ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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ACADEMICS
Curriculum for teaching Arabic draws controversy Students, faculy join nationwide debate over instruction on informal dialects LIAT WEINSTEIN & DANIELLE PASEKOFF Daily Staff Reporters
ALEC COHEN/Daily LSA sophomore Cristina Guytingco speaks on the importance of bringing together communities of color during the conclusion of the Trotter to Trotter Community Walk at the new Trotter Multicultural Center Wednesday.
Trotter to Trotter Community Walk celebrates history, new building
Multicultural center set to open on State Street following years of advocacy by students CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
Wednesday afternoon, more than 50 University of Michigan student leaders, staff and faculty gathered in the Trotter Multicultural Center on Washtenaw Avenue one final time for the Trotter to Trotter Community Walk ahead of the grand opening of the new building on State Street Thursday morning. Mingling over food and drinks, attendees acknowledged the work of past activists and
reminisced over memories in the Washtenaw building before walking down South University Street and through the Diag to the new building on State Street. According to Vice President for Student Life E. Royster Harper, the initiative to move the Trotter Center from Washtenaw Avenue to a more central location was the result of over a decade of student activism. Harper explained students of color pointed out the original location of
Engineering grad Katie Bouman produced method to create historic image LEAH GRAHAM Daily News Editor
When astronomers announced on Wednesday they had captured the firstever photo of a black hole, an international team of scientists said they had seen the “unseeable.” Collaborating with more than 200 researchers across the world, the Event Horizon Telescope project used data from eight radio telescopes in six locations provided the input necessary to compile the photo. Katie Bouman, a University of Michigan alum and postdoctoral fellow at MIT, created an algorithm as a graduate student that helped make the groundbreaking feat possible. Now an assistant professor at the California Institute Of Technology, Bouman got her start at the University, graduating with a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering in 2011. Following the project’s achievement, Bouman’s name was trending nationally on Twitter Wednesday night. See PHOTO , Page 3A
ple who love the University, who want the University to be a place where everyone feels they have a home and they belong,” Harper said. “So I think what’s wonderful about the new location is that it’s in the heart of campus… So what we’re saying is that’s in the heart of who we are, what we do and what we’re committed to … For me, the new Trotter is about a new beginning on our campus with each other and for each other.” See TROTTER, Page 3A
Final Carceral State Project symposium Students, of the year talks strategies, hopefulness AEI host
RESEARCH
Alum’s work on algorithm led to black hole photo
the Trotter Center on the periphery of campus seemed to reflect communities of color being on the periphery of the University as well. The Washtenaw location’s distance from the center of campus also posed accessibility and safety issues, Harper said. According to Harper, University efforts to move the Trotter Center to State Street began four years ago. “I think this is a powerful and emotional experience for a lot of peo-
LSA sophomore Nisreen Khokhar is currently enrolled in Arabic 402 and has taken various Arabic courses at the 100 and 200-levels throughout her college experience. Like Arabic language students across the nation, Khokhar and others in the University of Michigan’s Department of Middle East Studies currently go back and forth about whether or not the University should be teaching Modern Standard Arabic or informal Arabic dialects, like Egyptian or Levantine. “Honestly, I would love more exposure to dialect, but at the same time, because there’s so much difference (between MSA and dialect), that I think MSA tends to be what foreign language students learn in general,” Khokar said. “I think the fact that (the department teaches) both in the first two years is actually pretty great because it gives you an
introduction.” Arabic is characterized as a diglossic language, meaning that it has formal and informal registers that are used in different circumstances. MSA and Classical Arabic — known as Fush’a — are used in newspapers, books, official documents and other formal correspondences, while informal Arabic — known as Ammiya — is typically present in music, pop culture and spoken among family and friends. MSA is first learned in school, while Ammiya is most Arab speakers’ vernacular. Between 2006 and 2009, enrollment in Arabic language programs grew by 47 percent across U.S. universities, sparking increased debate about whether to teach colloquial Arabic dialects in addition to MSA. Currently in the department, the first two years of coursework are focused on both MSA and dialect, but the curriculum shifts exclusively to MSA in the levels that follow. See ARABIC, Page 3A
CAMPUS LIFE
Last panel focuses on ways to encourage reform in criminal justice system EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporter
The Carceral State Project hosted its last event of the academic school year on Wednesday night to discuss the future of the carceral state and concrete actions people can take to change the system. The event was part of its symposium series and was cosponsored by Afro-American Studies, History and the Residential College, drawing in a crowd of approximately 100 community members and students and featured a panel of five speakers. Amanda Alexander, executive director at the Detroit Justice Center and a senior research scholar at the University of
Michigan Law School, moderated the event. Alexander began the roundtable by asking the panelists what true community safety looks like and how their definitions relate to the current carceral state. Panelist PG Watkins, an organizer at No New Jails, said they feel most safe when the people around them are safe and have all their necessities, such as food and shelter, taken care of. Watkins noted many people resort to crime in order to provide for their families. “So to me, when I think about the times I felt most safe, or what could make me feel safer when I don’t feel safe, is really a lot about like knowing who’s around me,”
Watkins said. “Feeling a sense of connectivity and community. Something that I talk about is like, I can feel safe when I know all my basic needs are met and the people around me have their needs met. You know, everything’s taken care of, there’s no reason to, ideally, there’s no reason to cause harm or hurt each other because everything that we need is there for us.” Watkins continued by saying their idea of safety is completely separate from the carceral state. Watkins discussed how, if everybody supports their communities, the effort to make sure everyone has their basic necessities covered will expand to larger society. “In my ideal world in the world
that I try to practice and be in community with every day is disconnected from the carceral state,” Watkins said. “But I do think it starts with us. Focusing really hyper local, like on our blocks, in our neighborhood, is how can we make sure that we are good with each other, and that will echo out.” Panelist Korbin Felder, program associate at America Friends Service Committee, discussed how different people have varying relationships on safety and the carceral state. He said regardless of his own opinion, many people feel the criminal justice system reduces crime and are not in favor of getting rid of it completely. See CARCERAL , Page 3A
KARTIKEYA SUNDARAM/Daily Michael J. Steinberg, public interest/public service faculty fellow at the University of Michigan, speaks at the Carceral State roundtable in Hatcher Graduate Library Wednesday afternoon.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 101 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
live taping of podcast
‘Ordered Liberty’ records episode on campus, tackles conservatism and ideology KENDELL LEWIS Daily Staff Reporter
“The Ordered Liberty” podcast co-hosts David French and Alexandra DeSanctis stopped at Weill Hall at the Ford School of Public Policy to record a live episode on Wednesday night. While their main focus was conservatism on campus, they also touched on populism, abortion, democratic socialism and free speech. The University of Michigan’s American Enterprise Institute’s Executive Council, along with the National Review Institute On Campus and Young Americans for Freedom at the University of Michigan, sponsored the segment titled “Liberty with Integrity: How consistency and civility are inseparable from the conservative case for freedom.” The podcast covers religion, culture and politics. French is a veteran and an attorney, as well as a senior fellow at NRI, and DeSanctis is a staff writer for National Review. After making jokes about Michigan State and Ohio State, French introduced the main topic. See PODCAST , Page 2A
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 SPORTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............5 ARTS...................1B