2018-10-12

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

Friday, October 12, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Football Saturday In the midst of 3-9 season in 2008, Michigan had one highlight — a comeback win over Wisconsin at home.

» Page 1B

LGBTQ Monologues hosts intersectional dialogue on National Coming Out Day Speakers discuss identity, difficulties of being an LGBTQ student on campus at event’s second year

ANN ARBOR

Conflicting ordinances lead to legal questions Councilmembers, city employees talk opposing police oversight proposals LEAH GRAHAM Daily Staff Reporter

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

Brittney Williams speaks on her experience coming out as bisexual at the LGBTQ Monologues held on National Coming Out Day in Weill Hall Thursday.

SAYALI AMIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Oct. 11 was National Coming Out Day, but it was also the 5-year anniversary of Brittney Williams’s mother’s death. As a speaker for Out in Public’s Second Annual LGBTQ Monologues, Williams, a University of Michigan School of Social Work alum, shared her story

of how she did not come out to her mother before she passed. Williams concluded her monologue on a hopeful note — that her mother would have accepted her.

Coinciding with National Coming Out Day, the monologues were held at the Ford School of Public Policy featuring student speakers with about 150 attendees. The theme of this year’s monologues was “More Pride.

‘U’, student orgs shift into voter education Previous voter registration initiatives redirect efforts to providing candidate info

More Color,” and the event aimed to create a space for intersecting identities to be represented and heard equally.

The student presenters shared stories and experiences in the form of story-telling, poetry and more. Students spoke of identities, coming out and navigating families and college.

“When I realized that the monologues fell on this day, this

year, I was torn because I didn’t know if I wanted to talk or not,” Williams said. “But I felt like it was important because I’ve spoken a lot about my relationship with my mother in every single way, except for related to my queerness.”

Rackham student Alex Kime presented their story through the form of a poem titled “The Ongoing Draft of an Ars Poetica.” Kime’s poem covered experiences from

their childhood to now, including their time with theater and poetry writing.

“I began to try and dim my shine, cried again and again at the name Alexander,” Kime said. “Did an impression at a cast party, and suddenly I was Edna, it was time to be flamboyant and loud.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Following the defeat of a citizen task force’s proposal for a police oversight commision at a City Council meeting on Oct. 1, legal questions remain regarding aspects of the citizens’ draft and changes in Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor’s counterproposal.

The citizen task force drafted a proposal that would create a citizen-led police oversight commission with the power to subpoena records and officer testimony, as well as the ability to examine “any AAPD (Ann Arbor Police Department) information and records,” according to the ordinance.

Calls for police oversight gained momentum following the 2014 death of Aura Rosser, a mother of three who was fatally shot by Ann Arbor police officer David Ried. City Council appointed the task force in January to offer recommendations for the formation of an independent commission to review the practices of AAPD. The task force submitted See ORDINANCES, Page 3A

ANN ARBOR

Students have mixed feelings about Mayor asks LSAT’s impending switch to digital citizens to

As students gear up for the new format, test prep professionals urge them not to worry SAMANTHA SMALL Daily Staff Reporter

Over the last couple of years, many standardized tests have moved over to a digital formatting system. Now, the last of the graduate school admissions tests

— the Law School Admission Test — joins them in this technological advancement.

The Law School Admissions Council declared the LSAT will be a tablet-based administration starting in July 2019. Instead of a test booklet, students will receive

a Samsung tablet, a stylus and a white pencil with a scrap sheet of paper.

The stylus will not mimic handwriting; instead, it will feature testing tools including highlighting and underlining.

There will also be a multitude

of annotation tools such as numbering passages. A proctor will still be present in the room, but all timing will be done electronically on the tablet itself.

In addition, there are an array of accessibility options built into See LSAT, Page 3A

JULIA FORD

Daily Staff Reporter

vote no on Proposal A Proposal would prevent 17-story high-rise from being built on Library Lot RACHEL CUNNINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter

After Michigan’s voter registration deadline passed on Tuesday, campus voting initiatives at the University of Michigan, such as the Big Ten Voting Challenge and Buses to Ballots, are switching gears to ensure students are educated about the candidates and prepared to vote on Nov. 6.

According to Tufts University’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement 2017 Campus Report, 44.7 percent of eligible University of Michigan students voted in the 2016 presidential election, compared to 50.4 percent for all institutions. NSLVE also reported that only 14.3 percent of eligible University of Michigan students, compared with 18.1 percent of students from all institutions, voted in the 2014 midterm elections.

In January 2017, Edie

DANYEL THARAKAN /Daily

As Election Day approaches in Ann Arbor, development of the Library Lot on Fifth Avenue across from the Ann Arbor District Library remains up for debate.

Many City Councilmembers are in favor of allowing Chicagobased real estate firm Core Spaces to develop a 17-story high-rise called the Collective on Fifth Avenue, while residents have expressed desires for an urban park and commons area. The Collective would host 200 to 500 units, 43 workforce housing units, and hotel and office space.

City Council sold the property to Core Spaces in 2017.

Citizens will be asked if a section should be added to the city charter stating the Library Lot must remain in public ownership and developed as a “Center of the City” lot. The question, known as Proposal

See VOTER, Page 3A

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INDEX

Vol. CXXVIII, No. 10 ©2018 The Michigan Daily

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

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

News

2A — Friday, October 12, 2018

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY:

By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

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THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

BE HIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily news staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA junior Julia Ford looked into how voter registration initiatives are switching gears now that voter registration day has passed.

“I’m from Pennsylvania so I didn’t really think about what it’s like to vote in Michigan and I assumed that it was very similar and one of the things we can do in Pennsylvania and many a lot of different states is just use an absentee ballot whenever you need so I’m doing that but in Michigan, you can’t vote for the first time with an absentee ballot which I found very interesting. It makes more sense as to why more voter registration initiatives are necessary in order for students to be able to vote and to know what they need to do to get to the polls … I think it’s important that people do go to the ballots knowing who they’re voting for and why they want to vote for them. I think it’s important that organizations on campus care about providing information that’s unbiased and I think we do have some great organizations doing that so students of any political affiliation can vote for who they believe in based on facts and good information.”

Julia Ford: ‘U’, student orgs shift into voter education”

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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You should know that one neighbor spent nine months constantly, and I mean daily, dealing with city, University police and Greek life entities before one of these party houses set up by members of a banned fraternity was shut down. This is a real problem. Others in this neighborhood must constantly deal with trash, public drunkenness, loud music and other violations of city ordinances. Oversight of these groups is not done at the national level despite the claims of their attorneys.

Oversight by the University and the Office of Greek Life does not seem to make much difference.”

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The seats of Regents Andrew Richner (R) and Andrea Newman (R) on the University of Michigan Board of Regents are up for reelection this November. With Jordan Acker (D) and Paul Brown (D) challenging the incumbent candidates for a position on the Board, citizens across the state will get the opportunity to cast their ballots for who they think should serve on the University’s governing board for another eight years, as outlined in the Michigan Constitution. This process of electing governing boards applies to Michigan State University and Wayne State University as well.

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this system of governance has held lot manage to talk to nine and half the University of Michigan free million?” Power said. “The short from untoward political interfer- answer is you don’t.” ence, and has guided the University White said that most voters to its standing among the world’s would have some relation to the leading institutions of higher edu- University because of its influence cation,” White wrote in an email as an employer and institution. interview.

“The University of Michigan is White also said the statewide one of the top-five employers in the election of regents allows more State of Michigan, has an outstandvoices to be heard. ing Health System ranked in the “Because registered voters in the top five nationally, and has about State of Michigan elect Regents, 63,000 students across the three every two years voters have an op- campuses,” White wrote. “Thus, all portunity to have their voices heard people in the State of Michigan have at the ballot box directly,” White a stake in and have a relationship to wrote. “Direct election of the Board University of Michigan.” of Regents to all Michigan voters alLSA sophomore Michael Briggs lows for a lot of participation.” has been encouraging other stuFormer Regent Philip Power, dents to register to vote. Briggs who wrote an article following co-produced a non-partisan video http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ MSU’s conflicts with its governing series with the Washtenaw County board earlier this year, said there government with steps on registerare two general arguments for ing. Last gubernatorial election in and against the system. Power 2014, 17.4 percent of the voting age said one of the benefits is the di- population turned out to vote, a derect connection of the citizens to crease from 21.9 percent in 2010. the University. On the other hand, Briggs said he emphasizes being voters are much less informed. an informed voter to the students “The argument against is that he reaches out to, giving them recandidates for these governing sources and ways to become more boards are found way down the informed. ballot,” Power said. “And worse, “I always refer students to michimost people who vote at these gan.gov/vote and remind them to elections have no idea who these research every candidate and issue candidates are, what their qualifi- on their ballot,” Briggs wrote in an cations are or where they stand on email interview. “I’m often asked the issues.” by students about specific offices, Traugott explained the term such as regents. When this happens, “roll-off” that specifically applies I give the information I have and to the concept of voters being less encourage students to do research likely to vote farther down the independently about all the candiballot. dates.”

“There is a phenomenon called This election system, many reroll-off across the ballot where gent campaigns are addressing isthe farther down you go people sues that would impact students don’t vote for these offices,” Trau- and recent grauduates such as ingott said. creasing tuition rates, accessibility, Power added in his experience health care, economic impacts of campaigning, there was a vast University projects and more. population that he couldn’t reach.

Traugott said lack of information “When I was running, there is one of the contributing factors to were nine million people in the roll-off. state, now how does one candiRead more online at date for a not very well-known michigandaily.com office way down on the voting bal-

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Universities and officials have long debated with process is best — election or appointment.

Michael Traugott, professor emeritus of communication studies and political science, explained how the system functions.

“In the past, a larger proportion of its the University’s budget came from tax money appropriated by the state legislature,” Traugott said.

“But it’s the money of taxpayers in the state of Michigan that supports the University, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that the qualified residents of the state should be able to vote for (the Regents).”

Regent Katherine White (D) emphasized the historic aspect of the election process for the regents, noting the system is more resistant to political change.

“Over the intervening 164 years,

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Peter Nagourney, the co-chair for the North Burns Park Association and neighbor to several Greek life houses

Regents, voting advocates consider national regent election processes

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ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily Frances Champagne from the University of Texas, Austin, speaks on research for genetic inheritance at a lecture hosted by the University Psychology Department in East Hall Thursday afternoon.

Taylor also explained the 43 units that would be developed at 150 percent of fair market rent were designed to be workforce A, was put on the ballot after a housing units instead of affordable citizen-led petition gathered more housing units.

“150 percent of fair market rent than 5,000 signatures to place it is going to be below market rent on the November ballot.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher because fair market rent is a figure Taylor urged residents in a derived by HUD (Department of letter posted to Twitter on Sunday Housing and Urban Development) to vote “no” because of a loss of tax in order to key a number of things, one of which is Section revenue and affordable housing.

“If City Proposal A passes, we 8 vouchers,” Taylor said. “These will lose hundreds of units of new, are going to be apartments in a permanent affordable housing; location where rents can be quite miss out on millions of dollars of high, there’s going to be 43 units tax revenue to support basic city available in this building for services; and be forced to either people that otherwise couldn’t raise taxes or re-allocate millions afford it.”

In an open letter addressed to of parks dollars to build and operate a failed park in the middle Taylor, Ann Arbor resident Mary of our downtown,” Taylor wrote. Hathaway criticized Taylor’s “The passage of City Proposal A critique of losing affordable will sentence the Library Lot to housing by addressing the remain what it is today: desolate financing of the project.

“We all want more, truly and uninviting.”

Councilmember Anne affordable housing,” Hathaway Bannister, D-Ward 1, said she wrote in her letter. “You and believes the city has enough others on Council set a goal of tax revenue without new creating over 3,000 new units of developments and thinks Taylor is affordable housing by 2035. The stressing the issue tax revenue loss question is, what’s the best way to achieve that goal? Your answer is to fit his agenda.

“The city does have a lot of to sell public land to Core Spaces, tax revenue,” Bannister said. “It a Chicago developer specializing seems a bit disingenuous that in luxury student apartments, and when it’s something that the allocate $5 million to the housing mayor supports, he asks for money trust fund. Does $5 million really for it. But, when it’s something he buy 200 to 500 new units of doesn’t support, he brings up this affordable housing? ... Most people idea that we don’t have the money. have no idea how you will leverage These things are invaluable to $5 million to create 500 units. Do the economic vitality and it’s you?”

Hathaway said the council an economic engine to have an upbeat, positive, inviting ‘Center should look at the Library Lot as an opportunity to build relationships of the City.’”

Taylor criticized the proposal and neighborhoods.

“By retaining public land at the for a lacking a payment plan for the development of the urban park center of the city, we can take a more holistic approach to planning and commons.

“It proposes to obligate the for development on the Library city without any kind of proposal Block,” Hathaway wrote. “Rather on how to pay for it to reserve than looking at a parcel in isolation the land for an urban park and and insisting on maximum commons,” Taylor said. “A park development of a 17-story tower at that location will be a failure (or one even taller than that), we … Urban parks in order to be should look for an integrative that strengthens successful have to have organic approach the relationships between the activity.” structures and Bannister is one of three neighboring councilmembers viewed as an welcomes pedestrian movement.”

Taylor also mentioned the opposition member of Taylor’s eight-councilmember majority contract requires Core Spaces to and urges voters to say “yes,” to have a 12,000-square foot public plaza that could be used for events.

Proposal A. Taylor believes passing “We’re representatives of democracy,” Bannister said. “As I Proposal A will raise similar issues hike around the ward and the city associated with Liberty Plaza such and also for my own campaign as drug use and violence.

“Liberty Plaza does not meet … I’m continuing to amplify the voices of the residents as best I our aspirations and if Proposal A can and am firmly supporting passes, I’m very much concerned this urban park and ‘Center of the that a park at that location would replicate the failures of Liberty City’.”

According to Taylor, passage Plaza,” Taylor said.

Bannister and fellow of Proposal A would also cost Sumi money the city can use to pay Councilmember D-Ward off the repurchase of the “Y lot.” Kaliasapathy, On May 1, the council voted to 1, sued Taylor and City Clerk repurchase the property at 350 S. Jackie Beaudry in June over the Fifth Ave. for $4.2 million from development contract for allegedly real estate developer Dennis signing a contract without the Dahlmann. The repurchase came council’s approval.

Both Taylor and Bannister after Dahlmann failed to develop the property into commercial declined to comment on the developments and affordable status of the lawsuit because it is currently in litigation. housing.

LIBRARY From Page 1A

VOTER From Page 1A Goldenberg, professor of public policy and political science, founded Turn Up Turnout, a non-partisan student group which aims to increase voter registration and turnout among young people. Upon discovering the NSLVE data, Goldenberg said she felt motivated to develop a voting initiative.

“We’re surprised both at how low everybody is, and we’re surprised Michigan isn’t leading rather than trailing,” Goldenberg said. “So we thought this really wasn’t the Michigan that we know and are proud of, and we really wanted to do something about that.”

Goldenberg recruited some of her former students to form TUT, and they soon pitched the Big Ten Voting Challenge to University President Mark Schlissel. The Big Ten Voting Challenge, a competition among all the Big Ten universities to see which school can produce the highest percentage and greatest improvement in voter turnout in the Nov. 6 election, began in September 2017.

Among the hurdles to student voting, registration was one of the first to be addressed.

“One big reason is that

ORDINANCES From Page 1A their proposed ordinance for consideration during a work session in September.

Three councilmembers introduced the citizen task force’s ordinance. Councilmember Sumi Kailasapathy, D-Ward 1, one of the sponsors of the ordinance, said it was the most democratic ordinance she had seen in her six years on the council, though she did say she didn’t feel the proposal was perfect.

The proposal was defeated by the council in a 5-4 vote. The council voted to advance Taylor’s competing ordinance in an 8-1 vote, with only Kailasapathy voting against it, saying it was a “watered down” version of the citizen task force’s version.

“Somebody feels like something is better than nothing, but sometimes that something actually undermines the credibility and the trust that the community needs to have in this commission,” Kailasapathy said.

“That’s my rationale.”

Since the vote, Taylor said his ordinance retained most of the important aspects of the citizen’s proposal while ensuring that it adhered to the city charter and AAPD’s collective bargaining agreements.

“It is very important to me that we have an effective, trusted and legally defensible police commission,” Taylor said. “We received the task force’s proposed ordinance. What I did is I went through that ordinance with the city attorney’s office and strove to take as many of the policy recommendations as would meet that standard and strove to put them into law.”

The defeats of the citizen’s proposal angered the task force’s supporters, who began chanting,

LSAT From Page 1A the digital system. Students will be able to brighten the screen, make the text bigger and utilize a variety of other resources.

LSA sophomore Jack Wroldsen, who is considering Law School, believes these changes were inevitable and may require a bit more practice, but overall will be a great aid to students.

“I really like (the switch to digital) — I think the LSAC is moving in the right direction by putting it online and increasing the testing availability,” Wroldsen said. “Advanced degree tests like the GMAT have been online for decades, so I think moving into a digital format is the LSAC keeping up with the times. It may take a bit more practicing and it adds some sort of unpredictability as it’s hard to know exactly what it’ll look like. But I’m sure it’ll be a well-structured program that

Friday, October 12, 2018 — 3A

students move a lot and their voter registration doesn’t stay current, and they sometimes forget to update their addresses,” Goldenberg said. “Another reason is all the voting rules we have to abide by are state rules, and they vary by state, and some states have passed rules that make it much easier for young people to vote than other states. For example, quite a few states now have online registration, but Michigan doesn’t.”

The state of Michigan also does not offer early voting, which can alleviate scheduling difficulties for students trying to make time to travel to the polls. Erin Byrnes, democratic engagement lead at the Ginsberg Center, said the early voter registration deadline can also pose challenges to student turnout.

“We do have a voter registration deadline in Michigan that’s 30 days out, so the time is limited,” Byrnes said. “Once you’re back on campus, if you’re looking to register in Michigan, you’ve got roughly five weeks to make that happen.”

In order to increase student voter registration, TUT and the Big Ten Voting Challenge, as well as several other student groups, advertised voter

registration information online and offered voter registration tables on campus. Now that the Michigan voter registration date has passed, the Big Ten Voting Challenge will focus on educating students about their choices on the ballot and voting logistics. Though the voter registration deadline in Michigan closed, voter registration for many out-ofstate students is still open.

“Pushing people to get out and vote, making sure people know when election day is and when the polls are open, making sure folks know they can bring their U of M ID with them, that’s a valid form of ID, all of those things are really important,” Byrnes said. “Polls are open until 8 p.m., if you’re in line at 8, you can vote and they can’t tell you to leave.”

Byrnes said organizers will now focus on providing students with information on decisions they will have to make at the polls, including a proposal that would dramatically alter Michigan’s voter registration deadline.

“We’ll still doing in person, peer-to-peer tabling,” Byrnes said.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

“Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” as councilmembers walked out of the meeting.

In response to the legal questions concerning the police oversight commission at the meeting, task force co-chair Rich Friedman challenged the council to have more patience before discarding the citizens’ proposal.

“With some of the parts where people are very dissatisfied, I think we just have to say, ‘Well, let’s see how it works,’” Friedman said. “Let’s see if the city does what it says it’s going to do. Let’s see if the police department does what it says it’s going to do.”

In both ordinances, the commission would have 11 voting members, including a youth member, with two councilmembers acting as nonvoting liaisons. Members would be appointed by the City Council liaisons and approved by City Council. Active duty police officers and city employees are ineligible to sit on the commission, with the task force’s ordinance extending the ban to include any former employees of or “regular contractors” with the city or “any police department.”

The commission in each case would be able to initiate its own review of AAPD practices and conduct, as well as retain independent counsel subject to approval by City Council.

Additionally, people filing complaints could choose to remain anonymous.

However, in the task force’s ordinance, the commission could withhold complaints from AAPD, which could potentially conflict with the department’s union contract.

Nancy Niemela, who works at the City Attorney’s Office, said the police department’s collective bargaining agreement requires that employees are notified of complaints against them within two weeks of when

the city receives the complaint.

“It provides certain timelines for that investigation, it provides certain disciplines that can be imposed on the officers and then it goes on and provides the grievance process after that, with respect to how the grievance proceeds and then goes to arbitration,” Niemela said.

Taylor’s ordinance avoids this issue by giving residents the option to “transmit information” to the commission through community liaisons instead of filing a direct complaint.

The mayor’s proposed ordinance and the ordinance created by the citizen task force both explicitly state the police oversight commission is expected to operate independently of City Council and other arms of city government. However, a memo from City Attorney Stephen Postema cast doubt on just how much autonomy the council could award the police oversight commission.

Postema argued any commission created by the council “is part of the City” from a legal perspective, meaning the commission would not be an independent legal entity.

“Any ‘independence’ by the Commission would be, as with any board or commission, limited to operating the commission within the parameters of any resolution or ordinance setting up the Commission,” Postema wrote.

As a result, the police oversight commission would be subject to the same legal constraints as the rest of city government. That includes the city charter, existing laws and collective bargaining agreements with AAPD employees.

According to Postema, the subpoena power given to the commission by the task force’s proposal is problematic because

the city charter does not explicitly give the council this power.

“Because the City Council may not have this power, it would not have the authority to delegate such power to a Commission,” Postema wrote.

Taylor’s ordinance does not include subpoena power. It also differs from the task force’s ordinance in that it states that an investigation undertaken by the commission must begin after AAPD completes an internal investigation.

Kailasapathy took issue with the prohibition on concurrent investigations during discussions at the City Council meeting, and supported allowing simultaneous inquiries.

“I don’t think it’s the intention of the commission to be getting in the way,” Kailasapathy said. “It’s almost two parallel tracks.”

Niemela said there was nothing barring concurrent investigations in the AAPD collective bargaining agreements because “it’s never been an issue before.”

Despite the criticisms of the task force supporters, Taylor said he was hopeful his ordinance would be able to foster trust in the community between residents and law enforcement. The council will take up the issue of funding for the police commission in Taylor’s ordinance at the City Council meeting on Monday.

“I believe that we all share the same goal,” Taylor said. “I believe that we all want a policing commission that provides meaningful commissioner oversight of the police department, and that the commission that will result from the ordinance up for consideration on Monday will have that result. I believe that we all share the same goal of making sure that Ann Arbor police and the citizens that they serve have a common trust and understanding.”

makes the testing process actually easier.”

Jeff Thomas, executive director of pre-law programs for Kaplan Test Prep, believes this is a practical change, saying newer generations of students will virtually age with the advancement of technology.

“This really gives two big advantages for the Law School Admission Council,” Thomas said. “First, it allows for a very consistent test-taking experience for students. Up until now, the test was paper-and-pencilbased. Students would walk into the testing room and would encounter some sort of variability within the testing experience, such as proctors keeping time in different ways. Now there is a sense of consistency. Second, this will really allow the LSAC to speed up the scoring process and then get the scores in students’ hands faster.”

When the test transitions in July, about half of the students

will take the computerized LSAT and the other half will take the standard pencil-and-paper test.

Students won’t get to choose their type of test — it will be randomly assigned. Because of this, the LSAT is offering a onetime opportunity: Students will have the chance to see their score before they decide whether they want to send it to each of their prospective schools. Those who decide to cancel are allowed the option to retake the test until April 2020 with no additional costs. The upcoming July test is the only test for which this will be an option.

Law student Jeff Nwagbo is in favor of the transition, but he believes students might just have to adjust their study habits.

“I don’t think it’s a huge deal either way,” Nwagbo said. “I think I’d rather take it on paper but that’s probably because of the way I studied for it. Some of my strategies for taking the test involved diagramming logic

games or marking up the reading comprehension passages so I’m not sure how they’re going to handle that if the test is digital.

I don’t think the online thing makes much of a difference in terms of difficulty.”

There are four paper-andpencil administrations of the LSAT left: November, January, March and June. Kaplan is encouraging all students that are considering studying for, preparing and taking the LSAT next year to take at least one of those final paper-and-pencil exams.

“Students shouldn’t be scared of the digital format, but it does introduce a level of complexity and unfamiliarity and there are, frankly, not going to be a tremendous amount of practice tools digitally available for students immediately at launch,”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Opinion

4A — Friday, October 12, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ETHAN KESSLER | COLUMN

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FROM THE OPINION EDITORS

When academic freedoms collide

T

he sometimes contentious relationship between free speech and academic equity at the University of Michigan came to a head this week. In a letter to the University community, University President Mark Schlissel and Provost Martin Philbert stated that two instructors — who recently denied letters of recommendation for study abroad programs in Israel due to their own support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement — did not meet University expectations for the behaviors of instructors. Separately, The Michigan Daily and The Detroit News obtained a letter from Interim LSA Dean Elizabeth Cole, informing one of the instructors, John Cheney-Lippold, associate professor in the Department of American Culture, that his actions violated University policy, and he would be disciplined with loss of a merit raise and delay of his planned sabbatical.

As an editorial staff, we agree with the University that it is wrong for a student’s educational opportunities to be limited by the political stances of an instructor, rather than the merit of the student. The academic success of students should be a top priority for universities, and the denial of students’ recommendation letters on account of professors’ personal beliefs unfairly blocks students from academic opportunities based on circumstances outside their control. The decision to write a recommendation letter or not should be based on the student’s academic merit and performance in class, independent of the educator’s personal leanings.

However, on a campus that welcomes free speech and free thinking, the delineation between when certain personal and political views can and cannot be expressed on part of the professor is a blurry line. Professors have the freedom to craft their courses, design syllabi and work on independent projects, research and other scholarly work. The crossover of this ideal of professors’ free speech, so embedded in the University, with their relationships with classes and students is often a point of contention. Where do they draw the line in expressing their views? The reaction of the University this week provided a stark answer. The harsh disciplinary measures taken against CheneyLippold’s statement which was, at its core, an expression of free speech, gave some clarity to this ever-blurred line.

Yet, what remains an issue is whether the punishment was warranted given the lack of precedent.

We believe it was not. Though Cole alluded to the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs’s statement condemning professors using political views to impede “free pursuit of learning in

their students,” the University has yet to adopt a concrete policy regarding this matter.

The absence of precedent on campus regarding the manner in which professors should or should not voice their perspectives and political leanings — a decision often left up to the discretion of the professor themselves — warranted a less severe mode of discipline on CheneyLippold.

The University should have first expressed disagreement with the exclusionary behavior Cheney-Lippold presented towards a student in an academic setting and followed with a public, apolitical warning.

This would help express the University’s main philosophy, which is to ensure academic opportunities, growth and support for students.

Additionally, this would set a cautionary precedent for future University instructors who might consider doing the same in the future. This form of foreshadowing disciplinary action is more fair and effective than the immediate, reactionary discipline shown by the University.

Further, whether intentional or not, the swif tness and outspoken nature of the Universit y’s action in this situation has the power to isolate some students on campus, namely Palestinian students and allies who have not seen the Universit y as proactive in protecting their academic freedom and safet y when they have been systematically targeted and harassed online for their own speech on the topic. Neutralit y of the Universit y is of utmost importance, as ever y student should feel equally supported by the Universit y regardless of their relig ious or political beliefs. We would hope the outspokenness of the Universit y on behalf of the t wo students in protecting their academic freedom is a

EMILY WOLFE | CONTACT EMILY AT EWOLFE@UMICH.EDU

sentiment that will be echoed for all students.

The institution of a university, at its core, is to be a place of development and thought — an environment conducive to growing academic interests, as well as personal values and perspectives. Free speech, then, is parallel to free thinking. If we as students are urged to, from day one, think for ourselves and be challenged by the theories, problems and readings we encounter daily, in an effort for us to leave this campus more confident in ourselves and beliefs, how can this expectation not extend to our professors? We recognize, however, that at the same time the students’ academic freedom was also limited by the refusal of both the graduate student instructor and professor to write study abroad recommendation letters.

These recent events have exhibited the ongoing tensions and hard questions we must g rapple with on our campus. As a universit y with a teeming student population, various schools of focus and a slew of student and political organizations, national and international issues are essentially our own. In the last few weeks, we’ve all g rappled with many of these conf licting ideals. In addressing the issue directly this week, the Universit y tried to resolve many of these conf licts, but many questions remain. We hope that the Universit y’s newly formed panel — facult y who are aiming to address when academic freedom and political ideolog y come into conf lict — involves students, and takes into account our role in these instances. The reverberating effects their statement and disciplinar y measures had on students and facult y alike will continue to leave us questioning all of our roles as part of a single academic communit y.

Q

Legitimate resistance

uoting Martin Luther King Jr., former President Barack Obama often stated, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Contrary to optimistic interpretation, this statement does not attest to the supposed inertia of justice or equality.

Indeed, history’s darkest moments provide plentiful proof that apathy, and the assumption of inevitable righteousness that gives rise to it, can preclude the march of progress, and at times even reverse it. Sadly, we often partake in this apathy by allowing ourselves to forget the moments and movements that precipitated great instances of progress, be they equal rights written into law or the inclusive attitudes that breathe life into these liberties.

This coming Tuesday, Oct. 16, serves as a chance to remember one such moment. It marks the 50th anniversary of a silent protest that has found a worthy complement in former quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s actions on the football field, one that took place in a crowded stadium and ultimately found itself at the center of something much larger. Captured forever in a photograph that embodies the tempest of 1968 like no other photograph can, the national anthem protest by African-American U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos has solidified their legacy as one of legitimate resistance.

The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, like others before them, were supposed to be exercises in wholesome athletic competition, but that did not exempt them from the turbulence of that year. America’s racial and domestic wounds were still fresh four months after the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and six months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The violence seemed to follow American athletes to the Olympics — just two weeks before Smith and Carlos would mount the podium, dozens of students were ruthlessly gunned down by Mexican soldiers following weeks of protests.

It was still in America, however, where Smith and Carlos had the least to be happy about. As if systemic racial prejudice was not enough, only slightly more than half of African-American adults held high school degrees in 1968, and less than a tenth had gone on to earn bachelor’s degrees. These despairingly low rates of educational attainment, paling in comparison to similar measures for whites, spoke to the fallacy of an American Dream for all.

Smith and Carlos wanted to do something about it and demanded better treatment for Black athletes by organizing the Olympics Project for Human Rights earlier that year.

They initially considered boycotting the 1968 Olympics, but later decided to compete in order to give their campaign a more visible platform. At a time when most white Americans still winced at the very suggestion

of integrated neighborhoods, Smith knew that sports gave minorities like him and Carlos a real voice, reflecting later that, “We had to be seen because we couldn’t be heard.”

By today’s standards, the defiant salute during the rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that Smith and Carlos chose to protest these grievances was a relatively passive gesture. Even as they clenched their fists and donned symbolic clothing to convey their dissatisfaction with the status quo, they made sure to stand for the entire duration of the national anthem. And, though it is probably more a reflection of devolving presidential temperaments than anything else, then-president Lyndon B. Johnson and then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon were silent about the whole affair, while Kaepernick’s anthem protests have inspired rather undignified words from President Donald Trump.

However, society’s standards have evidently evolved since then. Smith and Carlos would not be icons today if their protest was well-received by Americans. They were expelled from the stadium and suspended from the U.S. Olympic team following the ceremony, and death threats predictably followed. Life was not made easy for them. Yet, to this day, neither regrets the courageous actions they took to show the public their struggle at home. Whatever they accomplished in Mexico City was clearly worth it.

But what exactly was it that Smith and Carlos accomplished with their gesture? They did not articulate a specific policy to alleviate the ills of Black America, nor did they put forth the funds to elevate their fellow, lowerclass African Americans, actions often demanded of those who dare to gripe about discrimination. Just as they do not aspire for acceptance in the mainstream, effective social movements do not often set their sights on an immediate redirection of policy. At a time when even violent dispersal of American protesters was widely supported, gaining the support of an American majority, especially for an act of protest during the national anthem, was grossly infeasible for activists.

Instead, in democratic societies like America, legitimate resistance against unjust status quos has nearly always relied on the ability of movements to capture the complacency of the uninterested majority and steer it toward a path of liberalization. This agitation, an inherent disruption and inconvenience to the majority, is what engenders a sense of injustice, and demand for subsequent change, where there was none before. When people like Smith and Carlos turn what should be a moment of personal pride into one of complaining about America’s problems at home — yes, complaining — then the rest of the country begins to see how real their anger must be, and in doing so, embarks on a journey toward increased tolerance and acceptance.

The work of Martin Luther King

Jr. embodies this well: King did not expect to see a drastic decrease in anti-miscegenation sentiment in his lifetime, nor did he directly lobby legislators to mandate public acceptance of interracial marriage.

But, the mere presence of his “radical” calls for racial equality, along with other, subtler attempts at normalizing interracial relations in the national discourse, helped make that evolution in racial attitudes a reality — contributing to an American tradition of using expansive platforms for meaningful speech.

By this measure, the decision by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 to refuse to stand for the national anthem, since carried on by other NFL players, is simply a continuation of this tradition. Kaepernick’s kneeling during the anthem at NFL games was his way of using his platform for political means, like Smith and Carlos.

In his case, it was to call attention to what he views as disproportionate police brutality towards African Americans, certainly a sacrifice if one takes into account his being effectively blackballed from the NFL and receiving death threats.

FromtheperspectiveofKaepernick, there is no platform better to project dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs than the national anthem, our symbolic embodiment of the state itself. This sentiment was clearly not shared by Kaepernick’s employers or, as of the latest polls, a majority of the country as well.

Nevertheless, Kaepernick has demonstrated his desire to respect the men and women in uniform who have reason to view the anthem as more than a symbol. Instead of fixating on thesupposedpatriotismofhiskneeling, we should ask ourselves whether his gesture was any more disrespectful than that of Smith and Carlos in 1968 at the Olympics, which attracted similar criticisms and backlash. For without the actions of Smith and Carlos and the like, the current atmosphere would not even allow Kaepernick to take a knee, and much less sit, for the anthem, nor would it allow Nike to successfully use his protest in a popular ad campaign.

That Kaepernick’s actions do not immediately fix the attitudes he takes issue with, or that he is generally not viewed favorably by his fellow athletes or Americans, is no reason to dismiss his protest as empty or unpatriotic. In fact, this view would constitute a failure on our part to recognize those who legitimately resist injustices, injustices that might not be solved by the next year or even the next generation. By definition, the Kaepernicks of the world do not often find majority approval in the present, but instead in the future. Tommie Smith said it best when recalling his controversial actions in Mexico City: “We were not wrong. We were only ahead of our time.”

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

ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN

L

A column about the column

ast week, after I shared my to keep up with all of my school work column about accepting my and other commitments, I did not have fat, curvy body on Facebook, much time for myself.

I was flooded Last Tuesday, skipping with support and class and procrastinating recognition from my an assignment, as usual, I friends, family, teachers began listening to a new podcast called “Pretty and even strangers.

Big Deal” by supermodel Everyone was kind and thoughtful in and body activist Ashley Graham. I have been ways I never imagined. looking up to Ashley Reading some of the comments brought me Graham ever since I to tears. I recognized watched her Ted Talk ELLERY how difficult it is to talk ROSENZWEIG about being a plus-size about insecurities, and model and accepting her there isn’t much space or a platform body. In the podcast, she was telling where people feel comfortable to do her interviewee, Kim Kardashian, how sometimes it is exhausting to this.

I’m still humbly surprised by the always have to talk about her body, but amount of attention l received from it is a part of her job as a model, activist my community. And I’m happy I was and just being herself. I was relieved able to be there for my fellow bigger- to find that this emotional exhaustion bodied people — helping share our was normal. That is, another woman experiences for those who were not like me had felt the same way and were aware. But I am still exploring notions out there sharing their experience. of body acceptance and positivity, As I’m continuing to express notions I was not able to cover in just vulnerability and write about my experiences, I’m making myself open one column.

I try to live my life like an open to having more conversations with book — I keep very few things to people about my body. Even though myself. As an extrovert, I normally this is something that is new to me and tell people things without them even once scared me, I hope talking about asking because I need to process my it becomes normal and comfortable thoughts out loud with my friends or with time. With all of this in mind, really anyone who is around. After I still need to be kind to myself and releasing so many closed-off thoughts allow time to recharge, reflect and for my whole community to see, I was rest. This way I’m not too emotionally emotionally drained. Whether it was exhausted and can continue spitting reliving the fatphobia I wrote about truths. as everyone was reading it, having Another topic discussed in the conversations about my body every podcast that piqued my interest was day for almost two weeks, or trying the privilege and platform white

curvy woman have in today’s market.

Curvy, larger bodies are not a new type of body. There have always been fat, curvy, thick women, but recently, the fashion industry has allowed for primarily white women to represent this population. This is incredibly misleading, as there are fat, large people of all identities who need representation as well.

Looking back at my article, I shared several accounts of body activists who were curvy, full women but most of them were white women with hourglass figures. As a white woman, I’m aware of the privilege that people of my race and size are receiving representation. With this in mind, I want to share accounts led by women of color I follow that have amazing content, like one of my favorite musical artists, Lizzo. She is incredibly authentic in her music and posts about how much she loves her body. Also, check out model Sonny Turner, because she posts bomb unedited photos and is a hair icon.

In addition, you should look at body advocate @p.skaguya’s beautiful pictures and videos of her photo shoots and everyday life.

I’m not sure if I was entirely ready to release my column when I did, but I definitely learned a lot about myself and the fact that I have a new platform to advocate for beautiful, fat, thick and curvylicious people. If you want to chat about this more, reach out to me.

I’m more than happy and ready to dive deeper with all of you.

Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at erosenz@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Friday, October 12, 2018 — 5A

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

ARTIST PROFILE

‘Dragonfly Eyes’ director on the origins of creativity BEN VASSAR For the Daily

COURTESY OF THOM KERR

Kim Petras just wants to hype up her best friends DOMINIC POLSINELLI Senior Arts Editor

“This interview is so fire the alarms went off!”

Kim Petras, pop’s newest “it girl,” was entirely unphased when interrupted by the fire alarms that went off during our conversation. Calm and confident, she perfectly mirrors the music she has been working on for years, and she never misses a beat both in conversation and in her work as an artist.

“After working on music since I was like 13, 14 years old, I started writing, started being really obsessed with it.

So (gaining recognition has) been really amazing, I kind of performed to semi-empty clubs my whole life and really hustled really hard to get recognition and stuff like that,” Petras said.

“So it feels really amazing, and I’m just really thankful that I get the opportunity to play to packed clubs and sold out shows.”

Petras’s hard work is clearly starting to pay off as evidenced in her rapidly growing fan base while earning her an opening slot on Troye Sivan’s current tour. Her artistic vision has been influenced by this struggle, often offering a foil to the fantasies she weaves into her songs. “‘I Don’t Want It at All,’ for example — I wrote that in a shitty apartment, like sleeping on a futon. I sometimes write songs about how I dream about my life or how I fantasize about life. For me, as a kid, loving pop music, growing up loving pop, I ran home from school everyday to watch the new Gwen Stefani music video, and I just like live in it and forget about my problems and school,” she said. “To this day, a good song can make me forget all my problems and just be happy for three and a half minutes, so to me that’s the most beautiful thing about music. So that’s what I’m trying to create, that’s what I’m trying to do for my fans.”

To date, Petras now has a repertoire of eight singles and a seven track Halloweenthemed EP titled TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, VOL. 1. While a relatively newer artist, her music is as addictive as anything you’d expect from a veteran of pop, which is likely a product of her wide list of influences. Petras isn’t just a massive pop fan, but an artist who draws inspiration from a wide array of genres and musicians.

“I really am a fan of all music.

Especially currently, there’s so

much amazing rap happening. I’m just a huge fan of the new Travis Scott album ASTROWORLD. I’m really into Rae Sremmurd; my friends lil aaron and Baby E have some amazing songs coming out,” she noted. “I’m just making a bunch of playlists recently. And I’ve been listening to the first Beyoncé album Dangerously In Love a bunch.”

What is most impressive about Petras’s debut music is that it’s high quality pop spread across a wide spectrum of sub-genres.

Troye Sivan and Kim Petras Fox Theater Oct. 14th, 2018 $29.50+ There’s the hard-pressed verses and lackadaisical chorus of “All The Time,” the R&B-tinted “Slow It Down,” sugary pop on “Heart to Break” and the housepop hybrid “In The Next Life.” If her track record is any indication, then Petras is an artist with almost unlimited potential and flexibility: “My goal is always to keep growing and to not repeat myself, to do whatever feels right and to write authentic songs to me. I’m going to continue doing that really,” she said.

Petras writes music not just for herself, but also with and for her best friends: “We love to put on a song that we love and scream at the top of our lungs and go really crazy, and I want to create that same thing.” And this idea seeps into her collaborations as well.

In the past, she has worked with Charli XCX, lil aaron and Baby E, and also revealed that she has collaborations with SOPHIE coming out in the near future.

“I have collaborations with SOPHIE coming out, so that’s really exciting, I’m a big SOPHIE fan. I always love collaborating with people like Charli and artists that write,” she revealed.

“For me, I just want to write with people who care about their music and want to write songs and can write songs. So I collaborate a lot with one of my homies lil aaron, I’ve done a bunch with him. He’s one of the most talented writers I’ve ever met. I love to work with people that are friends and just have a good vibe. I like when it feels like hanging out with your friends, opposed to feeling like work and feeling stressful.”

The periodical release of her singles over eight months leading up to the release of her EP on

Oct. 1st (the perfect gift for the beginning of the Gay Christmas Season) was a purposeful decision from a modern artist of the 21st century. In an effort to build up hype around each release, Petras and her team made this decision to release a single every month, which clearly paid off given her current popularity.

“Even before I put up “I Don’t Want It at All” I had these songs ready to go. We were just thinking about how to release it best and to break me as a new artist. And especially now, I just love how rappers are doing. They just constantly put out new work and new mixtapes — there’s kind of no rules for that,” she said.

“I think in this streaming era, you know, artists just have to do things differently, and how artists work is going to be so different from now in a while.

It was exciting to not release it as an album, but to drop a new song every month. Every month we could get more playlisting, we could get a new set of eyeballs on each song.”

Along with her incredible talent, Petras is an absolute inspiration to the LGBT community. Being queer herself, she proudly discusses her beginnings in queer clubs and blossoming popularity within the LGBT community that has begun to infect the mainstream.

Now, opening for fellow queer artist Troye Sivan, the duo are alighting crowds with their energy and pride.

“This tour has been such an amazing LGBT — like 20-gayteen — moment. I love Troye and what he stands for. I love his music so much, and I think he’s an amazing artist. And I think it’s great that LGBT artists are getting recognized for their work rather than their sexuality or their gender identification.

I think that’s such an amazing thing that’s happening right now, and I’m so glad to be a part of it,” she said.

Given her daring attitude, seductive fantasies and multifaceted talent, Kim Petras has arguably been 2018’s biggest breakout artist in the pop scene.

Her creativity and passion bleeds into her music, with pomp and energy that let her listeners melt into her world. If Petras is any indication, there’s a reason pop music has always been one of the most boundary-defining genres, and if she continues to deliver, we have some incredible content to look forward to.

This Sunday, you can catch Kim Petras as she opens for Troye Sivan at the Fox Theater.

RYAN COX / DAILY

Prominent Chinese artist, filmmaker and educator Xu Bing visited the University’s Museum of Art (UMMA) this past Sunday to give a lecture entitled “The Origins of Creativity” as part of the Penny Stamps School of Art & Design’s ongoing speaker series. Bing’s work has always been highly reactive to his surrounding environment, both in China and the U.S., as his wide array of multimedia work — although often based in tradition — is always in dialogue with the present.

At a recent retrospective exhibit of Bing’s work in his hometown of Beijing, Bing — as the curator of his own work — pondered the question: “Where does this ability to make creative works come from?”

Having 60 works from his 40-year career all in the same place at once, it seemed like several different artists were responsible for the work on display. Where did these varying inspirations come from?

Bing’s earliest work of prominence, “Book From the Sky,” came in 1987, the same year he completed his Masters of Fine Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The vast work featured large scrolls that spanned the length of the room, both lying flat against the walls and draped from the ceiling. Beneath the immersive environment of scrolls are luxurious and carefully bound books containing the same characters. For those illiterate in Chinese, the exhibit creates an almost holy environment of Chinese language. For those

literate, however, it creates a confounding and uncomfortably unfamiliar illusion of knowledge.

Every day of Bing’s childhood, his father would make him fill one page per day with Chinese characters that “followed the literary tradition of China.”

Happening all around him at the time, however, was Chairman Mao’s reorganization of the entire Chinese language. In a time of increasing global connectedness, such rigid enforcement of the rules of language made no sense to Bing.

Thus, reacting to his environment, Bing dedicated several years to formulating 4,000 fake Chinese characters on wood blocks to be neatly printed onto these scrolls. They are a complete mockery of the subjectivity and limitations of language. They were also a perceived as a threat to the Chinese government. And, as such, Bing relocated to the U.S. in 1990.

“The path every artist takes isn’t always under their control,” Bing said in his lecture. Art is the manifestation of each individual’s “cultural-genetic code.” When we take thinking to unfamiliar places, this is the realm from which we can create. In this way, art, just like Bing’s forced relocation, is not planned out.

Bing characterizes his early works in the U.S. as “existing in a place between two cultures.”

His first exhibit in the U.S. — “Transformations” — translates a text from English to French to German and so on until it is eventually translated to Chinese, at which point it’s essentially nonsensical. Ironically, the lecture itself was a display of this loss of meaning, as Bing had to continually correct his English translator in a

comically clear display of his point.

Bing continued producing art that is more than initially meets the eye for the next two decades.

He’s had an ongoing series of “Background Story” works that look like ancient Chinese ink paintings but are actually milky glass backgrounded by plants. His largest recent work, “The Phoenix Project,” transforms the remains of construction site debris into two 100-foot long phoenixes. Covered in a careful arrangement of LED lights, the phoenixes represent the transformation of the ugly process of rapid urbanization into something beautiful.

For Bing, while art is often in conversation with the past, it should never imitate it. Artistic ability is not dependent on one’s IQ or historical knowledge. Good art always reacts to the present. While many of Bing’s works appear to follow Chinese tradition, they are all in one way or another layered responses to current local and global events.

“Dragonfly Eyes,” Bing’s latest project, is no different. Bing has always had an acute awareness of the environment he interacts with on a daily basis. In “Dragonfly Eyes,” a storyline is made using a composite of real surveillance footage and acted out scenes. In this sense, the whole world is a film set. The work, intentionally shocking, blurs the line between reality and cinema.

This presentation was sponsored by the University’s Confucius Institute, LieberthalRogel Center for Chinese Studies, the Penny Stamps School of Art & Design, Museum of Arts and the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies.

AUDIOTREE ARTIST PROFILE

Palm dissects their sound RYAN COX

Daily Arts Writer

When a friend of mine suggested I listen to a band called Palm, I asked what genre they fell under. My question was greeted with something along the lines of: “Uhhh, I don’t know.

I think they’re kind of DIY? Maybe Art Rock?” At that point, I still didn’t know what to expect.

Then I actually listened to Palm, and I understood my friend’s ambiguity. With so many different influences present — lyrically, sonically and rhythmically — it’s a little overwhelming at first, but in the best way.

A quick Google search for the genre “art rock” suggests artists like King Crimson and David Bowie. To me, those artists are drastically different. Even some of Bowie’s later work (see: Blackstar) is quite different from any of King Crimson’s material.

The only common denominator is some elements of their music are derived from rock music.

So, I guess, in a way, you could say Palm is art rock because of the fact that they borrow so many elements from rock but view those elements through an avant-garde approach.

The more I listened to the group, especially after the release of their newest full-length studio album, Rock Island, the more I wondered how the band was able to develop that signature sound they had. Luckily, I had the incredible opportunity to not only see the band live, but speak with bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarist / vocalist Eve Alpert about their sound, and how they developed into the genre-defying band they are today.

One of the best aspects of the band’s sound is just how unique it actually is. With Brian Wilsonsounding vocal lines, prog / math rock influenced rhythms and an overall sound that could be described as almost islandinfused indie rock, they seem to sound like every band I can

imagine, and, at the same time, like none of them at all.

“We all listen to tons of music.

It’s where we get our pleasure from,” Alpert said. When working on their latest album, however, Alpert says the group listened to a lot of Footwork, a movement of music based out of Chicago involving spastic rhythms and beats accompanied by, at times, extremely lush soundscapes.

“This label called Orange Milk was really inspiring. Not to say that it rubbed itself into our songwriting, but it did in weird ways.”

When it came to writing the record itself, the group attributes a lot of their songwriting process to practice.

“We practice all the time, and generally there’s one core idea that comes in, and then we jam to it,” Alpert commented. “And then once it clicks, it clicks,” Livitsanos replied.

In another interview, the band mentioned using a drum machine as a compositional tool; putting on a random pattern while the guitars dissect it between the two of them and drummer Hugo Stanley plays a contrasting beat overtop. These rhythms written over the drum machine “felt integral to the song,” Alpert explained. But in regards to their sound, Rock Island features a variety of guitar sounds that don’t really sound like guitar. Using a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) guitar effects controller, the band incorporates guitar tones that sound like a variety of other instruments, most notably steel drums.

“We started incorporating the MIDI guitar when we started writing the record,” Alpert explained, “And we just used the sounds we had on the synth module. We were just using the equipment we had.”

But the band sees themselves taking this sound in a slightly different direction in the future.

As Livitsanos discussed: “We’re trying to program more of our own sounds. We kinda started with just what we had, but going forward, we definitely want to

try generating things to sample, and sounds like that.”

Hearing Palm live, I was amazed at how close they sounded to the record. Every nuance present in the record was also there in the live performance. Many groups view live performance and recorded performances as two different things entirely. There are things you can do in a recording studio that you can’t do live on stage, and vice versa. Palm seems to be somewhere in the middle.

“I think we all want our live performance to be pretty raw. We’ve come up being influenced by a lot of punk or noisier music, so we want our live performance to be a little bit more unpredictable,” Alpert said.

Livitsanos responded, saying: “On Rock Island, there were certain things done for certain tracks, like some sort of drum loop in “Dog Milk,” for example, and then after it was recorded, we were like, ‘Oh, maybe we could try this a little bit differently for the live show’.”

“My hope is that we can write a record and then reinterpret it in a more raw way live,” Alpert said.

The band seems to be gaining traction in the music community.

Audiotree was one of the band’s first festivals and it seems to be a new experience for them, but one they’re treating just like any other.

“I want us to always make mistakes,” Alpert said.

“Sometimes it winds up working and sometimes it doesn’t. It makes it all more worthwhile.”

“Both for us and as audience members, I think it make it more fun,” Livitsanos replied.

“We’re definitely not a conventional festival band, and I think we’re still figuring it all out, you know?”

For a band that’s still figuring things out, Palm certainly seems to be a well-polished chaos machine, putting out material that’s pushing the limits and putting on one of the best live shows I’ve seen in recent memory.

Arts

6A — Friday, October 12, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

It’s kinda cool that we can be personal like that, and it makes for a nice community.

TMD: Well on a little bit of a different note, I know you talked about astrology a little on stage.

Personally, I’m a Capricorn, but I really don’t feel like I am.

Luciano: No way, Noah’s a Capricorn.

TMD: Do you identify with Capricorn?

Bowman: Oh yeah. Do you think I’m a Capricorn?

Luciano: Yeah, you’re like a textbook Capricorn: setting the plan, super chill, knows what’s going on, you know.

Bowman: Sometimes it sucks, and I wish I wasn’t, you know, it’s like I gotta know what’s

AUDIOTREE ARTIST PROFILE

going on all the time and be super organized and all that.

Luciano: We’re a good match though, Michelle and Barack Obama are a Leo-Capricorn.

Michelle is a Capricorn, if that makes you feel any better.

TMD: You know, the more I don’t like being a Capricorn, the more I realize I am one.

Luciano: Yeah but our personalities go really well together. I’m really extroverted and really all over the place, while Noah is really calm and collected. He’s the one that really gets it done while I’m like, “AHHHH! I have a crazy idea!”

TMD: So, on stage you said you’re a Leo sun, and a Cancer moon; so my follow up would be

what’s your rising?

Luciano: Sagittarius. Which I feel goes really (well) with my Leo sun because they’re both fire signs basically saying, “I’m here.”

TMD: Yeah I can definitely see that. I sometimes I want to say that it’s crap, but the more I look at it …

Luciano: Well there are so many different versions of yourself, you’re not just (a) one sided person. Sometimes maybe you’re feeling your Cancer rising ... or your Aquarius moon, you know. It’s fun to just talk about yourself. It’s so easy to be like, “What’s your sign?” I love astrology. Thanks so much for asking me about it.

RYAN COX / DAILY

Diet Cig talks DIY, using a platform and astrology RYAN COX

Daily Arts Writer

When fellow Daily Arts Writer Sean Lang and I first walked into the press tent at Audiotree Music Festival, I walked up to Diet Cig and introduced myself, thinking they were waiting for us to start the interview Instead, it turned out we were interrupting another conversation they were having.

As I called myself an idiot a million times in my head, their manager came over to us and apologized profusely, saying some random fans walked up and started talking to them, and he allowed it, thinking they were us.

After a failed first attempt at contact, I finally had a chance to properly introduce myself. What I received in return were two of the most genuine smiles from singer / guitarist Alex Luciano and drummer Noah Bowman.

They seemed to apologize for themselves, for no reason.

Suddenly my nerves from before seemed to vanish as we casually slipped into a conversation that was supposed to be classified as an interview.

After an energetic performance, we got to sit down with Diet Cig and talk to them about their music, creating safe spaces and DIY. The Michigan Daily: Sean and I are both involved in the DIY scene back in Ann Arbor, and I know that you all had your start in your local scene. Do you still think, despite playing these bigger festivals, some of those lessons you learned in the scene are still useful to you today?

Luciano: Yeah, I mean, we came up in the DIY scene. Our first shows were basement shows, and it kind of influenced

who we are as a band. I think it will always kind of contribute to who we are as a band because that’s where we came from. It’s cool because we do get to play these larger festivals, and I feel because we played DIY shows we’re really good at breaking down and getting our shit out of the way because, you know, if you’re playing a basement show, you need to make sure all the bands play before the cops come, you gotta move on.

Bowman: Yeah, and with troubleshooting, too. We’re really good at thinking to ourselves, “OK this isn’t working, but we can make it work.”

Luciano: Yeah, and it’s nice because we do get to play these festivals but we still get to play basement shows. We have a really amazing agent who’s super down to book us for DIY shows, which is something a lot of bands fear with getting an agent, that they won’t be able to play house shows. But Brianna, our agent, has still booked us for some really cool shows, so it’s still a part of who we are.

TMD: Well we’re glad that you’re sticking true to your DIY roots. One of my favorite things about the DIY community is how important activism is within the community. And I noticed on stage that you took the time to address a few issues, which is something that can be important for artists to do. But for you, do you think that it’s important for an artist to use their platform to talk about these issues and create a safe space and all of that?

Luciano: I think it’s every band’s choice. I feel like with the platform we have — which I feel very grateful for having, and these are things we care about — it’s not super hard to say

Classifieds

something like, “Hey, go vote,” especially when you have a microphone right in front of you.

When it comes to having safer spaces at shows, I think it is the responsibility of the artists. No one wants to be at a show where they’re fearful of being touched inappropriately, or getting hurt because some person won’t stop dancing and hitting people. So I think at least for us it’s super important to make a climate that everyone can come to.

When your space isn’t safe, it just excludes people, and we just want everyone to be included.

TMD: Have you ever had a show where you had to address seeing something in the audience?

Bowman: Oh yeah, we’ve had a couple times. I forget where it was, but some dude was being a total fucker, and we were like, “It’s OK you’re having fun, but can you just mind yourself?”

He was a big guy, and there was a bunch of smaller people.

But then on the next song, he was worse, so we just stopped and said, “You gotta stop.” And the coolest thing was that the bartender stood up on the bar and just pulled him over.

Luciano: We have had to stop and just be like, “We’re not gonna play again until you chill out.” We want people to enjoy our shows, and stopping for a second to make sure everything is OK is definitely worth it.

TMD: I know a lot of bands will go up on stage, make a little chit-chat and not say much else, but I like how you all acknowledge the audience frequently.

Luciano: I feel like we’re pretty transparent too, like our stage persona and our online persona and all that is pretty much who we are. You don’t really get anything else.

Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

Release Date: Friday, October 12, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

HELP WANTED

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 “Ta-ta!”

6 Kaput 10 Musical ending 14 Ready for the operation 15 Dance that may involve a chair 16 “Amores” poet 17 Eggs-uberant hen?

19 Like used books 20 __ Xtra: cherry soda brand 21 Apple on a desk 22 Word with ring or book 23 Rights org.

24 Loon, at times?

27 Butler on a plantation 29 Like Colbert’s show 30 Kiss 35 Summit 36 Do some ’80s Sochi sunbathing?

40 “The WellTempered Clavier” composer 41 Taking medication 42 Final flight destinations?

44 Kitchen shelf array 49 Hitchhiking and texting?

54 Tick repellent 55 __ Club 56 When repeated, fish on a menu 57 “That being the case ... ” 58 Letters after E? 59 What young elephants do for fun?

61 The third Mrs. Roy Rogers 62 Airer of many NCAA games 63 Farm stray 64 1974 CIA spoof 65 Reasons 66 Cornered, in a way DOWN 1 Not up to snuff 2 Increase the value of

3 Consumerfriendly?

4 Hedge opening 5 Biblical traveler 6 Former SeaWorld attraction 7 Georgetown athletes 8 Eponymous vacuum brand 9 Roofer’s supply 10 Popular Toyotas 11 Has in common 12 Line through the middle 13 Include 18 Pot top 22 Lacking color 25 Ben of Ben & Jerry’s 26 “Toy Story” dinosaur 28 Scolder’s cluck 31 In the __ of 32 Creator of Iceland’s Imagine Peace Tower 33 Ties may be broken in them, briefly 34 Only halfpretentious?

36 Bar by the tub

37 If truth be told 38 Does a ragtime dance 39 “That’s disgusting!”

40 Skeeter eater 43 “60 Minutes” network 45 One slightly changed this clue 46 Storm shelter, say 47 Blues great Smith

48 Fired up 50 Sect in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County 51 Like maple trees and pigeons?

52 Ruling descendants of Genghis 53 Thing to confess 58 DJ’s inventory 59 Strange (to) 60 “Silent Spring” subj.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

10/12/18

LOOKING FOR PROGRAMMER; HTML and Paypal. call (734) 717‑9534 or email dlexington808@ gmail.com

ENJOY YOUR BREAK! AND READ THE DAILY DURING YOUR FREE TIME

By Ed Sessa ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

10/12/18

AUDIOTREE ARTIST PROFILE

SEAN LANG/ DAILY

Common Holly’s blend of nostalgia & forgetfulness SEAN LANG

Daily Arts Writer

“Oh, you’re not gonna like this analogy,” said Brigitte Naggar, the mind behind Common Holly.

Unfortunately, it was the only one she found suitable, so she plowed forward: “It was like I was a cow that needed to be milked, otherwise I would’ve exploded.”

The Montreal-based songwriter confessed that she hardly picked up her guitar during her years at university but, after a breakup in the year following graduation, found much-needed relief in songwriting. It was then that her current project, Common Holly, began to take shape, though music had already been a significant part of Naggar’s life for many years.

“I was put into piano lessons very early on, as we all were, I’m sure, and I did that for six years, and then I really just hated practicing so much, so I finally quit,” she said. Later, her father started giving her guitar lessons.

She got her own when she was 16 and began writing songs at the same time. One song she wrote then, “New Bed,” is the closing track of her 2017 debut, Playing House, though she expressed that she had been hesitant to include it.

“Actually, it was Devon (Mane, the album’s producer and touring guitarist) that convinced me to redo (“New Bed”) and make it album appropriate, and now I’m bound to it for life,” she added with a tone of lighthearted resignation.

Though she has been writing songs since age 16, Naggar told me that she “truly despised performing. It’s not my thing.”

This was interesting to hear, given that she would be performing on the main stage of Audiotree Music Festival on the day following our interview, and she admitted that her attitude toward it had changed, at least in part.

“I don’t (still despise performing). I like it, I think because — well, obviously because I’m used to it. I think I’ve almost found a way to make it feel sincere and not performative. I think that’s probably my struggle with it, is the separation between stage person and audience, and stage person versus ‘you’ person,” she elaborated. And although she is capable of finding that performer-audience connection more easily when playing solo, she does “try to tour with bands whenever it’s affordable … and

then give a sort of surround sound experience.”

Bringing a band on tour is also helpful in purely logistical terms.

“I do tour solo. It’s hard though, it’s a lot of stuff to carry,” she said, and having a friend or two along might also keep her accountable itinerary-wise.

When she does tour solo, she fills her downtime with almost excessive excitement: “Thumb twiddling … I don’t know, what do people do, Facebook? I sleep a lot.

I visit friends if they’re in town …

I spend a lot of time making sure I don’t miss buses or planes,” she told me, although it turned out she had missed a plane just the week prior: “It was like a major moment. You know when you consider yourself someone that doesn’t miss planes? And then you miss your first plane? I was really like, ‘Who am I?’” This wasn’t the only time she confronted her self-identity during our interview. On the topic of when she had made the decision to pursue music professionally, questioned herself again: “I guess it was when … I had finished university — was that two years ago, or was it three? How old am I?” Later, she would also mention a period of time over the summer when she found herself in crisis.

She had studied religion and art history at school — “So I was really setting myself up for, like, tons of career options” — but had thought of continuing school to become a social worker or therapist, and was having doubts.

“I was like, ‘What am I doing with my life?’ and then I looked up the career path for therapists and the schooling and so on, and it seemed like by the time I was done with that and in the workforce I would be making the same amount of money as I would if I continued on in music, which is … fucked.”

She took a moment to express gratitude for support she’d thus far received in the form of grants from Canada and Quebec, and acknowledged that it’s pretty ridiculous that, as an independent artist, she hasn’t had to work another job for the past year.

It may be a tenuous link, but these aforementioned instances of self-doubt might just be related to her self-professed terrible memory. She mentioned her memory while discussing the concept of nostalgia, which flows freely from every corner of Playing House. Even the album cover, a photo of Naggar’s “grandmother and her cousin, in a ballet posture in Egypt, probably in the ’20s or ’30s,”

invokes the vague but intensely melancholic feeling of time passed.

“I feel like I look at nostalgia in kind of a pragmatic way.

I think it’s really useful as a processing function. I don’t think I’m a dweller, and that’s probably supported by the fact that I have a horrible memory,” she explained. “I think that that kind of manifests in Playing House, in the song ‘If After All’ — just talking about forgetting, learning lessons and then forgetting them and that being a constant source of frustration … I’m very much into processing now and then continuing to proceed with proceedings,” she added, the last three words accompanied by a self-deprecating laugh.

Before we wrapped up our conversation, I asked Naggar about her influences. She pointed to Chad VanGaalen, “who I’ve done shows with … You should check that out, definitely, the older albums,” she said after I expressed my unfamiliarity — “I know everyone’s like, ‘the older albums,’” she said with mocking affect, “But it’s true! There’s a quieter heart in them, or something.” This self-awareness and nearly constant qualification of claims was apparent throughout our interview, but shined here.

“Who else?

D’Angelo, obviously,” she added, knowing full well that the R&B legend’s influence on her work is far from evident.

“Maybe Leonard Cohen for lyrics, maybe T. S. Eliot for poems. I used to like poems a lot, I don’t know what happened.

I was, like, a poem kid,” she digressed, but we followed up on this idea of poems versus songs.

“If you’re writing a poem, the words have to stand for themselves, which is why I would never show anyone my poetry,” Naggar said. “I feel like singing and playing guitar, I can hide behind my guitar and my guitar can hide behind me, and it’s this great sort of protective coexistence.”

I pried once more about her claim to being a “poem kid,” asking whether she’d written a lot during her younger years.

“Didn’t we all?” she replied.

“Don’t we still?”

Common Holly performed on Sunday, Sept. 23 at Audiotree Music Festival in Kalamazoo, but you can also catch them on tour with Detroit-based Anna Burch and Ann Arbor-native Fred Thomas — whose most recent album, Aftering, features Common Holly — on Oct. 25 at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor.

WISCONSIN October 12, 2018

FILE PHOTO / DAILY

DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN

2018 Schedule

The Michigan football team is currently on a five-game win streak after dropping its season-opener to Notre Dame, 24-17. With wins over Southern Methodist, Western Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern and Maryland, the Wolverines will continue Big Ten conference play against No. 15 Wisconsin on Saturday. This week’s matchup will feature a 7:30 pm start time at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor before the Wolverines travel to East Lansing next week to face in-state rival Michigan State.

3 4 6 8

TABLE OF CONTENTS Jonah Malkin, a broadcaster for WSUM 91.7 FM Madison, gives his take.

In the midst of the 3-9, 2008 season, Michigan had one highlight — the largest comeback in Michigan Stadium history.

The Daily breaks down how the Wolverines will fare against No. 15 Wisconsin.

The Daily presents storylines that you should watch for in Michigan’s home opener.

Notre Dame (Sept. 1): Touchdown Jesus?

Where is Touchdown Moses?

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

Western Michigan (Sept. 8): Row the NOPE! (please don’t sue us PJ)

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

SMU (Sept. 15): More like Methodisn’t

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

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

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

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

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

Maryland (Oct. 6): Leave it to a coach with the last name CANADA to lead a team that is *kind of* good but mostly irrelevant.

Ohio State (Nov. 24): Brett XcXurphy

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

Missouri at No. 1 Alabama (-28)

Mike Persak

Max Marcovitch

Mark Calcagno Alabama

Alabama

Sophie,

Ethan Wolfe Alabama

Managing News Editor

Alabama

Missouri

No. 2 Georgia (-7.5) at No. 13 LSU

LSU

Georgia

LSU

LSU

Georgia

Minnesota at No. 3 Ohio State (-29.5)

Ohio State

Ohio State

Minnesota

Ohio State

Minnesota

Pittsburgh at No. 5 Notre Dame (-21)

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Pittsburgh

No. 7 Washington (-3.5) at No. 17 Oregon

Oregon

Oregon

Oregon

Washington

Oregon

Michigan State at No. 8 Penn State (-13.5)

Penn State

Penn State

Penn State

Penn State

Michigan State

Baylor at No. 9 Texas (-14)

Texas

Texas

Texas

Texas

Baylor

No. 10 UCF (-4.5) at Memphis

UCF

UCF

UCF

UCF

UCF

No. 15 Wisconsin at No. 12 Michigan (-9.5)

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Michigan

Michigan

No. 14 Florida (-7) at Vanderbilt

Florida

Florida

Florida

Florida

Florida

No. 19 Colorado at USC (-7)

Colorado

USC

Colorado

Colorado

Colorado

Tennessee at No. 21 Auburn (-15.5)

Auburn

Auburn

Tennessee

Auburn

Auburn

No. 22 Texas A&M (-2.5) at South Carolina

Texas A&M

Texas A&M

South Carolina

Texas A&M

South Carolina

No. 23 South Florida (-7) at Tulsa

South Florida

South Florida

South Florida

South Florida

Tulsa

Rutgers at Maryland (-24.5)

Rutgers

Maryland

Maryland

Maryland

Rutgers

Iowa (-5) at Indiana

Indiana

Indiana

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa

Nebraska at Northwestern (-4.5)

Northwestern

Northwestern

Northwestern

Northwestern

Nebraska

Purdue (-10.5) at Illinois

Purdue

Purdue

Illinois

Purdue

Illinois

Texas Tech at TCU (-7.5)

Texas Tech

TCU

TCU

TCU

Texas Tech

Oklahoma State (-7) at Kansas State

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State

Kansas State

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State

Toledo (-2.5) at Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan

Toledo

Eastern Michigan

Toledo

Toledo

Western Michigan (-14.5) at Bowling Green

Western Michigan

Western Michigan

Western Michigan

Western Michigan

Western Michigan

Louisville at Boston College (-13.5)

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

Louisville

2B

Temple (-7.5) at Navy

Navy

Navy

Navy

Temple

Temple

UCLA at California (-7)

California

UCLA

California

UCLA

UCLA

Overall

49-51

56-44

58-42

57-43

N/A

FootballSaturday, September 12, 2018

Behind Enemy Lines: A conversation with

Jonah Malkin, a Wisconsin broadcaster

By ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Writer

The No. 12 Michigan football team has as much confidence as it’s had in two seasons, riding a five-game win streak into Saturday.

No. 15 Wisconsin is a team that’s looking to re-find that confidence. After a devastating home loss to BYU in Week Three, the Badgers have responded with a resounding road win at Iowa and a runaway victory over Nebraska.

Unlike Wisconsin previous at Michigan Wisconsin teams with Matchup: Wisconsin 4-1; powerhouse defenses, it’s Michigan 5-1 the offense, When: Saturday led by running 7:30 P.M. back and Where: HeismanMichigan Stadium hopeful Jonathan TV/Radio: ABC Taylor, that is carrying the strongest team in the Big Ten West.

The Daily spoke to Jonah Malkin, a radio broadcaster for WSUM 91.7 FM Madison, to learn about Wisconsin’s strengths and weaknesses, and what to expect during Saturday’s high-stakes game at Michigan Stadium.

The Michigan Daily: What has been the atmosphere around the team since that loss to BYU? Jonah Malkin: I’d say it’s cautiously optimistic. The reason is because after that BYU game, Wisconsin did respond well on the road at Iowa, had the bye week and collected another win a couple days ago at Nebraska.

I say cautiously optimistic because the secondary — the defense is really banged up going into this weekend against Michigan. While there is certainly a lot of optimism and confidence brewing in the locker room, it’s cautious optimism because it’s gonna be the toughest atmosphere most likely that they’ve played this year, and they’re missing some key cogs on the defensive side. The confidence is still there, a lot of young guys are looking forward

to the opportunity to step up.

TMD: What’s the injury report looking like? What impact will it have on the game?

Malkin: They’re gonna be missing a number of starters is what it seems like. About four of the starters are questionable.

The defensive end, Isaiahh Loudermilk, isn’t gonna be playing, which is a big loss because Wisconsin doesn’t have a great pass rush at all. He was one of those guys in the front three in the 3-4 defense that could put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Most importantly, though, in the secondary there’s a lot of guys on the injury report.

Faion Hicks is questionable, D’Cota Dixon is questionable.

They are both gonna play but they’re not 100 percent. Caesar Williams is probably not gonna play, he’s questionable, the starting cornerback.

Scott Nelson is missing the first half because he was called for targeting at the end of the game against Nebraska. Deron Harrell, who is kind of a backup cornerback even though he got first-team snaps Saturday, is also questionable with a head injury.

I’m concerned about the secondary because, to me, the passing game is gonna be the difference in the game. It’s gonna come out to the play of Shea Patterson making long plays. The secondary is so beaten up and there’s a lot of young, inexperienced players and Wisconsin has already given up a number of big plays over the air so far this season. I have a feeling that that’s gonna be a difference in the game.

TMD: How do you assess Wisconsin opening as eightpoint underdogs at Michigan?

Malkin: I understand why they made that the line. I personally think it’s gonna be a closer contest, between three and six (points). I project it’ll be a low-scoring game, a 24-20 kind of game. But then again, I can understand why the line is what it is. A touchdown is a pretty fair assessment, especially on the road, first night game of the year. And the stakes couldn’t be higher for both teams. For

CAMERON HUNT/Daily

The Wolverines will face No. 15 Wisconsin on Saturday, a team featuring offensive threats like runing back Jonathan Taylor.

both of these teams, this is the difference between which team still has a chance to make the playoff and who doesn’t.

TMD: Last year, Wisconsin finished third in total defense.

At the moment, it’s ranked 41st in the country. Was a decline expected? What do you attribute that slide to?

Malkin: I don’t think anyone was expecting the defense to be nearly as dominant and elite as it was last year. It was an unreasonable expectation given how much turnover they lost — pretty much their entire front three and starters in the secondary. I don’t think people expected them to be 41st. There was more optimism surrounding the secondary in training camp and all the coaches were raving about the corners and safeties, and not as much about the defensive line. … They expected the offense to be the aspect of the team that will carry it, but I definitely think they expected the pass defense to be a little bit better. The rush defense is still respectable. … Overall, not an elite defense, not even top-10, but maybe a top-20 program was

expected.

TMD: Is there an offensive weapon not named Jonathan Taylor that you expect could break out on Saturday?

Malkin: Jonathan Taylor is what he is, and obviously that’ll be crucial for Wisconsin to win. But I actually think it’s probably gonna be a big game for Jake Ferguson, the starting tight end. My guess is that he’ll be the security blanket that Alex Hornibrook is gonna rely on for third down opportunities.

Michigan is (a good) pass defense, they’ve held opponents to the fewest passing yards per game in the country, so you’re not going to rip off too many big plays off of them. Third down conversion defense, they’re good but not unbreakable. The tight end play will be really big and Jake Ferguson — he’s led Wisconsin in receiving yards two of their five games. He may be targeted a lot more against Michigan.

TMD: Who will have the better day between Alex Hornibrook and Shea Patterson?

Malkin: That’s tough. I think Shea Patterson is innately the

more talented quarterback. He’s by far much more of a dualthreat, can scramble, mobile guy.

Hornibrook’s not like that at all.

I think Patterson will register more stats at the end of the day.

He’s got a more explosive arm and can use his legs. I don’t think his completion percentage will be as good as Hornibrook, I think he’s a more accurate thrower on average. Not necessarily meaning that Hornibrook will complete more big play throws, but his percentage will be better.

It’s hard to measure who will play better necessarily, but I do think Hornibrook will step up and play well on the road. He’s done it before, he doesn’t get fazed by pressure on the road. … If Michigan is gonna win, it’s gonna be on the play of their defense and not necessarily on Patterson making tremendous throws.

TMD: Prediction?

Malkin: I think the score will be 24-20 regardless of who wins.

I believe in Wisconsin. Should they probably be favored? I don’t know, but I can see them still pulling out a win. It’ll be the hardest game of the year.

TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

3B

‘Boos at the start and cheers at the end’

H

eading into 2008, the Michigan football team hadn’t had a losing season since the 1960s.

Under coaches Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr, the Wolverines developed into a perennial power in the Big Ten, always in the Rose Bowl conversation, and thus, the national spotlight.

But when Carr retired at the end of the 2007 season and Rich Rodriguez took his place, there was perhaps more doubt around the program than there had ever been. Rodriguez brought with him a spread offense that had never been run at Michigan, and the personnel he inherited was not suited for that play style.

All of those doubts were realized, as the Wolverines sputtered to a 3-9 record.

Even still, there was one bright spot in the season.

On Sept. 28, in the 500th game in the history of Michigan Stadium, Michigan battled back from a 19-0 halftime deficit to beat No. 9

the personnel for that, especially the quarterback. They had Steven Threet as the quarterback, and he had transferred from Georgia Tech, and he was, you know, a pro-style quarterback, and that’s why he had come to Michigan. And he came to Michigan before Lloyd Carr left.

Steven Threet, Michigan quarterback, 2007-2009: I would say that when I did transfer, there wasn’t a discussion specifically my parents, myself and Coach Carr about a transition. Obviously, that was kind of in the wind, not for any reason other than his desires, but that was a possibility. But kind of given the consistency and stability of the University of Michigan football program to that point since the late 1960s, it didn’t seem like there was gonna be a drastic shift.

Kevin Koger, Michigan tight end, 2008-2012: It was a different perspective for me, just because I committed under Coach Carr, but I didn’t play under him. So I get in there, and Rich Rod’s the only thing I know. So it wasn’t weird for me in terms of having a coaching change, but I was just going off a lot of the older guys and how they felt. I

beat Miami (OH), but we felt that the margin of victory should have been a lot bigger than it was. You know, so I think we were a little, not disappointed, but we expected more out of ourselves up to that point.

Snyder: So they go into this game with a chance for an upset, and Michigan, they’re used to big-time wins. … But I don’t think anybody expected they were going to win.

Wisconsin won its first three games of the season, rising to No. 9 in the AP rankings and establishing themselves as Big Ten and National Championship contenders.

Aubrey Pleasant, Wisconsin defensive back, 2005-2008: Yeah we were definitely going for it.

I remember we were somewhat rated high, we were 3-0. You know, I feel at that time … I don’t know if (Michigan) started off the way they needed to that year, but we knew it was gonna be a competitive game. We knew we had to solidify ourselves on the road if we wanted to kind of push it through.

Threet: One thing I do remember is I didn’t even realize until we got onto the field and I saw the extra paint (that) it was the 500th game in

to perform.

Pleasant: Our big thing was that, even though we were winning, we still didn’t feel like we were playing our best, and we just was like, ‘Listen, this don’t happen in Michigan Stadium. With the fans booing, they’re gonna come out ready to go.’ We just needed to finish it out.

Rodriguez, after the game: If there was a hole to crawl into, I’m sure a bunch of us, including myself, would have wanted to crawl into that hole. … If you were anywhere in the Ann Arbor vicinity, you heard that.

Threet: I just remember the environment being, excuse my language, but, ‘Holy shit, what are we doing? We’re way better than this. Whether or not we’re better than the ninth-ranked team in the country at this moment, we’re way better than what we’re putting on the field. Let’s just do what we need to do.’

On the second drive of the second half, Michigan drove down the field, and Threet hit Koger for the Wolverines’ first points of the game, making it 19-7.

field, capping off a 10-play, 84-yard drive with a 34-yard touchdown run from running back Brandon Minor. Wisconsin then took over with the ball on its own 25 with 10:27 remaining in the game.

Threet: The Donovan Warren tipped ball.

Thompson: (Then-sophomore cornerback) Donovan made the play. I just executed. … Without him, I would have been running to the ball tackling.

Brad Nessler, ABC play-by-play analyst, on the live telecast of the game: (Wisconsin quarterback Allan) Evridge, quick slant, tipped up in the air and the ball is intercepted by Michigan! Down the sideline is John Thompson!

Thompson: I see the tight end, he was in my face, so I gave him a move, get up the field, and my whole defense was in front of me.

Koger: Those guys kind of created a convoy down the sideline. … Yeah, so he’s going down the sideline, and the sideline erupted. That’s probably one of the loudest I’ve heard Michigan Stadium. … they intercepted and scored, touchdown, and there was a Wisconsin guy

Wisconsin, 27-19, giving hope to a fanbase that had all but lost it.

Ten years later, the memory of that game is interesting. Especially lately, the Wolverines are in a much better spot than they were then.

The Badgers are visiting Ann Arbor again this weekend, and Michigan is favored by nine points.

Most Wolverines fans would prefer to erase the memory of the Rodriguez Era. But that one game can be remembered as a positive, an emotional roller coaster and a signature win that the Michigan players from that year can hang their hats on.

This is the story of the largest comeback in the history of Michigan Stadium.

Mark Snyder, former Michigan beat reporter for The Detroit Free Press: Everything was the unknown, because they had changed this whole system, and it was gonna be this read option, and Michigan obviously didn’t have

think there was a mild uncertainty.

I don’t know, unfortunately, how great our buy-in was at that time as a whole. I think there were some guys resistant to the change. I think that had a lot to do with the type of team that we had, and everybody was at fault. It wasn’t just the coaches, we just all weren’t on the same page. And I don’t think guys didn’t play hard or anything like that, I think, you know, we weren’t all on the same page that year, and expectations were high.

The Wolverines began their season with a 25-23 loss to Utah, a 16-6 win over Miami (OH) and a 35-17 loss to Notre Dame, falling to 1-2 before the Big Ten opener.

Koger: I think we always had confidence in ourselves. We always thought that, no matter what happened, like the Notre Dame game, if I remember correctly, we had a bunch of turnovers, you know, so it was a lot of, we felt, self-inflicted wounds. … We did

Michigan Stadium. And that was not like, I didn’t walk into the stadium knowing, ‘Hey, this is 500. Let’s make it special.’

John Thompson, Michigan linebacker, 2004-2008: To us, it was the Big Ten opener. …

Win at home, win the Big Ten and then compete for a national championship. In our eyes, it was, ‘Alright, the preseason is over.’ We lost to Utah. Lost to Notre Dame.

But the next game was the goal. So just open up the Big Ten, get ready to play and play to win.

Snyder: It was probably one of the worst halves of football that anyone had seen from Michigan in a long time, and everything that could go wrong went wrong. And so they’re going off the field at halftime, and all of the sudden, it was massive boos.

Thompson: Oh yeah, they were booing. They were booing, because they had a certain expectation. You know, you’re at Michigan, you’re expected to compete at a high level

Koger: They went one-high safety, and (Pleasant) rolls down and I slip by him and I stay on the seam. And as soon as I get my head around, I see Steven throwing me the ball, so I catch it and scored, and my first thought was the night before we had clam chowder. But freshmen weren’t allowed to eat clam chowder. So I had an agreement with one of the older wide receivers that the next time I score, the next week, I get clam chowder. That next time happened to be the next day. So I was excited, and I was screaming on the field that I get clam chowder the next week.

Snyder: With (Koger’s touchdown), it’s still like, what is the plan for them to get back into the game.

What’s gonna happen that’s unique to say, I mean, if you’re gonna make a comeback like that, something’s got to happen.

The teams traded punts back and forth, until the fourth quarter, when Michigan again drove down the

chasing, and there was probably like, seven or eight Michigan guys on one Wisconsin guy, so it kinda looked like the Wisconsin guy got swallowed whole, enveloped by all the Michigan guys, because he was on the ground, and he was underneath them celebrating.

Wisconsin went three-and-out on its next possession, giving Michigan the ball back on its own 23-yard line, with 8:14 remaining.

Nessler: Big hit on Brandon Minor… No, it’s Threet! Threet!

Trying to run away from everybody!

Snyder: I remember this long run

by Threet. You know, on a keeper. It must have been 50-something yards.

And at that point, I mean, this is not what this guy does. He was athletic.

He was sort of athletic, but he’s not like Denard Robinson.

Threet: That was the run system that made Rich Rod famous is the read option. I’m by no means the (former West Virginia quarterback) Pat White that he had previously,

“I don’t think any of the things I remember I want to forget”

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TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

Mike Persak, Managing Sports Editor but it was a good play design, and I made the read. … Even the announcers think that Minor gets smacked in the background by, they had a really good defensive end at the time, and you know, he took off like a bat out of hell and went right for the running back, so really wish I had scored the touchdown, but I’ll take the 58 yards. You know, what I wasn’t gonna do is fumble. After those turnovers in the first half, there was no chance I was gonna give the ball up on that play. I’ll get caught, which, between friends and family, I still get a little grief for.

Five plays later, Michigan running back Sam McGuffie plunged into the endzone for a threeyard touchdown. The Wolverines led, 27-19. Two possessions later, Wisconsin took over with 1:19 left and started driving…

Nessler: Two receivers to the right, he’s looking that way, throwing that way and it is caught! Touchdown!

The Badgers scored with 13 seconds left and had to go for a two-point conversion.

Threet: I was down there towards the end of the coaches box with my towel, trying to get the crowd as loud as I could. Michael Phelps was on the sideline with us — he was like an honorary captain that game.

Nessler: Wisconsin’s gotta have two. Evridge looks and throws and it’s caught! Travis Beckum! There’s a flag!

Thompson: I saw the flag when it happened.

I was on the field. But I didn’t know, I was just playing. And then I was like, ‘Okay we’ve got to line up and go do it again.’

The penalty was an ineligible man downfield

call against tight end Travis Beckum, who caught the pass. Wisconsin moved five yards back and tried again.

Nessler: Wisconsin to try to tie it up. Evridge steps up, throws high! Incomplete!

Threet: At that point in time, in my mind, it didn’t matter if it was regulation or overtime, we had too much energy and positive motion, that whether the defense came up like they did on that second two-point conversion try or whether we had to go out there for overtime, there was no doubt in my mind at that point.

Thompson: We felt like we were gonna play until there was no time on the clock. But if we had to go to overtime, we were ready to go.

Pleasant: Don’t let them fool you, every person in fucking Michigan Stadium was sitting on the edge of their seat. They had come back, and we drove it down the field.

We literally drove the ball down the field. …

It’s not like they came back and then they just punished us. That’s what made us feel so bad, because we were doing well, then they came back and we finally get it to the limit and then we just couldn’t.

Deandre Levy, Wisconsin linebacker, 20052008, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: It was embarrassing. I didn’t know how to react.

I couldn’t believe this was happening, how we basically gave the game away in the second half.

Snyder: I think everyone felt that that could be the kickstarter for something, because no one in the Michigan fanbase or the Michigan

community or whatever had ever gone through the other side of it. They had never experienced a team that just totally fell apart. … They didn’t think that it would be the only highlight for the whole season.

Pleasant: That was a hurtful game, man, because we lost that game, and we ended up coming to Michigan State that same year, and ended up losing in a very similar fashion. That was a tough year. We came into that year with high hopes. ... I mean, it was very obvious that it wasn’t the same Michigan. You have to take into consideration, that when I was leaving high school, if you weren’t a top recruit in the nation, you weren’t even getting a look from Michigan. I mean, let’s just be real. … I don’t know what those fuckin’ Michigan guys were telling you, but don’t let this shit fool you.

There was a huge difference. I mean, it wasn’t even the same program.

Thompson: (The interception) is up top.

It’s definitely up top. I had things that I had done in my career that I felt like was a good thing, but it didn’t go to show for what that did. I had a fun career at Michigan, but it’s definitely up top as one of the top highlights of my career.

Koger: It was probably more of just a bright spot, of just that season and my career. It’s one of those games, when people ask about, you bring up because it was such a huge comeback at such a pivotal time of the season.

Just reflecting on that season, we weren’t very good. We didn’t win a lot of games. But there’s

DESIGN BY KATE GLAD always positives to every situation.

Threet: I lived in New York for six years, so any time I’m at anywhere watching a Michigan game and something comes up, that’s the first memory, is the 58-yard run against top-10 Wisconsin.

Pleasant was hired as a graduate assistant for the Wolverines in 2012, Koger’s senior season.

Pleasant: When I was coaching there, they would ask, like, ‘Were you in that game?’

And I was like, ‘Yeah, I was in that game.’

And they’re like, ‘Aw man, that was crazy.

You remember when they were booing us?

Remember trying to get this thing going here or there?’ Yeah, no doubt, it was (brought up).

It was.

But at that time, Michigan was still trying to find itself. They were trying to find their brand. They were trying to figure out who they were, offensively and defensively. And that’s the thing that we were joking about at that time. Because you have to imagine, for me being at Michigan, and for me being able to be reflective to them, they really didn’t talk much smack, because Rich Rod wasn’t very successful.

Threet: I don’t think any of the things I remember I want to forget. I think of it as wins and learns, not wins and losses. You know, regardless of what situation. Biggest thing I remember from the Wisconsin game are the boos at halftime and the cheers at the end.

Breakdown: ‘M’ vs. Wisconsin

By MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Editor

Here it is.

After four blowout wins and one furious comeback in Evanston, the Michigan football team finally has its chance at another ranked opponent. The Wolverines’ last shot, of course, ended with a loss to Notre Dame to open their season.

But since then, Michigan’s offense has added dynamism thanks to needed improvement on its line. Junior quarterback Shea Patterson has been kept heathy and mostly upright, allowing him to throw 10 touchdowns with a completion percentage approaching 70 percent.

Those numbers make the Wolverines’ next three games — Saturday’s contest with Wisconsin, next week’s game at Michigan State and then home against Penn State — seem more winnable than they did directly after the loss in South Bend.

The Badgers, however, have the best rushing attack Michigan will face in the regular season, along with a proven quarterback in Alex Hornibrook. The teams’ last meeting went Wisconsin’s way, 24-10, last November.

The Wolverines have the chance to avenge that loss and earn a marquee win this weekend. Here’s how the Badgers and Michigan match up.

Michigan pass offense vs.

Wisconsin’s pass defense Nebraska threw for 407 yards against the Badgers last Saturday — two weeks after mustering just 93 yards through the air against the Wolverines.

Wisconsin struggled with the mobility of Cornhuskers quarterback Adrian Martinez, who was also dangerous hitting receivers with consistent time in the pocket.

Perpetuating the Badgers’ difficulties are four key injuries to their secondary.

Safety D’Cota Dixon said he’ll play despite being listed as questionable while his counterpart, Scott Nelson, will miss the first half after being ejected from last week’s game.

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AARON BAKER/Daily

Junior quarterback Shea Patterson has thrown 10 touchdowns so far this season, almost reaching a completion percentage of 70 percent through six games.s

Caesar Williams and Deron Harrell — Wisconsin’s starting corners — are also questionable.

Patterson made play after play last week in Michigan’s victory over Maryland, and with Wisconsin’s injuries, he could do more of the same against the Badgers.

Edge: Michigan Michigan rush offense vs.

Wisconsin’s rush defense Wisconsin’s bad luck worsened Thursday morning with the news that defensive end Isaiahh Loudermilk will not make the trip to Ann Arbor.

Loudermilk is the team’s best pass rusher and a crucial part of its run defense, which is ranked

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fifth in the Big Ten and allows 130.2 yards per game.

On the other side, running backs coach Jay Harbaugh said on Wednesday that he “expects” Chris Evans to play.

The junior running back went through warmups last week ,but ultimately sat out his third consecutive game.

Senior running back Karan Higdon has carried the ship in Evans’ absence with 30 and 25 carries for 115 and 103 yards, respectively, the past two games. Despite the Badgers’ sturdy front, Higdon should get another heavy workload Saturday with Michigan’s runfirst style.

Last week, redshirt junior left tackle Jon Runyan said his group has room for

improvement in run blocking, and this week would be the perfect time to make that jump.

Edge: Toss-up Michigan pass defense vs.

Wisconsin pass offense Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook has been stellar on the road, throwing for 18 touchdowns and just three interceptions his past 10 games.

Hornibrook wasn’t fantastic in last season’s meeting — 9-of-19 for 143 yards — but he made trademark tight-window throws to hurt the Wolverines in key moments. Michigan allows just 134 yards per game through the air, but penalties have somewhat offset that

low mark. If the Wolverines can apply pressure and get to Hornibrook on multiple occasions, it’ll pay dividends for their pass defense.

Edge: Michigan Michigan run defense vs.

Wisconsin’s run offense It’s power football at its finest: the country’s third-ranked run defense against its third-ranked rusher, Jonathan Taylor.

For in-game updates

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

Michigan survived the Terrapins’ tricky, jet sweepfilled run game, but as secondary coach Michael Zordich explained Wednesday, the Badgers are a different animal.

“These guys, they’re gonna hit and go north and south,” Zordich said. “For our corners and the safeties on the edges, they gotta fill the lanes. So it’s gonna be more of a challenge, big-time.

“They’ll get in these sets, it’s like rugby. These formations, everybody’s in there real tight, they’ll run the ball, run the ball,

run the ball, run the ball.”

Taylor rushed for 221 yards last week, and even against a top-ranked defense, he can turn in stat-stuffing efforts behind the country’s best offensive line.

Edge: Wisconsin Special Teams Michigan’s stretch of dominance on special teams ended last week. After a Wolverine field goal, Maryland grabbed a 7-3 lead off a 98-yard touchdown return.

Elsewhere, this is a game with two competent kickers — a rarity in college football.

Redshirt sophomore Quinn Nordin is up to 8-of-9 on field goal attempts this season, as his leg seemingly grows stronger by the week. The Badgers’ Rafael Gaglianone, meanwhile, is one conversion away from setting the school record at Wisconsin.

It’ll come down to which unit can perform when pressure comes Saturday.

Edge: Toss-up

Intangibles: Bottom Line Since the Big Ten signed its TV deal with FOX, night games at Michigan Stadium have become less of a novelty — the Wolverines were required to play at least three split between 2017 and 2018. Michigan played under the lights twice last season, losing to Michigan State before routing Minnesota on a cold November evening.

The Wolverines have come out of the gates f lat against their two best opponents this season, Notre Dame and Northwestern.

If they can avoid doing the same while generating some longer passing plays Saturday, it’s a winnable game for Michigan.

Prediction: Wisconsin 20

Michigan

24,

Edge: Michigan, by virtue of the sports-writing convention of playing at home

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Sophomore running back Jonathan Taylor is an offensive threat for the Badgers, and has currently rushed for 849 of Wisconsin’s 1,435 total yards throughout 5 games so far during the 2018 season.

TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

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What to Watch For: Wisconsin

By MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor

Seeking copious amounts of unnecessary stress with potential for gut-wrenching twists and turns?

Boy, do I have the Saturday evening activity for you.

No. 15 Wisconsin comes to Michigan Stadium to face off against No. 12 Michigan, in the first leg of a season-defining three-game stretch for the Wolverines. Chances are, your opinion of this Wolverines team will change drastically

by Sunday morning, one way or another.

Michigan’s goals all remain on the table. But in order to maintain hopes of a Big Ten Championship, it must win two of the next three games at minimum. All three, and you can start to sniff a College Football Playoff appearance.

One step at a time, though.

The Badgers — a Big Ten contender in their own right — will pose a proper litmus test for just how far the Wolverines have come since the opening-week loss to Notre Dame. Here’s what you should be watching for in the high-stakes affair: Who plays, who doesn’t and how it affects the run defense Simple enough, right? But this could well be the difference.

Slowing down Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor and the vaunted Wisconsin rushing attack is a chore on its own. Taylor has rushed for 849 of the Badgers’ 1,435 rushing yards on the season. Taylor is ranked third nationally in that category, and Wisconsin ranks fourth — behind three tripleoption offenses.

The Badgers run the ball nearly twice as often as they throw it; there’s no mystery about what Wisconsin wants to do. Slowing them down becomes infinitely more difficult if Michigan is missing key contributors on the defensive line.

There is little clarity on whether junior Rashan Gary (AC joint), junior Michael Dwumfour (leg), sophomore Aubrey Solomon (knee) or junior Carlo Kemp will be able to aid that effort on the field.

For the most part, mum’s the 8B

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Junior defensive end Rashan Gary was sidelined with an injury during Michigan’s 42-21 win over Maryland last week.

word, though Solomon’s mother posted a photo on Twitter of Solomon after practice — in which he participated. Solomon hasn’t played since the game against the Fighting Irish.

Purely speculative, it seems like it would take a substantial injury to keep Gary out of this one. Harbaugh hinted after last week’s game that he held Gary out in Michigan’s game with Maryland against Gary’s preference. If he does play, it’s worth monitoring how effective he’ll be at a level that will almost certainly be less than 100 percent. Gary’s presence alone will help draw attention, but mere “presence” only goes so far.

Regardless of the status of those aforementioned, this will be a big game for fifthyear seniors Bryan Mone and Lawrence Marshall, both of whom have taken circuitous routes back into the defensive tackle rotation. Both will be counted on to hold their ground against Wisconsin’s mauling offensive line.

This might be the biggest game of their seasons (careers?), individually.

Can Michigan shut down Taylor and Wisconsin’s run game? That seems highly unlikely. But the Wolverines — with the nation’s sixth-ranked rush defense — can absolutely slow it down. And if they do, it’s not hard to envision this ending in a victory, maybe even a comfortable one.

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But, that’s a big if.

How far has this offense come since Notre Dame?

This entire article could be summarized in that one sentence: How far has this team come?

The signs have been encouraging on many levels from what appears to be an improving team. But with that progress coming against five opponents with inferior talent, it will be impossible to know just how far the Wolverines have come until they step on the field Saturday night.

Against the Fighting Irish, Michigan’s offense mustered just three points until late in the fourth quarter while scrambling to mount a comeback. Since that game, the Wolverines have averaged 42.4 points per contest. For the first time since Sept. 1, though, they will face a unit comparable to the Notre Dame defense that controlled the game.

How far has the offensive line come? Can the young receivers gain separation consistently?

Will the tight ends continue to be weapons? Can they convert red zone appearances into touchdowns?

Let’s find out.

Can they control emotions at night?

the

I know what you’re thinking. I

can see your eyes rolling.

I, too, generally hate sports clichés like this one. But it’s a reality that several players addressed this week: Night games — especially at home, with College Gameday in town — are different, and thus require different preparation.

“Big stage, some people get a little bit too energetic, or some people get a little bit too down,” said junior safety Josh Metellus.

“They don’t want to mess up.”

This is just the sixth night game in Michigan Stadium history. The crowd will be amped.

Often those heightened emotions only last for the early portion of the game before tapering off. But twice now, Michigan has trailed by a large deficit early, tasked with climbing back into the game.

Against Notre Dame at night, the Wolverines trailed, 21-3, before anyone could catch their breath.

At Northwestern, Michigan was ultimately able to overcome a quick 17-0 deficit, scoring 20 unanswered points.

If a similar start ensues Saturday, though, it would be tough to imagine the Wolverines mounting a large comeback against a sound Wisconsin team.

Keeping emotions in check will play a big role in how the game starts.

Shea Patterson, here’s your moment

At the risk of hyperbole, this stretch coming up is why Shea Patterson came to Michigan.

He’s been vocal about playing in — and winning — big games.

Here’s his shot under the lights at Michigan Stadium.

In the 2016 matchup, Wilton Speight completed a 46-yard pass to Amara Darboh with 7:56 left to take a 14-7 lead.

The Wolverines beat then-No. 8 Wisconsin by that same score (with an assist from Jourdan Lewis’ right arm). It’s hardly implausible to imagine this year’s version coming down to a similar situation. And if it does, Patterson has given fans no reason to doubt he’ll come through.

He’s on pace for over 2,500 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and a 68.8 completion percentage over a 13-game season; the junior quarterback is arguably in the midst of the best season by a Michigan quarterback since Denard Robinson was under center.

But fairly or otherwise, Patterson will ultimately be judged by how he plays in — and whether he wins — these big games. He’d be the first to tell you that.

Prediction: 23-20, Michigan Well, here you go.

BY THE NUMBERS Michigan vs. Wisconsin

465

Total yards by Michigan against Maryland

370

Rushing yards by Wisconsin against Nebraska

294

Passing yards by Michigan against Maryland

163

Recieving yards by Wisconsin against Nebraska