ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
CAMPUS LIFE
Progressive historian, writer calls for activism Rebecca Solnit, author of environmental and political works, stresses value of hope MAYA GOLDMAN Daily Staff Reporter
JOHN YAEGER/Daily
Edouard Perrin, an investigative reporter for Premieres Lignes Television in Paris, discusses investigative journalism at the Leaks, Whistleblowers, and Big Data talk at Rackham Ampitheatre on Monday.
Journalists responsible for Panama Papers, LuxLeaks talk at Rackham
Knight-Wallace fellows cover confidentiality, legal issues and collaborative news to over 200 TIM COHN
Daily News Editor
Among the panelists of the University of Michigan Knight-Wallace Fellowship panel held Monday at Rackham Amphitheatre were Bastian Obermayer and Marina Walker Guevara, two journalists who helped break the Panama Papers — a prominent story implicating high-ranking government officials from dozens of countries for tax
crimes. Also included in the panel discussion were French journalists Edouard Perrin, a former Knight-Wallace Fellow, and Laurent Richard, a current Knight-Wallace fellow, who helped reveal the Luxembourg Leaks, which involved the secret tax deals between the government of Luxembourg and major international corporations. The event, which was attended by over 150 students, professors and journalists,
began with remarks about the evolving challenges facing journalists in the United States today from Will Potter, a former Knight-Wallace Fellow and visiting professor of journalism at the University. “We have a president that calls CNN and The New York Times fake news, and as Charles (Eisendrath) noted earlier, regards the free press as an enemy of the people,” Potter said. “I think it bears a reminder of the importance that it plays in the history of
the United States; it’s not one that is new or unique in world affairs but it is something that is taken for granted — it’s regarded as something that’s always there.” Potter emphasized to the audience President Donald Trump’s treatment of the media represented the biggest threat to the profession of journalism in modern American history, but unlike journalism in other countries, investigative journalism rarely poses a See JOURNALISTS, Page 3
Author, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit drew a full crowd to Rackham Auditorium on Monday evening in her “Hope and Emergency” lecture as she discussed the importance of maintaining hope in current political climate and of using stories to affect change. The lecture was a part of the Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture series, honoring the memory of Jill Harris who was an undergraduate student at the University in the 1980s. Each year, as part of the series, the University brings a distinguished visitor who will appeal to undergraduates interested in the humanities. English Prof. Megan Sweeney introduced Solnit to the crowd, sharing how she felt Solnit’s writing — spanning 18 books, numerous essays and a column in Harper’s Magazine — has impacted society. “Rebecca Solnit tells
compelling, lyrical, essential stories,” Sweeney said. “In telling these stories, she offers fresh insights about politics and social change, community, geography, wandering and walking, the environment … Whether she’s writing about an explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917, or the birth of Zapatismo in Chiapas, Mexico in 1944, Solnit has an uncanny ability to make the faraway seem nearby.” Indeed, when Solnit came on stage, she used powerful vignettes to illustrate the effect of the current administration has had on the nation in the last month, which, according to Solnit, has been to unite the country in protest. “When the Environmental Protection Agency was silenced early in the (President Donald) Trump era, a rogue EPA Twitter account appeared, and then one for the National Parks Service … (and) 200 coders in a UC-Berkeley basement set about saving NASA’s data See WRITER, Page 3
Art & Design faculty member creates Professor Gov. Snyder talks Syrian rally in opposition to Trump presidency proposes
GOVERNMENT
GOVERNMENT
civil war at teach-in
Prof. Holly Hughes, creator of online-based movement Bad and Nasty, hosts event
Talk-in outlines animosity following President’s recent executive order
Pink “pussy hats” lined the seats of Ann Arbor’s local venue Neutral Zone on Monday night where over 100 University of Michigan faculty, students and community members gathered to perform and watch performance-based art and comedy acts in a “Not My President’s Day” rally in opposition to the current President Donald Trump. The rally was organized by Bad and Nasty, an online movement that has organized and planned performancebased rallies at more than 63 locations in four countries, including the U.S. on President’s Day in retaliation against the 2016 election. The movement describes itself as a coalition of activists, artists and concerned citizens who wanted to create spaces where they could express their emotions in light of the election. Bad and Nasty was created and organized by Art & Design Prof. Holly Hughes. She described how the movement came to exist based on the responses she received from what she called an “idle threat” against Trump she posted on a Facebook page made in the weeks following the election. In the post, she invited all the “Bad Hombres
JORDYN BAKER Daily Staff Reporter
On Monday evening, History Prof. Juan Cole addressed a group of approximately 30 people about the conf lict in Syria at a teach-in discussion in the University of Michigan League hosted by the student organizations Michigan Refugee Assistance Program and Books Not Bombs. LSA junior Leila Eter, co-chair of Michigan Refugee Assistance Program at the University, said the event was held to provide information to students who had questions about the refugee crisis but may not have felt comfortable asking them in public settings — especially after President Donald Trump’s recent immigration ban on several Muslim-majority countries. “We had a lot of people come up to us specifically after the executive order on refugees and immigrants asking us, because they knew that we knew about the topic, what was happening in Syria,” she said. “They almost felt embarrassed See PROFESSOR, Page 3
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DYLAN LACROIX Daily Staff Reporter
and Nasty Women” — referring to Trump’s dialogue toward undocumented immigrants and women during the election — to take action on President’s Day. Within a day, Hughes said, she couldn’t keep up with the number of people expressing interest in and wanting to
participate in the movement. “By the next morning, there were so many people that wanted to interpret the idea on their own I was moaning, because I couldn’t add them quickly enough to the Facebook group,” Hughes said. “Within a day 2,000 people signed up on our Bad
and Nasty website.” She went on to describe how far the movement has spread and how diverse it is, spanning from a cabaret in Wyoming to an all immigrant poetry-slam in Brooklyn. University faculty and students performed a majority See RALLY, Page 3
funding for higher ed
Recommends overall rise of $36.6 million in state university funding CALEB CHADWELL Daily Staff Reporter
MATTHEW VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
Erin Markey, a performer and University alum, performs a protest piece expressing her displeasure towards President Donald Trump at The Neutral Zone on Monday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 34 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
The University of Michigan is slated to receive an overall 2.5 percent increase in funding — a 2.4 percent increase for UM-Ann Arbor, 3.1 percent for UM-Dearborn and 2.8 percent for UM-Flint — as a part of Gov. Rick Snyder’s recommended budget for the 2018 fiscal year. Snyder’s recommendations include an overall state public university funding increase of $36.6 million, bringing total operations funding to nearly $1.5 billion. If the budget is ultimately approved by the legislation, this would mark the seventh straight year state funding for higher education has increased. At the February Board of Regents meeting, University President Mark Schlissel criticized Snyder’s recommendation, saying it lags behind previous state funding levels the University has received. “The budget recommendation continues the recent progress of reinvesting in public higher education in our state,” Schlissel See HIGHER ED, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7