2014 04 03

ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Thursday, April 3, 2014

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

A WELCOME RETURN

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

President Barack Obama addressed his administration’s push to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour at the Intramural Sports Building on South Campus Wednesday afternoon.

Speech echoes Johnson in ‘64 50 years after Great Society speech, a new call for equal opportunities

By KATIE BURKE Managing Editor

Fifty years ago, former President Lyndon Johnson stood in Michigan Stadium and out-

Wages focus of address

lined his plan to create a “Great Society” in the United States.

Wednesday, President Barack Obama stood in the Intramural Sports Building and rallied the crowd with his vision of “opportunity for all.”

Johnson told University graduates in his 1964 commencement address, “Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build See SPEECH, Page 3A

Students, faculty praise Obama’s loyalty to the University

By JENNIFER CALFAS Managing News Editor

As President Barack Obama approached the podium at the Intramural Sports Building, more than 1,400 students and University affiliates rose from

their seats, eliciting a thunderous applause.

Obama traveled to the University Wednesday to speak about his proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. In his speech, Obama pointed to the state’s efforts to support the bill and brought a partisan tone to his speech, calling out Republicans in Congress who oppose the proposal.

“You’ve got a choice,” Obama said. “You can give America the shaft, or you can give it a raise.”

Obama noted the extreme living conditions in America today, adding that some full-time workers are living in poverty despite holding steady employment. In Michigan, the minimum wage is $7.40 per hour.

While the average American who earns minimum wage is 35 years old, Obama noted the importance of establishing a higher minimum wage for college students — some of whom will be entering the workforce in a month.

“We should make it easier for

CAMPUS LIFE

ACADEMICS

Administrators discuss revised misconduct policy Head of SAPAC says ‘U’ is a national leader in handling sexual misconduct

By CLAIRE BRYAN Daily Staff Reporter

On Wednesday afternoon, The Michigan Daily and the University’s Office of Student Life partnered to host a panel discussion for students to voice their questions about the University’s sexual misconduct policies. The event was tailored around students’ questions and helped to clarify some of the changes to the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, the University’s education process and resources available for the survivors of sexual assault.

Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the University’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, joined Dean of Students Laura

Blake Jones; Jay Wilgus, director of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution; and Anthony Walesby, the University’s Title IX coordinator, to engage with around 40 students and community members in the Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union.

Students also tracked the conversation online through a Twitter live stream under the hashtag #DailyDiscusses.

At the beginning of the discussion, each panelist described the respective roles his or her department plays in investigations and sexual misconduct prevention.

“SAPAC plays a significant role in providing expertise and guidance to the institution as it relates to the creation of policy so that we are representing the needs of survivors and ensuring that the best practices that we know of find their way into the work that we are doing,” Rider-Milkovich said.

Walesby later outlined the mission of the Office of Institutional See POLICY, Page 2A

your generation to get a foothold on the ladder of opportunity,” Obama said, with applause shortly following. “And we believe the economy grows best not from the top down, but from the mid out.”

Obama has made more visits to the University than any sitting president in history. In 2010, he served as the University’s Spring Commencement speaker. The president visited the University again in 2012 to discuss the rising cost of higher education — a point he touched on Wednesday.

See OBAMA, Page 3A

Army ROTC takes trip to Gettysburg for training

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

History Prof. Victor Lieberman, the 2014 Golden Apple Award winner, gives his “last lecture” at Rackham Auditorium Wednesday.

Lieberman delivers ‘last lecture’ for Golden Apple Award-winning prof. has spent 30 years teaching

By EMILIE PLESSET Daily Staff Reporter

About 750 University students, staff and members of the Ann Arbor community

stood and applauded as History Prof. Victor Lieberman took the stage to receive the Golden Apple Award and give his “last lecture” Wednesday evening in the Rackham Auditorium.

Sponsored by the University’s chapter of Hillel, the Golden Apple Award was inspired by Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos, a 1st- and 2nd-

century Jewish scholar. The award honors professors who embody ben Hyrkanos’ mantra of living as if each day is his or her last, dispensing their knowledge through student engagement. The award has been presented annually for the past 24 years to highly acclaimed professors nominated by students.

See LIEBERMAN, Page 3A

Annual event challenges students to apply tactics to historic battlefield

By AMIA DAVIS Daily Staff Reporter

Instead of learning about battle tactics in the classroom, junior officers in the University’s Army ROTC program visited the battlefield itself.

Lieutenant Colonels Allana Bryant and Wayne Dole took the senior class on a weekend trip to Gettysburg, Pa. to study the historic Battle of Gettysburg. The trip was part of an annual event called a staff ride.

The staff ride is an annual tradition in the Army ROTC in which junior and commanding officers travel to historic battlefields and study various tactics See ROTC, Page 3A

We’re rolling!

An inside look at SAC 423, where students become real filmmakers.

» INSIDE 1B WEATHER TOMORROW

HI: 58 LO: 32

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INDEX

Vol. CXXIV, No. 94 ©2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com

NEWS......................... 2A SUDOKU.....................2A OPINION.....................4A

SPORTS.......................6A CL ASSIFIEDS...............6A B-SIDE ....................1B

News

2A — Thursday, April 3, 2014

MONDAY: This Week in History

TUESDAY: Professor Profiles

WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers

POWER LUNCH

FRIDAY: Photos of the Week

LUNCH WITH THE PRESIDENT

Student takes center stage

MCKENZIE BEREZIN/Daily

LSA senior Mira Friedlander grabs lunch with President Barack Obama at Zingerman’s Deli Wednesday prior to his address on a proposed minimum wage increase.

When LSA senior Mira Friedlander checked her phone on Tuesday afternoon, she had one missed call — the White House.

“I thought, ‘Holy shit!’ ” Friedlander, a political science major and restaurant server, was asked to write and deliver the opening remarks for President Barack Obama’s Wednesday address about increasing the federal minimum wage. As an added surprise, she was also invited to have lunch with the president at Zingerman’s Delicatessen prior to the event.

Obama ordered a #2 Reuben and Friedlander ordered a #73 — “Tarb’s Tenacious Tenure.” Joined by Rep. Gary Peters

(D–Mich.), Friedlander said the lunchtime discussion touched on minimum wage, the revitalization of Detroit and her career goals.

“I was obviously freaking out because I was so hyped about meeting the president of the United States, but he was just very cool,” Friedlander said. “It was very comfortable speaking with him and we talked a lot about being a server, being a student and paying my way through school.”

In addition to working for a mayoral campaign in her home state of Minnesota, Friedlander has worked as a server to cover living expenses while in college.

CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES

ON THE WEB... michigandaily.com THE PODIUM

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THURSDAY: Student Profiles

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Beyoncé love

Banana Bandit

BY PHOEBE CLARK

BY ANDREW LIEBERMAN

Clark explains that apart from the widespread appreciation for Beyonce’s music, the pop star is deserving of admiration for her strength as a mother, wife and businesswoman.

She writes that Beyoncé’s accomplishments are “very rare and very powerful.”

Lieberman writes that after years of searching, University Police have apprehended the “Banana Bandit.” He quotes an officer as saying, “BAM! You can take one banana but once you take two, it’s game over.”

THE TANGENT

THE WIRE

Birth control

Smoke on State

BY THE STATEMENT STAFF

BY MICHAEL SUGERMAN

The Statement staff lists five new birth control developments that could make safe sex easier in the future, including an injection called RISUG for males, a once-a-year pill, an emergency contraceptive gel and smaller interuterine devices for more comfort.

Four Ann Arbor Fire Department trucks came to a smoky 720 S. State St. apartment on the night of April 1. It was determined that the smoke was not from a fire, but from unattended cooking instead.

Read more from these blogs at michigandaily.com

Charity a cappella

Digital studies colloquium talk

WHAT: An a cappella concert by Angels on Call, a University group that sings for hospitals, nursing homes and charities.

WHO: Gifts of Art WHEN: Today 12:10-1 p.m.

WHERE: University Hospitals Main Lobby (Floor 1)

WHAT: The inaugural talk will welcome Finn Brunton to talk about the history of cryptocurrencies leading up to and including Bitcoin.

WHO: Department of American Culture WHEN: Today 4-5:30 p.m.

WHERE: North Quad Room 2435

Democracy in Self-esteem and the Middle East relationships WHAT: Dr. Rashid Khalidi will discuss obstacles to democracy in the Middle East and misconceptions about the region’s inability to support consitutionality and representative government.

WHO: Many sponsors WHEN: Today 5-6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Hutchins Hall, Room 100

WHAT: A workshop will help attendees examine how they think about themselves and how this affects their relationships, hopefully leading to better relationship honesty and skills.

They will also learn skills to help them manage stress.

WHO: CAPS WHEN: Today 4:15-5 p.m.

WHERE: Michigan Union, CAPS Annex

While the federal minimum wage for most jobs is $7.25 an hour, servers and other similar tipped positions have a lower standard — $2.13 an hour — as long as the addition of tips covers the difference.

“For me, I’ve been lucky with the restaurants I’ve worked at,” Friedlander said. “I was raised to be very independent and very self-sufficient — and also I come from a single mother home … For me, it’s troublesome when I have to ask for money.”

“It’s hard, but I make it work,” she added.

— IAN DILLINGHAM

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY

1

Researchers and activists worry that the pangolin, the only scaled mammal in the world, may be going exctint in Southeast Asia.

Described as a “walking artichoke” or a “friendly dragon,” it is being poached for Chinese medicine and meat.

2

The B-Side takes a look at SAC 423, a screenwriting class in LSA that lets students submit film projects to the Traverse City Film Festival. The secondary examines the Zell Writing Program. >> FOR MORE, SEE THE BSIDE

3

New York high school student Kwasi Enin was just accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. Enin plays three instruments, acts as lead in plays, throws shot put and discus, sings a cappella and volunteers at a local hospital.

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Guest professor Nicholas Fort Hood shooting leaves dead, wounding more Freudenberg talks health three Military base suffers

in 2011, had been undergoing an another paradox is the disproassessment to determine whether portionate political power these he had post-traumatic stress disindustries wield. order, according to Lt. Gen. Mark He compared President A. Milley, the senior officer on the Dwight Eisenhower’s “military base. industrial complex” to today’s FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A There was no indication the “corporate consumption comsoldier opened fire Wednesday on attack was related to terrorism, Milplex.” Freudenberg’s complex fellow service members at the Fort ley said.

By JOEL GOLDSTEIN consists of any corporation that Hood military base, killing three A Texas congressman said the people and wounding 16 before shooting happened at a medical cenDaily Staff Reporter promotes unhealthy behavior, focusing primarily on cigacommitting suicide at the same post ter. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman Public Health Prof. Nicholas rettes, alcohol and fast food. where more than a dozen people of the House Homeland Security were slain in a 2009 attack, authori- Committee, also identified the susFreudenberg of Hunter College These corporations can be food spoke at the School of Public companies themselves as well ties said. pect as Ivan Lopez. But additional Health Wednesday, discussas lobbies and advertising agenThe shooter, who served in Iraq details about the gunman were not ing the consumption culture in cies. the United States. The themes Freudenberg has also in his talk echoed his recently researched solutions to probany other information.

POLICY published book, “Lethal but lems caused by the corporate “We are very interested in a fair, From Page 1A thorough and equitable process,” Legal: Corporations, Consumpconsumption complex, such as tion, and Protecting Public the ‘90s fight started by commuWalesby said.

Health.” nity organizers against Uptown, Wilgus elaborated on the proceEquity, which is responsible for dure from a resolution standpoint, Freudenberg’s work focuses the cigarette brand that was on how corporations influence attempting to break into the enforcing the University’s non- as the next part of the process society by encouraging conmarket by specifically marketdiscrimination statement, which involves sending reports to OSCR Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ sumption of goods that ultiing to African-Americans. ensures that campus remains a safe to facilitate the sanction. and welcoming climate built on “Our goals are to eliminate the mately cause illness and death.

Freudenberg also discussed While relatively few people the progress made in this area, mutual respect for all students. misconduct, prevent its reoccurciting the successful ban on “With respect to student sexual rence and remedy its effects,” Wilnew fast food franchises in misconduct issues, we have two gus said. downtown Los Angeles that full-time investigators who handle He added that OSCR seeks to those matters exclusively,” Wales- create an agreement between the has opened up space for farmEASY ers’ markets, mom-and-pop by said. complainant, the respondent and stores and other alternatives.

He briefly described the inves- the University. tigation process, which begins In the rare number of cases in Freudenberg advocates for community action as well as when the survivor or complain- which an agreement is not met, government restrictions. ant in a case notifies the Univer- OSCR will facilitate a “resolution sity through one of many available by decision” in which the Univer“The antidote is more democracy,” Freudenberg said. mediums, such as a residential sity makes a binding decision about Freudenberg said full disadviser or online through the Uni- the matter without the consent of versity’s sexual misconduct web- the respondent. closure of political contributions as well as capping the site.

As dean of students, Blake amount of money corporations After the complaint is filed, OIE Jones said her office is intricately can donate and lobby for could will immediately assess if extra involved in educating the student help alleviate corporations’ measures need to be taken to sepa- body about sexual misconduct, as rate the person from the situation. well as facilitating student comhold on consumers. Freudenberg praised other Western OIE will next make sure the com- plaints and sometimes referring nations that have restricted plainant is aware of all resources them back to SAPAC. that are available to him or her.

Several students in attendance marketing toward children, who can’t tell the difference Walesby said OIE is equally asked why the University’s sexual interested in making sure that misconduct policy was changed between the truth and persuasive tactics. Other suggestions person who is accused — the and revised over the course of for dismantling the corporate respondent — is also supported by the last three years. Since 2010, connecting him or her to resources Holly and Wilgus began actively consumption complex were more radical. He said in addion campus. researching how to manage stution to public transportation OIE receives the respondent’s dent sexual misconduct. Wilgus © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com PIECE OF CAKE. statement, ensures that it is correct added that they kept very close and libraries, the United States would benefit from having a and starts an investigation by iden- attention to relative legislation in public food source. tifying witnesses and searching for thinking about ways to improve.

Hunter College prof. gives lecture to Public Health students

profit from these industries, the impact of their products affects billions of people and will continue to over the next century, he said.

During his lecture, Freudenberg said chronic disease and injuries are the leading causes of death and both are rooted in lifestyle choices. Fast food and cigarettes are linked to many chronic diseases and firearms and automobiles have caused millions of injuries, he said, adding that cigarettes are expected to kill one billion people. With the large number of victims, few people benefit from these industries.

“The most effective strategies are the ones that come from within communities,” Freudenberg said in an interview after the lecture.

Freudenberg has conducted research on how small sections of business cause large strife in communities. He added that

second shooting in five years

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immediately available.

The injured were taken to Darnall Army Community Hospital at Fort Hood and other local hospitals.

Dr. Glen Couchman, chief medical officer at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, said the first four people admitted there had gunshots to chest, abdomen, neck and extremities and that their conditions range from stable to “quite critical.”

The 2009 assault on Fort Hood was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in U.S. history. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued guidance regarding student sexual misconduct on April 4, 2011. Immediately following the release of the letter, OSCR instituted an interim procedure for addressing student sexual misconduct issues in order to learn the new process and get student feedback.

“We actually took the time to create a policy that is uniquely Michigan, that genuinely responds to what our community identified as being important to us and where we wanted to center our values,” Rider-Milkovich said.

According to Rider-Milkovich, other campuses and the White House are looking to the University’s policy as a “novel practice” and a way in which the campus is furthering the knowledge of sexual assault prevention.

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

Students were also curious about how many students use these services annually.

Each year, SAPAC supports 150 to 160 individual students. OIE sees about 60 to 80 cases per year, and about half of those cases proceed to an investigation. OSCR reviewed about 83 cases in the last academic year.

“Not all of those matters result in a full scale investigation that See POLICY, Page 3A

News

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

OBAMA From Page 1A “My point is we got to make sure that everybody can afford to do things that may not pay huge sums of money but are really valuable to society,” Obama said.

While many students filled the audience, University administrators and government officials also made a strong showing. Included among the attendees were University executive officers, members of the University’s Board of Regents, Rep. Gary Peters (D–Mich.), State Reps Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) and Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor) and Congressional candidate Debbie Dingell.

LSA senior Mira Friedlander, a restaurant server who finances her college education with her minimum wage job, introduced the president before he gave his remarks. In an interview after the speech, Friedlander said she was honored to introduce the president, especially before a speech that would hit close to home.

“It was completely surreal,” she said.

SPEECH From Page 1A a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth.”

In front of a crowd of about 1,400 University students, faculty and Michigan legislators, Obama harkened back to Johnson’s vision.

“We want to make sure that no matter where you’re born, what circumstances, how you started out, what you look like, what your last name is, who you love — it doesn’t matter, you can succeed,” he said. “That’s what we believe.”

Obama’s 35-minute speech was filled with references to the University and Ann Arbor, from Nik Stauskas to Zingerman’s Delicatessen, but his most important relation to the state was the recent initiative of state legislators to raise the minimum wage.

“If you’re working, if you’re responsible, you should be able to pay the rent, pay the bills,” Obama said. “You’ve got more states and

LIEBERMAN From Page 1A “It’s very satisfying to realize that my efforts are appreciated by some people,” Lieberman said. “It’s an incentive to continue working and putting energy and enthusiasm into course preparation. It’s a recognition of the past and incentives for the future.”

The ceremony provides professors with an opportunity to give their “last lecture.” In his last lecture, titled “What I Think I Know About History,” Lieberman dis-

ROTC From Page 1A that were used in those battles.

The trip aims to give cadets a better understanding of battle tactics, how to lead and how to deal with stressful situations.

The trip also gives cadets hands-on experience in decision-making and leadership that they normally would not experience in a more traditional setting.

“Classroom learning doesn’t really cut it when you’re out in the physical world,” said Engineering senior Matthew Blanchard, an Army ROTC cadet who served as cadet battalion commander last semester.

This was the first time the Army ROTC program traveled to Gettysburg for the staff ride. Blanchard said the ROTC program chose Gettysburg for its complex battlefield, intricate planning and the tactical decisions commanders had to make.

“It is one thing to read about the Battlefield of Gettysburg, or to watch a special on the History Channel, but there is an element that you just can’t pick up unless you are there witnessing it

Thursday, April 3, 2014 — 3A

Obama’s address comes only a day after the White House announced that 7.1 million Americans signed up for the Affordable Care Act. The president cited the success of the legislation as another mechanism he has used to ensure that every American has an opportunity to succeed.

Raising the minimum wage, he said, is another shot at granting Americans the success the country promised in its founding.

In an interview after the speech, Regent Mark Bernstein (D–Ann Arbor) said Obama’s multiple visits to campus signify the University’s role in national issues of concern.

“It speaks to the stature of this great public university,” Bernstein said. “Each time his message has been targeted at a student body that i think appreciates his message. It’s a great honor to participate in that kind of experience.”

Bernstein added that he and several other University officials met with Obama before his speech.

During the address, more than 100 students lined the bleachers behind him with an American flag draped above them on the

IM Building’s brick wall. Some of these students included Business senior Michael Proppe, CSG president; LSA senior Phil Schermer, MUSIC Matters president; and LSA senior Tyrell Collier, Black Student Union president, among other campus leaders.

In an interview after the event, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, said the office of Student Life chose which students to invite to sit in the selected seats. While many of them were leaders of prominent campus organizations, Harper said some represented sectors of campus that are less well known — including first-generation college students, international students, students who work in campus dining halls and some who grew up in foster care.

“We tried to be really thoughtful,” Harper said. “Some were students in leadership roles, but others were students who lead in a very different way.”

Students showed up in droves Monday afternoon to wait for their chance to secure their spot at the event. The University distributed tickets on a first-come, first-served basis Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., motivating students

to wait in line overnight for the opportunity to see the president.

Harper said this commitment to engaging in campus life showed how willing the students are to interact with the world around them.

“Our students are always engaged and thinking about what’s going on in the world and they’re just smart in that way,” Harper said. “They’re politically smart. I think students on boths sides of the issues kind of want to be in the conversation.”

Bernstein echoed Harper’s sentiments after Obama’s speech, adding that students are engaged in nationally pertinent topics.

“We have a uniquely engaged student body,” Bernstein said. “It shows that we have students that are intensely interested in matters of consequence that face this nation.”

Schermer, who interned with the National Economic Council in the White House last summer, said in an interview after the event that Obama’s speech gave resounding statistical economic and public policy evidence for raising the minimum wage.

Proppe said Obama’s emphasis on lowering the cost of higher edu-

cation was particularly important for the University community. To ease costs on higher education, the University has initiated a host of cost-containment initiatives — including the lowest increase in tuition in recent years and an uptick in financial aid funding.

As for Obama’s strong presence at the University, Proppe said his willingness to come back again and again is due to the thriving entrepreneurship community.

“A lot of really motivated people live here and things start in Ann Arbor and spread nationally,” Proppe said. “I think the president understands that.”

Before his speech, Obama ordered a #2 Reuben from Ann Arbor landmark, Zingerman’s Delicatessen — which Obama said is an example of a business that values its employees. Zingerman’s co-owner Paul Saginaw pays his employees more than minimum wage.

“Zingerman’s is a business that treats its workers well, and rewards honest work with honest wages,” Obama said. “And that’s worth celebrating.”

Over lunch, Obama spoke to Friedlander about her experience navigating college depending

financially on her minimum wage job. While she said she was surprised by Obama’s calm demeanor, Friedlander said she was upset he chose a “new pickle” over an “old pickle” to supplement his sandwich — a Zingerman’s tradition that Ann Arbor residents take pride in.

“It was the most unreal thing of my entire life, but it made me comfortable introducing him,” Friedlander said. “But then speaking was the biggest high in the world. I thought, ‘Who gets to introduce the leader of the free world?’”

Among passionate statements in support of raising the minimum wage, Obama jokingly recalled his decision to choose the Michigan State University basketball team as the champions of his March Madness bracket.

At the beginning of his speech, Obama mentioned University basketball players Jordan Morgan, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas, congratulating them on their season and run in the tournament.

“My bracket’s a mess,” Obama said. “I learned my lesson: I will not pick against the Wolverines.”

counties and cities that are working to raise the minimum wage as we speak. That includes your state legislators from Ann Arbor.”

State Reps. Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) and Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor), who both attended the event, co-sponsored State House Bill 4386 in March 2013, which proposes the state minimum wage be raised from $7.40 to $9 per hour. “(Raising the minimum wage) puts more money into pockets, which will be put back into the economy,” Zemke said.

He added that Obama’s public presence has put significant weight behind gathering support.

“It’s important that he continues to speak about this around the country, to dispel false connotations or associations with raising the minimum wage,” Zemke said.

Obama has endorsed a proposed bill to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. On Feb. 12, he signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal government contractors to $10.10.

“It’s easy to remember,” he said in his address. “10-10. 10-10.”

One week earlier, the Congressional Budget Office released a report on the effects of a potential raise. It estimated that a raise to $10.10 per hour would increase the nation’s unemployment by 500,000 workers, or 0.3 percent, and 16.5 million workers would have higher earnings. However, just 19 percent of those earnings would go to families living below the poverty threshold.

Though a minority of the excess earnings would go to families in poverty, the CBO reported that such a raise would lift about 900,000 of the roughly 45 million people who are currently below the poverty threshold above it.

Many University students work part-time jobs, which often pay minimum wage, to supplement living and tuition costs; however, the average age of minimum-wage earners is 35.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R–Wisc.) introduced a budget Tuesday outlining Congressional Republicans’ plan to grow the economy by cutting spending by $5.1 trillion. Raising the federal minimum wage was not included in the plan. “(Republicans) sincerely

believe that if we give more tax breaks to a fortunate few and we invest less in the middle class and … do only what’s best for their bottom line without the responsibility to the rest of us, then somehow the economy will boom, and jobs and prosperity will trickle down to everybody,” Obama said.

In his speech, the president called on businesses to act as well, referencing Henry Ford’s famous wage-doubling initiative in his Michigan factory 100 years ago.

“Not only did it boost productivity, not only did it reduce turnover, not only did it make employees more loyal to the company, but it meant that the workers could afford to buy the cars that they were building,” Obama said.

Wallace Hopp, senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Ross School of Business, said this type of strategy is necessary for businesses to be successful.

“By paying high wages he not only attracted the best people, but held onto them … as a result he had very high levels of productivity,” Hopp said. “Ford was right when he said raising wages was the greatest cost-saving device he

had come up with.”

He added that Costco, also referenced in the president’s remarks, is a modern example of this practice. The Center for Positive Organizations at Ross studies Costco and other models, and has repeatedly seen productive results coming from their higher wages.

Though the majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage, Hopp said there is opposition both from smaller businesses that depend on minimum-wage workers and from within Congress.

“One word: politics,” Hopp said. “If you believe that the free market is the right thing and can never fail, and any effort to regulate it is evil, then you oppose minimum wage laws because they are anti-free trade.”

Mike Traugott, professor of communication studies and political science, said Obama’s speech focused more on the equity issue of raising minimum wage rather than the economic argument.

“The president doesn’t talk about this in terms of jobs,” Traugott said. “He talks about it

in terms of getting by.”

He noted that in front of a sympathetic audience, Obama referenced his vision for an Opportunity Society more frequently than his plans for the federal minimum wage.

Traugott said the president, now in his second term, is able to talk about social issues such as equity and gay marriage without fear of negative attack ads. He added that Obama may look to the Democratic nominee in 2016 election to carry on the fight.

One of Johnson’s first mentions of the “Great Society” came in front of a crowd of 85,000 in Ann Arbor. Half a century later, Obama stood in a smaller building down the street, in front of a smaller audience, but with the same call to action.

“We believe in opportunity for everybody,” Obama said.

“More good jobs for everybody.

More workers to fill those jobs. A world-class education for everybody. Hard work that pays off with wages you can live on and savings you can retire on and health care you can count on.

That’s what ‘opportunity for all’ means.”

cussed the history of the world and his predictions for the future.

“It was an opportunity to play with some big ideas that I hadn’t yet formulated,” Lieberman said.

“I thought I’d vent these large thoughts that I’d had for some time.”

University President Mary Sue Coleman, who was presented with the first Golden Apple Award for university leadership, spoke before Lieberman delivered his lecture.

“I am deeply humbled by this award,” Coleman said. “There’s nothing quite as important as being with students, lecturing them and seeing them grow as they progress

yourself,” wrote Engineering senior Michael Konieczny, an Army ROTC cadet, in an e-mail interview.

Once at Gettysburg, each cadet was assigned to a specific battlefield and asked to analyze its terrain as well as present various facts and stories about it to the rest of the group.

The battlefields the cadets visited were Devil’s Den, Triangle Field, Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, Peach Orchard and Culp’s Hill.

Cadets also participated in group discussions and practiced devising their own battle tactics after analyzing their chosen battlefields.

Konieczny wrote that he was assigned to analyze Devil’s Den, where Union and Confederate soldiers fought during the second day of the battle. His battle tactics consisted of providing the other cadets with information about both their own forces and the hostile forces, leading them to the starting point of the battle, commanding them to formulate a plan and to adjust the plan whenever needed.

“The whole purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate how rapidly and unpredictably a battle can change from the commander’s initial assess-

through their academic careers and their time at the University.”

Prior to coming to the University, Lieberman obtained his Bachelor of Arts and graduated first in his class from Yale University and received his Ph.D. from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Lieberman has written four books, which have been acclaimed by the Association for Asian Studies and the World History Association. He has also published numerous articles and is working on his fifth book, to be published

by Harvard University Press.

Lieberman first came to the

ment,” Konieczny wrote.

Cadets also visited the monument of Colonel Charles Frederick Taylor, a former University student who was commander of the Union Army’s First Rifle “Bucktails.” LSA senior Hari Vutukuru, another Army ROTC cadet, presented facts and stories about Taylor to the cadets.

“While our generation spends their twenties working or attending college, just starting to figure things out and to put our lives together, this man was responsible for the lives and welfare of hundreds of men in one of the most pivotal moments in American history,” Konieczny wrote.

Blanchard wrote that the staff ride was valuable to the ROTC program because cadets sometimes miss certain concepts when reading about a battlefield in a classroom setting. He added that visiting the battlefield is invaluable to their learning experience.

“Actually standing on the battlefield was a very emotional experience. To stand in the same place that so many thousands of men fought and died, the same place that the course of our nation’s history was forever changed, was indescribable,” Konieczny wrote.

University in 1984 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 1991. He previously taught a course on Southeast Asian history and a course on the Vietnam War. He currently teaches a History 244 course on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

LSA sophomore Greg Klein took the class last year and said Lieberman was one of his favorite instructors at the University.

“I thought he was one of the most intelligent professors I’d ever had,” Klein said. “I think he’s a genius, I think he is a great historian, I think he gives great lectures and I think that’s why he won.”

POLICY From Page 2A goes all the way to a finding,” Wilgus said. “Oftentimes the University becomes aware of an incident of sexual harassment and a student specifically requests that the University not take any action.”

The Dean of Students Office reaches 95 to 97 percent of the incoming student body through an online course called Community Matters, Blake Jones said.

Three students in the audience asked about what challenges the

University faces when reaching out to the Greek Life community.

“The challenge is one of numbers,” Blake Jones said.

The Dean of Students Office partners closely with the national organizations that work individually with each chapter to elevate the standards their foundations were created upon, Blake said.

Rider-Milkovich ended the panel by stressing the importance of collaboration, likening sexual assault awareness and prevention to the act of pushing a rock uphill– a task achievable with community support and understanding.

Opinion

4A — Thursday, April 3, 2014

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

Keep the lakes great

Michigan needs to enact stricter legislation on oil transportation

O

n March 24, the BP Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Ind. experienced a malfunction causing crude oil to spill into Lake Michigan. BP initially estimated that nine to 18 barrels — about 377 to 755 gallons — were spilled. Later, those estimates were doubled.

Lake Michigan, along with the other Great Lakes, is a significant element of the state’s identity and play a large role in Michigan’s tourism industry.

To protect the lakes, Gov. Rick Snyder and other state legislators should exhaust all options to implement stricter regulations when oil is processed or transferred near the Great Lakes.

Last Thursday, BP representatives revised their estimates for the amount spilled to between 630 and 1,638 gallons. One week after the spill, an assessment team — comprised of the Coast Guard, BP and the Environmental Protection Agency — reported there was no more oil visible on the shore or in the water. Phillip Willink, senior biologist at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, said Lake Michigan wildlife shouldn’t suffer any long-term harm. Despite the relatively small size of the spill, the failure of existing facilities and regulation to safeguard the lakes is concerning.

The Great Lakes are an incredibly important ecosystem for fish, agriculture, various animals and even humans. Currently, 37 million people live in the Great Lakes Basin, more than 26 million of whom rely on the lakes for drinking water. The people in the surrounding area rely on this important ecosystem. About 67,000 of the 201,000 square miles in the Basin are used for growing crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, barley and oats. The area surrounding Lake Michigan contains the most farmland of all the Great Lakes and is a leading producer of fruits and vegetables.

With a history of oil spills, BP’s conduct merits heightened attention from both the state and federal government. Just last month, a ban on federal contracts with BP was lifted. The sanction was initially put in place in response to the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This recent spill — along with previous oil spills in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico — raises questions about whether BP needs to be placed back under a federal ban. Considering BP’s questionable track record, it’s imperative that the company be transparent with the spill and the resulting cleanup.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for full transparency from BP regarding the events leading up to the spill. U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D–Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R–Ill.) elaborated on Emanuel’s speech, calling for a full investigation to prevent the possibility of future oil spills in the Great Lakes. According to The Chicago Tribune, representatives from Michigan are also calling on BP to tighten regulations. Given that the Great Lakes are equally important — if not more so — to Michigan, it’s time for Snyder and Michigan senators to voice their concerns as well.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Barry Belmont, Edvinas Berzanskis, Rachel John, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Melissa Scholke, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Linh Vu, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe EDVINAS BERZANSKIS | VIEWPOINT

Understanding HIV/AIDS The 12 of us were making the last leg of our long and exhausting drive to Fort Worth, Texas, as part of Alternative Spring Break. We were going to spend our time at Samaritan House, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and care to individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS and other special needs.

I did not save anyone. I didn’t expect to.

We entered the community with anticipation and anxiety, ready to experience a new environment, hear new stories and do some good old-fashioned manual labor. And we did. But I would like to think that there is a reason why year after year, they continue to invite students from the University back. To be honest, yes — our five days of physical work most likely didn’t have any grand effect on Samaritan House or the community. To them we may have been a passing kiss, a short, sweet presence commonplace in an environment that attracts so much service and assistance from the community. But to us, or at least me, the people at the Samaritan House offered a window into a stigmatized group of society who is often marginalized, ignored and even avoided. They’re those who are living with HIV/AIDS. Phrasing was the first lesson. He or she is not an “HIV-positive person” or “a person infected

by HIV.” They are living with HIV/AIDS. First and foremost, despite what society misconstrues, this community of people do, in fact, have lives that are often quite fulfilling and are comprised of employment, families and close relationships. But even more importantly, an individual living with HIV/AIDS doesn’t allow it to envelop or define their entire lives.

Hearing the stories of the residents of Samaritan House, their illness was merely one of the many hardships faced, and like all the other

hardships, they were merely facts to live with, not be defined by. This is becoming more and more a reality as changes in medical technology have transformed HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable chronic illness.

I remember coming home and hearing one of my friends make a seemingly “harmless” joke regarding contracting HIV by sharing a spoon. I went off. To be fair, my verbal backlash was unnecessarily mean. I know there was no malicious intent, and it very well could have been a joke I would have made a few months prior. There was the second lesson: stigma. Most don’t consciously recognize the perpetuated stigma over HIV/AIDS via nonchalant comments or “harmless” jokes.

As it is with many stereotypes, the root of this one is a lack of accurate information.

According to aids.gov, HIV can only be transmitted through sexual contact, pregnancy/childbirth, drug injection, occupational exposure or organ transplant.

It cannot be contracted through physical contact like hugging, a handshake or a kiss.

Neither I nor anyone else in my group ever felt like our safety was at risk at any point.

On the contrary, we felt welcomed and very comfortable in their community. Their homes and communal spaces were open to us and we truly had the opportunity to witness the very human faces behind the illness that social stigma unjustly distorts.

It’s peculiar to think that I had to travel 1,160 miles into the heart of Texas to gain insight into a global issue that affects us in our very own backyard. But sometimes it takes a new environment for people to see an issue in a fresh, eye-opening context.

Edvinas Berzanskis is an LSA sophomore.

INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES? POLITICS? SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK ’N’ ROLL? Check out The Michigan Daily’s editorial board meetings. Every Monday and Thursday at 6 pm, the Daily’s opinion staff meets to discuss both University and national affairs and write editorials.

E-mail opinioneditors@michigandaily.com to join in the debate.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Another petty election

F

or a minute there, I actually thought we’d be better off without a student government entirely.

Yet another year has gone by with a group of self-important, pretentious candidates taking themselves and the shoddy instiJAMES tution of Central BRENNAN Student Government far too seriously. I’m just thankful I became too cool for Facebook so my exposure to wannabe politicians and their platitudes was left to unwarranted retweets and e-mails.

Here’s something to think about: for every year I’ve been at the University, student government elections have ended with lawsuits.

Let me repeat that with emphasis to make sure that we all understand how ridiculous it sounds: Student government elections have ended with lawsuits.

Really, guys?

A glorified résumé builder is worth “suing” people in student court over? Like a lot of people, I was shocked to find out we even have a student election commission, let alone the sheer number of election rules. Aren’t we better than this?

Aren’t we mature, reasonable adults who realize how insignificant CSG elections are? Don’t we realize how sad it is that we need to have such a cadre to fight cheating? This is a student government election, not the U.S. Congress. The one talking point for your law school interview isn’t worth the grief to cheat, and neither are your plans for some bus system that I’m sure would be enacted anyways. And please, stop acting like you do this because you care. You do it for the same reasons college kids do almost anything: ambition.

Let me give you some advice that my mentors in life continually remind me of: we’re young and most of what we do is inconsequential. It’s not

“D

Can we stop this charade?

I’ve become so annoyed with these ridiculous elections, I actually argued to my roommates that CSG doesn’t need to exist. It serves no purpose, I told them — student organizations can do better alone.

But before we plunge into anarchy (sorry, YAL) let’s remember that CSG actually does have real responsibility. They control hundreds of thousands of dollars in student organization funding, are supposedly our unified voice on campus and have the ability to create dialogues on important causes. The point I’m making is that elections — even when they only garner a small sliver of student attention — are so pathetic they can make a reasonable person want to toss out an occasionally useful system.

It’s inconceivable how stupid cheating to win an election to be student body president is. It’s even more inconceivable that a person would sue their way into office over infractions as pointless as showing friends how to vote or failing to report small expenses. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but I find it incredibly petty, immature and selfish to go to such lengths all so you can call yourself “President.” There are easier ways to back up your self-importance, like getting a college newspaper column and calling yourself a “journalist.”

Most students probably wouldn’t be familiar with what the BSU, SAFE or YAL have legitimately accomplished — fair enough. But I bet even fewer could point out who our new President is and what his position actually entails.

Everyone who just got elected, please remember that.

Let me give you some advice: we’re young and most of what we do is inconsequential.

— James Brennan can be reached at jmbthree@umich.edu.

Thank you, Obama

on’t boo. Organize.”

How profound.

And only three words.

For all of the hours President Barack Obama and his writers likely spend writing, editing and perfecting his speeches, it was an off-the-cuff DEREK remark that shed WOLFE the most light on where the priorities of the American people are and where they should be. And it only strengthened his argument.

Speaking to a crowd yesterday mixed with students, donors and alumni who were all thrilled to be at the musty, dimly lit Intramural Sports Building, Obama emphasized the importance of raising the national minimum wage to $10.10 from the current $7.25 — $7.40 in Michigan. I’ve never seen a more engaging speaker. And he obviously knows his audience.

He began with a resounding “Go Blue!”

He ate lunch at Zingerman’s and had something to say about it: “One of the reasons I went was because the sandwiches are outstanding.

The second reason, though, is Zingerman’s is a business that treats its workers well, and rewards honest work with honest wages … and that’s what I’m here to talk about today.”

And if you haven’t heard by now, he ordered a Reuben.

He gave a shoutout to Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III, Jordan Morgan and Devin Gardner — specifically saying that Stauskas shouldn’t worry because he has a contract coming up and that Morgan was the definition of a true student-athlete.

He definitely covered the bases, including his obligatory shot at Republican incompetence. Obama claimed that the Republican’s tactics

“

that our work in college is pointless, but we shouldn’t take it to the point of suing people and running a campaign like the U.S. Senate. Rarely can we make the wide-ranging impacts we hope for, and those who do are typically not members of student government. According to Make Michigan — our new student government executives — they’re “changing campus culture.”

No, no you are not.

CSG and political parties don’t change campus culture. The Coalition for Tuition Equality changes campus culture. The Black Student Union changes campus culture. Even groups that I typically disagree with, such as Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, Hillel and Young Americans for Liberty, change campus culture. CSG serves as a platform for self-important, goal-driven kids to pretend they matter. They occasionally go speak to the University’s Board of Regents, get nods of approval for dressing up in a suit and talking like a big boy, and then sit down while grownups discuss real matters. Sometimes they jump on board and pass a resolution (or don’t) in support of a real student group’s goals while approving their funding, but the idea that they “change campus culture” is comical.

Every year, I watch these elections and I shake my head and laugh. I see kids my own age or younger get overly worked up over a glorified popularity contest, taking to the pages of The Michigan Daily in an attempt to distinguish themselves from the equally homogenous party they’re running against. They all “believe in student government,” speak in the politically correct euphemisms we hear from U.S. presidential candidates, and tweet about how “It was great meeting with (insert group)! #MichiganDifference.”

— including an original idea to repeal the Affordable Care Act — are counterproductive to America’s success.

The crowd agreed and expressed its resentment. And Obama responded.

“Don’t boo. Organize.”

Obama can only do so much with the minimum-wage initiative.

Smooth talking while wearing a rolled up button-down and tie can only go so far. He needs Congress to pass a bill, which at this point seems more unlikely than likely with midterm elections coming up in November. So he went back to his roots as a community organizer.

And that’s where we come in.

There are hundreds of student groups on campus, so really organizing isn’t the problem. Rather, it’s the desire to organize. We cannot be content with booing. Without action, it’s an obnoxious sound and a waste of breath. The status of the minimum wage, specifically, is an issue that directly affects our futures. We have to care. Because it matters that fellow citizens of ours are working multiple jobs and are still not able to make ends meet.

“Don’t boo.

Organize. That’s what you need to do, because they may not hear the boos, but they can read a petition and they can see votes.”

It seems like a common sense issue. Evidently, it’s not. And actually, we don’t even have to wait for Congress — or the government, in general — to make something happen.

Effective organization is possible.

I saw it firsthand last weekend.

As a participant of Detroit Partnership Day, my site was at Denby High School. Directly across the street from the school were several blocks filled with abandoned and blighted houses. While helping clean up these

houses was rewarding, it was even more amazing to hear about how the local community came together and began making the surrounding area a safer place, so people, especially children, don’t have to live in fear and can enjoy life. They want to build a park. They want to resuscitate the damaged houses and turn them into small businesses that students will work and learn in. Truly inspiring.

But, of course, this all takes effort.

Thinking is a lot easier than doing.

That being said, I’m not calling for a “Students for Higher Minimum Wage” group to start tomorrow.

Quite frankly, I’ve never been a part of a movement advocating for political, economic or social change myself. And I admit that what Obama said today probably won’t have me jumping out of bed tomorrow to join one. I think that’s also OK. Nonetheless, I want to start by asking the right questions.

Why don’t companies, big or small, pay their employees more?

What would have to change to make that happen? Is it purely profitmotivated?

Why do some companies pay their employees above minimum wage?

And with those answers in hand, action can follow — or not.

Weighing priorities is important as well.

However, the future of the minimum wage debate among other things is unclear right now. And that’s why it’s crucial to understand the gravitas of Obama’s remark.

“Don’t boo. Organize.”

If you truly want something, you cannot sit idly. And your friends, family and community can’t either.

If you truly want something, you cannot sit idly.

— Derek Wolfe can be reached dewolfe@umich.edu.

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Don’t boo. Organize.”

— U.S. President Barack Obama during his speech on raising minimum wage at the University of Michigan on Wednesday afternoon.

Weekend Roundup

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, April 3, 2014 — 5A

Who, What, Where: The week in review Spring fever (pitch)

By Alicia Adamczyk, Weekend Roundup Editor

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

President Barack Obama spoke at the Intramural Building Wednesday.

I

t’s been a long and eventful week. It’s difficult to keep track of and remember everything that’s happened, so the Daily has rounded up some of the most significant events that have happened around campus and around the world this week.

Around Campus Obama visits the University for the third time during presidency President Barack Obama visited the University of the third time in four years Wednesday — the most visits of any sitting president in history — to promote his proposal for an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25/hour to $10.10/hour.

About 1,400 University students and Ann Arbor community members attended the speech at the Intramural Sports Building, where the President struck a particularly partisan tone, saying while the many Republican constituents support an increase in the minimum wage, Congressional Republicans would prefer not to vote on the matter.

He appealed to students in particular, saying a minimum wage increase would help students better afford college.

Michigan Men’s Basketball team falls to Kentucky In a stunning last-minute upset, the Kentucky Wildcats defeated Michigan 75-72 and will continue to the Final Four, where they will face Wisconsin.

This marks the first time that a team has advanced to the Final Four with an allfreshman starting lineup since Michigan’s Fab Five in 1992.

“There’s games that end right now where there’s officiating controversy or there’s some crazy thing that happened or your team just comes out and lays an egg,” said Michigan coach John Beilein after the game. “That didn’t happen. It was an exciting basketball game.

“I think everybody walked around here and said ‘College basketball is a wonderful sport, and I loved watching these two teams play.’”

TERESA MATHEW/Daily

Michigan lost to Kentucky 75-72 in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

that spotlights professors and other instructors at the University who are particularly engaging and help students.

University President Mary Sue Coleman also spoke at the event, and was recognized

by Hillel for her outstanding leadership at the University.

stated that limits of $48,600 every two years by individuals to all federal candidates violates the First Amendment.

Peace talks in Middle East fall apart

The most recent peace talks brokered in the Middle East are once again on the Around the World verge of collapse as Palestinian President Mahmoud AbSupreme Court strikes bas signed over a dozen interdown cap on individual national conventions Tuesday. contributions The 15 treaties and convenThe Supreme Court struck tions could give the Palestinian Audown a cap on individual do- thority the benefits of statehood.

Secretary of State John Kernations to candidates in a twoyear election cycle Wednesday. ry canceled a trip to the West The ruling follows the prec- Bank Wednesday in response. edent set in the 2010 Citizens Shooting at Fort Hood miliUnited decision, which struck tary base kills at least four, down a cap on independent injures 14 campaign contributions from corporations and unions.

A shooting at the Fort The case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commis- Hood military base in Texas History Prof. Victor Lieber- sion, No. 12-536, was brought left at least one dead and 14 man gives Golden Apple

by Shaun McCutcheon, a injured Wednesday night, the address businessman, and the Repub- New York Times reported.

The military base is also lican National Committee.

History Prof. Victor Lieber“There is no right in our the site of a November 2009 man, who has taught at the democracy more basic than shooting that killed 12 unarmed University since 1984, gave his the right to participate in soldiers and one civilian, and “last lecture” Wednesday as electing our political leaders,” wounded dozens of others. part of the Golden Apple, an wrote Chief Justice John RobThe gunmen was one of annual award granted by the erts in the majority opinion. those killed, law enforceUniversity’s chapter of Hillel officials announced.

Specifically, the ruling ment

CAMPUS

EVENTS Thursday, 4/3

TEDxUofM Salon: Campus of the Future 6:45 p.m.

BSRB

Friday, 4/4 Baseball vs. Minnesota 4 p.m.

Wilpon Complex Softball vs. OSU 6 p.m.

Wilpon Complex NOW 10: That’s What I Call Groove!

7:30 p.m.

Michigan Theater She’s The First Second Annual Gala 8 p.m.

East Hall Atrium North

Saturday, 4/5 Women’s Tennis vs.

Northwestern 12 p.m.

Varsity Tennis Center Football Spring Game 2 p.m.

Michigan Stadium Baseball vs. Minnesota 2 p.m.

Wilpon Complex Softball vs. OSU 2 p.m.

Wilpon Complex That Brown Show 2014 7 p.m.

Power Center for the Performing Arts NOiR Runway Fashion Presents: Shameless XV

7 p.m.

530 South State Street

ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily

A University student works on her FestiFools project earlier in the year.

3 THINGS TO TRY THIS WEEKEND The end of the semester is almost in sight (only two more weeks), hang in there! If finals crunch has already started for you or this is the last week you have before all the craziness starts, consider checking out some of the following events happening around campus this week — either as a study break or as a way to enjoy your remaining free time.

Friday, April 4 The fourth annual FoolMoon is the kickoff event for FestiFools, a foolishly fun twoday event meant to celebrate art.

FoolMoon also serves as a fundraiser for FestiFools, an annual papier-mâché puppet parade.

Sponsors such as the Grizzly Peak Brewing Company and Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewrey are involved in this event. Grizzly Peak will host the FoolBrew tent at 5:30 pm.

Attendees are encouraged to create their own luminaries for a “stroll to W. Washington Street,” which begins at 8:15 p.m. at three starting places: The Farmers’ Market in Kerrytown, in front of the University of Michigan Museum of Art and at Slauson Middle School. There will be live music and a series of experimental films.

Saturday, April 5 Help support the C.S. Mott Children’s and Von Voightlander Women’s Hospital by attending the annual Mott Spring Game presented by PNC Bank this Saturday at the Big House.

Last year, $60,000 was raised for Mott. Since 2010, the game has raised nearly $1 million for the hospital.

The scrimmage will begin at 2 p.m. The event is free to the public, but donations can be made online or at the door. If you can’t make it to the game, no need to worry because you can watch it on the Big Ten Network.

Sunday, April 6 The Ann Arbor Film Festival may be over but there’s a new festival in town! Head to the Michigan Theater this Sunday night at 7 to watch the 38th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.

The lineup features many adrenaline-raising films related to mountain climbing in extraordinary places around the world. The films from the festival are shown in approximately 400 communities across the globe such as London and Alberta, Canada. Tickets can be purchased online through Outdoor

Adventures or at the door.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And no, I’m not quoting Frank Sinatra.

April brings the comfort of warm weather as well as the excitement of Major League Baseball, and that’s all that matters.

The winter has been a rough one, maybe even rougher than the coming winter in this Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” season premiere.

45 degrees has become BRAD the new WHIPPLE Daily Weekend norm for Columnist shorts and a T-shirt, and no longer are the days when you worry about what is warm enough to overcome the early morning wind chill.

While summer is the hottest part of the year, spring gives a certain satisfaction that you don’t find during the time off from school: Think of spring as the moment you emerge from a cold and dark cave you’ve spent the last three months in, whereas summer is more of living a familiar life — you’re a lot happier initially getting out of that damn cave.

There aren’t leaves on the trees and the wind hasn’t exactly died down, but spring is upon us … I think. As a new resident to Michigan, I’m not exactly sure how long the warm weather will be around.

Most people tell me the weather here is bipolar, and it’s believable considering there’s a chance of snow showers on Monday.

For the most part, though, the climate is at peace and soon enough, the color green will fill Ann Arbor (and I’m not speaking strictly about Hash Bash).

More importantly, the warm weather is a springboard for the opening days of professional baseball teams across the United

States. Baseball is the nation’s pastime and there’s nothing better than sitting at a ballpark with a bag of peanuts or sunflower seeds (I only mention these because they’re standard ballpark fare, but both would actually kill me because I’m deathly allergic).

Monday, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Opening Day at Comerica Park. But my eyes are on New York and Chicago.

Yes, I love the Yankees and the Cubs. My parents were born in upstate New York and my dad would’ve actually donned the pinstripes if a baseball player’s career was more profitable in the ‘70s, so it was the only choice for them to raise me and my siblings as fans.

As for Chicago, I was raised in the suburbs and avoided making the mistake of being a White Sox fan.

I’ll admit that the Cubs haven’t been too hot in recent years, or really the last 106 years. The last time they won a World Series was 1908 and it looks like The Curse of the Billy Goat is still going strong.

As for New York, the Yankees are no longer the highest-budgeted team in the MLB (thank you, Dodgers), so no one can give me crap for that anymore. They haven’t won a World Series since 2009, but I’m confident this is the year things will turn around. For the haters, mainly Red Sox fans, count the rings (all 27 to be clear).

Sports rivalries aside, opening day for baseball is something to be admired and brings together fans who lost their way when their team didn’t make the playoffs. Baseball also gives us a new form of sports entertainment with March Madness ending (no, I swear those aren’t tears…) and the NBA and NHL drawing to a close in May. While the familiarity of baseball overtakes you, don’t look past the sun that is washing out the bleak, gray colors of winter and take a few moments to get outside and do something you’ve missed, because eventually, winter will once again knock on our doorstep.

Sports

6A — Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Betsa throws no-no

By MAX BULTMAN

One inning later, sophomore shortstop Sierra Romero got a turn with the bases full, and she wasted little time in clearing them. Romero smoked a pitch from Detroit’s Kat Hoffman to deep right center, her third grand slam of the season.

“I really just focus on pitch selection,” Romero said. “I don’t want to try to do more than I can do.”

That doesn’t leave much out.

The preseason All-American shortstop entered the day fourth in the nation in batting, and boasts 40 RBI. After two innings, with the score already a lopsided 9-0, Hutchins began subbing in new players. Seldom-used senior outfielders Katie Luetkens and Brandi Virgil entered the game in the top of the third inning, and sophomore outfielder Mary Sbonek took her first career at-bat.

“We’re always messing around in practice, coming up with hand signals and little jokes,” Romero said. “Once they get out there, it’s really fun seeing the look on their faces.

You can just tell they’re on cloud nine.”

Still, the star of the game was Betsa.

The freshman has struggled

Daily Sports Writer

Detroit kept swinging, and it kept sitting down.

The in-state rival Titans (2-21) had just about 24 hours to prepare for their 0 DETROIT MICHIGAN 10 contest in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, and it looked like they could have used a few more.

Freshman right-hander Megan Betsa recorded a no-hitter and sophomore third baseman Kelsey Susalla went 3-for-3 with two RBI, pacing Michigan to a 10-0 mercy-rule victory at Alumni Field.

Michigan coach Carol Hutchins had been frustrated with rained-out games, so late Tuesday afternoon she invited Detroit to fill one of the five open game slots.

It got ugly fast.

The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead, scoring four runs in the first inning — two of them courtesy of a line-drive double by outfielder Sierra Lawrence. The sophomore has been a force to be reckoned with when the bases are loaded this season, and her two-run double bumped her average to .833 when the bases are juiced.

this season to maintain her composure after walks, a problem Hutchins has chalked up to shaky confidence.

Wednesday, there were no such problems. After each of the two walks Betsa issued, she struck out the next batter swinging. In fact, all eight batters the freshman fanned went down swinging, a testament to the attack-the-batter mindset she’s been working on.

“You could say I was in a little bit of a rut,” Betsa said. “(Today) I was just kind of telling myself that if somebody gets on base, I need to come back stronger. So I just work on getting ahead on the next better.”

Hutchins said the opportunity to get Betsa a chance to pitch in a game setting in the middle of the week was an important reason in scheduling Detroit.

The Wednesday night contest delivered that and more. Betsa looked much more collected with runners on base than she had earlier this spring, something she credits to a selfrun practice session she held Monday on her day off.

There were no hitters at that session. Wednesday, with batters in the box, she got the same result.

ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily

Michigan Stadium is expected to be the venue for Real Madrid vs. Manchester United in August, sources told the Daily.

Sources: Madrid vs. Man. U to be announced Friday

By ALEJANDRO ZÚÑIGA Daily Sports Editor

A press conference to be held on Friday is expected to confirm international club soccer at Michigan Stadium, Michigan Daily multiple E XCLUSIVE sources told the Daily.

Per the sources, the International Champions Cup is expected to announce that Real Madrid and Manchester United will play Aug. 2, 2014, at the Big House.

Wednesday afternoon, an Athletic Department e-mail invited media members to a “special event announcement,” to be held Friday.

The e-mail stated that Athletic Director Dave

Brandon and members from the organizing committee will be present to discuss the “historic event to be held at Michigan Stadium.”

Associate Athletic Director David Ablauf told the Daily that he was not allowed to comment on the nature of the press conference.

The International Champions Cup pits some of the world’s top club teams in elimination rounds. Currently, the Real Madrid-Manchester United game is the only contest without a venue on the tournament’s website.

Real Madrid, which won the inaugural ICC last year, boasts 32 La Liga titles. Manchester United has finished atop the English Premier League 13 times since the EPL’s foundation

in 1992.

The two clubs feature some of the world’s top players, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale of Los Blancos, and Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney of The Red Devils.

An ICC spokesperson previously told the Daily that the host city would be revealed in early March.

Feb. 20, the International Champions Cup sent an e-mail promoting “the Gods of soccer” visiting Ann Arbor, among 11 other North American cities.

The following day, a tournament spokesperson confirmed to the Daily that the ICC had been in serious discussion with the University to host the game at Michigan Stadium, but that no plan had been finalized.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Freshman right-hander Megan Betsa was nearly perfect as the Wolverines topped Detroit, 10-0, Wednesday afternoon.

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RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 3, 2014

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LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Junior left fielder Kyle Jusick went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs as Michigan won its third game in a row Wednesday.

‘M’ rallies to best Central

By BRAD WHIPPLE Daily Sports Writer

Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich stood in the corner of the dugout with his players huddled around him, emphasizing how Central Michigan’s pitcher lacked 3 CMU command.

6 MICHIGAN He clapped his hands twice and the players nodded and then dispersed with their eyes on teammate Harrison Wenson at the plate.

With the Wolverines down 2-1 in the sixth inning, the freshman catcher hit a line drive to right field that dropped too fast for the right fielder to make a sliding catch, scoring junior left fielder Kyle Jusick.

The ball rolled to the wall and Wenson sprinted past second and slid into third for his first career triple, which started a three-run rally. The Wolverines never looked back in a 6-3 win over the Chippewas Wednesday evening.

“Hitting is contagious, both positive and negative,” Bakich said. “It’s something where guys start stringing quality at-bats together and get a big hit like Harrison’s. It’s just being aggressive and continuing to stick with our plan all along.”

Added Jusick: “It’s definitely

nice to get a nice midweek win and carry it on into the weekend.”

Following Wenson’s triple, junior designated hitter Kendall Patrick then drove a single up the middle to score Wenson, and eventually scored on a throwing error to first base.

Michigan extended its lead by two in the seventh when freshman right fielder Carmen Benedetti launched a shot to center field that took one hop and hit the wall, scoring Jusick and junior center fielder Jackson Glines.

“That separated the game in that moment to give us a four-run lead,” Bakich said.

“We needed that cushion, and Carmen did a good job of laying off some borderline pitches down in the zone where maybe a month ago we were swinging at those.”

The Wolverines had a tough first inning with senior righthander Logan McAnallen at the mound. He tried drawing the opposing batters from the zone with outside pitches, but they weren’t biting, and McAnallen was forced to bring it inside or throw down the middle.

But McAnallen couldn’t find a groove and gave up an early run.

Michigan’s relief pitching struggled further. Junior righthander Donnie Eaton started

the fourth inning by walking the first batter and hitting the next in the head, enough to have him pulled for junior righthander James Bourque.

There were moments when Bourque seemed to be losing his touch. It seemed like he would get pulled in the sixth when freshman right-hander Mac Lozer began warming up in the bullpen.

But Bourque found a rhythm with an arsenal of pitches — a low 90s fastball, a deep curveball and a changeup — that he hammered down in the zone to strike out five batters in his fourinning performance.

“He’s tough to hit, because he has so many moving parts coming at the hitter,” Bakich said.

“When he’s on and he’s throwing competitive strikes in the bottom of the zone, he’s tough to hit. He’s been doing a good job of forcing contact and throwing three pitches for strikes.”

Sophomore right-hander Jacob Cronenworth finished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning and extended the Wolverines’ winning streak to three.

“Bottom line: We have a lot of work to do,” Bakich said. “Even if we were 29-0, I’d still tell you that we have improvement to make and work to do — it’s sticking with the process of getting better every day.”

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, April 3, 2014 — 7

Final Lap: Ferry Field’s run comes to an end Once the home of Michigan football, Ferry Field is slated to be demolished, turned into a parking lot

By ZACH SHAW Daily Sports Writer

The white Frisbee glided through the air, drifting further right than anticipated toward the shot-put fence. The intended recipient of the throw, wearing a maize ‘Team 134’ football shirt, rolled his eyes, took a breath and sprinted after it.

Never losing sight of the disc, the man wouldn’t be denied, as he snagged it mid-dive just above the cool grass. The necessity of the dive — a glorified tumble, really — was debatable, but to the man, and his two friends, there was no doubt; victory was in the air at Ferry Field.

They weren’t alone. Thirty yards south, a boy had just defeated his younger brother in a race. Occupying lanes one and two of the track and wearing matching purple soccer jerseys, it surely wouldn’t be their last race. It was the first warm day of the year, and all around them, joggers, photographers and aspiring football players were celebrating the defeat of an impossibly cold winter.

Few on it may know, but Ferry Field is no ordinary track.

The orange synthetic polyurethane beneath their feet was once grass whose growth coincided with Michigan football. It then became unbreakable black concrete that reflected the unbreakable Black athletes who blazed trails above it. But despite the tradition, the track’s days are numbered.

An hour later, Frisbee tossers were calling it a day. The sun was setting, and the cool March air Michigan is known for slowly crept in. Walking toward the southeast corner of the track, they dodged several joggers — including the brothers — before exiting toward the parking lot.

As they left, they stopped to read a plaque on the wall.

The man of honor wasn’t a Wolverine, but a Buckeye named Jesse Owens.

Since its opening in 1906, Ferry Field has been home to plenty of legendary history, but its open-door policy has also allowed it to host plenty of other stories. From football to Jesse Owens to Frisbees, Michigan history has been embedded in the track.

But in today’s age, history takes a backseat. In Sept.

2012, the Michigan Athletic Department announced its plan to revamp the athletic campus.

The $250-million project will provide 16 new or upgraded facilities to the University.

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily

Ferry Field was the home of the Michigan football team after it drew crowds that were too large for Regents Field. Since 1926, it has been used for track and field.

Behind the shining proposals and hype around the expansion, the plan spells the end for Ferry Field. Proposed plans have slated for the once-great facility to be paved over and turned into a parking lot. *** Less than half a mile southwest of the track, the Michigan women’s lacrosse team was celebrating its first-ever victory at Michigan Stadium. The storied house that Yost built blared “The Victors” for all to hear, echoing to the storied track where Yost’s teams once played.

The decision to pave over Ferry Field was a monetary decision, but it wasn’t long ago that Ferry Field actually made money for the University. In 1902, realizing that 800 seats were no longer enough to host Michigan football games, the University’s Board of Regents set their eyes on expansion.

Dexter M. Ferry, a Detroit businessman and owner of Ferry Seed Company, stepped up.

In part to support the football program, but also to divert students away from tearing up central campus (and his new botany fellowship), Ferry donated 20 acres of land, now home to most Michigan athletics facilities.

After going 87-2-3 at Regents Field, the Wolverines began their 20-year tenure at Ferry Field on Oct. 6, 1906 with a 28-0 victory over Case Western Reserve in a stadium that seated 18,000.

As the years passed, the following of Michigan football expanded beyond just students and locals. By Michigan’s return to the Big Ten in 1917, the

“It’s great to see the community loving our track so much.”

Wolverines played in front of crowds of 25,000. For the first time in school history, athletics in Ann Arbor were generating revenue.

Though Ferry Field hasn’t hosted a football game since the ‘20s, its impact on the football program can’t be forgotten. It’s where Michigan football grew from an afternoon activity to a way of life, going 90-13-2 in front of crowds that grew each year. It was where the Little Brown Jug was first won, and where Michigan State and Ohio State became rivals.

After World War I and more successful seasons, the opportunity to expand was brought up again. This time, Michigan coach and Athletic Director Fielding Yost had bigger plans. He would expand Ferry Field to 41,000, and then use increased funds to build a new stadium that would seat 150,000. He settled for Michigan Stadium, which “only” seated 70,000 at the time.

The football team left Ferry Field behind decades ago, but without it, the program wouldn’t be the same. The tunnel to Ferry Field still stands today, and one can look through the archway from South State Street and imagine one of the most storied football programs playing on the grass in the shadows of the Intramural Sports building.

But when the cement trucks come in the summer of 2015, even imagination will be paved over.

momentous achievement that warranted the honor.

On May 25, 1935, Owens had what Sports Illustrated would call “The Greatest Hour in Sports History.” Setting four world records — the 100-yard dash, long jump, 220-yard sprint and 220-yard low hurdles — in just 45 minutes on a bad back, Owens not only showed what minorities could accomplish in sports, but what the human body can achieve when in perfect sync with itself.

There were, of course, legendary Wolverines who blazed their own trails and broke racial barriers at Ferry Field. William DeHart Hubbard, Booker Brooks, Eddie Tolan, Willis Ward and Bill Watson combined to win 31 individual Big Ten titles, six individual national titles and four Olympic gold medals.

But the highest honor Ferry Field can give didn’t go to any Michigan athlete, but the Buckeye Bullet. A year after beating Michigan and setting four world records, Owens shattered the Aryan elitist ideas of Adolf Hitler on his home turf, winning four gold medals and capturing America’s hearts at the 1936 Olympic Games. His glory shone across the world, but he wouldn’t have gotten there without his day at Ferry Field.

In two years, the plaque honoring one of America’s greatest heroes won’t overlook the track where it all began, but rows of cars. The plaque may be taken down altogether. When the cement trucks come in the summer of 2015, even the work of legends will be paved over.

“It’s a piece of history. You don’t always think about it.”

*** Even as the sun sets over a warehouse by the railroad tracks just west of Ferry Field, the plaque of Owens glimmers.

It isn’t a physically large, but it’s impossible to deny the

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily

Ferry Field sits in the shadow of the Intramural Sports Building, the crowning jewel of the first-ever intramural program.

*** Legendary stories are, of

course, legendary, but what makes Ferry Field special is that you don’t have to be a legend to receive its benefits. Former University President James B. Angell originally committed Michigan to providing “an uncommon education for the common man,” as still found in the school’s mission statement.

In Ferry Field, the statement makes a successful translation into athletics.

Michigan has dozens of facilities for its 27 varsity sports, but only one remains unlocked. Even in the dead of winter, Ferry Field is littered with amateur athletes following the colossal footsteps of Yost, Owens and all the other greats that once roamed the grounds.

“They come in droves,” said Michigan women’s track and field coach James Henry.

“I’m one of the only coaches anywhere that has to kick people off of our Division I facility just about every day. It’s great to see the community loving our track so much.”

In the decades following the football team’s departure, this — above all else — is why Ferry Field stood out. As the years wore on and renovations have made nearby facilities too lucrative for the “common man,” doors were locked. But at this very second, Ferry Field is open at three different places, giving anyone who desires a place to exercise an opportunity to do so where world-class athletes do.

athletics. Both programs have lamented their frustration with recruiting visits gone sour.

The puny stands and a rundown track simply don’t cut it anymore.

The track is currently the only one in the Big Ten incapable of hosting a conference championship meet, a fall from grace for a facility that used to host the Olympic trials regularly.

After plans for a new track fell through in both 2005 and 2010, Athletic Director Dave Brandon has been adamant about getting a new facility that will be among the best in the country.

But when the cement is finally laid over, more than a century of memories will be buried beneath it. The lore and history of the field is something even the winning-driven Henry will miss.

“It’s a piece of history,” Henry said. “You don’t always think about it, but when someone pulls out a camera to take a picture, it hits you: Every day, we train and compete on the same track Jesse Owens did, or the Michigan football team did, sometimes you just have to step back and say ‘Wow!’ “The new track will be like trading in a ’63 Mustang for a brand-new Mustang. The new one doesn’t have the memories or sentimental value the old one did, but it is a brand new car. You miss the ’63 and keep it in your heart, and you just have to hope the new one can make just as good memories too.”

In recent years, Michigan has opted for the new car time and again.

The new facility will be for varsity athletes and paying customers only, not the common man.

“We train and compete on the same track Jesse Owens did.”

*** Beginning in 2016, the men’s and women’s track teams will have a new home a mile south of its current one. That isn’t all a bad thing, many feel that Ferry Field’s current state is unacceptable for Michigan

*** With the sun and its accompanying warmth gone, the track has emptied out. A pair of walkers exit the gate, and another man walks in. With short black jogging shorts, a grizzled face and thin limbs, the man — like the track — has seen better days.

Ferry Field is cold and dark, but the man stretches anyway.

With numbered days for the track, opportunities like this won’t be around much longer.

With a deep breath, the man steps into the outside lane.

Sometimes, the best solution is to just start running.

BY THE NUMBERS Ferry Field

20

Years that the Michigan football team spent occupying Ferry Field.

45

Minutes it took for Jesse Owens to break four records, per Sports Illustrated.

90

Wins for the Michigan football team at Ferry Field.

TERRA MOLENGRAFF/Daily

By the 2016 track and field season, proposals have slated Ferry Field to be turned into a parking lot for nearby facilities.

8A — Thursday, April 3, 2014

Photo Feature

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

THANKS, OBAMA

RUBY WALLAU AND ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

the b-side

B

DESIGN BY KRISTEN CLEGHORN.

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, April 3, 2014

LIGHTS,CAMERA

SAC TION SCREEN ARTS AND CULTURES 423: THE MAKING OF STUDENT FILMS

By Paige Pfleger Daily Arts Writer

Photos above courtesy of SAC students Matt Birnholtz (Thru Traffic), Benjamin Foote (Thru Traffic), and Julie Vis (Bad Girls).

Characters (In order of appearance): Robert Rayher, professor — Rayher is a senior lecturer in the Screen Arts & Culture department. He has angular features and is beginning to go gray, which gives him an authoritative look.

Jim Burnstein, professor — Burnstein is the screenwriting coordinator for the SAC department. His hair is white and he wears wire-framed glasses. Cohort of Rayher.

Layne Simescu, Director, “Thru Traffic” — LSA senior Layne Simescu is from Traverse City, Michigan, and is majoring in SAC. She has acted in, written and directed films. She has soft features set in an often serious expression.

Jackie Vresics, Director of Photography, “Thru Traffic” — LSA senior Jackie Vresics works closely with Simescu on set and is charged with making Simescu’s vision of the script come to fruition. She is small, and the film camera looks like a large bird that she carries on her shoulder.

Graham Techler, Star, “Thru Traffic” — Music, Theater & Dance sophomore Graham Techler is the actor that stars in “Thru Traffic.” He is tall, lanky and has a knack for comedic flair.

Matt Montgomery, Writer, “Thru Traffic” — LSA senior Matt Montgomery is in the screenwriting subconcentration in the SAC department. He is a skinny guy, mousey brown hair. He’s unassuming and for the most part quiet on set, since he no longer has control over the script.

Erika Henningsen, Star, “Bad Girls” — Music, Theater & Dance senior Henningsen is in the Musical Theater program. She is the star of the film “Bad Girls,” and is classically pretty — she has blonde hair and blue eyes and would be easily translated into an animated Disney princess.

Dustin Alpern, Director, “Bad Girls” — LSA senior Dustin Alpern is from Los Angeles, California. He is the director of the film, “Bad Girls.” He is unimposing, with red hair and wears a blue crew neck shirt with Michigan scrawled across the front.

Janet Hu, Writer, “Bad Girls” — LSA senior Janet Hu is a SAC major with a screenwriting subconcentration. The original version of her piece, “Bad Girls,” was extremely intense. It is hard to picture her writing anything psychologically unnerving — she is very pleasant to speak with.

ACT ONE — INT. NORTH QUAD, RAYHER’S OFFICE – FRIDAY AT NOON RAYHER sits behind a desk that is cluttered with papers. His bookshelves are filled with books on film.

BURNSTEIN sits in a chair to my right, Rayher to my left.

Both characters are extremely respected in the film department. Together, they dictate who gets the coveted roles in the SAC 423 class — a class that produces two 30-minute films that will be featured at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. The roles of writer, director, producer and actor are once in a lifetime opportunities that offer up chances at the big time. The class comprises two separate teams, about 50 students, and is the pinnacle of the film department. The competition gets more and more intense each year.

RAYHER: The first year we taught it there were 18 students for two productions.

BURNSTEIN: (Joking) That many?

RAYHER: (With a laugh) Yeah, well eight of them were actors. We had two production teams of five each a little over ten years ago, so it’s matured. We are reaching the point where this year there were a lot of very talented people who didn’t get department head jobs. Maybe at some point we’ll be able to offer the class both terms.

And, with competition comes drama. Some of the decisions made by the professors have turned out to be quite controversial among the students, like the choice to let DUSTIN ALPERN direct his junior and senior year, which has happened only one other time. The professors argue that these decisions mirror the cutthroat nature of Hollywood.

RAYHER: Each step in this process is about finding your way in the world. In any professional situation, that’s how these choices get made. Part of the educational process is finding out how this works and then figuring out how you work within that process. It’s complex.

BURNSTEIN: The exceptions never prove the rule. It’s very rare that juniors do direct, and last year Dustin was ready. I like to compare what we do to what you see in the Musical Theater department. I don’t think anyone is saying, ‘You know, she had a lead in Chicago, why is she…’ ya know?

But the balance between educational experiences and a real world mentality is a difficult one to obtain. The professors also keep a careful eye on gender balance — even though the TV and movie businesses are mostly male dominated from a production and writing standpoint, the students cast as production heads are equally distributed in terms of gender. The professors assure me that this is an ideal to aim for, but not necessarily a written rule. They acknowledge the gender disparity in the profession and hope that their attention to equality will help to even out the future of the field.

END OF ACT ONE

See SACTION, Page 4B

the b-side

2B — Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ARTIST PROFILE

TV/NEW MEDIA COLUMN

Killing characters San Cristobal evolves its youthful sound for more than shock value Six LSA freshmen are chasing the dream

By GRACE HAMILTON

W

arning: This column contains massive spoilers for the current season of “The Good Wife.” If you are not caught up on “The Good Wife,” are planning at some point to watch “The Good Wife,” or somehow haven’t heard KAYLA of “The Good UPADHYAYA Wife” until now and think maybe you’ll look into whether or not you should start watching “The Good Wife” (hint: you should), please do not read any further.

Please. I’m purposefully making this spoiler warning extra long to underscore its seriousness and also ensure that you don’t accidentally read too far ahead. The column also contains information about character deaths from “Once Upon a Time,” “American Horror Story: Coven,” “Lost,” “The L Word,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Breaking Bad” and “24,” so be careful about those.

OK. Stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled. Seriously.

Don’t send me hate-tweets.

Last week, “The Good Wife” viewers’ worlds were rocked when husband-wife showrunning duo Robert and Michelle King executed what was almost certainly the most shocking television moment and best-kept secret of the year: They killed off leading-man Will Gardner.

Shortly after Twitter suffered a collective meltdown in response to the episode, CBS released a letter penned by the Kings, in which they explain their reasons for the twist. In short: Actor Josh Charles wanted to move on, and instead of developing a simple departure arc to explain away his absence — like Will moving or getting a new job far, far away — the “Good Wife” writers decided to make him the casualty of an unexpected courtroom bloodbath.

The letter goes on to claim that the narrative choice is somehow unique in its boldness.

“Television, in our opinion, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death,” the Kings write.

Wait, what? I watch a lot of television. And if death is something TV doesn’t have enough of, that’s news to me. I watch “The Vampire Diaries,” where death is so common that it’s almost a character in its own right. I also watch “Justified” and a whole slew of other series

Daily Arts Writer

rooted in crime that have more on-screen shootings than onscreen makeouts. If the Kings think TV needs more death, what exactly are they watching?

In fact, in the current golden age of TV dramas, it seems like writers feel like they have to start killing characters left and right in order to get a “Serious Drama” stamp of approval. One of the reasons people consistently give for loving “Game of Thrones” is that death is a legitimate threat for each and every character. And Joss Whedon has been praised as television’s own Grim Reaper, whacking off enough beloved characters to inspire the genius Funny or Die (and unfortunately fake) reality series.

Blame it on my self-identification as a Whedonite or on my obsession with all things sad, but I love when characters die on television. That comes with a huge however. I love when characters die on television; however the death has to serve a larger function than just simple shock value. All too often, death is used as a cheap plot device. What purpose did “Once Upon a Time” ’s seasonthree death serve other than allowing ABC to tease the twist for weeks on end? “American Horror Story: Coven” racked up quite the body count in its 13-episode stay, but when you have a resurrection witch on your hands, death doesn’t carry much weight. “Lost” writers literally only killed off Nikki and Paulo because fans didn’t respond well to the characters when they were introduced.

And I’ll never quite understand the point of Dana’s death on “The L Word,” especially when the showrunner herself admitted it was a mistake.

But, as the Kings point out, losing loved ones is a very real fear and experience that we all face at some point or another.

Television shouldn’t ignore that.

Characters should never be wholly invincible. Otherwise, why would we care about them?

Some series have effectively navigated the balance between shock value and the simple reality of death. The inhabitants of Sunnydale suffered countless casualties, but “Buffy” ’s most indelible death remains that of Buffy’s mom, who dies not at the hands of vampires or monsters but from an unexpected, sudden aneurysm. Jane’s death on “Breaking Bad” propelled Jesse’s arc forward. Teri’s murder at the end of “24” ’s first season remains one of my favorite television moments of all time.

Effective TV deaths aren’t just rooted in believability:

They have lasting effects on the remainder of the series. There’s nothing I hate more than when a show kills off a major character, dedicates a single ratingsseeking episode to an overacted, melancholy funeral episode, and then lets its characters go on about their lives (still looking at you, “The L Word”).

Silly letter aside, I actually do think killing Will Gardner counts as a “good” TV death. I disagree with the critics who despise the move enough to actually tune out for the rest of the season. His death isn’t just an empty twist; it’s a narrativeshattering bomb. The relationships at the heart of “The Good Wife” have always been its strongest facet and the fount from which its most compelling drama springs. The writers have consistently shifted the show’s pieces around, changing the relationships over and over again: Cary’s move to the State’s Attorney Office; Will and Alicia’s love affair; Cary’s return to Lockhart/Gardner; Alicia and Peter’s reconciliation; Alicia and Kalinda’s falling out; Diane’s near-judgeship; and, of course, the ultimate show-changer that was the formation of Florrick/ Agos.

Success stories in the music business usually grow from modest roots — sometimes brilliance can be accidental. After all, the Ramones began as a garage band called The Tangerine Puppets. LSA freshman Jacob Sigman and lead singer of the 6-piece band San Cristobal, echoed this familiar pattern when he discussed how the band came together.

Jacob met Andrew Hiayama, the band’s cellist, at a summer camp, and through him, bassist Sam Collins. Having set his mind on putting together a “record debut type thing,” as Jacob described their first album, they began experimenting.

“I worked a lot with them.

And then Cory, the drummer, is my cousin, who I met at a wedding this past year and found out he played the drums and was coming here,” Jacob said.

“I went to high school with the guitarist and then met Andrew,

Upadhyaya is thinking about murder. To join, e-mail kaylau@umich.edu.

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it off; the harmony holds, the volume remains under control and the lyrics come through.

It is the way that the very different pieces of the band (Andrew Solway on keys/vocals, Andrew Hiyama on cello, Hunter Viers on guitar, Cory Tripathy on drums, Sam Collins on bass, and Sigman on vocals) come together so fittingly that is remarkably impressive for such a new group. It’s as if they’ve been doing this for years.

Jacob is equally modest speaking about his personal relationship with music and how it became a part of his life.

He recalled his parents Beatles records, music he only came to fully appreciate later, and taking piano lessons, adding that, “a lot of people take piano lessons.”

That being said, the natural talent in this group is unquestionable.

For now, the hope is to “keep living from show to show, and just play out as much as we can and write better songs,” Sigman said.

San Cristobal is planning on releasing a full-length album this summer and will be playing in the Diag at Spring Fest on April 10th. Their debut album, Virginia EP, is available for listening and download online.

EVERYTHING’S GOOD. THIS WASN’T ONE OF OUR TWEETS. IT’S A CHANCE THE RAPPER LYRIC.

Well-planned deaths mean more than a shocking twist.

Will’s death is basically a supercharged version of all of these narrative shifts. And the episode that follows his departure proves the event is going to have very serious emotional and professional repercussions for all of the characters. It’s an immensely heavy episode that would probably teeter on melodramatic in the hands of less capable actors. I had to pause the episode no less than five times to collect myself, but never once did I feel hollowly manipulated by the writers.

“The Good Wife” has always been a difficult show to describe, because it’s more narratively complex than a legal procedural but more episodic than your average serial. It’s also more fun than your average serious drama but too heavy to just be regarded as a legal soap.

Will’s death only adds to the complexity and versatility of the series. As it wraps up what is one of the most impressive seasons of television I’ve seen in a very long time, “The Good Wife” has opened up a lot of new possibilities. Will’s death touches each of the characters in different ways, and those effects have already started manifesting in beautiful character work.

And that matters a lot more than just a shocking twist.

the keyboard player, in the practice rooms in Markley.”

San Cristobal is continuously evolving. The band has realized its potential, revised its sights and shifted the direction of its music to mirror their refocusing.

Sigman describes the band’s earlier music as a “wall of sound.” The band’s first album, before it even had an official name and went simply by Jacob Sigman, was never actually intended to be played live.

“It was more folk-driven, kind of big and grandiose. There were so much going on,” Jacob said, citing Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens and Sigur Ros as comparisons and inspirations.

On the other hand, the newer music feels spacious and more of combined effort among band members.

“These songs are coming to life as we play them, together, rather than just on a record,” Jacob said.

San Cristobal’s new music channels a slightly different set of artists, like The Beatles’ later material (the White Album), Harry Nilsson and Paul Simon.

It’s easy to hear these influences in San Cristobal, with as many as four vocalists on at a time in certain songs. They pull

WE’RE STILL COOL THOUGH.

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TRAILER REVIEW “Transcendence” will be the first picture directed by Wally Pfister, whose entire career up to this point has Aconsisted of cinematogTransendence raphy work, mostly for Warner Bros.

Christopher Nolan.

Nolan’s influence is apparent in this trailer for the sci-fi feature about technology gone ballistic.

It follows a group of scientists on the verge of revolutionizing technology to the point of transcendence: the point where technology surpasses the knowledge of every human past, present and future. The head scientist, Will Caster, played by Johnny Depp, is shot by a radical anti-technology group. With her husband’s body left to deteriorate, his wife and fellow scientist,

WARNER BROS

Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) uploads Will’s consciousness to a computer so that he may continue to live.

Until Will, in a bout of Skynet-like megalomania, begins to stretch beyond the limits of this single computer, growing in power and knowledge to the point that he threatens the safety of the world. It also seems to take that whole “I’m in love with my computer”

concept in “Her” to a whole new, disturbing level; hopefully that story gets placed on the back burner as far as focus goes. Featuring a strong supporting cast in Paul Bettany, Kate Mara and Morgan Freeman, “Transcendence” looks to be an original take on an old theme that carries impressive visuals and genuine suspense and drama.

—JAMIE BIRCOLL

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW This past October, Mapei released her debut single, “Don’t Wait.” One of the best tracks of the year, the song — with Aits sparse snaps, heartDon’t Wait felt lyrics and Mapei incredible instrumenDowntown tation — is perfect pop and immediately took off after its release. Mapei’s label, Downtown Records, rode out the momentum as long as possible (the track now has over 1.5 million plays on Soundcloud) until announcing Mapei’s upcoming summer debut. In the meantime, Mapei dropped off the video for “Don’t Wait,” and while it can’t completely encapsulate the purity and bliss of the song, it comes tantalizingly close.

Director Dori Oskowitz, who has worked with Jack

DOWNTOWN

White and Passion Pit, does an expert job of bathing Mapei and her incredibly exquisite love interest in a glow of golden light that perfectly compliments the warm, sampled Brazilian baile funk drums at the core of the song. The video rightly encapsulates the genuineness of a blossoming young love, and Oskowitz is able to frame some impressively cinematic and picturesque moments with the help of some great settings, from empty

highways to rural towns to oil wells to a killer house party.

But the real star here is, naturally, Mapei. Whether its biking through town draped over her boy, playing on a basketball court or laughing with her friends, she is utterly lovable, completely genuine and noticeably comfortable in front of the camera. Mapei has the potential to be absolutely huge, and there’s a good chance we don’t have to wait much long —JACKSON HOWARD

b-side

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, April 3, 2014 — 3B

THE MFA WAY

FOOD COLUMN

Saying goodbye Prestigious Zell program thrives O MFA program fosters writers and relationships

By ADAM DEPOLLO Daily Online Arts Editor

One lesson to be learned from the success of the most recent Coen Brothers film “Inside Llewyn Davis” is that the image of the starving artist remains as popular and compelling today as ever. As almost all of those starving artists would attest, however, it’s neither as glamorous nor as full of spontaneous singing as “Rent” or “Moulin Rouge!” would have you believe. Writing the next Great American Novel suddenly seems much less important when you default on your electricity bill.

Fortunately, for a handful of the most talented young poets and fiction writers in America each year, the University of Michigan offers a way to leave the “starving” moniker behind and just be artists.

The Helen Zell Writers’ Program — named after University alumna Helen Zell, who, along with her family’s foundation, donated $50 million to fund the program into perpetuity — is the current incarnation of the University’s creative writing MFA program, which first began in 1982.

The gift was the largest in the history of the college of LSA. Megan Levad, an alumna of the program and its current Assistant Director, explained that creative writing at the University has an impressive pedigree.

“Nicholas Delbanco, who is now the Robert Frost Distinguished Professor of English Language & Literature, came to Ann Arbor and was the director (of the MFA program) for several years,” Levad said. “And even before that there was Robert Hayden on the faculty, Robert Frost was here, W.H. Auden was here. The University of Michigan has a really long, rich history, especially with the poets.”

Thanks to its generous funding and the number of exceptional writers among the University’s faculty, admittance to the writers’ program is highly competitive. As Levad explained, over a thousand writers apply for the program’s 22 spots — 10 for poetry and 12 for fiction.

For the lucky and talented

few who do get in, the Zell Writers’ Program offers a series of invaluable assets to aspiring writers in addition to three years of the funding necessary to live and write in Ann Arbor without needing a full- or part-time job to make ends meet.

The program’s first and second year students attend workshops each semester in which they discuss and critique their own and their colleagues’ work, guided by an English Department professor. Poet J.D. Duval, one of the program’s first year students, described these workshops as an important opportunity to grow as a writer. “(My favorite aspect of the program has been) just working with a group of people who are all serious about poetry, and also, surprisingly for me, the range of aesthetics,” he said, “Some of which I didn’t think that I liked at first, and didn’t really know how to talk about. But in workshops, as we figure out ways to talk about each other’s work, you really learn to appreciate different things, and learn how to incorporate things into your work that you didn’t think were important before, or weren’t thinking about.”

Writers in the program also take on some academic responsibilities. First and second year students typically take three graduate-level English courses and one graduate-level course outside of the department in addition to preparing a thesis for the end of their second year. Each writer is also assigned to teach two undergraduate courses — one in composition and one in creative writing — in their second year in the program. The studentsturned-teacher develop their own syllabi and generally have little faculty supervision.

After earning their MFA at the end of the second year the students are guaranteed placement in a postgraduate fellowship to spend time writing without academic responsibilities.

“The third year is really when we don’t have any responsibilities, don’t have any teaching or workshops, so we really have the time to get something publishable out there and really complete what we’re working on,” Duval said.

Another important aspect of the program is the Zell Visiting Writers Series, which brings a

different writer to the University every Thursday to perform a public reading of their work at the University of Michigan Museum of Art and conduct small workshops with the program’s MFA students. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley was on campus on April 1st as a part of the series, and past visitors include poets Eduardo C. Corral, Edward Hirsch and Marianne Boruch.

Duval got the opportunity to work one-on-one with Boruch when she came to the University in February.

“She was really fantastic, really sweet,” he said. “She gave me some great advice on some poems that I thought were close to being finished, and also she gave me a miniature notebook ‘to record images in,’ she said. Like when you’re on the bus, conversations you hear, that kind of thing, it was really nice.”

The goal of the Zell Writers’ Program is not, however, to simply provide students with an MFA and send them on their way. The workshops, one-on-one time with established writers and consultation with faculty are aimed at providing some of the best young voices in poetry and fiction with a point of departure into a life of writing and publication.

“Work ethic is really emphasized here — our students are expected to handle quite a lot, which I think will serve them well for rest of their lives,” Levad said.

“As a writer, you have to be so selfdisciplined and so able to manage your time. But I think that we are also particularly tuned in on talking about craft and being really transparent about how talking about poems and stories and novels and essays are put together. If you learn how to read for craft, that’s going to be so instrumental for you in the rest of your writing life.”

For the three years that they’re here, however, the program provides its writers with a community of fellow artists and mentors devoted to their craft that would be hard to recreate anywhere else.

“It’ll be great to know that there’s a group of people out there who I spent my time with, who I’m comfortable with sharing my work with and who are serious about it,” Duval said.“To always be able to have that even if poetry turns into more of a hobby than a career.”

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ver the past two and a half years, I’ve had the great pleasure of developing this column dedicated to good food and the gathering of close friends and family around it.

“The Undergrad Gourmet” — as I’ve come to only half seriously refer to it — has been a source of pure joy in my NATHAN college career WOOD as I’ve connected with my fellow students, University faculty, staff and alumni; and Ann Arbor community members over the culture of cuisine. It’s been the lens through which I’ve focused my perception of the experiences that I’ve had here, and, unapologetically, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Moving into South Quad my freshman year, I remember vividly the hustle and bustle of the move-in-makers, the bright and shining faces of the residentready RAs and the emotions of fear, anticipation and eagerness plastered plainly across my peers’ faces. But even clearer are my memories of the homemade baked goods nervous mothers sent with their kids: “They’ll help you make friends,” they coaxed hopefully. I remember the ecstasy of realizing there was all-you-can-eat food in the dining hall 14 hours a day.

And, of course, I remember the warm and creamy chicken broccoli bake — the truest “Welcome to Michigan!” any student could possibly have.

The Welcome Week to follow had me slurping bubble tea with my roommate and discovering the dive that is Bell’s Pizza. Chicken quesadillas from BTB — nobody knew what it stood for — were

consumed late night en masse.

The quad at Blimpie Burger (RIP?) was conquered, and countless slices of pizza courtesy of Kaplan Test Prep were garnered by pimping out my newly acquired @umich. edu email address.

Not more than a few days later, I found myself stumbling around Festifall, where hoards of candy were thrown my way at every turn as over 1,400 student organizations pined for my supposed a capella voice, Quidditch skills and — yes, it’s true — Bollywood dance moves. I began acclimating myself to the idea/reality of the freshman 15.

Before long, though, I was passing as an upperclassman.

I pretended to understand the course numbers people injected casually into conversation. I had a beard, which helped. And most importantly, I was picking up on where to eat: The Hill Dining Center — “MoJo” — was where you could get sushi. North Quad was for crispy brick oven pizza, West Quad for burritos and Martha Cook for ladies only. (I had to find this one out the hard way.)

Also like an upperclassman, however, I tired quickly of dining hall food (who doesn’t?). Eager to try each and every Ann Arbor eatery classic, my friends and I embarked on a four-year culinary adventure. And as shallow as it sounds, these tasty excursions are what I’m going to remember most fondly about my time here at the University. Playing nose-goes to see which poor sap got the job of running to Jimmy John’s to bring back subs for Professor Nolta’s Friday-night organic chemistry review sessions was a weekly game of luck. Waiting in line in the freezing cold for deep-fried French toast at Angelo’s was a Saturday morning tradition.

Late-night shakes and feta bread at Pizza House. Espresso Royale

lattes — with an extra shot of espresso — during exam weeks.

The occasional Main Street al fresco dinner. And, of course, Zingerman’s Deli.

Then suddenly — BAM: senior year. It’s crept up on me. With so many places left to try — and even more now that I’m 21 (sorry, grandma) — a few of my friends and I form “The Rooftop Club.”

Essentially, we use the customary social celebration of one’s day of birth as an excuse to dress up, head somewhere new and fancy and enjoy a great meal. Usually, to our mutual delight, this occurs at restaurants offering rooftop seating. A little pretentious? Probably.

Totally awesome? Definitely.

Fishbowls and trivia at Charley’s on Wednesday nights. Sangria and a Constant Buzz to share at Dominick’s on warm afternoons. Ashley’s for craft brews and pesto fries. Rod’s Diner for candy-packed colliders. And most recently, fragles — deep-fried raisin bagels coated in cinnamon sugar (oh yes) — after a long, sleepless night of waiting outside in the hopes of getting tickets to see Obama. Does senior year have to end?

But I guess the answer is yes, isn’t it? Just like all good things, this food-filled college journey to adulthood whose final destination I’m oh-so-quickly approaching must come to an end. My solace is that friendships and memories … they don’t.

For the last time, this is the Undergrad Gourmet reminding you to savor each bite: each bite of food, of life, of friendship, of each moment you have at this amazing University. And from here, whatever you eat, whomever you meet and wherever you go, GO BLUE. Wood is moving on up in life. To send encouragement, e-mail nisaacw@umich.edu.

SINGLE REVIEW GScreeching guitar tinged with eloquent desperation and a voice to match – that’s the essence of Jack White’s B career. Listening to the High Ball guitar maestro Stepper do his thing – whether with Jack White The RaconThird Man Records teurs, The White Stripes or his solo work – I rarely give a shit what he sings about.

I mean seriously, who/what the fuck is an “Icky Thump?” I don’t have the answer, but I do know it sounds awesome when White sings about it.

Strangely enough, Jack White’s lead single, “High Ball Stepper,” off his new solo album Lazaretto, is an instrumental track. Lazaretto is White’s second solo album and his first since 2012’s Blunderbuss. When

THIRD MAN RECORDS

I first listened to “High Ball Stepper,” I was expecting something innovative in comparison to his previous work. However, “High Ball Stepper” is less of an instrumental revelation than it is a standard Jack White song – just without his voice. The track is not a failure – it’s always a pleasure to hear him shred – but it doesn’t offer many surprises.

Without his vocals, the track is rendered one dimensional and repetitive. “High Ball Stepper” without White’s signature

vocal touch is like Burt without Ernie, college without ramen, Bill without Monica – it just isn’t right.

“High Ball Stepper” leaves the listener wondering what White is going for on Lazaretto. Is Jack trying to reinvent himself? Will he attempt more surprises – and if so, will they be more successful than his first try? And most importantly, is there a love stain on the ceiling of the oval office? .

—NICK BOYD

the b-side

4B — Thursday, April 3, 2014

SACTION From Page 1B

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ACT TWO — SCENE ONE — INT. APARTMENT, “THRU TRAFFIC” SET – FRIDAY AT 5 p.m.

I walk into the basement of an apartment building off of Washington Street. Various members of the production team sit hunched quietly against the walls on either side of the hallway, and usher me into an apartment to the right. The apartment is devoid of furniture and film equipment leans against the wood paneled walls. Cottage Inn pizza boxes are scattered across the floor, doubling as product placement and sustenance for the crew.

LAYNE SIMESCU stands at one end of the apartment in front of a monitor that is hooked up to the camera. The camerawoman, JACKIE VRESICS sits on the ground next to her, with the monstrous filming device perched on her shoulder. She is small, with a Peter Pan-like air and a checked lady blazer with suede elbow patches. The camera dwarfs her, in comparison.

VRESICS: Let’s start taking it now just in case some movie magic happens.

Enter GRAHAM TECHLER. He is standing over by the door, texting on his cell phone.

SIMESCU: (To Techler) Graham, do you need me to take your phone away?

The crew laughs. Techler puts his phone back in his pocket and sets up for shoot. Two men, the antagonists of the story, enter the door. They punch Techler, who offers them a beer. They kick him until Simescu shouts cut. She asks them to do it just one more time. The crew breaks for dinner. Cottage Inn, again.

TECHLER: In movies, you use the same toolbox and skills as in theater, you just apply them in completely different ways. In stage acting, if something goes wrong the actors have to cover it. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the actors. But in movies, you are acutely aware that you are a small part of a large machine. It’s an extremely humbling experience, being a tiny gear in this movie. I’m relying on them heavily, and they’re relying on my heavily. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

TECHLER’s character, Brendan, is at the center of “Thru Traffic” ’s plot. The story is about the essential spirit of a road trip, as inspired by Jack Kerouac. The story deals with two estranged brothers and a hitchhiker that they pick up, trafficking drugs across the nation from Detroit to Chicago.

MATT MONTGOMERY has been working on this script for three years. From what I’ve gathered, he is a fantastic writer. When his name is mentioned in conversation, it usually accompanies some praise.

MONTGOMERY: None of the characters are ever really at home until they find each other and are able to connect with each other. Brendan is self-isolated, they all are really. Karina is this hitchhiker whose doesn’t want to make any connections, Brendan is just trying to get away and Connor is really caught up in his own world. The idea of “Thru Traffic” is that thru traffic in traffic laws is traffic that is non-residential, the non-home traffic. Throughout the story, they are the thru traffic because they don’t have a sense of home until the end of the script.

The crew reconvenes in the tiny apartment, setting up a different angle of the same scene. The guy holding the boom mic contorts himself into a pose like Atlas, holding the long stick with a ball of fuzz at one end up and over the actors. They run the scene again, and get halfway through when an ambulance drives by outside, sirens blaring. The crew rolls their eyes.

They’ll have to scrap that take and go again. Simescu says a phrase the crew is all too familiar with, “One more time, guys.”

They sigh and resume their positions.

This is how they spend about 12 hours of their Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for 5 weeks until the movie is complete.

END SCENE SCENE TWO — INT. HOUSE, “BAD GIRLS” SET – SUNDAY AT 1 p.m.

I pull into the driveway of the house that “Bad Girls” is shooting in. It is a modern brick house that is virtually transparent — it has floor to ceiling windows in front and in back that look out over the woods. Three deer are wandering, cracking through the brush immediately to my left. They perk their heads and freeze when I lock my car.

The inside of the house is open and airy. The floors are lightwood, the walls white and the windows are the only source of light but they are plenty. The house was recently purchased by a woman who agreed to let the students use it as long as they didn’t bring in any “bad energy.” I’m led into a bedroom that is being constructed carefully by the art crew — they are crafting a queen bed out of a pile of air mattresses and blankets. At first glance I am skeptical about the idea. Ten minutes later there is a fully made bed with a canopy hanging above it in the center of the room. This is a clear example of what is referred to as “movie magic.”

Enter ERIKA HENNINGSEN, dressed in her costume – ripped jeans, a slouchy purple t-shirt. She and actress Lena Drake walk through their scene, rolling around on the multi-mattress bed. Dustin Alpern looks on as they rehearse.

HENNINGSEN: Were those lines right?

ALPERN: I wasn’t paying attention to the lines.

HENNINGSEN: (laughing) Neither was I. Henningsen’s musical theater personality has been toned down over the years for the films she has been part of. Where she once over-acted, now she tones down her emotionality. Her character in “Bad Girls,” Christine, is a shy, meek teenager who is easily manipulated. The part seems the exact opposite of the actress’s true personality.

The story, written by JANET HU, centers on Christine and Sara, the new girl at her school. Christine is drawn into Sara’s scheming ways, which ends up getting them both into trouble.

HU: I look back on high school, kind of wanting to gain independence but not really knowing where the line is, and then you get yourself in over your head. I definitely relate to Christine sometimes, just in floating through life and reacting to it, more than just making it happen. Then eventually you have to decide for yourself.

END OF ACT TWO ACT THREE — INT. NORTH QUAD, RAYHER’S OFFICE — CONTINUED When it comes down to examining this long and grueling process, I am left with one main question — why? Why do these students spend virtually all of their free time making these movies? Why is there a class at this University that cranks out two student films every single year? I see the answer most clearly through a comparison. Musical Theater students put on musicals, art students slave away over gallery openings, music students practice for their concerts and almost everyone else work on their theses. But what do Screen Arts majors have to mark the pinnacle of their college career? The answer is the Traverse City Film Festival.

BURNSTEIN: Six years ago, the Traverse City Film Fest called me and said ‘We’d like you to do something with the film festival.’ ‘What’re you looking for?’ ‘Maybe you could do something with screenwriting.’ And I said ‘Yeah, I’ll do that, but I want you guys to do something for me. We have these two films that come out of this class, and I would love if we had a chance to show ‘em.’ They said yeah, we could do that. So we did, and they were a hit. Michael Moore said to me the next day, ‘So you’re going to do this every year, right?’ And I said ‘deal.’

The tradition has stuck, and for the last six years it has been the motivating factor that drives 423. The students conclude that seeing their names on the big screen more than makes up for losing their weekends and for the most part, their social lives. On July 31, in Traverse City’s City Opera House, their hard work will pay off. For now, they lug cameras, costumes and equipment around Ann Arbor, inhabiting vacant homes and apartments and using movie magic to make local haunts into Hollywood sets.

BURNSTEIN: We tell every class, your job is to raise the bar for the next class. You want to be the best one yet, and you want the next one to be better than you by the example you set. That’s how you get great.

FADE OUT