2019-09-30

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Monday, September 30, 2019

Ann Arbor, Michigan

michigandaily.com

Rutgers run out

A week after a seasonaltering loss, Michigan bounced back with a 52-0 win over the Scarlet Knights.

» Page 1B

Professor aims for student-led program to fix housing crisis Faculty member proposes joint effort for development in Ann Arbor KATHERINA SOURINE

RUCHITA IYER/Daily E. Royster Harper, vice president of Student Life, speaks on student activism and University healthcare at the Fleming Administration Building Friday afternoon.

VP Harper discusses recent climate strike, STI testing and retirement Administrator says ‘It has been such an honor...the gift for 20 years has been to me’ RACHEL CUNNINGHAM, CLAIRE HAO & PARNIA MAZHAR

Daily News Editor & Daily Staff Reporters

The Michigan Daily sat down with E. Royster Harper, vice president for Student Life at The University of Michigan, Friday afternoon to discuss the Sexually transmitted infection testing policy controversy, the recent climate strike, fraternity and sorority life housing complications with the transition to winter recruitment and Harper’s announced retirement from the University.

The Michigan Daily: After backlash from the University community, University Health Services reversed its policy so STI exams are once again covered by

tuition through the health service fee. From your perspective, why did the University change the policy?

E. Royster Harper: I know it’s hard for students to believe, but when students give us feedback, and we hear it, that causes us to reconsider what it is we’ve done, and we’re quick to do that.

So here’s our concern: We have two legitimate competing needs, keep costs of attendance down and make sure the students are getting the health care that they need. Part of the decision to keep the cost down was that insurance that most students have, were already paying for it. So the folks that were benefiting the most from the health service fee were the insurance companies because we were paying for stuff they would pay for. But students said, “Look, if

BUSINESS

Conference showcases sports career opportunities Largest student-run convention in industry hosts leading experts NIKKI KIM

Daily Staff Reporter

The Ross School of Business hosted the Michigan Sport Business Conference last Friday.

Established in 2012 when two Michigan students realized the potential for the sports business market in Ann Arbor, MSBC has become the largest undergraduaterun sports business conference in the nation.

With 800 students, industry professionals, professors and faculty in attendance, the conference was composed of panels, such as “The Business of eSports” and “Managing Your Career in Sports,” as well as networking breaks and individual speeches.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

there’s any chance that my parents are going to know (about STI examinations), then I’m going to be less likely to get the services.”

We didn’t want anything to get in the way of students getting the healthcare they need. What wasn’t comforting enough, students didn’t believe it, whatever the rationale was, it was clear to us that some students would choose not to get tested. Our commitment is to make sure that our students are getting good health care. So once that was clear to us, we just said, “Okay, this is not the right decision for us”. So what students did is they helped us understand the impact in a way that we had not understood it before. That’s why we changed our minds.

TMD: Why did student activism work in this case?

Harper: I think usually when

the University makes a decision, there are multiple things that they are trying to get accomplished. In this case, money and making sure the students get good health care, that it didn’t have a chilling impact.

Students are seldom protesting about things that don’t matter. But lots of things matter. So what the University is weighing is when we consider everything, where do we need to be? Sometimes what we decide is, we can’t change. This is not one of those, because when we put everything together, it makes sense to change. I do think that sometimes all of us think if I just raised my voice, or I just protest, what I want, will occur. But when you are in a leadership role, you’re always weighing a lot of points of views and a lot of different facts.

See ROYSTER, Page 2A

Daily Staff Reporter

Housing is an ongoing issue that continues to affect stakeholders in the Ann Arbor community. For students, it means pressure to sign leases in early fall, perhaps without a full understanding of their responsibilities as a tenant.

The steady growth of student enrollment, an average 2.21 percent in the past two years, exacerbates the issue.

Individuals such as Peter Allen, professor at the Ross School of Business and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, believe that students are an integral part to building a solution. In Allen’s business class, Real Estate Essentials, students are given the opportunity to do so. And together with the students from his class, in August Allen proposed the creation of a student-led development accelerator to address the housing crisis.

Real Estate Essentials has always included a hands-on component. But recently, he has built a proposal to include the University, local nonprofits and public agencies in a development accelerator group.

In a presentation to the Business School Dean Scott DeRue and

AI Laboratory presents panel on tech use in mental health research Heinz. C. Prechter Bipolar Reserach Program explains intersection of human-robot interactions SONIA LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

Two professors involved in the intersection of artificial intelligence and mental health shared their work Friday evening at the Ann Arbor District Library in partnership with the University of Michigan’s AI Laboratory.

Emily Mower Provost, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, and Melvin McInnis, professor of bipolar disorder and depression, are working together to develop computational methods for measuring mood symptom severity in bipolar disorder.

McInnis is the director of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program, and Provost is a member.

The panelists first discussed why they were involved in the project. Provost, who was always interested in human behavior and improving people’s lives through engineering, said she was excited to work at the intersection of humanrobot interaction and effective

Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily

computing.

“It gives me an opportunity not only to try to create new and really innovative algorithms, but when you put a humancentered swing into AI, then you also have the opportunity to really join engineering and

science,” Provost said. “To me, it seemed like a really interesting opportunity to do something meaningful to do engineering that had an impact on people’s lives. … We specialized and started working in emotion recognition, where the goal

was to take in speech and try to quantify ambiguity that’s associated with how people express emotions, which was exciting.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Taubman Dean Jonathan Massey in late August, Allen presented the development accelerator as a joint effort and highlighted the role of his accomplished students as potential advisory team members. He identified four critical issues in Ann Arbor housing: sustainability, affordability, mobility and better neighborhoods.

Allen believes that these issues can be addressed by transitioning publicly owned surface parking lots in the downtown area to become minimal public underground parking, introduce mixed-use developments with integrated affordable housing and encouraging public landowners not to sell but to become longterm partners in development.

Allen and other stakeholders are expecting a response from the deans in the coming weeks.

Housing pressures aren’t only affecting students or Ann Arbor residents. Last November, about 4,300 residents in the broader Washtenaw County area applied for 600 spots on the Ann Arbor Housing Commission’s housing choice voucher waitlist, which opened for five days for the first time since 2012.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

CAMPUS LIFE

‘U’ Campus Farm holds 8th annual fall festival MDining, UMBees spread environmental awareness at outdoor Harvest event JASMIN LEE For the Daily

About 200 people gathered at the Campus Farm for the 8th Annual Harvest Festival, with live musician performances, farm tours, free food, pumpkin painting and many other sustainable activities.

MDining was a sponsor of the Harvest Festival. Concord and empire apples were on the table as well as a concoction of barley with vegetables and many other ingredients from the campus farm.

Pumpkin painting was the main activity that attracted many students and Ann Arbor residents.

The pumpkins were donated to Harvest Festival by Slow Farms, an organic farm in Ann Arbor that handpicks all of its harvest.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Emily Mower Provost, associate prof. of computer science, shares her experience with emotion recognition at an event on artificial intelligence, personalized technology and mental health at the Ann Arbor District Library Friday evening.

For more stories and coverage, visit

michigandaily.com

INDEX

Vol. CXXIX, No. 1 ©2019 The Michigan Daily

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CROSSWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Read more at MichiganDaily.com MIC.....................3 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................1B

News

2A — Monday, September 30, 2019

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY:

By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

DESIGN BY TAYLOR SCHOTT

TRANSITION TEAM

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN

TOMMY DYE

Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 mayagold@michigandaily.com

Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 tomedye@michigandaily.com

NEWS TIPS

news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE

opinion@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION

ARTS SECTION

photo@michigandaily.com

arts@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM

SPORTS SECTION

734-418-4115 opt. 3

sports@michigandaily.com

CORRECTIONS

ADVERTISING

corrections@michigandaily.com

dailydisplay@gmail.com

Editorial Staff MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/Daily Rich Baird, transition leader and senior advisor to former Governor Rick Snyder, discusses the challenges faced when transitioning between administrations after the election of a new governor.

HARPER From Page 1A Then you make a decision about which one needs to prevail, and we do the same thing. We’re trying to balance the best interest of students, faculty, staff, and as a public institution, you’re weighing all those things. The points of view are valid, and the job is to weigh them and figure out in the long run, what’s best. What I love about the University is that we do respond when issues are raised.

TMD: International students began paying an additional $500 fee this semester on top of tuition, and some have voiced displeasure surrounding the transparency of why this fee was instituted and what it will be used for. Can you provide some clarity on the issue?

Harper: The challenge with the international fee is that not all the needs and what the calls will be for those have been worked out. So we are in the process of trying to figure out, given these resources, how do they need to Sudoku Syndication be deployed in a way that benefits international students? And so

FINNTAN STORER Managing Editor

frstorer@michigandaily.com

GRACE KAY and ELIZABETH LAWRENCE

Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Sayali Amin, Rachel Cunningham, Remy Farkas, Leah Graham, Amara Shaikh Assistant News Editors: Barbara Collins, Julia Fanzeres, Claire Hao, Alex Harring, Angelina Little, Madeline McLaughlin, Ben Rosenfeld, Emma Stein, Zayna Syed, Liat Weinstein

trying to do both. You’re trying to think about what you’re saying, make sure that the students’ needs then you have to think about how are met, and we don’t want the cost am I doing that, in such a way JOEL DANILEWITZ and MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA to be so prohibitive that students that what’s so important can be Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com can’t come. I think the challenge is heard. Some people speak for Senior Opinion Editors: Emily Considine, Krystal Hur, Ethan Kessler, Miles for us, the administration, is if we the theater of it, and sometimes Stephenson, Erin White stay open and allow international students and community members MAX MARCOVITCH and ETHAN SEARS students to participate in the speak because they’re really trying Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com process of what would make the to have another point-of-view Senior Sports Editors: Anna Marcus, Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Mark Calcagno, Theo Mackie, Tien Le most difference to strengthen heard… So I think the strikes are Assistant Sports Editors: Bailey Johnson, Bennett Bramson, Connor Brennan, your experience here, then I can’t important and I think the different Jacob Kopnick, Jorge Cazares, Rian Ratnavale have the answer to exactly where points of views are important.

ARYA NAIDU and VERITY STURM it is the money’s going to go right The major changes I know about Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com now… So it’s much more of a give- have come because somebody had Senior Arts Editors: Clara Scott, Emma Chang, Cassandra Mansuetti, Sam and-take process that we’re using. the courage to open their mouth.

Della Fera, Trina Pal Arts Beat Editors: John Decker, Sayan Ghosh, Mike Watkins, Ally Owens, So, I’m glad we have the resources There was a time when I would Stephen Satarino, Izzy Hasslund, Margaret Sheridan to make sure that international have had to sit in the back of the students have a really exciting and bus… So the issue is not in speaking ROSEANNE CHAO and JACK SILBERMAN Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com the voice. The issue is not in the robust education experience.

Senior Design Editor: Sherry Chen TMD: Last week, students once protesting. I think sometimes the again participated in a Climate tension comes when those who are ALEXIS RANKIN and ALEC COHEN Strike, joining strikers across the speaking or want to have a voice Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com world to demand bolder action don’t think about what the impact Senior Photo Editors: Alexandria Pompei, Natalie Stephens, Alice Liu, Allison Engkvist, Danyel Tharakan on climate change. Last year, 10 of that voice is on others. None of Assistant Photo Editors: Miles Macklin, Keemya Esmael, Madeline Hinkley, demonstrators were arrested at us listen, when we’re being yelled Ryan McLoughlin the Climate Strike, and six of them at. Very few of us listen if we are just recently appeared at pre-trial being called names.

ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERRAMA Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com TMD: With Winter for trespassing. How important for fraternities is student activism to the spirit of Recruitment Deputy Editors: Matthew Harmon, Shannon Ors and sororities beginning this the University, and what advice dohttp://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ SILAS LEE and EMILY STILLMAN you have for students who want to year, some students have raised Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com concerns regarding how this could make their voices heard?

Senior Copy Editors: Dominick Sokotoff, Olivia Sedlacek, Reece Meyhoefer Harper: I think students create complications with finding CASEY TIN and HASSAAN ALI WATTOO protesting — and for me, protest housing. How does the University Managing Online Editors webteam@michigandaily.com means having a voice, whether plan to help students if they find Senior Web Developers: Jonathon Liu, Abha Panda, Ryan Siu, David Talbot, Samantha Cohen you decide to have that voice themselves without housing for with the sign or by sitting in — I the following school year due to ELI SIDER HARD think that’s critically important rushing?

Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Ryan O’Connor, Joseph Sim Harper: This is an issue that that the students think about what’s important to them, think comes up for students all the NA’KIA CHANNEY and CARLY RYAN Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com about the kind of University they time, this issue of, “Will I be able Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Samuel So, Ana Maria want to have because this is your to find housing?” And so last year, Sanchez-Castillo, Efe Osagie, Danyel Tharakan University, and then give voice to before we put this in place, as part Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Harnoor Singh, Nada Eldawy, Maya it. I believe the climate work and of the reason we started so early, Mokh the work we need to do around we actually had staff in the office CATHERINE NOUHAN climate is going to change, but of Fraternity and Sorority Life Managing Podcast Editor it’s going to change because do some work around housing.

MADALASA CHAUDHARI and HANNAH MESKIN Managing Social Media Editors students are talking about and So housing is available, it will be Senior Social Media Editor: Allie Phillips advocating for right now. Here’s available up until school starts.

This place is never without where I would pivot. It’s critically important that you have an orderly adequate housing. So one of the structure and organization. And things, we have changed the MOLLY WU Creative Director if the time and if you choose to signup period in the residence halls ZELJKO KOSPIC RYAN KELLY speak is in a building that closes with this in mind, so we have done Special Projects Manager Sales Manager at five, say, ‘Okay, I’ll be back in that. And, we also last year, we, ANITA MICHAUD ROBERT WAGMAN the morning to speak again’. This meaning the Office of Fraternity Brand Manager Marketing Consulting Manager idea that I can speak my mind and Sorority Life, did some surveys anytime, all the time, anywhere in to make sure that vacancies and any way, that’s where I think the housing is available for students The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during fault lies. It’s not in the speaking further on into the term. the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is of the voice, but doing it in a way available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Read more at © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com that honors other voices, too. And Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long MichiganDaily.com subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription to be quite frank, if you want me rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. to hear you and you want me to students, if I hear you right, some of them are asking, ‘What are you going to do?’ And the answer is, that’s part of the work we have to do. So some students might say, ‘Well, then why are you requiring the fee if you don’t know?’, but what we do know is that there are needs for international students that are not being met, and we want to be able to meet those needs… The services that they need that might be unique to international students, that’s how the fee is going to be used. And we are in the process, then, of deciding what’s the best use, whether it is to help with internships, whether it’s a deeper, stronger orientation program, whether it is we need to do more send-outs where we actually go to the community and prepare students better for the transition, whether or not there are things that the International Center provides that they also will need. So there is an array of services that we want to make sure we have the resources to provide, so students have a fabulous educational experience here. But this is one situation where you’re

SUDOKU

4

5

9

1 8

1

3 2

4

5

6

3

1

6

1 3

8 7 1

6

Business Staff

4

8

8

1

5

8

5 4

BYE SEPTEMBER!

5

1

Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!

Michigan in Color

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Lone Wolf ROBERTO SANCHEZ MiC Columnist

I’m a wolf of the streets, I smell your fear.

A bright sun looms over me, dressed up in some new clothes I had bought for the semester, I walk to class. Right on time, I make my way into Mason and lower the volume on my headphones. The halls are buzzing per usual and I sense an ordinary day in the making. My lecture hall is lively and there are busy, moving students all around me as the professor prepares his notes for the class. The projector luminates the wall in front of the room with the introductory slide to his PowerPoint. What seems to be the last group of students enter through the doors dispersing as they please. Almost all the seats in the lecture hall were filled with different people from different places. I may have been on campus for years but the sight of so many faces will always be overwhelming to me.

After putting away my phone, I began taking out my notebook, journal, and pens.

There’s a growing sense of gratefulness within me as the class begins. My water bottle rolls to the end of my row while I lie my backpack down. It’s not within arm’s reach but there’s nobody who offers a hand. I chuckle— there’s nobody around me to chuckle back. My row is empty. I forgot— I should’ve expected it if it was any other day. I wonder, what’s so wrong with me? To not be worthy enough for a single person in this school to willfully want to sit next to me. I sigh, and as expected, a couple of my fellow white classmates turn and look

Monday, September 30, 2019 — 3A

Vulnerable, authentic representation in The Farewell ELIZABETH HO MiC Blogger

Last year, the sing ular Asian movie in the U.S. was Crazy Rich Asians, a fact agreed upon by public consensus.

This year, the choice hasn’t been so easy. Always Be My Maybe (starring Ali Wong and Randall Park) made waves in the Asian American community as one of the first American rom-coms to star Asians. Bold and with appearances from familiar faces like Keanu Reeves, it’s an obvious frontrunner. But the film that I feel best represents my Asian American experience is The Farewell.

A small film with a budget of only $3 million, it may not look like much, but it has real feeling and soul.

Directed by Chinese director Lulu Wang, The Farewell is a sobering story about how a grandmother’s terminal diagnosis leads the entire family to visit her from abroad and, out of love, hide the terrible truth.

Perhaps what makes the premise and the ensuing drama so magnetic is the unpretentious reality infused it is infused with.

The Farewell takes place

at me from top to bottom.

They’re disg usted, who allowed me to exhale in such a manor.

You’re staring… I see the side-eye, and the scared glances but they bounce off me. My rebuttal glares, they pierce you however, in an instant you look away in disbelief. How dare I have done the same thing. Keep

mostly in the industrial city of Changchun, China.

Like many places in China, in Changchun, you’ll want to boil your water before drinking it – something we’re reminded of as soon as the family arrives at the hotel. The hotel rooms are decorated in something not quite as cold and impersonal as an American hotel, but there’s still a faded grandeur. All told, we arrive at an unmistakably Chinese setting, with most of the movie’s dialog ue being in Mandarin (with English subtitles for a nonnative speaking audience).

And yet we view all of this through a distinctly Chinese American perspective.

Billi, the granddaughter and protagonist (played by Awkwafina), occasionally fumbles with her Mandarin in a way that I can relate to. Like Billi, I can scrape by in light conversation, but anything deeper than that can pose some major translation issues. More than simply the lang uage barrier, the cultural barrier is one that proves challenging. When her family decides to not tell the grandmother about her diagnosis, Billi feels

like the family’s deceit is inherently wrong and that it won’t bring about true closure. However, her more Chinese parents and uncle and aunt make it clear that not saying anything is a blessing: the grandmother will be able to live out her final days peacefully, not fearing death.

The differences and similarities between Chinese and Chinese Americans are at the heart of the movie. The Farewell demonstrates how Chinese Americans dance that line between Chinese and American, landing them in a no-man’s land. Moreover, the movie answers the hard question of which to choose: You can choose both, and though it can sometimes be alienating, being American and being Chinese aren’t incompatible with each other.

By talking about death, The Farewell succeeds in being a celebration of life.

Its authentic presentation of the lives of average Asian Americans makes it shine brightly as one of the best Asian American movies of 2019 and perhaps, as one of the best movies in 2019 in general.

turning if you must, if your angst continues, then you’ll only notice my attempts to look as repulsed as you do.

A diverse school and one with tens of thousands of students, yet again, I feel so alone. Every day. Every class. Every bus ride. The only progress being made is in the velocity I can make them shy away from me.

Finally, mentioning it to my brothers, I realize I’m far from alone in the abyss of solitude. I won’t change the way I dress, how I talk, how I walk, we don’t care about fitting an imposed mold.

Our brown skin has been shunned on what seems to be a consensus and we’ve unknowingly been alone — together, this whole time.

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

SEAN TRAN MiC Blogger

I spend a lot of time on campus wishing that I was anywhere else.

Too much of this time ends up being spent on Instagram, where the world on my feed looks pinker, cutesier, and dreamier than how most people would see it. Instead of being an attempt to distort the truth about my life for likes, my Instagram feed has become a creative outlet for my own form of queer worldmaking.

Social media is an artificial view of reality, in which individuals post only the best of themselves (save for

the less than flattering and nudes on “finstas” that I might show you later, if we get that close). Instagram is especially centered around sheer aesthetic value. Many of its users, including yeah, myself, care a great deal about their online appearances.

When I initially began cultivating a “theme” for my Instagram feed, I sought to pink-wash Michigan via an obviously saturated, highly edited haze of filters. While it brought me slight satisfaction to see the collection of pictures that I had assembled together, I quickly grew bored of both the artificiality and superficiality involved within my process of picking my posts.

Diversity isn’t enough

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

KAYLA THOMAS MiC Blogger

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

ZOYA ZALATIMO MiC Featured Artist

I used this print for a collaboration with a local apparel brand. I was excited when a friend reached out to me asking if he could print the design onto hoodies to sell, especially because it had a message behind it that was important to me. He later

got back to me, saying his boss was hesitant about the print, that the Arabic was controversial and would exclude many customers, which I honestly found laughable and ironic. The text reads ‘assalam ‘alaykum’ which literally means ‘peace be with you’ and is used as a formal greeting.

Still, someone found the fact of the Arabic language inherently uncomfortable and controversial.

I’m really grateful that I’m able to elevate my voice through art but can’t help being disappointed and even shocked that this kind of mentality persists.

This design was initially a screenprint, created at the height of the ongoing Syrian Refugee Crisis of 2016. As a Palestinian living in the diaspora, and with close family ties to Syria, I felt compelled to create work that

speaks to this humanitarian issue.

The text reads, in Arabic, ‘peace be with you,’ a phrase often used when entering a room, before beginning a speech, or as a formal greeting. In other words, welcome.

Coupled with the symbol of intertwined arms centered on a full circle, this artwork symbolizes peace and acceptance of others despite perceived differences.

In the last several years — for a multitude of different reasons — many prestigious education institutions and organizations have made diversity a higher priority on their to-do list. This isn’t something these institutions should receive too much praise for, considering their role in the lack of diversity in the first place. However, the effort is still respectable. These universities — which have historically been a medium of separation between white people and people of color — are now trying to reverse that reputation and the societal inequities that have resulted from it. It almost gives the impression that a new era of equality is amongst us.

Though the future for the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities in higher education seems bright, elements of the past still rear their heads. There have been times in which I have walked into environments that were relatively diverse, yet I still saw the same segregation that I was told disintegrated with the Civil Rights Movement.

I have been in spaces that have claimed to value the experiences of different types of people and have still encountered people who were not willing to consider ideas that strayed from their own accepted narrative.

Even in classes that spend time

focusing on aspects of the Black experience, my perspective as a Black woman has still been devalued by people who have never walked a day in my skin.

Me being able to walk through the door did not guarantee my ability to get through to the people sitting on the other side of them.

This is where the problem lies. We’ve always seen diversity in terms of numbers — specifically, the percentage of each racial group in the student body. What we’ve failed to realize though, is that numbers say nothing about the experience. One can be in a place that is diverse and still not receives the benefits of being around people with different backgrounds and perspectives. This is, quite frankly, why diversity will never be enough. Another key process must be incorporated — integration.

Integration is more than just allowing people of color to occupy white spaces. It is also inviting our cultures and our opinions to have a seat at the table. Integration is a mixture — of what you know and what you don’t. It is supposed to combine — or integrate — what people who look like you have to offer, as well as the offerings of everyone else who doesn’t.

Having a healthy ratio of every race and ethnicity doesn’t cut it.

So far, in this current progression towards equal access, we’ve turned equality into a numbers game. But sometimes, that game tends to play us.

Opinion

4A — Monday, September 30, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

YASMEEN DOHAN | COLUMN

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN Editor in Chief

MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA AND JOEL DANILEWITZ

FINNTAN STORER Managing Editor

Editorial Page Editors

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Zack Blumberg Emily Considine Emma Chang Joel Danilewitz Emily Huhman

Krystal Hur Ethan Kessler Magdalena Mihaylova Max Mittleman Timothy Spurlin

Miles Stephenson Finn Storer Nicholas Tomaino Joel Weiner Erin White

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board.

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

SONEIDA RODRIGUEZ | COLUMN

U.S. health care — without a care for the environment

C

limate change is a chronic disease. Thanks to our lifestyle habits, Earth has developed the airways of a smoker, tumors of trash and bodies of water poisoned by pollution. It’s no secret that our current treatment of the Earth is killing the planet and inadvertently killing ourselves.

As our campus saw last Friday during the Global Climate Strike, the youth of today, are not ignorant of this fact nor willing to tolerate it any longer.

The question still remains as to whether this spark of action can be fanned into a flaming movement. If the climate strike movement is in need of tinder to fuel its next initiative, then U.S. hospitals should be the next place it fans the flames.

As is the case for many industries, health care has an insatiable appetite for fossil fuel energy, which inevitably leads to greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenhouse gases are silent and stealthy killers. One American Journal of Public Health article found that such emissions “will negatively affect public health because of an increased prevalence of extreme weather, flooding, vector-borne disease … and malnutrition.” While the deadly effect of greenhouse gas emissions is nothing new, the fact that the U.S. health care system is one of the world’s largest contributors of lethal greenhouse gases is an irony that has been largely ignored by most hospitals. Investigators projected greenhouse gas emissions “associated with health care in the United States would cause 123,000 to 381,000 disability-adjusted life-years in future health damages.”

Ironically, the hospitals that are entrusted with keeping American communities healthy are a major contributor to one of humanity’s greatest threats.

In the words of a Popular Science article, one 2013 study found that between generating energy, using medical supplies and pharmaceuticals “the U.S. healthcare system is responsible for around 10 percent of the total emissions in the United States.” If all U.S. health care facilities in the United States were a country on their own,

that country would be the seventh-largest contributor to carbon dioxide emissions in the world, according to a HealthLeads Article.

Unfortunately, the irony of the U.S. health care does not end with pollution. U.S hospitals play a significant role in growing America’s cancerous piles of landfill trash. The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council found that American health care centers “generate approximately 14,000 tons of waste per day and that up to 25 percent of that waste is plastic packaging and products.”

A collaborative report by the Center of International Environmental Law found that the breakdown of plastics in landfills or through incineration can lead to the release of microplastics that end up in the food we eat or the air we breathe. Pollutants such as phthalates and BPA can be reabsorbed by surrounding soil and water supplies.

In response to these environmental atrocities, some would argue the U.S. health care system should invest in alternative energy sources like solar power or wind turbines.

However, suggesting such a fix is ignorant of hospitals’ limited budgets and does nothing to reduce plastic landfill waste.

Others are confident that incinerating medical waste to power hospitals is the answer. However, incineration is a double-edged sword.

Incineration may reduce the volume of waste, but according to the same Center of International Environmental Law report, the toxic chemicals released from incineration are just as problematic to our health as the plastic left in landfills.

Instead, the solution lies in rethinking plastic medical supplies. I envision altering plastic medical supplies, one of the most common forms of medical waste that ends up in landfills, to be plant or biomassbased. Researchers at Michigan State University have already found success in this venture, according to Michigan Radio.

While plant-based medical plastics is not a novel idea, I propose this innovation could

go a step further by tailoring these plant-based plastics to be converted into energy without the need for incineration.

Anaerobic digestion is the process by which energy is generated through the breakdown of plant-based material under intense heat by bacteria. With the help of this technology, municipal plastic waste from health care could power hospitals without releasing greenhouse gasses.

Overnight, plastic medical waste could transform from being cancerous to cured.

Not only does climate change demand we rethink medical supplies, it also demands we rethink health care recycling.

By no means should the responsibility of reducing health care’s environmental impact fall only on hospitals.

As future patients or health care professionals, we are also responsible. Therefore, health care recycling should be a grassroots movement.

Imagine if even a fraction of the 3,500 tons of plastic that U.S. health care facilities send daily to landfills were properly sanitized and recycled to make new medical supplies.

The same plastic waste that could have ended up in a landfill poisoning America’s heartland could instead be promoting heart health as a new stethoscope.

Environmental health is personal health. Unfortunately, U.S. health care has yet to recognize this truth. We simply do not have time to wait for health care leaders to realize this. Every day, the chronic disease of climate change only grows worse. While I do not want to diminish the importance of taking steps as individuals to reduce, reuse and recycle, I stand with the Climate Strike and know demands for individual efforts are not enough. There is no neutral territory when you are combating a chronic pandemic.

Either you are combating the disease, or you are the disease.

It is time to diagnose which side you are on.

Soneida Rodriguez can be reached at soneida@umich.edu.

KAAVYA RAMACHANDHRAN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT KAAVYAR@UMICH.EDU

P

The vices and virtues of the Electoral College

ost-2016 election, discord regarding the relevance of the Electoral College has become as audible as ever.

Politicians and constituents alike have called for its abolition, condemning it as an archaic tradition long past its expiration date. As a result, many have been quick to propose a seemingly more sensible popular vote.

Instilling just a popular vote, however, gives rise to a multitude of new problems.

After careful thought, it becomes evident that replacing the Electoral College with a direct popular vote would not suffice. We should instead seek other means of reform.

To understand why implementing a popular vote would be problematic, it is imperative to look back on our nation’s founding. Our country’s forefathers were particularly wary of direct democracy, despite its enticing simplicity.

The original architects of the American republic sought to forestall the potential dangers it presented.

One potential danger was the “tyranny of the majority” – the concept that, in a pure democracy, a majority can overrule a minority in all instances with no balance of powers. A popular vote was never considered in our nation, as we were founded with the intent of being a representative republic, not a direct democracy.

But before delving into the problems associated with abolishing the Electoral College, it is important to mention that the cause for concern is far from unsubstantiated — the current system has proven itself to be far from perfect. Disapproval of the Electoral College often stems from its favoritism toward battleground swing states, with one reporter even naming it a national gerrymander: “Had two state borders been drawn just a little bit differently, shifting a total of four counties from one state to another, Hillary Clinton would have won the election.”

Additionally, others find

issue with the fact that there have been five occurrences in U.S. history in which the winner of the presidential election and the winner of the popular vote differed.

This inconsistency causes worry that the desires of the people are being tainted by the f laws of our current electoral process.

Yet possibly the biggest concern people have with the Electoral College is its distortion of the one-person, one-vote democratic principle.

With our current system, a grand majority of states are largely neglected during campaign season. The few battleground states in which neither the Republican nor Democratic parties maintain a stronghold often garner more campaign attention than the rest of the nation combined. In fact, two-thirds

We were founded with the intent of being a representative republic, not a direct democracy of campaign events during the 2016 presidential election only took place in six states. To the ill-informed citizen, this statistic may be staggering and legitimate enough to support the implementation of a popular vote. However, things aren’t quite this simple.

Our Constitution endows the right to elect a president to states through electors, not individual citizens. This practice is fundamental to some of the main tenets our nation was founded upon: checks and balances. Divisions of power are common throughout our governmental framework, and the existence of the Electoral College only further drives in this concept.

Meanwhile, a direct popular vote itself is riddled with f laws, despite its appearance as the perfect solution. Minority

interests may be completely disregarded in rural areas, and the chance of a regionallypopular candidate winning the election would certainly be possible. Additionally, any close election with suspicion of a miscount would prompt a recount, a national nightmare.

Along with administrative challenges, the chances of realistically transitioning to a direct popular vote are close to none. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said herself that, though she would support eliminating the Electoral College, the process of amending the Constitution is notoriously difficult.

Furthermore, convincing representatives of less populous states to support an amendment effectively lessening their impact would be especially challenging. As a result, any discussion for a popular vote appears moot.

Rather than scrap the Electoral College in pursuit of a popular vote, we should seek other ways to reform it. Currently, 48 states and Washington D.C. have a winner-takes-all process of allocating electors. Nebraska and Maine, however, use a congressional district method, which can allow for a split electoral vote. If more state legislatures reformed their allocation methods, mismatches between the results of the electoral and popular vote would be less drastic.

Mob rule has revealed itself catastrophic throughout history, and the Electoral College was wisely created to combat any destruction a fickle crowd might bring. Though the Electoral College is imperfect, the proposition to implement a popular vote is just as problematic.

Rather than continue to cry for an abolition rendered nearly impossible by our Constitution, we should seek meaningful reform to our current methodolog y. If achieved, our republic can make a substantial step toward a truer democracy.

Yasmeen Dohan can be reached at yasmeend@umich.edu.

SAM FOGEL | COLUMN

B

Oil moguls shouldn’t get off scot-free

efore I begin this piece, let me just say: Climate change is real and it is caused by humans. I’m not here to convince you otherwise if you’re in denial. All I have to say is that you’re better off not defending people who are complicit with your drowning in 20 years. Oil CEOs need to be held accountable for the damage they’ve done to the environment. Time and time again, we see the responsibility of climate change and the destruction of the environment placed on the individual, which is incredibly disingenuous considering the statistics of the matter.

The Carbon Majors Report compiled by the Climate Accountability Institute, a non-profit organization that monitors climate change and the impact humans have on the environment, states that just 100 companies are responsible for almost 71 percent of carbon emissions.

Just 100 companies. China can also take the blame for the abhorrent amounts of carbon dioxide produced per year, with Shenhua Group being the top producer. But when considering carbon emissions per capita, the U.S. is still the leader by a large margin.

Banning plastic straws in a single city may help waste for that region, but carbon emissions are global.

Now, I’m not saying that reducing your plastic waste isn’t a noble goal. Please continue to monitor your own contributions to the global carbon footprint. What I am saying, however, is that it mostly isn’t your fault. The blame should fall on people like oil executive Bob Dudley, who oversaw BP’s disaster in the Gulf Coast in 2008.

It should fall upon people like oil-executiver-turned-

diplomat Rex Tillerson, who gave millions of dollars to bad faith actors in favor of climate dereg ulation. It should be put upon the mog uls who hold billions upon billions of dollars milked from the substances that are fueling the most destructive phenomenon in our planet’s history since the Fifth Extinction.

On the topic of oil mog uls, the late David Koch can be a good example of what these people are usually up to.

Institutions like the Cato Institute, the Institute for Energ y Research and the Heritage Foundation have all been funded by Koch and his affiliated businesses.

The Cato Institute has been noted to oppose climate change reform, with their main page on the topic stating that “there is ample time to develop such technologies,” to which I respond: There is not ample time. I’m sure you’ve heard the ultimatum from the United Nations that we only have 12 years to act. But it’s only in these companies’ best interests to spread misinformation.

Companies like Exxon Mobil also participate in donating to bad faith actors, no doubt, whether they be institutes or political candidates.

The ultra-rich may claim innocence or ignorance, stating “it’s just business” to keep the blood off their hands, but just like it was for Pontius Pilate, the evil deeds are their responsibility. They’re having planet Earth executed, and washing its blood over the masses that don’t have the funds to ship themselves to Mars. They knew for years that climate change was happening, revealed in 330 pages of internal memos from companies like Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries.

In 1968, a document given by the Stanford Research Institute to the American Petroleum Institute, a trade organization which included and still includes Exxon Mobil and Chevron, states that, though they were unsure of the true ramifications, “there seems to be no doubt that the potential damage could be severe,’’ referring to the release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. I find it completely ridiculous that there is a deliberate avoidance of responsibility and foresight by policy makers. If it were me personally, I would throw them in prison and forcibly seize all of their wealth and put it into research and development of clean energ y.

But that’s a little too radical, so let’s just stick with heavier taxes.

Climate change has been a focal point in the 2020 election, with multiple candidates pontificating on their own approach to solving the crisis. We’ve recently had a global climate strike.

Awareness is increasing. You may be asking yourself why it would matter that these individuals walk free, saying things like, “Who cares?” and, “We should be focusing on the actual issue.” But without accountability for actions, these same kinds of industries will get away with exploiting the planet for profit and make our efforts to solve climate change futile. The mere fact that these corporations would have consequences for their actions would send a message to those who threaten the environment. We care about our planet, and those who irrevocably send it to its death will not be tolerated.

Sam Fogel can be reached at samfogel@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Monday, September 30, 2019 — 5A

FOOD COLUMN

Go to the stadium for the football, but also the food

FILM REVIEW

ELI RALLO

Daily Food Columnist

NETFLIX

‘Moon’ doesn’t hit potential ANISH TAMHANEY Daily Arts Writer

Stories about serial killers tend to involve obsession, not only in their examination of startlingly meticulous murderers, but of the people who investigate their crimes. One needs to look no further than the films “Zodiac,” “Se7en” and even the Netflix show “Mindhunter,” to experience the gradual psychological erosion that comes from obsession with the macabre. Of course, all three of these are products of David Fincher, who is arguably the master of this archetype. He makes his characters and his viewers wonder why they are so drawn into the grisliest human behavior and, in doing so, paints this obsession as a dark and poisonous curiosity.

A movie that misunderstands the trope of the in-too-deep murder investigator is “In the Shadow of the Moon,” directed by Jim Mickle (“Cold in July”). When Philadelphia policeman Thomas “Locke” Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook, who coincidentally played an investigator in Fincher’s “Gone Girl,”) notices a temporal pattern of unsolved murders, his obsession wears away at his own mental stability and the relationships around him.

“Moon” struggles to establish enough sympathy between the audience and Locke. An important aspect of understanding an investigator’s descent into darkness is eagerly following along with them.

Instead of a continuous timeline, the film stitches

In the Shadow of the Moon Netflix Streaming Now

together moments from every nine years of his life to depict the various stages of his investigation. As a result, the transition is blunt and dry, replacing character nuance with increasingly mangier facial hair and crazier theories.

A reason that Locke doesn’t connect with the audience is that the film makes foolhardy, tactless dives into political commentary. Locke’s work central to this misstep — early in the film, he marks himself as part of a corrupt police system, one that operates on racial profiling and a general dismissal of due process. As an audience, grappling with Locke’s morality for the rest of the film is certainly tough, and when the film coerces us to root for him by placing tragedy after tragedy along his journey, it’s hard not to be incensed at the writing.

The movie’s admission of, and eventual complicity with, the systematic violence of police isn’t its only serious misstep. In future vignettes, it perplexingly criticizes protests against that violence. “Why are they so angry?” Locke’s daughter asks him as she gazes out a window at a march outside. “Some people aren’t happy unless they’re mad. You’ll see what I mean when you get older,” he replies smugly. One might think that Locke is a villain to the story’s anxieties, but “Moon” is simply not that aware. It aches to humanize him without understanding the costs of doing so.

“Moon” is truly infuriating because Mickle incorporates eye-catching cinematography and meaningful camerawork into a story that never deserves it. For all its visual flair, the movie is a sour pill to swallow. The performances are also lacking, making me wonder if a halfway decent cast could have at least made the journey worthwhile.

Perhaps the more fascinating story of obsession in “Moon” is that of the filmmakers and their curmudgeonly desperation to say something, anything about current politics. This trap is one that many films of the last few years have fallen into, some notably more successful than others.

These distractions took away from a legitimately interesting science fiction subplot that gave the story a twist that most detective stories don’t have.

In many ways, “Moon” is just another Netflix movie — a compelling idea executed poorly, and a story that can surely be avoided.

Though most of us would have to agree that every quality game day ends in food, I’m not sure most of us recognize that some of the most important culinary triumphs of the day lie in the most unassuming of places: the stadium. Perhaps because making it to the game is such a feat among students who prefer the tailgate to the the actual kickoff, we don’t often realize that by making it into the stadium not only are we there to watch football, we’re also there to feast.

The stadium’s culinary facilities are run by Sodexo, a food service business that manages University athletics, and they are completely rebranding what it means to order any kind of food at a sporting event.

Growing up, I remember being taken to Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, enticed by the idea of a hot dog slathered in mustard and salty french fries. Beer scented concrete and sticky aluminum countertops were the staples of the stadiums of my childhood nightmares.

If I was lucky and behaved (instead of complaining about my distaste for sports) my mom would let me have a Carvel ice cream cone. Other than that, the food options were fairly limited. Being diagnosed with Celiac disease when I was 17 basically rid me of the ability to eat in sporting stadiums around the country.

Sodexo, on the other hand, is changing the Big House’s culinary game completely.

Sodexo’s job through the University is to coordinate both non-profit, local eateries to set up shop on Ann Arbor autumn Saturday’s around the circumference of the Big House and additionally to run the Big House’s private concessions as well. Last year alone, as a collective the stadium made around $245,000 in profit on food. This year, they have their sights set higher.

On my culinary food tour around the stadium, I started at the Greek Eats stand.

With options like chicken shawarma and loaded gyros, this stand alone revamps drunk munchies entirely. The chicken shawarma I tasted was loaded with thick garlic sauce that complimented the chicken well. Next to the Greek Eats stand you can find Ann Arbor’s own Bearclaw Coffee — a coffee cart stocked with a menu of seasonal lattes and homemade pastries. Just down from there the “Street Eats” stand specializes in a variety of tacos.

Most popular on the menu is the “walking taco,” a taco bowl with layers of salty fritos topped with beans, cheese, salsa and beef.

This dish is best accompanied by a fork and an Oberon to wash it all down. The variety of choices does not end there. Between each and every local stand are concession booths which now sell Impossible Burgers and have gluten free and vegan offerings as well. Ray’s

Red Hots also makes an appearance on the perimeter of the stadium, providing your favorite East University bites during halftime or in between quarters.

But my favorite stand has to be the “Tot Spot,” a concession booth that specializes in loaded tater tots. I would recommend the “Tot-chos” or the “Classic Tots,” though all the possible topping combinations compliment the golden brown, crispy tater tots perfectly. Other standouts include the minority female run “Detroit Dough” edible cookie dough carts that line the stadium.

Co-founder and CEO Autumn Kyles is a University alum who proudly serves their edible cookie dough to fans every game day.

For other sweet tooth options, RJ’s is a loaded milkshake stand and a family-run business.

The matriarch of the family, Yvette Wilkie, started making desserts after her son passed away to help combat her depression, and now you can find their ice cream sandwich and donut embellished cookies & cream milkshakes at every game day.

The efforts by Sodexo to make the Michigan football experience more than a game should not go unnoticed. Football is a story. You have your protagonists and antagonists, your climax and your narrative line — and you never know if the ending is going to be happy or sad. Both good games and bad games, home team and away team, everyone attending the Big House has one thing in common: We’re all hungry. The eats at the Big House can make any game, regardless of the score, a good one.

Between each and every local stand are concession booths which now sell Impossible Burgers and have gluten free and vegan offerings as well

ALBUM REVIEW

The Highwomen have arrived, and they’re here to stay KATIE BEEKMAN For the Daily

The opening track of The Highwomen’s selftitled debut album proclaims that they’ll “be back again and again and again and again and again.”

This hook, like much of the song’s instrumentation and storytelling, mirrors The Highwaymen’s 1985 theme song “Highwayman.” But in 2019, sung by women, these lyrics sound different.

Simultaneously a rally cry for women in country music and a warning to the male-dominated industry, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires’s insistence that they aren’t going anywhere, and have been important all along, is refreshing.

The Highwomen’s roster doesn’t quite read like the country-music-Mount Rushmore that is The Highwaymen, and that’s the problem. Any four female artists popular in country music today have never been given the opportunity to reach their stature. By staking their own claim to greatness, and delivering an album to back it up, The Highwomen pave the way for more visibility,

The Highwomen The Highwomen Elektra Records

more inclusion, and more women-focused themes in the genre, something the “bro-country” era of the 2010s was overshadowing.

Answering how Morris’s country pop would mesh with Carlile’s Americana, the group’s first single, “Redesigning Women,” settles The Highwomen into a traditional-leaning, acoustic country sound that persists throughout the album. As all four members sing in unison about being women who do it all: “Making bank, shaking hands, driving 80 / Tryna get home just to feed the baby,” this track is the album’s heartbeat, giving life to the more specific tales of empowerment that follow.

“Loose Change” is one of those songs. Simple but catchy, Morris sings about knowing her worth.

“Love is not supposed to be played like Monopoly” she cautions. The song plays with the extremes of a penny’s (and a person’s) value in another’s eyes, from being worthless when it’s “loose change” to being priceless when it’s “lucky.” And just like a penny, Morris suggests that a woman should “roll away” when she isn’t being treated nicely.

“If She Ever Leaves Me” finds Carlile in a bar, staring down a cowboy who’s been keeping an eye on her wife, and letting him know that even if they weren’t together anymore, her wife would never be with him. Queer country songs are possible, everyone! Carlile sounds as gorgeous as always, and it’s exciting to think that in a stereotypically homophobic genre, more explicitly LGBTQ-friendly songs are coming to light.

If you’re still pissed with someone you’ve given a few too many chances to (and also want to feel like you’re in an old Western film) “Don’t Call Me” will take you there. This song is the kind of funny you find pacing back and forth with your fists clenched. The verses and outro string together suggestions for how the person who said they “outgrew” Carlile and Shires should fix their mess without them.

“Call your doctor … your lawyer … if you can afford one” Shires smirks. “Call your spiritual guide or mood enlightener, your tattoo artist.”

She could go on.

But the absolute stand out of the album is “Cocktail and a Song.” Written and sung

by Shires alone, she captures a conversation with her dad about his impending passing.

Women of any country music era aren’t “around and around and around and around and around” like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are today, but The Highwomen demonstrate why they should be

It’s heartbreaking. “Don’t you let me see you cry, don’t you go grieving / Not before I’m gone” he tells her. But it’s also light-hearted. When Shires requests his “silver belt buckle and maybe (his) black Stetson hat” they both laugh, which makes the song sting even more.

Women of any country music era aren’t “around and around and around and around and around” like Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are today, but The Highwomen demonstrate why they

should be. It’s a shame that four individually strong artists had to come together to bring attention to women’s contributions to country music, because the excellence this supergroup demonstrates is nothing new. Still, one can’t help but feel lucky that they did decide to take a stand and release an album that stands up to their namesake. Now all we can do is look forward to when they “come back again” and keep rooting for them — and other women — in the meantime.

ELEKTRA RECORDS

Arts

6A — Monday, September 30, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

TV REVIEW

ALBUM REVIEW

‘All Rise’ falls back down MAXWELL SCHWARZ Daily Arts Writer

CONCORD RECORDS

The New Pornographers find sunshine this season MADELEINE VIRGINIA GANNON Daily Arts Writer

The answer is no. This isn’t a porn thing.

Granted, it could be said the good vibes and jam-worthy beats of The New Pornographers are their own hearty brand of music “porn.” The band’s new album, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights, is quirky, playful and fun. More than that, the album is a breath of fresh air. Here, The New Pornographers manage to find a way to revitalize old themes, injecting their songs with a refreshing sense of wonder and excitement.

“You’ll Need A New Backseat Driver” opens the album with a song of roadtrips and journeys — an ode to the forgotten, scoffed-at backseat driver. Singing “If you’re gonna travel and never arrive there / You’ll need a backseat driver,” the backseat driver, while a nuisance, is an essential part of any adventure. “Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” follows this quirky spirit, joking about how love is messy and unexpected — like falling down the stairs. “Too many soapboxes, not enough violins / Too many shipwrecks, not enough sirens,” this playful spirit extends to embracing the unconventional and original, discarding the boring to take the gamble.

Autumn, for indie bands, is the golden season for heavy, introspective songs and soul-searching compositions. There often seems to be an implicit agreement that summertime is for “fun” music, leaving fall with all the subdued ballads and slow tunes. The New Pornographers retaliate against this norm. Whether intentional or not, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights holds on tightly to their trademark high-spirited, merry music-

making.

Don’t confuse this light-heartedness with a lack of substance, however. The New Pornographers don’t sacrifice any symbolism and thematic interpretation in order to keep their light edge. “Higher Beams” in particular touches upon the realm of struggle: “Deep in the culture of fear, we all hate living here / But you know when you can’t afford to leave?” Commentary on the current social climate, perhaps, where 16-year-old girls must scold a disunited congress and a modern day “Red Scare” in the chilling form of anti-immigration sentiment became the monsters under the bed.

“You Won’t Need Those Where You’re Going” is the most notable exception — but not the rule — of the album. Singing with a touch of somber lament, “We’re raw footage, still unedited / It’s awkward, rough and repetitive / But it could win awards when and if it’s shown,” love is messy, and difficult, and painful. In this brief, two-minute interlude, The New Pornographers embrace loss, honest and open in their performance and writing — but rather than bringing the mood of the album down, the track makes the rest of the album’s boisterous spirit more tangible in comparison.

But music doesn’t have to be sad to be serious.

Then again, it might be even more amusing if The New Pornographers were a mopey ballad type of band — their name alone would reach a new level of irony. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights is perfect to combat oncoming winter blues — they bring the sunshine to fall’s crisp, cool weather. For those who like Scandinavian pop and indie bands, like Of Monsters and Men, and off-beat indie bands, like Passion Pit, The New Pornographers are a good addition to any fall playlist.

At times, it can feel as though there are as many courtroom dramas as there are courts.

Each series goes to trial, making its case for what sets it apart from the hundreds of other legal dramas. “All Rise,” CBS’s newest effort, attempts to establish itself amongst the likes of shows from Shonda Rhimes or Aaron Sorkin. However, its endeavor in imitation misses Rhimes’ knack for storytelling and Sorkin’s wit and character.

“All Rise” follows new judge Lola Carmichael (Simone Missick, “Luke Cage”), and the various prosecutors, public defenders and court employees that surround her as their lives weave in and out of the injustices of a Los Angeles courthouse. Much of the episode follows the case of public defender Emily Lopez (Jessica Camacho, “The Flash”), which involves a young woman who may be wrongly arrested for burglary. However, when she first arrives to the courtroom, she’s pants-less due to the incompetence of the county jail. After a mildly racist breakdown by a bailiff, who then attempts to shoot the judge, the case comes before Carmichael, who intends to right the wrongs of a fatigued justice system.

To the show’s credit, its premise is established swiftly and effectively. Within the first five minutes, the basic themes are introduced. We find out that Los Angeles is riddled with crime, but Carmichael pities most criminals for their environment. There’s also the snappy, wisecracking prosecutor, Mark Callan (Wilson Bethel, “Heart of Dixie”), whom Carmichael has history with as a lawyer and friend. Then, within the course of the thirty seconds it takes to walk through the metal detector and to the elevator, Callan rapidly details all of Carmichael’s likes and dislikes.

While the plot may move with equal parts speed and deftness, it fails to connect.

Each character on “All Rise” is thoroughly conventional. We have the relaxed, wise judge, the quippy prosecutor, a sensitive public defender and even a charming bailiff trying to rise above his station. The show does deserve credit for its relatively diverse cast, attempting to accurately reflect Los Angeles’ colorful makeup. However, having a diverse cast is not a sufficient substitute for a lacking engaging characters.

It feels as though the show also neglects to actively engage its characters. For example, Luke (J. Alex Brinson, “Travelers”) the court officer shoots the insane, racist bailiff who shot at the

All Rise CBS Sundays @ 9 p.m.

Series Premiere

judge from the above scene. This might make for a rich study in the toll the unfortunate aspects of law enforcement might have on a person. Instead, it’s used as a way to connect characters and move the plot, before being quickly forgotten. It’s as if the show attempts to efficiently cram plot points into the pilot, while the characters just become scenery, flatly rotating around the narrative.

While “All Rise” promises a focus on social justice — trying to fix the problems of an unjust court from within — it’s hard to say that it has made good on that promise. The focus of the pilot seemed to be the personal lives of these people, which so far is not very interesting. The moments in which justice is shown to be skewed are few, and they seem to be more dramatic than anything.

The pilot for “All Rise” is unimpressive, but that doesn’t mean the show is bad — at least not yet. There are roots here for a very smart and provoking show that tackles the delicate and frightening balance of our justice system.

What’s more, it has the opportunity to explore and question the position of minorities on either side of the Judge’s bench. Yet, I’m scared the show will err too much to the side of melodrama, neglecting character study for an overstuffed plot. If “All Rise” can pull off being the show it seems to want to be, it’ll be amazing. But for now, it has a long way to go.

In The Morse Code of Brake Lights The New Pornographers Concord Records

CBS

COMMUNITY CULTURE

Release Date: Monday, September 30, 2019

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

ACROSS 1 Gull relatives 6 Spots to fastforward through 11 Cleopatra’s killer 14 Sharply inclined 15 Trip odometer function 16 Chinese steamed bun 17 *Realtor’s client 19 Category 20 Rural stopover 21 __ d’Alene, Idaho 22 “Well, gosh!”

24 Social reformer Jacob 26 *Surface for slicing rye, say 28 Body ink 30 Eye part that may become detached 31 Golf’s Slammin’ Sammy 32 Karma 35 Vegas’ “onearmed bandit” 36 *Vehicle’s rear warning lamp 39 Head or tooth pain 42 Pick out with care 43 Aficionados 47 “Ye Olde” retailer 49 Lose its fizz, as soda 50 *Feline metaphor for an empty threat 54 Pâté de __ gras 55 Goodnight woman of song 56 “The __ Wears Prada”: 2006 film 58 “__ you awake?”

59 Vied for office 60 Certain brain tissue, or what each half of the answers to the starred clues can be 63 Pre-marital (just barely) promise 64 Parisian love 65 Reagan attorney general Ed 66 After taxes 67 Easy victories 68 Medicare Rx section

DOWN 1 Tops with slogans 2 Ian Fleming or George Orwell, schoolwise 3 Get the old gang together 4 Old Nintendo game console: Abbr.

5 Job detail, briefly 6 More accurate 7 Change of __: trial request 8 Stars, in Latin 9 Lousy grade 10 Flasher at a disco 11 1797-1801 first lady Adams 12 City near Naples 13 Prodded 18 Stereotypical boxcar hopper 23 1979 Donna Summer hit 25 Local govt. prison 27 Bit of wine sediment 29 “Ghost” psychic __ Mae Brown 32 Winter malady 33 “__ My Children”

34 Shop __ you drop 37 Rapper/actor whose name sounds like a summer drink 38 “Westworld” network 39 Pill for pain 40 Pantomimed act in a parlor game 41 “Sure wish that doesn’t happen” 44 Pool noodle, e.g.

45 “... who is the __ one of all?”: Evil Queen 46 Manned the helm 48 Like the Great Depression, timewise 49 Like the Reaper 51 Figure of speech 52 Hop out of bed 53 Activist Medgar 57 Tanning device 61 Medical ins. plan 62 Scone go-with

SMTD’s String Showcase brought a compelling dynamism for audience NATALIE KASTNER Daily Arts Writer

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

By Roland Huget ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

09/30/19

09/30/19

The School of Music, Theatre & Dance presented the String Showcase at Stamps Auditorium this Wednesday evening. Students were chosen by their faculty to perform in the String Showcase; the performers ranged from first year undergraduate music students to graduate students to musicians who have already received their doctorates. That said, I could not tell any difference in talent levels — I was pleasantly surprised by how exceptional the entire show was. The performance showcased a wide range of music. They chose a satisfying balance of classical and contemporary compositions.

Although the music was seemingly flawless, the performers struggled to maintain their emotional connection to the music. Sometimes, especially during the first piece, performers would comment on their work with their facial expressions, either smirking or stealing suspicious glances at their fellow performers. It was disappointing to see that their spirit was not fully committed to the music.

Exceptions to this critique include the Anthony Green piece and Julius Conus’s Violin Concerto, as both of those pieces contained passion that was missing in the others. In the Julius Conus piece, the intensity given so generously by the violinist Kevin Sung was refreshing. The Anthony Green piece performed by Jonah Lyon and May Tang on violin, Maxwell Moore on viola and Gabrielle Hooper on cello was reminiscent of a classic horror film score, except far more dynamic and exciting. I most enjoyed the percussive and grounded nature of the piece.

The finale performed by violist Stuart Carlson and pianist Mi-Eun Kim was especially rewarding because it was to the tune of “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin. The audience hummed along and chuckled to the tune.

Ending the show with “Smile” after experiencing all the complexity of the pieces before seemed like a reward for attending. This is not to say that Carlson’s or Kim’s performance was any less nuanced or

exceptional as the others. The performance of this song was just so inspiring that my inner ballerina wanted to jump up on the stage and dance.

The impulse to twitch along to the music happened a couple other times during the show when the musicians were especially committed.

The audience couldn’t help but to be affected physically when the music was especially compelling. Those were my favorite moments.

The String Showcase happens monthly, so if you missed this one, there will be another next month. Plus, the event is free. It’s a great way to support artists and learn more about the exceptional work they do on North Campus.

I could not tell any difference in talent levels — I was pleasantly surprised by how exceptional the entire show was

RUCHITA IYER / DAILY

DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | September 30, 2019

September 30, 2019 | michigandaily.com

ASH KICKING Michigan destroys Rutgers, Knights fire coach in aftermath ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

In the fourth quarter, up 38 points, Michigan went for it on fourth down.

The Wolverines’ latest scoring drive had been courtesy of thirdstring quarterback Joe Milton and fourth-string running back Hassan Haskins. Facing fourth-and-goal at the one-yard line with the game all but over, Michigan could’ve been forgiven for mailing it in and kicking the field goal. Instead, Milton ran a bootleg, scored a touchdown and mocked ripping open his shirt, a la Superman.

Last week, in a blowout loss to Wisconsin, the 20th-ranked Wolverines (3-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) seemed to lack confidence

and, more than that, killer instinct. While it’s hard to prove much against Rutgers (1-3, 0-2), likely the worst team in the Big Ten, Saturday proved about as good a redemption game as Michigan could’ve hoped for. It played like a team with something to prove, running up the score in a 52-0 win. It was the team’s first shutout since 2016.

“Definitely helps us a lot as a team get that confidence back,” said sophomore linebacker Cam McGrone. “Because last week was a little down but this game with this goose egg, it definitely lifted our spirits.”

The calls for senior quarterback Shea Patterson’s job reached a fever pitch after last week’s setback, but Michigan

coach Jim Harbaugh kept the faith in his signal-caller, and a week after not even completing half his passes, Patterson completed 17-of-23 passes for 276 yards, throwing a touchdown and running for three more.

Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis spent the game calling plays on the sideline instead of from the box, wanting to be a little more hands-on. And though Rutgers hardly offered a test, the move seemed to help. Patterson seemed more comfortable in the pocket, ably scrambling and making plays with his feet. Michigan trusted its receivers to make plays — the combination of juniors Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tarik Black. That trio, along with sophomore Ronnie Bell,

combined for 14 catches for 248 yards in what could be the beginning of a more involved passing game. That was evident from the first two drives.

In each of the past three games, Michigan fumbled its opening drive away. But this week, on the fifth play of the drive, Patterson found an open Nico Collins along the sideline.

Collins then turned upfield and ran for a 48-yard touchdown.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Wolverines got the ball back and — after the Scarlet Knights extended the drive with two defensive penalties — Patterson perfectly placed a ball to Peoples-Jones just short of the end zone. Two plays later, on third-and-goal, Patterson took it in himself on a bootleg.

“Everybody was hungry,” Peoples-Jones said. “Everybody wanted to make a play.”

And even when things didn’t quite go right, the Wolverines fought through it in a way they couldn’t last week. When the defense struggled in a latefirst quarter drive, sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson hit Scarlet Knights quarterback Artur Sitkowski and stopped him short on fourth down from the 5-yard line. After Patterson threw a red-zone interception in the third quarter, the defense stopped Rutgers on fourth-and-1 at its own 41-yard line, then the offense marched down the field.

Bell fought for every extra yard after a catch in the third quarter and pushed his defenders all the way to the 1-yard line, setting up

a Patterson quarterback sneak for Michigan’s fifth touchdown of the day.

“There was a lot of trust there,” Harbaugh said. “Players trusting the coaches, coaches trusting the players, and a lot of work. It was good to see it pay off in a victory that was much needed.”

After the debacle in Madison, it was just the kind of win the Wolverines needed, and even with all caveats attached, they played with the kind of spark that was missing the first three weeks. They wore the Scarlet Knights down to a pulp and maintained their intensity throughout.

At least for a day, all the questions surrounding Michigan quieted to a hush.

SportsMonday

2B — September 30, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Behind Patterson, ‘M’ offense rebounds

Brown’s blueprint comes into focus ETHAN SEARS

THEO MACKIE

In year four of Don Brown running Michigan’s defense, there’s little question as to what he wants his unit to be.

He’s going to play man-to-man.

He’s going to blitz. He’s going to tell his team to swarm the ball carrier with abandon. They’re going to do all that, and dare the offense to beat them.

When Brown coached at UMass, UConn and Boston College, the first pages of his playbook carried a parable about the African plains. He’s relayed the story at Michigan, too.

Every gazelle knows it must outrun the fastest lion or be killed. Every lion knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve.

And then, in all caps: “WHEN THE SUN COMES UP, YOU BETTER BE RUNNING!” All this is to say that, as words like “identity” have gotten thrown around the Michigan football team this week, Brown has never had any question as to what he wants his team to be. It’s just a matter of whether they can do it.

On Saturday, without question, they did.

A week after Wisconsin throttled them in Madison, gaining 359 yards on the ground in one of the most resounding losses of Brown’s tenure, his unit held Rutgers to 46 rushing yards, 152 total yards and zero points.

It’s Michigan’s first shutout since 2016.

You’d be justified to take that with a grain of salt — a 52-0 win against Rutgers is, ultimately, a win against the Power Five’s perpetual bottomfeeder. It means little in terms of whether the Wolverines can improve when they play a team like Wisconsin again.

But, if nothing else, it provided a pretty good reminder of what Brown’s defenses can be at their best.

“We got back to playing how we play,” said sophomore linebacker Cam McGrone. “How we played last season, the two games before Wisconsin. We just got back to who we were.”

McGrone is one of the bolts on which Michigan’s defense hinges, a reality that was exacerbated on Saturday with Josh Ross sitting due to injury. A four-star prospect, he sat and watched last year. When he got in during the first three games this year, he did little to stand out.

Against Rutgers, he felt like he was in high school again, f lying all over the field, hitting the quarterback, viscerally impacting the game. “If he keeps playing like this, he’s gonna be a star,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

For a defense that had played well on paper but had yet to really click, McGrone was one of several puzzle pieces that seemed to fall into place.

A defensive line group that the Badgers manhandled dominated the line of scrimmage behind Kwity Paye and a healthy Mike Dwumfour.

Michigan notched two sacks, four quarterback hits and six tackles for loss. It felt like more.

“I felt like our whole D-Line was playing well this week,” Paye said.

“We really took it upon us in practice to really dive for the quarterback and make sure we do everything that we can (to get) back there.”

McGrone played sideline-tosideline and the linebackers played with the energy they sorely lacked in Madison. The secondary shut off whatever options Rutgers quarterback Artur Sitkowski had downfield and freshman safety Daxton Hill, a fivestar who was pegged to contribute immediately from the moment he committed, made a tangible impact.

All of this comes with the obvious caveat that it’s what any competent team should do to Rutgers. Call it a result of that, or call it a result of extra motivation stemming from last week. Certainly both explanations have some truth to them, and replicating the performance against Iowa next week is the first real test.

But Michigan at least has a blueprint now.

“I feel like our linebackers played well this week,” Paye said. “I feel like our safeties played well and I feel like our D-Line played well. I feel like we were just hungry to just come out here and play. Our main objective was just to shut them out.”

Mission accomplished.

It took all of two minutes and eight seconds Saturday afternoon.

Two minutes and eight seconds for Shea Patterson to find Nico Collins on a 48-yard touchdown down the sideline.

Two minutes and eight seconds for Collins to sprint toward his teammates, shoulder bumping Mike Sainristil and Tarik Black in celebration.

Two minutes and eight seconds for Michigan to discover its offensive groove after four vexing weeks of trying.

The natural caveat, of course, is the Wolverines’ opponent. Rutgers ranks 118th of 130 FBS teams in ESPN’s adjusted efficiency metric. Even Michigan’s backups had no trouble shredding the Scarlet Knights en route to a 52-0 win.

But four weeks ago, the same could have been said of Middle Tennessee State, which ranks 122nd in the same metric. That night, the Wolverines left Michigan Stadium with a 40-21 win that prompted more questions than answers.

Saturday, they did the opposite.

“Josh Gattis, all the offense coaches and offensive players, the precision they had, they improved and it showed,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “Put together a really good gameplan and the players knew it. … And it’s good to see it paid off in a victory that was much needed.”

Through three games, the questions swirling over Michigan’s offensive identity were unavoidable. In week two’s overtime win over Army, the Wolverines ran 14 more times than they passed, including an inexplicable run of 13 straight rushing plays at the end of regulation. Last week, en route to a 21-point loss at Wisconsin, Michigan gained just 40 yards on the ground, opting for an air game that proved equally ineffective.

At the center of it all was Patterson.

It’s a natural place for a quarterback to sit when his team struggles, but Patterson’s start to the season only added fuel to the fire.

His completion percentage was down nine points from a year ago. His yards per attempt had dropped from 8.0 to 7.0.

On the ground, he had dropped from 21 yards per game to three.

Saturday afternoon, he was back to his old self. The final line — 17-for-23 for 276 yards, four total touchdowns and an interception — says it all.

“Any time after a loss like that, it can go two ways,” Patterson said. “And we worked hard every single day in practice, trusted the game plan. I just really like the way we responded as a team.”

Patterson’s natural reaction when he’s asked about himself is to deflect.

When the questions inevitably came Saturday, he credited the coaches’ gameplan, the offensive line’s pass protection, the receivers for getting open and the defense for advantageous field position. Not once did he mention himself.

But ask anyone else and you’ll find out what Patterson means to this team.

“Shea’s one of the best guys I know about handling his mentality,” said sophomore running back Christian Turner. “Media likes to bash him and stuff like that, but Shea’s a baller and we all believe in Shea and Shea believes in us.”

If you don’t believe him, you could just watch the game.

All afternoon, Patterson was clicking.

Two plays in, he found Ronnie Bell for a 14-yard gain that would have been his second-biggest of the first three quarters against Wisconsin. A minute later came the touchdown to Collins.

On the next drive, it only took him two completions to get Michigan inside the Rutgers’ five-yard line, because the second of those was a perfectly thrown deep ball to Donovan Peoples-Jones on the left sideline.

Three plays later, he strolled into the end zone untouched for his first rushing touchdown of the year.

“He did really good,” Peoples-Jones said. “Sat back there and made some really good throws. His reads. Every assignment that he did, he did well today.”

As for the questions about Michigan’s offensive identity? Those came with a notably different twist — is this your identity, not what is your identity?

“It definitely helps,” PeoplesJones said of the connection between Patterson’s performance and the Wolverines’ identity. “… Whenever he plays good, everybody plays good.”

Managing Sports Editor

Daily Sports Editor

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily

The Michigan football team bounced back from its loss at Wisconsin with a 52-0 over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon at the Big House.

Sportsmonday Column Not a lot mattered on Saturday. Here’s what did:

“

A-to-Z.” That’s how Jim Harbaugh framed the Michigan football team’s problems last Monday. Fullscale. Thorough.

In that context, Saturday was as close to a no-win proposition as a football game can be.

Had Michigan lost — or even played to a close win — we’d be gathered here MAX to eulogize this MARCOVITCH football season and discuss the dying pulse of the program writ large. Instead, the Wolverines beat Rutgers, 52-0. The Scarlet Knights turned around and fired their head coach Sunday morning, casting their net for a savior from seeminglyinterminable irrelevance.

Which is to say: Beating the worst Power Five program in modern history (using SP+ and common logic) does not nullify last week’s loss at Wisconsin, nor is anyone pretending it does.

But that doesn’t mean Saturday’s game was devoid of meaning. There are real things worth carrying forward. Here are a few.

The kids are alright It’s not just that sophomore Cam McGrone and freshman Daxton Hill showed promise of a bright future Saturday, though both did. It’s that they’re ready to play — right now — for a defense that could really use talent of that ilk.

McGrone filled in at middle linebacker admirably for junior Josh Ross as the latter sat with an injury. He showed signs of the promised speed and physicality that those who followed his recruitment expected.

“If he keeps playing like this, he’s going to be a star,” Harbaugh said of McGrone.

Hill is one of those five-star talents who does things that make it plainly clear why he was so highly-coveted.

Saturday, there were multiple instances in which he identified a target, beat his man to the spot and finished the tackle with authority. The tackle on a punt return stands out, of course, but so did his ability to set the edge on

runs to the sideline.

His performance Saturday was remiscent of Jabrill Peppers early in his career. It’s hard to say whether Hill, akin to Peppers, is ready to play starter-level snaps in big games, but boy does that talent make it worth finding out. “(Hill is) growing as a football player very quickly,” Harbaugh said.

“He’s just so fast; that speed shows up. It shows up when it shows up. You see it with Dax Hill. You see it with Cam McGrone. You see it with guys like that.”

Then the key.

“I think you can probably predict he’ll be getting more and more time.”

Surely, that’s music to Michigan fans’ ears. It’s time to throw Hill and McGrone into the fire and see if they can hang. If they can, the potential of this defense grows noticeably.

Gattis is growing Put the scoreline aside for a moment. Notching 52 points and over 450 yards against any semi-functional team is a good sign for this group, but that’s almost secondary to the bigger point.

It can be easy to forget Josh Gattis is no more than a month into a major coaching adjustment. Think about where you were the last time you were mere months into such a formative life transition. Everything at this juncture is still experimental. And so, even against defenses that stand no chance, there are realizations to be gleaned as Gattis and his personnel work toward a coherent marriage.

Saturday, Gattis had senior quarterback Shea Patterson on the move more frequently. For the first time all season, he found a balance of run and pass, with a near even split until garbage time featured largely runs.

And while body language can frequently mislead, Gattis looked like a coach back in his element on the sideline, conversing with the receiver group during breaks, yelling at the referees, high-fiving players after scores.

Everyone is quick to judge this offense, and thus far, there’s been little to feel good about. But Gattis talked a lot about trust this week. Trust with his players. Trust in his system. Trust in himself. Trust that all of this will work.

“All week, (Gattis) emphasized believing in his players, and we just have to believe in him,” said junior running back Christian Turner. “I think him being on the sideline just emphasized that even more.”

Success breeds belief. Belief breeds success.

Both clearly take time, and if you asked those around the program right now, they’ll say it takes adversity like the kind they’ve faced.

Moving to the sideline is not the magic elixir to ensuring that bond, nor is bludgeoning a lowly foe. But it’s reasonable to have some patience as that trust — and hope — builds.

Shea Patterson is not, and has never been, the problem What you thought Shea Patterson would be is not his fault, nor has it ever been. He’s not good enough to overcome offensive line struggles.

He’s not good enough to work through schematic confusion. He, himself, cannot overcome the pervasive issues present in this offense early in the season.

If you thought otherwise, that’s on you, not him.

He’s the best quarterback on this roster. Saturday, he showed what he can do when he has time and a coherent flow. From his throw to sophomore Donovan Peoples-Jones on the second drive of the game to his three rushing touchdowns, Patterson showed, above all, that he remains capable of being a well above-average quarterback and doing things no other quarterback on this roster can. His lone interception came on a go-route to junior Nico Collins, a throw that required a bit more air, but was far from a fatal error.

Shea Patterson is who he is — no more, no less. What he’s not is the root of any problem with this team.

Those “A-to-Z” problems did not suddenly vanquish simply because Rutgers was next on the schedule.

Much of it still lingers. But to dismiss 60 minutes of gameplay, no matter the opponent, would be a mistake, particularly heading toward a legitimate test against Iowa next weekend.

Marcovitch can be reached at maxmarco@umich.edu or on Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily

The Michigan defense held Rutgers scoreless on Saturday behind a stalwart performance from sophomore Cam McGrone (left).

SportsMonday

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Forward depth creates line challenges for Pearson BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer

Filling in the lineup each night will be quite the task for Mel Pearson this season.

The Michigan coach will be forced to narrow down the 17 forwards on the roster to just 12 for each game, possibly 13 if he chooses to dress an extra forward as opposed to an extra defenseman. And when you look down the list, there are few — if any — players that are easy to leave out.

Since practice began three weeks ago, Pearson has focused on getting the Wolverines’ five new forwards up to speed on Michigan’s systems on the forecheck and in the defensive zone. But while doing that, he’s put together different line combinations every few days to try to get a sense for which players fit where in the lineup.

“You’re just trying to see what type of plays they can make offensively and if they can read off each other,” Pearson said Thursday. “You’re just looking for chemistry on the line, and you can see it. You can tell guys come down the ice and there’s just nothing there. No creativity, no passes, just (nothing).”

Chemistry can be a fickle thing to pinpoint. Sometimes it’s visible right away, as Pearson says, and sometimes it takes time to develop. If there isn’t chemistry right away, it’s hard to know if it will never come or if it’s just going to take more time to develop.

“It could take a week or two before you start clicking with someone, so the biggest thing is to have that open mindset of just trying to figure out and get rolling with who you’re playing with,” said senior forward Nick Pastujov. “If right from the bat you’re like, ‘Me and this guy don’t mesh,’ every single time you mess up, you’re just gonna be looking at that (as proof).

“If you look at it in a more positive light like, ‘OK, we

September 30, 2019 — 3B

WOMEN’S SOCCER

‘M’ holds off Purdue MATTHEW CHANG For The Daily

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Michigan senior forward Nick Pastujov sees positives in working with a variety of line combinations in practice.

messed up this rep but why was that?’ and try to get to the root of the problem, you can progress a lot faster.”

By moving the forwards to different lines in practice, Pearson has the opportunity to see how a wide range of combinations work. It also affords players who only played on one specific line last year a chance to test out other groupings.

Sophomore forwards Garrett van Wyhe and Nolan Moyle spent the vast majority of last season on a line with junior forward Dakota Raabe, and the trio finished the season as one of Pearson’s favorite lines. But it’s a new year, and Pearson doesn’t want any of them to feel like they can only play together.

“The thing about that line is you could put them together tomorrow and they’d be great,” Pearson said. “You know you have that. You know you have that in your pocket so to speak,

where the other guys, if you put them together, you don’t know what you’re going to get. So, we’ll always have that.

“I don’t know if they’ll be together or not. I don’t want to pigeonhole anyone to think they only can play on that line or they only can play in a certain role.”

With just under a week until the Wolverines face the University of Windsor in an exhibition matchup, Pearson has time to figure out his line combinations.

Adding intrigue to the puzzle of which players go where is freshman forward Johnny Beecher.

Beecher was selected No. 30 overall by the Boston Bruins in this year’s NHL Draft and is known for his size and speed, as well as his ability to shoot the puck. But Beecher is only in his first season of college hockey, so the players Pearson surrounds him with will need to have the

You’re just trying to see what ... plays they can make.

ability to both keep up with him and show him the ropes of college gameplay.

“You’d like to play with him an upperclassman or two that can talk to him,” Pearson said. “It doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be, always the coach that is coaching the player. That’s when you have a really good team, you’ve got the seniors and juniors who can take a player like Johnny and work with him and coach him on the bench. “...I think that’s really important that you find the right guy that he will listen to and someone who can communicate with him, almost like a playercoach.”

Pearson pointed to senior forwards Jake Slaker and Will Lockwood as players who have communicated well with Beecher thus far. It isn’t hard to imagine a situation in which Slaker, Beecher and Lockwood fill out Michigan’s top line.

The question then becomes which of the other 14 forwards get the nine remaining spots up front for the Wolverines. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s one Pearson will need some time to solve.

The Michigan women’s soccer team formed a circle and started dancing, jumping and screaming prior to their game against Purdue. Moments later, they were screaming again — this time to celebrate sophomore midfielder Raleigh Loughman’s goal just 49 seconds into the game.

The early goal helped the Wolverines (8-2-0 overall, 3-0-0 Big Ten) to a 2-1 victory in rainy conditions over the Boilermakers (6-3-1, 2-1-0).

Michigan used the energy of this goal to keep the pressure on Purdue, forcing its goaltender, Marisa Bova, to make several saves under duress.

“We came out on fire,” said Michigan coach Jennifer Klein. “Scoring a goal in the first minute really set the tone.”

Junior midfielder Sarah Stratigakis played a large part in this fast start. She relentlessly attacked Purdue’s defense early, coming away with three shots in the first 20 minutes. But the Wolverines could not find a goal to add to their lead.

After halftime, Michigan finally broke through on a set piece. Freshman forward Danielle Wolfe made a run up the left-hand side of the field and won a free kick just outside the box. Instead of shooting the free kick, Loughman played a through ball to Stratigakis.

This caught the Boilermaker’s defense off guard and allowed Stratigakis to place the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal, just beyond the reach of a diving Bova.

“That’s definitely something we’ve worked on in training,” Loughman said. “We have a few different set pieces we like to play and that’s one of them.”

The idea of practice concepts translating to the game was key throughout the night.

“I was really happy with them just executing our gameplan,” Klein said. “(They did) the things that we worked on throughout the week.”

Michigan played well in wide areas and constantly switched the point of attack — both ideas worked on during the week — but its main emphasis was on possession of the ball.

“Purdue (had) the ability to catch us just with their attacking personalities,” said Klein. “We knew that our best defense was going to be keeping the ball.”

Throughout the game, this emphasis was evident, as the Wolverines had 68 percent possession, quickly winning the ball back whenever they lost it and rarely letting Purdue out of its half.

Klein’s plan to control the Boilermakers’ attack worked, as junior goaltender Hillary Beall only had to make one save. Purdue’s lone goal came off a deflection from a Michigan player with 10 minutes left.

The Wolverines did not allow the Boilermakers an opportunity to equalize, as they followed the gameplan and kept the ball in Purdue’s half to finish the game.

As the final whistle blew, Michigan celebrated in the same way it started — singing and dancing in one big group.

Scoring a goal in the first minute just set the tone.

Michigan sweeps Ohio State in Wolverines dispatch Indiana, 5-0 dramatic fashion at Crisler Center BRANDON TRACHTENBURG For The Daily

Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” rattled through Crisler Center, jolting Michigan fans and players to dance as the Michigan volleyball team headed into the third set leading, 2-0. The Wolverines (9-3 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) dominated the first two sets and were met with little resistance from their rival Ohio State (8-6, 1-1). It was all good vibes at Crisler in the volleyball version of ‘The Game.’

Michigan, in the words of Queen, was having itself a good time. The Wolverines finished off the Buckeyes in three sets to sweep their rival — 25-14, 25-17, 25-19.

“Matches like this give you a ton of confidence,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen after the match. “It’s earned.

You can’t give somebody confidence, it’s earned, and so I thought tonight we did a great job.”

The Michigan offense tore

apart Ohio State’s defense for three sets. Sophomore outside hitter Paige Jones and senior setter MacKenzi Welsh led the Wolverines offensively. Jones dominated the attacking game with 14 kills and a .483 hitting percentage. Welsh added to the offensive performance with 36 assists. Senior outside hitter Sydney Wetterstrom didn’t make a positive impact on the stat sheet. Wetterstrom struggled with six attacking errors and a .167 hitting percentage.

“She’s struggled a little bit offensively lately,” Rosen said.

“She’ll get better. She’ll figure it out. She’s a good offensive player, but the fact that she’s finding other ways to make an impact and really impact us in a positive way.”

But her energy and positive attitude kept the team going throughout the match.

“I think it’s a great example for other players,” Rosen said.

“That’s a senior who kind of gets it. I don’t know if she would’ve done that as a freshman, so it’s

great for other players to see that’s the way you respond.”

Michigan was also boosted by self-inflicted wounds from Ohio State, with a surplus of mistakes including 16 errors between serving, attacking and ball handling. The Buckeyes’ errors allowed Michigan to go on substantial runs in every set — most notably a 14-5 run to close out the first set.

These Michigan runs forced Ohio State to use all of its timeouts in each set, proving the Wolverines’ dominance in this game. In a rivalry game, it counts for more than just a number in the win column, especially in the fashion that Michigan won.

“Knowing that there’s such an actual rivalry versus just two schools, it’s really cool and it’s super emotional,” Welsh said. “Knowing that this rivalry game means a lot to our program, and not just Michigan as a whole, is super cool to go out and play in these games and fight for everything that our program means.”

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Sydney Wetterstrom struggled with six attacking errors in Michigan’s win over Ohio State on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Senior midfielder Fay Keijer scored twice against Indiana as Michigan beat the Hoosiers, 5-0, in its Big Ten opener.

ABBIE TELGENHOF For The Daily

Dominate.

That’s what the Michigan field hockey team (6-2 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) did Friday afternoon in their Big Ten opener against Indiana (4-4, 0-1).

For some teams, playing on the road for the conference opener would pose a problem, but for the Wolverines it resulted in a 5-0 shutout of the Hoosiers.

After eight saves by Indiana goalkeeper Sachi Ananias in the first 10 minutes, Michigan didn’t lose hope of scoring first.

Ten minutes into the game, sophomore midfielder Kathryn Peterson lined up for a corner.

Redshirt sophomore midfielder Emma Tamer received it and took a shot up the middle. Another save by Ananias forced the ball back into play when senior midfielder Fay Keijer connected, catching Ananias off gaurd to give the Wolverines their first goal of the night.

“We were really putting emphasis on getting to rebounds,” Keijer said. “My teammates really set me up by getting those good shots on goal.”

The concentrated emphasis on small details mattered just seconds after the first goal as the Wolverines took advantage

of poor passes and forced three Indiana turnovers over the next minute. Eventually the turnovers led to another Michigan corner, this time by Keijer. She inserted the ball to Tamer, who found the back of the net for the Wolverines’ second goal of the night.

Michigan’s early offensive

We’re ready to take on the Big Ten and make a good run. domination set the tone for the rest of the game as it scored three more goals, one in each remaining quarter. The third came late in the second quarter as Indiana gave up yet another corner. Again, Peterson inserted the ball, this time to senior midfielder Guadalupe Fernandez Lacor, who sent a shot up the middle. Another save by Ananias launched the ball into the air where Keijer connected, and hit it back into the net.

“When it came high up in the air, I was just looking at the ball,” Keijer said. “(Michigan coach)

Marcia (Pankratz) always tells us to bunt it.”

Keijer’s focus gave her two goals on the night, already tying her mark from last season.

The fourth goal came from junior midfielder Kayla Reed, with a cross-field pass from freshman midfielder Nina Apoola. With a flick over Ananias’s head, the Wolverines’ were up 4-0.

Sophomore forward Tina D’Anjollel contributed the fifth goal off another penalty corner.

Indiana allowed Michigan ten penalty corners, which the Wolverines used to their advantage, scoring three of the five goals off them.

While Michigan dominated on the offensive side, the Wolverines’ defense also only allowed the Hoosiers one shot on goal, and it came late in the fourth quarter.

After a preseason full of tough opponents, Michigan was ready to prove itself in the Big Ten, and prove themselves the Wolverines did. They dominated on both sides of the field and started their conference season on a high note.

“It was a really big game for us because it was our first Big Ten game,” Keijer said. “You always want to set the tone. We’re ready to take on the Big Ten and make a good run.”

SportsMonday

4B — September 30, 2019

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

For offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, a necessary step forward MAX MARCOVITCH Managing Sports Editor

Josh Gattis paced near the 30-yard line shortly before kickoff, embracing players scattered about. He walked up to midfield, then back again.

Safeties coach Chris Partridge approached and offered an emphatic hug.

As Gattis walked toward the middle of the offensive huddle, ready to address his beleaguered unit before taking the field against Rutgers, one could only imagine the thoughts going through his head.

Since the moment he got the job, the spotlight of this Michigan football season has concentrated on him, and on his promise of change. Through three weeks, that promised growth has been noticeably absent.

For Saturday’s bout, Gattis decided to change course.

Instead of sitting in the press box directing the offense, he decided to run the offense from the sideline. Spearheading a unit in search of an identity, Gattis felt his presence on the field could centralize that quest.

“I think this group really leans on leadership and they need it,” Gattis said on the pregame radio show. “To be on the field, to be able to provide that leadership, in good and bad times, it’s something I think that I want to encourage out of our guys. … Slept on it all week long, going through my mind, and it’s about what these kids need most. It’s not about what I need, it’s not about anything else.

“It’s about what the kids need.

And they need it.”

It’s difficult to say what tangible impact his move had on Michigan’s 52-0 demolition over Rutgers — though it’s hard to imagine anything altering the outcome. But the importance of such a move was not lost on his players.

“All week, he emphasized

believing in his players, and we just have to believe in him,” said junior running back Christian Turner. “I think him being on the sideline just emphasized that even more.”

For Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, Gattis’ presence on the sideline also clarified some of the intricacies underlying many of the questions about this offense.

“For Josh to be there as the plays are being formulated, he can react to the kind of subs he wants in the game, who he wants running a

particular route or play. It flowed much better today,” Harbaugh said. “It could still be better, the operation and mechanics of it.

But I thought it took a big leap today.”

Between plays, he’d hold up a hand signal, frequently a number, which would then be mimicked by two offensive staffers by his side.

Staffers would hold up two signs behind him with an image — anything from a military tank to bug spray, pairs of leggings to a Detroit Red Wings logo.

From there, Gattis would often

All week, he emphasized believing in his players.

bark marching orders to certain players, specifically receivers who looked back at him for lastsecond instructions.

All the while Harbaugh stood nearby, though distant enough. When the offense necessitated a huddle, it was Gattis in the center, Harbaugh standing on the periphery.

When confusion arose, it was up to Gattis to signal timeout.

The two coaches sometimes conversed between plays, and regularly did so between drives.

Sometimes, they’d turn to a

whiteboard to demonstrate their ideas conceptually.

But there were no ambiguities.

This was Gattis’ show, as it has been since the day he arrived.

“I thought (communication) was better,” Harbaugh said.

“Everything was better faceto-face — me communicating with him, him communicating with players, players hearing it from him and not going through the box. It was good.

It was a good move. Glad we did it.”

At times, Gattis’ demeanor — branded as fiery and emotional

Everything was better face-toface. ... Glad we did it.

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis called plays from the sideline on Saturday, a marked shift from the first three games of the season when he was in the booth.

— neared a boiling point. After an illegal motion penalty on freshman receiver Giles Jackson in the first quarter, Gattis furiously marched onto the edge of the field to substitute him off.

At the next intermission, the two calmly talked it out. Not a voice through a radio. Personto-person.

At others, though, he opted for measured conversation.

After Patterson’s interception on an under-thrown ball to junior Nico Collins, Gattis hardly appeared frustrated. He brought Patterson over, calmly pointed to the video screen, then made a hand gesture to suggest a tweak.

“I think coach Gattis is without a doubt kind of the leader of our offense,” Patterson said. “I think we all trust in him.

Like I said, we see it every day in practice, so it was just a little bit more personal.”

Whether his presence on the field had any direct impact on play-calling or game management is only part and parcel to its intention. As Michigan’s new coach tries to forge a connection with his team, and with it something resemblant of an identity, his presence alone offers value.

Maybe it was little more than a symbolic gesture, but when building trust, symbols matter.

“It’s a familiar face on the sideline with us,” Turner said.

“Seeing his emotion after plays, whether good or bad, I think that definitely helped.”

As the score continued to widen and the starting unit took a breather, Gattis’ demeanor grew more relaxed. It was just a win, and one against a team destined for Big Ten bottomdwelling, but the sense of relief was palpable.

Slowly, time ticked away, and the loss at Wisconsin continued to fade from memory. The clock finally hit zero. Gattis unfolded his arms, embraced his team and, for the first time all year, took a confident stride forward.

Against Scarlet Knights, Wolverines get contributions from new faces ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

Let’s cut right to the chase. On Saturday, the Michigan football team beat Rutgers, 52-0. It was such a bad performance for the Scarlet Knights that they fired their coach the next day.

So, for the Wolverines, that meant that most of the regular starters were out of the game by the third quarter and others had a chance to shine.

There were a lot of contributors you might not be familiar with, younger players who suddenly showed up and made an impact.

The Daily introduces you to some of those players, what they did and what it could mean for the future: Sophomore linebacker Cam McGrone McGrone got the start at middle linebacker in place of Josh Ross, who was out with an injury. He made several eye-popping plays and was all over Rutgers quarterback

Artur Sitkowski in blitz packages.

Though he was credited with just one tackle and one quarterback hurry, it was clear that McGrone’s speed could be a difference-maker.

“If he keeps playing like this, he’s gonna be a star,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. “The way he runs, again, he played really well last week, but his physicality is just really, every week, going higher and higher.”

McGrone has also proved to be a larger-than-life presence off the field, making the kinds of bold press conference proclamations that players like Chase Winovich used to have.

Most notably, McGrone offered up a prediction that Michigan would rebound from its early struggles.

“We know we’re gonna see (Wisconsin) again in Indy, my hometown, for the Big Ten Championship,” McGrone said. “ … I know when we see them again, we’re gonna smack them in the

mouth.”

Though he drew some comparisons to Devin Bush with his sideline-to-sideline speed, McGrone isn’t going to be that guy right away. He’s still raw, and he showed that in the loss to Wisconsin, where he struggled as Ross’ replacement. But if McGrone adds a little more polish, the Wolverines might have another great linebacker on their hands.

Freshman safety Dax Hill Early in the second quarter, Michigan stalled on an offensive drive for the first time all game.

Will Hart’s punt wasn’t great — it traveled just 41 yards — but just as the Scarlet Knights’ returner caught the ball, Hill flew in his face, leveling him and preventing a return. As Hill walked off the field, he wagged his fingers, a warning to future kick returners everywhere.

“The punt coverage was such a big thing from last week to this. Last week he was a gunner and pretty much in that same similar position

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

Sophomore linebacker Cam McGrone showed out in place of the injured Josh Ross in Saturday’s win over Rutgers.

and was hesitant,” Harbaugh said.

“And all you really had to do was just coach him on it and that’s what he did and no hesitation today, you saw him make one of those bigtime plays as a gunner.”

Hill — a five-star recruit — was expected to contribute right away, but he’s been largely absent in the first few games. Saturday, then, was somewhat of Hill’s comingout party. In addition to his contribution on special teams, Hill saw time at safety in the second half, finishing with four total tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss.

He, too, is a player who could make a difference on defense with his speed, and the coaching staff already seems to have seen enough to give him more of a look.

“He just keeps coming, keeps coming along and he’s growing as a football player very quickly and he’s so fast and that speed shows up,” Harbaugh said. “It shows up when it shows up and you see it, you see it with Dax Hill, you see it with Cam McGrone, you see the guys like that, so he’s come along. … I probably predict he’ll be getting more and more time.”

Redshirt freshman quarterback Joe Milton In Madison, the Wolverines’ normal backup quarterback, redshirt sophomore Dylan McCaffrey, took a big hit and went down with a concussion. With that, Milton, usually the third-string, slotted into the backup role.

Though Milton has a cannon for an arm, he has struggled with accuracy in the past and is seen as turnover prone. But on Saturday, he came in during the third quarter with the game long over and provided about as good an audition as he could hope for against the hapless Scarlet Knights.

“He’s a leader,” said sophomore running back Christian Turner.

“He doesn’t have the starting job right now, he knows that, but he doesn’t go out there and be lackadaisical or not being fully there. He knows what he’s doing.

He’s just a good guy to have out there.”

The offense kept humming with Milton in the shotgun. He ran a bootleg for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter and later threw for another.

Milton won’t see the field much this year with two more experienced signal-callers in front of him, but he’s popular among his teammates and if he plays well in limited time, he could carve out a bigger role next year.

“I’ve been waiting for him to get his chance,” McGrone said. “Seeing him in the end zone, it warmed my heart a little bit, man. I’m pulling for that guy, man.”

Other skill-position players Sophomore running back Hassan Haskins spent 2018 confined to special teams. He appeared at running back against Middle Tennessee and Wisconsin,

but had just three combined attempts for negative-three yards.

On Saturday, Haskins got an extended look with the score out of hand and two of the Wolverines’ top three backs coming off of injuries.

He was Michigan’s second-leading rusher on the day, gaining 45 yards on nine attempts, and had a gamehigh 15-yard rush.

Haskins is blocked from extended playing time by Turner, senior Tru Wilson and freshman Zach Charbonnet, but Haskins seems to have secured himself as the No. 4 option and a capable replacement if Wilson and Charbonnet continue to struggle with injuries.

Freshman wide receiver Giles Jackson flashed some stuff with a 23-yard touchdown from Milton in the fourth quarter. Though he is even more blocked than Haskins, with four older, megatalented receivers in front of him, Jackson has been given the chance to showcase his speed as Michigan’s primary kick returner — he returned one kick for 13 yards Saturday — and has stood out from the pack a little more than any of the Wolverines’ other freshman receivers.

“It’s the freshmen out there now and we’ll see what they can do,” Harbaugh said. “And they got valuable reps and they played well, they’ve been getting a lot of work. ...

Good to see them execute the plays that were called.”