2018-03-30

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Friday, March 30, 2018

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Alum, wife make record donation to ‘U’ medicine Richard and Susan Rogel donate $150 million gift to cancer center REMY FARKAS

Daily Staff Reporter

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

The University of Michigan Board of Regents voted to remove the name of the C.C. Little Science Building Thursday afternoon.

Regents vote to remove building names, discuss LEO bargaining

Board votes unanimously to change names of C.C. Little, West Quad’s Winchell Hall AMARA SHAIKH, JORDYN BAKER & MATT HARMON Daily Staff Reporters & Daily News Editor

The Lecturers’ Employee Organization filled the room of The University of Michigan Board of Regents March meeting, as the board voted to remove the names of the C.C. Little Science Building and West Quad Residence Hall’s Winchell House on Thursday

afternoon. Before the meeting, LEO hosted a grade-in with around 75 lecturers packing the lobby of the Michigan Union and their assembly did not go unnoticed, with several regents responding to their calls for higher wages and greater benefits during the meeting.

The meeting room had about 40 people in attendance with additional overflow congregating in a separate viewing room. Regents Michael Behm, D, Shauna Ryder Diggs, D, and Denise Ilitch, D, attended the meeting by telephone.

C.C. Little and Winchell House renaming The calls from the student body and faculty to remove the names of problematic figures from the C.C. Little building and Winchell House have carried on for years, with recent protests and forums bringing the issue to the forefront of campus conversation.

After two separate petitions to rename the buildings were proposed last year, the President’s Advisory Committee on University History began its deliberations

on the figures the buildings were named after, diving into primary documents and weighing the impact these figures on current students.

Little, a former president of the University, was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement, perpetuating the ideology of removing “unwanted traits” from the gene pool through ethnic quotas and anti-immigration legislation.

He was also a large supporter of the tobacco industry, which the committee found to be in opposition See REGENTS, Page 3

Richard and Susan Rogel committed a $150 million gift to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, according to a University press release announced Thursday.

This donation is the single largest ever given to Michigan Medicine and one of the largest given to the University, making the couple the second largest donor to the University.

To recognize the Rogels’ commitment to the University, the Board of Regents unanimously approved a renaming of the center in the couple’s honor on Thursday. The gift will allow for collaborative research in cancer care and will work to draw in top researchers from around the globe to the University.

With this most recent gift, the Rogels have donated $188.5 million to over 17 areas of the University. Richard Rogel will serve as the co-chair of the

Victors for Michigan National Campaign Leadership Board, the University’s $4 billion fundraising campaign which is currently chaired by Stephen M. Ross — the University’s largest donor — along with his other positions as the chair of Michigan Medicine Victors for Michigan and Victors for Michigan Global Student Support Committee. He also serves on many other advisory boards across the University.

Susan Rogel serves on multiple medical and alumni committees as well.

The Rogels’ motivation to contribute to cancer research stems from the way cancer hit their family, said the release.

Richard Rogel, motivated by the loss of his father from pancreatic cancer, said he hopes for new research which will develop earlier detection and better treatment for patients. Susan Rogel lost her parents to cancer, and the couple lost their daughter Ilene to a particularly vicious form of lung cancer five years ago. The See DONATION, Page 3

At one year anniversary, ‘Teach-out’ Employees Students of see delay in creators reflect on series’ historic roots color share

CRIME

CAMPUS LIFE

response to racist Snap

Tim McKay hopes online courses become more accessible, have broader impact

Despite Bias Response Team efforts, Victors staff say more must be done

In late March 1965, more than 3,000 people gathered on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus to protest and discuss United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The overnight event, which included lectures, music, informational movie screenings and more, was the brainchild of several University professors who had been growing increasingly frustrated with the escalation of conflict in Vietnam. Originally, the professors had planned to stage a strike, but concerned about administrative backlash, they instead planned 12 hours of campus-wide learning and activism.

Though controversial, the event, dubbed a “teach-in,” proved very impactful. The idea was rapidly adopted by a multitude of other colleges and universities. Similar teach-ins appeared across the country over the next several years.

More than 50 years later — as part of University President Mark Schlissel’s Academic Innovation Initiative — the Office of Academic Innovation and a

SONIA LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

Two weeks ago, LSA sophomore Lauren Fokken, a student at the University of Michigan, sent a Snapchat of herself and another student in black face masks captioned “#blacklivesmatter.” The photo was screenshotted and circulated around social media, with the incident receiving attention from many students on campus who deemed it as blackface and racist.

Since then, there has been little progress from the University and the Bias Response Team in addressing the occurrence and the students involved. However, student groups and leaders have commented on having more discussion surrounding racist incidents.

University President Mark Schlissel, in a recent interview See BIAS, Page 3

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group of collaborators decided to revamp the teach-in idea by bringing it online.

Schlissel officially announced last March that the Office of Academic Innovation would be releasing a series of online learning experiences through Coursera and edX. The initiative,

called the Teach-Out Series, consists of modular mini-courses featuring interviews, written pieces and other informative multimedia from University experts. Each Teach-Out extends over a few hours of content about a timely topic over the course of a week, then participants are asked

to answer questions and discuss the material.

Coursera and edX are Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOCs. These web-based educational platforms allow users to disseminate ideas more quickly than in a physical classroom. Since See TEACH, Page 2

advice for int’l travel

Students discuss how to manage axieties, fears about studying abroad NESMA DAOUD For the Daily

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Speaking on what it means to be a person of color abroad, the University of Michigan’s Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs hosted a talk Thursday night in North Quad Residence Hall featuring a diverse group of panelists who provided anecdotal stories of how their race shaped their experiences both studying and serving abroad. About 50 students and faculty members were in attendance at the event, which was also sponsored by the International Center, Spectrum Center and the Center for Global and Intercultural Study.

The talk focused on students of color experiences abroad and highlighted the small percentage of students of color who study abroad compared to 71.6 percent See ABROAD, Page 3

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FRIDAY: Behind the Story

BE HIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily news staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA freshman Zayna Syed wrote about the epidemics of alcoholism and drug addiction and their manifestations on campus.

“It was definitely shocking to see the lack of treatment. It’s a public health issue that I don’t feel like gets talked about very much. Opioid addiction has been brought up in presidential debates, it’s been a hot topic the last few years, but what’s really not talked about is alcohol addiction, especially in college, and how the culture of heavy drinking normalizes addiction. Something really interesting someone said was a lot of times people don’t find out they’re addicts until after they leave college. They’ll be drinking heavily with their friends, and after they’re graduate, they’re like, ‘Okay, I should probably stop.’ But then they try and stop, and they find it’s very difficult. Another thing I think is important to distinguish is alcohol addiction in general is very different from just drinking a lot. People who are addicts have some sort of chemical imbalance that physically makes them want it. Writing the story was definitely difficult to grapple with, because I think we as a nation have failed a lot of people.”

LSA freshman Zayna Syed, “Students, addiction specialists call for culture shift on alcohol, drug addiction” ALEXIS RANKIN/DAILY

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“

When someone greets me with an enthusiastic ‘Go Blue’ I can relate. I do go blue. I go blue when I look at my paystubs, and I go blue when I think about my first two years here when I had to eat all of my meals on the floor because I couldn’t even afford a couch. I go blue when I think of last summer, when I lived under the impending fear of eviction because I couldn’t keep up with my rent, and before anyone forgets, again, I work three jobs.“

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TEACH From Page 1 2012, the University has been experimenting with translating classes and educational content into online modules. In fact, the University was one of the first partners of Coursera and affiliated itself with edX in 2015.

The first Teach-Out, focused on the transition from democratic to authoritarian rule, was published on March 31, 2017.

The release date was a nod to the first teach-in, which took place overnight starting on March 24, 1965.

The Teach-Outs have now been running for a year. James DeVaney, associate vice provost for Academic Innovation, believes the series has had a positive impact so far.

“We are off to a terrific start after one year of Teach-Outs,” DeVaney wrote in an email to The Daily. “Nearly 60,000 participants Sudoku Syndication from around the world have engaged in these global community learning

events where scale meets social learning and multidirectional interaction is facilitated around timely topics of widespread interest.”

Ten Teach-Outs have been released since last March on issuesranging from social justice to sleep deprivation to virtual reality. DeVaney says the Office of Academic Innovation gathers topic proposals from faculty, University organizations and Academic Innovation team members.

Physics professor Tim McKay is one of the series’ founders and also co-led the “Privacy, Reputation and Identity in a Digital Age” Teach-Out in January 2018. He thinks the Teach-Out idea was sparked by the culmination of several factors, including the University’s tradition, the rise of MOOCs and a growing sentiment of social responsibility.

“Here we had this heritage of teaching in the moment, getting campus experts out to talk to people, and this new way of doing it, these massive open online courses,” McKay said. “There

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was, I think, a year ago, a renewed Coursera and edX, which already sense on campus that current have plenty of active users, and affairs called for more input from by advertisements sent to the the academic world.”

University’s alumni network.

The name “Teach-Out” The majority of people originates from “teach-in,” but participating in the Teach-Outs, conveys the broader impact of at least in McKay’s experience, are the new learning series. McKay not affiliated with the University. believes the online platform of the Many learners are just people Teach-Outs differentiates them who have an internet connection from teach-ins in that they are and want to join the conversation. more accessible to people outside According to Clemetson, the world of academia. According the Teach-Outs attract people to McKay, Teach-Outs are special who genuinely want to discuss because they reach non-academic impactful topics and learn from audiences who might not have as others. much experience with a topic.

“There is a target audience “The only drawback of a teach- there, who not only wants to in is that we only talk to each connect with the information, other, like here on campus, and but also wants to connect with we do that a lot anyway,” McKay a community of people who are said. “It’s not going to change the similarly interested in learning world, to do a teach-in.” about the topic,” Clemetson said.

As with the teach-ins of the Due to the series’ broad ’60s and ’70s, the Teach-Outs international presence, are founded on the principle participants have a wide array of of translating the University’s experiences. The first Teach-Out, brainpower into positive impact. which focused on the transition Academia is often criticized from democratic to authoritarian as being elitist or disengaged, rule, drew comments from people buthttp://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Teach-Out leaders say the who had lived or who currently series allows the academy to live under an authoritarian share its knowledge with larger government. McKay thinks audiences. Wallace House the diverse perspectives on Director Lynette Clemetson authoritarian rule enriched the led a recently released Teach- conversation.

Out called “Free Speech One core characteristic of the in Journalism,” and she Teach-Outs is an emphasis on agrees with the sentiment of social responsibility. The Teachincreased accessibility.

Outs are meant to facilitate “The kinds of conversations conversation about relevant, that you would have in a current issues, from the rise of rigorous academic setting “fake news” to concerns about don’t have to be confined to online identity and personal data. the campus itself,” Clemetson McKay says all Teach-Out said. “The experts and the topics are inspired by current topics and the research and the events, but the nature of each pursuit of people who are part Teach-Out’s timeliness varies. of the University should not “The timeliness, you can be just kept within the walls think about it in different scales,” of the University. It’s very, I McKay said. “So, free speech think, anti-ivory tower.”

— clearly a timely issue. Timely The Office of Academic this week? Maybe not. But in this Innovation agrees that the goal year, or this season, or now, yes, of the series is to extend the very timely. They have different University’s reach. DeVaney paces, so as the office has learned wrote that in publishing the how to produce these, they’re Teach-Outs, the office is working with that, and trying trying to “reimagine public to figure out, you know, a way to engagement.” generate a steady flow of these in So far, the Teach-Out a way that really works.” series has been accessed by Read more at 60,000 people from more than 100 countries. The TeachMichiganDaily.com Outs are marketed through

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CARTER FOX /Daily Brandon Marshall, wide receiver for the New York Giants, discusses his experience with Borderline Personality Disorder at the Mental Health Roundtable in Rackham Thursday evening.

REGENTS From Page 1 for a building dedicated to the sciences.

Alexander Winchell, a regent and geology professor in the late 1800s, was found to have published racist academic papers, maintaining white people are physiologically pre-dispositioned to be the superior race. In the document from University President Mark Schlissel supporting Winchell’s name to be removed from West Quad, the Committee found his novel “Preadamites: Or a Demonstration of the Existence of Men Before Adam” to be incredibly dangerous and utilized today by white supremacist groups. “(Preadamites) was unambiguously racist and ‘out of step with the University’s own aspirations in those times as well,’” Schlissel’s response read.

“According to the committee, portions of this book continue to be used today to support White supremacist views, thereby amplifying the negative contemporary effect of the Winchell naming, especially on ‘the actual building of communities’ that we should aspire to in our residential housing.”

Last Monday, Schlissel announced he agreed with the committee’s findings and asked the board to remove the names from the building and hall.

During his opening statements, Schlissel urged the board to vote yes on his proposals to rename the buildings. However, he echoed his sentiments from his interview with The Daily last Monday, saying further building name changes should not be expected anytime

ABROAD From Page 1 of white students. Though the proportion of students from underrepresented backgrounds has reportedly lagged in these programs, there has been a noted 15 percent increase in students of color studying abroad, with the University ranking sixth in the largest population of students who study abroad.

Many of the panelists expressed how much they cherished their experiences abroad, while still speaking frankly about the challenges they faced.

LSA sophomore Amira Mandwee said studying abroad was an opportunity for her to discover the world and learn about new cultures. Growing up, her family didn’t possess the means for travel, so she jumped at the opportunity to travel through the University and satisfy her childhood yearning to explore.

“I’ve wanted to study abroad since I was young since family vacations weren’t a thing,” Mandwee said. “I grew up firstgeneration and being around many other first-generations, so I wanted to amplify those experiences.”

Marcus Hall, a graduate student in the Ford School of Public Policy and the School

soon after these two.

“Under our review principles, those who wish to change formally designated names of spaces or buildings carry a heavy burden to justify the removal of a name and that this should be a rare event,” Schlissel said. “I believe that the burden has been met in these two instances.”

Schlissel then invited Terrence McDonald, the chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on University History, to present the committee’s findings and express his support for the renaming. McDonald, a history professor and the director of the Bentley Historical Library, said the committee operates on the understanding that the decision to name a building is a conscious one and removing said name does not eliminate the history from existing.

“We believe, first and foremost, that we are all wedded to the University’s past with all that is uplifting and troubling within it and we must understand and remember it but we believe equally, second, that historical memory and historical commemoration are not the same thing,” McDonald said. “Changing the name of a space does not change or erase our history. It revises a previous decision to commemorate something in that history.”

Prior to the vote, Public Policy junior Kevin Sweitzer, who submitted the proposal to rename Winchell House, spoke during public comments on agenda-related topics. He said this process of submitting the request was worth it to see another, more respectable individual be honored with the space in the future.

“At my time at the University, I have grown a lot as a person and when I learned that we still honor Alexander Winchell, who is an

of Information, echoed Mandwee’s sentiments, saying while he didn’t have the financial resources to travel, he was constantly around different cultures, which only drove his desire to go abroad.

“Coming from a lowerincome background and firstgeneration, I never thought that going abroad was feasible, but because I was always surrounded by people who came from many international backgrounds, I always found myself in international spaces,” Hall said.

Though many of the panelists conveyed their initial excitement of studying abroad, and how their experience overall was incredibly positive and life-changing, Business senior Akshay Chhajed revealed how specific racist instances made him feel uncomfortable while he was volunteering with refugees in Greece.

“People would stare dumbfounded, that I could speak Greek (as someone of South Asian descent),” Chhajed said.

LSA sophomore Brandon Bond also shared similar experiences of receiving odd looks abroad but said the culture he visited was welcoming and interested in his culture as well.

“In Barcelona, being Black was more noticeable,” Bond said. “I got weird stares. But in Mexico, people were intrigued

objectively wrong person in science and philosophy, I was astounded and it caused me to bring forward the petition,” Sweitzer said. “This University has taught me a lot and I firmly believe the right decision will be made today to vote to rename the space in West Quad and honor someone who is worthy of our support moving forward.”

LSA senior Joshua Hasler, one of the members of the group who proposed the C.C. Little building name change, also spoke and said Little’s work with eugenics supports causes such as the “alt-right” and the white supremacist Richard Spencer, whose ideology calls for a “white ethno-state.” Hasler said this cannot be an ideology the University supports.

“Little was no tepid supporter of American eugenics,” Hasler said.

“He believed it was an essential part of human progress. It is especially important to rename the C.C. Little Science building now given the renewed prominence of xenophobic and eugenic policies and ideas in American political discourse … The University of Michigan must demonstrate that it does not celebrate the ideals of White supremacy and eugenics by commemorating the legacy of this movement and its campus geography.”

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman, R, echoed Schlissel’s and McDonald’s comments from earlier, reiterating the difficulty that should come with changing a building’s name but acknowledging the University should always work to right their wrongs.

“Changing historical names should be difficult,” Newman said.

“Doing the right thing, though, shouldn’t be difficult.”

Newman also addressed a concern about University culture

by students of color, and were interested in who we were.”

According to LSA sophomore Nyla Hart, the panelists’ stories resonated with her and served to both ease anxiety about her upcoming study abroad trip and brought her attention to issues she may encounter.

“As a person of color going to study abroad, this was very relevant and I wanted to hear their experiences and know what to prepare for,” Hart said.

“Peru has people of color, but it’s a very conservative country.

I am worried about having to articulate that I am Black and American, but it will be a teaching moment.”

LSA sophomore Jamaica Jordan said the panel eased some of her worries about racism abroad.

“I was worried after hearing their experiences with racism, but after they talked about their experiences some more, I was back to feeling fine,” Jordan said.

The talk ended with words of encouragement for audience members to find their own study abroad programs and experiences. Students like Social Work student Lauren emphasized that even though it may be difficult in the beginning, it will be worthwhile at the end.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

before voting, mentioning the University population’s current usage of C.C. Little’s name to identify the Central Campus Transit Center. She said she believed it was important to “change the student vernacular” in regard to the bus stop as a part of the vote.

After hearing the opinion of public comment speakers and Newman’s comments, the Board of Regents voted unanimously to remove the names from the C.C. Little Science Building and Winchell House.

Not even an hour after the vote, the sign outside the former C.C. Little Science Building read, “1100 North University Building,” a temporary name outlined in Schlissel’s proposal. There is no word on when or how new names for the building and hall will be selected but the conversations and suggestions are sure to follow in the coming weeks.

LEO Bargaining Efforts Before the regents meeting began, LEO organizers and supporters filled the Union to show their support for the contract bargaining efforts of University lecturers.

LEO started conversations with the administration for increased salaries and benefits in October of last year. Currently, the salary for a full-time lecturer at the University is $34,500 in Ann Arbor, $28,300 in Dearborn and $27,300 in Flint.

The administration had initially responded to LEO’s demands with a $1,000 increase to the starting salary in 2019, a $750 increase in 2020, a $500 increase in 2021 and a 1.5 percent annual raise for Ann Arbor alone. LEO lecturers, however, were unsatisfied with the numbers, and referred to the proposal as “insulting.”

Prior to the meeting, Philip

BIAS From Page 1 with The Daily, discussed actions the University has taken to address the incident. LSA sophomore Corrina Lee suggested a workshop for government representatives to better understand race and racism, especially with regards to racism on campus.

“It’s being treated as an OSCR (Office of Student Conflict Resolution) violation of the Student Code of Conduct,” Schlissel said. “I think the way it will resolve is with some type of restorative justice but that really depends upon the people who brought forward the complaint and then the willingness of the students themselves who committed (this) really pretty terrible and offensive Snap, whether they’re in a place where they can learn from this and be remediated.”

With regard to racist incidents happening on campus in the past year, Schlissel wants to focus on having established structures for investigation and punishment.

“My job is to make sure that we have structures established and the right set of rules to make sure when bad events do happen, we can investigate them, attempt to figure out who’s responsible and then, once we’ve done that, find the appropriate punishment, be it restorative justice or on the other extreme, sanctions against

couple felt frustrated by the limited treatment options available for their daughter, further inspiring them to aid the fight against cancer.

Their gift will focus on cultivating elite scientists and elevating the University’s science and medical platform in six areas: cancer research and technology, collaboration in the cancer field, cutting-edge scientists, scientific freedom, new researchers and scholarship support.

“I call Michigan ‘Collaboration U’ because so many different units work together to solve problems,” Rogel said in a statement in the release. “We have the advantage of 97 graduate departments rated in the top 10 in the country. Putting all this brain power and excitement together is going to help us find a cure for cancer. It will make people’s lives better, and that’s the most important thing.”

Members of the Comprehensive Cancer Center span 53 departments and nine colleges of the University.

The center was ranked 12th in the nation by US News and World Report and is consistently in the top 10 in research funding from the National Cancer Institute, according to the press release.

“The University of Michigan takes great pride in our commitment to research and education focused on solving humanity’s greatest challenges,” University President Mark Schlissel said in the press release.

“I deeply appreciate Richard and Susan Rogel’s unwavering devotion to this commitment. There has never been greater potential for fundamental discovery to lead to dramatic improvements in the treatment of cancer. Their wonderful gift will further elevate the life-changing impact of our cancer center while advancing the amazing work of our faculty and students and inspiring new hope for millions of patients around the globe.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

A. Christman, a lecturer in the University’s English Department, explained the administration’s reluctance to meet the group’s requests was frustrating because they could meet LEO’s needs without causing much financial burden on the University.

“I think the word insulting is most appropriate,” Christman said.

“It’s not like we haven’t given them a ton of information. We hired a guy to audit the University’s books to show not only that we’re getting a very, very small percentage of the revenue that we generate for the University but that the University could easily meet our demands without really breaking a sweat.”

Christman also addressed some students’ concern about an increase in lecturer salaries impacting the amount of tuition. However, LEO’s auditing efforts of University funds shows students would not have to pay more if their demands were met.

“Students will ask me, with good reason, ‘Can the University meet your demands without raising tuition on us?’” Christman said. “I personally don’t want a raise if it means another tuition hike, there’s been enough, but that’s not what is at stake, and we’ve shown that to the University.”

As LEO lecturers come near their contract expiration date on April 20, they have authorized a potential vote for a strike if the administration does not adequately respond to their demands. Alex Elkins, LEO lecturer and organizer, remarked that of the 54 percent of LEO membership who responded to an online survey about the decision to strike if needs were not met, 78 percent of individuals voted yes.

“Our membership are clearly engaged in the process and discontent with the current paces

and progress of negotiations and are hoping to move forward with walkouts should negotiations not make any progress,” Elkins said.

However, while a strike is a possibility, Christman admitted he, along with other lecturers, did not want the situation to result in walkouts. “(The administration’s) last counteroffer on salary was just insulting,” Christman said. “I think the most important development is that, and it’s a development none of us are too happy about, but we have been authorized by our membership to call a strike if the University doesn’t move significantly. We don’t want to do that but the way is pretty clear for us to do that if we have to.”

During the public comments portion of the meeting, LEO lecturers and supporters had an opportunity to express their wishes for increased wages to the board.

After Víctor Rodríguez-Pereira, a lecturer in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department, outlined his three jobs as a fulltime lecturer, barista and tutor, he expressed his frustration with his current salary from the University.

“When someone greets me with an enthusiastic ‘Go Blue’ I can relate, I do go blue,” RodríguezPereira said. “I go blue when I look at my paystubs, and I go blue when I think about my first two years here when I had to eat all of my meals on the floor because I couldn’t even afford a couch. I go blue when I think of last summer, when I lived under the impending fear of eviction because I couldn’t keep up with my rent, and before anyone forgets, again, I work three jobs.”

the people who are responsible,” Schlissel said.

The LSA Student Government has also recently discussed taking action within LSA SG and on campus to tackle bias incidents in general, including the blackface incident.

And yet, student employees at Victors café have been left feeling their voices are not being heard after having been left out of the loop with regard to the investigation and Fokken’s employment status. Employees say Victors management has done little to address the incident and has not updated student employees about whether or not Fokken is still an employee. An anonymous Victors employee said they believed Fokken was still employed, though the circumstances are unclear.

“We don’t know the status of her employment,” the source said. “However, all of us here believe it sounds like she’s still hired. The dining workers said they can’t give an update on her employment, but one of my coworkers went down and told them we don’t feel comfortable with her working here.”

The source also said Fokken sent an apology email to all Victors staff through a work portal, but said it came across as insincere.

“She issued an apology,” the source said. “However, it didn’t quite look sincere and it made quite a few of us mad. It seemed like someone told her to

apologize and basically wrote it for her.”

Victors manager Gerry Heiden declined to comment on Fokken and the incident.

“It honestly feels like they’re brushing it off still,” the anonymous source said.

“The process is slow in general, but it feels like there’s no consequences. We feel like there were no consequences and she got away fairly easily, however, we don’t know the final outcome.”

Although he could not comment on specific details of the case without permission from Fokken, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said in an email interview BRT has been working to address the incident and extend assistance to students affected by the Snapchat.

“In this instance, the Bias Response Team offered support services to individuals impacted by the Snapchat post and to the specific individuals who reported the post as a bias incident,” Fitzgerald wrote.

“Housing Diversity and Inclusion staff reached out to impacted residents at Mosher Jordan Residence Hall.

In addition Michigan Dining professional staff have been in communication with impacted student employees in Michigan Dinning (sic).”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Opinion

4 — Friday, March 30, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ALI SAFAWI | COLUMN

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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.

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FROM THE DAILY

Winter rush, a step in the right direction

T

he University of Michigan recently announced that it would transition to winter rush for social Greek organizations, starting in the 2019-2020 academic year as a part of a plan to improve the firstyear experience. The new plan requires students to have completed at least 12 resident credit-hours and to be in good behavioral and academic standing before they can participate in the rush process. The change will affect about 2,000 students annually according to an email sent by E. Royster Harper, vice president for Student Life on March 21st.

The change comes following a two-month self-imposed ban on social activities by the Interfraternity Council after reports of hazing, drug and alcohol abuse, as well as allegations of sexual misconduct. The Zeta Beta Tau fraternity’s national organization also revoked its chapter at the University for violating multiple policies and endangering its members. We believe this policy change is a step in the right direction toward creating a Greek life system that exists to improve the university experience of students, especially freshmen, instead of detracting from it.

The decision by the University will be most beneficial to the new freshmen class and allow its members more opportunities to become better acclimated to their campus community. Being a new freshman can be daunting, and the question of whether or not to join social Greek life in the first semester adds to the pressure. When freshmen arrive at college, their first friends are often those who live in the same residence halls as them. As the semester continues, students find themselves branching out and making new friends through their classes and student organizations. This allows freshmen to try various activities and find what they like best.

Fraternities and sororities often sell the experience to freshmen by promising an immediate new group of friends and a great social life. Greek life, however, is an aspect

of campus life that requires a large time commitment and could cause new students to insulate themselves within their fraternity or sorority.

With this change, students will have more time and energy to put towards the equally important academic transition from high school to college. This will also allow freshmen more time to find out how they want to spend their time on campus without first requiring them to commit to a time-consuming rush and pledge process.

Additionally, the new winter rush process helps new students become acclimated to the drinking culture on campus. As most students are aware, the social atmosphere in college is usually vastly different from high school. The expectations, the amount of alcohol and other drugs available and the number of people with whom students can engage in these activities drastically increases during Welcome Week.

Nowhere is this more pronounced than in fraternities, who host the majority of Welcome Week events and provide alcohol for thousands of students every weekend.

There are obvious dangers associated with this newfound easy access to alcohol and other substances, as evidenced by more than 30 hospital transports during the weekend of the Michigan State game and seven during Halloween weekend. With winter rush, students will still go out and experience college life, but will be able to make better decisions about the drinking culture that comes

with it, as they would have had time to acclimate in the fall.

There are, however, some concerns about the new policy.

Suspending fall rush for fraternities may also simply lead to an informal rushing process that may exclude some freshmen who do not have the right connections. This “underground rush” would also be completely unregulated by the University, though one could possibly argue that currently the University has very little oversight regardless.

Lastly, this decision also could unfairly affect multicultural fraternities who provide a unique space for the members of their respective communities. When minority students arrive at the University’s predominantly white campus, multicultural Greek life can offer a support system that the transition to winter rush could threaten to delay.

Overall, however, the change to a winter rush process is a strong step by the University to improve the first-year experience and limit the insularity of Greek life on campus.

Freshmen will have an opportunity to explore their interests and make better-informeddecisionsabouttheir social life and future involvement in student organizations. And, in the face of recent controversies surrounding Greek life both on campus and nationally, lifting some of the pressure to join the Greek community freshmen often face could have long-lasting benefits.

MARGOT LIBERTINI | COLUMN

The elephant in the (situation) room

W

e are heading toward six months since the ubiquitous hashtag #MeToo was re-popularized by Alyssa Milano. It’s been six months since the Harvey Weinstein scandal; six months that have been marked by triumph over abusers in positions of power such as politician John Conyers and news anchor Matt Lauer and by inspiring activism across the nation. The past six months have also included a confusing rollercoaster on a plethora of crucial issues such as immigration, healthcare, Russia, the Iran nuclear deal and so on. So while some powerful abusers have been justly defeated, another has reaped the benefits of a 24-hour news cycle that cannot seem to remember what atrocities occurred the week before.

President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault by 21 women. His response has largely been to dismiss and disregard their allegations, once calling them all “horrible liars.” For those who found the testimony of more than a dozen women to be unconvincing, a video of Trump himself bragging about groping women surfaced on Oct. 7, 2016. On Oct. 13 (less than a month before being elected President), he said “Look at her . . . I don’t think so” about an accuser, implying that there is a correlation between a woman’s appearance and her likelihood of being assaulted. And yet, the stories and his reprehensible responses to them managed to get lost in the chaos that has been the past 14 months.

There are many reasons to dislike Trump. There are many reasons to call for his impeachment.

I feel that this particular aspect of his existence should be covered with the frequency and deference that it deserves. Our president is a serial sexual predator. We cannot claim to be the beacon of democracy and human rights as long as this is true. It is a grotesque reflection of a society that looks past criminal behavior if the criminal is a wealthy white heterosexual male who will work to maintain the hierarchical system that has privileged him.

Members of Trump’s team left because of steel tariffs, but did not bat an eye at these accusations.

The allegations were also largely ignored at the height of #MeToo movement. Whether it was because our collective memory could not stand to hold any more Trump scandals than we already had or if in our hearts we knew that he was one predator we weren’t going to topple, I don’t know. I know that as I watched in awe at the brave women coming forward to speak their truth and be heard, there were at least 21 women who were watching while their abuser sat in the Oval Office.

While I rejoiced as large, powerful institutions finally held their leadership accountable, the Free World couldn’t do the same.

That image disturbs me: millions of survivors feeling hope for the first time in so long, while simultaneously being governed by an accused rapist. It also makes me feel a little hopeless. When 21 women’s stories aren’t worth any formal investigation, when evangelical Republicans can back a candidate who said, “I just grab ‘em

by the pussy,” when even the antiTrump feminists seem to forget that in addition to being a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot, he is also a violent criminal, the state of justice in this country feels quite bleak.

But recently, there has been a glimmer of hope on the topic. One of the “horrible liars” is fighting back against our “Predator in Chief.”

Summer Zervos is filing a defamation suit against Trump for calling her a liar about the accusations. The Trump team responded by claiming that a sitting president cannot be sued. A New York Supreme Court Judge rejected that notion, saying, “No one is above the law.” In one of the most ironic plot twists of the Trump era yet, this precedent was set after Paula Jones sued former President Bill Clinton in 1998.

This could end in Trump being forced to speak under oath about the allegations as Clinton did 20 years ago when he famously said: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman (Monica Lewinsky).” First of all, poor Hillary Clinton. When will this nightmare end for her? Second of all, I sincerely hope that #MeToo has evoked something strong enough in this nation’s conscience to lead us to justice for Zervos and the 20 other women who have been brave enough to come forward with their stories.

I am not quite optimistic about the prospects of that, but these recent developments have certainly made me less hopeless.

Margot Libertini can be reached at mliberti@umich.edu.

T

Adderall, enhancement vs. epidemic

he first time someone is being fueled by a trifecta tried to sell me of factors: the increased Adderall was in my recognition of ADHD as a high school library. disease in foreign At the time, I did not countries such think anything of it. as Saudi Arabia I was inspired to and China, more write this column Americans getting by the new Netf lix diagnosed and documentary film, treated for ADHD “Take Your Pills,” because they which offers an now have health interesting look insurance under into the use of Obamacare and a ALI stimulant drugs, rewriting of the SAFAWI such as Adderall g uidelines for and Ritalin, both past and diagnosing adults with ADHD. present. According to a Prescription stimulants have study by Johns Hopkins a valid medical purpose and University’s Bloomberg should not be demonized.

School of Public Health, Instead, my concerns lie with Adderall abuse is booming people, especially college among young people ages 18 to students, using stimulants 25. In fact, non-prescription without a prescription.

Adderall use increased by 67 Another aspect I percent between 2006 and found unsettling in “Take 2011 and Adderall-associated Your Pills” is the scene emergency room visits rose where Lawrence Diller, a 156 percent. At the University pediatrician interviewed for of Michigan, 24 percent the documentary, equated the of students use stimulants severity of Adderall abuse to despite only 8.95 percent that of the opioid epidemic, having had a prescription. calling it “right below the Adderall and related threshold of the opiates.” It is drugs are central nervous not so much the claim he made system stimulants. Adderall, that bothers me but how he, in particular, works as a at least in my interpretation, catecholamine agonist, insinuated that Adderall meaning that it binds abuse was not getting enough to the brain’s receptors attention because of opioids. for catecholamine, the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. The drug also inhibits the reuptake of dopamine and norepinephrine by brain cells, similar to certain antidepressants.

Catecholamine is associated with pleasure and motivation, so by taking a stimulant, a person is basically pumping their brain with chemicals that lead to feelings of euphoria, focus and alertness.

However, those chemicals Prescription stimulants can also lead to insomnia, and prescription synthetic anxiety, increased heart rate, opioids, such as oxycodone hypertension (elevated blood and fentanyl, have some pressure) and even psychosis. commonalities.

They are That same study out of both classified as Schedule Johns Hopkins also found that II/IIN controlled substances treating young adolescents by federal reg ulations, with Adderall was on the meaning that they have a decline and that the rate of high potential for addiction nonprescription use in the and psychological/physical same population was neither dependence. Both are also increasing nor decreasing. commonly sold and taken This is eye-opening for the without a prescription. many of us whose exposure However, not all Schedule II to the discourse surrounding substances are created equal. stimulant drugs has centered While Adderall and other around the perceived stimulants can have lifeovermedication of children threatening effects, especially diagnosed with attention when mixed with alcohol, the deficit hyperactivity disorder fact of the matter remains that or attention deficit disorder. opioids are responsible for the I want to address the idea vast majority of drug-related of the “ADHD business,” a deaths in America. In fact, concept featured prominently per the Center for Disease in the one hour and 27-minute Control and Prevention, half runtime of “Take Your Pills.” of the top 10 drugs involved in In fact, the very title of the overdose deaths in 2014 were documentary implies that prescription opioids. Adderall drugs like Adderall and and other prescription Ritalin are being forced onto stimulants did not even make people.

Yes, prescription the list. Opioids are just more stimulants are projected to be dangerous than prescription a 17.5-billion-dollar industry stimulants and implying that by 2020. However, this boom one gets more attention over

Stimulants can further enhance social disparities that advantage some and hold back others.

the other masks the potential merits behind that reality.

However, the strongest critique I would level against “Take Your Pills” is that the filmmakers make stimulants seem amazing. They even included a snippet of an interview with the late Keith Connors, the psychologist who established the first standards for diagnosing ADHD, where he recounted a time that he tried a Ritalin pill from a barrel of them supplied to his team by the manufacturer for their study.

Connors then went on to say with nostalgia that his experience with Ritalin was “great.” After watching the documentary, I had an urge to get my hands on some Adderall despite never being diagnosed with ADHD. I wanted it because I wanted to do better.

Prescription stimulants are good for people with ADHD, but what about the rest of us? Should everyone be taking Adderall? Despite the obvious legal implications of a potential felony, let us turn to the ethical aspect of taking stimulants without a prescription. Everyone wants to get ahead, and the truth of the matter is that grades have the potential to make or break an application to an internship or graduate school. However, stimulants can further enhance social disparities that advantage some and hold back others.

Not every University student can afford to buy pills from their peers and for certain students, the consequences of being caught selling or using a Schedule II substance illegally can be more severe than for others.

At the heart of my ethical concerns regarding the use of Adderall and Ritalin as performance enhancers is a question of privilege. In classes with grading curves, students using Adderall to help them score better on the exams are directly disadvantaging their fellow students not taking a stimulant. How? By shifting the curve in a way where the students not on stimulants will get a lower grade than if everyone had taken the class without enhancement.

I doubt that anyone taking stimulants without a prescription will give much concern to thoughts of privilege, after all, we live in a dog-eat-dog world where success is the only objective.

Nevertheless, the nonprescription use of stimulants to improve one’s academic performance is inherently unethical.

So, you can count me out of the Adderall craze.

Ali Safawi can be reached at asafawi@umich.edu.

JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD Our Editorial Board meets Mondays and Wednesdays 7:15-8:45 PM at our newsroom at 420 Maynard Street. All are welcome to come discuss national, state and campus affairs.

Arts

5 — Friday, March 30, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

INTERVIEW

John Krasinski: On the silence, sound and scares in ‘A Quiet Place’ DANIELLE YACOBSON Managing Arts Editor

“I’m an emotional dude, so I’ll tell you everything.”

John Krasinski has written a love letter into a horror movie.

A self-proclaimed scaredy-cat with eyebrows made of charisma, his passion is contagious as he talks about his latest film, one that is simultaneously unexpected and organic. In an interview with The Daily, Krasinski opens up about the on and offscreen scares that came with his experience of co-writing, directing and starring in “A Quiet Place.”

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where mysterious creatures hunt by sound, the horror-thriller centers on the Abbott family and their reliance on silence for survival.

“I don’t think that anyone would consider me the horror guy,” Krasinski admitted, and considering he is widely known as “The Office”’s small-town heartthrob Jim Halpert, few would disagree.

And yet, he found himself drawn to the story beneath the scares. Krasinski read the script

a few weeks after he and Emily Blunt, his wife and co-star, had their second daughter.

“I was already in the state of terror of keeping this girl safe, keeping this girl alive,” Krasinski said, recalling the usual fears that come with newfounded fatherhood. “When I first read the script … I saw that it could be a huge metaphor for parenthood. I was wide open for this one and it connected to me in a big way. ” Krasinski took on the rewrite, drawing from his own haunts to lead each scene back to the central family dynamic. He deeply connected with his character, Lee, a father whose main priority is to keep his family safe, while simultaneously crafting a beautiful foil in Lee’s wife, Evelyn, a mother who persists to nurture her children despite the surrounding threats.

An intricate relationship was born on screen and, secretly, Krasinski thought of his own wife for Evelyn’s role throughout the rewrite.

Blunt was working on “Mary Poppins Returns” during the time of Krasinski’s rewrite (“A small little indie movie,” Krasinski joked) but once she read the script, she was sold on

the role.

“I’ve been firsthand seeing how she makes decisions and how incredibly smart she is,” Krasinski said. “So when she actually signed onto the movie it truly is the greatest compliment of my career because I’ve seen what it takes to get her to say yes to things.”

From there, Krasinski and Blunt drew from their personal relationship to keep honest communication on set. The duo was constantly talking about the film, the relationship that they were portraying on screen and the visual and audio elements that would have to be married into a cohesive unit in order to pull off the film’s vision.

“We were both really scared to work with each other,” he said.

“But I’ve never collaborated with someone who is better. It was amazing.”

Krasinski, from the start, was all in, generating an energy conducive to experimentation.

“The cool thing was, every single member of the crew knew that this movie could be special.

From the production design to the cinematography I had a vision, but I always love input because I think an idea can always be beat.”

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

His work as an actor was especially important while directing and allowed to create an intimate space for the central four characters. “Instead of being a disembodied head that yells ‘cut’ and interrupts their flow, I actually get to be in there,” Krasinski said as he talked about working with Blunt and the two child stars, Millicent Simmonds (“Wonderstruck”) and Noah Jupe (“The Night Manager”).

For Krasinski, the performances themselves were never supposed to be scary.

Drawing from his experience on “The Office,” he continued to employ creator Greg Daniel’s advice: Allow the audience to interpret a performance for themselves. “I never would have done this movie if it wasn’t for that advice because I looked at this not as a horror movie,” he explained. “If I can make you fall in love with this family then you’ll be scared because you don’t want anything to happen to them.”

Instead, fear manifests through the sound design and the score, which acts as an omnipresent narrator created by composer Marco Beltrami (“The Hurt Locker”). “(Beltrami) wrote music for so much of the movie,” Krasinski said. “Then the

question was, ‘Can we pull music out?’ I thought that that would be a difficult conversation to have with your composer, and he loved it. He was along for the ride of this experiment and could see how every day it changed.”

Finding silence was crucial.

The Abbott family must figure out how to live in a world with no noise — sanding paths, communicating through lights, avoiding wooden boards — in order to survive the creatures.

“Not to sound too like hippy dippy or out there, but the truth is the most fun was actually just shooting scenes in dead silence.”

A large component of creating that silence was using American Sign Language, the form of communication that gives the Abbott family a chance at survival. “There’s a lot of pretty languages out there, but nothing more beautiful than sign language,” he said.

For Krasinski, it was nonnegotiable to cast a deaf actress for the role of Regan, the Abbott’s deaf daughter.

Their inspiration, teacher and guide came in actress Millicent Simmonds and, at the risk of sounding corny, Krasinski gushed on the delicate nature with which Simmonds approached teaching ASL.

“I’ve never had someone take in all of me when we were communicating,” he explained.

“She said, ‘I think it’s really interesting that each of the characters is coming out in your sign. The father is a guy who doesn’t care about anything in the world but keeping people safe, so all of his signs are very curt and short. And Emily is trying to give these kids a much bigger life. So hers are much more poetic and gesture-y.’”

And in silence, “A Quiet Place” was able to transcend beyond the usual horror film.

“You can overwrite dialogue, you can overwrite backstory … and in doing so you rob the two characters of having an intimate moment,” Krasinski said. “I got the rare opportunity to have a slow dance with my wife in this movie. So much is being said in that one dance.”

“You’re catching me in a moment where I’ve never been more overwhelmed by a response to a movie,” Krasinski said, that emotional dude spilling out a bit more than before. “There’s just that moment where you have to step to the edge and jump or not.

I’m really glad I took the I took the leap.”

“A Quiet Place” comes to theaters Apr. 6, 2018.

CONCERT REVIEW

An evening with Lorde DOMINIC POLSINELLI Senior Arts Editor

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

Mohja Kahf creates unity through masterful poetry JENNA BARLAGE Daily Arts Writer

Last Friday, poet Mohja Kahf performed readings from her latest poetry collection, “Hagar Poems,” at the Rackham Amphitheatre.

“Performed” should not be taken lightly. Out of the myriad of poetry readings I’ve attended since the age of 15, Kahf’s was by far the liveliest. Kahf’s reading was theatrical and inviting, while politically informed and incredibly moving. She didn’t stand behind the podium, but rather in the center of the stage, moving freely and expressively as she read.

To me, this came as a bit of a surprise. Kahf was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1967, but grew up in the American Midwest.

Her poetry encapsulates her experience as a Syrian woman living in America — all the similarities and differences between her native and adopted countries.

It’s clear that Kahf’s poems carry an American poetic influence, evident through their use of free verse and informality of language. However, Kahf’s work is also heavily informed by Arabic poetry, reflective of Qur’anic suras and the prominence of the Arabic oral tradition.

Kahf’s poetry both addresses and reinvents stereotypes about Muslim women, encapsulating issues of femininity, sexuality and

gender. Her poems ruminate on Islamic traditions — which nonMuslims often view with an air of ignorance and misunderstanding — in a way that is emotional, personal and, frankly, hilarious.

Kahf addresses the satisfaction

Her poetry encapsulates her experience as a Syrian woman living in America — all the similarities and differences between her native and adopted countries

of self-mastery that occurs during Ramadan, despite the almost torturous struggle that occurs when beginning to fast,

the experience of being a mother in moments of frustration and the misunderstanding, trial and devastation that exist in the current state of Syria.

In the context of the American political moment as well as the Syrian crisis, addressing the overlapping themes within Kahf’s poetry is incredibly important.

Kahf’s work, however, is infused with emotion — pride, sadness, anger — complicating these themes that are often viewed as one-sided. Kahf reveals the multilayered and complex issues of what it means to be a Syrian woman and an American citizen today, while allowing room for happiness and humor as well.

Kahf invited the audience to participate heavily, reciting moving call-and-answer poems, engaging in conversation and asking questions as to what the audience wanted to hear from her.

The audience’s reaction iterated the wave of emotions felt as Kahf read — passion, sorrow and happiness.

Through her bubbly and inviting personality, theatrical and potent poetic voice and genuine and kind engagement with her audience, Kahf created a humanizing conversation around the current state of Syria that, many times, is not talked about.

Kahf’s reading created a powerful unity that spread over the entire room — a kind of unity that, today, we need more of.

In the never-ending whirlwind of bar and club shows, it’s easy to forget the magic that occurs alongside the detail and attention given to full-scale concert productions. Lorde’s show on Wednesday night at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena was truly nothing short of pure magic.

Before her set, Lorde received some fantastic support from the inimitable queen of indie rock, Mitski, and explosive hip-hop duo Run The Jewels. With an early set time, Mitski unfortunately played to a half-empty arena while seats slowly filled, but was nonetheless spectacular, with a set that included the anthemic “Your Best American Girl” and closed with the scathing “Drunk Walk Home.”

Run The Jewels played most of their hits like, “Call Ticketron” and “Stay Gold,” upping the rhythm and energy of the crowd in preparation for our Lorde and savior to take the stage.

Within a matter of seconds into her opening song “Sober,” the entire arena was transformed into Lorde’s own dreamscape, a transmutable playground for her to share her deepest

secrets and darkest emotions.

Background dancers flooded the stage when necessary to set the scene — an intimate party during “Homemade Dynamite” and a sensual dance between lovers during “The Louvre.” All at once, Lorde left everything and nothing to the imagination with settings as personally subjective as needed but altogether objective in their presentation.

Lorde herself transformed throughout the performance, starting the show with a sleek black outfit, changing midway through the show on stage into a flowing pink gown that she then later exchanged for flared red bottoms with a matching ruffled top.

Lorde took the crowd through the emotions of her music with these expertly timed changes, reflecting the deftly planned setlist. Melding cuts from Melodrama and Pure Heroine together, Lorde presented a young and intense love broken down to the sweet innocence of intimacy, eventually bringing us to a spiteful but reflective postbreakup independence.

This is the artist of a generation at her most affecting, most genuine and truly most breathtaking.

Her show was both a visual and auditory spectacle, blended perfectly into a story deeply and

universally resonant. Prefacing “Ribs” off of Pure Heroine with “This is a song I wrote when I was 16,” she reminded the crowd of her former outlook as a teen, tracing the messy path to young adulthood with an incredibly perceptive eye. She took the time to thank the crowd for being with her, reflecting on the fact that she was once writing her songs alone in a bedroom without ever imagining she’d be sharing them with arenas full of people.

Lorde also interposed a gorgeous cover of Frank Ocean’s “Solo” between “Writer in the Dark” and “Liability,” reflecting on her own efficacy in the messy melodrama of life through these three tracks.

“Supercut” had the entire crowd screaming along, reminiscing on the purest, happiest moments of life scattered throughout the dark.

If Lorde’s performance showed us anything, it’s that we truly do not deserve an artist with such overwhelming talent. Without the words to do her justice, I’ll leave you with this: Few artists are able to so magnificently capture acute emotion the way Lorde has with her music, and her performance follows suit in a way that is so immersive and tangible it’s almost impossible not to feel the melodrama.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Arts

6 — Friday, March 30, 2018

COMMUNITY CULTURE

Chick Corea to open with electrifying performance SAMMY SUSSMAN Daily Arts Writer

Few artists have electrified Ann Arbor audiences like Chick Corea. His 2015 performance with Herbie Hancock was one of the most recent University Musical Society performances of the past couple of years. His historic performance at Hill Auditorium during the Great Blizzard of 1978 (again with Herbie Hancock) was released as part one of “An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert.”

This coming weekend, Corea partners with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to present an evening of Corea’s music at Hill Auditorium.

The concert will also feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, another ensemble that has proven to be extremely popular among Ann Arbor audiences.

This concert also marks the end of the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s first tour without Wynton Marsalis, the accomplished leader of the ensemble who is currently taking a brief hiatus to pursue other projects.

“This was a good first foray into touring without Wynton,” said Jason Olaine, Director of Programming and Touring for Jazz at Lincoln Center, in an interview with The Daily. As they enter their last couple days of performances, “the band and Chick have been really happy.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center is a notoriously busy organization.

I interviewed Olaine as he arrived back to New York from Shanghai, and as the ensemble moved from Arizona to Chicago.

With this hectic schedule, it’s easy to understand why Marsalis might have stepped away from the ensemble for a little while.

“Usually our Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis tours between 13 and 18 weeks every year,” Olaine said. “Wynton scheduled a short sabbatical and our agent happens to be Chick’s agent.”

While the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Chick Corea go on tour all the time, Ann Arbor is lucky to have hosted 18 previous Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra concerts and five previous

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Chick Corea Saturday, Mar. 31 @ 8:30 p.m.

Hill Auditorium $20-80 Chick Corea concerts.

“This concert does speak to your in-house-programming to have been able to secure this date,” Olaine said.

Corea is perhaps best known today for his versatility. He has performed throughout his career with a huge number of artists, collaborating with everyone from Miles Davis to Bobby McFerrin. He has worked frequently in the past with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and is quite popular among the members of the ensemble.

Last time he worked with the orchestra, “Chick had a great time and we loved it,” Olaine said. “Victor Goines has been working with Chick as co-music director,” he continued, and there has been “lots of great energy all around.”

Corea and the ensemble have gone on to develop a close relationship, performing not as soloist and orchestra but as a coherent ensemble.

“It’s a little bit different than coming up with a new setlist every night,” Olaine said.

“Chick is such a grandmaster, and it’s been to be pretty special (to work with him).”

In the past, the ensemble has collaborated with Corea to perform newer compositions.

They also worked quite extensively on the music of Thelonious Monk.

During this tour, however, they’re “primarily focusing on (Corea’s) music,” Olaine explained.

Saturday’s performance marks the end of the tour that started in Provo, Utah on Mar. 20. Given what he has heard of the first portion of the tour, Olaine seemed confident that it will be a magical event. The Final Four basketball game on the same night recently pushed the concert back a half hour, and he predicted that this would only add to the energy of the performance.

“The concert in Michigan on Saturday is gonna be a great one,” Olaine said. In their previous collaborations, “Chick has had a great time and we absolutely loved it.”

As for future performances of both the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Chick Corea in Ann Arbor, Olaine was hesitant to make any promises. “When it works out next, we’ll see,” he said.

As for the end of the tour, however, he predicted a great performance.

Saturday’s performance will mark the end of a fantastic tour and (hopefully) the beginning of a new collaboration between artist and ensemble.

“Chick has been having a great time, and our guys love Chick,” Olaine said. All in all, it promises to be another exciting evening for these two ensembles in a city that has played host to some remarkable concerts from them over the past 40 years.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

BOOKS THAT BUILT US

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ SOPHIA KAUFMAN Daily Arts Writer

When my 11th grade A.P. American Literature class began reading “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, I couldn’t have been more excited; it represented the blend of American history and contemporary voices that I loved, and I had yet to read any of Morrison’s works. I don’t want to ruin the plot for anyone who has yet to read it, so let it suffice to say that the novel tells the story of Sethe, an enslaved woman who runs away with her children from a plantation and, upon facing capture and re-enslavement, is presented with an impossible choice. It’s one she makes and sticks to.

I immediately fell in love with Morrison’s writing. I had never read a book so simultaneously blunt and musical, sparse yet evocative. Yet my experience with the book, beyond my appreciation for Morrison’s talent, was shaped primarily by my shock at how Sethe’s action quickly became the most polarized topic among my grade class. I had never seen my classmates so animated over debating a person’s decision in a piece of literature, from any course. Either the mother’s choice was unequivocally wrong or it was justified, something that we could see ourselves making.

I argued at the time that we couldn’t know if we would have

done the same thing; part of the brilliance of “Beloved” is how Morrison keeps us at a distance from her characters, a distance I couldn’t help but feel was deepened by the fact that the majority of my class, faculty and school was white; my peers and I had grown up learning about American slavery in neat, annual units. Though I had incredible history teachers in high school, I felt that my classmates and I had never been taught how to fully grasp the weight of that piece of our history.

Since then, “Beloved” has been my answer whenever people ask what my favorite book is. My reply to the follow-up question has been, from 11th grade until just this year, because it’s “the most visceral lesson in empathy a book has ever given me.” I’ve spent the past year reading and writing and talking about “Beloved” for my English thesis, and have decided it is more true to say that reading the book is a lesson in the limits of empathy. Based on the true story of Margaret Garner, no other book I have ever read has reckoned so viscerally with the limits of white access to and empathy for Black narratives, access to incomplete records of American slavery’s history, the troubled articulation of unspeakable trauma and the strive to recuperate stories that have been lost to history.

Through language stripped down to only the most vital elements, moments of uninhibited love, of

private intimacy, are rendered in heartbreakingly exquisite prose. The epilogue of “Beloved” may be the most beautiful and haunting piece of writing I’ve ever encountered.

“Beloved” is part of why I chose to major in English and history, and part of why I’m so invested in interdisciplinary work. In “The Site of Memory,” Morrison noted that in writing “Beloved,” her job had become figuring out “how to rip that veil drawn over ‘proceedings too terrible to relate.’” I think that learning how to reckon with this veil that reminds us of experiences or parts of our history we may never fully understand is of vital importance for us as creators and consumers of art, as students and teachers, as active participants of a world in which these issues are only escalating in urgency.

The first time I finished “Beloved,” I scribbled on the back page: “Reading this book feels like listening to a stethoscope pressed up against the heart of the nation.” A pretentious thing to say, perhaps, but it feels truer to me more so now than ever. My copy is heavy with fading penciled notes from high school, careful red underlining from this summer and eager highlighting from the past few weeks as I’ve tried for months to articulate what I feel to be true: For its lessons, for its warnings and its beauty, “Beloved” is one of the most important books of the past half century.

STYLE

Michigan Fashion Media Classifieds Summit a breakthrough

Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

FOR RENT

RELEASE DATE– Friday, March 30, 2018

MARGARET SHERIDAN Daily Arts Writer

A breakthrough for the University’s business and fashion scenes, The Michigan Fashion Media Summit (MFMS) will be hosting their first annual conference on Apr. 13, 2018. The student-run, 40-person team is sprinting to the finish, prepping for the event’s debut, one that will transform the Ross School of Business into an impactful fashion mecca. High fashion does not even begin to describe it. Wolverines, you do not want to miss this one.

The day-long conference entails a never-before-seen grouping of speakers from the fashion industry. Attendees of the event — hosted by Amy Levin, founder and executive director of the global fashion community College Fashionista — can look forward to talks from fashion industry geniuses, including Gary Sheinbaum, CEO of Tommy Hilfiger Americas, and David Cho, Director of Partnership Activation for Adidas.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the event, the confident, savvy and, of course, highly fashionable founders of MFMS spoke of their inspiration for the creation of an event of this caliber.

“What was really important to me is teaching incoming Wolverines, and also current students, about the importance of networking, and just how rewarding it is to form an event that touches every part of business through a fashion channel. That’s really why we’re

filling a void, we are putting a different spin on what fashion organizations currently exist on campus,” said MFMS President, Founder and LSA senior Ali Gropper.

The void that MFMS is filling has caught the attention of industry titans, such as

MFMS brings a creative twist to the traditional business atmosphere often portrayed in the Ross School of Business

Rachel Zoe, who has expressed immense support of the organization’s work.

Truly unique to Michigan’s campus, MFMS aims to reach students in all corners of the University.

“Every person who cares about what they wear, who has an interest in brands, who knows what’s cool, who knows what’s trending, who is on Instagram and scrolls … we touch every single inch of any

industry through this channel of fashion but really it extends so much further than that,” said Kinesiology senior Rachel Roth, who is also the co-founder, creative director and chief marketing officer of MFMS. With an emphasis on networking and the inner workings of the fashion industry, MFMS is merging the best of both worlds to present a conference that is multi-faceted, fabulous and, above all, highfashion.

Drawing inspiration from the Michigan Sports Business Conference, MFMS brings a creative twist to the traditional business atmosphere often portrayed in the Ross School of Business.

“It’s a different vibe in the two different businesses … you go into a sports office, it doesn’t matter what organization you’re working with, everyone’s in a suit and tie and it’s kind of that culture. You walk into a big fashion company, there’s no dress code. People wear whatever they want. It’s a little more relaxed. It’s more creative.

It’s more fun,” said LSA senior and MFMS co-founder and chief operating officer Ryan Walker.

As Apr. 13 rapidly approaches, MFMS is certainly an event you want to keep an eye on. Aiming to reach students of all career trajectories, the opportunities for involvement in both the business and fashion worlds are endless.

To stay up to date with all things The MFMS has to offer, follow them on Twitter or Instagram and subscribe to The Stitch, the official blog of The MFMS, by visiting their website.

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Like “le” in Fr. 5 Degrade 10 There’s no money in it 14 Prefix with syllabic 15 Starbucks offering 16 Cap with a flat, circular top 17 Religious text for a Texas senator?

19 Flex ending 20 Home of Amboseli National Park 21 Pennant race mo.

22 Tied accessory 23 Cause of a sleeve movement 24 Pet for a Spanish surrealist?

26 More uneven 29 Puts in a vault, in a way 30 Dos Passos trilogy 31 Mild rebuke 33 With 44-Across, Hanna-Barbera feline 34 Cravings 36 Sidekick 38 Glimpse 42 Not a good start?

44 See 33-Across 45 Shade 46 Michigan neighbor 50 Baptized boys, often 53 Underage child of a German chancellor?

55 Milk source 56 Whac-__ 57 Heating stat 58 Finnish architect Alvar __ 61 Look closely (over) 62 Household help for a 19th-century president?

64 Bank offerings 65 Resort WSW of Denver 66 __ coffee 67 Titillating message

68 Silly ones 69 Cong. period DOWN 1 Sham 2 Israeli port 3 Nonspeaking movie role 4 Ingratiate oneself (to) 5 “When We Were Kings” subject 6 It takes a beating 7 Befuddled 8 Basic 9 Sushi selection 10 65-Across feature 11 Interoffice connection 12 Poise 13 Madonna portrayals 18 Crèche trio 22 Glee club member 25 Completely 26 Accept 27 Consumption 28 List ender 32 Idiosyncratic contraction 35 Of least significance

37 They squelch discussions 39 It goes over the tongue 40 “Piano is not my forte,” e.g.

41 With 51-Down, sometimessighed line 43 French weapon 46 Congo natives 47 “That’s enough already!”

48 Middle section of an insect 49 Hoping to get home 51 See 41-Down 52 Religious ascetics 54 Common blood group 59 Connections 60 Chances 62 Identify on Facebook 63 Unified

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By Mark Feldman ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Sports

Friday, March 30, 2018 — 7

In Final Four, focus will be on Moritz Wagner again Michigan hoping to stay grounded against Purdue RIAN RATNAVALE Daily Sports Writer

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Moritz Wagner leads the team in points and rebounds per game and has another important matchup down low against Loyola’s Cameron Krutwig.

MIKE PERSAK

Managing Sports Editor

ON A MEGABUS SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS — The Michigan men’s basketball team’s season began with Moritz Wagner set to be the focal point of the team.

The junior forward still is, especially on offense, as his ability to spread out opposing defenses gives the rest of the Wolverines room to operate.

But over the course of the year, through the ups and downs of a season that’s stretched far longer than anyone could have expected, Wagner has taken on both leading and supporting roles. In part, it’s a testament to Michigan’s offensive depth.

“If you watch Wagner,” said Wolverines coach John Beilein in Thursday’s press conference, “he’d have a monster of a game and then somebody else does it.”

Now, though, in the Final Four, on the biggest stage of any Michigan player’s career, Wagner will be more important than ever.

With any team the Wolverines play, the big-man matchup draws

extra attention. If Michigan plays a team with a bruising, post-up five, people wonder whether Wagner can hang defensively or if the hulking opponent has the stamina to stick with Wagner when he’s on offense. If an opponent has a smaller, finesse big, the focus shifts to whether Wagner’s post-up game is good enough to capitalize on a rare size advantage.

Enter Loyola-Chicago’s Cameron Krutwig, Wagner’s matchup in Saturday’s game. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound freshman who averages 10.3 points per game — 8.8 in the NCAA Tournament — presents an interesting matchup for Wagner.

Krutwig is quite possibly the least versatile defender on the Ramblers, and though he is crafty on the offensive end, he isn’t exactly the most skillful player.

It seems like a matchup that Wagner can take advantage of.

On paper, he’s quicker and more skilled, but Krutwig has shown up in matchups where he seemed to have a disadvantage before.

Against Tennessee, in the Round of 32, Krutwig held Grant

Williams, the co-SEC Player of the Year, to just 12 points in 34 minutes. Williams is more of the bruising type, but the point still stands that Krutwig can and has shown up in matchups when he wasn’t supposed to. So it isn’t like it’s going to be a cakewalk for Wagner.

If the Wolverines do beat the Ramblers to get into the title game, Wagner’s role will be just as pronounced whether they face Kansas or Villanova.

The Jayhawks have Udoka Azubuike at the five. He would probably be the most athletic matchup Wagner has seen all season. So there, it would be interesting to see if Wagner could put up enough of a fight against Azubuike to slow him down.

If Michigan were to get the Wildcats on Monday, it would face a team with very few weaknesses.

If there is one, it’s that Villanova is a bit undersized. There again, the question is if Wagner can capitalize in the post to spur the Wolverines’ offense.

None of this is new, as Wagner has faced different matchups from different teams all season.

Sometimes, like Beilein says, he’s taken advantage and been a dominant force. Sometimes he’s taken a backseat.

Wagner has even felt pressure before. Opposing teams gameplan for him, and opposing crowds boo him wherever he goes.

“They hate me everywhere,” Wagner said the day before Michigan’s first round matchup with Montana. “I know that. It’s fun. I’ve kind of embraced that role. And I’ve got to be honest, I’d hate myself, too. I just tell myself, ‘They hate you because I’m good.’ ” But this is the Final Four.

The attention paid towards particular matchups grows, and the blame placed on the loser of that matchup is more intense.

If Wagner doesn’t play his best, Michigan runs the risk of having its trip to San Antonio shortened. That could be said about the whole tournament, but with the grander stage and better competition, it’s true now more than ever.

For the Wolverines, it starts Saturday against Loyola. For Wagner, it starts with Krutwig.

One wouldn’t normally associate football with softball, but coaches from both sports preach adherence to the “ground game” as a necessity to win.

On the gridiron that might mean handing the ball off to a running back and advancing the ball inch by inch rather than picking up a large chunk of yardage through the air.

In the same vein, the No. 17 Michigan softball team has seen first hand the value of ground balls over the past few games, and should look to use it against Purdue in this weekend’s upcoming series.

Against Iowa, the Wolverines saw their 18-game winning streak fall in large part because Michigan swung its bats towards the sky rather than the field. Even though the Wolverines mounted a furious comeback in the seventh inning, that ended when sophomore outfielder Haley Hoogenraad hit a f ly ball to left field to end the game.

Against Detroit Mercy, Michigan quite literally stayed grounded.

Junior catcher Katie Alexander sent a hit rolling through the diamond that was bobbled by a Titans fielder, and just like that the score was 1-0 in the second inning. Junior outfielder Natalie Peters singled through the left side and the scoreboard read 3-0, Wolverines.

Three more ground balls later, and Michigan got the luxury of a two-inning vacation and a 15-0 win in its back pocket.

“The biggest thing that we worked on in practice was just trying to make adjustments early,” said freshman first baseman Lou Allan. “I think that after the first inning, we all came together and kinda had a game plan of getting behind the ball and trying to get line drives and ground balls out into the defense and let it work. And I think that kept us calm and making adjustments quick in the game really helped us.”

Detroit Mercy isn’t the best team, but Iowa isn’t worldbeater either. Over the course of a 50-plus game season, the Wolverines have to stay true to the game plan at hand, even the mundane parts like hitting ground balls over towering f ly balls or home runs.

A team like Purdue might not be the most talented team on Michigan’s schedule, but the Wolverines’ last two games offer a good example of what can happen when a team eschews the mundane for the more exciting. Purdue is just 8-24, 0-5 against ranked teams and just gave up 24 runs in two games.

Michigan is 42-2 in their last 44 games against the Boilermakers, but if the Wolverines lose focus, any series can become a little too interesting.

In all aspects of softball, it would serve Michigan well to remain one way and one way only: grounded.

“... Making adjustments quick in the game really helped us.”

Notebook: Porikos “fine” after big hit Sunday, Martin coming into his own JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer

Twelve minutes into the NCAA Northeast Regional Final on Sunday, Boston University forward Nikolas Olsson lowered his left shoulder and knocked Michigan forward Niko Porikos into the side-boards.

The senior’s head slammed against the glass and he fell to the ice, where he spent the next 30 seconds kneeling before getting up and making his way towards the Wolverine bench under his own power. Porikos was on the bench for the rest of the first period, and did not return with the team after intermission.

Porikos wanted to sit on the bench for the rest of the game, but after communicating with trainer Rick Bancroft, Michigan coach Mel Pearson decided it would be better for him to remain in the locker room.

“Anytime you have a hit to the head like that you pretty much pull him right out of the game,” Pearson said. “There’s no wiggle room there.”

While the immediate aftermath of the hit hinted at a scary situation, Porikos’ absence from the bench was mostly precautionary. Following further testing throughout the night and the next day, Porikos was cleared to return to practice earlier this week and took part in full-contact practice Thursday afternoon, after which Pearson called him “fine.”

“That’s concussion protocol now, even if you don’t maybe have symptoms or don’t feel that bad any time you get hit to the head,” Pearson said. “I totally agree with it. ... There’s a number of things, depending on how they think the hit was, and just more importantly, how the student-athlete reacts and what his symptoms are.”

In 21 games this season, Porikos has scored one goal and accrued five assists. After alternating between a healthy scratch and the active lineup during the Wolverines’ first 26 games, he has carved out

RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily

Senior forward Niko Porikos left Michigan’s game against Boston University in the NCAA Northeast Regional Final after a big hit.

a regular role, appearing in nine of the last 13 games and registering three helpers during that span.

Reading between the lines Porikos’ early exit isn’t expected to impact his place in the Wolverines’ lineup, however. Against Northeastern last Saturday and against the Terriers, he joined sophomore Adam Winborg and freshman Dakota Raabe on Michigan’s listed fourth line, a trio that Pearson believes will play together next Thursday against Notre Dame.

“It should be (the same),” Pearson said Thursday. “We’re always reevaluating our lineup.

We had a good series out there, but there’s other guys that look good in practice. There’s been really good competition so far.”

As opposed to the mix-andmatch mentality of October, November and December, Pearson has sought stability with his lines during the season’s second half, especially

with all four lines being able to contribute offensively. Against Boston, for example, the third line of freshmen Michael Pastujov and Jack Becker and sophomore Nick Pastujov combined for three assists, one goal — Nick’s empty-netter that sealed the victory — and a plus4 rating.

“They’ve got enough guys who can put the puck in the net when given the opportunity,” Pearson said of his bottom lines.

“They’re playing well together as groups, which is important. And they’re fulfilling a role on our team that we need, and that’s providing some energy and hustle.”

Down the stretch in particular, Pearson has constantly stated that the ultimate focus is on

his own team, rather than being overly concerned with opponents’ strategy. As such, while the third and fourth lines are often employed as checking lines in order to stop opposing playmakers, that isn’t the case for the Wolverines this year.

This is amplified by the fact that the Fighting Irish are the higher-seeded team, so Michigan no longer is the designated home team like it was in both games last weekend.

The driving force behind the Wolverines’ win over Northeastern on Saturday was seniors Tony Calderone and Dexter Dancs and junior Cooper Marody — who persuaded Pearson to let them go up against Adam Gaudette, Dylan Sikura and Nolan Stevens

“I thought he played tremendous this weekend.”

— outdueling the Huskies’ explosive front line. Without last change against Notre Dame, though, specific matchups will play less of a role.

“Sometimes you’re not as concerned with matchups,” Pearson said. “Even more so now that we’re the visiting team … We’re just going to roll some guys out there and make Notre Dame worry about who we’re putting on the ice.”

And with the development of the Pastujovs, Becker and others as sources of offense, Pearson believes he has the personnel to make that possible.

Martin slims down to bulk up Michigan’s defense The past month has not been kind to Luke Martin.

Against Arizona State on Feb. 23, Martin’s defensive-zone turnover led to a Sun Devil goal within the first minute. This mistake seemed to set the tone for the sophomore defenseman’s recent rough patch, in which he recorded a minus-three rating

over five games.

But the Martin that led the Wolverines with a plus-17 rating throughout the first 32 games returned for the Northeast Regional, commanding the back line with strength and authority.

Martin was a plus-three for the weekend’s two games, even adding an assist on Saturday.

Martin’s known for his physicality and size — he’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds — but it was this size that hindered him in part during his earlier slump. A leaner Martin took the ice last weekend, and he was able to rediscover his prior form as a result.

According to Pearson, Martin’s slimmer figure brought a boost of confidence as well, which has led to a stronger overall game.

“He’s dropped his weight a little bit, which allows him to be quicker,” Pearson said.

“He’s a big guy, and he’s a pretty good skater for his size, but I think he’s found a weight that’s really helped him. ... I thought he played tremendous this weekend. I thought he was outstanding, and part of that is getting his confidence back.”

Martin, like junior Joseph Cecconi and sophomore Griffin Luce, is usually seen as a “stay-at-home,” defense-first blueliner, at least in relation to senior Sam Piazza, junior Nicholas Boka or freshman Quinn Hughes, who are willing and capable of pushing the puck hard up the ice. This has allowed Michigan to optimize its defensive pairings so that they will complement each other’s skill sets.

Martin and Piazza have spent the majority of the last two months playing with each other, and on Thursday, Pearson raved about the rapport the two have developed during that time.

“Him and Sam have done a real nice job playing off of each other,” Pearson said. “And I think that’s the other thing. We were changing pairs, and now he knows who his partner is, and you can see a real chemistry between them.”

Sports

8 — Friday, March 30, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Like grandmother, Allan hopes to achieve Olympic dream ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Writer

In observance of Women’s History Month, The Daily launches a series aimed at telling the stories of female athletes, coaches and teams at the University from the perspective of the female sports writers on staff.

Daily sports writer Aria Gerson continues the series with this story.

Lou Allan still gets chills thinking about it.

She stood on the podium — gold medal around her neck — watching as the flag went up and listening as the Star-Spangled Banner played.

Young girls sat in the stands wearing USA T-shirts, starstruck, already wishing that they could stand up there one day. And among the audience was one person who had been there, who knew the indescribable feeling, whose footsteps Allan had followed: her grandma, Sheila Cornell-Douty.

Even now, it’s a moment Allan will never forget. *** Growing up in the 1970s, CornellDouty didn’t have a lot of female role models to look up to. Most women athletes didn’t get much attention back then, and her sport — softball — got even less. Instead, she idolized Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey.

Watching the Olympics was a family affair. Her mom had played several sports growing up, and her grandma had been involved with the Girls’ Athletic Club.

From the time Cornell-Douty was in elementary school, the three would gather and watch the Olympics together. Cornell-Douty was enthralled, and she knew she wanted to compete there someday.

But at that time, the idea of competing in the Olympics was just as unrealistic as that of donning Dodger blue and patrolling first base. Softball, after all, wasn’t an Olympic sport, and softball was what she loved.

But then that all changed. The International Olympic Committee announced that softball would

MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily

Freshman Lou Allan has dreams of playing in the Olympics, like her grandmother did.

become an Olympic sport, effective in 1996. Cornell-Douty would be 36 then, at the twilight of her career.

She knew this was her shot, and she knew she had to go for it.

She quit her job as a physical therapist and developed her own training regimen. She went to camps, tournaments and showcases. She was constantly under a microscope. Despite competing against much younger athletes, she made the team. It had all been worth it. “(The Olympics were) something unlike anything else,” CornellDouty said. “ … We opened against Puerto Rico and I remember we were lined up on the sidelines and they were announcing the teams and I was getting tears in my eyes since I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really it. This is for real. I’m really in the Olympics. We’re really playing.’ ” And the most surreal moment of all was standing on the podium, gold medal around her neck, as Team USA was honored for winning the first-ever Olympic softball tournament. *** Allan started t-ball at age five.

It was only natural, given the pedigree of her grandma — who went on to win another gold medal in 2000 and was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame and the International Softball Hall of Fame. Though many families pushed their kids into the sports they had played, Cornell-Douty didn’t want her granddaughter to be pressured by the weight of a legacy. The first thing on CornellDouty’s agenda was just to let Allan play.

“I felt it was extremely important from a very young age, number one was that she came to me and wanted to practice and work out and do all of that stuff,” CornellDouty said. “ … This is t-ball, she’s out there to just go play and enjoy the game and have fun and learn some stuff, but you know, she’s five years old.”

When Cornell-Douty attended Allan’s first game, she walked in late to find her granddaughter already on base. But not for long.

“She comes running off the base and she came running to us like, ‘Hi grandma! Thanks for coming to my game!’ ” Cornell-Douty said. “And then she ran back.”

That’s when Cornell-Douty knew she was doing something right.

When Allan was around 10, she decided she wanted to follow in her grandma’s footsteps and play softball at a high level. She had seen Cornell-Douty’s medals and began to dream of earning some of her own. So Cornell-Douty and her husband built a batting cage and fielding area, and the former softball star began training the future one.

Like her grandma, Allan became one of the top players in the country.

Like her grandma, she played first base and earned a scholarship to a top program — UCLA for CornellDouty and Michigan for Allan. Like her grandma, she had her sights set on one thing: the Olympics.

But Allan’s Olympic dreams weren’t always a foregone conclusion. In 2006, the IOC voted to leave softball off the schedule for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Cornell-Douty, along with other former Olympic softball players, wrote letters and lobbied endlessly to reinstate the sport they loved.

And in 2016, the decision was official: for 2020, Olympic softball

was back on.

Still, though, the future of Olympic softball is uncertain. The IOC hasn’t made a decision yet on the 2024 Olympics, and it’s possible that 2020 could be Allan’s only shot.

“I was super excited that it got put in,” Allan said. “ … 2020 is obviously the (next) one so that is my goal to get to it in the first part.

(But) there’s so many different people that are older than me that have so much more experience that are coming back, I don’t know necessarily if I’m gonna make the team or not.”

Whatever happens, Allan already has a taste of the Team USA experience. In 2017 — the summer before she began her freshman year at Michigan — she was chosen for the USA Junior National Team. The United States went 9-0 to take the gold medal at the Junior Women’s Softball World Championship in Clearwater, Fla. There are plenty of parallels between Allan’s experience and her grandmother’s. After all, both had the defining experience of standing on a podium, wearing gold medals as their flag was raised.

“You can’t beat that,” Allan said.

“I mean, you see your flag and you see everything going on around you and all these people and all these little girls that are like, ‘Oh my gosh, USA!’ and hearing the USA chant and all that stuff is so incredible that you can’t describe it. … You’re representing something so much bigger than yourself and that is incredible.”

But their shared understanding goes beyond just the thrill of a championship. In a sport where professional leagues don’t get much attention, college and national team players are the famous ones that every young girl aspires to be.

“There’s always that intensity and it’s just a good thing for little girls to watch and look up to,” Allan said. “The more women’s sports we have in the Olympics is great for these little girls to look up to and show that they have something to look forward to.”

Cornell-Douty remembers touring in the months leading up to the Olympics, traveling to big cities and towns so small they were barely on the map. There, the team would attend games, and at each one, a steady stream of fans came out, waiting for autographs.

Sometimes, they were there until one or two in the morning.

Allan, too, visits with fans waiting outside the locker room.

She loves the feeling of knowing that they admire her. It gives her something to play for.

Cornell-Douty takes her job as a role model seriously because she grew up at a time when women in sports existed mostly in the shadows. She wants the next generation of athletes — Allan’s generation — to grow up knowing that their possibilities are endless.

Allan does it with a different perspective: she remembers being one of those girls, idolizing her grandma and former Michigan second baseman Sierra Romero.

Now that she’s reached some of the highest heights imaginable for a player her age, she wants to give a similar experience to others.

“If I can sit out there and see all these different girls waiting for me, then I’m doing something right,” Allan said. “I’m giving them hope that they have something to look forward to and that’s all I want in the world is to make a difference.”

But for Allan, softball isn’t an endpoint. She has bigger plans for the future. She wants to go to law school, have a career in public policy and become an advocate.

Maybe it’s not all that different from softball, anyway. After all, she and her grandma are proof that for women, the sky is the limit. She knows the transformative power of a role model. And she knows what it’s like to be part of something bigger than herself.

“Softball’s … taught me (the skills),” Allan said. “But once I leave the sport, there’s something more beyond, there’s a next chapter in my life that I have to open up.”

Newfound confidence sparks Wolverines to win streak THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

On March 14, the Michigan baseball team lost to the NAIA’s Lawrence Tech. Or, as coach Eric Bakich describes it, they didn’t just lose, they were “totally outplayed.” The loss dropped the Wolverines to 4-11, two losses and 38 wins short of their 2017 totals.

Fourteen days later, the loss total remains mired at 11 — and zero in Big Ten play — as Michigan is riding a nine-game win streak.

“At 4-10, everything is an area for improvement,” Bakich said after the previous loss, to Lipscomb in Nashville.

At the time, this may have been interpreted as the Wolverines needing to improve offensively, defensively and on the mound.

The biggest change, though, did not come from any of those areas.

Instead, after the loss to Lawrence Tech, Bakich pinpointed a different problem.

“We got to utilize these cameras and see everything,” Bakich said, motioning to the various cameras postioned around Ray Fisher Stadium.

“We got to see the dugout, see

the behind home plate view, see everything.”

It was that ability to see its dugout that reversed Michigan’s fortunes. Bakich realized the team’s demeanor was not one of a winning program. So he held a two-part film session: half to show his players their dejected body language in the dugout, the other half a compilation of the program’s storied legacy.

“That loss to Lawrence Tech kind of opened everyone’s eyes,” said freshman outfielder Jordan Nwogu. “In practice (the day after the game), we noticed that we were down as a team and were not getting behind each other. Friday (against Bowling Green), we turned that right around and everyone had each other’s backs.”

Added Bakich: “It wasn’t until we played Lawrence Tech … that the lightbulb really went off.”

The obvious blessing in disguise for the Wolverines came in that loss to the Blue Devils. A similar victory in defeat, though, came in their loss to San Diego State two weeks earlier. Bakich was ejected with Michigan holding a lead in a marquee win opportunity, one it would ultimately lose by one run.

“I had to watch the game from outside the stadium,” Bakich said. “And I could see (the dugout) from outside the bubble.”

It was then that he first realized his team had an energy problem.

“Something was missing early on,” Bakich said. “And it wasn’t just that we were playing good opponents. It just didn’t feel right, it didn’t sound right, there wasn’t a whole lot of energy.”

The key for the Wolverines turned out to be a simple one: having fun playing baseball.

“It’s okay to have childlike enthusiasm and energy out here,” Bakich said. “This is supposed to be a playground. We use that phrase a lot that this is a playground, but we weren’t playing like we were having a whole lot of fun. It looked more like a chore.”

Bakich’s claims are evident on the field. Against Lipscomb and Lawrence Tech, many Michigan players sat on the bench in the bottom of the dugout while their foes across the field filled the stadium with the unmistakable chirps of a baseball dugout.

Now, the roles are reversed.

Every Wolverines run — and

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

The Michigan baseball team has now won nine games in a row after a 4-11 start to the season.

there are a lot of them — is met with the entire team spilling out of the dugout. Players climb over each other for perches on the top step to cheer on their pitchers on the rare occasions that they find themselves in a jam.

“It’s really easy to get down,” said freshman first baseman Jesse Franklin. “But when you look in the dugout and you see everyone’s smiling faces and everyone joking around, it gives you confidence.”

While most of Michigan’s wins in this streak have been blowouts, they have twice found themselves in 6-0 holes.

“6-0 down, (our attitude was), ‘who cares?’ ” Nwogu said. “We need to get these runs and help

our pitchers out. It was just a light flicker that went off (after Lawrence Tech).”

Much of the credit for the turnaround will rightfully be attributed to Bakich, but it is his players — from freshmen to seniors — who have blossomed into vocal leaders after losing 11 players to the draft in the offseason. “(The upperclassmen) have done a great job of showing leadership,” Bakich said, “and taking the younger guys under their wings.”

Added Nwogu: “In the dugout, right before (an) at-bat (against Bowling Green, freshman right-hander Jeff Criswell) told me, ‘Just swing as hard as you can and you’ll hit it

“They were sick of losing. At some point, enough is enough.”

out.’ ” Two minutes later, a baseball was nestled in a grass lot beyond the left field fence, and Nwogu was being mobbed by teammates at home plate.

That leadership extends to the team’s role players. The first name both Bakich and Franklin named when asked about their clubhouse leaders was redshirt sophomore left-hander Ben Keizer — who has pitched all of four innings this season.

“It may not always be one guy who’s giving the speech,” Bakich said, “but a lot of guys who are just speaking up more consistently, and that’s helped everybody.

“They were sick of losing. At some point, enough is enough.

And at 4-11, that was enough.”

Just two weeks later, the Wolverines find themselves in an enviable position. One quick glance at the dugout would tell you that.