2018-11-14

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Scientologists, rocks and personality tests

A Daily writer visits the new Church of Scientology building in downtown Detroit

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statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 14 , 201 8

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SMTD panel faces the music on misconduct Admin. clarifies reporting processes after gaps revealed in case of Prof. Daniels ELIZABETH LAWRENCE AARON BAKER/Daily

LSA junior Ayah Kutmah speaks about false discourses regarding immigration at a teach-in regarding immigration and nativism titled, “Against New Nativism,” hosted by the University of Michigan Latino/a Studies Department at Tisch Hall Tuesday night.

Latino/a Studies hosts teach-in to condemn rhetoric of nativism

Event organized in response to lecture by director of SPLC-designated hate group SARAH THONG

hosted a teach-in Tuesday night regarding immigration and nativism, titled, “Against the New Nativism.” The event was organized The University of Michigan by the University’s Migration & Latino/a Studies Department Displacement Interdisciplinary For The Daily

Workshop, Global Solidarity After Colonialism RIW and TriContinental Solidarity Network.

The organizers aimed to frame the immigration debate on nativism, which panelist and

third-year law student Melissa Peña described as “a term which reflects a Euro-American project to indigenize white settlers, to frame them as the real natives See NATIVISM, Page 3A

Daily Staff Reporter

The School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan hosted a forum for students and faculty Tuesday night, shedding light on University sexual misconduct policies. The forum also offered a space for students to voice concerns, and included a panel of representatives from University offices dealing with cases of misconduct. Despite the discussion, some students said they still left the event with more questions.

The event came amid piling accusations against Prof. David Daniels, a world-renowned countertenor singer, and the

University’s alleged inaction in addressing them, as well as The Daily’s account of an Music, Theatre & Dance student’s experience navigating a painful investigation process.

Jason Corey, associate dean of Graduate Studies at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, opened up the event by citing the need for transparency between students and the offices that handle sexual misconduct allegations at the University.

“We heard from many of you that there was a need for face-toface opportunities for students to voice concerns and ask questions about how sexual misconduct incidents are handled,” Corey said. “We thought it best to have See SMTD, Page 3A

Anthropology department revamps Panel talks Academics identity & intro course to include IGR discussion pick apart

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equity in businesses

New section format added to address concerns of superficial R&E content in class

Panelists discuss diversity at event organized by Erb Institute through DEI

One of the most popular classes that fulfills the Race and Ethnicity requirement, Cultural Anthropology 101, or Introduction to Anthropology, is moving away from its previous honors discussion course to pilot a new section similar to the Program on Intergroup Relations this upcoming winter semester.

Last spring, students filed their grievances toward the previously altered Race and Ethnicity requirement, highlighting that major lectures including Cultural Anthropology 101 and History 101 merely graze over these topics and make “vague connections to race and ethnicity rather than a structured focus.” The problem, they reported, was the size of these classes hindered the students’ ability to cultivate effective and critical discussions. Students sought a more consolidated class where race and ethnicity was the main thread.

LSA sophomore Hannah Walsh said she found this problem to be present within her race and ethnicity course, History 105, Introduction to Religion.

“I was really excited to learn more about different religions, cultures and different parts of the world and how everyone

ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter

Gloria Hwang, CEO of a bike helmet company called Thousand, Boma BrownWest, senior manager of the Environmental Defense Fund and Erin Patten, CEO of hair product company D ā O Detroit and spoke to about 50 students and faculty at the University of Michigan Tuesday night for a panel of business professionals on sustainability-focused workplaces.

The panel, titled “The Voice of Business Sustainability,” was moderated

by Taryn Petryk, director of Diversity and Inclusion at the Ross School of Business.

The event was hosted by the Frederic A. & Barbara M. Erb Institute, a dual-degree program and partnership organization between the Business School and the School for Environment and Sustainability.

Petryk started the discussion by saying the goal of the panel was to bring awareness to and normalize conversations around diversity and identity.

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thinks and acts differently — which is what the requirement is for,” Walsh said. “Yet, I learned about Christianity, cults and other random vague terms that did not fit one religion or another. It was all very abstract; I came out knowing how to define sacred and profane but not even learning the slightest bit of history about Buddhism or Islam.”

With these problems in mind, Stephanie Hicks, a lecturer within the Program of Intergroup Relations, reached out to Cultural Anthropology prof. Jason De Leon to find a way to foster more centralized discussion and to provide a more dialogic experience

within their courses.

“IGR is unique because it allows students to learn in different ways as it isn’t a traditional lecture course,” Hicks said. “Students get to engage with experimental learning, they get to take part in various activities, they get to focus on their own learning experiences — so I think there is a real possibility to help the students understand the concepts they’re learning in Anthro in a really different way.”

Taking into consideration the current political climate, De Leon—who won a coveted MacArthur genius grant last year for his research on immigration— believes the

new discussion section will not only be more beneficial toward students looking to create connections between race and ethnicity and anthropology, but will also help the University as a whole in its attempt to create a more inclusive and diverse community.

“In general, I think more sustained and official venues that can provide students an opportunity to discuss issues od (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) are always needed, especially in this current political climate,” De Leon wrote in an email to The Daily.

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVIII, No. 31 ©2018 The Michigan Daily

results of midterms

Expert panel talks plans for Democrat candidates in trends among voters MELANIE TAYLOR For The Daily

In the week since the midterm election, close races around the country that have yet to be decided continue to raise the stakes for partisan competition in the House and Senate. These surprising races and unlikely results were the focus of the panel discussion held Tuesday night titled “Election 2018: What Happened?” sponsored by the University of Michigan‘s Institute for Social Research.

Three election experts attempted to break down last week’s results, highlighting the role of progressive candidates and social media in the races.

In Michigan, voters elected Democrat Gretchen Whitmer as governor by an 8-point margin, and passed all three policy proposals on the ballot including legalizing recreational marijuana and the establishment of an independent redistricting commission. Additionally, two Republican incumbents lost their seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents to Democratic challengers, See MIDTERMS, Page 3A

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6

SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............5 SPORTS....................7

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MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY:

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: THOUSANDS RALLY FOR CHOICE IN D.C.: STUDENTS MAKE TREK TO JOIN IN PROTEST “Hear our voice, we want choice.”

This was the message hundreds of Ann Arbor residents and University students carried to Washington, D.C. yesterday, where they were joined by tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world at an abortion rights rally to “mobilize for women’s lives.”

The crowd — which was estimated between 100,000 and 300,000 people — filed towards the Lincoln Memorial in a scene reminiscent of the 1963 civil rights rally, when 250,000 people gathered at the same spot.

Echoing Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, Yard said, “Let freedom ring for all women.”

“We are here to petition the President, the Supreme Court, and the Congress to not overturn Roe v. Wade and to stop dismantling access to abortion,” Yard said.

“How ironic that as the Soviet Union throws off its shackles and the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down, President Bush would enslave the country and not allow a woman to have an abortion,” she said. “We will build a political army such that has never been seen before in this country for freedom for women in this land to choose.”

Parts of the rally were aimed at future elections. “We have seen the effects of mobilizing pro-choice opinions in the recent elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, and now politicians

are seeing it is a political liability to be anti-choice,” said Madeleine Hansen, president of Michigan NOW. Politicians and entertainers spoke and sang voicing their prochoice opinions. “While the other side is bombing clinics, we’ll be electing candidates,” said Alan Cranston (D-California).

Many families and motherdaughter teams attended the rally.

“It is an important family issue,” said Linda Coselman of Ann Arbor, who was there with her two daughters.

In a wheelchair, wearing a straw hat with a coathanger attached, and holding the sign “Seniors nostalgic for choice,” Cybil Fisher sat in the front row at the rally with her daughter Rita Frydman.

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ON THE DAILY: STUDENTS EDUCATE ON HOMELESSNESS As part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Michigan Movement and the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County hosted a Campus Homelessness Awareness Day on the Diag at the University of Michigan on Tuesday to educate students on homelessness in Washtenaw County.

LSA sophomore Marissa Ernst, a member of Michigan Movement, a studentrun nonprofit organization that aims to provide aid to individuals in the community experiencing homelessness, explained Tuesday’s event worked to

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raise awareness around issues students might feel distant from.

“We’re trying to raise awareness for hunger and homelessness week because it’s a lot bigger of an issue in Ann Arbor than people really realize when they get distracted by student life,” Ernst said.

On Jan. 31, 2018, homeless service providers surveyed people in Washtenaw County experiencing homelessness as part of the Housing and Urban Developmentmandated Point-In-Time count.

They found homelessness is down nearly 25 percent since 2015, but nearly 300 people still

experience homelessness in the county. Forty-five of those experiencing homelessness are under the age of 18, and 73 families are homeless.

In Michigan, over 9,000 people experience homelessness, and this number extends to more than 500,000 people in the United States. When looking at demographics of homelessness in Washtenaw County, the survey found African Americans are disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness.

African Americans make up 13 percent of the county’s population, but total 48 percent in the homeless population. In

2016, a report showed 342 people experienced homelessness in Washtenaw County.

Tuesday’s event also provided information for students on how to get involved with organizations working to combat the issue of homelessness in the community. Local organizations listed include The Delonis Center, Groundcover News, Washtenaw Housing Alliance, Ozone House, Avalon Housing and Food Gatherers. On-campus organizations include Maize ‘N Blue Cupboard, Michigan Affordability and Advocacy Coalition, UMSFP and Michigan Movement.

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CSG discusses new inclusivity project BENJAMIN ROSENFELD Daily News Reporter

The University of Michigan Central Student Government

met Thursday evening in the Hussey Room of the Michigan League to discuss proposals up for approval. CSG President Daniel Greene, a Public Policy senior, kicked off the meeting by announcing the Inclusivity Project, an initiative student government will be pursuing within the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategic plan. According to Greene, the goal of the initiative is to improve the diversity of student organizations through a total evaluation of each organization’s procedures to foster diversity and inclusivity.

“The hope is to get to the everyday peer-to-peer interactions,” Greene explained. “We believe that if you are a student of an underrepresented community, having student organizations be more inclusive will be a legitimate and genuine step in the right direction for improving campus culture.”

As Greene explained, a key part of the Inclusivity Project is a demographic survey that will be conducted within the next several weeks.

“We’re going to start working alongside student organizations to build a pseudo-DEI plan for their organizations,” he said.

“We want to analyze current cultural procedures internally, look at barriers to participation and the inclusivity of all visible and invisible identities, and then loop back around and provide organizations with recommendations for short term and long term strategic plans.”

Greene expressed plans for continued evaluation of the inclusivity policies of Central Student Government itself through CSG’s yearly demographic survey.

Surveys past have found the body to be from predominantly higher-income backgrounds, and assemblies historically have been made up of a majority white students.

“It’s critical to ensuring the inclusivity and representation within Central Student Government to help us See CSG, Page 3A

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SUSTAINABILITY From Page 1A “Our goal at Ross and in the world when talking about diversity is to really normalize the conversation,” Petryk said. “All those identities who make up who we are and really being able to apply them into the conversation because sometimes, especially at Ross, it can be scary to even acknowledge or identify ourselves.”

Panelists discussed equity and inclusion in the workplace and the current business sustainability landscape for communities of color, LGBTQ employees and other marginalized groups.

The panelists all noted their personal identities and the role they play in their work.

For Brown-West, she discussed how her surroundings as a child were homogeneous.

Remember that your experiences can add to the conversation and that your way of thinking can add

She said it wasn’t until later in her career that she found her voice in her professional life.

She also said while the employee pool remains predominantly white, she has noticed a progression toward inclusivity and less gender inequality as well as an added emphasis on sustainability in the business world.

Brown-West also said there were certain people — whom she called her “angels” — who helped her feel included while she was starting out in her career. Now, in her current position, she tries to help others feel the same way.

“Growing up feeling like the odd one out in many places that I was navigating, it’s helped me make sure that people feel as if they have this space to

MIDTERMS From Page 1A making the board‘s composition 7 Democrats to 1 Republican.

“I think there’s something new that may be happening here,” Political Science prof.

Vince Hutchings said to the audience Tuesday. Overall, the panel found that 2018, though not a presidential election, still revealed telling information on voter sentiment and behavior.

Hutchings was joined by Walter Mebane, a professor in the Department of Political Science, and Kenneth Goldstein, professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco. Each of them presented on their own niche of election analysis, to provide a commentary on effects of the elections on the future of American politics, specifically for the Democratic Party in 2020.

Goldstein presented an analysis of voter demographics based on categories such as gender, race or education, responding to the refrain of the “blue wave” Democrats predicted would win out in races.

“The big question on everyone’s mind is, ‘Was this a wave?’”

Goldstein said. “It feels wave-ish to me.”

Among independent voters, Goldstein noted, Democrats did better than Republicans for the first time since 2008. This kind of energy, he believes, is something that Democrats will attempt to duplicate in 2020 by campaigning heavily in states like Wisconsin, which Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton largely ignored in 2016.

Mebane presented next on “election forensics,” or the use of “statistical methods to determine whether the results of an election accurately reflect the intentions of the electors.” He analyzes Twitter users’ posts regarding the election.

actually speak,” Brown-West said. “If we’re going to be able to actually solve some of these environmental challenges … we’re going to need a whole range of different experiences, of different backgrounds, of different points of view to come up with solutions because the solutions that we’ve had to date are not going to help us resolve these problems.”

Patten shared a formative experience from a former job during which a higherlevel employee told her that her natural hair was “inappropriate” for the work environment. She said it was in this situation she first realized the impact of her identity in her work life.

She said this experience has stuck with her and was part of her inspiration for forming D ā O . An acronym for “Defy All Odds,” Patten said two of D ā O ’s core values are creating products for everyone and ref lecting the diversity seen in Detroit, where D ā O is headquartered.

One thing Patten said was she felt like she could never feel like herself in corporate environments. She said people who looked like her were normally considered the people receiving philanthropic help rather than making the decisions on the other end. In the same vein, she touched on current notions to include “fake” diversity in marketing to attract customers rather than including diverse employees in the company and actually speaking to minority consumers.

“One of our hashtags or our phrases we use in D ā O is ‘Own your identity,’ really encouraging not only us as founders, but even our customers to question everything,” Patten said.

“It’s really important to have different voices and we really wanted it to ref lect Detroit.”

Rackham student Katherine Cunningham said she attended because these overarching issues of environmentalism predominantly affect minorities and there is a need for greater understanding of identities and diversity to be able to create positive change.

“When it comes to big issues like climate change, the impacts are disproportionately on minorities and marginalized

“I liked hearing about Twitter,” LSA junior Sydney Moore said of the event. “There were a lot of young people there and that’s the medium a lot of us use so I thought that was very interesting.”

LSA junior Alexis Miettinen appreciated the fact that despite a generational difference, scholars can acknowledge the salient influence social media has on U.S. voters.

“I think it’s interesting to see academic people who aren’t really into that realize how important it is in elections and in daily life,” Miettinen said.

Due to social media users’ inclination to surround themselves with others who are like-minded, Mebane said, “people aren’t even seeing the same world.” He calls this tunnel vision a “communication silo.”

“I don’t expect that that source of this polarization is going to go away any time soon,” Mebane said.

As the final presenter, Hutchings brought attention to the fact that though Democratic support undoubtedly increased in this year’s election, the extra push came from younger and more educated voters, rather than women or racial minorities as many would have thought or predicted. In Ann Arbor, campus precincts cast 4,977 votes last week, up from 1,541 votes in the 2014 midterms.

It is surprises like these, the panelists agreed, that show just how important it is to have a conversation following elections about what happened and how it should be addressed moving forward.

“Elections are about narratives,” Goldstein said.

“And the narratives and trends influence how our elected officials govern in the future.”

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communities and it’s really important for people who are aspiring to work in this field to be aware of the different lenses that they need to approach this topic and other sustainability topics,” Cunningham said. “The idea of needing to know who you are and come back to your own roots so that you can do your work better, that resonated with me a lot.”

Patten said consumers like when brands are eco-friendly because it adds a feeling of empowerment. Hwang agreed, saying her experience at the footwear company TOMS, and now Thousand, taught her there does not have to be a tradeoff between environmental sustainability and revenue and product success. Hwang, Patten and Brown-West all agreed there are economic and other benefits such as social equality and added awareness in incorporating sustainability into business and production.

Hwang started her company to save lives after a friend died from a biking accident. She said at one point she was approached about sharing her background and rise to business leadership, but she said she didn’t feel relatable because her identity differed from the norm. Since then, she said she has come to understand her diversity is a benefit rather than a hindrance.

“I don’t look like everyone else who I have viewed as a founder,” Hwang said. “Being a good-looking white guy — not that. Diversity matters in the sense that you can come to better business decisions.”

At the conclusion of the discussion, all three panelists encouraged attendees to own their identities and be comfortable in their skin. They also said while minorities may feel like they are a low-power position right off the bat, they should realize the value in differences and what they bring to the table.

“My biggest advice is — especially when you are in this room that feels very intimidating — remember why you deserve to be there,” BrownWest said. “Remember what value you bring. Remember that your experiences can add to that conversation and your way of thinking can add to that conversation, and that will help build this cocoon of confidence around you.”

SMTD From Page 1A offices that handle these cases and support all students to speak directly about the policies and procedures of our University.”

Elizabeth Seney, assistant director of the Office of Institutional Equity then described the role of OIE as a neutral party addressing concerns of discrimination violating University policies. She walked the audience through OIE’s general process of reaching out to the complainant to hear what next steps the complainant wants, whether that be an investigation or a disciplining of the respondent.

Seney said the reports OIE receives are often from a third party sharing information about an incident with a complainant and respondent. If the parties involved in the incident are anonymous, she said, OIE is restricted in what they can accomplish.

“We are limited in our ability to follow up based on the anonymity of that,” Seney said. “So I want to be totally transparent and I don’t want to sugarcoat this and say it’s fine to report anonymously because we can address it in the same way. We are limited. We don’t know who to reach out to get more information, we don’t know what the person wants to see happening with the information.”

Margie Pillsbury, a detective in the Division of Public Safety and Security, talked about the department’s reporting process, noting DPSS’s close ties to OIE in cases of sexual misconduct within the University.

“If a survivor decides to make a report to us, we work closely with OIE trying to reduce the implication of contacts and make it easier for survivors,” Pillsbury said.

Kaaren Williamsen, director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and Emily Hyssong, the Counseling and

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — 3A was voted on by members in attendance and advanced to the CSG rules committee for final approval.

While several resolutions were advanced to the committee for approval, only one proposal, A.R. 8-320, titled “A Resolution to Require SOFC Fund Recipients to Use Compostable Dining Materials,” was fully enacted.

CSG representative Michael Nwansi, an Engineering senior, was the author of the adopted resolution, which will take effect at the start of the winter semester. According to Nwansi, the success of the plan is contingent upon the cooperation of two University organizations: the Student Sustainability Initiative and the Student Organization Funding Committee.

“SOFC gives away a lot of funds to student orgs to help them fund their events,” Nwansi said. “SSI is a service on campus that gives free compostable materials to students. My resolution mandates that orgs

applying for money from SOFC have to use those compostable materials at their events.”

According to Nwansi, the proposal hopefully will have a measurable impact on the environmental consciousness and sustainability of the University as a whole without being a burden on student groups.

“I sat down with the SOFC chairs to think through how this would work,” Nwansi said. “We decided that in their record keeping there will be a tab where they would record if organizations applied for compostable materials or not.”

Because the resolution will not be implemented until January, Nwansi explained there is still time for SOFC to determine how it will carry out the policy.

“This requirement won’t take effect until the beginning of next semester,” Nwansi said. “They’ll have some more leeway and time to change things if they find a smarter or more efficient way to deal with the logistics.”

University students discussed recent changes in immigration policies and public reception to these policies, the most in order to justify displacing pressing issues in immigration, indigenous people and excluding and some immediate and non-white aliens.” Another goal long-term solutions to these of the teach-in was to change the problems. The panelists’ areas of way people view immigration as a expertise ranged from refugee whole, shifting the framing from policy to border control to the a legal issue to a moral issue and politicization of undocumented stressing a historical approach to immigrants. how we view immigration.

Panelist Nicolas Espinosa, This event was proposed a Ph.D. candidate, said while in light of a lecture scheduled anti-immigration narratives for Nov. 15 hosted by the supported by CIS are becoming University’s chapter of College “more aggressive and more Republicans with Mark blatant since pre-2016,” they Krikorian, the director of the aren’t necessarily new.

Center for Immigration Studies, “We’ve seen this historically,” titled “The Real Immigration Espinosa said. “There’s always Debate: Whom to Let In and been a pretty significant antiWhy.” Some at the University, immigrant movement, this like postdoctoral fellow William effort from folks like CIS to Lopez, have taken issue paint immigrants as folks who with the event. Krikorian’s are dangerous, or taking jobs, organization, which was or exploiting the system. The founded in 1985 by University narratives are just kind of being alum John Tanton, has been re-canned … That’s not to say that designated a hate group by they didn’t exist before, they’re the Southern Poverty Law just becoming more intense and Center, and the Latino/a Studies more out in the open.”

Department wanted to approach Panelist junior Ayah Kutmah, the conversation surrounding an LSA junior, said the current immigration from a different lens. political narrative is that we are A panel composed of letting in too many refugees, undergraduate and graduate when “in reality, (the United

States is) not letting in people who should be considered refugees, pointing to the years-long process most refugees must go through to come to the United States.

“The backlog in refugee cases, the fact that it takes two years for a refugee case to be decided to be admitted to the United States … is against refugees,” Kutmah, who worked at Human Rights Watch over the summer, said. “The fact that from the moment they set foot in the United States, they incur the debt of the plane tickets, that’s huge.”

Peña said one of the biggest problems related to immigration in the U.S. was Border Patrol’s inhumane treatment of immigrants who cross the border at Mexico. “(Immigrants) are fleeing violence, gangs threatening their lives and domestic violence issues over there and so a lot of the women are fleeing from that … and so they’re suffering from a lot of trauma and PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), like they break down in tears and forget what they’re talking about and stuff like that,” Peña said.

“But because of border patrol, like the way they treat them, they add to the PTSD that they are already suffering from.”

CSG From Page 2A identify where we’re having shortcomings in terms of the communities and parts of campus we represent,” Greene said.

Later in the meeting, representatives in attendance were invited to discuss resolutions proposed by members of student government.

One CSG member, Rackham student Nicholas Fadanelli, proposed amending the Statement of Students’ Rights of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution in order to clarify students’ rights in dealing with OSCR. “The Statement of Students’ Rights is what OSCR uses when it comes to dealing with students who break University policies,” Fadanelli said. “To amend the statement of student rights would allow OSCR to better deal with these issues.”

Following Fadanelli’s comments, his resolution

NATIVISM From Page 1A

Psychological Services worker for the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, spoke about how their organizations are confidential for survivors. SAPAC and CAPS focus mainly on support and giving people immediate help, they said.

Associate Dean of Students Sarah Daniels said the Dean of Students Office becomes involved in these matters because their goal is to ease the impact of anything that interrupts the lives of students, including matters of sexual misconduct. Daniels spoke of the supportive and protective measures the office offers to students involved in OIE investigations.

The majority of the event was devoted to audience questions.

One audience member asked the panelists what they are doing to help students focus on educational opportunities or simply get through their days in spite of a sexual misconduct investigation.

Seney responded, emphasizing her wish to make conditions for students better, but noting the limitations of the University.

“I don’t know that we can ever — just in full being realistic and transparency — I don’t know that any part of the University or the University as a whole can fully eliminate any negative impact for any sexual misconduct,” Seney said. “What we are trying our absolute hardest to do is to number one prevent it, and number two do the best we can on that second part.”

Seney also said this kind of work becomes more difficult in small environments such as the Music, Theatre & Dance School. Upon some pushback from the audience, Daniels explained the difficulty in accommodating students in a school where class options are limited.

“Measures can get more complicated when we have a smaller environment and a smaller community and fewer options,” Daniels said. “What I mean by that is when we’re looking at a school

like LSA that has 15,000 students and a whole lot of majors and a whole lot of options, we’ve got choices.”

Multiple audience members asked about what the panelists’ offices could do to discipline faculty members making comments on cases or siding publicly with a respondent over a claimant. Williamsen said in these cases, students feeling uncomfortable about a faculty member’s comments could come to SAPAC to discuss their concerns.

“We do work with people confidentially with things like that all the time to figure that out and to figure out what do I do with this,” Williamsen said. “This doesn’t feel right, I don’t want to go to that class anymore, I don’t want to go to that space anymore, and I don’t have a word with this, but this is getting in the way of participating in my life.”

Toward the end of the questionand-answer session, Seney highlighted her willingness to hear out concerns, questions and suggestions from students and faculty regarding the effectiveness of OIE’s system.

“I know that I can’t fix everything and for me, I recognize that, but I really encourage people to share their feedback and any concerns and ask any questions,” Seney said. “And I can assure you that I will always do my best to address those concerns.”

Mark Clague, associate dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, echoed this sentiment, describing the school’s next steps in addressing student concerns.

Clague announced the formation of a faculty and staff ally group, plans for a symposium centered on sexual misconduct in the performing arts and workshops with SAPAC relating to these issues.

“We want to talk to you about these issues,” Clague said. “We are mandatory reporters so when things are brought to us

they go directly to OIE through the reporting forms. But we can help finesse this to the best of our abilities. We’re not perfect either … but we’re really trying hard to make a difference” LSA freshman Andrew Gerace said he attended the event because of the prevalence of these issues within the University, something he became more aware of after reading The Daily’s articles on sexual misconduct issues within the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He said he felt the panel was a step in the right direction, but there are still questions to be answered.

“I have more questions walking out than I did walking in,” Gerace said. “Me personally, I felt like many of the questions had to be re-asked because some of the answers seemed to be sliding off …

Often people trying to slack away or avoid questions … Effectively, the question was more obvious than the answer we were given and so I feel concerned that there’s still more hidden in the shadows that I really need to learn more about whether it’s in this panel format or other situations, we really need to keep this dialogue going.”

Gerace said he looks forward to going to more events on this topic.

He aims to hold the panelists and their offices to their words in order to better establish trust, he said.

“In the hope that more happen, I really am planning on working to hold the people that spoke here today accountable to their words because I think that they’re now, from a position of trust, telling us what their roles and responsibilities are, and I think that in the situations that occur where what they’ve told us is not the way it’s happening, it’s breaking our trust even further,” Gerace said. “I hope we all can work together to reform what’s been broken and move forward.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Opinion

4A — Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

AMANDA ZHANG | COLUMN

What society can learn from ‘Bojack Horseman’

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VICTOR LIEBERMAN | OP-ED

Freedom of speech and partisan enthusiasm

S

ignatories to the recent statement criticizing the University of Michigan’s decision to discipline Prof. John Cheney-Lippold for refusing to support a student who wanted to study in Israel framed the issue solely in terms of freedom of speech. In fact, two principles were in contention: a professor’s right to express his views and a student’s right to study at an institution of her choosing. Since the University believes its primary commitment must be to students, and since Cheney-Lippold’s freedom in other contexts is unaffected, the University chose to support the undergraduate. The signatories, however, ignored the student entirely. Their statement mentioned the professor’s free speech rights four times — the young woman’s thwarted academic aspirations, not once.

I suspect, moreover, that the signatories’ commitment to freedom of speech is not absolute, but conditional and qualified. Suppose a professor refused to write for a woman who wanted to study physics because women can’t do science. Or suppose he refused to write for a student seeking to attend a Muslim university because, in his view, Muslims are terrorists. Or if no letter were provided for an African university because, in the professor’s opinion, African universities are academically inferior. All such actions are examples of free speech. But, if the University penalized the offending professor, I seriously doubt we’d see an outraged protest. Most signatories probably would stay silent or demand the administration chastise their ignorant colleague.

Insofar as this is true, the central issue is not freedom of speech at all, but political and historical analysis.

Not all, but certainly many signatories support Prof. Cheney-Lippold because they share his sympathy for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

If the political claims of the BDS movement are central to the entire debate, what then can be said about their credibility? In all my classes, and especially my course on the ArabIsraeli conflict, I go to great lengths to introduce divergent views and historiographic debates. But, it is precisely because I oppose simplistic, politically inspired interpretations that I now critique the BDS narrative.

I hasten to add that I would do exactly the same if faculty petitions circulated in support of an ahistorical, exclusively pro-Israel perspective.

The BDS movement makes two chief claims. First, it says that Israel must be boycotted because it violates international norms of human rights.

Indeed, in demanding sanctions against only one country, BDS suggests that Israel has the world’s worst human rights record.

To be sure, within Israel, which defines itself as an expressly Jewish state, Arabs are secondclass citizens, with lower per capita funding and a pervasive sense of marginalization.

Unfortunately, however, in privileging one ethnic or religious group, Israel resembles a great number, probably a majority, of U.N. member states. And if we consider not merely ethnic relations,

but the totality of civic rights, Israel does far better than most. Arguably, the most respected global survey of minority rights and democracy is the Democracy Index compiled by the U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit. In this survey, which ranks countries from No. 1, most democratic (Norway), to No. 167, least democratic (North Korea), Israel ranks No. 30.

Israel is in the same cohort as the U.S. (No. 21), France (No. 29), Belgium (No. 32), etc.

No other Middle East country ranks lower (i.e., better) than No. 69, and the great majority come in at No. 100 or worse. The Palestinian territories, No. 108, have been condemned by Human Rights Watch for systematically torturing political prisoners. Neither the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority nor Gaza under Hamas offers any semblance of free elections, freedom of the press or tolerated dissent.

The central issue is not freedom of speech, but political and historical analysis.

By contrast, Arab citizens of Israel have exactly the same civic and political rights as Jews. An Arab party is the third largest in parliament. Arabs serve on the Israeli Supreme Court, in the cabinet and in the army high command.

They have equal access to all public institutions. Christian Arabs have higher rates of university enrollment and lower poverty rates than Jews.

None of this remotely resembles apartheid South Africa, to which BDS leaders routinely compare Israel. So why does BDS single out Israel for censure, rather than Middle Eastern autocracies? I say nothing about the truly appalling human rights records of China, Russia, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, the Philippines, etc.

The second BDS claim is that outside Israel proper, in the West Bank and Gaza, settlements and security controls constitute outrageous abuses of an innocent population. I readily agree that Israel’s ongoing expansion of West Bank settlements is morally offensive and politically myopic.

Palestinians themselves, however, bear significant responsibility for these conditions.

Their leaders have had many opportunities to end the conflict.

But for almost a century, a combination of chronic political fragmentation and deep-seated popular anger over the Zionist intrusion into Arab lands has made it impossible for any leader to accept a permanent Jewish state without risking his political, indeed physical, demise.

All told, from 1937 to 2014, eight international proposals to end the conflict were made. All would have given Palestinians control over substantial parts, in one case 100 percent, of the

territories comprising modern Israel and Palestine, but all would have required compromise. Jews, not because they were more moral but because demographic realities curbed their appetite, accepted at least six, possibly seven, of these proposals. Most of what Palestinians now claim they want — including a West Bank state with its capital in East Jerusalem — was offered in these proposals. But opponents of any substantial Jewish presence rejected all eight proposals and accompanied those rejections with military and terrorist attacks. Jews responded with military measures designed to prevent fresh attacks.

Those responses and the ensuing, progressive deterioration in the Palestinians’ territorial and political position only deepened Palestinian bitterness, which inspired fresh rounds of violence, which led to further Israeli restrictions in a downward spiral to which no end is in sight.

As a result, virtually everything of which Palestinians now complain — refugees in 1947-49, the West Bank occupation from 1967, settlements after 1977, the 2002 security wall, the post-2007 Gaza blockade — came in direct response to Arab-initiated violence whose instigators, with extensive popular support, were expressly committed to destroying the Jewish state.

Gaza illustrates this dynamic all too well. Despite the blockade, Gaza Hamas has managed to inflict considerable financial and political damage. But, the West Bank is 15 times larger than Gaza, far closer to Israel’s heartland and far more open to Iranian troops and weapons. Israelis fear that if they withdrew from the West Bank, Hamas — which is allied to Iran, sworn to Israel’s extermination and arguably the most popular Palestinian party — would take control of the West Bank just as they seized Gaza after Israel left. A Hamas-dominated West Bank, with Iranian troops and weapons next door to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would threaten Israel’s very existence.

No Israeli government — right or left — could ever countenance such a possibility. More than religious or ideological imperatives, this deeprooted existential fear now drives Israeli settlement expansion and suspicion of a two-state solution.

To be sure, Zionism presented the Arabs of Palestine with an extremely painful dilemma: In effect, they were asked to pay the price for European anti-Semitism for which they bore no responsibility. Nonetheless, faced with hard choices, Palestinians during the last hundred years responded in ways that often proved profoundly self-destructive. To accept the BDS image of Palestinians as victims of entirely gratuitous repression is to caricature history. And to single out Israel from among 193 U.N. members as the country whose human rights record is most deserving of boycott is to defy impartial logic.

Victor Lieberman is the Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Asian and Comparative History in the College of Literature Science and the Arts

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O

n its surface, Netflix’s “Bojack Horseman” simply looks like an absurd cartoon about a celebrity horse, but anyone who has seen the show can attest that its themes extend far past just whimsical animal puns (though they are admittedly some of my favorite parts of the show).

Despite centering around the lives of mostly anthropomorphized animals, “Bojack Horseman” is perhaps the most honest portrayal of the human condition currently on television, and its most recent season fearlessly explores the complex facets of addiction, the marginalization of women and the lack of accountability in our society.

Season five of “Bojack Horseman” follows Bojack as he balances a demanding acting job on the set of his new action drama “Philbert” with growing depression and drug addiction.

This season focuses largely on the theme of accountability, or more specifically, a lack thereof. We get a taste of this early on with Vance Waggoner, a remorseless former “Hollywood” star who has a history of horrible behavior involving sexual harassment, assault and anti-Semitism. After a few years out of the spotlight, Vance lands a gig as Bojack’s co-star on “Philbert,” a role that is meant to revive the “reformed” actor’s career.

Though as viewers we can laugh at Vance’s excessively dark and endless transgressions, we must also recognize that Vance is just an exaggerated version of the celebrities and public figures whom we constantly forgive in our society. This cycle is one we all know far too well — a celebrity scandal breaks the celebrity apologizes and spends some time out of the public eye and shortly after, the public welcomes the “new-and-improved” celebrity

ERIN WHITE | COLUMN

I

back with open arms.

Waggoner’s character holds obvious relevance to the #MeToo movement that has taken our society by storm. With so many once-beloved public figures shockingly exposed as sexual assaulters and harassers, a number of them have inevitably slipped through the cracks back into the public’s warm embrace. Perhaps most notably, Louis C.K., who just last year was at the center of the #MeToo movement, and has now already kickstarted a return to the stand-up stage. It is instances like these that reveal just how fickle the public is. Louis C.K. is funny and affable, so naturally, mere months after we discovered his history of sexual misconduct, we have already begun to forget.

Though Vance Waggoner’s character is a blunt social commentary on society’s inability to hold the rich and famous accountable, it is merely a precursor to the season’s much darker climactic ending. Throughout the season, we witness Bojack gradually spiraling out of control as his dependency on painkillers takes over his life. Eventually, his sense of self becomes so warped that he mistakes a scripted action scene for real life and violently chokes his co-star Gina while filming. Not wanting her best shot at a successful acting career to die in the shadow of such a massive scandal, Gina publically “clears things up” in an interview, covering her bruises with makeup and assuring the public that it was just good acting.

This interview scene is incredibly honest and powerful.

Not only does Gina illustrate an often overlooked barrier to survivors of assault who contemplate coming forward, but the situation also represents a very real instance in which a powerful and destructive force once again escapes the consequences of his actions.

There is a scene in the 10th episode in which Bojack rationalizes that everybody does regrettable things, that, “We’re all terrible, so, therefore, we’re all OK.” This quote embodies every reason our society habitually fails to hold people accountable. We adopt this mindset because it is easy. It is easy to believe that, “We’re all terrible, so, therefore, we’re all OK” because a lack of agency means that we never had any control over our actions in the first place. It means that we are not responsible for ourselves, so, therefore, our transgressions are not our fault.

These rationalizations are simply coping mechanisms. But in this case, we cannot just cope — we must respond.

With the #MeToo movement in full force, I can only hope that we as a society have begun to realize that we must hold others as well as ourselves truly accountable. The trauma suffered by survivors of sexual assault is too painful for us to remain complacent. We cannot simply rationalize wrongdoings with the same old justifications like “Boys will be boys” or “It’s just locker room talk” because these excuses normalize attitudes and beliefs which should unequivocally be condemned. An apology is not enough to warrant forgiveness because redemption is not a binary state, but instead a gradual and continuous effort. Yes, we all do terrible things sometimes, but this fact is not some equalizer that justifies all wrongdoings.

Season five of “Bojack Horseman” closes on a hopeful note as Bojack checks himself into a rehabilitation facility for his addiction. He realizes the changes he himself must enact in order to be better — it’s time society does the same.

Amanda Zhang can be reached at amanzhan@umich.edu.

Our digital dependency

have had a smartphone since I was 13 years old. And before that, I had an iPod Touch that, with the will of a Wi-Fi connection, gave me consistent access to the Internet. So for at least the last eight years, I have been the owner of some type of smart device. And while I have always considered myself a responsible person and taken care of these devices, sometimes things happen outside of your control. For example, you could hypothetically fall down the stairs with your phone in your back pocket, affecting the already-cracked screen and causing the display to give out about a week later. Hypothetically.

But regardless of the many ways I could have hypothetically broken my phone, it happened. I went to pick it up, check the time and see if any new notifications had graced my screen, but was met with an unresponsive device. I got slightly irritated. And after 40 minutes of trying different methods of getting it to turn on, my frustration turned to panic and I borrowed a friend’s phone to call my parents.

I explained the situation quickly and with the anxious breath of someone in the midst of a crisis at 12:30 a.m., my parents agreeing to figure it out in the morning. They did handle it, which I am extremely grateful for, but the process left me phoneless for two days. I was disconnected, apart from my old Dell laptop which, bless its soul, is on its last leg of life and needs to be constantly charging in order to work. And I know that two days may not seem like a long time, but try and give up your phone and Apple account for a few days to see the effects. It was just enough time to make me evaluate my technology use and the way that it has become central to the way I live.

I initially reflected on my reaction to breaking my phone in the first place. Imagine the feeling you have when you misplaced your phone for 10 minutes and are scouring the room for it, and amplify that by 10.

I was filled with anxiety, as though I had just lost a hand. Phones and mobile communication have become so ingrained in and connected to us that any misplacement of the device is devastating to our day-to-day functionality and comfort. When it was taken away, I became acutely aware of this relationship.

I was quickly met with a set of challenges that I did not anticipate having. Without my phone I

realized I did not have an alarm clock, affecting how I woke up for class over the next few days. I do not wear or even own a watch and have always used my phone as my personal tracker of time. For two days I only had a rough estimate of what time it was. Phones have pulled so many basic technologies together into one device, foregoing some uses that I did not even realize I frequently needed. This intensifies our tech reliance: So much of what we need and do is based on one device. Losing it is like losing what used to be 15 of your most useful objects.

I found myself on several occasions reaching for something that was not there. I would be studying and suddenly grab for the empty table to my right. Think about how many times you pick up your phone, even if you are not actively scrolling or using it. It has been reported that millennials check their phones 150 times a day. Something so habitual truly becomes essential to the way you go through your life, even when it is not necessarily beneficial to you.

Yet, in this disconnect I found that without minute breaks in my studying and working, I was more productive. My concentration was not interrupted by sending a quick message to a friend, or reading the headline that the New York Times sent to my notification center.

This break in our concentration flow is proven to cause issues with productivity. However, I still missed my five-minute social media breaks. I was not Snapchatting or seeing the top new tweets on my feed. I felt like I was not expressing myself as regularly as I normally do, and I felt a distance from the people I frequently chat with.

Communication has manifested itself in so many different ways in the age of social media, and a break from it felt isolating. While this cultural phenomenon of being “plugged in” all the time can have a distracting quality, it is the way that information, ideas and expression are shared in our society, so disconnecting can make us feel as if we are missing something. Managing and balancing our screen time is something that we could benefit from in practical ways, especially when tech usage manifests into insignificant scrolling and wasting time. But cutting it out completely or resisting its importance in our new communication system is an

intractable mindset.

The consistent access to and use of our phones, in combination with the fact that 77 percent of Americans now own a smartphone (95 percent owning some type of cell phone), keeps us connected to not only technology, but to each other. Mobile communication has given humanity, for the first time, instantaneous access to the people in our lives at any point. This is a new cultural phenomenon that is criticized but also indulged in by our society. While we may feel that we do not owe anyone a timely response to whatever they may need, due to the rapid nature of information that we are so accustomed to, we oftentimes expect it from others.

My first phoneless day left many of my friends confused until they saw me in the evening. They were not given the typical daily updates of where I was and what I was doing. These interactions, while typically short, give us a constant access to one another that has never before existed. It also has created a certain level of anxiety about where people are and what they are doing.

Without these habitual updates, loved ones can be sent into a frenzy of concern. When you do not check in, it implies that something is off or wrong. It’s crucial to maintaining interpersonal connections.

Millennials are the first generation to grow up in an age of mobile communication. This is reflected greatly in our use of technology and the importance that it plays in our daily lives. Phones have become an extension of us, both a useful tool for many day-today functions and a way to intensify interpersonal communication. But alongside the growth of constant access to one another and the use of devices, tech reliance has also developed — a new dependence that people of other generations may not be able to understand. A reliance that should be better managed in order to inspire productivity.

After my parents brought me my new phone, I asked them how they used to make and keep plans, how they handled communication without cell phones. “Erin, we just did it!” And as with all new advancements, we just keep doing it. Cell phones are just the new “it.”

Erin White can be reached at ekwhite@umich.edu

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — 5A

EVENT PREVIEW

ARTIST PROFILE

BFA senior choreography on display in ‘hand&hand’ TRINA PAL

Daily Arts Writer

CARLIE HANSON

Carlie Hanson is the most Taurus person you’ll meet CHRISTIAN KENNEDY Daily Arts Writer

From the moment Carlie Hanson walked into the goldenyellow-painted dressing room in the rear of Detroit’s historic Fox Theater, any trace of tension vanished. She greeted me with a smile and open hug. She’s as relatable as can be: going off about astrology (she’s the most Taurus person you’ll ever meet), stanning Harry Styles, wondering what the hell Justin Bieber is doing, eating her feelings and figuring it all out as she goes.

At 18, she sits opposite me on the millennial / Gen-Z cultural border: loving Soundcloud artists, growing up on Usher’s Confessions and Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/ LoveSounds and rebuking any labels, especially in terms of genre and sexuality. Hanson, who recently took a turn with Billboard Pride’s Instagram account, will be dropping an EP early next year and has begun infusing her traditional pop sound with rock-inspired guitars, undoubtedly primed by the Metallica and Five Finger Death Punch her mother played growing up in Wisconsin.

“I want to tell you all about (the EP) but I can’t. It talks about a longdistance relationship I have with a girl. I’m still figuring it out myself.

I don’t even know how to label my sexuality and I don’t know where I am. So, I don’t know how much I’ll put into my music but I don’t want to not talk about it,” she said during our conversation.

Hanson reminisces about her home life, grapples with her new life — in the studio, in L.A. and on the road — and does so with an infectious confidence, only revealing the magnitude of her achievements through the bewildered excitement in her voice.

Her performance at The Fox last month was her first joining Troye

Sivan on The Bloom Tour, fresh off a summer of making music in L.A., visiting friends in Wisconsin and playing a handful of festivals to get her feet wet. (By showtime, it’s clear she has already found her sea legs).

“Festivals aren’t my favorite right now because not a lot of people know me, so I’m definitely more for the sweaty venues and intimacy,” she said, sitting with her leg up on a fold-out chair opposite of my couch. “(The Fox is) so big I’m going to freak out. The ceiling and everything? Oh my god. Have you seen the Beyoncé and Jay-Z video?

The one they shot in the … Louvre?

Yes! It looks like that.”

She’s not wrong. As most of her friends from Wisconsin are about to end their first semester of college, Carlie has just ended the Bloom Tour. Hosting the back-to-backto-back queer, blonde ambition of Hanson, Kim Petras and Sivan, the historic Fox Theater’s intricate architecture reads as equally revolutionary and religious.

The singer’s synth-pop package is especially “of the moment.” She knows you think she looks like Billie Eilish. She knows you might even think she is Billie Eilish whose EP release party she attended last year.

“I take that as a fucking compliment, she’s a badass … like damn, I’ll take it!” she said.

This year, she found herself on Taylor Swift’s personal playlist and moving to Los Angeles.

“I hated (L.A.) at first — well, not hated it — but (my apartment) was so bare and I don’t know how to build anything or make furniture, but (my best friend) Dale helped me build everything, and I love it now.

It’s cozy,” she said of her studio.

She lights candles beneath Nirvana, “Call Me By Your Name” and Mac Miller posters. But despite the beach sunsets back-dropping her writing sessions, Hanson finds herself at a loss on how to make

friends as an 18-year-old in the city without a fake ID, hoping to eventually get rich and move all of her friends out.

“Yeah, I definitely (feel lonely sometimes). It’s hard because I’ve lived with my family my whole life.

Now I turn 18, and I’m all on my own. It’s such a weird transition,” Hanson said. “I have two sisters at home, older and younger and I have an older brother. He lives in Texas.

Anyway but, it sucks being without them. My friends and I used to go hiking in the bluffs, I miss doing that. And I fucking miss driving. I miss my Toyota.”

Before picking up on the Bloom tour, Hanson opened for Jeremy Zucker on a club tour, making a stop at Ann Arbor’s own Blind Pig in September.

“I remember getting to the dressing room. I’m a huge Nirvana fan, and I was like I wonder if Kurt or someone signed the wall and I saw his name with the year ’91 and I went on YouTube and saw the video,” she said before clapping in a moment of clarity: “That was the concert where I had the moment!

I came off stage and was like ‘holy fuck this is really what I’m doing?’

It happens really randomly and I think tonight it’s going to hit me too. I know Troye fans are just diehards,” she said. “I think tonight I’ll definitely feel that way.”

As we wrap up, she hugged me again, thanked me and with sincere excitement said: “That was so fun!

It’s going to be a fun fucking show.”

She wasn’t wrong. Hanson’s strongest asset remains her personability, which exudes from her music and stage presence.

“I’m super excited to go back to (my apartment) and sleep after this tour,” she said, on the first night of the tour, but surprisingly has not been able to sleep since getting back (per her Instagram).

Carlie Hanson’s new single, “Toxins” is out now, and her EP is expected in early 2019.

TV NOTEBOOK

HBO

LeBron James takes his talents to the small screen Texas Senate candidate Beto MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN O’Rourke, wore a fabulous Daily Arts Writer Thom Browne short suit, did a shot of tequila with no hands on This year, LeBron James “The Ellen Show” (for charity) opened a public elementary and had producing credits on school in his native Akron, no fewer than five television traded barbs with the shows and sold another four to president of the United States, networks. Oh, and in his free did voiceover work for the time, he played some basketball. animated film “Smallfoot” (he The King is now as exciting was not Meechee), endorsed to watch off the court as he is to

watch on it. Whatever led James to join the Lakers this summer — the renown of the franchise, Magic Johnson’s persistence, a championship-hungry young core — the move to Los Angeles positions him to be a player in the entertainment industry, in the off-season and in eventual retirement. And James has, via his production company, SpringHill Entertainment,

Ah, November. Many think of the first magical snowfall of the season with light traces of footprints crisscrossing through the frosted grass.

Others may be reminded of the lengthy American holiday season and dash off to buy Christmas gifts for loved ones.

More broody types may ref lect only on the oncoming cold and how ill-prepared they are to receive its wrath. For me, November is all of these things plus one more: November is the month when the art scene in Ann Arbor explodes.

If you’ve been toying with the idea of seeing a University production, now is the time to finally commit, pull on your snow boots and trudge over to the theater. Trust me, it’s a wonderful change from pulling on your beer-stained, lost-cause white sneakers and trekking over to a frat house.

If dance is the art form that makes your heart sing, consider the School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s “hand&hand” senior BFA showcase. Senior BFA students Alyssa Gorman, Annelise Senkowski, Kandis DeAnne Terry and Amy Wensley will each showcase a group and solo work this weekend at the Betty Pease Studio Theater. Each piece highlights an aspect of their personal experience, either at the University or throughout their personal lives.

Annelise Senkowski Senkowski’s solo work focuses on the hiraeth, a Welsh word best translated to “a nostalgia for something that never was.” Senkowski’s theme draws heavily from her childhood, having left her home at the age of 14 to pursue professional Classical ballet training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Now a senior at the University, Senkowski still feels like the “home” she’s nostalgic for isn’t a location in the world.

“When I go home, it doesn’t feel like the place where I should relax, rest and sink my feet into the ground. I dream of that feeling of settlement that comes when your plane lands and you’re home, but I don’t really have that,” Senkowski said.

But she’s not regretful.

quietly become something of a Hollywood powerhouse, telling stories that are poignant and revelatory.

SpringHill’s TV projects are scattered across networks, mostly docuseries with some scripted programming in the works. Though James himself appears only in two, every show feels tied to him in some way.

Collectively, they tell a kind of extratextual story of an athlete at the culmination of his own political awakening, deeply curious about the institutions and forces that have made his life what it is.

Showtime’s “Shut Up and Dribble,” a three-part docuseries airing this month, is an attempt to place James’s activism in a historical tradition. A sweeping history of political activism in the NBA, the program’s title is a cheeky jab at the Fox News anchorwoman Laura Ingraham, who made the remark in February after James criticized Donald Trump in an ESPN interview. “Shut Up and Dribble” is also a rebuke to anyone who would neglect the fraught racial and power dynamics tied up in basketball by calling it “just a game.”

“In America, Black athletes were supposed to be the workers, not the owners,” narrates sportswriter Jemele Hill in the first episode’s opening minutes. “They were supposed to be the talent and

“We’ve always fought to have a place at the table, but we’ve got to get rid of the notion that there’s only one place for women. We can all have a seat at the table, we just need to help each other,” Senkowski said.

Kandis DeAnne Terry Terry’s work is focused on the importance of healing, and her vehicle to do so is color.

She embraces color therapy as a way to accept the energies of others while being cognizant of how our individual energies enhance the bigger picture.

“Our (energies), just like our bodies, are made up of many parts and colors, seven to be exact. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, & Red,” Terry said in an email interview with The Daily.

Terry sees each of these colors as associated with a particular chakra. Violet, for example, is the chakra associated with naturalistic instincts. The green chakra fuels one’s connection with others. Terry sees these chakras, and their corresponding colors, as integral to understanding herself.

“I have found that each of my energy chakras matter.

Each is unique and have their own function and key to healing. Although one chakra may be stronger or channeled

more often than the other, does not mean the rest are not just as useful or needed,” Terry wrote.

Alyssa Gorman Gorman puts her finger on the moment every college student can relate to — the feeling of being torn in different directions, crushed by expectations from every facet of life.

“As I am graduating in one month, I have found myself constantly looking for the next thing ( job, opportunity, audition, etc.) instead of living in the moment,” Gorman wrote in an email interview with The Daily.

Like many others, Gorman has found her community to be an incredible support system to find her inner peace in the face of this chaos.

“To have a group of people to cheer you on and build up through the highs and the lows is so important to your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being,” Gorman wrote.

Gorman will use contemporary jazz to bring her experiences to light on stage.

Amy Wensley Projecting your energy on the outside world can be just as important as focusing on yourself, especially with the rampant effects of climate change already seen and those to come. Wensley uses movement to highlight the importance of caring for the world that we inhabit.

“In regards to the environment, in some ways, we’re improving, and in some ways, we’re lacking,” Wensley wrote in an email interview with The Daily.

Wensley’s group work focuses on the theme of migration, specifically of ethnic groups around the world. Her ideas stem from migrations in her own family.

“My theme of ‘migration’ stemmed from research about my multicultural heritage: my 96-year-old grandpa’s challenges in the 1930s-50s with his Native American roots, my late grandfather who immigrated from Malta in the 1950s, and my first-generation American mother growing up in metro-Detroit,” Wensley wrote.

All choreographers will present their works from Thurs. Nov. 15 to Sat. Nov. 17 at the Betty Pease Studio Theater.

never the power brokers.”

It’s a reminder of how radical James’s TV empire is — it marks his ability to bridge that gap, to take ownership of his future at a time when the NBA’s stars are beginning to wield unprecedented power.

Any discussion of LeBron James will be met with inevitable comparisons to Michael Jordan, who parlayed his NBA success into his own commercial empire and whose number James wears in homage. But James has taken care to distinguish himself from Jordan. The second episode of “Shut Up and Dribble” critiques Jordan’s silence on social issues. When declining to endorse the Black Harvey Gantt in his Senate race against the openly racist Jesse Helms, Jordan said, famously — if apocryphally — that “Republicans buy sneakers too.” Jordan’s story is told alongside those of forgotten athletes who gambled their careers on their political convictions and lost. “Maybe the best way to stay popular is to remain a mystery,” says Hill.

James doesn’t buy that.

“The Shop,” a freewheeling barbershop-set group talk show on HBO, is proof of his belief that celebrity obliges him to be outspoken. With fellow NBA and WNBA players, comedians and rappers, he probes issues of race, fatherhood and fame.

Is it 100 percent authentic?

Probably not — it’s TV, after all. But it feels like earnest conversation amid the joking there are a few moments of real insight. Jordan is invoked here too: In one episode, Eagles defensive end Michael Bennett recalls “looking for Michael Jordan to say something, and he never did.”

The shows James doesn’t make appearances in are equally bold and compelling.

“Warriors of Liberty City” on Starz follows a Miami neighborhood where a career in the NFL is seen as the only way out. “Student Athlete” on HBO is a critical look at the maze of NCAA rules. And the scripted shows in production will venture outside the world of sports — Netflix is making a SpringHill series about Madam CJ Walker, America’s first Black female millionaire, with Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) set to star.

Who better to make TV than someone who has publicly grappled with spending the majority of his life in the spotlight in front of a camera?

In a sense, James is the rare child star who endured the lifetime of attention uncorrupted by fame. He has emerged from it all with a rare, keen understanding of what it means to be a public figure in 2018. And in television, he may have finally found a meaningful vehicle to make sense of his strange world.

“I want the audience to acknowledge that there’s a hole in everyone,” Senkowski said.

Any type of longing naturally leads to a feeling of isolation, and Senkowski has chosen to link her solo work with her group work on the isolation of women, specifically within relationships. She pressed the importance of women lifting each other up to combat this isolation.

“hand&hand” Presented by SMTD Thurs. Nov 15, Fri. Nov. 16 & Sat. Nov. 17 @ 8 p.m.

Betty Pease Dance Studio $7 General Admission

6A — Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Arts

DAILY HUMOR COLUMN

STUDENT PROFILE

Women are funny, okay?

COURTESY OF MADELEINE ROSS

Campus foodie Madeleine Ross talks brunch & books ELI RALLO

Daily Arts Writer

What do you get when you simmer a pot of oatmeal on low heat, add a French minor, a dash of cinnamon, a drizzle of almond butter, an affinity for yoga and nearly fifty thousand Instagram followers? This is just one recipe in the cookbook of lovely ingredients that makes up LSA sophomore foodie Maddie Ross.

Ross or, as she’s known on her wildly popular health and wellness Instagram account, @ cest.madeleine is the human form of sunshine. Where some people hide behind their iPhone screens, scrolling with a looming cloud of doubt and self-destruction, comparing themselves to pixelated 8-inch images of acquaintances and strangers, Ross is quite the opposite. In fact, she’s used her Instagram platform to express herself in a positive way. Where many use Instagram to alter who they are, she uses the social media app to get to the center of exactly who she is.

Her account is filled with encouraging, honest captions and gorgeous photographs of stacked avocado toasts, bowls of creamy oatmeal, pieces of grilled fish and white sweet potato fries grilled to perfection with a pool of earthy green pesto for dipping on the side.

From experience, I can tell you that Ross’s cooking abilities and sunny disposition are anything but phony.

In fact, the conversation I shared with her over homemade oatmeal bowls was blissfully authentic, peaceful and warm.

Against the wall of the quaint, chic kitchen she calls her own during the school year — decorated with a sign that reads “chop it like it’s hot” — I observed her in her element, standing over the stove, simmering banana slices on a pan sprayed with avocado oil and crackling with sweet maple syrup.

“I don’t mind that my bedroom is so small because I spend most of the time in here anyway,” She said with a smile, gesturing to her kitchen. “The kitchen is my happy place.”

She prodded at the browning bananas with a seemingly magical touch as the kitchen began to smell how a cold Sunday morning should.

I could tell immediately that Ross feels her best in the kitchen — she traversed the space naturally, has a terrific handle on multitasking and created art out of bananas, oats, almond butter and granola. I never thought much about the magic touch of someone gifted at cooking until I had the chance to really watch someone with said touch in their element.

“Cooking and baking and then photographing my meals is like my art form,” she said when asked what her process is for sautéing, baking and mixing her delicious Instagram photos into life. “I normally go by what will look pretty and what will taste good too.

I’ll admit it’s a little bit of both.”

She certainly has her go-to’s, though — toast, salmon, anything with eggs and anything with avocado.

Ross admits her Instagram account, which is currently aesthetically pleasing and droolworthy, wasn’t always so beautiful and well-thought out. She started the account after struggling with disordered eating the summer before high school. It was, in perfect 13-year-old fashion, donned with the title “The Dancing Foodie” and was a private account that she hid from her family and friends. Once those around her found out about

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her secret hobby when she was observed photographing her meals and gaining interest in culinary art, the account came off private, underwent a slight transformation and began to pick up major traction.

“I mean Instagram for me is about connection — it’s how I found joy in food again. I met some of my best friends at school through the community I’ve found on my account,” she said.

It seems that Ross was a bit of a revolutionary in the small, conservative town in rural Ohio she calls home, and the community she inspired back home has only grown since coming to college.

“Some people say that I invented avocado toast in Bowling Green, Ohio. I definitely didn’t invent it, but I was sort of the first to do it.”

She claimed when asked how her upbringing informed her desire to create a community for herself through Instagram.

“The closest Whole Foods to where I live is the one here, so we’d drive the hour to Ann Arbor just for Whole Foods,” she said.

If a pro on the pro / con list of attending the University is proximity to Whole Foods, Ross is certainly in the right place.

Despite her love for Ann Arbor and delight in being somewhere that has spaces that cater to her passions — specifically Tiny Buddha Yoga, Fred’s, Zingerman’s and her favorite Indian restaurant, Cardamom — Ross has a larger desire to travel, something the two of us share.

She listens nearly exclusively to old French music, loves Nina George’s novel “The Little Paris Bookshop” and has lately been exploring different flavor profiles, especially Indian and Moroccan food. Her travel to-do list is overflowing with zip codes in countries she’s never been before in addition to spots on every corner of the United States — normally in the pursuit of the foodie havens popping up from coast to coast.

“I want to go to L.A., just for the food scene. I also really want to go to Seattle and Portland — oh, and Australia. I feel like I’d love it there. And I just picture myself in France, maybe Paris, just reading and writing and eating a baguette.”

Her travel dreams and future destinations stems from her love of unique cultures, interesting and new flavors and her intense desire for adventure and exploration. One of her more recent explorations, which has planted her desire to travel even more, was a yoga retreat and trip to Costa Rica, where she spent time being mindful, immersing herself in unfamiliar culture and food and enjoying trying new things — like surfing.

“I’m open to anything.

Especially food-wise, I’ll try anything.” She declared, as I scraped my bowl of oatmeal clean and listened to her stories of Costa Rica — including her first time surfing, which she deemed scary but liberating. Ross appears to feel the freest when she is on the pursuit of a new adventure, headed to a new place or with the promise of a unique experience.

The woman she is through her beautiful, inspiring photos on Instagram is absolutely faithful to who she is in real life. In a world so quick to document their lives in an extremely obscured or dismantled way on social media — Ross is redefining the norm. Never have I met someone whose social media accounts are a glimmering, authentic mirror reflection of exactly who she is — spunky, creative, honest and bright. Her plans are big, and her dreams are lofty but after meeting her in person. I have no doubt that she

will achieve them all.

“Well, sourdough bread saved my summer,” she said. “I told myself, ‘Maddie, you have to do something with your summer,’ so I started to make sourdough bread.

A loaf of sourdough bread is my absolute favorite food. But it has to be homemade … and naturally leavened. I’m a bread purist.”

“Now I could see myself opening up a cafe or a bakery…” she trailed off thinking for a moment, her spoon, cradling a final spoonful of oatmeal, suspended in the air.

“Well, my real dream is to open a half bookstore, half bakery.

I’ve always seen myself running a business or being a business owner.”

It’s extremely clear why Ross can see herself running a business; she is passionate and clear in her visions, astute and unique in her observations and enthusiastic about life. Where Maddie Ross exists, negativity does not. It seems her major goals in life are to always head toward the light and away from the darkness, remembering to come back to her base: good ingredients, wholesome meals, lasting conversation, long walks and great books. She has set concrete values, passions and ensures that she gives her full heart and an equal amount of her energy to each.

One of these is connecting with people, something that, as a foodie and a social media presence, comes as no surprise.

“Everyone eats, you know?

To me, the easiest way to crack into even the toughest people is through a good meal. I love feeding people. I love talking to people. I love having real, human moments.

I try my best to fall as far away from superficiality as I can.”

Ross was getting ready to head to a yoga class after our breakfast conversation, in keeping with her desire to be in touch with her mind and her body, and sported a perfectly on brand “Bakers Gonna Bake” sweatshirt.

I asked Ross what her life philosophy is, beginning from a past of disordered eating and selfdoubt, and having grown into such a remarkably strong, sanguine woman. She is a refreshing presence in our city and the world of Instagram, bringing us doses of realness and mentorship with every stride forward.

“I want to lean into the grey areas. Sometimes, I’m so locked into black and white thinking like it’s all or nothing,” she said. “And it doesn’t have to always be perfect.

It doesn’t always have to be in my control. I try to focus on what I can control, cherish the simple miracles and bask in the little moments, letting it all happen as it may.”

I headed away from her inviting, amiable corner of town and back into the frigid and grey world outside, feeling a bit sunnier, a bit luckier and refreshed from such raw conversation. We planned a coffee date to find Ann Arbor’s best oat milk latte and exchange our favorite books but until then I’ll have to drool over her recent Insta post and channel my best Madeleine Ross positivity on my most stressful days: Take a deep breath, make a good meal and remember to be mindful. We all need a reminder to stop and be present, to share the good in the world with faith that goodness will be returned back to you.

My best advice to head toward the real is to follow @ cest.madeleine and allow her to inspire you to kickstart start your own journey toward the real and away from the superficial — in food, in relationships and most importantly, in life.

From an early age I was taught to laugh. As a kid, my primary caretaker was an ex-doctor from the former Soviet Union with an ample bosom and several gold teeth that twinkled in the light every time she smiled. Her name was Raya, and she was my favorite person in the entire world. Every year of my life till the age of five was spent with Raya. We would make authentic Russian beet borscht and watch “Anastasia” and laugh. Oh god, we would laugh. Raya was the queen of her own kind of borscht belt comedy. She compared finding love at her age to finding a parking spot, every spot being either taken or handicapped. Her jokes were dirty, and the punchlines were always in Russian. I never understood them, but I understood the hearty belly laugh that followed each kicker. It would start deep, like a sneeze and travel up through her entire body exiting with a bit of spittle and excessive force. Her eyes would close and the cavernous lines like parentheses around her mouth would grow longer to highlight her wide, golden-toothed grin. Two years after her death, I still hear her laugh.

Funny women have always had a presence in my life. Raya taught me to laugh at myself, to laugh in the face of pain, to laugh it all away.

She was my adopted grandmother, and she never let me go hungry.

Come to think of it, I think my chubby childhood has something to do with Raya’s forceful hand in the kitchen. So, dear reader, when I hear that ridiculous and oft used insult, women aren’t funny, I imagine Raya laughing a laugh so big that those awful men and their micropenises combust from the sheer feminine power.

In 2007, Vanity Fair published an essay by Christopher Hitchens titled “Why Women Aren’t Funny.”

Yes, really. In the essay, Hitchens argued for the “superior funniness of men” versus the “inferior funniness of women.” According to Hitchens, women are inherently serious due to their childbearing and childrearing capabilities. He goes on to write, “For some reason women do not find their own physical decay and absurdity to be

so riotously amusing, which is why we admire Lucille Ball and Helen Fielding, who do see the funny side of it. But this is so rare as to be like Dr. Johnson’s comparison of a woman preaching to a dog walking on its hind legs: the surprise is that it is done at all.” So, according to Hitchens, women do not find death as funny as men and they are too serious, therefore they are incapable of being as funny as men or funny at all.

BECKY PORTMAN In response to this essay, Vanity Fair published an eloquent rebuttal

by Alessandra Stanley titled, “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?”

Stanley neatly and savagely lines up the ways women have slayed the comedy game for centuries.

She even drops a line about our matriarch Sarah cracking a joke way back in Genesis. Yeah, we’ve been funny for a while. Stanley also mentions Kate Sanborn who wrote in her 1885 book “The Wit of Women”: “No man likes to have his story capped by a better and fresher from a lady’s lips.” Not much has changed since 1885; men still hate getting out-witted by funny females.

Even the “King of Comedy” A.K.A. Jerry Lewis claimed again and again that women aren’t funny.

Jerry Lewis repeatedly said he didn’t feel “comfortable” with women performing comedy and when asked if he had a favorite female comedian he responded that he didn’t have any. When the “King of Comedy” says women aren’t funny, it becomes more clear that maybe the problem isn’t a few sour men but a deep-rooted doublestandard riddled with misogyny that has infected the entire comedy industry. In her essay, Stanley writes, “It used to be that women

Classifieds

were not funny. Then they couldn’t be funny if they were pretty. Now a female comedian has to be pretty — even sexy — to get a laugh.” It turns out, no matter what, women are criticized for being too much or not enough.

If you ask a female comedian how they feel about men like Hitchens or Lewis or any other white male comedian thinking we aren’t funny we will answer with a resounding, “we don’t f****ing care if you like it” (Tina Fey said that). While we don’t care what old, dead, white men have to say about the inconsistency of having boobs and a sense of humor, it still sucks. It sucks that as women we still have to justify our funniness and that we have to remind the world that women are funny: Remember when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did Weekend Update? “Broad City” is still on, right? What about that time Cardi B co-hosted “The Tonight Show”?

That was something. Joan Rivers once said, “Men find funny women threatening. They ask me, ‘Are you going to be funny in bed?’” If funny women are threatening, angry and funny women are a bloody threat.

But look how far we’ve come!

Women are killing the comedy game, occupying more roles in leadership positions on comedy networks and making space for women in TV, film and the internet for their content. So yeah, it sucks that women have more to prove, but it’s also amazing how much femaledriven content is out there today.

Women are funny because funny isn’t gendered. Women are funny because jokes should rely on one’s wit and talent not on what is between one’s legs. And guess what, like most subjective things, taste differs. And like most performers, not everyone excels at their craft.

So yes, some women may not be funny but just as many, probably more, men are failing at funny too.

Men claimed women are unfunny because they wanted them in the audiences and their beds rather than on the stage. The argument that women can’t be funny is an antiquated, misogynist claim that has no evidence or proof, and thus I proclaim it dead. Bye forever, good riddance.

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HELP WANTED Release Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2018

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

ACROSS 1 Hee-hawers 6 Tinker Bell’s friend 9 Part of WTO 14 Low on funds 15 Garden tool 16 Four-bagger 17 Manx currency 18 Seriously funny shows?

20 Organ near the stomach 22 Doldrums 23 “Boyz n the Hood” actress Long 25 __ shadow 26 Hive builder 29 Entrance 33 Amaretto flavor 35 Trivial matter 36 Reef creature 37 Foes of the evil Saruman 38 Logical beginning?

40 Appear 41 Word that always brings a smile?

44 Winding Alaskan river with a Hawaiian name 47 V8 veggie 48 Upper arm muscle 49 Yoga chants 50 Wrigley Field abbr.

52 Roll in the grass 53 Political spin, say 55 Cocoa company 60 Anno Domini alternative 64 With 67-Across, what five pairs of answers in the circles represent 65 Hippie’s wheels 66 Coke go-with 67 See 64-Across 68 Roofing stone 69 English cuppa 70 More than a little heavy DOWN 1 Pharaoh’s sacred snakes 2 Look for bargains 3 Heart’s companion 4 Sea eagle 5 Martyred bishop of Paris

6 Advanced deg.

7 “You have two choices” 8 Writer Zora ___ Hurston 9 Oscar-nominated film starring Viola Davis 10 Towel holders 11 Mate, across the Channel 12 Ruby of “A Raisin in the Sun” 13 Critical-care ctrs.

19 Mesoamerican pyramid builders 21 Petty peeves 24 Take __ from: emulate 26 Study hard 27 Marx collaborator 28 Buildup of fluid 29 Actress Helena __ Carter 30 Passes the threshold 31 More like the Magi 32 “Notorious” screenwriter Ben 34 Israeli leader Dayan 35 Maker of sweet wafers

39 Collective possessive 42 “Missed it by that much” 43 Musical wunderkind Bortnick 45 Columbia University athlete 46 Auto parts supplier 51 Like some gases 53 X-rated stuff

54 Get straight?

56 Automaker founded in Sweden 57 Tot 58 Jeans choice 59 Scots Gaelic 60 Rite Aid rival 61 Midnight mouser 62 Degree for a CFO 63 Reddit Q&A session

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Sports

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Wednesday, November 14, 2018 — 7A

Pearson addressing faceoff struggles Freshmen class ready JORGE CAZARES Daily Sports Writer

Some people get a thrill out of the chase — whatever that chase entails.

That is, unless you’re Michigan hockey coach Mel Pearson and what you’re chasing is the puck.

Despite having won 52 percent of its draws this season, the No. 16 Michigan hockey team (5-4-0 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) has lost the faceoff battle in each of its previous three games.

And it’s no coincidence that the Wolverines’ two top faceoff winners, sophomore forward Josh Norris and junior forward Nick Pastujov, both struggled this past weekend against Notre Dame.

Norris — who was nursing a minor hand injury last weekend — won just 13 of 39 faceoffs over

the weekend, while Pastujov took seven of 22 puck drops in the circle. The two forwards have taken 54 percent of the draws thus far for Michigan, so in many senses, the team goes as they go.

“When you’re not playing with the puck, you’re chasing,” Pearson said after Tuesday’s practice. “You have to try and get it back instead of having possession, so you’re chasing the puck a little bit. And part of that is intensity too. Just the preparation and being ready to play.”

Pearson made it clear that the blame cannot always be placed solely on whoever is taking the faceoff. The team that retains possession after the draw is recorded with the faceoff win.

So, in instances where there is a 50-50 puck, the team to gain control records the win. This is

where the overall intensity that Pearson addressed comes into play — another issue that the Wolverines have struggled with early on this season.

Perhaps overshadowed by the team’s recent faceoff woes is the performance of junior forward Adam Winborg. While Michigan has won 85 of 190 draws in its last three games, Winborg has quietly won 18 of 26 draws over that same stretch — the only games in which he has seen significant ice time this season.

“It’s one of those things that will help keep him in the lineup when you’re winning faceoffs like that,” Pearson said. “It gives me a lot of confidence to play him against anybody — especially in draws in our zone because I know he has more than a 50 percent chance to win those faceoffs.”

Winborg played in all but one

regular season game last year, so his lack of ice time thus far may come as a bit of a surprise. But given his success in the faceoff circle, particularly in light of the Wolverines’ recent struggles, Winborg is a silver lining and figures to continue receiving ice time moving forward.

Though Michigan has won two of its last three games, faceoffs are an area of play that need to see improvement. As a result, Pearson stated that one of their big focuses in practice recently has been the faceoff: taking more of them, addressing strategy on draws and ensuring that skaters “are dialed in and ready for the drop of the puck.”

This is especially important with its upcoming matchup against No. 5 Penn State this weekend — which leads the Big Ten with a 62 percent faceoffwin percentage this season.

to make impact for ‘M’ BENNETT BRAMSON Daily Sports Writer

Coming into this season, the biggest questions for the Michigan women’s basketball team were how to replace the program’s alltime leading scorer, g uard Katelynn Flaherty, and how to maintain the team’s recent success. The Wolverines’ answer is twofold: the improvement of returning players and the evolution of freshmen.

Prior to this season, Michigan welcomed its highest-ranked recruiting class since the program’s creation. Highlighted by g uard Amy Dilk and forward Naz Hillmon, coach Kim Barnes Arico’s freshman class consists of four former ESPNW 100 recruits, including forward Emily Kiser and g uard Ariel Young, with g uard Danielle Rauch rounding out the group.

“They’re definitely a special group of freshmen,” said senior center Hallie Thome. “They’re going to make an everlasting impact on this program for sure.”

For a team that has as many freshmen as it does upperclassmen, the younger players will play a pivotal role for the team going forward, with their collective successes telling of the Wolverines’ overall success.

In order to get there, though, the freshmen will need the g uidance of the older players to help them improve their skills and better adjust to college ball.

“I think that if you’re on a team that’s just something that you expect,” said sophomore forward Hailey Brown on the older players’ mentorship role. “…

This team is very unique because we can all learn from each other. It’s not necessarily that I’m someone’s mentor, it’s like, ‘What can I teach you, but what can you teach me as well?’ I think it’s a very cool role to have but it also works the other way, too.”

Due in large part to the skill level of every player on the Michigan roster, the freshmen have already noticed a vast improvement in their game.

For Hillmon specifically, the competition she faces in practice on a daily basis is far more competitive than what she faced in high school games, let alone in high school practices.

“In my high school, I was the only big, so I didn’t really have anyone pushing me every day,” Hillmon said. “But … (now) I have a lot of people to push me in practice and make me want to be better. The competition day-in and day-out is very different from high school.”

In addition to the change in basketball competition for the freshmen, they have also experienced the same transition to college life that every university student experiences at some point in their life.

Going about that transition can be hard for anybody, so it has been especially helpful for Hillmon and the other freshmen to not only have each other, but also have the older players g uide them.

“It’s been awesome having someone to go along this journey with,” Hillmon said.

“I would probably be terrified if I was the only freshmen, so (it’s nice) being able to talk to them and really vent when something isn’t going our way because it’s so different from high school. Having somebody there to encourage us — they know exactly what’s going on through my mind — so them being there to help me through it, just to talk to somebody or go and get food.

“But the upperclassmen are very helpful in that way, too, because they’ve been through it and they try to grab our hands and take us there with them, so that’s been very helpful as well.”

Barnes Arico has loved watching the bonds form between her older and younger players, and looks forward to watching the freshmen continue to grow as the season unfolds.

“I think we all are so excited about (the freshmen) class,” Barnes Arico said after an 88-40 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Friday night. “They’re a special group, led by Amy Dilk, starting at the point g uard position for us. … But the rest of the freshmen really stepped up and were outstanding tonight as well.

They’re a great group and they’re just gonna continue to improve as the season goes on.”

While this freshmen group may still be adjusting to the college life, once they are fully settled in and find their footing, they’ve got a chance at making a big impact in the Big Ten.

“They’re definitely a special group of freshmen.”

RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily

Junior forward Adam Winborg has been one of Michigan’s top players during the faceoff, winning 18 of 26 draws over the past three games for the Wolverines.

In Villanova trip, Eli Brooks returns to his past ETHAN SEARS

Daily Sports Writer

The first thing to understand about Spring Grove, Penn. is that it’s a small town’s small town.

According to the 2010 Census, it houses a population of 2,167.

It’s known for a paper mill, and the smell wafting from it.

Spring Grove Area High School graduates roughly 200-250 kids a year and exceedingly few go on to play any type of sport at a higher level.

This is also the place that produced Eli Brooks.

The sophomore guard stood in the Crisler Center media room last Friday, in the leadup to the No. 18 Michigan men’s basketball team’s contest against Villanova, fielding the type of questions you’d expect for a homecoming. Jon Teske and Jordan Poole are giving up their allotted tickets for Brooks, but that’s still not enough.

Brooks thinks eight people are getting tickets on their own in addition to the 12 or so he can get for friends and family.

There’s also the matter of his recruitment — one that, at a time, seemed a lock for the Wildcats. Brooks was on-record calling Villanova his dream school and when Jay Wright extended an offer, it felt like a commitment was a formality.

Wright himself said as much at the Final Four, the last time these two teams met.

“They do have a freshman on the team right now that I thought we were going to get from Pennsylvania,” Wright said then. “And probably not allowed to say who I really felt we were getting and John beat us for him. And he’s going to be a really good player for them.”

Reflecting on it last week, Brooks called it a “tough decision,” saying a visit to Michigan swayed him at the time. Two years removed from his commitment, it’s not too dissimilar from the language he used then.

Brooks’ 2017-18 season was somewhat antithetical to the Wolverines’. He broke into the rotation early, and was the first

freshman to earn a starting spot, unseating Zavier Simpson two weeks into the season. He kept that job until January. Then he didn’t.

The rest of the way, Brooks averaged 4.3 minutes per game.

Simpson lapped him, then Jaaron Simmons passed him in the depth chart. Brooks was, in all but name, out of the picture.

“I think that it happens to the seniors, who come to college as freshmen,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “They basically don’t have days where — they’ll have a day or two and then they get back to it. They don’t have Zavier Simpson guarding them every day in practice. Or sit on the bench, and then go in two minutes and do something good.

So, you lose all your confidence.”

This year, Brooks’ role is already more defined. He has played over 20 minutes in both of Michigan’s first two games, knocking down two 3-pointers in the opener to go with four assists. As the Wolverines look for ways to score, it’s Brooks who could reap rewards.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Sophomore guard Eli Brooks will return to his home state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday to face Villanova.

But back to Spring Grove.

The first inkling that Eli Brooks might have a future in basketball came when he was 11. His dad’s men’s league was down a player, so they asked Eli to step in. He dropped six points, holding his own against a bunch of bigger, better dudes.

“They tried to block my last shot,” Brooks said, “then it went in. So it was pretty fun.”

By the time Brooks was a junior in high school, he was the best player the town had seen, maybe ever.

“I’ve never seen anyone who can create an atmosphere like Eli did,” said Greg Wagner, Spring Grove’s athletic director.

“We would travel ... and people would come to see Eli. Not just the game, but to meet Eli. And after games, there would be mobs on the court of people who wanted to meet Eli, get a picture taken with Eli, have Eli sign their shirts and things like that.”

The stories start to flow like beer from a tap. There was the time a guidance counselor from another school emailed Wagner, prompting an internal freakout, only to have it be a picture of Brooks in the stands with a youth basketball program.

There were all the road games that Spring Grove’s fans drove to so they could get a glimpse.

There was the first league championship since 1971, and then there were the crowds. In a town of 2,167, there would be crowds between 1,800-2,000 packed into Spring Grove’s gym, standing room only, the air thick with humidity.

There’s one other athlete to come out of Spring Grove in recent years: Hali Flickinger, a 2016 Olympian who placed seventh in the 200-meter butterfly. When she competed in Rio, the town held viewing parties in the park. The thing about small towns — they’re proud of their exports.

When Brooks eschewed Villanova, he became just that, an export. It’s games like Wednesday’s that will determine just how successful of one he’ll be.

“... (now) I have a lot of people to push me in practice ...”

MIKE ZLONKEVICZ/Daily

Freshman forward Naz Hillmon is adjusting to collegiate-level basketball.

8A — Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Sports

Patterson ‘back in that killer mode’

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Marshall ready for his last day at ‘M’

MARK CALCAGNO

MAX MARCOVITCH

Shea Patterson remembers when he first met Jim Harbaugh. It was last December in Mississippi when the now-junior quarterback found the Michigan football coach’s straight-forward approach and character endearing.

So much so that, during the pair’s first recruiting visit, Patterson turned to his friend with a prophetic message.

“I want to play for that guy.”

Almost a year later, Patterson is indeed playing for Harbaugh — and quite well. Patterson has thrown for nearly 2,000 yards and 17 touchdowns in 10 games as a Wolverine, delivering striking consistency with just three interceptions and a 66 percent completion percentage.

Patterson said that Harbaugh naturally helped with his knowledge and understanding of the game. That has been reflected in Patterson’s success in transitioning from Ole Miss’ spread offense to more complex sets at Michigan.

But Harbaugh’s effect on Patterson extends far beyond a playbook.

“I think he reminded me of that feeling again,” Patterson said.

“Because every coach is different.

But just his drive, his work ethic and the way he runs things here reminded me and has gotten me back in that killer mode.”

That killer mode is a product of an obsession for the game of football. It’s well-known that Harbaugh has it — from the cleats he wears on the sideline to mottos like “crave contact” — and Patterson says he does as well.

“Just his passion for the game — you can really see it,” Patterson said. “I think I’m one of those guys, too. I love the game. I love everything that comes with it. So does he, not only as a player back when he was playing, but as a coach. You can see it.”

This time last year, Lawrence Marshall didn’t know whether or not he’d be back for a fifth year.

At that point — a redshirt junior — Marshall had played in 10 career games, with just nine tackles to show for it. Defensive line coach Greg Mattison approached Marshall after last season and expressed a desire to have him return. Still, Marshall was understandably reticent. He could have easily departed as a grad transfer and found a more regular role elsewhere; it would’ve been hard to blame him.

Then Mattison told Marshall a story that helped bring clarity to the situation. Mattison left Michigan for Notre Dame in 1996, a year before the Wolverines won the national title. “‘Lawrence, you don’t want to feel that way,’ ” Marshall recalls Mattison saying, “ ‘leaving and Michigan winning a national championship and you left at the wrong time.’

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to be that person.’ ” But the decision wasn’t that simple — Marshall knew there were real reasons to leave. He made a pro/con list that included “not really playing, not really producing as you want to produce.” He knew that was a possibility.

Then, defensive end Chase Winovich decided to return for a fifth year, quarterback Shea Patterson announced he was transferring to Michigan and Marshall’s mind was made up.

“I talked to Chase. I knew (Bryan) Mone was coming back.

I talked to Jared (Wangler) a little bit. I talked to Brandon Watson, too.

We all just came up with a plan,” Marshall said. “Our plan was to beat Michigan State, beat Ohio State, go to the Big Ten championship, win that, go to the playoffs, go to the national championship, and we have all that at stake right now.

Daily Sports Editor

Daily Sports Editor

EVAN AARON/Daily

Harbaugh has connected with Shea Patterson to spark Michigan’s 9-1 run.

That’s just a start for the similarities between the two.

During his weekly radio show Monday, Harbaugh said that he and Patterson are “on the same page,” and even took it a step further.

“I think I get him,” Harbaugh said.

The parallels are not glaring in front of the media. Harbaugh can be unpredictable, tense and combative at times. Patterson, meanwhile, is soft-spoken and even-keeled.

But the two have meshed on the football field. Patterson has seen clips of Harbaugh during his playing days evading defenders to complete throws on the run — something Patterson continues to do successfully at Michigan.

In the third quarter last Saturday against Rutgers, Patterson rolled to his left and threw across his body 30 yards down the sideline. It was not a high-percentage play — but it was for Patterson. He put it in perfect position for sophomore receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones to make the catch for a third-down conversion.

“He made some throws that were just unbelievable,” Harbaugh

said Saturday. “Put in the right spot, with the wind blowing, swirling.”

It was not always this seemingly easy for Patterson. When he joined Michigan’s roster last winter, his eligibility for the 2018 season was still up in the air. And though many expected he would eventually win the starting quarterback job, it was not necessarily a guarantee for him. “‘You got to earn it, you got to earn everything.’ That’s the first thing (Harbaugh) ever told me,” Patterson said. “He said when I came in, ‘Nothing’s going to be given to you. Everything’s going to earned. We got some really good quarterbacks here, you’re going to have to find a way to be the guy.’

“Once I had the opportunity to do that through play and the season as it goes, we continued to build that bond.”

That bond has Patterson and the Wolverines in an exceptional position now at 9-1 and ranked inside the top four. Eleven months after he first met Harbaugh, Patterson knows his message to his friend was the right call.

“It’s been everything and more of what I thought it was going to be,” Patterson said

“When you look at the paper you were like, ‘Oh my god, this is a great team.’ ” Now, with those goals either accomplished or in reach, standing weeks away from glory in his fifth season, Marshall already feels validation. He’s carved out a valuable niche on this team, playing in seven games and filling in as a starter when defensive tackles Aubrey Solomon and Michael Dwumfour went down with injuries.

When he walks out of the tunnel Saturday against Indiana for his final home game, Marshall admits he “might cry.” Standing in Schembechler Hall, senior Tyree Kinnel chimes in with a retort: “Of course you’re going to cry.”

And who could blame him?

Marshall and his fellow fifthyear seniors, in particular, have seen plenty in their careers.

The group will walk on the field Saturday with a 42-27 record, and with more highs and lows than most programs experience in a decade.

“My journey, it’s been different,” he said. “A lot of ups and downs — with playing time, with the team, not going to a bowl game my freshman year — to now, it’s like a 180.”

Marshall and his recruiting class

came in under coach Brady Hoke, in an environment starkly different from the one they leave. Saturday will be reflective for a group that withstood those hardships — and is emerging triumphant through them.

“When we came in, we were 5-7. We’ve gone through kind of a roller coaster, from people telling you you’re the greatest thing and people telling you you’re almost nothing,” Wangler said. “… You definitely know what the bottom feels like, and (now) you’re getting a taste of the top feels like. You really just want to keep that momentum going and do something special with that.”

This isn’t that fairy tale ending yet, of course. That can only come two, three weeks down the line — and then, perhaps, beyond.

“The goal wasn’t just to win nine games — that was never the goal,” Marshall said.

But Marshall made a decision last season to stick it out, with the hope of being in the very position he and his teammates currently stand in. Senior Day on Saturday will be a time for him to appreciate that.

He stands back and shares a wide smile.

“Great decision I stayed, right?” he says. “I would’ve missed out on this.”

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

Lawrence Marshall made the decision to stay at Michigan after last season.

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 14 , 201 8

ILLUSTRATIO

N BY CHRISTIN

E JEGARL

What Scientologists taught me about rocks, and other discoveries in their brand new Detroit Church

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Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 14 , 201 8

Managing Statement Editor: Brian Kuang

Editor in Chief: Alexa St. John

Managing Editor: Dayton Hare

Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford Jennifer Meer

Photo Editor: Amelia Cacchione

Copy Editors: Elise Laarman Finntan Storer

Designer: Elizabeth Bigham

Handwriting without tears: I haven’t written cursive since 5th grade

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very Monday we would crack the spine of our “Handwriting Without Tears” workbooks, an artifact of early 2000s elementary school curriculum, a time when public schools could still afford such luxuries. While these cursive primers generally honored their promise of dry eyes, the exercise of tracing dotted lines instead of keystrokes was contentious.

Our teachers found themselves playing defense against a classroom of 10-yearold children acutely aware of the forthcoming extinction of script. The translucent blue iMac G3 perched in the corner of the classroom mocked the obsolescence of learning to loop letters together. The naivety of third grade did not blind us from the Lucida Handwriting font accessible on a word processor. How could they contend with the frustration of learning to connect a cursive “o” to a “l” when the two letters were just three millimeters apart on a computer keyboard?

My teachers would resort to a honeyed threatening — a survival tactic refined by elementary school educators in admirable fashion. The sweetness of their candy apple red teacher voice would mask the startling proposition that your cursive abilities would determine your future academic efficiency: “You will need cursive every day once you go to middle school to take notes.”

What? As a burgeoning member of the type A breed of student, this notion was distressing.

My teacher’s correlation of cursive writing with success propelled the hamster wheel of academic

BY SHANNON ORS, DAILY STAFF REPORTER

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

anxiety that has not stopped turning even 14 years later.

When I reached middle school, I kept waiting for the day when my fragmented print would be rebuked with a red pen comment, “Please write cursive next time.” But it never happened. In high school, I braced myself before my first Advanced Placement history lecture, frantically trying to remember how to write a cursive “b.” But the connected script would soon prove unnecessary as my layman handwriting kept pace with the slides.

A skill that was once lauded by my teachers as indispensable became irrelevant only a few years later. Just as I can no longer tell you what the state flower is or how to distinguish a brontosaurus from a Tyrannosaurus rex, my knowledge of cursive has dissolved into the dark hole of elementary school acumen.

The cursive alphabet is now buried in my hippocampus

beneath a clutter of keyboard shortcuts. The hazy remnants of penmanship lessons yield a mediocre signature and lecture notes that begin with the intention of beautiful calligraphy but, by the second page, evolve to an improvised cursive-print hybrid.

I hold no spite for the years of cursive lessons we endured. Yet, as pupils whose identity is so often lauded as the iGeneration, I think it is important to point out that the technology of our classrooms was so often juxtaposed against an unease for losing the relics of traditional schooling. We were not immune to the nostalgia for the blackboard hallmarks of education.

There is perhaps no fiercer representation of this reality than cursive. It is the reason my teachers held their penmanship lesson plans so tightly despite the headwinds of replaceability blowing from Silicon Valley.

No matter how many times “Fast Company” publishes

another article popularizing the technological dependence of our generation, it should not be forgotten that our 8-year-old eyes witnessed the two worlds collide. We faced pressure to write cursive just as much as the burden to type 40 words per minute.

Of course, I can understand how the belief was formed that our generation does not understand how the world operated before technology.

The wandering thoughts of diarists and sweeping language of freedom from an era gone by are now encrypted by slanted strokes foreign to today’s readers. Their onceperfected penmanship now makes our eyes squint as we shield embarrassment of the unreadability of a bygone era’s thoughts. And there will certainly be no inked wedding invitations with romantic calligraphy or tender script journal entries in my future.

Even more extreme, our relationship with the pencil

has become intermittent. After a summer of tapping screens and dancing on keyboards, we reunite with the pencil at the first lecture of fall semester. The alien sensation of scribbling for 90-minute intervals welcomes us back to the classroom with hand cramps and fresh calluses reinforcing the endurance lost during the summer months. It is a reminder of the dispensability of writing on a page.

So, I get it. I get how we are often viewed as robots who lack the grit of paper and pen academia.

The inferiority of students in our generation is expressed through our chicken scratch handwriting. But we were in the room when our teachers espoused their polemics defending cursive. We heard the whispers of parents worried we were watching too much television. And we remember when the first laptop carts were wheeled into the classroom and we dropped our pencils.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018// The Statement

3B

On feminism, a question for my father

BY ANDREA PEREZ, DAILY ARTS WRITER

O

n the first day of middle school after moving to Michigan, I took a mathematics test.

Our teacher walked slowly up and down each aisle, handing every student their test with a straight face.

This was a pre-algebra test that would determine if we were competent enough to stay in the “advanced” math track, and everyone was expected to pass, as it covered concepts from the previous year, seventh grade.

The only problem was that in the seventh grade, my school in Mexico taught me geometry, not prealgebra. Algebra was our subject in the sixth grade, but we didn’t use calculators or graphing paper. Slope was foreign to me, and the easy test every “advanced” student was supposed to fly through wasn’t a breeze

hours. He taught me how to foil, how to find the slope, corrected my homework and went over my tests with me. He sat with me after work every day because he knew I could do it. My father so believed in me that he became something he wasn’t supposed to be: my algebra teacher.

My father became a lot of other things for me. He was a mentor for my reading, a book scout for our monthly book club, a dance lover during my recitals. He even encouraged me to play soccer despite my objective lack of athleticism. He was always there at games, watching me fall, step on the ball or score on the wrong goal, but he never once told me he thought I shouldn’t do it. He never once told me I shouldn’t do anything.

I always quietly believed my father to be a feminist, but I never worked up the nerve to ask him because, where we come from, most men are everything but feminist. My father grew up in a society where ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL men are dry of tears and emotion and women have for me. The next day, the never be able to catch up. nothing but. Men are strong teacher again walked up I believe it will be best for and practical and women and down each aisle, but her to have an easier class. care for nothing other than this time she was smiling at She will adjust better. She cooking, vanity and gossip. students. doesn’t need to be in the At family reunions, Congratulations! You get “advanced” level. Not every to stay in this class. You get to have high school credit before going to high school.

You get to call yourself smart. You are “advanced.”

My test was facing down when she walked by my desk. Her eyes darted away from mine and my smile was met only with pursed lips. I turned it around and saw I had gotten a failing grade, only a fifth of the questions were marked as correct. She men are never seen in the never directly spoke to me student can learn at the level kitchen. After dinner, they or offered to help me catch of my algebra students.” never pick up their plates. up. She simply requested a At which point, my father During the party, a man is meeting with my parents to simply excused himself and seldom seen taking care of talk about the logistics of went home, sat me at the a crying child or changing moving me to the math class dining room table, opened a diaper, and at the end of “adequate” for my level. my algebra book and told me the night when it is time to “The advanced that I was going to stay in the clean up, the men wait in mathematics class is too class. Every day after that, the living room while their fast-paced. Andrea will we sat at the table for two

I always quietly believed my father to be a feminist, but I never worked up the nerve to ask him because, where we come from, most men are everything but feminist.

wives and daughters clean the kitchen. My dad was always different, and often got made fun of because of it. When he went back to the kitchen to heat up his own tortilla, my mother’s competency was questioned.

When he made sure us kids were fed (and didn’t get away with only eating cake), jokes were made about who “carried the ropes” in the relationship.

These gendered lines and toxic stereotypes color and shape family life in Mexico. Breaking them is not easy, and the acceptance of new and more egalitarian family dynamics is harder yet. Which is why I was surprised that when I called my father and asked him if he was a feminist, he responded with a decided yes. He had never acted to make me believe he wasn’t, but I never thought he would admit to it.

“Para mi, el feminismo significa que los hombres y mujeres deben tener las mismas oportunidades, derechos y obligaciones. Las mujeres deben de sentirse orgullosas de ser mujeres y de ser diferentes.”

“To me, feminism means that men and women should have the same opportunities, rights and obligations. Women should feel proud to be women and to be different” Maybe speaking those words out loud in front of the rest of our family in Mexico would have brought about even more jokes and sneer name calling, but here, to me, it meant everything.

Throughout my life, my father has become many things for me. He has been my math teacher, my soccer fan, my reading mentor and a shoulder to cry on.

He has believed in me and encouraged me to pursue my dreams and passions despite any hardship. Never once has he made me believe that I am not enough. I am a feminist because of my father, and he is a feminist because of me.

4B

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

What Scientologists taught me about rocks, and other discoveries in their brand new Detroit Church

BY MATT GALATIN, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT W

hen we walked into the recently opened Church of Scientology in Detroit, located downtown at 1 Griswold Blvd., a man in an ill-fitting black suit jumped up from behind the front desk and immediately told us to fill out a “survey,” asking for our full names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and reason for the visit: “Do you want to be more successful?”

“Do you have deep insecurities from your past that are holding you back?”

“When you’re finished, you can go to the room on the left, and Tony will meet you,” he said.

A few days earlier I made a reservation for a tour, carelessly using my real name and email address. I realized that was a mistake when I received a message at 7:00 p.m. on Friday from the church “host” Tony, asking if I was a student and if my friends were also students, and “If so, would you please let us know?

See you soon, Tony.”

This time I used false information and only my first name. My two friends who came with me, Dom and Annie, used false information as well.

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1952, the Church of Scientology was originally intended as a mental health science based on his writings on “Dianetics,” the study of the human as a spiritual being, before it was rebranded as a religion in 1953 for tax purposes.

Since its inception, the church and its core members have been convicted of a

litany of crimes, including fraud, domestic espionage, illicit association, extortion, violations of labor law and practicing medicine without a license. The church has also been accused of money laundering, coercing members to have abortions, child slavery, ledging smear campaigns, brainwashing, organized harassment of journalists and institutionalized assault

television placed in front of an ottoman, with touchscreen controls at the base of the television so you can choose a video and adjust the volume.

The videos cover topics like “The Analytical Mind” and “Past Traumas.”

We meet Tony here. He’s a heavier set man with a scattered dark beard. He’s also wearing a black suit and a strange tie that’s creamcolored lengthwise and brown at the knot. He shakes our hands and asks our names.

“What brings you in today?”

“Just interest,” I reply.

He brings us over to one of the viewing stations and tells us to take a seat. The videos will explain everything we could want to know. He selects one.

A disembodied voice begins asking us rhetorical questions while clouds fill the screen.

“In your own daily life, do you sometimes experience self-doubt?

Negative thoughts? Unreasonable fears, upsets or irrational behavior?

The painful experiences of our past clearly have an effect on our present behavior. But to what degree? And why?”

A woman appears on the screen throwing objects — clothing, a suitcase, memorabilia — out of her apartment window, shrieking, “It’s over! It’s over!” at a man standing below.

“What causes the mind to depart from rational thought?

Behavior? That is the subject of Dianetics.”

The video goes on to describe, in so many words, the mind as a record keeper — that these past records are what keeps us from present

A few days earlier I made a reservation for a tour, carelessly using my real name and email address. by executives levied against lower officials.

We hand in our surveys, and Annie notices an open guest book, grabs a pen and begins to write in it. “OH!” the man yelps, and throws his hand beneath hers. “This is only for … This is only for those who are ready for it,” he says.

We each nod, like nothing could be more natural. e walk through the highceilinged lobby and bear left. The décor is anachronistic, aiming for posh 1950s New York Plaza Hotel but accomplishing something closer to a sterile hospital foyer accented with imitation gold. Lining the left wall is a large black-and-white portrait of founder L. Ron Hubbard, next to a bookshelf with dozens of pristine copies of “Dianetics” for sale, each copy wrapped in a thin plastic. We pass under his gaze and enter a long, rectangular offshoot of the lobby filled with several media viewing stations. These stations each have a large

W

happiness. It’s not clear to me what separates this from mainstream psychology, so I ask Tony. He replies that psychology studies not the whole person, but the brain and the functions of the body. I ask for a little more clarification.

“It doesn’t address them as a spiritual being,” he presses.

He further explains the concept of the repressed mind with an analogy: “It’s like having a rock in your shoe. If you have a rock in the bottom of your shoe, you don’t know that it’s there. You walk around, your foot hurts, you’re changing the way that your gait goes, throws your back out, your hip starts to hurt, having problems in different places. It all stems from having a rock in your shoe, but until you find that piece that you don’t know about, you can’t solve it.”

He walks with us over to a shelf and picks up a golden machine. It has an oval face with a little black arrow that moves back and forth. The design looks like what science fiction writers in 1980s thought technology would look like in the 2000s: flashy, overly large, reminiscent of an old radio box refurbished and painted gold.

“That’s why we have auditing sessions. Auditors use these E-Meters to help find that rock.”

Tony says that there are dozens of people in the building trained to use these machines during sessions, wherein an auditor asks the subject pointed questions about themselves while the subject holds onto two metal clamps attached to the E-Meter. The auditor registers movement via the small, sensitive dial of the E-meter, and that movement apparently registers negative brain activity.

Annie steps up to test it

spent the last 10 years renovating the interior, and it officially opened on Oct. 14 of this year. David Miscavige, the leader of Scientology himself, gave an opening address. According to the church, the ceremony was attended by a crowd of more than 2,000.

Tony is visibly proud of the building and brings us to the old bank vault, which they’ve converted into a conference room. The ceiling is low.

Tony’s voice is clear among a claustrophobic silence.

Looking down over the white circular table in the center is another black-and-white photo of L. Ron Hubbard, the same as the one in the lobby. There’s a Keurig on a low rise shelf beneath a large television mounted to the wall.

I ask if we might see the rest of the of the floors.

“We have free personality exams on the fourth, would you be interested?” he out. She holds the two metal clamps, and Tony pinches her on her arm — “This is a tiny trauma, but it will register on the E-Meter” — and we all lean in to watch the needle. It wavers back and forth, and I can’t tell what the verdict is.

Tony follows it closely. “See, look how it moves,” he says.

We all nod, assuming he can see something on that meter that we could not.

Tony was in the Navy before he became a Scientologist.

Prior to enlisting, he studied psychology at a university but dropped out. He told us that L. Ron Hubbard’s “Dianetics” made far more sense to him than anything he read in his textbooks.

Pamlets from the Detroit Church of Scientology

We walk around the left wing for a little while longer, asking him more questions about himself and the building. he Church of Scientology of Michigan moved to this downtown location just a few weeks ago. The building dates back to 1927 and was designed by prominent American-Italian architect Corrado Parducci, who also designed the Masonic Temple and The Guardian Building just across the street. The church purchased the entire building and occupies all

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Amelia Cacchionne /Daily

eight floors. Two are course rooms, where Scientologists study their literature. One is dedicated to auditing; one is a bookstore; one is a service center; one is administrations; one is for the executives; one is a chapel (on the day I visited, a christening was taking place there).

Before the building was purchased by the church, it was occupied by a bank. Long before that, it was the site of the first building on record ever constructed in Michigan, the Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church.

The Church of Scientology

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modern ‘prisons without bars’ system doomed to failure?”

“98. Would you use corporal punishment on a child aged ten if it refused to obey you?”

“130. Are you aware of any habitual physical mannerisms, such as pulling your hair, nose, ears, or such like?”

“163. Would you like to ‘start a new activity’ in the place in which you live?”

By question 70 I’ve noticed that I’m profoundly hungover, and begin losing the ability to answer the questions earnestly, so I bubble them in at random, making zig-zags like I did in middle school science classes. Annie begins to do the same. A woman peers over from behind the registration desk, noticing our rapid bubbling. She chews her gum slowly and glances back down at her phone. We wait

with Eddie, the man with the golden hoop earrings and the sculpted beard. About 10 minutes later, the woman finishes with Annie and calls me back.

I sit in a chair facing the window, which looks over the Detroit River. I can see the shoreline of Windsor, Canada with the bright Caesars sign above the city.

The woman sits next to me at a white desk.

She’s not chewing gum anymore.

“I’m Maya,” she says. “Have you ever taken a personality test before?”

Maya has a reserved aura, and hunches her shoulders over the desk as she talks. Her hair is dark and vaguely curly, her face noticeably round.

“Yes,” I reply.

“Cool. So this is a tool that we use — it’s not my opinion of you. It’s your opinion of yourself.”

I nod, and she pulls out a graph with my fake name and fake information in the top left corner.

The graph has 10 sections, labeled A through J, and each section has a trait at the top and its counter at the bottom. “Stable” is opposite “Unstable,” “Happy” opposite “Depressed,” “Responsible” opposite “Irresponsible” and so on. The graph goes from +100 at the top, along the positive traits, to -100 at the bottom, along the negative traits. My graph is entirely in the negative half of the grid.

Maya is being cautious, and says with a tone of regret, “Right here is the normal area,” circling the top half of the graph, “And here …

“Would you use corporal punishment on a child aged ten if it refused to obey you?”

fourth floor is filled with more men in ill-fitting suits. A large one strides by wearing a Yankees beanie. A shorter, older woman dons a black turban.

A man with a thin, sculpted beard wears two gold hoop earrings. Later, we learn his name is Eddie.

Tony brings us over to the Testing and Registration Center, and sits us down at four desks, each with exam books. The test is called the Oxford Capacity Analysis™ Exam, and there are 200 questions, each answered with a +, M (for “Maybe”) or -.

Here are a few of them: “60. Do you consider the

for Dom, who’s taking the exam quite seriously. Twenty minutes later (there was a School Smart™ timer on each of our desks) we hand our scantrons in together.

As we wait for our results, several people show up to stand next to the registration desk, and begin whispering to each other with worried expressions. Then the woman behind the desk asks Annie if she’d like to have her consultation first, and she agrees. She’s taken to one of several glassed-in conference rooms behind the registration desk and waves us goodbye.

Dom is next, and he goes

See SCIENTOLOGY, Page 6B

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Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

From Page 5B is where you’re at.” My graph put me at -100 for nervousness, -88 for depression and -79 for instability.

I nod.

“I see.”

“So the results are ... that it shows that you’re unstable…”

I nod again, and she lowers her voice.

“You’re … depressed.”

Another nod.

“You’re a really nervous person.”

“Hm.” “Sometimes you’re really active, sometimes you’re not active at all.”

“Mhm.” “And then right here is aggressiveness. So you’re really putting yourself out there. Then … over here is … you’re kind of irresponsible.”

“OK.” “But, you’re a pretty appreciative person.”

She looks up from the graph and smiles at me.

“That’s cool.”

Maya lists the rest of my character flaws, and suggests that I am likely dealing with some past trauma from my childhood, probably something related to abandonment by parental figure.

When she’s done, she asks me how all of this makes me feel.

“Well, it checks out,” I tell her.

Maya offers me some literature on upcoming courses, as well as an evaluation packet. The front reads, “This is your personalized route to happiness and success.

Start today!”

She points to a pamphlet on a course titled “Personal Efficiency.”

“This personal efficacy (sic) course really helped me when I started out,” she says. “When I came in, I was like -100 on everything. Now I’m in the normal range.” When I later researched the course online, I saw it had a required seminar “donation” of $50.

Maya attended culinary school in California and was hoping to become a baker when she found the church. Struggling in a bad relationship, she took the Oxford Capacity Analysis™ Exam at a Scientology center in August, and subsequently signed up for some classes. In September, as the relationship worsened, she decided to leave California and work full time for the church. I asked if she still baked. She said

yes, sometimes.

“The church really helped me work through things from my past,” she said. “I’m more confident now, my chart is better.”

When I hear the trajectory that led Maya to the church, I feel guilty, as if my half-hearted attempt at joining Scientology was a direct slight towards her, and one she didn’t deserve.

But later, when Dom, Annie and I compared our graphs, we noticed they that each appeared disturbingly similar. We are all, according to the Church of Scientology, very nervous, very depressed, very unstable and very aggressive.

In my mind, the scam was too obvious. What cult would recruit you by saying you’re fine as you are? Certainly not one as successful as the Church of Scientology. Though their numbers have greatly diminished since their peak in the late 20th century, estimates hold that anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 people worldwide are committed to Scientology today.

Their reach is undeniable, and not just among well-publicized, powerful celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Average people dissatisfied with their lives continue to seek solace in the church.

Despite the documentaries, the exposés and the criminal charges, the church continues to successfully recruit members because there is no shortage of vulnerable people who crave the acknowledgement of personhood this sort of organization claims to offer. Ultimately, the escape that Scientology promises with just a few paid courses and some overpriced books is too enticiting to deny when reality offers only duller truths.

For those who don’t have a support system in place when they’re distraught and need to be heard, I can imagine that it’s not strange and amusing for a kind woman with dark curly hair to hold their hands softly on a desk, look them in the eyes and affirm quietly, “You’re … depressed.”

It’s a revelation.

Eddie, the man who spoke with Dom about his character insufficiencies, takes us to the elevator. As we wait for it to arrive, Eddie tells us that he went to Vermont for a year to play soccer on a full ride, but tore his ACL, so he had to quit the team and lost his scholarship. He went

home for a year, and then did community college for another before transferring to New York University. He joined the church in 2011.

He mentions multiple times that his wife is upstairs, and that his kid is downstairs in the children’s room.

In the lobby, we see a boy no older than 12 running around in a Pokemon T-shirt.

This is Tony’s son, Jason. Tony tells Jason to go back downstairs.

Eddie brings us back through the lobby offshoot with the watching stations, talking quickly as we walk behind him. He grabs a plastic-wrapped book from one of the shelves and hands it to Dom. “This one book more than anything else really helped me. This is the one that you should definitely get. Don’t walk out of here without that book.

It’s only $20, it’s not like a big thing. I don’t know, a lot of people try to push it, but I don’t like to push it too hard. A lot of people need to take it at their own pace. I’m reading — you know what I’m reading right now? — I’m reading ‘Battlefield Earth.’

It’s like a fiction book, by L. Ron Hubbard.

There’s a lot of technology in it. It’s about like aliens, this and that … Here, and this book too has all the stuff, it’s got impact, self reliance, communication, everything, you know it can like, bring your responsibility up, and I told you, if you want to do the seminar, just, I’ll give you my cell phone number, let me know when you come back, it’s only

$30 more. I’m not gonna charge you $50, you know, that’s fucked up. A lot of people are pushy pushy but I’m not like that. We do have other small pamphlets, if you think you’d be into that,

When I hear the trajectory that led Maya to the church, I feel guilty, as if my half-hearted attempt at joining Scientology was a direct slight towards her, and one she didn’t deserve. for like $5 dollars. It’s up to you guys, it’s about what you guys want to get out of it. DVDs too.

Here, take one. Anything? No? Have you guys seen the vault?”

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

Taste of the South

BY TIEN LE, DAILY SPORTS WRITER

I

f you don’t want to be stereotyped, don’t tell people you’re from the South.

People will usually be hesitant to make judgements on background information they receive, but letting people know you grew up in the Bible Belt is a surefire way to get pegged as a country-music loving, farmraised, bull-riding redneck or hillbilly.

I mean, they’re not entirely wrong, though.

Have you been to Missouri?

But I’m from Memphis. If you think it’s like Nashville, you’re wrong. But if you think it’s like Detroit, I’d give you a pass, because it’s not too far off. But Memphis is Memphis and there’s no other way to put it.

So I grew up in the heart of the South in good ol’ Memphis, Tennessee. It’s funny how different the

perception is compared to the reality.

It’s one of those cases where people think one thing but it turns out to be the complete opposite. We don’t have that much clout on country music (though Johnny Cash started his career there), but we’re built on hip hop, blues and rock-n-roll. We’re the blue district in a sea of red. We’re the cultural preservation where all other things are changing.

But if there’s anything about Memphis that’s not a far departure from the southern stereotype, it’s the cuisine.

Memphis has a rep for a lot of things: music, a history of civil rights activism and ducks. But nothing defines Memphis better than its food. here’s twofood genres that I’d say best exemplify the city. And number one would probably be hard to miss: Memphis barbecue.

It’s unavoidable. You’ve heard of it. But the odds that you’ve actually had it are slim.

In October, I went on a trip with the Kayaking Club at the University of Michigan to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. After a long day in the river, we decided to Yelp the best nearby restaurant and take a chance, since we were kind of in the middle of nowhere.

T

So two Midwesterners, a West Coaster and a New Yorker walk into a barbecue place. A Memphian sits down.

It was pretty clear they had no idea of the depth that barbecue goes – I could tell when they were shellshocked from me asking if the barbecue was dry-rub or wet-rub. To them, barbecue was just another meal, an entree to get by. Here’s the proper breakdown of the fine detail you should always pay attention to when judging barbecue: wet or dry, sweet or sour and type of meat.

Memphis barbecue is pretty well defined. Slow cooked pork ribs, almost always dry rub, with vinegar and pepper-based

they were uncultured swine or not, but I thought Elvis Presley should be a universally recognized icon.

Then I realized something.

We had primarily been listening to country music.

The unspoken rule of long road trips is that you play music to cater to everyone’s tastes. So odds are they had subconsciously grouped my taste of music based on my Southern roots. But the capital of country music is Nashville. Trust me, it’s not Memphis.

Part of it is growing up right next to Graceland. But part of it might be like it is with barbecue — there’s so much that isn’t immediately obvious until you’ve lived there. And the same with B.B. King and Justin Timberlake and Three 6

Memphis has a rep for a lot of things: music, a history of civil rights activism and ducks. But nothing defines Memphis better than its food. sauce or rub.

These are the fine details that are etched into a Memphis history that go unnoticed by outsiders.

Continuing on the road trip, trying to kill some time, we played a guessing game that involved giving hints to lead the others to the word we were thinking of. So when it was my turn to give hints, I gave a few that I thought would be a dead giveaway “Hound Dog.” When they responded with silence, I put in a less confident, “Heartbreak Hotel,” before giving in and saying, “Graceland.”

At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was just because

Mafia and so on. It’s not something you just group together as one thing unless it’s music in Memphis. f you like spice, you’d love the second food type food: wings.

I’m not going to lie, I’m an addict for wings. I had a near-two-week streak of eating at Mr. Spots in Ann Arbor every day. It was way worse in Memphis.

It’s a subtler part of the city you don’t really appreciate until you leave Memphis. When I first came to Ann Arbor, the first thing I looked for were local wing shops. It’s not really a struggle you’d find in Memphis, where every corner has a shop that’s at

I

least an eight out of 10.

Inside the good food bubble of Memphis, you don’t really realize how different it is elsewhere. ast month I was shopping for a used bike and found a guy on Craigslist who lived in Farmington Hills. He wanted to meet late in the evening, and though I was a little spooked at first, he was kind enough. He was an Indian national who had run out of luck on his U.S. visa, and unfortunately was about to be deported and therefore was selling his stuff cheap.

We conversed a little bit about the bike before gradually drifting to discuss where we were from.

When I told him I’m from Tennessee, his disapproval was obvious. I drew a contemptful side-eyed glance from him, a joking (but not really) raise in the bike’s price, even the not so subtle, “I hate Trump.”

It was clear he thought of Tennessee as a backward place responsible for the country’s reactionary immigration policies, and that I was a ref lection of it.

I never did correct him.

Probably still thinks he sold his bike to a right-wing country hick who helped him get deported.

But that’s most people.

Maybe not to that extreme, but a lot of South is unfairly grouped as one stereotype.

You tell people you’re from the South, expect questions.

“Where’s your accent?” or “Is this your first time seeing snow?”

Expect skeptical glances during election season.

Expect to be defaulted as a country music lover.

Because I’ve been there and done that. But don’t worry, I’m not from any place in the South. I’m from Memphis, born and raised.

L

7B

8B

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 // The Statement

VISUAL S TAT E M E N T:

In the Ring

The UM Boxing Club competes in shows and tournaments year round, culminating in the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association (USIBA) Nationals Tournament in March.

Many competing boxers join the club with zero prior experience, some of who bring back championship belts at the year’s end. Found throughout their practice space in the Sports Coliseum are the letters TDSM - teamwork, dedication, slight work, and motivation. The mantra can be heard echoed at the breakdown of each practice, six nights per week.

Photos by Mike Zlonkevicz