ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ADMINISTRATION
E. Royster Harper talks Greek life, #UMDivest U-M Vice President of Student Life emphasizes need for campus unity KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter ALEC COHEN/Daily
Laverne Cox shares her college experience as part of the 2017 CEW Spectrum of Advocay and Activism Symposium in Rackham Wednesday.
“Ain’t I a woman?”: Laverne Cox discusses influences, experiences
Star of “Orange is the New Black” encourages student protest of Richard Spencer KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
Delivering personal messages of hope and empowerment for the future to University of Michigan students was “Orange is the New Black” star Laverne Cox, who took the stage of Rackham Auditorium Wednesday night. Over 300 people gathered to watch Cox, a transgender, African-American actress and activist, deliver her speech “Ain’t I a Woman? My Journey
to Womanhood” to conclude the 2017 Center for the Education of Women Spectrum of Advocacy and Activism Symposium. Hundreds more tuned into the livestream of the speech, shown at various locations around campus. Before the event, due to its popularity, students gave out their tickets to Black women on campus so those who could benefit most from listening to Cox could take advantage of the opportunity to hear her. “It’s a horrible thing that you don’t expect people to support you,
but being Black on this campus, you don’t expect it because of the way that a lot people act and what a lot of people do — you just don’t expect people to care,” LSA junior Mayah Wheeler said in October regarding the generosity of ticket givers. Anna Kirkland, director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, began the night by describing the unusual political circumstances of the past year — especially pertaining to women’s rights. “It has been an extraordinary
year to be a scholar of gender in this country, and by that I mean well beyond the ordinary, and not in the sense of good,” she said. “Laverne Cox sits here when we need her most.” Cox spent a large portion of her speech describing her childhood in Mobile, Ala., and the various experiences that have influenced her identity as a transgender Black woman.
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The Michigan Daily: So we’ll start with one of the most relevant issues — last night, the Central Student Government Divestment Resolution passed. To begin, where do you go from here? There are a lot of students saying this motion will increase tensions on campus. How do you mitigate these tensions in the wake of this resolution and the events of the past year, especially when some students feel as if they are being targeted? Royster: So, I’ve been thinking about a couple of things — one, it’s interesting to me that we start with the rock, that targets Latinx students, we start with the national climate that targets everybody, it’s just who’s in the queue to be targeted, and then we have our own experience on our campus, so far no one has been missed. And then we have our own internal conversations and debates about, really, a really complex issue.
It’s the same kind of debate about a complex issue about controversial speakers — who should be on campus — so if our values around free speech, what we find right now is that we have another set of issues, contest, divestment, that is in the center of what we say as an institution we’re committed to … which is free speech, multiple points of view — sometimes that speech targets and hurts different communities. So I’ve been struck by when you pull out content, the tension for us has really been about when we have these areas that we fundamentally disagree about, we just don’t have a lot of experience debating the issue without hurting the relationships. And so whether it’s Richard Spencer, same issue, it’s the content, multiple points of view about the content, and same challenge — how do we engage in that decision without hurting our community and our relationship?
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Republicans in state Senate vote to Sophomore SAPAC and establishes allow concealed weapons in schools Lyft join for
CAMPUS LIFE
CAMPUS LIFE
clothing company
Vote held three days after Texas church shooting, also allows guns in churches, bars
Lakeshore Drive works to promote “individuality and living your best life”
The Michigan Senate passed legislation last week allowing licensed gun owners to carry concealed handguns inside schools, churches, bars and other traditionally gun-free zones. Bill 584 is a part of a three-bill package that will now move to the state House of Representatives after passing almost completely along party lines with a 25-to-12 vote. The vote came three days after a mass shooting in Sutherland Spring, Texas, causing some to suspect Senate Republicans fasttracked the bill to take advantage of the urgency of the tragedy. Considering the context of multiple mass shootings in the United States this year, Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, who introduced the bill, said these events make the bill’s passing more relevant. “I believe citizens have the right to be free and safe and secure and to defend themselves and their loved ones. Responsible, well-trained, licensed gun owners may be one of those deterrents to those individuals who seek out gun-free zones as opportunities to commit heinous crimes,” Meekhof said, as reported in The Washington Post. However, the bill faced emotional backlash. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, state Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, said other concealed
RACHEL LEVY
Daily Staff Reporter
Before starting his freshman year at the University of Michigan, LSA sophomore Cooper Kirby asked himself if college was truly something he wanted to do. Luckily, he later found a way to balance academics and his interest in fashion, and has just released a new clothing brand this year. “It’s been tough to juggle with school work, but it’s been great,” Kirby said. Kirby and his close friend Ryan Murray, a sophomore at Michigan State University, co-founded Lakeshore Drive, a clothing brand and company that works to promote “individuality and living your best life.” “We wanted to project this idea to our audience through living your Lakeshore Drive,” Kirby said. “Your lakeshore is your paradise, it’s a place you’d always rather be or anything you’d always rather be doing, and your drive is what always pushes you further, it’s going to keep you going.
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CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
weapons carriers do little to help in mass shooting incidents and shouldn’t be used to justify the bill. Public Policy junior Lauren Schandevel, communications director of the University of Michigan’s chapter of College Democrats, agreed with Warren and said Meekhof’s logic is misguided. “This legislation is both poorly timed and poorly conceived,”
Schandeval said. “The idea that more guns in prohibited areas will help prevent mass shootings has been prevalent in our legislature for some time, and it is sorely misguided.” Though Democrats nicknamed the bill “Pistols in Preschools,” Linda Brundage, executive director of the Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, said there will also be adverse effects on college campuses.
“Students need to be worried,” Brundage said. “Students go to bars, students go to large stadiums, other venues. I mean, it is an issue, and it will just stifle intellectual development, I think, in a lot of different ways. And suicide is very high among the college-age population.”
bystander training
Lyft to also provide $10 toward rides between 12 and 6 a.m. for students ANNA HARITOS
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Daily Staff Reporter
For the month of November, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center is teaming up with Lyft to provide students $10 off a Lyft ride between midnight and 6 a.m. throughout Ann Arbor. This promotion is part of SAPAC’s new bystander intervention training program for Lyft drivers on campus. The passes will be available at SAPAC’s tabling events in Mason Hall throughout November, which is Better Bystander Month — hosted by SAPAC’s Bystander Intervention and Community Engagement program. According to LSA senior Julia Berg, one of the volunteer coordinators for SAPAC’s BICE, Better Bystander Month aims to raise awareness throughout the University of Michigan community about how to have conversations about bystander intervention. FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan State Legislature building.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 32 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
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SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7