ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | A PR I L 5 , 2017
CAMPUS LIFE
Founder’s Day lecture emphasizes ‘U’ history JULIA LAWSON/Daily
LSA freshman Ayah Kutmah speaks about her experience wearing a hijab at the Muslim Monologues in Palmer Commons on Tuesday.
Muslim Monologues focus on experiences with Islamophobia
The event aimed to provide a voice to under-represented students on campus KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
Amid the success of the recent events “The Vagina Monologues” and “Hijabi Monologues,” LSA junior Heba Al-Saghir found she wanted to organize a similar, more
inclusive event that would still provide a place for often underrepresented voices on the University of Michigan campus. This inspiration produced the “Muslim Monologues” event, which was hosted by the Muslim Students’ Association and took place Thursday night at Palmer Commons.
“(The event) provides a forum for Muslim students to express their thoughts and ideas in an open and accepting environment,” she said. “It’s also important because it encourages people of all religions and cultures to hear Muslim voices that may paint a very different picture than
what they are used to hearing in the media. By humanizing Muslims, we are promoting tolerance, coexistence and a brighter future.” More than 40 students attended the event, and more than 10 performers shared their experiences through the See MONOLOGUES, Page 3A
Clements Library curator of maps Brian Dunnigan delivered the talk JORDYN BAKER Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan, though established in Ann Arbor in 1837, opened its first building in Detroit in 1817. Before this, the Michigan Territory had no organized schools, and very few students were prepared to attend a university. The year 1817 itself was crucial in the development of Michigan, and on Tuesday evening, Brian Dunnigan, William Clements Library associate director and curator of maps, addressed members of the public in this year’s Founders Day Lecture highlighting Michigan in 1817. Through the use of photographs
and maps, Dunnigan explained the original University building was commonly referred to as the “academy” until construction began in October 1837 to create Ann Arbor’s campus, a project lasting until 1858. Detroit, which included the first University building and published the first successful local newspaper in Michigan in 1817, began blossoming in the early 1820s with the beginnings of the transportation industry. Dunnigan said many Americans who first saw the city situated on the Detroit River often compared it to Philadelphia. “Detroit was the prime town of the old northwest,” Dunnigan said. See HISTORY, Page 3A
Author discusses relationship between GEO panel Toyota gifts looks to the U.S. and China both past and present funding for
ADMINISTRATION
RESEARCH
origins of the group
John Pomfret talked about the future of relations under the Trump presidency
Graduate students and faculty gathered to discuss the organization’s roots
Award-winning author John Pomfret discussed the effects of the Trump presidency on relations between the United States and China to a packed room in the School of Social Work Tuesday afternoon. Pomfret, who spent 20 years living in China, likened President Donald Trump’s rhetoric toward the country to that of Denis Kearney — a prominent U.S. politician in the 1870s and 1880s — in an event as part of the University of Michigan Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies Noon Lecture Series. Kearney was the head of the Workingmen’s Party in California, and was known for his often racist and antiChinese views. “Kearney took this populist anger or fear of Chinese industriousness and turned it into a political movement,” Pomfret said. Pomfret also compared Trump to Chairman Mao Zedong, a comparison that drew laughs from the crowd. He said Trump’s tendency to call for a “government for the people” is just one similarity to Mao’s leadership. “In Trump’s maddening unpredictability, (Maoists) saw Chairman Mao’s most favorite aphorism, which is ‘there is chaos under heaven, the
ANNA HARITOS Daily Staff Reporter
Graduate students and faculty gathered Tuesday to listen to speakers discuss the Graduate Employees’ Organization’s roots and current presence on campus as part of LSA’s bicentennialthemed semester. The event — under the title, “U-M Works Because We Do,” which was borrowed from an old GEO slogan from the 1970s — featured two former GEO organizers, Sandra Silbertstein and Scott Schneider, as well as a member of the union’s current bargaining team, Nora Krinitsky. The speakers discussed in detail the founding years of the GEO, and how it is important to have these discussions during the bicentennial. “The name of the event really says it all,” Krinitsky said. “GSIs proved 23 percent of student contact hours at the University of Michigan, which is a significant portion of the teaching labor that happens here, so if you want to understand how we got here over the last 200 years, GEO is a critical part of that story.” See GEO, Page 3A
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MOLLY NORRIS Daily Staff Reporter
situation is excellent,’ ” Pomfret said. Pomfret said he believes under the Trump presidency, the United States is back on the track of facilitating China’s rise, explaining how U.S. wallets have funded China in their wars and education. “Over the course of the last decade, perhaps longer, the Chinese system has been better at enabling China to benefit
from the United States than the American system has been at allowing America to benefit from China,” Pomfret said. He also expressed concern for the upcoming summit between current Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump, fearing Trump has no strategy for the meeting. Debunking many of the problems Trump has with China, such as currency manipulation and the Chinese
cheating the United States on trade, he reasoned these are not the real problems the United States should be focusing on. At the end of his talk, Pomfret characterized the current Chinese government as one of the future, and Trump’s United States as one of the past. “If you look at China right now, it’s a country that is clearly focused on creating the See CHINA, Page 3A
HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Washington Post journalist John Pomfret discusses U.S.-China relations in the era of Donald Trump in the School of Social Work on Tuesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 60 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
University research
The money will go to studies aimed at improved capabilities of batteries ERIN DOHERTY Daily Staff Reporter
The Toyota Research Institute invested $2.4 million in a research team at the University of Michigan, which will combine machine learning and data simulation to improve the production capability of batteries. Krishna Garikipati, professor of mechanical engineering and mathematics, is the lead investigator for the team, alongside Vikram Gavini, associate professor of mechanical and materials science engineering. According to Gavini, the investment will take effect on May 1, with a chosen group of University students, scientists and scholars set to join the team. One of the goals of the project is to develop a new type of battery that will be able to power vehicles that produce zero emissions, which aligns with one of the TRI’s main goals of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent by 2050. “Accelerating the pace of materials discovery will help lay the groundwork for the future of clean energy and bring us even closer to achieving Toyota’s vision See TOYOTA, Page 3A
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