2018-09-21

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Friday, September 21, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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FootballSaturday Nico Collins has broken out this season, but the makings of that breakout have been in place for awhile.

» Page 1B

NOTEBOOK

UM REGENTS

Dozens of UMPNC members protest outside meeting with calls for moral accountability from executives

NURSES

MATT HARMON Daily News Editor

Nurses and allies of their fight for a new contract, including higher wages and increased staffto-patient ratios, heavily populated the meeting, both inside and

outside the golf course. University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council organized the demonstration and included several nurses speaking publicly during the meeting.

The UMPNC voted Monday to authorize a three-day strike amid protracted labor bargaining

disagreements with the University.

UMPNC members previously filed unfair labor practice chargesagainst the University for failing to bargain in good faith, making shift changes without notification and taking action against free speech.

Mary Beth Carlson was the first

nurse to speak at the meeting, and lauded the proposed labor changes and the UMPNC’s bargaining. She directly addressed the Regents at the end of her speech.

“I am living up to my responsibility as a nurse every See NURSES, Page 3A

L

Danyel Tharakan/Daily

The University of Michigan Board of Regents announced a 3.5 percent increase in University President Mark

RAISE

another five years, as he enters the fifth year of his current contract, though the measure was not voted on Tuesday. His starting salary upon hiring in 2014 was $750,000.

The last four years of Schlissel’s term have been

marked by campus unrest on issues of racial disparities, sexual misconduct and political turmoil following the 2016 presidential election.

On the administrative side,

PAY

Daily Staff Reporter

Schlissel’s annual salary as part of the president’s yearly evaluation. This is the president’s fourth pay raise, and brings his pay from $820,000 to over $850,000.

The Regents are also set to renew Schlissel’s contract for

See SCHLISSEL, Page 2A

S

SAYALI AMIN

I S L SE H C

Schlissel’s salary bumped 3.5 percent to $850,000 in 4th consecutive raise, contract extension to follow

Danyel Tharakan/Daily

NEU

B CAR ON

Public comments call out University operations for not doing enough to shrink carbon footprint RILEY LANGEFELD

TRALITY

Daily Staff Reporter

Five out of 10 public comment speakers focused on the University falling short in their efforts to combat climate

change. Students and faculty emphasized environmental issues as ones that should be top priority, specifically carbon neutrality — the common environmental goal of a net zero carbon footprint.

LSA sophomore Catherine

Garton and LSA senior Julian Hansen, two of the students present, co-founded the University of Michigan Climate Action Movement, an organization that promotes climate change awareness and has a goal of 100 percent

carbon neutrality. Garton said current University efforts need to go further to act as an environmentally-conscious example among academic institutions.

See CHANGE, Page 3A

MATT HARMON Daily News Editor

At the University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, University president Mark Schlissel presented new initiatives to combat sexual

misconduct on campus. The programs include mandatory sexual misconduct training for all faculty and staff and a new website with information on reporting sexual misconduct and educational resources.

The initiatives were the

result of the Working Group on Faculty and Staff Sexual Misconduct investigations into current University policies on misconduct. The group published their findings online today; suggestions include the website, increased education

U X E S AL

Faculty and staff must participate in mandatory misconduct trainings after investigation by internal board

SCONDUCT I M

Cat Mykolajtchuk/Daily

and wording changes to show a more formal commitment to combating sexual misconduct on campus.

The committee was co-chaired by Laurita Thomas, See MISCONDUCT, Page 2A

Danyel Tharakan/Daily ADMINISTRATION

CAMPUS LIFE

Regents approve new CCRB project budget Current recreation building will be demolished to make way for new $150 million athletic complex SAYALI AMIN

Daily Staff Reporter

The board passed a motion to replace and demolish the Central Campus Recreation Building, originally built as a collection of buildings between 1956 and 1978.

The budget for the project is $150 million and would encompass a space that is 200,000 square feet.

The funds will come from

Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

‘U’ Law School hosts panel on free speech

Campus orgs set up booths to showcase environmental engagement opportunities to students in annual event

Law professor and NPR in-house counsel talk importance of free press and speech laws

ELIZABETH LAWRENCE Daily Staff Reporter

investment proceeds, gifts and the Student Life Student Fee for Facility Renewal. However, Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R) clarified the fee wouldn’t increase for students.

LSA and Business senior Jazz Teste spoke during public comment in support of replacing the CCRB. She emphasized the importance of recreational facilities on campus for mental health and productivity.

See CCRB, Page 3A

GOT A NEWS TIP?

23rd EarthFest centers sustainability on the Diag

Check out the Daily’s News podcast, The Daily Weekly

LSA freshman Noah Wolfson hadn’t heard of the University of Michigan’s annual fall EarthFest event, so he was pleasantly surprised when he saw, dotted across the Diag, stands offering sustainability information, donuts, apples and more.

“To be honest, I actually didn’t know this was happening until I walked onto the Diag,” Wolfson said. “But after walking past, I thought I’d take a nice stroll around. I think they’re really promoting sustainable energy in a really positive manner.”

The Office of Campus Sustainability, otherwise known as Planet Blue, hosted the 23rd EarthFest Thursday, a celebration aiming to engage and educate students on how to become involved in environmental sustainability.

Dozens of student, community and University organizations participated this year, including Habitat for Humanity, the Program in the Environment and the Campus Farm. To draw in students like Wolfson, booths offered items including succulents, a hot commodity according to EarthFest coordinator Ashlee Rothfuss.

“The (Matthaei) Botanical Gardens always comes and does a succulent giveaway that the See EARTHFEST, Page 3A

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INDEX

GRACE KAY

Daily Staff Reporter

Amid a cultural controversy regarding free speech and the role of the press in criticizing the government, about 30 students and Ann Arbor residents attended a panel hosted by the University of Michigan Law School Thursday afternoon commemorating Constitution Day and discussing the role of free speech in U.S. history.

Law professor Leonard Niehoff hosted the panel

Vol. CXXVII, No. 140 ©2018 The Michigan Daily

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

and opened the discussion, emphasizing the importance of dialogue that outlines the distinction between protected free speech and sedition — conduct or speech designed to incite rebellion against the government.

“We find ourselves living during a time when the question is whether the criticism of the government by the press has become repressive or unfair,” Niehoff said.

Niehoff went on to reference President Donald Trump’s definition of the press as “the enemy of See SPEECH, Page 2A

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

News

2A — Friday, September 21, 2018

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY:

By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

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THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

BE HIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily news staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA sophomore Riley Langefeld covered the city’s crackdown on Bird scooters.

“It was a bit frustrating to write because it was difficult to reach a lot of the city officials in time, especially because we were writing it the day it became news but it was definitely an interesting topic and it was interesting to see how the city officials react to this crisis that has arisen in the last few weeks and how they’ve interacted with Bird officials. It’s kind of tested a lot of the city’s ability to quickly respond to changes in the environment that especially involve college students as a lot of the use of the Birds has been by University students. It’s been interesting to learn about that and see how it’s been developing over the past few weeks and how it will be in the future.”

Riley Langefeld: “Bird faces extinction as City seizes dozens of scooters”

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“

There is an institutional bias that’s built into corrections. Even though it’s called corrections, there is a bias to keep you illterate, to keep you at a remedial level.

And it takes a village to get former inmates back into society,”

Paralegal Edward Sanders on his time in prison and efforts to boost litearcy of re-entering citizens on the outside.

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Editorial Staff SCHLISSEL From Page 1A however, the Regents continue to shower Schlissel with glowing performance reviews.

“Our conclusion, President Schlissel is knocking the ball out of the park,” Regent Chair Andrew Richner, R, said. “From the outside, I don’t think we appreciate just how demanding and complex the job of the University of Michigan president is. I know this president spends 24/7 on his responsibilities.”

“I have the most challenging, but the best job in all of higher education,” Schlissel said.

Schlissel’s salary outstrips the average public university executive’s pay of $521,000, according to 2016 data from the Chronicle of Higher Education. His pay raises do track with rising executive compensation around the country, which increased by about 5 percent overall last year.

University alum McKenna Kozeny criticized the pay raise as a poor use of funds in light of the growing student debt.

“The Go Blue Guarantee is a great start, but higher education is still extremely unaffordable for so many people,” Kozeny wrote in an email interview.

“The Go Blue Guarantee is a great start, but higher education is still extremely unaffordable for so many people.”

Kozeny also criticized Schlissel being provided housing on campus while students have to pay high rents to live off-campus.

According to U.S. Census data, the median rent in Ann Arbor has increased by 14 percent from 2010 to 2015. The current median rent is approximately $1,075 per month.

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ROSEANNE CHAO and CASEY TIN

sexual fighting sexual misconduct all staff and faculty. University documenting MISCONDUCT and encourage those who have Provost Martin Philbert said harassment and assault cases From Page 1A experienced misconduct to education on how to recognize involving staff and faculty report incidents. and prevent sexual misconduct members. The anonymous associate vice president for Previously, staff and faculty is a good first step for improving sources cited instances such unwelcome advances, human resources, and former had the option of participating campus culture and reducing as comments and sexual assault U-M Dearborn Chancellor in already existing sexual misconduct cases.

“The University’s mission of cases at the University, some Daniel Little. misconduct training. After the Schlissel said the University group’s recommendations, all education, research and service dating back to the 80s.

Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ community has a stake in training will be mandatory for requires that every member of our community feels welcomed, valued and able to work free from the threat of sexual misconduct,” Philbert said.

“Sexual misconduct is a very serious HARD matter, something that we seek to prevent and that we are committed to addressing immediately and effectively should it occur. Our work to prevent and address such misconduct begins with education.”

This announcement comes two weeks after the release of Office for Institutional Equity’s yearly Sexual Misconduct Report which reported an increase in sexual misconduct reports but a decrease in investigations launched by the University compared to previous data. According to the publication, reports went up from 218 to 277 while investigations went down from 28 the previous year to 20.

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275.

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SPEECH From Page 1A the people,” highlighting the importance of the First Amendment in allowing the people to hold the government accountable.

Panelist Ashley Messenger, the in-house counsel for NPR specializing in issues that affect news gathering and dissemination, said the U.S. Constitution revolves around the involvement of everyday citizens.

“There really is no such thing as government,” Messenger said. “If you actually read it (the Constitution) it says it does not establish the government, it does not establish authority, it establishes a process. The way we interpret the First Amendment actually means all of us in the process, not just those in government.

You actually need the participation of others to lead this country properly.”

Former U-M professor Vincent Blasi, currently a professor at Columbia Law School, explained the distinction between protected speech and sedition has been frequently disputed throughout U.S. history.

NURSES From Page 1A day,” Carlson said. “I need you to live up to your responsibility to solve this problem so I can do my job.”

Following Carlson, Michigan Medicine nurse Tracie Lentz spoke about her experience being diagnosed with a blood cancer last year and urged action from the board. Lentz also criticized University President Mark Schlissel’s previous comments in support of free speech protections, noting nurses were not allowed to wear buttons and shirts in support of their union — a major complaint in the lawsuit filed against the University last week.

Nurse Lynn Sharrock has been working at the University for more than four decades and participated in the demonstration. She was among the nurses asked to stop wearing pro-union clothing at work. Sharrock recounted details of the difficult working conditions she faced when she started and said that it is still necessary for the nurses to fight for better treatment.

“When I first started here, we didn’t have a union,” Sharrock said. “I made $11 an hour. And sometimes if somebody didn’t show up for work, I would just have to stay and stay. If I was at home — this is before answering machines — if my phone rang and I answered it, they said you had

EARTHFEST From Page 1A students absolutely love,” Rothfuss said. “I cannot tell you how many emails I got asking if they were going to be there.”

This was Rothfuss’s first year organizing the event.

She said many organizations returned to participate, such as Leslie’s Science and Nature Center, which gives animal demonstrations, and MDining, which teaches students how they can cook healthy food. The goal of EarthFest, Rothfuss said, is to educate students, especially on the University’s sustainability goals.

“It’s really just to educate the students on campus, and to help them find out how they can get involved in sustainability and what sustainable groups are available in their area,” Rothfuss said. “And it’s really to support the six sustainability goals that U-M has. It’s just this giant come-together of people

“Truth was no defense (against allegations of libel or sedition),” Blasi said.

“If anything, it undercut the government even more. Falsity was applied to conjecture and characterization.”

Blasi explained free speech was not always protected, and laws like the Espionage Act of 1917 sent citizens to jail for speaking out in criticism of the government.

“We take it for granted now that we can say what we want even if it gives the government a bad reputation, but it wasn’t then,” Blasi said.

Niehoff explained potential issues with speech and even the Constitution that the government continues to encounter today.

“We have this model and yet it is sort of fraught with problems,” Niehoff said.

Blasi and Messenger agreed the Constitution is something that is constantly evolving in government.

“The Constitution itself is an experiment,” Blasi said.

“We’ll see how long it works.”

As students expressed uncertainty regarding whether free speech, particularly that of the press, will continue to be protected, Messenger said from her experience at NPR she does

not feel the press’s voice will be silenced.

“Media law is actually a really well-established law,” Messenger said, “It’s not new for the government to feel threatened by the press. Does the law tend to be on our side? Yes. Because the First Amendment is not partisan.

It does not discriminate.

It would be an incredibly uninformed and shortsighted move to go after the media.”

The panel was open to the public and the audience featured several of Niehoff’s law students, as well as local Ann Arbor citizens.

Law School student Scott Haeck said the panel was a valuable experience.

“I have a personal interest in the civil rights law and in this day and age, government criticism in particular,” Haeck said.

“Besides, when else do we get to rub shoulders with such highly respected people? I thought some interesting points were raised and it was a valuable experience to have these valuable philosophical discussions raised in a setting where we are not trying to get to a particular point.”

to come in, I had to come in or else I could be losing my job.”

The nurses were joined by members of the UMPNC leadership. Donna Carnahan, vice chair of the UMPNC, was present at the demonstration and expressed her hope that the board would respond promptly to the nurses’ demands.

Carnahan expressed her frustration with the situation, noting that she has been part of the contract negotiations since they started in January and that the UMPNC has gained little.

“Today we’re here to get the regents’ help,” Carnahan said.

“Our contract is based with the regents, and things have shut down at the table, and it’s now time to get the regents involved in trying to get a contract for the hospital. We don’t want to do any of this. We don’t want to do this work stoppage if we don’t have to. We would like to continue to take care of our patients. But we need to stand up and have ratios in the contract for safe patient staffing … We can’t get this done without them because nobody is listening.”

Regent Mark Bernstein (D), responding to the nurses speaking at the meeting, said he was “saddened to hear” the relationship between University nurses and the board has “frayed” and urged a collaborative future effort from all parties. Several other regents agreed with his sentiments.

Nurse Rebecca Bertha

also spoke at the meeting and voiced concerns shared by many nurses about antiunion sentiment in the nursing leadership. Bertha specifically cited an interview with Chief Nurse Executive Ann Scanlon McGinity, a member of the Michigan Medicine executive leadership, from 2015 in which she expressed strong anti-union views and an unwillingness to work with union leaders.

“The change in nursing leadership since (former Chief Nurse Executive Margaret Calarco) left has really hurt the climate of mutual respect between nurses and management,” Bertha said.

Michigan Medicine denounced the strike in an email statement, saying they provided competitive and reasonable offers to the nurses, which were subsequently rejected.

According to Michigan Medicine spokeswoman Mary Masson, the organization offered the nurses raises of at least 3 percent. Masson also said the nurse-to-patient ratio is in the top 2 percent in the nation.

“We are disappointed that our UMPNC nurses have voted to approve a strike,” the statement reads. “We have been bargaining in good faith since January and have offered a competitive package. … We remain ready to continue bargaining with the UMPNC and are eager to resolve the contract negotiations.”

distributing information so the students know what’s going on.”

One of the booths involved was the University’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Program. Program Manager Tracy Artley said she’d been coming to EarthFest for 15 years and admired how popular it’s become in that time.

“It’s grown a lot since the earlier days of the fest, where it was literally just a couple of booths and a band,” Artley said. “Now it’s so much more.

So many more groups at the University and outside the University are participating now, which I think really increases our impact with the students because when it’s bigger, more people come, and more people hear your message.”

For the Waste Reduction Program, Artley said, the message is to decrease waste products and make sure recyclable and compostable items go to the right place.

She also encouraged students living off campus to reach out via their website if they

have questions about waste reduction.

“Our mission is to encourage the University of Michigan community to reduce waste by reducing the amount of items that are consumed, and then anything that is generated that needs to be disposed of, going to the proper location, whether that’s composting, recycling, or alternative,” Artley said.

All of the stands, Rothfuss emphasized, are primarily for the students.

“We really do it for the students,” Rothfuss said.

“That’s what it’s all about, is to just inform and educate them on ways that they can be more sustainable and what their school and what their environment is doing to be more sustainable as a whole.”

When asked what his takeaway ideas from EarthFest were, Wolfson highlighted the importance of taking care of the Ann Arbor community.

“Ann Arbor’s our home too,” Wolfson said. “We have to make sure we keep it clean and keep it safe.”

CHANGE From Page 1A “The University is trying, but it is not trying hard enough,” Garton said. “I feel that we have fallen behind in this regard.

Climate change is the biggest problem facing my generation.”

Hansen added sustainable policy and culture on campus is crucial, and the entire University community including students, staff, faculty, alumni and Ann Arbor residents play a role in it.

“We were brought together to reposition the University of Michigan as leaders and best in the fight for a clean energy future,” Hansen said. “The leaders of the University of Michigan need to step up.”

Supporting the students were Prof. Doug Kelbaugh, former dean of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Prof. Joseph Trumpey, director of the Sustainable Living Experience.

Kelbaugh said the University should think long-term when considering how best to reduce their carbon footprint.

“If you don’t act now, who is?”

Kelbaugh said.

Trumpey emphasized the University is at the bottom of

Friday, September 21, 2018 — 3A

the Big Ten. He also reiterated carbon neutrality as an important focus not only to keep

“The University is trying but it is not trying hard enough. I feel that we have fallen behind in this regard.

Climate change is the biggest problem facing my generation.”

need everyone on board … We must create and live a new truth together.”

Bernstein addressed the concerns brought up by the students and faculty.

“I’d like to add to the examination of our goals, how they relate to other universities and perhaps an exploration of far more aggressive and ambitious goals in this arena,” Bernstein said. “I urge the University to make this a priority moving forward.”

The board also expressed interest in listening to a presentation from the U-M Climate Action Movement regarding ideas and areas for improvement moving forward.

Currently, the University’s largest sustainable initiative is Planet Blue, which has goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste sent to landfills and increase locally-sourced U-M food.

up with other universities but also for the community.

“I have 25 terrific students in the Sustainable Living Experience, but they simply can’t change the student culture on campus,” Trumpey said. “We

Regents and Schlissel promise action on prof ’s Israel boycott Cheney-Lippold receives death threats after refusing to sign onto reccommendation letter, SAFE and other orgs stand in solidarity SOPHIE SHERRY & MAYA GOLDMAN

Managing News Editor & Daily News Editor

University of Michigan professor John Cheney-Lippold made waves on campus this week from rescinding his offer to write a letter of recommendation for LSA junior Abigail Ingber after realizing she requested the letter to apply to a study abroad program in Israel. The email exchange between the professor and Ingber was posted to Facebook in a screenshot Sunday

by Club Z, an organization that works to empower and network Jewish students who are committed to Zionism.

Throughout the week, the letter has continued to garner positive and negative attention from the campus community.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Cheney-Lippold has received death threats for his email to Ingber. But some campus organizations, such as Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a Palestinian solidarity organization at the University, have come out in support of the American Culture professor.

SAFE released a statement on Facebook Tuesday evening stating the organization stands in solidarity with the students and staff members boycotting Israeli universities.

Cheney-Lippold has received criticism and claims of antiSemitism from students and community members regarding his decision to revoke his recommendation letter.

SAFE’s statement begins by presenting examples of the human rights violations on Palestinian land, writing “there is no question of the violence and inequity perpetuated by settlercolonial Israeli apartheid.”

“We support and affirm Professor John CheneyLippold’s right to boycott Israel,” SAFE statement reads. “His actions are the same demanded

by Palestinian civil society, and serve to recognize and resist forces committing human rights violations. To punish Professor Cheney-Lippold for his actions would curtail his own academic agency.”

SAFE also points out how quickly the University responded to this incident. SAFE claims students have been placed on a political blacklist for speaking

against human rights violations in Palestine, and the University has never released a statement on that issue.

“There has been no University statement on the matter,” the statement reads. “This blacklist is just one of several tangible barriers for students that will prevent them from engaging in not just study abroad programs, but academic programs, jobs, and admittance into Palestine/ Israel.”

The University’s chapter of College Republicans, on the

“The academic aspirations of our students - and their academic freedom - are fundamental to the University of Michigan.”

other hand, released a statement Monday evening calling the incident “deeply disturbing” and condemning Cheney-Lippold’s decision not to write the letter.

The statement was written by Chapter President Dylan Berger.

“Since the 2016 Presidential Election, those at the highest levels of this University have worked tirelessly to silence student who dare to think independently,” Berger wrote.

“As President of College Republicans at University of Michigan, it is my responsibility to advocate for students like Abigail who have been discriminated against in large part due to President Schlissel’s remarks. If President Schlissel is serious about restoring intellectual diversity on campus, he will terminate professor John Cheney-Lippold and retract his remarks that ostracized a significant portion of the student body of the of the university that he claims to lead.”

University President Mark Schlissel did speak about the letter at Thursday’s meeting

of the Board of Regents. He restated sentiments from a Monday press release from the University’s Office of Public Affairs, which affirmed the University’s strong opposition to a boycott of Israeli universities.

Schlissel did not say anything about the employment status of Cheney-Lippold.

“The academic aspirations of our students — and their academic freedom — are fundamental to the University of Michigan and our teaching and research missions,” Schlissel said. “We are a large and diverse public university, and the individual opinions of our community range widely on many issues. But personal views and politics should never interfere with our support of students. It is counter to our support of students.”

Schlissel went on to say the University will continue to look into the issue.

“It is counter to our values and expectations as an institution,” he said. “The regents, executive officers and I have been deeply engaged in this matter. We will be taking appropriate steps to address this issue and the broader questions it has raised.”

University Regent Denise Ilitch (D) echoed Schlissel’s statement at the meeting, recalling the University’s mission to its students.

“At the University of Michigan the best interest of our students is paramount,” she said. “This type of profoundly exclusionary contact by a University of Michigan professor (goes) completely against our mission.

Let’s call this what it really is — anti-Semitic.”

Others took issue with Ilitch’s description of the event as antiSemitic. University alum Yonah Lieberman wrote on Twitter that attaching that label to the event blew it out of proportion.

“This is outrageous conf lation of being antisemitic and antiIsrael,” Lieberman tweeted.

“When Nazis are marching in the streets and Trump is in the White House, it is way, way too dangerous to conf late the two.”

Lieberman is a founder of IfNotNow, a Jewish organization that calls on American Jews to abolish the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Ingber was unable to comment to The Daily earlier this week due to waiting on proceedings with the University.

Opinion

4A — Friday, September 21, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MARISA WRIGHT | COLUMN

The patriotism of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

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DAVID HAYSE | COLUMN

I

Crossing the line

n a recent history course of forward willingly, but was mine, my professor told the “wrung from Mr Cohen’s class that, when reading lawyers by the judge’s order.”

If Hannity wanted any historian’s work, to be an impartial their narrative says journalist and show just as much about the a commitment to time they were living objective truth, then in as the period they he would have come were writing about. forward with this For example, Roman information, instead historian Livy, who of downplaying its lived from 59 B.C. significance after to 17 A.D. and wrote it was revealed in a about the centuries DAVID courtroom. before, had certain HAYSE Hannity is not biases that mutated his transcription of past events. the only newsman, conservative Livy even says himself that or liberal, to have shown he writes with the specific bias in both his personal and purpose of teaching certain professional life. For example, Al Sharpton, whose past is moral lessons.

This pattern of transcribing strewn with connections to and relaying “facts” in order the Democratic Party and with to fit an agenda is not one that personal controversies, has ended with Roman historians, a 6:00 p.m. show on MSNBC but like much else, has been called “PoliticsNation.” He passed on to contemporary also has a radio show called times. This is common among “Keepin’ It Real” and uses it today’s historians, but more along with his position with MSNBC to spread his ideology. prevalent among journalists.

Journalists and news Sharpton has worked in politics anchors are extraordinarily for decades and has had his important people in today’s fair share of controversies. society. News anchors Bill The Tawana Brawley case, O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rachel perhaps better known to our Maddow and others are parents, is a stain on Sharpton’s household names across the reputation. A grand jury found country, even for people who aren’t that attentive to the news.

Have you ever stopped to think, “Who are these people? Are they trustworthy journalists or are they biased performers looking to gain viewers?”

News anchors are part of the medium through which we get most of our information on the world, and their shows are growing more popular.

Newspapers are losing readership while evening primetime shows are how 57 percent of Americans get their news. Can we trust the front men and women of these programs and their staffs to credibly choose which stories are reported on, and how they are reported?

Let’s start with Sean Hannity of Fox News. Hannity that Brawley had lied and has his own primetime show made false accusations of rape on Fox News in which he against several white men, disseminates information including two police officers, that is purported to be fact. but only after Sharpton had Recently, Sean Hannity lent his made slanderous remarks about radio show to two of Donald both the police officers and Trump’s attorneys. He didn’t the district attorney. These have them on as guests to remarks resulted in Sharpton answer tough questions about being found guilty and fined, the potential investigations and, according to some, sparked the president faces. He gave riots. In this case, Sharpton was them his show. Rudy Giuliani made to put his money where and Jay Sekulow were allowed his mouth was because he free reign over the program jumped on a situation to incite for three hours to spread their anger and gain publicity. He views unchecked and even take attempted to run for office on calls from listeners. This is an several occasions, but lost in the egregious dereliction of duty Democratic primary for mayor by a news anchor, to give away of New York, senator from New his show knowingly to allow York and president of the United a biased pair of partisans his States. These issues, while not the only in Sharpton’s past, are national platform.

Trump’s now-former clear markers of Sharpton’s lawyer Michael Cohen also has ties to a political party in one proven issues with Hannity’s case, and in the other, reckless credibility and ability to behavior and slander.

Political bias in the media is be objective. Hannity was also a client of Cohen’s. This not limited to Sean Hannity and information was not brought Al Sharpton. Plenty of others

The First Amendment and its supposed guarantee of a free and independent press have almost become irrelevant with the advent of more politicized news.

across all networks spread their bias daily with the stories they choose to report and how they report them, with the guests they invite to the show, how they treat them and even seemingly simple choices such as the language they choose.

Word choice might not seem important, and it is not always intentional, but it affects the tone of the speaker and reflects biases.

The point of this article is not to make you stop watching or reading news, but rather to ask that you do a little research into those you’ve trusted to research and report on the world for you.

Whether it is Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” whose brother and father are staunch Democratic politicians from New York, or Laura Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, who worked as a speechwriter for former President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Ingraham, who has made her political stances very clear, was encouraged by Republicans to run for Tim Kaine’s Senate seat in Virginia, and, most concerningly, endorsed Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016. I don’t mean to say that endorsing Donald Trump is an issue in of itself, but she set a dangerous precedent. “It was the first time in modern U.S. political history that a prominent media figure endorsed a nominee at his convention,” according to Newsweek writer Bill Powell.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment and its supposed guarantee of a free and independent press have almost become irrelevant with the advent of more politicized news. The political ties between the news media and both the Democratic and Republican parties have made them neither free or independent. They have devolved into propagandists of two power-seeking organizations. This does not mean that you can’t watch the news or that you can’t trust anything you see. It does mean however that there is an implicit or explicit bias in everything you see, and in order to see the full picture of any issue, this must be recognized. Jack W. Germond, a political reporter for nearly 50 years, wrote in his book “Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics”: “The rules were clear then. If you once crossed the line from journalism into partisan politics, you could not return. They were them and we were us.”

David Hayse can be reached at dhayse@umich.edu.

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

O

ftentimes when he attended an all-boys school). If Americans think about Kavanaugh’s first line of defense a person exemplifying is citing a group of women he did not assault to prove that patriotism, they he could not possibly conjure images of a have assaulted another courageous soldier woman, then surely defending American his qualifications as a values and protecting lawyer and a nominee her country against to serve on the Supreme enemies, foreign and Court should be called domestic. If you take into question. Either that same framework way, this letter was of someone acting released with the cruel with courage even MARISA intent to undermine when at direct WRIGHT her allegations against personal cost, it is evident that Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh by painting him as the a professor at Palo Alto University, nice guy incapable of what Dr. Ford demonstrates this courage and claims. determination.

In July, Ford sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who later passed it on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the letter, Ford describes being sexually assaulted by current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge. The assault included the two men shoving her into a bedroom, playing loud music with the intent to drown out her cries for help, repeatedly and violently groping her and Despite these malicious attacks, drunkenly attempting to remove her clothing. Though the initial Ford has offered to testify before the letter was anonymous, she has since Senate Judiciary Committee, which allowed The Washington Post to is currently scheduled for Monday, publish her name in coordination Sept. 24. With the re-opening of the Senate hearings based on with her allegations.

Since her story has become sexual misconduct allegations, Supreme Court public, Ford has faced atrocious Kavanaugh’s personal attacks and questions nomination has become parallel about the veracity of her claims, in mind to the hearings for Justice including an assertion by The Wall Clarence Thomas’s confirmation.

In the early 1990s, Clarence Street Journal that she might be misremembering the incident Thomas was nominated by thenbecause she had discussed it in President George H.W. Bush for marriage counseling with her the Supreme Court of the United husband dating back to 2012. States. When the Senate Judiciary hearings ended, Many conservative politicians and Committee pundits, including Fox News host Thomas’s nomination looked to be Tucker Carlson, have asserted that in a fine position for confirmation. she has come forward solely for However, an FBI interview political reasons and cited abortion leaked that contained allegations as top among them. And on Friday, claiming Thomas had repeatedly Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the sexually harassed Anita Hill, a chairman of the Senate Judiciary lawyer who had worked with Committee, released a letter of him. After the leak, the hearings support for Brett Kavanaugh signed were reopened and Hill was by 65 women who, according to subjected to extraordinarily sexist Kavanaugh, knew him in high questioning, including “Are you a school (it is important to note that scorned woman?” asked by then-

Ford has faced atrocious personal attacks and questions about the veracity of her claims

KENDALL HECKER | COLUMN

“S

Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala. She endured vicious personal attacks by both the committee and the media, often shaded by misogyny and racism. Others threatened Hill’s life, attempted to get her fired and discredited her work as a lawyer.

The virulent treatment of Anita Hill by the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, the media and a large part of the American people is enough evidence to explain why Ford might forgo making public something that is extremely personal, and that occurred over three decades ago. And for many survivors of sexual harassment, assault or rape, the cultural shame and deep trauma they have endured can silence them for years, decades or even lifetimes. Even after Ford’s name became public and she demonstrated evidence of the assault, many downplayed or repudiated the allegations against Kavanaugh outright.

When Kavanaugh was officially nominated to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States by President Donald Trump, Ford chose to defend her country from generations of extremely radical judicial decisions by a man she knew to have heinously committed sexual assault. She chose to speak out in the same world that destroyed Hill in the 1990s when she too stood up against her harasser, a world that also went on to confirm Thomas to the highest court of the land. Ford spoke up in a world where that same man, Thomas, continues to sit on the Supreme Court, despite clear evidence of wrongdoing.

Ford knows she lives in a country that would rather excuse the disgusting and violent behavior of powerful men by sweeping it under the rug or discouraging reporters from investigating credible allegations than deliver justice to their victim(s). She knows exactly what is at stake and did not silently sit back, even at great personal risk. Instead, she stood up and told the story of her sexual assault in hopes of stopping the destructive path of yet another powerful man. And for this, Ford is a true American patriot.

Marisa Wright can be reached at marisadw@umich.edu.

Chasing mistakes

tories live where things slingshot.

Needless to say, my dad has a go wrong.”

I still remember lot of stories. They generally involve writing this down in the Notes poor judgment, alcohol and a series of miscalculations. app on my phone, a Yet he survived and hopeful mantra for and has been telling the from myself, on the day tales for almost 40 I graduated from high years. They still school. I was in the car make him laugh with my parents on the every time. way home from dinner I have never been when my dad was one to make mistakes prompted to retell one of if I can help it. What his famous stories, which does that even I had been hearing since KENDALL mean? I love order I was a toddler, about and preparation, him and his idiot college HECKER completing friends.

Let me be clear, my father is not assignments at least 24 hours an idiot, and neither are his friends. early and making no undue noise But when they were 20, they were in public spaces. In middle school prone to significant lapses in and high school, I quickly earned common sense, and when they get the reputation of the “mom friend,” together now, they still revert back hanging around with a group of to that sophomoric state, losing guys who, like my dad, scaled new several hundred collective IQ points heights of lovable stupidity. I made along the way. Their shenanigans as sure they didn’t get themselves young men are like folk tales in my killed doing things no commonfamily, and they seemed to promise sense person should have to be told that similar antics, adventures and not to do (there is no situation in flat-out blunders (made hilarious by which you need to duct tape kitchen hindsight) would fill my young adult knives to your hands, and yet …).

In the car that night of years.

I was on the verge of leaving for graduation, I started thinking about a summer of travel and my freshman my aversion to stupidity. Since I year of college not long after, so my was little, I’ve always been praised parents were frequently prompted for being responsible and mature. I to break into reminiscence of got good grades in school and could their own time at school and as carry on coherent conversations young adults, providing insights with my friends’ parents. I was the and advice along the way. I don’t one left in charge when the adult remember which story my dad told left the room. I started to wonder if that night in the car. Maybe it was that was always such a good thing. about the time they scaled a wall Was I too controlling? Would I miss to sneak into a castle in Salzburg, out on years worth of adventures Austria, a “Mission Impossible” feat because I was too caught up in embarked upon simply to avoid the potential consequences? Could $6 cost of the ticket. Or it could have I be missing out on something been the one about hiking down the disastrous enough to still make me Grand Canyon for spring break, in a laugh 40 years from now?

I mentioned this to my dad, and surprise snowstorm, and realizing they all forgot to bring water (no he just sort of sighed. “Yeah,” he worries, though, they each had a said, “You need to learn to be stupid snake bite kit and a bottle of Wild sometimes.”

So, I wrote down the line Turkey). There was also the time they rented a houseboat on Lake that began this column as a little Mead for the weekend, flew the Jolly reminder to myself, that stories so Roger pirate flag and proceeded to often are grown in the places where pelt an unamused Coast Guard boat things are calamitous or out of with water balloons from a giant control, or not particularly smart. I

set off on my summer of travel and hoped that I could heed my own advice and learn to chase idiocy.

Anyone that knows me knows I failed to do so. I am equally as organized and controlling as I was the day I graduated high school. But as I sat down to write this column, I started compiling in my head a list of my stories, the ones I tell so often that I begin to laugh on the front side of the punchline. There’s the time I skipped school for senior skip day with two friends, but was so stressed about missing classes that I was miserable and later wrote apology emails to all my teachers. Or when I went on a first date and the guy admitted to having imagined a whole future together after our hour-long chat (it was the first time we had ever met). Or the one when my friends and I were delayed five hours on a standing-room-only train from Edinburgh to Northern England, and everyone began looting shortbread and Cadbury chocolates from the snack cart. We spent all day standing between cars by the bathroom, laughing, joking and gorging on stolen snacks. It is one of my favorite memories from the trip.

None of my favorite stories were born solely from me letting my hair down and suppressing forethought.

Stories so often live where plans are lacking, but luckily for people like me, you can’t plan life. You can, however, choose how you react to its randomness. As seriously as I may take myself in my day-to-day life, I have never been afraid to look back and laugh. You can choose to see something as a calamitous embarrassment or inconvenience, or it can be embroidered, embellished and refurbished to make your kids laugh 30 years from now, as long as you’re willing to be laughing at yourself too. There’s no need to chase mistakes when they will come rushing at you anyway, so you may as well be ready with a game, a group of friends and a bottle of Wild Turkey close at hand.

Kendall Hecker can be reached at kfhecker@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Friday, September 21, 2018 — 5A

album Living Room — “Friend or Enemy,” “Make a Move” and “Probably Up,” among others — as well as songs from their very first full album Breakfast — “Do You Want Nothing To Do with Me,” “Misty Morning” and “Shot” — they never lost touch of this transformative spark, consistently playing with such a level of passion that the crowd had no other option but to lose their feet in the rhythm and just

CONCERT REVIEW

dance.

The highlight of Lawrence’s performance came through a song that didn’t originate as one they created but still made completely their own. Halfway through the set, the first few familiar notes of “Get Busy” by Sean Paul graced our ears. Then the next few notes were completely drowned out due to the volume of the crowd’s scream of approval.

Enthusiasm was high, and

Lawrence was grooving, finding a way to repurpose the song to fit their own specific abilities and allowing each band member to contribute their own personal style. What brought each of the various components of the performance together, however, was the vocal powerhouse duo of the Lawrence siblings, turning the song kaleidoscopic, cascading down onto the crowd like a disco ball’s heavenly flash.

DAILY GENDER & MEDIA COLUMN

WARNER BROS. RECORDS

Lawrence rides the wave of their own versatility SHIMA SADAGHIYANI Daily Music Editor

Just as hip hop’s infamous boy band seem to multiply on stage — feeding off each other’s performances and coalescing into a hive of energy that seems to either contain 1 or 20 people — Lawrence seemed to grow stronger the more they played through their set at the Blind Pig last Mon. night.

Coming from New York City, the eight-member band was originally formed by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence.

Pulling from a wild mix of influences, Lawrence weaves together brass instrumentals,

tight keyboard-driven rhythms and upbeat melodies to create a spontaneous fusion of musical genres; Aretha Franklin soul shakes hands with Carly Rae Jepsen pop, and the resulting agreement that Lawrence manages to broker is nothing short of magical.

All eight band members are longtime childhood and college friends, and this closeness allows them to showcase their almost uncategorizable sound in the best way possible. Standing side by side, the audience could see the synergy between the members, passing smiles and refrains from one person to the next like the handwritten notes you would send your best friends

in middle school geometry. The music simply flowed. And even though the small stage allowed little extravagant movement, the dynamic quality of the music itself turned the entirety of the Blind Pig into a retro dance floor.

The jazz undertones and lounge-pop bursts of “The Heartburn Song” started off the show with layered vocals and guitar chords that crooned, transforming the worn interior of the stage into an underground speakeasy: plush velvet booths and gilded chandeliers with tear-shaped crystals. It’s an aesthetic — a vibe, one could say — that continued throughout their performance. As Lawrence played songs from their newest

BOOKS NOTEBOOK

The Books that Built Us: ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ VERITY STURM For the Daily

I don’t remember reading “The Crying of Lot 49” for the first time, let alone how it came into my life. Those details are eclipsed by what I do recall — the process of coping with its bewildering form, shut in my mint green bedroom at 1:00 a.m., poring over Wikipedia pages on Thomas Pynchon and postmodernism. I was about 16, and offended by the bizarre little book’s refusal to have a plot, to develop characters, to … conclude.

“Why go through the effort of writing something that seems to mean nothing?” I asked myself.

“What the fuck?”

“The Crying of Lot 49” is composed almost exclusively of satirical jabs, distracting details and fruitless conversations. It chronicles the anti-Odyssey of Oedipa Maas as she happens to unearth a peculiar network of coincidences connected by “a symbol she’d never seen before, a loop, triangle and trapezoid,” meant to represent a muted post horn. The rudimentary post horn is the sole illustration in the slim volume and evolves from a point of intrigue to a trigger of sorts as Oedipa begins to see it everywhere. The physical motif is graffitied by polyamorists on a bathroom stall, scrawled amid the notes of a disillusioned techie and embossed on the pin of a member of the Inamorati Anonymous committed to assisting those who have fallen in love (“the worst addiction of all”). Oedipa reads into the symbols, convinced “she will create constellations” out of the chaos, but instead finds herself “an alien, unfurrowed, assumed full circle into some paranoia,” struggling to determine whether she’s actually stumbled upon a massive conspiracy or is simply going mad. It ends abruptly, right when you think you’ll get some sort of answer.

Like Oedipa Maas and her post horns, I found myself desperate to wring the ridiculousness of “Lot 49” into some constellation that made sense to me — one that looked like clarity, coherence and resolution. It was an exercise in pure futility, but one that exposed a set of rigid expectations for the novel I had no idea I was harboring.

As I slowly came to terms with the fact that “Lot 49” isn’t

conventionally “meaningful,” I felt as if I were becoming unstuck, in a completely Kurt Vonnegut way. I realized I was clinging to structure, got embarrassed and loosened my grip. The relief was near erotic.

Flash forward two-ish years and I’m walking to Name Brand Tattoo one Sept. afternoon after Bio 173, or some other class I took freshman year that has zero relevance in what I think I’m doing now. I’m half a country away from home, I have no friends and I’m trying not to be scared as hell. So I’m getting a tattoo. When one of the three Nicks there asks what I want, I open “The Crying of Lot 49” to the symbol that haunts Oedipa Maas halfway across Cali., and a little more than halfway out of (or into?) her mind. I get the post horn inked in an impulsive, grasping attempt to immortalize that little bit of un-stuckness I felt in accepting “Lot 49,” so subsumed in the angst of my moment that I’m oblivious to the fact that I’m literally branding myself with a quintessential emblem of Postmodern Shit.

It was as if I had accidentally joined a cult. Since The Tattoo, I’ve been approached here and there by randos in public who recognize the symbol and wish to share a word, to rave over Oedipa Maas and the Tristero, to recommend a sweet new read. If you ink it, they will come. One of my professors noticed, told me I had a “dope tattoo”— my ego orgasmed. Friends who weren’t familiar with the novel were intrigued by my devotion and read it. Some became converts. I visited one of them this past summer and noticed he had drawn the post horn on his wall in Sharpie. When I pointed it out, I felt a new sort of intimacy establish between us.

This book gives believers a simple way to find each other, and we’re here to spread the paranoid love.

The “Lot 49” subculture, once you start to recognize it, is impressively prevalent. Radiohead and Yo La Tengo have both referenced elements of “Lot 49” in their work, an insider signal to listeners who know it. Oedipa Maas’s signature appears in “The Simpsons,” and the Google Smartphone App for the Treefort Music Fest once featured the post horn on its icon. It’s under my skin, on a wall in Berkeley and scribbled in a bathroom stall at SMTD. The magnitude of our devotion nearly brings me to tears.

The realization that I’ve found belonging in a ridiculous literary

subculture does bring me tears.

All these tears have made me ironically reluctant to return to the text. What if I don’t like it?

What if it’s actually the squirmy sort of Postmodern Shit … and I still have this tattoo? I gave it a couple years, marinated in the cult, continued drawing post horns in my notebooks and evangelizing nonreaders. In the past year, though, I’ve noticed waning familiarity with the names and references that typically arise in “Lot 49” discussions. It was time.

I tracked down my copy of the sacred text (thanks, Dayton) and was pleasantly surprised to find myself frolicking in the prose.

There was so much I had missed the first time around — the smart satire, the raunchy references — the book that was once so inaccessible had become brilliantly hilarious. “Lot 49” round two was like reconnecting with a friend, and discovering even more virtue in them. Encounters like that make the relationship so much stronger.

The most impressive discovery from my literary homecoming, however, is the subtly powerful examination of binary thinking Pynchon manages to work beneath all the absurdity. In the agita of her self-doubt, Oedipa is described as “walking among matrices of a great digital computer, the zeroes and ones twinned above, hanging like balanced mobiles, right and left, ahead, thick, maybe endless.”

The dark omnipresence of “this or that,” the dread of being stuck between, indefinitely, with no word exactly appropriate for the self in the moment. Damn. It is paranoia.

But there’s something to be said for how the structureless paranoia of “The Crying of Lot 49” pushes you into a disposition that can relieve some of the weight of those thick ones and zeroes. Once unstuck from my rigid expectations, I found myself able to notice and appreciate the novel’s ridiculousness. Once I made peace with the fact that there’s no constellation to be drawn, I entered an incredible literary community.

“The Crying of Lot 49,” it seems, is an exercise in detaching from the anxiety of that tension between one and zero. What results is the hysterical grace it takes to exist in bewildering absurdity — absurdity not unlike that of television personality presidents and Bird scooters.

Why do we blame Yoko?

CLARA SCOTT

Daily Gender & Media Columnist

Summers at my house are soundtracked by the oldies. It’s something that I credit most of my random music history knowledge to, just my family sitting with each other around the pool, talking about songwriters from the ’60s and ’70s, listening to soul and rock and, of course, The Beatles. There is a shirt my dad occasionally wears to these parties, partly as a joke and partly for its shock factor. He bought it as a gag, I imagine at an airport, or in Venice, CA., where jokey t-shirts hang from store vendors like bananas off a tree. Sometimes, my stepmom will steal it from him and parade through the house in her pajamas, but its slogan isn’t serious to them. I always question the words, and they laugh and throw their heads back, saying, “It doesn’t really matter, does it? It was all their faults.” On the front, in big white letters, the t-shirt says one thing: I blame Yoko.

Of course, this is in reference to the constant cultural assumption that Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles, a prevailing theory among both self-proclaimed scholars and casual fans alike. In reality, the reasoning behind their infamous dissolution is a little more complicated than the work of one relationship, a combination of the time and personal differences between those famous Liverpoolian men. Who knows, in addition to these things, I’m sure Ono and John Lennon’s torrid love affair and his subsequent obsession with their art and music together probably had something to do with it. The Beatles’ breakup

is, ultimately, a mystery, and the obvious consequence of what happens when a war, fame, money and drugs coincide in one place.

But the question remains — why do we still blame Yoko? Why has our culture become so attached to scapegoating the women in famous men’s lives for anything they do?

In reality, Yoko Ono was an artist in her own right, and according to her, she did not even know of John or The Beatles when they originally met: In fact, he was a fan of hers, a patron of her art long before their romantic relationship began. By Lennon and Ono’s meeting in 1966, she had been a leading member of the Fluxus art movement and published an experimental book titled “Grapefruit.” She was her own person, not just an extension of a very famous man. Even if you set aside the invasive effects of racism in Ono’s case, fans were and have always been confused about why such a legendary band only lasted for a very short time. But the thing that has lasted, and will likely continue to be a cultural touchstone for years to come, is the blame which floats around Yoko Ono’s name. She is not the only famous woman who has been portrayed in the media this way, and has become a reference point for something people call the “Yoko Effect” — a phenomenon that influences us today more than we may even notice.

Earlier this month, in the wake of rapper Mac Miller’s sudden death, Twitter and other social media platforms erupted into outrage.

Most of this was undeservingly pointed directly towards Ariana Grande, Miller’s girlfriend of two years until earlier this year. In this

case, the “Yoko Effect” is still very much alive, a continuing blame game which pins the confusing and sometimes tragic choices of famous men on their female partners. It is still happening in every conversation we have about The Beatles, about Courtney Love, about Ariana Grande and everyone in between. With every affair, every salacious rumor on Twitter or Page Six that places the responsibility of toxic relationship on a woman’s shoulders, we are still blaming Yoko. When I read Rolling Stone writer Brittany Spanos’s article a week ago on this very topic, all I could think about was my dad’s shirt. Here, in 2018, a time full of feminist movements and supposed social enlightenment, our culture is still fixed on this dangerous pattern of blame and assumption that absolves problematic men of culpability and bestows it on their girlfriends and wives. I have caught myself thinking in these ways many times — the “Yoko Effect” is a product of our society’s fixation on accountability — where many people and influences are in play, it is hard to find a character to blame, and in most cases, it doesn’t exist.

But there are ways to subvert this phenomenon, and it is our job as consumers of the media to break the cycle. Do it in small ways, like changing the conversation when it turns to conspiracy, understanding the realities of fame and its influence on choice, and how society’s misogynistic tunnel vision can often look for evil in a woman’s shadows. Beyond all of this, maybe take off the shirt. It could be a joke, but there is a real person in all of these cases, and she deserves to speak for herself.

Release Date: Friday, September 21, 2018

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

ACROSS 1 Harmonious groups 7 Maybelline product 14 Role for Miley 15 Sticks 16 Result of too many people fishing?

18 Customer file prompt 19 Lincoln and Grant had them in common 21 Meet halfway 22 Show of support 24 Religious music?

27 Buoyant wood 30 On point 31 ’60s protest gp.

32 Well-versed about sailing ships?

37 Exhilarated shout 38 Fencing gear 40 Dispute between polite fellows?

44 Term.

47 Practical joke 48 Stimulate 49 Problems with cellphone signals?

54 __ corda: played using the piano’s soft pedal 55 Orly arrival 56 Like little-known facts 59 Hungary neighbor 62 “Above my pay grade” ... and, read in four parts, a hint to 16-, 24-, 32-, 40and 49-Across 65 Dodging 66 Pushes back, say 67 No 68 Antarctic explorer Shackleton

DOWN 1 Golden State traffic org.

2 “Bali __” 3 Nearly zero 4 About 5 Indian noble 6 Cutting 7 George Strait label 8 Munic. official 9 Family ride 10 Shipped stuff 11 Dodges 12 Fix some bare spots, say 13 Take stock of 17 Sixteenthcentury year 20 Ivory, for one 22 __ Dhabi 23 Jabber 25 Cut or crust opener 26 Seventh in an instructional 39-Down, perhaps 28 Obstacle 29 Back to back?

33 Pines 34 Very small amounts

35 Volunteer for another tour 36 Final Four game 39 Order 41 Eau in Ecuador 42 Sister 43 It may be iced 44 Showed leniency toward 45 Villa d’Este city 46 Hostility 50 Cattle drivers

51 Navel configuration 52 Shore bird 53 Goal or basket 57 Lenovo competitor 58 Bangalore bread 60 Lodging spot 61 Sports rep.

63 Sot’s affliction 64 East, in Essen

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By Jerry Edelstein ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

09/21/18

09/21/18

Arts

6A — Friday, September 21, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

STYLE NOTEBOOK

ATLANTIC RECORDS

How do we define an icon in 2018?

TESS GARCIA

Daily Style Editor

On July 24, Gay Times Magazine tweeted out its Aug. 2018 cover featuring singer and songwriter Lizzo.

“Baby, how you feelin’? GOOD AS HELL!” The tweet read. “Get to know the iconic singer whose body positivity, certified bangers and general IDGAF attitude have made her a true ally for the LGBTQ community.”

The replies came rushing in, most of them positive with a few notable exceptions. One, in particular, caught the musician’s eye.

“Ok, but calling Iconic someone who has 56,000 followers isn’t a little to much,” wrote user @LivingForMad. “Are we going to call now Iconic and legends everyone, that’s will mean nothing. And I really don’t have to know everyone.” [Sic.]

Lizzo was quick to retaliate.

“MY WORTH = MY ART,” she shot back. “Not a number on an app.”

The exchange stuck with me for months to come, leaving me with questions that I never realized I wanted to ask. In true Carrie Bradshaw fashion, I couldn’t help but wonder: During the age of doing it for the ‘gram, what distinguishes an influencer from an icon?

Creative industries have always valued clout. It keeps them relevant, even to those who may not feel truly invested in entertainment or culture. The emergence of social media has given rise to a

new means of quantifying one’s reputability: Today, the size of an artist’s following is examined with perhaps more scrutiny than the work they produce.

Few in the fashion industry better personify this shift than Virgil Abloh.

Abloh, who counts Kanye West and Kid Cudi as friends and boasts 2.7 million Instagram followers, had no formal design experience before launching streetwear label Off-White in 2012. Six years later, he was named the chief creative officer of Louis Vuitton menswear, a decision some industry experts have attributed to his heady

During the age of doing it for the ‘gram, what distinguishes an influencer from an icon?

Internet presence rather than the integrity of his work.

Though Abloh has only sent one collection down the runway so far, the brand’s parent company, Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), has been quick to flaunt its shiny new “visionary” as the driving force behind its recent growth. According to The Fashion Law, LVMH’s first half report notes “the remarkable growth at Louis Vuitton” thanks to “the arrival of Virgil

Abloh, as Menswear Artistic Director, whose debut fashion show was widely commented on across social media, and was exceptionally well received.”

The inclusion of the social media tidbit is definitive proof that LVMH views Abloh’s Internet following as an asset offering tangible returns. Yet the question remains: Does the devotion of millions of young hypebeasts equate to truly sustainable “success,” however we may choose to define that?

Should we choose to view success in financial terms, there are clear benefits to amassing a sizable following online — that is, if you’re comfortable commodifying your own existence. Take Kylie Jenner, who can charge up to $1 million for an Instagram post advertising a product. No matter how you slice it, that’s one hell of a profit for little to no intensive labor.

But is the promotion of SugarBear Hair Vitamins what she’ll be remembered for? Or is there something going on beneath the surface, after the #PaidAds and follower counts are stripped away, that will permit Jenner to make a lasting impact on pop culture as we know it?

To some extent, mainstream media has always perpetuated the notion that “icon” status is a prize to be won via some tabloiddriven popularity contest.

However, not everyone places real value on that assessment.

Many of the world’s most

powerful tastemakers haven chosen to turn their back to others’ evaluations of their influence. After all, none of them asked for a world with social media in it — why should they feel obligated to embrace the tropes of the Instagram age?

Just look at Lizzo, the songstress introduced sex-positive lyricism to the mainstream with far less followers than the average Instagram model, or Adam Selman, the mastermind behind the game-changing chainmail gown Rihanna wore to the 2014 CFDA Awards; some of his posts don’t even hit a thousand likes (gasp!). Many of our culture’s most defining moments are created by those who couldn’t care less who watches them what they do. If anything, an artist’s decision to throw social norms to the wind makes them even more iconic.

Here’s what I think: A following can help an icon spread their message. That increased reach can allow them to touch more lives than ever, reaffirming the value of their work. But followers don’t make someone iconic. As Lizzo so candidly reminded us, it’s about what we do with real people in real life, not numbers on a tiny app on the tiny screen of a tiny phone in our (physically or metaphorically tiny) hand.

So yes, @LivingForMad. Lizzo is an icon, no matter how many followers she does or does not have. Not to beat the pun to death, but she has every right to feel good as hell about that.

FILM REVIEW

NETFLIX

‘Land of Steady Habits’ fails as suburban critique EMMA CHANG For the Daily

“The Land of Steady Habits” opens with a mundane yet vaguely terrifying and seemingly endless supply of bath towels. And kitchen supplies.

And toothbrush holders. All things that should mark a quintessential, whitepicket-fence life in suburbia.

Instead, there’s barely a shadow of this lifestyle and, in its place, are the scattered remains of a financial shark’s attempt to go rogue. Though interesting in theory, “The Land of Steady Habits” never reaches a climax and remains a f lat telling of rich white people and their problems.

In short, Netf lix’s new family drama tackles the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side. Ben Mendelsohn (“Ready Player One”) has the air of a man who was, in his youth, a catch.

This vibe perfectly matches that of his character, Anders, who gave up his family and job only to realize that not having a steady income can have a serious impact on a life rooted in an aff luent Connecticut town.

The most appealing part of this movie is the lack of in-your-face drama: Anders has already left his outwardly ideal life and the small community has adjusted to the split of one of its more prominent couples. The drama that does occur is tinged with the subtle tension of a rich white suburb that, rather than

talking about their problems, ignores them with alcohol and drugs. The screaming matches that do occur are after someone pops a Xanax or one glass of red wine too many. The cutthroat nature of suburban parents whose reputation is at stake fosters the kind of crisis that makes “The Land of Steady Habits” such a compelling, and almost laughable, movie to watch.

While the movie has its fair share of surface-level

“The Land of Steady Habits” Netflix

drama that’s expected when teenagers are doing drugs and parents are too involved with their own lives to care, “The Land of Steady Habits” also follows the tumultuous experience of being a parent.

From listening to my parents talk about their peers to hearing new ones discuss the ever-evolving pressures, parenthood seems like a balancing act that no one has mastered. Worry too much and your kid might become distant and rebellious, care too little and the exact same thing can happen. The redemption arc that follows after Anders has a drug-induced epiphany about his relationship with his son Preston (Thomas Mann, “Me and Earl and the Dying

Girl”) sends a compassionate message, that no matter how much we mess up there’s always going to be some way to fix the issue and get back the important things in your life.

“Steady Habits” further pushes this message with all the parallels between Mendelsohn and Mann’s characters. Both Anders and Preston have stalled in their life, with Anders still hung up on his ex-wife and Preston living with his mother at 27 with barely any job prospects.

They both fool around in their lives: Preston with gambling and Anders with women, and when they realize their lives haven’t met their expectations both turn to alcohol. It takes the death of the endearing Charlie Ashford (Charlie Tahan, “I Am Legend”) to jar both of them from their stupors and propel them forward in their lives. Charlie, dead before his life even started, is what Preston could have been had his parents cared a little less and forces Anders to really consider how much he loves his wife and son and what he needs to do to regain their favor.

Though supposedly living in a land of steady habits, it’s obvious that whatever these people are, they aren’t steady and it really shouldn’t be any other way. The movie ends with the cliché but inspiring message that there’s still time for redemption, whether you’re 27 getting off your parents’ couch or 60-something and starting a new life with a pet turtle.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

2018 Schedule

The Michigan football team dropped its season opener to Notre Dame, falling to the No. 12 Fighting Irish, 24-17. The following two weeks featured dominating performances by the Wolverines, who notched wins over Western Michigan (49-3) and SMU (45-20). This week, an 0-2 Nebraska team travels to Ann Arbor in search of its first win of the season in the Big Ten opener. The matchup will end the three-game home stretch at Michigan Stadium, as the Wovlerines travel to Maryland next Saturday.

3 4 6 8

Notre Dame (Sept. 1): Touchdown Jesus?

Where is Touchdown Moses?

Wisconsin (Oct. 13): There’s no “I” in Chryst.

Western Michigan (Sept. 8): Tim LESS-ter.

Michigan State (Oct. 20): The Michigan Daily has beaten the State News 13 years in a row.

SMU (Sept. 15): Sonny Yikes!

Penn State (Nov. 3): The App State game gave us flashbacks even without the 7,000 replays on BTN.

Nebraska (Sept. 22): Nebraska is undeniably the worst state to drive through.

Rutgers (Nov. 10): Seriously, someone needs to drain the hot tub.

Northwestern (Sept. 29): No. No one cares that you went to Medill. Crawl back in your hole.

Indiana (Nov. 17): We spent 5 minutes debating who their coach was.

Maryland (Oct. 6): They need more swing sets in College Park.

Ohio State (Nov. 24): Brett XcXurphy

TABLE OF CONTENTS Jacob Bova, a reporter for The Daily Nebraskan, gives his take.

Don Collins knew his son, Nico, was destined for big things this season when he called Don to tell him he was “ballin’.”

The Daily breaks down how the Wolverines will fare against Nebraska.

The Daily presents storylines to watch out for in Michigan’s Big Ten opener.

STAFF PICKS The Daily football writers pick against the spread for top-25 and Big Ten teams.

No. 22 Texas A&M at No. 1 Alabama (-26)

Mike Persak

Max Marcovitch

Mark Calcagno Alabama

Alabama

Bob, Managing Web Editor

Ethan Wolfe Alabama

Alabama

Alabama

No. 2 Georgia (-14.5) at Missouri

Georgia

Georgia

Georgia

Georgia

Georgia

No. 3 Clemson (-15.5) at Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech

Clemson

Clemson

Clemson

Georgia Tech

Tulane at No. 4 Ohio State (-37)

Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Army at No. 5 Oklahoma (-31)

Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Army

Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Louisiana Tech at No. 6 LSU (-20.5)

LSU

Louisiana Tech

LSU

LSU

LSU

No. 7 Stanford (-2.5) at No. 20 Oregon

Oregon

Oregon

Stanford

Stanford

Oregon

No. 8 Notre Dame (-7) at Wake Forest

Wake Forest

Notre Dame

Wake Forest

Notre Dame

Wake Forest

Arkansas at No. 9 Auburn (-29)

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Auburn

Arizona State at No. 10 Washington (-17.5)

Arizona State

Washington

Washington

Washington

Arizona State

No. 10 Penn State (-28) at Illinois

Penn State

Penn State

Penn State

Penn State

Penn State

Kansas State at No. 12 West Virginia (-16)

West Virgnia

West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia

Old Dominion at No. 13 Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech

No. 14 Mississippi State (-9) at Kentucky

Mississippi State

Kentucky

Kentucky

Mississippi State

Mississippi State

Texas Tech at No. 15 Oklahoma State (-14)

Oklahoma State

Texas Tech

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State

Florida Atlantic at No. 16 UCF (-13.5)

UCF

UCF

Florida Atlantic

UCF

UCF

No. 17 TCU (-3) at Texas

TCU

Texas

TCU

TCU

TCU

No. 18 Wisconsin (-3) at Iowa

Wisconsin

Iowa

Iowa

Wisconsin

Iowa

Nebraska at No. 19 Michigan (-18)

Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska

Michigan

Michigan

Florida Intl at No. 21 Miami (-26.5)

FIU

Miami

Miami

Miami

FIU

No. 23 Boston College (-7) at Purdue

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

No. 24 Michigan State (-5) at Indiana

Michigan State

Indiana

Michigan State

Michigan State

Michigan State

McNeese at No. 25 BYU (No line)

BYU

BYU

BYU

BYU

BYU

Minnesota at Maryland (-1)

Minnesota

Maryland

Maryland

Maryland

Minnesota

Buffalo (3.5) at Rutgers

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Rutgers

Overall

24-26

27-23

29-21

26-24

N/A

2B

FootballSaturday, September 21, 2018

Behind Enemy Lines: A conversation with Nebraska football beat writer Jacob Bova

By MIKE PERSAK Managing Sports Editor

In the softest part of its otherwise tough schedule, the Michigan football team has started to gain some momentum.

The 19th-ranked Wolverines (2-1) have dominated Western Michigan and SMU in the last two weeks, scoring a combined 94 points.

Now, though, things will begin to ramp up again for Michigan, as Nebraska (0-2) comes to Ann Arbor on Saturday, marking the start of Big Ten play.

The Nebraska at Cornhuskers have gotten off Michigan to a tough start in Matchup: their first season Nebraska 0-2; under coach Scott Michigan 2-1 Frost, falling to When: Saturday Colorado and 12 P.M. Troy, both at Where: home.

Michigan Stadium Nebraska quarterback TV/Radio: ABC Adrian Martinez suffered a leg injury against Colorado, and it’s possible that the Cornhuskers would be 2-0 if that hadn’t happened. Still, Nebraska seemingly hasn’t faced a team with Michigan’s talent.

The Daily caught up with Jacob Bova, a Nebraska football beat writer for The Daily Nebraskan, to talk about Cornhusker fans’ expectations for Frost, the health and ability of Martinez and predictions for Saturday’s game: The Michigan Daily: With the first couple of losses, is there still a lot of faith in (Scott Frost) and a lot of hype for the program and where it’s headed? Or has it depleted at all?

What’s your perspective on that?

Jacob Bova: I would say that a majority of Nebraska fans are going to give Scott Frost as much time as he needs to get this program right. There are like a few of those detractors that are already saying, like, ‘He’s 0-2. He’s not doing it.’ Those people are by far, they’re a loud minority. I feel like most Nebraskans will give Scott Frost the time he needs, and they have the faith that he will do the right thing. When he was at Nebraska as a quarterback and won the national title — by the way, we were the national title winners that year — anyways, when he won the national title that

year, like, Scott Frost was loved by everyone. He’s always been someone that Nebraska fans — before he even got into coaching, he had some blogs that a lot of Nebraska fans followed.

What he says has a lot of weight. And so, Scott Frost coming home, was like, it was seen by most Nebraskans as the only choice that Bill Moos, the athletic director, had. And people are gonna give him as much time as he needs. He just got a 7-year contract, so it’s like, I think most Nebraska fans are gonna be pretty patient with him.

TMD: Getting into the actual play this year, obviously Adrian Martinez goes down. Have you guys gotten any updates? Is he supposed to play this weekend? Does anybody know?

Bova: So what Frost said after the Troy game was that he looked good. And from what I saw from the sidelines during warmups, he was warming up, and there was no real, I mean, he had a brace on his knee, but he looks pretty close to 100 percent, I would say. But at the end of the day, he didn’t practice until, I want to say (last week) Friday, I think — Thursday or Friday. So he didn’t practice until late in the week. This week, he’s practiced every day, and the offensive coordinator said that he looked better every day.

But this coaching staff is not one that’s going to risk putting him up against, I mean, Michigan’s d-line is for real, and our o-line hasn’t been the best. So he’ll be running a lot, and on a bad knee, if it’s still not 100 percent, there’s no way that Scott Frost is gonna risk it, especially since he’s a true freshman.

TMD: So if he doesn’t play, (backup quarterback Andrew) Bunch seemed to struggle a little bit. If you had to give a scouting report on Bunch, what would it be?

Bova: So for what he was told to do, he did an admirable job. The thing is, is what he was asked to do was not much. He didn’t offer any deep balls.

I think he only had one completion when the ball went in the air for 15 yards or more. So there was really no big play threat, yet, I mean, Nebraska has the receivers to do that. J.D. Spielman and Mike Williams are fast guys, and they can blow the top off a defense.

But, I don’t have enough faith in Bunch’s deep ball accuracy. Like he had a few throws deep that were just awful and into double coverage and that kind of thing. So honestly, Bunch

EVAN AARON/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson will play in his first Big Ten conference game as Michigan’s quarterback on Saturday.

starts, I have a hard time seeing Nebraska doing a lot. He’s a good enough athlete to where he can move the pocket, but he’s not a good enough athlete to run the read option, like, all the time.

I will say … if Martinez plays, what I would say is out of him, he’s a fantastic athlete. He’s a very good athlete, but also an underrated thrower. In the Colorado game, he had like a 50-yard pass to J.D. Spielman that was on a dime, like a perfect throw. And if he plays, first off, he’s going to be at 100 percent, which means he’ll be able to run and do all that. So I would say if he plays, then I think that the game will get a little more interesting. If Bunch plays, I think it could be pretty ugly.

TMD: From an outsider’s perspective, a lot of the talk has been about the offense, … but I don’t know a ton about the defense. From what I can tell, the rush defense, pretty solid.

The pass defense has been a little bit suspect, is that correct, or am I off on that?

Bova: No, that’s pretty accurate.

I would say going into the year, a lot of people were asking questions about this defense. I mean, last year, the last three games, Nebraska gave up 50-plus points, and it was ugly.

So there were a lot of questions going into this year of how the defense would look. But so far, the front seven has been, I think, has exceeded everyone’s expectations and have been very good. The game

against Colorado, I’d say the corners, personally, I don’t think they played very bad. One of the corners, Dicaprio Bootle, this is his first year starting, and he’s physical and he’s played very well. The safeties in the Colorado game, I think is what cause a lot of the — Laviska Shenault, the wide receiver from Colorado, had a few where he just burned the defense. And I think that was a little more on the safeties than it was on the corners.

That being said, the Troy game last week, the secondary showed up. The secondary allowed — I think it was like 110 passing yards over the whole game. I mean, the defense, I’m more interested to see how they play against a team like Michigan, because, yeah, the rush defense’s numbers have been good, but it’s also been against Troy and Colorado, which are two teams that don’t run the ball very much.

And one last thing, the pass rush has been really good. They had seven sacks against Colorado and three last week against Troy. So, yeah, the pass rush has also been pretty potent.

TMD: Before the year, (did) you have a prediction of what you thought (Nebraska) would be? … What are your expectations for the rest of the year, and what would make a successful season for Nebraska?

Bova: So at the beginning of the year, I think 7-5 was seen as a decent number — like 7-5, maybe 8-4. But I guess there were pretty low-ish expectations, but also Nebraska’s schedule this year is brutal. I mean,

we have to go to Michigan, to Ohio State, to Wisconsin, to Iowa and home against Michigan State. So it’s like, the schedule this year is brutal.

And so, I think that 7-5, 6-6 or even 8-4 were seen as probably like the baselines. Now? I mean, at this point, if Nebraska can get bowl eligible, that would be huge. That would require Nebraska, though, to win one of the Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin or Iowa games. Games that we’re gonna be significant underdogs in. You know, it requires us to win one of those and then not drop any of the other games. So, I think that if Scott Frost can get Nebraska to be bowl eligible this year, I think that would be seen as a success.

TMD: I know it’s hard to predict with the whole quarterback situation, but I want to ask you for a prediction.

What do you think, score-wise, we’re looking at?

Bova: Earlier today, we have a podcast, and I had a score prediction 21-9 Michigan. I feel like this game is gonna be pretty low-scoring.

Michigan’s defense is for real. I think Nebraska’s defense is a lot better than what it was last year. But at the end of the day, I just don’t think that this team has enough — I don’t think this team is experienced enough and has had, I don’t know where the psyche is at this point. But I think the line was at like 18.5 or something like that, and I feel like that’s a little absurd. I think that might be a little much. But yeah, I said 21-9, I think, Michigan.

TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

3B

THE

LIGHT

THAT SWITCHED Mark Calcagno, Daily Sports Editor

Nico Collins and the light that switched

I

n mid-August, as he does daily, Nico Collins called home after football practice. Only this conversation wasn’t a typical check-in for the sophomore wide receiver. It was one his dad, Don, had longed to hear.

“I asked him how he was doing,” Don said during a phone interview Thursday. “And he was like, ‘I’m ballin’. Those were his exact words: ‘I’m ballin’.’ ” After just three catches for 27 yards in 2017, Collins had yearned to say those words, too.

He knew he’d be limited his freshman season behind classmates Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black on the depth chart.

But Collins was having a fall camp that had Michigan players and coaches raving. And Don had never heard such confidence in his son.

“You never hear him brag about anything,” Don said. “When people asked about him in high school, I told them, ‘Nico is good, but Nico doesn’t know how good he can be.’ ” So when Collins did brag last month, Don knew it was meaningful.

“I knew the

4B

FootballSaturday, September 21, 2018

lightbulb had finally gone off for him.” *** Collins’ first sport was basketball, which he began playing when he was four. Eventually, he’d become one of the country’s top-ranked seventh and eighth graders on the AAU circuit.

One of his lifelong friends, Terell West, says he still “knows him as a basketball player.”

West and Collins first met playing pee-wee football together in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. Collins was a quarterback and running back then, sharing the field with two Division-I athletes in West — now a running back at Middle Tennessee State — and current Maryland quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome.

The trio moved on to star at Clay-Chalkville High School, where they were joined by nowWest Virginia receiver T.J. Simmons.

It was through competing with Simmons that Collins first flashed

serious potential on the field.

“That’s when we found out he was gonna be a player,” West said. “Throughout the summer, we saw him as a long receiver, and we saw him competing with T.J. Simmons. We just saw them working and coming together, and he was just learning from (him). T.J. was a big-time mentor to Nico.”

Simmons was loud. Collins wasn’t. Though their personalities were at odds, the two quickly developed a strong bond and mentorship.

“T.J. was the complete polar opposite,” said former-Clay-Chalkville offensive coordinator Stuart Floyd. “And some of those things helped Nico because T.J. played with an edge and a physicality that Nico didn’t really have at the time.”

Over the course of the year, Collins’ personality emerged. Before every game, he and Simmons would put on a “dance show of sorts” in Don’s words — just as Collins still does today.

“Man, it’s so fun when he’s opened up,” West said. “He’s so tall, just seeing him dance is fun. It just takes some time for it to come out. But he’s always been a character, just really funny.

“We kind of got him to open up towards the end of the year.

Like I said, T.J. just being a mentor got him to break out of that shell.”

Collins broke out on the field, too. With him, Simmons, Pigrome and West all on the same side of the ball, ClayChalkville rode an unstoppable offense to a state championship title in 2014.

“It’s probably the most fun I’ll ever have in my career,” Floyd said. “I’m not sure you’ll come across that many

talented players at the same school at the same ttime. You could do pretty much anything you wanted to offensively.”

Collins amassed 2,000 yards over his final two seasons, becoming the state’s top-ranked recruit at receiver.

But even as his game soared, his humble personality persisted. That would a leave a lasting impression on Jerry Hood, legendary Clay-Chalkville coach who has since retired.

Every day during practice, Collins would jog behind the offense and give Hood a bump or pat on the back. To others, it was a habit that went mostly unnoticed. But for Hood and Collins, it meant everything.

“He didn’t say much, but that was his way of saying, ‘I’m here coach. I’m enjoying this time,’ ” Hood said. “I never will forget that, and I appreciated that about him.” *** Alabama isn’t a recruiting hotbed for Michigan, and it’s no surprise why. Plucking recruits from the Deep South and Nick Saban isn’t easy.

“I think for most kids in Alabama, if Auburn or Alabama offers you,” Floyd said, “it’s pretty much expected that you’re going to one of the two.”

The Crimson Tide wanted Collins, especially.

Of course, that’s where Simmons had just enrolled in the fall of 2016, and pressure to follow suit crowded Collins.

“I vividly remember seeing his face in the early part of the season just being really worn down,” Hood said. “T.J. was at Alabama at the time, and everybody was talking about Alabama.”

So Hood met with Collins individually and gave his receiver permission to stop answering calls. Dozens of schools had offered Collins, and out of politeness, he had been answering everything that came his way.

But there was one school Collins really didn’t mind hearing from: Michigan. After all, Don — a Detroit native — was a “huge” Wolverines fan.

So Collins asked the Clay-Chalkville coaching staff to send Michigan his tape.

TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

The Wolverines had never heard of Collins, but just days after watching his tape, they flew staff down to Alabama.

“Nico actually recruited Michigan,” Floyd said. “It wasn’t Michigan going after him originally, truth be told.”

Collins first met Jim Harbaugh with a bag of Dairy Queen in his hands. It wasn’t long before the coach wanted some of his own.

“Harbaugh just stuck his hand right in Nico’s bag, grabbed some fries out and started eating them,” Hood said. “(It) was like they had known each other for forever, which was pretty awesome.

“He just had himself a good old Jim Harbaugh time.”

Collins must not have minded the sacrifice in fries. For all the odd anecdotes Harbaugh has created on the recruiting trail, he left a folksier impression in Birmingham. Collins would take multiple unofficial visits to Ann Arbor before committing in February of his senior year. “(Harbaugh) was very, very down to Earth,” Floyd said. “He and I talked about emojis just because we wear similar glasses. … He’s pretty cool, man. He’s not like a lot of coaches, and Nico liked that.” *** Three years later, Collins has indeed started to shine under Harbaugh.

Taking over a starting role for the injured Black, Collins has five catches for 113 yards and a touchdown in three games. He maintains the team’s highest yard-per-catch mark while blossoming into a reliable deep threat for Shea Patterson.

In the seasonopener at Notre Dame, Collins caught a 52-yard bomb from the

junior quarterback to open the second half. A week later, Collins caught his first career touchdown on another deep ball — this time a 44-yard connection against Western Michigan. It was the first score in 364 days for a Wolverines receiver.

“Everybody’s always seen potential in him,” Patterson said.

“Even last year in film, I remember watching this tall, lanky guy — very athletic and fast.”

So what’s been the difference in Collins realizing this potential?

Unprompted, Patterson gave part of the answer during a press conference Wednesday. “(It was) believing in himself a little bit more,” Patterson said. “…

Just him knowing that he’s kinda that guy.”

Collins knows his career is far from finished, but he talks about his NFL dreams with his family occasionally. He wants to continue becoming faster and stronger, hoping to model the skill sets of Randy Moss, Josh Gordon and DeAndre Hopkins.

With plays like those he made against Notre Dame and Western Michigan, that’s

becoming more of a reality.

“God willing, he stays healthy, and if he does, there’s no telling where he could go,” Don said. “Heck, Hall of Fame.”

A lot separates Collins from a gold jacket. But Collins now believes that the sky’s the limit, and that’s what is truly important.

“I think he realizes that he can be really good,” Don said. “And I think after the conversation we had in fall camp, the light just came on for him.

“It was time to rock n’ roll.”

5

Breakdown: Michigan vs. Nebraska

By MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor

Michigan opens up Big Ten play with a matchup against Nebraska that seemed far more intriguing a few weeks ago. The Cornhuskers (0-2) came from 14 points down in their season opener against Colorado to take a 28-20 lead, then handed the game right back after true freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez left the game with a leg injury.

The next week, without Martinez, Nebraska fell to Troy — an embarassing loss on its face, but a slightly less embarassing defeat given the Trojans’ understated quality.

Still, the Wolverines (2-1) come into this game an 18-point favorite for a reason. Nebraska is on its first six-game losing streak since 1957, as the Scott Frost era has begun with a turbulent start. For the Cornhuskers, this game is a chance to right the ship (coaches have referenced “Rocky” in the run-up to this one). For Michigan, it’s the opening of a Big Ten season filled with pressure to perform. The Daily breaks down Saturday’s matchup: Michigan’s pass offense vs.

Nebraska’s defense If Nebraska is going to win, it seems like two things need to go right. One of those requires the Cornhuskers’ defensive line taking advantage of Michigan’s inconsistent pass protection.

Nebraska has 10 sacks in two games this season, the secondhighest per-game total of any team in the country. Though the Cornhuskers have plenty of questions, their front seven will pose a test for a unit that hasn’t been tested since the debacle at Notre Dame. If Nebraska can get junior quarterback Shea Patterson and co. into obvious passing downs, there’s reason to believe they’ll have some success.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.

Patterson has opened the season as well as any Michigan quarterback in quite some time, completing over 70 percent of his passes for 589 yards and six touchdowns. Patterson said this week he has “never been this comfortable in a system.” All of 6B

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Junior running back Chris Evans and junior running back Karan Higdon are both expected to play in Michigan’s matchup with Nebraska after sustaining injuries last week.

a sudden, external pleas have come to unleash the offense — to open up Patterson’s skillset and allow more than the present 22 pass attempts per game.

Nebraska isn’t SMU or Western Michigan; this is a legitimate test to see whether strides have been made in the passing game since Sep. 1, or whether the recent run of success has been a mirage.

Advantage: Michigan Michigan’s run offense vs.

Nebraska’s defense Michigan could have Brett Favre in his prime at quarterback and it wouldn’t run a full-on air raid attack. While the passing game has been the talk of the town, the Wolverines — who run

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the same percentage of running plays as they do passing plays — will continue to rely on balance.

This week, that comes with the caveat of health. Junior running backs Karan Higdon and Chris Evans are both recovering from injuries. Both have practiced this week. When asked whether they would play Saturday, Jay Harbaugh responded “that’s what we expect.” Against a formidable Big Ten foe, at a position of relatively scant depth, that’s an important development, if it holds true.

Nebraska has allowed a respectable 278 yards on the ground in two weeks. But Troy and Colorado didn’t possess the duo that Higdon and Evans can become when healthy.

Advantage: Michigan Nebraska’s pass offense vs.

Michigan’s defense It looks like Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez will play, as he was upgraded from “questionable” to “probable” on Thursday.

It may seem inconsequential to some whether the true freshman Martinez starts or if the nod goes to walk-on sophomore Andrew Bunch.

But in an offense that relies heavily on its quarterback’s skillset, Martinez has the tools to be special. In his start this year against Colorado, he posted 187 yards and a touchdown on 15-of-20 pass attempts, in addition to 15 carries for 117 yards and two touchdowns on

the ground. He was the offense.

And when he left the game with a leg injury, the Cornhuskers held a 28-27 lead. He left, they lost, then lost against the next week to Troy with Martinez watching on.

Martinez will give Michigan a test in discipline similar to the one it faced against Brandon Wimbush in the opener.

Wimbush kept the Wolverines’ defense honest with the threat of quarterback runs and ability to escape the pocket. On the run, Wimbush was able to effectively

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Follow @MikeDPersak, @ethanewolfe, @Max_Marcovitch and @MWCalcagno on Twitter during Saturday’s game.

find his open receivers early in the game, enough to put up 21 points in the blink of an eye.

Martinez may not have the weapons around him nor the experience to do that on this stage.

But he has the skill.

Still, if Michigan’s defense can avoid the over-aggression that plagued it early against Notre Dame, you have to like its chances against a true freshman quarterback in a new system at Michigan Stadium.

(An aside: Martinez is going to be a problem in the Big Ten for the next few years. He’s brimming with talent, and he’s in the right place at the right time.)

Advantage: Michigan Nebraska’s run offense vs.

Michigan’s defense Some of this is covered in the section above, but Nebraska’s run attack is multi-pronged.

There are lots of moving parts, motioning, options and more.

Martinez orchestrates it all — he will probably end the game with the most carries, too — but he’s certainly not alone in the backfield.

After being ejected for targeting in the third quarter last week, junior VIPER Khaleke Hudson will have to sit for the first half. Defending Martinez and all those moving parts will be where Michigan misses Hudson most.

In all likelihood, senior Jordan Glasgow will slot into the VIPER spot in Hudson’s absence.

There are three Cornhuskers with at least 20 carries on the year. Greg Bell and Maurice Washington both average over 5.5 yards per carry. Devine Ozigbo, who’s been less effective early this season, will also figure into the equation.

This is an offense predicated on space and decision-making.

The space they have been able to find, offering promising glimpes of what the Scott Frost offense could become in the years to come.

The deicision-making has lagged behind, and it has led to some expected mistakes this season.

The Cornhuskers have averaged two more turnovers per game than their opponents this season, which is tied for 126th of 129, nationally. For now, the mistakes are going to be enough to hold this offense back; the roster depth is also not up to nearly where it

needs to be in the aftermath of the Mike Riley era.

All that being said, this is almost certainly not the caliber of offense Michigan will see when it plays Frost and Nebraska down the line. For now, Michigan’s (generally) stout run defense holds the advantage.

Advantage: Michigan Special Teams Michigan’s special teams remain a surprising team strength.

Sophomore kick returner Ambry Thomas is still a threat to take any kickoff to the endzone. Junior punter Will Hart ranks sixth in the nation in yards per punt, averaging 50.1 yards per punt.

Both kickers are certifiably iffy in this one. Quinn Nordin has made two of his three field goal attempts this season, Nebraska kicker Barret Pickering has made just two of four, none over 40 yards.

Frankly, if this game comes down to special teams, things have gone astray for Michigan.

Advantage: Michigan

Intangibles How about this for an intangible: Many Michigan fans are convinced Scott Frost robbed them of an undisputed national championship in 1997. His Nebraska team was ranked No. 2 in the nation, behind Michigan.

Both teams won their bowl games — the Cornhuskers did so a bit more convincingly against Peyton Manning’s Tennessee team. After the game, Frost (a quarterback for Nebraska at the time) suddenly turned into a politician.

“You know, if all the pollsters honestly think, after watching the Rose Bowl and watching the Orange Bowl, that Michigan could beat Nebraska, go ahead and vote Michigan, by all means,” he said.

“Let me say this. Let me say this.

But I don’t think there’s anybody out there that with a clear conscience can say that Nebraska and especially that (coach) Tom Osborne, that great man, doesn’t deserve a national championship for this. At least a share.”

And so, a share it was. Michigan topped the AP Poll, Nebraska claimed the coaches poll. And forever, Frost lives in Michigan infamy.

But the history with Frost and Michigan didn’t end there. In 2016, he told reporters he was proud that his team had “outhit” the Wolverines — this coming after a 51-14 drubbing. He’s thrown subtle jabs at Harbaugh’s antics. Nebraska’s prodigal son, Frost has even been crowned the next Harbaugh.

Come gametime, it all might mean nothing (for what it’s worth, chatter this weak has remained cordial). But let’s just say if it’s not close, don’t expect Michigan to ease off the pedal until the clock hits 0:00.

Edge: Nebraska, I guess?

Prediction This is one of those games that probably shouldn’t be close, but just might be anyway. Nebraska comes in with nothing to lose and everything to gain. For Michigan, it’s vice versa. Those games are inherently dangerous.

But it just seems highly unlikely a 0-2 team starting a freshman quarterback with iffy health wins this game on the road.

Michigan 34, Nebraska 17

EVAN AARON/Daily

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines are looking to go 3-0 at Michigan Stadium this weekend with Michigan’s Big Ten opener against Nebraska (0-2) on Saturday before heading to Maryland next week .

TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

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What to Watch For: Nebraska

By ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Writer

Big Ten football is in full swing in Ann Arbor. You can feel it in the air.

It starts Saturday, with the Michigan football team’s matchup against firstyear coach Scott Frost and Nebraska (0-2 overall). Prior to the start of the season, some expected a contentious head-to-head between two resurgent programs. For the 19th-ranked Wolverines (2-1), that remains to be seen. For the Cornhuskers, that ship has seemingly sailed.

Nebraska visits Michigan Stadium coming off a heartbreaking home loss to Troy, while Michigan is riding a two-game win streak with momentum in tow.

The Daily breaks down what to watch for in Saturday’s Big Ten opener.

Patterson’s other peoples Sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones finally gave credence to the five-star hype against SMU. The Detroit native scored three touchdowns in Saturday’s 45-20 win in different ways — a deep crossing route, a back shoulder fade and a go route. Now we know what he is capable of, but can he continue doing it (at a more reasonable rate, of course)?

So far, nothing points against the contrary. Junior quarterback Shea Patterson acknowledged an improved rapport with Peoples-Jones that could see more balls thrown his way. “(Donovan’s) a freak athlete,” Patterson said. “He’s very smart, very fast, great football size to him. I know if I throw it up, there’s a lot of trust in him (to make the catch).”

But Peoples-Jones is only one athlete in the deep wide receiving corps.

And with Nebraska’s uninspiring secondary, that depth could become more pronounced.

Sophomore Nico Collins made waves with a 44-yard touchdown against WMU and 52-yard reception at Notre Dame, but was quiet facing SMU. Collins, along with Oliver Martin and Grant Perry to round out the next three wide receiver options, have combined for just 16 receptions to Peoples-Jones’ 14.

Their opportunities may come in the future, though. Junior right guard Mike Onwenu said only about half the playbook has been used through three games as the team has more complex schemes drawn up for the latter half of the season. Senior Tyree Kinnel mentioned that trio 8B

EVAN AARON/Daily

Sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones scored three touchdowns at Michigan Stadium last weekend in Michigan’s 45-20 win over Southern Methodist.

of receivers as emerging players in practice, too.

The oft-referenced stat of only three wide receiver touchdowns in 2017 has faded into the background.

That number has already doubled the past two games, and the new offensive installations could also include expanded receiving roles for the tight ends and running backs. A matchup against the Cornhuskers could be a good litmus test for how other receivers get involved.

Secondary progression The nation’s No. 1 secondary from a year ago, to put it mildly, hasn’t replicated that production with the same, more experienced players thus far. But if walk-on quarterback Andrew Bunch starts under center for Nebraska, the defensive backs could have a field day defending rushed throws.

That’s not to say the Cornhuskers don’t boast talented receivers. Their two primary options — Stanley Morgan Jr. and J.D. Spielman — have over half the team’s receiving production in its first two contests.

Michigan cornerbacks also have shown a proclivity towards giving up big yardage. Just last week against SMU, wide receiver James Proche ran rampant, collecting 11 receptions for 166 yards and two touchdowns. One of Proche’s scores included a 50-yard bomb opened up from a coverage

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miscommunication between Brad Hawkins and David Long.

“It’s not like they flat out beat us,” said junior safety Josh Metellus. “It was more on what we did. We knew he was a big play guy for them; we knew he was the number one guy for them. And we didn’t do a great job of playing to that. We didn’t do a great job of knowing when he’s gonna get the ball and put on double coverage or just make sure we watch him. He’s a good player, but we go against good wide receivers every day.”

All of Michigan’s defensive shortcomings must also be contextualized. The unit has given up the 16th fewest passing yards per game on average, which is still pretty darn good. But for a Don Brown secondary that was the crown jewel of college football last year, it has to prove that it can continue to play at a College Football Playoff level.

Cleaning up their act The worst kept secret is the entire defense’s propensity to commit penalties. Michigan has committed an astonishing 27 penalties through three games, 21 of them on the defensive side of the ball. Nebraska’s ability to instigate mistakes by the Wolverines is a tough bet. But after only a week of practice since a 13-penalty game, it’s in the realm of the possibility that the issue persists and keeps Saturday’s game

uncomfortably close for Michigan.

“You address each of them,” Harbaugh said of the penalties. “…

And penalties are hurting us. That’s something we have to clean up and get better at. We address each one — technique, what we’re using, the discipline that we have. Get them corrected, get them coached, get improved. Don’t want 13 penalties in a game. Don’t think anybody does.”

Kinnel mentioned that the secondary discusses the committed penalties amongst each other. But the senior captain also reinforced the notion that it’s a unit with a particularly short memory, evidenced

by Metellus’ pick six against SMU. But interception return touchdowns are few and far between.

If the flags continue to pile up, it could spell trouble in the future as thrown flags become a symptom of an uncharacteristically undisciplined defense.

From strictly a playing perspective, If the offensive line demonstrates improvement, then all of the on-field talent can be Big Ten Championship level. But then, playing with reckless abandon becomes the new top priority. In week four against a Big Ten opponent, we should see the frequency of penalties decline.

Bottom line and prediction A loss at home to Troy is unexpected. A loss at Michigan with a

quarterback facing the most talented defense in his football career is not.

The Wolverines should have another cakewalk ahead of them, with an opportunity for the defense to play disciplined and dominate. Oh, and don’t forget that Shea Patterson guy. He’s been pretty good.

Prediction: Nebraska 14

Michigan

38,

BY THE NUMBERS Michigan vs. Nebraska

434

Total yards by Michigan against Southern Methodist

110

Rushing yards allowed by Michigan against Southern Methodist

364

Total yards by Nebraska against Troy

143

Rushing yards allowed by Nebraska against Troy