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TECHNOLOGY
Internet security flaw affects ‘U’ ITS staff scrambles to protect Wolverine Access, CTools after high-stakes breach By SAM GRINGLAS Virginia Lozano/DAILY Public Policy sophomore Nina Peluso performs with the A capella group Amazin’ Blue during the Diversity Monologues at Literati Bookstore Wednesday.
Performances look at campus climate Event series ends with exploration of misrepresented identities By AMIA DAVIS Daily Staff Reporter
On Wednesday, the LSA Honors Program hosted an event aimed to explore a broad
range of identities on campus that are perceived as being ignored or misrepresented. The title of Wednesday’s Diversity Monologues, which was the concluding event in the program’s series, was “Words from ‘Victors.’ ” LSA junior Harleen Kaur, LSA senior Alexa Wright and LSA senior Brianna Kovan organized the event, which was held at the Literati Bookstore at 124 E. Washington St.
Wright said the event helped improve relationships between students and staff by providing a safe space for students to speak and learn more about different identities at the University. “We thought this would be a great, creative way for students to express their thoughts, and we really wanted to tie it in to what it means to be here at the University,” Wright said. See DIVERSITY, Page 3A
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The University’s Information and Technology Services staff are working to combat a security flaw that left sensitive information on some of the Internet’s most visited sites — as well as key University portals — vulnerable to prying eyes. The flaw was first discovered last week by Finnish researchers and engineers at Google and made public Monday. But unlike the December Target security breach in which thousands of credit card numbers were stolen from the retailer’s servers, this particular finding — now nicknamed “Heartbleed” — stemmed from a coding error in a standard Internet security platform. Though it’s uncertain whether any passwords or data were compromised by the flaw, major websites such as Facebook,
Google, Yahoo and Amazon quickly patched the defective code, The New York Times reported. Many others are scrambling to prevent data theft and secure their affected servers. In an interview Wednesday evening, Paul Howell, the University’s chief security officer, said Information and Technology Services staff had fixed most of the affected University’s sites Monday, including Wolverine Access and CTools. “The severity of the issue was apparent and teams here and at many universities have been working around the clock to get servers patched and to get fixes in place,” Howell said. OpenSSL, the affected software, is a toolkit included in many webserver programs, such as Apache, that is designed to encrypt communication between web browsers and servers. Michael Bailey, an associate research professor of electrical engineering and computer science, said OpenSSL is a tool that is supposed to keep Internet users secure. For example, OpenSSL prevents others from eaves-
BUSINESS
RESEARCH
Students build app to keep track of friends Student-launched app ‘Merge’ shows others’ free time By ARIANA ASSAFF Daily Staff Reporter
Early on in their freshman year, Business sophomores Daniel Steinmetz and Brandon Alster discovered how hard it could be to connect with friends on short notice. Oftentimes, they’d find themselves spending time between classes reaching out to friends who were already busy, and they needed something that could instantly tell them which friends were available. In January 2013, Steinmetz and Alster began brainstorming ideas for a project they would come to call Merge — a social networking app that allows college students to instantly compare schedules — designed to make meeting up with friends quick and easy. Steinmetz and Alster enlisted University alum Josh Sklar and LSA junior Nathan Pilcowitz, an iOS designer, in April 2013 to bring the app to life. Now, students can use Merge to meet friends for coffee, plan group projects and find out what friends are up to.
The current version of Merge includes a buddy list that shows users which of their friends are available at any given time. Students can message available friends through the app, and create “events” to designate a time and place to meet. The app also has a comprehensive list of courses that students can add to their unique profiles. Steinmetz and Alster used public databases to load most course information into their app, while classes in the Business school and the School of Information had to be manually loaded. “Merge is for the busy, driven college student who wants to stay social, but wants to save a lot of time doing so too,” Alster said. As of the Fall 2014 semester, Merge had accumulated 1,500 users. They released a video on Monday to explain and promote the app. For now, Merge is a nonprofit endeavor. Steinmetz and Alster said their priority is creating a good product and increasing their user base. Until recently, they were paying out-of-pocket to get their idea off the ground. “We believed in the idea, but didn’t have all this money to spend on an app,” Alster said. “We figured if we could get an investor, it’d be worth it.” See APP , Page 3A
dropping on communication between a professor entering grades in CTools from his or her browser and the University’s server that runs CTools. It ensures no one else can modify the grades between the professor’s input and their registry in CTools and lets the professor know it’s really CTools, and not an imposter site, into which the sensitive information is being entered. The same principles apply to a student using Facebook. OpenSSL ensures information disseminated between one’s Internet browser and Facebook server is done so securely. But websites using the March 2012 version of OpenSSL have not been protected due to the coding error that — unknown until last week — has existed since the version’s release and has left scores of websites vulnerable for more than two years. While there are different security programs and versions available, The New York Times estimated the flaw in OpenSSL 2012 versions affects two-thirds of Internet sites. According to a study conducted Tuesday by Bailey and Alex See INTERNET, Page 3A
‘U’ to lead new nuclear monitoring coalition Grant program aims to modernize Non-Proliferation Treaty enforcement By TOM MCBRIEN Daily Staff Reporter
Terra Molengraff/DAILY Johan Mackenbach, professor and chair for the Department of Public Health at the Erasmus University Medical Center, speaks about health policy in European countries at the School of Public Health Wednesday.
International professors discuss healthcare concerns Speakers outline challenges of European health disparities By JULIA LISS Daily Staff Reporter
Two speakers gave a joint lecture Wednesday on international health policies at the University’s
School of Public Health, drawing around 40 graduate students and faculty. Johan Mackenbach, professor of public health at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, spoke of the recent divergence of life expectancy in Europe and possible explanations for such a trend. Mackenbach said the trends, which show health disparity based on national income gaps, are the result of a variety of
cultural factors. Using charts, graphs and other data to help illustrate his point, Mackenbach showed that periods of democracy had historically higher life expectancies, while periods of more chaotic political climates showed dips in the life expectancies. Mackenbach outlined 11 specific areas of focus for health policies, including tobacco control, alcohol control, child health See HEALTHCARE, Page 3A
Few scenarios are more terrifying than the possibility of a nuclear war or terror attack. But thanks to a federal grant, the University is leading a consortium that will develop cutting-edge technology and methods for nonproliferation efforts in the U.S. and worldwide. The University received a $25 million grant from the Department of Energy to lead the 13-university consortium in improving technologies for monitoring nuclear materials, developing new methods to detect secret nuclear tests, analyzing current nonproliferation efforts and training the next generation of experts in the field. Engineering Associate Prof. Sara Pozzi has been selected as the director of the program, which is called the Center for Verification Technologies. “There are threats from See NUCLEAR, Page 3A
the fashion b-side
An in-depth look at the SHEI student runway show at the ‘U’ » INSIDE WEATHER TOMORROW
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2A — Thursday, April 10, 2014
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Professor Profiles
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
THURSDAY: Alumni Profiles
FROM PROTESTING VIETNAM TO INVESTIGATING DISEASE
but we drove all night one night to March on Washington to protest the war. That was pretty exciting — there were so many people in Washington. We stayed out of legal trouble but there was a lot going on.
Do you have any interesting or funny stories from your time here?
I basically did four years there (at the University) as an undergrad and then I did four years there in Medical School and then I did three years there as a resident in internal medicine. So when I left there I went to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. My goal was to be a medical doctor involved in
From the years I was there, it’s clear that I was there during the Vietnam War protests and the marches on Washington, which I participated in. Those aren’t really extracurricular activities
What was your career trajectory after graduating?
‘Thrones’
Costa Rica
BY CHLOE GILKE AND ALEX
BY TOM MCBRIEN
INTNER
What was your involvement in that? We saw some of the first cases of AIDS here at the National Institutes of Health. And I began (by being) invery involved in studying patients with AIDS and working to develop better treatments, understanding disease mechanisms, traveling to places where there was a particular problem with the disease to also get a better understanding of it. —MAX RADWIN
2 Chainz
THE WIRE
THE FILTER
research. I arrived at NIH in 1979 and was studying immunology and infectious diseases and that was exactly the time that the AIDS epidemics started to emerge.
Arts columnists Chloe Gilke and Alex Intner recap the most recent season of HBO’s fantasy series, “Game of Thrones.” They’re hoping for more of Daenerys, find Tyrion quick-witted and are interested in Oberyn, a new character.
The president-elect of Costa Rica studied at the University from 1983 to 1985 on a Fulbright Scholarship. This election shocked voters as Luis Guillermo Solís hails from neither main political party. Instead, Solís’ party aims to curb corruption and income inequality.
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
SPORTS
SpringFest
Lacrosse loss
BY ALICIA ADAMCZYK
BY BRANDON HANDELSMAN
Live music, TED talks, giveaways, Solar Car demos, food trucks and more will be showcased at SpringFest today. The sponsoring group, MUSIC Matters, advocate more than just a 2 Chainz performance; it will raise thousands for charity. >> FOR MORE, SEE PAGE 5A
Michigan women’s lacrosse lost Wednesday to Brown 19-10, in Providence, R.I. The players said they were proud of their teamwork, but the young squad — comprised entirely of freshmen — is experiencing loss after loss.
WHAT: Highlighting the conclusion of SpringFest 2014, students have the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets to see the rapper 2 Chainz perform. Tickets can be purchased at the Michigan Union Ticket Office or online. WHO: MUSIC Matters WHEN: Tonight at 8 p.m. WHERE: Hill Auditorium
Film screening WHAT: There will be a screening of the feature “Wilaya”, a film by Pedro Perez Rosado that examines the struggles of one girl as she returns to her family in an Algerian refuge camp after living in Spain for 16 years. WHO: Department of Romance Languages & Literature WHEN: Today at 7 p.m. WHERE: North Quad, space 2435
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Matt Armstrong is held by his mother during the Songs of Love concert for children with chronic illnesses. The Dicks and Janes a capella group recorded a song for him in Angell Hall Wednesday.
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Alum studied AIDS in ‘80s H. Clifford Lane is the deputy director for Clinical Research and Special Projects at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD. He received his B.A. in 1972 and M.D. in 1976, both at the University. He served in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps from 1979 to 2008.
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UMMA student night WHAT: Students are invited for this fun-filled event featuring a variety of hands-on activities and other entertainment. WHO: UMMA WHEN: Tonight from 8 to 11 p.m. WHERE: UMMA, Apse room CORRECTIONS l “Professor inducted to the 2014 Internet Hall of Fame” stated Douglas Van Houweling, associate dean of the School of Information still serves as the CEO of Internet2. He left the position in 2010 and now works fulltime at the University. It also incorrectly stated that he authored the book “Higher Education in the Digital Age,” which is authored by William Bowen, the former president of Princeton University.
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
1
Australian authorities detected new electronic signals thought to have originated from the wreckage of Flight 370, CNN reported Wednesday. They said the new evidence suggests the plane will be located “in the not too distant future.”
2
Michael Schramm discusses his experience as a Christian and homosexual man. Schramm analyzes the Bible’s language to gauge why religion views homosexuality as a sin. >> FOR MORE, SEE OPINION, PAGE 4A
3
Toyota announced a worldwide recall of more than six million vehicles Wednesday in light of potential airbag conerns, The New York Times reported. This brings the company’s U.S. recall total for 2014 to almost three million.
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County Circuit Judge to Student duo places second direct Dearborn program in national debate contest Shelton leaves bench for role in criminal justice program By SHOHAM GEVA Daily Staff Reporter
After 24 years of service, Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton announced Tuesday that he will step down in four months early to take a position at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus. Shelton will be the new director of Dearborn’s criminal justice program and an associate professor starting in the Fall 2014 term. Shelton’s term as judge was set to expire Jan. 1, 2015 but will now end Sep. 1, 2014. In an interview Wednesday, Sudoku Syndication Shelton said stepping down wasn’t an easy decision, with or without the last four months of his term.
“Leaving the bench is always a difficult decision, like leaving anything else you’ve done for almost a quarter of a century,” Shelton said. ”But frankly, four months difference doesn’t change any of those feelings. I’ve enjoyed being a judge, but I’ve been preparing for and looking forward to being a teacher for a long time.” Shelton has previously held positions as an adjunct professor in several fields, including criminology and political science, at Eastern Michigan University and Cooley Law School. He also served on Eastern Michigan’s Board of Regents from 1987 to 1990 and was the mayor of Saline from 1978 to 1986. As the director of the criminal justice program, Shelton said his plan for his first semester is to learn as much as he can. “One of the things I learned a long time ago is that when you come into a new program
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Team records best season finish for University since 1991
the first thing you should do is be a sponge and keep quiet and listen,” Shelton said. “That’s my first objective for the first semester I’m there.” After that, he said he’d like By MAYA KALMAN to increase focus on forensic science, which is his area of Daily Staff Reporter research specialty. Business junior Ellis Allen Barry Pyle, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan and LSA junior Alex Pappas University, said Shelton has protook home the second place title at the 2014 National Debate vided valuable contributions to the department at EMU as an Tournament on March 31 at adjunct professor and is qualiIndiana University. fied for a full time academic Allen and Pappas defeated position. Harvard University in the “Judge Shelton has opened up semifinals and narrowly lost his chambers to a number of our to Georgetown University in students to work closely with the final round, earning the him while he was a judge to give University second place for the them hands on experience,” Pyle first time since 1991. said. “He was able to take a lot of Aaron Kall, who has served as his real life experience into the director of the debate team since http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ classroom here on campus and 2010, said Pappas and Allen’s give students a realistic view of time commitment and efficiency what it’s like to be in a circuit are what allowed them to come court dealing with drugs, and this far. crime, and family law issues.” “Work ethic is something This term would have been that’s very important and our Shelton’s last as a judge even if debaters spend a lot of time he hadn’t chosen to accept the researching the topic and Dearborn position. Michigan spending time practicing so law prevents individuals at or I think that’s something that over the age of 70 from being really sets us apart,” Kall said. elected or appointed to a judicial Kall said the most dedicated position. debaters spend 20 to 40 hours Local lawyers Veronique Liem and Mike Woodyard announced plans earlier this year to run for his seat. Judge Darlene A. O’Brien, who serves alongside Shelton on the court, said that Shelton has been a strong leader and an asset to the citizens of Washtenaw County during his time on the court. “Judge Shelton will be missed, but I’m equally certain that he’ll TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) add great value to the University — No additional gray wolves will of Michigan-Dearborn’s be transplanted to Isle Royale Criminal Justice program,” National Park for now, the park’s O’Brien said. top manager said Wednesday, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder despite concerns that the Lake will be responsible for appointSuperior island chain’s dwining someone to fill the seat for dling and inbred population the four months left in Shelton’s might not survive much longer. term after he steps down in SepAfter consulting with experts tember. and reviewing comments from
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each week preparing for debate, while also maintaining high grades as full-time students. The average GPA of the debate team was about 3.75 last semester. Pappas said the team’s willingness to work hard and the vast resources the University has to offer were also important in the team’s success. “I really think the resources of Michigan are sort of what allows us to excel,” he said. “I think my partner and I have just invested so much time and that we’re pretty darn good at it.” Allen added that the team’s success could also be attributed to the initiative of the students on the team. “I think it’s one of the more student-driven ones,” he said. “There are a lot of teams out there who have phenomenal coaching staffs but everything, all the work we put out is student-motivated here and that also gives us a lot of creative control over what we do.” Both Allen and Pappas agreed that success at debate is based on the amount of work you put in, beginning early in the year and continuing throughout. “I think its just preparation, preparation, preparation,” Pappas said. “It can be a single
piece of evidence that’s the difference between winning and losing.” The University has participated in the National Debate Tournament since 1971, winning second place three times, but has never taken home the championship. Nevertheless, Kall is optimistic about next year, given that Pappas and Allen will have the opportunity to build off their success going into their senior season. “They’ve got a great chance, probably as good a chance as anyone next year to win the national title, to win that final debate, and so we’re really looking forward to next year as well,” Kall said. Pappas and Allen both said they hope to win the National Debate Championship next year and win the Copeland Award, an award for the top-ranked national team of the year. “We kind of hope for this great end of the season,” Kall said. “But close defeat just motivates our students to work harder, to spend more time practicing, more time on research, and to kind of get them motivated to just take it to that very next and final level next year to win the national championship.”
Park declines additional wolves With population dwindling, officials promise new plan
the public, Isle Royale Superintendent Phyllis Green said staffers will develop a management plan that considers the wolves’ long-term survival prospects and their interactions with moose. The two species’ predator-prey relationship is the subject of one of the world’s longest scientific studies of its type, now in its 56th year. It will take about three years to craft the plan, which also will focus on park vegetation and the effects of climate change, Green said. Officials could reconsider augmenting the wolf population
if gender imbalance prevents them from reproducing or if moose begin overbrowsing trees and bushes, stripping them of leaves and needles. “As long as there’s a breeding population, we’re going to let these animals have a chance to live their lives without us intervening,” Green said. Scientists, park officials and wildlife advocates are divided over whether to attempt a rescue of the wolves, a popular attraction for visitors even though most never glimpse the wily creatures.
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APP From Page 1A Merge secured its first investor in the beginning of March, and plans to start hiring students to help expand Merge to other schools. During the process of developing Merge, Steinmetz and Alster realized they weren’t the only ones with an idea for another social networking app. However, Steinmetz said, “it’s not always who does it first, it’s who does it right first.” They plan to add more new features to Merge over the sum-
NUCLEAR From Page 1A nuclear weapons that are real,” Pozzi said. “There are nations that are trying to develop overt, or even covert, nuclear weapons programs. There’s also the possibility that terrorists might acquire and use nuclear weapons. And these are interrelated problems, so the consortium will address these big issues.” The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970, has three major tenets: disarmament by current nuclear countries, nonproliferation for non-nuclear countries and the right of all countries to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. Of the world’s 195 countries, 190 have signed the treaty. Notable exceptions are India, Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan and North Korea, which withdrew in 2003. The Center will monitor these countries, as well as nations that have signed the treaty, and look at geophysical models of the effects of nuclear explosions. Secret underground nuclear tests cause shaking in the ground that has a different signature than earthquakes. New research
HEALTHCARE From Page 1A and road traffic injury. He said countries that have more preventative health policies — contrary to most U.S. delivery models — showed fewer instances of health problems related to each area of concern. For example, he said countries with stricter tobacco control regulations and preventative measures to discourage smoking had fewer smokers, lower cigarette sales and fewer smoking-related health issues in the population. Mackenbach discussed possible reasons for the existing disparities. He found that many countries which could benefit from improved healthcare models often
INTERNET From Page 1A Halderman, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, 3.7 percent of the top one million Internet sites have been vulnerable to attack. “The Internet is not falling down or coming to an end,” Bailey said. “The vulnerability exists because someone made a coding error.” Howell said the problem was not well known, but now that the code for the security hole is public — made available in part for IT staff to test the efficacy of patching efforts — there is increased likelihood of others gaining access to sensitive information. “This week there is definitely
DIVERSITY From Page 1A The event featured performances by students who wrote creative pieces addressing the issue of certain identities being ignored or misrepresented at the University. The event also featured guest performances by The Harmonettes, the University’s first female a cappella group and Amazin’ Blue, the University’s oldest co-ed a cappella group. The creative works tackled topics like weight and appearance, mental health, financial and academic discrimination, misogyny, sexuality and race.
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mer while expanding to more schools like Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. One major addition involves a Snapchat-like function that will allow users to select multiple buddies to Merge with, creating an event for everyone that’s available. And, similar to the Venmo app, a triple newsfeed will allow users to easily keep track of private interactions, interactions among just their Merge buddy list or public interactions that any Merge user can see. “The biggest part of the feature is that you can make it pub-
lic, private, or for your friends,” Steinmetz said. “We think it’s really fun to look through this and see what our friends are paying each other for. You get to see what people are up to.” Updates to the app will also allow users to classify their events, enabling others to join public events. Because Merge is designed as a daily scheduler more than a long-term calendar, the developers decided against synching users’ Merge schedules with other calendars, as some other social networking apps have done.
could help agencies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, detect these specific geophysical signatures, alerting them that a country is conducting illegal tests. Another important arm of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will allow nations to pursue nuclear energy without developing nuclear weapons. But monitoring nuclear material to ensure that it is not enriched into weapons-grade forms such as plutonium, uranium-233 and uranium-235 is currently a timeintensive and costly enterprise that relies on quickly disappearing materials. Current detection systems rely on a material called helium-3, which is growing increasingly rare because it was manufactured largely as a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing. Researchers from the Center hope to create new detection devices that rely on specific emissions of neutrons — small particles that make up atoms — to detect enriched radioactive material. Researchers also said they hope the new technology would enable inspectors to monitor nuclear material without open-
ing containers — a much safer, faster, easier and less expensive alternative. Seismological testing and verification systems are only a part of what the Center will focus on. As the chief scientist of the project, Engineering Prof. David Wehe is in charge of defining the “Grand Challenges” and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. “This is a daunting task because the CVT engages seismology, radiation detection, infrasound, optics, satellite sensing and imagery, intelligence gathering, big data mining, and policy,” Wehe wrote in an e-mail interview. “CVT seeks to direct research in these diverse fields to meet a single mission area: nuclear verification.” Pozzi said the University is a great choice to lead the consortium due to its history of excellence in nuclear and radiological studies. “Michigan had the first nuclear engineering program in the nation,” Pozzi said. “We had some of the founding fathers of nuclear radiation detection. One of them is Prof. Glenn Knoll, who is now an emeritus professor, and he will be sitting on my advisory board.”
possess the means to do so, but are stymied by the political, social and cultural climate of the country. John Frank, director of the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy and chair of Public Health Research & Policy at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, delivered the second address, titled “Influencing Child Health Policies with Scientific Evidence: Lessons from 5 Years in Scotland.” His lecture aimed to demonstrate the importance of early access to education on an individual’s health and future success. Frank said early education implementation is the single most important indicator for a child’s future. “You can make people’s chances in life much more equal in only one
really cost effective way, and that is giving universal preschool high quality education, half day a week from age two, age one in high risk families,” Frank said. Frank proposed a plan to combat societal challenges through education, while addressing some of the concerns of implementing potential reforms. Public Health Prof. George Kaplan acted as the moderator and he introduced both Mackenbach and Frank’s speeches and led a question and answer session after each speaker. The Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, the University’s Robert Johnson Foundation Scholar’s in Health Policy Program and the Center for Social Epidemiology of Population Health sponsored the event.
added risk,” he said. However, Bailey said it’s impossible to know whether or not data, such as passwords or pin numbers, was stolen during the two years prior to patching the flaw. Since the flaw’s discovery, University ITS staff worked to individually patch the codes for the University’s large portfolio of webservers and sites. Howell said it’s difficult to estimate how many sites were affected and how many are yet to be repaired, since information technology at the University is largely decentralized. ITS officials in individual academic units have been notified on how to fix the issues and most main sites were fixed Monday, but it’s possible there are still sites affected by the problem that have yet to be identified. While the University recom-
mends people change their passwords at least biannually, Howell said ITS officials have not yet decided whether they will send out an e-mail to notify faculty, students and staff to change their uniqname passwords in light of the flaw. He added that users might see an influx of phishing e-mails, which are scam messages posing as University official that prompt recipients to provide passwords and other personal information, and warned students to beware of any suspicious correspondence. “I think it’s probably a good idea for folks to change their password,” Bailey said. “Whether or not I actually believe the University of Michigan lost information, I wouldn’t bet money on it. But good password hygiene has you changing your high-value passwords all the time.”
The event also discussed the issues of some students who do not feel they are “Victors” at the University. Rohit Sreedharan, a researcher at the University’s Pediatrics and Endocrinology department, said the part of the event that stood out to him the most was the criticism some performers used against the University. “You see all of the signs around that portray how the University ignores a lot of stuff going on under the table that you don’t really know about until you go to these events,” Sreedharan said. Sreedharan added that the event opened his eyes to the issue of diversity on campus.
LSA sophomore Grace Fisher said the range of backgrounds impressed her the most. “There definitely needs to be more dialogue about diversity at the University,” Fisher said. “This is an important step … and I hope that in the future, events like this will have wider audiences.” Even though this was the last Diversity Monologues event of the semester, Kaur said she hopes to continue the series in the future. “This is definitely something that we want to keep going and have it as the staple of the Honors program,” Kaur said.
Thursday, April 10, 2014 — 3A
Research makes smell a new technique for marketing An imagined sense discovered to sway consumers’ opinion of a product By JULIA LISS Daily Staff Reporter
A University professor has discovered a way to use an imagined sense of smell to enhance advertisements for food. Business Prof. Aradhna Krishna has made progress in her research on sensory marketing strategies, a field that she defined as “marketing that engages consumers’ senses and affects peoples’ behavior using subconscious triggers.” Krishna is the director of the Sensory Marketing Lab at the Ross School of Business. Research at
the lab aims to show that olfactory imagery can be used to improve the efficacy of certain advertisements when paired with strong visual images. Temple University Professor Maureen Morrin, who worked on Krishna’s team, said the research could increase the effectiveness of ads. However, the research is currently in such early phases that companies are not yet incorporating the findings to attract customers. “We would love it if advertisers took notice and started incorporating a call to the consumer to imagine the odor of their products,” Morrin said. Olfactory imagery, or “smellizing” as Krishna and her team call it, allows consumers to imagine a smell that they are not actually experiencing, much like visualizing something you are not looking
at. Krishna said the existence of olfactory imagery has been a matter of controversy within the academic community for a long time, but now there is more certainty of its existence. Researchers ran fMRI studies to see which parts of the brain are active when smelling an actual scent compared with smellizing. Results show that the brain activity is identical in both scenarios, which researchers claim is olfactory imagery at work. To further their understanding of the phenomenon, Krishna’s lab tested whether people found hand warmers and coolers more effective if they had a congruent warm or cold smell injected into them. They found that hand warmers with warm smells like pumpkin spice were more effective than ones impregnated with a smell like sea-island cotton.
Detroit reaches bankruptcy deal with $388M in bonds Decision is only a small fraction of overall case DETROIT (AP) — The city of Detroit reached a deal in bankruptcy over $388 million in bonds, mediators announced Wednesday, a significant agreement that could influence other creditors to try to get a settlement. Detroit will pay 74 cents for each dollar. Roughly $50 million in tax revenue that won’t be needed to pay the balance instead will go to a fund to help low-income retirees who are expected to see smaller checks when the bankruptcy case ends. The deal still needs the blessing of Judge Steven Rhodes and is only a small part of the $18 billion case, the largest bankruptcy by a local government in U.S. history. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, appointed by the state to run the city, said he hopes to announce more deals soon. “It’s important that people get on the bandwagon,” Orr told The Associated Press, referring to other creditors, especially unions, who have been privately meeting with the city and mediators.
Earlier, on CNBC, Orr said he doesn’t want to turn to a “cramdown,” a bankruptcy term that gives a judge sweeping power to settle disputes. The aid for low-income retirees was welcomed by a spokesman for the police and fire pension fund. “However, whether the settlement as a whole is advantageous to the city and to the retirement systems — we just do not know,” Bruce Babiarz said. Detroit hopes to exit bankruptcy by October, but the city’s plan first faces a series of court hearings in summer. The most divisive issue: cuts to pensions. The city is proposing a 6 percent cut for retired police officers and firefighters, and a 26 percent cut for other retirees. The difference is tied to the health of the two pension funds. The size of those cuts assumes that foundations, the state of Michigan and other philanthropists contribute $816 million to help pensioners and prevent the sale of city-owned art. If retirees and city employees reject the cuts, the outside money vanishes and pensions would be slashed even more. Anthony Sabino, a bankruptcy expert and St. John’s University
law professor, said the bond deal is a “good sign of progress” in the case. “We call that taking a haircut,” he said. “That’s fairly typical for bondholders in a corporate bankruptcy. There usually is a restatement of terms, and the bondholders take some kind of reduction.” Bondholders earlier had been offered 15 cents on the dollar, but Orr said there was a risk that the city would lose access to a property tax earmarked for debt if it didn’t make a better deal. Separately, a group of creditors with eyes on Detroit’s art said it has found buyers willing to pay more than $1 billion for parts or all of the collection. Creditors are asking the judge to order Orr to cooperate with interested parties. New York-based Art Capital Group said it would arrange $2 billion in loans to Detroit with art at the Detroit Institute of Arts used as collateral. Orr, however, told AP he’s not interested and will stick with a plan to raise money from foundations and the state. “We’ve committed ourselves to that bargain. No one can compel the city to sell assets,” Orr said.
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Opinion
4A — Thursday, April 10, 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
A matter of morals Michigan shouldn’t need an economic basis to ban discrimination
T
he Business Leaders for Michigan have recently thrown their support behind the banning of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. These leaders have rationalized their support on the basis of an economic argument, claiming that states who limit this kind of discrimination in the workplace would increase the number of qualified individuals, a principle which could be applied to Michigan. While this rationalization is sound, an economic argument shouldn’t be the only reason for the banning of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act was passed in 1976, prohibiting employment, housing or public accommodation discrimination on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status or marital status. The bill doesn’t, however, cover discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or expression. Business Leaders for Michigan recently voiced their support for the expansion of this bill to include such sexual orientation discrimination under the purview of the law. Their reasoning is an economic one: with the goal of making the state one of the top business competitors in the country, banning discrimination will aid in attracting qualified job candidates and work to make all applicants feel welcome in the Michigan workplace. A recent Michigan Department of Civil Rights survey discovered that a discriminatory climate in the Michigan workplace is driving professionals and college graduates out of the state as well as making Michigan a less welcoming place for non-natives, thus
hurting the Michigan economy as a whole. While an economic argument can and is being made for the expansion of antidiscrimination legislation, discrimination of any kind should not be tolerated for any reason. The CEOs are creating a catalyst for social change, which will greatly benefit the state and its population, but Michigan’s citizens should take it upon themselves to initiate this change as a matter or moral imperative. The state needs to step up and end discrimination. This change needs to be brought about by more than just the corporate world aiming to increase their profits and better their reputation in the business world. A social component needs to be included in this move for social change. The Business Leaders of Michigan are supporting societal change that must be accepted by the state of Michigan writ large for the betterment of our society and the acceptance of any and all current and potential residents of the state of Michigan.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Barry Belmont, Edvinas Berzanskis, David Harris, 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, Meher Walia, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
No such thing as a healthy selfie
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ast November, Oxford Dictionaries announced “selfie” as its international Word of the Year 2013, an award given to either a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year. Its research reveals that the frequency of the word “selfie” in the English language has increased by 17,000 percent since late 2012. LAUREN Searching #selfie MCCARTHY on Instagram renders 97,032,845 posts, and is followed closely by related hashtags such as #selfiesunday, #selfienation, #selfiesfordays and #selfiecentral. For $1.29, fans of the songwriting duo The Chainsmokers can download their #14 song on iTunes, “#SELFIE.” The song tops the charts with profound lyrical insights such as “But first, let me take a selfie,” “Can you guys help me pick a filter? I don’t know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia, I wanna look tan,” “What should my caption be?” and “I only got 10 likes in the last five minutes, do you think I should take it down?” I wish I were making these things up. The Huffington Post recently reported on Britain’s first victim of a selfie addiction with a headline that reads, “Selfie Addiction Is No Laughing Matter, Psychiatrists Say.” Nineteen-year-old Danny Bowman allegedly dropped out of school and did not leave his house for six months in pursuit of capturing the perfect selfie. He apparently dedicated about 10 hours a day taking up to 200 pictures of himself on his iPhone. Unsatisfied with his efforts, Bowman attempted to take his own life. The article quotes psychiatrist Dr. David Veale, whose clinic treated Bowman’s addiction, remarking, “Danny’s case is particularly extreme, but this is a serious problem. It’s not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health one which has an extremely high suicide rate.” It is apparent that “selfies’” sovereignty will outlive its allotted year-long reign, as it has warranted a chart-topping ballad and has been allocated an entire day on Instagram in its dedication. The downside is that though amusing and often celebrated, “selfies” are yet another societal trend that while seemingly entertaining and inconsequential, can be taken to toxic extremes.
With the popularity of selfies and Instagram came the subsequent invention of apps like Skinnee Pix, which can trim anywhere from five to 15 pounds of virtual fat off your selfies — simply exacerbating the issue at hand. In an article for Psychology Today, Dr. Pamela Rutledge explains that taking selfies can be detrimental to a person’s mental health and that indulging in them is indicative of narcissism, low self-esteem, attention-seeking behavior and self-indulgence. The idea that taking selfies may possibly be responsible for a variety of troubling mental health issues will likely not be met with acceptance by a society enthralled by technology and personal gadgets. Rutledge mentions that some experts and physicians even feel that society is collectively engaged in deep denial about how dangerous it is to interact with screens without setting limits on how much time is spent doing so — and I would not disagree. Her concession to “put aside your anxieties over rampant narcissism and the moral decline of the digital generation and exhale … like every trend, the behavior will recede when the excitement and newness wears off,” however, I take issue with. Selfies are just the most recent installment of technological trends, and when its “excitement and newness wears off” another social media craze or application is bound to take its place. Though media fads are nothing new to American society, the intense vulnerability and insecurity that social networking and personal technologies induce is both alarming and troubling. Are we setting the stage for coming generations to be hypersensitive to and misunderstanding of communication, self-representation, self-indulgence and their appearance? Our generation inherited these technologies in our teens, but how will it affect the 5 and 6-year-old children who already know how to take selfies on their parents’ Macbooks, iPads and iPhones? Will we raise children who are permanently fixated on themselves, seeking self-validation through ‘likes’ rather than intellect or wit, capturing “the moment” by recording simply their own appearance and perpetually living out of touch with their surroundings? — Lauren McCarthy can be reached at laurmc@umich.edu.
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Christianity’s g(r)ay area
n getting to know me, many people are surprised that I’m Christian. In an already religiously unaffiliated society, LGBTQ members are twice as likely to have no affiliation. This trend makes sense MICHAEL considering SCHRAMM 73 percent of Christians believe homosexuality is a sin. The argument — one that’s been passed down for generations — is pretty easy to understand. The Bible is God’s word, and therefore the entirety of its content is rules for us to follow. Since a number of Bible verses (arguably between six and 12) condemn homosexual relations, Christianity condemns homosexuality. But do these verses condemn homosexuality? Many hear the argument in my last paragraph, skim through the verses and immediately write homosexuality off. To an extent, I can understand why they’d reach this conclusion. First, they’ve probably always heard that homosexuality is sinful, so they have no reason to think otherwise. Second, with verses like “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination,” it’s easy to make quick assumptions. Contrary to popular belief, these verses don’t concretely condemn homosexuality. Regardless of which verse you’re reading, it’s important to note they discuss only male homosexual sex. I won’t bore you with each verse, but a simple Googling of “homosexuality verses” proves this point. There is a logical explanation for only addressing sex. During biblical times, homosexual relations consisted predominantly of older men with boys and men with their male slaves. These sexual acts were often forms of rape to show dominance, so it makes sense why the Bible would condemn “practiced homosexuality.” This explanation also illuminates why these verses address homosexual men. Only one verse arguably addresses women’s homosexuality, yet even this verse contains ambiguity in its reference to
lesbian acts. These acts were culturally irrelevant to women, so the Bible didn’t need to address them. If these verses are addressing homosexual acts of domination, this means that the Bible never addresses homosexual relationships. There’s a reason for this — these relationships rarely, if ever, existed. Marriages were dictated by parents, and parents based marriages on familial connections, financial gain and land. Love was frequently subordinate to benefitting the family. Therefore, homosexual relationships were outside cultural norms. For example, the man’s parents were expected to provide the woman and her parents a dowry of money and gifts. If two men tried to marry, this essential marriage tradition would become muddled. Customs like these created an expectation that men marry women, so relationships complicating the traditions weren’t given serious thought. Nowadays, relationships are different. We typically choose long-term relationships based on a romantic connection, and since my previous argument assumes the Bible doesn’t condemn homosexual relationships, the Christian religion should have no problem with homosexual relationships. I wish that I could dedicate more words to this argument because there’s so much more to discuss. Unfortunately, I need to spend my remaining 400 words saying other things. Like how it’s not fair that Christians judge me for my lifestyle. I know for a fact that part of my community looks down on my pursuit of another young gentleman. It stings because some of these people are my friends, yet they seldom make the effort to hear my position — let alone take it seriously. Though they won’t challenge my belief to my face, I know from enough sources that it’s a topic they’ve discussed with each other. They see me going against the church’s opinion, so they assume I’m wrong. But the truth of the matter is, I don’t think I’m wrong, and I shouldn’t feel shame for believing I’m right. My reasoning stems from more than my opinion benefitting my personal life. I’ve done my biblical research, and
I hold my belief because it takes the Bible — Christianity’s ultimate frame — into consideration. Since many hold the opposite stance because “that’s what we’ve always believed,” I would even argue that my opinion is more God-rooted than theirs. However, this doesn’t mean that I’m judging your opinion if it’s different than mine. It saddens me that many have opposite beliefs on a subject so important to my life, but if your stance stems from a clear and argumentative interpretation, I’ll respect your belief. I’ll even hear out what you have to say. Likewise, though, it’s only fair that you hear my argument, and when I settle into a relationship, it’s not your place to assume my decisions are swinful. Like any other Christian, I’m merely following what I believe is right. Because — besides the biblical arguments — I feel God directing me on this path, and I’ve felt this for a long time. For too many evenings than he can remember, mid-teenager Michael laid his head on his pillow, clutched his comforter in his developing palm and prayed an assortment of prayers. The “God, take these (gay) feelings away from me” prayer; the “God, help me through this” prayer; the “God, I want a love of my life so badly, but if I’m gay, I’m not allowed” prayer; the “God, everyone will treat me differently if I really am gay” prayer; the “God, let your will be done, but please just give me some comfort” prayer. After reciting these prayers more times than he can remember, mid-teenager Michael woke up every morning to realize that absolutely nothing had changed. Though God doesn’t give us everything we ask for, he wasn’t even providing his fundamental promise to ease stress in trying times. After enough prayer sessions ending in nothing but restless anguish, midteenager Michael came to the conclusion that there must be an explanation for his God’s actions. That despite an overwhelming consensus on the topic, something was missing. That something was wrong. That lying underneath a seemingly one-sided debate existed a gray area more complex than the consensus made it appear. — Michael Schramm can be reached at mschramm@umich.edu.
RIMA FADLALLAH | VIEWPOINT
The guilt toolkit
In conversations surrounding liberation or “social justice,” we talk a lot about feelings of guilt on the part of those with privilege. I would argue that we talk far too much about these feelings, so much that we (and I say we because I, too, am guilty of being expressively guilty) silence others in the process. What’s worse is that we silence those whose (already marginalized) voices we should have been listening to all along. Guilt is an extremely passive emotion – perhaps the most passive of them all. I would know – when I feel guilty, I’m usually in this lazy limbo phase where I’m very emotionally invested in my role as an activist, but I’m not quite righteous enough to feel resentment and I’m not quite courageous enough to truly own up to my silencing behavior. So I feel guilt. Which is cool, because guilt is an emotion and I believe that honoring our raw emotions before we are able to unpack them is necessary and beneficial to our well being and our personal growth. It’s how we express our guilt that is important. Not all emotions need to be unpacked – sometimes I just don’t have, need or even want the language to describe what is going on in the depths of my soul. Similar to the way blood only turns red when exposed to oxygen, trying to put a name on my emotions can strip them of their true colors. So I keep them inside and let them do what I believe they will naturally do for me – so long as I remain cognizant of the connection between my mind, body and soul in the process. I am currently in the process of learning what to do with my guilt, and I figured I would share my insights with all of my fellow guilty people who also want to be more socially responsible: 1. Recognize that guilt in itself is a privilege. The fact that I feel guilty right now means that I am complacent in a dynamic whereby I am (directly or indirectly) the oppressor. I’ll say it again so it sinks in: in certain circles, my very existence (as a straight, upper class, American, able-bodied, cisgendered, college educated person) is oppressive. Guilt is a privilege. 2. Sometimes, expressing things is overrated – some things I should just keep to myself. Let me tell you, I never thought I would ever say that, and those closest to me are probably
still rubbing their eyes. I believe in the power of language as transformative, revolutionary, cathartic, I do. But that’s just it; in truly coming to understand the jarring effects of language, I’ve learned that some things are just better left unsaid, especially when my motivations for expression are because I’d feel more credible or welcomed in certain spaces. Expression of guilt is self-serving. Here are a few examples for us both to follow: If I feel guilty that my parents are rich, that’s not really something I need to bring up in a circle of friends who come from a low socio-economic background. If you feel guilty that your conservative Christian parents would hate me because I am Muslim, that’s not really something I need to hear. What are these statements accomplishing? Nothing productive. Some things we should just keep to ourselves, let our feelings fester inside until we come up with our own answers instead of seeking answers from people whom we will hurt and silence with our inquiry and confession — expression of guilt is insensitive. 3. My guilt should be a sign that I am not an expert in the space where I feel guilty. Building from my last point, I am learning that the spaces where I feel most guilty should also be the spaces where I speak the least and listen the most. My guilt in itself is an indicator that my narrative may be one that dominates and marginalizes voices that cannot be heard until I shut up. While my guilt may urge me to speak up to “compensate” for being privileged, I should actually just keep quiet and stop trying to center myself because this conversation isn’t about me, not everything is about me. Guilt is selfish, guilt is self-centered. 4. If I am still guilty, that’s fine. But I need to seriously reflect on how I envision my role as an activist. This one is a tough one, mostly because I am still thinking and working through it. I believe that my guilt means that I am still trying to reconcile my role in a given movement. I am uncomfortable with the role I am currently playing, so I rely on guilt to make me feel better. As a selfproclaimed “activist,” I am learning that guilt has the power to stymie growth and nurture complacency by making me feel that my feelings of guilt alone are productive. Guilt alone is not productive. I couple this lesson with toolkit item
#2: I’m learning that if my activism is in the form of a Facebook status, a Michigan in Color article or any other form of public expression, it should be reflective, respectful and responsible for it to be productive. Guilt without self-reflection, honesty and respect cannot be productive. “Guilt as productive” and “guilt as passive” are mutually exclusive statements, therefore guilt is fallacious, guilt is deceiving. 5. My guilt does not make me an exception. I’ve learned that constantly criticizing those who are racist, homophobic, classist, ageist, etc. does not magically dismiss me from being those very same things. Guilt is a copout. If I am not directly oppressed by a system – whether it be anti-Blackness, heteronormativity, even American exceptionalism – I am complacent in those very systems of oppression. This does not mean that I cannot play a role in helping deconstruct them; it just means that my role needs to start within myself before I should even think about how to criticize others, about how to operate in that space. Guilt is lazy, guilt is passive. All that said, I can speak from personal experience when I say that consciously reflecting on all of these things is no easy task. In fact, it is exhausting, emotionally draining and extremely confusing. Still, it is absolutely necessary — especially on a campus so hostile to minorities, the LGBTQ community, those who come from low-SES backgrounds and people with other targeted identities. I truly believe our world would be a better, less hurtful place if people stopped focusing on the discomfort that often comes along with recognizing their privilege, because feeling uncomfortable is a hell of a lot better than having to bear oppressive blows day after day like many of my peers do. When I contextualize my discomfort that way, I realize how petty and self-centered my complaints are. We would all be more responsible if we let those feelings of discomfort and guilt marinate for a bit, if we truly reflected on why we feel uncomfortable to begin with. As Wolverines, before we can “expect respect,” we must hold ourselves to the same standards of respect (for self and others) to which we feel so entitled. Rima Fadlallah is an LSA senior and managing editor of Michigan in Color.
Weekend Roundup
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, April 10, 2014 — 5A
event spotlight: music matters presents
SPRINGFEST 2014
6:30-9:30 p.m. UMMA 58 Greene Performance
7 p.m. Rackham Auditorium Men’s Gymnastics NCAA Team Finals
7 p.m. Crisler Center
The Dicks and Janes Spring Concert
7:30 p.m. MLB Auditorium 3 Shei-Fest 8 p.m. Anderson Room, Michigan Union
Merit Madness 2014 (1-on-1 Bball Tourney)
11 p.m. IMSB Basketball Courts
Saturday, 4/12 Men’s Gymnastics NCAA Team Finals
7 p.m. Crisler Center
The Ann Arbor Poetry Slam City Finals
7 p.m. Neutral Zone
154th Annual Spring Concert
8 p.m. Hill Auditorium
Sunday, 4/13 UM Music Con 2014
11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Michigan League
MORE FOOD
North U
FREE STUFF
TED TALKS
ZONES
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1. Art 2. Start Up Village 3. Innovation 4. Sustainability 5. Social Justice 6. Identity 7. Ask big questions!
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DIAG 7
Around Campus Real Madrid and Manchester United game in Michigan Stadium is announced
Thursday, 4/10
North Campus Cultural Ball
MUSIC
By Tanaz Ahmed, Daily Weekend Contributor
EVENTS Friday, 4/11
North U
Who, What, Where: The week in review
CAMPUS Love Art More: Student Late Night at the UMMA 8-11 p.m. UMMA
Michigan League
Ingalls Mall
10 finalist on NBC’s “The Voice.” Given the breadth of organizations, sponsors and events, students will be hard-pressed to fit in all of SpringFest’s activities. Information sophomore Madeleine Chone, a member of MUSIC Matters’ talent and concert team, said it is this diversity of groups and ventures that makes SpringFest such a unique and can’t-miss campus experience. “It’s difficult to explain to someone in a sentence,” Chone said. “It’s exactly that that makes it so great. You can’t sit down and explain it in a sentence, it takes five minutes.” And while connecting students, creating a legendary campus event and encouraging creativity in thought and social activism are of the utmost importance for the organizers, they also admitted there are a few other exciting aspects about the day, particularly the headlining musical guest. “My selfie with 2 Chainz at the end of the night, I’m pretty excited about that,” LSA sophomore Claire Ulak, communications senior producer for the organization, joked. Business sophomore Jibran Ahmed, the fundraising senior producer, added, “If 2 Chainz spits a new bar, I’m going to be pretty happy.” Last year, MUSIC Matters gave a $50,000 gift to endow the MUSIC Matters Big Thinkers Scholarship — the completely student-funded scholarship is the first of its kind at the University — and in 2012 the organization donated $10,000 to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
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year, there’s not really anything that brings people together. So we wanted to create something that brings people from all backgrounds together in a collaborative event.” Spanning from the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library across to Ingalls Mall, all of the student organizations are designated one of five sections: Innovation, Art, Sustainability, Identity and Social Justice. Moeller and the rest of the MUSIC Matters executive committee said they believe these subject areas best encapsulate the spirit of University students. While in past years the event has garnered attention as a sort of replica of Festifall, the group’s goal this year is to drive enough traffic and excitement around the event that in future years SpringFest will be able to facilitate collaborations between organizations that otherwise wouldn’t happen and not just entice students to join another organization or two, LSA senior Phil Schermer, founder and president of MUSIC Matters, said. “Here is an opportunity to bridge gaps between the colleges,” Schermer said. “The purpose is broader than just a fun concert; there’s a much bigger idea here.” North University Avenue will house the live music stages, corporate sponsors and various food trucks. Folk-rock band Grizfolk, which recently finished a tour opening for Bastille, will headline the live performances. Other performers include Ann Arbor native Dan Henig, best known for his YouTube-famous acoustic cover of Lil Jon’s “Get Low,” and LSA sophomore Sylvia Yacoub, a top-
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hat do a Shark Tankstyle business competition, live music performances from internationally-acclaimed artists and TED Talks all have in common? University students will get to experience all of them and much more during Thursday’s third annual SpringFest, #IGNITE_UM. The capstone event of MUSIC Matters, a student organization built to combine the power of music and student activism to make the world a better place, SpringFest is a SXSW-style festival across Central Campus designed to promote creativity and bring students from all corners of campus together. At the end of the day, rap artist 2 Chainz will perform at the annual benefit concert in Hill Auditorium. Proceeds from this year’s ticket sales will be used to create a summer camp at the University for underprivileged children in grades 6-8. This year, a “completely revamped” SpringFest has expanded to incorporate more schools, colleges and student organizations than ever before. Business junior Nick Moeller, SpringFest chair, said 40 student organizations have signed on to participate throughout the day. In addition to the business competition, sponsored by MPowered, and live music performances, there will also be a photo exhibit presented by the Black Student Union, a Start-Up Village, demonstrations from the Solar Car team and food trucks and other vendors. “Everybody sort of sticks to their own thing during the year,” Moeller said. “Come end of the
by Alicia Adamczyk, Weekend Roundup Editor
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily Members of the Chemistry fraternity sell cupcakes with periodic elements written on them in an effort to raise money for Relay for Life at Ferry field Saturday April 20, 2013.
EVENT PREVIEW:
RELAY FOR LIFE By EMILIE PLESSET Daily Weekend Contributor
This weekend students will gather on Palmer Field from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. on Sunday to participate in MRelay’s 12th Relay for Life walk, the American Cancer Society’s largest international fundraiser to fight against cancer. This year’s MRelay theme is Disney. Kinesiology senior Sara Knysh, executive director of the University’s chapter of Relay for Life, said in prior years, MRelay’s fundraiser has had between 3,000 to 5,000 students watching and participating and draws in the second largest student crowd behind football games. Many students form fundraising teams through Greek Life or other organizations. The University’s Relay for Life event has been ranked the second largest collegiate relay in the nation for the past two years. Last year the event raised about $312,000 and hopes to raise over $315,000 this year. The 24-hour event will begin with a survivor lap where cancer survivors and their families and friends will take the first lap around the track. Throughout the day, students will participate in field games and a basketball tournament. The event will also feature a Fight Back ceremony, which promotes the American Cancer Society’s “Celebrate. Remember. Fight back.” initiative.
During the ceremony, MRelay will attempt to break the world record for the most candles blown out at once. “The Fight Back ceremony is mostly to get everyone excited and thank everyone for all their hard work and keep pushing forward with the fight,” Knysh said. “We thought it would be an extremely moving moment. This is Michigan, so why not set another world record?” Later in the evening, the event will hold the Luminaria ceremony to honor survivors and remember those who lost their fight with cancer. Throughout the event people will share stories about their experiences with cancer and their reasons for participating in the relay. “It’s an extremely moving event,” Knysh said. “I’m looking forward to honoring my family and remembering those that we’ve all lost and inspire everyone to keep fighting.” There will also be a glowconcert with student group performances including Groove. In addition to the Relay for Life walk, MRelay holds fundraisers throughout the year to lead up to the event in April. In addition to restaurant and bar nights, MRelay has held a yearly benefit concert and a Rent the Runway fashion show to raise money. “We want to provide an atmosphere that people will want to come to and excited to stay at,” Knysh said.
In a press conference, the University Athletic Department announced this week that Real Madrid will play against Manchester United this summer on Aug. 2. This game is a part of the International Champions Cup (ICC). According to the University Athletic Department, they collaborated with one of the sponsors of the ICC, Relevant Sports, so that University students could have presale access starting Monday, April 7 at 8:30 a.m. Ticket prices started at $45. University Athletic Director Dave Brandon expects the match to bring in more than $14 million in revenue for the city of Ann Arbor.
marijuana at the 43rd annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash. The number of attendees to this event has been steadily growing over the last few years. In 2011, approximately 6,000 people attended Hash Bash. The event has been held on the Diag since April 1, 1972. The original event in 1972 was created to celebrate of the release of John Sinclair, a marijuana activist, from prison. Hash Bash was also held in protest of restrictive cannabis laws that were being implemented in Michigan. The city of Ann Arbor is famous for being a supporter of the decriminalization of marijuana since 1972.
morning. Although some of the wounded are in critical condition, all are expected to survive. Someone at the school pulled the fire alarm when the stabbings began and subsequently the police arrived at the scene of the crime. Investigations are ongoing and in the meantime the high school as well as the other elementary and middle schools in the town have been closed. Obama signs executive orders to combat gender wage gap
President Barack Obama signed two executive orders on Tuesday in response to the gender wage gap. The first Around the World order stops federal contractors from preventing their em20 people are injured in ployees from discussing their Pennsylvania high school salaries. The second requires stabbing federal contractors to give the Department of Labor race and Thousands attend annual Alex Hribal, a 16-year-old gender compensation data. Hash Bash These orders come in the student at the Franklin ReLast weekend, nearly 8,000 gional High School in Murrys- wake of much public debate bepeople gathered at the Diag and ville, Pennsylvania, stabbed 19 tween Republicans and DemoMonroe Street to show their sup- students and one adult inside crats over the issue of equal pay port for the total legalization of his high school Wednesday legislation in the past few weeks.
News
6A — Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Administration investigates ‘Cuban Twitter’ program Hearings focus on whether USAID can launch intelligence operations WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is looking into whether a “Cuban Twitter” program secretly backed by the U.S. government contained messages that were political in nature, despite assertions from the administration that the effort was intended only to increase the flow of information in a country that heavily restricts Internet access. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday it would be “troubling” if political messages were sent under the program. She said the program’s sponsor, the U.S. Agency for International Development, was trying to determine whether any of the messages that were sent were in fact political, as well as the timing of the messages, and whether they were drafts or were actually sent. An Associated Press investigation has revealed that the U.S. government built the now-defunct communications network to undermine the communist government and that draft messages were produced that were overtly political. Documents obtained by the AP show that the early messages poked fun at the Castro government and were created by a political satirist working for the social media project. Those messages conflict with the U.S. government’s earlier assertions that its program didn’t promulgate political content. Cuba’s state-run telecommunications firm said Wednesday it had launched an investigation into how hundreds of thousands of customer cellphone numbers ended up in the USAID program. The AP’s investigation found that those phone numbers were used to start a subscriber base for the project, ultimately known as ZunZuneo, for the sound made by a Cuban hummingbird. Congressional hearings into
the creation of the program this week focused on whether it was appropriate for USAID to launch such an intelligence-like operation — and not the CIA or other spy agencies. The AP investigation showed program evaded Cuba’s digital restrictions by creating a textmessaging service that could be used to organize political demonstrations. It drew tens of thousands of subscribers who were unaware it was backed by Washington, which went to great lengths to conceal its involvement. Cuban-born Rep. Ileana RosLehtinen, R-Fla., on Wednesday sharply defended U.S.-run democracy programs in Cuba, saying it was “so important to offer the other side of the story, the side that promotes American values: God-given values like freedom, justice or liberty.” She added: “This issue we’re debating ... is whether or not USAID should be taking steps to promote human rights, the rule of law and democratic governance throughout the world. I say yes.” Other lawmakers were uncomfortable with the notion that an agency best known for its humanitarian mission was undertaking operations best left to the professionals. The chairman of the Senate panel that approves spending on such foreign programs, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said a day earlier he was never told about the Twitter-like operation, disputing assertions by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah that Congress was properly informed. The Obama administration has said the program operated “discreetly” but wasn’t covert. Leahy, head of the Senate appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations, said USAID employees working openly on aid programs have complained that the agency’s secretive programs were putting their lives at risk. In defending the program, the Obama administration and critics of the Castro government have pointed to federal audits and budgetary checks-and-
balances over the roughly $20 million USAID spends overall on Cuban democracy initiatives. The contractors who created ZunZuneo took great care to keep the U.S. government’s role hidden from subscribers in Cuba through companies and servers in other nations and financing through a foreign bank. Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said at Tuesday’s hearing that USAID wasn’t the appropriate home for such operations in hostile countries. “Not to say that that is an important mission, but why would we put that mission in USAID?” Johanns said. “Why wouldn’t you look at some other part of the federal government to place that mission? To me, it seems crazy. It just seems crazy that you would be in the middle of that.” Former intelligence officers experienced in covert operations told the AP they could not recall the involvement of USAID in any previous similar intelligence activities. Former CIA Middle East operative Robert Baer called the aid agency’s secret operation “frankly, nuts.” Baer questioned the agency’s reliance on social media to promote democracy, noting that brief flourishes of Internet activism in Iran and Egypt were quickly snuffed out by authoritarian regimes. “You can’t run a revolution by Twitter,” he said. Draft messages produced for the nascent social media network were overtly political, documents obtained by the AP reveal. The Obama administration has said since last week that it did not send out political messages under the project, which it said was instead built to let Cubans speak freely among themselves. Some messages sent to Cuban cellphones had sharp political commentary, according to the documents the AP obtained. One early message sent on Aug. 7, 2009, took aim at the former Cuban telecommunications minister, Ramiro Valdes, who once had warned that the Internet was a “wild colt” that “should be tamed.”
Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 10, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
DOWN 1 Fresh answers, say 2 Oodles 3 Lago contents
4 Ones showing varying amounts of interest? 5 Facility about 350 miles NW of LAX 6 Beau Brummel, for one 7 Brusque 8 Steamed 9 Word with cry or out 10 Future citizen, perhaps 11 Not particularly challenging 12 “Law & Order” figure 13 County fair mount 18 Mark of rejection 19 Like James Bond 24 Ubiquitous insurance spokeswoman 25 To whom reporters report: Abbr. 26 Dracula feature 27 Brainstorming cry 28 Historical segment 29 Simmons competitor
30 Show contempt 31 Son of Isaac 32 Fundamental of science 39 Harvest output 40 Spider-Man nemesis Doc __ 41 Select 42 Occasionally 44 From around here 45 Podiatrist’s concern
48 Mlle., in Monterrey 49 Recipe verb 50 Cruise destination 51 Related 53 You’ve got it coming 54 “No argument here” 55 Ignore 57 Pack quantity 58 Senator Sanders of Vt., on ballots
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
04/10/14
‘Students who stayed with their friends’ heroes according to Pa. governor MURRYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Flailing away with two kitchen knives, a 16-year-old boy with a “blank expression” stabbed and slashed 21 students and a security guard in the crowded halls of his suburban Pittsburgh high school Wednesday before an assistant principal tackled him. At least five students were critically wounded, including a boy whose liver was pierced by a knife thrust that narrowly missed his heart and aorta, doctors said. Others also suffered deep abdominal puncture wounds. The rampage — which came after decades in which U.S. schools geared much of their emergency planning toward mass shootings, not stabbings — set off a screaming stampede, left blood on the floor and walls, and brought teachers rushing to help the victims. Police shed little light on the motive. The suspect, Alex Hribal,
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Pennsylvania students stabs 22 at school, no deaths
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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 “Find your own road” automaker 5 Bitter disagreement 11 26-Across download 14 Minuscule lake plant 15 Wee hr. 16 Dude 17 RASPBERRY 20 Vampire’s bane 21 T-man, e.g. 22 Courageous 23 Hermey of TV’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” e.g. 25 Take out 26 BLACKBERRY 32 Newtonian elements? 33 Is ready for business 34 Big runners 35 Bustle 36 Natural resource 37 Educational org. 38 Chloé fragrance maker 40 Good-sized chamber ensemble 42 Baseball family name 43 HUCKLEBERRY 46 Goal line play 47 Kitchen tool 48 Like wasted milk in Westminster 49 Its HQ is named for George Bush 52 Schisms and chasms 56 STRAWBERRY 59 __ kwon do 60 Sherlock Holmes’ instrument 61 Small case 62 Wanted-poster letters 63 Use 64 Percolate
KEITH SRAKOCIC/AP
Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned on Wednesday in Export, Pa.
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was taken into custody and treated for a minor hand wound, then was brought into court in shackles and a hospital gown and charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. He was jailed without bail, and authorities said he would be prosecuted as an adult. His attorney did not immediately respond to a message for comment. The attack unfolded in the morning just minutes before the start of classes at 1,200-student Franklin Regional High School, in an upper-middle-class area 15 miles east of Pittsburgh. It was over in about five minutes, during which the boy ran wildly down about 200 feet of hallway, slashing away with knives about 8 to 10 inches long, police said. Nate Moore, 15, said he saw the boy tackle and stab a freshman. He said he going to try to break it up when the boy got up and slashed his face, opening a wound that required 11 stitches. “It was really fast. It felt like he hit me with a wet rag because I felt the blood splash on my face. It spurted up on my forehead,” he said. The attacker “had the same expression on his face that he
has every day, which was the freakiest part,” Moore said. “He wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t have any anger on his face. It was just a blank expression.” Assistant Principal Sam King finally tackled the boy and disarmed him, and a Murrysville police officer who is regularly assigned to the school handcuffed him, police said. King’s son told The Associated Press that his father was treated at a hospital, though authorities have said he did not suffer any knife wounds. “He says he’s OK. He’s a tough cookie and sometimes hides things, but I believe he’s OK,” Zack King said. He added: “I’m proud of him.” In addition to the 22 who were stabbed or slashed, two people suffered other injuries during the melee, authorities said. The security guard, who was wounded after intervening early in the melee, was treated and released. “There are a number of heroes in this day. Many of them are students,” Gov. Tom Corbett said in a visit to the stricken town. “Students who stayed with their friends and didn’t leave their friends.”
Family returns to shore after rescue Operation involved skydiving, three federal agencies, a plane and a frigate SAN DIEGO (AP) — Six days after a family of four found themselves helpless and adrift in a sailboat far into the Pacific with a vomiting, feverish 1-yearold, a Navy warship delivered them safely Wednesday to San Diego, where they began their attempted around-the world voyage before the child was born. The Rebel Heart, the 36-foot sailboat that had been their home for seven years, is at the bottom of the ocean 900 miles off Mexico, sunk by rescuers because it was taking on water after losing its steering and most of its communications. A satellite phone ping from the boat Thursday set off a huge rescue effort that involved skydiving National Guardsmen, three federal agencies, a plane, a frigate and scores of personnel. It also sparked a serious debate over parenting, and the propriety of hitting the high seas with two young children. The Navy warship, the USS Vandegrift, docked at Naval Air Station North Island with the Kaufman family safely aboard and the child recovering from her illness, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lenaya Rotklein said. In a photo released by the Navy, the family looked like typical vacationers, with father Eric dressed in shorts and a baseball cap while lugging bags, and his wife Charlotte walking behind him, holding the toddler in a strap-on carrier and grasping the hand of her 3-year-old
daughter. The ship was scheduled to move from the island to the San Diego mainland later in the day without the Kaufmans, who first want to tend to their 1-year-old daughter, Lyra, and get some rest before talking publicly, Charlotte Kaufman’s sister, Sariah English, said. The Kaufmans’ decision to sail around the world with Lyra and her sister Cora drew accusations of reckless foolishness from some observers and praise from others for their courageous spirit. “They’ll probably go on the ‘Today’ show to talk about this, and write a book about it, do a miniseries and get 15 minutes of fame because that’s how our country tends to reward people who choose recklessly to put themselves and their children in danger,” said Margaret Dilloway, a San Diego novelist who has three children. English doesn’t question the decision of her sister’s family. She said sailing is their passion. It’s what defines them. “Charlotte and Eric raise their children how they see fit,” English said. “They are very concerned about child safety. That’s their No. 1 concern, and they did not do this blindly. They are responsible, good parents.” Eric Kaufman, a Coast Guardlicensed captain, and his wife sent a statement from the ship defending their actions, saying “when we departed on this journey more than a year ago, we were then and remain today confident that we prepared as well as any sailing crew could.” Others said children benefit in many intangible ways from parents who show them the world, even when they’re too young to remember it.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, April 10, 2014 — 7A
Hot or cold, ‘M’ gets the ‘W’ Wolverines mold WOMEN’S SOCCER
identity in spring
Despite individual struggles, Michigan rides coaching, culture to success
Michigan goes 5-1 in spring schedule, freshmen impress
By JUSTIN MEYER Daily Sports Writer
Senior first baseman Caitlin Blanchard remembers the shock of transitioning from high school softball to her first Michigan practice the fall of her freshman year. The tradition, the culture and the intensity all helped her make what she described as an exponential leap from the fall to the spring of that year. This year, the turf renovation of Alumni Field forced the fifthranked Wolverines to miss some of that fall practice regimen, and Michigan’s freshmen have struggled at times so far this season. “We couldn’t do a lot with kids coming in early because we were at Huron High School, and they could barely get there,” said coach Carol Hutchins. “We didn’t have a locker room. The culture is in this building. We had a lapse with that, and now we’re reestablishing it.” Freshman right-hander Megan Betsa was the story of the early season, dealing with confidence issues despite a repertoire of weapons in the circle. The other freshmen, including second baseman Abby Ramirez and third baseman Lindsay Montemarano, have battled all year to step up at the plate. But as good as the Wolverines are, the freshmen are hardly the only ones dealing with slumps this season. Everyone has an opinion about how to be consistent: It’s a mental game, it’s all about technique, the key is to be loose at the plate — or maybe it’s to be on edge in the field. To pick out a universal secret for success from the noise is nearly impossible. All the advice does is confirm that softball is most certainly a game of streaks — hot and cold. The natural ups and downs of the season make Michigan’s consistency this year all the more remarkable. The 16-game winning streak and the 11 mercy-rule wins in the last 14 games have come amid the very same issues every other
By BRAD WHIPPLE Daily Sports Writer
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Senior first baseman Caitlin Blanchard has struggled lately, but her Michigan teammates have picked up the slack easily.
program in the country deals with. First it was Betsa who was struggling. The Gatorade Player of the Year in Georgia entered the season with high expectations, none higher than her coach’s. “Betsa has improved the most at this point in the season,” Hutchins said. “She was just really inconsistent — and she’s not as consistent yet as I would like. But I like where she’s going, and I like her better ever day.” Betsa was tossed into the lion’s den in her first game, relieving junior righty Sara Driesenga with the game slipping away against national powerhouse Florida. Betsa hit one batter and walked another before exiting the game without registering an out. Driesenga, the preseason favorite to take over the first spot in the rotation, has had her own struggles this season, and Betsa’s confidence continued to sag entering Big Ten play. The drought culminated in a first-inning yanking against Indiana in Betsa’s home debut and, ultimately, an offday pitching session with no coaches, no teammates and no distractions. It seemed a desperate attempt to finally find her swagger. The next day, Betsa threw a no-hitter.
“We have a culture of success ... of working hard.”
Coincidentally, Betsa’s return to form came at the same time Michigan added another permanent staple to its already deep batting order. Senior designated hitter Taylor Hasselbach, a player who spent three years in a limited role and rarely cracked the starting lineup, was on fire. At first it seemed like just a hot streak, especially when Hasselbach cooled off against a very good Ohio State pitcher last Saturday. But the next day, Hasselbach put those doubts to rest when she jacked three home runs for eight RBI. Since entering the starting lineup March 15, her batting average is .484. “I can tell you one thing that we have in this program … is culture,” Hutchins said. “We have a culture of success, we have a culture of working hard, we have a culture of kids coming in early to hit. That’s championship culture, and it means you work harder than everyone else and you work through the hard times.” That culture, Hutchins said, starts with the upperclassmen who work tirelessly to be at their best every day. The perfect example is Hasselbach, who struggled for three years before finding a spot in the starting lineup her senior season. In the last few weeks, it
has been Blanchard’s turn to struggle. The starting first baseman holds down the most important position in the Wolverines’ lineup — hitting behind star sophomore shortstop Sierra Romero, who opposing teams often try to pitch around — and is unfamiliar with prolonged slumps in her career. “She seems like she’s got a lot on her mind,” Hutchins said. “She doesn’t look comfortable, kids go through that, she’ll get it back. Sometimes you just kind of have to let it run its course — it’s like the flu.” The former walk-on has batted at least .350 since her sophomore year and is known as a clutch hitter by her coaches. “That’s something that happens,” Blanchard said. “If you, as a baseball or softball player, know that you are in a slump, and you use the word ‘slump,’ it starts to affect how you do long term.” But Michigan has dealt with cold hitters plenty of times this season already and it hasn’t slowed the team down a bit. Blanchard will do everything she can to get her plate presence and her swing back even though recent history suggests the Wolverines will keep winning regardless. To be a championshipcaliber squad in a streaky sport like softball, the team has to transcend the player. Michigan has met that goal with a combination of talent and winning culture established by hardworking veterans like Blanchard and Hasselbach. Even the elder statesmen on the team can’t avoid the slumps, though. They’ll say things about being prepared mentally, echo their coach’s ‘one-pitch’ softball mantra and talk about doing their part for the team, but what they really mean is that slumps don’t last forever. So freshman or senior, they’ll keep swinging, pitching and attacking the opponent. Detroit, Western Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA — it doesn’t matter. Alumni Field renovations interrupting fall practice, key freshmen struggling early — that doesn’t matter either. Sometimes all the Wolverines can do individually is believe that turning the corner to being a better player and an even better team is just one pitch away.
“The word ‘slump’ ... starts to affect how you do.”
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Taylor Hasselbach spent three years riding the bench, but her hot bat has been welcomed during her senior season.
It was the 68th minute in the Elite Eight when Virginia delivered the winning strike against the Michigan women’s soccer team. It was the goal that ended the Wolverines’ run in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, and it was also the goal that ended the collegiate career of seven seniors, all of whom gave their team a force to rally behind. Though the questions remained as to how Michigan would contend next season without players like forward Nkem Ezurike, the Wolverines’ recent spring season success showed glimpses of a new identity that is forming without their seniors. “These kids are really good, but they were playing behind some very good seniors,” said Michigan coach Greg Ryan. “(In the spring season), there was a lot of teaching of how we were going to play together, and the low-stress environment gave them time to gain confidence in themselves, both individually and as a team. “That was a critical element for these guys.” Michigan scored 17 goals, a spring best, and allowed only one en route to a 5-1 record. Its only loss came at the hands of Notre Dame, a team the Wolverines previously defeated in the Sweet 16. The spring season has allowed Ryan to give reserves the opportunity to compete. The player who has stood out the most is freshman forward Nicky Waldeck, who took over the lone forward spot that Ezurike occupied last and is making the most of it. “Nicky is scoring hat tricks and two goals per game on a regular basis,” Ryan said. “It’s not accidental — she’s really, really talented.” Typically, freshman forward Madisson Lewis would play up front in the center, but she has missed the entire spring season due to broken bones in her foot. But the injury gave Waldeck the opportunity to play and build the confidence that she may not have gained otherwise. In addition to the spring games, Michigan has continued its training regimen that began after Winter Break — Ryan thinks this team is in the best shape of any he’s seen in the spring. After initial fitness testing, the first month was limited to eight hours of noncompetitive practice, two of
which could be dedicated to skill training. Now, the team meets four to five times a week for full practices. Ryan has even tried to bring the senior class back to help the younger athletes, but he ran into an issue in January. When the seven seniors declared for the National Women’s Soccer League Draft, they were labeled as professional players, even if they didn’t get selected. Per NCAA guidelines, ‘professional players’ are restricted to stopping by a team’s practices once per month. But even if the seniors can’t be there as much as they’d like, the Wolverines still found spring success in their absence. And Michigan isn’t even at full capacity, with nine freshmen who have yet to arrive on campus. “I’m just excited that we have the kids that are coming in who do have a lot of talent joining what has turned out to be a very, very cohesive and talented group of players,” Ryan said. The Wolverines have made deep runs into the NCAA Tournament in two straight years — the Sweet 16 in 2012 and the Elite Eight in 2013 — and Ryan is optimistic that his team can do great things this year. But, especially this early in the year, he said there are no guarantees. According to Ryan, the talent is there and a run is possible, but one thing needs to be present: determination and grit, the merits of last year’s senior class. “I think that those intangible qualities go beyond talent,” he said. “They take you to the next round, whereas if you don’t have that, you may have the talent but you’re probably not going to last as long in the NCAA Tournament.”
“We have kids coming in who do have a lot of talent.”
BY THE NUMBERS Michigan coach Greg Ryan
63
Wins with the Michigan women’s soccer team, including 18 in 2013.
45
Wins with the US Women’s National Team from 2005-2007.
49
Career goals for forward Nkem Ezurike, who excelled under Ryan.
21
Years as a collegiate coach, with an alltime record of 248-111-38.
OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH LACEY HOLSWORTH, HER FAMILY AND THE MICHIGAN STATE COMMUNITY THAT SUPPORTED HER. CONTRIBUTE TO CANCER RESEARCH AT DONATE.CANCER.ORG
ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Michigan coach Greg Ryan guided the Wolverines to the Elite Eight last fall.
Sports
8A — Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Irish win rematch over ‘M’ By BEN FIDELMAN Daily Sports Writer
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein has advised his players to carefully consider whether they’re ready for the jump to the NBA.
Beilein mentors prospects McGary, Stauskas, Robinson III all requested NBA evaluations By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Writer
Now the waiting game begins. Wednesday — the last day for non-seniors to request a draft stock evaluation by the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee — Michigan NOTEBOOK men’s basketball coach John Beilein confirmed that sophomores Mitch McGary, Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III applied to see where they could go in the NBA Draft. “We have not gotten anything back yet,” Beilein said, “but we have talked to them all.” Though asking for an evaluation can assist in a player’s decision to enter the draft, it doesn’t guarantee that the player is declaring for the draft. For Beilein, this step is just part of the process for players to see if it’s time for them to leave Michigan and go pro. In addition to this committee, Beilein said Michigan would continue to give the players as much information as possible through “other people involved in professional basketball.” As much as Beilein and company can try to help his players, there are still going to be influences from outside the program that can factor into their decisions. And while there’s only so much Beilein can do, he advises his players to look at the bigger picture.
“You hope during the course of their education that they’re looking at things from a much broader perspective than some guy that’s in his cellar projecting the NBA Draft and still living with his mother,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with still living with your mother.” Beilein said other players also applied for an evaluation but refused to answer whom. Specifically, he declined comment on whether sophomore guard Caris LeVert would. “ ‘I’ve always dreamt of going to the NBA,’ ” Beilein said, regarding the mindset of entering the draft. “That is not a reason to go to the NBA. The reason to go to the NBA is, ‘I am ready to go to the NBA.’ “That’s an important thing. We have to continue to cultivate an atmosphere where kids are ready to play in the NBA.” EUROTRIP: After last traveling to Europe in 2010, the Wolverines will again venture abroad this summer in late August. The NCAA allows teams to take an offseason overseas tour every four years. Michigan will spend 10 days and “play four to five games” in a yet-to-be announced part of Europe. In 2010, the Wolverines visited Belgium, Amsterdam and Paris. Because the trip will take place in August, Beilein believes the experience will be great for both returning players and the incoming freshman class who will join the team earlier in the summer. If there is one issue for Beilein, though, it’s how three of his incoming players,
“There’s nothing wrong with still living with your mother.”
Austin Hatch, DJ Wilson and Kameron Chatman — all from the West Coast — will deal with potentially being away from home from June until December. APRIL SADNESS: For Beilein, this time of the year is the toughest. “When you work as hard as we all work all year long and all of sudden the going-homeat-seven-o’clock-withoutanything-to-do is very difficult for me,” he said. “Thank God there’s St. Louis Cardinals baseball and the Major League (Baseball) channel.” So what is Beilein doing with the summer approaching? For one, he’s fixing lightbulbs in his house. “I (changed two) this morning,” he said. “They had been out for a while.” Though it’s likely some more exciting things will come his way, Beilein is ready for the dead period of May which he’ll spend with his family. “We’ll try to stay at home, cut the lawn and hang around,” he said.
The Michigan baseball team concluded a nine-game homestand Wednesday night with one of its worst losses of the season, falling, 9-1, 1 MICHIGAN to Notre NOTRE DAME 9 Dame. The cause of the Irish beatdown wasn’t exactly an extreme offensive outpouring — the Wolverines committed a season-high six errors, and constantly failed to field simple things like sacrifice bunts. The Wolverines (4-5 Big Ten, 14-18-1 overall) sent fifthyear senior right-hander Ben Ballantine to the mound, though he has been their mainstay in the Friday night starter slot for much of the year. But he has struggled recently, and Wednesday gave him an opportunity to right the ship on his final collegiate season — something he failed to do. The tone of the game was clear early. Notre Dame (1-12 ACC, 11-20) got through to Ballantine with hits in each of the first three innings. The Fighting Irish blooped back-to-back singles to right field to begin the top of the second. A Ballantine error on the ensuing sacrifice bunt loaded the bases, but Notre Dame could only manage to get one run in, as it hit into a double play and grounded out to second base to end the inning. The Fighting Irish got back to it again in the third. The inning took some time to start rolling, but a double followed by two walks loaded the bases with two outs with Notre Dame leftfielder Zak Kutsulis coming up. The sophomore doubled to right field, putting the Fighting Irish up 4-0 and knocking Ballantine out of the game after just 2.2 innings. “There aren’t a whole lot of positives to take out of tonight,” said senior catcher Cole Martin. “There is still a heck of a lot of
Are the sophomores staying or leaving?
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innings, allowing two runs — both unearned. Michigan showed some signs of life in the sixth and seventh, but failed to plate one of the five combined runners who reached. In the end, the Wolverines were limited to just four hits. “We hit a lot of rockets and had a lot of quality at-bats,” Martin said. “We couldn’t put together three or four or five of them in a row to get the runs across.” A leadoff single followed by a double scored a run for the Notre Dame to make it 7-1 in the seventh, and then things got ugly for Michigan. Freshman left fielder Carmen Benedetti was on the move tracking down a would-be inning-ending fly ball in the corner, and he flat-out dropped it. It was the Wolverines’ sixth error of the game, and one that stretched the lead to 8-1. As if that weren’t enough, the following ball came right back to left field, where Benedetti attempted a diving catch and missed. That brought in the game’s final run, making it 9-1.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Senior catcher Cole Martin and Michigan were blown out by Notre Dame.
Michigan eyes title repeat By ALEX TAYLOR
NOTES: Beilein confirmed Wednesday that McGary had a 20-minute workout on Tuesday and that the forward is progressing toward individual workouts, potentially for NBA teams if he ultimately declares. After seeing Stauskas and LeVert show so much improvement in their strength and physique this season due to their decisions to stay in Ann Arbor last summer with strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, Beilein said there has been a “major push” for athletes to stay in town. “I expect many of our guys to be here, but I don’t have all the numbers,” he said.
baseball left for us.” Michigan was able to bring a run across in the fourth inning on a groundout, but any momentum was quickly squashed in the top of the fifth inning. After two Fighting Irish hitters reached base, the Wolverines had trouble again executing on a Notre Dame sacrifice bunt. This time, a throwing error from sophomore third baseman Jacob Cronenworth bounced into first base, and Michigan conceded a run after not taking advantage of the free out. When the ball dribbled away at first base, the Fighting Irish base runner didn’t break stride, powering around third base and heading for the plate. Michigan junior first baseman Kyle Jusick’s throw beat the runner to the plate, but the ball was dislodged from the catcher’s glove in the process of tagging the runner. By the fifth inning, the Wolverines were down 6-1 and had committed five errors. Junior right-hander Donnie Eaton came in for relief in the third inning and went 3.1
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men’s gymnastics team seeks to accomplish what no Michigan team has done since 1959 — win back-to-back national championships. The Wolverines (17-0 Big Ten, 25-0 overall) will look to cap their perfect season with a storybook ending in front of their home fans at the Crisler Center this weekend. The National Championship will consist of 12 teams competing over three days. Qualifying rounds start Thursday, with six teams moving on to Friday’s team finals. The individual finals will take place on Saturday. “We’re just excited to be able to hopefully defend our national title at home,” said graduate student captain Syque Caesar. “We set our goals right from the very beginning of the season to defend our national title and winning it at home.” Though it sports an unblemished record, Michigan has had many challenges thrown its way on the march to perfection and a possible national championship.
Before the season even began, junior Michael Strathern was redshirted because of a foot injury, and sophomore Konner Ackerman suffered an elbow injury that sidelined him for a good portion of the year. Additionally, two of the Wolverines’ top gymnasts suffered major injuries during the season. Junior Adrian de los Angeles, one of the top allaround gymnasts in the country, tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the Winter Cup in February, and junior Stacey Ervin tore his bicep during the Big Ten Championship last week “It’s not been easy,” Caesar said. “It hasn’t been just handed to us. But that just shows how deep of a team we are. Even with all these injuries and setbacks and adversity, we are still able to push ourselves and be the top contenders for Nationals and Big Tens.” Despite their injuries, Ervin and de los Angeles will still look to contribute to the team. Ervin plans to compete on floor exercise and possibly on high bar and parallel bars. Depending on his health and performance, De los Angeles could compete on parallel bars and pommel horse
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Syque Caesar and the gymnastics team will try to repeat as NCAA champions.
this weekend — events that won’t require extensive use of his torn knee. Regardless of who will be competing, Michigan will face its stiffest competition of the year. The Wolverines’ main challengers will be No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Stanford. The Wolverines beat Ohio State and Stanford during the regular season. “Oklahoma and Ohio State are about equal and hopefully we’re a little notch above that,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “But that little notch can go away so quickly with this format, five guys up at each event and five guys scores count. If you make a mistake, you can plummet very quickly.” The Wolverines are familiar with the “five up, five count” format and subsequent pressure after employing it in almost every meet this season. Additionally, Golder has an veteran roster that has big-event experience — both collegiately and internationally. One of the most experienced, senior Sam Mikulak, will also have the chance to become the most decorated collegiate gymnast in history this weekend. After earning 13 AllAmerican honors and five NCAA individual championships in his first three years of college, Mikulak needs only three more individual championships and four All-American distinctions to become the all-time record holder in both categories. “Friday is the number one day that we have been training for, for this entire year,” Mikulak said. “It comes down to this moment of how prepared are we to come out as champions. ... Individually, I definitely have aspirations there, but the big focus is all on the team and making history by repeating national titles.” Through all the adversity and obstacles that Michigan has faced this year, one constant always remained the same — the goal of repeating as National Champions. That is something within its grasp this weekend.
the b-side B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, April 10, 2014
SA-SHEI DOWN THE RUNWAY
BY ADAM DEPOLLO, ONLINE ARTS EDITOR
The Fashion b-side annually publishes work by Michigan Daily photographers exploring fashion photography through a given theme. It is a chance for staff to shoot in a different than our normal journalistic approach to photography. This year’s theme is “emotion,” and was left to be interpreted widely by staff photographers. SEE SHEI, PAGE 3 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Arielle Wisbaum, photographed by b-side photo editor Nicholas Williams, exploring the emotion “content.” | Sola Nuno, photographed by assistant photo editor Allison Farrand, exploring the emotion “jaded.” | Ellice Sollner, photographed by staff photographer Vicki Liu, exploring the emotion, “wistful.” | Chris Withers, photographed by staff photographer Ryan Reiss, exploring the emotion, “overwhelmed.” DESIGN BY JAKE WELLINS AND CAROLYN GEARIG
Arts
2B — Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTIST PROFILE
STYLE COLUMN
Detroit composer About that Kimye Vogue cover talks beginnings ‘U’ alum Alton James founded JIV Media By JACKSON HOWARD Daily Music Editor
It’s no secret that Detroit gets a bad rap, and it’s probably one of the last places you’d expect any musician to set up shop. But for University alum Alton James, Detroit is not only his hometown, but also the place that he hopes to contribute most to. “All these Michigan companies are going to New York and Los Angeles and outsourcing their work to other locations,” said James, a composer and sound designer. “But it’s like, you’ve got this group, this really, really diverse group around Metro Detroit that can provide all types of music because you have all types of cultures around here.” This was James’s thinking when he founded JIV Media, a Detroit-based company providing music for advertising, television and film. James believes that Detroit has as much artistic potential as any other major city and is just as focused on working with Michigan filmmakers, musicians and artists as he is with productions in Hollywood. Though he’s found his calling in
composing, his musical path has been far from straight. His parents were both singers in choirs, and at age 12, James started playing organ in churches across Detroit. But it was the experience working with choirs that really made James realize his love for composing. “(Working with choirs), I got my first taste of writing and hearing what I wrote performed back was really profound for me as a composer,” James said. Like most kids growing up, James watched plenty of blockbuster movies and discovered John Williams and James Horner, two of the foremost composers in film today. Between his experience in church and the influence of composers like Williams and Horner, James’s passion for composing was firmly planted. While at the University, James minored in music, with a major in English and another minor in African-American Studies. Still, he says, music is a language itself; his English education gave him insight in working with scripts and writers and also influenced the way he composes music. Clearly, however, music was his main priority. Having saved all of his music requirements for senior year, he was able to dedicate his total attention to it for two full semesters. Music students can probably relate to many of James’s memories of hiding in the music
school past the midnight closing time until the early hours of the morning, or playing various shows on campus for student groups and Greek life events. Launching JIV Media and jump into composing after graduation wasn’t the immediate plan, though. After leaving the University, James met an executive from Noble Music, a company focused on providing music for advertisements that counts CocaCola, Gatorade, HBO and Verizon among clients. The executive liked his work and asked if James would compose for ads, to which James replied with a quick, “sure, I put music to everything.” Though he had never composed for advertisements before, the opportunity gave James his first commercial work, and he hasn’t looked back since. It’s the combination of all these experiences — writing ad jingles, sleeping in music school practice rooms, composing for feature films, playing organ in Detroit churches — that really gives James his true identity as an innovative, curious and ever-growing artist. More than anything, as James continues to grow, Detroit will grow with him, a testament to his admirable decision to buck the trend and stick by the wounded city that raised him, working from the ground up to remind the country that Detroit is still humming, grooving and open for business.
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remember exactly where I was. Laying on the olive (puke?) green love seat in my living room with my legs propped up and over the armrest. My laptop was in its usual spot on my stomach as my head stiffly and blankly stared at ERIKA the screen. HARWOOD I scrolled aimlessly, probably doing the classic log-out-of-Facebook-just-tolog-back-in move on repeat. I bounced from tab to tab until finally a tweet — saying something along the lines of “Kim Kardashian’s Vogue cover is here!” — caught my eye. Pardon me for forgetting the exact verbiage, but I was losing my goddamn mind. I’m not one to be shy about my fervent fascination/obsession/ love for the Kardashians. I once wrote over 700 words on it and probably could have kept on going, which is essentially what I’m about to do here. Due to both my keeping up with the Kardashians as well as fashion industry happenings (as much as one can do from Ann Arbor), I’d been keenly aware of the whispers and speculations over Kim Kardashian’s unfavorable relationship with Vogue. The rumors were all over the place, saying Kanye West begged Anna Wintour to put Kim on the cover or that Anna only allowed Kim to attend the Met
Gala if she could chose the gown (a polarizing, head-to-toe floral Riccardo Tisci gown). In short: it seemed more likely that Bruce Jenner’s face would revert back to human form than for Kim to ever grace the cover of Vogue. But alas, there is a God and Her name is Anna Wintour, who in her editor’s letter seemed to debunk any distaste toward Kim, saying that “through her grace of character, (Kim) has created a place for herself in the glare of the world’s spotlight, and it takes real guts to do that.” Whether those sentiments have been Anna’s all along, I do not care, because the Kimye issue fucking delivered. I’ll gloss over the details we already know: Kim and Kanye are on the cover, with Kim donning a gorgeous Lanvin wedding gown. OK, moving on. The article and photos hiding
Anna Wintour can basically do any. themselves within the 286page issue are worth noting, ranging from heartwarming (“There was no girl in the world that could pull me away from her,” Kanye said — I want to believe!) to insanely over-thetop (see: glossy photo of Kanye leaning against Kim on a matte black Lamborghini in what
looks like the the first moves toward the conception of South West). Sometimes, the couple seems, well, removed from reality, but I still find it hard judge when Kim’s everyday life consists of 30+ people following her ever move. I guess there are some things that only she and I can truly understand. Despite the lavishness, supposed drama and confusing bits — such as “Kanye later cast Kim as a scantily clad Princess Leia in the pilot for ‘Alligator Boots,’ a raunchy hip-hop ‘Muppets Show’ ” — that raise more questions than provide answers, the pop culture prowess of Kimye is officially undeniable. (Real talk though, if someone has more information on “Alligator Boots,” shoot me an e-mail.) With Anna Wintour’s official stamp of approval by way of what is bound to be the most popular magazine cover of the year, Kimye — as a unit — have now breached the concrete walls of the fashion world, making their presence nothing short of ubiquitous. If anyone were to propel Kanye West and Kim Kardashian further into their cultural domination, it would be Anna Wintour. And for those who roll their eyes at the thought of a reality show star and her rapper fiancé on the cover, keep in mind who gave the green light. As always, what Anna says goes. Harwood is stalking pugs, if you want to join, e-mail erikacat@umich.edu.
TV NOTEBOOK
ABC
Security clearance.
Dissecting the sartorial choices in ABC’s sensational ‘Scandal’ By CHLOE GILKE Daily Arts Writer
Spoiler Alert: This article contains a major spoiler from the current season of “Scandal.” I came for the love story, I stayed for the trench coats. ABC’s “Scandal” has defied ratings gravity and climbed to the top of the pop culture ladder, hooking viewers with the prospect of a soap-opera-style torrid love affair between the President of the United States and the White House’s resident fixer. But despite the ups and downs of political conspiracy, election rigging and the occasional licking to intimidate someone, the real draw of “Scandal” is its flawless eye for fashion. Olivia Pope, played by the gorgeous and talented Kerry Washington, somehow manages to hold her own in the beautiful array of elegant designer outfits she parades around the White House. Her classic style is anything but simple — her tops are structured and feature unique draping and interesting shapes to offset the understated whites and greys of her wardrobe. And though KW is pregnant, Olivia is still rocking those emblematic white trench coats and heels (shot only from the neck up, of course). Even more minor characters have their characteristic style. Abby Whelan is edgy but streamlined — and the blacks and charcoals of her wardrobe compliment her stunning red hair. Mellie Grant
wears pearls and jewel tones fit for a queen (or a First Lady). And poor B613 recruit Quinn Perkins, who has fallen off the deep end and now takes to kidnapping innocent children and licking her rivals’ faces, can still rock a smoky eye and cargo jackets.
#PopeCoats analyzed. The men are also flawlessly dressed. Even as I grow more frustrated with Fitz Grant, he wins me back over with those classic and regal suits. Press Secretary James (RIP) had a quirky checks and plaids style to offset his husband Cyrus’s rather boring wardrobe. And don’t get me started on Harrison, who always knows the exact color to highlight his gorgeous smile and steal every scene. Even as the plotlines of “Scandal” become more tangled and verge on ridiculous, I wouldn’t dare stop watching. Even as Mellie slaps Fitz in a move that looks straight out of “General Hospital” or I have to sit through another icky Huck/Quinn torture romance scene, I keep my eyes fixed to the screen. Not since “Gossip Girl” have I been this enthralled with an outfit to keep me watching through cringe-worthy story arcs. And I find myself defending the merits
of “Scandal” more often than I’d like to admit, probably due in part to the painstaking perfection of the costuming. If the outfits are this flawless, then everything else has to catch up eventually (unfortunately not true for “Gossip Girl”). The sheer visuals of the fashion on this show are so well put together that I even translate this to hope for the plotlines to wrap up as nicely as Abby’s wrap dresses. Their emotional and professional lives may be in turmoil, but Olivia Pope and Associates and their colleagues at the White House really know how to put an outfit together. Besides just being eye candy, this actually says quite a bit about their characters. Olivia & Co. must put on a brave face and “handle” everything with a smile on their faces and a Prada bag in tow. They can’t afford <em>not</ em> to look their best. It’s their job to dress up a scandal and hide the darkness beneath a layer of crepe peplum and hounds-tooth. Every episode of “Scandal” is a reliable tour through the best of the runway. Prada, Armani, Alexander McQueen, Gucci — Olivia spares no expense to have the most enviable closet in D.C. Even while this season has teetered dangerously close to completely going off the rails, the wardrobe continues to stun. (White) Hat’s Off to costume designer Lyn Paolo for her consistently fabulous work being the real fixer of “Scandal.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SHEI From Page 1B Invariably, once every semester or so, a series of highquality pictures of my more well dressed acquaintances lands on the front page of my Facebook feed. They’re at one of those parties I hear about but never get invited to, the kind with a professional photographer taking pictures at the front door. The backdrop of these pictures is always the same — the ubiquitous white, logo-emblazoned curtain, present at every award show and film premiere — but, unlike all the others, this curtain only has one name: SHEI Magazine. These pictures are, as it turns out, from SHEI’s semiannual launch parties, celebrating the publication of its print magazine at the end of each semester. I am also not the first person to be impressed by the professionalism of the events and the magazine behind them, as one of SHEI’s two fashion editors, Art & Design senior Tara Ellis, pointed out. “The second I tell people that it’s all student-run, they’re like ‘What?,’ ” she said. Their incredulity is understandable. SHEI Magazine is, for all intents and purposes, a professional fashion magazine — 85 pages of high-quality, glossy pages featuring seven different photo shoots and upwards of 15 articles tied around a single theme unique to each issue. It’s the product of three-and-a-half months of work, done by a staff of around 150 writers, designers, photographers, models and managers. Unlike a professional fashion magazine, however, SHEI’s employees aren’t working a nine to five job. They’re putting in those hours after going to classes, clubs, sports and meetings. “It’s all students,” said LSA junior Anna Fuller, SHEI’s branding director. “The one thing that I usually say about SHEI is that it’s run completely by the students. The photographers, the models, the writers, the directors, everything is students. Everyone but the printers. That’s something that we really pride ourselves on — that it’s all student-run.” The Inner Workings of SHEI As SHEI’s editor in chief, LSA senior Shae Corrigan, explained, the magazine’s current success is the cumulative product of years of work by its student staff, and during that time the magazine has undergone significant rebranding. “We were founded in 1999 as an Asian culture magazine — which is where the name comes from — it means ‘whom’ in one of the Chinese dialects,” Corrigan said. “So somewhere along the way it kind of evolved, in that the staff and the interest in it as exclusively Asian culture kind of fell by the wayside.” After shifting its focus, SHEI expanded into a general pop culture magazine with a focus on fashion. SHEI’s website went live in 2001, and in the years since then the publication has increased its presence both online and on the ground in Ann Arbor through its fashion shows, retailer profiles and, of course, magazine launch parties. “In the past four years that I’ve been with SHEI and particularly in the last year we’ve picked up more emphasis on developing SHEI as a resource for students who are interested in fashion and for people in the Ann Arbor community,” Corrigan said. “We’ve put more emphasis on community involvement, setting up shows and fostering that kind of relationship between the stores here and the students on campus.” The 150 students that make up SHEI’s staff are led by an executive board made up of the editor in chief, branding director, business director and creative director. The board is responsible for the magazine’s administrative functions — lining up funding, managing SHEI’s relationships with the University, local businesses, charities and corporate sponsors, and making the final decisions on each issue’s theme. But the majority of the staff and the work of assembling the magazine’s content fall into the
four teams working under the creative director. “The creative director oversees the photo teams, the fashion team, the literary features team and the design team,” Corrigan said. “Each of those teams then has one or two editors who organize the work they do, and the teams range anywhere from 10 members to, I think we have around 60 on the fashion team.” Needless to say, this is a complex operation. A complicated organization made all the more convoluted by the fact that SHEI doesn’t have a central office. “We currently have a room upstairs in the Union, but it’s more of a storage space than a place that we meet to do things,” Corrigan said “We have that room and then we have a standing reservation in the undergraduate library for our board meetings.” As SHEI’s editors are quick to point out, the lack of a central meeting space requires a great deal of flexibility and communication to keep things running smoothly and to build a sense of community among the staff. “We’re pretty good at (working around that problem),” said LSA senior Tanika Raychaudhuri, one of SHEI’s literary feature editors. “I guess one thing is that we have a lot of small communities within SHEI. For example, the lit team, we have our meetings in a certain location and we’ve always had them there and everyone goes. We do bonding activities as a team and bonding activities as a board.” But, unsurprisingly, the amount of work necessary to keep the magazine’s production on schedule while putting together runway shows and maintaining relationships with retailers in the community is daunting. “We spend 20 to 30 hours a week working on SHEI-related activities by the time you coordinate models, coordinate our 55 team members and run the meetings,” said Lexie Miedema, LSA junior and co-fashion editor. “When we do photo shoots, that’s our entire Saturday — pick up the models, bring them to hair and makeup, communicating with stores, organizing clothing, going to fittings, organizing photographers to make sure that they’re on the same page as us, talking to the design editors to make sure they’re on the same page as us, communicating with each other to make sure we’re on the same page. It’s seven different photo shoots each semester and there’s always an event coming up.” A Global Fashion Magazine in Ann Arbor SHEI is built on its student staff, but, like any other fashion magazine, it runs on clothing. Ensuring the clothes keep coming takes up the majority of Brand Director Anna Fuller’s work. Fuller serves as the liaison between SHEI and the Ann Arbor fashion community, setting up partnerships with local retailers, designers and salons. Some of the most successful collaborations have been with the stores closest to campus. “One of the things we have done in the last three years is we’ve partnered with the State Street Organization and done a State Street fashion show towards the beginning of the year in the fall,” Fuller said. “So that involves all of the stores in the State Street Association, from M Den to Renaissance to Van Boven, Pitaya, basically all of the stores on that strip.” These arrangements are mutually beneficial and have helped to cement SHEI as a leading voice in the Ann Arbor fashion scene. “We’ve been lucky enough over the years to establish contacts with (retailers in Ann Arbor),” said Art and Design senior, Fashion Editor Tara Ellis, “so they’ve come to know SHEI as a presence on campus and a lot of the stores are really great and really eager and willing to work with us, which has been wonderful. They send us their clothes, whether for a photo shoot or a fashion show, and then we return them and, yeah, it’s a nice little deal. They get some
Arts
Thursday, April 10, 2014 — 3B
SHEI
SHEI sponsors an annual student-run fashion show.
advertisement and we get to display their clothing.” SHEI’s charity fashion shows have also helped to expand its presence in Ann Arbor. The magazine has worked with several charities, and last year the staff partnered with Merit on South University, which donates 20 percent of its profits to fund scholarships for Detroit students. “We did a success issue as our theme a couple of years ago, and David Merritt was one of the people that we profiled,” Corrigan said. “He told us about his line, it was in its nascent form them. We went in and talked to them, he was a University alum, he has a history with SHEI, so it just seemed like a perfect fit. He has a charity that goes along with it, so it was just the clothes, the organization, just doing something fashionable and passing the money along.” Though the Ann Arbor community is essential to SHEI’s work on the ground and its runway shows, its executive board doesn’t view it as an Ann Arbor fashion magazine. “Even in brainstorming what we wanted our tagline to be, we kind of debated whether to tailor it directly to the University of Michigan or keep it separate,” Fuller said. “I look at us as a global fashion magazine. We’re very proud of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, but it’s not our defining factor, I would say.” “The slogan we came up with this past fall is ‘Flipping pages, turning heads,’” Corrigan said. “It starts with the actual product, the magazine. And then with ‘turning heads,’ we want to get people’s attention for new fashion trends, articles and concepts — our content, we really want to draw people’s attention to that.” Pride in the Product For an individual member of a large organization, it’s easy to feel like just another spoke in the wheel — you get caught up in your day-to-day routine, focus on the task at hand and lose sight of where it’s all headed. At SHEI, however, that feeling of malaise is countered by the magazine’s ability to provide an inclusive community for its members. “We really want to be a resource for students on campus who are interested in fashion and the publication world,” Corrigan said. “It’s for people who are interested in fashion and culture and self-expression as an industry and as a creative outlet, and just helping them develop the skills and interests that brought them to us in the first place.” “I really like to say and let people know that there’s a place for everyone at SHEI, and no matter what your interest is you can contribute to the magazine in some way,” Fuller added. But, ultimately, SHEI’s staff is driven by their pride in the product and the organization as a whole embodied in the physical magazine. “I think it’s really wonderful to have everybody working so hard, almost individually, but then to have the team meetings and really see that everyone’s on the same page,” Ellis said. “But just everyone’s combined efforts over a semester-long period … it doesn’t seem like it’s going to ever actually happen, that we’re going to actually have a
SHEI
SHEI runs on clothing donations from Ann Arbor’s fashion community.
magazine, but then it just comes together and it’s really beautiful to see all of the teams’ efforts and energy come together into this final product.” The magazine is a trophy to show potential employers — a former editor in chief reportedly brought it to an interview for GQ and was offered a position on the spot. The magazine is a testament both to the months of work needed to produce it and to the personal growth of each person on the staff. “I’ve still got the first magazine that I had an article in. I can look through it and see my writing, the layout and look all of the shoots that we had, and then I can look at our current issue and see a real progression in terms of the magazine itself and certainly my own growth,” Corrigan said. But, above all, the magazine is a monument: the physical embodiment of a moment in time and a rallying point for the community that built it. “What I love about SHEI is working with a really good team of people and making a lot of lifelong friendships,” said Raychaudhuri. “Just knowing that everybody is putting their full energy into a product because they really love to do it and not for any other reason.” No wonder they throw so many parties.
Arts
4B — Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CAMPUS FASHIONISTAS
Who What Wear Four ‘U’ students profiled on their clothing interests By JACKSON JOWARD Daily Music Editor
A college campus — especially one the size of Michigan — is probably the only place on earth where a vast and diverse group of young adults can express themselves however they’d like. Without a doubt, fashion is an integral part of this self expression. Away from the scrutinizing glares of parents, college students can dye their hair obscene colors, sleepwalk to class in sweatpants and show a little too much skin without anyone blinking. But college, in addition to simply freeing students from any type of “rules” (except the legal ones, you know), fosters a culture of experimentation, excitement and curiosity, especially in terms of clothing. Like anything creative, style can’t function properly when it is inhibited. Instead, college provides a breeding ground for expression and, more than anything, encourages kids to take pride in how they represent themselves to the rest of the world. In my two years here, I’ve seen some incredible clothes. But even more, I’ve seen people with great style — from professors to custodians to students throughout campus — who, through some creative process, somehow put it all together in a way that makes you take a second look, raise your eyebrows or, at least, makes you smile to yourself or nod in approval. This campus is chock-full of stylish students and it’s impossible to say who truly has the best sense of fashion. That being said, I talked with four students who I think have a style completely unique to them and stand out as undeniably different and, well, simply awesome in the mayhem that is Michigan. They’re from different states, study different things and have very different personalities, yet they are united in one thing: killer clothes. Name: Arielle Wisbaum Hometown: Buffalo, New York Major: Political Science and International Studies Year: Sophomore Where do you shop? “I try thrift shopping, but to be honest I’m kind of impatient, you have to have a lot of patience for that. I’m not going to lie, Buffalo doesn’t have a lot of options, but I still shop at Free People and Anthropologie. I also really like little markets when I’m traveling with linens, scarves and jewelry — especially turquoise stones and big rocks.” What’s your favorite weather to dress for? “Fall. Because you can wear a lot of different layers, you can take things off and put things off. In winter, everyone’s wearing big coats and you can’t tell what anyone is wearing but now (in
the spring) you start to remember that people have style actually.” Who are some of your fashion icons? Where do you get inspiration? “Hippie styles … Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez; if you look back at Woodstock fashions, I get a lot of inspiration from there.” How would you judge the fashion sense of this campus? “I think it’s pretty hip and diverse. There are definitely trends for different groups of people … as a whole it’s pretty good. I’m impressed by stuff I see here. I’m impressed by other students.” Name: Jay Moskowitz Hometown: Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Major: Art and Design Year: Sophomore What’s the best story you have behind a piece of clothing? “I have several oversize coats all from my crazy grandfather who spent a bunch of money on useless stuff because he didn’t want any of the money to go to the family. And then he died and I just took all his coats so it did kind of go to the family.”
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
Jay Moskowitz is a sophomore in Art and Design wearing interesting pants.
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
Nina Brewster is a freshman in Art and Design auditioning for 50 Shades of Grey.
What’s your process for getting dressed in the morning? “It’s kind of whatever I feel like that day, but it’s really important that it’s a specific feeling that I have to interpret and construct with the clothes I choose. I actually start thinking about it the night before because I just want to do it right and feel good all day.” What’s your favorite weather to dress for? “I think actually colder. Like in the 20s Fahrenheit. Because then I can put on a bunch of layers and a big ridiculous coat and that’s fun if I don’t have to wear a backpack.” What’s your most treasured item of clothing? “I have these cyberpunk goth pants with a bunch of stringy stuff hanging off, those are pretty cool. Otherwise I have these black, shiny, tight bellbottom pants that have matte flower design on them.” Name: Cameron Fattahi Hometown: Brighton, Mich. Major: Biopsychology, Cognition and Neuroscience (BCN) Year: Sophomore Who are some of your fashion icons? Where do you get inspiration? “I read Esquire UK, that’s where I get all my stuff from. (The UK version) has better articles, I guess. Nicer interface. Also a lot of British photographers.” What’s your most treasured item of clothing? “Definitely my Red Wing boots.” Where do you shop? Are you a thrifter or more of a retail person? “Club Monaco and J. Crew. Those are my two.”
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
Cameron Fattahi is a BCN sophomore. He loves his pockets.
Arielle Wisbaum is an LSA sophomore and a bracelet afficianado.
What’s the best story you have behind a piece of clothing? “I have this red Stanford hoodie that I got one time in California and I wore it in high school every time I took a test as motivation to do well. It’s held together by like three
How would you judge the fashion sense of this campus? “I have seriously mixed feelings about the style on campus. There are a lot of days that I notice a lot of people looking cool in their own styles but often it’s just a pretty generic look and nothing all that exciting. But I think it’s maybe like that anywhere else you go, I don’t know.”
safety pins but it’s still my go-to.” Name: Nina Brewster Hometown: Wyckoff, New Jersey Major: Art and Design Year: Freshman
What’s your process for getting dressed in the morning? “I’m always rushing in the morning so I typically throw whatever I can find on that’s
clean … and since almost all of my clothes are neutral colors I never worry about it matching.” What’s your most treasured item of clothing? “Maybe this super old and worn out vintage light blue sweater that I’ve had for like five years now. It’s my most treasured piece because it’s something I could never throw away.” How do you define style? “I think style is, as corny as it sounds, just a way of expressing yourself and showing what you’re about.”
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