussels and snails, disrupting local food webs and native species, including fish. These environmental consequences have also affected local fishing and boating indus-
HOSPITAL
Hesitant to get vaccine, youth still vulnerable
Motor City donors aid ‘U’ in many initiatives Nine organizations grant gifts to art institute, Detroitfocused programs
CDC report finds younger people more susceptible to current flu strain TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje prepares to begin the city council meeting Tuesday night.
By CLAIRE BRYAN Daily Staff Reporter
Since 1885, the Detroit Institute of Arts has served as a rich part of the city’s culture. But due to Detroit’s recent bankruptcy, it’s struggling just to hold on to its collections. Earlier this month, nine organizations endowed a $330 million fund that would finance the city’s pensions and protect the Institute’s art collection during bankruptcy proceedings. Although these organizations have been active in their philanthropic efforts in the Motor City, Joseph Sutkowi, the University’s assistant director of foundation relations, said all nine foundaSee INITIATIVES, Page 3A
tries. Stabenow spoke first during the public comment section of the meeting and said she sees the report as an important first step. However, she added that the project needs to move more quickly, as most of the solutions specified in the report had a time horizon of more than 10 years. “Every day is a risk to us on something that’s incredibly important,” Stabenow said. In an interview after the event, she added that a more focused proposal needs to be See STABENOW, Page 3A
After wait, City approves extensive zoning proposal Council applies changes suggested in Oct. report By MATT JACKONEN Daily Staff Reporter
The city’s long-debated zoning changes may be turning into the final stretch. After months of debate, the Ann Arbor City Council passed
a resolution Tuesday regarding recommended downtown zoning changes. Last October, a city-hired consultant released a 27-page report advising the city to make certain changes to Ann Arbor’s downtown zoning. The report contained proposed alternatives to the city’s present D1 and D2 zoning amendments that took effect in 2009. D1 zoning is for highdensity developments that
include a blend of residential, office and commercial buildings, while D2 zoning is for medium-density developments that are both residential and mixed-use. The proposed changes will create more effective buffer zones between zoning districts and reduce the maximum height of buildings on the borders of different zones. The need for buffer zones is due to See ZONING, Page 3A
By PAULA FREDRICH Daily Staff Reporter
If her mom had not insisted, Kinesiology senior Briana Dumond probably wouldn’t have gotten a flu vaccine this year. “It’s a hassle to go and get it,” Dumond said. “Just because I don’t live around here, and so I don’t have a doctor around here, and so trying to get into UHS to get a flu shot just doesn’t seem worth it.” In the week ending Jan. 11, the University Health Service saw 10 patients with an influenzalike illness — a number that’s not uncommon for this time of year. “Normally the flu affects young children and older adults over the age of 60 because of
their immune systems being a little bit more vulnerable,” said Robert Winfield, chief health officer and director of University Health Services. As this year’s flu season picks up, Winfield and other health officials urge everyone — especially those in Dumond’s age demographic — to get vaccinated. The recent H1N1 outbreak, the most common strain of flu this year, has affected many young, otherwise healthy adults. Though this year’s vaccine covers the H1N1 strain, the 18- to 49-year-old demographic has one of the lowest vaccination rates. The Michigan Department of Community Health reports 9 percent of Michigan residents between the ages of 18 and 24 and 11 percent of residents in the 25 to 49 demographic were vaccinated last year. According to Winfield, UHS administers about 3,000 flu shots every year. “We know that if you’re vaccinated you might get ill still, but See VACCINE, Page 3A
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2A — Wednesday, January 22, 2014
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
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THURSDAY: Alumni Profiles
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IVY LEAGUE OVER BUDGET
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Rackham student Catherine Mocuy tests De Novo Peptide design for biological applications.
CRIME NOTES
meet the rising costs of providing a college education,” McDonald said. “Ivy League schools could charge a lot more, but they are committed to attracting a diverse student body.” Ivy League schools are not the only ones suffering from budget deficits. Richard Hesel, a principal at Art and Science Group, Inc., a firm that advises colleges and universities, said 80 percent of colleges in the nation exceeded their budget in the past fiscal year.
vard University and several other schools convened at the White House on Jan. 16 to discuss how to make higher education more affordable and accessible. The schools pledged to increase outreach to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, The Harvard Crimson reported Tuesday. In order to achieve these goals, Harvard will hire a new Office of Admissions and Financial Aid staff that will make connecting with potential minority students a priority.
Harvard Partners with White House Representatives from Har-
— HILLARY CRAWFORD
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
Anybody there?
Extinguish the flame
Horn quartet studio recital
Propaganda lecture
WHERE: 2100 Block of State Street WHEN: Monday at 5:20 a.m. WHAT: A vehicle was abandoned in the roadway, University Police reported. It was soon towed.
WHERE: West Quad WHEN: Sunday at about 1:45 a.m. WHAT: A fire extinguisher was found discharged without the presence of an emergency, University Police reported. There are no suspects.
WHAT: A horn quartet will perform, featuring freshmen Adam Unsworth and Bryan Kennedy. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: 8:00 p.m. WHERE: Moore Building, Britton Recital Hall
WHAT: Attend a lecture on how cloaked websites and other Digital Age propaganda tactics can erode the foundation of political action. WHO: Department of American Culture WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Haven Hall
Sleepy intruder Broken arm, WHERE: The University need a cast? Hospital
Honeycutters to perform
WHERE: Palmer Drive Parking Structure WHEN: Saturday at about 8 a.m. WHAT: The arm on a parking garage gate was found damaged, University Police reported.
WHAT: See this North Carolina country band take the Ann Arbor music scene. General admission tickets are $15. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: 8 p.m. WHERE: The Ark, 316 S. Main Street
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An Alabama family thought the best way to clean up the toilet paper after neighborhood kids TP-ed their home was to light it on fire, The Huffington Post reported. This did not clean all the toilet paper, but did set the house on fire.
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MHacks: 36 hours of Red Bull, Quidditch and the Qube. The Statement explores hackathon culture, app creation and learning outside the classroom. >> FOR MORE, SEE THE STATEMENT
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A 56-year-old newspaper carrier, who was lodged in the windshield of a car that struck him, remained unnoticed by the driver, the Associated Press reported. After noticing the man, the driver “freaked out.”
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WHEN: Monday at about 9:30 p.m. WHAT: After HHC Security requested a visitor to leave the medical campus, he failed to comply and was found sleeping in the parking structure, University Police reported.
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Several schools in the red Four Ivy League schools have reported budget overruns in the past fiscal year, the Yale Daily News reported Tuesday. These schools include Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and Yale University. Decreased funding from federal research grants contributed to the widespread issue and may cause tuition to rise in the future. Michael McDonald, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News, explained the possible culprits of the increasing deficits. “My understanding is that it reflects a commitment to financial aid, combined with a reluctance to really jack up tuition to
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CSG finalizes winter term State of Michigan, nation budget, reviews new funding recieve poor health grade Representatives talk new proposals with student orgs.
At the meeting, representatives reviewed the finalized budget for the upcoming semester and opened discussion on other funding proposals. The only change to the recently released fall 2013 and winter 2014 budget was the transfer of $1,236 in expenses from Operations to Executive Discretionary. The money will be used to fund an upgrade of its council chambers. Proppe said he was satisfied that a budget was finally passed,
Reproductive repord card results show inadequate resources for women
but still expressed frustration reproductive rights contribwith the lack of funding for stuuted to the nation’s poor score. dent organizations. He added Although the ACA is expanding that he originally hoped they Medicaid in many states and would receive closer to half the making insurance accessible to total funding for the organizathose without it, policies such By KAITLIN ZURDOSKY tion as opposed to the 42 peras abortion restrictions and Daily Staff Reporter cent they received. limiting access to family plan“I’d like to see more money By ALLANA AKHTAR ning clinics negatively affect As After Tuesday’s Central going towards Student OrganiDaily Staff Reporter the nation’s state of reproducStudent Government meeting, zation funding than we got in tive health. CSG President Michael Proppe, there, but everything is so bare The Population Institute Reproductive care accessibila business senior, tweeted that boned,” he said. “I don’t know awarded the United States a ity has faced major setbacks in with a budget passed, CSG will, where else you would have grade of C- in its 2013 State of the past few years, both nationin fact, not shut down. pulled from. We have everything Reproductive Health and Rights ally and in the state. According budgeted pretty low.” 50-State Report Card, with to the report, half of all pregProppe said raising the stuMichigan scoring slightly higher nancies in the United States are dent fee for CSG from $7.19 to with a C grade. unintended. $10 for next year would be an The annual report ranks State representative Jeff effective way to increase total states based on the quality Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) said funding, and would especially and accessibility of reproduc- Republican legislators passed help Student Organizations. The tive health care resources. The a bill at the end of 2012 that $7.19 fee that is incorporated national grade is calculated restricted funds for facilities into students’ tuition payments using the average of each state’s that perform abortions and has not been raised since 2005. individual grade. ordered that these sites must Representatives also heard The grade judges effectivehave additional equipment and Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ from members of Michigan ness, the measure of unintended training that was previously Undergraduates Serving in the and teen pregnancies, states’ unnecessary. In December, Community Matters, a philansex education programs in pub- Michigan limited coverage in thropic student organization lic schools, access to emergency private plans to include aborthat hosts an annual spring contraception, affordability and tion access. concert for University students. whether states’ policies make Irwin added that he was disIt requested $14,000 from CSG birth control affordable for appointed in Republican lawHARD to help fund its concert, hoping uninsured and low-income indi- makers for targeting women, to hold it in the Crisler Center viduals and access, among other specifically those with low this year. The movement of the categories. economic resources, with their concert venue from Hill AuditoMichigan received about “onerous regulations.” rium has been a goal of the orgathe same score as Maine, Mas“An immediate reaction to nization since it was founded in sachusetts and Arizona. The that would be, ‘Wait a minute 2011. report noted Michigan’s low — I thought Republicans were In total, MUSIC Matters teen pregnancy rate and expan- against onerous regulations on needs about $230,000 for the sion of Medicaid under the businesses.’ No, that’s not the vision of a concert at the Crisler Affordable Care Act as positive case,” Irwin said. Center to become a reality. In factors in its score. It docked Irwin said the report card’s addition to CSG, the organizapoints because the laws make it rating did not surprise him and tion is in contact with numerous difficult for a woman to have an believes this legislation has other sponsors and is working abortion. made women’s health services on securing corporate sponsorThe report said the “con- access significantly more diffiships as well. flicting trends” in the fields of cult over the last three years. The organization’s previous concerts include performances from J. Cole and Ben Folds. All profits from ticket sales go to charity, though the beneficiary for this year’s concert is still undetermined. If the concert successfully moves to the © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com TOO TOUGH TO HANDLE. Crisler Center, MUSIC Matters projects roughly 10,000 tickets to be sold.
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Public Policy junior Carly Manes, former president of the University’s chapter of Students for Choice, an organization that advocates for reproductive rights, also expressed disappointment in the nation’s and state’s current reproductive rights legislation. Manes said she also believes recent bans have blocked reproductive freedom and unfairly target the poor. She added that raising the nation’s grade would involve repealing the Hyde Amendment, which would expand comprehensive sex education in public schooling. She said she hopes the country will elect progressive representatives who care about reproductive health and would restore funds to family planning clinics. “I think it’s just upsetting in the way that we consider ourselves a nation of progressing towards the values of democracy, the values of freedom, and I think that’s not actually where we’re at,” Manes said. “I think that’s why voting is so important and the 2014 election will be so important.” Irwin said he predicts the 2014 election will bring about change to the nation’s reproductive health policies. “I do think that there is an opportunity to indirectly overturn some of this legislature by replacing some of the members in the legislature,” Irwin said. “Voters care about women’s reproductive health and voters believe everybody deserves equal access to health services. Ultimately they will verify that belief.”
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INITIATIVES From Page 1A
DETROIT
Finalization of bankruptcy plan running late Emergency manager Kevyn Orr says a plan to take Detroit out of bankruptcy won’t be ready this month. A judge last week turned down a $165 million settlement that would have released the city from a disastrous deal with banks. Judge Steven Rhodes says it was too generous for banks. Orr says he’ll soon decide whether to sue the banks as a way to reach a compromise. Orr’s team has suggested that the deal hatched years ago was illegal.
WASHINGTON
Obama to meet with Pope Francis for first time When President Barack Obama meets Pope Francis in the Vatican in March, both men will speak a common economic language rooted in similar views about poverty and income inequality, giving prominence to an issue that the U.S. president wants to be a central theme of his second term. When Obama delivered a major address on the economy last month, he cited the growth of inequality across the developed world and made sure to note that “the pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length.” The White House and the Vatican announced Tuesday that Obama will meet with the pope on March 27 during a four-day European trip that includes a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands and a U.S.-European Union summit in Brussels. The meeting is the first between the president and Pope Francis.
BANGKOK, Thailand
Bangkok citizens protests against government Thailand’s government on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas to cope with protests that have stirred up violent attacks, adding to the country’s monthslong sense of crisis. Labor Minister Chalerm Yubumrung said that the measure will continue for 60 days beginning Wednesday, but did not announce any specific actions. The decree greatly expands the power of security forces to issue orders and search, arrest and detain people, with limited judicial and parliamentary oversight. The areas covered had already been placed under tougher-thannormal security under the country’s Internal Security Act. Body text.
BEIRUT, Lebanon
Effectiveness of future Syria peace talks in question Syria’s conflict was sparked by an act of brutality — the detention and torture of schoolchildren who spray-painted anti-government graffiti in a southern city. In the three years since, the conflict has evolved into one of the most savage civil wars in decades. The atrocities have been relentless. Protesters gunned down in the streets. An opposition singer whose vocal cords were carved out. Beheadings and mass sectarian killings. Barrels full of explosives dropped from warplanes onto bakeries and homes. It will be hard enough to find a political solution to Syria’s crisis at an international peace conference convening in Switzerland on Wednesday, given the vast differences between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the opposition. But in a nation drowning in blood, reconciliation and justice over the atrocities seem even more distant. —Compiled from Daily wire reports
tions have also been large contributors to the University. They have donated to an array of programs, from the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy to the Ford School of Public Policy’s National Poverty Center. The donor list for the DIA fund includes the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Ford Foundation, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Hudson-Webber Foundation, Knight Foundation, Kresge Foundation, McGregor Fund and the William Davidson Foundation. While Sutkowi said there is not a connection between the gifts to the University and the DIA, he said their support for the two causes is complementary. “It is really where U of M’s resources and expertise — through faculty research, through community engagement programs — is where those projects and programs can make an impact in the city,” Sutkowi said. “That is where the real link is.” When donating to the University, many of the foundations give funds for research or program grants. Programs receive funding through a grant process executed by faculty members on campus. Faculty also apply for a specific project, and those programs that also help the city of Detroit tend to be the ones the foundations are particularly
VACCINE From Page 1A the illness tends to be much less severe,” Winfield said. “Most people that are vaccinated will not get sick enough to be in the hospital, and so I would like to see the range of 70 percent vaccination or higher.” Winfield said there are a number of factors that keep the vaccination rate low among young adults. “A lot of people feel very healthy and vibrant in that age group, and they just don’t feel like it’s a big deal,” he said. Low vaccination rates among young people have dogged health officials for years. However, even the Centers for Disease Control did not recommend flu vaccinations for adults without any underlying risks until 2010.
STABENOW From Page 1A drafted before political action can be taken. “We have to have, from a technical standpoint, what is the best thing or at least a couple of options,” Stabenow said. “We’re just not quite there yet and we can’t get to actually proposing construction until we get consensus around the solution.” Before Stabenow’s remarks, GLMRIS project manager Dave Wethington told the crowd that public engagement has been a key component of the project since the beginning. “Aquatic species control is a shared responsibility,”
News interested in contributing to. “The University has many faculty members who are really well engaged in the city and really making great contributions to the city,” Sutkowi said. “That is where, from these nine foundations, we end up getting a lot of funding.” One of those organizations, The Kresge Foundation, is a national philanthropic group based in Troy, Michigan that is committed to helping local communities fund major renovation projects. The Kresge Foundation donates to a host of areas including community development, the city of Detroit, education, arts and culture, health and human services. Kresge has also sponsored research and new programs, including grants to study homeless policy and climate change. The Knight Foundation, another major donor, focuses on promoting journalism in the digital age. The Knight Foundation sponsors the University’s KnightWallace journalism fellowship and has also recently donated funds to sponsor Michigan Radio’s coverage of the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings. The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, another DIA and University donor, supports programs in seven different counties in Southeast Michigan, including Washtenaw County. “Our purpose is to improve the quality of life for all who live and work in the seven counties.
So we are geographic-specific but we will fund almost any kind of activity,” Community Foundation President Mariam C. Noland said. The DIA and the University are just two of many organizations that the Community Foundation supported. “We will fund anything that improves the quality of life,” Noland said. “By funding the University we are clearly making an impact on the lives of many students as well as residents. The arts are an important part of the quality of life for all of us.” University alum Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s state-appointed emergency manager, met with museum leaders last week to discuss the organization’s plans to fund city pensions to preserve the city’s art. According to The Detroit Free Press, Orr said the museum would need to contribute additional money to a fund designed to protect DIA art during the city’s bankruptcy proceedings. In a statement, the DIA said the efforts to find a solution will not only ensure the safety of the museum’s collection, but also aid in the revitalization of the city of Detroit. “The DIA’s long and strong relationship with national and local foundations has contributed to their willingness to provide the financial framework for this plan, and the museum has committed to providing both fundraising support and programming to the effort,” the statement read.
Winfield added that some people do not believe vaccinations work, or think there may be harmful side effects to the shot — a belief he attributes to “an erroneous” “60 Minutes” report that linked vaccines to rising autism rates. For Winfield, addressing those concerns one-on-one with patients is a sufficient way to give them the correct information. This education includes ensuring patients understand that any aches or other symptoms are not signs of a mild form of the illness, but signs that the body is building an immunity to the virus, according to Eden Wells, a clinical associate professor at the School of Public Health. In the case of a pandemic, vaccines aren’t always available when they are needed. When the H1N1 strain showed up for the first time in 2009, the vaccine wasn’t available until about a
month after officials had planned for. “That was a lesson learned,” Wells said. “We have to be able to plan carefully and know that our vaccine is available before we start trying to implement things.” She added that the 2009 experience with H1N1 also reemphasized the importance of staying home when feeling flulike symptoms. During the outbreak, UHS asked professors to forgive absences to help keep the virus from spreading. Wells said agencies in charge of pandemic preparedness work to be ready for an outbreak as severe as that of 1918, when about 675,000 Americans died from virulent Spanish flu. “We can always keep working at being better prepared today than we were the day before,” Wells said.
Wethington said. “Implementation of any one of these plans or a number of those plans is a shared responsibility among a range of federal, state and nongovernment, including the public such as yourselves.” Sarah Neville, stewardship coordinator of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, an organization that promotes protection of the Great Lakes, stressed in her commentary that the impact of invasive species is too monumental to ignore, even though the price for most of the solutions are in the billions in terms of dollars. “The health of the Great Lakes as well as the communities and the jobs they support are worth it,” Neville said. “We
cannot afford to undermine the investments we are making in the protection of the Great Lakes.” Wethington said the response at other public meetings has been enthusiastic. Although it’s not typical for the USACE to hold public events to review every report, public commentary made sense for GLMRIS because of the effect private citizens can have on the issue. “There are things that the public can do as individuals that can help in this fight against invasive species.” Wethington said. “That’s kind of the grassroots angle of it.” The USACE will accept comments on its website about the report through March 3.
Purdue campus shooting results in death of teacher
University officials enact campus-wide lockdown
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — A Purdue University engineering student opened fire inside a basement classroom Tuesday, killing a teaching assistant and prompting officials to put the campus on lockdown, police and the university said. Cody Cousins, who is believed to have targeted Andrew Boldt inside the Electrical Engineering Building, surrendered to a police officer within minutes of the attack, Purdue Police Chief John Cox said. Investigators were trying to determine a motive for the shooting, which happened around noon on the campus in West Lafayette, about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. No
one else was injured. “This appears to be an isolated and intentional act,” Cox said. Boldt, a 21-year-old senior and teaching assistant from West Bend, Wis., died at the scene. Cousins, a 23-year-old senior, who according to police has addresses listed both in Warsaw, Ind., and Centerville, Ohio, was being held on a preliminary charge of murder Tuesday night at the Tippecanoe County Jail. Students described a chaotic scene on the campus. Sophomore Nick Wieland told the Journal & Courier that he was in a basement classroom adjacent to the one where the shooting occurred. “I heard a couple (shots) and then I heard a man scream,” Wieland said. “Then the last few kind of trailed off as I got under my desk. . (I was) just very scared. That’s what I felt the entire time.”
Julissa Martinez, a freshman in nursing, told The Associated Press that she was in a psychology class on another part of the campus when she received the text alert from university officials telling students to seek shelter. She said her professor briefly kept teaching, then stopped lecturing so students could contact people to let them know they were safe. “He tried to get everything under control because people were freaking out,” Martinez said, adding that students were nervous because there was a lot of speculation about the severity of the situation. The shooting was reported at 12:03 p.m. and Purdue officials issued the campuswide text alert shortly afterward. Cousins was taken into custody outside the engineering building within minutes of the shooting.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 — 3A
VP From Page 1A position at Accenture, a Chicago-based consulting firm the University is paying $11.7 million to implement the program. Miranda said he personally asked Tim Slottow, the University’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, to assign someone else to the project. “I asked that because something that should have been an honest disagreement between the faculty and the administration turned out to be very personal and when those things happen, it’s just good to get out of the way and depersonalize it,” Miranda said. In an interview with The Michigan Daily in early December, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said Miranda’s previous position at Accenture and the resulting faculty outcry had no influence on the change in leadership. “As you know, he wasn’t a part of the selection of Accenture,” Fitzgerald said. “It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with this project moving into a different phase.” Though both said the shared services controversy had nothing to do with Miranda’s decision to leave, Fitzgerald noted Chicago was like “going home for him,” as Miranda was based in the city while working for Accenture. As Miranda prepares for his new role, he leaves behind a term largely marked by his guidance of the Administrative Services Transformation, which is one component of the shared services initiative. “Some things worked out and some didn’t, but I’m pleased with the overall experience,” Miranda wrote in a letter sent to employees in the Office of Finance on Tuesday.
ZONING From Page 1A residential qualms that too many high-rises will be built directly adjacent to existing residential areas — as evidenced by the controversial 413 E. Huron issue, which permitted the construction of a 14-story-high building. Certain areas, such as the properties at 336 E. Ann St. and 425 Main St., will be rezoned from D1 to D2. The northern boundary of East Huron Street between Division and Thayer Streets will see a reduction in its maximum building height to 120 feet as well as changes in the requirements for the structures of developments to reduce shading on the area. These changes will also impose stricter policies for developers looking to increase the floor-to-area ratios of their buildings, which essentially permits them to build higher developments. Premiums such as the 900-percent FAR premium — often called a “super premium” — for developing affordable housing will be eliminated under the proposed changes, and there will be a reduction in the residential premium. The changes also require that developers adhere to design guidelines to collect premiums in D1 and D2 zoning districts. However, the council proposed two amendments to the eight proposals within the report Tuesday. The first amendment resolves to extend the aforementioned Huron boundary to extend to 4th Avenue, which also includes parts of South University Avenue, Thayer and East Ann Street to be considered for the same changes. Councilmember Christopher Taylor (D-Ward 3) said he believes the intent of the buffer zone in this area near Thayer should be used to protect the view of certain University landmarks, and not to prevent encroachment on surrounding residents. “Residential at that location is not significant, so I’m not sure that D2 buffering is rele-
In an interview, Miranda said the notion that there was not enough communication regarding shared services is “ludicrous.” “Google the University Record and you’ll find articles going back 2010, 2011, 2012 on shared services, so the notion that this was done somehow in secrecy is just silly,” Miranda said. “People should say that they weren’t paying attention rather than pretending that communication was flawed.” In an early November letter obtained by The Michigan Daily and signed by 19 LSA department chairs and program directors, stated the project had been characterized by an aura of secrecy, which led to increased anxiety among staff. An additional anonymous letter by a staff member to a department chair echoed that angst. “I cannot even tell you how anxious and worried and sick this charade has made me,” the employee wrote. “I cannot sleep. I do not know what I will do if I find myself without a job next year.” Miranda said people’s assumptions that ethics were compromised because he was connected with Accenture are unfounded. “I did not call the University asking for a job; they recruited me from Accenture, and that’s significant here,” Miranda said. “So this convenient, mudding-the-water, saying bad-things-about-them, badthings-about-me, with no proof of anything inappropriate whatsoever — well these faculty that talk a big game about evidence, it’s amazing that that’s their definition of evidence: ‘He happened to work there.’” Steve Kloehn, the University of Chicago’s associate vice president for news and public affairs, wrote in an e-mail that Miranda’s hiring ends a national search for the position.
vant with respect to residential at that location,” Taylor said. “However, I think the intent of it, in part, is to protect the site state for Hill Auditorium and Burton Tower.” Taylor also offered an amendment that ensures the Design Review Board will work with the Planning Commission to come to a final conclusion on the board’s status in the issue of premiums. Although many residents would prefer developers to be forced into accordance with design guidelines in order to receive premiums, the board does not want to be the final arbiter of premiums, which its position as the creator of design guidelines would ultimately put them in if developers were to be forced to abide by those guidelines. Mayor John Hieftje (D) said the board has reason for concern when forcing developers to follow design guidelines, with worries the new rules would be too restrictive. “One of their key concerns is they do not stifle creativity in design,” Hieftje said. “This may be part of their reluctance to make this mandatory.” Taylor also said it is important for the council to respect the board’s wishes due to its importance to the city’s aesthetic value. “The Design Review Board is one of our best tools to create momentum for a well-designed downtown,” Taylor said. “They (developers) need to be encouraged and pushed to work with the Design Review Board to improve their structures they bring to us.” Councilmember Chuck Warpehoski (D-Ward 5) said the council’s debates regarding the design guidelines alone show the complexity of the project and the improbability of meeting the deadline. “We’re seeing it’s a complex thing,” Warpehoski said. “I am not expecting that everything be wrapped up with a bow by the deadline.” The deadline for the Planning Commission to report back to the City Council on its progress is Oct. 20, 2014.
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Opinion
4A — Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
An apology to my body Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com PETER SHAHIN EDITOR IN CHIEF
MEGAN MCDONALD and DANIEL WANG EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
KATIE BURKE 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
Rethink Greek
Greek life on campus should reevaluate exclusive policies
R
ecently, Eliana Piper, president of the Panhellenic Council at Dartmouth College and four other Panhellenic Council leaders sent an e-mail stating that the Greek system at their school needs an overhaul. The e-mail criticized the fact that “the Recruitment process stratifies the Dartmouth community along race, class, gender and sexual orientation, where those individuals who better approximate a narrow sorority ideal receive preferential treatment.” Dartmouth consequently asked the community to consider concerns over comparatively higher rates of sexual assault — sometimes by fraternity members — and a lack of diversity of socioeconomic status, sexual identity or race. Though the actions of Dartmouth’s Panhellenic Council reflect issues within its own system, similar problems exist at the University. In order to promote acceptance, tolerance, safety and inclusivity on campus, the Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council should seek to revise its own recruitment and social systems. A significant portion of students at the University participate in Greek life. Out of a total of 28,283 undergraduate students, 5,427 — or 19.19 percent — make up the Greek community. There is certainly some value to being part of the Greek community. It facilitates friendships, service and leadership and promotes a mission to “provide quality academic, personal, social and service opportunities that will empower our students to serve, lead and conduct themselves with integrity and in accordance with sound values.” However, there are several downsides to a dominant social system that makes the interaction between individuals of varying identities difficult. Excessively high dues that vary by chapter are prohibitory to students already burdened by the cost of their education, therefore closing the system to many students of lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, according to a USA Today article, “more than 90 percent of fraternities and sororities have individuals of the same race as members” nationwide, and traditionally — though certainly not exclusively — can function to exclude students of all races from the Greek system. The Office of Greek Life already supports multicultural groups, with 11 chapters and 137 members on campus, but it must do more to include all students in Panhellenic
and Interfraternity Council member chapters. The University of Alabama recently changed its sorority recruitment rules after sorority alumni forbid the chapters from extending bids to two black women to pledge. Several other Greek chapters, including Tau Kappa Epsilon at Arizona State University and Theta Xi at the University of Michigan, have attracted negative attention to their Greek communities for racially insensitive party themes. The overall effect is a system that has the potential to create an uncomfortable atmosphere for minorities. The Greek system should take measures to promote diversity and increase the transparency of progress and efforts. These concerns with fraternity and sorority life are distinct to the social system, but are not independent of larger problems of diversity and inclusion at the University. Black enrollment at the University fell to 4.6 percent and Hispanic enrollment fell to 3.9 percent in 2012, numbers that are by no means representative of national demographics. Greek life at the University can help students acclimate to campus life and provide a social community for members. However, the exclusivity of the Greek system should be revisited and revised in order to promote a more tolerant and accepting campus community. The University Greek system must reevaluate its recruitment and social policies.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, James Brennan, Rima Fadlallah, Eric Ferguson, Nivedita Karki, Jordyn Kay, Jesse Klein, Kellie Halushka, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe SARAH KULHANEK | VIEWPOINT
Share the love, CCRB
Dear Central Campus Recreational Building, We’ve been in a committed relationship for a year and a half now. Sure, we’ve had to take our breaks from May to August, but that distance only made our lust stronger and our Welcome Week reunion grander. The highlight of my day is being with you for our hour or two together, and when other people and activities pull me away from you every so often, I am physically and emotionally hurt. You made me stronger than I was before coming to Ann Arbor, and while many home-gym users and “Get Big” bros may complain about your rusty weights and squeaky machines, I know the importance of looking past those things to what really matters. We spent countless hours together as I avoided the Freshman 15, prepared for Spring Break and moved into bikini season. You welcomed me with open arms day after day, through hangovers and sickness, while sweat dripped down my shirt and my matted hair scared all the boys away. I didn’t need anyone else when I had you; in that moment, we were infinite. But recently, things started to change. I know that this isn’t a monogamous relationship. It’s not just you and I. I didn’t really mind sharing with other dedicated individuals who had a routine and knew their way around you, but every Jan. 1, a slew of “New Year, New Me” tweets, Instagram posts and overzealous Facebook statuses changed the way things were between us. The lust for Transformation Tuesday Pic Stitches and filter-worthy images of new Lululemon gear brought college students to you in hordes. Parkas filled the airport lockers. Weights were dragged to the crowded halls. Locker rooms became a social destination. Seeing you between the hours of 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
was the newest form of heartbreak in my life. Lines formed in the hallway as people looked to claim the next open treadmill, elliptical or bike; skinny-armed individuals worked their way around the weight room hoping to look impressive while they pretended to know what the hell they were doing (read: sat and texted on the benches). I lost my spot on the track that I once took for granted and the maize and blue mat that made core workouts less painful. What was next? Would I lose my cutesy pet name for you — “serb” — to a freshman who didn’t have the same feelings for you as I did? It’s not that I don’t applaud the effort of the New Year’s Resolution club members. I do. But suddenly having to share the love of my life with so many others is hard, and I know that my fellow gym rats feel the same way. Don’t let the newcomers that visit you — or the NCRB or IM Building, for that matter — forget to treat you with love. Help them get big, reach their “new me” status or post a “woman crush Wednesday” selfie of their hot bod. Things are changing, and we can’t expect the increasing number of University students to share a small space filled with broken machines and no central air. It is important that the University expand you and its other gym facilities so that the growing number of students can exercise and maintain their health while away at school. There should be enough space and machines for everyone to share. While change can be scary, we need it for our relationship to continue to succeed. I just want things to go back to the way they were between us before. You, me and no lines. Sarah Kulhanek is a Kinesiology sophomore.
CONOR ANDERSON / Daily
D
ear Body, After all the years you have taken care of me, what have I done for you? I eat like shit, hardly exercise, get little sleep and have cheapened you into the dim light of rooms I may remember but EMILY wouldn’t want PITTINOS to revisit. So here it is: a long overdue apology. I’m sorry for all the bruised shins and torn skin after nights stumbling along piers drunk and in the dark, for the volleyballs to the face and the zits I’ve popped; for the bitten lips, for the thin slices from careless shaving, for the craters left by careless piercings, for the endless burns and inevitable “fuck!” screamed above the stove, for the stinging bleach slathered on my upper lip and for all the unexcavated earwax. I’m especially sorry for that time with the at-home waxing kit. I’m sorry for the accidents I’ve had — the knee I wrecked at age 14 when someone swept my leg during a game of two-hand touch, the finger I slammed in the car door on my seventh birthday in the parking lot of K-Mart. I’m sorry I love whiskey. I’m sorry to my spine — the loadbearing column creaking under the pressure of my bad posture and the weight of my enormous head. Here’s a sorry to my rosebud tits; I’ve hated you for too long. Here’s an apology for that year of high school when I dressed like boardwalk trash, wearing 4-inch stilettos to class through the Michigan snow. I’d prove I could run in them, sticking the heels deep into the ground like ice picks. I’m sorry for those growing
years, when my hips were widening so quickly that I’d smack them on the corners of my parents’ kitchen counter, small bruises like thumbprints appearing on my untouched skin. I’m sorry that when I realized my sex appeal, I’d sway those hips unnaturally, almost drunkenly, as I trotted down the streets of Philadelphia, expecting men to call out to me. I’d wait for them to raise their hands above their heads and shout “Yo, mamacita!” and to wet their lips, to whistle, to throw their hard hats in the air, to toss coins and roses at my feet, to lean out their windows declaring their eternal lust and love. I’m sorry I made you suffer in the name of such an embarrassing fantasy. I’m sorry for the summers of smoke — those wild, woody bonfires and the first cigarette I choked down under a canopy of birches while I lay on the chest of a boy too old for me. I’m sorry for those men — the mysterious one, the simple one, the army cadet, the virgin, the cheater, the foreigner, the farm boy, the musicians and the rest — not because there were too many but because many of them were unkind. I’m sorry for those times in my life when you were more of a vessel than an accomplice, when I thought of you as something shared, more than mine alone. But there is more than apology in order here. I have so much praise. Thank you for these imperfect inches of skin. Thank you for acting as a receptor for beauty — those many thousands of goose bumps that rise when a jazz singer’s voice melts into the air. Thank you for these fingers that tirelessly type, do up buttons, fold
duvet covers, knead pizza dough, tie and untie laces like Penelope forever tending to the silk on her loom. Thank you for orgasms. Thank you for those moments of quenched thirst. Thank you for these eyes. They watch dust motes glide over my windowsill. They watch cedar waxwings get tipsy on fermented grapes. They discover color. They communicate affection. They know when to look away from light. Thank you for these ears listening to the red squirrels squabble inside my bedroom wall. Thanks for the smell of pizzelles browning in my Nona’s kitchen. Thanks for this tongue. Most of all, thanks for your resilience. You’ve survived my exploitation and idiocy for more than two decades and — despite this moment of clarity — I must confess that I see no true end to my recklessness. I’d like to make promises — to take an oath about protecting you from damage, from tumbling into unforeseen danger, from being forsaken by others. But I know I’d break these promises almost as quickly as I could make them, because I am as imperfect in will as you are in form. I’ll still stub my toes. I’ll still take mortifying falls on black ice and spill coffee down my shirt. I’ll still wiggle my hips when the time is right. And, without a doubt, I’ll go on asking for your forgiveness because I know I’d be nowhere without you. I am yours as much as you are mine, Emily
So here it is: a long overdue apology.
— Emily Pittinos can be reached at pittinos@umich.edu.
VICTORIA NOBLE | VIEWPOINT
Reimagining the Republican Party Over the past few years, divisive battles over issues like abortion, birth control, LGBTQ rights and other social issues have tarnished the Republican Party’s image in the eyes of the public. It is clear that if the Republicans want to maintain control in the state of Michigan in 2014, they will need to revisit problematic social policies that evidence a widening distance between political action and the common will of constituents. Taking notice, even the most established Republicans are calling for change on social issues. Betsy DeVos — former Republican National Committeewoman and wife of Dick DeVos, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Michigan in 2006 — made news Jan. 19 for her statements criticizing the party. DeVos’ remarks were a response to a series of embarrassing comments by Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema. Agema publicly supported Russia’s anti-gay policies and a law that would prohibit adults from talking about homosexuality in front of minors. He also made comments that were offensive to Muslims. Considering that Agema helps run the Republican Party, DeVos’ concerns are more than justified. Similarly offensive and poorly worded comments have popped up at various times throughout the last two years. Republican Senatorial candidate Todd Akin of Missouri commented that pregnancy from “legitimate rape” is rare because the body can “shut that whole thing down.” In 2005, Richard Black, a Republican in the Virginia state Senate and a candidate for Congress, stated that he didn’t understand “how on earth you could validly get a conviction of a husband-wife
rape when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie …” … Um, what? These kinds of remarks isolate the party from potential supporters, excluding several groups who may otherwise vote red. While ridiculous and offensive in their own right, these bizarre statements represent a much larger problem for the Republican Party. Problems come in the form of resulting bad press, of the negative attention that it brings to people politically connected to those who make the gaffs, of donations drying up as people realize what an uphill battle any sort of campaign might turn out to be. But most importantly, the problem is the policy itself. Comments from leaders like Agema, Akin and Black are merely symptoms of a party that permits deep-seated intolerance at its highest levels, and simply changing rhetoric isn’t going to solve the problem. Republicans need to update their antiquated platform if they are going to retain control in the future. Certain social policies, such as legislative ideas aimed at limiting gay marriage, abortions and access to birth control are problematic for the voters that these policies directly harm, offend or inconvenience. It’s a turn-off to others who view these matters to be private. Whom to marry or how to plan a family are not things that should be codified into law, and they aren’t political issues. They are medical, ethical and religious decisions that people should make alone or with whomever they feel should be consulted. The discussion of these issues belongs in personal conversation, not necessarily on televised debate. When politicians attempt to take
choice away, the effect is rather offensive. It suggests that private citizens can’t morally regulate their own sex lives and that politicians can do it better. It’s problematic for Republicans — whether or not they support these policies — because people view them and the extremists (like Agema and Black) in a similar light. The Republican Party can best serve its candidates and supporters by adopting more neutral social policies that respect individuals’ own values. As far as I can tell, most of the Republicans running aren’t trying to push such agendas anyway. They may hold such views, but these views may not be their primary focus. Actually, many seem interested in doing what Republicans do well — running smallish governments with a relatively balanced budget and maintaining a strong economy. American government needs those kinds of people to keep it up and running. Unfortunately, these candidates’ intentions don’t always matter — the words and policies of the extreme affect the entire party. Many people have a hard time trusting candidates from an organization that allows men like Agema to rise to the top. The connection is there, and to an extent it should be. Hopefully — for the sake of the Republican Party — DeVos’ comments represent introspection by the establishment that will lead to real change. That change should come in the form of an updated platform that affords more respect to women, LGBTQ individuals and other groups that the party’s policies have traditionally marginalized. Victoria Noble is an LSA freshman and senior editorial page editor.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
EVENT PREVIEW
‘Screendance’ to show eclectic mix Sparling will collaborate with variety of artists By GILLIAN JAKAB Daily Community & Culture Editor
Screendance could be defined as the lovechild of dance and film. Or perhaps as dance for the screen (think of S is for Gene Kelly Screendance... softshoeing us through Thursday at 8 p.m. “Singin’ in the Rain”). Britton Recital Hall, But SMT&D Moore Building Professor of Dance Peter Free Sparling shows us that it can be much richer than its two-art definition. Sparling has collaborated with musicians, English scholars, painters, and videographers — from within the University and outside of it — to push the boundaries of movement and its meanings in his upcoming performance: “S is for Screendance (and Shakespeare, Strauss, Stravinsky…).” As a young violin student at Interlochen Arts Academy, Sparling discovered his love of dance, which he describes as “extraordinarily free” compared to his violin studies. He went on to study dance at The Juilliard School in New York. As a student, he was asked to join José Limon’s dance company, and upon graduating, the Martha Graham Company. “These two companies were very much the seminal ... kind of the primary companies of mid century — 20th century — modern dance,” said Sparling. “And out of Martha’s company came Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham ... I mean it’s a kind of family tree that now I feel I’m part of.” Intrigued by the way his conservatory-trained knowledge of music was structuring the way he saw bodies moving in space, Sparling broadened his work, extending his choreographic genealogy in new directions to explore ways in which one art form can be viewed and augmented through the lens of another.
“What’s wonderful I find with video editing,” said Sparling, “is that you can, like music, shift moods … I’m interested in what being in a site other than a stage does to me as a human, and to me as a mover.” For the first of the four pieces on Thursday’s program, Sparling went with a videographer to Willow Run manufacturing complex near Ypsilanti — which was demolished this fall — and improvised movement, letting the space lead him. “I thought well ‘What is this about?’ ” said Sparling. “It’s about a dying plant; it’s about a space; it’s about the dying of an industry — or an entire era. But it’s also something about my reaction to the space in my aging body. And in a way, I’m looking at the transfiguration of a dying space. And I thought: death, transfiguration? Death and transfiguration! So I thought of the Strauss score, Richard Strauss’s famous orchestral score.” Piling on another ‘S,’ Sparling swings from Strauss to Shakespeare in his second piece “Six Sonnets.” He brought English Professor Ralph Williams into the green screen space at the Duderstadt video center where Williams recites six sonnets as Sparling improvises embodiments of the textual themes of love and loss. With the green screen technology Sparling’s figure travels to an abstract space born from the creative vision of local painter Vince Castagnacci. “Vince is professor emeritus whose work I’ve admired for a long, long time,” said Sparling. “And they were just abstract enough so that I could kind of create a space for the imagination to resonate.” Another English professor, Toby Siebers, knew Sparling had done previous work with the figure of Narcissus from Greek mythology and introduced him to a poem by T.S. Eliot called “The Death of St. Narcissus.” The poem was never published during Eliot’s lifetime due to its risqué homoerotic material, but it had been set to music by British composer Benjamin Britten in a set of canticles. This work forms the basis and title of Sparling’s third screendance of Thursday’s performance.
Using the green screen, Sparling backgrounds his third piece against the work of another visual artist, Alyse Radenovic. Through the digital artistry of the editing process, Sparling at moments clones himself, so he is at once illustrating imagery from the narrative and evoking the qualities of the haunting music. The final piece of the performance introduces an element of live performance. In the tradition of silent film, Sparling pairs his screendance, “He Was Locked in a Race Against Time,” with live piano accompaniment. The piece depicts separate portraits of Sparling — spanning eras, locations, and psychological states. The historically ingrained, yet timeless score of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)” is parsed out in a four-handed piano duo by University SMT&D professors of Music Christian Matijas Mecca and Ilya Blinov. The four pieces draw from distinct inspirations, be they location (Willow Run, Traverse City Mental Hospital), music (Strauss, Stravinsky, Britten), narrative (Shakespeare, Eliot), or visual imagery (Castenacci, Radenovic), propelled by the freedom of exploratory improvisation to meditate upon underlying themes. But for all its interdisciplinary richness, Sparling acknowledges that it may be the screen itself that gives the work its unifying and contemporary allure. “This thing of screendance, where it’s a new audience, your generation, this extraordinary expansion of screens ... of imagery on a screen. Whether it’s an iPod, a laptop, a TV, a movie screen, a huge billboard, monitors in airports and stadia, or in rock shows.” As he did the violin and the dance stage, Sparling is mastering the new media. “So I’m looking at the potential for bodies on a screen to carry meaning and to have power. The same way that we assume a body on the live stage is going to be able to project power. How do we defy the flatness of the screen? And the virtual aspect of the body on the screen, and create something of power and meaning? That’s the big challenge.”
TV REVIEW
‘Bitten’ lacks bite, not sex appeal By EMILY BODDEN Daily Arts Writer
With its new show “Bitten,” Syfy has joined the ranks of numerous other networks that are trying to cash in on society’s Bobsession with vampires and Bitten werewolves. Pilot While perhaps a bit Mondays behind the at 10 p.m. times (MTV’s Syfy “Teen Wolf” is already on season four), Syfy’s attempt might not be completely futile. Based on the book series by Kelley Armstrong, “Women of the Otherworld,” “Bitten” has a lot more to prove before it can hold up against previously produced series. Blonde and conventionally attractive, “Bitten” ’s leading lady, Elena (Laura Vandervoort, “Smallville”), is a bore. A photographer by day, she is also — wait for it — a werewolf. Her character is not inherently interesting or edgy, and in the premiere, nothing about her is endearing. In a story told a thousand times, Elena desperately denies who she is and tries to force herself into a different role: a werewolf trying to fit into
lamb’s clothing. And in doing so, she becomes an uninteresting piece of arm candy who just wishes to be the perfect girlfriend and please a boyfriend’s demanding mother. The pilot does not provide any backstory about how she became a werewolf, or detail the significance of her being (apparently) the only girl in the pack. Since the character lacks any originality or drive, there is no pressing desire to find out. Sure, sex sells, but the use of sexuality in “Bitten” comes off as blasé. The entire cast is good looking. And very white. In the entire first episode, there is only one person of color, Logan (Michael Xavier, “In Return”). Syfy is already trying to capitalize on an overused topic — they could at least strive to make things more interesting through the portrayal of a diverse cast. How is no one asking about ugly werewolves? Do the creators supposedly only prey on the beautiful and boring? Let’s take a moment and discuss the transformation sequences in this show. For a network that apparently focuses on science fiction programming, viewers would probably expect a lot more from Syfy’s production teams. But “Bitten” utilizes transformation sequences that look like they may have been borrowed
straight from “The Twilight Zone.” The first time Elena transforms into a werewolf, her ridiculous appearance evokes feelings of utter disbelief. Is Syfy serious, or is this secretly a parody? The show could benefit from the use of tasteful cutting to achieve the goal of changing a human into werewolf without showing the entire process to the audience.
ALBUM REVIEW
FUELED BY RAMEN
“We get it. You’re hipsters.”
Young the Giant chills out with new ‘Matter’ By KENNETH SELANDER Daily Arts Writer
Young the Giant’s second album Mind Over Matter is the epitome of quality indie rock. While some indie B rockers push the boundarMind Over ies of traditional music Matter so much that Young the their songs Giant become too strange to Fueled by Ramen attract a substantial audience, Young the Giant manages to use a plethora of distortions and effects to enhance its music without going overboard. The album has a very upbeat, blissful feel that also has a tropical ring to it. It transports the listener to a calm, cloudy day on the beach where you simply sit back and appreciate the music rather than sing along to it. The album starts off with “Slow Dive,” which is essentially a single held introductory note accompanied by sparse interjections from the bass. It starts off quietly, crescendoing straight into the album’s first real song, “Anagram.” The song is a perfect example of the tropical feel in Mind Over Matter, with the combination of chord progressions and somewhat staccato guitar picking. About half way through, there’s a brief time change where Sameer Ghadia, the band’s lead singer, belts out some unexpected falsettos that foreshadow the versatility of his voice. The next number, “It’s
This is no ‘Buffy.’ All critiques aside, there are worse shows on television. Elena’s boyfriend, Philip, played by Paul Greene (“Somewhere”), is cute enough to stay on the show for a few minutes while channel f lipping. The dialogue, while vapid, is not unbearable and there are some pretty steamy sex scenes considering the show airs on cable. Producers could take a note from Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and make Elena more inspired. “Buffy” proved that there is a significant audience for a female superhuman protagonist, and that a teenage science fiction series can be taken seriously — it just requires some skillful execution.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 — 5A
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About Time,” is more rock ‘n’ roll-inspired than other tracks. The song is representative of the album as a whole due to the unpredictable variations in the track that keep the listener anticipating its progression. “It’s About Time” goes from hard-hitting strumming on the guitar to a fantastic falsetto and back. Just like every other track, “It’s About Time” features a variety of guitar effects, especially echo and a synth-like distortion. Continuing on to “Crystallized,” it’s apparent the tracks so far have sounded a bit homogenous. In a way, this is correct. A large majority of the songs are upbeat, feature similar effects and have some sort of brief variation from the initial verse and chorus of each song. However, the songs still manage to maintain a certain degree of freshness. While they have a similar formula and maintain a degree of similarity in sound, they do usually differ in pitch, speed and musical variations within each song. In “Crystallized,” Ghadia hangs on to the last words of each line, providing a very passionate element to the song. The bass sticks the course, quietly driving the heart of the track as it does in a number of other records, such as “In My Home” and “Waves.” The single acoustic song on the album is “Firelight,” whose name is appropriate. It’s a soft song, with an almost religious sounding tone. It’s mildly reminiscent of The Beatles’ “Within You, Without You,” but then again that might simply be the use of the effects on the guitar, which make it sound like
a sitar. Ghadia f launts his ability to sustain a note, and yet again a variety of instruments are used to perfect the track — even a triangle. By the time the listener gets to “Teachers,” Mind Over Matter starts to feel repetitive and loses some of its initial excitement. Songs here all have very similar tones and repetitive guitar riffs — in fact, “Firelight” is the only song that stands out as different from the others.
It’s music to listen to on a beach, not to sing along with. The album also feels wanting of a more emotional component. The fact that it’s the kind of album you would relax to is nice, but it lacks some form of intimacy with the listener. That’s not to say that there’s no passion, but the album almost seems to be “music for the sake of music” rather than having a deep and meaningful purpose. A more sentimental aspect is not necessary for good music, but it often separates the good from the great. Overall, Mind Over Matter is a blissful album and surprisingly agreeable. While the record is worth a listen for sure, it’s probably best reserved for a cloudy day on the beach.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, January 22, 2014
TV NOTEBOOK
Who will snag ‘Thursday Night?’ The Big Four networks to vie for NFL coverage rights By ALEC STERN Senior Arts Editor
Given the current television landscape, primetime football continues to bring in an unprecedented number of viewers. At a time when almost everything else is on the decline, and viewership becomes more and more stretched across multiple platforms (including Hulu and On Demand), NFL football is still uniquely positioned to bring in live viewers by the masses. So, when a 13-game package for “Thursday Night Football” went up for grabs, it’s no surprise every network jumped. For any network, nabbing the rights to “Thursday Night Football” would be a huge win — and it’s no wonder many were rumored to have submitted an offer. While it’s possible the series could end up on TNT, ESPN or one of the broadcast networks-designated sports destinations (like FOX Sports 1 or NBCSN), there’s a strong possibility for “Thursday Night Football” to get the most prime treatment primetime has to offer: a Big Four network. Thus, the question emerges: with everyone vying for the “Thursday Night Football” option, what would it mean for each broadcast network to actually earn the rights? NBC The peacock quite possibly has the most to gain from “Thursday Night Football” on its next fall schedule. While the network has remained dedicated to its twohour comedy block despite a sharp fall from the wonder years of “Must See TV,” next season could be the perfect time to shake up
the system. Whereas “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and many other shows once inhabited this revered primetime night, the current lineup is nothing short of a dismal failure. In fact, Thursday night is NBC’s most pressing issue. While it goes without saying that there are still improvements to be made outside of Thursday night, none are as imperative. After all, the most recent new episode of “The Michael J. Fox Show” tied the most recent “Reign,” the CW’s much-maligned period piece for number of viewers. With or without “Thursday Night Football,” the night is going to need an overhaul — it’ll just be a much more stylish one with the help of the NFL.
facing a grim future after seasons of stalled development, it’s clear that this NFL package would give ABC some much-needed breathing room. The only issue here: “Thursday Night Football” airs on Thursday night — one of the only nights that is actually working for ABC. “Grey’s Anatomy” has spent the last nine seasons comfortably in its nine o’clock time-slot, oftentimes the number one drama of the night and the year. And for the past three seasons, “Scandal” has grown into the most relevant and successful drama on broadcast television. Is it worth risking two of your biggest shows for “Thursday Night Football?” Definitely. But it’s a risk nonetheless. CBS
FOX “Thursday Night Football” could also not come at a better time for FOX. The network has dedicated the last three fall seasons to “The X Factor,” which premiered in 2011 to disappointing numbers before plummeting to truly dreadful numbers that even the famously big-headed Simon Cowell admitted were not what he had hoped for. And despite Cowell’s insistence that “X Factor” will return for season four, there’s little reason to believe the competition series will retain its demanding three-hour weekly presence. Thus, enter “Thursday Night Football.” With two hours vacant on Thursday next fall, rather than gambling on a new series or shuffling around existing ones, FOX could benefit from the steadiness and consistency of 13 weeks of primetime NFL. ABC This brings us to ABC — the only broadcast network without any regularly scheduled NFL games. For variety’s sake alone, the Alphabet Network could use “Thursday Night Football.” Add in the fact that the fourth-place network is
Finally, CBS needs “Thursday Night Football” the least. It’s the strongest positioned of the broadcast networks, in both comedy and drama, and its Sunday afternoon football games satisfy the desire for NFL programming. On top of that, CBS finally made the long-rumored move of expanding its Thursday comedy block to two hours. With behemoth “The Big Bang Theory” leading off the night, the four Thursday sitcoms have established success and shown potential — potential that would be squandered upon gaining “Thursday Night Football.” However, like with ABC, it would be worth shuffling anything for the NFL. And reverting back to one night of comedy, possibly featuring “Big Bang,” “The Millers,” “The Crazy Ones” and “Mom,” would give Monday a boost and allow its three sophomore comedies a chance to grow. There’s so much value in “Thursday Night Football” — and while it has consisted of 13 weeks in the past, Thursdays could become normal practice for the NFL, upping the ante to 17 games. With the bids all in, time will tell which network clinches the almost billion-dollar prize.
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle DOWN 1 “Our Gang” kid with a cowlick 2 Circus barker 3 Gable’s third wife 4 Thrifty alternative 5 Zilch 6 Parlor piece 7 Propelled, as a galley 8 Capitalize on 9 Peruvian capital? 10 __ cum laude 11 Eliciting feeling 12 Really looks up to 13 Springsteen’s __ Band 18 N.Y.C. part 22 DDE’s WWII arena 24 Klinger portrayer on “M*A*S*H” 25 “Ah, me!” 26 Porcine moms 28 Cushioned seat 32 Fla. NFL team, on scoreboards 33 Move for the job, briefly 35 Abbr. referring to a previous citation
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underlings 48 Game venue 49 Pipe problem 51 Porterhouse, e.g. 52 Putting spot 56 “The Wizard __” 58 Line of work, for short 59 Nutritionist’s abbr. 60 Fed. retirement org.
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01/22/14
01/22/14
ALBUM REVIEW
SELF-RELEASED
Obey.
Del surprises fans with diverting new album By JOSH FRAZIER Daily Arts Writer
The immediacy of the Internet gives music fans almost instant access to new releases. Artists benefit as well Afrom being able to direct- Iller Than ly reach their fans. This was Most most evident Del the Funky last month Homosapien when Beyoncé’s self-titled Self-released album was dropped in the middle of the night with no prior warning and went on to sell over 400,000 copies in a single day. The release strategy also works for artists who aren’t household names as well. On New Year’s Day, Del the Funky Homosapien uploaded a surprise free album to his Soundcloud account, and the stellar
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ACROSS 1 Big cat of Narnia 6 Salad alternative 10 No more than 14 Pope after John X 15 Facility 16 Iowa State’s city 17 *Genealogist’s tool 19 Political syst. 20 Priestly robes 21 Suffix with Capri 22 Door sign 23 __ Fáil: Irish coronation stone 24 *“Top Hat” leading man 27 Abandon 29 British throne? 30 Churchillian sign 31 Compound conjunction 32 Uppercut target 33 Take a break 34 *Stewed chicken dish 38 First Greek consonant 41 Go a few rounds 42 Petting zoo critter 46 Pulitzer poet Lowell 47 Gloss target 48 Concession speech deliverer 50 *Most serious or least serious 53 Former telecom co. 54 Toga party hosts 55 HDTV brand 56 Amazed sounds 57 “Lois & Clark” reporter 58 Escapes, and, literally, what each of the answers to starred clues does 61 Blues singer James 62 Carded at a club 63 Catorce ÷ dos 64 Work station 65 Billy of “Titanic” 66 Extra
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Iller Than Most is his most complete body of work released in the last 15 years. For an emcee who is notoriously erratic with his album releases, Iller Than Most marks his third album in the last calendar year. His late career resurgence kicked off with the long-awaited Deltron 3030 sequel, and a group album with the Hieroglyphics crew. This third album, however, is Del the Funky Homosapien’s first solo release since 2012 and is a breath of fresh air in the veteran rapper’s career. What’s so shocking about this album is not its elaborately constructed lyrics — adept lyricism is Del’s signature calling card. Instead, the production work is phenomenal, and for someone who has produced only sporadically over his 25 year career, Del sounds just as at home behind the boards as he does in the booth. Entirely self-produced, Iller Than Most showcases Del tackling a variety of beats that echo both classic DJ Premier production and emulate newer artists like Death Grips. From the bombastic opening sirens of “Leader” to chunky guitar riffs on “Robust,” it is evident that Del’s open-mindedness to new production styles improves his lyrical approach. Accompanying the album’s release was a brief statement from Del describing the project’s content. In his own words, Iller Than Most is “futuristic and fun” as well as “lyrically ill but fun to listen to, nothing super heavy.” The lighthearted nature of this album is a welcome change from the paranoid themes of Deltron Event II, Del’s most recent album. This album focuses not on weighty social constructs, but rather on the Bay
Area rapper having fun with hip hop again. There is a feeling of silliness and enjoyment on Iller Than Most, which features complex rhymes on topics ranging from being an underground rapper, to weird vocal caricatures, to a more typical rap braggadocio. It’s in his boldly dismissive attitude toward modern rappers who aim for the clubs and the Billboard charts that Del stands out from his peers. Given the chance to speak freely on this independent LP, it’s clear that Del is one of rap’s best trash talkers.
This funky homosapien is ‘Iller Than Most.’ Iller Than Most won’t define Del the Funky Homosapien’s legacy as a rapper. It isn’t a genre-defining album, and it certainly contains no material that is particularly novel or shocking. What it is, however, is a modernized reflection of Del’s classic sound, and a collection of 11 enjoyable songs that meld his classic delivery with updated production techniques. The album’s title itself straightforwardly tells the point of this release; it confirms that Del hasn’t lost a step as he enters his forties, and is quite simply one of the better rappers around, regardless of age. Iller Than Most is an excellent later day addition to Del the Funky Homosapien’s lengthy and varied discography, and it accomplishes its intended goal: proving that Del remains a talent worth listening to.
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Email jplyn@umich.edu to request an application.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 — 7A
Wolverines welcome surging Hawkeyes Iowa enters as surprise of Big Ten By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor
There are hangovers — the I-can’t-get-out-of-bed-on-aSunday-morning hangover — and a Saturday morning, home-footballgameday Iowa at hangover, the one that Michigan hardly feels Matchup: like a hangover Iowa 15-3; Michigan 13-4 because dwelling on the When: night before Wednesday would ignore 7 P.M. the magnitude Where: Crisler of what the Center new day holds. TV: BTN For the Michigan men’s basketball team, recovering from the high that came with a win over then-No. 3 Wisconsin on Saturday night should be no problem with a new top-10 foe upcoming. Long a Big Ten afterthought, No. 10 Iowa, which comes into Ann Arbor with one of the nation’s top offenses, should be more than enough to rally the young Wolverines. “That’s always a concern,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “You saw how I treated the game. It’s just, ‘OK, it’s another win. Let’s go. Who do we play next?’ ” But even on such a young squad, the team’s lone senior, forward Jordan Morgan, isn’t concerned about suffering the effects of a trap game on Wednesday after what the 21st-ranked Wolverines (5-0 Big Ten, 13-4 overall) have been through thus far. “We’ve done a really good job, especially recently, of focusing on what’s right in front of us,” Morgan said. “Every game is a championship for us. ” In the nation’s toughest conference, Iowa (4-1, 15-3) has been the biggest surprise. The Hawkeyes’ lone conference loss was a four-point nail-biter in Madison, and their nonconference losses — in overtime to No. 4 Villanova and at Iowa State — are as respectable as they come. Iowa and its explosive offense have grown accustomed to steamrolling opponents. The
Hawkeyes’ 86.8 points per game ranks fifth in the nation — first in the Big Ten — while their average margin of victory, 20.2 points, also tops the conference. “This is a high-powered team that’s coming in here,” Beilein said, comparing Iowa to topranked Arizona, which defeated Michigan last month. “They can really score points. So keeping easy points from happening is a really difficult challenge. It won’t happen. They’re going to get them. At the same time, we’ve got to limit those opportunities.” Leading the charge is a pair of upperclassmen with which Beilein is familiar, including senior guard Roy Devyn Marble, who averages 16.3 points per game. The Southfield, Mich. native was once a Michigan recruit, but with only one slot left for a wing, Beilein chose to instead offer the spot to Tim Hardaway Jr. “(Marble) is just doing whatever he wants to do out there,” Beilein said. “He shoots threes, he passes, he steals, he rebounds. He’s a really good player.” But it’s the Hawkeyes’ inside game on the offensive end that has been giving opponents fits. Led by junior forward Aaron White, whom Beilein coached in
last summer’s World University Games, Iowa is second in the conference in rebounding margin and third in offensive rebounds. Like Michigan State and Ohio State, which have historically given the Wolverines problems on the boards, the Hawkeyes send four, or even all five players to the glass on many of their fieldgoal attempts. “They’re really bent on attacking the rim, so we’re going to have to be really solid defensively,” Morgan said. “It’s going to come down to a battle of wills.” But in that strategy, Beilein sees a chance for his team to attack. With Iowa crashing the offensive boards, Michigan will have an opportunity to turn long rebounds and outlet passes into what has become a dangerous transition offense. Still, Beilein was coy about whether he hopes the game plays into his opponent’s preferred up-tempo style, or if he would rather see a low-possession affair. When asked if there is a desired point total he’d like to see his team reach, he quickly responded. “Yeah,” fighting to hold back a smile while the press conference attendees broke into laughter. “Absolutely.”
Big Ten positioning at steak McCaffery talks recipe for success By SIMON KAUFMAN Daily Sports Writer
After an upset win on the road against Wisconsin, the Michigan men’s basketball team (5-0 Big Ten, 13-4 overall) looks to stay undefeated in the Big Ten as they take on No. 10 Iowa Wednesday night. The Hawkeyes (4-1, 15-3) boast a deep lineup that could challenge the Wolverines’ young team. The Daily sat down with Iowa coach Fran McCaffery at Big Ten Media Day in October to talk basketball, recruiting and to see if we could get the headman to treat us to a steak dinner.
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
The Michigan Daily: After finishing with 25 wins last year, the second most in school
history, how do you follow that this season? Fran McCaffery: Well, I think what you do is you take the same professional, business-like approach that we played the last part of the season and carry that over to this year and support one another and recognize the difficulty of this conference and what it’s going to take to get a win in this (conference) and how much harder it’s going to get to get a road win. So from there, you just, everyday, what are we doing to get better? What are we doing to prepare? What are we doing to reach our goal, which is to go to the NCAA Tournament. TMD: How important will this year be to help you with recruiting in the future? FM: You know, I don’t know that as I’m going through that I’m actually thinking about, ‘OK, how is this going to affect recruiting?’ When I’m going through the coaching and the preparing, that’s what I’m thinking about. We will benefit if were better. You’re right, we will. But I’m not thinking about
what can I do to make us better so therefore we can recruit better and get better players. TMD: How tough do you think the Big Ten will be this year? FM: Well fortunately, we got a lot of experience. I don’t know how much you can say or how much you can show them that will prepare them for the actuality of what they’ll end up facing. I think there’s so much value in having been through it, and I think that will help us this year particularly. TMD: Your brother, Jack, is a sports writer. Did you used to rehearse answering questions with him? FM: No. You know, he has been a valuable resource for me but he’s also made me more comfortable. Some guys in our business are paranoid, ‘Everybody’s out to get me.’ I never view it — if I’m talking to you like you didn’t wake up this morning and (be) like, ‘How am I going to go get him?’ You have a job to do, I have a job to do, let’s work together. Let me be respectful of you and what you’re doing and the time constraints that you’re under, and if somebody writes something that’s negative about you, it’s not personal. You didn’t do a good job coaching. And if you’re going to be in the limelight, you have to be willing to accept that. You can’t be thinned-skin. TMD: We’re travelling to the Michigan game at Iowa later this year. Any suggestions for good places to grab food around your campus? FM: Alright let’s see, a great place to go is the Wig and Pen. It’s right down the hill. They have phenomenal pizza, but they also great other food: salads, burgers, stuff like that — assuming you’re more along those lines than Joseph’s Steakhouse downtown is a great place to go, but that’s going to be a high ticket.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Sophomore forward Nik Stauskas and the Michigan men’s basketball team host Iowa and travel to Michigan State this week, both of which are top-10 teams.
TMD: Not unless taking us out … FM: (Laughs)
you’re
MEN’S SOCCER
Sounders select Pereira in fourth round of MLS Draft By MINH DOAN Daily Sports Writer
PATRICK BARRON/Daily
Sophomore forward Andrew Copp’s return from Sweden hasn’t helped Michigan, which has lost four straight games.
‘M’ reconsiders schedule By ALEJANDRO ZÚÑIGA Daily Sports Editor
For six weeks, the Michigan hockey team has acted more like a practice squad than a varsity program. Since tying Ferris State NOTEBOOK on Dec. 11, the 14th-ranked Wolverines (2-2 Big Ten, 10-6-2 overall) have played just four games and lost all of them. Time off for finals, the holidays and last week’s bye have made it easier for players to heal, but it’s come with a hefty cost: Michigan is in the midst of its longest winless streak since 2011. The Wolverines spent two weeks practicing and preparing for the Great Lakes Invitational, two more weeks for a conference series at Wisconsin on Jan. 10-11 and haven’t played since. “It seems like a month and it is a month,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. The struggles this year could change how the program organizes future schedules.
Berenson intentionally withholds his team from playing during the first weekend in January every year, because the Wolverines often send players to the World Junior Championships during that time. But Michigan had that planned bye in early January and then another after the Wisconsin series, which Berenson hopes to avoid in the future. FIVE FOR FIGHTING: Fighting is illegal in college hockey, but that didn’t stop the Wolverines from dropping the gloves in Tuesday afternoon’s practice. Even during non-contact drills like the end-of-practice shootaround, players feigned punches to the heads of their teammates and jokingly drove each other into the boards and to the ground. Why? As sophomore forward Andrew Copp explained, “It’s Michigan State week. I think that speaks for itself.” When they met earlier this season in the consolation round
of the Great Lakes Invitational, the Spartans earned a dominant 3-0 win. Copp didn’t participate in the tournament because he was representing the United States in the World Junior Championships in Sweden, so he’s experiencing the intensity of the in-state rivalry week for the first time this season. “It’s going to be a little different when you’ve got ‘little brother’ coming to town,” Copp said. HOLY HOBEY: Brendan Morrison. Kevin Porter. Andrew Copp? In nearly a century of Michigan hockey, the program has earned 35 NCAA Tournament appearances, reached the Frozen Four 24 times and claimed nine national titles. But just two Wolverines, Morrison and Porter, have earned the Hobey Baker Award as the best collegiate player in the country. This year, Copp hopes to add his name to that list. On Jan. 14, he was named a candidate for the prestigious award.
Fabio Pereira’s Twitter bio reads, “Trying to make a living, doing what I love.” Tuesday afternoon, the former Michigan forward came a little closer to doing just that when the Seattle Sounders picked him in the fourth round of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft. But without a technicality, the senior midfielder wouldn’t have even been drafted. The Sounders’ pick was obtained years ago by trading for another team’s fourthround supplemental draft pick. But since MLS got rid of the supplemental draft, Seattle was given an extra, unnumbered pick in the SuperDraft as compensation. Leading up to his pick, Pereira sat in front of his computer, refreshing the MLS page constantly. But a shoddy homeinternet connection meant that the overjoyed text messages and calls from friends and family would inform Pereira of his fate. “I was refreshing the page online, but I couldn’t really see any of the picks,” Pereira said. “I ended up not even seeing the last 15-20 picks.” Pereira was drafted with the 77th pick, which only exists this year because of the Sounders’ trade. Many people call the last pick in any draft “Mr. Irrelevant,” but Pereira will work hard to make sure his name is known for a more promising reason. “While getting drafted is
amazing, I still have to prove (the Sounders) were right to draft me,” Pereira said. “I can’t wait to get out there and start practice.” Pereira became the eighth player in Michigan history to be drafted into the MLS, following in the footsteps of defender Kofi Opare, who enjoyed a successful rookie season after being selected last year by the Los Angeles Galaxy. Opare started six games and scored one goal in the regular season and played nearly 200 minutes in the Galaxy’s playoff run. In Seattle, Pereira will play under Sounders coach Sigi Schmid. He first met Schmid at the MLS Combine, where the two talked briefly. “He’s a big-time coach, a very well-respected man,” Pereira said. “I can’t wait to meet him again.” Pereira was projected to be drafted early in the third round, so his drop was unexpected. Some soccer analysts attributed that to Pereira’s Brazilian citizenship. MLS only allows teams to have a certain number of international players, and many teams don’t have available spots left for him. But if Pereira obtains a green card, he’ll no longer take up an international spot. “I’m told he’s working on his green card,” wrote Goal. com writer Ives Galarcep in an online forum. “So if he gets it, he suddenly becomes a much better value.” Pereira will join a Seattle team coming off of a mediocre season.
They finished fourth in the Western Conference and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs despite boasting stars like American midfielder Clint Dempsey and Nigerian forward Obafemi Martins — both of whom play for their respective national teams. “I can’t even describe the feeling,” Pereira said. “It’s definitely a dream come true to be able to play with some great players.” Pereira is excited for the opportunity to play in MLS, especially in Seattle, but he knows the journey has only begun. “There’s still a long road ahead of me,” he said. “I still have a lot of work to do to make it.”
BY THE NUMBERS Fabio Pereira
13
Goals scored at Michigan, good for ninth in program history.
194
Shots taken with the Wolverines, setting a new school record.
5,127
Miles from hometown of São Paulo, Brazil to Ann Arbor.
44,038
Average number of fans at Sounders home games, an MLS record.
8A — Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Devastating injury can’t stop Ballantine Star running back Pitcher eyes return after breaking ankle Harris decommits RECRUITING
By DANNY VARGOVICK Daily Sports Writer
What began as a sad story about a player ending his collegiate career watching from the sidelines is now a story about a fifth-year senior making the most of his second chance. When Michigan baseball right-handed pitcher Ben Ballantine woke up from surgery after he broke his ankle covering first base in a game against Bowling Green early last April, he thought his career was over. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that he even thought about the possibility of a medical redshirt. “I assumed that my career was over and that I wasn’t going to get another chance to play for Michigan,” Ballantine said. Michigan coach Erik Bakich also thought that Ballantine would never throw another pitch in the maize and blue. “It’s a senior’s worst nightmare to get injured,” Bakich said. “That’s not how
anyone would want Ben Ballantine to finish.” This past July, the Big Ten officially told Ballantine that he would be returning to Ann Arbor. But before Ballantine stepped back onto the diamond, he had to heal. Ballantine finished his rehabilitation process in September, five long months after the injury. “Everybody involved in Michigan baseball couldn’t have been more supportive and encouraging,” Ballantine said. “(That) made dealing with rehab a lot easier.” Now, he’s expected to be an integral part of the 2014 team. Before his injury, Ballantine was putting together an impressive 2013 campaign. In five starts and two relief appearances, the 6-foot-8, 235pound righty posted a 2.62 earned-run average and struck out 7.9 batters per nine innings. Now 100-percent healthy, Ballantine isn’t just looking to duplicate his 2013 numbers over a full season, but improve them. In his Michigan career so far, Ballantine has lowered his ERA by 1.32 each season, and he said
that a sub-2.00 ERA is his goal this year. “My expectation is to have my best year at Michigan,” he said. “I want to make the biggest jump of improvement this season. The way I’m feeling right now and the way the team’s looking right now, I don’t see any reason why that won’t happen.” His coach agrees. “If Ben makes quality pitches, executes his plan, works with quick tempo and is able to change speeds and do the things that have made him successful, he’s probably going to see an ERA reflective of that,” Bakich said. Bakich won’t decide rotation spots until closer to the start of the season, but Ballantine is one of five starting pitchers competing for a weekend starting spot. “That’s the goal every season,” Ballantine said. “With the talent coach has been bringing into school and with the guys on the roster, nothing is charity. Playing time is definitely earned.” Above all, Ballantine is just thankful for the opportunity to come back and compete. He’ll get
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Michigan right-handed pitcher Ben Ballantine was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the Big Ten following an injury.
to write a different final chapter to his collegiate baseball career — one that he unsurprisingly likes a lot better. “To tell you the truth, I actually like this year a little bit more,” Ballantine said. “Last year, it was as if everyone was a freshman having an entire new staff and way of doing things. This year, I feel a lot more comfortable and know how things are done, which allows me to channel a lot more focus into my pitching and development.” Suddenly, the gruesome ankle injury looks like a blessing in disguise. Ballantine, afforded two extra semesters to complete his degree, is on track to graduate in May. Unable to use his foot, Ballantine got in the best upperbody shape of his life. In his effort to make the most out of his second chance, Ballantine has been a role model for the younger players. Having seen how quickly the privilege of playing can all be taken away, he’s tried to make every second count. “I remember when I broke my ankle, being in the emergency room, thinking about my whole career and everything, what I regret and what I’d do differently,” he said. “I decided to approach every single day like it’s my last and not hold anything back.” Bakich is just happy Ballantine’s last day hasn’t come yet. “This injury has given him a fresh perspective,” he said of Ballantine. “It’s extremely important to Ben to leave a legacy with this senior class, and with this being his final year before he moves on in his career, to be on a championship team. “I think that’s what flashed before his eyes on April 2 last year when he got injured. To know that he has the opportunity to redo his senior year, that’s really inspiring.”
By JAKE LOURIM Daily Sports Writer
Michigan football coach Brady Hoke’s prized 2015 recruiting class keeps getting smaller. Top-ranked running back Damien Harris decommitted from Michigan on Tuesday morning, according to multiple media reports. Scout.com’s Sam Webb first broke the news on Twitter. On Dec. 17, five-star wide receiver George Campbell — the No. 2 player in the country according to ESPN — also decommitted. The loss of Harris leaves the Wolverines with a glaring weakness at skill positions in the 2015 class. The Wolverines’ 2015 class, which once had two of the nation’s top five commits, now has just four total: four-star athlete Shaun Crawford, three-star safety Tyree Kinnel, threestar kicker Andrew David and threestar offensive tackle Jon Runyan Jr. Among the remaining four, only Crawford ranks in ESPN’s top 300 for the class. Harris’s decommitment came just five days after new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier visited Harris. Nussmeier came from Alabama to replace fired offensive coordinator Al Borges on Jan. 8. “We love coach Borges,” Harris’s mother, Lynn, told Scout.com. “He was the one that recruited Damien, so I’m not going to sit here and say that it didn’t have anything to do with it. I’m not going to sit here and say it had everything to do with it.”
Harris received a Michigan offer after his sophomore year on June 19, 2012 and committed on July 29 of the following year. He also had offers from Oklahoma, Penn State, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Florida and Ohio State, as well as home-state schools Louisville and Kentucky. Lynn Harris told 247Sports that Michigan is still his No. 1 choice even though his recruitment is open again. “Even though Michigan is No. 1, and that hasn’t changed, he just wants to make sure that he doesn’t have any regrets when he gets ready to enroll,” she told Scout.com. “He just wants to make sure he didn’t leave any stone unturned and make sure he didn’t miss out on anything.” His high-school coach, Jon Clark, added that backlash from Michigan fans online would deter Harris from re-committing to the Wolverines. “People need to back off of him (on Twitter),” Clark told ESPN.com’s Tom VanHaaren. “He’s a 16-year-old kid. People are attacking him on there. “You have grown men who are way out of line, and Michigan fans better ease up or they’re going to push him away from Michigan. The coaches aren’t. The fans are.” Harris had 220 carries for 2,621 yards and scored 44 touchdowns in his junior season at Madison Southern High School in Berea, Ky., amounting to 11.9 yards per carry and 218 yards per game. He amassed 1,778 yards and 35 touchdowns as a sophomore.
“Michigan is still No. 1, and that hasn’t changed.”
#include <iostream> using namespace std; int main() { bool onStatementCover = 1; if (onStatementCover == 1) { cout << “The Hacker’s Revolution” << endl; } return 0; }
statement THE MICHIGAN DAILY JAN UARY 22 , 2014
2B Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
THE
list | B
uzzfeed, but better
Five Smartphone Features to Look For in the Next Decade Think your smartphone has everything you may ever need? Think again. The 2020s have more to offer.
1. Bend over backward
How convenient would it be to just fold your phone like a piece of paper, to tuck it away in your wallet or stop it from bulging in your pocket? The new Organic Light-Emitting Diode technology might just make that a reality.
2. Come alive, already We’ve got Retina display (thank you, Apple) and 3D images (LG,
Samsung and Motorola have got that covered), but what about holograms? In a few years, expect that smartphone-animated personal trainer or yoga instructor to come to life.
3. Mission: make humans lazy If you’re yet to get hold of Google’s new Google Glass
prototype, then wait a few years — your smartphone might do the same. Instead of having to web search information about your surroundings, future phones may use its camera to feed you that information automatically.
4. Charge it up! We’ve all got issues with our smartphone battery. What if your
phone not only lasted all day, but even had enough battery to charge up any other small device you might own?
5. Indoor-P.S. It’s the next step to G.P.S. It’s about time you were able to
find your lost friend inside a mall. The newly formed In-Location Alliance is working on creating a feature that will do just that.
want to add some spice to your twitterfeed? YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO...
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@thestatementmag COVER BY NICK CRUZ & RUBY WALLAU
THE
statement
Magazine Editor: Carlina Duan Deputy Editors: Max Radwin
Photo Editor: Ruby Wallau Illustrator: Megan Mulholland
Amrutha Sivakumar Editor in Chief: Design Editor: Nick Cruz
Peter Shahin
Managing Editor: Katie Burke Copy Editors: Mark Ossolinski Meaghan Thompson
ann arbor affairs: four shades lighter by amrutha sivakumar I met him at a Michigan soccer game. I was the awkward freshman who was trying to imbibe as much school spirit as I could in the five days of Welcome Week. He was the sophomore who just had to help me and my roommate learn all the Ultras’ chants. Love at first sight? I would like to think so, but who am I kidding. I was Indian and he wasn’t. And that meant that there was no way I could ever be with him. It wasn’t until the next semester that I saw him again. Though we were both Michigan Daily staff writers, his world of sports journalism never crossed with the bubble of student government reporting that I’d immersed myself into. But there he was at the next paperwide bonding event. One moment led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting across from him at dinner making small talk for what would be the first of many dates to come. The days flew by, and I was falling for a guy who was more kindhearted, talented, funny and attractive than I could have ever imagined. While I think his biracial upbringing made it easier for him to see us as a couple, I couldn’t help but linger over the fact that we were so fundamentally different to begin with. It hit me the hardest when we stood in front of a mirror together for the first time. He was hugging me in my 12-by-19 South Quad room, and I turned around to face the reality that was our relationship. He was standing — a whole head above me — and grinning wider than I had ever seen before. The entire time, I was incredulous. There was no way this could be right. We looked absurd! For the first time I realized that I had subconsciously worked race into my criteria for relationships. I
THE
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
was a descendent of a long, neverending line of arranged marriages. I had spent hours in sleepovers with my girlfriends talking about what part of India our ideal boyfriends would be from. I always imagined my dream man to be exactly like me. While I was born in Chicago and was raised as an American for a time, I went to high school in India and did most of my growing up there. India was where I had had my first love and my first heartbreak. India is where I developed a sense of who I was and what I wanted. I grew up viewing interracial relationships as an abnormality. At first, I started to see my own relationship with the same skepticism that I had viewed other differentrace couples. Yet all that changed over time. When I let myself believe that it was OK to date someone with a skin tone four shades lighter than mine, I started to realize how wrong I had gotten it all. There’s something so raw and exhilarating in telling someone
about yourself and realizing that they want to become a part of your world. The person I was dating wanted to learn more about Indian cultures and religions just a month into our relationship than most of the Indians I knew bothered to learn in their entire life. I’d been so hesitant to make myself feel something for someone of a different culture because I didn’t think we could connect. Instead, I fell harder than I ever thought I could. Maybe it’s easier to be with someone that speaks the same mother tongue as you and celebrates the same religious holidays. Maybe there’s a reason why intercaste relationships are all the rage back home right now. But for now, I’m with someone who watched a cheesy Bollywood movie with me only three dates into our relationship and replies to me when I intersperse Hindi words in my sentences. Did I mention that he’s a Hispanic Jew? I really am the luckiest girl in the world.
rules TMD’
s weekly survival guide
No. 528:
No. 529:
No. 530:
Oversized hoodies and baggy sweatpants may hide your Freshman 15 in the frozen tundra, but watch out: It’ll be spring before you know it.
Printed pants aren’t such a bad idea at the Winter career fair — there are only 2,000 others wearing a black suit.
Hurrah, Restaurant Week is over! It’s time to bid adieu to those 30-dollar dinner sales.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement 3B
“
the thought bubble
on the record
“Unfortunately, so many times, people of color hear the term ‘people of color’ from other white people that (PoCs) think white people created it instead of understanding that we self-named ourselves.” – LORETTA ROSS, reproductive rights activist, in a talk about feminism.
“We have heard the University use the phrase ‘We are listening’ since 1970, and I am tired of waiting for a response. We are tired of waiting for a response.”
– SHAYLA SCALES, Business Senior, during the BSU protests for inclusion on MLK Day
“This is one of the main reasons I think it’s worthwhile to study the classics — not because it would be more time-effective, but because there is a distinct pleasure in studying a body of literature where you must accept some limitations from the start.”
PHOTO BY RUBY WALLAU
“What’s always gotten me along is seeing that the most interesting people I ever knew, never knew what they wanted to do with their life. You’ll find something eventually. But never always quite what you planned.”
– GIANCARLO BUONOMO, Senior Arts Editor, on the value of studying the classics.
– MELINDA ‘MANDY’ KRUG, School of Information Alum
trending #SNL #NFLPlayoffs #MicroscopicPhotography
SNL.COM
It’s safe to say that Saturday was a pretty big night for this variety show. Rapper Drake hosted and performed for the show, and actress Sasheer Zamata made her debut — a casting made in heaven.
AP PHOTO/ Matt Sayles
Award show season is pushing through at full blow. “American Hustle” — which leaded Oscar nominations earlier in the week — won the most outstanding performance by a cast at this 20th annual show.
#StellarAwards #SAGAwards #TylerOakley #HappyBdayBeliebers #Lebroning
AP PHOTO/Kyle Korver
Sick of planking? Inspired by Miami Heat’s Lebron James, Lebroning is the action of throwing yourself to the floor after a light brush; followed by an angry facial expression claiming that it’s not your fault you’re hurt.
The YouTube personality received immense criticism over Twitter after bashing 1D singer Liam Payne for supporting the homophobic family values shared through reality TV show “Duck Dynasty.” YOUTUBE.COM
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement 3B
“
the thought bubble
on the record
“Unfortunately, so many times, people of color hear the term ‘people of color’ from other white people that (PoCs) think white people created it instead of understanding that we self-named ourselves.” – LORETTA ROSS, reproductive rights activist, in a talk about feminism.
“We have heard the University use the phrase ‘We are listening’ since 1970, and I am tired of waiting for a response. We are tired of waiting for a response.”
– SHAYLA SCALES, Business Senior, during the BSU protests for inclusion on MLK Day
“This is one of the main reasons I think it’s worthwhile to study the classics — not because it would be more time-effective, but because there is a distinct pleasure in studying a body of literature where you must accept some limitations from the start.”
PHOTO BY RUBY WALLAU
“What’s always gotten me along is seeing that the most interesting people I ever knew, never knew what they wanted to do with their life. You’ll find something eventually. But never always quite what you planned.”
– GIANCARLO BUONOMO, Senior Arts Editor, on the value of studying the classics.
– MELINDA ‘MANDY’ KRUG, School of Information Alum
trending #SNL #NFLPlayoffs #MicroscopicPhotography
SNL.COM
It’s safe to say that Saturday was a pretty big night for this variety show. Rapper Drake hosted and performed for the show, and actress Sasheer Zamata made her debut — a casting made in heaven.
AP PHOTO/ Matt Sayles
Award show season is pushing through at full blow. “American Hustle” — which leaded Oscar nominations earlier in the week — won the most outstanding performance by a cast at this 20th annual show.
#StellarAwards #SAGAwards #TylerOakley #HappyBdayBeliebers #Lebroning
AP PHOTO/Kyle Korver
Sick of planking? Inspired by Miami Heat’s Lebron James, Lebroning is the action of throwing yourself to the floow after a light brush; followed by an angry facial expression claiming that it’s not your fault you’re hurt.
The YouTube personality received immense criticism over Twitter after bashing 1D singer Liam Payne for supporting the homophobic family values shared through reality TV show “Duck Dynasty.” YOUTUBE.COM
4B 2 Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
CODING THE FUTURE: THE RISE OF THE HACKATHON by Ian Dillingham, Senior News Editor
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On the surface, the idea is simple. Teams of four compete to design, build and demonstrate the best piece of technology in just 36 hours. The event begins Friday night and ends Sunday morning, culminating in an expo in which teams showcase their creations to judges who award cash and other prizes. The infusion of Detroit entrepreneurialism was evident in every corner of the event, as participants were treated to panoramic views of the city from seven or eight stories above the streets. For those visiting the city for the first time, the event provided a unique immersion into the city’s culture, though their attention rarely drifted from their projects once the clock began. Though most teams choose to focus on mobile applications, websites and social media devices, the parameters are purposefully open-ended — anything goes. The winner of last year’s event designed a trash can that sorted recyclable materials based on the noise they made when tossed into the device. Since its conception less than two years ago, MHacks has exploded into the largest college hackathon in the country — the word “hack,” in this case, refers to participants’ need to “hack together” ideas in a short period of time rather than the common association with “computer hackers.” While the rules are simple, the event has come to represent much more than a group of computer nerds spending their holiday weekend staring at lines of code. Instead, the event represents a challenge to the very nature of education and, in turn,
interactive marketing displays. One common theme he noted among many participants was that the current education system wasn’t providing something they needed. “The school system works really well for some people, just not for me,” he said. The Hacker Culture The first MHacks came about after the founding members, along with about 30 other students from the University, traveled to the University of Pennsylvania for another prominent hackathon, PennApps. With most members having never attended such an event, students from the University took home a quarter of the prizes, according to Erdmann. “We were all wearing these matching orange shirts and stood out like a sore thumb,” Erdmann said. “Michigan hadn’t traveled as much to hackathons in the past and … we just took the whole hacking community by storm.” Since then, MHacks has grown into the largest college hackathon in the nation, with students traveling from as far away as Europe to participate. As hackathons around the nation gain popularity, they have begun to develop a culture that extends beyond the bounds of the weekend events. Directors of the MHacks event have received many emails from college students across the nation who want to host similar events at their own institutions, Hurd said. One of the most interesting trends for Hurd is whether students look for smaller, local events or if they remain willing to travel to the five largest events each year: MHacks, PennApps, HackMIT, Y-Hack at Yale University and hackTECH at the California Institute of Technology. Regardless of the location, one major obstacle for this emerging culture is the need to enhance public perceptions, which often view hackers as people who use computer skills to break into secure databases for their own gains. “A lot of the focus of the current hackathon culture is dissuading the public from this stereotype that is associated with hacker culture,” Hurd said. That stereotype, Hurd said, is one of an 18- to 21-year-old male, usually a computer engineer, who spends countless hours staring at their computer. “We’re trying to show that anyone can be a hacker,” Hurd said. “It’s about having the skills to learn quickly, problem solve and put your creativity to use.”
LEFT: MHacks directors LSA junior Adrian Lupusoru, Engineering junior Dylan Hurd and Engineering junior Jonathan Poczatek. (Ruby Wallau/ DAILY) CENTER: 16-year-old Send Grid representative Will Smidlein and Louisiana Tech Alumn Jaren Glover work together on Saturday. (Ruby Wallau/DAILY) RIGHT: University of Maryland sophomore Eric Mintzer works on his project using Oculus Rift software. (Adam Glanzman/DAILY) ould e-mail be made more efficient, freeing users from the hours they spend at their computers? Why do people need to carry wallets when so much information can be stored on a phone? How could a trash can be improved to promote recycling initiatives? For many students enduring the rigors of a traditional education system, learning entails just a one-way flow of information from teacher to pupil. With the exception of sporadic laboratory requirements or experimental courses, students are confined to the classroom experience — where theory often trumps practicality and real-world applications are added as footnotes to the end of lectures. Those students with questions or ideas must take the initiative to investigate certain topics independently, outside the confines of syllabi and lecture halls. However, true intellectual exploration can be challenging when those same students must manage the typical college hurdles — exams, essays, extracurriculars and a range of personal and social commitments. How much time can students possibly dedicate to independent learning while still enrolled at the University? For one group on campus, the answer is 36 hours. This past weekend, about 1,200 students from over 60 universities around the world gathered in Detroit for the third installment of MHacks — a non-stop, three-day computer programming competition and expo hosted by MPowered Entrepreneurship and Michigan Hackers.
5B
challenges students to create, innovate and develop technologies for the real world. Redefining Education Contrary to public perceptions, MHacks is not an exclusive meeting of the best programmers on campus. Granted, the best computer programmers attend every year in waves, but the coordinators said the event is intended to introduce students to the world of computer programming — no experience necessary. This has been a common theme to MHacks ever since four students at the University decided to hold the first event in the Palmer Commons in 2012. LSA and Engineering junior Thomas Erdmann is the last member of the original group still at the University. Although he stepped down from his lead role for this year’s event, he remains active in the hackathon culture. “We marketed MHacks from the beginning as open to all skill levels,” Erdmann said. “I know people who had never written a line of code in their life before MHacks last time around and now they’re building websites.” The pressure to build on a 36-hour deadline combined with the collective knowledge of teammates and other participants makes the environment conducive to quick learning, Erdmann said. “It really pushes you to figure out a way to get your idea
built,” Erdmann said. “If you don’t have the technical knowhow, you’ll figure out how to get it.” Engineering junior Dylan Hurd, one of the event’s three directors this year, said MHacks is designed to provide education at all levels, so that participants can learn new skills regardless of prior computer science knowledge. This is accomplished, in part, through presentations and demonstrations from sponsors, including Apple and GitHub, which expose participants to new tools they can use to design their projects. “We try to make MHacks a learning experience for everyone involved,” Hurd said. “Someone who’s a computer science major may have straight As in their program, but may have never built an iOS app before, so they can come in and learn something entirely new to them and come out with a working product.” The cornerstone of the MHacks model is its focus on projectbased group learning. Unlike traditional classroom-based education, participants must possess the ability to solve problems in real time, a skill many employers in the field value. “It gives you a lot of experience that the closed environment of a classroom doesn’t. Obviously the classroom has its benefits, but if you can’t apply what you know in the real world, it’s just not as useful,” Hurd said. While both Hurd and Erdmann expressed doubts that MHacks could be used to reform education, the hackathon movement is beginning to assert its influence over colleges nationwide. Michigan Hackers hosts more frequent hacking
events — usually six hours or less — on campus, allowing students to experience the hackathon environment more frequently than twice a year. Many participants at the event expressed their desire to see better implementation of collaborative, project-based opportunities in education. Eric Mintzer, a business student from the University of Maryland attending his first hackathon, said the education provided at the event was different from anything he had experienced in school. “I look at (hackathons) as an alternative to education but I think it’s something that colleges should support,” Mintzer said. “It’s not the best way for everyone (to learn) but the people here are very self-driven and self-educated, meaning they want to teach themselves and that’s the way many people here learn best.” Mintzer and his team used their time at the event to prototype a virtual reality device that would allow the user to observe financial graphs and layouts in a virtual universe. The project combined several pre-existing technologies, as well as one of the many APIs — application programming interfaces — provided to participants, allowing them to develop products that integrate with existing systems or infrastructure. While Mintzer continues to attend classes (at the urging of his parents), he considers himself a programmer at heart and is using his experience to launch a startup company that develops
The Gender Gap For all the successes of the culture, however, one obvious downfall of MHacks — and hacker culture — is the current gender gap. Business and LSA junior Lucy Zhao, one of the MHacks coordinators, said she’d estimate only 10 to 20 percent of the participants of most hackathons are female. “Clearly there is a big gender gap,” Zhao said. “I think there’s a lot of reasons — girls are sometimes not encouraged in technical fields … but I also think it’s part of the hackathon environment.” Zhao noted that, since participants essentially live together for three days, the environment can sometimes take on a “broish” feel. Additionally, some female participants expressed a hesitation to join male teams once at the hackathon, which discouraged them from registering, Zhao said. Given the disparity, Zhao said the organizers made a special effort to expand the participant demographics this year by reaching out to female groups at the University and around the nation. She also said some sponsors took special measures — such as requesting to fund female buses to the event — in order to promote involvement in the industry. “There’s tons of talented female hackers, so I don’t think necessarily that they don’t feel they can contribute,” Zhao said. See HACKATHONS, Page 8B
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Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
Red Bull and Quidditch: the MHacks experience by Giacomo Bologna
M
Carnegie Mellon sophomore Gregory Rose and DePaul junior Matt Kula test Oculus Quidditch, a virtual reality Quidditch game at MHacks at the Qube in Detroit on Saturday. (Ruby Wallau/DAILY)
ike Ross, a Quicken Loans security guard, stood watch in the elevator lobby of the seventh floor of the Qube building in Detroit on Saturday afternoon. Ross had heard of hackathons before the weekend, he said, but this was his first time interacting with one. Ross stood tall, watching a constant trickle of hackers and organizers go from side rooms to the main hall elevator. He wasn’t a hacker, but he stood in one of the best places to watch the event. Saturday afternoon was the halftime of MHacks — the midpoint — the make-orbreak time, when more than 1,000 hackers got an idea of whether they’d be ready to present at Sunday’s wrap-up celebration or have to accept that their ambitions were too big. “I wish I could say energetic,” Ross said of the atmosphere, and pointed to the “dozen people crashed on the floor,” in the main hall. The kids that haven’t burnt out are zeroed in on their computer screens. “They work, work, work and crash,” Ross said. He wasn’t kidding. Walking through the main hall occupied by a few hundred hackers meant stepping over pillows, suitcases, sleeping bags and sleeping college kids. If you haven’t heard of MHacks, here’s what you need to know: There’s 36 hours to write a program or make an innovation, hundreds of students and an abundance of caffeine. It’s part competition, part collaborative learning and part party. The main hall of the seventh floor embodied the hackathon spirit. It might have been a large office space for an online retail mortgage lender, but there was no beige or gray. Brightly colored columns punctuated the rows of tables taken over by hackers and the walls were covered with white boards where
teams argued over scrawled ideas or bored hackers sketched out their school’s logo. And there, creativity did come, but often at the expense of sleep, hygiene and fashion — sweatpants and pajamas make for more efficient hacking. But on Saturday afternoon, when competitors rested their heads on crossed arms and drooled on the table, the creativity was at a lull. The real start of MHacks came before the Friday kickoff. Competitors aren’t allowed to present projects they’ve previously worked on and they’re encouraged to come up with fresh ideas. The real start of MHacks came in the past couple weeks when those fresh ideas began to percolate. A few days before Friday, Matt Kula, a computer science major from DePaul University, was Facebook chatting with his team, one DePaul student and two from the University of Michigan. “It was a joke, honestly. But they took it seriously,” Kula said on Saturday of the idea he had proposed. “That was a great idea,” Engineering sophomore James Kotzian said, surprised. “I thought it was a sweet idea.” The team went along with it and by Saturday afternoon, they had built a functioning three-dimensional Quidditch simulator. “You can get motion sickness pretty easy doing some barrel rolls,” Kula said. “It’s crazy.” To play the game, the Quidditch player puts on a pair of 3D goggles hooked up to the computer and straddles a stick with a Wii remote taped to its end, twisting and leaning to fly their broomstick in a recreation of the stadium made famous by the “Harry Potter” book series. Kula said it was a good thing his teammates didn’t pick up on his original sarcasm.
“We really expected to take this much longer,” he said. “Anything we do now is kinda a plus.” The group acknowledged that there are some pretty competitive hackers at these events, but most students, including them, come to learn and try new things. DePaul doesn’t have the large hacking scene that the University does, Kula said, meaning hackathons can be a time of immersive learning. Nonetheless, the team knows they’ve built something good. “I still wanna win, but ... ” Kula said, trailing off. There’s more than just winning and losing, he explained. There’s resumé building and there’s interacting with other hackers from across the country. His team, for instance, was formed after Kula met some University student at the MHacks hackathon in November. Plus, there were plenty of ways to blow off steam. A break room adjacent to the main hall had a Pacman arcade game, ICEE machine and foosball table — among other amenities. A block away, however, a team from the State University of New York at Stony Brook was powering through programming an annoying alarm clock for your phone, although their surroundings weren’t as ideal: two floors of an unfinished office building hastily fitted for the event. Concrete floors, bare walls and temporary fluorescent lights gave off an industrial vibe at best. And this vibe was amplified when compared to the Qube’s eighth floor, which had views of Windsor’s skyline across the river and ice skating at Campus Martius Park. But at least both locations were only a quick walk away from Lafayette Coney Island, home of the world’s most heavenly Coney dog. Nonetheless, the Stony Brook team con-
tinued coding the app, which was designed for people who have trouble waking up early in the morning, or, colloquially speaking, college students. Team member Ted Saintvil called it the “dreaded eight o’clock class,” and the three New York students pointed at the fourth member of their team whose head was slumped down on the desk in sleep. This team, too, noted that there were some people who take the competition very seriously, but those people are the exception, not the rule. “You come here to do what you want to,” Kenneth Ramos said. “I come for the experience.” Besides, Ramos said, the biggest competition was for when new rounds of food were distributed. “You ever see a Walmart on Black Friday?” Ramos said. But regardless if you’re a first-time hacker or a seasoned pro looking for recognition, nobody gets much sleep. “What is that — sleep?” Ramos joked. None of Ramos’s team had more than four hours of sleep, and even that’s considered a good night’s sleep at hackathons. Kula, despite having the luxury of carpeting in his building, only laid down for two hours. “I don’t sleep at these things,” he said. “Too much going on for me to sleep.” In the end, sleep-deprived or not, the teams all had memorable experiences. Some came away with full, functioning products they had planned for all along. Others … not so much. While Stony Brook didn’t place in the top eight, Kula’s team and their Quidditch simulator placed second overall. Both teams, though, left the event as better programmers. And that’s what it’s really all about.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
7B
Personal Statement: mustache girl by Carlina Duan At first, it plunked. An intelligent red, the shade of dahlias in March, swooping down on cheap carpet. Then, it crashed. “Nosebleed! Nosebleed!” Nick shouted from the back row, “Mustache Girl’s got a nosebleed!” All my classmates turned to look. My throat stung. The blood wasn’t shy. It slushed out — splashing down my desk, skating across my half-open geometry textbook, spanking the pages with a vicious crimson. My face swelled in guilt, but it wasn’t because of the blood. Mustache Girl, Nick cawed, his voice like a vegetable peeler, cutting me into sharp curls of shame. Mr. Grady stood up slowly in his white sneakers as I flung my way across the path of desks. The bathroom was out the hallway, past six classrooms, near a water fountain spewing liquid of questionable yellow. As I scrambled out the door, I heard Nick, followed by a chorus of disgusted laughter: “She got blood all over his shoes!” In seventh grade, I got nosebleeds frequently. I got used to the blood flailing down my throat, the familiar hum of metallic red. Cotton balls I’d wet beneath the sink, then shove up my nostril. The nurses, who’d tell me to pinch tight my nose and tilt my head up. Fluorescent lights of the middle school ceiling. The bright red blooms on my hands, inked with blood. In seventh grade, I got used to the name. Nick and Ben would call me Mustache Girl on the sly. At first, it didn’t shake me up too much. I had friends. I had a pink lunchbox from the GAP. I had a violin case with a tiny, glittery keychain in the shape of a cat, which my Dad had gotten me from a business trip to Tokyo. In early winter mornings at the bus stop, before the sun composed its dear and simple light, the cat would flash a hazy pink against bitter snow. In seventh grade, I had a fondness for pears, and courage, and cats. I also had a mustache.
ILLUSTRATION BY MEGAN MULHOLLAND
“As a Chinese-American woman, how do I rebel? Define? Refashion? Undress the word and world that’s been given to me?”
Rather, I had black hair, and dark eyes, and loud hips. I had bad vision, and a callus on my middle finger from writing with the same purple gel pen. I had undergone puberty as a Chinese girl, and what resulted were the soft, black hairs that had dusted my upper-lip, my legs, my arms — bashful, shaming black. In the mirror each morning, I’d glare at my reflection. I’d pucker, and pout. In geometry class, I’d gaze at the back of Ben’s buzzed head. I’d eat dumplings at dinner and wonder why they weren’t cheese sandwiches. At my allwhite cafeteria table, I’d watch Lindsey’s arm, swept by a patch of blonde hair. My own arm: mowed and blazed with black. After I became Mustache Girl to Nick and Ben, my lip became my own small criminal. I punished the hair solemnly with my hands. I grew out my fingernails to try and yank it out. In secret, I tried using scissors, but wimped
out. I Googled hundreds of pages: “The Female Mustache,” “3 Secret Weapons for Fighting Your Lady-Mustache,” “Girl mustache pluck,” “Girl mustache removal,” “So, what do I do about her mustache?!” In school, suddenly, I wouldn’t show my mouth. The mirror exaggerated my face into a bold, black roar. I wasn’t feminine — I was hairy. I wasn’t cool — I was black-haired. Raised by a woman who opposed wax and razors, I bought a self-bleach kit and bleached my upper-lip hair with white cream, meticulously setting a timer on my mom’s phone to make sure I didn’t overdo the time. In the mirror, I balked. The cream was cold, thick and smelled of rubber boots. When the timer went off, I washed my face twice. My hair turned amber at the roots, whiteblonde at the ends. Transparent. Almost gone. In middle school, it was almost
about proof: showing a room filled with other tiny, livid bodies that I could be just as tiny and just as livid, too. It was almost about becoming like Jane, like Nora, like all my white girl friends who poured tubes of sparkly pink gloss over their mouths before class. Until it wasn’t. I envied their slim gold, but knew I’d never have that kind of blonde luck. Black hair was in my blood, my own body’s dumb magic. On the exterior, it’s an easy story, filled with easy headlines: Middle school is hard. Growing up can be mean. Kids dump lunches in red lockers. Hormones flock. Chinese girl sprouts peach fuzz above her lip and worries about it in the bathroom. Courage, cream. Growth spurts, ache. It’d be almost too easy for me to raise my fist in the air, and triumphantly gaze at my stubby middle-school self and the distance I’ve trekked since then. To
crack up about it now. To ignore the strips of wax at my apartment, sealed in a green box. To act like I let it all — the naming, the shame, the hair — grow out of me. Poet Shira Erlichman writes, “It is important to snatch back from the air the words others attempt to dress us in. To create our own deliciously expansive, wild, deliberate dresses.” Ben and Nick called me Mustache Girl for a year. I let them. Then, eighth grade hit, and all of a sudden, I was Carlina again. As a Chinese-American woman, how do I rebel? Define? Re-fashion? Undress the word and world that’s been given to me? How do I “snatch back?” At times, it’s hard for me to feel empowered by hair, by blackness. It’s easy for me to feel engulfed by shame. Still, there’s a type of strength and hilarity to looking back. How much power and shyness we find in the project of naming. In giving ourselves up to the shapes others carve out for us. How hard it is to carve space for ourselves. Yet how urgent, and how brave. I’m never sure how to remind myself that I’m a woman who knows what’s best for myself, and a part of knowing what’s best is naming myself — not around the angles of others’ mouths, but around my own curves and muscle and black hair. In middle school, there was shame in being called out for not knowing. There was strange duty and pressure to fit into a homogeneous idea of beauty, of girlhood. But today, there’s a sureness to understanding that I am complex, unwinding and not reducible to one name, or, for that matter, one cubed version of beauty. More importantly, there’s pride to understanding that homogeneity is not how I strive to splash through life. Difference is funky, and there’s color involved. There’s name-calling. And name-shaping. There’s independence, which feels humble. It doesn’t feel small.
8B
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 // The Statement
HACKATHONS From Page 5B “Sometimes it’s just that no one reached out to them or they just didn’t feel welcomed.” Creation Process This weekend’s event seemed to revolve around a theme of creation, a theme which has echoed that of past hackathons. Engineering senior David Brown, who was attending his first hackathon, said the collaborative and creative culture present at the event opened up new possibilities in his program design. “It’s trying to redefine the (public) concept of hacking as a creation process,” Brown said. Brown and his team, drawing upon experience from research conducted at the University, used the event as an opportunity to develop technology that could help individuals disabled by spinal cord injuries or neuronal diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Individuals with these diseases have various levels of motor impairment that often make communication difficult. Though electronic equipment can help alleviate the effect of the conditions, it is often bulky and requires a significant power source. In an effort to make such devices more portable, Brown’s team was building a brain-computer interface using special glasses, known as Google Glass, that would register the patient’s eye activity and respond accordingly. “They can use it to communicate through a computer when they otherwise would have no other means of communicating,” Brown said. Although he could work on his project for the same amount of time in small increments, Brown said the uninterrupted 36-hour work period was the best feature of the hackathon. “To have everything so self-contained so you don’t have to worry about anything at all,” he said. “To be able to delve for that long into a project and focus on one thing I think really makes things possible that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.” Detroit: it’s not Silicon Valley … yet. This year’s event reached a new level of significance — and publicity — after coordinators made the decision to relocate the event to downtown Detroit. Both of the prior two events were held in Ann Arbor, the first in Palmer Commons and the second in the Big House. Though the move to Detroit was seen as necessary to providing the space and resources to accommodate 1,200 participants, the event’s directors acknowledged their desire to use the event as a vehicle for introducing participants to the city — with the hopes of affecting positive long-term change. The Quicken Loans operations center, known as the Qube, served as the venue for the event after a series of discussions between event coordinators and Dan Gilbert, chairman and founder of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures. Gilbert’s companies actively promote Detroit revitalization efforts, including events such as the hackathon, through a subsidiary organization called Opportunity Detroit. “Bringing MHacks to Detroit was a no-brainer for our organization,” John Marcicky, community relations manager for Rock Ventures, said in a statement. “There is no better event than this to show 1,200 of some of the top tech students in the world that the city is in the middle of a tech revolution that is attracting some of the world’s brightest minds.” Given the success of holding the event at Michigan Stadium, some may have questioned the organizers’ decision to
School of Kineosiology graduate student Xiaoya Ma works to combine brain-computer interface with Google Glass technology at MHacks in Detroit on Saturday. (Ruby Wallau/DAILY) relocate the event away from Ann Arbor. However, Hurd said the rule of thumb for MHacks is to never try to hold the same event twice. “We try to create a unique experience every time,” Hurd said. “We like to bring something new to every event — something students have never seen before.” In the discussion of possible locations, the organizers saw an opportunity for the event to strike a positive impact in Detroit, which many believe is undergoing a technological resurgence with the growth of the city’s startups in recent years. “Hackers have come here and they like what they’ve seen — they are excited about the city,” Hurd said. “I am confident that we can contribute to the revitalization of the city in some way.” While benefiting the city, the location change also moved participants closer to many of the sponsors who view the event as a recruiting tool. Technology companies leverage the events as a 36-hour interview process, allowing them to observe how potential employees work in real-world environments. Sponsors come to recruit, promote products and help hackers through seminars and presentations. As a new addition to this year’s event, participants were also connected with engineers from companies around the world through social media, allowing the students to ask questions and receive instruction in real time as they faced complications with their projects. “It was amazing to see the response of sponsors and how excited they were to connect with students,” Hurd said. Benjamin San Souci, a third-year student from McGill University in Montreal attending his third hackathon, said he learned early on that hackathon projects are often judged on their looks and concepts more than their content, and that this trend even translates into the industry.
“It doesn’t matter if it works as long as it looks good,” San Souci said. “That’s the point — you’re presenting it to people — whether it works or not, many people will never know.” San Souci and his team made the 13-hour drive from Montreal to develop an app that allows users to plan and host custom scavenger hunts using mobile phones. The team planned to design the app so that participants in the scavenger hunt were required to complete some task — for example, answer a question or take a picture — at each location in order to progress through the contest. The Canadians planned to finish and launch the app before the end of the event, allowing the hackathon to serve as the first trial of their product and giving the team the chance to get feedback about the design. This type of encouragement and collaboration is critical to the nature of hackathons, San Souci said. “You meet a lot of really cool people — a lot of really talented people — I met a kid who was 16 (years old) and has been to eight hackathons,” he said. “It’s a really friendly community, even though you don’t know many people, everyone feels really close.” The winners of the grand prize this year developed an iPad app — Workflow — that allows users to build complex programs using a few simple keystrokes. Like many projects at MHacks, it was innovative and supplied a technology lacking in the market today. But, as many who have attended the event might tell you, the competition comes second at MHacks. “There is a competitive aspect to it, but if you were to walk through, you would find that it doesn’t feel like a competition,” Erdmann said. “More than anything, everyone there wants to learn and everyone there wants to build something great, but they also want to use the hackathon as a platform for meeting other people and helping other people — and spreading what they’re already passionate about.”