2018-12-11

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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CAMPUS LIFE

Community bids farewell to Prof. Evelyn Alsultany Longtime Arab and Muslim mentor leaving the ‘U’ for new position at USC ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor-in-Chief

CHRISTINE MONTALBANO/Daily

FBI finds ‘U’ second highest in hate crimes of universities surveyed FBI, UMPD research shows increase in reported incidents in the last several years ZAYNA SYED

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan has the second highest number of reported hate crimes in 2017 of all universities surveyed a recent FBI report found.

The data, obtained from 110 colleges and universities in the United States, both public and private, states 15 hate crimes were reported at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor right

behind 25 hate crimes reported at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey.

Other area schools, such as U-M Dearborn and Michigan State University, reported only one hate crime.

The FBI report, released last month is less holistic than the U.S. Department of Education’s report, which includes hate crime data from all institutions of higher education, as required by the Clery Act.

The FBI claims hate crimes nationally have increased by 17 percent in 2017, compared to the year prior. The data indicates a trend where campus hate crimes have increased substantially since 2016. Nearly 280 hate crimes were reported in 2017 — an increase from the 257 reported in 2016 and 194 reported in 2015.

According to the University’s Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton, the upsurge in reported hate crimes could also

indicate that more students are familiar with and willing to report hate crimes.

“As with most other jurisdictions, especially college campuses, our numbers started to rise dramatically starting in 2016 due to the larger numbers of bias incidents occurring, as well as an increased awareness and reporting of such incidents by our community,” Overton said. “I cannot speak on comparison to other schools.”

See CRIME, Page 3

Evelyn Alsultany, admired professor, author, advocate, mentor and administrator, will be leaving the roles she has held at the University of Michigan for over 14 years for a new opportunity at the University of Southern California in just a few days.

Alsultany has played a prominent role on campus since her days as a student in the 1990s. Alsultany attended the University as an undergrad, attended Stanford University as a graduate student and returned to the University of Michigan as a faculty member in 2005.

Now an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and an associate professor in the Department of American Culture, Alsultany’s most significant

role has been as co-founder and outgoing director of the Arab and Muslim American Studies program.

Alsultany has taught courses in the department including “From Harems to Terrorists: Representing the Middle East in Hollywood Cinema,” “Introduction to Arab American Studies,” “Islamophobia” and “Why Do They Hate US?: Perspectives on 9/11”.

Throughout her tenure, Alsultany has been a leader in establishing AMAS — one of only three programs in the country to focus on ArabAmerican identity — and collaborating with others to create the Islamophobia Working Group — a group of students, faculty and staff dedicated to advising the University administration on how to make campus more inclusive for those affected See PROF, Page 2

‘U’ President talks sexual misconduct, Faculty & A2 Council undergrad equity concerns at Senate Assembly discusses

ADMINISTRATION

relations to be banned Changes also reflect 6th Circuit Court on direct in-person OIE hearings ZACH BLUMBERG

ANN ARBOR

Schlissel says Go Blue Guarantee increased target pop. attendance by 6 percent EMMA STEIN

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan Senate Assembly convened Monday to discuss affordability, equity, sustainability, sexual misconduct and free speech on campus.

The Senate Assembly

planned to vote on a new Faculty Senate Secretary and electronic voting at future meetings.

However, with between 60 and 70 members in attendance and a required quorum of 100, they were unable to vote, Senate Assembly Chair Neil Marsh said. As a result, LSA professor David Potter will remain

the interim Faculty Senate Secretary.

Marsh then addressed the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs’ interest in allowing electronic voting in future Senate Assemblies.

“What we would like to be able to do is change the rules so that we can put forward items of

concern to the Senate through electronic means,” Marsh said.

Electronic voting has been the subject of debate for several years and is seen as a way to facilitate remote participation to achieve the necessary to quorum to vote on issues before the Senate Assembly.

See ASSEMBLY, Page 3

next steps on Prop A

Bannister, Eaton, Smith weigh in on aftermath of Library Lot debate, suits MICHAEL ZHANG

Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan released revisions to its policies on student sexual misconduct and facultystudent relationships Monday morning. The new regulations place a presumptive ban on relationships between faculty and undergraduate students, and cases in which a graduate student either works in the same department as, or has academic oversight over, an undergraduate student.

The policy also now outlines processes for student crossexaminations in the wake of a decision made by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that public universities “must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to cross-examine the accuser.”

The University appealed for a rehearing after the initial case, but their request was denied.

The updates focus on creating two avenues for settling cases, either through adaptable resolution or investigative resolution. In addition to an See MISCONDUCT, Page 3

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ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

University President Mark Schlissel discusses financial aid for in-state students during the University of Michigan Senate Assembly meeting in the Michigan League Monday afternoon.

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVIII, No. 48 ©2018 The Michigan Daily

On Nov. 6, in conjunction with the midterm elections, Ann Arbor residents voted in favor of Proposal A. Prop A called for the city charter to be amended to require the currently publicowned Library Lot to remain in public hands and to be developed into a city park.

Previously, the City Council had already voted to sell the Library Lot to real estate developer Core Spaces for $10 million. $5 million of the proceeds from the sale would have been dedicated to affordable housing efforts in the city.

Core Spaces had planned to use the Library Lot to build a 17-story high-rise with a hotel, apartments, office and retail space.

Additionally, they had planned to build a plaza that would be slightly bigger than Liberty Plaza.

Mayor Christopher Taylor, who had the support of the Downtown Development Authority, the Washtenaw Housing Alliance and the Ann Arbor District Library for the sale, had been against the passage of Prop A. But a number of community See COUNCIL, Page 3

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CLASS OF 2018

ALEC COHEN/Daily Sixth row: Sean Lang, Orion Sang, Mike Persak, Jason Rowland, Will Stewart, Jack Brandon, Efe Edevbie, Matt Vailliencourt, Jordan Wolff (not pictured) Fifth row: Colin Beresford, Jacob Shames, Brian Kuang, Ethan Wolfe, Evan Aaron, Erika Shevchek, Sam Rosenberg, Laura Dzubay Fourth row: Andrew Hiyama, Robert Hefter, Ashley Tjhung, Nisa Khan, Robert Lesser, Jeremy Kaplan, Tara Jayaram, Jennifer Meer, Tess Tobin, Julia Moss, Katelyn Carroll Third row: Julia Montag, Jeremiah Vanderhelm, Max Kuang, Dominic Polsinelli, Danielle Yacobson, Zainab Bhindarwala, Anu Roy-Chaudhury, Sophie Sherry, Kaela Theut, Paige Voeffray, Laney Byler, Joseph Fraley, Shima Sadaghiyani, Maitreyi Anantharaman, Madeline Turner Second row: Avery Friedman, Madeleine Gaudin, Dayton Hare, Alexa St. John, Riyah Basha, Sofia Lynch Front: Amelia Cacchione, Emma Richter, Katelyn Mulcahy, Avi Sholkoff, Cameron Hunt, Rebecca Tarnopol

Alsultany’s course, “From Harems to Terrorists,” she learned the language she needed to address Islamophobia in the classroom and in the community.

“I heard so many good things about (Alsultany’s course), I was going to save it for my senior year and I’m so glad that I didn’t, because finally I found a space where I could walk in and feel seen.”

Later, Alsultany spoke with The Daily about her journey at the University of Michigan, and what she’s looking forward to in her new post.

TMD: Take us through your journey at the University of Michigan. From teaching, mentoring, administrative

I never imagined I would become a professor here. I never imagined that I would help to build an Arab and Muslim American studies program. So, I guess my message to undergrads is you really don’t

by Islamophobia and Islamophobic know where your future is going to take incidents on campus. you and especially when you’re graduating Alsultany is also known for her book from here. But I never imagined that I “Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race would have this incredible opportunity and Representation after 9/11,” published to bring my dream to fruition and create in 2012, and for her work co-editing “Arab an Arab and American studies program and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, along other ethnic studies units in the Violence, and Belonging” and “Between Department of American Culture and the Middle East and the Americas: The also, as I mentioned yesterday [during Cultural Politics of Diaspora.” the celebration event], I didn’t do it alone.

At an event celebrating the scholarship Nadine Naber was a professor here. She of Alsultany last Thursday, several was hired in 2003. I was hired in 2005. students, colleagues and faculty She’s now a professor at the University members spoke about their experiences of Illinois in Chicago and we had a very working with Alsultany. Aside from similar vision and together created what her academic accolades, the panelists the program is today. We created courses, spoke of Alsultany’s work to expand and internship opportunities, programming, improve campus prayer rooms, her role we piloted a certificate program that in arranging a closed town hall meeting eventually led to the minor, which is now for Middle Eastern, North African and only one of three of its kind that look at Muslim students following the murder of Arabs, Middle Easterners and Muslims three Muslim students at the University of in the U.S. context, and the other two are North Carolina, Chapel Hill in February U-M Dearborn and San Francisco State.

2015, her advocacy for the ME/NA box to I’ll add that the most rewarding thing has be included on all University forms that been working with students for whom the require demographic information, and her classes and minor are meaningful. There’s work in organizing the first Islamophobia a synergy that happens between what this speak-out. minor is trying to do, what the classes are June Howard, faculty member in trying to do and then the students who are English, American culture and women’s really looking for that thing. So it’s been studies, admired Alsultany’s kindness rewarding to offer learning opportunities and perseverance with these challenging work, advocacy, diversity work and more that will help students thrive in the very topics.

— had you imagined it would be this way, difficult world that we’re living in, and “She is a deeply beloved person here and what has been the most rewarding? also an academic home for Arab and at the University of Michigan broadly The seed was planted when I was Muslim students on campus, and it’s also and certainly in the department of an undergraduate student here in the been very rewarding to work with them American Culture and AMAS,” Howard early 1990s and it was planted through on creating a more inclusive campus. said. “Whatever good we do in the future the classes that I took in ethnic studies TMD: After all this time — both as a because we will be following in Evelyn’s and women’s studies that I found student and now a faculty member — how footsteps.” transformative in terms of how I does it feel to be leaving the University of Marjorie Horton, former assistant dean understood my own identity in relation Michigan? for undergraduate education in LSA, said to the social and political world. So, as I’ve been going through a grieving Alsultany has demonstrated expertise an Arab American, Muslim American, process, and when I first accepted the job and commitment to diversity, teaching Latina, I had access to Latino studies at USC, I felt really, really sad. Everyone and leadership. classes that were meaningful to me, but was congratulating me and I … I just felt “We all know Evelyn as a professor in order to learn about Arabs or Muslims, this extreme sense of loss. I had accepted who is truly exceptional in caliber and a student — which is common at many this incredible opportunity and I was impact of her contributions in all domains universities — would take Middle East just feeling sad all the time. And when I to our college, the broader campus studies classes and you’d learn about Arab tell people that I felt sad, they would say, community and nationally, and most countries. I took Islam 101, and these are “Well why don’t you just stay? Just stay. importantly, to our students individually very important classes, but I was looking Cancel the acceptance and just stay here.” and collectively,” Horton said. for something in particular at the time But the point is that it’s hard to leave a Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ Law student Areeba Jibril said through and those classes weren’t filling that thing place that’s been so formative to who I I was looking am and it’s been a place where I’ve — I for.

There didn’t come here an expert, I became an seemed to be a expert in my field, I became the director gap in terms of of a program, I grew into some leadership understanding positions, I developed my teaching. So the experiences it’s really hard to leave, especially the MEDIUM of Arabs and program that means so much to me, and Muslims in the my incredible colleagues and students, U.S. context but I am also proud to leave with the Arab and filling that and Muslim American studies program gap is what in such a strong position and to have has shaped my contributed something to this campus scholarship that some students find meaningful and on the who will be able to continue to benefit racialization from it after I leave. of Arabs and TMD: You’ve been at the University Muslims in through a number of tumultuous and the U.S. and challenging times, and students, faculty it also shaped and staff have all cited your strength, your my teaching advocacy, your willingness to be a mentor and my service throughout those times, and of course, work. year-round, too. So what are your primary I was hired motivations for this work, specifically in here in 2005, these particularly challenging times? it was 10 In the years that I’ve been here, every years after I year, some kind of crisis happens. And I graduated and I think that’s common at college campuses never imagined across the nation that are ref lecting the that when I left urgent social political issues of our time. here in 1995 I Over the years, a student would come to © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only.

TUESDAYS puzzle by sudokusyndication.com would become me with an issue and say something like, a professor. “We’re See PROF, Page 3

PROF From Page 1

“My message to undergrads is you really don’t know where your future is going to take you and especially when you’re graduating from here”

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PROF From Page 2 advocating for a multicultural lounge. Can you come with us to a meeting with V.P. Harper?”

And I say, sure I’ll come to the meeting. Or, students came to me and said, “We’re receiving hate mail because of this American Sniper controversy.

We’re having a meeting with President Schlissel — will you come?” Sure, I’ll come with you. “We’re advocating for a ME/NA box — a Middle Eastern/North African identity checkbox, and will you come with us to meet with Rob Sellers or Provost Philbert?” So a lot of the work I’ve done on campus has been through students asking me to accompany them to meetings that they are having. I see myself as an advocate for Arab, Muslim students, ME/NA-identified students, who are often not part of diversity, equity and inclusion conversations. So my motivation has been to help create an environment at the University for marginalized students to thrive and therefore, reach their potential in life.

TMD: How have you seen the University climate change throughout your career here, and with current political and social climate, what are your feelings for the future?

Do you feel the University is inching toward where it needs

CRIME From Page 1 19 hate crimes were reported

by UMPD in 2017, while 11 were reported in 2016 and two in 2015, according to data obtained directly from the University of Michigan Police Department. From 2015 to 2017, the Black community reported the highestnumber of hate crimes (14) followed by hate crimes against multiple racial groups (4), the LGBTQ community (4), the Muslim community (4), the Jewish community (3), the white community (2) and females (1).

LSA senior Timberlee Whiteus, vice president of the University’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, said the data reported does not surprise her.

“These numbers don’t surprise me,” Whiteus wrote in an email interview.

“These things happen, and administration does their best to ensure they happen covertly so that the university’s name is not tarnished.”

According to Whiteus, the University’s history of inadequate responses to hate crimes and other bias incidents may cause marginalized communities to feel hesitant about reporting hate crimes.

“People don’t feel supported,” Whiteus wrote. “Looking at the history of how the university responds to bias incidents, it can make it difficult to make a report when one sees that the university has historically not responded in a way that is progressive.”

Business senior Mohammad Shaikh, president of the Muslim Students’ Association, said the Muslim community feels comfortable reporting hate crimes to Division of Public Safety and Security. He noted it is something they have had to do relatively frequently in the past couple years upon finding condoms and urine in University ref lection rooms, a space where many Muslim students pray.

Shaikh also noted DPSS has repeatedly encouraged the Muslim community to use them as a resource and have been sensitive and understanding when contacted.

Still, Shaikh said he will never forget the anti-Islam speech written on the Diag in 2016 or the University’s response to it. The incident was not recorded as a hate crime and the University did not remove the statement.

“Literally the first day, I won’t forget it, it was a Wednesday

to be to make this an equitable space for students who are marginalized, and what do you see as further spaces for improvement?

I have witnessed that the University is committed to diversity in many ways, and they have been for a long time.

When I was an undergrad here, I remember the Race and Ethnicity requirement was new and it was one of their efforts toward creating a more equitable campus and teaching about race. But there’s also … a lot of reasons why things can’t happen or simple things can’t happen quickly or can’t happen at all.

But what I’ve learned in my time here is that administrators are not aware of issues that students, staff or faculty face unless we tell them about it and work on it together. So the Islamophobia Working Group was formed, and it’s been very active in trying to create spaces for ME/NA-identified students and Muslim students on campus, and we’re a group of over 100 faculty, staff and students who strategize on how to do this together.

So, we’ve been working on three areas. One of the areas is increasing the number of ref lection spaces on campus to facilitate prayer for Muslim students who pray five times a day so they don’t have to walk all the way across campus to do that, and as a result of the Islamophobia Working Group’s efforts, there are many more

in the middle of April, kind of like the midst of finals,” Shaikh said. “Someone wrote ‘Stop Islam’ in huge black letters on the Diag. They used the bronze ‘M’ on the Diag to be the ‘M’ in Islam. I think the frustrating thing was that the University’s response in these kind of situations, where it’s ‘free speech,’ is called into question, because it’s something that’s hateful and potentially makes Muslim students feel unsafe on campus, that there’s people with these views. That was a big concern, the University isn’t washing this off, they’re not taking a strong stance. In those situations, the University was very, as expected, very cautious and not very prompt with their response. I think it took over a week for (University President) Mark Schlissel to say anything about it.”

Public Policy senior Daniel Greene, president of Central Student Government, said the invisible nature of LGBTQ+ identities presents a unique challenge to the LGBTQ+ community when reporting hate crimes.

“If it’s a severe hate crime, I think that what often happens with the LGBTQ community is that if somebody has to call security, call the police, go to the hospital in the more severe, unfortunate situations,” Greene said. “It’s not always tagged as an LGBTQ hate crime because being LGBTQ is often an invisible identity. If the question is either not asked by the people who are supporting the survivor of the hate crime, or if the survivor, he, she, or they, themselves don’t articulate it, then oftentimes it falls off radar.”

Greene said as a white male and a student leader, he would feel comfortable reporting a hate crime to DPSS or seeking other University resources, something that more private members of the LGBTQ+ community may not do.

“I’m fully aware I carry a lot of privilege as an LGBTQ member — I’m a gay male who identifies as white, and I’m also a student leader, so I’m more willing to seek those resources here on campus,” Greene said.

“I do believe there is a barrier that exists for closeted or nonout members of the LGBTQ community in articulating the hate crimes. I can’t speculate to whether or not they’d report that harm was done, but I can tell you there’s an increased likelihood that they won’t link it to a sexual orientation or a gender identity, if they do choose to seek some remedy.”

LSA junior Emma Wergeles, external relations officer of the University’s Hillel, expressed

News ref lection spaces on campus. It was actually a fairly easy thing to do.

We’ve also been advocating for a Middle Eastern/North African-identity checkbox and we’ve had many meetings with the administration and it is well underway of happening.

The third thing we’ve been working on over the last two and a half years is changing the Arabic language textbook or modifying it or supplementing it in some way, because students pointed out that it is orientalist and militaristic and Arabic language is not taught in the same way as other languages. … Students have been working on this, raising awareness about it, and their task force in Near-Eastern Studies to figure out how to resolve the issue.

The larger point is that we need to get more involved and inform the administration and work with them to make the kinds of changes that we want to happen on campus.

TMD: Can you talk about your new and exciting position coming up and what you’re most looking forward to?

My new position is in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and that department is considered to very comparable to the Department of American Culture at U of M, so I feel very fortunate to be going to a similar kind of structure in

the department. I’m hoping to collaborate with colleagues there to create a minor for Arab and Muslim American studies. They don’t have one, but there is a critical mass of faculty there that make it possible, so I am excited about that. I have to say that a lot of what I’m looking forward to is unknown right now. I’ve been here 18 years — 4 years as an undergrad, 14 as a faculty member, and so this next step really represents a new chapter, being challenged in new ways, a new adventure.

So I’m looking forward to see where the future takes me. But, since I write about television and film, I’m curious about how or whether the proximity to Hollywood might shape my work in new ways.

TMD: What is a final sentiment you’d like to leave with the University of Michigan, and more specifically, the communities in which you’ve played such a prominent role?

My final sentiment is one of gratitude to all the people that I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with on making U of M a more inclusive campus and also gratitude to my colleagues for supporting the vision in creating this Arab and Muslim American studies program that’s so unique and necessary given the social and political context that we’re living in today.

concern and surprise about the increasing number of hate crimes on campus. She said the data collected in aggregate is demoralizing.

“It’s really surprising,” Wergeles said.

“It’s disheartening. Looking at the data from the three years, the increase in volume regardless of which community was attacked is really concerning, and really hurtful and kind of heartbreaking for the entire campus community. The fact that there’s that many hate crimes at all is really, really scary.”

Wergeles said with recent events targeting the Jewish community, such as the murder of nine Jews worshipping inside a Pittsburgh synagogue, her community within Hillel has been extremely supportive in dealing with hate crimes against the Jewish community as a whole.

“I personally haven’t experienced a hate crime, so I can’t speak to that, but I do feel a really strong community and support system within Hillel and within the Jewish community,” Wergeles said.

“I think that my experiences within the Jewish community has led me to believe that we’re really supported by this University and we’re really supported by the administration and we’re really supported by the leaders of the Jewish community, whether it be at Hillel or elsewhere.”

While different marginalized communities may express varying levels of comfort with reporting hate crimes, Whiteus believes many people may still be confused about how to even report them.

“I believe people are sometimes confused as to how they can report a hate crime to DPSS,” Whiteus said.

“Once someone experiences a hate crime, I don’t think the first response is to report it, but to ask, ‘Why me?’ Issues such as these can cause one to be distraught, and yes uncomfortable when reporting the crime because it causes them to relive that moment.”

According to Whiteus, the solution lies in increased racial diversity of University police officers.

“To increase comfort, I believe DPSS has to increase representation,” Whiteus said. “A student might feel more comfortable reporting a crime to someone who can understand, and possibly relate to them.”

COUNCIL From Page 1 leaders, including the incoming majority in the City Council, have rallied against this development and pushed for the passage of Prop A. Councilmembers Jack Eaton, D-Ward 4, and Anne Bannister, D-Ward 1, both advocated for Prop A. Bannister, who had filed a separate lawsuit against the city regarding the sale of the Library Lot, said the Core Spaces development is a luxury development when the city needs more affordable housing.

“It’s sort of common sense that building more luxury housing is not getting us anywhere near growing our affordability,” Bannister said.

“We, unfortunately, take down a lot of out single-housing homes and then put up more luxurious multi-home units, and then those apartments are displaced.”

Bannister expressed willingness to withdraw her lawsuit because Prop A covers a lot of its points. “(My lawyer’s) direction for the settlement suggestion was that Proposal A has overcome the lawsuit on whether the contract was valid,” Bannister said. “It’s fairly simple that the Proposal A has overcome and remedied the lawsuit.”

Bannister also said she would be willing to move past any

ASSEMBLY From Page 1 Since 2004, there have only been three instances in which a vote could occur due to the requirement that a minimum of 100 faculty members be present.

University President Mark Schlissel discussed initiatives he hopes to implement next semester and in the future.

Schlissel said he is working to promote access, affordability and equity for all students and applicants. He claimed the new Go Blue Guaranteeprogram, which provides in-state students with an annual family income of $65,000 or less with free tuition and fees, has increased in-state applications by 24 percent.

However, there has only been a 6 percent increase in those who actually attend.

Schlissel also discussed the Wolverine Pathways program, which aims to help students in grades 7 through 12 prepare for college. He said while these younger students still need to do the work to be accepted to the University, this is an effort

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 — 3

MISCONDUCT From Page 1 Office for Institutional Equity investigator, a case manager from the Office for Student Conflict Resolution will be present when meeting with either one of the students involved in the dispute.

The case manager will also serve as the main contact for both parties, while the OIE investigator will still be the individual tasked with operating the investigation itself. The changes will be put into place beginning Jan. 9.

In order to comply with the Sixth Circuit’s decision, the new policy also includes an option for students to question both each other and additional supplementary witnesses in in-person hearings. The hearing officer will also be permitted to question relevant parties.

LSA freshman Kirsten Lam said she felt the changers could make the reporting process more difficult and intimidating for survivors.

“I think that’s a terrible idea.

That could cause trauma, like PTSD is a very real thing for sexual assault victims, so just even seeing the person, hearing that voice, can just trigger the bad memory of the whole even happening and cause more emotional distress,” Lam said.

“With conversations, people can use that to convince the accuser to back down and drop

previous disagreements on Prop A. “Whether you disagreed before the vote, now is the time when people have to forget about the way who voted which way back then, and stress about how

“It’s sort of common sense that building more luxury housing is not getting us anywhere near growing our affordability” people go forward,” Bannister said.

Eaton, who previously ran an unsuccessful primary campaign to challenge Taylor earlier this year, highlighted the other developments moving forward in the city.

“We do have other things in the works,” Eaton said. “We’re looking at how to develop the Y Lot. We should be able to leverage the property we have to develop affordable housing… The fact that we didn’t build that one building is not going to have an impact on affordability in general.”

to prepare them as much as possible when that time comes.

“A lot of these students come from schools where it is kind of harder to show how talented you are,” Schlissel said. “So we have to work on better ways to identify talented kids coming out of less advantaged communities.”

Schlissel discussed academic innovation and posed questions regarding the meaning of having a degree from the University and whether the University should focus on teaching skills that lead to employability.

He also pushed for University professors and students from all schools to work together to get the University on a “path towards carbon neutrality.”

During the second half of the assembly meeting, Schlissel discussed sexual misconduct at the University for both studentstudent relationships and faculty-student relationships.

Schlissel claimed his administration has always been aware of sexual misconduct on campus, but now he is placing more emphasis on preventing it.

“My executives and I — the deans, the provost — we

the charges, because after that happens, a lot of people are already in an emotionally distressed state.”

Students will additionally no longer be able to appeal decisions on the basis of insufficient evidence.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily at the beginning of December, President Mark Schlissel said he felt the OIE had a difficult job, but did it well. He did, however, also say he was worried about how the new Sixth Circuit driven changes to the misconduct policy would impact students going forward.

“I think the OIE has a very difficult job to do across a very challenging landscape … I think they do a very good job in aggregate,” Schlissel said.

“The biggest thing I’m worried about is we know misconduct is underreported, and what we’re concerned about is changes we make in light of the court ruling may impose even more challenge around reporting … We need to do everything we can in the context of this legal limitation to support students that come forward with claims of misconduct to hopefully make sure they still feel comfortable.”

In conjunction with changes to the sexual misconduct policy, the University has also updated its policy on faculty and student relationships.

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Regarding Core Spaces’s ability to take legal action against the city for nulling the previous sale agreement, Eaton expressed little concern.

“Section 16 says the city can walk away from the deal if legislation is passed against it,” Eaton said. “Proposal A is that legislation. If there isn’t a valid contract, they don’t have grounds for suit. Even if they were to file suit, they have minimum damages.”

Alternatively, Councilmember Chip Smith, D-Ward 5, expressed his continued opposition to Prop A. For Smith, his opposition for Prop A was based in the benefits that the city would reap from the Core Spaces development.

“We would be getting $5 million for affordable housing, we have no money for that right now,” Smith said. “We would be getting a 1,200 square foot plaza.”

Smith also focused on the financial side of Prop A, bringing up the potential tax revenue that the city was losing by passing the proposition and the park’s over $10 million price tag.

“I think we lose out as a community and as a downtown in $2 million per year in tax revenue,” Smith said. “We still have a structural deficit of 1 to 3 percent every year… I’d be stunned if there was funding for the park in the next year’s budget.

If the Prop A people are honest, and if they look at the price per square foot for the park, the price is extraordinary.”

really increased our attention and tried to figure out ways to be increasingly proactive,” Schlissel said. “This is an area we have always tried to stay on top of, but we’re really doubling down because of the level of importance and the level of scrutiny that the University and society has placed itself under.”

Schlissel said campus climate surveys have revealed a lot of gender-based mistreatment at the University. He said all staff and students should feel comfortable and valued on campus, and noted this could lower the number of sexual misconduct allegations.

To combat these sexual misconduct issues, Schlissel said the University is making an effort to change its sexual misconduct policies. One aspect of this effort is recruiting a former employee of the Obama adminstration with Title IX experience to lead a critique of the current Department of Education policy changes to Title IX.

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Opinion

4 — Tuesday, December 11, 2018

ETHAN KESSLER | COLUMN

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ALANNA BERGER | COLUMN

T

Gun violence hits home

he issue of gun violence in purchase a firearm if his domestic America is insurmountable. violence court-martial had been Following the mass properly reported. Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen shooting that killed 17 allegedly beat his ex-wife at Marjory Stoneman and held her hostage Douglas High School before they eventually in Parkland, Fla., in divorced. Though not an February of this year, intimate partner, Adam acts of violence and Lanza was motivated by their public protests anger toward his mother, have dominated the whom he also killed, in news cycle. To many, his massacre of 20 firstit may seem like mass ALANNA graders and six educators shootings in America at Sandy Hook Elementary are increasing with BERGER School. Virginia Tech alarming frequency.

This notion is largely accurate. Of shooter Seung Hui Choi, Las Vegas the 30 deadliest mass shootings in shooter Stephen Paddock and United States history since 1949, 18 congressional baseball shooter James of them have occurred in the last 10 T. Hodgkinson all had a history of years. Beyond the mass shootings violence or hatred toward women that garner the public’s attention, gun before their respective rampages. violence in its more underreported Recently, Juan Lopez shot and killed forms casts a long shadow over the lives of millions of Americans. In fact, every day 96 Americans are killed by guns, and hundreds more are injured.

Few topics in American politics are as hotly debated as gun violence.

While most people acknowledge it is a serious problem plaguing society, there are differing opinions on how to best combat the issue. The solution to gun violence is likely as complex as the issue itself, and there is no clear-cut method of putting an end to the carnage. Nevertheless, one facet contributing to the devastation of the gun violence epidemic is his ex-fiancé Tamara O’Neal and simultaneously glaringly apparent two others before turning the gun yet often overlooked: its strong on himself at Mercy Hospital and connection to gender-based violence. Medical Center in Chicago.

A history of domestic violence is a In the confusing and painful aftermaths of our nation’s numerous troubling yet clear trend among the mass shootings, the most sought-after nation’s high-profile mass shooters. information is often the perpetrator’s The connection between violence identity. Many of these shooters against women and gun violence appear to have little in common, extends far past the shootings that and their motives typically remain capture the attention of the news unknown. However, the common cycle, though. In the United States, thread of domestic violence often women are 16 times more likely to be strings this group together. In 54 shot and killed than women in other percent of mass shootings, defined developed nations. If a gun is available as an incident in which four or more to the perpetrator within a domestic people are killed, the perpetrator violence situation, the victim is five times more likely to be killed. In the killed a partner or family member.

Violence against women is a strong average month in the United States, predictor of mass gun violence. about 50 women are shot and killed Before he opened fire in Marjory due to domestic violence, while many Stoneman Douglas High School, more are injured. Around 1 million Nikolas Cruz was accused of abuse American women alive today have by an ex-girlfriend and of stalking been shot or shot at by an intimate by a female classmate. Devin Patrick partner, while 4.5 million have been Kelley, who killed 26 in a church threatened with gun violence.

Current gun laws are supposed service in Sutherland Springs, Texas, would not have been able to to prevent those with a history of

A history of domestic violence is a troubling yet clear trend among mass shooters.

domestic violence from purchasing firearms. One in seven unlawful gun buyers deterred from purchasing by a federal background check is denied because of past domestic abuse.

Since it began in 1998, the federal criminal background check system has blocked 300,000 domestic abusers from buying guns. However, in far too many cases victims are left woefully unprotected from their abusers by federal laws. For example, federal background checks are only mandated for sales at licensed dealers. This means that abusers can still purchase guns by attending gun shows or from unlicensed sellers they find on the internet. Furthermore, most gun laws only prevent those with past convictions of abuse from purchasing guns. Many domestic abusers who already own guns are not required to dispose of them. Only 15 states currently require abusers with restraining orders to turn in their guns.

Gun violence in the United States is incredibly destructive. With each new mass shooting, Americans are reminded of the peril that millions in the nation live with daily.

Beyond those impacted directly, the ripple effects of gun violence impact everybody. The profound psychological effects of living in fear of being shot combined with the immense financial costs of repeated shootings from medical care and the criminal justice system have made it impossible to ignore the gun violence epidemic. The manner by which the epidemic impacts women is especially harsh. The relationship between gender-based violence and gun violence is apparent, and it is costing many lives. Keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers would prevent countless instances of gun violence. States that prevent individuals with domestic violence restraining orders from purchasing guns and also require them to relinquish their firearms see a 10-percent lower rate of intimate partner homicide overall as well as a 14-percent lower rate of intimate partner gun homicide. Keeping women safe from gun violence is in the best interest of society as a whole, preventing dangerous weapons from falling into the possession of dangerous individuals.

EMILY WOLFE | CONTACT EMILY AT ELWOLFE@UMICH.EDU

Alanna Berger can be reached at balanna@umich.edu.

A

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Evolution of activism

ctivism, no matter the issue at stake, entails sacrificing resources and effort in pursuit of some larger cause. This stands in stark contrast to ignorance, and an outlook that is of self-centered attainment.

By 1968, resistance of the New Left had reached its peak, and change on a massive scale seemed probable. Protests on a seemingly unprecedented scale had swept the traditional world powers — America and Europe. Traditional norms of political participation seemed to be shifting as well, with students and oppressed peoples alike asserting themselves like never before. This was the work of a new kind of culture: that of the New Left. And no American institution better embodied the ideas and practice of the New Left more so than the University of Michigan’s very own Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. I would venture to guess that few people on this campus have learned about the history of SDS. I would also guess that even fewer people know of SDS’s founder, former University of Michigan student Alan Haber.

However, the political turbulence of a half-century ago and the New Left that defined it would be incomplete without Haber, whose activist work at the national level is typified by his founding and leadership of SDS, and his presence is still felt in Ann Arbor.

Now in his 80s, Haber has a lifetime of activism, political radicalism and community involvement on which to draw and reflect. But his story begins at this very university.

During an interview with The Daily, Haber recounted how, like many of us, he entered college confident in, or at least accepting of, the political values instilled in him by his parents. Then, introduced to the idea of picketing during a campus protest, he commenced his, as he puts it, “deviation to the left” by helping organize an open discussion on a campus whose student body was politically dominated by very conservative Young Republicans and very conservative Young Democrats.

His knack for presentation was undeniable. He claimed to have once set up a table in the Fishbowl for those interested in the antiwar movement right next to the table of a U.S. Army recruiter.

Listening to Haber speak, one gets the sense that by “conservative” he refers less to a set of specific principles about economic and social policy as he does to a rigid system of prescriptions for who should and should not be participating in the political process.

At the turn of the 1960s, Haber’s disdain for conservative ideas of political participation was realized with the formation of SDS on the University’s campus. Increasingly, SDS became part of the national conversation that was repudiating much of the staunch conformity of the 1950s, and in doing so helped bring the idea of counterculture to the forefront of that era.

Needless to say, the antiintellectuals of the day were not pleased when SDS and other elements of the New Left began to rip into America’s status quo. For racial segregation and unquestioning deference to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policy were, to the anti-intellectuals of the time, assurances that things would continue on as they always had. By the 1960s, America was unquestionably prosperous, as both class mobility and wealth from that era reflect. Why should anyone impede that spirit of continuous material attainment by, say, distracting students from their work to have them discuss and protest the Vietnam War? This was the prevailing attitude in 1965, when such actions were taken by University professors in the nation’s first Vietnam War “teachin.” Supporters of the Johnson administration’s newly-escalated war in southeast Asia derided the professors leading the teach-in as neglecting their professional duties, while Michigan Gov. George Romney sternly issued a similar rebuke to the professors involved, claiming “(they were) inviting anarchy in saying that (they), or any other person or group, have the right to decide when an issue is important enough to halt the regular activity of a public institution.”

Romney was right to defend the right of public institutions, including education, to be enjoyed by the public without significant hindrance. But with an attitude toward any dissent as hostile as the one unfolding on the University’s campus, how could the public ever debate the topic freely?

And without the ability to openly debate the war its tax dollars were funding, how could the public ever claim the power to change its mind,

to hold the government accountable?

To change one’s mind, of course, is to gain understanding through instruction and thought — hallmarks of culture, and therefore unwelcome concepts to anti-intellectual thought.

In this way, the resistance of the 1960s embodied by SDS is best characterized as a reorientation of political expectations. The America out of which SDS had emerged could be classified as majority antiintellectual, disinclined to join or support any active role in dismantling traditional inequalities because these inequalities served as bulwarks against monumental upheavals of society. As evidenced by widespread views of the late Martin Luther King Jr. bringing his assassination upon himself and the Chicago police being justified in their televised beating of protesters, this sentiment had survived well into 1968.

It was not just the public that was widely intolerant of dissent, either.

Those entrusted to protect the liberal ideals of rights and civil liberties also seemed inclined to mislabel the rabble-rousers as unpatriotic, as demonstrated by lethal directives given to U.S. soldiers leading up to the 1967 Pentagon protest. These attitudes more commonly associated with authoritarian regimes found fertile breeding ground in a anti-intellectual American public willing to trade truth for comfort. Subsequently, the very notion that the war itself was unjust was often eclipsed by the belief that those opposing it were the real problem. The fabricated myth of “the spitting protester,” and the extent to which American society accepts this myth as fact, is proof enough.

Of course, this is not to say that only those Americans occupying research fellowships in Ivy League philosophy departments or studying art history value culture. There are many who lead much more grounded lives yet still value ideas and embrace change that stands to better future societies — there is a reason America values self-expression more so than most places in the world. Nor is it fair to label all right-leaning citizens as anti-intellectual, for there are conservative Americans too whose opposition to progressive policies stems from ethical principles and not necessarily a desire to see all attempts at reform made subservient to material priorities.

The true anti-intellectuals, however, were those Americans unwilling to see that what King exposed was not his own ability to instigate, but a deep systemic hatred that had long been enabled by onlookers who chose to accept it. They were those Americans unwilling to see that what the antiwar protesters had experienced in Chicago was not law and order, but overzealous use of force that was also enabled by onlookers who chose to accept it. These Americans, beyond those who were truly enthusiastic about racist and authoritarian policies, believed any sort of support for change to be too costly to antiintellectual ambitions.

They believed this, in part, because they saw their own participation in change as minor. You voted for the candidate you wanted, and you shut your mouth for the next two or four years thereafter if you didn’t get things your way. What made the work of SDS important was not necessarily that it fit neatly into what we might now label as “politically progressive,” but that it sought to challenge these traditional limitations on what should be questioned and who should be doing the questioning. As Americans have increasingly recognized since the time of SDS, this idea of constant political participation is a powerful tool in shaping governments to be more representative of their constituents. And though Haber has written off demonstration and confrontation as largely expired methods of participation, the gun control activists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that Haber frequently praises illustrate how direct political involvement need not follow the often uncivil model of SDS to earn validation.

The incivility of SDS also illustrates how, even in activism, moderation is a virtue. By no means does moderation endanger activists, and others who value culture, from drifting toward anti-intellectualism. On the contrary, it enhances the chance of success by binding its adherents to logical principles. The tragic and violent path taken by some of Haber’s former associates in SDS’s late years as part of the Weather Underground serves as a fine example. Another instance is that of distinguished University Professor Victor Lieberman, who was a dedicated member of the antiwar movement while a college student in the 1960s and 1970s but

has moderated his views considerably since then.

Lieberman is not afraid to speak about his past radicalism — in an interview with The Daily he recalled how he held a celebration with his wife when Saigon was taken by Communist forces in 1975. Even deeper than the shared antiwar participation of Haber and Lieberman during these times, however, is the primacy with which both men characterized their antiwar efforts.

Lieberman’s support of antiwar Democratic politicians at the time can be seen as a reflection of Haber’s broad efforts against what he terms “the whole system of war,” in which opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam opposed not only the war but also cycles of “domination, coercion, violence” in other issue areas, such as civil rights and gender equality. The desired transition from a “system of war” to one of peace thus manifested itself as support for national liberation movements across the board.

The result, as Lieberman put it, was a “highly romanticized, idealistic image that many anti-war activists, (himself) included, had of the Vietnamese Communist movement — as well as the allied Khmer and Lao Communist parties and ‘fraternal’ revolutionary movements in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique and the Palestinian territories.” Today, none of these countries or territories are considered healthy democracies, and many have successfully resisted any guarantee of civil liberties or basic rights to their citizens. Admiration for these movements, then, should yield to nuanced and unemotional analysis if activists are to avoid supporting regimes that do without the essential liberal institutions we enjoy in America.

This does not mean, of course, that there is nothing to learn from the times of Haber and Lieberman.

The struggles that activists fight for in 2018 may not be the same as those that existed in 1968, but the parallels are undeniable. There is no great overseas struggle uniting antiwar activists at home now as there was 50 years ago, and therefore no universal American trust in foreign policy to break once more. There are, however, unprecedented signs of the U.S. president being held accountable for foreign policy in an era of rampant unaccountability. Images of civil rights activists confronted with cordons of soldiers do not circulate now, but increased attention paid to law enforcement abuses has resulted in increased scrutiny of police. At the other end of these issues, as always, are those who care only to resist any reform and all the good that may entail because staying put is the easiest thing to do.

It is clear that the issues and dynamics of Haber and Lieberman’s college days have not simply disappeared, and they are well aware of it. Their antiwar struggle failed in 1968, as the Democrats nominated a pro-war candidate and lost to an ostensibly anti-war Republican who would continue the war for several more years. The lessons they have taken away differ greatly: Lieberman reflects on the antiwar movement as generating resentment among the majority of Americans, while Haber’s more hopeful takeaway reflects on how much more savvy activists are now than they were in his day. Lieberman now advises politically-inclined students to approach the types of movements he so enthusiastically cheered on with “neither fawning adulation nor unmitigated contempt, but clear-eyed intellectual analysis.” Haber speaks to how siloed and issue-focused activist groups have become nowadays, which presents a challenge for forming a cohesive multi-issue front such as SDS. The two men’s markedly different takeaways, however, do not take away from their respective prescriptions for those looking to contribute to our culture. Reflecting on their musings, current students should realize that when important issues arise — issues that are important not because they stand to bring riches or pleasure but because they affect lives — we should all resist the kneejerk calls of the antiintellectuals to dismiss calls to action.

Living day-to-day or choosing a career based on financial considerations is no crime, but ignoring the culture we have built and attempts to build it further does a disservice to us all. If we can take one thing away from the tumult and violence and upheaval and loss and gain of 50 years ago, it is that no matter how we do so, we should strive to contribute to this culture any way we can.

Ethan Kessler can be reached at ethankes@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

TV REVIEW

Watching ‘Bad Blood’ is an offer you should refuse MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN Daily Arts Writer

At the very least, “Bad Blood” lives up to its name: It’s bad and there’s blood. Other than that, there isn’t much nice to say about the stale six-episode mafia docudrama making its international debut on Netflix after a premiere on Canada’s Citytv last year.

“Bad Blood” Season 1 Netflix It’s limply acted, turgidly written and plotted in such a way that the season feels much, much longer than it is. In some stretches, “Bad Blood” is so painfully boring, you’ll wish you were sleeping with the fishes. It doesn’t help that we’ve seen this type of story told a million times before, to much better success.

“Bad Blood” does begin with an interesting hook: It’s telling a true story, one of Montreal’s notorious Rizzuto crime family, which oversaw a vast criminal empire from the port city for decades. A flashy opening sequence introduces us to Vito Rizzuto (Anthony LaPaglia, “Without a Trace”), who takes over for his father as mob boss and successfully unites the city’s warring syndicates. We’re also treated to a little cameo from Cheryl Blossom’s maple-

syrup-mogul-turned-Canadianheroin-smuggler dad. (Joke.)

Vito’s son, Nicolo Jr. (Brett Donahue, “The Other Kingdom”) is clean-cut and independently successful with no interest in the mob business.

So naturally, when Vito is sent to prison, Nicolo is — gasp! — roped into the mob business.

The exception to otherwise uninspiring performances is the excellent Kim Coates (“Sons of Anarchy”) as Declan, Vito’s capable if ruthless right-hand man, who keeps the Rizzuto operation running when Nicolo Jr. proves inept.

Oh, and there are also some women characters. In a big win for diversity, the female roles on “Bad Blood” range from stripper to mistress to backup mistress to shrill politician. It’s not quite clear whether these lovely, leggy ladies have inner lives or distinguishing traits. But who needs those when a made man makes you his woman? At one point, Vito’s two paramours fistfight in a department store, a failure of the Bechdel test so spectacular it makes “The Wolf of Wall Street” look like it was directed by Betty Friedan.

Sure, this genre has never been especially friendly to women. But even the stingiest analysis of Carmela Soprano or Kay Adams would find them lightyears more progressive than the women of “Bad Blood” — if for no other reason than that they have names.

Is it really fair to compare

“Bad Blood” to “The Sopranos” and “The Godfather,” two universally-adored, zeitgeisty pieces of gangster entertainment? Maybe not, but that’s the tricky fate of any on-screen depiction of mobster life. “Bad Blood” very badly wants to say something interesting about family and difficult decisions. But in the process, it forgets that prestige TV, in addition to the nudity and violence, also needs to be good.

The closer resemblance here is to “House of Cards,” another show cloaked in enough neo-noir and masculine energy to dupe an audience into believing that its hokey truisms about power are actually profound.

The explicit cultural connections “Bad Blood” is inviting aren’t doing the show many favors either. That writer-producers Simon Barry (“Continuum”) and Michael Konyves (“Barney’s Version”) have described this as a “Shakespearean-level revenge tale” betrays an almost laughable inexperience with the Bard’s work. If only there were some hugely renowned Shakespeare festival in Canada where they could discover just how far off that comparison is.

Canada, you may have universal health care, the better side of Niagara Falls and Kawhi Leonard. But when it comes to the gangster genre, we’ve got you squarely beat. It’s not personal, it’s strictly business. So let’s just call it even, eh?

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 — 5

woman who has her priorities in line.

I now see a little piece of Michelle Obama within myself, and lately, that has been enough to lift me out of my most insecure moments. I watch my talented friends secure internships at Fortune 500 companies as my email inbox runs dry, and instead of moping, I remind myself that Michelle was waitlisted at Harvard Law, a fact I hadn’t known before reading “Becoming.” When I catch myself getting frustrated with an unexpected shift in routine,

ALBUM REVIEW

Eric Clapton’s homemade festive Christmas album ZACHARY M.S. WAARALA Daily Arts Writer

Happy Xmas Eric Clapton Bushbranch/ Surfdog

BOOKS THAT BUILT US

In ‘Becoming,’ Michelle Obama is transformative TESS GARCIA

Daily Style Editor

I didn’t think I would ever be able to write a Books that Built Us column. I read a lot, but my memory of anything beyond my freshman year of high school is spotty at best. I have plenty of favorite books from my childhood, most of which proved formative enough to warrant me writing a column like this. But, alas, I’d have to reread each of those books, cover to cover, to understand what about them made them great. And even then, I’d never fully remember the ways in which those books impacted me; I’d only remember that the impact they carried was profound.

But then I read “Becoming,” the recently released memoir

by Michelle Obama, and I realized that I’m not finished building myself. According to Michelle, even her identity has yet to completely round out.

Call it corny, call it meta, but “Becoming” is a book about building ourselves; it built me by proving that this journey never stops. Like Michelle, I’ll spend my entire life constructing the woman I want to become, creating change on a scale that’s even a morsel of what my Forever FLOTUS has managed to enact.

The opportunity for lifelong growth is a beautiful thing, and

I was too caught up in my insular college bubble to notice that until now.

“Becoming” is divided into three sections. In “Becoming Me,” Michelle takes us from her

The book is peppered with gloriously honest anecdotes that transform Mrs. Obama from an almost otherworldly superwoman into a real-world role model

early childhood on Chicago’s South Side through her tenure at high-power Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. In “Becoming

Us” she explains how a former mentee, named Barack, became her partner in life and, eventually, the 44th President of the United States. Finally, in “Becoming More,” Michelle details how she, her husband and their daughters Malia and Sasha navigated eight years in the White House, holding themselves to standards infinitely more stringent than those of former First Families, whose everyday actions weren’t seen as representing an entire racial group. The life of Michelle, a working-class Robinson turned world-leader Obama, clearly hasn’t been an easy one, but she makes it known that it’s been fulfilling in ways she never imagined.

The book is peppered with gloriously honest anecdotes that transform Mrs. Obama from an almost otherworldly superwoman into a real-world role model, one who struggles to balance the needs of a country with the needs of her family and who embarrasses her kids on a regular basis. She recalls Malia’s prom night (then 16 years old, she asked her mom to “Just be cool please”) with the same level of detail as her feelings toward Donald Trump (spoiler: She’s not fond of him). Michelle’s choice to take equal care when discussing candid family moments and global politics speaks volumes.

This, I thought while reading, is a

decide how we respond. We can lose hope and retreat, or we can be like Michelle. “In my most worried moments, I take a breath and remind myself of the dignity and decency I’ve seen in people throughout my life, the many obstacles that have already been overcome,” she writes, adding: “I hope others will do the same.”

Consider this column my answer to that call. I will continue to struggle against my personal evils, but I will continue to build myself. No matter what comes my way, I’ll be like Michelle and I’ll never stop becoming.

LET’S MOVE!

Each year, I wait until the week prior to Thanksgiving to begin listening to Christmas music. I know that I won’t feel guilty for listening too early, and the delay of gratification is not deleterious to my experience of the holiday season. This year, a month before

NETFLIX

I remember her resilience as her husband’s political career uprooted the life she’d built in Chicago, catapulting herself and her daughters across the country into a world of opulence and cynicism unlike anything they’d ever seen.

We’re all building and building ourselves. As Michelle conveys through “Becoming”’s melancholy epilogue, that process is full of ups and downs. At some point, each of us will see our hard work upended by our own personal Trump administration.

It’s inevitable, but it’s up to us to

my season-opening date, Eric Clapton released his first-ever Christmas album, Happy Xmas, on Oct. 12.

We last heard from Clapton with his 2016 return to the country-blues arena with I Still Do, which received poor ratings from a number of publications as it failed to serve as a return to the 73-year-old guitarist’s “glory days.”

Clapton’s release of a Christmas album was a bit unexpected.

Clapton has been relatively silent since a disappointing 2016, so the fact that his next attempt at a “return” would be through a Christmas album is, for his critics and listeners, out of left field.

Nonetheless, Clapton is a connoisseur of the blues, and I was interested to see what his take on a Christmas album would be. In short, Clapton combines Christmas classics with lesser-known Christmasthemed titles to compile a set of covers that (mechanically) work.

Essentially, Happy Xmas is not going to drive Clapton back to the center of popular music, but it contains the pillars of Clapton’s craft — masterful blues guitar, soothing vocals and an absence

of much editing — that make for a functional Eric Clapton album.

Each track from Happy Xmas is a cover, similar to the construction of the classic Christmas albums from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and so forth. However, Clapton intentionally included some lesser-known Christmas songs, such as “For Love on a Christmas Day,” and covers of Christmas pieces from Slade. As such, Clapton’s Christmas album covers a spectrum of sorts — he covers the classics while dusting off Christmas pieces from the bottom shelf.

Clapton covers this spectrum while maintaining a blues/ country atmosphere to his renditions — except for one house rendition of “Jingle Bells” that would throw the uneducated listener off. “Jingle Bells” is situated between “Home for the Holidays” and “Christmas in My Hometown,” both of which are the more bluesy tracks on the album. “Jingle Bells,” however, is a house/EDM track — unheard of from an artist like Clapton.

According to Clapton, the track serves to pay tribute to the late Avicii, with whom Clapton had worked on spotted occasions.

Clapton’s outrageous venture from his typical low-key style will no doubt come as a surprise to most. In fact, when I first listened to the album, not only was I thrown off by the venture into EDM, but I was disappointed to be hearing EDM while I was trying to listen to a blues Christmas album. That said, upon my research of the album, I was glad to discover that “Jingle Bells” is not Clapton’s attempt to get into the house/EDM game and rather a tribute to one of the genre’s greats.

Clapton’s Christmas album feels like a reflection on what is important to him, musically and personally. In an interview

released on Clapton’s YouTube channel upon the album’s release, he said that the album “has taken a lifetime of Christmas experience and (listening to) Christmas music.” It is not difficult to feel that “lifetime of Christmas experience” baked into the Happy Xmas album.

Happy Xmas is not going to drive Clapton back to the center of popular music

The mistake that Clapton’s critics make, in 2016 with I Still Do and likely in 2018 with Happy Xmas, is the erroneous assumption that Clapton is trying to get back to his “glory days” or back into the popular music arena.

With no slight to the legendary musician, both I Still Do and Happy Xmas are examples of Clapton’s new career outlook: Clapton is making music for himself and his team, and whether his listeners enjoy the music is not his top concern.

The album’s cover art was done by Clapton himself, mimicking Bob Dylan’s artistry for Music from Big Pink. Clapton’s rough illustration of Santa Claus on a white background sets the tone for the album. The rougharound-the-edges (literally) album art further symbolizes the notion that Clapton’s new music is homemade, made for himself, made for the joy that is making music, occasionally made for his long-standing fans.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Arts

6 — Tuesday, December 11, 2018

DAILY FOOD COLUMN

Our traditions in food and festivity ELI RALLO

Daily Food Columnist

The trees are shaking off their browned leaves, there is a distinct chill in the air, everything is peppermint and gingerbread and all about Santa Claus. It feels as though our hands are always cold. The pinkness in my cheeks, chapped lips and transition to warm cups of coffee has me nostalgic. I’m not sure if it feels the same for you, but for me, when the air finds a chill, something in me starts to crack open and head toward the sentimental. Maybe it’s the end of the year — looking back on 12 calendar pages tossed in the trash with wistful remembrance.

Or maybe the month of Dec. ignites an evocative, half shell of emotion in all of us.

Much of this sentimentality finds its roots in tradition. The stories of our life, the trifles of our upbringing and the pieces of history we pack in our bags even when we move far away are grounded in tradition. For my family, tradition starts with food.

I’m sure it’s simply in our Italian blood, and the knack for cooking and inherent love for flavor were all curated somewhere in Southern Italy ages ago. But ever since I can remember, traditions were always centered around food. Every holiday and event, every means for celebrating — even if it was just a Sunday afternoon where we all had the privilege of being together — beat along with the idea that food and wine and good company could be the antidote to the world. If you paged through the scripture of my family history, you would be advised to always invite anyone inside who had nowhere to go and always celebrate with good food and good wine. You would be reminded that salt, reggiano parmigiano, heat and red wine are your friends when you are bent over a stove. You would learn about the selfless act of cooking for others. Somewhere in there, you would learn about me.

At this time of year, these thoughts take me to the holidays, namely, Christmas Eve, which in and of itself is a larger tradition for my family than Christmas day is. I wonder often where traditions begin. We seem to accept them as fact, much like mathematical equations. All of us have some piece of tradition, be it shattered or whole, be it long gone or still with us. Certain things we just know. At our home on Christmas Eve, anyone who doesn’t have somewhere to go is invited. Once you’ve been invited you never get removed from the invite list, even if we haven’t spoken in a year, even if you’ve moved away and moved on. You can simply never be uninvited.

That’s just tradition.

So even if it’s the only time all year I see them, I can expect the same motley, loveable crew every year — same time, same place.

There’s dancing and drinking and gift giving and perhaps most importantly, food. So much food that I often wonder if we’ll ever learn our lesson and prepare less than the outrageous amount we do. But the more the merrier seems to be the motto of the whole night every year — in regards to food, chilled glasses of wine and good company. If I could bottle up a feeling, it would be the one inside the white house on River Road every Christmas Eve. It is the epitome of what warmth feels like.

I wonder where this all began, where a tradition so specific and idiosyncratic in its nature found its beginning. My father, the spearhead of the bubbly, lively Dec. 24 affair is half-Jewish, half-Catholic and perhaps the most fond of Christmas anyone has ever been. This Christmas spirit began when he was raised by a Jewish mother and a Catholic father who didn’t believe in going to church. My dad tells me my grandfather found God in his kitchen every day. On Christmas Eve, our home is a non-denominational affair —

with people identifying as every religion coming together to celebrate. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, if you believe Jesus roamed the earth and pray to him every morning, or you’re waiting for him still, or you don’t believe in him at all — you are welcome.

It’s a peculiar and spectacular sight to see — an amalgamation of languages and cultures and ideas and love and music all pouring from the cracks in our walls. Merry Christmas, indeed.

When I traced my father’s history, which required light prodding and sweet memories, I found it all started with the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or Festa dei Sett Pesci, which is the Italian-American celebration of Christmas Eve which is a meal supplemented with dishes of seafood. The meal typically consists of seven different seafood dishes, originating in Southern Italy, where it is known simply as The Vigil or (La Vigilia). The tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve began from the Roman Catholic tradition of abstaining from eating meat on the eve of a feast day. Observant Catholics would instead turn to fish, and today, the meal has become a feast of seven, eight or even nine specific fishes that are considered to be traditional. Most Italian Fish Feasts commence with white fish in lemon and garlic, followed by clams and mussels mingling with ropes of spaghetti spattered in spicy tomato sauce, and a number of other fish dishes that may feel without end. I should tell you that I’ve never celebrated Christmas Eve with a traditional Festa dei Sette Pesci, but it is important in bringing you down the line of my life, nonetheless.

Before I was born, when my father and his brother were boys, they celebrated with a traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, cooked by their father at the home in which they grew up.

Much like my family’s festivities today, their Christmas Eve had a doors open policy — the strategic over-preparation of food to ensure they wouldn’t run out.

Everyone leaving full of love and food, balancing tupperware containers of leftovers on their way out. My dad tells me my grandfather believed that people, no matter who they are or what they are, should have somewhere to go on Christmas Eve, to be around people who love them. Around good food and good wine, which in our family scripture are said to be the ultimate offerings of peace and harmony. I’m trying to imagine what this would look like — a late ’70s picture in my mind, perhaps cigar smoke and laughter fills the air; seven, eight, nine, 10 fish dishes lining the dining room table; white fish buttered and sauteed and fried and glazed to perfection; pasta with basil and crab sauce; a loaf of haphazardly torn crispy baguette sitting among a pool of grassy olive oil, all crackling as they cool, with my grandfather’s grace echoing into the warm air. I wondered what my grandmother did as my grandfather spent his afternoons and evenings with God in the kitchen, mixing and praying.

Mixing and praying. I never met her, my dad and uncle lost her when they were my age, but a lot of people think she and I are quite similar. Isn’t it strange that our eyes came from someone long gone? I asked my dad what her role in this Christmas Eve production was, especially considering being Jewish, she didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas herself.

“She was the master of ceremonies,” he said without much of a thought, and I wished to plug a cable into his mind and watch his memories project on a drop down screen. “She made people dance. She made people stay. She was the reason the evening would run past 10:00 or 11:00 at night.” I could feel his nostalgia effusing from the other end of the phone, from nearly one thousand miles away.

“She was the best happy person in the world.” I feel as though

her spirit must still be alive in the hardwood floor of our family room, where all of our hooligans and family members, friends old and new, twirl and dance to brassy Bruce Springsteen tracks and holiday classics before dinner on Christmas Eve every year.

My uncle tells me the story of a year he was sent out with a wad of cash from the restaurant to pick up a mink coat that my grandfather was giving my grandmother for Christmas Eve. They always exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve because much like a small child, the anticipation killed her. My grandfather wrapped the coat in a garbage bag. My uncle said he remembers her face when she opened it, she cried and then slept in it.

When my grandmother passed away, my father, uncle and grandfather moved into a different home — one that I can remember visiting as a small girl. It was in this house that the tradition first began to mold and shift. It is here that my mother and her family were invited in, bringing with them their own customs and scripture.

Interesting how the people we meet and fall in love with have traditions too, the marriage of two holiday traditions gives birth to a completely new one, all fresh-faced and sparkling.

My maternal grandmother says some of her first memories of my paternal grandfather are at his home sharing the Feast of the Seven Fishes. She told me about the table — a stark image — being as long as it had to be in order to fit every guest around it. My grandfather vehemently opposed splitting up the family for meals, so instead everyone was elbow to elbow. Italians believe in closeness. I think most prominently in her memory, and perhaps the most special moments of her first Feasts of the Seven Fishes was how fully her family was invited to be a part of my father’s. My grandmother says her favorite memories of Christmas Eves passed are the table settings, a strategic element to my Grandfather’s success as a celebrator and a gatherer. He always sat my mother’s grandfather right next to him, bridging the two families together at a deeper level than just the union of my parents.

As time evolved, the table in my grandfather’s house grew too small. Suddenly with children and spouses and new friends to invite inside, the Feast of the Seven Fishes didn’t fit at his table. Once more, the tradition took a new shape, a new face, always keeping the same beating heart as it forged on through the years. My grandfather relocated the Christmas Eve celebration to his Italian restaurant, shutting the doors to the public, which is a rarity as the restaurant business thrives on Christmas Eve. Here he could fit more friends, a growing family and more spirit than he could before.

But with new palettes and small children the tradition of seven fishes didn’t feel right either. He altered the menu — still holding a candle to the past and those lost, but reconfiguring to fit a newer group — serving a variety of fish dishes, adding chicken and pastas, fresh veggies and red meat, and of course, thick, soft layers of lasagna and crispy, salty eggplant parmesan. My uncle remembers enormous shrimp cocktail, which makes me smile, because we still have that at my house every year. He tells me about snow crab claws the size of your hands, a mountain of it, piled high on ice. He tells me about clam sauce. His intention always that there would be something for everyone when they stepped into his front doors, wherever those front doors were, whomever the folks were coming in from the cold.

It makes more sense to me now where this Christmas Eve came from — how it was born, who gave it breath, who gave it life. Why I’ve never had a Feast of Seven Fishes, despite the fact

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

that I feel entitled to one. How we mix grief and sentimentality, love and trifles of history and come up with new ways to celebrate ancient whisperings.

What is a meal but nourishment?

What is nourishment but necessity? What is a dish but ingredients on a plate? What is seven fishes that is not crispy eggplant parmigiana and gigantic shrimp cocktail? Do we find God in the kitchen? Do we find Him in our floorboards?

Is this recipe always evolving, as things ebb and flow, always standing firm in its roots? Is

that my grandmother’s laugh, is it her eyes? What is tradition without loss? Without love?

Without reshaping and growing and pushing past and pushing towards?

What did the 24th look like back in 1977, and what is the same now as then?

The details have changed.

They always do. The faces have changed too, because that is just the way the wind should blow.

There is no Jewish grandmother in a mink coat wrapped in a garbage bag, dancing till she falls. There is no grandfather

with worn hands, serving seven, eight, nine fishes. But the truth in it is the same; the flavors are the same. It all comes back to the scripture, the recipes, the food, the knowledge that in ingredients and wine and flavor we grieve, we love, we celebrate, we come together. It is still an open doors policy: You are still always welcome, all of you, any of you. There will be something to eat, something to drink, someone to talk to who you’ll only see once a year, every year.

I hope you can come. Everyone is invited.

TV REVIEW

‘Mrs. Maisel’ must return the spotlight to its true star to her disillusioned parents Rose (Marin Hinkle, “Speechless”) and Abe (Tony Shalhoub, “Tales from Radiator Springs”) ruining and rebuilding their marriage.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is more “The Sad Boy Joel Maisel” or “The Delusional Abe and Rose Weissman,” with little opportunity to see what’s so marvelous about Mrs. Maisel.

Frustrations with the show can be summarized by a single scene in episode five. The Maisels and Weissmans are away in the Catskills, with our star being more concerned with trips to the salon and swimsuit competitions than the variety of gigs her driven, sharp manager Susie (Alex Borstein, “Family Guy”) booked for her. Midge is willing to skip the comedy opportunities for her break in the Catskills, but when she gets the call that the department store she works at needs her at the Revlon counter, she practically jets the 120 miles back to Manhattan. This makes for a short yet wonderful little scene, as Midge imitates monotone, depressing news radio on the ride back with a spunky potential love interest, Benjamin (Zachary Levi, “Tangled: The Series”), but it sadly highlights what the show has become, and where it could have gone.

That’s still not to say that “Mrs. Maisel” has lost its edge; it’s just juggling with it. The scenes are still beautifully

SAMANTHA DELLA FERA Daily Arts Writer

Season one of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” ended in a flurry of lights and applause. Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan, “Crisis in Six Scenes”) was high off the end of a successful stand-up performance. Amid

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 2, Episodes 1-5 Amazon Prime Video her crumbling marriage and her feuding parents, she was rising above it all as a star. It was an inspiring ending, one that seemed to be the catalyst to a continuation of Mrs. Maisel’s ferocious fight to become a ruling presence in the male-dominated industry of stand-up comedy.

Yet, it seems that season two of the period comedy had different plans. Midge’s heroic stampede towards a career in comedy has become more a stifled shuffle as she has become a backdrop of her own starring role. The spotlight no longer has a clear target; it swings from Maisel’s estranged husband Joel (Michael Zegen, “Boardwalk Empire”) searching for an apartment and purpose,

Classifieds

shot, the dialogue still witty and quick-paced. Each scene’s gaud, movement and backing music make for an experience that feels as close to a classic Broadway musical as television can get (Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” soundtracking a walk through 1950s Paris with your betrothed?

Um, yes please?). The sophomore season isn’t muddled, it isn’t bad, it’s just exasperating. Every time Midge so much as glances at her former husband, you just want to scream and remind her that he cheated on her even when she did everything right, with his secretary nonetheless. He couldn’t even cheat in a unique way, and still his pity party gets screen time.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” continues to be better than 90 percent of everything else on television, which is why it can afford its stumbles. There are glimpses of the old “Mrs. Maisel” throughout the first half of the sophomore season, enough for the audience to root desperately for it to break through completely.

Faith should not be lost in Midge and her quest for comedic glory, the camera just needs to find its way back to her. For now, find some joy in Joel’s misery and fondness in the Weissman’s revitalized marriage. They are just simple opening acts to an up-andcoming, astonishing, smartmouthed comedian.

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FOR RENT

Release Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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

ACROSS 1 With 18-Across, R.E.M. guitarist 6 Microscope glass 10 All snuggled in 14 Support piece 15 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit 16 Black-and-white cookie 17 Anglo-__ 18 With 35-Across, 10-time “SNL” host who was Belushi’s straight man in samurai routines 19 Restaurant handout 20 Gritty film genre 22 “We are gathered __ today ... ” 24 “Say that’s true ... ” 27 Speedway event 29 Entertainment award quartets, for short 33 Swiss skiing spot 34 Pops, to tots 35 With 44-Across, hitter of 755 home runs 36 “Perhaps I’m wrong” 38 Takes effect 39 What six people in this puzzle might be said to possess 41 Climbs, as a cliff 42 Staggered 44 With 57-Across, “Breaking Bad” actor 45 Gives (out) sparingly 46 Passé TV accessory 47 Sediment layer 48 Courtroom cry 49 Big Apple team 50 Weak end?

52 Anti-cruelty org.

54 Green gemstone 57 With 68-Across, Garfunkel’s partner 59 Zest 63 Big Aussie birds 64 Taj Mahal city 65 Worker, briefly 66 Ocean motion 67 Depend (on) 68 With 1-Across, one of the Twelve Apostles

DOWN 1 “Arthur” TV station 2 Notable time 3 Withholding __ 4 Lodge opening?

5 Nevada casino city 6 Chocolate dog 7 Emory email ender 8 Wall recesses 9 “For heaven’s __!”

10 Impatient afterschool text to a parent 11 Salem is its cap.

12 Buddhist sect 13 “__ busy?”

21 Tehran residents 23 Warms up, as leftovers 24 Dr. Seuss’ Sam-__ 25 Sideless train unit 26 Invasive computer program 28 Scratching-post attachment 30 With no breaks, as a tennis set 31 Cut into four-inch pieces, as a footlong sub

32 Dict. entry 34 Pass rusher’s team 37 Meaty spaghetti sauce 38 React to dust 40 Script for TV 41 Down or blue 43 Rx writers 45 Rx quantity 49 New Zealand native 51 Prepare for a boxing day?

53 A++ 54 Airbus product 55 French buddy 56 Failed firecracker 58 Clickable link 60 Boo-boo kisser 61 Gaza Strip gp.

62 “An egg’s way of making another egg”: Samuel Butler

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Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 — 7

Thome struggles with back issue Storr battles through adversity CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer

This year’s version of the Michigan women’s basketball team was said to be senior center Hallie Thome’s squad.

She — along with fellow senior Nicole Munger — was set to fill the void, both from a leadership and play perspective, left by the departures of Jillian Dunston and Katelynn Flaherty.

Through 10 games this season, it’s clear that both Thome and Munger have adapted to some of their newfound responsibilities.

The Wolverines’ underclassmen — who make up a majority of the team — continually mention the guidance they’ve received from their two senior teammates.

Freshman forward Naz Hillmon, specifically, has benefited from Thome’s leadership.

“I have to give a lot of credit to her,” Hillmon said. “In the preseason, she definitely helped me a lot and has just given me a lot of tips and pointers of how to get in the paint, get those rebounds. So as much as we credit the guards, I’ve got to give some credit to Hallie.”

Added Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico: “I think all the upperclassmen have taken the freshmen under their wing and they’re just all terrific basketball players. I think for Naz, part of the reason she came to Michigan was to have an opportunity to play with Hallie Thome. So I think they love being on the court together.”

While the leadership has been there, Thome’s recent performances on the court have been lackluster. Over the first three games of the season — albeit against subpar competition — Thome averaged upwards of 21 points per game.

Since then, she’s averaged just 9.4.

Thome’s unique size — 6-foot-5 — and dominant play at the end of last year garnered

the attention of multiple WNBA scouts. So far, though, that dominant play has been infrequent.

Against Oakland last Sunday, Thome suffered from back spasms, which ultimately sidelined her for much of the game. With the contest well in hand, Thome played just 12 minutes and scored six points.

“She’s having some back spasms and she has had them in the past, sometimes in practice, and it takes a little time to get through them,” Barnes Arico said. “She usually is able to work them out, but today they weren’t calming down during the course of the game. So we decided it was best she just rest it.”

Though Thome has dealt with them before, back spasms are notoriously tricky to manage.

It doesn’t help that she’s had to face consistent double-teams. In the North Carolina State game, Thome was forced to dish it out on numerous occasions to perimeter players like Munger, who ended up leading the team in scoring as a result.

Michigan would obviously miss its star player if Thome missed time due to injury. With that said, the team is wellequipped to compensate in the meantime.

Thome’s relative struggles have contributed to the Wolverines’ 7-3 record. But Hillmon’s development and the play of sophomore forward

Hailey Brown have softened the blow.

“We are not the same team without Hallie Thome,” Barnes Arico said. “Her leadership today when she got hurt was still evident. So it’s nice to have people that can come in and give her a break or, when she’s not a hundred percent, take her minutes.

“Obviously you can see that today with Naz Hillmon. She did an outstanding job for us rebounding the ball, finishing the ball. Hailey Brown did a great job stepping up making some plays for us, as did (junior guard) Kayla Robbins.

(Freshman forward) Emily Kiser gave us some good minutes there as well. But we still miss (Thome). We don’t ever want her not to be out there.”

Michigan also has a favorable schedule over the next few weeks — Morgan State and Southern will likely be put away with or without Thome.

But Big Ten play looms on the horizon, with the Wolverines traveling to Nebraska on Dec. 28. If Thome, healthy and rested, can regain her dominant form, the Wolverines project to be a force to be reckoned with in the conference.

“Hallie will be fine,” Munger said. “She had a really, really good workout. She knows what she needs to do so she’s gotten back in the gym to get her touch back. She’ll be fine.”

ANNIE KLUS/Daily

Senior center Halle Thome scored six points in 12 minutes on Sunday.

Bock excels in Maize & Blue meet AVI RAJENDRA-NICOLUCCI For the Daily

Cameron Bock took a deep breath and finished his floor routine with a flourish in front of the judges. The sophomore then had a nearly flawless performance before a missed landing off the parallel bars.

Bock earned a score of 13.950 on floor and took home all-around honors with a total score of 85.250 for the six events.

“I thought I did pretty well on everything except for the parallel bars, so that was a little disappointing.” Bock said. “But it’s still the beginning of the season so just have to fix those.

Overall, it was good.”

Bock was a star in the Maize & Blue Intrasquad meet Saturday afternoon for the Michigan men’s gymnastics team.

“Well, two people stood out to me,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “One is Cameron Bock, he did a really really good job right down to that last skill, and that was his first mistake.”

The competition dictated that four scores count per

event, but only gymnasts on the Maize team competed in all six events. The Blue team was down just 2.55 points after the second event rotation, though the Maize team was clearly the stronger of the two squads. The ultimate goal for the meet was not to win, but to prepare for the upcoming season.

“I think this is one of our better Maize & Blue meets since I’ve been here and one of our highest hit percentages,” Golder said. “I think it sets us up well for the rest of the season. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Ultimately, the Maize team came out on top of the Blue squad, 332.850 to 321.800.

Junior Mack Lasker was the sole event winner on the Blue team with a score of 14.550 on the pommel horse. The Blue team found most of its success on the pommel horse, claiming three of the top four scores.

Junior Justin Murphy of the Blue team was named an outstanding performer for his parallel bars display. Murphy had a score of 13.600.

“Justin Murphy, because

he had a surgery two years ago and struggled all last year recovering from it. (He) never got in the lineup and then today had a really good day,” Golder said. “So just on a personal level, (I’m) really happy for him.”

It was the Maize team, however, that dominated the day. Seniors Emyre Cole and Matthew Whitaker had strong performances as well. Cole had the high score on vault, while Whitaker took the top spot in parallel bars. Bock was the top performer in three of the six events.

“I’m just trying to increase my (all-around) score,” Bock said. “Just to push the envelope a little bit to get an even better score on every event.”

Added Golder: “It’s everybody reach their potential, the team reach their potential and shoot for a national title. I think that this isn’t one of the strongest teams, but it’s a team that is capable of contending for it and if you can get into the Super Six, you can win it. And we’re definitely one of the top six teams in the country.”

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily

Sophomore Cameron Bock earned all-around honors with a score of 85.250 for the six events on the day.

JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer

him from committing, not even a strong recruiting effort from his hometown Wolverines.

“They really introduced me to my faith, they had a philosophy of wrestling that I just fell in love with, and he had everything I was looking for,” Storr said. “And Michigan did too, that’s why it was really complicated. But then I just went with my gut and my initial thought of going there, so just had a really good connection with the assistant staff there.”

But then Iowa State started to lose. A lot. Midway through a blistering 1-12 season, the Cyclones announced they were going to scrap Jackson, and with him, the assistants that Storr had come to know and love.

Wanting to uphold the high standard of success Iowa State had come to embody, the Cyclones brought on then-Virginia Tech head coach Kevin Dresser. And although the program immediately started winning again, Storr felt out of place.

“I love Iowa State and the community and the fans there, but they brought in a new staff,” Storr said. “I got recruited by a different staff my freshman year.

Last year they brought in a new staff. I was excited to give him a shot, chemistry just didn’t work

out. They’re doing great things out in Ames, Iowa right now, so I mean, they’re a great staff, good coaches, but the chemistry wasn’t there for me.

“We didn’t connect on a personal level. I wasn’t getting (a positive atmosphere) at Iowa State.”

Storr asserts the opposite is true at Michigan. The Wolverines focus on improvement through positivity — an environment more conducive to Storr’s personality and, ergo, his success.

The first one to defend that sentiment is Michigan coach Sean Bormet, who has tried to make Storr’s transition as smooth as possible.

“I think our whole staff has a very positive philosophy, and I think, in general, kids feed off positivity,” Bormet said. “And I think kids feed off an environment where they’re empowered and encouraged to bring their absolute best every day and leave everything out on the mat every day. And that’s really how we approach our entire team and our roster, so I think Kanen’s been feeding off of that.”

The question has never been one of Storr’s wrestling ability. He won a ranked match without scoring a takedown, after all. Instead, it’s been one of comfort, and at Michigan, the shoe seems to fit.

To say that redshirt sophomore Kanen Storr has dealt with adversity over the past year would come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his situation. And during Sunday’s 32-7 win over Indiana (2-3 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) for the Michigan wrestling team (3-0, 1-0), the story was much the same, as No. 8 Storr battled through adverse conditions to gain a win over 15th-ranked Cole Weaver.

Storr came into the match on the heels of a rough week at practice.

Though he typically bases his offense on quick feet movement and multiple leg attacks, Storr felt sluggish and knew he would have to get creative in order to win.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Eventually winning, 3-1, Storr managed to get his hand raised without scoring a takedown, a rare sight for the transfer. Scoring on an escape and a crafty two-point near fall to start the second period, Storr secured the win for his team.

“It was a great performance as a team,” Storr said. “Individually, I wasn’t feeling too good. I kinda had a down week, but overall, I came out here, I gutted out a win. I didn’t feel my best, so there’s a lot to be proud of there but a lot to build off of also.”

Circumstances like these are nothing new for Storr. After all, Storr’s tenure with the Wolverines began due to tumultuous conditions at his first school of choice — Iowa State.

As a high school student and a Michigan wrestling standout, Storr always had his eyes set on Ames, Iowa and the Cyclone program headed by Kevin Jackson. From the get-go, Storr connected with Iowa State’s coaching staff on an emotional and professional level.

The relationship truly began when Storr traveled to Mexico with USA Wrestling and Jackson to compete in the Pan American Games. Since that moment, Storr ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily was sold on the Cyclones’ culture and nothing was going to stop Redshirt sophomore Kanen Storr beat Indiana’s Cole Weaver on Sunday.

Sports

8 — Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Positive attitude keeps Gingell working toward dream Michigan. He’s a lot older than me, too, so it’s been for a long Daily Sports Writer time.”

When college athletes talk When Pearson about how much they love their first started school, it usually comes across recruiting Gingell, he as canned or cheesy — almost was impressed like it was the kind of thing they were encouraged to say, not with the young their true feelings. player’s attitude.

And throughout But when Jake Gingell his junior tells you how much he loves Michigan hockey, it’s clear he career, Gingell means it. continued to Sitting in Yost Ice Arena display the attitude that discussing his journey, the caught Pearson’s eye. It was one normally confident, emphatic freshman defenseman turns of the biggest reasons Pearson quiet. In a voice much softer gave Gingell the chance to come to Michigan with him. than usual, he’s happy to talk “First and foremost, it’s just the character,” Pearson said. “He’s just dripping with character. He’s a hard-working, honest, humble young man.

And then to put on top of that, that’s how he plays the game of hockey, too. He plays with some grit and determination. He’s an honest hard worker, and he’s a leader.”

That hardworking character has been tested somewhat this season as Gingell has dressed for only one game, which was on Nov. 3 against Lake Superior State. He was listed as the seventh defenseman — the one who plays without a partner and doesn’t have consistent shifts.

But behind the scenes, in practice, his work ethic hasn’t wavered.

It’s taken Gingell a bit of time to adjust to college hockey, perhaps because of the two years he spent in Omaha playing in the USHL. On that team, his coach largely used him as an old-fashioned enforcer. The majority of his time on the ice — which wasn’t much — was spent fighting.

In 106 games for the Lancers, Gingell totaled 196 penalty minutes.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily “He plays tough,” Pearson Michigan coach Mel Pearson recruited freshman defenseman Jake Gingell to come to Michigan after Pearson accepted the coaching job in the fall of 2017.

BAILEY JOHNSON

about what the Wolverines mean to him.

“I still wake up sometimes and feel like it’s a dream,” Gingell said. “I love every second of it.”

Gingell’s journey to play at Michigan started in Sept. 2013, when he committed to play for Mel Pearson, then head coach at Michigan Tech.

But in the fall of 2017, just a few weeks before Pearson began his first season at the helm of the Wolverines, Gingell flipped his commitment to Michigan. “(Pearson’s) the main reason why I came here,” Gingell said. “(Pearson) and (Michigan assistant coach Bill Muckalt) were both coaches

that recruited me originally to go to Michigan Tech, so once they came here, I just thought it would be best that I came here with them as well when they gave me that opportunity.”

What made Gingell’s decision to join the Wolverines even sweeter was the fact that he’s a native of Dexter, Mich., which is just about 20 minutes away from Ann Arbor. After playing four years of junior hockey in the USHL —

two years in Omaha, Neb. and two years in Youngstown, Ohio — Gingell was ready to be closer to home.

And the proximity to home wasn’t the only thing drawing Gingell to Ann Arbor.

His cousin, Jason Gingell, was a kicker for the Michigan football team from 2005-07.

“I always grew up watching Michigan hockey,” Gingell said.

“My cousin played football here, so I’ve just always been a fan of

“(Pearson is) the main reason why I came here.”

said. “He plays honest. He plays physical, and consequently, you get a lot of penalties. He’s a strong player.

He’s probably, if not our grittiest player, he would be right there.”

Now, at Michigan, Gingell is expected to play with a bit more nuanced style.

He’s spent the majority of the season working on his skating and puck-handling in practice.

Keeping a positive attitude when you aren’t getting in games is hard, but Gingell has stayed committed to making himself the best player he can be.

“You’ve just gotta try to improve in some way every day,” Gingell said. “Instead of feeling down on myself, I just try to pick something to improve on in practice every day. I think I’ve been doing that. I’ve been making crisper plays and been better with my hands and feet, and I just feel a lot better about practices.”

And his hard work is not going unnoticed.

“He’s made really good strides,” Pearson said. “He’s made some tremendous improvements so far. He had to get a little bit quicker, had to work on his hands and just handle the puck and do things a little bit faster and quicker and smoother with that, and he’s made tremendous strides in both those areas.”

Saturday morning, Pearson watched Gingell skate before the Wolverines’ game against Minnesota. He was struck by how much more comfortable Gingell looks on the ice.

“Sometimes, it just takes a little bit longer for some players than others,” Pearson said. “But he’s got all the intangibles you lo for.”

“He plays tough. He plays honest. He plays physical.”

“First and foremost, it’s just the character.”

Jon Teske growing at center spot ETHAN SEARS

Daily Sports Writer

When Frank Martin got to Crisler Center for South Carolina’s practice on Friday, he saw junior guard Zavier Simpson and pulled him aside.

“Listen, I was watching the film from two years ago,” the Gamecocks’ coach recalled saying. “You and (Jon Teske) were like two kids. … Now, I’m watching you guys play. You guys are like, unbelievable how much better you guys are and how different you look.”

Two years ago, as the Michigan men’s basketball team found itself on an improbable run to the Sweet 16, Simpson and Teske — both freshmen — largely rode the bench. The latter played all of three minutes per game, a 7-foot-1 kid whose basketball acumen could be boiled down to 85 inches.

Even last season, as Teske stepped into a role backing up Moritz Wagner, he grew noticeably, but that archetype remained, in large part, correct.

Teske affected shots at the rim, threw down the occasional lob and usually managed to keep the Wolverines afloat when Wagner was sitting. Questions as to whether he could replace the since-departed German in full remained.

Just over a month into this season, Teske has put those questions to rest.

Michigan might be better off with Teske starting instead of Wagner. The junior hasn’t just affected shots at the rim, but all over the court. He has turned into an example that strength coach Jon Sanderson will hold up for every big-man recruit that walks through the Wolverines’ door for his strength and athleticism improvements.

Toward the end of the first half Saturday, with the Gamecocks still hanging around, Teske charged through

an open lane to put back a miss from Simpson. Seconds later, he found himself on the perimeter, defending South Carolina’s Maik Kotsar. He stayed in front of the big man on a drive, then blocked his shoot like a dad defending his kid in a driveway.

That’s a sequence Teske might have been capable of doing once in a blue moon last year. Now, it’s the norm.

All told, he finished Saturday with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, to go with nine rebounds and three blocks over 29 minutes.

That’s more than he played in any single game last year. It’s also the fourth time he’s hit the 29-minute benchmark this year.

That, in part, is a matter of necessity. Michigan has yet to find a viable backup at the ‘5,’ with redshirt sophomore Austin Davis struggling and freshman Brandon Johns tied to the bench.

More importantly, it’s a matter of growth. Wagner wasn’t the only reason Teske never played 30 minutes in a game last year. Teske simply wasn’t capable of doing so, even when Wagner was hurt.

After Saturday’s win, the

10th straight to start the season for the Wolverines, sophomore guard Jordan Poole was asked whether he thought there would be a transition period in the wake of last season’s Final Four run. He didn’t hesitate in his answer.

“No,” Poole said. “Only because, where has Michigan dropped off in the last couple years? Guys leave all the time.

These coaches do a really good job preparing the next guy, next man up. That’s our mentality.

And being able to have guys step into the role, it’s just normal. Of course you got a Final Four run, we had guys who left for the NBA. But we’ve been practicing against those guys all last year.

I feel like they set us up for success.”

No player exemplifies that more than Jon Teske.

“I think it’s just the type of kids (Michigan coach John Beilein) recruits,” Teske said.

“He knows he can develop them into good players after a couple seasons if kids are willing to work hard, stay here in the summer and work on their game.

“I think that’s what happened to me.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Jon Teske has played 29-plus minutes in four different games this season.