2020-01-15

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Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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University adds essay for 1st-year applicants

Optional form allows deferred students to show ‘continued interest’ ALEX HARRING Daily News Editor

First-year applicants to the University of Michigan now have the option to submit an additional essay separate from the three required as part of the application.

The Daily obtained a screenshot of the webpage informing applicants of the essay from a high school senior who was deferred and requested anonymity due to concern for her application status.

The page notes the essay form is the only expression of continued interest the University will consider. Any other communications from students outside of the form — with the exception of recent grades — will not be added to their application.

The form asks students, in 250 words or less, to “describe how your personal educational

DESIGN BY LIZZY RUEPPEL

Students struggle to find adequate mental health resources on campus

Community notes issues with diversity, commute when seeking services JASMIN LEE & CALDER LEWIS

Daily Staff Reporters

This is the first installment of a three-part series investigating student mental health at the University of Michigan. The Daily interviewed students on campus and across the country as well as prominent leaders in mental

health. In parts two and three, The Daily will examine alternative mental health resources on campus and how mental health systems work at other universities, such as Michigan State University.

Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore Dana Rath’s winter semester of her freshman year did not go smoothly.

She got sick three times in

one month and ended a tough relationship at the beginning of 2019. Combined with the culture of stress in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, she was unable to apply for summer music programs because all the deadlines passed while she was ill. The toll on her physical health impacted her mental health as well and she turned to

The University’s Counseling and Psychological Services.

“That’s when I saw CAPS,” Rath said. “When you’re going through stuff like this, it feels really isolating. I felt really alone … I was feeling overwhelmed and sad about being overwhelmed with everything that’s going on.”

See CAPS, Page 2A

Secretary College Republicans examine explores American intervention in Iran nuclear Presenters speak on recent international events, conflict between countries security CAMPUS LIFE

U.S. undersecretary talks about recruitment, career path at panel REBECCA HIRSH Daily Staff Reporter

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, visited the Duderstadt Center Tuesday as part of a recruiting event for the National Security Enterprises.

Approximately 30 students and researchers attended.

Gordon-Hagerty attended the University of Michigan for undergraduate and graduate school, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1983 and a master’s in health physics from the School of Public Health in 1986. She has previously served as a staff member for the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and as acting director in the Office of Emergency Response and the Office of Weapons Surety.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed her to be director of the White House Office of Combating Terrorism, which is under the National Security Council. After serving a few years in the private sector, Gordon-Hagerty returned to the public sector, accepting her current position with the NNSA.

SUNSKRITI PARANJAPE Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s chapter of College Republicans hosted their weekly meeting Tuesday in the Michigan League to discuss Iran-United States relations.. About 25 students and members of the University community attended the event, as well as board members of the organization.

The meeting opened with general announcements about upcoming events by Maria Muzarieta, College Republicans chair and LSA senior. It was

See SECURITY, Page 3A

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followed by a presentation on events in Iran by LSA sophomore Max Resnick, treasurer of College Republicans and Kathy Zhu, vice chair of College Republicans and LSA senior.

Resnick gave a brief outline of Iran’s modern history, from its constitutional monarchy in 1906 to the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, commenting on the current state of oppression.

Resnick and Zhu then explained the Iran-U.S. relationship, touching on Iranian attempts to enrich uranium.

“At first, we had evidence that they were enriching uranium,

and you can enrich uranium for two reasons,” Resnick said. “You can either use it for fuel, or you can use it for weapons.”

The presenters also mentioned the Iran nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities and allow access to international inspectors in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

“Iran says that its activities were peaceful,” Resnick said.

“So, we had sanctions. Obama signs the Iran Deal. President Trump pulls out.”

Resnick further discussed the Iran-U.S. relations in terms of the

Iran-Iraq War, commenting on the criticism about the U.S. supply of weapons to the Middle East.

“I think what’s important to remember is, like, we say, ‘Oh, we gave weapons to Saudi Arabia, and then there is a regime change in Saudi Arabia, and they do something that we don’t like,’ ” Resnick said. “And then people complain that we gave weapons to them. So, I don’t know if it’s a fair criticism to say, ‘Well, we were giving weapons to Iran and, like, they have a religious coup, took over the government and started sponsoring terrorism abroad.’ ” See IRAN, Page 3A

Colle Republicans discuss the United States’ involvement in Iran in the League Tuesday evening.

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goals connect to the University of Michigan’s mission and values.”

In an email to The Daily, Erica Sanders, Office of Undergraduate Admissions director, wrote that this form replaces all other forms of continued interest.

Some students have previously submitted a “letter of continued interest,” a mechanism often recommended by school counselors or in online discussion boards such as College Confidential to show ongoing interest after being deferred in early admission rounds.

For postponed early action applicants, the preferred deadline for this form is Feb. 1 and for regular decision applicants, the deadline is March 1. Sanders said applicants can complete at their discretion.

See ESSAY, Page 3A

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Assembly approves CSG VP nominee

CSG discusses DEI task force, election protocols at first Winter meeting NAVYA GUPTA & JULIA RUBIN Daily Staff Reporters

At the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government meeting Tuesday night, Assembly members approved a new vice president, announced the creation of a Campus Climate Advisory Council and discussed new initiatives by the Transfer Student Resources Committee and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission. The meeting was the first of the Winter 2019 semester.

LSA junior Evie Winter was unanimously approved as the new Central Student Government vice president.

Winter previously served as Chief of Staff under Daniel Greene’s administration and most recently as CSG’s director of outreach.

In his nominating speech, CSG President Ben Gerstein, Public Policy senior, detailed Winter’s accomplishments in her director of outreach role, including the bolstering of CSG’s internship program and improvement of CSG’s outreach to student organization through her “coffee chat initiative.”

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

NEWS......................... 2A Vol. CXXIX, No. 50 OPINION.....................4A ©2019 The Michigan Daily C L A S S I F I E D S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A

See CSG, Page 3A

S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B ARTS...................5A S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7A

News

2A — Wednesday, January 15, 2020

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY:

By Design

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WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

THURSDAY: Twitter Talk

FRIDAY: Behind the Story

Jan. 7, 1972: Free classes offered by education, social change program to continue despite Smith’s statement The Program for Educational and Social Change (PESC) has accelerated its plans to open University courses to the public free-of-charge despite Vice President Allan Smith’s statement Thursday that such a program violates University policy.

At a meeting of PESC members and supporters yesterday, psychology Prof. Richard Mann dismissed Smith’s statement as “ranting and raving,” and said it held little weight.

A PESC publication says that

all PESC courses are “open to all, and free to non-University people.”

Smith Thursday described” such a policy as being “not within the province of the program personnel nor the individual professor.”

PESC members, both students and faculty members, agreed yesterday to step-up the publicity of their program – as originally constituted.

Hoping to squelch opposition to the idea of free auditing of courses by those not enrolled in the University, PESC will begin

referring to the community auditors as “resource people” or “colleagues,” rather than “students.”

In addition, PESC is urging its supporters to appear en masse at Monday’s meeting of the literary college faculty.

Mann also revealed that he and six other PESC members had met with the LSA Executive Committee and Dean Frank Rhodes Thursday to discuss PESC’s structure and funding.

While PESC presented its request of $4,600 from the $50,000 fund

earmarked for “innovation” in LSA, the committee offered no definitive responses, according to Mann.

However, English Prof.

Robert Super, a member of the LSA committee, said that the funding question had assumed no importance in the meeting, whose primary purpose was the edification of the committee members with respect to PESC. The LSA committee had presented PESC with a number of administrative questions, many of which were answered

‘at yesterday’s PESO meeting. For example, the question of whether community participation in the courses would affect their quality and/or close them to regular students was countered

by PESC’s assertion that students registering for PESC courses are fully aware of their access to community members.

PESC pointed to the University’s “terrible relationship” with the community and the expansion of University curriculum, brought about by the new PESC courses,

as further justifications for its acceptance.

Charles Thomas, who is president of the Black Economic Development League and plans to instruct a PESC course entitled “’The Socio-Economic and Political Foundations of County Politics,” said that the qualifications of nonprofessors in PESC should not be challenged by the University.

His statement apparently anticipated a debate over whether courses such as his could grant credit hours to University students.

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Elixir Vitae closes doors after nearly 20 years to disappointment of customers Students mourn loss of local coffee shop’s ‘welcoming’ and ‘inclusive’ environment HANNAH MACKAY Daily Staff Reporter

Local coffee shop Elixir Vitae, known for its chai lattes, diverse clientele and creative wall art shut its doors on Dec. 20 after almost two decades. Located across the street from Nickels Arcade and thought of by many loyal customers as a hidden gem of Ann Arbor, the store’s regulars lamented its closing.

LSA senior Ola Amokomowo, Elixir regular, said she will miss many things about the cafe, including its teas and the welcoming community.

“It’s honestly so upsetting,” Amokomowo said. “I just recently became a regular, actually. I heard about it at the beginning of my senior year, and it got to the point where I was going almost every day basically because they have

which was really, really cool,” Curtiss said. “It was its own little insular universe, and it was just bizarre, because it was this isolated, self-contained space, and yet it was so close to campus.”

The owner of Elixir Vitae did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment on why the coffee shop closed in time for publication.

LSA junior Basil Alsubee, another Elixir regular said he was impressed by the cafe’s hospitality, especially with customers experiencing homelessness.

“It’s just a very homey, unpretentious, welcoming place for me,” Alsubee said. “I don’t know a coffee shop in Ann Arbor that’s been as kind to the homeless population in Ann Arbor as Elixir.”

Alsubee said he appreciated how accepting the atmosphere at Elixir is .

“As a Muslim, I have five prayers every day … and Elixir was actually

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Whit Froehlich, Speaker of Central Student Government, calls the assembly to order at the Union Tuesday evening.

the best London Fog I’ve ever had in my life. You just knew that your business mattered. I felt like a part of something bigger than myself.”

According to loyal customers, Elixir stood out from Ann Arbor’s many local coffee shops because of its staff and warm environment.

Amokomowo elaborated on her own Elixir experience, calling Elixir a “standout.”

“It really was a local standout place. It felt homey. I knew that they cared about my day, I cared about the baristas’ day,” Amokomowo said. “I really loved it. I enjoyed being there so much, and I’m pretty sad that it’s gone.”

Jimmy Curtiss worked at Elixir Vitae as a barista for 15 years. He said he valued Elixir’s communityoriented values.

“It really was a townie coffee shop that I feel like didn’t actually cater to any specific demographic.

It was just kind of for everyone

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one of the very few places where I did that quite regularly and at some point the baristas noticed, and they actually were so kind to bring me a small little prayer rug that was in the corner of the coffee shop that I regularly used,” Alsubee.

LSA senior Leena Ghannam said Ann Arbor is losing several small local businesses like Elixir and, with them, a sense of familiarity and belonging.

“It had accumulated a really strong base of people who would go there frequently, and so it’s kind of sad because once the place leaves, the community leaves with it. It’s no longer essentialized,” Ghannam said. “I think it’s a real shame, especially because a lot of other, older businesses in Ann Arbor have been shutting down in the past five years, and I think they’re being replaced by a lot of larger corporations.”

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CAPS From Page 1A But Rath was not alone.

CAPS received more than 5,000 requests for services in the 2018-2019 school year and 57 percent of University students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety. However, as students seek support for mental health, concerns about the inadequacies of the University’s mental health system are persistent. Grievances range from long wait times for CAPS initial consultations to inefficient distribution of resources between North and Central campuses and a lack of support for students of color.

Waiting for CAPS Students have expressed their frustration with the wait time at CAPS through memes in Facebook groups and various petitions to increase CAPS resources and counselor availability. The wait time for

an initial consultation at CAPS was the most common grievance among the University students interviewed for this story.

Last semester’s wait times continue to drive the negative perception of the University’s mental health resources on campus. Todd Sevig, chair of UM Student Mental Health Work Group, told The Daily that the longest wait time for a CAPS appointment was two and a half weeks and they had the shortest wait time in Ann Arbor.

However, many students said they waited much longer than two weeks.

According to the CAPS website, the initial consultation wait time is currently down to two business days. CAPS acknowledged the long wait times during the fall semester and attributed it to increased demand.

Students vent frustration about the wait times through social media. CAPS-related

memes were voted the secondbest meme of 2019 by over 1,300 users in the “UMich Memes for Wolverteens” Facebook group.

Meme tournament organizer Lucas Renno described CAPS as “representing pessimism, something broken within the University that may well be unfixable.”

In an interview with The Daily, Sevig emphasized the efforts at CAPS to address student concerns.

“I will meet with any student who wants to meet with me about CAPS or mental health,” Sevig said. “We changed our intake model five years ago. That only came from a student who was upset at the wait time for getting into CAPS. The dialogue, back and forth, I love it. So, email me with suggestions.”

LSA senior Sulayman Qazi told The Daily he was struggling with generalized anxiety disorder and was feeling out of place as a transfer student when he tried

to make a CAPS appointment in Fall 2018.

“The wait time when I checked was 20-something days, and a friend of mine waited even longer,” Qazi said. “He said by the time he saw them, he was already over the situation he was having, and so he just had to compartmentalize it himself. I thought that was scary.”

LSA sophomore Eva Schwartz said students who would like to talk to someone sooner but do not feel like their situation warrants a crisis counselor are left in the dark.

“If you’ve made an appointment, the CAPS website could do a better job displaying other resources on campus in the meantime,” Schwartz said.

“It’d be helpful to have a page that says, ‘If this doesn’t work for you, maybe consider going to Wolverine Wellness,’ or ‘Here are some of the other resources,’ outlined.”

See CAPS, Page 3A

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.

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CAPS From Page 2A Sevig acknowledges the system can backlog with long wait times in the fall as it processes a huge influx of students who are new to campus and struggling to adjust to college. CAPS saw 875 new clients in September 2018, more than double the number of an average month. While the wait time is back down to four days as of publication, Sevig said the recent surges have overwhelmed CAPS. “The first five weeks last fall, we had about 300 students per week asking for help,” Sevig said. “So those 300 students who come in the first week need to be seen the second week, and you have another 300 who are new that second week, and then it just goes on every week. So, we’re doing a lot of work this year to think about how we can navigate next fall.”

Sevig did not specify his plans for reducing wait times but said he is looking at adding more counselors and is open to student input on how they’d like the process to change.

CAPS currently houses 39 licensed permanent clinical staff and 16 professionals-intraining. Sevig acknowledged there are trade-offs in the current staffing model, which consists of initial, crisis and ongoing consultation.

“We could have the wait time for a scheduled appointment be two days,” Sevig said. “But if we were to do that, we would be sacrificing either the crisis work or the ongoing work. In any clinical agency, you’re balancing initial, ongoing and crisis work, so I want to increase initial and ongoing and maybe all three.”

In the 2019-20 fiscal year, Counseling Services was allotted almost $3 million. When asked what an increase in funding would mean for CAPS, Sevig said he would defer to students.

“We ask our Student Advisory Board, ‘If we were to grow, how could we best use new staff? Do we want to do online interventions? How long should that initial appointment be?’”

Sevig said. “If we get new staffing and new funding, what we will do with it will be driven by students.”

A need for diversity Students of color voiced concern about being able to find a counselor who can relate to their experiences on campus.

LSA freshman Alia Cummings said it’s difficult to connect with counselors who do not innately understand the perspectives of students of color.

“One thing that I’ve noticed is that there aren’t that many people of color who are therapists

IRAN From Page 1A The talk proceeded to cover recent events in Iran, such as the assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani by the United States. The presenters mentioned that the “liberal media” was not commenting on Iran’s initial attack against the U.S. “A lot of liberal media, they

CSG From Page 1A “She is well-versed in the functions of our organization and possesses a deep understanding of campus partnerships,” Gerstein said.

“Stepping into the role as CSG vice president in the closing months of any administration’s term is no easy task. But given Evie’s experience, my personal friendship with her, my understanding and knowledge that she has the passion, drive and will to do this work, I am fully confident she is going to be able to execute this position to the best of her ability.”

Rackham student Hayden Jackson, chair of the Executives Nomination Committee, read excerpts from the Executives Nomination Committee’s report on Winter’s eligibility for the position as vice president.

Jackson said the committee felt she would be a good fit for the role. However, they

News

on campus,” Cummings said.

“Hearing from my peers, one of the things that we notice is when we go into these areas and we have different struggles and things like that … although it’s good to talk to a therapist, if the person does not look like us, then it’s very difficult for the person to be able to relate to us about what we’re talking about or to be able to even express those feelings because we know that the ability to relate will be very limited.”

Sevig said that CAPS is dedicated to diversity in their office and they put the photos of all their staff on the website to show their efforts.

“We acknowledge the diversity, and we work with it,” Sevig said. “Our staffing reflects the diversity. About half of us are people of color.”

Connecting to North Campus One of the biggest challenges campus mental health resources face is connecting with students on North Campus, which is up to a thirty-minute commute from the main CAPS and UHS offices.

In the CSG Mental Health Taskforce report, 50 percent of students who take classes or live on North Campus said the physical distance from Central Campus CAPS has deterred them from using CAPS. In response, CAPS is reaching out to students on North Campus through the embedded model, which places a dedicated staff counselor in 13 schools and colleges across both North and Central Campuses. Sevig said he envisions a further expansion of embedded counselors to include currently uncovered colleges, including the Schools of Education, Environment and Sustainability, Information, Kinesiology and Public Policy.

Since the CAPS office is located on Central Campus, it can be difficult for students in other colleges to seek out their services. Embedded counselors learn about the culture of the college they are assigned and meet with students from those schools. They also give referrals for students when they need additional assistance.

Rath reached out to Emily Hyssong, the embedded counselor at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, when she was going through a hard time, and through Hyssong, was able to make an appointment with CAPS. “I only found out about it through a counselor in the music school, she told me about it,” Rath said. “She didn’t have enough room to see me herself.

She had enough patients, so she recommended me to CAPS.” Even though embedded counselors in the Schools of Music, Theatre & Dance,

Engineering, Art and Architecture and Urban Planning are accessible to the majority of North Campus students, students at schools on Central Campus who end up living on North still face the barrier of a commute to seek professional help.

“It is very far. I had one appointment that I waited a long time for, but due to the bus system, I was late and had to wait another four weeks for the next appointment,” said a student quoted in the CSG Mental Health Taskforce report.

“I was discouraged and did not return to CAPS until I moved to Central Campus the next year.

That was when I received the help I needed.”

When asked about outreach efforts to North Campus, Sevig said CAPS experimented briefly with counselors in Pierpont Commons in the early 2000s, but he said he sees that abandoned project as a failure.

“Students would come in and interrupt the counselors, they would open the door, they weren’t available. It just didn’t work.” Sevig said. “But there are a lot of students on North Campus who aren’t in embedded schools, so it’s on my list to think about accessibility for them.”

Defining a ‘Crisis’ CAPS offers crisis services but several students interviewed for this story said they were unaware of what is considered a crisis in order for them to see CAPS. LSA sophomore Noelle Seward suffered a concussion in October of 2019 and had to ask for accommodations in her classes. When she was struggling with keeping up with her classes and getting accommodations, she sought out CAPS to help her with the anxiety, but she did not think her situation was a crisis.

“There was such a long waiting period, and I don’t feel like this is something I can wait for,” Seward said. “They say, ‘If you’re in an absolute emergency, then you can come in.’ I don’t want to take that spot away from someone who is having suicidal thoughts or something, because they may need it more than I do, but that doesn’t mean I can wait two months to have my issue addressed.”

According to the 2018-2019 CAPS Annual Report, only about 4 percent of appointments were classified as urgent or crises. Due to the ambiguity, many students feel hesitant to prioritize their own situation and underutilize the crisis services.

At CAPS, Sevig told The Daily that “crisis” is based on what students think and does not have one solid meaning.

“Some centers define (crisis) by the professional staff. We intentionally do not do that,”

don’t tell you that they attacked us first before we attacked them and assassinated their top general,” Zhu said “But basically what happened is that they attacked a military base, killing a lot of U.S. citizens and Iraqis, and then we retaliated and assassinated a top general, and then so, that was when tensions began.”

Zhu also assessed the reaction of Republicans to the assassination.

“Republicans largely agree with

had concerns about Winter’s comments in the report about the administration’s lack of accomplishments during the first semester and her lack of attendance at the University Council, a core function of the vice presidency.

“It remains a concern for us that there was more room for events and initiatives for completion in the first semester, but that Ms. Winter was largely unable to articulate a long list of accomplishments,” Jackson said. “That said, overall, we believe Ms. Winter would do a good job serving in the role for the remainder of the year, as she would carry out former Vice President Blanchard’s projects to completion, and she already understands the Gerstein administration and how it works.”

According to the report, Winter had previously attended one Assembly meeting in the Fall 2019 semester and no UC meetings.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — 3A do to continue to engage with, and call from, the wonderful, brilliant brainpower that is obtained by attending the University of Michigan and these other colleges and universities across the United States,” Gordon-Hagerty said.

After Gordon-Hagerty spoke, a six-person panel shared their roles in various laboratories and companies under the NNSA, including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Erik Timpson, an engineer at Kansas City National Security Campus, emphasized working for the public sector means serving the country while having the resources to turn “some of the things in your imagination into reality.”

“It sounds super fancy to be working with doctors on cutting-edge national research that’s changing the way that we look at security and how secure we are,” Timpson said.

“You guys are like, ‘Man, I’m just fresh out of calculus and physics. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.’ The simple

answer is: You are. You’re totally ready. You can do this.”

Gordon-Hagerty advised current undergraduates to recognize the importance of national security, to be flexible with career plans as opportunities arise and to not rule out any possibilities early on.

“The advice I would give to current and future applicants to our nuclear security enterprises is keeping an open mind and to know their career will grow in the future,” Gordon-Hagerty said.

Rackham student Jeff Woolstrum, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, said he was fascinated by the University’s relevance in national security.

“It was great that (U-M) has the kind of pull to bring in these high-level people,” Woolstrum said.

“There were a lot of good questions and a lot of good answers that were asked and a lot of good resources that are just so conveniently available to everybody here at Michigan.”

Claire Hao contributed reporting to this article.

It is available to students who applied early action and received a postponed decision or who applied regular decision, Sanders said.

“For some, the Early Action application deadline approaches much sooner than anticipated and an opportunity to submit additional information now that the rush of the fall season has quieted would be welcomed,” Sanders wrote. “This short answer response offers the opportunity to provide an update to the initial application submission.”

According to the webpage, the decision to not consider other information from applicants is due to the high volume of applications. Nationally, the University ranked 10th for the number of freshman applicants, with 64,917 applications for this year’s freshman class.

Approximately 23 percent of applicants were admitted.

A second deferred student, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the practice of sending a letter of continued interest, which was largely an unspoken method for showing commitment, was a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the applicant pool.

Because it is now a form available to all applicants, the student feels they may have lost an edge they previously would have had with sending the letter.

“I know some people are annoyed because this is another essay and it’s extra work when they’ve already put so much into the application, but to me, for someone who sees this as their top school, it’s more of another opportunity for me to show them I’m committed,” the applicant said. “It’s an opportunity that I’m grateful for, but I do think it’s interesting that it’s not this under-the-radar thing that it was in the past.”

The student said the change from a letter to an essay removed some of the individuality. She also noted the possibility for overlap with the 500-word application essay, which asks students to “describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan” and how the curriculum supports the applicant’s interests.

The student was also frustrated with the language of the form, which says additional communication will not be considered. However, after talking with teachers, the student said she is still considering sending in additional information, such as an extra letter of recommendation.

Sanders wrote that the change levels the playing field for applicants because it provides guidance for what the University would like to see. Previously, there would be a large variation in what the admissions staff

received from applicants, so this change provides more information about what they will and will not consider.

“Historically, our Early Action applicants who are not admitted in Early Action, as well as some Regular Decision applicants, have attempted to provide further information about themselves after their application is submitted, and we did not provide standard guidance regarding how to do so,” Sanders wrote. “The quantity and quality of the information submitted varied greatly and follow-up with students was inefficient and cumbersome. This additional short answer response allows for an equitable experience for all applicants who desire to send additional information after their application is completed, and provides guidance for the submission of that information.”

Christopher Kasper, a school counselor at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, is grateful for this clarity. He said students in previous years were unsure of what to do after receiving a postponed decision from the University. He said this form gives applicants more information on the next steps they can take.

“What it does is it helps guide and direct students to know what their next step is and to know that they have this opportunity,” Kasper said. “I think students appreciate the opportunity and the clarity and are more than willing and enthusiastic about the additional short essay.”

what’s happening, because they attacked us first and we need to retaliate,” Zhu said.

Student activists on campus have advocated against military involvement in Iran. At a rally on Monday, hundreds gathered to voice their opposition to starting another war in the Middle East.

Public Policy senior Arwa Gayar, president of the Arab Student Association, spoke at the demonstration. She said she

was concerned for the safety of members of her community.

“I already see members of my community questioning if they can return back to their home and see their families in the coming months,” Gayar said. “Many of us … are already forced to leave our own home countries, due to the U.S. history of imperialism, American wars in the Middle East and legacies of colonialism. We now find the security of our families

unknown once more.”

Resnick ended the talk with a comment on U.S. intervention in Iran.

“I’ll talk about why people think Iraq failed. Here’s why: democratization,” Resnick said.

“Democratization is not the best way to go about regime change…

Unlike Iraq, Iran still had lineage, descendants of Mohammed Shah where we can actually put in place of the Ayatollah.”

LSA freshman Vince Tedrick attended the meeting. He said he thinks that these College Republicans meetings help him stay informed about current events.

“We want to look at both sides of the issue, we try to look at where everybody’s coming from,” Tedrick said. “And I think it helps us be more knowledgeable about the world around us and what’s happening.”

Responding to concerns about attendance at University Council and Assembly, Winter acknowledged she has never been to a UC meeting, but also argued the UC has had issues determining what “that space and time should be used for.” She said she will be attending the first meeting to understand the body’s priorities and work from there to support UC in passing legislation or planning events.

“To clarify, this part of the report is mostly referring to my specific accomplishments. I spent most of the first semester working and developing a coffee chat program,” Winter responded. “I didn’t do a lot of the large-scale events, but that’s not to say that our administration hasn’t been productive and that we haven’t been working on things and planning events throughout the year.”

Gerstein also announced plans to launch a Campus Climate Advisory Council ahead of the 2020 presidential debate that will be hosted on campus. The

council aims to build a united campus community and foster a welcoming space for all students in a divisive environment. To ensure this work continues beyond the presidential election year, it is slated to be a standing body composed of students, staff and faculty from a variety of student organizations.

Additionally, Gerstein reported that the Student Fee Advisory Committee, a body which contributes to the Office of Student Life’s budget request to the provost, advocated primarily to increase the allocation of funds for resources to support student mental health. The Student Fee Advisory Committee proposal integrated insights from CSG’s mental health survey and requested that additional funds go to limit wait times at CAPS. LSA sophomore and representative Sam Braden addressed the progress of the plans for an LSAT prep course and highlighted its popularity amongst students.

“We have over 130 students who want to take it and 140 who want to teach it,” Braden said. “I will be interviewing all the students next week and choosing six of them to teach the students.”

LSA junior Hershy Jalluri, chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission, spoke about the force’s plans to create a platform to increase accessibility to DEI-focused resources. Jalluri also shared plans to create DEI focus groups at student organization mass meetings.

LSA senior Eva Kluting, chair of Transfer Student Resource Commission, spoke on future plans to strengthen ties among transfer students and increase their access to resources.

“The transfer community is a little bit smaller, but we are trying to get people in, and our biggest project right now is the transfer students’ symposium,” Kluting said. “We are going to be a space for students to speak with administrators, talk about

transfer issues like housing transportation and orientation.

It’ll be a better place to facilitate discussion between students and the administration.”

Engineering senior Zeke Majeske was approved as the Bystander Intervention Training Liaison.

Majeske, who nominated himself, shared plans to increase transparency and efficiency in the role by eliminating it.

Members also participated in a hand-ballot election to settle the tiebreaker between the two Rackham Graduate Student Representative candidates, Gerson Ramirez, Public Policy graduate student, and Rackham student Siddharth Singh. Singh was elected.

The Assembly also elected the vice-chair of Executive Nominations, choosing between two nominees, Rackham student Matthew Lesko and LSA senior Annabel Weinbach.

Lesko was selected through a secret ballot.

SECURITY From Page 2A In an interview with The Daily last week, GordonHagerty said her time at the University is the source of her expertise, more so than any of her professional roles.

“Obviously, the foundation of my career in math and science and in national security and in the technical expertise that I hold is a function directly of my time at the University of Michigan and my college education,” Gordon-Hagerty said. “There’s no doubt in my mind the expertise ... that I’ve obtained over the last 30 years or so in my career is a direct result of my schooling and education at Michigan.”

Gordon-Hagerty spoke during the event about the recruiting push for the NNSA, as 40 percent of the NNSA’s workforce is on a path for retirement. She said the administration is looking to develop a diverse and robust future workforce.

“I want to do whatever I can

ESSAY From Page 1A

Opinion

4A — Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

AVI RAJENDRA-NICOLUCCI | OP-ED

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REID DIAMOND | COLUMN

Trump’s challenge to the environment, economy and states’ rights

U

nder t he Tr ump administ ration’s dest r uction of env ironmenta l reg ulations, we have seen the dereg ulation of water, a ir pollution a nd emission sta nda rds.

We have seen dereg ulation of nat ura l resource ext raction a ll under t he g uise of proposed economic benef it.

In t his vein, t he Tr ump administ ration recently proposed a cut to Oba maera f uel ef f iciency sta nda rds combined w it h a cha llenge of states’ rights to combat t hese dereg ulations. This ill-adv ised decision would create a div ision in t he A merica n auto indust r y, driv ing up ca r prices, hur ting t he average consumer a nd continuing to disrega rd t he env ironment. This policy should not be enacted.

In 2012, Former President Ba rack Oba ma met w it h leaders of t he A merica n auto indust r y a nd worked w it h t hem to set a mbitious f uel ef f iciency sta nda rds of 54.5 miles per ga llon by 2025.

However, President Dona ld Tr ump is now proposing a sla sh of t hese sta nda rds, set ting t hem at 37 miles per ga llon. The EPA proposa l a lso revoked a lega l wa iver g ra nted to Ca lifornia under t he 1970 Clea n A ir Act, which is now followed by 13 ot her states, permit ting indiv idua l states to set t heir ow n pollution sta nda rds t hat a re more st rict t ha n t hose of t he federa l government.

Impor ta nt f ig ures in t he EPA a nd t he Depa r t ment of Tra nspor tation cla im increa sed f uel ef f iciency sta nda rds conf lict w it h driver safet y due to t he promotion of lighter ca rs.

However, t he Tr ump administ ration is completely missing t he point. Yes, ca rs a re get ting lighter, but materia l science a nd eng ineering have a lso improved a nd vehicles have been able to ma inta in safet y sta nda rds. John DeCicco, Ph D., A ssociate Director a nd Resea rch Professor at t he Universit y of Michiga n Energ y Instit ute, expla ins “t he administ ration’s ef for ts to roll back t hese sta nda rds is a denia l of ba sic science a nd a denia l of A merica n automa kers’ eng ineering capabilities

a nd ingenuit y.” Mea nwhile, a consumer repor t on t he topic clea rly ref utes t he cla im of consumer benef it, af f irming consumers would have to spend a n estimated $55 billion more tota l on ga s in 2040.

Clea rly, a ny proposed benef its of t he pla n have been ref uted by ba sic data a nd science. The administ ration simply picked facts out of context to bolster t heir cla ims. But maybe t he A merica n auto indust r y w ill benef it? Wrong.

Despite t hese cuts to f uel ef f iciency sta nda rds, states like Ca lifornia a re looking to ma inta in t heir ow n f uel sta nda rds a nd ig nore t he federa l cuts. If t his occurred, t he A merica n automobile ma rket would be ef fectively split into t wo: one ma rket for less ef f icient ca rs a nd one for more ef f icient ca rs.

Automa kers have ca lled t his t he worst-ca se scena rio a s t heir production would be less cost-ef fective. To avoid t wo sepa rate ma rkets, eit her t he federa l government needs to adhere to t he sta nda rds set in 2012, or Ca lifornia needs to submit

Any proposed benefits of the plan have been refuted by basic data and science.

to t he federa l government.

A merica n ma rkets a re shif ting towa rd susta inabilit y because t hey ’re follow ing dema nd.

Especia lly in t he auto indust r y, t he issues of susta inabilit y a nd economic benef it a re no longer conf licting. It ’s simple. Yet Tr ump is still pursuing t he dereg ulation, including t he revocation of states’ rights to f it his ill-adv ised agenda.

The Republica n pa r t y is well know n for t heir staunch advocacy of states’ rights. Recent nationw ide leg islative a nd judicia l proposa ls on issues such a s sa me-sex ma rriage, abor tion

a nd g un cont rol have been rejected by t he Republica n pa r t y because of t heir belief in states’ rights. This isn’t to say t hat t he Republica n pa r t y doesn’t believe in t he right to abor tion, st ricter g un laws or sa mesex ma rriage. R at her, t he Republica n sta nce ha s been to let states decide what laws t hey wa nt to enact or omit a s a representation of what t he electorate believes or wa nts.

But suddenly, when it comes to t he agenda of t he Tr ump administ ration, states’ rights a re out t he w indow.

The hy pocrisy reeks. At t he ver y lea st, each state should be able to set t heir ow n sta nda rds at more a mbitious levels in spite of our ut terly inept federa l government ’s response to t he climate crisis. But even t his right is not af forded.

If t he Tr ump administ ration were to go a head w it h t his proposa l, states’ rights would be inf ringed upon, consumers would be forced to spend more, t he A merica n auto indust r y would suf fer at t he ha nds of a split ma rket a nd t he env ironment would suf fer. Less f uel ef f iciency mea ns more ga s consumption, leav ing oil compa nies a s t he only sig nif ica nt benef icia r y.

Tr ump’s inaug uration festiv ities received millions f rom t he fossil f uel indust r y, no doubt in excha nge for favors f rom t he president such a s t his repea l of f uel ef f iciency sta nda rds.

While politicia ns a re loung ing comfor tably in t he deep pockets of t he fossil f uel indust r y, consumers, A merica n automa kers a nd t he env ironment a re a ll suf fering. This proposa l is one of ma ny dereg ulations in t he Tr ump administ ration t hat set a da ngerous precedent for t he f ut ure of A merica n politics a nd our env ironment. Pla in a nd simple, t his proposa l says t hat t he economic success of big compa nies is more impor ta nt t ha n states’ rights a nd more impor ta nt t ha n t he economic well-being of t he majorit y of t he people in t his count r y.

Reid Diamond can be reached at reiddiam@umich.edu.

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Our meetings will be held January 15th, 16th and 21st at 7 p.m. in the Michigan Daily newsroom at 420 Maynard St. (next to the Student Activities Building). For more info on applying, check out http://join. michigandaily.us/ Interested in joining the Opinion section? The Daily is now hiring for columnists and cartoonists. Apply now at http://tinyurl.com/ opinion2020. Applications are due on January 25th.

D

Detroit needs better public transit

etroit has long been known for its production of automobiles, but the city’s reliance on cars for transportation has become its Achilles’ heel. That was not always the case. At the end of World War II, Detroit had a public transit system of streetcars, buses and a commuter rail that had an annual ridership of 490 million. Today that number is 36 million. The city needs reinvestment in public transportation to make travel easier for those currently living in the city and to attract talent to the region.

From 1950 to 2010, the city population dwindled from 1.85 million to 710,000.

The surrounding suburbs exploded as a result and today the population of the entire metropolitan area is around 4 million. This has led to massive urban sprawl.

As Angie Schmitt wrote for Streetsblog, “Homes in the central city were abandoned — and the tax revenues that came from those households evaporated. Detroit, unlike some of its wealthy suburbs in Oakland County, only saw one side of this migration — the losing side. And it was poorly equipped to deal with the fallout.”

The typical commute for Detroit workers is 10.4 miles, one of the longest in the nation. And despite Detroit’s label as “The Motor City”, a quarter of its residents don’t own cars. Aggravating this issue is the fact that 77 percent of jobs in Metro Detroit lie outside the city center.

These issues overwhelmingly impact people of color and women; 40 percent of Black

residents and 43 percent of women do not own cars.

Workers who don’t have cars are forced to use two bus systems, one for the city and one for the suburbs. The city bus system has been plag ued by unreliability and was given an F rating in 2011. Most of the suburban bus routes don’t go into the city, and the ones that do can’t pick up riders inside city limits due to an old city ordinance. This complicated and unconnected system is a headache for workers who live in the city but work in the suburbs.

A unified bus system for southeast Michigan would help solve some of these issues.

Some have arg ued in the past that Detroit wouldn’t be able to handle a larger transportation system because they were failing to maintain the current one, but there are signs of hope. Detroit’s bus ridership increased over the past two years, which goes against the trend of falling ridership nationwide. And in 2019, 76 percent of buses were on time as compared to just 50 percent in 2011.

A unified bus system for southeast Michigan would help solve some of these issues. Ideally, it would be a rail system, but the Southeastern Michigan Regional Transit Authority’s

rules make it difficult to have a rail system approved. After a 2016 proposal for public transportation failed, the issue has once again been revived as a possible 2020 ballot proposal.

Economically, it makes sense. Every $1 we invest in public transportation generates $4 in economic return. A $1 billion investment in public transportation generates an estimated 21,000 jobs. When Detroit failed to make the cut for Amazon’s final HQ2 list, one of the reasons cited was lack of mass transit. So-called businessfriendly Republicans in the Detroit suburbs have loved to wage war against public transportation and it has only hurt southeast Michigan.

Metro Detroit desperately needs better public transit. In 2015 a Detroit man went viral for his 21-mile daily commute on foot to work, which was put to an end when a local car dealership gifted him a Ford Taurus. There are 66,000 other households in Detroit without a car and they cannot rely on becoming an internet sensation to solve their transportation problems. A proposed rail link between Ann Arbor and Detroit would make the talent pool from the University of Michigan more accessible to companies in Detroit. The Regional Transit Authority plan should be on the ballot for 2020. Everyone who can vote for it should. Even if you do not use public transportation, there are plenty of people who will, and economically it benefits everyone.

Avi Rajendra-Nicolucci is a sophomore in the College of Engineering and can be reached at avirn@umich.edu.

DAVID LISBONNE | OP-ED

Did the University forget about the first amendment?

L

egislators at every level have adopted an operational ethos of “ignore all relevant laws and sign it.” This is a deeply concerning trend, and one that will result in dystopian realizations as politics continue moving toward the extremes. However, my fragile hope for the future remains intact thanks to the courts’ consistent rejection of this ethos. The University of Michigan is only the latest subject of both this trend and justices ruling in a case concerning our most potent liberty: speech.

On May 2, 2018, the University was sued by Speech First, an organization dedicated to upholding the First Amendment on college campuses. The subject of the legal dispute was the University’s Bias Response Team (BRT), which, according to Speech First, stif led freedom of speech and was therefore unconstitutional.

In September 2019, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the BRT “acts by way of implicit threat of punishment and intimidation to quell speech,” and the University agreed to disband the BRT. This case is hugely symbolic, more so than it may appear.

The most basic freedom belonging to each person is life, defined by their freedom of conscience. Both life and free conscience are impossible to breach without direct action perpetrated by one unto another. Freedom of speech, therefore, is the concretization of our freedom of conscience.

And fundamentally, this is why Speech First v. Schlissel is so symbolic: The courts defended our most basic right.

No student at the University

should ever feel discriminated against. Yet, while the BRT held this same belief as its cornerstone, the metric used to determine if an offense had occurred - the University’s anti-harassment policy - did not offer any objective definitions as to what constituted a violation. And here lies the unconstitutionality, as described by the Department of Justice: “The University imposes a system of arbitrary censorship of, and punishment for, constitutionally protected speech.”

Let’s try to fix campus speech, right? Sure, but not like this.

This broader conf lict is not unique to the University.

Colleges across the country face similar challenges in trying to secure welcoming campus environments without infringing upon students’ First Amendment rights.

In this, I’m sympathetic with the universities. We’re riding a 50-year wave of legal victories for equality in a number of areas; so, in keeping with the trend, let’s try to fix campus speech, right? Sure, but not like this.

Today’s political climate is one of friction and frustration on both sides. Any comment not perfectly impartial sets off a firestorm, regardless of the reasoning behind the statement, the context

or the speaker. We are on a hair trigger. So, how, in this era so characterized by scrutinizing the most minute actions and verbiage, did the University f ly right by the First Amendment?

Sadly, today, the legitimacy of actions taken in pursuit of something noble are largely ignored. Those in charge act impulsively without considering their actions. The University wanted to create a safer campus climate, so it created an agency capable of implicitly punishing students who voiced opinions that offended others. To me, this sounds like a paragon of this trend, a laudable end to be achieved by censorship. And the courts said no.

At last, herein lies my optimism for the fate of America: the judiciary.

Currently, it seems the shared methodolog y to enact change, among both parties, is to act now and consider legality later. And yet, the courts have stood tall. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of California for violating Article 1, Section 10; a federal judge blocked Alabama’s abortion ban; and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the University’s Bias Response Team.

This case was altogether important and worrying, but I find its conclusion reassuring for the future. The courts remain the protectors of our fundamental rights amidst brazen violations, and it looks like they might just continue holding the torch even if legislators at every level keep trying to blow it out.

David Lisbonne is a junior in the College of Engingeering and can be reached at lisbonne@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds.

Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts performs in solitude with a dexterity and certainty that her shyness often obscures. In one scene, Mr. Lawrence hears her, descends the stairs, then, instead of sauntering in and disrupting her serenity, he — an elderly man — crouches down on the steps, content just to listen. Some beauty asks us to participate. Some we can only witness.

—Julianna Morano, Managing Arts Editor

FILM NOTEBOOK

The March sisters admit Laurie into their theatre troupe

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

The best moments from ‘Little Women’: A tribute DAILY ARTS WRITERS Daily Arts Writers

I think the phrase “lightning in a bottle” is overused. So, know that when I call Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” lightning in a bottle, understand that I mean it in the most life-altering, soulaffirming way. “Little Women” is a rush of wonder and youth, containing a kind of emotional depth that I search for in every movie. To boil its infectious and unforgettable zeal down to a single moment would do injustice do its living, breathing charm. So instead, we wrote about several moments. Ones that made us cry, or laugh or simply stare in wonder at the screen. Our favorite moments. Caution: this list includes important spoilers from “Little Women.”

—Anish Tamhaney, Daily Film Beat Editor Jo and Laurie dance Greta Gerwig is a time traveler.

Gerwig’s “Little Women” is disarmingly, refreshingly modern. The potent themes of

Alcott’s novel aren’t diluted by the period dresses and period slang, instead they become timeless.

As for the moment: Two wallf lowers find themselves together in a side room at a local party. Not dancing doesn’t seem right. Dancing in there seems even worse. They waltz, spin and shake their hearts out on the wrap-around porch of the colonial New England home. It’s Gerwig’s first nod to the little worlds we find with the people we love. Jo and Laurie move like they’re at a punk show in the 1970s — like they’re two kids who’ve found who they want to dance with for the first time.

—Stephen Satarino, Daily Arts Writer Amy burns Jo’s book

Eleven months before I started college, I began writing a novel, and by the beginning of my freshman year, I had generated some 50,000 words.

It’s no wonder that I find the most affecting scene in “Little Women” to be Amy’s burning of Jo’s book. The pointed ease with which Amy decides to burn the pages is as upsetting

as Jo’s reaction to the absence of her work when she arrives after the party. Her realization that those pages are gone made me feel a rageful, incapacitating grief. It was the first of many times I shed tears during “Little Women,” because sometimes, losing your work can feel like losing a person, a part of yourself that you will never see again.

—Anish Tamhaney, Daily Film Beat Editor Mr. Lawrence listens to Beth play the piano Every Sunday, I trek to my friend’s apartment, and we drive to the grocery store.

He and his roommates have a piano, and often, when I approach the door, I can hear him playing. Usually, instead of entering, I just lean against the door, close my eyes and listen until he stops. It’s beautiful and I can’t bring myself to interrupt it.

In “Little Women,” the March sisters’ next-door neighbor, Mr. Lawrence, decides to show the same restraint. Having given Beth March an open invitation to use the piano that his late daughter used to play, she

Greta Gerwig intimately understands the love language of youth — it’s active, usally made complete with screaming and laughing. The sisters and Laurie consistently overlap each other, physically and audibly. When Laurie leaps out of the costume rack, screaming out in a rugged British accent, the frenzy of the March sisters erupts in immaculate goofiness.

The hysteria of this scene lingers in my mind not only for its encapsulation of the overlapping nature of youth, but also for the scene’s ability to act as the residue of Marmee’s teachings: “Do it for someone else, just like Marmee taught us.”

The March sisters and Laurie perform for each other before they perform for anyone else, inventing roles and providing their watchful, attentive gaze to each other’s art. The audience is organic — it comes from the love of art and the love of each other. At the end of the scene, Laurie provides each sister with a key; In the same way the key allows Jo to open a portal back to the self less art of her youth, Greta uses this scene to open a portal into a world where you first came to art for the love of it, acting without thought of consequences, sidegigs, or career ambitions.

The dainty f lowers hanging delicately overhead remind us that one can be just Jo, not Ms. March. One can be just Laurie, not Mr. Laurence.

—Samantha Cantie, Daily Music Beat Editor Jo and Beth at the beach

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — 5A goes out slowly, but it can’t be stopped.”

“I’ll stop it.”

This scene, to me, embodies the very best of Jo March: her determination, her devotion, her naive, romantic belief in the notion that love conquers all, even death. Of course, anyone who has read the book or seen the film knows that Beth’s death could not be stopped, not even by Jo’s fierce, undying love for her. When Jo tells her sister she will stop her death, her voice quivers, yet there is still an undeniable, unexplainable strength in her speech, a strength that seems to comfort Beth, regardless of whether or not she actually believes in Jo’s words. And though they both secretly understand that Beth’s time on earth is limited, in this one brief and precious moment on the beach, braced against the Atlantic ocean’s harsh and unforgiving wind, Beth is safe, held in her sister’s arms.

—Elise Godfryd, Senior Arts Editor Amy and Laurie in the art studio I read “Little Women” for the first time when I was eight, and I hated Amy. I read it again a few weeks ago, and I still didn’t love her. It wasn’t until I watched Florence Pugh onscreen as Amy March that I truly appreciated her. The one scene in particular that changed my mind about her was when she stands up to Laurie in her art studio, refusing to be looked down upon for her decision to marry rich. She tells him point blank that marriage is “an economic proposition” for women and makes him understand just how difficult life is for women of the time. In this moment, she proves that she has no regrets in doing what she has to do to minimize that difficulty in her own life. That moment, that scene, is where we finally see bratty Amy March, who wears fairy wings and burns books, morph into a confident, grown woman.

—Sabriya Imami, Daily Arts Writer Mr. Lawrence can’t bring himself to enter the March house without Beth in it

“It’s like the tide going out. It

‘Music Talks’: A round table on Styles’ ‘Fine Line’ DAILY MUSIC WRITERS Daily Arts Writers

“Music Talks” is a series where Daily Music Writers give their takes on the biggest releases in new music. From picking best and worst tracks to asking what makes a record tick, the Music beat is here to give praise and give shit to music worth talking about.

On Oct. 11, when Harry Styles dropped “Lights Up,” his first single in almost two years, the pop music sphere exploded in anticipation of Fine Line. Styles told Rolling Stone the album was about “having sex and feeling sad.” Well, all the 12–14 year-old One Direction fans that were stanning Harry Styles in 2012 are all grown up. That demographic is all about having sex and feeling sad now — or at least joking about those things on Twitter — so the subject matter couldn’t be more perfect.

Tack that on to all Styles’ talk of taking psychedelics during the recording process, and this record is a recipe for late-Millennial/early-Gen-Z euphoria. But does it live up to the hype? The Music beat broke it down.

This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dylan Yono, Daily Arts Writer: OK, let’s start with the basics. What did you think of the album? Is it better than his debut?

Clara Scott, Daily Arts Writer: I was a big fan of the album. A lot of people have very lackluster sophomore albums — you spend your entire life working on your first album and you come up with the second

in three years — but this one is really amazing. I would argue that it’s better than his debut, the variety in this album is impressive. He did so much more than the sad-boy rock thing he did on his first album.

Sam Cantie, Daily Music Editor: I’m gonna have to disagree with Clara Scott over here. I thought that this was not even close to as good as his first. His lyrics got cheesy and simplified, it felt a little bit like I was reading some Hallmark cards. And he can do that because he’s Harry Styles and he’s creating more of a persona on this album than focusing on the music itself.

Jim Wilson, Daily Arts Writer: Yeah, I think it was kinda like a 46-minute car commercial soundtrack.

I thought I was gonna like it but it didn’t quite come through.

Katie Beekman, Daily Arts Writer: Wow, I’m more on Clara’s side here. I liked the first half a lot, but the second half fell kinda flat for me. In his Zane Lowe interview, he talked about taking more risks on this album and that really came through in terms of genre blending and having big moments, so I was impressed.

Jonah Mendelson, Senior Arts Editor: I agree with Katie that the first half was better than the second half. I thought it was really enjoyable, and I liked the singles, and “Golden” was really successful. But I think the whole thing was kinda inconsequential. A lot of the risks he took — I’m borrowing a phrase from John Lennon here — it’s like fancy wrapping around an empty box.

Best and worst track?

Scott: My favorite is hands

down “Lights Up.” It’s so good.

It was the best first single he could’ve released. I agree with Katie and Jonah that the singles on the first half of the album are the best here. Especially “Lights Up” because it’s so atmospheric and beautiful and it doesn’t have a traditional song structure which I really appreciate.

Cantie: I’m gonna say worst track is “Treat People With Kindness,” and I know it’s kind of villainy of me to say — (all laughing) Wilson: I didn’t even get that far, I got to track 10 and was like, skip.

Cantie: — what I was saying earlier about the Hallmark-card writing was most apparent on “Treat People With Kindness.”

I’d say my favorite track is “Adore You,” because to bounce off what Jonah was saying, it feels like the fanciest wrapping paper. The singles are the best, but Harry put out this kind of sugary, pink-and-blue candy vibe with them and then kinda left those colors there with the singles and didn’t follow through on the aesthetic for the whole album.

Wilson: Least favorite track is definitely “Watermelon Sugar.” That song was dumb. My favorite was “To Be So Lonely,” the only song I listened to twice.

Beekman: I get what Sam was saying about the colorful singles and then it kind of fading in the second half. In terms of tracks, I feel like others might disagree with me but I really liked “Cherry,” and least favorite is definitely “Canyon Moon.” There was just nothing there for me.

Mendelson: My favorite is probably “Golden.” He’s most successful with what he’s aiming

“Little Women” has always been a story about vitality and youth, not just as an abstraction or an era in people’s lives, but as a physically occupied space.

In the girls’ teenage years, the March house crackles with signs of life and youth everywhere: The soft yellow light, the little cut-out stars dangling from the ceiling, the strewn-about blankets and jackets. When Beth has her whole life ahead of her, her music and her potential and the kind things she says fill the March house. When she dies, it’s like a vortex takes over, sucking all the light in the world with it. The movie goes from being lit in pinks and yellows to greys and blues. When we talk about death we talk about it as a “loss,” and it’s true that something fundamental about the space these characters live in is lost when Beth dies. Her life and her presence didn’t just belong to her. It filled her world, and the world of everyone who knew her. Mr. Lawrence is right — a March house without Beth is impossible to fathom.

Their home is a foreign country now.

—Asif Becher, Daily Arts Writer The

costumes. That’s That’s the blurb.

it.

Period films always have good costumes. Some are better than others, obviously, but the starting point is the same. After listening to Greta Gerwig talk about the thought and detail that went into the costumes, it’s unsurprising that the wardrobe in “Little Women” is one of the best to hit theaters.

Each character’s style is distinctly theirs — Jo runs around in pants and an inspiring green writing jacket that make you yearn to write alongside her. Amy, Meg and Beth are seen in a variety of dresses, scarves and overcoats that ref lect each girl’s desire to fit in with her classmates, keep up with her richer counterparts or endlessly play piano. Not only that, their styles evolve as Gerwig takes her audience between the rosy memories of childhood to the sophisticated air that is the present.

—Emma Chang, Daily Arts Writer

MUSIC ROUND TABLE

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

for on that track. And “She” is his most successful foray into a different style. I didn’t really like that stretch from “Cherry” to “To Be So Lonely.”

In terms of themes, inspirations and styles (no pun intended), this album is all over the place. Other than Harry Styles, what strings this album together? (silence) Nothing is an acceptable answer.

Wilson: That’s what I was gonna say. There’s no cohesion.

Scott: I agree with Sam that he’s trying to put together an image that doesn’t necessarily translate into solid music. I like the music, but the more I think about it, it doesn’t connect with Harry Styles’s image in the way that he wants to build it. Where it’s very cinematic, but there might not be anything behind the curtain.

As a follow-up to the last question: Styles dabbles in folk, soul, funk, psychedelic rock and of course, pop.

Which of those genres does he do worst?

Mendelson: I think his soul attempts are the worst.

Especially when he’s just like, gospel choir. It’s just not good.

Scott: It’s just kinda like,

“play that funky music white boy.”

Cantie: Yeah, and there are lyrics that express how bad that is too, I wrote this down: When he says in “Cherry,” “I miss your accent / I miss your friends,” that was just like — Wilson: Might be the wackest thing ever.

Cantie: — yeah, that was wack to me.

Scott: I kind of disagree, I think his folk attempts are the worst — Mendelson: Yeah, his folk attempts are bad.

Scott: — I feel like in his attempts at soul he’s clearly putting in effort to pull it off, but he seems to think folk is just like, a guy and a guitar. That’s part of it, but you also have to have a certain amount of grit and understanding of the genre.

Especially on “Canyon Moon” where it’s just like, dude, you’re not Neil Young, can you chill out?

Beekman: Whatever he’s doing on “Canyon Moon” and “Treat People With Kindness,” that’s where I say “no, please stop doing that, we’re good.”

Mendelson: Bad lyrics really shine through on folk songs too.

Scott: I agree, you don’t have anything to hide it like you do on

heavily produced songs.

Which genre does he do best? Which would you want to see him lean into on the next record?

Scott: It’s no secret that his pop songs are his best songs.

Cantie: That’s why I like “Adore You” so much, that’s what he’s best at.

Mendelson: In terms of exploring his influences, he’s best when he’s building off that ’70s-soft-rock-Fleetwood-Mac sound. There’s a lot of potential for future growth there.

Cantie: On Twitter when you see pictures of him with Stevie Nicks, that grabs people a lot, it plays into his persona. I think he wants that image to come through most.

Wilson: He’s no Stevie Nicks.

Scott: It’s in the blending of pop and rock that a lot of ’70s outfits did that he’s best at. You can call it soft rock, pop rock, whatever, I think he brings a greater sensibility to pop music and that makes him so alluring. But when he strays too far into bubblegum pop or too gritty hard rock, it gets kind of weird. He has a happy medium with a sound that bands like Fleetwood Mac did successfully.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

Arts

6A — Wednesday, January 15, 2020

TV REVIEW

POP TV

‘Schitt’s Creek’ Season 6 off to routine strong start JUSTIN POLLACK Daily Arts Writer

The beginning of the end has arrived for the loving, joyful and witty show that is “Schitt’s Creek.” It may feel like it’s leaving our lives just as fast as it was introduced, as many of us didn’t know it existed until we uncovered it on Netf lix within the last year.

Regardless of how long we’ve individually adored “Schitt’s Creek,” we’re all here now for a final season. For more than five years, we have watched the development of Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy, “Finding Dory”), his wife Moira (Catherine O’Hara, “The Addams Family”), their adult children David (Dan Levy, “Admission”) and Alexis (Annie Murphy, “The Plateaus”), as they transitioned from their lavish lifestyles to one without money, where all they have is each other in the town of nothingness that is Schitt’s Creek. Now that the Roses have found their place in the town, this final season might be the last time they’re all together, as the premiere made it clear that the family’s

lives are headed in different directions.

Picking up about a week after the events of the season five finale, the soap-opera star Moira is still in despair

What is astonishing about “Schitt’s Creek” is how true it has remained to the original story it set out to tell.

from losing the leading role in “The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening.” Alexis is packing to leave for the Galapagos with Ted, while David and Patrick (Noah Reid, “House of Lies”) are looking for a

wedding venue, and Stevie (Emily Hampshire, “Save Me”) is still trying to figure out her purpose in life. At face value, these stories will inevitably push the characters away from each other over the course of the season. The season premiere reassures us that despite the divergent arcs, the heart of the show has always been the family dynamic of the Roses.

Remember back in the day when Alexis and David were arguing over who should get murdered first? This season, with Alexis’ imminent departure for the Galapagos and David’s engagement, neither of them want to share how much they’ll miss each other, so they engage in immature bickering in a way that may feel a bit too familiar for those of us with siblings.

It’s the kind of bickering where everyone but the people who are a part of it can sense the subtext. After a f light mishap — which results in Alexis not leaving for another month — accompanied by the sounds of animal slaughter off in the distance from a potential wedding venue, we are treated to one of the most hilarious sibling apologies

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ever. When pressured to say “I’m sorry,” David resorts to a roundabout way of saying so, eventually telling Alexis that he “might have overreacted, and for that (he is) apologetic and remorseful over an action (he) participated in.”

What is astonishing about “Schitt’s Creek” is how true it has remained to the original story it set out to tell. The decision by the creators (father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy) to end the show after six seasons was met with surprise by many fans due to the perfection of the show. But the Levys are aware that what makes the show so special is its commitment to telling the same story it set out to tell in season one. Keeping it running for longer than originally intended risks sacrificing the quality storytelling that separates “Schitt’s Creek” from the rest of the familycentric television landscape.

It would have been impossible to keep the Roses all together in Schitt’s Creek due to the individual journeys each character must face, as their career paths would naturally take them away from the town that brought them all together in the first place.

The season six premiere was not anything f lashy or noteworthy, but a show as genuine as “Schitt’s Creek” doesn’t need to be anything other than itself in order to guarantee success. There are only 13 episodes left, and this first one reminds us how much we missed it in the offseason and how much we will miss it when it’s gone.

Schitt’s Creek Season 6 Premiere Pop TV Tuesdays @ 9 p.m.

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

UMS kicks off ‘No Safety Net’ rap), Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard (spoken word/poetry) ALIX CURNOW and Virago (free improv/new Daily Arts Writer music).

Taking place in the intimate “We wanted to create a Canterbury House, the event good mix of performances. is designed to bring people Because the subject matter in together through multiple ‘No Safety Net’ is so heavy, forms of art. Midnight Book we didn’t want to have such a Club is sure to ignite laughter dark event to start this series throughout the room. Virago off. We wanted it to be fun, and a.n.g.e.l.i will perform you know?” SMTD senior unique musical acts, and Aldo Pando Girard’s Jamie Sharp said about the Leopoldo University Musical Society poetry will melt hearts and (UMS) Student Committee’s minds.

“When we first thought “No Safety Net Student Kickabout who to Off Party.” “No ask to perform Safety Net” is in the KickUMS’ threeOff series we week festival tried to pick featuring four performances provocative that mirrored theater the event,” productions Gibson said. that “foster “But then we timely realized that conversations Thursday, Jan. 16 if people are around actually going topical social Doors at 7 p.m., show to attend themes.” starts at 7:30 p.m.

(No Safety “These Net) we want performances Canterbury House them to fully are so cool and Free experience so relevant to what the shows what’s going have to offer, on today. while they are This year, watching them, the focuses are white feminism, toxic not at the Kick-Off Event. We masculinity, the refugee wanted Thursday evening to crisis, patriotism and whistle moreso create a celebration blowing,” LSA senior Jacob and fun kick-off party.”

The subject matter of the Gibson, a coordinator of the shows in the “No Safety event, said.

Sharp, Gibson and the Net” series deal with heavy rest of the UMS Student political and social themes.

Committee, have worked However, the event planners over the last semester to aim to craft a bit of a lighter organize the “No Safety Net tone amongst attendees.

“People should come into Kick-Off Party.” The event on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m., this kick-off event with an will feature performances excitement to see students and from U-M students and their friends perform,” Gibson alumni across disciplines: said. “There’s no pressure! It Sudoku Syndication Midnight Book Club (improv will be a fun night to celebrate comedy), a.n.g.e.l.i. (hip-hop/ all the great theatre to come.”

No Safety Net Student Kick-Off Party

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Release Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2020

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

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3 San __: Cal. city nickname 4 FX series inspired by a Coen brothers film 5 Noisy bedmate 6 Traditional group dance 7 Decimated Asian sea 8 Karma 9 Course of treatment 10 JFK-RMN link 11 “No, still not right” 12 Snooze inducer 13 Tot 21 Go in 22 Up to, briefly 26 Split 27 Luminous 28 First Hebrew letter 29 Enjoy oneself immensely 31 Fancy pitchers 32 Focus on, as a bull’s-eye 33 Alternative to dare 34 Branch of Islam

35 Watercolor prop 37 Totaled, as costs 42 First name in beauty products 44 Went out with someone wealthier, say 47 Amaze 48 The same number 52 __ dog 53 Teal relative

54 Go bad 56 Legal thriller writer Scottoline 57 Scott of “Hawaii Five-0” 58 Tending to the matter 59 Exclude 60 Puzzle with dead ends 61 Checkup 63 Prosecutors, briefly

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Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 — 7A

‘M’ held back by bench struggles Michigan field athletes impress JACK KINGSLEY

JAMES HILL

Daily Sports Writer

Daily Sports Writer

Entering the season, the Michigan women’s basketball team felt confident.

Confident that seniors Akienreh Johnson and Kayla Robbins could step into the starting lineup for the first time and play at a high level. Confident that sophomores Naz Hillmon and Amy Dilk would continue to grow into program building blocks. Confident that a bench lacking in-game experience could supplement its starters enough to take down top opponents.

In non-conference play, the Wolverines’ bench looked up to the task, scoring 21.5 points per game. While many of those games were against unranked, mid-major opponents, the bench contributed when the team needed it most.

Freshman center Izabel Varejão scored 5.3 points per game against Syracuse, Notre Dame and Florida State and led the team with 11 points against Eastern Michigan, a game when no starters finished in double figures. Freshman guard Michelle Sidor scored eight points against Notre Dame and seven against Syracuse, and was Michigan’s biggest threat from 3-point range in non-conference play, shooting 34.2 percent. Sophomore forward Emily Kiser scored 10 against Appalachian State with junior forward Hailey Brown injured.

In these first 11 games, the Wolverines’ bench by no means took over games. But with five starters that could control a game on any given night, Michigan’s performances from the bench seemed to be enough. The Wolverines looked like a true Big Ten contender.

But just five games later, Michigan’s bench looks like the inexperienced group that was its biggest question mark entering the season. Outside of a blowout win against Penn State in which reserves played the majority of

Most track and field spectators look forward to the fast-paced 200-meter dash or the competitive 4x400-meter relay. However, on Saturday, the athletes on the inside of the track were the ones to watch.

For Michigan, several athletes broke personal records in the men’s shot put, weight throw and pole vault, in addition to women’s shot put and high jump. At women’s weight throw, two throwers achieved their career bests and broke the school record.

As the only field event not inside the ring of the track, the weight throw event often feels isolated from the rest of the meet. That didn’t stop fifth-year Briana Nelson and senior Courtney Jacobsen from breaking the school record four separate times. However, when the event ended, Jacobsen emerged as the record-holder with a throw of 20.15 meters.

“It’s been a year and a half since I’ve competed,” Jacobsen said. “I think it was just getting back into the swing of things and mentally being able to come back from injury and contain my excitement, because I was so excited to get back out there.”

The other throwing event, the shot put, featured two firstplace finishes and two career bests by both the men’s and women’s teams. Sophomore Amanda Schaare threw 15.22 meters, beating her previous best by over one and a half meters.

Sophomore John Meyer threw 18.79 meters, edging out his previous best by just 0.04 meters.

The Wolverines earned another first place finish from sophomore Eric Harris in the pole vault. Harris beat his career indoor best by 0.6 meters with a height of 4.75 meters.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

After impressing early in the season, Michigan’s bench has struggled as of late.

the fourth quarter, the bench has scored just seven points per game in four Big Ten games.

“Now the people that we’re playing are bigger, faster, stronger, and that’s a little bit of an adjustment, especially for our younger kids,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said.

“The physicality is definitely something that’s different, and the teams that we’ve played against, such as Maryland and Ohio State, are big and strong.”

The Varejão from the beginning of the season who looked like a valuable scorer has had difficulty finding the basket in Big Ten play — she has been held to two points or less in four of five games. Sidor has struggled from deep — making just 4-of-15 and 1-of-12 outside of the Penn State game — and has seen her minutes decrease as a result. Kiser leads all bench players, averaging just 3.4 points per game.

“Our freshmen are getting accustomed to that change of strength and speed and size,” Barnes Arico said. “So I think that adjustment is gonna take a little bit of time. They’re working on it.

(It’s) definitely a place where we need to see more production.”

While Barnes Arico may feel confident that all of the Wolverines’ reserves can contribute if given the opportunity, it can take time for players to adjust to new

roles. Consistently changing the rotation shows the difficulty Barnes Arico has had finding contributors off the bench.

Freshman guard Maddie Nolan, who has played sparingly all season and mostly in blowouts, was the first guard off the bench on Sunday.

Sunday against Maryland — Michigan’s worst loss of the season — showed the Wolverines just how important having a good bench is. None of their starters could get going early, and as the Terrapins jumped out to a big lead, Michigan looked for someone to come off the bench and stop the bleeding, to no avail.

Maryland, on the other hand, also struggled to get points from their stars, but its bench was more than capable of carrying the load — scoring 15 of the Terrapins’ 21 first-quarter points, and 35 total. Maryland’s ability to get points from its bench, and the Wolverines’ inability to do so, made the difference.

Michigan is 2-3 in Big Ten play — far from the top of the standings. But with both Maryland games in the rearview mirror and 13 games remaining, its goals are still well within reach. As good as the Wolverines’ starters can be, this five-game stretch has shown that they can only reach their goals if they can rely on the bench to score.

In conference play, that hasn’t happened yet.

At women’s high jump, two senior jumpers — Jada Wimberly and Katt Miner — beat their career bests.

Wimberly jumped a height of 1.75 meters and Miner jumped a height of 1.8 meters, which also beat the meet record by 0.02 meters. “(Miner) certainly has shown signs of being ready to jump well and this was a great opener for her, for sure,” jumping coach Jenny Ashcroft said. “Jada has had a couple years off of competition so for her to come out in her first competitive meet in a while was really spectacular.

We’re really excited for her to be able to do that.”

Added Miner: “Me and Jada wanted to be really relaxed today and not stressed about anything. Our goal was just to make bar and just try to be consistent. And it just went way better than we both expected, but I think that’s just because we weren’t stressed about height or anything at all

today.”

Wimberly and Miner finished third and first, respectively. In between jumps they continued to look to each other and their coaching staff for reassurance and encouragement.

“I think a lot of it was that we were doing well so just kind of like ‘keep doing that, keep the bar up, keep your shoulder away from the bar,’ ” Miner said of her coach’s support.

“Normally, when we’re doing well she doesn’t try to tweak a lot, but just gave us positive reinforcement and tried to keep our heads level.”

Saturday’s meet was a non-scored event, but the results of the field events are good signs for the future meets of the indoor season. Although what’s going on in the middle of the track is not always the most glamorous to watch, Michigan’s field event athletes on Saturday showed just how exciting they can be.

It was just getting back into the swing of things.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan coach James Henry saw career bests from many jumpers Saturday.

Hoosiers sunk Wolverines beat Indiana in both men’s and women’s swim and dive Sunday, giving both teams a top-15 win AVI RAJENDRA-NICOLUCCI Daily Sports Writer

With Michigan reeling from back-to-back wins by Indiana swimmers, it needed a boost.

Senior Tommy Cope gave the Wolverines a win and a momentum shift in the 200yard breaststroke. Cope nudged the Hoosiers’ Mohamed Samy Hassan by 0.93 seconds and helped narrow the deficit to only one point, 104-103.

The win helped spur the No. 3 Michigan men’s swimming team (4-1 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) to a 160140 victory over No. 5 Indiana (6-3, 2-1) on Saturday morning.

“I knew that I couldn’t slip up or make any mistakes,” Cope said. “Because it’s a pretty crucial turning point in the meet.

I knew that the other Michigan guys would be right there with me so you have to relax going into it. We just relaxed going into it and didn’t freak out too much.

We knew how to do it and kind of started the ball rolling again for us.”

Michigan jumped out to an early lead with wins in the 200-yard medley relay and the 1000-yard freestyle, but Indiana started to chip away beginning with the 200-yard freestyle, which Hassan won by a matter of millimeters — touching the wall just 0.03 seconds before sophomore Patrick Callan did.

The Wolverines responded in the chaotic 50-yard freestyle.

Junior Luiz Gustavo Borges edged two Hoosiers’ swimmers to momentarily stop the bleeding. But Indiana kept fighting back, winning the 100yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke to take its first lead, before Cope’s performance in the 200-yard breaststroke changed the momentum.

Cope got some help from his teammates in the 500-yard freestyle, where Michigan swept the top three spots in the race and retook the lead, 119-107, in a sequence that electrified the

crowd.

Senior Miles Smachlo continued the hot streak with a win in the 100-yard butterfly over the Hoosiers’ Brendan Burns, avenging an earlier loss to Burns in the 200-yard butterfly.

“Seeing everyone else on the team step up I really bought into that mentality.”

Smachlo said, “You see people like Tommy (Cope) overcome Mohamed Samy in the (200) IM after losing to him earlier in the year.

You see Patrick (Callan) stepping up. You see Eric Storms stepping up. I wanted to also kinda step up so I had a lot more energy to fight for that one and get my hand on the wall for the team.”

Indiana was able to come in

first in the last event, a 400yard relay. However, the gap still widened because the Wolverines placed in three out of the top five positions. The comeback victory was even more noteworthy after a loss earlier in the season in Bloomington.

“We wanted to win absolutely,” Michigan coach Mike Bottom said.

“But even going into the meet my take was, ‘Look these two teams are really good right, they’re really good and if we don’t win it’s OK, but we need to get better, we need improvement, we need to fight all the way through.’ So we fought all the way through and we won, which is a bonus.”

We fought all the way through and we won.

STEEL HURLEY For The Daily

Teams can be made up in many different ways. Some are led by stars; others are driven by their depth, getting contributions from many.

The Michigan women’s swimming and diving team (4-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) demonstrated it has elements of both, as it defeated the 15th-ranked Hoosiers (3-4, 0-1), 186-114, in a dual meet on Saturday.

Sophomore Olivia Carter led the way for the Wolverines, making her second competitive appearance for Michigan after recently becoming eligible.

Carter won all three individual events she took part in, and was a member of the medley relay team that took first.

The stands were packed,

and the energy in Canham Natatorium was overwhelming.

The environment and support helped several Wolverines compete at maximum intensity, something that is sometimes missing from a midseason meet.

“The energy was amazing,” Carter said. “It was loud, and I was so happy to be there. … The stands were packed, which I’ve never really experienced that before, and it was awesome. I felt really supported, everyone was so happy and encouraging, and it helped me be the best swimmer I could be for the team.”

Michigan coach Mike Bottom noticed the impact Carter had made after the meet as well, emphasizing what a boost the All-American and former SEC Freshman of the Year will add for the Wolverines throughout the rest of the season.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan coach Mike Bottom led both the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams to wins over Indiana over the weekend, giving both teams an early-season boost.

“Olivia was awesome today,” Bottom said. “We’re lucky to have her, and you can see she’s embraced the Michigan way.”

Sophomore backstroker Maggie MacNeil had a strong performance, winning the 100-yard backstroke by over three seconds and the 100yard freestyle by over a second.

MacNeil was a member of the medley relay with Carter, along with senior Miranda Tucker and junior Daria Pyshnenko.

Michigan also got contributions from freshman Kaitlynn Sims, who won the two distance events, and junior Sierra Schmidt, who finished second behind her in both events, and several seconds ahead of the chasing Indiana swimmers.

The Wolverines swept both the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly, with sophomore Victoria Kwan and senior Vanessa Krause finishing a few seconds behind Carter in the 200-yard race. Carter also was joined by Krause and freshman Megan Glass in sweeping the 100-yard butterfly.

“We had some people that were down,” Bottom said, “and they fought. Whether they swim really great, or not so much, they still step into the team and help it keep moving forward.”

The diving team helped Michigan as well, with freshman Lucy Hogan, sophomore Camryn McPherson, junior Nikki Canale and freshman Lauren Cheetham claiming first, second, third and fourth, respectively, in 3-meter springboard. Hogan scored 311.93 points in the win. Canale won the 1-meter as well, scoring 279.97 points.

“I’m really confident now,” MacNeil said. “I’m really excited to have (Carter) because she’s such a great asset to the team, and just the extra confidence there will help the team.”

Sports

8A — Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Davis making strides as backup ‘5’ ‘M’ preparing for repeat matchups ABBY SNYDER

ROHAN KUMAR

There were a lot of things I expected when I signed on to cover the Michigan men’s basketball team this season.

But Austin Davis, I did not expect. And how could I? After three years of limited minutes off the bench and a promising backup at the big man spot in sophomore forward Colin Castleton, how could I — or anyone else, for that matter — have expected Davis to establish himself in his senior season?

And yet here we are, two months into the year, and Davis is — well, he’s doing some things.

Some of those things are: eight points against an Iowa team that ranks 16th in KenPom, eight rebounds and three blocks against Presbyterian, a solid defensive performance against a formidable Purdue offense and a composed appearance against Michigan State in an anything-but-composed Breslin Center.

Amid frequent foul trouble for Teske and a largely disappointing sophomore season for Castleton, Davis’ success couldn’t have come at a better time for Michigan.

“Austin Davis was huge for us tonight,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said after the Iowa game. “Austin was the next man up. We have this model, on our team: ‘Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready.’ And that’s how our guy responded. I’m so proud of that effort.”

Davis isn’t doing anything differently, he says. But practicing against the likes of Moe Wagner and Jordan Poole and playing on scout teams of some of the country’s best college basketball programs is finally paying off, and Davis is proving himself as a

The Michigan hockey team is now in the second half of its season, and that second half implies quite a bit of preparation.

It’s now crunch time for the Wolverines. Sitting second-to-last in the conference and 32nd in the PairWise Rankings, they must prepare to fight each weekend to have any hope at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid or to get a better seed in the conference tournament.

The latter half also signifies that Michigan (9-11-2 overall, 4-7-1 Big Ten) must now prepare to play series against each conference opponent for the second time.

How the Wolverines prepare for these meetings will be somewhat different than the first time.

“You know a little bit more about them,” Michigan coach Mel Pearson said. “Some of the newer players and maybe nuances. Most teams have the same structure they’ve had over the years, and some teams have gotten better.

Some teams have grown and the freshman, they’re not freshman anymore.”

The extent to which preparation changes varies depending on the opponent. For instance,

Daily Sports Writer

Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Redshirt junior center Austin Davis is averaging 4.6 points per game this year.

reliable and more than capable extended-minutes backup big man.

Not many of us saw this coming. I certainly didn’t.

But after years of having the next-man-up mentality drilled into him, Davis was more than ready when the time finally did come. His poise on and off the court has been a testament to that.

“It felt good to go in and do that,” Davis said, laughing, after the Wolverines’ win over the Hawkeyes. “It’s just about filling whatever role that my brothers need that day.”

Now Davis isn’t going to start getting equal playing time with Teske, or even close to it, at least assuming Teske doesn’t get himself in foul trouble as soon as he steps out onto the hardwood. But it wouldn’t be surprising if Davis starts seeing more minutes on the

court this season, especially as Michigan heads into the heart of a challenging conference schedule rife with imposing big men like Penn State’s Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins, and prolific offenses like the one head coach Mark Turgeon is running down at Maryland.

Whatever Michigan needs him for, though, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Davis will be a pretty reliable source.

“It’s being ready for whatever the team needs that day,” Davis said. “Today, it was going in and playing some, and contributing that way. Other days it might be getting the starters and the high-minute guys a good-looking practice.

“It’s been frustrating at times, but just really staying positive, being happy for my brothers when they do something great, that’s really helped a lot, too.”

It’s just about filling whatever role that my brothers need.

Pearson notes opponents with younger rosters often adapt more throughout the season and one must game plan accordingly. This is evident in comparing Penn State and Wisconsin. “(The Nittany Lions have) got a couple young players but they don’t rely on them as much as all their vets,” Pearson said. “So you have a pretty good idea how they’re going to play what they’re going to do. Where a team like Wisconsin has got all those high-end young players. And the next time we see them they’re gonna be a lot more mature, play a little bit different and probably be a lot more dangerous.”

Playing a rival for a second series can impact what goes on in the film room. This past weekend, the Wolverines swept then-No. 14 Notre Dame on the road in the first meeting between the two sides this season.

Prior to the series, Michigan had to balance relevancy with recency.

On one hand, it’s helpful for a team to see how it fared against a particular opponent in the past.

But at the same time, it’s critical to understand the intricacies of an opponent in the current season. So before the series, the Wolverines studied clips from last season’s contests against the Fighting Irish,

but also made sure to analyze tape from Notre Dame’s most recent series against Western Michigan.

From here on out, though, striking that balance is easier. Now that Michigan has faced all its conference opponents, it has tape that is both recent and relevant.

“You learn some things when you played them once and so this time around we can show film against when we played them this year versus maybe another team,” Pearson said. “I think that sometimes players watch it a little more intent because it’s us against them. It’s not Niagara against Penn State. We don’t know their players.

We know our team, so that’s good.”

Pearson doesn’t have a preference in terms of playing a team for the first or second time, while freshman defenseman Cam York does. York has experience in playing the same opponents multiple times throughout a season, as the U.S. National Team Development Program — which he played for prior to joining Wolverines — follows such a schedule.

“I’d probably say I like it better the second time,” York said. “Just because you kind of have an idea of how they play and areas that you can try to expose them.”

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Michigan coach Mel Pearson is hoping that getting a second shot at familiar opponents can help spark a turnaround.

Andrew Fenty adjusting to increased expectations in sophomore season JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer

At the end of Andrew Fenty’s freshman season, the accolades were coming in droves.

Intercollegiate Tennis Association Freshman of the Year. Big Ten Freshman of the Year. First-Team All-Big Ten. So when Fenty was nominated for Male Freshman of the Year in the MGoBlue Awards, he thought things would go his way.

“I had just gotten NCAA Rookie of the Year,” Fenty said, a grin beginning to envelope his boyish face. “So I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get it for sure.’ ” Nearly seven months after the awards, Fenty now grins because he didn’t win. The honor was instead bestowed on men’s basketball standout Ignas Brazdeikis.

It proved to be a humbling moment of introspection and appreciation for Fenty.

“Drew started to realize, ‘Hey, I’m surrounded by worldclass athletes not only on my team, but on all teams here,’ ” said Michigan coach Adam Steinberg. “He just started to take pride in that.”

“Michigan — playing for Michigan — it’s honestly different,” Fenty said. “You only get it if you’re an athlete here.

Being an athlete at Michigan is not a normal experience. Iggy, you know, he’s in the league now, which is crazy. There’s just world champions, NBA players. It’s normal here.”

Living up to such lofty standards, for some, can be burdensome. Many collegiate athletes struggle to cope with the pressure that comes with representing a school rich in athletic tradition.

But not Fenty.

“I like it,” Fenty said. “I really like it. It motivates me a lot, makes me feel like I’ve got to work. Playing on those courts, seeing all the AllAmericans and the banners on the walls, there’s just a lot to play for here.”

Fenty is no novice when it

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Sophomore Andrew Fenty was named NCAA’s Rookie of the Year in 2019 and has developed into a key player for the Wolverines as a sophomore this season.

comes to being surrounded by gifted athletes, and has longdrawn motivation from a will to keep up with his peers.

The athletic feats of his family members, in Fenty’s opinion, dwarf his own, which he places into his family’s “lowest tier.”

That’s because his grandfather, Phil, runs grueling 100mile contests dubbed ultramarathons; his father, Adrian, competes in marathons and triathlons; and so on from aunt to uncle to mother to cousin. Seeing such achievements pushes Fenty to work harder on his own craft.

And Fenty grew up surrounded by tennis greatness

at the prized Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland. The JTCC, noted for talented alumni like Frances Tiafoe and Denis Kudla, enabled Fenty to see the potential fruits of his labor.

“He’s seen the guys he grew up with have successful professional careers, and he wants that,” Steinberg said.

“He wants people to know that, hey, Andrew Fenty is gonna be one of those guys. And so long as he stays humble and keeps maturing, he will make a name for himself in this game one day. He has the ability, that’s for sure.”

The talent has been evident

Playing on those courts... just a lot to play for here.

since Fenty enrolled at Michigan as a highly-touted blue-chip recruit. Now a sophomore, with an impressive year of collegiate tennis under his belt, Fenty’s bar is raised.

As the center of attention, he’ll have to deal with added popularity and expectations — a stage that all budding athletes endure at one point in their careers.

At the Ann Arbor Challenger last Tuesday, that much was apparent.

A recipient of a Wild Card invitation into the main singles draw, Fenty bested teammate Ondrej Styler, 7-6, 7-6, and moved on to play eighth-seeded JC Aragone.

The Challenger is an individual tournament, differentiating it from the team competitions that make up the bulk of Michigan’s schedule. After he eliminated Styler, Fenty was the lone Wolverine remaining in the event — all eyes were on him, quite literally.

The seating overlooking the court of the Fenty-Aragone match was packed to the brim.

Amongst the crowd, in addition to all of Fenty’s teammates and coaches, was Evan King, a three-time ITA All-American at Michigan, who was a Wolverine from 20102013. Not too long ago, King

He will make a name for himself in this game one day.

was showing Fenty around Ann Arbor as a volunteer assistant on Fenty’s recruiting visit. Now, King, who also participated in the Challenger, stands behind the seats, watching the program’s future play on the courts he once dominated.

Fenty lost the match, 6-1, 6-4, a case of a younger player simply running into a more seasoned opponent. For Fenty, there were more important takeaways from the match than his play. After the match, he noted how he’ll have to adjust to and learn to ignore outside noise from big crowds and attention from successful alumni, like King.

“Once he gets tennis specific in his mind, the rankings and expectations and this and that, that will go away,” Steinberg said. “It’s not easy to do when you’re young and you had the year he had last year.”

Thus far, Steinberg maintains that Fenty is dealing with the changes admirably.

“I’ve been coaching for thirty years and to see the change in Drew from his first fall until now, it’s pretty remarkable,” Steinberg said. “He’s really grown a lot, improved in every area, not just on the court but everywhere — in the classroom, as a teammate, in understanding what our program is about. I use him as an example all the time.”

Inside the Varsity Tennis Center, a half hour removed from his Challenger loss and having just finished up routine post-match work on the stationary bike, Fenty leans his slender 6-foot-4 frame up against an off-white railing.

The crowd that f looded his match is long gone, the building largely quiet except for the mellow sounds accompanying a few ongoing tennis rallies. His eyes gaze beyond the courts, settling on the walls draped by the banners and placards that memorialize Michigan tennis lore.

“I’m just trying to make my own name,” Fenty said. “Trying to do something in tennis.

That’s what I’m here for.”

statement T H E M I C H I G A N DA I LY | JA N UA RY 1 5 , 2020

2020 Election: U-M student groups gear up for Michigan primary

File Photo

2B Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statement

statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | JA N UA RY 1 5 , 2020

Managing Statement Editor Magdalena Mihaylova Deputy Editors Emily Stillman Marisa Wright

Designers Liz Bigham Kate Glad Copy Editors Madison Gagne Sadia Jiban

Associate Editor Reece Meyhoefer

Photo Editor Keemya Esmael Editor in Chief Elizabeth Lawrence Managing Editor Erin White

The power of proximity D

ue to security reasons, the doors to this train will not open.”

The loudspeaker on Delhi’s metro blared the warning message during the ride I was taking to meet a friend one night in the south of the city after protests had settled for the day. I was afraid to step off the train in the district after dark, not knowing what I might see from that day’s unrest. To my dismay, the metro did not stop where I intended to depart.

As a researcher of international politics, I spend most of my time in the summer abroad: consulting archives, conducting interviews and collecting data. My research agenda, centered on conflict and peace, is driven broadly by activist goals of societal change toward the eradication of violence. My investment in social movements has thus multiplied over the years as my exposure has increased. My experience witnessing a social movement closely and intensely is limited, but on my most recent trip to India, massive mobilizations broke out opposing the passage of the Citizen Amendment Act, catalyzing what has become a spreading cycle of protests across the country.

I have only ever read about the way protests unfold, I haven’t witnessed their outbreak or navigated their consequences.

While there, friends, researchers and I gauged how police might respond to various districts and to different demographics on each day of the movement. Risks of violence were pervasive and caused us anxiety stomach-deep. We stayed in contact with one another to check in on the safety of friends scattered across the area and sprung to action when it was compromised. Police barricades blocked roads and armed members stood conspicuously, yelling when passersby strayed from the path. During the peak of masses taking to the streets, we lost contact as mobile cell service was cut off and restrictions were placed on travel.

After two weeks, I returned to the United States. The brevity of my visit was a mere glimpse of a movement’s frontline.

I cannot suggest that I know everything about the prolonged fear or empowerment that comes from an individual’s long-term participation in activism, only that a short period of time in the midst of its threats

BY EMILY RUSSELL, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

and dangers revealed to me how much bravery it requires to stay in the thick of it.

In this increasingly small, globalized world we are implicated in caring for those issues which are not on our frontlines through connections forged by corporations, bodies of governance, internet communication and migration. How can we possibly hope to contribute, when gulfs still exist between us?

Having returned, I am becoming aware of how different my role is for causes unfolding beyond my borders. Being away has granted me freedom in conducting work for a cause that is not possible from the proximate position — without worries of physical survival or safety from the state, I can speak my opinions more freely, access unrestricted sources of information and generate dialogues to grow a network of the sympathetic. Contributing to collective memory, applying external pressure, information spreading and fundraising are all roles for those who are non-proximate to this issue. Research, record keeping and contact cannot be conducted amid internet shutdowns, but can from afar.

Still, those technologies that apparently bridge the distances between us through communication and travel can also be used to entrench distance, as they often do when used in contemporary conflict.

I have a recurring nightmare where two young boys are gifted a video game by an elder member of their family who is an army general. The game is like any other in their repertoire, where bloodied cities are the end goal for players who tote guns, grenades and girls to accomplish the mission. The boys play this gifted game day in and out, sending pixelated bombs to places they cannot pronounce. In the dream, however, the simulation is not a game — it’s reality. The bombs they drop

ILLUSTRATION BY TAYLOR SCHOTT

are not points scored but predetermined military plans.

The dream mirrors contemporary conflict and modern technology, wherein trained officials use screens in distant countries to send conflict wherever they are instructed. I fear the reality of recruitment for children into these conflicts looks a lot like virtual gaming with promises of valor and victory, too. My nightmare and its subsequent reality remind me how the distance between warring parties — created by technology — in interstate wars have allowed Western nations to outsource death and violence anywhere they choose, without ever confronting its damages. We’ve built technology to plug into, and become invested in, any global issue but we retreat from it when the reality it creates is too painful to face.

I’d like to imagine that it is harder to commit the violence of war with proximity between those in conflict. The famous Christmas Truce of 1914 tells the tale of a field between World War I’s trenches where soldiers from across enemy lines agreed to a temporary ceasefire. In the field, they shared holiday songs, played

a game of ball and exchanged chocolates and photos of family members back at home. Afterward, they found it impossible to return to war — eventually, the battalions were moved to another frontline in hopes that they could be convinced again to fight. They could not.

The moment has been memorialized in opera and commercials and its depiction illuminates how hard it becomes to commit violence against those we understand through a shared tradition. The more we enact violence through computer screens the more it will seem to us a simulation and not a lived experience. But for those proximate to the real-life carnage, there is no shutdown button.

A handful of issues look different up close than they do from far away, and the way we approach our contributions might, too. Climate change will take away coastlines some of us have never seen before it reaches middle America, and economic inequality can hide from those in too tall of towers to see it. Still, to tackle these causes equitably, we’ll need to plug in and act out — no matter the place we sit. The doors to the train must open.

Elevator pitch B

etween the first f loor and the eighth, my mother lived out her dreams with another man. Those twenty seconds of elevator time stretched into an entire lifespan as I watched her look into the eyes of her silver-haired, white-linenwearing would-be lover and imagine what would be different if he was hers, or if the two of them strode off the elevator and down the endless shoreline just outside the hotel.

It was odd to see her disarmed in such a way, odd to see her unfurl under the warm gaze and witty remarks of a good-looking stranger. When the doors opened to our f loor, she and I got off silently and back into our life outside the elevator shaft. We walked into our hotel room and sat on the balcony overlooking that same endless shoreline. With her chin resting on her hand and a playful look in her eyes, she turned to me and said “He was a nice man.” I nodded. “He was.”

We said nothing more about it and didn’t see him on the few other elevator rides we took. But at that moment when my mom turned her head to me after our encounter with him, I saw an entirely different world f lash in her eyes. In it were a past and a future where she and the elevator man lived happily: her perpetually making good jokes, him perpetually laughing at them in his white linen, the two of them perpetually loving one another as happy, funny, welldressed people should be loved.

There were no woes or f laws, and any difficulties were solved by the both of them, bound together in passionate, affectionate devotion. Elevator Man could fix my mom’s car, darn a sock and cook a tasty meal.

He could hike just as long and just as far as she could, and he loved going to see live music. He dressed well — even when he didn’t wear white linen — and he kept himself well-groomed.

Elevator Man kissed my mother on the cheek when she got home from work and never had crumbs stuck in the corners of his mouth. He did her laundry and told her how beautiful she looked in that one dress as he folded it — and he really meant it. Elevator Man told my mom how he liked her crow’s feet, liked how her eyes switched from green to blue to hazel, liked her high Irish cheekbones and her loud Irish laugh.

Elevator Man could still get it on, even though he was nearing sixty. He could hold my mom close and they would reminisce about when they were twentyone, thirty-seven, forty-two. They’d giggle about him visiting her as she worked at the burger joint in their college town. They’d thank God they made it through her mother’s death fifteen years before. They’d poke fun at how his dad always politely refused my mother’s cooking. And they’d look forward to growing older still: to retiring, to walking slowly down the sidewalk together and to the small cabin they hoped to buy with their savings.

That life existed only inside the elevator — inside my mother’s eyes for a moment after she’d chatted with a friendly stranger. The longer she and I sat there on the balcony, the more we sunk back into ourselves, and bit by bit, Elevator Man just became another passerby going about his own little life somewhere.

My mother took her hand out from under her chin, squeezed my arm and smiled. I watched the side of her face as she stared off the balcony, her cheekbones proud and her crow’s feet delicate.

It is strange how quickly we can imagine other lifetimes, strange how quickly we can serve up

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statement

3B 3B

BY ELLIE KATZ, STATEMENT COLUMNIST alternatives to whatever day-to-day realities we live. It’s possible my mother never envisioned this elevator world — possible it’s just a figment of my own imagination. But even if she didn’t, or even if the world she created for herself and her lover looked different than the one I created, it wouldn’t matter.

We create entire worlds for strangers in the blink of an eye, brief ly fall in love with the man in the elevator with us, construct different versions of ourselves in a split second.

It seems natural enough, writing a little fiction here and there to take the edge off some of the harsher realities of our lives. For my mother, it is the harshness of being an aging woman in this world — the world without Elevator Man. It is the sunspots on the backs of hands, the thinning strands of hair, the almighty maxims that beauty is for youth, that love is for youth, that sexuality is for youth. For those twenty seconds in the elevator there exists a place for my mother to be all those things at fifty-seven. For those twenty seconds in the elevator, there exists a man who loves the lines of her smile and the curves of her softened arms as much as I do.

Quickly, the seconds stretch into a long, magical lifetime: one where a woman can be loved in her age the same way she was loved in her youth — one where a woman can love herself in her age the same way she did in youth.

There, the witches, old maids and spinsters become goddesses; Lady Godiva rides through England with her white hair cropped close to her head and her open breasts worn by the wariness of womanhood; old wives’ tales hold the same weight as Bible verses.

This is the world of Elevator Man — in full color and just at the end of my mother’s fingertips.

One day my own Elevator Man may come and sweep me off my feet too. Maybe he will replace someone I’ve lost, or make up for someone I’ve yet to find — it’s hard to say.

Perhaps he will run his fingers through my graying hair or chop the onions for me when my knuckles curl up too tight. Maybe he will just be a handsome stranger to imagine a name for as I wait for the ding to sound and the doors to open.

Whatever it is, it will last no more than a few minutes and never leave the confines of the elevator shaft. Then I will walk out and back into reality. Real sunlight will f lood back in, real sounds will replace the elevator music and real people — for whom there is not enough time to imagine a name, a life or a love — will walk past me. I will re-enter life as I know it, and Elevator Man will re-enter his, too. But there will always exist that impossible world which I or whoever else brief ly imagined inside the elevator; there will always exist that small space where fantasy supersedes the reality we face when the doors slide open.

Just as it is a comfort to imagine these worlds for a moment, it is a comfort, too, to save them only for rides from the first f loor to the eighth. Outside of those bounds — on f lights of stairs, on balconies — there may be a daughter who loves the way your big teeth shine as your head tilts back in laughter. There may be a man — a real one — who, despite a crumb or two stuck in the corner of his mouth, will help you carry your boundless, aging beauty through the rest of your days as the two of you remember the palpable, messy, full life you’ve shared.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

4B Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statement

1

0,704 votes. 28 years. In 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump became the first Republican in 28 years to win Michigan — changing electoral history with 10,704 votes, a 0.3 percent margin of victory. From a battleground state to a near “gimme” for Democrats, Michigan has come to the front and center of the 2020 presidential election, with the University of Michigan in tow. But before the fanfare of a debate at the University in October and Election Day in November, each party needs a nominee.

The Republican nominee is a foregone conclusion: It will be President Donald Trump, presuming he is not convicted in the Senate after being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump

will be the first president to stand in a general election after being impeached, as President Andrew Johnson failed to win his party’s nomination after his impeachment and President Bill Clinton was term-limited. Johnson’s Republicans and Clinton’s Democrats subsequently lost the presidency. As of early December, Trump enjoys an 89 percent approval rating among Republicans, and his reelection bid is widely supported, with some state Republican parties canceling their primary. The University’s chapter of College Republicans declined to comment about their organization’s plans for the primary election.

The real political battle in Michigan will play out on the Democratic side. On

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statement 5B

March 10, Michigan voters will head to the polls and ask their polling station staff for either a Republican or Democratic ballot. Michigan is an open primary state, so voters do not need to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote in the primary. With 147 delegates up for grabs and general election hopes hinging on it, Michigan is a key target for candidates.

March 10 marks a week after “Super Tuesday,” where 15 states and territories hold their primary or caucus. Michigan votes in a “mini-Super Tuesday” along with Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Missouri and Washington.

Democratic candidates have to acquire 1,991 delegates, a simple majority, to secure the party’s nomination. But states are not winner-take-all. The Democratic

2020 Election: U-M student groups gear up for Michigan primary ILLUSTRATION BY SHERRY CHEN

BY FINNTAN STORER, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

National Committee awards delegates proportionally based on votes, so second, third and even fourth place candidates can pick up delegates. This means silver and bronze medals matter, but candidates need to pick up at least 15 percent of the vote to win delegates, which ideally entails going all over the state to try to pick up votes. In the 2016 Michigan primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., won with 49.8 percent of the vote and received 67 delegates, compared to candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 63 delegates for winning 48.3 percent of the vote.

Candidates aren’t solely focusing on Detroit and its suburbs, the most populous blue area of Michigan, so Democratic candidates are expected to make their way to Ann Arbor, another Democratic stronghold. In 2016, Ann Arbor saw the likes of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., thencandidate Hillary Clinton’s running mate, on the Diag. Sanders held a rally at the UMMA. Even President Barack Obama came to speak at the Ray Fisher Stadium the day before the election, urging students and locals to vote for Clinton.

The University of Michigan I knew in my first year, 2016, had famous politicians stopping in weekly and canvassers on every corner asking if you’re registered to vote. Then, two months into my freshman year, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Emotions ran high on campus — a vigil was held on the Diag the following day and even University President Mark Schlissel sent an email regarding the results.

About 45 percent of University students voted in 2016, while 50.4 percent voted at all other reported institutions.

In 2018, the University touted the midterm election voter turnout with the headline “U-M student voter turnout triples in 2018.” In reality, turnout tripled compared to the 2014 midterms, when an embarrassing 14 percent of students voted. The 2018 turnout — 41 percent — was still less than the 2016 turnout, but did outpace the national average. Shortly after Trump’s election, the Big Ten Conference created the “Big Ten Voting Challenge” between the 14 member schools to register more students to vote and encourage students to exercise their voting rights. Two winners will be crowned after the 2020 presidential election, both the school with the highest turnout and the school with the largest voter growth.

The timing of the challenge begs the question: Why did this challenge come after 2016? The abysmal voter turnout for the 2014 midterms elections across the Big Ten didn’t spark a voting initiative.

Voter turnout has always been an issue in the U.S., but only after the election of such an anti-establishment figure did our

institutions of higher learning try to do something about it.

With weeks still to go before the Michigan primary, the latest poll from January has former Vice President Joe Biden winning the state with 29.9 percent of the vote and Sanders finishing in second with 19.9 percent. Both would pick up delegates in this scenario, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Ma., polling at 16.2 percent, would meet the 15 percent threshold and therefore qualify for delegates. In 2016, Sanders pulled off a narrow victory over Clinton, winning 49.8 percent of the vote, including winning Washtenaw County by about 8,000 votes.

If Biden does win Michigan come March, one can expect Washtenaw County’s winner to differ from the statewide winner. he University of Michigan’s chapter of College Democrats is currently laying the groundwork for the eventual nominee and will not endorse a candidate in the primary.

“College Democrats does not endorse any candidate during a Democratic primary race. However, we are still heavily involved in this upcoming election cycle,” Camille Mancuso, communications chair of College Democrats, wrote in an email interview. “So far this year, we have engaged in issue advocacy, co-hosted debate watch parties with some of the Presidential campaigns on campus and registered hundreds of student voters.”

While the chapter is focused on the general election, some of its members are involved in specific campaigns, like many other students on campus.

SA junior Arden Shapiro serves as a campus corps leader for Students for Bernie. With a leadership group of 10 people, the organization works with Sanders’ national campaign to coordinate efforts on campus. Shapiro and other group leaders participated in “Students for Bernie Summer School,” an online-based program that teaches organizing and campaigning for Sanders. Utilizing an email list of more than 200, the group canvasses and engages in “friend to friend organizing.” Shapiro found herself drawn to Sanders’ “unwavering” advocacy for social justice and his plans to address climate change.

“I have always been drawn to Senator Sanders because I feel he is a fearless and unwavering advocate for justice and equality,” Shapiro said. “...The issue of climate is particularly important to me, and I feel that Senator Sanders is the only candidate who understands the urgency of revolutionizing our economy to combat climate change and protecting those most vulnerable to environmental injustice.”

Sanders recently topped an Iowa poll that notably has South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg slipping to third.

T

L

Warren, who finished second in the poll and is ideologically closest to Sanders, accused Sanders of “sending his volunteers out to trash me,” in reference to a released Politico report. Sanders’ campaign has not commented, but Sanders himself praised Warren and said the document did not reflect his opinion.

LSA junior Jordyn Houle is one of four campus organizers for Warren at the University. In an email interview, Houle explained that her support of Warren is rooted in Warren’s focus on the need for fundamental change.

“I support Elizabeth Warren because she has a bold, progressive vision for our country as well as the detailed plans necessary to make that vision a reality…” Houle wrote. “Senator Warren understands that systemic changes, such as a Green New Deal and universal free public college, are necessary in order to create an America where everybody can live a fulfilling life.”

Students for Warren at the University is directly affiliated with the national campaign. With about 40 students at weekly meetings, the group canvasses for Warren, registers voters and helps students with absentee ballots. The group also runs a listserv with nearly 300 members.

Warren entered the presidential race the earliest of the frontrunners, announcing an exploratory committee on New Year’s Eve 2018. In early February 2019, she formalized her run, and that November, Warren topped a New York Times/Siena College poll of Iowa. Since then, however, her support has waned in the first caucus state.

LSA freshman Andrew Schaeffler helped co-found Students for Biden at the University. The group recently took over Biden’s campaign Instagram account, receiving hundreds of thousands of views on their efforts to elect Biden. Schaeffler is drawn to Biden’s education plan as well as his political track record and pragmatic approach.

“What really draws me to Vice President Biden is a history of action and reasonable progressive policies that can be enacted,” Schaeffler said. “I believe that his policies, while they might not be the most far-reaching, the most expansive, they’re the ones that can actually happen. When you look at what candidate can not only produce results but has produced results, by far and away I believe that Joe Biden is definitely that candidate.”

Electability is also on Schaeffler’s mind, with Biden beating Trump by at least 5 percentage points nationally in CNN, Fox News and Quinnipiac polls from December. However, Biden suffers from a “young person problem,” with an October poll in Iowa finding that 2 percent of 18-29-year-olds support the former vice president.

“As much as some people, in general, stray away from the electability argument when you look at polls in swing states …

Joe Biden is the candidate that can reach across the aisle to voters who are both Republican and Independent, and I value that a lot in really anyone…” Schaeffler said.

While Biden has a track record of bipartisanship, Congressional Republicans have shown no indication of working with a Democratic president.

Students for Biden plans to do “dorm storms” in residence halls, where students knock on doors to canvass for Biden. With about two dozen students involved in Students for Biden, the group also plans to table in Mason Hall and drum up support.

LSA senior Jessica Kosticak founded the student group supporting Buttigieg for president. Armed with a Twitter account “Umich for Pete Buttigieg” with a few hundred followers and a listserv with about 30 students, Kosticak is just getting started in politics, having studied biomolecular science during her four years at the University.

“There’s been a huge learning curve for me getting involved with founding this organization and being more politically active, which is great, I hadn’t expected that coming into college,” Kosticak said. “… It definitely has been interesting for me to kind of learn a lot more about the political process and supporting a candidate, how that looks online and then how that looks in person.”

Buttigieg began gaining traction in the spring following a CNN town hall in March at South by Southwest. With his rise over the following months, Kosticak found herself drawn to his calm demeanor and his actionable policy proposals, such as “Medicare for all who want it.”

“I was blown away with how articulate he was — he reminded me kind of (President) Obama in that way,” Kosticak said. “He was able to express himself and his ideas in a way that was just calm and collected and I was drawn to that because I think with the turmoil going on in politics currently, that voice of reason is what we need.”

Since his rise, Buttigieg has positioned himself more moderately than some expected, failing to pass some progressive purity tests such as supporting Medicarefor-all, swearing off big-money campaign fundraisers and committing to the Green New Deal (Buttigieg has proposed a less aggressive version of the Green New Deal).

These divisions were front and center at the December Democratic debate, where Warren and Sanders drew a stark contrast between their progressive policies and Buttigieg’s moderate stance, but Kosticak plans to support the nominee no matter what.

“My hope is that after the Michigan primary and all the primaries, we settle

on a nominee that all of the student groups and everyone, Democrats across the country, will be able to unite behind the nominee because we have bigger fish to fry…” Kosticak said.

Engineering senior Justin Zhao is actively involved in tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s campaign for president.

Zhao is a member of “Yang Gang Ann Arbor,” serving as the group’s event coordinator. Referring to Yang as “Andrew,” Zhao is drawn to Yang’s expertise in dealing with technology.

Zhao referenced the race in artificial intelligence with China, data privacy issues and the government’s old fashioned approach to technology and its future.

“Right now our government is super behind on technology, I mean you saw the Facebook hearing with (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg,” Zhao said. “He is the best equipped to deal with technology and technology regulations.”

Zhao also likes Yang’s seemingly bipartisan, evidence-based approach to politics. One of Yang’s slogans is “Not left. Not right. Forward.” Zhao pointed to Yang’s use of data and math in his policy platform as a draw.

“He is very unifying because he is not ideological and you know he’s all about the math and then he’s all about solutions,” Zhao said. “It’s an ideas-based campaign so he’s all about solutions, data, math and those things are bipartisan. It’s not like a Democrat (sic) thing or a Republican thing.”

With about 30 active members, the group’s campaign efforts have thus far included tabling and chalking sidewalks, and the group’s continued campaigning is dependent on Yang’s results and prospects in the early primaries. t bears repeating: Anyone registered to vote in the state of Michigan can vote in the primary.

Show up to your polling place, ask for a Republican or Democratic ballot and cast your vote for the nominee you want.

If the departure of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is any indication, this race is going to change leading up to March 10. In the meantime, there are debates (including one this past Tuesday), Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, Super Tuesday and more. There’s a good chance that some of the candidates will have dropped out by then, taking their student groups with them. But for now, it’s all up for grabs here in Ann Arbor and at the University. Winners and losers abound, these presidential primaries will take no prisoners.

Editor’s note: Sanders, Warren, Biden, Buttigieg and Yang were featured due to the presence of a student group on campus.

Other 2020 presidential candidates did not have significant University of Michigan student efforts behind their campaigns.

I

6B

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statement

Selling New Year’s Eve

BY HANNAH BRAUER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL

2:00 p.m.

Math question: If there are 1.5 million people waiting to watch the ball drop in person, what percentage of those actually know where to enter Times Square?

When I decided to go to New York City for New Year’s Eve, I imagined there would be at least one sign directing people which way to go. My research beforehand led me to resources about packing snacks, when to get there and how many bathrooms were available (answer: 0). Though plenty of people on the Internet advised me to wear a diaper, none revealed where to actually enter the event.

I was with my partner, Ty, who overheard some police officers directing people to 49th Street. We joined people in line and asked if we were in the right place. They all said they hoped so. I had a feeling we were in the wrong spot — Americans are prone to getting into lines that they don’t know where they lead to, and I feared we’d fallen into the same trap.

Vendors set up carts full of overpriced “2020” glasses and hats to sell while we were stuck in line. With nowhere to go, we were the perfect consumer targets. “You need this!” they would say and blow a noisemaker in someone’s face.

Suddenly, the NYPD closed the entrance and everyone began jumping over the barricade. Ty and I followed them, sprinting alongside the thousand-or-so people also trying to get a better view of the ball than the person next to them.

This was America, after all — the land of stepping on others to get ahead.

3:00 p.m.

Despite the chaos and disorganization, this was the 114th New Year’s celebration in Times Square. It began as an inauguration for The New York Times headquarters in 1904, effectively replacing the previous tradition of ringing in the new year with church bells at

Trinity Church.

It’s ironic that a celebration that once began at a church could turn into something with such disregard for other humans.

As we edged closer to the front of the crowd, I felt more like an animal. We were packed like fish in the net at the end of “Finding Nemo” — but instead of working together to get out, everyone pushed forward in hopes of getting an inch closer.

The man next to me was pinned up against the brick wall and begged for space to breathe. A shorter person next to Ty was nearly levitating off the ground. People began screaming from the front of the line but we couldn’t see what was happening, nor run if there was any danger.

We could only wait.

Someone came over and passed out giant hats sponsored by Planet Fitness. The hats were “free,” but only in the way a phone app is free — there’s always a cost, collateral waiting in the shadows. You don’t pay with your credit card, but rather with your attention.

I suppose that’s why I was at the ball drop in the first place; if enough people pay attention to something, we’re convinced it has value. That is marketing. I’ve watched the event on TV for years and always loved seeing the confetti, hearing the music, imagining the New Year’s kiss. I wanted it not because of an inherent desire, but because the entire world thought it was valuable. I figured waiting 10 hours for it would be worth it.

That’s just the myth of meritocracy. Working for something doesn’t mean it’ll pay off, especially if a million others want the same thing. This also goes for fame; society still thinks the models lining Times Square or the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performers are the ones who deserve the attention. Maybe they’re just the ones willing to shove harder on their way to the front of the line.

Consumerism naturally leads to competition, which extends past buying things. We get into lines even if we don’t know where they lead, fight for a better spot even if it means suffocating and compare our view to those in front of us, even if they’re the ones wearing adult diapers. We’re supposed to constantly be optimizing, competing and ultimately winning.

In a time of resolutions, the new year is a perfect time to be reminded of that.

11:00 p.m.

The Times Square screens seemed to flash brighter the longer I stared, wearing out my eyes. I almost preferred the vendors blowing noisemakers earlier — at least they weren’t faceless brands. I positioned myself behind one woman’s Planet Fitness hat to block the lights.

I wondered how much money Planet Fitness makes from New Year’s resolutions alone. Maybe the people around me will purchase a gym membership and train for next year’s ball drop, trying to outrun the people on the treadmill next to them.

As I listened to the faint echoes of performances by Post Malone and BTS, whose concert tickets would have otherwise cost hundreds of dollars, I realized why I didn’t have to pay for this event. Advertisers got what they wanted the moment I bought my plane ticket. They made 6:00 p.m.

We finally passed the checkpoint and reached the me think I wanted to spend New Year’s Eve in Times barricade at 50th Street, which is at the far back of Times Square, a consumer’s fever dream, surrounded by ads, Square next to Applebee’s. People would knock on the because it was better than what everyone else was doing.

And I believed them. glass and wave at the crowd from inside the restaurant, holding up their drinks either in solidarity or to make us Midnight envious. Perhaps both.

I figured after waiting for 10 hours, there would be some As Ty and I ate our snacks, we listened as people next to us blasted music on a speaker and people in front of us climactic payoff to the night. But instead of a fireworks complained loudly. I resented the fact that we didn’t get show, underwhelming sparks shot from the tower as the up earlier to get a closer spot — the people on the block ball slowly dropped down the flagpole. We were too far in front of us were sitting down, dancing and laughing. I back to even see the confetti or hear Auld Lang Syne. The imagined partying with them under the light of the Times whole event felt like an “As Seen on TV” ad.

Still, I got my New Year’s kiss. I crossed it off my bucket Square screens or in the warmth of Applebee’s, or even list so I never have to do it again. And on the subway ride with my friends in Detroit.

It began to rain and I sat on the ground facing hundreds back, I made my New Year’s resolution: Don’t look at of legs behind us. In a sort of torturous meditation, I people in front of you, in a crowd or on TV, and wish you stared at them and wondered why I had wanted to come. were them.

Chances are, it’s better on your side of the screen anyways.

8:00 p.m.

Fear of food

7B Wednesday,January January16, 15,2019 2020////The The Statement 7B Wednesday, Statement

BY ELI RALLO, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

I

n 2010, while sitting at a table in a no-longer-existing diner, I used the iPhone application Lose it! for the first time. I was eleven years old.

At the beginning of the last decade, “wellness” took off as a modern trend and began its descent into a capitalist, moneymaking business that thrives on pyramid schemes and overpriced vitamins. Ben Zimmer, former columnist for The New York Times, dated modern wellness back to 1950 in a 2010 article, beginning with the World Health Organization’s 1948 constitution. It read, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Seventy years later, we’ve spiraled from a foundation for healthy practices to an exploitative world of obsessive, expensive tendencies. The wellness trend has blown up into an industry that boasts shiny gyms with expensive membership rates, diet powders to add to low-calorie smoothies and Instagram accounts of white women doing squats and advertising flat-tummy teas and homeopathic turmeric pills.

Growing up, I never thought about my diet. My siblings and I were lucky to be raised on healthy ingredients, fresh produce and lean proteins. Counting calories and being hyper-aware of the things I ate was never on my radar. In sixth grade, after receiving an iPhone for my birthday, I was introduced to the trend of wellness via social media.

I was new to Instagram and was infatuated by the cohort of slim, tanned women in well-fitting athleisure who preached wellness under the guise of kale juices and

shielding my phone from my friends as baskets of chicken fingers were set down in front of our adolescent faces. I googled things like, “how many ounces in four chicken fingers” and “how many tablespoons is a serving of honey mustard,” which would be the beginning of hundreds of similar searches. To avoid questions from my friends, I ordered the brownie when they did, shakily entering it into my app, swallowing the sugary consequences.

Lose it! quickly turned into MyFitnessPal, a more specific application in the calorie counting and weekly notifications reminding me to “step on the scale.” I lowered my calories to 800. I used it for weeks and deleted it ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE HUANG for days, hoping to end the grass-colored matcha lattes containing an vicious cycle and eat without restriction array of impossible-to-pronounce boost- and anxiety.

The app has been proven popuers and vitamins. At five foot with a body developing softer curves, I couldn’t help but lar, Forbes recorded over 150 million wonder why I didn’t look like the women accounts in 2018. That being said, for me, doing squats on my iPhone screen. it became a dark tunnel in which I could As my spiral into social media deepened, never find my bearings. Adding up calories, I downloaded Lose it! — an iPhone app with tracking workouts and recording my weight a scale emoji as the logo. The first thing you became a daily occurrence — a thoughtless see when you log in is their tagline: “Weight routine. It didn’t lead me to the results I loss that fits.” The app requires you enter craved, instead, I had headaches from lack your starting weight and goal weight, then of nutrition and struggled to get a grip on an algorithm comes up with the number of the thing I never thought would be a probcalories you should consume each day in lem: food. order to reach your intended goals. The app Physically, I appeared as though I didn’t fails to take into account any other health have eating problems, but I suffered meninformation — I grew up with a disease tally, fearing to put anything in my mouth called hypothyroidism, one that requires I couldn’t record with ease. Restaurant specific dietary restrictions and regiment- meals and undisclosed calories terrified ed food plans in order to maximize my me. By college, eating out or drinking cockhealth. The app didn’t know this and never tails made a heat creep up my neck. I opted would. instead for foods I could measure with my You track calories by entering every- measuring tools at home and labels that told thing you eat in a day. The setup is easy: me exactly what I was eating. I was lauded Lose it! acknowledges all major brand by MyFitnessPal for a streak of recording food and chain restaurant meals as well. my full day of eating, and I didn’t want my Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Counting streak to end. This obsession began because calories became an obsession — the first an iPhone app built off internalized patrithought of my morning and the last thought archal messages, dedicated to “wellness,” of my day. The idea of not entering a meal’s dictated my every move. Nobody knew. It calorie total becomes far off, unimaginable. was between me and the screen.

As you add meals and snacks, your calories As I continued down the path of “healthdecrease until you reach zero, meaning you based” destruction, wellness culture conshouldn’t eat anymore. If you go beyond tinued to gain speed. I thought I was the zero, you have a negative sign, indicating epitome of health as my life passed me by you’ve eaten more than your allotted calo- while I spent hours a day adding calories ries. The concept of breaking below zero is and stalking the Instagram accounts of the terrifying, even if you have your calories set women whose bodies I envied. I was idolizto 1,100 per day as I did in 2010. ing wellness Instagram bloggers like Rachel I remember downloading the app, Mansfield and Kayla Itsines who made

their living convincing young women like me to buy into their diets and “wellness fads” — plant-based meals, celery juices and intermittent fasting. I bought their skincare products, their paleo pancake mixes and their natural laxative tea. I spent half of my free time scrolling through accounts that appeared light and happy —full of colorful juices and shirtless mirror selfies. The other half of my day was spent on spin bikes and treadmills, measuring out plain Greek yogurt and almond butter.

The wellness bloggers I idolized and envied for their Instagram pages were the fast lane, the gateway drug, the tip of the iceberg for my own wellness demise. So many young women suffer from destructive eating tactics and orthorexia as collateral of the boom of the wellness trend.

The National Eating Disorders Association recognizes orthorexia, a condition with symptoms of obsessive behavior in the pursuit of “health” or “wellness.” The societal push toward thinness and the age of social media make Instagram the perfect place to put the eating disorders and disordered eating of wellness bloggers on display — making them normal, beautiful and even envy-worthy.

Lee Tilghman (@leeforamerica) was one of these idols for me. I spent hours of my life staring at her thin legs and yoga-toned abs, her charcoal lattes and plates full of avocado and spinach. After a six-month hiatus from her Instagram account over a year ago, Tilghman reentered the social media world with a deeply personal blog post apologizing for the way the wellness practices she preached were obsessive and destructive to her followers.

Wellness blogging and eating disorders are not mutually exclusive. MyFitnessPal and Lose It! work the same way. Wellness culture can lead to hours of body scrutiny and an 11-year-old to spend the last ten years of her life obsessed with a word that truly means nothing: calories. But the wellness industry can also inspire and influence positively. I would be lying to you if I said I unfollowed wellness Instagram accounts, deleted MyFitnessPal or if I stopped counting calories. The truth is I’m aware of the effects of these platforms on my life. I know what they’ve afforded me and the darkness we walked toward together, hand in hand, toward a world of thigh gaps. I had to learn how to prohibit an Instagram persona and a weight-loss application from being the pinnacle of how I lived my life. I was born with a disease (hypothyroidism) which causes my metabolism to work slowly and has burdened my eating habits my entire life. Stalking skinny people on Instagram has no real agency over my own health or weight loss. I had to learn that a number on a scale or specifically curated amount of calories is no basis for my self worth and it never will be. I simply needed to listen to my body.

I’ve needed to all along.

8B Wednesday, January 15, 2020 // The Statment

visual statement

Paris, 2019

contributed by Kate Glad