2018-10-19 by The Michigan Daily

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Friday, October 19, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Offendum highlights importance of culture

Regents talk $1 billion endowment increase, Power Plant schedule The Board of Regents also approved model portfolio for long-term investment plans

Years after #BBUM, documents digitized

Syrian American rapper performs for more than 200 students and staff

Bentley Historical Library converts over 66,000 documents from DAAS

LIAT WEINSTEIN

RACHEL LEUNG

In a blended mix of English, Arabic, spoken word and rap, musician and activist Omar Offendum presented to a group of over 200 students and faculty on Thursday about his experiences as a Syrian-American hip-hop artist. Offendum spoke and rapped about growing up in his diverse Northern Virginia neighborhood, as well as the difficulty of weaving together his multiple identities into a coherent whole. Offendum’s presentation, which took place during a lecture of the Introduction to Arab-American Studies course at the University of Michigan, touched on themes of loss, political activism and rising xenophobia. Offendum said his experiences and musical style have changed over the years as tensions in the Middle East have become more visible to the American public. “I liked to think I was this ethnically ambiguous dude named Omar prior to 9/11 on campus — people didn’t really necessarily

Four years ago, the Black Student Union launched the online campaign #BBUM, or Being Black at the University of Michigan, and gave the University seven days to respond to seven demands. Some of the demands included more affordable campus housing, an increase in Black representation on campus and a digitization of documents in the University’s Bentley Historical Library. Now, four years after BSU put forward its initial demands, the organization and the Bentley Historical Library have completed the project to digitize over 66,000 records from the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. The formal demand from BSU stated: “We demand for increased exposure of all documents within the Bentley (Historical) Library. There

Daily Staff Reporter

ANNIE KLUS/Daily

CSG Vice President Izzy Baer speaks during the Board of Regents meeting at the U-M Flint Thursday.

JULIA FORD

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved the construction schedule and schematic design of the Central Power Plant expansion and discussed the University’s endowment $1 billion increase at its Thursday meeting in Flint.

Eucharia Ganda, president of the U-M Flint student body, and Izzy Baer, vice president of U-M Ann Arbor’s Central Student Government, also addressed their student government initiatives and concerns. In March 2017, the Board of Regents approved the $80 million Central Power Plant expansion, a 12,000-foot addition expected to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions by 100,000 tons per year. The new addition is intended to move the University closer to its 2025 sustainability goal — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 2006 levels. Though the project is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some question whether a longterm investment in fossil fuel is

the best solution. In a Public Affairs report, Kevin Hegarty, University executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the goal will help the University stay on target for reducing emissions as well as keeping track of finances. “Our targeted greenhouse See REGENTS, Page 3A

See DAAS, Page 3A

See SYRIA, Page 3A

Professors discuss election security, voting systems in panel as midterm elections approach Hacking the Vote event tackles Russian involvement, “election forensics” and security progress ALEX HARRING For the Daily

Amid questions of election security and potential system hacking in the upcoming midterm elections, Engineering prof. J. Alex Halderman spoke at the University of

Michigan Alumni Center Thursday night about vulnerabilities in U.S. voting systems. Last June, Halderman appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify about such. “Hacking the Vote” was presented by the Alumni Association, the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, the Gerald R. Ford

School of Public Policy and the College of Engineering. Halderman, who has studied voting systems for over a decade — and last made news on campus when his email was spoofed in a racist email scandal — was joined by LSA professor Walter Mebane, an expert on detecting electoral fraud. Steve Friess, a former Knight-Wallace fellow

and freelance journalist, moderated the discussion. The professors discussed the reasoning behind election security, past and current issues with voting systems, public response to elections and recounting votes and the federal government’s role in making elections See ELECTION, Page 3A

CAMPUS LIFE

Nigel Poor discusses role of art in prisons Podcast host speaks to crowd of 200 at Penny Stamps Lecture Series CALLIE TIETELBAUM For The Daily

MADELINE HINKLEY /Daily

Nigel Poor, a photography professor at California State University-Sacramento, spoke at the Michigan Theater Thursday night for the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series. About 200 University of Michigan students, faculty and Ann Arbor residents came to hear Poor speak about her work within San Quentin State Prison, a men’s detention facility in California. At San Quentin, Poor teaches an art history class to inmates and produces her podcast “Ear Hustle,” which details life inside the walls of prison. Poor became involved in the San Quentin State Prison in 2011 through the Prison University Project, a program in which professors from Northern California universities volunteer to teach college courses to inmates. According to Poor, the prison

University professors J. Alex Halderman and Walter Mebane discuss how safe the U.S. voting system is as the midterm elections approach at the Alumni Center Thursday night.

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INDEX

See PRISONS, Page 2A

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................5

SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................1B